Oracast Blog

Getting out of Spreadsheet Hell

May 16th, 2013

The value of using spreadsheets like Excel to keep track and run a portion of your business operation is amazing.  In the beginning it’s an excellent way to keep track of hours, or inventory, budgets and so much more.  But there comes a time when the demands on your spreadsheet become so big that your spreadsheet becomes a trap that consumes your time and energy, and now you’re stuck in spreadsheet hell.

As an example, lets consider Jim, a property manager who now manages 50 summer rental properties, using Excel to manage availability and pricing.  When a customer calls Jim looking to rent a place, he needs to quickly look through his spreadsheet, clicking on little tabs looking for an available unit.  The excel spreadsheet works fine for him, but he knows he is near his limits.  Keeping track of inventory for 2000 or 5000 properties with his current system is unrealistic, and there are so many vendors that have a large inventory that want to work with him, but he can’t grow his business.

What do you do now?  What are the spreadsheet alternatives?

Having a custom web application made is a solution that will save time and effort.  In the case of Jim, the application let him enter his properties with pictures, details and availability, and makes them easy to search.  He can also choose to have this data show right on his website, letting potential customers see the pictures of each unit with calendars of when that unit is available.

There are many benefits to putting your data into a web application with a database, where your data is in the cloud.

  • Many people can access your data
  • Have different levels of users with appropriate access
  • Data is in the cloud, so you don’t have to worry about back ups
  • Your data is searchable
  • Solution is scalable – Got LOTS of DATA? No problem

Everyone has custom needs, and converting spreadsheets into web apps is something we do on a regular basis here at Oracast.  Whether you need a cloud solution, or you want a mobile app, help is just a phone call away.

Posted in Oracast News, Web Applications | Comments Off


Avoiding Dangers of Adwords Broad Match

May 9th, 2013

Are you using Adwords with broad match (the default match type)?  Do you know what search terms are you actually showing up for?

Adwords makes these search terms easy to see, which lets you refine your campaign, which we’ll look at in a bit.

Start by going into an ad group, picking a keyword then clicking on Keyword Details which brings you a menu of options:

keyword_details

Now you get to see some of the search terms that Google actually showed your ad on.

searchterms

 

Google doesn’t show you all the search terms – sometimes with good reason, as they claim to not show search terms that contain personal information about their users.

Othersearch

Note that it’s pretty common to have a huge number of your impressions under the Other search terms

How to Use this info?

1. Negative Keywords

When using Broad match, Google will match your keyword to queries that you don’t want. When you see what you are getting clicks on, you will most likely start by adding some keywords as negatives.

negativekeywords

Note that if you use the Add as negative keyword button, it defaults to use the [keyword] as your negative, which means just that exact keyword is negative. In the example above, you might want to change the [real estate tools] to just tools, so it won’t appear in any combination of keywords.

2. New ads

Now that you’ve looked at your list of queries, you might be wondering why some users would click on your ad, when their search wasn’t related to your keyword.  For example, say you saw shredding chicken in your search terms report, and you’re a paper shredding company advertising the keyword shredding paper.  Before you yell out WTF, let’s look at your ads – Are they too generic?

Before

After
shred-ad shred-ad-new

 

In this case, if you were the user doing a search on Google, the ad title is vague enough that you might click, but if the title were Paper Shredding Expert there isn’t  a problem. Now’s a good time to review your ads and make sure they have a clear message.

3. New Keywords

The good part about using broad match is that Google may match your ad to keywords you hadn’t thought of originally when you set up the account.  In this case, you can select the keywords that you want to add through the check boxes beside each keyword to add them, or create a new add group with more targeted ads.

4. Change Match Type

Using Modified match often makes sense to use when you aren’t happy with the results from broad match.  All you need is to add the + before each keyword, and then Google will display variants on that word like plural/singular, but that word is required in order to match the user’s search term.

