I am sitting thinking to myself. Why the heck has my website been just dead. I mean I been contacted 2 times in the last 2 months.
I look at last year at this time and I was kicking arse. So obviously I am thinking my site stinks, better change it… wait, not so fast bucko.
I thought to myself, self, is it possible no one is looking? Normally I would just think my site was a turd. Then I noticed that craigslist has been just insane with established companies advertising. Everyone knows craigslist is horrible for this type of “come into your home” service. So it is usually filled with lowballer guys with no real company.
I thought to myself, self, go see if people are searching for window cleaning. To my surprise I find the numbers as low as I have seen, ever. No one here is searching. My number 1 search keyword is at 81 impressions for the last 7 days (which have been beautiful days)
Last year it would have been over 300, just for that keyword! Now imagine how many of those searches are window cleaners checking on their position because of the dead silence. I am on there everyday looking.
Why have all these real companies started groveling on craigslist with the dregs? I mean they put new ads on everyday to stay at the top of the searches! That is a pain in the arse, they are desperate.
I don’t know how your areas are doing as it comes to PPC or your site. But it is bad here…
I predict possibly the most competitive year I have seen.
Jobs earned = 1 valued at $206 Certainly worth the $4.22 investment but I’m sure these numbers are much lower than they should be. Mind you, in Toronto we had a very long winter this year. Even today we’re having a mix of snow and rain.
This is my first spring so I have nothing to compare these numbers to.
Also, I’ve noticed a disturbing thing on kijiji.ca (similar to craigslist). Out of two ads that rival mine; one states that they will beat anyone’s prices by 10%. The other boasts that their prices are lower than last year. This is spring time! Peak season. Why burst out the starting gate already robbing from your own pocket? At least find out what the market will bear first, right?
I would suggest plugging your site to those that you come in contact with. Current customers as well those you are providing a quote to on-site. I have had a really decent response plugging my own site. When I give a quote, I will tell the homeowner: “Mrs. Johnson, the total price for the job will be $329.79. we have a coupon for $10.00 off on our website. Make sure you print that coupon off to save money”. It works. It keeps people coming back. Im not some internet website marketing specialists by no means. What keeps people coming back is that there is something worth money on my site. I see this bigtime with the motocross apparel websites I buy my gear from. They send me vouchers all of the time for $20.00 bucks off. Enter Code #wn888-0099 when you check out. It works. I buy from them. Offering up some small token to your customers on your website will keep customers coming back to you and no one else (that is if you do good work).
Other than offering information on my site to new visitors, I want to capture my current ones as well. Give them a little coupon of some sort to keep them coming back and using my service. I charge premium $$ for my services. saving a little money here and there will be on most peoples minds this year. Just my opionion. Most everyone on here that is knee deep into marketing suggests that giving something away (small token) to land an account is a good thing. Why not do it on the website? . I average between 3-5 per week except during the winter.
that is a marketing no-no to discuss what keywords have my focus. Do you agree?
Oh…ummm…I guess I kinda don’t agree.
I was wondering about organic search results, not PPC campaigns. I just was surprised not to see your website listed for basic searches for your target area keywords.
I think every single one of us wants to be found when our clients search “(insert city where we operate) window cleaning”
Well ya know when I built my site, i put meta tags on all the pages so that the search engines could find and categorize me in the right area / heading. Having a website out there on the net that will not drive traffic to it is useless unless you are plugging it yourself (marketing materials, biz card etc). It still makes total sense to get yourself in the top position if someone is trying to find a window cleaner in Minneapolis. Otherwise you could be on page 21 of the search engines
