Search Engine Optimizing References
There are several links to our site from answers.google.com, where Google staff have referred webmasters to the technical information presented on our website, in answer to their questions Here's an example, where someone asked a Google Forum about why his site was dropping in the search ranking results on Google.
Note: A link from Google DOES NOT imply an endorsement by Google of Words in a Row; but even so it is flattering and validative to have the experts at Google refer webmasters to the information and expertise on our website.
Search Engine Watch is also a great resource for webmasters, and they link to our site from their page about Online Publicity and Promotion Resources, Danny Sullivan saying our page is a "nicely done summary of key search engines and directories, with links to Add URL pages..." Which links to our page about how to Register at Directories. That page has been greatly expanded and improved since we received that accolade several years ago, and is always kept up to date with our advice about the best directories and search engines to go to when registering your site.
Free Consultation
If you own or market a website, get a free 15-minute phone consultation from Words in a Row.
It's easy! Call 541-572-2569 now to set up your free appointment or contact us by email to set a time.
What our Clients Say About Us
Our clients range from Fortune 500 companies to mom-and-pop shops. We provide services that range from Search Engine Optimization to web design to development of large database-driven ecommerce websites, to consulting and marketing services. Here's what our clients say about working with us:
We received this review from Debbie Richards of Big Fat Soap in March of 2012:
"My new X-Cart website went live a few months ago and I must say I could not be happier with the results. Traffic to the site has increased tremendously and sales have improved as well. The look and feel of the site that Words in a Row designed for me is unique to my product brand, which was important to me. I needed the e-Commerce shopping cart, but was leery of looking like every other e-Commerce site. Thank you, Words in a Row, for providing me with an outstanding website that delivers. And thank you also for providing high quality and attentive service along the way."
~~ Debbie Richards
We received this review from Dr. Andy Blatt of St. Louis Eye Care Specialists LLC, after completing a project to take their website out of Flash and make it focused on pediatric eye care in St. Louis.
"Jere does an amazing job with search engine optimization. He is very responsive to requests made and very professional with regard to his business. He definitely delivers everything he promises that he will! Clearly an expert in his field. I would highly recommend him for search engine optimization and web site development."
~~ Dr. Andy Blatt
We received this email from Joanna Murawaska of Drug Rehab Canada:
"I'm very, very happy with the work done by Words in a Row.
"After working on my site, its ranking just kept increasing and now it's in the first position on the front page under a very competitive search term.
"Recently Google made some major changes that resulted with my friend's site getting pushed back from front page all the way to page 7, with my site going right to the top.
"Jere helped to save my business basically because if it wasn't for his work I may have ended up way back and off the front page.
"Thank you Jere and Desi!
"All the best"
~~ Joanna Murawska
We received this unsolicited success story from David Wahl of DesignerFloor.com:
"The great thing about working with Jere Matlock at Words in a Row is that he makes the technical aspect of Search Engine Optimization about as understandable as it can possibly be made, whether he works with you in person or just provides the information on his web site. In learning the art of marketing our web site at DesignerFloor.com, this has been extremely valuable so that we could sell as many area rugs to home owners, interior designers and just regular people as possible."
~~ David Wahl
www.designerfloor.com
We optimized and redesigned a website for Matt Roberts of Lavello Farmhouse Sinks. He sent us the following note:
"Jere and Desi have been great to work with. Totally professional and completely knowledgeable about SEO, and the internet in general. Within 3 days of completing my site redesign, I went from having only 1 web page indexed, to having all of my pages indexed on Google. I will continue to use them for all of my web design/SEO work."
~~ Matt Roberts
www.lavello-sinks.com
We built a website for Lesa Benjamin of Facials Greenville. She sent us the following testimonial:
"I am a small business owner and knew that I needed a web presence. After much research and inquiry into the search engine optimization, web hosting, and web site building, I began to think it would never come about. Then I came across the Words in a Row web site... and what a lucky and blessed find that was for me! I knew I had found the people for my project. I have only positive words for my experience. I have been so pleased with the work that Desi has put into the building of my web site--her professionalism, expertise, talent and patience has brought about the most beautiful and impressive web site that I have ever seen! And has exceeded my expectations. Jere has been patient and thorough in helping me to understand the process and steps involved in building a successful web site and all that goes along with maintaining it. I have found them to be ethical, fair, through, patient and talented! And that is exactly what I wanted; I recommend them very highly!"
