- Overview: A. Blum Localization Services is a Palo Alto SEO agency founded in 2016. Our goal is to help our clients improve their organic ranking results, increase their web traffic, and stop outsourcing SEO work within three months.
The business model we follow combines a full overhaul of our client’s online content, followed by Search Engine Optimization training.
- In Palo Alto, California: We are at 345 Forest Avenue, just East of Stanford University and a few blocks from the ‘birthplace of Silicon Valley’ at the Hewlett-Packard Garage. [Scroll this page for a section about Silicon Valley].
- We teach SEO in a participative manner: A source of inspiration for our “learning by doing” approach remains the Montessori Method; adapted for adults who attend our workshops. (Note: We are not affiliated with the Montessori movement or any particular teaching organization).
- Example: Our CEO Ardan Michael Blum will present a topic and then at once, as a group we will work on editing a copy of the client’s website so as to apply what was just learnt. As more is taught, the group will discuss variations in SEO techniques to reach a similar end result.
The key to SEO is not following a set of checklist items, it is about knowing how, when and where to apply and/or adapt a process. The result has to cover as much as possible THREE AREAS:
As a group, we write the sample (off-line) texts for Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and other Social Media accounts. Together we work to make unique images (using Canva). This is important for indexing your brand in Google Images Search. (...)
- Definition: Organic Search Engine Optimization includes on-page and off-page optimization techniques to boost ranking in the non-paid, natural results. (More about paid search and how Google search results differ from ads).
- Devotion is key to organic SEO ranking: knowledge sharing is the endless wonder which makes each day worthwhile and in Search Engine Optimization this is no different. Your success in SEO will come from blending commercial interests and information sharing.
It is our contention that 60% of Google’s ranking factors are based on content quality. (See: What creators should know about Google's helpful content update).
Each project (even every social media account) has to have their very own, customized tweaks. Said differently: There is no such thing as “one size fits all” checklist or template for optimization.
Our SEO agency in Palo Alto provides our clients with top 5 placements on Google. This is done with the help of Google Trends. Using this and other online tools, we fine tune the selection of keywords to find terms which generate the most traffic.
- When writing content: You need to focus on "'User Intent" (at least what is possible to write about without seeming to go fully off-track from YOUR interpretation). Take the search term "Palo Alto" where a query can be about:
- More: See this amazing article about User Intent.
- Tip: You may find that an F.A.Q (with multiple paragraphs for each answer) is a way to add some related search information.
- About backlinks: The most well-known off-page SEO technique is the search for inbound links to your web content. Nowadays, backlinks have become far less important. Instead of building trust with an incoming link, Google ranking is based on a site’s quality. Links are no longer a means to build a search engine’s trust in your site. (Note: The only exception to this statement are enormous sites that struggle to rank against their competition for individual high-value keywords in top 5 placement).
- You know you are on the right road when you increase average user time: Increasing the average time that visitors spend on your pages will improve your ranking. Aim to keep a visitor (who has clicked on a search query result) for no less than 5 minutes.
- Important note: There is no “one size fits all” checklist or template for SEO. (Each project needs customization and original content).
- Learn more:
Self-managing Search Engine Optimization without the ability to understand a page’s source code will not get you far. You should have basic or intermediate knowledge of HTML(5), JavaScript, PHP, CSS, and server-side configuration.
- Reading suggestions:
- Suggestion: Increase the credibility of your website content by creating "additional information" to link to in PDF files hosted on your server.
- Some SEO optimization tips for PDF files:
Section navigation opens in a new window the following links:
Many accessibility requirements will help your ranking on search engines! Examples: Make image ALT and TITLE tags, check the automatic captions on a video are transcribing correctly your words and if need be re-write them. See: "How to adjust your caption settings on YouTube". [More examples further down this page].
From "Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA" [https://beta.ada.gov/resources/web-guidance/] we read: "(...) People with disabilities navigate the web in a variety of ways. People who are blind may use screen readers, which are devices that speak the text that appears on a screen. People who are deaf or hard of hearing may use captioning. And people whose disabilities affect their ability to grasp and use a mouse may use voice recognition software to control their computers and other devices with verbal commands.(...)"
