Change & Websites
You know……….websites change (or need to change) at the speed of life. As I was working today, I kept coming across articles, tweets, posts – whatever the source, they all suggested change. Sometimes change is good, and sometimes it just takes a ton of effort. How many times do you think,”I really need to change that.” Really? How many times?
Well, when it comes to websites AND life, we all need to make the time. Whether it’s changing your meta-tags and titles on the websites you are managing OR changing the way you parent your kids, change is eminent. And necessary.
I’ve been analyzing a website that I just can’t figure out WHY it’s not ranking within Google’s SERPS. It’s number one on all keywords with Yahoo & Bing, just can’t figure out the Google-thing. WHY, I ask? At the office, we all comb the site source and try to figure out why this one is different than any other website we’ve developed. Just blows my mind – something is there that I just can’t figure out……..kind of like parenting, huh?
As my kids’ teen years just seem to be flying by “at the speed of light,” I’m trying to figure out “why things just don’t work.” Or, at least, why they don’t work easily. Today, I just have to admit: EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is just different. Every kid, every parent, every friend……….is different. Do I like that? Yeh, it would be pretty boring if everyone was the same, but if there was just a manual. With all the rules to follow. I’d follow them regularly and religiously.
That being said, check your tags and titles for proper keyword usage – has something changed with your business? Don’t sell a product anymore? Get it out the tags/titles/content. Make CHANGES. GO FOR IT. Your website is prime real estate for new content, and more important, new ideas/products to lure in new clients/customers. You can do it.
Set aside 15-30 minutes, once or twice a week and start hammering away!
Google – FINALLY – makes some changes!
Google announced on Wednesday that it was changing its algorithms with regards to reviews. In the SEM and SEO world, one of our goals is to increase “new content” and we use “user generated content” as a method to do such. Google has looked favorably upon user generated content in the past and will probably continue to do so, but it needed to change its ways. Period. It had no way of knowing whether a user was slamming a business because of bad products or even worse, unfavorable service or stellar service.
How many times have you jumped on your phone because you were upset about someone’s service or bad food at a restaurant. Or maybe someone didn’t stand behind a commitment or guarantee. Well, before Wednesday, you were actually HELPING that merchant/restaurant/service by giving them “user generated content.” Make sense? They were getting kudos from Google simply because of the new content without regards for what type of content it was.
Ponder this: You are sitting at a restaurant and you decide to rip them on a major website (such as Yellow Pages, FourSquare or Merchant Circle) and submit a few AWFUL reviews. Google crawls the review site, sees the “user generated content”, and rewards the business for “new content.” WHAAAAAAT? Didn’t think about that did you?
FINALLY, Google has announced that it is trying to change the way it ranks search results so that less that stellar merchants would not be rewarded for this type of content and that bad reviews would be considered accordingly. NOW…………When a client’s rankings suddenly slip, some of the places I look are places where users can slam someone with a bad review. Usually, I can tell when it’s not really an upset client, it’s more than likely competitor in the industry. I’m not saying ALL the content on some sites (such as Yellow Pages or Merchant Circle) is spam, but I’m suggesting that some of it is. There are “black hat” SEO strategists (a person bucking the system and using ugly SEO methods and using loopholes such as link farms-another blog) sitting around with time on their hands, and visiting some of the more strategic sites and posting negative comments on a competitor. Come on…….think about it. You know there are people out there that would do it. Right?
What exactly is Google going to do about this? There are articles after articles to read out there that talk about merchants that have crappy service and the reviews are EVERYWHERE yet they rank really high in Google and Yahoo. Why is that? Are they just optimized that well? Probably not…….probably some major black hat techniques being used. Hopefully it’s OFF TO THE SANDBOX soon for these sites………until then………….
New iPhone App for Accidents
Since I’m in the Houston SEO business, I have to keep up with “what’s new” with our clients. One client, the Larry Jones Insurance Agency, Houston car insurance quote service and provider, has just shared with me a pretty cool iPhone app. If you’ve EVER been in a car accident, did you get all the info you needed at the scene of the accident or did you have to play phone tag with the other driver(s)? I was in a small fender bender when I was about 20 – luckily it was not my fault, but the fault of a sobbing 16 year old that had GREAT insurance. But that was without kids…………
I’ve been very lucky to NOT be involved in any car accidents since I’ve had kids. They seem to add a new element to just about everything however. Think about it. We all had these cute little cars in the beginning – now most with kids of us are driving tanks for some sort. That being said, I can’t complain because my “tank” is “pimped out” as my oldest son explains it. SO, in the event of an accident, I would want to make sure that I get all the information that I need from the other driver (because naturally the accident will NOT be my fault – ha!) so I can restore my beautiful white diamond tank to it’s original condition.
