Advice building a website and getting traffic for electrical work locally

normandylife

I am starting to wind down to retirement now which is in 3 years time. I have have just  taken a year out  recently to travel and do stuff that I have put off for so long, so I have lost my flow of old customers. 
But I do miss work and the banter that goes with it, I was a self employed electrician for the last 30 years. There was always plenty of work coming in from word of mouth and the phone still rings with old customers.
I am in great health, so I want to get a few years "harder" graft in before I retire, even though I will still keep going past 67 at a slower rate or one that I can handle.
I need to sort my marketing/advertising which I tended to taper off after a short while when I had enough work, Yell. local Newsletters etc.
These days I do not have a clue, I have come around to the fact as an old Git and technophobe that I need to build myself a cheapish website and look for work in my local Villages and small towns which I would like to hit and only do domestic work.
Trouble  for me is getting traffic to see my website and I am sure there is other stuff I need to know SEO, Google campaigns etc.
Can anyone point me in the right direction, I was thinking of Wix or something like that, but like I mentioned I want people to see me when they search, NOT big Cities I might add, so if I use my unheard of little Villages/Towns it should be cheaper and easier to find me, I think?

Any advice would be great. I am not even ruling out getting someone to do it for me and maintain if it was not to expensive. Just local little jobs and nothing bigger than say a extension or small re-wire down to just putting a light or socket in.

Vitor

I’d start by setting up a Facebook Page and running the occasional advert targeted to people in your local area. It doesn’t need to cost much, you can run Facebook ads for around £1 a day. The more you post (photos of recent jobs, safety tips), the more your Page will show up when people search for a local electrician.

Next, set up a Google Business Profile, it’s free and it’s what powers the “electrician near me” results on Google Maps. Add a few good photos of your van and recent work, and ask some of your old customers to leave honest reviews.

 A lightweight site linked to a Google Business Profile and a Facebook Page still adds credibility and improves how those two platforms display your business. Wix now, inevitably, has AI 'wizard' to help build a page from a selection of templates so it's pretty simple to create one.

I think it's worth getting your own domain for web-site and email address. Maybe it's me, but seeing vans with "honest_bob_builder@hotmail.com" painted on the side don’t exactly shout professionalism.

kimwp

Personally, I'd try (if gdpr allows it) contacting your old customers and letting them know you are back and rebuilding your business. If they've found another electrician then great, please could they recommend you to others now you are back. 

p00hsticks

I'm in a Whatsapp group of people who live in the same road and a Facebook group of locals  and I'd either ask people I knew or on ther for word of mouth recommendations...

Le_Kirk

If you don't fancy the technical way; do you have a local publication round your way or the local villages?  We have a couple of publications, one specifically for our village and one for the wider area (but still villages) called the "_______" Village Advertiser and they both have sections for trusted trades.  Another advantage of using this route is that you will hit people who themselves don't or can't use t'internet such as older peeps in the villages.

Username03725

Round our way the Nextdoor app is a common way of drumming up business, by simple advertising on it and by people wanting a service and asking on there for recommendations. I've used local plumbers & electricians via Nextdoor in the past few months.

Farway

A second for Facebook & Nextdoor, just join in with the local chat, missing dog, need a plumber etc

My local group specifically has Trade ad days, when the likes of yourself would advertise, normally ads are not allowed at other times because they clog up the pages  

My local ones always seem to have someone asking for a rec for some trade or other, in fact you could  offer free, advice at times, you know, the breaker keeps tripping type etc

Vitor said:

I’d start by setting up a Facebook Page and running the occasional advert targeted to people in your local area. It doesn’t need to cost much, you can run Facebook ads for around £1 a day. The more you post (photos of recent jobs, safety tips), the more your Page will show up when people search for a local electrician. 

And this, use t your own page, recent jobs, ask customers if they mind first of course,.

Murmansk

I'd echo a lot of what has been said, I'm a handyman aged 64 and been going 8 years.

You need to Google "Google My Business" and set yourself up with a website linked to that - it's free and you can get at the top of search results.

