Though I have never registered for this board before today, I usually check it out 1 or 2 times a week. Reason why is that I build websites exclusively for contractors and I am seeing a lot of mistakes being made by some of you guys. I am going to give you some free advice hopefully to save you some of the headaches that most of you are for sure to have!
1. The biggest mistake that I see made by contractors is in the domain name that they choose. Most try to get the domain that most closely matches the name of thier business. Here's what the pros like me do (And it Works) If I were a builder in Austin TX I would purchase the domain name home-builder-austin.com. Why, because once your site is in the search engines if someone were to type in home builder austin, good chance you'll rank #1 for that term. That's why domain names like Cars.com are so valuable. Because they get immediate visibility if someone types in cars or any derivitive of in any of the search engines
I can tell you that over 90% of all contractor websites [Mod: really? You thought you could hide this in underline?] end up in internet purgatory never to be found by anyone ! It's why I have a relatively thriving business doing web development for contractors. Having a website that is not set up for search engines is the equivelent of having an ad that's never placed anywhere. It's absolutely crazy ! I have had contractor clients of mine tell me that they didn't need search engine work because they just use the site for existing clients. Well here's something that most don't know. About half the people that use the internet, even if they have the website address will still type it in thier search box (yahoo, MSN, Google) and not the address bar. Doesn't look good when you aren't there. And oh god don't have some long wierd spelling domain name, nobody will ever remember. Nowadays if you want your site listed in just Yahoo they charge about 600 bucks, and it doesn't guarantee you any sort of rankings for anything. So does it make sense that for 19.95 and 9 bucks a month you can host, post and launch a website with domain name to boot. I can tell you that the vast majority of these templated websites never end up listed at all. Take a look around and you'll be hard pressed to find any of those types of websites listed anywhere. Unless you are really technically savvy and have a lot of extra time and money on your hands do yourself a favor and hire a pro.
I usually never ever give away free advice because most of my clients pay me well for it. However being that I have used some of the ideas in this board to help me with my business, I figured it would be nice to give something back
If you'd like to know more about me then check me out at somethinsomethin.com
Thanks
and Happy Contracting!
1. The biggest mistake that I see made by contractors is in the domain name that they choose. Most try to get the domain that most closely matches the name of thier business. Here's what the pros like me do (And it Works) If I were a builder in Austin TX I would purchase the domain name home-builder-austin.com. Why, because once your site is in the search engines if someone were to type in home builder austin, good chance you'll rank #1 for that term. That's why domain names like Cars.com are so valuable. Because they get immediate visibility if someone types in cars or any derivitive of in any of the search engines
I can tell you that over 90% of all contractor websites [Mod: really? You thought you could hide this in underline?] end up in internet purgatory never to be found by anyone ! It's why I have a relatively thriving business doing web development for contractors. Having a website that is not set up for search engines is the equivelent of having an ad that's never placed anywhere. It's absolutely crazy ! I have had contractor clients of mine tell me that they didn't need search engine work because they just use the site for existing clients. Well here's something that most don't know. About half the people that use the internet, even if they have the website address will still type it in thier search box (yahoo, MSN, Google) and not the address bar. Doesn't look good when you aren't there. And oh god don't have some long wierd spelling domain name, nobody will ever remember. Nowadays if you want your site listed in just Yahoo they charge about 600 bucks, and it doesn't guarantee you any sort of rankings for anything. So does it make sense that for 19.95 and 9 bucks a month you can host, post and launch a website with domain name to boot. I can tell you that the vast majority of these templated websites never end up listed at all. Take a look around and you'll be hard pressed to find any of those types of websites listed anywhere. Unless you are really technically savvy and have a lot of extra time and money on your hands do yourself a favor and hire a pro.
I usually never ever give away free advice because most of my clients pay me well for it. However being that I have used some of the ideas in this board to help me with my business, I figured it would be nice to give something back
If you'd like to know more about me then check me out at somethinsomethin.com
Thanks
and Happy Contracting!
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