You’re not alone if your business’s phone has been inundated with spam calls lately. In addition to the “Google My Business” calls we discussed in last month’s blog, your company’s phone line might be overwhelmed by vendor calls, financing offers, robocalls, and much more. However, of these phone calls, none are more annoying than the calls where no one is on the other line. And while there are few ways to outright stop spam calls from occurring, there are methods for reducing these calls and filtering them out. One such method, call tracking, not only fights spam calls but can assist you and your company’s marketing endeavors. Allow 309 Marketing to explain how.

What Are Silent Calls?

We’ve all picked up those calls where no one is there to respond to your greeting. One or two of these calls might seem odd, but nothing to fret over. However, as we’ve seen many of our clients (including ourselves) encounter, these “silent calls” are constant. We’ve had many clients express frustration when receiving between a dozen and half-a-dozen of these types of calls per day. You might not know that these calls are partially why you continue receiving more spam.

The purpose of calls with 10-13 seconds of silence is to confirm whether your business exists and if your phone is active. As most call centers already have their hands full, bombarding other individuals and businesses, they don’t want to waste time calling random numbers that might be inactive. For this reason, silent calls are made to confirm whether a person will pick up on the other end of the line. Hence, after a silent call or two, you’re likely to receive spam calls from a live person.

How Can You Prevent Spam?

The endless influx of spam calls can seem nearly insurmountable! Thankfully, such is not the case. By implementing call tracking into your regular marketing services, you can significantly reduce the spam calls you might receive. Through call tracking, a trained representative will sift through the calls you receive and help mark what is or isn’t relevant to your business. If a call seems like spam, your representative will block that number from calling back. Unfortunately, call centers are masters of spoofing their numbers, and blocking spam calls before they occur is impossible. However, call tracking can at least reduce the avenues a scammer can reach your business, making it challenging to send more spam your way.

What More Can Call Tracking Do?

While call tracking is an effective way to limit the spam you receive, it’s also a valuable service for its effect on advertising campaigns. 309 Marketing is a huge supporter of call tracking, offering this service to many clients. Call tracking often compliments online marketing efforts by identifying your key audience, where you receive the most calls, and making it easy for you to follow up on potential leads. Some of the marketing benefits of call tracking include:

• Learning What Works – There’s no point in continuing an online marketing campaign if it isn’t netting your company any leads. With call tracking, we can identify the online marketing programs that seem to be attracting the most customers. By attaching unique call numbers to your homepage, online ads, organic SEO pages, directory listings and GMB profile, we can identify exactly how a potential lead reached your business. As a result, we can refocus marketing efforts toward the online avenue with the most people calling.
• Understanding Your Calls – How are your employees answering calls? Are there many calls being missed? Are you without a way to gather data from previous calls? These are all concerns that are easily rectified with call tracking service. Through call tracking, 309 Marketing can analyze the number of calls you get, how many calls were missed, how many might be quality leads and more. Additionally, keeping a record of past calls ensures you can implement proper quality control for handling each call.
• Gathering Data – Understanding your audience can sometimes be a challenge. However, who better to inform you about the best demographics to target than your audience themselves? Call tracking can gather data about the people calling your business. We can learn how they found your business, the product or service they’re most interested in, their location, approximate age, and more. Such data allows marketing agencies like 309 Marketing to precisely target your audience, helping you attract leads that are more likely to convert.

Where to Begin?

Thankfully, call tracking is a simple enough service to implement for 309 Marketing. Most of our media clients utilize call tracking, enabling our team to give them the most data and best results possible. If you are interested in cutting down your spam calls and perfecting your marketing strategy, allow 309 Marketing to get you started with call tracking! To learn more, contact us today at 309-228-9640. We are located at 311 SW Water St, Ste 201, Peoria, IL 61602.

“Hello, we’re trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty…”

You’re sure to have heard that robocall more than a few times within the last few years. In fact, such robocalls have become so aggressive that they’ve risen to “meme” status! However, as a business owner, you’ve likely received other robocalls that seem more relevant: Google My Business verification calls. The basic gist of these calls is a “Google” representative is trying to reach you about verifying your business listing on Google. And as you likely know, your Google My Business listing is crucial to your online marketing and SEO! However, WebDesign309 is here to tell you, like calls about your car’s extended warranty, so too are these GMB verification calls a scam.

