We got a call today from Leapfish, on one of our cell phones no less.   The caller asked out our service like any prospect would do and the caller identified himself as James after a minute and reveals that he is not a prospect but a telemarketer for leapfish.com.   We looked at the site and it had a decent page rank so we allowed James to schedule a callback later.   This gives us time to investigate the site and determine if it could be good for clients.

Our conclusion is that leapfish.com is not recommended for our clients.

They claim to have combined search and social media like that has never been done before..
James claimed that Google wasn’t better it was just different.  Google is based on popularity, Yahoo is based on content relevancy and Bing is based on news related or fresher content. 

They are aggregating the content and trying to sell ads on the site.  Nothing wrong with that. 
They are ranked well by Alexa but that doesn’t matter if your business doesn’t get leads.  There are distractions for every search so you could be displayed but still never get relevant traffic or conversions.

How it generally works.

You buy a key word position with 3 positions available.  Each year you have to pay 5% to maintain the position.
Example: Home Based Business
If someone searched this exact phrase your ad should be displayed 100% of the time along with news,  videos, Amazon advertisements etc… 

They say you can later sell your ad position but it is not clear how that process would work assuming the company maintains funding to get enough visitors to become a house hold name.  It’s a gamble.   We were told there are about 750,000 visitors per month.

The parent company is http://dotnextinc.com/  It was like pulling teeth to get this out of them.  The parent website wrote this about the company. http://dotnextinc.com/DotNext-Companies.aspx     Do your own due diligence and good luck.

The Com Scores* are out and the findings show Google is still the top search engine with 65% of all searches.   This is up .5% from the Summer 2009 report and after some traffic previously included is no longer part of the totals. This means they are actually stronger even though the report shows Google stayed the same at 65%.  Yahoo still at #2 position with 20% of search traffic has fallen to 16.9% losing ground to Microsoft at #3.   Ask and AOL follow with under 4% of the market.   Should you dismiss AOL in your search engine marketing efforts?  Not if US traffic is important.  Many loyal, long time AOL users rely on the portal service which also includes “enhanced” Google results.  

* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not included in the core search numbers.
** Due to a change in the URL structure for certain Google News & Video searches, a portion of searches previously counted were excluded. comScore estimates that these searches were responsible for a reduction in Google’s Core Search share of approximately 10 basis points or 0.1%

Easter Sunday and most retailers are closing this year. It was a long time ago since it was simply expected that all but essential service businesses would be closed on Sunday. This meant you could get gas, groceries, prescriptions or dine out but local retailers would all be closed.  There is a message that a business sends when it is closed on Sunday as the sabbath.  A day of rest us good for the mind and body. If you follow the lead of Chick-Fil-A, a fast food chain who is always closed on Sundays one notices they are busy the rest of the week.  Hobby Lobby is known for crafts, home decor, furniture and florals but you cannot shop on Sunday.
Train your customers that you are closed on Sunday and same store sales will be brisk.

For many businesses closing on Sunday could be profitable but not in the way you traditionally expect. Consider the expenses of opening Sunday against the hours that the business is open. Sunday is typically a short day but the same costs apply for opening, closing and clean up.  How much is spent on advertising to get people in on Sunday?  How much does fuel cost your employees to work those few extra hours?  How much is heating and cooling?  Businesses that have gone to a closed Sunday policy find business actually improves.  Have you noticed the trend?  It is time to talk to other business owners and just look around your area.   Highly successful businesses are closed Sunday but you may not have noticed if you were working.  Considering the stress of opening 7 days a week many would close on Sunday just to improve employee moral, reduce employee and manager fatigue and get some down time for the business owners as well.

There is an argument about car dealers being closed on Sundays but it seems that there are cars everywhere.  The idea that you have to be open on Sunday needs a review.   This is not a discussion about laws but a discussion about the value of opening for basically half a day on Sunday when the expenses are almost as much as opening a full day.   Enjoy your day off, your employees will thank you.

We were asked the other day, what is Bing? Bing is MSN with a new name. What we find most interesting is using a common word that Microsoft can’t possible protect in the legal circle.

“Badda Bing” was a phrase coined years ago and the new Bing doesn’t have anything we could say has some “Badda Bing.” Microsoft is really playing bingo with our money as stock holders with this very expensive effort to catch up with that other big search giant..

The marketing tools are the same and the search traffic is still worthy of consideration in your overall web marketing strategy. We had to answer this for the client that the Chevy is still a Chevy even when you call it GMC. Don’t ignore Bing but keep it in perspective for your overall marketing dollar placement.

Is getting search engine optimization in 2010 what a small business should do? Will it really help get more customers? Is it effective at finding localized consumers?

The answer to all of these questions is Yes. The market is still down, lucky it is recovering but companies out there are still struggling to stay afloat. DFW companies have to make difficult decisions every month as far as advertising and promotional needs to keep them either selling product or service. And this is precisely the reason that this year SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is important. Search engine optimization provided by companies like 1 Call Service offer other companies a way to increase viable leads at a reduced cost compared to other forms of traditional advertising. A company that has more viable traffic is likely to make more sales as more arrive at the site because they found what they where looking for.

An example could be if you’re looking for a local lawn service, so you do a search and see what comes up. The higher you are on this list the most likely you are to gain the traffic. If your site is the one they end up on then you may have just made a sale.

The Dallas metroplex map and surrounding areas represent a large advertising market spread out over several hundred miles. So how can SEO/SEM (Search Engine Marketing)help narrow the field if you are just looking for local customers? SEO/SEM experts all across the county know about the important of localized services and searches, all of your major search engines are also now local aware. These experts can tap the potential of these search engine getting you the local results your looking for, be it a specific area such as Carrollton, or Plano, or a wider range such as Dallas or Ft. Worth.

1 Call Service SEO/SEM professionals will detail out your starting point, and formulate a custom list of improvements to be done to your website, along with getting information on what your specific SEM goals are. With this they can go to work and soon you can start to see your results. More calls, more walk ins, more product off the shelves, what ever your business needs are; money spent on SEO is money well spent in 2010.