electrician/service company wordpress theme

10 years ago

Calling something easy is relative to your experience level and what you are trying to accomplish.

Most themes could be customized via their settings to present the message of most types of companies by injecting the proper images, logo, colors etc..

Beyond that many themes chosen by people here are based on their personal preferences and under the hood functionality that makes it easier to accomplish specific tasks like squeeze pages, lead generation etc...

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electricblue 10 years ago

Most thing are easy via youtube. I could remove my spleen from a youtube video.
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- electricblue 10 years ago
  
  I am an electrician looking to build a better website to make the phone ring.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  shockwave 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by electricblue
  
  I am an electrician looking to build a better website to make the phone ring.
  
  Short Term (to get your phone ringing): What your really want here are leads. If you want to make things easy on yourself, with massive exposure in a short amount of time, just create a shit-ton of videos and spam the hell out of YouTube. Optimize the same video over and over for different keywords. Instant exposure and no website needed.
  
  Long Term (to keep your phone ringing): Once you're done with the videos, THEN you can fiddle around trying to make a website.
  
  .....(I'm sure someone will turn that into a WSO before long)
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  savidge4 10 years ago
  
  The absolute basics here... if you want your phone to ring... you had better have your phone number on EVERY page! I will ASSUME you have a office? You want your address on EVERY page!
  
  Color me crazy... but switch your side bar from the left to the right side. Its the hip thing to do. actually it is... having it on the left indicates you are not up with the latest trends. ( which can quickly translate to not being up on the latest techniques in your industry - there are case studies to prove such things )
  
  "What type of work you looking to get done?" why not something like "We have been in the Electrical industry since XXXX. We provide Residential, Commercial, and New Construction Services. Select an option to the "Right" to see our full list of services."
  
  "Need the use of our services right away? If you are in the Greater Tampa - Pinellas County Florida area please call (727) 588-0600 right now to set an appointment."
  
  *** Have you noticed I have not once used " ! " an explanation point? There is nothing an electrician does that is that exciting... well maybe getting zapped by 440 or something. but you get my point.
  
  Hope that Helps!
  
  [ 1 ] Thanks
  
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Peter Lessard

10 years ago

Youtube can be helpful. I suggest looking deeper into the themes ability to be customized for your specific needs.

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umc

10 years ago

Pretty much all Wordpress themes are useful. You just have to know how to use them, and I don't claim to be an expert myself, but people build huge businesses off of even the most simple themes if they know what they're doing with them. Do you know what you're looking for? Or more importantly, do you know what your potential customers are looking for? Figure that out, find a theme that has some of those components, and customize it to fit what you need.

There are tons of free themes out there, and paid themes as well. You can go to a site like Elegant Themes and get access to a large portfolio of themes and support for a yearly price, or you can go buy a specific them on a price like ThemeForest. There are also good themes for sale here in the WSO section, though make sure and research the seller's previous themes to see if they actually support their stuff, which many don't. They are often less expensive, but you need to know who you're buying from. Look around and see what you think will fit what you need to satisfy your customers.

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savidge4 10 years ago

As a public service... if you could give some examples of what you want your site to do, and what you want it to look like. I could probably get you in the right direction in terms of a Theme.
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- electricblue 10 years ago
  
  Here's what I have so far after a few hours. A lot of learning.
  
  Electricianforu.com
  
  Thanks
  
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Peter Lessard

10 years ago

No offense intended but what is a good job commercial client worth to you? or even a good residential job? I am sure it is decent money yes?

Compare your site to something like sample site Downtown Toronto Locksmith with video etc.. that you can easily have sourced for $500 or less. ( I am NOT applying for a job here just a sample and tons of other warriors on here can do that or better for a negligible fee as well as I am sure many local service providers in Tampa)

Why would you waste time and more importantly lose TONS of customers because you will be so long experimenting with a site that will not convert. It just does not make economic sense. What would you tell a customer that thinks its makes economic sense for them to mess around in their fuse box?

Something as simple as the site not being mobile responsive will cost you money.

The url's are just plain bad from a conversion point of view as is the whole redirect idea.
Either a brand name or a url that includes where you serve and what you do would do much better. I just don't get if you have a real business on the go and could be getting clients daily why you would engage in this.

I am not one to discourage anyone from learning and if this is more about learning than that is great and many will be happy to provide insight as will I but economically it seems unsound.

