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your own web sites???
hi all, i have been working on my own web site for the past 6 months, hopefully it will be up and running shortly, trying to find the hours is a nightmare!! anyway my question is, has your web site reeped the benifits you thought? what percentage of business, does it pull??
Nicola
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21 Replies
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Good question Nicola,
It’s something I’ve been wanting to do but haven’t done it yet, so it’ll be interesting to see the replies.
Lee
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since May, we have had nearly 2000 hits. out of these we have had loads of enquiries and a few orders. in my book it is one of the best forms of advertising that we have done.
i put our website together in a few days and i must admit it needs tweaking a bit, but it lets people know what we do and at the end of the day that is what it is all about. 😆
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Hi Nicola
I am a bit prejudiced about web-sites – 95% of my business comes from mine!
(hot)Mine is rather old fashioned (no flash movies, bright colours etc) and is done using MS Front Page. It works, but it’s taken 2 years to get to the volumes we currently have.
As you may well know, one big thing with web sites is not just building one but promoting it well – and thats a HUGE subject. Search Engine Optimisation is what it’s all about. I learnt a fair bit from reading e-zines, news groups and so on, and then bought a piece of software that evaluated the code, edited content and submitted the site to search engines.
Another big facet you may need to think on if you haven’t already, is e-commerce – how you get your customers to pay on-line. If you want some specific help, drop me a line at alanhart@aask4signs.co.uk
Regards
Alan -
That is the bit that I’m interested in. I have built the website using Yahoo’s site builder but how do I get it found and recognised by search engines?
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quote :“That is the bit that I’m interested in. I have built the website using Yahoo’s site builder but how do I get it found and recognised by search engines?”
John
I have gathered information, tips and advice from lots of sources over the last few years on this subject – but it’s a huge subject.
Nearly all PC users use search engines to find sites that can supply what they are looking for. Probably the largest of the search engines is Google, but there is actually a very large number them, not to mention the directories! There is also what are known as FFA (Free For All) boards or listings – beware of FFA’s as they are often the source for address harvesters for spam.
Submitting your site to search engines can be very simple, and there are some simple pieces of software out there that can do the job for you. I can let you know of one or two items if you wish.
Many search engines are relatively automated beasties, and many use a device called a spider to trawl all over a website, indexing what it finds in the search engine’s database. Spiders don’t see flash movies, fancy graphics, jazzy sounds, pretty backgrounds – they read the source code on the page.
There are directories also, and to get your site listed on the better of these you have to submit individually. Some (e.g. DMOZ) can be slow to respond as the decision on if/ how / where is done by a human being, not a spider. Other directories, (Kellys) have a basic inclusion for free but also have a “paid” inclusion service, where you get more prominence etc.
To get back to Search Engines. Sounds simple, huh! However (isn’t there always a “however”!), the search engines use “algorithyms” to rank all the pages that have been spidered to identify which site best meets a specific search criteria. Ranking is very important as most searchers won’t bother with anything that is not on the first page or two of search results.
To get to the top of the rankings you can either pay (pay per clicks, paid adverts, paid listing in a directory like Kellys etc) or you need to examine and modify your pages to best meet search engine algorithyms. Undestanding these algorithyms is way beyond my ken, so I use a pice of software which helps me. As I said earlier, there are a very large number of search engines, and, guess what, each engine has it’s own unique algorithym.
There are so many aspects to bear in mind that some website owners use organisations to do the job of getting them into the first page or two of results for them – for a fee of course! These people are called SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) specialists.
The things that influence search engine rankings include things like, how many words are there on your page, what is it’s title, are there any meta tags, how relevent are the tags / title to what is on the rest of the page and so on. As I said, each search engine has it’s own criteria.
Sorry this is a bit lengthy, but it is a huge topic. I would be happy to provide more details if you wish.
Kind regards
Alan
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Keep going Al…Sounds bleeding interesting.
Can you tell who’s thinking about a website???
I had to do a small job today in South Perth.
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i have two websites one is a complete on line logo design site for which i use paypal for transactions the other is just an online portfolio type of thing both of which i designed and uploaded myself.
in my humble opinion the after youve optimised your site the only way to get up there in the searches is to pay, pay and pay again for submission to each of the major engines. anything else is a waste of time including google (unless you want to pay about 2k a month).
of course you then get to the point where you have to ask yourself ‘is it actually worth it’.
especially if your using normal methods of advertising just to tell people where your site is.
no apologies if this sounds a bit negative but you only get out what you put in and with most of us chasing the same clients i question the logic.
so there! ner nerny ner ner. and my dads a policeman. -
As I said earlier this is a big topic, and I am a novice at it, but still learning. From my perspective, spending a bit of time and energy has outweighed spending oodles of quids on paid subscriptions or on other business promotions.
My only purchase promotion-wise was a software package and a subscription to an ongoing knowledge base – that enables me to keep my pages modified so they are optimised for changes in major search engine algorithms. The software also automates the submission process, and will critique my pages to advise edits that will suit them to particular search engines.
