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Two Need-to-Know Changes That Will Impact Your Advertising Campaign for the Rest of 2015

Last Updated: June 18, 2015

smartphone in front of crowd
Does it feel like we’re always trumpeting some game-changing update to the online advertising world? You’re not wrong. But that’s because the online advertising world is always changing. As consumer behavior evolves, so must advertising. In the last couple of years, the most dramatic change in consumer behavior has been the rapidly growing usage of mobile devices. Advertisers and search engines alike have had to make sweeping updates in order to account for the fact that, on the whole, more people are using mobile devices than personal computers. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the two biggest changes to watch out for in the second half of 2015 are both linked to the rise in mobile usage.
Here’s what you need to know to keep your advertising campaign on the right track through the end of the year.

The Emphasis on Mobile Will Affect Your Leads

Not only has Google begun evaluating the mobile-friendliness of every indexed webpage, but it also factors the level of mobile-friendliness into each page’s ranking on mobile search results. Essentially, this means your rankings will plummet in mobile search results if you don’t update the structure of your website and make it as mobile-friendly as possible.
Not worried about your mobile search rankings? Think your business will be fine without any leads from mobile users? Think again. In July 2014, the search industry discovered that Internet usage on mobile devices had surpassed Internet usage on personal desktop computers. Then, just last month, Google announced that this trend had affected search queries, as well: In the U.S. and other parts of the world, more Google search queries are occurring on smartphones and mobile devices than on desktops. In other words, if you’re not ranking in mobile search results, you’re missing out on over half of your target customers.

Facebook’s Gone Mobile, Too

Not only will your Google rankings drop if your site isn’t mobile friendly, but you’ll also alienate any prospects who come across your site by other means, like social media. Did you know that, in 2015, 87% of Facebook’s active monthly users accessed Facebook from their mobile devices? If you’re using Facebook to promote your business, this means many of your target customers will be connecting to your site from Facebook on their smartphones or tablets. But if your site won’t load or display correctly because it’s not optimized for mobile, then you’ll lose those customers who got frustrated and moved on.

Unique, Good-Quality Photos Are a Must-Have

Thanks to the prominence of mobile, photos on your Google listing went from being nice-to-haves to must-haves. This shift has as much to do with user experience as it does with search engine ranking.

Appeal to Real People

When people use their smartphones to search for local businesses, they’re usually doing so because they’re on the go and need to make a quick decision. Since mobile users don’t have lots of time or patience on their hands, you want to grab their attention right away. This is where photos come in. Adding catchy photos of your business logo, staff members, products, and/or services will signal to them right away that you’re a legitimate company. They’ll immediately get a sense of what your company is about without having to do too much reading or scrolling. Photos of real people and places speak louder than any description you could possibly write. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
This applies to more than just your Google listing, too. It applies to anywhere that your company can be found. Whether it’s on your own website, Facebook, Yelp, or another online directory, your content should be filled with compelling photos to boost your credibility.

Appeal to Search Bots

Photos appeal to the search bots, too. We’ve recently observed that our clients’ Google listings perform much better when they contain several unique, good-quality photos. That’s because Google’s algorithm has begun weighting photos more heavily, which is probably linked to its new focus on mobile search. As we explained above, photos make for a more mobile-friendly experience, and Google understands this. It wants to give its users the best search experience possible, so it’s prioritizing listings that have the highest appeal. So not only will photos improve your appearance to mobile users, but they will strengthen your search performance, as well.

How to Act

Thankfully, responding to these changes is simple and easy.

To Become Mobile Friendly…

Talk to your online advertising provider, or whoever designed your website, and find out if your site is already optimized for mobile. If it’s not, then you better take action quickly. Most providers and designers—legitimate ones, anyway—are equipped to make this upgrade relatively easily. It shouldn’t cost much time or money to make this very necessary upgrade to your template.

To Add Photos to Your Listings and Pages…

Again, talk to your online advertising provider (if you have one). Send in your own photos and have your advertiser upload them to your site and all of your listings. If you’re working with a provider, do not attempt to upload them to your Google listing on your own. (Google doesn’t like it when a listing is being managed from two disparate IP addresses.) However, if you’re doing all of your advertising on your own, then you’re obviously free to upload photos wherever and whenever you wish.
Remember: When we say “unique, good-quality photos,” we mean that literally. Using stock photos, despite their professional quality, will not do anything to sell your company. People can spot impersonal stock photos from a mile away. Sure, they’re better than no photos at all, but they won’t do much to improve your lead generation or credibility. You’re better off taking your own photos for free. With the high camera quality on smartphones these days, it’s not at all difficult to snap a high-resolution photo while you’re on the job. You have no excuses!

