Here at Ed’s we are very excited about having just launched a brand new website. We had a perfectly good website before but if a business really wants to be in online pole position, it’s very important to be keeping pace with the rapidly changing online operating environment. We only launched our new website at the beginning of the month in time for the Google update and already levels of phone and web new business enquiries are running even higher than is the norm at this busy time of year.

Ed’s Garden Maintenance has a unique advantage in this area as its founder, Ed Mauleverer, has a stellar background in systems development and technical areas such as search engine optimisation. This puts Ed’s in an excellent position to develop bespoke systems solutions that are well beyond the sophistication level of most companies of that size.

In Ed’s own words, “A key element of our franchise offering is a very powerful online presence to help Franchise Operators to achieve aggressive business growth. The horizons are constantly changing – people are generally aware of the changes Google are making with a view of higher efficiency in the search engine domain but this is only the very tip of the iceberg.

“In Ed’s we see it as our responsibility to keep up with all of this – to harness the challenge and to turn it to our advantage. There are many facets of having a strong online presence, but an excellent website is probably the jewel in the crown. We have spent a lot of time developing our new website using and customising brand new technologies in areas such as responsive web design to work on all types of devices – truly key in the brave new world in which we’re competing.

“A huge amount of effort has gone into this but we believe that it puts us in an excellent position to take our brand forward and to leverage business opportunity for our network.”

Another feature of the new website is the incorporation of micro-sites for individual Operators. This is key to promoting local gardening businesses within a high-profile global brand context.

Finally, the website boasts an impressive customer review capability.

In the words of Paul, who runs his Ed’s business in Swindon, “The website is really impressive and I am thrilled to have my own micro-site on it to push my local business. I am also very excited by the customer review capability. I know this is great for pushing us up the search engine rankings, but I also love the fact that the proof of my commitment and professionalism is out there for potential customers to see. It is so much more powerful if customers’ belief in you is written in black and white.”