[Nathanael Jones]

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.

[cleaner-exteriors]

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

[groundhog]

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? 

[H S and Son]

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

[Tom Kelly]

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.

[groundhog]

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?

[groundhog]

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.
>

Thanks Tom, I'm trying to get to grips with the html stuff!! 

[AJ]

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

[Sean Dyer]

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!!

[SteX13]

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

[H S and Son]

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. 

[Erithwc]

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/

regards Paul erithwc

[MJHolmes]

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....

[Sean Dyer]

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/

regards Paul erithwc

I used webpage maker its very good

I bought it off them for about £30 i think

[Erithwc]

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/

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

[mci services]

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.

[mci services]

also the google map listing has the wrong web address on it.

[Tom Kelly]

also it seems to be very unaligned, but that could just be Mozilla Firefox 4.

[Matt Gibson]

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.

[MJHolmes]

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.