Ok, so I figured I would try and help you guys out as much as possible with understanding how to promote your business through your website.  So, I'll post a little tidbit on here once a week.  Hopefully, they'll be interesting enough to keep your attention.

So, here's this weeks tip.

I've talked with quite a few CI's over the years who've struggled with Google Adwords, the cost, the complexity, and the results. Disappointed in the results they had, they threw in the towel.

One of Googles biggest things to help you get traffic to your website is keywords. We've all heard of them.

The problem that most CI's have with keywords is the language.  You're so entrenched in the industry that you've learned a different language. Control systems, 802.11ac, WAP, GUI, and the list goes on.  Most of the time, normal human beings don't understand what you're talking about.

Here's a little gem.  When doing local keyword research for an individual, the majority of the keywords show an average monthly search of about 10-20.

"Wireless" Home Theater shows an Average Monthly Search of 170.
Home theater shows an Average Monthly Search of 10.

I know, I know.  You don't want to do wireless home theaters.  I get it...but they don't get it.  They don't understand ho you get wires in walls.  It's witchcraft to them.

Remember, the person searching doesn't know anything about what you guys do for a living.  How many times in your life, after you'd spent 3 hours fishing a wire in a wall, has someone said to you...

"Oh, I thought they were all wireless."

"Ugh, No they're not"

You get my point.  Almost 20 times the amount of searches for wireless home theater....than there are for anything else you guys do.

Simply because the general public is oblivious to what you guys do for a living.

So, there's your tip of the week.  Enjoy.

Has been, that's great info. I like it and it makes total sense. How do you find out what the end user typically search's for?

I redid a lot of the wording on my site by simply renaming picture titles to something the general public would use in a search. The issue is I have way to many pictures of tv hangs and not of the real systems we target. Have to redo it and maybe we should talk.

I do have a question about the above. I get what you say about wireless home theater. I don't know how you would use the term on your site. I do not want to bait and switch people, so would you word it as "people often think that we install a Wireless Home Theater because you cannot see any wires" or something like that? Just curious what the norm would be in something like your example above.

Sure, you don't want to mislead the visitor because believe it or not, Google has the ability to knock your ranking down for misleading.

The days of keyword stuffing (filling pages with keywords) are over.  Google is beyond that.

What Google is looking for is relevant content to the search.

Googles goal is to get the searcher to their intended search within 1 click.

So you put keywords in obvious places, in Headers and the actual names of the pages, in the images, in the paragraphs.

In the end, the point of the keywords is to make your site a useful tool.  If Google decides its a useful tool based on the actions you take, your ranking goes up.

But keywords isn't all of it.  It's literally everything about the site.  If your site has errors, takes too long to load (more than 2 seconds), isn't responsive (mobile friendly), is SPAMMY, your site gets punished by Google.

Have you ever been to one of those sites, when you get to the bottom of the page, you'll see a list of words or cities that are relevant to their business?  That's keyword stuffing.  The Google Algorithim is beyond that now, and those site actually get knocked down now.

how do you figure out what keywords are getting the most results? can you do it based on your area?

[Link: adwords.google.com]

How does a search for "home theater" have fewer results than a search for "wireless home theater"? Aren't all the results that include "wireless" inside the results of the search that doesn't? This implies that the more restrictive definition should have fewer results.

So I tried it out. A search for "home theater" shows 309,000,000 results. A earch for "wireless home theater" yielded 77,500,000.

I did a similar thing with "120V Light bulb," with and without the voltage. Without the voltage, 309,000,000 results. With the voltage, 713,000 results. That's what I've come to expect of such searches: more detail in the search term means fewer results.

How does this translate into the opposite effect you describe?

Ernie...It's not the search results....

It's what the searcher is actually typing into their keyboard to end up at www.XXXyyyZZZ.com

Your search result numbers are high because you're doing a general Google search.   I'm looking specifically at cities/towns.

We're not talking about search results.  We're talking about what words people are typing into their keyboards to get to your homepage.

