what % of your yearly sales comes from the internet?

[huggytree]

for my plumbing business its 3.3%

thats up dramatically from the .5% i used to get with other versions of my website

is that number what you'd expect or is it pittyful.....i do not know whats realistic.....95% of my business is repeat customers and referrals....so almost all that remains is the internet....

i do spend $2800 on 1. local mini phone book and my church bulletin.....i think the church bulletin only got me $1,500 in sales and costs me $1,500....i just renewed, but most likely wont if next year is a repeat



i keep tossing the idea of going all out with my website and spending $5,000+ for someone to run a campaign for me...if i could get 10% sales from the internet it would be worth it....

anyone see 10% of sales from the intertnet for a plumber being realistic?

[Freelancier]

What do you mean by "sales from the internet"? Do you mean that people find your internet site and hire you from that or are you selling something directly from your site, like plumber's parts? Just need a clarification to make sure the advice matches.

[vangogh]

For me it's 100% of sales, though it's not a fair comparison given my business. I'm not sure what % you should be seeing, but 3.3% does seem low to me. I think there are improvements you could make on your site, though I have a feeling the problem is more a lack of visibility in search engines and online in general. The more I think about it, it's probably a combination of both, though leaning toward a lack of traffic as the bigger problem.

I just tried searching for you in Google. First I tried plumber and your city and then I changed it so Google would show me results for your city and I only typed in plumber. In neither case did your site show up on the first page of results. You showed up in the middle of the 2nd page. When you consider the ads that are present, people have to reject about 25 other plumbers before they even consider giving you a call. Odds are they find someone before that.

Do you have any kind of analytics set up on the site so you can check different site stats? I'm looking at the source code for your site and it doesn't seem like it. That should be the first step. Google Analytics is free and can be set up in a few minutes. If you create an account with them I'd be happy to add the code needed to your site. You have a small enough site that it really will only take a few minutes. With analytics in place you can get a lot of data that might tell you why you aren't getting more calls through site. You can see how much traffic you're getting and where it's coming from. If traffic is good you can tell what people are doing on your site. Are they leaving right away? Are they checking out a few pages? It won't tell you everything, but it can tell you a lot.

Once you have some data it's easier to see what might be the problem and where you can make improvements. And again Google Analytics is free and I'll be happy to set it up for you if you want. Give it a month to collect some data and then you'll be better able to determine what any problem might be and where you can improve things.

[Steve B]

Mine is about 35%. But, a lot of the referrals I get came from people that had originally found me on the internet - so I would bump that number to over 50%. Maybe 60 or 70.

[huggytree]

i was #1 and #2 on google last time i checked...

but YOU are right...im now #20+

no wonder i am not getting many internet calls

then i typed in the words plumber and waukesha the opposite way and i was #3, then i switched it back to the original way and i was #1

so google is flip flopping me around a bit with every search...which makes no sense

one of my competitors is using waukesha plumbing service as their website name and not even listing what their actual company name is....i own a trademark on waukesha plumbing....so i may have to look into that....its hell being popular....people want to be ME, so they copy my name and pretend to be me

[vangogh]

Google has changed a lot over the years. It's pretty common now for different people to see different results and for you to see different results every few minutes when you type the same thing. To know how well you're doing you want to traffic your overall search traffic and other data associated with it. That's why I suggest Google Analytics. The only way to really understand what's going on is to have some kind of stats package installed that's collecting all the data. Google Analytics is pretty good and it's also free and again I don't mind setting it up for you.

With statistics installed you can see how much traffic you get, how many pages people visit, how long people stay on your site, which sites sent them to your site, what words they typed into a search engine to find you, and plenty more. It gives you a good picture of what's going on so you know how to respond to make improvements.

In your case I think it could help determine if the issue is more about not enough people ever finding the site or if it's about people finding the site, but not contacting you. That'll let you know if what you need is more marketing or more site improvements so you can spend your more on which will be more effective.

[Jimmym]

Hi huggytree,

My name is Jimmy Massey I'm new to the forum but let me get to the point because you have a very good question here!

I'm a straight shooter kind of guy so I want to let you know YES that is PITIFUL

3.3% is better then .5% but YES you could be bringing in way more then 10% off online sales.

BUT....

This is why your not!

For the term "Waukesha plumber"..... Your number one and it has 28 searches.... But, you have to find other terms like "hot water heater installation"... "toilet installation" and so on... You don't have enough content on your site to attract other search results. There may be searches for water heater replacement but just having water heaters mentioned on your site is not enough to attract a ranking for it. You need to have content for each of your service areas.


There is a method behind this madness to make your conversion rates higher and if you would like some help let me know.

