For a little background please see my Links Hog post.

Hello,

I was looking at websites under the keyword ‘ chiropractor new orleans ‘ and came across your website http://www.ifindsales.com/. I see that you’re ranked number 2 on page 15.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of why you’re ranked this low but more importantly how easily correctable this is.

Are you aware of what the difference between first page and page 15 would mean to your business?

Look at the difference in revenue for the highly competitive search term ‘cheap airfares’. “Moving from position five to position one on the search engines means a difference of $2.5 million in commerce per year”. You can view the entire study here at:

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19430.asp

While your industry or profession may or may not be quite as competitive as the example above, you are surely leaving profits on the table if you’re not ranking for ALL of your industries profitable key search terms.

Before you get comfortable thinking that we found you under some obscure keyword and that you rank well under “other” keywords, let me explain something. We found you under this “chiropractor new orleans“ keyword and you are losing traffic, and clients, on this keyword.

Chances are that you are also losing valuable traffic on other keywords as well. There are usually 15-20 very profitable keywords for every business market and if you are not ranked on ALL of them, your competitor is stealing business away from you.

There’s no reason you can’t have a top page ranking for this keyword based on your site structure and content. You need significantly more “one way” anchor text back links. If you’re interested I can help you with this…

Again, I’m talking about getting you ranked for ALL your keywords. Adding new back links on a steady and consistent basis from high quality websites is what will produce the rankings you are looking for. The right kinds of links are very critical in getting top ranking. I can hand deliver these quality links to you.

My partners and I own over 13,000 websites and offer PRIVATE linking to over 3200 website owners just like you.

I did not send this email out to hundreds of people, but I am currently reaching out to a list of your “competitors” as well.

I have a very simple way to prove to you that what I say works and it doesn’t cost you a dime to try. Nothing beats seeing the results with your own eyes.

Is it ok if I give you a call? I would love to pursue this further over the phone with you.

Just reply to this email and I will be glad to contact you to discuss this offer. I only work with one type of business in each city, first come, first served. My client in your market will dominate the organic search traffic that is worth thousands of dollars. Will that client be you or will you pass and give that business to your competitor? Reply now while you are at your computer.

Sincerely,

Gregory Fort

P.S - I emailed you because it’s a win -win for both of us. This is a private offering by invitation only. You will not receive this offering again as it is extremely confidential and time sensitive.
High Web Rank Gregory Fort, President 967 Roanoke Rd. Cleveland Hts., Oh. 216-339-0798 www.highwebrank.com Darrin Spiesz Director of Marketing and Sales 440-263-3136

Golly - it just keeps coming. By the way I’ve decided I’m going to start publishing all of these as I get them.

I went to see one of our clients Jessica Johanningmeier a New Orleans Wedding Photographer to have her shoot a few.

“Make me look young, thin and beautiful” I said and she felt right at home.

So without further ado I give you the choices. Please have a look and tell me in the comments which is your favorite:

Will Scott Head shot 01

Will Scott Head Shot 02

Will Scott Head Shot 03

Will Scott Head Shot 04

Will Scott Head Shot 05

I’ve got a favorite but interestingly my wife disagrees

And… remember what grandma used to say… “If you don’t have something nice to say” — I think you know the rest.

Thanks for your help!

Will

In a reply to my comment Greg Sterling says, and I totally agree:

“There also need to be clear rules at these sites to that SMBs understand the “Hows” and the “Whys” of these systems and they’re not surprised by something they thought was OK.”

This triggered a thought process which reminds me of a discussion I often have with prospective clients and other interested parties.

I believe in links! In fact I believe links are often more important than content.

So I’m often asked “why do these sites want to link to you”? To which I reply “because we give them content”.

• Directories: the content they want is business listings
• Article sites: the content they want is information
• Press release sites: the content they want is news
• Content exchanges with other sites: the content they want is… content (and links back too)

So lets be perfectly clear about the motivations of these free sites. They’re not free! They need the critical mass of listings, articles, news, reviews or whatever to continue to be “free” because they’re selling advertising!

