Episode 102: Google Marketing 101 and Why Your Business Needs It with Lorne Sederoff of Search Kings
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Google Podcasts, Youtube, or on your favorite Podcast platform
Have you ever asked yourself what is SEO, or what does SEO stand for? Have you heard the term SEM and wondered what exactly is search engine marketing? These are questions we hear often and once had ourselves. It can be difficult to grasp these concepts, so for this special episode of the podcast, we sat down with Lorne Sederoff of SearchKings and we were also joined by Demetra Mandrapilias to discuss these terms. We also jump into a few topics in the big world of Google. The first being how to set up your Google My Business page, the second being how to improve your Google local search results, and the third being the new Google Guarantee option being offered in some industries.
Word of mouth is a good option; and as Lorne says in the podcast “it is a great start” but where do you go from there? If you’re wanting to grow your business, you need to step into the digital age where everyone is searching these days. You need to understand how to show up when someone searches for best pool company near me. You need to understand how google ads work and if they may be a good option for you. What we love about SearchKings is that they offer a flat fee month to month service, which means they know that you need to see results. They know that when you win, they win so they work hard to make sure you are seeing a reward for your investment. If you would like to find out more about how SearchKings can help you grow your business, email them here: poolchasers@searchkings.com.
Episode 102 Transcript
Episode 102 transcript powered by Sonix—easily convert your audio to text with Sonix.
Episode 102 was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best audio automated transcription service in 2020. Our automated transcription algorithms works with many of the popular audio file formats.
Greg Villafana:
What's going on Pool Chasers and welcome to Episode 102 of the podcast. We've got a very special guest today joining us all the way from Canada. His name is Lorne Sederoff and he is the Director of Channel Development at Search Kings. Search King specializes in search engine marketing. And as you all know, people are searching Google every single day looking for pool service, repairs, builders. The list goes on and on and on. And that's why it's so important to know the fundamentals of marketing your business on Google. In this episode, we're going to be discussing why your business needs to be on Google. What is S.E.O? Google My Business and some of the key features that come with it. Google Ads vs organic SEO, local search, the Google guarantee program, what to expect when working with search kings if you need help managing your Google ads. We hope you all enjoy this episode. This conversation is great for anybody at every level. We have vetted Search Kings for a couple years now and when we have people on the show, we want to make sure that one, they are knowledgeable, but most importantly, they are serving our industry with the highest level of integrity and character. So without further ado, let's dive into our conversation with Lorne Sederoff of Search Kings.
Pool Chasers Intro:
Welcome to your go to podcast for the pool and spa industry. My name is Tyler Rasmussen and my name is Greg Villafana and this is the Pool Chasers Podcast.
Tyler Rasmussen :
All right. We're super excited to have you on the podcast today. Lorne, can you tell us a little bit about Search Kings and your role there?
Lorne Sederoff:
Sure. My name is Lorne Sederoff I'm the director of Channel Development at Search Kings. We are S.E.M and search engine marketing company. We work with small, medium sized businesses to help them generate new customers and grow their business through online marketing. I'm also joined here by Demetri's. She's a senior account manager here at Search Kings and manages pool clients as well as other types of industries. So thanks for having us. We're thrilled to be on.
Tyler Rasmussen :
Yeah, we appreciate that. We're going to jump all into this topic here shortly. But first, how did you kind of get into this specific type of marketing?
Lorne Sederoff:
Well, certainly has been around for 10 years. And where we landed was we needed to make sure that we were giving value to our customers. And there's some key pieces there. One was we didn't want to be with, you know, in a relationship with a client, with a contract. We had contracts, you know, phone contracts or annoying Internet contracts or knowing. So our position right off the bat was we wanted to be a no contract company. And in order to do that, we needed to be able to know ourselves if what we were doing was making our clients money. The idea that if a customer is going to give us three thousand dollars a month, we need to know how much money they made off of that three thousand dollar investment. If we don't know if they made money or if they don't know they made money without contracts, they're going to move on to the next shiny idea or the next person that calls them and suggests they're going to make more money online doing it another way. So with no contracts, what we felt was the best place to to measure a return on your advertising dollars was in the ad space, in the search engine marketing space, where you have a budget that you put into Google or Microsoft and then everything's tracked.
Lorne Sederoff:
So you know how much you've made coming out. That's where searchings fits in. In the whole Internet world is primarily home service companies that need the phone to ring. And once that phone rings, they need to be on to acquire customers. And if we can help make that happen at the right pace, then that customers ask for a very long time. But the idea is if they don't need phone calls because they're busy. Well, let's turn off the advertising so that you're not paying anything. And when they are ready to pick up a new job or two new jobs, then let's turn the advertising on. So the idea of a fosset turning it on, turning it off really resonated with us as this is the way to go as opposed to a directory style or a listing or just a Web site that you hope people find organically. That really didn't fit in with us being super transparent and and wanting data to prove our worth.
Tyler Rasmussen :
Awesome. Thank you. So let's start with a basic question. Why do businesses need to be on Google?
