Author Archives: admin

What is a blog queue?

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Posted by admin on March 9, 2012 – 1:16 am
Filed under Blogging tips

A well–built website has pages built with the search behavior of its users in mind. Often, a page about a specific thing, like premium window replacement, will address the topic at hand, but cannot really, practically, cover everything there is to say about replacing windows, or what it takes to do quality work.

If a craftsman starts a company repairing windows and serves a premium clientele, they may also wish to rank for phrases like energy-efficient window replacement, or “5 myths about vinyl windows”. All of this content cannot go on the premium window replacement page, but each of these could be a blog post. This serves a few functions.

Support the page:

Those other topics are definitely related to the topic of the target page. So, if these other piece of content–blog posts–link to the original page, they will support it and make it stronger.

Longtail:

“Long-tail” terms refers to the right half of the image shown, the… well, long-tail.  These are the terms that are less commonly used, more-specifif, and less competitive.  Imagine an extreme example of detail like “high quality, energy–efficient white vinyl replacement Windows in Chula Vista”.

Conversion / Authority:

If someone is on your site, and deciding if you’ve got the chops to earn their business or not… all that extra content, provided you do a good job with it, is going to help. Have you ever looked at an “about” page, just to get a feel for the company? This is similar. By seeing all of the other stuff they talk about–besides their pages, and blogs usually are more informal, you get a feel. That helps with conversion (making a sale or getting a lead).

Authority is similar and relates to simply being associated with the topic more than other people in the same business. You want to come up above or below your competitors when it would–be customer searches for what you have to offer? So… think of some good topics. Ask your friends. Ask your customers put those topics in of blog queue. New template for your blog queue?  Contact us, will share one with you.

Here ya go:

Thanks to Custom Engineered Openings Windows & Doors for the window topics!

Spot a CraigsList Car Shipping Scam

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Posted by admin on July 2, 2010 – 11:46 am
Filed under Random tips

So I’ve been shopping for a car and I found lots of scams.  Here are a few easy ways to spot the common shipping scams.

Be aware.  Craigslist puts a warning about shipping scams in giant letters on every car page – don’t ignore it.  It looks like this:

But also don’t expect it to always be obvious.  Look for:

- Images of text instead of text.  This isn’t sure-fire, but common.

Look for the location of a car.  If there’s no city, look for a zip code that’s way off from yours.  Like anything that starts with a 1 if you’re on the West coast.  Skip it.  Instantly.  You can report it if you like, but it doesn’t *say* shipping so it might not get pulled.

- Any mention of any form of electronic payment of any kind.  ANY.  If it’s eBay, go find it on eBay, not CL.  No PayPal, no escrow, no transfer weirdness.  If anything smells weird, it is.  There are plenty of cars to choose from, skip that one.

- In general, skip anything that says they don’t have a title.  Don’t mess with it!

- If it’s a rare car, truly, then be prepared.  Go drive to see it asap and take cash.  If you wait, you might lose out.

Web site services

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Posted by admin on March 26, 2010 – 2:57 pm
Filed under Web design

Hello Chula Vista,

We’ve been working on a few things and they’re about cooked.  We have been working on our web site services process.  That sounds geeky, but it really means we’ve been working out the details of how we actually build things to make the process faster, smoother and more efficient.

Prior to this, every project is a small art project.  Now, the core of every project is more like an engine that we’ve build just right and the extras that make your site unique are the art.  What does this mean to you?  Lower prices and fewer in-person meetings are needed to deliver.

Call us and see.  619.512.2208.

Chula Vista Business Listings online

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Posted by admin on December 1, 2009 – 4:40 pm
Filed under Local SEO, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

One of the easiest things to do to get your business online is to get yourself listed in Google Local.

At this point in the game, you’re ahead of the small business pack if you sign yourself up and get a proper listing, but this is a general statement and your local (really local) competition may vary.  To get yourself listed in Google business directory, first, see if you’re listed already.  Go to maps.google.com and search for your business name and city, like my favorite coffee shop, Donny’s in Bonita, CA.

