# The Trifecta of Your Web Presence



## parodi

Some of you may remember me as the slightly twisted paperhanger who wrote a column for PWC Magazine before it went out of business. I just want to say I had nothing to do with that;-)

I started doing websites for fun and profit in 2005. It has actually turned into something pretty big. At least it keeps me out of trouble. I do about 90 websites for small contractors and found a great niche there.

But as I read some of the threads and posts in this section it occurs to me that some of you folks need to be brought up to date about what is going on in the world of the web. Gradually changes have occurred in recent years and I'm thinking that alot of folks here have not keep up to date. I see a few here who put all their stock in their websites to come up in search and, although important, is only part of the story now.

When you think about your company coming up in Google, Yahoo and Bing you would do well to consider the sum total of your WEB PRESENCE and not your WEB SITE.

Your web presence now is the sum total of three basic things. They work together but can get you jobs separately. I call this the 'trifecta' of search:
1. Verified Google Place
2. SEO Optimized Web Site 
3. youtube commercial

Google Places (GP) used to be Google Local Business and you can register with them for free to verify your phone number and address. When you do this Google treats you much better in search and I strongly recommend that you do a search for "verify my Google Place" and get that process going if you have not done it. You know GP as the red pin section of the first page of Google results. You may have a terrific website with blazing SEO but it does not mean squat if your competitor has the A Red Pin in GP and your site is down the page in the free listings. Your site may be #1 in free or "organic listings" but it is #8 on the page below the "7 Pack". The 7 Pack is the 7 Pins A, B, C etc in markets where your keywords are hotly contested. painter + geo keyword is much more hotly competed against than wallcovering installer + geo (thank god.) What is also going on with Google is what is called 'blended results.' Blended results are enhanced listings in the red pin section including not just company name and site. They list full address, reviews and sometimes "review snippets". What this means is that all these "enhanced and bulked up "map pins together are taking up so much room on the results page that they are pushing your free listing site down to the bottom of page 1 or even to page 2!


A lot of time has been spent here on SEO web sites so I won't spend any here. 

But the youtube commercial is getting to be more important since Google bought youtube. youtube gives you the opportunity to break away from your geographic confines and valuable keywords that some people pay for. By "breaking away from your geo confines" I mean that the original intent of GP is designed to place your business on the local map. But what if you want to be found outside your local area? The youtube vid is perfect for this. BTW, before I go there let me also say the GP also provides you with the opportunity to point to your youtube vid(s) from your verified GP as well as to your web site. Do not overlook that because it is more of the "one hand washing the other."

I had a guy call me last month who wanted a website for his dog breeding business. But he lives in not-so-wealthy Rockland County NY and wanted to come up in Google for much wealthier Bergen County NY. I set him up with a verified GP, I did a web site for him which was linked to his GP and then when I did the video youtube commercial I set the keywords mainly for "dog breeder Bergen County NJ" and Westchester with no mention of Rockland. If you google that you will see (or should see) his avatar for 



 
He now effectively competes with the 7 pack of GP businesses that are all tied down to the geo area of Bergen County. Some would say he is "more appealing" since many people would rather see a video than read something. 

I recently got a fantastic wallpaper job in Putnam County NY. I always sort of neglected Putnam in terms of search marketing because I thought it was kind of woodsy and not filled with what you would call "high end wallpaper people." But after this job I decided to actively target Putnam. I chose to use youtube as the main vehicle to get my name to the top of the heap in Putnam. If you google "wallcovering installer Putnam County NY" you will see that I was able to QUICKLY dominate that geo location with a video. Yes, my website comes up but don't you think the video says more about Jim Parodi Wallpapering?

Anyway, I do run on. Just let me say as a word of advice, "Consider your total web presence and don't rest on an SEO fueled site because somebody may eat your lunch in your market."


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## vermontpainter

Good tips Jim. I am on the tail end of a major blog rebuild. Mine was only a year old. Things can get stale fast if you dont stay up to date.


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## parodi

vermontpainter said:


> Good tips Jim. I am on the tail end of a major blog rebuild. Mine was only a year old. Things can get stale fast if you dont stay up to date.


Scott, How about this tip...retitle your home page. 

 Change this 

<title>Topcoat Finishes, Inc. > Home</title>

to this....

<title>Topcoat Finishes, Inc. | House Painter Chittenden County VT</title>

You'll catch more local fish with that geo anchor. 

At any time if anyone googles the phrase "home page" you will get over 2 billion match results from all the folks who title their home page "home page." That is waste.

Any mention of the word "home" in the title of any index page is just telling the googlebots what they already know. Currently google gives you 64 characters between the title tags to tell THEM who you are, what you sell and where you are on the planet. IMO use that allowance to your advantage the best you can.


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## vermontpainter

Jim

Thanks for the tip. You are correct. My website is next in line. The one we just revamped is the blog. I'd appreciate your feedback on that too.


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## WarlinePainting

Thanks Jim.

The biggest thing I am missing at the moment is video. I am concerned with quality so have held off.

Any suggestions how to move forward on this without compromising my brand or blowing my budget?


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## RCP

Heidi, this is one of the best uses of video I can think of at the moment. There is another member here who does a very good job, I just can't remember!


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## WarlinePainting

Thanks Chris, This is exactly the type of example I was looking for.


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## parodi

WarlinePainting said:


> Thanks Jim.
> 
> The biggest thing I am missing at the moment is video. I am concerned with quality so have held off.
> 
> Any suggestions how to move forward on this without compromising my brand or blowing my budget?


 
There's all kinds of youtube videos. Some of them aren't actually "video footage" but rather pan and scan movements over photos. If the photos are HD and well lit that IMO can be better than actual video. There are videos with voice over and then there are those like a simple slideshow with background music. I don't know what your "brand" is but I don't think most people are expecting super production values on youtube...let's face it most are blurry and have bad sound. Remember that *half of life is showing up. *You can't show up if there is no video at all.

