Plumbers Toronto, Plumbers in Toronto, Toronto Plumbers, Plumber

PLUMBERS TORONTO - My #1 Secret for Finding Local Plumbers in Toronto Using 1 Simple Form to Reach Many Plumbers. It'll save you Time and $Money negotiating your next Plumbing Job!
… Here’s how

Trying to find Plumbers in Toronto can be frustrating and you probably go through the same process over and over again when trying to find a local service provider; am I right?

First, you get out your old trusty Yellow Pages, scour through the 'Plumbers' section, and then you quickly dial the first “ATTRACTIVE PLUMBER” ad that catches your attention. A few things can happen during your Yellow Pages’ search:

1. No one answers, the phone rings out

2. The number is not in service :(

3. Your call goes to an automated service, you describe your Plumbing situation and leave a voice message

4. You get a ‘live’ person who answers the phone, however they are unable to start the job until the following Friday

5. You get a ‘live’ person who answers the phone, but their quote is beyond your budget

6. Once you get the person on the phone, you explain your Plumbing problem; they quote you or schedule the job at a later stage; but you are still shopping around, therefore you tell them, “I’ll call you back”

7. You then call the next big Plumber ad in the Yellow Pages.

8. Rinse & Repeat until you are happy that you got 3 – 5 competitive Plumbing quote.

So, just how long did the above take to contact ~ 5 Plumbers?  ½ hour, probably 1 hour depending on the work needed?  How often did you ‘repeat’ your Plumbing service required? 5 times … YES!!

Well, let’s say you’re quite savvy on the computer and you’re well versed with Google, after all, everyone says, “Just Google it” … so you go to Google and search for “Plumbers in Toronto” and you get 259,000 listing. WOW! You’re one happy camper.  Well, now you have to go through the following:

1. You click the 1st website in the organic listing

2. Your eyes riveting to find the ‘CONTACT US’ link

3. There is NO phone number, only a contact us form – you fill in their contact form and wait patiently

4. Finally!, you find a phone # and you dial the company

5. Now you have to repeat the above Yellow Pages’ experience from this point forward about your Plumbing requirements.

I must say I have gone through such experiences more times than I can count! One day I thought to myself, “There’s gotta be an easier method in searching, finding and contacting local service providers and in my case, a Plumber. Using the Yellow Pages and even Googling what you are looking for can be very time consuming.

Well, now a better option has been made available to you…

I recently stumbled upon a website called PinBud, http://PinBud.com and they make it super fast and easy to find and research local businesses and to contact them using ONE request form! That’s right, ONE CONTACT form! You can now select all the Plumbers you wish to request a quote from and hit the SEND button and this process is done only ONCE!!!

1. You select all the Plumber or service provider to quote on your job

2. You write your problem and requirements ONCE on the form

3. You click SEND and wait for their replies to come in your INBOX or for your phone to ring.

IT’S THAT SIMPLE!

Within a couple of minutes you can send your requests to multiple local Plumbers! You save time and you get several competitive quotes so you can save money. When your Plumbing job is completed, you can rate the Plumber which will help other buyers in their search for a Plumber. After all, word of mouth is still probably the most important aspect in advertising.

It becomes a win-win situation where you are happy, the Plumber is happy, and your plumbing is fixed! :)

To experience the ONE-CONTACT FORM TO REACH MANY PLUMBERS OR LOCAL SERVICE PROVIDERS – visit http://PinBud.com . In addition, at the moment businesses can get a six (6) months FREE local business listing.

Now, being a ‘bargain hunter’ and realizing the power of having my company listed on many popular search sites, I must say it’s quite a deal, but hey, don’t take my word for it – check out http://PinBud.com for yourself!
 

SEO vs. SEM. What's the Difference?

The above is how SEO and SEM land in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). You can see there is a big diggerence in the two, although it seems many people confuse SEO (Search Engine Optimization) with SEM (Search Engine Marketing). They both benefit your overall marketing campaign, but they are very different entities. Here’s a good definition of each:

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is the process of promoting a business online to achieve higher visibility in the search engine listings. This can be achieved by using paid listings i.e. Google Adwords, which can be very expensive but the benefits are it can be quick to get traffic and is useful for seasonal and short term campaigns.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) means optimizing the HTML and other content of a web page/site for relevant, targeted key phrases in order ot attain higher natural listings than competing websites. SEO provides a less expensive long-term solution for increased, quality traffic and generates customer enquiries that ultimately convert to sales.

To sum it, SEM works through paid tactics. SEO works through non-paid tactics.

There’s also a whole other animal called SMM (Social Media Marketing) that needs to be addressed also. Like SEO, SMM is natural. It is engaging your audience in social networking sites such as facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, etc. and marketing that way. Once you’ve had a discussion with them and proven you know your stuff, they are more adpt to follow you, listen to you, and buy from you. More on that in a future post…

Google's Not Going Anywhere

If any of you out there have any doubt that Google is still the search engine heavy weight, here's proof above that they are - and probably always will be. It would be wise for all of us to cater to Google when optimizing our sites.

