The Tortoise And The Bug

Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas – A blurb in the weekly newsletter from the Chamber caught my attention: Develop an Online Boost for Your Business. When I read the words Google and Search Engine Optimization, I knew this was for me. Right downtown too. It was sponsored by the Small Business and Technology Development Center, a part of Henderson State University School of Business, and operates under the Arkansas SBTDC, www.asbtdc.org – go to their site for other events and locations all over the state. My friend Rita Earles joined me there; she is a visual artist who does magnificent portraits and exquisite miniatures, www.ritaearlesart.com and I write about our 50 amazing capital cities, www.capitalcitiesusa.org, but we both wanted to beef up the functionality of our sites and learn what we can do to increase traffic and present ourselves in the most beneficial light.

Chelsea Goza, the Training Coordinator for HSU’s ASBTDC, hosted the well-attended workshop, beginning with a “thinking” exercise that needed two volunteers. You know me. Of course I volunteered. No doubt the oldest one there, I found myself pitted against what surely was the youngest person sitting at the table and YIKES, we had to assemble the pieces of a puzzle in three minutes flat. Rita stood behind me and cheered me on, but it was a tortoise against a hare. The nimble-fingered young person accustomed to texting zipped her puzzle together well before the buzzer sounded. I still had two pieces missing when the program began, but hey, what does a tortoise do? Right. I never quit. I finished the puzzle, confident that I’d carefully considered each piece and thought about its value to the whole. Which is what I do as I write about each capital city. But I digress. Chelsea’s part on the program focused on getting more attention locally; next was a segment about growing our business with Google (the reigning god of the internet), and finally that SEO bit, or, “how to get picked first.” (Does that remind you of grammar school?) I eagerly went straight home to follow through on Lessons Learned, and what happened next was the scariest thing I’ve experienced since I tried to rollerskate down Killer Hill. » read more