Entries from Category Local Search Optimization

We are Google’s favorite place! You read it correctly!  After years of hoping, prodding, sweat and tears, I can finally announce to that Three Deep Marketing is Google’s favorite place in the United States, and presumably the world.

I would like to thank my family, friends, acquaintances, complete strangers and people who I might meet in the future; we couldn’t have done it without you!

In the mail today, Three Deep received a package from Google containing a large window sticker with a bar code, like the image shown to the right.  I have been anticipating this package for the past 10 days; ever since reading this announcement from Google.  I knew it was only a matter of time before Google would send us an affirmation of how much they truly like our organization.

What does it take to be Google’s favorite place?  A strong presence for your local business listing.  Those fortunate enough to receive this designation and a package in the mail (about 100,000 exclusive businesses)  have worked hard to optimize their local business listing on Google so that they often show up in local business oriented search results.

Continue Reading Three Deep is Google’s Favorite Place →

A few weeks ago, we received a concerned call from one of our clients.  Apparently, they had been solicited by another company that offers similar online marketing services to Three Deep, and they were directly questioning the work we had done for them.  The solicitors did a great job of undermining our efforts by simply putting the URL through a free service called Website Grader, printing a screen shot, and clicking send.

Frankly, they made a compelling argument; the grade the site received was not great by any means, and was a definite cause for concern at a surface level.  Nobody wants to receive a poor grade.  At the same time, I was equally concerned with the implications of these results, because I personally built much of the site, entered content, and did a quality job of making the site search friendly for the their local market and the services they offer.

It looks bad, but it's not really THAT bad

I have spent many hours with this client over the past several years, working hard to make sure they were happy and that we were meeting their objectives.  So when the work that we had done on this website came into scrutiny, it hit me like a ton of bricks.   Were we not properly servicing this client?  How much work will it take to fix?

Rather than dwell on the poor score we received, I spent the next 45 minutes skimming through the criteria that this site used to grade SEO scores (honestly, I feel the criteria is very out of date and I don’t agree with much of it).  I then found the elements of the site receiving poor grades (90% of the grade comes from home page only) – “fixed” it – and reran the grading program.

Voila! In no time I had increased the score by 51%!  Now the site was no longer a laughing stock, but actually a leader among its sitegrader peers.

But what exactly changed on the site during those 45 minutes to actually make this site better for SEO?

Continue Reading Automated SEO Services like Website Grader – Thoughts →

Recently, our National Sales Director for Home Improvement Contractors, Tom Audette was interviewed by the folks at Remodeling Magazine for their article, Web Marketing Makeover.  You can view the article here.

For the most part, the article provides a high level overview of what you can expect from your website, how you can refresh your website to receive more leads, and how many companies are relying on the web as their primary lead source.

While I agree with the general tone of the article (contractors need to have a web presence, NOW), I can’t help but feel as if they may have overstated a few points and left out some vital pieces of information.

Particularly, there are several points made in the article that I would like to refute (as well as several true statements):

Myth #1: SEO Is Cheap

Continue Reading Home Improvement SEO: Three Deep in Remodeling Magazine →

Several of the SEO Q&A questions coming up in future weeks come from various RFP’s that we have been asked to answer.  Now that this process is over, we are displaying some of our highest quality answers on the blog.

Worst SEO project?  What went wrong and why?

The worst SEO project Three Deep worked on last year (2008) was for <redacted>,

Continue Reading SEO Q&A – What Was Your Worst SEO project? →

Author’s note: I started writing this article in reaction to a recent study published, and I ended up writing so much that I needed to break it into two posts!  You are currently viewing part 1, and part 2 will be released first thing Monday morning.

The other day, a report came out from Borrell and Associates saying that most small businesses (SMB) that try local online search advertising almost universally give it up after 6 months.  More specifically:

• 50% give up within the first 90 days

• 90% quit within 6 months.

  Continue Reading Why Most Local Search Resellers Fail Their SMB Clients →

Got a SEO question from my cousin Paul last week that I feel represents a fairly common question coming from SMB owners about how to get their site found on Google.  Republishing the question and response (with identifying details removed), since this is sound SEO techniques that apply to just about any small business owner in any niche who is trying to increase their exposure within their locality.

Question:

Hi Jeff,

I have a business partner that set up a website and he is unclear how to get more ” meta tags ” for his site.

Continue Reading SEO For Small Business Q&A – Where to Start? →