search engine optimization

Making SEO Work for You

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Double Trouble

When your sink is leaking, would you call in two different plumbers to fix the leak at the same time? Would you have two different dentists fill one cavity? Having two pros in to do the same job, at the same time, just doesn’t make much sense.
Of course, these are rather ridiculous examples, and you certainly wouldn’t follow through with either of these scenarios. However, many small companies do work with two separate SEO companies at the same time, hiring both to market the same business… The perception is that this commonplace tactic will help the company get ahead: Two is better than one, right? The truth is that working with two different SEO companies at the same time can be quite damaging. That’s because instead of helping each other out, the two companies are struggling for control of the SEO campaign, and your business ends up caught in between their tug-of-war. The end result is more often a penalty from Google or Bing for activity that looks like spam than it is successful SEO for your company.

The Tortoise Is Better Than the Hare

The reality is that slow and steady wins the race. If you choose to use SEO for your web marketing campaign, the smartest choice is to carefully select a single company to work with. Let them focus on optimization for three to six months, and THEN consider whether you’d like to try a different company.
During that first three to six months, do be involved in and aware of what’s going on with your SEO campaign, but don’t be obstructive or intrusive. SEO doesn’t happen overnight! Contrary to what your high-speed connection might have you believing, the Internet is actually a very slow entity. It reacts and adapts very slowly due to its sheer size and immensity. Google and Bing have to constantly sort through and analyze billions of pages of information to do their jobs effectively, so they may only get to your site every other month or so. Essentially, this means a change on your site that’s implemented today might not be seen for 30 or 60 days.
Because the Internet reacts slowly, SEO can also be a slow process. In order to do it right, small business owners need to realize that Google owns the ball, the bat, the gloves, and the ballpark: if the Internet is like a baseball league, you’ll have to play by Google’s rules if you ever want to see a good ranking for your site.

So, That Means I’m Stuck, Right?

Just because you need to give SEO time to work doesn’t mean you’re stuck with whatever company you choose from the get-go! If they’ve provided zero return on your investment over a six- to nine-month period, and you’ve provided all of the information and resources requested, it’s time to start looking for a replacement. After that much time, a lack of results means you may want to switch to a second SEO company.

Okay, What Should My Business Do?

If you want more than your current SEO campaign is providing, there are still a number of options that don’t include sabotaging yourself by bringing a competing SEO company on board. While you’re waiting those three to six months for your SEO program to develop more fully, you can also promote your business online by:

Using a pay-per-click campaign. PPC can be implemented on your own or with the help of a professional.
Hiring a lead generation program that works differently from an SEO provider. This might include companies similar to Service Magic or Yodle (this is not an endorsement). Each of these drives leads to your company in a way that may complement, not compete with, your SEO campaign.
Expanding your Facebook page and Twitter profile. Putting time and resources into these pages can help your Internet exposure. This type of work can be handled either by a professional or by business owners themselves.
Posting ads on Craigslist. This service is free and will take you just a few minutes.
Exploring the possibility of a radio ad that would promote your business name or website. This can set the stage for more web traffic and be a complement to the SEO work.
Putting a sign on your fleet truck(s) or other vehicles. Not having signs means you’re missing out on an important branding opportunity.

Giving your SEO campaign time to develop fully doesn’t mean you have to sit by the sidelines for months. However, trying the aforementioned options will almost always end better than trying to stack the deck by working with two different SEO companies at the same time–which nearly always backfires!
Have questions? The PG team would love to help. Feel free to contact our customer service professionals for more information.

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!

