New website live!

[Diwrnach]

Websites looking great. Be really interesting to hear if you get more customers because of it and if the seo makes a real difference.
The only small point I would make is to ask njones to make the logo slightly smaller on mobile as on my phone it can't sit adjacent to the menu button and so sits below and takes up alot of the screen space making it hard to read or see whats going on..only needs to be slightly smaller to fit. Here's a screenshot so you can see what I mean.

hey mate could you let me know what phone you have? both me and Nathanael have been playing around with various phones and tablets and he can only replicate it with a very old phone, he has tweaked it so it should be OK now, if you don't mind could you have a look?

 

[Dan Paton]

Out of curiosity how much did it cost ?

 

[Diwrnach]

Out of curiosity how much did it cost ?

I went with one of his monthly packages, which I think is a great idea, no up front website building cost and it is only costing me a little bit more a month than 1&1 was costing me and I had to build the site etc check it out here, really recommend him he has worked none stop to get mine sorted.

http://avondhu-internet.com/product-category/pay-monthly-websites/

 

[MrBump]

Normally have a sony xperia Z but smashed it beyond repair so I bought this phone until I refresh my contract.. So I am actually unsure what model phone it is lol. A sony xperia m2 I think or similar, it has the same size screen as say an iphone 4, its not as big as some phones, but not as small as some either. Just measured it, its a 4.5" screen diagonal if that helps. Anyway it all works now, here we go :thumbsup:

View attachment 5152

 

[Dan Paton]

As I said the site does look fantastic but to quote their terms and conditions.

"Pay-Monthly website deals are RENTAL deals. The monthly charge continues indefinitely, and if you cancel payments for any reason the website is ours to do as we wish with it. If you’ve had the website for 3 years or more then we’d normally consider that its paid for itself & just cancel it – but if you cancel early we may try to recoup our losses by putting the website up for sale."

The way it's worded means you might never own it. "we’d normally consider that its paid for itself"

It doesn't actually say you will own it! I'd be asking more questions about that.

 

[MrBump]

Simply because he needs to recoup his costs. If he just bought the website outright it would easily cost a few hundred or so upwards, but this way diwrnach just pays a few quid a month, including hosting and support instead of a lump sum.

Yell used to do the same, it was a tenner a month, but all of the websites were exactly the same and **** and the support was slow and not mobile friendly and generally not worth the money at all and they 'owned' the website at the end however long you wasted your money on it, thank god as they were shite.

This is twice the price fair enough, but comes mobile friendly and is far better and probably has better seo too and ongoing support. Hes not going to spend all the time needed to make it and tweak it and then after a month you cancel and keep it and get a whole website for 20 quid, not gonna happen. Its not bad value at all really! :thumbsup:

 

[Dan Paton]

I totally understand that Mrbump . It wasn't any of that I was talking about. I'm not knocking the guys business at all. It's the way it's worded about owning the site after 3 years. It more or less says you might own the site after 3 years. The term "We'd normally consider" is pretty vague. All I'm saying is I'd be looking for something a bit more concrete than that.

 

[Diwrnach]

Simply because he needs to recoup his costs. If he just bought the website outright it would easily cost a few hundred or so upwards, but this way diwrnach just pays a few quid a month, including hosting and support instead of a lump sum.
Yell used to do the same, it was a tenner a month, but all of the websites were exactly the same and **** and the support was slow and not mobile friendly and generally not worth the money at all and they 'owned' the website at the end however long you wasted your money on it, thank god as they were shite.

This is twice the price fair enough, but comes mobile friendly and is far better and probably has better seo too and ongoing support. Hes not going to spend all the time needed to make it and tweak it and then after a month you cancel and keep it and get a whole website for 20 quid, not gonna happen. Its not bad value at all really! :thumbsup:

This.

He has always answered mails very quickly and sorted stuff almost instantly, the support is fantastic and as @MrBump says he needs to recoup his money somewhere, it has taken 2 weeks or more to build this site and I have so far only paid one month, you can't expect to then cancel and keep the site.

Two choices, pay a lot more money up front and low monthly/own the site or pay a bit more monthly with no up front cost and only own it after 3 years or so.

 

[Jake]

It's always better to buy out right, but this is a good way for those who want to get it done with minimum outlay.

Only issue i see is your paying a heck of a lot over 3 odd years? Depending on package you choose,

But example is the silver package over 3 years is £864

You could get an absolute amazing website for that paid off forever... Other than hosting which isn't much at all, my hosting cost is just £50 a year...

 

[Tuffers]

This.
He has always answered mails very quickly and sorted stuff almost instantly, the support is fantastic and as @MrBump says he needs to recoup his money somewhere, it has taken 2 weeks or more to build this site and I have so far only paid one month, you can't expect to then cancel and keep the site.

Two choices, pay a lot more money up front and low monthly/own the site or pay a bit more monthly with no up front cost and only own it after 3 years or so.

