Construction marketing: When the search engines change the rules

If you look carefully, you can see me in this picture.  Yes, at Google headquarters.  Click on the image for the back story.

In the last month or so, the rankings of this construction marketing blog have declined somewhat -- from first or second place to somewhat lower.  I checked, and discovered through my internal network of Google gurus that indeed something is up, and it isn't good.  It seems that changes in the search algorithm are giving an "edge" to players who can game the system just a little more than the others -- and sites built sincerely with real value are being knocked off.

Huh.  Isn't the system supposed to improve with time and tweaks?  Maybe.  I won't go into the technical details here, but it seems that your keyword and subhead codings have somehow become much more important than before.  Your "tags" should explicitly state the keywords you wish the bots to discover -- but you had also better be careful that your site really contains the relevant keywords.

There's stuff about Drupal, and W3 compliance, and other enhancements that suggest you need to be a much better coder than blogger or writer.

While great SEO is an important asset for any business, you need to be very careful about who you work with on this sort of stuff.  Virtually everyone who approaches you -- and I received several "approaches" a week even when this site ranked number one or two in the search engines -- is misrepresenting their services, and you will throw good money after bad.  You need to check your SEO consultants carefully, and evaluate their work with a critical eye.  There are good consultants out there -- and I think they could be worth every cent of their fees -- but don't rush to the one who calls you out of the blue on the phone, or sends you a spam email.  Like everything, you will find competent people through qualified referrals and recommendations.

Isn't that what great construction marketing is all about?

(P.S.  In time, probably sooner than later, this site will regain its rank.  I'm patient and persistent and certainly have built a helpful network who can guide me along the path.)

The move to Wordpress

Quietly, for the past few days I've been working on the transition of this blog to the new Constructionmarketingideas.com site on my own Wordpress-framework host.

Although not intended to be really public yet, I set the code and voting mechanism in place for the Best Construction Blog competition and the votes started arriving, along with comments from some nominated bloggers to correct errors in their listings, or ask why they weren't included. As I fixed various bugs, more votes continued to arrive, suggesting some viral marketing is happening. (People are telling their friends and colleagues about the site and voting, and these guests are arriving, registering and voting.

I still have quite of bit of work to do before the new site is fully ready -- there are glitches in the background pages, the references, and some of the data, but overall it is exciting to see the amount of interest the blogsite has attracted.

You can help out by bookmarking the new site or including it on your blogrolls (but don't delete this one just yet). Unlike the site referenced in the previous posting, I'm going to be up-front and 100 per cent visible about my Search Engine Optimization -- of course both sites will continue to have truly original content.

P.S. The resources at Statcounter.com are truly impressive, and free, and will provide you with a wealth of data.

A marketing mystery

So, who is behind roofersmarketing.com, or for that matter, marketing-for-roofers.com? The site is certainly appealing, with lots of refreshing content and ideas, but some thing's odd here. You can't find any real contact information about the site owner.


My guess is this is part of a SEO initiative by a marketing organization (I have an instinct about who it is, but cannot prove it, so won't assert it publicly here).

Nothing wrong with this sort of strategy, of course, and I suppose with the backlinks from this public blog I've helped the mysterious organization with their objectives, but the advice and ideas on the site are useful and relevant, regardless.

Plumbing and plumber marketing: The accidental discovery

A search of Google keywords "Plumbing Marketing" leads you to plumbermarketing.com, not Adam Hudson's Plumbingmarketing.com, which I discovered yesterday. Why?

Yesterday, I reported on my discovery of some really useful resources at Adams Hudson's Plumbingmarketing.com site (one of a network of sites he operates from Alabama.) But what do you find when you key in "Plumbing marketing" without quotes on Google?

Another site, plumbermarketing.com has first ranking (at least from my Canadian base, but using the global Google search engine, not its "Canadian" version. That takes us to this site, whose domain is owned by Torske & Sterling Pty Ltd. in Sydney, Australia. When you search into Torske & Sterling, you find some stuff relating to "legal marketing" which of course makes this even more confusing.


