Construction companies, even large multimillion dollar companies, have some of the oldest, least user-friendly websites (by today’s standards), you can find. The main problem for these companies isn’t the aesthetics or poor navigation–though these are very important factors in how search engines rank results. The main problem for these construction companies is that old website designs are abandoned far more quickly than newer ones for two reasons: Page speed and the mobile experience.
Identity concealed…but really?
Page Speed
The first performance problem is page loading times. Old websites are slow because they are not optimized for today’s browsers and processors. Kissmetrics found that web pages are abandoned if the page doesn’t load within about 3 seconds.
You can test your website’s speed with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.
Mobile Experience
The second performance problem with old websites is that they don’t display or function well on mobile devices. According to Magicdust, “Visitors won’t stay on your site if they have to pinch and zoom or squint at illegible type, or worse yet if it runs flash or anything that requires add-ons to display in a browser.”
With mobile search outpacing desktop search, this is a very big deal. You can quickly see if your site is mobile friendly using the Google Mobile-Friendly Test.
Slow, mobile unfriendly pages are also penalized by search engines–meaning your pages are getting harder and harder to find.
Why Are Construction Websites Old?
Why do construction companies allow their websites to languish and become slow and mobile unfriendly? The reason is simple. Many construction company leaders don’t believe that their potential customers are searching online for construction services. “Our customers don’t shop online,” we’ve been told many times. They just feel that they need an online brochure with their phone numbers. We hear this from construction companies and other more traditional industries like manufacturing and other very specialized B2B businesses.
B2B Search Growing
They’re wrong. B2B search on Google is soaring. Here’s what Google has to say about it. “It’s not a secret that the B2B audience is online. We know that 89 percent of B2B researchers use the internet during the B2B research process.”
Unless the other 11 percent are all construction customers, your customers are searching online for your services.
Page Abandonment Rates
Still not convinced? Below you’ll see an example of a Google Analytics report. See that this particular company had 3,315 sessions in one month, and an 81.48 percent bounce rate. That means that 84 percent of the site’s visitors abandoned the first page that they found. That also means that 2,700 visits ended with no engagement.
People Are Looking For You
Google knows that people are searching for businesses online, and, more importantly, qualifying possible suppliers. For most businesses, this means they need an effective online presence that helps them get found and invites people to take the next step of engagement. If you have a solid business that solves a real problem, people are looking for you online. The age of a website can definitely impact that process.
Next Steps
The good news is that if your construction company has an old, slow, mobile-unfriendly website your competitors probably do too. If you choose to update your site and use search marketing best practices, the results are likely to be dramatic.
Speed and mobile experience are the two most basic reasons websites are abandoned. There are others, and there are also more tools available that help you measure your site’s performance now. For more information download the white paper, 6 Ways Your Old Website Could Be Hurting Your Business.
