This article is one of many to come in a multi-part blog series on how to use the best tools to ensure your success within the home inspection industry.
As time goes on and technology continues to improve at a rapid rate, the amount of options available to you when creating a website for your business can seem overwhelming. I’ve written this article to outline the options and make recommendations based on what’s out there right now in 2019.
There are 3 typical choices available when creating a website for your property inspection business:
1. Fully Personalized Design by a Professional
This is as hands-off as it gets, but is also the most costly option. A one-time fee is payed to a web-design firm, freelancer, or your tech-wiz nephew/niece, and a few days to a few weeks later you have a professionally designed website that’s ready to go.
Pros No design work is required on your behalf, just let the designer know what you’re thinking and they’ll do the rest.
Cons This can cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars and might be hard to update in the future if you can’t get a hold of the person or company who made it for you in a timely manner.
2. Included in a Software Package or Inspection Association’s Perks
Many inspection report software companies similar to Eneris include web design services to provide you with a turn-key website. Some associations for home inspectors will also include this in your membership dues. What everyone gets is a template from them that has all the basics built in with varying degrees of customization included.
Pros Similar to the first option, there isn’t much that needs to be done on your end. It’s included as a part of the thing you’re buying or paying dues for, and is already running for other home inspectors too.
Cons Being rolled into software costs or membership dues means that you’re paying for this feature beyond the initial design of the site. Even if there aren’t any improvements to your site each month. There is also minimal to no control over updates, format changes, or monitoring of the site.
3. D-I-Y with a Drag and Drop Website Maker
This is by far the most modern option. 10 years ago, it was necessary to know how to write code to build a website. Now, it’s just a matter of dragging and dropping whatever looks good into the right places. In fact, not one line of code was written by us to build our landing page at www.eneris.ca. You simply sign up for a service such as Wix or Squarespace, choose a template to start from, and then customize it as much or as little as you’d like.
Pros You built it, so you have total control over everything that is shown on the website. Updates to your business can easily be added in a few minutes, you can add blogs providing home owner advice to your clients, promo deals, etc. Cost ranges from free (with ads) to a couple bucks per month and usually includes one free domain name registration (the address of your website).
Cons It can take a few hours to get everything looking the way you want and you’ll have to make sure to renew the services you signed up for each year.
The value and importance of having a website in today’s home inspection market is very high. Marketing through the use of paid ads will also help you acquire new clients, but this goes hand-in-hand with having a neatly organized website that allows you to control how clients learn about your services.
Most of us in the home inspection industry are big on DIY projects, and it has never been easier to build your own website than it is in 2019. That being said, my recommendation is to go with option 3 in the list above. It’s free to try it out anyway!