Worth noting however, the decline in Yellow Pages use from 33% in 2007 to 30% in 2008, resulted in an increase in Internet Yellow Pages use from 17% to 19%. So with that, the 3% lose in Yellow Page use went online with 2% going to going to Internet Yellow Pages and 1% converting to search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Also interesting, despite the advancements in mobile technology, handset functionality and mobile broadband speeds, local search on mobile devices did not see an increase from 2007 to 2008. Curious! I’m not a mobile Internet user, so when I watch TV advertisements and read tech articles, I’m convinced that more and more people are going that direction.

The Take-Away: Local businesses can no longer rely on print alone to get in front of customers. A web presence is increasingly more important as local business search trends migrate to online resources.

Applied Web Vitals is a web design and development company. Please feel free to contact us to explore your next design, redesign or site enhancement project.

Over the course of the past year and a half, I’ve had the great privilege of consulting a number of Myrtle Beach small business owners. And in such a turbulent business climate, the value of our discussions were worth their weight in gold . . . for everyone involved. As a web specialist and small business consultant, my continual education is the value that I pass along . Well, this past year spent with local Myrtle Beach businesses—discussing their website needs, marketing campaigns and branding efforts (among many other topics)—has been a great leap forward in my professional education.

In the next chapter of my career, aptly named “Charleston,” I’ll be firing up a new web discussion group in the Charleston area for small business owners and non-profit organizations. A continuation of the Myrtle Beach incarnation, the Charleston Web Technology Discussion Group will be free and open to everyone, with discussions on topics such as: building and maintaining websites; search engine optimization; Internet marketing and measurement; business blogging; graphic design & do-it-yourself advertising; or wherever the discussion leads…

As always, bring your curiosity and any unanswered web design questions.

The Charleston Web Technology Discussion Group is led by Dominic Taverniti, owner of Applied Web Vitals.

Our weekly Web Technology Discussion group will resume on Wednesday August 20th at 7pm – at The Market Commons Barnes & Noble cafe in Myrtle Beach. We will not be meeting 8/6 or 8/13.

Unless I get a special request otherwise, the main topic for 8/20 will be e-commerce. We’ll cover the different shopping cart options available, store functionality and things to consider, inventory management, payment processing and credit cards, and all the little details that need to happen before you get your first e-customer.

Thanks and I look forward to see anyone and everyone that’s interested in attending (it’s free by the way).

- Dominic

More info about the web technology discussion group.

Barnes & Nobles in Market Commons (1063 Howard Pkwy, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577)

Some of our small business owners have found 6PM to be a bit too early. And for those businesses that are open for after business hours for walk-in traffic, 7PM seems like a better meeting time. But before we reschedule, I’d like to get your feedback. Please email us with the time that works best for you . . . as well as days, if Wednesday doesn’t work well.

Once we tally up all the feedback, we may move the time on Wednesday or perhaps launch a second meeting all together to accommodate the extra attendees.

Attending the discussion group is free and open to everyone. We meet to discussions topics such as: building and maintaining websites; search engine optimization; Internet marketing and measurement; business blogging; graphic design & do-it-yourself advertising; and more…. Bring your curiosity and any unanswered web design questions.

The Web Technology Discussion Group of Myrtle Beach is led by Dominic Taverniti, owner of Applied Web Vitals.

While there most definitely is more to the subject and process of SEO (as evidenced by the several hundred pages in The SEO Bilble by Jerri Ledford), this a good streamlined list to compare your site against and get started optimizing. If you have any questions about search engine optimization or would like to optimize your website, please contact Applied Web Vitals anytime.

In the Myrtle Beach area? Join us for the Web Technology Discussion Group every Wednesday at 6PM.

SEO Punch List:

Page structure
- Great content
- URL, title, meta description, meta keywords
- Keyword/keyterm density ~5-7%
- Anchor text (incoming & outgoing)
- Image (file name, alt text, link)
- Formating (H1-2-3, Bold, Italics)
- Fresh content
- Great content (that’s right, first and last!)

Concerns
- Duplicate content
- Hidden content

Content generation
- Forums
- Blogs

Accessibility
- Splash page
- Navigation (text links)
- Flash vs. HTML
- Java Script
- ASP & PHP (dynamically built pages)

Inbound link strategy
- Press releases
- Requesting links
- Writing articles
- Web 2.0 contributions
- Affiliate programs
- PPC (pay-per-click) and Paid Links

Outbound link guidelines
- Relevant links to quality highly ranked sites
- Keyword anchor text
- Be ware of excessive links, including link directory pages
- Check frequently for broken links

Robots, Spiders and Crawlers
- Robot Exclusion Protocol (robot.txt)
- Robot Inclusion Protocol (sitemap.xml)

Podcast Topic: Blog Plugin Recommendations

Akismet: A discussion anti-spam plugin that utilizes a central and ever growing database. You will need to create a user account at wordpress.com to gain an API KEY that is required to activate the plugin.
All in One SEO Pack: Create custom page titles, meta description & meta keywords
- Also enable Permalinks in your blog settings and be sure to include the post name (%postname%). Permalinks in tandem with the All in One SEO Pack will produce keyword rich posts with keywords appearing in the page title, url, meta data, and of course the post body.
podPress: This plugin is a must-have for podcasting. It ads a flash audio (and video) player to your post when attaching a media file. In addition, it handles the RSS podcast feed options, including iTunes settings.
Ultimate Google Analytics: Track your blog site traffic with Google Anayltics. You’ll need to create an Analytics account at http://www.google.com/analytics/

Podcast Topic: Blog basics

• Hosting your own blog vs. free blog sites (like blogger.com and wordpress.com)
• Moderating comments
• Creating user accounts

Please return for future podcast episodes. We look forward to coving topics such as web design, content management systems, Internet marketing, search engine optimization, blogging and more…