In terms of ranking well on search engines, sometimes less is more.

Google used to base a large part of their ranking signals on update frequency. But that’s not necessarily the case anymore.

Now more than ever, the Google Gods place more value on QUALITY of content over QUANTITY.

This means one stellar piece of content has more search engine “oomph” than, say, four or five average-quality blog posts.

Once you know the reasons, it’s easy to see why. People will stay on a page with awesome content longer. They’re also more likely to share that content.

These are two things Google holds dear when determining rankings. Google wants to give users THE most relevant and engaging content on the web. And average time on a page and “share-ability” are very good metrics for that.

To accommodate Google’s former thirst for frequency, we used to create 15 blog posts a month for our SEO clients. We’d post this content on their blogs two or three times per week.

The posts themselves were well-written, but not earth-shaking. And they weren’t meant to be. Like I said, we were going with what would make clients rank the highest. And that involved creating new blog fodder constantly.

Until very recently, this strategy worked. The posts would rank well, and everything was peachy-keen.

Over the past eight months or so, however, we noticed our onslaught of “pretty good” blog posts were not ranking as well as they once were. Not even close.

Here’s why…

Google launched another algorithm update, as they’re so fond of doing. Emphasis on FREQUENCY went down; the importance of QUALITY went up.

Google now penalizes you for posting too many articles a month with too little content. For example, if you’re posting 20 articles a month—and they’re all 300 words or less, have obsessive amounts of keywords, and you’re not a news site—you’ll get dinged with a Spam/Keyword Stuffing penalty.

We’re always on our toes to keep up with Google’s constant algorithm changes. As soon as we saw what we WERE doing was no longer working, we immediately called an audible.

MYM COO Bryan Bauman and the entire SEO team got together to work on a new blog-content strategy for our upgraded SEO clients. We determined we needed to “beef up” the posts we were delivering to clients. This meant creating better, cornerstone content that is powerful, informative, interesting, sharable, and laced with all the SEO elements Google eats up.

To achieve this, we had to do three things:

1. Reduce the number of posts we provided from 15 to 4. Creating truly captivating content takes time; writing 15 A+ posts per month just isn’t possible.
2. Bring aboard some more high-caliber content writers. We hired a new, highly experienced content writer a few months ago. (And we’re looking to add two more in 2018.)
3. Set up one-on-one time with our content writers and upgraded SEO clients. We now have regular content-strategy calls with our upgraded SEO clients. We go over the clients’ goals for their blogs, see what products they want to push for that time frame, and how hard they want to hit particular keywords.

Here are a couple examples of the kind of meaty blog content we’re NOW producing:

1. How To Manage An Unhappy Home Remodeling Client
   
2. Does James Hardie Fiber Cement Cost More Than Vinyl Siding?

Read through these posts and think about what this type of content can do for your internet marketing.

It’s engaging. It’s shareable. It’s SEO-friendly. It ticks all the boxes for what a quality blog post is SUPPOSED to be.

Get more information about our SEO Services here. Then, get in touch with us if you want to take your blog—and search rankings—to new heights.

P.S. Don’t get me wrong… quantity IS still important for search rankings. Your website needs a steady stream of content to remain relevant in Google’s eyes. But that content must engage your audience. If it doesn’t, no one will read it… and your rankings will sink faster than a fishing boat made of Swiss cheese.

Remember when Google wasn’t the biggest wellspring for contractor leads?

Those were the days, huh?

Back then, lead sources like the Yellow Pages, direct mail, and print ads did a lot of the heavy lifting.

That meant you could launch a new website, and then kick back and call it good.

You didn’t need Google (or Bing or Yahoo, for that matter) to get the amount of business you needed to grow.

You didn’t have to worry about title tags, meta descriptions, backlinks, consistently churning out compelling content on your blog, and three dozen and one other things just for a fighting chance at making page one.

But those simpler times are long gone.

Fast-forward to October 31st, 2017.

Now, Google and her search-engine siblings are THE main source for remodeling and home improvement leads. The competition’s not even close.

Sure, other marketing methods—direct mail, print ads, etc.—still work. But for any contractor who cares to grow business, those methods need to SUPPLEMENT a strong SEO strategy… not substitute for it.