Now…assume the kids are with you and you are involved in an truck accident. What are you going to be worried about, the car or the kids? I would imagine that I would be so incredibly wigged-out about the kids and making sure that they are okay, that I might only collect HALF the info necessary to file a proper claim. That’s where my client comes in. Mr. Jones is a Nationwide car insurance agent in Spring, TX. His agency services all of Houston, including Spring and the Woodlands. He has shared this new iPhone app with me – Nationwide Mobile. This FREE iPhone app features an “accident toolkit” complete with agent phone numbers, your insurance policy numbers, and your vehicle information. This toolkit has a list of all the info you need to share with the other driver (especially the truck driver)………all the little specifics you are NOT going to remember if you are rattled in the least.
When you have left the accident scene (or before), you can peruse the app’s suggestions for towing companies should you need to be towed. It also offers Nationwide’s Blue Ribbon Repair Facilities as well as the numbers of the closet agent. Information available at your fingertips to help you get your claim processing as fast as possible. COOL! They (Nationwide) are quite impressed with the flashlight feature also.
So…….you might want to call (or visit their website – it’s pretty good – plug plug) Larry Jones and get an auto insurance quote today….and this handy-dandy app….the other insurance companies aren’t offering apps for phones. Call for a quote today.!
Workin’ kind of weekend!
It’s was one of those weekends where everything seemed to be a bit tied to work. My youngest played in “Friday Night Under the Lights.” Our community, New Territory, looks forward to these wonderful spring-ish Friday nights for good old-fashioned hot dogs, hamburgers and baseball. YOUTH baseball that is. Grant’s game was at 6:00pm – the sun is still out. I guess he was a bit let down that he didn’t get to play in the dark. The league provides hot dogs and burgers and the teams that play (normally 2 games) bring the desserts and chips. It’s a blast – everyone just hangs out, chats with neighbors, and the players run rampant after they’re games.
The WORK side of 
Friday night: Summer League Swim Team…We are getting cranked up for practices to start on May 3rd and meets June 7th. As a coach for one of the 2 neighborhood teams AND the website manager/designer/hand-holder for the team’s website (sponsored by Bizopia, Houston SEO Website Design company – which I of course work for), I am evidently fair game for a whole slew of questions regardless of the fact that my child is playing on the field – even at bat. Most of the comments/questions I got Friday night were about the new team suits – a solid black team suit with green trim – and the cutest fish-logo. Can you imagine sitting in a room with 10-18 women trying to get everyone to agree on a suit that will make all 200+ swimmers happy…..? SpeedoUSA forced our hand in forcing us to choose a new suit this year by discontinuing their “2 year suit” program
. These new suits look great – the fish is recognizable to other teams – and has been for quite some time. We’ve done a very good job of “branding” our logo in the community. It’s on EVERYTHING. Every kid I’ve talked to LOVES them, but the parents think they are boring. Oh well.
I worked with a local company, Echo Apparel Solutions, over off the Beltway 8 & Gessner. They were great to work with and do business in Houston, Sugar Land, Katy and surrounding areas. This fish is some kind of elasti-rubber like iron-on thing. I don’t know the specifics, all I know is that we were able to very cost-effectively customize our apparel for the team. This company does all kinds of things: custom embroidery, screen-printing, sublimation as well as providing great choices in corporate apparel items to customize. Team and League uniforms galore. They also did these cool, yellow safety-vests for my church’s volunteers to wear in the parking lots so new members can identify them. Pretty cool. They’ve also personalized duffel bags, sweatsuits (team-wear) as well as fan-wear for National Fusion Soccer, one of the local club soccer clubs. If you need anything for your company, your team, your church…….give Echo Apparel a click or call.
Yesterday, we had our parent meeting for the Tarpons. All those new parents sitting out there in the audience, soaking up every word we said. RELAX………it made me feel old. This is a FUN thing. Yes, it’s hotter than you know what, but the kids that participate – LOVE IT! Keeps the kids off the computers and games and couch for at least an hour every day. What a deal…$95 dollars for one swimmer for the summer. Starts in May, ends in mid-July. Every day……experienced coaches, good technical teachers, fun in the sun, and a little friendly competition. In my book, summer swim team is the best deal around money wise. We are VERY lucky to have such wonderful sponsors – one of which I need to start designing their site.
My youngest and I put in a garden on Sunday. That’s WORK! He wants to attract butterflies and bees, and to grow “something”. He’s such an outside kid. Summer swimming is good for him because it gives him something to do every day – gives us something to form a “schedule” around. I think I’m going to let him “work” on a website “like Mommy does.” We have a family site that I don’t do anything with because I’m always working on someone elses’ site. He’s old enough to “write” a little blog on a page on our family site. He already has a Facebook page – social media marketing at 8 years old. HA! The grandparents will love it…..plus it will help him with his typing skills which the schools ASSUME these kids can all type. Push buttons, yes. Type, no. Who knows, maybe he’ll follow in our footsteps and work at Bizopia one day and design websites for a living. Hmmmm……….maybe not. Don’t think he can sit still that long. We have time……..
