Basic Search Engine Optimization. I get asked this time to time so I’ll talk about it. It isn’t easy, but it isn’t supposed to be. The truth is – exactly what google is trying to see. Your website’s credibility is ranked based on your honesty, your relevance and your popularity. All three, not one or two.

Masking your content, jamming keywords, hiding links, these little tricks don’t work anymore. Any black hat trick that you try to use in the search engines can be adjusted and corrected within the algorithms of google. If it hasn’t yet, still don’t use it, because some super computer scientist over at the big G will simply ruin your day with a couple of quick clicks. It’s not worth the work or the gamble.

So what’s my point? My point is that success on the internet begins with being honest about your service and your product. Success then ends with a successful internet business plan. SEO will help you get there if its where you plan to be.

Since Augusta is rather small, many small markets in Augusta are very easy to the get to the top of google. This can be done with keywords, regular updating, a relevant to your content – page title and description.

So, how in the flying elephants are you supposed to accomplish all of that? Good point. It’s easy said than done. First regular updating. You need a website that can be really seen well by google (unfortunately this method don’t work well for flash base sites) then you need some type of content manager that allows you to edit or add to your website easily. I would pace myself in the changes, google will not return to your website immediately. It bases how often it returns to how often you update (no point in wasting resources eh?). Writing and changing content should be based around what your are wanting to be found in google for, but be smart. Google know if you are trying insert that subject word too many times. Try words associated to that word. Once this is done, go on to step 2.

Correct titles and page descriptions – For the this part you may need a little help from a web person, but having the titles and descriptions are very important. These two tags are not only read by google, but they become the visible result for search results in google. That bold title is your title tag, the description is your description tag. Mentioning your subject once to twice in both of them, surely will help when it is relative to your content.

As Texas radio personality and politician Pappy O’Daniel once said “We ain’t one-at-a-timin’ here. We’re MASS communicating!” But is mass communicating right for everyone?

Have you taken a percentage of your company’s profits and set them aside for the purpose of advertising? If so, were you envisioning a huge colorful billboard, a TV commercial or a flashy website? Though it’s quite exhilarating to see your name in lights, diving in without research could shatter your budget and leave you with little return on your investment. Your product or service may have specific clientele and it may be wise to cater your marketing to that crowd. This post will be about a few tips on acquiring and maintaining a targeted customer, and possibly doing it for a good price.

Finding this clientele isn’t always the easy part. Your clientele may be found through a number of methods including word of mouth, networking with complementary businesses that cater to the same clientele, using demographic mailing lists or asking around and finding out what your customers listen to, where they go, what they watch or even read. Once you discover these avenues, it should be a goal to get involved with them. Whether you spend time contributing to an online forum that deals with your product or investing in a single billboard that your targeted neighborhood must pass by daily, you must make the first move. Making this move requires quite a bit of brainstorming, and it’s even better if you do it with a group friends that will be honest and help tie your feet the ground.

If there is no current local interest or clientele avenue, then create one. Send invitations to some friends and ask them to bring more friends for an after-hours party with free drinks and refreshments. Be creative and think of some incentive to get people in the door. It’s cheaper to give away product you buy (or make) at a discount rather than paying cash for an non-targeted advertising spot with a risky return.

If you have a service-based business, find a location and have an afternoon workshop. I’d love to learn a couple electrical tips, how to properly fix a piece of pipe or even what to do in the state of a emergency. Some of you may say, why would I ever share anything from my trade, if I teach them to do this, why would they need me? The answer is this: you don’t have to share super in-depth information, it’s simply an opportunity to demonstrate that you know what you are doing, you’re trustworthy, you do it right and you actually care. You will be the first person I call when I need that service.

Maintaining this clientele should been seen as creating relationships …and these relationships often continue even if you switch industries. Investing in clientele costs time and effort (indeed a price), but it doesn’t always have to come from your checkbook. There is quite a value, for example, in making the small effort to remember a customer’s name.