Web sites, Google Places and youtube videos all encompass the concept of "advertising." A business sized card in the Pennysaver and a multi million dollar commercial in the Superbowl halftime are BOTH advertising. I wouldn't let the fact that your budget isn't big stop you from getting something out there on youtube. 

Here is a low-cost video I did with pretty much of NOTHING in terms of content. No video footage, no photos from the customer, zippo. There are those who may say it sucks but the purpose of the video was not to win a CLIO Award. I made it very cheaply for the painter who lives in super populous Nassau County on Long Island so that he could fight his way to Google first page above all those other painters who are PAYING google for keyword placement. His video avatar appears first page google if you do the google search "painter Nassau County NY" and "painter North Shore Long Island NY." First page placement on Google is costing him nothing which is the way I like it. Few painters have the extra cash lying around these days to pay for what Google will give away for free if you know how to goose google. 




 
My absolute favorite video I did with next to nothing in terms of content was for a faux painter in CT. He gave me blurry, poorly lit, shaky camera stuff that looked like it was taken by someone with palsy. Thank God for post production... I was able to make it artsy.


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## y.painting

All good points Jim. 

Although you didn't point it out here, I know you've been advising folks (Bill, for example) re hidden text in footers and use that practice yourself.

I know of more than one website that got thrown in the sandbox because of that practice. Be careful and sparse with it.


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## parodi

y.painting said:


> All good points Jim.
> 
> Although you didn't point it out here, I know you've been advising folks (Bill, for example) re hidden text in footers and use that practice yourself.
> 
> I know of more than one website that got thrown in the sandbox because of that practice. Be careful and sparse with it.


Thanks for the warning. Gooogggle did flag two websites I have and did put them in the sandbox for a month. Amazingly after the hidden text was removed both sites came up better in GUUgle search than they had before. If the sandbox is punishment slap me hard. I work very hard to get all of my website people the best ranking in ALL the search engines---there is life beyond Gooogle-- and it means more money for them so I don't lose any sleep if I hurt Gouogle's feelings.


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## [email protected]

Thanks for this reminder. 

I went to my GP and it was only 90% completed. It's now 100%. I have made a few more video's since I uploaded the last two, so I was able to fill the 5 limit billet. Plus a few more adjustments... 

Again, thanks!


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## MonPeintre.ca

Thanks for the free advice! It's always a nice way to promote our business to give and share.


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## parodi

MonPeintre.ca said:


> Thanks for the free advice! It's always a nice way to promote our business to give and share.


Je te salue in Montreal. I just had an experience with Canadian Google which I might as well share. But first let's try to decipher how Google chooses to show a video in their "everything" view (the regular google view). 

There are certain markets where you have little-to-no-competiton for videos and then there are others where EVERYBODY has a video. I do a website for a friend who owns property in the Bahamas. I did research on the video situation there and it turned out that there are so many vacation rental videos that Google chooses not to show ANY in the everything results. The reason for this is that if they DID show all the videos then the everything page would look like the video results page. However if you enter your search in the Google window and then down to the left you click "videos" you will see the video pages of vacation property in the Bahamas. I went to Canadian Google (www.google.ca) and found that almost nobody with vacation rental videos of Bahama properties had thought to title and keyword the videos in French. So I did the video title and tags in French and now if you search "location maison Abaco Bahamas" the french version of the video stands alone on Canadian Google Everything Page One . 



The website for the property (www.oceanvilla913.com) has a french page and my friend gets quite a bit of French Canadian traffic when the weather gets cold. I wonder why. I hope this video in french--which is really a slideshow in video file format--kicks up their traffic a notch.

For house painters the same holds true. If you are in a market where suddenly every other painter decides they need a video and they decide to cram their videos with geo keywords and other trade pertinent keywords EVERYBODY goes down to a no-show on the Google everything page. Right now as far as I can tell Google allows 2 video avatars to show on the everything page for the same keyword search in your area. This is why I'm saying to get "something/anything" up on youtube. Google currently is giving this away for free and not taking any money to place.

Google made 36 Billion dollars last year. They make a ton of money to place people in certain searches for websites (not videos...yet). For instance, last year I did a site for a carpet store in Orange County NY (www.carpetorangecountyny.com) Within a month he came up for the search "*carpeting* orange county NY" "*commercial carpet* orange county NY" "*broadloom carpet* orange county NY" , area rugs, juvenile rugs, carper runners, installation-- but *no effing "carpet* orange county NY" Pourquoi? The reason was plain to see in the premium sponsored links section of page one. For the search "carpet orange county NY" Sears, Home Depot, Lowes and Empire Carpet all seemed to be paying a lot of money for that *carpet* keyword. Google gave me the carpet word eventually but we had to wait 5 months.


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## parodi

MonPeintre.ca said:


> Thanks for the free advice! It's always a nice way to promote our business to give and share.


By the way, you have a small problem with Google Places that could be hurting you. I recently had the same problem with a painter in Maryland and it took over 5 weeks to correct. But it was worth it. If that painter is on this board you can relate that story. 

MonPeintre here is your GP problem. You come up in duplicate and Google does not like that. You need to delete one of these listings. Either that or delete one and relist the second one with a unique telephone number. You can get a second telephone number at Google Voice for free. At least you can do that in the US, I'm not sure about Canada because it seems there is a problem with the Google Voice thing there. Here is a link I can't vouch for on that subject
http://www.mycellphonemyterms.com/General/2010/09/getting-google-voice-to-work-in-canada/:


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## WarlinePainting

Thanks Parodi, I had a double listing too for some unknown reason so I just asked for the one with no traffic to be suspended. Too work on videos. Any suggestions for a mac based product to start working with or is imovie good enough to get started?


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## WarlinePainting

Any particular reason for the gouuugling and goooogling and goggles?


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## parodi

WarlinePainting said:


> Any particular reason for the gouuugling and goooogling and goggles?


Very astute of you mr. warlinepainting. I subscribe to Google Alert which notifies me if anyone on the internet has used my name in a post. Of course, most of the time they are lauding me in such glowing terms it really is a source of embarrassment. Others not so much.

