Websites

[Quantum dan]

Hi everyone

im starting up on my own after 18 years and am getting a website built. I'm being quoted £700 by someone recommended to me. Plus £200 by someone else to build a logo and supply it with business cards, email letterheads.

Can anyone spare some advice from your own experience about

website building for electrical services
ROI
what you should spend on and what you shouldnt
how many enquires should one expect from it once optimised etc

and anything else you can think of...

cheers in advance
daniel

 

[Octopus]

I would say that £700 sounds very steep - how many pages are you getting? email accounts?

and £200 for a logo/ business cards and letter heads sound too much too.

Why do you need letter heads? Can't you have your logo embeded in the word/excel document so that its printed each time?

Don't even think about optimisation - its a con.

Make sure the pages have lots of relevent words, place names, eletrical, electrician, etc etc

As for enquiries - I get about 2 new enquiries per month.

The other cost to enquire about is the annual charge for hosting? changes? additions? - this is relevent as it all adds up.

Also don't go too technical nor have too much information/pictures - more is less

 

[sparkdog]

I think I smell burning money.

 

[SJD]

Think about what you want the website to achieve.

Is it just a place for prospective customers to visit, who somehow already know your company name, to find out more about you? In which case maybe it doesn't need to be too elaborate, just a few pages, more to reassure them you are reputable and know what you are doing. I'd say £700 is way too much in this case, maybe half that is reasonable.

Does it have to attract lots customers who search online for an electrician, who didn't know your name before they found you? In which case, how are you going to appear high up in search rankings - perhaps by handing over lots of money to those who say they can make you top in Google for this or that search - which I'd be very sceptical about. But there are companies who go about things this way, spending lots of ad money to come up top in a search, and have to charge fancy prices to pay for that.

As Murdoch said, do you really need a letterhead? I print all my estimates, invoices and certificates (from Excel or Word) and anything I need is in the file. Invest in a decent printer, I use an A4 colour laser that cost me around £200 new a couple of years ago, though toner cartridges do add up. All I get printed (in bulk) are A6 postcards and a supply of business cards. I designed these myself (my logo is the cutting end of a pair of VDE cutters).

 

[Baker1988]

I would say that £700 sounds very steep - how many pages are you getting? email accounts?
Totally agree £700 does seem very steap for a standard website.

and £200 for a logo/ business cards and letter heads sound too much too?
that is way too steap if i was you i would make my own

Why do you need letter heads? Can't you have your logo embeded in the word/excel document so that its printed each time?

Don't even think about optimisation - its a con.
Its only a con on small websites, if you want your website to be huge with absolutly loads of badwith and multiple severs then optermisation is well worth it

Make sure the pages have lots of relevent words, place names, eletrical, electrician, etc ett ?
Just do it your self just throw aload of meta tags in the code.
As for enquiries - I get about 2 new enquiries per month.

The other cost to enquire about is the annual charge for hosting? changes? additions? - this is relevent as it all adds up.
If hosting is not included then this is way too expensive it usually costs between £200-£300

Also don't go too technical nor have too much information/pictures - more is less

If i was you i would just do it my self, its not hard to learn html5/css3 (maby a bit of javascript/php if needed) i would definatly do it my self

 

[dingledong]

Easy for you to say young baker
I don't have a clue

 

[D Skelton]

My website is HTML/CSS based and optimised so that when you type in 'Electricians Brighton', 'Electricians Hove' or 'Emergency Electricians Brighton' my company comes out on top in the rankings, above all other local electricians (there's about 100 of them listed on Google that I beat). There are various other search terms that when typed in my company comes out top too.

You wanna know how much all this cost me???

£8 per year for the domain name and £55 per year for hosting.

A little bit of research will tell you how spending a grand on having a basic website built and a little optimisation done for it is tantamount to taking a thousand pounds out of the hole in the wall and throwing it down the nearest drain.

It's easy as pie to do yourself with a little time.

Now I knew nothing about website building and search engine optimisation before I started. It took me a couple of hours every evening for about two weeks to build up enough knowledge to get my company's website to where it is today. Not exactly a huge commitment is it? And considering that I know guys in other trades who have spent tens of thousands on their websites over the years and yet their websites get nowhere near the top of the Google rankings like mine does, it just goes to show you that a day in the life of a web designer/SEO consultant is pretty damn rosy! It's money for old rope!

 

[shanky887614]

have a look at squarespace.

you dont need to understand html/dreamweaver or flash to use it. cheap as well.

if you want to be clever copy someone elses to see how they do things you like so you can get a similar visual affects.

anyone can copy your site if they want to

 

[Quantum dan]

Thanks for your input everyone. I'm gonna have a go at it on my own after speaking to a techy friend of mine and reading your comments on here too.

As as for the 1k Iv saved. Well sir, I'm gonna blast it on drugs and women!

 

[D Skelton]

Thanks for your input everyone. I'm gonna have a go at it on my own after speaking to a techy friend of mine and reading your comments on here too.

As as for the 1k Iv saved. Well sir, I'm gonna blast it on drugs and women!

Feel free to use the 'like' and 'thanks' buttons generously

 

[Quantum dan]

Feel free to use the 'like' and 'thanks' buttons generously

Wheres that on my keyboard

 

[Octopus]

Wheres that on my keyboard

use your eyes and look on the screen. bottom left of brown bar is the "thanks" button, and low right hand side is the "like" button. Simples

 

[geordie]

have a read over this site it will give you lots of idea to market yourself plus if you decide to join you get a website included
http://www.jdewane.com/

 

[dingledong]

Just on tv 'go daddy '

 

[uksparks]

Hi everyone

im starting up on my own after 18 years and am getting a website built. I'm being quoted £700 by someone recommended to me. Plus £200 by someone else to build a logo and supply it with business cards, email letterheads.

Can anyone spare some advice from your own experience about

website building for electrical services
ROI
what you should spend on and what you shouldnt
how many enquires should one expect from it once optimised etc

and anything else you can think of...

cheers in advance
daniel

PM me your mobile number and I'll tell you what you need to do and know over the phone.