Nevertheless, yesterday evening, in searching for the ownership of plumbermarketing.com I inadvertently used the whois.sc tool to research "plumbingmarketing.com" and discovered Adams Hudson's site, truly accidentally. His hudsonink.com site ranks fourth on the first page for "plumbing marketing", but the "plumbingmarketing.com" site is nowhere to be found. In any case, as I reported a few weeks ago, there are big differences in search site visits and time spent between first and fourth place on the Google rankings.

I have calls out to both Hudson and someone named Grant, who provides phone numbers serving the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K., and provides audio testimonial clips focusing on U.S. clients. I sense Plumbermarketing.com has a cleaner, simpler, and less stereotypical Internet interface, but the real key to its success may be the mysterious Torske & Sterling in Australia.

The research continues, but I had one other question to solve: How important and valuable are the search terms "plumbing marketing" and "plumber marketing"?

Here I used the Google Keyword Analysis tool to discover that the local search volume in June was 590 inquiries, with the monthly global search inquiries at 720. "Plumber Marketing" meanwhile had 110 and 170 searches respectively.

For comparison sake, I tried "Construction Marketing" and discovered 12,100 local searches and 9,900 global searches.

This doesn't necessarily mean this blog has a better "place" in the actual keyword value because more people who are really interested in -- and willing to pay for -- plumbing marketing services may go to the appropriate plumbing site(s) than here. But I'm not complaining!

Can we learn anything from this research?

First, most readers here are seeking to serve local rather than international markets. If you are a contractor in Chicago, you don't really want inquiries from people seeking services in New York -- though you might want potential customers based in New York but with a job in Chicago to find you!

Second, a great search engine ranking does little for you if you cannot convert the initial inquiries into real clients. This is easier said than done, and is a key element of my current research project (one I wish to solve, because of truly enlightened self interest.)

But I am going to take a stab on explaining why I think Google may like plumbermarketing.com so much more than plumbingmarketing.com.

Back-end SEO sophistication
Torske & Sterling appears to know something about SEO. I'll call them to see if I can learn more about what they are doing and how (assuming they will share things with me).

Simple design using video and audio tools
Note the audio clip and video image

Multi-national contact information
This may not be helpful if you are purely local, but if you have a worldwide service, Google probably loves it.

There are some puzzling gaps on the successful site. For example, you can't easily find who "Grant" really is, and I can't determine on the surface exactly where the site owner is located! These would seem to be essential in building real trust (but, then again, the top Google ranking may trump these qualities.)

How important is it to be first on Google?

This chart showing the importance of high ranking on Google is published in Distribution of Clicks on Google's SERPs at seoresearcher.com, October 26, 2006.

How important is it for your architectural, engineering or construction business to be in first place with relevant keywords for organic Google searches?

The answer is "very" if you consider two important elements, the percentage of searches that rely on Google, and the amount of attention given to the top position on the search rank compared with others, even on the first page of organic search listings, at least if you can believe one widely quoted study from Cornell University researchers Laura A. Granka, Thorsten Joachims and Geri Gay.

The Cornell study using student volunteers discovered that 56.26 per cent of people click on the first organic listing, and the number of clicks declined to 13.45 per cent for second place and 9.82 per cent at third place. Near the bottom, the 10th ranked spot attracts 2.55 per cent and the seventh ranked is in a kind of black hole, at 0.36. Nevertheless, if you are in the top three spots, you have an advantage in two ways: First, 79.63 per will click within the first three places, and they will spend 68.23 per cent of their time there.

How important, however, is Google in relationship to other search alternatives? According to comScore, in June 2009, Google had close to two thirds of the search market at 65 per cent, followed by Yahoo at 19.6 per cent and Microsoft's new Bing at 8.4 per cent. (See this Eweek.com story, Microsoft Bing Gamed Market Share in June, says comScore.)

If you extrapolate this data, you can see how important it is to have top spot on Google -- more than 35 per cent of the total search volume from all engines and sources occurs if you are lucky enough to be first there.