Since Geogglle has billions of $$ at its disposal and the technology to scan every written word since the beginning of time in one rolling server update I find it prudent from a business standpoint not to make derogotory comments about this wonderful, and not-insidious-at-all company called Gooooogllle despite what malcontents and ne'erdowells around the world have said in their filthy diatribes in dark internet chat rooms. And we would never try to talk behind HAL's back either would we?*


If Geeegelll were to take over the world tomorrow I would heartily welcome them as our new overlords. 

(2001 Space Odessey)


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## PressurePros

vermontpainter said:


> Good tips Jim. I am on the tail end of a major blog rebuild. Mine was only a year old. Things can get stale fast if you dont stay up to date.


Or you can not update for six years, still dominate google rankings from state on down to every local town and receive more calls than you can handle on most days. :jester:


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## parodi

WarlinePainting said:


> Thanks Parodi, I had a double listing too for some unknown reason so I just asked for the one with no traffic to be suspended. Too work on videos. Any suggestions for a mac based product to start working with or is imovie good enough to get started?


 
I don't have a Mac. I was going to buy one but Bill Archibald talked me out it:no:

I know someone with a mac and they use Toast. Do you have an HD camera? That's a good place to start.


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## parodi

PressurePros said:


> Or you can not update for six years, still dominate google rankings from state on down to every local town and receive more calls than you can handle on most days. :jester:


 
PP, you are a textbook case for how to do it. 

You have an owner verified Google Place, you have a properly peppered SEO site and you have a youtube commercial with the right tags. Done. There is nothing to update...unless the Googlerules change. Enjoy your vaulted status on Page One:thumbsup:


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## vermontpainter

Fenner!


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## WarlinePainting

parodi said:


> Very astute of you mr. warlinepainting.


It's actually Mrs. WarlinePainting.

I thought it was a HAL thing.


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## WarlinePainting

Smarty Pants PP.


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## PressurePros

vermontpainter said:


> Fenner!


LOL.. I know you always break my stones about the B. Bunch architecture. hahahaha


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## RCP

Heidi, you can do some very classy stuff in Imovie, it is more about using the right content and ordering it with transitions and titles. I have made some decent ones in something as simple as Animoto with good content. Your pictures are what make, and you have stunning ones.





, he does those on his basic pc.


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## WarlinePainting

When do I sleep?


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## PressurePros

WarlinePainting said:


> When do I sleep?


When you said 'I do" to business ownership you forfeited the right to sleep. Its worse than having a newborn.


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## MonPeintre.ca

parodi said:


> By the way, you have a small problem with Google Places that could be hurting you. I recently had the same problem with a painter in Maryland and it took over 5 weeks to correct. But it was worth it. If that painter is on this board you can relate that story.
> 
> MonPeintre here is your GP problem. You come up in duplicate and Google does not like that. You need to delete one of these listings. Either that or delete one and relist the second one with a unique telephone number. You can get a second telephone number at Google Voice for free. At least you can do that in the US, I'm not sure about Canada because it seems there is a problem with the Google Voice thing there. Here is a link I can't vouch for on that subject
> http://www.mycellphonemyterms.com/General/2010/09/getting-google-voice-to-work-in-canada/:


Thanks for the advice, I tought it was ok if I had 2 adresses. I removed one of them until I get a second phone number!!!

If you want to take a look at my video : http://youtu.be/A7bKnQlbfGQ


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## parodi

MonPeintre.ca said:


> Thanks for the advice, I tought it was ok if I had 2 adresses. I removed one of them until I get a second phone number!!!
> 
> If you want to take a look at my video : http://youtu.be/A7bKnQlbfGQ


 
C'est vraiment formidable. 

You are in the advanced category here. So let me share a story about advanced use of video which is what you have done with your 4 youtube videos:

My brother's friend, a lawyer, in Concord New Hampshire had a website but he had poor web presence. I helped him beef up and verify his Google Place then I helped him do some keyword analysis based on actual Google searches in the area and get the proper keyword density for the site. It bumped him up from the second page to page one but there was still a very annoying competing lawyer who dominated the Concord area. He had done something very interesting with youtube video. He had someone interview him in front of the usual law book backdrop and the interview lasted what looked like about an hour. Then he chopped up the interview into 10 videos lasting of 5 minute duration and tagged then under different law-based keywords.

Video #1 DWI Law in New Hampshire
#2 Slip and Fall Lawyer in Concord NH
#3 Divorce Attorney Concord NH
etc, etc.

What happened (apparently) is that the googlebots perceived this guy to be a local authority on the law and pushed up his overall rating which spilled over to his site and his Google Place ranking.

I would llike to stress again the point of my OP: (what I call) "the trifecta" should be viewed as a whole. When you change one thing in one of the elements in the trifecta it can have an effect on the whole. Something as simple as making your website handicap accessible to the blind can affect your site ranking which can effect your GP 7 pack placement and so on. 

If I would make one slight change to your 4 video lineup on youtube it would be to expand what is called "the long tail." The long tail of search involves keywords outside the main search words. Painters' main words are "interior Painting", "exterior painting", "commercial painting". A long tail keyword match would be "church pew staining", "knock down finish repair", "old ceilings drywalled" and a million others that may match a google query and get your foot in the door for a consult. My favorite long tail word is "grasscloth installation" since it is the #1 search query on my paperhanging site. All of your 4 videos are very heavy on main keywords _*peinture* intérieure *résidentielle* et commerciale. _I would think of some long tail words. If you do any new videos I would plan them to support any new long tail concepts like "L*a peinture plus ecologique a Montreal"*


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## parodi

RCP said:


> Heidi, you can do some very classy stuff in Imovie, it is more about using the right content and ordering it with transitions and titles. I have made some decent ones in something as simple as Animoto with good content. Your pictures are what make, and you have stunning ones.
> 
> Here is another well done, he does those on his basic pc.


 
Very simple and effective video. I am getting to the point where I hate voice over on youtube videos anyway . Mainly because most poeple do not have the bucks for deep voice announcers. Even the YP videos which they charge a bunch for have nasal chicks and I spend all my time fixating on "Honey, take your fingers out of your nose!" instead of the commercial message.