Andie’s comments regarding paid submissions are right in as far as, if I had to pay to get my site up in the rankings then it just wouldn’t be worth it. I can only speak from my experience. I get plenty of visitors through my (on-line) shop every day, and yet I get to work from home in a small village in rural Engalnd. I know I get far more enquirers than I would get visiting / phoning me if I had a workshop / studio in a town.
If anyone is interested in more information drop me an e-mail and I will be happy to pass on links / advice etc.
Hey Lee
That visit in South Perth wasn’t to a CrayFisherman’s daughetr called Judy was it (hot)Have fun
Alan
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Your first page i.e. index.html is always the most important, but because you can not optimise one page to cover all the engine you will need Doorway Pages.
More info on these can be found at,
http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters … hp/2167831
Have a page that is a site map with all the pages of your site listed, but to help your site stay more professional looking try to hide it in some way, i.e. make a link from your opening page to the sitemap.html by hyper linking it using a full stop, change the colour of the link to the page text colour and take of the underline.
As Alan mentioned the title is a very important tag, well for google it is.
For others it’s the description and meta tags, which are hidden between the <head> xxxxx </head> tags.
Example.
html
head
<title>MY SIGN SHOP IS AND SELLS</title>
<META name=”description” content=”PUT THE DISCRIPTION OF YOUR COMPANY HERE AND THE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES”>
<META name=”keywords” content=”HERE PUT IN YOUR KEYWORDS FOR EXAMPLE SHOP SIGNAGE, COPROPRATE LIVERY, WINDOW ADVETISING,”>
<meta name=”revisit” content=”14 days”>
/headIn the keywords area separate each one with a coma.
One good engine to play with is http://www.gigablast.com/ as it dose real time updates, play with your site re-list and see if there are any changes in your ranking.
You will also need to get other site to link to you.
Use, http://www.ineedhits.com/free/popularity/ to see what links engines have in their DB’s linking to you.
It does not have to be real hard work, but it can take up to six months to get listed on some engines.
If anyone wants more info than I can type msg me.
Dan
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Funny you should mention a Cray fisherman…Cos this guy is one…During the off seaon, he works as a farm hand. It was just a little window tinting job.
This thread is really interesting. I’ll have to get some emails sent to you guys. Thanks for this info.
Lee
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what a great read folks!!
hope there is more?? (:) (:)
Nicola
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If you work in a big city you don´t need google to get more visits in your site, just promote it in your printed ads, cards,….
Add tips, and lot of useful info in your site, examples,.. you’ll get clients.
And for Google, fill the basic metatags in your pages and if really you need online clients use their adwords.
Aitor
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Only use google add words and pay per click if you can afford it.
Before joining up with my business partner and entering the sign trade because he had 20 years experience in the trade I played with commission sites, i.e. you build the website and any sales made and you got the commissions.
Well I used google add words for a year to give my site some visibility to prospective customers, that year I earned £2500 approx taking off website hosting fees excreta, but what I did not take into account until the end of the year was, google add words which cost me over £1000.
My only advice is, if you’re going to use pay per click options on search engine manage them very carefully, if not on a monthly basis then a weekly one, or you could find them running away in terms of cost.
You don not need to pay for listings, you can compete with the big boys, I’ve been number 1 out of half a million sites for particular keyword, so if I can do it so can you, I’m no net guru trust me.
And a £1000 is better spent on time learning how to do it yourself.
Hope that helps
Dan
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Absolutely Dan.
I learnt as I went along too, though I did spend a few quid on software to help me optimise my site. I have no plans on ever getting into ppc or adwords!
As has been said previously, the various facets of SEO include:
a) Title and Header tags
b) Meta tags
c) Alt text
d) Body text legth and keyword usage and content in general
e) Doorway pages to cope with differing algorithyms of search engines
f) Link exchanges
g) Automated re-submission where possible
ands thats by no means an exhausive list!Good luck to all
Alan
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Good thread!
Similar posts have been on Letterville (Canada) for quite a while relating to either how useful is a website, to how do you promote it.
I’m a newbie here, and put together a site 8 months ago using Net Objects Fusion- a real no-brainer program- then opening it in Dreamweaver & using that & Photoshop to customise it more.
There are stacks of books on web design- don’t follow all the advice, but follow some, plus your own intuition. Some flashy effects are good, some are tedious and dated- try & see it from a customer’s viewpoint.
We want to do a lot more to our site, but for the moment it works. We use it as an online portfolio, and it does save a lot of salesmanship time- by the time a customer gets back to you they’re sold on something.
It gets a lot of hits, though I suspect a lot are other signwriters, not potential customers!
It’s hosted in Britain, not Australia- the price was right! (by Transcom)
How to promote it- put the web address on every sign instead of just your name, put it on the back window of your car, on a billboard, on your business cards- anything to get people browsing there.
I’ve not tried to get it registered with any search engines yet- some learning needed there- and some good comments about that above.
Worthwhile to us?- you bet!!!Feel free to have a look, but I’m warning you, it’s an amateur attempt. Some signs should perhaps be pulled from it, layouts fixed up, etc, but other pix are there because some clients get a kick out of knowing their sign/shop etc is on the web & will sell your site to others out of pride…. and you can pick up more work etc.
