Dex One formally R.H Donnelley

Click, Click… Click, Click, Click… That’s the sound of your Dex One budget withering away to a bucketful of mostly useless clicks.

Face it – Google’s cluttered and with a demand much more significant then the supply, click rates are through the roof. PPC Advertising is expensive and here’s why…

The average website converts at 6%, and that’s on a good day. Let’s say you’ve decided you want to test out $1000 on a local Google AdWords campaign. Hypothetically speaking, the average cost-per-click for your typical service industry market is roughly $8 for decent positioning. If you were to manage the AdWords campaign you might get 125 clicks. If you outsource it it you can cut that number  in half…

Going back to the average website conversion rate… Of the 125 clicks you’ve  driven to your website, 7.5 of those  customers are likely to call you generating a generous $133 cost per lead (cpl) average. To some businesses, that might not be a big deal, but to small businesses with a lower point of sale – this would be outrageous, and it doesn’t even include the fees that Dex One would charge you…

I’ve tried pretty hard to like Dex One, but it’s hard.. I have not seen a product that is worth vesting time and money to and I cannot pitch a business who approaches small businesses on the fact  that they need, clicks.

Small businesses don’t need clicks – they need to know that their cost per lead or lead acquisition rate is far enough below their point of sale that they have a chance of making an ROI, even if it’s small.

My personal opinion is this: Dex One misleads small business owners. I’ve heard ads that claim they have some special relationships with major search engines, I’ve heard ads that preach to consumers the need for clicks when in fact they should be talking about how they can increase their bottom line by driving up their site conversions and down their lead acquisition rate – but they don’t.

Business owners are  smart and they are starting to realize, local internet advertising isn’t about clicks. It’s about driving the greatest number of locally targeted phone calls for the lowest cost available…

Believe it or not; there are some local online marketing companies who won’t sell you on clicks; they will sell you on value and the ability to convert traffic and drive up your ROI. Advertising is meant to make you money, not take it.

Don’t buy clicks, buy leads.

Until next time -

SHAKES

1. Respond to Emails: I submitted a real life project to 10 Denver area plumbing companies via their website. Of the 10 I submitted emails to, 1 replied… and that was over a week from my original submission!
2. Make sure  your Email Works:  Believe it or not many contractors regardless of industry or size promote bad emails. I tested over 20 emails promoted on various trade contractors websites and hand nearly a 50% fail rate.
3. Broken Pages & Links: How to you expect a home or business owner to hire you if your website doesn’t work? I found a handful of contractors who were actively promoting their website who had websites that had missing pages and broken links.
4. Google Adwords/ PPC: Sometimes it’s this is hard to catch but this could be disastrous to your bottom line. I found several businesses who were participating in Google AdWords (paying high cost per clicks) who had active campaigns that linked to non-working pages. This is a big Whoops!

Most importantly – treat your online marketing and sales as if you had an actual sales opportunity standing in your office. I find more often then not that small business owners in many fields neglect a checks and balance system to ensure your online marketing investment is working, and more importantly how others perceive your business.

Liberty Bell Telecom

I was somewhat excited yet skeptical about Liberty Bell‘s new Growth Service Bundling – how well does it work, and how powerful is it for small businesses?

Because I am not on the market for outsourced SEO and Web Design, I find it fun to dig in and review other local businesses who offer SEO, Web Design, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) etc… Colorado is flooded with talented Web Designers and Search Engine Optimizers which makes it hard to pick players vs. posers. So here we go, my official review on Liberty Bell in Denver’s, Growth Services.

Liberty Bell Takes a Stab at Online Marketing & Development Services – Read more

Liberty Bell Growth Services:

• Web Design & Development
  Think it will take thousands of dollars and months of time to get your presence on the web? Not with Liberty-Bell. We’ll listen to you and help you determine what your site needs to look like and how it needs to function. Then we’ll design it and build it to meet those needs. We can get you started for less than you’d ever expect.
• Video Production
  Give your business more than just a bunch of words on a screen. Give it a face with a video. Videos can be powerful ways to inspire confidence in you and interact with your customers and potential customers on a more human level. Plus, with free use of our video studio, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune anymore.
• Search Engine Optimization
  SEO is all about content. What words do you use to describe your business or products? Without the right words search engines will put you at the bottom of their list. We can help optimize your content to get you higher in search results. If you’re building a new site we can include SEO as part of the process. Already have a site? We will help improve the content to get better search placement.
• Google AdWords Management
  With Google AdWords you can get the word out about your business to potential customers who are ready to buy. Why? Because they are searching for what you sell. AdWords uses your keywords to place you in Google’s content network where it is most relevant for your business. It provides a level of exposure above and beyond what SEO provides. Our web marketing experts can get a campaign set up, monitor the results and adjust the campaign to be more effective. All at a price that is as flexible as your budget.
• Social Media Marketing
  Now you can connect with customers on the web through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. These sites let you start truly communicating with your customers so you aren’t only talking to them but they are talking to you. This provides you valuable opportunities to build brand, establish a community of customers and gain valuable insight into what you customers want. We can help get you started in social media marketing by helping you plan the best strategy for your business.

