Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: groundhog on March 23, 2011, 11:36:06 am
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I've always said I didn't need a website, but I recently changd my mind when I discovered that another window cleaner locally to me had used my business name and set up his own website. Therefore anyone looking for me on the internet gets his website and he gets the business that should have been mine!! >:(
What is the best way to set up a website, I have no knowledge on this at all and am a complete technophobe!! I tried to set up one with vistaprint, which is ok.. but I can't seem to find it at all with a google search! where as my competitors site appears in the top 3 of any local search for a window cleaner? :'( Would I be better off getting yell.com to make me a website or is there a better way to do it? :-\
Thankyou :)
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I can help you mate tell me where you are and i can talk you through it
Matt
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The best way is design it your self and keep away from these free ones there limited to what you can do.
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Groundhog if you havent a clue and your competition is a prime concern of yours Id pay someone like Nat to do it for you. Creating websites is easy and getting traffic to them is also easy and fending off competition isnt too hard but only if you know what you are doing.
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Dont get yell to build it. They done our first site, what a c**k up.
I recently bought Serif webplus x4 and would recommend it to anyone. It costs £50 ish and with a bit of messing around can build a really good site.
Its basically drag n drop with site based seo built in. Take a look at our site, I built it with x4 in about two weeks from getting it.
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Good advice there, get someone to do it all for you, especially if they are also on this site. I'm not sure if your bothered but if you have a company name and have been trading as such legally for a period longer than this other person in the same area, then there maybe action you can take against him or at least request that he changes his company name.
If I was called John Microsoft and wanted to setup a software company called Microsoft and advertise it on the web you can imagine the problem ;D Clearly I would be taking the p ;)
Has this other person done exactly that to you?
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Good advice there, get someone to do it all for you, especially if they are also on this site. I'm not sure if your bothered but if you have a company name and have been trading as such legally for a period longer than this other person in the same area, then there maybe action you can take against him or at least request that he changes his company name.
If I was called John Microsoft and wanted to setup a software company called Microsoft and advertise it on the web you can imagine the problem ;D Clearly I would be taking the p ;)
Has this other person done exactly that to you?
I don't think there is much I can do as I am just a sole trader and not a LTD company, and he hasn't called his business exactly the same as mine.. he has ended his with 'Window Cleaners' and mine ends Window Cleaning' I had noticed that my phone wasn't ringing very often for new business which I blamed on the recession, then a customer told me that she had recommended me to a friend and then found out that her friend looked me up on the internet and phoned this other guy thinking he was me!!!!!! >:( Thats why I have decided I now need a website to stop this from happening too often.
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I can help you mate tell me where you are and i can talk you through it
Matt
Thanks for the offer Matt, how much would it cost me to set up a good website?
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Ground Hog,,,,,,,,,Do you want me to design you one i did mine, and with no help.....im in the middle of re designing it now as the one i designed was quick just to get a presence i get 80% of my customers through my site as thats where people shop most of the time even for a window cleaner. look at it now and then come back in a weeks time and youll see the difference......its easy. I will help you if you want to.......
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This may sound out of order.
A website will bring you more work BUT your first job is to sort out the 'problem' window cleaner using your business name to his advantage.
He obviously does a sh.. job and is losing customers and using your name to repace the lost ones.
I know before you all start, anyone can call themselves whatever they want but this sounds underhanded.
Where are you from groundhog?
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Have a look at http://www.squarespace.com/tour/
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This may sound out of order.
A website will bring you more work BUT your first job is to sort out the 'problem' window cleaner using your business name to his advantage.
He obviously does a sh.. job and is losing customers and using your name to repace the lost ones.
I know before you all start, anyone can call themselves whatever they want but this sounds underhanded.
Where are you from groundhog?
Your right he has taken advantage of my good name to help build up his business, its well out of order in my opinion. But I don't really want to get involved in brawl with this guy, I want to try to get my own back in a more clever way, thats why I want to get myself a website that will attract customers back to me and away from his website. I also have a few other tricks up my sleeve, like offering any of his customers 3 Months free cleaning if they switch to my service, and I don't do anything for free normally but it would be worth it to get back some of my customers which he has stolen!! I just have to find out where these customers are, shouldn't be too difficult as I already have the address of one. I haven't met the guy yet, but I know what he looks like, and although I will try to rise above it I'm sure I won't be able to resist having a few words with him if I see him around!!
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Ground Hog,,,,,,,,,Do you want me to design you one i did mine, and with no help.....im in the middle of re designing it now as the one i designed was quick just to get a presence i get 80% of my customers through my site as thats where people shop most of the time even for a window cleaner. look at it now and then come back in a weeks time and youll see the difference......its easy. I will help you if you want to.......
Thanks for the offer of help, how do you get your website better presence? I've been trying and trying to get my cheapo site from vistaprint to be noticed, but even if I type in my business name on google it still dosn't come up in the search results!! ???
I would definately be interested in getting some help!! Thanks :)
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Dont get yell to build it. They done our first site, what a c**k up.
I recently bought Serif webplus x4 and would recommend it to anyone. It costs £50 ish and with a bit of messing around can build a really good site.
Its basically drag n drop with site based seo built in. Take a look at our site, I built it with x4 in about two weeks from getting it.
Thanks AJ your website looks great, I'm tempted to give the serif webplus a go. Is your site easy to find on google?
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Have a look at http://www.squarespace.com/tour/
Thanks Paul, it looks good.. have you used squarespace yourself?
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Groundhog if you havent a clue and your competition is a prime concern of yours Id pay someone like Nat to do it for you. Creating websites is easy and getting traffic to them is also easy and fending off competition isnt too hard but only if you know what you are doing.
