Awhile back I had the good fortune to meet John Ahlberg the CEO of Waident, a technology outsourcing and consulting firm with offices in Glen Ellyn, Chicago and Kansas City, KS at a business meeting. John is a great guy, runs a great company and is also the type of person who will “tell it like it is”.
As we chatted, John began to recount his recently frustrating search for a Chiropractor to treat his ailing back. Keep in mind, I had never met John before and here he was giving me this tremendous insight into the mind of the prototypical search engine user.
It looks something like this:
Consumer has a pain point (in this case the pain was REAL)–> Consumer goes to Search Engine–> Consumer enters phrase(s) he thinks will lead to pain relief.
And it takes place millions of times each and every day.
Well, needless to say I found John’s story rather compelling and asked him if he would mind sharing it with all of you. He agreed and a few weeks later when our schedules meshed John called into our conference line and retold his story so all of you could benefit from it too.
Click on the “Play” link below, take notes and enjoy!
Play
Isn’t it time you took control of your brand’s online effectiveness? Every day hundreds of thousands of people are looking for services just like yours online. Wouldn’t it be nice if they found you a little more often?
We’re FetchLocalCustomers and we can help. Call us today at 888-505-6162
That’s essentially the assurance our long-standing client was given by a web design firm who was hired to give our client’s site a new makeover.
"Don't Worry We Know All About SEO"
What shouldn’t they worry about? That the redesign would not adversely affect their search engine rankings.
Why shouldn’t they worry? Because they understood all about SEO and search marketing and would make the transition a seamless one.
Who suffered? The business owner.
How is it going to get fixed? FetchLocalCustomers is going to salvage what we can and start building authority again.
The “Silver Lining”
Thanks to nearly two years of authority building this particular client’s primary domain has so much authority that even though most of the topic specific pages have been erased from the index, at least the home page still shows up – not ideal, but far better than having no presence at all.
How the Transition Should Have Occured
The new web makeover could have truly been “seamless” had the new design firm followed the single most important rule in SEO – Never Ever change page URLs.
You see, there are two subtleties that most people don’t understand:
Search Engines do not rank websites, they rank web-pages
Off-site authority building is tied to a web-page’s URL
Therefore, to preserve the rankings of a site that has been benefiting from a highly engineered authority building process the redesign, above all else, must preserve the page URLs otherwise all that page-level authority is lost*. In this case that meant close to 2 years of authority building – Ouch!
*Yes, you can try to salvage some of it through redirects, but this is far from ideal and questionably effective.
The really sad part is that both the original site and the subsequent redesign were built in WordPress and a new theme could have been built and uploaded to the existing WordPress CMS and none of this would have happened.
Meanwhile, the client will be seeing a drop in traffic and those who do find the site will be brought to the homepage (instead of a content page that matches what was searched for).
Translation – fewer leads, fewer appointment and fewer sales.
Hopefully, you now know enough to prevent this from happening to you. In fact, I would make it part of your written agreement with whoever is redesigning your site – NO CHANGING PAGE URLs!
Need help in this post Panda and Penguin jungle we’re living in? FetchLocalCustomers can help you tame these wild beasts and get you the traffic, visitors and conversions you need to pull away from the pack and put more money in your pocket. Give us a ring at 888-505-6162 and let’s chat.
For the past year Google has been pushing through “Panda” updates to their ranking algorithm in order to clean up their search results and “provide a better user experience”.
The first “Panda” went after low value or “thin” content such as sites like eHow.com and livestrong.com that were continually clogging up search results with low value pages designed to simply sell advertising to those who clicked through in the hopes of getting valuable insights.
Here’s a good infographic that is fairly up to date:
Thanks for the Graphic SearchEngineLand
The most recent, but likely not the last Panda update was pushed thru on April 19th, 2012 and waddling in, hot on its heels was their newest update the Penguin
Enter the Penguin
While the rumors are still flying, it appears that the main focus of the Penguin update appears to have been to penalize sites who have been ”over optimizing” in Google’s eyes as well as sites that contain, within the site itself, duplicate content.
