New Website

[Crawuk]

Hi all,

I have a small building firm and currently having a website built. I'ts almost there.

Do any of you have any ideas of a cheap way to get people to view my site? I've got the add on my vans and business cards and also sending a link to clients and friends.

Cheers

 

[Adzooma]

Hi,

I think that it is important to use as many marketing avenues as possible. What I mean by that is that probably just one particular technique will not bring in sufficient work for you.

One thing that I would definitely do at you website is write specific articles relating to the services that you offer. Be very specific with your articles and aim each one at a known target, IE someone who needs a room dividing in two, someone who needs an extension built. Hopefully, your articles will show up at Google when people search for things, such as 'I need an extension'

You might also like to register at Adzooma where your adverts will be seen by people who are looking for building services. When you register, use keywords such as: Builders, building services, house extensions, home improvements.

Adzooma

 

[dottelads]

always good to look at social media (facebook + twitter) and a blog where you can write some fresh content.

also contributing to any websites/journals in your space with articles and tips would help increase exposure.

 

[ReformedSinner]

You should focus on how to get targeted traffic instead of looking for cheap way of bringing in traffic.

My suggestion is, write some interesting articles related to your site's topic and distribute them to article directories. In the same time, you should build some backlinks to your site by doing link exchange. It might take some time, but they're considerably cheaper than other methods

 

[fisicx]

The van advertising is going to be really effective as would you and your team all wearing t-shirts/jacket with the website details.

Your other approach should be to ensure your website is optimised for those using a searxch engines. This will give you a good chance for people looking for 'house extensions in yourtown' or 'loft conversion in yourtown'. Unfortunately this should have been sorted at the beginning of the site build so you may come a little unstuck. But if your do want to get some visitors from Google and the other search engines you may have to delay the launch of the site while the navigation and content is reworked.

I wouldn't really bother with facebook/twitter thing. It's would take considerable effort to reach your target audience and direct marketing is likely to be more effective.

As already suggested. it's not visitors you will need, it's targetted visitors. The optimisation process will help to seperate the wheat from the chaff.

 

[Call Tracker]

Try segmenting your marketing by area and target your likely future clients with a leaflet/mailout asking them to visit the website. Choose your areas carefully and start small to test the response. You could offer an incentive for them to sign up to a newsletter with handy DIY tips once a quarter and use their information to build an email list that you could mail to with offers.

Park your van up at Wikes on a Sunday morning and hand out some leaflets (you may need to ask permission). Again offer an incentive for them to visit the website and you will see the traffic grow. Remember to get set up on Google maps and make sure your site has your local keywords in the text and meta descriptions so you are found through the search engines.

 

[jamesmd]

google places - list your business, make sure you categorise it correctly so people will search builders in bournemouth and it will come up.

google . co . uk / places (delete spaces)

also, find out if there are any home improvement or property magazines in your area - advertise in them. ok, so they may be towards people looking to sell or buy property, but still.

estate agents, property auction houses - perhaps see if they allow you to leave leaflets? perhaps for estate agents a small referral fee? they sell run down houses, so they're going to need to be done up .

leaving boards outside properties you have built with your website on - even better, have a text shortcode (e.g. text building to 63400, contact me if you want to discuss this further) so you can do call backs in the evenings. its not only wanting people to see your site, its wanting people to show interest in your company and generate some leads for you to make money!