Internet Marketing Services
5.0 Rating on GoogleFirst impressions
Most people who spend money in Baldwin County are not repeat customers of yours. A family that drove in for a week has never heard of your business. A couple who bought a house in Fairhope last spring is still learning which road goes where. When someone is new to a place, the online presence is the whole introduction: the profile with its photos and stars, the website on a phone, a few reviews, a hint of whether the hours are current.
That is why this page treats online marketing as a presence to be read, not a bundle of services to buy. Internet marketing earns money only when the surfaces agree with each other. A website that lists summer hours and a profile that lists winter hours cost a business a visitor who then drives away from a closed door. The audit below finds those disagreements before any budget moves.
Who is looking
| What the Census measured | Baldwin County | Typical Alabama county | Typical U.S. county |
|---|---|---|---|
| People who do their job from home | 9.1 percent | 3.9 percent | 7 percent |
| Housing kept for part-year use | 10.9 percent | 2.9 percent | 2.9 percent |
| Median age | 43.7 | 41.1 | 41.4 |
| Residents aged 65 and over | 21.2 percent | 19.4 percent | 19.4 percent |
| Adults with a four-year degree | 32.6 percent | 16.4 percent | 21.1 percent |
| Median value of an owned home | $266,000 | $129,000 | $159,500 |
| Median household income | $71,039 | $49,879 | $60,522 |
Source: Census ACS 5-year estimates, 2018-2022. Typical means the median county in that group.
Reading the audience
People working from home number 9.1 percent of workers, against 3.9 percent in the typical Alabama county. That means weekday searching from kitchen tables, not only evenings and weekends, so service pages and profiles need to be right at ten in the morning.
Homes held for seasonal use run 10.9 percent, nearly four times the typical Alabama county. Those owners are away for part of the year and cannot knock on a neighbor's door. They find a plumber, a cleaner or a property watcher by search and by whoever replies to a text, which is why an email and text list belongs in the audit.
The median age is 43.7 and 21.2 percent of residents are 65 or older, so a phone number should be visible without scrolling and forms should be short. Adults with a four-year degree are 32.6 percent of the adult population, double the typical Alabama county, which suggests residents read, compare and look at reviews before they call. Median home value is $266,000, so a repair, a remodel or a legal matter is a decision people research.
Six surfaces
Open it on a phone with one bar of signal, standing in a parking lot. Does the phone number show? Does the page say what you do and where within a few seconds? A page per service and per place matters here, because search results cannot send a Foley customer to a page that only talks about Gulf Shores.
The name, address and hours should read the same everywhere. A business with no storefront needs a service area set, and the county has plenty of unincorporated places such as Fort Morgan and Stockton, where an address is not inside any city. Check that seasonal hours are changed before the season, not after.
Guests read reviews because they have nothing else to go on. Look at how recent the latest ones are, whether guests mention what they did, and whether the owner replies. A quiet review record in July says more than a thin one in January.
The audit asks whether profiles exist, whether the name and photo match, and whether anything useful is posted around the dates that matter: the Hangout music festival in May, the Elberta sausage festival in March and October, the Strawberry Festival in Loxley in spring, the County Fair in Robertsdale in fall.
Visitors leave. A list of past guests, buyers and second-home owners is the one way to reach them again without paying for each click. The audit checks whether there is a way to join, what is sent and whether the list has ever been used.
Without tracking, a business cannot tell a Gulf Shores guest from an Eastern Shore resident, or a search call from a Maps call. The audit looks for call tracking, form tracking and a plain monthly report that an owner actually reads.
