SEO Vancouver Island

We Have Moved

2009-02-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed - it has been a long time since I posted here. We have been updating our website.Now - as the final step we are moving our blog to our main site:http://www.timr.ca/seo-vancouver-island/Thank you for your patience and I hope to see you soon on our main site.

The Palin Effect

2008-11-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

It used to be called the 'Peter Principal'. Coined by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull, it means promoting a person beyond there capabilities. The most resent example was thrusting the governor of a small, by population, state into the world of national politics. The effect is disaster all around and is completely unfair to the person being put in that position.The Palin Effect also

A Visit to Walmart

2008-11-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

I went into Walmart yesterday for a pair of socks.I must admit I usually don't frequent Walmart stores. But, all I wanted was a pair of work socks. A quick in and out operation - nothing fancy - I don't care what colour my work socks are.Well - it wasn't that simple.First you can't buy a pair of work socks at Walmart (or any where else as far as that goes) -- You can buy two, three or five pairs

Reaching Your Un-Customers

2008-10-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

Maybe you have never heard of un-customers.I first heard the term in Peter Drucker's "Management Challenges for the 21st Century". It refers to 99.99% of the world population who have never heard of your product.If you are relying on Search Engine Marketing to reach these potential customers you are in trouble. These customers are not searching for your product.There is, of course, a few people

Take Business Email Seriously

2008-09-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Email has been in the news recently for more than just SPAM.The biggest news item was VP candidate Sarah Palin's use of Yahoo Mail for government business. Apparently, the email account was not breached by any high level hacker attack, but by a weakness in the Yahoo Password Reset.The other, not a well know, was at the media agency Carat. In that case a private email intended for senior managers

They Are Not Looking

2008-09-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

Launching a new website is always an exciting event. Finally, all the effort any planning of the last few months is going to start paying off.Launching a site for our first major client was even more exciting. Our budding reputation was riding on this site. We wanted everything to be perfect. And, we thought it was. The client, a local resort, was happy, the site looked great, even the transfer

Test - Test and Test Again

2008-09-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

We just finished a presentation for potential client. They wanted to upgrade their existing website.As part of the preparation we checked out everything on their existing sites. Among the items we checked was their contact form.At the presentation I remarked that they needed to improve their 'back end' since after 5 days, I still hadn't received a reply to the contact form I submitted. This, of

CUIL - Don't Go There

2008-07-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

I just tried the cuil.com search engine.BIG PROBLEMFirst I did a search for TIMR - our company name. Lots of listings for forum entries by TimR but nothing to our site. Also, every page had a listing of alternate spellings. Not very helpful.Then I did a search for our full name "TIMR Web Services". The top listing was for 'spammy' looking site that had "Seattle Web Services" in the heading and "

USP Not UPS

2008-07-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

Your Unique Selling Position or USP, is your most important marketing feature.If you have a product that is truly unique in the market place - your product is your USP. Take advantage of it while you can. I won't last.Most of us, whether we provide a service or a physical product, have competitors. Our USP is what differentiates us from our competition. It is the reason a consumer will choose our

Branding With The Favicon

2008-07-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

I get a wide variety of news letters. Many contain links to articles posted on other sites. It was one of these links that sent me to an article on CiO Zone.The site defines itself as a social networking site for IT professionals. As the page finished loading - even before I read the article this -> <- caught my eye. It is the Joomla favicon. Instantly the site lost all credibility. A site that

Target Display Advertising

2008-06-08T18:24:00.000-07:00

There is a general trend to more targeted online marketing. This is something we have said all along. Particularly for display ads - which tend to be the most expensive form of online advertising.As a small business owner with a limited marketing budget, you should use display ads sparingly. Display ads work best when they are shown to a highly targeted market. General interest websites and web

You Get What You Need

2008-06-04T20:13:00.000-07:00

Mick Jagger studied at the London School of Economics. Which probably explains why he still owns the right to his songs. And is one of the biggest players in the music industry.Of course that doesn't explain why I turn to the 'Stones' when ever I need some to do solve a particularly irksome problem. There is something about the music and the lyrics that lets my mind play 'connect-the-dots'.One of

Luck Trumps Oversite

2008-05-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

I have you ever wondered why similar posts appear on different blogs at almost the same time. In this case it is because of Brendon Sinclair'seditorial in Sitepoint's Tribune newsletter. In the editorial he describes how a client lost her domain name registration. Which got me thinking of one of our client's brush with domain name expiration.Fortunately, she got lucky.It started when the client

Is Your Site A Good Closer?

