Business Tips from Fire & Rice Founder, Paul Schmidgall: Getting Your Company Found Online

No matter how well your business is doing through word-of-mouth referrals, it’s critical to position your company so that it’s easily found online. The way word-of-mouth referrals work in this day and age is that someone refers your business to someone else, and while that person may remember the name of your company or what you do, they will eventually search Google for your contact information or to learn more.  

When a potential customer does a Google search for your business, you absolutely need to be listed right there on page one. Anything less and that wonderful word-of-mouth referral could very well go to another company, either mistakenly or simply because that company is there and you’re not.

How Fire & Rice - Naples Original Paella! Made Its Way to the Top of Online Search Results

When establishing your business and setting yourself up for leads, you need to be found on page one of a Google search, preferably near the top.  When searching online for a service or product, 33% of people click on the number one search result on Google. Another 62% of people click on one of the top three search results, and 95% of all clicks occur on page one. If you’re not there, you won’t get found online. It’s that simple. 

Before Chef Paul started optimizing his website for SEO, he saw a trend he didn’t like. An owner of another local catering company had done some SEO, and when prospects contacted him, he pretended to be Fire & Rice!  As outrageous as this is, customers booked their parties expecting Fire & Rice and were disappointed when someone else showed up.

At this time, Chef Paul decided that top SEO placement was a key part of growing, as well as protecting, his business. While Chef Paul is a fantastic chef and entrepreneur, SEO is not his area of expertise. With a full plate running the Naples paella location and overseeing other franchises, he decided to leave his online presence to the digital marketing experts. 

Chef Paul was referred by a friend, who is also a local business owner, to 33social, a digital marketing agency that excels in getting clients found online. As the industry experts, 33social analyzes clients’ existing online presence, as well as their competitors, and develops a plan to reach each client’s digital marketing goals.  Areas of expertise include SEO, online advertising, social media, video marketing, image marketing, and more.

While working with his 33social consultant, Chef Paul learned that to gain placement in the organic ranks for his Naples’ paella catering services, he needed to build out his website in a way that was meaningful and valuable to Google. Google likes quality content (and lots of it), and as a website’s content ages, it becomes more and more valuable, pushing its placement up higher in the ranks.  After working on SEO efforts with 33social, Fire & Rice – Naples Original Paella! is currently all over page one of Google – it’s hard to miss! 

Another piece of the digital marketing equation is getting good reviews. Fire & Rice clients rave about their Naples paella catering experiences, but unless there are reviews that say so, it doesn’t matter to Google. With every positive review, your business, just like Fire & Rice, will become more valuable to Google, and your position will rank higher in the search results over time.  ​

​Fire & Rice: Naples Paella Catering & Beyond

For more than a decade, Fire & Rice – Naples’ Original Paella! has been bringing award-winning paella in a unique communal dining setting to Southwest Florida and getting rave reviews! Today, Fire & Rice franchises are sharing the fun and excitement of the ultimate paella experience across the country, and it’s catching on like wildfire. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Fire & Rice franchise opportunities, call us at (239) 269-8857. We look forward to hearing from you!