search engine optimization

Prospect Genius Moves Offices, Expands to a Larger Facility

Last Updated: March 15, 2012

Business owners in New York’s Capital Region will soon be able to find the online advertising specialists at Prospect Genius in a whole new location. Starting in April, Prospect Genius will be moving its growing team into a newer, larger facility in Troy, NY. As a result, the team will be better equipped to provide a larger number of existing and future clients with effective search engine optimization (SEO) and lead generation.
Specializing in Internet marketing for local service providers in all different corners of the country, Prospect Genius has been headquartered at 105 Jordan Road in Troy since 2010. On April 1 of this year, the company’s main offices will relocate to 250 Jordan Road, where there will be ample space for Prospect Genius’s growing team. In fact, the new property will be more than three times the size of the former office, which means that it will be able to accommodate any further expansion on the part of the PG staff.
President Alex Pelli says, “The new space is larger, spankin’ new, and allows for future growth plans. We’re all very excited about the move.”
Prospect Genius has seen continued growth due to an ever-increasing number of local businesses that depend on web-based resources for visibility and accessibility. As online advertising becomes an invaluable aspect of business ownership, the demand for expert SEO services grows. According to a 2010 study by the Pew Research Center, more than 58% of American consumers use the Internet to research products and services before making a purchase. For that reason, the unique web marketing services that Prospect Genius provides are integral to the success of countless local businesses; the expansion of their team is a direct result.
Prospect Genius is an SEO company based out of Troy, NY. Established in 2007 as an online lead generation and advertising program for local service providers nationwide, Prospect Genius specializes in sending customers straight to businesses’ websites.

If Your Business Stalls, Call 41CALLS

Last Updated: November 11, 2011

As a new way to reach out to potential clients, Prospect Genius has just started up a new radio advertising campaign. Broadcast on 104.9 and 100.9 FM, this new radio ad focuses on drawing attention to our effective search engine optimization product. With a target audience of Capital District-area business owners, this ad is coming right into their work sites and service trucks to let them know about our ability to help them connect with new customers on the web.
Using the catchy phone number 518-41CALLS, this radio ad lets small business owners in our area know how to harness our effective online marketing program. Many companies like appliance repair pros and trash haulers are struggling to find new customers, especially in today’s tough economy. But that doesn’t mean those prospective customers aren’t out there! Our 41CALLS campaign is here to let these business owners know that we can help them find the job leads they need, simply by helping them achieve a more prominent Internet presence to reach out to the locals who are already looking for their services online.
If you’ve heard our 41CALLS radio ad, or you found out about Prospect Genius from a friend or other source, we’d love to let you know more about our program and how it can help you. Feel free to contact us today to learn how search engine optimization (SEO) can help your business.

The Small Mistake that Could Kill Your SEO Campaign

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Navigating Your Online Identity

Here at Prospect Genius, we know how important it is for our clients to be able to track the return on their investment with our SEO program. That’s why we create a metered number and trackable microsite (with a URL that follows the format “some-service-city.state-biz.com”) so you know which leads are coming in from your Prospect Genius campaign.
We spend a great deal of time promoting these numbers and microsites all across the Internet and on many different sites. Sometimes, Google and Bing reps will personally call these phone numbers to confirm that they are active and live, as well as that they actually communicate with the correct business.
So here’s the important part: If Google calls you and asks if your website is:
“http ://some-service-city.state-biz.com”
…say YES!
While your personal website might be “bobsappliancerepair.com,” for example, if you tell Google that the microsite we created for you isn’t affiliated with your business, you are effectively killing your PG campaign. Why? Because Google will then assume that your listing with the URL “http ://some-service-city-state.biz.com” is spam and your information will be blacklisted. Basically, that means we will have to create a new URL for you and begin your campaign all over again. This will, of course, result in fewer phone calls for your business during the initial three-month period—not to mention a whole lot of unwanted frustration.

Just Say Yes to the Address!