Who’s On the Line?

If you play along long enough in your call, you’ll eventually talk with a real person who “looks you up” in their system and tells you they can help verify your GMB listing. This ends with them requiring a small fee to do so.

You should first know: Google will NEVER call you to verify your GMB listing. The only exception to this rule is if you are already going through the process of GMB verification. Google will sometimes call you with a code to complete the verification process. Otherwise, Google will never call you directly.

Second, this particular scam can be disastrous for your existing GMB if you go through with it. Companies use the information you give their fake Google reps to snatch up your business listing before you do. In most instances, these call centers target small businesses who have not already claimed their GMB profile, meaning it’s up for grabs! Giving someone (that isn’t your present marketing company) access to your GMB allows them free reign to add new users, adjust your profile, and generally make changes to the listing.

Stay Up to Date with Your GMB

While one lost business listing might not seem like a huge deal, GMB profiles are the ONE profile you should have full access to, no matter your business. Google My Business is the primary way most customers or clients find your website, see your business hours, read reviews, or locate your business through Google Maps. If you don’t have access to your own account, not only can you no longer make changes, but those who have access can. And until you pay scammers the fee to “verify” your GMB listing, they can hold it for ransom.

Call the WebDesign309 Team

Unfortunately, these calls never entirely go away (even if you request to be taken off their list). The best way to prevent your GMB account from being taken over is to not engage with these calls, much like other spam calls you receive. However, if you suspect you don’t have access to your current GMB, give WebDesign309 a call! We can help you set up your profile, and we promise to put you in charge of your own account.

To learn more about our SEO services related to your GMB and online listings, contact us today at 309-228-9640. We are located at 311 SW Water St, Ste 201, Peoria, IL 61602.

Have you heard of a handy website called Google? Of course, you have! In all likelihood, you found this article through a Google search. For over two decades, Google has dominated the internet, offering one of the most robust search engines available. And while other search engines, like Bing or Yahoo, compete for the space that Google occupies, Google still reigns supreme. Suffice to say, if you’ve been on the internet for any amount of time, you’ve almost certainly used the Google Search Engine. However, what you likely haven’t done is take advantage of the multiple “hacks” and shortcuts Google implements as part of its search engine. Allow WebDesign309 to provide you with a few helpful tips to maximize the way you “Google.”

Tip #1: Don’t Forget About Tabs

This tip is perhaps the most obvious of the bunch, and there’s a good chance you’re already familiar with it. When searching in Google Search Engine, your search result page will populate with a list of results you can scroll through. However, right above that list but below the search bar are a selection of several tabs labeled Images, Shopping, Videos, News, etc. Using these tabs, you instruct Google only to show results related to your keyword and under the category of the tab you select. Doing so limits your search results and helps you find what you’re looking for faster.

Tip #2: Use Quotes

Hypothetically, say you wanted to search for something like clown car repair. Perhaps it’s not the most likely of phrases, but you never know when you might encounter a party of clowns broken down on the side of the road; stranger things have happened! In this scenario, to be helpful to the poor clown family in distress, you get on your phone and search for clown car repair. However, instead of immediately finding a handyperson who specializes in fixing clown cars, you get results for local clowns, regular repair shops, where you can buy clown cars, etc. To avoid such confusion, put quotes around the phrase “clown car repair.” Google now knows to search for the exact phrase you put into quotes, helping you find exactly what you need.

Tip #3: Replace Forgotten Words with Asterisks

This next tip is one of the less known features of Google Search Engine: the use of asterisks. If there is a search term you are trying to look up but are unfamiliar with exactly what to be looking for, asterisks can help. For example, say you recently heard a catchy tune but can’t remember what it was called. Worse yet, you only half remember some of its lyrics! Thankfully, even with minimal knowledge of the song, Google can help you find it. Just type in the part of the lyrics you know, and put asterisks in place of the missing words. Your search might look something like:

• Hello * my old * I’ve come to * again

While that might look like nonsense, Google will immediately recognize it as lyrics to the Simon & Garfunkel classic, The Sound of Silence. And you can use this asterisk trick for more than song lyrics!

