See a Sample Report (PDF)
See What a Scan Returns
Run the Numbers
Read the LatestMore From the Blog page 5 of 5
Paid Media
Pinterest for Home Improvement, Hardscape and Remodeling
Pinterest is a planning tool, not a social network, and it is where a large share of home improvement projects begin months before anyone searches for a contractor.
January 14, 2015 · 2 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Will Spelling Errors Hurt My SEO?
This week, Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) released a quick 1-minute video on YouTube, answering the question, “Should I correct the grammar of comments on my blog?” While the focus of the video is about misspelled comments or comments that use bad grammar, the bigger takeaway was the acknowledgement that.
February 13, 2014 · 1 min read · Staff Writer
Running a Business
Efferent Media, Local SEO Leader, Expands Client List
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Long Island, NY; November 27, 2013 Efferent Media, continuing to emerge as a leading Long Island Search Engine Optimization company, announces its move to new and larger offices to meet the needs of a growing client list and expanded staff. Efferent Media was incorporated in.
November 27, 2013 · 2 min read · Staff Writer
Websites
The Year End Website Audit an Owner Can Run in an Hour
Twelve checks, no tools beyond a phone and a browser, each tied to a number that moves if you fix it. Run it yourself before anyone quotes you for a rebuild.
October 27, 2026 · 3 min read · Mike Roberts
AI Search
AI Did Not Replace Your Marketing. It Changed Who Answers the Question First.
The honest version. Research got faster, reporting got cheaper, judgment stayed scarce, and one thing genuinely moved for a local business: where the answer comes from.
October 22, 2026 · 3 min read · Joshua Falken
Long Island
Fifteen Years on Long Island: What Actually Changed About Getting Found
Platforms came and went and most of the advice aged badly. Four things actually changed, and the list of what did not is shorter and more useful than any trend piece.
October 20, 2026 · 3 min read · Joe Garraffo
Paid Media
What We Would Fix First If We Took Over Your Account in January
The same handful of findings show up in nearly every account we inherit. Here they are in order, so you can fix them yourself without hiring anyone.
October 13, 2026 · 3 min read · Joe Garraffo
Lead Follow-Up
Every Lead You Did Not Call Back This Year Is Still a Lead
Quotes that went quiet, last season's estimates, the week you were slammed. That list is the cheapest pipeline you own, and working it does not require hiring anybody.
October 8, 2026 · 3 min read · Jennifer Marlowe
Lead Follow-Up
Your Holiday Hours Are Costing You Calls
Six weeks where your hours change twice and half the internet still shows the old ones. A customer who calls a number listed as open and gets nothing does not conclude you are closed.
October 6, 2026 · 3 min read · Jennifer Marlowe
Paid Media
What Long Island Businesses Should Do With the Last Quarter of the Ad Budget
The phone slows down in Q4 and most owners slow the spending with it. The auction slows down too, which is exactly why the last quarter is usually the cheapest work you will buy all year.
September 24, 2026 · 4 min read · Joe Garraffo
Paid Media
Nassau or Suffolk: Why One Ad Budget Should Not Cover Both
Two counties, two costs per click, two competitive sets and two different customers. Running them under one budget hides which half is working and quietly funds the weaker one.
September 17, 2026 · 4 min read · Nicole Garraffo
Measurement
Is Your Agency Reporting Clicks or Customers
A report full of impressions and clicks is a report about the platform. Five questions that force it to be about your revenue instead, and what a straight answer to each one sounds like.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min read · Joshua Falken
Lead Follow-Up
Storm Season on the South Shore: What Roofing and Siding Companies Should Have Running First
Emergency demand arrives in hours and is gone in days. Four things have to be live before the first nor'easter, because none of them can be built during one.
September 3, 2026 · 4 min read · Jennifer Marlowe
SEO
Service Area, Not Radius: How to Draw Your Map on Long Island
A circle on a map includes water, parkland and towns you would never send a crew to. Long Island punishes radius targeting harder than almost any market in the country, and the fix is a list of towns rather than a number of miles.
