How to Get More Free Traffic to Your Computer Repair Website
Every computer repair business owner could use more traffic from search engines. This article describes the free methods that increase your computer repair site's rankings in search engines (Non-free tactics are covered here). Just be careful not to rely on this traffic for more than 50% of your customers.
I recently surveyed the top ranking computer repair sites across the United States, searching for correlations between links, reviews, and search rankings. In this un-scientific study, I wanted to see who is ranking the best for the holy grail of search queries for the computer repair business - "computer repair" - and what made them rank so well. It became apparent that the quantity of links and reviews really mattered. Then, I looked at the inbound-linking sites to see where they got all that link juice from.
Let's start with link strategy. Where is your competition getting backlinks from?
Start with the low-hanging fruit, which can bring in traffic from the online yellow pages. You will likely even get customers directly from these listings.
Does your computer repair business have a job to offer? You might be able to get referenced by employment websites, and maybe important .edu sites of schools near you.
Participate on computer repair community sites (like VirusRemovalBusiness) by submitting your original articles to them for credit and links back to your site.
If you get a request for an interview, accept it and you could get a link. Here is an example.
Does your business use the software or services of other companies? And, are you pleased with what they provide? Write a testimonial and get linked to on their testimonials pages (or ask to be included on partners pages) from some of these high-profile sites. If you are a product vendor, the manufacurer is often happy to link to your website (example).
Is your computer repair business a member of the local Chamber of Commerce or BBB? Your local Chamber of Commerce likely has a directory of member businesses.
"Best of the Web"-type directories are harder to get admitted to, but if you can get admitted, they demonstrate trust to search engines. Here are some examples:
- If you can get listed in DMOZ, this sends a strong credibility signal to search engines. Choose your region here to get listed.
- If your site features an outstanding article, try submitting it to the Librarian's Internet Index.
Computer repair directories convey to search engines that computer repair is definitely your business, and that you should rank well for user searches for "computer repair".
Does your computer repair business have a contractor-subcontractor business model? If so, ask your independent members to link back to your main site.
Does your business create and/or host webpages? If so, you have a huge opportunity to include "Powered By: yoursite.com" links on the websites you manage.
Does your business support the community in some way? Look into local community press releases: help the community and get local coverage (and local links).
Did your business just open? Write up a press release. Is there something unique about your business? See if you can get that press release picked up by a local news agency.
Get interviews with entrepreneurial organizations like SCORE and startupnation.
If you are on LinkedIn, be sure to list your website and then tick off "list my websites" in your public profile options.
Join local Linux / Mac users groups (example).
Search for "buy local" sites in your region that promote local businesses (example).
Now that you've got all these links pointing to your web page, don't forget to 301 the "non-www" version of your site to the "www" version (or vice-versa if most inbound links do not reference your site with a "www") so as not to dilute the influence of back-links.
Next, get online reviews. Some computer repair sites have few inbound links, but plenty of reviews, and perform extremely well for local computer repair searches. Here is a list of the top 10 review sites to get listed in, according to the recent local search ranking factors report:
- Yelp
- InsiderPages
- Yahoo
- CitySearch
- Superpages
- Niche Industry Sites (BBB, Vertical Directories)
- TripAdvisor
- Judysbook
- Kudzu
The trick is getting reviewed. You might ask your customers to review your service by following up with an email, linking to your business profile page on each of these sites. Ask whether they have a Google or Yahoo account, and send a link to your business profile.
Finally, consider writing up a few unique, relevant articles for your site. Computer repair sites w/ multiple pages and lots of content performed noticeably better, although it is hard to say whether there was any causation here.
Good luck with improving your computer business's rankings in the search engines!
Wal-Geeks?
Now that Wal-Mart is going to have its own version of the Geek Squad, we can expect more price competition for computer repair services. Better start building a reputation of quality service, not just low prices, to ensure that your business stays competitive.
The Danger of Relying on Google for Your Computer Repair Business
Google controls well over half of the United States' search market share. Your computer repair businesses may rely pretty heavily on it to bring in new customers. What happens if overnight your business is removed from Google's search results? Unfortunately, there are ways that your competition could get you banned or significantly punished in the SERPs.