Are you there?  Is your listing there?  There are 3 answers to this question:

  1. Yes, and it’s not awesome > Fix it
  2. No, it’s not there > Create it
  3. Yes, and it’s awesome > You’re done
Fix it
Claim and edit.  To do this, click the listing on the left and it will pop up on the map.  On the map, click edit, Claim your business.  You’ll have to prove it but it’s a reasonably simple process.

Create it
Go to www.google.com/local/add and follow the instructions

You’re done…ish
Whee!  You know that just means done with step one, right? Now see how you rank by doing a search for your business’s service or key terms, like: coffee shop, bonita CA.  If you are ranking well, then you are truly awesome and I’ll take you to Donnys when you’re in town.  If you’re not showing up then you aren’t the only game in town and it’s going to take more work.  This is usually the case unless you’re the only manicurist in Orderville.  Then you’ll need the services of a pro.  Email dan@kin3tic.com for a consultation.

Fixing and Creating notes:
- For phone verification, you’ll need a direct line without any forwarding or wierdness (mobile phones are fine)
- Pick all the categories you can think of (there’s a max of 3 – use them all), and if you can’t think of 3, get another thinker to help you.

*Awesome means it has a picture (or several), the name is correct with spaces, capitalization, etc., the categories are spot-on, the address and phone number are perfect and you have some reviews.

SEO for non-profits (NPOs)

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Posted by admin on October 20, 2009 – 10:07 pm
Filed under Non-Profit SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for non-profits can be tricky.  Non-profits don’t usually have an overflowing marketing budget, if any, and SEOs typically for for businesses that are for profit, and for profit primarily online.  So, it may seem to be a mismatch.  Not so.

SEO for non-profits can be a perfect match.  In eCommerce, it’s SEO that brings in the most revenue per dollar spent.  In branding, SEO is a long-term goal where sales may be a short-term goal.  What is the common link here? ROI.  SEO has the highest ROI (often) of any marketing channel.

Ever heard of the 80/20 rule?  It applies in SEO and it applies for non-profits.  In SEO, the first batch of work is essentially not optimization at all, it’s removing the mistakes that companies make and while it doesn’t make miracles, it’s some of the best ROI work (fixing mistakes) in the best ROI channel (SEO).  So, give the stack of superlatives, it may actually pay to do a little basic SEO for a non-profit.  The 80/2o applies to non profits because they live every day getting 80% of the effect from 20% of the resources – because that’s all the resources they have!  So, the first step is matching up the best part of SEO with the everyday pragmatism of non-profits – SEO for non-profits is first about removing mistakes on a web site.

Sometimes, an NPO already has an established, even old domain and lots of content and fixing mistakes can have a disproportionately beneficial effect.  In SEO, older is better and content is normally the hard part.  If a domain is already old and content is available, it’s like pulling a new car into a garage for repairs when all that’s missing is a spark plug.  It’s enough to make it run terribly, but not so hard to fix.  It’s rarely so extreme a case that the SEO equivalent of a spark plug will yield a site that runs like a Toyota, but you get the idea.

The second reason that SEO for non-profits can be great is that SEO takes time and non-profits usually have it.  Large SEO clients need massive impact and they’re willing to pay a lot for it.  It’s a good value for services, but way out of reach for a non-profit.  However, SEO ages well, and a trickle of work will add up to something that might be more than enough for a non-profit.  Your mileage may vary, but don’t rule it out.

PS: Non-profits web sites are usually about communicating a message and reaching a constituency.  While the need for professionalism is high, the technical demands on the site are not high (like gaming or sophisticated commerce).  This means that when a new site is in order, finding a single source to do it all (site and SEO) is helpful.  While SEO and web design are not the same thing, we do simple, clean and functional sites, including simple e-commerce and keep the bill reasonable.  The days of high prices for simple sites is over and the days of saving money by having your brother in law do a bad job were never realistic.

If you are a non-profit, give us a call.  We provide 20 minute free consultations for business – 1 hour for non-profits.  That’s just how we roll.

