Tilers Websites and Web Design

[jonnyc]

Dan how can I get my website name under my jacuzzi picture on this forum highlighted so someone can just click on it to link to website

 

[Ceramico tiling]

friend of mine has just finished mine using wordpress.
website by alan walker :convenient knowledge
website :johnclarkenaturalstonework.co.uk
Surrey's leading specialist fixer of quality stone
it has taken us ages or rather i have taken ages giving him the photos and content .
will be interested to see if it brings some new work in

Well that depends on the SEO emphasis from your friend during the design of the site and how much time you spend promoting/listing it etc

- - - Updated - - -

friend of mine has just finished mine using wordpress.
website by alan walker :convenient knowledge
website :johnclarkenaturalstonework.co.uk
Surrey's leading specialist fixer of quality stone
it has taken us ages or rather i have taken ages giving him the photos and content .
will be interested to see if it brings some new work in

Well that depends on the SEO emphasis from your friend during the design of the site and how much time you spend promoting/listing it etc

 

[taffy]

Interesting mix of info in here, so I thought I'd add another one... I made my own site in flash about 2 years ago, I own 2 servers so host it myself
any comments are welcome... rks.co

 

[itidiot]

A website is nothing but a glorified business card without SEO

Ceramico makes an excellent point on SEO. It's all great on having a nice looking tillers website but without search engine optimisation it's worthless. Essentially it's like have a master piece but keeping it in a vault.

Small business tilers owners like yourselves, need to approach a SEO/website developer to do the work for you, unless you have the budgets to pay for both services separately. Your primary focus is to get your website in the top 5 results for a particular search terms. Once your site is gaining traffic, then the site design then comes into play, showcasing your skills, giving the potential customer enough confidence that you can do the job. However most importantly is getting traffic!!!

You should focus your time on SEO and I would suggest you focus on keywords search as
- Tiling *location name e.g. " Tiling East London", "Tiling Ealing", "Tiling Wandsworth", "Tiling WC1", etc etc..
- Tiler *location name e.g. " Tiler East London", , "Tiler Ealing", "Tiler Wandsworth", "Tiler WC1", etc etc..

I would not focus on just the word "tiler" without an geographic terms as this is nationwide and most tiling businesses are regional. You don’t want loads of calls from the other side of the country.

With Regards to costs
I recently built a plaster site Plastering East London | D Davis & Sons Ltd. . The same principle applies to tilers...
and the goal was to rank for a couple of terms.. all are which are with the top 5 in Google.
"Plastering East London"
"Plastering Leyton"
"Plastering Wansted"
"Plastering Loughton"
"Plastering Hackney"
Hopefully this will give you an idea of what you need to do for your tiling business. As the same principle works.

He decided to have a go at doing it himself...so there are some dodgy designed pages!!! But the good foundations of the site, some SEO training and the added pages he created got him ranking for:
"Plastering Enfield"
"Plastering Walthamstow"
And others…

Traffic Volumes are important!!
You need to think about traffic volumes. If your site ranks well for x number of keywords that generate 7000 searches per month and you get 4% of that traffic from Google (because your site in top of the rankings) that’s 280 hits per month to your site (9.3 per day). If you convert just 3% of that traffic that lands on your site 8.4 jobs per month. That probably pays for the website in month 1 and only SEO contracts you might do.

Hopefully this explains what you need to do and the importance of SEO and having on agreed plan of action prior to commencing work. Speak you seo & webveloper and agree on what terms your expect to be ranked for prior to getting your site done. They are no gaurentees on position as it all depends on competition from other sitesd but your developer SEO guy should be able to give you a plan of action to work towards this positions.

One Last comment - Slightly off topic
Google is showing a decline in People searching for Tilers in London.. I dont now if this is a national average because of the recession. Link here but it's not good reading..... for you guys
http://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore#q=Tiler London, London Tiler&geo=GB&date=1/2011 24m&cmpt=q

I would be interested if a admin could let us know if they have seen a decline in the number of new threads on the Jobs section over the last year to back this up
And yes feel to P.M me

 

[itidiot]

Interesting mix of info in here, so I thought I'd add another one... I made my own site in flash about 2 years ago, I own 2 servers so host it myself
any comments are welcome... rks.co

Hi Taffy,

Hope you take this comment in the right way.

Flash sites do not work in terms of SEO as Google cant see your site (you got master piece in vault...see above). So in terms of design its one thing but you will never get any organic SEO traffic to your site. You need to rebuild this in HTML to take advantage of traffic

Google only seeing your site as 5 words site!!!!!!!

RKS KITCHENS BEDROOMS BATHROOMS SULLY PENARTH VALE OF GLAMORGAN.

Hence you dont rank for any terms... such as

"KITCHENS PENARTH"
"BEDROOMS PENARTH"
"BATHROOMS PENARTH"

 

[Dan]

Dan how can I get my website name under my jacuzzi picture on this forum highlighted so someone can just click on it to link to website

I've just fixed the link for you, but your website is down? Or your web address is spelt wrong?!

