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6 Common SEO Practices That Will Get You in Trouble

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Day in and day out, we encounter small business owners who are completely misinformed about Google’s policies. In particular, there seems to be a lot of false information about the legitimacy (or lack thereof) of certain online advertising practices. We hate to see trusting business owners get in trouble with Google by making honest, albeit misinformed, mistakes. That’s we’re dedicating this post to highlighting popular online advertising behaviors that are sure to provoke Google’s retribution. Below, we’ve compiled a list of the most illegitimate SEO practices that are somehow still being used.

1. Using a fake address.

Google has street-view images of virtually every U.S. address in existence, so they’ll know immediately whether it’s really your business’s location. Moreover, you must be able to receive mail at the address you give, as Google will send you a postcard to verify your location. If there’s any question about your address, Google might even have someone drive by to check it out in person!

2. Creating multiple listings for the same company.

Some business owners try to market their company in every surrounding city to optimize their search traffic. Don’t ever do this. More than likely, Google will quickly recognize what you’re doing as spam, and your listings will be suspended. You may even be slapped with a longer-lasting penalty that will haunt you into the future.

3. Using shady back-links.

Sure, links from elsewhere to your own website are highly valuable as far as search engine optimization goes. But if those links aren’t authentic, or from relevant sites, then they won’t do anything to increase your website’s value. Plus, if Google catches you (which they likely will), your site will be suspended from search results. (J.C. Penney was caught with thousands of shady back-links in 2011. Click here to read the New York Times article with the full scoop.)

4. “Keyword stuffing.”

Have you ever seen a website jam-packed with what seems like every relevant keyword and nearby location imaginable? This is what’s known as keyword stuffing, and Google views it as spam. It’s obvious and easy for Google to spot, so don’t do it.

5. Using the same address for multiple, related companies.

Trying to double your traffic by creating two different company listings, both at the same address, will backfire. If you’re the owner of Bob’s Appliance at 123 Main Street, then you can’t also create a listing for Tom’s Appliance at 123 Main Street. This is grounds for suspension of both listings.

6. Publishing deceptive customer reviews.

That means you should never write reviews of your own company, nor should you pay others to write them. Google tracks the IP addresses of all incoming posts, and they’ll notice if there’s anything unnatural about the “who,” “where,” and “when” of customer reviews. If your reviews are questionable, your listing will probably be suspended.

You Can’t Outsmart Google

Unfortunately, many business owners hear rumors that they can find ways around Google’s guidelines, but the fact remains that Google will always be at least one step ahead. They have superior technology and an incredible amount of manpower, so it’s simply impossible to pull the wool over their eyes—at least, not for long. Your best bet is to study the rules and do your best SEO work without breaking them.
If you need clarification about any of the above points, don’t hesitate to contact a Prospect Genius representative today! We’re here to help.

Leverage Your Customer Feedback

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Customer Reviews Are Invaluable

When a customer gives you a glowing review of the work and service you provided, you’ll want to spread the word as much as possible. In doing so, you’ll let prospective customers know that one of their peers has already vouched for the quality of your company. This kind of exposure is invaluable to any business.

Reviews Lead to Better Rankings, Too

Now, more than ever, is a good time to start utilizing social media outlets and business directories for customer reviews. Since the major search engines’ algorithms are starting to weigh social content more and more heavily, they’ve actually begun crowd-sourcing data from customer reviews in their regular search results. For instance, if one of the query’s keywords appears in a customer review from a business’s Google+ Local listing, then that listing is likely to rank higher on the results page.

Think Before You DIY

Not surprisingly, there are quite a few online platforms that make it easy to advertise businesses and showcase reviews. Some of them include:

Facebook
Google+ Local
Yahoo! Local
HomeAdvisor (formerly ServiceMagic)
Yelp
Bing Places

At this point, you might be thinking that you could do all of this work yourself. After all, how hard could it be to gather your customer reviews and dump them into an account? Well, it’s a lot more complicated than it looks.

First of all, it’s important to remember that you should never use one of these platforms exclusively. It’s not a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket, anyway, but it’s also true that these platforms each have their downsides. For example:

Yelp uses very inconsistent review-filtering software to weed out “questionable” customer reviews. This often backfires on businesses with only a handful of reviews.
HomeAdvisor pools customer reviews from every business and highlights them on their site without attribution. This means your review could show up on another business’s listing, which would give all the credit for your stellar services directly to a competitor.
Google+ is notorious for “accidentally” deleting reviews from business accounts, and they frequently flip-flop on their review policies. You could be penalized for actively collecting reviews despite the fact that this practice was actually encouraged by Google+ not long ago.
Facebook often has apps and other features that work one day and malfunction the next. With Facebook, your account and reviews simply aren’t stable.