If you’re ever in doubt when receiving a call from Google about whether a phone number, URL, or web address DOES in fact belong to you, it’s always better to say yes than to say no. After you’ve confirmed ownership with Google, you can simply call your sales or customer service rep here at Prospect Genius to ask if the phone number or URL does belong to us. If it doesn’t, we can then contact Google to correct the mistake. However, if you tell Google right off the bat that the URL is not yours, Google will instantly blacklist it. There is no way to go back and correct this and there will be no way to get the URL back on Google.
Speaking of Google…

What You Should Know About Google’s Latest Update

As of Friday, October 14, Google has implemented new strategies that it hopes will keep owner-verified business listings as up to date and accurate as possible. Effective immediately, Google will grab data from all over the web to automatically update your Google Places listing as a “time-saver” for you.
If you’ve received an e-mail from Google saying as much, it’s very important that you contact us immediately. We’re unsure about what these automatic updates and revisions may mean in the future for your Places listing and campaign performance—especially given the shady tactics that some competitors are already using—so we want to be able to keep your listing 100% correct at all times.
Please contact us as soon as possible if you’ve recently received an e-mail from Google about your Places listing.

Introducing: Google Maps Monitoring Service

Google doesn’t have a stellar record when it comes to letting business owners know about changes to their listings, and even though Google’s announcement claims they will notify business owners via e-mail as soon as something is changed using this new automatic update system, it’s unwise to depend solely on their promptness or discretion. It’s essential that you monitor your Places listing on your own and check your e-mail regularly since contact from Google can be unreliable.
The good news is that you can hire Prospect Genius to handle monitoring your Places listing if you don’t have the time to check on it every few days. In light of this new update from Google, we are rolling out a brand-new Google Maps monitoring service. It will alert you immediately if your information is changed or if a third party reports your business as “permanently closed.” Right now, this is the most effective way to combat Google’s questionable strategy and keep your Places listing as accurate and optimized as possible.
For additional information about our Google Maps Monitoring Service or to learn more about how PG can help, feel free to contact your sales or customer service rep today.

Fresh Off the Press: Announcing New Product Offerings to Help Your SEO Campaign

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

The PG team is continually working to ensure our customers receive the best, most comprehensive service. As a result, we’re constantly coming up with new ideas of how to better serve you. Today we’d like to announce a few brand-new product offerings that will help us make certain you really are getting a full-spectrum of top-quality options for your online advertising campaign.

E-mail to Phone

Do your e-mails sit around for days (or longer) because you just don’t have time to check the computer? Are you not a huge fan of e-mail in general? Well, at PG, we’ve just launched a product that lets you get your e-mail on your phone. Here’s how it works: Each time you get an e-mail lead, the program triggers a call to your phone. The system reads the e-mail message aloud to you and then follows up with a text message containing the caller’s phone number. It’s like having a personal secretary to read all of your e-mails to you! With PG’s E-mail to Phone program, you’re just a button or two away from returning the call—and you don’t even have to turn on the computer or open your inbox.

Blogging

Share your expertise, announce news/events, and improve your Google ranking all at the same time! Prospect Genius has added a blogging product/tool that allows you to add blog entries right on your microsite. Blogging on your site offers several versatile advantages.
For starters, having good content on your site makes your company more attractive to consumers. When you post blog entries like “Tips for Keeping Your Dryer in Top Condition” or “How to Know If You Need Air Conditioner Repair,” you illustrate your expertise to potential customers and grow their confidence in your knowledge and services.
Secondly, each and every blog post adds another page to your microsite. So if you post 100 blog entries over the course of the next year, you will have transformed your 15-page site into a 115-page site. More pages makes your microsite more credible to Google and Bing, because the larger your site, the more important it seems to the search engines.

Half-Price Until November 1

These two new products are going to be in a beta-testing period for the next couple of weeks, but we are offering a limited number of half-price openings until November 1. If you want to be one of the very first PG clients to experience the benefits of our E-mail to Phone or Blogging features, give us a call and we’ll get you signed up today.