Lorne Sederoff:
You know, super question.
Lorne Sederoff:
I think when we compare this back in the day to the 80s and 90s, you know, you opened up that yellow pages and you kind of flip to plumber or you flip to a pool builder or landscaper and my market and there were ads and some of them are half page and some are full page and off you went. Now the Internet is where everyone goes. You know, you could see a sign on the side of the highway for a company. Well, what are you going to do after you see that companies sign? You're probably not writing down the phone number. You're going to go home and you're going to Google that company's name because it struck you as appealing. So really, the Internet and Google is where everyone comes once they have an idea or an inquiry. So being on the Google search page becomes essential. It's just a matter of where do you show up on the search page and how often you show up becomes based almost exclusively on your goals. You know, if you have enough customers through referrals and, you know, when you're doing a job at a house and you end up with three more jobs in that community and that's how you generate new business, then as long as you can be found on Google, when someone looks for you by name, you're fine.
Lorne Sederoff:
You probably don't need to spend any money online. Frankly, I would discourage you from spending money online if you're a company that wants new customers. Well, now you need some predictability around how many new customers am I going to get calling me and how much does that cost. Right. To acquire a new customer. So that's really the work. And, you know, our first conversation with pool company owners when they call us is what's a new job? Worth to you. Right. What's that job worth? And if that job is worth thirty five K, what is the acquisition cost worth. And once we establish an acquisition cost. Now we have a target. And if we can't hit that target, then, you know, we'll it will fall on the sword. But if we can't hit the target and we can bring in new customers at five hundred dollars a quote, you can get to someone's house and be quoting for five hundred dollars. That might be palatable.
Greg Villafana:
Right. So since we're talking about this, you've got to get found somehow. And that has a lot to do with SEO, the search engine optimization. We know that you guys are more in the S.E.M side of things. Search engine marketing. But can you explain, you know, what a SEO is and how it works? Maybe more specifically to Google?
Lorne Sederoff:
Sure. So let's think of it this way. If a customer knows your company name and they type that into Google, they're going to find your company as long as your Web page is active. They should find your Google My Business page, which is that listing with the map section. So what I would encourage all listeners is go to you, go to Google and type in your company name. Now you're representing someone who's seen your ads somewhere and they find if they can find you directly by company name. That's really the SEO or the organic. That's your checkmark that you're in the right position. OK. So that's if they type your company name and we would call that a branded search because your company is a brand. That's that shouldn't cost you very much at all a month. Your Web site hosting might cost 50 to 100 dollars or, you know, if you wanted to link to an article or something, you know, you spend a hundred dollars, maybe 200 hours a month on making sure people can find you when they see when they type your company name. OK. That Google map listing is free. We can share out the link with you guys for how to register your map listing and then you get reviewed that map listing. So when someone searches for you by company name, they read positive reviews. They see a nice Web site. You have a better chance at the acquisition. But all of what we just talked about was someone new. You they had an idea that your company existed and they wanted to learn more. I would classify that as your search engine optimization because you shouldn't really have to spend too much money on that. They're going to find you if they know your name. So that makes sense.
Greg Villafana:
Yeah, definitely. And I think for pool service anyway, or if somebody wanted a pool to be built in their backyard, a more general search might be pool service near me or pool builders near me. And when I think of SEO, I think of you want to be on the first page of Google when people are making those type of searches. So I'm sure for anybody that's listening. You want to have a Google my business. Correct. And making sure that that is all filled out correctly. Can you talk a little bit about Google my business and maybe some of the features that are on there?
Lorne Sederoff:
Yeah. So Google my business is think of it like the white pages of the phonebook. That's your listing. So you just need to register your business and have a fixed address that Google can confirm that you work out of. OK. So if you know, as an audience, I love the idea that we're actually talking to the audience and they're listening right now and doing something. I would say go to Google and type in Google my business. From there, you'll be able to register your company, submit your services, your target area, your hours of operation. You can also add photos. None of this costs you a dime. I take a couple of good photos, link to your Web site, and then those reviews are certainly very important. So on your Google my business page, which hasn't cost you any money yet, get customers to leave you reviews. And when the customer leaves you a Google review. Now, that homeowner who sees you says, OK, 52 Google reviews are four point nine rating. Let me read the recent ones. This is your social proof. And social proof is huge, right? And so you're social proof comes from your Google my business page reflecting job well done, photos link to a Web site and a phone number for them to call.
Greg Villafana:
Yeah. And that's extremely powerful. Even the photos, right? Because if you are because it's almost like a social media channel where you can post photos like you would on Facebook or Instagram, different things like that. But it's the photos that you can post on Google and write a description of that photo or post that is linked to your overall business. And it's helping the actual search of your business. Am I am I right?
Lorne Sederoff:
Yeah.
