Erik Schutzman

Searchifyme?

admin — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:48:35 +0000

A friend of mine asked me how his business could quickly get noticed, and get new leads. He owns a small home improvement business. Most of his work is generated through word of mouth, which is the best kind of advertising. With the economy the way it is some of the business is drying up. I thought about how I and others like me who own homes look for contractors. The old way is the phone book. Which he is aware of, but I took for granted my knowledge of the internet and mentioned SEO and social media to him. Being a person who works with his hands, he’s not as sophisticated with web 2.0. He wasn’t aware of the behavioral shift to online searching. People look for and research most everything they are going to spend a decent amount of money on these days. And the audience he is looking for, those in a higher income bracket, will be spending more money with him. That same audience is more likely to be web savvy and searching for goods and services on line, including home improvement. I search for everything from firewood to top soil online and am always disappointed in what I find. There is a big opportunity in the home improvement local search area. He’s interest was peaked. Especially when I told him there would be no fees like he would see if he got a listing in the Yellow Pages. He’s looking for a total re-branding and website design. We’re working out a trade agreement, so it’s FREE for him. I told him the thing that will get him business isn’t the design, but the strategy, and search will be driving that. He said "Searchifyme!"

I’ll post the results of this project within the next year. Should be interesting.

Here is another article about small business and video. Social media.

To do #1 achieved!

admin — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:55:27 +0000

Well, it took less time than I thought, but achieved my #1 to do for the year. I ranked 7th in Google for "Pittsburgh designer". I wanted to get ranked on the first page and it’s just above the fold on most screens, so I say it’s a success. Those were the two keywords I chose to rank for. My next test will be to choose a few more keywords try to rank for those while keeping my current rankings.

There were a few things I learned along the way. While updated my website, new design and optimization, I made a mistake. Not wanting to loose the rank I earned from my old site, I wanted to create an .htaccess file that would redirect all of the old incoming links to the new homepage. Not having success with the GoDaddy hosting, I gave up and deleted all of the pages. Well, that was a big mistake. Not only did I not rank for "Pittsburgh designer", but I didn’t rank for my name. NO RANK! I also realized that forgot to make my site public within my CMS.

The good news was that it was my site, not anyone else’s and I learned a great deal from it. Also, I learned that my optimization worked well, because I got my ranking for my name back within a week, and the targeted keyword ranked within a week as well

A few other unexpected ranking happened as well. I rank 4th for "Schutzman" on Google and 1st on Yahoo! I guess the Schutzman’s as a surname aren’t very search savvy. I also rank for "Pittsburgh artist’ on Yahoo! That wasn’t my gaol, but it is a bonus.

It’s 5PM on Friday, time to go.

Illustrator Tool Tip - Type on a circle

admin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:00:33 +0000

I just found a great tool feature on Adobe Illustrator CS3. For years I struggled with type on a circle. Especially getting the type on the inside, without it being reversed. So here it is. Picture included.

The thing you have to look for is the handles on the type path, on the circle. Grab the handle at the top and just start dragging it around.

If you keep the cursor on the outside, the type will stay on the outside

When you move it to the inside of the circle, it will automatically keep the orientation. See the next two images

That’s it! I hope you got something out of this. Now take $20 out of petty cash and go to lunch.

Search Engine Marketing Definitions

admin — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:44:45 +0000

The SEMPO’s Research Committee has released the results from the 2007 Annual State of Search Survey. I’d be in big if I release the full report, but a part of the survey has a list of SEM definitions. Even though I work at an SEM agency, I admit that I sometimes don’t know what bucket some practices fall in. This list seems to have it right.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM): the entire set of techniques and strategies used to direct more visitors from search engines to marketing web sites, including all of the tactics and strategies defined below.

Paid Placement: Text ads targeted to keyword search results on search engines, through programs such as Google AdWords and Yahoo Search “Precision Match,” also sometimes referred to as “Paid Placement,” “Pay-per-Click” (PPC) advertising and Cost-per-Click (CPC) advertising.

Contextually Targeted Text Ads: Text ads targeted to the subject of writings on web pages, such as news articles and weblogs, using programs such as Google’s “AdSense” and Yahoo Search’s “Content Match” programs.

Paid Inclusion: The practice of paying a fee (fee structures may vary) to search engines and similar types of sites (e.g., directories, shopping comparison sites) so that a given web site or web pages may be included in the service’s directory, although not necessarily in exchange for a particular position in search listings, such as Yahoo Search’s “Site Match” program, formerly known as Inktomi)

Organic Search Engine Optimization: The practice of using a range of techniques, including augmenting HTML code, web page copy editing, site navigation, linking campaigns and more, in order to improve how well a site or page gets listed in search engines for particular search topics.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Service Provider: Agencies or individuals who assist companies with the various search engine marketing practices described above.

Search Engine Marketing Technology Provider: Makers of a software application specialized to assist in the execution of search engine marketing programs, with features such as “bid management,” “campaign management,” “portfolio management” and “dynamic optimization.”

Web Analytics: Using a reporting platform for measuring and analyzing the results of any/all of your online marketing campaigns, including search engine marketing.

Welcome!

admin — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 01:18:09 +0000

Erik Schutzman is a Pittsburgh designer, painter, illustrator… artist.

Welcome to web 2.0. This is my new site. Enjoy!

Here is my Top 10 List of things I want to do in 2008

10. Redesigning my website

9. Get involved in social media

8. Understand Search Engine Marketing

7. Finish my landscaping

6. Start a painting

5. Do a bike race

4. Organize my digital assets

3. Improve my search engine optimization techniques

2. Sell a painting

1. Get ranked on page one for “Pittsburgh Designer”