by Seán Kirwan from Denobi.com Having a website is becoming a must these days. However, it is hard to know exactly what you need and where to start. Denobi have taken the time to outline what is happening out there and what you need to make the most of your Web presence. Today more than 80% of Irish Dog Groomers are not on the web, 10% of the Dog Groomers that are online are difficult to find, leaving the remaining 10% of Dog Grooming websites (a very select few), taking a very large chunk of the dog grooming business online. Each month an average 6,000 searches are performed by people looking to find dog groomers in Ireland. That’s a lot of business. So… Where do you begin With so much happening online, it can be difficult to know what to do. Statement’s like “You’ve gotta be on Facebook! Twitter is just incredible. How often do you blog, what’s your blog….” leave even the most technical scratching their heads. Here’s a quick breakdown of what steps you should take for your business in order of priority… Step 1 - A small website Having a website is the first step. It is similar to the foundation of you house, if it’s done right it will last, done wrong and your left with a big bill and nothing to show for it. Here’s what your website should have and do: • It needs to tell people about what services you provide and if any of those services are unique to you. • It needs to look professional. Be sure that it’s presents well; a poor website can damage you business. • Make it easy for someone to contact you, eg. if you don’t have time to check your email, ask people to call you. Step 2- Promote your website on Google Google is the number 1 tool in the world for searching and finding information. It has become global success because it so easy to use, it’s even become a verb! It makes billions because it charges businesses for advertising and it’s now the world’s biggest advertising company. You can promote yourself on Google in 3 ways. Here’s a quick breakdown of each: 1. Local Business Results in Google In the last 12 months in Ireland Google has slowly started to show more and more local businesses in its results. Google Local Business Results has made it possible for small operators to get a piece of the online action without having to pay for advertising. It is a free service. You can get you business a large amount of attention very quickly without spending a penny with Google. It is recommended that you have a professional company to setup the account for you (from €50 to €200 depending on the company). 2. Google Adwords – Paid Advertising Online Google makes money by auctioning off advertising space on it search results. The more advertisers there are, the most expensive it is to advertise. Google charges you every time someone clicks on your advert and visits your website (Pay Per Click). The adverts appear at the top and right hand side of the results. The service is extremely popular because it’s very cheap and it’s easy to see how many customers you’re getting. It is recommended that you have a professional company setup the Adwords account for you (from €250 to €500). 3 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)– Getting to page 1 for free! SEO refers to the process of getting a website to page 1 on Google without using Pay per Click Advertising. For those websites that are listed Google uses an incredibly complex calculation when it decides which search position to allocate. It can be very difficult and expensive to get to the top of to the top of these results for general terms like “Dog Groomer”. However other more specific search terms like “Dog Groomer Newbridge” are much more obtainable and can be achieved by smart web design. Be extremely wary of companies promising you first page results in Google for less that €500. Any good SEO company will look to research the most effective term using Google Adwords. Only when they are satisfied with performance of a particular search term should they look to optimise for it. 4 Blogging, Twittering and Facebook If you have completed all of the above successfully, then it might be time to look at some of the other opportunities out there. Blogging Blogging is basically the process of writing and sharing a journal online (Web Log). The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.” If you do want to start writing a blog, I recommend you write it onsubject you are knowledgeable about and that is of interest to your customers or at least people in your industry. Avoid the “this is my first blog” please check back soon for more blog entry. Twitter Twitter is the hot application on the web at the moment. Twittering allows users to write entries less than 140 characters and share them with others. Twitter is useful for big brands and global awareness. It has yet to have any significant impact on local businesses in Ireland. My advice is to spend your time elsewhere until it becomes more relevant. Facebook Facebook is a big online community used by a lot of teenagers and adults. Facebook differs because people who use Facebook tend use it every day, unlike twitter message can be kept private making it more attractive to users. It can be used as a great way of keeping customers up to date with new services and also has a great advertising engine if you want to target people with specific interests. If you would like to learn more contact Sean or anyone on the Denobi team at info@denobi.com or on 016283800. You can also view our website at http://www.denobi.com
Grooming on the Web
Monday, February 22, 2010