Things To Consider When Outsourcing

Last Updated: April 29, 2011

There is a common misconception when it comes to outsourcing, many people think this means sending work overseas. However, this is simply not true. In reality, you probably “outsource” some of your business functions already to other local businesses. For example, if you pay an accountant to prepare your taxes or have your company vehicle serviced at the dealer, that’s outsourcing!
When deciding whether or not to outsource a function of your business, there are few things to consider. It helps to look at the cost vs. time and how cost effective each scenario will be. Most people forget to pay themselves when they consider doing it in-house. Your time has value! If you typically get $40/hour and the task will take 10 hours a week, that’s $400 your company will spend each week.
Another thing to consider is the value you will receive from doing it yourself or paying a professional. Outsourcing a task that you are not skilled at, whether it is online advertising, tax preparation or hosting email servers, could actually save you time and money. Take the above example, it could cost your company $400 to do a sub-par job in-house which could lead to complications or mistakes, or $480 to give the accountability to a professional who is trained in the area.
Once you have decided to out-source certain things, the problem arises of who to choose to work with. Simply, DO YOUR HOMEWORK! The simplest way to research a company is to go on Google and search the company’s name + “scam” or “complaints”. You can also check with the BBB for their assessment of the company. Doing these two relatively easy things can give you a pretty good understanding of the company and how their customers feel about their services.
There is an old saying we like to share: “Good is rarely cheap and cheap is rarely good.” Remember to ask detailed questions. Too good to be true offers usually are just that, too good to be true. Good luck!

Online Advertising and the New Google

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

The New Google

In a past blog post, we looked the different parts of Google: maps, organics, and sponsored (pay per click). But since then, Google has changed its look—and its game. Now, when you search for a local company or service, the results display as a combination of the maps and organics, with a small map off to the right side that covers the sponsored results as you scroll down.
Here’s a short-and-sweet look at how things have changed: the new search results page is on the left, the old is on the right. You can see the sponsored results highlighted in yellow, the maps listings in pink, and the organic search results in green.

Advertising in the New Google

Now that Google has reorganized its search results, it may be time to freshen up your advertising strategies a bit. The SEO specialists at Prospect Genius have hypothesized—and observed to be true—that having both an optimized organic search result and an optimized map search result is advantageous. Moreover, having the two tied together (i.e. including your optimized website in your optimized maps listing) is even better. This way your site will show up prominently in Google whether a prospective customer is searching in Google Places or just in Google itself.

Keyword Stuffing: Fast Track to the Back

To put it simply, keyword stuffing your company’s name or location is the leading way to get yourself rejected from Google Places or Google Maps. And that’s a serious problem, because with Google’s new blend of the maps and organic results, a rejected listing could set back your organic placement as well. Remember, as we discussed in the previous post, Google’s spam department can inflict wholesale penalties across the board, no matter which area of Google they find that you’ve committed bad behavior in. Don’t forget, these “penalties” are more than just a slap on the wrist: punishment can even include completely banning your website from Google!
For example, this type of keyword stuffing can get you in major trouble with Google: say your company is called “Bob’s Services,” but you list your business on Google Places as “Bob’s Appliance HVAC Plumbing Heating Cooling and AC Services of Houston Plano Ft Worth and Sugarland.” This strategy is almost guaranteed to backfire. It certainly won’t fool Google and will definitely keep your listing from being activated.
Why? Because Google compares what you entered in your listing with the info it has in its database about Bob’s Services, essentially trying to verify what the real information about the company is. When the information in all of the other online directories lists the business as “Bob’s Services,” Google will see that the keyword stuffed name entered on Google Places is just that, bogus. And when it uncovers a spammer (keyword stuffer or other rule-breaker), Google flags the listing for manual review, by an actual person. The end result is generally a major penalty for your website, including consequences that can extend to both your paid ads and organic results, not just maps listings!
Think you’re safe just because you’ve never listed your business anywhere else on the web? Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. The simple truth is that the Internet is one giant recycling center. Information on websites is routinely harvested (plagiarized) by automated programs and used on other sites. So even if you haven’t personally included your company in an Internet directory or anywhere else on the web, your info—including business address, name, and phone—is probably still out there somewhere. Additionally, a company you hired to promote your business may have created listings that you don’t know about. For example, your local yellow pages directory may have posted your information on its website as well as printed it in hard copy.
According to Google’s Guidelines, all of your business information must match (especially your business name and address) everywhere it appears on the web. This will gain you the best placement for your services once they are well optimized and help ensure that your listings won’t be rejected.

