Does anyone have a website? (for business purposes)

martin82scott

hi all, im a freelance Electrician from leeds and have set up on my own. Luckily im in with local builders and trades so that does pass me some work but i have now set up my own website in hope of work in this tough climate. I appreciate most work comes from word of mouth and that the site cant be relied upon for business income however, it is a good way for people to check you out and enquire about proposed works.
The problem im facing is, so far i have spent tons of hours all year round so far to get the site something like reasonable and inviting.
It is getting hits/visits but i have only ever had one or two enquires of which nothing materialised.

Id really really appreciate it if everyone would quickly visit my site and then fire any comments back to me so that i can rectify my mistakes. Its still early days and sometimes we do things and then think why did i do that!?
please go easy on me but feel free to comment on the smallest of things.
the reason for so many pages (like doorbells) etc is to allow more information and keywords per website overall. cram it up and search engines penalize you.

Im aware that there are many things missing like landline number and address but i have just held off with these due to spam calls and mail/email to date

BIG BIG THANKS!!!!!

googler

It's getting hits and visits but that only produced a couple of enquiries, and nothing came of them....

So the issue isn't the website, the design of the website, but the quality of the leads it has generated, so ....

You could take the view that more hits and visits will naturally generate more quality leads (assuming the quality leads to be a certain percentage of the total), leading you to tactics to increase traffic to the site. One of these might be google sponsored listings, or 'adwords'. There's links on google's homepage with lots of guidance. Don't bother with any other sponsored listings, whether Yahoo or Ask. Google gets the lion's share of UK search traffic, that's where you want to be - also, something like 75% of the traffic reaching UK business websites gets there through google searching, rather than directly.

I like the testimonials section. Referrals and recommendations are the way to build business.

martin82scott

googler wrote: »

It's getting hits and visits but that only produced a couple of enquiries, and nothing came of them....

So the issue isn't the website, the design of the website, but the quality of the leads it has generated, so ....

You could take the view that more hits and visits will naturally generate more quality leads (assuming the quality leads to be a certain percentage of the total), leading you to tactics to increase traffic to the site. One of these might be google sponsored listings, or 'adwords'. There's links on google's homepage with lots of guidance. Don't bother with any other sponsored listings, whether Yahoo or Ask. Google gets the lion's share of UK search traffic, that's where you want to be - also, something like 75% of the traffic reaching UK business websites gets there through google searching, rather than directly.

I like the testimonials section. Referrals and recommendations are the way to build business.

thanks for taking the time to give a well explained post googler!

love the name by the way!

are you in a web based line of work?

i agree with everything you said, start to finish. i also have the adwords and carefully selcted a few free links and classified adds etc through research. The site is getting hits and some fairly good organic searches but there is much competition out there now since many people have been made redundant and set up on their own.
the problem im facing is that some of my searches are very high and this is very good. im lucky but have spent six months, evening after evening on my own tactics etc to get this far. my main problem is my biggest main search 'electrician leeds'. 90% of my key searches on google show very high - page 1-3 and mainly page 1 but the above mentioned is my most important by far and is ranking about page 39! not worth having!
can anyone suggest a way of getting this one search higher? id forefit the others for this.
unfortunatly work commitments means time is tight and i dont want to spend every evening on the website but i do appreciate fresh content and links is the key.
most other competetors of mine have been around on the web many years but do nothing at all ever with their site. is another year part of the main key?

pretzelnut

On initial impressions i felt i had stumbled across an IT site where i had no business being there. It doesnt instantly stand out as being focussed on the individual customer like myself, but feels more like it is aimed at big business's (ok if thats what your going for).

I have read the 1st pargraph of the home page and now know that you cover business and personnal customers but i feel it should be something that hits me in the face without me having to search for that info. Something i wouldnt normally do i'd just shut the page down thinking i had the wrong site.

Wheres the picture of you? Its your website and at the minute is feels very impersonnal. Even a pic of you working would be better than some complete stranger with a startled look on his face.

You also really need a landline number i also wouldnt ring any tradesman who wasnt willing to share basic info like a landline number that i could ring for free. I assume you have a work van with your contact details on. Spam calls could come from there, but your more likelt to get spam email from your site than crank calls.

I hope i havent been to critical, you can tell you have put a lot of effort into your site and it does look good.

martin82scott

thanks for the information. thats exactly what i was wanting to hear. as i mentioned about the landline etc. thats getting sorted asap and i do appreciate its important. the site was made from templates and i had a mate finish it off so hence the lack of photos of myself etc. a few have now said this and think its the next step forward.
Im also concerned that too many people think its aimed at big businesses. not only this but as it looks 'professional' (as i want to also do!) i also agree and its worrying. i do market myself well elsewhere and most of my links are from other sites but im also young (26) and think some people get a shock when i turn up at the door and they have seen my site etc. at least they will know im serious and i do have 12yrs+ experience but i dont feel thats a good thing to advertise as some sites boast 25yrs+. with a mate finishing the site meant i just got top work for my money!

any pointers for a revamp would be nice too. all my competotors do have just as good site by now as some been around many years and a refurb at the financial year is the thing to do for fresh look and content.

think i need to pass this on to an seo specialist and do some work myself to make it 'reflect me'

cally6008

martin82scott wrote: »

my main problem is my biggest main search 'electrician leeds'. 90% of my key searches on google show very high - page 1-3 and mainly page 1 but the above mentioned is my most important by far and is ranking about page 39! not worth having!
can anyone suggest a way of getting this one search higher?

