Linda Girard: Find & Convert Web Customers

By Bud on September 1, 2007 TrackBacks (1) Comments (14)

Linda Girard co-founded Pure Visibility two years ago because she knew she had to be part of Internet marketing after having founded another Internet marketing firm and working in the field for years. In a short time, Pure Visibility has grown from three to fifteen employees with plans to add another ten in the next twelve months. In this segment, we discuss Pure Visibility's core value proposition, helping companies to attract potential customers on the Internet and convert them.

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Filed under: Ann Arbor, MI | Defining New Markets | Linda Girard | Pure Visibility | Web 2.0

In this seven minute podcast (download iPod compatible, 35MB), Linda Girard, Chief Visionary and Co-Founder of SEO firm Pure Visibility discuss how her company helps companies attract potential customers over the web and convert them. Without realizing it, Linda prepared herself for the era of Internet marketing in the early 1990s by majoring in telecommunications and psychology. She then moved through a succession of firms until founding her first SEO firm and then evolving that concept into Pure Visibility.

Here's how Pure Visibility addresses the current Internet marketing challenge:

It helps firms improve their positioning in "organic" (non-advertising) search results. This activity requires analyzing how the search engine indexes the site in light of the site owner's intent.
It helps firms figure out which paid search terms (for example, adwords) to bid on based on expected ROI.
It helps firms organize their sites and content so that visitors are more likely to convert into customers.

Obviously, this range of services requires a broad range of talent. In later segments, Linda and I will discuss how she hires people, the types of budgets bring to bear on these types of services, and directions in which she would like to use social media like blogs and wikis.

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14 Comments

Phia Rabun on March 25, 2008 10:37 PM

Hello Ms. Girard, I found your business model and concepts absolutely fascinating. A number of years ago I started a website in which I sold various lamps and other household products. I spent about a year prior to that learning HTML and Dreamweaver and other website design methodology. In order to better understand my programmer (I hired a website designer from Eastern Michigan University); I thought that I needed to know what he was designing and ultimately how I wanted my website to look and perform. It was an interesting process. I positioned myself in such a way that I was able to save money by doing some of the more elementary programming myself while I had my designer set up the Access database for the shopping cart and other more advance operations that would be needed. Eventually, my programmer graduated from EMU and moved to New York and I found that long distance meetings via telephone were too challenging. So, with the basic website constructed, I needed to only maintain the website. Then I discovered that obtaining high ratings on the search engines was time consuming (at that time it could take the crawlers up to six months to find your site!). I conducted extensive research on how to obtain high search engine standings, to no avail. I took various classes that taught you how to obtain high ratings on search engines, but they said the process was also time consuming and sometimes haphazard. I even joined several business forums to network with other small business owners who noticed how the top rated search engines were featuring only a few companies. I noticed how in my industry category the five top searches would be concentrated within a few companies. That puzzled me how one company could have the top three listings on all of the major search engines! After months of research, I discovered AdWords on Google and decided to try it. That strategy helped. If I had a resource like Pure Visibility at that time, I just might still be in business. There is definitely a need for your business model. As you said in one of your interviews, each website represents a person or persons behind it. Remaining on page 1,500 of a search engine when most people stop at page three or four will not allow you to grow a business. I find it interesting that you have such an eclectic mix of staffers in your employ. I would think that they would bring a wide array of ideas to the forefront when dealing with the wide variety of clientele you probably deal with each day. I also think that your mix of staff will allow you to obtain many more positive comments from Google! I wish you all the best in your future plans for growth and progress. Keep up the good work! Phia Rabun Eastern Michigan University