I’ll be altering the menus/toolbars soon, as soon as I can create the look I’m after! What raelly helps is the time we spent optimising pictures for rapid downloading- nothing puts people off more than waiting a minute for a picture that you didn’t really want to see.
Having said all that, I’d still be interested in opinions on it! (honestly!)
Best wishes 😀P.S. it’s http://www.traditionalsigns.com
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Just a bit of advise on this subject if anyone can help
to improve your chances of being found on the web is it better to have
a – in your name or to read as one line i.e. funkysigns.com or funky-signs.comor would it make no difference any help would be good as I am thinking of registering a new company and have no idea
also is there an idiots guide to search engines as I was reading the previous posts and It may as well have been written in Swahili
not a tecky at all
Cheers Neil
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Im the same neil..
As far as I learned from some sites covering the value of domain names.
It appears that if your domain describes what the site is about in the shortest way possible they value it higher.
“uk” location
“sign” what its about
“boards” well I choose this because its basically a site run by a (bb) bulletin board.
I don’t think “boards” does me any favours in value but in searches that we register on finding this site.. google brings lots of folk looking for “sign boards” i.e. foamex etc..
They then stumble on here. I think most will type in message boards.go for ranking your site with google properly first. most search engines link through that one in some way or another anyhow.. its the biggest!
i have been told engines like google frown upon bulk search engine registration and rank your site lower 😕 -
Hi all…
We’ve had a website up for about 4yrs or 5yrs now. Its just nice and simple, easy to navigate, idiot proof i hope…!
All it allows is a browsers to fill in a quote form which is emailed to our sales email address.
I was lucky in that a buddy has sorted the site for me, takes a bit longer, but alot cheaper and I havent had to learn a thing!!
Its just been updated in the last week or so, but our gallery has caused some problems due to the 2500 car photos that are going on it! but it’ll be worth it…
If you sort a site, do keep it simple…I know if people cant easily navigate around a site, they will move on…!
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Neil
There is no clear cut answer to your question, as there are more than one search engines.
If we use google as the example here:
Robs answer is right but I’ll try and break it down a bit.
Having an “A” or a “1” at the beginning of your domain name will make no difference to your rankings.
Having a domain e.g. http://www.pennysigns .co.uk
The penny will have no value other than being part of the name but “sign” is relevant to the content on your site so will add to the relevance of the search.
If someone was to search on “penny sign” then it would have more relevance etc.
But that is just the beginning.
Now you have to design your site.
First place to start would be the “Title” tag, This can be found in the HTML side of the design process. The tag would look like <Title> YOUR INFO PLACED HERE</Title> this could read “ Penny Signs – Shop signage and vehicle graphics”
You now have Signs in the domain name and in your title, Therefore making it more relevant.
Staying within the HTML arena – you have the meta tags i.e. Keywords (this is more relevant to other search engines like ASK)
<META name=”keywords” content=”PLACE YOUR KEYWORDS IN HERE SEPERATED BY COMA’S I.E. SIGNS, CAR LOGOS, SHOP FRONT SIGNAGE ETC”>
Try and use words or phrases that you would search on to find a site for your products / services.
Next is the description of your company.
<META name=”description” content=” Penny Signs makes signs and signage for cars and shop fronts etc”>
Try and use the words from the keywords area but string them into a sentence for the description.
No into the design of your page.
Use the H1 (heading 1) placing words from your title and keywords area. This is no different than writing a flyer. You can reduce the size of the font to suit your page.
So the heading could read “Penny Signs Vehicle and Shop Graphics and Signage”
The try to use these words from the area’s above in the layout and paragraphs in your page.
If you include pictures on your pages, give them a description this is found under the “ALT” tag (alternative tag) this tag is used for browsers that show text only, it also gives you the opportunity to make the page more relevant yet again.
I.e. PICTURE alt=”fish and chip van with digital printing and vinyl lettering, one of our best signs”>
Place links to your other pages and from those pages place a link back to your home page, this is creating a site map, search engines will spider / crawl these links. Make sure you do the above to those other page but in a different manner i.e. call your shop signage page shopsigns.htm etc.
The above is not an exhaustive list but covers some of the major points, if none of that makes sense then drop me a PM and I’ll try to help.
Dan
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Thanks Dan
info helps alot can i take it from what you said that the dash in the name woudnt make any difference its just a set of letters within a name that match a search that would help someone find youthanks again Neil…..
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I can’t say for a fact that having a – in the domain name will make any difference, but from experience I’ve found no hindrance having a – in the domain.
I run a number of sites with dashes in and not found it to cause any problems.
(One of the things I omitted from the above post is external links)
Links back to your site from others is possibly the most important thing, and this is relevant to all major search engines.
The most important type of link is one from a relevant site, i.e. a vinyl supplier.
Or a link from another sign shop, now this is were it becomes hard work, as very few sites will openly link back to you as there is a conflict of interest. So all I could suggest here would be to ask sign shops in different countries to link to you.
The other type of links could be product based. A link from a car showroom product relation here would/could be car graphics.
If you need any more info drop me a line 07792072157 as it’s easier to talk than type.
Dan
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