Thats the problem, I don't know what I'm doing!! I think it would be well worth paying someone to do a good job, who is Nat?
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people like that need a good kicking!!cheeky barsteward!!!i thought about a website a few months ago and even designed my own and was faffing about the design etc etc.in the end i decided not to bother.
i have a sign written van/logo d uniform,business cards/leaflets etc and im well known and established in my area.
im starting to pick up more fascia/soffit/conny roof cleaning add ons as they are on my calling cards and van.mainly off existing customers.i dont need a website!!
if people want my services my customers pass my number on to them and they phone me!!(old fashioned i know!!!)works for me.
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register yourself on all the free sites such as FREEINDEX,QYPE, TOUCHLOCAL,yell etc and add your website in there and you will rise up all over the place
but i agree with the others ,go get that copycat guy first somehow.
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Have a look at http://www.squarespace.com/tour/
Thanks Paul, it looks good.. have you used squarespace yourself?
No not yet but i will when i have time. As you get a free try and you have nothing to lose
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Groundhog if you havent a clue and your competition is a prime concern of yours Id pay someone like Nat to do it for you. Creating websites is easy and getting traffic to them is also easy and fending off competition isnt too hard but only if you know what you are doing.
Thats the problem, I don't know what I'm doing!! I think it would be well worth paying someone to do a good job, who is Nat?
Nathanel Jones on here.
His website is here
http://www.avondhucleaning.com/
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Thanks for the recommendation, but I'm all booked up at the moment & haven't a spare minute for websites. More than happy to give advice etc tho.
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Dont get yell to build it. They done our first site, what a c**k up.
I recently bought Serif webplus x4 and would recommend it to anyone. It costs £50 ish and with a bit of messing around can build a really good site.
Its basically drag n drop with site based seo built in. Take a look at our site, I built it with x4 in about two weeks from getting it.
Thanks AJ your website looks great, I'm tempted to give the serif webplus a go. Is your site easy to find on google?
Grroundhog, there are many things that need to be taken into consideration when building a website, i personally do not like template package sites such as vista, its a personal thing but to me they all look way to similar,basic, and with some you can't tweak the coding to optimise the site for Seo.
If you wanted to build an effective site yourself, try wordpress even though its primarily a blogging site,there are loads of free themes you can download to change your sites appearance plus google seems to like these sites as they are very good for Seo.
But just having a good site is no way near enough.
To me i think proper keyword research before you build a site or buy a domain name is extremley important for gaining a good position in the search engines and also as important is to have good relevant content, plus once your site is built it willneed a steady amount of continuing Seo work to keep it ranking well.
Goodluck
regards
Matt
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Thanks for all these advice on this! This morning I have had four different companies phoning me to try and get me to sign up with them so that they can get my website to appear on the top of google searches etc. I've told them all that I'll think about it, do I need this kind of service to get my website noticed, or should I be able to do it myself? ???
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With those companies I always do a relevant google search for the kind of business they are in (SEO) and if they dont come up trumps by appearing on at least the front page then I wouldnt use them. If they cant get their own business up their how are they going to get your business up there.
Also with them you are tied into a contract. It strikes me as bollox to be honest, they dont bother tweaking your your site regularly and monitoring it. In all honesty its a time consuming job generally.
If your not savvie though Groundhog get some off here, I know Nat has said he's too busy, but at least that way you are getting a personal service.
This is mine
www.oakleywindowcleaning.co.uk
I did it myself and its in at least the top three of most relevant search terms, often its top of the page.
Matt
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There is no reason why you cannot get your own website into the top page ATLEAST of Google Search. You just need to aiming to get in the top of the search for what people in your area are searching for.
It comes down to these points.
1. The design of your site, if you have the ability to edit the site yourself, get you <title> tags correct. Title tags should not be the same throughout the whole site, it should be something along the lines of "Random Window Cleaning York Yorkshire Home Page" obviously changing the "home page" to whatever page you are on. Do not use commas in the title tag, as if you have "Random Window Cleaning, York, Yorkshire, Home Page" it will search for those 4 individual terms, whereas on the original it will search for ANY combination of those 7 words.
2. Use your headings. In your design, if designed well, you will see editable options as <h1> and <h2> etc. In these put important information. Not something general like <h1>Information on Us</h1>, be more specific <h1>About Random Window Cleaning</h1>. Also using or <strong> to makie certain phrases stand out.
3. In your general text, you need to use your key words, but try not to use them to much. Use them as much as you feel you can, without it sounding to roboty.
Using these, in line with Google Places and keeping your site fresh, relevant and UP TO DATE, means there is no reason you cannot be first page.
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With those companies I always do a relevant google search for the kind of business they are in (SEO) and if they dont come up trumps by appearing on at least the front page then I wouldnt use them. If they cant get their own business up their how are they going to get your business up there.
Also with them you are tied into a contract. It strikes me as bollox to be honest, they dont bother tweaking your your site regularly and monitoring it. In all honesty its a time consuming job generally.
If your not savvie though Groundhog get some off here, I know Nat has said he's too busy, but at least that way you are getting a personal service.
This is mine
www.oakleywindowcleaning.co.uk
I did it myself and its in at least the top three of most relevant search terms, often its top of the page.
Matt
Thanks for the advice Matt, great site!! and I really like the rain guarantee!! I'm going to do one of those, have you given a copy of this to your customers?
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There is no reason why you cannot get your own website into the top page ATLEAST of Google Search. You just need to aiming to get in the top of the search for what people in your area are searching for.
It comes down to these points.