Tip #4: Searching Multiple Terms

You’re a busy person, and you don’t have time to be searching terms individually! At least, that’s one reason why you might wish to search two terms at once on Google. However, it’s more likely that you have two keywords or phrases in mind but aren’t sure which will give you the results you need. Thankfully, we can use quotation marks again to help! By placing both the phrases you’re searching for in separate quotations, Google will perform a search based on those exact queries. For example, try searching:

• “best internet marketing practices” OR “how to advertise my business online”

While these phrases are similar, they each pull different results. Entering both into Google Search Engine will show you the combined results of each term.

Tip #5: Find Related Sites

If you spend a significant amount of time on the internet, you likely have a few favorite sites you choose to visit. However, if those sites have become less relevant, dull, or unable to provide you with the content you need, it’s time to search for a new website. And if you are looking for a similar site to one of your favorites, Google can help. By searching your favorite site with the syntax “related:” before it, Google will pull up a list of similar websites. For example, if you want to read the news from more sites than USA Today, try searching:

• related:usatoday.com

Google will prepare a list of additional news sites similar to USA Today. However, keep in mind that the “related:” search does not work for every website.

Tip #6: Only Search One Site

There happens to be a particular recipe for apple pie you found online that you’d love to use again. Try as you might, the recipe doesn’t appear among the countless results related to what you searched. Are you doomed to find another recipe? If you happen to remember the site you first saw the article, Google has you covered. Try searching:

• Apple Pie site:tasty.co

Google will only search the Tasty website for all content related to apple pies. Using “site:[SITE URL]” after your search term ensures Google will only search that one website.

Tip #7: Track Outside Links

This last tip might be less used than some of the previous tips but is a valuable tool if trying to see the relevancy of your own website or personal links. Rather than searching for a direct link, Google allows you to “reverse engineer” your search by looking for all the sites where your link can be found. For internet marketers like WebDesign309, this Google feature is especially helpful for tracking website backlinks. Try searching:

• link:usatoday.com

The following search results should show you external sites that aren’t USA Today but feature a link to usatoday.com. Using “link:” before a URL, you can pinpoint where any site page is currently being linked.

EXTRA TIPS

The following are less of “tips” and more along the lines of helpful shortcuts you can use in your Google search. Here are a few shortcuts you can try for yourself!

• Math – Much like a calculator, placing an equation into Google’s search bar will result in Google solving your math problem. Try searching:
  • 10*12+15
• Conversions – Not sure what the time is on the East Coast compared to the West Coast? Unsure how measurements in the metric system relate to the imperial system? Google can quickly convert measurements, time, currency values, and more. Try searching:
  • 8 AM EST to PST
  • 12 inches to centimeters
  • 100 USD to Euro
• Weather – If you’d like a quick outlook on today’s weather for a specific area, search “weather” in Google with your zip code attached. You can also use the name of a town or city in place of the zip. Try searching:
  • Weather 61614
  • Weather Peoria, IL
• Definitions – If questioning the definition of a word, allow Google to help. Use “Define:” before the word you wish to search, and Google will give you its definition (courtesy of dictionary.com). Try searching:
  • Define:defenestration
• Track Packages – Rather than searching for the website of the company delivering your package and navigating to its tracking page, you can track packages directly through Google. It’s as simple as typing your tracking number into Google’s search bar and hitting Enter!

Talk with Google Experts

Being an online marketing and website design company for businesses in Illinois, South Carolina, Arizona, Florida and throughout the US, WebDesign309 has learned a thing or two about Google Search Engine. Using our knowledge of search engine marketing and optimization (SEM and SEO), we can develop the best digital marketing strategy to promote your brand and business. If you are interested in the work WebDesign309 can provide for your company, contact us at 309-213-9398. Also, we are located at 311 SW Water St, Ste 201, Peoria, IL 61602.

