Agency Eight:Fifty - Building Relationships
Agency Eight:Fifty - Building Relationships
Before we spent all day staring at tiny screens, marketing was much simpler. The phonebook provided a fairly even playing field. Companies were listed alphabetically, while big spenders could pay for ads. Some companies would spend 100% of their advertising budget on those phone book ads.
This January, the New York Times published a front-page story on an annoying local online marketing trend, titled, “Fake Online Locksmiths May Be Out to Pick Your Pocket, Too.” In short, honest, local locksmiths are getting locked out of search engine results because of phony listings created by shady call-center operations that invest heavily in expert SEO services. Because these national schemes have more resources to invest in local online marketing, they often show up first on Google search results.
According to the Times: “The goal of lead gens is to wrest as much money as possible from every customer, according to lawsuits. The typical approach is for a phone representative to offer an estimate in the range of $35 to $90. On site, the subcontractor demands three or four times that sum, often claiming that the work was more complicated than expected. Most consumers simply blanch and pay up, in part because they are eager to get into their homes or cars.”
These locksmith scams are well known. Any locksmith with even an elementary understanding of the profession should be able to pick a lock, but many of these phony locksmiths are just poorly trained amateurs, who will simply break your lock and door.
Then, they’ll try to sell you a new lock and door (on top of that $300 bill).
The worst part? The Times originally covered this story five years ago. So what gives? Why can’t local small businesses get a fair shake?
This cautionary tale only underscores how important local SEO services have become to small businesses all over the country. Since 2014, at least 55% of U.S. consumers had smartphones and 42% used tablets, according to a Pew Research Center report. Today, the average American spends two full hours using their mobile devices, which now account for one in four online searches.
Mobile users also account for a larger share of local searches, like, say, when you get locked out and need to call a locksmith. So if your business wants to start gaining traction on Google, then working with local online marketing services is no longer optional. Fortunately, the best SEO services can provide other important tools, like mobile display advertising and web design, which gives you the tools you need to come out on top online.