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## RCP

Another thing to consider is how people are viewing. I am usually on my laptop next to hubby watching tv, if I have my headphones on usually listening to music or podcasts. People in their offices, etc. I have heard from a lot of people who mute YT.


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## chrisn

Jim Parodi says
"By the way, you have a small problem with Google Places that could be hurting you. I recently had the same problem with a painter in Maryland and it took over 5 weeks to correct. But it was worth it. If that painter is on this board you can relate that story"

You pretty much cleared it up, 2 listings is no good. It was kind of a hassle fixing it, especially if you did not know it needed fixing.


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## [email protected]

parodi said:


> If I would make one slight change to your 4 video lineup on youtube it would be to expand what is called "the long tail." The long tail of search involves keywords outside the main search words. Painters' main words are "interior Painting", "exterior painting", "commercial painting". A long tail keyword match would be "church pew staining", "knock down finish repair", "old ceilings drywalled" and a million others that may match a google query and get your foot in the door for a consult. My favorite long tail word is "grasscloth installation" since it is the #1 search query on my paperhanging site. All of your 4 videos are very heavy on main keywords _*peinture* intérieure *résidentielle* et commerciale. _I would think of some long tail words. If you do any new videos I would plan them to support any new long tail concepts like "L*a peinture plus ecologique a Montreal"*


This is interesting. Thanks!

Would it be necessary to do new vieos with this change (long tail words) instead of editing current video's (assuming these words are in the description)? What about adding those words into the "tags" section? (I think I see why it may not work, but just curious of your take and for the sake of public education here.) 

I'm finding it interesting (but not surprised) that my #1 query is "agape" which is more than twice of #2 which is "house painter"... Any way to change that?


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## parodi

chrisn said:


> Jim Parodi says
> "By the way, you have a small problem with Google Places that could be hurting you. I recently had the same problem with a painter in Maryland and it took over 5 weeks to correct. But it was worth it. If that painter is on this board you can relate that story"
> 
> You pretty much cleared it up, 2 listings is no good. It was kind of a hassle fixing it, especially if you did not know it needed fixing.


 
Thanks Chris. You're right it is very difficult clearing things up when Google makes a mistake in the first place. 

I had a problem with Google Places which was a royal pain so let me give you folks a tip on that. Never, ever put a second business at the same address you have declared. This is a google problem that you would think they could iron out but they cannot. I mean, how many people these days have a second home-based business? But if your mate cuts hair or does taxes from your previously declared address it may foul up your primary businees with GP. Oh and BTW, neither address can be a PO Box number anymore.. . which also sucks.


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## parodi

[email protected] said:


> This is interesting. Thanks!
> 
> Would it be necessary to do new vieos with this change (long tail words) instead of editing current video's (assuming these words are in the description)? What about adding those words into the "tags" section? (I think I see why it may not work, but just curious of your take and for the sake of public education here.)
> 
> I'm finding it interesting (but not surprised) that my #1 query is "agape" which is more than twice of #2 which is "house painter"... Any way to change that?


You could change the titles of your current videos. First thing I would do would be to add Oregon or OR to EVERY one of them where you have a town name in the title. There are Portlands besides the one in Oregon. Apparently there is only one Tigard in the world so adding OR is unnecessary (but can never hurt.) 

I didn't get a chance to do a complete inventory of your web presence in your geo area but I quickly noticed that you could beef up the search "house painter Lake Oswego OR" right now by changing a video title (provided you WANT to beef up your presence there...I've never been there.) I get a 3 pack instead of a 7 pack in Google Places on my google view. You #5 in the free listings and therefore #8 on page one when you combine GP and free listing for that search. 

You also need help with the search "house painter Beaverton OR" and "painting contractor Beaverton OR". That is, if it is worth it to go after those areas. I put a composite of screenshots up for that search below. This a perfect example of how GP blended results are crowding out the whole freaking page one. See that video avatar? If you want Beaverton I would retitle one of your videos with that town as a target.

Don't worry about the number of queries for Agape....that is a good thing. You have a brand name that people in your area are looking for by name...that is a tough act to pull off.


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## parodi

I see by the yellow rating stars that lots of people like this subject so let me keep it going. 

When I got into doing websites I never knew I would get waist deep in the subjects of SEO, graphics, video etc. But this business is a respectable revenue source for me now and I hope to put down the wallpapering stuff and get off scaffolding by the time I am 65 and work at the computer. So that means I have to stay up-to-date and devote quite a bit of time to "continuing education."

I will tell you one thing, I have done wallpapering for 32 years now and I have had happy customers but never had "joyous" customers like my website customers sometimes are. A few times is has been scary. I got a call from a paperhanger customer who got a 3 month commercial job through his site which not only put him in the black for the year but prevented him from leaving the business. It was a little too emotional a call for me but after I hung up I was, like....wow. I'd be lying if I didn't admit it was a big kick. 

I also get a big kick from bringing the "techno challenged" old school contractors and small business folks into the internet age. Before 1995 I was one of them so I know the attitude of "what the hell do I NEED this for?" 

If I did not break my leg in 2001 and get laid up for months I probably never would have branched out into this. At the time I wanted a site for Parodi Wallpapering and after spending months with HTML books from the library I produced a site. But once I started I couldn't stop since there are so many fascinating side streets on this route.

If you have been following this thread and are one of those "old school" people who figure it is too late to get into the internet or money is too tight to spend on this let me just tell you that you really do not need a big budget since so much stuff is available FOR FREE if you just pay attention to what is out there. I have found that many people I talk to think that those red map pins in Google you have to pay for. You don't. Many people think that they need a huge website or professionally produced video but I can relate tons of stories where that is simply not true. 

When I look at my websites and their visitor stats it is astonishing how many visitors --most times OVER 90%--do not stay longer than 30 seconds. I discovered this several years ago and used this simple fact to guide me in the construction of "30 Second Websites"---a site that smacks you in the face abruptly and encourages you to pick up a phone. I'm still very much into phone calls to bind a customer relationship and I think the main purpose of all my small business sites is to replace the phone directory (which they have effectively done.) 