READ THIS: "4 Things Most Leaders Don't Know About SEO"

Last Updated: June 11, 2015

By now, you’ve heard of the term “search engine optimization” (SEO for short), and at least recognize that there’s a lot of significance behind it. However, according to a recent article on Search Engine Land, there’s still a lot about SEO that business owners don’t know.
SEO concept
In his article, “4 Things Most Leaders Don’t Understand About SEO,” columnist Trond Lyngbø describes a major problem with business owners and SEO—mainly that they perceive SEO as a quick fix, an add-on, instead of the holistic approach to online marketing that it should be.
Here are the five most significant points from Lyngbø’s article:

  1. SEO should be incorporated into every aspect of your marketing, including PPC.
  2. Before you can begin creating optimized content, you must do your due-diligence and research your audience’s needs and interests. This way, you can attract your ideal prospects. Then, once they’ve visited your website, your content will demonstrate an understanding of why they need your product or service. This is what will grow your conversion rate. 
  3. In order to optimize your content and get the highest click-through rate, your company’s branding (i.e. messaging) must connect with what your prospects want to hear. In your advertising, you should be offering answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. Lyngbø writes, “Your story becomes more interesting when you talk about what they are already interested in.”
  4. But SEO means more than just targeting the right keywords and content. It also means structuring your website so that the code is search engine friendly, pages load efficiently, navigation is easy, and internal links are sound.
  5. However, SEO is not a cure-all. You must have a good product at the center of your marketing. That’s not only because you want your customers to spread the good word, but also because customer reviews will soon become a crucial ranking factor: “[Google] wants its users to keep coming back, so it will ultimately strive to suggest only high quality products and services which their users will love.”

Read the full article for further details, and feel free to check out additional columns by Trond Lyngbø on Search Engine Land.

Have You Outgrown Your Current Advertising Package?

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

There’s a common misconception floating around that the only way to change the direction of your advertising is to change advertisers.
Many clients don’t realize that it’s simple and easy to transition to a different advertising package within the Prospect Genius program. Instead, they uproot their entire campaign and start over from scratch, costing themselves a lot of time, money, and aggravation in the process. Completely changing providers when you want to move your advertising in a new direction is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Why abandon your investment and start over the hard way when it’s much easier, faster, and more economical to use the services that are already available to you?
A lot of hardship can be avoided if you just talk to us about your new direction. Our experts can craft a whole new solution for you by adding or subtracting elements of your current program, thus helping you leverage the investment you’ve already made. Even if it turns out that you do have to take your business to a new provider, we can at least help make your transition smoother and less damaging. But either way, if you don’t let us guide you, you risk doing irreparable damage to your web presence and campaign.

Reasons for Switching Packages

There are countless reasons for wanting to make a change to your advertising package. Hopefully, your reasons have to do with the growth of your company and the new direction in which you’re headed.
For example, let’s say you first signed up with us in 2011. Back then, all we offered was SEO-based lead generation, which we now call our Core program. After four years of seeing steady SEO results, you now feel like your advertising has become static. You want to give your campaign a little shot in the arm by promoting seasonal specials. Why not add on our PPC package for a couple of months? Our content specialists could handle your paid advertising for a short time while maintaining your SEO, and then we could help you decide whether you should stick with it or change to something else.
Or, instead, let’s say you had your own website when you first enrolled in our PPC program and have enjoyed a significant amount of growth since then. Now you want to focus on growing your brand. In this case, adding our Remarketing service would be a great solution because it would enable us to use your existing PPC campaign to create broader brand awareness for your company.
Or maybe you were a fledgling business owner without the slightest hint of a web presence when you first signed up for our Core program. Now, you want to move past the modest LeadTrax™ site we built you and hire an expensive, professional designer to create a flashy site that reflects how far you’ve come. You could absolutely do that without having to sever ties with us. When you switch to our B.Y.O.S. (Bring Your Own Site) package, we would simply start performing SEO for your new-and-improved site, instead.
There are dozens more examples, but you get the idea: Switching programs is great for virtually any client, as long as it’s in the interest of growing or expanding your campaign.

How to Switch Packages

It may not seem like it, but this is the easy part. As we mentioned above, all you have to do is talk to us. If you’re feeling like your campaign is in need of a shakeup, let us know. At the end of the day, we want you to have the campaign that satisfies you the most. When you talk to us about your vision for your advertising’s future, we’ll apply our expertise and come up with a solution that will make your vision a reality.
If you want to stick with a holistic marketing package, you can choose between Starter, Core, and Premium. Moving from one to another is easy. Otherwise, if you just want to build on your existing advertising package, these are your add-on options:
Mountaineering Route. Goal Achievement Concept. Vector

Alternative Options

What happens if you speak with us about your goals and we both realize that our partnership is no longer a good fit? Well, by letting us in on the discussion, you’ve at least made it possible for us to advise you and make sure you move in the right direction. We can make your transition to a new company as painless as possible, using products like CleanSlate to minimize the damage to your SEO.
Transitioning will be much smoother when you keep us in the loop. It’s in our best interest, as well as yours, to make sure everyone leaves the partnership on a pleasant note.

Conclusion: Keep an Ongoing Discussion

Communicating with us about your changing needs is vital to your marketing success. Whether you end up staying with us or moving on, it’s essential that you keep us informed and allow us to guide you in the right direction. Don’t make the mistake of making a hasty decision without an expert opinion. The future of your business is too valuable.

