I know most hardwood flooring contractors get most of their work from referrals through builders and homeowners they have previously worked for. Reaching a broader audience by advertising in local newspapers, radio, and television is usually too expensive, leaving your average contractor only with ads in one or two phone directories (yellow pages). Most phone directory distribution companies have records that their distribution is up. This seems pretty simple, there are more houses these days, and they send out books without asking. They leave a book on my front steps every year whether I want one or not. I usually don’t bring it inside, but around to the back of the house, and into the recycling bin it goes. Do you use the yellow pages? Or do you use google or yahoo to find products and services that you are looking for?

Most contractors these days have websites. But with an estimated 108 million websites, how do you make sure your website will even be found? Below are some suggestions and tips to help you surf your way through being a website owner, and helping your site get found by your targeted customer base.

Local Business Rules

Follow these simple rules to ensure when a user visits your site, they have either found or not found what they are looking for:

Your Area Served

You may be the greatest hardwood flooring contractor ever, but it does me no good to spend time on your site if you work in the greater Boston area, and I am looking for a contractor in Chicago. Know the geographic area that you cover, and state that on your site clearly.

How do I reach You?

It is common practice these days for legitimate website to put their contact information (Phone or link to a contact form) on every page. There are two type of business websites, E-Commerce websites and Lead Generation websites. I would consider most floor contractor websites lead generation websites. When a company gets a user to their websites, they want that user to do something, whether that be buy a product, or submit a contact form. The items on the web pages that do this are called “Calls to Action”. As an e-commerce site, we want you to click that Add to Cart button. As a service oriented website, you want your users to contact you. Make sure that your “Call to Action” is the most important thing on every page.

Organizations

Do you belong to the NWFA, BBB, or a local Chamber of Commerce? Wave these flags proudly. It proves legitimacy, and can help instill a confidence about you in your potential customer’s eyes.

References/Galleries

The same can be said for past customer references and photo galleries of work performed. Try to document your jobs with photos or video and use them as marketing materials on your site.

About Us (Or About Me)

When writing your About Us page, be honest. How long have you been in business? How much experience do you have? What advantages do you and your company have (Dust Containment, Ornamental Parquetry Work, Bi-Lingual, Low VOC Finishes, etc…) over the competition? These things will help turn that casual browser into a potential customer.

Keywords, Key words, key-words

Are you a harwood flooring installer or a wood floor contractor? It doesn’t matter what you think of yourself, but it does matter what your potential customer calls you. More times than not, websites get 60 - 75% of thier visitors from the four remaining search engines (google, yahoo, msn/live, and ask). Figuring out what people are searching for can help you write copy that will help you get found.

Here are some useful tools for generating keywords that will help you write copy for your site:

• Google Adwords Keyword Tool
• Yahoo Search Marketing (Free Account Required)
• Microsoft AdCenter Labs Keyword Group Detection

Additional Content

We’ve discussed standard items like area served, calls to action, contact information, organizations, galleries, and about us. If you have the time to invest, you can develop some things that make your site more attractive to the search engines and potential visitors.

Start a Blog

Blogging about your experiences can lead to a new found customer base. How did you install that flooring over radiant heat? How did you finish that retail store without creating any dust? Writing about specific things will help drive traffic to your site when potential customers search for them.

Forums

Having a forum can let potential customers ask questions to you before they hire you. Your knowledge can help you land more jobs. Once these Q&A’s are posted, future potential customers may find them and contact you.

Video

Using sites like YouTube to host your videos is free. With a small investment in a camera, some free software, and a little learning, you can join the online video revolution! Below are some examples of floor contractor who have created videos for all to see on YouTube, and have embedded the video into their own sites as well. When posting a video on these sites, be sure to include a link back to your website for people who want to find out more about you.

Custom Hardwood floors by Nylinfloors.com

Sunshine Flooring - San Diego

Things to Avoid

Avoid putting distractions like embedded audio, animated images, links to unrelated sites (they may leave and go there!) in your site as they will deter the user from reaching the goal of the page, to contact and hire you.

Now What?

Put that site URL everywhere you can. Put it on your van, on your invoices, on your quotes, and on your business cards. Some contractor put lawn signs out in the front yard of the houses they work on, while they work there. Putting your domain name out where you can, in your local market can only help. Good Luck!