The Long & Short of Search Engine Optimization

The keywords that you use are more important than you think! While short and sweet is sometimes the best answer, a bit more detail can take you a long way. Read more about long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are pretty much what they sound like; they’re longer, more specific keywords which pertain more strongly to your business than other more general – and perhaps more frequently used – keywords. Essentially, the usefulness of long tail keywords lies in its specificity, which greatly increases the chances of the traffic going to your website actually becoming customers. I like to picture a dinosaur here (because, let’s face it, we could all use a little more dinosaur visualization in our lives). The more generic keywords (the dinosaur’s head) have lots of results. As the keywords get more specific, the number of results is going to slowly dwindle down to very few (right to the tip of the tail). The simple truth is that sites like Amazon.com are always going to snap up the majority of super general searches. If you’re trying to get traffic to a small, local, or super-specific website, long tail keywords are essential. When you’re part of a specific niche market, even if someone manages to find your website with a general search, it’s much less likely that they’re searching for exactly what your website offers. In these types of situations, optimizing only for general search terms wastes both you and your potential customers’ time. long tail keywords are all about being found for what your website really is and does. If your website is optimized for these specific keywords, you’re basically guaranteed a website visit and an increased chance of customer conversion. Let’s look at an example. Say you’re a potential customer trying to figure out where to eat in an unfamiliar city. You search for “burger restaurant” and receive a few million search results, the first few pages of which will be filled with mega-chains like Red Robin, McDonalds, ect. People will often start with more generalized searches and refine them if they don’t find satisfactory results. This is where those additional details become critical, if you’re looking for a specific product or service, you won’t find applicable websites unless this criteria is reflected in the website’s keywords. Now, unless you were searching for a massive worldwide burger chain, most search-engine-savvy people will automatically refine their search by adding specific details about what they’re looking for until it looks something like “local burger restaurant in Denver Colorado”. This long tail keyword search will show nothing but locally owned burger joints in one specific area, filtering out the big chains entirely. This is crucial, especially if your website shows up on the first page of results, because you’ve got about a 1 in 10 chance that the searching person will come to your restaurant. As a last note, it’s important to remember that, as useful as long tail keywords can be, they’re only as good as the content they describe. You can bring in all the potential customers you want with specific keywords, but unless your website actually has the information the customer requires, nothing is going to be able to increase your customer conversion. Great content is, in the long run, just as important to the success of a website as any SEO.

Top 10 Reasons Why We Should Be Your Printer!

BC Print and Web is an independent, family owned company; we maintain solid business practices, offer fast service, competitive pricing and a 100% quality guarantee on all of our products. If that wasn't enough to convince you here are the top 10 reasons BC Print and Web should be your printer. 10: We know how to print. We maintain high quality equipment for printing, coping and finishing to which we provide formal training for our operators and enforce production standards for quality and output. These factors ensure that we can set and meet the daily production schedule. 9: We tell you how much your job will cost. We provide a detailed quotation as soon as the job specifications are firm. We want to know before we begin production that the price fits within your budget and meets your expectations. 8: We invoice promptly. We don’t consider the job to be complete until the invoice is written. Jobs are invoiced on the day production is completed and will include your purchase order number, internal reference you provide and any other specifications you require. 7: We commit to a due date and deliver on time. Because of our production control system using interim due dates, we can provide a firm commitment for completing the job. 6: We let you know what’s going on. We confirm receipt of your estimate request, orders and files so you don’t have to follow up to be sure we have them. If we encounter an unexpected problem during production, we let you know right away so together we can develop options. We do this anytime the due date, cost or quality of the job will be impacted by the problem. We also let you know about all the things we do – from Direct Mail Campaigns to QR Codes. We won’t assume you know all that we do – instead, we’ll keep you informed via our newsletter and other means. 5: We tell the truth. We need you to trust us, and we believe that honesty is the most important step in earning your trust. We won’t mislead you, hide things from you or make substitutions without your knowledge and permission. 4: We find out what works for you. The more we know about your business, industry and customers, the better we can evaluate whether the printed piece will serve the purpose you intend. If we understand your company’s purchasing and accounts payable systems, we will comply with those requirements and present invoices that can be processed smoothly and routinely.. 3: We are interested in new media. We understand the changing role of print in business communications. We know our customers and prospects are experimenting with social media, mobile communications and with web-based communications. We are, too! Just like you, we’re testing new media and developing a strategy for combining this with print. 2: We defend print. Despite our commitment to new media, we know for certain that print still has an important role to play. For those who would abandon print based on concerns for the environment – we offer facts, research and statistics to counter claims that print must be eliminated. We can provide objective information about the effectiveness of print, its sustainability, and its overall ROI. 1: You deserve the best. And we’re it! We provide true honest print within a family environment and solidly commit to deliver on time, keep you informed, and produce high quality products that simply cannot be matched. If you would like to get to know us better, take shop tour or schedule an appointment contact Kimberly or Dan at 303.320.4855

