Kukui

[b1qwkbird]

So I went ahead and pulled the trigger on getting involved with Kukui. Since marketing is not my strong point (at all) it makes sense to let the experts handle it to me. I am impressed with how you can tailor your involvement in the campaign.

 

Does anyone who is currently with them (or not and just good with marketing) have any suggestions? I have the questionnaire call on Monday to get everything started up so I want to be as prepared as possible. My main goal in using them is for new customer acquisition. Customer Retention and reviews are an added bonus of the program. I have been blessed with a great service writer who makes our customers happy consistently. Usually once a customer comes in they are a customer for life.

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[mspecperformance]

If new customer acquisition is what you are looking for then you have to focus a lot on how your website ranks on searches (SEO), reputation management (reviews), and google adwords campaign. These are the 3 main areas where you will attain new customers with kukui. I would highly suggest getting as involved as possible as you will want to tweak pages, build landing pages, keep track of where your leads are coming from, and track all of your ad campaigns through their tracking #s.

[mmotley]

I am with them and I, too, would recommend being involved as much as possible. Honestly, I am not super impressed with my results from Kukui. However, my coach strongly urged me to stick with them and get more involved. Hearing him and a few other very successful shop owners talk so highly of Kukui makes me think I'm missing something. Thus, I am left assuming it's my lack of involvement.

[EASTCOASTWAGENWERKS]

Any new news from your guys that are using Kukui? looking at signing up and would like some feed back.

[JustTheBest]

Hi b1qwkbird! I commend you on your comments "Since marketing is not my strong point (at all) it makes sense to let the experts handle it to me."

Business didn't come with an owner's manual - and you can't be good at everything. Good luck!

 

Matthew Lee

"The Car Count Fixer"

[xrac]

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[Handson]

I did a contract term with kukui. I Left them because their google adwords "experts" did not know you could do a click to call campaign with adwords. They are just a front for programmers in India. Find someone local to you who does this for a living. Most of us are not huge corporation's so why not shop small for your seo too. I now have a page designed by a local girl and I can log in and modify it myself on the fly and I own it and do not have to pay her each month. There are also more affordable options for e mail contacts. I now use the monthly fee I was giving to Kukui to directly buy more adwords hits.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Handson

[JustTheBest]

Hi Folks, I am going to apologize in advance because I am NOT here to offend anyone.. or make anyone feel dumb... or anything. So with that said, let me start by telling you that I've been doing web since 2004 - professionally - and before that for my own businesses and products. I have been very successful online. Now, I only do auto repair.

 

But here's the truth. First, there are a LOT of things that effect ranking - and like just about anything else, it goes back to real basics. Really.

 

First is the age of the domain. Google doesn't want to trust a new domain that was just purchased. On the other hand, a domain that's been around for 5+ years has (what they call) more authority. You're not a 1 hit wonder trying to spam the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)

 

Secondly, there as a lot of little things that matter. I see these mistakes all the time... on sites built by the big guys and girls... and the little ones too. First is PAGE TITLE. It's like a book. If you want to be found for AUTO REPAIR , YOUR CITY STATE... then THAT PHRASE better be in your title. Make sense?? So you know, when you do a Google search, the big blue link is the title page of the site or webpage that Google is linking to. So putting YOUR SHOP NAME in the title is useless. Total waste of 'real estate'.

 

Second is the META DESCRIPTION. It's the 2 lines of text that appears UNDER the big blue link. That meta description should 'support' what you're about. If you don't create it - then Google 'bot' just grabs a snippet from your page. Sort of 'hope and pray'

After that, there's "alt" tags. They are attached to EVERY PICTURE (banners too!) See... Google ONLY READS the words. I can't say it any clearer than that. THEY ONLY READ... so they don't SEE pictures. They rely on the "alt" tag to tell them what the picture is. I see it all the time... they use "wrench" or "car" or "shop" or some lame one word "alt" tag. They're useless.

 

On top of that, there should be a "Title" tag on each picture. That's a 'pop-up' box that appears on mouse-over to show the VISITOR what the picture is... but it helps in search.

 

Above that, EVERY PICTURE should have a CAPTION. What's that a picture of?? The CAPTION should explain it. When somebody shows YOU a picture, don't they tell you what it's a picture of? Well, same thing on your website.

All those tags and captions should include keywords that you want to be found for. Make sense?? Remember, Google and all search engines are bots - robots - that ONLY READ what's on the page. How else can they tell what it is??

 

Now here's the (sort of) bad news. I can't tell you that adding all that to everything on your page will skyrocket you to the top of search - but you certainly won't get there without them. I promise.

