Cory Reeve .com

I was cleaning up my e-mail listings the other day and was unsubscribing from newsletters I don’t read left and right. As I unsubscribed from something from Microsoft, I was given an error message instead of the neat little “Please allow 10 days to blah blah blah”. After taking a moment to look at the content of the error message, I realized that the issue was actually on the part of Microsoft’s e-mail provider and not Microsoft themselves.

Now, I took the time to find out what the details were and was able to do the unsubscribe process again without a hitch. However, it made me think about the fact that most people wouldn’t really take the time to investigate. They would simply see the error, mumble something under their breath about Microsoft and then complain to three of their friends about how Microsoft is going to get away with spamming them because they weren’t able to be removed from the mailing list.

Now, the point of this article is not to disparage Microsoft or their choice of mass e-mail partner. The idea is to remember that our vendors are a representation of us. Who we choose to do things for us, especially if it is directly customer facing, is an extension of ourselves as individuals and companies. Always make sure that the people you partner yourselves with are of the quality and integrity that you would expect out of your organization.

- C

Being the first link on the results page of a search engine is important. (You are number one, aren’t you?) However, being number one is not enough. Not anymore. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is becoming something that everyone is clamoring for these days, and it is very important to have someone to help you out to make sure that your meta tags, titles, site address and content are all in-line with the words you’re targeting to drive people to your website. But once you’re the number one search result, then what?

Think about this: Google returns 10 results per page unless the user specifies otherwise. Where are you in the other nine? If all of the remaining websites on the page are your competitors, then you need to be doing more to get your name out there. Top five should be your website, your Facebook page (You do have a Facebook page, don’t you?) and what other people are saying about you. If you’re really, really good; then you can dominate the top ten.

Ok, so you understand what you can do to make your website a Google robot devouring powerhouse (or you have someone to help you with it). You have your Facebook page and you’re leveraging it for all it is worth. Number one spot, knocked. Number two spot, locked in. So, what can you do to own the other spots? Here’s some suggestions:

• Talk to your customers. Just as you can earn referrals, you can earn testimonials. And these testimonials go well beyond a couple of written sentences that you can include on your website. Ask them if they would be comfortable writing up a testimonial or referral for you on a website that reviews businesses. If you’d really like to impress people, ask for a video testimonial and upload it to your YouTube channel. (You do have a YouTube channel, don’t you?)
• Make sure they can find you to talk about you. Speaking of websites that review businesses, have you found your way onto one yet? What do you do when you want to buy a car? Beyond the usual steps of looking at local dealerships, checking Kelly Blue Book and asking your uncle who is a mechanic about his favorites, you probably visit Consumer Reports. And you find out what other people have to say about that brand, make and model of vehicle. Guess what, your customers would love to do the same about you. Give them the opportunity.
• Put yourself out there. Get on every legitimate website you possibly can. Talk to local papers, media outlets and organizations. Anytime you can get in with them, or better yet have them come to you, that is another page that will have your name all over it for a search engine to index and show to your potential customers. And be especially eager to talk to places that allow for use comments to their articles. Every time someone responds with a comment that says, “I worked with Company X and they were fantastic!” or “Company X helped me to fulfill my needs in Y area.” these are adding fuel to the bonfire of search density you’re trying to create on the internet. Your customers are saying positive things, aren’t they? Which leads us into the final bullet…
• Give an impression that makes people want to talk about you. Don’t just service your customers, service them in such a way that they will want to tell their friends. In this age of Facebook, Twitter and a nearly infinite number of blogs, blogging services and people with opinions, any opportunity that you give for people to talk about you on the web is going to be indexed by those search engines’ busy little robots. The more people talk about you, the more pages will show up in a search and the more credible people know you are.

Here’s the bottom line: You need to do the work up front to make sure that people are going to talk about you, and talk about you in a positive light. While getting more talk will help, getting negative talk will hurt. Keep it in perspective and use the positive talk to reinforce and the negative talk to motivate.

- C