There’s a 100 percent chance you’ve read at least one blog in your life. (It’s what you’re doing right now.) Easier, faster, and cheaper than building a full website, a blog is a convenient way for individuals to establish their own online presence.

But it’s not just a fun way for self-appointed authors to recap the last American Idol over their lunch break. Blogging has opened the door for businesses and organizations to disseminate useful, relevant information to their customers (existing and prospective) in ways that no other media traditionally offered. (more…)

New website: check.

List of keywords you’d like visitors to search and find your site: check.

Searching Google to find your site for these keywords: nothing…

Your site is nowhere to be found. At least not without digging to the dark depths of the search results - which everyone knows is anything beyond page three of the results. (more…)

Effective 11 PM CST on June 12th (tonight), Facebook will be allowing members the option of creating customized usernames for their profiles.  These usernames will be incorporated as part of their profile’s URL (ie: facebook.com/company name).  The relevance and urgency of this news for business owners is twofold:

1. This means you’ll now be able to incorporate your company/organization name into your Facebook URL, which is good news for a variety of reasons, not the least of which include search engine marketing.
2. This also calls for a certain degree of diligence in protecting your company name.  After all, what’s stopping your competitor from registering your company’s name?

Well, before your imagination starts conjuring images of wild-eyed homesteaders racing across America’s untamed West in the 1890s’ land runs, take comfort in the fact that no username registration will necessarily be considered irreversible. (more…)

In our previous post about web content, we laid the foundation that every successful website, without exception, must have usefulness to its visitors.  We recognized that if your site is not useful, people won’t stick around once they find it.  In turn, people won’t recommend it to others, or link to it.  And because the degree to which a site is recommended among Internet users plays a significant role in SEO, this will soon lead to even fewer people going to your site in the first place.  This is where the cyclical nature of SEO becomes more apparent. (more…)

Recently we talked about the importance of knowing your audience or customers.  Now we want to use that knowledge to optimize your site for them.
(more…)

The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) has partnered with August Ash, Inc. for the design and implementation of a new website for the Minneapolis - St. Paul International Airport. Just launched, the site was developed to meet the ongoing requirements of the MAC, and enjoys a greater level of user-friendliness and advanced functionality. Furthermore, the new site continues to be optimized for maximum search engine ranking and scalability. (more…)