It likely took considerable time and effort for you, as a business owner, to get your first commercial venture up and running. Starting a business is no simple task; your responsibilities only increase as your business grows. However, what happens when that growth stops? Is there a reason behind the stagnation in your company? Why might you have trouble attracting more customers or clients? The answers to these questions, and many more, can be found in the analytical data behind your business. With help from WebDesign309, we can supply business owners with the information they need to understand their audience and grow their organization.

What Can Detailed Data Tell You?

There’s plenty that can be interpreted from the extensive consumer data contained within your business’s operations. It’s just a matter of extracting that data and interpreting it! Thankfully, WebDesign309 has the tools and knowledge necessary for analyzing consumer data and acting on its findings. Some examples of what an understanding of your analytics can tell you include:

• Who’s Finding Your Business? – You can have an expensive ad campaign be totally useless if you aren’t marketing to the right audiences! However, by monitoring the type of people visiting your website, interacting with your ads, and following you on social media platforms, we can build a profile of your ideal customer/client. Using this profile, we can begin to refocus your ads based on demographics like age, employment, hobbies, location, etc.
• Is Your Content Engaging? – Data can tell you plenty about what people think of your website. For example, your web traffic might be high, but you might have people bouncing off your site and its web pages after a few seconds. While the problem could be technical, it’s more likely your site’s content isn’t engaging with users. It might be time for a content refresh to ensure your content catches potential clients and keeps them on your site.
• Are You Ranking on Google? – As long as your business is local and relevant to what potential customers might be searching for, your site ought to rank near the top of some searches. However, when analysis shows your site’s webpages consistently rank on the fourth, fifth, sixth or higher Google Results pages, you have potentially uncovered an issue with your site’s SEO. By auditing your website, we can quickly determine the most likely causes for your site’s lack of SEO.
• Is Your Site Optimized? – Google is all about the user experience when it ranks your website. If your site possesses relevant content and is fully functional and optimized for desktop and mobile, your website will likely rank high. However, specific analytics and tests can be performed to check the actual optimization of your site. Ultimately, if your website is bogged down by plugins, large images, little mobile optimization, etc., users and Google won’t stay on your site.

What Can Be Done?

The above issues only represent a fraction of what your website analytics can tell you about your website. Whether analyzing your marketing campaign’s progress or researching your clients, WebDesign309 has the tools to gather all the data we need. We can perform a one-time analysis of your current site to provide our insight and recommendations for improvement. Otherwise, our data monitoring tools are best utilized to analyze and optimize your digital marketing campaign. With WebDesign309, you can be confident the decisions we make for your website and marketing are all based on the current analytical trends of your site. We quickly identify potential issues and provide efficient, long-lasting solutions to improve your site traffic, attract more leads, and much more.

Call Today

A wealth of crucial data for your site is waiting to be unlocked! Thankfully, with help from the digital marketing experts of WebDesign309, we can uncover said data and use it to create the best website and digital marketing campaign possible. To learn more about your website analytics or the additional marketing services our company provides, call us at 309-213-9398. Also, we are located at 311 SW Water St, Ste 201, Peoria, IL 61602.

Today is National Computer Security Day, so let’s stop for a second to talk about what computer security is and why it’s so important to practice regularly.

What It Is

Computer Security is the process of protecting your device from theft, malware and malicious intent. Luckily, many of the programs and applications we interact with already come with many built-in security features. That being said, it is still important to run security checks on your own, especially since computer hackers and viruses are getting smarter and more sophisticated by the day.

What You Can Do

In order to protect your device against attacks, you need to be updating all your applications regularly. Furthermore, you should also consider adding antivirus software to your computer if you haven’t already. There are several free programs out there, though it may be beneficial to invest in one as many paid versions often offer more features than those that are free.

Don’t Forget to Check Your Phones

Computers aren’t the only type of technology that can encounter security threats. Smartphones and other mobile devices are also susceptible. Therefore, it is imperative to use discretion when downloading new apps, visiting unfamiliar sites and/or logging into public networks. Even those that seem safe can be dangerous. And if you aren’t careful, your phone could get crawled for personal information, or you could end up accidentally downloading malware to your device.

