By Anonymous August 04, 2014
I have known Finishing Touch Expert for several years. Over the past year, their service and quality has deteriorated to the point that I am left with no choice but to hire another finisher to fix their mistakes. They have been extremely unresponsive- even after promising to fix the jobs. Follow through couldn't be worse, and I am now managing the repair that is not my responsibility. If you want perpetual frustration, blown deadlines, disappointed clients and countless hours of trying to contact a missing finisher, give them a try. However, I wouldn't wish my experiences of the last few months on anyone, and I recommend a more thorough search. If there had been an option for less than one star, that would have been my selection. ...read more
By No Hassle Shopping, Inc. 24/7 Online Store March 22, 2014
Your customer services skills are excellent. Wishing you much success in 2014 and beyond; we have unique merchandise at affordable prices, you don’t want to miss this sale!!! Visit us at www.nohassleshopping.org ...read more
By DataLink Systems, LLC January 14, 2012
Eileen did a logo and business card for me. I could not be more delighted. She is quick, friendly and fun to work with. ...read more
While there are a variety of ways to increase targeted website traffic, every business owner should consider optimizing their website for the search engines. Before you begin, you should understand the core concepts of Search Engine Optimization (and Search Engine Marketing). In order to really increase your website traffic and attract qualified prospects, you need to understand three things: 1. Everything related to SEO starts with an understanding of what a "keyword phrase" is. Anytime someone conducts a search on Google, or another search engine, they enter some text to start their search. In SEO terms, the entered text is called a "keyword" or "keyword phrase." If you know what keyword phrases your prospects are entering when looking for the type of information, products or services you offer, you will know what phrases to optimize your web pages for. 2. Websites as a whole are not ranked, each web page is ranked independent of any other. This is commonly misunderstood but so vital to understand! So, just because you have one web page that ranks really well on the search engines, that doesn't mean that your other pages will also rank as well. Each page of your website must be uniquely optimized for a handful of keyword phrases… keyword phrases that are searched upon and those likely to attract your targeted audience.If you pay close attention to the optimization of each page, you should see a dramatic improvement in terms of search engine placement. 3. Like it or not, you're competing against others! But remember, always look organic. Some have a harder time with this concept than others but the truth remains the truth... in order to get your web page listed on page one of Google, you have to kick one of the currently listed web page's off! This is valuable information because it will help you understand what you must do to achieve the ranking you're after. Thorough analysis of the web pages currently listed for a particular keyword phrase will tell you how hard it will be to overtake one of them. You need to pay close attention to a number of elements including: • How well is their page optimized for the keyword phrase? • How old is their domain (the older the better)? • How many links can be found that point to the page? While there are other elements involved based on algorithms, these three are of primary concern. If you find you can out do your competitor's web page in at least two of the three main areas mentioned, you can probably kick them off the page and take their place. After ensuring you are optimizing for a keyword phrase (or phrases) that are likely to bring you the kind of traffic you want, you'll often find it is the quantity of backlinks that make the real difference. Link Building is the process of establishing links from other authority sites to point to your own. This is one of the most critical components of a successful search engine marketing campaign and the benefits are twofold. First, search engines, Google in particular, give a lot of weight to sites that have a lot of inbound links. Inbound links are one way links from other sites to your site. Second, the more inbound links from good authority sites, the higher a given site could rank - all things being equal. Obviously, having links on other sites pointing to your website can result in the benefit of increased traffic to your site. As mentioned earlier, the quality of the backlinks is important too but if you are going to concentrate on one objective, it should be the building of topic related links. Ensure your text links use the keyword phrases you are optimizing for and you'll find you quickly climb the ranks of the search engines. I hope you found this information helpful and I hope it helps you improve your website's SEO. If you'd like professional SEO help, we're here for you. We are experts in optimizing both websites and Google Places listings and can help you get new business as a direct result. If you'd like to see how we can help, give us a call at: (303) 827-3842 or email our Local Search Team at localseo@graphiqstudios.com. We look forward to talking with you and will do our best to help you increase your web exposure, get new business and outperform your competitors! ...read more
By Squareknot Digital March 07, 2011
