SEO Ann Arbor Shares Why Reviews are Important!

Would you purchase a product from an unknown website?

Would you see a doctor who has no referrals?

Most people would say, “No!”

Consumers are typically interested in products that they find convenient, likable, and affordable. In today’s world, people use the internet as a major resource for deciding whether to buy a product and/or service. Studies have shown that approximately 61% of online purchases are derived from online reviews about that product or service.

Reviews made on local listings (i.e. Google Local, SuperPages, Yahoo! Local), business websites, and consumer review sites (i.e. Yelp, Angie’s List) are often read and held in high regard. This is why it’s crucial to monitor the reviews your business receives.

Benefits of online reviews are endless, but include:

1.    Increased sales

2.    Improves page rank on search engines

3.    Creates customer loyalty

4.    Engages customers to think positive thoughts about your products and/or service

5.    Encourages more visitors to review your services

6.    Provides a positive image of the business

7.    Communicates with consumers to suggest that you will resolve problems

To ensure your business obtains good reviews on the internet, make the process as simple as possible. SEO Ann Arbor suggests the following tips for getting reviews.

•     Follow up after a sale, requesting a review by sending an email.
•     Add a link on your website that directs customers to a place to leave their review.
•     Ask in person immediately after you provide service.
•     Keep track of people who’ve already reviewed your services, so you can send them a follow up email, asking them to review you on other pages as well.  
•     Brag about positive reviews on social media and your website.
•     Thank and, if possible, reward customers who give reviews after the fact, so they’ll be more likely to leave another review.  

We would love to hear from you!  Please leave us a comment below or contact us if you have questions or comments.

http://seoannarbor.com/contact

Don't fall for this domain scam, warns SEO Ann Arbor!

Have you received a letter or an email telling you that your domain name registration is expiring soon?  Maybe the letter warns you that the loss of your online identity will make it difficult for your customer and friends to locate you on the Web!  Does it also encourage you to take advantage of savings if you “act now”? 

Does the letter come from a company that you don’t recognize? 

Don’t be fooled by a letter from Domain Registry of America!  It may look official, down to their use of the American flag, but chances are your domain registration is safe and secure. 

Domain Registry of America or DROA, based in Ontario, has been taking advantage of consumers for at least ten years.  Those that fall for the scam are typically either too busy to investigate, or unaware how their domain registration works.  DROA practices “domain slamming” or sending unsolicited mail out to any person, or company who has a website.  They send out hundreds of thousands of letters to trick consumers into paying them to register or transfer their domain to DROA when there’s no need to do so.  They also charge higher fees for registering and hosting websites than most companies.

Once you pay DROA they’ll send a transfer notice to the business that manages your domain.  Most reputable companies, such as our sister company, Network Services Group, LLC, will not transfer your domain until you give permission.  NSG will also immediately contact you to inform you of DROA’s less than ethical reputation. The problem is… once you realize you’ve been scammed, DROA has processed your payment, and they make it tough to get a refund.  Even worse, if your current host company does transfer your domain to DROA, it can be very difficult to regain control over your account if you realize you’ve paid too much or never intended to make the transfer.

DROA has recently been targeting non profit organizations such as churches.  They know that most non-profits rely on volunteers to manage their websites, and amateur webmasters are typically not well versed with the fine points of domain registration.  Unfortunately, there are no strict laws against this questionable tactic.  Since the company is based in Canada it makes it even more difficult to hold them accountable. 

There are other companies similar to DROA that try to confuse consumers.  So if you receive a letter from a company that you’ve never heard of before, read it carefully!  Check for the small print that states, “This is not a bill.”  Better yet, call us so we can help you figure out if it’s legitimate or not. 

At SEO Ann Arbor, “We believe in helping people achieve their dream of a successful, growing business and an abundant life…starting today!”  This includes educating our friends and clients to be aware of companies like DROA that try to take advantage of you. 

Please visit the links below to read more about DROA’s questionable business practices.    

http://rootwork.org/blog/2013/02/domain-registry-america-scam-dont-let-your-nonprofit-get-fooled

http://www.the-name-i-wanted-was-already-taken-so-i-used-a-lot-of-dashes.com/the-domain-registry-of-america-scam/

http://www.gn.apc.org/support/domain-registry-america-scam

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/01/06/court_bars_canadian_domain_slammer

GUARANTEED PLACEMENT ON GOOGLE

Why You Should Watch Out for Offers that Seem Too Good to be True!

We see this all the time - a customer gets an email or call from someone telling them that they searched Google and couldn't find their business.  They may even guarantee results or offer low fees to get you hundreds of links. 

