newsletter – Page 29

Stand Out From the Crowd With Pictures and Reviews

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Pictures: Why Your Website May Be Dead in the Water Without Them

Online advertising has one goal, right? To get your website ranking as well as possible with search engines like Google and Bing.
However, using the right keywords, linking strategies, and off-page work to make your site rank highly isn’t always enough. That’s because the ultimate goal of Internet marketing is actually not just to make your site number 1 on Google or Yahoo! It’s to generate more business for your company. To do that, it’s PEOPLE who need to pick up the phone and call after clicking on your well-ranked website. If they don’t contact you, all you end up with is a highly placed website that does nothing at all to generate business or help your company succeed!
It’s hard to believe, but something as little as the right images can have a huge impact on whether or not people call after visiting your site. Pictures make folks feel more comfortable with your company and help put them at ease, which can be especially important if your business performs services that require you to enter customers’ homes or vehicles. And, ultimately, comfort with your business has a LOT to do with whether a prospective customer picks your company or goes with a competitor.
Don’t just take our word for it: here’s a great example. Safelite, the national auto glass company, is now e-mailing each customer a photo of the actual technician who will be coming to work on their vehicle. Obviously, Safelite understands this puts their clients at ease and makes them more likely to use Safelite’s services rather than the competition’s.

Why Your OWN Pictures Matter

The simple truth is that not all images are created equal. Your own photos of your own team at work are, quite frankly, worth a lot more than stock photos of some model posing as a plumber, roofer, or other professional.
That’s because there are loads of duplicate stock photos out there. Everyone has seen that gal or this guy on numerous sites… And people aren’t dumb. They begin to recognize these pictures and realize that the photos are of models and actors, not your actual employees. Then they may begin to subconsciously wonder why you aren’t willing to put images of your actual staff on your site… In short, having your own photos of your employees performing services will get you more phone calls than stock photos will. Hands down.
You’ve probably seen images like some of these highly over-used pictures below:

Yup: they’re all stock art (from istockphoto.com). If you’re honest with yourself, it’s pretty easy to tell that these people aren’t your actual staff. While stock photos are better than having an imageless website, they don’t provide the same benefits as real photos of you or your team doing the work that you do.

Reviews: Why Your Website May Be Dead in the Water Without Them

Your company has hundreds of competitors: You probably already know this, because if you’re the only game in town, then there’s no use spending money on advertising… But since the make-believe world in which your business has no competition doesn’t exist, you need to make your company stand out from the crowd. Putting pictures of you and your team on your website is a great way to differentiate yourself from the other guys, and so is having sufficient customer reviews available.
Remember: it’s important not to just have reviews on your site, but it’s vital to keep those testimonials current. That way, prospective customers can see that your company not only did a great job for a client back in 1999 but that you’re also providing great service today and into the future.
New reviews can be posted in a number of places from Google Maps to your website. Here’s why you need to put your reviews in a variety of different locations online:

Google Maps: Adding reviews to your listing will help you get better placement in Google Maps.
Facebook: The better your Facebook popularity, the better your site will perform on Bing.
Your website: Reviews play a big role in converting site visitors into paying customers, so don’t forget to make sure your glowing testimonials make it onto your website as well. If you’re a PG customer, just send your new reviews to our team, and we’ll make sure to keep your microsite up to date.

The Mobile Revolution: Maximizing Your Website's Potential

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

The Future Is Mobile

Most business owners have caught up with the fact that optimizing their website for search is vital to the success of your company. However, now that advertising your business online has become the norm, the game has changed again. Getting to the top of Google/Yahoo!/Bing has long been the leading goal, but you might need to retool your web strategies as the playing field changes.
That’s because mobile search (using a cell phone browser to check out sites on the web) is becoming increasingly popular. Did you realize that approximately 50% of the cell phones sold in the U.S. are smart phones? This adds up to an Internet climate where ranking is no longer the only important thing. In light of the mobile revolution, it’s important to cater to prospective customers who are using mobile browsers, not just desktop computers.
Maybe you’re asking yourself why it matters how a prospective client gets to your website as long as they get there, right? The truth is that this is a rather critical issue, so let’s dig into it a little deeper…

Mobile vs. Desktop Browsing: What’s the Difference?