Google Now Displays Tweets in Search Results

Last Updated: May 22, 2015

Earlier this year, Google announced that it had reached a deal with Twitter to display tweets in its search results. On May 19, the experts at Search Engine Land noticed that Google was finally executing its plan, as tweets began appearing prominently in a “new and more graphical way” on mobile search results. Desktop searches have not yet been affected, but Google promises that the change will extend to desktop in the near future.
twitter logo
Having conducted several test search queries, Search Engine Land observes that tweets sometimes appear right at the top of the search results page (primarily when the query contains a hashtag), and other times tweets appear in the middle of the page. And, of course, there are times when tweets don’t appear at all.
Search Engine Land surmises that the appearance of tweets largely depends on whether the query is connected to a trending topic: “Presumably, you’re more likely to see tweets in Google when a hashtag, topic, person or organization appears to be trending or is newsworthy.”
For instance, if you were to google, “#NBAPlayoffs,” which are going on right now, you would probably see lots of tweets about the most recent game or a popular player. But if you googled something like, “spatula,” you would just get the normal results.
This update is just the latest in a string of developments that have highlighted the increasing importance of social signals in Google’s algorithms. It’s still too early to tell how this update will impact local search, but it’s safe to say that businesses should start tweeting a lot more.

7 Signs That Call From Google Is a Scam

Last Updated: May 14, 2015

Cons and scams certainly aren’t unique to the Internet Age, but it definitely seems like they’re lurking around every corner lately. At one time or another, we’ve all received spam e-mails, Facebook messages, and phone calls from individuals who are posing as other people to trick us into giving up our money or personal information. That “Nigerian prince” e-mail chain from 15 years ago may not be circulating anymore, but plenty of other, more convincing scams have taken its place. Scams that involve shady companies pretending to be Google are a prime example.
Businessman is covering the phone

7 Ways to Spot the Scam

In these Google scams, regular business owners are bombarded with unsolicited phone calls from individuals pretending to be from Google. You should be very wary of any phone call “from Google” if the caller does any of the following:

  1. Tells you that you’re not ranking
  2. Tells you that your site is not mobile friendly
  3. Tells you that your listing is not verified
  4. Offers you a certain placement or position on Google
  5. Discusses your performance on Google
  6. Even mentions SEO or optimization
  7. Asks for money or payment (unless it’s an AdWords pitch)

Google will never, ever call you out of the blue to discuss any of the above topics. Google would not be concerned about improving your rankings or optimizing your business’s listing in any way.
Moreover, if your site is not mobile friendly, you would receive an e-mail or pop-up notification on your Google My Business page directly from Google saying as much. Google wouldn’t go out of its way to call you just to tell you that.
Finally, Google typically doesn’t even call businesses unless they’ve already been verified by PIN, so you can ignore any phony caller who’s posing as a Google representative and telling you that your listing is not verified.

What Do Legitimate Google Calls Look Like?

First of all, the only two numbers that we know to be associated with Google for unsolicited calls are (650) 253-0000 and (650) 253-2000. These are the only two legitimate Google phone numbers we’ve seen in our seven years of operation. However, if there are any other authentic Google phone numbers out there, they will always have a (650) area code (for Mountain View, CA).
If Google does call you unsolicited, it will be an extremely rare occasion, and it will only be for one of two reasons: 

  1. Google might call about your Google My Business listing for quality control purposes. The caller will just ask you about the information on your listing in order to confirm your service offerings, physical address, and other pertinent info. This is standard procedure as Google wants to ensure the accuracy of the information it’s publishing (after all, its credibility is on the line). These calls typically come from one of Google’s outsourced call centers overseas; the caller will most likely have a foreign accent.
  2. Google might also call you to sell AdWords or AdWords Express. These calls will be obvious sales pitches for AdWords, and they will not discuss rankings or positioning on search results pages. Furthermore, these calls will be from one of Google’s domestic headquarters; the caller will most likely have an American accent.

Again, it bears repeating that Google will never try to optimize your website or Google My Business listing. It’s okay if the caller asks you about information on your listing as a way of verifying what’s already in the system, but your guard should go up as soon as they start asking you for your credit card number or other sensitive information.

What If It Feels Like a Scam?

If any red flags appear to you during the phone call, simply ask the caller directly if they are from Google. If they answer you by saying that they “work with” or are “partners with” Google, then they’re clearly trying to skirt around the question.
It’s important to note that many second-rate advertising companies will claim to be partners with Google. This terminology is misleading because it makes it sound like the company has a special deal or affiliation with Google—but that’s not the truth at all. When an advertising company brags about being a Google Partner, it really just means someone from that company passed Google’s AdWords and Analytics exams online. Any advertiser can become a Google Partner. If an advertiser tries to use this certification as a way to trick people into believing that they have a special relationship with Google, that should tell you they represent a dishonest company, and you should act accordingly.
However, if you’ve received a phone call from a true scam artist—not just a desperate advertising company—then there’s a chance they will lie and claim that they are indeed from Google. In these cases, it’s critical for you to trust your instincts. If you’ve gotten a bad vibe during the conversation and the caller has raised any of the red flags explained above, then you should not trust them. Instead, you should terminate the phone call and report it to one of the many online scam alert websites.

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