Sunday, April 24, 2011

How To Edit Thesis Theme with Hooks

Great resource has been being put together on how to edit thesis theme, with some great links to top thesis experts and resources for editing thesis themes. There are also links for how to edit thesis using hooks

Saturday, April 23, 2011

SEO Companies to Watch Out For

 

SEO is a marketing decision and like any marketing decision it should be well thought out before just jumping into bed with a seo company. Here are a few things to consider when looking for seo services.

The Guarantee

This is probably my least favorite thing to see when I look at an SEO company website or packages. Any quality seo company knows you cannot guarantee anything. We are at the mercy of search engines and they are constantly changing. Being up to date with seo practices and thinking out of the box is what builds a great seo service. Beware of the “#1 on Google” guarantee cause it probably ain’t happening.

Pre-Built Packages

This is a bit two-fold. I understand the want to offer a package as a seo company, but each project should be analyzed and looked at subjectively because each industry and project is different from the next. The seo package that works for one business may not work for another. This is why I like to offer a free website analysis and build a custom seo package to meet your needs properly.

Content

Like the pre-built packages, content needs to be viewed as a UNIQUE venture for each project. This needs to be completely unique and industry or topic specific, if a SEO company is offering you TONS of content it is probably ripped from a competitors site and “spunn” in order to seem unique for you.

Keywords

I have seen packages from seo companies that offer to optimize you for 30 or 40 keywords. On a grand scale its definitely possible and should be worked at, but in the beginning stages of getting your website ranked properly you want attention and focus on a smaller set of high traffic keywords. Quality not quantity!

Author:

Drew Poland is a web developer and internet marketer with several years of seo experience and marketing design. Click here for the website to his Bay Area SEO Company.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Using WordPress to Create FaceBook Fan Pages Template

Want to use WordPress to create Facebook fan pages? Now you can! A new theme was just released that you can install on a secondary wordpress installation and run your facebook fan page template from it. 

If you want to read more, check out WordPress Facebook Fan Pages Theme at Bay Area SEO.

Thanks! and get those Facebook fan pages going off wordpress asap!! There are templates for facebook fan profile photos that include the "like this" button!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Coworking Oakland Resources

Here is a great blog post on resources for Coworking in Oakland!

 

Quick blog post outlining some resources for those looking to cowork or join a coworking space in Oakland.

Coworking Oakland Fruitvale - Block from BART and 1/2 Mile off I-880 Fruitvale exit, this Oakland Coworking space offers flexible plans in a creative space for those looking into coworking.

Coworking Oakland Meetup - Meetup group for the above Coworking Oakland space. Join and find out about upcoming events at Coworking Oakland!

 

Keep tuned for more coworking space in Oakland, and other resources related to coworking.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Spreading Too Thin With Social Media

 

Building a successful social media marketing campaign for a small business is about choosing 3 or 4 and sticking with them. If you are trying to update to 20+ social media services than you are spreading yourself too thin!

My suggestion for the small businesses looking to seo your website and build a social media presence is to stick with the big ones. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and I really like StumbleUpon for sharing.

Focus your attention on those, build a plan for each that works together with your website and business goals, then execute your social media marketing plan.

To make things easy to manage, I highly suggest the service Postling. What Postling does is connects all your social media, blogs, and other accounts together (even LinkedIn and FaceBook!) so you can easily manage them all from one dashboard. I personally use it for myself and many clients and have found it dramatically reduces my workflow when trying to build links and get the word out.

I've arranged a discount for clients and my blog readers: 50% off Postling Coupon.

Enjoy!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Bay Area SEO and Web Design Services New!

Bay Area SEO and Web Design has launched a new more intuitive website for users to contact them through, Bay Area SEO mostly deals with small businesses in the bay area but is available for seo and design work anywhere in the united states seo and design market. Success in Oakland, Fremont, San Jose, Los Gatos, Pleasanton, and More bay area cities!

Bay Area SEO and Web Design also specialize in small businesses, including the following niche industries: Dental and Dentists, Self Storage, CPAs, Attorneys, and more.

Los Gatos SEO Web Design Firm

Los Gatos SEO and Web Design launches new website design to provide better interaction for customers and to display work better.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Great Resource for Making Thesis Theme Edits

This is a link to a blog post with resources, links, and tutorials for helping you learn how to use hooks in thesis theme, edit thesis theme, and more.

How to Edit Thesis Theme Using Hooks and More Tutorials

Go check it out, and customize your thesis theme to be SEO friendly and visually pleasing with these quick tips for editing thesis theme.

Friday, April 8, 2011

New Landing Page for SEO Services I offer in Bay Area SEO

 

Hey everyone,

I have created a new landing page for Fremont SEO, there will be more content to come soon. In the meantime, watch the video on the landing page just to your right a customer of mine made for me as a “thank you” for the great job I did with their SEO and web design services!

