SES Chicago in November! Content is King!

In mid-November I attended a 3 day SES Conference in Chicago. It was held at the Hyatt Regency downtown on the Chicago River. My brother and nephew traveled with for some R&R while I attended the conference. (Dinner at Morton's Steak House and the Chicago Symphony will be memories forever! No, not Lawry's this time ;-( )

The big "take away" for me was the services that I am already providing my clients were reinforced.  Index-able sites, good content, links from other sites and customer reviews are all very important. I will reference Google in the following examples because if it works for Google it will work for Bing/Yahoo and the other search engines.

Index-able Content:
Seems very simple right? Google has to be able to see your site and read your HTML to be able to add your site to its index.  Google then will be able to display your page when people search by relevant keywords. Many things can cause Google to be unable to index your site:

1. Improperly used meta tags: noindex, nofollow 
2. Image Navigation rather than CSS
3. Overuse of FLASH to build site
4. SEO black hat techniques employed causing search engine to ban your site
5. Improperly built site that Search engine cannot "see"

Good Content:
You have to have content on your site that is well written and relevant to your topic. The content has to be relevant for up to 3 keywords per page.  Create separate pages for each product or service and write targeted content for each. Trying to have one page to target 15 keywords dilutes the value of all the keywords.

Links From Other Sites:
This is one of the most important points.  This is a popularity contest like high school.  The most popular kids got the most attention.  The most popular sites (based on who links to your site) will get the most attention and will rank higher in the search engine results for appropriate keywords. If a lot of sites link to your site, you must have content worth reading.

Customer Reviews:
Google is looking at reviews from your customers as another key indicator that you have good products or services. Ask your customers to review you on Google+.  Give them a card with your Google+ Business page URL and instructions on how provide a review.  Google is placing more emphasis on reviews, especially for local businesses.

I have been providing SEO service for 3 year with documented results.  I have conveyed expectations to the client, utilized on page best practices, documented increased visitors, documented increased external links through proper link building and provided monthly progress reports with recommendations.

Results? Every customer has renewed for this service each year.

www.maderweb.com
Gregory on Google+

SES Chicago in November! Content is King!

Mason Wells buys Whitehall Specialties

Milwaukee private equity firm Mason Wells said it closed on the acquisition of Whitehall Specialties Inc., a Whitehall producer and marketer of custom cheese products.

“Whitehall has a tremendous reputation in the market due to its dedicated employees, and a culture devoted to serving its customers with the highest quality products,” said Greg Myers, senior managing director of Mason Wells.

Complete story: Mason Wells buys Whitehall Specialties - Milwaukee - The Business Journal http://bit.ly/V0IpEu

www.whitehallspecialties.com

Mason Wells buys Whitehall Specialties

RAGBRAI. It's kind of a big deal. Iowa.

Source: ragbrai.com via Brent on Pinterest

RAGBRAI. It's kind of a big deal. Iowa.

What do I do with Facebook and Twitter?

Facebook and Twitter.  Yeah you’ve seen these logos a million times.  They are on TV. You see them in the Mall.

I am too busy and people don’t care what I am doing anyway.  Wait.  Your business has lot to share. Your business has a lot to offer

If you are not on Facebook you are missing a great opportunity to be where over 1 billion people are almost daily.  Some people are there multiple times a day. People visit Facebook and Twitter on their mobile device everywhere, any time.


Internet users in the U.S. spend nearly a quarter of their time online using social media (or about 13 and  half minutes per every hour spent online). Nearly 4 out of 5 web users visit a social networking site on a monthly basis. 73% of US companies use social media tools for marketing purposes

What can you Facebook about?

1. Offer a discount for “liking” you on Facebook
2. Tell people about your latest unusual project
3. Feature a product or service
4. Feature an employee

Top 5 things to do with your business facebook account.

1. Make sure to set up a Business Facebook page not a personal page used as a business page. People make this mistake often and lose followers when Facebook turns the page off for violation of their policies.
2. Place a little link to your Web site on the left hand side of the page
3. Create a welcome page for new visitors to help them “like” you.
4. Add 10 to 20 photos
5. Offer an incentive for people to “like” your page

What next:

• Create a video on YouTube. Easy to do with inexpensive video equipment or phone.
• Blog about the video. (you do have a blog, don’t you?).  Embed the video in your blog.
• Facebook about the Blog Post (drives traffic to the blog and hopefully your Website)
• Tweet about the Blog Post with a short link (these funny looking things: http://bit.ly/RRSt2k) to the Blog
• Google Plus your blog post.

www.maderweb.com

What do I do with Facebook and Twitter?

