Successful SEO From A Business Owners Perspective – Steve Bowker Interview – 171

Steve Bowker: We've tried this many times by ourselves, the SEO, the AdWord game, different companies, we engage them, "Hey, we can do this, we can do this." But at the end of the day, they can't do it, right?

Jesse Dolan: And that's been fun, I know on our end, in working with you. You've started a lot of stuff on your websites and stuff in multimedia, a lot of things we've been pushing you guys out of your comfort zone maybe, but you're trusting the process.

Steve Bowker: Really happy to have found you, and these are the exact services we're looking for. And they're local, which is even a greater bonus, right?

Jesse Dolan: Everyone, we got a great episode here. Today we are interviewing Steve Bowker of SA IT Services and Bowstone Metal Fabrication. Steve is a recent client of ours we've been working with to help improve SEO and the results that they're getting. And in talking with him, he was sharing his story about where he was at before engaging with us, what we've done to help transform and change his company's marketing, and how this has impacted his team and his company, and kind of his attitude and viewpoint moving forward. So, we invited Steve to come on to share his story and experience in working with us, and even more broadly just about how SEO and digital marketing can change your business, can transform your business, and some of the positive things that can happen from it. So, check it out. Listen to Steve's story, and let's get into the episode. Here we go. Welcome back to Local SEO tactics where we bring you tips and tricks to get found online. I'm your host, Jesse Dolan, here today with Sue Ginsburg as usual. Sue, how you doing?

Sue Ginsburg: Hi. Pretty good.

Jesse Dolan: Good. And Steve Bowker is joining us. We're doing an interview. Steve is one of our clients. Sue, I'll let you give him a proper introduction, who he is, why he is here, and what we're going to be talking about today, and then we'll dive into a good conversation here.

Sue Ginsburg: Sounds great. We are really happy today to have Steve Bowker with us, owner of a number of businesses and a client we've been working with since the beginning of the year. Steve is especially sharp when it comes to doing new things and trying things that he may not be familiar with, but he knows enough about them that he knows they will work, and he asks good questions, which pushes us, gets us into good dialogues. And that, to me, is a great collaboration and one that is part of the formula for success. So, with that, I will start off with quote for the day. "All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better." And that's Ralph Waldo Emerson. And to me, that's appropriate because Steve is a business owner who is looking for new ways to do things, willing to do things new way, looking for better ways to do things, and in essence, constantly doing experiments. So, that's that's the tie there. And Steve, welcome and thank you for being such a good client and for being on the podcast with us today.

Steve Bowker: Yeah. Thank you, Sue. Thank you, Jesse. Appreciate you guys having me.

Jesse Dolan: Absolutely. So, I think Steve, when we were talking in previous discussions, one of the things, kind of piggybacking on something Sue just said that I've really appreciated with you and that I give you a lot of respect for is that you understand really the value of the time and money for yourself and your team in an organization. And you've never really said it this way, but I feel like you're always just trying to make sure you're choosing the best option for things, right? If that's an internal solution or resource, then you roll with it. If it's an external, where you've hired us for certain things, then you roll with it, but making sure that you're doing it with intent and on purpose and heading a direction while still like this balance of not micromanaging at all, right? And kind of being a barrier. If you're going to have good people do good things, you let it breathe and let it go.

And that's been fun, I know on our end, in working with you. You've started a lot of stuff on your website, some stuff and stuff in multimedia, a lot of things we've been pushing you guys out of your comfort zone maybe, but you're trusting the process. You know what I mean? And you're saying, "If you're going to be experts we're going to work with, show me the plan, and let's do it.

Steve Bowker: Yeah, I think that's why we hired you guys, right? Because you were the experts, and we had that comfort level, after talking to Sue, that you guys were capable of doing what you say, right? And you were going to deliver, and you were going to do everything that you said. It wasn't just going to be lip service. So, that gave us the comfort level to say, "Okay, hey, we've tried this many times by ourselves." The SEO, the AdWord game, we've done all of that at least five times, right? Different companies, we engage them, "Hey, we can do this, we can do this." But at the end of the day, they can't do it, right? And so one thing that you guys brought into it too, we're like, "Hey, we're just here to help you. We're the experts in certain areas of this, but it's your business and you still have to steer the ship, so we're not just going to miraculously give you a bunch of sales.

