woodmagman

Worry less about your ranking on Google and more about getting your potential customer to look at your website.
Truck and lawn signage, business cards, letterheads all need to direct the potential customer to the website.
Better off having a clean, navigateable site then hoping the customer is going to read your brochures, you have sent out in the mail or hand delivered. Your flyer if you chose could be one page minimal writing and direction to the site maybe a magnetic website card attached.
If you have the ability to build your own site and can afford to work at ranking then there is nothing wrong with that.
Ranking is for selling state, province or world wide. Most contractors don’t leave their back yard. Rightfully so, the grass is not really greener….

George Z

I don't think so.
Proven consistent results say otherwise.

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AAPaint

Word.

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-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

Same Old

Edited for foul language.

john elliott

I'm inclined to agree, although it's going to vary depending on the exact type of business and the area in which it is located

John

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Ed the Roofer said "John too, in his crass and blunt demeanor.............."

Susan Betz

Advertising is not free.

We have a fairly low budget. My time is what we pay for advertising. I do the site work and the SEO stuff, and keep costs down that way.

If our web site didn't place as well as it does (organic and PPC), we would have to do other advertising, since most of our customers find us on the net.

I actually agree with woodmagman, even though I spend a lot of time working on site-related stuff. If you have a memorable business name, and it's in your dot-com, you can get it out there without placing high in Google. Here's why: people typically need to see something 8-12 times before it sinks into their consciousness. If you're doing other advertising, your business doesn't have to place high in Google to get that job done. But you have to consistently advertise to get your name seen 8-12 times. And that, like the website/SEO work, will either cost time or money.

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Fences of Distinction, Ocala, FL
http://www.fencesofdistinction.com

Mike Finley

I definitely see both sides and can agree with woodman on some points.

Mass marketing on the web is a shot gun approach, you point your shotgun above your head, close your eyes and pull the trigger every 5 minutes. At the end of the day you look around and on the ground you see some dead crows, a few robins, a pigeon, an owl, a hawk and Canadian goose.

Now your objective was to get a goose on the table, and you did, but you also have all that other debris that you have had to deal with. That's the Internet using those methods.

I see the other side as woodman sees it also. Using your website and getting strong, targeted and defined click thrus from specific sources linked directly to your site which are funneled customers that you actually want can be much more powerful.

Example -

Yesterday I get a call off our website for a nice fat master bathroom remodel estimate. Customer came from a direct link and is a perfect match.

3 days ago I get a call off our website, customer wanting us to sell them peel and stick bathtub surround. Found us through the search engines.

Both came off our website, but came from different sources. One is a waste of time, the other is a perfect match.

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bathroom remodeling - Denver, Lakewood, Littleton, Arvada, Westminster, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Englewood Colorado.

PressurePros

I used to think the same way. Never worried about a website. My other marketing efforts paid off well. Things have changed now. Phone books are getting dusty. People judge you by your internet presence. I disagree about a one page website. That would scream low budget company to me.

Now to jump down to Mike's analogy. SEO is more akin to attaching a laser site scope on a competition rifle. It like any other form of marketing, it has to be targeted. You do that with content and PPC campaigns. Of course I may get some housewife in Kansas looking for a company to do her deck (I'm in PA) But even that is opportunity. You can trade or sell the lead to someone else.

I was dinosaur in my thinking as well. I have booked 13 jobs thus far from my website. These were quality leads. They knew before they sent that request for estimate or made the call that I am not a hack that will charge them $200 for a housewash. The cost for each of those leads was literally pennies. The writings on the wall. People shop via the net for EVERYTHING these days. Since SEO can take a little time, the wise will do it now and reap the benfits later.

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Ken Fenner
Pressure Washing PA
Ipe Deck Cleaning
Cleaning Contractors

john elliott

Unless it's me that's mistaken, Woodman isn't suggesting that one do without a website altogether, just that using it as backup to local advertising can be more productive than relying on rankings

A lot of what you said was quite OK, but the bit about the dinosaur thinking was quite inappropriate, suggesting that you have moved on but your listeners haven't. I hope you don't use that type of mildly insulting metaphor in your sales presentations

John

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Ed the Roofer said "John too, in his crass and blunt demeanor.............."

PressurePros

John, you are going to read into something in print exactly what you want to read. My thinking was dinosaur.. antiquated.. I am not speaking for anyone else but I do understand how you can read inflection into the way I worded it. I'm certain that to a degree all of us are a set in our ways and will get a bit chagrined when someone questions our point of view. I am not trying to come across as confrontational. I figure that we are business men and women and therefore have a thicker skin. Thats not to imply that I intentionally want anyone to feel bad about their methods of operation. I will tryto proofread my posts moreso in the future. Thanks for pointing this out to me.

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Ken Fenner
Pressure Washing PA
Ipe Deck Cleaning
Cleaning Contractors

Ed the Roofer

Don't worry about it Ken.

Thats just Johns, "Crass and Blunt Demeanor" speaking.

He is trying to be helpful in the choice of verbage used, so as to not have you offend anyone.

Ed

john elliott

I also don't want to be confrontational, but I feel I must say that I read into your post exactly what was written, rather than 'what I wanted to read'.

I acknowledge that you realise that your post might have been interpreted in a way you didn't intend, but I can't see that there's a problem with my reading.

John

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Ed the Roofer said "John too, in his crass and blunt demeanor.............."

PressurePros

Of course not, John, your ego is too big to admit something like that

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Ken Fenner
Pressure Washing PA
Ipe Deck Cleaning
Cleaning Contractors

dougchips

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To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

Teetorbilt

I let my site go years ago, no trauma so far.

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You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

woodmagman

To clarify, I posted this as there are a lot of small and midsized companies that are down loading web templates so they can have a web existence. Problem being and unknown to them and most, that a “no cache” site will never be pick up or find an existence on the rankings of Google or any other for that matter.
Does not matter though the customer can be brought to the site in many other ways, and the great marketing tool that it is, can be used.
A lot of time and effort can be spent spinning your tires trying to get rankings and you’re chained to the fence….

dougchips

Thanks, for sharing this............why didn't you mention it a year ago it would of helped me more then!

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To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

woodmagman

Who are you kidding.....you were having fun.
You have to have something done about the leak in your aviator, it appears to be something more then a washer......

dougchips

The avatar is a product that think geek sells, the new one will turn red when the water gets hot and blue light when it is cold--- www.thinkgeek.com .

BTW I found out that I can use Frontpage on my web-site, actually it will accept it not to say that I know how to use it. The 2003 version came bundled with my Office cd, I need to reload it.---or stick to my plan and outsource the project.

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To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

woodmagman

Don't load your site to it, play with FP until you have the bugs worked out. Its tricky but can be mastered if you follow the tutorials and use the templates with in it.