1. Prices
The standard annual renewal price has stayed the same at £49.50 for several years, and it will stay the same for another year.
Some of our older one page sites were cheaper but will now be charged at the standard rate.
From now on the annual renewal includes 6 text only changes per year. Changes to graphics will be charged extra due to the amount of work involved.
Full details are at http://www.wanasite.co.uk
2. Changes to Google
There have been massive changes in Google’s algorithms over the last few months, with the promise of more to come.
The two biggest changes have been an attempt by Google to get rubbish pages out of the index through the Panda Updates and a greater bias towards big name “brands”. Many people are realising that now is the time to concentrate less on Google and find other ways of promoting their website. Others are looking for fresh ways to rank well.
What has stayed the same?
1. Links from other sites are still important
2. Unique well written content (text) with well positioned keywords is even more important than it was.
What new factors should we consider?
1. User engagement – your site may be ranked lower if people immediately click away from your site
2. Social Networking – there may be some advantage in having links from social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter
How to improve your ranking
TOP TIP – Getting listed at Google places (http://www.google.com/places/ ) – is now ESSENTIAL for getting a high ranking in Google if you are looking to rank well for a search term including a geographical term. If you search “driving lessons leeds” the first seven results are all from Google places.
TIP No.2 – Have a Facebook “Like” Button to your homepage. Then get your customers to click on the like button
TIP No3 – Add content to your site that people will stay for and come back for – eg show me tell me questions, address for local theory test centre
TIP No4 – Don’t just rely on Google. Promote your website in all your literature; put it on your car.
TIP No5 – if you are into facebook, create a facebook group for your driving school and link it to your website. Add testimonials and even pictures of your successful pupils.
TIP No6 – get listed at review sites such as www.freeindex.co.uk and www.helphound.com
So here are some suggestions of what I can do for you:
1. Search Engine Optimisation audit and changes
Your site will have been set up with good basic seo. However, fine tuning is always good. I will look at your site and ensure that you have the best meta tags and keywords in your text to help you reach your potential audience.
Cost – £20
2. Additional pages for user engagement
OPTION 1
a) Show me tell me questions.
I will create a Show Me Tell Me Page in pdf format and create a text link to it from your homepage. Then when you get to talk about show me tell me on your lessons, tell people to visit the site to download it.
This will remind your current pupils about your site and they may then point their friends to your site when they ask who they are learning with.
b) Send me the full address of your nearest theory test centre and I will add it to your theory test page or other appropriate page. Lots of people search for this info.
c) I will add a Facebook “like” button to your homepage and if you have a Facebook page of your own I will place a text link on your site – an example is at drw-som.co.uk. .
Cost for these three items – £20
OPTION 2
Get a practice theory quiz for your site (this includes questions similar to the official questions, but for copyright reasons, we cannot use the official questions)
See an example at Drive Confident Driving
This is hosted at your site, so this is better than linking to a theory test at an external site.
Cost – £19.50
OPTION 3
Get a testimonials page.
If you sign up at freeindex.co.uk, there is a facility for your pupils to visit their site and leave a testimonial. I will then create a new page for you and then if you then get the appropriate code, I can copy and paste it so that the testimonials are displayed on your site.
An example is here: http://www.mrasom.com/reviews.html
Cost – £20
If you need me to set the whole thing up for you at freeindex then the cost is £30
3. Obtaining links from other sites
Two hours work to obtain more links from external sites – £40
FINALLY – check out the fun cartoon of HOW NOT TO DRIVE! (copy and paste the link to your browser)