Chat soon,

- Jimmy

[Gabe]

Huggy, just curious what did you spend on your current website design and how much do you pay for hosting/maintenance/etc.? On top of that, are you paying for any online marketing stuff? Just curious.

You could build yourself a local (or better) brand by carrying around a cheap video camera with you and recording/talking through repairs. Assuming you have the homeowner's permission, make a video collection of how to's, upload the videos to YouTuve/Vimeo for free and embed them on your website. You'll help people fix the small stuff and they'll start calling for the major stuff because they know you and as an authority and you'll build yourself a reputation. How much does it cost? A little time and $200 for a camera (assuming you don't already have one). Whenever winter comes around you can write a blog post about Waukesha winterization and link to all of the past winterization videos you did.

On top of the site for you business, start a plumbing tips video website like plumbingtips.tv or something on a separate domain (or a subdomain) and upload all of your plumbing videos similar to how tv.winelibrary.com does it. It doesn't take much work once it's setup because you're just linking the videos you already made. Then you can link to you business website from there as well. It's pretty simple to do that kind of stuff with WordPress.

Just a few ideas, but there are plenty of cheap and easy ways to set your business apart.

[Jimmym]

Huggy, just curious what did you spend on your current website design and how much do you pay for hosting/maintenance/etc.? On top of that, are you paying for any online marketing stuff? Just curious.

You could build yourself a local (or better) brand by carrying around a cheap video camera with you and recording/talking through repairs. Assuming you have the homeowner's permission, make a video collection of how to's, upload the videos to YouTuve/Vimeo for free and embed them on your website. You'll help people fix the small stuff and they'll start calling for the major stuff because they know you and as an authority and you'll build yourself a reputation. How much does it cost? A little time and $200 for a camera (assuming you don't already have one). Whenever winter comes around you can write a blog post about Waukesha winterization and link to all of the past winterization videos you did.

On top of the site for you business, start a plumbing tips video website like plumbingtips.tv or something on a separate domain (or a subdomain) and upload all of your plumbing videos similar to how tv.winelibrary.com does it. It doesn't take much work once it's setup because you're just linking the videos you already made. Then you can link to you business website from there as well. It's pretty simple to do that kind of stuff with WordPress.

Just a few ideas, but there are plenty of cheap and easy ways to set your business apart.

That with a better converting landing page would be great!

[Steve B]

I just ran my numbers for the year. My hard number is 51% - plus whatever portion of my customer referrals originally came from the internet (if you want to count that). That could put my direct plus indirect number at around 75%.

[Wozcreative]

Through google, about 20% of my business, but the rest is through ads I run (all of them free though) or referrals. My business does depend on what I have on my website and how I look. It's the face of my business that speaks when I am not there to talk about it myself.

My clients see an increase in sales and interest after they've had their website updated to the current standards with a cleaner look, updated branding strategy and more in depth content. It is also important that I develop them for mobile because most of my client's customers will be searching via their mobile devices.

I have even had their competitors contact me about re-doing their site too! Your website is like your online "store" or "office" where anyone in the world could be visiting.. make that count!

As for your plumbing business, most people like myself who does a lot of online research before she decides to buy something, I will need to be convinced online first. You should have your business on the reviews sites like homestar.com or whatever else is available.. reviews will probably be your best sellers if you can collect those..

[huggytree]

i spent around $2000 on the website and pay $20 a month in charges

i worked hard to get tons of keywords in it!!!...

i also do adwords for (2) cities and water heater

'city' water heater
'city' plumbing.

that costs me typically $10-15 a month and gets me a job every other month

ive tried large adword campaigns with 0 luck....the latest one is very small, but actually works

i think next summer im going to bite the bullet and spend what it takes to go all out!


since my % is still pretty low hopefully a good webdesigner can double it or more

i must be doing something right since i now have 2 people pretending to be me.....ill be contacting a lawyer in a couple of weeks to find out if my trademark protects me

if i own the trade mark for 'Waukesha Plumbing' .....can someone call themselves 'Waukesha Plumbing Services' on their website w/o telling customers who they really are?

[Jimmym]

:mad:$2,000 man you got ripped off I'm sure other would agree. As for your keywords maybe you should make them a little more targeted make a landing page on your website and send them there and that would be all organic NO PAYING GOOGLE.... There is
plenty more keywords like that for you but I figured I would give you one.


On to the numbers:

171 - Is how many people are searching that keyword each month.

30 - Is the estimate on how much traffic you could get for that one keyword each month. But if you are on page one for that keyword multiple times you will get more clicks.

