Cloud Wise Academy is teaching local businesses how to rank higher on search engines

REDDING, Calif. - Dec. 31, 2016 - PRLog -- Businesses across the world, and especially small rural businesses, are suffering from a tricky issue. The conventional wisdom about how to run a business has existed since the industrial revolution, but search engines and e-commerce have made much of that knowledge obsolete in a little over a decade. Much has been made in the media about how rural economies are struggling to adapt to globalization, but the advent of the Information Age has been just as significant in terms of forcing marketers, managers, and salespeople to change or die. Smaller firms are especially hard-hit.

Matt Morgan, president of Optimize Worldwide, a local web marketing firm, has observed how his services have become ever-more-crucial as time has gone on. "There was a time when it was merely advantageous to a business to have a website, because then customers could find information 24/7, but once everyone started using their smartphones, it became a necessity," he remarks. "Customers are going to Google because it's the top search engine. And, more than likely, they're going to search on their phone. So not only do you need a beautiful website that's mobile friendly, but you need to be found in Google search."

This new reality has had a profound negative impact on places like Redding in terms of employment and innovation. Businesses that struggle to understand Google have lost out to competitors in larger cities who do. Amazon has taken a significant piece of almost everyone's business.

But technology represents a profound opportunity as well.

One local technology school, backed by the Shasta Economic Corporation, has taken steps to address this lack of knowledge. Cloud Wise Academy is offering a six-week course for managers and employees on Search Engine Optimization.

Tony Giovaniello, president of the Shasta EDC, said about Cloud Wise Academy's beginner course, "The skills taught and learned at the Academy are literally changing people's lives. Some of the students needed a new path or new hope. Probably the most invigorating part of all of this is how much that has become a reality for the people attending Cloud Wise Academy courses."

What is Search Engine Optimization?
"Search Engine Optimization, in a nutshell, is all about using the best practices out there to encourage Google to rank your website higher," explains Chauncey Haworth, instructor of the upcoming Cloud Wise Academy SEO course, "so that you can create more revenue."

As Chauncey tells it, the largest and most successful companies do generally invest a great deal of money into SEO, to the extent that it may be considered a cornerstone of modern business. However, the "vast majority" of businesses overlook SEO, and suffer for it. "A robust online presence is crucial for any business now," says Chauncey. "Knowing what to do and how to do it when creating this presence will separate you from most businesspeople on the Internet today."

Joe Mckenna, founder of Cloud Wise Academy, stresses the importance of this class in a different way. "I still hear that 'people won't buy a gun safe online, people won't be a home online, there are certain things people won't do online.' And every one of those notions is being shattered. 80% of potential customers use search engines to find local businesses. We all know that as consumers we go to our phone or to our computer and compare prices when we buy. With our consumer hat on, we get that we do that. But when we put our business hat on, we think it's too complicated and it's not that important."

"They think their customers don't do it," Mckenna continues. "They know they search online in their own life, but they think their customers don't do it. Or they know that it's necessary, but it's just too frustrating or too complicated."

Why Cloud Wise Academy began
"There's a gap," says Joe. "Customers want to buy one way, and businesses are struggling to do it. We have to pull down the barriers and the roadblocks so business can get online."

Indeed, Cloud Wise Academy was born because the Shasta EDC wanted to confront these barriers head-on so that businesses from out of the area could be enticed to come to Redding. "There's definitely been an emerging talent gap in the area for a long time, and we wanted to fill it," Tony remarks. "Initial indications are this school is going to fill all the goals and objectives we have."

Cloud Wise Academy classes, including the Search Engine Optimization class, are aimed at both business owners who want to understand how to manage SEO, and at employees who want to find a new career in online marketing, or expand their existing knowledge.

"In everything I do," as Joe Mckenna puts it, "I feel like I'm talking to two audiences. I'm talking to the businesses in Shasta County, because I want them to understand the skills they need to make Redding a shining example of an economic force. But I'm also talking to the outcasts. The ones for whom life didn't go the way June Cleaver and Mary Poppins said it would. I want to give them a chance."

Cloud Wise Academy's search engine optimization class begins on January 17th. It will take place in the Cloud Wise Academy office of the Shasta Venture Hub, at 4300 Caterpillar Road in Redding. Class times are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 6-9 PM, for six weeks. This course requires no prior web development or marketing experience. Sign-ups are online, at Cloud Wise Academy's website. Cloud Wise Academy's other upcoming course, starting January 4th, "Websites for Beginners," teaches HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. That course is sold out.

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Cloud Wise Academy
4300 Caterpillar Road
Redding, CA 96003
Joe Mckenna, CEO, Cloud Wise Academy
800-241-0341
info@cloudwiseacademy.com