# websites



## Ownedbymany (Nov 16, 2014)

Hi all, 


Just started my research into websites as I don't have one yet. Its not an area I know much about currently but there is high competition in my area so I really could do with a decent web presence. 
So far all my clients have been word of mouth, I do have social media accounts set up but not much of a following yet- I do have some ideas to try to boost that though.

Anyway currently funds are somewhat limited so I was wondering what route everyone else went regarding getting your sites. Did you just bite the bullet and pay someone else to do all the work for you? did you have enough knowledge to create your own? or did you do your own as a complete beginner and muddle through successfully?

So far I'm only just beginning my research into this and have started looking at lower cost options- doing it myself. Its been suggested to me that if I do it myself then wordpress is a very good option and that google "likes" wordpress sites. Would it be fairly easy for a complete beginner to create a good wordpress site? Obviously there's a lot more to getting good search engine results than just having a website google "likes" but how easy/hard would it be to optimise the site for a higher chance of ranking well? I'm prepared for it to take time and hard work but at the same time I'm worried about messing it up.

I've also looked at pay per click systems such as adwords, has anybody used this for their sites? currently nobody in my area (that I know of) has PPC. How did it work out if you went this route?

I did speak to a friend who does website and tbh he said he could help me with a basic 2-3 or possibly 4 page site with logo design and links to social media accounts for about £300. His advice was that I don't need much and it will eventually rank decently just from getting traffic from my own promotion from my business cards/links on social media. This doesn't sound quite right to me if I'm honest but I don't really know. Is this possibly a good option? To be honest if I'm paying a site them £300 will be about the limit of what I could spend currently anyway.

Would be very grateful for any thoughts, other suggestions or advice on this.

Thank you


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## xxJudexx (Sep 21, 2013)

I use weebly for my website. My domain name was about £20 for a three year registration and if I remember rightly I paid weebly £50 for two years. I also paid for a dedicated email address which I think is a lot more professional than a gmail account 

Weebly is really easy to use, you just drag and drop basically. I looked into wix aswell but with weebly you can choose to move your completed website to a different provider whereas you'd have to start from scratch with wix.

I don't think you need to pay someone to do it, most of the DIY platforms are pretty user friendly.

If I were you I would pay someone to design a logo though, this will help you stand out from your rivals.

Have a look at my website and see if it is the sort of thing you are after. Unleashed Pet Services and Dog Walking - Home
It took me about a week to get everything how I wanted it to look and I update it with fresh pictures every now and again. Google refreshes it's rankings regularly but I've been on the first page for my area for around six months (I've been going for about a year).


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## BoredomBusters (Dec 8, 2011)

I pay for a professional website because most of my work comes through it due to my target market. Word of mouth is the best form of recommendation, but until you've got some customers, who is going to recommend you? It took three years before we got in any significant work through recommendation. Up to then it was 50% the website and 50% seeing the signwritten van.

£300 is a good price for what is being offered (although being told it will 'eventually rank' means it's not going to be given search engine optimisation by him or submission to search engines), the guy who does my website offers the same sort of package (but with all the SEO that you need), but he also does a starter website for £100. It's only one page but will get you started, then you can upgrade later when/if you need to. If your target market uses the web to search you would be better off with a one page professional website than a 3 or 4 page one you've put together yourself with no knowledge. I've seen some really bad home made websites. It also needs to work on mobile phones.

I've never used ppc, and my business has grown. Another dog walker in my town uses it, but it's been up for as long as her website which makes me think it doesn't work - otherwise she'd be full and could turn it off? I could be wrong?!


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## Ownedbymany (Nov 16, 2014)

Thank you 

During my research I have seen some pretty bad websites to be honest and I definitely don't want to have one of those. That's the main reason I don't really want to try it myself.
I also need it to rank fairly well as fast as is realistic and I don't think I know enough to do that, like Linda said it will take forever to get enough word of mouth clients so its needed. 

I'm also expecting that probably most people I give business cards to will just be taking them to be polite because they don't think they need me at the time or will have lost them by the time they decide they need me. Hopefully I will have made a good enough impression to those people so they will still remember me and will then be able to find me on google or other search engine. 
This seems to be something my friend doesn't understand which has also made me wary of using him. Whilst he did mention the use of keywords he doesn't seem very keen to help me rank well and said getting the hits in the first place is what will gain ranking but I've been lead to believe its a combination of things. I think I should probably talk to him again about it to clarify.

