Building Your Business Ep. 29: Understanding SEO with Paige Wiese

CCPIA (00:01)
Welcome, Paige. Thank you for once again being part of building your business with the CCPIA. ⁓

Paige Wiese (00:07)
Absolutely, thanks so much for having me. I know we enjoyed our last conversation, so I’m excited for another one.

CCPIA (00:13)
Well, you you have a very distinct honor. I feel like we’re old friends now because you are our first two-time guest.

Paige Wiese (00:22)
Awesome,

awesome.

CCPIA (00:25)
Now, you this is such a topic. This is such a, know, when you think about any type of marketing, specifically digital marketing, it is so important to really understand where your presence is. And we didn’t really go very deep in our last conversation. We stayed pretty much at a pretty high level. And so today, you know, commercial inspectors want to know more.

And I want to dive and give them a little bit more in depth to what we talked about. Does that seem fair?

Paige Wiese (00:59)
Yeah, works for me.

CCPIA (01:01)
Well, let’s start out with a softball. know, something simple. ⁓ commercial inspectors are relying so much on referrals and so much about word of mouth. Why is SEO so critical for them right now?

Paige Wiese (01:19)
Yeah, I think, I tell a lot of people this, and especially in the referral-based business, if you will, is the referral is only as good as your online presence. So you can get the referral, and they can say, hey, great, let me go give them a call. But typically the first thing that they do is go to the search engine to find your phone number, or go to the search engine to learn more. And so if you don’t have great reviews, or you’re not getting found, or they type in your business name and you’re not showing up, or…

CCPIA (01:45)
business name.

Paige Wiese (01:48)
They’re on, you know, the realtor is more on, not the realtor, but the commercial broker is more on a first terms basis with you and they type it in and nothing shows up whatsoever. Even if they put commercial inspector after your name, that referral doesn’t really exist. They don’t know how to follow through with that lead. So that’s the reason that SEO is even more important now than ever. And then from the softball side, the second answer to that is gonna be AI is the other option as far as.

CCPIA (01:48)
They’re on, you know, the.

⁓

Paige Wiese (02:16)
do we start really showing up not

CCPIA (02:19)
not just when they get the referral, but also as they start doing more and more of that research on the AI side. So kind of a two-fold theory.

Paige Wiese (02:19)
just when they get the referral but also as they start doing more and more of that research on the AI side. So kind of a two-fold to your answer.

CCPIA (02:29)
So many of our inspectors, hold on, I don’t know if you can hear that, my phone’s ringing.

It was supposed to shut itself off, but it didn’t.

All right. ⁓ So many of our members, so many of the people that are going to be listening to this, they rely on a website that might be generated or built for them by maybe a software provider. Which, let’s be honest, is it a website or is it a landing page? And what is that, if you’re looking for that search,

Paige Wiese (03:14)
Good question.

CCPIA (03:20)
Is there any providence to that? Can I rely on that or should I be doing something else?

Paige Wiese (03:25)
It really depends on how well the site spills out to your point. If it’s a landing page, no, it’s really not going to get you that much. It’s not going to do a whole lot for you. ⁓ You know, one of the things that the search engines are looking for as far as triggers and where to rank you does come down to how many pages do you have on your site. They’re just as aware that having one page looks very spammy. It looks like a landing page sales pitch and starts to be a little harder to trust. I also am one to believe if you

can’t come up with roughly five pages of content about your company and services, it looks a little scammy and doesn’t look super professional in general. So, you even when clients come to us, like, hey, I want just a landing page to get started, we’re pretty quick to say, if you really want any marketing effort, it really probably should be a five page website, ⁓ home about services, testimonials, contact type of thing, or…

CCPIA (03:55)
pages of content about your company and services, it looks a little scammy and doesn’t look super professional in general. So you make them look like it’s come to us like, I want this landing page to get started. We’re pretty quick to say, if you really want any marketing effort, it really probably should be a five page website, home about services, testimonials, contact type of thing or home

of

Paige Wiese (04:20)
home about

commercial and residential services broken down into two different pages and then contact. So it’s really easy to come up with what the five pages should be. But yeah, it’s gonna definitely get you ranking a little bit better by having that extra content. Plus it’s more content. That’s what the search engines are wanting to see is keywords, content relevant to the search, answering questions related and like information. So we need the extra pages to get that.

CCPIA (04:21)
⁓ and residential services broken down into two different pages and then contact. So it’s really easy to come up with what the five pages should be, but yeah, it’s gonna definitely get you ranking a little bit better by having that extra content. Plus, it’s more content. That’s what the search engines are wanting to see is keywords and content relevant to the search and answering questions related to information. So…

we need the extra pages to get

that. A single page isn’t really going to compete against some of your competitors that have more of the presence. So is that the difference in definition between a website and a landing page is one page versus five or how the URLs are defined or who’s watching it?

Paige Wiese (04:49)
single page isn’t really going to compete against some of your competitors that have more of a presence.

Yeah, that’s a great question because it’s there’s kind of different ways to look at it depending on some would refer to a landing page is I’m running Google ads, and I’m taking them to a specific page where they land, hence landing page. ⁓ I kind of look at the single page site, though. It to me, it’s a landing page. It’s just a place that probably your marketing collateral your

CCPIA (05:26)
who needs a landing page. It’s just a place that probably you’re

Paige Wiese (05:31)
reports or sending them to whatever that looks like your business card might be sending them to and it’s just a single page, it really is a landing page.

CCPIA (05:32)
You’re sending them to whatever that looks like. Your business card might be sending them to when it’s just a single gate. It really is a long gate.

Okay, if I’m thinking about then my SEO or my driving people, there’s probably a lot of local domination then, right? Where you’re trying to get everything from a small geographical space and not something

Is that is that a correct way to think of it or should I be thinking always in commercial big and wide?

Paige Wiese (06:06)
For commercial, one is where are you approved and licensed to be able to do the commercial is where I would say. So mostly it’s gonna be local. Unless you’re a larger company running with multiple teams, probably getting too far into national is not ideal. So staying local, and it’s just gonna be easier to rank long-term and get that extra marketing efforts when you are focused more on a local market. And local can mean a few different things. Local could mean…

CCPIA (06:11)
Hmm?

Paige Wiese (06:34)
How far out are we going? You 30 towns outside. I know, you if you were here in Colorado and going from Denver to Boulder to Lyons, some people will say that’s their range, you know? And other times though, I always look at it as if you’re in Denver and you’ve got someone looking in Lyons, it’s what, roughly 40 minutes outside of?

CCPIA (06:42)
Denver to Boulder to Lions.

Some people will say that’s their range, you know, and other times though, I always look at it as if you’re in Denver and you’ve got someone looking in lions, it’s roughly 40 minutes outside of

them, they’re not gonna hire you. It’s just not even worth putting the marketing money into it. There’s enough other people closer to that they would choose. They start to get worried about travel fees. Is there gonna be a trip fee if I hire someone in Denver? I know, you know, as we start looking the other way, if you’ve got properties

Paige Wiese (06:58)
they’re not going to hire you. It’s just not even worth putting the marketing money into it. There’s enough other people closer to that they would choose. They start to get worried about travel fees. Is there going to be a trip fee if I hire someone in Denver? I know, you know, as we start looking the other way, if you’ve got properties

in different areas, like it might be convenient, but yeah, like, are they really willing to drive that far? So I think it’s better to be putting that marketing and emphasis a little bit more in that.

10 to 20 mile radius without getting all the way into how far can you know I reach this just because I want to cover as much ground as possible.

CCPIA (07:35)
But that conversely could be like if I’m in Billings, Montana

There could be that connotation that I’m used to bringing people in from 150 mile radius because I just don’t have somebody that can service my niche or niche, you know, properly. So.

Paige Wiese (07:52)
Yeah!

Absolutely.

mean, yeah, if you think about it, if you’re doing commercial inspection in like healthcare, you know, buildings or manufacturing, yeah, you might have a really good niche. And that is a great, great reason to start emphasizing a little bit more, right? Is if you’re just doing commercial inspection broadly, no, good luck. Good luck even just trying to get that ranking. Google’s not going to want to start even being, you know, is not going to want to start pushing that far out of the envelope. But if you don’t have a lot of competition because you went

into a specific niche, you’ll absolutely start getting that extra pull from the search engines to get that wider radius.

CCPIA (08:31)
Before we dive in the search things with Google or Bing, I’m thinking about my website and I’m thinking about just that presence of the Commercial Property Inspector online. Are there any key elements that need to be there in their website that will build the trust from somebody searching?

Paige Wiese (08:55)
you know, like one, five pages compared to one is going to build the trust. think, you know, showing your accolades and accreditations is going to be another great way to go about it. And just what parts, you know,

CCPIA (08:57)
Got it.