1. The design of your site, if you have the ability to edit the site yourself, get you <title> tags correct. Title tags should not be the same throughout the whole site, it should be something along the lines of "Random Window Cleaning York Yorkshire Home Page" obviously changing the "home page" to whatever page you are on. Do not use commas in the title tag, as if you have "Random Window Cleaning, York, Yorkshire, Home Page" it will search for those 4 individual terms, whereas on the original it will search for ANY combination of those 7 words.
2. Use your headings. In your design, if designed well, you will see editable options as <h1> and <h2> etc. In these put important information. Not something general like <h1>Information on Us</h1>, be more specific <h1>About Random Window Cleaning</h1>. Also using or <strong> to makie certain phrases stand out.
3. In your general text, you need to use your key words, but try not to use them to much. Use them as much as you feel you can, without it sounding to roboty.
Using these, in line with Google Places and keeping your site fresh, relevant and UP TO DATE, means there is no reason you cannot be first page.
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Thanks Tom, I'm trying to get to grips with the html stuff!! ???
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Sorry groundhog, not been on here for a few days.
Yes the site does rank very well for a number of searh terms i.e window cleaners london, but we do pay few quid for SEO which has been good for the site. Mainly one way links and good advice on tweeking the site.
Hope this helps with you decision.
Alan
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Groundhog, you have 2 options,
1. diy yourself a site, its not too hard and with a wysiwyg program that does the html for you , you only have to do a bit of reading up on keywords, meta tags, and linking and you could probably get to page 1 with a bit of time and effort
2. if you have the money, get a pro to do it, i have currently got someone doing one for me and its just easier to know that your getting it done properly , as you could make alot of mistakes yourself
I would recommend you get it done , look at paying between 200 - 500 depending on how much design and who does it! And spend a few £££ a month getting seo if you really want no.1 spot
ps, i did build 2 sites both of which got to no1, 2, 3 for keywords but i hated the amatuer look i had done so now just get everything done by someone who can, cleaning windows is my business, not web design!!
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I would suggest getting someone who knows what there doing to do it for you.
1. Would save the headache and problems you will come across
2. They would get you a better SEO ranking than you can do yourself
3. They could make a professional bespoke site with more flexibility
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I would suggest getting someone who knows what there doing to do it for you.
2. They would get you a better SEO ranking than you can do yourself
3. They could make a professional bespoke site with more flexibility
These two points are possibly true in this instance but not necessarily the case all the time.
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Groundhog you need to decide for yourself if you want to do it yourself or get someone to do it for you,
to do it yourself will cost less than £50
their are a few people on here that do template sites
or go all the way and have a pro do it i have had a few quotes to do my site and they are all from £500 to £800 for a full bespoke site.
my current site i did my self with http://www.webpage-maker.com/ (http://www.webpage-maker.com/)
regards Paul erithwc
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Ground Hog....I've bulit my own website and its looking good www.keepcleanleyland.co.uk, just had another 4 customers alone today come trought it and ask for a quote. I get most of my customer through my site because customer now use the internet to look for things. even tho i leaflet drop and advertise on my car... these can still bring in customers. I would be more than happy to help you bulid one to your spec....Remember if a customer comes to you and you get the work your not stepping on anyones toes.
I would bulid you one something sim to mine and design a logo for you.
All you will need
1. Tell me your Domain name
2. And i will only charge you around £150 for doing it for you.
See what you think email me on Keepcleanleyland@yahoo.co.uk with a contact number and we can have a chat.
Matt
Anyone else intrested in have a site done them please drop me a email....
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Groundhog you need to decide for yourself if you want to do it yourself or get someone to do it for you,
to do it yourself will cost less than £50
their are a few people on here that do template sites
or go all the way and have a pro do it i have had a few quotes to do my site and they are all from £500 to £800 for a full bespoke site.
my current site i did my self with http://www.webpage-maker.com/ (http://www.webpage-maker.com/)
regards Paul erithwc
I used webpage maker its very good :)
I bought it off them for about £30 i think
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Groundhog you need to decide for yourself if you want to do it yourself or get someone to do it for you,
to do it yourself will cost less than £50
their are a few people on here that do template sites
or go all the way and have a pro do it i have had a few quotes to do my site and they are all from £500 to £800 for a full bespoke site.
my current site i did my self with http://www.webpage-maker.com/ (http://www.webpage-maker.com/)
regards Paul erithwc
I used webpage maker its very good :)
I bought it off them for about £30 i think
yeah $49.00 which is just over £30 plus a good web host package i used 1and1.co.uk
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Ground Hog....I've bulit my own website and its looking good www.keepcleanleyland.co.uk, just had another 4 customers alone today come trought it and ask for a quote. I get most of my customer through my site because customer now use the internet to look for things. even tho i leaflet drop and advertise on my car... these can still bring in customers. I would be more than happy to help you bulid one to your spec....Remember if a customer comes to you and you get the work your not stepping on anyones toes.
I would bulid you one something sim to mine and design a logo for you.
All you will need
1. Tell me your Domain name
2. And i will only charge you around £150 for doing it for you.
See what you think email me on Keepcleanleyland@yahoo.co.uk with a contact number and we can have a chat.
Matt
Anyone else intrested in have a site done them please drop me a email....
I think I would sort out your own site before offering to do someone elses for £150 a pop
There is lettering appearing out of behind your phone number at the top of the page. and yes it has a google listing but it comes on page 3 when searching for the actual site using window cleaner leyland.
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also the google map listing has the wrong web address on it. ;)
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also it seems to be very unaligned, but that could just be Mozilla Firefox 4.
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I use Microsofts office live website www.precisepressurewashing.co.uk Its very very simple to use, and i think it gives a pretty decent result for a template design. You dont need to know anything about HTML and there are so many helpsites out there JUST for microsoft office live.
