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We’re the best choice for managing your online web presence if you’re a painting contractor (okay, we’re a little biased :)).  We aren’t the only company who can help, however – there are a handful of other companies with the industry knowledge to do a good job of representing you online.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of companies who don’t have that knowledge.  And they blow up your phone or email every day.  Some of them are just selling overpriced websites; they can’t write painting content and know nothing about how to make painting contractors search well.

Unfortunately, most of them are even worse than that.

Our customers frequently send us emails they’ve received about their website underperforming and ask, “are these legitimate problems?”  Most of these emails fall into the “scam” category.  Here’s how to spot a scam.

Red Flags that a scammer is emailing you.

Scammers operate by sending out millions of emails to any email address they can find, hoping to catch a business owner desperate for more business.  In order to work, every word in the email has to be relevant to anyone, in any state, in any industry.  That means that the email is extremely vague.  Here are some signs you can just toss the email directly into the trash.

• They have no idea who you are. The email refers to you by your website, not your name.
• Nothing in the email is specific to painting, or to any content on your website.
• They intentionally use technical jargon they know you won’t understand.
• You have no way of verifying that any of what they’re saying is true.
• The grammar is awful (this email probably wasn’t written in the US).

Here’s an example of a scammer email.  Click the image below to make it larger.

Red Flags that a hacker is trying to trick you and hijack your computer.

Cyberfraud emails try to trick you into giving a hacker access to your data or your financial information.  They might reference some website problem or other technical support issue, but they probably aren’t trying to get you to call them.  Cyberfraud emails look very similar to a scammer email, with a few additional red flags.

• They may try to trick you into thinking they’re someone they aren’t such as a delivery company, bank, or other major company you’ve heard of before.
• They tell you that the email is urgent, and you need to do something quickly.
• They want you to click a link – and the link doesn’t go where the email says it goes.
• They include an attachment and tell you that important information is in the attachment.

Avoid clicking on anything in these emails!  Delete them immediately.  Many of these emails try to lock you out of your PC and encrypt your data.  They will then try to extort you for hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to get it back.

Here’s an example of a cyberfraud email.  Click the image below to make it larger.

To learn how ProPainter Websites can help you earn more business, call us at 919-424-6121 or email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com.

Have you ever wondered what it really takes to attract painting customers who are searching online for a painting contractor?  Here’s a hint: it’s not complicated.

Sure, there’s plenty of technical work going on in the background.  But you don’t need to know about all of that to know how to get customers.  All you need to know is this:  People search for service providers on Google. Google’s job is simply to answer their question.

Most customers looking for someone to paint their house have no idea what companies are in the area, so they aren’t searching for your company name.  They’ll search using a phrase, called a keyword, like “painting contractors”. Here’s a chart with the estimated monthly search volume in the United States for the keyword “painting contractors”, as well as related keywords.

Google’s search engine is smart enough to know that someone probably wants to hire a local painting contractor whenever they search for any of these phrases.  In a few thousandths of a second, their search engine looks at websites about local painters in the area and picks out the most relevant ones.  Ten lucky sites show up on the first page.

How do you get to be one of those ten?  It’s based on hundreds of factors, but there are a few really important ones.  Is your site full of rich content relevant to the keyword in the search?  Are you rated well online?  Does your site load quickly, is it well-written, and will it show up well on any device?  Are they confident that you’re still in business?  There is also one major factor you can’t control, which is how close your business office is to the person searching for a provider.

To rank well, you need to answer all these questions positively.  All the technical jargon that website providers try to tell you about – backlinks, citations, alt tags, schema – those are simply things they do to help answer these questions better.

The reality is that if your website is up-to-date, full of good content about painting, and mobile-friendly, and if you have dozens of positive reviews, you’re probably going to search very well within a half year of your site launching.  Unfortunately, most providers can’t provide these things.  That’s why they try to sell you on a bunch of technical stuff they know you won’t understand.

So the next time a web provider tries to sell you a website, ask them to see their painting content.  Ask what they’ll do to help you get reviews.  Ask if they keep the site up-to-date, and if they will update it regularly to match Google’s preferences.  Also make sure to take a look at the website they’re trying to sell you, and then take a look at competitor sites.  You want to make sure your site is going to look clean and modern, so people will want to read it once they click on it.  If a website provider can’t deliver on the basics, there’s no amount of technical know-how that’s going to help them get results for your business.

To learn how ProPainter Websites can help your painting contracting business get more customers online, call us at 919-424-6121 or email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com.