Tiger Woods is arguably the greatest golfer that the world has ever known, but did you know that we can learn a valuable lesson about Search Engine Optimization from the great Tiger Woods?
At SparksFly, we provide a wide range of services, and we pride ourselves on being the "anything and everything Internet" resource for our clients. Our client base includes retailers, restaurants, realtors, contractors, insurance agencies, marketing companies, musicians, songwriters and even non-profit organizations like churches, women's centers and environmental groups.
The services we offer include:
What's the point? We ask that question a lot, and it helps keep everyone focused on the true objectives. Even if a business does not sell products or services on their website, the site must contribute to the success of the organization by communicating advertising messages, enabling customer service, building consumer confidence and enhancing name recognition. At SparksFly, we never lose sight of those priorities, and we strive to create a website that will be an excellent Internet representative of our client's business. A SparksFly website is clean and uncluttered, well organized, focused and smoothly functional so that visitors can easily navigate from page to page.
When we create a SparksFly website, we typically use the client's text, logos and images so that the new website supports the client's other advertising. However, if the client prefers, everything in the new website can be "all-new," including sizzling text and the creation of a new logo, new images and new graphics. Continue Reading On New Page
High rankings at the search engines (SE's) are not important if you have deep pockets and can afford to spend millions of dollars on print and media advertising to build name recognition (like eBay did). Companies that big don't really care about the SE rankings because most of their visitors bypass the SE's and go directly to their website. But SE rankings are very important to everyone else because studies have repeatedly shown that when people search at the SE's, they rarely go past the first or second page of search results. The harsh reality is that if you're only on the SE's third or fourth results page (or worse), you're not going to get any traffic from the search engines.
SparksFly sites are highly ranked by the SE's - most of our clients are on the very first page of the search results for their chosen search terms, and some are clients are even in the #1 position on Page 1 of the SE results. How do we do it? The answer is skillfully, creatively and thoroughly - we know what the SE's are looking for, we present it to them in the format that they require, and we know how to "call them" to index the website.
Here is a little background information about the biggest SE's (Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN combine to provide about 90% of the searches made each day) and the way they come up with their website rankings: Continue Reading On New Page
SEM (often called 'pay per click' or PPC advertising) is the advertising of your products on highly relevant Internet pages. In an application of target marketing, you chose keywords or phrases that you want to target, and write a short advertising message, including a link to your website. Your ad will then appear both on search engine "results" pages and on other participating websites whose pages contain your keywords in their text.
When someone searches for the same "widgets" that you sell, SEM puts an ad for your "widgets" on the search results page, so you have a chance to get the consumer's business even if your website is not included on that page of the search results. Often called "pay per click" (PPC) advertising, SEM is "target marketing" at its best and can be surprisingly inexpensive.
You can even choose a competitor's name as a keyword - for example, we just searched in Google for "2008 Chevrolet trucks" and a PPC ad for a Honda Ridgeline pickup truck appeared on the first results page. Then we searched for "2008 Honda Ridgeline" and a Chevy Silverado PPC ad appeared on the results page. Each company was apparently running a PPC campaign on their competitor's brand name.
In most PPC advertising, there is no charge for "impressions" or number of times your ad is shown on a screen - you are only charged if someone clicks on the link in the PPC impression and actually visits your webpage. Continue Reading On New Page
The selection of a domain name for your business is critically important the success of your website. Huge pitfalls and temptations are lurking in the shadows waiting to trip up the unwary, and the good news is that they can be easily avoided. At SparksFly, we believe that the primary considerations in choosing a business domain name are (1) memorability, (2) ease of use, (3) the TLD or extension used, and (4) the use of numbers or hyphens in the domain name. If a business makes a poor choice when selecting a domain name, they have voluntarily placed a huge obstacle in the path to having a successful website.
Obviously, if your business name is NoahsArkBuilders, the perfect domain name is NoahsArkBuilders.com (as of this moment, we know of no company with that name, and that domain name is not registered - so this is a good example for us to use). But what if there WAS another company in another state with exactly that same name (Noah's Ark Builders), and they were already using that domain name - now what? If you are a LLC, should you go for NoahsArkBuildersLLC.com? Or maybe NoahsArkBuilders.net? Or try to get NoahsArkBuilders with .us or some other TLD/extension?
In this article, we won't say WHY these alternatives are all terrible choices, but they are absolutely and positively wrong, totally unacceptable, and, for a variety of reasons, there are far better solutions.
SparksFly domain name consulting services can suggest available alternatives for you, present pro and con arguments for each name, and then when you have decided on a name, we can secure that domain name for you. Considering the fact that your domain name will be in all of your advertising for many years to come, spending a few dollars to research and acquire the absolute best domain name you possibly can will prove to be a very wise investment. Remember, a great domain name will more than pay for itself in a very short time, and a poor domain name will haunt your business for as long as you use it.
Our domain name services can be as simple as obtaining and registering a new, previously un-issued or expired domain name for you, or as complex as negotiating on your behalf to purchase an existing domain name while maintaining complete confidentiality. We know what to look for, and what to avoid, when selecting a domain name and Continue Reading On New Page
If SparksFly designs your website, or if you retain us for SEO or SEM work, we will offer you discounted, below-market pricing for the hosting of your website on our SparksFly servers. Please note that SparksFly clients are not required to host their websites with SparksFly; it is totally optional and is a condition of acceptance as a SparksFly client only if the quality of client's current hosting is does not meet our minimum standards. Continue Reading On New Page
SparksFly offers consultation for your business on a wide variety of Internet-related issues, everything from domain name selection to on-line payment systems, from email marketing campaigns to slogans and jingles. We are available to help with problem identification and solving, software acquisition and application, plus brain-storming and idea-fishing. If you have a problem or question on anything, please contact us for more details. Continue Reading On New Page
We organize and implement marketing programs for the on-line sales of products thru websites such as eBay, Amazon, Half.com, Yahoo and others, plus set-up and maintain email newsletter campaigns and product ordering functions of your website. We create flyers, coupons and other advertising material that arouses curiosity and inspires impulse buying, and we design marketing campaigns that sell your product. Our clients do what they do best (produce the product) and we do what we do best: create a "buying" atmosphere, then drive traffic and instill purchase urgency - "I've got to have that product NOW!" Continue Reading On New Page
We can be retained to provide individual services on an "a la carte" basis, or in service packages with several services, all customized to meet your individual needs, goals and objectives.
Give us the chance and we'll make SparksFly for your business!
