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A Dream Wedding by Sharon Replaces Their Old Bludomain Flash Website with a New WordPress Site

July 12, 2010 by Marc 2 Comments

Well known San Diego wedding planner Sharon Cole of A Dream Wedding by Sharon contacted me regarding improving her search engine marketing and internet presence. For a number of years she had been using a Bludomain website but recently found that with increasing competition, her website traffic and leads had become almost nil. This is in spite of her being an area ABC leader and the all the awards and news paper articles and links she had developed over the years in business in San Diego.

In looking into her site’s presence, we discovered that her website was virtually not present in Google’s index. Even Google searching with her business name and city the site was not found. The reason for this is because the inherently low “indexability” of a Bludomain site combined with no changes to the site in years. Effectively the search engine calculated that the site was just not relevant for what people may be searching. You see, most Bludomain websites really only have two actual pages, the splash page and the rest of the Flash website. The website itself is functionally just one page of Flash content with different actions. When we discussed all this the plan became multi-faceted and clear.

Sharon and Maria (her office manager) improved the legacy splash page text content and began using Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics to begin to “wake” up the site. I helped Maria install WordPress on the Bludomain hosting account and behind the scenes started to create an all new WordPress based website for A Dream Wedding by Sharon. A little progress, Sharon’s legacy site returned to Google’s index, though very far down in the listings.

But the Bludomain hosting account was very troublesome for WordPress. The blog was always a struggle with loading plugins and having errors. Bludomain’s hosting setup is often not a very friendly enviroment for WordPress, more so with WP 3.0. So the new WP based website would be based on a non-Bludomain server. (When the time came to choose whether the legacy Bludomain site would be kept, moved or dropped it was decided, after Bludomain quoted $80 to move it for what was effectively 2 indexed pages, that the site would be allowed to “fade away” and the savings used elsewhere.)

It’s done, and Sharon feels the new site is a great fresh look for her San Diego wedding planning business, and not like a typical blog site. And it succeeds in Google, search marketing and social media marketing. The new site already has well over 90 pages in Google index, is moving up in search placement and search traffic and best of all the site traffic has increased almost 10 fold. Plus it is easy to add new information, pages and posts to it to tailor internet marketing to the interest of today’s bride to be. When Sharon adds new content to the site it automatically Tweets the news and posts content to Facebook. And, not to forget that the new site is also viewable in iPhones and other mobile devices where her Bludomain site was not.

Please visit and take a look at A Dream Wedding by Sharon’s new web/blogsite. If you have questions about Bludomain SEO, internet marketing or WordPress based web/blog sites please send me an email.

Filed Under: BluDomain, Featured, Portfolio, Websites Tagged With: BluDomain, Facebook, Flash, Internet Marketing, marketing, search engine optimization, Search Engines, search marketing, search optimization, social media, twitter, web/blogsites, Websites, Wedding Marketing, WordPress

New website for Midnight Magic Studios a growing wedding videography business.

July 11, 2010 by Marc 1 Comment

Don Samples of Midnight Magic Studios in Knoxville TN works hard and makes really great wedding videos. He has been a long time client and I adapted the first Kertesz release for use as his website starting in 2008 using WordPress 2.5.

So it seems very unfair that his site was severely hacked recently. I think Don would be the first to admit he should have kept WordPress system more up to date, but the automated site hijack hackers are just wrong.

midnight magic video new si 250x300 New website for Midnight Magic Studios a growing wedding videography business.

New Midnight Magic Studios website

After not being able to cure the site infection himself, Don contacted me in late June to see what could be done. It was pretty bad, the database and PHP files were hosed, but WordPress was able to export a clean XML file we could use to rebuild the site pretty quickly. So there were two paths, 1) restore the site using my old backup of the current theme or 2) take the opportunity to upgrade the site to a newer more appealing theme layout offering all the new WordPress 3.0 features plus better SEO, improved security, easier one click total WP site system upgrades and social media integration with Twitter and Facebook. The second choice was only about two hours more time that the first even including some new site graphics. Don chose the second option!

We picked a layout that was almost brand new and adapted well to videography. Then over the next two days I customized the layout, graphics, imported the old site’s content and setup a bunch of new features for both site visitors and search marketing. Then like the Bionic Man, Don’s site was back even better, faster, stronger than before in just three days total. And for me the best of it all is Don likes it better, too. Not to mention the improved site traffic and inquiries. All for almost the same cost as just restoring the old site.