Rethink Mobile Web

What makes for an incredible mobile site and an incredible desktop site are two very different things. In fact, you’ve probably never been amazed by how wonderful a mobile site looked. Instead, you likely felt satisfied that you were able to find the information you needed quickly and without frustration. That’s because on the mobile web, usability far outweighs style. Design and Graphics may look terrific on your desktop, but on mobile, they tend to be confusing, unnecessary and somewhat overwhelming. It is still important to capture your user and maintain consistency with your branding however, with mobile, simple is best. With over ½ of all local searches preformed on a smart phone, creating a mobile website is now essential. Doing so, however, requires a different frame of mind. If you’re considering creating a mobile site, here are a few guidelines that make it as compelling as possible: Accessibility is Key Your mobile site should be designed so that your users can move quickly and freely throughout the interface, this is key to the effectiveness of your sites usability. For example allowing toggling for options rather than forcing your users to view them, hiding rarely used features and avoid having users fill out long forms is just the beginning of the things you can do to create a more accessible environment. When your customer logs on to your site it is up to you to re-focus their attention on the content you want them to view opposed to the aesthetics. This means that the content should be as equally accessible as it is legible. Keeping Everything to a Minimum KEM (Keeping Everything to a Minimum) is very much like the Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS) technique. Okay, you got me, there is no such thing as the KEM technique, but you get the idea. Since effective mobile interactions have everything to do with great usability and nothing to do with overcrowded designs, we find ourselves in a place where in order for us to reach out to a user we must keep our mobile site as simple as possible. A good place to start is to ask yourself, “What are most customers going to visit our site for?” If it’s to reach a live person, then make the phone number prominent (and use Click-to-Call.) If it’s to find your address, make that the first thing your customer will see. The most effective mobile sites keep as much of the call to action above the mobile fold, this means that your customer can find exactly what they are looking for the minute they view your site. Take it Easy on the Images Nothing slows a page down faster than a few large images. Just like I said above KEM, it holds true for images too! Don’t sacrifice your logo but think twice before transferring all of the images used on your desktop. A great alternative to images is color. As unrelated as it may seem color plays a large role in mobile website usability. When color is used within the right parameters, it gives way to a more visually compelling manner for us to communicate information on a page without having to use up any additional space. Use of background color can go a long way; however there must be a definite contrast between a background color and text. Information that is conveyed using colors should contain a clear contrast between any of the other elements within the mobile design. Remember that color is a fantastic way to communicate information effectively not just a quick fix to make the mobile site look pretty. Learn From Others Companies are just now learning how valuable a mobile site can be, while most haven’t set one up yet, there are a good number that have. That’s good news for you, since you can learn from the best ones (and the worst). Next time you have a moment, do a little surfing on your mobile phone and pick out a few of your favorite sites. By putting yourself in the position of an everyday consumer you will quickly learn how the above tips can really ease your frustration.

Powerful Marketing for Local Business

Being found online can be one of the most powerful tools for your business, but if you're like most small business owners, you’re going to benefit most from local searches. You can have the number one spot on Google for a keyword like 'pizzeria', but if you're in Denver and the searcher is in Portland, you're unlikely to make a sale as a result of that ranking. For any local business big or small, it's crucial that your marketing efforts include proper local optimization. Here are a few simple steps to get you started: Claim Your Account. If you have been around for a while, chances are there's already a profile started for your business on local directories such as Google Places, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, Manta and Yellow Pages. Search your business and claim it! Use these local directories to your advantage. Include your contact information on every page. Ideally this should appear before the fold, meaning that it should be visible without scrolling. This ensures that customers are never wondering where you are or how to contact you. Be sure it's text, not an image, or Google can't read it. Include a location-specific keyword in the title tags on your website. (i.e.: 'Pizzeria in Denver, Colorado'). It is important to include this on the home page, but it can be beneficial on other pages as well. Have a location-specific keyword as your domain. You can use a keyword specific name such as ‘denverpizzeria.com’, or your business name plus the location like 'homeslicepizzadenver.com'. Google absolutely loves keyword rich domains, so the benefits are sure to outweigh any awkwardness caused by the longer domain. Use social media to find and contact potential local customers. Offer incentive to visit your business. Using social coupons via your mobile site or through facebook is a great way to attract local customers. You can also use the advance search options to find the keyword 'pet supplies' being tweeted near a location, and then contact that person directly responding to their question or offering a discount. If you're looking for help optimizing your website, check out our SEO page for more details or simply contact us at 303.320.4855.

Before You Hit "Print"

Before you hit “print,” consider this: The going rate on a bottle of Cristal Champagne is about $350, but if you filled that same 750ml bottle with black ink for your office inkjet printer, it would cost you roughly $1,350. Printing poses a quandary for small and mid-size businesses, which rely on both in-house and outsourced printing but are constantly watching costs. Office printing costs happen under the radar, because so much of it comes out of petty cash or cost is simply not considered when done “in house.” Think before you hit print: “Do I really need a paper copy, or will the electronic version work just as well?” For advice and assistance with any of your printing that cannot be done in-house, or to help you compare costs, we are always happy to provide advice on the best ways to create effective printed pieces while saving money. Give us a call; we’re ready to help. BC Print and Web 303.320.4855

Order Online

BC Print and Web offers fast, convenient and easy to use online ordering. Yes that’s right, just when you thought we couldn't make you job any easier…we did! With online order tools we allow you to view the items you order most, keep track of inventory, and quickly place your order with just one click. Our online catalog features easy to view images that rapidly download, print and transfer. With a simple to use from you never have to worry about missing the details of the job. If you’re interested in building a catalog from your existing print projects or would like to build one from scratch we are here to help. To find out how easy it can be please call Kimberly at 303.320.4855

The Value of Print

The decline of printing has been a largely discussed topic as newspaper and magazine subscribers are dwindling; e-books are gaining popularity; online advertising is replacing print; and print products are being deemed as environmentally unsound. So does printing have a future? Does it have a present? We say YES without a doubt! Print is not dead or even dying but it is changing. At BC Print and Web we are adapting to the change and staying ahead of the curve to bring you the most relevant, powerful and effective print tools available. We have a positive outlook on print as we know that the combination of online marketing efforts along with traditional print can capture and engage your audience and provide you with the results you want. Follow the links below to find out more about the value of our services. Digital Printing Website Development Direct Mail Email Campaigns Marketing Solutions Mobile Web