There are a few of us on here that use it, and all look pretty good. There is also a forum dedicated to helping and issues so basically you can find out how to do anything you need.
http://www.officelive.com/en-GB/
You can get a .co.uk name for £10 for 2 years, and its automatically hosted with microsoft for free forever.
Very simple, Very neat..
Matt
I think I would sort out your own site before offering to do someone elses for £150 a pop
There is lettering appearing out of behind your phone number at the top of the page. and yes it has a google listing but it comes on page 3 when searching for the actual site using window cleaner leyland.
Stu, Cant see the letters behind the phone number, might be your browser, but it definately looks off kilter to me. But maybe thats the way its meant to be.
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If your computer isnt at the same settings as mine then it will look disjointed....Yes put in google window cleaners leyland and comes up with the old address but it has my phone number etc......on it and people just put the name of my business in to it and find me....Marketing your customers and asking how they fined you is important to me....
Ask yourself this before slaggimg me off...WHAT DO I DO TO ACTRACT CUSTMOMERS.
I was only purely trying to help someone....
I dont need to get into a slanging match with anyone just for helping others.
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also it seems to be very unaligned, but that could just be Mozilla Firefox 4.
thats why some times it pays to have a professional design your site for you because most professional designers will test the site on different browsers ect.
plus a professional will know all about user friendly layouts and all the things that will increase the chance of getting work because to be honest most of the time if im looking for a product or services and the site i go to is a mess i won't bother i'll just look for some one else.
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If your computer isnt at the same settings as mine then it will look disjointed....Yes put in google window cleaners leyland and comes up with the old address but it has my phone number etc......on it and people just put the name of my business in to it and find me....Marketing your customers and asking how they fined you is important to me....
Ask yourself this before slaggimg me off...WHAT DO I DO TO ACTRACT CUSTMOMERS.
I was only purely trying to help someone....
I dont need to get into a slanging match with anyone just for helping others.
Wasn't slagging anyone mate, I like it, but if I was to pay £150 for your help. I would expect your's to be top notch ;)
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Copy and paste my web address into google search and i come up. Even tho i have KEEP-CLEAN-LEYLAND on google. Four customers did this today thats how i know it works 100%. MARKET REASERACH.
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We dont doubt that your market research works. What he is trying to say is, that if you type in ''window cleaners in leyland'' your actual website is only on page 3. Although your google places page is number one for places. He wasnt saying you have done anything wrong.
Matt
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Mac... what is your web address let me have a look at yours please......mine does the job and i get customers from it. Remember this guy is just starting up and cost needs to be kept low and get a presence online, he isnt a multi million pound business is he using....i have no complaints at all from my customers i recieve,,, again i ask them what they think of the site and is it informative... so im getting it right.
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"window cleaners in erith" im right near the top not bad as im not a web designer cool beans 8) 8)
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Copy and paste my web address into google search and i come up. Even tho i have KEEP-CLEAN-LEYLAND on google. Four customers did this today thats how i know it works 100%. MARKET REASERACH.
Just a comment here, hopefully constructive. I'd suggest you download Mozilla Firefox and take a look at your site using that rather than Internet Explorer. Many people use Firefox.
I'd also suggest that you look at it less than full screen then drag the window wide to see what it looks like for the many people who use wide screens, whether using Firefox or Internet Explorer
Vin
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I know what your saying Mr Gibson...but i was only trying to help the guy out....to get to the top of google or any site your have to pay hundreds to get there...you just dont go there purely because you type in window cleaners leyland. Im no multi million pund business but i have a presence on the net and he can do all that to get onto page one by paying google for this service. Not me.
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I will have a look at fire Fox thanks for advice...
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Doesn't matter what my website is, I am not offering my help for £150 a time ??? and I don't doubt it is working out just fine for you. I will leave it at that
and yes erith that is pretty good
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to get to the top of google or any site your have to pay hundreds to get there...you just dont go there purely because you type in window cleaners leyland.
I'm not at the top yet with my search terms but I'm getting there at zero cost, by following advice on here. You really don't need to pay "hundreds" to get there, particularly with the type of local catchment area we all have...
Vin
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to get to the top of google or any site your have to pay hundreds to get there...you just dont go there purely because you type in window cleaners leyland.
I'm not at the top yet with my search terms but I'm getting there at zero cost, by following advice on here. You really don't need to pay "hundreds" to get there, particularly with the type of local catchment area we all have...
Vin
Yes I agree with that
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I have looked at it with IE and it looks fine but with google chrome, it doesn't look right, hope this helps as well.
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Looked at fire fox and it looks the same from one problem at the top thanks for the advice will sort it.
Matt
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Just bear in mind that in wide screen it looks VERY different: See attached.
Vin
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You need to register with company house groundhog. Then he will be trading under your name.!!!! ;)
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You need to register with company house groundhog. Then he will be trading under your name.!!!! ;)
Groundhog has stated he is a sole trader and not Ltd so that will not work unless he wants the hassle of going Ltd
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I will have a look at fire Fox thanks for advice...
It looks equally as dodgy in IE from where Im sat.
Just tried it in Google Chrome as well, Id pay someone £150 myself mate if I were you.
Ive just had a look at the source code of your page, your meta-tags are non-existant, which explains being on page 3 of google. Pasting your sites web address into google is NO reflection of its success in a google search.
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to get to the top of google or any site your have to pay hundreds to get there...
Thats not true at all, I havent paid anyone a penny and my site is up there at the top of page 1
you just dont go there purely because you type in window cleaners leyland.
