Dan Wolfe 🐺

Over the past 5 years we've worked with hundreds of SMBs building sites, running SEO campaigns and PPC campaigns. My friend @SullyBusiness asked me to put together a checklist for a new service business. This is it: Our tech & marketing stack for SMBs 🧵👇

@SullyBusiness Neighbor of mine's son is playing soccer in Croatia. He's 25. It's pro soccer, gets paid living expenses and a small amount on top of that. He's worried about his son's prospects after soccer and that he thinks he should pack it in. To me it just sounded like the best.

I took out student loans to do study abroad when I was in college. I have MAJOR regrets about this. I should have taken out more student loans and stayed longer.

For local businesses wondering what do I need to do for LLM visibility Opps Alerts published a massive study across 100 industries. Showing the correlation between ranking factors and the actual recommendations. A few that consistently show up Homepage Keywords. It's easier to show up for LLMs if you're not everything to everyone. I've been telling clients this for months - niche down. Your duct cleaning company isn't going to show up for HVAC terms. Search Engine Appearances - Do you show up in traditional search? Domain authority / Domain Links - Is your link profile strong? Best search engine rank - Where in the SERPs do you appear? These are traditional SEO factors. A few new ones worth considering: Wikidata - Do you show up in that database. Reddit Comments / Mentions - Get active on Reddit. Naturally mention your brand when appropriate. Do what you will with this information. Link to study in comments

@J_Koenig21 Describes it perfectly: "It's no good"

My contractors send me video updates on the projects they are working on. This one gave me a good laugh 😂 Volume up

If you've got an service area business and you've ever moved it, odds are your pin didn't move with you. This happens ~60% of the time when you move an SAB. This leaves your map pack rankings at the old pin. Better off finding an office and changing it to a physical address OR setting up a new GBP instead of trying to move it.

@morgantate_ Always has been. They usually put the "eyebrow" text below, which is different. The two colors + italicized font is used everywhere. BG color is used everywhere.

So this design style is basically the new em dash eh?

I spent ~30 minutes talking to Gemini (pictures and text) trying to solve a 6 piece star puzzle (I didn't know the original shape my daughter took it apart before giving it to me with the instructions to "fix it"). It confidently gave me 4 different incorrect first steps. I resorted to an 8 year olds YT channel and had it built in 30 seconds. I love AI, I use it all the time for my own work but it's a reminder that even when it doesn't know what it's talking about it, it's going be more confident than Jake Paul claiming he's a WR 1.

This is how bears must feel when they go hibernate. *This place sucks* *Oh this place is actually pretty great*

@indexsy @AirCanada 😅but I wouldn't sell @WestJet short either...

Only with @AirCanada will they randomly downgrade your Business Class tickets to premium economy 💀

@SullyBusiness An emerging neighborhood.

Me: "Wow that's a beautiful home at a price we could afford." Me 5 mins later: "Oh...it's in the hood." *depression*

If I had to give anyone a bit of advice about starting a local business. Don't be the sixth company in a single building offering one type of service. You'll never show up on the map pack, find another location.

@seanhous @housleyd @AlexLathery Sounds great Sean. Follow up if / when you need decide to move forward and need help.

@danthewolfe @housleyd @AlexLathery Bookmarked. Thank you. I may follow up when I get some time to return to this.

Website vendor that also gives us some control? We use GoDaddy now but need a little more as we grow. Thanks. Our application is a multi-site medical practice.

@SullyBusiness Thought you were lying. You weren't. Lots of folks concerned about his lack of liability insurance or his ability to mow larger lawns 😂🤡

Funny how many adults in the replies are hating on a 16 year old kid. “He’s not going to get very big doing that!” BRO he is 16!! Let him cook!!

You think you need a $40,000 wrapped truck to start your lawn care business meanwhile this 16 year old kid got started with a bike!

I hate running digital marketing campaigns for brand new businesses.... Everything takes longer It's far more work They can't really afford digital marketing Business failure rate is incredibly high Reality often doesn't meet expectation. In the HVAC space everyone is fighting for clicks and calls. It's cut throat, it takes time. There are exceptions. We got a nice message from an HVAC client earlier this month: "I am very happy with the progress. I understand a little about SEO but this required some trust and your team rewarded that trust with results. Thank you." We've been working with him for about 12 months and this guy is grinding and serving the sh*t out of his customers. 114 reviews, 20 in the last month, which is more than many large, established HVAC cos. And getting reviews like this: "He stopped by same day and spent over an hour trying to get our air conditioner working - but it was dead. It was in the 90’s and very uncomfortable and also over the 4th of July weekend." "[Business Owner Name] was understanding and offered to come Sunday 8am" "I never leave reviews but [Name] deserves these 5 stars. He came to my house at 11pm and had my broken AC unit running again in about 10 minutes. Great communication start to finish and charged an extremely fair cost even at 11pm on a Friday" Leads will continue tick up. He'll get more from the Google Business Page. More from organic. More from referrals. More from Facebook communities. More repeat customers etc. etc. And it feels great to play the smallest of parts in that.

@housleyd @seanhous @AlexLathery Thanks, Dave!

@seanhous Maybe @danthewolfe or @AlexLathery

@bvujanov @AlexLathery What's the monthly donation?

@AlexLathery You think it’s worth the monthly fee?

Absolutely killer link opportunity for cleaning companies (and supporting a good cause) Checks all the marks of a good link: - Industry relevance - High DR - Solid traffic

In 2013, we started My Local SEO which turned into Salt Water Digital courtesy of some lame legal letter saying we couldn't use the name. We created this banger of an Infographic in our first year. At the time, we literally had four clients and they're all on this graphic 😁. Not that much has changed as it relates to SEO tactics. The Google Business Page is way more important, some of the tactics back in 2013 no longer work but a lot of it's still relevant. The biggest change is probably content. This infographic took us a while to make and a few bucks, today it could be done with AI in two clicks of a button. But otherwise, on-page, links, keyword research are still relevant. Content has changed pretty dramatically but it's still very important. Reviews are vital for SMBs which isn't on this graphic. Might be time to bring the mylocalSEO Duck?

@ccmembersonly Love that Fox News is covering golf in Kelowna, BC. We've come up in the world.

@pjmcgeary A trap I fallen into one a daily basis

@danthewolfe You’re probably right lol! But the shitty days make it so much easier to think the grass is greener elsewhere (I know it’s not)

Opening up a bit here — that’s part of building in public. I’m making some pretty decent money now as I approach the start of year 4 in my cleaning business. Oddly enough, I feel like I’m behind. I don’t have a second business yet, so I often feel like all my eggs are in one basket still. I often feel like all of my customers are going to cancel at once and my income will disappear. I often feel like all my cleaners are going to quit at once and I’ll be left with a fraction of what I thought was consistent income. All of this is just to say that business is not for the weak-minded. The goalposts move, the stress is real (even when you’re making more than you ever imagined), and it’s hard to feel content. For this reason, I really want to start a second business that is just enough (at the start at least) to cover my living expenses so I can feel more diversified. Weird spot to be in, but I feel like this feeling is pretty common amongst entrepreneurs. Yay? Nay?

@SullyBusiness They are great social proof.

I am once again asking you to get Google Reviews for your commercial business. Yesterday had another call where the client said "I never respond to cold outreach but when I saw your Google Reviews I decided to book a call." Get. Those. Reviews.