Sure, the business who lists their site for free isn’t paying, but we’re paying. Every time we click an ad, watch a video or in other way interact with an advertiser we’re paying for the site’s operation and we wouldn’t be there without the content.

Traditional print publishers have had hundreds of years to get used to the idea of their responsibility. Online publishers fewer than 20. Unfortunately it appears Yelp is about to learn this lesson in court.

So, it ain’t free. It’s barter. Our content, their links — and they’re the ones getting paid.

Update:

Great quote from TechCrunch:

“Their goal is clearly to make businesses need Yelp, but not to expect a lot of help when it comes to disputes. Complain all you want, you’re just proving that you need Yelp more than they need you.”

And another update from the comments of the original post in response to Dave Ingram of Brown Book:

“I think you make one particularly interesting point which I missed in my rant.

The idea of businesses recommending one another is an offline behavior and attempts to squelch it online only serve to enforce an unnatural order.

Think of every networking group you’ve ever been in. I’m a member of BNI, for instance, and even though I might not have ever used the guy in our group who sells granite, you can bet I’ll recommend him because I know him.”

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

From the SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle Online): Merchants angry over getting yanked by Yelp

This article brings to a head a few issues of significance from professionals like us and from the service providers.

Businesses like those in the article have come to rely on Yelp for the connection to buyers. If only it were just Yelp…

…There’s Insider Pages, Google maps, WordPress and many other free services on which may small businesses rely and which have completely opaque and oftentimes arbitrary rules and enforcement thereof.

There are a couple of significant challenges for small businesses online which are related but not always connected:

• Ignorance of Technology
• Control of Brand (or loss of)

Aaaaaargh! Makes me want to scream. Really.

Greg Sterling constantly points to the need for education as one of the biggest impediments to small business acceptance of online marketing and I think he’s right. But the problem is, the ignorance that comes with a lack of education is really hurting small businesses.

Look at these poor saps in the Yelp article. Even if they knew what they were doing was wrong — and I’m sure they didn’t fully understand the rules, the emergence of these new yellow pages replacements is completely inscrutable to small businesses. As the recent local search ranking factors study (which I intend to write some more about) from David Mihm shows, there’s not even agreement among professional practitioners.

And then The New York Times stirs the pot with an article regarding Incentives for video reviews. You mean there’s something wrong with incentivizing reviews?

And then there’s my dearest Ms. Laycock berating those complaining about failings of a free service (Twitter).

For me it all leads back to a central frustration I feel from small businesses: they understood the Yellow Pages. You pay more, you get a bigger ad, you get more calls. How hard is that?

The problem with online is that many of these services on which the business must rely are free. And since they’re free there’s no repercussions if they don’t work, or don’t work as intended. And worse still there’s no way to get a realistic grasp of the totality of the rules nor an appeals process when one accidentally crosses the line.

So with all these problems how do you effectively use internet marketing for small business?

Simple - you go back to the basics. You don’t rely on raw technology and you definitely don’t get caught up in “They’re doing it so should I”.

Oh, and you don’t fall for a slick sales pitch from the likes of SEOMatrix, Yodle (formerly Natpal), or LinksHog (or one of their hundred other names).

The problem with many practitioners and many small businesses either doing it themselves or outsourcing is that they get caught up in the flavor of the week. There are some very smart discussions about regarding how you rank well in Google maps, the value of reviews and the sites on which they live. But…

All that doesn’t matter if you, the small business owner, don’t control your own destiny!

Here are a few clues that the sales pitch you’re hearing isn’t going to allow you to control your own destiny:

• Use of the word “Proprietary”
• Mention of “Optimized Landing Pages” (hint: if they optimize a landing page they own, they’re not optimizing your site)
• Inclusion in proprietary “Directory” listings — don’t get me wrong, directories are great but the ones we like are the ones whose listings don’t go away when you stop paying
• Switching costs - in other words you have to pay to leave
• Mention of ownership of “thousands of sites“

In short, if you’re looking for small business internet marketing, or even if you’re in a niche with higher returns and you need plastic surgery internet marketing or any other internet marketing remember one thing:

• If it doesn’t increase the search engine positioning of your site look twice — make sure you understand the outcomes and that the reward is worth the risk.

