Just over a year ago, eighty-six percent of people said search engines were an intrinsic aspect of the buying process. From books and restaurants to private jets, consumers consistently begin their searches on Google.

And with the wealth of information available, it’s natural that most people will stop searching after the first page (four years ago, the percentage of searches that didn’t go past the first page was at 68%). This is why SEO is indispensable; the fight to be listed on the first page of search results is vital to a business’s survival. So vital in fact, that many are resorting to black hat tactics in an attempt to deceive Google’s SEO algorithms.

Google, for their part, knows that many businesses are trying to manipulate their system. And that’s why the latest update to their search algorithm on April 24^th is such a big deal. Known to the world as Google’s Penguin Update, its focus is to weed out sites that are over-optimized and replace them with high-quality sites. Websites stuffed to capacity with keywords, chock full of spun content and riddled with non-relevant links are those who will suffer the most from this update.

What This Means For You

Google has long said that it wants to promote high-quality sites. They want to nurture an environment that benefits and simplifies the search process for its users. Increasing the rate of updates from every couple of months to every few weeks with each update targeting about 5% of searches, Google strives to prevent the growth of an inorganic SPAM-based listing of results. While this may not sound like much, it quickly adds up to be affecting trillions of searches, literally.

Since its release a week and half ago, we’ve noticed a few things about the Penguin Update that you should be aware of. First, some sites that are being penalized are those that were piggybacking onto poor quality links. Second, the sites that will be affected are those with rankings built up by SPAM link building; these sites were showing a higher ranking due in part to questionable links that Google will no longer be considering valid. Third, as of yet there has been no indication that Penguin will have a rolling update; however, we believe there will be as evidenced through their call for wrongly affected sites.

How To Protect Your Site

Balancing the incorporation of SEO on your site while still making sure you won’t be penalized in the long run isn’t easy, but there are a few sure-fire methods to accomplish this feat.

1) Have a Well-Designed Site: While you may want as many pages on your site as possible to grow the size of your online footprint, it’s more important to have high-quality content on fewer pages. Hire a talented website design team and don’t outsource your blogging to Vietnam.

2) Before hiring an SEO firm, check their references: They should have detailed information about their clients and their work; pay attention. They should be incorporating white hat techniques and not engaging in black hat or gray hat tactics. If they aren’t willing to tell you what their methods are, it’s a good idea not to trust them. And if the price is too good to be true, it probably is.

3) Incorporate blogging and social media into your online marketing strategies: You can’t rely on SEO alone to drive clients to your business anymore. Everyday it is becoming increasingly crucial to not only have a social media presence, but also to be creating new, original content and sharing it. If this sounds like a lot of work, it is. But there are high-quality turnkey solutions available.

Having your business ranked on the first page of Google searches is no longer a luxury. In order for your business to continue to thrive in the online marketplace, it needs to have a sturdy and reputable SEO platform  built around a quality website. Even with Google bringing in about $3 billion dollars a month in pay-per-click advertising, the majority of consumers continue to value the organic listings over the paid search results.

If you have questions about implementing a sure-fire SEO strategy with a quality content-driven website, contact us today and we’ll provide you with a free consultation.

Description of AOIT:

With over 140 academies nationwide, the Academy of Information Technology (AOIT) was created in 2000 and provides a program of study that introduces students to the broad career opportunities in today’s digital workforce and equips them with the personal, analytical, technical and communication skills they need to thrive.

Learn more about AOIT here

Interested?

Then head on over to our career page and apply.

The expo will be held at the Coral Gables Country Club from 5:30 until 8:30 PM.

Click here to register

Check it out on Prezi

Everyone probably has an old computer, laptop, cell phone or printer just lying around that’s not working or just unwanted. Recyle-IT’s goal is to get those electronics out of your hands and recycled for a good cause.

100% of the proceeds raised will benefit The Foundation for New Education Initiatives, a non-profit entity created by the Miami-Dade County School Board. What’s even better is from now until February 29th, for every $1 raised in this campaign, the federal government will give Dade County Public Schools $10.