SEO is Changing...Purchase ANY Top Level Domain, TLD, Name

ICANN has formally accepted a proposal that will allow companies to purchase new top-level domain names (TLD's) ending in virtually any extension they choose. Readers, this is the biggest news in the domain name industry in a long, long time. Instead of being restricted to sites ending in .com or .org (or the myriad other TLD extensions such as .net, .biz, .us, etc.), Microsoft could have a site that ends in .microsoft, or Chicago could end its website address with .chicago (individual countries are expected to keep their extensions the same).
Here's an interesting article you won't want to miss out on:

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/articles/The_Rules_of_Domaining_Have_Changed.aspx

Don't forget to visit us:

http://www.lexxtech.com/

7 Easy Ways to Romance the Google Bot!

Interesting title? We thought so. One of our writers wrote this story, which was published on http://www.seo-news.com/ as April 3, Issue #214. View it online there or read the article here below:

7 Easy Ways to Romance the Google Bot!
By Natalie Revell (c) 2008

For most of us, Google is a hard nut to crack. Efforts upon efforts are put forth to increase your site's SEO and while your efforts are working in other search engines, they just seem slow when it comes to Google. So what do you do? Try romance!

Yes, romance. Who isn't looking for romance? Non-human bot or not, the Google Bot also wants it. It wants to be romanced and feel the love from your site. If it doesn't, oh, look out! Just like a scorned woman, you are going to pay. Come on, everyone knows what I mean. It's either "Penalty City" or "the silent treatment". It all depends on what you did or didn't do.

If you really screwed something up on your site, Google is going to make you pay. This is Penalty City. Google may even take a point away from your ranking or just entirely drop you from its index. Yikes! If you actually get dropped from the index, good luck trying to get picked back up.

If you didn't screw up, but you're not really doing anything to get the Google Bot's attention, you are going to get the silent treatment. This is when Google acknowledges the existence of your site but pretty much gives you no communication or reaction at all and just goes on about its business.

Google is female!

Because of these two reactions described above, I'm absolutely convinced Google is female. And I can say that because I am female. So, what should you do to romance the Google Bot and get on the good side of this heavyweight engine? You should make Google's job easier. It's just that simple.There are several things you should do actually, but we're just going to focus on the major ones.

For now though, let's think about the Google Bot's job in order to understand the Google Bot better. The better we understand the bot, the better chance we have of winning it over with our romance techniques.

The Google Bot's Job

Think about it. What a feat it is to have to go through a gazillion, trillion websites reading text and following links to make sure everything is not only properly indexed, but that it is properly working. When things are not in order on your site, such as a broken link, this makes the Google Bot have to stop. This does not make the Google Bot happy. It wants a clean, safe path to travel as it has many places to go. It doesn't like to be tripped. That's just not nice.

Once it has retrieved all of your site's information, it still has to take that information back to the Google database, then go back out to another site and do it again. Then it has to bring that information back to the database. Then go back out again, etc. You get the idea. And it has to visit each site every so often to keep the indexing updated. Let's just say the Google Bot's little feet are extremely tired all of the time. Especially considering this goes on 24/7, nonstop. The poor little Google Bot. We need to help it out. When we do help it out, it tends to like us.

7 Easy Ways to Romance the Google Bot

Remember the primary purpose of any search engine is to offer the best, most relevant websites to its searchers.

1) Remember also that Google is a META crawler search engine, so one thing you can do to offer up some romance to the Google Bot is to ensure all of your META tags are done properly. That is pretty much like a bouquet of roses right there. You can use this source to ensure your tags are properly done: About Web Design/HTML .

2) Want to throw in a box of chocolates? Make sure all your links are working properly. This helps out your searcher too, by the way. If you want to run a searcher off, frustrate them to no end by letting them click on a broken link and see how fast they exit your site.

3) How about giving a bottle of perfume? Try adding a robots.txt file. The Google Bot loves these files. This is like an invitation to come index your site. Every site should have one of these, but most don't. Those that do really stand out to Google. Just like anything else though, make sure it is done correctly. One wrong character in one of those codes can send you packing, my friend. You can create these files very simply in Notepad. To learn how to properly create a robots.txt file and where to place it (in your root directory of the home page), please see: http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html. Another good resource is: http://www.outfront.net/tutorials_02/adv_tech/robots.htm.

4) Now what could possibly be like giving the Google Bot a diamond necklace? How about a Google-Friendly Site Map. Knowing the job of the Google Bot, why not make the bot's job easier? I can hear the Google Bot now saying, "Thank goodness for this map. Finally, a site that gets me! I mean it...a site that finally gets it!"

