[Nathanael Jones]

I like your website Stuart,.. very well put together!

[mileslake]

Mine cost £200  , u cannot lose.  2 x £10 pm custys will pay for it.

[Gleaming windows]

I think theyre well worth it.

Mine costs less than £5.00 a month, I havent got any professional SEO company working on it, its all my work, from creating to uploading.

Its up there in the top half of the page on all relevant search terms.

Def worth it if you want to try to consolidate your round or improve the quality of work.

Ive been running my site for about a year now and would imagine of the top of my head that Ive got 3-4K of work from it.

[aiminvestor]

What is your sweet spot?

What type of work does a web site get you? I would surmise that it is just as useful to make you look substantial to bigger customers as it is for anything else.

So if you as a one man band (as I am) want a certain profile of customer then think who would be reassured by being able to visit your website.

If I can groom my round to a high monthly turnover off of one man (and his dog) that'd be pretty sweet. Then what? Things have a habit of growing by themselves!

I think your post sumises succinctly the advantages of a website, and I am creating one too for exactly the reasons you mention.

And it should be a dot com too!  IMHO

[Gleaming windows]

Id go for .co.uk

For very good SEO reasons

[aiminvestor]

Id go for .co.uk

For very good SEO reasons

I totally disagree, dot com gives an impression of status, IMO.

SEO?

[Gleaming windows]

Id go for .co.uk

For very good SEO reasons

I totally disagree, dot com gives an impression of status, IMO.

SEO?

.com will be very hard to get on the first page when someone  searching for a local service is specifying a location.

I have 2 sites, one .co.uk the other .com. Guess which one doesnt appear on the first page when someone searches in the UK and specifies a location.

If you dont know what SEO is I suggest you do some research.

Heres a start to help you along

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=seo&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enGB278GB278

[[GQC] Tim]

Thank you very much for all your answers people, I will try and get something up in the near future, and get my van signwritten.

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

I would have thought you would have a really poor site if your search includes window cleaning and your home town and you ARE NOT on page one.

I have done that without any help.

Try "window cleaner Bakewell" or "window cleaner Darley Dale" or even "window Cleaner Derbyshire" or add Baslow, Sheldon, Youlgreave, Hathersage.

Page one without SEO training.

PS Page 1 with Free Window Cleaning as well

[GWCS]

Id go for .co.uk

For very good SEO reasons

I totally disagree, dot com gives an impression of status, IMO.

SEO?

.com will be very hard to get on the first page when someone  searching for a local service is specifying a location.

I have 2 sites, one .co.uk the other .com. Guess which one doesnt appear on the first page when someone searches in the UK and specifies a location.

If you dont know what SEO is I suggest you do some research.

Heres a start to help you along

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=seo&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enGB278GB278

.com is american

.co.uk is british

so for locality reasons your better of going .co.uk for SEO reasons, and ensure your website hosts, host your website on a uk ip address.

If your a national, multi national or international company then you go .com

[Gleaming windows]

I would have thought you would have a really poor site if your search includes window cleaning and your home town and you ARE NOT on page one.

I have done that without any help.

Try "window cleaner Bakewell" or "window cleaner Darley Dale" or even "window Cleaner Derbyshire" or add Baslow, Sheldon, Youlgreave, Hathersage.

Page one without SEO training.

PS Page 1 with Free Window Cleaning as well

Not necessarily, you have to remember that there are only so many slots on every google page. The way to get to number one isnt to have the best site, its have a site better than the competition, which doesnt necessarily mean its a good site; just better than the others.

As for 'window cleaner derby' in google, you're nowhere when I do that, youve either got a really poor site  or theres a very good reason   (Here's a clue....its all about location mate  )

[sparklebright]

I have one and it is a good reference point for people so they know what we do.

Also if you have a website you can claim back all your broadband and computing costs...

[aiminvestor]

I have one and it is a good reference point for people so they know what we do.

Also if you have a website you can claim back all your broadband and computing costs...

Exactly!   

[aiminvestor]

Id go for .co.uk

.com will be very hard to get on the first page when someone  searching for a local service is specifying a location.

I have 2 sites, one .co.uk the other .com. Guess which one doesnt appear on the first page when someone searches in the UK and specifies a location.

If you dont know what SEO is I suggest you do some research.

Thanks, am very aware how optimization works, just not familiar with the acronym.

I still say the dot com gives status, and I have a friend that is very skilled in SEO, and he says there is a way.

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

I would have thought you would have a really poor site if your search includes window cleaning and your home town and you ARE NOT on page one.

I have done that without any help.

Try "window cleaner Bakewell" or "window cleaner Darley Dale" or even "window Cleaner Derbyshire" or add Baslow, Sheldon, Youlgreave, Hathersage.

Page one without SEO training.

PS Page 1 with Free Window Cleaning as well

Not necessarily, you have to remember that there are only so many slots on every google page. The way to get to number one isnt to have the best site, its have a site better than the competition, which doesnt necessarily mean its a good site; just better than the others.

As for 'window cleaner Derby' in google, you're nowhere when I do that, youve either got a really poor site  or theres a very good reason   (Here's a clue....its all about location mate  )

If you notice I didn't say Derby, I gave a list of villages and Derbyshire. Try again with the suggestions I made. Derby is no where near my area. It's all about location mate :

[Gleaming windows]

Derby ~ Derbyshire...Google isnt stupid.

It knows where you are when you search and it knows that Derby is Derbyshire. The difference in the wording of a location makes very little difference so far as Google is concerned.

BTW You're nowhere with Derbyshire either, which you did say. Still never mind. Like I said, its about location.


Or maybe its because of what you said it would be because of in an earlier post   

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

 I hate to argue but You will find me on this page.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=0h&oq=window+cleaning+der&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADBS_enGB264GB264&q=window+cleaning+derbyshire

[Gleaming windows]

Im really glad you posted that.

You see it allows me to illustrate something to you. As Ive been saying, its all about LOCATION!!

Not the location where you conduct your business. Essentially thats got nothing to do with what appears on the front page.

To be successful with google you need to think outside the box. You need to think as if you are a punter.

What Im saying is that what appears on the front page when a location is specified, in this case Derbyshire, is something that is RELEVANT IN LOCATION TO THE PERSON WHO HAS CARRIED OUT THE SEARCH!

MY point is I AM NOWHERE NEAR DERBY, thus this is what I see............its not the same as what you see.




You arent on that.

Which has been my point all along, think outside the box mate, then your halfway there with Google.

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

Fair enough but I DONT WANT people from Hants phoning me up for window cleaning. I want them to be from the area I clean in and if someone from Bakewell or North Derbyshire Google's then they will as you say get to see me on page one.

[[GQC] Tim]

I have one and it is a good reference point for people so they know what we do.

Also if you have a website you can claim back all your broadband and computing costs...

Even if you only use your broadband or computer less then 5% for business? (like most of us would do once the site is up and running)

I like the idea, but is that really okay to do?