AgroKrag Graphic Design/Illustration, Web Design, Web Marketing

AgroKrag is based upon the principle that every aspect of graphic design and marketing is connected. Since a large portion of our work is web focused, SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is no exception. With that said, I’d like to give an overview of how SEO (Search Engine Optimization – a segment of SEM) techniques are evolving.

Much of this post contains strategies from a SEM training session that I recently attended in Boston. This session was hosted by Search Engine Strategies, and presented by Jennifer Laycock, who is the owner of the blog/SEM company Search Engine Guide.

The training session was very intensive and informative and was based around the focal point that SEO has came a long way the birth of the term (1996) To the present. Search engine algorithms are being designed to think like humans do, and to replicate human judgment. More and more, SEO is based on common sense then it is on math and calculations.

META data

Keywords were very popular and used by search engines when they were less complex - in the eyes on the search engine, the more keywords, the more relevant the site had to be according to that phrase. Obviously this is no longer the case. SEO’s quickly learned how the algorithm worked and stuffed keywords everywhere. Now META data is not very important at all in terms of search results. The title tag still is very important, and the one and only place where you should make sure you have your keyword(s) (besides in the content, of course.) META keywords are obsolete (but in my eyes important to guide the developer and copywriter), META descriptions do not effect search results but they still are a good way to tell what the site is about in your own words rather then let the search engine do it by pulling copy from your site.

Links

As inbound linking became extremely important, SEO’s purchased, spammed, created link farms, etc. Search engines became aware of this and the importance of links evolved as follows:

1. Quantity
2. Text (anchor text)
3. Quality
4. Age
5. Buys

It now seems to be a combination of all of these, with the focus being on not over-doing it in a particular area. Google has stated that they will penalize you if you purchase links for improving your search engine results. They want the links to come naturally as in theory the site with the best content will gain the most inbound links. Reciprocal links have also been frowned upon in many occasions. They are great when two sites are related to each-other, but if not they do not help the user and Google is aware of that. Anchor text is also important, but should look natural and should not always just be keyword based in order to rank for long-tail keywords.

Content

As of now, content is the single most important piece to the puzzle. If you create quality content, based on keywords (no more then 2-3 per page), people will link to you naturally. There should be a “value-add” to every page and a reason why a user would choose your page versus a competitor’s.

Coming soon: Latent Semantic Indexing and tracking CTR

Apparently Google is beginning to include “Latent Semantic Indexing” in their algorithms. What this means is that the engine will scan the page for keywords and synonyms of that word, and the site can rank for those as well as a word that may be used to categorize a group of those words. For example, a site about running, jogging, biking and weight lifting may begin to rank for “exercising.” Google is also taking click-through rates into consideration. If a page has a horrible rate, it is less likely to rank as it is seen as less valuable to the user.

Again, be sure to check out Search Engine Guide. Jennifer was a big help and has enabled me to be a lot more confident in my own SEO techniques.

If there is anything I can do about it then, yes, yes I will be making the cross country trek, just in time for my birthday too! This won’t simply be a joyride to the west coast, I will be there with a purpose…hopefully.

Tha bags are far from packed as this trip hinges on winning a contest that is really kind of a crap shoot. The ever time consuming (for me anyways) website Aint It Cool News has announced a contest this summer regarding an Art exhibit at the LA based Gallery 1988. This contest is like a movie geek artists dream come true, the theme is Cult or in other words your undying love for cult film. The medium is limitless, all that is required is heart, creativity, and some talent. So how can you create a piece of art, a SINGLE piece of art that can perfectly sum up everything that has inspired you about your favorite cult film? Sounds like the job for a graphic designer to me. We are bred to take large concepts an hone them into one all-encompassing image, to evoke 3,000 words from an image rather than 1,000.

My concept is cocked and loaded, now the execution. I don’t want to reveal the ideas behind the piece, not because I think someone would steal it, but to add an element of surprise to the whole thing. I will tell you this, the contest will be flooded with entries, many of which will be amazing so the competition will be tight. So I need to bring my A game, getting into this show and being present while hundreds of prominent Hollywood types look it over would be an epic break for my illustration career.

Watch for updates in the coming weeks.

Hint: When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth!

It was one of the most hard fought runs at the title in years. The displays of guts and desire that the Boston Celtics put forth in the past month and a half is unrivaled in my opinion. Being a basketball fan it is easy to get caught up in the win to win nature of the playoffs, but when you stop and look back at what we all witnessed, it really was something special.

This team was went from being the most dominant in the NBA to being nearly eliminated by the up-and-coming Atlanta Hawks in the span of 15 days. They looked like a team too content with its regular season record, and had a coach who was over thinking every move. The next series was no different, again pushed to the brink of elimination. Until game 7 that is. When Paul Pierce and Lebron James put on that show ( The AgroKrag team was there live ) I knew that this was going to be an intense run through the rest of the playoffs. The Celtics were a team reborn, they were like a middle aged couple rediscovering each other after a term of complacency.

Amazingly with those first two series behind them the task seemed to get easier, Detroit never looked like a team that had a prayer in that series. Then came the Lakers…this series marks the first time in my life that I have watched a game more than one time. I watched game 4 (the 24 point comeback) live and was so dumbfounded that we won, that it took 2 subsequent viewings for it to set in fully. The DVD set that will inevitably come out should serve as a companion piece to the most inspirational of sports movies. Paul Pierce in my opinion solidified his position in both Celtics Lore and the NBA Hall of Fame.

Since the team gave up so much of themselves to bring a title not only to themselves but to a town that has managed to write off all championship-less teams in the past few years, I decided to pay tribute. This isn’t for the fans (particularly the fair-weather Garnett jersey clad fans), this was created for the Players. Whether this will be seen by any of them is a big question mark, but that is no different than what they did on the court. They played regardless of knowing I was watching, so I painted regardless of them watching, it is what we do.

Go Celtics! and thank you for inspiring a legion of fans with the heart you showed all season long.

-Jesse Rand (The AgroKrag Team)