500,000 pts, free membership and a pretty box under my name

Finally, I made it...500,000 pts.  17 months ago, I took the plunge and wrote my first post.  About a year ago, just before Thanksgiving, I hit my first 100,000 and it definitely gets easier from there, I promise you.

I've blogged my heart away, and it's done wonders for my business...see below.  I started as a regular paying member, and I knew nothing about SEO and barely knew how to blog.  But, I do know a ton about my business (flooring) and I do have a passion for learning. 

So, it's easy to blog about what you know and it's fun to learn SEO...especially when you start to see the business benefits - the phone ringing, your website ranking higher and higher, and real quality customes interesting in meeting you. Of course, at the time I joined, I had no idea what a wonderful community this is and how much fun it has been .  I feel that I have learned so much from others here, and I have some life long friends and biz partners...there are too many to name, and I'm afraid if I do, I'll leave someone out.

After 2 months, I started to see more hits to my website, and after 6 months, the business was on fire.  We continue to grow, and now internet/website leads are my largest source of business.  This year, I have averaged slightly over 4 appointments a week from internet leads and this fall, that has accelerated to 4 per week.  In addition, I have several local agents I've met here in the rain that refer business to me, and their customers are so nice, so it is truely fun to work with them.

• I often rank # 1 #2 or #3 for most of my local towns + hardwood flooring (and often come up 3+ more times on those pages
• For my broader term of Westchester Hardwood flooring, I'm now listed as #1 in local places and #3 organically as well as # 8 (3 times on that page).  This is for my whole county.
• For a much broader term of Westchester Flooring, I'm now #3 in local listings and #5 and #7 in organic search.
• For longer tail searches, I'm often #1 or #2
• Because there are so many types of flooring and so many long tail searches, there is still a LOT of room for growth.

With patience and persistence, you can achieve this, too, even if you are not a real estate agent.  The SEO (Search Engine Optimization) works regardless of what category you work on.

Now, I've earned free membership for life...and you can too...in less than 1.5 yrs.  (You get free membership when you achieve 500,000 pts).  And I finally have a colored box under my name.  It's the little stuff, that counts, right?

Here is a link to a featured post I wrote that may help some of you with SEO.  The most awesome collection of SEO and intro posts for newbies and vererans.  Also, feel free to subsribe to my blog as I do try to repost SEO posts - many of them from the past, so that all of us non-techies can learn from the experts.   I've reblogged a whole bunch of them this last week or so.

Since the time of this post, I have also surpassed my latest goal of 400 called shots...yes, you too can have a say/help influence what gets featured.

Hardwood Flooring - Carpet - Tile/Natural Stone - Laminate - Refinish Hardwood - Backsplashes

Debbie Gartner, President and Owner

"The Flooring Girl"

Floor Coverings International: Westchester NY/Stamford CT

You can download our free flooring guide.  Or, visit our flooring selector - 2,000 options for hardwood flooring, carpet, tile. Call us for a free estimate 914-937-2950. 

"We bring the store to your door."

WC19920-H07, HIC619252