Filtering Posts by Topic: SEO

(Why We Now Have A 100-Client Limit)

Let me tell you the story of why, up until about a year-and-a-half ago, some contractors wanted to put a power drill to my head.

In 2011, MYM transitioned from a marketing training company to a marketing services company. And though our company radically changed, our mindset didn’t.

I’ll explain.

When you’re providing training, the number of customers you have doesn’t really matter. You can hold a training webinar with 700 people just as easily as you can with 7 people. We could handle a limitless number of customers with a bare-bones staff, which is what we did.

In what I can only crudely describe as a total “brain fart,” we retained that same philosophy when we shifted to service fulfillment.

Providing training and providing services? Turns out, they are two completely different animals. (Who would have thought?)

Long story short: When we began building websites, creating advertising, and doing SEO/PPC for contractors, we ended up taking on way more clients than we could handle. As a result, stuff sometimes fell through the cracks, things occasionally didn’t get done, and a few clients got angry.

Don’t get me wrong. Our service wasn’t Wal-Mart levels of terrible; we were about in line with the average marketing company. But if you’ve dealt with the average marketing company, you know that’s not saying much.

So in June of 2015, I put a complete halt on new-client acquisitions. Our executive team sat down over a three-week period to drill down not only how to fix our customer service issues, but become the paragon company of the marketing industry.

Here are the changes we decided on to make that happen:

1. Enforce a strict 100-client limit for SEO and PPC.
2. Part ways with clients who were not a good fit for our new company culture.
3. Overhaul our internal operations to ensure NOTHING ever slips through the cracks.
4.  Emphasize proactive high-touch personal service, total transparency, and client communication.
5. Update our service offerings to provide absolutely everything our clients need to dominate their market.

We spent about six months implementing these adjustments. And let me tell you, the difference has been unbelievable.

We haven’t just fixed our old issues—we’ve radically improved our operations across the board. Our client communication is phenomenal. Our service is extraordinary. Our reporting procedures are unrivaled. And the quality of our work has increased tenfold.

This isn’t me patting myself on the back. Ask any of our clients, and they’ll say the same thing.

Now that we’ve revamped our operations, we’re not accepting just “new clients”—we’re looking for long-term growth partners. That means companies that share our values and are committed to continual growth.

Specifically, we’re looking for companies that promise the following:

•  Upstanding, ethical business practices
•  Firm grasp of MYM principles and methods
•  Willing and able to grow your business
•  Use MYM for services offered, when possible
•  Responsive to MYM requests
•  Provide MYM with constructive feedback
•  Prompt payment without exception

If you fit the bill for an MYM client, here’s what WE promise YOU:

•  Maximum of 100 clients for SEO & PPC
•  Proactive communication
•  Automatic weekly detailed reports
• Transparency: If we ever mess up, we’ll let you know!
•  Prompt and fair dispute resolution
•  “Whatever it takes” attitude
•  200% effort to provide absolutely stellar work

Bottom Line: We insist on being the #1 marketing company, and we insist on making all of our clients #1 in their respective marketplaces. And the best way to do that is by working with a small, exclusive group of companies with the same starry-eyed dreams of long-term growth and success that we have.

With that in mind, we currently have a few spots open on our client list. If you’re the kind of company I described above, drop us a line to see if you and MYM would make a good fit.

Thanks for letting me air out some dirty MYM laundry,

Rich

P.S. One of the ways we’ve drastically improved is in our reporting. That’s why I always harp on you to take advantage of our free Lead Generation Audit. The level of detail in this report we provide you will blow your mind and show you things about your SEO, PPC, and website marketing that you have NO clue about.

In the next email, I’ll show you an example of the SEO report that’s included in the audit, so you can witness firsthand the insane amount of detail we provide for the sum total of $0.00

Save

Save

Continuing with the SEO theme I started, I want to share something that’s probably never occurred to you: Your competitors can (and some do) use your company’s name as one of their keywords.

I call this “Grand Theft Google” because your competitor is essentially trying to steal your brand and use it against you. What they do is optimize your company name as a keyword in an attempt to sneak above you on the results page when prospects search your specific name.

Sometimes Grand Theft Google works startlingly well. Here’s an example…

One of our clients had a rather nasty rivalry with a competitor. Before we took over their SEO, one of the first results when you Googled their name was a page on their competitor’s website that totally trashed our client.

