Event, Tourism, Non Profit, Public Service Provider or Professional Association needing smart web development and internet marketing?

We understand your needs. We understand your challenges.

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  Web design & Internet Marketing for Event, Tourism and Service Providers

  You need to expand your audience.

• You need to connect with your audience in a substantive, frequently updated and engaging way integrating your site with Social Media.

• And finally, you’re a results oriented marketer who needs measurable, analytics data informed performance on conversions. Ordering, registration, ticketing, membership… what’s your metric?

All this but you want as much direct control over your message as possible so you can update your message as often as you need and as easily as possible. You want to maintain control to do-it-yourself, delegate internally or outsource as you choose.

This is what we’ve been doing for clients for years. We invite you to check our portfolio. We’ll be happy to introduce you to our satisfied clients.

So, contact us today. Let us help you reach and engage your audience.

We also specialize in helping clients reach the single fastest growing demographic in your area.
Tambien hablamos Español 

• Event, Tourism Marketers
• Community Arts Providers
• Civic & Public Service Providers
• Non-Profit Organizations
• Film Festivals
• Information & Education Providers
• Member & Professional Associations
• Professional Service Providers
• Performers & Entertainers
• Those needing to reach the Spanish speaking community

“All hat and no cattle?”

“A mile wide and an inch deep?”

It’s not just about pretty pictures. Web design that delivers results is much more.

Your website rightfully belongs at the center of your internet marketing strategy.  However, if it is unsupported by a broader, data driven integrated marketing strategy its utility and your investment is compromised. A website of pretty pictures by itself will not deliver the performance you need.

Stated another way; a beautiful looking website without traffic or conversions on what you need done is a digital paperweight.

Successful web design is an analytics informed, data driven, marketing excercise designed to deliver measurable results on your stated objectives. What do you need your site visitors to DO?

• Consume your copy/media content? Inform themselves?
• Register for or attend your event(s)?
• Join?
• Buy?
• Contact you?

Internet marketers need something to happen. They need to be able to quantify it. And they need access to the data and levers to impact ongoing performance.

Pretty pictures while important are not what drives the effort. It’s about the numbers baby. Good numbers are what’s really pretty.

Consider this. If there are frequent changes and updates within your market or offering, if  you need to engage and hold the attention of your audience, then nimbleness and easy updating needs to be a core strength of your integrated web marketing plan and website.

No es semántica. Su  sitio Web legítimo pertenece en el centro de su estrategia de marketing en línea. Sin embargo, si está sin apoyo por una estrategia de marketing más amplia e integrada,  su utilidad y su inversión se compromete perceptiblemente. Un gran sitio Web por sí mismo no le llevara probablemente a donde quiere ir.

Indicó otra manera; un sitio Web maravillosamente diseñado sin tráfico es un pisapapeles digital. Y al contrario sitio Web que recibe mucho tráfico, obligando el Web site mantenido el aislamiento, faltas su utilidad más completa, potencial de la palancada y su ROI.

Considere esto. Si hay cambios frecuentes y las actualizaciones dentro de su mercado u ofreciendo, si usted necesita enganchar y llevar a cabo la atención de su audiencia, después la agilidad y la puesta al día rápido-n-fácil necesita ser una fuerza de la base de su plan y Web site integrados de comercialización de la tela.

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Contact us now for a free consultation!

Contáctenos ahora para una consulta gratis!

Hablamos Español

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I’m fortunate to be able to do work that I enjoy. It’s something I’ve not always had the opportunity to do. It’s something many are not able to do.

I’m lucky… or perhaps in a more self-determinant way… perhaps I’ve paid enough dues over time to be in this position. At any rate, while there’s still work-work to be done, for the most part I like what I, along with Ana do for a buck. Hopefully I’m not inciting a turn of events by my acknowledgement. You don’t talk about your team’s pitcher nearing the end of a no-hitter game. You don’t want to risk inviting bad karma.