If you are on the fence about pushing your business into the internet age I have a lot of tips to make it less "painful." Here is good, new video on the subject of getting started with Google Places


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## parodi

You're watching TV and a car commercial comes on. The deep voice announcer tells you about the Stunade 34x, about the company history, where their factories are located around the world, how many dealerships they have in the US, their company philosophy and soon you start wondering, "How long have I been watching this dopey commercial and when will it end?" It seems to you that you are 18 minutes into this commericial and you are at the point where you are going to leave this channel because it dawns on you that you really don't care if the porpoise escapes to freedom in this stupid movie you were watching. You switch channels and there is another car commercial. A leopard is walking through the jungle night. There is a pulsing eurobeat soundbed. The car is screaming down a winding road at night. The camera now zooms in from the sky and we catch through the open moonroof the blowing hair of a hot, make that very hot, like I mean Megan Fox hot, babe and we see her leopard print scarf almost blowing to the beat of the music. Cut to disappearing tail lights shooting away from the camera. The Giselle a-15. Fin.

OK? I would like to talk about web sites now. I rarely have website customers bring up the "advertising aspect" of a web site. After I do the keyword market research and survey the field for what the competiton is doing in the area, I think about "what is the message of this new site?" The car commercial example above shows that there is a left-brain and a right-brain approach as well as primitive brain appeal to commercial messages. Pictures move the narrative. Emotion often rules instead of thought. Keep that in mind and look at your home page with fresh eyes.

I rarely see small business sites that even touch upon the advertising nature of what it is they are trying to put across. I click on a site and I see 12 paragraphs of text on the home page. I think, "Don't these people know about the studies showing that site visitors only read on average 18% of text?" I guess not. The average person reads at 200 to 250 words a minute. When tracking the amount of time people stay on a site and knowing the amount of text on that site it is simple math to figure out how many words of text were read and that's where the 18% number in studies came from.

Most people don't like to read at all. You people here are the exception. When they talk about book sales keep in mind that less than 10% of the American public buys books. Here's something I have noticed when I go into these massive McMansions---there are rarely libraries with books on the shelves. Frequently I see framed wedding photos and knick knacks in those books shelves.

Rather than lament the current state of ignorance in the US I just want to point this out so you can change your marketing to embrace "The New Illiteracy." IMO websites should be trimmed of all text fat on the home page. Think of your website as a resume. Most firms will not accept resumes of job applicants of over one page. Is your home page the equivalent of a 20 page resume? If you track your site with awstats or webalyser note that you probably only get 5 to 10% of visitors going deeper into your site to see all that stuff on level 2 anyway so IMO those pages should also be trimmed of BS.

Don't get me wrong. CONTENT is king in the world of websites as far as ranking---but that becomes important if there is keyword competiton in that field or that geo location or both. Keep in mind that Google wants UNIQUE CONTENT not just reams of text too. (The best way to tell the googlebots that your content is unique is to have a lot of inbound links to your site from other "relevant" sites.) 

On the flip side of the content thing is the fact that many people can get away with almost no content if there is no local competiton for the keywords. In other words, they can get away with having a low-text content site and still rank in Google if those conditions apply to their local situation. This is why you get people thinking that what THEY did with their site is the RULE for all situations which is not the case in general or in every situation since they don't know that there is more here than meets the eye.

The content at parodipalace.com is a huge conpendium of Q & A info, .pdfs of some of my columns etc and it is that content that gets me 16,000 visitors a year and helps to make my site dominate the local market. But this horse-choking content is not apparent on the home page and that is intentional. My home page is a 30 second scan. I have timed people looking at it. You can do the same. I want people to get a "feeling" about me and pick up the phone not click off on me because I am blathering on like the Stunade 34x commercial. 

After trimming the fat, think video. When someone does a search for 'house painter Middletown IA" and a big list of painters' web sites and GP pins come up along with a single avater of a video entitled "House Painter Middletown IA" what do you think are the odds that the average American will prefer to click, sit back and be spared of reading anything?


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## davedrew

parodi said:


> Your web presence now is the sum total of three basic things. They work together but can get you jobs separately. I call this the 'trifecta' of search:
> 1. Verified Google Place
> 2. SEO Optimized Web Site
> 3. youtube commercial"


Pretty close. You didn't mention anything about building backlinks. Not just backlinks, but targeted keyword phrase textual backlinks on high ranking authority sites.

The other tip would be to spend a few extra minutes getting you clients to create a Google account and post a review for you. More reviews moves you up higher for the GPP.

If you want to learn about the latest program that teaches some pretty incredible SEO tips for local businesses, there is a site called localbizgorilla.com.

There is actually about five basic items to this.


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## Seattlepainting

*Here is some deep advice about Video*

Parodi, you have put alot of time into your responses; I think it will benefit many readers. Here is additional deep advice:

Youtube should be part of but not your entire video strategy for SEO. For a painter local PWNage is the goal. For Youtube set up adsense call to action to a page on your WEBSITE (the pop up), localize ads by city...Unless you are in Seattle my instances of call to action will not appear...track with bit.ly or other analytic. The traffic can be huge look at some of my video counts...these are not folks looking for bids...this is all for organic rankings=places=converts to bids. Follow?

However Youtube is a juice hog..infact a juice black hole..even your site link in the info..anchor a video on your site watch people convert away...use analytics to see people exit to youtube via carousel teaser. USE BRIGHTCOVE or SORENSON 360, or self host then create an XML video site map..this will rank video on your site...not Youtube. This is one of my campaigns...do a video search for "recycle paint"..


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## the paintman

Jim, I did read the parodi you had nothing to do with every month with pleasure.  I liked the mag.