This competitor’s page ranked highly under our client’s name for a few reasons. I won’t go into them all, but one was that the page was set up to look like a neutral comparison (though it was anything but) between our client and the competitor. The page format made Google think the content was quality information, and not a hit piece. Worked like a charm.

So yep, the one keyword you thought was 100% safe—your own company name—is actually one of the most vulnerable. And the tactic our client’s competitor used is just one of two dozen ways in which a competitor can hijack your brand on Google.

The question is, how do you stop it from happening?

One of the most effective methods I’ve seen for preventing Grand Theft Google is having online reviews on multiple third-party websites. Google loves linking to online reviews from different sites because it sees this content as objective information that its users will find valuable.

Online reviews carry a ton of SEO power for your brand, and it shows in your search results. As an example, here’s a look at Zen Window’s page-one Google results when you search their name:

As you can see, Google eats up third-party reviews like candy. Five out of the top eight spots are links to different review websites. Not only do all the shiny five-star ratings from review sites help build credibility with prospects, but they also prevent competitors from using Zen Windows’ name as a keyword to “steal” spots on the results page.

The Bottom Line: Being on multiple review websites is like having a can of Google-brand pepper spray in your back pocket. Anytime a competitor tries to steal your brand’s SEO mojo, your online reviews instantly halt the hijacking.

Want to know how your online reputation stacks up, and how big (or small) of an impact it has on your page-one results? Click here for a free Online Review Scan.  We’ll instantly generate a detailed report to tell you whether your online reputation is flourishing or floundering.

If it’s the latter, we can help. Our Online Reputation Management (ORM) controls and builds your online reputation to grow your business and make more profit. Here’s a sample of what MYM ORM provides:

• Monitors customer reviews across all 170+ review websites
• Converts happy customers into glowing, sales-producing online reviews
• Stops negative reviews BEFORE they happen 
• Turns positive reviews into automated SEO-friendly web and social media content 
• Provides regular comprehensive reporting regarding the “health” and status of your online reputation
  

We began offering ORM about a month ago, and it’s already becoming a hugely popular service among our clients. Join them in reaping the massive rewards of a robust online reputation… and preventing yourself from becoming the next victim of Grand Theft Google.

Have a great day!

-Rich

P.S. Resistance to SEO is common in contractors who operate in smaller service areas. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about a client in a small town who was dead-set against SEO… until we convinced him to try an SEO campaign with MYM a few months ago. Wait until you hear what he has to say now. Stay tuned.

“I operate in a small town. I don’t need SEO, PPC, or any other online marketing!”

I hear this all the time from contractors in small markets. They usually believe online marketing is a waste of time for two reasons:

1. They think that because they serve a small population, everyone already knows about their services.
2. They don’t believe their service area is large enough for online marketing to net them a profitable ROI.

If you’re in one of these two camps, I have a message for you:

You’re just plain wrong… period. If you’re not taking advantage of online marketing—whether you’re in Manhattan, NY or Podunk, RI—you are gradually losing your market share and slowly killing your business. End of story.

The truth is, 99.9% of people looking for a home improvement project do some internet sleuthing before they even consider picking up the phone. It doesn’t matter if they have already heard about you—they are NOT going to call you until they look you up online.

If your name is not plastered on the first pages of Google, Bing, and Yahoo for the best keywords, you’re making things ridiculously easy for your competitors. All they have to do is a little SEO to scoop up the glut of internet leads in your service area… the leads you keep telling yourself don’t exist.

Case in point…

We built Fortenberry Roofing’s website about a year ago. They operate in a town with a population of 6,274, so they convinced themselves they didn’t need much in the way of internet marketing or search engine optimization. They believed a nice website was all they needed. As a result, we had them on the most bare-bones SEO package we (used to) offer.

But a few months ago, the client did some digging on their competitors. Turns out, their competition was doing some online marketing and search engine optimization and raking in droves of high-quality leads as a result. (Who’da thunk?)

When Fortenberry found out about their competitor’s online success, they decided they needed a piece of the internet marketing pie—ASAP. They immediately dedicated more of their marketing budget to the internet, and then they contacted MYM to expand their online marketing efforts.

We got Fortenberry locked and loaded with our premier SEO package. Since then, Fortenberry’s online traffic has gone through the roof. Wrap your head around these results:

Since 6/25/16, Fortenberry has rocketed from the bottom of the Google Abyss to page one for nearly all of their keywords.

