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Looking for feedback from pros.
Business owner, Tom, comes to me after working with a Yelp Premier Partner. I'll call him "Yelper." Tom has had a combination HVAC/remodeling business for 10 years. Yelper told him he'd be better off splitting the company in two so that he can have two websites and two Yelp pages completely dedicated to each target audience. Tom goes along with it and pays for two brand new websites. Yelper sets up a Yelp AND a Google ad campaign for each of the, what's now, two businesses. Since he changed urls and has 2 new websites on 2 new URLs (you heard me right. what the heck?), there is no SEO to speak of yet.
Tom came to me because he's getting no leads on a very substantial ad budget and 2 beautiful new websites. (Web designers take note. Pretty is as pretty does.)
Since he is bleeding money, not making money, at this point, it's not too late to go back, so my question for you is about him splitting his business in two.
There are issues with that. He'll have to maintain two websites, two Yelp and Google pages, and do citation building for two different sites. But because the target audience is very different for each one, having two separate everything can be beneficial.
I do not believe splitting the business in two has anything to do with having no leads. I think it has everything to do with the Yelper not really understanding branding in all its forms, and not having a handle at all on conversion optimization, though there is evidence that he is not completely ignorant either. To the average eye, it may look like he did a great job. The two new websites are BEAUTIFUL, but pretty is as pretty does and right now they are doing nothing for him.
But that has nothing to do with my question.
I think Yelper really wanted to split them so that he can split the ad campaigns and manage them individually. Let's say most of the ad budget is going towards poor "fix my window" leads instead of "replace my heater" leads. Combined, there is no way to weigh one side over the other in Yelp.
What would you recommend to a client with two very different business models and audiences? After 10 years of building his brand, would you suggest he suddenly split them in two? Will the trouble and expense be worth it? Or do we keep them together?
Your thoughts are much appreciated
Posted : 08/12/2021 2:17 pm
We have electricians who want to show up for Air Duct Cleaning, and HVAC companies wanting to also be Plumbers.
Guess what you can't do in the USA with a GMB... Double rank it for services this far apart from one another.
Requires a new website, and new GMB to align it with.
Agree, I would have split them too and named them:
Acme HVAC
Acme Remodeling
Different addresses, different numbers, different websites (keeping the original), different Ad accounts under an MCC, and different Google LSA
Get to optimize and win both categories.
However, I am guessing they did away with the old site and there were no redirects done to keep that established authority. Sounds like they are working with an ads guy not an SEO.
Posted : 08/12/2021 2:20 pm