Developing an effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is an important consideration for any business owner looking to create a profitable online presence.  When properly executed, a successful SEO strategy will drive highly targeted organic traffic to your web site for months or years to come.  Also known as natural or non-paid traffic, organic search engine results are very desirable due to the limited ongoing costs associated with obtaining those potential new customers. Therefore, a well-executed SEO campaign will continue to yield financial benefits to your business long after your initial investment is made.

An effective search engine optimization strategy takes many factors into account, including keyword usage and placement and the relevance and quality of backlinks pointing into a web site.  A primary challenge with trying to obtain top organic search results is that ranking factors continually evolve and change over time. This is because Google and the other major search engines continually tweak their ranking algorithms in an effort to keep savvy online marketers from “gaming” the system and developing an unfair advantage. Not only are new ranking factors, such as site speed, added on a regular basis, the weight afforded to each factor is frequently adjusted making some criteria more valuable and others less so at any given time.

Not surprisingly, it is nearly impossible to accurately predict what factors are going to be afforded the most weight in the coming months and years. However, there are a couple of key things to remember that can make the process of developing a successful search engine optimization strategy much easier. First, Google (and other search engines) have two primary customers: web searchers looking for information and the advertisers who want to be found by those users. Therefore, their primary concern is to return quality and relevant search results that provide online searchers with the information and resources they need. For this reason, developing great content built around sought-after search terms (keywords and keyword phrases) is one of the most important building blocks for an effective search engine optimization campaign.

Another key factor to keep in mind is that the search engines give more credence to “authority sites” – and tend to rank those sites higher in organic search results. The number, quality and relevance of incoming backlinks from other sites is how the relative importance of any given site is determined.  In other words, the more other sites refer to and link to your content, the more credible your site will appear in the eyes of the major search engines. Guest blogging and submitting high-quality content to article directories (that then gets picked up by other online publishers) are two main ways of building these all-important Internet assets. 

It takes a lot of time and effort to succeed at search engine optimization. Therefore, many business owners find that working with a professional SEO firm can greatly reduce the ramp up time it takes to achieve solid traffic results. Without question, finding the right company to provide this service can save tremendous amounts of time and greatly add to your bottom line.

Since the breakout of Foursquare at South by Southwest Interactive conference in March, people have been talking and blogging about location-based social media. For many people, however, foursquare is just a game they used to play – trying to become “king.” I have gathered some of the most important things to know about location-based applications in general, and Foursquare in particular.

1.    What is Foursquare?

Foursquare Business Development Director, Tristan Walker, describes Foursquare as, “part friend finder, part city guide. Essentially, we’re in the business of making cities easier to use.” At the most basic, Foursquare is a service that recognizes your geographic location and uses it to make geographically relevant posts to your Foursquare friends.  After downloading the Foursquare app to your smartphone, you can ‘check-in’ and ‘shout’ based on where you are at that time. For example, when you go to a bar downtown for happy hour after work, you can check-in (your phone will automatically recognize where you are and suggest the name of the bar) and post about the great drink specials of the hour. In addition, you can see if any of your other friends are at the same place or at a nearby establishment.

In addition to the fun of meeting up with friends, Foursquare also provides game-like features. Each time you check-in somewhere, you earn points (additional points awarded adventurous users!)  With those points, you can earn badges that serve as fun rewards for being a regular Foursquare user. Some badges include the “Newbie,” which is awarded the first time you check in somewhere and the “Adventurer,” when you have checked in 10 places. There are also fun and playful badges like “Far Far Away” and “School Night.”

What might be the most exciting honor is becoming the “Mayor” of a certain location. If you check-in at one location more than any other user, you become the mayor of that location. The perks that come along with being mayor are just one of the reasons why people enjoy using Foursquare.

2.    Why use it?

So what does they mayor get? It varies. Depending on the establishment and the involvement that each vanue has with the Foursquare community, you might get anything from a free drink to a free hotel stay, but those perks only last as long as you are mayor. Other users who have not reached mayor status also have the opportunity for benefits as they check-in across town. Some restaurants may offer discounts or deals to people who have checked in and posted tips. Tips allow you to inform your friends and the public about key things related to venues where you check in. You can let people know that a particular coffee shop has the best cookies in the world, and they can add visiting that shop for a cookie to their ‘to-do’ list.

In addition to these monetary advantages, Foursquare offers a new way to connect with local friends and local businesses in a way that wasn’t possible before. Businesses have begun tapping into Foursquare check-ins as a way to encourage discussion around their establishment and easily reward loyal customers for continuing to support their business. As the popularity of Foursquare continues to increase, the Foursquare team is working on additional ways for venues to reward checked-in customers.