Google Local and Map have become a big influence on how people search and get results. We can demonstrate this by searching for ‘accountant' and the search result returns a broad list of ‘accountants', but perhaps too broad so we tend to search again by narrowing the result – adding a location to the search – ‘accountant in city' and the results we see are now closer to home. So it's no surprise that Google should be taking a closer look at how we search and attempt to refine the process and provide a more meaningful search result by changing the Google Local search algorithm to make it easier for us to find what or who we are searching for locally. Today, November 8, 2010 we see searches that reference local business and all the relevant places in that location in a new clustered visual display located in the upper right corner of a search result page. The now familiar map displays each business with red lettered pins, and links to each business. And as you scroll down the page the Google Places Map will scroll with the page so that it is always visible. In addition to the way we see businesses displayed on Google Places, a new product is being launched – Google Boost. Google Boost is a Google AdWords product that allows local businesses to feature more prominently in local searches. It allows small to medium size businesses the ability to feature more highly in searches, and concentrates much more on the relevance and location of that business than ever before. Now searchers will see sponsored location searches appear on the Google Places map as blue lettered pins and in search results with the blue marker pin next to the content description. Search results for the ‘accountant in city' will now appear first below sponsored listings and above organic listings. What this means is that results for a business in a location will now appear grouped with the other search results, making it much easier for searchers to find what they are looking for in a local area. Google reports that Place Search results will begin appearing automatically when Google determines that you are looking for a ‘business in location' search result. Google also says "We've made results like this possible by developing technology to better understand places. With Google Place Search, we're dynamically connecting hundreds of millions of websites with more than 50 million real-world locations. We automatically identify when sites are talking about physical places and cluster links even when they don't provide addresses and use different names." Google Places is being rolled out across the world and will be available everywhere, in 40 languages once complete. Google is hoping to provide a better, local search to users, while exploiting a different revenue stream. It's also competing with Facebook Places which was launched a while ago. Facebook was able to use very targeted advertising to provide a similar service to its users. Google should have the advantage here though, as most Facebook advertising is passive, appearing alongside the primary content. Google's Place Search is active and should have the advantage when it comes to conversion. Location-based services are seen as a growing market, with Facebook Places and location aware services like Foursquare enjoying significant growth since their inception. Placing Google Place Search alongside search results, Google can hedge its bets while not detracting from its standard offering. From an SEO perspective Peter Bowen at First One On says, "One of the downsides to this new display of results is how it will affect businesses that previously enjoyed number one placements for ‘business in location' or featured well alongside the old Google Map." "Now with the introduction of Google Place Search in results it is quite possible that businesses that had worked hard to get top placements on page one now find themselves listed on page two! Other businesses that did not even have a listing on the old Google Map are now being brought to the top of the search results based on the location of their business and business listing in Google Places." What this means is that in the long run it will be more difficult for businesses to rank at the top of a local search unless they realize that they will have to spend much more time and effort on local search engine optimization. Businesses that had previously enjoyed a prominent position on the old Google Map without a website, which was possible before, will now find it almost impossible to maintain a listing without a well developed and locally optimized website. Businesses will now have to have a visible and physical location if they want to be listed in a local search. In the past, businesses could hide their physical location and yet still be found locally through their websites, but now consumers searching for a business in a location will be able to determine if they contact that business or not based on their location. So as Google exposes competitors in searches, it is now revealing where those businesses are located – hopefully providing the consumer with more information before making a purchase decision. ...read more
By Squareknot Digital February 18, 2011
Graphic design covers a wide spectrum of design concepts. For this reason an individual who is not well-versed in this format of design will find it difficult to select the right graphic design software at first glance. These individuals will instead end up with a graphic design software package that ... ...read more
Home design projects can feel overwhelming. Part of the challenge is to keep track of each room, the timelines, as well as materials and paint that you will use in the rooms. Learn how to organize and track home design projects to make it all run smoothly. ...read more