Website Promotion is not Voodoo

In I got this link by email from one of our clients (for Botox, San Francisco folks can’t go wrong with Dr. Roy Kim - yes, it’s a blatant link-drop) and it got me going on a pet peeve of mine:

Small Business owners giving up control over their own online destiny.

Internet marketing for plastic surgeons presents some interesting challenges. Surgical practices make a lot of money and are attractive targets. Unfortunately, more often than not, the results haven’t matched the promises.

Right when it came out I pointed to a recent article in the NY Times. This post is intended to clarify my thoughts in response.

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In this morning’s session at Small Business Marketing Unleashed Jennifer Laycock was talking about the value of ratings and reviews as a component of social media.

For those of you who don’t know, Search Engine Guide is putting on a show this week focused on small businesses: Small Business Marketing Unleashed.

At the risk of repeating myself, Miriam of Solas Web Design in her SEO Igloo blog has been engaged for a few weeks in an investigation of Local SEO culminating with a series of interviews. Miriam was nice to include me and most recently asked me to respond to some questions from the comments on one of her recent posts.

My friends at Solas Web Design are doing a great interview series on “Local SEO”.

These interviews are a little technical in some cases but still make a great read regardless of your level of knowledge. How do I know so much? One of them is with me

Among the other usual suspects so far are:

Update:

If you’ve been contacted by SEO Matrix please give us a call.  We’ve learned that the way they prospect is by calling people who are spending money on online advertising.

Most of our clients come by referral.  We can help you too (and in most cases for much less than SEO Matrix).

A Case Study of Trusted Reviewers’ Impact on Google Maps Placement

David Mihm, a local SEO in Oakland CA recently pointed me to a post by Tim Coleman of Convert Offline who offers Search Engine Marketing help for small business entitled “Is Google Filtering Reviews or Reviewers”.

I live in New Orleans where people do occasionally rent a television for the big game.

It’s an event. No need to call consumer credit counseling.

If I’m renting my 17″ Sylvania that may be a problem.

Website promotion is the same. Rent or Own.

Ultimately you want to own.

Pay No Attention to That Man Behind The Curtain: M-LAT, Medical Lead Acquisition Technology

I’ve mentioned before our current vertical focus on Cosmetic / Plastic Surgery.

I got a call from one of our clients who had attended a dinner in Los Angeles with 40+ of his colleauges in the LA area - “Doc-Hollywoods” he called them. As part of the dinner there’s a chance for vendors to present. At this one, the vendor was a company calling themselves M-LAT (Medical Lead Acquisition Technology).

What on earth does Swine Insemination have to do with SEO?

This is a funny story and turned out to be a pretty good example of what reputation management, as I understand it, is all about.
Now, keep in mind there are people who focus on reputation management. We dabble.