Thanks to the California Downtown Association (CDA) for inviting me to speak at their 2008 Statewide Conference in Santa Rosa today. CDA members include downtown business associations, local government economic development and chamber of commerce professionals, and private sector planning consulting firms. They’re tasked with making downtowns more vibrant and more attractive to consumers as well as businesses looking for space — keeping downtown commercial spaces occupied is a big win-win in other words.

In addition to discussing the new Pleasant Hill, California Interactive Community Guide, which showcases restaurants, hotels, shopping districts and area amenities with customized Google Maps, photos and 360° virtual tours, we discussed the various ways CDA conference attendees could enhance their own web sites with “sticky” content, keep those sites updated with fresh content and attract more virtual eyeballs. Hopefully that will aid in attracting more people, and businesses, downtown.

For anyone interested, you can download a copy of the online marketing presentation as a PDF below:

Finding popular keywords (a.k.a. search terms) to use on your web pages is definitely not a mysterious undertaking. Yahoo and Google now make it easy to learn about popular terms with their “search assist” features.

When you type in search terms in the main search boxes on those sites, a drop-down list appears with suggestions of popular search queries. These same terms are what appear on third-party SEO web sites that offer free (or paid) search term suggestion services. For most small business owners, going right to the source is the best means of discovering key phrases to build into their web pages. This is of course only one essential first step in improving a web site’s visibility in the major search engines. To take the next steps read up on “search engine optimization” online or consult an experienced online marketing firm. 360Village has been offering clients affordable search engine optimization and online marketing services for nearly ten years.

360Village has launched the redesigned Interactive Community Guide for Pleasant Hill, California. The Guide showcases local restaurants, hotels, shopping areas and other local amenities with Total 360° virtual tours and photo galleries via a live Google Map. Drop-down menus allow users to select locations by category and control the display of their map - including the option to view an overlay of the City’s General Plan map.

In addition to being an effective economic development tool, the Interactive Community Guide also has information about local development and capital improvement projects like shopping center redevelopment and street enhancement. Citizens can even find out about local public meetings via “sandwich board” icons that represent the signs one often sees about town, but can’t easily read from a moving vehicle.

Learn more about the Interactive Community Guide and 360Village custom online mapping services at 360Village.com.

This is one of the first businesses I’ve run across in a while with a “.com” in the name that isn’t a “dot com” business. MaxStudio.com is a women’s clothing and accessories chain (photo at left is in Napa, California).  They don’t build web sites, optimize landing pages or do other SEO work. They’re a regular retailer that has figured out an easy way to promote their online property while simultaneously promoting their brick-and-mortar property.  They’ve simply stuck “.com” at the end of their name with an earth-like graphic instead of a “.” but you get the idea.

If you can have a business name that’s a phone number (1-800-Dentist comes to mind….and that’s also their web site address come to think about it) then a “.com” in the name isn’t a stretch.  It’s not about what you do, it’s about facilitating your potential customers’ ability to remember your name.

360Village has just added a new Total 360° image of the new Sprayground to the Pleasant Hill Recreation & Park District’s Virtual Tour The Sprayground opened last month in Pleasant Hill Park across from City Hall (and remains open despite water rationing restrictions thanks to its water recirculation/filtration system).

The addition of the Sprayground images and related content updates are a good reason for previous online visitors to the District’s Interactive Guide to return to it and revisit the tour and refresh their knowledge about the great parks and recreational facilities in the area. Any excuse to update a web site is probably a good excuse, especially if there is rich media involved. Users like fresh content of course and search engine robots like it too.

If you don’t have new “visuals” to add on a regular basis (e.g., you’re an insurance agent or lawyer), one of best ways to add new content is via a blog like his one powered by WordPress, which comes free with many webhosting packages.

If you’re a small business owner you’ve likely wondered why you are paying for three phone lines: business phone, home phone and cell phone. You may also have thought, “I’d love to get rid of my business line and use just my cell phone, but then my clients/customers wouldn’t have my number and I’d have to get all my printed materials re-printed.”

Depending on your service providers for wireline (a.k.a. land line or “copper”) and wireless, you can potentially port your wireline number over to your cell phone, thus keeping your same wireline number and just making it ring on your cell phone. You can then either tell folks you have a new cell phone number or possibly get a cell phone that will work with two numbers. In either case you can then ditch your land line without ditching its phone number and save some green.

One of my clients and I both recently installed a cell phone signal boosting device purchased from ThinkGeek.com that boosts indoor signal strength via an auxiliary antennae. As long as you have good signal somewhere in the vicinity (i.e., on the roof or in the attic) you can “move” that signal strength inside via this device.

For example, at 360Village HQ the signal strength is five bars when standing on the roof above my office. I attached the antennae to the building at this point (and actually extended it up about 2½’ via a PVC pipe) and ran the cable into the office to connect to the base unit. Simple.

Signal strength in the office is now a full five bars. Yes, you can hear me now, even indoors where before I had only two bars at best.

360Village proudly announces the launch of the new web site for Straight Line Imports, a Martinez, California provider of custom natural stone countertops (granite, marble, soapstone, etc.), spectacular outdoor kitchens, handcrafted rosewood furniture from Asia and general contracting/building services.

Straight Line is like many 360Village clients in that they have been so focused on providing exquisite products and services that their marketing efforts haven’t kept pace. It’s a trap in which many small business owners find themselves caught. Owners Rick Fox and Steve Neal wanted to show off their gourmet galley outdoor kitchens online and the combination of photography and web development services 360Village provided them was an ideal combination for them.

The site is currently heavy on photography and represents a “Phase I” in terms of content, which Straight Line is committed to enhancing in the near future. I think the photos of their past projects and furniture speak volumes about the quality of craftsmanship and value of their work. See their Gourmet Galley Outdoor Kitchens and Handcrafted Furniture at StraightLineImports.com »

360Village has launched the tenth interactive virtual tour for Colliers International Commercial Real Estate based in Roseville, California. The online tour of Florin Towne Center development consists of a live Google Map as the base map for a shopping center site plan. 360Village has inserted the plan as a layer atop the Google Map an added logos and clickable “hotspots” for users to access information such as photos 360° virtual tours and PDFs showing architectural renderings. Additional layers could also optionally be added to show a more recent aerial photo of the site, for example, or alternate site plans for potential buyers to consider.

A big advantage of utilizing the Google Map as the base is the inclusion of satellite imagery allowing users to see land uses around the site. Zooming out to see the surrounding area provides necessary information about routes to and from the future shopping center.

You can View the Florin Towne Center Interactive Google Map & Virtual Tour here »

360Village announces our newest web site for another San Francisco East Bay Area small business. Bella Oaks Stables and Horse Camp offers horse back riding lessons and a summer day camp for kids. Their horse day camp lets kids experience everything involved in caring for a horse as well as learning the essentials of horse back riding. Riders get to venture out on some of the 80+ miles of trails that traverse Briones Regional Park, just across the road from Bella Oaks Stables in Martinez, California.

The 100 year old buildings at Bella Oaks Stables exude a special, old ranch sort of character. Though Bella Oaks is just 10 minutes from town, one quickly gets a feeling of escape and relaxation upon pulling up to the barn and covered arena by the entrance. The dozen or so horses that are boarded there add to the ambiance as well.

360Village provided Bella Oaks Stables with a professional web design package including still photography, logo design and a straightforward e-commerce solution all within a modest budget and a short timeframe.

See for yourself. Visit Bella Oaks Stables’ new web site today »