Plus, if you store all of your reviews on only one directory or social media outlet, then you could lose them for good if something ever goes wrong with your listing. Relying on several platforms instead of just one is an effective way to avoid these pitfalls.

Some ideas:

Store your reviews in a variety of places.
Start off with Facebook, as its partnership with Bing means that customer reviews and “Likes” will push your listing closer to the top of Bing’s results.
For the same reason, encourage customers to “Like” your Facebook page.
Once you have about 10 reviews on Facebook, move on to Google+ Local and store the next 10 there.
Then, use Bing Places, Yelp, Yahoo! Local, and so on.

Add a Feedback Feature Into the Mix

Asking customers to take a chunk out of their day to write a review of your business isn’t easy. They lead busy lives, and any free time is precious. If you’re going to request reviews from satisfied customers, the least you can do is make it as easy as possible for them.
That’s where an on-page feedback feature comes in. Let’s use ours as an example. When a customer goes to one of our clients’ LeadTrax™ sites and leaves a review, they won’t have to create an account or go through any of the rigmarole that usually comes with using an online business directory. They can simply rate their experience with our client, write a brief description of the services provided, and hit “Submit.” Done. And if that customer was so happy with our client’s services that they’d like to spread the word even further, we provide convenient links to our client’s Facebook and Google+ accounts, where their customer can copy and paste their review.
Here’s how our feedback feature looks:

Our favorite part of the feedback feature is that it only prompts customers to share their review on other sites when they give a positive rating:

If they claim a negative experience, they will just see a page that thanks them for their feedback:

Positive reviews will appear automatically on our clients’ sites as soon as they’re submitted, while negative reviews remain hidden. And with only satisfied customers being encouraged to share their reviews on other sites, our clients don’t have to worry quite as much about unhappy customers going to every corner of the Internet and sullying their good name.
If our feedback feature is something you’re interested in learning more about, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Page One Guarantee? No, Thanks.

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

“We’ll put your website on the first page of Google!”
“Guaranteed page-one rankings!”
“First-page placement guaranteed!”
You’ve heard it all before.
If you search Google for SEO services, it won’t take long for you to find a slew of SEO companies making these types of guarantees. In fact, these guarantees are so pervasive, you could easily conclude that they’re the basis of most companies’ business plans. However, when it comes down to it, these companies are guaranteeing something that is 100% out of their control. Sure, there are a handful of tricks and paid programs (e.g. AdWords, pay-per-click) that will automatically boost a website’s rankings, but there are too many factors at play for anyone to predict a certain outcome with any accuracy. Yet, that doesn’t stop countless SEO companies and local online marketers from making these empty promises time and time again.

Here’s why you should always be wary of a page-one guarantee.

Magic Cures Don’t Exist in the World of SEO

Online marketers are like doctors. Does that sound like a stretch? Maybe. After all, marketers aren’t required to endure eight years of rigorous medical training and they certainly don’t save lives on a regular basis. But they’re similar to doctors in one fundamental way: They prescribe treatments but cannot guarantee a cure.
There are a couple of reasons for this. First…

The Solution Relies Heavily on Your Participation

Think about the last time you visited the doctor’s office. Did you expect a guarantee that you would be restored to full health by the time you left? No, of course not. No doctor is all powerful, and the success of the treatment relies heavily on your earnest participation in it. You must be 100% honest about your medical history and your symptoms before the doctor can make any diagnosis.

In that same vein, an online marketer must get the full picture of your web presence and history before devising any sort of SEO plan. If you were experiencing chest pains, wouldn’t you tell the doctor about your heart condition? By the same logic, if you’re having trouble ranking on Google, then you should notify your online marketer about any previous missteps, particularly any penalties or suspensions that you’ve been slapped with. These types of run-ins with Google will certainly affect your website’s rankings, and no SEO specialist is able to counteract them—whether they’ve made a guarantee or not. When it comes to SEO, Google’s word is law.

It Also Demands Time

But let’s say that you don’t have any strikes against you. If your SEO specialist checks out your website and decides that top-to-bottom revisions are necessary to increase your content’s relevance and readability—which is usually what happens—you’ll still be left with a sizable waiting period before your site will show any progress in the rankings. For most small business websites, changes aren’t detected by Google for 30 to 60 days. Some changes to your website or to directory listings can even take 120 days or more to be detected!