Please visit Don’s new site and see his work. And if you have any questions about the potential advantages of a new WordPress based website system for your business please send me an email.

Filed Under: Client Websites, Featured, Portfolio, Websites Tagged With: Internet Marketing, marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, search optimization, security, SEM, SEO, SMO, Social Networks, video, videography, web/blogsite, Wedding Marketing, WordPress

HVAC professional’s new website helps slam him with new business.

July 2, 2010 by Marc 3 Comments

When I do a website for a client there are effectively three customers I consider; the website owner, search engines and the prospective customer of the website owner’s goods/services. For success, all three need to “like” the website.

When Dennis Grimes asked me if I thought I could create a website that would increase his air-conditioning and heating service business I looked on that as an opportunity to learn something. Dennis related that his existing website seemed to get little traffic and sent him little business. I said I would look into it and explore if there were ways I could to see to improve the site and hopefully sales.

Beginning with a review of his website I first noted the keywords I thought would be relevant to what his potential market would use to search were not sufficiently present. Second, I reviewed the sites of his competition and taking note of how they “communicated” to potential customers and the text content marketing keywords. And finally I worked to establish for Dennis what I thought would be competitive in respect to our similar area business and their internet search presence, while having a marketing approach that would differentiate Dennis and appeal to prospective customers, with sufficient keyword content to maximize free organic search for site traffic. And put it all into a website.

As Dennis is a sole proprietor, what evolved was to present Dennis in as a professional, with high value and experience. The person you would naturally prefer to choose to service your air conditioning, if you knew him.

I asked Dennis to provide me time to discuss what he does and his approach with clients as well as some photos. Also re-wrote the text of his old website for SEO and put it together with a new site design layout and graphics. All on an easy to use WordPress platform, allowing Dennis to easily keep the site up to date, even using his iPad in a cafe.

The finished site has been operational now for almost a month and seems to be a great success in all three dimensions; Dennis likes the site and feels it represents his business well, the search engines seem to love the site it consistently presents in the top five search results for all the targeted search marketing and keyword phrases, and the amount of business derived from the site meets or exceeds Dennis’ expectations. All for the one-time cost of just about 3-4 months of typical yellow pages advertising. I invite you to take a look at Dennis Grimes’ new website. And remember that a site needs to address and “work” in all three dimensions; presentation, competition and results. If you would like your website to work harder and smarter for you, send me an email.

Filed Under: News, Portfolio, Websites Tagged With: air-conditioning, heating, HVAC, Internet Marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, SEM, SEO, tradesman, web/blogsites, Websites, WordPress

My Favorite Twenty Plugins for Using WordPress as a Website Content Management System

December 26, 2009 by Marc 3 Comments

Recently I was talking with Kerry at Camera Dojo and he asked what my choice plugins were when using WordPress as the content management system (CMS) for a total website. Below, in no particular order, is the “default” plug-in pack that I install when I begin setting up a WordPress based website and why. Some of these are common and will be used on almost any WordPress install, others are almost unique to the needs of using WordPress as a website CMS.

WP Memory Usage Marvelous simple plugin that shows the active hosting PHP version, memory limit and current memory usage on the Dashboard. A current WordPress web/blogsite needs 64MB and PHP5 to operate well, this plugin will tell you easily what are the settings for the hosting. This is info you need early so it is one of the first I activate.

Reveal IDs for WP Admin Adds the entry ID back into the administration panel of posts, pages, categories etc. Needed for things like excluding a category from a dynamic menu, etc.

All in One SEO Allows you to fine tune Titles and Descriptions for every page and post.

Image Friendly SEO Just to make sure that every image has a proper Title and Alt attribute, even if the site administrator forgets.

WP Super Cache With what seems to be Google’s increasing emphasis in 2010 on page load speed and to enhance your site visitor’s experience this plugin is more valuable than ever.

WordPress.com Stats A very nice companion to Akismet (they both use your WordPress.com API key). It shows useful site visitor stats on your Dashboard providing a quick source of timely metrics for your site.