If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.
Detailed Analysis of Penguin’s Over Optimization Penalty
Over the coming months, three things will undoubtedly be true.
We will all learn more insights into what makes Penguin tick
Google will roll-out additional versions of Penguin
FetchLocalCustomers will be on the case and making sure our clients not only survive, but thrive in the new reality!
Things are really heating up! Now, more than ever you need to have a professional on-board to make sure that your online empire doesn’t run aground! Isn’t it time you had a professional navigator on board? Call or email to learn what we can do to bring you those new customers you want and deserve! 888-505-6162
showed that the overwhelming majority of search users are opposed to personalized search results.
I’ve excerpted the summary of these findings below for your convenience.
Most search users disapprove of personal information being collected for search results or for targeted advertising.
The Pew Internet & American Life survey in February 2012 included several questions probing how respondents feel about search engines and other websites collecting information about them and using it to either shape their search results or target advertising to them. Clear majorities of internet and search users disapprove of these practices in all the contexts we probed.
Specifically, the survey posed the following choices to search engine users:
65% say… It’s a BAD thing if a search engine collected information about your searches and then used it to rank your future search results, because it may limit the information you get online and what search results you see
29% say… It’s a GOOD thing if a search engine collected information about your searches and then used it to rank your future search results, because it gives you results that are more relevant to you
73% say they would…NOT BE OKAY with a search engine keeping track of your searches and using that information to personalize your future search results because you feel it is an invasion of privacy
23% say they would…Be OKAY with a search engine keeping track of your searches and using that information to personalize your future search results, even if it means they are gathering information about you
All internet users were posed the following choice regarding targeted advertising:
68% say… I’m NOT OKAY with targeted advertising because I don’t like having my online behavior tracked and analyzed
28% say… I’m OKAY with targeted advertising because it means I see advertisements and get information about things I’m really interested in
Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project, March 12, 2012
Can’t say that I’m at all surprised by this and hoping that Google provides a simple way to opt-out or toggle between “natural” and personalized results as a result of this study. Their failure to heed the voice of their users could open the door for another search engine to successfully attack their dominant position.
Search marketing remains one of the most profitable applications of marketing dollars. Do you have a solid plan in place? If not, give us a ring 888-505-6162 and we’ll be glad to help. At FetchLocalCustomers we understand what you really want and how to get them!
It’s always nice to have your thoughts and predictions supported by some big-time thinkers so when I opened my email this morning and found the latest trendwatching.com briefing it put a big smile on my face.
Their brief titled Point-Know-Buy gives examples of exactly what we described in our late 2010 video “5 Mega-Trends in Consumer Behavior“. Smartphones are allowing consumers (your prospects) to access and act upon decision supporting information instantly.
As trendwatching.com explains it:
Smartphone-toting consumers are embracing a world in which they can find out about (if not buy) almost anything they encounter out in the real world, anytime. Learn from the brands already capitalizing on this trend, then get going!
Now, that consumers crave information is nothing new. Information and knowledge give consumers power, control and certainty (or at least the illusion thereof). Therefore they will forever be in demand by consumers searching for the best of the best. Equally important, the discovery aspect of information adds a fun factor too.
As you read their brief and look at all of the cool tools they highlight ask yourself “How can I make my site more engaging?” Video? QR Codes?
Remember, getting traffic to your site is just the first step. The second step is to provide your prospect with the decision supporting information they need to feel comfortable taking the next step with you and ultimately moving along the buying continuum from “research to purchase”.
Of course, that’s exactly what we help our clients to do everyday, so if you need help getting your online marketing machine to go from seized up to running like a Swiss watch, just pick up the phone and call us at 888-505-6162.
So I got this phone call the other day from a delightful woman from the southern part of the United States. Throughout the course of
Read On to Learn How!
our discussion she said something that I have heard on more than one occasion and it prompted me to write this post.