My check shows this blog is referenced in the first, third and fourth places on Google when you search "Construction Marketing" (without quotes), suggesting it is capturing almost 45 per cent of all search inquiries from all engines, based on the Google searches alone. The actual numbers are probably better. While this blog doesn't rank as highly on Bing and Yahoo.com, it still is in the first three to four places.

If you fear you don't think you have a chance of reaching these glorious heights, I should add a couple of other important considerations: Geographical targeting, and true keyword relevance.
Increasingly, Google is segmenting its search results to achieve greater localization. Certainly, at the highest level, Google results vary by country, but Google Local is creating a new level of relevance if you are strong within your community, and have little market elsewhere.

The second point, true keyword relevance, relates to the actual probability of someone searching for your keyword with the intent of finding you (or your type of business). This is where Google has been so successful -- its search results generally are relevant, and it appears to bias its results so that business manipulation to achieve top ranking doesn't really help very much. In other words, (unless you pay Adwords for the privilege), you can't pay your way to the top.

The consequence of negative publicity for high search engine rankings can be equally devastating.

Consider the story of Christian Kirschner in Denver, who declared personal bankruptcy at the same time as the High Country Club destination club he founded went bankrupt earlier this year, leaving hundreds of people who had prepaid for vacations in the queue of unsecured creditors. This thread on the Destination Club Forums tells the story.

One of the forum's participants noted:

When you do a Google search of Christian Kirschner this website is #1 and #2 in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

Statistically 1st place gets 42.1% of all clicks for the search and 2nd place gets 11.9% or 54% of all mouse clicks are done for #1 and #2.

Job well done.

Now try for #3 which adds an additional 8.5%....

(Full disclosure: Our family participated in this club and we had four successful vacations before the business failed.)

Kirschner is working to rebuild his Denver-based Kirschner Partners real estate brokerage business. Despite the Destination Clubs Forum reference, his brokerage's own listing has first place on Google searches from our Canadian location. I cannot tell from here how he ranks in Denver, where it matters the most to him.

Reaching first place with Google

Sometimes we enjoy moments of joy and glory in business.

Yesterday, I appreciated how this blog -- originally started 2.5 years ago as a client service initiative -- has become a significantly valuable marketing resource. The reason: It has keyword leadership on Google for the phrase "Construction Marketing", which means that of about 8,000 search inquires a month using these words, this blog is first.

I can trace calls, inquiries, and some meaningful business to the blog -- and sense that much more is on the way. Clearly, a first place ranking within Google for keywords relevant to your business will be lucrative, especially if you don't have to pay a cent for advertising (or, if you are in the publishing business, you can earn money from advertising revenue.)

How do you do it?

Here is a strategy that may work for you.

• Figure out what people searching for your service are actually doing. The keyword combinations may be obvious, but they may not be that clear.
• Build a website with practical information about your business, but most importantly, useful and relevant content about the topic on which you are an expert. Don't worry about giving away secrets. Just be helpful.
• If you enjoy writing, start and maintain a blog. Write daily if you can, but not less than once a week. If you enjoy video, make a video blog.
• Offer, without worry of reciprocation, other websites and organizations which have information relevant to your readers a free link on your blog. Don't worry about trading or reciprocation. It will happen naturally.
• Contribute to relevant forums and groups, again sharing your knowledge and insights.

If you think all of this is a lot of work without any immediate reward, you are correct. Patience is important. This is not an instant gratification program. (You can of course buy your way to the top paid listings by allocating enough money -- and turn that system on within minutes.)

Note: If someone is already in exactly the space you wish to occupy, you will have an uphill battle. Whoever is first, and does a reasonably good job, wins.

Is this effort worthwhile? While I knew there were some immediate benefits in blogging early on, it has taken more than two years for the intuitive to generate revenue, and I think it will be another year to 18 months before it reaches its full potential.

So, yes, this takes time. But not cash.

How you can win the Construction Marketing popularity contest

Paul Lesieur uses his "Mobile Kitchen Display" both as a showroom at home shows, but more impressively, as follows: " I drive it to the customer and bring a 1/2 pound of WoW kitchens coffee that I personally roast. I drive out, start the generator, make the homeowner a Cappuccino to drink while looking at my showroom. After were done I offer the homeowner the coffee. Do you think I stand out from my competition?"

