Web site Makeover: Eight Easy Fixes to Book More Cleaning Jobs

How well does your cleaning website work? You can clearly tell by the number of jobs you book from your site. For the cleaning company who uses the web effectively, it’s easily one of the cheapest ways to get clients. Here’s hint No. 1:

Pretty Web sites don’t sell!

Putting up the most glamorous, perfect Web site with beautiful graphics won’t necessarily get you any calls. Don’t get me wrong. You should indeed have a nice, professional looking site. And yes, it should contain great pictures and graphics. But don’t concentrate solely on a fancy website. Even ugly websites can sell. I talk with cleaners all the time who have beautiful websites that don’t bring in new clients.

You may have an old website built in 1999 that needs updating. Or you could have the latest techno-geek site built last month. Whichever the case, you need your site to book cleaning jobs. The following are some quick and easy fixes. Adding a few of these babies could double or triple your response. 

1. Your City Name, Big and Bold, Toward the Top of the Page

How many times have you done a Google search only to find the site that came up wasn’t even relevant to what you searched?  For example, when prospects search for “Carpet Cleaning Dallas” they want to instantly know they’ve found a carpet cleaning company in the Dallas area. So post your city name toward the top of your site on the main page. Let there be no mistake about the area you service.

2. A Contact or Estimate Form for Inquiries

Nearly half the people who search for a cleaning company do so after normal business hours. Since the prospect knows you’re closed, she doesn’t bother to call. She could write down your phone number or bookmark your site with every intention of calling you the next day.

But phone numbers get lost. Life happens and she forgets who you are. Why not make it easy and allow web visitors to punch in their information while you’re on their mind? A contact or estimate form solves this problem. It could be a simple form asking for their name, email, phone number, and comment about what they need cleaned.

I highly recommend a contact form on your main landing page, or at the very least a large, clickable button that says, “Get an Estimate” so when it’s clicked, the user is taken to your estimate form page.

3. Testimonials Improve Your Credibility

Yes, adding handwritten, typed, audio, or video testimonials helps tremendously. You can talk all day about how great you are, but when someone else says something good about you, it means much more. It’s a great idea to get testimonials and reviews for your Google, Yelp, Yahoo, Bing, Merchant Circle and other social media pages.

But make sure you put a few of your best testimonials on the main page of your website. Establish credibility as soon as a web surfer pops on your site!

4. Pictures of You or Your Techs

The No. 1 reason a prospect will look at your cleaning site is because they want more information about you. And would you believe around 75% of cleaning websites don’t even have a single picture of a person on staff? How will the prospect know who you are without a picture?

In cases of the owner being the guy who goes out and does the cleaning, you likely want your picture on the main landing page. This gives your company a personal feel. Larger companies may want a picture of their fleet of vans and technicians.

At the very least, have an “About Us” page with a couple pictures and information about who you are. After all, they’re looking at your site to find out more about you.

5. Videos Help Tell Your Story

Pictures are good. Videos are great. Today it’s easy to put videos on your site. You can even shoot web-quality video with most smartphones. And if you don’t have a smartphone, an $80-$100 USB-ready High-Definition camera will do the trick. Of course you’ll need a little bit of tech savvy to edit the video, but for a few hundred dollars there are excellent videographers who can help put a semi-professional video together for you.

When I added videos to my local cleaning website, the number of jobs I booked doubled overnight. Adding a video that properly sells your cleaning service will easily boost your response rate. Put at least one video on your main page. If it’s a good video, it will keep web surfers on your site longer, increase your search engine ranking, and help book more jobs.

6. Get Their Email Address with an Email Opt-in Box

If there was a way to robotically keep in touch with prospects who come to your Web site, would you use it? Well, there is! It’s called an email auto-responder. It contains a little box you put up on your site where prospects put in their name and email address.

It’s best if you offer them a bonus to entice them to sign up for your auto-responder. The bonus could be a gift certificate toward cleaning, free bottle of spot remover, or an intriguing report.

After they sign up you can program your auto responder to send them a series of emails over the course of the next several weeks. This is a great way to keep your company at the top of your prospect’s mind. See www.ConstantContact.com, www.IContact.com or www.Aweber.com for information on auto-responders.

7. Have a Call to Action on Every Page

Once you’ve gotten them on your site, make responding to your offer easy. Tell them exactly what to do and how to do it. I like to put a button on every page that says something like, “Click Here NOW For a FREE Estimate!”  When clicked, the web surfer is taken to a web inquiry form that asks questions about their cleaning needs.

8. Have Multiple Calls to Action

But don’t just use banners asking to click for an estimate; also put a call to action in the body copy of the website. Simply say, “Click Here for an Estimate!” in the middle of your text. In addition, your phone number should appear in big, bold type at the top of every page. Make it easy for them to contact you.

  If your Web site doesn’t get prospects calling and emailing for your service, something is terribly wrong. You need to do something about it or you’re leaving lots of money on the table. If your Web site doesn’t give your prospects exactly what they want, they’ll go on to your competitor’s site. Take action today by making a few of these additions and book more jobs on your Web site.