Filtering Posts by Category: Don’t Do This

Ever notice how there are approximately 129,347 different diets, programs, pills, products, and scams for weight loss?

Heck, you probably have someone on your Facebook friend list who’s become a “representative” for some multi-level-marketing company and the latest fat-loss fad product (stomach wraps, magical diet pills, etc.) they’re hocking.

Even though 99.9% of these flash-in-the-pan remedies don’t work, people buy ‘em up by the millions. The prospect of a getting a killer beach bod while exerting zero effort is just too tempting to pass up.

Deep down, though, everyone knows—but won’t admit to themselves—that there’s really just one simple three-step process to losing weight:

1. Lay off the Big Macs.
2. Hop on the treadmill.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you get the result you want.

This method is GUARANTEED to work, but it takes time and energy. That’s why everyone always flocks to the latest bogus “solution” that promises instant results.

It’s the same with SEO.

Contractors don’t want to put forth the required time and effort to get good results. So they fall for all the gurus promising magic solutions that launch your site to the top of Google Mountain with no effort or time.

In the back of your mind, though, you know it’s a load of crap.

But in case you don’t, I present 3 SEO “Magic Pills” that are actually poison for your rankings:

Magic Pill #1: Keyword Stuffing

Shoving a bunch of keywords and geographic locations on a webpage might get you immediate results, but your ranking will gradually decrease as Google realizes that no one likes your website.

Example: “We are expert replacement window installers for Dallas TX, Fort Worth TX, Richardson TX, Mesquite TX, Garland TX, Plano TX, Irving TX, Balch Springs TX, and Farmers Branch TX.”

Would you ever say this to a prospect face to face? No. They’d never buy from you.

It’s the same with your internet prospects. If your website reads like it was written by Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, people will click away faster than you can say “Captain Jean-Luc Picard.” As a result, your rankings will sink at warp speed.

Bottom Line: Prospects who visit your website are humans, too. So don’t write for Google; write for PEOPLE (while tossing in the occasional keyword in logical places).

Magic Pill #2: Spammy Links

Having a ton of outside sources linking to your website SOUNDS like a great SEO-boosting strategy. But it only works if the places linked to your website are worth a dang.

Read the comment section of this webpage for an example of links Google hates. This is called “forum spam,” and Google will destroy you if they catch you doing it.

For a comprehensive list of link spam, click here.

Bottom Line: Quality links to your website = good. Spammy links to your website = bad. REALLY BAD.

Magic Pill #3: Emphasizing Quantity Over Quality

Having 400 blog posts on your website is useless if they are poorly written, boring, thin on content, and irrelevant to your market.

If you spend less time on your blog posts than it takes to nuke a Hot Pocket, you’re who I’m talking about. If you want a smorgasbord of examples, Google just about any type of service in your town. You’ll see a ton of keyword-stuffed blog posts with wafer-thin content.

Bottom Line: Google will hurt your rankings something good if they discover your webpage content is awful. (And Google WILL discover it sooner rather than later.)

To sum all of this SEO talk up:

To achieve true SEO success, you have to do things the RIGHT way.

There is no “magic pill” that takes you to page one instantly. If someone tells you otherwise, remember all of the worthless weight-loss products that deliver ZERO results.

The truth is that it takes at least 6 to 9 months to start seeing quality SEO results.

When MYM is in charge of your SEO, that’s about the amount of time it’s going to take. We do NOT promise you overnight SEO success. What we do promise is that we’ll use ALL of the right methods to get you to number one.

This means:

• writing engaging content.
• creating relevant back links (and Disavowing the bad ones!)
• inserting the right keywords in the right places. “nerd coding” your website to take advantage of Google’s latest algorithms
• ensuring your business listings are consistent, (and that duplicate listings are suprressed!)
• optimizing your Google My Business page and other social media details are optimized
• marking your website up with “schema” (a special language that Google reads on how to show your website in search results to get more traffic.)
• auditing your website once per month to catch any broken links, broken pages, or error codes in your site
• creating high quality service area landing pages so that you can rank for cities other than where your office is located
• and so. so. much. more. (Here’s a mostly complete list of the things we do for our SEO Clients).

Sure, this takes time. But it’s the ONLY way to get the results you want.

The good news is that it takes no effort on your end—kick back and let us handle the hard work for you.

Check out more details about MYM’s Search Engine Optimization.

P.S. For some amazing client SEO success stories, click here, here, here, here, and here.

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On any given work day, you and your staff have 896 simultaneous tasks… and use 896 different programs to complete them.

You’ve got a program for scheduling jobs, a program for bookkeeping, a program for generating leads, a program for email blasts, a program for… well, you get the picture.

Using programs in this piecemeal fashion results in a business that runs as inefficiently as a 1982 DeLorean. Not only that, but you need six extra arms to handle all of the things you’re doing at once—a phenomenon I call “octopussing.”

If you’re “octopussing” at work, I have foolproof four-step method for solving it:

1. Stop.
2. Breathe.
3. Relax.
4. Get MarketSharp.

MarketSharp is contractor-specific Customer Relationship Management software that is a legitimate cure-all for companies that spread themselves wafer thin.