Don’t believe me?

The latest statistics show that well over 90% of homeowners use search engines to find local contractors. So if you’re not ranking well on search engines like Google, you’re toast.

“You.”

What’s even more frustrating is that Google’s algorithms get pickier and more complex with every update. And do you honestly have the knowledge and experience to handle these convoluted procedures yourself? If not, can you set aside the hundreds of hours it would take to become proficient at the many, many SEO tasks required to rank well?

Probably not… but MYM can.

I can unreservedly say that our SEO team is comprised of the baddest mammer jammers both sides of the Mississippi.

Seriously…

They eat, sleep, breathe, drink, and bathe in SEO.

It’s their sustenance.

It’s their lifeblood.

It’s also why MYM turns the average contractor from “Google Dud” to “Google Stud.”

Contractor Website Before MYM.

Contractor Website After MYM. (Results are typical.)

To achieve such transformations, our SEO team always has a ton of projects going to improve our client websites’ rankings, performance, and conversion success.

Let me share a few of those projects with you…

1.  Link Disavowing

Link disavowing is an ongoing project in which we identify and eliminate toxic backlinks that are directed at our clients’ websites.

Over the past two weeks, we identified and disavowed 470 toxic backlinks. The majority of these came from our newer clients, but we also had a few older clients that added to our total as well. All were scoped out and appropriately disavowed, and will not negatively affect search rankings going forward.

2.  Client Website Audits

We’re meticulously crawling—page by page, line by line—our clients’ websites to ensure there are no errors that could compromise SEO rankings. This past week, we found and fixed some errors, which were mostly in our clients’ blogs. To ensure these errors don’t happen going forward, we’ve completely revamped our blog-creation process. (More on that in a future email.)

3.  Correcting Google Analytics Errors

One of our new clients had their Google Analytics code incorrectly implemented on their website.

To the naked eye, it looked like the Google Analytics code was working correctly, as there was traffic showing in the Google Analytics dashboard. It turns out, however, that no page other than the homepage was tracking page views.

This is something that’s easy to miss, but we discovered and corrected it. The client’s Google Analytics is now showing the statistics for the WHOLE website. As a result, there was over 2,300% more traffic and over a 2,100% increase in unique visitors once we fixed the problem. While that’s not an actual increase in traffic, the true data is now being displayed (which is obviously a good thing!).

4.  Site Review Project

The Site Review Project encompasses both SEO and design. We track dozens of items for our clients’ websites, including meta descriptions, backlinks, social media links, desktop and mobile site speed, and more. This goes to show that you can’t just slap up a new website and call it good; it needs constant “TLC” to maintain and grow.

5.  A Bunch Of Other Stuff

In addition to the projects above, our SEO team is plugging away at a ton of other tasks to ensure our clients’ websites are kicking butt on Google. They’ve been so busy that we’ve had to bring on new people to help with development, blog posting, and client support. MYM SEO is running at full speed 24/7, and we need all hands on deck.

Looking For This Level Of Service From An SEO Company?

If you’re a contractor who wants to thrive in today’s market, SEO is no longer optional—it’s MANDATORY. And it can be a heck of an uphill battle if you’re not an expert.

We are currently looking for a few contractors who are serious about growing their businesses… and understand that SEO (and internet marketing as a whole) is the proverbial Yellow Brick Road to get there.

If that’s you, give us a call at (817) 416-4333. Or hook yourself up with one of our no-cost, no-strings Lead Generation Audits. We’ll take a deep dive into your internet marketing efforts and reveal what aspects are working… and what aspects need some serious work.

This little search engine called Google (heard of them?) just rolled out with a new feature that could be a massive boom to your business…

If you’re a Google Business client, you now have the option to let searchers text message you directly from the Google Search Results page.

The circled icon is where prospects can text you.

Having an online chat service on your website is already a powerful lead-generation tool. Now imagine how having a “chat” function on your results page can amplify the flow of your lead pipeline that much more.

Hot prospects—the ones who are looking to buy right now or in the very near future—will be all over this.

