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Any tips on promoting a Truck Repair website?

by feedtherightwolf
16 replies
So I know this guy who helped me a lot when I first came over to America. He was an university friend of my father, and I owe a lot to him.

2 years ago he was hit by a drunk driver, which almost killed him, and broke 2 of his legs. It took him 7 months to be able to walk again. When he was finally able to go back to work, they let him go, saying that they had to fire somebody, and since he was getting a disability payment ($700 or so) they felt it was most fair to let him go and not somebody else. (I guess it makes sense).

So he ended up losing his job. Then he tried to find work for about another year, and the only jobs he could get was commission based marketing. He has a strong Russian accent, and I think it throws a lot of people off.

After a year of living off his wife's income, he couldn't take it anymore, and he decided to open up a truck repair shop. He is a mechanical engineer who specialized in engines, and he had an auto repair shop for 5 years when he first came over, until he got his engineering jobs, where he worked for 10 years until his accident. So he is really good at what he does.

Having an interest in internet marketing, I volunteered to promote his business. I noticed that competition for such keywords as truck repair was pretty low, and I was hopeful that I can get him on the front page of google.

This turned out to be harder than I thought. I already submitted him to all major city search type of websites. I also submitted him to bunch of social network websites... As well as on the network of few blogs that I own.

Nothing much happened as a result of it. I paid few writers to write articles to post to ezines, but to be honest, this is kind of expensive, and since I am not going to get paid for it, and since I am broke myself, I would rather not invest any more of my personal money. (or at least invest as little as possible).

I was wondering may be you guys can give me some tips on what else I can do to help this guy promote his website?

I am not allowed to post a link to his site on this forum, but if you search for san jose truck repair on yahoo, he is number one search result (because domain name has those keywords plus .com at the end, the only successful result of my endeavor)

I would appreciate any feedback including negative!

Thanks in Advance!
#promoting #repair #tips #truck #website
  • Profile picture of the author Juniord
    Start building lots of backlinks to the site. This will enable you to rank high for your targeted keywords and also get you the traffic you need.Their is link in my signature that will give you a head start in building the links you need.
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  • Profile picture of the author Social-Media-Marketing
    I am guessing he has a street address for his truck repair shop. These types of businesses are typically prime targets for local search...

    For example, if you search Google for "truck repair charlotte NC" (assuming that is the address of my truck repair service), NOTE the 7 pack next to the Google maps. This is the local search result widget... and will get more clicks than ANY organic link (even #1 in the organics) typically.

    That is what I'd be striving for... To get them to #1 on that 7 pack of local listings. You can search Google for things like "optimizing for Google local search" to find out "HOW" to get them in the 7 pack. But the key points are:

    1) He needs to claim his listing
    2) He must have a brick and mortar business in that geographic area (Charlotte NC).
    3) His site should have the name, address and phone number of the business prominantly displayed on the home page... and then
    4) Create lost of directory entries on other sites pointing to his home page. Those directory entries should contain that SAME business name, address, phone numbers...

    There's more to it that that, but I think those are the highlights of what needs to be done.

    Then build backlinks to his site with his targeted keyword phrase to also rank well in organic (non-7 pack) listings. There's always the low quality, unnatural link building techniques like directory submissions, forum sigs, article submissions, dofollow blog commenting, etc. But doing quality link building requires a lot of time to find sources of the links and to convice other webmasters that they should link to you naturally (on their own) without you having to "plant" a link yourself somewhere.
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    • Profile picture of the author feedtherightwolf
      Originally Posted by MarkAndrews IMCopywriting View Post

      Lets get the link up for you...
      Thanks

      Originally Posted by Social-Media-Marketing View Post

      I am guessing he has a street address for his truck repair shop. These types of businesses are typically prime targets for local search...

      For example, if you search Google for "" (assuming that is the address of my truck repair service), NOTE the 7 pack next to the Google maps. This is the local search result widget... and will get more clicks than ANY organic link (even #1 in the organics) typically.

