My mind is racing a mile a minute and I am unsure as to why. I am trying to get everything as organized a possible so that while I am out of the office next week everything runs smoothly. I have composed a rather detailed email that explains everything that is going on from my perspective and someone has been assigned to check my email and handle my responsibilities for me.

Every time I take a moment to stop and think of what I may have missed I realize how silly this seems. Here at DDA, we have a system in place that keeps everyone who is involved with a project in the loop as to what stage that project is on and everyone here is more than capable to assume someone else’s responsibilities with ease.

When I first started at DDA as an advertising copywriter, one of the first projects I worked on was a search engine optimized website for a printing company in Philadelphia, PA. Years ago, I knew nothing of search engine optimization (SEO) or, for that matter, of the printing world. Wanting desperately to do well with the given task and to learn as much as possible about both areas, I threw myself into the website development project with both feet.

I travelled to the company and took a tour of the entire facility from digital prepress to mailing and fulfillment. I spoke to the company’s President who climbed the corporate ladder literally from the ground up and to those that perform their strategic responsibilities within the company day in and day out to obtain first-hand information. I can remember to this day how I went home after work and told everyone everything I learned about the printing industry.

My excitement soon faded when I realized I needed to then learn all there was to know about SEO copywriting - something one was and is not taught in college curriculum. With the help of my colleagues, research, and trial and error, I discovered how to integrate relevant keywords into the copy in order for the web page, and subsequently the website, to achieve high rankings on major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Hearing years later that through the collective efforts of optimized online copywriting, strategic website design and development, and the DDA exclusive SureThing™ Program, the site is doing well and that they have achieved high rankings and more rankings than they ever initially thought they could is a great feeling. I’ve learned so much since that introductory project with respect to a large variety of companies in different industry segments, as well as what it takes to write the seo copy that makes websites not just “brochures”, but effective online businesses.

That said, there is still much to learn, so back to work.

Every evening after leaving DDA, I pull into my driveway at 6:20 p.m., give or take a few minutes, and the first words out of my mouth are “What’s for dinner?”

Usually I receive a blank stare from my fiancee and a “I don’t know, what are you making?” It may seem silly but condsidering that he is usually home 2-3 hours before me I don’t think it would hurt for him to cook some dinner. When I have to make dinner after getting in from DDA we are lucky if we eat by 7:30 p.m.

On one hand it bothers me that we eat dinner so late, on the other there are days where I wish I got home earlier. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t want to give up our 4-day work week and having off on Fridays.

I get the majority of the house chores out of the way on Fridays. Without having off on Fridays my home would be very chaotic. Four days is just enough to handle a weeks worth of production coordination, print production, SEO reports, SEM campaigns, and invoicing.

With a staff of degreed copywriters, DDA has the unique ability to write custom content to help optimize your website for search engines. One of the many copywriting services we offer are press releases and news articles. Why should you care about these often overlooked services? Here is how custom articles and press releases can help your website in search engine optimization:

• Promotion. Best of all, these articles and press releases offer free promotion for your company or website. It can tell the world the various services you offer or just help explain your company. Either way, it is additional quality content that can link back to your website.
• Back links. News sites are one of the easiest ways to gain direct links from other sites. Not only does Google rank you higher based on the amount of quality back links your site has, but it also likes when the website receives a constant, ongoing series of back links.
• Relevance. Not only does the article provide your site with additional content to use, but it also makes your site much more relevant to the present time. If you submit multiple articles, to constant movement of updates and news releases will show Internet users that your company is relevant to today’s fast-paced environments.

There are many ways articles and news feeds can help improve your website. Let DDA and its experienced team of copywriter’s help promote you with the full variety of services we offer.

Spring is full of new growth and fresh beginnings. I see the little baby goslings following their parents, and fat bunnies ready to give birth. The trees are profusely spreading, sending their seeds into the wind. Trees are so efficient at this, that we find the seeds in every corner of every space - even where you least expect it. And although not all end up in a place that may be conducive to growth (like in the vacuum), so many more will be able to continue the pattern of life. You just have to give them something to grow on and a little TLC. Our websites and advertising services are much the same. When properly planted and maintained, they will grow into a very large, thriving and profitable endeavor. In order to grow a successful campaign, we will start with a beautiful graphic design that can be for web or print design. Then, we can add all types of digital animation, flash animation or any number of video production, photography services and programming services. But the magic is in the maintenance to make it grow. Our Search Engine Optimization, SEO copywriting and Search Engine Marketing Services are the food for growing big in Google. Everybody needs a little TLC.

