In most cases, the WordPress platform is the best option for most cleaning companies.
Why?
1. It’s easy for a novice to add text and pictures.
2. You don’t usually need a webmaster after the site is built.
3. Google loves ranking WordPress sites.
WordPress used to only be for blogs. But not any more.
It can be used for any website, mini-sites, and more.
Below, let me know what you want to know about WordPress. Coming next week we’re starting training to show you about using WordPress to get more clients.
Here are some options for your cleaning websites:
WordPress
Google seems to love it. When a site is designed in WordPress, it allows even novice Internet users the ability to easily add and edit web pages, pictures and videos. This is great for a cleaning company that wants to keep their site updated with recent specials, news and updates about their business. Suppose a bad storm hits your city and you want to advertise water extraction on the main page of your site. With a WordPress website, you can easily add it.
There is a small learning curve, but it’s fairly easy to get the hang of. WordPress used to be known merely as a platform for blogging. It enabled “bloggers” to post news and updates to a website without the use of Webmaster. Because the information being created was instantly posted, Google created a system to quickly allow blog results to show up in their searches. This makes WordPress websites more search engine friendly and more likely to show up in searches.
Today, entire websites are being created based on the WordPress platform. You can learn how to set up a WordPress site at no cost with a little research, or you can get a webmaster to initially set it up properly. The cost may start at a few hundred dollars for the set up. WordPress is a great choice for many cleaning companies because of its ease of use after the site is created.
See http://www.cleanedbyextreme.com for examples of WordPress sites.
Joomla
Very similar to WordPress, it’s another free, open source platform for creating websites. It’s the second most popular blogging program, however it’s much more difficult to use than WordPress.
Hard Coding HTML or PHP
This is the original way of website building. Yes, many websites are still built in HTML. Most any type of design can be done with HTML or PHP code, which makes it very versatile. The major drawback however is that you need to understand coding to build a site this way. Hard coding is something most cleaning companies should avoid doing themselves, but a Webmaster can be hired to build a site for you starting at a few hundred dollars. And when changes need to be made, you’ll need to contact your webmaster again.
Online Site Builders
This is an easy alternative some cleaning companies use to get up a temporary site. These are do-it-yourself site builders where you build your site online. The prices can range anywhere from $5 a month to over $100 per month. The most popular is GoDaddy’s Website Tonight, but many other companies have their own online site building programs.
However, you are severely limited in what the site can do. As well, these sites are difficult to get ranked in the search engines, as many aren’t search engine friendly. For companies on a really tight budget, online site they are an acceptable temporary choice. But you’ll soon want to upgrade into a better website.
Leave your comments BELOW to let me know what you want to know about WordPress and/or building mini-sites.
Hi John, I was wondering if you can add keywords and meta tags to a WordPress site?
I have been building on a wysiwyg builder called Weebly and I really have not heard one way or the other how these sites are ranking. It does occur to me that these types of html sites may be more stable and less likely to be bothered by those attempting to do harm to your stuff. Is that true?
Is it really worth the effort to switch my regular website to WordPress?
I use WordPress and love it much better than my old site.
Joe, yes you can add title tags and meta tags in WordPress. In fact, it automatically adds some for you, but you can also customize them.
Gary, the WYSIWYG editors have lots of extra bulky code that Google doesn’t digest well. Also, because they are templates, they rarely rank as well as an HTML or WordPress site. It “may” be true that they are less likely to get hacked though.
Mike, if you are considering doing any changes to your current site, then YES it is worth it. You’ll be able to add a blog and other content later on your own. Plus, there’s a good chance Google will index the WordPress site better.
Mark, good for you. Glad you’re enjoying your WordPress site.
John Braun
Hi John, I’ve been wanting to contact you about this very thing. I have reviews to add and didn’t even realize one could add pictures also. I definitely need a refresher course on the use of WordPress.
Can we add a “make a review form” to a review page with WordPress?
Can reviews be added that are form other sources (Google, Angie’s List etc)? And is it proper to do so?
Concerning Angie’s List, maybe it would be better to provide a button/link to her site. (need code) What do you think? Can it be done with WordPress?
Can typos be edited?
Can a blog be added to a website?
Can we add Name, Address and Phone to bottom of each page?
About StatCounter and such tracking programs, can they be added to each page with WP? I have the code for StatCounter.
Will the training be in the form of a webinar?
The website Hit Man Advertizing built for me is doing great and the lite optimization they do also seems to be working. I highly recommend both.
Thanks,
David Randolph
John I have a WordPress site that I needs an email newsletter campaign to send my clients a biweekly constant contact newsletterr, can you tell me how much that would cost?
David, YES! All of that will be covered in the new course launching this tomorrow.
Mike, we’re working on more email newsletters. For one year of email newsletters written and programmed into your constant contact or aweber account, it’s $297 for the emails and $300 for having us put them in. So that’s $597 altogether.
John Braun
I was just wondering – where exactly do you get WordPress? We currently have a website that was done on an online site builder. It is very limited & I have to remember how to make changes every time. I saw online wordpress.org and wordpress.com. Which is the one you would want to go to? I would eventually like to have a site that Google is happier with and that would be easier for us to make changes on and also do a blog and other things. Thanks for your input
I am blogging everyday and really appreciate your content. It has peaked my interests, I’m going to bookmark the blog and keep checking for new stuff.
This is actually an amazing blog, will you be enthusiastic about making time for the interview concerning precisely how you made it? If you do e-mail people!
I was curious if you ever thought of changing the layout of your blog? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or two pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?|