Forum Moderators: mack
For companies who are now considering gaining a web presence I would say go for it. You have nothing to loose and a lot to gain. You do not need to sell on the web to have a meaningful website. In many cases a business website can be used purely for lead generation.
Many businesses rely on customers from the local area. Typically these businesses would advertise locally and in doing so would receive a stream of local customers. In this situation I believe this business is loosing out on an additional extra stream of customers by not having a company website. Just imagine how many people go to Google or any other search engine and type in [townname service]. If a local company was to have a website and it was to rank for that term then they would be able to attract many new leads through the website.
A website like this does not need to sell the product or service, is is simply there to gain search traffic for the preferred search terms. On the actual website you would provide some basic information about the company. and contact details. This will allow users to establish
1 this is the sort of company I am looking
2 I can give them a call.
Because the business is aimed locally it is not entirely difficult to gain good search engine ranking for the exact phrases you are interested in. The business can promote it's website in a number of ways such as web address on company vehicles, stationary and leaflets ect. If the company is local many people may know the company name. It is however a lot harder to remember a phone number.
If people are exposed to marketing material with companyname.com printed on it then it will probably be easier for them to remember as opposed to a phone number. Another Pont to take into consideration is people who know of the company but don't know how to get in touch. They may know the company by name but have no idea where they are located or their phone number. These sort of potential customers may already be typing your company name into search engines and finding no results. By simple having a site on the web it is possible to capture these customers.
Choosing a domain name.
The domain name you chose for your company should ideally be companyname.com this makes sense. In some cases it may also be worth while buying a number of variations of this domain name to ensure you catch all typos. If companyname.com is not available then you may want to look into the legalities of the current owner.
Because of the international nature of the web there is very often not a lot that can be done about this but it is always a good idea to investigate this. If you are unable to secure your business domain try to find something as close as possible.
Developing a website
If you have experience of building a website then you may be able to achieve this part on your own. If not then you would be best to leave this to a web design company. Developing a website is not something you do half hearted. You do want to convert as many users as possible, an unprofessional looking website is not going to achieve this.
Homepage: An introduction to the potential customer. Very general information and a phone number
About us: Go into a lot of detail about the company. Give the customer a lot of information about the company.
Contact us: Let the user get in touch. Email, phone, postal address. It is also a good idea to use a feedback form so the user can contact you directly from the webpage. Another idea that can work well is a "call me" feature. The user supplies their phone number and a time. Someone then calls them back at the time specified.
Is is important to follow up on all leads that are generated. People do not want to be left hanging about. Act fast and secure leads.
Web hosting
A web hosting company is somewhere that allows you to host your website on their servers for a fee. Choose a web hosting company that has it's servers in your country. This can help greatly when you want to rank well for your own countries index. For example Google has country specific search indexes that allow users to search for results from a specific country. Do a comparison on a wide range of hosting companies before you decide. Don't just go with one because it is cheap. You get what you pay for. Shop around and compare the features and services.
Marketing your website
In simple terms you need to point people in the direction of your website. Get in touch with other local companies and ask them to link to you. Include your web address in any marketing material that you distribute. Get your website listed in as many web directories and local directories as possible.
Having a business website can work out very well for small companies who are looking to attract some extra customers. The web can be a great tool not only for selling but also for letting people know you are there.
Mack.
The domain name you chose for your company should ideally be companyname.com. This makes sense.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. . . Well, okay . . substantially sound advice . . . but :0)
You register LocalityName+Service.com.
CityPlumber.com
CityRoofing/Roofer.com
CityDivorceLawyer.com
Of course you register your company name variations: CompanyName.com, CompanyNameInc.com, CompanyNameOfCity.com.
You register CityService.com for $10/year in consideration of the fact that a single business referral from anyone looking for your category of service by direct navigation is likely a sales lead worth 100Xs your domain registration fee if your service fee is $1,000.
