Neighbors helping neighbors
Willow Creek Group offers free Aadit to help businesses get found online
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- An area business is looking to help other small businesses get seen.
Willow Creek Group LLC founder Blake Porterfield created a web application that provides a free online audit showing how businesses perform online and what people see when they search for those businesses.
The application measures what searchers see and scores businesses on a 46-point checklist.
"It has 46 checks, and it tells you what you need to fix, what’s wrong, and how you can improve," Porterfield said. "This is all free on my website to any business that wants to take the two minutes to run their business through the auditor."
Porterfield said he made the audit free because many of the improvements it identifies are minor.
"For example, even without my help, it can still give a small business the guidance to say, 'Hey, I need to update these hours, or the link that goes to my website’s broken, no one’s getting through, or I don’t have a booking button on my Google Business profile, so it's just little things like that, are actually the most useful part of the tool for a small business to see," Porterfield said. "It can show them how to shape up, how people see them online, and how they can be better."
Porterfield said his father, Kirke Porterfield, owns Kirke’s Homemade Ice Cream. While he described his father as a great business owner, he said his father is not as familiar with the internet.
"We have a good product and people love our ice cream, but we weren’t really optimizing our footprint online to the best of our abilities. Very small changes can be completely beneficial to a small business," Porterfield said. "Just to be findable on a Google search is crucial, and you’re not going to be on the second page, which I call Google purgatory. No one goes to the second page, right? So it’s just a tool that I thought, 'Hey, there’s a lot of businesses that do really good work, have great products, and great service, but they’re not being found online."
Porterfield said he does not believe Google has any malice toward businesses but noted businesses can pay to appear prominently in search results.
Business owners can access the tool by visiting willowcreek.group and clicking "Auditor" at the top of the page.
"You just put your business name and the city that your business is operating in, and then it’s going to take about 15 seconds, and it will give you a whole profile," Porterfield said. "There’s no sign-up, it will give you the highlights at first if you put your email in, then you can get emailed for free the full report."
The audit also explains ways businesses can improve their online profiles, including updating hours, providing a reliable phone number and adding quality photographs.
"It pays dividends because according to BrightLook, 96% of people look up a business and read their reviews before they buy there or shop. It’s very very important," Porterfield said. "A business with six reviews isn’t disliked. It just has six neighbors who spoke up. Google cannot recommend a business nobody has vouched for, and the people here are not the problem, but being findable is."
Porterfield said the Ohio Valley has always relied on neighbors helping neighbors, and that philosophy can extend to supporting local businesses online.
He encouraged residents to help small businesses in the Ohio Valley simply by leaving reviews after visiting or purchasing from them.