CapemayX's Michael Longfellow speaks to local businesses looking to gain a competitive edge for their online marketing initiatives. The takeaway message: capemayX stories are starting to rate at the top of many targeted Google searches so you should consider our sponsor opportunities for your Cape May business or service.

CapemayX has received terrific feedback about our photography, our one of a kind video interviews, super easy sharing tools, and unique approach to covering Cape May stories. But the real benefit to Cape May businesses and visitors is when the major search engines start ranking our unique content at the top of specific, relevant searches. That's happening right now and we're thrilled.

Relevance

In the online search world, relevance is the name of the game. If content is not relevant and plugged in to the search engines correctly (a whole 'nother discussion and critical in this process), it's difficult to appear in the top of a search result. These days, people research online before arriving in town: accommodations, restaurants, activities, history, everything. And even when they arrive, they might search more since wireless is so ubiquitous and accessible. Search is how people discover, and search engines reward sites that build relevant content that changes often and stays focused on a site's niche. Relevance matters and we've built capemayX from the ground up with this as a strategic goal..

Case in Point

Words are great, but it's results that count so let's look at some examples of how capemayX stories play out in a typical search.

Google Loves George's Lemon Greek chicken

The Lemon Greek Chicken Salad at George's Place is really tasty. That's why we created the story. Let's suppose there's a New York vacationer here enjoying Cape May's best with his family, and lemon greek chicken salad is his thing. When he types...

"cape may lemon greek chicken salad"


Click to see actual google search result ... into the Google Search, as of June 1, 2007 — our capemayX story comes up ranked #1 in the non-paid search. Try it yourself in a Google Search. This is a beautifully tasty result for any business that's struggled with trying to reach the top search ranks. Businesses invest huge amounts for top rankings, and many use Google's paid search (ADWORDS) because they can't get high enough in the non-paid search.As capemayX adds more targeted stories, our site becomes more relevant, and increases likelyhood that more stories will rise in the search results.

Ok, now let's say that same New Yorker's son little Johnny pumpkinhead wants pizza the next night. Now New Yorkers love their pizza, so Dad's rightfully skeptical they'll find anything that resembles his beloved brick oven slice here in south jersey. But he's pumped when he searches Google ...

"cape may brick oven pizza"

...and finds within the top tier of page one the capemayX story we created about Lucky Bones having the best and only Brick Oven pizza in town. Click here to see the live Google search (and of course, numbers may vary day to day).

Are we promising this kind of result in every capemayX story? Of course not. There are too many variables out of our control. But we've laid a strategic framework that works. And clearly the results speak volumes about our methodology and early success. And we're just getting started. Another example, type in

"Cape May Where to Buy Crocs"

and the #1 search result is our cool impromptu video interview with Colors owner Steve Haley. How about this one...

"Cape May's best hardware store"

Our capemayX interview with sponsor Swains Hardware is #1 one in the non-paid search. Here's the actual search result from yesterday. Now Swains Hardware, a long time local business, comes up at number one for the fairly general search string of Cape May's best hardware store. You would think many other websites would put that search on top, but our capemayX single page Q&A interview comes up at number one.

One more. How about the funky dunk video interview we did with local guitar legend Geno White. Now if you're a blues lover, like am, and you know Geno's music and want to track down information about him you might type in this simple search...

"cape may geno white blues guitar"

Again, #1 in the non-paid search. Plus there's a number of similar results related to either the video clip or the story.

Why this is important

We're building value. And we have undeniable proof that our model works. Photo by photo, video by video, story by story. Every capemayX story, has a role in communicating the total Cape May brand. And on capemayX, all stories are archived, searchable and sharable. The more stories we create, the more valuable we are as an online destination resource. We'll be looking for businesses, services, and people that get what we're doing — to be partners in our efforts. And that's really what we're quietly announcing here.

Very soon we will launch our sponsorship initiative which basically means we'll have a simple but comprehensive way for you to include your business or service into our range of communications offerings. If you'd like to be on our list of potential sponsors, go to our capemayX Sponsor Opportunities page. Your filling out this form gives us a simple way to get a snapshot of your business, and provides a way to respond back. All information is confidential. So go ahead and sign up today, while supplies last. :O) And get out there and enjoy the great Cape May weather (today at least)!

Cheers,
Michael