Have a great weekend, bay area!

-Drew

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Social Media SEO Quick Tip 1

 

File this under Quick Tips; Social Media can change the way we deliver customer service to our customers..

 

Small business don't often build lots of media for their users, but really this is a big focus when you are trying to hit the social media hot button.

For those of you that have store fronts this is quick and easy. Get your smart phone out, or video camera even better. Make a quick video of your store front. Just walk in the front door filming and look around as if you were a customer.
Great, you just made your first video for your business! Now upload it to YouTube and post it everywhere you can imagine.

Author, Drew Poland, is a Small Business Web Consultant in the  San Francisco Bay Area and has 6+ years of self storage industry experience as well as a strong technical background. If you require SEO services for your self storage or other small business website, you can contact him here.

Fire Your Yellow Pages Ad - Google SEO vs Yellow Pages

 

seo google places vs yellow pages ad seo marketing

I notice too often, when I ask about marketing that companies tell me "I have a Yellow Pages Ad." Oh, wow, very impressive; so does everyone and their brother!

I usually ask these questions when they tell me that:

  • When was the last time you picked up that big heavy yellow book? (Recently for me- I was throwing it in the trash.)
  • When was the last time you found a business by Yellow Pages?

Most people can't recall the answer to either. The next question they always know though.

Now, for the golden question.. When was the last time you used Google? For most people it's several times a day.

In 2007, Search Engine Land said "Yellow Pages will be toast in 4 years." It's 2011, and I'm confirming their prediction.

Google is the new Yellow Pages!! I'm not telling you to run out and start setting up ads with Google AdWords. Because an overwhelming amount of search engine users DO NOT CLICK PAID LISTINGS.

You want organic seo results. Organic meaning, highly ranked without being a paid ad.

We live in a very digital age, everyone has a website, a smart phone and probably more than 1 computer in the house. 

Get with the times, build a website, claim your Google Places page, claim your business page on Yelp!, start uploading articles, exchanging links, and making your website ranked well in local search results.

Drew Poland is a small business consultant who specializes in web development, and search engine optimization. You can view his seo consulting site here.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Online Marketing For Your Bay Area Offline Business

 

online marketing for small business google places and seo links

Many of my clients fail to realize that what they are doing normally, is called “offline marketing.” Basically, generating leads and making sales OFFLINE! Makes sense, right? Let’s hope so, that was pretty simple.

What I bring to these clients, is an online marketing presence. Through search engine optimization, Google Places, and link building, I can push their business to #1 online in their niche, industry, and location.

But Drew, you amazing genius (Hey-I’m just going by what my mom says!), what will that do for my self storage, construction builder, or accounting business? I’m glad you asked, what a smart potential client you are! (*hint hint* e-mail me!)

Without writing 10 pages of blabber: Increase your amount of customers! One very powerful tool I like to push is Google Places, especially if a company has a store front, talk about a goldmine! When I get you #1 on Google Places through my advanced and in-depth search engine optimization program, you will see a nice spike in foot traffic.

Keep tuned in for an article on Smart Phones and how they relate to Google Places and my unique marketing techniques for search engine optimization!

Drew Poland is a small business consultant in Fremont CA who specializes in web optimization, design, and local seo, including Google Places.

Why Bay Area Business Needs Google Places SEO


google place local seo banner logo

In today’s consumer market, commercial stores and large companies are getting all the attention because they have better locations, prices, or are just more familiar to an individual. It is crucial for small businesses to be search engine optimized (SEO) in order to be found and stand a chance against bigger names. Not only should small businesses be SEO for web searches but also on maps and local search like Google Places.
Having your business on Google Places will enable customers to find your business more easily. Not only does the location of a business come up, the contact number, multimedia (photos and videos), reviews, and a plethora of helpful information is included in the results on Google Maps and Google Places.
People go about their day running errands within proximity of themselves. They would rather make fewer stops when they are out rather than go to a number of different places with farther distances between them. When they log online to search for the nearest drug store for example, they would probably type in “drug store near Tribune St”. When the search results come up, competitors’ names and locations might come up first even if their drug store is a lot farther than yours. So instead of the buyer walking a short distance to your store, they’d go all the way to the other one because yours didn’t show up highly ranked within the search pages.
It is also a way to advertise your company and entice people to see you even if you don’t have a website. Since people go to a certain areas everyday, your location can pop up beside the place they are looking for. So if you own a small coffee shop beside the dry cleaners people go to, they might just see the location on Google Places and decide to drop by for a latte.
Since technology nowadays has allowed everyone to go mobile and hit search while they are out and about, being SEO on Google Places will be beneficial for the searcher and for the small business.

Drew Poland is a Web Consultant in the Bay Area, who specializes in Google Places SEO.