Paige Wiese (09:10)
associations you a part of what some of that looks like starts to build trust and authority and then also You know going into just an about section that genuinely talks about you and your experience and why that is your niche or why are you a little more qualified than the next person I think it’s easy to skip and overlook that section a lot of people don’t enjoy writing about themselves They don’t want to ramp themselves up. That’s a little bit of why we took over content writing and working with clients is

CCPIA (09:16)
Also, you know, going into just an about section that genuinely talks about you and your experience and why that is your niche or why are you a little more qualified than the next person. think it’s easy to skip and overlook that section. A lot of people don’t enjoy writing about themselves. They don’t want to ramp themselves up. That’s a little bit of why we took over content writing with clients

is…

Paige Wiese (09:40)
our about

sections would come back from the client with like two sentences and I’m like that’s never gonna sell you. We need to do more than that. that’s where we, but we ask them to hop on a phone call and they’ll talk our ear off about themselves for the next hour. So it was a lot easier for us to get those, you know, the content written. But you know, they want to know the story. They want to understand what that looks like. And you know, yeah, did you just start doing this? Have you got?

CCPIA (09:41)
sections would come back from the client with like two sentences and I’m like that’s never gonna sell you we need to do more than that so that’s what we ask them to hop on a phone call and they’ll talk our ear off about themselves for the next hour so it was a lot easier for us to get those content written but you know they want to know the story they want to understand what that looks like and you know yeah

just start doing this if you got

30 years of construction behind you and this is what you’re doing now like those things do make a difference but even as you know we were talking before the show about dogs and this and that it starts to build a little bit more of a genuine personal touch that is also more approachable so if we can work those pieces into it does start to make them you know I can relate to this person I want to use them I think we’ve got you more in common than just me hiring a random person

Paige Wiese (10:06)
know, 30 years of construction behind you and this is what you’re doing now, like those things do make a difference. But even as, you know, we were talking before the show about just dogs and this and that, it starts to build a little bit more of a genuine personal touch that is also more approachable. So if we can work those pieces into, it does start to make them, you know, I can relate to this person. Like, I want to use them. I think we’ve got, you know, more in common than just me hiring a random person off the

internet.

CCPIA (10:35)
Yeah, exactly. The other day we were watching something on the typical commercial you’ll see on TV and my son was with us and he said, you know what, I don’t like any of these companies that always show their kids in the commercials. It would be maybe an HVAC or some contractor. The kids are basically driving the commercial. said, I’m thinking of myself, but that’s not really accurate in the marketing sense because now you’re building

Trust you know you’re showing that that that you have a relatability. You know yeah, you might think you know expectationally you know they’re exploiting their kids in the commercials because they don’t have to pay them, but you know Yeah, yeah, you got paid in Andy’s custard. Okay leave. ⁓ I shouldn’t say turn, but yeah I mean you got ice cream or custard get over it, but but yeah, you’re right You got you got to have something that people can relate to whether it’s

Paige Wiese (11:16)
Are they getting paid, right?

CCPIA (11:32)
Your military service, your hobbies, your passions, what have you.

Paige Wiese (11:40)
It just breaks the barrier, it breaks the ice a little bit. It gives a little bit more of a conversation starter to, know, when you show up on the property, you know, it just, feels like I know this person compared to, do you want me to talk to you? Do you want help? Do you want me to show you around? You know, it just kind of leaves it a little more of a transaction and that’s not really what we’re creating. And if you’re doing it right, especially in the commercial side, you want them to come back multiple times. know, residential,

CCPIA (12:04)
You want them to come back multiple times. know, residential.

Yeah, they might.

Paige Wiese (12:07)
Yeah, they might come around

once every five, seven years, and that’s if they’re staying locally, right? But commercial, if you get in with the right people, they’re buying in volume, and they’re gonna need you often. And so the more you can really create this into a relationship instead of a transactional, they will be like, I remember that person, I know, you know, we’ve used our, ⁓

CCPIA (12:10)
seven years and that’s what they’re saying locally right but commercial if you get in with the right people they’re buying in volume and they’re gonna need you often and so before you can really create this into a relationship instead of a transactional they will be like I remember that I don’t you know we’ve used our

Paige Wiese (12:32)
short-term rental inspector a few times now and we’ll continue using him and we’ve referred him out to our realtor of like you needed somebody go call this guy he’s been amazing you know so you just never know on the commercial side what they’re going to be doing and the volume and so I think anytime you can really focus on a relationship with them instead of a transaction it’s going to really help your business grow.

CCPIA (12:53)
We had a guest here on one of our BYBs who designs logos for a living.

Paige Wiese (12:59)
Mm-hmm.

CCPIA (13:01)
It was a blast listening to how they navigate an interview. So from the design perspective page, are there certain palettes, color palettes, we should stay away from and are there certain ones we should lean into?

Paige Wiese (13:19)
Oh, you’re asking the wrong person on this question, because I’ve got a whole lot of different thoughts on it. I mean, I’ve been doing it a long time, 16, almost 17 years, designed hundreds or thousands of sites really at this point. You know, we’ve seen it all. think you get into your cliche ones where anything red, black and white kind of feels a little more automotive and anything blue and white seems a bit more.

CCPIA (13:24)
Hahaha

Yeah.

Paige Wiese (13:44)
into the you know industrial or the finance side of it all but no I haven’t really tried to stick clients into a set color palette I think one it’s your brand have fun with it what represents you how do you stand out and sometimes

CCPIA (13:54)
Huh? What represents you? How do you stand out? And sometimes it’s

Paige Wiese (13:59)
it’s using red, even though red is typically considered a no, don’t do that sign, right? You know, green typically represents money, but sometimes in Colorado, green

CCPIA (14:00)
using red even though red is typically considered a no don’t do that sign, right? You know green typically represents money, but sometimes in Colorado

Paige Wiese (14:10)
in the outdoors go more hand in hand than the money side. So I’ve really kind of looked at it more of like what makes sense for like the company name, the brand, what you’re doing instead of like you must fit into this set little palette because you’re in home inspections plus early commercial

inspections plus we don’t want every single logo and website to look identical in color and palette. That’s where we

CCPIA (14:34)
Mm-hmm.

Paige Wiese (14:37)
need it to start standing out and same thing home inspections compared to commercial inspections. As we’ve talked before a lot of them are merging the two services together.

CCPIA (14:38)
to start standing out. And same thing, home inspections compared to commercial inspections, as we talked before, a lot of them are merging the two services together.

Paige Wiese (14:49)
There’s no reason to say, since we’re moving into commercial, we should change our colors now to match something different, right? I really think it’s like, this is the brand that you’ve been creating and you might change the colors for a division. So I know we’ve got one client who has changed brands and colors.

CCPIA (14:49)
There’s no reason to say, ⁓ since we’re moving into commercial, we should change our colors now to match something different. Right. I really think it’s like, is the brand that you’ve been creating and you might change the colors for a division. So I know we’ve got one client who has changed brands and colors

for like the Northern section compared to the Denver compared to the Southern. there’s just little subtle changes in color, but the overall brand is staying the same. And so there I kind of get it.

Paige Wiese (15:06)
for like the northern section compared to Denver compared to the southern. So there’s just little subtle changes in color, but the overall brand is staying the same. And so there I kind of get it. We’ve had

others that have tried to use it to differentiate, you know, it’s this kind of trip is this color. And if it’s a multi-day trip, it’s that color. So there’s those indicators that you can start to use, but it doesn’t mean, you know, stay away from or do this or that. I think it’s more about to,

CCPIA (15:19)
I’ve had others that have tried to use it to differentiate, you know, it’s this kind of trip is this color and if it’s a multi-day trip, it’s that color. So there’s those indicators that you can start to use, but it doesn’t mean, you know, stay away from or do this or that. I think it’s more about to.

Paige Wiese (15:36)
Doing dark websites with white content doesn’t really look that good. I think it has a time and a place compared to, and every time we were to try to go that way, a client immediate is like, I can’t read it, change it. it’s like, don’t even go down that path, right? So there’s certain things like that from a design side, but not so much a color palette industry.

CCPIA (15:36)
Doing dark websites with white content doesn’t really look that good. think it has a time and a place compared to, and every time we were trying to go that way, it’s like, I can’t read it, can you get it? Don’t even go down that path, right? So there’s certain things like that from a design side, but not so much a color palette industry.

That probably goes the same that if I’m designing a website with a particular

I’m going to stay on color palettes, just because, but if I’m designing a website in a particular color palette, I also got to think of it in the mobile too. Because maybe it looks good on my, you know, my high-vis 120 megahertz refresh screen, but it doesn’t look the same on my mobile.