Sean Hoffman on April 1, 2008 11:35 AM

Hey Linda, My name is Sean Hoffman. I am an Eastern Michigan University student athlete and plan on graduating in April of 2009. The first thing that caught my attention about your interview was that you are an EMU allumni. I was just wondering if EMU prepared you for your business well enough or have you seeken outside help? I find your idea very fascinating and completely useful. I have also thought of going into the computer field. All through high school I took as many web designs classes that I could and really enjoyed them. I understand how important content is and how user friendly web sites are crucial. Advertising on web pages like search engines is a great idea. I can't count how many times a day I go to google to look something up. I do notice the advertisements and I look at them almost before I even look at what I am searching for. This business concept is revolutionary and is very appropriate for the way the computer industry is headed. Search engines are very important every day on the internet and to be able to apply your business ideas along with these search engines is great. I came up with a business plan on my own sporting goods company and applied what I know. When I typed in "sporting goods" into google I instantly saw the leading sporting goods company's web sites on the right side of the web page. To me, having advertising like this is a must if you wish to be a competing company in certain fields. I think that it is unbelievable what you three entrepreneurs have started and what Pure Visibility has evolved into. Going from three employees to fifteen in two years is pretty amazing for this type of field, but you are even planning on adding ten more in the next year, that is amazing and I wish you the best. Sean Hoffman EMU Student Athlete

Sean Hoffman on April 1, 2008 11:36 AM

Hello Linda, My name is Sean Hoffman. I am an Eastern Michigan University student athlete and plan on graduating in April of 2009. The first thing that caught my attention about your interview was that you are an EMU allumni. I was just wondering if EMU prepared you for your business well enough or have you seeken outside help? I find your idea very fascinating and completely useful. I have also thought of going into the computer field. All through high school I took as many web designs classes that I could and really enjoyed them. I understand how important content is and how user friendly web sites are crucial. Advertising on web pages like search engines is a great idea. I can't count how many times a day I go to google to look something up. I do notice the advertisements and I look at them almost before I even look at what I am searching for. This business concept is revolutionary and is very appropriate for the way the computer industry is headed. Search engines are very important every day on the internet and to be able to apply your business ideas along with these search engines is great. I came up with a business plan on my own sporting goods company and applied what I know. When I typed in "sporting goods" into google I instantly saw the leading sporting goods company's web sites on the right side of the web page. To me, having advertising like this is a must if you wish to be a competing company in certain fields. I think that it is unbelievable what you three entrepreneurs have started and what Pure Visibility has evolved into. Going from three employees to fifteen in two years is pretty amazing for this type of field, but you are even planning on adding ten more in the next year, that is amazing and I wish you the best. Sean Hoffman EMU Student Athlete

Megan Langton on June 10, 2008 9:48 PM

Hello Linda, My name is Megan and I am currently enrolled at Eastern Michigan University. I am taking an Entrepreneurship class and was very interested in how you founded your business. You were able to see that getting into this field would have its rewards. I think that Pure Visibility is a fantastic idea to help companies attract potential customers on the internet. I have always been interested in web design and find it motivating to know that you have focused on what makes a web site profitable. There are a lot people who think that web sites have little thought put in them and some of them do but Pure Visibility is allowing companies to focus on what customers want in a website. Different web sites cater to different individuals. I think that finding a workforce that is diversified is a wonderful way to provide those different creative ways to get that customer to websites. You also talk about how customers who have had a negative experience talk more then do customers who have had a positive one, and I think that is so true and should be taken into consideration when developing a website. A lot more people are using the internet to find information and purchase things then ever before and Pure Visibility is helping those company’s find out what attracts customers to their websites. I also found it very interesting that you help firms improve their positioning in organic search results. I have never even thought about how search engines place results and it’s a great idea to offer companies a better chance at being clicked on. I also found it interesting that you can study visitor behavior. It’s an opportunity for company’s to find out where to place things on their websites. Overall I think Pure Visibility has a bright future!

Jim O'Neil the Network Marketing Guy on December 15, 2008 1:44 PM

I've noticed more and more that "atypical" education seems to serves e-marketers very well. Yours, in psychology, is a perfect example. It seems that the specific education is less important than the ability to learn and adapt. And you seem to be the perfect example of that as well.

Steve@ business web hosting on December 25, 2008 12:52 AM

What i think, basic knowledge of the business has prime importance along with the comming updates. As if you design infrastucture of your web business while keeping the basic concept in mind, there will be a smooth way in future to uplift or promote your e-business.

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Kari Simon on October 29, 2009 11:27 AM

Thanks for helping me hone in on my business model. I've been struggling with this.

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