In this featured project I want to show you how a little work can go a long way when it comes to getting your site produced and listed on the search engines. Lynda I met through my cousin.

She gave me a call and asked for a simple website and more exposure for her local area business.

Without too much effort we put together a simple design, implemented on-top a open source content management system (joomla) and optimized the site for “Calgary Marriage Commissioner”.

Before she knew it Lynda’s site was ranking within the first three positions in Google for her chosen term beating out most of her competitors. business more then doubled and she’s been busy ever since.

ActionInsuranceGroup.com

In this featured project is an example of a site that was once a static HTML, abandon by the previous web-designers, a real pain to update.

The client was happy with the designed “look” of the site but wanted a more powerful Search Engine presence and ability to easily update content.

The overhaul would retain the design and look of the while upgrading the functionality behind.

WordPress was used as the content management system. It provided a way to import all the pages regain the URL mapping and provide the extra functionality of a blog so that they could add in news worthy events on to the site on the fly.

The Thesis theme was used as a framework and the previous style was adapted to fit withing this structure.

A new menu allowing dropdown navigation saves the visitor effort in finding the form or information they’re looking for.

Another challenge of this project was the forms. The Client required application forms for various types of insurance such as auto, home and commercial.

This was accomplished with the  “Contact form 7″ plugin that incorporates seamlessly into WordPress. The forms where built to submit the completed insurance form along with the visitor contact information to Action Insurance Group administrator.

The end result was a more feature rich website that qualifies in the search engines, more streamlined navigation for a better user experience, a stronger lead generation tool, and stable content management system that allows the client to make new updates to the website on the fly.

The objective of TomSherry.ca was to provide a professional and personal branding image  to visitors that come through by word of mouth reference,  business cards, and social networking.

Because real estate is a face to face business, the person (Tom Sherry)  is the brand; a brand that is to establish trust and credibility with the visitor.

One of the major functions of the site is to provide auto updates to social networks when a blog post is made. (After some trial and error) We installed several back-end plug-ins that allow this type of functionality. Facebook, linkedin, and twitter are all updated upon a blog post – Allowing Tom Sherry to remaining relevant keeping their audience engaged with home buying and selling tips and featured home listings.

Getting ranked in the search engines for this site was not a priority, but the site is built upon WordPress which overtime will naturally gain rank through blog content updates (on various keyword terms related to real-estate and there branding).

This project is a fantastic example of taking personal branding to the next level.

In a nutshell it will show you how to construct a winning ad that pulls search traffic that are searching fro your product or service.

Remember also that your landing page counts; Once the potential visitor clicks on your Ad link it’s necessary that they see what they’re looking for the more specific the better.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GI7tsbwnVk&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

If your looking for help on setting up successful Google Ad campaign give me a call.

Banner advertising is whole new beast and can be very profitable if done correctly.

However is your business and more specificly your offer ready to enter into media buying?

For example:

If business is a local hair styling studio and you offer a “family package – 12 cuts and styles for $399″ you could be in the profitable position to place your offer in a banner on sites that are visted by those who have families.

You can think of banner advertising like advertising in trade magazines; Your targeting a group of people with a common interest or that fall into a demographic that are highly likely to respond to your advertisement because it’s very closely related to their interests.

In contrast to search marketing – where the prospect is using the search engines to find a product or service specifically – banner placement is an interuption of the users intended activity.

So is your offer worth the interuption?

If your going to interupt someone it should be important.

That is before you go headlong into banner buys on related websites you want to establish your offer to be unique and of high value to the future customer.

Here are some questions to ask yourslef…

What value can I offer for free as a way to initalize the relationship with the prospect?

How is my offer unique?

How can I make my offer unique?

What is the single most asked question about my product or service?

.. Now if you can provide your prospect with an unique free offer and convey that in a banner ad,  your banner will be hugly more effective,  resulting in more “clicks” to your website and more incoming leads.

If you want to know if banner advertising is right for your company just contact me by email or phone.

I’ll be glad to help you determine if a online media buy campaign is right for you.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg-Inf3xvio[/youtube]

It makes you think… am I showing up when my potential clients are looking for me?

Imagine being a dentist in Calgary showing up on the first page of Google when someone like Ryan (in the video) who just moved to Calgary is looking to remedy his upper molar sensitivity. That type of exposure means a stream of new customers!

I’ve can tell you from experience that hundreds if not thousands of “local” city searches are being performed for service and product based industries.

Yellow pages? – on it’s way to extinction.

Here, do this…

Go to Google.com right now and type in something your customer would type in to find your service (or product offering), Are you showing up?

Tell me if you are and for what term… “Comment below”