That said, the type of work we’ve been able to attract and win is good work. We’ve interesting clients who are pursuing worthy objectives we applaud. They’re doing important work and we enjoy being a part of it. I like contributing in our way to what they’re working hard to accomplish. But this is what we do for a living. And at the end of the day we still need to meet the mortgage, we’ve got kids and all the rest… just like everyone else.

What we do takes time, a lot of time and perhaps more than is apparent. Profitability however is frequently driven by, among other things, speed. Pound it out. Get it up. Get’r done.

We just finished up with yet another client meeting that took way too much time and in large part was due to our having way too much fun. We enjoy each others company.

You see, working closely with clients over the time it takes to do this kind of work well, we’ve experienced, you build friendships that extend beyond the strictly business client-vendor relationship.

This week, yet again, we’d been spending an unjustifiable amount of time on an aspect of the project because, well, we’re into it. It goes beyond the fact that our name and reputation is on our work. The subject matter itself and the opportunity to do some cool things with it… well it’s fun to do. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about fluff. Our intent is to drive audience engagement, improved traffic and conversion on targeted actions. Developing around these objectives for nerdy types though can be very seductive.

So absolutely, no complaints. Just had a very nice time with another great client helping them to do important work, work we’re proud to be a part of. Doing what you love though… you tend to spend more time than you can really cost justify. So here I am. Now I need to play some catch up. Baby needs new shoe’s.

Most likely you’re someone who is responsible for getting your company or organization’s message “out there”. You’re looking to broaden your audience, increase the level of engagement with your targeted audiences, increase the number of inquiries or sales. You’re likely not the tech geek of the group. You’re simply the guy or gal with the short straw to improve performance, numbers… to get it done.

Some terms

Perhaps you’ve heard of WordPress, perhaps not. But while a big a deal in the world of web development, that’s not your world so it’s new to you.

WordPress is what’s called a “CMS” or Content Management System. It’s a technology that powers dynamically rendered websites, in real-time based on multiple data and content inputs.

Perhaps that sounds like jargon. You’ve no doubt seen static, unmoving sites where the content never changes? Well, it’s not that.
Now, technologists may argue my simplistic definition but hopefully you get my meaning. And of course I’m happy to try and clarify for you.

Well this “CMS” platform called WordPress has been growing in popularity very rapidly over the last few years to the point that it is now the single most widely used platform for authoring websites. There are use case exceptions of course.

WordPress is not the best solution for every and all situations and expressed client needs. Priorities and resources still dictate the best solution. I will not attempt here to fully define what WordPress is and its relative merits to other platforms. If interested a simple Google search will net you better treatise then I will attempt here.

WordPress. My personal short-list of what’s in it for you.

I just want to point out a few things that I find have been of particular value for the folks that we’ve worked with. And it has to do with “Content Management”, or the what, how and by who around what is presented to your audience on your website(s).

• Autonomy over content management: Disclosure. A personal issue for me. I’ve worked on the client-side. I’ve worked on the agency-side. Allowing others (my web developer) to hold the keys to my website and being hand-cuffed to what I can, cannot do and with whom can be a challenge. WordPress provides an unsurpassed WYSIWYG admin editor for non-coders. You or your associate are likely the most knowledgable about your message. If provided access and the ability wouldn’t it make sense to update your site yourself? And if not, it should be your choice who to delegate to internally or outsource externally to. Can I get an Amen? (I’m not talking about modifying the site. That likely requires a deeper skill set perhaps you have, perhaps not)

• Immediacy of updating content: As communication needs flow, often quickly, sometimes and too often… last minute, the ability to update the website content quickly is hugely important. Announcements, calendar items, responding to changes in the marketplace, today’s news, your offering… all these drive the need for ease, convenience and speed of updating site content. If you’re dependent on communicating updates to external tech staff to do updates this can be expensive and require additional lead time adding further delay.