So make sure you cover the basics before before you try the flavor of the week and if you don’t understand the pitch ask more questions. And if you don’t believe the answers get a second opinion.

Just to be clear all of these distribution methods have value: reviews, directory listings, blogging, video optimization, even pay per click.

Please be sure you know the reward and most importantly be sure the click you buy lands on your site or makes your phone ring!

Wordpress Spam Injection = Google Penalty for My Blog (But Not Website)

I had been wondering for about two weeks why I was no longer ranking for “Locomotive Consultant” and reading David’s post made me check my code.

Darn spammers

David Mihm Rocks!

A little background

Way back toward the end of my time punching someone else’s clock I had an idea for a service I was calling “Outsource My Brain”.

The concept went something like this:

You’re a middle-manager or executive with more work than you feel like doing. So instead of pulling an all-nighter, or even foregoing American Idol with the kids, you drop that outline for a PowerPoint presentation to the board into you email.

Wham, bang, boom! Next morning in your inbox is a nice shiny presentation filled with charts, graphs, numbers and cool animations.

Like magic, no?

No — the recipient of your email was an offshore virtual assistant with an MBA from the IIT who knows more about PowerPoint, charts and numbers and your job than you do.

So here’s the problem with my big idea… somebody’s already done it! In fact a bunch of somebodys. One of the more well known is a company called Brickwork, made famous by Tom Friedman and A. J. Jacobs.

Best of all, I learned about it while reading “The World Is Flat” (see quote)…

on a plane…

on my way back from India.

Man I was bummed. Another great idea gone. Then comes this “4 Hour Workweek” craziness and it all goes to the dogs.

So, for anyone who hasn’t read it the “4 Hour Workweek” is about how you too can become a lifestyle designer using extreme time management to live the life you’ve dreamed while running a profitable business supporting your every need.

Sound too good to be true? Maybe. The author insists its possible!

We report, you decide.

Outsourcing your brain

Let’s set some ground rules:

• Nobody knows your business like you do (yes, yes, I’m sure - maybe)
• You can’t do everything (and do it all well)
• Working on your weaknesses is a waste of time (tons of work yielding incremental moves ending in mediocrity)
• Working on your strengths is what will make you rich (small efforts increase outcome exponentially)
• You must be honest with yourself
• Accept that control is an illusion

Nobody knows your business like you do

Whether you’re the last kid on your upline for Tahitian Noni, Herbalife or Shaklee or if you’re a virtual assistant, contract writer or run a local internet marketing company you have something in common with other business owners. You got into business because of your passion. Passion for product, customers or even money is still passion. No one is going to have your passion for your business (see quote).

I don’t know your story so I’ll tell you mine.

I used to work for a company that built the software on which some major online yellow pages run. We had customers with one phone book and others with 300 + on the Fortune 1000 list.

The yellow pages is where consumers used to go to find products and services. The Yellow Pages Association of the time had a great tag line “We’re the Yellow Pages; We Sell Things” — I love it. Sounds like us: we’re internet marketers; we sell things.

We built that company, we had some great customers and partners and we then sold it to a company who is still growing and pushing new boundaries in local and mobile search, Local Matters.

I’d been working on the web since 1994 and we had done some work in search marketing but after the acquisition a small team and I started working on search on behalf of our yellow pages customers.

I saw how well we were able to rank for local search terms for yellow pages and I thought “why not take it to the masses”. We’re still working on the mass(es) part but we’ve been doing pretty well so far. Robert Kiyosaki tells a story in his books of his rich dad saying that the way to wealth was to figure out how to do what you do now for more customers with the same effort.

