The last ten years in Michigan were somewhat eye opening. We missed the cost draining climate that swooped down on Manhattan and California with the dot com era. The biggest tech waves in Internet marketing did not affect S.E. Michigan one way or the other. That has been a good thing up until recently. Now that we have lost several newspapers in Metro Detroit local businesses will need to master the web to promote themselves. But where and how should the approach the web?
Restaurants would be one group that would want to rethink their position in this information age. Without the support of newspapers these businesses still need to get the word out. One answer would be to use search engine technology. Hot Metro Finds is a Detroit based viral marketing company that puts companies on the first page of Google using Web 2.0 media, viral web videos, press releases, coupon placement and more. This media is extremely important because it is also mobile and gets picked up on Iphones, and other hand held mobile devices.
“There are a lot of coupon sites out there that do nothing but offer a link to another web site. We have no problem linking to our partner sites. But what we do is make absolutely doubly sure that our partners pop up on page one of Google, Bing, MSN and Yahoo. And to sweeten the deal we get our clients listed in USA Today, DBusiness Magazine, Detroit Free Press and PBS. We go for full coverage on the web and will get our clients a lot of attention. Getting their coupon placed on the web is just one aspect of our business. We have taken SEO to another level.” Says Ted Cantu.
Search engine optimization allows Michigan based restaurants to get on the first pages of searched pages on the web. But that is going to be a starting point. In the recent months Ted Cantu and Hot Metro Finds have placed 80,000 links online for their partners and companies which make them number one in the state of Michigan. The viral marketing company has helped Yamaha atv parts dealers, artists, lawyers, import companies, retail and restaurants just to name a few.
“You can type in two keywords – SEO Michigan – and we are number one. We have been that way for years and we didn’t use pay per click campaigns to get there. Despite what you hear from the Yellow Pages and pay per click campaigns Michigan business owners are not asking for it. In fact they tell me all the time they want to get to the top of search engines organically so that’s what we give them.” Says Ted Cantu.