That’s not me putting the old marketing spit-shine on a product. MarketSharp is known as “Business In A Box” because that’s literally what it is.

From streamlining your business operations to improving efficiency to landing more sales, MarketSharp does it all—and then some.

Listen to what these contractors say about the boundless ways MarketSharp can drastically improve your business:

1.    Lead Generation

“Leads, as you know, are very hard to get these days, and advertising is expensive. I have heard that some of the best leads are existing customers that are already familiar with your work and customer service. So, the first week in January, I decided to send out a letter to some of our customers. I used one of the MarketSharp templates (which made it so easy).

I sent out about 500 letters, and I would guess we have had at least 20-25 customers call in. This one mailing from MarketSharp has been responsible for almost all of our sales in January!”

–Tammy Rogers, NC Siding and Windows, Inc.

2. Office Efficiency

“Thank God for MarketSharp. If we did not have this program, our leads and customers would be all over the place. MarketSharp allows us to keep track of almost everything in one program. WE LOVE YOU!”

–Julia Falke, 21st Century Remodeling

3. Improved Productivity

“In the first two weeks, we cut our proposal processing time by 30%!”

 –Alberta Leone, Franzoso Contracting

“If we did not have MarketSharp, we would need at least 2 more people in the office working with me.”

–Katlyn Gottbeheat, Gugger Home Improvement

4. Reporting
 
“Because of the reporting features of MS I can tell for sure which advertising is working and provides good return on my investment, and which sales people are actually worth giving my valuable leads to. That alone is worth the price of MS. We can now strategically and systematically solicit our past customers for repeat and referral business.”

–Riley Rogers, 3-D Seamless Siding Inc.

5. Incredible Growth

“We have only been using MarketSharp for 2 months, and it has helped our business tremendously in that short period of time. Going into the second month our sales have almost tripled. We have yet to unleash the full power of this program, and are in the process of hiring 3 more sales people, and a part-time office assistant. MarketSharp has really gotten us off the ground quickly, and we expect to quadruple our sales from last year.”

–Rick Sepulveda, Dr. Roof

—

Now you get the whole “Business In A Box” thing.

No more need to use 896 different programs for 896 different tasks. No more need to spread yourself thinner than a McDonald’s beef patty. No more need to “octopus” while at work.

Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? Then slap yourself and wake up—MarketSharp is a glorious reality.

Click on MYM’s MarketSharp webpage to discover a dozen other ways MarketSharp CRM can radically improve your business—both operationally and financially.

And if you’re an MYM client new to MarketSharp, the MarketSharp team will cut you a huge exclusive discount (they’re nice like that). Click on our MarketSharp page for the details.

Happy Marketing!

P.S. There’s a reason I’m doing the “heavy pitch” for MarketSharp: It’s the real deal. Period.

MYM doesn’t get a dime from this; I inform MYM readers and clients about any product that I believe will help them. And I am a passionate believer in the overwhelmingly positive effects MarketSharp can have on your business.

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You’d Never Tolerate A Terrible Salesperson.
So Why Put Up With An Underperforming Website?

Don’t Do This: Contractor Websites

By Rich Harshaw

Imagine for a moment you were in the market to hire a new salesperson.

After checking around, you luck out and hear about a guy who’s been in remodeling sales for fifteen years. He recently moved here because his wife got a promotion at her job, and he’s looking to get back to work. He comes in for an interview and says all the right things; he looks the part; he clearly knows the industry. You call his former employer and get a good report—this guy knows how to close. You negotiate a modest base salary and generous commission package and he signs on. You put him through your closing methodology training and he quickly absorbs everything.

In other words, everything is perfect.

After a few weeks of training and shadowing your top producer, you hand him ten home improvement leads… and he comes back with one sale. Your company’s historic closing ratio is 32% first-call close, and 40% after reeling in stragglers.

Yikes.
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When It Comes To Search Engine Optimization,
Shortcuts Won’t Just Hurt You, They’ll Bury You Alive.

Google Hates & Punishes Cheaters, Tricksters, & Rule Benders.

Written by Rich Harshaw.

Ever notice how there are about 17,000 different devices, diets, programs, pills, gurus, and scams to help people lose weight?

Actually, there are 209,719 ways to lose weight, at least according to a quick search for “weight loss” on Amazon.com. Here are some of the top choices:

I gotta admit, the McDavid 491 Waist Trimmer does look pretty sweet. The guy in the picture really needs it.

Here’s the funny thing. Everybody knows that the “secret” to weight loss is two-fold: quit double-fisting cheeseburgers, and get your lazy butt off the couch. That’s pretty much it. There is no secret. There is no device needed. You just have to do what you know you need to do.

When it comes to SEO, the situation isn’t much different. There are thousands of gurus promising to administer magic pills that will suddenly catapult your home improvement website to the top of the search rankings with no work, no effort… and most importantly—no waiting!
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