Do I REALLY need a website?

[stevef1201]

If you do not have a website, and have asked yourself that question Then this post is for you! I have over the last three years passed out thousands of flyers, I advertise in the local penny shopper I put business cards in several business in town, anywhere that people are going to standing waiting to check out I also have a website. I have gotten NO that is NONE ZERO, response from flyers I have gotten 30 customers from the penny shopper, most local residential, looking for someone cheap but willing to pay for quality work I have gotten several customers from busienss cards The BEST customers have come from my website, Nicer yards, large, willing to spend the money for lawn care, not just some guy to mow the grass. Like today, I got a call, he said that he looked at my website, and it was the only site that said I worked in the town he lived in. He signed a contract for full lawn care, mow trim edge, fertilize, weed control, and pest control. 1 and 1/5 acres for 300 a month. Year round. So do I need a website? NO, but then I would be killing myself for peanuts. People who use thier computer to find services have above average income and above average lawns.

[Apex Lawn & Landscape]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by stevef1201 If you do not have a website, and have asked yourself that question Then this post is for you! I have over the last three years passed out thousands of flyers, I advertise in the local penny shopper I put business cards in several business in town, anywhere that people are going to standing waiting to check out I also have a website. I have gotten NO that is NONE ZERO, response from flyers I have gotten 30 customers from the penny shopper, most local residential, looking for someone cheap but willing to pay for quality work I have gotten several customers from busienss cards The BEST customers have come from my website, Nicer yards, large, willing to spend the money for lawn care, not just some guy to mow the grass. Like today, I got a call, he said that he looked at my website, and it was the only site that said I worked in the town he lived in. He signed a contract for full lawn care, mow trim edge, fertilize, weed control, and pest control. 1 and 1/5 acres for 300 a month. Year round. So do I need a website? NO, but then I would be killing myself for peanuts. People who use thier computer to find services have above average income and above average lawns. That's awesome! After each phone call, talking with a potential new customer, I always ask how they got my number etc...lately most have said "google" I make all my customers sign my guestbook after the works complete which the new potentials see. I'm glad I have my website and I agree with you on the better customers come from online

[Steve]

Great insight! Now along those lines, how important is it to do any kind of search engine optimization?

Is just having a website without doing any seo, a waste?

[OziGardenGuy]

SEO is critical.

The best SEO is thinking about how customers will try to find you and what you do.

In my case, the bread'n'butter service is lawn mowing, so I've peppered my site's contents with "lawn mowing [suburb or locality name]" so that when someone looks for the service in that area, then there's a better chance that I will be further up the list.

Don't forget to get into Google Maps. It's a really good free resource. Likewise, there are heaps of free business and service directories that you can get your company into, and will thus give backlinks to your site.

However, content is king under the new Google PANDA algorithm. Make sure that the content on your site is relevant to the meta tags used and that it's not just a huge pile of meta tags that are not relevant to the content, or worse yet, bigger than the content.

Hope this helps someone.

Cheers - OziGardenGuy aka My Garden Guy.

[abbot]

Originally Posted by stevef1201

If you do not have a website, and have asked yourself that question Then this post is for you!

I have over the last three years passed out thousands of flyers,
I advertise in the local penny shopper
I put business cards in several business in town, anywhere that people are going to standing waiting to check out
I also have a website.

I have gotten NO that is NONE ZERO, response from flyers
I have gotten 30 customers from the penny shopper, most local residential, looking for someone cheap but willing to pay for quality work
I have gotten several customers from busienss cards
The BEST customers have come from my website, Nicer yards, large, willing to spend the money for lawn care, not just some guy to mow the grass. Like today, I got a call, he said that he looked at my website, and it was the only site that said I worked in the town he lived in. He signed a contract for full lawn care, mow trim edge, fertilize, weed control, and pest control. 1 and 1/5 acres for 300 a month. Year round.

So do I need a website? NO, but then I would be killing myself for peanuts. People who use thier computer to find services have above average income and above average lawns.

Heyyyyyyy look at this! Someone besides me is actually preaching this?!?!?!

Anyway, I'm glad this is coming from someone in the lawn care industry and not just some geeky 'SEO guru".

The world is changing. Everything is going from direct to indirect or 'interdirect'

And it's the people who hop on the bandwagon and quit bitching about the change are the ones who will succeed.

Don't look back bud, let your competitors spend their money on paper placemat ads at the local diner

[Apex Lawn & Landscape]

Love the local diner comment! You know it baffles me how every yr or so I get a 4lb phone book at my mailbox....seriously !? Still!?

[Hedgemaster]

Originally Posted by Apex Lawn & Landscape

Love the local diner comment! You know it baffles me how every yr or so I get a 4lb phone book at my mailbox....seriously !? Still!?

I haven't used a phone book in years.

Well, that's not exactly true - I'm using my 3" thick yellow page book to raise my monitor to a better viewing height.

[stevef1201]

Originally Posted by Hedgemaster

I haven't used a phone book in years.

Well, that's not exactly true - I'm using my 3" thick yellow page book to raise my monitor to a better viewing height.

I use my phone book (untill it's gone) then try to get them from my neighbors. The make great kindling if you tear the pages out, wad them up, and stick them into the log pile in the fire place!

[abbot]

I use the phonebook to find clients I show them some statistics, what I can do to make them a great ROI, and tell them to pull their head out of their ***. (in a nice way of course)

You would be surprised how many businesses I have saved by using their own methods of advertising against them!