All this stuff is over my head. I'm just a dumb painter for the past 30 years. Even though I was astute enough 10 years ago (probably 1 of 3 painters in orlando that even had website at the time) to know it was wise to have a website i had never optimized it and I didn't even know what SEO even was until last year. A T and T had my yellow page ad and designed and managed my original website. I guess you call that pay per clicks. So I met a guy from WSI in a networking meeting who is slowly peeling the scales off my eyes and we started SEO on my old site within months. He is pricey for web design so we delayed that one year. With plans to start rebuilding a totally new website this year. We are in process now. He constatly complains how terrible my old site is. Mainly the subtle stuff and the lack of conversion technology. I do get a lot of positive feedback on my website. But he tells me they just don't want to hurt my feelings. And they really don't know what a good wesite should look like. But in spite of my terrible site with seo alone within 30 days or so we had moved up considerably targeting the top 15 keywords. 
Today the last update siad I was on page 1 of google for 9 words. but I don't know how many are in the top 7. 
Jim, it seems like the more I learn the more i am confused. LOL! It;s like the first month of college, in a new town or state, when you realize how little you had learned up to that point. I don't know a deal from a rip off artist. And lie from the truth. And that has probably been my biggest hurdle getting past and the reason I probably shut off all the seo salespeople up to this point. I put them all in the scam box.
If you could i want you to look at my present site and ranking if you can and let me know what your opinion is. paintorlando.com. I know it's an awesome domain name. I told him i cant believe i don't dominate just with the url. That is all i thought i had to do. He explained to me that in the infant days of google spiders you could. And all you had to do was cram your site with your keywords. Not so now. The google spiders gets smarter every year too. And more discerning. YOu can no longer dominate and will be dumped using old tried and true technigues. (you know what they are) He explained that google is gooing to "college" every day as well. They have very specific rules and guidlines they never had in the early days.
Another reason I want you to look at it. Is so you can compare it to my new site when it is up. I hope within 30 days. I know now I need youtube videos.
Thanks in advance


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## daArch

@ Seatle, sorry, you lost me. Can you put that succinctly in words we all can comprehend? Like, for just one example, what does this mean "juice hog..infact a juice black hole".
-Thanks


@Paintman, apologies but my eyes find it tough to follow 600 words line after line with no break. Could you break your writing up into paragraphs ? 
-Thanks


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## the paintman

daArch said:


> @ Seatle, sorry, you lost me. Can you put that succinctly in words we all can comprehend? Like, for just one example, what does this mean "juice hog..infact a juice black hole".
> -Thanks
> 
> 
> @Paintman, apologies but my eyes find it tough to follow 600 words line after line with no break. Could you break your writing up into paragraphs ?
> -Thanks


 oopps


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## the paintman

daArch said:


> @ Seatle, sorry, you lost me. Can you put that succinctly in words we all can comprehend? Like, for just one example, what does this mean "juice hog..infact a juice black hole".
> -Thanks
> 
> 
> @Paintman, apologies but my eyes find it tough to follow 600 words line after line with no break. Could you break your writing up into paragraphs ?
> -Thanks


Seatle, me think our freind needs a snickers. He's pms-ing or some wierd thing p-p-hangers do. Cmon Arch its not a website. And of all people I did't think you were in the 90% he was talking about that never have read a novel. i'll do better., 

Ok, so my first thought was the OP had some really long post. WTFrig. So i looked back and yes he did some really cool spacing and I did not. So I grant you It's worse than I would normally do. 

But with all due respect I was up at 2am and writing that with no sleep around 6am. Ironically I had just read someone elses post and I quote. "when you siad "I do" to starting a business you agreed to no sleep. Like having a newborn."

Man this past year has been the most trying one in 30 years. In dec we started to get quality calls again. I mean i heard it from everyone,else too. The phone never stop ringing. We were just bidding our butts off and not getting anything hardly for the whole year. That was the longest year in my life. It was at least 23 months long. LOL! 

So now we have so much quality work I'm practically in disvbelief and losing sleep over that. I can't win. I used to sleep sooooo gooooood too.

Ok thats better. I'm still tired though. So cut the old man some slack. :notworthy:

BTW I with you on the whole juice thing, I thought i might of had it fingered out, but now u raise my doubts. Fess up Seatle. Haha I'm just trollling for a snickers too. Got a sweet toooth LOL :yes:


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## daArch

I don't know if you seriously offended or just paying around 

If you ARE an old man, then you also got eyes like mine where things get blurry when all jammed together, us old men gotta watch out for each other :thumbup:

Occasional spacing does help my train of thought so I can LEARN from all the good stuff here, but no biggie.

And if you think the OP has some long posts, just try calling him :whistling2:
Jim and I are long friends and worked closely on a web project a couple of years ago. He knows his shyt, so much so that sometimes I glaze over and just trust what he says.

get some sleep, you need it to figure all this web based stuff. :thumbsup:


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## the paintman

YEAH ARCH, THATS ANOTHER THING ABOUT THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY. I KEEP FORGETTING HOW HARD IT IS TO READ SOMBODY'S MOOD OR INTENT IN A TXT OR MESSAGE. IT'S EASY TO COME ACROSS TOTALLY DIFFERENT THAN WHAT YOU MEANT FOR ME ANYWAY. 

OFFENDED? NO WAY. I'M AN OLD **** FROM UPSTATE NY WHERE EVERY GUY HAD A DEROGATORY NICKNAME BY THE END OF GRADE SCHOOL OR YOU WERNT COOL. THEY BRING YOU DOWN QUICK. AND STOMP YOU IN THE GROUND FOR KICKS. YOU TAKE A LOT OF CHIT AND YOU DISH A LOT OF CHIT RIGHT BACK. WE GREW WITH SOME THICK SKIN AT AN EARLY AGE IN THEM THERE PARTS OF THE COUNTRY.

I ASSURE I WAS JUST KIDDING. NEW TO THIS FORUM, BUT ALREADY 
KNOW YOU KNOW YOUR SHYT TOO. AND WAS JUST JERKING YOUR CHAIN BUDDY. AND YES I CAN TELL JIM IS UP THERE :notworthy:WITH HIS SHYTE.

