Our buddy Chance at Best Texas Appliance Repair in the Keller, TX area contacted us because he felt he wasn't getting the most out of his website. While it had good content, the old site wasn't HTML friendly and therefore wasn't search-engine-friendly. He was missing out on some huge opportunities since his site actually had plenty of credibility.

Since Best Texas offers services like:

• Washing machine repair
• Dryer repair
• Oven and dishwasher help

and eventually all of these appliances break, the competition for this type of work online, even in smaller suburbs like the HEB area, is pretty intense. We look forward to working with Best Texas for many years and expanding their online presence ethically and honestly.

Update 5/20 - Best Texas has been purchased by Marathon Appliance Repair of Flower Mound.

The "Contact" page is often the most misunderstood part of a website. Look at how most local service businesses lay their contact forms and pages out and you'll see a number of problems. Below are tips on what to do and what not to do when it comes to your company's "Contact Us" page if you own a local service business:

Bad Ideas:

• Not having a contact form - I see this way too often. The contact page simply has the email address and no real contact form. You click on the email address in hopes of getting a bid or scheduling an appointment and suddenly your Outlook is popping up and your computer goes crazy. You get frustrated and leave. 
• Asking way too many questions - Some business owners think this looks more professional, but the longer the contact form, the lower the conversion rate. Why? Because people don't want to answer a laundry list of questions to get a simple answer or set up an appointment. You're catering to them. Not the other way around. Cut down to the essentials and your conversion rate will rise. See below.

Good ideas:

• Get to the point - The best contact form layout is to require a Name, Phone Number, Email (optional) and a Comment section. Why? Because this is the bare minimum you as a company need to make contact with a customer. Asking anything else is redundant and wastes their time. Make it easy for people to contact you while still getting the important info. If someone doesn't want to be called before noon, they will probably specify this in the "Comment" window. You don't need a separate drop-down menu for this.
• Let them know you don't sell info - A basic "We respect your privacy" disclaimer (you do respect their privacy, right?) at the bottom of the contact form ensures they know you are an ethical company.

In a nutshell - don't make the Contact page obnoxious and difficult to fill out. A simple contact form wins, every time.

My contention has always been that you don't want to make your site visitors (AKA potential customers) "think" once they reach your site. You only have a few seconds to capture their attention.

Before your customer scrolls down, they should have a clear understanding of what they are looking at. That's your only goal - get to the point and convert the visitor into a contact. Don't make them think about what they are looking at too hard, or they are gone. To a competing site.

It's amazing how many web design companies don't get this.

Instead they have virtual sales agents running at you or explosions flying at the screen. The company phone number is nowhere to be found without on the site without digging around or clicking on a subpages. There's no explanation as to what cities the company services or where they are located. Look at any industry in any major market and you'll see this.


So what works? This is what I think:

• Name of company and some credibility indicators if applicable. A BBB logo, Angie's List, Twitter and Facebook button, etc. Let them know this isn't your first rodeo.
  


• In plain English - what you do and where. "Welcome to Bob's Landscaping - Proudly Serving North DFW".
  


• A call to action/contact info - "Call for a free quote: 555-1224"
  

If someone really wants to read about how you've been cutting hedges or handling energy audits since 1994, they will look around your site. Most people don't though. Most people just want to know how to contact you as painlessly as possible. Isn't that the point of having a website?

"But that's boring!" some will say...

Exactly. Boring works. Don't make them think.

We are currently in the process of helping Larry at Texas Fence Staining of North Dallas with a minor website renovation. Texas Fence Staining is a younger company but has grown over the past 3+ years to be one of the top rated fence repair and staining companies in all of DFW. The company started off as a division of Red Rock Fence but was recently incorporated as its own separate entity due to overwhelming demand. The owner, Larry, is on site for all jobs and work performed and same day service is available in many cases.