So, that's what helped get us engaged and get the whole team engaged and be excited about the Intrycks way and the engagement with Intrycks, right? So everybody was sold off on it. Like, "Hey, this is going to go work. We have an input. It is just... We can't do that because Intrycks said we couldn't." And so it's been a pleasure, as far as that goes, because it brought the energy together too. We talk about that. We've talked about that before, about good energy and bad energy. And then when you get your whole team involved in something and they're motivated, and they see results, it's just excitement and its energy that you know can't buy, right?

Jesse Dolan: Yeah, I think you're right, because it's one thing... Let's just say if we do our job to compartmentalize things, if we do our job and we get you guys ranking in Google for whatever, certain keywords and certain things, that's cool. But that still doesn't move the needle for your business. You need to sell something. So, you need to be found, and then you need them to call you or email you or walk into your business. Whatever it is, you need the actual prospect to turn into a client or a customer, and that's where your team comes in. And if they're not motivated by this marketing and by these things, and they're just seeing it as more phone calls or more crappy leads and things like that, there's no motivation, there's no energy, there's no sales, there's no closing. And the feedback we've been getting from you guys is... The whole company is like, "Yeah, there's a buzz. We're doing new things. We're marketing. We're getting some leads in.”

Steve Bowker: I mean, the energy level is just been amazing. So, everybody's just... They see that we get three good leads in a day that customers want services that we actually provide, and these are potential great customers. And so that kind of energy is... I don't know how you would replace it if it went away, but we didn't have it before, and now we have it with these leads coming in. And it's different than just somebody saying, "Oh, I found you," or "So and so recommended." These are companies that are actually going out looking for our particular services that you guys have done your SEO stuff on. And they're finding us, and they're like, "Oh, really happy to have found you, and these are the exact services we're looking for." And they're local, which is even a greater bonus. Now, you can engage with them, you can meet with them, and all those things. We all know, when you have a relationship with a customer from talking to them in person, video, whatever, over the phone, it builds that trust and mutual respect.

Jesse Dolan: Yeah, the kinds of things you do, and a lot of businesses, I mean, they're not cheap, and so if people are going to patronize you and have that relationship, yeah, trust and real people, I have to be a part of it. And that's where the gap gets bridged. I'm curious, if we could rewind a little... So, we're engaged with you guys and in multiple businesses helping to share your story, get your found, and do some good positive things. But before you engaged with us, maybe if you could tell people, as a business owner, where you were at with your company. What were you looking at? Why did you seek out SEO in digital marketing? Were things going good? Were things going bad? Did you need to resurrect something? Did you need to fix a previous vendor? If you could set the stage on what was happening before?

Steve Bowker: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. So, I think on both businesses that we engaged you guys on, it was a similar aspect in that we have engaged other companies on both of them, and contracted them and paid multiple companies over the last couple of years to do the SEO, to do the AdWords, to redo the websites. And it just never was... People gathering all the data, and they just throw it at the white board. And then they're like, "Oh, this is it, so this should work." But it's not that sense of ownership that you guys gave when you're like, "Hey, so we're going to guide you through. We're going to do this stuff on our end, but this is your business. These are your sales. You have to engage, you have to sell, you have to come up with stuff, and you're there guiding us the whole way."

So, that's the difference, I think, because the other companies were basically just gathering your stuff, and then saying, "Oh, here it is," and it didn't work. You can get as many AdWord as you want, and buy that and be at the top of the list, but it's not really going to help you. So, now when we get a lead, it's an actual lead for our services that we provide. There's no, "Hey, do you do that?" or "Do you cut stainless steel?" They know exactly what we're doing from our website, from the searches. So, it is been great as far as that goes. Yeah. So, with other companies prior that we had engaged, there was always some kind of excuse or some kind of that. But basically, all the other companies, what they do is they just putting the information in there. They're like, "Oh, that's their name. That goes in this block," and "Oh, this is what their main service is." So, there's no actual thought or engagement, right?