Back to work. Working on a mobile auto glass repair site for Affordable Auto Glass of Houston. Great company – easy to work with. Next in line……..a limousine company, then a media transfer company in Sugar Land. Lots to do……..more to come. Bring on the week…………
Houston SEO – New Website Design
Well – it’s finally here! We’ve almost finished the new and IMPROVED Bizopia – Houston Website Design and SEO – website. It’s been hard for us to find the time to revamp OUR own website. I am now finally to the point where I’m updating the text and tags. We’ve added so many new services since the last redesign – which I think was 7 years ago – I know, it’s been WAY TOO LONG. We’re updating the profile page to show some of the newer sites we’ve recently designed. Like Burwell Nebout‘s Jones Act and FELA sites. They are REALLY great – well, actually I like the Industrial Explosion site the best. Just like the colors – it has some serious visual POP. One of my other favorites is J&K Electronics – Houston Computer and TV Repair specialists – actually, the owner Gus is in the office right now discussing the a totally new site on televisions alone. It would be great for all if we could separate the two. The site has gotten REALLY big.
We’ve added a social media marketing and optimization page (SMO & SMM). This is SO important these days. Everyone NEEDS to do it. You really HAVE to do it. We have long-time, technology and social phobic clients (that really is NOT a behavioral slam) that are really against it, but once we set everything up for them, train them, and hold their hand through the initial trials, they actually have a good time posting, tweeting, and blogging. Now -seriously – some are having more FUN than others, but still, we are convincing most to do it themselves with our professional “hand-holding.”
The SEO page……well, it still needs tweaking and defining. I get so many calls still asking “what on Earth is SEO?” For those reading this that are still a bit unsure what exactly SEO is – it’s search engine optimization. Basically it’s optimizing a webpage for the user as well as the search engines. Pages NEED to be “seo’d” (my new word) so when someone is searching for a keyword, you’ll pop up under the correct word. You don’t really need to be found under “buy a televison in Houston” if you only “repair televisions in Houston.” Make sense? Who needs the extra phone calls? Emails?
Just wanted to let you know that it’s finally here and we are excited. Look for changes daily over the next few days, if not weeks. Depends on how fast I can finish another site I’m working on – derivatives accounting software..…..this is NOT a “quick” copy-write!
Houston Gun Shop
I am cracking up. I try to not to get political here, but I just have to today. I was actually reading the Houston Business Journal a minute ago and read an article on the front page about a gun shop. My interest was totally peaked because we’ve finished our newest website for a Houston Gun Shop – Jim Pruett’s Guns and Ammo – so naturally I’m very intrigued with gun stores now, especially the gun shops in Houston.
The reason I’m cracking up is because the title of the article is “Gun Shop gets a straight shot of stimulation.” It seems Obama’s stimulus package for small businesses is aiding a local gun store in its expansion. They are moving in to an old Circuit City (which is HUGE) – this move is giving them an 844% increase in square footage. Since Obama has been in office, this store has seen its business grow 600%. Now do you REALLY think he meant for a GUN STORE to have that kind of growth? I know some of you are saying, “Sure he did. They are a small business.” I’m still smiling.
Jim Pruett’s Guns and Ammo is rockin’ along also. They are moving into a larger space this spring some time. Check out their new website – it shows all the brands of guns they sell, the types of clothes (it’s called Tactical Apparel), it even has a Stevens and Pruett page – remember the Rock Gawds of 101 KLOL? Yes, it’s the same Jim Pruett. We are started to collect old pictures and post them on the site. They also have a new Fan Page that reflects the new site url – you can get there by http://houstongundealer.com or www.jimpruett.net – both url’s will get you to the same place. Facebook wise – if you don’t have a Facebook page you can see their page at www.facebook.com/houstonguns .
It’s been a really fun site to work on for so many reasons. One being that Jim Pruett’s energy level has NOT changed a bit since the 80′s. I visited the store on fact finding missions a few times and got to handle an AK-47 – didn’t know THOSE were legal. Now I have ammo against my oldest son. He is SO into guns – hunting guns – that I can fire off stats, and talk “ammunition” now.
This houston gun store carries all types of handguns, military style rifles, and has quite a collection of OLD war guns (called militaria – see my vocabulary has even grown) displayed “museum” style. It is an experience in itself – definitely worth a trip over. Another vocab word I learned is “less-than-lethal.” Mr. Pruett’s daughter-in-law carried quite the container of pepper spray. But for something more exciting, you can peruse the tasers.
The really nice thing is that they REALLY care and ask questions of the gun buyer. Questions over and beyond the scope of the “gun application.” They teach CHL – concealed handgun license – classes as well as defensive handgun classes. They DO care that you learn how to use your gun.
I’m really looking forward to watching this site grow traffic wise, fan wise, and the Facebook page – well that’s up to you. Become a fan – NOT a business plug – it’s a riot watching what people post. Go ahead – try it!
And I guess I should thank Obama for allowing these Houston gun stores to grow – to borrow from the article – now THAT’S a shot of stimulation………still smiling here!
FunnySEO & Marketing – the MacBurger
In a Facebook exchange today with a few of my friends (Susan Sternberg has an AWESOME photography blog on Smugmug and Tina Tilghman is a massage therapist at the New Territory Club – both out of Sugar Land), we were discussing the MacBook. As the director of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization) at our Houston website design company, Bizopia, I can’t afford any “down” time on the computer. I am constantly blogging here and on 4 other blog sites. These sites are part of my SEO job and I chronicle about our clients as well as tips on SEO (and on a good day, swimming tips of the trade).
