Conversion put simply is the art of turning visitors into customers. As a business owner you should look at your website as an extension to your sales team, take ownership of it. You have anywhere from 2-10 seconds to grab a visitor’s attention, therefore take a [...]]]> Conversion, conversion, conversion…what is it and how can I improve?

Conversion put simply is the art of turning visitors into customers. As a business owner you should look at your website as an extension to your sales team, take ownership of it. You have anywhere from 2-10 seconds to grab a visitor’s attention, therefore take a look at your website and ask yourself: “does this site represent my business?”. When it comes to a website, there are some simple things involved that can help your conversion immediately. Below you will find some do’s and don’ts when it comes to web design:

Do’s:
• Design represents the business
• Use photo’s of the business and personal
• Short and to the point content
• Use bullet points
• Have clear concise next steps
• Create a call to action
• Easily access to your contact information
• Use your phone number in the header
• Use multiple online forms
• Keep the site up to date
• Use testimonials

Don’ts:
• Don’t make it confusing
• Don’t have pages after pages of text
• Don’t forget about it
• Don’t use all stock photo’s
• Don’t make the information hard to find
• Don’t have long pages, try to keep as much information “above the fold”
• Don’t have outdated information

One of the most important things when managing your website is to keep it up to date, do not have outdated information within the site. Visitors to do not want to always see the same information, change it up throughout the year. As a full service web development and internet marketing company we would be happy to offer you a free consultation for your website. If you are going to advertise the site, we want to make sure you have every opportunity to convert your visitors.

Jeff Irvine
Zenergy Works

I used to hate conference calls/webinars/gotomeetings/webexes and all other forms of meeting that did not involve in person, face to face interaction.  I actually thought that to properly evaluate our website development company, a customer needed to meet me in person.   I have seen the light!

It might be the 90 minute delay I [...]]]> Face to Face?

I used to hate conference calls/webinars/gotomeetings/webexes and all other forms of meeting that did not involve in person, face to face interaction.  I actually thought that to properly evaluate our website development company, a customer needed to meet me in person.   I have seen the light!

It might be the 90 minute delay I am currently waiting out in a Southern California airport, the one day roundtrip to Las Vegas this past weekend, or maybe the growth of our little company that suddenly requires that I be extremely efficient with my time or fall hopelessly behind.  No matter the exact reason, I like virtual meetings.  I was meeting with a client today and realizing that 90% of our interaction involved him looking at the powerpoint and live online presentation that I was doing for him.  He would have been more comfortable and less distracted, I would have saved a day of travel, expenses and wear and tear on my body and soul by just using file sharing software.

The headline of this article should not be “Santa Rosa Search Engine Optimization Company is Anti-Social”, but rather “Santa Rosa Internet Marketing Company is Considerate of the Time and Comfort of our Present and Future Customers”.  Let’s all relax and have some meaningful interaction-via the internet.

Eric Van Cleave

Zenergy Works Managing Partner and General Manager

New Generation General Manager

After receiving an few emails  from clients, I thought I would take the time to comment on a growing practice of some advertising agencies throughout the US that has me worried. As a top rated SEO company who has partnered with several large affiliates and [...]]]> What is wrong with an Ad Agency giving away SEO?

After receiving an few emails  from clients, I thought I would take the time to comment on a growing practice of some advertising agencies throughout the US that has me worried. As a top rated SEO company who has partnered with several large affiliates and strategic partners, I feel it is my right to talk about the negative impact of providing SEO as a service for what is know in the industry as an “AD Val” or additional advertising value.
Advertising and marketing companies for many years have thrown in additional tools or discounts to gain clients. This practice is a good business practice and can benefit both parties especially when the advertising company throws in their client’s goods and services.

Here is the issue that I see with using Search Engine Optimization or SEO as an “Ad Val” in trying to gain a client.

1st – SEO when done on a comprehensive level can greatly increase the viable traffic to a companies website. White hat standards or best business practices to achieve this for valuable one,two, and three keyword string premium terms takes time, effort, and high level programming and design.

Problem – throwing in something that has a higher potential to aid the advertiser in achieving their goals and is stronger than your typical “Ad Val” of throwing in additional spots, discounts on packages, or preferred rate to advertisers who have been loyal to a medium is bad business. It is like a tire store throwing in a paint job to an owner of a new Porsche. (An industry who has no experience in auto body or paint giving for free something they only know a little about.)

2nd – I tell every one that SEO is like brain surgery. Especially if you are going after hundreds of premium keywords with your search engine optimization. Would you hire your family doctor to perform brain surgery?

