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Renting VS Owning

I’m writing to give praise to Court Cunningham.

Court Cunningham, the CEO of NatPal, has been incredibly quick in responding to my earlier post in which I was critical of NatPal’s handling of mirror sites.

He indicates in his comment that they are also being quick to address the problem noted.

You may read his comment here.

Mr. Cunningham, well done sir.

First, let me apologize for the rant which follows.

Good – that’s out of the way. Stick with me and it’ll be worth your time.

“Natpal” offers “Local Search Advertising”.

So do a number of other search marketing aggregators. They’re not all the same even though on the surface they offer similar products.

The keys, as pointed out by Greg Sterling are a sales channel and an aggregated online advertising buy. Additional commentary from Greg on Natpal.

As some of you may know I have a pretty deep experience in the online yellow pages industry.

From that time I have some experience with each of those listed by Greg above some of which is good. For instance:

• ReachLocal – offers a real service. I would contend the same value can be delivered at a lower cost, but with their independent rep network and some nice lead tracking technology they do provide some value.
• WebVisible – works primarily through existing sales channels such as yellow pages and newspapers. I like and have a lot of respect for Terry and Kirsten.
• WebListic – offers local search engine marketing and is a creation of one of the smartest guys I’ve ever known when it comes to local online advertising, Dick Larkin.

There are others about which I’m indifferent, some of whom I know from prior dealings to be a little weak and at least one who in my recent experience has demonstrated downright destructive behavior.

Natpal is a relatively new kid on the block among those Greg details and I’d never heard of them until the incident described below.

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Some of what follows may be a little technical. If it’s confusing, please comment and ask for clarification. I know this stuff seems like voodoo but I try to keep my explanations accessible regardless of your level of knowledge but some of this is definitely search engine marketing specific.

Recently we (Search Influence) have had the huge blessing to have been referred a fair number of plastic surgery practices. Plastic Surgery (particularly “cosmetic”) is a great business – high margins, great compensation for the surgeon and a real incentive to maximize return on advertising investment.

Return on investment is what we focus on with all of our clients, so it’s been a nice fit.

Because of the potential for profit though, these guys are prey for all kinds of snake-oil salesmen. For years there have been directories, SEO firms and search marketing aggregators chasing this market. No doubt some of these do add value.
Recently we discovered Natpal.

It turned out that we had a mutual client who didn’t realize the potential risk in their techniques.

While reviewing our progress with one of our clients we were doing some searches to check on our client’s ranking we came across some Google pay per click ads. Since the only people who would have authorized PPC were sitting in the room we knew something was fishy.

We did a little more investigation and found a complete mirror of the client’s site on a different domain (.net when theirs is the .com).

So why is this bad? Search engines don’t like seeing the same content in two places. In fact, they want to treat one as “authoritative” and may even drop the non-authoritative site out of the rankings altogether.

There are some simple ways to avoid having content appear duplicated and a responsible provider does so.

Rather than go into a long explanation of why duplicate content is bad I’ll defer to Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz who makes it very understandable here.

“It’s particularly dangerous with new sites or those that have recently changed ownership. However, no matter whether you’ve got penalties or just find lots of your pages in supplemental hell, I highly recommend fixing the issue as I’ve described above.”

Aaron Wall of SEOBook discusses it here way back in October of last year.

And then, to make it even easier the Google engineers are nice enough to tell us all about it here.

And if you’d like a longer more technical description, you can read this post by Todd Malicoat, which includes a link to a PDF describing the concept of “shingles” relative to duplicated content (this is more technical than I typically recommend and not for the faint of heart).

In short, if you’re going to make a duplicate of a site you need to block the search engines from “indexing” (collecting data from) the duplicate – otherwise you run the risk of seriously hurting the real site.