1. Google Adwords: Keyword Tool
2. WordTracker
3. Keyword Suggest Tool by SEOBook.com
4. Trillian Keyword Discovery

There you have it, the best part is most are free!

Overview & Notes:

Founded  by Mark Henninger / Information Ergonomics, Inc on Jan 24, 2006. Mark had a brilliant idea to connect home owners with pre-screened home improvement contractors / service professionals also known as SPs – sound too familiar?

This marketing approach was very similar to the popular lead aggragator ServiceMagic except for one thing – the contractor selections were based on choice.

[Note: My final grades are at the bottom ]

Back in 2008, I was hired as the company’s Director of Search Marketing and was considered the key-player in turning their online marketing struggles around. BestContractors.com needed help and help fast – they were surviving on a poorly compiled Search Engine Marketing campaign that consisted of Google Adwords, Bing AdCenter (Microsoft back then…) and Yahoo Search Marketing.

BestContractors.com in 2007/08 was a rough design that was hard to use and even harder to find. With zero SEO presence, BestContractors.com needed a complete overhaul, a redesign that would not only cater to end users but just as important a website that Google could crawl and rank – something that was non existent at that time. That overhaul was completed in several months with almost instant results and a complete turnaround from their prior stratedgy.

On Jan 12, 2009 HomeSphere, Inc acquired BestContractors.com… Since the acquisition I have been following HomeSphere, Inc for several reasons – 1, they are in the same industry as I am and 2, my client  base consists of roughly 80% home improvement contractors.

Where is BestContractors.com today? Since the acquisition it looks that BestContractors.com has lost a majority of its traffic. This could  be due to financial restrictions or SEO downfalls, whatever it is it can’t be good for their advertisers.

BestContractors.com Traffic Trends:

Pre HomeSphere Era:

This is the time that I worked for BestContractors.com. Traffic was looking good, rankings were steadly increasing and  it seemed that conversions were on the rise. There were mixed emotions – traffic was starting to improve but conversions lacked a following – this  in my opinion was due to a well graphically designed but hard to use and confusing user interface. Things were looking: Good.

Current HomeSphere Era:

Obviously I don’t have much statistical data but I can tell you from the looks of their traffic results HomeSphere or BestContractors.com, Inc is in some trouble… There has been a significant decrease in traffic, a near zero organic presence for competitive key-terms and literally a massive bomb shell decrease in Pay Per Click / Search Engine Marketing.

Usability – confusion to the general consumer:

What do I do next? (Home Page Screen Shot…) No real “Call to Action”

Final Thoughts:

• Get SEO back in line (it’s much needed)
• Invest in a PPC Campaign where you can track results.
• I know this is going to hurt but I personally don’t think the whole ‘based  on choice’ is a good way to go. Sure there are a lot of complaints on ServiceMagic.com but their model is flawless when it comes to driving cash and delivering results. MOST HOME OWNERS don’t have time nor do they care to look through an online portfolio of recent jobs (unless its a remodel etc…), give them a place to submit the job and go – it’s that  simple. Conversions, Conversions, Conversions – did I mention conversions?
• User Interface Help – Rick did a great job on the design of BestContractors.com but it needs more. It’s not user friendly and can be construed as confusing.

My Official Scores:

1. Search Engine Optimization:  ( D ) - BC went from 26K pages indexed and ranking down to 1K.
2. Search Engine Marketing: ( D- ) – Out of 10 relevant searches – I didn’t find BC once.
3. Website Usability: ( D- ) Home page entries are very hard to find, below the fold for most categories, no real “call to action…”
4. Traffic Trends: ( F ) Almost nothing from a year ago.

Overall Score: D- needs work.

I still think BestContractors.com is a good idea and is good for home owners and contractors  alike but if its going to provide value for advertisers it needs some strategic redirection.