SEO Basics
SEO Basics - Lesson 2 - The Title Tag
I'm six months pregnant and I did something recently I
should have done months ago - I had a prenatal massage.
Ahhh..... heaven. I've had this ongoing pain in my shoulder
(on the side I carry my 2-year-old daughter, go figure) and
it hurt to do pretty much everything. But you know, as a
mom, you just suck it up and do it anyway.
I finally broke down at my last OB appointment and asked if
I could get a massage for the pain. My doctor gave me the
thumbs up with the caveat to make sure the person I went to
worked with pregnant women.
So, off to Google I went to see what I could find. What
happened from there is a true lesson in how to get more
clients for your service-based business the easy way - by
making it easy for your clients to sign up!
Lesson #1: Do simple search engine optimization on your
website
Into Google's search field I typed "massage therapist for
pregnant women Hudson Valley New York" and you know what
happened? Exactly ONE listing came up. (Take note, all you
massage therapists in the tri-state area). Thankfully this
person had a lovely website that answered my initial
questions and a contact form where I could reach her via
email (my personal preference for communication) .
The lesson? Have a web presence, for sure. But don't stop
there. Be sure to use KEYWORDS in the copy of your text as
well as in the code behind your site (the meta-tags) so
your site comes up in the search results. Further digging
on my part would have given me more listings for massage
therapists, but why waste my time when exactly what I was
looking for came up instantly?
TIP: My massage therapist's site had the advantage of
having at least one of the keywords I used in my search in
the title of her website/company: "Hudson Valley." If you
work with clients 1:1 in your local area, consider adding
your location and the area in which you service clients to
your keywords.
Another positive for this site was the ability to contact
her, either via phone or email. Giving your prospects
choices on how they can reach you increases your
credibility and respects varying needs for contact.
Lesson #2: Quick Follow-Up
The massage therapist responded the same day by phone and
quickly answered the questions I had posed for her in my
initial contact email.
So, even though I had contacted her via email, she took the
initiative to call me, instead of emailing me back. This
showed me right away that she was a serious business
person, and that she was interested in obtaining me as a
client. The fact that she came to the call prepared to
answer my questions in a minimum amount of time was an
added plus.
I was sold and ready to book my appointment with her, but I
needed to juggle schedules with my family. She offered to
send me her availability for the next few weeks via email
and then I could contact her to book a session when it was
convenient for me.
Lesson #3: Quick Follow-Up II
She followed up right away as promised, but unfortunately
her email went into my spam folder. (I had given her my
personal email address, which is the AOL address I've had
since 1994, but since AOL filters 35% of all mail, I never
even knew it was there.)
One day after that, she called to make sure I'd received
her email. I emailed her back and said I hadn't (and then
later found it in my spam folder). She immediately resent
her email to both my personal and business email address,
and ta-da, there it was.
Do you see the theme of follow-up here? She didn't wait
around for me to make the next move. She picked up the
phone and left a quick message to check in. It was neither
salesy or pushy - it was gracious and courteous.
Lesson #4: Be Flexible (within reason)
Then the next stumbling block. With my schedule, I try to
make any outside appointments in the early evening or on
the weekends. She only had appointments available mid-day
during the week. I explained my situation and she
graciously offered to see me off-hours.
At this point, I was unhappily ready to move on to someone
else, but she came through by offering to see me at a time
that was much more convenient for me. Yes, that was great
customer service in general, but what was REALLY smart
about this was now that I've experienced her fabulous
service, I will be returning for more, AND I will figure
out how to do so during her normal business hours.
Lesson #5: Decrease No-Shows
The day before our appointment, she called to confirm our
appointment and to make certain that I had received the
directions she had emailed (another plus as I didn't have
to spend time figuring them out myself).
Confirming any appointments you have with clients is
essential to decreasing the number of no-shows you have.
People get busy and honestly forget, so confirming
appointments is an easy way to remind them and making sure
your slot doesn't go unfilled.
So...the overall lesson here is that if she hadn't been
easy to find and hadn't follow-up with me in such a precise
and consistent manner, I guarantee that I would still be
looking for someone and trying to figure out how to fit an
appointment into my schedule ~ or more likely, I would have
given up altogether. Instead, she made it super-simple for
me to say "yes, sign me up!" and I feel fabulous as a
result!
How can YOU follow-up with your potential clients so you
can get the same results?
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