Mingle2 - In 2007 Matthew Inman (the former CTO of SEOmoz), designed and built the dating site Mingle2. Because of his previous experience with search engine optimization he knew the importance of inbound links, and he had the skills to boost his fledgling site through the likes of Google and Yahoo!. Within four months he generated nearly a quarter of a million links to the site and ranked #1 on Google for the phrases "online dating" and "free online dating." This success earned him mentions on popular sites such as Digg and MSNBC.com, and generated nearly 2 million pageviews per month. Inman eventually sold the website to, and now works for JustSayHi. However cool Mingle2 is, it would have never succeeded this quickly (and in such a competitive market it may not have succeeded at all) apart from Inman's skill in generating traffic through search engine optimization. The full story can be found on 0at.org.
San Diego Chiropractic - David Klein is the owner of a San Diego chiropractic firm, and when he saw the potential within Google he decided to try to rank for the term "san diego chiropractor." He attended a couple of PubCon's and learned some techniques for ranking well for search terms. He then got to work, transcribing the video of a Matt Cutts talk, and generating clever cartoons of some of the people he ran into at the event. These efforts have earned him more than 3,000 one way links and he has achieved his goal. More than two years later he's still above competitors that have that search phrase in their domain! Matt Cutts was so impressed that he even blogged about Dr Klein's success.
Automobile Recovery Bureau, Inc - This is a Houston auto repossession company that has been in business for more than 60 years and was looking for a boost in business. They contracted an SEO firm which helped them decide on a new domain, update their content and generated links to the site. The plan worked, within a year they ranked #1 for terms such as "houston repo" and "houston repossession." They must have been pleased with the results because their SEO efforts began in 2002, and over the years they have done the work to maintain a #1 ranking for the targeted terms.
Falcon Storage - This is a Red McCombs Media client that leases storage containers in central Texas. In the summer of 2007 they launched a new website that generates quotes, has detailed information about their products, and the businesses which they serve. Six months later they expressed a desire for SEO, so we got to work keyword optimizing their site. Within two weeks they ranked #1 for such terms as "austin connex box" and "san antonio storage container." The number of quotes generated by their website skyrocketed. Since then they've launched a blog, which has helped to solidify their strength in this market.
Southwest Airlines - Once again I have to include Southwest. I'm not a fanboy, but I do think that they get modern marketing at a level that eludes many other companies, and this is a great story. Southwest's social marketing manager, Paula Berg, shared this last week at the Austin Online Marketing Summit. Every year the folks at Southwest's headquarters, including the CEO, celebrate Halloween with a crazy costume. One year the CEO mentioned that he planned to dress as Gene Simmons. Someone commented that the CEO of USAir had donned that costume a few years ago, and after discussing it for a while they went to Google to prove it. They tried searches such as "doug parker gene simmons," "usair halloween," "doug parker costume" and anything else they could think of to find the answer. For every search term they tried, Nuts About Southwest was the top hit. They had blogged about halloween so much that their site was the top hit for terms directly about their competitor. Talk about success!
These are just five stories from a broad segment of businesses. There bottom line is that SEO works, and savvy companies across America are taking advantage of Google's strength by working to appear for competitive search terms. Don't be left out. If you think your company could benefit from search engine optimization, please contact us and we'll discuss the possibilities with you.
Jon_Flatt
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