Paul Lesieur of Silvertree Construction in Minneapolis, Minnesota, sent the following email last night. If you want to know why, read this contractortalk.com thread which he started, Wanna Trade Links, Watch this, in which he delivers a video from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) guru Scott Willoughby.

Mark,

I wrote an article on how I blogged, very short.

How I blogged
Blogging is good for me on two fronts. It helps drive traffic to my site, and it puts me in the expert category because if you can write about something, readers feel you must be an expert.

First thing I did was get a Wordpress account, got a free template and then began to write. Since I was not a writer I used the free writing tools at Ezine. I learned a little about punctuation and grammar and spell checked my attempts, finally i was ready to publish.

What I learned was, you need to keep it interesting while keeping it short. A 400 to 800 word article was what I produced with a few articles only 150 words in length. Another thing I learned was its a lot of work, you need to come up with a snappy title and write relevant content.

Blogging produced some positive results, much more traffic to my website, and my first Internet lead. I also use my blog to promote my industry partners, and in turn they are referring me to others. If you are considering a blog be prepared to constantly be working on it and remember, what you put out on the Internet will be seen by many people, so make it relevant and interesting.

Its too soon to say where this will lead, but aside from the time it takes, my blog is a success, also I think its one of the best things I ever did to market my business.

Paul Lesieur
http://www.minneapoliskitchenremodeling.com

There are some other aspects to this story, however. Paul is certainly jot the only person coming here with useful and relevant information about Construction Marketing Ideas. This blog is getting easier to maintain and grow. This success in part relates to the one of the fundamental rules of marketing: Make sure you are first within your niche, and do your work well enough to hold that position. And there are other rules, suggested in Matt Handal's Help Everybody Everyday blog where in reading his latest posting, initially expecting just some more good advice, I received another ego boost!

Successful Marketers often establish themselves or people in their firms as experts in a particular subject. This is because people often take the advice of experts.

One great example of this is Mark Buckshon, who publishes construction-related news publications in Canada and the US. Mark's firm makes money through the sale of ad space. One of his primary marketing tools is a blog, newsletter, and an upcoming book about marketing in the construction industry. While you might assume that Mark's expertise is in publishing, he knows that his client base finds marketing advice much more valuable. By writing about this subject, he has established himself as an "expert", and has leveraged both the weapons of Authority and Reciprocation in one successful swoop.

In practicing and understanding these methodologies, you need to remember that marketing success gets much easier, almost on an exponential level, once you reach a break-through leadership point. Your challenge then is to determine if your initiatives are "me to" or will take you to first place.

There's of course nothing wrong with "me too" stuff, especially if you can copy and refine it to your specific niche -- for example, if your market is being a renovation or remodeling contractor in Minneapolis, you simply need to be top place within the category: "Remodeling in Minneapolis". You can copy and adapt stuff from elsewhere to be the leader in your own space -- I certainly did that in starting this blog, and continue to do it today!

Please feel free to communicate your marketing initiatives and stories by comment or email to buckshon@cnrgp.com. You'll receive editorial mention here, and a higher search engine ranking for your own blog or site.

Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Craigslist, Google Local, and more . . . you need them all

Yes, I know it seems strange, but if you are serious about construction marketing, you should now have a Twitter account and be exploring the microblogging space.

And you should be learning art of blogging (full scale) and video, and have Facebook and Linkedin accounts.

And understand Craigslist, and Google Local, and search engine optimization, and more.
You also need a presentable, effective and prospect-friendly website.

Is any of this stuff going to bring you business the way of the old fashioned Yellow Pages, conventional direct mail, newspaper classifieds or the like? Probably not, at least initially.

But these resources will cost you little if any money, and will (if you do things right) allow you to find number one space within your niche, as you are likely to be the first or one of the very first construction industry people to use them. And once you are in first place, it is hard to be dislodged.

Oh yeah, this stuff also can powerfully and quickly extend your word of mouth referral and networking opportunities. Goes without saying that you should only use these resources if you do really great work which generates positive word-of-mouth publicity on its own.

