Day 1

I’m going to tell you a story of a business that opened in a very competitive space. That had zero clients. And that went on to become the #1 ranked business within it’s region for it’s service.

That business was BBImagery and it was started by me.

Now like a lot of other small business owners I thought all I needed was a website. People would find me, word would grow, business would grow.

I’m fortunate in having a Computer Science degree, I was able to grasp the fundamentals of what “getting a website” entailed. I put the pieces in place. I looked at different models for website building, settled on one that was relatively easy to pick up, but more importantly, made it easy for me to add/edit content as I pleased.

So far so good.

How many visitors you say? Zero. It’s a nice number when there are other numbers in front of it, but by itself, it’s not doing much.

I googled myself, for the service I offer, in the city I offer it. Top 10, nope, 20, nope, 30 nope and so on. Now, how many people do you know that get a page full of search results click on the next page and then the next and then the next. Bet that’s close to zero too.

Task #1, become #1.

Why did I rank so low, why does Google hate me so?

To answer that question I had to research what Google does like. Google (at least back then) liked sites that had fresh content. I knew my competitors websites hadn’t changed in ages so I set aside time every week to push new content.

Google liked sites that loaded fast (who doesn’t), but will absolutely punish you if you load slowly. My site loaded slowly. My images were too big, I was using too many fonts, my fancy content was costing my visitors time and that was costing me ranking. I optimized my site for speed. Less fonts, compressed images and the right size.

I didn’t link to other reputable websites and they in-turn never linked to me. So I made it a point to linking to other places (like LinkedIn) and joined professional forums with a link back to my website in my postings and signature.

The technical challenges were easy enough to overcome. My ranking climbed swiftly.

Then came the psychology.

Because nobody likes red text telling them to buy something. A calmer green gets better results.

And nobody wants to hunt for the price, so I made it one-click away.

And everybody wants to know what you do, how fast you do it, and what the results are like. So I made sure those things were on the homepage, at the top.

Here’s what I can do for you. Here’s how long it will take. Here’s how much it costs and here’s how we can get started.

I learned as I went along. I checked my analytical data, I ran an ad campaign to grown my brand and I checked what search terms were showing my business and where.

From zero to hero. #1 in my city, #1 in the neighbouring city and #3 in the city on the other side. #1 on Google Maps about 25km around my location. Now of course #1 of what? What phrase are you #1 at, because there’s no real #1 without that data. I checked all the top phrases and if I wasn’t #1 on some, I was in the top #3. I compared the competition’s website, I asked my clients how they found me. 99% of the time it was a Google search, so I asked if they remembered what they had typed in, I made sure I performed well for those words, because if they were using them, so were other people in their industry.

This all came to an end during Covid and then shortly afterwards a major health concern that shut me down for months. The journey wasn’t over.

I took what I had learnt in helping me, a small business owner in Ontario, a nobody in a sea of somebodies and I applied it to small business owners I had met over the years. I started this company to help your company from Day 1.