~~ Lesa Benjamin
Owner
www.facialsgreenville.com
Note: Kudos also go to Amy Collen of Design Wise Art, who created the lovely graphics for this site.
After we built the website for Mickelson Life Insurance Services based on a graphic design that they provided in-house, we received this unsolicited testimonial:
"When looking for a partner to help build a new life insurance settlement website that was SEO optimized, a good start was to get someone who was able to get themselves well optimized. Fortunately that lead me to Jere Matlock and Words In A Row. From the very first call the experience was excellent. He took the time to understand the project and patiently answer any questions. In constructing our website he has been diligent and built the site with every possible angle planned in to improve our SEO.
I have no hesitation recommending Words In A Row to anyone who wants to build a serious search optimized website."
~~ Simon Leach
VP Marketing- David Mickelson Insurance Services
Our client Front Sight Firearms Training Institute wrote this as an unsolicited recommendation at LinkedIn:
"... [Jere Matlock] has done a magnificent job - in fact, he has taken one client to better results than 99% of his competition. Jere does a great job in helping orchestrate web activities to go up into top rankings on Google, Yahoo, etc."
~~ David S.
Joanne Forman of DreamStreet Real Estate said the following:
"I've found that, in Portland at least, being #1 for my search terms means about $100,000 per year for me. Thank you so much!"
~~ Joanne Forman
Realtor
DreamStreet Real Estate
Note: Here's Joanne's testimonial from a year earlier:
"My [real estate] business is within the top 10 most competitive categories on the web. After enjoying some success at the early stages of the internet, my web site had gradually lost any placement whatsoever. I had built my business on an internet marketing model and so losing any positioning was devastating to my bottom line.
"Choosing a web optimizer can be a challenge. There are those who profess to know Google's secrets, those who guarantee placement on search engines and directories and everyone is absolutely certain they have the key. How to choose? If part of life is just plain old dumb luck then you can say I 'lucked out'. I read a book on internet marketing and it mentioned Words In A Row. I contacted Jere Matlock at Words in a Row and decided to just 'go on intuition'. And, what a great choice it was!
"Two months after completion my site is either #1 or #2 in a VERY competitive category across all search engines and directories! ['homes for sale portland'] I'm pretty much a bottom line person so results matter. I would, without any reservation, recommend Jere Matlock at Words in a Row.
"On a personal note: If you enjoy the journey as much as the destination then Jere at Words in a Row is is the person for you."
Thank You Jere!
~~ JoAnne F.
www.Homes-for-sale-Portland.com
Ron Smith of Speak Any Language.
"A few years ago now, my business, Speak Any Language, got a huge boost from the stellar work of Jere Matlock at Words in A Row. In fact, our Yahoo site was going not much of anywhere and Jere gave us more than a boost. With his work and recommendations, we had a successful small business in short order. Of course I was very pleased to write a letter of reference that is still posted.
Alas, about a year ago I failed to take my own advice and let the boyfriend of a granddaughter re-do the site as I was leaving Yahoo to form my own site. It was a serious mistake.
The business floundered. So I got back into the 'queue' and Jere came to the rescue again. Business has resumed and is picking up strongly. Whew... do I have the temerity to make another recommendation? I guess I should. So - again - if you want to build or start your web business, get in line without delay. Jere remains a great guy and I especially appreciate his follow up and attention to detail. He'll teach you if you are ready to learn.
~~ Ron Smith
Owner,
Speak Any Language
Ned Berndt of Miami Condo Lifestyle says:
"Sometimes you just get real lucky. Finding Jere Matlock at Words in a Row was, for me, one of those special times! After several years of a no-results template site, I decided to find a web designer who could build a high ranking site for the competitive web world of Miami preconstruction luxury condo real estate.
