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Happy Holidays From Our Team!

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

To our dear friends and valued clients,
Prospect Genius would like to extend our warmest wishes to you and your loved ones this holiday season.
As a reminder, we will be closed on the following days so our team members can celebrate with their families:

  • Friday, December 23
  • Monday, December 26
  • Monday, January 2

On all other days, we’ll be open for regular business hours: Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM.
May your Christmas be merry and bright, and may you enjoy a prosperous new year!
Peace on Earth,
The Prospect Genius Team

Happy holidays!

Looking Ahead: Our Online Marketing Predictions for 2017

Last Updated: December 8, 2016

At the end of the year, we find it useful to take stock of all the industry developments we’ve observed over the past 12 months and try to predict what trends the new year will bring. Understanding the industry’s online marketing predictions for 2017 is the best way to make sure you start the new year on the right foot.
So let’s get right into it. Here are the most significant online marketing predictions for 2017 you need to know about.

1. Putting a Premium on User Experience

Industry experts widely agree that search engines like Google are putting an increasing premium on user experience. Google is shaping its algorithms to accommodate what search users want and expect from their web browsing experience.
And here’s how Sam Oh of Entrepreneur.com describes the expectations of today’s users:

People are no longer satisfied with good speeds and reasonably navigable sites. They now expect websites with nigh on instantaneous load times and sites that are easier to navigate than the back of your own hand.

Oh adds that Google is showing “clear favoritism” toward websites that fulfill these expectations. Google prefers sites that have a low bounce rate and more time spent on each page, which indicate that a site loads quickly, is optimized for mobile devices, and provides whatever information the user is looking for. We’ll discuss these points in depth in the next two online marketing predictions for 2017.

2. Favoring Mobile Usability Even More

Google has already shown a preference for mobile-optimized sites this year, as the volume of mobile searches overtakes desktop searches. What you’ll need to look out for in 2017 is how the definition of “optimized” has shifted.
“Mobile optimized” used to mean your webpages were formatted to shrink and fit a mobile device screen with relatively easy navigation and readability. Now, it means your mobile pages must load super fast and bear very little resemblance to your desktop pages. They must be streamlined with menus and buttons that can be easily found and tapped on a small touch screen. Frankly, design elements left over from a desktop page have no place on a mobile page. Desktop elements will only encumber the usability and speed of a mobile page, thus lowering its SEO value.
These new, ultra-fast mobile pages are referred to as “accelerated mobile pages,” or AMPs for short. And they’re all the rage.
Writing for Forbes.com, R.L. Adams says that, as a result, you’ll want to start designing webpages in 2017 with a “mobile-first” approach, rather than adapting a desktop site for mobile after the fact:

By building a mobile-first design, you’re looking into the future and ensuring that you’re conforming to Google’s wishes. Those wishes are steeped in reality because mobile devices have become so important in our lives, that you simply can’t overlook mobile usability when thinking about SEO, especially when talking about SEO for the future.

Therefore, giving users a faster, more satisfying mobile search experience is at the top of Google’s priorities. Make sure you factor this into your online marketing in 2017.

3. Relying on Natural Language in Searches

Furthering its drive to deliver a better user experience, Google introduced an algorithm (called Hummingbird) that uses natural-language processing to match the meanings of similar words and phrases in search queries. Known as Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), this system places more value on content and natural language over exact keyword matches.
Why are keywords taking a backseat to natural language? Because more people now use their smartphone’s voice commands to search rather than manually type searches into their browser. People tend to ask complete questions instead of speaking in disjointed keywords.
For example, a couple of years ago, if someone was looking for a local restaurant, they would manually type their search term into the browser using keywords. It would look like this: “restaurants Albany NY.” But now, people are more likely to vocally ask Siri or their Android devices to do their searching for them. The same search for a restaurant now sounds like this: “What are the best restaurants in Albany, NY?” This is what we mean by “natural language.”
What impact will this have on your website? Essentially, your content must be detailed, dense, informative, and generally well written. This has always been the case to some extent, but it’s truer than ever now. In order to be favored on search results pages, your site needs more than a bunch of matching keywords. It needs lots of relevant and valuable content so it can be picked up by Google’s natural language processor.
While Google was already moving toward natural language this past year, you can expect an increasing emphasis on it in 2017.