Jesse Dolan: Okay.

Steve Bowker: It's just they're going off a flow chart or something, and they're just filling in the boxes. But the end results is... We never really had any results with. It was very disappointing, very discouraging. So, when we found you guys, and then we bid off on it, we said, "Hey, this is going to work. These people are awesome. They're engaged with us." And then when we started getting engaged and the energy level, and everybody picked up and everybody was engaged and everybody was excited, everybody was checking the website every day, and it is awesome.

Jesse Dolan: And happy to share with their relationship circles, and announce and be champions of what's happening at the company. And just that positive energy. Just pumps that flywheel of results. And everybody's excited, and then you handle the leads better, and you close them more, and your customers are happier.

Steve Bowker: Prior, we have done it. We've done it before. We've hired people to do it in-house. We took the certification classes for SEO and AdWords and all that stuff, and we did all that. But just because you know how to replace the spark plugs in your car doesn't mean that you should, or maybe you're missing 10 other steps. And I think that that's where we are always at prior to that. I mean, we hired people, I mean, people that have degrees in it, and it just... It's not the same. It just doesn't have the same, or haven't had the same results for us.

Jesse Dolan: I think a lot of that goes back. We always say like SEO, search engine optimization, that word optimization. You can't do that with a broad brush or with a template for everybody. It's very granular. You can't optimize something without really getting deep into the weeds. And yeah, that's the kind of stuff that we've done with you and all of our clients. And I'm happy that you're happy with the results. But if we could go back, still keep the rewinding, or maybe more of a hindsight look back... For all the other business owners, marketing managers, people doing this kind of stuff in their businesses that might be listening or watching right now, if you could look back, were there any warning signs that you could see now in hindsight about previous vendors or previous approaches where you said... If you could tell people like, "Hey, if this is happening, it's not going to work out for you. If this is happening go somewhere else.

Steve Bowker: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So, absolutely. So, what that is, it's the questions, right? So, that they say, "Hey, well, we're redoing your website. We're redoing your SEO. Answer all these questions." And then you answer them all, and then they're not saying, "Hey, this doesn't make sense," right? Because they don't really care, right? It's the answer to question number two, and that goes in this bin, and question number three goes in that bin. They're not putting it all together. You guys were like, "Hey, yeah, this doesn't make sense to us. Can you explain it?" I'm like, well, looking at it and go, "Yeah, well you're right. And it doesn't make sense." And so I think that that's really what helped us with both SA IT and Bowstone is that some stuff didn't make sense. It wasn't clear. Was it factual? Yes. But it doesn't mean that somebody's reading it, looking at your website is getting anything from it, right?

Jesse Dolan: Right on.

Steve Bowker:

I mean it’s just throwing…

Jesse Dolan: Again, back to-

Steve Bowker: ... stuff against the board, right?

Jesse Dolan: It should have a little bit of back and forth, a little bit of work, right? That granular optimizing type deal isn't easy on the first try.

Steve Bowker: Yeah. So, when you say... Going back, I mean, that's really how it started. Had initial conversation with Sue. I agreed verbally, like, "Hey, I'll sign off on this. We'll get going." And from there, it was just like, you guys are part of the team, right? You're part of our team. Didn't know any difference, whether you guys worked at Intrycks or you worked at Bowstone, or you worked at SA. It really was irrelevant.

Jesse Dolan: Yeah.

Steve Bowker: It was just that you guys were a part of team. You weren't afraid to say, "Hey, well, what about this?" or "What about this?" You asked those questions. You had those ideas. I mean, our name, Bowstone. We went from Bowstone to Bowstone Metal Fabrication because you guys suggested. And that's not why we did it, but then when we looked at, I go, "Yeah, man, that was so obvious. Why didn't we think of it?"

Jesse Dolan: Right.

Steve Bowker: It's what we do. Why didn't we think of it? But we didn't. And you guys did, and we went from it from there. The other thing is too, so if there's something that's critical on the website and needs to be changed... And I know that you guys probably don't do everything the same day, but when there was critical things that needed to be changed, they were done within an hour.