“So I have been doing some work on my site to get it to rank higher and I thought I was doing a great job because I was ranking at the top of the search results for almost everything.”
“But… (there is always a but)
then I was over at my sister’s house and I wanted to show her how well my site was doing and it was nowhere to be found”
“Do you know what happened?”
Well, I went on to explain how she has been misled by Google’s well intentioned “personalized” or “customized” search results. You see, unless you are VERY CAREFUL the results you see in your results pages are likely to be different than what everbody else sees. The reason is that Google is trying to show you what it believes you want to see, or perhaps more accurately, they are trying to show you what they believe you will find most useful. Sounds good, right?
The Danger of Customized Results for the Business Owner
Here’s the hitch for you as a business owner who is trying to assess and improve your sites commercial effectiveness. It is more than likely that the results you see when you “Google” things about your business are better than what they actually are! This is especially likely if you have not purposefully told Google NOT to personalize your results. Go here: Personalized Results in Google to learn how to do this.
Think about it…
Google wants to show you results that they think are important to you. You think your website is important (and you visit it allthe time) therefore, your website ranks highly when you are using your own computer or when you are logged in to any Google property (Gmail, for example) no matter what computer you are using.
Makes it pretty difficult to know if you are seeing “real” results or whether you are seeing what Google THINKS you want to see, Eh?
The Quick Way to Get Pure Results
So, while you probably want to get rid of personalized results anyways because they’re just creepy, if you ever want to check to see what the real, pure, unadulterated search results are for any given term, all you need to do is this.
Conduct a Google Search Query
At the top of the page you will see a long gobbledygook URL similar to this…
Now, refresh that search, but first append that long url with the “phrase” &pws=0
So that it now looks like this: https://www.google.com/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=gutter+cleaning+ames+&pws=0
The results you now see are the real deal!
Managing your business is hard enough without having to worry and consume your precious time and energy trying to figure out all of Google’s games, right? That’s where FetchLocalCustomerscan help. We take care of everything you need to create a complete online marketing system from research, to site construction to content generation to the ongoing authority building it takes for you to WIN in the world of Search Marketing!
Give us a call at 888.505.6162 and let’s discuss your situation. If we can help, great! If not, we’ll point you in the right direction to get you the results you need!
To the uneducated and uninformed, there appear to be two valid approaches to gaining a high degree of online commercial
When it Comes to Generating $$ Local SEO is More Effective
effectiveness.
The first is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising which is primarily available to local businesses through the Adwords self-serve model or through one of the many resellers of Adwords out there (most notably Dex).
The second is by coupling high quality website content with organic search engine optimization – the preferred approach utilized by FetchLocalCustomers.
Let me pause here and stress two important statements mentioned above:
“To the uneducated and uninformed”
“the preferred approach”
Let me explain #1 above because this explanation will make #2 above crystal clear without spending pages and pages of explanation and comparison between the merits of SEO and PPC.
It’s all About Click-Through Rates
- Pay-Per-Click CTR
It is pretty well documented that the average click-through-rates (CTR) for Adwords advertisers is 2%. Now, by definition, the average suggests that some advertisers will do better than 2% and some will do worse. The reality for most local businesses is that CTRs are lower than 2%, but this reality is lost in the reports of what is average because of the spending distribution of Adwords advertising. As the folks at Kantar Media just reported, the top 20 Adwords advertisers accounted for an estimated $1.4 billion of Google’s $18 Billion search advertising in the same period (a whopping 7.3%). So in other words, the CTRs of these professionally managed accounts are skewing the average UP to 2%.
So, for arguments sake, let’s just say that you’re every bit as good as this skewed average and your campaign pulls a respectable 2%.
- Organic CTRs
It is also pretty well documented (I’ve seen no less than 3 separate studies) that organic click-through-rates follow a distribution that looks like this
#1 Position = 42.1% CTR
#2 Position = 11.9% CTR
#3 Position = 8.5% CTR
Or, in other words, if you hold the #1 Position in Google for your most important buying phrases you will welcome 21X more interested prospects to your site than if you run a well managed PPC campaign!
