John Moffitt is owner and founder of Elvin Web Marketing, a digital marketing agency focused on local businesses and based in Connecticut USA. He founded the company in 2012 and has nearly 10 years of experience helping dozens of local and small businesses to “get the most from their marketing dollars” online.
We talked to John about what better web marketing means and how businesses can achieve more of it themselves:
Your business says you “Help make the most of your digital marketing dollars”
You’ve worked with a lot of small businesses, what are the common ways people are overspending in digital marketing?
Pay per click is one. Business owners are told they can get on the first page of a search instantly, which is true. But what they don’t grasp is the importance of what key phrases are used, what landing page the user is delivered to and what action they are expected to take. Lots of clicks doesn’t mean a lot of sales. Some keywords are very expensive. We work with a lot of plumbers. A key phrase such as “emergency plumber near me” can cost $25 or more per click. PPC campaigns can run up quite a tab quickly if you don’t have controls in place.
For SEO, a business owner needs to know what the SEO agency will do for the money they charge. They also need to understand what the services are. Mostly, they should insist on monthly reports showing what is being done and clear metrics that progress is being made. Many of our clients could care less about reports. We produce them anyway because we need to know how the steps we’re taking are helping the client get the business we were hired to produce. SEO is expensive and it takes time to get the best results. But it doesn’t happen all at once. It’s incremental and results are measurable. The big mistake many business owners make is not paying attention and holding their SEO agency accountable until months go by without a positive result.
And are there any opportunities you think businesses are commonly missing?
I am still amazed at how many GMB pages are unclaimed by the business. Utilizing the tools available on a Google My Business page is the easiest, most affordable way for a business to clime higher in a Google search.
One of your missions is to level the playing field for local and family owned businesses, stating that “Local businesses were being swamped by larger regional and national brands in Google searches.” Do you think you’ve achieved this? What advice would you give to others that hope to compete against the big boys?
Yes I do. We’re not winning every battle but we’re winning a lot. Google changes their search algorithm all the time. We don’t worry about algorithm changes because the goal of Google Search never changes. It’s all about user experience. What listing provides that best information, presented the most coherently, for a given query. If you keep those two things in mind when performing SEO you will be rewarded. What companies have the most authority in a given niche or market? That’s where linking comes in and is most important. Who is the most trustworthy is measured by among other things reviews on independent platforms.
You say that you don’t take any SEO shortcuts. What are the common short cuts businesses try to make that you would recommend avoiding?
Keyword stuffing is still the most prominent. It works still, until it doesn’t. Google catches up to eventually and once you’re caught getting back to the top can be difficult. Spammy links is another. There are websites called article farms that will publish any article for any reason. For a while they may be the darling of Google because they pack all this information. But it’s mostly spam and Google eventually catches up and degrades the website. If you’re business has links to a site like that, you’ll be degraded too. That has happened to a lot of small businesses. We get calls like that every so often. “We were on the first page, now we’re on page 20”. It’s almost always because their SEO guy used spammy links to drive authority and got found out by Google.
Your business says you “Help make the most of your digital marketing dollars”
You’ve worked with a lot of small businesses, what are the common ways people are overspending in digital marketing?
Pay per click is one. Business owners are told they can get on the first page of a search instantly, which is true. But what they don’t grasp is the importance of what key phrases are used, what landing page the user is delivered to and what action they are expected to take. Lots of clicks doesn’t mean a lot of sales. Some keywords are very expensive. We work with a lot of plumbers. A key phrase such as “emergency plumber near me” can cost $25 or more per click. PPC campaigns can run up quite a tab quickly if you don’t have controls in place.
For SEO, a business owner needs to know what the SEO agency will do for the money they charge. They also need to understand what the services are. Mostly, they should insist on monthly reports showing what is being done and clear metrics that progress is being made. Many of our clients could care less about reports. We produce them anyway because we need to know how the steps we’re taking are helping the client get the business we were hired to produce. SEO is expensive and it takes time to get the best results. But it doesn’t happen all at once. It’s incremental and results are measurable. The big mistake many business owners make is not paying attention and holding their SEO agency accountable until months go by without a positive result.
And are there any opportunities you think businesses are commonly missing?
I am still amazed at how many GMB pages are unclaimed by the business. Utilizing the tools available on a Google My Business page is the easiest, most affordable way for a business to climb higher in a Google search.
What steps should a business owner take if they want to claim their Google my Business listing? Any tips if the listing is already claimed by someone else?
If you Google your own business your GMB page will usually come up on the right hand pane. The “own this business” link is clear. Clicking that usually take you to the page where you can claim the listing. Make sure the phone number, address and name of the company are correct. There is a place to edit the information if changes need to be made. Once you claim the business a postcard will usually be sent to the address Google has for the business. Make sure you have access to the address because the postcard will have a verification code you need to verify the business is yours.
Occasionally when you click the “own this business” link you will be notified that someone else already claimed the listing. In that case, Google will send a notification to the email of the current owner and ask them if they want to relinquish access to the page. That email is generally ignored but persistence will pay off. You can escalate the issue with Google if you don’t get the results you were looking for.
There are times when your business will not have a Google listing. In that case its easy to create one at business.google.com. Fill out the basic information, name, phone, address. It’s important to note that one of the questions is “Do customers go to your address or do you see customers at their home or business”. If you run your business out of your home you must answer this question correctly.
Can you explain a bit more about what you mean by “Linking”?
Linking is one business sharing a link on their website on the website of another. It is done for SEO purposes to show Google and other search engines that other businesses have respect for your company and the content on your website. This helps search engines recognize that your business and/or website has authority useful content useful to a searcher.
There are many platforms that businesses can use to get reviews, are some better than others?
Yes, Google is probably the most important since theirs is the most visible and respected platform. Reviews are also an SEO ranking factor although not as important as some people believe. Facebook is important due to its membership depth and use by so many people. Niche directories such as Trip Advisor, Home Advisor or WebMD. Yelp obviously has its followers. Self-published reviews on business websites don’t get much credit from Google regardless of validity.
Do you have any advice for businesses that have no reviews, or never seem to get many?
You don’t get if you don’t ask. They should develop a system that creates on instant “ask” of a happy customer as soon as the transaction is completed. The more automated the better. That said, the approach has to be personal, not generic. No every customer will leave a revies so the effort has to be ongoing and consistent.
You say that you don’t take any SEO shortcuts. What are the common short cuts businesses try to make that you would recommend avoiding?
Keyword stuffing is still the most prominent. It works still, until it doesn’t. Google catches up to eventually and once you’re caught getting back to the top can be difficult. Spammy links is another. There are websites called article farms that will publish any article for any reason. For a while they may be the darling of Google because they pack all this information. But it’s mostly spam and Google eventually catches up and degrades the website. If you’re business has links on a site like that, you’ll be degraded too. That has happened to a lot of small businesses. We get calls like that every so often. “We were on the first page, now we’re on page 20”. It’s almost always because their SEO guy used spammy links to drive authority and got found out by Google.
How does a business owner know if Google determines a link spammy? What are the types of links to avoid? How can you tell if your SEO guy is using spammy links? Are there any ways to spot a bad SEO company?
You don’t link to a website that has no relationship to your business or business niche. A plumber linking to an auto parts store is clearly not appropriate. Websites that advertise accepting links for a fee are article farms, usually spammy and should be avoided.
Thanks for reading!
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