Atlanta Contractors – How to Get Local Customers ONLINE

Posted by Jan at 9:31 pm

You’re busy – we get that, that’s why we made it short and to the point!

This is a short tutorial on how YOU can get local customers online for your contracting business, however if you find you want the leads without the hassle- we’ll be glad to help! Call us 678 318 7515. Prices for this local program are only $125 per month!

How to get local paying customers online

This is a short tutorial on how to get actual paying clients from leads generated online.
Online Lead generation is perfect for all kinds of contractors like: home remodeling, tree services, landscaping, sales, pool , painters, concrete , hauling, HVAC, electricians, plumbers, flooring, carpets, tile, masonry,more

Lets say you are a remodeling contractor and you want to get customers to call YOU
FYI…. “remodeling contractor Atlanta” gets  720 searches per month

Here is how you get real local customers online – it all starts by being on the FIRST Page of Google (even if you don’t have a website) and them giving them a compelling reason to call YOU

BEFORE you read any further – I want you to do one thing:
Open another tab, go to Google and type in:
“yourindustry” Contractors Atlanta
example: remodeling contractors atlanta or plumbing contractors atlanta

If your website is NOT on THIS page
then TAKE A LOOK at the COMPETITORS WHO ARE GETTING YOUR CUSTOMERS!

Ready for this to change?

How to get real paying customers online

Its deceptively simple and basically it boils down to 3 things:

1.Getting found on Google
2.Having relevant back links (this has to do with getting found on Google)
3.Giving them a reason to Call YOU instead of your competitors. hint: video is better

Getting found on Google
1. Your business must have a website, or Google local pages page that is relevant to the search
(lets say “remodeling contractor Atlanta”)
Ok, great, you have that – your website is all about Remodeling Contractors in Atlanta
- so why isn’t it showing up? Most likely due to too few backlinks

Relevant back links
2. Your website must have backlinks , or links from other RELEVANT sites linking to it.
Hmmmm, maybe your site doesn’t have any back links, or the ones you have come from sites that have nothing to do with your business topic.
If you website has no system for getting relevant backlinks – then you might as well forget about getting any traffic from Google. Yes, it’s boring and not sexy, but getting links back to your site is critical to getting on the first page of Google.

A compelling reason to Call YOU
3. It really helps to have social “proof” like testimonials and customer reviews
Testimonials are critical for turning cold web browsers into hot leads begging to get on your schedule.
Do you want to know what really engages potential customers? – VIDEO!

There you have it!
3 simple steps to getting real paying local customers online!

(WANT PROOF?  Open another tab, go to Google and type in:  remodel Baltimore    ….This is one of our clients videos – still on page one after 6 months!)

….this is what the page looked like 2 months ago!

Here is another example: Done Jan 1 2012 where we have TWO spots on page one!

What about dude ranches? Yep we got them on page one too!

Want it DONE FOR YOU at an incredible price?

We are offering a simple and affordable GET CUSTOMERS ONLINE monthly service for a limited number of Local Atlanta Contractors!

YES we LIMIT the number of local contractors we work with for each specific industry!

$125 a month

What does $125 a month get you?

Each month we provide:

• 30 REAL and RELEVANT backlinks to your website or Google places page each month

• Each month we create and add a new video or video testimonial to your YouTube channel.

Video testimonials turn your real written testimonials into a POWERFUL LEAD GENERATING SALES MACHINES. You can use these on your website, you tube channel or even on your Google places page. Informational videos show your expertise and services – quickly  and powerfully.

BONUS: When you sign up for our 6 month plan we’ll create a customized YouTube channel

Contact us today at 678 318 7515 or visit us www.seoservicesatlanta.com

Local Atlanta Businesses Get Economic Boost in 2011

Posted by Jan at 7:54 am

Local search marketing gives businesses a much needed boost n 2011

Get FOUND!

Local Maps Placement, Mobile search Visibility, Video marketing and getting more LOCAL customers! Did you know that: 90% of online commercial searches result in local offline purchases and 61% of all local searches result in a transaction?