August 27, 2026 · 4 min read · Mike Roberts
Lead Follow-Up
Five Minutes: The Window Where Most Long Island Leads Are Won or Lost
The chance of reaching a new lead falls steeply and early, and most of that loss happens before anyone in the office has seen the form. What a business can actually do about it without hiring.
August 20, 2026 · 4 min read · Jennifer Marlowe
Paid Media
Local Service Ads: What They Cost, Who They Work For, and Who Should Skip Them
Google Guaranteed sits above everything else in the results and charges per lead rather than per click. That is excellent for some trades and a tax on others, and which one you are is mostly decided by your average job value.
August 13, 2026 · 4 min read · Joe Garraffo
Running a Business
Building Next Year's Budget When You Do Not Know What This Year Produced
Most owners planning a year have spend by channel and revenue in total, and nothing connecting the two. You can build a defensible number from what you already have, this week, without waiting for better tracking.
August 6, 2026 · 4 min read · Nicole Garraffo
Paid Media
Your Off Season Is the Cheapest Search You Will Buy All Year
Competitors pull back, clicks get cheaper, and the research happening now books work in March. The off season is not a time to stop spending, it is the cheapest time to buy the position you will need.
July 30, 2026 · 3 min read · Joe Garraffo
SEO
What Google Business Profile Actually Does for a Long Island Contractor
The profile is a storefront that decides whether you appear in the map pack, and most contractor profiles here are half filled in. What to complete, what to post, what to ignore, and the three fields that only matter in winter.
July 23, 2026 · 3 min read · Mike Roberts
Content
Debunking SEO Myths
Search Engine Optimization and Digital Marketing are industries that have spawned their fair share of misinterpretations and myths. Years of interacting with esoteric rules, invisible algorithms, and surface explanations for website ranking phenomena… it has led to various beliefs and answers for.
September 28, 2023 · 9 min read · Staff Writer
Social Media
5 Tips for Advertising on LinkedIn
LinkedIn, known for its professional and business-oriented users, provides a unique opportunity for businesses and brands to target a niche audience. As with any platform, however, success on LinkedIn requires a hyper-focused strategy tailored to a specific audience. Here are five key tips for.
August 24, 2023 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Branding
Design Tips for PPC Ads and Landing Pages in 2023
Designing PPC ads and landing pages can significantly impact your business, influencing the quantity and quality of leads. Your landing pages and PPC ads form the first impression potential clients have of your company. Creating designs that inspire confidence and comfort is essential, encouraging.
August 10, 2023 · 2 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Google Changes E.A.T. to E.E.A.T.
In SEO, E.A.T. isn’t about food. It’s Google’s guidelines for quality content and website ranking factors. However, Google recently updated its guidelines and the name so now its “E.E.A.T.”. Besides making the term more distinctive, it’s also adding additional considerations and nuance to how.
May 25, 2023 · 4 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Guaranteed Rankings: Why It Is a Red Flag and What to Ask Instead
Nobody controls Google, so nobody can guarantee a position in it. The useful question is not whether a guarantee is real. It is what a company promises when it cannot promise rankings.
May 11, 2023 · 2 min read · Staff Writer
Social Media
Top 5 Social Media Platforms for Businesses
Having a presence on the most popular and effective social media platforms has become crucial for companies to promote their products and services and connect with their customers. With an overwhelming number of choices available today, you may be asking yourself, “which social media platforms do I.
March 30, 2023 · 5 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Duplicate Content on a Service Area Website
The duplicate content problem that actually costs local service businesses money is not plagiarism. It is fifteen town pages that differ by one word, and it is self-inflicted.
March 16, 2023 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Paid Media
Why Do You Need Google Ads?
You want to promote your business… but with ads everywhere, it’s hard to decide what to use. Not only are there Google Ads, Facebook ads, and conventional print and TV ads – but you can also find ads inside apps of all kinds and even at the pump while getting gas. With all of these
February 23, 2023 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Navigating the Google Business Profile Dashboard
One of Google’s best-known tools for businesses across the world and local marketing efforts is Google Business Profiles. But you might better remember this as “Google My Business.” Though, in actuality, this tool has changed its name numerous times… starting out as Google Local Business Center.