A Google-Friendly Site map not only wins you favor with the Google Bot, it helps you out as well. To create a Google-friendly site map, see GSiteCrawler.com, which is also Yahoo-friendly:

• The SEO on your website will benefit as any correctly designed Google-friendly Site Map will ensure all web pages are found and properly indexed.
• If any pages are not indexing properly, the program will advise you. This includes advisement on broken links, blocked links, etc.
• You get an inside scoop as to how Google views your website and you can cater your efforts accordingly.
• Google will tell you what it concludes your site is about based on your content. If you don't have the proper message, change it!
• Google gets notified when something on your site is new or has changed.

5) Why stop now? Keep going with your romantic interlude and also present the Google Bot with champagne and strawberries by using bold, keyword rich headers on each of your web pages. Don't make the bot guess and have to dig to find out what the page is about. Just tell it up front and then reconfirm your message throughout the rest of the content.

6) Add a day at the spa by keeping your content clean, relevant, an easy read, and keyword rich with properly placed keywords. There is a proper way to pepper in your keywords to make the content SEO-friendly without making your content choppy. Your searcher must also be able to read the content in a good flowing manner, so be sure to write for the searcher also, not just the bot.

7) You can also add a day at the beach by not using Flash. Females usually like flashy things, but not this one. Not Flash technology anyway. Flash is built in frames and it stops the Google Bot dead in its tracks, confuses it, and then nothing gets indexed. Not good! If you are dying to have Flash, then try keeping it in your banner only. Home page banner only is even better, if you are carrying your banner to all inner pages as well. While Flash is very eye-appealing if not over done, it is a big no-no for SEO.

Put these 7 romantic techniques into action and see what happens. What do you have to lose? Any results that come from proper use of these techniques beats a trip to Penalty City or getting the silent treatment any day.

Don't forget to stop by our site as well:

http://www.lexxtech.com/lexxtech_seoservices.html

http://www.lexxtech.com/

Social Networking through LinkedIn. Is it All of the Elbow Rubbing it’s Cracked Up to Be?

The truth is, it depends. It can be…you just have to work at it. Just like Squidoo or Facebook or My Space, or any of the other popular social networking sites, you have to work yourself on LinkedIn or your portfolio is just going to sit there twiddling its thumbs. We’ve come across many people that stated nothing good came out of it; but we’ve also come across many that say plenty good came out of it. So again, it depends.

Are you going to get out there and elbow rub in cyberspace? Or are you going to wait for others to come to you? We suggest you initiate the relationships first and then watch others come to you.

If you’re interested in some inside scoops:
1) It’s free to join. This membership gives you a good amount of room to maneuver around.
2) You also have the option of upgrading to more than one type of account. Prices are between $19.95/mth to $2000/yr (whoa!), depending upon what you would like. You can find exact info here: http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=customer_service_premium
3) You can cancel at anytime. But here’s the kicker: All of our research shows it is extremely hard to cancel. There are lots of complaints from people getting emails from others trying to network with them although they are and have been trying to cancel. It seems this is an almost permanent relationship. LinkedIn may have a bit of a stalker/boyfriend or girlfriend that just doesn’t want to let you go mentality. Members beware!

So while there is no harm in trying it out; you just may not be able to leave easily. What’s the harm in that? Well, only you can answer that. They promise no SPAM and they also offer a blog: http://blog.linkedin.com/

Until next time!
http://www.lexxtech.com/

Organic SEO: Is it Worth the Wait?

The Long Wait

Organic SEO is the most beneficial optimization process there is. However, it is also the most time-consuming. It will take months before you see the full results of Organic SEO. Let’s take a look at the processes behind this technique in order to understand and embrace the long wait.
Think of your website as Site A.

To improve your ranking with the search engines, you need many relevant, non-reciprocal Site Bs linking back to your Site A. These are called backlinks and the majority of them must appear organic (natural) to the search engines. Appearing organic, or natural, means that to the spiders, which are the search engine web bots that index the pages of your website, these Site Bs have linked to your Site A on their own because your site is that great. It shows popularity, which shows your site has something beneficial to share, and that is what increases your ranking. It is the job of the search engines to offer top-notch, beneficial sites to the searchers. When your site is presented as such, the engines will move you up their lists.

Rather than sit back and cross your fingers in hopes that many Site Bs will just start immediately linking to your Site A as soon as it goes live, there is a backlink process that can be done that still appears organic to the spiders. It is submitting to certain directories, etc. requesting they add your Site A into their directory (Site B) with a hyperlink back to your site A. Easy enough? Yes, but there is a long-wait period for these listings to be accepted and go live.

Why? With organic backlink submissions, these submissions are last on the list for these directory owners because they work their submission requests in the order that benefits them the most, which is:
1) Paid submissions.
2) Sponsored submissions.
3) Paid submissions with reciprocal link.
4) Free submissions with reciprocal link.
5) Free submissions, with no reciprocal link.

