I’m thinking of having a website to advertising my business. I don’t know how to go about this. I’m assuming there are many ways to do this. I found some “create a website for free”. What’s the catch. Your help is appreciated.
thanks
g
Edited 11/21/2008 9:03 pm ET by handygman
Replies
I have several free websites on Godaddy. The catch is you eventually want to add more than 5 pages, and then you pay. But its not expensive - like $8/mo. for 10 pages, $12/mo. for unlimited pages.
CaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
Edited 11/21/2008 9:49 pm by Huck
OK, thanks. All my jobs have been referrals. (5 years). I'm thinking this winter is going to be really slow. One of my clients suggested a website.
You need three things to create a website:
The catch with 'create a website for free' deals advertised on the internet is likely that you gotta pay for either domain name registration or hosting (or both) before you can use the 'free' web-page creation templates that web registrat offers. The other catch is that templates of that sort are extremely basic and you are severely limited as to what you can do with them.
There are also some websites which offer 'free' sub-domains to anyone who wants to create a small, personal site; the catch with these is that (a) you don't have your own domain name, so you don't really control the site; and (b) the domain owner sells advertising and and places it on your pages.
You can download free webpage creation software (like Netscape) from the web; programs such as this are known as 'HTML editors' which enable you to create webpages using a WYSIWIG screen like a word processor--you don't have to go to the bother of learning HTML code itself. But while you can create basic webpages this way without too much trouble, they won't be much to write home about. And remember, a business is judged by its advertising. To get people to think you're a pro, you need to have a pro-looking website.
And (naturally), to get a professional job you really oughta get a pro to do it for you.
Fortunately, we are blessed to have such a person as a member of this very forum. He is almost as tall, skinny, and ugly as I am, but he does nice work.
Allow me to introduce our resident web weenie, Steve, da Fat Roman.
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Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
foolish men call Justice....
handy,
Some good suggestions here already. Just don't spend alot on it as I have been tracking the hits on ours and its depressing. I guess just not alot of folks looking for contractors lately based on the economy.
Edit: You might also look into "buying" keywords so your site comes up sooner when folks do a search in Google or Yahoo.
Edited 11/21/2008 11:45 pm ET by Oak River Mike
First thing you need to determine is what you want the site to do for you. Selling products? Brochure-ware? What kind(s) of information do you need to convey?
Right now your question isn't far off the "I'd like to get a house. I've seen some fliers on telephone poles that say I can get one for free..." You might wind up with a house that way, but not necessarily the type that you'd like to live in or have the kids walk home from school through the neighborhood.
You need a nice design if you want to be taken seriously. And you'll likely want a way to showcase as many of your project photos as you can. With the free sites, you may run up against a storage limit. The photography should be clear and clean. You don't need a pro to come in and stage anything, but something from your phone, or the eskimo in a snowstorm scenario doesn't tend to translate to the web very well.
The caveat here is that even with great design, if your viewers can't open the site because it takes too long to load, or can't navigate their way around with a one mouse click, they are going to leave. The thread here on the new carpentry magazine is a great example.
That's one more point about the 'free' or 'cheap' hosting services. They pack the sites onto servers like sardines and the load response times suffer, in some cases badly.
Therefore the underpinnings of the site have to be well tuned. What's that old saw about how form follows function? Look for something that's based on an open-source platform. Construct your site with text and CSS to position the elements. That way, you'll be able to introduce almost your entire site to the search engine crawlers to be indexed. If you must use Flash, try to keep it to where it's actually useful -- photo galleries or perhaps forms. It just clutters up the site otherwise, and it's not at all helpful for getting your terms to be found in Google and the like.
And to touch on another suggestion above, don't waste your money on purchasing adwords, key terms and the like. At least not now. If you do some research on how search engine optimization works these days, there are far more important things to focus on, like the domain name that you purchase. And the old system of loading up key terms in your page meta tags doesn't do much if anything at this point.
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Steve,
I notice some web sites make me want to pound my bald head against the monitor and others------ Oh they are so nice and intuitive! Lets say I know of a web site-in a somewhat different industry that I REALLY like???