New Mobile Friendly site for Cass Street Pharmacy

[click to enlarge]

Cass Street Pharmacy has a new Mobile friendly site. When you visit www.cassstpharmacy.com on your mobile device you will see a Mobile friendly version of our site. You will see various links to contact us, refill prescriptions, view various service offerings or learn about our company and people. You will also have the ability to view the full site. You will be able to press on your touch screen to call them directly or view a map to their location.

We have discovered, as most other sites, that more and more people are coming to the site from a mobile device.  Since January 1st, over 10% of their visitors are using mobile phones or tablets to view theirsite.  We expect this to only increase as mobile devices become more prevalent.

Thia mobile friendly interface was created by the fine folks from Mader Web Design and  Venue Valet in Austin,Texas (www.venue-valet.com).  In addition to Mobile friendly sites they also feature mobile apps for iPhone and Android and other offerings that turn customer loyalty into results. They offer a mobile centric loyalty platform for markets that depend on the loyalty of their customer base for continued growth and success.

www.cassstpharmacy.com

New Mobile Friendly site for Cass Street Pharmacy

New Mobile Friendly site for Clinic Pharmacy

[click to enlarge]

We have a new Mobile friendly site. When you visit www.clinicpharmacyofwestsalem.com on your mobile device you will see a Mobile friendly version of our site. You will see various links to contact us, call us or learn about our company. You will also have the ability to view our full site. You will be able to press on your touch screen to call us directly or view a map to our location.

We have discovered, as most other sites, that more and more people are coming to our site from a mobile device.  Since January 1st, over 10% of our visitors are using mobile phones or tablets to view our site.  We expect this to only increase as mobile devices become more prevalent.

Our mobile friendly interface was created by the fine folks from Venue Valet in Austin,Texas (www.venue-valet.com).  In addition to Mobile friendly sites they also feature mobile apps for iPhone and Android and other offerings that turn customer loyalty into results. They offer a mobile centric loyalty platform for markets that depend on the loyalty of their customer base for continued growth and success.

www.clinicpharmacyofwestsalem.com

New Mobile Friendly site for Clinic Pharmacy

New Client: Mulder Health Care West Salem

We just completed a new site for Mulder Health Care in West Salem, Wisc.  Mulder wanted to join the on-line world after many year without a site.  Mulder had a site years ago, through the phone company, but were dissatisfied with service and cost.  This is an easy site to update and provides information for families looking for health care for elderly parents. 

Mulder knows the baby boomers will be retiring at an increasing pace and they want to be ready and provide information and photos for the public to evaluate a health care facility.

Congratulation to Bob, Sharon and the staff of Mulder Health Care Facility as we present their new site.  www.mulderhealth.com

New Client: Mulder Health Care West Salem

Facebook Timeline

Browse more Social Media infographics.

Facebook Timeline

New Mobile Friendly site for Sign-A-Rama

Mader Web Design and Venue Valet work together to create mobile friendly interface for existing Web sites. The following is from Sign-A-Rama - Kearny Mesa blog.

We have a new Mobile friendly site. When you visit www.sdsar.com on your mobile device you will see a Mobile friendly version of our site. You will see various links to contact us, receive a quote, view our various sign product offerings or learn about our company and people. You will also have the ability to view our full site. You will be able to press on your touch screen to call us directly or view a map to our location.

We have discovered, as most other sites, that more and more people are coming to our site from a mobile device.  Since January 1st, over 10% of our visitors are using mobile phones or tablets to view our site.  We expect this to only increase as mobile devices become more prevalent.

Our mobile friendly interface was created by the fine folks from Venue Valet in Austin,Texas (www.venue-valet.com).  In addition to Mobile friendly sites they also feature mobile apps for iPhone and Android and other offerings that turn customer loyalty into results. They offer a mobile centric loyalty platform for markets that depend on the loyalty of their customer base for continued growth and success.

www.sdsar.com

New Mobile Friendly site for Sign-A-Rama