Jul
26

60 Days To Local Search Success

Sommers on July 26th, 2010

How An Appliance Repair Shop Owner Went From Being Days Away From Going Out Of Business To Opening A Second Location In Less Than 2 Months.


PoseTek Service Technician


The story I’m about to tell you is true. The names have remained the same so that you can evaluate the truth for yourself.

These are the actual events chronicled over the past 60 days concerning an appliance repair company in Fort Myers Florida and their amazing transformation from a business on the brink of disaster to a company in the process of opening a new office in Naples, Florida.
__________________________________________________________________________
May 15, 2010
Joe Pose of PoseTek Appliance Services calls me at the request of Tom Kindelan, the owner of Regal Car Rental in Fort Myers, FL. A month prior, we worked with Tom assisting him with his local search marketing increasing his SPLY rentals by 400% for the month of July. After doggedly urging Joe to call me, he eventually did. We agreed to help Joe with his local search marketing.

May 18, 2010
Joe fills-out our comprehensive Local Search Marketing form and informs me that the most profitable aspect of his business is out-of-warranty refrigerator repair, closely followed by washer repair, dryer repair and dishwasher repair. With that knowledge and the information we acquired on the form, we went about optimizing his business listing for those terms.

May 19, 2010
With the keyword research completed and the copy written, we helped Joe claim his business on Google, Yahoo and Bing.

May 20, 2010
We spent the day garnering business citations for PoseTek Appliance on most of the major citation sites. We also taught Joe how to acquire additional citations on local and vertical appliance repair sites. Then we showed him how to generate 5-Star reviews from his customers. Now it was a waiting game to see if our efforts were going to pay off … which we knew they would.

June 4, 2010
I received a call from Joe. He was ecstatic. He received a call from a customer who hired him to do an out-of-warranty repair. She found him on Google. After taking the call, he went to Google to find that PoseTek Appliance was in the number one position on the map for all of the terms we targeted in Fort Myers, FL. You can see an example here.

June 17, 2010
Joe calls to tell me that he is generating an average of one new out-of-warranty customer every day. Each new customer is worth over $200 and he could not be happier. I informed him that Google intends to come out with a new paid service called “Tags” which I believe will help him generate even more business now that he’s on the front page of results. Cost $25/month.

June 26, 2010
Google keeps its promise and releases “Tags” for the state of Florida. We help Joe set up his Tag and wait to see what happens.

July 12, 2010
Joe calls to tell me that he had 6 new customers contact him for out-of-warranty service on that day alone and he received 3 new customers on the previous Monday. His business is doing so well now, that he’s planning to open a new office in Naples, Florida.

July 15, 2010
Joe gets his first new out-of-warranty customer from Yahoo and his 5-star customer reviews are showing up all over the Internet. He simultaneously uses the skills he learned and opens a second office in Naples, Florida

__________________________________________________________________________


Joe and Victoria Pose


“Once we get a new customer (that’s the hard part), they become a customer for life. So when I tell you that you’re responsible for PoseTek getting 6 New (Out-of-Warranty) Customers today, you can imagine what that means to us in terms of dollars and additional service calls. And we’re getting new customers at an accelerated rate.

Promise me that you won’t teach any other appliance service company in Ft. Myers what you taught me. Please?”

Joe Pose - PoseTek Appliance Service LLC
17030 Alico Commerce Ct. Ste 314 / Fort Myers, FL 33967 / (239)-200-6669‎

As long as you don’t own appliance repair company or a rental car business in Southwest Florida, feel free to call either Joe Pose (239) 200-6669 or Tom Kindelan (239) 566-3643 to hear their story first hand.

Want to put this same strategy that transformed Joe’s business to work for your local business? Give me a call here in Hawaii at 808-891-0449 today.


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May
21

Is Angie’s List Costing You Business?