Problem – Advertising agencies trying to gain new business by sending quick emails with promises of getting their potential new client on first page of google for terms like “general family practice in Santa Rosa” or “building materials for contractors in sonoma county” shows sure signs that the ad agency knows nothing about competitive high volume keyword string optimization.

Lesson – if some ADVERTISING AGENCY IN SANTA ROSA emails you and promises first page for keyword strings that have 5 or more keywords or have extremely low locality terms like; Northbay, Northbay, Sonoma County, Norcal, North California, or CA….. Your are dealing with an amateur or some ad agency that has no business selling SEO.

Your SEO provider,
Bryan Fikes
Zenergy Works

What is it and how do I know if the SEO company I’m working with is White Hat?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very complicated and for most business owners, very confusing. You have companies arriving every day claiming that they can provide page one placement within weeks but more importantly maintain that [...]]]>

White Hat SEO

What is it and how do I know if the SEO company I’m working with is White Hat?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very complicated and for most business owners, very confusing. You have companies arriving every day claiming that they can provide page one placement within weeks but more importantly maintain that placement. SEO Companies are basically classified into two groups; White Hat and Black Hat…what does it mean? First of all, white hat is the only company you want to work with.

Black Hat SEO: Techniques and tactics used by SEO companies in order to get faster results for a client. This typically results in a short term solution, once Google recognizes what is going on you run the risk of being removed from their index (black listed).  Once this happens, it would take around six months before being accepted again. These companies disregard the guidelines set by the search engines; Google Guidelines.

Here are a few techniques that are classified as Black Hat SEO Company techniques:

Hidden Text – computer text that is displayed in such a way as to not be easily readable. Most common practice is to use the same font color as the background.

Keyword Stuffing – is considered to be an unethical search engine optimization (SEO) technique. Keyword stuffing occurs when a web page is loaded with keywords in the meta tags or in content. This method is completely outdated and will not achieve desired results, in some cases it my penalize your site.

Cloaking – Cloaking refers to the practice of presenting different content or URLs to users and search engines. Serving up different results based on user agent may cause your site to be perceived as deceptive and removed from the Google index.

Spamdexing – Using irrelevant keywords and content for one’s site to gain higher rankings. This can include using dozens of keywords that have no relevancy; capturing competitors traffic by using their name and content, using high volume searched words that have nothing to do with one’s site.

Blog Comment Spam – blog spam or comment spam is a form of spamdexing. Posting random comments to blogs, wikis, guestbooks and discussion boards , by adding links they hope to drive traffic to a site. Generally you can be penalized when practices are discovered and also result in unqualified traffic.

White Hat SEO: Zenergy Works is a White Hat SEO Company, this means we have read and tested the guidelines set out by the search engines. We abide by the guidelines that Google and other search engines have put out there. If these rules are not followed, you run the risk of your client’s website being removed by Google’s Index. While Google won’t provide a play book to place your site at the top, they will provide some information about what techniques to stay away from.  True White Hat SEO Companies know that your rise on SERP’s (search engine results page) does take time, but the true value of a SEO company such as Zenergy Works is that we will provide results for years to come.

Contact us if you have any concerns about your SEO Company; contact us for a SEO Consultation. We know there are other good SEO companies, but what we find most of the time is that they may not hit every variable set out by the search engines. We will give you our honest opinion based on the research we complete.

Schedule a free analysis of your website today.

I was able to attend the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco this week, and I came away excited!  I am excited for our Santa Rosa based Website Design and SEO Company because I have never been as optimistic about the future of the web design industry.  Big companies and little [...]]]> WEB 2.0 Conference – WOW! 

I was able to attend the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco this week, and I came away excited!  I am excited for our Santa Rosa based Website Design and SEO Company because I have never been as optimistic about the future of the web design industry.  Big companies and little companies, start ups and well-established seo firms alike, the new ideas are flowing and new concepts are being developed.  Social networking, web design, and SEO were huge topics and attracting, engaging, and tracking followers on Facebook, Twitter and other major social networking sites was the focus of many of the products we viewed and discussions we joined.  Social Media Optimization will be a larger and larger focus for our Website Design and SEO clients in the months and years to come.  Even the Pastor at my church wants me to teach him how to effectively use Twitter!

In addition to the companies, it is becoming evident that this is a world economy.  Programmers, Developers and hosting companies with international presences are now the rule and not the exception.

It is with a lot of excitement, and little bit of fear, that I work to move our SEO and Website Design Firm into the 2^nd half of 2010 and beyond.  This will be an exciting journey!

Eric Van Cleave

Managing Partner | Zenergy Works

Voted "Best SEO Company in California"

Related Posts:Zenergy Works: Best SEO Company in CaliforniaZenergy Works Founding [...]]]> Here is a marketing piece we used for an email campaign that worked very well in getting a quick message across about our SEO services.  Our clients have voted us the “Best SEO Company California”….Do you agree?