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electricblue

10 years ago

I've paid people to fix my vans, and end up fixing them myself after spending lots of money. I've paid people to build a crappy website. I'm done. I will do this myself with the help of friends. Thanks.

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Peter Lessard

10 years ago

Originally Posted by electricblue

I've paid people to fix my vans, and end up fixing them myself after spending lots of money. I've paid people to build a crappy website. I'm done. I will do this myself with the help of friends. Thanks.

I hear you.
Been there done that.
My cycle through this has been as follows:
1. Hire people
2. Get screwed
3. Learn and do myself
4. Hit a wall where doing things myself and growing was impossible
5. Become expert at hiring/firing/choosing providers.
6. Business grew 10 times over because of managing/hiring good people.

Good luck with your site and again if you have specific questions people here will chime in. You likely also noticed there are many sub forums where you can address very specific problems by category.

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Powder_Skier

10 years ago

Originally Posted by electricblue

I've paid people to fix my vans, and end up fixing them myself after spending lots of money. I've paid people to build a crappy website. I'm done. I will do this myself with the help of friends. Thanks.

Congrats on your decision to use Wordpress, although the learning curve can be a bit much (in spite of how "easy" people say it is to use). Actually WP is "easy" to use, ONCE YOU FIGURE OUT WHERE EVERYTHING IS. Sorry about the all caps, but that's why there are so MANY plugins (1000's and 1000's) - because people are trying to make WP do what it was not designed to do.

I can recommend a brand new plug-in that will let you do pretty much anything apperance wise - it's "WP ViCom - Visual Communications Plugin for WordPress." Do a search for it (I'm not an affiliate).

I don't consider an electrician to be part of the "emergency" crowd, like having a toilet spewing all over the upstairs, of being locked out of your car at midnight (although there are certainly times there are electricial emergencies). What I mean by that is if someone is thinking of making changes to their electricial system they usually have some time in advance to plan it.

With that said you might want to build a website to convince a visitor YOU are the go-to expert electrician, which will take some time. Thus you might want to consider a free "report" or other gift so you can gain their trust - "tips and tricks" to save them time and money by deciding to use YOU instead of someone else.

That means your site should be set up to get their name & email (and phone if they will give it.) You also might want to use a non-annoying exit pop to give tthem one more chance to get your free "report" or whatever, because once they leave your website it's very difficult to get them back.

I can highly recommend these PLR products as a start for give-aways and lead capture items - "Local Marketing Consultants PLR - Drew Laughlin." Again, I'm not an affiliate but he produces some very good products to give to your visitors in exchange for permission to send them useful emails - or even mobile texts.

Security - there are many good WP security plugins - I can recommend 2, both offer free versions that do a fine job.

1-iThemes security, and 2) Wordfence. Search for them on the main Wordpress site, or from within WP in the plugins area.

Backup: there are some good backup solutions, both paid and free, so I'm not going to list any here. Whatever plugin you pick for backup, TEST IT on a new WP site so if it doesn't work you can just re-install WP and you haven't lost much.

Mobile - most new WP themes are mobile responsive, which is very imoirtant to have, especially for an emergency situation.

There is lots more, but just remember that whatever you want to do in WP, someone else has probably put a video on youtube about it.

Hope this helps, and Good luck!

Maury

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electricblue 10 years ago

Thanks for sharing Maury great stuff
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- Powder_Skier 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by electricblue
  
  Thanks for sharing Maury great stuff
  
  You're welcome. One more thing about backup - ALWAYS backup BEFORE you do anything, and then AFTER you're finished.
  
  Trust me, something WILL screw up your Wordpress site - whether it's a new plug-in that doesn't play nice with the rest of your pugins, OR a line of PHP code somewhere that gets screwed up. Trust me, it will happen!
  
  So if your new lead-capture (or whatever) plugin turns your beautiful new website into a plain white page, or whatever, you are OK. Sometimes it's faster (and easier) to just re-install your entire website from a trusted backup product.
  
  Again, ALWAYS backup BEFORE you do anything, and then AFTER you're finished.
  
  You'll be glad you did!
  
  Regards,
  Maury
  
  BTW - these are three paid options for reliable backups.
  
  1) Backup buddy (a bit pricy), but I've heard it's very reliable. I also don't think they have a yearly subscrtiption fee, but not sure about that.
  2) Backup creator - not as pricy up front but a yearly subscription. I use this myself and it's saved my azz several times.
  3) WP Twin - probably the least pricy of the bunch, and also reliable.
  
