Internet advice for small business

[johnacky]

Hi, I run my own plumbing/ bathroom company in Liverpool, and have found that I am receiving a couple a calls a month for work from people that have found my company details on free internet listings.
I am now considering having a website built as way of evidencing my work and also a way of generating more work. I have had a quote of £300 for the year off a relative, but would like to be better informed.
I am wondering what I should be looking for, any approximate costs, and what needs to be done to have it linked to google etc. Idealy a local website designer in Liverpool.
Many thanks

 

[Ding Dang Doo]

Hi, I run my own plumbing/ bathroom company in Liverpool, and have found that I am receiving a couple a calls a month for work from people that have found my company details on free internet listings.
I am now considering having a website built as way of evidencing my work and also a way of generating more work. I have had a quote of £300 for the year off a relative, but would like to be better informed.
I am wondering what I should be looking for, any approximate costs, and what needs to be done to have it linked to google etc. Idealy a local website designer in Liverpool.
Many thanks

What do you get for £300? 1 page, a few pages, is there any SEO (to rank you higher in listings?) included in this price? I take it this would include hosting costs? Do you get email with it? Who will own the site, you or the 'designer' - I found that I paid for a site, when I went to move away from the supplier, I didn't own my domain name... they did! But if it's a relative, then I'm sure you will be okay...

Is it not something you can do yourself? There are many companies offering a free website builder if you take their hosting... 1&1.com, and Bluevoda spring to mind, as they are one's I've used myself...but I'm sure there are many more, and the more knowledgable guys on here will be able to give you better advise.

It IS really important to have your own online presence, as most people will search the interent before using any other means of finding a service local to them.

Please let us know how you get on.

HTH

Pete

 

[SBOnline]

Morning,

If you are just dipping your toe in the water then you might want to register the domain and arrange hosting yourself and use a free website building service from the host (as suggested above).

If the site takes off or needs changing then look at getting a full design. This way you will have a better understanding of what your needs are before approaching someone for pricing.

Couple of things for you to consider. The website address, pages, images and written content.

If you are unsure then ask for more help on here - there are lots of people who know what they are doing.

I would also reccommend having a look at your competitors websites to see what they are doing and what you like / dislike about their sites.

All the best.

 

[jamieclick]

Hi John,

I am in just in Wigan so if you would like a chat feel free to get in touch.

Jamie

 

[Phild1973]

I would recomend you speak to Paul Newton at Paul Designs in Leigh. He does a lot of work for us and the standard is always first class while the cost is always competitive.

heres his website pauldesigns.co.uk

Good luck

Phil

 

[second income]

sounds as if you need some good advertising!, maybe we could work summat out?

 

[PGHarrison]

Hi there, the other comments are correct...you need a website that works and one that can be found. You need to be able to make changes to your website easily and add pages as you business grows. There is a lot to take in and get right..so you probably better getting an expert to do all this for you (just like your customers get you in to sort their problems).
Too many people waste money on website and SEO etc because they do not have a workable plan - or the time to promote and change the website etc....
As you are a small business and probably only want local work - you do not need to be spending thousands on marketing - there are lots of free ways to market alongside traditional methods - a bit of both will work.

In terms of costs...you should be getting a website that works(navigation, images, content etc) for less than £500 and you should be spending about the same on marketing for around the first 6-9 months.
You are better spending your time doing what you do best and not sorting your web presence out.
Another option is to spread the cost of the year and have a website built and marketed by a professional company who will keep you up-to-date and show you results.
As you already probably know...if you invest £1000 over the year to get some online presence...you only need one or two jobs from your website and then it has paid for itself and then you have pure profit.
We specialise in small business websites and marketing and can give you a free no obligation qoute - and rememeber the golden rule - get at least two or three quotes - and then make your own mind up
Hope this helps

 

[leemason]

I'd certainly find out what the £300.00 is for. You need:

1. A domain name
2. Some hosting space
3. Someone to produce the web site for you (you could use a standard template for this but it's better to have something written for you).
4. Some online promotion to make sure that you get your web site high on the google searches (this is known as SEO or Search Engine Optimisation. It's best to get someone to write your web site with SEO in mind even if they are not SEO experts themselves.

 

[VengefulOwl]

Definitely look at your local competition. Presumably you are aware of your competitors and how long they have been around for?

Also, do a google search (important that you use google) for plumbing <area>, look at who is on that first page (top 10). You'll probably find Yell.com and some other listings sites are on there too.

See if they have a website
Judge for yourself if you think they made it themselves or got a pro to do it
Get some ideas from their sites as to what you think you want on yours
Look in the footer of their sites for who they might have used for their website

I personally wouldn't jump in with a web developer off the bat, try to do some research of your own before hand. Ask to see some live examples of their sites, and maybe even get in contact with those people to see what they think of them. Web developers portfolios are often fake or misleading.

Regarding SEO, quite often people get confused between SEO and SEM. They are two sides of the same coin. *any* web developer should optimise your site for search engines and humans at the same time. This is industry standard. The marketing is the part you should spend money on.

 

[davidmcd2002]

Never let a relative design a website for you... not if you want to stay friends with them

 

[paulstewart64]

Johnacky

You've received some good avice here.

But, here's the issue. You've never bought a website before and don't know what you're buying. Because of this, it's very easy to be blinded by these strange words like SEO etc.

The truth is there are a number of good web designers in your locality. Your family member may also be one of these, albeit it's not their main source of income. So this puts you in a difficult position. After all, all you want is a good website that helps you get more business.

But, if you don't know what you're buying, then how do you know who to choose and whether they will get the results you want?

There's some good advice here and I'm sum up what I think you need to consider.

1) talk to a few website designers rather than go with the first one. Get them to show you sites they've created and confirm their ranking on Google. Are they on page 1 or a lot lower. Frankly, if a website ranking falls below page 2 it's unlikely you will get business from it.

2) ask what they would do to secure your URL (that's the website name - www..) A decent web designer will not take your business name and see if there's a URL to match it. They should find out what people are searching for and suggest something that's closer to the search terms. If they don't do this and go off your name then I wouldn't use them - unless they had a very good reason why they don't consider the search terms important.

3) creating a website is part of a much bigger marketing picture. If you are good at what you do, then good marketing will catapult your business forward and you'll have all the work you can cope with. So the look of the website is important. Check whether you own the website and whether you own the graphics so that you can use them on all your marketing without having to pay for using the graphics each time.

4) finally, make sure you have an agreement in writing and that you will be the owner of the URL and your website. This way, if you aren't happy with the designer at any time, you can arrange to move your website (if the designer hosts it).

OK, there's a lot to take in here but I hope you find this useful.

Good luck

 

[iced]

I would make the following assumption from your post - £300 is either just for the domain name and hosting per year and does not include design costs or it £300 all in but is charged annually.

Personally we would never charge an annual fee for a website. Our clients want to a pay a fixed fee with the knowledge that they own the site and can do with it as they pleased.

I would steer clear from hosting company solutions like 1to1. They sound alot better than they actually are.

A website should be designed and coded right from the ofset.


And i agree with the previous post working with family members never works!

 

[choorian]

check wix out, it's free and so easy to do yourself. I have 1 website with Wix and one with Yola. You're better of with Yola as it's free for two years and don't have to pay for your domain or anything. With Wix you have to buy your own domain and link it.

It took me a couple of hours putting it together. They have templates already done for you, you just need to add your details.

You know better than anyone what you want to say on the website than anyone else.