My other half (husband) has been pushing me on the MacBook subject lately because of virus-issues, and how this Apple product interfaces with so many of the things I use…….Adobe Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and all the IPods, ITouches, and IPhones that my family owns. It just makes sense. So, on Facebook I posted something like “am I going to be able to get used to this QUICKLY?” Meaning – at MY AGE. I tried to explain and remind a few of the guys here in the office that we didn’t have computers when I was in the womb 
and all I’ve really know is a good old fashioned Windows driven PC. I still remember when they dumped this THING with a “mouse” on my office desk. I just stared at it – I had had ONE class in college on a Mac (I was in Kinesiology/Education-WHOOP!) – and that was it. Everything I know has been self-taught. THEN here came “Windows” and all the changes with all the different versions………
So I post my “concern” and friends started commenting as they do on Facebook and one friend asks “what is a MacBook? Is it something from McDonalds?” Naturally this opens an entire other string of comments (well, it IS Friday). I throw out there – wouldn’t a GREAT and POWERFUL pairing – Apple & McDonalds? McD’s could use one of those “branding iron” things on their buns and make a MACBurger? I don’t know – in my “marketing” mind, I think it would work – ha!
Just one of my totally random thoughts at work. It’s all about the wordplay for me – it’s an SEO thing!!!! Finding different ways to market client’s ideas through words and the search engines on the internet. Some are easy, some aren’t. Susan Sternberg’s is real easy – go look at her photos on her blog site – you’ll get the “picture” fast. They are WONDERFUL. I’m particularly fond of the Austin HS Swim Team pictures………
More later – I totally stopped working on Houston Auto Glass Repair‘s newest website – http://mobileaffordableautoglass.com – and I need to finish it. BTW, the guys are great – and yes, I’ve had to use them. Unforunately, it was due to a bozo act with my Navigator……….broke the tailgate window – they fixed it in less than an hour FROM THE TIME I CALLED.
SEO – Keyword Strategies
I’m constantly pondering blog posts……..I just like posting. It gives me a break from some of the more mundane tasks of my daily SEO job. If done right, blogging can be tied in to these SEO tasks.
Today my main goal is to finish a large gun store project. It’s been fun learning about all the types of guns and what gun people like to buy. I have the complete confidence that my new friends at Jim Pruett’s Guns & Ammo (old site) Store will sell you the right gun for the right task………….NOW………how do I convey this in website text? How do I convince YOU, the reader, that this is a reputable gun dealer in Houston and not some hole in the ground (with TEXT not pictures – Google doesn’t care much about pictures – but that’s another post idea)? Buying a gun is a big deal – understanding what you need to be safe (like a gun safety class) or knowing that you HAVE to have a CHL (concealed handgun license) to carry one in the state of Texas (and other states). I’ve been in the store – I know the owner, again – it’s important that I convince the reader of the website who presumably is in the market for a handgun or some other type of defense weapon (my new favorite is the term LESS THAN LETHAL weapons – ha!).
Little keyword strategies (or games as I tell my friends) like the “how many ways can I say hand gun?” Well, I could say: handguns or hand guns – it’s sort of like on our own Bizopia website (or is it web site)…let’s not forget “internet site, custom site, custom website, custom web site…….” Again, I can do this for days. I do.
A good SEO person will come up with their very own strategy – one that would probably drive someone else up the wall. Games or keyword research can be done in so many different ways – it just has to be done at some point. Preferably BEFORE the site goes to design. Even though some of the search engines “ignore keywords” – that just means the meta-tag for keywords – NOT the text……..and other parts of site structure (that’s another post). You have to be careful of keyword stuffing though…..remember, in the end, the search engines don’t buy anything – it’s the customer. If the text doesn’t read easily and correctly, no one is going to try to read it anyway, right? It still takes a human to do the shopping and pay the bills last time I checked.
One category of keywords that really gets me going is the whole attorney – lawyer thing. Come on, can’t we just pick one? I’ve done a few attorney websites’ structure and it’s tough, because you know that certain people will use the search keyword ATTORNEY while others will use LAWYER. It’s simply the point of SEO – it’s a bit psychological, I guess. Some words just sound better with lawyer (or the phrase is older) – who knows REALLY? It’s all about what people search. You have to do your research. For example: Houston Personal Injury Attorney or Houston Personal Injury Lawyer? Which is it? Well, personally, I think you should go after both.
More later on SEO and keyword strategies……..going back to work on a FELA website, and go figure – it’s a LAWYER website…….oops – no an ATTORNEY website These REALLY great guys in the Houston/Texas City area……..(I know, another post-ha!)
SEO & Facebook
This is going to be the first of a few Facebook related posts……………..Networked Blogs is a pretty cool tool where you can have your blog or others’ blogs posted to your own profile page automatically. This will increase traffic to your own blog or someone elses’ blog……and just flat get the information out there for all to read.