0 - Is how much competition you have for that keyword. I would hate to say it but it's true. You can be on page one of Google with that keyword.



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[vangogh]

i worked hard to get tons of keywords in it

That's not really all there is to success with search engines. Just adding some words to the page isn't going to do it. In your case I'd recommend a lot of local tactics. Building profiles with local search engines like Google Places, Yelp, etc. I'd work on getting local businesses to link back to your site and your profiles with search engines. I'd find a way to encourage customers to fill out reviews of you on your local profiles.

Also you have to understand that success with search engines is marketing. It's something you should look at as an ongoing cost and not a one time thing. With the phone book you didn't just place an ad one year. You placed another the next year and the year after that. It's similar with search engines. It's not a one time thing. When you're ready hire someone who understands search engines to work at optimizing your site for at least a few months. It takes some time for a lot of what you need to do to start working. If you need quicker results you'll have to work an AdWords campaign again.

None of the above means you have to do any of this. If you're doing well without the site or search engines contributing you can continue as you are. One job a month for $10-$15 a month seems like a pretty good deal.

And again set up Google Analytics on the site. It's free and takes 5 minutes. Without collecting any data you'll be guessing at what will work and what won't.

[Harold Mansfield]

I get about 40% of new business directly from being found on the web.
40% from partnerships.
20% from referrals of past clients.

Of the 40% from the web, 80% of that is maintenance, support work, and "Emergencies" where people have an immediate problem and went online looking for someone.

I turn about half of those into repeat business, some kind of service up sell, or long term clients.
And every now and then one of them turns into a referral for a larger or start up project and keeps the cycle going.

[machine]

for my plumbing business its 3.3%

thats up dramatically from the .5% i used to get with other versions of my website

is that number what you'd expect or is it pittyful.....i do not know whats realistic.....95% of my business is repeat customers and referrals....so almost all that remains is the internet....

i do spend $2800 on 1. local mini phone book and my church bulletin.....i think the church bulletin only got me $1,500 in sales and costs me $1,500....i just renewed, but most likely wont if next year is a repeat



i keep tossing the idea of going all out with my website and spending $5,000+ for someone to run a campaign for me...if i could get 10% sales from the internet it would be worth it....

anyone see 10% of sales from the intertnet for a plumber being realistic?
You do any new construction, got any regular contractors? Here in Tulsa we have a plumber that just took over, you might want to look at his site, he does some pretty heavy TV advertising on a channel that is pretty cheap. Also he just got elected as state representative, hopefully he doesn't sell out like the rest of the politicians always seem to do. :rolleyes:

http://mullinplumbing.com/

[4x4Guy]

I would say about 40% of my current business is from the internet. Before a couple of months ago, I didn't have any internet presence, and my business needed help. For a car dealer, the internet is essential.

All of the suggestions mentioned before this post are verifiable - How To Videos are excellent, get customers to post reviews, and update your site regularly. Don't make mistakes such as 'keyword stuffing' (don't post keywords in an unnatural way) and google won't penalize you. Sometimes I've found google paid ad campaigns are useless, and sometimes they work. Haven't found out the secret formula there yet.

[WebEminence]

i was #1 and #2 on google last time i checked...

but YOU are right...im now #20+

no wonder i am not getting many internet calls

then i typed in the words plumber and waukesha the opposite way and i was #3, then i switched it back to the original way and i was #1

so google is flip flopping me around a bit with every search...which makes no sense

one of my competitors is using waukesha plumbing service as their website name and not even listing what their actual company name is....i own a trademark on waukesha plumbing....so i may have to look into that....its hell being popular....people want to be ME, so they copy my name and pretend to be me

You can't just search in Google and expect to get the same results everyone else is seeing. Google uses a lot of personalized things like previous searches and geographical location to change the results. If you're logged into a google account, it will use that info to personalize your search. I always open a incognito browser in Google Chrome before checking google rankings.

Another question...I see you've spent money on offline advertising but have you spent any on online advertising. If you're budget is weighted towards offline, I would expect most of your leads and sales to come through offline. Have you considered pay per click marketing? That might be a good way to get some online traffic on a controlled budget.

[billbenson]

Your stats are going to tell you the real picture these days.

[vangogh]

I see you've spent money on offline advertising but have you spent any on online advertising. If you're budget is weighted towards offline, I would expect most of your leads and sales to come through offline.

Good point. How much business you get from each is going to depend a lot on how much you put into marketing on each. If all the money is going to offline channels then that's where most of the business is going to come from. huggy has told us he's tried AdWords, though I don't think he had great success with it.


Your stats are going to tell you the real picture these days.

Yep. Why I offered a couple of times to set it up.