Cheap way would be to buy the domain name "electrician leeds" or any variant you use and then park it on your current domain name/hosting account

Your website does not stand out as being "an electrician's website"

I would not pay someone to do SEO for you when you can do it yourself for free by using Google Analytics and Google Webmaster. Both these have some nifty things to help you

save-a-lot

I agree with comments made above, the site looks too corporate. The "1" "2" "3" buttons at the top of the menu are confusing and it is not obvious what they are meant to do. Variation in the images would be good and also, I guess you are using css, well add a "current" tag on the mouseover effect so that when a user is visiting a page the relevant link for the page they are on is highlighted. This helps the user know where they are on your site.

I have 40+ links on every page of my site as the user needs to get about the site. I can see you want a design with little scrolling and I can see the reasoning behind the "1" "2" "3" buttons, but it just needs to be made more obvious.

Having your URL on your van and car is always good and it may be a good idea to give people a good reason to visit your site, maybe to view your previous works (if appropriate), I would include the website address on business cards and all business stationary. As a whole package a website with the business may actually be getting you more work.. maybe ask everyone how they came to be in touch. Some may contact you direct but may have found you on the www.

If you want to get good results write the page content for a human reader, but also for the web spider. This means, get keyword / keyphrase density into your pages. Your most important phrases should be repeated on the page but not made spammy. I would include the keyphrase in a H1 tag, similar in a H2 tag, again in a bold tag, and possibly in a href too. I would use css to manipulate the size of the H tags to make the text look readable.

Links into the site should have your chosen keyphrases as the anchor text, this shows the search engines that the page is definitely important for that phrase and position your site accordingly.

save-a-lot

Hi, the site I run is completely dynamic and pulls everything from a database and the page is created in modules. So mine is very difficult to SEO, but I have used the principles I explained above to make the site get visitors. So even with SEO nightmares it is still possible to get reasonable natural traffic.

paulwf

save-a-lot makes some good points about getting your website promoted everywhere you can.

Your approach looks like mine - write down every single bit of information you can think of and focus on the detail not the big picture. Your front page should have a summary of everything you do, you shouldn't have to navigate a 3 part menu, I've never seen a menu like it.

Every single page should have your phone number across the top (in big letters) and your email address. Your site isn't really asking people to take any action, whereas you need to be pushing them to contact you. To give customers confidence in you as someone else said having an address and landline really helps. Oh, and having some idea of prices really helps, sites without any idea of prices usually puts me off.

Basically someone is likely to google for a sparky, go onto the site, read a couple of lines and call for a quote. Your site is too complex, by all means link to the in depth info but the front page summary is crucial as not many people will look beyond that.

The design also looks too corporate, as though it is designed for corporate business to business activities. Even using words like "service review" create the wrong image to a domestic customer. "Real life" pictures of you have taken rather than stock images also give more of a personal touch. It's not very often I say this, but your site is too professional!

martin82scott

cally6008 wrote: »

Cheap way would be to buy the domain name "electrician leeds" or any variant you use and then park it on your current domain name/hosting account

yes someone told me about this idea and so i bought several kind of generic domains with variants in them. I can setup the redirect etc on these but as for the keywords on them etc, do they all need to differ and be different from my original site? i believe they do as google can/does penalise this?

Your website does not stand out as being "an electrician's website"
Does it need a different theme?
should i get 'electrician' plastered at the top for visitors to see as soon as they enter?

I would not pay someone to do SEO for you when you can do it yourself for free by using Google Analytics and Google Webmaster. Both these have some nifty things to help you

i am a big beleiver in this too. My partner is going mad with the amount of time i have spent trying to optimize my listings etc but i refuse to pay someone else to do it and nobody else will do it for me for free so sucess has to be the route im on eventually. quite impressed with adwords but not opted for the adsense i think it is? (banners etc on site) as i think this will put people off and its not an online business

martin82scott

save-a-lot wrote: »

I agree with comments made above, the site looks too corporate. The "1" "2" "3" buttons at the top of the menu are confusing and it is not obvious what they are meant to do. Variation in the images would be good and also, I guess you are using css, well add a "current" tag on the mouseover effect so that when a user is visiting a page the relevant link for the page they are on is highlighted. This helps the user know where they are on your site.

I have 40+ links on every page of my site as the user needs to get about the site. I can see you want a design with little scrolling and I can see the reasoning behind the "1" "2" "3" buttons, but it just needs to be made more obvious.

Having your URL on your van and car is always good and it may be a good idea to give people a good reason to visit your site, maybe to view your previous works (if appropriate), I would include the website address on business cards and all business stationary. As a whole package a website with the business may actually be getting you more work.. maybe ask everyone how they came to be in touch. Some may contact you direct but may have found you on the www.

If you want to get good results write the page content for a human reader, but also for the web spider. This means, get keyword / keyphrase density into your pages. Your most important phrases should be repeated on the page but not made spammy. I would include the keyphrase in a H1 tag, similar in a H2 tag, again in a bold tag, and possibly in a href too. I would use css to manipulate the size of the H tags to make the text look readable.

Links into the site should have your chosen keyphrases as the anchor text, this shows the search engines that the page is definitely important for that phrase and position your site accordingly.

the 1,2,3 buttons have been noted by several people too. thanks for reminding me and will sort that today.

Im really interested in your explanations but im not too sure where to start as i only know little bits about websites through learning recently. obviously im a sparky and stick to what i know and webs hasnt been my thing to mess with up until now.
id really appreciate it if you would could kindly explain the meta tags and H1's and as to where words and their varients should be placed as i believe this is where i have gone wrong so far. it would be a big big help and i thank you massivly in advance if you could give me some explanations and/or point me in the direction of some good explanatory websites as some i have visited say different things/contradict/or give no usefulness to the reader.
kindest regards, martin