SM
Painting Tips and Advice
Painting and Decorating Concourse
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The
Concourse eStore
Paint Business Marketing
Setting up a Website
part 1
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WWW
The world wide web. Should a local businesses set up a web page? Isn't the web a "world wide" venue?
As time goes on it will be mandatory for a local business such as a paint contracting company to establish a web presence.
Every year more and more people become web savvy and search for local business via the internet
Website vs Directory Advertising
Directory advertising such as phone book listings (printed versions) and similar types of print advertising will become less and less relevant to getting the word out on your business.
Such advertising will get you a stagnant block ad that you cannot add to or change for a whole year sometimes, often do not tell potential customers enough about you for them to make an intelligent decision about you and your company.
A website on the other hand is a "living", up to date broadcast that can be loaded with lots of pertinent information for customers to size up whether you are competent and the type of company they would consider for their project. A website gives you the opportunity to show what you can do and in great detail.
Getting started on the Internet
You will need to choose a web host (they will "host" your web site) such as Homestead (my web host for this site) and a domain name , which you can get through your web host. You will find each host has different hosting plans depending on how much storage and bandwidth you will be using. A good rule is start small and upgrade as you need to later.
Your domain name
Homestead (I assume other hosting companies do the same) has a free domain name selection tool which will tell you if your desired name is available. If your name is already taken, the selection tool will give you similar names that are available.
How to choose your name.
The best advice is to use a couple of "keywords" that will make your name easily found in the search engines when people look for your company. A good "URL" for a paint contractor could be something like www.painting-experts.com or www.faux-finishing-help.com. etc..... You may want to use your company name, particularly if it contains keywords that are commonly searched for via the search engines for people looking for your service (such as "Jim Smith House Painting Inc."). You need to be aware that a company name that doesn't contain the keywords Internet inquiries use for searching for a paint business (such as "Jim Smith Enterprises Inc."), won't help you to be found by Internet searches, unless someone is looking specifically for Jim Smith Enterprises.
Becoming a "WebMaster"
I recommend building your own website, it isn't difficult to do, and you can go at your own pace designing it as you prefer. Many (if not most? ) web hosts have their own software that you can use to set up your site. I use Homestead and their "SiteBuilder" software for this website. I am not a computer whiz, but I manage everything on this site. I can pretty much do whatever I need to do with this site with the free SIteBuilder software that comes with Homestead's hosting. Site Build It (of which I am also a subsriber) also has it's own web site software (also called the "SiteBuilder" ). The information you get with Site Build It membership over and above their SiteBuilder is quite exhaustive. There is searchable information made available on the site to help you with topics from site building to getting indexed to content writing and so on which is quite valuable.
SEO
The art of designing web pages that are search engine friendly (so that inquiring customers can find you) is called "search engine optimization" or SEO for short. While I am not an absolute expert at SEO, I do have a fairly good working knowledge of such. My SEO skills have come from essentially only two sources: The Internet Marketing Course produced by The Internet Marketing Center and from Site Build It. a product of Ken Evoy. Both of these sources will teach you how to design your web pages for the search engines and for potential customers to find you. URLs, page titles, meta descriptions and key words, getting links, sitemaps, etc... are all covered in easily understood language. Natural search engine traffic is free and necessary for your business.
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