Tag Archives: SEO

Pages for Google+

Different people are interested in different parts of your business. Whether it’s breaking news, updates, promotions, links, photos – even talking face-to-face with groups via easy-to-use video chat – Google+ lets you easily share the right things with the right customers. And unlike Facebook, Pages for Google+ can actually help your SEO efforts.

Google advocates putting the +1 button anywhere you’d like people to be able to recommend your business, products or services to friends and contacts all across the web. Google+ makes it easy to learn more about how your followers’ interactions on your page affect your brand, and your business.

We’ve been testing Pages for Google+ for a couple of months now. We ran into one instance where we couldn’t add more pages for our customers, but we found that we were just in a waiting period before being able to add more. This is probably a built-in protection against spamming.

Need help setting up your Google+ Page for your business? We can help.

About Google+

Google+, the search giant’s new social network and answer to Facebook features a new friend list function called “circles”, which has been very positive overall. Users have commented that it’s the easiest system on the market for putting friends into groups, making it easier to share posts with just your business colleagues or your family. We are really interested in the circles option, but it needs more people on there so it doesn’t die like Google Buzz. We like the idea of circles and the integrated video chat/hangout function. They’re not really inventing anything new, just putting things like Facebook groups and Skype-like chat front and center. It becomes a more cozy place to hang out online. Facebook will start to look more stuck up and sterile over time, the same way MySpace started to look more trashy.

We have noticed there are less people requesting to be friends and less friend requests being answered. We think Facebook peaked in 2009 and started to decline after that. But even though numbers are down, they are still number one, for now. It has to do with elasticity, which used in this context means peoples ability to want and except change. In the beginning, when things are new, people are more lenient and will try new things, but over time, ideas harden and change becomes harder. It works with friendships, departments, new businesses, and even social networks. We’ve got high hopes for Google’s inventiveness. The on-demand video chat feature called “Hangouts” is a great idea. Considering it’s 2011, We’re suprised that’s not a feature that we take for granted already.

We did a small test to see what were some of the biggest problems business owners had and what we found was the biggest problem was “How to Get More Customers“

We know that in order to get more customers you must first figure out what your customers pain points are – find out what are the things they are complaining about that you can fix – and then determine if they are both able and willing to pay for them. The first part of that question is called a customer interview.

Here’s an example: a business owner complains of having too much spam in their email. You respond by creating or finding a product that helps the client reduce their spam and then asking the customer if they would be willing to pay to have their spam reduced. This is called a solution interview.

Customer and Solution Interviews are part of the Lean Startup methodology, which combines Customer Development and Agile Development to create a more sound Business Model that values learning. Agile and Lean both use iterative processes and the Scientific Method to hypothesize, test, and learn in order to create a product that customers actually want before building it. Once they have this “product/market fit” they built it as fast as possible. Erich Stauffer talks more about this cycle here.

If you’re solving clients problems you won’t have to do much marketing at all – the customers will seek you out. If they aren’t seeking you out, you might not be solving their problems.

How do you identify what your customers pain points are?

The simplest answer is to ask your target client or existing client base what things are bothering them most and when you start to see a trend, you can start to ask if they’d be willing to pay for it to get fixed.

A less effective, but quicker route is to find out where your customers are complaining or seeking out solutions online. A good way to do this is by using Google Discussion Search to search for problems people are sharing on forums and other discussion groups.

We did a test search with the term “my business” and this is what we found:

• My business keeps disappearing from Google Places
• I need a slogan for my business
• I need a logo for my Business and possibly a website
• I need help getting payments to my business
• What is the best CRM software for my business?
• Anyone using Dropbox for business file storage?
• I need a really good name for my business
• I need help with my business card
• A client owes my business money… what to do?
• Can I request to remove my business from Yelp / Qype?
• I need help getting my business off the ground
• How to promote a new site?
• How many of you have tried Offline Marketing ?
• What’s your most effective marketing method?
• What is the most important points of business?
• How to get more customers?

Once we started noticing a trend, we started recording things we could blog about, solutions for problems like which CRM is best, how to use Dropbox for your business, and how to promote a new website. Our first post is this post, which addresses the last question

How to Get More Customers?