HE MIGHT JUST PUT MY WEB GUY TO SHAME. I WENT IN AND EDITED MY GOOGLE PLACES AFTERWARDS. AND I WAS REGISTERED ALRIGHT. BUT THIER WAS NOTHING ELSE IN THERE. I HAVE TO DO THE PICS AND VIDEOS, SINCE I DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO DO ANY OF THAT. I'M ASKING MYSELF "WHY DIDN'T MY GENIUS WEB GUY TELL ME ABOUT GOOGLE PLACES." I'M A LITTLE SURPRISED TOO. HE TALKS THE TALK VERY WELL. HE IS UP TO DATE. IN FACT HE JUST GOT A GIG AS A TEACHER AT UCF ON THE SIDE. HAS TWO MASTERS DEGREES. 

THE GOOD THING ABOUT A FORUM LIKE THIS IS THIER IS PROBABLY MORE OBJECTIVE HONESTY THEN ANYWHERE AND ESPECIALLY MORE HONESTY THEN THE GUY STANDING NEXT TO YOU WHO IS TRYING TO MAKE A LIVING BY GETTING IN YOUR WALLET AND SPINNING A TRAIL OF LIES TO YOU. AND DOING THE LEAST AMOUNT OF WORK HE CAN. AND NO I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT MY WEB GUY WHEN I SAY THAT. NOT YET ANYWAY. LOL!! TELL ME WHEN YOU GET A PAIR OF "CHEATERS" AND i WILL LOSE THE CAPS. 

SERIOULSY GUYS DON'T BLAST ME. IT WAS A JOKE, BUT TO LATE TO BACK UP AND GET RID OF ALL THE CAPS NOW. GONNA LET IT RIDE.


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## daArch

> I'M AN OLD **** FROM UPSTATE NY WHERE EVERY GUY HAD A DEROGATORY NICKNAME BY THE END OF GRADE SCHOOL OR YOU WERNT COOL


I hope by **** you mean Italian (I've heard it also meaning Spanish and Portuguese), because you would feel right at home with Mr Parodi - he's from up along the Hudson and he's starting to get older, though he'll NEVER catch me.

:thumbsup:




> TO LATE TO BACK UP AND GET RID OF ALL THE CAPS NOW. GONNA LET IT RIDE.


at least we now know *you* know the difference and the protocol and we don't have to use a knit glove to softly explain *THAT* to ya 

http://billarchibald.com/smilies/rofl.gif


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## pro exteriors

*im lost too*

Have yodle calling me wanting 500 a month footbridge media which seems ok have website and on first page for m city but still lost anygood Seo Co. Around


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## RCP

pro exteriors said:


> Have yodle calling me wanting 500 a month footbridge media which seems ok have website and on first page for m city but still lost anygood Seo Co. Around


One of the presenters at the PDCA Expo wrote this, might be helpful to you.


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## Seattlepainting

daArch said:


> @ Seatle, sorry, you lost me. Can you put that succinctly in words we all can comprehend? Like, for just one example, what does this mean "juice hog..infact a juice black hole".
> -Thanks
> 
> 
> @Paintman, apologies but my eyes find it tough to follow 600 words line after line with no break. Could you break your writing up into paragraphs ?
> -Thanks


Sorry..juice as in SEO benefit; formally link juice but now mostly authority. Meaning Youtube can be of great value but it may lead your visitor away.


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## Seattlepainting

*YouTube Video Tips*

Here a video I JUST posted..I have titled it after a product I use..I could have used Festool b/c it does have that tool in the video..but ultimately the search #'s for Profin PWN Festool...so since my goal is organic rank I want the most views.

Right now it is just on youtube..but when time allows it will be embedded on some page ON TOPIC on a website, and cross referencing other links within the domain and outside probably authorative web 2.0 sites, and maybe a few hundred words about wood finishing and such.

I will throw it out via social media, facebook, Adobe forums, private forums, etc. I will create a call to action overlay via ADWORDS that links to an info page or bid request for target zip codes where we work. or sometimes I send links to Friends in other zip codes 


This video will have maybe 3 diff version; two of them privately embedded on youtube or Vimeo. These are usually on hidden links for team-in house use (training) & some times laughs, specifier warranties, providing direct answers to architects, blah, blah, blah

When I bid projects where the scope includes this work or product; the page (not built yet) is linked and referenced in the bid(PDF) by hyperlink.






here is the vimeo version http://vimeo.com/37361024 Vimeo is smaller but has diff advantages one of them is that you can control thumbnail image better (even jpeg you supply) and you can control outtro carousel to feature your own stuff...I have linked the maker of profin in this one.

I also put both versions on my facebook wall http://www.facebook.com/shearerpainting .. the vimeo looks better..but the YOUTUBE will get way more views unless you really work at outreach for the vimeo version. I have about 225 video like this and it s the only way to get 6000+ uniques on your URL a month.

I keep updating this post...the owner of the Company that makes Profin noticed the video FB post and re-shared on their company FB site, and perhaps their website.


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## mosby

I think that google gives preference to addresses in commercial areas vs residential. What do you guys think?


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## MonPeintre.ca

Seattlepainting said:


> Here a video I JUST posted..I have titled it after a product I use..I could have used Festool b/c it does have that tool in the video..but ultimately the search #'s for Profin PWN Festool...so since my goal is organic rank I want the most views.
> 
> Right now it is just on youtube..but when time allows it will be embedded on some page ON TOPIC on a website, and cross referencing other links within the domain and outside probably authorative web 2.0 sites, and maybe a few hundred words about wood finishing and such.
> 
> I will throw it out via social media, facebook, Adobe forums, private forums, etc. I will create a call to action overlay via ADWORDS that links to an info page or bid request for target zip codes where we work. or sometimes I send links to Friends in other zip codes
> 
> This video will have maybe 3 diff version; two of them privately embedded on youtube or Vimeo. These are usually on hidden links for team-in house use (training) & some times laughs, specifier warranties, providing direct answers to architects, blah, blah, blah
> 
> When I bid projects where the scope includes this work or product; the page (not built yet) is linked and referenced in the bid(PDF) by hyperlink.
> 
> Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WySVMyFx3ac
> 
> here is the vimeo version http://vimeo.com/37361024 Vimeo is smaller but has diff advantages one of them is that you can control thumbnail image better (even jpeg you supply) and you can control outtro carousel to feature your own stuff...I have linked the maker of profin in this one.
> 
> I also put both versions on my facebook wall http://www.facebook.com/shearerpainting .. the vimeo looks better..but the YOUTUBE will get way more views unless you really work at outreach for the vimeo version. I have about 225 video like this and it s the only way to get 6000+ uniques on your URL a month.
> 
> I keep updating this post...the owner of the Company that makes Profin noticed the video FB post and re-shared on their company FB site, and perhaps their website.


