On July 3rd, my family and I were rescued by David Castilleja of Braswell A/C and Electric when our upstairs A/C unit stopped working. I decided to blog about my great experience in an effort to get him more business. He was quick, honest, inexpensive, and articulate.
This morning, I received the following email:
Jason - Thanks to your recommendation, I called Dave at Braswell last night with my AC problem. He showed up first thing this morning (Saturday) and fixed the problem. I was amazed at his immediate attention and how inexpensive his service was. Thanks for your Blog --Mike
_________________________________________________________
After reading this message, I decided to take a quick look at the original post again:
Austin Texas A/C Repair - Braswell A/C & Electric - The ONLY company I will recommend from now on
I realized that I had forgotten to put David's phone number there! So, I went to Google and searched for "braswell a/c and electric austin".
What I found next may amaze you.
That single post that I wrote on ActiveRain was dominating that particular search term, with SEVEN of the top 10 spots:
As you can see, I have the top FIVE results for this term, with ActiveRain, my outside blog, and my Localism page. Localism was also in the #6 spot, and my outside team blog with four other Austin agents (www.austinhouseguide.com) was at #8. I am also #5 for "austin texas a/c repair" with this post.
I guess I just wanted to illustrate how easy it is to get good exposure on ActiveRain for long-tail keywords. If you aren't familiar with the concept of the long-tail, these are more specialized SEO keywords that are easier to optimize for.
Give some thought to fully using AR's tags, channels, Localism, and your AR outside blog to really leverage your efforts. I have seen this happen a number of times in the past, although this one did surprise me.
Thanks for reading!
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If you're looking for a home in the Austin area, you can also visit my primary Austin real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com. If you're interested in social media training, visit 210 Consulting. Thanks!
Jason, that's pretty cool. I bet the AC people enjoyed hearing about your blog about them. I'm really working on my keywords, long and short, to get better ratings.
JC- WOW, that is TOTALLY cool! I am assuming that you have obviously got 5-10 blog sites going each day right?? That is how you obtained this?? That is awesome! You a/c guy owes you lunch now, maybe at Kenny Rogers chicken place! LOL- I am also assuming that when you blog ONE place, it automatically goes to the other sites as well. I have mine to go to Localism, but that is about it right now...I am working on getting better in this area, and YOUR blog is one reason I should!
Thanks! Buckster R Buckster....aka; Darin aka; Evil Mortgage Genius
Connie - I called them to make sure they knew. ;)
Darin - Right you are. I wrote it and it automatically posted to AR, Localism, my AR outside blog, and my AR outside team blog, all of which show up separately on Google.
Yes, yes Jason that is the stuff right there. I will have to do some research on the "longtailed lemur Keywords," You speak of.
Thanks for keeping me focused!!
Jim - I would be interested to hear what that search yields for you. :) Glad to hear that you found this helpful.
Jason - Definitely works. I've had some great results recently.
Jason - great article about the power of the long tail, good keyword usage, and a great title and how Google loves this stuff. Not to mention a terrific service provider.
Jeff
I've had the same experiences. The vendors love it and so do consumers. Most of the service vendors in my area have no Internet presence at all.
I put up a quick blog before they finish the job and they are really impressed and grateful.
Needless to say, I get great service.
On July 3rd, my family and I were rescued by David Castilleja of Braswell A/C and Electric
It's always good to recognize outstanding service. What a great example you've shown about the Google power of ActiveRain. I suspect Braswell will be doing a booming business from now on! :)
Thanks for sharing this successful post. I have been doing the same thing with my blogs to obtain #1 spot on Google. This stuff really works.
John - Keep up the good work!
Jeff - Thanks! I wanted to point out how easy it really is. I was stoked to find such a good A/C person, too! :)
Lenn - I need to do more of this for my local vendors. I can certainly imagine that this will have a terrific networking effect. Thanks for the inspiration!
That's great - I've noticed how quickly my articles gett recognized by the google spiders since being on AR - it's awesome!
Jason - Wow! That is awesome, I plan on setting up my outside blog next week and this post reconfirms that I'm making a great decision. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your post with me today. I wish you the best this weekend.