The most common way to block the search engines is by use of a “robots.txt” tag in the root directory of your web site. The robots.txt file is primarily used to tell the search engines where they can and cannot go. Below is an example of what you’d find in a good robots.txt (copied from a ReachLocal client site):

# go away
User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Simply put, User-agent is the name the search engine calls itself when it requests information from your site (“*” = any). So in other words all search engines need to pay attention to what follows. “Disallow” should be obvious, and “/” is the root directory of the web server (and by default anything below).

So, with 3 simple lines of code you can keep a site safe from duplicate content.
The real problem is that once the damage is done, it can take months to regain ranking and some may never regain their original prominence.

So Natpal, a venture funded startup, reportedly a product of the Wharton school, has decided they’re going to focus on this rich market as well.

We have mutual clients with ReachLocal, JumpFly and other PPC aggregators and can clearly point to the value provided by these providers.

And, whether I like the return on investment or not, ReachLocal does do it right when it comes to issues of duplicating content.

As I said, it starts with one client. We say – gosh, what dopes! (Sometimes we use stronger language in private.)

And we tell our client that the next time they get an offer for online advertising they should forward the call to us. ‘Nuff said.

But then, we realize that we use the same call-tracking company and while in conversation with one of the techs there say “hey, if you’re working with Natpal you ought to tell them to watch out for this problem or they may really, really screw their customers”.

So, we don’t know them we don’t really compete with them and we were legitimately trying to help them in what we thought was an isolated incident.

I want to be clear: I don’t personally know anyone at Natpal, I don’t have any knowledge of their internal workings or their process. All I know is what I can see in the Google search results, and as a result of their ad-placements.

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So today, while doing some searches on behalf of one of our clients I came across Natpal again. And, what I originally thought was a simple mistake is actually a consistent failing on their part likely to do a lot of harm.

If you work with Natpal, you should really look at some alternatives because these guys are, in my opinion, running a risk of hurting your real site’s ranking. If you feel like you can’t beat the ROI (and I’m sure you can if you find the right provider) and must stay with them then at least tell them to clean up their act.

In my investigation I started with this search:

This gave me a list of sites with Natpal’s self-promotion in the footer.

I then dug a little deeper and found a number of examples like the following.

There is a lot of chatter among search engine marketing professionals right now having to do with whether or not the basics of SEO, particularly on-page search engine optimization techniques, should be worthy of the attention it gets.

Just to recap: Jason Calcanis, formerly of AOL, has been quoted on more than one occasion as suggesting that SEO (search engine optimization) is B.S.

There are a number of folks in the industry who I read with some frequency who have weighed in including Shoemoney, Quadzilla of SEO Blackhat (Quadzilla), Michael Gray (AKA Graywolf) in his Jason Calcanis post, and many others.

Perhaps my favorite is from Danny Sullivan, the godfather of SEO at Search Engine Land.

Danny makes a great point: Those of us in the industry tend to think, out of long habit, about those things one must do as a cost of entry for SEO.

Most clients don’t.

Regardless of Mr. Calcanis’ suggestion that all one has to do is publish good content and wait, there really is a bare minimum cost of entry. At the basic level, it’s not rocket science. But, if you are busy running your business anything which distracts from your main mission may seem as though it is rocket science (or voodoo). It’s just like anything else, until you have a level of comfort it’s odd and scary.

For whatever reason I’m thinking about this today as I go about my other business and it reminds me of a great story of the Locomotive Consultant:

The train yard is at a dead stop, and commerce is hobbled when one of the giant freight locomotives breaks down blocking the main track.

The best and brightest in the rail yard aren’t able to get it started and it’s too heavy to push or lift off the tracks.

Finally, after days of effort with no success the railroad management decides to call in a locomotive consultant.

The consultant arrives, and on reviewing the scene proceeds to walk around the locomotive looking here and there as he goes. He gives it a couple rounds and goes back to his truck.

A few minutes later he returns with a ball-peen hammer, walks right up to the locomotive and gives it one good whack. He then turns to the railroad’s engineer and says “give it a try now”.

They do, it starts and everything is back on track (pun intended).

