Orlando Search Engine Marketing Experts

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On Target Web Solutions welcomes the latest addition to our team of web professionals: Mr. Tim Mattingly.  Tim will be responsible for creating search engine friendly web 2.0 web designs for our clients.  His experience in web design and his passion for marketing makes this a tremendous match.

Stay tuned to see some of Tim’s work!

A bit off topic from SEO and Web Design, but we have been seeking a full time web designer and have received over 80 resumes and portfolios.  I’m one of those people that looks at the portfolio first and then reads the resume to see experience, etc.  The portfolio truly speaks for itself: I look for a very particular talent and know it when I see it.

As I placed the online web posting for the job, I was quite clear about one thing: Please send us both your resume and portfolio, we will not consider incomplete applications.  Pretty self explanatory right? The first application we get has only a portfolio attached. No resume.  I emailed the applicant back and asked for the resume: his response: I don’t currently have a resume.  That was it: no, ooops, sorry, i forgot to attach, or it will be over within an hour, just I don’t have a resume.  Wow.  Here’s another: One applicant sends in an email that says: I believe my portfolio speaks for itself.  That’s it: nothing else, no resume, no contact info, no nothing.   I click the link expecting to see works of art and marketing genius only to see one of the most unprofessional, unpolished pieces of garbage I’ve seen in a long time.  Unreal.

I guess I’m a bit old school: professionalism seems to have gone out the window a few years ago. When applying for a job, whether it’s a Web Designer, Candle Stick Maker or Underroos Designer, isn’t the goal to impress and impart an impression on the hiring manager? Some of these folks truly left an impression on me, but unfortunately, it was the kind that leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

On Target Web Solutions is seeking a full time experienced web designer who has some (if not all) of the below qualities:

1.) LOVES coffee.
2.) Has a passion for excellence.
3.) Loves to help businesses grow and succeed.
4.) Listening Skills
5.) Quick and proficient learner.
6.) Has an above average understanding of Marketing and clean simple web 2.0 techniques.
7.) Works well in a team environment.
8.) Does not run with scissors.
9.) Appreciates Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven.
10.) Has no problem showering the boss with lavish and exotic gifts including coffee and jelly bellys.

Seriously though, if you are seeking a full time web design position with a growing and forward thinking Orlando based company, please forward your resume AND link to your portfolio to jobs @ ontargetwebsolutions.com or fax to 407-830-4480. NO phone calls please and all resumes without an online portfolio example will not be considered.

So, you want to learn SEO (search engine optimization)… You have some free time scheduled next week and let’s be honest, your web site just hasn’t brought you in the results you anticipated or hoped for. It’s time to learn a new trait and get that site found.  Strolling into your local box chain book store, you quickly discover an array of Search engine marketing books.. Wow, you really can teach yourself SEO in 5 quick easy steps!  Dropping about 1200.00 in books, you begin your quest to learn. 
You quickly start to learn about meta tags, alt tags, copy, linking structure, page rank etc.  Now you are armed and dangerous: you are now a pro and ready to go, your site will be found in Google in no time, and you’ll be the hero by generating qualified leads with a high ROI.   That nice new shiny copy of Dreamweaver comes out of the cellophane and starts to load up on your machine, you download your site and here we go, you are minutes away from success!

Wouldn’t it be great if this was the case? Wouldn’t it be great if we could learn all skills and traits in a book? Can I learn how to build a home by reading a book? Can I perform a skin graft on a patient by reading Skin Grafting For Dummies? Could I become a prolific musician by opening up my The Magic of the Accordion book? Nope, No and Definitely not. 

I’m not saying that SEO or search engine marketing is rocket science, but I will say this, like all learned traits, SEO can’t just be learned out of a book.  Search Engine Optimization requires a balance of understanding target markets, geo target marketing, a firm grasp of the English language, a firm understanding of how search engines works, a dedication to thrive and succeed, a strong will to continue to learn, a knack of thinking outside of the box, a committment to ethics and how to play by the rules and most importantly, PATIENCE and PERSAVERANCE.

On Target Web Solutions understands search engine marketing, further, we understand Internet Marketing.  Give us an opportunity to show you strong and solid results with a solid plan to help grow your company online.  With over 13 years of search engine optimization and internet marketing experience, On Target will help you grow.  Call us at 407-830-4550 or visit us online at On Target Web Solutions.com.

We have a client who has become very interested in Alt tags: Alt tags are basically a label that is inserted on an image or photo within your web site code.  Alt Tags used to be an SEO staple: people would make certain that they tagged each and every image throughout the whole web site: the search engines used to pay attention to them and actually put some weight on their value, not so much anymore.  Using an excessive amount of alt tags can actually hurt you in search engine rankings.

