One of my favorite movies growing up was 'The Princess Bride.' Strange as it may be, my favorite scene was with Carol Kane and Billy Crystal where they found Wesley was only mostly dead. I get a good chuckle when Valerie runs around the cottage screaming, "Humperdink!," at her husband.

I find myself recalling the movie more and more because I hear myself repeating that scene with new clients when they come to me with search engine listings that are mostly dead -  only I am saying, "hyperlinks, hyperlinks, hyperlinks!" When I do analysis, one of the things I find over and over is that hyperlinks are not being used to their full potential.
So here it is! Your guide to hyperlinks...

1. Put Hyperlinks In Profiles
Make sure any descriptions on high profile sites such as business listings, guest blogs, and YouTube have a working hyperlink to your website. You can't assume that just typing www.mywebsite.com is enough. Check, and if you aren't taken anywhere when you click on your website address, go back and add an http:// in front of it.

If you don't do this you are not only losing hits on your own website from the exposure of being on listed on a high profile site, but the SEO benefit of having your link associated with that same high search engine ranked site.

Example: http://www.mywebsite.com

2. Don't Forget Your YouTube Videos
Make sure you take advantage of the text box under your video to support your visual content with keyword rich descriptions. Always use an http:// hyperlink -  it won't work otherwise.

Why bother? Even if your website address is in the video?
Because people are not likely to copy and paste or remember your website address if they have to. If your website is just a click away, you have a real shot at a visit on your website from your YouTube video. The same principle applies to any video publishing site.

Example:

3. How To Make A Hyperlink In A Website Editor
Let's get down to basics.
If you are adding a description in an HTML editor about your business/website or appropriately sharing your link in a string or blog comment there will most often be a button that looks like an infinity sign.

1. Highlight the word(s) that you want linked to a page on your website
2. Click on the hyperlink button
3. Type in the http://www.yourwebsite.com  hyperlink
4. Submit
   

Example:
Hyperlink

4. Hyperlink HTML
If you don't have a hyperlink button to use while in an HTML editor, you can use HTML code to create a hyperlink for text or a website address.

<a href="http://www.yourwebsite.com">text or website address</a>

Example:
I want the word service to link to my services page on my website, the HTML code would go like this:

<a href="http://www.mcdesignservices.com/services.html">services</a>

Please remember these hyperlink tips, because I sure don't want to turn into Valerie! ... and if you do, you can get the most out of your online presence.

"Have fun storming the castle!"

The following is an ongoing compiled list:

1. "Always date a girl with a good reputation." When buying a previously owned URL make sure it has a good reputation, as years of cached links may show up on the search engine that you don't recognize.

2. "Be yourself." Google's Panda update is cracking down on content farming.

3. "Why buy the cow, if the milk is free?" Be careful not to give away too much of your service that you should be paid for in your social media marketing.

4. "There's always more fish in the sea." Watch your ROI, if your efforts to get a prospective client's attention on social media are falling on deaf ears ... or blind eyes, move on. Social media can take up a lot of your time and money - a big picture strategy should go hand-in-hand with focus.

5. "Don't move too fast; take your time to get to know each other." A sudden influx of SEO activity can actually hurt your search engine rankings in the long run. Also, being hasty can allow mistakes to go unnoticed. It is more important to take your time to be accurate and strategic where your website's information and links will be placed.

6. "It's not nice to lead people on." Make sure the links that you post with your content on social media or websites go directly to the page with the information you are talking about. You will lose people along the way in a string of links.

7. "If you like it, put a ring on it." When liking an article by a higher profile company or individual, make sure you comment with something compelling that will result in views to come back around to your website or social media page.

8. "Beauty is skin deep." Your website may be attractive and innovative, but if it is filled with shallow content, grammatical errors and is hard to navigate, the viewer will lose interest and so will the search engines.

9. "Stay away from Lover's Lane." Don't park your website's URL while you are building your website. Sure, you may make a few bucks, but you have no control of what is going to be linked to your parked domain by the registrar. You may have cached links and content that can harm the brand image you are trying to portray once you go live.

10. "It's not you, it's me." What goes around, comes around. Unsubscribe from other small business' emails graciously. Read why HERE.
 
Can you think of anymore?

Yesterday, I drove through the pharmacy window, which is quite routine for me as a mother of five.  But, I am not only a mother of five, I am a mother of four children who each have or have had their own significant health problems.  As I signed my initials over and over again for the prescriptions I was picking up, the familiar face in the window whispered "It's Azsi's last day today."  I looked through the window and could see Azsi, the pharmacy manager, was on the phone.  So, I scribbled "Azsi we will miss you!!!!", instead of my last initials.

Just in time, Azsi hung up and ran over to the drive through window to tell me how much she would miss ME.  She started to tell me how they loved when I came to the pharmacy because I always had a smile on my face.  How most people get so frustrated with their one or two kids, but I have five and I always have a smile for them.  As she is going on telling me where she is relocating across the country and where I can visit her ... the last seven years come flooding back to my mind.  It was her smiling, happy, exuberant "hello Mrs. LeClaire!" that would greet me and give me the strength for the rest of the day, as I drove through her window to pick up prescriptions after being up all night at the hospital with one of my children.  I have counted on her happy-to-see-me over the years to pick my spirits up after the letdown of doctor visits where the realization of a chronic condition in one so young hit hard.  Over the years she was even greeting my children by name, noticing how they had grown older, and that they looked healthier.  I don't know whose smile came first, but I happen to know she cared about every "patient" of hers.