• Economy provided by self-management: While being penny-wise and dollar foolish will continue to trip people up, we’ve found that budget constraints and the need to get the most for their money is still what drives the go/no-go decision. If you do not have the staff or ongoing budget to have the “hired IT guns” do all your updating, the self-managed content option may be your best… or only option.

The “Gotcha”

To be sure, we’ve found that some folks, at the end of the day discover that they have little time to create content and update their sites. Or they’ve found that perhaps they’re just not the best content creators. They’re good at running the enterprise. What they’re putting up is less engaging, beneficial for their audience or just not up to their brand standards. (We can help with that too.)

All the same, WordPress provides them the option. The option for autonomy to update themselves when they can (and most likely should), delegate internally or outsource for help as they need and choose. Having options as good is one of those universal truths.

Final caution. It comes down to execution.

Aspects of what makes WordPress easy to use for the client also makes it easier for individuals to create sites for themselves or “clients”. This holds the potential for allowing some lowering of the bar for what constitutes “professional” web development. We’ve been paid to rebuild websites already paid for recently or donated by some well-meaning student, volunteer or brother-in-law who knows about computers.

Web development in WordPress like any platform is about delivering quantifiable results. It’s an analytics informed, communications & marketing exercise. It requires expertise in usability, analytics, SEO, content creation/presentation and a host of other skill sets behind the scenes. So check the portfolio. Check references. Ask about performance. Don’t get fooled by pretty pictures. That’s the easiest part.

QR Codes have been around for a while now. And while we’re seeing them pop up more and more frequently, their first and primary utility has been to provide a conduit from the tangible print world to the increasingly ubiquitous world of peoples web enabled smart phones. It’s a primary means of mobile marketing.

Just my contact file. Try it out. Scan it with your smart phones downloaded QR reader ap. Save to your phone and you'll have it handy to contact me some time if we can be of assistance.

QR Codes.

If you’re not familiar, they are those square, typically mysterious codes you may have seen in magazines or elsewhere. Mysterious because they often, because of space constraints of print are placed somewhere without benefit of introduction, call-to-action, what you’re to do with it or why you should care. We’re to assume there is some unspecified Cracker-Jack prize inside that will reward our efforts.

Their use typically assumes A LOT on the part of the consumer.

Assumes tech savvy and highly motivated consumer

There are many good applications for using QR Codes and the level of creative use and utility is growing. And while consumer use is still very small it is growing. I suspect we’ll reach a tipping point when smart phone manufacturers start delivering their product to the marketplace with this utility pre-installed. Currently, the market is still dependent on a consumer who is (1) aware of and (2) motivated enough to…

1. Know what QR codes are and value them enough to bother
2. Seek out and choose a QR code phone ap of their liking from various competing providers and download it.
3. Upon seeing a QR code presentation will pull out their phone, open the ap, take the pic
4. Most likely then have to do something with what has been accessed or downloaded

All this assumes a VERY motivated consumer. So, I’d assume conversion rates for those who access your content via QR codes are likely very good though the volume or % who would go to that much trouble would likely be very low volume or %.

This is not to say that marketers should not be using QR codes. To the contrary, there’s not really any reason not to… if you’ve the time and print space to justify the effort. There is also good reporting and feedback loop on their use. And finally, in most cases they’re very easy and inexpensive to use. It’s simply more a matter of managing expectations on traffic/usage. And this will be heavily dependent on your target demographics. Like many things the more you put into your QR code effort, the more you’ll get out. Meaning, if you just slap up an anonymous QR linking to your website home page without intro, call to action, benefit proposition… well…

Your mileage may very.

Website, webpage use of QR Codes

Conventional applications for QR Codes have been for smart phone consumer engagement from a printed source. I’m starting to see though periodic use of QR codes on web pages. For what purpose though? You’re already on a website via your computer or smart phone. Why not just provide a conventional link?

