WSI Internet Marketing

A few weeks ago I conducted a special “Insiders Guide to Leveraging your Online Reputation” workshop for U.S. and European audiences.

What’s that all about? Well the fact is that people may be saying nasty things about you without you… whether they are true or not. You can’t stop it, but you can manage it.

This is actually more than a lecture; it’s an actual workshop, complete with the same techniques and actual forms that we use to track our client’s online reputation.

 

 

 

The actual workshop is available at: http://wsiinstitute.com/media/ec/cb/Insiders_Guide_to_Leveraging_your_Online_Reputation_-_Flash_(Large)_-_20110812_04.40.24PM.html

I’ve also put together a special edition kit that includes all the forms that we actually use for our clients along with examples of how they should look when completed. If you think they would be useful, just contact us: http://www.kreativewebworks.com/contact.html

People are talking about you without you!

Before the Internet, businesses controlled their public image and message through television, Yellow Pages, radio and print advertisements. But now people are openly discussing your business image, products and services on social networks, review sites, online directories and blogs. Not only that, what they say impacts the buying decisions of your potential customers. During this workshop webinar, you will be presented with a step-by-step systematic approach to evaluating, improving and managing your online reputation. Make no mistake, it DOES MATTER. You can’t stop it, but you can manage it! Not only will you learn how to manage your online brand or personal reputation, but we will provide you with the actual worksheets that we use with our own clients.

There are two sessions to choose from:

Register: Wed, Aug 3, 2011, 8:00am PST *

Register: Wed, Aug 3, 2011, 11:00am PST

*The 8:00am PST session is to accommodate our European audience, so don’t let the 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM BST time on the registration form fool you… both of these sessions are open to everyone.

Note: You will need to use my name, Chuck Bankoff, to complete the registration.

Both of these sessions are free and include our Special Edition Resources Kit which is comprised of the same tools that we use for our own clients.

Chuck Bankoff is Director of Web Services for WSIeWorks, a full service Digital marketing firm in Orange County California.

A personal friend of mine…an attorney, told me that he contracted with a search engine optimization company, (let’s call them the “Mellow” Pages) because they claimed to specialize in search engine optimization for personal injury attorneys.

6 thousand dollars later he was asking me why he was getting top rankings on the search results pages, but no additional business.

It didn’t take a forensic pathologist to unravel this mystery. After reviewing the keyword phrases that he contracted for verses the actual results, it was evident that he was simply the victim of a classic bait and switch.

Let me emphasize that my attorney friend…a VERY intelligent guy and a top attorney had absolutely no reason to suspect what would be painfully obvious to an Internet Marketing specialist.  He is a very competent attorney…not a digital marketing professional.

Here is how it went down:

He contracted for the following phrases:

• Accident Attorney Irvine
• Car Accident Lawyer Irvine
• Car Accident Lawyers Irvine
• Car Accident Attorney Irvine
• Personal Injury Lawyer Irvine

Here are the keyword phrases that were actually optimized:

• Accident Attorney Irvine California
• Car Accident Lawyer Irvine California
• Car Accident Lawyers Irvine California
• Car Accident Attorney Irvine California
• Personal Injury Lawyer Irvine California

Did you notice the difference? Simply by adding one more word (California) to an otherwise legitimate long tail keyword phrase, it turned a very competitive, highly searched on phrase into something easily achievable, but with no discernable ROI.

Let’s take a look at his actual results:

Notice that virtually each phrase with the word “California” at the end of it ranks higher than the same phrase without the State name. Why is that?

Well, by simply searching on both phrases in Google and comparing the amount of search results, I could quickly see that the phrase “car accident attorney irvine California” was approximately 370% less competitive than the version without the word “California” tagged onto the end.

Is that a good thing? Actually your SEO consultant should be looking for less competitive words; that is an essential ingredient to good keyword selection. However those less competitive phrases must also represent a fair amount of searches. At the end of the day I would rather show up for 20% of a thousand searches than zero percent of a Million searches.

If the research showed that by adding the State name at the end of all those phrases resulted in reduced, but significant traffic, then it would have been a sound strategy. In this case people who live in Irvine rarely search on a phrase like “car accident lawyer Irvine California”, however they do search on a phrase like “car accident lawyer Irvine”. The “Mellow” pages simply made it easy on themselves at the expense of their client.

Let’s put this into perspective; every successful business person is good at what they do. There is no reason for anyone to be good in an entirely different industry like digital marketing. I would never review my own contracts, or do my own accounting. Why would I expect a lawyer to be able to interpret the results of a search engine optimization campaign?

So how do you safeguard against unscrupulous Internet marketing practitioners?  The same way you would when referencing any company or individual; “Reputation Management”. My best advice is to simply search on: “reviews” + “the individual you are working with” to see what other folks have to say about their experience with that SEO specialist you are considering.

Remember, ethics and skill are mutually exclusive. My instincts tell me that the “Mellow” Pages should have been more trustworthy and accountable, but that was clearly not the case.