Be Smart On Social Media

Another thing to keep a careful eye on regarding computer security is your social media accounts. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are all popular platforms for hackers to target their victims. To avoid such encounters, make sure you are using a lengthy password with a good mix of letters, numbers and symbols. Doing so will make it harder for others to get into your account, ultimately keeping your information and image safe.

Additional Resources

If you have headed to all of the above and advice and would still like to learn more about what you can do to protect yourself and your device, check out the following article. Our experts are also always happy to answer any questions you may have about computer security. To talk to someone on our team today, call (309) 228-9640 or stop by our office at 7620 N University St STE 110, Peoria, IL 61614. We are open from 8 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday and are closed Saturday and Sunday.

We often have clients reach out for guidance on managing negative comments they receive online about their business or staff. Below is a simple guide we use for our own companies: 

Investigate the Reviewer

Look up the profile of the person leaving the negative comment on Facebook & Google, then determine how they have reviewed other companies by clicking on their reviews. 

By looking at their engagement you can determine if they:

1. Tend to be positive in their past reviews, in which case we suggest you take the negative review seriously. If these sort of reviewers want to engage you in positive or neutral dialogue you should do so. 
2. They consistently post critical commentary on other reviews, in which case you still want to reply, just know these kinds of reviewers tend to want to engage you in negative dialogue. DO NOT do this!

  How to Give Feedback?

Even when dealing with apparent negativity, always assume you have misunderstood their intent. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt and respond with positive comments.

ALWAYS respond to reviews and always thank the reviewer. One of the common mistakes businesses make is writing long responses to bad reviews and short ones for good reviews. This will almost certainly bring your bad reviews to the top of search results. You should do the exact opposite. 

When to Stop the Conversation?

At times, you’ll encounter clients that want to “be heard” and they often will engage you via your review response. DO NOT have a negative online dialogue with a client. 

Admit Your Shortcomings

Oftentimes we see business owners get defensive when someone writes a less than desirable review. While we understand this reaction, it will lead nowhere if you voice it online. Remember perception is reality when it comes to customers. People write poor reviews in most cases because an employee did not address their concerns while they were engaged in business with your company. 

The fastest way to de-escalate these situations is to apologize and ask what you can do to satisfy them. Do not offer anything until the customer answers your request for a remedy. Oftentimes they just want the owner or manager to acknowledge them. 

Google to Flag Websites without SSL Certificates as “Not Secure”

In January, Google began putting a warning flag in search results on websites without SSL certificates. So, when a user tries to visit a site without one, they will get an ominous warning screen asking them if they are sure they want to continue because the site is “not secure.” Needless to say, this will scare away many users who do not want their personal data compromised. In addition, Google Chrome will show all sites without an SSL certificate as “not secure” by July 2018. That’s important considering this data on browser use:

• Google Chrome – 72% of desktop users / 59% of all users worldwide
• Edge, Explorer, Firefox, Safari combined – 25% of desktop users / 32% of all users worldwide
• Other Browsers – 3% of desktop users / 9% of all users worldwide

Wait, What’s an SSL Certificate?

A Secured Socket Layer (SSL certificate) is a cryptographic protocol that allows for a private channel of communication between a webserver and a browser.

It turns a web address from:

http://www.address.com to https://www.address.com

This signals that an outside authority (the SSL certificate issuer) has scanned and verified that the website in question matches the credentials it is reporting.  The SSL ensures that:

• Information sent back and forth from browser and server are private
• The browser is communicating with the server it should be
• The data transfer has not been changed as it travels between the server and browser

Reason 1 – Google Demands Your Website to Be HTTPS

Google’s opinion matters and they want you to get an SSL certificate. Since Google is sending a majority of search traffic your way, it is a necessary cost of doing business. Furthermore, Google will start to downgrade your search ranking results if you do not own an SSL certificate. With the safety initiative intended to protect its users, Google is attempting to protect its customers, not penalize you. Therefore, even if your site does not have an ugly warning right now, it will in a few months.