Here’s an example of what the messaging function looks like on the prospect’s end:

Once prospects hit “Message,” they can immediately text you.

As you can see in the picture, clicking the Message icon opens the prospect’s texting app. Prospects then text you what they’re looking for.

You can also set up the function to auto-respond with something like “Thanks for contacting ABC Contracting. How can we help?” once the prospect clicks the Message icon.

Pretty simple.

Incredibly effective.

A few important notes about Google Business’s messaging function…

1. You can’t get this feature unless you have a Google Business account and a Google Business Listing (like in that first picture above). When you’re an MYM client, we set up and manage your account for you.
2. Currently, the messaging feature can only be done when a customer searches for a business name from a mobile device.
3. You will need to provide a cell phone number that receives text messages; however, Google masks your number, so the customer you’re chatting will not see it. Instead, they see a generic phone number that forwards to your phone.
4. You can enable and disable messaging at any time. If you’re an MYM client, we can do it for you. (Naturally.)
5. Most Important: You want to be responsive to these chats. During your business hours, make sure you are replying promptly. These kinds of prospects aren’t messing around. They want to engage with someone right away.

If you want to remain on the cutting edge of online lead generation, you have to keep up with developments like this message function.

And if you’re anything less than an internet marketing expert, that’s all but impossible. There are just too many developments coming out each and every day to keep up with them all.

But MYM clients don’t have to worry about that. Our crack team of online-marketing experts handles all of our clients’ internet marketing needs FOR THEM.

The website, the lead generation, the search-engine optimization… the whole shebang.

We do the work; our clients enjoy the fruits of our labor.

If you’d like to know more, you can…

1. Call us at (817) 416-4333.
2. Visit our website and use the chat function in the lower-right corner.
3. Visit MYM’s Google results page on your phone and hit “Message” under our Google Business Listing.

P.S. Seriously, try out the messaging feature under our business listing. It’ll give you a sense of how easy yet powerful this little lead-generation tool is.

Save

Save

I subscribe to the email lists of some other marketers.

(Yep, ol’ Rich still likes learning new things from other experts.)

One of them sent me an email last week that described how he purchased a book from internet marketer Ray Higdon called Go For No.

I haven’t read the book, but the Amazon description says, “[Go For No] deals with rejection in network marketing, selling in network marketing, and creating the right mindset to be successful in network marketing.”

But that’s not the interesting part of the story.

When the book arrived at the house of the guy whose list I’m on, it came with a note that appeared to be scrawled in a child’s handwriting.

The note said:

“One day I asked my daddy for a cookie but my daddy didn’t let me have a cookie. So I asked for a cookie but he didn’t let me have a cookie. So I asked for a cookie and he didn’t let me have a cookie. So I asked for a cookie and he let me have a cookie. The end.”

This note made me think about you, John or Jane Q. Contractor, and how you close your leads.

Here’s why…

Many contractors give up on prospects way too fast. They figure if they don’t hear from a prospect after one follow-up call or two measly postcards, the prospect is not interested.

I presume the “child’s” note was written by Ray Higdon (the author of the book) to demonstrate that repetition is a crucial part of marketing.

If you don’t follow up—and follow up again and again and again—you’re losing out on a huge chunk of profits. (or cookies, if you’re a kid.)

This goes double for contractors.

Do you realize how much hem-hawing homeowners do when choosing a contractor?

Of course you do—you experience it every day.

• You experience it when prospects say “I’ll think about it and get back to you” after your sales meeting.
• You experience it when they give you their contact info at a home show but don’t set an appointment.
• You experience it when they call you for a “ballpark price” because they’re “currently price shopping.”

These types of prospects might seem like dead ends, but think about it this way: They have expressed interest in a home improvement project. And they discussed their project with YOU.

So…

Do. NOT. Give. Up.

Market to these prospects relentlessly. Get yourself in front of their faces as often as possible. It doesn’t cost as much as you think, and you’ll experience a great ROI for your efforts.

For proof, head over to this blog post where I break down the numbers on the surprisingly large sum of money you can dedicate to follow-up marketing… and the outstanding results you can experience when you follow through.