Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite
Tis the season for spending entirely too much on books, cramming for exams, and buying new bed sheets. College is right around the corner, and while returning students know the ins and outs of getting ready for the year, freshmen might be more overwhelmed by the process. We aren’t here to give you hints on how to avoid the freshman fifteen, or what professors to avoid; we are here to help you avoid an infestation from one of the peskiest pests we know, the bed bug. You might be leaving the nest, but you’ll never forget good old advice from mom and dad; “Don’t let the bed bugs bite” now has an entirely different meaning. College does not make you invincible to pests, if anything it can increase the chance of rapid spread to your peers and back to your residential home. According to the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky, 47 percent of pest management companies responded to reports of infestation in college dorms and 21 percent responded to infestations on public ground transportation. Infestations are spread by you. Let’s say you hop on a bed bug ridden bus driving around campus, go straight to your friend’s apartment, and take a trip back home the following weekend. You do the math.
Pest Identification
The first step in preventing a rude awakening in your college bed is knowing what to look for. Depending on where the bed bug is within its life cycle (Image 1), it can be relatively easy or near impossible to identify them with your own eyes. Adult bed bugs are wingless, 3/8 inches long, and have a deep red or brown color. Immature bed bugs are a lustrous pale yellow color and slightly smaller than the adults. The first instar nymph stage of the bed bug life cycle is when you run into problems. They are only somewhat visible if they were just eating because they turn blood red in color. In fact, in any life cycle, feeding can change the color and shape of the bed bug. Eggs take on the shape of a grain of rice and are pale white.
If you don’t notice any living bed begs, you can try to look for their molted skin. Check your belongings, baseboards, mattress seams, behind bed boards, and ceilings.
The least pleasant way to identify an infestation is to look for fecal waste. Since their diet consists of blood, and more blood, their waste is a semi-liquid blood that is black in color and smooth to the touch. Their feces are usually found in the same locations as molted skin, in addition to tags on your mattress, outlets, and curtain rods and seams.
Pest Control
Now that you know what to look for, we can focus on controlling an infestation or preventing one altogether. Before packing to go to and from school, inspect your suitcase. Make sure to examine the hot spots for bed bugs, skin, and feces before unpacking. Simple enough, right? Let us move on to how to take care of your dorm or apartment. If you are a messy student, you might have to clean up your act. Reducing clutter could reduce your chances of an infestation. Bed bugs need places to hide, and you are providing them with more places to do so if your room is unkempt. If you have the wallet of a typical college student, you are probably going to pick up some second hand furniture from the sidewalk down the street. There shouldn’t be a problem with that as long as you inspect the furniture for signs of bed bugs before transporting it anywhere. You can also go one of the safest routes and get a certified mattress encasement (Image 2). This will help prevent an infestation of your mattress and make it easy to find trapped bed bugs if they attempt to infiltrate.
Pest Services and Treatment
Once you have discovered an infestation that you weren’t able to identify and control in time, a professional will need to apply pesticides to your home, dorm, or apartment. Your job will be to do some intense vacuuming, and taking care of clothes and other washable items. Bed bugs can’t survive in water above 120 degrees F, so you should wash everything on high heat, followed by placing them in the dryer. Freezing items has the same fatal result. Placing clothes in the freezer is another way to ensure home treatment.
If you are a Pest Control company like Universal Pest Control and you need an online presence, consider consulting with Axiom Internet Marketing. Using the social media, and proper search engine optimization techniques, we can bring your business growth and success.
Good luck at school, and inform your parents about bed bug identification and control so they can’t blame you for bringing home unwanted visitors!
References:
“Attention College Students: Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite.” Attention College Students: Don’t Let Bed Bugs BItes. National Pest Management Association, 26 Aug. 2011. Web. 02 Aug. 2013. <http://www.pestworld.org/all-things-bed-bugs/bed-bug-blog/posts/attention-college-students-don’t-let-the-bed-bugs-bite/>.