So we get asked, how do we respond to that? Do we offer low fees for a guaranteed number of links? No. Do we guarantee our results? No. A far more important question is, why not?   

Let's start with the fact that you’re responding to an unsolicited email or call.  Who do you think you’re talking to on the other end of the line or through email? Someone who really knows SEO ... someone who has your best interests at heart? 

No, you are talking to a spammer - the same type of person who regularly fills up your inbox with spam and otherwise makes a nuisance of themselves, and now you want to trust them with your business? In most cases they haven't even bothered to do a Google search for you – they’re sending you a form letter that just assumes you aren't showing up in search engines. 

They've even called and emailed us and told us that we weren't listed in the search engines! Gee, you sure about that? When they actually checked they were like "Oh, you guys actually are in the SEO business." 

But why not give them a try and pay them $100 or some other ridiculously low amount of money? After all, you think, they promised to get me 200 links, and you guys at SEO Ann Arbor said that links are good, right?

Wrong. Relevant links from high quality sites are good. Hundreds of links from low quality and non-relevant sites ... not so much. Especially when the sites are all from Hong Kong, India, and other foreign countries. They didn't mention that part, did they?  Not surprising. After all, they're spammers. They probably also didn't mention that non-relevant links from low quality sites will not do you any good whatsoever, and might even be harmful to your rankings. Ever hear of Google hell? That’s where Google puts sites that try to cheat the system, and trust us, you’ll be far from page one if you wind up in Google hell.

While you’re pondering that, think about how hard it will be to get those hundreds of links removed, especially when most or all of them are in foreign countries. If you find yourself in that situation, you'll have a real mess on your hands. Also consider this ... if getting your website listed on page one of Google was really that easy, why wouldn't everyone pay some spammer $100 and do the same thing? Remember, there are only ten available spots on page one, so it just can't be that simple. 

But they guaranteed me results!  What about that?  Let us let you in on a little secret. It’s not that hard to get listed on page one of Google for insignificant, non-competitive keywords, keywords that people hardly ever search for, keywords that won’t generate a significant amount of traffic for you. Who cares if you’re on page one for terms that nobody’s searching for?  So much for that guarantee.

Just in case we haven’t made enough of an impact yet, here are a few examples. Let’s say you own a business called Bob's Insect Removal. Wouldn't it be great if when people searched Google for “Bob's insect removal,” your site would show up on the first page?  Of course it would, but it turns out that that isn't too hard. After all, if people search Google for the name of your business, they already know who you are. It's great that those people can find you, but you aren't going to grow your business that way.  To get a wider audience, you need to attract new people – those who don't already know about you, but who are searching for the types of products and services you offer.

Ok, you think, what you’re saying makes sense, but they guaranteed me results for "insect removal" which is one of the services we offer. What about that? We agree, that sounds pretty good ... unless you find out that no one is searching for "insect removal."  Instead, it turns out, they may be searching for things like "pest control" or "exterminator" and other terms that actually generate traffic. Not all keywords are created equal, so if you find yourself on page one for terms that no one is searching for, it won’t help you much.   

A reputable SEO company will spend time researching your keywords to make sure that you’re focusing on high quality keywords that will actually generate results.  Getting listed on page one for high quality keywords would be something to crow about, but it’s going to take a lot of effort, and will likely cost far more than $100.  Remember, if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it!  Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

Consistency pays dividends.

SEO is kind of like cleaning your house, in the sense that if you only do it a few times a year, you'll wind up with nothing but a big mess on your hands.  Consistency is key, and we are here to help.  We can tell you everything that needs to be done, how to do it, and even help you do it.

If your website isn't listed number one on Google then the real question is, why aren't you getting started today?

See www.seoannarbor.com for more information.

What is SEO and how does it work?

What is SEO?
SEO is the process of optimizing your site so that it appears prominently in Google and other search engines when people search for related keywords.  There are a few major things, and dozens of minor things that need to be done to successfully optimize a site.

How Does it Work?
One of the first and most important steps is taking some time to consider what keywords and phrases you are trying to optimize.  As a business owner or decision maker in your organization, you probably have some idea of the types of things that your potential customers might be searching for.  However, some terms are searched for more than others, so it is important to do some research and focus on the terms that are the most popular.  In other words, you don't want to spend a bunch of time and money optimizing phrases that hardly anyone is searching for.

Also, there may be some additional terms that people are searching for that you didn't think of.  We have tools and procedures that we can use to develop a list of the most popular search phrases for your industry, so that you are optimizing the right terms.

