Using Local Search Optimization to Help Your Business

When my best friend moved to Tampa to fulfill a life long dream of living somewhere warm, she decided to branch out on her own and start a catering business. Wanting to hit the ground running, she set up a website before she had even finished unpacking. She figured she'd get some interest in the business and that way she would have lots of gigs right off the bat. Her youngest daughter also wanted to help, so she made flyers and posted them all around town.

It soon became clear that the hand made flyers were doing a better job of gathering interest in her catering business than the website was. It was at that time that I suggested she looked into hiring a Tampa website marketing company to help with that aspect of her business. With the proper local search optimization she could see a severe increase in her client base and that would, in turn, help build her reputation and get her even more clients.

She thought about it for a few days and when the second call in a row came in about her flyer and not one call about her website, she decided to go for it. She called a local Tampa SEO company that she had heard about and set up an appointment. She was a bit hesitant since she knew nothing about online marketing, but the company rep was very helpful and clarified any questions that my friend had. Together they picked out a package that was best suited for her and now she has people visiting her website all the time.

My First House

The first house I ever had all to myself was one half of a duplex I rented in a cool, up-and-coming old town in Denver, called Littleton. I got this place a few months after starting my first real job following my graduation from college. In a way, this house was like a symbol of my newfound independence.

I had lived completely on my own once before, in a studio apartment that I had for about three years. However, a studio apartment just can’t compare to having a two-bedroom duplex (built in 1914, I might add) all to yourself.

Shortly before I moved into the apartment, the owners replaced all of the windows with modern vinyl (or were they composite?) windows. I did see a couple of the windows before they replaced them, and I can tell you they did need it -- the old wood frames were warped and the Virginia creeper had started coming in through gaps between the window frames and the wall.

Each replacement window had been measured and custom made to fit. I guess there’s not much else you can do with older homes, which have irregular window sizes. All of the windows were double hung windows. The patio doors, however, were not replaced.

I never appreciated how well those new windows worked at keeping the heat inside in the winter, and keeping it out in the summer, until I moved into my current home a year later -- also an old house, but with the original single-paned, wooden framed windows. It’s amazing how big a difference new windows can make!

The Gift Registry

A gift registry is a system for coordinating gift giving. The gift registry was originally invented for weddings. It has long been customary for attendees of weddings to give the newlyweds gifts. There are often many guests at weddings, and groups of the guests don’t know each other at all. For example, each spouse has family and friends that may not have ever met. Wedding gifts are generally practical things such as appliances to help the newlyweds along on their new life together, and the gift registry is a record kept by a store of all the presents given to a couple. Usually the gift registry includes of list of items that the couple would find helpful, and it prevents doubles of common gifts.

Without the use of a gift registry, a couple could easily get two or three, say, toasters, which are common wedding gifts. Worse, they might not get any of the most useful gifts, if everyone assumes that someone else will get it. Today, gift registries are often done via an ecommerce shopping cart. An ecommerce storefront is a type of online store. It’s more convenient than the traditional gift registry because guests from all around the country (or world) can easily access the online shopping cart gift registry.