Putting Together a Cleaning Service Website

For months and maybe for years you’ve probably came across other websites you admired and made a mental note that you would like to have something similar eventually. However to have a designer come right out and ask point blank to spell out everything you want is similar to being thrown a set of keys and thrown into a new building. You get a ‘where do I begin’ feeling.

No more staring at a blank screen trying to drum up an idea of what you want to say.
Listed below are ideas for putting together content (text) for your web pages. Just pick a few and before you know it you’ll be writing a new proposal presentation-online style that is.

Rule number one, don’t over analyze yourself. Remember your best ideas will be the first ones that fly from your fingers!

Content and interaction

• Services provided and any specialty services
• Certifications
• Service Area
• Request a quote for service (form)
• Customer Survey (feedback form)
• Contact page (may or may not have a form but should include your phone #, email address, fax number, and possibly address)
• Company history
  Mission statement and/or core values
• If you have employees
  1-Any aspects of training or employee selection process that you would like to highlight
  2-Team and team route cleaning, systematic cleaning, uniformed staff, bonded staff, supervised staff, etc. that you would like to highlight to the prospective client
  3-A place for prospective employees to apply online (form) or inquire about employment opportunities
  4-Listing of employment opportunities with your company
• List of customers to use as a reference. We recommend asking your client’s permission before publishing their contact information online.
• A photo or two of site that you service
• Reasons why a prospective client should choose you. Don’t overlook including items in terms of:
  1-Safety and safety Programs

2-Training programs/procedures

3-OSHA compliance
4-Hazmat certifications, etc.

Graphics Images should be kept to a minimum but great things to include are:

• Photo of owners
• Photos of employees (you should get a signed release to use photos)
• Logos from any associations you are involved with
• Logos from any certifications you hold

Items to consider avoiding

• Pricing
• List of items done in each area/room
• Large or flashy graphics

Rule number two, write your content before you even start looking at page layouts. Remember your text is the information (content) of your website. By trying to fit what you want to say into a format not only will you overlook important information that you should have included you will waste time. As as business owner your time is money.

How do I Make an Interactive Website for my Cleaning Business?

Interactive sites give the user some control over what they do on your page.

There is a general misconception that interactive means lots of flash or animated graphics. That's not the case.

For a cleaning service website nice ways to add interaction would be:

• Feed back forms or guestbooks where someone can leave a testimonial for your service
• Photo albums-if they can scroll thru the pictures thats even better
• FAQ's- a place where they can find answers to specific questions
• A place to request an estimate or sales call.

We never encourage the use of forms that calculate pricing for customers as there are too many variables and nothing beats a good old fashioned walk thru.

Do I need a logo? What domain name to choose? Should I list my customers?

• Do I need a logo for my cleaning service?
• What domain name to choose, does it need to match my business name?
• Should I list my cleaning customers on my business website?

These are just a few of the questions we receive from cleaning service business owners when they are considering establishing an identity for their company.


Do I need a logo for my cleaning service?
A logo to identify your cleaning service is not a necessity however it is nice to have.

What domain name to choose, does it need to match my business name?
No it does not need to be the same as your business name. In many cases the name will already be taken or may be too long to work well as a domain name. Focus on something catchy that people will be able to remember easily. A couple of my favorites are lk-clean.com (reminds me of 'look' clean) and hoosierclean.com (I'm from Indiana so that name sticks).

A long domain name such as christycaleyscleaningservice.com might look great but imagine having to type that into your browser or worse yet type it for an email address! Think short and sweet for your domain name ;)

Should I list my cleaning customers on my business website?
That is entirely up to you.
Smaller companies don't always do this because of the competition at that level of the game. Larger corporate services oftentimes showcase a larger reference account or two.

In either case you can always have photos without additional information. Better yet showcase testimonials or positive feedback from your customers listing only their first name and city. Housecleaning customers especially will enjoy seeing that you've placed their comments on your website.

Should I Build My Cleaning Service Website Myself?

Let's face it as business owners you are used to just doing things yourself. So your first instinct will be to save money by building your own website.
In reality unless you are quite experienced in building sites your creation may take up a lot of time that is if it ever gets completely finished.

Just remember if web design isn't your core then doing it yourself isn't the best decision financially for your business.

We create websites affordable enough that even small contractors can afford them. In reality the couple hundred dollars you pay for your site could easily be recooped in one afternoon of passing out business cards with your website address listed. Just something to think about. Feel free to visit us at www.cleanoutlook.com and see the options and packages available for cleaning services wanting to establish a coporate identity as well as a Web presence.