In other words, if we can help the individual advertiser rank as well as or better than the Yellow Pages it’s a big win. The advertiser pays less and gets better exposure online and we get a customer. That’s the passion: helping small businesses get the most of online marketing at a reasonable cost and in control of their own destiny.

Among my strengths is seeing the systems which need to be built and finding people with skills to build and run them.

And talking.

In the past I have built the systems with my hands on the keyboard — it’s just not a thing at which I excel. Others excel… I hack… I outsource or hire to my weakness.

In the early going, I would sell the projects and do some of the work and I would find smart, reliable, contractors for the rest. You might guess that reliable part is hardest to find.

All the while I was looking for ways in which we could systematize and streamline the process.

I’ve been incredibly fortunate in the time since to develop a full-time dedicated staff (and a reliable set of contractors and vendors) who are working together to help grow even further.

You can’t do everything

So, yes, nobody knows my business like I do. I hope it’s clear that I know I can’t do it all myself. I have to rely on my team. If I had to do it all I’d only be able to serve a few and I want to serve many.

And if I don’t trust the decisions of those around me how many can we serve? Even if my team makes decisions that aren’t 100% what I’d do 100% of the time, they’re pretty close and it means they don’t have to wait for me to get our clients what they need.

In support of helping our clients we write a TON of content. This is a big management effort. Amy Arnold my production manager is responsible for keeping track of the hundreds of pieces of content we create on any given day.

I used to do this myself. I did it OK when I could get to it. Amy does it great. It’s all hers and I trust her to do it better than I would. Is it perfect? Ain’t nothin’ perfect but the Lord (as they say down south). Could I find fault if I looked really hard? Sure, but it’s getting done and I’m not doing it.

My teammates are great and they all know that we have to do 2 things: get results and serve the customer.

And the whole team knows to feel free to take things away from me.

Eva Moran keeps me from having to focus on message and brand and vendors and conference swag and all the other things which I’d love to be more involved in but which are ultimately not the best use of my scarcest resource: time.

Angie Scott our controller makes sure I don’t have to worry about money.

Prashant Tribhuvan our production team lead makes sure Amy and I don’t have to micromanage every page of HTML or directory submission or blog post or whatever.

Jennifer Wojtowicz keeps me from having to organize pay-per-click campaigns and reporting.

So, we all get to work to our strengths and know that someone else is picking up our weaknesses.

Working on your weaknesses is a waste of time

Let’s look at what Jennifer does as an example.

I know how to set up a pay-per-click campaign. I am by no means an expert. If I took the time I’m sure I could be competent. Time is the issue.

I’ll only ever be competent because my life is about talking to customers and prospective customers and defining systems.

I’d rather have excellence on task and my own time to focus where I can be excellent. Jennifer spent the last 6 years in big agencies running multi-million dollar ad campaigns. Excellence.

So, if it was all me we’d have mediocre pay-per-click implementation and we wouldn’t have the systems to support customers and staff to:

Working on your strengths is what will make you rich

So, where am I strong? Systems and talking.

I have to be focused on getting systems in place that support all these smart people because even smart people occasionally let things slide. The systems help reduce the stress of the work.

The people excel and we get results and serve the customer.

And, the more I talk the more customers want to work with us. So I have to talk to more people so we can have more customers so I can feed all these people building and using the systems.

I talk to customers we grow. I work on systems we grow with happy customers and teammates.

You must be honest with yourself

Face it, you can’t do it all. And there are some things at which you suck!

I’ll admit it, I am not great at keeping track of 300 + pieces of content a month. I don’t have the attention span for it and while I see the big picture I need the time for other things.

Amy rocks.

I’m also not great with money. In my personal life I’m rich until my ATM card stops working.

Thankfully Angie is really good with that stuff. My AmEx mysteriously gets paid, vendors are happy and I don’t worry about it.

Angie also rocks.

Hey you! Get some help

Accept that control is an illusion

I trust my team to get the work done. I could try to micromanage but I’d be sapping everyone’s effectiveness (including mine).

I live in hurricane country and I know that it can all go bad overnight. There is no control, only trust.

