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Guest Raymate

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Guest Raymate

how many of you out there have a web site?

is it worth having one?

who did you use?

can you recomend them or anyone else?

 

i have one through yell.com but it is very limited and would like to expand

any help would be gratefully recieved

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I have a web site, and I treat it like an electronic business card really.

 

you can see my efforts at

 

http://www.cobb-lees.com

 

you can also help support the forum by letting ME make you a basic page & host it for you.

 

You can find out more from the home page click the

 

web hosting link

 

Its fairly easy to start your own site though and many connections offer free hosting and there is plenty of programs out there for making sites.

 

Despite our blatant advertising rule this is! :wink: but its all to support the costs of THIS site, so I don't feel guilty! :lol:

 

Lee

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hi ray mate how's it going?

 

we find that although there is little business through the website it is great as a shop window as lee suggests. in your case you may have to spend a few quid (take that tablet now) but it should work for you just get a reliable person to make and maintain it unless you plan to do this yourself, may seem difficult but quite easy when you get the hang of it. remember KISS (NO not that) Keep It Short & Simple.

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Having recently put many hours and resources into updating our website, I can honestly say, to benefit in the most beneficial way, you need to assess what you expect to gain from it.

 

Whilst you can create a presence on the web very cheaply, this option may not suit everyone. If it is to be used as a shop window, as Peter says, you may well decide that little resource and therefore money needs to be spent. If indeed you wish to trade online, then that is a different matter altogether. How many times has a customer walked into your shops and said 'I didn't even know you were here' And you've been there for years.:shock:

 

I always found that this comment usually came from someone who sat in front of a PC most of their working day !

 

I'm sure a few of them look on the net as they don't always have time to go wandering around at lunchtime. thats where your websit can work for you :wink:

 

We have certainly benefitted from our website update.

 

Keith

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Guest Raymate

Being a mobile locksmith as well as a shoe repairers we need to be reachable to all sorts of people residential and commercial so a web site is probably the best way forward for us because as keith says a lot of people spend all day looking at pc screens so it is something we need to get right to attract people to our business

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  • 4 months later...

Also, It doesn't matter how flashy your site looks, you could still be wasting your time if the site isn't search "engine friendly"

because the only people who will find it are the people you tell. The main objective is to reach customers you wouldn't normally have. To build a quality site that will reach those customers all over the world would cost you a fair bit, £4,000-£10.000.

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Having recently put many hours and resources into updating our website, I can honestly say, to benefit in the most beneficial way, you need to assess what you expect to gain from it.

 

Whilst you can create a presence on the web very cheaply, this option may not suit everyone. If it is to be used as a shop window, as Peter says, you may well decide that little resource and therefore money needs to be spent. If indeed you wish to trade online, then that is a different matter altogether. How many times has a customer walked into your shops and said 'I didn't even know you were here' And you've been there for years.:shock:

 

I always found that this comment usually came from someone who sat in front of a PC most of their working day !

 

I'm sure a few of them look on the net as they don't always have time to go wandering around at lunchtime. thats where your websit can work for you :wink:

 

We have certainly benefitted from our website update.

 

Keith

 

Hi, Just a small point about standard engineerings web site: It is very user friendly and smart site, It only has a pr rating of 2 in google which isn't great. But the point I'm making is , everyone in the trade Knows standard engineering. So to find them in a search engine would not be difficult, They don't really need to try to hard.

But if say: www.billie-engraving-services.co.uk (just made that up, hope there isn't one by this domain) who was based in scotland. He would have virtually no chance of anyone finding him outside his community without keyword optimisation. And that is were you can spend some silly money/there are many people out there who claim to do optimisation and charge the earth with no guarantees, but most of them are just spam merchants. Be very carefull.

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If I can just mention the following. The fact we only have a pr rating of 2 from Google, it is not a reflection on the content or apperance of our site. It is merely a Google score for our accesability through Google. In addition, whilst the trade in general do know our Company, I believe it is important to inform as much as is possible of the Companies prducts, plans and activities.

 

We have plans afoot that will increase our 'rating' although this is not the sole purpose of the exercise.

 

Keith

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Hi Keith, I hope you don't think I was rubbishing your website. Not at all.

I was trying to point out the fact that your customers know who you are (standard engineering) so to find you they would naturally type in "standard Engineering" and you would be there or there abouts.

For someone to do a new site based on engraving, they would need to be able to hold good search engine positions for the key words that people would type in to find such a site. And to do that takes a lot of hard work and someone who knows what they are doing. My website has a PR6 rating in google but we still struggle for good positions. Link building and good optimisation is the key.

 

Kind regards

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Mind you Uk900, whats good for one is not always good for another.

if did a search for "shoe repairs" in both yahoo & google today

 

in Yahoo my own site www.cobb-lees.com was at No.1 yes No1. yet in google it was no where to be seen. both systems have had the same site to grawl, yet yield completely different results.

 

Lee

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Hi lee, I'd already looked at that, Nice one. My site hasn't got anything to do with shoe repairs, or I'd be No 1 :lol:

I'm more into Engraving,gifts,signs,and the like. Because I'm an on line shop I didn't want to give the impression I was just an high St shoe repairer. But a specialist Engraver. The competition is a lot fiercer in this field than it is for shoe repairs.

Google is a crap search engine really as far as results go. You only have to go a few pages past page 1 and the results are not relavent to the search. I have loads of page one positions for phrases relavant to my site.

Just for the record You are No 1 for the phrase "shoe repairs" but only 9 people a day type in that phrase. there isn't any competition for that phrase.

 

"shoe repair" no S, there is 105 people searching for that phrase, so the competition is much fiercer. and you do not figure for that phrase.

this is what I meant about optimisation. you need to do your homework before optimising for words that few people type in. Its a waste of time.

:cry:

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Indeed, optimisation is the key as you rightly say. Horses for courses though.

 

In addition, I think it's very hard to get good position on a budget! Mind you, if most members read this thread they should find a few pointers and with a little help from a few bods should be able to obtain better websites. Lets hope so anyway :lol:

 

Keith

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