Who's Really Working on Your Website?

Rebekah Brown

Hello, I'd like to introduce myself so that you know who you're reading. My name is Rebekah Brown and I am CEO of The Marketing Square, a Madison, Wisconsin, and Winter Park, Florida, Ventura & Orcutt, California, and Westland, Michigan, website and ad agency. I'm a journalist, advertising veteran, website designer and SEO/SEM specialist for businesses. 

I have been a journalist since 1984. Ad vet since 1996. Web and tech person since 2000. I work with U.S. journalists, military veterans with years of IT and online and website design, and SEO/SEM expertise. My client list is private but I work with attorneys and doctors. Whether they need their website to bring clients through the door or to make a phone call, clients get this in under 180 days.

I help businesses by rebuilding websites exclusively in WordPress with mobile versions included. I write advertising and marketing plans for every client that outlines who will be reached, what will be said, how it will be said online.

I and my team ensure the client, product or service is reaching the target audience. First there's got to be a market demand and a level of quality provided so that website visitors get what is stated. Online research is completed because if you're hoping to beat the million dollar law firm down the street with 150 lawyers, you've got to have a strategy to reach that goal.

You may be a certified attorney who specializes in criminal defense, securities fraud, taxes. You have to be able to show why working with you is better than that Mega Law firm down the street.

If you can't we won't take you on. No need to waste time if goals aren't realistic or you're not willing to turn your website over to The Marketing Square. When we take it on, you'll not touch it again.

We generate everything, manage everything online. Since 2010, we've brought clients five to six figures per month and clients from 6 continents. We create trusted websites that prospects will find online with original content written and produced specifically about the company, brand, products and services.

Get Ready to Get Uncomfortable

Get out of your comfort zone.

NOTE: Get ready to get uncomfortable when we talk about your website. Websites are complicated. You might know the law, but you don't know advertising or search engine optimization.

What we talk about is your revenue goals. The ROI you can expect and when clients will make the phone ring.

We say six months, but you'll get clients after the website relaunches. You'll receive steady traffic after 5-6 months.

That being said, one way to put everyone on the same page and start from the same comfort level is to become acquainted by meeting with the website agency in person. Over coffee, tea, at your office. A face-to-face meeting so we get to know you and your law firm or medical practice. 

In-Person Meetings Are Still the Best

There are some meetings that should still be done the old fashioned way, especially when it's done to discuss financial goals and practice issues. Maybe past staff is writing bad reviews online. There may be a stalker, reputation issues from negative press. These are not simple issues and should be discussed along with answers to your questions. 

Knowing who to trust to handle online advertising and website services is as easy as meeting the owner of the agency in person. 

The No. 1 marketing piece for every business is its website. It's a good idea to meet and vet the website agency in person to know the company that will be paid to make the business successful.

Tell Your Story

Show & tell visitors what you're selling before they leave

While business is done online every day, meeting an advertiser or website company owner in person allows a CEO to look the agency owner in the eye. 

It allows each party to find out what can be done based on goals and budgets. 

Ask a Lot of Tough Questions

It allows the CEO to explain what the problems of the business have been. A website agency should know from the CEO what the successful campaigns have provided in the past. 

The CEO can express plans for expansion while sharing the story of the business and how it came to be and its unique selling point. 

If there are challenges in the business category, for example, real estate, can a website realistically overcome a struggling economy to generate revenue for a business? 

Websites are priced like houses: McMansion or a shack?

How Much Does a Website Cost?

Another major point of the discussion should involve the price for the website build and timing. Will the website be customized or is a common theme used? What will the website be built in? WordPress? 

After the website build, who will be responsible for the monthly website search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). 

What is SEO and SEM and why does the website need it? Is pay-per-click being used?

Is there a team or an individual working on the website? 

The most important question is always going to boil down to how long it will take for the website investment to provide new revenue. 

When the answer provided is "not long" or "a month or so" be very wary. 

Website success takes time. Months. If an agency states it can provide fast or immediate response there should be very big questions on tactics. 

Websites Should Bring New Business

At the end of the day, the CEO wants the website to generate phone calls, e-mails, and sales. Every business, its budget, its needs, its products are different. There is not a simple answer to the timeframe for results. But there should be an answer after the questions and answers have been exchanged. 

Without the interaction and provision of information between the business and the agency, results will be uncertain. 

Trust: You Need to See It

Keeping promises, following through on details and getting a commitment to reach agreed website goals is imperative. The heart of every business contract involves various levels of trust. Written plans, goals, schedules and timelines with an outline for tactics and execution will put both parties on the same page. 

