Great new post from Don Beehler at ABC

Great new post from Don Beehler at ABC&D Communications. How to Improve Quotes in a News Release http://ow.ly/6zlMN.

Sports Get Social! Check out Game Talk L

Sports Get Social! Check out Game Talk Live http://ow.ly/6zlc6 a new sports app on ITunes. Built by my good friends at Avatar Software.

Do you need help meeting your fitness go

Do you need help meeting your fitness goals? Meet Pursuit Home Fitness. In home training, massage, nutrition…this team has your back. Best of all, they come to you. There are no excuses now! Experienced, Certified, Convenient. http:www.pursuithomefitness.com. http://ow.ly/i/hdRe

Want to drive more traffic to your site?

Want to drive more traffic to your site? Try QR codes…the cute little barcodes seen all over. Use in broch, bc, etc. Questions? 615-482-5182

Is SEO Right For You?

I hope this month has been truly successful for you. Things have really been hopping around here at Rimshot. We’ve had a blast being creative for our long time clients and many new clients. Because of our recent growth, we’ve had to add to our pool of highly creative people, and I’m pleased to have re-connected with a long time friend, Andrea Martin. Andrea is a very skilled designer and is already a great asset to the team.

Did you know that we offer high-end offset printing? Many of our clients rely on us not only for great design, but also for superior quality printing of brochures, direct-mail postcards, business cards, etc. The next time you need print collateral, all you have to do is approve the design, and we’ll ship the finished product right to your doorstep. It’s just that simple. Just another way Rimshot will help you find your groove.

Over the last several months several of you have expressed interest in Search Engine Optimization, (SEO) for your website. So I have decided to begin a multi-part series in this newsletter to explain what SEO is, what it isn’t and then provide some Do-It-Yourself SEO Tips that you can use yourself to promote visibility of your website on the web.

Before I get into the “Tips” part of this, I thought I would take just a few words to explain what SEO is and what it is not. SEO or Search Engine Optimization simply means using various techniques to adjust the content of and code behind your website to make it easier for search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing to find and a catalog your site in the most relevant manner possible. The hope is that these efforts move your site up in the search results when someone searches for your type of business. Though this may increase your ranking position, this should not be confused with getting more customers, which is really what most people are trying to do. SEO in itself will not get you more customers. It can however result in making you more visible to those people looking for you.

There is a lot of hype in the SEO world. Companies make promises with their “patented systems” and “secret tricks”. Many promise the moon but provide little more than a drain on your wallet. Here is an excerpt from an article in the February edition of Entrepreneur Magazine by Erin Weinger that explains things pretty well.

“There are countless SEO strategists, consultants and self-professed experts who will claim they can beam your site up into Google’s top 10 search results–for a price, of course. Consultants commonly charge upward of $200 an hour, and most will pressure you to sign a contract that keeps them on retainer for months–at prices as steep as $12,000 a month. Unscrupulous SEO firms not only make promises they can’t keep, the worst of them also use shady practices that might produce no traffic, deliver the wrong traffic or even get you banned from planet Google.

“The SEO business is 80 percent scam,” says Peter Kent, an internet marketing strategist and author of Search Engine Optimization for Dummies. “It’s very, very difficult to find a good firm.”

So what are you as a business owner to do? Well there are a lot of simple things that you can do in just 10-15 minutes a pop that will go a long way to making your site more SEF (Search Engine Friendly). I just made that up.

In the coming weeks and months along with other news, offers, and information, I’ll provide you with a ton of tips that you can use to bump up your rankings.

As always if you have any questions or would like to discuss SEO or any other services we offer, please call me personally
615-482-5182 or email me.

Do-It-Yourself SEO Tip #1

Start With Great Content:
According to Matt Cutts, a member of Google’s Search Quality group, “Great content has to be the foundation of every great website”.

As the search engines index sites they are looking for relevant content. Make sure your content accurately reflects your business. But don’t fall into the trap that many business owners do. They focus on explaining their business from the what they bring to the table, or the technicians point of view. They forget that not everyone understands their lingo or even cares about all the details.

Most visitors come looking for a solution to their need, and just want to know if the business can meet that needs. So tell your story, but tell it with the reader in mind. Keep the “jargon” down and the “personality” up. Understand your clients “problem” and then show how your business delivers the solution.

Keep it fresh. Change it up every so often. Keep refining your message.