Thats true, you have to know what you are doing
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You need to register with company house groundhog. Then he will be trading under your name.!!!! ;)
I like your thinking!!! :)
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You need to register with company house groundhog. Then he will be trading under your name.!!!! ;)
I like your thinking!!! :)
Just be careful mate its not that simple, if you go ltd your accounts change and all sorts
I m not sure if you can log a name without going ltd but its a possibility?
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I used these guys to register my business name.
http://www.madesimplegroup.com/
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You need to register with company house groundhog. Then he will be trading under your name.!!!! ;)
I like your thinking!!! :)
Just be careful mate its not that simple, if you go ltd your accounts change and all sorts
I m not sure if you can log a name without going ltd but its a possibility?
Its easy to do that. You register the name of business you want (this is called incorportation). If you are doing it to simply reserve it and not trade as such under that name but own it then thats called dormancy.
http://www.companiesmadesimple.com/bronze-company-formation.html
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Thanks KCL and everyone for your offers of help with my website. I'm going to stick with my vistaprint site for now and see how it goes, it actually dosn't look too bad! I need to get some decent photos etc and improve some of the wording, but I'm fairly happy with it so far. I have listed with loads of different trade directories etc and I'm starting to get higher up the list on google. Ive had about 8 phone calls today from companys saying they can get me to the top of google searches, but I'm suspicious of them and I'm going to see how high I can get by tweeking my site etc.
Does anybody have any experience of google adwords? I have started an account with them, but I'm a bit unsure of what I'm doing and a bit worried I'm going to suddenly owe google lots of money!! :-\
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Ive used google adwords but found that it wasnt that effective. Google is a minefield IMO all round. Im sure they make it difficult on purpose. Talk about complicated. Anyway, meta tags are a good start to get you to the top. There are something like 83 different criteria which influence how successful a site is in google. Meta tags being one of them, see even that is hard ;)
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meta tags are worth getting right, but not as much anymore as good text with keywords balanced right and some good quality links
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Ive used google adwords but found that it wasnt that effective. Google is a minefield IMO all round. Im sure they make it difficult on purpose. Talk about complicated. Anyway, meta tags are a good start to get you to the top. There are something like 83 different criteria which influence how successful a site is in google. Meta tags being one of them, see even that is hard ;)
Its all new to me Matt, but I'm learning fast! and I'm driving my wife mad as I'm spending every spare moment glued to the computer tweeking my site, and doing various searches to see if my site comes up.
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Youre probably right Sean, in a way your post proves my point about google though. They keep changing what is relevant for search criteria and what and/or how it works. WHY? To keep you on your toes. Its silly really, why do they want you to be ever alert with your finger on the pulse continually updating your website, checking word relevance and the balance of meta tag references to those on the page.
If google had invented the motor car they wouldnt have included the wheel.
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Ive used google adwords but found that it wasnt that effective. Google is a minefield IMO all round. Im sure they make it difficult on purpose. Talk about complicated. Anyway, meta tags are a good start to get you to the top. There are something like 83 different criteria which influence how successful a site is in google. Meta tags being one of them, see even that is hard ;)
Its all new to me Matt, but I'm learning fast! and I'm driving my wife mad as I'm spending every spare moment glued to the computer tweeking my site, and doing various searches to see if my site comes up.
Your site wont come up until you first submit it to google
http://www.google.co.uk/addurl/?continue=/addurl
then it takes a few weeks for them to keep coming back and crawling it. Have you got a site map? How often are you planning on submitting this to google ;D you wont get google to acknowledge your site overnight by any stretch of the imagination, sorry mate.
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And then there's Bing and Yahoo etc etc.
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And DMOZ, very few commercial site webmasters have the patience to use DMOZ but its a damn good search engine to get registered with. Google refers to it when building its own algorithms I believe.
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Youre probably right Sean, in a way your post proves my point about google though. They keep changing what is relevant for search criteria and what and/or how it works. WHY? To keep you on your toes. Its silly really, why do they want you to be ever alert with your finger on the pulse continually updating your website, checking word relevance and the balance of meta tag references to those on the page.
If google had invented the motor car they wouldnt have included the wheel.
Because certain webmasters once they find out the criteria will manipulate the search engines in a bad way , so for google to keep content good quality they keep changing to make it that good quality sites appear for the relevant keywords
For instance when in the past keywords and meta tags were everything some sites had white text on a white background and just spammed keywords, thats why now you need well blanced paragraphs and if google sniffs spamming of your keywords you will get knocked down on ranking ... Google is an art on its own , and seo companies/guys spend there life i work trying to keep up and no one really knows what it is but have a good idea, google keep it very secretive but overall, good content and a good clean html will always rise to the top, and links to good quality sites with a good page rank
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I know, its just bloody annoying.
I could show you a window cleaning website that sits top of the page though with no backlinks and poope meta tags.
Whats that all about then?
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just out of interest, I have managed to get mine top for window cleaning (my town)
but window cleaner(my town) not so well. it still comes up first for google company's but not the actual website, any pointers.
by the way my website is a freebie with no hosting costs and is pretty rubbish, but reading things like this got it there ???
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I have the same for mine, any pointers ? :)
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I have the same for mine, any pointers ? :)
I just checked your's matt and you are right ;)
I have a few idea's I may try to freshen things up, if it works I may or may not share ;D
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just out of interest, I have managed to get mine top for window cleaning (my town)
but window cleaner(my town) not so well. it still comes up first for google company's but not the actual website, any pointers.
by the way my website is a freebie with no hosting costs and is pretty rubbish, but reading things like this got it there ???
Try using your chosen keyword ie window cleaners ?????? as your text in your backlinks. Making sure this keyword is used in <title> and <h1> etc.
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do you really get many jobs from your websites though?
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I get plenty Daz. Picked up a £140 job on an 8 weekly a couple of months back. Most of my gutter cleaning comes from it.