Google deals with billions of websites. Most of the sites it sees are spam or garbage. Google (and other SE's) have automated systems to classify and penalize websites. If a smart competitor understands the classification system, then he can make you look like you are using Black Hat techniques to promote your site, getting you banned or penalized.
I won't get into the details, but I will state that I have been the target of an obvious attack - I suspect by a competitor - and that my rankings suffered immediately. When I tried to reach Google, I received the usual corporate cut-and-paste reply that says "Google cares", but means "Google doesn't have time to deal with you". This is your warning that a competitor could take you out. Bottom line: diversify your advertising, and try not to rely too heavily on Google. Find out ways to get new customers other than the web. Small businesses are at the greatest risk - Since Google has decided that they do not have the resources to speak with the little guy, you are out of luck if you run into trouble.
Get More Business with a Computer Repair Coupon
image credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/mrceviz
Although your margins will decrease when a coupon is used, you can still increase your overall earnings by charging a bit more and offering a coupon at the same time. Those who care enough about getting a deal will find and use your coupon. Others start their search for a service with a coupon, and might never have found your business in the first place if you did not offer a coupon.
Show Relevance with a Photo.
After adding a photo to my computer repair business's website, conversions (view to call ratios) increased pretty dramatically and I started getting complements on my website. The photo license cost $1. The estimated gain was surely over $100. I chose an image that represents my target audience using the computer. Make sure your photo is relevant to your target audience (age, gender, etc).
How to Earn 25% More
As a computer repairman, you have two basic options: charge by the hour, or by the job (with a quote). I prefer the latter. When starting out, you'll have the advantage of flexible pricing to determine what is optimal your market.
Segment Your Market
Rather than choosing a fixed cost for the job, find some optional added value you can give to your customer (e.g. faster service). Then, when providing your quote over the phone, start high for the premium service. If the prospect objects ("that's too much", or "I don't need a 12-hr turnaround time"), then you've created the opportunity to offer a lower quote without making your pricing seem arbitrary. Offer a longer turnaround (or otherwise sub-premium service) for a reduce rate. Aside from using the anchoring principle to your advantage, you now have a legitimate reason to reduce your quote if the customer is not willing to pay for premium service, in effect saving the sale and making the job easier on yourself through your reduced service offering.
By segmenting your market, you create an offering that appeals to the higher-end audience while not eliminating budget-conscious prospects. Based on my own experience using this approach, earnings went up over 25% during the first month, compared with my previous approach (offering a single quote).
Example
*Phone Rings*
Customer: How much do you charge for computer repair?
You: The price depends on what you need repaired. What's wrong with your computer?
Customer: It's got a virus.
You: Sounds awful! If you need the computer back right away, we can remove the virus and have it back to you in 12 hours for $ABC.
Customer: Hmm, I don't really need it done that fast.
You: That's fine. We also offer 24 and 48 hour service options. You can get your computer back, virus-free in 48 hours for only $XYZ.
In the above conversation, it turns out that you offered something more than the customer needed. You then reduced your offering to meet her needs.
If she had a business computer and needed the faster turnaround time, she likely would have been willing to pay more.
A Good Time to Start a Computer Repair Business?
Inc.com lists The Best Industries for Starting a Business Right Now. "Repair Services" is #16 on their slideshow. Specifically, "personal electronics repair shops" is mentioned.
The trick for the computer guru tends to be the marketing aspect, which this site aims to focus on. Technibble does a great job at covering the technical aspects. Here we focus specifically on virus removal as well.
The best way to begin is probably not to start your own shop, but instead to work out of a home office initially.
Computer Repair Mastermind Group
Special invitation for select computer business professionals. You're invited to be part of the Computer Repair Mastermind group. A Mastermind group is just like the forums but we'll be having a discussion via Skype for about 30 minutes.
A member of our forum and full-time onsite computer repair specialist, Demosthenes, will be hosting the first conference call on Monday the 13th at 8 PM EST.
From Demosthenes:
A common trait was found during the study of 100 highly successful business owners. All 100 had a group of like minded individuals they could share their ideas with.
Help me make this a success by bringing your experience to the discussion. Topics for Monday will be starting with marketing tips and ideas for your computer business. Join us Monday 13th at 8pm EST.
