The first domain you should purchase is obviously your company name.  For example.

“ABC Accounting” = www.ABCAccounting.Com
“Steves Excavation Service” = www.StevesExcavationService.com
“XYZ Hair Studio” = www.XYZHairStudio.Com

The domain name above is what you’ll be using for your business cards and everything else you do in PRINT such as flyers, invoices, letterhead etc…

Here’s the kicker… And where everybody screws it up.

But first… Let me ask you a question…?

If you were new to your area or maybe you’ve even lived there quite a while and you needed an Account to help you with your taxes this year.  If you wanted to find an accountant instantly you’d most likely start your search on the Internet.

Let’s say for example you lived in Victoria, BC… What do you think the first thing you’ll type into a search engine will be…?

“Victoria BC Accountant” or Victoria BC Accountants”

You’re not going to type in ABC Accounting…  Because at this point in of the game nobody knows who you are!

If someone owned the domain name “victoriabcaccountant.com” the search engines would be taking notice of the website as an important local resource for that keyword.  It’s quite likely you would find them first.

So what am I getting at…?

Be the first in your area to wrap up your services in a dot com name.

Example… You live in Duncan BC. And own a local roofing business…

DonsRoofing.Com (Company Name)
DuncanRoofingContractor.Com (Internet Marketing Name)

Example… You operate a hair salon in Nanaimo BC.

XYZHairStudio.Com (Company Name)
NanaimoHairSalon.Com (Internet Marketing Name)

Are you following me…

Now your website is going to stand a better chance at being found by local searchers looking for a “Duncan Roofing Contractor.”  or a Nanaimo Hair Salon because if that’s what they searched for… And your site popped up close to the top if not first, WHO do you think they are going to check out first…?

It’s not rocket science… It’s a really simple and often overlooked local Internet Marketing strategy.  This is something you could be taking advantage of.  It’s first come, first serve… Once the name is taken there is likely little chance they (your competitor) will let it go…

So are you going to wrap up the names related to your services for your area or are you going to let your competitors do it first?

FW&D is a full service remodeling and renovations contracting firm out of Arlington, Virginia.  Ned found me through my contributions in the website section of the ContractorTalkforum and initially hired me to SEO his current website at the time.  We took FW&D on as a client and within a few short months had them in the #1 position in Google for some of their most important keyword phrases.

Obviously happy with the work we had completed Ned contacted us a few months later and this time hired us on to redo his entire website and make it more modern, and better organized.  After presenting a few different designs and some tweaks here and there we finally settled with the current layout you see below.

FW&D still attains top Google search rankings for the remodeling services
they provide around North Central Virginia.

Arlington Remodeling Contractor – #1 in Google.

Reston Remodeling Contractor – #1 in Google.

Herndon Remodeling Contractor – #2 in Google.

If you’re from the Arlington, Reston, Alexandria, Fairlington, or Herndon Virginia area and you’ve stumbled upon this page by accident in your search for a contractor then please have a look at the services FW&D offers. 

FW&D – Full Service Virginia Remodeling Contractor

Contractor Marketing Idea – The Magic Yellow Flyer.

Not too long ago Rich from MagicYellowFlyer.Com contacted me about my lead capture page service and how it could help him with his business. After looking at the website he already had built (and they did a great job) I did not think that service would be a fit for him.

Instead, I offered to do some search analysis to see what people were
searching for in relation to the MagicYellowFlyer.

Contractor Marketing
Contractor Marketing Flyer
Contractor Advertising Flyer
Contractor Advertising Ideas

Were all keywords that people were searching for… If you have never heard of the magic yellow flyer before it is a pretty slick little marketing system Rich has put together that would be a great guerilla marketing weapon for almost ANY small business. It is incredibly easy to adapt this system to your business.

We are now about 50% through the optimization of MagicYellowFlyer.Com and have acheived the following rank:

Contractor Marketing Flyer #1 in Google.
Contractor Advertising Flyer #1 in Google.
Contractor Marketing #11 (2nd page of Google from NOTHING) We still have a little bit of elbow grease left to put into this one and I will post an update
as it occurs!

Click Here To Learn About Our SEO Services For Small Business

APlusPlumbing is a full service plumbing contractor out of Medford, Massachusetts.  They found me in the search engines and decided to contact me about possibly redesigning and search engine optimizing their website.

They already had a website, but it was old and could have done a better job of showcasing their services and professionalism.

As far as search engine optimization goes, the competition for Plumbers in the greater Boston area is fairly fierce… We are talking a few hundred other Plumbing Contractors to compete with and APlusPlumbing was nowhere to be found.

After a few different design schemes went back and forth we finally settled on the design below.  We were able to showcase their plumbing services in a friendly and easy to navigate manner and the “Call To Action” was incredibly clear, at the top of every single page.

After the site was built and designed came the daunting task of actually getting their website optimized.  It took several weeks but we were able to attain several top five search engine rankings.

“Boston Commercial Plumber” #1 in Google.

“Boston Residential Plumbing”  #1 in Google.

“Boston Commercial Plumbing” #1 in Google.

Rather than write a big long “how-to” I am going to give you a quick run-down on the “nuts & bolts” of improving your ranking with Google Local. 

1.  You’ll need to signup for your Google Business Center and add your business.  It’s free.

2.  While adding your business it’s important that you complete ALL of the listing information that is applicable for your business, products or services.  Google wants to see complete information including services offered, areas of service, pictures of your work/products, hours of operation, payment methods and even reviews from your customers which we’ll touch on in a moment.

