Near Me and how to combat it?

[Khemosabi]

When doing a search and the drop down has the option of 'near me', I want to know other's experiences with it.

1)  I have a client who's address (he uses his home address for his business), is way the hell away from the likely people who would be searching for him.  He's in a outskirt of a big town.  He does most of his business in the big town as well as the outskirts, but to outrank him, I need to target the 'big town'.  GMB is pretty stinky on this.  While I have his content, keywords... et al in place, I'm struggling to outrank the businesses that are actually located in the big town.  To make things worse, his mother operates her business from there.  His ex-wife's business is still listed there, his father's roofing company has that address too!  *My client works as a DBA under the roofing company, but totally different niche.  

2)  In your experience, do people actually use this option for a business where the office location doesn't really matter.  He goes to them.  

Any input would be mucho appreciato'd.    

[Guest]

I've been trying to stay away from you....

[Khemosabi]

1 hour ago, BIG Mike said:

I've been trying to stay away from you....

 

Ο γιος της σκύλας

[Mike Friedman]

You can expand the service area for GMB or include specific zip codes. That might help some. 

Outside of that, it's a matter of citations (make sure they are using Yext) and link. Reviews might help too. 

[Khemosabi]

Thanks so much Mike.    

The questions (are now) more about my learning.  He went with another company, way more expensive than me, and they're ranking him for the little town.  Shit, I could of done that in a 1/2 hour.  They aren't from this state, so they have no idea where he gets most of his business.  <-- lesson, right there for others! 

The problems above, though, are similar to what I have been dealing with, with another client.  

[Mike Friedman]

1 hour ago, Khemosabi said:

Thanks so much Mike.    

The questions (are now) more about my learning.  He went with another company, way more expensive than me, and they're ranking him for the little town.  Shit, I could of done that in a 1/2 hour.  They aren't from this state, so they have no idea where he gets most of his business.  <-- lesson, right there for others! 

The problems above, though, are similar to what I have been dealing with, with another client.  

Probably a good lesson for you too. 

Being cheaper is one thing. Being a lot cheaper can give the impression that your services are not as good. 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Mike Friedman said:

Being cheaper is one thing. Being a lot cheaper can give the impression that your services are not as good. 

+1 for that comment - far too often things get priced in the hopes of getting the project rather than pricing it for what the services (time, effort and knowledge) are actually worth. 

You should establish clearly detailed pricing for your work and then stick to it, leaving a bit of wiggle room (not too much) for negotiation. There's no point in landing a project where the volume of work is  going to interfere with other (potential) projects, all to earn a few bucks. 

And a more typical Greek insult is: Μαλακα 

ΣΚΥΛΑ 

[Khemosabi]

22 hours ago, Mike Friedman said:

Probably a good lesson for you too. 

Being cheaper is one thing. Being a lot cheaper can give the impression that your services are not as good. 

 

You're spot on with this Mike.  I'm grateful for all I have learned working with them over the years, and they're being patient with me being 'new', however, the best lesson (for me) was not just that my services are worth more, but seeing what the other people are doing, and how they're not going to be able to give him the outcome he's really looking for, makes me kinda warm and tingly cause it shows me that I'm better than I thought.    

 

[Robert Broome]

On 3/28/2018 at 6:47 AM, Khemosabi said:

Thanks so much Mike.    

The questions (are now) more about my learning.  He went with another company, way more expensive than me, and they're ranking him for the little town.  Shit, I could of done that in a 1/2 hour.  They aren't from this state, so they have no idea where he gets most of his business.  <-- lesson, right there for others! 

The problems above, though, are similar to what I have been dealing with, with another client.  

I've had experiences in the past where my prices were so cheap that customers assumed we were selling junk. In fact, we were selling a premium product. When I tried to raise my prices my salespeople would buck. I replaced the complainers with fresh staff and raised my prices for some services by 100%. The closing rate was static. 

As for SEO, I just spoke to a firm to work on one of my sites.The presentation was fantastic. Maybe the best I've ever seen for an online service. He hit me with the price and I was immediately turned off. I could not imagine how this company could do what I want done for the price they quoted. I got another quote that is 650% higher, and it seems the better option. 

[HeySal]

On 3/28/2018 at 6:28 AM, BIG Mike said:

 

ΣΚΥΛΑ 

Close.   

η Σκύλα 

Be specific. 

Pricing has put me out of the water several times.  I stink at it. Real hard.  There just seems to be a dead zone in my head that will not allow me to do it.    

I was just out of college and DOW contacted me to write some literature for them about a project of theirs in MI.........and I priced it so much too low that the guy stopped me in mid-sentence and told me he didn't think I was a fit for the project.  Turns out in later years that the contract would have had me covering up some nasty pollution violations, so I was glad that I wasn't involved, but it was such a slap in the face at the time.  Since then I've understood I need to be at least competitive - but even if I look up other products/services and see what the range of pricing is out there........it's still just Alice in Wonderland to me. 

 

 

[Guest]

On 3/31/2018 at 9:42 PM, HeySal said:

Close.   

η Σκύλα 

Actually, we wouldn't say "η" Σκύλα in the second person, only in the third. Since I was addressing her directly (2nd person) the "η" would be bad grammar 

[HeySal]

On 4/3/2018 at 4:57 AM, BIG Mike said:

Actually, we wouldn't say "η" Σκύλα in the second person, only in the third. Since I was addressing her directly (2nd person) the "η" would be bad grammar 

I guess it can't be translated straight across then.  In the US if someone calls us a B  - we correct them that we're not "a" B - its "THE" B.  So I guess it's 3rd person applied to 1st. LOL.