December 1, 2022 · 4 min read · Staff Writer
Social Media
How to Use Dynamic Creative in Your Facebook Ads
As many social media advertisers know, finding the most successful combinations of creative and messaging is essential to running an optimal Facebook campaign. Questions you might ask yourself include: which ad creative size will bring in the most video views? What headline will help increase.
November 24, 2022 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Paid Media
Google Loosens Restrictions for Some Medical Ads
In recent months, Google Ads has implemented substantial changes to its platform and policies. The advertising juggernaut eliminated Expanded Text Ads, updated Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max, updated ad accounts to data-driven attribution, and announced that the much-feared, often.
October 13, 2022 · 4 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Dental Practice Marketing: What Actually Fills the Schedule
Most dental marketing advice optimizes for new patient volume. The practices that grow optimize for chair time, case acceptance and the patients who come back. Here is the difference, and what to change first.
August 11, 2022 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Marketing
HIPAA and Before & After Photos
If you have a hair restoration, dermatology, medispa, dental, or weight loss medical practice; before-and-after photos are crucial to your marketing plans. However, you are also legally required to follow HIPAA regulations… which affects your marketing. HIPAA is the acronym for Health Insurance.
June 16, 2022 · 4 min read · Staff Writer
Websites
The Pros and Cons of Plugins
Over the years, WordPress has evolved from a structure for blogging websites to a full-blown content management system (CMS) that can be used for virtually any type of website – including ecommerce websites. Plugins are a key component that improve the functionality of WordPress websites and.
May 26, 2022 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Featured Snippets: 3 Things that Digital Marketers Need to Know
Featured snippets have become an essential SEO factor in increasing traffic to your website without having to pay for ads. This helps businesses stand out as an authority and leader in their industry. If you’ve never heard of a featured snippet, don’t worry. We’ll dive into this more for you below.
March 10, 2022 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Paid Media
Why Can’t I Find Myself/Ads/Site on Google? A Quick FAQ…
As a Search Engine Optimization team, we spend most of our time improving a client’s profile so users can find it for specific keywords on search engines – and by search engines, we mean Google. As the default browser for most Internet users, Google controls the lion’s share of search traffic.
December 23, 2021 · 6 min read · Staff Writer
Content
9 Ways to Use Your Content to Attract Leads
A good business website is more than just a digital Yellow Pages® listing. It provides information to help convert prospects into paying clients through lead nurturing. Good content can even attract customers through lead generation.
November 25, 2021 · 2 min read · Staff Writer
Social Media
How Active Social Media Helped Medical Practices During the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic hurt many businesses, and not knowing when circumstances would improve made it worse. As a result, many businesses stopped marketing during the pandemic. That was a mistake.
November 11, 2021 · 4 min read · Staff Writer
Marketing
Marketing for Niche Medical Practices
New patients are the lifeblood for any medical practice… and niche practices in particular. A doctor who maintains a full patient load and the daily needs of a busy practice can lack the time required for effective marketing.
August 12, 2021 · 6 min read · Staff Writer
Social Media
Social Media Tips for Medical Marketing
In today’s world, it seems as though everyone is on social media. From major corporations to small mom-and-pop shops… business owners are taking advantage of the opportunities social media provides their company to grow and prosper.
July 8, 2021 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Reputation Management for Medical Practices, Without a HIPAA Violation
Responding to a patient review is the one reputation task where the obvious reply is the dangerous one. Acknowledging that someone is your patient is itself a disclosure.
June 10, 2021 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Paid Media
When Should My Business Start Advertising on LinkedIn?
Are you thinking about advertising on LinkedIn but you’re not sure whether it’s a good marketing channel for your business? We already know about other social media platforms that offer advertising like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and of course, the latest, TikTok. Let’s take.
April 29, 2021 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Top Healthcare Digital Marketing Tips for 2021
The past year was difficult for many. Yet here at Efferent Media, our healthcare clients had a good year, unlike many of their competitors. As circumstances change for 2021, here are marketing tips to make it the best year yet for your healthcare practice.
April 22, 2021 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Paid Media
Google Guaranteed and Local Service Ads: What They Cost and Who They Work For
Local Service Ads sit above every other result, charge per lead instead of per click, and carry a Google-backed guarantee. They are the best first dollar for some businesses and a poor fit for others. Here is which is which.