Sounds great right? Ready to donate? Just visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/recyclemiami and schedule a FREE pickup by filling out the form. That’s right, they’ll come pick it up right at your home or office. Make sure to like the Facebook page first to keep in touch with how the campaign is going. The campaign officially kicks off at Town Kitchen and Bar in South Miami at 6PM on Wednesday January 11th. Stop by and drop off those old electronics and have a good time while you’re at it.

Miami, Florida November 07, 2011

While commercial real estate professionals have long found ways to successfully engage audiences, several South Florida-based companies are taking the lead in shaping how the industry is utilizing the web. In an industry where the web is overlooked as an effective marketing and informational tool, local companies are increasing their web presence and creating interactive websites in order to attract new clients. Miami-based TECKpert, a full-service web technology provider, is helping these local companies efficiently market their business and increase their web exposure.

Always on the cutting edge of web development, TECKpert continues to help these companies embrace the new wave of web-based business technology, and propels them ahead of their competition. By providing professional, functional and feature-rich sites, TECKpert is helping further their online presence.

BayBridge Real Estate Group, a full-service residential and commercial real estate brokerage firm, specializes in the Central and South Florida markets.

“Our goal was to use the website to engage customers, not just provide basic information,” says Michael Lapointe, President of BayBridge Real Estate Group. “BayBridgeRE.com links to the MLS and is fully interactive. Our clients have expressed that the ability to do their own research is an excellent resource.”

Also on top of the emergent trend is 13th Floor Investments, a vertically-integrated real estate investment and management firm.

“Web-based marketing has become a dynamic tool in today’s market,” says Arnaud Karsenti, managing principal of 13th Floor Investments. “TECKpert has amplified 13th Floor Investment’s exposure, while strengthening our marketing efforts, thus resulting in a distinguishing advantage over competition.”

TECKpert has provided these companies with website capabilities in which commercial real estate buyers, sellers and agents have instant access to listings, neighborhood information, market data and real-time loan rates. The web technology provider anticipates for these fully interactive sites to garner acclaim among the industry.

Miami, Florida September 12, 2011

As Miami’s condo market is on the rebound, Miami-based TECKpert, a full-service web technology provider, is pleased to announce the launch of its condo IDX website solutions. Bringing forth thousands of property listings to condo seekers, Miami MLS listings are now seamlessly integrated into the real estate-themed websites TECKpert hosts, while providing agents the ability to feature condo projects and detailed descriptions directly on their sites.

“Our IDX solutions allow real estate agents and brokers to provide the tools needed for their potential buyers to effectively search for a property,” says Adrian Esquivel, founder and chief expert of TECKpert. “The feedback from our customers has been overwhelmingly positive, citing the ability to view image galleries, floor plans and a map featuring neighborhood information.”

Pre-built themes and custom designed solutions are now available in four separate packages and are easily affordable for as low as $49 per month, including hosting and email.

Powered by WordPress, the website gives agents the ability to provide its users with access to an online property search engine that features detailed condo project descriptions, valuable neighborhood information, market statistics and image galleries. TECKpert’s IDX website solutions ultimately allow agents to capture more leads by sending their potential buyers to their own sites and not elsewhere.

• http://www.marujagil.com
• http://www.grshlaw.com
• http://www.miamirealestateexperts.com

A note to our fans and followers

Instead of making an announcement every time we launch a website, we are going to send updates monthly.

Online Marketing Intern

Looking to intern and work on projects related to online marketing? Our internship program will expose you to different industries from real estate and fashion to small business. We’ll be working with different technologies and strategies from content creation, search engine marketing (SEO/SEM), online advertising, location based marketing and social media.

Web Developer

We are seeking an intern to assist our development team in projects focusing primarily in front end web development. You’ll (1)  be creating front end interfaces with HTML, CSS, and JQuery, (2) working with various programming languages including PHP (3) develop on platforms like WordPress (4) and integrate API’s including Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. You will work with our development team assisting in day to day tasks from programming to unit testing.

Students enrolled at Florida International, University of Miami and the Art Institute can view a full description and requirements through their Career Center.

If you are not enrolled at either school and are interested in applying, send your resume and cover letter to jobs@teckpert.com.