Kelly Kirkendoll

May 2, 2019 By Kelly Kirkendoll

Up Your Instagram Game: Making the Most of Customers’ Photos

NOTE: this article was originally published at Food-PR.com, where I am part of a consortium/agency of food public relations and communications pros across the United States. You can find a host of current and helpful articles there, written by expert team members and guest contributors, at www.food-pr.com/blog

Wouldn’t it be great if customers placed ads on behalf of your business? Can you even imagine? Well, in some respects, they already are via their social media channels. Are you seeing them? Responding to them? Making the most of them?

If not, now is the time to make the most of these potentially missed opportunities.

Step One – Get Social on the Insta

If you’re in the food business and you aren’t already on Instagram, you’re missing out.

We’re focusing specifically on Instagram because 1) we don’t see a lot of food brands and food service providers who don’t have a Facebook presence, but we still see many who aren’t on Instagram yet or aren’t utilizing their account much and 2) for the majority of brands in the world of food and beverage, Instagram is the place to be …

Step Two – Monitor and Engage

Your Instagram channel isn’t just a place to tell your story and make people drool over your food or beverages; it’s a place to directly engage with your target audience and build relationships.

Ideally, you’re already monitoring and engaging with comments on your Instagram’s posts. But are you monitoring and engaging with customers when they post their photos of your business on their Instagram feeds and stories?

Doing it Right

Businesses doing it right have someone on their team (either internal or outsourced) who understands their brand, has strong communication skills, has the authority to engage on their brand’s behalf and is charged with monitoring their Instagram regularly.

They’re monitoring when:

Your brand is directly tagged in an Instagram feed or Instagram story
Hashtags specific to your brand are used in a post or story
You receive a direct message
Your establishment is geo-tagged (if you have a brick and mortar)

They’re responding by:

Commenting publicly on feed posts
Commenting directly to Instagram stories
Commenting directly to direct messages

As a food blogger/influencer, I encounter many brands who do it right and, unfortunately, more who don’t. One “doing it right” example that stands out is Blatt Beer & Table, owned by Flagship Restaurant Group. Last year, I posted a photo of their chicken and waffles on my Instagram and tagged them.

The same day, they commented on my post and, lucky for me, I was entered to win a $10 gift card … and was selected. They not only mailed me the gift card quickly, but they sent me a hand-written thank you note, penned by the same person who had reached out to me (impressive). Additionally, when they reposted my photos, they tagged me and gave me credit (step three below).

Guess what I did with that? I returned to the restaurant, spent considerably more than the $10, took and posted a photo of another delicious dish on my Instagram and tagged them. Once again, they quickly commented on my post, asked for permission to use my photo and gave me photo credit when they did (no, I didn’t win another gift card – ha).

Why does all this matter so much?

Because without an Instagram that’s managed well, when customers tag a food or beverage company on Instagram, the company often has no idea. They’ve lost a valuable opportunity to continue a conversation their customer started.

Don’t pass up your opportunities to build engagement and loyalty with customers via this channel. Instead, embrace and invest in an ongoing Instagram management strategy.

Step Three – Repost

Instagram is a photo-hungry social media channel, and when your customers post a beautiful photo of your food, beverage or building and tag you, they are gifting you with an opportunity to repost it on your Instagram! More importantly, they’re giving you an opportunity to interact with them again and become top of mind. If you’re top of mind, they’re much more likely to buy your product again or return to your establishment again (and bring friends and family).

Use this gift WISELY.

Instagram Reposting Best Practice Dos and Don’ts

DO direct message each user to thank them and, if they took a beautiful photo you want to repost, tell them you love their picture and ask if you can use it on your page with photo credit
Do use a repost app if possible (it makes it clear it is not your photo); always give photo credit
DO always give photo credit, whether you use a repost app or not; give photo credit in the post text AND tag them in the photo itself (note: tagging them in the photo is not enough to give photo credit – you must do it in your post text too)
DO put it on your social calendar to reuse the photo again later in the year, as appropriate (and tag and give photo credit AGAIN)
DON’T repost another’s Instagram photo without giving them credit

An exception to the permission rule above is Instagram stories. If a diner, for example, posts a photo they took of a dish at your restaurant and tags you in their story, not only can you comment on it, but you can also share it to your brand’s story as long as you tag the diner.

