Via ReadWriteWeb:

It pays to be mobile, if you want to reach the last-minute planners. According to Google 62% of restaurant related searches on Valentine’s Day were from “high end mobile devices or tablets.”

Something to think about for restaurants or other businesses that don’t have mobile-friendly sites.

Stuff you should know from this Zmags survey:

Today, more than 60% of 25-34 year-olds (Gen-Y) own a smartphone. One in three online consumers will buy a tablet by 2014.

Only 4% of these consumers use branded apps. Eighty-seven percent prefer to use websites and mobile sites.

90 million people will be using tablets by 2014.

Smartphone and tablet apps are not consumers’ preferred channel for
browsing or shopping: just 4 percent of connected consumers like to use
branded apps, whereas 87 percent prefer to use websites and mobile
sites. 60 percent choose to shop via digital or print catalogs.

Connected consumers’ tablet use and spending activity is on the rise:
in the 2011 holiday season, 87 percent of tablet owners did their holiday
shopping using their tablets, spending on average $325. In addition,
49 percent expect to shop more on their tablet over the next year.

More than three quarters of consumers are active Facebook users,
signaling a large untapped opportunity.

Meet the connected consumer

She’s a 40-something woman.

Despite what many may assume, the average connected
consumer is not a millennial. 52 percent of connected
consumers are women with a mean age of 40; they have a
mean household income of $63,000.

She carries multiple Internet-connected devices

In addition to owning a PC or laptop, 43 percent of connected
consumers also own smartphones, and 16 percent own a tablet.

She’s super social

Connected consumers are a social crowd and enthusiastic
about shopping. More than three quarters of them are active
Facebook users, 60 percent shop via digital or print catalogs,
and more than 40 percent say shopping makes them feel
happy. “Excited,” “thrifty” and “productive” also top the list of
the connected consumer’s shopping emotions.

Device ownership and use is remarkably consistent among
connected consumers who shop different retail categories.

Whether looking at electronics, jewelry, clothing, toys or travel,
in each category:
• 62-65 percent of connected consumers shop via digital or print catalogs
• 75-78 percent own a laptop
• 41-45 percent own smartphones
• 81-86 percent use Facebook

I have targeted the following terms: Shreveport website designer, Shreveport web designer, Shreveport WordPress developer, Shreveport mobile web design and have expanded that list to include Shreveport search engine optimization as well. I have noticed some fluctuation on a daily basis as I monitor these terms and it is interesting to see how these terms rise and fall without any intervention from me. It goes to show you that the rankings are a very fluid thing requiring continued attention. That said, here’s the ranking of those terms on Google and Bing as of today:

I added that last term in there just out of curiosity. Keep in mind that is a name with a LOT of competition so for an initial effort I don’t think that’s too bad. The same goes for ‘Shreveport web design’ – a very generic namespace that has well established competition.

As always this is an ongoing process that will span months. The view here is in the long term because while you may have good results initially, the only way to guarantee a lasting result is to craft it with care week by week.

I am also in the process of implementing SEO programs for three clients already and it seems that there is a great interest in this. Businesses and organizations are looking to get a maximum return on their investment and with the phone book essentially dead these days, it is critical that your website is highly visible in Google and Bing.

I’m working on a WordPress site for a client that has a custom database of properties which I will import via the Turbo CSV plugin. But the issue is these records will be custom post types in WordPress, and I am using the wonderful Advanced Custom Fields plugin for WordPress (and why shouldn’t you be, it rocks) for building the fields.

Thankfully in the 3.0 beta of ACF, Elliot has gone to using the native WordPress table (postmeta) to store the custom post type data, because Turbo CSV puts the imported values into that table as well (doing it the ‘WordPress’ way).

Elliot is storing his configuration data for each field within the postmeta table for each field now, so for every record entered, you need to create a new record in the postmeta table that points the custom field used by the ACF plugin to configuration data so it will be handled and presented by ACF properly.

I have created a script which will create these records for you to tie your imported custom fields/data to ACF’s handling methods. All you need to do is pass the starting post ID and the number of records to the script through the URL string and it will take it from there. This is a standalone script but you’ll need to copy some stuff from your wp-config.php and also set your database prefix. Just call it directly in the browser after you have made your edits to configure the script.

You can download the script here. If you find any bugs please let me know. I was able to successfully associate several hundred records with this file for use with ACF.

Terms I am interested in “owning” for my own business purposes and promotion:

• Shreveport website designer
• Shreveport web designer
• Shreveport WordPress developer
• Shreveport mobile web design

I’m not even listed in Bing as of this posting so it will be interesting to see how that works out. I will be tracking my progress here.

The learning never stops, but that’s a good thing. I always want to be learning more and more about my craft so that I can offer the best services possible.

I told you so.