Once changes have been made, your specialist will have to wait until they take shape before any outcome can be determined. From there, you’ll be able to take the next steps. Medical treatments work the same way: A doctor assesses your ailment, provides you with medicine, and then waits to see if the problem clears up. If that rash or cough goes away, great. If not, then the doctor will need to adjust the diagnosis and start treatment again. Likewise, the ideal situation is that your online marketer improves your Google ranking within those first 60 days; however, if the original plan doesn’t work, then your SEO professional will need to reassess your keywords, targeted search terms, accuracy of information, and other factors before moving forward.
In other words, there are many moving parts that all contribute to your search engine rankings, and many of them are completely hidden to anyone outside of Google and Bing themselves. This means that there is always an element of trial and error in SEO.

Guarantees Are Ambiguous

When an online marketer guarantees page-one rankings for your website, several questions should come to mind:

For which search terms?
In what time frame?
Who is performing the search?
- Is this person logged in to a Google account?
- Does his/her IP address have an extensive search history?
Will this search be conducted on Google, Bing, Yahoo!, AOL, Ask.com, Best of the Web, or another minor search engine?
Does “page one” refer to maps, pay-per-click, or organic results?

Online marketers who have no qualms about making bogus guarantees also have no problem leaving the details as vague as possible. Your website might show up on page one after their IP address is associated with countless searches for the same keywords. The keywords that you rank highly for might be super specific and not very valuable. You might have to pay additional exorbitant fees for clicks or AdWords. Or they might deliver first-page rankings, but on some third-rate search engine that means nothing for your actual web presence.
Speaking of things that mean nothing…

Rankings Aren’t As Important As They’d Have You Think

When it comes down to it, what are you really spending all that money on an online marketer for? Is it so that you can see your company’s website jump to the top of a very narrow search results page? Or is it so that you can ultimately generate more leads, find more business, and increase your revenue? As business owners ourselves, we’re betting it’s the latter.
If your goal is to get more prospective customers to call your business and book services, then it won’t help you to pour all of your time and money into getting a first-page ranking while ignoring every other platform out there. You need to find an online marketer who will utilize popular business directories like Yelp and Angie’s List and promote your company all over social media, namely Facebook and Twitter.

SEO companies that understand just how much goes into effective lead generation will never guarantee a first-page ranking for your business. It would be a guarantee of something outside of their control, and it’s dishonest to pretend otherwise.

Missed Calls, Missed Customers

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Right now, you could be hindering your company’s growth without even knowing it.
It’s no joke. Every time you miss a call, you lose money. In fact, you could be losing upwards of thousands of dollars annually from missed calls alone. Whether it’s a call from Google+ Local or a prospective customer, you chip away at your business’s future success every time you don’t pick up the phone.
At Prospect Genius, we’ve noticed a disturbing behavior among our clients: they aren’t answering their phones! For some reason, they don’t seem interested in speaking with prospective customers. But we suspect that our clients aren’t the only small business owners who are letting countless calls go to voice mail or ignoring calls altogether due to a heavy workload. While it’s understandable that you’re too busy to answer your phone, we’re going to demonstrate in this post why it’s still a huge mistake.

When Google Calls, You Better Answer

As we discussed in a previous post, Google has been contacting local businesses in an attempt to verify their locations and contact information. While every business owner is theoretically vulnerable to these phone calls from Google, we’ve discovered that older listings are the ones being targeted specifically. If your listing predates the Panda and Penguin updates—or, in other words, it’s at least three years old—then you’re likely to receive a phone call from Google (if you haven’t already). When Google calls, it’s imperative that you answer all of their questions correctly, lest your business listing get suspended and you lose contact with your customers. But before you can answer those questions, you’ll need to answer your phone.

Customers Are Calling. Are You Picking Up?

It may seem unnecessary and obvious to tell you that customers are calling your business, but you’d be surprised by how many prospective customer calls are missed by small business owners each month. To demonstrate that point, we sampled our own clients to see how many calls are answered, how many answered calls lead to sales, and how many calls go to voice mail. Here were the two biggest takeaways:

Nearly one-third (29.49%) of customer calls go to voice mail.
Roughly 60% of answered customer calls lead to a sale.