      That is what I'd be striving for... To get them to #1 on that 7 pack of local listings. You can search Google for things like "optimizing for Google local search" to find out "HOW" to get them in the 7 pack. But the key points are:

      1) He needs to claim his listing
      2) He must have a brick and mortar business in that geographic area (Charlotte NC).
      3) His site should have the name, address and phone number of the business prominantly displayed on the home page... and then
      4) Create lost of directory entries on other sites pointing to his home page. Those directory entries should contain that SAME business name, address, phone numbers...

      There's more to it that that, but I think those are the highlights of what needs to be done.

      Then build backlinks to his site with his targeted keyword phrase to also rank well in organic (non-7 pack) listings. There's always the low quality, unnatural link building techniques like directory submissions, forum sigs, article submissions, dofollow blog commenting, etc. But doing quality link building requires a lot of time to find sources of the links and to convice other webmasters that they should link to you naturally (on their own) without you having to "plant" a link yourself somewhere.
      Wow this is way better advice than I expected, thanks a lot!

      I am working on steps 1 and 2 already, but step 3, I am not sure if the site is optimized well for that. Right now I have only a phone number in the header, do you think I should find a way to put address in there as well?
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      • Profile picture of the author RB Riddick
        Hi FTRW,

        I checked out your friend's website and I saw a few obvious problems.

        On my computer, the "Fleet Maintenance and Truck Repairs" heading on the Services page is missing a bit off the top of its letters. Also, the actual hours of operation are located toward the bottom of every page while the related heading "Hours of Operation" is completely dissociated from them up near the top. This might look better on a larger monitor, but it still seems unprofessional. (And note that the words Maintenance, Operation, and Benefits in three different headings are all spelled wrong.)

        There are other things that I would change as well. For example, on the home page, your friend has "Just give us a call, and we will do the rest!" written at the bottom in bold letters as the final call to action, but there is no telephone number underneath!
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        • Profile picture of the author feedtherightwolf
          Originally Posted by RB Riddick View Post

          Hi FTRW,

          I checked out your friend's website and I saw a few obvious problems.

          On my computer, the "Fleet Maintenance and Truck Repairs" heading on the Services page is missing a bit off the top of its letters. Also, the actual hours of operation are located toward the bottom of every page while the related heading "Hours of Operation" is completely dissociated from them up near the top. This might look better on a larger monitor, but it still seems unprofessional. (And note that the words Maintenance, Operation, and Benefits in three different headings are all spelled wrong.)

          There are other things that I would change as well. For example, on the home page, your friend has "Just give us a call, and we will do the rest!" written at the bottom in bold letters as the final call to action, but there is no telephone number underneath!
          Thanks a lot, I did not notice the spelling errors. I will have somebody proof read the entire site.

          Also, I tried to reproduce the other problems that you were describing, but couldn't. What browser are you using and with what resolution?

          Thanks again for all your help!
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          • Profile picture of the author RB Riddick
            Originally Posted by feedtherightwolf View Post

            Also, I tried to reproduce the other problems that you were describing, but couldn't. What browser are you using and with what resolution?
            I'm using Internet Explorer 7 (on Windows), and my screen resolution is 1024 X 768.

            Here is a screenshot of your friend's website as it looks on my computer. The actual hours of operation are still separated from their heading (on every page).

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            • Profile picture of the author feedtherightwolf
              RB Riddick, thank you very much for taking the time to make the screen shot!
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              • Profile picture of the author Kevin Riley
                In my college years, I worked in a truck repair shop. Granted that this was pre-Internet (hell, there weren't even PCs yet), but one thing I would wager has not changed. There were two ways that we got most of our business.

                1. Location. Right beside the Trans Canada Highway, so all trucks passed this shop. Big, big sign. And, it was in a section where it would be easy for trucks to pull in.