Photo Gallery

You’re right: Photo galleries aren’t precisely a new offering from PG, but since they work almost the same way our new blogging feature does, we wanted to remind you how beneficial our Photo Gallery option can be. Just like each blog post creates a new page on your microsite, with the photo gallery, every new picture you add creates another “page” for your site. When you go ahead and add captions to each picture, especially those containing keywords (think: “ABC Appliance provides professional refrigerator repairs to a client in New York, NY.”), you can get even more value out of this new “page.” More pictures equal more points with Google and Bing.
For a little perspective, this is exactly how big companies like Walmart and Sears stay at the top of the results pages for service searches. Their sites have literally thousands of “pages” because they include a descriptive photo page for each and every product/service that they offer.

Coming Attractions

Next up in terms of new product offerings is our review validation service. Available very soon, this feature will allow you to not only collect customer reviews directly on your microsite, but it will also enable you to have a third party validate them.
The simple truth is that customers view reviews with skepticism. After all, they have no way of knowing if that glowing review was fabricated or written by a real, satisfied customer. Our validation system will actually contact the reviewer by phone or e-mail to verify that they are legit. Once the review has been validated, an icon will appear next to it, illustrating to prospective customers that this review is accurate, authorized, and able to be trusted!
If you’re interested in signing up for the beta-testing period on this feature, just give us a call, and we’ll make sure you get on the preorder list.

Don’t Get Banned From Google

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Spam: It’s Bad for Business

In past blog posts, we’ve talked about how Google works: the changes to Google Maps that display search results as a combination of organic rankings and map placement; the Google Spam Department, led by Matt Cutts; etc.
But we wanted to talk about all this again because Google’s Spam Department has been stepping up enforcement. They’re taking spam activity on Google Places so seriously that your business may even be banned if caught!
The most important thing to understand is that Google will attach any spamming penalties that they dole out to any available pieces of information, including:

Your business name
Your URL (http://www.bobsbusiness.com)
Your phone number
Your address

In their quest to deter spam activity on Google Places, Google looks for business listings that appear to be for the same business yet contain slight discrepancies in information.
For example: Bob wants his appliance company to have a higher ranking in all of the smaller towns surrounding the metropolitan area he serves. So he starts by creating a map listing for his company, including all of the relevant data:

“Bob’s Appliance” in New York, NY; phone number: 212-555-5555; address: 1234 W Main Street; website: www.bobsappliance.com

However, then he creates more listings, each one with slightly differing information:

“Bob’s Appliance” in Queens, NY; phone number: 212-555-5555; address: 567 Broadway Ave; website: www.bobsappliance.com
“Michael’s Appliance” in Bronx, NY; phone number: 212-555-5555; address: 1234 W Main St; website: www.bobsappliance.com
“Bob’s Appliance” in Brooklyn, NY; phone number: 212-111-1111; address: 1234 W Main St; website: www.bobsappliance.com

If he gets caught, what could happen? The short answer is that all of his information could be flagged and banned. That means any new listing containing a SINGLE piece of the flagged information would be rejected from Google Places. In some extreme cases, that information could be entirely banned from all of Google, in which case your website—and by extension, your company—would essentially cease to exist online. If you get to this point, and all of your information is banned on Google, you really only have two options: grovel at the feet of Google and beg for a reprieve or completely change not only your address, phone number, and website URL, but also your business’s name!

Staying Safe with Google Places

Surprisingly enough, remaining in the good graces of Google is actually a lot easier than it may sound. If you don’t want to get blacklisted or banned from Google, just tell the truth!
Follow Google’s guidelines by accurately representing the physical world in your online profiles, and you won’t have to worry about penalties or blacklisting. If your company really has two physical addresses in the real world, feel free to make two listings online, one for each location. If you only have one real location, don’t just make up a second one! And so on and so forth. You can even list your home address if it’s your only place of business.
What you don’t want to do is list the address of your auto body shop, your cousin Larry’s house, and then go on to make half a dozen more listings for an empty lot, abandoned church, etc. If you do that, Google will catch you and they will punish you. It could take days, months, or even a year, but Google will eventually catch you and subsequently ban or blacklist all of the addresses—and other information—associated with the spammed business listings.
Remember, having an effectively optimized Google Places listing connected with an equally well optimized website is crucial. Together they will work to get you the best overall placement in Google search results.

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Prospect Genius Moves Offices, Expands to a Larger Facility

If Your Business Stalls, Call 41CALLS

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