Give Users What They Want

Again, our online marketing predictions for 2017 boil down to one thing: user experience. To enjoy online marketing success in the coming year, you’ll have to help search engines like Google improve user experience. Accelerated mobile pages and natural language processing are two very significant ways Google seeks to do this. Adapt your online marketing to fit these trends.
Good luck!

How to Keep the Holidays From Ruining Your Online Marketing

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

It’s no secret that most of us stretch our budgets a little thin over the holiday season. With parties to host and gifts to buy, money disappears quickly. And for many small business owners, the slightly blurred line between personal and business finances means the holidays can impact some of your company’s operations—like online marketing.
If you’re feeling the squeeze of the holidays on your small business’s budget, it’s fine to tighten your belt—but don’t let it affect your online marketing. Canceling your marketing campaign temporarily or skipping a payment may reduce your expenses in the short term, but did you know there can be seriously negative consequences? The fallout will outlast the holiday season and your savings may turn into losses.
How can that be? Keep reading to find out.

Canceling Your Campaign Sets You Back for Months

Canceling an SEO-based campaign, even just for a month, can jeopardize your future profits. To explain how, we’ll use the way Prospect Genius works as an example.
When a client cancels their campaign with us, it’s our policy to immediately take down their website, pull down their listings, and halt all lead generation services. (Most advertisers have a similar cancellation policy.) Your business will stop receiving traffic and leads right away. So canceling your campaign for the holidays will likely cause you to stop getting new customers for at least a month, or however long it takes for you to restart your campaign.
There’s more. Now, whenever you decide to restart your online marketing, you’ll have to wait another few months for your web presence to ramp up again. Why? Because SEO is not something you can drop and pick up where you left off. As soon as you stop SEO, everything goes back to zero.
As Prospect Genius clients may recall, there’s typically a 90-day buildup period after you start a new campaign. This ramp-up window is unavoidable, regardless of how many times you’ve started and stopped your online marketing. So after all is said and done, you lose several months of business even though you only canceled for one month.

Skipping a Payment Is Hard to Bounce Back From

Another thing that some business owners do is let their marketing payments slide for a month. They think it’s the harmless alternative to canceling entirely. While it’s true that making a late payment is better than canceling, it’s far from harmless. For example, when you miss a payment with Prospect Genius, your account is partially disabled until payment is received, causing a dramatic decrease in leads received.
But the real kicker comes later: After delaying one payment, most business owners find it difficult to get back on track with their monthly billing cycle. This is because they now only have a couple of weeks, instead of a full month, to save up for the next payment. Often, this begins an unfortunate pattern of falling behind that’s difficult to stop.

What Can You Do?

We aren’t trying to scare you. We understand there are peaks and valleys in every fiscal year and that the holidays can be especially trying. If money is tight, here are some things you can do that won’t hurt you in the long run:

  • If you’re doing AdWords or any other PPC campaign, pause it. While you can’t turn SEO off and on again easily, PPC can be started and stopped with ease.
  • Budget wisely. Plan out all of your income and expenses for the month to see how much money you’ll realistically have for gifts, decorations, food, and, yes, marketing costs.
  • Pay in advance. If you think there’s a chance you’ll overspend on holiday goods and not have enough money at the end of the month to pay your bill, be safe and pay your bill ahead of time—before your money runs out.

Remember: You’ve invested a lot in your online marketing. Don’t let your web presence come crashing down by canceling your campaign or not paying your bills. You might save a monthly payment, but it will cost you much more down the road.
Questions or concerns? Please don’t hesitate to reach out for help.

Announcing Our New Office!