Like all things SEO, people find ways to manipulate and take advantage of the system: web masters and SEO types began keyword stuffing their alt tags, so search engines had to start rethinking their treatment of alt tags.  Today, alt tags are used to be WC3 compliant as well as ADA compliant.  Treat alt tags as descriptions of what the image is and stay on the good side of the search engines!

To all of our valued clients: at approximately 3:24 we experienced a momentary loss of connectivity with our malia server.  She was rebooted and is now back in the loop.  None of our other servers were affected. 

As always, we will keep you posted.

I hate spammers as much as the next guy: BUT, from time to time, I must say, I admire their ingenuity. Obviously, spammers need to evolve in order to get their garbage through rapidly changing spam filters, sometimes on a daily basis.  They try mispellings, they try crazy and zany characters, they try everything to get that stock alert in front of me. 

The latest technique that I’ve seen: BOGUS news headings.  Quite clever if you think about, the most recent one I saw, Donald Trump & Rosie Odonnel Dine Together, or another: BBeijing bans firework sales neear Games venues… (Mispellings intentional) Obviously, the more enticing the news topic, the more you are prone to click it and learn more about how viagra or vicoden can help improve your life.

So, keep your eyes peeled for enticing spam news topics, maybe we’ll compile a top ten list shortly.

We installed google analytics on a client web site like we had done a million or so times before and decided to quantify or add a goal conversion to his contact form.  We created our typical PHP Captcha based web form and logged into the analytics account to set the goal conversion.  In this particular case, the ‘trigger’ page was thankyou.php.  Thankyou.php is the page that is viewed after a prospect fills out the contact form.  Easy enough right?

Wrong.  We waited 24 hours and logged back in the analytics account to make certain that everything was in order and that Google was receiving data from the site.  We know that we had filled out the client test form several times to test it and make certain it was functioning properly, but did not see any goal conversions fulfilled in our analytics account.  Everything looked right, the analytics code was correct, the path to the thank you page was correct, so why wasn’t it triggering a conversion?

Days went by the answer popped into my head.  For some reason, this problem plagued my brain because I was waking up at 4:00 a.m. to solve the problem: I could see the form code in my head and then it hit me: We were using an ‘include’ file to call the thankyou.php after the form was completed.  The thankyou.php page was technically never hit in a web browser, it was included in the form page itself upon a successful completion of the form. Given this structure, there is no way to ‘trigger’ the analytics script and subsequently, trigger the conversion within analytics.

Here was the ‘Macgyver’ solution: we created a simple php redirect file which pointed to the thankyou.php form upon successful completion of the form, thus allowing for a ‘trigger’ for the goal conversion.

All is right with the world now. I hope this experience helps alleviate someone’s stress down the road!

It is seldom that that I acknowledge a web site with a particular target market on my blog, but I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Karla Fountain, an Orlando wedding photographer a few months back.  Karla and I discussed positive ways to help improve her Orlando based wedding photography web site rankings in the organic search engines.  She has since taken many strides to improve her web site and is ranking very well in google now for the term Orlando wedding photographer. Karla’s web site incorporates flash and copy to provide the best of both worlds for people and search engines: the end result: form and function that is driving targeted traffic to her web site.

If you are seeking an ETHICAL and professional wedding photographer to document your precious memories, give Karla a call: she is passionate about photography and passionate about providing top notch customer service.

If you have used Karla Fountain: vote for her at the AList on Wesh.

If you are like most ethical business owners you take great pride in the work that you do for your clients.  You are passionate about customer service, you only want the best for your employees and customers and you strive for perfection on a daily basis.  You realize that to truly WOW the customer, you need to give 120 percent which you pride yourself on doing time after time…. Until the ‘one’ comes along.  The ‘one’ is that particular client / customer who you will NEVER please.  A customer that your gut told you NOT to do business with in the first place, but the deal materialized some how.

The deal goes south with the client, expectations were not managed, they are consumed with minute details and they demand refunds, make all kinds of empty accusations, etc. You decide to just refund their money and walk away, hoping to never hear from them again, until: A quick Google of your company name yields some snide comments on a blog posting. Comments that are completely false about your company, you are outraged and your sense of pride attacked.  What do you do?

You can complain to the blog owner, set yourself straight, be open and honest, respond to responses, etc.  The bottom line is this: that blog is not going to disappear from Google for a LONG time.  How can you combat it? Make your company name MORE important in the search engines by optimizing your own web site or blog.  Send out Internet press releases that allow for a link, link the press releases to your site and wait for Google to pick those up.  The offending blog may not disappear, but with some time, attention and passion, you can at the very least work on pushing that blog or offending article further and further down in the search engine results.

If you do find yourself a victim of a shallow attack, call us.  We can help come up with and implement a concise internet marketing plan designed to manage your online reputation.  We offer a free 30 minute consultation: 407-830-4550 or fill out our contact form for a quick response.  On Target Web Solutions : Helping you grow online.