Let’s face it. Facebook is a very nice tool to get information out to the world. Most of my friends are on but some rarely check their pages. It’s just like everything else – it’s my job to MAKE them check their pages. I’ll keep you posted on this one…………I’m calling it SMO….Social Media Optimization
Have a GREAT day! More tomorrow – promise!
SEO and Swim Coaching – Same Strategy?
I’ve written before about SEO being a “word game” to me and got quite a few questions from friends and followers. SEO or SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is defined in Wiki-land as the process of improving volume and/or quality of traffic to a website. Now, if you’ve been following this blog, you know that I coach competitive swimming in my “spare” time. Let’s just say coaching doesn’t pay the bills. SEO does
I’ve decided to try to explain SEO via my coaching techniques. As a swim coach, I have come across all types of swimmers: those who can listen and pick things up immediately, those who have to try it a few times THEN they get what I want, and those who I have to explain and explain and explain it to them before they get it. That’s where the SEO comes in. For this post, we’ll call it swimmer engine optimization – ha!
If I were to say the exact same thing to every swimmer every time (assuming people use the EXACT same keyword for a topic), some kids would get the message and some wouldn’t. If I change up the words or verbiage (keyword application) that I am using – a higher percentage of swimmers would get the message (higher percentage of traffic to website) I am trying to deliver. In theory……..
My words to the swimmers are just like keywords in text to a website – they have to be varied. Kids don’t process words in exactly the same way – just like people don’t use exactly the same search words for a particular topic. For example: for freestyle (American Crawl to you non-swimmers) your hand entry should be immediately outside of the center line of the body. To our senior swimmers, they would get that statement. To my babies, they would just stare at me like zombies if I used that particular string of words. This is NO DIFFERENT than if you were searching for a company to design a website. What words would you use? Website Design? Site design? Website Development? Web Development? Web page design? I could do this for days – but I think you get the picture.
For my beginner swimmers, I describe hand placement in the water as a spoon. “Let’s put our spoon (while showing them an outstretched hand and arm) in the bowl and pull the scoop of ice cream through the bowl.” Now, if I say THAT to the seniors, we’d spend the next few minutes waiting for the laughter to die down so no one would drown.
People use different strategies to search for things on the internet, THUS the need for multiple keywords explaining exactly the same topic to boost traffic to your website. Just like I have to come up with quite a few ways to describe hand placement – which by the way is INCREDIBLY important in fast swimming. No time to waster putting your hand in wrong……..no time to waste in not having the correct keywords on your website.
For those swimmers – yes I’ve provided ice cream and a scoop for the visuals. For you senior swimmers that read this……..NO WAY am I bringing ice cream to practice!!!! Austin High School!
Haiti and Houston Handyman
It is REALLY hard not to feel sorry for these poor people in Haiti – another 6.1 earthquake this morning? As I sit at my computer (nice little Dell by the way) and start banging out today’s work while being mad that I have to replace a back door, a garage door opener and drive in Houston (which I absolutely hate doing), these people have NO homes, no water, no food……it’s crazy. I can’t imagine how the children feel – it’s not like kids in California that are sort of use to a tremor now and then.
I don’t wake up well anyway – someone yelling GET OUT – GET OUT at 4:00 in the morning is not going to be met kindly. You assume things are built well. Hotels, hospitals, etc…..they can’t possibly be trusting anything in Haiti now as it has all been shaken. As I go through my day, I know I will be feeling bad that I’m contacting a “home remedy” company – a remodeler of sorts JUST to fix my back door that the dog has scratched so badly. These people need a ISLAND remedy company – not just a door company.
With websites and blogging being my business, I usually sit down in the mornings with something in mind to blog about on some site somewhere. Sometimes I check out the news first. So…..I sat down to blog about my garage door opener (that I squished my fingers in the door closing it last night after putting bikes away) that is broken and whether or not I’m going to try to replace the gears or just buy another one. A neighbor said by a gear driven one……any comments? But in the background I can hear the Today show discussing yet another earthquake in Haiti – THOSE POOR PEOPLE.
I wish I could send our buddies at Home Remedy Houston to Haiti instead of my house. I can live with the scratches on door and frame (now the mice getting in is another thing ). Home Remedy Houston is a Houston handyman company. They do large home remodeling projects as well as small projects like mine. I can fix a lot of things, but the door frame has to come out. I’ve already spoken to Home Remedy Houston about a kitchen remodel and got a good paint quote for painting the foyer that requires creative scaffolding. I’ll keep you posted. We take care of their website, so I’m going to use them personally.
Now I’m off to the tax office to try to find my LID taxes and to drop some disks off for DVD duplication at Sugar Land DVD. I really hope things settle down for Haiti – this is truly tragic!
SEO Tips – The Obvious?
Houston is experiencing BEAUTIFUL weather today! Thank goodness – after a weekend of cold and rain/mist, and swim meets, a little sun does the brain good! Happy MLK Day, by the way!