"Well, not only does my luxury miami condos website look great -- really clean, not junked up -- but it's ranking like a racehorse!
"And to top it all off, Jere's a heck of a guy. He's easy-goin' but very knowledgable and plain fun to talk with about most anything! As a website novice, I felt he steered me correctly through all decisions necessary by providing great information and resources so I could make quality decisions. From design to SEO, coding to linking, he really knows his stuff! Thanks Jere."
~~ Ned Berndt
Miami Condo Lifestyle
Kevin Johnson of Evan's Garden said this in recommendation:
We retained Words in a Row first as search engine consultants and came to trust their expertise in this complex and challenging field. As they are also expert in designing fully search-engine-friendly, database-driven websites, they suggested that we create a new, fully-optimized site for our organic beauty products company.
They've done an excellent job on it and have been very responsive to our requests and happy to advise us on their workability, too.
The new site went live only a week ago and already our customers are sending pleased-to-glowing feedback on it. Also, we have already noted a significant increase in large orders from both existing customers and new customers. Many people are now buying considerably more products than they used to in one session, which is very, very happy-making for us, to say the least.
Kudos to Words in a Row for a job well done!
~~ Kevin Johnson
EvansGarden.com
Testimonial from Brian Habel of www.st-george-realestate.com about the help he received from Words In A Row in optimizing his site for South Utah Real Estate:
"Being an astute, 'weed through the junk on the internet' kind of guy, I have noticed that once in a while you actually know when you picked on the right guy. That is the way I feel after working with a full time web developer in my office for six months and after all the things we have done to try to SEO our way up in the rankings... after all that to find Jere's services the most helpful out of all of it. Not just in 'feel good', but in actual rankings.
"We had 'tweaked' the SEO stuff to death on our fairly large site to where I thought I need to just go out and get more links. But then I thought of how, getting confined in my own world or too narrowly focused is so easy, yet anxiety-producing with all the SEO scams that exist. Still I needed some outsider feedback and critiqueing.
"What we noticed was that Jere was free enough with his secrets to engender trust, that we did not fear scheduling the consultation because he would be allowing us to either do the changes or to pay him to make the changes for us.
"The consultation critique was received by email and I followed up with a verbal consultation with questions and received excellent service and advice. Prior to this, I knew that going it alone was not good enough, when some knowledgeable, but wise help was needed. However, the prospect of the information not being good enough and me out the consultation fee was there, but what I felt or ascertained from Jere was this mild, unpretentous 'take the bull by the horns' assurance with the no-pressure sales hype.
"So after getting the consultation and making the changes we instantly have climbed in the search engines with some of our good key terms being number 2 and 3 on the first page and most of our terms being on the first two pages.
"There were things that my web developer could not find any information about on the internet that Jere was telling us to do, purely legitimate 'help the spiders' kind of stuff. Well, you can't argue with the results and there is promise for getting better results into the future--all because of the help we have received from a consultation with Words In A Row. We have been cautious about 'milking' the initial consultation with follow-up calls, but we have found the ability to make good on every bit of follow-up that we have needed to make clear on the intial consultation plus some. Words In A Row is dollar signs in a row!!!
Thanks for all your help Jere!
~~ Brian Habel
www.SoUtah.com
Our client, COMgroup East, a top firm in the field of technology consulting, Voice over Internet (VoIP consulting) and telephone system design, sent in the following:
"Thank you so much for the update [on our search engine rankings since your SEO project].
"Our team is beyond pleased with the results and with all of your efforts.
Keep em coming!!"
Regards,
~~ Michelle Moskowitz Saidi
COMgroup East
Director of Marketing
335 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor
New York, NY 10017
212.850.8806 (w)
Our client, Susan Hanasab of Christmas Gifts.com, sent in this testimonial:
"I have known Jere Matlock since October of 1998. Due to his efforts of optimizing the site with search engines, we are listed number one on Yahoo and Google, to name a few, when one searches for 'Christmas Gifts'. Our statistics of number of page views and number of visitors have been going up ever since.
"I asked Jere also to rebuild the site... He created a site that my clients are very happy about.
"I highly recommend Jere and look forward to a a great working relationship in the future and a greater expansion."