 

[Dan]

Hi Taffy,

Hope you take this comment in the right way.

Flash sites do not work in terms of SEO as Google cant see your site (you got master piece in vault...see above). So in terms of design its one thing but you will never get any organic SEO traffic to your site. You need to rebuild this in HTML to take advantage of traffic

Google only seeing your site as 5 words site!!!!!!!

RKS KITCHENS BEDROOMS BATHROOMS SULLY PENARTH VALE OF GLAMORGAN.

Hence you dont rank for any terms... such as

"KITCHENS PENARTH"
"BEDROOMS PENARTH"
"BATHROOMS PENARTH"

I was just about to say the same thing. Google can't read Flash or content contained within images. So it's like printing 1000 business cards and giving out 3. You just wont see a return on it. A lot of work goes into good flash sites too so it's a real shame.

Content is king. You need a lot of good content for your users and that'll make sure Google likes you too.

 

[Jeff the tiler]

Done mine through Go daddy and used their templates etc. Get's you going for little initial outlay. Probably took a couple of hours and wel worth it.

 

[Dan]

If your site ranks well for x number of keywords that generate 7000 searches per month and you get 4% of that traffic from Google (because your site in top of the rankings) that’s 280 hits per month to your site (9.3 per day).

I'd bet you a fiver that the average traffic rate for a UK tradesmen's site is more like 90% of traffic from Google. 8% from all other search engines combined. And 2% from social networks and other stuff.

4% seems a bit low, where else is traffic coming from in that example?!?! lol

 

[Dan]

I was thinking of running a group buy sort of offer.

If we get 500 heads wanting a website, we'll do it for £175 a pop instead of £300+ type thing. Think it'd be worth it?
Would have to play with the figures, not sure we'd get 500 right from the start maybe.

 

[peteablard]

You can make a start on one for me Dan, I'm sure the other 499 will be along shortly.......

 

[taffy]

I knew someone would say summit flashish
I was aware of SEO even when I made it, it was still fairly new back then, but I never made it with expectations of getting work from on-line traffic, just more like a digital notice board where new clients could pre-view my work in the gallery.
People will still have flash plug-in's installed for years to come so no need to change it yet.

 

[AMtek]

Is it better to look at visits, pages or hits per month to see how your site is doing? and how many of the preferred one would be a good number for sites like ours?

 

[itidiot]

Is it better to look at visits, pages or hits per month to see how your site is doing? and how many of the preferred one would be a good number for sites like ours?

Hi Amtek The best thing to do is check in Google Webmaster tools (if you have set this Up .. it's free so you should)

and look at how many impressions you have received (In Google Webmaster tools this actually means how many searches have bought up your site... The use of the term 'impressions' is different between Google Analytics & Google Webmaster Tools) v's how many click throughs you have received. If this ratio is poor it basically means your site is missing out on a massive proportion of search traffic because poor SEO. i.e People could be searching for "Tiler London" 20,000 times a month(Web master Tools Impressions) but you could be getting 1 click of that 20,000 searches.

Higher up the rankings you go the better the ratio you will recieve and that is the key metric if your site is doing well or not. (plus how many conversions/new business it generates :8

So I cant really say you should be reciving X number of clicks, as each term has generates different traffic volumes. e.g. "Tiler john o'groats" might only have 1 search a month and if you get a click your doing pretty well but in comparison to "Tiler London" your doing poor!

Clear as mud!

 

[itidiot]

Dan. Why not sell links from this site as a Group buy inorder to help peoples SEO or even better give them away....

i.e. Create a Page on here for "Tiler London" and allow 10-20 websites be listed. That would really help people get more traffic/business from Google? Could really boost peoples businesses on here.

Perhaps people with the most posts get a page or a keyword for free. One way to repay the community for all thier top content!

 

[AMtek]

Okay I will try this, I did set up a google anylitics and webmaster tools account when I first did my site and had to put a tracking code into the site (does this sound right?) but when I logged in yesterday it said that I hadn't registered a site? strange

 

[jonnyc]

I've just fixed the link for you, but your website is down? Or your web address is spelt wrong?!

thanks dan . i will look at this. website definitely not down

 

[jonnyc]

thanks its ok now .
i really dont know what im doing but my friend alan who has done all the work on this website has a much better idea than me.
we have arrived at the type of visual image i want.
he is not a web designer by profession but was in marketing and has learnt as he went along.
but when i look at site and click on portfolio to see images of work it seems to be very slow and i really want the pictures central and not be able to see anything in background.
I dont mind if we have to go to a specialist web designer for this extra work but dont want to have to start again as alan has done a very good job i think and i want him to take the credit if he wants to do more sites and use this site as an example of what he can do.

 

[itidiot]

Okay I will try this, I did set up a google anylitics and webmaster tools account when I first did my site and had to put a tracking code into the site (does this sound right?) but when I logged in yesterday it said that I hadn't registered a site? strange

Hi Amtek

You have installed the Google Anylitcs code on your site as I can see the code. Your account number is UA-25072861-1 you just need to remember what your account you used.

if you have problems get in contact with Google https://www.google.com/accounts/recovery?hl=en-GB&service=analytics

Link attached!