Paige Wiese (16:23)
Well, we ran into that, let’s say seven years ago, where everyone moved to the giant images taking up the entire desktop screen, top to bottom, full page, everything. And then they started realizing when it scrolls to mobile or resizes to mobile, it’s not as ideal. It doesn’t look the same. And all of a sudden you’ve got people’s heads getting cut off or you’ve got half your team getting cut off. And while it looked

CCPIA (16:31)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Paige Wiese (16:50)
good in theory and was a trend for a little while, there’s a reason we’ve pulled back from that from a design side is it doesn’t look good when it is responsive. It doesn’t look good when it scales. And you’re right, we’ve had some clients in certain industries, the only time they’re looking at their website is when they’re presenting it to a client on a large conference room TV. And it’s like, yeah.

CCPIA (16:54)
There’s a-

is it doesn’t look good when it is responsive. It doesn’t look good when it scales. And you’re right, we’ve had some clients in certain industries, the only time they’re looking at their website is when they’re presenting it to a client on a large conference room TV and it’s like…

Yeah,

it doesn’t look near as good as it does on a laptop computer, does it? So you really do need to consider those things. But the scaling and responsiveness, I mean, just how big are your icons? Are they Are they small? How do they resize? And so things to definitely pay attention to there. Yeah, because I would think to that first point you made about, I believe you said credibility and just are you who you say you are.

Paige Wiese (17:13)
doesn’t look near as good as it does on a laptop computer, does it? So you really do need to consider those things, but the scaling and responsiveness, I mean, just how big are your icons even? Are they huge? Are they small? How do they resize? And so things to definitely pay attention to there.

CCPIA (17:41)
and having them verifying you. People are doing that right in the front seats of their vehicles. They’re real quick going, Rob Klaus, commercial inspector. And if I don’t show up where I say I’m showing up, here’s my flag. So yeah, I could definitely see that. So are there any…

Paige Wiese (17:48)
Yeah.

CCPIA (18:04)
If I’m still building my website and I’m trying to build it with that opportunity to be found as fast as possible, are there any key words I should make sure that I’m emphasizing?

Paige Wiese (18:19)
I mean, first and foremost, you know, go after commercial inspection and your location, but do understand that’s going to be competitive. There’s going to be multiple, to your point though, maybe not in Montana. So it does depend, you know, depend and vary there. So definitely getting it in there would be one of the big focuses, but I think really getting into some of the more niche pieces that you can talk about.

CCPIA (18:31)
Yeah?

Paige Wiese (18:42)
Is it the flat roof piece of a commercial inspection that you’re doing? Is it ⁓ getting into the types of cinder blocks compared to brick compared to siding as you’re getting into commercial, right? Like getting into those pieces that are gonna be a little bit more.

CCPIA (18:42)
Is it the

Is it getting into the types of cinder blocks compared to brick compared to siding as you’re getting into commercial, right? Like getting into those pieces that are gonna be a little bit more, hey,

Paige Wiese (19:01)
Hey, I really want someone who knows what’s gonna happen. I want them to really be able to show up and do this is gonna be a little bit better. I know

CCPIA (19:01)
I really want someone who knows what’s gonna happen. I want them to really be able to show up and do this is gonna be a little bit better. know.

Paige Wiese (19:08)
on the last episode, things we had talked about too, were just like home inspections in a mountain town compared to downtown Denver compared to Florida are all drastically different. And while it doesn’t seem like it, if you’d

CCPIA (19:09)
episode things we have talked about too were just like home inspections in a mountain town compared to downtown Denver compared to Florida. Yeah. Are all drastically different and while it doesn’t seem like it if you

Paige Wiese (19:22)
or the broad side of the industry looking out, like, yeah, okay, are home inspections, a home inspection. The same can be said for the commercial side. And that’s even where I mentioned how a healthcare

CCPIA (19:22)
are the know broad side of the industry looking out like yeah okay there are home inspections, the home inspection the same can be said for the commercial side and that’s even more I mentioned how

Paige Wiese (19:33)
facility is going to be inspected through a manufacturing is going to be drastically different. And so if you are being able to identify yourself in some of those niches, add that to the commercial inspection. And that way you do start to differentiate and stand out instead of staying so broad.

CCPIA (19:33)
Can I be penalized for saying too many

things?

Paige Wiese (19:56)
it depends on where you’re putting it, but no. I think the better way to look at it though is…

CCPIA (19:58)
No.

Paige Wiese (20:02)
You don’t want to be all things to all people, right? And so the more that you can be a little bit more specific in what you’re doing, the better quality you’re going to get. So while you might not get penalized by the search engines for doing so much, you can get penalized by the quality of leads and how your time is being spent. So if you are not being specific enough, you’re just fielding leads that aren’t qualified whatsoever. Now we’re just wasting time, right? And so that’s the penalty.

CCPIA (20:12)
So while you might not get penalized by the search engines for doing so much, you can get penalized by the quality of leads and how your time is being spent. So if you’re not being specific enough, you’re just building.

leads that aren’t qualified whatsoever. Power is wasting time, right? And so that’s the penalty

Paige Wiese (20:31)
that you’re getting on that front.

CCPIA (20:32)
that you’re getting on that front. So if in the five magic pages that I’m going to build the most basic of rudimentary websites, home page, services offered. if I, and so what you’re suggesting would be if I list those services and let’s say I’m going to list

concrete or cinder block or block construction inspections and maintenance inspections and low slope roof inspections and health care inspections. Each one of those could be a very good searchable way that somebody’s going to find me, correct?

Paige Wiese (21:08)
Absolutely, and that’s kind of where it’s like start at five is a bare minimum, but then start building them out from there. My best practice is every time you are going after kind of a different keyword phrase or a different service, build a new page. It’s going to rank a lot better for you. And now you get an entire pages worth of content for that, which does look better in the search engines. Some are like, it’s so much time to build all those out. But again,

CCPIA (21:13)
Yeah.

I love that.

engines some are like it’s so much time to build all those out but again

you’re gonna start getting quality if we want quality leads coming in and so if you can start like spend the time and create those pages it will pay off for you long term i think a big mistake we see often is i want a services page i’m gonna scrim everything into it

Paige Wiese (21:38)
you’re gonna start getting quality and we want quality leads coming in. And so if you can start, like spend the time and create those pages, it will pay off for you longterm. I think a big mistake we see often is I want a services page and I’m gonna scram everything into it. And

it’s gonna be just little paragraphs per. And it’s just not gonna do anything. I mean, yes, you are getting penalized by the search engines. You’re not getting anything close to the value that you should be by putting it all into one.

CCPIA (21:55)
and it’s going to be just little paragraphs per. And it’s just not going to do anything. Yes, you are getting penalized by the search engines. You’re not getting anything close to the value that you should be by putting it all into one

residential or one commercial inspection page. That can be a teaser. You can start there and say, here are the different services we offer. But

Paige Wiese (22:06)
residential or one commercial inspection page, that can be a teaser. You can start there and say here are the different services we offer, but let

them click and get them to a page with more information, even if it’s FAQs and how it works in our process for this compared to that. It goes a lot further for sure.

CCPIA (22:17)
and click and get them to a page with more information, even if it’s at the queues and how it works in our process for this compared to that, it goes a lot further for

sure. I love that. I talk to people like yourself, Paige, and I get so excited again. I’m like, should I go back in the field and do this? Because all the secrets that I learned, because wait, what a trick. Because you don’t have to do this on the first day.

Paige Wiese (22:43)
No!

CCPIA (22:44)
You can build that services page with your list of your 10 favorites today. And over the course of months, build a new page and build a new page and build a new page for each of those 10.

Paige Wiese (22:57)
And that’s how we

recommend clients. It’s a hurdle. If we were to start a brand new site and say, hey, we’re gonna create 30 pages from the get, one, it’s expensive and not what someone’s ready for. Two, they may not know what their niche is just yet. They may not know what that phone call is that they keep getting and not realizing there was a void in the market. So there’s no sense in trying to predict all of that from the get. And there’s no point in investing all of that from the get. I think it’s better to say, let’s get you a core foundation.

CCPIA (23:23)
As a curiosity,

Paige Wiese (23:26)
And then we can set goals to say, goal is let’s create two additional pages per month moving forward and adapt what that looks like based on what you’re seeing from your phone calls, the client requests and asks.

CCPIA (23:29)
was under the impression that when ⁓ I

update or refresh or add to my existing website, the search engines see that as a benefit.

Paige Wiese (23:57)
Absolutely, they love it.

