Google Advertising
OK, so I got my free google website setup and was looking to see how much it costs to advertise. It doesn't say how much it is per click, but has a monthly budget you can set. It has a minimum of $50 that I can select. Would I easily burn through that much money in one month? If you don't mind sharing, for those of you who use this service about how much on average do you spend per month for it? Thanks for any advice.
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I know you asked for help from people who use it but I wanted to chime in anyway ... I don't use it and I have never paid for advertising promotion. I did pay a small fee for web hosting (after upgrading from a free website) but my free website drew a lot of traffic even before I paid for it.
You can read here what I did and just skip to the parts that talk about internet advertising. https://www.daycare.com/news/adverti...r-daycare.html I do 0 advertising right now and haven't had to in years and I still get a minimum of 5-10 phone calls a week and 2 or 3 web forms (email) interested in a tour. It's mostly about updating your website on a regular basis after submitting it for listings on search engines. #3-#5. Post your website address onto your business cards and network with other family child care providers. It's a little bit of "cheating" but handing out your card to provider's that want to see examples of websites or asking them for an opinion and to critique it will get you more hits and it'll boost your search listing in search engines. Get family to do it too. Post it on social media so your friends and fam can help by giving you feedback and they'll also help boost it. Take it a bit further and join a FB group for providers (a global or national one) and ask for feedback there too so you get that traffic too. You can even post your link here to get feedback from us ;). |
I've done Google advertising for my other businesses a few times. It has never been worth it. It doesn't give you the cost per click until you set it up and choose your words or phrases. The last time I used it was for home renovations and I think the prices were something like this:
renovations - crazy, ~$10/click the phrase "home renovations" was about $4/click if I went more specific "home renovation mycity" it went to under a dollar a click I did $50/month and also did $200/month once and I never got my money back. |
Originally Posted by MarinaVanessa: |
Originally Posted by Mike: |
Originally Posted by Homebody: You can sign up for their free ones which will probably limit the number of pages you can create but usually it's not an issue. Webs.com gives you 5 pages so if you create a Home, About, Program/FAQ, Parent and Contact page it's enough. Sometimes the free ones allow you to create it for free because they put advertising in a banner or ad somewhere on your pages. They're usually relevant to your profession and I didn't mind it so much, I switched to a paid subscription so I could add more pages which removed the ads. You can try out a couple of free ones and see which one is easier for you to work with |
I can emphasis it enough. Owning your website and domain name are a must in today's online marketing. Google is both a boon and a bane. They control a lot of the internet and will make you jump through hoops to stay relevant in your business. I've never advertised with them.
When you control your own content and domain name, you use the internet for your distribution just as Google does but you don't pay for it. Having an easy to remember address like SanFranciscoDaycare.com will self-promote your business. I actually had someone email me yesterday and I couldn't believe she had that address. I remembered it by memory for this post. So it is sticky to the mind and will be so to whomever she advertises her address to. Once you have a website and address, it is important to promote them on websites that are highly indexed in search engines like Google, Bing and AOL. Doing so, raises your website's search profile and results. Advertising your listing on Daycare.com, Care.com, Craige List or other prominent and respected site will help your website reach more people if you link your website address in your advertising. Just a little bit of money and some elbow grease can greatly help your business. As a side note. Not all advertising will be beneficial to you because of many differing factors like geography, access to the internet and facility saturation. If you advertise on any site, give it 6 months to propagate before deciding to cancel or continue. |
Originally Posted by Michael: So I will eventually be changing my daycare name and this time I have already secured my domain name in advance :lol:. One of the reasons why I'm switching my name is because I want my domain name. So take it from me ... swoop up on your domain name when you have the chance. Michael knows what's up :lol::lol::lol: |
Originally Posted by MarinaVanessa: That will be my goal this weekend. Follow your steps with the new site. |
Originally Posted by Homebody: |
Originally Posted by Michael: Originally Posted by MarinaVanessa: https://www.daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82451 |
It's not hard to set up a website website builders make it easy to set one up without knowing code at all. These four seem to be the most popular website builders:
Wix Squarespace Weebly Godaddy I have mine thru Squarespace. While I am comfortable and wanted in with wordpress I found I am such a perfectionist it was taking me too long.... so that is for another stage of my business. |
Originally Posted by CityGarden: The hardest part about leaving my website now and making a new one is leaving my progress behind. I get such good search placement and traffic right now that it makes me sad to leave it behind. You and I will be making new sites at the same time ;) |
Thank you for all the advice and info everybody. I'm not very computer savvy, so I wasn't sure how hard it would be for me to set up my own site. I think I will definitely look into it. Now as far as a domain name, do you know if it is required for you to use your real licensed daycare name that you registered with? My husband and I really didn't put much thought into our daycare name when we applied with the state and just used our names. So, it's not a real catchy name.
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Originally Posted by Homebody: |
Originally Posted by MarinaVanessa: I do eventually want to switch over to wordpress but am not adding that to my to do list just yet!! |
Originally Posted by Michael: |
Originally Posted by Homebody: |
Originally Posted by CityGarden: When I applied for my license I went through the process of filing for my DBA (doing business as) business name first and submitted a copy of my official approval from the state along with my application. My licence reads "last name FCC AKA business name" Our licencing office doesn't exactly promote getting a business name, but we can do it. We just have to apply for the business name officially and submit the approval. I'm sure if you file for an official DBA you can have your license changed to reflect your DBA. Without an official DBA you can only operate under the name on your license. |
Originally Posted by CityGarden: Originally Posted by MarinaVanessa: |
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