My garden at home is swarming with purple, red, and pink tulips. We planted the bulbs last Fall and almost forgot about them until this Spring, when tiny green stems emerged. This robust display of flowers brought my mind back to work. Like the planting of perennial bulbs, search engine optimized copy yields years upon years of healthy search engine standings with proper care and maintenance. Through extensive search engine marketing research to determine how the public searches, the appropriate keywords are utilized to raise your company’s standing to the first pages of Google.

The creative and online copywriters here at DDA plant keywords into market focused copy to ensure search engine spiders find your site and post it for users to access. The challenge is to generate copy that does not sound clumsy and over-worded as a result of keyword usage. Like any art form, the quality of search engine optimized copy improves with practice and experience and as DDA has specialized in creating websites that rank well since its origin, the DDA copywriters are well-versed at achieving content that is at once readable and search engine friendly.

But like any avid gardener knows, planting is just the start of a successful garden. On-going pruning, watering, and weeding are needed to ensure continued growth. The same holds true for websites. In order to remain competitive, constant maintenance is required. This is where DDA’s team of search engine marketing specialists come in, tweaking alt text, coding, descriptions, and more to maintain the health of the site. To achieve a beneficial site that remains so for years, takes dedication and continued work, and DDA is the team willing to make that commitment.

I need a catch-up day. I have been a little busy lately with a few extra things that have disrupted my normal schedule, and I find myself way behind in taking care of things. I have managed to miss at least 3 birthdays, haven’t even considered  Mothers’ Day (and I have 2 of those) and forgot to mail the cable bill! The last item being the biggest impact on my household, and shopping on the internet also will be be my saving grace for fixing the first 4 mistakes!

One of my favorite gifts that can be a fit for almost anyone-especially Moms-is jewelry.  One of my favorite places to shop is a website called Chains and Charms and Pandora Jewelry.  It always has something that fits my budget. And it’s right at the top of the Google list (thanks to our Search Engine Marketing Specialists). It’s no coincidence that this is a DDA site. The beauty of the graphic design and product photography, the 360º spin videos, not to mention the interactive animation that allows you to make your own bracelet is amazing! I could play here for days!   But not on my time schedule. Good thing that the custom programming also allows  me to easily choose exactly what I need, so I can get in and out fast. It has all the things that I need to help me catch up. Now I just need to drop off that bill…

We have some clients who have a very limited understanding of what a website with an ecommerce component does. They think that a well-designed site with relevant content, and search engine optimization services will soon turn them into millionaires. This mentality is what we refer to as the ”if you build it, they will come” syndrome.

These clients totally miss the way Google works. True, DDA designed the site well; true, it has relevant content; true, our search engine marketing specialists do a good job of optimizing the site,  but how does it compare to the competition? If company X has 100 great pages, and the competition includes sites with a 2,000 great pages (all things being equal), the heftier sites win out when a customer Googles. 

DDA absolutely can accomplish first-page rankings on major search engines, but website development must be based on our keyword research, competitive intelligence, content planning, and optimization. We understand what needs to be done, and when given the resources, anything is possible. Clients need to fully understand the process and realities.

What many clients fail to realize is their placement in the spectrum of their particular product. If  company X sells a product that competes with similar product in the big box stores, guess where the customer ends up buying. There are some caveats to this simplified statement, the most important being selling to the local customers, but using the website as a sales tool and catalog not for actual online sales.

Concentrating on a specific trading area is a very wise strategy for many businesses. The really savvy clients get this, and work accordingly. Paying attention to their site daily, keeping it up to date, coming to us for changes and maintenance on a regular basis. Just like everything alive — a website needs to be nourished or it will wither.

The green grass of spring is finally here. The landscapers are visiting for the first time and the bushes, lawns and even the rocks are being pruned, pared back, raked and mounded in preparation for growth. Hope springs eternal and spring brings eternal hope for the promise of growth through good weather and hard work.

So it has been for thousands of years and so it will be.

At DDA, the growth is as much a personal one as it is corporate or financial. The human condition does not allow for stagnation. We are all either learning, and striving, and growing or we are ignoring lessons, slacking, and dying.

Every day I see our photographers learning, our programmers improving, our website designers testing, our search engine marketing specialists tracking, our artists illustrating, our writers illuminating, our video production crew stretching, our flash artists animating, our branding team clarifying, and our ecommerce technicians polishing and presenting.

The weather is not always great, the world is not always perfect, but it seems the growth comes not from the results but rather from the effort. Spring is here, again!

I have been with the company for a little over two years and from day one it was very clear that DDA has always been a strong believer in the power of organic search results.

Our website (www.zeroonezero.com), as well as the websites we have built for our clients, are proof of what can be accomplished with a dedicated team focused on search engine optimization.

For those who are interested, DDA also manages search engine marketing or pay per click (PPC) programs. Our team of search engine marketing specialists work with various search engines to give our clients the best results possible, constantly monitoring campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and max bids to assure that our clients are receiving the best ad position possible for the money spent.