Have you blogged about Dave before? That name sounds familiar
Very cool stuff! This just reinforces why I am part of Localism and why I do anchor text linking, use AR tags, and everything that AR has to offer!
I love it! Very cool Jason. It looks like you know how to use those AR tags, key words, anchor texts in the correct way! I must be great to realize are of your hard work blogging is paying off!
Jason: This is great..
I had always heard that the dash - would break the chain on google.. this does not appear to be the case.
As I'm writing this comment, the #5 spot is held by Bremerton WA Real Estate Articles. Any ideas on how or why that would happen?
Congratulations!
It's great to see how well SEO can work when done properly.
Great idea. I also have some folks I recommend.
Jason- What a great way to say "thank you" to a service provider and never in a million years would I have thought that by writing a blog about your experience on AR you would provide him/her with a Google presence.
Now THAT is impressive! I just check to see how my post from this morning did in the search engines, and I'm afraid my results were not nearly as good as yours. You've really got this thing figured out!
A really good idea especially if it is a company that gain high search results. That is a huge eye opener. thanks.......as usual.
Jason...
While some might call it a "long-tail" search, I say it STILL shows that all of the sites are being indexed in a timely manner and this stuff WORKS. Whoo-hoo!
WOW Jason, that's fantastic! The BEST results that I garner from the search engines is when I write about local stores & restaurants--it's amazing to watch the searches suddenly appear on page one--then when you link to them in a later post, it helps pull that post to the front as well. Congrats on your Google Success!!
Surprised the owner hasn'tseen this yet and called you
Hi Jason -- What a great idea. I've done the same thing for a local frame/art shop that gave me absolutely incredible service at a reasonable price and they were thrilled.
I love the long tail... It is a great way to get exposure. And the more specific the terms, the easier it is to dominate.
JOHN - I have no idea. It looks like that site is pulling random articles, perhaps mainly from AR?
Interesting tidbit: If I run a search without the "and", my post gets 9 out of 10 spots!
Jason, excellent for you. Now, you've given us another topic to blog about (provided that we actually have vendors/service providers that we can blog about positively).
It's east to dominate with super specific longtail keywords, but how can we turn the search results into closed sales?
I love this post. I'm pretty new here to AR and trying to figure out just how to use what seems to be quite a powerful tool. I like to do extensive research before I make decisions...Right now I think the more posts I read like this, the more likely I am to be upgrading the Rainmaker status sooner rather than later. Really cool for your A/C guy too - that impresses the socks off me, so I'm sure it did for him too!
Holy crap! You're doing something right. Ironically, I've been getting a lot of listings lately, from my online marketing efforts. Active Rain seems to be pulling up again. Yay! =D
Jason...how wonderful that you even thought to post about a great experience. The world is starved for stuff like this and here you are spreading it around.
Jason in Austin:: It is amazing the power one blog you post on Active Rain and the results that you will find on Google. My husband was researching internet companies in our local area and my blog was holding the #2 spot. He was quite shocked. Funny since I sell Real Estate, but I had wrriten about our Free Internet Cafe in our office! Simplay amazing.
I had that happen with an article about a meat market in my local area. The really nice part? I wrote it in 2008 and it is still garnering hits.
Great power in that blog. Reminds me I need to post about my new AC from a couple of weeks ago.
Jason, gotta love those long tail words.
I did a class last Friday on Blogging. Since blogging is a topic that needs to be handles in 2 ways, one for beginners, one for experienced. I had each person add a question in a jar that they wanted to answered before the class was over.
One person how can I get on page one of Google in a short amount of time.
What you did answered the way I answered.
We'll see how many follow through.
Jason, That is a win-win story. I hope Dave gets a lot of business from it. Sounds like he is on his way.
Jason,
We never look so good as when we're sincerely saying nice things about deserving people.
Bill
Wow...what an amazing way to send referrals. This will impact the way "the other guys" do business as well. I applaud your gratitude and disposition to refer. It certainly comes back. About blogging, I'm not surprised, you definitely are the King. Congrats!
I need to be better about doing this. I keep a "Preferred Vendor" list on my personal web site, and my clients are trained to look there, but I need to start blogging about them. Thanks for great reminder!
