Internet Marketing

Pro Painting Net started out as something. Now it’s evolving into something else.

We started out creating well optimized mini-sites as an additional online presence to help painting contractors generate leads…and it’s working!  Our page holders are getting ranked in Google and generating some leads:  Here’s what one of our page holders had to say recently:

I just landed my second job from the PPN site.  Thanks a bunch!

Mark Bromfield, Richmond VA

What we have found out from our clients is that they want and need more, so Pro Painting Net is now offering or will be offering in the coming weeks the following search engine marketing services and more:

• SEO Audit of your Website
• Key Word Research
• Competition Analysis
• Site Optimization
• PPC Management

What our clients need more than anything is reliable, concise information about Internet Marketing.

As a business owner, you are likely bombarded weekly if not daily by companies who say they are the answer to search engine marketing. How do you know what to believe?  We can help.

Sign up for our free newsletter.  Here’s what’s in it for you:

How do you keep up with all the latest online developments?  How do you decide which web strategies and tactics to employ?  You’re busy running a successful painting business - where are you supposed to find the time to conquer the internet too?

You don’t have to - we’ve got your back. continue

Professional Painters - Do YOU want to show up on Google’s first page in the top ranked search terms for painting contractors in your local area and get leads?

Advisors On Target has added a new service and we want our clients and newsletter readers to have the first opportunity to see what we have going on and to participate if you are interested. Advisors On Target and Web Strategy Lab have teamed up to launch Pro Painting Net, which we believe will be of tremendous value to our clients.

Are you ready to get better business results online?  Then claim YOUR local service area now with your own Pro Painting Net Mini-Site!

All 3 of our On Target Beta-Testers are on the front page of Google for the top ranking search term with their locale! This happened within days.

Some of you may be able to say you are already on the top 10 listings in Google, if so, Congratulations. But most of you are not ranking where one of your sites have the best chance of being found.

Would you like to be here? Look at these results for Painting Contractor and On Target group member, Mario Guertin

Now you too can be a part of Pro Painting Net - a network of websites built around the highest volume painting-related keywords on the search engines. What’s in it for you?

• You get your own 3-page ‘mini-sites’ optimized for local searches for your painting services in any of your service areas.
• You get exclusive rights on any PPN Domain to any service area you choose - and you define the service areas.
• You get quality backlinks to your existing website.
• You benefit from the success of every other member of the Network.
• By the way, it’s very affordable

Your Mini-site is meant to be a piece of your online presence – another way to get you found and will in most cases rank faster and higher than you can get your “main” website to rank for the top search terms

But does it really work? We asked 3 On Target Members to be beta-testers for this new program, one in a small market and two in larger markets but using a the name of a local service area within the larger market as a key word. Here are our Beta Tester stats from March 1, 2009 for the term “house painting” followed by the local name: continue

I just returned from New Orleans (I’m still in mourning about having to come home) where I participated in PACE 2009, the annual national convention for the painting and decorating industry.  Between manning the Advisors On Target booth at the trade show and presenting an educational program on web strategies, I had the opportunity to meet and talk to hundreds of painting contractors about their online efforts and results.

Not surprisingly, I found a wide range in the general level of web competence among the business owners I talked to.  Some were pretty savvy internet marketers, looking for subtle ways to improve their already strong results online.  Others were just getting going – either starting from scratch or looking to revamp old, tired websites and strategies that aren’t up to 21st century standards.  But nearly everybody had one thing in common.  Everybody was aware that online performance is critical in today’s business and social climate – that your web presence it the most cost-effective way to promote your business, and that more and more consumers rely exclusively on the internet to find and evaluate local businesses.

I was pleased to see so much awareness and so much determination to master the tools and techniques of internet success.  But I was shocked by the number of business people who mangle their credibility by overlooking a simple thing – their email address. continue

Search engine optimization - SEO - is usually the first thing that comes to mind for business owners who want to get better results online.  Is SEO a waste of money?  It can be - or it can be your best investment for online success.  The difference is in how you get started.

The purpose of SEO is to get your website to the front page of Google search results (yes, there are other search engines, but Google is the prize).  You want one of your pages to be in the top ten results that Google displays when one of your target customers types a keyword or keyphrase relevant to your business into the search window.

Unfortunately, too many business owners waste their SEO dollars by optimizing their sites around the wrong key words and phrases - either keyphrases that have very little search volume, or keywords that are so competitive that it’s impossible for a new web page to get first page ranking any time soon.  Neither approach will bring traffic to your web site, which is the whole point of SEO.