I don't need the pick me up so often anymore, my kids are older, healthier and stronger; enabling me to grow my business and really enjoy satisfaction and success in my own life.  I guess I have just come to take for granted Azsi's smiling face.  But, yesterday it hit me hard to lose her.  I never thought I would cry like a baby at a drive-through window with the face on the other side.

Azsi asked me if I would still be using her pharmacy after she left, my response was "are you kidding?  I wouldn't dream of going anywhere else!"  I have seen how she has passed on her loving nature to her staff.  I could go anywhere for the medicine, maybe (and that's a big stretch) someone else could fill my orders more accurately, but that really isn't why I chose their store.

Social media has become a lot like that drive-through window.  I have observed with local businesses that word-of-mouth is really the most powerful new business driver.  A business owner with the same care and love for their customers can translate that to the online world.  Genuinely caring about the individual behind the like or follow and following up with sincerity can go a long way.  I couldn't help but tell you the story about Azsi, and that's what we humans do, when we experience an out-of-the-ordinary connection, we have to share it! I have experienced this give-and-take with many of my own clients who are thousands of miles of way.

So how about you? What can you do to show you care on your social media pages?  

Here is my newest website design project.  This website was custom made from top to bottom.  I loved experimenting with 3-D dimension and shadows.  It was so much fun brainstorming with Jeanine Kinzie on this one.  I learned a lot about insurance and finances!  She is amazing at what she does and explaining these complex matters in a way everyone can understand.  I hope her website makes you feel as much at ease she does in person.

Now on to marketing www.jeaninekinzie.com online!

OK, I am fired up.  I got a call this morning from a Seattle, WA phone number [206-496-0928] that claimed I was getting a message from Google Places because my listing had not been verified.  Knowing that I had years ago, - red flag #1 - I still accepted the call as my curiosity was peaked. - red flag #2 -  was the fact that I know Google Places had been replaced by GoogIe + Local on May 30th this year. I was then forwarded to a woman who told me the same thing, but when she told me because my listing wasn't verified I could not be found on Google, I knew immediately what this was.  She pretended to give me the wrong name for my business; I said "no that's not it." The rest of the conversation went like this:

"This is Rebecca LeClaire, right?"
me - "Yup!" I said, feeling the blood boiling for all my clients that have been scammed.
"Is your business MC Design & Services, LLC?"
me - "Yup."
"Is your phone number 616-881-3753?"
me - "Yup."
"You are very hard to find."
- is there something about that that sounds funny to you?  If I was hard to find how did she know all the information about my business with just my name? red flag #3 - 
me (ready to have a little fun) - "You're not Google are you?"
"No, Google wouldn't call you, we didn't say that, but you are very hard to find and..."
me - "you said you were Google when you called me, your being dishonest, something about how I know a thing or two about SEO, rant rant rant"


still going on....."you can't be found"...that's all that's in my script
me - hung up

I checked how my google rankings were doing while on the phone by making sure I was logged off of Google and picking random cities around the United States and Canada to set my location as.
Guess, what?  I can be found. :)
Why would I log off and change my location on Google?   Because Google tracks all your searches and tries to bring up what you are most likely interested in and also brings the results for products and services that are closest to your location.  That is why you should never trust the ranking results over the phone or in an email that an "SEO expert" tells you.  They could be in California and you could be in New York.

When I hung up I looked over at my four daughters, who are home from summer vacation and were all sitting on the couch, their mouths hung open with that 'deer in the headlights' look at the realization that their mom who expects them always to be polite and respectful just yelled at someone on the phone. Making me feel a little guilty they asked me if it was the poor lady's fault that she was making that phone call for her boss.  I told them about all the people that have called me that have lost a lot of money to companies like that, that I was being told lies over and over again, and that the lady I was talking to needed to know she was working for a dishonest company if she didn't know she was lying.
OK, so maybe I still feel a little bad...so scammers I will try not to raise my voice next time, I will just hang up...and I advise you do too!

At MC Design & Services, LLC we will be honest with you about your search engine ranking.  We will even tell you when you have reached a point that you may want to lower your monthly budget on SEO.
Contact Us for a truthful consultation.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the employment of techniques to get your website found on search engines (google, bing, yahoo).
So how do you know if you need it?
Have you ever googled your business?
Do you come up on the first page by typing in your name and location?
If you do, congratulations, you have achieved the first and easiest step.  Now how will someone find you if they do not know your name?  Try googling your services or products you offer and the area you serve (the towns that you do business in).
Does your website come up at all or even close to the first page?  If not, you want to consider getting help.

With our SEO service we consider all avenues that people search, not just search engines, but whatever is generating the most searches at the time.  We analyze your website to make sure there is nothing about your website that is hindering the search engines from reading it, or visitors from staying once they get there.

Our team uses many techniques to get your website's message and links out on the world wide web. We will consult you on what you can do to improve the situation, you can choose to do it yourself or have us do it for you.

The best part is that we are extremely affordable and know how to get results on the budget that you choose.

*Ask how to get some of your money back from advertising vouchers.