Simple Website Tips that work

[Brian R]

I was going to post what colors mean but I thought that would be over doing it...I konw I know... :roll:

Anyway, here's a link so you will know what a color means to a see'r

What Do Colors Mean?

 

[Brian R]

Back to the links thing...do you have your website posted on Mikey's Board? How about the other forums? What? There are other's out there?

The cool think about being on Mikey's is it is very relevant to what you do and the Search Engines love that.
I tried to get some major suppliers to put my website link on there website but not many will.

Hmm. This makes me think of another thread topic.

 

[Brian R]

When putting your link on another website I know I said to use the whole URL Http:// and all that but also
when linking, be sure to put the landing URL not the forwarding URL.

Example: I have http://www.prioritycleaner.com and a few others but all in the CA area go to http://www.carpetcleaning916.com

Get the picture?
Search engines don't like forwarding address'

If you use a forwarding address, make it a "permanent" forwarding address. That helps a great deal.

 

[Brian R]

Videos work well on websites too. I'm not sure if they help your search rating but a good video on the front page will get the looker's attention.

I have mine linked from Youtube. I get the feeling that helps somehow but I really don't know.

What do you think Mr. Fred?

 

[Cleancare]

I think you should not fix it just to keep bugging him !gotcha!

Remember to check all your links once a week at the very least.
I check mine every day.

Google and other search engines hate broken links. I guess they figure if you don't care about your website, why should anyone else?

Mikey, have you fixed your red line on your about us page?

Am I the only one who see's this?
http://www.connoisseurclean.com/about.html


I know it's not a link but it still bugs me. :?

 

[Steve in Omaha]

Dave Yoakum sends me referrals for free....no website needed

 

[Jim Morrison]

Brian, great posts for the newly initiated or wannabe site owner, Thanks.

If your site is built with WordPress there is a feature called WassUp to track your sites activity. It's nice to see where all the traffic is coming from and see what they are looking at and for how long.

 

[Brian R]

Nice looking site Jim.

 

[Brian R]

Email Address

If you want your customer to contact you, make it easy to do. Make sure your email link is on the front page and every page (along with your phone number). Sometimes a potential client just wants to ask questions via email and not have to talk to a live person.

You want to give them as many options as possible when asking them to contact you.

I've seen too many Carpet Cleaning websites where there is no email address to be found....sometimes it's hard to find even a phone number. ugh.

Some guys do the email form on the "contact us" page. Phooey. Pain in the ass. I know you do it to cut down on spam but really, do you get that much? And then you make them "required" to fill out every box...good God. Do you really need to know their first born's name before you give them a quote?

You should have a dedicated email address for just your website anyway.

Bonus: Sometimes spam is the best way to recruit someone for you networking group. You might even find a good advertisement opportunity.

I read all my email...even if only for a second. You never know what you might find...could be a high end client? Spammers are people too and they gotta live somewhere.

 

[Brian R]

Do you have a "Pay" option on your website?

Make it easy for customers to pay you. Whether it be before, after on or the job if a customer can just go to your website to pay an invoice...you created a Positive Momento of Truth (Thanks again Steve T.)

I can so credit cards over the phone and from a computer terminal so why not just set up a paypal account with a button? Some Credit Card proccessors have an option to put a button on your site as well.

Again, make it easy for your customers to use you.

 

[Brian R]

Online Store

Have ever thought about selling spotter, rakes, cleaning towels, sealers, protectors etc?
If you have an online store, your customer can buy right from there.

The best part is you can deliver it in person and possibly get a big job out of it.

I'll work on my online store right after I get my blog going....Hey, at least I got my Testimonial page up and running.

Bonus: An online store will make you look bigger than you are...and maybe a little more trustworthy. If you can start selling over a bigger area, it will help your search ratings.
The more hits to your website the better.

 

[Brian R]

Page keywords

Make your keywords on each page relevant to that page. If it's a Tile Cleaning page, make sure to have "Tile Cleaning your area" in there somewhere.

If Google sees that you have keywords that don't match your page content, BAM! To the bottom of the list you go.

Bonus: When people search, they use all kinds of terms. By changing it up a bit on each page you will cover a wider variety of people searching for whatever services. You can't cram a ton of different keywords on one page anyway so this is really a good thing.
Which brings me to my next post...

 

[Brian R]

Don't put too many keywords or irrelevant keywords into your site. Whether it be on the page or in the Meta Tags.
If you have "carpet cleaning" every other line the search engines will black list your site.
If you have something like hair salon in your meta tags (to reach more women) and you are not promoting a hair salon....that's a no no.

Google and others like things to flow nicely and have meaning to their customers. Not so much for you but to keep people coming back to their site over and over.

If you searched Carpet Cleaning and kept getting a bunch of Chinese restaurants...would you keep coming back?

 

[Brian R]

Consistency.
Each page of your website should look similar...like it came from the same website...go figure.
Most small websites are done with a template so that help but remember to keep the same color scheme and all that.

 

[Brian R]

You've probably seen this before. You can take your own mugshot and animate it.
Check it out.
http://www.sitepal.com/home

Not sure it will help or hurt SEO....but it could be cool for the on looker.

 

[Brian R]

This could be the biggest most imprtant tip of all...


Don't ask other Carpet Cleaners to critique your website and for God's sake don't listen to them and change it to they way they think it should be. 8) They are not your customer.

You're welcome.