Anything that’s new, fresh content, which is kind of where blogging really took off, right? mean, at first, when it first came out, I mean, what’s the point? know, it’s just, there’s a bunch of content, nobody cares. And now, I mean, it’s like driving our search engines, but really the reason it’s driving it is because it’s fresh content, it’s new content. And so it gets a little bit more of a kick to the search engines. But yeah, I mean, if you’ve got a website that you haven’t touched in five years and you can’t figure out why your leads are starting to die off,

CCPIA (24:17)
it gets a little bit more of kick to the search engines, but yeah, I mean, if you’ve got a website that you haven’t touched in five years and you can’t figure out why your leads are starting to die

off, it’s because it’s dying off on the search engines too. And so now the juice is starting to get flaky. So I’m sitting here going, okay, so if I start with my five basic, I’m just gonna keep running with this five basic premise thing. And one of the services that I promised to myself that I’m going to add to my services,

Paige Wiese (24:26)
because it’s dying off in the search engines too and so now the juice is starting to get like lose.

Do it.

CCPIA (24:47)
I heck, if I’ve got 10, that’s a guaranteed 10 months, even one page per month, is a guaranteed 10 month inertia or 10 month bump in my ⁓ providence to the search engines. Where is that not a benefit to me? I mean, good golly. Exactly.

Paige Wiese (24:54)
Right.

Exactly, mean it’s

and it’s not that hard if that’s in much easier undertaking than can we create 10 pages this month and get it live on a site? Like no, you are busy. We’re supposed to have you in the field not behind a computer writing content or proofing our content or whatever that looks like where if we’re like, hey, we’re gonna write one, we’re gonna send it to you, take a second to review it even at night, whatever is convenient, send it back. We’re no longer interrupting your work day to go drum up business or to.

CCPIA (25:18)
Bye.

Yeah.

Take a second.

Yeah.

to

Paige Wiese (25:39)
perform the inspections, whatever that looks like. So it is really about any effort you’re doing. How do you make that fit into instead of overwhelming?

CCPIA (25:39)
perform the inspections or whatever that looks like. So it is really about any effort you’re doing. How do you make that fit into instead of overwhelming? When people ask me about their websites, or I look at their websites, and one of my first tips I like to give, and again, I am a Neanderthal when it comes to these website things. I’ve built a few of them for things, but it’s like I always say, have a projects page.

because you can add to that every day. And that’s another tick, tick, tick, and.

Paige Wiese (26:14)
Well, in the projects

page, you also get to put keywords. So now you get to talk about all of these niche types of inspections that we’ve done and put the keywords behind it. And now you’re getting even more Google juice from the keywords into it. So and fresh content. So yes, you’re right. It’s a really easy way.

to just get evergreen content, get more content on your site, get the keywords in there again, then all of these little things over time do start to improve your page rank. There’s other signals too, obviously, but those are little steps that will actually make really great leaps.

CCPIA (26:35)
just get Evergreen content.

to improve your page rank. There’s other signals too, obviously, but those are little steps that we’ll actually make really quickly.

And those don’t cost a whole lot of money, if anything, because they’re probably self-managed, self-generated, and as long as you’ve got a good foundation, something like 3-Wing Digital can create, but a good foundation, you can just plug right in there any time, all the time.

Paige Wiese (27:13)
And that’s really what you should be looking for out of a site, right? No matter what platform you go with, because there’s so many options, it really is how easy is it for you to update and maintain? And are you asking the right questions at the end of the day from the designer to say, ⁓

I want the ability to maintain and design this on my own. I want to be able to update content, add pages, add blogs, add a new service page if I want to. And all of that should be done. something that is just kind of standard. It shouldn’t be this like, no, no, it’s going to be built too difficult and custom code and all of this. Like even WordPress, while it might be a little harder to set up.

CCPIA (27:33)
to content, add pages, add blogs, add a new service page if I want to. And all of that should be done. then something that is just kind of standard. shouldn’t be, it’s like, oh no, no, it’s going to be too difficult and custom code and all this. Like even WordPress, while it might be a little harder to set up.

Paige Wiese (27:52)
it still has all of that functionality in the back end. Once it’s set up, looks unique for you, on brand for you, has the right SEO triggers in there, and now you’re gonna take back over and go. So I mean, just ask the right questions when you’re having it built so that you don’t see tons of unexpected costs just to keep building out your presence.

CCPIA (27:53)
It still has all of that functionality in the back end. Once it’s set up, it looks unique for you, on brand, for you, has the right SEO triggers in there, and now you’re going to take back over and go. So, I mean, just ask the right questions when you’re having it built so that you don’t see tons of unexpected costs just to keep building out your presence.

Well, you have brought up some of those blogs and things. So, what type of content adds to the highest converts?

you know, being blogs or service pages or project pages, what would give a company trying to rank higher an easier opportunity to do that?

Paige Wiese (28:34)
All sorts of pieces of content have their own purpose behind it, right? mean, service pages are gonna be helpful for those with the intent of looking for your services. Blog pages are gonna be better for those that are still trying to understand what type of inspection do I need? How long is the process? How far out should I book this? ⁓ You know, like, how long do I need to show up and be there? All of that question side is really good for the blogs. And then we’re starting to see more and more that

CCPIA (28:38)
Mm-hmm.

show up and be there. All of that question side is really good for the blogs and then we’re starting to see more and more of

it.

Paige Wiese (29:03)
The blogs are really helpful, but the FAQs are starting to get just to the point. There’s some, like we’ve moved from, let me enter in three to five phrases into, or words into the search engines and to let me ask a full question. So the more that your content is answering that question and including what’s being asked, the better it’s gonna be in the search engines. And so that’s, think, always been one of the questions people have wondered is like, my blog, do I title it the

CCPIA (29:06)
the cues are starting to get just to the point. There’s some like we’ve moved from let me enter in three to five you know phrases into or words into the search engines and to let me ask a full question. Yeah. So the more that your content is answering that question and including what’s being asked.

the better it’s gonna be in the search engines. And so that’s, think, always been one of the questions people have wondered is like, my blog, do I title it

the question people are asking or do I create like a formal headline?

Paige Wiese (29:34)
people are asking or do I create like a formal headline?

And there really hasn’t been a great definitive answer of like it must be done, but I think that’s what we’re starting to see those FAQs you know start to handle is like now people can ask questions, now the search engine is seeing the actual question and they’re seeing it supported with a quick answer, this must be the answer right? Instead of

CCPIA (29:37)
And there really hasn’t been a great definitive answer of like, it must be done. But I think that’s what we’re starting to see those FAQs start to handle is like, now people can ask questions. Now the search engine is seeing the actual question and they’re seeing it supported with a quick answer. This must be the answer, right? Instead of

Paige Wiese (30:00)
here’s a headline that is roughly asking the question but in a statement form and then here’s a whole bunch of information to

CCPIA (30:00)
here’s a headline that is roughly asking the question but in a statement form. And then here’s a whole bunch of information.

to answer the question.

Paige Wiese (30:08)
answer the question.

CCPIA (30:09)
Is that where the, you know, I don’t use AI near enough, but I see my children and my wife use it all the time and I’ve been in, we just came out of a large training where I had 30 inspectors along, they’re all using AI, know, they’ll ask a question, is that blog or that FAQ really generated towards

that AI response to give you your providence then.

Paige Wiese (30:38)
You’re gonna start seeing it again. I think a little bit of it comes down and I say this because of the industry type. You’re still gonna see those service pages be helpful because if they’re looking for who near me can perform this type of inspection, the service page is still like just where your company ranks. have clients, which is so funny because it’s not such a big trend right this moment, but clients asking more about like, how do I show up if I’m like,

CCPIA (30:59)
We have clients which are so fun.

Paige Wiese (31:07)
Hey, Alexa, call a plumber. And it’d be like, well, that’s just the first answer in the search results. I mean, that’s really what we’re optimizing for. So when clients would ask us, like, how do I get there? It’s just SEO. There’s no different, very specific piece that we need to optimize other than just locationally, how do we become the number one person there? So the same is true with the AI as far as if they’re looking for

CCPIA (31:07)
Hey, Alexa, call a plumber and it’d be like, well, that’s just the first answer of the search results. I mean, that’s really what we’re optimizing for. So when clients would ask us, like, how do I get there? It’s just SEO. There’s no different, very specific piece that we need to optimize other than just locationally, how do we become the number one person there? The same is true with the AI as far as if they’re looking for

Paige Wiese (31:35)
your service and a provider in that, then yes we still want your company name showing up with all of the right authority triggers, but if they’re looking for the research phase and trying to learn more and do that discovery, then that’s where we want to get into the question and answer side of it all.

CCPIA (31:35)
your service and a provider in that, then yes, we still want your company name showing up.

