Infinistorm LLC

Pop the Cap Off Of Your Competition - 6 Tips to SEO Success

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:22:48 GMT

Are your competitor's keeping you stuck with your current search engine rankings? Does it seem like they've put a cap on you and you can't get out from under it?

Here are 6 Search Engine Optimization Tips to Success from Infinistorm to help you Pop the Cap Off of Your Competition.

#6 – Understanding Your Website Traffic

In order for you to optimize your website, you need to understand your website users. We recommend using a free analytics package like Google Analytics to see how people are coming to and leaving your site.

#5 – Domain Registration

Even you’ve been in business for only a few months, if you plan to keep your business around for a while, register your domain for multiple years. It saves you money in the long run and it helps to improve your search engine rankings.

#4 – Use Alternative Text

One of the biggest mistakes most website developers make is not using the ALT attribute of an IMG tag. Search engines are not able to decipher what an image is about or even text in the image. The ALT attribute describes this image to the search engines and are used in website accessibility.

#3 - Bad Code Hurts You

Make sure your code passes validation against the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)’s validation engine. When a website doesn’t pass validation, it usually has some key issues that could be hurting your search engine rankings.

#2 – Keywords Don’t Matter

There are hundreds of articles on the internet telling you that stuffing every possible keyword you want to rank for in the Meta tag. Google does not use Meta Keywords anymore for ranking, but some other engines might. If you want to use Meta Keywords, don’t use more than 10 per page.

#1 – Content, Content, Content

The absolute biggest mistake people make is expecting the search engines to know that you want to rank for keyword X. When your site does not have a page(s) dedicated to keyword X, you’re not going to be able to rank for that keyword. Re-read your content and make sure your content contains the keywords you want to rank for.

Now that we’ve given you the Top 6 Keys to Pop the Top on Your Competition, let Infinistorm help make your website work for you.

Mobile Twitter Clients Review Series - TweetDeck

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:52:17 GMT

I've used TweetDeck on the iPhone for nearly a full year. I'm pretty satisfied with it so far. But some of the drawbacks that I've noticed recently are starting to really get to me. These drawbacks inspired me to review mobile Twitter clients.

Why I Love TweetDeck:

The interface is very familiar
The interface works exactly like you'd expect. If you're not familiar with TweetDeck desktop, the interface makes sense. Slide to see different views, click on a tweet to view a larger view, click the name to view more details about the user.

Quick View
A lot of times I am in a hurry and I just want to jump on Twitter to look at my mentions (@ replies), Direct Messages, or posts to a certain topic. By having multiple columns set up, I can scroll through and see the information that is relevant to me quickly.

Multiple Account Posting
My favorite feature is the ability to post to my Facebook and multiple Twitter accounts. I know that doing that doesn't allow for new content to be posted, but there are occasions when I feel like there are things I want to share with all of my followers across multiple accounts.

Why I Hate TweetDeck:

Can't View More Than 125 Tweets
I very rarely am on my iPhone and actually read all 125 posts in my stream. But, it's really annoying that I can't read back any further than that. Depending on the time of day, 125 tweets may only be half an hour of posts. There is no ability to load more tweets..

Quick Profile Feature Missing
I get extremely annoyed that this feature is missing. Let's say you wanted to see what @infinistorm is up to, you actually have to find a tweet from us in those 125 recent posts to be able to see our profile.

Can't Click Links In Profile
Once I find a profile for someone I'm interested in, I can follow them or see their recent tweets. In this Recent Tweets profile, you can't click any of the links at all. Since Quick Profile doesn't exist, I actually have to load up my Safari client on the iPhone to view.

In summary, the desktop client is a great piece of a software but the mobile app seems to miss several key pieces that the desktop client has. Most of these are a really big turn off for me.

So overall, I'd give TweetDeck an 8/10.

Mobile Twitter Clients Review Series

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:39:47 GMT

For about a year and a half now, I've been a huge fan of Twitter. Twitter has given me the ability to expand both my social network and professional network. I can get the latest information from my favorite news sources and weather authorities quickly in bite size pieces that I can consume as I have time. It has also allowed me to meet some great new people in Indianapolis and across the country.

Since I got my iPhone, I've been using TweetDeck for iPhone since that's what I use for my desktop client.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be reviewing several of the free Twitter mobile apps for iPhone and give my analysis of them.

I'll be posting my first review, TweetDeck, later today.

