Summer: Time For A Restart

Each summer as a kid, I'd look forward to being out of school and into the next adventure. I learned a lot in school but summer was the time for fun and exploring. Now as an adult, summer is a time to mow the lawn and other yard work. Not the adventure I was looking for.

As a small business owner, summer is a time that I am able to get outside and see how Creation can rejuvenate me. As I make time for walks, I see the design beauty in flowers, clouds, and more. We can learn alot from Creation.

We all remember the ant and the grass hopper story (the original version). Work hard now and when the slow times come (and they will), we will have saved up to ride out the winter.

So enjoy that long weekend or week's vacation. Recharge and restart. Winter is coming.

Google and Marketing

As I mentioned last week, the greatness of a movie is in whether it can provide great lines or not.

If you have time, read The Google Story by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed. It is a fascinating story. I have been reading it this past week and it shows how word of mouth can help spread your message. So what then does the title of this post have to do with that? Well, Google's Don't Be Evil is their informal motto. I think every one should have a motto or mission statement.

Some business people I have met in my more than 6 years in Marketing have had a Forest Gump approach to marketing. That is to say "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never now what your goin' to get." When asked what there marketing plan, mission statement, etc. are; the response if "well, um, it's, ah, well, it's to make money and ..." As the old saying goes "People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan."

Before you start a business (or even if you already have one) take time to plan a motto/mission statement/marketing plan. If you do, you may not always not what you're going to get, but you will be better prepared and can minimize risks.

If you build it, will they come?

Movies have become the literature of the 21st century. To me, the greatness of a movie is how quotable it is. If a line from the movie can be worked into every day life, the movie is great.

In the movie Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner's character Ray Kinsella hears a voice that says "If you build it they will come."

Many small businesses and non-profits have that same mentality when it comes to their web sites. They quote may have worked in the movie, but in the realm of the internet, it is dead wrong.

What good is a web site if a person can not find it? Sure, you can put your site on business cards, newspaper ads and the like, but most people are going to Google or another search engine to find things.

If you want to get noticed, you need to be atop the search engine result pages (SERPs). One way to keep up on trends is to read blogs such as this one or at sites such as searchenginewatch.com. They provide up to date information and strategies to help your site (and thus your business or non-profit) be relevant.

Have your optimized your site? The search engines are looking for sites that provide users with a good experience. The way to promote a site is no longer to stuff meta tags with keywords. You need to have your key words in the content that people read too. If you are looking to draw people to your business or non-profit from a certain geographic location, make sure you "proudly serve the great Baltimore area including Bel Air, Edgewood, Forest Hill, and Harford County."

If you need help moving your site up in the ranking the correct way, I will be glad to help. Visit esggraphics.com today.