How do you avoid those mistakes?  Know your keywords, and know your competition.

Know your keywords.  How do you know which keywords and keyphrases your potential customers are using to search for your business? Ask Google. Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool will tell you exactly how many people are using exactly which keywords and keyphrases.  Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in the keyphrases you think people might use to search for your business.  You’ll get the actual search volumes for those phrases, along with a list of synonyms and related phrases, including their search volumes.  Type in the URL for your website (or a competitor’s website).  You’ll get another list of relevant keywords and keyphrases, along with search volumes. Set aside the keyphrases that don’t have significant search volume.  Focus on the most searched phrases.  Optimize your web pages only for keyphrases that actually get searched - that’s where the traffic is.  It’s simple, it’s obvious, and it’s all too often overlooked. continue

“What’s your online strategy?” I recently asked a group of business owners this question, and heard everything from “I don’t think I really need a website for my business” to “I’m number one in Google for ‘widget installation’ and my Adwords ROI is over 200 percent” - quite a range of tactics, quite a difference in results. But these business owners all shared one thing in common - not one of them had a complete online strategy.

It’s a pretty good bet that you don’t have one either.

You may already get some good business results online. You may already use some smart online tactics. Congratulations for being ahead of the curve. But you can’t afford to be complacent. The competition is about to get a lot tougher, because every day more of your competitors are using the same online tactics you use.

Not only is your competition getting tougher, but the online environment continues to change. Every day more people use online search as their primary way to find a local business. Search engines like Google constantly adjust the way they rank sites in their search results. Endless new web-based applications are invented that could streamline your business operations. Business owners who stay on top of the changes are rewarded; those who don’t are punished. Which are you? continue

Most websites work in the way they were intended to work by their programmers, but does that mean your visitors will have the experience you want them to have? You can’t be sure unless you give it a thorough road test in real life conditions. Road testing a website doesn’t have to be expensive, nor does it need to be conducted by highly specialized researchers. You can do it yourself and find out quickly where any problems exist. Here’s a seven step process that you can use.

1. Identify the functions that visitors want. Ask yourself this question: “Why would someone visit my website?” There are many possible reasons why people might visit your website and you need to prepare a list of every one of them.

2. How will people get what they want? When you know what people want from your website you then have to work out how they’ll get it. Prepare an outline for each kind of function that your site now offers that shows step-by-step how it can be done. Later you’ll compare this with test results and see if this is really the best way to do it.

3. Select your road testers. You will need between five and ten people for your road testing. Although anybody can road test your site for functionality the best results will be obtained if you recruit a group from your current customers who are likely to be representative of those who will visit your website in terms of characteristics like age, product preferences and economic circumstances.

4. Set up your road testing facility. The testing facility doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Most people visiting your site will just have a desk with a PC and Internet access so set these up in a quiet location where the road testers won’t be interrupted. You’ll need enough room for your road tester and yourself. Each test should take no more than an hour or so.

5. Write the scripts for your testing. Prepare a simple script for every activity you want to test, both for those functions your site now offers and those you think visitors might want it to offer. If you want to see how someone makes a purchase from your site ask them to “…select a product you might want to purchase and buy it from the website.” Have a script for each activity that is based on functionality only – don’t give them any how-to instructions.

6. Conduct the road tests. Tell the road testers in brief what the test is all about and what you hope to accomplish. Encourage them to say whatever they want to say about your website, both good and bad. You want to see what works and what doesn’t. Go through all the scripts relating to existing functions first and see how each participant handles each function. Don’t help them do anything; if something isn’t easy to do you need to know about it. Note in detail every step in their actions, even if you know what they’re doing won’t give them the desired result. When the existing functions are completed take them through the functions that you think might be wanted. First find out if they want that function to be available, and then ask them how they think it would be delivered. Get them to take you through a process of using that functionality – how they ‘see’ it being done.

7. Analyze your road test outcomes. Review your notes and analyze the test results function by function. Identify which existing functions worked as intended and which need attention. Evaluate the answers you received on functions you think might be wanted and for those that are in demand which is the best procedure to use for delivering them. You need to do this road testing because the real test of a website is just how usable it is. If your website isn’t easy to use it will be quickly abandoned and your prospective customers will go somewhere else where they feel more comfortable.

Information in this article is sourced from RAN ONE, Inc