~~ S. Hanasab, Owner
www.ChristmasGifts.com
Words in a Row first provided Search Engine Optimizing for this client in late 1998. At that time, the site was impossible to find in the search engines. Now, in a search on almost any search engine, www.ChristmasGifts.com comes up at or near the top of the listings in a search for the popular key word phrase "Christmas gifts", most often in the #1 spot. The Search Engine Optimizing service we provide is not a gimmick that quickly fades--it is a service that keeps on working over time. This website has gone through three major re-designs in the last nine years, each time we've been asked to re-optimize it to ensure that the ranking did not fall from the #1 spot. That ranking is very important to this client - without doing any advertising, during the Christmas season (October, November and December) this site serves over 3 million page views to over a million unique visitors.
Our SEO client Jon Prince of Candy Favorites was concerned that the SEO work we did might not pay off at Google, even though he loved the results we were getting at Yahoo (see below). Google didn't display ANY of his pages for the last few months, despite the site having a Google PageRank of 5. However, recently his site started showing up in first place of the search results at Google for most of his main key words, including "wholesale candy" and many more. Here's what he had to say:
"To not use Words In A Row would be to do your website a disservice! Others claim to be able to do SEO but Jere actually can do it!!
"I am amazed by the results and I suspect they will only get better.... It's wild and, again, I couldn't ask for better! Proves that all good things come in time as well as that it is important to be persistent.
"Wow!"
Jon sent me this email earlier, when his site made it onto many first-page positions at Yahoo for quite a few of his main search terms:
"Your SEO skills really do work wonders and all the effort is worth the wait! All I can say is Yahoo!!!"
~~Jon Prince
www.CandyFavorites.com
Erik Schimek. We performed Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of the Harmony Cedar Amish Furniture website for Erik Schimek, who says:
Our business model is based on low retail markups, and high volume. Hiring Jere [Matlock of Words in a Row] to help promote our website was one of the smartest business decisions we ever made.
"Traffic rose significantly, we had effective ads running, and we began selling more products.
"More importantly, because Jere was happy to help with questions, we understood how to improve upon his work and produce even more hits and higher sales."
~~ Erik Schimeck
www.HarmonyCedar.com
Website Design References
Dr. Decuypere of www.HealthAlternatives2000.com, a natural health products provider.
"We started a project to get our website up and running about two years ago. Various things came up along the way creating barriers to the achievement of this goal. Two months ago we decided, OK, we're going to just do it! I got in touch with Jere at Words In A Row and got all the pieces and parts to him that our previous web designer had created. He gave me a very clear proposal of what needed to be done to actually get our site up and running. We did our part as requested and then it was time for him to perform. This was done in a very 'A-to-B' fashion. Anything I didn't understand was easily explained by him so that I could understand it without having to be a computer programmer to get it.
"Our website is now undergoing its registration with the top directories and we'll be fully launched in a few days. Jere has been absolutely wonderful to work with and I would highly recommend him to anyone wanting the services of a website designer."
~~ Dr. Jeanne Decuypere
www.HealthAlternatives2000.com
Leor Zolman of BD Software, a provider of on-site advanced C++ training.
"I'm really, really pleased with your work on the site, both in terms of the design, being open to my picayune demands, responsiveness, patience, and good nature. If I ever get the chance to send business your way, I'll be sure to do so..."
~~ Leor Zolman
BD Software
Marie Gale of Chandler's Handmade Natural Soaps. Words in a Row designed and optimized this site for the search engines and handles all online marketing. This site makes money for its owner:
"Thanks so much for getting us first page placement at Google for the very competitive term 'natural soaps'. Much appreciated! We were nowhere to be found before you did your search engine optimization of our site."
~~ Marie Gale
Owner, www.ChandlersSoaps.com
Barbara Dunn-Reeves, of Dark Horse Ranch, a site selling equine art. This is a site we designed from scratch, and optimized for the search engines:
"Words in a Row created a very beautiful website for my business, DarkHorse Ranch, Inc.
