1st Time Ever on Page1 of Google Today!

[MD Clean]

Up

0

::

Hi John W – thank you for your post – you rock!!,

I could write a book responding to your post because you bring up so many good points. The multiquote does not seem to be working so I will do my best in the interests of others reading to provide a little background.

First, design. When I first implemented the template, I used 6 more images on the homepage than I have now. I was never happy with it because it looked too busy to me. I did not want my site to look like every other new site out there so a lot of the bells and whistles that are available to me have been locked in the draw, probably never to be used. When I changed it to a simpler format, the number of leads I received went up.

Copy. I have been slowly changing the copy to be client focused so instead of using terms like “We have 14 years experience”(focused on my company), I am more likely to say, “Use our 14 years of experience to your benefit” (focus on you) – this is still a work in progress.

Defining My Business – I use the site only to get new business, not for existing customers. When I came across this post by Yoast, it really got me thinking about how to position “my brand”. So I changed everything to focus on “Expert and Affordable Commercial Cleaning”. This was a real light bulb moment for me and it changed my focus… and sales went up…. but I had to demonstrate that I was both Expert and Affordable – make the claim, then provide evidence… this is still very much a work in progress.

Pricing Examples – this was a difficult one for me because every job has a different price. I wanted to provide a sense of what people could expect to pay without starting a race to the bottom on price. My site is amongst the only cleaning sites to have any form of pricing information except for the price leaders that I do not want to compete with.

Your idea of incorporating pricing examples on product pages is very good so I will implement it. My problem is that in some categories, eg, Retail Cleaning, I only have 1 customer. In offices of various kinds, I have 15. In Body Corporates, I have only 3 customers but want a lot more…

SEO Dilemma. In Commercial Cleaning, we essentially carry out the same tasks in every job, mopping, vacuuming, cleaning glass etc. There are some nuances between the types of jobs we do but 90% of what we do is the same. I wanted to create different services pages to provide reassurances the we know what we are doing within a customers context (the nuances or 10% that is different) but I did not want to keep repeating myself eg, write about mopping, vacuuming, cleaning glass etc on every page. The Panda update really has me very nervous about repeating anything on the site – any guidance will be appreciated.

I am not sure that I have got this part right at all.

Where to from here?

1. Bespoke Images – A friend who has made a living from the internet said my site doesn’t look like a cleaning site, so I want to do a photo shoot with the cleaners at a, or several job sites – I hope to show local sites and team capability = local company, capable of doing my cleaning job.

2. Incorporate your ideas around prices and testimonials on my service pages – at the moment, I do not have any testimonials at all! I have had another idea, directly as a result of your post – to add a Case Study to each Service Page demonstrating how we solved a customers problem – this will add to the “proof” that A. We live up to our claims and B. We provide superior service to our competitors (we really do!). It will also help SEO, especially suburb specific.

3. Create Infographic – “Where Germs Hide In Offices” – demonstrates expertise, gets people thinking.

4. About Page – I don’t even have one and it is one of the most viewed pages on the web.

5. Another Service Page – we are now doing pressure washing.

6. More Blog posts incorporating local (suburb related) elements and demonstrating the “Expert” in expert and affordable.

7. Split test some Ad Copy concepts in Adwords and use landing pages for specific Ads/Services

8. Get consistent speed test results, perhaps move to managed hosting – my aim is for under 2 seconds loading time consistently.

9. I am thinking about monetising my SEO activities by taking on fulfilment partners in areas of cleaning we do not do. For example, a friend has a cleaning business that does holiday apartment cleaning (Housekeeping). The apartments he cleans are rated #1, #4 and #6 on Tripadviser, therefore his business would meet my criteria for inclusion of my site. I could create a page for him under services/housekeeping and a Ad Group in Adwords. And I could charge him for doing so (monthly or annual fee) and pass the Adwords cost to him. I could do the same with 5 or six other forms of cleaning we do not do. From an SEO point of view, it would give the site more depth = better SEO results = more leads. I wonder if I could then do Google Business “Branch” pages? Financially, it would be win/win.

