The Pequot Lakes problem
So every customer is somebody who decided to come. The website is where they decide.
The family heading to a cabin on Pelican Lake or Sibley is on the bypass at highway speed. If they are going to stop in town, they decided while packing, on Google, looking for a restaurant, a hardware store, a place for bait. A site that says what you are, where you are off the bypass, and that you are open on a Sunday in July is the reason they take the exit.
The lake homes around Pequot Lakes, Breezy Point and Pelican Lake need docks in, docks out, roofs, septic, tree work and somebody to plow the driveway before the owner arrives. The owner is in the Cities, searches in April, and calls the contractor whose site lists the job and names the lake. A page per service with the lakes on it is how a Pequot Lakes contractor gets that call.
The Paul Bunyan Trail runs right through town and drops cyclists and walkers at Trailside Park with a phone in hand, looking for coffee, lunch or an ice cream. That is a different search from the one on the bypass, and the site should answer it: how far from the trail, is there a rack, are you open now.
The two towns are one search for most visitors. Your pages name both, plus Breezy Point and the lakes, so you are found whichever one the visitor types. And your Google map listing carries a service area that covers the whole stretch of 371 rather than a single pin behind the bypass.
Who this is for
Dock, lift, marine and lakeshore services. Installation, removal, storage, shoreline work, the businesses that live by ice-out and ice-in. The customer searches by lake name and by job, so the site has a page for each service and names Pelican, Sibley, Whitefish, Upper and Lower Cullen and the rest in plain text.
Builders, remodelers and property care. Cabin builders, remodelers, the people who winterize and check on the place in January. The homeowner is 150 miles away and finds you on Google, not on a bulletin board at the gas station. Ridge North Roofing is the case study to read; it starts from the situations a homeowner is actually in.
Main Street restaurants, bars, coffee and shops. Menu on a phone, hours that are true in July and in February, photos of the actual room, and a line about where you are relative to the bobber, because that is how visitors navigate. If you do something for Bean Hole Days, say so on the site in June, not on Facebook the day before.
Hardware, bait, liquor, groceries and the essentials. The cabin owner arriving Friday night needs to know you are open and what you carry. A simple site that says hours, address and the three things people most often call to ask about will outperform anything fancier.
Resorts and lodging. If you are a resort, I have a whole site about that: Lakes Area Web Design is the same person, the same price, and written for the resort season. Start there.
What it costs
For a Pequot Lakes business under a year old. One page, a logo and card if you need them, the Google listing, live in about a week.
For an established business or trade that wants to be found for the jobs it does, with the lakes and the towns named on every page.
Full breakdown on the pricing page. One number, in writing, before anything starts.
Questions
Yes, if we start before the season. A one page site is live within a week of me having your words and photos, a multi page site in two to three. The businesses that come to me in May wanting a site for Memorial Day usually get it, but the ones who come in March get a better one. Tell me your date and I will be straight about it.
It matters because I know what they are searching for when they are on the way here. A designer in Minneapolis does not know the bypass took the traffic off Main Street, which lake is which, or that Trailside Park is where the cyclists stop. That knowledge ends up on your pages, and it is what gets you found.
Yes. It is twenty minutes up 371 and I would rather see the shop than guess from photos. After the first meeting the work runs over email and phone like everything else, and you never have to drive to Brainerd.
A fixed price within 24 hours, free whether or not you hire me. Or I build the homepage first and you decide after you have seen it.