The locomotive consultant then presents the manager with a bill for $1000.00.

The manager is incredulous and asks the consultant to itemize the bill. It looks like this:

1. Hitting the locomotive with a hammer – $5.00
2. Knowing where to hit it – $995.00

I hope the point is clear. As Shoemoney says: “95% of SEO is super simple“. There is however one caveat.

You have to invest the time and energy to know that it’s simple and then to implement that knowledge.

The good news for the SEO community, and our clients, is that it is much more economical for most business managers to hire a locomotive consultant

. Sure, you’re paying something because we know where to hit the engine, but it is probably a lot less than the opportunity cost of your time spent in acquiring our knowledge and putting it to work.

I’m a little saddened to hear that Shoemoney is not renewing at webmasterradio.fm. For those of you who don’t know, Shoemoney became famous, some would say infamous, when he published a picture of himself with a very large AdSense check.

In a recent conversation between Shoe and Quadzilla on the show they were talking about SEO and Quadzilla made a comment which I found pretty heartening.

He said, and I’m paraphrasing, “that the basics of on-page SEO should have a lower price point than they do from most providers”. What he was suggesting was that on-page SEO should cost less than $5000.00.

So I’m thinking “holy cow $5000.00”? We do it for MUCH less than that. We must be the most economical SEO out there.

But, like the Ginsu knife commercial it just gets better. “But wait, there’s more”! We, Search Influence, don’t just do the SEO, in fact we don’t even focus on SEO as such.

It’s just part of our model.

Most of our clients don’t know what SEO is – even if we said “It’s an acronym” and then told them what for they’d just give us that look. You know the one, the look that says “OK, this is voodoo”.

This is why we tend to focus on “Internet Marketing” and “Website Promotion“. These are concepts that are easily approachable. Unlike “Search Engine Optimization” which really does seem like voodoo to a lot of small businesses.

So – whether it’s passe or not to these giants of the industry, economical SEO can be effective. Our clients get more traffic and make more money from they’re web sites and at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about.

So, Shoe – sad to see you go. I’m sure you’ll do something else just as giving. Thank you!

That’s right, I said “Search Engine Optimization Guaranteed“.
I’m constantly looking for new ways to energize our sales process at Search Influence. It seems like in most of my personal selling I find myself talking to larger clients – clients for whom there’s a good ROI in customized SEO and website promotion programs.

Whether it’s link-building or article marketing, there are always ways to promote a site – it’s sometimes just a matter of scale.

The jobs in which I have the greatest pride however are the smaller clients. The ones who take advantage of our introductory package and who get real value from it. And – here’s the crazy thing. They get guaranteed search engine optimization and promotion results. In other words, we can’t necessarily do that for the big guys. We make other guarantees. We guarantee placement sometimes or traffic, but for our introductory package if you fit the model we actually guarantee to double your traffic.

Why is this so important in the sales process? Well, if you know how many sales you’re getting today from your web site and we can double your traffic it stands to reason you’ll get nearly double the business.

So, the search engine optimization is guaranteed to bring you more traffic. We can’t guarantee more sales, but it does stand to reason.

Why don’t other marketing media guarantee traffic? What if the Yellow Pages guaranteed to double the number of calls you got? You’d probably buy a bigger ad woudn’t you?

So, economical SEO, a search engine optimization guarantee and you can’t lose. Plus, you get to be among those positioning themselves for the years to come when the search engines become even more critical.

It’s not here yet, but the time’s coming when search engines will get more references than Yellow Pages. (maybe then they’ll give a guarantee :))

Website promotion offers the only direct, un-fragmented advertising channel available.

I am a member of BNI where I go, as a small business owner, to promote my business and extend my network. BNI is responsible for a lot of good referrals for Search Influence and I advise it to anyone in a service or sales related business.

One of the great things about BNI is that it forces you to get up every week and give a 60 second “elevator pitch” style presentation about your business. If you’re not one who speaks comfortably in front of others its great practice – I’ve often heard the same about Toast Masters though never experienced it.