Stay away from the Internet if your actual work is crappy or you are running anything that could be seen as borderline. It won't take too long for you to be exposed in ways you don't want to be seen, if you do.

Catching on with blogging

This image is from the site for FW&D Fairlington Window and Door LLC in Arlington VA. Ned Overton started a contractortalk.com thread asking others for guidance about blogging. This posting reports on this thread -- and the setting of several hyperlinks to relevant construction marketing blogs from this site.

A couple of years ago, as I started the Construction Marketing Ideas blog, I sought out other bloggers in the niche by posting on contractortalk.com with an offer of a one-way link (no reciprocation required), and received virtually no response.

How times have changed. Last week, Ned Overton at FW&D Fairlington Window and Door LLC, in Arlington, Virginia, posted this note:

Any blog experts on this forum? I started a blog, after all isn't that what we're supposed to do to increase traffic to our website, now what do I do. I'm not a writer, to say the least, but I will force myself to publish something. I just don't want to shoot myself in the foot while I'm trying to hit the target.

His posting initiated a response from several other contractors, all reporting on their new blogs.
Unfortunately, I couldn't meet Ned during my most recent visit to Washington, but his blog at http://fairwd.blogspot.com/ certainly qualifies for a permalink.

So do several others who reported to the thread, which are listed below, but first I should clarify why they qualify for permalinks and why this is valuable to their business.

Google's algorithms like frequently updated and relevant blogs and this means that the blogger can ultimately expect a higher search engine ranking. As well, the blog by linking back to the main site for the contractor, will help to elevate the contractor's own search rank.
And high search engine rankings are really important for finding business these days.

But there is a big catch to this process -- if your primary objective is search engine optimization, you may ultimately be disappointed. This is because Google is constantly tweaking its rules to curtail gaming and manipulation. As you watch the story unfold, you will notice something of a tug of war between SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practitioners and Google -- people pay games to attain free high organic listings and Google, in part for good business reasons (it sells advertising after all) and partly because the gaming distorts the search engine objective of leading people to relevant and interesting sites, constantly changes the rules to prevent crappy stuff from overriding the meaningful and useful listings.

Google especially is watching out for splogs -- massive, "phony" blogs set up purely to catch reverse links and build up other sites status. This blog, for example, when it reached the stage where the number of backlinks to it would cause it to rise in Google rankings, experienced a temporary shut-down as blogger.com (owned by Google) warned that the site would need a manual real-person review to continue. Once someone human inspected constructionmarketingideas.blogspot.com and found that indeed this is a real blog written with real content, my search engine status rocketed.

I continue to believe that any business with a legitimate blog used for construction marketing should be eligible for a free one way hyperlink. Of course these one way links are much more valuable as this blog has a high ranking. The list is starting to grow a little long, of course, but the blogs here are a library of construction industry marketing examples and can be useful for your own idea generation. I think once or twice a year I will need to review the blogs and cull out the ones that are not updated properly (at least once a week) or lack any meaningful original content.

Can you achieve even greater prominence here than your free presence in the growing list of links? Yes, by communicating something exceptional or effective, telling a story of how your business achieved marketing success, and describing what you did to succeed -- or simply asking questions or engaging with me and others on the blog. This justifies separate postings and more hyperlinks. If your blog is specifically relevant to AEC marketing and closely relates to my own personal network, I may grant additional presence/publicity and special intense links. Here reciprocation, while not required, is usually reasonable as our sites will closely correlate in interest and relevance.

While I appreciate that a higher SEO ranking is probably the most tangible benefit of blogging, remember that your blog ultimately will succeed if it contains original, relevant content, and you write it for the love of blogging, not the love of SEO.

Anyways, here are the other blogs referenced on the recent contractortalk.com thread.

Chris Gerald in Toronto started Tongue and Groove: Flappings and Groovings about Remodelling, linking to his primary sites Vic Porch -- Decks and Porches and Punchlist.ca -- Retail and Office Repair.

He posted on contractortalk.com:

Tips? Don't talk about yourself. Really. Don't try to sell yourself or your services. You've got to give info away for free sometimes in order to gain the trust of customers.