I laugh because I mean I can think of four or five years ago companies reaching out Do you want to be found on Alexa or Siri? You know, please subscribe here to find how you your company can be and I’m like, is that a scam?

Paige Wiese (32:03)
Right.

It’s SEO. mean, at the end of the day, if you look at who is the one that’s being said out loud, it’s literally the first result in the search engine, depending on what platform they’re going to, right? Is it Apple Maps if you’re on Siri? Is it Alexa if you’re on Google? But that’s most of where it’s coming from. There’s not…

CCPIA (32:11)
Okay.

Paige Wiese (32:32)
little little extra triggers tucked into it which is why you don’t see a lot of companies these days still running marketing campaigns for do you want to show up there like no they knew that that’s not i’m not paying extra to have that happen let me just pay for seo

CCPIA (32:34)
to it, which is why you don’t see a lot of companies these days still running marketing campaigns for do you want to show up there. no, they knew that that’s not, I’m not paying extra to have that happen. Let me just pay for SEO.

Yeah. So, so for most of, most of us, we rely on our Google business profile.

Paige Wiese (32:55)
Correct.

CCPIA (32:55)
you

know, as that first up. So how can inspectors fully leverage their business, their Google business profile and beyond reviews to stand out amongst the competitors?

Paige Wiese (33:09)
It’s gonna be very

similar to SEO and like the website that we talked about, update it with content. And I get that not a lot of people actually look at the Google business profile side of posts, but it will carry weight. You’re also putting your keyword phrases into the post, which is now carrying the weight and the Google business profile. So know that you’re probably not getting a lot of engagement or a strong ROI from it. However,

CCPIA (33:15)
Mm-hmm.

Let’s go.

Paige Wiese (33:37)
the post does help a little bit. So if you’re already doing a tiny bit on social, just move it over and paste it there as well, if you will. Adding photos is another great way to do it. And again, just as you’re out and about in the field, take some different photos of different things you’re seeing and what types of things are you inspecting? So when someone asks the really random, I mean, just even down to ADA, you know, like, hey, do you do ADA?

CCPIA (33:47)
to do it and again just as you’re out and about in the field take some different photos of different things you’re seeing and what types of things are you inspecting so when someone asks the really random I mean just even down to 88 you know like hey do you do ADA

Paige Wiese (34:03)
inspections and make sure that I’m up to date with all of that and that I’ve got the right slope for my handicap ramp,

CCPIA (34:03)
inspections and make sure that I’m up to date with all of that and that I’ve got the right slope for my handicap around

Paige Wiese (34:09)
take a picture of a handicap ramp and say I’m doing handicap ramp inspections today, right? There’s going to be someone out there who got fined and is looking for someone very specifically to come out and make sure they get this resolved and you want to be the one. So when you start looking at those, the photos are another great, great place and then just make sure it’s up to date. Are you’re

CCPIA (34:10)
Take a picture of a handicap ramp and say, I’m doing handicap ramp inspections today, right? There’s gonna be someone out there who got fined and is looking for someone very specifically to come out and make sure they get this resolved and you wanna be the one. So when you start looking at those, the photos are another great, great place. And then just make sure it’s up to date.

Are your name, address, phone number, category, all correct? You can go into the business profile and add services. it. Anything and everything they let you

Paige Wiese (34:30)
name, address, phone number, category, all correct. You can go into the business profile and add services. Do it. Anything and everything they let you add content

CCPIA (34:40)
content to, fill it out to the max and you will see way better results for that than your competitor who’s probably simply claimed the Google business profile.

Paige Wiese (34:40)
to, fill it out to the max and you will see way better results for that than your competitor who’s probably simply claimed the Google business profile.

CCPIA (34:51)
I have to laugh, Paige. I’ll share a story that we built a website a decade or so ago and we had a company, not a local company, a company several states away build it and there was our name in the black.

Then underneath it in the gray, it said digital marketing because they never changed it. And so we were like, we’re not getting any hits. None. And so we caught that somehow, some way, changed it to said residential inspection company. And then we had a new company build our website.

Paige Wiese (35:15)
Wait.

CCPIA (35:36)
for it when we we branched off the commercial and never got many hits never got many hits because it still said residential in the gray underneath our name but then as soon as we put commercial and residential our business exploded because all of a sudden we’re be

We were like the only company in the area that actually had commercial in that piece of the algorithm.

Paige Wiese (36:07)
Mmmmm

Well, there’s

like little tricks to it, right? I mean, back in the day, I argued a lot with people like, do not put anything else but the company name. That is the whole name address phone number. That is the consistency. That’s the trigger the search engines are looking for. That’s the directory piece that we need to do. So if you’re creating Yelp and you’re creating Apple and Bing and all these other directories,

It all needs to be the same. Otherwise the search engines start to see it as two, three different companies. If your address is slightly different, one has a suite number, one doesn’t, the search engines think it’s two different companies. And so that’s one where we’re probably going with this. I can predict you and how you have your questions is going to be, you know, how do we handle commercial and residential with the Google business profile? But initially, you know, you can go back and do company name.

CCPIA (36:35)
It all needs to be the same. Otherwise the search engines start to see it as two, three different companies. If your address is slightly different, one has a suite number, one doesn’t, the search engines think it’s two different companies. And so that’s one where we’re probably going with this if I can predict you and how you have your questions is going to be, you know, how do we handle commercial and residential with the Google service profile. But initially, you know, you can go back and do company name

and

Paige Wiese (37:03)
and then space,

CCPIA (37:04)
space hyphen space commercial and residential inspection. I would just recommend you do that in all situations then that you’re referencing your name and directories because I don’t believe you can do two categories in the category. ⁓

Paige Wiese (37:04)
hype and space commercial and residential inspection. I would just recommend you do that in all situations then that you’re referencing your name and directories because I don’t believe you can do two categories in the category section of Google business profiles. And so that’s the reason that I would say you might not be able to choose both. And so then you have to choose which one do I want more business in, right?

CCPIA (37:19)
section of Google business profiles and so that’s the reason that I would say you might not be able to choose all and so then you have to choose which one do I want more business in right

and so I would probably go with commercial because it’s a little bit higher profit margin and that’s a better way to get those but like where you you know heavily emphasized is I would choose your primary category and then go to the service tab and build out all

Paige Wiese (37:32)
And so I’d probably go with commercial because it’s a little bit higher profit margin and that’s a better way to get those. like where you, you know, heavily emphasize is I would choose your primary category and then go to the service tab and build out all the different

types of inspections that you do there. And that will help piggyback off the fact that you don’t have the two, three, four category option in the Google business profile.

CCPIA (37:47)
and the of inspections that you do there, and that will help piggyback off the fact that you don’t have the two, three, four category option in the Google Business Program.

And I agree 100%. Not that it matters what if I agree or don’t agree. But it’s like I go one step down the road with it, and I say, how long have you been in residential? OK, 10 years.

So if you’re not engaging in any marketing activities for your residential and it’s kind of on cruise control, then commercials like launching a whole new brand for yourself, why not put all of this emphasis there?

Paige Wiese (38:26)
anything and everything.

Yep. Just if that’s and that’s what I’m saying. If that’s what you’re getting into.

Let your current page rank carry your residential and keep that consistency, the networking, the referrals, whatever you’re doing. And then put all of the extra effort into the commercial until it gets up and established. And then you can start seeing how do we want to divide our efforts out or do we need to put a little bit of Google ads into residential just to pick it back up again? Like then you can start to see, but I agree with you absolutely that as you’re ramping up commercial and jumping into that space, you’re not going to get

CCPIA (38:45)
Yeah And then you can start seeing how do we want to divide our efforts out or do we need to put a little bit of Google ads into residential just to pick it back up again? Like then you can start to see but I agree with you absolutely that as you’re ramping up commercial and jumping into that space you’re not going to

Paige Wiese (39:02)
just because you built a website, you’re not going to get leads just because you threw up a Google business profile, especially for commercial. If no one knows, no one’s going to refer you, no one’s going to recommend you, no one’s going to find you online.

CCPIA (39:02)
get leads just because you built a website. You’re not going to get leads just because you threw up a Google business profile especially for commercial. If no one knows, no one’s going to refer you. No one’s going to recommend you. No one’s going to find you online.

Paige Wiese (39:13)
So you do need to start building that presence and let the residential kind of ride itself a little bit.

CCPIA (39:14)
So you do need to start building that presence and let the residential kind of ride itself a little

bit. Yeah, and I guess that’s probably why I want to keep yelling to the streets going, have a partner. You know, don’t just go to one of these website buildings that you can do on your own because you need to have a partner help you navigate this ocean. Yeah.