Reason 2 – Improved Customer Relations

In light of all data breach stories making headlines, you want your customers to be confident with your business. Like it or not, these warnings will affect user experience on your website. Nobody wants to be told they are going to a potentially harmful website. Many tech-savvy customers already have negative feelings about using sites without SSL certificates. These discerning clients view it as the site is not being kept up to date and maintained like ones that do have SSL certificates.

Reason 3 – SSL Certificates Do Provide More Safety

By purchasing an SSL certificate and integrating it into your website, you are making transactions safer. In fact, it ensures data gets encrypted before being sent out, making it harder for hackers to steal. This is particularly important when sharing sensitive data such as credit card numbers during online purchasing.

However, this is not restricted to ecommerce or banks. Any website that shares any personal data (such as filling in a contact form) should do it securely. That’s the whole reason Google rolled out the warning on sites with forms.

Finally, even sites without ecommerce or forms, should buy and integrate an SSL certificate. Why? It decreases the chance of content rejection and helps you avoid third-party attacks. What is a third-party attack? It’s when two parties think they’re communicating with each other, but a third person is eavesdropping on these communications and changing them to steal information or money. It can be very harmful.

Reason 4 – SSL Certificates Help SEO and Speed

Another added bonus is that securing your site gives access to HTTP/2, a major enhancement of the protocol used to transmit data. A huge benefit of HTTP/2 is that it’s faster, since it was designed to prevent latency to speed up page loads. Since page load speed is a major factor in search engine optimization, switching to HTTPS (and HTTP/2) can improve your search engine rankings.

WebDesign309 Can Help with the Hard Part of SSL Certificates

WebDesign309 wants your website to be secure and knows integrating SSLs into your site can be a pain. For that reason, we are offering a convenient one-stop shopping for SSL certificate purchase and integration.Let our team ensure your site is secured correctly to avoid the hassle of your site being flagged. Did you know WebDesign309 also offers hosting services to our clients that can help to correct any technical problems?

It’s just one more reason we provide the best website design Peoria IL businesses can buy. Call us today from Peoria or Bloomington at 309-213-9398 or contact us online for SSL certificate service, web hosting, web design or anything else you need. Not in Peoria or Bloomington? Schaumburg, Naperville and Chicago clients call 847-906-2287. Springfield and Decatur clients call 217-408-2813. LaSalle-Peru area clients call 815-220-5945. Quad Cities clients call 563-258-7770. Indianapolis customers call 317-483-0117. Clients in Key West can dial 305-204-7320. And welcome clients of our newest office in Grand Rapids! You can call 616-931-5009.

Which marketing approach is best for your business?

This is a question many business owners struggle with. The good news is we can help! The marketing team at WebDesign309 has worked with thousands of companies. From small, local companies to regional and even national firms, we have provided the proper approach thru systematic processes defined in this article. While we always prefer to handle this process in-house, we are happy to extend our knowledge to our followers.

 

 

A Great Marketing Approach for any Company:

 

Step 1) Create a Focus Study

• Creating a focus study is essential for any marketing plan. Start by thinking like a customer, not a business owner when formulating your questions.
• Be ready for whatever response you get. Some will give you feedback you do not want to hear, however, you must listen to your customers to get a good plan started.
• Surveys are best when conducted online, as customers are more honest when they do not have to face the surveyor. We recommend using www.surveymonkey.com.
• Surveys should be between 10-20 questions and only require 15-20 minutes to complete.
• Blend a combination of answer formats, such as multiple choice, star ratings and yes (or) no answers.
• Surveys should ask about your company reputation, media habits (such as which channels they listen to or watch the news on) and what customer likes/dislikes about your industry.

Step 2) Creating a budget

• Creating a budget is simple yet vital. A simple recipe for your company is 15% of gross sales for companies that are less than (5) years old and 10% of gross sales for all others.
• Your budget should include a blend of online media, traditional media and “touches”, such as direct mail or customer appreciation parties.
• Be consistent! Many business owners create a great plan and get impatient. You need to trust your plan, implement it and stick to it. Some companies get immediate results while others need more time to build momentum. The single largest mistake business owners make is taking down their marketing when it is close to working well. Your costumers need to sometimes hear your message 7-10 times before they take action.

If you have more questions or would like a free consultation contact our office at 309-213-9398!