White House Tour
Kristin and I visited the White House today on a tour. The Christmas decorations were beautiful. We had a great time!
Kristin and Ricky standing under the White House Seal
It was cold outside and the lines were long but all the efforts were worth it.
Prior to our visit we got coffee at La Columbe coffee
On arriving in DC we ate breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien. Nice…
Sausage Cook off
Carolina Pride vs Carando Mild Tuscano vs Jones Dairy Farm pre-cooked Chicken Sausage.
And the winner is …….
Carando Mild Tuscano. Carolina Pride has too much salt and Jones Chicken Sausage tastes like chicken…not pork. Between these sausages I liked Carando Mild Tuscano the best.
Photos from TN and VA during 10/21-10/27 holiday.
Foursquare’s unusual pitch: The ethical data company
I thought I’d quit foursquare a couple years ago but apparently I did not! NOT ethical. Metatdata is personal data and can be used as such.
Source: Foursquare’s unusual pitch: The ethical data company
Organic SEO – Let’s Get Real
Imagine that friend of yours searched for Virts Family Farms on Google. You’re concerned since you just created this site and this friend said it didn’t show up in their search results. gven this scenario one might ask; “How can I improve my search rankings?” I’ll offer some solutions and advise about the proper way to address this common issue.
Only Google’s algorithm decides who gets precedence in searches. However, there are some strategies to get businesses like Dennis and Linda Virts’s farm market to show up higher in search results organically. (Note the use of the word “organic” – its definition is “real”) While a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) trick like linking from a “link farm” may work in the short term, (not an organic approach) search engines can catch up with this trickery and flag the site for attempting to game the system. This may affect the search results for the long term, even after the website has divorced itself from the SEO trickery. (see https://goo.gl/i4KV7k)
First – Your business needs to be verified by Google. This is done online and you can designate a ” manager” to add the information on your business or you, as the business owner, can do this yourself. This isn’t a manager in the traditional sense but a “manager” that manages the data that google will use to index and verify your website and the existence of your business. Since Google dominates with 83% of the mobile search market and 63% of desktop search, this should be a really good start. (source  https://goo.gl/Kgqmma)
Second – Your business needs links about its website on other websites. The more popular and relevant the site that links to yours, the better. Google’s algorithm searches websites to see which websites they link to. One questionable and slightly inorganic strategy is to use a service like PR Web ( you have to pay them) and create a press release. You create the release and they send it off to all kinds of media and websites. Say, for example, you wanted to create a press release about your Grand Opening and the recent business creation. This will create a lot of links back to your website. But Google could identify this method as a scheme to “game the system” (much like a link farm might) and that might eventually thwart the growth of your online presence. This probably isn’t worth the risk.
However, to be safe for the future you can always let your web presence grow “organically” – and it will, with a little work. If you, your friends, or people in your family have facebook pages, twitter accounts or other social media accounts, ask them to post a link about your grand opening, or the website homepage. This will help increase web presence. Also, if you have other businesses that you buy or sell from, ask them to add a link to your site from theirs and of course in return you will do the same for them.
Google also looks to see how recently and frequently a website has been updated. So it is always a good idea to have a new post about a sale or new product on your “posts” page.
When I search on Virts Family Farms on Google’s browser chrome recently, (I did this yesterday on May 17th, 2018) I got 8 links to different pages on CEA Farms website or about CEA Farms mentions in local newspapers and THEN a link to the Virts Family Farms Farm Market’s website. This isn’t too bad since the farm markets existence on the web is relatively new and both CEA Farms and Virts Family Farms have the same physical location, down to the specific address at 15485 Purcellville Rd, Purcellville, VA 20132.
In addition to location adding a wrinkle to online presence, one persons Google search results may be different from another depending on their individual search history. So if you try the same search as another person you may get different results. This is because google normally indexes search and browsing history and takes one’s search history into consideration when searching for search terms a person enters.
So your friend might not see the link to the farmers market you searched for (virtsfamilyfarms.com for example) listed as high up in the search rankings as you did yet since he/she has a certain search history and virtsfamilyfarms.com is relatively new on the web. However, as relevant content is added on the site, links back to the site from other affiliated sites are added and an owner initiated verification of Virts Family Farms Farmers Market by Google is completed, the rankings will definitely change for the better for anyone that searches.
Please feel free to call, post a response or text with any questions/comments about this post or any other issue with your site or this article. I may be able to offer a solution.
Ricky Rodriguez
Web Development and Internet Support
rickyrod.com
rickyrod@rickyrod.com
540-668-6752
Web Development and Internet Support
rickyrod.com
rickyrod@rickyrod.com
540-668-6752
Come to the Best of Birthplace of Rivers Weekend
We have fishing , biking, hiking and other outings planned along with environmental education sessions. Please check and make sure there is room, this quite possibly is a once in a lifetime, never to be repeated event.
WV Rivers Policy Updates: Tank Bill Improvements, Help Keep Science a Priority, Contact Your Senators
Source
If scientific and fact-based water policy analysis and advocacy matters to you, please make a tax-deductible donation to WV Rivers’ Science Fund. The Science Fund pays for critical needs like fact sheets, expert testimony, and tools that make it easy for you to submit comments. This is expensive, labor intensive work and it depends entirely on support from people, like you, to happen.
Thanks to a pledge from a generous donor, the first $10,000 donated to WV Rivers’ Science Fund will be matched, doubling your impact! Any amount helps, please donate today!
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Last week a bill, HB 2909, was introduced that would abolish the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of the Environmental Advocate. The Environmental Advocate serves an important role in state government, providing daily assistance to the public on environmental issues and WVDEP related questions. Important issues handled by the Office of the Environmental Advocate include: questions about the public comment process; how to appeal agency decisions; and how to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this bill and we’ll let you know when it’s time to take
Panoramic view of Leesburg, Virginia’s Loudoun county courthouse complex taken from the South side of Market St. at about noon on 10-12-2016.
Vote for WV Rivers in the Best of West Virginia Awards!
The polls are open! WV Living is collecting votes for the 2016 Best of West Virginia Awards. Last year WV Rivers was voted the “Best Conservation Organization” and this year we are in the running again.
Help WV Rivers and YOU, our members, keep our title! Cast your vote for WV Rivers here. Make sure to vote by October 17, 2016. Results will be published in the Winter 2016 issue of WV Living.
Source: Vote for WV Rivers in the Best of West Virginia Awards!