Now do you see why I described our approach as “the preferred approach”?
Well, hopefully this has helped you move beyond being “uneducated and uninformed”. Also, hopefully, it will help you resist the siren’s song of some of the PPC peddlers that are constantly hounding you and the rest of Main Street. The facts are clear. You simply cannot get anywhere near the same amount of new customers from PPC as you can from a properly constructed local online marketing system that uses Local SEO as its traffic generation machine.
Want new customers? Call us at 888.505.6162 and let one of our friendly and knowledgeable business advocates help you determine if the FetchLocalCustomers approach is right for you.
Some really interesting data has just been released that shows an SEO based approach to lead generation has by far the greatest impact as compared to other web based approaches such as PPC and Social Media marketing.
SEO Is the Clear Winner. Just sayin... (Source - MarketingCharts.com)
Even Better for Business to Business (B2B)
What surprised me is that according to the survey (sample size = 500) an SEO based approach has a more pronounced impact on B2B firms than Business to Consumer (B2C) firms. While in our own client base we have seen a sharp rise in business to business activity, business to consumer businesses have always had an even more pronounced positive return. Wow!
Firms with Highest Growth Rates Leverage Online Lead Generation
In a separate study by Hinge Marketing those firms with the highest growth rates and highest profitability also had the highest percentage of leads coming from online. Certainly makes sense but the difference is so striking that I felt compelled to include the graphic here.
Growth Rate Correlates to Online Marketing (Source - MarketingCharts.com)
Traffic Still the Number 1 Indicator of Success
Every month we supply a report to our clients that show how they are ranking in the search engines and how many NEW visitors our efforts are bringing to them. We’ve settled on the NEW visitor metric because it is easy to measure with Google Analytics and directly shows the impact of the most important step in our process – getting new potential customers to our clients’ sites.
Web Traffic and Lead Quality Rule (Source - MarketingCharts.com)
Final Word
Just keep in mind that SEO by itself is not a panacea, it is simply a tool in a larger process. Unless a complete online marketing process is being applied, SEO can do more damage than good. The last thing your company needs is a bunch of unqualified leads tying up salespeople and customer service folks. So, please choose your online marketing partners carefully and beware of emails and voicebroadcasts from people you never heard of that sound too good to be true. They probably are!
QR codes continue to be one of the best ways of bridging the printed and digital. Here at FetchLocalCustomers we have been getting more and more requests to create custom QR codes for clients for use in printed collateral.
Make Your Business Card Useful
Business cards continue to be the most popular way to transfer contact information. But, let’s face it, in the world of digital they do nothing but create needless data entry tasks. A QR code customized to deliver your contact information in one “snap” of a smartphone scanner and whooosh, your contact information is instantly added to your new networking buddy’s contact system.
Try it Yourself
More Uses Too Of Course
Recently Starbucks has been back on the bandwagon using QR codes to promote their new fall coffee line and their mobile app which has been allowing mobile phone payments for quite awhile now. Pizza king Papa John has been using QR codes on pizza boxes to tell the Papa John story and deepen the brand to customer relationship.
How Will You Use QR Codes?
The reasons and techniques for using QR codes to bridge the digital divide are only limited by your imagination. If you find yourself in need of a QR code strategy or just a custom QR code itself, use the contact information in the QR code above to reach out to us and get the FetchLocalCustomers team working for you!
So few business people, web designers and people in general understand how search engines such as Google work, I find myself constantly in the role of educator. Thankfully, I love to educate, teach and explain things. The problem I find is that when I try to explain the details of how a search engine such as Google decides who gets displayed at the top, I find that I lose people.
Lately, I’ve changed my approach to clearing up the search mystery. I’ve taken to telling the following story and I am pleased to report that everyone get’s it! I hope this helps clear things up for you!
