Business Owners. Do you Yodle?

I own a Landscape Company in Eastern NC. Earth Art Landscaping Inc. I have been in business for 13 years with only word of mouth advertising. I am in need of more work and was wondering if any of you folks use yodle to get your business plastered first on 50 search engines front pages when potential clients search for landscapers in my area. With winter being here its hard to justify the 249 dollars a month they want. If you use them you know they have alot more to offer than the search engine thingy, but that was a big seller for me. We arent a business supplementing income. We are a serious business doing serious landscapes as you can see from a water feature we did. You like? We are for hire and will travel!!

a reply to: earthart

Never, ever, under any circumstances, use any "search optimization firm" that promises to give you specific search placement.

Their techniques may give you a short gain, but risk serious long-term penalties.

Your best bet is a very clean/clear website that showcases your services, with a good amount of well-written copy that includes all the markets/towns you serve. Then be active in social media, especially twitter, and use Google link-shortener for posting links to your website in Twitter.

Ideally, you website should spend time doing nice write-ups, with progress photos (if you have them) of some of your best work in a case-studies section.

Also, lots and lots of tips for homeowners on how to properly care for their nice new landscaping. From my limited exposure to the business, that's the number one problem I see -- people don't really know how to protect their landscaping investment.

With all that, Google will see you as an expert in the field, and you will rise to the top naturally, all on your own, without paying anyone else. Added bonus -- you'll become an expert in promoting your business online.

One more for gits and shiggles!

Thank you SO SO much for this. It is'nt falling on deaf ears. I intend to let my ATS family make my mind up. Thanks again Mr. Overlord a reply to: skepticoverlord

a reply to: earthart

I have been self employed since 2007 and not saying I have all the answers to marketing, but I'll give you some tips that have helped me for relatively free!

Saturate the web with your information yourself. Make a facebook fan page, an instagram account (to highlight your awesome work!) a twitter, and a google plus. This covers the majority of niches people fall into. Young, old, trendy, conservative, etc. I post to these daily and get the majority of my business through these sites. I run specials, contests, and highlight my work. People love it! Use your hashtags correctly and you will be good to go.

I also market on Craigslist though Craigslist has it's own unique blend of people... but I bring in a lot of business from there. Angies list is also great. So is yelp, but don't waste your time with their salespeople either. Ebay classifieds is free and easy to use, so is Oodle and backpages. As many places as you can list your biz info yourself, the better! Some cities/counties even have free directories on their website. Or you can post for a fee which in my opinion, is way better than paying these 3rd party SEO companies.

I'm assuning you have a website? If not, you can build one yourself. Another thing to not waste money on. Squarespace is who I use and they have templates so you can plug your info in yourself. And their support is excellent. I pay $10 a month. I post my site information on relevant groups on facebook, and other relevant places where people are searching for my services.

Good luck! If you have any questions, please PM me!

I'm very proud of my website btw... and some ATS members gave me some valuable advice a while ago. I'm at www.elevationperformanceinc.com if you want to check it out!

a reply to: earthart

You are REALLY good at what you do.

If I had a house near you I would go to you. Damn, those are nice.

I dont think you need to advertise to the world. Maybe go to local businesses and just ask if you can post some stuff. Like Skeptic said, just run a good and clear website.

I have never seen the reason to advertise to everyone in China if my customers are local. Its a waste of money. The best advertising is word of mouth...good and bad.

Have a good one.
Hold it down.

Hello,

I was a lurker and joined just to reply to you now. I have to say I really do enjoy this place and thank you for allowing me to even be here.

Anyhow, my father and I have an electrical contracting company in Jersey right across from Philadelphia. I have spun my wheels with marketing for it over the last few years for sure. I'll share some hard won wisdom.

As a service based business, we go to the customer, one should stay mostly local. That involves showing up in the Google Local red pushpin/ tear drop.

One huge way to do that is with citations (for local seo). They are comprised of NAPW
Name
Address (real address, not a UPS STore, etc...
Phone # (one local # is better, than an 800)
website

moz.com...


Always take too many pictures. Some will come out, some won't. But always over due it. Do this with your smartphone and the GPS on and it will mark the location to the BIG G and help you get a feel of where you roam for a service area for the pics on your blog and website.

If you see someone else's work when driving home in a flowerbed , take a pic and comment on it. You are the expert. Soft sell it.People like to buy, but they don't like to be sold.

Next. Take more pics and get involved on social media like facebook, twitter, etc...

Finally, Go to HOUZZ and keep taking pictures. There was a book on kindle that showed how to make the most out of a free houzz profile and get noticed for like 3 bucks or so.

I have to go and collect some money but I will be back with more.

The only thing I can possibly offer is make sure you own your own domain name UTTERLY and TOTALLY. Some companies hold you hostage and keep you from leaving.

A website is your 24/7 365 a week employee answering questions and showing off your skills to your prospects.

My company does more industrial, commercial, institutional, and parking lot lighting. We occasionally do residential electrical, but other companies depend on lead services to feed them there work. For some they rather just pay the fee and work. But they are dependent on this other company. I come from the group that rather control their own leads. Give a man a fish and he eats that day. Teach a man to fish and he can eat everyday.

a reply to: earthart

I second the getting your own domain/website up and running. In today's market, utilizing the web to its full advantage will get you most of the traffic you will need. In most cases, there are plenty of free templates out there to make your life easier. The plus side to having your own site is that you're pretty much in control of everything about it (especially pictures). The downside is that there is upkeep costs, but it's an expense worth having.

Also, my degree is in web development, so if you ever need a hand (assuming you're going to look into it), feel free to send me a U2U, and chances are I'll be able to help a bit.

-fossilera

thanks i will look into ALL your advice. Just to think i am going to corner my competition with the help of my ATS family! sahweet!
a reply to: hibbity

By a million to one chance, are you or is anyone with any share in your enterprise a veteran? I only ask, as there was a local optimization specialist who is well known whom I believe is a vet himself who gives back to his own whom have businesses in need of these services.

Looks like I found one of your issues. Goes back to citations (NAPW)

moz.com...

If we go there, type in your name and zip and let it spin, we get a few results. One is you with few juice of like 11%, so by chasing that we can brush up a bit. BUT you have to be constantly consistent with citations. Example: Smith Electric Company LLC at 1313 Sunset on one and Smith Electric Electrical Company are not the same to g00gle for the citations. Let alone something as simple as abbreviating Smith Electric CO LLC which is "technically" a different third company. If you clean up your Citations with someone you may decide to run your zip instead of zip plus 4 in case someone abbreviates it down.

If you nab your own domain that you own yourself and graft a g00gle plus/ my business with it and do cit work with help you should be able to get appearance and upward movement on the local map for your town and "accidentally" bleed into a town over perhaps.

Anything new happening? I hope all is well.


www.lawnsite.com...
www.lawnserviceforum.com...