Foursquare - Genius Idea or Complete Waste of Time?

Wed, 26 May 2010 08:49:06 GMT

As an avid Foursquare user, I've been really considering the value of check-in at every location I go to.

Sharing with my friends where I'm at is kind of cool. I even enjoy attempting to get badges. At the time of this entry, I have 11 badges and I'm mayor of 13 places (most of which I've only been to twice). Not bad for about 2 months of usage. I even was in the top 10 Foursquarers in Indianapolis for a week.

But really looking at it, what value has Foursquare really provided me?

I've never met up with someone because I saw they happened to be at the same place I'm at on Foursquare. To me, that is where a lot of the value of Foursquare comes in. It shares exactly where I'm at all times. My wife and I used to disagree about who checks in first or what check in rules should be. Are you allowed to check in prior to actually being inside of the venue? If not, is it cheating? The number of times Foursquare is down too is frustrating.

As a restaurant or venue that people frequent, Foursquare is extremely valuable. Do you have a slow time at your restaurant, body shop, etc? Scott Wise of Scotty's Brewhouse has taken advantage of this. Scotty's Brewhouse offers a 10% discount for lunch Monday through Thursday, $5 off $25 for dinner on Monday and Tuesday, and 10% discount for the Mayor at their downtown location at least.

Starbucks has even gotten on the Foursquare bandwagon. They offer a $1 off a create-a-Frappuccino.

This is exactly where I have found the value in Foursquare though. I've gone out of my way to go to lunch at Scotty's specifically because they offered me a special for checking in during the week.

There are days that I love Foursquare and I'm all about it. But more often than not, I don't even think about checking-in to most places. My conclusion is that it is a genius waste of time.

Do you find other values in Foursquare that I missed? Send me a tweet and you could see it posted here.

Infinistorm on WZPL Z99.5 with Smiley Morning Show

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:37:22 GMT

Earlier this morning, WZPL, 99.5 in Indianapolis, talked to Infinistorm about Windows 7.

In the interview, we talked about some of the great new features of Windows 7. The new task bar, which is much improved, has these great active previews of your current windows that are open. So if you have five Internet Explorer or Firefox windows open, you can see a preview of each webpage that you have open. Also if you're watching a video, it even shows an active preview of that.

We also talked about the Libraries of Windows 7 with Pictures, Music, and Movies. As well as the reasoning for the security pop-ups/notifications in both Windows Vista and Windows 7.

For additional Windows 7 tips or to get answers to your Windows 7 questions, check out @MicrosoftHelps on Twitter or tweet at us to answer your Windows 7 business questions at @infinistorm.

UPDATE: Miss the interview? Check it out on the WZPL podcast here, http://bit.ly/2KzEdk

The Importance of Keyword Rich Content

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:44:16 GMT

Everyone likes to have people visit their website. A frequent question that we hear from our clients is "how do I drive more traffic to my website?" -- it's pretty simple. Content! Easily stated, less easily executed. Your website needs keyword rich, relevant content. That is, content that has a clear purpose, that is on-topic with what you are trying to relay, and isn't random fillter material. Good content will help with your site's search engine optimization strategy.

Once people land on your site, you want to keep them there. A lot of people try "keyword stuffing" to drive traffic, that is a HUGE no-no. That practice will effectively drive traffic away from your site in the long run. Your content has to be relevant, it has to be easy to read, and it has to be clean.

If you need assistance with developing content for your website or writing content about your products, let us know. We have a large team of effective content writers that would be happy to develop content for you! We specialize in SEO / Search Engine Optimization for companies in the Indianapolis area.

If you want to discuss any opportunies to drive traffic to your website, please give us a call. Our number is 1-888-423-1337

Understanding Your Website Needs

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:00:23 GMT

In a perfect world, the search engines would realize that your business is the obvious choice for a certain keyword because you have a better product or better customer service than that other guy. But, unfortunately, it isn't a perfect world and the engines don't know about your customer service (hint: write about it on your site's about us page).

So because of that, when we begin website projects with our customers, both creating new websites and updating existing sites, we expect to hear phrases like, "we need to be #1 in Google" or "we need 50,000 people to get to our site to be successful". Depending on your market, you may be competing with 10,000 websites or 50,000,000. And in the latter, achieving number one would be an uphill battle.