The implication of the contract initially is to ensure that the results, expectations and goals expressed by a business will be met with the work that will be done on the website and online. You have to trust that the work IS being done and you may not know or be able to see or know when changes are made.

Find out how the content is created, who posts it, where, how many people are logging into your website? Are they webmasters or freelancers working in other countries? What security level can the agency provide?

Clients receive customized plans with direction from the owner on what the strategy, timing and goals will be.

You should get references who you can verify are real former clients. Any review has to be vetted because many people pay for fake reviews. How can you tell the difference? If you don't ask, you don't get answers.

Questions to Ask Website Agencies

• Ask staff, pricing, methods for measuring success and details including where the website will be hosted? 
• Is there a need for a complete website build, a redesign or is the look of the existing logo going to work well online? 
• Should there be an overhaul of your company?
• What services will be provided and how many hours will be provided?
• What is the advertising skill of the team? 
• Has anyone performed advertising for clients prior to becoming a marketing expert?
• Why is this website company a "marketing expert?"
• Is work automated via software or is it done by hand by an actual human being?
• Are clients giving references?
• How will you be communicating and how often?
• Who will provide the website copy? 
• Who's shooting and editing video?
• Who's providing the video topics?
• Is there media training for the video? 
• Are social media graphics included? 
• What are the inclusions in executing copy. 
• Will on-page SEO and off-site SEM be included? 

Make the time for a meeting. If a company will Skype with you, ask to meet the team. Is the team contract or staff? U.S. or international or both? Vetted or random hires?

By the end of the conversation about websites, SEO, SEM and coding, you shouldn't know what the vendor knows, but you should be comfortable after having met in person. 

Contact The Marketing Square for a review of your website. We'll setup a time to talk and get answers to every question. 

180 Days to ROI on SEO

Have you ignored your website? 

Every lawyer and doctor we work with wants to know one thing: How long before we get results from our website? 

In other words: How long before the money invested in this expensive website and monthly SEO & SEM fee comes back to us in revenue from paying clients? We tell them six months or less.

There's No Mystery

It's not a mystery or a secret as to what "results" we mean. Lawyers and doctors need calling clients who want to make an appointment with them. That's what a successful website should do. 

The Marketing Square builds, manages and gets websites to the top of Google for busy doctors and lawyers. We tell our clients that it’s about 180 days to ROI on SEO. What we mean is that you’ll be getting phone calls regularly after the first six months. 

Six Months?!

Six months may seem like a very long time, but how long have you ignored your website? 

Have you let your website sit stagnant since 2008? Google won’t accept that website as a strong online resource until you’ve rebuilt your reputation. Would you read your website as it sits right now? Neither will Google, Yahoo or Bing.

180 Days to ROI on SEO 

Officially, we tell clients 180 days or less you'll get new business. In six months, if you let The Marketing Square

Websites are complex and challenging.

manage your website turnkey, we'll get your business the ROI on SEO that you're demanding. 

No, we cannot and will not guarantee results. But we have proven results in legal and medical websites regularly since 2010. 

We Don't Accept All Clients

We will not take on a client if we know that the proposition, the business, client or service cannot perform well or will not deliver. 

From our side, we've turned down business because we knew that what the prospective client wanted to do could not be done. It's ridiculous to expect that anything can be sold online. The Internet is not a magic box that spits out money. 

Quality Advertising and Skill

Homemade websites look homemade.

The Internet is just a conduit for products and services. There are a myriad of things that come into play and most cannot be controlled. That's what's frightening and frustrating to business owners who have to use the Internet to market their business. There's a lot of confusion over what to do, how to do it and why or when to do something. 

Don't DIY a Website

The average business owner cannot expect to execute an online marketing plan and bring in their own business online. It's too hard to build and manage a website. 

A homemade and managed website looks homemade and very unprofessional. Don't DIY a website particularly if you're an attorney or a doctor. Sitting in front of your computer and recording a video in your office, sleeves rolled up, is not a good look. 

The Marketing Square specializes in legal and medical websites. Ready to get started? We look forward to hearing your story.

Dear Google: Upgrade Google Plus, Google Blogger, Google Domains

Dear Google, 

Here are a few suggestions for fixing major issues with Google products to retain existing users.

Verify All Google Plus Profiles

Google Blogger should be more user-friendly.

Google should make an effort to eliminate all fake Google Plus profiles. +The Marketing Square and +Rebekah Brown and our clients enjoy G+ because it's an international platform.

Clients, businesses and entrepreneurs can make genuine introductions through Google Plus. However, in the last year, there are so many spammers and fake profiles that it's impossible to have a valid profile with actual followers and meaningful interactions.

