[david_claxton]

Do you find that by having a website you have seen a noticeable increase in business? Just like yourselves no doubt, i receive lots of calls asking if I have a website. Do they really work for carpet and upholstery cleaning? I understand how it's a good thing for people to see if they look on the internet but do you clearly see an increase in business? Perhaps, if your website isn't very good, then no, but a good one???

Thanks,
Dave

[markpowell]

yea the internet is the way to go along with the leaflet drops
Mark

[clinton]

Same here i do get a fair bit of work from them net..

Also a lot of price shoppers mind too.

[Paul Heath]

Ask yourself where do you look for things in your area......no website you won't be found...still always Yellow Pages..

[SteveAllan]

You will get mixed answers on this, good for some not for others, eg have had less than 10 jobs in almost a year from the web

[Carpet Dawg]

You will get mixed answers on this, good for some not for others, eg have had less than 10 jobs in almost a year from the web

Depends how your ranked.

Also, once you have paid for the site (and a small yearly hosting charge) all the jobs are free! Unlike other forms of advertising i.e. yellowpages, leaflets etc

Tony

[Matt Seymour]

A website is only any good if it comes up on the first couple of pages in a google search. If the SEO is poor and the site is nowhere to be seen you might as well not bother.

Even if it is seen, if your site is a bad one, people will move on.

I do think that in this day and age it is definitely a good idea to have one.

[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

I get a couple of jobs a week and my site is not even opimized and not even finished yet(i keep tweeking it).It's also noticable that all my commercial quotes have been from my website.I'm really going to push my online presence this year by getting my site "SEO'd" and i have a few other ideas for other websites.

[MAX Carpets]

the net is a must. In fact we are dropping all other advertising this year!

[Mr Dvae]

the more of us that leave yellow pages will leave more business for the advertisers that remain.

Dave

[The Carpet Cleaning Pro]

Be carefull who you get to do the site, as you can get ripped off.  Some of em think no one else can build websites and will feed you full of false promises. Do not fall for the "we guarantee to get you to the top of Google" this is not something that than be guaranteed by anyone.

Some of the guys on here may be able to reccomend someone. I can not be so helpfull in that way as I built mine myself.

[david_claxton]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I agree, it does seem as though everyone should have one. As per a remark by Monty, can anyone recommend a website builder or is it better to muddle through something like Mr Site software?

[Roger Oakley]

David,
From the pressure washing side but see this thread, for me a web-site is a must and it is 24-hours day, just keep it updated photos, testimonials etc. 50% of our work comes from the web.
The guy that built and does the hosting details on our home page, good service and good prices. Hope this helps.

[The Great One]

Hi

I am going to name and shame here.

Don't have click- marketing do your website

www.click-marketing.co.uk

They are in poole.

they did my site which was ok, then they called me for some marketing at £280 a month, i said not yet, lets see how the new year goes.

get home and they had taken the money out, have spent the last 7 weeks trying to get it back, they took the money without my say so and in less than an hour, but cannot return it under the same time frame.

Will never do business with them again and will warn as many people as possible to stay well away.

Regards

Martin

[Matt Seymour]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I agree, it does seem as though everyone should have one. As per a remark by Monty, can anyone recommend a website builder or is it better to muddle through something like Mr Site software?

I use Moonfruit, which is pretty good and easy to pick up. You can build a pretty good looking site using their online sitebuilder once you get the hang of it.

I find Mr Site is very limited to be honest and I've yet to see a really good looking site made using that. It's pretty basic.

[M.Acorn]

My google places account says I have 385 impressions only 4 views,what does that mean ?

[davep]

You google local listing has appeared 385 times but only 4 people have clicked on it

[Richard Cole]

Until a couple of weeks ago I was only getting a small amount of work from my website, however during all the snow I did a lot of tinkering and managed to get it on page 1 of google for several of the areas that I am targeting and my response has shot up. I built my own website using microsoft small business, my personal view is that people don't really look at your webiste that closely but just choose a company that appleals to them from the first page of google.

Got a job off someone yesterday and the reason the said they chose me was because they work in marketing and they liked the look of my site. Personally I don't think my site is very good, but hey its seems to be getting me one or two jobs a day at the moment.

[M.Acorn]

You google local listing has appeared 385 times but only 4 people have clicked on it

Not very good then really

[Matt Lindus]

Dont. And I repeat, DONT, ever use a company called Web Creation Uk.

The websites they have in the portfolio section are fantastic and used as bait to entice people in.
Once you've paid your deposit, they produce in possibly 5mins, the worlds worst 'home brew attempt' you have ever seen.

Once they have your deposit, they dont give a s**t. No matter how many times you ask them to amend things, you get at best a 30 second tweek.
They hope your just going to drop the whole thing and accept that they cant develop and move on and loose your deposit.

You've been warned

Matt