[JohnW]

Up

0

::

Hi Paul,
Thanks for the compliments.

Graphics are important in the communications process but I’m sticking to the limited marketing element of attracting relevant SE referrals.

Google does not “read” images so that means we are talking SE “readable” text.

• What people overlook or don’t understand is what a SE can “read”.
• What you see in your browser is not what Google can “read”.
• I’m afraid much of your “Where to from here?” section is way off the mark.

Your post indicates that you realise that SEO is way more complex than chasing a few external links. It is also too complex for a general forum like this.

Why don’t you throw out a request on FS for paid general SEO advice? It does not need to be very expensive or unending.

BTW, Google’s latest algo update should benefit you, if you take advantage of it. Check out this FS thread.

Regs
JohnW

[MD Clean]

Up

0

::

JohnW, post: 205447 wrote:

Hi Paul,
Thanks for the compliments.

Graphics are important in the communications process but I’m sticking to the limited marketing element of attracting relevant SE referrals.

Google does not “read” images so that means we are talking SE “readable” text.

• What people overlook or don’t understand is what a SE can “read”.
• What you see in your browser is not what Google can “read”.
• I’m afraid much of your “Where to from here?” section is way off the mark.

Your post indicates that you realise that SEO is way more complex than chasing a few external links. It is also too complex for a general forum like this.

Why don’t you throw out a request on FS for paid general SEO advice? It does not need to be very expensive or unending.

BTW, Google’s latest algo update should benefit you, if you take advantage of it. Check out this FS thread.

Regs
JohnW

Hi John,

Overall, I am happy with my progress.

I am getting (very) good quality leads and converting them to increased sales. Most of my “Where to from Here” is about improving look and feel and trust in the brand, ie, to decrease the bounce rate.

Re, the images, they aren’t for SEO at all – it is to improve congruence. Congruence is about people who click on the site having their expectations met in line with the reason they clicked in the first page – in my case, to find a quality cleaning company. I feel that stock images will only take me so far.

It also happens that some of my cleaners are extremely photogenic too and that can only help.

In the 9 months since I launched the new site, I have added over 60% to my bottom line. Most of the growth this year has been from Adwords.

Next year, 100% revenue growth will be awesome as as SE rankings will be working in tandem with SEM, for a full year.

I am a huge fan of your approach to SEO (biggest SEO bang for the smallest SEO buck) and I even have a company in mind to refer to you when they build a new site sometime in 2015.

For me though, my biggest problem is going to be how to handle the growth that improved SE rankings will generate in 2015!

[bb1]

Up

0

::

Paul,

Great to see you have a achieved page 1 ranking, and you are converting that to increased business. Great.

Your story also shows that given the right circumstances and research on the individuals part, you can increase your ranking without enlisting the $1K to $1.5K a month SEO “experts” , which is often highlighted as the benchmark on here for SEO. And that the minimalist appraoch (cost wise) can and will achieve page 1 ranking with the right effort.

I do want to just add my little warning for other small business’s who this this great story, that if you do it yourself, or pay $1.5K per month, page 1 ranking may not bring you any additional business, so dont take from this excellent story that page 1 will make your business grow. You must look at the overall business picture before / during and after aiming for that page 1 ranking. The business fundamentals are far more important than page 1 ranking. Paul obviously has his fundamentals right so page 1 will help, wrong fundamentals and page 1 is a total waste of time and money.

[MD Clean]

Up

0

::

bb1, post: 205452 wrote:

Paul,

Great to see you have a achieved page 1 ranking, and you are converting that to increased business. Great.

Your story also shows that given the right circumstances and research on the individuals part, you can increase your ranking without enlisting the $1K to $1.5K a month SEO “experts” , which is often highlighted as the benchmark on here for SEO. And that the minimalist appraoch (cost wise) can and will achieve page 1 ranking with the right effort.

