The Web Services You Need
Especially in local internet marketing, one could easily spend $100,000.00 a month trying to take advantage of the endless advertising offers that are available to businesses. The choices are dizzying and the sales reps all promise the same thing. But what do you really need? What are the essentials that will not only bring you genuine new business, but provide a return and make your internet advertising efforts worth the while?
Why the Choices Matter
Take a look at this image showing the top 10 traffic sources for a local website in Houston over the course of 30 days (click to enlarge if needed). This pattern is consistent across the board for local businesses all across the US. Aside from the fact that Google is the number 1 source of traffic, take note also that it is number 5 through Google Maps and number 7 through Google referral (e.g. instant pages or "I'm feeling lucky"). So while Google brought 320 visitors to this website for pool and spa repair over the course of 30 days, Yahoo brought 16, Bing 14, Yellow Pages 7, and there were 2 holdouts from AOL and 2 from Centurylink that probably typed a search query into their browser's address bar. Even if you add them all together (assuming direct traffic is a given), you get 45 visits compared to 320. More than seven times all of them combined. If you look at this and consider that this client was at one time paying $4,000.00 a month to Yellow Pages, you'll also understand why that print and online advertising contract nearly drove him to bankruptcy . . . You can look at the two further examples below (one from Las Vegas, the other from Kenai Alaska) and see the same pattern. You'll also get a good idea of what we regularly try and do for our clients. (Click to enlarge.)
At a Price You Can Afford
Indeed, there are other viable sources of gaining new business on the internet aside from organic search on Google. But unless and until we can see that that the real profit margin significantly justifies the cost (and particularly, in your field of work), don't count on us to recommend them. Call us crazy, but we assume you're in business to make money, not spend more than you need to and certainly not waste it. Our web design services reflect this ideal of efficiency as well. Not only do we offer some of the most powerful yet least expensive hosting packages, we generally charge only for our time, opting for any "premium" for our services in your future business and new client referrals. Simply put, we generally charge far less than other professional web designers, and far, far, far less than other professional SEOs, local or otherwise. All this while most often offering higher quality and care.
With an Ethics and Motivation You Can Trust
Like you, we are in business to make a living too. And probably like you as well, in our mind, the best way to do that is by offering quality services that you will find valuable, come to rely on and tell others about.