Paige Wiese (39:38)
Yeah,

well then keep in mind, the tools are helpful and the tools do have a decent understanding, but they don’t fully understand yours. Or here’s a big thing that I start to see in SEO is a lot of clients will focus on, we’re gonna go after this keyword phrase. Let’s say commercial inspector. Great, we’re gonna go after that because we’re getting 50,000 impressions on it, let’s say, in searches a month. Okay, that’s great.

CCPIA (39:57)
Sure.

searches a month. Okay, that’s great,

Paige Wiese (40:07)
but it’s so broad and

CCPIA (40:08)
but it’s so broad.

Paige Wiese (40:09)
you’re also competing with how many other people are doing the exact same thing. So you’re not really standing out and you’re now to your point in this big C trying to figure out why am I not getting found where I like to say now let’s take that and go manufacturing building inspector, know, Montana, whatever. I’m gonna tell you, you might only get

CCPIA (40:14)
So you’re not really standing out and you’re now to your point in this big seed trying to figure out

say now let’s take that and go manufacturing building inspector

I’m gonna tell you, you might only get

Paige Wiese (40:35)
10, 100 impressions in a month, but that 100

CCPIA (40:35)
10, 100 impressions in a month, but that…

Paige Wiese (40:40)
or 10 impressions are going to be very likely to hire you if that’s what you did. So like, yes you’ve got all these tools and built into these systems and everything these days, but it doesn’t mean that you’re making the right decisions.

CCPIA (40:42)
very likely to hire you if that’s what you did. like, yes, you’ve got all these tools and built into these systems and everything these days, but it doesn’t mean that you’re making the right decisions

Paige Wiese (40:54)
because you’re just agreeing with everything. That’s where, to your point, having a

CCPIA (40:54)
because you’re just agreeing with everything. That’s where, your point, have.

Paige Wiese (40:59)
partner to help understand how do we get, or great, you’re getting a bunch of commercial, but it’s not really well-paying, then we gotta find something different and go over here and change that strategy, but the systems don’t know that. They’re just trained and built to just auto-populate based off of. And so I agree with you. You can get a lot more business out of stuff when you really have an intent behind it.

CCPIA (41:02)
or great, you’re getting a bunch of commercial but it’s not really well-paying, then we gotta find something different and go over here and change that strategy, but the systems don’t know that. They’re just trained and built to just auto-populate based off of. And so I agree with you. You can get a lot more business out of stuff when you really have an intent on it.

Tell me if I’m wrong, and it’s okay. I can be wrong, Paige, but I’ve always…

Paige Wiese (41:29)
You haven’t been

yet.

CCPIA (41:30)
I don’t know. Again, coming from building this and launching this all on my own when we did this, I get all excited. ⁓ I had 50,000 impressions. There it is. But I only had 10 people of 50,000 push a button, move forward. So it almost tells me that there was nothing.

captivating. ⁓ my CTA, my call to action, whatever that was, was not strong enough or persuasive enough for them to even want to pick up the phone or get an inquiry. And so that’s a gut check for me. That tells me that I left something on the table. And I wouldn’t know that.

Paige Wiese (42:20)
Mm-hmm.

CCPIA (42:27)
if I a wasn’t paying attention to my site and getting the analytics and b not having a partner that didn’t help me through that well the partner was excited I got you 50,000 impressions and then I’m not as excited that yeah you got me 50 but it wasn’t the right 50 or it wasn’t strong enough to move forward.

Paige Wiese (42:30)
Right.

Yeah,

I mean, that’s what really led us to dive even deeper and really, really focus on the entire customer journey is to your point. A lot of marketing companies stop at conversion. How many people converted from your ad to your website? How many people saw you in the search engines and clicked through to your website and they stopped and they’re like, look, we’re doing fantastic. But what we kept hearing over the years from clients were like, but my phone’s not ringing.

CCPIA (43:23)
Yeah.

Paige Wiese (43:24)
Okay, well, let’s take a look

at that then and figure out why and then it’d be like, because you don’t have your phone number listed anywhere but the bottom footer of your site.

Okay, your phone’s probably not gonna ring because we’re not telling them to call you or we’ve got some people that are like, I’m in the field all day. I want them to text me and I will respond. But if they call me, I’m probably not gonna check the voicemail till 10 p.m. I’m not gonna call them back at 10 p.m. Then the next day hits and I forget. Where if they text me, I can text them back in between jobs. Then be super clear about that on your website and say, I love text messages.

CCPIA (43:45)
They call.

Then the next day hits and I forget. Where if they text me, I can text them back in between jobs. Then be super clear about that on your website and say, I love text messages.

Send me a text message and we’ll respond pretty quickly. I’m on the other side. saw my team or my clients don’t text me because I am in meetings all day long. If you send me an email, my team is on it and we will route it to the right person right away. And it goes to my phone. It is lost.

Paige Wiese (44:02)
send me a text message and we’ll respond pretty quickly. I’m on the other side. I tell my team or my clients, don’t text me.

because I am in meetings all day long. If you send me an email, my team is on it and we will route it to the right person right away. If it goes to my phone, it is lost until I remember,

I got a text message today, didn’t I? Right? So like, I know that and I don’t want our customer experience to be poor because they decided to text us. So you won’t see on our website anywhere text us. It will always say,

CCPIA (44:21)
got a text message today tonight, right? So like, know that.

because they decided to text us. So you won’t see on our website anywhere text us. It will always say

call or schedule a consultation, right? So be very clear with that intent, but you’re so right that a lot of people, and this is what we heard, calling groups from websites to marketing is, well, my website’s not doing anything, no one’s calling me, no one’s contacting me, I’m not getting any leads, no one’s booking inspections.

Paige Wiese (44:34)
call or schedule a consultation, right? So be very clear with that intent, but you’re so right that a lot of people, and this is what we heard, this is how I move from websites to marketing is, but my website’s not doing anything, no one’s calling me, no one’s contacting me, I’m not getting any leads, no one’s booking inspections.

Okay, well let’s look at the website and we can start going through everything with the right data to be able to pinpoint why.

CCPIA (44:56)
Let’s look at the website and we can start going through everything with the right data.

Paige Wiese (45:02)
and now we can start to fix those things. But if you’re just thinking, built the site on my own and it’s just gonna happen, you’re probably gonna be pretty disappointed when that phone’s not ringing to the extent that you thought it should, even if you’re running marketing efforts. I just had a call with a client today, we were going over analytics and I’m like, yeah, you’ve got a thousand people to your website from this ad.

CCPIA (45:02)
Now we can start to fix those things, but if you’re just thinking I built the site on my own and it’s just gonna happen, you’re probably gonna be pretty disappointed when that phone’s not running to the extent that you thought it should, even if you’re running marketing efforts. I just had a call with a client today, we were going over analytics, and I’m like, yeah, you’ve got 1,000 people to your website from this ad.

Three people clicked add to cart. There’s a huge disconnect. They’re not taking the action that you

Paige Wiese (45:24)
three people clicked add to cart. There’s a huge disconnect. They’re not taking the action that you want.

We need to dive deeper but to them you’re right marketing side well we got you a thousand people to your website.

CCPIA (45:30)
we need to dive deeper. to them, you’re right, marketing side, when we got you a thousand people to your website.

Yeah, it’s so I so thinking about that and thinking about how I’m going to get people to my website. I guess there’s probably just two buckets. One bucket is ⁓ paid and one bucket is organic. And, know, and and and just for definition, how would you describe organic?

Paige Wiese (46:06)
I mean, yeah, I think similar way. I word it a little bit differently. I say that it’s time or money are the two ways that you’re going to get traffic to your site, right? Time being networking, referral, relationship building. It’s going to be just, you know, handing out the flyers when you’re out in an area, whatever that looks like. So time and it can work. You can definitely generate a lot of business off of time. You’re not spending a lot of money or paid.

CCPIA (46:12)
⁓ okay.

What?

and spend a lot of money or pay

money, which is gonna be more of the SEO route, more of the Google ads, more of the social media presence, more of running YouTube videos, whatever that looks like. So you have to kind of decide where you at in your business to be able to do that. And I say that because a lot of times, and that’s how I started is, when I started my company, I did not have money. I had time.

Paige Wiese (46:35)
money which is going to be more of the seo route, more of the google ads, more of the social media presence, more of you know running youtube videos, whatever that looks like. So you have to kind of decide where you at in your business to be able to do that and I say that because a lot of times and that’s how I started is I knew when I started my company I

did not have money, I had time, I had a lot

of time. And so I hustled, I grinded, I would, I mean, I still do at times, I’m like, look, this model is going to be a little bit better, let’s go and, you know, create the relationships for the long term instead of. So understanding what are you willing to commit right now?

