In an effort to clarify the Goats On The Go® brand message and make our affiliate structure less confusing to customers, your listings on GoatsOnTheGo.com and your profile pages will be soon be seeing some changes. These changes will be rolling out over the next several weeks. Here’s what you can expect.
Directory Listings
The goal: Help customers find “their affiliate” first by state and then by place. We do this by grouping affiliates together by state, and by listing several recognizable communities that are scattered across each territory to serve as geographic “anchors.” We want customers scrolling through all the affiliates in their state to say, “Oh, that city is near where I live. That must be the affiliate I need to contact.” Then, the customer can click the live-linked name of the people operating the territory to be taken to the affiliate’s profile page for more information.
The change: The anchor community names will remain, but they will be listed below the name of the affiliate territory, which contains the affiliate’s local descriptor. The territory name will now be the thing customers click to link to the affiliate’s profile page. This change emphasizes the GOTG-branded territory and makes it clearer where users should click to take the next step. The names of the people operating each territory will no longer be listed in the state-by-state directory since that information is not helpful to most customers during the early stages of their search. The graphics below to show how the Dubuque Iowa territory operated by Cox Springs Farm (Peg and Tim Harbaugh) looks in the directory before and after the change.
Before
After
Keep in mind: The places listed in the directory listings are not intended to be a comprehensive list of all communities each affiliate serves, but only to provide a quick reference point for the breadth of each territory. We took our best guess at what community names would serve as landmarks in your area, but we don’t have your local knowledge. If you would like different communities listed (usually three and no more than four), contact Olivia at olivia@goatsonthego.com.
Profile Pages
The goal: Introduce customers to “their affiliate” and make it convenient for customers to contact them. This is intended to be a more personal step in the process of matching customers to affiliates. The profile page is also an opportunity to help people understand they will be working with a local service provider operating under the GOTG brand, not with an anonymous national company. Finally, the profile page displays a more comprehensive — but still brief — description of the affiliate’s service area, a link to a map showing the boundaries of the service area, and potentially a link to the affiliate’s outside website.
The change: The headline of the profile page will continue to be the GOTG territory name (which includes the local affiliate descriptor). Now, however, the line below the territory name will begin with “Operated by…” Each affiliate may now choose to insert their own name OR the name of their business entity. For example, “Operated by Peg and Tim Harbaugh” or “Operated by Cox Springs Farm, LLC.”
Before
After
Keep in mind: By default we will show your personal name as the operator of your territory. If you would like to use a farm name or business entity name, please contact olivia@goatsonthego.com. However, if you choose to put a snazzy company or farm name on your profile page, that does not mean you can offer your grazing service under that brand instead of GOTG. Your affiliate agreement requires you to only offer targeted grazing services as Goats On The Go®. For the purposes of legal contracts, invoices, and bank accounts Peg and Tim can be “Goats On The Go® Dubuque operated by Cox Springs Farm, LLC,” or “Cox Springs Farm, LLC doing business as Goats On The Go® Dubuque.” But for all marketing, promotions, and public relations related to targeted grazing, affiliates must present themselves as Goats On The Go® followed by their local descriptor (e.g. Goats On The Go® Dubuque). Same goes for links from profile pages to social media accounts or outside websites. If you have a company/farm name or brand, it must ALWAYS be subordinate to the Goats On The Go® brand when targeted grazing services are being offered!!! If you need advice on how and where to draw the line, contact Aaron at aaron@goatsonthego.com.
URL Slugs
The goal: Create a website address that helps us organize affiliate profile pages efficiently. You know that extension that hangs off the end of a website address, like, “GoatsOnTheGo.com/harbaugh”? That is a URL slug. In the past we’ve always used the last names of affiliates as the URL slug.
The change: URL slugs will now be individual territory descriptors. So, Peg and Tim Harbaugh’s profile page will no longer be found at GoatsOnTheGo.com/harbaugh. Instead it will be GoatsOnTheGo.com/dubuque. If your territory descriptor is more than one word, it will be compressed with no spaces, dashes, or underscores. For example, Goats On The Go® Cedar Valley’s URL will become GoatsOnTheGo.com/cedarvalley.
Keep in mind: We’re making this change to be territory specific rather than person specific. That way if an affiliate withdraws from GOTG and a new one takes over the territory, there will be some continuity both internally and for our customers. This is also why we don’t allow business or farm names to be the URL slug. It’s worth noting that potential customers are unlikely to type in an entire URL into their internet search engines to find you anyway. Rather, they will simply type “Goats On The Go” or “goats go dubuque” or “go goats iowa,” all of produce search results with GOTG at the top of the list! Therefore, we recommend against trying to get your customers to memorize your URL and slug. It’s a losing battle. Instead, rely on the search engine optimization (SEO) we’re doing for you in the background!
Other Changes
We’re working to reformat and standardize a few other things on the website as well. In several places on the website customers will now be presented with the statement, “Service may be extended to other locations in the region on a case-by-case basis.” This will encourage customers to reach out to nearby affiliates even if their properties fall outside the boundaries of every affiliate territory on the map (remember, affiliates must get authorization from Aaron before pursuing out-of-territory leads).
We’re also working hard to update our SEO settings, which will impact how each affiliates’ listings appear to customers in Internet search results. This should help more customers find their particular affiliate without necessarily landing on the GoatsOnTheGo.com home page first.
Questions? Some of this is pretty technical, so don’t hesitate to reach out to aaron@goatsonthego.com with questions. If you’d rather just ignore these details, you can rest assured that everything we do is intended to make you more recognizable and findable as a Goats On The Go@ targeted grazing operator!