LOL!
For what it’s worth, I get zero business from my website, and that’s perfectly ok with me. Maybe some day in the future I’d want more, but so it goes.
I only have a site because I have to, I have enough work right now but it does add some legitimacy.
For google to cheer at this one. I just laughed out loud.
For what it’s worth, I suspect those hits are all the SEO spammers who email me all the time.
Wow, 5 clicks, thats quite a milestone Mark. 
Thank you, wow, I’m so honored.
I average about 70 gurgle views a month, hopefully there will be reliable alternatives soon.
This seems like a good thread to open a dialogue about “gurgle”. How many of you are actually using Google for ad campaigns if any? I ask, as we use it, but it seems at times to make more money for Google. Between the spend of on average $30 per lead, and the useless leads we have to constantly dispute because of a type of job not on our profile or other reasons, I can’t help but wonder if it is worth the spend and effort. The only reason we have not stopped, we get a few good leads that seem to cover the cost (not much more), and we are afraid if we kill it Google will penalize our SEO.
I get a ton of those types of emails daily. On the plus side, those spammers are helping boost your googoo rating, moving you up the list one click at a time. 
I have been using a company for years to help my actual google listing on google maps. It started out at $120/ month but they dropped it to $70 for being a loyal customer. They do blogs for me and some other stuff, it seems to work and for the price you cant beat it. I usually hover around the top of the listings but I also have much more reviews than most of the others. I started doing SEO on my site early last year. It is around $450/ month I think. I just did it to help offset my taxes and if it helps, that is a bonus. In the last six months I have noticed an uptick in people finding me online organically( If they dont mention who referred them I usualy ask). I haven’t broken it down to see if it is offsetting the pricetag but it does seem to be working.
Out of curiosity, what do they do for $450/mo as far as website SEO goes?
I looked you up and you are in Stuart FL.?
I did a search (in incognito mode) and you come up 2nd in Google Maps and 4th in organic Google results, so Nice Job! Whatever you are doing, keep it up!
They rebuilt my site with landing pages for each county. They respond to all of my reviews. They have monthly blogs that I have to review prior to posting and they set up a facebook page that they maintain. There is a bunch of other stuff they pester me about doing but I do not feel like it fits my business model. I do not want people getting monthly emails and being bothered, it is not that type of business. They were supposed to set up and maintain all social networking like snapchat and some others. They said google changed their algorithms and I would have to set it up and then they could post for me. I do not like any of that stuff so have not done so. I also do not like facebook at all. I guess it helps the SEO overall the more places you are listed. I am busy enough and dont really care. Honestly it is much more hands on for my part than I wanted. I do not have alot of free time to be dealing with them but it is working better than I expected, which is not at all. I had 3 calls today from people that just found me online. One I had to turn away due to time constraints.
I apologize if this Hijacked the post by the way. Congratulations on the article and it looks great. All actions we take lead to greater returns in the long run. Im sure it will be beneficial and cause you to make connections that will multiply over the years.
Agree 1000%
I think Google likes to keep changing things. They (rightfully so) want results to be more organic, aside from sponsored results. As soon as they think people have found a way to “trick” the algorithm, they change it.
I differ a bit there. I don’t get many clients directly from Facebook, but it is a great place to interact with agents.
That was my fear. A person pays decent money, but still has do a bunch of stuff we don’t have the time for.
Yeah, it’s funny, over the last 20+ years I’ve changed what/how I do my site and SEO, etc. and, needless to say, the internet has a changed a bit, too. One thing that’s funny is the way I can gauge my SEO, ranking, etc. is by how many sleazy marketing calls I get to boost my ranking… As in, I get the calls when I rank high… and DON’T need the service. I love to ask the dirtbags how they found me? 
Here in Maui I do virtually nothing to boost my ranking and am building my business in other ways and get zero calls from the optimizer “specialists.”. I just have a site so people that are looking into me can learn about me and feel comfortable.
That sums me up too.
Everyone have ever worked for refers me. I think the reasons are straightforward. I don’t rip people off, I show up, i answer my phone. I also am not a surly douche like many folks seem to be.
That goes a long way, Mark. Especially these days.
I mean, you actually answer your phone and do what you say you’ll do?..whilst not being a surly douche???
I am shocked how businesses are run these days. My bride keeps telling me, “That’s the way it is now.” We just shake our heads.
Ain’t that the truth!
That said, when you find someone that is great, you latch on like a tick on a dog and try to drain the life out of them. I’ve become the aforementioned dog. I wish I were that busy with inspections and while they are slowly improving in pace, the other work is non-stop.
