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Month: May 2007

Search Engine Marketing Newsletter May 2007


Tuesday May 15, 2007

Reading Time: 14 minutes

In this newsletter we discuss…

  • New designs or redesigns by Webconsuls 
  • Mobile Phones and hand held devices Blogs 
  • 508 Compliance 
  • Getting listed on Google Maps and Yahoo Local Search 

New Web Designs by Webconsuls

Over the past few months, Webconsuls has been working on new web designs or redesigns for a number of our clients. We invite you to view these sites. Morningside Recovery An addiction and recovery treatment center in Newport Beach, CA. Pacific Coast Recovery Center A 30 day hospital based program which includes medical detox and hospital inpatient chemical dependency and pain track, located South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach, CA Delytes Catering and Event Planning located in Temecula Valley, CA, serving Riverside and San Diego Counties. Your Best Look Michael Nelson, M.D. providing Lipotherapy and Mesotherapy, serving the greater Kansas City, MO area.Temecula Divorce Gina Famularo is a family law attorney practicing in Temecula, California.

Mobile Phones and Hand-Held Devices

Your web site may display beautifully on a PC, but how does it look on a mobile phone? You may be very surprised and a bit dismayed by the result! If you are curious, there is an easy test at: http://emulator.mtld.mobi/emulator.php

Simply access the URL shown above, select the type of device in the drop down and type in your URL without including the “www;” just the domain name.com/.net/.org, etc.

Fortunately, a solution is available. You can have Webconsuls design your site for mobile devices and use a specific “.Mobi,” top-level domain for the mobile site. “.Mobi” is dedicated to delivering the Internet to mobile devices via the Mobile Web. Google Mobile and Yahoo Mobile’s OneSearch will undoubtedly grow in popularity, given the projected sales of hand-held and mobile devices. Current estimates are that 1.3 billion people will connect to the Internet via mobile phones by 2008.

Several of our Clients are already moving ahead at this time to position themselves early in mobile advertising and / or marketing. These include Morningside Recovery, Visions Adolescent Treatment Center and Captain Lord Mansion. Several other clients have already requested quotes and are close to placing orders with us.

To view how well .Mobi works. via a Browser:
A. Open a Web Browser and access: http://emulator.mtld.mobi/emulator.php
B. Select Nokia or Sony Skin
C. Type in: “captainlord.mobi” or “morningsiderecovery.mobi.” or “visionsteen.mobi.” After the http://, it is best to omit the “www.”
D. Click on Submit and wait for the phone screen shown to load.
E. There is a thin gray scroll bar inside the phone display. To navigate, place the cursor on any of the dial numbers and click.

(The best approach of course is to actually use a mobile device for viewing).

Special features included in our .mobi design packages are auto-dialing your business’ phone number. Even better, the mobile device will automatically recognize the .mobi extension availability as well. Images can be displayed and links work quite well. Sites that attain a rating of 5 out of a possible 5 in design quality get into the .mobi Directory and all of our designs meet that rating. Call today for details!

Important Note: In case you didn’t know, Domain age is a huge factor to Google’s rankings. How long you’ve been around, how long you’ve had people link to your site, how old are the sites that link to you, what has your back link growth and history been, etc, etc…..it’s all about Time and Age Factors. In a small way, the age of a domain gives the appearance of longevity and therefore a higher relevancy score in Google. Our recommendation to all clients is that no matter your current .mobi intentions, you should have us register “yourdomainname.mobi” for 5 years, to immediately start “the aging clock.” Cost for five years, with free-parking is only $125.00.

Call or write us if you wish to have a .mobi site developed or if you want to purchase the .mobi domain extension.

Blogs

As mentioned in our press release sent to you earlier this month, Webconsuls is anxious to help our Clients benefit in a variety of Social Marketing Optimization (SMO) opportunity areas. One of its components is “Blogs” or Blogging. For the uninitiated (or for those in Dennis’ generation who know what a slide rule is), a Blog is an online, regularly updated journal or newsletter that is readily accessible to the general public by virtue of being posted on a website. Why all the interest? A recent discussion by Site-Reference about benefits from Blogs (cut and pasted below) should “hone” your interest and attention:

  • Blogs are a great medium for your customers and prospects to get to know you and your services better. 
  • When you post information to a blog the blog software automates the process of updating your website with the new information and archiving old content; simplifying the chore of keeping your website fresh and relevant. 
  • Blogs can automatically announce (ping) to the world whenever new content is added. Again, this automated process simplifies the all-important (and normally time consuming) promotion process. 
  • Through the use of syndication methods your blog postings (writings) can be monitored easily by fans of your services/writing. 
  • Blogs provide a wonderful platform for readers to interact with you by leaving comments. 
  • Due to the highly social and interactive nature of blogs it is possible that links will begin to appear to your posts from other websites. This can increase your website’s link popularity and will only happen if you write engaging and source-worthy content. 

Call or write us to have a Blog added to your web site.

508 Compliance

Congratulations and kudos to Attorney Edna Deeb http://www.ednadeeblaw.com. Edna holds the distinction of being Webconsuls’ first Client to request, order and achieve overall accessibility compliance with regard to section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act.