Lorne Sederoff:
You want this to be your home page that you probably don't need to revisit very often you upload a photo. Oh, now and then you make sure your reviews are populating. It's really not a tremendous amount of work. And I would say it's the first checkbox for all listeners. Do I have a Google my business page? Is it registered? Do I have photos? Can I get reviews? Right. And that's where people are going to find you. If they look you up by company name. So super important. Yes.
Demetra Mandrapilias:
Yes. Into that. So if you have someone that perhaps has found you, whether they're using your organic listings or whether they find you through Google ads or any other type of S.E.M service, this is one way that you will differentiate from your competitors.
Demetra Mandrapilias:
How many reviews do you have? What kind of feedback you get from your clients? So it's really important to supplement that in whatever advertising you use. And like I said, that come from any sort of referral sources.
Greg Villafana:
Right. Thank you. And it's probably a good way once you get a review to actually share those on other social media places that can you can actually put a link within it. So if people have used your services before, they can link maybe back to Google to read that review and it gives them an opportunity without you kind of asking for it where they can or they can actually make a review. So it helps in, you know, sharing those reviews as well to so many good things.
Lorne Sederoff:
The idea of asking for reviews, that's not something that we should be shy about. We should be assertive in the in the home building space. This is people's treasure. Their kingdom is their home. If you if a company is doing good work in someones kingdom or home, ask for the review. You know, and we coach our clients on it all the time because social proof is everything now. Simply ask the homeowner, have I done everything we needed to do here to make sure that you're happy? Yes. OK. Would you mind leaving a Google review? It allows our company to highlight our success or what ever you're going to say. And now if you can text message with the client or your e-mailing with them, however you're working with them. Send them the link to your Google my business page. And all they have to do is one click and they're leaving you a Google review. The Google reviews are important because the person leaving the review has to have a Google account. So the review is more legitimate than just, you know, you asking your five buddies to leave you a review just to get you rolling. Everyone needs a Google account in order to leave a review.
Greg Villafana:
And they're all going to come up. Unlike Yelp, where they can kind of go if they don't look like they're.
Greg Villafana:
I don't know. Yes, yes, yes. They'll just kind of be. You get it's counted as the overall amount of reviews that you have. But it won't be it won't be a recommended review. Exactly. If there are any companies, you know, listening to this right now, they don't have a physical location. Do you have any advice for how they can get on Google my business and have access to Google my business? Because also comes with Google Analytics, where those are all very powerful tools that you want in order to, you know, track the data from your Web site and keywords, different things like that.
Greg Villafana:
But if you don't have a physical address in terms of like an actual warehouse or an office, what do you recommend? Because it can be kind of sketchy, you know, using your home address as the location.
Lorne Sederoff:
So the feature on Google my business asks, do you want to show your address on the public page? So when you indicate. No, I don't. Well, now they're gonna see your pool company and they'll know your target market.
Lorne Sederoff:
They won't know your exact address. Okay. But it's important that you do register and address because that's where you're working out of. So that's your home office. That's legitimate. You may not inventory, which is fine, but at least you have listed yourself so that you have a presence on Google my business.
Greg Villafana:
Okay, perfect. So that's kind of. We've never done that. So I'm sure that's a different they'll send that postcard if that's the way that it goes. It's weird for ours. They just wanted a code. So Google actually just sent a code text and you just put it in when doing the listing. But for the most part, it'll send a postcard somewhere so you can still get the postcard to your house, but it's not going to show the addresses out. What you're saying.
Lorne Sederoff:
Yeah. On the on Google publicly, you won't show your home address so that the idea is that that customers want to learn more, are going to show up. Yeah. Right. You're not welcoming in public. So, yeah, it's just it's as you're filling in the Google my business profile, it's just a drop down question. Do you want your address to show. Right.
Pentair Ad:
Our passion to seek pool industry knowledge and being able to share that knowledge with you is a reason we started pool chasers. Turns out Pentair several ways for you to gain knowledge as well. Take, for example, the Pentair Master Service Program. This is a program designed to recognize dealers, service technicians and other pool professionals for completing desired training modules. It gives you the tools you can use to troubleshoot Pentair installations in the field and become a master of Pentair product knowledge be rewarded for educational activities designed to enhance your Pentair knowledge as you move through the certification levels with three levels to work through. Becoming a certified Pentair professional has never been easier. It's training that rewards you and your business. But the real value comes from building your confidence in the field. To ensure the customer loyalty, you need to keep your business growing. We encourage you to check this out. So to become a certified Pentair professional today. Visit PentairPartners.com or click the link in the right up below.
Greg Villafana:
So let's jump in to the paid marketing side of this, which is what you guys do extremely well and how that is different, then maybe a more organic SEO. How are those two different?