 

[itidiot]

thanks its ok now .
i really dont know what im doing but my friend alan who has done all the work on this website has a much better idea than me.
we have arrived at the type of visual image i want.
he is not a web designer by profession but was in marketing and has learnt as he went along.
but when i look at site and click on portfolio to see images of work it seems to be very slow and i really want the pictures central and not be able to see anything in background.
I dont mind if we have to go to a specialist web designer for this extra work but dont want to have to start again as alan has done a very good job i think and i want him to take the credit if he wants to do more sites and use this site as an example of what he can do.

Hi Alan,

Your site/theme looks really good so dont get changing the design at all, just needs a little snagging. He's done you a nice site!

You need to get your designer to save your images optimised for web. Essentialluly the file sizes are too large.. your asking your visitors to download really large images which is unnecessary. In photoshop you can "save as web" and reduce the quality and size down. This will sort alot of your slowness out. 8 seconds to load a page will make most people click off before it's loaded.

Should only take him 2-3 hours to resave the images. It's a really simple job just boring (if they all need sorting that is). For example on your home page you have this image (double click and see how massive it is.. the shells the whole width of my screen) Broken Link Removed You could even do it!! Just need to download photoshop demo and a bit of instruction.

You have also got a link in the code thats causing issues. (wont really give you much in terms of speed when fixed but it should be fixed nevertheless)

The link is
link rel="stylesheet" href="[DLMURL]http://johnclarkenaturalstonework.co.uk/wp-content/themes/smallbiz/css/smallbiz-options.css.php[/DLMURL]" type="text/css" media="screen"

It's got two file extensions on the end of the link.css & .php so just delete the .php off the end and all will be sorted.

I would also get him to remove a plugin called "Stats for wordpress" as you have lots of plugins installed and you can just embed Google Anylitics and Google Webmaster Tools which are both free. Which renders this additional plugin useless.

Apart from that it looks good

 

[Dan]

^ Doesn't really render the plugin useless as many do actually block Analytics from their web browsers etc when blocking advertisements from Google. Incognito browsing will also be monitored by your Wordpress stats, but not by Analytics.

 

[Dan]

Dan. Why not sell links from this site as a Group buy inorder to help peoples SEO or even better give them away....

i.e. Create a Page on here for "Tiler London" and allow 10-20 websites be listed. That would really help people get more traffic/business from Google? Could really boost peoples businesses on here.

Perhaps people with the most posts get a page or a keyword for free. One way to repay the community for all thier top content!

I'd rather not sell or give away text-links. Tilers can naturally get links on this website.

We also have half a dozen related websites, directories, and others, where they can include a listing, and the lads here know that already.

 

[jonnyc]

Hi Alan,

Your site/theme looks really good so dont get changing the design at all, just needs a little snagging. He's done you a nice site!

You need to get your designer to save your images optimised for web. Essentialluly the file sizes are too large.. your asking your visitors to download really large images which is unnecessary. In photoshop you can "save as web" and reduce the quality and size down. This will sort alot of your slowness out. 8 seconds to load a page will make most people click off before it's loaded.

Should only take him 2-3 hours to resave the images. It's a really simple job just boring (if they all need sorting that is). For example on your home page you have this image (double click and see how massive it is.. the shells the whole width of my screen) Broken Link Removed You could even do it!! Just need to download photoshop demo and a bit of instruction.

You have also got a link in the code thats causing issues. (wont really give you much in terms of speed when fixed but it should be fixed nevertheless)

The link is
link rel="stylesheet" href="[DLMURL]http://johnclarkenaturalstonework.co.uk/wp-content/themes/smallbiz/css/smallbiz-options.css.php[/DLMURL]" type="text/css" media="screen"

It's got two file extensions on the end of the link.css & .php so just delete the .php off the end and all will be sorted.

I would also get him to remove a plugin called "Stats for wordpress" as you have lots of plugins installed and you can just embed Google Anylitics and Google Webmaster Tools which are both free. Which renders this additional plugin useless.

Apart from that it looks good

Thanks so much for your reply.
i cannot express how pleased i am that someone has taken time like you have ,to have a look at what i have tried to create.I think you understand what I am after. I am also open to any new suggestions that would make site better.
This has been quite a journey but I have complete belief that a visual website to showcase work is the way forward.
i have won two jobs this month as a result of submitting my quote and suggesting client look at new website.
i also have to admit that I have drawn my ideas from garden designers who work in the high end of their market.
They have a completely diffrent take than most tiling websites .
i

 

[jonnyc]

I will talk with Alan about your comments which are very much appreciated

 

[Protilers]

for a while now I have been wanting to move to a website that is a little more tablet/smartphone/pc/google.......friendly.......

I think I am on the right track......what do you lot think?

CLICK TO VIEW MY NEW SITE

it is not complete by a long shot but have a mess around.......