Blogs are a source of info. They are not ads. Websites are ads. People form an opinion of you when they read your blog. People hire people they like. Nobody likes people who only talk about themselves.

One of the most sought after opinion-meisters of the blogosphere is Seth Godin. Here are his 57 tips...read them all and use the ones that apply to you.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_b..._get_traf.html

Meanwhile, Brian Corns at http://hydroblaster.blogspot.com, links to Hydroblast Pressure Cleaning and this youtube.com video (another SEO device!)

Duane1982 representing Poole Construction in Central New York reports:

"I do blogging as an informational source and in hopes that people would ask for an estimate. Since blogging my web traffic has doubled and my site ranks well with Google."

Kelly Morisseau writes in her blog, Kitchen Sync: A few remodeling tips, some kitchen design and everything in between, that she works as a Certified Interior Designer for a residential design/build firm in Northern California.

"This blog isn't about looking for clients," she writes. "After 25 years in the business, I wanted to give something back."

In her Contractortalk.com posting, she observes:

A couple of things I've found:

• Pictures are worth...etc., etc. Make sure that they're your own or credit the source. A lot of folks don't.
• If you don't want your pictures shared, make sure you add a note saying so.
• Linking to other blogs will raise your traffic.
• Write what you like. What interests you? What do you always tell your clients and wish everyone knew? What do you want to show off? What do you want to laugh about?
• Keep it professional. You never know who's reading it.
• Have fun. Life's short. (Eh, thought I'd toss that in.)

HomerJ at Goco Home Improvement and Repair LLC in Chesterton Indiana started a http://gocohome.com/blog/ and then posted on contractortalk.com to find ideas and obtain a (useful for SEO) signature line link available there.

Nick Jacobson at Nick's HomeWork Solutions in White Co., Indiana has started a blog, appropriately titled, Nickshomeworksolutions.blogspot.com.

You can also review Atlanta Roofing Repair's posting in the thread:

Here's a blog I just started 24 hours ago. http://www.atlantaroofingrepair.com I'm still working on it but feel free to leave a comment or question on the 3 articles I've already posted! = )

Why and how I'm using the blog will remain a mystery though.

PS: Right click on the screen for a surprise bonus!

The right click (or on Macs, command/click) reminds us of an essential requirement for successful blogs.

Dumb Search Engine Optimization

Bloggers generally appreciate comments, but do you think this comment is worthy of posting? (I've deliberately removed any possible text which would allow a link back, the intent of the comment, of course.)

Very Nice posting on your blog. I also have one blog related to your theme. Basically on our site we have submissions of blogs related to your theme from where you can get a good link to your blog. so i just want from you that you visit our site (hyperlink removed) at least once and give us a link so that in future endeavour

So I checked the site and here is what I find in the header text:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute (Edit text-header.php)

Surely, if you want to build some spammy site for whatever purpose, you would get it ready before spamming me! I've deleted the comment. Please don't try again.

Some come, some go, some stay

Since starting this blog a couple of years ago, several others have joined the construction marketing blogging culture. This is great. Several potentially great blogs have started, then seemingly stalled after just a couple of postings.

Why?

Probably because blogging is rarely an instant revenue/gratification source. While a few a-level bloggers make a fortune in the business, most achieve longer term objectives, slowly, gradually, and by building up their communities.

You'll know some of my favorites by looking at the special blogs references to the side of the main blog. I'd add Mel Lester, Seth Holdren, and Craig Galati to the collection of blogs I monitor frequently (along with Chase and Bob Kruhm's blogs, from our own organization).
Some people of course see blogging as a route to Search Engine Optimization prominence -- and because this blog has a strong place within the search engines, they angle for backlinks here. Nothing wrong with that -- and one of the easiest routes to backlinks is through comments (though I screen the comments for relevance and if you think you can just plunk in a spammy backlink, you will get nowhere, fast.)

But I think people playing the SEO game are missing an important point. Trying to gain backlinks, trying to gain 'prominence' should be at most a result not a driving force -- if you think about the readers and deliver meaningful content they can use, and do it consistently, you'll ultimately achieve your SEO objectives in a more satisfying way.