 

Above that stuff, today you must include schema data. In short, that's a 'language' (if you will) that all search engines agree to be a 'standard' for getting to what the business is all about. Just about every shop website I see is missing schema data. It's like you're 'winking at the girls in the dark! You know what you're doing - but they don't!' - Treat that as Google being the 'girl', okay!?! (Sorry no offense intended)

 

Above all that, if you're site isn't mobile friendly, then you may as well pack it in and go home before you start. Google now reports that over 60% of searches are done on mobile devices. No mobile - it's not worth it.

 

So now if you've got all that... what's the USER EXPERIENCE LIKE. Look, I've done so many mobile sites for repair shops - but there's ONE THING that stays the same. It's the customer. When the customer gets to your page, they only want certain information. On the first visit, they don't care that you have a customer referral program, or that you'll give new customers a deal, or anything like that. The 'fast' track for most is phone (and it better be mobile friendly so I can click to call - not scribble down your number), map, hours, review, coupons and quotes (+appointments too!)

 

Think about it - these people are going to a new business. Over 80% of people trust online reviews as much as a recommendation from a friend. If I can't find yours FAST, you'll lose. All the rest sort of just makes sense, no?

 

Yes, you should have other info - but that's once I decide I'm interested in you - not off the rip!

 

Another thing that I have to add here - and it's NOT seo thing (Search Optimization) - it's a PEOPLE thing. People do business with PEOPLE. Where's your picture on your website?? Remember, people (new customers) come into your shop with you pictured as a scary monster. Show people who you are - tell them a little about yourself - and be a real person. Quit hiding behind your website - well, unless you have to, right!?!

 

Now if you're still with me here... I've got something else that I will share with you. I am just finishing some testing on what are 'Multiple-Dynamic-Home-Pages'. What!?! You ask!?

 

Okay, let me explain it this way. When you optimize a site (or page - and your home page is just a home page) you can only really optimize for 2 or (sometimes) three keywords. So if you do oil changes, air conditioning, cooling systems, tires, alignment, check engine light codes, fuel injection, (almost forgot...) brakes, timing belts and wheel bearings, it's IMPOSSIBLE to rank well for all of them.

 

So following Googles best practices, it's like a business with multiple locations that wants to rank for 'service, city one' and 'service city two' and 'service city three'.... I think you get the idea. Same business, different geo locations. What does Google say?? They want to see individual landing pages for each location - WITH UNIQUE CONTENT.

 

How does that apply? Well, that means you should really have a home page that is focused on each of your major services. Brakes? Air Conditioning? Cooling System? Check Engine Light Diagnosis?

 

Will Google display each of them?? Well, they will index them if you create a site map (sorry, that's a little deeper than I want to get into at 11:00pm ;-) but if it's optimized properly, they will. So basically, you're surrounding your site with highly optimized pages that focus on each of your services.

 

Why don't web builders do it?? Because it's work. Not a lot of you understand what's important - but more work than they want to get their people to do.

Does it work? From what we're seeing on the pages/ sites we are working on - yes. It's basically 'bolstering' the position of sites overall - with lots of details on the services and those multi-home pages are popping up for specific searches.

 

Make sense??

 

Look, I speak with shop owners almost every day. I've worked with 100's of businesses online. If you're focused on having a cool and entertaining site - good luck. You have to be focused on what works - and it's not the glitter and the shiny objects - it's the words and structure.

 

Hope this helps. I will do my best to address any specific questions anyone has.

 

Matthew Lee

"The Car Count Fixer"

[Handson]

Thank you Matthew, that is a lot of great information for free. I am gokng tobget to work implementing most of this as soon as I can.

 

How does one go about makeing multiple home pages, like once the pages are made how do you link them to your domain, do you need multiple domaims?

[JustTheBest]

Hi Handson! Thank you for the kind comments. I appreciate your question and I am not trying to be difficult - but it's sort of like trying to explain how to do a brake job to somebody over the phone - sort of difficult.

 

To start, the short answer is NO, you don't need different domains. The entire purpose of this is to drive traffic to ONE domain. Besides, buying a bunch of new domains will take time (and maybe years) to get them indexed and working. What is important is that you're site has to be on the correct platform. The linking is then duplicated across all the pages.

 

I had a quick look at your site. The good thing is that it's mobile friendly. You are missing a couple of the critical things like a map (interactive of course)

 

As for the not so good... your shop name is in the title tag. Ouch! The actual title is "Hands-On Auto Tech Longmont Auto Repair" Understand that the title is THE MOST IMPORTANT part of your entire site. Your meta description is not strong at all either. It's "We are a full service Longmont and Firestone auto repair and maintenance shop in Longmont, Colorado. We service all makes and models."

 

When I did a search, you weren't there... at least not on the first several pages. Do you get many calls from your site??

 

The other issue (and this is more marketing than web) is that your entire site is written in "Me, me, me" context. You're not talking about your visitor or customer. It's all about YOU. That may make you feel good - but that's where it ends. (Sorry - not trying to offend - I don't mince my words or sugar coat anything ;-)

 

If you're going to fix it, you should also include quick links to quotes, appointments, (add the map for sure) and I don't see any sign of schema. For the quotes, you'll need separate forms.

