by CHICKMELIONfreelance
It seems I just can’t make it a day without being inundated with a news story or press release about SEO tactics and shake ups. My mailbox is filled with webinar offerings and white papers on how to master the SEO monster. And quite frankly, my head is aching from the subject. Every big search engine is working hard to fine tune their products in order to stand above the crowd in directory solutions. Take Google for example, who have introduced “geographical location” now as a search relevance. It still leaves me wondering though, “are the people at the top of the rankings there because they and their product are out of this world.... or.... are they just really good at SEO tactics?
I can’t say, but I do know that pages and pages back in the rankings are fine folks as well who are working hard, offering good products and services at fair prices as well- and we as consumers may well be missing out on these diamonds due to the SEO warfare. Not everyone can be at the top! But whose got the time to thumb through pages and pages of listings looking for our perfect fit? So we may well be settling for less than what we deserve or even want because we (and almost everyone else) just don’t have the time to make it past even page three of the search listings. There’s got to be a better way! This is an issue that has been running through my mind because I am like everyone else whose caught in the myopic hamster wheel called: “gaining page ranking supremacy in order to survive.” You have got to admit the large engines got a good game going!
Then I remembered that way back in October 2009, there was indeed a new game that had landed on the scene. I wrote an article about it at that time and wondered what kind of ripples their approach was making. They introduced themselves through PRWeb as an organization who departed from an address based listing to an all out solution based portal... FINDSOLVE is their name (at findsolve.com)
They have packaged their product in a completely different way. When you think in terms of a web search it is all pretty much generic. Yes you can hone in a little closer on your search with the more key words that you use, however the results are more “self touting” testimonials rather than that of what the marketplace deems as real and true; therefore keying in “best graphics “ at a Google search will net a company who is pretty good at SEO and because of that, it has a lot of hits which increases their rankings even more and thought to use the word “best “ in their title, meta tags, etc... Whether or not their service is excellent, price is fair and they have tons of satisfied clients is not in question with these listings.
Now when I walk downtown to buy at a local store, my search is done a little differently. I may be looking for specific details; like quality, price and may well even be showing up at a storefront on a recommendation. Now Findsolve has figured out how to take this model we use regularly in what we like to call “real life,” and apply it to internet search activities. Cool!
With Findsolve you key in the solutions you are looking for. As in our example you may want the best (meaning well recommended by piers and customers) graphics designers in New York area that offer affordable prices on banner ads. You can do that with Findsolve and you will get what you are looking for because Findsolve showcases products and services like no other directory has thought of doing. Here it is in their own words....
”At findsolve we believe that a business directory should be more than just a list of business names, their contact details, and summarised profiles. With findsolve, businesses are able to list these business essentials as well as create separate searchable listings that showcase their actual offerings - their products, their services, their solutions. ...We help businesses to promote what they offer, to share their achievements, to highlight their success stories, to profile their satisfied customers, and explain the benefits of their offerings from a customer perspective. This provides people searching for business, product, service, solution - a valuable and trusted directory space where short-list decisions and comparisons can be made quickly and easily and be based on parameters that are important to the finder's specifications.”
Now I caught up with FINDSOLVE’s founder Brad Greene in the middle of his "Nth Hemisphere Marketing" tour, (from London UK to LA in 30 days) ... he was just heading in to meet with Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco but took the time out to respond to my questions on his growth and inevitable growing pains. He admits things have been pretty hectic, which is pretty standard and to be expected with all new enteprises, yet he’s finding solutions to make his directory the easiest and most functional source that it can be.
“As you can imagine, we have had quite the journey over the last months,” said Brad, “no doubt fairly typical to the journey most new start-ups take-- we have done some redesign work to the site, added some core functionality which people were requesting and removed some of the stuff that just didn’t make sense.” These changes that were implemented to the “solution directory” have allowed the process to simplier and more user-friendly. That is what Brad Greene claims to be the foundation laid down that allowed the release of the “findsolves friends” platform.
It is quite an ingenious model of “word of mouth” promotion kicked into overdrive. I mean, you as a business want to be a recommendation of a "Findsolve Friend," you just can’t get better and more deserving advertising than that. Simply put industry leaders and pioneers ( whether it be technology, business, communications, design, sports....you name it) who are extremely successful in what they do are identified and contacted to become a Findsolve Friend. They lay out their own foundation of businesses, products and services that they most recommend. These identified entities are then put into the Findsolve solutions directory with the full co-operation of the recommended parties. Now these “newly incorporated “ friends of friends are asked who they would recommend doing business with and the chain of “liked” and “deserving” enterprises continues onward and upward. A model theoretically based on satisfaction of ethics and delivery of goods and services as opposed to successful SEO activities. Brad Greene has noted in parting that through his tour he had been meeting a whole lot of thought leaders and innovators who are agreeing to become “Findsolve Friends”. He says,” the challenge we have now is getting them up on the site as quickly as possible.”
In parting there are a few things worth mentioning. The use of Findsolve as a source of providing a search solution is free, it’s global and it is a time saving effective means of getting business done when you need to outsource. I think it is well worth giving them a try the next time you have a problem that you need to search a solution for. They even provide a handy and compact search box that you can conveniently place on your web page to save you and your own clients the hassle of running around finding answers.
On a side note, after coming out of his meet and greet with San Francisco’s Mayor- Gavin Newsom, Brad got a hold of me, to let me know how things went. He received a pretty glowing recommendation and in Brad’s words, “just wanted to share what the Mayor had to say about Findsolve friends....”possibly the most important website for our generation. A space where the world’s thought-leaders and innovators are able to recommend and endorse businesses and solutions in an environment that is-- more static than Twitter and more open than Facebook.” Wow Brad, I’m jealous! Sure looks good on you though!