On the other hand if I can create my own site that would be really good as then I will know how to do any updates or changes etc. myself. I have heard of both weebly and wix but what I didn't know is that some will let you change providers and others wont- thank you Jude. There's probably loads more stuff like that that I don't know so will probably end up getting a professional to do it.

Linda thanks again- as for the PPC I was only considering using it for a short time to attempt to hasten the time is takes to get to enough clients per week to live off of (the minimum I need to live on). That does concern me though that someone has always used PPC. I did see it as a temporary measure but you would know best whether that business is expanding or not. I would suspect that method of ranking highly to gain business wasn't working that well if they aren't growing much and that they had left it on if business was booming and they were always taking on new sitters/walkers. 

If anyone else has anything to add I would really like to hear it. 

Thank you


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## silvi (Jul 31, 2014)

One of the most important things you need for a website is a good domain name, so do your research for that.

Sure, any name could do but, unless the website name bears a good resemblance to the service you are offering, your visitors will be mainly word-of-mouth and social media cross-promotion, because no one new will be able to find the website directly from the search engines.

To find a good domain name (i.e; a name people search for), you need it to be a searched for 'keyword' or two. Have a look at Ubersuggest it will give you suggestions. There are quite a few more keyword search tools out there if you don't like that one. Google themselves run one, but you have to have an adwords account to get into it.

If you are thinking about using Wordpress for your website, it is a very good option. You have already had a suggestion to pay someone to make you a logo and that's great. But the logo will have to fit the Wordpress theme you choose, so it's best to choose the theme first.
You can purchase a domain name for under a tenner at somewhere like Namecheap or GoDaddy. If you do that, don't be tempted to take up their free hosting offer, or buy your domain name from a hosting supplier. It's always best to keep the two separate.

Hosting can also cost you under a tenner a month and there are many web hosts out there who will offer you this and as you are thinking of using Wordpress, you need to choose a host which offers a tool for setting up an almost instant Wordpress site (you can do it manually, but that can be a bit of a learning curve at the start).

Whatever type of site you choose, it will need to be optimised for the search engines. This can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it. Just Google something like 'SEO for websites' and you will get lots of suggestions coming up. (Or if you prefer, ask on here, and I'll come back and give you a few pointers ).

You will also probably want to set up the site so that it links to Facebook and Twitter. that's quite easy with Wordpress and there are several ways to do it.
You may actually find that, once you get going, more people will access you via Facebook than your actual website (because Facebook has great 'credibility' with Google search). But having a website (especially with a blog which Wordpress gives you) will give you much more freedom to talk about the service you are offering.

Good luck! 

PS: if you are not used to Wordress but want to use it, I recommend setting up a free account at wordpress.com. You won't be able to use it for your website, but it will give you a practice run on how it all works.


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## ClaireandDaisy (Jul 4, 2010)

I use a free site from Weebly. Easy to set up (templates) and free to use. 
Avoid 1&1.


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## BoredomBusters (Dec 8, 2011)

silvi said:


> (*because Facebook has great 'credibility' with Google search*)


I'm wondering what you base that on, when facebook actually blocks Google? It does allow facebook pages to come up yes, but you can't search content in any way so not sure that Google does rate FB when its blocked and is actually a competitor as a search engine in its own right? Facebook Will Challenge Google For Dominance Of Search - Business Insider


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## silvi (Jul 31, 2014)

BoredomBusters said:


> I'm wondering what you base that on, when facebook actually blocks Google? It does allow facebook pages to come up yes, but you can't search content in any way so not sure that Google does rate FB when its blocked and is actually a competitor as a search engine in its own right? Facebook Will Challenge Google For Dominance Of Search - Business Insider


Hey, I'm not trying to start a debate here. Just offering some help. 

Ask the majority of people who have sales websites _and_ Facebook accounts. Unless they are very SEO savvy and/or have been going for quite a long time (and therefore have 'authority' in Google's eyes), their Facebook page will come up first in the search engines.
Could just be to do with Google search algorithms picking up movement on Facebook pages rather than on personal websites, but it happens, nevertheless.