As you’re certainly aware, when you’re creating a standard website, you want it to be visually pleasing, simple to navigate, and fast to load. Those goals are the same when you’re considering web optimization for mobile devices, but how you achieve those ends can actually be VERY different. Consider this:

Mobile browsing takes place on cell phones and other mobile devices. That means screens are much, much, much smaller.
Phones also have limited power, usually just a fraction of the power a typical desktop has at its disposal.

These differences may not seem like that huge a deal, but they actual mean that mobile browsing is substantially different from standard web browsing. And if your site uses Flash or relies on tons of images, you’re probably in major trouble. That’s because most phones aren’t able to display Flash content at all, and images are generally quite slow to process on phones. In short, Flash and/or lots of images mean two things for mobile browsing and your site:

The content will either not display at all, or it will take so long to load that visitors will lose patience and go elsewhere—perhaps straight to a competitor’s site.
Search engines use load times as one of their factors when deciding results rankings, so slow loading = low rankings.

What to Do About It

If you’re wondering what to do about catching up with the mobile browsing revolution, take a deep breath. For those of you who are already Prospect Genius clients, you don’t have to do anything! The same proprietary content management system that runs your microsite also powers a mobile version that’s automatically optimized for search and mobile display.
For everyone else, there are some steps you can take to make your site more mobile friendly. Consider:

Using code to check the “User Agent String.” If it is reported as a mobile browser, that code can display a different version of the web page. Unless you’re a tech pro, you probably won’t want to tackle this on your own though…
Submitting a mobile sitemap to the major search engines. It’s typically best to never force the search engines to guess about anything, ever. Just come right out to the front and tell them all about the mobile version of your site.
Making sure excessive images don’t clog up the mobile version. Remove all images or, at the very least, switch to small image sizes so they load faster.
Utilizing obvious and simple navigational items. Remember, not all phones are touch screens, and many lack a mouse-like pointing device.
Making mobile pages extra narrow. People on older style phones have tiny screens, and even BlackBerries have a fairly small display. Don’t make people scroll horizontally AND vertically.

If you’re looking for more tips and tricks on mobile browsing and your website, check out this older, but still valid, blog post.
Have questions about this or any other SEO topic? Feel free to contact Prospect Genius to learn more. We’re available by phone at 800-689-1273 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 800-689-1273 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or you can e-mail our account managers at sales@prospectgenius.com. Additional info about our products, services, and online marketing is also available throughout our web site, so don’t forget to look around!

Customer Reviews and You

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Got Reviews?

It used to be that just having a website was enough to set you apart from your competitors. But now, everyone has a webpage, and you have to set your site apart somehow… For many, the solution they choose is to make their website flashy and unique.
That’s good and fine, but when people are searching for a plumber, electrician, or other pro online, they’re not necessarily looking for the fanciest website or the one with the most bells and whistles. What they’re actually looking for is what other customers thought about your business. Whether you’re a roofer, car audio installer, or appliance repairman, online reviews can help show prospective customers what to expect from your company: the past satisfaction of other customers can predict the experience that future clients can anticipate receiving from you.
Customers can leave reviews for you in many places, including on Google Maps and on your business’s Facebook page. They can also e-mail them to you, and you can have the PG team post them on your microsite. In fact, the same review can do double duty if your customers put them on both Google Maps and your Facebook page, so encourage them to leave reviews where they can be seen in multiple places on the web. The most important thing is that the reviews are out there for prospective customers to find.
Perhaps you’re thinking that your customers aren’t going to take the time to write a review. While that might ordinarily be the case, you can make it worth their while to compose a review for you. Try offering them an incentive such as $10 off their next service. Not only will this help increase your stockpile of reviews but it can help assure repeat business!
Here’s an example of some great reviews on 919 Motoring’s website. Their reviews point out that:

Their prices are great.
They’re better than their competitors.
They’re honest and respectful.

Quite frankly, you probably couldn’t make up reviews better than these provided by their customers!

