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Prospect Genius Reports Continued Upward Performance for Appliance Repair Clients in June

Last Updated: July 2, 2011

Prospect Genius, an online advertising firm based in upstate New York, announces continued upward growth and enhanced performance for appliance repair clients during the month of June. Providing long-term growth in total leads generated (both phone and e-mail) for local appliance repair companies across the nation, Prospect Genius reports sustained performance for both this specific category of business and across their entire client base.
Prospect Genius’s innovative SEO-based lead generation program generated 3,110 leads for their appliance repair clients in June alone. These statistics are simply representative of the latest month’s continuing trend. In February, prior to Google’s Panda update, PG supplied 1,124 leads to their appliance repair client companies. Immediately following this update, PG’s lead delivery jumped 50% to 1,723 leads.
Since Google implemented their Panda algorithm update (also called the Farmer update in the mass media) in February, many online advertising companies have been affected by the content farming penalties and exclusions. However, over that same time span, Prospect Genius has only continued to grow. In the four months following the Panda update, PG has expanded their lead generation performance for appliance companies by an average increase of nearly 30% more leads per client per month.
As Prospect Genius President Alex Pelli comments, “Integrity is what sets Prospect Genius apart. Because we’ve always played by the rules, changes like Google algorithm updates—even the major Panda changes—don’t majorly affect our lead generation results. We’re pleased to be able to provide our customers with continued success and the continued growth of their lead generation campaigns.”
Prospect Genius is an Internet marketing company based in Troy, New York. Serving local companies nationwide, PG utilizes SEO strategies for effective lead generation.

Making SEO Work for You

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Double Trouble

When your sink is leaking, would you call in two different plumbers to fix the leak at the same time? Would you have two different dentists fill one cavity? Having two pros in to do the same job, at the same time, just doesn’t make much sense.
Of course, these are rather ridiculous examples, and you certainly wouldn’t follow through with either of these scenarios. However, many small companies do work with two separate SEO companies at the same time, hiring both to market the same business… The perception is that this commonplace tactic will help the company get ahead: Two is better than one, right? The truth is that working with two different SEO companies at the same time can be quite damaging. That’s because instead of helping each other out, the two companies are struggling for control of the SEO campaign, and your business ends up caught in between their tug-of-war. The end result is more often a penalty from Google or Bing for activity that looks like spam than it is successful SEO for your company.

The Tortoise Is Better Than the Hare

The reality is that slow and steady wins the race. If you choose to use SEO for your web marketing campaign, the smartest choice is to carefully select a single company to work with. Let them focus on optimization for three to six months, and THEN consider whether you’d like to try a different company.
During that first three to six months, do be involved in and aware of what’s going on with your SEO campaign, but don’t be obstructive or intrusive. SEO doesn’t happen overnight! Contrary to what your high-speed connection might have you believing, the Internet is actually a very slow entity. It reacts and adapts very slowly due to its sheer size and immensity. Google and Bing have to constantly sort through and analyze billions of pages of information to do their jobs effectively, so they may only get to your site every other month or so. Essentially, this means a change on your site that’s implemented today might not be seen for 30 or 60 days.
Because the Internet reacts slowly, SEO can also be a slow process. In order to do it right, small business owners need to realize that Google owns the ball, the bat, the gloves, and the ballpark: if the Internet is like a baseball league, you’ll have to play by Google’s rules if you ever want to see a good ranking for your site.

So, That Means I’m Stuck, Right?

Just because you need to give SEO time to work doesn’t mean you’re stuck with whatever company you choose from the get-go! If they’ve provided zero return on your investment over a six- to nine-month period, and you’ve provided all of the information and resources requested, it’s time to start looking for a replacement. After that much time, a lack of results means you may want to switch to a second SEO company.

Okay, What Should My Business Do?

If you want more than your current SEO campaign is providing, there are still a number of options that don’t include sabotaging yourself by bringing a competing SEO company on board. While you’re waiting those three to six months for your SEO program to develop more fully, you can also promote your business online by:

  • Using a pay-per-click campaign. PPC can be implemented on your own or with the help of a professional.
  • Hiring a lead generation program that works differently from an SEO provider. This might include companies similar to Service Magic or Yodle (this is not an endorsement). Each of these drives leads to your company in a way that may complement, not compete with, your SEO campaign.
  • Expanding your Facebook page and Twitter profile. Putting time and resources into these pages can help your Internet exposure. This type of work can be handled either by a professional or by business owners themselves.
  • Posting ads on Craigslist. This service is free and will take you just a few minutes.
  • Exploring the possibility of a radio ad that would promote your business name or website. This can set the stage for more web traffic and be a complement to the SEO work.
  • Putting a sign on your fleet truck(s) or other vehicles. Not having signs means you’re missing out on an important branding opportunity.