3.    Best Practices

Though it is still in its early stages, some businesses have already figured out how to handle the Foursquare crowds. At a San Francisco café, signs have been posted offering unlimited free drinks to the mayor of that establishment. This encourages competition among Foursquare users to check-in more frequently in the quest of mayorship. This increases the amount of check-ins and the number of mentions of that particular café on online networks.

Check-in for Charity was a fundraising effort for Save the Children. The effort encouraged individuals to check in to Foursquare in Austin during the South by Southwest conference. For every check-in, $0.25 was donated to the Save the Children cause and raised the $15,000 maximum gift in just 48 hours and logged over 135,000 check-ins.

As the service takes on more momentum, businesses are guaranteed to increase their offerings with Foursquare, otherwise users will opt for establishments with better check-in deals nearby.

4.    Other location-based applications

While Foursquare may be the most talked about location-based service right now, it wasn’t the first. Brightkite was the first company to combine location sharing, friend connections, and status updates. The service created a photo and status update feed for the user’s check-in history and the location. Somehow all of these features proved to be too much, and it faded out quickly. In addition, the Loopt iPhone app became popular and satisfied many users but was missing “the real secret sauce” according to Mashable.com. The other location-based service that is receiving mention right now is Gowalla, which also features the check-in, share, reward model. In Gowalla, you receive “pins” rather than “badges,” but other than that the services are extremely comparable – the determining factor will most likely be what catches on with the public and businesses more quickly.

These four items will easily make you conversant on the topic of location-based applications and Foursquare, but the best way to learn the technology is by using it. If you have a smartphone, you can quickly download the app and begin checking in. Otherwise, you can set up an account online and check in at different venues by texting your location to “50500” and using the @ sign before your location. To view an introduction video and get started, visit http://foursquare.com/

A couple weeks ago, we learned what the WRIS team is up to outside of work, but what are they up to from nine to five, and what do they like about it?

This week, we asked:

What are your interests related to work? What aspects of your job excite you?

Charlie: Running the business and seeing it become more and more successful is very enjoyable.  The key to its success are good people and I have a bunch of them.  I like watching them and supporting them while they do their thing.  I enjoy new business opportunities and the thrill of closing a good sale.  I love technology so naturally I enjoy the hosting side of our business.  Understanding Networking and the Internet is an ongoing task.   Firewalls, routers, switches, servers, SANs, it never stops and is all very cool.  New technology for the virtualization of servers and work stations is in its infancy and has so much potential.  There’s no telling where this is all going but it’s always going.  It’s been a fun ride and I know it will continue to be.

Seth: I love being able to see a project through from start to finish. I get satisfaction out of hearing clients (or potential clients) speak of a problem, finding a solution that works for them and their end users, and then putting the solution into place. I also think it's exciting to watch out technology evolves and shapes our lives.

Bonny: I love my job! Love people, love helping people, love solving problems.  Every day is different and exciting.  I am able to make my own opportunities and try new things. I really like the people I work with.

Adam: I enjoy problem solving and “thinking outside of the box.” I enjoy helping a client push their ideas to better ideas.

Carmen: I love that every day is different.  The web is constantly changing which means we need to be constantly evolving and advancing our game.

Nick: I like programming.  Figuring out how to do something new is interesting.  I like to figure out these logic puzzles.

Glenn: Building sites, learning new techniques and technologies.

Debbie:  I have enjoyed getting the financial end of getting WRIS organized and like the forecasting and planning for the coming year.

Salli: I love the immediacy of the web.  It’s amazing that you can find just about any type of information you could possibly want online, and within seconds.  It’s cool being involved with that, even on a small scale.  I also think it’s hilarious that my daughter already knows her way around the computer as well as (or better than) I did when I graduated college!

Kelsey: I have a lot of interest in marketing and creativity, so this job allows me to incorporate both of those things. I get to figure out new and different ways to engage people. It is also exciting to be a part of a company in its growth stages.

Henry:  Computers have always interested me, I wrote my first program at the age of ten on a Commodore64, I’m dating myself but who’s counting. Computers have revolutionized the way we live, I can’t find a single aspect of life that is not touched by technology. My job is exciting because technology can be scary at times, but it can also be extremely comforting.

Drew: Everything! The creativity. The client contact. The vendor relationships. The success of accomplishment. Being an old school print designer I have a love of both print and web.

Fernando: I’m one of those lucky people that just loves what they do.