Faking It Isn’t Worth It

Speaking of making up reviews… Sometimes it might seem easier to just manufacture a few reviews and pretend they were written by customers, but that can get your company in serious trouble. It might look appealing to just dream up some reviews or “borrow” reviews from a similar company that’s, say, in another state, but this will end up biting you in the end.
Not long ago, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) charged Legacy Learning Systems Inc. with disseminating deceptive advertising. This company, which sells a popular guitar lesson DVD series, settled with the FTC and will have to pay $250,000 to resolve the charges. The short story is that Legacy wasn’t even making up reviews: they were simply utilizing reviews written by a paid affiliate and promoting them as unbiased reviews. The full story is available here.
And the Legacy case isn’t an isolated incident: two years ago, a cosmetic surgery company got caught writing fake reviews. They were charged in New York State for forcing employees to write fake reviews raving about how fantastic the company was. They also settled, to the tune of $300,000 in penalties and costs. You can find the full story here.
In short, fake reviews equal real pain. When you’re obtaining reviews from customers, it’s probably a good idea to save a copy of the e-mail or at least save their contact info. That way, should you be required to prove the review came from a real customer, you’ll be able to!

Dial 1 for Business Success

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Are you using your phone as effectively as possible to help your business get ahead? Here are a few ideas to harness the latest cell phone technology for your business.

Sprint and Google Voice: Expanded Technology for Your Phone

Here at PG, several of our staffers use Sprint cell phones, and as a result, we noticed an interesting announcement. Sprint recently publicized a new partnership with Google that will give all Sprint customers access to Google Voice on their phones. That means you’ll have fully integrated access to Google Voice’s free services right on your cell.
You can find out more about all of the different features Google Voice provides here, but one of the most versatile for small business owners is this: you can assign several phones to the same number and have them all ring when someone calls you. That means one phone number can ring to your office phone, your cell phone, your assistant’s desk… all at the same time. And whoever picks up the phone first, wins. Just think of all the possibilities this feature could offer in terms of staying connected with current and prospective customers. Google Voice also offers visual voice mail and a whole bunch of other features that can boost your ability to manage inbound calls.

Voice Mail of Doom

Tons of small business owners still let callers get their voice mail on a regular basis. Some of you may even send incoming calls straight to your voice mail inbox. But these behaviors can be a death sentence for your business! That’s because we’ve seen that the vast majority of customers won’t leave a message if they get your voice mail. Instead, they’ll just hang up and move on down their list—straight to one of your direct competitors. If you let your clients get your voice mail all the time, this is something you need to seriously consider changing.
Here are a few options for how you can shift away from relying on voice mail to make sure you’re not losing business by not answering the phone. Why not try:

An Answering Service
Google Voice (see above)
A Receptionist

Regardless of which option you choose, the important thing is to ensure you’re handling incoming calls as quickly as you can so you can avoid losing calls to the competition. Remember, very few customers will leave a message and those that do, probably also call someone else as well.

Turn Your Cell Phone into a Credit Card Processing Machine

If you’re tired of using those annoying carbon copy credit card slips or just plain not being able to accept credit cards when you’re away from the office, you may already have the answer to your problem right in your pocket…
Did you realize that there are applications available that allow your smart phone to process customer credit cards? No more purchasing a pricey point-of-sale machine or renting an expensive credit card processing terminal: all credit card processing can now be done using the technology you already have. All you need to do is download the application and you’ll have access to credit card processing at a very, very competitive rate.
For iPhones and iPads, the application you need is called Square. For Android or “Droid” phones, an application called Payment Max is available. If you have another type of smart phone, you can simply google “your phone name,” e.g. Blackberry, and “credit card processing” or “credit card reader.” These searches should pull up all of the available options for processing credit cards right from your phone.
From making and taking calls to processing credit cards, your cell phone is one of the most vital tools for the success of your business. Make sure you’re getting the most out of your phone with some of these easy ideas and tips.

SEO, Google, and Your Business

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Changes at Google

As you’ve probably heard, Google made some algorithm changes at the end of February. Called the “Farmer” update in the media, these changes are designed to help Google produce higher quality results for their customers.
In short, the Farmer update targeted “content farms” to make it harder for these sites to rank highly in search results. Content farms typically feature low-quality content, so having these sites highly ranked can degrade the overall quality of the search results returned by Google. For example, a directory site that’s looking to increase online traction might solicit, or “farm,” content from external sources that, ultimately, may not have much value to a human audience. This creates the potential for businesses’ old contact information and locations to remain in circulation, decreasing the content quality on the Internet. Logically, this is an issue that Google is inclined to work against.
In implementing the Farmer update, Google’s goal is to improve the results quality to increase searcher satisfaction and decrease frustration. Before the update, consumers were frustrated by the poor information they were receiving while business owners were also frustrated by their inability to eliminate that old address or phone number, no matter how much new information they tried to circulate.