Lorne Sederoff:
Sure. So to keep things consistent with what we've been talking about, if someone looks for your company by name and they find you. That's essentially the free lead that comes in the organic space where we get into how do you generate more business is what happens when someone is looking for a pool company near me or best pool company in X Market. OK. What happens then is Google will place the ads at the top of the page for companies that are bidding on those key words. So best pool company in Tucson. OK. And now you can place an ad at the top of the page. The homeowner has not made a decision on which pool company they're looking at. So instead, it's essentially an open opportunity to show up at the top of the page with a paid ad that speaks to the service that the customer is looking for. So vinyl pool or Jacuzzi install. Right. You can now target those keywords with ads that highlight your values, your your value add years in business, you know, exceptional pricing, free quotes, you know, free on site visit, whatever it might be, 20 year warranty, whatever you put. This is your chance to throw an ad up to that customer who is asking for a pool company. OK. So again, and we hope everyone will go to their computer for a moment and do pool company near me or best fiberglass pool company in my area, whatever. Right. Pool service company.
Lorne Sederoff:
So now those ads, if written well, will speak to the customer who's looking with value propositions. OK. That's a step one. If that ad gets clicked on by that customer potential client. They click on the ad. They now visit the Web site with me. So far. Yes. OK. So that transaction of seeing the ad doesn't cost anything to the pool company the click on the ad. And the visit to the Web site is what costs the money.
Lorne Sederoff:
That's where Google gets paid for the click. It's a paper click model. So now you have a potential customer on your Web site because you paid and bid on the keywords. Now they're on your Web site. We're good so far.
Greg Villafana:
Yeah. And that's kind of just talking about that. The paper click is different than how a lot of people advertise on social media. Right.
Greg Villafana:
Where you're going to pay for just people to actually see your advertisement and they don't do anything for it where you can be. You don't get charged on Google until somebody actually clicks on the actual ad, is that correct?
Lorne Sederoff:
Yeah. And that's why it's a performance marketing strategy. You pay for the performance. So in a social media model where you talk about how many people see your ad. Right. And it could be in the thousands or hundreds of thousands, those we are what's called impressions or eyeballs. So the idea that you market and eyeballs see your ad game is one method of advertising, whether it's an effective method or not. Really, as long as you can measure your ROI. Then you decide if it's making you money in the paper click model.
Lorne Sederoff:
You're paying for that Web site visit.
Lorne Sederoff:
So now, you know, I paid, you know, let's say forty five dollars for that Web site visit. Well, what happened on the Web site now? Did they visit the installation page? Did they visit the reviews page? They visit the gallery. Did they call? Did they fill in an inquiry? Right. So now we're getting closer to measuring the return on the investment because they're on the page for the forty five dollars hypothetical. Forty five dollars just to use it. Now, how many of those people have called you? OK. So now here's the most important piece that clicks while they're meaningful. You've got a pool company to run. You can't worry about how many clicks you're getting. You care about how many book appointments or quotes you're landing out of this. Performance, marketing. So what has to happen then is every inquiry needs to be tracked. So Customer A filled in a form saying, please come to see me for a pool quote that is tracked. So now we know that was credited to an ad click and we can measure. Did that become an active booked appointment time? Phone calls can be recorded and we required that so that we know if it's working or not.
Lorne Sederoff:
Phone call gets recorded. So now you're able to listen to that homeowner calling in to say, hey, would you guys be able to come out next week to give me a quote on my backyard or I have a pool and I need service. Now you're listening to the phone call and you're recording their their address and you're saying, OK, we booked a job with them. Defense? Well, when you look at the details of the call recordings, you'll know I spent three thousand dollars this month. I booked X number of of quotes, X number of service appointments. My revenue for this month was X. My recurring revenue anticipated for this year is Y. And as a small business that we work with, if you're only making money on that initial transaction, you might be leaving a little bit to be desired because there's a little bit of extra room there for you to get monthly recurring revenue off of a client in the pool industry. Right, as long as you provide service.
Lorne Sederoff:
So how much did you put in each month? What was your immediate return? And then what's your recurring return after that? That's the model. And whatever marketing company you use, as long as you can measure that, you're probably going to know whether to increase your budget in marketing or decrease your budget in marketing. Or maybe you just want to knock it out of the park in March and April. And really blow the doors, right off your marketing book appointments through to the end of June. And then shut down your marketing, right. You're booked. So in the SEM space or the paid space, your budget is entirely controlled by your capacity. You tell us or. Whatever. Marketing company. Turn it down. Turn it off.
Greg Villafana:
So if you're not, like, open on the weekends or something, you know, you can shut those off and then start them back up on Monday or something.
Lorne Sederoff:
Yeah, for sure. Your hours are flexible. The other thing that's in the pool industry that we work very closely with our clients on is which communities do you want to target with your advertising? Right down to the zip codes because there's no point in putting an umbrella with your three thousand dollars a month over the entire San Diego market.
Lorne Sederoff:
Right. Or the entire, you know, to shore market. Let's focus on communities that are likely to be wanting to put in pools or that have pools and we want to target service. So one size fits all covering an entire city doesn't make any sense.
Demetra Mandrapilias:
Right. I think another kind of big differentiation between SEO and SEM, specifically with Google or Bing, is because pool renovations, building a pool is very seasonal. You want to make sure that you get the most bang when people are looking at their peak search times. So with SEO, it's a gradual process. Whether that's applying certain page title titles or whatever it may be that takes time with any sort of SEM immediately you could host or enable your ads and immediately you're now cover around the top page of the search results. So you're able to occupy ad real estate when eyes are actually on there, which is a big difference.