March 18, 2021 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Content
Why is Inbound So Important During the Pandemic?
COVID-19 has been brutal for a lot of businesses and some industries have been hit especially hard. The common response to revenue downturns is to stop or drastically curtail marketing. That is a big mistake and at Efferent Media we have the evidence to prove it. Our clients who have maintained and.
March 11, 2021 · 4 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
What Cheap SEO Actually Does to a Contractor Website
The difference between legitimate SEO and the cheap version is not ethics in the abstract. It is whether the work survives contact with an algorithm update, and who is left holding the damage.
February 18, 2021 · 2 min read · Staff Writer
Marketing
What Makes a Medical Website HIPAA Compliant
A HIPAA problem on a practice website is almost never the website. It is the tracking, the forms and the vendors behind it. Here is where the exposure actually sits.
February 11, 2021 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Paid Media
Google Guaranteed + PPC + SEO = 100% Local Marketing
Marketing a local business can be stressful and difficult. As a business owner, you need to ensure that every dollar you spend on marketing is invested wisely. Hundreds of services “guarantee” an unbelievable ROI (return on investment) and an unprecedented new business volume. We would advise.
February 4, 2021 · 4 min read · Staff Writer
Lead Follow-Up
What Is a Patient Persona?
Marketing personas are an essential part of a successful marketing strategy yet are frequently overlooked when companies handle marketing in-house. That is especially true in medical marketing, which often carries the mindset that patients with the right problem will find your practice. The truth.
January 28, 2021 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Lead Follow-Up
Why You Need to Write P.S. in Your Marketing Emails
You’ve probably noticed “P.S.” at the end of many marketing materials. Is it a cliché? An old-fashioned writing habit? A tactic to improve your results? How about all of the above?
January 14, 2021 · 4 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Your Website is a Form of Reputation Management
What is reputation management? Essentially, it’s making sure that your brand is squeaky clean (or as much as possible) in the eyes of your prospective customers. This doesn’t only involve your Google and Facebook reviews though; in fact, a major component to your brand’s online reputation is your.
January 7, 2021 · 4 min read · Staff Writer
Running a Business
Google My Business Hijacking – What to Know and How to Prevent It
Google My Business (GMB) pages are a vital component of local and overall SEO. When GMB pages are optimized, they provide critical information to customers including contact information, reviews, service catalog, and more. As the pandemic continues, the value of GMB pages has never been more vital.
November 20, 2020 · 5 min read · Staff Writer
Paid Media
What is Content Marketing?
While the term may sound self-explanatory, many people are reluctant to admit that they’re not sure what content marketing actually is. Content marketing is defined as a form of marketing which focuses on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted online audience. Seems simple.
November 13, 2020 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Content
Should a Contractor Bother Blogging?
Most contractor blogs are an expense with no return. A few are the cheapest lead source the business has. The difference is entirely in what the posts are about.
October 30, 2020 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Paid Media
Facebook Is Killing Its Less Than 20% Text in Image Rule for Ads
Facebook is notoriously secretive and that can even apply to rules and best practices for Facebook ads. The latest example of this is the Facebook 20% text rule, which appears to be dead – for the moment.
October 16, 2020 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Social Media
Does Social Media Matter For Your Healthcare Practice?
Marketing a healthcare practice involves special considerations. That made many medical practitioners cautious about social media in the beginning, yet it’s where your target audience is. In fact, more than half of adults in the United States get their news from social media. This goes beyond the.
September 25, 2020 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Paid Media
Major Changes Shake Up Google Ads and What They Mean
Despite the ongoing turbulence currently engulfing the world, Google Ads has rolled out several new changes to the Internet’s largest ad distribution system in recent months.
September 18, 2020 · 2 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
E-A-T: What Is It and Why Is It So Important For SEO?
For SEO, staying up to date with Google’s recommendations is the name of the game, and while the EAT guidelines aren’t new, they’re taking on increased importance. In regards to SEO, EAT stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It was first referenced in leaked documents from.
June 24, 2019 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Running a Business
Schema Markup for Local Service Businesses: What Is Worth Adding
Most schema advice lists forty types you could add. For a local service business, four of them do the work and the rest are noise. Here is which, and what schema does not do.