If I investigate the idea of a Web site for my operation--and I refer a prospective designer to that web site and tell them I want mine--just like that---are they( the designer) going to be insulted?????
stephen
A blog is a great start for anyone. Costs ZERO. Fairly simple to use, but you may need a little help to start. Use it as an online journal and you'd be suprised how much traffic you can get. But the keyword factor is very important.
Speaking of banging heads. I hang out in some flooring related forums. I've mentioned this over and over about an internet presence to these guys, yet no takers. And the ironic thing is some of these guys have some fantastic information to share. Post counts are in the thousands on many boards.
Yet the response is typically I don't have the time. Come on guys you're already writing articles, probably spending a few hours each day..pounding away on that PC. And you say you don't have the time?
Unfortunately with many forums and message boards they're not search engine friendly anymore. This place never was. It's like the door is locked to the web. I have two blogs on blogger, one for personal and the other for my industry. I think I have 60 topics/pages on one and get about 120 visitors per day. I did get off track this past summer with spending more time outdoors.
http://hardwoodflooringnut.blogspot.com/
Blogs are search engine friendly too. Oh and you get free stats too.
Set up blogger account
Here's a blog I have been hired to create...
You are right...lots of topics when it comes to wood flooring.
http://collingwood-flooring.blogspot.com
LGardenStructure.com~Build for the Art of it! Decks Blog
Stephen,Well, it depends. But probably not unless the designer is an egomaniac. Though it might also depend on what the site that you like looks like.If I said to you, I want a house just like this photo, I'm thinking you wouldn't be terribly offended. And you might rightly point out to me, well you see that closed valley is going to catch a bunch of leaves, and that porch overhang is not stable enough, and so on. I'd have to consider your points and come to some sort of hybrid agreement where the inspiration of the other house still lives in the new version.The philosopher in me remembers Goethe's advice that 'Everything has been thought of, the difficultly is in thinking of it again' and Heraclitus' reminder that one can never step twice into the same river. So it's not like anything is really breaking new ground.I've had clients that, despite my best efforts and suggestions, still want stuff that I think is hideous or not really practical. At the end of the day, it's their money and I will build them what they want. I won't put it in my portfolio though. LOL I also had a client that after I spent 2 weeks designing a lovely site for, came to me and said 'I really just love this work you did for client X. Can't we just have something like that with different colors?' Guess what they wound up with?It all depends in how you approach it, too. I will be offended by the client that says 'I've got a budget of $400, why can't you build me something like YouTube?' And I've had those 'offers'.So if you say, what do you think about this site? Or these sites? I really like the colors/font/layout/picture gallery/element/etc., can you make something like that for me? They'll almost always say yes. It's all about honey v. vinegar like your mom told you.Is that helpful to you?Best,
Steve'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb
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I would like to know really how much work for contractors is generated by web sites? ALL...and I mean ALL of our work has always been referral generated. Only then do folks say "Oh, you have a web site!"
All of my work has been by referral also. I want to build a web site... not to get new customers because I don't think it will accomplish that, but to give some ideas regarding the kinds of things I can do to customers to whom I've already been referred.
In that sense, a well done web site might generate work. And it might also help previous customers find me again if they lose my phone number.
I had one customer call me who found me on a google search. Here's a link to the job.
Another customer told me that he chose me over other bidders because of my website. Here's a link to that job.
I recently got a call to bid a commercial job. When I met with the facilities manager, he told me that he was from the same area I was from. I asked how he knew that, he told me "I read on your website you came from the Ventura area."View Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product†– Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
I'm guessing that single job more than paid for the expense and/or effort invested in your website. I know mine has paid for itself many times over.See my work at TedsCarpentry.comBuy Cheap Tools! BuildersTools.net
Probably 75% of our work comes in through our website, but only 5 or 10% of those people found us through a web search. Most see us one of our print ads, which lead them to our website which has lots of photos and a little text. The other 25% is through referalls or from people seeing our trucks, trailers and jobsite signs.
Mike,
Where are your print ads....newspapers or magazines...local, I'm guessing? Seems like those are working well for you if you get that much traffic directed towards your site.
I tried newpapers in our area and after tracking our site hits, it only added a few per month. I guess the paper ad wasn't big enough or had the right placement.