Send your Skype name to Demosthenes for your invitation.
See you Monday.
Demosthenes
Find Demosthenes on our forum.
How to Advertise Your Computer Repair Business
Thanks to online advertising networks like AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing, small computer repair businesses (even home-based ones) can easily promote themselves locally. Now that Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising can essentially buy you customers, you can advertise your computer repair business on local websites and have it show up alongside search engine results.
How to Show Up Next to Search Results
You pay for terms like computer repair, virus removal, and computer service. When people search for computer repair, your business shows up on the side. By defining your region (discussed below), you can make sure to only advertise to people in your area.
Search Advertising Example
In the example above, ads appear on the right. The computer repair advertiser only pays when someone clicks their ad. $1.00 to $5.00 per click is typical for a computer repair advertisement click, although pricing varies by region and day. So, if 20% of those clicks result in a phone call, then you would pay about $5 to $25 per lead in this example. Lower bids buy you a lower position (fewer clicks), and this might be acceptable when testing your business if you want to start slowly by spending little.
How to Show Up on Related Web Sites
You can also pay to have your website ads show up embedded on local websites. You're probably familiar with the contextual text ad blocks that show up everywhere, and you can add your business's ad without much extra effort.
Let's suppose you've decided that you want your advertisements to show up on web pages discussing computer repair. To cause your ads to show up on those pages, you would create an "Ad Group", which links your advertisements to keywords. The keywords you enter should form a theme - for example, a theme of "computer repair". Your theme might include the following keywords:
- computer repair
- pc repair
- desktop repair
- laptop repair
Now your computer repair ads show up on sites discussing computer repair!
Getting the Most Out of Local Advertising
If you have a very low advertising budget, don't rule out PPC advertising altogether. Instead, target a small local area, and bid less. Be sure to spread your budget over both Search Advertising and Content Advertising to maximize ROI.
It's important to limiting the reach of your advertising to people browsing the web in your local area, just like with search advertising. In the image below, note how a local computer repair business bids higher (darker areas) for advertisements that display closer to the shop.
Bid according to potential.
Learning More
This has been an introduction to advertising your computer repair business using PPC online advertising. When you are ready to begin advertising your computer business online, get started right away with a small budget (place low bids; advertise in a small target area). As you learn more, raise your advertising budget. Start by learning Google's AdWords since they have a dominant market share and will get you the most traffic. Later, expand to Yahoo and Microsoft's ad networks to increase your reach.
How to Profit from the Unprofitable
Here we learn to deal with what would normally be an unprofitable job. Suppose you're speaking with a prospect who you can tell is going to be very demanding, or who is requesting your services for the type of work that you are uninterested in doing. The best ways to handle these situations include:
- raising the quote
- referring the lead to someone else
- saying no
Raise the quote high enough to reflect your concerns and bad hunches, but not so high as to send the client away. Raising the quote means raising your first quote, with respect to your normal rate. Otherwise, you'll be making someone angry. Are you "too busy to take work right now"? Don't turn them away; raise the quote.
Consider referring the lead to someone else. The goal is not to give someone a bad referral, but rather something they can handle better than you could. By having connected with some of your competitors ahead of time - ideally, who serve a slightly different market - you can send them the jobs that you can't handle (for example, you might not do laptop hardware repair). While it may seem counterintuitive to stay close to a few of your competitors in this manner, it will give you an advantage because you will now have a local lead generation network for computer repair. Here's how it works. First, make them aware of your area of expertise, and learn theirs (essentially by interviewing them as a customer might, asking them what their specialties are). If they might be a good "partner", let them know about your idea. When the time comes, you will probably have to take the first risk or two by sending them a lead for nothing except the expectation that they will send a customer your way in the future. If they reciprocate, then you've found someone who you can share a lead with again. It's good to have a number of referrals ready for when you are on vacation (but still answering your phone), or don't want to handle the work for any reason. After referring the customer, follow up by emailing your contact at that business, letting them know you just sent someone their way and that they should be expecting a call soon from them (give out their first name and the computer problem, so your friend will recognize the lead when it comes to them).
Finally, sometimes it's best to say no. Some jobs will cost you!