Guest Post: What I’ve Learned From Want 2 Grow? (Amanda)

Want 2 Grow ? was blessed this fall to have two students interning at our company.  Both were brilliant young ladies in their own right, bringing unique talents and strengths to the table. And because we couldn’t let them go off into the big, bad corporate jungle without sharing their thoughts, we tasked them to write a blog on their experiences with us “in the real world.”

Amanda, Jen and Ron Cramer at the 5K event.

What I’ve learned from Want 2 Grow?

- Amanda Boddicker

Even though I have only been interning with Want2Dish & Want2Grow once a week for less than 3 months I already feel like I have learned so much.  Working with Amy and Jen has been great.  I first heard about the company when I saw an article about them in the paper at the beginning of the summer. I thought their jobs sounded really interesting and that it might be a good idea for me to call, send an email, or anything just to talk about their business and see if there were any potential employment opportunities.

Being a recent college graduate you would think finding a job would be on the top of my list.  It should have been anyway.  However, at the time I was more interested in enjoying summer and having a social life.  I finally came in contact with Amy in the early fall only after one of my mom’s coworkers pretty much threatened me to reach out and start contacting people.  Now I wish I would have gotten in touch with Amy and Jen when I first read about them.

On my very first day I was given a weekly column of my own for Want2Dish.  This is the first ‘journalistic’ assignment I had ever been given.  Working here I have learned that every day is different.  It is very fast paced and there is always some new task to complete.  I like the variety that comes with the job.  I am not the kind of person who likes to do the same thing all the time.  (This may be why I have four part time jobs right now!!)  One of my favorite projects that I have worked on was helping with planning the Habitat for Humanity 5K Race.  It has taught me a lot about how to multitask and more importantly improved my communication skills.  Before I would always be a little hesitant about just picking up the phone and calling someone I didn’t know.  Now I am more comfortable with it and realize that businesses call other businesses all the time asking questions or for help and donations.  I also enjoy learning about all the aspects of social media but I know I still have a lot to learn about this increasing trend. I am very excited to continue my journey with everyone at Want2Dish and Want2Grow and am looking forward to the new projects and challenges that are yet to come!

Guest Post: SEO – Why I Get SO FRUSTRATED!

SEO – Why I Get SO FRUSTRATED!

Don’t worry; this isn’t going to be some long, drawn out, uber-negative rant.  But I do hope this helps companies get the most for their SEO buck.   SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  This means that your website is optimized such that certain search engines will rank you favorably for a targeted group of keywords contained within your content.  So, let’s break that statement down into its key components:

• Search Engines – this is what (who) you are optimizing your site for
• Keywords contained within your content – CONTENT IS IT FOLKS

Now, let’s take a moment to think about Google.  They are a very successful company.  They are successful because they deliver a valuable commodity to their clients – relevant search results.  I want to say this as clearly as possible – you cannot fool Google, so don’t try.   People use Google because they usually find what they need.  Google’s success depends on the relevance of the search results they give.  So, they have a vested interest in making sure their rankings are relevant.  If your site’s content is not relevant for a certain search, chances are pretty good that you will not rank for it.   Just today I was working with a company to help them determine why they cannot see any real results from the efforts of an SEO contractor they hired.  I took one look and knew right away why; they didn’t do anything of any real consequence.   Before you pay money for SEO services or before you invest your own time in any SEO efforts, make sure you know what works and what doesn’t.  I don’t have the space here to give you all the tips, so I will give you the condensed version…

1. Content – make sure your content contains keywords and phrases that are relevant to what you do AND are attainable in terms of rankings.  Not sure if they will rank for you, do some test searches and see how many results you get, the more results the harder it will be to rank; ex. Restaurant vs Italian Restaurant Washington DC.
2. Page titles, like titles, ALT tags, etc – these are areas within your code where you need to place relevant keywords and phrases that are found within your content.  A good way to know if your site was optimized or not – look at the title contained in that blue bar at the top of the browser window when you are looking at your site.  See any keywords?
3. Headings – H1 tags are used to determine what a heading in the content will look like – mainly bold, a larger font, etc.  Well, search engines also look at this as an indicator of what type of information is in your site.  So, put the most important keywords that are in your content in their corresponding headers.

And one more thing, META tags are no longer the key to SEO success.  If someone tells you they are, be suspicious.   OK, so maybe this was a little bit of a rant but hopefully you got something out of it.  Good luck and happy marketing!

Jon-Mikel Bailey is an all around great guy as well as President and Director of Business Development of Wood Street, Inc.