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).
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.
Build a Brand, Charge More.
When starting a computer repair business, technicians often sound pretty much the same: "I'm going to give them the best value around." Given their lack of experience, they are unaware of the true cost of running a real business, and won't be able to profit enough to live off of it. Unless you are just looking for part-time work, create a brand to back yourself up, and then charge like the professional that you are supposed to be. The Geek Squad can charge $300 for on-site virus removal because of their brand. You must do whatever it takes to get your name out in a concentrated region around your service area. With a strong brand, you can charge a bit less than the Geek Squad does and do pretty well.
Here are some brand-building tips for your computer business:
- Start with a good name, logo, and website. Don't create these all yourself unless your are truly an anomaly of a technician.
- Earn some good reviews. Help facilitate the tedious review process by emailing your customers a link to your online business presence at the Yellow Pages, Yahoo Local or Google. (You should have already collected their email address on your agreement form.) You might even make an account for them to use ahead of time. Here's how you go about this: after they've praised you for saving them, say, "I'm glad to have helped! Would you mind writing two sentences as an anonymous testimonial?" When they say "yes", you respond, "Wow, thank you! I will email you." Create an account and email them a link with the username and password to sign in and review you. You have time to create an account. They don't.
- Frequency, frequency, frequency. Make sure your name appears in as many local public stores as possible. Negotiate discounted computer service with the store manager or owner in exchange for placing your fliers in prime store real-estate. This is going to be tough, since you might not be much of a salesman; if it is tough, I suggest focusing on your salesmanship. Geek Squad gets by on mostly salesmanship with a sprinkling of technical skill. At least learn the basics, and then practice them; combined with strong technical skills, you should dominate. Multiple mediums especially help. Show up on local websites and Internet banner ads. The easiest way is through PPC ad brokers like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Join the local Chamber of Commerce and appear in networking events. Consider whether you might offer a deal on one of your services through a coupon publication.
- Get a car magnet and proudly display your professional logo. Unless you have a beater, that is
Free Links = Free Advertising
Get your PC Virus Removal business some Google Juice! Once you've created your webpage to advertise your computer repair business, start creating links utilizing the free account on these sites:
- Yellow Pages (Warning: expect them to call you frequently, trying to upgrade your account - but the free business is worth dealing with this small annoyance.)
- Google Local
- Yahoo Local
- HotFrog
- Merchant Circle
- Search for Free Online Business Listings
You'll have a much greater return on your time investment by listing with these sites than with online classifieds like Craigslist. Remember to ask a customer to review your business after they express their gratitude. Ask them for permission to email a link to your profile to them, so that they can review you. It's important to ask because their "yes" significantly increases the chances that they will follow through. Build up your links and testimonials this way.
Word of Mouth Marketing
Get clients to spread your name. There's nothing like a satisfied customer spreading good news about your business.
For every client who refers a new one, offer both a free PC cleaning. (Dust collection inside computers can actually cause system failures. A laptop I examined was rebooting after only a minute; it turned out to have a clump of dust stopping the fan.) To help your customers remember, hand them two free-pc cleaning coupons, each redeemable on a referral. They will serve as reminders.
Provide coupons to your customers, good for one month or less. While they probably won't use them in a month, the limited validity will motivate them to refer you to their friends before the coupons go to waste.
Ask for their email address on your sign-off forms. Right next to their signature, include a line that requests (optional) their email address. Use it with care, of course. Try emailing your clients once every couple months with a valuable discount on a tuneup and security check. This will remind them of your existence, and they will think of you when their friends mention a computer problem.