I promised another SEO Tip for friends………..make sure your website’s links work. I don’t how many websites I see that have broken links. What harm can broken links do? Well – glad you asked. Broken links make EVERYONE’s life difficult. Mine, yours, Google’s. If Google can’t follow the links, then you are not going to get listed on the front page – PERIOD. Or any other page for that matter – off to the sandbox for you. Google has a magic formula for ranking websites, and they EXPECT you to have your t’s crossed and i’s dotted. That includes links.
Links come in many different forms, links from page to page within your website, links from other websites to yours, and links from your website to others. Links seem to implode on their own – check them frequently.
Page rank is NOT the most important thing – many new SEO (search engine optimization) people get all hung up over it. There are so many things that could be going GOOD on your site and people may love visiting your site - just make sure your tags are as good as they can be and that your site is user friendly.
Gotta run – kids are out today – not much work getting done around here! Til next time………
SEO Tips – Page Titles
I still can’t get over how many website have garbage in the their Page Titles……….come on now. It helps ANYONE and EVERYONE searching on Google/Yahoo – whatever search engine. Now let’s think about this, why would you NOT want people to be able to find you easier? I just don’t get it.
My friends always ask – what do you do all day? What is SEO? As my husband is the CEO and owner of Bizopia, the company I work for and a Houston Website Design and SEO, everyone thinks SEO on my email signature is some play off that. I’ve heard Supporting Executive Officer, Second “En” Office……ha! That is SO not it.
I play word games all day. That’s what I normally say. SEO or search engine optimization is technically a game of semantics. What works for Google? What’s the best word combination? So I’ve decided to post little blurbs on SEO (what I do) for my friends, mainly for those trying to take care of their own websites……so here’s my first tip……
FIX YOUR DANG PAGE TITLES / TITLE TAGS – and keep it under 70 characters. I use Mozilla Firefox and I HATE long title tags because they don’t fit on the tab – but that’s just personal . There all kinds of character counters out there on the web so you don’t have to count by hand. I’ve built a massive spreadsheet in Excel so when I’m designing a new page, I can keep everything in one place. It works for me – you have to figure out what work for you! Get one or two keywords applicable to the content on the page – don’t try to stuff it though. The SE’s are awfully smart. Moving on the Meta Descriptions (or Meta D’s) next week!
Back to my “word games.” If you can make your job a game………..it makes life much more pleasant! Have a great weekend!
Houston Business Insurance Quotes
With my husbands knee surgery this morning, insurance is on my mind. We all need insurance – but MAN O MAN – it’ expensive. Houston business insurance, health insurance, liability insurance…..car insurance, pet insurance? Just thought I’d throw that one in there – ha! Trying to sift through Houston business insurance quotes is a daunting task. You can purchase business insurance for nearly every operation and risk your business faces. In fact, with so many options available, it is hard to determine what type of coverage you need.
We own our own small business (Bizopia – Houston Website & SEO). When it came time to purchase insurance, we were shocked at the cost. My husband had to carry general liability, workers compensation, health & medical (optional) and auto insurance for Houston employees. To save some of the headache, he opted going through a broker to shop quotes. This saved some time and stress, however, deciding which business insurance quote to use is difficult.
There are several things to do when shopping for Houston business insurance quotes. Learn about the different policies available to you. Do you homework. Part of your research means knowing your business. Access your business from top to bottom so you’re fully aware of what type of business insurance best suits you. And it’s extremely important to trust your agent with the welfare of your business. But, at the same time, check in regularly and keep on top of any changes in policy or rate. The business world is unpredictable so tweaking your policy may be imperative.
Teens and Guns!
Went up into my oldest’s room yesterday…….mistake! The cricket cage stunk BAD b/c of rotten potatoes (long story) and the Chinese Water Dragon needed water – he’s a WATER DRAGON!!!! OH well……It was the guns and gun cases that I was stepping over that hacked me off. It’s not like these guns would do a ton of damage – but my youngest COULD use them to threaten someone – ha! Seriously, my official teenager is VERY good about keeping the ammo locked up and the guns not loaded…….if he had a gun safe though, he could put all of his hunting items (pellet guns, air pistol handgun, shells, knives, etc) in a locked gun safe.
It JUST so happens that we have designed a website and I do the SEO for Lone Star Gun Safes, here in Houston. I had NO IDEA Houston gun safes, gun vaults for those non-gun people out there, were so pretty. Seriously, they are gorgeous. Lone Star Gun Safe, Houston Champion Gun Safe Dealer, offers quite a few brands of safes, including Browning, Champion Gun Safes, Graffunder, Superior and Heritage gun safes. These things are velvet lined – I guarantee you that most women don’t have their jewelry in storage places this nice. They have shelves, locks, most are fire-water resistent. I’m impressed. The handgun safes would be great for jewelry storage too!
Now – what I need is a simple (lightweight gun safe) so that I can stick it in a corner for all of Chase’s “gun stuff” and knives…….kids. Now if someone could suggest an organization method for all of Grant’s Star Wars guys…………………
It’s Tuesday!