Giving your SEO campaign time to develop fully doesn’t mean you have to sit by the sidelines for months. However, trying the aforementioned options will almost always end better than trying to stack the deck by working with two different SEO companies at the same time–which nearly always backfires!
Have questions? The PG team would love to help. Feel free to contact our customer service professionals for more information.

Stand Out From the Crowd With Pictures and Reviews

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Pictures: Why Your Website May Be Dead in the Water Without Them

Online advertising has one goal, right? To get your website ranking as well as possible with search engines like Google and Bing.
However, using the right keywords, linking strategies, and off-page work to make your site rank highly isn’t always enough. That’s because the ultimate goal of Internet marketing is actually not just to make your site number 1 on Google or Yahoo! It’s to generate more business for your company. To do that, it’s PEOPLE who need to pick up the phone and call after clicking on your well-ranked website. If they don’t contact you, all you end up with is a highly placed website that does nothing at all to generate business or help your company succeed!
It’s hard to believe, but something as little as the right images can have a huge impact on whether or not people call after visiting your site. Pictures make folks feel more comfortable with your company and help put them at ease, which can be especially important if your business performs services that require you to enter customers’ homes or vehicles. And, ultimately, comfort with your business has a LOT to do with whether a prospective customer picks your company or goes with a competitor.
Don’t just take our word for it: here’s a great example. Safelite, the national auto glass company, is now e-mailing each customer a photo of the actual technician who will be coming to work on their vehicle. Obviously, Safelite understands this puts their clients at ease and makes them more likely to use Safelite’s services rather than the competition’s.

Why Your OWN Pictures Matter

The simple truth is that not all images are created equal. Your own photos of your own team at work are, quite frankly, worth a lot more than stock photos of some model posing as a plumber, roofer, or other professional.
That’s because there are loads of duplicate stock photos out there. Everyone has seen that gal or this guy on numerous sites… And people aren’t dumb. They begin to recognize these pictures and realize that the photos are of models and actors, not your actual employees. Then they may begin to subconsciously wonder why you aren’t willing to put images of your actual staff on your site… In short, having your own photos of your employees performing services will get you more phone calls than stock photos will. Hands down.
You’ve probably seen images like some of these highly over-used pictures below:

Yup: they’re all stock art (from istockphoto.com). If you’re honest with yourself, it’s pretty easy to tell that these people aren’t your actual staff. While stock photos are better than having an imageless website, they don’t provide the same benefits as real photos of you or your team doing the work that you do.

Reviews: Why Your Website May Be Dead in the Water Without Them

Your company has hundreds of competitors: You probably already know this, because if you’re the only game in town, then there’s no use spending money on advertising… But since the make-believe world in which your business has no competition doesn’t exist, you need to make your company stand out from the crowd. Putting pictures of you and your team on your website is a great way to differentiate yourself from the other guys, and so is having sufficient customer reviews available.
Remember: it’s important not to just have reviews on your site, but it’s vital to keep those testimonials current. That way, prospective customers can see that your company not only did a great job for a client back in 1999 but that you’re also providing great service today and into the future.
New reviews can be posted in a number of places from Google Maps to your website. Here’s why you need to put your reviews in a variety of different locations online:

  • Google Maps: Adding reviews to your listing will help you get better placement in Google Maps.
  • Facebook: The better your Facebook popularity, the better your site will perform on Bing.
  • Your website: Reviews play a big role in converting site visitors into paying customers, so don’t forget to make sure your glowing testimonials make it onto your website as well. If you’re a PG customer, just send your new reviews to our team, and we’ll make sure to keep your microsite up to date.

The Mobile Revolution: Maximizing Your Website's Potential

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

The Future Is Mobile

Most business owners have caught up with the fact that optimizing their website for search is vital to the success of your company. However, now that advertising your business online has become the norm, the game has changed again. Getting to the top of Google/Yahoo!/Bing has long been the leading goal, but you might need to retool your web strategies as the playing field changes.
That’s because mobile search (using a cell phone browser to check out sites on the web) is becoming increasingly popular. Did you realize that approximately 50% of the cell phones sold in the U.S. are smart phones? This adds up to an Internet climate where ranking is no longer the only important thing. In light of the mobile revolution, it’s important to cater to prospective customers who are using mobile browsers, not just desktop computers.
Maybe you’re asking yourself why it matters how a prospective client gets to your website as long as they get there, right? The truth is that this is a rather critical issue, so let’s dig into it a little deeper…

Mobile vs. Desktop Browsing: What’s the Difference?