Why This Matters for Business Owners

Perhaps you’re wondering why the Google algorithm change matters for your business. Well, just consider: if your company was gaining good traction from websites like MerchantCircle.com, HubPages.com, or Business.com—it won’t be anymore. These sites are all reported to have been hit hard by the Farmer update, so your business can no longer count on them to provide the same results as in the past!
This algorithm change highlights more than ever why every business, large or small, needs to stay on top of Google changes. As the major search engines tweak how they rank results, it can dramatically affect where your company shows up on search engine results pages (SERPs) and directly affect how much online business you can generate.
If you were using sites affected by the Farmer update, now’s the time to seek out new ways and new directories to capitalize on to maintain your company’s online presence. Not sure if sites you relied on have been hit? Check out this site for an analysis of which directories and sites were affected most. Or, if algorithm changes and the changing world of web marketing are too daunting, let our SEO professionals help. Feel free to call Prospect Genius with any questions you have about the Farmer update and what we can do to maintain your web presence and popularity.

Not Even the Big Guys Are Immune

When it comes to Google and effective online marketing, there’s more to be aware of than just the latest algorithm changes. You’ll want to remember that all businesses are required to follow Google’s guidelines—or else!
The Google team is getting better and better at cracking down on “black-hat” SEO: what it considers underhanded tactics or bad behavior. And when they find a company that’s breaking their rules, no one is immune. From multimillion dollar companies (who spend substantial sums on pay-per-click advertising with Google) to small mom-and-pop operations, Google punishes black-hat violators just the same.
The New York Times recently reported that JCPenney got caught red-handed using black-hat tactics. Google discovered JCPenney trying to trick them by adding links on various sites across the web. These links pointed back to JCPenney’s website, and while some of the pages they linked off of nominally related to Penney’s products, most had no correlation whatsoever. For example, “black dresses” and a link to JCPenney were tacked onto the bottom of a site called nuclear.engineeringaddict.com. Other links included “evening dresses” on a site called www.casino-focus.com , “cocktail dresses” on www.bulgariapropertyportal.com, and ”casual dresses” on www.elistofbanks.com.
This may have seemed smart, at least at first, since JCPenney outranked Samsonite’s site itself for searches like “Samsonite carry-on luggage.” But the black-hat strategies ultimately backfired, as they virtually always do. When Google uncovered the violation of their guidelines, JCPenney lost any traction they had gained and more. Matt Cutts, the head of the Google spam department, commented that “strong corrective action” was being taken against the retail giant.
This type of corrective action ranges from a -10 penalty (causing a webpage to move back 10 spots in search engine results rankings) to a -40, -70, or -100 penalty. Penalties can even include being blacklisted from Google completely. Google draws a very clear line between black- and white-hat tactics, and outlines them in detail for everyone to see here. Whether or not the JCPenney hierarchy intentionally used black hat SEO, or they were led astray by unscrupulous web marketers, this latest move was deliberate on someone’s part, and it was a pretty bad move overall.

Play by Google’s Rules

The simple truth is that following the rules pays off when it comes to trying to promote your website—and your business—on the web. It can feel overwhelming to stay on top of the rules when algorithm updates and changes like the “Farmer” update roll out, but it’s critical to ensure your online advertising and promotional campaigns abide by Google’s requirements or you may find yourself facing nasty penalties just like JCPenney.
However, you don’t have to go it alone. White-hat SEO pros like Prospect Genius scrupulously follow Google’s guidelines, and you can count on our professionals to never cross the line into black-hat tricks. Our expert Internet marketers work to leverage your site to get you the maximum online exposure without violating any of Google’s rules. That’s the clear-cut answer for long-term success online.
For more information on how our SEO program works within Google’s guidelines or to sign up for our lead generation campaign, feel free to give us a call at 1-800-689-1273 or visit our website.

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