Greg Villafana:
Right. And I'm sure that you are actually building up organic SEO through actually getting clicks on paid ads because, you know, people are actually visiting. You're getting unique visitors to your Web site. Yeah, I was paid, but you're still getting traffic.
Greg Villafana:
And if people are staying on there for ten minutes and they're kind of jumping around in there, maybe calling your business, I'm sure Google likes that and you're slowly kind of moving up in the SEO ranks.
Greg Villafana:
I don't know that for sure. I'm just I would think that the more, you know, people click on your Web site, that would happen.
Demetra Mandrapilias:
So Google is funny with that. They never specify how you're measured organically or how you break organically. There's controversial literature in terms of whether Google Ads has any effect on your SEO rankings.
Demetra Mandrapilias:
Intuitively, that makes sense. Another thing to kind of touch on.
Demetra Mandrapilias:
And this goes back to you regardless of how you get traffic onto the site. One of in my opinion, Google's best feature is aside from just someone typing in the search, query your ad coming up, someone clicking on your business or rather your ad and then coming to your Web site is once that engagement happens, once you're on that Web site. You're now going to be added to a pool or an audience lists that pool or audience lists, is now going to be used in a remarketing campaign. So there's two types of networks in Google. We have the search, someone typing in a search query. And then we have displayed one of the features of display is the remarketing campaigns. That pool is not going to be shown a banner ad that highlights whatever promotion or anything you really want to resonate with your client. So they leave and now you're going to see better ads on different websites that they visit. So not only is there value in getting that initial engagement, but the value of having the ability to re-engage with that visitor throughout their kind of sales cycle is really important.
Greg Villafana:
Yeah, that is that is really cool. I like that feature a lot.
Greg Villafana:
I want to go back a little bit because I thought that this was a really cool feature that you guys offer is actually being able to record these calls, because I think that's something that people should think about, is if say, you know, we pay you to do our Google ads and we're getting a lot of clicks where we want them on our Web site. But nothing is there's no conversions, nothing is happening. We're not getting any business from it. Are we able to actually listen to those calls? And we might figure out that one? We're not answering the phones. We're not asking the right questions. We're not we're not booking correctly. Is that where you're able to do with those recorded calls? It's like you're studying, I guess, like game film, like a coach or players would do is kind of look at where they made, you know, mistakes, you know, out on the field.
Lorne Sederoff:
One hundred percent that the insight that the call recordings have is for both of us that search kings to be able to modify the campaign because then we get insight into what kind of leads we're getting for your company. Right. Then we consult with you. Are these the kind of leads you want?
Lorne Sederoff:
Should we bid on other keywords or increase bid for certain keywords? Right. So that's how the call recordings help us improve the performance. It gives us the insight into the leads that are coming in. But for you as a pool company owner, it gives you insight into every potential new person.
Lorne Sederoff:
That's that's virtually coming through your door. Right. What time of day to day call? Who answered the call? Call length. Right. And then actually, what was the sentiment on the call? Right. So not all leads are good leads. That's for sure. You might take a 30 your leads and say these were garbage. OK. So now we are two thirds of the leads that we would consider legitimate opportunities. What happened out of those two thirds of the leads? And let's say there's nine total calls and six of them are decent opportunities. Well, let's go into each of the six. Go back to your your CRM or whatever you have for your reporting and figure out how many booked appointments came out of the six. And is there any employee training that needs to happen or should you not be advertising at the time when you don't have the right person? Answer the call. Right. I'll tell you this, people advertising from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. on a Friday. Right.
Lorne Sederoff:
Tough time to advertise because the people who are answering the call, unless they're the business owner, that person is thinking about getting out of there for the weekend and they really don't want to spend that much time on the call. Right.
Lorne Sederoff:
So, A, retrain or B, don't pay for marketing at a time where you can't dominate on the phone, dominating on the phone is the difference between your spending money and it being okay and you winning market share. Right. Because if you can close on those phone calls, then it's just a matter of how many more phone calls can we get you?
Greg Villafana:
Sure. Yeah.
Anderson MFG. Ad :
As a pool pro, you know how much of a headache leaking pools can be for you and your customers? Anderson, manufacturer's goal is help you turn those leak problems into profits. As the industry leak experts for over 30 years, Anderson is the best source for quality equipment and repair supplies. They also have the educational resources you need to be successful by using the free materials only dotcom or tenny hands on training. You'll be finding leaks in no time. Plus, the people, Anderson, are always available to offer helpful advice, whether that's talking you through a tough job or making equipment decisions. If we detections sounds like the right opportunity for you. Give Anderson a call at one 800 three four eight one three one six to get started with the custom equipment package or browser complete line to leak detection and repair solutions at leak tools dot com. If you choose to have someone else do your leak work, make sure that they're using energy equipment to get the job done right. As a special thank you to our listeners, they'll be adding a free set of Lockmaster products to your next order when you or enter the code chasers during checkout. Also, if you have not heard Episode 87 yet, we suggest you go listen to it as we interview Lance and Brad of A.C. Manufacturing to discuss all things like detection. So to find out more, click the link below.
