Apple needs to put more resources into their iPhone app program. We have all heard how slow it is to get apps approved or for simple updates to be pushed through. We experienced this first hand working on iHoops where some simple updates took close to two weeks to get approved.

Now some apps are being rejected due to third party content that the developer has no control of. Apple pulled these apps claiming it violates their policy of no adult or hate related content. It is impossible to police everything on the internet and the fact that some user could sabotage an app which costs thousands of dollars and weeks or months to develop seems unfair. As long as the app adheres to Apples policy I don’t think third party content brought into the app should be made to follow the same guidelines as long as their is proper warning that the content is being delivered from the internet not the app itself. What is the difference of launching Safari and going to an adult website on the phone. There is none.Yet Apple has allowed controversial apps to be approved in the past. I want to know who dropped the ball on the Baby Shaking app which Apple initially approved and then later removed.

Searching for apps also presents problems. Apple needs to incorporate some type of better search algorithm. It seems as if old school black hat seo tricks of the web work on the app store, such as keyword stuffing, and unrelated content about other apps. I recently searched for an art type of application and though the top results were related to my search after the first couple of apps they started to become totally unrelated. I clicked on the apps to see why and found out that in the description text listed hundreds of other popular apps at the bottom. To me this seems so out dated. If I am searching for “Graffiti” why would “Coed Spring Break” come up ahead of iGraffiti. Just because they have the name in their description? Come on, take a page from Google and learn how to filter results better and not let simple tricks such as unrelated keyword stuffing determine the results. If it takes so long to get apps approved why not take a few minutes and have the person approving the app actually read the description to make sure it is in line with what the app claims to do and not allow unrelated content.

I am one of the biggest Apple supporters out there and love pretty much anything they do. But I feel they need to invest more time and money into their app store to streamline the process, deal with third party content in a better way, and improve their own search capability. There are just too many inconsistencies with the app store and apps in general.

Local Mojo is finally up! We’ve been working on this behind the scenes at AgencyWeb for the last several months. I designed the front end of the site and built the css framework. Again we worked worked with Luke and his guys who built all the amazing features that make this platform work. It’s currently in soft launch but ready for some businesses to sign up for. It’s the perfect blend for most businesses. We found that a lot of companies don’t need or can’t afford a full blown web marketing agency like AgencyWeb, or they need something more then a directory listing like National Online Directory. Along came Local Mojo.

Local Mojo provides businesses with free local sites that provide the standard directory style information such as location with maps, hours of operations, payment options, services etc. But they allow you some “mojo” by having the ability to embed your own YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Twitter updates and more. Local Mojo also gives the user to track everything with powerful state of the art analytics and the option to buy targeted localized traffic to get even more visitors to your site.

So if you want a free website to help your local business check out www.localmojo.com and if you want to really have some mojo sign up for some of the enhanced features.

Back in March we made a post called “Google is getting fast” which I talked about how fast pages are changing positions. I decided to check it again to see if it was still the case.

Last week I searched for “clean web design” and Digital Skratch came up in posistion #54. After deciding to optimize for that term I checked the results every few days. At first we dropped to position 72, and then regained to spots 54 and 53. I checked it today and found our site listed at the bottom of page 1 in the #10 spot!

Again this is proof that proper SEO and ongoing website maintenance should be at the top of your list if your website or online marketing is important to your business.

We have started to see some really interesting results with Google lately. For example we started to optimize for the words Concert Flyer Design and Club Flyer Design. Around 3 weeks ago we were not in the top 10 pages on Google for either. Out of no where I noticed for Concert Flyer Design we shot up to the first page and #5. After some more edits and tweaks we moved to #4 a few days later. A few days after that we had a 2nd page listed, and then about a week after that we moved to #3 overall.

For Club Flyer Design we were not in the top 10, then when we got ranked it was on page 9. A few days after that we moved up to page 5. In addition to that we have several other first page rankings and some #1 positions as well.This now means that SEO should be an even bigger part of your online marketing strategy because it is so fast paced. If you do not stay up on it your competition will be able to take advantage of this and gain position. This is done with a good strategy of on-site and off-site SEO. Please contact us for more information regarding our Design and SEO services.