So for my keyword +real +estate +software the search terms are much closer to my clients service (notice the CTR improvement):

modified-terms

 

 

 

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Posted in Oracast News, Search Engine Marketing | Comments Off


5 SEO Tips for Website Redesign

April 19th, 2013

Are you currently planning or going through a website redesign? As you are probably already aware, there is a lot of thought that must go into a website redesign. From the look and feel to the features and functionality, there are a lot of details that must be considered and managed to make everything go smoothly. Elements of the newly designed website – including the site’s architecture, navigation, content, linking, and calls to action (CTAs) – need to be carefully assessed and tuned to ensure optimal performance with search engines. Here are five tips to help your website redesign yield better results and drive more relevant traffic to your site:

 

Tip #1: Use search-friendly URLs – they should contain relevant keywords and use hyphens as word separators. Having relevant keywords in the URLs helps with SEO and improves the visitor’s experience by keeping the URL short and memorable.

 

Tip #2: Map existing URLs to new URLs – when page names – or any URLs – change you must perform 301 redirects to direct visitors and search engines to the new URL.

 

Tip #3: Update HTML and XML sitemaps – be sure to add (or remove) any URLs in your HTML and XML sitemaps. Keeping your sitemaps up to date is important for both search engines and your visitors.

 

Tip #4: Keyword-rich content – develop SEO-focused copy that is keyword-rich, unique and informative. Include important keyword phrases as high up on the page as possible to help search engines determine the topic/them of the page. Additionally, use alt tags and image descriptions to help search engines index non-textual content.

 

Tip #5: Optimize meta data for main site pages – be sure that title tags are around 60-70 characters and use feature-important keywords. Title tags and meta descriptions should be unique and relevant to the page’s content; and make sure that the descriptions are attractive enough to entice the searcher to click through from a search results page.

Posted in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Web Design | Comments Off


Do You Have A Marketing Background and Eye for Design?

February 26th, 2013

About You

  • You understand marketing and especially web marketing and lose sleep over the thought of many terrible websites online.
  • You have an eye for design and creativity and would love to be in charge of a designer to make your vision come to life.
  • You love working with clients and can focus on their goals and needs to develop a plan.
  • You understand UI/UX concepts and can wireframe concepts in software to bring your ideas to life.
  • You are a goal-oriented and self-motivated person.  Nobody needs to get you going; you’re a bundle of energy.
  • You are someone who likes working from home and can work at least a good part of the day during regular office hours.
  • You are someone that can read and write English clearly (yes, you may talk to some customers … crazy idea isn’t it?).
  • You are in North America (sorry, we love other countries but we do sleep occasionally).

About Your Role

In your position as a Creative Director you w­­ill report to the VP of Operations.
As a Creative Director, you will work with our clients to develop marketing and UI/UX plans that will allow Oracast to build effective websites for our clients.  You will work as a permanent contract position working remotely or on-site in Kelowna, BC.  You will be responsible for the creative output of Oracast, with oversight of the creative team and creative processes; the ideation, presentation and execution of client branding and marketing communications campaigns; the profitability and creative quality of client projects, and the operational readiness of the creative team, all in fulfillment of our brand promise to our clients.

In this role you will:

  • White-label your service to become a key part of the Oracast process.
  • Develop creative online marketing plans with our clients to address short and long term goals.
  • Create online wireframes following standards based UI/UX guidelines to provide to our designers.
  • Manage the process of website development for several web projects at once acting as the team lead for standard websites.
  • Adhere to and providing accurate estimates for the amount of time required to complete an assignment.​
  • Communicate well with Business Development Managers, Supervisors, and Clients in regards to work requests.​
  • Direct the creative function so that the environment, culture, team, capabilities, tools, processes, expectations, work style and other elements support the strategic goals and brand of Oracast
  • Ensure that the creative function operates in an efficient, profitable manner
  • Ensure that our creative product remains leading edge and ahead of our competition
  • Ensure that our high quality of creative and production is upheld, maintaining consistently high standards for him/herself and others on the team
  • Deliver strategic communication solutions that help our clients attain their marketing and communications objectives
  • Listening, asking, hearing, prioritizing and translating client situation, marketing goals and information into strategic brand concepts, voice, messages and rationales
  • Collaborate and contribute to the creative process as a leader of a creative team, and as a member of the account team
  • Write and present cohesive and persuasive rationales for campaign approaches
  • Lead the unified process of marketing/concept/design and post-production execution

Keys to Success

Exceeding expectations is not only the key to our company’s success but also the key to your success within this role. At a fundamental level, your performance will depend on the satisfaction of your clients.  Additional keys to your success include:

