The products and services we provide are actually much less important than what we do. We’re in the business of fetching business and we use a variety of approaches to get the job done.

We offer a wealth of experience in marketing for-profit and non-profit organizations. We’ve successfully executed projects with budgets large and small. After all, sometimes a project requires a Lexus approach. And sometimes a Kia will do just fine.

The way we see it, there is more than one way to accomplish any goal. Our job is to catch your vision and help you devise a plan that best fits your organization’s goals, style and budget. Our goal is to work with you for the best return on your marketing investment.  Give us a woof!  360-642-4431.

Q:  I just wrote a blog post that comments on what someone else wrote.  That’s okay, isn’t it?
A: We like the rule-of-thumb that says, “If you wonder whether it’s plagiarism, it probably IS”.  Another way to think about it is to ask yourself, “Did this come 100% from my head?”  If the answer is no, cite your source at a least, link to the source when you can and asking permission is always a good thing.

Q: But I can link to other people’s sites, right?
A:  Probably, but good manners (and perhaps the law) say you should ask and, if the site owner doesn’t want you to link to them, don’t.  Blogger Brad Templeton has a nice overview of this topic which is surprisingly not as straightforward as you’d think.

Q: I used someone else’s photo, but [a] it’s for a non-profit  [b] it’s for my scrapbook [c] it’s just on my facebook [d] I just emailed it to friends.  That doesn’t break the law, does it?
A.  Yes, it does.  Taking what came from someone else’s head, be it words or photos or things or ideas, is stealing, which is what copyright is out to protect.  There are degrees of theft and consequences, but stealing is stealing.

This site has a brief overview of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Engine of Creation.

This Squidoo Lens is a quick read on plagiarism, copyright and fair use.

Keith recently enjoyed a visit from a client who maintains his own site and who we haven’t heard from in several years.   Keith had optimized the site for this fellow and achieved top-10 ranking for his chosen key words.  However, the client had noticed a quick and severe drop in his rank recently so he stopped in to see what could be done, on a tight budget, to rectify the situation.

Since Keith is retired these days, it isn’t often we get to enjoy his sage advice and experience on small projects.  The beachdog.com web team was delighted to find that we’ve learned our lessons well; Keith’s advice was exactly what we would have recommended.  So we decided to steal it and share it with you!  Ha!

Thanks for stopping in today.  A lot has changed in the web since we last worked on your site!  In December, for the first time in more than three years, Google launched an entirely new algorithm for how it ranks sites.  Bing is new and picking up speed quickly.  Microsoft and Yahoo are one search company now, with Yahoo largely running the paid advertising and the two sharing a search database.

What we’re seeing, more than anything, are changes in what the search companies think is important.  For example, your site being easy to read from a smart cell phone, load time, compatibility with social networking — things that weren’t on the search rank radar when your site was last optimized.

6 Recommendations for DIY Search Rank Improvement

1 – Join your local Visitors Bureau, Chamber, Convention Center and other travel/tourism-related organizations and buy a link from their sites to [yours].  Links to your site from other sites talking about the area, and about [your industry], will help your site rank higher.  The more popular the other site is, the better it is for your site.

2  – Complete Google Map info. Local search is increasingly used, by full-size and cell phone surfers.  Make sure Google has as much info as they’ll let you give them.  Go to http://www.google.com/lbc to sign up and claim your business so you can edit it.

2B – Sign up for Google’s Webmaster Tools. This is numbered 2B for a reason; it’s the second half of telling Google about your site.  It also helps promote your site.  http://www.google.com/webmasters/

2C – Read Google’s SEO resources for beginners. If you’re going to optimize your site on your own, this is a must-read.  Why?  Because Google has 73% of the market share of searches in the United States.  If you fail with everyone else and succeed with Google, you’re still ahead of the game.

3 – Add [key word rich] content with a focus on use of geographic keywords. In 2010, content is king.  The more you write about [your subject] and [your town name] and use the words that you think people will search for, the better your rank will be.  Hands down.

4 – YouTube videos – refresh/update photos on your site.  Name and give alt text for them using geographic keywords when possible.  More than ever, people don’t read.  They look at pictures and they watch videos.  They email pictures and videos to their friends.  If you can offer these things and make it easy for them to share, they’ll promote you.  Digital and Video cameras are available for less than $100.  Keep one of each [in your business] and pass them around.  Besides – Google owns YouTube.  When you post to YouTube and then feed it back through your site, you’re telling Google you exist and have new content for them to share for you.

5 – Update your site with WordPress.  Not only will converting your site to WordPress make it super-easy for you to keep it updated yourself and do all the things I’m talking about, above, it will make it easy to make it viewable on a smart phone and make it easy for site visitors to share about you on social networking sites.  A table-built site, like the one [this site owner has] now, is not viewable by cell phones.  Even if it were, Google is now PENALIZING sites that are table-built.  So if you’re not going to upgrade to WordPress, at least have your site rebuilt using CSS instead of tables.

6 – Change update date and copyright info. I can’t say enough about this.  If you aren’t updating the dates on your site, Google (etc) assume your info is old.  They don’t want to give their customers bad info, so your site gets pushed to the bottom of their answer pile.

Keith Schwartz, Fetching Fanatic

Want a closer look at that pug screen cleaner?  Click here.

Want your own copy?  Click.

We’ve been woofing for a year or more about ‘tricking out’ your business listings in Google Local Business Center (aka Google maps).  It’s easy, only takes a few minutes and gives your business a significant advantage in Google.  Watch this video for a super-fast overview:

Why?  According to Web Strategy Workshop:

• 84% of searches in the USA are local, which is why Google gives them a lot of space ‘above the fold’ in their search results.  This is now the only place on a Google search results page you can usually come up with an organic (unpaid) result.
• 86% of those that search for a local business follow up after finding your information. 
• 61% then follow through to make a purchase.  61% of local searches convert to sales.  Where else can you BUY advertising with that kind of conversion rate?  And Google’s Local Business Center is FREE but for your time to fill out the information.

Tips:

• Use the key phrases your customers are likely to type into a Google search when you write descriptive text in your page of Google Local Business Center.
• Take advantage of the insight tools in the Google Local Business Center to measure results.  You’ll have access to all kinds of information about where your customers are coming from and what they searched to find you.  You can then use that information to improve your key phrases and optimize your Google Local Business page.
• If you want to amp up your Google presence, try AdWords.  But don’t over-spend.  Use AdWords built-in geographic targeting system to ensure your ads are being seen by those the most likely to convert to sales.  Don’t pay for “Tuna” when you can pay for “Fresh Caught Tuna Ilwaco WA”.  The latter will get fewer clicks, but each click you pay for is likely to convert to business.

A California company has found that computer users consistently choose weak passwords, with the most common one being 123456.

The second-most common password is 12345, followed by 123456789. And the fourth most common password is “password.”

You can see where this is going.

Read the whole article.

No time?  Remember this:  Passwords should contain a minimum of eight characters. They should include a mix upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and special characters such as !@#$%^&*.

Which brings us to Keleigh’s favorite joke of the minute:

During a recent password audit at City Hall, it was found that a Councilman was using the following password: “HappySleepyDopeyDocGrumpySneezyBashfulRudolfOlympia”

When asked why she had such a long password, the City leader said she was told that it had to be at least 8 characters long and include at least one capital.