Jason,
Excellent news. It underscores the power and importance of blogging. I am going to spread the word about this.
Jason this comes as no surprise at all because from the looks of it Braswell A/C has not done anything to promote their business.
Thanks for the reminder, Jason. With all the kids home for summer, and trying to keep up with the multiple offer market we find ourselves in, I've let some things go.....probably a good idea to keep up the blogging!
Hi Jason, Congratulations! I need to work on those long tail keywords :)) Love the google juice. thanks for sharing.
Maybe your HVAC guy will give you a hefty discount the next time you need him.
PLUS you will get referrals from your AC guy--to anyone who will listen :)
With the right wording, you can certainly make a huge impact on SEO with your blog. AR has really helped me a lot.
Wow Jason - great example of the power of blogging and the ActiveRain site! Congrats!
It is great to see these success stories.
Nice post. Always an inspiration to keep blogging and keep doing it better.
Jason - That Google juice is amazing indeed. Very powerful ! I love it : )
Jason - That's pretty darn cool man! I love it and keep up the great tagging....
Jason - That's pretty darn cool man! I love it and keep up the great tagging....
What a great example of the power of blogging. Bet you get lots of great referrals from that A/C guy. And, what a great idea, writing and promoting your local vendors.
Wow, great results!!! I too have started blogging and within hours it was found on page 1 of Google! Keep up the great work and thanks for the info!!!
Ciao from Virginia Beach!!! Asiyah Ali, Realtor, Keller Williams Realty - www.VaHomeConnect.com
Bill Fletcher, my SEO guy tells me the same thing. He has tried posting the exact same content to a web page and to a blog, and the blog shows up higher in a Google search every time.
John Yocca,
www.centralcomm.com
www.southcoastanswering.com
Some day I will figure this all out including how to amass millions of point on activerain. But your stuff on the a/c gettin gposted was very cool.
Very cool - and very funny how you could "dominate" someone elses business!!
Jason, I love seeing results like this that put the proof in the pudding. AR is an amazing site!! Thanks for sharing.
You make it sound so easy <smile>.
Good Google Juice. I had never heard the term of Long Tail Key words, so I have a bit of research to do. Thx.
Jason - well done even by surprise...LOL...the other day I visited auto detail shop with my Red Fred (Ford truck) and because of their service and professionalism thought that I will blog about them...
We got a little heat break here in OK how is Austin? Still a super scorch?
With smiles,
Bo in Yukon
Isnt SEO so cool when you know what you're doing. But the most exciting part is seeing the results! Congrats, Jason for another SEO well-done but most of all, thanking and remembering vendors and your service providers.
Impressive!! I'm always amazed at the power if AR in the Google kingdom!
Best,
Dan
Interesting results. I bet the AC guy really appreciated it. I have got good results writing about local parks.
Jason,
very cool indeed..
I have some learning to do.
Thanks for telling me what I didn't even know I was supposed to be looking for! HA!
Jason - Thanks for sharing this! I'm sure those A/C guys will be your raving fans for life! One of the things I like best about AR is that it's word-of-mouth advertising.....but on a MUCH grander scale!! Good stuff!
Jason
I think it is great how you did this. I am sure I need to start tuning in to your weekly show to learn more.
Hi Jason,
So glad your family was rescued in this heat! An added benefit was your great Google Juice!
Jason that is awesome, I imagine the AC company is most thankful and what a good thing that comes back to you. Showing some kindness and gratefulness to the AC company and posting it has and will pay you back multiple times with exposure. That is a real win win circle. I love the longtail of Google too, it works very well.
Hey Jason, Those are awesome results! I have at least one blog post that is like that as well--it was when I wrote about a local shopping development coming. I'm sure the A|C company is very grateful for your post!
Have a great day,
Anne Rains
There's that "long-tail" term again! I keep seeing it everywhere!
I was in Texas last week and know that having your AC working is VERY important. I'm happy to be back in Michigan cooling off :)
Jason,
Thanks for sharing it is always nice to help others, who definitely helped you.
Hey Jason. Thanks for letting us know that Google is paying attention. It is great to see.
This is a great and amazing news. All top results of activerain listed. I am bit surprised and have a question in my mind how is that possible?
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