Greg Villafana:
Going to move on a little bit from kind of the SEO and a lot of the things, this was all really good stuff. But let's talk about local search. What exactly is local search? Because pretty much everybody that's listening to this right now is they have a service pool service or they're building pools in an area where it's just the city or the surrounding cities or maybe the entire state. But still, it's some type of local service. Can you just describe what local searches on Google?
Lorne Sederoff:
So local search would be those Google my business pages? OK, that's your most focused local search on Google again. And to go back to the features they are. That's where your reviews are, right? That's where your map listing shows the market that you serve and your photos. OK. So you don't need to invest a lot of money in making your local search page pop.
Lorne Sederoff:
Ok.
Lorne Sederoff:
And the way local search ranks is in the Google Maps section is the nearest company to this searcher is gonna show up in that space.
Lorne Sederoff:
Ok. So there's no way for you to improve your local search presence in markets beyond your zip codes. So it's limited in exposure, but it's excellent in the zip codes that you are physically in. Which is why you need a fixed location.
Greg Villafana:
Yeah.
Greg Villafana:
And what are some things that would have you seen that really hurts companies that they don't do on Google my business because you need Google my business to really optimize your the local search. What have you seen that people aren't doing? Because I did say something earlier about not being transparent and not having the same information on other, you know, other social media platforms and different things like that.
Greg Villafana:
But what have you seen that really hurts people?
Lorne Sederoff:
I would say on the Google my business page, the look fours are are your hours accurate? If I'm a homeowner and I see that you're open and I call and no one answers the phone, I'm moving on.
Lorne Sederoff:
I'm not going to try that hard. OK. So the accurate hours is number one. Number two is negative reviews and positive reviews should be responded to. So if not every review, you don't have to go crazy about it. But think about the fact that if if I'm the homeowner and I'm looking up your company and I read your reviews. Does the home owner just trust the hall, the other reviewers? I want to hear from the from the pool company. I want to hear that you enjoyed working with that customer that gave you a five star or the one who gave you a one star because they're a whack job. What's your explanation? Right. So sorry we couldn't come out at the time. Promised. The weather dictated and we did call to apologize. So sorry you feel that way now. Me judging your company, because that's what I'm doing when I read your reviews. I'm judging you. I have a little bit more balance to that negative review because you've explained your perspective as a business and the business isn't gonna be perfect. I got a flat tire on the way. OK. Right. Or the filter wasn't working, but it's under warranty and you've replaced it. So let's communicate that publicly so that the potential new customer says, oh, these guys care. Right. So that's where the mistakes lie in setting up your Google my business page and having reviews flow in that you never respond to or pictures that aren't relevant. Landscaping companies, if it's spring and summer. Right. It's different down in the Sunbelt. But, you know, as you go further north, you want to show seasonal pictures to show this is what work looks like in the spring and summer.
Greg Villafana:
It's probably really important to make sure that you're choosing the right service type and maybe looking at your top competitors in that area. So if I'm doing pool service in Scottsdale, I want to see who's crushing it around here and see what their service type is, because I think you shouldn't try and reinvent the wheel. You should be looking at who's dominating it because they've got some knowledge about this. But making sure that you're not, you know, putting yourself as a I don't know why anybody would put themselves as an HVAC company or a plumber to kind of have an edge, but making sure that you are, you know, describing, you know, your your company the best way possible and the description and making sure that you actually you're just doing everything that Google offers you.
Greg Villafana:
So I know they give you like, was it like seven hundred or a thousand characters to describe your business? You should utilize every bit of that space because I'm. That that has something to do with SEO as well.
Lorne Sederoff:
Yeah. The other piece I would say there in this industry that we focus on with you guys in the pool building industry, these are big jobs. So there may be an aggregate and irrigation component to this. There could be a landscape component. There could be a Jacuzzi install. There could be a cabana built. Right.
Lorne Sederoff:
So you want to be able to offer these services, even if you're subbing it out and you're going to act as general contractor. These are profitable acquisitions. So don't limit yourself to just a fiberglass pool company if you can offer multiple services. Right. And that in the paid space is where you can really create an ad based on the person's search topic.
Lorne Sederoff:
Right. So if they're looking for cobana, a pool builder or cobana builder, do you want to show up? Because you can outsource the cabana part and they're probably putting some water in their backyard and you're gonna take that part of the job. So and that's where your marketing company has to come in as long as they know the industry and they know what's profitable for you and what jobs you can take on. Now, there's an opportunity to build from there. So, you know. Yeah, the irrigation job, is it worth a high ticket, but is it worth a phone call? And let's decide after two, three weeks, how much have we spent on the irrigation leads hypothetically to decide is this worth the opportunities to get in this person's backyard?