You should weed out the trash because there is a core group of users who like Google Plus, but you're losing us because of the garbage accounts that take away the value.

Verify Google Plus Account Users

People should have to verify profiles just as businesses have to verify their accounts. Your competitors Facebook and Twitter have a means for vetting the accounts which validates the entire platform. No one wants spammers, garbage and fake profile followers.

Make Google Blogger Simpler to Setup and Use

You should be pushing your Google Blogger with easier access to the Blogger URLs, and with a simpler template setup for new users. Blogger could be competition to SquareSpace if you actually organized it from a users' point of view.

1. You offer Google Domains
2. You offer Google Blogger
3. Tie-in the Google Plus account and you have an international location for entrepreneurs and businesses.

Simplify Google Blogger, Offer Packages

Google Blogger has an awkward and difficult location process. Allow users to share their blog with a Google Domain and simple setup for one price. Add the Google Plus profile and you have a user-friendly platform on the most powerful search engine in the world.

Use Everyday People to Test Your Products

Google products seem to be setup by the most technologically complicated staff. Google should hire everyday people to tell you an easier way to explain your products.

Google has cryptic, complex and unnecessary steps to almost every Google product. More consumers and entrepreneurs and businesses would use your products if you make them user-friendly.

Be the Alternative to SquareSpace

The Google Blogger platform should be simpler to use to compete with SquareSpace. Google

There's value to Google Blogger, Domains, Google Plus.

Blogger has been around for a long time and could become the alternative to SquareSpace.

Blogger has a platform that could be made easier for users. I set them up for my clients but it's always layers of time to design and create what could be much faster and leaner for non-tech-savvy users.

Offer some templates with a few clicks here and there, and the ability to change colors and Bingo! You'll have a SquareSpace competitor with content that is owned by the owners AND the ability to own a domain through Google Domains which are $2 less than GoDaddy.

Just my 2 cents.

Data Use, Phone Bills, Wi-Fi and Broadband Confusion, Clarified

Are you wondering why your data is being drained and your phone bill is higher than your savings each month?

Ads are draining your data on your phone and your Apps are draining your data on your phone. Control them. Buy AdBlock for all your devices. 

Read reviews on the Apps. Ad-Blocker Brower with ChromeCast Support on iPhone for Google, AdBlock Browser, AdBlock PRO ($1.99), there are others for Safari etc. 

The money is worth it but please, please read reviews, research the developer, visit their website, send an e-mail with all your questions before downloading any app to your phones.

1. Buy AdBlock 

Block the ads with a wonderful little app for phones and computer software that can turn off all the ads and block them. 

Buy the pure AdBlock and don't allow any ads through via the softer version which is called AdBlock Light.

You should NOT see ads and don't be a softie and allow Ad Light version. You'll pay for the ads that play on your phone. 

2. Turn OFF Data for Apps

You must either turn off data for every single App on your phone that you are NOT using or YOUR data plan will pay for them. iPhone and Androids sold at phone companies aren't telling you to turn this junk off. You shouldn't have all your apps on all the time unless you have money to throw away.

It takes only a moment to turn off all the apps that are pulling from and draining your data. If you don't turn them off you're going to get charged for that. 

Go to Settings and turn each one off. When you need to use the App, turn it on. 

Your new phone comes with settings whereby allllll Apps are on and draining your data. Even the apps you didn't download. Even the apps that came with the phone that you never touch. 

Every time you Google something, that's an APP. It uses data. You pay for all of it and this doesn't need to happen. 

Turn ON Wi-Fi--IF at Home and Wi-Fi is Secure

If you have home broadband, you can turn on the Wi-Fi on your phone and pull from that for a flat rate. Your Wi-Fi, not that provided for free from the apartment or building you live in. Secure, paid for Wi-Fi from a local "cable" company, mobile broadband jet pack from a phone service. 

Free Wi-Fi = Can Be Very Bad

Free Wi-Fi at a hotel, in a coffee shop, in a public place is a nightmare waiting to be unleashed on your cherished

phone, mobile device or laptop. Hackers are standing by...sometimes offering their own free Wi-Fi so that you'll logon and get into your private banking, e-mails and passwords. 

Think you're getting over on some neighbor? Think again.

This means that when you leave your home, you'll need to turn OFF Wi-Fi so that your phone or laptop or mobile device doesn't pick up random Wi-Fi. Or triple check your device's Wi-Fi to be sure it makes YOU choose and LOGIN to secure Wi-Fi. Turn it off to be sure.

If you keep Wi-Fi on and allow your phone to search and connect to anything, you're leaving your phone/laptop/mobile device (iPad, tablet) and all its private information wide open to hackers. 

