[chris turner]

As per title, what sort of returns does a half decent site generate?
I had one for a few years, fairly basic but on the first page of Google. It was one of those design it yourself jobbies, using a set template. Didn't look great and the mobile optimisation was appalling.
I had very little gains from it so closed it.

My business grew by other means, leaflets, recommendations, van sign writing etc. I even bought a round a couple of years ago which filled my books to beyond capacity, so never really needed a website.

However after Xmas I want to refine, push for new higher priced regular work. Not sure about anyone else but I get a bit sick of cleaning the same houses over and over. I have a section of my round I want to replace with new, hopefully better work.

I also really enjoy gutter clearing with the vac, more so then cleaning windows.
What I would really like is only 3 days of high priced window cleaning, then 2 days a week of gutter clearing booked in.
Does anyone work like this and if so, how much of this work/leads come from a website?

Thanks in advance me ol' muckers🤣

[8weekly]

I'm first for all my target keywords. I use Adwords as well. It brings in a tiny fraction of my work. That said I focus on window cleaning. Perhaps targeting gutter clearance might be more successful?? Or conny roofs?

[Tosh]

I get plenty of welcome work from my website, but you know that already.

Im surprised you dont feel a tad hypocritical asking how to acquire quality work.

[Tony dunmall]

I guess it depends on what areas your targeting and how many window cleaners  there are already are around and I guess also your targeted clientele

Nathanael re designed mine a while ago very pleased with it, probably needs  a little updating. At some point

I had to stop mine last year with one those google ranking companies as it generated  too much new work  to cope with
Now I just let it run in its own right and I get about 5-10 new jobs a month, slower in certain months,

In new year I'm going to re activate and re target some areas and few new areas  I work in to change a few my clients as I no longer wish to work high level work so I need to generate about £1000 new work

Website for me is over 90% of where my new work comes from and randomly face book communities recommending me

[chris turner]

I'm first for all my target keywords. I use Adwords as well. It brings in a tiny fraction of my work. That said I focus on window cleaning. Perhaps targeting gutter clearance might be more successful?? Or conny roofs?

Ideally I want the site to target window and gutter clearing. Not con roofs or fascias, can't stand them.

I know very little on how keywords or AdWords work so will have to get up to scratch on all that once the site is up.
Will probably get nat Jones to do it as most on here seem to recommend him.

How much of your work comes from your site 8 weekly?

[chris turner]

I get plenty of welcome work from my website, but you know that already.

Im surprised you dont feel a tad hypocritical asking how to acquire quality work.

Iv got some quality work, I just want all of it to be quality.
There's a few days that pop up in my rounds where I take one look at it, sigh, and think 'not this sh!t again'.
Plus the work I bought a couple of years ago is all 10-15 miles from me, I want some more local stuff, unless commercial.

[heath verrall]

Wordpress seems to be one of the best website builders, easy to do yourself, that's what I used.

[chris turner]

I guess it depends on what areas your targeting and how many window cleaners  there are already are around and I guess also your targeted clientele

Nathanael re designed mine a while ago very pleased with it, probably needs  a little updating. At some point

I had to stop mine last year with one those google ranking companies as it generated  too much new work  to cope with
Now I just let it run in its own right and I get about 5-10 new jobs a month, slower in certain months,

In new year I'm going to re activate and re target some areas and few new areas  I work in to change a few my clients as I no longer wish to work high level work so I need to generate about £1000 new work

Website for me is over 90% of where my new work comes from and randomly face book communities recommending me

I'd be happy with 5-10 leads a month, especially if half the leads were gutters.

[Tony dunmall]

About 1 or 2 a month on top of the 5 -10 are gutters which I just sub out, as I'm not interested anymore in gutters cleaning . everything I don't do Is sub through a second partnership

[Smurf]

I guess unless you can get any of a website landing pages on first page of google organic search result then a website would be a total waste of time if you ask me.  Meaning people browsing the tinternet only tend to look at the first page of organic search results browsing on any type of tinternet device.  Most if like me would also ignore any paid ads (google adwords) too.

That's the first tricky bit out of the way but how do you get them to.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF95MMcn_B0







 

[Nathanael Jones]

A bad website should generate double what it costs to run it - a good website should do much more.

Its also one of those "the more you put into it, the more you get out" things too - - websites aren't the static things they used to be and regularly updating them, adding to the blog, using social media etc etc can increase a sites performance massively. Google loves well written, fresh, unique & relevant content - so keep adding to your site every week or two.

[chris turner]

A bad website should generate double what it costs to run it - a good website should do much more.

Its also one of those "the more you put into it, the more you get out" things too - - websites aren't the static things they used to be and regularly updating them, adding to the blog, using social media etc etc can increase a sites performance massively. Google loves well written, fresh, unique & relevant content - so keep adding to your site every week or two.