3.  You MUST list your business’ complete physical address on your website.  Preferably somewhere on every page.  Along with a phone number and your area code.  If you operate from a home office then you can get a PO box cheap.

4.  Your website TITLE tag should contain your geographic location and service. 

Example:

Instead of your website title tag saying “Johns Plumbing Service” you’d want it to say something like “Qualicum Beach Plumber | Johns Plumbing Service”

Now the search engines can properly categorize the website.  This is such a tiny detail that makes an incredible difference.  Keep in mind if you service many areas it’s unadvisable to try and stuff them all into your title tags.

Instead you’ll need to create additional pages that describe your services for each specific service area.  This is a lot more work, but it’s the best way to take advantage of the SEO potential.

#5.  Local Community Links, Charities, Schools, Churches,  Newspapers, etc…

If your business sponsors any local events, charities, school teams etc… You should be asking for a link on their website to yours.  Most of the above organizations have websites you need to come up with a way to get them linking to you… I’ll save that for another article.

#6.  Positive Customer Reviews.

This is probably your single biggest factor in ranking.  Through Google Local your customers have the opportunity to leave reviews on your services.  Google looks at these positive reviews has huge credibility boosters for your business.  In Google’s eyes, if your customers like you then their search users will too.

Whenever you complete any type of work for a client especially if you serve a specific geographic market you should be asking them to leave positive feedback on your Google business listing.  You can make it even easier for them and place a link directly to your listing from your website.  Now your customers can easily find the listing, leave a positive review and help propel you to the top.

It’s important to note that Google Local feeds off of several other review websites in addition to their own, so you need to find out where (if ever) your customers are reviewing you and claim those listings if you haven’t already.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES try to falsify or trick Google Local by leaving false reviews or having friends and family leave several positive reviews. You risk your account being deleted and your listing removed.

Carl Sorensen

Now the difficult decision of choosing a web solution provider is before you.  Any old website designer will do if all you’re looking for is a “website”,  but if you’re looking to setup a finely tuned online sales machine than you’re going to have to be very selective.  You need a website designer who’s going to listen to your needs and the specifics of your business. 

More importantly you need a designer who knows and understands what a succesful web layout should look like and how to present the key services of your business in a fashion that encourages your visitors to dig deeper into your website and eventually make the choice to use your product or service.

If that’s not enough to think about… You need a designer that can not only build a website that sells your services, but a designer who can actually get your website in front of the people who are looking for your services.  This is where the majority of website designers fall short…

Designing a pretty website to impress a few friends is easily done and the skills can be learned through only a few hours of professional instruction.  Because of the fact that it’s so easy to learn how to “build” websites it’s caused an incredible influx of really crappy providers out there.  Be careful… If your website designer cannot SEO your website then you’re looking at incurring additional costs down the road in order to bring your site up to speed. 

Often times, SEO consultants such as myself will NOT work with a website that has been poorly designed and implemented.  It’s usually faster for us to create an entirely new SEO friendly site and that costs YOU a lot more money.

Here Are A Few Tips To Find A Great Designer For Your Business:

1.  Make sure they frequently work with clients in your specific field.
2.  Check and see if they have Google Rank for the services they provide.
3.  Ask to see some of the websites they’ve designed along with their search ranks.

Here are a few other important points to ponder:

1.  Do they offer a money back guarantee? or at least the option of a redesign should you not be happy with the product.
2.  Where do they host your website?  (ideally you want someone who operates a dedicated server, so you can have your own IP address)
3.  What are their monthly fees…?  And what do they include?

In short… Don’t rush out and jump at the first web designer you see… It could be a costly mistake for your business.  When you find a good one, that talks the talk and walks the walk… You’ll know it!

Carl Sorensen

If you don’t know… You’re already in trouble!  The web unlike any other place of doing business is incredibly fickle.  Internet Surfers are a new breed of consumer with their own set of rules on what makes them decide to take action or bail on you.

If a website visitor has to spend more than 10 seconds looking around your website for “The Next Step” you’re going to LOSE that website visitor and they won’t be coming back.

Websites need to be straightforward and easy for your customers to make their most important purchasing decisions.  The easier it is for them to do business with you the more business you will generate.

Some forethought is definitely required to make sure that you’re presenting your visitors with a vivid and clearly visible “Call To Action”.  It may take a few tries to figure out what makes your customers ACT NOW but thanks to programs like Google Analytics (which we install for all our clients) you can track your visitors activity.

This provides you with data that you can use to then make the appropriate changes to your website.

Here is a description of a website with good “Call To Action”

JP owns a general remodeling company.   He had a super slick web designer who was smart enough to create an individual page on the website for each one of JP’s remodeling services.

Kitchen Remodeling
Bathroom Remodeling
Basement Finishing
Shop Construction

*MOST* Designers would rely on the website visitor to be smart enough to find your “Contact” page and then take the necessary steps to get in touch with you.  But you’ve got that super slick web designer who was wise enough to realize that your website visitors don’t want to do that.

He was saavy enough to create a customized contact form, prominently accesible right from each of the individual services pages.  Now if the website visitor clicks on the Kitchen Remodeling link, they can see some examples of the contractors work and then immediately without ever leaving the page they can request a quote/estimate for their kitchen right there.

Human Impulse is a strange thing and when faced with multiple decisions or an unclear path a confused mind will almost always say NO!

Hit with them something “Actionable” at the moment that brain impulse says “YES” and you’ll start converting more of visitors into interested prospects and the profits won’t fall far behind.

Carl Sorensen