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!

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.

Utah Web Services is in the web hosting, web design and SEO business. We are fortunate to have almost a thousand clients all over the country. Most of these clients have been with us for many years and we continue to grow together. We have managed everything from spas, to attorneys, dollar toys in San Antonio to Heavy Equipment in San Francisco

There is 1 client that I got a tremendous surprise from this past month. It is that time of year when as a company we review the year with our clients; evaluate the effectiveness of their sites, the success of our efforts, the strategic plans and changes required and the amount of business created by their online operations. This is normal for us to work closely with the CEO and the Senior staff of each company we design for. The surprise came from a client in the Aquarium Rock industry.

When this client came to us 3 years ago he had one request. Get me to the top of Google so i can compete with GeeWhiz.com? (name changed obviously) A large competitor in the Live Aquarioum Rock business. We took the challenge and began to craft the Internet deployment plan for this client and actually rebuilt his business model from the ground up since his was flawed. Now don’t get me wrong this client is a great guy who was very appreciative of the time for the talents we brought to the table on his behalf.

We were fortunate to see results within 60-days and then continued to execute our plan. After 2 years of continued effort we were very successful in getting him ranked in the top 10 on Google for his chosen term “Florida live Rock” a category that is competitive but not to an extreme, 8.2 Million choices. After the second year our efforts really took off and this client is now in the top 2 in this category. He has canceled his PPC ads saving him $1000’s each year efforts because there was no need for a duplicated results.

The amazing thing however that in the process of promoting his “Live Rock” we found our strategy so successful that we were able to acheive a top 10 listing on Google for the term “Live Rock”, out of 205 Million choices and this client on the first page, significant traffic started coming to his site. Unfortunately this client decided that this traffic was not buying enough aquarium rock and decided to move his business to a discount hosting company. Even though the entire aquarium industry apparently had a bad year it was apparently our fault that he was not selling more live rock. Apparently people want an Ipod, free music and concert schedules more than they want an aquarium tank. Go figure.

Amazing to me that a bright businessman would disregard all that had been done for him and move to the cheapest place in town running the risk of his current success being unraveled quickly. I think this client needs to check himself into a therapy session specializing in solving foolish business practices.

Oh well, still many other clients to care for. Just shocking to me that accomplishment of all of the stated objectives would be trashed so recklessly. This traffic could be converted in so many ways that it is discouraging the client will not listen to common sense. We wish him well but sure hate to see so much hard work thrown out with the old aquarium water, as it were. OK I am done venting about a weird situation.

For most of us a High School experience occurred long enough ago that we have to dust off an old yearbook to remember the girl we liked, the guys we didn’t, the drama guys that were strange and then there were the geeks, greasy hair, glasses, tons of books they carried everywhere, out of place in gym class and today the guys that have made millions and even billions because they recognized opportunity long before the rest of us. So who is the geek now?

It strikes me that in those days being popular was everything. A zit on the end of your nose was enough to keep you from going to school, clothes that were out of style kept you eating alone in the lunch room and not being with the in crowd was the kiss of death.

Is it so much different now online? Popularity seems to be the BUZZ. Are you popular on Social Search Engines? Do you have hundreds or even thousands of online friends hanging on every word added to your daily blog? are there popolar sites that link to your site making you look better? See any similarities.

Search Engine Marketing today or real SEO has become a complex mesh of networking, social acceptance, usability, sophisticated link strategies and the ability to say things on your site differently than everybody else. The reality of unique content is not going away. In the old days you could start a website easily, those without imagination would find another site they liked and then steal their content, in many cases the content they stole was already stolen from someone else. Welcome to an open platform and the sharing of information.

Now stiff penalties occur to any site if you engage in the practice of content theft. Most online users have no idea how small the world has actually become. It takes seconds to find any other site online that has the same text as you or even if they have swiped your content and attempted to mix it up a bit. If you wrote it you can be assured they liked your site so well they copied it or at least they copied all that you had to say.

Search Engine Marketing and current SEO strategies today require that we take a look back at our high School experiences and find new ways to get others to like us and become more popular. If you are found on a search engine or directory and people like you then they talk about you to their friends, from here the world begins to change for whatever business you happen to be operating.

In my business of Web Design, Search Engine Marketing and SEO consulting. I have seen client operations go from 10% Internet and 90% everything else to 10% everything else and 90% Internet. The reality that a successful online operation can create fortunes and change a business in ways that nothing in history has been able to do.

At Utah Web Services we are all about being popular and making sure ALL of our clients are brought into our circle of friends so they too can become popular online. It’s all about relationships and hangin with the right people these days. Having been in the web hosting, web design and SEO business since 1998, we have hundreds of client sites across multiple industry platforms positioned at the top of Google in very competetive keyword categories. Now our SEO teams have to stay on top of the changes that seem to occur daily and the new tools available to evaluate it all.

THESE ARE INDEED EXCITING TIMES TO BE ON THE INTERNET. WITH GREAT NEW WAYS TO FIND NEW FRIENDS, BECOME POPULAR AND TO EVALUATE HOW YOUR DOING AT IT.

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!

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.

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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.