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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The Holidays are traditionally when remodeling business slows down to nearly a halt.  What if I told you that it doesn’t have to be that way? That there’s a completely legitimate and easy way to ensure that you’re boosting remodeling business leads during the holiday season?

First you’d tell me I was full of it.  That’s cool. I get it.

Here’s where I prove it to you.

Something really convenient about searching for a company on Google is the business listing function:

You get all the info you need—even the business’s busiest hours—in one little box.

The only thing about this feature that annoys me (and everybody else) is when that message pops up next to their hours of operations saying, “The holiday may affect business hours.”

You know, this one:

Believe it or not, this little message does discourage some people from contacting you. When people see it, they think either…

1. “Ugh, I don’t have time to whip out my phone and actually call the dang place to see if they’re open.” (person goes back to using said phone to play Candy Crush)

2. “Meh, I’ll wait until after the holiday.” (person completely forgets about you three seconds later and never contacts you)

Here’s the thing, though: This prospect-deterring message is not Google’s fault.

Google can’t predict if you’re vacationing in Sandals Jamaica on Memorial Day weekend or closing shop early on New Year’s Eve to party like it’s 1999. So they hedge their bets by telling their users you may or may not be open on any given holiday.

That’s why it’s a good idea to update your hours on Google, your website, and business listing sites before a major holiday.

When you inform Google of your holiday hours, they update your business listing with this more prospect-inviting message:

BOOM—the holiday hours are right there, so prospects don’t have to do any investigating to find out if you’re open. (And the easier you make things on a prospect, the better.)

After you update your holiday hours with Google, make sure to do the same on business listing websites you use. Google uses business listing sites as location signals. If your info is the same across all of the sites, Google gives your local SEO a healthy lift.

Lastly, when updating your holiday hours on business listing sites, it’s also a great idea to communicate any holiday specials you have going on.

Example:

People landing on this page for Leafless in Seattle, a Master Shield gutter installation company,  are already interested in the company’s services. That special offer gives prospects even more reason to visit the company’s website (everyone loves a good holiday sale… Black Friday, anyone?).

We recently updated our SEO clients’ holiday hours and specials across 70+ business listing websites. Because at MYM, we’re all about generating leads for our clients and boosting their remodeling leads  24/7, 365 days a year. No exceptions.

If you’re the same, advertise those holiday hours and specials online ASAP. It’s insanely easy, and doing so can provide a nice little pick-me-up in business during the holiday dog days.

P.S. If you want to find out more about our SEO services, you’ll want to give this link here a click. And if you’d like to know how well your current SEO efforts are working (or not working), take advantage of our free Lead Generation Audit. We’ll expose all the hidden cracks in your SEO plan that are leaking precious cash.

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If you build it, they will come.

That’s the memorable line from the classic movie Field of Dreams.

If you never got around to seeing it, here’s the three-sentence summary:

A man named Ray hears a voice tell him, “If you build it, they will come.”

Ray builds a baseball field instead of planting corn on his farm.

Everything turns out magical.

The movie has good messages… but “if you build it, they will come” is terrible business advice. Building something guarantees exactly NOTHING.

The only way prospects come to a website is the effective use of PPC and SEO.

Do you know a business owner who thinks that building a website is enough and that traffic will just magically appear?

Help them (and yourself, too).

Refer them to MYM.

And then if they sign-up with MYM, as a thank I will give you 3 months of our SEO Premium Service FREE.

That’s a $3,750 value.

You can email me and type “I have a referral for you. Please give me a call” and give us the best number to reach you.

A member of my team will call and I promise this will take a minuscule amount of your time… especially when you consider the value of the free SEO Premium service.

How do you measure a website’s success?

Traffic? Search engine rankings? Compliments from friends and family on how great it looks?

Wrong. Wrong. And really wrong.

The one true measure of a website’s success is QUALITY LEADS.

Period. End of story. Finito.

It’s like the one time a remodeler I call “Randy” called me sounding down in the dumps.

Here was the basic conversation:

Randy: My new website is first on Google and my traffic is higher than ever.
Me: So why are you calling me?
Randy: My old website never came up in search results, but it pulled in 5 to 10 leads a month. My new website is getting practically ZERO.
Me (looking at his website): That’s not surprising. How much did you spend on this new site?
Randy: $17,000 for the site and one year of SEO services.
Me: Can you get your money back?
Randy: (silence; possibly tears)

Here’s the deal…

SEO, PPC, and all of that other stuff are required to survive and thrive in the Wild West that is the World Wide Web.

But those things just bring the horses to water. It’s your website’s job to make ’em drink (i.e., get them to contact you).

Unfortunately, 99% of internet marketing companies focus solely on slick design and SEO. They don’t actually do what’s needed to make their clients’ websites CONVERT.

Here are some of the more common blunders I see when it comes to the average contractor’s website…

Blunder: Prioritizing Google Over People

Sure, optimizing your website for search engines is crucial. Necessary, in fact.

But most internet marketing companies concentrate on creating content that is so SEO friendly that they forget living, breathing human beings are the ones actually reading it.

So when a prospect reads the keyword-stuffed word salad on your website, they can’t click away fast enough.

For example, here was the main headline of Randy’s new website: “Home Windows Installed By Experts In Needham, Cape Cod, Newtonville, Cambridge, Plymouth, and Throughout South Shore, North Shore, and Eastern Massachusetts.”

Randy, if you’re reading this, this photo sums up my reaction to your headline:

Sorry, my friend.

Seriously, though, would you ever say the claptrap in the headline to a prospect in person? They’d think you’re an idiot and run as far away from you as possible.

It’s the same when the prospect sees it on your website. They read this garbage and instantly click away to find a contractor whose website CAN answer the question, “Why should I pick THIS company instead of all the others?”

And when that prospect finds someone answers the question, guess who they’re gonna call?

Hint: NOT the guy who says, “Home Windows Installed By Experts In Needham, Cape Cod, Newtonville, Cambridge, Plymouth, and Throughout South Shore, North Shore, and Eastern Massachusetts.”

Blunder: The Bait And Pounce

Stuffing your website with buttons, forms, and offers (“Get A Price,” “Visit Our Showroom,” “View Our Special Offers,” etc.) is what I call the “bait and pounce.” You give the prospect something to fill out, and then you pounce and sell.

Randy’s website had six—SIX!—of these bait-and-pouncers on his homepage. No wonder his shiny new website wasn’t generating leads.

Trust me: The bait and pounce is not a good way to sell in 2016.

I mean, let’s be honest… why would Joe Blow give you his precious contact info before he knows who you are, how you can help him, and what he can expect?

He won’t.

But if your website takes the time to explain who you are, why you’re better, and how you can help (in powerful, persuasive language), you build trust. Mr. Joseph Steven Blow will then naturally come to his own conclusion that he should call you.

And, yes, having a “Get A Quote” form on your site is okay. Just make sure it’s not the MAIN/ONLY thing prospects see when they first click on your website.

Bottom Line

Website traffic, search engine rankings, PPC impressions… all of those things are important to your website.

But if you truly want to measure your site’s success?
Look at how many high-quality leads it’s generating.

Because leading a horse to water is pointless if you can’t make him drink.

P.S. Tomorrow I’ll spill the nine secrets to effective billboard advertising. You might already know a couple, but I guarantee a few surprises… especially number 5. Stay tuned.

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