Well, it’s Tuesday…………recovered from a weekend of games, kids-activities, and a bar mitzvah. WHEW – what a weekend……Tuesday is the BAD carpool day. Everyone has to be somewhere at way too close of times. It’s exhausting.
Today’s work is going well – rank checking clients, looks good. I was able to work some issues out – it’s really frustrating though. Google has all these rules and regulations that the GOOD GUYS follow link-building wise. I follow them – everyone around here follows them, but I STILL have to spend 20 minutes deleting 214 SPAMMY “responses” and “fake” comments and links in languages that I will NOT mention (and I’m not talking bad words – I’m talking the languages that are taking over the world). It really pisses me off.
Here I am, working my tail off in my little Houston SEO world, trying to get my clients like Home Remedy of Houston, a legitimate Houston Home Remodeling company, to be FOUND on the internet. I see their work, I communicate with their staff, and I post a review on their work (which is REALLY good by the way)……….THEN I have to sit and kill all the FREAKS out there posting goodness knows what in a language that I can’t even speak. Why can’t these people do something GOOD with their time – like figuring out, via the internet (since that is what they seem to be good at), how to stop all these wars – or people going hungry – drunk driving accidents. I know this is random post, but I’m in a mood today……..
November – the Whirlwind Month
WOW – November is flying. Seriously, the fall has flown. Christmas is on it’s way – I can’t believe it. All 5 family member’s birthdays are in October and November. The word whirlwind really doesn’t get it – just doesn’t touch it.
One is 15………starting to learn to drive. Need I say more on that topic? One is a new “teen”…….hormones – that’s all I can say there. And the baby……..well, youth football is getting better. I will leave this topic for a whole ‘nother post.
Working at Bizopia (we do website design and seo) is bringing it’s challenges. Like – getting it all done at work, trying not to bring it home, and still hanging on in the kid department. The carpools, the swimming, the house and the husband. Love it all, but WOW….it’s overwhelming at times. The FUN part of doing SEO for Bizopia is meeting all the clients that we do the websites for. That’s always been my thing – I’m a TOTAL people person, that’s why it blows so many peoples’ minds that I sit behind a computer all day. The latest interesting client to come through the doors was Wright Pawn (Houston Pawn Shop) – I didn’t know that Pawn Shops could so absolutely beautiful. I mean, this place looks like a Galleria Area, Houston jewelry store. They are on Westheimer by the big Evans Music Center…..still like Fort Bend Music Center for piano sales in Houston better!!! Plug…Plug…..they are friends!!!
Everyone is healthy – knock on wood – but we are so busy and the business is growing – I’m just afraid I’m missing things. Enough whining………adios – back to work!
SEO – Bell Schedules
Being in the business of SEO – Search Engine Optimization, a very good example of an improperly optimized website would be a particular elementary school’s website, that I’m familiar with. Our school district has all the technology in the world to make websites easy for the individual campuses to make available for parents and staff. Instead, teachers use off-site websites which can be difficult to keep up with when you have multiple children in multiple schools. There are the homework sites, the sports sites, the PTO calendar – which is a pain in the rear to update. These things are so important.
Today….during a break from Houston website design, I sat down to see what time my youngest eats his lunch. I was pretty sure I was correct in the time that I had in my head, but I wanted to make sure. I jumped on the district’s website, sifted through all the district’s elementary schools, and there it was…….my school’s site. Now – in the search bar, I should type “lunch schedule.” Nope – nothing. Then I tried, “second grade schedule.” Nah – not good enough. I tried, “2nd Grade bell schedule”. That’s considered a long tail keyword (more specific thus in theory should result in a tighter search of the site. Nope – nothing again. Come on now……..how hard should it be to confirm a bell schedule at an elementary – hmmm?
I searched the website over and over again. Nothing. Picked the phone and called my wonderful next door neighbor. We decided on a time together by backing into the bell schedule. That’s crazy. A simple module on a page appropriately titled (watch those meta-tags), “Bell Schedule.” Easy to change, easy to maintain because it shouldn’t change too much – oh wow – they could have an early release bell schedule there too.
I might be over-thinking this since I work for Bizopia, a company that specializes in this stuff – but seriously, for one of the wealthier school districts in the state? It should be better……..
SEO – Search Engine Optimization
People just don’t realize how important search engine optimization or SEO can be for a website. Let’s think about this from the searcher or user’s standpoint. If you don’t have the parts of your website properly designed so that when a potential customer “Googles” something, you want your website to be in the top ten, right? Right there on the first page of Bing, Google or Yahoo – right there so the world can find you.
Now you may be asking yourself, “How do I know if my website is properly designed? It looks good.” There are a few ways, some easier than others, that you can figure this out. You can spend value time researching html source codes and reading mass amounts of SEO blogs, buy a book or two, OR you can find a company/person that does performs SEO services. Might I suggest the latter. For many reasons.
IF you have access to your html code and IF you understand programming, go for it. Don’t mess anything up though because all it takes is one little bracket to come up missing, and things won’t work right. If I were you, I would contact a good, website design and seo company like Bizopia. Now – if you are reading this, you probably noticed that there is a Bizopia logo at the top of the blog.
