Unofficial and Unsubstantiated Indexes of Economic Activity

During the 30 years I have been living in Chicago, I have come up with two informal and unofficial indexes of the city’s economic activity. The one I am writing about today I call the Lakeview Panhandler Economic Index. In the 1990’s I banked on Chicago’s north side at a bank at Ashland, Belmont, and Lincoln. Almost invariably when I left the bank, a panhandler asking for bus fare would greet me. Back then, these guys did not look or smell very good.

The base line for this index then was 1, reflecting a steady economic environment. If I was greeted by two or more solicitations for money, the index would increase, reflective of declining economic activity. Not surprising to people who know me, the best the economic index could be was 0; while there was no limit to how bad the local economy could get. The bank put an end to the Lakeview Panhandler Economic Index when it remodeled the bank and moved the entrance a half block north away from the bus stop.

I have been somewhat mystified that during the current economic downturn, the unemployment rate has remained below ten percent even as I think this is the worst economic environment of my lifetime. I think back to the early 1980s when interest rates approached twenty percent and the unemployment rate was over ten percent. Either the current unemployment rate below eight percent does not reflect the realities of the current economic environment or, alternatively, it really is not that bad.

I am opting for the former – it is bad, really bad. If the bus stop had not been moved, the Lakeview Panhandler Economic Index would be at a 4 today. It would probably be a higher class of panhandler, however, than when I created the index. It would be a guy like me in a suit and tie, briefcase under the left arm with the right hand extended as he said, “Hey, I left my wallet at home. Could you spare a buck for the bus?”

 

SEO Chicago and Do It Yourself (DIY) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

When I first started Kohli Consulting, I decided I was not going to pay anybody to create my web site.  Nor was I going to pay anybody to optimize it.   I was a proud, self sufficient Do-It-Yourself(er).    And, I got exactly what I paid for.    

The results of my first efforts to search engine optimize my own Kohli Consulting web site were awful.   I did not find my business listed anywhere in the first 500 listings for the terms I thought people would use to find my business services.  But that was not even the worst part.   I had decided to go with a service that provided web site templates and hosting services – which I now refer to as a “web site out-of-a-box.”   The good thing about the this service provider’s web site templates was that they included specific fields in the set up process for “meta tags.”   These meta tags are critical for the search engine optimization process.

So without doing any research at all I optimized the Kohli Consulting web site for key word phrases that I thought people would use in looking for QuickBooks and Bookkeeping services.   I put words in what I later came to know as the Page Title, the Page Description, and Keywords  fields.   These three behind the scene fields or “meta tags” are critical for high search engine results listing.

As I tried to figure out why my site did so poorly, I became completely demoralized.   Not only did my site perform poorly for the keyword phrases I had optimized it for, but nobody – nobody at all – used the keyword phrases I thought they would use to find the services I was selling.    It was at that point that I began to have a glimmer of an idea as to just how important it was to do keyword phrase research and to analyze the various keyword phrases.  The use of appropriate keyword phrases in “on page” content, meta tags, and linking strategies is paramount for achieving top SEO results.

This is the order in which I focused my efforts in re-optimizing my web site

A)  Revised the Tags for Each Page of the Web Site

1. Revising Page Titles for  Each Page of the Web Site
2. Created Individual Page Descriptions for Each Page of the Web Site
3. Unique Keyword List for the Meta Tags for Each Page of the Web site

B) Revised on Page Content to be Consistent with Tags for Web Site

C) Created Off Page Links to the Web Site

Going through steps A and B perhaps half a dozen times,  I was eventually successful at different times in obtaining top ten page listing results for a number of phrases including Bookkeeping Evanston, QuickBooks Evanston, Bookkeeping Chicago, Chicago QuickBooks, and Chicago QuickBooks Consultants.   Later, I decided to offer my Search Engine Optimization services professionally.

 

What is a Search Engine?

If Rip Van Winkle woke from his 100 year nap today, one of the many, many things at which he would marvel,  I  am sure,  would be the Internet.   What possible frame of reference, could he conceivably have for understanding this modern miracle of science and technology?   I cannot imagine.   How could anyone ever explain it to him?

And, if eventually someday he came to some basic, primitive understanding of electricity, and TV, and then the Internet  – then possibly someday he might ask,  “Please, would you please tell me what this search engine thingamajig is?”  And, I would.

A search engine is simply an electronic tool for finding something on the Internet.