Tandem Interactive: Excited to Enter 2013!

The holidays are in full swing, and the Tandem team is energized & excited to enter 2013. Don't believe it? Take a peek inside the Tandem fridge for proof:

Happy Holidays & see you in January!

Best wishes,

Your Tandem Interactive Team

Lisa Buyer's Review of The SEO Diet

Lisa Buyer, President of the Buyer Group and a very well known Search Conference speaker, wrote a very nice summary of my SEO Diet Presentation from Pubcon Vegas 2012.

http://socialprchat.com/how-to-stay-pr-skinny-on-with-seo-diet-by-jlatratro/

Recapping Las Vegas Pubcon 2012

Last month, Lauren and I had the privilege to head out to Las Vegas and watch Joe and a slew of other internet marketing professionals speak on various topics relevant to today's search industry. I took copious notes and have been summarizing sessions for the official Pubcon blog, in case any of you would like to take a peek at some of the knowledge that was shared to us. The first blogs have been posted, which you can check out here:

http://www.pubcon.com/pubcon-recap-seo-hot-topics-and-trends
http://www.pubcon.com/latest-topics-and-trends-on-twitter
http://www.pubcon.com/seo-lessons-from-disneys-jeff-preston

I will continue to post a few more blogs into November, and Lauren and I hope to give our link building tactics and upgrade and offer some cutting edge ideas to each of your accounts. If you ever have any questions or concerns you are always welcome to email me!

Victoria's Secret Models Invade South Florida

Yesterday a member of our Tandem Team, Erika, went down to the Mondrian South Beach to interview and chat with with a few Victoria's Secret angels--Adriana Lima, Candice Swanepoel and Erin Heatherton. The girls were in Miami to launch the Very Sexy Jet Tour, which will have various angels traveling to four different cities in the US to promote the new fragrance, Very Sexy Touch, and also the new styles of the best selling Victoria's Secret Very Sexy Bra.

Since this was in the middle of the week, Erika decided to have one of the models take a picture for Joe--since he couldn't be there due to meetings. Erika runs a Miami fashion blog called Blah Blah Blonde and was invited to cover the event from several PR outlets. You can see more photos from the day on her site, and also on the Blah Blah Blonde Facebook page.

What do you think of this personalized photo? Better than an autograph?

Sheplers.com Site Relaunch - Search Success!

Sheplers reached out to me well over a year ago to analyze a platform for search engine friendliness. I will keep the results of my analysis private, but I will mention that in the research, I was very surprised to see Cabelas.com cloaking and still ranking quite well.

A year later the site just relaunched on a new platform with almost no traffic loss and only slight ranking variations so far. That is a resounding success. The old site was awesome, the new site has more usability features built into it.

Why was the relaunch successful? They spent a year preparing with a well versed internal marketing team and some minor strategic guidance by yours truly. I am very proud to have worked with them, and wish Sheplers.com continued success online.

I will have to write a post soon about the debacle that Copa Airlines relaunch turned into over a year ago that I was also involved in.

Joe

South Florida Sprinkler Service

F & S Enterprises became a client over the Summer of 2011. I mentioned at the time that I would need them at some point. This morning they delivered! I called on Monday morning to make an appointment. I asked for an early one, so I got Wednesday 8am. They called back to confirm if I wanted an estimate or repair. Since I was already comfortable with them, I said repair.

The sprinkler service / repair guy showed up right on time in a very clean, professional truck. I showed him the areas I knew there were issues. We recently had a few trees removed and they destroyed some of the main sprinkler lines!

He got right to it. Now, normally in the case of sprinklers, I am a do it yourself kind of guy. But I can also admit, when a professional should be called. He repaired two major breaks that I was aware of, and found two more. He swapped out a few sprinkler heads and then cleaned up behind himself.

I really like working with my clients when I get the chance. F &S Sprinklers did not disappoint. If you need sprinkler service in South Florida, check them out.

Thanks,
Joe

PS The price was right and the work was done in under two hours. Since I mention above that I really like working with clients, if you are a Pool Remodeling Contractor in Broward County, FL, Please reach out to me for a barter deal. :)

Little Joey's First Offshore Adventure

I got to take my Dad and Son out fishing yesterday for the first time together. Making some very long stories short - My Dad has not been out in over a year due to health issues, My Son was supposed to go out with me the past two Father's days, and I only fished twice last year due to working too much!

Everything aligned and J Pop even joined us (and did all the work!). We were targeting Wahoo first thing in the morning. We trolled over a nice school of tiny bonita and expected Mr Wahoo to come into the spread. Sure enough, the starboard outrigger popped and we were on. The initial strike and head shaking made us think we had a baracuda or skipjack tuna. Joey started reeling in his first fish.

After about 10 minutes, we saw a large hammerhead shark (figures, right? with all the Rosie nonsence lately) come cruising across the back of the boat headed towards our fish. Deciding that we didn't want to loose Joey's first fish to a shark, J Pop grabbed the rod and started cranking very quickly. The fish got bumped by the shark, but it was ok. We realized as the fish came up to the boat we had a nice sized Wahoo!!! A great gaff shot and tah dah:

We ended up catching a small keeper dolphin (Mahi Mahi) and called it a day. It was a perfect first offshore fishing trip for my Son and nice way to get my Dad back on the boat.

Joe Laratro and Tandem Interactive’s 2012 Search Engine Marketing Resolutions

1. Follow the SEO Diet. I preach / teach the SEO Diet at conferences and I fulfill those SEO guidelines for my clients… but I do not take care of myself the same way. The plan is to practice what I preach and add regular content to Tandem-Interactive.com, our Blog, and work on monthly high quality link building.

2. Give and Get Google+ Love. I am very pro Google+. I love that they are now pushing TV commercials promoting it. I think when the world understands that is affects search, it will really be game on! In the mean time I plan to use it for checking in, integrate it more into our sites, update it with valuable content, and get +1s wherever possible.

3. Be more proactive with client communication. Monthly reports are great, but the majority of Tandem’s clients are happy enough with their cash registers ringing and do not rock the boat. That is not good enough in 2012! Tandem Interactive was named for working in “Tandem” with clients. The more feedback we get, the better we can do. Tandem’s family has grown with the addition of Lauren Demarco. She comes from a customer service background and will be reaching out to everyone to get them more involved.

4. Research, Experiment, Learn. This year can prove to be a major game changer in Search. Social is going to matter more for regular SEO. The algorithms are going to get better. Local search optimization is getting harder. We are going to continue to devote time every day for learning. This is not an industry where status quo breeds success.

5. Track, track, and more tracking. Last year Tandem Interactive embraced Basecamp for our project management. It has been an invaluable tool for organization and accountability. We are going to continue this trend with more in depth reporting for 2012. We are also going to sharpen our focus with Google Analytics through custom reports and its latest features.

Happy New Years and welcome to a prosperous 2012.

Joe Laratro