What Can You Do Safely?

Use a secure broadband home or mobile jetpack for data to use your Apps. Don't use random, non-secure (translation: if you don't have a password that is specific to that Wi-Fi source which should be BROADBAND and SECURE as told to you by the provider). 

You can turn Wi-Fi on and keep Data OFF (including Roaming Data OFF) and use your phone reasonably well. Turning on the apps and data as needed. 

The average person may not want to turn on and off...but then you'll be charged for that.

Let's talk about Wi-Fi which for many people is a very very insecure option because you may not have any antivirus or security software installed and paid for on your mobile device. 

If you are going to a public place that doesn't have a password protected, secure and regularly changed password, you're using very unsecure Wi-Fi: Hackers can't wait for you to show them your stored passwords, banking and other personal information. They're probably sitting next to you in the location. 

This is when broadband is needed and worth having. Mobile broadband that you can turn on and off and that only you have the password for. 

1. Make sure that the source is secure (broadband at home, not +Starbucks Coffee  +McDonald's

2. Use broadband and turn off data: +Verizon Wireless Customer Support +T-Mobile and +AT&T should tell all clients this information, but they don't. You buy a phone and they make you come back for LESSONS which you skip.

3. Wi-Fi....if you use a +Verizon FiOS or another brand of Mobile Broadband unit, you have to turn it off and on to save your data. 

That Old Fashioned Home Internet Package

Still glad you got rid of your home Internet package? For about $65 to $150 month you can get unlimited lightening and titanium and all the other terms used to describe super fast and secure broadband for your phone, TV, and other home devices. 

Why Home Internet Seemed Slow

Home Internet may have been a nightmare with sketchy service, but that's only because the cable company or provider didn't tell you that you often need to rewire your home OR get a modem on every floor. 

Home broadband for multi-level homes needs to be able to be accessed. Thick walls, metal beams and corners are the enemy to broadband.

There's a limit to what broadband can do and will vary by your home structure. One modem, lightening broadband may be super slow if it's responsible for running 2-3 devices 24-7 through walls and floors. If you're a gamer, have kids with iPads, several laptops and desktops and TVs, you're looking at a big home broadband bill.

If you get a bigger, faster plan, you still have to find out how to keep that broadband at home streaming steadily through all walls and floors.You will likely need your home wired with the relevant number of wireless modems, wiring to keep the broadband streaming through all the walls and levels of your home. 

Shop Around 

Use your broadband on your device and shop around for home broadband. Call first and don't ever go into a phone store without knowing the competition's rates. When +Veri dropped the mandatory 2-year plan for phones last week, consumers received the opportunity to do what is needed for service. 

Don't Jump Deal to Deal

Be very wary of "special deals" for anything. Don't jump companies or change your Internet at home until a company is established. You may want +Century Link or +Comcast or +Bright House Networks or +TimeWarner or +Dish Network or +DIRECTV. But you'd better know that the company will survive the broadband battle for the next year or 2 years that you get locked into.

You Get What You Ask For

If you don't ask, you don't get. You get what you don't ask for!! Negotiate. Be willing to walk away and go to another service for the best deal for YOU. Don't be a sucker and go to see the newest phones and get sucked in. Go to +Best Buy and look at all the phones and all the plans. 

True, the staff may or may not know the differences exactly, but you have a phone, use it and call to find out. 

Go on +eBay or +Amazon.com  and buy a phone from a top seller. If the phone sucks when you get it, +eBay and +Amazon.com  have a buyer's protection and money back guarantee. 

Buy Company-Specific Phone Online

If you know your phone service and data company, be sure to buy an unlocked Verizon, or AT&T or T-Mobile phone from any online company. Skip +CraigsList which offers no guarantee.

Then, go into your phone service store of choice and sign up for $15 a month unlimited phone and text plan. Buy a data plan that you can live with and turn that thing OFF if you're not using it. You can turn it on as needed. 

Choose for Yourself

Everyone uses data differently. Don't get sucked in, tricked or trapped by broadband/data and phone services. Take 10 minutes to find out what deal you can get. Don't go to +Verizon Wireless Customer Support without first calling +AT&T and +T-Mobile.

Don't buy their phones at cost and pay more for a phone than you put away in savings each month and get locked into a plan for years that prevents you from getting what's new, latest and better!

These phones are complicated computers. You may feel like you can't live without them, but guess what?
Technology got to where it is today through face-to-face business deals. The phone companies know the technology available to you 12 months, two years from now, NOW, today. 

But they're siphoning it and handing it out little by little knowing you can't wait to pay for the next big thing. 

Cheers!