making a small site for my dads xmas present. suggestions?

flc735

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building a site for my dads small contracting business as an xmas present. i figure a simple and clean wordpress site with a short description of what kind of jobs he does and lots of pictures of his work. get him in google places and... what else?
should i target any keywords like "contractors in mycity" to rank for them or does google places basically take care of that?
im not looking to get him an explosion of business, but 2-4 extra jobs a year via internet would be great.

any other suggestions would be great. thank you :)
 
Is your dad good at using email? Contact forms lead to a lot of business in my experience with small local businesses. Most people are afraid to call, but will fill out a contact form. So if he is good at email himself, just put a contact form on the site for people to fill in that goes straight to his inbox. If he isn't so great, forward it to your own email address and just let him know when someone emails.
 
Google places will help with the keyword for your city but the chances are that someone else has put in extra effort to outrank you.
 
i agree with kickflip, and add a way for visitors to contact your father (or someone else if he isn't comfortable with it) to answer questions. i vouch for that, simply because i hate the phone, and i always check on the internet first. honestly, i haven't rang anybody for a service for years.

also, i'm not sure about the google places thing, as i have no experience with it. but i think you should try and rank for any keyword that you possibly can.

it depends on your funds, but you could also try other methods. for example, make a good looking site for your dad's business, and send out magnets, flyers, whatever, with his business name and contact info. i don't know if it's legal where you are, but it's worth checking out. that's what i plan on doing with my new site, but it's legal here to do that. but it would be a good way to advertise, people get the magnet in their letterbox and stick it straight on their fridge.

they'll go to that because they know it's on their fridge before checking the yellow pages.

(i do that though, and i think it's true for most people)
 
Is your dad good at using email? Contact forms lead to a lot of business in my experience with small local businesses. Most people are afraid to call, but will fill out a contact form. So if he is good at email himself, just put a contact form on the site for people to fill in that goes straight to his inbox. If he isn't so great, forward it to your own email address and just let him know when someone emails.

great idea, im definitely doing this thank you :)
 
i agree with kickflip, and add a way for visitors to contact your father (or someone else if he isn't comfortable with it) to answer questions. i vouch for that, simply because i hate the phone, and i always check on the internet first. honestly, i haven't rang anybody for a service for years.

also, i'm not sure about the google places thing, as i have no experience with it. but i think you should try and rank for any keyword that you possibly can.

it depends on your funds, but you could also try other methods. for example, make a good looking site for your dad's business, and send out magnets, flyers, whatever, with his business name and contact info. i don't know if it's legal where you are, but it's worth checking out. that's what i plan on doing with my new site, but it's legal here to do that. but it would be a good way to advertise, people get the magnet in their letterbox and stick it straight on their fridge.

they'll go to that because they know it's on their fridge before checking the yellow pages.

(i do that though, and i think it's true for most people)

ill look into Gplaces and see exactly what thats about. about ranking for keywords, is "contractors in townA", "home improvement in zipB" ect... the way to go about it? didn't really find much in terms of keywords when i was researching last night. the most searched term along those lines was 41 exact match/month. (he doesn't work in the city, but a 30 mile stretch of large towns between us and the city)
 
...should i target any keywords like "contractors in mycity" to rank for them or does google places basically take care of that?
im not looking to get him an explosion of business, but 2-4 extra jobs a year via internet would be great.
You will need to do the correct keyword research*. It may be worth doing a Google Places (GP) listing, if there is a GP listing or (more than 5) Adwords ads (and enough search volume) for any of the following terms (as an example):
[city] contractors
contractors [city]
contractors in [city]

(he doesn't work in the city, but a 30 mile stretch of large towns between us and the city)
In Google Places, you can target a service area of a specified radius around a city.

You may also want to create/rank other Web 2.0 properties, e.g. YouTube, Squidoo, or business directories listings. Additionally, a Linked In profile can be good for getting extra business.


* Keyword research guides:
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...ethod-step-step-keyword-research-newbies.html
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/white-hat-seo/333317-keyword-research-btb-way.html
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...-absolute-newbies-guide-keyword-research.html
 
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i think you can find a lot of nice templates for your website here: themeforest.net/
 
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