For additional Instagram help and resources, read these articles at Food PR & Communications:

November 23, 2018 By Kelly Kirkendoll

A Quick Marketing Audit to Help You Prioritize and Plan

Whether you’ve facing a new year or doing a mid-year assessment, it’s always a good idea to take some time out for reflection in your business. To help, here’s a quick list to help you audit your current PR and marketing efforts and plan and prioritize for the year or months ahead.

Planning and Positioning

Have we taken a hard look lately at who our target market is? Who are our best customers and why? Who do we want to target in the coming year?
Is our company positioned, in terms of our marketing and public image, to go after our target market?
What are our top 3 marketing and public relations goals? What kind of plan do we have in place to make those goals happen?

Website

Is our website up-to-date in terms of words and photos? Hint: if the copyright at the bottom of your page still says 2016 or 2017, it probably hasn’t been updated in a while.
Does our website LOOK old and outdated? Maybe it’s up-to-date in terms of words and photos, but is the overall “look” of our site showing its age?
Does our website have a responsive design? In other words, does it scale to the size of the user’s screen (computer, tablet, mobile phone)? This kind of design is better for your visitors AND it’s better for your google search rankings. Read more here.

Social Media

If we’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or others, did we take a “build it and they will come” approach? Or are we posting to social media regularly? Are our posts garnering engagement? Is the company’s profile on each channel up-to-date? Do we understand and have a hash tag strategy? Stories? Do we need to?
Are we spread too thin on social media? If we don’t have the bandwidth to stay active across 2-5 social media channels, is there one we should really focus on?
Are we advertising on our business Facebook page? If not, can we allocate some funds to Facebook advertising in 2017 to improve our results? If we are already advertising on Facebook, have we analyzed our results?

Marketing Materials

If we pull out all our print and online marketing materials (i.e., brochures, business cards, website, etc.) and look at them together, do they look like they came from the same company? Do we use the same logo, colors and other branding elements in all of them … or do they look like distant cousins? Or, worse yet, competing companies?
Are our materials up-to-date in terms of content? Have we expanded to new markets, opened new locations and/or rolled out new products or services that aren’t included?
Do our marketing materials look outdated?

Public and Community Relations

Has our company won awards, contributed to the community or had other good news that we just aren’t letting people know about?
Do I or members of my team have unique knowledge we could share to help our target market and spread the word about the solutions we provide? Could we do that via our blog, our enewsletter and/or articles we write for industry media channels?
Is our company active in the community in any way? Are there opportunities to give back that we’d like to explore in that match our company’s vision, values and target market?

In-Person Marketing

Have we pulled back on networking meetings and other opportunities this year? Are there organizations we should get more involved with, in person, next year?
Are there opportunities for us to share solutions, knowledge and lessons learned via speaking engagements? Do we have any presentations we can create or update? If we have experience speaking to organizations, do we mention this on our company website, LinkedIn profile or to organizations we are part of?
Are there trade shows or other events where we can get in front of our target market by attending, speaking and/or exhibiting at them?

July 8, 2018 By Kelly Kirkendoll

Websites 101: What Business Owners Need to Know About Building a Website

I have been getting a lot of questions lately about the core components of websites, as more clients build new, updated and/or revamped sites. I figure they aren’t the only ones with these types of questions, so I thought an article with a short website primer would be helpful to everyone.

Home Sweet Home

When you’re building a home, you need an address, land to build it on and the actual house. The same holds true for a website. Your domain name is your address (i.e., www.thrivepublicrelations.com); your website host is your land (i.e., Blue Host, GoDaddy, etc.); and the website platform (i.e., WordPress, GoDaddy, etc.) is where you select and build your floorplan, walls, floor, ceiling, cabinets, doors, windows, etc. that becomes your “home.” You must have all 3.

You can purchase your domain name from a variety of sources (Alldomains, Godaddy and many more). In some cases, you can purchase your domain through the same company that hosts your website (like BlueHost and Godaddy), although you definitely don’t need to, and there are some experts who suggest using different companies for your domain and hosting to help guard your site against hackers. And finally, you need to select a professional website developer to create your site.

Content is King

Before you select a company to build your website, understand which website platform they are using and ensure that it has a content management system that is easy to use. A content management system (CMS) is the back-end part of your site that you or someone on your team can log into and easily (or not-so-easily, depending on the CMS) update the words and photos on your web pages. It’s also important to identify who on your team will have access to and the responsibility for keeping your website up-to-date over time.

The next task – and the one that overwhelms many companies and stalls their website project – is to determine your site’s content: the words, flow/navigation and images that will tell your story the way you want it told and provide the information your visitors need.

What’s Google Got to Do with It?