Once you have identified your target keywords, we work with you to optimize/create your site.  This involves making sure that your site includes your desired keywords, and doing it in such a way that Google considers your site relevant for those specific phrases.  There are dozens of things we do in this regard, including optimizing page titles, header tags, and making sure that your keywords appear in the text throughout your site.

Getting Connected
Once your site is ready to go, another key aspect of SEO is gathering inbound links to your site.  Why is this important?  Inbound links is one of the key ways in which Google decides to rank your site.  It is kind of like a popularity contest.  When Google looks at your site versus one of your competitors, one of the things it will do is look at the content contained throughout the sites to make sure that it pertains to the keywords (see previous paragraph).  However, all things being equal, if your site has no one linking to it and your competitor has 200 people linking to them, then your competitor will be listed higher than you.

Obviously with a new site you are starting off with ZERO inbound links, while your competitors may already have dozens or hundreds.  Even if you have an established website, chances are it could benefit from obtaining additional inbound links from other relevant sites.  In order to facilitate this we go out and seek other relevant sites and get them to link back to your site to boost your rankings.  It ends up being a little more complicated than that, but that is the basic idea, and gathering reciprocal links is a key aspect of optimizing your site.

How do I know if I need SEO?
Simple.  Go to Google and type in some keywords and phrases that a potential customer might search for.  If your business isn’t showing up in the results at the top of the first page then you need SEO!  Make sure that you aren’t simply searching for the name of your business.  For instance, if you are a plumber and your business is called “John Doe and Sons”, don’t simply search for “John Doe and Sons”.  The only people who are going to search for the name of your business are people who already know about you.  The whole point of SEO is to attract potential customers that don’t already know who you are.  So instead search for “plumber ann arbor” or “clogged drain ann arbor” or other combinations of the services you offer and the location that you offer them in.

Check adwords keyword tool

Once you've developed your list of key words and phrases and gotten the big picture with Google Trends, you're ready to find out what the millions of internet users are actually searching for in your subject area. One of the best ways to do that is to use the Keyword Tool offered by Google's Adwords. Because it's offered by Google, and because Google is by far the most-used search engine, you get up to the minute results showing every imaginable search term. It even includes mis-spellings and words you may not have thought of. Most importantly, the results show what people are actually searching for rather than what you may think they're searching for. This is truly helpful ... we think it's better to be rich than to be right.

Right?

For most topics, the keyword tool will give you a huge list (around 800 results). You can sort the list by most searched, local searches (this is the one we use most often, because it shows what people in the US are searching for), and several other very helpful criteria. It's easy to download this list into Excel or some other data management format to help you collate the results.

So how are you ever going to optimize your site for 800 words and phrases? You're not. Almost nobody has the resources to optimize that many terms, and the good news is that most of us will do very well by focusing on the top ten or so words and phrases (more about that in a future post).

By the way, opening an Adwords account is free. Just Google "Adwords." You'll find the Adwords site in the organic listings at this address: https://accounts.google.com/  Pretty neat, huh?

At this point you should have a better idea of which keywords to use, based on the amount of traffic that each one is generating.  Another tool to evaluate what keywords and phrases you should use is the Traffic Estimator within Google Adwords.  We'll talk more about that in a future post.

Check Google Trends

A good way to get a rough idea of how many people are searching for a particular word or phrase is to use Google Trends. Trends allows you to enter up to five words or phrases (separated by commas). Your results will show the relative number of people searching for each word or phrase.

Suppose you sell floor coverings and you're trying to decide whether to focus this month's online advertising on tile, plank flooring, bamboo, or carpet (we realize this example probably seems excessively simple if you're in the business, but we don't sell floor coverings!). You just type those words into Google Trends and you'll know which of them is being searched for most, which second, which third, and so forth. You'll have a good general understanding of the online trends (we're pretty sure that's what they call it "Trends").

There are a few things to keep in mind both about the value of Google Trends and about its limitations. Trends shows results for the entire English internet (though it does break those results down by geographic region), not necessarily for your city. It's more of a butter knife than a scalpel. It's also true that just because lots of people are searching for a particular term doesn't mean they're going to find your website. We'll talk more about how to become successful by avoiding the most searched-for terms, but for now we'd just like you to keep in mind that Trends is more of a tool for getting to know the big picture than it is for developing a detailed keyword list for your website.

One neat aspect of Google Trends that can be helpful for websites dealing with hot topics or current events is that it shows spikes in searches and correlates them with major news stories. That can be very helpful if you're researching when to emphasize certain words and phrases and what information to correllate them with to take advantage of surges in search numbers.

Once you've got an idea of the big picture, it's time to go to step 3: the Adwords Keyword Tool.