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do you really get many jobs from your websites though?
I get a steady flow of work from it and it is somewhere for them to pay online which helps.
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I would say 80% comes from the website. Last week we had 7 quotes in 5 days totaling 19k per year. Winning them is a different story though.
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via website raked in jobs that id never have got by usual means. a big office place and a german lot who sell airbags from a farmhouse and pretend they are in germany .
only thing i cant seem to get found in a search of other towns i work in. although ive added these towns names in my website blurb, its only if you search my hometown do you find me
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Your site wont come up until you first submit it to google
http://www.google.co.uk/addurl/?continue=/addurl
then it takes a few weeks for them to keep coming back and crawling it. Have you got a site map? How often are you planning on submitting this to google ;D you wont get google to acknowledge your site overnight by any stretch of the imagination, sorry mate.
[/quote]
Hi, there is a quicker way to get your site acknowledged by Google, after indexing to the major search engines, add your sites details to social bookmarking sites, by doing this you will find your indexed much quicker and you are also getting some nice backlinks to your sites.
Use your main keywords in the descriptions and the tags.
You can also ping the bookmark url's for an even quicker result, below is a list of social bookmark sites i like to use.
http://www.jumptags.com/
http://digg.com/
http://url.org
http://myprops.org/
http://stumbleupon.com/
http://faves.com/home
http://www.reddit.com/
http://blinklist.com/
http://www.mister-wong.com/
http://spotback.com/
http://www.oneview.com/
http://www.a1-webmarks.com/
http://bookmarks.yahoo.com/
http://www.bibsonomy.org/
http://oyax.com/
http://connotea.org/
http://www.delicious.com/
http://clipmarks.com/
https://www.mixx.com/
Ok like a lot of seo tasks it is boring but well worth the effort ;)
Also i noticed some comments about some sites ranking well with out backlinks, this tends to be down to a good domain choice + low competition... If the competition is difficult a nice way to rank is to build a blog attached to your site, use longtailed keywords, for example "looking for a window cleaner in London". Its amazing how much traffic you can pick up in this way, plus by having a blog and updating the content regularly Google will see your site as more of an authority than a three page site and that will give you a ranking boost.
Bear in mind though it all takes time.
Matt
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Hi, there is a quicker way to get your site acknowledged by Google, after indexing to the major search engines, add your sites details to social bookmarking sites, by doing this you will find your indexed much quicker and you are also getting some nice backlinks to your sites.
Use your main keywords in the descriptions and the tags.
You can also ping the bookmark url's for an even quicker result, below is a list of social bookmark sites i like to use.
http://www.jumptags.com/
http://digg.com/
http://url.org
http://myprops.org/
http://stumbleupon.com/
http://faves.com/home
http://www.reddit.com/
http://blinklist.com/
http://www.mister-wong.com/
http://spotback.com/
http://www.oneview.com/
http://www.a1-webmarks.com/
http://bookmarks.yahoo.com/
http://www.bibsonomy.org/
http://oyax.com/
http://connotea.org/
http://www.delicious.com/
http://clipmarks.com/
https://www.mixx.com/
Ok like a lot of seo tasks it is boring but well worth the effort ;)
Also i noticed some comments about some sites ranking well with out backlinks, this tends to be down to a good domain choice + low competition... If the competition is difficult a nice way to rank is to build a blog attached to your site, use longtailed keywords, for example "looking for a window cleaner in London". Its amazing how much traffic you can pick up in this way, plus by having a blog and updating the content regularly Google will see your site as more of an authority than a three page site and that will give you a ranking boost.
Bear in mind though it all takes time.
Matt
Want to be careful not to gain too many links in a short space of time though, as this can work against you.
Goes without saying really but... DO NOT BUY LINKS!
GoCompare got caught recently buying links to their site, and they went from #1 in Google, to bottom of the third page overnight!
Healthy, Relevant, Organic links!
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Hi, there is a quicker way to get your site acknowledged by Google
The quickest way to get your site acknowledged by Google is to submit it to Google, think about it ;)
Dont submit it and you dont get acknowledged.
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Hi, there is a quicker way to get your site acknowledged by Google
The quickest way to get your site acknowledged by Google is to submit it to Google, think about it ;)
Dont submit it and you dont get acknowledged.
errm re-read the post Matt submitting and indexing are the same thing, and i said index to the major search engines which includes Google ::)
By bookmarking your speeding up the process due to the fact the bookmarking sites in the list are crawled all the time due to the popularity and content of those sites.
It is a simple Seo method to speed up the time it takes Google to find your site and very effective.
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Tom
Yep you don't want to many links to quickly but for a new site on a new domain 20-30 links per day is good enough and Google will see that as natural link building :)
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So your saying by bookmarking your site it gets indexed quicker. Quicker than what?
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this topic has gone way off subject groundhog whats you business trading name is their a web address availabale for your business name
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quicker than submitting/indexing and then waiting for Google's bots to find your site, bookmarking just speeds up the process, if you just submitted your url to Google it can take a few weeks before you site is crawled, using bookmarking your site can be found and crawled quickly sometimes on the same day.
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this topic has gone way off subject groundhog whats you business trading name is their a web address availabale for your business name
Right,
If you can prove with some form of evidence, that you have been trading under a certain name for a period of time (bank statements in the trading name, Leaflets, Invoices with trading name on them etc etc..) then you can actually get this other geezer using your name to stop. You can take it through the proper channels too. I actually looked into this when i started up. Basically, you CAN get this guy to stop trading under the name, IF you can prove you were using it first. Im not so sure in regards to the difference you mentioned with the names, but because its such a close match, i think you have a good argument. Its worth a try anyway mate.
