The August 2019 Issue of TAS Trader

Map Communications: Make more when you sell to us!

Don’t Forget SEO for Your Website

Your Website Isn’t Finished Until It’s Optimized for Search Engines

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, author, blogger, publisher, editor

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

If you have a website for your answering service, I suspect you’ve heard of search engine optimization (SEO). It’s a critical component of every website, assuming you want people to find you. SEO means that the content of your site is optimized for search engines. If you skip this step, expect the search engines to skip you.

SEO is part art and part science. Many people promote themselves as SEO experts, promising grand outcomes. Some know what they’re doing and produce great results. Others talk a good game but can’t deliver. Even more irritating, some SEO experts disagree on best practices. The final frustration comes from the reality that SEO best practices change often.

In addition to consultants, there are books, classes, and seminars that teach about search engine optimization. Though I can only touch on SEO in this short article, here are some things to consider.

Pages and Posts: Though the terminology may vary from one web platform to the next, a page is static content that doesn’t change often. Examples include your home, services, get started, about, and contact pages.

In contrast to pages are posts. Posts are the dynamic content that you publish on your blog—assuming your site has one. You use pages for content marketing.

Both pages (your online marketing brochure) and posts (your content marketing gateway) benefit from SEO. 

The Essentials: Every page or post will have a title for visitors. Write a title that will capture their attention. Beyond this, there’s also an SEO title working behind the scenes. This is for search engines. Search engines will evaluate the title and display it in their search results. Most web platforms allow you to differentiate between these two types of titles. If not, you must write a title that will work for both visitors and search results.

Next is a page or post description, called meta-description. Your visitors won’t see this directly, but it will display in search results. You want this meta-description to provide information that will grab the search engines’ attention.

The third element is a keyword or key phrase. The content on each page or post should revolve around this word or phrase. But avoid repeating keywords or phrases on different pages and posts.

There are many other SEO elements, such as headings, graphics, link strategy, keyword density, content length, and URL selection. But title, description, and keyword are the essential SEO elements.

SEO Tools: Your website designer should have handled SEO for your pages when they designed your site, but not all do. Ask if they did. Then verify. But what about the content you add, such as blog posts? They need search optimization too. You can pay someone to do this, or you can use an SEO tool, often called a plug-in. A couple of leading SEO tools are Yoast SEO and All-In-One SEO. They’re easy to use, but mastering them—just like SEO—takes time. 

Remember, your answering service website isn’t finished until you’ve added SEO.

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of TAS Trader. Check out his latest book, Sticky Customer Service.


Classified Ads:

Operations Manager: 32-year-old TAS in sunny Central Florida looking for an operations manager. Experience is a must! Send resume to jeanpearson49@gmail.com.

Seeking Acquisitions: Reputable TAS, in business since 1967 and still owned by the founding family, seeks a small TAS acquisition in the USA. Ideally, you’re billing under $50k per month. Smaller is better. We’ll treat you right, and your employees and customers. Let’s talk. Contact Doug at 888-693-7935 or douganswerphone@gmail.com.

Seeking Acquisition: We’ll pay cash for your TAS! Completely confidential. A Courteous Communication has been in business for 32 years. Contact Doris at 800-785-6161 or Doris@courteouscom.com; visit www.courteouscom.com.


Congratulations to ATSI’s 2019 Award of Excellence Winners

The 2019 ATSI Call Center Award of Distinction (AoD) Recipients are:

Year 1
MAP Communications, Riverside, CA
A.V. Lauttamus Communications & Security, Weirton, WV
Medical TeleCommunications, Denver, CO
Intercon Messaging, Inc., Drayton Valley, AB
Answering 365, Los Angeles, CA

Year 2
Answer Ally, Sandy, OR
MASCO Services Inc., Boston, MA
Jefferson County Medication Foundation Trust, Birmingham, AL

Year 3
VoiceNation, Buford, GA
Professional Exchange Service Corp, Fresno, CA
A Superior Answering Service & Call Center, Madison, GA

