Location 1: A good place to start is in your own backyard. Make sure that you business is on Google maps (Link) You will need to have a Google account, so once you set one up, go into your account and spend some time filling out the online form. It’s very important to use the kind of keywords that prospective leads would use to find your business and services on a Google search.
This SEO tip works very well because when ever someone does a local search (i.e. Web Design Boronia) Google uses it’s map feature to list all the local services in that area. This can lift you above all the competition without spending one single Adword dollar.
You could also ask happy customers to leave feedback on the review page. This may push your listing higher within the location list.

Location 2: Geotags! Ok this is a new one on me, but we are currently testing it out and results are positive. It seems to work in the same way as Google maps, by giving search engines your global position. You will probably get better organic rankings for localized search requests. The theory being that a search for ‘web design’ by someone located in Boronia, will show the same kind of results as ‘web design boronia’. You can get your ‘GeoTags’ from this website by typing in your address.

Location 3: Putting a location within a webpage heading is an easy, yet very effective way to tell Google and potential customers that the information on a page is relevant to their local search. As an example: if I want to sell more ‘Widgets‘ to customers in ‘Boronia‘ then I would firstly add content to the page that refers to Widgets in Boronia and then name the page something like ‘Widgets for all your widget needs in Boronia’.
Now when someone in Boronia searches for local widget or Widgets Boronia, Google will put your Widgets page before your competitors page that talks about Widgets in Victoria.

Google is like a monster oil tanker that takes a very long time to change direction, so don’t expect instant results. You should take a snap shot of where you are on Google today. Test and measure times can be as long as 6 weeks to take effect.

So I wanted to make the Avalanche 404 page a little bit more entertaining and amusing, to avoid the usual negative reaction of hitting the 404 wall. If you ever find yourself on our 404 page, then please let me know what you were looking for. I have box under my desk full of lost and found items, you never know, it maybe in there.

I’ve been meaning to fix this page for a very long while… It’s that leaky plumbers tap syndrome. But the refreshing Xmas holidays has left me with energy spare at the end of the day to do a little house work.
Well, not actually house work, Pete is still in charge of the studio vacuum cleaner and I avoid the office washing up as much as I can.

Build 401 are a specialised team based in Boronia who are 100% committed to providing quality, creative bespoke homes at competitive prices.

Avalanche Creative were approached by Build 401 to give their branding a complete makeover.

We started with developing their personality through a logo and tagline – “Quality living, on time and on budget”. This sums up exactly what they do in one simple sentence.

Next we developed all their corporate stationery based on their new brand identity, then moved on to their website.

Again, we’ve built their website in the easy to use WordPress Content Management System, which we love here at Avalanche – so easy for clients to use and update.

Recently we updated the logo and website for a local health food store in Ferntree Gully – Mountain Health.  The logo is based on an old hand painted sign on the window which you can still see on the actual store in Mountain Gate Shopping Centre.

Their new health foods website has been built as an information portal to have lots of handy information regarding natural medicine and health. The Mountain Health girls will regularly update the website with tips on healthy living with the first post tipped to be on Stress (something we all suffer from!! As a bonus, if you sign up to their e-newsletter, you’re eligible for specials and discounts from their store!

The Mountain Health website has been built in WordPress, a simple Content Management System which means the girls will be able to update it quickly and easily whenever they like.

We do give training for our WordPress websites and teach you how to update it yourselves. Don’t be alarmed as no prior experience is needed, it’s a bit like Microsoft Word, but with more features.

If you’re interested in a similar solution give us a call on 03 9761 0122 today!

Avalanche have recently completed the rebranding of Parker Brent Institute, an education centre who train and qualify staff for industries. Recently they’ve moved their focus towards the construction industry and wanted a refresh of their brand to work with their new company vision.
We took to the drawing board and after a few versions, came up with this colourful geometric look. Very architectural. Very ‘Melbourne’, you may say!

In other news, did you see the Chinese imitation of the Melbourne logo?

We’ve recently revamped the Roy A Mcdonald and Lindale Logos.

They are owned by the same company but each company focusses on different aspects of business finance. We kept aspects of the old logos and unified the two through colour and type. More print work to come.

On behalf of Avalanche and Michael of Hive BDM, we’re proud to announce that the Hive BDM is now live! Started somewhere in 2009, this website has patiently waited through a couple of office moves and a very happy wedding and now is standing live, waiting to climb up the google ranks!

Here you can check out Hive’s latest building projects, read case studies and check out their extensive portfolio. It’s really a great simple site built in WordPress that Hive can easily update and manage themselves!

If you’d like help with your website or corporate brand identity, give us a call at Avalanche 03 9761 0122!

Issue 3 of Australian Mustang and Ford Magazine was released Mid March, so I hope you’ve all had a chance to head down to your local newsagent and grab yourself a copy! Featuring a heap of Ford and Mustang goodness, feature cars, show scene covers, car builds, how to’s, plus more. Remember you can subscribe at the AMFM Magazine website.

We’d recommend a visit to the site to get a full view of what we’ve done -> Lots of friendly animal pictures, lots of pictures of happy clients and all about the Heathmont vet team. They really are a friendly bunch, as we’ve sent our own pets there for superb care!

Heathmont Animal Hospital is built in WordPress, an easy to use content management system.

Magazines are always great jobs. They often start off as a simple publication but the end result is often a totally different beast. Issue #150 of Victorian Bar News was a great example. By the end of the project, it had doubled in size and even merged with a smaller internal publication!

Our challenge as designers was to collate all the data from many different authors and present it in an appealing and consistent voice. To make it easier to read/digest, we introduced different colour sections for each area, with consistent headings. Each section was broken into easy to read chunks of text and images, with clear fonts and layouts.

It was well received at Vic Bar and we look forward to doing the next issue!