They shot from 29th to 1st for one highly competitive keyword… from 54th to 3rd for another… and from 60th to 1st for yet another. As I write this, 98% of Fortenberry’s keywords rank in the top 10, and the majority of their web traffic now comes from organic search.

A few months ago, Fortenberry insisted internet marketing and SEO wouldn’t work for them. Now they’re dominating Google and gobbling up internet leads left, right, up, down, and sideways.

And get this: We recently launched a PPC campaign for the client. Once we optimize their campaign, they’ll have the remaining piece of the puzzle in place for total online marketing domination.

Bottom Line: It doesn’t matter if you service a city where tumbleweeds outnumber people. If you aren’t marketing yourself online, you’re missing out a ton of business—period.

Just how much? Let us perform a free Lead Generation Audit, and we’ll determine if your online marketing (or lack thereof) is hindering your sales and growth. We’ll also dig deep into your website’s convertibility power to see if it’s turning LOOKERS into BUYERS.

Click here to get started with your Lead Generation Audit.

Thanks!

-Rich

P.S. Sugarcoating should be reserved for telling a seven-year-old his participation trophy is just as good as first place. When we audit your website, SEO, and PPC, we’re brutally honest and pull no punches. If your internet marketing efforts stink, we flat out tell you… then we show you how to fix it. You want the unfiltered truth about your online marketing—with ZERO fluff? Click here to get started.

Save

Save

It finally happened. Rumors, whispers, and speculation have been swirling for months about whether it would.

“Will it happen?”

“Won’t it happen?”

“When will it happen?”

“Is it going to freaking happen already?!!”

Then on Friday, July 29th, we finally saw it. That’s when we could officially say that, oh yeah, it’s happening: Facebook posts are now showing up in Google results for keyword searches.

One of our clients—Mainstream Home Improvement of Illinois—had one of their Facebook posts show up as the fourth (yes, fourth!) organic search result for one of their keywords.

If you’re not an SEO or social media person, you might think, “Big deal.”

Trust me. It is a big deal. Let me tell you why:

Until now, social media was a great tool for customer engagement. If you played your Facebook cards right, you could effectively advertise on the site, drum up more business, and increase customer engagement. You can still do all of those things. Except now, you can also use social media as one more path to the top of Google Mountain.

If you were in the “social media is a waste of time” camp before, this should make you abandon that sinking ship for good. Quality social media content doesn’t just get you more “likes” and comments anymore… as of a few weeks ago, it can seriously juice your SEO efforts.

A word of warning, though: Interesting, relevant content is still king on social media. Do NOT start creating a bunch of boring, keyword-stuffed posts no one wants to read—it will backfire big time. Google will hate you, and you’ll lose followers so fast that your Great Aunt Gertrude will have more Facebook fans.

To utilize social media as an effective SEO tool, you have to post targeted content that people want to read and share with others—same as you did before.  But now you will need to be a little more cognizant of your keywords when writing your awesome content.

What’s that? You don’t know how to create engaging social media content? No problem. I’ve written some blog posts that show you exactly what to do:

• I Know I Need To Post Something On Facebook… But What?
• Don’t Do This: Contractor Social Media Blunders
• Contractor Marketing Quick Tips: Social Media

Listen, becoming a Social Media Sensei is not mandatory for getting to page one on Google. All of the other SEO methods are still as effective as they were before.

Trust me, though—a ton of contractors are going to take advantage of Google’s new buddy-buddy relationship with social media websites. If you kick the tire on this, you’re giving your competitors free reign over a quick and easy way to lay claim to Google’s top spots.

Do you want to utilize social media for your SEO efforts—but don’t have the time, skill, or experience to do it yourself? We can do it for you.

Our SEO package includes an optional social media component. We maintain your social media accounts and regularly post engaging, SEO-friendly content to them. No need to worry about what you’re going to post or whether it will strike the right chord with your audience (and now Google)—we take care of it all. Visit our SEO page and scroll down to the “Monthly Pricing” section for more details.

Happy Marketing!

-Rich

P.S. While we’re on the subject of social media, this post I wrote a few months ago shows you an easy and free way to drum up a ton of business on Facebook. To my knowledge, no contractors are doing this (probably because they’ve never even known this method of marketing was possible). By using the tactic that I outline in my post, you’ll essentially have a monopoly on this lucrative hidden corner of the market. Enjoy!

Save

Save