Reno, NV practitioner of web design, search engine optimization, and PPC advertising

New Website Launch – All Bay Vehicle Donations

I recently had the opportunity to work with a great client out of the Bay area. All Bay Vehicle Donations is a vehicle management company for individuals and charities. ABVD strives to get the highest value for the vehicle so the charity receives the most money possible and the person who donates gets the largest tax deduction possible.

After being in business for over a decade they thought it was time for a new look for their aging website as well as a new logo to represent the company. After speaking with Robert it was very clear they wanted to target a more sophisticated audience with higher value vehicles to donate. They also wanted to capitalize on the green aspect of their industry. After all they are recycling older vehicles, whether that means refurbishing them and giving them a new life or scrapping them so the parts can be recycled. They also wanted to present themselves as an honest and trustworthy company due to the amount of fraud in their industry. They felt their old website was not doing that. In that regard, we made sure to incorporate customer testimonials from their many years in business and highlight them on every page of the website.

The new site is much more search engine friendly than their previous site. It utilizes Word Press as the content management system and incorporates several plugins to extend functionality. The “Auctions” page uses a custom plugin to allow them to upload a CSV file of their auction list and display it on the page in a clean and consistent manner. There is also a custom write panel for the “Charities” page to allow them to add, remove, and reorder the charities they work with. The new site is much easier for them to manage themselves and should last them several years. Enjoy the screenshots below and be sure to check out All Bay Vehicle Donations.

Web Marketing Wednesday – Using Your Keywords on Your Site

Now that we have selected our keywords and tested them it is time to use them on your website. But where should they go? Follow along as I show you where to place them.

Target Your Pages for One Keyword

First off you should target the content on your pages for one keyword and 1-3 variations of that keyword depending upon the amount of content you have on each page. If you have 300 words of content I would use the primary keyword and one or two variations. If you have 600+ words of content then you can use 3 variations of your keyword. Make sure you stay very tightly focused on your targeted keyword. If you find yourself wandering in your content then you should probably create another page to talk about that topic and use another keyword on that page.

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Web Marketing Wednesday – Using Pay-Per-Click Advertising for Keyword Testing

Pay-Per-Click Advertising or PPC can be a great way to drive traffic to a website, especially a new website. I have a few clients that spend a healthy amount each month and it works for them. Not only does it drive traffic but visitors convert off of those clicks. If we can get a double threat (PPC presence and organic presence) or a triple threat (PPC + organic + local listing) on the first page of Google or Yahoo! the traffic and conversions from those PPC ads increases even more.

While this may work for some businesses, others don’t have the appetite or the budget to throw money at Google, Yahoo! or Bing every month. However, there is a way to leverage PPC, even for just a short time, to test keywords and copywriting to see what is really going to drive visitors to your site.

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Web Marketing Wednesday – Search Engine Rankings Are Just a Key Performance Indicator

A lot of web marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) firms try to sell rankings as an end, a goal to be obtained. In my view, rankings are just a means to an end. Rankings, good or bad, mean nothing if you are not getting traffic and the right kind of traffic in order to meet your website goals and objectives. There is a common misconception out there that having good rankings for a particular keyword will mean a windfall of traffic and costumers. While this may be true for some terms most business owners focus on the wrong terms and obsess over where they rank for these terms.

How to Choose Keywords

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Web Marketing Wednesday – Set Your Goals and Analyze Your KPIs

Before we get started on methods and strategies to market a website we need to determine what our goals might be and what indicators we need to measure. Without goals how will we know if we’re successful with our marketing?

Set Measurable Goals

Most businesses set goals in every aspect of their operations. They set goals like sell 1,000 units this month, do $100,000 in business this quarter or reduce operation costs by 20% this year. The two things these goals have in common is that they are measurable and they have a timeframe. You would be able to tell if you sold 1,000 units this month, did $100,000 in business this quarter or reduced operation costs by 20% this year.

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