  There are lot's more, some good and others not so good. I prefer a non-geeky backup solution that's reliable and fairly easy to use. Make sure you do your own research on these products - they all have excellent sales pages.
  
  ABOUT WP THEMES: regardless of what theme you get, make SURE that if it's a PAID theme that the creators OF the theme are going to be around to update it LONG TERM. I can hardly count the themes I've bought on the Warrior Forum that NO LONGER WORK (Plugins too) because WP changed their code and the theme "creators" are not interested in updating their theme code for free. The WF has it's share of fly-by-night theme hucksters that promise life time support (life time of what - a goldfish?) but vanish after a few weeks. Make sure support will be there long term.
  
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akazo

10 years ago

A website won't necessarily get you phone ringing... you need a website that is ranking for your search terms and is designed to convert.

Good Luck!

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Yvon Boulianne

10 years ago

don`t want to not respect you but your website is down and it`s what happend when you try to save a couples of $$$ by DIY.

How many $$$ do you think a good website will bring you each day and how much are you loosing now....

that`s funny how peoples think they can become a webdesigner by themself without training lol

it`s like saying, oh i don`t want to pay an electrician, so i`ll do my home wiring myself!!!

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savidge4

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Yvon Boulianne

don`t want to not respect you but your website is down and it`s what happend when you try to save a couples of $$$ by DIY.

How many $$$ do you think a good website will bring you each day and how much are you loosing now....

that`s funny how peoples think they can become a webdesigner by themself without training lol

it`s like saying, oh i don`t want to pay an electrician, so i`ll do my home wiring myself!!!

The flip side of that is you have to learn somehow.

I have read your posts here and there, you obviously know what you are doing and know that you are tired of the grind. As you can understand with the advent of wordpress every one thinks they can go out and sell sites and make money. So guys like us that do just a bit more than build a site, and actually build in the function of VALUE IE the elements that bring the clients, struggle that much more.

But look at this from this average clients perspective. He is probably going to produce an equal product as those he has paid for. or at least get the same results. BUT, if this guy is truly driven to make this work... well he will do his research, he will figure out what he needs to make it work, and with time HE WILL. and now we will have an electrician that knows how to build converting websites... IMAGINE the insider sales tactics that would bring!

Sounds like the guy has had some run ins with people selling sites, and not selling what he really needs "Conversions" And from what I read on the board.. well a designer is just that.. you want conversions you need to hire someone else - after the designer has already soaked you for a pretty non producing site.

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Powder_Skier

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Yvon Boulianne

don`t want to not respect you but your website is down and it`s what happend when you try to save a couples of $$$ by DIY.

How many $$$ do you think a good website will bring you each day and how much are you loosing now....

that`s funny how peoples think they can become a webdesigner by themself without training lol

it`s like saying, oh i don`t want to pay an electrician, so i`ll do my home wiring myself!!!

Guys - cut the man some slack - he came here for help not to be bashed for being a WP/website newbe! I don't know where his domain went, but suggesting that he hire "somebody" is not always the best idea - like going from the frying pan into the fire. i used to work for a company that made "pretty" websites, but they didn't know SQUAT about SEO or how to make a lead generating website.

Sure, if you're fortunate enough to find someone who really knows what they're doing, then they are well worth it - but they aren't that easy to find. Their ads may sound great, but it's a bit of work finding out if they are for real or just ho-hum.

DIY can work if you find the right training, and there are people on the WF who can provide it. You just have to do your due dilligance and check a persons feedback and posts before hiring or buying their product.

It can take a while to get good at "anything," but if you have an idea of the "big picture" as to what your true website objective is (targeted traffic, getting the phone to ring, capturing targeted leads), then puting together a decent WP site and spending a bit of time on youtube learning the basics can net you a fairly decent basic website.

Regards,
Maury

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Biz Max 10 years ago

The 'build it and they will come' mentality tends to not work so well. Building
a site or a nicer site is only a small part of getting the phone to ring.

How user friendly your site is, word structure, and overall aesthetic appeal
are important... but then there is the all important- driving traffic.

It is not too spendy to have this done for you by people who know a lot
more about these things. Warrior has many for hire. Take a look there.
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electricblue

10 years ago

New domain. ClearwaterElectrical.net

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akazo

10 years ago

clearwaterelectrical.net/?page_id=14

Need to use SEF URLs...