It would seem the off-line habit of just throwing up a QR code without intro or call to action has migrated to this same anonymous online use. In print it’s understandable that there may not be space for intro/call-to-action. You have to assume. But online… you have considerably more flexibility to get around this constraint.

In fact there are several good uses for QR code use on a web page but they’re less obvious. And given you’re not constrained by space there less excuse for not introducing what it is, what you’d like your reader to do with it and why they should bother.

Uses for QR Codes on a web page:

1. Download contact information to visitors smart phone
2. Download an application or file to same
3. Save one or more GPS locations to same
4. Save the webpage to their phone? (Don’t think so. It’s a bit of a reach as there are easier ways to bookmark)
5. Placement on a webpage you want printed out where they may place the hard copy for other’s use/access
6. Save a coupon code to the phone for later in-store presentation
7. Add to your Linked-in or other social media profile (contact info or other)
8. PayPal buy link

Creative off-line uses for QR Codes

More typical, ho-hum uses you’ll see are print publications, newspapers, magazines, flyers, posters etc. linking to website home page.

Less common and more creative placements include:

• Billboards, storefront signage, box / wrapper packaging, in-store signage
• Shelf tags, price tags, register receipts, for sale signs
• T-shirts, jackets, book bags, coffee cups
• Manufacturer ID labels
• Warranty cards, instruction documents, customer service documentation
• Video/film trailer and/or credits at the end of same
• On the back of your business card
• Direct mail pieces
• Conference or employee name tags and ID cards
• Place at the end of your Powerpoint or screen presentation
• At the end of a print story/report. Send the reader to where they can get more on the story presented.

More creative use of the code include:

• Linking to a unique and optimized-for-conversion landing page for the specific purpose or offer, not just the website home page.
• Linking to your V-card or contact information (try this on your luggage tags and other non-carry-on items)
• Linking to fuller product information you can’t fit on a price tag, shelf tag, product listing packaging etc.
• Coupon codes to be presented in-store upon your next visit.
• “Call us to place your order” automatically dials phone
• Linking to your PayPal (or other) buy-now link
• Linking to your Event Registration page

If you’re new to QR Codes

Usage assumes you have a web enabled smart phone. If you do you’re likely already familiar with selecting, downloading and activating web aps. Having tried a few we like and use ScanLife but there are others you may want to try. Further, it’s a rapidly evolving and competitive space. So by the time you read this there may already likely be a better mousetrap. They’ve gotten considerably easier to use in just this last year. So try out a few.

If you don’t have a smart phone… well… I’d strongly encourage you to get one, particularly if you’re a marketer of virtually anything. I don’t care if you’re a proud technology Luddite. Most likely an exploding share of your existing and potential customers do have smart phones and they’re using them, to access your brand. You should know, first hand how you’re being experienced by both current and potential customers vie this medium.

Pssst. You can use this excuse with your mate for justification of the expense too.

If you’d like to discuss how you may best leverage QR codes in your off-line and/or on-line internet marketing efforts we’d love to talk with you. You may see us online (see Chat Now utility above right), give us a call (608-713-4380) or drop a line. rick@resonatewebmarketing.com

By Toni Rocha
Daily News correspondent
Published: Thursday, February 24, 2011 11:20 AM CST

Volunteering connects couple to the community No one would argue that volunteering is a great way to give as well as a way to feel more useful. But for Ana Kelly and Rick McGrath, volunteering in a multitude of organizations has provided the perfect entry into the greater Beloit community.

McGrath said his move to the Beloit area about five years ago was work-related. While he found a position in Roscoe, he added that he prefers to live in older neighborhoods.

“Planned development doesn’t work for me,” McGrath explained. “I was living in Beloit for three years before I found we had a neighborhood group. The Near East Side Neighborhood Association (NESNA) hadn’t been meeting much. Then we discovered the Landmarks Commission and became involved there, too.”