 

So with that quick look I did, it's a little too quick to be able to tell you IF you can create the dynamic pages - or how much it can be fixed. Sometimes websites are like old cars - seen better days and they have to be put out to pasture.

 

If you're going to take a stab at it, start with the content. The WORDS are what it's all about. Create a simple word file for each of the services you want to create pages for. The content should be between 300-500 words. Just use the Word 'word count' (usually at the bottom in the menu) and write the content first.

 

From there, you determine the URL's or page names. Like, in your case, it would be something like "hands-onautotech.com/brake-service-longmount-co 80405" (Yes, content should include your zip code because so many people search 'whatever - near me' and zip is one way to help locate you online - if you know what I mean. Additionally another page may be "hands-onautotech.com

/car-air-conditioning-longmount-co-80405"

I think you get the gist of what I am saying.

When you create those pages, also be sure you're using the right h1, h2 and h3 title tags in the content and headlines. Those tags direct search as to what's most important.

Hope this helps!

Matthew Lee

"The Car Count Fixer"

Edited November 28, 2016 by JustTheBest

[Handson]

That does help. I have changed the title, it may take time to update. Can you give me some insight on Schema?

 

I was using wordpress, my current developer steared me to wix. What do you suggest as a platform?

[RyanGMW]

I will share my 2 cents. I joined Kukui with the thought they would make my sales soar. We had a .06% increase in sales over the previous year. Once I dropped them and got a web guy who really knows his SEO and landing pages for every area around me and the cars I work on (all things Kukui promised and never delivered) then I really started to take off. We have had 20% sales increase for 2 straight years and dropped them 22mo ago. I let my 1yr term run out and quit. The recorded calls are cool, I caught a few mistakes from my service writer. The dashboard is super slick and cool to have all the data at your quick fingertips. But I don't miss it. I don't miss getting billed $999/mo either. I now spend 200-300/mo for my small local guy and have better traction and a personal touch of someone coming to my shop once a month to check on my progress and make it work for me. Kukui is good for big shops, but I am a 3 man operation, and we just couldn't justify the expense to benefit ratio. I firmly believe in having a strong web presence. We built this shop on the internet, in the age of the internet (6yrs old now) and it really works, but there is nothing better than word of mouth among friends! Hope this helps.

Edited November 30, 2016 by RyanGMW

[JustTheBest]

Going to try to address both of the last posts here:

 

Handson - I don't believe it! WIX? Are you kidding? At least that explains things. I am not familiar with the back end of WIX because I don't use them. The reason is that they use a lot of flash and other graphic type things to make it easy... but easy doesn't work all the time. Remember, SEO is about WORDS - NOT Graphics, flash and all that. I don't even think you can add schema to a wix site.

 

The best suggestion I have is to start at http://schema.org/

 

As for platforms, Wordpress is the leader because it works. With that said, it's not just Wordpress, it's the plugins that make a good platform great.

 

RyanGMW: Glad to see that you site is working for you. The recorded calls can be a HUGE advantage. We set them up on all our sites and include a text message platform running off the same number. Are you serious about the $999/mo? I knew they charged a lot - didn't know it was that much.

 

With respect to stats and dashboards, we give that up a long time ago. The reason?? Guys get all excited about seeing the information - but it doesn't do anything. It;s sort of like that old "paralysis or analysis". The only thing that matters is the results. If you want to have fun... get a dog, right?

 

Hope this helps!

 

Matthew Lee

"The Car Count Fixer"

[RyanGMW]

Going to try to address both of the last posts here:

 

Handson - I don't believe it! WIX? Are you kidding? At least that explains things. I am not familiar with the back end of WIX because I don't use them. The reason is that they use a lot of flash and other graphic type things to make it easy... but easy doesn't work all the time. Remember, SEO is about WORDS - NOT Graphics, flash and all that. I don't even think you can add schema to a wix site.

 

The best suggestion I have is to start at http://schema.org/

 

As for platforms, Wordpress is the leader because it works. With that said, it's not just Wordpress, it's the plugins that make a good platform great.

 

RyanGMW: Glad to see that you site is working for you. The recorded calls can be a HUGE advantage. We set them up on all our sites and include a text message platform running off the same number. Are you serious about the $999/mo? I knew they charged a lot - didn't know it was that much.

 

With respect to stats and dashboards, we give that up a long time ago. The reason?? Guys get all excited about seeing the information - but it doesn't do anything. It;s sort of like that old "paralysis or analysis". The only thing that matters is the results. If you want to have fun... get a dog, right?

 

Hope this helps!

 

Matthew Lee

"The Car Count Fixer"

Dead serious. Their base price when I had them was $999/mo with a 12mo minimum contract. I stopped it at the 12mo end.