Very impressive with à professionnal quality. Who is making all vidéo? Is it inhouse or you have a professionnal making them?


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## parodi

the paintman said:


> If you could i want you to look at my present site and ranking if you can and let me know what your opinion is. paintorlando.com. I know it's an awesome domain name. I told him i cant believe i don't dominate just with the url. That is all i thought i had to do. He explained to me that in the infant days of google spiders you could. And all you had to do was cram your site with your keywords. Not so now. The google spiders gets smarter every year too. And more discerning. YOu can no longer dominate and will be dumped using old tried and true technigues. (you know what they are) He explained that google is gooing to "college" every day as well. They have very specific rules and guidlines they never had in the early days.
> Another reason I want you to look at it. Is so you can compare it to my new site when it is up. I hope within 30 days. I know now I need youtube videos.
> Thanks in advance


Sorry I am late to reply, I got busy with stuff. Unfortunately the domain paintorlando.com isn't as strong as you would think. The way I see it you have a very big geo area with the word "orlando" and tons of competition for that word and the "painter" word. Go to google maps, put in the phrase "painter Orlando FL" and you will see about 200 red dots all wanting to be on Google Page 1. 

In Google 'everything' search you don't come up for the first three pages.

I'm not saying that you will come up page one but you might try this tweak to your title tags:

Here what you have now,
<TITLE>A-1 Quality | Orlando Painting Company | Orlando Painters | Free Pressure Washing with Paint Job</TITLE>

Here's the change I would make:

<TITLE>Painter Orlando FL | Orlando Painting Company | Winter Park | </TITLE>

Then, in between those tags and after Winter Park, add two other AREAS of Orlando that are goldmine areas (Change Winter Park to another orlando area name if it isn't a goldmine area). Then add the text A-1 Painting (not an image)... in bold at the top of the Hompage. Also put the "free pressure washing" at the top of the home page. 

People from sprawling metro areas have this problem. Atlanta sprawls for 20 counties. www.painteratlanta.com doesn't have much juice because of the vast competiton for those keywords . www.paintercobbcountyGA.com is one I would bet on.

There was a post in this thread about backlinks being important. Yes they are, but they are royally hard to get and keep for small business like painters. My experience is that most painters don't do their own site so in order to get links inserted they have to contact their webmaster which often is like Hell. Also with Google's new Panda algorythm it seems like Google Reviews are getting as much power as back links for Local Business. If you know anybody with a relevant website (having to do with the painting industry) by all means go after the back links, but I would put my energy into getting a Google Place review once a month.


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## Delta Painting

Thanks for all the great info. When you have time please have a look at my site that I just had redone tell me what I need to improve on.


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## parodi

Delta Painting said:


> Thanks for all the great info. When you have time please have a look at my site that I just had redone tell me what I need to improve on.




Google gives you 64 characters for your title. I have pushed it to 70 to 80 without any ill effects so the rule can be bent. But you are way over the line here with your tags:

<title>DeltaPaintingMi.com | interior and exterior painting | staining | wood repairs | drywall installation and repairs | plaster repairs | window and door installation and repair | power washing | and popcorn ceiling removal</title>

Ask yourself "How would people look for somebody who does what I do?" Would somebody do a search like this ---"mechanic that changes tires?" No they don't. They usually do a search like "mechanic Lansing MI area." You want to match the text of a likely search in your title. You are loading your valuable title space with superfluous stuff that is not part of the "money search." Put all of this stuff you have in the title on your home page in an ordered list in bold.

What are 3 good geo areas that you want to get jobs in? Would it be Lansing or East Lansing? Do you get a lot of work in Eagle or do you even WANT work in Eagle? I'm not familiar with your area.


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## Delta Painting

parodi said:


> Google gives you 64 characters for your title. I have pushed it to 70 to 80 without any ill effects so the rule can be bent. But you are way over the line here with your tags:
> 
> <title>DeltaPaintingMi.com | interior and exterior painting | staining | wood repairs | drywall installation and repairs | plaster repairs | window and door installation and repair | power washing | and popcorn ceiling removal</title>
> 
> Ask yourself "How would people look for somebody who does what I do?" Would somebody do a search like this ---"mechanic that changes tires?" No they don't. They usually do a search like "mechanic Lansing MI area." You want to match the text of a likely search in your title. You are loading your valuable title space with superfluous stuff that is not part of the "money search." Put all of this stuff you have in the title on your home page in an ordered list in bold.
> 
> What are 3 good geo areas that you want to get jobs in? Would it be Lansing or East Lansing? Do you get a lot of work in Eagle or do you even WANT work in Eagle? I'm not familiar with your area.


I want work where ever I can get it..lol I do get some work here in Eagle. I want to target area to be Lansing, East lansing, Okemos areas. All the tags are from my other web site I just carried them over but will change them to what you said. 

This thread has been a great read I have learned a ton...Thanks for your help!


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## parodi

Delta Painting said:


> I want work where ever I can get it..lol I do get some work here in Eagle. I want to target area to be Lansing, East lansing, Okemos areas. All the tags are from my other web site I just carried them over but will change them to what you said.
> 
> This thread has been a great read I have learned a ton...Thanks for your help!


This is a little longer than 64 characters. If Eaton County is more important to your business than Ingham then switch their places.

<title>House Painter Lansing MI | Painting Contractor Okemos | Ingham County | Eaton County Michigan</title>

Here's the field today for your "money search" check back in a month or so to see if these changes helped :


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