Your next customer is searching for you ONLINE. Get FOUND and make MONEY for less than $5 a day! Call 678 318 7515

Hyper Local Search results get customers for local business

Posted by Jan at 4:12 am

Hyper Local Search

Local business get boost from online customer search

Local Atlanta businesses that are on the first page of Google get more calls, and make more sales.

Atlanta Local search marketing

Online SEO and Local visibility translates into more customer buying power. By using Online search, local marketing, local SEO Atlanta local businesses gets much needed economic boost

Boost local sales 400%

Posted by Jan at 3:55 am

Atlanta search engine optimization and local marketing specialists

Using video online can increase customer engagement, drive traffic and boost online and offline sales. If you want more customers why not let your product tell the story?

Still wonder if your local customers are looking online?

According to Google 73% of all searches are related to local content in one way or another. While internet purchases are rising, according to MIT Technology Review, for every dollar spent on the internet, five are spent offline on products and services that were influenced by online research. ComScore, the monster of all metrics for the internet states that 43% of internet users are searching for local merchants when considering making a purchase.

Local online visibility

A strategy for getting new customers to buy locally

Without a strategy to intercept and engae your local searchers, your business is loosing ut on some very lucrative customers. These days NO business can afford to ignore ready to buy shoppers  – so why is your business?

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Atlanta Gets Local Customers Shopping!

Posted by Jan at 2:59 am

Can local shoppers find your business?

Local customers are shopping, but are they finding your store?

Over and over I talk to local businesses who are still convinced that their customers are not looking online for their particular products or services. The biggest problem I see with this is the fact that these same business owners have no way of knowing how much business they are actually losing by not being visible online.

Missing customers are invisible

If 500 customers a month find your competitors online you will never know they are being siphoned off systematically week after week after week. Ironically, most small business service providers only need 3 to 5 new customers every week to really turn their profit margins around. So you would think the possibility of capturing even 20 new eyeballs a month would be exciting to them. for many local businesses the opportunity to talk to customers, while they’re in their decision-making process is the basis for their business. So why have local business owners have been slow to use the Internet appropriately to market their business?

Local businesses are tired of being ripped off

Unfortunately, many have been ripped off and scam into buying expensive websites that don’t generate any money for them or by buying ads or listings and directories that are equally ineffective. It’s understandable that trying to decide which programs are important to follow through with and which Internet marketing or advertising programs are waste of time and money.

Adwords, is just one example of how local businesses can spend a fortune while not making a cent. In certain markets the competition is so stiff that local business owners have no chance of capturing good leads from adwords without spending anywhere from $10-$25 a click. But don’t give up because your local customers really are looking for you online

91% of U.S. internet users do comparison shopping and research online and of that group 51% explicitly characterize themselves as “shop online, purchase offline”

Local businesses that succeed

Local businesses that succeed capitalize on what they do best – communicate personally and professionally with their customers. E-Mail, blogs, articles and videos are all simple and effective ways to enhance your ability to communicate with local customers. Simple, search engine optimization can help these parcels of information show up in the places where your customers are searching for information. It is becoming less and less important that your website show up on the first page of Google, and more important that your information shows up there. Regardless of where it’s published- good information that consumers want to read can lead people back to your store, website or encourage them to call you directly.

Local businesses that use these strategies are more successful because they are reaching customers where and when they are searching.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Local Economic Recovery – Now?

Posted by Jan at 2:59 am

Waiting for a better economy could be killing your business

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Are you tired of waiting for the economic recovery to hit your local business?

Believe it or not there are businesses that are booming in today’s economic climate. These are the businesses that know how to get in front of local customers and provide the services and products they want. With more searches, being done online and through mobile devices like phones and smartphones. It’s more important than ever to make sure your business can be found when customers are looking for it.

Local customers, regardless of their age, are getting more tech savvy. not only did a search online, but they use apps and programs that work run online to find local services with in 5 miles of their home or where ever they might be at the time they want to look.

Get Found or be invisible

Nearly all consumers (97 percent) now use online media when researching products or services in their local area, according to BIA/Kelsey’s (www.bia.com and www.kelseygroup.com)

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Local Politics and online video

Posted by Jan at 2:46 am

Local Politics and video communication

Ga State Representative Karla Drenner talks to people with video series

Video help local politicians connect with constituents

Karla Drenner, Ga state representative for district 6 uses videos to connect with constituents.