CCPIA (47:01)
And so I hustled, I grinded, I would, I mean I

This model is going to be a little bit better. Let’s go and create the relationships for the long term instead of so understanding what are you willing to commit right now?

And if it is money, then great, be ready to commit some money and really see those results. But if you’re looking for immediate traction and don’t want to spend money, it’s probably not going to happen unless you are out there grinding. So that’s how I look at it or how I would call organic is really more of the time side of it.

Paige Wiese (47:16)
And if it is money, then great, be ready to commit some money and really see those results. But if you’re looking for immediate traction and don’t want to spend money, it’s probably not going to happen unless you are out there grinding. So that’s how I look at or how I would call organic is really more of the time side of it.

CCPIA (47:35)
And to me, my opinion of Organic is what I did to build my website, what I did to be prominent, and now it just sits aside as well. And paid, in my opinion, is just what you just said. There’s going to be an outlay of cash on an incremental basis, whether it’s weekly, bi-weekly, monthly.

Paige Wiese (47:56)
Yep.

CCPIA (48:05)
If, and I’m not going to hold you to it, nor is anybody listening, if somebody had a very conservative budget on a managed account,

What would, I’m trying to be very careful how I phrase this, because I don’t want to sound like I’m steering. if money was an extreme option, not a no option campaign, and I wanted to make sure that between the first and the last day of the month, I’m going to be able to be found.

What should I conservatively budget on a managed account to make sure that occurs?

Paige Wiese (48:57)
I think healthy would be around $2,000 to $5,000 a month on a healthy managed account. I think I feel very confident that if you do things correctly,

You can do it well and on a budget that feels good. The longer tailed keywords that we get into, the lower cost per click is on Google Ads, which means we can run a lower budget. We can turn on and off ads during certain hours, which allows us to make our budget go longer. So let’s just say, don’t, why are we running ads if you’re not gonna pick up a phone at 1 a.m.? Turn them off, run them during business hours and that way you’re present when you know you can handle the

CCPIA (49:31)
I don’t

Right.

Paige Wiese (49:41)
right then and there if they called. And now we just bought back, let’s say, eight to 12 hours of time that ads could have been spent. So now we can expand that ad budget for a longer timeframe instead so we’re not running quite so high. you know, and that’s like…

CCPIA (49:43)
And now we just bought back, let’s say, eight.

spent so now we can expand that ad budget for a longer time frame instead so we’re not running quite so high so you know and that’s

a mix of things is it seo is it ads is it this but that’s where i’ve really found that i would rather come in

Paige Wiese (49:59)
a mix of things, is it SEO, is it ads, is it this, but that’s where I’ve really found that I would rather come in

with a lower budget up front and then to your point, prove the website conversion too. Once we have that, you’re going to naturally feel more confident putting more money into marketing because you know that you’re seeing the ROI, but a lot of these companies that are out there saying we want 10,000.

CCPIA (50:09)
to your point, prove the website conversion too. Once we have that…

because you know that you’re seeing the ROI. A lot of these companies that are out there saying we want 10,000.

Paige Wiese (50:28)
show me the ROI first. If your website’s not converting, stop, invest that money into the website first and get a better website and then decide what you want to do. So that’s why we like to actually come in at a more healthy budget to prove the whole piece first and then clients are like let’s go, I don’t care what we spend because we know we’re getting it back.

CCPIA (50:50)
I love the idea of turning it was I think of who’s who’s my client and who’s my audience

they’re not doing research for their company after hours. So that six o’clock to six o’clock time is not going to be looking at commercial. That might be looking at residential because they’re shopping when they got home. I mean, I bought my home online.

Paige Wiese (51:03)
and break.

Right. That’s when they’re doing it. Other industries for sure.

I’m

CCPIA (51:23)
Yeah, so I’m looking for everybody, you know, sitting from a hotel room or someplace after hours. And that is going to be completely the opposite in a commercial setting. This is a nine to five endeavor for that person. I love that. ⁓

Paige Wiese (51:38)
Right, well also

if you look at it like HVAC, you might need to be running 24-7 right and so but you’re also going to be spending a lot more money to compete with that because it is such a saturated market. If you’re just like emergency HVAC services is what you’re bidding on, you’re probably instantly up to 50 to 75 dollars for one singular click and so

CCPIA (52:03)
And so we

Paige Wiese (52:04)
we might need a little more budget and grant and that’s why I’m saying we’re not in that space though. So the more niche we can get and we can be smart about it, we can actually do a lot with a pretty decent budget, you know, and not need to go broke right off the

CCPIA (52:05)
might need a little more budget. that’s why I’m saying we’re not in that space though. So the more niche we can get and we can be smart about it, we can actually do a lot with a pretty decent budget, you know, and not need to go broke right

Paige Wiese (52:20)
bat as you’re even because we were talking about it earlier. I’ve got a really good sound residential and I want to move into commercial.

CCPIA (52:25)
sound residential and I want to move into commercial.

⁓

Paige Wiese (52:29)
But I don’t know how much

money I’m ready to put into commercial yet because I’m not seeing the leads from it. So that’s where I say it’s a healthy transition to say, let’s put some money into it because we have to pay to play, if you will. Let’s do that, but let’s not go broke trying to do it. Let’s not drain the income from the residential trying to support the commercial. Let’s figure out how we can make that a natural hurdle instead of. And so that’s where I say I think that it’s all about the strategy you put behind it.

CCPIA (52:32)
because I’m not seeing the leaks from it. So that’s where I say it’s a healthy transition to say let’s put some money into it because we have to pay to play, if you will. Let’s do that, but let’s not go broke trying to do that. Let’s not drain the income from the residences.

instead of, and so that’s where I say I think that it’s all about the strategy you put behind it,

Paige Wiese (52:59)
and you can do it in a really smart way.

CCPIA (52:59)
and you can do it in a really smart way. So if I want to, you know, that’s brilliant. That’s something I never even thought of. mean, immediately, all I could think of, Paige, was a pizza company. You know, I’m going to need to average, advertise my pizza from 11 o’clock to three, and from five to midnight.

because that’s when people want pizza. And I’m all in. Here’s all my chips. Let’s go. How many pies do I need to sell per hour to pay for the ad? I imagine you could probably regress this down to the smallest number. ⁓ So a couple more things, because we’re running up on time, and I want to be very, very ⁓ appreciative of all this knowledge and time you’re given.

Paige Wiese (53:24)
Right.

Yeah.

CCPIA (53:52)
Are there some SEO or marketing mistakes that inspection companies can very easily fall into that will hurt their visibility and credibility?

Paige Wiese (54:04)
I mean, mistakes is keyword stuffing. Don’t try to put every keyword into every single thing that you’re doing. ⁓ Another mistake that we often see is going to be trying… This is more of a WordPress thing, but it’s probably gonna fall across a few different platforms as well. But the other one that we see is like always going for the green dot or like I’ve checked all of the boxes and every single SEO piece is triggered. No.

CCPIA (54:14)
is

Paige Wiese (54:34)
It doesn’t make sense. There’s certain situations where it makes zero sense for you to have your keyword phrase be how you start the sentence. It just naturally doesn’t flow in that way, right? Or it may not make sense for the keyword phrase to specifically be the page title. It might be commercial inspection services. And at the same time, you might deter a little bit from that. And so

CCPIA (54:34)
doesn’t make sense. There’s certain situations where it makes zero sense for you to have your keyword phrase be how you start the sentence. It naturally doesn’t flow in that way, right? Or it may not make sense for the keyword phrase to specifically be the page title. It might be commercial inspection services and at the same time…

you might deter a little bit from that. And so

Paige Wiese (55:02)
I think anytime where they’re trying really hard to get everything in place and like every single alt tag needs to be the same, every meta tag needs to be correct, it’s not gonna make the biggest difference at the end of the day. Just don’t copy and paste every single page where it’s like, well, since I wanna go after commercial inspection,

CCPIA (55:02)
I think anytime where they’re trying really hard to get everything in place and like every single alt tag needs to be the same, every meta tag needs to be correct, it’s not gonna make the biggest difference at the end of the day. Just don’t copy and paste every single page where it’s like, well since I wanna go after commercial.

The description of every page is going to be this. The search engines no longer know what you’re doing.

Paige Wiese (55:24)
the headline of every page is gonna be this and the description of every page is gonna be this. The search engines no longer know what you’re doing.