In any case, I have some experience with public speaking and presentation so I often (don’t tell my chapter members) wing it. I’m pretty good with extemporaneous (and shameless) self-promotion so all too often I decide what my 60 second commercial will be as I’m rising from my chair (and sometimes while I’m introducing myself).

On a recent occasion I found myself talking about advertising…

It used to be that you had 3 choices for television advertising with which you could own the market: ABC, CBS, NBC. Obviously this is no more. With hundreds of channels on cable and satellite and Tivo and other DVR systems your likelihood of hitting your target market with traditional media gets lower and lower every day.

So where’s the good news? Well, there are only 4 major search engines, one of which has the lion’s share of search traffic. Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask (in that order) command 95+% of the search market.

Here’s what that means to you – if you can figure out what people are searching for when your business or service would be a logical conclusion, all you have to do is be near the top of the major search engines when they’re doing their search and chances are you’ll get the call.

It’s interesting, and sometimes ironic, that the new media are re-focusing the potential to target your market. Website promotion, which is what Search Influence does, is what enables you to get to the top. First, you build a site; then, you make sure it’s saying what people are searching for; finally, you promote the heck out of it and soon enough you’ll be near the top where people are looking and instead of 1000 channels, you only have to worry about 4.

Our client Dr. Gordon Dubois let me know about a call he got last week which just makes me happy.

Dr. Dubois, owner of New Orleans Chiropractic got a call last week from a young service man who is on his way home.

The call was from Baghdad!

No, this is not common. But guess what: Dr. Dubois got the call because he’s number one in Google, Yahoo and MSN for a number of New Orleans Chiropractor related searches.

I’ll post more on this once I have more details, but here’s the thing… Dr. Dubois has only gotten a little more than our basic service package. In addition to our standard package, we have done a little advanced linking by way of a larger directory submission and a high-quality article submission, but he’s #1.

Dr. Dubois used to run the Chalmette Chiropractic Clinic. Chalmette is still deep in the recovery from Hurricane Katrina and he’s rebuilding his practice in a more viable part of town. To that end, we built him a basic site, did a little promotion and he’s now number 1.

Aside from helping a service person coming back from Iraq to care for his spine, we’ve really helped Dr. Dubois and his New Orleans Chiropractic clinic begin its process of recovery.

I could not be prouder.

I just had an interesting conversation in which I was reminded of how sad it must be to be a domain squatter.

It is true that you can more easily attain good ranking if you have a domain name which matches your key phrases, but what if you bought a domain a few years back and have been sitting on it because of some perceived value and you suddenly learn… it has none!

Sad, I tell you.

Everything is better with examples and here’s mine for this one:

We were building and promoting a site for a New Orleans chiropractor. We thought all the good domains would be taken, but amazingly they were not – we were able to get hold of neworleanschiropractic.net and neworleanschiropractor.net (note: these are not the ‘.com’).

While not the .com, they are incredibly key phrase relevant.

We did a a little key phrase research and determined that “new orleans chiropractic” was getting about 8x the search traffic of “new orleans chiropractor” and therefore deployed a site on neworleanschiropractic.net. Since the domain was such a good match for the phrase we were quickly ranking for our chosen search phrase. We were lagging for our second phrase “new orleans chiropractor” and decided to take some aggressive measures.

A lot of links, a few article submissions and a few months later I’m happy to say our website promotion efforts have paid off. www.neworleanschiropractic.net is #1 in Google, Yahoo and MSN for the phrases “new orleans chiropractor” and “new orleans chiropractic“. And, we’re starting to pick up traffic for variations on the theme as well.

Content, links and time are a surefire recipe for market domination by way of website promotion.

A great domain helps, but you definitely don’t need the .com to dominate. And, if you’re sitting on a bunch of them just hoping your day will come you may be sad when someone eats your lunch based on good ol’ fashioned content and links.