We plan to modernize Texas Fence Staining's website and expand their business to suburbs like Plano, Frisco and Allen, plus the Coppell area. Since fence staining is busiest in the summer, we look forward to getting their site ramped up in time for their busy season. More soon....

Our new client for the month is Lloyds Shower Remodeling, a Houston-based bath and shower renovation contractor with over 20+ years in the field. They already provide a ton of good free information on saving on remodeling costs, no matter what your budget, and we were very impressed with Lloyd's knowledge and know-how. After being referred to by D.F.W. Granite Countertops, we struck up a conversation with Lloyd during a brief stay in Dallas and were able to add them to our team.

Lloyds started out as a one-man show back in the 1990s and has quickly evolved into one of the most respected custom contractors in the Houston area. This includes doing work on mansion properties and for local athletes like members of the Houston Rockets and Houston Texans. Lloyds prefers to work on high-end homes and make the impossible possible using a combination of creative thinking and decades of experience. We look forward to helping grow their business and expand to the Dallas-Fort Worth area while maintaining a strong presence down in South Texas. Their site is already full of many great articles and good content, they just need some minor touch-ups on the design end. More to come.

We had been taking bids from various cleaning companies as we had an opening for a new client recently. We ended up going to work with a DFW-based power washer that also handles vent-a-hood cleaning and related services. So how seasonal is this business and how does that affect our efforts? Not much - according to their owner, power washing and vent-a-hood cleaning is fairly steady year-round. Especially vent-a-hood cleaning.

Our basic proposal is for a much-needed site redesign. We will also be helping them launch a social media campaign on Twitter and Facebook. More to come soon.

We recently added the eponymously named Houston Waterproofing, LLC and their owner, Mike as clients. Mike already has a successful chimney cap business up here in Dallas and is branching out to offer home waterproofing installation services on decks and patios in the Houston area. Mike, the owner, has over ten years of experience in the industry and looks forward to offering Houston residents this interesting, niche product. They also now have a San Antonio branch as well.

Since this is a niche term, we didn't charge Mike an arm and a leg. In fact, we love working with niche clients and expect Mike's site to perform well. The site will eventually expand out to offer services in Katy and the Woodlands as well. Since humidity is such a big deal in south Texas, there's a constant need for such services.

Note: This is the second new client our company has added from the Houston area in the last week. We look forward to working with Traditions Windows and Shutters on a website re-design and more.

We had spoken with Toby Puttrich several years ago about doing some basic web design work for his company - Strikeforce HVAC Repair. Based in Dallas, Toby and his team at Strikeforce HVAC Repair provide some of the best AC repair specials year-round. So although it seems most logical that Strikeforce is busiest during the summer, they also handle heating problems in both commercial and residential units.

We were recently contacted by J and J Landscaping of North Dallas to help with a basic website re-design and some consulting. J and J has an affiliate that also sells sod grass in Dallas-Fort Worth. J and J is located in Carrollton near Sandy Lake Amusement Park and their grass farm offers a variety of grass for pick up and installation - needless to say we were impressed by their operation in our initial meeting. 

Because their landscaping and sod grass sites are still fairly new, we wanted to help grow their online presence through targeted AdWords campaigns and a variety of online marketing tools. 

Peter, the supervisor of all sod grass products, has been helpful in getting us the necessary info to make their new websites a success and we look forward to working with J and J (and their affiliates at Dallas Sod Grass) for many years as a hosting provider and consultant for their business. Since summer is their busy season, we hope to get them some good business as soon as possible. Thanks Peter!

Ken at DFW Sprinkler Repair Masters of Arlington TX had recently contacted us about enhancing his company's online presence and reputation. We re-designed his existing site and added professional copyrighting services.

We have used DFW Sprinkler Repair Masters in the past on a minor back-flow testing job and were excited to take them on as a new client, just in time for summer in Dallas-Fort Worth when things really get busy. You may also browse by city and get a free quote on their website.

Ken is also looking to generate more site traffic and we look forward to helping him with his online marketing efforts. More soon.