ISB Worldwide is a new client for us, and one of our first projects with them was to design a supporting web site for Chris Trimble, an author/speaker they represent, and his new book called How Stella Saved The Farm: A Wild and Wooly Tale About Making Innovation Happen. (co-written with Vijay Govindarajan)

We were able to take artwork from the book and quickly create a web site, which will be used as the center point of an ongoing email campaign, as well as to drive traffic to the companion book, The Other Side of Innovation, available on Harvard Press.

This was a fun project! And it’s really a good read, too.

It’s no secret that moving an office or business is a real drain on productivity. Try doing it twice in six months! Thankfully, our spirits have remained high, and we are finally settling into our new location in East Nashville. Let the productivity resume in earnest!

On a personal note, I am convinced that we have the best clients of any digital marketing agency in Nashville. Let me just take a moment to thank each one of you for your patience during a few crucial days when we were strung out between two spaces, and our internet connection was failing us in unforseen and inexplicable ways (Personally, I think it’s amazing that the internet works at all, when you start thinking about the millions of miles of coaxial cable strewn about the globe…). But thank you for giving us time to organize and make our move. We cannot wait to serve you from our new home! Stop by and see us at 201 Point East Dr., Nashville, TN 37216.

It wasn’t long ago that the two big SEO (search engine optimization) choices businesses had to make online was Pay Per Click (PPC) and Organic Search. PPC would cost you money right out of the gate but had the potential to bring you immediate business if you could bid right and get on the front page in the Google PPC ads. Organic SEO would take longer but, once you got on the front page, you were on your way to making some real money. It was the old question; what did you have more of, money or time.

However, in Google’s world, the one constant thing is that changes are nonstop. That’s why it is imperative to stay on top of what’s going on at Google.  And what’s been going on for the last few months is all about local. In fact, it has been said that about 90% of everything Google is doing these days has to do with local search. The reason is money and Google goes where the money is.

It won’t take you very long to find out that it is estimated that between 75 and 85% of all searches are done for local businesses and services. That means that if you have a local business or service and thought that being on the internet wasn’t that important, you may want to rethink that position.

Also of local importance is Google Maps and Google Mobile. Working with someone who understands what each of these are as well as how best to optimize them is more important than ever before. Simply put, this is why you might want to think “local” when you think about why you should have an online presence.

I’ve been studying up on keywords lately. I used to be fairly haphazard about what keywords or key phrases I used in blog posts and pages. I didn’t really understand how search engines used these words to help people find my content. When you think about it, you can write the greatest prose since Shakespeare, but if no one finds it, it’s not really that useful.

When search engine spiders crawl your site, these keywords and key phrases help them decide the relevance of your site. So, if you want people to read your great article about your favorite restaurant in Montreal, Canada, then you want to be very specific with your keywords. What part of town is it in? What type of cuisine do they serve? Are there other identifying characteristics about that restaurant? Answering these questions will help you know what keywords to use.

While there are several aspects to good SEO, mastering the keyword and key phrase concept is a solid first step. You’ll have your website seen by the web browsing masses in no time!