“Bed Bug Certified.” Bed Bug Certified RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Aug. 2013. <http://www.bedbugcertified.com/mattress-protection/>.
Miksen, Chris. “What Are the Chances of Getting Bedbugs?” Animals. Demand Media, 2013. Web. 01 Aug. 2013. <http://animals.pawnation.com/chances-getting-bedbugs-5190.html>.
Miller, Dini M., Ph.D. “How to Identify a Bed Bug Infestation.” Diss. Virginia Tech, n.d. Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Web. 01 Aug. 2013. <http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/pesticides/pdffiles/bb-identify1.pdf>.
Staff, Mayo Clinic. “Bedbugs, Treatment and Drugs.” Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 16 Feb. 2012. Web. 02 Aug. 2013. <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bedbugs/DS00663/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs>.
Gain and Retain Website Visitors using Videos
Enhancing your website with videos allows you to keep up with the fast paced, dynamic environment of Internet marketing. Learn more about the keys to video success HERE
Getting the Edge With Social Media
Social media is growing at an exponential rate, and if you don’t have an active social media presence you are missing out on millions of potential customers. Find out in this article how to take advantage of the incredible marketing opportunity represented by Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites:
http://www.axiomseo.com/MarketingBlog/2013/06/24/expanding-your-business-through-social-media/
Posted by: Axiom Internet Marketing
The Importance of Keywords
Keywords are one of the most important aspects of a successful SEO campaign, cultivating a solid online presence, and expanding your influence in the online market place.
Learn some of the details about keyword research, SEO, and more with THIS article.
Keys to Keywords
The principal job of a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firm is to increase the visibility of a client’s website so that it draws more visitors who, hopefully, will become that client’s customers. Most SEO firms employ a wide variety of techniques and strategies to boost a website’s viewership. These range from very technically-oriented practices such as updating and rewriting computer code to “softer” strategies that include creating and maintaining blogs and deploying dynamic video.
Keywords and Relevance
One of the more commonly used, but infrequently mastered, approaches to website optimization is the creation and placement of keywords in a client’s site. A keyword (or, just as often, key phrase) is a word or words that appears on a website and that is related to the content or purpose of the site. For example, common keywords that would appear on the website of a plumbing company might include “plumbing,” “plumber,” “pipes,” “leaky pipes,” “clogged pipes,” etc. The idea is to identify the kinds of words or phrases a person might enter into a search engine when looking for the types of products or services your business offers. These make the best keywords.
Search engines such as Google and Yahoo list the results of search queries according to a total “relevance” score they assign to each website. The sites that have higher relevance scores appear on the first page close to the top of the results; those rated as having lower relevance are father down, on the second, third, or later pages. Websites that don’t appear on the first page of results are much less likely to get traffic than those that appear at or near the top. The goal of SEO is to get the client’s website on the first page of search results, as close to the top of the list as possible. There are several ways to increase a site’s relevance score, and deploying relevant keywords is one of the most effective.
What Makes A Good Keyword?
The more relevant content your website offers – content that includes keywords and phrases used to search in your industry – the higher the site will rank for relevance. However, not all keywords are created equal. Where a keyword appears on a web page, for example, can influence how it is ranked for relevance. Keywords and phrases that appear in headers on a page receive a higher ranking than those that appear in the text of an article on the page. Those that appear in sidebars – especially sidebars that consist of lots of keywords and phrases grouped together – rank even lower still.
Another key consideration when choosing keywords is to broaden as much as possible the number of words and phrases you select. While “air conditioning” and “heating” would be natural keywords for an AC/heating contractor, they do little to distinguish one contractor’s website or business from all the others online. Keywords should include as many industry-specific terms and phrases as possible, even those that you many think are unfamiliar to the layperson. General contractors searching for subcontractors online will probably be looking for those with specific experience or skills. Oftentimes, homeowners seeking a contractor or trade specialist have begun to gather information about their problem or the work they need performed. The broader your net of keywords, the more likely that your website will be at the top of search results.