I trust my team to get things done. And I trust our systems to show us what needs doing. And most importantly I trust our partners and customers to tell us when we get it wrong. We’re lucky. Our customers don’t expect perfection, they expect results. As long as they get results they’ll cut us a little slack on perfection.

You can’t control everything and to try will waste your time and drive you mad.

Getting started

Look, not everyone gets as lucky as I did. I knew Amy for years — she was getting ready to reenter the workforce at exactly the time that I needed her. It just worked.

Angie who has years of high-level financial management experience happens to live in my house and take care of my kids (and me) and drive my car and is the recipient of my life insurance… and you guessed it, is married to me.

And the rest of the team, in all honesty, arrived just as we needed them most.

What about you?

Start easy, do that rigorous self-assessment and identify those things which take your time but not your passion. And then find someone else to do them.

One good starting point is Elance. Elance is a global marketplace for people who know how to do stuff to connect with people who need stuff done.

How bout that?

Ask around. There’s a lot of untapped talent out there. Think of how many secretaries, lawyers, ad execs and bankers are at home tending children? You think they have some spare time?

Is this you? Are you that smart work at home person with a growing business? Maybe there’s someone in your neighborhood who hasn’t figured out what they’re going to do with their time.

Take them under your wing and give them your least valuable tasks… It’s a starting point.

Critical takeaways?

• Know yourself.
• Find people who are strong where you are weak and trust them.
• If only you can do it you don’t have a business you have a job.
• Do what you love for more clients with the same effort and you’ll be rich!

———–

My favorite quote from “The World is Flat”

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.

It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed

Every morning a lion wakes up.

It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.

When the sun comes up, you better start running.

1. They clearly have no human review
2. The search phrases they call out are inappropriate
3. In a few instances they’ve been wrong (telling one of my “New Orleans Chiropractors” that he was in position 18 instead of position 4)
4. They’re offering inclusion in some sort of link-network (clearly not good SEO)

For instance, I got an email because Search Influence ranks on page 2 of Google for “New Orleans Plastic Surgery”

I wouldn’t be so quick to call them out, but this is at least the 5th copy of this email I remember having seen from different clients. In 3 of the 5 instances they were highlighting inappropriate search phrases and in another misrepresenting the position.

And I’ve seen a dozen others with text similar enough to make me think they’re using different company names for the same offer.
Hey Links Hog, please spend the extra $0.50 per contact and make sure you’re spamming the right target.

If you get a call from these guys please feel free to give us a call at (504) 208-3900 and we’ll be happy to tell you why this is not a good idea.
Message Follows:

Subject: I visited your website and had a question

Body: I was looking at websites under the keyword New Orleans Plastic Surgery and came across your website http://www.searchinfluence.com. I see that you’re not ranked on the first page of Google for a New Orleans Plastic Surgery search.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of why you’re ranked this low but more importantly how easily correctable this is.

There’s no reason you can’t have a top three ranking for the keyword New Orleans Plastic Surgery based on your site structure and content. You have a very nice site.

You need significantly more one way anchor text backlinks. If you’re interested I can help you with this…

I’m talking about getting you ranked for ALL your keywords. Adding new backlinks on a steady and consistent basis from high PR quality websites is what produces the rankings you are looking for http://www.searchinfluence.com.

The right kind of links are very critical in getting top ranking….and I can hand deliver these quality links to you.

My partners and I own 1000’s websites and offer private linking to hundreds of website owners just like yourself.

I didn’t send this email out to very many people but I am currently reaching out to a list of your “keyword competitors” as well. But I do favor your website because I can see your website monetizing the targeted website traffic the keyword New Orleans Plastic Surgery can deliver.

I have your contact information and phone number. Is it ok if I give you a call?

I have a very simple way to prove that what I do works and it’s risk free for you to try. Nothing beats seeing the results with your own eyes

Is it ok if I give you a call? I would love to pursue this further over the phone with you or should I go somewhere else?