Are you are leader or follower?

More local businesses and politicians can benefit from connecting face to face with the people the serve. Will your business be the leader of follower of this new trend?

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

10 Fundamentals of SEO – How to Block and Track

Posted by Jan at 9:20 pm

There is a jugle out there regarding local SEO and and how to make sure that you have everything you need to be able to get listed in Googles 7-pack Map.

Here is a good articles with things you need to know if you want to try it yourself.

by David Mihm

Don’t waste money on advertising – Good Local Marketing Advice

Posted by Jan at 3:54 pm

Invest in marketing

As you develop your 2010 budgets, what are your plans regarding your
marketing and advertising…and why?

So often we talk with business owners who have spent thousands of
dollars on yellow pages, banner ads, radio, newspapers and other
forms of advertising. In most cases, they bought the ad because the
sales person was very convincing and it sounded like a good idea at
the time. However, they often feel like they never saw a return on their
investment and are then hesitant to try other methods of advertising.
Which is good!

What?

Yes, it’s true. For most small and medium sized businesses, advertising
is not very effective.  Of course, there are exceptions, but in most cases,
developing smart marketing campaigns is the way to go for smaller
companies.  Large companies can advertise because they have the budgets
to buy the frequency and combinations to reach huge audiences. For example,
Coca-Cola advertises on billboards, radio, tv, in magazines & newspapers, etc.
Obviously, advertising works for them: they are the most recognized brand in
the world.

With advertising, it is very difficult to calculate specifically what is generating
new revenues for you. However, with marketing you can easily see what’s
working, what isn’t and quickly make changes to be more effective.

Marketing includes your email campaigns, direct mail (postcards and letters),
coupons, and even your SEO and social media campaigns.  Marketing allows
you to segment your audience so that different types of prospects receive
messages that will be informative, interesting, and relevant to them. You can
also include a ‘call to action’ which will help you to see how effective a particular
campaign is.  If you’re getting ho-hum results, it’s not very difficult or expensive
to change the message or the call to action.

So as you put your budgets together for next year, ask yourself if you will be
spending your money on advertising or investing it in marketing?

*****

Please keep The Surfside Group (TSG) in mind whenever you or your Clients
want to GROW a business!

TSG has been in the business of growing Client’s companies since 1997. The
focus of our practice is to identify, recommend and implement the proven,
“best practices” strategies, systems and solutions, that meet each Client’s
unique needs.

Our model also allows Clients to access the experience and expertise of our
business partners, put it to work for their venture, and get it right the first
time. This approach accelerates growth, avoids costly mistakes, lessens risk
for investors and increases the overall likelihood of your success!

Call us today and arrange an initial conversation as to how The Surfside Group
can help your organization to sell more, market better and GROW!

Here’s to your success!

Suzanne Foley

you can visit them at www.SurfsideGroup.com

Local Internet Marketing Research – Insider Google data released

Posted by Jan at 11:56 pm

Did you think your websites rank determined your local listing status?

Think again!

Tom Critchlow has done a great job of researching and distilling information about what makes local businesses rank with in the coveted Google 7 pack. Even if you aren’t an SEO junkie it is important information to know because it shows just how critical citations, reviews and proximity can be.

Getting the top spot in Google is always changing and shifting as they change and tweek thier algorithms. So research like this is invaluable in helping local search marketers understand the changes and hopefully – what is coming down the pike for Atlanta local SEO. The information shows that it isn’t just one thing like citations, review or tags, it seems tobe a combination of factors making each aspect  important. It might seem boring to the average business person but it gets alot more interesting when you reaslize that the difference means more calls, clients and sales to your local business!

Here is part of the article: to read the entire thing – click on his name below.

Google Local Research Data Released For Free

By: Tom Critchlow

Being a good SEO involves research. You need to be constantly pushing the envelope on the data that you gather, the insights that you gain and what recommendations you provide in terms of what works and what doesn’t.

What’s In The Data?

The link to the Google Docs file is here in case that’s easier for people.