I think it's a combination of running the ads and having the website. One nice thing about a website is you can pack a lot more information than your basic ad - not to mention all the photos. So the ad in itself doesn't make the sale so much as the website does. But witout the ads, the website may never be seen.See my work at TedsCarpentry.comBuy Cheap Tools! BuildersTools.net
Please update your profile! Since many issues are dependant on the region in which you work, we look at your profile to see where you are writing from. So at the very least, tell us were you're writing from!
We do high-end residential building, remodeling, and design. Our ads are in magazines with demographic that matches our typical client. I think we run ads in six magazines (I'm an employee, not owner, so I don't know all the particulars). Some are strictly regional home design mags, some are lifestyle mags, some are house-and-boat mags. We can't make money on jobs that newspaper ads bring in, but I imagine someone more interested in small jobs could do well with consistent ads in newspapers. Consistency is key, I think. We ran the exact same ad for probably five years, now we change out the photos every few months, but there is a theme that carries over to try to make us stick in peoples' heads. I sort of designed our current ad campaign, a pro cleaned it up, so it will be interesting to see how that works over the next couple years.
It took several years for the website to start doing its job, for several reasons. Our original website wasn't very good, for one thing, so we invested in a good, professionally designed site, and invest in professional photographs of every job (at least the ones we want people to see!). We are seeing more young clients, and more retirees moving in from out of state, so web research is a natural for both groups as opposed to a local old-timer looking for a bargain.
Many of our competitors run their ads in the same magazines. It's like a game to see who has the best ads and the best web site. Fortunately my boss is an excellent salesman so when we do get a call, we have a pretty good chance of getting them in the door. I don't know if other companies have the same asset.
How long did you let your ad run? How big was it? How distinctive was it? How many places did you run it? Mike Smith often cites how many ads people see over the course of a day, its something like 1500, so it takes a while for it to take hold. Were you around here when Sonny Lycos was here? He had tons of ways to generate leads, and keep them. It's not a onetime thing--you don't just run an ad and wait for the phone calls--you have to get your name out there as the go-to guy for your area of expertise.
Edit to add: Yes, our ads are fairly local, magazines that are Maine-based and maybe a couple New England-based. They are expensive but without them I doubt we'd have work right now.
Edited 11/23/2008 3:42 pm ET by Mike_Maines
Interesting...thanks Mike!
Mike
Good point about consistency. Nobody remembers you the first time they see your ad and/or website, and they won't remember it the third, fourth or tenth time if it doesn't look the same as the first time they saw it. I guess it's the difference between "wow, nice ad" and "well, this one's been around a while. Must be doing something right"See my work at TedsCarpentry.comBuy Cheap Tools! BuildersTools.net
If you haven't already done so, please update your profile. Since many issues are dependant on the region in which you work, we often look at your profile to see where you are writing from.
I don't know if we ever got any work because someone stumbled onto our website, then contacted us.
But I can't tell you how many times people have let it slip after we meet that have been to our website - customers, architects, other contractors...many of them reading extensively enough to name specific projects or co-worker's names.
I just see it as a way to let people get a taste of our company culture, the kind of people we are, the kind of work we've done in the past.
I read about what a website SHOULD be, and what it SHOULDN'T be and I get a little confused about what people want their website to accomplish. I just want it to represent me, to reflect my values, my personality.
For me sucessful business relationships are all about finding the right match. The customer and I have to be a good match, or there is going to be too much conflict for me to enjoy working with them. If I don't enjoy working with them there's really no point in entering the relationship - the money earned will be long gone before the negative energy generated by the relationship is.
Life's too short. Let your website represent the real you, whoever that is. Do that and the customers you attract will share enough personal values with you to have a decent shot at creating a good working relationship at least - maybe even develop into a friendship - and we all know how rare those are.
Couldn't agree more. And for me, its a way of leveraging my advertising, by including my website url on all my print ads.
I like your words so much, I'm gonna repeat 'em. In fact, I think I'm gonna put this quote on my website. If that's OK with you.
I get a little confused about what people want their website to accomplish. I just want it to represent me, to reflect my values, my personality.
For me sucessful business relationships are all about finding the right match. The customer and I have to be a good match, or there is going to be too much conflict for me to enjoy working with them. If I don't enjoy working with them there's really no point in entering the relationship - the money earned will be long gone before the negative energy generated by the relationship is.
