All detailing business need to be on the internet.

Two cents........
As far as getting a site up asap just to have something out there, even with misspelled words. I would think it would do more harm than good. If I have an expensive ride that I want someone to detail, and I see their website with mispelled words or grammar errors, to me thats NOT paying attention to detail and would be a turnoff. Again just my two cents.
 
I personally hate having a website, but you kinda have to. over 90% of my business is from word of mouth. The only calls I get from my website are either scam calls or people price shopping.

The only reason I have a website is so people can look at pictures of pretty cars. Other than that is is useless for me. But thats just my personal opinion. Honestly I'm glad I don't get much business from it because most people that find places online are more worried about price than quality. I'm not cheap by any means and I get a lot of people that just hang up when I quote them a price over the phone. I know it's not even worth my time to go out and meet them to look at their vehicle.

I'm very happy with the amount of business I get from current customers, and if I could take my website down I would, but people love seeing pretty pictures....lol
 
jonn127 said:
Two cents........
As far as getting a site up asap just to have something out there, even with misspelled words. I would think it would do more harm than good. If I have an expensive ride that I want someone to detail, and I see their website with mispelled words or grammar errors, to me thats NOT paying attention to detail and would be a turnoff. Again just my two cents.
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I have to agree with you. I personally have not done my website yet (waiting for all my LLC stuff to clear through the state 1st). But once I do my site it will not be published until I am 100 % sure everything is correct and it's appealing to the eye. I'll have my gf (who just happens to be the english major) go over everything I write and re-write it or edit it to sound professional. If I'm advertising by having a website I want it to be as professional as I can. I don't want to people looking at it and saying well this guy sounds like a moron on his website. I don't want him touching my car! And once I do it right the first time it will be easy to go back and edit it as I see fit later.
 
I Shine said:
I'm also a police officer who details on the side. My current fear is that I will grow too fast. It must have been scary to quit ??? I have 18 years in and make a really good salary. I plan to retire in 7 to 12 years. When I do retire I hope to have enough customers to detail full time. I love detailing but I'm scared to take the big step.
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Same here brother. We are in the same boat!! Of course my wife won't let me quit to go "wash cars" all day. Hell, the way the State of Florida is screwing with our pensions I may be out sooner than expected. There is no incentive anymore. But, this is a great thread and great advice. I am putting my wife's new law firm all over the various ad places mentioned by the OP.
 
jonn127 said:
Two cents........
As far as getting a site up asap just to have something out there, even with misspelled words. I would think it would do more harm than good. If I have an expensive ride that I want someone to detail, and I see their website with mispelled words or grammar errors, to me thats NOT paying attention to detail and would be a turnoff. Again just my two cents.
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Agreed! I went over my website many times before I published it. I spent months making it as perfect as I could. If you're just gonna throw something together and put it out there...you're better off not doing that at all. I try to read through my website every couple of weeks to see if there's any corrections I can make. It's hard to be completely flawless...but you should definitely keep looking till it is flawless. :xyxthumbs:
 
For SEO (Search Engine Optimization) you want to be in a lot of local directories, similar to the ones listed by OP. The more directories you are in the more important you look to google and you will rank higher in the search results. SEO is a profession, let a professional handle it for you.

Make sure all your information is identical only every directory. If any of it is off it will hurt your search rankings and look like two different businesses (Google can't tell the difference).

Make sure you make a google local page and verify it. Also, make sure it is linked to your website (rel="publisher" tag in the HTML link).

Pay someone to make your website if you do not have the time/skills to do it right. Your website and the information on it is one of the most important things. There are a lot of subtle usability and web standards that you will miss trying to make it yourself. If you do choose to do it yourself pick up this book: "Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability" by Steve Krug. I've also heard squarespace is an easy way to make a website. But again as others have mentioned if your website isn't 100% correct and looks sloppy, you might as well not even bother.

Having a website is great, being found is even better. Pay someone to do your SEO (maybe the same person that makes your site).

IMO, I don't see a value in paying for any advertising in the local directories. I think your money is better spent on google adwords based on search volume. Also, again if your ads aren't solid, don't match keywords and don't go to landing pages tailored to your ads then it's a waste of money.

Hope that helps some people. Feel free to PM if you have any questions.
 
Just realized that is a very old thread. But more info on posting to all those sites would be nice if someone has the info. I have had websites for years and never did anything to improve the ratings. My sites just seems to go higher and higher in the listings on their own... so I guess it's a matter of people accessing the site or something.

I believe having the website link in my forum posts also helps and I am always very active on forums, so that is likelly one of the reasons my websites rate high in search engines (well, at least on Google). I have never given much thoughts to other search engines... maybe I should, Bing and Yahoo have taken a lot of market shares latelly... so it would be important to consider them now.
 
Calendyr said:
Just realized that is a very old thread. But more info on posting to all those sites would be nice if someone has the info. I have had websites for years and never did anything to improve the ratings. My sites just seems to go higher and higher in the listings on their own... so I guess it's a matter of people accessing the site or something.

I believe having the website link in my forum posts also helps and I am always very active on forums, so that is likelly one of the reasons my websites rate high in search engines (well, at least on Google). I have never given much thoughts to other search engines... maybe I should, Bing and Yahoo have taken a lot of market shares latelly... so it would be important to consider them now.
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Websites age and if you keep it updated play into search rankings.

If this forum could be setup one of two ways. One way you will get more link juice than the other which will help search rankings.

Every time you post your URL it's either a follow link (by default) or nofollow link. If AG has it setup where all outbound links users create are nofollow then it doesn't help by just having your link posted. If people are clicking on your link then it will help.

I don't completely understand how google SEO works but it's small things that often can make a huge difference in rankings.
 
I hired someone to do this for me . And I can testify to how well this works. You want to be everywhere on the internet .
 
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