Website for a construction company in Bengaluru: what it needs

Nobody hires a builder from a website alone. But in Bengaluru, almost nobody calls a builder without looking at the website first. It is where a plot owner decides whether you are worth a phone call. Here is what a website for a construction company needs to earn that call, and what it can do without.

Who is looking, and what they want to know

• A family with a 30×40 or 40×60 site wants to know whether you have built houses like theirs, roughly what it costs per square foot, and whether they can see one.
• An apartment or villa buyer wants the project's location, its status and its approvals.
• A commercial client wants evidence of scale: completed buildings, your team and how you manage a site.
• Engineers, suppliers and job seekers want to know you are active and how to reach the right person.

A good website answers each of them within a minute, on a phone.

1. A portfolio that is current

List your projects with the locality, the type of building, the size, the year and the status: planning, ongoing or completed. Give each one its own page.

Then keep it moving. A portfolio that stops two years ago tells the visitor you stopped two years ago. The project you are building right now, with this month's photos, is your strongest advertisement.

2. Real photos, including work in progress

Buyers can spot a stock photo instantly, and it costs you their trust. Use your own pictures: finished elevations and interiors, and also the foundation, the columns, the slab being cast. Progress photos show how you work, which a finished photo cannot.

Your site engineers already take these photos every week. The only question is whether they have a way to put them on the website.

3. Clear packages and what they include

Bengaluru buyers compare builders by the rate per square foot. A rate with no specification behind it means nothing. A rate with the specification, including the grade of cement and steel, the flooring, the fittings and what counts as an extra, is a reason to call you instead of the next firm.

If you offer tiers, show them side by side and mark the one most customers choose. If your pricing really does depend on the project, say so, and say what it depends on.

4. A quotation form that asks the right questions

A form that collects only a name and a phone number creates work: you have to call to find out everything else. Ask for what you need to prepare an estimate:

• the type of building (independent house, villa, commercial, interior work),
• the location and size of the plot,
• the budget range,
• when they want to start.

Then make sure the request reaches someone who will reply the same day. A quotation request is the most valuable thing your website produces.

5. Proof a buyer can check

• Registration details. Your firm's registered name, GST number and office address.
• RERA numbers. Under RERA, a registered project's advertisements must carry its registration number, and buyers have learned to look for it. Put it on the project's page.
• The people. Names, roles and photos of the directors, engineers and the person who will answer the phone.
• Customers' words. A testimonial tied to a named project is worth ten anonymous ones. Use only real ones, with permission.

6. The local details Bengaluru buyers search for

People search by area: “builders in Yelahanka”, “house construction in JP Nagar”. Say plainly which parts of the city you build in. Set up a Google Business Profile with the same name, address and phone number as your website; this guide walks through it.

Answer the questions every customer asks: how plan approval works, the stages of payment, how long a house of a given size takes, what happens during the monsoon. Each answer is a page or a blog post that Google can show to the next person asking.

And consider Kannada. Many of your customers are more comfortable reading it, and very few of your competitors bother.

What you can leave out

• An intro animation or a slideshow that delays the content.
• A long brochure PDF as the only source of information. Phones and Google both handle it badly.
• Counters of “happy clients” and “square feet delivered” that nobody can verify.
• Pages for services you don't actually offer.

Keeping it current is the hard part

The usual problem is not building the website. It is that the site falls out of date within months, because every change has to go through the person who made it, and the people holding the photos have no way to add them.

That is the problem a website you can manage yourself solves. With Creatin Web, a project is a form: name, location, status, photos. Your engineer can add this week's pictures from the Android app on site, and quotation requests arrive in an inbox with the building type, budget and timeline filled in. The construction page shows how it works.