Now more than ever, Google also loves and prioritizes quality content – content that is relevant, natural, unique and updated. They are in the business of serving up search results to their users, and the way they keep their customers (and their #1 search engine ranking) is to continue providing the most relevant search results possible.

Content is the most important part of your SEO (search engine optimization) strategy. Before you worry about anything else related to SEO, make sure your website’s content is written well. Quality content is king – for your website visitors and for Google. Resist the old, outdated tactic of key word stuffing. Google will now penalize you if you’re just filling your web pages full of key words, rather than natural content.

Can You See Me Now?

Speaking of Google, it also cares whether your website is mobile-friendly. If they deem that your website is not, it will impact your search results when someone is searching on a mobile device. Need to test your site? Go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/.

According to Google, a page is eligible for the “mobile-friendly” label if it meets the following criteria as detected by Googlebot:

Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash
Uses text that is readable without zooming
Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
Places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped

There are 2 ways to accomplish a mobile-friendly website. The first is to create a mobile version of your website. The second way is to create a new website with a responsive design.

No new website should be built without a “responsive design,” which simply means that the website is crafted using technology to automatically respond to the user’s screen size — from desktops to laptops to tablets and mobile phones. This goes beyond pleasing Google by providing your visitors with an easier way to see and use all the content on your website, no matter which device they’re using.

Final Word

If you’ve ever worked or talked with me, it’s likely you’ve heard me say, “Don’t compete with yourself.” It’s difficult enough to establish your brand, get the word out about your company and stay top of mind with your prospects and customers. Don’t make it more difficult for yourself by not being consistent across ALL your marketing materials, including your website. Your site’s look, feel and content should match the way you present yourself anywhere and everywhere else. Don’t compete with yourself by acting and looking like one company online … and another offline.

December 15, 2016 By Kelly Kirkendoll

Business Planning: Don’t Skip the Inside Job

As I approach the 14th year running my own business, I am practicing what I preach, creating a marketing and business development plan for the new year.

Writing my own marketing plan is SO MUCH MORE DIFFICULT than doing the same for my clients. Why? Because it’s much easier to see the forest from the trees when it’s not your forest and they aren’t your trees!

But I’m pushing through. As I do, I realize – again – that when you run your own company (or department or team), you must also step back and analyze yourself. Success and growth in business is as much an inside job as an outside one.

So, in addition to analyzing numbers and outlining Thrive PR’s goals, target markets and action steps, I’m making myself dig deeper to answer questions about myself …

Beyond Revenue Goals
Beyond gross and net revenue goals, what else do I want for my business next year? In the next 5 years? Do I want to grow the company in size and scope? Do I want to narrow our focus?

As for me, how do I want to grow as a person and a professional in the coming years? Where can I improve? What strengths am I not fully utilizing?

Asking myself these kinds of questions – and giving myself quiet time to reflect and answer them – I’ve gained several insights, including:

• Among the things I cherish most about owning my own business are my relationships with my clients and colleagues. I am proud that many of Thrive PR’s clients have been with us for 5-10 years. With longevity, however, can come complacency – on our part and the clients’. We can easily slip into not meeting as often as we did in the early years, scope creep and doing things the way we’ve always done them. So, one of my goals for the new year is to approach each client as if they’re brand new, looking at them through a fresh lens.

• As I look back on my career so far – from my corporate America days to my 6-year stint as the PR/Marketing Director for a management consulting firm to the last 14 running Thrive – I’ve realized that I love new challenges. In fact, I thrive on them (pun intended). So, another goal I’ve set for 2017 is to challenge myself more and push myself outside my comfort zone in a variety of ways (from speaking opportunities to professional development to new projects and opportunities).

What about you? In addition to revenue goals, what are your objectives for yourself and your business next year? How do you want to grow?

Beyond the Basics
In the wake of the dot-com bubble bust, I was laid off shortly before Christmas in 2002. Not long after, I started Thrive PR. My “why” at the time was simple and crystal clear: to pay my mortgage, keep the lights on and put food on the table.

As I moved from survival mode to thrive mode (pun intended, again), Thrive PR’s mission evolved and moved beyond Maslow’s lowest hierarchy of needs. Our why became: to spread the word about our clients’ awesome products and services to help their companies grow.

But beyond the basics … and beyond my company’s mission, what is my personal why?

I haven’t won the lottery yet, so the basic needs (food, shelter, warmth) are still there, joined by needs and wants like kids’ college expenses, health insurance, retirement savings and a love for eating out.

