Credibility – Are You Ready to be “Googled” by Your Clients?

The internet is everywhere. Many investigate those they do business with or come across in their lives on the internet. People even check on their dates. This practice has become so common that it has spawned new terminology: it is called "googling" someone.

If a potential client “googles” you, either before they contact you, or for example, after a CMA appointment, what will they find out about you versus your competition? Will they even find you on the internet?

What if you have changed firms recently and a past client calls your old company and is told you are no longer there? Can your past client locate you, your new firm, and your new contact information on the internet? Your old firm isn’t going to refer your past client to you!

It doesn't matter if you have an internet presence with your own website. You may be listed on other web sites. Nor do you need to start your own website or spend a lot of money to be found on the internet.

This article isn’t on internet marketing to solicit business. The purpose is making sure your potential clients, looking for you in particular, find you on the internet. It is about credibility. This is guerilla marketing and you want to improve your situation with only two hours of effort and little or no money.

1. The first step is to see your current baseline on the internet. There are hundreds of search engines, but we are only interested in the major search engines ranked below. Search for yourself on these sites to see how you stand; first with your name; then your name and profession; your name and your company name, and then your name, profession and/or company, town, and state.

For example: Jane Doe; Jane Doe real estate or John Doe financial planner; Jane Doe real estate, any town, any state, and then Jane Doe ABC Realty, any town, any state, etc.

Were the results positive or negative? Was there a hit on you being named Realtor of the Year? Or a hit on a newspaper article about you being sued? Were you even able to find yourself? If it were your potential client “googling” you, how would you feel about the results your potential client received? Did you have credibility?

If you have a common name for your ethnic group, such as James McDonald or Mohamed Mahmood, you are doubtlessly lost in millions of web pages from around the world.

Your clients have the same problem locating relevant information about you and will normally narrow their search by adding your company name, and/or location. Did you get a hit on your company website that doesn’t mention your name and not on the personal web page.

2. Google, Yahoo, and MSN, have recently added local search tools to help users find the businesses they are actually searching for, out of the huge and overwhelming world wide web.

When you searched your name, business, and location information, these local results appeared at the top of the search results page.
Compared to normal search engine results (that are determined by secret/proprietary search algorithms to rank web pages that match the requested search words), local search is powered by yellow page directories and other directories of businesses at that physical location.

For example, you search the internet for an Italian restaurant you heard of in the Federal Hill section of Providence, RI. Yet, your search results include a pasta manufacturer in Southern France and sites on the history of Federal architecture. Local search would search for that restaurant listing in Providence, RI, and or all restaurants listed in Providence, RI.

3. Superpages.com by Verizon, powers Infospace.com, and together they power most other sites. By registering for free with Superpages.com, you can cover most sites. Click here to register with Superpages.com.

If you are an agent, sales person, etc., in an office that already has a listing, use your cell phone, home office, or other personal contact number to register; as your office number is tied to your office's listing. Unless you are the owner, your office owner may not be pleased that you have taken over their listing. You can also enter your other contact numbers, website, email address, and business description.

If you are the owner, edit your listing to include all your applicable information including your product and services descriptions, website, fax number, that are missing from your listing.

The following is an example of how you want your information to be displayed:

Jane Doe – ABC Realty, Inc.
100 Main Street, Any town, MA 00000
888-666-9999< your contact number
888-888-3333< your office number
888-333-4444 (fax)
Email: myemail@mydomain.com
Http://www.mywebsite.com

You will receive a password to edit your listing. Start and keep a file on internet passwords. Then, if your phone number changes, you get a website, or change companies, you can edit your listing and your old clients can find your new contact information.

It takes about 24 hours to appear on Superpages.com and several days to weeks, for the information to propagate the internet, so you will have to wait to see the final results. However, you can search Superpages.com the day after you register by your name, then your company name, then your business type, and always see your listing appear.

By adding your website information you created a link for users to find your site. You also added a link to increase your web page ranking with search engines for “normal” world wide web searches. The listing will also appear under these “normal” searches in the search engine results and local search results. All this for free and in fifteen minutes!

If you liked the results, you should register at several other directories. There are hundreds of directories and many, if not most, are pay sites. There is no reason to get extreme and register everywhere. The idea is to have an internet presence so your clients can find you and that gives you a positive, credible, image if “googled”. After a while you are just duplicating your efforts for little effect. I recommend the following sites:

Yahoo – Yahoo uses its own local search directory. As the current #2 search engine by a small margin and quickly catching up to Google, you want to be listed here. There are free and pay for listings.

US Counties – A directory run by a Husband and Wife team, but picked up well by the major search engines. By registering, you are listed on their Valuecom.com/Acclaim Search site as well. If you are in real estate, you will also listed on RealEstateExclusive.com and CountyRealEstate.com. Registering is free and relies on your donations for support. Be a sport and donate $15 to the cause. There aren’t many trusting people these days that give you something for free and then hope you will make a donation. Also, for only $15 you get four directory references.

“Google” yourself once every month to check on your status. Having an internet presence is not going to supercharge your sales, but it may get you several more clients a year. It is just one part of your overall marketing program.

About the Author
Norman Rosskothen is the Branch Manager of Mortgage Trust Group, Inc., in Waltham, MA. He has over 13 years of real estate and mortgage experience. Before entering the mortgage industry, he sold real estate under the Century 21 and RE/MAX systems. He can be reached at norman@mtgmortgages.com - www.mtgmortgages.com

About the Author

Norman Rosskothen is the Branch Manager of Mortgage Trust Group, Inc., in Waltham, MA. He has over 13 years of real estate and mortgage experience. Before entering the mortgage industry, he sold real estate under the Century 21 and RE/MAX systems. He can be reached at norman@mtgmortgages.com - www.mtgmortgages.com

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