Prospective customers are looking for a service to be provided. They want to hire someone. But that means if a prospective customer gets your voice mail, they’re most likely going to move on and dial the next business on their list. In other words,when you fail to answer your phone, you lose business. Plain and simple.
A Real-Life Example:
A Prospect Genius team member recently remodeled her home. She called 17 different deck builders before even one of them got back to her. That means all of those other deck builders lost out on her business! She needed to hire someone, and she kept looking until she got a response.

Missed Calls Mean Lost Revenue…

Using our own call logs, we broke down the volume of missed calls by average job prices with high and low estimates of leads per month. Then, based on the 29.49% ratio of missed calls, we determined how much money each category is losing per year from not answering the phone. Take a look:

Average Job	Leads Per Month (High and Low Estimate)	Revenue Lost Each Year
$100	20	$1,200.00
$100	70	$4,200.00
$250	20	$3,000.00
$250	70	$10,500.00
$500	20	$6,000.00
$500	70	$21,000.00
$2,000	20	$24,000.00
$2,000	70	$84,000.00

It’s tough to get an exact idea of what your phone habits are like. We recommend implementing some type of call recording system for your business’s phone line so that you can keep track of many calls are answered and how many go to voice mail. You may be surprised by how much you’re missing out on!

…And Lost Referrals, Too

Referrals are integral to the growth of your business. For every satisfied customer that you have, you can expect a handful of referrals to come to you through word of mouth. With a good referral, you can turn one job into three or four. But when you don’t answer your phone, you’re missing out on the opportunity to grow your client base. In other words, you’re not only missing out on immediate business, but you’re also losing a significant amount of future business.
A Real-Life Example:
We return to the story of that same Prospect Genius team member from above. Further down the road, she needed a home inspector and hired a reliable home inspection company through a friend’s referral. Once the job was finished and she was happy with the experience, she wound up referring that same company to six other people, all of whom booked jobs. When that home inspector first answered his phone, he probably had no idea that there would be seven total jobs on the line.

Find a Way to Answer Your Calls

It’s simple: Responding to customers as promptly as possible is a surefire way to gain more business.
But we know it’s impossible to be available 100% of the time. That’s why we’re sharing a list of recommendations that we often give to our own clients:

Hire an answering service or receptionist to pick up the phone while you’re on the job.
Forward calls to your mobile phone.
Sign up for one of the many available call-tracking features that notify you by text or e-mail as soon as you’ve missed a call.

You can also record a friendly, professional voice mail greeting to let your prospects know that, even though you’re busy on the job, their business is still a priority for you. Here’s a great example from All Pro Appliance and TV Repair, a stellar local business in Allen, TX:

Click to Listen
You can hear the sincerity in the business owner’s voice. Not only does he offer a friendly greeting, but he also sounds like he genuinely wants to speak with the caller. He explains that his technicians answer calls personally and asks the caller to be patient. It’s a great example of how you can convey the importance of any given customer’s call.
Prospective customers are much more likely to wait for your response once they hear how authentic and friendly you are.
No matter which strategies you use, anything that enables you to answer and return more phone calls will be a massive improvement. Don’t let a whopping one-third of your business slip away—do what it takes to make sure that your phone is being answered.
The Prospect Genius program comes with a free call-tracking feature as well as a Client Portal that provides you with various reports so you can watch your campaign’s performance. If you’re interested in learning more about our lead generation program, give us a call at 1-800-689-1273.

Is Google Trying to Trick You? (And Other Related Scams)

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

As any savvy business owner or SEO specialist already knows, there’s an overabundance of online scams and unfair Google policies taking over web-based marketing. You don’t need to hear it from Prospect Genius. However, we’d like to dedicate this post to a few of the disturbing trends and scams that we’ve noticed recently in hopes that it will help some of you avoid potential dangers down the road. In particular, these cons and rip-offs are related to Google and Google+ Local.

Scam #1: Google Impostors Call Businesses, Seek Private Information

The first major scam that’s increasing in frequency involves anonymous third parties calling business owners under the guise of “Google,” “Google Inc.,” “Google Places,” or a similar name. While the idea of pretending to represent a company in order to trick unsuspecting victims into payment or divulging valuable information is nothing new, this poses a new problem unique to our current state of technology. Now, with resources like caller ID, it’s easier than ever for miscreants to deceive innocent business owners and lead them to believe that they’re speaking with a Google representative. Using these tactics, they’ll ask you for personal information and even convince you to sign up for a paid program that doesn’t exist. Of the scams that will be highlighted here, this one is by far the most dangerous.
How to Protect Yourself
As stated above, these swindlers have engineered a way for their telephone account names to display on caller IDs as different variations of “Google.” But don’t let that fool you. No matter what the caller ID says, there are only two phone numbers affiliated with Google that will actually make attempts to contact business owners: 650-253-2000 and 650-253-0000 (both these numbers show as GOOGLE INC on your caller ID). If you receive a call from any other number that claims to be Google, don’t answer. It’ll be an impostor, and the conversation won’t be pleasant.
For your security, keep in mind that anyone asking for your password, PIN, and other sensitive information is not a legitimate Google representative. Remember: The real Google will never contact you for this kind of information.

