right. We’ve developed a powerful mar- keting tool for only verified locksmiths. Tom: Could you elaborate a little more? What makes you different? Why should an ALOA registered locksmith who is listed on FindALocksmith.com join Fair Trade Locksmith (FTL)? Gary: I’m glad you asked. FindALock- smith.com is a great tool, and trust me, I use it all the time to find locksmiths in other cities. However, just like many local locksmiths’ websites, it can be difficult to find on the web. Locksmith companies need a more visible custom approach us- ing personalized key words tailored spe- cifically by each company owner. Who knows what types of services they need to target better than the company owner? The specialized search approach to mar- keting is aimed at driving high-quality customers to all registered locksmiths. In fact, over the past several years, four locksmith company owners have pains- takingly researched several thousand locksmiths from across the United States to gather as much accurate data as pos- sible. We’ve even called on many of our locksmith friends to actually verify their information and help us with listings that were questionable. This means the search engines are seeing the largest and most accurate collection of locksmith listing data on the web. Tom: That’s great, Gary. It sounds like that took a lot of hard work and perseverance. Gary: It did, but it’s worth it because we — and when I say we, I mean all legitimate “fair trade” locksmiths — need to showcase ourselves. Not only for customers, but for Google and all other search engines as well. If we don’t put our best foot forward here and now, we’ll never turn things around, and we’ll continue to lose thousands of dollars every year. Tom: Wow, that’s a great point! How much does it cost to be listed on the website? 16 KEYNOTES SEPTEMBER 2016 Gary: To be listed on www.fairtradelock- smiths.com is 100% free! When was the last time you heard anything being of- fered for free? Tom: Free? How can you design, build and host a website for free? There must be a catch. Gary: The four locksmith company own- ers are picking up those expenses. Sort of giving back to the industry. If we can verify that your company is a legitimate locksmith company, we’ll list you for free. Tom: So what’s the deal? Where’s the catch? Gary: No catch, Tom. We’re as upfront and honest as possible. We have devel- oped a sound strategy to leverage all le- gitimate locksmiths’ good names, real locations and real businesses. The an- swer has been staring us in the face this whole time. The search engines love real information, and our customers do too. In addition to the free listing, we do of- fer a webpage service that targets local customers with a multitude of keywords and key phrases. Everyone is going local, and so are we. Tom: So you’re telling me you have a pro- fessional team of website builders that know all there is to know about SEO, and they’re actually delivering results? Gary: Not just results, but great results and very fast. I’ve never seen anything like it. Tom: What if a locksmith already has a website? What added benefit is there? Gary: Tom, I’ll be honest, most lock- smiths have very, let’s say, minimalistic websites that haven’t been properly opti- mized. For example, their contact infor- mation may be a JPEG versus text, links are broken, meta descriptions are unclear and the site map is unavailable. There are many reasons why the scammers have so easily taken advantage of us on the web. So yes, there are many benefits to getting our Fair Trade Locksmith web services. Our services are top-notch and go above and beyond the call of duty. For example, we optimize each webpage for 20 keywords, unlike most SEO compa- nies that do just 4-5. So when we link to the local locksmith site, they get an im- mediate SEO boost. As the Fair Trade Locksmith footprint expands across the country, we will gain a great reputation in the eyes of the search engines that will be unparalleled. Believe me, Tom, we are onto something. We’re already getting locksmiths on the first page of web search results, and they’re starting to get more service calls than ever imagined. If need- ed, we can also consult to improve the locksmith’s individual website. Tom: How does it work? What do I need to do to try it out? Gary: We need two things from each lock- smith company: which cities they want to target, and which services they want to promote. We hand tailor each page to perform specifically for locksmith search- es. Why? Because we are locksmiths, we know what the locksmiths need, and we have a lot of catching up to do against the fake directories and fake websites. Tom: That’s very true and that sounds easy enough; how much is it? Gary: We started Fair Trade Locksmith to help unify our industry against the thieves trolling our customers. Profes- sionally designed webpages like ours can cost hundreds of dollars per page per month. Remember how we said some locksmiths get charged $3,000 for just one site? Why waste your money? We can tailor your web pages for each of the cit- ies you service. We handpicked our web designers, negotiated the best prices pos- sible, and we’re passing those savings on to everyone. Our special discount pricing for ALOA SPAI members is only $20 per page per month. That’s $20 to advertise in an entire city! That is 50% off our regular pricing, making it affordable for every- one. The beautiful thing is, because all WWW.ALOA.ORG