WordPress DB Backup The database is where most of the content and access for a WordPress site resides. Backup early and often, even more so while building the site.

Twitter Friendly Links Have your Tweets show a backlink to your website’s URL not to bit.ly or some other third party service.

Twitter Tools Integrates your WordPress website with your Twitter account.

Page Links To Allows you to use pages or posts as navigational links to non-WordPress site sections or off-site resources.

Redirect Parent to First Child Use the parent page just for site organization. This plugin will automatically redirect the parent page to its first currently published child page

PHP Code Widget Similar to the standard text box widget, but it will also allow PHP code to function

Widget Logic With a full site I usually don’t want every widget appearing on every page. This plugin adds a conditional statement field to every widget that you can use to control on what pages the widget appears.

My Page Order Easy drag and drop reorder for your page navifation

My Category Order Easy drag and drop reorder for your category navigation

Google Analytics for WordPress If you want to be a successful internet marketer you will use Google Analytics, this plugin makes it easy to add Analytics to WordPress sites.

Google XML Sitemaps A must have! Automatically builds a compliant site map and notifies Google, Bing etc of the maps location on your server.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) Excellent for building interior links. It gives you a list of linked posts and/or pages related to the current entry, introducing the reader to other relevant content on your site

Sociable or Sexy Bookmarks Encourage your site visitors to share your site content across the web. I use either one depending upon the site’s target market.

cforms II My favorite contact form tool.

When I published this post these plugins were current and mostly behaved well with each other. As time passes that may change. If you have questions, please feel free to send me an email.

Filed Under: Internet Marketing, Websites, WordPress Tagged With: Blogs, CMS, content management system, Internet Marketing, plugins, search optimization, SEO, web/blogsites, website marketing, Websites, WordPress

Temporary Landing Page for SEO Jumpstart

September 12, 2009 by Marc 4 Comments

It will often take a month or two or more after you get your domain name before you will have your final website. And it is not unusual for another month our two after that before your site is indexed. But as I have written before you can use that time to get your domain well indexed in search engines and even test some of your content.

Rather than let your hosting company leave up its standard “under construction” or “coming soon” default page or an image of your logo, put up a simple WordPress blog with just a post or two of your basic content and a little about your business and contact info. This will shorten the time until it is indexed and greatly improve your site’s search recognition.

temp landingpage Temporary Landing Page for SEO Jumpstart

TECH 5 temp landing page

Recently (today) I took some time and did just this for a friend and his new telecommunications company, TECH 5.

His logo was done and he asked if I could replace the standard Network Solutions “coming soon” page with his new logo. I went a little further, I installed WordPress, uploaded the Atahualpa theme and a few plugins (cforms, All-in-One SEO and Google XML Sitemaps). Then added the logo and some content (that they already had put together for the new business) and voila … a temporary landing page that announces the new business with some major SEO mojo.

Admittedly it is not as pretty as the finished website will be, but it puts all the needed info out there right now in an easy to modify format, SEO optimized and it will make sure that the final website, when it is done, will enjoy as strong as possible search results from its first day on the domain.

If you have any questions feel free to send an email or leave a comment.

Filed Under: Client Websites, Search Engines, SEO, Websites Tagged With: Internet Marketing, keywords, marketing, search marketing, search optimization, SEO, Websites, WordPress

New Client Website – The Something Blue Shoppe

August 25, 2009 by Marc Leave a Comment

We just completed another social media dialog website for The Something Blue Shoppe, a full service bridal and prom salon located in Hartselle Alabama.

The salon wanted all the advantages that goes along with our all WordPress based websites, including:

Easy do it yourself content additions, upgrades, and site maintenance.
Complete automatic interaction and cross posting with Facebook and Twitter
Integrated blog
Low cost hosting
And the truly best SEO that only WordPress based websites can deliver.

All of this combined in a freshend style format that uses much of the established branding that The Something Blue Shoppe is recognized for.

New Site

Filed Under: Client Websites, Websites Tagged With: Internet Marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, SEO, Social Networks, web/blogsites, website marketing, Wedding Marketing, WordPress

“Socializing” with your website visitors works! A Bottom Line Income Increase from using Social Media

July 31, 2009 by Marc Leave a Comment

The words “conversion” and “conversation” seem very similar to me. Plus I have never experienced converting anyone from a lead to a client without having a conversation. So if you can give your website the ability to engage in “conversation” or a dialog with site visitors you should have more conversions and increased business, right? Yes, it is true and here is a study with the proof!