-Learn more:
If any of these are not true, users with disabilities will not be able to use the Web. [Adapted from this Source].
- Adapted from beta.ada.gov/:
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WAI is the effort of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which develops specifications, guidelines, software, and tools to lead the Web to its full potential.
[Editing this section during the last week of September].
We read: "(...) WCAG 2.0 establishes a set of Success Criteria to define conformance to the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines. A Success Criterion is a testable statement that will be either true or false when applied to specific Web content. "Understanding WCAG 2.0" provides detailed information about each Success Criterion, including its intent, the key terms that are used in the Success Criterion, and how the Success Criteria in WCAG 2.0 help people with different types of disabilities. This document also provides examples of Web content that meet the success criterion using various Web technologies (for instance, HTML, CSS, XML), and common examples of Web content that does not meet the success criterion. (...). Source.
[Editing this section during the last week of September].
[Editing this section during the last week of September].
- Great Accessibility evaluation tools: PowerMapper.com and WAVE.
Frederick Emmons Terman was an American professor and academic administrator. He was the dean of the school of engineering from 1944 to 1958 and provost from 1955 to 1965 at Stanford University. He is considered to be the “father of Silicon Valley” as he suggested to his engineering department students to stay in the Palo Alto area to establish their own firms.
William R. Hewlett and David Packard followed his suggestion and founded their electronics company. The Hewlett-Packard* Garage was set up by 1938, and has become known as the ‘birthplace of Silicon Valley’. The garage is located at 367 Addison Avenue. (See details on a map of City of Palo Alto historical landmarks).
Led by physicist Robert Noyce, a company called Fairchild Semiconductor was founded in 1967. Noyce’s invention of the microchip (see: integrated circuit) led semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore to leave Fairchild Semiconductor and founded Intel Corporation in 1968.
We read: “(…) By the 1960s and ’70s, orchards were giving way to a booming electronics industry. Engineers at local firms like Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel invented processes for miniaturizing and combining thousands of transistors onto integrated circuits embedded in silicon wafers. The wide availability of these “chips” spurred the development of personal computers. Journalist Don Hoefler gave the region a new name in 1971 when he described this transformation in a series of articles titled “Silicon Valley U.S.A.” (…)”. — Source
- In more detail: “ (…) Donald C. Hoefler was an American journalist, well known for using the term “Silicon Valley” for the first time in print. His friend Ralph Vaerst suggested the name “Silicon Valley” in a series of articles entitled “Silicon Valley, USA” in the weekly trade newspaper Electronic News starting on January 11, 1971. (…)”. — Source. (Today, Silicon Valley is a term which applies to the southern region of the San Francisco Bay Area).
Some six decades after the creation of the HP Garage, Sergey Brin and Larry Page followed the process of going from Stanford to establish a startup in a local garage. (You can travel back in time to the 1998 Google HQ in Menlo Park and take a virtual stroll on Google Street View and in this video).
What was to become Google started off in 1996 as an algorithm called BackRub. As Britannica online says: “(…) The key was to leverage Web users’ own ranking abilities by tracking each Web site’s ‘backing links’ — that is, the number of other pages linked to them. Most search engines simply returned a list of Web sites ranked by how often a search phrase appeared (…)”. — Source.
From Stanford’s “Inside the Engineering Quad”, we read: (…) In 1996, PhD students Sergey Brin and Larry Page invented the PageRank algorithm. Their work in this area was supported by Professors Hector Garcia-Molina, Rajeev Motwani, Jeffrey Ullman and Terry Winograd. The algorithm ranks web pages that match search terms by assessing breadth and depth of public interest in that web content. Because much disk space was needed to test PageRank on actual World Wide Web data, Sergey and Larry assembled 10 of the largest drives available (4 gigabytes each) into this low-cost cabinet, whimsically decorated with Lego bricks. Their software could then index 24 million pages a week (…)”. — Source (Links in quoted text chosen by Ardan Michael Blum).
More related information:
- Further reading about Silicon Valley:
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* Discover Palo Alto tourism info and see the 10 minute bike ride from the HP Garage to the Menlo Park Google Garage.
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