Greg Villafana:
All right. Definitely. And I'm sure you have heard this before, but this is something we have heard quite a bit is. What do you say when somebody tells you that they don't need to be on Google? Because everything is word of mouth and because we hear that a lot and it's usually from maybe the son or daughter that's going to step into this role and take over the business. And they're trying to bring it into the digital age. And they know that it's important because word of mouth will wear out at some point in time. Just curious what your answer would be to a question like that.
Lorne Sederoff:
I think it's a good starting point. You have word of mouth referrals. That's the core of your business. You don't neglect that. First and foremost, you find ways to grow the word of mouth business and the referral business as step one. But how long's this company supposed to be bringing in income for? Is it you're retiring in five years. You're on your way out and word of mouth is enough, or are you looking to grow by 20 percent sustained growth? What's your business model? And then let's start consulting on that. So hypothetically, your business model is you want to grow by 25 percent. OK, so how many new customers are you getting from referrals? Right. And now what's left to go acquire from marketing? The other piece, I would say even those people who are coming to you through referrals are still visiting your Web site. They're still reading your reviews. Right. And you can still remarket to them. So someone who's come to your Web site on a referral, maybe you want to spend 300 bucks a month following people around who've been to your Web site. Right. There are small budget solutions. If you just want to dip your toe in acquisition and then for those companies to say, OK, I want to grow by 25 percent and referral business is allowing me to grow by 10 percent. Well, where's that 15 percent going to come from? And that's where where's the new customers? Where's the best pool company? Near me. Okay. How much is that going to cost and how many new customers can I get from that?
Lorne Sederoff:
So I love the referral business. It's amazing. There's a way to foster that and grow that rather than say I'm worried about that and completely not. You know, you should never neglect that referral business. That's huge.
Greg Villafana:
Yeah. And you don't want to get you don't want to decide to be on Google when it's too late, because something we haven't discussed fully yet is Google guarantee. And I'm sure once if that ever passes for you in the pool business, that's going to make it a lot more complicated because you're going to have actual Google, Google guaranteed companies and you're just going to be having to compete with those companies. So that's going to definitely be much more difficult. Can you explain maybe just what that is really quick?
Lorne Sederoff:
Yeah, I know for sure what I would say. Again, the first way I would describe this is go to your computer and type in lawncare near me. OK. Or plumber near me. And what you'll see is that above the ad space, there's a Google guarantee directory. And these are basically companies that have been vetted by Google and approved for top of page placement. The approval is you prove that you have a license to do business in your state. You you prove that you have insurance and that there's been background checks done on the people doing the work in the home. Typically the business owner. OK. So this is relevant for us because the lawn care and landscaping industry is now eligible for the Google guarantee program. And you may not see it in every market because it's just being rolled out at searchings. We've been living in the Google guarantee section since 2017. We have over 2000 customers on this program and now landscaping becomes eligible. Pool building is not yet but our commitment to you guys. Tyler Greg is that we'll make sure you know exactly what's happening with Google guarantee every step of the way. Right now, if a listener owns a lawn, a landscaping company, you should be looking into Google guarantee. Now, it's not expensive. And I would say it's it's future proofing because Google changes. And as Google changes, if you're spending money in the wrong bucket, you're missing out on a new opportunity potentially for less money. Because if you can get on early, we have lots evidence that when you get on early, you. In this platform, landscaping companies have a call to action right now. Look into Google guarantees we can help and, you know, reach out, Tyler. Greg, though, will direct you and pool companies we are staying abreast to when that is an eligible industry for Google guarantee.
Tyler Rasmussen :
There you go.
Tyler Rasmussen :
Yeah, well, now it's been a great talk and there's a ton of small businesses in our field. How does a small business determine if Surge Kings' is right for them and what can they expect?
Lorne Sederoff:
I would say that when you working with a marketing company that you need to know your industry because they need to know where the profit is going to come from and where the loss leaders are going to come from. You know, it's important to know that a service job could eventually turn into a replacement. Right. You're going out to fix someone's pool. Now, you got a relationship with them in and three years from now, it might be a replacement.
Lorne Sederoff:
We understand the industry will do whatever marketing company you're going to work with needs to understand the industry. Next, we don't have contracts. So it's crucial that you're working with a company that's performing every month because the small businesses we work with, they don't have 10 grand a month to drop into an empty into a bucket and not see a return on it. All right. Most of our clients spend between three and a grand a month. They need to be seeing a return over 20 G's minimum. Right. Otherwise, this isn't working from month to month. Hold your marketing company accountable.