The first myth is that “…one day the internet will be huge and by then, I’ll get something up”.

For starters, the internet wave has already happened. It’s actually happened a couple times. One of the factors in the Google search engine algorithms is time, which means the quicker you get on the internet, the better it’ll be for your business. Please note that it is not the only factor, but it is an important one. For example, I was building a website for a local company, and the project was paused for about 5 months. During that time, he had a domain name, and I had sample page of his site up (that did include his phone number and some nice imagery) live on the internet. This sample was only a jpg, I put in a few searchable tags and we let it just sit there. This company had no major online area competitors, and google indexed his one page and listed it #1 for his service and the area. He was receiving on the average of 50 page views per month. The moral of this myth is that ANYTHING is better than nothing, and the wave of the future is already here.

“My business is targeted for locals, I’m in the phonebook, that should be enough.” You would think, but you would need to also think about how many people today don’t even use phonebooks. Many people still do, but thats why most phonebook companies will offer the opportunity of an online listing as well. Please understand that I’m not doubting the value of the phonebook, I’ve been in it ever since I started my own company, its just that the tunnel vision of “only a local business” isn’t going to see very far. Everything from dry-cleaners, plumbers to banks have all gone virtual, a great web presence can open your doors wider almost any other form of advertising media. You can assist, provide answers to common questions, tell information about your store, give directions, sell product and increase your business. You can keep the small business feel and still have website.

“I’ve been burned by a webdesigner/web company, its honestly not worth the trouble.” This does happen, many of the world’s creative digital art masterminds are quite scattered. I am one. I am scattered. I can understand the feeling it’s like a bad breakup, you’d rather just not deal with it. Here’s all that I ask, even if you don’t want to invest the time an effort into another site you still must do something. I’d suggest listing your company online by yourself, you can visit http://www.google.com/local/add and add your location for free. You feel even more savvy than that, visit http://www.merchantcircle.com where you can add an entire profile, specials, images, blog and all kinds of the things for free. If you take 20 minutes and do this yourself, you can then modify it yourself, no designer needed.

Here are couple of guidelines about creating and using logos

So many times I come across companies whose logos mean lot to them, they were created by a family member or themselves and of course, they mean alot.  The majority of these logos have a piece of clipart involved and are complimented by fonts such as: Brush Script, Papyrus or Zapfino.  If this is you, its ok, we still love your products, but this bit of advice is for those who think they may need a logo, or a redesign.  Logos have certain guidelines and these guidelines make them timeless and useable across all mediums.

The point of the logo is to express the whole of the company in a simple form.  If you own a flower shop your logo may logically include your company name and an icon such as a petal, a flower, a portion of a flower and etc.  When we see the logo it should easily related to your company.  This is possible by using colors that are the colors of your products, your bags, or even the walls of your shop, just keep in mind that it’s a mental association that we must be able to make.

The logo should be designed using black, then adding color once a balanced look is achieved using only black.  There will be many times that your logo with only be able to be printing in one color, newspapers, fax machines, stickers, signs, b/w laser printers, and even some embroidery projects. If your logo is dependent on having multiple colors to give it life, your bill for printing anything will be much more expensive.  A professional designer will give you a series of logos that have color and some that are only black and white.  You can use them as you need them or as your printer requests it.

The format.  This one is important.  This last part is about how your logo should be vectorized.  In the world of graphics, you have a can have a vector image or a raster image.  The idea of a vector image is that object is created using scalable mathematics sort of like a parabola. No matter how large the logo is the edges are clean and crisp, because they are created by math.  On the other hand, a raster image is built by small square blocks of color like a photograph.  The more your zoom in, the more jigsaw’d the edges are.  This can result in fuzzy edges when printing and many printers for specialty items cannot used a logo in a rasterized format.  Vector data can be stored in the formats of .eps, .pdf and .ia files.  Rastered data can be held in jpgs, tiff and .gif files.  Most designers can actually redraw a logo in a vector based program, and if you haven’t had it done, I’d certainly suggest it.