I do want to just add my little warning for other small business’s who this this great story, that if you do it yourself, or pay $1.5K per month, page 1 ranking may not bring you any additional business, so dont take from this excellent story that page 1 will make your business grow. You must look at the overall business picture before / during and after aiming for that page 1 ranking. The business fundamentals are far more important than page 1 ranking. Paul obviously has his fundamentals right so page 1 will help, wrong fundamentals and page 1 is a total waste of time and money.

Hi Bert and Merry Christmas,

I have met one of two goals I set for search engine ranking this year. The other is to get to page 1 for Office Cleaning Gold Coast (currently on Page 2).

I have an interest in SEO and having owned a couple of websites before, I already understood the fundamental concepts. But I have put in a LOT of work researching the best and current approaches to SEO as they apply to local businesses.

I recently dealt with a business owner that has a site that needs to be re-built (he needs sales from the internet – not all businesses do) and he doesn’t know the first thing about websites.

Having the right SEO to help him plan site structure and make sure that on-page SEO is done correctly from the get -go will probably be the best money he spends on his business in 2015.

On my site, I also run an Adwords campaign that is low cost and effective for me but I switch it off after 6pm.

Anyway, I received a contact enquiry at about 10pm last week so with my ads turned off, I assume it came from Google natural results. I will be doing a big job for the customer over Christmas but the really good news is the customer may require on-going servicing (my core business) – this would result in a GP of about $7500.00 per year and the average cleaning client stays for 4 years.

So I have already seen the benefit of a good SE rank.

The psychology of it all is also really interesting for me as well.

I used to be a staff trainer a long time ago. I taught a killer program that if implemented, would increase results up to five-fold.

But you know what?

Even though 100% of the people I taught had the best available information, only about 15% of people actually implemented the strategies.

And those 15% reaped the rewards of better performance, were generally happier and got promoted sooner.

And the other 85% still complained that they were not getting anywhere!

So even with perfect information, I suspect a lot of soloists may not be able to implement properly optimised SEO techniques.

But a good SEO can.

I think there are a lot of local businesses out there, like mine and probably yours have a “static offering” ie, it does not change too much over time.

For them to pay a good SEO for initial consultation and set up, followed by quarterly or 6 month check ups would be money very well spent and no need to pay high monthly costs.

I think John W and Aiden here on flying solo offer those types of services.

[bb1]

Up

0

::

MD Clean, post: 205455 wrote:

Even though 100% of the people I taught had the best available information, only about 15% of people actually implemented the strategies.

And those 15% reaped the rewards of better performance, were generally happier and got promoted sooner.

And the other 85% still complained that they were not getting anywhere!

So even with perfect information, I suspect a lot of soloists may not be able to implement properly optimised SEO techniques.

But a good SEO can.

I think there are a lot of local businesses out there, like mine and probably yours have a “static offering” ie, it does not change too much over time.

For them to pay a good SEO for initial consultation and set up, followed by quarterly or 6 month check ups would be money very well spent and no need to pay high monthly costs.

I think John W and Aiden here on flying solo offer those types of services.

Paul and others just to clarify. With you example of 100% recieving the same training but the 85% doing complaining about not getting anywhere, that just extends my example I was giving.

If that same group of people were to pay the $1K plus per month of SEO, I suspect that you would have a similiar situation (maybe not percentages), but for a number it will boost their business and be of a great benefit, but for another percentage it will make absolutely no difference to there business, accept drag them down even quicker due to the extra expenses involved.

And yes my comment about the “experts” quoting 1K to 1.5K, didnt apply to all SEO’s on here, I agree some definitely have smaller business in mind and understand that we cant all just spend, spend and spend more on SEO.

But it all comes down to the fundamentals of your business, no point getting 1000 hits or even enquiries per month if you fundamentals are wrong, and you are unable to convert them to sales.

Have a great xmas, and yes its a bonus when you pick up one of those contracts, 6 years ago I dumped a $10k a year contract as she was just a pain in the neck, and was sitting at home thinking why did I do that, and 2 weeks later from a $30.00 job, picked up a $20k plus a year contract which I still have. So hope your new one keeps on keeping on.

