Web presence

SEO: Start From the Bottom, Climb Your Way to the Top

Last Updated: January 18, 2018

Does SEO really take as long as all the marketing specialists say? A good number of people are out there promising much faster results, so there must be a loophole the marketers aren’t telling you, right?
We wish we had better news for you. However, the reality is that achieving a strong presence on Google and the rest of the web requires time, effort, and patience. Anyone who promises you instant results is just trying to sell you snake oil. Keep reading to find out why SEO takes time, contrary to what certain salespeople say.

Think of SEO Like Getting in Shape

When you do it right, SEO takes time. It’s a long, ongoing process. You’ll see gradual results bit by bit as your web presence grows stronger until finally, one day, you realize you’re getting tons of website traffic, Facebook likes, and customer calls and emails.
In this way, SEO is just like anything else in life that requires an investment of time and effort. For example, when you want to lose weight and get in shape long-term, you know you have to eat right and exercise over a period of several months. “Magic” diet pills and cleanses may promise overnight results, but they very rarely deliver. And if they do, the results certainly don’t last, and they don’t make you any healthier.
The same is true when optimizing your web presence: If you want vital, long-lasting results, you have to put in the time and effort for a minimum of 90 days. Any shady service promising you a silver bullet or page-1 rankings overnight isn’t going to help your business grow in a meaningful way.
After all, SEO is a means to an end—in other words, getting the top position for one of your services isn’t actually the end goal. Rather, as a small business, you’re embarking on an SEO campaign because you ultimately want to attract new customers and build your brand. So, in the same way that number on the scale doesn’t reflect your overall health, neither does your Google ranking for one search term reflect how well you’re appealing to local customers.
For increased visibility and an effective web presence, you need to think long-term.

Building a Web Presence Is a Slow Climb

…But the views from the top are worth it!

The graphic above illustrates the multiple steps involved in launching an SEO campaign and building your web presence from the ground up.

The Essentials

First, you should start small with local directories. You must represent your business’s information accurately on a variety of quality, credible directories. Doing so lends your business some authenticity in Google’s eyes.
Next, you create a Google My Business account and create a Google Maps listing. This is a requirement in order to appear in local searches on Google.
Then, you supplement your online listings with an attractive website and valuable, high-quality on-page content. This is how search engines learn the different types of services and/or products you offer. Essentially, it helps Google put your business into context so it can better represent you in search results. Plus, having plenty of well-written website content makes your business easier to find by voice search.
Once you’ve established your online credibility and have a website that draws visitors in, you can put your business on all of the major social media platforms (namely Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+). Doing so will further cement your authenticity for Google. Moreover, social media is yet another vehicle with which you can reach your local customers.
At this point, you could end your efforts and wait for your online visibility to ramp up. We typically advise our clients to give their campaigns at least 90 days to reach full strength. However, this waiting period can vary depending on how crowded your local market is. For example, if you’re located in a densely populated metro area like New York, Dallas, or Miami, you’ll have a lot of competition, and your campaign may take longer to rise to the top. Conversely, if you’re located in a sparsely populated area with few competitors, your campaign may take off sooner.

Paid Ads

However, if you really want to take your web presence as high as it can go, you can add a paid advertising campaign, too. Generally, you should try paid advertising, particularly pay-per-click (PPC), after you’ve completed all of the previous steps. This is for two reasons: 1) You’ll be able to keep costs down once your credibility has been established with SEO; 2) You will have a better chance at turning clicks into leads if the webpage your ad links to is attractive, informative, and persuasive.
At the same time, there are a few, highly specific situations in which PPC will be more effective than SEO for your immediate, short-term goals. These are situations in which demand is super high for a short period of time. For example, if you offer roof repair services and a major storm recently left a lot of people with damaged roofs, you’ll want to capitalize on this urgent demand and run PPC ads ASAP. Considering your customers will be highly motivated at the jump, your lack of depth on the web won’t be as much of a factor. Please keep in mind, though, that this kind of scenario is a rare exception to the rule. Generally speaking, you really ought to develop your web presence before running a PPC campaign.

Be Patient and Persistent

With enough time—and occasional tweaking, if necessary—your web presence will grow and expand. It’s inevitable. We speak for all SEO practitioners when we ask you to remain patient and trust the process. We know it’s difficult to wait, especially when you’ve made a financial investment in your campaign, but time is truly the most important factor when it comes to building a web presence. So, whatever you do, don’t fall for any snake oil that claims otherwise. SEO takes time, period.
Good luck!