1. Identify a need by asking or searching.
2. Find a solution for that need.
3. Ask potential clients if they would pay for that solution.
4. If so, write about it. If not, find a different problem or solution.
5. Once you’ve written about it, promote is using SEO.

Essentially you start out with Lean methodologies, then do content marketing, then finish with SEO. So the key to getting more customers is not SEO, it’s knowing you have a product that solves a problem AND people are willing and able to pay for and then writing up content about it on your “home base” and only then doing search engine optimization.

This is a list of sites I use to backlink from for myself and my web design, SEO, and social media marketing clients:

Social Bookmarking Sites

• BibSonomy
• BlinkList
• Connotea
• Delicious
• Digg
• Diigo
• Fark - moderated
• Folkd
• Mister Wong
• Mixx – currently undergoing some changes
• Netvouz
• Reddit - moderated, but very effective
• StumbleUpon - can be very effective
• Tagza

By using our SEO and social media management, Dr. Reese, DDS, MAGD is now the #1 ranked search engine result on Google for the term, Indianapolis Dentist. Using SEO and Social Media Management, we beat out hundreds of other dentists and we can do the same for you – even if you’re not a dentist. Use our contact page to get started or read our testimonials.

Mixer Sales asked Watershawl to help them get better search engine rankings for their primary keywords, best mixers and mixer sales – and now Mixer Sales is ranking on the first page of Google for ‘mixer sales’!

While Mixer Sales ranks #6 for the keyword ‘mixer sales’,  they currently don’t rank in the top 100 for ‘best mixers’, which means we still have some work to do, but we believe in celebrating the small victories.   We also helped them setup what we call a ‘sticky page’ which is a page that stays on top of WordPress blog post listings. This is named after ‘sticky posts’, but uses a page instead of a post to prevent double posts on the front page. Going forward we’re going to recommend on product marketing sites like this a “start with sticky” policy because it provides a kind of launching pad for all of the other posts, which can sometimes get lost. Users can still find posts using categories or tags, but for the most important posts, they should be linked to from the sticky page and possibly even through the top navigation bar.  Most of the time we will start off with allowing WordPress to automatically display pages, but as the site ages and becomes more concrete, we’ll go back and manually manipulate the page navigation to add posts and other keywords for SEO reasons.

Overall we see good things for Mixer Sales and wish them well in their endeavor to help people find the best deals on kitchen stand mixers, which have become more and more popular over the last several years.

Our web sites can range from $600 to $3500 but I doubt you’ll want either of those. Here is what you’ll get for $1200 during our Spring Special (Ends April 21):

• A custom-designed website co-designed by you to match your company, your brand, and your tastes
• The training and ability to edit your website content whenever you want
• In-person meetings, phone and email support
• ‘One-off’ email setup or email management for your whole company via Google Apps
• Logo and brand editing with options for logo creation and marketing material creation
• Acquisition or transfer of your domain (your website address)
• A Facebook page and Twitter account setup and integration (if not done already)
• RSS syndication feed from your website
• A marketing partner that can offer advice on web and traditional based advertising

After the website is complete, changes are free for 30 days, after which you have the option of signing up for a monthly maintenance package than can include your mix of changes to the website or SEO/marketing of your business. Packages range from $200 to $800 a month. $200 gets you Facebook and Twitter updates and backlinks as well as minor changes to your website such as text changes. $800 is ‘outsourced’ marketing where we actually write copy for you on your site and others in order to create more backlinks and take up more search engine positions to cast a wider net for search engine traffic. We’ll also be available to take calls from marketing or advertising vendors such as AT&T. You’ll be able to forward them to us to find out the details and negotiate any deals that we may feel are beneficial to you.

As a fellow business owner I can understand that it’s been a wild ride over the last couple of years.  Since I created Watershawl back in 2007 we have seen markets rise and fall, businesses start and fail, and entire economies collapse.  Next year promises more of the same, or worse, but we have reason for hope.  There will always be a place for the kind of business owner that adds value to each customer interaction because people will always have needs to be met.  Meeting customer’s needs and exceeding their expectations no matter what happens will continue to pay dividends despite the economy.