[MD Clean]

Up

0

::

bb1, post: 205456 wrote:

Paul and others just to clarify. With you example of 100% recieving the same training but the 85% doing complaining about not getting anywhere, that just extends my example I was giving.

If that same group of people were to pay the $1K plus per month of SEO, I suspect that you would have a similiar situation (maybe not percentages), but for a number it will boost their business and be of a great benefit, but for another percentage it will make absolutely no difference to there business, accept drag them down even quicker due to the extra expenses involved.

And yes my comment about the “experts” quoting 1K to 1.5K, didnt apply to all SEO’s on here, I agree some definitely have smaller business in mind and understand that we cant all just spend, spend and spend more on SEO.

But it all comes down to the fundamentals of your business, no point getting 1000 hits or even enquiries per month if you fundamentals are wrong, and you are unable to convert them to sales.

Have a great xmas, and yes its a bonus when you pick up one of those contracts, 6 years ago I dumped a $10k a year contract as she was just a pain in the neck, and was sitting at home thinking why did I do that, and 2 weeks later from a $30.00 job, picked up a $20k plus a year contract which I still have. So hope your new one keeps on keeping on.

I know what you mean above but it would not be the SEO’s fault if a Soloist couldn’t close a sale.

A friend used to sell accounts for realestate.com and he would get complaints from Agents about all these emails they started getting (enquires about their listings). Many of the agents didn’t know what to do with them, so they just deleted them….

[bb1]

Up

0

::

MD Clean, post: 205463 wrote:

I know what you mean above but it would not be the SEO’s fault if a Soloist couldn’t close a sale.

….

I know what you mean and agree 200%, but when the SEO boldly claims that they can increase sale and conversions, yes if the fundamentals of the business are right they can, but if not, sorry that is just not true, unless a full business evaluation is done,

And thats what other soloists need to be warned about, it is not SEO alone that will increase sales and conversions, there is a lot more involved, so beware of the hype and advertising around SEO..

[Aidan]

Up

0

::

Yup, absolutely,

I’ve had the conversation more times than I wish but the fact is you and your website need to be able to compete and sell or its all a waste of time and money.

I still recall a certain sports supplements & vitamins vendor who was unhappy with both his organic and paid efforts, the traffic was humming along nicely, the search queries were quite commercial and growing steadily, the site looked great and had clear bold CTA’s with easy ordering…

But the tills just were not ‘ka-ching-ing’ enough.

He swore he had done his research and positioned his prices very competitively and he had a great follow up system to turn all those enthusiasts into ongoing repeat sales…

We just couldn’t figure it out…

Until one weekend I was looking for something he happened to sell so I found myself checking out his site and other suppliers. What I found was his site was the most expensive of the ones I checked.

Curious, I started price checking other random products and found his prices were all above the market on the stuff I checked. Same brands, same sizes, higher prices.

The following week I explained what I’d found and he still insisted he was competitive… something about in the long run… because of loyalty discounts.

This of course was not obvious to the shopper and in any event he hadn’t checked the loyalty schemes at the competition. Sigh.

TL;DR
The fact is shoppers will generally check out several websites when they are buying something and all other things being equal, will buy from the cheapest or nearest!

Being first in the SERPs or Ads is not going to mean you get the most sales! Your SEM guy can get you there but he can’t set your prices and delight your customers with service.

Merry Christmas Everyone

[RMD]

Up

0

::

Good,, hope you dont mind , google loves links, it recognises internal at the same rate as external, and out going, link to other pages on your site ,eg all your service pages should crosslink with each other and pricesnand blogs and social profiles, link to high pr authority sites in your articles,, post all your articles to fb, google plus, pinterst, you tube twitter with links to your pages

do some you tube videos about cleaning tips and add them to site as well as ,,at present video linking is the single most effective ranking method, your Where Germs Hide In Offices would make a good series, ham it up

as you are starting to get visitors, maybe build an email list by offering cleaning tips,

[Author]

Posts