Our first case study involves a fishing charter company located in the Bahamas. Hunter Charters became our client in late 2005. We took over hosting their site and were given the task of getting them un-banned from the search engines, a legacy of their previous hosting and design company. The site was banned because it used many 'black hat' (unethical) techniques such as having keywords hidden by using the same colour for fonts as the background colour.

Hunter Charters' goals were to get un-banned from the search engines and get listed on the first page of the search engines for their keywords. As a fishing charter in the Bahamas this was a daunting task since they had many older, entrenched competitors.

To accomplish these goals we implemented a six step plan of action. First our graphic designer Jordan redesigned the look and feel of the site. One of our developers took Jordan's design and skinned it using the latest in search engine friendly HTML. The new design is aesthetically pleasing and easier for search engines to spider. Next we switched their CMS (content management system) to use search engine friendly URLs for most links. After that we researched the best keywords to target and the strengths and weaknesses of their online competitors. Using this information we edited the text on their site. Then we started a campaign to increase the number of sites linking to Hunter Charters. The final step of this plan is to monitor the results and tweak changes to continuously improve Hunter Charters rankings and conversion rates.

The impact on their rankings and online presence has already been noticeable after a few months of the new Internet Marketing campaign. Hunter Charters is generally on the first two pages of the rankings now, and continuously improving. There have also been many compliments about how well the site looks -- it finally reflects the professionalism and dynamism of Hunter Charters.

'If you build it... they will come.' That's a catchy phrase and great movie premise, but in your experience is that the way business works?

Websites are no different. You need to promote them.

It's obvious that promotion of an on-line business such as an e-commerce store is essential. Its also necessary to promote websites that are solely devoted to marketing. Why you ask? There are more than 80 million reasons... that is the number of websites in the world. To succeed on-line it is crucial that your target audience visits your website rather than your competitors'.

By analogy, imagine investing in 10,000 slick brochures for your business. One way to use them is to proudly display them on your front counter for clients to take. Contrast that with the impact of mailing them to prospects along with a personalized cover letter or handing them out to hot prospects at key trade shows. There are analogous steps that you need to take on-line to ensure that your website has a significant impact on your audience.

A case in point my own business, Picasso Fish. Last year we hired another developer, a graphic designer, a marketing specialist and a salesperson. We doubled our workforce and added new services including print design. Our sales needed to increase dramatically. One of the things we did to 'walk our talk' was promote and update our own website. This resulted in the number of qualified leads generated by our website, quadrupling by the end of the year.

TIP: To find out which sites link to yours (an important search engine measure), type "link:www.yourwebsite.com" into any search engine. The more sites that link to yours, generally, the higher your search ranking.

Did you know?

46% of all websites are found through search engines.

55% of all online purchases result from websites found through search engines.

95% of people do not look beyond the top 20 search engine positions.

7 times more websites are found through search engines than offline advertisements

As most were winding down for the holidays, we kept ramping up for another banner year here at Picasso Fish. Despite our busy work schedule, we still had time to enjoy a wonderful Christmas lunch at Shelley's new home. We are able to have a good blend of fun and work. That was shown by the company fishing trip in September.

We spent a lot of time in the news this year including a morning mugging by CD 98.9, a feature article discussing the Community Transition Funding in the Simcoe Reformer and an article in the Norfolk County Community profile. Needless to say, the exposure has been well received and has helped to keep us in the public eye. We thank everyone who has taken the time to get to know us and to spread the word.

2006 has been a year of growth for us and one of the most visible additions has been our graphic designer, Jordan Stewart. Jordan has been providing our clients with remarkably artistic websites. Jordan has recently completed the new look to our own site and completely re-branded us. Check out Jordan's profile in the team section of our website.

We look forward to 2007 as another year of fun and hard work. We plan on more fun events and hope to find creative ways to include our growing list of customers. From everyone here at Picasso Fish, we wish you all the best for 2007.

Google searches rose 30% in the month of November, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. Google's nearest competitor, Yahoo, logged less than half of their rivals searches at 1.5 billion. Both search engines are also moving into mobile search.

Mobile searches done through handheld devices, like cell phones, seems to be an emerging trend. Mobile content is currently dominated by mobile add-ons, like ring tones. Since most of these devices are always on, unique advertising opportunities are available to businesses that take advantage of Mobile technologies.

If you would like more information on the SEO services, or the web, print software and design services we provide, please contact us using the contact information at the top of this newsletter. Until next time... The Picasso Fish Team

Phone: 519-426-8981
Mailing Address: 62 Berkley Crescent, Simcoe Ontario N3Y 2K5
Office Address: 26 Peel St. Simcoe, Ontario N3Y 1R9
http://www.picassofish.com/
info@picassofish.com

Copyright ©2007 Picasso Fish corporation. All rights reserved, we protect your privacy. All logos and names of their respected owners.