The new research from social media platform Wetpaint and digital consulting firm Altimeter Group found that companies with the highest levels of social media activity on average increased revenues by 18% in the last 12 months, while the least active saw sales drop 6% over that period.

Among the top 100 brands reviewed, Starbucks came out on top with a score of 127, followed by Dell (123), eBay (115), Google (105), and Microsoft (103). Companies were scored based on the level of interaction across 10 social media channels including blogs, Facebook, Twitter and wikis.

Which is why I build websites using WordPress as the underlying site platform! It not only provides the most effective, best blog format, it is also the best for being a central hub managing Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and even MySpace. So instead of frantically keeping all your your social media appearing with fresh information you can just use your WordPress based website to manage it all.

No need to be a “mad plate spinner” constantly going from one social media site to another every day to post new information to have a wide social media presence.

A WordPress based “dialog website” with the other social media channels integrated will allow you to have a smooth relaxed but constantly current social media presence, with less time involved. Like a gear driven clock-work, except with Twitter, Facebook and the others driven by a WordPress based dialog website.

And it gives you a competitive advantage helping to increase your bottom line. To learn more about how I may help you increase your business and social media presence with a WordPress based dialog site, just send me an email through the form on the right.

Filed Under: blog, Blogs, Internet Marketing, Sales, Search Engines, SEO, Social Networks, Websites Tagged With: BluDomain, keywords, marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, search optimization, SEO, Social Networks, web/blogsites, Websites, WordPress

SEO Gone Wild in Texas – UPDATED below

July 31, 2009 by Marc 1 Comment

Such is the situation in the race for the Texas governor’s office. But, what is the website for the campaign for Texas governor doing that is causing the uproar and that help us in our own efforts to get higher search ranking on Google? It is more than keywords, it is auto-generated keyword stuffing cloaked text content. Sometimes the best learning examples are what not to do.

This has been extensively covered in the press, most notably by the Austin Statesman. But it is not just adding keywords, like you might think of the keywords meta tag. What the website seems to be doing is taking search phrase keywords and adding then into a hidden layer of text content that you can’t easily see but search engines can.

This is considered black-hat SEO, it is unethical and in violation of Google’s webmaster’s guidelines and can get a website banned from Google’s index. Here are the specific problematic issues and SEO practice with the website that are contrary to Google’s specific guidelines (linked to guidelines); Hidden text and links, Cloaking, and Keyword stuffing

And not only are the SEO techniques used in violation of Google’s guidelines they also seem to be in violation of the website’s reported creators Election Mall Technologies own ethical standards.

It is important to realize that this website is the product of web professionals that know better and should have better ethical practice than to lead their client into this PR “nightmare” situation.

Here is a snippet of what the website presents to search engines that you cannot see, because of the “display:none” command to your web browser. The cloaked website text has hundreds of lines like these below -

<body onLoad=”showimg();”>
<div id=”Layer1″ style=”display:none;”>rick perry yell leader
www celebratingtexas
celebratingtexas
texans protecting our water environment and resources
cooper tire texarkana
texans for life coalition
bruchard nodes
ama on tort reform
carol strayhorn
strayhorn comptroller
rick perry campaign contributions
carole strayhorn
cjd texas
texans radio online
texas payroll tax rates
rick perry governor of texas

UPDATE

It seems that Google has de-listed the standbykay.com site from their index. SEO FAIL! Lesson on how not to optimize a site or operate an internet presence.

Still waiting for a comment from the reported site vendor, Election Mall Technologies, as to whether or not this is a feature of their website services. They did return my call but said it is taking time to answer because their “CEO is traveling internationally”.

Filed Under: blog, Search Engines, SEO, Websites Tagged With: search engine optimization, search marketing, SEO, SEO fail, Websites, wrong

A Client Shares – How Our WordPress Based Websites Actually Increased His Business

July 27, 2009 by Marc Leave a Comment

Don Samples of Midnight Magic Videography in Knoxville TN just sent me a note recounting his satisfaction and success from using our website. I really like that we were able to help his success, but before I share his experience I need to tell you a little about how we began.

