Seo Blog

Reserved seating at the movies!

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This past year one of the largest theaters in the State of Utah began offering reserved seating for each of their movie presentations. This was one of those things that you just scratch your head and wonder why it didn’t happen sooner. We all remember going to a new release and having to show up an hour two early to get a place in line. Some of the more popular releases we even had to send a person from our party to the theater a few hours early to save a place for the rest of us. Now we show up 10 minutes in advance, grab a popcorn and drink and go right to our seats. GREAT CHANGE!!

Innovation is the key to success. The Megaplex theaters found a little of it with the addition of reserved seating. At Utah Web Services our SEO strategies are a bit like the reserved seating addition. Very creative, very intuitive and best of all for the last number of years they have worked flawlessly. This is a bit of a shameless plug but I am very pleased with the success our clients are seeing with top placement on Google and other engines. Thanks to a great staff of talented designers, engineers and business strategists.

We have seen this basic strategy be very successful in assisting clients across multiple industry platforms to be found in the top 3 in very competetive keywords. I won’t say much about that strategy here for competetive reasons but sufficeth to say we have toy resellers, heavy equipment dealers, retailers of every sort, day spas, lawyers, engineers and even medical recruiters all benefiting by increased traffic and conversions from being ranked #1 in targeted keywords and phrases.

The world is changing and the Internet is certainly no different. Social Search Engines, My Space, You Tube, Blogging, all are now factors in any successful strategic SEO launch. 2007 should bring with it continued change and all of us in the web design and SEO business are compelled to stay current.

Here’s to reserved seating and creative new approaches in search engine optimization and strategic deployment. Have a safe and prosperous New Year!

Seo expectations

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It seems that routinely in the search engine optimization business we are faced with the responsibility of managing client expectations, reminding them of initial discussions and then walking them through the process repeatedly. Because developing an effective online presentation for a client is unfamiliar to them, the process of getting found is even more elusive and impossible for them to truly understand.

Due to the realities that the SEO business is getting increasingly more complicated, the management tools increasingly available to all are improving and clients are placing greater emphasis on their online operations to contribute to their bottom line. I have spent much time on the appropriate process to manage this educational process and in turn the client’s immediate expectations.

Utah Web Services routinely has anywhere between 7 to as many as 20 projects all in various stages of development at any given time. We recently launched a site for a client in the furniture business. As a wholesaler only, their business model was one of dealer support and streamlined ordering for their approved network. This client a week after the launch of his site, just couldn’t understand why his site was not found at the top of Google. It further frustrated him to see other businesses unfamiliar to him at the top. The only one he was familiar with however was overstock.com and in his opinion they only sold jewelry, didn’t they. Pay no attention to the fact that Overstock has a page rank of 7 and an Alexa of ranking of 372. Why was his brand new site not at the top with them? Gosh I don’t know……….

Well now to any of us in the SEO business we understand what it takes to get a site ranked that highly and the incredible opportunity created when you do. To a businessman who has only advertised in the newspaper, bought a few print ads and dabbled in radio a time or two, the process is very difficult in deed. Further complicate the reality that this business owner played alot of golf and really had no time for emails, site surfing, online ordering or even how to find things online using a search engine. He had people that handled that for him, (Should have been my first red flag)

To deal with these issues internally, Utah Web Services is in the process of creating a number of educational tools for clients only. One of these new industry update tools will be a seminar series entitled “Internet Survival for CEO’s” and will be made available in the first quarter of 2007.

The initial interest in these advanced training tools has been tremendous. As a company we understand that “good clients” are not acquired, they are created. That creation process begins with us as we have the responsibility to train the client, assist them in understanding the procedures that are required and more importantly knowing enough about the business and it’s owner to effectively provide what the client needs and when he needs it.

More to come on these advanced SEO training tools from Utah Web Services including all of the planned SEO/Internet survival seminar times and locations. Looking forward to a great new year with many new SEO tools and strategies to introduce.

The world doesn’t owe you a living

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In an email sent to me recently it hit home how a community can come together during a difficult time. Without fanfare, without assistance, without the Government, without the press or news celebrities. Just each other and the desire to help and the willingness to accept what has occurred and then work hard to get through it.

The same philosophies are in bred in almost every self made man or woman in about any industry. In my business of Web design, Web hosting and Search Engine Marketing there are many that would prefer to take the easy way, dishonest way, or attempt somehow to use tactics that eventually get their clients and themselves blackballed from top engines. Once their methods are discovered and penalized then they cry foul and attempt to blame someone else. There is nothing that can replace the “right” way in any situation.

Take a look at the events of this community with a category “5″ snowstorm. I found it uplifting and certainly hope that when tragedy strikes close to home this is how our community will respond.

The article originated from one of the County Emergency Managers in North Dakota by the name of Arte Lange: “Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event— may I even say a Weather Event of Biblical Proportions, with a historic blizzard of up to 44″ inches of snow and winds up to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10’s of thousands” George Bush did not come. FEMA did nothing. No one howled for the government.

No one blamed the government. No one even uttered an expletive on TV.

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit. Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.

Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit – or report on this category 5 snowstorm. Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.

No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House. No one looted.

Nobody – I mean Nobody demanded the government do something. Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.

No Larry King, No Bill O’Rielly, No Oprah and No Geraldo Rivera. No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water. Sent out caravans of SUV’s to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars. The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn’t ask for a penny. Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families. Families took in the stranded people – total strangers. We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.

We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is “Work or Die”. We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for ’sittin at home’ checks.

Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living

Tragedy can strike at the worst possible moment and sometimes it just can’t be explained. The only way to deal with it is just to roll up your sleeves or in this situation get another pair of thermal underwear on and then get out in it. The easy road in any situation in life or in business always comes with a price. The unfortunate thing is that price is often times paid by someone else, usually a tax payer that just goes to work everyday and tries to do his/her best to give an honest days work for an honest days pay, or a business that delivers what they say they will for the price they quoted. It really doesn’t matter whether it is a shirt, an Ipod, a new car or a well designed website. WE ALL JUST NEED TO DO WHAT WE SAY AND BE READY TO STEP UP AND HELP WHEN THE NEED ARISES!

Web developers and techs are just different kinds of guys

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There will be much more to come about where we started, where we are going, who we want to take along with us and the purpose of this Blog. But for now I am going to address an amazing process that occurs about once a quarter around here at Utah Web Services. My techs seem to all want together and shoot at each other. No not paint balls, lasers or heaven forbid some sort of strange reality street deal. No, they network 15 laptops, desktops, notebooks and about anything they can connect together and play computer war games!! All night. You would think a bunch of really bright and just slightly strange guys would not want to be around a computer after having been in front of one all day.

The evening goes something like this. About a month in advance they begin planning the evening. Then they begin dreaming about the fun they will have in their tournament, then they try to convince their wives and girlfriends that this is really a wholesome and non threatening way to spend the evening away from them. Once they have pleaded, begged and bribed their significant others into a often times guarded approval to go, they are off with sleeping bags in hand and a large quantity of junk food and all of the power backups they can carry, just in case.

The evening must be fun as they team up and try to eliminate each other playing Unreal Tournament 2004 or Enemy Territory. As the boss around here I am always amazed at how these guys spend their “down time”. They are continually doing something online learning, researching, exploring or just trying to find out how somebody did something.

Even though I don’t understand the mentality completely, I am absolutely supportive of these very talented designers, graphic artists and SEO specialists, programmers and database guys enjoying something so much. I don’t worry about them in bars, calling me in the middle of the night to bail them out of jail or finding themselves in Las Vegas married to someone they don’t know. Just a fun evening for guys that love to let loose once in a while in their own way.