For further insight and review of recent discussion of this idea take a look at this WebmasterWorld thread: Drive-by URLs (The future of localized search) [webmasterworld.com]
[edited by: Webwork at 9:44 pm (utc) on Aug. 14, 2006]
You register CityService.com for $10/year in consideration of the fact that a single business referral from anyone looking for your category of service by direct navigation is likely a sales lead worth 100Xs your domain registration fee if your service fee is $1,000.
That's a really good tip that I hadn't considered before, I think I'm going to give that a whirl. The company that I host most clients site with (fastest growing host online) was offering domain name registrations for $2.95 for a year. They've since raised it to $6.95, but its still cost effective for me to try this out.
Good thread. I took out a very large ad in my local yellow pages and have gotten only 5 phone calls since January with no conversions, meanwhile I'm getting calls every week thanks to online searches. Some of my clients have mentioned that most of their business came from their website, it makes me feel good to know with certainty that my work improved their business.
If you want to grasp what is local take a read of your local yellowpages, your local free newspapers, your local direct mail, etc.
Local is BIG. Most of what I buy I buy locally. Most of what I consume I consume locally. Add to that the fact that retail stores - which are the primary outlets for I imagine most consumer product manufacturers - a fighting back against online only retailers and you can see that local is likely to remain the prevailing economic center for the foreseeable future.
Websites for local leads have limited usefulness....
I guess we should give up the approximately million per year that our site generates from local leads then.
I'm buying up some names for my local area....
I think you are wasting your time and money. almost nobody goes out looking for a particular web address, they search for it, and if of interest, they bookmark it.
I bet less than 1 in 50 could tell you the address of the last place they bought online.
It might have made sense back when you could still get short names for URL's, but having "buy-cheap-air-conditioners-here.com" I don't think has any value at all, unless you just happen to find one that is really easy to remember - and there are not many of those left.
Do this: Search overture keyword tool for "your city" and then you'll get like a list of 20+ keyword phrases that people are using with "your city". Buy up the ones that are not purchased. Just got an apartment rental domain that way that was getting 2,000 searches A DAY . That's just overture. I'd imagine Google has more searches for that term.
Might be a good choice for secondary domains but for your primary domain you need to think branding.
Keyword domains work well for ranking, but if you think locally it is easy to rank for pretty much any local term by using a logical site structure. If you can't rank for city service have pages related to smaller areas within the city. Either way you will rank.
Ranking locally is all down to basic seo but in most cases is a lot easier.
The main problem I see with using keyword domains locally is people may not know what company is behind the website. By using a true company name as a web address it leaves no doubt.
Mack.
As a webdesigner for local small businesses, that's a huge selling tool for someone like me who can turn it around and resell it to the businesses.
I explain it to small businesses like this...
Your website will be a welcome mat to your business. It will introduce you and your staff to the buying public before they ever walk in the door. This in itself helps to allay fears of the unknown.
The website has the opportunity to explain exactly what you do, sell, service and your area of operations. It gives your hours and exact locations with driving directions and contact information.
This all being said, I find it much easier to explain the importance and gain agreement from younger personnel than older. I get so much resistance from seniors. Most tell me that they hate the computer they use at work and never use it at home. As time goes on the changes will be huge.
More than 70 Billion monthly searches on Major Search Engines(US)
More than 3.5 Billion on Directories and IYP
About 16 billion estimate searches on yellowpages
Here is the difference, tracking. On the web you can track everything, in the yellowpages the only way you can really track something is to set-up a call forwarding number. Many people still use yellowpages and it is still valuable. So at this point marketing should combine yellowpages, Search Engines, IYPs, and other formats. Here is the average cost per customer acquisition:
Search Engines: Research Pending
IYP: $4.90
Yellowpages: $9.30
Radio: $13.60
TV: $66.50
Newspaper: $19.10
Source:Media Impact, Division of NFO World Group
Copyright L.M. Berry and Company
