Classic VW Beetle “Plow” Commercial – Would It Have the Same Effect Today?

CM, Volkswagen TV. “TV Commercial Film for Volkswagen “Snow Plow” HD.” YouTube. YouTube, 01 Apr. 2009. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .

What do you think of this Volkswagen TV advertisement from 1964? Do you think it would resonate with viewers now in the same capacity that it did in 64′?

(Article , Written by Matthew Ryan Hill)

Volkswagen Timeline Part 1

Web. 5 April 2011. <http://www.greatvwads.com/pix/ad20.htm>

 We’re glad that most people don’t wait 33 years to buy their first Volkswagen. But Albert Gillis did, and maybe he had the right idea all along. He didn’t buy a new car for 33 years because he didn’t happen to need one. He and his 1929 Model A Ford did just fine by each other. He always did his own repairs and even jacked it up at night to save the tires. When he needed a new car last year, he went out and bought a Volkswagen. “I heard they hold up,” he explained. Does he like VW? Mr. Gillis is 78, a Justice of the Peace, and not given to hasty decisions. “Your inspectors sure do a good job of inspecting,” was as far as he would go. But he did mention that he and Mrs. Gillis took a trip for their 54th anniversary. They drove 6,750 miles and spent $62 on gas and 55¢ on oil. “I didn’t think they were supposed to burn oil,” he said. 

This is a classic Volkswagen print advertisement from 1963. Please excuse my paragraph formatting for the ad copy as I feel that the sans three-column layout doesn’t do the ad justice. That 3 column layout specifically speaks to the VW brand.

However, I think this ad speaks volumes. Customer Testimonials can be a very effective but they can almost be too much at times as well when direct quotes don’t truly speak to the product.  This ad was different. It told a tale of a new VW owner and why he chose the Beetle. The answer: Simply reliability.

It’s great to see the consistent growth of a brand while it maintains its core themes. What do you think?

(Article , Written by Matthew Ryan Hill)

Steps to Quality Mobile SEO: On-site Factors

The creations of new mobile websites are much more than just are current trend or something that boardroom marketing executives of the not so distant past would say “Hey, we have some extra budget this year… Let’s take a shot building a mobile platform?” Those days when these scenarios actually were the case are out the window.

Why? Well, believe it or not, in 2011 mobile traffic only accounted for 8.5% all website traffic worldwide. But here’s the kicker: mobile usage is growing exponentially while growth in desktop usage remains stagnant. The figure of 8.5% mobile usage in 2011 is up from 4.3% usage in 2010 and 1.9% usage in 2009. While global desktop web usage sits at around 91% currently, we know it’s not going to stay that way. While looking up the mobile statistics, I found something very interesting looking at the historical data. In the early 90s when users were adopting services like AOL and Netscape, the growth of those platforms was 11 times less than the current year to year numbers for mobile usage. Moreover, the 8.9% does not take into account tablet usage.

Ok. So mobile internet market share is important. And if you currently don’t think it is, you must at least recognize the fact that it’s going to be in the near future…  Now we have that squared away, you are obviously going to build a mobile version of your site right away, right? Cool.

Let’s start with some important on-page mobile SEO factors for you to consider in your build-out:

1.)    Considering Using HTML to code your site? You might want to go the XHTML route instead.

Because this is a site for SEO dummies like me, the first question you might ask is “What’s the difference?” While HTML and XHTML follow the same standard attributes and values, you can think of XHTML as a much more advanced version of the original with a precise structure that must be adhered to. A lot of the things that can kind of be ignored in HTML language to be left to the search engine’s interpretation can’t be ignored in XHTML code. The clear formulaic and structured language allows you to maintain and update your site much easier while maintain syntax. However, most importantly, XHTML is now the standard W3C coding language for sites and is adaptable for general usability such as mobile devices or the newest web browser software.

2.)    Make sure you understand all potential website indexing barriers

All of same on-page factors that you would consider for a normal browser must be considered for mobile optimization as well. Here are some starting points:

-          Make sure your alt text for images does not exceed 150 characters as most search engines will disregard the content after that mark. It’s crucial not to be unnecessarily lengthy here in your descriptions. For example, if it’s a text image for the phrase “Learn about skiing at Vail,” you better make sure your alt text actually mirrors that exact phrase.

-          Make sure all of the images of importance on your site have corresponding and contextually relevant alt attributes. If your images are unimportant and you don’t want search engines to focus on them, then make sure you do leave “image” in the alt text. You need to assign a null (“”) attribute in the image or within the CSS class for those of you with a little bit more experience.

-           Keep your anchor text as descriptive as possible. This should especially important for your on-site internal linking structure. Stay away from the “Read More” or “Click here” type links as even though they may look most natural, they don’t provide the greatest amount of information to the engines.

-          Use lists when possible/necessary to maintain content hierarchy. And I know CSS might be foreign to a lot of you, but do some research on this. Google will value content that has a clear and ordered presentation within a style sheet rather than using the archaic “tabled structure” which can sometimes not segment copy in the way you initially intended.

-          And for now, lastly, make sure all contact information that would probably appear in the footer of your website is in XHTML and is not locked up in a text image or even worse, FLASH. This will not only help you with normal search indexing for SEO but also in Local SEO as well.

Thanks for reading part 1 of my post. Let me know how I did?

Introduction to my Blog

So this will be my first blog post, and I’m not really sure where to begin…

I could introduce myself here, but I planned on doing that on the About Page anyways. So maybe instead I’ll discuss what my goals are for this blog.

1.) Create unique content that viewers of my website will be engaging for both their user and for myself.

2.) Actually drive actual traffic to my blog!

3.) Through content creation and distribution, learn both the practical and finer points of SEO.