Jesse Dolan: Sure.

Steve Bowker: And as a business owner, those kind of things, you're like, "Is somebody going to look at it? Is somebody going to look at it? Is somebody going to look at it?" And we don't have to worry about it because it was already changed. So, I mean you guys were amazing as far as that goes. You're Johnny on the spot, and if it was a critical issue, you fixed it. And the issues we're talking about were not your fault. They were inherited issues.

Jesse Dolan: Sure.

Steve Bowker: But I think if we go all the way back, it was that you guys were part of the team, right? There was no differentiating that. You were part of the team from day one.

Jesse Dolan: Peeling back some of these layers, just really that some intensive engagement, some back and forth discussions, some collaboration, these are the kinds of things that we have done in contrast, and maybe what you've had previously, where previously, it's maybe more, like you said... I'm putting words in your mouth, but fill out this form, input this area into this field, and then they're just going to run with it. There wasn't a whole lot of back and forth on it.

Steve Bowker: And looking back, and that is the difference, right? Because they didn't... Well, how come they didn't question that? Right? How come nobody was questioning that? And so for us, when it's your website, sometimes you kind have blinders on because you're so close to it.

Jesse Dolan: Sure.

Steve Bowker: And so that just with the Bowstone Metal Fabrication, how do we not think of that, right? But we didn't. It was an Intrycks suggestion, like, "Hey, well, can we use this at least for the Google search?" And then we're like, "Well, why wouldn't we use that name going forward?"

Jesse Dolan: Right.

Steve Bowker: And we have, and it's been a great success. So, now when somebody sees a Bowstone shirt, it's Bowstone Metal Fabrication, and they don't have to go, "Hey, what do you guys do?" So, that was always a pain point for us, because people say, "Well, what do you guys do?" You're in the gas station, you're in the elevator, whatever you want to call it, the elevator speech.

Jesse Dolan: It's just those little tweaks.

Steve Bowker: Yeah. Now, they know that we do metal fabrication because it says Bowstone Metal Fabrication. And then you can explain to them a little bit about what kind of metal fabrication we do.

Jesse Dolan: And then turn nerd out on that a little bit for SEO, where that gets really attractive is people start... Let's say you talk to somebody at the gas station, Bowstone Metal Fabrication. They may not remember the actual web address of your website, whatever. They go to Google, they type in Bowstone Metal Fabrication, number one, you'll pop up, and they'll click on your website. But something that's happening with that name now being input into Google is, Google will associate Bowstone with metal fabrication. You're building that entity. You're building that terminology. Instead of these being separate things, now it's Bowstone Metal Fabrication. And you as an entity, as a company, are now reputable and authoritative in Google's mind, in their database for metal fabrication. So, not only is it a great name for human beings, we're building this association within a search engine that Bowstone and a metal fabrication are in the same topic space. And then things related to metal fabrication start to become part of what you're associated with too.

And that comes back to helping us in SEO. So, yeah, again, the story I'm trying to paint on this, I guess, is that these things, to your point, do require discussion. We do have a purpose for our line of questioning or for the inputs that we want. And yeah, if you're listening to this or watching this and you're a business owner, marketing manager, deciding where you're at in your marketing, should you invest into SEO, do these things, whatever, if your current construct of SEO is very one sided or quiet, or you're getting some of these things that Steve's hitting on, maybe you should look at, is it performing well? Are you getting an ROI? Right? And that's a big thing here too. This is not just an expense. This is an investment that should bring you back more money than you're inputting into this kind of a marketing.

Maybe not initially, but definitely over the long run. If those things aren't happening, maybe follow the course that Steve did and seek out some help. And that's where my next question, Steve, I'd like to throw at you is-

Steve Bowker: Okay.

Jesse Dolan: So, you're there, you're running these businesses, and you're going, this marketing isn't doing too good, or maybe we need to look at SEO, what caused you to take that step? I don't know if you remember how you engaged with us, how you found us, what kind of light bulb went off, or how those dots got connected, but what did you do to take actions towards improving your SEO, again, before we actually engaged with you? Maybe tell us-

Steve Bowker: I mean, what did I do prior?