I could cover those needs working in corporate America again. So, why do I run my own business instead? Specifically, why Thrive PR?

I wish I could report that the answers I came up with are lofty or prophetic. However, they’re all things my mom could have told you about me when I was a kid: I get bored easily, I love to write, I am passionate about causes I believe in, deadlines motivate me and I like being my own boss.

In other words, I have created my own dream job. I can’t possibly get bored (we work with clients across a wide array of industries); I get to, basically, write for a living; I love promoting clients I believe in; I work well on deadline and I get to be my own boss (kind of).

What is YOUR why? Why do you run your own business?

Favorite Things
When we run our own business, we wear many hats – from CEO to janitor and various roles in between (typically at the same time). It can seem like a luxury to stop and take time to plan, dream and ask ourselves things like – which clients do I enjoy the most and what’s my favorite work?

This year, I made myself analyze the work I do. What makes the work itself enjoyable for me? Is it the client? The industry? The task?

What I learned is that my favorite work is:
• Collaborative
• Creative
• Challenging
• Impactful
• Appreciated

Another goal for 2017? Do more work that fits the description above!

What is YOUR favorite work? Why?

Write Your Way to Your Dreams
When I was only a year into my career, working as a competitive analyst for Sprint in Kansas City, I wrote down that within 3 years, I wanted to work in product marketing. Guess what? Two years later, at home on maternity leave with my first baby, I received a call offering me a new job within the company … in product marketing!

Since then, I have made a habit of writing down my goals toward the end of each year. Sometimes, I don’t have a plan to make them happen; sometimes I do. Either way, I get them on paper.

I encourage you to write down all your answers to the questions above. I can’t promise it will make all your dreams come true, but I can promise that it will provide some clarity and increase the chances of your goals becoming a reality.

Wishing you a happy and prosperous 2017!
Kelly

July 25, 2016 By Kelly Kirkendoll

Case Study: Event Promotion

Case Study: Partners for Sacred Places – Texas (Project Client)

Thrive PR was retained in 2013 to help Partners for Sacred Places (PSP) get the word out about a charitable eye clinic opening in their client’s building (First Christian Church) — a beautiful, historical building in downtown Fort Worth that had underutilized space.

Challenge

The main challenge was that Partners for Sacred Places was one player among many making the eye clinic happen — including the City of Fort Worth, First Christian Church, University of Houston College of Optometry, University of the Incarnate Word School of Optometry, Alcon and more. How could we get the word out about Partners for Sacred Place’s role, not get lost among all the players and honor all the others?

Strategy/Messaging

We quickly helped PSP develop a compelling message, strategy and communications/PR plan … and implemented the communications/PR pieces of the plan.

We positioned Partners for Sacred Places and its New Dollars/New Partners program, which First Christian Church participated in, as the catalyst for the charitable eye clinic, which would serve an estimated 7000 patients, utilizing the entire 2^nd floor. We invited key people to a luncheon, presentation and sneak peek tour at the church.

Email Marketing

Thrive PR wrote, designed and sent an email informing and inviting a targeted list to the event.

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/748851/98db19f249/1324021019/381dbdff63/

Marketing Postcard/Invitation

Thrive PR wrote and designed a marketing postcard/invitation for the event.

Media Relations

Thrive PR also managed media relations for the project, telling our client’s story related to the eye clinic and invited media to the lunch/sneak peek tour. Our work resulted in a feature story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and a brief in the Fort Worth Press. The content we wrote for the press release and media pitches was also used by PSP for their website and quarterly magazine, to tell the story nationally.

Social Media

Thrive PR partnered with PSP to write and implement weekly posts on Facebook related to PSP and the upcoming eye clinic, including info about the clinic, PSP’s program, photos from the pre-opening lunch and tour, links to media coverage, etc.

Results

We were successful in spreading the word about PSP’s programs, their impact and honoring all the partners involved in the unique charitable eye clinic (still open today in Fort Worth). PSP had a huge turnout for their luncheon event, gained a feature story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and reached an expanded audience with their message.

Client Feedback

As part of our project together, Thrive PR took the time to learn about our organization and truly understand our mission and programs. Kelly and her team then helped us identify and grow our target audience, tell our story and reach our audience in a way that was consistent as well as engaging. We couldn’t be more pleased with the results!”