How to SEO your site – Assess Search Demand

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Posted by admin on October 14, 2009 – 5:27 pm
Filed under Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

‘How to SEO your site’ may not be grammatically correct, but it’s a common use of SEO.  As Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes said “I like verbing words, it weirds the language.”  So, here’s how to SEO your site.

There are some basic steps that you can use to Search Engine Optimize your web site.  These could definitely be used by enterprising individuals to execute the fundamentals of SEO on a site.  Some in my trade would consider this giving away the farm, but if years of experience could truly be focused into a few posts, we’d all be out of jobs – it’s just harder than that.  However, this string of posts will stand as a bona-fide, doable way to move your site far from the zero point where every site starts.

Basic steps to SEO your site:

Assess search demand

It’s common for people to get this concept backwards.  People say “I want to rank well for yadda”, where yadda is their wild guess as to which term it would benefit them to rank for.  In this simple sentence are many errors.  Breaking down the errors will provide a better understanding of assessing search demand.

Errors:

  • Saying ‘I want to rank…’ without logic is irrelevant.  This is a business.  What you want is to make money, get leads, get donations, build a brand, etc.  If you don’t have this part clear, stop immediately and figure it out.
  • Another reason this is limited thinking is that it implicitly assumes that ranking = results.  Noooo.  Ranking is one piece of a string of hoops that you must entice people through to get them from doing a web search to doing what you want them to do (purchase, sign up, donate, read, etc.).  It is only the number of people who get through all the hoops that make up a successfully attained goal, putting too much importance on any one step is faulty logic.  In fact, ranking isn’t even the first step.  (More on that in the next post.)
  • To add a point of clarification the hoops concept, I’ll use a negative metaphor to explain what it isn’t.  Some people hear the ‘string of hoops’ idea and misunderstand it to be like taking a course where the final grade is the average of several tests.  It’s not like that.  It’s like water in a hose – a big leak anywhere in the hose will make the sprinkler at the end fail.  You must get through all of them.
  • Thinking there is a single term, or even a few, in many cases hundreds of terms is to misunderstand the basics of search.  The terms that are relevant are determined by the sum of all the possible terms that the rest of the earth might think up to describe that which you have.  It will be your imagination that is the seed to approximating this big list, along with some tools.

What to do:

Understand the purpose of assessing search demand:

Validate that there is a business to be had – if there is no search, there is nothing.  If you wish to sell elbow hair removers, you can’t do it directly with search if no one is searching these terms.  You may do it indirectly if you determine that those seeking elbow hair removers also seek other things and there is search for the other things.  Or if you just really really think there is demand, you can purchase radio or tv or some broadcast advertising.

Determine which terms to go after – this is the real point of this post.  Doing proper search assessment will help provide the knowledge you’ll need to choose which terms to hunt for, which ones to hunt first (sequence matters), and to understand the relationship of the terms – this will drive your site’s construction.

Stay tuned for more…

Find Business Leads Using Twitter

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Posted by admin on October 13, 2009 – 11:02 pm
Filed under Consulting, Local SEO, Q&A, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you have come here from Twitter, you’ve come for free SEO and Internet Marketing advice – in the form of Q & A.  Tweet any SEO or Internet Marketing question to http://www.twitter.com/kineticSEO and we’ll answer you, free of charge.

Now that you’re here, why don’t you read how we’re using this page to find business leads using Twitter?

*****

We area a small Internet Marketing / SEO company based in San Diego (Chula Vista to be exact), and finding business leads using Twitter is one way we are fishing in the small river of local small businesses who might need our help.  We support non-local businesses also, but we are super selective.

In regard to leads from Twitter, our effort is low bandwidth, and here is the approximate method:

  1. Create a Twitter account at Twitter.com (5 minutes)
  2. Create a Twellow profile at Twellow.com (6 minutes)
  3. Follow a small number of people who match your target criteria – like 50 or less.  You may have see the garbage follows that you get from people who are following 1733 and have 6 followers.  It’s a robot and it managed to nab 6 followers for their garbage. (5 minutes)
  4. Put up something awesome on your Twitter account so that when they are notified that they have been followed and they don’t recognize the name, the ones that check it will see something good and follow you (5 minutes)

(Whistling sound) – Wait a week, hopefully posting something good once or twice in that time.

