When people search for businesses do they find you?

According to GetFave.com, an online marketing site,

"A recent study conducted by ComScore, Inc., a global leader in online marketing intelligence, found that local search (the practice of using online search tools to find local businesses, products, or services) grew 58% in 2008!

The study also found that most people are not looking for a specific brand or company when they begin searching. Instead, they're typing in broader keywords and specific locations."

Hungry and want to eat tacos...Google: Los Angeles + Mexican Restaurants. Going to the City and want some new ideas...Google: San Francisco + fun things to do. Water gushing on your floor from the dishwasher line...Google: Sacramento + Plumber. I know that I'm always Googling for stuff. If I need a taxidermist or a termite inspector, my typing fingers start twitchin. I also check the Yellow Pages, so I'm kind of mixed. But, I bet the young guys have never picked up the Yellow Pages in their life! They're online, all the time.

So, what does this mean for you and me? That we need to figure out how to get our business websites to show up on Google and the other search engines. This is called SEO, or Search Engine Optimization (you optimize your website so that the search engines find you).

Inside Red Studio

I helped my friend, Lynn, get her blog started and it's exciting to see what she's doing. She's a fellow garden designer and an artist...loves to mix it up with recycled materials. Check it out!

I've been having fun...

I've been working on a blog for a friend who owns Exotic Plants, a retail store and a indoor plant maintenance/rental business). She gets most excited about the prospect of a virtual store where she could carry art and artifacts (what does that mean? see bottom of this post), and even plants from around the world. She loves to travel, loves to shop, loves photography and loves plants...but doesn't love computers. So, I'm helping her launch her net presence and we've started with a blog. On Sunday, December 21, we'll have an art show and open house. Here's a picture I tweeked for some promo (and, you're definitely invited!).
Artifact: An object produced or shaped by human craft, especially a tool, weapon, or ornament of archaeological or historical interest.

Blogging Experiment #4: A visual on Blogger's picture sizes and placement

Many thanks to my model, Liesel!

Blogging Experiment # 3: Linking to Someone Else's Blog Post

Here's a picture of Ryder Green's pumpkin harvest, and below that, a link to more pumpkin pictures and a yummy recipe for baked pumpkin, apples and cranberry, with ginger and Cointreau. Today we're having our first showers of the season in the valley and it's sweet!


THE VILLAGE VOICE: 'CORNUCOPIA OF REDS and ORANGES' ~ GINGER PUMPKIN, CRANBERRY & APPLES

Blogging Experiment # 2: The Picasa Collage

Blogging Experiment # 1: The Pictobrowser Flickr Slideshow

Blogging is so much fun...no small part of which is learning all the tech of how to do all sorts of amazing things seen on other people's web pages. If you haven't blogged, I'll tell you this...you can go to the "View" setting of your browser tool bar, click on "source" and see the code that was used to do all manner of nifty things on someone else's website. You need some idea of code (duh), but it can be learned. Even then, it's not a cinch, at least for me. I have to puzzle it and puzzle it...but, that's the fun.
This example isn't a finely tuned example, but an experiment to see if I could do it at all. Next time, watch out!!!