That’s why we go back to the five page model, right? Have the home page be the core. Have the about page talk about the company and the company name so that if I’m typing in more information about the company,

CCPIA (55:32)
That’s why we go back to the five page model, right? Have the homepage be the core. Have the about page talk about the company and the company name so that if I’m typing in more information about the company…

Paige Wiese (55:46)
the about page shows up instead of maybe the home page. If we get into commercial inspections,

CCPIA (55:46)
the about page shows up instead of maybe the home page. If we get into commercial inspections,

the commercial inspection services page shows up. That’s the goal with SEO. The goal is not to get your home page ranking no matter what phrase shows up. The goal is to get them to the page that is talking about what they’re searching for. And so you are naturally supposed to optimize every page differently. How do I?

Paige Wiese (55:52)
the commercial inspection services page shows up. That’s the goal with SEO. The goal is not to get your homepage ranking no matter what phrase shows up. The goal is to get them to the page that is talking about what they’re searching for.

And so you are naturally supposed to optimize every page differently. How do I contact

them? How do I book a consultation? Whatever. The pages should say that. So if that’s what they type into, request a quote from ABC Commercial Inspector, that naturally takes them to the request a quote page. Now you’re not clicking around the site lost and leaving the page. They show up, they see what they want, they take the action, they leave.

CCPIA (56:16)
whatever, the pages should say that. So if that’s what they type into, request a quote from ABC commercial inspector, that naturally takes them to the request a quote page. Now you’re not clicking around the site lost and leaving the page. They show up, they see what they want, they take the action, they leave.

that’s, you another mistake is trying to just like blanketly optimize thinking, because I’m using this keyword over and over and over again, I’ll show up.

Paige Wiese (56:37)
That’s, you another mistake is trying to just like blanketly optimize thinking, because I’m using this keyword over and over and over again, I’ll show up.

I don’t want to show up every time. I want to show up when they’re looking for exactly what we want them to be doing in the next step. So that would be another one. And then the set it and forget it technique would be the third or like, it’s just, if you set it and forget it, the search engines will forget about you.

CCPIA (56:51)
exactly what we want them to be doing in the next step. So that would be another one. And then the set it forget it technique would be the third. Like, it’s just, if you set it and forget it, the search engines won’t forget about you.

And we absolutely need to be constantly thinking about the search engines, the algorithms, the content, things fresh, making sure that there’s like engaging with your site, you know, analytic numbers, are they actually doing things? There’s so many triggers that go on behind the scenes that people don’t realize, Horacio, that just even…

Paige Wiese (57:05)
And so we absolutely need to be constantly thinking about the search engines, the algorithms, the content, keeping things fresh, making sure that they’re like engaging with your site through the, you know, analytic numbers. Are they actually doing things? There’s so many triggers that go on behind the scenes that people don’t realize for SEO that just even

how long

are they staying on your website? We’ll determine where you are in your page rank. So if they’re not staying, then we gotta change your content and your user experience to keep them longer. You’ll start to see the page rank go up. And that comes with time and paying attention and not just setting it being like, ⁓ I optimized it once. So we’ll be good now. Everything will be fine, I’ll rank.

CCPIA (57:48)
So that’s why I always turn the CCPA page on every morning when I start out for work.

and I leave it on for my entire nine hour day. I’m doing my step and my own work here to make sure that we’re the highest.

Paige Wiese (58:04)
Yeah,

mean, it’s traffic, right? mean…

If you don’t ever show up to the site, then yeah, it’s a few less views that could have impacted how you’re showing up and how much traction. I always say like, yeah, Amazon’s a big company, but there’s a reason that they rank so high every single time. It’s because they have so many keyword phrases to exactly what you’re searching for, but they also have the traffic and the volume. So it’s gonna rank higher even than the other competitors if you want to get into like the Best Buy’s, the Walmarts, the Targets, the whatever.

it shows up because of the amount of site traffic that goes to it on a regular basis, that’s a huge key.

CCPIA (58:39)
It shows up because of the amount of sites traffic that goes to it on a regular basis. That’s a huge

deal. And those other companies are probably sitting there going, great news. We showed up as fourth place in this search. When any other industry is going to go, oh my goodness, this is terrible, they’re going to go, great news. We’re fourth.

Paige Wiese (58:56)
Yeah!

Well, and this is a way we look at it too, is to look at it from a commercial inspector’s side. Yelp is almost always gonna outrank you. Almost always, because it’s just naturally bigger than you. It’s naturally getting more traffic to the site. Not just because it’s getting traffic for your search term. It’s getting it across the entire nation on all sorts of terms. So naturally it’s gonna rank. So to your point, when we look at SEO, I might tell a client, I got you second.

CCPIA (59:26)
So naturally it’s gonna rank. So to your point, when we look at SEO, I might tell a client, I got you saying,

I’m not gonna get you number one, but that’s what we just can’t outrank you. However, then let’s go to you. And what do we need to do to optimize it, not pay for ads, but optimize it to get you showing up in whatever.

Paige Wiese (59:33)
I’m not going to get you number one, but that’s because we just can’t outrank Yelp. However, then let’s go to Yelp. And what do we need to do to optimize it, not pay for ads, but optimize it to get you showing up in whatever top

10 commercial inspectors near me search result that it is displaying, right? And so there’s still other ways you can get around it, but absolutely like knowing when to put the hat in and go.

CCPIA (59:50)
that it just displayed, right? And so there’s still other.

Absolutely, like no one would have put the hat

Paige Wiese (59:59)
We’re not gonna get any higher than three. I’m just not gonna outrank these two people no matter how hard we try. Let’s move to another word now.

CCPIA (1:00:01)
I’m just talking out right these two people in back.

So one last thing. And if you and I were sitting down and ⁓ I bought you a drink and I’m asking you a question, I’m going, what is one thing you could give me that’s a quick win, that’s a simple, actionable step I could do right now that’s going to be a huge takeaway.

that I can put on my website or do today that’s going to make it whatever I had better than what it was yesterday.

Paige Wiese (1:00:47)
Review your analytics, even know how to open it up. I think the best thing that you can do is understand what is happening.

on your website through your Google analytic traction. If you’re using a different builder, know Wix kind of has its own built in analytics tool if you haven’t set it up, but I think far too many businesses are not actually paying attention to the analytics. And with the analytics, it’s not just telling you about your website, it’s telling you about every marketing effort you’re doing. Did you run a direct mail campaign? Did it come back or not? Did you run an email blast? Did that drive traction?

CCPIA (1:01:12)
It’s not.

Did you run a direct mail campaign? Did they come back or not? Did you run an email blast? Did that drive

traffic to the site or not? Are you running social media? Is it working or not? Those are all answers that can start to be, or all questions that can start to be answered in the analytics. Is it converting or not? That’s the answer to the analytics if you set it up appropriately and just far too many just go, I

Paige Wiese (1:01:24)
to the site or not? Are you running social media? Is it working or not? Those are all answers that can start to be, or all questions that can start to be answered in the analytics. Is it converting or not? That’s answered in the analytics if you set it up appropriately and just far too many just go, I don’t know why

my marketing’s not working. I don’t know why my website’s not working. When the answer is right in front of them, it’s right there, it’s just most have never set it up.

CCPIA (1:01:47)
website’s not working, the answer is right in front of them. It’s right there, it’s just most have never set it

up, most don’t know how to read it, most don’t understand what the information is, and I think if you can understand what the numbers are actually saying, you will see leaps and bounds difference in your marketing efforts and your website conversions and how you talk about your company and your page rate. And so that’s what I would say is…

Paige Wiese (1:01:53)
Most don’t know how to read it. Most don’t understand what the information is. And I think if you can understand what the numbers are actually saying, you will see leaps and bounds difference in your marketing efforts, in your website conversions, in how you talk about your company, in your page rank. And so that’s what I would say is you

can have any, a good site, a bad site, it doesn’t matter. But if you don’t know what’s happening on the website, all your marketing effort’s wasted.

CCPIA (1:02:15)
You can have any good site, a bad site, it doesn’t matter. But if you don’t know what’s happening on the website, all your marketing efforts wasted.

That’s building your business. Yeah. Thank you, Paige, so much for taking time again. Who knows? I might be calling you up again and saying, let’s do this. There’s probably so many more questions that I haven’t answered or asked that you haven’t answered for us.

Paige Wiese (1:02:26)
Yeah.

CCPIA (1:02:45)
Boy, thank you again for taking another hour out of your time to spend time with the Certified Commercial Property Inspectors Association.

Paige Wiese (1:02:53)
it’s my absolute pleasure. There’s so many little layers to pull back and figure out and so many technical terms that we see that, you know, we’re just happy to be a source and a resource for everybody. So I’m happy we can take this time.

CCPIA (1:03:04)
So It’s, it’s, it’s,

Paige Wiese (1:03:13)
Hehehehe. Hehehehe.

Absolutely, thank you. I look forward to talking to you soon.