I have an internet based local phone number from Voipfone. It costs about £5 per month and is much better than just a mobile number as locals will probably find it more trustworthy. Same goes for getting a proper domain and linked email address. The Voipfone softphone app means calls to the local number can come in your mobile so you won't miss them.

You could have a virtual mobile number from Andrews and Arnold for less than £2 per month - it'll receive text messages and voicemails and avoids having your real mobile number out there online.

The things that I do that people really appreciate are: I turn up on time, I always get back to people who contact me ASAP - even if it's to say I can't do it. People take it for granted you can do the electrical jobs - it's the customer service and communication stuff that people appreciate and makes you stand out from the rest who can't organise themselves and give the impression they don't care. 

normandylife

Murmansk said:

I'd echo a lot of what has been said, I'm a handyman aged 64 and been going 8 years.

You need to Google "Google My Business" and set yourself up with a website linked to that - it's free and you can get at the top of search results.

I have an internet based local phone number from Voipfone. It costs about £5 per month and is much better than just a mobile number as locals will probably find it more trustworthy. Same goes for getting a proper domain and linked email address. The Voipfone softphone app means calls to the local number can come in your mobile so you won't miss them.

You could have a virtual mobile number from Andrews and Arnold for less than £2 per month - it'll receive text messages and voicemails and avoids having your real mobile number out there online.

The things that I do that people really appreciate are: I turn up on time, I always get back to people who contact me ASAP - even if it's to say I can't do it. People take it for granted you can do the electrical jobs - it's the customer service and communication stuff that people appreciate and makes you stand out from the rest who can't organise themselves and give the impression they don't care. 

I have been around along time now and over the years/decades I have  had far more over loaded work years than quite years, even believe it or not to the point where I am complaining about the phone ringing all the time and have even punched the air with joy when a customer cancelled for whatever reason, which gave me a breather .

It's during those busy times that you should always be thinking about those years ahead and the quite time that will  come, and they always do. I never seem to learn this lesson, but to be fair I always make good use of those slack periods and get started again when I give myself a kick up the backside.

I have had some good advice here and have concluded(which I knew anyway) things have changed from the old Yellow Pages days and if I just use my own commonsense and think what I normally do when I want something, I GOOGLE IT
So I am going to do what you suggest, Google business, Google add words, SEO, that type of thing and do a decent WIX website. 
Thanks for your good advice, and to others as well

normandylife

Vitor said:

I’d start by setting up a Facebook Page and running the occasional advert targeted to people in your local area. It doesn’t need to cost much, you can run Facebook ads for around £1 a day. The more you post (photos of recent jobs, safety tips), the more your Page will show up when people search for a local electrician.

Next, set up a Google Business Profile, it’s free and it’s what powers the “electrician near me” results on Google Maps. Add a few good photos of your van and recent work, and ask some of your old customers to leave honest reviews.

 A lightweight site linked to a Google Business Profile and a Facebook Page still adds credibility and improves how those two platforms display your business. Wix now, inevitably, has AI 'wizard' to help build a page from a selection of templates so it's pretty simple to create one.

I think it's worth getting your own domain for web-site and email address. Maybe it's me, but seeing vans with "honest_bob_builder@hotmail.com" painted on the side don’t exactly shout professionalism.

Thanks for your great advice(along with others).
It's more or less the advice I am now going to take.
I am quite happy paying a few £100 quid per month for sound advertising as long as the phone rings and I can then take over from there, I have a very good reputation in my area with good prices, so I can hook them easily enough and people always need Part P qualified electricians 

normandylife

Username03725 said:

Round our way the Nextdoor app is a common way of drumming up business, by simple advertising on it and by people wanting a service and asking on there for recommendations. I've used local plumbers & electricians via Nextdoor in the past few months.

I have actually had a lot of work from that and had no idea what people were talking about, seems that people were asking the question "Does anyone know a good electrician in the Village" and my name came up  
Maybe a paid add could be a good idea as well
Thanks