Disqus - Latest Comments for TimColling

Re: Google Local Negative Reviews Hack Leads To Harassment & Abuse

Tim Colling — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 14:16:21 -0000

This ^^^
"The bad reviews lead to fewer sales which then makes businesses more likely to spend more on Google Ads. There's no financial incentive for Google to be responsible"

Re: Google Reduces Local Pack Results In Web Search?

Tim Colling — Tue, 16 May 2023 13:16:18 -0000

Could this be intended to drive more businesses to surrender to the need to pay for Google ads? Whether or not intended, that could be the result.

Re: Local Business Websites and Google My Business Comparison Report

Tim Colling — Mon, 06 May 2019 12:47:18 -0000

Regarding the question about "Top Sources of Contact" -

Did you include chat tools in the options for users to select?

Re: How Google Is Making Spam-fighting Even Harder

Tim Colling — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 13:12:20 -0000

Great article, Dan. Google is big enough to do whatever they want to without much fear of negative consequences, and sometimes they do this sort of thing for no apparent reason other then their own convenience, at the expense of consumers and web searchers.

Re: Google My Business Launches New Spam Report Form

Tim Colling — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 12:08:49 -0000

It may not be a good thing for Google to be closing the Spam reporting section on their own user support forums. I hope they don't rush to close it until we know more about whether or not this new process will actually be effective AND prompt.

Re: Search News You Can Use – Episode 68

Tim Colling — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 20:22:16 -0000

This is a terrific, concise weekly summary of SEO news and it has the highest "useful-information-density" value of any SEO newsletter that I know of. Thanks!

Re: Google Local Panel User Suggested Edits Shown On Desktop

Tim Colling — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 18:34:34 -0000

I agree with you, JL. That's an invitation for bad acts by others against business owners, a new sort of negative seo almost.

Re: Google My Business Showing Competitors Google Posts

Tim Colling — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 16:03:07 -0000

"...Google Posts appear only in branded queries."

Not necessarily. See: https://goo.gl/rt1W8G

Re: Google As Website? The Recent Explosion in Knowledge Panel Features and Interactivity

Tim Colling — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 11:14:22 -0000

Preach it, Brothers! :)

Seriously, this is a great summary of the current and (probable future) state of affairs with respect to Google and its apparent plans to keep searchers on the SERPs and off of our SMB clients' websites. The websites still matter (a lot) but we're at a point now where a brand new SMB should prioritize building out its GMB listing and seting up a GMB one-page "website" ahead of creating a "real" website. That "real" website is certainly important as a second priority, but only as a second one.

Re: What 1-800-Flowers’ Search Dominance Means for Local Florists

Tim Colling — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 12:02:55 -0000

This is a great example of why I recommend that my clients in the home care industry NOT pay to participate in the phone network called One Eight Hundred Homecare because in the long run that only strengthens that brand, not their own. I've written about this several times on our website at eldersell.com.

Re: Google Does Not Want To Depend On Structured Data & Schema In Future

Tim Colling — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 10:45:10 -0000

This sounds a bit like the exercise we went through with Google authorship markup. Google said that we should invest effort into that and then abandoned that standard too.

Re: Farewell: Google Drops Google+ Links & Reviews

Tim Colling — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 15:37:11 -0000

"Another step towards full pay to play for local, exciting times to watch the serps evolve."

Absolutely, well said. Google has brilliantly succeeded at having a nearly complete monopoly in the search engine industry, and now they are reaping the rewards by monetizing everything above the fold. There isn't much on the horizon in terms of competitors who can make them change their ways. I sure don't want the government telling them what to do, either. It's their house, they should get to make the rules.

Re: Web-based caregiver service for seniors: Honor kicks off $1M initiative to be in 10 cities

Tim Colling — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 11:09:33 -0000

It is important to know that with Honor and others such as HomeHero, the home care workers are NOT employees of the company. Instead, they are employees of the client, and the client has employer responsibilities such as payroll tax withholding and reporting and workers compensation insurance. Also, if the worker is negligent or dishonest or has a traffic accident while driving the client, the company has no liability or responsibility at all. Buyer beware.

