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Is a website worth it?

Bongofish

Active member
Messages
314
Location
Pontefract
Like the title says really? With facebook and Instagram and other social media, email addresses etc etc , would you say a website is still a worthwhile purchase?

 
I worked as a professional web designer for 15 years until I was made redundant in January 2020. 

With small business like us, unless the website is transactional they are nothing more than a formality. Don't get me wrong they are important for building your business profile and looking professional.  However websites take time to work there way through googles algorithms and will not generate organic traffic for some time. 

  • Facebook 
  • Checkatrade 
  • nextdoor app 

all give you an instant marketing platform and have given me all of my customers that were not word of mouth. 

Looking at the google analytics for my site the only visitors are from backlinks on facebook ect 

Never the less physical web presence is a surefire way to gain trust 

 
Work social media first and get your reputation and online presence up and working you can also create a google my business page do the free things first then decide if a website is for you, I have had website for years but the vast majority of my work comes via fb

 
I have a basic website but most of my new business comes through Checkatrade. Will have been on Checkatrade for 2 years in August and it looks like I will need to leave them. The reason being is that I have become too busy and has nothing to do with the £85 a month. As a one man band and doing many add-ons means more work than I can handle. Not sure what I will use the extra £85 a month on, maybe a new van.

 
I would always suggest that any website is better than no website, it can only provide more ways for a potential customer to find out about your business.

Just make sure it’s written correctly and laid out so it’s visually appealing and easy to follow.

 
I have a basic website but most of my new business comes through Checkatrade. Will have been on Checkatrade for 2 years in August and it looks like I will need to leave them. The reason being is that I have become too busy and has nothing to do with the £85 a month. As a one man band and doing many add-ons means more work than I can handle. Not sure what I will use the extra £85 a month on, maybe a new van.
At £85 a month and you charge lets say an average £15 per per house, you will need to get 6 new customers a Month just to cover the cost..then you are doing the first clean for nowt. And must have got 140 plus over the 2 years to make it worthwhile. And do the customer not get quotes from 3 different people?. Think you are getting mostly your famous "add on,s" jobs through the site, not window cleaning only jobs.

 
At £85 a month and you charge lets say an average £15 per per house, you will need to get 6 new customers a Month just to cover the cost..then you are doing the first clean for nowt. And must have got 140 plus over the 2 years to make it worthwhile. And do the customer not get quotes from 3 different people?. Think you are getting mostly your famous "add on,s" jobs through the site, not window cleaning only jobs.
I agree.  for me Fb is the way to go I have picked up 7 jobs in the past week and they didn't cost me anything to gain those jobs, I won't part with cash for advertising and certainly not £85 a month 

 
At £85 a month and you charge lets say an average £15 per per house, you will need to get 6 new customers a Month just to cover the cost..then you are doing the first clean for nowt. And must have got 140 plus over the 2 years to make it worthwhile. And do the customer not get quotes from 3 different people?. Think you are getting mostly your famous "add on,s" jobs through the site, not window cleaning only jobs.
Got a new window customer yesterday from it but its only £6 a month. Its round the corner from where I clean and is a massive road. I'm slowly picking up customers from the area. £85 a month is nothing when it provides a pvc or PW job each month. I got a roof clean one month and a PW job the other month which took one day each and I charged £600 each job so they two jobs paid for the year. I love Checkatrade but getting too busy with Repeat Business, yesterday the guy said I would be PW his and the neighbours driveway every year because I'm also repairing it. They used to have a big pool of water in front of their front doors, so I fitted a flat drain straight into the downpipe drainage system and now they are both Happy Campers. Woman waked by and gave me the go ahead to fix her sunken monoblock where the range rover goes over it, probably another £600 for full day's work. No one seems to want to fix sunken monoblock so it seems bar me, but I have 100kg wacker plate that gives out 20 Newton Tons of force. They sink because the guys use a 65kg wacker that gives out 13 newton tons and after a car sits in same place all the time the monoblocks sink. Sometimes I can't get the blocks back in so I have to use my small grinder to remove the lugs and the block falls into place. Aye, I'm slowly becoming an expert in repairing monoblock because I have the big wacker. ?

 
Got a new window customer yesterday from it but its only £6 a month. Its round the corner from where I clean and is a massive road. I'm slowly picking up customers from the area. £85 a month is nothing when it provides a pvc or PW job each month. I got a roof clean one month and a PW job the other month which took one day each and I charged £600 each job so they two jobs paid for the year. I love Checkatrade but getting too busy with Repeat Business, yesterday the guy said I would be PW his and the neighbours driveway every year because I'm also repairing it. They used to have a big pool of water in front of their front doors, so I fitted a flat drain straight into the downpipe drainage system and now they are both Happy Campers. Woman waked by and gave me the go ahead to fix her sunken monoblock where the range rover goes over it, probably another £600 for full day's work. No one seems to want to fix sunken monoblock so it seems bar me, but I have 100kg wacker plate that gives out 20 Newton Tons of force. They sink because the guys use a 65kg wacker that gives out 13 newton tons and after a car sits in same place all the time the monoblocks sink. Sometimes I can't get the blocks back in so I have to use my small grinder to remove the lugs and the block falls into place. Aye, I'm slowly becoming an expert in repairing monoblock because I have the big wacker. ?
But if you were only window cleaning checkatrade would be just a waste of money then, £6 job for £85?

 
But if you were only window cleaning checkatrade would be just a waste of money then, £6 job for £85?
Yes, not really designed for just window cleaning. I like the window cleaning because it gets you out in the community every month and folk see your van. If I only did window cleaning then I would just go with the free ads like facebook, yell and my own website. tbh

 
I've just had a website built and it wasn't cheap. I was very skeptical but the fella came highly recommended, I've already noticed the increase in enquiries so far I've picked up a few window cleaning customers, a £140 conservatory clean and a £1200 roof clean and its only been online a week.  

Yes my website & SEO was definetly worth it or I've just had a stroke of luck 

 
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