Logo Design for Telecom Consulting Firm
Posted by admin in web design on March 10th, 2010
Here’s a new logo we designed for a telecom consulting firm here in the Bay Area:
Check out our logo design services.
Hollywood Video in Pleasanton Closing
Posted by admin in Pleasanton on February 9th, 2010
This past weekend I was in Hollywood video and overheard the cashier telling a customer that the store would be closing. I didn’t surprise me, as competition from Netflix and online streaming movies must be pretty stiff. The main problem with the old-fasioned movie rental stores is that people have busy lives and avoiding late fees is next to impossible. And people hate paying late fees.
A couple of weeks ago my dog chewed up the box for a Hollywood rental DVD I left sitting on the coffee table. The DVD was fine and the cover paper was ok, so I figured I’d return it, they could pop it in a new box, and bill me for the box if they felt like it. That day I received a call on my cell phone from Hollywood video while I was shopping at Safeway. The employee informed me that I would be charged for the DVD I “destroyed.” I asked if they couldn’t just put it in another box since the DVD was ok. He said, no, I would have to pay for the whole thing. No big deal I said, but told him in that case I’d like to keep the DVD, and asked how much it would be. He replied that I could have the DVD after I paid for it, and couldn’t look up the price until I came into the store.
About a week later my wife went info the store and tried to pay for the DVD. Instead, the cashier put the DVD and cover paper in another box and returned it to the shelf.
The moral of the story could be that in these economic times inconsistent customer service won’t cut it. However I see Holywood Video as more of a company struggling just to keep it’s head above water, and they probably did the best they could with what they had. Sure, they could have addressed the “late fee” issue more proactively. Netflix has been around for a long time, and other companies, like Blockbuster, were able to do a better job of coming up with similar programs. In the end, it’s not really a surprise though. I just wonder what business will take it’s place in the shopping center? Any ideas?
Google Maps and Business Listings. How wrong can Google get it?
Posted by admin in web design on January 27th, 2010
A couple of months ago I wrote a post about how Google broke the local business listings that show up on Google Maps. I surmised they did this to push searchers to more profitable links, like their Adwords Sponsored PPC links. They didn’t come up with this brilliant idea themselves. They copied Bing, which launched with atrocious local business lisitngs in their results and drove people to paid AT&T Internet Yellow page ads. It’s all about money.
Today I needed to find a local office supply store in Pleasanton. I know about Office Max and Office Depot, but thought there might be a place a little closer. So I searched Google for “office supplies pleasanton.” Here’s what I got:
Besides listing OfficeMax twice, missing Staples and listing a strange closed business named “Vanguard Legato,” Google lists the name of an individual as its third result. Clicking on the details, let me know that this indeed was an individual, categorized under “office supply store.”
My first thought was, “that is pretty lame.” And it is. My second thought was wondering if any people searching for office supplies have ever shown up at this guy’s house.
Active Menu Items and sh404SEF for Joomla 1.5
Posted by admin in CMS, joomla, joomla extensions, search engine optimization, sef urls, seo, web design on January 27th, 2010
It’s pretty common to have the same global navigation items it both the main navigation and footer links of a website. Be careful though, if you are using an SEF URL extension for Joomla 1.5, such as sh404SEF. Having multiple menu items pointing to the same article or ItemId can disable the active menu styling. Instead, use the standard Joomla menu links for the main navigation, and set up the footer navigation with external type menu items, pointing to the sef urls created for the main navigation.
Link Exchange Scams
Posted by admin in search engine marketing, search engine optimization, seo, spam, web design on January 26th, 2010
Link exchanges are one way to help with link authority, especially if you have nothing else going for you. Promoting blogs and fresh quality content are preferrable, but some people don’t have time, and reasonable, content targeted link exchanges can at least get you on the map. But you need to be very careful.
1) Beware 3 way link exchanges with junk sites. Generally the person requesting the link will want you to link to their client’s site, but all you get is an incoming link from their throw-away wordpress site that looks like it was put up in 15 minutes. Don’t bother.
2) Ignore link exchange requests that require you to put your link up first. If you do, they won’t. Credible link partners will always place your link first (not necessarily before they contact you though).
3) Ignore link exchanges showing y0u some great PR sites that will link to you, but you have to put up your link first. Hint: those aren’t even their sites! A certain percentage of webmasters will see that high PR and put the link up.
4) Don’t exchange links with any website that is unrelated to yours, i.e. don’t put a viagra link on your golf club ecommerce site.
5) Don’t swap links with any low quality website. The search engines will never count the link anyway, and you will be wasting your time and credibility.
Custom Manufacturing Web Design
Posted by admin in web design on January 9th, 2010
We launched this website a couple of months ago. The company manufactures special plastic bags that keep artisan bread fresh for a long time. I could sure use these!
Manufacturing Company Web Design
Book Fair Website
Posted by admin in web design on January 4th, 2010
I just put up a quick and simple website for a friend in Sacramento who runs an annual book fair. If you are a book collector, this is the place to be this spring: Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair.
Almost 1000 DUI Arrests in First Week of Holiday Crackdown
Posted by admin in Pleasanton on December 29th, 2009
Law enforcement has been busy this holiday season kicking off it’s annual 17-day winter crackdown on drunk driving. The program, which covers 9 counties in the bay area and includes 125 law enforcement jurisdictions, has seen a drop in arrests compared to last year.
Alameda County law enforcement agencies made 352 DUI arrests in the first week in the program, which is by far the most arrests made within a Bay Area County.
Google: Major Changes in Local Business Listings
Posted by admin in web design on October 29th, 2009
Or should I say, “Google breaks local business listings.” I noticed a major change last week, with the number one spot in local business listings of the moderately competetive keyphrase “bay area web design” being taken by a company that looked to be defunct and was not taking on new clients.
When I checked yesterday, I was presented with this bizarre scene:
The “Digg” result is apparently a laundromat categorized under web design:
Could the engineers at Google actually be that inept? Or is it something else?
When Bing launched last summer, I noted how horrible their local business listings were. A search for “Pleasanton Web Design” resulted in not one business located in Pleasanton, and only one in the (925) area code. Now, almost 3 months later, there has been no improvement, and my local business listing is still marked as “Pending.” I also noted that Bing had sponsored results located prominently in the failed local business search area. Let’s face it - sponsored listings are search engine’s bread and butter, and is it really so much of a stretch to think the would throw local businesses to the wolves in order to get more clicks on their sponsored results? The typical searcher doesn’t know a sponsored result from a natural result so most people don’t notice. Maybe they will get a little frustrated, but Bing has shown significant growth after its launch, so maybe they are copying their model of short-term profit before quality. Or maybe Google’s destruction of their local business listings was purely an accident and will be fixed soon. Only time will tell.
Google and Bing to Include Twitter Tweets in Search Results
Posted by admin in web design on October 27th, 2009
Search leaders Google and Bing have reached and agreement with Twitter to include “tweets” in their search results. “Tweets” are the short messages that are generated by the numerous Twitter users. This new “real time” search component is aimed at getting current information, like news, sports and events, in the search results immediately.
At this moment it is unclear how Twitter will be integrated into the results of these two search giants. If you actually use Twitter, you are aware of the potiential for garbage (spam or otherwise) that the service can produce. The way to control this, as a user, is to limit the people you are following to only trusted friends. It’s a good bet that Google and Bing will do the same, and that only the tweets of prominent businesses or trusted experts will be included in this new real-time search component. After all, Google uses this model to an increasing extent in their standard natural search results.
So if you are small business or individual, don’t get too excited about your tweets showing up on Google or Bing just yet. It may not be happening.
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