Why is this stuff important? More and more people are finding their initial and ongoing relationships on the Web, and the blog is probably the easiest and most effective way to start. But you need patience, and you your blog needs to be valid in its own right, to be successful.

P.S. I wrote this posting, like yesterday's, before heading to the annual planning meeting. You can ensure consistency by designing posts and pre-setting them for when you are otherwise unavailable.

More construction marketing blogs . . .

Two years ago, the Construction Marketing Ideas blog had this space virtually to itself. In the last few weeks, however, several new blogs relevant to the theme have appeared. Tomorrow, in my visit to Nashville, I'll meet Seth Holdren, who started the Construction Marketing Blog. Last night, I checked and found two potentially relevant new entries, Contractor City Construction Business and Marketing Blog and Contractorlibrary.com (Construction Contractor Business and Marketing Blog). Both of course are 'on topic' so rate a permalink in the sidebar.

Contractorlibrary.com says in its "about" reference:

Co­n­t­ra­ct­o­rLibra­ry.co­m f­o­cuses o­n­ t­he sp­ecia­l cha­llen­g­es f­a­cin­g­ t­he sma­ller co­n­st­ruct­io­n­ a­n­d buildin­g­ t­ra­des co­n­t­ra­ct­o­r.

Wi­th i­ncr­e­asi­ng com­­pe­ti­ti­on and a dam­­pe­ni­ng e­conom­­i­c cli­m­­ate­, the­ sm­­alle­r­ contr­actor­ m­­u­st b­e­ ale­r­t and ni­m­­b­le­, r­e­ady­ to pou­nce­ on oppor­tu­ni­ti­e­s to i­ncr­e­ase­ le­ads, job­s, and pr­ofi­ts.

Contr­actor­Li­b­r­ar­y­.com­­ ai­m­­s to pr­ovi­de­ b­u­si­ne­ss and m­­ar­k­e­ti­ng i­nfor­m­­ati­on and i­de­as to gi­ve­ those­ sm­­alle­r­ contr­actor­s an e­x­tr­a e­dge­.

Thr­i­ve­!

The blogs' ownership is somewhat disguised. No individual is associated with either blog, either directly on their sites, or on their whois pages. But something in common is readily apparent. Both sites share a common whois -- Artemishunt.com. Referencing the artermishunt.com (Artemus Hunt, Inc.) web page, you will find a simple image with the words "Product Management" with addresses in Oakland Park, FL, and Santa Cruz, CA.

My sixth sense is these sites are Search Engine Optimization initiatives. I'll contact the company referenced on the whois site for further information and will clarify when I receive additional information.

Google's magic

So this blog is number one (in the U.S.) on Google for the keywords, "construction marketing" -- and there is a link here (albeit with a rather embarrassing spelling error) at number 3. Is this good for business? And, you may be asking, how can you achieve the same results within your relevant keywords?

To answer the first question, "yes" but the process is a long-term objective/initiative. The blog in itself provides little direct business right now, but it is really useful in connecting relationships for the long-term. It certainly isn't a waste of time; it is generating useful revenue and immediate orders, but if these were the main objectives, you would rightfully say this is a lot of work for very little return.

You'll find the answer to the second question relates to the first -- if you enter the process of blogging with Search Engine Optimization as your primary goal, and set out to manage the process simply to get a higher Google listing, you may succeed, for a time, but ultimately you risk a rather serious failure. There is a constant tug-of-war between SEO 'experts' and the search engine owners -- the people gaming the system try to put less-than-interesting and relevant sites to the top of the rankings; the search engines, of course, wish the top sites to be the most interesting and relevant. (This allows them to attract more traffic, and advertising revenue.)

Fair enough, you say, but how can you succeed in the search engine process?