  • Ability to “rise to a challenge” – as in any programming environment, challenges will occur and we will look to you as a leader to remain flexible, communicate openly regarding obstacles you encounter, and to develop creative strategies to overcome those obstacles.
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills – you’ll need to build solid relationships with a wide range of personalities and skill levels in order to do your job.
  • Self-motivation — in an environment with little to no micro-management, we’ll depend on you to be highly driven, efficient, and organized as you manage competing priorities and work independently to accomplish your goals.
  • “Team player” attitude — we employ a group of very hard working people, each with his/her own specialty that is essential to the success of the team.  We’ll expect you to not only work with those around you in a respectful fashion, but to also be willing to step in and support the team when your skills are in demand.
  • Integrity – as you know, this is a cash business and we need managers who operate with the highest level of integrity.

More About Our Company

Based in Calgary, AB with an office in Kelowna, BC, Oracast is a results-driven technology firm that architects reliable solutions to help companies maximize profits, reduce costs, and add measurable value.   Founded in 2003, Oracast was created to fill the need of quality service in the high-tech industry. This industry is notorious for huge egos, false promises, and terrible customer service.  Our customers find us refreshingly down to earth, and we provide the customer service that businesses have been looking for and, rightfully deserves. We love our work and enjoy helping our clients become more efficient and wildly successful.  We listen, ask tough questions, and leverage our experience to deliver intelligent solutions on-time and on-budget. Furthermore, we provide outstanding customer service to make sure that questions are answered, and all needs are quickly satisfied.  We live by our core values:

  • Integrity – Tell the truth, don’t lie.
  • Client Service – Keeping the client’s mission a priority.
  • Excellence – Going beyond the current standards, developing high quality intellectual capital, giving your best effort and constantly striving for improvement.
  • Innovation – Encourage the creativity and innovation to find the best approach to a given challenge.
  • Balance – Develop a culture that encourages work-life balance so that all team members are motivated and enabled to follow their passion.
  • Teamwork – Sharing knowledge, skill, successes and failures so that everyone excels.

If this sounds like the right mix of challenge and opportunity for you, and if you meet the required qualifications, we look forward to hearing from you!  Email us at careers@oracast.com.

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Take your business to the cloud

February 5th, 2013

Why jump on someone else’s cloud when you could have your own? Did you know that it’s possible to centralize and manage almost any aspect of your business in the cloud? If you’re looking for a better way to manage your projects, time tickets, invoices, employees, customers, inventory, resumes, and anything else that’s important to the operations of your business, we can help. For over 10 years we have helped businesses go from spreadsheets and/or manual systems to their very own web-based cloud.

Once you have your very own web-based cloud, customized to your unique business, it is very easy to manage your information in one central location. Furthermore your web-based cloud can easily scale with the increased growth of your business. This is something that most people who have used spreadsheets over a long period of time really appreciate because the amount of spreadsheets typically grow out of control. Many of our customers who quickly embraced their web-based cloud began adding new components to their system such as mobile devices, new features, and additional security policies.

We have also seen a trend with customers who are looking to provide a better experience for their customers; not to mention a competitive advantage. Let’s say you have a customer in downtown Calgary who has hired you to provide staffing for a big job in northern Alberta. With your web-based cloud, your workers up north can enter their time tickets into the system and perhaps upload some pictures showing their progress. You or anyone in your office, depending on their security permissions, can log-in to the system at any time and generate invoices, track invoices, manage projects, communicate with team members, and generate instant analytical reports; just to name a few. Now in the spirit of engaging your customer and maximizing their experience with your company, we can enhance your cloud to allow your client(s) to log-in and see the real-time progress of the project, see pictures of their progress, and communicate with the workers in the field. Try doing that with a spreadsheet.

Taking your business to the cloud will help you become more organized and more efficient; while saving time and money in the process. Is your business ready for a change? Let us help by taking it to the cloud. We’ve been doing it for over 10 years.

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SEO Audit for better website performance

January 28th, 2013

How is your website performing from a technical standpoint? Does it have structural problems or broken links? Are you being punished by Google? Do you even know? Business owners and marketers are constantly striving for better performance with their website, yet many of them do not take the time to “look under the hood” and check for problems that might be holding back their website.

Here are some symptoms that an SEO Audit can help cure:

  • Few visitors
  • High bounce rate
  • Low lead generation
  • Low conversions
  • Slow website

Conducting an SEO Audit at least once per year will identify issues with your website, provide solutions to fix those issues, and keep your website as optimized as possible. Not only will your visitors have a better experience when visiting your website, search engines like Google will reward you for having a well-optimized website.