Sincerely,

Nate Figueroa
(480) 445-9297
www.linkshog.com

P.S - If the tables were turned and somebody I didn’t know came to me with a proposition, even one that was appealing, I would be hesitant because I would be wondering - what’s the catch? What does this guy know that I don’t.

But then I would think he does know something that I don’t know. He does have thousands of high PR websites, he does have hundreds of thousands of pages indexed and ranking in Google Yahoo and MSN. Sites that can deliver the quality anchor text backlinks. I would also think that I need to get my website in the top rankings. And he is offering to turn key top rankings for me…on all my keywords including New Orleans Plastic Surgery. Even keywords I’m not currently competing for. Keywords that produce traffic that’s potentially worth tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars.

I emailed you because It’s a win -win for both of us. Think of it this way - Who wouldn’t be interested in buying money at a discount? Because that’s what I’ll be able to do offer you…Money at a discount.

Is it Ok to give you a call? Or you can can call me anytime at the number above?

]]> http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog/2008/05/links-hog/feed/ http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog/2008/04/msnbc-headline/ http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog/2008/04/msnbc-headline/#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:40:25 +0000 Will Scott http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog/2008/04/msnbc-headline/ The headline is “You Want A Prettier What?!”

]]> http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog/2008/04/msnbc-headline/feed/ http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog/2008/04/internet-marketing-plastic-surgeons/ http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog/2008/04/internet-marketing-plastic-surgeons/#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:19:04 +0000 Will Scott http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog/2008/04/internet-marketing-plastic-surgeons/ 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.

Table of Contents

• The good news for plastic surgeons’ internet marketing
• The bad news about internet marketing (history)
• Return on Investment (ROI) analysis
• Tracking your results - Important!
• I’m a surgeon (or I work for one) what do I need to know
• A free tip
• What about the Yellow Pages?
• Which portals are worth it?

The good news:

• You can’t ship a procedure, so the customer is most likely local
• There’s a limited number of strong competitors (in most markets)
• Directory and portal sites have to spread their effort
• There are 10 spaces on page 1
• The return on investment is high enough to absorb less than perfect targeting
• Searches with local intent are both easier to compete for and more likely to lead to sales (cases)

The bad news:

• It’s a noisy, channel - given the returns, everybody’s got an angle
• “50% of my marketing budget is wasted, if only I knew which 50%”
• The metrics a sales rep gives don’t mean anything
• A former partner resold Infospace advertising, they showed 4.5 million unique visitors a month — how many were in Topeka?
• There’s a lot of searches for non-selling search terms — I’d rather rank for “Portland rhinoplasty specialist” than “Maine plastic surgeon” — see point above
• It’s easy for a portal to be the flavor of the month — get ranked, make sales, fall off
• Every time you pay for advertising in this vertical (maybe all) you increase the incentive for your publisher to outrank you
• As my old partner used to say, “A good salesman can sell anything once” — often that sexy sales pitch is just a pitch — more style than substance

We originally started working in this market around 2 years ago. Our first client was a very niche product peripheral to the mainstream practice. We did well for them and now have a number of cosmetic surgery practices under management and those who’ve been up a while are seeing great results.

So how do we do it? Obviously we can’t give away all the secrets, but surprisingly it’s good old-fashioned SEO, link-building and PPC. What we’ve found is that all the techniques which have historically driven ranking still work.

There is always “the new”, blogging, video optimization, Facebook, social media and the like but the basic unsexy blocking and tackling of traditional online marketing still works like a charm!

We often wonder, given the old - tried and true - methods still work, why is everyone else talking about buzzwords and gadgets. Maybe they’re not willing to put in the effort.

Return on Investment Analysis

One of the great things about modern web site analytics tools is that you can get really granular on the value of a click. What I mean is that we can know where visitors came from, what they wanted and how the contact was made (did they call, did they email).

In some cases, of course, we have less granular data but we can still get within a few percentage points of the value of an ad buy.