What our customers are really telling us is, we want or need our website to help us drive business. Whether that is increasing conversions once a visitor lands on the site or if it is driving traffic to your website, Infinistorm can help. Not only do we proactively help your site get ranked on search engines, we can help you to understand your website traffic and your customer's online buying process.

If you're looking to increase website traffic through search engine optimization or trying to get more customers to purchase some widgets from your site, give us at call at Infinistorm - 888-423-1337. We're here to help you be more successful online.

The Importance of Good Database and Application Design

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:58:49 GMT

Working in an industry such as IT, there are no shortage of horror stories and anecdotes of worst-case practices.

Database and application design is something that seems to surprise us time and time again as we see businesses set themselves up for failure further down their development cycle.

When developing a new website, web application, or business application, a good design is of utmost importance. Companies often find themselves locked into less than ideal solutions after significant investment has been outlayed to build up an application around an inferior design.

Database design really means planning out your applications structure on paper, or with a database designer tool. Entity relationships are very important, as are the usage of primary and foreign key references. It is entirely shocking how many cases we've seen where an application has no referential integrity, no primary keys, no normalization, etc, etc.

If you are hard coding something that could ever change in the future, you need to revisit your approach! Database tables have very low overhead and really should be used accordingly.

Peer code reviews are very important. It's easy to fall into the trap where common code is reused, even if it's not the ideal solution for the application.

Infinistorm's projects all go through mutliple code reviews -- what one developer might think is the "right" solution may actually not be. It's easy to overlook a use case when dealing with large projects. The importance of having other sets of eyes inspecting, testing, and reviewing the code is instrumental in having a scalable application that can withstand the test of time.

Developing a new application requires significant planning well before a single line of code is written. We've seen a lot of businesses dive in and come up with their designs on the fly, as they go. This is a surefire way to fail.

Knowledge is power.

Cloud Backups

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:35:05 GMT

One recent technology that is making the rounds is cloud-based storage. That is, backup services that exist online. Your data is transferred to an online remote location via either a schedule, or automatically as the files change.

Cloud backups are a great option for a well-rounded disaster recovery plan. Here's why.

Cloud backups are offsite, eliminating the need for a bank deposit box
Cloud backups can store multiple differential copies of your files
Cloud backups can be accessed from anywhere with connectivity
Cloud backups generally won't require user interaction
Cloud backups are encrypted and secure
Cloud backups can easily expand with your storage needs

Those are just a few reasons. With so many 3rd party vendors out there offering cloud storage, the potential options can feel overwhelming. One company that has stood out for us is Zmanda Cloud Backup (ZCB) -- they offer a Cloud Backup software solution that can backup SQL Server and Exchange on the fly among many other software packages.

This is a big deal, because the goal is to have redundant backups without interrupting the regular infrastructure processes.

We are familiar with establishing best practices 'Cloud' backup strategies, so please let us know if you have any questions or are interested in finding out more.

Using Twitter for Business - Part 3

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:27:35 GMT

In our final part of the 3 part series, using Twitter for Business, (see: Part 1 and Part 2), we are going to discuss using Twitter effectively to engage users.

In part 2, we discussed using Twitter search to find people who are talking about things that your business does. After finding those people, then you have to engage them, by Replying (using the @ sign then their username, such as @infinistorm) to them.

Now that the customer has heard about you and you follow them, send them a direct message using the D command. Keeping with the wine theme from last post, for example, "D infinistorm Thanks for following us back. Check out our killer new Red Table Wine. Stop in for a free sample."

Now that you have some followers and have engaged them, run a contest. Give something away to the first 100 people to RT, or re-tweet, your post. Or maybe give a gift certificate away one of the people who follow you. Either way, doing this increases your followers and the number of people paying attention to what you have to say.

Lastly, pay attention to hash tags, both trending and not. A hash tag is a pound sign and a keyword, something like #indy or #indianapolis for example. These hash tags allow people to click on them to see other people that are talking about the same topic.

Trending topics are hash tags or topics that are being discussed by a large amount of people on Twitter. One great Trending Topic to participate in is Follow Friday, or #ff. Follow Friday is a way for users to promote the people that they like the tweets from. So Infinistorm may do a follow friday like this, #ff #customers #staff @alexanderdbaker @joshuastarr @discoverindy @circlecityplann @rockstarsauto @jsconcrete.

If you have any questions about Twitter or how to effectively use it for your business, please give us a call, we'd be glad to speak with you about it. 888-423-1337