How is your website performing? Want more online leads and better organic ranking? Give us a call and let our experts conduct an SEO Audit on your website today.

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What’s Your 2013 Online Marketing Strategy

January 15th, 2013

Is your 2013 online marketing strategy ready to go? Are you executing it right now? What does it look like? It’s surprising how few businesses actually develop and implement an online marketing strategy. If you’re one of these businesses and you want to generate more online leads, then you need to get started on an online marketing strategy. There are many options available to you and the effectiveness depends on thoroughly understanding your target market.

To help kick-off the new year and get you started in 2013, here is a quick checklist that you can use to develop your own online marketing strategy:

  • Social Media Marketing: Do you have a company blog? Is your company leveraging LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube? Social Media has become a big part of lead generation and can help position you as an authority in your industry.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Struggling to be found online and increase website traffic? Is your website generating leads? SEO can target the people who are looking for information on specific products or services by increasing keyword search visibility to grow traffic, leads, and sales.
  • Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC): Looking to quickly generate leads and get first-page exposure? By incorporating a PPC campaign in your online marketing strategy, you get instant brand visibility and immediate, measurable results. This is a highly effective way of generating leads.
  • Email Marketing: Do you have a drip campaign for acquisition and education? Are you building email lists? Email marketing is still a great way to reach customers and establish yourself as an authority in your industry.
  • Website Analytics: Do you look at your website’s analytics? How much traffic are you getting? What’s your average bounce rate? Which pages are performing well and which pages aren’t? Knowing the analytics of your website will help you understand its performance and where improvements need to be made.
  • Content Marketing: Are you frequently publishing blog or news articles? Have you written any whitepapers, case studies, or e-books? Content remains king; and by providing great content to readers and potential customers you are setting yourself up as a great resource and authority in your industry.
  • Mobile Optimized Website: Is your website optimized for mobile devices? How does it look? Considering the fact that mobile devices have out-sold computers and almost everyone you know has a mobile device, it’s extremely important to provide mobile customers with a great experience.

How many of the above initiatives are you using today? Would you be more successful online if you were to leverage all of them in your 2013 strategy? The answer is: of course!

Don’t be intimidated. Understanding and implementing these initiatives is very important to your online success. The new year is a great time for you and your business to generate more leads and set yourself up for long-term growth. Why not give it a try? We would love to help. If you have questions or need a hand in developing your online strategy,  don’t hesitate to give us a call.

Posted in Mobile Optimized Web, Search Engine Marketing, Search Trends, Social Media Marketing | Comments Off


Are You The PHP Programmer That We Need?

October 1st, 2012

About You

  • You are a PHP Rock Star.
  • You are a goal-oriented and self-motivated person.  Nobody needs to get you going; you’re a bundle of energy.
  • You can see the whole picture (a little creative thinking goes a long way).
  • You are someone with strong PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript experience. (did we mention you should love to code in PHP?). Oh, Zend, Code Igniter or jQuery experience is a bonus for sure.  We love bleeding edge technology and expect to learn as much from you as you will from us.
  • You are someone who likes working from home and can work at least a good part of the day during regular office hours.
  • You are someone that can read and write English clearly (yes, you may talk to some customers … crazy idea isn’t it?).
  • You are in North America (sorry, we love other countries but we do sleep occasionally).

About Your Role

In your position as a Software Developer you will report to one of the owners.
As a Software Developer, you will develop web-based applications that will bring clarity and efficiency to our clients.  You will work as a permanent contract position working remotely or on-site in Kelowna, BC.  In this role you will:

  • Create new web-based applications that will excite our clients and help them understand, control and manage all aspects of their business at any time of the day, from anywhere in the world and on any device.
  • Produce high quality work adhering to Oracast standards and following the Oracast production process.
  • Work independently with shifting priorities and tight deadlines.
  • Staff development is crucial and as such you will recruit high level employees who are committed to high standards of performance.
  • Adhere to and providing accurate estimates for the amount of time required to complete an assignment.
  • Communicating well with Business Development Managers, Supervisors, and Clients in regards to work requests.
  • Have the ability to find and fix problems in code, even if it is not your code and it comes from a relative incoherent complaint from a client.