Where to begin
| Kind of business | Score this surface first | What to look for in the county |
|---|---|---|
| Beach rental, tour or attraction | Reviews and the map profile | Photos from the current season, hours that match the calendar, and guest reviews that name the activity. |
| Restaurant or shop on the road to the beach | Map profile and phone view of the website | State Route 59 averaged 60,600 vehicles a day into Gulf Shores in July 2024. People pick a stop from a car, so speed to a phone number and directions matters. |
| Home-service contractor | Service pages and call tracking | One page per service and per town served, plus a way to know which towns send work. |
| Law, accounting, dental or medical office | Website content and reviews | Plain descriptions of each service, location pages and recent reviews, aimed at newcomers who do not yet have a provider. |
| Property services for second-home owners | Email and text list, then tracking | Owners live elsewhere. The list is how you stay in touch, and tracking shows whether a campaign reached anyone. |
| Business serving several zones | Listings and service-area settings | Eastern Shore, Central Baldwin and the beach towns are three search habits. Each needs a page and a clear promise about drive range. |
Our reading of the county; every business is different, and the audit replaces these defaults with what it finds.
Who employs people here
| Employment sector | Workers living in the county | Share of all workers |
|---|---|---|
| Retail trade | 16,317 | 15.2 percent |
| Health care and social assistance | 12,835 | 12 percent |
| Manufacturing | 9,625 | 9 percent |
| Construction | 9,136 | 8.5 percent |
| Accommodation and food services | 8,327 | 7.8 percent |
| Education | 7,800 | 7.3 percent |
Census ACS 5-year estimates 2018-2022, workers 16 and older by industry.
Timing the work
Retail leads with 16,317 workers and the accommodation and food sector adds 8,327. Those are the businesses whose profiles and reviews are read by visitors, and they are the ones whose hours change by season. Health care and social assistance is second, with 12,835 workers, and those practices are judged on reviews and clear service pages. Construction employs 9,136 residents, which fits a county that is still adding homes.
A business in the first group should finish the audit a few months ahead of spring break, so fixes are live when guests start searching. A business in the second group can run the audit at any time but should repeat it after a staffing or location change. A construction business should look at its audit alongside its calendar of jobs, since tracking is far more useful when it runs from the first week of a busy season.
How it is paid for
Questions
The audit leads into a monthly plan. Organic Growth Silver is $1,495 a month for a business that keeps its own site, Gold is $2,495 with a managed website, and Platinum is $3,495. RankGuarantee™ at $495 a month covers 25 landing pages. Paid ads management is $895, $1,595 or $2,295 for one, two or three platforms, with ad spend paid separately. There is no setup fee and no contract.
A scoring tool grades one page against a checklist. The audit reads six surfaces together and asks whether they agree: the hours, the service area, the reviews and the phone number. It also looks at who is searching and when, using the county numbers above, so the fixes are ordered by what a guest, a newcomer or an owner will actually notice.
In everyday use the two names overlap and cover the same ground: search, listings, ads, the website and tracking. We use online marketing as the umbrella on this page and internet marketing when we mean the work that happens on the open web, such as being found in search results and reviews. The audit is the same either way.
Housing held for seasonal use is 10.9 percent of the stock, so yes, in meaningful numbers. These owners search by town name, read reviews and often ask for a text or email reply instead of a call. A business that wants their work should look at its email list and response speed during the audit.
Google Maps is where most visitors read them, so that profile comes first. Beyond that, keep reviews where your customers already are and do not chase every directory. The audit counts where your reviews sit today, whether replies are posted and whether the latest ones are from this season.
Repeat it before the spring break season opens, after any storm that closes your location and after the fall events end. Each time, check the hours, photos, service area and the top pages. A business with a steady year-round customer base can drop to twice a year.
Yes. Silver is designed for a business that keeps its current site, and the audit tells you whether the site is helping or holding things back. If it is the weak surface, Gold includes a managed website, and nothing forces the switch.
You get the six surfaces ranked in the order to fix them, with the reason for each. Some fixes are small and can be done in a week. Others, such as a new page per town, become the first months of a monthly plan. You decide what to take on.
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Get in Touch
Send us your website address and the name your Google profile uses, and tell us who your customers are: guests, residents, second-home owners or all three. Call 610-825-4363 or email hello@getphound.com.