Voted "Best SEO Company in California"

What sets us apart?

Knowledge, Customer service, maintenance, reports, tracking, results. On a monthly basis we maintain each client’s campaign, track progress, plan for the following month and have programs created to alert us to any problems. We specialize in SEM, SEO, PPC, Web 2.0, Social Media Network/Optimization and [...]]]> SEO Guide | Search Engine Optimization Guide

What sets us apart?

Knowledge, Customer service, maintenance, reports, tracking, results. On a monthly basis we maintain each client’s campaign, track progress, plan for the following month and have programs created to alert us to any problems. We specialize in SEM, SEO, PPC, Web 2.0, Social Media Network/Optimization and Email Marketing.  We have a client interface that will allow the client to log in and view the progress on their SEO campaign.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is altering the structure and links of a website to increase its value on a search engine. SEO is the high placement of your website in the “organic” or “natural” listings.  SEO ensures that a website rises on the search engines rankings and stays there.

What is SEM?

Search Engine Marketing. Using different advertising medians that search engines have to offer such as SEO, PPC, Adwords, Behavioral Targeting, etc.

What is PPC/Adwords?

These are the sponsored areas along the right or on top of the page on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing that businesses have selected specific keywords to be found under. Cost varies depending on the program, placement and keywords chosen.

How does a search engine decide what websites show up first?

There are a lot of myths out there about what search engines look for and how the information is found. No one knows the exact criteria except the search engines themselves. As an SEO company we have hundreds of clients to test what works and what doesn’t. To make it even more complicated, the landscape is constantly changing, and what works for Google, may not necessarily work for Yahoo or Bing.  At Zenergy Works, our knowledge is current and designed to get results for our clients.

What are keywords, keyword strings and keyword phrases?

Keywords are specific words that you want to make sure a  website is a response for on a search for those words or short phrases on the search engines.  We do the research to determine which keywords are actually being put into the search engines to find the goods and services our clients offer.  We use multiple sources for this information to make sure that we are not missing any key traffic.

How important are keywords?

Having the correct keywords are vital to a successful SEO campaign. We have tools that tell us what keywords would be best for your industry. These are always verified with the client prior to implementation.

How many keywords can I have?

Depends on if you’re doing PPC/Adwords or SEO.

• SEO: because a SEO has to do with your entire site, we optimize for 2 or 3 keywords per page, any more will dilute the effectiveness. These keywords have to be place in the headings, titles, code and content. It all works together. We put heavy emphasis on a specific number of keywords, over time you will pull traffic from different variations of those keywords.
• PPC: Unlike SEO your website has no bearing on your placement in the sponsored areas. You choose the placement of those adds. You can have as many keywords as you want. Keywords for PPC and Adwords campaigns have nothing to do with your website. You are only choosing keywords or phrase where your ad will show up.

Why do I need SEO? Why can’t I do this myself?

85% of SEO technology is out there if you have the time and patience to research. SEO is very time consuming to maintain a link structure, keep up on changes and trends. Search Engines often change their algorithm to make the most relevant websites show up on specific search terms. We make sure these changes are applied to your website as they are being rolled out by search engine companies. In addition, we constantly track your competitors to stay one step in front of them.

White Hat vs. Black Hat?

Black Hat search engine optimization is customarily defined as techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner. These black hat SEO techniques usually include one or more of the following characteristics:

• breaks search engine rules and regulations
• creates a poor user experience directly because of the black hat SEO techniques utilized on the Web site
• unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users.

White Hat is the use of accepted SEO practices in order to get higher rankings, more traffic, etc. Zenergy Works is backed by hundreds of successful clients and using only the best practices in SEO. A company such as ours that participates in the White Hat arena ensures that your website will not be blacklisted from the search engines.

On Page SEO:

This is the first step in starting an SEO campaign. This consists of going into the back end of your site (HTML or source code) to clean up the code to ensure the search engines can easily find and pick up keyword phrases we optimize for this includes:

o Optimization of Titles and Meta Tags

o Robot.txt Optimization

o XML Sitemaps for Google / Yahoo / MSN

o HTML source code Optimization

o Manual submissions to top search engines

o W3C Validations for Home page

o Image Optimization

Off Page SEO:

We use hundreds or thousands of websites to build a link structure that will support your website. By manually building links to your website from high relevant and trustworthy websites, we can push the rank of your website higher. This is an ongoing effort that must be refreshed frequently to be effective.

For more information on our SEO Services, please visit http://www.zenergyworks.com