The Limos.com Forum Has Moved!!!

I have been reading a few forums and have come to the understanding that the net plays a huge role in our industry.

I wanted to know how can I use the internet and it's capabilities (what r it's capabilities) to work for our industry.

Also, how can I enhance and make my website (still under construction) best suitable for our industry

quote:

Originally posted by limo bill:
OMG !!! Clever deduction Sherlock. Maybe you'll find some one this fourm to book your jobs for you. Drive'em for you too !! & give you the $$$.
Advice here & there is one thing. You don't seem to have a clue.

???

OMG !!! Clever deduction Sherlock. Maybe you'll find some one this fourm to book your jobs for you. Drive'em for you too !! & give you the $$$.
Advice here & there is one thing. You don't seem to have a clue.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve W.:
Steve G. can you recomend any that give the basics of web site marketing or the fundementals of SEO?

Any sites we can point to?

Steve, Here is a link to a post at InTheLeftLaneOnline.com where I try to answer just that question Amigo.

Are you subscribed to the posts there?

Creating a web site which is effective can be frustrating and take some time. There are lots of Variables to ponder. My web site for instance gets over 2000 unique hits a month, but it has taken almost 3 years to build to that level. I use to advertise with Google and Yahoo but dropped them 6 months ago and the numbers remain up and steady so I have lost nothing by dropping them.

Some companies will build the site for you with your approval and wording and build in the Meta tags and Wording which will help Optimize the site for search engines. i use Network Solutions but Built my site myself then used all the other tools available to work on key words and tags which have helped me to remain listed even though I dropped Google and yahoo advertising.

I am very happy as a local company with my site and its performance but have tweeked it several times in the past 3 years to get it where it is today.

Dont expect those kind of results starting out unless you pay through the nose for it.

I dont think you can succeed without web presence is the simple answer, like the guys have said a site or multiple sites are the way forwward to generate business and get your name on the map ...

Where a lot of people go wrong, is they have a site designed or do one themselves and it never gets seen, due to not promoting it correctly .. SEO can be expensive, there are also a lot of so called experts out there who will take your money and show no results, but empty promises.

Other than recommendations and repeat business, we get most of our work from our sites, they rank very highly where we operate or wish to operate, on Google and most major search engines, to the degree of 1st page saturation in some cases.

There is no science to SEO, its basically using words in a clever fashion, inline with your tags.

A simple heads up is yor title tag, be specific.
Buy a domain that is specific.
Local Business Centre on Google is also a simple win win.

quote:

we could write a book on what you need to know and, of course, several have been writt

Steve G. can you recomend any that give the basics of web site marketing or the fundementals of SEO?

Any sites we can point to?

First you want to build a site that will target the market you want to go after. In other words if you are going after corporate accounts they really don't care about what kind of laser lights you have in your limo. They want to know stuff like who is going to answer your phone a 2 in the morning when they have a change to their flight. So your site should really come right out of your business plan. Make it look good of course with good information and nice features that make it easy to use. If you want to go further have your reservations software tied into your web page so folks can put in their own reservations. That a little more advanced but highly desirable these days.

Next you have to do something to drive people to your site, this is where it gets complicated.

You can buy advertising - look at the gray box at the top of the forum "ad's by Google" those business are paying what called "pay per click". You give Google your ad and some keywords you want to target. When a website comes up with these words on it your ad appears (if that site also participates in Google ads) So say you have "Atlanta wedding limousine" and a bride searches for "Atlanta wedding dress" and she goes to the first page that comes up. Chances are your ad is gonna be on that page she is looking at.

Get listed everywhere you can - Next imagine you are a customer searching for a limo on the internet how would you do it? Most go to Google or yahoo and type in what they are looking for:
Hummer limo Los Angeles
Limousine Atlanta
Cheap limo las Vegas
Wedding special limo
Airport transfer New York

What ever your target market is see what sites come up on that first Google or yahoo page (since most people rarely go to page 2) You want to try and either be on that first page with your own site (discussed later) or be in the directories that come up on that first page. Sometimes that is simple as submitting your info to the directory and sometimes it involves a fee to get in the directory.

Getting on that first search page - The process of getting your site on the first pages of some searches is called S.E.O. or search engine optimization. Hopefully some more knowledgeable folks will chime in here as I only have rudimentary knowledge of it. It is two things:
1. A specific way your site is built that optimizes how the search engines find and index the site in their directory.
2. An ongoing service that promotes links to your site

Here is an example. This company litters their site with every common search word they can think of trying to get hits on their site:
Top Limo LA

But if I take a phrase from their site say "Sierra Madre Limo Services " they do not even come up on the first page of Google. This is because they have not done or done poorly their S.E.O. work. S.E.O. work is done by specialists who know the way search engines work. And they only know because they have figured it out through trial and error because the search engines don't like to tell anyone how they do it. So consequently S.E.O. work is rather expensive to have done. But done right can reap huge rewards. You can try to do it yourself but you are in for a long learning curve but it can be done.

Linking - A very simple way you can get hits on your site is by going to local websites and trying to get listed on them. If someone is planning a party at this catering hall perhaps that catering hall has a website with a links page you can get on to get a referral if they need a limo.

Participating - joining in the discussion of certain websites could also bring some traffic to your site. As an example on this discussion forum you spend enough time here and get to know folks if they have a job in your areas they are going to give it to you. Same as a wedding discussion forum, Any hobbies you have you like to discuss, or you local towns discussion board.

Then there is the entire area of social media sites (my space/linked in) you can build networks of potential clients that way also. Just basically networking except you do it on the internet. You should also be doing some in person networking not relying just on the internet.

Wow... we could write a book on what you need to know and, of course, several have been written, but not on just what you need to know in the limo industry.

The general comments I have are to be aware that your presence on the web is more than just what your website says it is. In this day of social media, search engine optimization and search engine marketing you have to manage a presence on the web like you manage your particaption and activity in offline lead groups and chamber of commerce activities.

I'll suggest that the web accelerates the transport of news and commentary across markets and around the world; that can be a good and a bad thing so monitor youe presence closely.

Finally, an effective web presence does not have to be expensive. There are many, many low or no-cost tools you can use to make /manage a presence on the web - the real cost is education and the time it takes to learn the tools and implement them.

To effectively use the internet to market your company, you really need to have your site completely finished and online. Avoid having "site under construction" pages. Once your site is finished I would post a link here and get some feedback. Only after you are satisfied with the site, would I suggest advertising it. There are many ways to get the site out there, some are free and some will cost you.

This is what I have learned from running many websites, not industry specific.