Keys to Success

Exceeding expectations is not only the key to our company’s success but also the key to your success within this role. At a fundamental level, your performance will depend on the satisfaction of your clients.  Additional keys to your success include:

  • Ability to “rise to a challenge” – as in any programming environment, challenges will occur and we will look to you as a leader to remain flexible, communicate openly regarding obstacles you encounter, and to develop creative strategies to overcome those obstacles.
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills – you’ll need to build solid relationships with a wide range of personalities and skill levels in order to do your job.
  • Self-motivation — in an environment with little to no micro-management, we’ll depend on you to be highly driven, efficient, and organized as you manage competing priorities and work independently to accomplish your goals.
  • “Team player” attitude — we employ a group of very hard working people, each with his/her own specialty that is essential to the success of the team.  We’ll expect you to not only work with those around you in a respectful fashion, but to also be willing to step in and support the team when your skills are in demand.
  • Integrity – as you know, this is a cash business and we need managers who operate with the highest level of integrity.

More About Our Company

Based in Calgary, AB with an office in Kelowna, BC, Oracast is a results-driven technology firm that architects reliable solutions to help companies maximize profits, reduce costs, and add measurable value.   Founded in 2003, Oracast was created to fill the need of quality service in the high-tech industry. This industry is notorious for huge egos, false promises, and terrible customer service.  Our customers find us refreshingly down to earth, and we provide the customer service that businesses have been looking for and, rightfully deserves. We love our work and enjoy helping our clients become more efficient and wildly successful.  We listen, ask tough questions, and leverage our experience to deliver intelligent solutions on-time and on-budget. Furthermore, we provide outstanding customer service to make sure that questions are answered, and all needs are quickly satisfied.  We live by our core values:

  • Integrity – Tell the truth, don’t lie.
  • Client Service – Keeping the client’s mission a priority.
  • Excellence – Going beyond the current standards, developing high quality intellectual capital, giving your best effort and constantly striving for improvement.
  • Innovation – Encourage the creativity and innovation to find the best approach to a given challenge.
  • Balance – Develop a culture that encourages work-life balance so that all team members are motivated and enabled to follow their passion.
  • Teamwork – Sharing knowledge, skill, successes and failures so that everyone excels.

If this sounds like the right mix of challenge and opportunity for you, and if you meet the required qualifications, we look forward to hearing from you!  Email us at careers@oracast.com.

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Ready for a Mobile Optimized Website?

August 22nd, 2012

Summer is almost over and back to school shopping is in full swing. While your customers are on the move, will your website provide them with a great mobile experience? Is your website optimized for mobile devices? If not, don’t worry, many businesses haven’t optimized their website to be mobile-friendly, which presents a great competitive advantage for you and your business. Did you know that smart phones have overtaken the PC industry?

What is a mobile-optimized website? Why should I do this with my website?

A mobile optimized website provides the best user experience on mobile devices. It provides mobile users with faster load times and it makes your messages easier to read. Check out the following “before and after” picture:

mobile optimized web

The good news is that creating a mobile optimized website is quick and inexpensive. Your customers are already browsing the web on their mobile devices; are you ready to give them a better experience than your competitors? Call us today and take advantage of our 10% discount on all mobile optimized websites until the end of September 2012.

Posted in Mobile Optimized Web, Oracast News | Comments Off


The best spreadsheet alternative

June 6th, 2012

Looking for the best alternative to spreadsheets? Consider a custom-built web application. A custom web application can take your existing processes and turn them into an online productivity tool that can be accessed from anywhere and by multiple people at the same time.

Transferring your spreadsheets to an online solutions is quick and easy. We can take your existing spreadsheets, that may or may not contain business rules and/or formulas, and translate them into an online solution that is easy to use. Furthermore we can create secure user roles so that certain people only have access to the information that they are allowed to see.
The best part about investing an a custom built web application is that it is designed specifically for your business. Need to add more features? Not a problem. Looking to integrate mobile devices with your web application|? No problem. We have been developing world-class web applications since 2003. We have the experience and technical skills to elevate your operations from good to great.

As one example, we helped Shell Canada save over a million dollars per year in operational training costs. Shell has told us that the system we built (in partnership with ICOM Productions) has paid for itself hundreds of times over. How is that for an ROI? Imagine what we can do for your business.

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