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Easiest way to create a website for a car wash

S

slash007

Well-known member
I have decided to make a website for my 2 washes and wanted to get opinions on what the easiest and most cost effective way to do so is?
 
Mrs Our Town says that in addition to wix.com try looking into squarespace.com. She also recommends stepping up to the paid version and picking a mobile responsive theme. (most are now but just make sure) These two should be fine for most car wash website needs and can even integrate a shopping cart into it.
 
I downloaded a template from templatemonster, edited it with notepad. hostgator for hosting.
Inexpensive, flexible, modern website. But some basic understanding of html/coding is required. (Not much imo, but that may be subjective)
 
Registering on Google Maps is a good idea whether you have a website or not. If someone just speaks "car wash near me" into their phone it will find you, otherwise you're relying on advertising and/or word of mouth.
 
MEP001 said:
Registering on Google Maps is a good idea whether you have a website or not. If someone just speaks "car wash near me" into their phone it will find you, otherwise you're relying on advertising and/or word of mouth.
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I did register years ago. Just though it would be nice to have an actual website with basic information and a place I could promote new features.
 
slash007 said:
I did register years ago. Just though it would be nice to have an actual website with basic information and a place I could promote new features.
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The comment was directed more to carwashireland who said to "then register on google maps." IMO that should be done immediately with any business. I also registered on Yelp as the business owner so I can reply in case anyone puts up a negative review.
 
There are a ton of great options. The main deciding factors in determining which route is the best are 1) Coding knowledge 2) Functionality you would like the website to have
1) User Interface based no coding options
  • EXAMPLES: WIX, SquareSpace, Godaddy template, Namecheap website builder etc...
  • PRO: Easiest and fastest and cheap
  • CON: Hardest to originally customize, get good SEO, and continuously build upon, get really good mobile responsiveness (aka have the website look good, clean and functional on all devices)
  • WHEN TO USE: No coding knowledge, want fast quick and easy solution that is good enoug
2) WordPress
  • PRO: Easy with very little if any coding knowledge, better SEO, easy to update, more responsive on different devices, great easy plug-in integration for measuring traffic and gaining insights into the impact your website is actually having on sales
  • CON: Takes a little more time and work than Option 1
  • WHEN TO USE: Want to go one step further than minimum, have some time / want a project, or want to hire someone
3) Custom Webpage
  • Examples: Bootstrap framework, completely custom from scratch, etc..
  • PRO: Best true customizability, best responsiveness (to work seamlessly on all device types), best to get every insight possible into the actual traffic, behavior, and impact your website is having
  • CON: Requires either hiring someone to build or having coding knowledge
  • WHEN TO USE: You are willing to prioritize your web presence as a significant business driver and feel that getting as customizable and unique as possible is worth it
THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWER - JUST DIFFERENT OPTIONS WITH PROS AND CONS OF EACH
 
MEP001 said:
The comment was directed more to carwashireland who said to "then register on google maps." IMO that should be done immediately with any business. I also registered on Yelp as the business owner so I can reply in case anyone puts up a negative review.
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We have had some issues with Yelp. They have kept some of our positive reviews from being publicly displayed. They basically want money from us to display them. We also get calls on almost a daily basis claiming they are from Yelp wanting money from us to "upgrade".
 
OurTown said:
We have had some issues with Yelp. They have kept some of our positive reviews from being publicly displayed. They basically want money from us to display them. We also get calls on almost a daily basis claiming they are from Yelp wanting money from us to "upgrade".
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I can see where that could be a problem. I haven't had any issues so far.
 
Thanks for all the advice. Guess I need to decide how I even want it to look. AAAAutospa, nice sites you built, buy I would suggest to add more pages/tabs instead of having such a long page initial page. Makes it hard to navigate when you have about 5-7 pages all in one as a long scroll. Content is great and site is beautiful otherwise.
 
OurTown said:
We have had some issues with Yelp. They have kept some of our positive reviews from being publicly displayed. They basically want money from us to display them. We also get calls on almost a daily basis claiming they are from Yelp wanting money from us to "upgrade".
Click to expand...

That's the Yelp business model. Either you pay Yelp to "advertise" which really means show your wash's positive reviews first and hide bad reviews. Or you don't and Yelp shows all the bad reviews and hides the good ones.

Rather thuggish behavior to me, and I refuse to reward that. Almost like "protection money" the mafia was famous for.

Yelp is basically a complaint website.
 
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