Why All the Smartest Small Businesses Have a Custom Domain

Last Updated: September 15, 2016

Here’s a word of advice you may not hear from other marketing teams: Own a custom domain for your small business.
We’ve seen too many small business owners get burned by not having one. The best way to preserve your web ranking, presence, and overall marketing efforts is to purchase your own, custom domain that contains your exact business name.
In this post, we explain the importance of owning your custom domain and the hazards of not doing so. We also offer suggestions for what to do when you can’t get your own domain. Let’s dive in!

Domain vs. Website

First, what’s the difference between a domain name and a website?
A domain is another word for a web address, while a website is the collection of files and pages that appear when you visit that domain. For example, “bobsappliance.com” is a custom domain, which visitors type into the URL bar in a web browser to view Bob’s Appliance’s website.
Here’s a simpler way to look at it: Think of your domain as your street address and your website as your house. The street address tells visitors where they can find your house, but it’s not the same thing as the house itself. Likewise, the domain tells visitors where to find your website, but the website is an entirely separate entity. Make sense?

Owning Your Domain Is Ideal

Now that you understand what we’re talking about when we talk about domains, we can get into the nitty-gritty of how to handle yours.
The most important thing to know? Owning a custom domain is ideal. It provides protection from competitors and makes you look like an established, successful business.
And here’s the thing: You don’t even have to do anything with it! Just by owning the domain, you’ll keep others from taking it (which is especially useful if there are any other businesses nationwide with a similar name). You could also opt to just use your domain for your e-mail address so you appear more professional.
Or, if you’re already working with a marketing team that has created a separate website for you, you can simply redirect your custom domain so it leads to this preexisting site. No need to create a whole new website for your custom domain if you already have one!
If you don’t know how to register and purchase your own domain (although it’s simple to do online), have someone else do it for you. This person could be your marketer, a trusted employee, or a tech-savvy family member—as long as they’re competent and trustworthy.

PRO TIP: Have a custom domain but not sure if you own it? Check if you have a username and password for it. If you’re able to access and log-in to your domain, then it’s yours.

What If You Don’t Own Your Custom Domain?

We hate to sound like we’re fear mongering, but we need to emphasize how critical it is for you to own your own domain.
If you don’t own your custom domain, then it’s up for grabs. That means it could potentially fall into the hands of one of your competitors. Here’s what could happen as a result:

Your brand starts sending traffic to your competitors. People go to your domain (bobsappliance.com) looking for your business (Bob’s Appliance), but they don’t realize they’re actually connecting with a different business.
With control of your custom domain, your competitor can also pose as your business on Google Maps. Google will believe it’s you because the domain contains your business name.
If your competitor is particularly nasty, they’ll be empowered to write incorrect or overtly negative things about your business on the website attached to your domain. So people will visit your website looking for you, only to read bad things about you, instead. We’ve really seen this happen.
If you can’t regain control of your custom domain, you may have to start all of your marketing over from scratch. This includes getting an entirely new business name and domain, since your current one is now associated with a totally separate entity.

How to Prevent Domain Disaster

Want to avoid the nightmare scenarios above? Registering your own, custom domain name can save you a heck of a lot of stress, money, and lost business. Annual fees for custom domains can be anywhere between $10 and over $100, and they’re worth every penny.
However, what if, for some reason, you can’t have a custom domain? For example, some marketing companies may not let you have your own, or another business with the same name in a different state might have already claimed it. So what should you do?
When owning your custom domain isn’t in the cards, these are the next best options:

Get assurance upfront (in writing, ideally) from your marketing team that you will be permitted to take your domain with you after your contract ends. This is absolutely crucial if your domain contains your business name.
If you can’t take your domain with you and you cannot have ownership of it, then you must use a generic domain that does not contain your business name. A generic domain will look something like, “electriciantexas.com,” which you can easily move on from because your business name isn’t attached.

Act Quickly!