Life's too short. Let your website represent the real you, whoever that is. Do that and the customers you attract will share enough personal values with you to have a decent shot at creating a good working relationship at least - maybe even develop into a friendship - and we all know how rare those are.
- Jim Blodgett
edited to add: I'd also like to include a link to your website, if you'll post it (I know I've seen it in the past, probably even saved it, but my computer crashed awhile back and I lost all my "favorites").
View Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product†– Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
Edited 11/24/2008 12:05 am by Huck
You're a good man, Huck.
Now go to bed.
Now go to bed.
Can't. My wife says I gotta stay up and watch Beyonce when she comes on.View Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product†– Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
Hey Mike,
Can you post a link to your co's website? I'd love to have a look.
Eric
Eric,I believe it's this one: http://www.finelinesmaine.com/'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb
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Steve, I've been bragging on how good our website is--I think it is good compared to our competitors--what do you think of it, from your professional point of view?
Mike,Just sent you a note to your hotmail account.Best,
Steve'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb
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Thanks Steve--
Fatro Man saves the day!....
Steve, I've been bragging on how good our website is--I think it is good compared to our competitors--what do you think of it, from your professional point of view?
How about a not-so-professional point of view? OK, then, here's my websurfer assessment.
I like it. It looks very professional to me, I would feel comfortable that in hiring you guys, I would get some real qualified people working on my project.
...but if you insist on a critique, I think its a little sterile. I love to see some sawdust and power tools laying around when I click on a builder's website! I mean the process not just the product. And how about sharing some quotes or personalized trivia about the faces in the crowd, other than their pedigrees? And maybe don't make me squint so much to read that tiny print?
I did a yahoo search for "Maine Building Contractor" and yes, I agree, it is good compared to your competitors.
OK, that'll be 2 cents please. I accept paypal.View Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product†– Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
Huck, you're a professional something, so that qualifies!
I agree about it being kind of sterile and the print being too small. There is enough turnover among the carpenters that it would be difficult to keep up with blurbs on everyone, not to mention expensive, as none of us in the office know how to maintain the site. We strive for super-clean jobsites and the focus is on getting things done, not individual craftsmanship, so the process shots we had on the earlier site were not used on this site.
I would like to see projects organized differently. The tiny little page numbers for the photo album worked great when there were only a handful of photos, but there are enough on there now that it's hard to go back and find a particular picture.
I think I'll spread out my unsolicited advice to the bosses though....
Thanks everybody. All your comments has helped me to know what to expect. I see Google has something on websites. I'll start reading their stuff.
g
I can recommend the Google program Sites for creating and maintaining a website. Its quite easy, and quite flexible, and can be managed from any computer with a web connection. Below is a link to the website of the company I work for. I created much of it, with some help from my wife and input and suggestions from lots of people.Huck, and everyone, you'll see quite a bit of process and dirt on our site. The link:http://www.houseworksdesignbuild.com
Nice job on that! I like the amound of photos you have on there. You did all that on a google website? Does it cost to put together one like that?
Yeah its all done in Google Sites. I did the domain registration through Google as well (its not necessary to do so) so the total cost is $10/year. You can actually use Sites even without having a domain.When you start using Sites you are presented with some templates, which essentially are just color schemes. However its possible to deviate completely from these templates, changing foreground and background colors for each section of a page, and even using .jpgs as backgrounds. There are options for single- and 2-column layout, and tables, pictures and 'widgets' such as the slideshow or blog templates can be put just about anywhere. The slide shows require use of Picasa Web for storing the pictures.
Now that's what I'm talkin' bout!View ImageView Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product†– Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
I would like to see projects organized differently. The tiny little page numbers for the photo album worked great when there were only a handful of photos, but there are enough on there now that it's hard to go back and find a particular picture.
Seeing that you raised the topic, I'd say less is more here. Or do thumbnails instead. That's alot of photos!
Eric
Mike great website, I believe a simple approach that is professionally done makes for a good website, to many people go for too much text trying to explain everything to everyone also the cheap template website stands out for what it is , cheap and nasty.