SEO With Your Business In Mind
Although selecting the most effective keywords is critically important, many companies choose an SEO firm that has little or no background in their industry. The SEO firm must rely completely on the client’s knowledge and experience when creating keyword content because its IT specialists simply don’t have the industry background to inform and guide their decisions. That’s why it’s key to have an SEO firm that understands your business as well as it understands IT techniques and SEO strategy. The firm you pay to optimize your website should bring ideas to the table based upon a firm knowledge of how your business operates, which is what sets Axiom apart.
Axiom’s highly trained staff includes not only the best IT team in the business, but also professionals with a wide range of experience in fields including electrical and mechanical contracting, plumbing, roofing, air conditioning and heating, and even photography and the legal profession. Axiom believes that there is no substitute for real, hands-on knowledge of the client’s business when it comes to creating relevant keyword content that will enhance your online profile.
Whether you are looking to get online for the first time, or you simply want more out of your existing website, contact Axiom today. Find out how we do SEO and why our team of trained experts is just the group to give your website the jumpstart it needs.
Posted by: Axiom Internet Marketing
Video = Visitors
Want your site not only to attract visitors, but also to keep them coming back? Dynamic video is a great tool to increase your number of page views and return visitors. Learn more about winning video strategies here:
http://www.axiomseo.com/MarketingBlog/2013/07/08/pump-up-your-website-with-video/
Posted by: Axiom Internet Marketing
Pump Up Your Website With Video
In today’s fast-moving competitive business environment, companies are seeking every strategic advantage they can gain in terms of planning, marketing, sales, advertising, and customer relations. In recent years, a great number of businesses of all sizes and types have turned to the Internet as an avenue for increasing their visibility and broadening their customer base. And while having a website can be an outstanding tool for advertising and promoting your business, the key to effective internet marketing is making sure your website generates traffic that will eventually turn into new customers.
Why Video?
One mistake many business make when they launch a new website is failing to take advantage of the wide array of options they have to present information to their visitors. Most websites include articles about the firm and it’s work, probably photos and other graphics showing the kinds of products or services the firm offers, and maybe even a blog where the owners of the business can reach out to customers and potential customers can provide feedback to the owners. However, many business never think about adding one very powerful weapon to their marketing arsenal – video.
Academic research has shown that different people process information in different ways. Some people learn best by reading; they easily assimilate written material and enjoy that form of communication. Others are verbal and audio learners – they process information best when they hear it or when they discuss things with other people. Still others are visual learners. They may not pick things up as readily from the written page, but they excel at capturing and holding images in their memory and accessing that information when they need it.
One of the most powerful aspects of video is that it provides a way of presenting information that can work for many different types of learners. For example, a visitor to your website may have difficulty following a written description of a process, product, or service you offer. A series of still images might help in some cases, but if you are trying to communicate something a bit more complex, static pictures may be of limited usefulness. Video, however, offers a dynamic way to explain even the most complicated procedures. Not only does this benefit the visual learner, but a video accompanied by an audio soundtrack also addresses the strengths of the audio learner. If you add closed captioning, you have a communications tool that is suited for all three learning styles – the reader, the listener, and the viewer.
Keys to Video Success
There are a few key rules to consider when choosing video to add to your website. First, make it informative and interesting. Don’t just describe the process, tell the viewer why it is important to him or her. Find ways to spice it up if possible, for instance by using humor or by providing interesting trivia related to the subject of the video. The job of the video should be to entertain as well as to inform. Second, keep it brief. The video is a tool to help sell your business, not a chance to win an Academy Award. Make sure your videos get to the point and stick to it; if you waste the visitor’s time you’ll lose their interest and likely their business. Third, make sure the video is clear and the soundtrack is audible. Poor lighting and editing or a grainy or inaudible soundtrack will simply confuse your viewers rather than help them. Finally, keep it fresh. Add new videos periodically to give previous visitors a reason to come back to your site. Repeat site visits are the key to turning a visitor into a customer.
