Branding YOU Better! – Susan Newman Lerer

Visit Google.com and enter your company name into the search bar and/or the keywords or keyword phrase to find your type of business.

Look at the results. Does your company show up on Google’s 1^st page?

Most businesses want this and not only to be on the 1^st page, but in the #1 spot. The way to achieve this is to be adding relevant content to the web every day or at least every week. If you stay on topic and share consistently, it should give you these results.

What happens to a business that doesn’t blog or share?

Over time a website’s content becomes old and others that are adding and sharing, move ahead.

For one of my clients, this became a huge problem. Someone from a web hosting company called her up and suggested that she let them build another website at a new url address. I suppose it all seemed legitimate to her until she called me all upset.

The website they had built for her said her company name but wasn’t displaying her right phone number. It had also taken over the Google listing of her business with the wrong information… to the wrong website and phone. When you dial the phone number, it first goes to their system and then eventually rings again to connect with her.

If she had consulted with me before signing up with them, I would have advised against this and told her to add new and better content to her regular website. It’s also important to share the new content on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media communities.
 

Rebuilding the Google presence

I sprung into action by first creating a new Google account for her with a gmail account. I created a new Google+ business page adding the correct details and links. I asked for the verification to be sent, so we can continue forward. (The verification can be by cell phone or a postcard in the mail.) Once that business page is verified, I added the logo and other graphics.

Next, I typed her business into Google and the featured box needed updating. (If your business doesn’t come up and it’s a brick and mortar store, be sure it’s listed on Google maps). At this point it’s a good idea to create the business YouTube channel as well, since it’s controlled by the same Google login.

Then I went back into the correct website and updated a few things and added some new content. Once added, I shared it through her social media channels and if we continue to do this every week, her real site would be back on the 1^st page.
 

Why did this hosting company talk her into a new website at a new address rather than help her update her current one?

I’d say because the hosting company saw a business that wasn’t posting on their site or on social media and felt they could easily overtake her web presence. The additional problem here is that once they built the new website, they weren’t planning to post and share socially on her behalf. It wasn’t like other marketing agencies that do that for you on a monthly or yearly basis. It was a way for the host to gain more exposure and collect phone calls and data, tracking the activity.

The client on the other hand now realizes the phone calls weren’t coming in and her business was so much slower. She had done a search on Google for her type of business and saw all the wrong information.

This has now been corrected.
 

Making the most of the web for your business

I receive emails every day from programmers and/or marketing agencies who only want to improve my presence or sites. But I’ve never been approached by one of these firms to build a whole new site and listing, so I’m wondering why they did this to her in the 1^st place, instead of encouraging her to make the original site better.

A small business that focuses on their day-to-day operations, can benefit from an agency that helps build their web presence on a consistent basis. Certain clients need help with email marketing, social media and/or blogging, and making sure that they do this every week, will help their businesses remain current and worthy in the eyes of search engines like Google.

Bonus: Moving ahead of the competition on Google

When you have a business listing with a general featured box on Google (this doesn’t cost anything), you’ll see a link that says “reviews” and “add a review.” Ask your best customers to leave a review and the more reviews you have, the higher up you’ll go on that 1^st page.

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