  1. Monitor how many follow you back.  If it’s a high portion, good.  If it’s low, put up better stuff, following a more directly connected group of people or live with it. Nope, there isn’t a generic threshold for what high means.  Guess and go with it.
  2. After a while, unfollow those who don’t follow you so that your follow/unfollow ratio is good and you don’t look spammy.  (And please, don’t be spammy).  Twellow just introduced a great feature for this called ‘non-mutual’; meaning, you can see who you are following that isn’t following you back and vice versa.

Rinse, repeat. These steps will take a few hours a week.

Details:

* Your posts might also have links to your site, or may directly have good (static) content in the tweets.

* If you see something interesting from a follower, respond.  Make nice.

* Social media is good, and it can be a useful tool for business.  However, you are dealing directly with humans, not Twitter, and people are people.  Everybody likes to have a real response and a friend.  Be one.  Be your awesome, legit self as though you were speaking to them at Starbucks.

* Don’t take on a social campaign expecting it not to be social.  What does this mean?  It means that successful campaigns take work, and take real, human interaction.  This isn’t plug and play and it’s not necessarily any easier than handing out flyers.  Depending on your product or service, it may be much better than flyers, but there are no free rides here.

* Using Twitter for a social campaign is really only something to consider if your SEO is already in very good condition and you have an ongoing, well-crafted program in place.  If you don’t, contact a good SEO consultant and get that in order before you take on social.

If you see something I missed, let me know and I’ll add it.

Happy Twittering..!

Chula Vista Internet Marketing and SEO

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Posted by admin on October 13, 2009 – 9:54 pm
Filed under Local SEO, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

While we are based in Chula Vista, we also serve surrounding areas.  Our Internet marketing goals are to have a group of local small businesses as ongoing clients.  We know that small business Internet marketing is even more directly connected to results than large business, and that the demands for return on SEO investment are shorter-term.  There are no large budgets to spend from; there is a budget, but it must perform!

What we intend to have is a collection of businesses in the surrounding areas also, making us National City’s SEO team, Eastlake’s, Rancho del Rey’s, etc. There are a few reasons to larget locally.  Here are our reasons:

  1. We live here.  It is better for our clients to get to see us and discuss how we will support their business at their office than just over the phone.  Most SEO, even local SEO, is performed by people that clients never see face to face.  You’ll see us.
  2. SEO works better.  If we have a handful of clients in close proximity to each other, and each are very good at what they do, there are ways that their web sites can lend ‘authority’ to each other.  We will not work with competing companies.
  3. It’s less expensive SEO.  We charge fairly and provide a good value; when we work locally we can make an honest buck while keeping the clients bills low because our bills are lower.  Why are they lower?  Because we don’t maintain a big office.  We work in a small office and meet you at your place.  We figure you don’t want to be paying for our conference table, right?
  4. We teach SEO.  Often, clients want to learn how to do what we do, or at least some of it.  Sometimes we teach ourselves out of a job, and sometimes clients work alongside us to get things done faster.  We don’t mind if clients take over – those are some fantastic referrals.

The importance of being local

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Posted by admin on October 6, 2009 – 10:20 pm
Filed under Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The Internet can bring the world closer, for sure, but there is no substitute for begin face to face with someone.  We will sit across a table from you and look you straight in the eye when we discuss business.  Try getting a feel for the person you’re going to do business with when they are 2000 miles away.  It can work, it works all the time, but when you have the option of a truly local solution – take the time, have the coffee and shake the hands.  There is no substitute.

We are based in Chula Vista, and we are purposely setting our sights on supporting local business.  We know that we offer a good value, and the better we get to know you and your business, the better job we can do.  The effort doesn’t come to a hard stop at the end of a ‘job description,’ we offer our advice and input in every area we have capability, which stretches far beyond our specialties.  Give us a call, let’s talk about your business at Starbucks.