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A website is a great, inexpensive way to create visibility for your company. There are many people (85% by a recent study) that use the internet to do their research when shopping for something. If you don’t have a website, chances are you are missing out on business.

There are two ways for people to find you on the web:

1. A Pay Per Click advertising campaign which is basically buying advertising space on the search pages when someone enters a key word that you have designated as a search term or terms that your potential customers would use to find you. For instance, you might want to purchase the words “ponds” or “Koi ponds” as part of your campaign. The advantage to this is you can make it area-specific so that your ad comes up only when someone puts in “Koi Ponds” in the Los Angeles area, or whatever area you select.
2. There is also something called an “organic listing.” This basically means that your site has relevant information related to the search term and the search engine has recognized this and listed you in the organic listing, which is not a paid ad. There are people who feel that these natural listings are more valuable than the paid ads. The trouble is you need to be on the first page of the search term to get much business from these. If you are on page 100 it is unlikely you are going to see any visits from the listing. Most people don’t look past the first few pages of search results. There are specialists in Search Engine Optimization that work on websites to get them in the top listings.

Whatever method you use, the goal is to be really visible to the internet shoppers that are looking for you.

There are some things to keep in mind when putting together your website:

• Keep it easy to navigate and read. If someone isn’t able to find what they want on your site within about 30 seconds they will likely bounce back to the search page to find another site.
• Have a gallery of your best job photos. Testimonials are also always nice to add to the site.
• You must, must have a link to a “request for estimate” page on every page! Make it easy for them to ask for an appointment. Make sure you follow up with the estimate requests within 24 hours.
• List your contact information, phone numbers on every page as well.
• Don’t put your written content in a graphics file on the website. The search engines do not read graphics. They can only read text. You can have a gorgeous site with all kinds of beautiful photos and text but if it’s all in graphics files, the search engines will never see it and neither will your prospective customers.
• It’s good to have articles about what you do on your site. This is the information that the search engines look for to match the key words that are entered in by your prospective customers. This will help with your natural listing.
• Your website does not have to be fancy to work, it just needs to communicate clearly that you are the best person to install their ______ job.

Terry Morrill is CEO of Pacific Outdoor Living Pro Division (http://www.pacificoutdoorlivingpro.com), a distributor of Aquascape pond equipment and products, and a distributor of quality interlocking concrete paving stone products. The company is located in Sun Valley, CA. Pacific Pavingstone (http://www.pacificpavingstone.com), also owned by Terry Morrill, has twice been listed on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing companies in America, and this year is listed on the Inc. 5000 list. California Waterscapes (http://www.californiawaterscapes.com) is the largest designer and installer of commercial and residential ponds in the U.S.