Also, your IsMyPanelsafe menu item takes the visitor away from your website, open it up in a new window at least... \

Same for the areas you serve... but I would embed the map while adding some text to the page to build my site not to link out to Google...

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MrJeff

10 years ago

Log into your admin area. Go to settings and the click on permalinks. Now under settings, tic mark where it says "post name" and click on save.
Now when you or a visitor reads your inner the URL wont look like clearwaterelectrical.net/?page_id=14 but will now look like this clearwaterelectrical.net/Contact-Us
And as was mentioned by someone earlier, have your phone number and even a contact form on every page. I'm a garage flooring contractor that decided to build my own website years ago when I owned another offline business. Always wanting to do things myself so with a lot of trial and error I'm kind of self taught. WordPress was very intimidating to me at first but always playing with WP and various plugins I really like it a lot. I did my garage site with a theme called Weaver ii. They have a free and paid version but the free version can do more than a lot of paid versions do. Garage Flooring Atlanta - Atlanta Epoxy Garage Flooring. Call Today ! is my website I built with this theme.
A lot to learn but you can certainly do it with time and patience.
Good luck.
-Jeff

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Powder_Skier 10 years ago

@ MrJeff - very attractive website.
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akazo

10 years ago

Originally Posted by MrJeff

Log into your admin area. Go to settings and the click on permalinks. Now under settings, tic mark where it says "post name" and click on save.
Now when you or a visitor reads your inner the URL wont look like clearwaterelectrical.net/?page_id=14 but will now look like this clearwaterelectrical.net/Contact-Us
And as was mentioned by someone earlier, have your phone number and even a contact form on every page. I'm a garage flooring contractor that decided to build my own website years ago when I owned another offline business. Always wanting to do things myself so with a lot of trial and error I'm kind of self taught. WordPress was very intimidating to me at first but always playing with WP and various plugins I really like it a lot. I did my garage site with a theme called Weaver ii. They have a free and paid version but the free version can do more than a lot of paid versions do. Garage Flooring Atlanta - Atlanta Epoxy Garage Flooring. Call Today ! is my website I built with this theme.
A lot to learn but you can certainly do it with time and patience.
Good luck.
-Jeff

Your site loads a little slow for me. Do you have a cache plugin installed?

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MrJeff

10 years ago

No cache plugins installed. haven't really noticed it being slow.

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akazo

10 years ago

Originally Posted by MrJeff

No cache plugins installed. haven't really noticed it being slow.

Maybe it doesn't seem slow to you because you have loaded the pages before and it is cached by your browser. Try from a PC that has never visited your site or clear your browser cache and you will see what I mean...

Or just trust us and install theW3 Total Cache plugin (or similar)...

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electricblue

10 years ago

Originally Posted by akazo

Maybe it doesn't seem slow to you because you have loaded the pages before and it is cached by your browser. Try from a PC that has never visited your site or clear your browser cache and you will see what I mean...

Or just trust us and install theW3 Total Cache plugin (or similar)...

Thanks akazo. W3 installed

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Yvon Boulianne

10 years ago

yep, 6 second loading times, the is IS slow

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tomsmart80

10 years ago

Are you doing this for a client? If so pm me I have a better solution for you

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umc

10 years ago

Hey Mr. Jeff, the other guys said it was slow and I just thought I'd corroborate that, but on the mobile side. I had a heck of a time accessing it from my phone. It started to load and then froze. I had to refresh a time or two to get it to show up. Just a FYI. Hope it helps.

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MrJeff 10 years ago

Thanks for the heads up to those that gave me insight on my own website. I've never heard of w3 total cache plugin. I'll try it out this evening and report back. I always want to learn something new.
Thank you all very much. This is indeed a great forum to be part of.
Thanks,
-Jeff
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Magax

10 years ago

I have Wordpress theme that is best for Local Service. If you give me content then I can make you one for FREE. Its good for Lead.

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StarkContrast 10 years ago

I think you have a lot of good free advice on this page alone. Take advantage of what some of the pros on here tell you. Pretty solid advice. Many have gone through the ringer and done well on the other end. Getting your site up and running is one thing, getting the phone to ring is something else.
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electricblue

10 years ago

Okay I'm back had to go get recharged. Went fishing all weekend 125 miles offshore. Here's a vid from last year.

Red Snapper Yacht Club - YouTube

I would like to thank everyone for all the input. I've had a few offers for help and have accepted.

Thanks

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electrician/service company wordpress theme

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