Main Street Anacortes during Oyster Run '08

Oyster Run '08

If you like to ride on two wheels more than four, and you live within riding distance of Anacortes, Washington, this was your weekend. The weather was outstanding and Sunday September 28th had been set aside for the 27th Annual Oyster Run. Riders come down from the Greater Vancouver, BC and up from the Greater Portland, Oregon area to ride with the largest single gathering of motorcyclists in the Northwest.

How does a huge bike rally relate to online Search Engine Optimization? For starters, you can look at it as a visual lesson on standing out in the crowd. Sometimes visual images make more sense than numbers on a sheet of statistics. What if every motorcycle represented a website and a reporter covering the event represents the Search Engine? How does a single reporter compile information about every bike and rider? How would you sort out by category groups and decide which one bike and rider best represents that category?

Worms eye view in LaConner,WA

The Oyster Run is a No Fee, No Time Schedule, No Required Route, ride open to all riders of all types of motorcycles, of all ages. But it is a one day event. If you want to compile information on every bike and rider in attendance like our fictional reporter, you're going to need help. Think of the people helping the reporter like Spiders. Search Engines can't afford to wait for every webmaster to submit information to them so they send out Search Spiders to crawl the World Wide Web and bring back the information they need.

As a side note for you weekend travelers of the I5 corridor, this is an annual event on the fourth Sunday of September. Don't plan on driving to Anacortes and catching the Washington State ferry to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands on that particular Sunday.

The reason Indians don't outnumber Harley's

A Search Engine is not a human reporter. It does gather information like a reporter might. For the sake of my word picture let's assume that the reporter knows he is going to have to write a story about the Oyster Run, and provide pictures to support that story, but he won't know what part of the event his boss wants him to write about until he gets back to the office. Are you following me so far? Lots and lots of bikes and riders, limited time to gather the information, sort it into some form of relevance and be able to produce something of value about it when asked.

If you look hard enough you can see the centerline of Main Street, Anacortes

Basically, that is what Search Engines do. They gather information about the billions of web pages, analyze and sort the information, determine which information is most relevant to a given search query and present it in order to the human searcher. Simple, Right? These pictures represent only an extremely small portion of the rides and riders that took part in the event. Can you imagine trying to sort them out?

Keeping 'em moving into Anacortes

We saw plenty of vintage bikes and classic rides, not to mention classic riders. Some very expensive custom paint jobs, stretched forks, chopped fenders, no fenders and even full skirted fenders.

Here is another similarity to the World Wide Web. Not every bike and rider even made it all the way to Anacortes. If the Search Engine is the city of Anacortes and your website is one of the bikes that didn't make it all the way to town, you will never show up in the Results for a Search even if you are the exact answer to the query! This is what doesn't make sense to a lot of business people. Just because you have a website, and anyone that happens to find that website can tell exactly what you're selling does not mean that it will rank well or even show up in Search Results.

If I was riding with the other participants on the way to Anacortes only I stopped at Edison, or Burlington, or La Conner, to eat Oysters and drink beer, I didn't make it to Anacortes. Again, if the Search Engine is Anacortes, I'm never going to make it into the Search Results.

Vintage Indian

So how do you make sure to show up? A Search Engine Optimizer knows what the Search Engines are looking for. We make sure you make it all the way to Anacortes and make you and your website the right answer to the search query.

Who let that guy in?

Why do some strange results get to be in front of your website in search results? Like this guy in the picture above, if the keywords you are trying to rank for are "Police Harley's" because that's what you ride, but this guy shows up in the results before you, it is an indication of a serious problem. Call us right now! 800-789-0017

Not all great art is hanging in Museums

If you want to stand out from the competition in Search Results, you need to call us. That's what we do. We will take the time to learn about your business. We'll help you get your website shaped up and focused to do business. It won't help to send you a bunch of traffic if your website just turns people off and they leave before buy. Then we determine your target market, who your customers are and how they look for what you have to offer. Then we adjust your campaign to push you to the top of those Search Results that best serve that target. Call us right now so we can get your business found!

360-393-9761

In what search is this guy relevant?

While you're looking at these pictures, think about how your business is worthy of being found. We all think our website is great. However like I said before, Search Engines aren't people. They use information they gather and sort it with a mathematical formula (algorithm). A Search Engine Optimizing Consultant can help your website speak the right information, in the right language to the Search Engine. Get us working for you today and you can get back to running your business. 800-789-0017

Did someone ask what to do with Crown Royal bottle bags?

What does an Oyster Run have to do with Search Engine Optimization? You don't think it makes a good visual image? But if you found this information it's because it can be found. The Search Engine found this and presented it to you. If you have a website to do business, it has to be found!

Are your potential customers finding your website or are they finding your competition? If you could use some help getting your website found give me a call right now. 360-393-9761. If I don't answer, leave a message. I can't hear a thing when I'm riding. ;)

If you want to be a part of the next Oyster Run check out www.oysterrun.org.