Suzanne Yowell, Director of Partners for Sacred Places-Texas, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, headquartered in Philadelphia, PA

July 8, 2016 By Kelly Kirkendoll

Tell Your Company’s Story

Thrive PR’s talents for creating just the right message, always delivering on schedule and being an active team member who gives 150% has brought Cuisine for Healing untold recognition at all levels of marketing and public relations.”
Sue Austin
President, Cuisine for Healing

Every business has a unique, compelling story to tell, but they often run into 3 major issues that get in the way:

First, it can be difficult for a business owner to see the forest from the trees. They’re often too close to the details and too busy running their business.
Second, writing isn’t everyone’s strength. Some clients we work with would rather walk across hot coals than write.
Third, once a compelling story is created, it’s a challenge to get it out there, keep it out there … and get the right people to pay attention to it.

At Thrive PR, we specialize in telling clients’ stories in ways that help them expand their reach, attract the right customers and grow. We work hard, smart and creatively to promote each client’s company and manage their public relations, branding, social media and marketing communication needs, so they can focus on what they do best: run their business.

July 8, 2016 By Kelly Kirkendoll

Separate Yourself from Your Competitors

Over the past five+ years, NTRCA has seen remarkable growth as a result of the work Thrive PR has done … Thrive PR has taken NTRCA to a new level.”
Karen Vermaire Fox
Executive Director, NTRCA

In a world where every company within an industry seems to make the same claims and use the same jargon, how do you set yourself apart?

Differentiators

What makes you unique? Why do people buy from you, rather than your competitors? What can you say that they can’t? Why does that matter to your target market? Dig deeper to find what truly sets you apart and is meaningful to your customers.

Professional Branding

Make sure your company’s image is 1) professional and that it 2) reflects who you are, 3) reflects what you do and 4) speaks to and appeals to your target market.

Consistency

Ensure that all your marketing materials (online and print) are consistent in terms of look, feel and key messages. It’s difficult enough to stand out – don’t compete with yourself by being inconsistent in your own branding and marketing.

Jargon

Talk about what differentiates you, but go beyond jargon. Saying you’re committed to quality and provide exceptional service is something everyone can (and does) say. Give details and examples. Prove your claims.

Promises

Your brand is your promise. Follow through and deliver on your brand in everything you do, from marketing to operations to customer service.

July 8, 2016 By Kelly Kirkendoll

Position Yourself for Strategic Growth

Thrive PR provides creative, wise, consistent and effective public relations and marketing services for our firm. I highly recommend this agency.”
Susanne Evens
Founder/CEO AAA Translation and Global Consulting

Small and mid-sized businesses work long, hard hours. Slowing down to create a marketing plan can seem like a luxury, but success doesn’t happen by accident, and it doesn’t happen overnight. Strategic planning is key.

Successful businesses go beyond survival mode, tactics and throwing spaghetti against a wall to create a clear marketing strategy. Taking the time to make core strategy decisions improves the performance of a company’s marketing tactics.

Thrive PR works with clients to help them clearly define their target market, competition, key differentiators and core messaging. Next, we work together to create a realistic, effective PR and Marketing plan.

July 21, 2015 By Kelly Kirkendoll

NEW Facebook Feature “See First” Lets Users Take Back Control of Their News Feed: Oppty for Businesses

In the earlier days of Facebook, if a user “Liked” a business page, that page’s posts typically showed up in the follower’s news feed. Then Facebook went public…and things changed. Facebook altered their news feed algorithm and introduced advertising for business pages. Businesses then had to advertise (“boost”) their posts in order for them to show up in more than a small percentage of their followers’ news feeds. Compelling, engaging content also became more important than ever — users who engaged the most with a page were more likely (but not guaranteed) to see more of that page’s posts in their news feed.

Now there is a new Facebook feature just introduced in the U.S. called “See First.”

As a Facebook user, it gives you much more control over what you’re seeing in your Facebook news feed by allowing you to prioritize which friends and pages you’d like to see updates from first. No more missing posts from your favorite friends and pages!

As a business owner or nonprofit leader with a business Facebook page, it gives you an opportunity to ask your followers to “See First” you…getting more of your great content in front of those who want it.

Here’s how it works:

On Your Computer

1) Go to the business or organization’s page you like (such as Thrive PR)

2) Go to the box where it says “Liked” with the thumbs up icon

3) Hover over that box and then click “See First” so you’ll be sure to see that page’s posts in your news feed. That’s all!

On Your IOS Device

(note: this feature should be available on Android devices very soon)

1. Make sure you have the most recent version of the Facebook iPhone app installed

2. Open the app and click “More” on the bottom right of the screen

3. Scroll down to “Settings” and click “News Feed Preferences”

4. Then, click “Prioritize Who to See First”

5. Finally, click on all friends and pages (like Thrive PR) you’d like to see at the top of your feed

Facebook changes often, so stay tuned for further tweaks or changes to this new app. Click here to subscribe to our enewsletter.