I think the public is pretty savvy on what a pro companies website should look like, and they 'mark' them down if its not up to scratch (I know I do)cheers,
Johnhttp://www.johnwalkerbuilders.com
Mike great website, I believe a simple approach that is professionally done makes for a good website, to many people go for too much text trying to explain everything to everyone also the cheap template website stands out for what it is , cheap and nasty.I think the public is pretty savvy on what a pro companies website should look like, and they 'mark' them down if its not up to scratch (I know I do)
I agree with some of the above. I mean, "simple approach professionally done", who could argue with that?
But as far as "too much text trying to explain everything to everyone", I'm not sure what that means? It reminds me of a quote attributed to Emperor Joseph II in reaction to Mozart’s music "It has too many notes".
I don't think too much text is as big an issue as the quality of the text. I actually find that a lack of content (text) is generally a bigger issue with many websites, and one reason many contractor websites are difficult to find with a google or yahoo search. Tiny text is another problem with many professional websites, and it strains my ageing eyes to try to read them!
Also, the crack about 'cheap and nasty template websites' - I suppose there are some that might be offensive - could you give an example?
Template websites have the advantage of being viable for a non-geek, so that makes updates and improvements easy for most contractors. One problem I find with my friends' professionally designed websites - they seldom, if ever, get updated. Check in a year later, its still the same. Seen it once? - no need to go back ever again. Employees who left long ago are still showing up on the personnel page.
And the other thing about "professional" vs. template - when you're talking about advertising, sometimes being too professional can alienate, because professional advertisers, while slick, are not construction people. Some of the professionally designed websites I've seen are the most egregious when it comes to posed "construction worker" photos, and some of the professionally designed websites are the most sterile, lacking in real personality or character.
In other words, for a website to truly reflect our personality, and the personality of our business, its pretty hard to beat a website we build ourselves - and a template allows us to do that. Not many professional web designers would take the time to get to know a contractor thoroughly before building his website - and then "tweak" the website periodically to reflect any new directions or interests as they arise.
Look, for example, at the popularity of blogs. Most are completely non-professional, and reflect the blogger's personality. And some have become huge successes. Remodeler magazine pointed out the virtues of a more personalized website in their recent issue, and gave as an example this website http://www.myersconstructs.com/
Now I don't know if thats a cheap and nasty template website or not, but its definitely got a "homemade" feel to it that I find appealing. Snapshot quality photos, pictures of the employees' pets, lists of their favorite gadgets, descriptions of their tattoos. I feel like I'm getting to know them, when I visit their website.
I like this quote from another BT'er, "I get a little confused about what people want their website to accomplish. I just want it to represent me, to reflect my values, my personality.
For me sucessful business relationships are all about finding the right match. The customer and I have to be a good match, or there is going to be too much conflict for me to enjoy working with them. If I don't enjoy working with them there's really no point in entering the relationship - the money earned will be long gone before the negative energy generated by the relationship is.
Life's too short. Let your website represent the real you, whoever that is. Do that and the customers you attract will share enough personal values with you to have a decent shot at creating a good working relationship at least - maybe even develop into a friendship - and we all know how rare those are.
- Jim Blodgett
View Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product†– Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
Edited to add: don't be a hit and runner, drop in and stay awhile here at Breaktime, have a cup of coffee, and join the fray!
Edited 12/6/2008 12:38 pm by Huck
Hi Huck,
Let me start by saying my website is a template one and edited by me, I wasn't disparaging all template sites, I agree that a pro website can be impersonal and some get carried away with flash to the point where I just don't bother to open them.
I believe a pro company should have a website which looks professionally done whether it is a template or not, and which can be easily updated by them.
cheers,
Johnhttp://www.johnwalkerbuilders.com
Actually, it's in his profile. Just click on his name and where it says "Website". I was going to post this last night but then got distracted. See my work at TedsCarpentry.comBuy Cheap Tools! BuildersTools.net
If you haven't already done so, please update your profile. Since many issues are dependant on the region in which you work, we often look at your profile to see where you are writing from.
Eric, it's on my profile, and here: http://www.finelinesmaine.com
Very nice crisp website Mike. Looks like you work for a great outfit.
Our co, website is so lame compared to yours, I would almost be embarassed to link it here.