Kelly added, “We started a website for NESNA and tried to get its members together but everyone was so busy. Finally, we learned that the best way to attract them was to hold meetings in our home. We had good attendance at the first one.”

Just as one potato chip is never enough, Kelly and McGrath quickly became involved in one after another of Beloit’s vital organizations. Married with four children still living at home plus operating their own business, Resonate Web Marketing, the couple would seem to have more than enough on their plates. But within a few short years, through their professional expertise and desire to be assets to their community, Kelly and McGrath have helped what reads like a “what’s what” of Beloit nonprofits, schools and governing bodies.

Kelly serves on Beloit’s planning commission and both act as treasurer for the Aldridge Middle School band boosters, focusing on acquiring 100-plus uniforms for the students. More, they either serve on committees or provide Internet services for the Beloit Landmarks Commission, Beloit Neighborhood Preservation Association, Roy Chapman Andrews Society, Latino Services Coalition of Rock County, the Society for Learning Unlimited, the League of Women Voters, the Beloit School District, Hands of Faith, Meals on Wheels, the Chamber of Commerce, the Beloit International Film Festival, Beloit Economic Development Corporation, the Angel Museum and Beloit 2020’s Explore with Roy program.

“When we work with these organizations, the line quickly blurs between professional assistance and personal interaction,” McGrath said. “Friendships naturally develop, and of course, we see a lot of familiar faces.”

As one of several founders of NESNA, Tom Warren said he has been impressed by the dedication, time and results that Kelly and McGrath have achieved throughout the Beloit College district where they live.

“They not only like Beloit, but are willing to invest sweat equity to make it better,” Warren added. “My wife and I are members of the First Presbyterian Church where Ana and Rick sometimes attend. They are among the most active contributors to outreach efforts.”

Warren concluded that most of all, he has known McGrath and Kelly via their website construction and maintenance.

“They have helped me, and many other individuals and groups, develop websites at minimal or no pay,” Warren said. “Their expertise, patient teaching and willingness to stand behind their work have made them valuable partners and important community resources. I speak here significantly from my role within the Roy Chapman Andrews Society, but also know that they have volunteered their work to other associations.”

Another organization that has benefited greatly from Kelly’s and McGrath’s volunteer efforts is Beloit’s Angel Museum.

“I have been working with Rick and Ana for about two years now,” said Angel Museum Executive Director Ruth Carlson. “In that time, they have completely reorganized our website plus gone way above and beyond to help us keep it updated. They are also at a lot of our events and film them whenever we ask. They have also helped me learn social media and put the museum on Facebook,
Twitter and Youtube.”

Carlson added that she feels Kelly and McGrath are real assets to the community who are willing to share so much of their expertise to help organizations understand new technology to promote Beloit venues as well as the city itself.

“We are fortunate to have such dedicated people as Rick and Ana in our community who are willing to do so much,” Carlson said.
And among those familiar faces Kelly and McGrath find when they get involved is Dr. Robert Schwaegler.

“When I look into their faces, Beloit’s message of welcoming with a generous and gracious smile comes to mind,” Schwaegler said. “They are always ready to share their talents in the realm of social networking and web cyberspace development. The SLU web page was greatly enhanced technically. And they are inseparable. They love working as a team. And watching Rick and Ana on the dance floor shows how much they like being together.”

For their personal view, Kelly concludes, “If you don’t volunteer, you won’t become truly integrated into your community. You will always feel like outsiders. We no longer feel as if we just moved to Beloit a few years ago. We feel as if we have lived here forever.”

Copyright © 2011 – Beloit Daily New

In addition to Internet Marketing and Web Technology another fundamental passion of mine revolves around historic preservation, heritage tourism, historic districts, sustainable communities, adaptive reuse, “new urbanism”, and related subjects.

