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getting a web site designed, 4 pages.
ive got the content for the home page, but struggling a bit with what i should put on the rest…
thought about putting a repair request page..
map area of coveragewe mostly do repairs , but also supply as and when, sales not really a big parts of what we do…
also thought about doing a diy/spares info type page…
any one got their own site, i could have a look at,
ally
Re: IDEAS FOR A WEB SITE ??
could be tempted.
i know this should be simple , but my brains went into melt down trying to think of what i want,im only getting 4 pages,
1st home page
2nd repairs /contact info
3rd coverage map, dont really want to waste a page on a map ??
4th….???ise?????, was thinking about diy/spare type thing, but dont know how i would do it…so ise might be there.ally
Re: IDEAS FOR A WEB SITE ??
funkyboogy wrote:
any one got their own site, i could have a look at,
ally
Hi Ally, have a look at ours?…it’s only a basic design but there a few few hidden whistles and bells which are extremely useful for page ranking on Google, and keeping an eye on stats 😉
pm me if you want to know more?
Re: IDEAS FOR A WEB SITE ??
cheers clive,
looks good. will get in touch about stats/google etc as i havent got a clue about that sort of stuff,
was having a good look at google addwords, the other day, seems quite good, but also looks as though it could be expensive, keywords cpc,s impressions…
whattttttt?????????Re: IDEAS FOR A WEB SITE ??
😆 yes it can be a bit daunting, but you can make it as simple or complex as you like really….it just depends on what you want to achieve. At the end of the day if you have a fancy website but no-one ever clicks on it then what’s the point?
We’ve found an excellent link is the BT tradespace…
It’s free to join and once your site is linked in you’ll shoot up Google on the back of them.
Just looked at the stats for our site, we’re averaging 10 unique new visitors per day this month, virtually none of them clicked on anything apart from the homepage but then that’s where our telephone number is prominent 😉
Back-of-fag-packet calculations suggest that if only half of them book a service call (I suspect more like 90{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}), and given a rough profit of say 35 quid a job, then that translates to the thick end of 9 grand profit for the year 😀
At this point I have to confess my other half is a web designer so the site actually cost us what it costs to buy and register the domain etc (not a lot), but even if we shelled out a grand or more you can see it’s highly profitable 😉
Re: IDEAS FOR A WEB SITE ??
Hi Ally,
I keep promising to do something with it, never do. Too busy with UKW to be doing anything with NW’s website and, TBH, there’s things that I give more priority to.
The reason for this is pretty simple as, in my humble opinion, for most repairers a website is a glorified business card. You have to have one but it doesn’t have to an interactive bells and whistles affair.
If you’re doing it yourself, keep it simple as it’s manageable and you don’t have to try too hard to make it look nice. All you need is clarity.
You need:
What you do
Contact details
Where you do itBeyond that anything else is a bonus IMO.
If you’re paying someone, keeping it simple will keep the costs down and, unless you want to give up your life to it (like another muppet around here who thought he’d be smart and start a little site) and get it indexed and rated etc. people will stumble on it pretty much only after a specific search.
Just an opinion.
K.
Re: IDEAS FOR A WEB SITE ??
cheers guys,
im paying someone to design it, and yes k i like your thoughts on it,
a glorified buis card.will let you know when its ready, you can all come to the official opening…
costing £200.,
so it better be good…
ally
Re: IDEAS FOR A WEB SITE ??
Funky, you have to ask yourself not only what are you going to put in those 4 pages but what are you trying to achieve? Who are you targetting your efforts towards? What is the point of a website?
The latter question can be asked of many indies websites I have visited in the last 4 years. Many look very pretty but in real effective business terms are nothing more than pretty rubbish. :rolls:
Now unless you design your site to be recognised and ranked by search engines you are wasting your time. And there are simple rules that govern that process, rules that many websites just don’t apply at all. Keywords, metatags and headertags are the 3 golden rules in this game. If you check out other folks websites go check out their source code (View menu/Source) just to view all the keywords etc that web designers have incorporated? Without a whole mass of that info on your Homepage and you might as well set fire to that £200 you have for all the good it will do. 😕
If you are looking for new business from the Internet from someone that doesn’t know you? Doesn’t know what your company name is? Where you are? or what you do? Then the above advice is all you need and that money will be well spent. And to do that you have to give your new customer all the information they are ever likely to ask of a search engine. For example : They have a Hotpoint washing machine thats broken down and they live in Anytown. Your website has to contain that information, that you repair washing machines (keyword) that you fix Hotpoint (keyword) and that you cover Anytown (keyword)….and so on. 😉
Many web designers talk the talk that’s for sure. Very often they knock up a smart looking site with glossy pictures and buttons to click. All very impressive like a shiny new car in a dealers showroom once you’ve bought it they’ve copped the dosh and you are on your own. They spout loads of fancy words at you and blind you with science knowing full well you haven’t a clue what they’re on about?
All the best! 😀
Re: IDEAS FOR A WEB SITE ??
Martin wrote:
Without a whole mass of that info on your Homepage and you might as well set fire to that £200 you have for all the good it will do. 😕
All the best! 😀Yes indeed, SHMBO wouldn’t entertain creating a website for as little as that, in fact a one off package with a little mentoring is the order of £4-500! (that would be optimised to get you right up the listings in Google) After that it would be you to you to keep it going. Unfortunately it’s like rolling a ball up a hill to stay there so to have a web designer keep it there then a decent managed package could set you back 1 or 2 grand.
I agree with Ken, unless you are going to get into web sales etc (very tough competiton) then a web site is just an online business card, but with a little web-savay you can keep a good web presence without too much constant input once it’s set up.
If you want to do it yourself then to make it meaningful there’s a lot of reading to be done and there are some pretty good free web design programs to download. A good place to start might be http://www.mrsite.co.uk/
Handily, they have a forum where there are plenty of newbies like you, and plenty of experienced designers offering advice.Like most things, once it’s explained it’s really not too difficult to set up although it takes a little time to do, but as i said once it’s up there it doesn’t take too much to keep it there 😉
HTH?
Re: IDEAS FOR A WEB SITE ??
cheers guys,
here the co web site that im dealing with…
http://www.on-top.co.uk/..probaly looking for 2-3 things with site..
1st repairs through search engine within specific locations
2nd poss spare part sales…through key words..
3rd offer existing new local customers a chance to see our web..all points taking martin/clive, this company seems to be able to help with key wors etc… i have sent them the content i would like… theyre going to design, i have mentioned search engine key word to them and i intend to get re-assurances before we go any further with web -site
ally
pps , if truth be told i just want a web presence..and if i can attract new custom then good, im not prepared to send mega bucks on a web, i think £200.00 seems ok..
Re: IDEAS FOR A WEB SITE ??
funkyboogy wrote:
if truth be told i just want a web presence..and if i can attract new custom then good, im not prepared to send mega bucks on a web, i think £200.00 seems ok..If thats fully optimised and gets you to at least page 2 of Google (hardly anybody goes any further than page 2) then that sounds a cracking deal!
Make sure they explain what you need to do to keep it up there too…many web designers rely on the fact that the customer has to keep coming back for updating etc 😉
Re: IDEAS FOR A WEB SITE ??
Mine is a very basic site. Something I did a few years ago, just to see if I could actually do it. TBH 95{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of my customers would pick up the phone or ask a friend. Hardly any of them would take the trouble to switch on the PC, ( those that actually have one that is) when the washer packs up.
That said if you enter Iadom in Google UK, 18 of the first 20 entries are for me. 😳 I think it may mean that I spend far to much time online. 8)
Jim.
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