Thanks nat, il be in touch sometime soon.
I had a quick look at your site yesterday, what package do you recommend for a sole trader targeting window and gutter clearing, plus a payment page so I can integrate go cardless at some point?

[Pete Thompson]

I guess unless you can get any of a website landing pages on first page of google organic search result then a website would be a total waste of time if you ask me.

I would not necessarily agree with that, because being found by searching is not the only purpose of a website.

It may be that you'd like customers to have somewhere to go for more information after delivering a leaflet campaign for example.  Whenever a leaflet comes to my door, if I'm interested in it the first thing I do is look at the website.  You don't need google for that, you simply type the web address in off the leaflet.

[SeanK]

Its like everything else Chris it will depend on supply and demand, if you have plenty of demand and little supply then a
website will or should generate a good return, but if your in an area with a few Mick Kent hard canvassing types they will
be grabbing the work while your sitting back at home waiting for it to come to you.

[Smurf]

I guess unless you can get any of a website landing pages on first page of google organic search result then a website would be a total waste of time if you ask me.

I would not necessarily agree with that, because being found by searching is not the only purpose of a website.

It may be that you'd like customers to have somewhere to go for more information after delivering a leaflet campaign for example.  Whenever a leaflet comes to my door, if I'm interested in it the first thing I do is look at the website.  You don't need google for that, you simply type the web address in off the leaflet.

Peter I was referring to internet organic search engine page ranking generated enquiries. Not someone entering a website address they got from a flyer, vans etc they might have seen as that is obvious some may want to look at the site first.

[chris turner]

Its like everything else Chris it will depend on supply and demand, if you have plenty of demand and little supply then a
website will or should generate a good return, but if your in an area with a few Mick Kent hard canvassing types they will
be grabbing the work while your sitting back at home waiting for it to come to you.

That's the thing Sean, I'm not desperate for work as already full enough for one man. Its more a case of refining what I have and having a steady trickle of gutter work coming in.
I'm more then happy for people to come to me at a relatively steady pace.
I have no interest in employing so don't need work quickly.

I want a break from cleaning the same houses over and over and over, so want the gutter work to be a better earner.
I'm also thinking about offering bespoke one off cleans at top prices,  just to break up the norm.
3 days doing regulars is more then enough for me, if I can somehow get 2 days a week of gutters/ one offs and maybe some con roofs then I would be happy.

[Nathanael Jones]

It depends a lot on how much competition you have locally - - usually I'd say look at your top 10 competitors websites and see how many pages they have on average. If your budget allows, go a couple of pages bigger & pack the pages full of keyword rich content.

If your budget is tight, go for as many pages as you can but add content to the blog regularly to help the site be nice & visible to Google.

Thanks nat, il be in touch sometime soon.
I had a quick look at your site yesterday, what package do you recommend for a sole trader targeting window and gutter clearing, plus a payment page so I can integrate go cardless at some point?

[Smurf]

Its like everything else Chris it will depend on supply and demand, if you have plenty of demand and little supply then a
website will or should generate a good return, but if your in an area with a few Mick Kent hard canvassing types they will
be grabbing the work while your sitting back at home waiting for it to come to you.

That's the thing Sean, I'm not desperate for work as already full enough for one man. Its more a case of refining what I have and having a steady trickle of gutter work coming in.
I'm more then happy for people to come to me at a relatively steady pace.
I have no interest in employing so don't need work quickly.

I want a break from cleaning the same houses over and over and over, so want the gutter work to be a better earner.
I'm also thinking about offering bespoke one off cleans at top prices,  just to break up the norm.
3 days doing regulars is more then enough for me, if I can somehow get 2 days a week of gutters/ one offs and maybe some con roofs then I would be happy.

I hear what you are saying as cleaning windows day in day out would do my head as is so mind numbingly boring.

[Smurf]

It depends a lot on how much competition you have locally - - usually I'd say look at your top 10 competitors websites and see how many pages they have on average. If your budget allows, go a couple of pages bigger & pack the pages full of keyword rich content.

If your budget is tight, go for as many pages as you can but add content to the blog regularly to help the site be nice & visible to Google.

Thanks nat, il be in touch sometime soon.
I had a quick look at your site yesterday, what package do you recommend for a sole trader targeting window and gutter clearing, plus a payment page so I can integrate go cardless at some point?

My old site if I recall correctly had 34 pages of b******s, it looked crap but generated loads of work all the same. That is until they invented internet mobile devices   

[8weekly]

I think it depends a bit where you live/cover as to how successful a website will be. In my case there are about 10 small towns that I cover. It's an impossibility to rank well on all of them because you will dilute your keywords if you build them all in without each town having its own site/page.

If however you are focussing on a large town, e.g. Bristol, you'll have more competition, but it's going to be a popular search term and easy to target.

In my opinion, if you are using other means of gaining customers like leafleting, canvassing etc, web inquiries are going to be a small percentage. Note the chap above that says 5-10 a month. That's not that many compared to other avenues.