"I absolutely love my site, as do those who visit it. I routinely receive compliments from internet visitors, and requests to link to my site because it is so upscale and aesthetic. Since Jere Matlock created my site, my ecommerce business has increased.
"Being a computer novice, and at the same time an artist who is very particular about my artform and its presentation, I made voluminous requests of Jere, and asked endless technical questions. Jere incorporated all my requests and gave me the artistic license that I needed and wanted. At the same time, he expertly incorporated his talent as a designer into a technically sophisticated website that functions as an ecommerce site. He was patient and kind throughout the evolution of the design from start to finish, answering all my questions in layman's terms that I could understand.
"I take great pride in my website and how it presents my work, my art and my business to the world wide web.
"I would highly recommend Jere Matlock and Words in a Row to any individual or business desiring the very best in website design."
~~ Barbara Dunn-Reeves
DarkHorse Ranch Inc.
Marketing References
We consulted with Cheri and Keith of Bahamas Vacation Guide when their site lost its good position in the search engines:
"Wanted to say thank you once again - we are now really reaping the rewards of following your instructions. January highs have always been extreme but I think this year we will have cause to really celebrate! We have had 8 GB traffic ... since 24 Dec! The year of our record highs without any help we did like 155K unique visitors per month. I don't know what the exact combination of things leading to this is but we are going so strong! I suspect that 155K is gonna be an old, stale record when this is through. For a 'Bahamas only' guide this is an amazing feat.... So this is most certainly an accomplishment that should bear credit to you!"
~~ Cheri Kraus
Bahamas Vacation Guide
Dan Mueller, of Gloves in a Bottle. This is a site we optimized for the search engines, and which we are marketing. With a lot of patient work and testing various avenues of online and offline promotion, this site has finally become a "cash cow" for its owner. It is usually on the first page of results at Google for its main key word, "dry skin." That's a term that is extremely competitive and goes head to head with companies like Procter & Gamble. Currently this client has 4 of the top 10 spots at Google for that phrase!
Writing References
Susan Ochart of Sterling Management. Jere Matlock has interviewed many of Sterling Management's professional clients and written up articles based on those interviews for publication in Sterling's publications (such as Premiere Dentistry Magazine or Premiere CPA Magazine). Hundreds of those interviews are also posted on Sterling's website, at http://www.sterling-management.com.
Dr. Frank Davis co-wrote the book "Confronting Diabetes" with Jere Matlock. Dr. Davis is a foot doctor practicing in Reno, Nevada, who has seen thousands of patients suffering from the complications of diabetes. He wanted to write a book to help people who do not yet have the complications of diabetes avoid ever getting them. This book is available on our Books page.
The text of an article by Jere Matlock on the basics of marketing a website is available online at http://www.frugalmarketing.com/dtb/matlock.shtml.
Return to Top of Page.
Professional references and client testimonials for Words in a Row.
To contact us to help you design, re-design, or optimize a website for the search engines click here. We make our clients' websites make them money.
Some sites we've built from scratch:
Big Fat Soap - an xCart website built as part of our special offer to members of the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild.
St. Louis Opthalmology - a site we converted to HTML from a Flash-based design that wasn't ranking well at all. (Flash causes problems because Google can't index it!) Now it is pulling in a lot of patients for Dr. Blatt.
Facials Greenville - a pretty site built to order for a Day Spa.
Life Insurance Settlements - a niche market site in the highly competitive life insurance industry.
Miami Beach Condos - Built to order in the very competitive Miami Beach condo market. It achieved top placement at Google almost as soon as it went on line -- and has kept it.
Chandler's Soaps - ecommerce site on which we get many compliments.
BD Software - brochure site for one of the world's top programmers, Leor Zolman. Remember C++? He wrote the book.
JM Blog - my blog site - an Art Nouveau design, using WordPress as the basis for it.
Birdseye Maple - a site displaying specialty high-end woods, built for the largest distributor of such woods in America, Yankee Veneer Corp
Business Brokers in Raleigh North Carolina. We took a website that had been created using a template like many other similar sites (it had the same photos and text as dozens of other sites) and created a unique website for this client, very clean and conservative, with no duplicate content.
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