Quick and Clean Websites For Landscapers in Less Than 1 Hour
If you aren’t already getting work from the web now is the time to get started. Last October, I wrote about free advertising. I’m going to show you how to get a professional looking website up and running in less than 1 hour without having to pay a designer big money. First you’ll need a web hosting account. Yahoo! has all the design tools you’ll need, more space than you’ll ever use, huge business email accounts, and 1 click installations for many helpful programs such as blogs, contact forms and statistics. Yahoo! also offers a $100 credit for their keywords ads and a $50 credit for Google ads. These days, common search keywords for landscapers are going for $0.50-$2.00 so you should be able to get at least 100 visitors who are desperate buyers for your service. If only one person hires you for an installation, that click will more than pay for a whole year’s worth of hosting fees.
While Yahoo! and others do offer free site design tools to make plain html web pages, I’m going to recommend you use a blog to manage your content. But you ask, “I don’t want a funny looking site with blog posts all over the front page?” Both Wordpress (which powers this site and millions others) and MovableType allow you to have a static, non changing home page. Both programs are easy to install with Yahoo!. All you have to do is click on the link, give it a name and Yahoo! takes care of the rest. There are literally 1000’s of theme templates available for free and many excellent designers out there if you need a custom design. Take a look at http://themes.wordpress.net/ to see some.
Once you’ve installed the software, all you have to do is add in your content. On your home page, you’ll want to have a clear sales message. If someone has found you through a google search odds are they already know you’re a landscaper and provide all the services they need. I’d bet that they’ve even checked out several of your competitors sites. It is extremely important to make sure you clearly distinguish yourself and have a call to action so they will contact your. You should have your phone number clearly listed on all the pages, an email address, a page with all your contact information AND and contact form so they don’t have to leave your site or pick up a phone to call you. Your “about page” should have a little biography of yourself and the companies history along with a photo of yourself and staff to personalize the visit.
Showing off photos of your work will help separate you from the crowd and there are several ways to do that easily. More on photos in another article. Why do I recommend using a blog? Isn’t it enough to have 5 or 6 static pages with your basic information? Blogs are really just articles arranged in chronological order with the latest ones showing up first. What’s great is that you don’t need to pay a webmaster or deal with html code to update your site. Also, blogs are easy for your clients to subscribe to by email or within most browsers. Search engines love blogs because they are constantly being updated with new information and you’ll end up with a higher ranking the more you write not to mention being about to show off your knowledge to clients. It’s a cinch for visitors to email a page to a friend. Don’t you love getting work from word of mouth advertising?
What are you waiting for? Get started now! I’ll even help get you started by email/phone.