Re: Structured Data & The SERPs: What Google’s Patents Tell Us About Ranking In Universal Search

Tim Colling — Fri, 29 May 2015 15:57:44 -0000

Very helpful and thought-provoking information, Barbara. Thank you! There is a never-ending firehose stream of new factors and considerations for those of us in the industry. Whew!

Re: 7 Unlikely Recommendations for Startups & Entrepreneurs

Tim Colling — Tue, 26 May 2015 12:53:53 -0000

My personal favorite (h/t to Fred Adler): "Happiness is positive cash flow. Everything else will come later."

Re: 5 Relatively Simple Steps to Dominate Local Search

Tim Colling — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 14:04:52 -0000

A few other ideas about this topic:

You can use JSON-LD in your page footer to specify exact NAP info for Google and the other engines. See http://json-ld.org/ for more info.

Local SEO won't improve organic results, but organic SEO may help boost Local SEO results.

Tim Colling
http://www.ElderSell.com

Re: Avoid 7 website mistakes new business owners often make

Tim Colling — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 11:28:47 -0000

Here's another one of my favorite website creation mistakes: Talking about yourself and how good you are instead of the customer and what the customer will receive.

It's the difference between saying, "We are the most experienced home care agency for helping your elderly loved ones" and saying, "Your elderly loved ones can continue living at home with home care services from the most experienced company."

I've heard this called "We-ing" all over yourself and that's a very apt description.

The readers don't really care about you. They care about the outcome you are going to create for them.

Re: “200th Episode! A Servant’s Heart Revisited.”

Tim Colling — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:24:20 -0000

Hi - I haven't commented before but I'm a long time listener to your podcast. I really enjoy it! This one especially resonated with me. I accept and agree with what you say in this post. My companies are based on this principle and are named after it. (see www.TrustworthyCare.com). Thanks for your generosity in sharing everything that you do.

Re: WordPress will change your life if you let it

Tim Colling — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 21:03:32 -0000

Congratulations, Chris! That's terrific. You are a blessed man.

Re: The Sasha Experience - McKnight's Long Term Care News

Tim Colling — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 17:43:37 -0000

Wow, what a great article, and what terrific illustrations! Thanks!

Re: Grief Healing™: Coping with the Holidays: Suggested Resources 2013

Tim Colling — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 17:18:29 -0000

What a great grief resource list!

Don't forget that many times, hospice patients somehow hang on through the holidays and then pass away in January. We need to be vigilant to watch for the signs of grieving at all times, not just during the holidays.

Tim Colling
http://www.AgeAdvisors.com

Re: Is Groupon’s Deal Marketplace Undermining Merchants?

Tim Colling — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 11:53:34 -0000

If those companies have names that are registered trademarks, can they notify Google in some way to prevent this from being done, for their trademarks?

Re: CPAs Examine Impact of Health Care Reform

Tim Colling — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 23:36:31 -0000

From the end of the above article:
"For all of us in small business, this should be a good thing," Newman said.

This is nonsense. It is NOT good for all small businesses that employ people.

It MIGHT be good for small businesses that employ people that ALREADY pay for healthcare for their employees. Maybe.

But for those of us who don't, because the market won't support the fees necessary to provide insurance for everyone, it's just more of the same: the government punishing us for employing people. This will be devastating to many industries that employ lots of relatively low-paid workers, such as my industry: the non-medical in-home care-for-seniors industry.

Best regards,
Tim Colling (CPA)

Re: Hard times for doctors mean less access for poor

Tim Colling — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 10:59:17 -0000

It's always easier to tell someone else that they should pay their money or spend their time on something than it is to be told that you have to spend YOUR time or money on it.

Same thing goes for doctors' medical practices, which are businesses: it's easy for other people to tell doctors what the doctors must do with their time and money, so long as those OTHER people aren't the ones having to spend their own time and money.

Re: What Does The Supreme Court Ruling on ObamaCare Mean To Medicare Patients?

Tim Colling — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 22:19:37 -0000

If they can tell me that I must buy insurance for myself, they tell you that you must treat me.