Help what to search for........

[angelboy]

I wonder if anyone can help me.

What would you search for if you were looking for a new extension or loft conversion or maybe a new build house?

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I'm setting up a website and I'm interested to know what search terms I'd have to include.

I know that I provide Planning Permission drawings and Building Regulation drawings but would you search for that?

Would you use the word 'plans' instead of 'drawings?

Would you know to search for planning permission or building regulations in the first instance?

Would you automatically search for 'Architect' or maybe 'Builder'? (I'm neither so I'd hate to promote my search terms in a misleading manner)

Would you know or search for an 'Architectural designer'?

If you wanted a loft conversion (for example) would you search for this first?

Would you use the word 'house' or 'home'?

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As you can see, I've just scratched the surface but it's hard to get inside the head of potential customers when they could be coming to me with varying levels of knowledge.

Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[carlb40]

You might be better off hiring someone to do the SEO for you, that will probably give you better results than just changing different words at random.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

 

[Mr_P]

I'd probably ask around before I tried google to be honest. Word of mouth is far superior to a website from a stranger with lots of amazing pics which might have been lifted from another site.

I'd spend the money on my van first (apologies if this already sorted).

Does your van look the part ? Sign written , clean ?

Do you have lots of good quality pictures of previous jobs ? Despite what I said above decent pics are a must , a website with naff pictures could be worse than having no website at all.

 

[MMUK]

Personally, for these sorts of services (which I offer msyelf) I have found there's no substitute for recommendation. I wasted countless hundreds in advertising and a fancy website to no avail. 90% of my work is from recommendation and the other 10% from me having site boards strategically placed where I'm working.

 

[angelboy]

Thanks for the responses.

I understand that the website is only a small part of my marketing and really just an additional sales catalogue that I can direct potential customers towards. The point is to catch a few more potential customers by using SEO techniques and being at the top of the search rankings for my specific keywords.

TBH, employing a SEO optimizer would still have the same issues, which is the right choice of keywords - if I don't know which the best ones are then how would the SEO company. I do have access to the Google keyword tools and I've previously had several number 1 rankings for my chosen keywords (done by myself!) but Google are now de-ranking for duplicate content, meaning that I couldn't optimize "Planning Permission Plans" and "Planning Permission Drawings" without having duplicate content on those two landing pages - hence the reason why I want to find the most used keywords.

Does that make sense?

 

[MMUK]

Makes perfect sense but I still question whether or not you'd be better employed directing your attention towards more traditional methods. At the end of the day if all you're offering are sets of drawings for the planning office, unless you can make a virtual showroom of previous projects from inception to completion, a website will be a pointless expense. It's seeing the finished article that makes the impression.

just an additional sales catalogue that I can direct potential customers towards.

If you are having to direct customers personally, a much cheaper option would be to create a Powerpoint Slideshow that you could give to them on either CD or send via e-mail. I have one of these for my own business, a few years old now so I must update it. It cost me about three hours to put together and the file size was something like 15MB.

 

[SteveF]

completed different line of business
but
i have a computer company
my web site is *****
i have never advertised
word of mouth is how i survive
reputation i believe is the key to success
i will never be rich , but i have earnt a living doing this for over 25 years

my rules are:
never lie to a customer
tell them that you screwed up...but will make it right
tell them if they are unreasonable
say sorry for the delay
be polite even if they are complete and utter pineapples
slam the phone down instantly if they swear at you..it is normally because they are frustrated and still need your help

Steve

 

[angelboy]

I have projects that have gone from the drawing board to built out so I can show pretty good examples on my webpage.

The point about directing potential customers to the website is so that any advert will have three forms of contact: phone, email and website. I think that's the least that customers expect these days. In a magazine or newspaper, people have the option to read your advert and it should be designed to attract their attention. With a web search, irrespective of the content of the website, you're looking to attract people that are actively looking for a service that you can offer.

This is the point of what to search for. I'm not looking for my website to be the only form of attracting new business but I see little point in designing it right from the start and not making full use of marketing tools that are available - SEO techniques. For this, they have to be incorporated at the building stage of the site and not as an afterthought later down the line.

 

[angelboy]

completed different line of business
but
i have a computer company
my web site is dung
i have never advertised
word of mouth is how i survive
reputation i believe is the key to success
i will never be rich , but i have earnt a living doing this for over 25 years

my rules are:
never lie to a customer
tell them that you screwed up...but will make it right
tell them if they are unreasonable
say sorry for the delay
be polite even if they are complete and utter pineapples
slam the phone down instantly if they swear at you..it is normally because they are frustrated and still need your help

Steve

All great advice, which I agree with totally but I'm looking for what people would search for given the fact that they think the need or know they need some kind of plans or drawings that will help them to obtain planning permission and/or building regulations.

Again to all, thanks for the additional advice, it's always welcomed to see how others run their businesses.