Companies like Bizopia have dedicated SEO personnel – people that do nothing but SEO on websites. It takes hours, of rewriting, structuring, researching, and reporting. But you have to know what you are doing. Some webdesign guys know how to make pages LOOK good, but they still can’t get a good ranking in Google. It takes time. Lots and lots of time. And lots and lots of patience. Remember the patience part.
It is so worth the time…..you should really think about it! More information on search engine optimization coming soon!
Melanie – Bizopia, SEO Strategist
So how’s your tv?
OK – we’ve been needing a new tv for a long time now. The one we have is a dinosaur – sales contest prize from the early 90′s. We actually bought furniture for the tv. Now it’s the age of flat screen tvs and no more armoires. Even Rachael Ray has done a show on “what to do with your old armoires.” Nice.
So – basically my choice is to buy a new television OR try to have the one we have fixed. The tv now is missing the power button and can only be turned on by the remote which is constantly being hidden by our youngest. It takes a while for the color to brighten up. My luck and this sucker is going to go out on the ONLY Saturday where A&M plays on national television (if that ever happens).
I’m sort of lucky. In the Houston SEO business that I’m in, I get to meet a lot of great businesses. You get to know the owners and movers and shakers of each business. One of these businesses in J&K Electronics. We’ve worked with the owner, Gus, on building a brand new website for Houston’s TV Repair expert. He’s the biggest. Nice guy. Using Bizopia’s Search Engine Optimization strategies, I have to pick the client’s brain on exactly what they offer as services. This is NOT always easy. But it was with J&K Electronics.
I learned about DLP, LCD & Plasma tvs………all of which can be repaired by my tv repair in Houston friends at J&K Electronics. I also learned that my tv has a really bad picture compared to these new televisions. Go figure. So my dilema is, do I give up my beautiful armoire and get a new flat screen from Gus, OR do I buy a flat screen to fit the armoire, OR do I ask J&K Electronics to fix my current set?
What to do?
Swimming in the Rain
A lot of my friends ask me if the kids swim in the rain. WELL-YES they do! Aren’t they getting wet anyway? Red Cross suggests that you don’t train/swim if it’s rain hard enough to mess the top of the water up enough so keep you from seeing the bottom of the pool. Well, as FCST’s kids will tell you, we swim in the rain regardless.
My babies (U8 swimmers) swam in the snow last year. I was so proud of them. You know in Sugar Land, Texas…it can snow one day and we can literally be in shorts the next day. It’s wild. As a swim coach – it’s a complete headache. New parents are worried about their kiddos swimming in the rain – again – aren’t they going to get cold anyway?
With all the different cultures and family structures around here, I have to come up with so many different ways to say things. That’s what I find challenging about my SEO (search engine optimization) job…..it’s all a game of semantics. More on this tomorrow.
Houston PC Repair
Personal computers are everywhere in Houston. Chances are you have one at home – maybe even more than one. You probably use your PC just about every day. It would be hard to imagine life without it. You rely on your PC for work, school and fun.
But what would happen if your PC malfunctioned and you couldn’t use it to do the things you really need to get done?
You need the help of someone in Houston with the proper knowledge and skill in PC repair.
A Houston PC repair specialist can help get your machine up and running again so you can get up and running again.
In this day and age when just about everything we do relies on computers, a PC repair expert in Houston is your best bet for a quick return to the information highway following a PC breakdown.
Houston Auto Glass Repair
I had just spent a long, hot Saturday & Sunday cleaning out the garage – you know the weekend where you are all over the kids for not putting their bikes/tennis rackets/scooters/ripsticks, etc away where they are supposed to go. We had gotten all of the dog hair swept out and everything put away. It looked SO good. Monday rolled around and I need to grocery shop for the family. So I shut the computer down – no more Houston SEO services to complete, no sites to layout – so off I went.
Upon return, I was taking groceries out of the car and the next door neighbors yard guys were blowing the grass off the driveways and in to my garage. I rushed over to hit the garage door openers button and all I heard was shattering glass…..I had left the tailgate window open and the garage door had caught it. There was glass everywhere, and I mean everywhere. I panicked. It was Monday – CARPOOL DAY!
I jumped up and ran to the computer and searched Houston Auto Glass Repair and wha-la – Houston’s own Affordable Auto Glass popped up. Since I work for a Houston website design and SEO company, I know that if a company is on the front page in Google, they are doing something right. So I called.
Within 45 minutes – AAG sent a Houston mobile auto glass repair specialist to my houses. YES – to my house. So basically, from the time I broke the window to carpool time was 2.5 hours. I had a new rear tailgate window installed and it did NOT break the bank. I even had time to double vaccuum the car for safety reasons.
Kudos to Affordable Auto Glass – what a wonderful experience. OK – breaking the window STUNK – but having a company show up promptly, with no emergency fees, and expertly fix something was a complete pleasure! Give ‘em a call when you need them. They fix all “hiccups” with your auto glass!