Ernie,
I'm not sure if I have misread, but what I am seeing is that Hasbeen is stating that people are actually searching for "wireless home theatre" more often than "home theatre". He isn't mentioning anything about the actual search results just that on average the term "wireless home theatre" is being inputted into Google 20x more often than "home theatre" is.

Ah. Absolutely. I see.

This might be where my fuzzy focus on the subject got redirected


He's also asking about results instead of what people type in.

Are there any actual people at google with whom this can be discussed? You've found out that people are searching for something that more or less doesn't exist, and you want to help them out, but because that stuff doesn't exist, if you put keywords on your site for that stuff, google will punish you. You'll be punished for doing what is necessary to help the client. Hmm.

You're pointing out a basic problem, or required talent, with search engines: you have to know the name for what you're looking for in order to find it. There is indeed a talent in working out what to type so you'll find what you want.

Google has pretty much solved the classic problem of how the hell to look up words in the dictionary when all people can think to type is something that's not the word (spelling). Is google now going to work out the problem of directing people to what they really want when people are calling things by the wrong terms?

Right, he's asking about the results of the search.  How to get people who are searching for this type of work to find his business.  By looking at what people are typing into the keyboard, we can determine what would be good keywords.

So, using our example of "wireless"  an article on how your systems are so awesome that they make the lay person think they're wireless, or for our friends that are Sonos dealers, they could include how Sonos works wirelessly throughout the home on their Sonos page.  So, what we're doing in the end is providing the end user with good information that they're looking for.  We haven't attempted a bait and switch, we've given them an article on the wiring skills of good CI's and a great product like Sonos.

Google will punish you for "stuffing" keywords. The google Algorithm is so advanced that it can tell is your are stuffing keywords or attempting to SPAM. When the google bots crawl your site and see this type of thing, they'll knock your rank down and eventually remove you from google if you don't change your ways.

No, there's nobody at google to talk to. Nobody outside of the Google Algorithm team knows how the Google Algorithm actually works.  Not even others at Google. We can only make assumptions by profiling the top performing websites.

Our local BBB does occasionally offer a "Google Adwords Intro" seminar for members and I've had a few similar offers from other companies we use as partners. That being said, you won't get much insight into how the algorithm works and how to get to the top. They will give you the links to their "tools" that are setup to help beginners. They can also be found just by searching.

You do get to talk to Google employees though but the running "haha" (but not really haha) joke turns into the 10+ Google employees running the seminar telling attendees they should "Google it" when they don't have an answer to precise questions. You do get free Google promo items and an adwords coupon so I guess it's not always worthless. If you do ever find the time to go I recommend having a note with questions you want answered and stay persistent. A few nibbles of good info can be had at those seminars.

Sure, but I'm not talking about adwords, I'm talking about organically raising your rankings in Google by providing good searchable content .  Most guys on here don't have the time, the inclination or the funds for long term PPC campaigns, especially in a highly comptetitive market like NY where a click will cost $5. to $15.  If they don't get the results through the campaign  it ends quickly and they've got nothing to show for it except an empty wallet.  They've wasted their money with little to no results. When the campaign ends, they fall down out of the 1st page rankings because their site didn't meet Googles criteria to be there in the first place.

I rely 0% on google or the internet for my biz. Still stay busy. (you can figure that out likely from my website lol) I would imagine those that find your website thru a google search is mostly tire kickers? Yes, there will always be the occassional win, but how much of your biz do you attribute to "oh, i was doing a google search and found you".

My guess is mostly those that want to know how much you charge to come hook up their Westinghouse they just bought a Sams.

I completely understand where you are coming from.  I don't know anything about your company, but some companies with more than a couple or a few employees need to rely on some form of marketing of their business to reach their specific goals, whatever they may be.

I can tell you with 100% certainty there are plenty of RC members here that have done very well for themselves by using Angies List and other programs.  There are some that haven't.

I've personally pulled 40-50k jobs from Google and I know at least one other company in my neck of the woods who does it with great consistency.

You may be perfectly happy with the amount of business you can bring in by word of mouth, others simply can't do it that way.