How important is a website?

[gimmeagig]

There's a cleaner here in town who has a pretty elaborate website.
5 points of this, 7 biggest misconceptions of that, Long articles about carpet cleaning, questionaires where you leave your e-mail and phone number for a quote,guarantees and discount offers,special offers for realtors, past customers with nice things to say etc
Since I'm new to the business and know practically nothing yet, I read the whole thing( took me a while) but I'm asking myself does anybody really read this stuff?
Who goes on the internet to find a carpet cleaner?
Once I learn what I'm doing I want to advertize but I want to spend my money where it has the greatest effect.
How important is it to have website and how much of your business is being generated from that?

 

[Fred Geyen]

Your points well taken. If I could add to it I find it remarkable that people will put stuff on their web-site that they would never tell another soul.

Like who their customers are.
How they clean.
Which products they use.
Pricing in many cases.

We used to have to work to find out about competitors now they are proud to put it out their for all to see and what makes matters worse they get very little if any business from it. Does not mean things are not changing but so far "E" business is just not that big in Carpet Cleaning.
Anyone have a different story on how much business they get from Web?

 

[The Cleaning Artist]

I send potential clients(callers) there for information. Also to let them know what to do before and after the cleaning. Many other reasons.

 

[GRHeacock]

My opinion, I think it is a good thing to have.

However, I suppose it depends on the content whether it works for you or not.

I had my URL on my business cards, other literature, and on my van.

Between them, my web site generated around $2000 a month.

Since my retirement, it still generates around $500 a month.

I think in this day and age, every business should have one.

Gary

 

[Steve Toburen]

I'm no marketing expert, much less a web site consultant. (I leave that stuff to my compatriot Big Billy Yeadon.)

But don't underestimate the value of a professional web-site with today's consumer. At the risk of being both politically incorrect AND getting Lisa mad at me I would hesitantly say that the female side of the marriage still usually gets stuck with the arranging of the carpet cleaning and related services.

And even more tentatively I'll state that since women usually dislike confrontation they really appreciate the anonymous nature of the internet re: gathering facts so they feel in control of who and what is going to come into their home. (Don't hit me, Lisa. Ow-ow! I didn't say there should be uniforms pictured!)

The beauty of a web-site is that once the initial development is done the cost of running/maintaining it is virtually nil and it is incredibly synergistic with your other marketing efforts. Customers can go there and use it to the extent they wish. The more "elaborate" the site the more your customers can dig and be "pre-convinced" before they call you.

Steve Toburen CR
Director of Training
Jon-Don's Strategies for Success

PS One reminder. don't fall into the trap of judging your web site's value based on the number of on-line bookings you sign up. Most web browsing customers will use your site to "check you out" and then call you over the phone. But your web site is a huge "influencer" on their decision of who to call.

Also I would suggest for most of us our time is better spent actually cleaning carpets and/or marketing more cleaning work instead of learning everything required to create your web site. You should be intimately involved in your site's development but the learning curve to come up with a truly professional site is steep and my guess is (unless you just want a new hobby) your time will be better invested working on your business.

 

[The Wizard]

We are big believers in web sites!

When ever any prospective customer calls into our office, we always direct them to check out our web site. We explain that our web site gives them the ability to take a look behind the scenes of our company.

For our Tile & Cleaning side of our business, our picture and video gallery does wonders in helping secure the work.

Having a web site is like having a multi page full colour brochure right in front of the customer at all times.

Our web page secures many thousand of dollars worth of work every month.

The Wizard.

www.wizardcarpet.com

 

[Shorty]

Just the other day, I got this email from a lady that lives 2,500 miles south of me.

She found me on the web.............................



At 02:23 PM 5/04/2007, you wrote:


I live at 243 Huntingdale Rd. Ashwood, Victoria, do you have an outlet here to apply a fabric stain protector to a newly bought armchair singlesofa bed?

I would appreciate if you can assist and advice further to the mentioned request.

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
Janet
Tel nos.(03) Deleted
Deleted

I ,in turn, sent her an email explaining the situation & told her I had put her letter onto the Aussie CC Forum.

She phoned me later that day to thank me & let me know that a cc'er is going there to do the job.

The cc'er also let me know & thanked me for the job.


Yes, I do believe that web sites work, I have a lot of customers that tell me they picked me because of the info on my site.

www.get.shorty.com.au

 

[joey895]

About what you said about there being sooo much info and does anyone actually read all of this the answer is no most people will not read very much of it however there is another important reason for having so much info. Search engines evaluate your site to determine relevance to the terms that a customer is searching and gives each page a "page rank". The more info the better, at least regarding search engines and with online advertising getting found is the 90% of the battle. The page rank is also affected by other sites linking in to your site. It is really not very expensive at all. If you have any computer skills at all you can set it up yourself and it will cost you less than $8 per month.
Check out

http://order.1and1.com/

They have good packages with a easy to use website builder included. The hardest part is coming up with the content.

Sorry for the incoherent rambling.

 

[gimmeagig]

OK I'm going to set up a website.
I just checked if the name that I want for my business is available for a website.
.com is already taken, but .us and .biz is available.
How important is it to have a .com website.Is . us or .biz just as good?
If I wanted .com I'd have to alter the name of my business to be a little more complicated.

 

[Scott]

The most common TLD is .com, but most of the good, easy-to-remember .com TLDs are taken.

To a search engine, unless you live outside the US, the TLD is irrelevant; the name and keywords are of much more importance.

I would pick a short, associative name that is easy to remember and then highlight the TLD in a different color in my marketing pieces. Since .com is the most widely used and recognized TLD, the casual reader/surfer might not remember or think to pay close attention to the non-.com TLD unless it's highlighted, bolded, or is brought to their attention in some way.

Definitely use someone who is INTIMATELY familiar with proper SEO. Your prospects might catch only snippets of your name from their referrals, or if new to the area might just type your city or county "carpet cleaning" and choose one of the top 3.

You definitely want to be one of those in the top 3 organic listings, if at all possible.

Scott