Lorne Sederoff:
Ok. And then the next piece is when you're working with a company, there's and this is just a little bit technical. There's what you pay Google because it costs for those clicks. And then what? You pay your agency to manage that. OK. Ask your marketing company. Are they are they charging you a percentage of what you spend or are they charging you a flat fee for their service? We are a flat fee service company. So the idea would be if your company is spending three grand this month. And let's say we're charging you six hundred dollars for our work. You're being charged three grand by Google. They get their money. Or Microsoft or a combination of both. And we have six hundred dollars for our services. If you are growing and now you want to spend five thousand dollars a month. Amazing. That's exactly what we're here to do. We don't increase our fee to eight hundred dollars or nine hundred dollars. Our fee is based on our work, not based on how much you're spending. So the profit is all yours. We're not motivated to get you. Hey, client, you should spend 15 percent more. So we can make 15 percent more. We don't feel that's honest and it's not transparent. So flat fee management fee with no contracts basically says, OK, search Kings, we're gonna hire you. And we have to dominate this. And no, we're dominating this in order to keep it going. And our model works because once we dominate for you, we know you're gonna refer someone else in the home service industry. That might be related. It might be the roof or down the road that you have a relationship with. And, you know, that's how we've grown to 3000 plus customers.
Lorne Sederoff:
Yeah. That's incredible. And that's how we heard about you in the first place, as we have friends in the business in different industries and things like that. And they've just said the best things about search kings and what you guys do. And myself and Tyler, we're talking we're like, dude, that must have been rough in the beginning. Coming up with that, you know, no contract model, just doing it month, a month. But to us, that's what we do with our pool service company, is we didn't have it was all month to month. There was no contract because we were confident in the work that we did. And we knew that if we did the right thing day in, day out, that there would be no reason for anybody to leave. And we think that that's exactly what you guys are doing. You're confident in that you're going to make these small businesses or big businesses. You're gonna you're gonna make them money, right?
Tyler Rasmussen :
Exactly. And we've you know, we made a promise to listeners, as we always have to vet who we have on this podcast. And there's a reason we haven't done one of these for 100 episodes. And we think you guys do it legit. And we wanted to give the audience a good opportunity to find somebody that does that.
Lorne Sederoff:
The last thing I would say is you need to be in the business of making sure you know where your money's going. If you're going to market your company and if you can't measure your return on something, maybe you don't need to put as much money into that strategy. Right. And with with search kings, we make sure that we can track the profit for you in order for you to know that it's working. You know, we don't work with corporations with hundreds of thousands of dollars budgets. This is, you know, people with families to feed and families to grow. So small business owners is our passion. Very good.
Tyler Rasmussen :
One last thing before we go. Can you kind of just tell people how to get in touch with you insurge kings.
Lorne Sederoff:
Sure. Check us out. Online SearchKings.com. You can always e-mail us. We have an e-mail address just for our pool chaser friends that poolchasers@SearchKings.com
Lorne Sederoff:
And I'll be getting that e-mail directly as well as our team. So we're priding ourselves and getting back to people within 24 hours and getting a sense of what your company is looking to do. There's no set plan for a pool company. It's you know, it's really individualized. And I hope that we'll have a chance to talk to lots of you.
Tyler Rasmussen :
Awesome. Thank you. Hey, pool chasers. Thanks for checking out this episode. Did you know that each episode has its own page on our Web site? This is where you can find more information about the guests and episode topic, as well as all the resources that we discuss throughout the show. To get to the Web page, click the link below. Also below, you will find links to the sponsors of the show, as well as links to follows on our social media channels. On our channels, you will find some of our favorite clips. And bonus material, please follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Our tag is pool chasers. We also have a Facebook group for the producers community. Here you will find like minded professionals all looking to make each other better. One last thing. If the episode has brought you value. Please check out our patrie on page to support us. And if you could, please write and review the podcast. We would love to hear what your favorite topics are. Thank you for your time and your ear. Yeah, they're pool chasers.
Automatically convert your audio files to text with Sonix. Sonix is the best online, automated transcription service.
Sonix uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence to convert your mp3 files to text.
Create better transcripts with online automated transcription. Here are five reasons you should transcribe your podcast with Sonix. Automated transcription is getting more accurate with each passing day. Do you have a lot of background noise in your audio files? Here's how you can remove background audio noise for free. More computing power makes audio-to-text faster and more efficient. Automated transcription can quickly transcribe your skype calls. All of your remote meetings will be better indexed with a Sonix transcript. Better audio means a higher transcript accuracy rate. Automated transcription is much more accurate if you upload high quality audio. Here's how to capture high quality audio.
Sonix uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence to convert your mp3 files to text.
Sonix is the best online audio transcription software in 2020—it's fast, easy, and affordable.
If you are looking for a great way to convert your audio to text, try Sonix today.
Show Notes
01:42 Lorne Sederoff of SearchKings introduction
04:32 Why do businesses need to be on Google?
06:55 What is SEO and how does it work?
09:43 What is Google My Business?
13:08 Don’t be shy about asking for reviews
15:04 Setting up Google My Business listing without physical address
17:38 Paid Ads Vs. Organic SEO
29:00 SearchKings call recording feature
33:22 Local Search on Google
34:52 What service companies could do better on Google My Business
39:56 Word of mouth referrals
42:33 Google Guarantee Program
45:14 What to expect when working with Search Kings