Jesse Dolan: Yeah. What caused you to find us? Right? We didn't knock on your door. You found us. How did that work?

Steve Bowker: Well, because we put a lot of effort on expanding the business and getting the quality and the level of product we deliver and all that up to a certain level. And that just doesn't happen overnight. It's a whole lot of effort. And it just felt that we were there. But as far as our sales, I just thought we could handle a whole lot more. And as far as just going out and... You could hire all the sales people in the world to go out and do that, just talk, geeze, everybody uses the internet now and everybody uses search engines. Who drives around the block to look for a metal fabrication. I guess if you knew somebody was there, you might do it, but you're going to look on your computer, you're going to do a Google search, and you're going to do that. So, that's what... You guys came from a referral from somebody that trusts you and somebody that I trust.

So, I was like, "Okay, we'll give it a shot." Right? I don't think you really understand how many times that we've been down this road with SA IT over the last 20 years, right?

Jesse Dolan: Yeah.

Steve Bowker: Many times, we hired people, we had whole staff that did high end networks and stuff like that, but this is a very specific things that you guys do, right? It's just not a broad stroke. It's very specific, what you guys do. And so that's what we needed. We needed that sales team, and that's what you guys have came on. So, you're the sales team. And you did that, and it was amazing for the cost. And you didn't go, "Hey, you're going to get results tomorrow." Never was promised. And obviously, when I made up my mind, so I'm wanting results as quick as possible, I'll pay you more money. And you're like, "Yeah, that's not the way it works. So, we have somewhat of a process here, and we'll do it, and then you'll see some stuff, you'll see some results, but only in these areas in 90 days. And then in six months, you'll see these... We'll hit these other results." And we talk about that on our 90 day call and all, right?

Jesse Dolan: Yep.

Steve Bowker: And that's how it worked. And you exceeded those expectations, right? It was a little bit hard being patient, but it seemed like every day or every week, we were getting more leads, and we were getting more activity, and we were seeing progress from the Intrycks engagement that it was okay to wait for some of the results, because we're getting results every day, every week. And that's huge, right? So, when you do something, you make a decision to do something, "Hey, this is our sales effort. We're not hiring these four people, but we're going to put our money in where Intrycks is and do that. We'll save a whole lot of money, and we'll target our market a little bit better," is a good feeling.

Jesse Dolan: That's why I always say. Even though our service inherently isn't cheap, we do hope that our type of marketing, SEO, ends up being the cheapest form of advertising that a business can do, just because it can be so strategic and so tied back to results and things like that, right? Now, I do like what you said and it resonates with me because Sue says this all the time. And you didn't say it exactly like this, so I'm paraphrasing, but you turned your website into a salesperson or a sales gal, right? It became part of your sales team. Not just a brochure, but something that actually could create or impact your sales. And a lot of business owners, I think, don't maybe view it that way. They just think it has to be there as a brochure or a backdrop or to tell a story. But no, it can be a generator of sales and an aid to your process. You agree with that?

Steve Bowker: Absolutely, right? So, before we engaged you guys, it was kind of hard. I would have to close the website if I looked at it because it wasn't exactly what I wanted, right?

Jesse Dolan: Sure.

Steve Bowker: So, it would kind of make me nauseous, and I'd go, "Ah, we really need to fix that." But having done it before, it takes a whole lot of effort, right? And then what I think happens too, where you guys made a difference is too, is that normally, you would engage a whole bunch of people from your organization, right? So, there's 10 people in your organization. You get on these calls. You talk about it.

So, 10 people have 10 different goals within your company. Doesn't mean any of them are bad, but it isn't a clear vision. And so you can't just go, "Oh..." If I'm the one in charge on the other nine people, I can't say, "Hey, we'll quit thinking." Right? Why have them on the call to begin with? So, that's what it did, because it allowed us to have less staff on the calls. We have three or four people from our team on that call, plus the Intrycks people, and it's perfect blend. So, then we do that, and then we report back to the SA team or the Bowstone team and say, "Hey, well, here's what does everybody think?" Right? And that's been much more productive, because you guys are able to run with it when we have those discussions, say, "Hey, well what about this?" or put your input in. "Hey, here's what we're seeing." And as you're going over our you report and you're showing us the video where we did and the results of everything, I mean, you guys have been tremendous as far as that goes, right?