When we make websites, we have the keen eyes of our designers make the website design and styles. They use Latin text as a placeholder on the pages. Our awesome staff of writers write the content and search engine optimization keywords for all of the pages to be. Once the design is approved and we are ready to move forward, the design and content have to be put together. We call this building out the pages and it can be a long and tedious process, depending on the size of the site, but it can be done no other way.

At DDA we have a large number of people who are capable of taking on this task, so it is an easy type of workload to manage. It is actually a useful thing to have around when workloads need to be managed because is a versatile job to be assigned that can assure that everyone is able to stay busy and productive at all times. Plus, it is essential to creating websites, so it has to be done.

I will be out of the office next week, which means I am spending this week getting everything in order to make sure that all goes smoothly in my absence.

Print Production. We have projects that are in the proofing stage. I need to make sure that any proofs that come in next week are forwarded to the client promptly. Also, if approval is received on any proofs, I need to ensure that production is notified promptly to proceed.

SureThing Ranking Reports. I am checking and double checking on what optimization reviews may be coming up. I need to make sure that their ranking reports are completed and sent to our SEO team to be posted for the review. I also have web updates to complete for clients that need to be live before the week’s end.

Production Coordination. I am reorganizing my notes to assure that everything is up to date and clear so that I can pass the responsibilities over while I am away. Everything is fairly straight forward and any questions can be addressed to the project coordinator.

I feel as though I have a good handle on everything at the current moment and that nothing catastrophic can happen. No one will even know that I am not here next week!

Over the weekend my fiancee was filling out an online form and needed to fill out my personal information as well. When it came to my employer’s information, question after question was asked — What’s the address? Phone number? How long have you been there? What’s your title?

When it came to tell him my title of SEO specialist (and the repeating it…S E O Specialist) he looked clueless.

Sure he knows that I work on websites all day but he is an electrician and not very computer savvy. Watching him hunt and peck my information into the computer was funny, especially since typing on a keyboard without looking is second nature to me.

Although we each have our own titles here at DDA, the name sometimes isn’t long enough. If you would try to list everything that each one of us does as our titles, the list would be endless.

Being a Search Engine Optimization specialist at DDA, a search engine marketing company in Southampton, PA, means that I am constantly fighting the uphill battle of improving website rankings in major search engines. Working in a world of meta tags and Dreamweaver can be a battle in itself, but I push onward and upward. The results are seen when my client’s rankings on Google climb closer and closer to the coveted #1 position.

You can see DDA’s success in Google with our numerous website rankings.

Everyday when I sit down to write my blog I always think about what it is that I do, so that I can create a relevant post. And everyday I think about how much easier it would be to write about what everyone else does.

I have the same reaction when I am asked by someone about my job. Somedays I feel as though all I do is shuffle papers even though I know this not to be true. My days brings about such a variety that I don’t get to spend long periods of time focused on the same thing, this is probably the reason for the lack of things to write about.

Truthfully I know I am responsible for a great deal; production coordination, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Pay Per Click (PPC), invoices, print estimates, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) reports. It is just difficult for me to put what I do into words.

It’s a Thursday, which for me means wrap-up day. All of the tasks that we have been working on for the week, or proposals that need to be sent out, inquiry e-mails that have follow-up questions, or any other general loose ends that need some tying have to be complete, addressed, or otherwise handled.

As a writer at DDA, a large portion of my job is in communicating with clients, prospective or existing, as I know I have mentioned so many times before. This holds true in project coordination, New Business Development, or in my writing tasks. What this ultimately means is that it is my responsibility, as it is for the three other degreed writers on-staff, to make sure that each client is fully aware of what’s going with his or her project or inquiry at all times.

We take this very seriously. We try not to have too much time lapse between an e-mail or phone call sent and our response. This often means running (in my case sometimes literally) around to get the answers I need from those assigned to the project — animators, videographers, graphic designers, programmers, etc. That’s one of the coolest things about this company — the fact that we are full service and do offer everything needed for a marketing and advertising campaign under roof, so oftentimes there are multiple people involved one project, bridging the gap between departments — programming, design, video, websites, search engine marketing and optimization.

It’s not always keeping track of everyone and everything. People make fun of my handwritten list which I tape to my monitor. It might look a little archaic in this age of spreadsheets, software to keep you organized, and Blackberrys. But it works for me.

Like right now I am looking at the list of nearly 20 items, with only four crossed out, and I am thinking it’s time to get a move on on wrapping it all up.