I’ve already posted about our use of call-tracking numbers. Honestly, we want to know what’s working. Since we don’t have a directory and we’re not a one-trick pony PPC aggregator we have some latitude. We don’t have a property in which we need to outrank you.

Since our relationship is with our client we get to be agnostic to the medium. We get to focus instead on the massage.

For example, every one of our clients knows to forward us contacts from directory sites whether new or renewing. In each instance, particularly on renewal we will check referrer traffic and see what we’ve gotten.

No traffic, no renewal!

Tracking, tracking, tracking

By tracking where users end up within our site analytics we can get a pretty good view of what actions are being taken by site visitors.

I agree with Jennifer Laycock when she says that it’s more important to focus on incremental improvement rather than out of the box domination. We tend to be more focused on growth in ranking, growth in contacts and of course growth in revenue.

As mentioned above, given you can’t ship a procedure, much of our focus needs to be on the offline conversion which we track by way of call-tracking numbers. Tim of Convert Offline is evaluating a new system which he reports integrates nicely with Google Analytics, but for now we’re doing it the old fashioned way with numbers from VoiceStar (recently acquired by Marchex) and manual association of the data at the end of each month.

Again, it’s about growth in traffic, not a straight out of the gates flood.

What’s a hard-working plastic surgeon to do?

First and foremost, check references. Good ranking doesn’t necessarily mean results and if you can’t follow the trail from eyeballs on a site to procedures in your office run away.

Know that you are the authority! You don’t have to sell your soul to portals and lead generation sites just to fill your office. And the great news is when you consider the return, the investment is minimal.

Own the content, own the links coming in at YOUR site and you’ll never need to worry about the price going up. It takes work month after month, but at least it’s building your online reputation.

I’m not trying to blow our own horn here, but we verifiably drive leads at a cost of $20 - $50 per contact. The crazy thing is that Google Pay-Per-Click in major markets can cost as much as $15.00 / click for competitive phrases. In case you haven’t already figured it out there’s a big difference between a click and a contact. In fact, you’re doing great if you get above 5% conversion (contact) rate on a click.

The most important thing to remember is you can and should be hyper critical and insist on metrics. There’s no reason you can’t measure this stuff. There’s a margin for error but at a minimum you can see what your team is doing and look for those incremental improvements. As the bankers say “the trend is your friend”.

And… if you don’t know what the money you’re spending buys you, question it and insist on metrics to back up the answers.

Free tip:

If you’re a member of ASPS or ASAPS, sign up for their practice profile. They’re cheap as heck and you can’t get a more higher quality industry reference. And, if you’re a Mentor implant customer sign up for LoveYourLook.com - it’s coming up fast and I think there’s a deal for Mentor surgeons.

Yellow Pages Advertising for Plastic Surgeons

I know it’s scary, but it’s really OK to shut down that Yellow Pages ad. You’re not missing anything with just a bold listing. And, you can get way more bang for that buck online.

One last thing:

For our own information we keep a list of which directory / portal sites are ranking where.

If you want to know who’s ranking well in your town give us a call (504) 208-3900.

Here’s a quick sample (as of March 29th):

fort lauderdale breast enlargement
Site	Current Rank	Last Sample
plasticsurgery.org	Not in first 20.	NA
surgery.org	Not in first 20.	NA
aboardcertifiedplasticsurgeonresource.com *	Not in first 20.	NA
breastdoctors.com *	Not in first 20.	NA
breastimplants411.com *	Not in first 20.	NA
ienhance.com *	Not in first 20.	NA
implantforum.com *	10	NA
implantinfo.com *	Not in first 20.	NA
justbreastimplants.com *	1	NA
liposite.com *	Not in first 20.	NA
liposuction.com *	Not in first 20.	NA
lookingyourbest.com *	Not in first 20.	NA
loveyourlook.com *	6	NA
mybodypart.com *	Not in first 20.	NA
plasticsurgery.com *	Not in first 20.	NA
yourplasticsurgeryguide.com *	Not in first 20.	NA

Feel free to call with any questions — we love this stuff! (504) 280-3900

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