Countryside maintenance, gardening, logs and tool hire- one website or three?

[doobin]

Afternoon all, I hope the Sunday lunches are settling well?

 

Quick round of opinions required if you please. My company does countryside maintenance (nature reserve work, scrub clearance, fencing, equestrian stuff etc) and also quite a lot of garden work, with two contracts for local estate agents and a fair bit of private work. Recently I've started hiring out large and small kit- mainly specialist stuff like log splitters, chainsaw winches, tracked dumper and stuff. Oh, and I also sell firewood.

 

Question is, should I have a website that caters for all this, or multiple smaller ones? The current setup is a main intro page, then one website for countryside maintenance and tool hire, and the other for gardening and log sales.

 

The trouble is this- living in an affluent countryside location, a lot of potential clientèle are 'crossover' clients- they have a garden, a pony paddock that needs topping, and may also require logs plus a new field fence! However, I also don't wish to alienate Mrs Jones who wants a nice chap to come round and do her little garden. I've been told before that 'it might be too small a job for you!'. I pressed further, and added a £60/month job to the gardening round- it might be small, but it's no trouble at the right money.

 

I guess I need to appeal to everyone, which is probably impossible. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.

[Brick100]

One stop shop, offer a full range of service under one banner, the key is quality, cost, reliability.

[Lyncombe-climber]

What he said ^^^ as long as each section has its own section. All is well

[Spruce Pirate]

Agree with both the above comments. Nothing wrong with having more than one string to your bow. Three different sites all coming back to the same source might even be seen as being dodgy by some.

[Steve Bullman]

why have one website when you can have 3

[Stephen Blair]

You are 1 company, so have 1 website. The secret is getting the right folk to do it for you.

[doobin]

You are 1 company, so have 1 website. The secret is getting the right folk to do it for you.

 

Any pointers/recommendations? I quite enjoy doing it myself TBH, but I do it in fits and starts, and think it needs to look fresh each time someone visits really. I struggle a little with Google rankings and all that, but getting better at it. I like to think I write reasonable copy. Not too good with logos/flyers etc- I use a company in Essex called Colchester Press who I would recommend.

 

I have no interest whatsoever in social media, but realise that it can be a good tool. So that will definitely have to be subbed out! A local promo company has offered to do it for I think £40 a month- does that sound a bit much? I'm trying to work her around to a commission based deal at the moment.

 

Thanks also to everyone else for feedback- redesign is in progress and it's looking like it will be one site.

[Stephen Blair]

Have a look at my site, google my name and tree surgery and see where it pops up.

 

The trouble with mine now is it doesn't work on iPads , 5 years ago this wasn't an issue, but now it is.

I'm going to change mine when I get round to it.

[doobin]

Have a look at my site, google my name and tree surgery and see where it pops up.

 

The trouble with mine now is it doesn't work on iPads , 5 years ago this wasn't an issue, but now it is.

I'm going to change mine when I get round to it.

 

Not sure what you are getting at?

 

My bike repair site comes up first when you search for bike repair in Midhurst. This has worked great for me as I don't like to travel for that sort of work.

 

However, unless they are searching for 'you'- ie, your name and what you do, I don't see how this benefits you? Search for my company name and gardening and it comes up top also, its not enough however, if the potential client has never heard of you.

 

Surely you need to be found when someone searches for your type of business, in your location (as per bike business?)

 

I've found a good tip is to do as you have and put a synopsis on every page- 'We are based in XXX and cover the area of Town A, Town B, Town C, etc. Stick this at the bottom of the page and it's not in the way, yet seems to help Google put it together with the type of work mentioned at the top of the page?

[Gardenmac]

1 website,3 pages. 1 for each sector of your business. Use key words on your web manager to promote each sector and to push them up the google search.

I had a free site from yola for 12 months (putting British business on line) when I started this has now finished but the site promoted the garden service, the countryside management service and the consultancy service all on separate tabs on the same site. Worked well for me. A short summary/ synopsis at the top or header of each page is key as this shows up on google search.

Good Luck in what you decide.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Gardenmac