[M.Acorn]

Right after a few quotes,for building me a new site.So far I have contacted    http://www.finkcreative.com/#/en/services Really love their site,and they also do vehicle graphics,so would tie in nicely with getting the van signed up.They are expensive though looking at £500+vat for a 5 page site,that is with me providing them with everything in word doc format,for them to add to the site,also all artwork logo's ,pictures etc.

Was contacted by this company today http://www.jumpupmedia.co.uk/index.html   They are saying £349+vat for 5 page,sub to 200 search engines guaranteed placement in my local area,5 phrases ,they are linked too Google also.

Then today we had a mobile sprayer round,to spray the new door for the wife's golf,after some numpty ran into her a few weeks back,his site is awesome http://www.acefinishcarrepairs.com/guarantee.html    Top bloke,made a smashing job of it,got chatting to him,he has spent over 7.5k on it 2k was on seo !! Ouch,company that did that are here      http://www.polar-com.com/

Bit out of my price range at the mo.
What I have done so far is lay out a huge bit of paper in the lounge,and broken each section down into the separate pages,currently at 10,I want a gallery,would like a page for customers to add video testimonials and feedback,then I have broken it down into carpet cleaning,upholstery cleaning,tile and grout cleaning,low moisture cleaning,commercial cleaning,stain removal and protection etc etc,I think I could probably condense what I have got so far,into 5 pages

Will spending more be a guarantee of getting more work ?
I get quite a bit of traffic,but have trouble converting that to jobs,people just leave after seeing the first page,few e mail enq's I get are price shoppers usually

[garry22]

What I have done so far is lay out a huge bit of paper in the lounge,and broken each section down into the separate pages,currently at 10,I want a gallery,would like a page for customers to add video testimonials and feedback,then I have broken it down into carpet cleaning,upholstery cleaning,tile and grout cleaning,low moisture cleaning,commercial cleaning,stain removal and protection etc etc,I think I could probably condense what I have got so far,into 5 pages

Mark,

Don't condense it. Have as many pages as possible. That way you have a greater web presence and it's easier to optimise each page for it's specific subject. You can do a Wordpress site with either posts or pages (as many as you want) quite easily.

he has spent over 7.5k on it 2k was on seo !!

I don't have a problem with £ 2K, if they do the right amount of work. Looks like about £ 300 max on SEO (what do you reckon Wynne?).

[JandS]

Go to Vistaprint and design your own.
They submit it to Google and other search
engines.
Sign up for the search engine optimiser as
well.
The website is so easy to do it's unbelievable,
including adding pictures and vids.

John

[M.Acorn]

I did do a template based site myself,couple of years back,but pulled it as was not getting the response,you could also tell it was not built by a pro,may have another crack at it,at least then if I went to get it done properly everything would be there

[Mark Lawrence]

Well, it's standard SEO as would be expected from a decent web builder. 2.5k is extreme, sorry but I could have done the same for a lot less.

The actual design is nice, but again 5k is a heck of a lot. Maybe they saw him coming?

Mark

p.s. with a high price you can afford to spend much more time to make the site visually stunning, so if he is happy then thats all that counts I suppose.

[suffolkclean]

Spend the money & get a good job done bright,fresh looking website will pay back its cost x 10+

[clinton]

Mark the guy who did mine did agreat job for a lot less too..

 

[garry22]

Mark,

If you want a one off unique design try Rob Chattaway at  http://www.qbdesign.co.uk/asp/portfolio.asp  my favourite is the Bunnery (keep your speakers on).

He does your design in Photoshop first then slices and builds your site. Each design is custom made and alot less than £ 5 K.

[suffolkclean]

God I got a fright 

[M.Acorn]

Think I am going to use the Site wizard people,Jump up media look pretty pants,after browsing their prior jobs,it looks template based,i want to steer away from the narrow middle section,and fill the page,don't want to flumox joe public with info,but I need enough info,for them to feel confident.
My wife made a very good point last night,in that I am viewing the site as a carpet cleaner,there does not need to be so much in depth detail,all people want is to know how much,will you do a good job,and will you ruin my carpets,how long will they take too dry.

There is really not much point in rabbiting on for ages about the process,the equipment,blah blah blah,then having a big disclaimer afterwards...
I make sure I always over qualify.
Job I did last week,vacced the lounge,it was a tip,then cleaned stairs and landing,customer came back,looked at the lounge and said oh my god,it's so much better !! Said I had only pre sprayed and agitated it in,so not done yet,she then went and got me a load of chairs to clean,rugs,a footstool,just kept bringing stuff out,was a good morning,and she is passing on my cards to friends..That all came from a commercial job i did last summer,her husband runs the company,and said I did a good job..

[clinton]

How much do you want to spend mark?