Jesse Dolan: And that's permanent, right?

Steve Bowker: Yeah, these changes will affect this, but if you do this, you're not going to see anything for a while. But long term, this is probably the best thing. You've been very good about that.

Jesse Dolan: My last question for you and thing I'd like to see if you can speak towards-

Steve Bowker: I don't believe that, but go ahead.

Jesse Dolan: You might be right. You've been talking to my wife then. There's never just one more question. Speaking towards those business owners that are listening and Anybody else that's kind of in your shoes, the ship you were captaining before you engaged with us, just some of the day to day, how was run operated, where you were putting your time, energy, focus, how you felt about it, versus the thing you have now, even though we're not done with... We're just starting to get this critical mass of success, I think.

Steve Bowker: Correct.

Jesse Dolan: But how does... As you're looking out over the deck of this ship, pointing at where you're pointing at for your business, super metaphorical here, I know, but how is your viewpoint different as a business owner guiding this thing versus the previous version? Is it different even, to start there?

Steve Bowker: It is, because now, I just feel like we're actually in control. So, we're going to do that sales. It's just not hiring another salesperson, and doing that and say, "Hey, let's target this market." So, we talked. We agreed with you guys, right? Like, "Hey, this is where we want to head," and you guys have taken us there, and we keep heading in that director. So, for me, looking back and go, "Okay, we want to hit this area a little bit more, hit this market," or maybe it's pharmaceutical, we want to hit, we talk to you guys and you make a little tweak on that. And then when we get on our next call, we discuss that, right? Well, how did that work? Well, we got a little bit more results. Do we want to double down? Do we want to put more effort into that?

Jesse Dolan: Right on.

Steve Bowker: So, before that, it used to be we'd have pages and we'd have stuff on the website and stuff, and we're literally there just because we thought they were supposed to be there, or that's what you do, but no real need or meaning behind them, right? What is the goal? Where are we steering the ship? We're heading this way, right? And so that's what I feel now. I feel that I'm in control. We're in control of that aspect of the business, right? That we are heading down there. And that's why we want to get sales. So, when people call you and say, "Hey, I found you on the web, and you guys do this, right? They're not saying, "Do you do that?" They already know that we do it. And so that's a really great feeling, compared to before, we look at the website and go, "Ah, it's embarrassing." And maybe somebody else that didn't own it would go, "Oh, well, that's okay. It's okay." Right? But you don't want to have a website that's okay, right? You want to have website that goes, "Wow, that's exactly what they do." Right?

Jesse Dolan: Your website should be part of your sales process. Like we said, it should aid, not detract from or distract from your sales process. It should help. It should be a helpful thing.

Steve Bowker: And so before, I can remember many calls where we got on the phone with somebody and we spent most of it trying to explain to them what we did, because maybe there was a referral or something, but they looked at our website and that just confused them, right?

Jesse Dolan: Sure.

Steve Bowker: So, they weren't really clear. What exactly do you guys do? So, now there's no confusion as far as that go. For the most part. It's just, "Hey, this is what you guys do. Can you help us? What is your workload? What is your lead time? Can you give us some pricing on this project?" It's been pleasant. Before that, I can't say that I never woke up at three o'clock in the morning and went, "Ah, man, I really need to do something about that website." So, not saying that I don't wake up at three o'clock in the morning anymore. As a business owner, I do. Not as often though, and not about the website.

Jesse Dolan: Hopefully, your website and your SEO is not the concern that's causing that stress.

Steve Bowker: It is not the concern. It's definitely not a concern.