About five months ago Don had us replace his old style HTML based website with our new Kertesz WordPress based basic website. Don’s primary goals in doing this were to increase his business by improving his internet presence and marketing and believed that our site could do that for him. He saw that our sites offer proven marketing potential and at the same time are easier to manage, look good and he can easily modify and add content as wanted. His total cost was less than $300.

I hope after reading Don’s letter below you will consider letting me help you.

Now here are Don’s own words about using our website for the last few months -

Hey Marc,
I have been meaning to send this to you for a while now, but I have just been so busy. The web site you helped me with is working so wonderfully. I am getting about 10 to 15 hits a day on average. I am getting calls left and right for bookings. Two of my competitors have even told me that my site rocks. But the best complement I got was about a week ago when I bride said she read my web site and asked if I could shoot her wedding. I was booked for the day she wanted and she told me that she felt that with the information I provided her on the web site she could find someone she would feel good about.

My previous site got very little results. Most times I would get a phone call from a prospective bride they would always ask for a demo video, what do I offer, and on and on. Basically, when brides called they asked the questions the site didn’t answer, which was everything. Now, when I get calls, it is to ask if I am available for a date. The calls are good quality leads. The site has given my business an air of professionalism. I put trailers on my site after almost every wedding. The brides love this as they can see some of their video right away. My old site didn’t have the ability to post video. As a video business, it is so important that brides can see what I do.

The week the site went live, I noticed the change in calls and contacts. My competitors in the area all called me and commented on the site. But the best part of it was the fact that they all changed their sites to look like what I have put up.

I have gotten calls and emails from brides who have told me that the information I have put on my site have helped them change their mind about choosing a videographer for their wedding. It also helped them ask the right questions of the videographer they have chosen.

But, most of all I have seen an increase in my business this year. Last year was a good year, but since the site is up and going, the late summer and fall are almost completely booked.

This site has changed my business from a struggling attempt at videography, to a respected, talked about, leading business in the East Tennessee area. Thanks so much for your help, my site is now what I have wanted it to be from the beginning. And, yes I have even updated my web site from my iPhone at a Starbucks.

Thanks so much.
Don

Send me an email (use the form on the right), let me do the same for your business.

Filed Under: Advertising, Client Websites, Featured, Internet Marketing, SEO, Testimonials, Websites, Wedding Marketing Tagged With: blogsites, BluDomain, Internet Marketing, marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, search optimization, SEM, SEO, Social Networks, video, web/blogsites, website marketing, Websites, Wedding Marketing, WordPress

Free Blog Websites Cost You a Lot

July 26, 2009 by Marc 2 Comments

Well over half the websites I come across can host their own free blog, but instead chose to use a different website like Blogspot, putting their best marketing content on a different business’ website. Be kind to yourself and your business, keep your best content on your own site. (Photographers particularly need to consider text content as carefully as they do their images.)

For all types of business, I see it many times everyday. In an effort to build traffic to their website, increase their online marketing and client base, website owners including photographers, real estate brokers, jewelers, restaurants, personal coaches, consultants, wedding planners, florists, believe that the best solution to expand their internet marketing is to have a Blogger Blogspot blog or the like.

It is a ridiculous strategy (except for the “free” blog website service). Sending people to another website to increase the traffic to your website is crazy. Then hoping that a visitor then might read something that you wrote on Blogspot, Xanga, Live Journal, etc. and then click over to your website is in reality a dispiriting leaky system. People are resistant to clicking to other domains and blogs typically have a high bounce rate. (yourdomain.blogspot.com is very different than yourdomain.com)

“But it is free!”, you say. Well not so much. As you can see above the opportunity cast can be high. Plus your content is building business for the “free” blog service and they can make it very difficult to ever move your content to your own site or benefit from the search engine indexing of your content on their “free” blogging site.

Still have doubts? Here’s another view by Hubspot of the same problems and business cost of using Blogger, and other so-called free blog websites.

The best solution is to have blog content, but to have it on your site building your visits, conversions and clients. Which you can do in most cases for very little or no cost by adding WordPress open source software on your current hosting. Well over half the websites I come across can support WordPress at no additional cost.

TANSTAAFL even holds true for Blogspot. Know the true cost before placing your content into the websites of others.