Good luck,
Matt
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quicker than submitting/indexing and then waiting for Google's bots to find your site, bookmarking just speeds up the process, if you just submitted your url to Google it can take a few weeks before you site is crawled, using bookmarking your site can be found and crawled quickly sometimes on the same day.
Google doesn't have to find you if you submit your site, you've told google where it is before it finds a link to you.
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Just an idea but if the guy is trading under a similar name can't you do the same thing to him set up a website and in the meta tags use keywords that are revalant to his business.
plus i would do a leaflet up telling all your customers about the new website and put the web address on your motor :)
but i might be wrong about the meta tag part what his business name and whats yours are they different or not ???
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Groundhog have you asked for any proffesional advice regaring the name?
You could try business link, they may be able to help http://businesslink.gov.uk
If that fails build a better site and outrank him, for local business sites its pretty easy to do.
Matt your correct you have told Google where your link is, but as i explained above it can still take along time for Google to reach and crawl your site, http://www.webmaster-forums.net/search-engine-challenges/how-can-i-get-site-google-index-fast
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Matt your correct you have told Google where your link is, but as i explained above it can still take along time for Google to reach and crawl your site, http://www.webmaster-forums.net/search-engine-challenges/how-can-i-get-site-google-index-fast
Dont mean to labout a point, but http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/sites/thread?tid=6a49e72d328e7a7f&hl=en
Perhaps there really is more than one way to skin a cat :)
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Ok last post from me on this, thing is Matt i don't disagree with you on submitting i just personally know i can get indexed a lot quicker with bookmarking rather than waiting for Google to actually process the submission as happened in this link http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/sites/thread?tid=00751c419c63ff18&hl=en
Its a common practice in Seo and the backlinks are high PR and great for ranking.
Anyway all the best been an intresting discussion.
Matt
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It is interesting.
My point though is that Google has to find you. It can find you by you directly submitting your URL and then Google goes off and crawls your site.
Or you can use a bookmarking site and wait for Google to find your link on it (and you have no guarantee as to how long that will be) and then it goes off and finds your site, crawls it, indexes it and we are at the same point we were at when Google crawled your site after you submitted your site directly to it.
Whats the difference, the only difference is the method of how Google becomes aware of your site? Assuming all other things being equal.
Just I prefer to have as much control over how my site is indexed and prefer not to leave it up to those who have no good reason to be concerned with it, and when I say that I mean bookmarking sites.
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Once you have Google crawling your site, all you need to do is change about 10% of the text on your page.
This seems to be the magic number when it comes to Google acknowledging that you have put something new and fresh on.
Don't spend TOO much time on your meta tags, as there is NO proof that Google actually uses this, but this does not mean don't do it. As there is still no proof it doesn't :P
Focus on your <title> <h1> <h2> /<strong> and /
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY YOUR CONTENT!
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Well things are improving and I can now find my site on a google search for a window cleaner in my town! :) I usually appear about half way down the page, below my copycat competitor >:( but I also appear in the google ads at the side and sometimes on the top above the other results, but if anyone clicks this it costs me money! but worth it if I get a good customer out of it!!
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Well things are improving and I can now find my site on a google search for a window cleaner in my town! :) I usually appear about half way down the page, below my copycat competitor >:( but I also appear in the google ads at the side and sometimes on the top above the other results, but if anyone clicks this it costs me money! but worth it if I get a good customer out of it!!
Good to hear mate!
Keep me updated :)
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Thanks Tom, will do! Does anyone have a blog page on their website? I've been told its a good idea to keep a blog and add regular key words in it.
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Thanks Tom, will do! Does anyone have a blog page on their website? I've been told its a good idea to keep a blog and add regular key words in it.
I don't personally have a blog, but I do know it is good to have one, as the constant renewal of topical, relevant and fresh data is LOVED by the Google "spider".
Don't forget, you only need to change about 10% of data on your homepage for Google "spider" to realise, and crawl your site again :)
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Don't forget, you only need to change about 10% of data on your homepage for Google "spider" to realise, and crawl your site again :)
I find these kind of statements confusing, google-bot wont know you changed any text on your page UNTIL it crawls it, it can't realise you've done so prior to visiting.
I haven't altered any of my website for months but google still comes round, week in week out.
Last there a week ago:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:FUhxPT2KcCAJ:www.oakleywindowcleaning.co.uk/+BASINGSTOKE+WINDOW+CLEANER&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.co.uk
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It works like a cat.
You feed it every day, and it will come back every day.
Your site for example is getting searched every week, the BBC homepage was last crawled 1 hour ago, purely down to the fact that it knows there will be new data.
:)
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:vilgJALP8doJ:www.bbc.co.uk/news/+bbc+news&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&source=www.google.co.uk (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:vilgJALP8doJ:www.bbc.co.uk/news/+bbc+news&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&source=www.google.co.uk)
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Thanks for all your help guys!! I'm just nodding my head and pretending I know what our all talking about! :-\ Never thought I'd have a website, but glad I've done it.. and believe me, if I can do it then anyone can!!! ;D
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well give us a look groundhog :D
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well give us a look groundhog :D
I'm a bit too embarassed to let you guys see it at the moment! :-[ I've seen some of your highly professional sites!! Mine needs a bit more work before I let you guys take a look!!! :)
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;D fair enough mine is rubbish as well, but ranks well and does the job
www.mciservices.org.uk
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;D fair enough mine is rubbish as well, but ranks well and does the job
www.mciservices.org.uk
Thanks for letting me see your site Stu, I like it and I think some of the wording in it is excellent!! Give me a week or so to put a few finishing touches to mine and I'll put it on here for you to take a look.