We have gone through several changes since 2007. We added more services as our customers have asked for them, such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media management, and traditional advertising assistance in addition to our original web design and development services.  Jason Cobb, Chris Hendrickson, and most recently my wife, Suzanne Stauffer, have all worked hard to serve our customers since 2007.

Jason Cobb and Chris Hendrickson have served as executive and sales managers, respectively, but will both be transitioning into sales support role part-time as they take on new roles in other endeavors.  Because of Suzanne’s work over the last year I have promoted her to Marketing Director and Vice President of the company, while I am remaining as CEO. In this role I lead and guide the direction of the company.

I want to personally thank you for your business over the last year and together look forward to not as things are, but as they could be.

Watershawl WordPress Web Design and Development for Small Businesses in the Greater Indianapolis Area

When our sales managers started to realize that what customers really cared about was the ability to control their own website, they realized that they were not just selling great looking web design and SEO services, but control and access to their websites, and the ability to change text or add pages as needed. From this point it was decided to be more transparent about the content management system (CMS) they were using to support their clients: WordPress.

WordPress is an open source CMS, originally used as a blog publishing application powered by PHP and MySQL, but has since been expanded to be able to support almost any web site. It has many features including a plugin architecture and a templating system and is used by over 12% of the top 1 million websites.

The most popular CMS in use today, WordPress was first released on May 27, 2003 and has since added features like integrated link management, a search engine-friendly permalink structure, the ability to assign nested, multiple categories to posts, and support for tagging. Finally, WordPress has a rich plugin architecture which allows users and developers like us to extend its functionality beyond the features that come as part of the base install.

By embracing WordPress and having more upfront pricing, we think this greater transparency will lead to a better customer relationship over time. If you are interested in working with friendly, professional, and experienced WordPress developers, contact us today.

Grow Your Business Organically

A lot of SEO companies market how they will promote your business online using Internet marketing and online advertising techniques, but Watershawl noticed a gap between where promotion stops and business begins and so we used social media management to not just promote your business, but grow your business.

Digital Marketing Strategy

We’ll work with you to create a comprehensive strategy to marry your business brand, vision, values, products, and services with traditional outdoor, radio, TV, and yellow page advertising alongside social networking and social spaces like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other technologies like apps for the iPhone and Android phones.

SEO is Not Enough – Content Marketing

It’s no longer enough to have a top-ranking website in Google if your web site is not converting traffic, your story is not consistent, and you are not creating lasting relationships with customers. Watershawl can help you to do all three with content marketing.

Social Media Management

We are excited to offer social media management to help your business organize and streamline their marketing efforts with a consistent message that is in-line with their mission, vision, and values. We believe so strongly about this product that we would be happy to take you out to lunch to show you how it works in a one-on-one session. Are you interested in learning more?

Google Caffeine is the latest version of the search engine’s algorithm, or method by which they search and index the Internet. One thing that hasn’t changed is that backlinks are still important, but other things have.

One major change is that the search engine now can update it’s index in seconds, instead of days, which means that anything you post on your website, blog, or Twitter will be updated in Google’s search results within seconds as long as its in the index of results already. This is powerful because it means that the search engine is extremely up-to-date at almost every moment.

The other big change is how it views relevance. Relevance is how Google determines whether or not your page is worth ranking at the top of the search results. In the beginning Google used a mathematical formula that took into account the number of pages linking back to your page, the content on your page, the content of the pages linking to your page, and the links from your page to other relevant sites (based on content). That core feature is still in the algorithm, but it’s been added to and tweaked over the years.

No one except the Google engineers know what the algorithm actually looks for, but we have hints from its behavior and from Google’s blog that lead us to believe that a new feature of Caffeine is that the search engine now takes synonyms used on the page as a factor in determining relevance. This means that a site that uses a keyword of “web design” should also have related terms like “web hosting, SEO, and web development.” If you think about it, it makes sense as it builds context around a term. For those who have built their web sites around a primary keyword, this can hurt, but if you write naturally and really know what you are talking about, this should be okay. Just keep in mind that internal and external linking to relevant sites with similar content will help your site have relevance and get better search engine rank results.

If you need help getting better results, contact us.