                2. Word of mouth. Truckers and CBs. They keep in constant contact, and they all know the best truck stops (where they serve the best coffee) and places to get their truck repaired.

                As much as I am a proponent of internet, I'm wondering just how effective it would be in this niche. I think it still is going to require a lot of offline networking - getting out to meet the truckers, trucking companies, etc. Many a deal is worked out over coffee at a truck stop.

                Disclaimer: It's been a long time since I have worked with truckers, so I may be off base a wee bit. However, I think it's worth investigating.
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              • Profile picture of the author ozduc
                Here's the link to the google local business listing.
                Another thing you could do is shoot a short video showing the workshop in action and introduce the owner and what he offers. Put it up on youtube with the right keywords, then link back to the site.
                Also on the site itself, instead of the small coupon for 10% off, you could put an opt-in box with something along the lines of "sign in here to get your 25% off labor coupon" for new customers only. If the lifetime value of a new customer is worth more than the first visit then it is worth giving away a bit more upfront to build an email list of customers that he can then email regularly and inform them of their upcoming maintenance schedules etc. or any other promotions he may choose to have.
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  • Profile picture of the author -Jericho-
    First off you need to search and see if the Google map box comes up for the keywords. The problem with promoting a site for a local business is the map box gets 90% of the clicks. It's usually a waste of time to worry about rankings for a local site.

    The key is getting listed high on the map box. That requires good optimization of the google listing along with a lot of citations and reviews. That's where the money is at.
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    • Profile picture of the author feedtherightwolf
      Originally Posted by -Jericho- View Post

      First off you need to search and see if the Google map box comes up for the keywords. The problem with promoting a site for a local business is the map box gets 90% of the clicks. It's usually a waste of time to worry about rankings for a local site.

      The key is getting listed high on the map box. That requires good optimization of the google listing along with a lot of citations and reviews. That's where the money is at.
      Do you have any tips on optimizing for google listing?
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    • Profile picture of the author LucasT
      Originally Posted by -Jericho- View Post

      First off you need to search and see if the Google map box comes up for the keywords. The problem with promoting a site for a local business is the map box gets 90% of the clicks. It's usually a waste of time to worry about rankings for a local site.

      The key is getting listed high on the map box. That requires good optimization of the google listing along with a lot of citations and reviews. That's where the money is at.
      To add onto what Jericho said about citations and reviews:

      Google really seems to like Kudzu.com, I recommend finding a happy customer and getting them to do a review on Kudzu. Then add the kudzu emblem with a link to kudzu somewhere on his the homepage of his site. This will make the website more trusting in the eyes of google while bringing up his listing in the local results (google map).

      I was able to put a local contractors website on the top of google in the local listings by adding just 1 review. It really was that simple.
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  • Profile picture of the author feedtherightwolf
    Thanks everybody, I've fixed the spelling, and added a phone number next to call to action.

    Do you think I should submit a Press release telling his story, in hopes of picking up some local media attention? Or is it not worth paying $80 dollars?
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    • Profile picture of the author theimdude
      Hi, I think you site is fine and job well done and accept for the minor errors some mention but I think most truckers is not on the internet so you might have to do some local paper adverts and marketing directly to truckers and trucking companies. Maybe get some stickers done with the domain on and stick to each truck that come in for work done
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  • Profile picture of the author RentItNow
    I actually dont get it. I dont see how truckers are going to go search the internet to get repairs. I would think they would get a card or something at a truck stop. If I remember right, there is a few trucker's mags as well. I would suggest more OFFLINE marketing to build his business.

    Also, one thing I noticed about the site, you push one of the benefits half-way down the page (onsite repairs!). Man that is like a #1 benefit that should be in the visitors face on the top of the site. If he does ads in truckers mags or flyers for truck stop, PUSH THAT!

    This type of business would do FANTASTIC in my city. 1/4 of all truck transport to Canada goes over the bridge here.
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    I have no agenda but to help those in the same situation. This I feel will pay the bills.
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