Posts Tagged ‘Case Study’
SEO for Business Strategy – Overview
Case Study (Part 1): Hamilton Door Company, Asheville, NC
My brother-in-law Jeff owns a custom garage door installation company in Asheville, N.C. Hamilton Door Company was named after his hometown of Hamilton, Ohio, where his family originally immigrated in the 19th century and began a tradition of high-end manufacturing, producing some of the finest products in their field. For the last two years, Jeff has worked hard to build a company from scratch that has grown to become the number one dealer of Carriage House Door Company products in Western North Carolina. A born salesman, Jeff’s hard work and dedication has brought him a great deal of success in this field, but when it comes to his online presence, he lags far behind his competitors.
Jeff Benninghofen of Hamilton Door Company
Like many small business owners, Jeff knew that he needed a web site but he knew nothing of HTML, PHP, CSS, or any of the other tools necessary to build a decent custom site. Instead, he signed up with his web hosting company and used their templates, along with some pictures of his family and his product to put up a website quickly and easily. Jeff was even savvy enough to contact customer support and get a quick lesson on keywords and META tags.
In spite of clever local radio ads, networking with builders and business groups, and forming tight relationships with purchasing decision-makers, every time a potential customer searches Google for “Asheville Garage Door,” they are presented with obvious results (Asheville Garage Door Services) – and Hamilton Door Company is nowhere to be seen. In fact, even if someone thinks they know the name of Jeff’s company and they do a search on “Hamilton Garage Door,” Jeff remains invisible.
I thought I had solved my invisibility issue, but alas, I am only promoting David Hall at Asheville Garage Door everytime someone searches locally. THAT P!$$ES ME OFF.
Now I’ve never been a fan of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – the practice of desiging web sites to maximize page ranking in search engine (Google, Yahoo, etc,) results. SEO always seemed to be full of voodoo and wierd practices to me – coming from the old-school online world, I still believed that “if you build it, they will come.” But the more I thought about Jeff’s situation – here was a guy who was doing everything right to create a business, working hard to build and manage customer relationships, giving back to the community he loves, and yet in spite of his best efforts, his online presence is virtually non-existent – I realized that search engine results pages (SERPS) are perhaps one of the last examples of pure competition in the business world.
Even when you include all of the sponsored links and AdWords ads (items which most people have learned to ignore anyway), Google still does a really good job of delivering relevant content to users who are searching for specific things. If a potential customer is searching for your products or services, they will be presented with thousands of choices grouped ten per page. Google has a complex and ever-changing algorithm they use to filter search results in such a way that the most relevant will rise to the top. If a user does a specific search for your goods and services and your business is not represented in the first or second page of Google results (and I’m being generous here by including the second page), then it may as well not exist. You have lost a potential sale and your competitors are waiting right there to take it from you.
No one knows exactly how the Google algorithm works, but you can read a brief description of the concept here. In spite of the fact that Google changes the algorithm whenever they see fit (always in an effort to present relevant content to their users), SEO experts strive to work the system in order to achieve the highest page rank possible.
Over the next couple weeks we will follow Jeff’s efforts as he strives to improve his page rank and ensure that his web site is working as hard as he is. Future topics will include Identifying Your Market, Evaluating Your Competition, Choosing Keywords, Creating Content, Building Links, and Promoting Your Business.
Using Online Video to Promote Search Engine Results
As part of my volunteer duties at the California Center for Sustainable Energy’s EcoBuild San Diego event on April 9th, I recorded the following video interview with Mike Centrullo from Marrokal Design & Remodeling. EcoBuild was designed as a showcase for green building products and technologies as well as an education and outreach opportunity for 2007 San Diego wildfire survivors. Since many of these homeowners have yet to rebuild damaged or destroyed properties, it is hoped that events like EcoBuild and other CCSE workshops will encourage them to use green and sustainable techniques with their next homes.
With the support and encouragement of Lauri Walker from CCSE, we put together this brief interview discussing the benefits of green building and remodeling.
Case Study – Marrokal Design & Remodeling
Prior to the event, I had pitched the idea for using online video promotion as an added benefit for event sponsors. The video was shot with a Flip Mino HD Camcorder
(sorry for the plug, but it really is a nifty little camera) and edited with Windows Movie Maker. Following is a log tracking Marrokal’s search ranking in select keyword niches over time:
Friday, April 25 – Keyword research conducted using SpyFu and the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Based on this research, we decided to focus on the following keyword terms: “Green Building Remodeling San Diego,” “Green Building Design San Diego,” and “Green Building Construction San Diego.” As a baseline measurement, Google searches were conducted with the target keywords prior to distributing video.
Green Building Remodeling San Diego:
Top Ten Results in order:
Green Building Design San Diego:
Top Ten Results in order:
(Marrokal shows up on page 5, in the 47th position overall)
Green Building Construction San Diego:
Top Ten Results in order:
(Marrokal shows up on page 3, in the 28th position overall)
Footage was distributed across the Internet on Friday, April 25 with the following attributes:
Title:
San Diego Remodeling and Green Building Design w/Marrokal
Description:
http://www.marrokal.com
Marrokal Design & Remodeling is dedicated to providing the utmost in quality, service and integrity in full-service home remodeling in the San Diego area.
Conventional building construction needlessly consumes large quantities of wood, water, fuel and other materials. A green built home conserves these natural resources. If you are looking for a one-stop, green remodeling design and construction solution, contact Marrokal Design & Remodeling.
Keyword Tags:
San Diego, Remodeling Contractors, Green Building Design, Green Building Construction
Saturday, April 26 - Literally overnight Google search rankings were updated to show the YouTube video posting and others. Over the course of the day other sources began to show up on first and second page rankings of Google searches. During this period, additional footage and links to YouTube video were distributed to Blog.com and Technorati.com, as well as various podcast distribution sites and social bookmarking sites (Digg.com, delicious.com, etc.)
Sunday, April 27 - The following updated search rankings are provided as of Sunday evening:
Green Building Remodeling San Diego:
Top Ten Results in order:
www.empivot.com - Marrokal video
www.youtube.com - Marrokal video
Green Building Design San Diego:
Top Ten Results in order:
www.empivot.com - Marrokal video
www.youtube.com - Marrokal video
(Marrokal.com shows up on page 6, in the 58th position overall, additional video links to MySpace Video and DoGooderTV show up on pages 4 and 5)
Green Building Construction San Diego:
Top Ten Results in order:
(Marrokal.com shows up on page 4, in the 31st position overall, an additional video link to emPivot shows up on page 2.)
Over the next week or two, I will continue to monitor Marrokal’s search rankings in these categories – we are still waiting for Google to index the podcast distribution channels, as well as some niche blog sites, so it is possible that rankings will improve in the next few days.
Stay tuned.