Last Updated: November 30, 2016

As of December 1, 2016, Prospect Genius is operating from a new office in Troy, NY. We’re super excited about this move.
For the last four-and-a-half years, we’ve been located in the Rensselaer Technology Park, and that’s where we’ll remain. Our new office is just down the street. The Tech Park is key because it’s outfitted with amenities that are integral to our day-to-day function (like fiber-based Internet connectivity). Plus, you can’t beat the lovely scenery and landscaping.
Our new office is definitely smaller than our previous one, but the smaller space actually makes sense: We’ve been hiring a growing number of work-from-home employees, which made all that extra space (and overhead) unnecessary. Moreover, the spaciousness made all our team members feel a little too distant from one another.
Now, with a more intimate space, the sales, customer service, and production teams won’t feel so isolated. Instead, we’ll be able to cultivate closeness, interact more frequently, collaborate on ideas, and generally improve our innovative services.
Alex Pelli, our president and CEO, is optimistic about the move. He says, “This new location will be a better fit for our vision of the future.” What a great way to close out the year!

  • Our old address: 250 Jordan Road, Troy, NY 12180
  • Our new address: 385 Jordan Road, Troy, NY 12180

Stop Renting! Invest in Website Ownership to Build Your Tax Resolution Brand

Last Updated: November 28, 2016

For tax resolution professionals looking to reach more customers online, the logical step is to sign up with a web marketer. It makes perfect sense: You get your own website, directory listings, and general online promotion. It’s everything you need to advertise your tax help services to all the right people.
However, there’s something you may not realize. With many online marketing companies, “your own website” is not what it sounds like. It’s actually a website owned by the marketer, not you. This sets you up for years of renting—essentially borrowing—the website that’s the cornerstone of your Internet visibility. So if that website ever goes away, you can wave goodbye to your web presence.
There’s a better way. With Prospect Genius’s CoreSite™ product, as soon as you purchase your website, you own it. This ownership gives you control, enabling you to invest in your brand long term.

Why is having control of your website so important? And how does it help you down the road? Read on to find out.

Owning vs. Renting

Just like with real estate, there are major benefits to owning versus renting. What they all boil down to, though, is what you end up with at the end of the day. When you rent a house for a year, you pay 12 monthly payments to keep a roof over your head. That’s all you get. At the end of the year, you have nothing to show for the rent you’ve paid, except for maybe not dying of exposure. When you buy a house and pay monthly mortgage payments, you still get a roof over your head. But you also secure the additional benefit of equity in your home. When the mortgage is paid off, you own the property; whereas if you were paying rent for all that time, you’d still have zero equity—and zero ownership—of the home.
With a website owned by your marketing company, you’re renting, paying month in and month out to keep your site up. As soon as you stop paying, they can take your website down, sell it to a competitor, or take any number of other steps that functionally dismantle your entire web presence.
When you own your website, it’s yours to keep. You can pay Prospect Genius to promote it. You can work with another online advertising company for search engine optimization or other web visibility-enhancing strategies. It’s up to you. You own your website, so you make the choice!

Investing in Your Brand

For tax resolution companies, your reputation is everything. Taxpayers who are looking for tax problem help simply won’t work with a tax advisor who isn’t highly regarded and known for honest expertise. That makes sense, as the wrong tax advice can lead a taxpayer to owe thousands more in penalties and interest. However, it also means you have to do everything you can to build and maintain your brand’s reputation.
Not sure how your reputation ties into owning your own website? It’s simple. When you own your website, you’re investing in your brand. You’re promoting your tax help company using a both a business name and a URL you can rely on to be around down the road. You have control over these things because you own your site. With the traditional renting model, you risk losing control of that URL and having to start over from scratch on building your brand name and recognition.
So when it comes to marketing your tax resolution company online, who do you want in control of your website—and thus your entire web presence? If you want to invest in your company’s future, then invest in your brand. Make sure you own your website.
For more information on the benefits of owning your website, or to learn more about Prospect Genius’s CoreSite product, feel free to contact us at your convenience!

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