I had the opportunity this last weekend to do a presentation on internet marketing regarding leveraging web assets at the Wisconsin Local History and Historic Preservation Conference in Lake Geneva WI. It was a fantastic event. I particularly enjoyed Donovan Rypkema and his presentation titled: Measuring the Economic Impact of Historic Preservation in Your Community. I could go off on a tangent in violent agreement with his findings on the economic benefits around preservation and developing sustainable communities… but I wont.

You’re invited to share this presentation. You can find it at:  http://bit.ly/Historic-Preservation-Internet-Marketing

For someone like myself who is passionate about these subjects it was an opportunity to learn from others and hopefully contribute as well given our (Ana and myself) area of expertise. I’d love to be able to help local, regional or even state organizations for that matter better reach their own audiences. Their efforts to reach, expand and engage their communities can often be greatly improved via internet marketing best practices and better use or expansion of their web assets.

So, to that regard I was thrilled to be able to offer a presentation on how these organizations may better reach their communities by way of web technologies, making better use of existing “web assets” such as their websites, blogs, eNewsletters as well as entering or expanding their use of the “Social Web”. I think it was well received. I know I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Anyway, for those who might have attended or others who may be interested, above is the visual presentation portion of our session. If you’ve questions let me know.

If you’re active in or responsible for historic preservation or related conferences around these themes and interested in assisting member organizations reach their communities we’d love to help you out. Let us know.

Those that know me well know that on the short list of thing I’m keenly interested in other then internet marketing are historic preservation, architecture, historic neighborhoods, sustainable communities, new urbanism and such.  So my interest is piqued when I see one reflected in the other.

I just read a great post by Aaron Wall about Google, data acquisition and the impact on competition and the broader “online” community.

In the tangible world, one of the things that trouble me about big-box retailers is the impact they have on small independent retailers, neighboring historic downtowns and the broader “community” in which we live.  Lowest price product and homogeneity at the expense of diverse, unique, viable and yes, green [ for another day  ] downtowns. No luddite I. I work to make a habit of being an “early adopter” as much as I can manage.

What brought this to mind was a parallel in Google’s growing domination of online markets by data capture > price competition > effective elimination of previously viable online marketing/advertising/service providers.

Free market, sure. A better product, likely true as well. By-the-way I say this as a raving Google fan. I love and use Chrome, aps, docs, calendar, wave, manymoon and on and on and on. That said, I can appreciate the difficulty many online companies have when Google decides they want to enter a market and provide a competing service often times for FREE. I know, I use a lot of their free services I used to pay others for.

Once upon a time I managed the online marketing relationships for the single largest online marketer within it’s vertical. While there Amaz** wanted to partner with us. I thought it a bad idea. Incremental sales in exchange for our customer and product sales data. Incremental sales for as long as the relationship was mutually beneficial in exchange for giving away the secret sauce, which is forever. We’d essentially be teaching a very large potential competitor our business by giving them access to our data. Thankfully the deal never happened, IMO.

For Google, gaining that data from those they touch = gaining the secret sauce with which they then compete. Evil, no I don’t think so. Free market, yeah I suppose. Google = better, cheaper services, likely true as well.

I’m just sayin’…

A friend and associate, Genia Stevens and I will be conducting a series of Internet Marketing training seminars for the local Beloit WI Chamber of Commerce here in Southern WI, Northern IL. In the weeks ahead we’ll be introducing regional businesses and organizations to best practices around using web based technologies to further their marketing objectives. We’ll be touching on Social Media, Mobile/Local internet marketing, SEO (search engine optimization), web analytics and much much more.

Internet Marketing Training for Southern WI / Northern IL

Whether you’re already using internet-based technologies, are considering it, or just want to learn more you’re invited to join us for this three part series. My feeling is that internet marketing training is best done, of course while online. So we’ll be online and going through live examples to better illustrate concepts, help you see and understand what is being presented.  And if you’re brave enough we’ll even take a look at your own site and provide you some insight and tips you can take back with you.

You’ll walk away with greater insight and actionable steps to move you closer to taking better advantage of what internet marketing can do for you and your business or organization. If you have a laptop you’re welcome to bring it and follow along.

