Case Study: A Driving School Start Up

Recently a friend went solo and started his own driving school. Naturally like all small businesses he had a website done (Pass My Way). I think the logic goes get a web site and let the good times roll. Sadly it’s not like that on the web. Getting good search engine rankings so folks find you requires some time and effort, and not just as a one off but on a regular basis.

What follows are some things that I Stephen can do that will improve the website, how it is found, and hopefully get Stephen more business.

Email Signature

Currently when Stephen sends an email it has no signature on it. The first thing I would recommend is that he add a signature to his emails that has contact details on along with the websites address. It’s an easy thing to do, costs nothing and promotes the website.

Use Facebook Properly

The next recommendation I would make is for Stephen not to friend any of his pupils on Facebook. The personal Facebook account should be for friends and family only. But I’m not saying to ignore Facebook. What Stephen needs to do is set up a Fan Page for his website. Which naturally will point folks back to his website. But it will also allow Stephen to interact with possible customers, and hopefully turn them into a paying customer. But this is something that will require time and effort. I’d also add the Facebook Fan Page URL to the email signature.

Don’t forget business cards and stationery

I’ve mentioned the email signature having his website URL on along with the Facebook Fan Page URL. But this needs to be added to any stationery and business cards that he has as well.

Web2.0 and social media is not always the silver bullet

I’m not going to recommend Twitter or starting a blog. These things take a lot of time and commitment, and let’s face it they are not the answer to everything. And in this instance I don’t think that the time and effort that they would require would give a good ROI.

Contact via website

When you look at the site there is a booking form for prospective customers to book a lesson with. However to send any other query they use a mailto link. I’m not a big fan of mailto links. I much prefer contact forms. To me having both methods does not come across as consistent either. They should stick to one, and that one should be a contact form in my opinion.

While I’m talking about queries from prospective clients, I want to mention about keeping the FAQ on the site updated. Every time a query comes in (via email or the Facebook Fan page) Stephen should be thinking does this need adding to the FAQ? If it does then it should be added to the FAQ. Also the FAQ should be reviewed every so often to make sure that the information is still relevant or needs updating.

Google

Doing a Google search for “driving lessons Farnborough” gives the following at the top of the search results.

The top three are the Sponsored Links, which are paid for links. But then we have the Local business results.

Stephen needs to get his site listed here, luckily this is something that can be done for free. Once again it will require some time and effort, but doesn’t everything?

Which brings us nicely on to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Stephen should look into this. It will enable him to increase the ranking of his website. HOWEVER this is not a do once and forget thing. It will require time and effort on a regular basis. It also includes the next two or three suggestions as well.

Know your enemy

Stephen should be regularly looking at the websites of his rivals. Not just as part of any SEO that he is doing but also from keeping an eye on what they are doing. He can take ideas from their sites that might work for him on his, sites always need improving. It will also allow Stephen to respond to any special offers that rivals introduce, keep an eye on their rates. It’s a dog eat dog world and the last thing you want to do is be caught sleeping.

Google Analytics

Looking at the HTML for the website there is no Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC).Which unless he is getting some stats from the server hosting the site means Stephen is getting no feedback about his site. So as a matter of priority Stephen needs to get his web developer to add the GATC to his site even if he has server side stats being generated. It doesn’t hurt to have two different opinions, plus the Google Analytics can link in with a Google Adwords campaign.

Google Adwords

Which brings me on to Stephen possibly thinking about running a Google Adwords campaign. Now I can see some of the keywords that Stephen has had put in the sites meta tags being popular and expensive. This means that Stephen will have to look at secondary keywords to advertise against.

Being contactable

One thing I think that Stephen should be while he is out, and between lessons is contactable not just be phone but by email as well. I know that Stephen has a laptop, but that is too big to keep in the car out of eyesight of thievin’ gits. So I would look at maybe getting a smartphone like an iPhone or a Blackberry to pick up emails and respond to them. Another option would be to get a netbook like a Compaq 702 10.2-inch Mini Note with a USB 3G card. There are several deals around on these and one can be found that matches the budget available.

I think that is enough to be getting on with. Stephen has a steep learning curve ahead of him. I haven’t gone into great detail on some of these like the analytics or SEO stuff. These are big subjects and I couldn’t do them justice in this post. With a bit of reading, some time and effort, maybe a little bit of money, he should see an increase in traffic to his website and from there an increase in people booking lessons with him.

If you run a small business and would like some impartial advice at a reasonable price either for your website or company IT drop me a line via the contact form on the right.