Just because your Dallas business has the biggest ad in the yellow pages… you will never be on the first page of Google, why?

I challenge local Dallas – Fort Worth area business owners to take a moment and call the local sales offices for AT&T Yellow Pages, Idearc Media (Verizon Yellow Pages 972-719-3790), and Yellow Book. Find out what the cost is for the largest ad in the heading and see what it will take to be the first ad in the book. All it takes is the purchase of a Forced Tab (2-sided tab that is thick paper stock that is forced in the front of the heading). If I recall the price is typically in the 6k-12k per month range depending on the heading and the book.

I GUARANTEE that for the same 6k-12k per month I can get you twice the amount of “qualified leads”, track all calls, and have the ability to change the ad throughout the entire year if you invest a lesser amount towards effective internet marketing. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. Kinda like PROXY based local search engine marketing providers who do not offer analytics and do a piss poor job of conversion tracking.  (A local Criminal Attorney client of mine had a total of 10 calls to his advertisements with the SEM proxy provider, after looking at the detailed call reports we saw that only 6 calls were unique and the rest spam…. what did he spend? The answer is shocking: $2700.00 for 6 calls! The service provider attempted to argue that this was a “GOOD ROI” … LMAO!!)

Why?

Just because you can buy the first spot in the phone book and have the biggest ad does not mean you can be first on Google. If it were only money the folks with the biggest ad in the phone book would always be number one on Google’s page results. What it takes to be at the top of Google is the know how and the content. Only someone who understands Search Engine Optimization and Content Creation & Distribution can make this happen. It takes a great relationship between the client and the marketer. It requires a line of communication that you can not achieve by simply calling your  “sales rep” or local office. Is it worth more than that first ad in the book? Of course it is! Yellow Pages books are not used as much as they were in the past. Local Online Yellow Pages sites are losing traffic to Google Maps.

You see, what you get when you hire one of these companies to manage your online advertising is someone willing to work for $9/hour who has some sort of experience putting ads in the companies bidding platform or system, if this  is worth anything to you than more power to you. But, a lot of times, website owners and web design/web marketing companies looking for SEO help don’t have realistic expectations of what an SEO consultant is worth or what QUALITY SEO work actually costs. All they end up getting is a PPC campaign and promises of riches from a sales consultant who has zero responsibility for achieving your ROI goals.

You know you are getting bad advice when your site:

• Does not have a video
• Says FIGJAM all over it: ($%#*@! I AM GOOD, JUST ASK ME)
• Instead of answering questions, your site talks about what you do
• Looks great in IE-6 but like crap in FireFox.
• The home page of your site is titled: “Welcome to XXXXXXXX”
• Your website has not changed one bit in 3 months!
• In order to change content on the site you have to call your “WEBmaster”
• You believe adding information and content is 100% someone else’s job to do the work, but don’t want to pay for it
• You feel that contributing information on why you are the authority is the job of WIKI

Companies like the one I used to work for choose to work with any business that is willing to pay a monthly fee to them.  I am going to be somewhat picky about who I will agree to work with. I plan to turn down just as many new client opportunities as I am going to accept. I am going to offer my services with an “Exclusivity Agreement” for my clients. Why would you want me also working for your competitor? If you happen to get turned down by me, it’s not a judgement or reflection of you.  I do not have the desire to become a cookie-cutter churn based Dallas Search Engine Marketing Firm. I want to customize my service to your business and industry in order to get high search engine rankings. The more you participate in the process the lower your fees. The more content you create for me to proof and distribute the less I have to pay my talented copywriter to do for you. My goal is to make you money and at the same time I make money. I am going to be accountable for your success and have no intentions of burning you. Search engine marketing is a deep passion of mine.  After many years in the industry I came to realize that large organizations are incapable of offering the level of “boutique-style” service local Dallas area business owners need to achieve natural rankings on the search engines.  If this is the level of personalized service you expect from your web marketing team, Give me a call! 972-998-0050.  I look forward to meeting you and sharing what I have learned over the years.

Keep in mind, just because you have the biggest ad in the phone book, doesn’t mean you can be first on Google.