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;D fair enough mine is rubbish as well, but ranks well and does the job
www.mciservices.org.uk
Thanks for letting me see your site Stu, I like it and I think some of the wording in it is excellent!! Give me a week or so to put a few finishing touches to mine and I'll put it on here for you to take a look.
Any ideas who nicked your identity?
you have lost me mate, what makes you think my identity was nicked?
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;D fair enough mine is rubbish as well, but ranks well and does the job
www.mciservices.org.uk
Thanks for letting me see your site Stu, I like it and I think some of the wording in it is excellent!! Give me a week or so to put a few finishing touches to mine and I'll put it on here for you to take a look.
Any ideas who nicked your identity?
you have lost me mate, what makes you think my identity was nicked?
Sorry Stu, it was me joking with groundhog. I then decided to delete.
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thats ok then I had a worried feeling there ;D
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http://www.cleansafewindowcleaning.com/ (http://www.cleansafewindowcleaning.com/)
:)
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http://www.cleansafewindowcleaning.com/ (http://www.cleansafewindowcleaning.com/)
:)
Fantastic site Tom!!! But those prices on your residential page seem way too cheap!!!!!
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http://www.cleansafewindowcleaning.com/ (http://www.cleansafewindowcleaning.com/)
:)
Fantastic site Tom!!! But those prices on your residential page seem way too cheap!!!!!
I thought they were pretty good prices, but then I am a wee bit further north
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Groundhog, if you need any help you get above your competition, call me on my mobile, I will help you out free mate with a few things to do..
Ian
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I think this is the best website I've seen on this forum:
http://www.seanbrennanwindowcleaning.co.uk/
I'm going to ask sean if I can rip it off copy some of it for one of my own when he gets back from his hols.
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Ive got to say I've seen better Tosh!!! ;D And thankyou Ian, I may well take you up on your kind offer of help, I have managed to get to the top of the search page, but only because I have used google adwords and am currently paying £1.82 everytime someone clicks on my ad!! so far there has been 2 clicks which have resulted in 2 jobs!! so well worth the £3.64 it has cost me so far!!!!!
:)
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Ive got to say I've seen better Tosh!!! ;D And thankyou Ian, I may well take you up on your kind offer of help, I have managed to get to the top of the search page, but only because I have used google adwords and am currently paying £1.82 everytime someone clicks on my ad!! so far there has been 2 clicks which have resulted in 2 jobs!! so well worth the £3.64 it has cost me so far!!!!!
:)
I would be careful, if I was your competition I would spend the nights clicking away on your sponsored link ;)
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Ive got to say I've seen better Tosh!!! ;D And thankyou Ian, I may well take you up on your kind offer of help, I have managed to get to the top of the search page, but only because I have used google adwords and am currently paying £1.82 everytime someone clicks on my ad!! so far there has been 2 clicks which have resulted in 2 jobs!! so well worth the £3.64 it has cost me so far!!!!!
:)
I would be careful, if I was your competition I would spend the nights clicking away on your sponsored link ;)
Yep! I've read on the carpet cleaning forum that a member there used to do that very same thing. He posted something like, "Well, I just keep clicking and it goes away eventually!"
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Ive got to say I've seen better Tosh!!!
Got a linky?
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Ive got to say I've seen better Tosh!!! ;D And thankyou Ian, I may well take you up on your kind offer of help, I have managed to get to the top of the search page, but only because I have used google adwords and am currently paying £1.82 everytime someone clicks on my ad!! so far there has been 2 clicks which have resulted in 2 jobs!! so well worth the £3.64 it has cost me so far!!!!!
:)
I would be careful, if I was your competition I would spend the nights clicking away on your sponsored link ;)
I thought about that Stu, but I keep a very close eye on my account and I have only put £10 on the account so far, and when that is gone my ad automatically stops until I top my account up again.
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Ive got to say I've seen better Tosh!!! ;D And thankyou Ian, I may well take you up on your kind offer of help, I have managed to get to the top of the search page, but only because I have used google adwords and am currently paying £1.82 everytime someone clicks on my ad!! so far there has been 2 clicks which have resulted in 2 jobs!! so well worth the £3.64 it has cost me so far!!!!!
:)
I would be careful, if I was your competition I would spend the nights clicking away on your sponsored link ;)
I thought about that Stu, but I keep a very close eye on my account and I have only put £10 on the account so far, and when that is gone my ad automatically stops until I top my account up again.
fair enough :D
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Ive got to say I've seen better Tosh!!! ;D And thankyou Ian, I may well take you up on your kind offer of help, I have managed to get to the top of the search page, but only because I have used google adwords and am currently paying £1.82 everytime someone clicks on my ad!! so far there has been 2 clicks which have resulted in 2 jobs!! so well worth the £3.64 it has cost me so far!!!!!
:)
I would be careful, if I was your competition I would spend the nights clicking away on your sponsored link ;)
Google recognises suspicious behaviour like that. It ignores it once it starts and you wont be charged for it. Its bound to happen, perpetrated by competitors.
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Ive got to say I've seen better Tosh!!! ;D And thankyou Ian, I may well take you up on your kind offer of help, I have managed to get to the top of the search page, but only because I have used google adwords and am currently paying £1.82 everytime someone clicks on my ad!! so far there has been 2 clicks which have resulted in 2 jobs!! so well worth the £3.64 it has cost me so far!!!!!
:)
I would be careful, if I was your competition I would spend the nights clicking away on your sponsored link ;)
Google recognises suspicious behaviour like that. It ignores it once it starts and you wont be charged for it. Its bound to happen, perpetrated by competitors.
well that is good to know,
By the way one of the most entertaining websites I have ever seen is an old member from here wavie davie