It’s always nice to try and quantify exactly how important different factors are and do some analysis on which hypothesis are actually correct and which are just learned from the crowd and generally accepted as true.

I’ve got no ground-breaking insights in this post, but by analysing this data and other data I have come to the following conclusions:

1) – The raw number of reviews is not the only ranking factor.

We can see this by comparing for example the Renaissance Seattle Hotel and the Hilton Seattle Hotel – the Renaissance has WAY more reviews but still doesn’t rank.

2) – The raw number of citations is not the only ranking factor.

We can see this because the Grand Hyatt Seattle Hotel has an obscene number of citations compared to any other hotel in Seattle.

3) – The combined number of citations and reviews is not the only ranking factor

Although we’re getting warmer here (the sum column, E) this isn’t the whole story. If we look at the average sum of the top 7 ranking hotels we see that there are 3 hotels that don’t rank which have a higher sum than average – Renaissance, Grand Hyatt and the Crowne Plaza.

4) – Distance to centre (of Seattle) seems to play some part in the rankings

Looking at the data we see that the Edgewater Hotel has the highest combined total with many many reviews and a large number of citations but doesn’t rank number 1. Perhaps this is something to do with the fact that it’s a lot further out from the centre of Seattle than the other hotels – 1.3 miles to be precise, almost double the next furthest out ranking hotel at 0.7 miles (the Best Western).

5) Star ratings could well play a part in the rankings

Typically people have assumed that the raw number of reviews is more important than the sentiment of those reviews. However, this may not be true. Take a look at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, a very low combined reviews and citations score but 4.5/5 stars in total of the reviews.

6) Quality of citation almost certainly plays a part

Firstly, assuming it didn’t – citation spam would be big business! But digging into the data I see that the best western has a very low combined score but has citations from sites such as the New York Times. Same again with the Hilton, which has some very strong citations from authority sites. This suggests to me that quality of citation is important, or perhaps the number of citation root domains? (like with links, perhaps multiple citations from one domain don’t count so much…)

Note 1

There is still speculation that the ‘regular’ SEO factors come into play such as pagerank or strength of domain. I’m not convinced this is a factor. After all, Google Local Listings are attached to an business name (and address/phone number), not a URL. Sometimes there isn’t even a URL for Google to attach to the listing. This makes me think that regular on-page SEO factors don’t carry that much weight. I’d like to hear other’s thoughts on this though?

Note 2

It’s worth noting that in the data you might like to exclude the Crowne Plaza Hotel from your data analysis – when gathering the data I see that it’s missing an image which may imply a wider issue about data perhaps? Not sure what a missing image means but I doubt it’s good news for the Crowne Plaza. This is backed up by the fact that it by rights (i.e. combined citations and reviews score) it should rank, but it doesn’t

Contained in the full spreadsheet is Google Local data for a particular search phrase “Hotels in Seattle”. The link to the Google Docs file is here in case that’s easier for people.

• Summary – The summary information which contains the hotels which rank for the phrase. The top 7 are the ones that I see in the Google Local one-box. The remaining 13 are the ones which rank once you click on the map to explore Google Local rankings. The data contained includes the number of reviews, the number of citations and the distance to the centre of Seattle for each hotel.
• Sheet 1-20 – These sheets list the complete individual citation list for the relevant hotel. So for the edgewater hotel which ranks 4th we click on sheet 4 and see the full list of citations for that hotel.

Note 3

In a usual analysis I would have looked at the category of the listings, I don’t think this is a factor in this case since it’s a competitive SERP and all the listings are likely tagged with the Hotel category.

To Conclude…

What can you do to get better rankings? Get more citations and reviews! The combined number of these seems reasonably well correlated with rankings once you factor in distance from centre etc. Especially if you can get positive reviews and citations from strong websites.

But also, to conclude, we see that the algorithms are somewhat complicated. I’ve still not completely figured out why some sites rank and why some don’t but I’m getting close. I’d love to hear analysis from other Google Local SEOs who’ve been digging around in data. I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours

Note: Thanks Tom! this was a very generous offer to share your reserach so freely, go to his blog here and join the conversation!