Scam #2: If You Have a Suspended Listing, Google May Extort You Into Paying for AdWords

We’ve heard reports from several different clients suggesting that Google is getting greedy when it comes to AdWords. Allegedly, if a business has had their Google+ Local listing suspended (for any reason), Google will contact that business owner and offer to reinstate the listing if they simply pay $200 per month for AdWords.
This has a couple of ominous implications. First, since Google has full control over whose listings are maintained or suspended, they could feasibly suspend a listing for the most minor infraction and then force that business to pay hundreds of dollars a month to have their listing put back up. We hate to be conspiracy theorists, but this sets a disturbing precedent, to say the least.
Second, if Google is willing to reinstate any listing for the price of $200, then it’s likely that they’re assisting some very dubious business owners who had been spamming Google Maps listings, lying about their storefront location, and employing other very shady strategies. Obviously, this doesn’t bode well for the reliability or overall quality of Google+ Local content.
How to Protect Yourself
If your Google+ Local listing was previously suspended and you receive a phone call from a Google rep with this type of offer, don’t comply. You don’t have to. In time, if you make the appropriate adjustments and revisions, Google will restore your listing organically. All it takes is patience and a strong will on your end.
In the meantime, utilize resources like Yelp, Yahoo! Local, Bing Local, Citysearch, Local.com, and Angie’s List. These directories rank highly with Google’s algorithms and will keep your web presence strong while you wait it out with Google.

Scam #3: Google Representatives Call Businesses, Pretend to Be Prospective Customers

Google has recently taken to contacting business owners directly and asking them about the accuracy of their Google+ Local listings. These phone conversations are usually very straightforward, with the Google representative asking simple questions about that particular business’s location, store hours, and other pertinent information. The ultimate goal of these inquiries is to determine the validity of a listing. If the representative suspects that the business isn’t being honest about its address or storefront, then the business’s listing will likely be suspended.
Here’s how a typical conversation with a Google representative should go:

Click to Listen
Unfortunately, we’ve seen firsthand that some of Google’s representatives are resorting to more deceptive tactics—apparently in an attempt to catch dishonest business owners in their own lies. In these phone calls, a Google rep will actually pretend to be a prospective customer who’s interested in the products or services that this business provides. Here’s an example:

Click to Listen
We understand that Google wants to weed out companies that are spamming, lying, or otherwise gaming the system, but stooping to this kind of deception is plain wrong, no matter how you slice it.
How to Protect Yourself
This is the least threatening scam of the ones depicted here. If you’re an average business owner with nothing to hide, then there’s no need to worry in either scenario. Rather, just be aware that this tactic is employed randomly and stay on your toes for any questionable phone calls. Remember, only calls from 650-253-2000 and 650-253-0000 will be inquiring about official Google-related business. If you receive a phone call from any other number, even if your caller ID says “Google,” you should not give away any information that isn’t already public.
If the call is coming from one of the two official Google phone numbers, you still may not want to answer questions right away. Instead, it’s not a bad idea to ask the rep to call you back in a few hours and take that extra time to study a Google Map of your surroundings. Pay attention to nearby intersections, prominent highways, shopping plazas, and other landmarks that the representative might ask you about. This will ensure that you answer all of the questions confidently and accurately, thus eliminating the risk of your listing being suspended from Google+ Local.

Conclusion: If Something Seems Shady, It Probably Is

Take a minute to write down those two official Google Inc. phone numbers so that you’ll recognize them. Be aware of the information about your business that’s available publicly. Most importantly, trust your instincts. If someone is calling you and asking for sensitive information, it’s probably a scam. If they’re trying to strong-arm you into a service that you simply do not need, it’s probably a scam. Even if you have a bad feeling about an interaction, it’s best not to comply at first and then do your research to be sure. When in doubt, call your SEO provider for advice. If you don’t have one, you can always get in touch with one of the specialists at Prospect Genius. After all, we’re here to help!

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