The guy who did mine did a great job n its no1 here on the rankings

[Adam P]

i'm shocked what some people here think is good. that bunnery site is pretty rubbish tbh, looks like it was made about 10 years ago by a beginner. that polar com one is just as bad and that's to advertise web design! crazy stuff

[M.Acorn]

Just been contacted by a friend of a friend,she is a graphic designer / website builder,and she is absolutely amazing at what she does.
Just hooking up with her on f book,so we will see.A lot of you guy's sites look like they are template based,I want too steer away from that,I want to fill the whole screen,not just a bit in the middle.
My current site get's almost top the top of google Clinton,it's just got a really high bounce out rate,people don't go any further than looking at the first page,that's the reason I am updating.
How does it work running more than one site for the same business ?
Does it not get confusing if they are all named different ?

[Mike Halliday]

mark you are carpet cleaner not Tescos you want a website that gets results at the best price possible this means getting one made from a template..... who care if it looks like another 200 miles away your customers will not see the other one and if they did would they notice or even care its the same template?

Clinton has mentioned who did his the same as who did mine love him or hate him Mark from DP does the best value and highest google rated sites in the UK. could some one name a designer with more C/C sites  on the 1st page of google?

its just vanity to pay £500+ for a site that is totally unique

[Adam P]

i disagree. i hear the guy that makes your website makes many sites every day using the samey template style that mark is on about. if it hasn't already happened, it's only a matter of time until someone in your town uses him and now you've got 2 samey looking websites, then another does and you've got another site. looking unique is sensible. for the extra cost to get a unique site designed to match your companies image is business sense. it's the number one way customers are using to find new companies, the number 1 way. why would you want to risk looking like another?

[Mike Halliday]

he done 5 in my town none of them look the same they are from the same templete but all look different.

but the extra cost to be' unique' is double and a template can match a company image,

 like i said we are carpet cleaners. If we were clothes designers,  in media or marketing companies then the look of our website would reflect on how professional we are as a company...... just like riding around in a dirt van would reflect on a cleaning companies image.... but we are not judged on our professional ability by the creative or uniqueness of our website.

 our websites just need to portray us as a professional cleaning company

[Carpet Dawg]

And not just that but when someone comes along with a better optimised site, that has had more work done to it these sites will be a threat to your unstable cookie cutter templetes search engine rankings IMO

Its only a matter of time, more and more carpet cleaners are discovering the web everyday and putting more efforts in to seo all the time.

Nothing actauly wrong with a temeplete itself but a temeplete with weak seo is dangerous!

Tony

[Carpet Dawg]

Will spending more be a guarantee of getting more work ?
I get quite a bit of traffic,but have trouble converting that to jobs,people just leave after seeing the first page,few e mail enq's I get are price shoppers usually

Mark, you'll find that alot of web traffic are younger people (generaly) and I find that this crowd are usually price shoppers. So that anit going to change if you have a No1 ranked site. The only way to combat this in your website copy is to state prices.

Also, most of your sites vistors wont read your copy (if only!!) so its not as straightforward as people think. Like you said, sell the benefits and tell people what they want to know quickly with key points before they click away from the site and on to someone elses.

Do you need a flashy site? eeeehhhh not really! But as long as it looks professinal, with clean code, soild seo and unque content is all a must.

[Mike Halliday]

And not just that but when someone comes along with a better optimised site, that has had more work done to it these sites will be a threat to your unstable cookie cutter templetes search engine rankings IMO

Its only a matter of time, more and more carpet cleaners are discovering the webevery day and putting more efforts in to seo all the time.

Nothing actauly wrong with a temeplete itself but a temeplete with weak seo is dangerous!Tony

but isn't the points i've highlighted true of any website? I totally agree that seo is the most important part of any website but to comment on template because of what might happen is wrong.....  we could say what happens when google deletes from its listing all sites with the colour green on the pages  

the fact is we don't know what will happen in the future we can only go on what is happening now and adapt as things change. at the moment template websites don't seem to be harmed in google rankings, so use them, if this changes then we can adapt but to change now on a gamble that things could change doesn't make sense

[Carpet Dawg]

Mike, sites that have duplicate content (not just in the written form but also in the form of pictures, layouts, tables, templetes etc etc) have always been easy to "out rank" in the search engines. I'm not talking about changes to googles algorithms, which i agree is a right pain in the bum! But i'm talking about competing carpet cleaners in that area who are self taught or have hired a seo firm that know what they are doing.

Better to start early on with a soild site that has gained some age and authority in googles eyes << these will be hard to shift in the rankings.

Again, nothing wrong with temepletes but they need to be severly modified with alot of SEO work done to them and "uniqueness" added to them. i.e. loosing all footprints that the likes of googlebot can crawl.

p.s. interlinking with such sites on the same IP address is a bad idea.