Compliance is designing or modifying a web site to be usable by persons with visual or physical disabilities, often with the help of a screen reader device, captioning, etc. While not yet a requirement in most fields, (except government sites), this topic closely mirrors the more familiar ADA considerations and regulations. It is almost certain to become a consideration in new web site designs. Google already is testing “Accessible Web Search for the Visually Impaired.” A parallel benefit in achieving compliance is that many required enhancements also meet standard browser conformance (W3C) recommendations and therefore should help with traditional SEO and positioning rules.

Call or write us if you wish to have your site modified to be section 508 compliant.

How to List Your Business in Google Maps and Yahoo Local Search

Have you ever tried to search for your business in Google Maps or Yahoo Search? The easiest way to do this is to type in your business service or product and the name of the city and state where your business is located. What will be displayed on Google is “Local Business Results for…” and on Yahoo it will say “Local Results…” Did you find your business listing? You may find that if you type in the specific name of your business with the city and state, your listing will appear, but it may need to be updated with more details about your business. According to the Site Reference Newsletter, “Even if your business is done completely online, you may benefit from getting listed in Google Local or Yahoo’s local listings. People often feel more comfortable doing business with someone who is local; and potential customers may stumble across your business while searching for other things.”

We know that many of our clients are already listed in Google Maps and Yahoo Search, but for those of you who are not, we have found that this is one area of internet marketing where you need to register your own business. The reason for this is that both Google and Yahoo go through a security process to determine that you are a real business at that location. They either verify the information submitted by phoning your business or sending a postcard addressed to the business, which requires that you sign back into Google Maps or Yahoo Search and enter a PIN number.

As always, if you have additional questions, please feel free to call us and we will make every attempt to assist you with this value added feature.

Reading Time: 7 minutes
Press Release Source: Webconsuls, LLC

Webconsuls, LLC Internet Marketing Team Grows Stronger
Friday May 4, 1:11 pm ET

Darin R. McClure and Lisa A. McClure to Provide New Client Services

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Webconsuls, LLC, now in its eighth year as a successful web design and search engine optimization firm, is announcing new social marketing optimization (SMO) services for their current clients, as well as new clients as they come on board. The evolution of new SMO services is the result of being responsive to changing technology, internet trends, and client’s inquiries on how to assure their internet presence is ahead of the curve. Staying ahead of the curve means realizing that when someone says “Can you dig it?” they are not referring to the song lyrics of Isaac Hayes’ “Theme from Shaft”, they mean “Can you digg it?”
According to Dennis Helfand, Webconsuls Managing Partner, “Redefining our business services is an ongoing process and we are pleased to announce that Webconsuls has contracted with Ready To Go Information Technologies , owned by Darin R. McClure and Lisa A. McClure, to oversee our SMO services. Both McClures bring a wealth of knowledge to this endeavor and they are excited to provide new and innovative services for Webconsuls’ clients.”
Darin has worked with internet technologies since the early 90s. Experience with both building and hosting websites he holds his MCSE, MCP+I, MCP certifications. As a savvy internet marketer, McClure has a solid grasp on the potential of social marketing. An avid blogger, Darin’s passion for new technology and the internet’s ever evolving ability to disseminate information and bring people together made social marketing a natural transition. Darin maintains numerous blogs and vlogs within various social networks. Sharing these new techniques with coworkers and friends has become a way a life.
“I love shiny new toys,” he says with a glint in his eye. “Finding the newest, best, most effective techniques is what it is all about.”
Beginning with news groups in the early days of the internet, Darin cultivated social networks, marketed products and produced multimedia content. His videos have been watched all over the world with “viewership” in the millions. Darin discovered the market value of his skills when a frustrated man wrote to him asking how he was getting top placement for key words for which this man was paying top dollar. “Content, content, content” was Darin’s reply.
Lisa A. McClure, an Accessibility Media Specialist, began with accessible technology as a Braille transcriber transcribing print to Braille for college textbooks.
Lisa’s initial focus was to make the internet accessible to the blind, however more disabilities are served than just the visually impaired. “Physical limitations can make moving a mouse very challenging and sometimes impossible. An aging population with deteriorating vision and motor skills is something which web designers are starting to take into consideration. Basically we are installing wheelchair ramps to sites on the internet.”
Accessibility and search engine optimization go hand in hand. Web search engines are blind! Adding accessibility functions can improve your search engine placement. Adding a readable text component to previously pure visual elements gives search engines something to locate. “It’s really exciting that the functionality added to make a site accessible also has a search engine benefit,” declares Lisa.
As Dick Fay, Webconsuls Managing Partner says, “Social Marketing is about working with the internet … not against it.” Google and other search engines are there to find new quality content for those looking for information. By creating quality multimedia content for the various social arenas we are building an information rich resource for all.
About Webconsuls, LLC
Your web presence is your store front on the internet. Drawing traffic and creating a space that is easy and pleasant to navigate is vital to your business. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Marketing Optimization (SMO) are two components of a successful internet marketing campaign. As the internet evolves, approaches to marketing evolve as well. Webconsuls is responsive to the changes necessary to stay competitive in this changing environment.

Contact:

Webconsuls, LLC
Dennis Helfand, Managing Partner, 949-760-1542
dhelfand at webconsuls.com
Source: Webconsuls, LLC