Videos Help YOU Be Seen
Video can be a great way to attract and retain a following for your website, as long as the videos are high quality and engaging for the viewer. Not only will more people likely be drawn to a site that features video, they are also more likely to stay longer and return more frequently if the video is interesting. Video also can help increase your ranking in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. These search engines look for the presence of video on a web page and assign a higher rank to pa
ges with video that is relevant to the subject of the website. The more relevant videos a site contains, the higher its ranking. This means that when people search the Internet for a business in your industry, your firm’s name will appear closer to the top of the search results. High visibility means more clicks on your site and a greater chance to capture new business online.
Axiom Internet Marketing offers video production as one of a wide variety of tools to optimize your website and increase your online profile. Contact us today and let us show you how to realize the full power of video to pump up your online business.
Posted by: Axiom Internet Marketing
Make the Most of Social Media
If you haven’t been using social media to reach new customers, you’re missing a valuable marketing opportunity. This informative article explains how Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites can make a big difference to your business:
http://www.axiomseo.com/MarketingBlog/2013/06/24/expanding-your-business-through-social-media/
Posted by: Axiom Internet Marketing
Happy 4th of July
Axiom Internet Marketing would like to wish everyone a great 4th of July. Thank you to the Men and Women serving in our Armed Forces!
Standing Out With Branding
In today’s business environment it is important that your firm stand out from the crowd, that it have something to make it instantly distinctive and distinguishable from its competitors. Branding is a strategy used by many of the most successful companies of all sizes to familiarize the public with their goods and services. Having the right logo can draw the kind of attention to your brand that you need to improve your visibility. A well-designed logo can also function as your company’s professional “signature.” 
What Makes a Good Logo?
If you want people to remember your logo and associate it immediately with your company, you need to make sure it is unique, visually arresting, and communicates the right message about your business. This means not only creating an image that will set you apart from your competition, but also one that your customers can look to with trust and confidence. For a businessperson who is just wading into the world of branding, that can be a daunting task. That’s why Axiom is here. We have experience with branding that you can count on to set your firm in the right direction.
A good place to start with designing a logo is to think about the image you want to project to customers and the message you want to send about your business. People who are close to the business – business partners, employees, and even long-time customers – can be an excellent source of ideas to get your branding kick-started. Once you’ve developed a few test ideas, present them to a focus group of individuals and solicit their feedback about which best reflects your business and why. This can give you valuable information about how others perceive you and the message each potential logo is sending to you customers.
Spread the Word
Once you have decided upon a logo you need to be sure it gets the widest possible exposure. This means placing it wherever potential customers are likely to see it, whether it is on your website, in a direct mail brochure, on business cards, or any other media in which it can reach the public. One great place online to start your branding efforts is through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Over a billion people have accounts on Facebook alone, offering you access to a world of potential customers. Creating a Twitter account or a Facebook page featuring your logo is an excellent way to reach out to potential customers as well as to stay connected to current ones.
All of your company’s written communications also should feature your logo. For example, it should appear in the header or signature line of all of your firm’s emails. Printed marketing materials such as fliers, brochures, and print ads should always feature your logo prominently located in the document header. The more and wider exposure your logo gets, the better the public recognition of your brand and the more people who are likely to think of you when they need a professional contractor.
Branding and Graphic Design With Axiom
At Axiom we know what a significant undertaking branding can be, which is why we are here to offer a complete line of professional services to create and market your brand and logo. Axiom features the most highly skilled graphic designers to develop a logo precisely suited to your firm, as well as marketing and IT professionals who know how to get the widest online and print exposure for your brand. Our highly skilled staff is also well versed in the mechanical and electrical contracting industries, and can apply that knowledge to a custom –crafted solution for you. Contact Axiom today to see how we can help set you apart with a winning branding strategy.
Posted by: Axiom Internet Marketing