March 21, 2019 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Running a Business
In Case You Missed It: Facetime Bug, Twitter Fail & More
Facetime Bug Lets People Eavesdrop on Friends A bug in iOS 12.1 allows people to hear and possibly even see the people they call on Facetime even if the recipient doesn’t accept the call. The recipient has no indication that the caller can hear or see them. The bug affects both iPhones and iPads.
January 29, 2019 · 8 min read · Staff Writer
Running a Business
In Case You Missed It: A Monthly Roundup of Digital Marketing News
Pinterest Names Chief Marketing Officer Pinterest has named Andréa Mallard as its first Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Mallard was hired away from the Gap-owned Athleta, a line of athleisure clothing, where she also served as CMO. Mallard will report to COO Francoise Brougher, who joined Pinterest.
November 27, 2018 · 4 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Verifying Your Google My Business Listing
!!! Please note that an online marketing company in California is placing ads to recruit people to receive Google My Business verification postcards. When applicants ask questions, they’re given the link to this article. Efferent Media is NOT associated with any such efforts, and we’re based in New.
November 2, 2018 · 5 min read · Staff Writer
Paid Media
Ad Relevance and Quality Score for Local Service Advertisers
Both Google and Meta charge you less when your ad, your audience and your landing page agree with each other. For a local service business that discount is usually the largest available saving.
May 15, 2017 · 2 min read · Staff Writer
Websites
What You Need to Know About Website Accessibility and the ADA
Website Accessibility is an issue that’s on the front lines for persons with disabilities, and it could effect how everyone, including Efferent, does business going forward. Businesses and other organizations around the country are addressing how to make their websites compliant with the Americans.
March 9, 2017 · 4 min read · Staff Writer
Content
How to Strategically Create Content for Your Facebook Page.
The importance of posting content is often overlooked. Let me reword that: the importance of strategically posting content is often overlooked. It’s important to remember that you’re posting on behalf of a business – this isn’t your personal Facebook Page. That means you have to take all bias out.
December 24, 2015 · 2 min read · Staff Writer
Social Media
3 Reasons Designers Love Carousel Ads
As a designer creating micro-content, it can be difficult to capture one’s full artistic expression using just one advertisement or design. With the release of Facebook’s new Carousel Ads, this now changes! Facebook released carousel Ads last year in order to allow advertisers to showcase both.
November 20, 2015 · 1 min read · Staff Writer
Social Media
Three Reasons You Should Be Using Video on Twitter
Video is becoming more and more predominant in social media. When you think video, you think of YouTube, Vine, Instagram, Snapchat and now Facebook. Chances are, you don’t usually think about Twitter. Why? Because Twitter hasn’t allowed video uploads – until now. There are countless reasons to take.
February 18, 2015 · 1 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Your Non-mobile Friendly Website and SEO
Mobile usage has taken over as leader for total web usage. I remember hearing that prediction in 2008 and thinking, “That’s just insane!”. In 2008, Mary Meeker, an analyst at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers said that mobile would surpass desktop usage for online browsing. She couldn’t have been.
February 12, 2015 · 3 min read · Staff Writer
Paid Media
Pinterest for Home Improvement, Hardscape and Remodeling
Pinterest is a planning tool, not a social network, and it is where a large share of home improvement projects begin months before anyone searches for a contractor.
January 14, 2015 · 2 min read · Staff Writer
SEO
Will Spelling Errors Hurt My SEO?
This week, Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) released a quick 1-minute video on YouTube, answering the question, “Should I correct the grammar of comments on my blog?” While the focus of the video is about misspelled comments or comments that use bad grammar, the bigger takeaway was the acknowledgement that.
February 13, 2014 · 1 min read · Staff Writer
Running a Business
Efferent Media, Local SEO Leader, Expands Client List
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Long Island, NY; November 27, 2013 Efferent Media, continuing to emerge as a leading Long Island Search Engine Optimization company, announces its move to new and larger offices to meet the needs of a growing client list and expanded staff. Efferent Media was incorporated in.
November 27, 2013 · 2 min read · Staff Writer
No posts match those filters yet.