Jesse Dolan: Hey, everyone, just a quick message about our free SEO audit tool on localseotactics.com, and we'll get right back to the show. If you haven't taken advantage of it yet, go on out to localseotactics.com/freeseoaudit, or look for the yellow button up on the top right corner. Click that. And it's going to take just a couple seconds. You enter in the page that you want to optimize, what you're looking for the audit to score against. Enter in that page and turn the keyword you're looking to get optimized for. And enter in your email address, click the button, and it's going to take a few seconds, and then it's going to send you off a PDF report via email. It's a great report. It's going to kind of give you an overall score of some vital SEO areas for that page, and for your website at large, even though it's auditing this page.

It's going to tell you some of the good things that are happening, some of the bad things that are happening too, and give you basically a checklist of some things that you need to shore up and what you can do to improve your SEO for that page, for that keyword that you're auditing. Now, you can use this as many times as you want. You can do multiple keywords, multiple pages, multiple keywords on the same page. You can even use this to check against your competitors, if you want to do a little reverse engineering, see how they're scoring for a certain keyword, what they may be doing good that you're not, and some things to improve there. So, lots of different ways to use it completely free. Again, go on at the localseotactics.com/freeseoaudit, or look for the yellow button in the top right corner of the website.

Sue Ginsburg: Steve, one question I would like to ask you is, we've talked a lot about SEO on your website. I also know that SEO on your Google business profile, or your GBP, has brought you some success, especially since you've said over and over again that a lot of your clients are right in your vicinity, which the GBP speaks more to the local vicinity. So, can you just give us a few words on how you've seen the SEO on your Google business profile working for you?

Steve Bowker: Well, going back to what Jesse said, hey, so going back to what you did before. So, that's what we always did before, was that you'd have a company come in, they sell you on some Google AdWords and stuff like that. And so you guys were like, "Hey, no. When we start out, the first thing we're going to do is your Google business profile. We're going to do that. You need it, and here's what it does." So, we're like, "Okay, how do we miss that? Whatever." So, that's what the other companies kind of sell you on, that whole process. So, it was inexpensive with you guys, Intrycks. And that's been one of the most pleasant things, just because we have got a lot of leads from that, because people search. They're in our area. We're in an industrial area, so they're searching. They're doing that, say, "Hey, we found you on the internet." So, just from the business profile, we've gotten a lot of action, and we've got a lot of great leads from there too, and some customers that we're doing repeat business for already from the GBP.

Sue Ginsburg: Yeah.

Steve Bowker: It's been pleasant. And so now when I search for Bowstone and it comes up, right? And I'm not having to go bowstone.net for it to come up. Just type in Bowstone, and bam, there it is several times on the first page. It's pretty exciting.

Jesse Dolan: It's a great sign for your brand too. That means things are happening.

Steve Bowker: It is. So, before, it was embarrassing, right? Because it'd be like, "Hey, what's your company name again?" And then you do it. "Well, yeah. Okay, well, let me give you the whole website," and do that. And then they go to a website you're not proud of, which is... So, it makes the sale even harder, now that your confidence has gone from here down to here. So, now, we walk in everything with high confidence, right? Check out our website. Check out what we do. Search for us, and we know that we're going to come up. So, that is a great feeling, and it is.

Jesse Dolan: And again, especially when the product and the service you're selling specifically is not a cheap one. These are not $20 things that you sell. People need that confidence. They need that to all come together to patronize you.

Steve Bowker: It's all about professionalism, right? And we all could judge things on how they look. When we get a package in... If you buy a product and it comes in the mail and it's all banged up, even if the product's in great shape underneath that crush box, it still gives you a little bit... You're a little cautious. So, I think that that's what the GDP does. And you do that. Somebody searches for us, there we are.

Jesse Dolan: Got to get found. Got to get found and get that exposure, right?

Steve Bowker: Yep.

Jesse Dolan: Yeah, it's been fun working with you guys too, and your energy too. Just thinking back to that, I'm glad we've been able to help your business, but every time we talk about you, internally, on our end too, it's like, these guys are great. This is a fun company to work with. And your energy, what you do in your style is fun too. It's a two-way street in that regarding.

Steve Bowker: Well, we appreciate it, and it wouldn't happen more without you guys, so we really appreciate that.