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## BoredomBusters (Dec 8, 2011)

Never seen that, and I do a lot of research of dog walkers all over the country. Directories, gumtree and Google Maps come up before facebook pages.


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## xxJudexx (Sep 21, 2013)

Personally I wouldn't pay someone to do SEO. Google updates their algorithms a few times a year and only they know what will bring your site up.

Time is one indicator, a new website won't be ranked as high as a well established site. Keywords are needed, but you get pushed down as punishment if you overuse keywords. 

It depends how many other walkers are in your area, I'm quite lucky that there are only two other walkers in my area who have a remotely good website. If there are a lot of walkers with good websites you will need something that really stands out.

I've had a few clients say to me they chose me because of my website so it is really important to get it right! If you aren't really tech savvy then I think you should go with the £300 your friend quoted.


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## Ownedbymany (Nov 16, 2014)

Claireanddaisy- I cannot actually view your website at all at the moment from the link on here. I'm not sure why as everything else I have had open today has been just fine. Just wanted to let you know in case there is a problem. Your the second to suggest weebly so I will take a look.

Silvi- that's pretty detailed thank you. I already have a couple of idea for my domain name and have checked they aren't taken (although they might disappear if I don't get a move on). It has "pet services" in it, I am debating whether or not to put my location in too but will if it will help.
I'm definitely going to have a play about with wordpress then and see what I can do with it.

Jude- There's loads of sitters and walkers here, when I decided this was what I wanted to do I thought there was only 5-7. In the past year I've done tons of research and am finding more on a regular basis- I'm wondering how many more there are that I don't know about yet, there's 22 that I know of which is quite scary because I don't live in a particularly big area. I don't think you can ever be 100% certain but I should be able to get enough work based on the fact that the better known ones are growing (the others I haven't known about for long enough to have kept an eye on them). 

All my clients so far is word of mouth. I used one of the companies myself once and they let me down by not showing up, luckily my friend picked up on the no shows and my pets didn't starve to death, then the sitter nearly missed the last 2 visits as well - they came really highly recommended too. 
My first client had someone else in mind before me but they changed her consultation time 5 times before she gave up on them. Funnily enough they have a good reputation too.
Its going to be hard work with so many others working in the area but I've learned a lot and I do think I can offer a better service and any mistakes I make wont be those ones! Promoting the business is most definitely going to be really important- and then showing the clients that the service is as good as the promotion. I probably will end up going with a professional designer because of that but I do want to be 100% sure what the options are first. Thank you for the input


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## silvi (Jul 31, 2014)

BoredomBusters said:


> Never seen that, and I do a lot of research of dog walkers all over the country. Directories, gumtree and Google Maps come up before facebook pages.


Google takes note of your searches and ways of searching.
Log off and go on another pc and the results you get will be different.

But it doesn't matter anyway.
Setting up a website and running a successful online business is a learning curve whatever way anyone decides to tackle it.
I was just offering a little bit of help if Ownedbymany chooses to use it.

As xxJudexx says, paying someone for SEO help can turn out to be a costly (and not always a successful) business, so surely a little bit of free help wouldn't go amiss?

By the way, ClaireandDaisy, Weebly looks good nowadays too. Didn't realise how far they had come on since the early days.


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## BoredomBusters (Dec 8, 2011)

silvi said:


> Google takes note of your searches and ways of searching.
> Log off and go on another pc and the results you get will be different.


:laugh: I use private windows for my searches, google doesn't log anything.:thumbsup:


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## Petsatyourplace (Jan 24, 2014)

I have a Vistaprint website and personally would not recommend it as the formatting is so limited! Loads of comments about this across the web.

If I didn't have a full client book for dog walking/daycare I would move it to another provider.

I actually get most of my enquiries via my Google+ page which is free, easy to put on updates, photos etc. I have had one or two enquiries via my FreeIndex entry and I believe they also offer a free webpage service too; how good it is I don't know.

Oh, I have used PPC previously and Hibu/yellow pages and got nothing. For me both were a waste of money.

Not for this business but with a previous employer we found getting a provider for SEO work which yields decent results, is not easy. If you are thinking of paying anyone for web services make sure you ask for and speak to a few existing clients before signing up for anything. Also be sure you understand exactly what they will be doing for the money they charge and ask for regular stats.

Good luck.


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