Be Proactive When Possible and Reactive When Necessary

Unsurprisingly, the best way to ensure you receive no penalties or rejections from Google is to do it right the first time! Of course, that isn’t always possible. Google’s guidelines do change and it’s easy to be unaware of some of the rules when you’re getting set up with Google. Or, if you made the mistake of working with an unscrupulous online advertiser, they may have engaged in underhanded practices on your behalf. Unfortunately, it’s not unusual for these companies to take verboten shortcuts in the hopes that booming results the first month will get you to stay with their company in hopes of continued success…
However, the good news is that Prospect Genius offers Google listing optimization services to help your company maximize your Internet marketing success. Our professionals are experts at fixing prior bad behaviors, and we can help you clean up your listings for the best results. We’ll make certain they’re working for you, not against you!
To speak with a Prospect Genius team member about any of our programs (including maps and organics optimization), pick up the phone and give us a ring at (800) 689-1273 or visit our website (prospectgenius.com) to learn more.

Catch More Customers with Coupons

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Coupons Make You Money

It may seem a little backward, but adding a coupon to your website can actually help you make more money. You may be thinking, “Wait. How can I make more money if I’m offering customers a discount?” But the math really does work out. Sure, you will be collecting a little less money per customer, but enough individuals may like the gimmick to dramatically increase your customer base. That means if you’re charging each client a little bit less but you have 5 or 10 percent more customers, you’ll be making a lot more!
Adding a coupon to your microsite is also beneficial for advertising your services. Not only can the Prospect Genius SEO team publicize your coupon—and your company—on a whole new list of websites, we can leverage these sites to increase your microsite traffic. In short, we can maximize the benefit of a coupon to boost the number of calls and e-mails you get.
Here are a few coupon ideas to consider for your company (and why they’re a great option!)

5% Off for Cash Payment: When customers pay in cash, you won’t have to pay the credit card fees you might otherwise have been charged. That means this discount doesn’t really cut into your profits: you’re simply passing the savings along to your customer and generating interest in your business at the same time.
10% Off for Veterans, Active Members of the Armed Services, and/or Senior Citizens: Okay, so this coupon does mean you’ll lose out on 10% of your revenue, but many customers view senior/veteran discounts as a charitable donation for the people who have served our country. This generosity toward these highly esteemed groups can enhance a customer’s perception of your business and go a long way toward encouraging a prospective client to choose you over the competition.
10% Off for Existing Customers: Every business owner knows finding new customers is far more expensive than keeping the customers you already have. This kind of coupon encourages your current customers to keep your number on hand—the more customers you retain, the fewer new customers you have to find, and the savings add up!

And remember, fancy graphics are good and fine, but coupons are more about the message than the picture. All you need to create an effective online coupon is the offer itself. If you want to dress it up, go for it, but the discount is all that really matters.

Great Promotions Are All About the Gimmick

Among the more successful promotions we’ve seen from local businesses was an offer from a bathroom remodeler. He advertised at $5,995 complete bath remodel: using a one-page list of specifications regarding fixtures, counters, and flooring, the customer could select upgrades beyond the $5,995 base price.
Two things made this idea so effective:

It caught the customers’ attention. The advertised price for the bathroom remodel was so low that it jumped out at prospective clients.
All of the options were laid out simply and clearly. Bathroom remodels can be daunting, complex projects, but by reducing it down to four or five packages, the buying process is simple rather than overwhelming. Limiting options also limits both cost and confusion, making it straightforward and hassle-free for the buyer.

We’ve seen tons of coupons and promotional gimmicks over our years in the advertising business, but here are a few of the more popular ones we’ve come across: A free GPS system with the purchase of more than $3,000 in flooring; and $500 off more than 3,000 square feet of flooring. Pairing up a specific dollar amount with a particular service or product can help snag a reader’s attention when we’re promoting your coupon, so be as exact as you can about the details. Generating interest in the coupon—and making your phones ring or e-mail in-box overflow—is what it’s all about.

Getting Started

Have a coupon or special discount you’d like us to promote for you? Just let our SEO pros know. If you’re already signed up with the PG lead generation program, there’s no charge for adding a coupon to your site. We’ll even help you brainstorm if you’re looking for coupon ideas! Take advantage of our experts by making us do more work for you: call (800) 689-1273 or e-mail customer.service@prospectgenius.com to get your coupon up and start reeling in the customers!

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