Web site addresses

[tonybhoy]

Hi,I have a website that looks like this,

www.tonybhoy-plumbingandheating.co.uk

Obviously not my real website however my business name is pretty long too so the entire web address is pretty long and a bit of a handful so I was thinking of cutting it to,

www.tonybhoy.com or www.tonybhoy.co.uk.

Both web address are mine so no problem there.

Main reason is so that the new advert I am planning looks nice and neat.

I've done a Google search on just the first part of my current web address and I am first page third place down so I don't think the 'plumbingandheating' part will matter that much because those words are part of my site's optimisation.

Anyone have an opinion?

Thanks.

 

[heatingman]

Not got a site personally but know plenty who have,

If you can get on google with first page, I'd reckon thats pretty good, and impressive if in first few lines, if I search I never go much further than 2/3 pages. Haven't got a clue how the hits thing is governed.
One friends got nice site but difficult to find, but still gets work. Another mates got a very proffesional site, he paid initial setting up fee but does a lot of it himself. Gets lots of work and enquiries.
If the site looks good it works, thinks me.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Hi Tony

although your domain name is important, specially in other marketing material like business cards, letterheads and ads, your page titles, keywords and content is much more important to get a 1st page listing on Google.

So I suggest you name all your pages beginning with: "Tony Bhoy - Plumbing and Heating - about us" or £Tony Bhoy - Plumbing and Heating - contact details" - Tony Bhoy - Plumbing and Heating - Testimonials" etc

Have a look on our website to see how that works.

 

[tonybhoy]

Not got a site personally but know plenty who have,

If you can get on google with first page, I'd reckon thats pretty good, and impressive if in first few lines, if I search I never go much further than 2/3 pages. Haven't got a clue how the hits thing is governed.
One friends got nice site but difficult to find, but still gets work. Another mates got a very proffesional site, he paid initial setting up fee but does a lot of it himself. Gets lots of work and enquiries.
If the site looks good it works, thinks me.

I did my first site myself which was ok but nothing brilliant .I then had a professional site done for £200 by a student organisation who take on commercial work in order to give student IT people experience in IT related stuff and have to say they have been brilliant.

http://www.student-design.co.uk/

They charge me £12 for each change to the site I make which isn't often however I not really sure if this current change I'm about to make is just a simple change or a major one,I'll need to drop them a line.

Cheers.

I'll need to ask them.

 

[tonybhoy]

Hi Tony

although your domain name is important, specially in other marketing material like business cards, letterheads and ads, your page titles, keywords and content is much more important to get a 1st page listing on Google.

So I suggest you name all your pages beginning with: "Tony Bhoy - Plumbing and Heating - about us" or £Tony Bhoy - Plumbing and Heating - contact details" - Tony Bhoy - Plumbing and Heating - Testimonials" etc

Have a look on our website to see how that works.

Thanks for the advice mate.

That is a very impressive site you have judging by which I would have to have all of my pages renamed if I go with a different web address which I don't suppose is any big deal to someone who knows what they are doing.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Cheers.

Tony.

 

[WoodYouLike]

I did my first site myself which was ok but nothing brilliant .I then had a professional site done for £200 by a student organisation who take on commercial work in order to give student IT people experience in IT related stuff and have to say they have been brilliant.

http://www.student-design.co.uk/[/QUOTE]
Hi Tony

The main problem (mostly) with IT persons is that they can make you an amazing neat looking website, but hardly know anything (or not enough) about webmarketing.
And webmarketing is what brings in the clients, not the flash-images

 

[tonybhoy]

I did my first site myself which was ok but nothing brilliant .I then had a professional site done for £200 by a student organisation who take on commercial work in order to give student IT people experience in IT related stuff and have to say they have been brilliant.

http://www.student-design.co.uk/[/QUOTE]
Hi Tony

The main problem (mostly) with IT persons is that they can make you an amazing neat looking website, but hardly know anything (or not enough) about webmarketing.
And webmarketing is what brings in the clients, not the flash-images

Recommend any software/books that I can use?

Thanks.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Definitely !

Just finished reading (and have implemented various ideas for it too with success!) The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy.
I've wrote an review on another blog where you can also find tips and hint for software to use

And I'll end with my best tip: in order to make your website work for you, you'll have to work on your website

 

[tonybhoy]

Definitely !

Just finished reading (and have implemented various ideas for it too with success!) The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy.
I've wrote an review on another blog where you can also find tips and hint for software to use

And I'll end with my best tip: in order to make your website work for you, you'll have to work on your website

Thanks.

I'll have a look.

Anything that gives you a wee bit of an advantage has to be worth the effort.

Cheers,

Tony.

BTW,just reading through that site there and have to say I was pretty impressed with the pop-up thing on your website.

They usually do my head in but I wasn't too bothered with yours ,I simply closed it.

 

[GasMan1965]

Optomising is the key word here !!

Having a great looking site is a good thing but if it aint optomised then it wont be found so easily.

I got a company to do mine and I also have a deal with them for advertising,, cant remember the costs but its payed itself back numerous times over with the amount of jobs Ive got from my web site !

 

[JohnD]

don't let your web designer make pages that are technically dazzling and clever.

make him give you pages that are simple.

Slow-loading flash, fades, dissolves and visual effect are really annoying

Don't let him make a page where the user can't alter the text size.

Don't have annoying pop-ups

Don't have pages that don't work unless they prospect registers or accepts cookies.

if the buyer cant see what he wants within 5 seconds of looking at your site, he'll look at the next one.

 

[tonybhoy]

Good tips there John,thanks.

I have about ten pages and according to the stats only about three of them are actually viewed.

Need to do something about that although I don't think the stats are 'that' comprehensive.

Tony.

 

[breezer]

my 2p worth.

for my sins i run a "few" websites, there is no definative way to get them to number 1 in google, if there were we would all do it, and then we could not all be number 1

I can tell you it has nothing to do with how many links you have.

as far as i can tell, It is to do with "keywords" and the relevance of these keywords, i can also tell you there is x, x is a "formula" that google uses, google make no secret thats how its done, but they aint telling no one what x is (my money is on some bloke who says yes or no)

But getting the keywords right really does help

I read somewhere that google changed x slightly and a lot of companies that were number one got really upset when they found they were no longer number 1

I used to have a site wher by i would also advertise other people who did this "job" that i used to do (i have had to give it up for personal reasons) so the site no longer exists, but i would never advertise anyone who used flash as an intro page.
Apart from the fact i dont like it, google can not read flash, so if you have a intro page done using flash, get rid f it now.

oh, one more thing, there are billions of webpages out there, google does read what it can on all of them, so if you make any changes today, don't expect any results for at least 6 weeks

 

[WoodYouLike]

oh, one more thing, there are billions of webpages out there, google does read what it can on all of them, so if you make any changes today, don't expect any results for at least 6 weeks

But if you make regular changes to your website, every time the changes are uploaded your site gets a new 'time-stamp'. Google just loves websites with frequently changing time-stamps, hence the popularity of blog.

Incoming links do count in some way, especially if they come from also high-scoring websites.

Overall, it's the content that 'sells'. Getting ranked high on google is one thing, keeping visitors on your site and have them take 'action' (ask a quote, enquiry etc) is another but way more important thing.
Give free advice, create trust and try to start a conversation with your prospects.

 

[tonybhoy]

Great feedback guys/gals.

Keep em coming.

Cheers,

Tony.