The internet is really only a good back-up to traditional advertising methods if you are in a trade as you can only cover a small local area whereas the internet advertises to the whole world - 99.9999% of potential visitors to your site live outside of your catchment area!A web site is handy to have so customers can email you or check what services you offer / area s you cover etc. but as for generating business it will never outperform a more targeted localised approach. Also, if your site is a home-made knock-up which looks a bit naff it will reflect poorly on your business and can have a harmful effect on how potential customers perceive you.If your local council run a trusted tradesmen scheme / approval schemes etc. find out how to join these and use these credentials on your site to provide reassurance you are professional and trustworthy.There are a few tradesmen directory web sites you could try - like findagoodone.com - many give a free trial so you can give them a go without risk just be sure to check the T C sYour best bet is to use local advertising (papers, directories, shop windows etc) Also get some business cards made up (try Vista Print - cheap and easy to use) and visit local letting agents, B B s, Hotels, Care homes etc and introduce yourself, let them put a face to a name and tell them what service you can offer. They ll get hundreds of flyers / letters all the time but very few will take the time to actually visit and introduce themselves.
The Wandering Blade gives you some good advice. A website in itself will do nothing for your business. You need to drive people to it. You could consider using Yell.com with a link to your site. There is a charge for it that you can spread over 10 months. You can be specific about the area that you want to cover so that people searching for a plumber in your area will find your name and be able to go to your site for more information.The best way for plumbers to attract more business - and it s free - is through word of mouth. Good plumbers are very valuable and people will happily recommend you if you re good. They ll also tell others if you re bad.When you ve just finished a job, ask for the names of 3 people that your satisfied customer would recommend you to. It takes a little time for this to build up but if you think that every person you start to deal with refers you to 3 others, your business will start to snowball.The other time to ask for referrals is when someone says that they won t take you on. They feel less guilty about turning you down if they can recommend you to someone else.Good luck!
The internet has not proven very successful for local businesses. If you have a business where you can sell things online globally or even in the US it s great. Otherwise I would stick to a simple one page thing like you have. Sign up though with other sites that promote plumbers in your area like servicemagic etc. Forget Adwords..that will not work at all for you.