Starbucks, Doctors and How Google Works
Imagine it’s 3:30 in the afternoon and you find yourself needing that little extra jolt to get you through your afternoon and the upcoming evening’s networking event.
You pull into your local Starbucks and seeing that there is a huge line at the drive-through you get out of your car and walk inside. Unfortunately, you realize that the line inside is also moving pretty slowly so you whip out your smart phone, check your mail, look at Facebook and STILL the line is not moving.
Enter Doctor #1
"I'm a Geriatric Doctor"
At this point you begin taking notice of your fellow patrons and think “well my sales coach is always preaching to me about the 3 foot rule” so you catch the eye of the gentleman in front of you in line and you say “So, when you aren’t standing in line growing old, what do you do for a living?”
He replies “I’m a Doctor.” For the next minute or two he tells you he’s a general practitioner who specializes in geriatrics (old folks), where his office is located and other tidbits. He seems credible, seems to know what he is talking about but quite frankly you have NO way of knowing if he really is a Doctor or not!
Search Lesson 1 – The Doctor’s story is analagous to a website. As a website owner you can tell any story you want on your website but Google, Yahoo and BING have no way to know from your site alone whether or not your story is true.
Enter Doctor #2
"Hey Dr. Jones..."
Thankfully the line is moving again! You are just 3 people away from getting that shot of afternoon motivation you originally came for! You continue to exchange pleasantries with the your new Doctor friend when all of the sudden a second person who actually looks like a Doctor comes in the door and greets your Doctor friend. They talk shop about a recent referral your Doctor friend made to Doctor #2.
Search Lesson #2 This second Doctor is analagous to a “relevant back link”. If you had any doubts as to whether or not your new friend really is a Doctor, having this independent verification has helped remove it. In the eyes of the search engines, having a totally separate, relevant site reference your website helps them to believe that your website is telling the truth.
Enter A Group of Senior Citizens
Hi Dr. Jones!
At this point your Doctor friend has paid and you’ve placed your order! As he turns to leave he hands you a business card and you say goodbye. You then notice that a shuttle bus from a local retirement complex has arrived and a half dozen older men and women shuffle in. Each of them says “Hi Doctor Jones” as the Doctor walks out the door. You have no idea who these people are, but now with 7 separate, independent verifications you have no doubts that the person you spoke to is really a Doctor.
Search Lesson #3 These 6 senior citizen are analagous to “back links” from non-relevant sites. Google, Yahoo and BING looks for these types of verifying links to help them understand whether or not your site is being truthful and to help them identify how popular your site is and how much of an authority it is.
1 Week Later
You find yourself talking to a friend who mentions that her Mom is looking for a new Doctor. It seems her old Doctor has retired and moved to Florida. She mentions that she is looking for a geriatric specialist. You tell her that you just met a really nice geriatric specialist named Dr. Jones and you pass along his contact information.
On-Site and Off-Site Authority
Hopefully my explanation above clears up just how the search engines work. You need to make sure that your website is designed to sell, has good content and has been fully optimized. If you get these “on-site factors” right you will tell the best story possible to the search engines. Most experts agree that getting this right will account for 10 -30% of your site’s ability to rank highly.
The remaining 70 -90% of your site’s ability to rank comes from consistently building your site’s “off-site” authority. The more consistently you gain “votes of confidence” the more likely you are to be the #1 ranking site for your most important buying phrases.
At FetchLocalCustomers we conduct research, craft content, build websites that are designed to sell and are fully optimized to tell your story in as a compelling fashion as possible to both your human visitors and the search engines. We can also work our magic with your existing site. In fact, nearly half our clients use sites that we did not design!
Our systematic and professional authority building program drives your website to the top of the search engines, consistently building authority and popularity using totally “white hat” methods.
The result is a flood of highly targeted and qualified new customers. That’s why we say that “We Do What Our Name Says”.
So pick up the phone and call 888-505-6162. Let’s talk about your particular situation and see if we can help you get the new customers that you deserve!
Call us at: 888.505.6162
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