The bottom line? If you currently do not own a custom domain for your business, buy one now. Owning a custom domain not only makes your business appear more established—it also secures your business’s web presence.
If someone else does have control of your custom domain, they essentially have control of your entire web presence. You need to move fast and reclaim it before any damage is done. Reach out to them and try to work it out. If they refuse to return it to you, check with your state’s laws to see if there are any legal actions you can take. And if you cannot own your custom domain, make sure you take the necessary precautions to protect your business’s brand.
The longer you go without owning your custom domain, the more immediate the risks facing your online ranking and presence can become. You can’t afford to wait.

Top 3 Behaviors That Will Hurt Your Web Presence

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

At Prospect Genius, we’ve spent years and years perfecting our online advertising services and adapting them to meet Google’s changing standards. We do this so we can provide the most effective advertising possible and produce satisfying results. However, our efforts can only take a client so far if that client is doing things that are inadvertently sabotaging their online advertising campaign and web presence.
Man With Computer
To keep your campaign successful, stay on Google’s good side by avoiding these three behaviors at all costs.

1. Duplicating Content

Having duplicate content on your website is a major crime in Google’s world. If your site contains content that’s been copyrighted to another company, you have duplicate content. This is in direct violation of Google’s guidelines. Google’s bots are constantly indexing and scanning through webpages, and sooner or later, they’ll detect that your content is identical to someone else’s. When they do, Google will decide which page is the original source; the other page, presumed plagiarized, will be removed from Google’s index, never to be shown to users.
So while it may seem like you’re taking a shortcut by “borrowing” someone else’s content—or content that was written by an advertiser like Prospect Genius—you’re actually creating a situation where the duplicated pages will never rank for any search. Obviously, this will do serious damage to your web presence in the long run.

2. Using Fake Addresses

Some business owners think they can get away with using a fake address on their Google My Business listing. In doing so, real businesses are trying to put themselves in prime locations for local SEO, while shady businesses without a physical location are making up addresses out of thin air to seem legitimate. Regardless of your motivation, if you use a fake address on your Google My Business listing, you will be caught.
That’s because Google has a variety of tools, including cars and satellites, used to verify that businesses are actually located where they claim to be. When Google discovers that your business is not at the location listed, you’ll be slapped with a hefty penalty. Your listing will plummet in ranking or it might be suspended completely.
It’s a much safer bet to just stick with your real address. In fact, in 95% of cases, business owners will get good rankings just by following the rules. That means using a fake address is not only risky, but it’s also unnecessary.

3. Hiding Information

Some business owners have a tendency to hold their cards close to their chests. They’ve learned from years of competition that they don’t want people having access to sensitive information about their businesses. Fair enough—but this behavior does not mesh well with Prospect Genius’s online advertising services.
When you hire us and don’t give us a full history of your web presence or you lock us out of key resources like your Google My Business listing, you’re stunting your own advertising efforts. We not only need to make sure your Google listing is working in harmony with the other work you’re paying us to do, but we also need to know where else your business is listed and what types of behaviors you’ve engaged in previously. For example, if you have a history of bending, breaking, or ignoring Google’s policies, or you worked with a different advertiser before hiring us, we need to know. If there’s something in your history that you don’t tell us, then we might end up making matters worse by spreading conflicting information about your business. (And as you know, Google despises conflicting information.)
When you hide this kind of crucial information from us, it’s like hiding the level from your kitchen renovation contractor. Sure, they’ll be able to get the job done without it, but all of your cabinets are going to be wonky and crooked, and your kitchen might end up being unusable. You’re essentially hiring someone to do a job for you and then taking away their ability to do that job effectively. Simply put, you’re wasting your own money.

Conclusion: Don’t Lie

That’s the general rule when you want to stay out of trouble online. Don’t lie to Google. Don’t lie to your advertiser. Don’t lie to your customers. Just don’t do it. It may seem like a simple white lie, but Google’s punishments don’t always fit the crime. You have no way of predicting or controlling the consequences. Google might delete all of your reviews, penalize your rankings, suspend your listing, or even mark your business as “closed.” The potential consequences simply aren’t worth the gamble. Help yourself and your web presence by remaining honest at all times.

Prospect Genius

Why All the Smartest Small Businesses Have a Custom Domain

Domain vs. Website

Owning Your Domain Is Ideal

What If You Don’t Own Your Custom Domain?

How to Prevent Domain Disaster

Act Quickly!

Contact Us

Business Hours

Let’s Connect!

What Drives Us?

Client Portal App

Helpful Links

Sign up for our newsletter!