Eric
If you are slowing down, like most are, you need to do something with your time, and if you do not do it now, you will not be able to do it later, when we are all busy again.....this is a great opportunity for everyone to refine their processes, and start plans for marketing.
Edited 11/22/2008 9:04 am ET by PearceServices
My only advice as a web surfer is to make your top page fast loading with a minimum of bells and whistles. You can make it pretty but don't go crazy with animations and music. You can link them to your flash player infomercial if that is what they want to see but when I want information I just want the facts, not a cartoon show and I will "X" out of a site in a heartbeat if they are taking me off on some 5 minute flash show I don't want to see.
I find that my website does little in the way of advertising. However, it does provide a way of showing potential customers what I can do, and the type of services I offer. It also makes me look a little more professional than my competition who doesn't have a website. Just a little edge over the competition can make the difference between who's working and who's looking for work.
By the way, I use http://www.BlueHost.com for some of my hosting (have a dedicated server besides). They have been very dependable and provide cPanel, which has a ton of tools for managing your site, statistics, email and a lot of more technical stuff you may or may not use. I set up a demo at http://www.cpdemo.net, feel free to try it out.
See my work at TedsCarpentry.com
Buy Cheap Tools! BuildersTools.net
Edited 11/22/2008 10:51 pm by Ted W.
"I would like to know really how much work for contractors is generated by web sites?"
Depends on how the site is set up. Text...need text.
"I had one customer call me who found me on a google search."
And chances are very good it's because of the title of the web page...
Bakersfield Remodeling, residential & commercial construction
...or the keywords scattered across the site along with text. They're all over the place. Locations(s), what you do etc. Very good job. Text is they key.
Did I say text?
I think I mentioned text...
True, but also you can't forget the importance of text! =D
Actually, there is even more to search engine ranking. An important one is how many sites link back to yours, what's called referals or backlinks. That's why so many websites ask other webmasters to link back to them, and why link exchage directories are so popular. Most of the bigger search engines even compare the relation of subject matter in the backlinked sites. For instance, a backlink from a home improvement website would be higher rated than a backlink from a finance or social networking site.
The url is important, not so much in what it says but that it is search engine friendly, known as SEF urls. Many search engines don't know how to read ?, $, & and other symbols used in dynamic urls. Thus, many search engines don't read past the symbol. For instance, your website.com/index.php?page=home and yourwebsite.com/index.php?page=portfolio will look like the same page, so only the first page the engine sees will get indexed. What's more, those engines which can read them generally put them lower in ranking than more readable urls, because they know it is dynamic content and will probably change.
Telling the major search engines that your site exists is real helpful. Submitting your site to Google or Yahoo will help assure it get's indexed in the next 3 months or so. And you can take it a step further by submitting a sitemap.xml. I created sitemaps for most of my sites and submitted them to Google, and I've had some sites appear in searches as quickly as a week or two.
For those of you who have a website and want to create a sitemap.xml file, check out http://www.xml-sitemaps.com. There you can map up to 500 pages and create the xml file for free. If you have more than 500 pages, the downloadable version is only $15 if I recall.
Also, create a google account (i.e. gmail) and use their webmaster tools. https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dashboard There is a wealth of information there as well.
BEWARE of over submitting. Most search engines are not very tollerant of too many submissions, and consider it like spamming. This is why I avoid the free site submission tools you see all over the place. Many of them are set to autopilot, and will submit your site to the same search engines way too many times, resulting in your site getting black listed from their searches. I found this out the hard way.
Don't forget about them meta tags! The meta title and meta keywords are just as important as the text (did we mention text yet?)See my work at TedsCarpentry.comBuy Cheap Tools! BuildersTools.net
Free websites nearly never rank... that's the catch.
Often they are buried within a sub-domian inside a url that someone else owns, it is full of spammers and simply a bad neighbourhood to locate.
Your average website gets 3-5 visits a month anyhow.
To help you decide what you want included in your website you may want to create a blog first. That will teach you about getting traffic and search terms and response rate. Something like Blogger.com is a direct line to google, so you will find many of your posts getting actual traffic.
The web is all about connections, votes, links and content.
Yes... you should at least know about the web even if you don't have a real website.
L
GardenStructure.com~Build for the Art of it! Decks Blog