Sommers on May 21st, 2010

I’m a huge fan of the business review site, Angie’s List. I find it amazing that a company can charge a fee, and consumers will pay that fee to look at business reviews on their website, when they can see similar reviews on dozens of other sites for free. But they do, and we do too. And because of that, I have a concern for you the business owner.

Who’s Your Daddy?

I don’t know what the numbers are, but I have to believe that many, many more people look on Google for a local service provider than look on Angie’s List. If anyone has access to the data, please post them below. That being said, it’s important to note that many of the good and great businesses listed on Angie’s List are ecstatic with the results … especially if they have great reviews. Here’s the problem.

Business owners get great reviews on Angie’s List. Their great reviews encourage others with a paid subscription to Angie’s List to hire them. They do a great job and ask their customer to review their service on Angie’s List for others with paid subscriptions to see. More great reviews on Angie’s List generate more business from subscribers to Angie’s List and cycle goes on and on. So where’s the problem?

But Wait, There’s More

Did you know that customers can review local service providers on Google and dozens of other review sites too? And did you know that Google aggregates the reviews from those other sites and shows them on their local search page? Problem is, Angie’s List charges their customers to see their reviews and does not allow Google to post their Angie’s List reviews on Google. If they did, no one would pay to see the reviews on Angie’s List.
Because of that, the local service providers who generate great reviews on Angie’s List aren’t able to share those reviews with the people who are looking for their service on Google. Without knowing any better, these local business  owners are becoming a big fish in the smaller Angie’s List pond, when they could become a big fish in the ocean of Google customers.

Solution

If you’re a local service provider who’s generating great reviews on Angie’s List, consider that those same great reviews could just as easily be posted on Google. Ask your customers to post their reviews on Google too, where other potential customers are looking for the service you offer. You can even ask them to write a similar review on one of the many other review sites … (which Google will eventually show in their results and I’m sure they would be happy to do for you.

Get Your Business On Angie’s List

If your business is not on Angie’s List, by all means, please sign up. You want your business on as many sites as possible, and Angie’s List might be one of the best places for you to be seen.

Just go to www.Company.Angieslist.Com and click on the “Register Now” button. They will walk you through the sign-up process and educate you on Angie’s List along the way. You definitely want to be seen here. As I mentioned earlier, Angie’s List is one of my favorite sites, but …

Google is the 800 pound guerrilla when it comes to local search. If you want to attract many more customers, let me encourage you to spend time with the guerrilla. No disrespect to Angie’s List, I’m a huge fan, but it’s hard to ignore Google when their results are front and center on every search result.


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May
17

Business Listing Ranking Tool

Sommers on May 17th, 2010

How Does Your Business Rank?

Now you can instantly see if your business shows up in the most highly search local sites on the Internet for the most popular keywords and phrases your customers use to find you.  Our new Business Listing Ranking tool will not only save you a ton of time, but it will show you which of your competitors are garnering all the new business from the Internet … and what you can do to take it back.

Notice on the far right column of every page there’s a category entitled “Industry” where you can quickly see how you rank for your keywords in your community. (We’re adding new industries every day.) You can either do the search by city and state or zip code. If you live in a small to medium sized community, do the search by city and state. If you live in a large urban community, use the zip code feature as well, because this is a common way people in large cities search for local business services.

Where Do Your Customers Look For You?

The tool will show you how you rank on sites including Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Merchant Circle, Yelp, Super Pages, Local and Yellow Book. It will also show you how you rank for the top 6-8 keywords people use to find the services you offer in your industry. (If your industry is not listed, please go to the comment section below and make a request.)

For example, if you’re in the appliance repair business you can see how your business ranks for the following terms.

  • Appliance Repair
  • Refrigerator Repair
  • Washer Repair
  • Dryer Repair
  • Dishwasher Repair
  • Oven Repair
  • GE Repair
  • Maytag Repair

Search Trends Rock

We also added another feature that will help you promote your business. You can see the search trends for each term to help you decide the very best months of the year to get the most out of your advertising and marketing efforts.

Give it a try.


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