for those of you with websites, how has having it improved your business?

JR Farrier Service wrote:
My website has a contact form so people fill it out and I get it immediately on my Droid. I am able to reply right away and people are blown away by that. I put several towns/cities in my area on my website which makes it easier to be searchable for people looking for farriers in my area.

I did the free Microsoft website, I believe I only paid to change my domain from the standard domain they gave me.

I like having control over my website, I could change pictures or wording whenever I want.

To answer your question, it is a tool or a media that gives clients or potential clients a way to respond quickly and something to look at and read to understand what I represent. They can also look at my service area and see if I even go to their area.

Cody you should consider using a Word Press content management system on your site. This would allow you to more easily update the content and you could add your blog right to the website making sure your traffic sees everything.

This is my site im working on right now.

www.hoofwork.com

Justin,
I've gotten a lot of business from internet searches. A good website can set you apart from others in the area. Keep it interesting.

My website is my better tool. I want not horses for trimm or owners hunter-prices. I want ortopedics shoeings and work with the vets. There,the web site is fantastic. Many owners,desperates with your farrier, search a solution in internet. They ask in Google,and I am here. If you put in google many Spanish word in relation to the horse hoof,Google send you to "farriergabino.com",ortopedic specialist farrier. The owner visits my website and here find the same problem of his horse and find a posible solution step by step. Then,the owner call or mail me.

SlowShoe wrote:

I don't know how to do that. Would be better to have my blog on there instead of clicking on a link. I'll check on it.

One of the easiest things to do is go to Farriers United and talk to Jeff Denson. The format is already for you when you sign up and with minimal work you have a nice looking web site, store full of products, billing possibilities, credit card acceptance, and other things. Talk to Jeff and he can tell you what it has done for others.

Gabinos website is awesome, but I have yet to work out the English conversion button which won't come up on my iPad.

I sometimes wonder if my website is worth having. I have gotten business from it, but I also get a lot of hoax enquiries and tyre-kickers, or other farriers looking for dirt. I probably shouldn't blame the website so much as just being new to the area and being a girl too.

But I am going to change a few things any day now. For example, I don't have a space for their phone number on my enquiry form and have gotten into games of email ping-pong rather than speaking to a human on the phone. If they ar tyre kicking, they prefer that and won't call anyway so i f we don't speak after one round of emails I ignore them.

I got a huge response from my blog - in part from guys on here - but I also sent out a regular newsletter (that my husband made a template for so it's easy to keep doing) and sent it out to all my customers while I was away.
Many went and looked, and I think about half have kept in touch.

I think a good website is built over time, so keep adding and changing and making it dynamic. Also, you need to pay attention to search engine optimization - meaning how to get yourself better ranking. No point having a
webpage if you are not up the top of page 1 of a search. But that takes time and building a site with an understanding how the system works.

If I was in America, I would love to be aligned with farriers united, what a great setup.

thanks guys, i am leaning towards getting one just to have my own email domain haha.. i am fairly handy at web design so i could make one if i so desired (and had the time lol)

i appreciate the input

First I want to say thanks for the kind words towards Farriers United! With Farriers United you can get as custom as you want. You can have your own domain and email. It will also put your site site in the top of any search engine. What we did that is a little different than others is we broke the search down to cities, and counties you want to work in. You can also do State wide searches just more to compete with but all of our sites are ranked 1st or 2nd. The other great thing is if you have a problem you get another farrier on the line.
Thanks,
Jeff Denson
Jeff Denson
FarriersUnited.com

I get offers all the time from companies that "specialize" in search engine optimization (SEO). Usually I reply to their offer by demonstrating that their own company's web site doesn't come up in a search for "web site search optimization." Hey if they can't get themselves listed in their specialty, why the heck would I pay them to "fix" my web site?

One can claim they provide search optimization, but how do they deliver it?

A simple test, I tried this in google . . .

farrier Tucson, Arizona

Ben Sturman came up on page 3 . . . NO direct link on the first page.

This search worked . . .

Ben Sturman farrier Tucson, Arizona

. . . but how would someone searching for a new farrier in Tucson already know the name of the farrier they wanted to hire?

Not picking on you Ben, but you aren't that easy to find if I want a farrier in your sand pile.

It's ok Tom, there's a few things I need to do yet. I have not spent much time getting the web site done. I need to do some adding and housecleaning and get Jeff some more info. We'll see if it works. Thanks!

Yes that is correct we do need to get Ben site fixed up. Since Ben has not up loaded pics and other things that we can't tag them so, its tough to get a high ranking. Ben was on the first page for farrier in Vail Arizona. If you want to do a google search try North Texas and Chris Wagnor is a member. All of the farriers that are actively using there site are on the first page. If they are not I find out why and pay somebody to fix it.

It is difficult to anticipate how someone might enter their search criteria - county, city, state . . . "North Texas?"

Thats the cool thing about it you can do what ever you want. He wants to service all of North Texas. I want to service Hillsborough N.C and a few other counties. I was going to show you that even on a big search that our sites show up when fully set up.

I'm sticking with my $3.99/month deal . . .

http://www.page-server.net/