Shade Tree Marketing

Audit Cycle

Over the last few months I’ve worked with a fairly diverse spread of verticals and quickly realized how little many people know about their own websites. Most instances I have worked from the onset of the project doing work like reviewing the initial keyword research and looking at internal linking structure. Typically when we ask a customer if they even know what the are targeting as far as key words and phrases, they spit out the name of their biggest seller, which is a good guess but not usually what can be seen when analyzing their website.

Often times when requesting AwStats or Google Analytics access the customer is not only mystified, but almost offended that there is an application that can track the traffic and sales on their site. I have a tendency to believe that this behavior stems from a lack of understanding of what is going on behind ones monitor and router. People need to remember that there are sophisticated systems in place that define their web presence and overall success online.

One of the most simple and helpful ways of keeping your site relevant and ranking is blogging.  Simple as it may seem, blogging has vast potential and is one of the most useful tools you can utilize to help your business’s site and your web presence thrive.

Blogging is a great way to show off your expertise in a personal format and keep your customers informed.  Instead of launching a large advertising campaign which could have an impersonal and/or corporate feel to it, a simple blog post may be all you need to get your word out.  Plus, it’s cheap.  You get to share your expertise with a large audience for less than a traditional media campaign.

To those business owners from the Triassic who haven’t created accounts at  social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, know that these services have become a valid part of business advertising. Tried and true posting tactics work well here and can increase profits and brand-ability.  In addition, the less employed methods of brand research using social media are equally as valuable and often more lucrative.

I like to use YourOpenBook to track mentions on Facebook of products my clients sell. If I find a Facebook user who is mentioning a product that interests either myself or the firm, I’ll log the mention into an Excel document, and record it. This allows me to provide the client with a list of people they can strike up conversation, and solicit a “Like” from.

Again this post is expected to be read by newbies to social media, so those who are reading with experience, take the time to yawn.

We are really excited about this new local bundle.  The Expanded Local SEO package is similar to our local SEO package, but does so much more.  In addition to the LSEO package,  ELSEO offers home page optimization, navigation redesign, keyword expansion, hundreds of monthly links, and more.

When should I use ELSEO?

• Your company is not near the Google “centroid” (center of the city)
  or you have no local address
• You have multiple addresses (Google won’t always show
  all your addresses in the LBRs)
• Your keywords are highly competitive, and you need
  solid top ranked listings
• Variations of your keywords don’t bring up Local Business Results
  (try them all)
• You don’t have top organic rankings for your local keyword
  (word plus location)
• You are using many niche keywords—you want a broad “keyword footprint.”
• You want both local and global listings

The acronym SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. To go into more detail, Search Engine Optimization is the practice of utilizing search engine results and rankings to propagate an individual’s  product or concept by increasing one’s online visibility, thus maximizing one’s potential to be reached by prospective customers or viewers.

Often, it is easier for SEOs to leave their description of their work to a vague proclamation like that above, but just as often we are discussing our practices with clients who genuinely want to understand what it is SEOs offer. As the intent of this particular post is to simply brush the surface, and stay largely general, lets get the basics out of the way.

Here is an example of SEO at work:

Chet, the morning  shift manager at the Toothbrush Emporium is interested in impressing his boss with an increase of online toothbrush sales, as the new website is failing to attract customers, but Chet  is inept in the ways of online marketing.

Having had a rough time during the recent downswing in the economy a of mass small businesses are finding themselves with a prime opportunity to charge forward in this recent economic upturn. They have stayed the course  through the  recession, and now are in need of every competitive edge they can get with all the new business that will inevitably spring up as the market gets stronger.

Some businesses may think that simply buying more ad space in the yellow pages or taking out some free ads in the echo might just do the trick, and if you don’t want your business to go anywhere and eventually be consumed by all the bigger fish, that’s fine. In today”s environment a local business has many tools at their disposal that they need to utilize in order to thrive at the local level. That is where Shadetree comes in with our Local SEO package, or lSEO.