Read What Our Customers Say About Our Websites and SEO – a Case Study.
We build beautiful websites that our customers use for years in real life every-day businesses. But building a beautiful and useful website to our customer’s desires isn’t enough. Building a website is only 50% of what is required. In order to be “found”, owners must engage in SEO, or search engine optimization. That is a highly-technical operation that begins with making sure ALL the major search engines have a correct business listing, including your website address, hours, contact information and more. That’s just the beginning. Next, we analyze your target market and clients and begin analysis of what it will take to attract those clients. We then go about tweaking the website and all its’ contents to do that. Next, we analyze your competition, and how they market, and what they have done on their SEO/SEM programs. Did you know that it is possible to put a virtual “geo fence” around your competition’s business, and capture information about their clients’ customers when they enter their business? We figure out how to make your website come up in the search listing when people search for you AND your competition. This entire process is done again and again, typically over a 4-6 month period of time, until your business shows up in the major search engines, hopefully on the first page of the listings. All of this does not happen over night. It takes time for results.
Here is where it gets tricky. Everyone else is doing the same thing. That’s why analysis and adjustments are required constantly. Then, the search engine’s change their algorithms, and it’s time for more adjustments. It’s not a once and done proposition. It is an on-going process. Then, consider that huge businesses with lots of money to spend are buying the top paid ad slots with the search engines. Small businesses cannot out-spend those huge businesses. All is not lost however!
What does SEO really do for a business? I offer this analogy to my clients. Lets use the analogy of an independent book writer. The writer writes an amazing book. But how to get the book distributed after it is printed? There are millions of books on the market, each one competing for buyers and readers. The writer could go to all the libraries, for a start, and get them to put their book on the shelf. But there are hundreds to thousands of books on the shelves of libraries. How does the writer’s book get “found” once it is on the library shelf? It doesn’t, unless someone just happens by the shelf where it is located in the library. The library must put the writer’s book in the library’s “catalog” and index it so that it can easily be found. That is very much like having a website on the internet without SEO. The process of SEO puts your beautiful (new or existing) website in the “catalog” of all the search engines, and helps you get found. The goal, of course, is to get your phone to ring with new clients and new orders.
The market is crowded with businesses competing for those same customers. Marketing, in all of it’s various forms, including advertising, is not any one silver bullet. A successful marketing campaign includes many different ways of reaching new clients and selling your products and services. Please read on to see how a couple of our clients view their websites and their SEO campaign efforts.
Our client #1 is a successful mid-sized garage door company in Texas in a major metropolitan market, with a lot of competition. They have separated themselves from their competition through outstanding customer service, great products and services at a fair price, and by quick and friendly service, with certified technicians. They have a multi-pronged approach to their marketing and advertising efforts, and it has served them very well for many years. Read what their owner has to say about the role that their website and SEO have played in their success:
“We believe the website that Allen with AKOR Services created for us is our online showroom that highlights many of the beautiful garage doors and hi-tech garage door openers we have to offer. Our website also highlights who we are and many of our accomplishments and helps share why we are the best company to serve the garage door and garage door opener needs of people in [our] area. We are extremely happy with the website Allen created for us and continues to maintain and periodically update for us when we need to add or update something.”
Regarding the importance that his SEO program has played in finding new clients, he went on to say:
“SEO and SEM have helped us greatly increase our website traffic and get us more leads and more customers. Having a website without doing some sort of SEO and SEM is like opening a new business and just expecting people to show up without doing any marketing or advertising or even putting a sign on the front door telling me you’re open. It very seldom works.”
He also goes on to talk about his other marketing efforts stating:
“We do also advertise and market our products and services through additional channels besides our website and SEO/SEM. Allen helps us with our social media marketing by posting various items and he helps us create content that we use both on our website and through our social media accounts. We also do some direct mail advertising, we utilize lead generations services such as Home Advisor, Yelp, and Thumbtack, and we advertise in various trade and home publications.”
This last sentence is very important. Those same companies that he mentions are also some of the same huge businesses that are buying up search engine top ad spots. Rather than, fighting them, he joins them as a part of his overall marketing strategy.
Our client #2 is a successful specialty tree farmer here in the Pacific Northwest, where growing and farms are also a crowded market with lots of competition. They have separated themself from the competition by not only selling a great selection of mature trees, but also installing them, providing a limited warranty on their trees, and by helping and coaching their customers to assure their trees grow successfully. This is a niche market, so their real issue was being found by potential customers. Read what he has to say about his website and his SEO efforts:
“We came to AKOR Services several years back in need of a new website. Allen was so responsive and helpful. We were presented with many great options and quickly got a website up that our customers glow about. The design was done beautifully and AKOR has continually navigated us through the ever-changing inner workings necessary for a secure site that consistently gets our website in front of new customers on search engines. AKOR’s products are great and the service and responsiveness are top notch. We HIGHLY recommend AKOR.”
Getting him and his business “found” was the top priority. SEO is a part of what got him to the success he enjoys today. Read what he says:
“The Search Engine Marketing and Optimization [SEO and SEM] services we’ve received have been a game-changer for us. As a niche operation one of our barriers is letting customers know that our services are even an option. So our strong web presence since we started our [SEO/SEM] in the early 2000s and especially over the last few years as we launched our new website and added [SEO] has led to approximately 75% of our business. The money we spend on SEM, SEO, and website maintenance is money well spent. Our sales and growing awareness are testimonies to their efficacy.”