Year 4
AAMCOM, Redondo Beach, CA
Answer—Southern States, Hopkinsville, KY

Year 5
Call 4 Health, Delray Beach, FL
Anserve Inc., Butler, NJ
Advantage TeleMessaging, Inc., West Reading, PA
Combined Communications, Inc., Bowling Green, KY
AnSer, Clive, IA

Year 6
Sunshine Communication Services, Coral Gables, FL
AnswerPro Limited, Mission, KS
Communication Business Service, Inc., Marietta, GA
Alliance Communications Center, Orlando, FL
Bennett Answering Service, Flint, MI
Torcom The Perfect Answer, Madison, WI

Year 7
PWC Message Center, Dothan, AL
King’s Telephone Answering Services, Shreveport, LA

Year 8
AAA Message Connection, Chattanooga, TN
Carolyn’s Communications Inc., Snellville, GA

Year 9
Ambs Call Center, Jackson, MI

Year 10
Mid-State Communications Network, LLC, Manchester, TN
Secretariats, Inc., Norfolk, VA
Phone Center Answering Service / Answer, Reno, NV

Year 11
Time Communications, Roseville, MN
Nationwide Inbound, Inc., Freeport, IL
The Legacy Connection, Tuscaloosa, AL

Year 12
Quick Connections, Greenbelt, MD
Always on Call Answering Service, LLC, Ft. Myers, FL
Answering Advantage LLC, Memphis, TN
I24 Call Management Solution, Montreal, QC
Connections Call Center, Squamish, BC

Year 13
Action Telephone Exchange, Rochester, NY
Business & Professional Exchange, Beverly, MA
Personalized Communications Inc., Duncanville, TX
AnswerOne, Brooklyn, NY
IPN Messaging Center, LaPorte, IN

Year 14
King Communications, Saginaw, MI
Focus Telecommunications, Inc., Eldersburg, MD
MedConnectUSA, Las Vegas, NV
AnswerTel of Athens, Inc., Athens, AL
Main Line TeleCommunications, Aston, PA
Alphapage, LLC, Denver, CO

Year 15
CallStar, St. Petersburg, FL
StatCall, Alexandria, VA
Central Communications, Inc., Norwalk, CT
Answer Excellence, Clearwater, FL
Messages & more, Inc., Flagstaff, AZ
Berkshire Communicators, Inc., Pittsfield, MA
ComNet, LLC, Muncie, IN

Year 16
Port City Communications, Port Huron, MI
CallNet Call Center, Bloomington, IN
Antietam Call Center, Hagerstown, MD
A Better Answer, Hurst, TX
Extend Communications, Inc., Brantford, ON
Alliance Wireless Communications, Kingston, ON

Year 17
TAB AnswerNetwork, Santa Ana, CA
Answer Quick, Louisville, TN
Corporate Message Services, Inc., Richmond Hill, GA

Year 18
Direct Line Teleresponse, Berkeley, CA
AnSer, Green Bay, WI
Answer Midwest, Inc., Alton, IL

Year 20
T.A.S. Communications, Inc., Madison, WI

Year 22
Answer United, Kalamazoo, MI
Hastings Humans, Austin, TX
Business Connections, Inc., Salem, OR
MedCom Professional Srvcs, Inc. dba Keystone Answering Srvc,
Newtown, PA

Year 23
Rochester Telemessaging Center, Rochester Hills, MI


Industry News

Amtelco Introduces Text-Enabled Landlines: Amtelco’s Intelligence Series software and MergeComm platform integrate with Infinite Convergence Solution’s (ICS) text enabled number service to allow enterprises to send short message service (SMS) messages to their customers using landline numbers. Enterprises can use the same toll-free and landline numbers for their messaging and voice customer communication, providing a better user experience.
Amtelco partners with ICS to provide SMS aggregator services to send and receive SMS text messages using a secure web connection to the internet. Amtelco customers that have already purchased ICS’s SMS aggregator services can text-enable landlines for no additional charge. ICS provides SMS messaging to landlines based on a per message fee.

Send us your TAS articles and news for consideration in the next issue.


Quotes for the Month

“If you have the knowledge, let others light their candles in it.” -Margaret Fuller

“Art is science made clear.” -Jean Cocteau

“If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine.” –unknown