As you’re certainly aware, when you’re creating a standard website, you want it to be visually pleasing, simple to navigate, and fast to load. Those goals are the same when you’re considering web optimization for mobile devices, but how you achieve those ends can actually be VERY different. Consider this:

  1. Mobile browsing takes place on cell phones and other mobile devices. That means screens are much, much, much smaller.
  2. Phones also have limited power, usually just a fraction of the power a typical desktop has at its disposal.

These differences may not seem like that huge a deal, but they actual mean that mobile browsing is substantially different from standard web browsing. And if your site uses Flash or relies on tons of images, you’re probably in major trouble. That’s because most phones aren’t able to display Flash content at all, and images are generally quite slow to process on phones. In short, Flash and/or lots of images mean two things for mobile browsing and your site:

  1. The content will either not display at all, or it will take so long to load that visitors will lose patience and go elsewhere—perhaps straight to a competitor’s site.
  2. Search engines use load times as one of their factors when deciding results rankings, so slow loading = low rankings.

What to Do About It

If you’re wondering what to do about catching up with the mobile browsing revolution, take a deep breath. For those of you who are already Prospect Genius clients, you don’t have to do anything! The same proprietary content management system that runs your microsite also powers a mobile version that’s automatically optimized for search and mobile display.
For everyone else, there are some steps you can take to make your site more mobile friendly. Consider:

  • Using code to check the “User Agent String.” If it is reported as a mobile browser, that code can display a different version of the web page. Unless you’re a tech pro, you probably won’t want to tackle this on your own though…
  • Submitting a mobile sitemap to the major search engines. It’s typically best to never force the search engines to guess about anything, ever. Just come right out to the front and tell them all about the mobile version of your site.
  • Making sure excessive images don’t clog up the mobile version. Remove all images or, at the very least, switch to small image sizes so they load faster.
  • Utilizing obvious and simple navigational items. Remember, not all phones are touch screens, and many lack a mouse-like pointing device.
  • Making mobile pages extra narrow. People on older style phones have tiny screens, and even BlackBerries have a fairly small display. Don’t make people scroll horizontally AND vertically.

If you’re looking for more tips and tricks on mobile browsing and your website, check out this older, but still valid, blog post.
Have questions about this or any other SEO topic? Feel free to contact Prospect Genius to learn more. We’re available by phone at 800-689-1273 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 800-689-1273 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or you can e-mail our account managers at sales@prospectgenius.com. Additional info about our products, services, and online marketing is also available throughout our web site, so don’t forget to look around!

Prospect Genius Announces Continued Company Expansion Despite National Economic Woes

Last Updated: May 18, 2011

Prospect Genius, a local online advertising company based in the Albany area, announces the addition of 2.5 new staff members. The new staff includes the creation of one full-time sales representative job and one full-time bookkeeper/accounting post as well as a part-time marketing position. This first-quarter personnel addition brings the Prospect Genius team up to nearly 20 employees.
The new sales account manager position will help increase sales of the PG lead generation program while the marketing slot creates the opportunity for additional development of the Prospect Genius brand as well as growth for PG client marketing strategies. Having a full-time bookkeeper on staff will aid in streamlining the billing process. With this personnel expansion, Prospect Genius will have the capacity to handle approximately double the client volume and provide improved service for the customers they already have on board.
Prospect Genius President Alex Pelli comments, “We’re still growing despite the bad economy. In the first quarter of 2010, we expanded our workforce by nearly 50%. Now, in the first quarter of 2011, we’ve just added another two-and-a-half positions. The strength of our SEO product is enabling us to grow when other businesses are struggling in today’s tough economic situation.”
Increasing their workforce means that Prospect Genius will be able to provide their lead generation services to a greater number of local businesses. As Pelli observes, “Our new hires should have a trickle-down effect. By expanding our workforce, we’ll be able to take on more clients, and hopefully increase the success of more local businesses by helping them reach customers in their communities.”
Prospect Genius is an Internet advertising company that leverages SEO to help local companies with effective web marketing.

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