October 27, 2014 By Kelly Kirkendoll

How to Select a Good SEO Company and Avoid Bad SEO that Could Get You Banned by Google

Recently, a trade association we work with learned that its members were affected by some underhanded, deceptive search engine optimization (SEO) techniques by a shady SEO provider. The SEO provider, hired by a non-member company in their industry, littered YouTube with multiple copies of the same video, tagging members’ company names, in order to deceptively drive web search engine traffic their own way.

SEO is important to most businesses these days, and there are a lot of SEO companies out there that can help (or harm) a business as it tries to increase its search rankings. But how do you spot a bad SEO company? How do you select a good one?

In general, good SEO companies will use techniques that are ethical and involve no deception. This can take time and money, but the results can make it worth it. Bad SEO companies, on the other hand, often employ deceptive practices that are not approved by search engines, which can result in a site eventually being banned, de-indexed or penalized through lower rankings. Any short-term gain received by bad, deceptive SEO practices is NOT worth this kind of risk.

Bad SEO (or what some call black hat SEO) techniques include keyword stuffing, doorway and cloaked pages, link farming, hidden texts and links, and blog comment spamming. Good SEO (or what some call white hat SEO) techniques include research, analysis, re-writing meta tags to be more relevant, content improvement and web redesign.

Below are several tips and red flags to help you recognize a bad SEO company and avoid getting scammed:

1. They Offer Free Trial Services…and Want Access to Your Website.

Companies using this tactic may make you an offer to try their services free for 30 days, if you’ll just give them access to your site. This is a red flag. Don’t do it. Never give your website login info to anyone offering you a free trial or to anyone else you do not know and trust.

2. You Were Made Aware of the Company Only through Email.

Unsolicited SEO offers via email or a cold call should give you pause. Spammers often use spiders to crawl for a list of URLs and email addresses, so when you get an unsolicited offer via email from someone who claims to have visited your site, be wary and realize that may not be entirely true. Do your research before hiring any SEO company.

3. Their Services are Under Priced or Overpriced.

Beware of really inexpensive SEO service offers from sites like Fiverr and Elance. Good SEO takes time, expertise and working within the rules. Be leery of someone offering services at a significantly low (or high) price.

4. They Make Promises and Guarantees About First Page (or First Rank) Positions on Google or Other Search Engines.

Good, effective SEO cannot be done quickly, unless it is done using bad practices. It takes time, research and likely some rework on your website to do it well. Do not do business with anyone that promises a particular page rank or page ranking in a short time frame. Ranking is done periodically by Google, not on a daily basis, and nothing you can do will speed up the process. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for a page to get ranked, and your ranking is also impacted by other sites’ rankings.

5. You Are Promised Hundreds (or Thousands) of Links to Your Site.

Lahle Wolfe, CEO of LA Wolfe Marketing says: “Any links you get from such claims are more likely to hurt your site than to help it. Building links too fast to the wrong sites is considered black hat SEO and could damage the credibility of your website in search engines. If Google catches you building links with black hat strategies, your site will be penalized or blacklisted.” Instead, she recommends spending time building your own quality in-bound links by offering meaningful content and suggests avoiding reciprocal linking (an old SEO tactic that is no longer a good idea). “Robots are smart and know when you are trying to cheat the system,” she advises.

6. Companies That Are Not Easy to Reach and/or Will Not Answer Your Questions.

Ask questions (and lots of them). If you get the runaround or get told the answer is a “trade secret technique,” look elsewhere. You are hiring experience, not trade secrets when you work with an SEO company. You should also be able to easily find the SEO company – online, via phone (and not just a cell phone) or meet with them in person. You should also know who is going to do the majority of the work. Will it be done in-house or will it be outsourced to people in another country? Will they answer these questions?

7. The Company Does Not Easily Refer You to Past Clients.

Ask for referrals. If the company refuses, is hesitant or only gives you a couple references, it may be best to look elsewhere for SEO help. It may be that the SEO company is to blame for the deceptive videos pumped out on YouTube that affected our client’s members, but the company they did the SEO work for will be the one reported and harmed. It’s important to choose carefully and to have a clear understanding of what the SEO company will be doing for you and their techniques.

Note: This article was adapted from an article we originally wrote for the North Texas Roofing Contractors Association.