Seems fair to me :thumbsup:

 

[Diwrnach]

It's always better to buy out right, but this is a good way for those who want to get it done with minimum outlay.
Only issue i see is your paying a heck of a lot over 3 odd years? Depending on package you choose,

But example is the silver package over 3 years is £864

You could get an absolute amazing website for that paid off forever... Other than hosting which isn't much at all, my hosting cost is just £50 a year...

My 1&1 was £25 a month and was very restrictive.

£50 a year is £150 over 3, so that £864 is now £714.

If you look into ongoing SEO packages they want £100+ a MONTH, I have spoken to maybe 10 different SEO company's in the last few months.

Also don't forget this also includes ongoing support, if I want a page added, adjusted, changed etc etc a quick email and its done, own the site yourself and host it yourself you will have to do any changes yourself as well and hope you get the SEO right.

 

[Jake]

My webby is run by a company, and they do updates free etc, unless it's a big update, but it was cheaper than that,

But I'm sure it'll work out well for you, it's good that you can have any work done without paying extra...

I just hate monthly bills!

 

[Diwrnach]

It wasn't just the price that swung it for me, it was after dealing with @Njones via emails and having confidence in him as well, like I said before I have been speaking with various people over the last few months and none of them ever felt "right".

 

[Jake]

That's good, he's got a lot of expierence with window cleaning websites, so a good bet!

I love my website so wouldn't ever go with anyone else now, but if I had to I'd probably ask Nathan...

 

[Dan Paton]

What where you paying 1&1 £25 for and what did they give you for that? I'm intrigued as british based hosting can be bought for £3 a month.

 

[Diwrnach]

Web builder, SEO something or other, domain, general bits and bobs.

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

What where you paying 1&1 £25 for and what did they give you for that? I'm intrigued as british based hosting can be bought for £3 a month.

I too am curious as I use 1&1 and I pay £9.99 per month, this is for the hosting and includes my domain, think it comes to £11.98 with the VAT.

Following a few simple tips will massively help you hit the top spots in the search engines, such as correct words in the page titles. Most people search for 'Window Cleaner' and not 'Window Cleaning' so ensure that 'Window Cleaner' is in the page title, also the 'metadata' for the page which is what a lot of google and cohorts spiders use to find results needs to have all the relevant search terms.

Something that will help you all massively get to the top in google is to have a Google+ page which costs nothing but puts all your key information directly into google and links to your web pages.

For anyone living within a few miles of me should they type window cleaner, I am the first 'unpaid' listing after the sponsored adverts on Google.

I just went on Yahoo search (first time in 5 years) typed in Carlton (that's my hood) window cleaner.

First result is an ad for Everest installers

Second is an ad for Karcher on Amazon

Third is Yell.com click here now for window cleaners blah blah

Next is Carlton Cleaners Lowestoft (not anywhere near me)

Next is Green Window Cleaner Carlton Nottingham

Not bad to rank 5th on the page without paying and actual second on the page for actual window cleaners.

I do not think that you need to spend fortunes on SEO and all that, it is nothing you can not do yourselves and it is how they make their sill money sat at a desk by 'tidying up' the phrasing and wording on your web pages.

With a little homework and a few spare hours getting together a decent page does not take much, now I just have to get out and take some actual pictures of me and stop 'borrowing' images from the web

I do like Diwrnachs new page, and moreover I am glad he is pleased with it. For some, Diwrnachs route of hiring someone in to sort it for him is the best route but do loads of homework first otherwise you can pay hundreds per month for to be blinded by science and baffled with bull$hit by some fancy 'web development' company.

Remember, you are not trying to build the next 'Online experience' you are just trying to help local folk find you in a digital world.

My last tip (and I dont know how accurate this is or if I am just making it up) is to make sure your site is optimized for display on a cell phone as well as this year for the first time in history more people accessed the web vial cell phone than PC or laptop, if your page does not display well on a phone it wont hold their attention.

 

[Diwrnach]

If websites aren't displayed correctly on phones/tablets it takes a pretty heavy hit with google.

 

[Jake]

It's very important to have mobile friendly websites, that's for sure,

@Green you'd be surprised how important seo is when your in an area with high competition, it all depends on the competitors websites, if their websites are pants, then it's easy for anyone to self drive there cheap website to the top, whereas, if your competition has very good websites, you need seo help to beat them, that's for sure.

 

[Diwrnach]

It's very important to have mobile friendly websites, that's for sure,
@Green you'd be surprised how important seo is when your in an area with high competition, it all depends on the competitors websites, if their websites are pants, then it's easy for anyone to self drive there cheap website to the top, whereas, if your competition has very good websites, you need seo help to beat them, that's for sure.

This is why I went with a real website guy, where I live is right on border of three countys (Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire) it is also a small town surrounded by small towns and villages.

I couldn't put one town or area (like Carlton Nottingham above) as I would get such a small amount of people actually searching for that, it has been a headache trying to get this sorted I would end up top in some areas and not exist in others, tweak things and the reverse would happen.

On top of that a lot of the Birmingham, Coventry and Oxford websites overlap my area and have good websites.

 

[Jake]

And that's why I paid for a pro website too @Diwrnach, it was the only way to compete...