2008-05-09T12:46:00.001-07:00

Your online form is your sales closer. And, as any good sales person will tell you, closing the deal is what it is all about. Closing is so important, some businesses have a person who comes in just to close the deal. Your online form is that person. Whether the form is to sell your product or to request information - you need a good closer.Look at your online form as if it were the first time

Are You Being Served?

2008-05-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

You may remember the phrase 'Are You Being Served?' as the title of an old British comedy series that pops up on the public TV channels. It was a parody of everything that was wrong with British stores in the 50's and 60's. However, the phrase itself is still relevant.The concept of service still gets a lot of lip service. Food stores advertise 'customer service' while making us bag our own

Too Good Not to Share

2008-04-09T16:39:00.000-07:00

I don't usually pass along links. But, every now and then one comes along that is so good you just have to share it.Finding a new way to get your message out is never easy. It becomes more of a challenge when that message is considered "geeky". And there aren't too many things more "geeky" than web standards - but check it out!

5 Text Based Mistakes

2008-04-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

It seems to be coming 'de rigueur' to have some sort of a list on your blog. So here is my list of the top five website text errors.Lack of white space. White space breaks up the page and makes it easier to read.Centered text. I know it is hard to believe but there are millions of lines of centered text. Centered text is OK for titles and headings. And, even there it should b used sparingly.

Talking Urinals, Willy Sutton & Google Search

2008-03-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

What do a 'talking urinal' deodorant, called Wizmark, and the famous bank robber Willy Sutton have in common?Sutton is best remembered on this quip. On being asked why he robbed banks, Sutton is supposed to have replied "Because that is where the money is,".To paraphrase Sutton, we have a talking urinal deodorant - "Beacause that is where the people are." In this case, the targeted demographic

Marketing With White Papers

2008-03-18T13:44:00.000-07:00

One of our services at TIMR is custom programming. Recently I was asked to write a simple auto responder that would send a link to download a White Paper on a clients product. Fairly, straight forward until I asked the obvious question, "How will you be storing the email addresses?". To my surprise the answer was "We aren't storing that information."Since we were only sub-contracting the

Don't Dis SEO

2008-03-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

Amex's online magazine "OPEN for Business" offers information on many aspects of running a business. However, the latest issues advice on setting up an online business leaves me wondering how much their information can be trusted?The article contains some useful information on setting up a business website. However, after detailing how important search engine ranking has become it offers this

Google Analytics - Benchmarking

2008-03-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

Google Analytics is beta testing a new tools. It will benchmark your site against industry averages. This is a Win-Win situation for both the business owner and the web developer.I like Google Analytics for small businesses. (see Google Analytics - Are They Right for You?) They are easy to use 'right out of the box' and with a little tweaking are a very powerful online tool.How will this new tool

SWOT

2008-03-07T12:52:00.000-08:00

If you don't know what SWOT is read this post.If you do know what SWOT is read this post.SEO SWOT Analysis

Inform - Entertain - Sell

2008-03-05T18:23:00.000-08:00

The business website has three functions. Inform - Entertain - Sell. All three require that you have a dialogue with your customer. (Did you notice Sell is the last function?)The first thing your website must do is inform potential customers about your product. Explain the benefits of your product in terms they can understand. Don't say "It meets IEEE 802.3ae standards" when what they really mean

Respect Your Customers

2008-03-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

Saturday at 11:30 is time for "The Age of Persuasion" on CBC radio.If you haven't been following the series, hosted by Terry O'Reilly, you are missing an entertaining and informative series on adevertising and marketing. Fortunately, the series is now available on streaming audio.This week the topic was "23 things I’d Like to Change About Advertising". As usual the presentation was entertaining

Welcome to Vancouver Island SEO

2008-02-27T19:55:00.000-08:00

Confused about the logo?It is all about marketing on the Internet.TIMR Web Services has been marketing its brand name locally, but as we grew we wanted to establish a more regional presence. Hence the name Vancouver Island SEO. An Internet presence that reflects what we do - not who we are.Before the Internet brand promotion was fairly straight forward, you slapped your name on just about