As you can see, organic listings are the last to be worked. Let’s use the example of just one free submission backlink. Let’s say that this one submission was accepted and went live after waiting 3 months, but it is still not showing on the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Why? Because the major search engines, such as Google, are META search engines and are crawler-based.

Here is an excellent explanation of how this works:
“Improving your organic search engine rankings can be a slow process. That's because of the way search engines work. The crawler-based engines have three parts: the spider, the index and the algorithmic software.
· The spider visits web pages to read text and follow links within your site. It comes back on a regular basis (monthly or bi-monthly) to pick up changes.
· The index holds the documents found by the spider in a database. Copies of spidered pages are kept here, and the database is updated when the spider brings in new or revised pages. This process takes time, causing a delay between indexing and updating the database.
· The algorithmic software is unique to each search engine. It evaluates billions of pages in the index, sorting them according to relevancy, in answer to keyword search queries. Most algorithms are based on text, code, architecture and inbound links.
So while it can take months before your organic links appear, or show improvement, in search engine results pages, your paid search listings appear immediately.”

Source: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/6598.asp

There is also the need of indexing a new site with the search engines. Or is there? Actually, if SEO is going to be done on a site there is no need to manually index that site with the search engines. One, every site gets indexed regardless. Two, if you have a site with a PR of 4 or higher linking back to you (even a press release site that may appear immediately), then Google will come index your site within 24 hrs of that backlink becoming live. That’s one thank you we can give to Google for making things easier. If no SEO work is on the site, you may want to manually index just to possibly (and I stress possibly) get the index faster.

As you can see, there is the initial waiting period for your submission requests to be worked, accepted, and made live. Then there is another waiting period for the search engine spiders to find these backlinks and index them. Patience is a SEO virtue. No arguments there.

Benefits of Organic SEO:

Now let’s look at the many positives of making it through the long wait:
“Why getting into the top 10 organic listings may ultimately be worth more than perching at the top of the sponsored listings:
Organic search engine optimization (SEO) is an effective marketing strategy that provides marketing accountability. There are several reasons why organic links are so valuable. The reasons cited below come from industry research:
1. Well-optimized sites enjoy sizable gains in unique visitors and conversions.
2. Search users prefer organic listings to sponsored listings.
3. Organic listings produce more conversions than other online strategies.
4. Search engine listings provide branding.
5. SEO provides an excellent return on investment (ROI).”

Source: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/6598.asp

“FACT: PPC (pay per click) advertising costs are up 37% from last year’s first quarter.
FACT: Natural (organic) search results convert as much as 30% higher than PPC.”

Source: http://wordassociates.wordpress.com/2006/09/08/ppc-vs-natural-search-%E2%80%93-get-the-facts

Organic SEO is not the only way to optimize your site, but it is the best way. Paid listings and PPC campaigns are non-organic optimization techniques that obtain quicker (usually immediate) results, but not necessarily better results. In fact, if not done properly, these techniques can be viewed as spamming by the engines and possibly draw penalties. And let’s not forget the fact that the majority of searchers ignore the paid submission appearing on the right side of their search result pages and simply follow through on the natural search listings that appear.

There is also another factor to throw into the mix. The infamous Google Sandbox. If your site is brand spanking new, be prepared to play alone for a few months. Google has what is known as “The Google Sandbox.” Although a theory, most SEOs agree that whether the sandbox exists or not, there is definitely a waiting period, regardless of what you call it, on new sites before the engines will give heed and index the site or give any attention to any SEO work done.

Why? Because you are a fresh fish and they want to treat you as such. Your site hasn’t earned its muscle in their world yet and until it does, it will be treated like a child and given a time-out in the sandbox while the adults (senior sites) get to romp around the whole playground (the Internet). Your site will eventually be released, but the time frame may vary. It is usually about 3 to 6 months, but could be longer. The way to get out as early as possible is to have continuous SEO taking place on your site. This forces some attention from the engines and gets the ranking assignment going faster.

Through continuous monitoring and continuous SEO strategies your site’s exposure and ranking will improve. Just remember that patience is required. Also keep in mind that each search engine has a different algorithm and structure, so while you start ranking well in one, you may not in the other. But eventually it all catches up.

The bottom line is Organic SEO is the most beneficial route to go to optimize your site for five primary reasons:
1) Appearing natural to the search engines.
2) Promoting popularity which is what the search engines look for.
3) It is the longest lasting optimization technique. Most of the organic backlinks to your site will stay live for years to come, thus bringing traffic for years to come.
4) A site entering Google’s top natural SERPs for the first time can expect an exponential increase in traffic.
5) Overall, it is the best technique for ROI.

Organic SEO – is it worth the wait? Definitely.

http://www.lexxtech.com/