How to advertise and bring traffic to a Taxi Company website

Hi,

I am in charge of SEO for quite a big taxi company and I would really appreciate any ideas on how to advertise.

I've done organic SEO and some link building etc, I was even thinking of using social media to advertise but I'm afraid of spending so much time on it and risking that it'll fail.

I also submitted it to every directory of taxi companies I could find on google, and I even started searching for dofollow blogs about taxis.

If you have any tips or any advice on something I missed or could do better, let me know please.

website is: http://www.720taxis.com

 

Unfortunatly you are one of the companies which would find it hard to get custom from optimisation in comparison to say someone like a clothes shop. However, i would like to know if you do get business online? One thing i would recommend, is to definatley get the onsite optimisation as best as you can, and obviously only optimise for areas you cover, perhaps airport transfers might be a good one. Book online - might be a good page to incorporate, so when people are booking thier Holiday, they book the taxi to thier ferry or airport beforehand. You may even want to advertise as a specialist airport transfer if that is something you do. I would get some good backlinks from websites with high pageranks as well.

There are alot of ideas i have, which could work, but as i have never myself optimised for a taxi firm, i cannot guarantee what will work and what won't. It might be quite useful doing a quick poll in your local town, to see how many people would book online and what reason if they were to book a taxi online would it be for?

 

That's a good idea, even thought it's very time consuming etc, but who knows, I might try it,

Thanks a lot for all tips, it's good to get into a conversation to get my head going in a different direction.

 

You can submit it to classified such as CL

 

Why not build your own community, easily like what she did.. check out her video http://youtube.com/watch?v=X7Wo7cldJaI

cheers,

 

No.

To the OP, don't waste your time with "social bookmarking"... when does someone look for Taxi services on Digg or Stumbleupon?

It sounds like you got hired and don't really know what you're doing. I would suggest that you drop the job and have them hire someone who actually knows SEO.

The only web customers they're going to get are from search engines and maybe a couple from web directories specifically about cab services.

 

You can find samelike sites that have more traffic then you and advertise on it

 

I think lots of online people now days are not looking at human value anymore. Regardless of what ever you do, build your own community as the same does in real life..

How much will you need to spend on ads to end up getting 10% or less response rate, and still those will not guarantee you any sales..

Ask yourself who will you buy your insurance policy from; your friend or some tom dick and harry that you don't even know his reputation is...

Nevertheless, that doesn't mean I totally disagree with the advertising idea, it's just that as much as you put your effort in advertising, put as much towards building your community. It'll pay back in a longer run, in a bigger way..

cheers,

 

I would suggest that you need to think local - be featured in directories that feature local interests - from local newspaper sites to sites that review restaurants, pubs and shops in East Sussex. If there's a good site that does this kind of thing for your area, worth thinking about advertising with them.
Unless I'm misreading the site and it's a national chain - anything that targets nationally, let alone internationally is a complete waste of time.
And put yourself on google local
http://www.google.com/local/add/loo...Phone=&fax=&tty=&email=&website=&description=

 

You could try social bookmarking to top sites, for some high pr back links and lots of targeted traffic.

If you want, there are many bookmarking services available online(not at DP), or you can visit:-
http://pyrole.net/index.php/products-and-services/bme for some
Easy Social Bookmarking

 

This is complete bollox - he's trying to promote a taxi service in the south of England - submitting to social bookmarking is the OPPOSITE of targetted traffic.

 

Why? What type of people live in South England?

 

he doesn't want a general audience - there's no point in having his site promoted in places where the majority of traffic is from New York, or Idaho, or Mumbai.
They are never going to book a taxi in Sussex.

 

That's exacly the point, I only need traffic from UK generally (cos they MIGHT need a taxi to/from Sussex) and mostly I really need traffic from East Sussex itself.

Social bookmarking in my opinion works only for international sites that don't care about the source of the traffic.

I submitted the website to all local directories I could think of, and I can't advertise in local newspapers etc because I don't really have any budget yet.

 

really this sort of site would benefit from adwords targeted right down to the specific towns that the company operates in

 

Honestly, I don't think anyone gives a crap about a Taxi's website. People don't take a specific brand of taxi, they just use which ever one happens to pass by. Does your website offer reserve a tax online or something? If it doesn't then I don't see why people would want to go to a taxi website.

 

Exactly. You'd probably be better putting together a leaflet about it instead of a website.

 

Ok, this may now sound a bit harsh, so I appologize in advance: Somehow I get the impression, that someone at taxicorp.inc decided, that they need a website, because it's a must have biz magnet these days and after (surprise!) not seeing any revenue from it, hired someone, who is equally clueless about the topic.

Seriously: Whats the point? If someone needs a taxi often, s/he has the number on speeddial. The occasional user will rather flip through a telephone book, then power up a computer and the tourist will simply take the first one in line waiting at the airport. Anyone else will call directory assistance and ask for a number. Nobody will want to compare two taxi corps online before deciding which one to call and most certainly not do it via email, ICQ, or whatever which provides less convinience in this case then a regular telephone, where you have direct feedback.

Some businesses simply cannot reasonably be mapped to the web. Taxi services are one of them.

 

Hmmm, I have admit that you're right in most of your message.

Basically the taxi company I do the website for wants to advertise more of it's special occasions offers, obviously most of the revenue comes from normal bookings (and as the largest company in my town they don't have any problem with these).
They are just looking for new ways of advertising they're services that aren't as commonly used, but could create some serious revenue if people knew about them and order them.

So here it is, that's the reason for a taxi company to have a website, and when we add the online booking system (which is in works now, since it has to compatible with the current system or something) it will be cool.

I was also thinking of advertising on facebook, and adding a new special service as taxi to parties, since we are situated within a reasonable distance from Brighton where a lot of people from my town go to parties, we could make a fix fare for them and accept advanced bookings etc.

Thanks for the responses guys, it helps me keep going.

 

Then you are simply doing it the wrong way. Your website currently focuses on presenting the company, not the product. If you want to promote something, make sure it's actually on the front page. It is the number #1 mistake on the web to not get over ones own vanity.

If I am in interested in one of your special services, e.g. group transport, I will in fact search for group transportation, not for a list of companies, that own and lend vehicles.

It works like this:
a) I am the customer, I am impatient, I want my things NOW! I am interested in a product first and in the companies profile selling that product second. I don't want to see, which fancy cars you have until I know, I can book them for what I need. My questions really are: Are you offering what I want? Whats your credibility? What are your prices. In exactly this order.
b) If I don't know your companies name, how am I suppose to find you? Right, I search for your product. Re-read the above.