Training Session Schedule:

Session 1:  Wednesday June 30, 8:30 – 11:30 a.m.

Session 2:  Wednesday July 14, 8:30 – noon

• Facebook and LinkedIn – Learn how to locate your target market and engage it in conversation.

• “Mobile/Local” web marketing – A discussion on increased Smartphone web use, and how the relevance and utility of traditional, print “yellow pages” is being replaced by web search.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Make sure that your business is found when being searched online using search  engines.

Session 3:  Wednesday August 4, 8:30 – noon

• Web Analytics – You cannot reach your internet marketing objectives if you don’t know where you’re at, how you’re doing and where you’re heading. Learn to employ web analytics to help inform yourself about results and help you make data-driven decisions.

• Twitter and YouTube – Learn how to incorporate these two powerful communities into your social media strategy How to use these social media tools to attract your audience to your website/storefront.

All internet marketing training will be conducted at Vision Beloit, 500 Public Ave. Beloit WI 53511. We’re right on the state-line border of Southern WI / Northern IL.

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The series is FREE to persons employed by companies which are members of the GBCC. The charge for persons employed by non-member companies is $100/session. This cost may be applied to GBCC membership. To register contact Aimee Thurner at (608) 365-8835 or e-mail.

Matt Cutts offers up a great overview of some of the fundamental principles around what’s going on in the background when you do a search, specifically in Google. Of course you need your website optimized for search engines, employing SEO best practices so you can be found, but what’s happening when your target market is actually searching for you?

Everyone uses search but do you understand what makes SEO work?

Search engine optimization or SEO coupled with leveraging smart analytics needs to be fundamental considerations for any smart web development project. If your target audience can’t find you through the search engines then you’re not getting your message out. And if you, or your web developer isn’t employing best practices SEO and web analytics… well you’ll likely not get very far. Your website might look pretty but it won’t deliver results.

A great introduction.

Keep in mind this is only an overview introducing a few of the major dynamics in play. Search Engine Optimization is a key specialized field within broader internet marketing. Optimized page content is vital and the most obvious aspect of optimizing your website. It is though only the visible tip of the SEO iceberg. Effective optimization of your website extends far beyond this.

Website optimization is a function of many aspects of your website most of which are not readily recognizable. Take for instance the platform upon which your website is constructed. This is particularly true of many of the older legacy platforms, some of which are very expensive. You’d be surprised how many website development platforms are fundamentally unfriendly to SEO. Trying to compensate from some of these legacy platforms can be an expensive proposition. This is one of the primary reason we’re big fans of WordPress and use it in our all web dev work.

Wordpress is a fundamentally optimal platform upon which to build your website and ongoing website optimization is considerably easier to do.  In fact with some tutoring you could likely do much of it yourself and save some mony… if you choose to. Out of the box however and without knowledgeable development you can still miss many basic opportunities for optimization for your targeted terms, phrases and target audience. This goes to file structure, navigation, tags, plug-ins and on and on. Some aspects are more obvious then others. And then there is the vital link acquisition.

All this assumes you know where you’re going in the first place. The best SEO takes place before you even start. It all starts with knowledgeable keyword research. You can’t optimize your website if you don’t know what you’re optimizing for and it’s too easy to make wrong assumptions. Smart keyword research will ensure you’re being found for the right word and the most valuable words and phrases. Optimizing for low value jargon is easy to do, misses the mark and happens… all the time. We’ll table keyword research for another time though but this is actually the beginning point.

In the mean time, enjoy the video above. It’s very good and helps illustrate why getting found doesn’t just happen. Matt Cutts is “the guy” and one of the leading authorities on search engine optimization, among other things.

If you’d like to know more about Search Engine Optimization, SEO and how to reach your audience through the search engines please contact us. If you have an existing site and need some website optimization we’d be happy to help.

Rick
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