 

[Brian R]

When viewing your Website, try to look at it with different computers and different browsers. What may seem ok at one computer maybe jacked up on another.
Take a look at it on a Mac, a PC, an Iphone, whatever...then try it out on Internet Explorer, Firefox etc.
You don't want your potenial client looking at something that you didn't know about...like a broken borderline or something like that.

 

[Brian R]

Let the search engines do some work as well.

When you list your business on a business license, fictitious name statement, credit agency or anything legal...Google and others will find you. They will also find you to be a legit company.
When you register in your area, you are a "local company" and that's what they want for Google Maps and alike.

If you're not listed on the search engines, type your name and area into one and see what pops up.

You might be surprised that they have already listed you.

Now claim your listing and make it better.

 

[Brian R]

Make sure you logo matches the rest of your website. I've seen too many times where the logo is just thrown over a pic and it looks like hell.
Most of the time the guy would be better off changing the logo to match the website.

Pay a pro to do it if you can't make it work yourself.

 

[sam miller]

What about a secondary phone number in your webpage for texting questions or appointments????

I did a card in feb. sent out 400 to repeats and I screwed up my main number. I never call myself! I decided to put my cell also 1st time ever and wrote or text next to it and I got calls and texts.

people saying that other number is disconnected, good thing my screw up wasnt to an active line ouch. still I got a few text for appointments.

http://www.sammillerscarpetcare.net thats my site needs work like kill the price and ad a blog so peeps can hear all about me, no my business. !dork!

 

[Brian R]

Sam, like others you need to center your website. It's sitting on the left.
It's a simple website and it's consistent so that's good.

I would get rid of the red color all together. It brings up the blood pressure and doesn't give the warm fuzzy feelings.

I would try to improve your logo. The dog is OK but your name is just a normal font.

You have your number up at the top which is good but it should be a little bigger...make it stand out.
Don't forget your call to action. "Call Now" "Call Today" "Text Me"
I saw the "Oh Well, Call Sam" and that's good but the real call to action needs to be near your phone number.
You also need to put your email address in the same area.

I like the texting idea. You'll grab the younger end of your demographic.

 

[Brian R]

Logos

Every page in your website should have our logo in the same area
This is a big one...
Your logo needs to be a link back to your home page.

This is universal.

Make it easy for your potential customer to move around your site

 

[Brian R]

Alt Text
Alt text is the description that comes up when you hover over a photo

Google and others do not "see" photos. They "see" the alt text that you have listed on a photo.
Therefore, you need to have what the photo is on the alt text..not keywords etc.

If it's a photo of a dumbass bird...Put "dumbass bird" in the alt text. :wink:

This helps with SEO.

Ever go to Google and look for an image in the images section? Alt Text is how Google finds what you're looking for.

 

[Brian R]

Active page link.
When you click to the next page, do you know what page you are on?
Your link should change colors or shape or something to let the user know what page they are on if they forgot or just were not paying attention.
Some sites look exactly the same on each page except for the text.

You need to help your visitor out and let them know where they are so they don't have to look to hard to find out.

 

[Brian R]

Something I do is have more than one website. Not sure if it takes away from one another in the SEO but it seems to be working out well. Does it give you double exposure? Not sure really.

The main tip in this post is I have a few websites but I make sure to link them all together...and that helps with SEO.
I have more than one because I have more than one area...and more than one type of company.

I don't think I will be building anymore.
I think that whatever area I am covering, I will just have another page on the website for it.
I can buy a domain name (relevant to the area) for posting and do a permanent forward to that page on all my ads.
I think the more page...and hits...will then bring up the SEO for the entire site.

Any experts have any thoughts or knowledge on this?

 

[Brian R]

This can't be a bad thing for SEO.

Use Google for your Blog...you can even put ads on it from Amazon or whoever to make a little side money.

Here is mine...I started it a while back but I did some serious updating today.
I've got it linked to my websites as well...of course. :wink:


http://prioritycleaner.blogspot.com/


If you don't have a blog, set one up on Blogspot...takes no time at all.

 

[Brian R]

Get Google Verified.
Webmaster Tools is a great way to see if your website is working properly. Search Engines don't like broken links etc etc etc.
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home

 

[Brian R]

Pick a simple Domain Name.

I really like www.cleandfw.com
Which I forward to www.prioritycleandfw.com
That one's no too bad either.

I know a guy who has www.Carpet-Cleaning.com for sale.

Good Idea to make is relate to your area.

 

[Jim Williams]

Brian. Thank you for sharing this information.

Quick question. You mentioned having more than one website. My site comes up on top in 3 major areas. Let's say I want to start targeting another area within 30 miles but I want to appear "local". Will Google take away ranking if I change my existing website to appear local by only changing the city names and using a different domain and optimizing it to come up in this new area? I have read that using identical content on 2 sites could hurt ranking. Any thoughts?

 

[Brian R]

Jim,
I had heard the same thing a while back about the duplicate content but I'm not sure there is any proof. There are guys on here more savvy in the Internet world than I but i'm gaining on them.

Are you wanting to just do another page on your website for the extra area you want to appear local in? Or change the whole site?
How far away are those 3 major areas from each other?

My newest thought is to just add pages to my website for every area I want to advertise in...hit the keywords and content relevant to that area and then buy a domain name that fits the area and forward it to that page.
I'm sure it's been done before...it's probably common practice for bigger companies.
You can put a zip code search box on the front page as well to direct the onlooker to the right page for their area.

It hasn't hurt my ratings on my first website to have two site of almost exactly the same content. The second site is up and coming so I don't think it's hurting that one either.
I don't see having extra pages on the site for extra areas hurting anything either...but you just never know with Google and the other search engines.