• A clearly commercial site is unlikely to score highly -- who, generally (without compensation) is going to create a legitimate back link to you if you are just advertising your business?
• Blogs work, really well, but you need to commit significant time and energy to make it happen. If you are a writer by trade or interest, this isn't too hard, but if you aren't, maintaining daily or at least weekly postings will strain your resources.
• You can hire a writer to do the heavy lifting for you -- but you need to work with your writer to determine the focus and content -- and you should engage in the process of sharing your honest thoughts -- and avoid 'corporate speak' in your messages.
• A more aggressive strategy is to allow/encourage your employees to blog on their relevant responsibilities. Of course this won't work if you need to manage every word your employees utter in public!
• This is a long term process. Google, especially, has 'sandboxes' built into its algorithms; it isn't going to push you to the top until it is ready -- and you can't decide that. Excessive manipulation or game playing may result in a really bad ranking, or banishment to the bottom of the SERPs.
• It obviously doesn't hurt to build relationships or seek one-way referrals from high level sites. You'll need to add something of value when you do that. (And, yes, this blog's writer receives plenty of calls and inquiries now -- nothing wrong with that, of course, that is the way you build business, though callers receive a pleasant surprise when they find that they are not being 'pitched' anything here.)
• Finally, here is a piece of advice worthy of considering seriously. Success within the SEO process is more from giving than receiving; worrying about your results will give you a lot less value than sharing your talents, expertise and spirit without seeking reward. At the very beginning of this blog, for example, I decided to grant one-way links to anyone with a legitimate construction marketing blog. Of course, many reciprocate, but that is not a condition of the deal.

5 most successful marketing techniques?

This contractortalk.com thread starts with this question: "Can you all let me know what the five best marketing techniques you are using are? In other words...the five best ways that you get business."

Lots of interesting suggestions and observations; not surprisingly word of mouth and effective use of the web (with Search Engine Optimization) dominate -- but there are certainly differing opinions.

Image borrowed from Imthiaz Blog -- Search Engine Dubai. Why? It is the first image I could find when I used the Images function from Google Search

Google's power -- Success at Search Engine Optimization

In the last few weeks, I've noticed a significant increase in the number of inquiries and requests for newsletter subscriptions. Today, I found out why -- this blog and related websites now occupy three spaces on the first page of Google with keywords Construction marketing.

Is a high search engine ranking important for your business? Yes, the Web and search engines are now the most powerful 'reach' resource in connecting people who may be interested in your services.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a significant business, and experts and pseudo-experts market their services (though the best real experts don't need to market themselves; they have far more business than they can handle, through referrals and references). As I have achieved SEO success within the construction industry marketing niche, these are the principals that have guided the process:

• Content is king -- you need real, meaningful and useful information, without commercial and self-serving marketing. "Selling" with the immediate aim of getting money from clients will not work as well as sincere sharing.


• Backlinks from credible sites are vital -- but you can't 'force' this issue. You earn the backlinks not by pushing yourself onto others; but, again, through your content. Higher rankings occur naturally this way.


• Article and blog directories are helpful -- they won't put you to the top right away but make it easier for people to find you.


• If you don't have a blog, start one. Blogs provide a dynamic and active way to interact and build interest and traffic. As well, if you update your blog frequently, you'll create more page files, more opportunities for backlinks, and more 'buzz'.

Remember, most importantly, that this is not a quick fix -- you won't find cash rolling in and serious inquiries right away -- in fact, the minute you try to 'force' interest in your business, prospective clients are likely to run away. You need patience, and most importantly, must put your own business interests behind those of your readers -- I probably won't track my first real business/client from the Internet initiatives for another year or two. But the efforts, as noted previously, are not wasted, even short-term I can recycle blog entries for articles in my newspapers, and have discovered real and immediate advantages in recruiting employees and providing better service to our current clients.

P.S. A note about copyright. Often I 'borrow' images from Google. What about the copyright of the image owners? Unless the image is explicitly public domain, we must assume that the image is copyrighted and should only be used with permission. However, providing an inbound link to the image owners provides real value in most cases for the copyright holders -- both in traffic to their site, and in their Search Engine rankings. Of course, if someone explicitly says "do not copy" or requests we remove the image/link, we will, immediately. A higher level of permission seeking is required for print use, simply because the printed work is permanent and cannot be deleted with a button click.