Jesse Dolan: Love to hear that. This is all a guise. We wanted you to come on here to record this episode, Steve, but more so we just wanted to hear all these good things and make ourselves feel better.

Steve Bowker: Well, good. Well, you should feel better, because I truly have done this countless times with countless companies, I mean, very well known companies and all, and they fail every time. They just can't deliver like you guys do. You guys deliver. You say what you're going to do and you do it. I mean, like I said, you're part of the team, and that is the energy that you just can't buy, right?

Jesse Dolan: Right.

Steve Bowker: You can do that and you can pay extra money to have so and so do it because they're a well known company, but at the end of the day, I mean, we don't have that many call within Intrycks, but when they do, they're very productive and do that. Or Sue might send me a note, "Hey, Steve, you need to change the name of your company. Would it be okay if we go from Bowstone to Bowstone Metal Fabrication?" "Sure, Sue, that's a great idea." But I had a pause, because I was like, "Well, how do we miss that?" But we did, and you guys were right there. So, everything in life doesn't have to be hard, right? But simple.

Jesse Dolan: People are hearing this. This is kind of a commercial for Intrycks. Obviously, we're not hiding the fact you're a client, you've been happy, and you're on here to talk about that. But if people don't look our way for this, I think... Again, if you're a marketing manager, a business owner, if you hearing Steve talk, having real people that you work with, people that are collaborating, that are vested in your success, not just trying to sell you a subscription or a service or a product that's going to cure everything. There needs to be discussions, there needs to be back and forth, real collaboration, because your marketing is a very important part of your business, and especially your digital marketing. It's something we can track and be analytical about and show what works and be strategic. And if you're not having those types of conversations and interactions with whoever you're using for SEO digital marketing, you start looking somewhere else, whether it's us or anybody. Get these kinds of things Steve's talking about and feel this way.

And then you can get back. You said this on the front side, Steve, and we preach this to everybody. You're the expert in your business. We're the expert in this, right? We'll both do our thing and lean on each other where needed. It just can't be something that is full of one way conversations. That's just not going to work because we are, like I said, part of your team, right? We're doing a function for your business, not some abstract service. You have to have that level of engagement. So, I'm glad you came on to tell people that's how we operate, but even more broadly, helping everybody else listening and seeking out this information, knowing that that's what they need too. That's what they need in their life, and in their businesses something that they need too.

Steve Bowker: Absolutely. If they want to make their business life a little bit easier and more successful, go with Intrycks.

Jesse Dolan: Oh, nailed it. That's our tagline right there. Thank you for that. Steve. Before we wrap it up, Steve, do you have anything else you want to add for everybody out there, or Sue, either one of you guys? We good? Cool.

Steve Bowker: I'm good.

Jesse Dolan: Well, I appreciate everybody for tuning in. Steve, I appreciate you taking time out of your day, switching laptops and computers to pull this off with our microphone trouble before all this even, and hanging in. We truly appreciate you as a client and for coming on and doing this.

Steve Bowker: No, I appreciate it. And I appreciate you guys giving me a shot at it. Gave a little bit of confidence doing this, so I appreciate that.

Jesse Dolan: Cool.

Sue Ginsburg: Well done. Well done.

Jesse Dolan: Anything else from you?

Sue Ginsburg: Just again, quote of the day, "All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better." And I think that Steve has shown and demonstrated, in many ways, that you keep experimenting until you find something good. That's the way to succeed.

Jesse Dolan: Perfect. All right, thanks again for Steve for coming on and sharing that, and for Sue setting this stage, as always. I hope all of you listening, we're able to pull some nuggets out of that for Steve's journey, maybe for some things that maybe resonated with you for where you're at in your company, if you're looking at SEO, if you're needing some help, some things to ponder, some things to reflect on. And hopefully, you can engage yourself, your team or an external agency like ours or somebody else to help you make those changes and transition, and then get your company to where you wanted to be. And again, like we said in the episode, getting your website to act like a salesperson and part of your sales team, not just a brochure that sits there. So, great stuff here today in this episode. Hopefully, you enjoyed it. We'll check you out on the next one. Take care, everybody.