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June 2019
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Member News
Chief Executive Officer's Notes
Congratulations to Mike McKenzie who was sworn in as our new President, and many thanks to outgoing President Jim Steed and all his work on the Executive Committee. It's going to be a busy year, so see all of you at your district meetings and at our Board of Directors Meeting in Pasadena in September.
Upcoming Events
September Board of Directors Meeting Thursday, September 12: Golf Tournament (Information to follow) _______________________________________________________________________________________
Pest Ed Series October 24, 2019 - Hyatt Regency Long Beach November 12, 2019 - Crowne Plaza Concord Walnut Creek January 14, 2020 - Citrus Heights Community Center
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December Board of Directors Meeting Thursday, December 12: Golf Tournament (Information to follow)
Affiliate Corner
Chaz Estrada, with Univar Solutions, is a 29 year old family man from Rancho Cucamonga, CA. His wife of 5 years, Jade, and 2 ½ year old daughter, Charlee, drive him towards success on a daily basis.
Chaz Estrada
CAPMA Monthly Insurance/Safety Tip
More than 300,000 Americans die of sudden cardiac arrest every year. If one of your employees had a heart attack while at work, would someone there know what to do?
When blood flow or breathing stops, seconds count. Permanent brain damage or death can happen quickly. Knowing how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) could save a life. When a person’s heart has stopped or he/she is no longer breathing, CPR can maintain circulation and breathing until emergency medical help arrives. Even those who haven’t had training can do “hands-only” CPR for a person whose heart has stopped beating. “Hands-only” CPR uses chest compressions to keep blood circulating until emergency help arrives. If you’ve had training, you can use chest compressions and rescue breathing. Rescue breathing helps get oxygen to the lungs for a person who has stopped breathing. Many organizations offer CPR training, including the American Red Cross. All employers should consider having at least one employee certified in CPR. (In fact, you might already have a certified employee on staff.) Depending on the size of your company and number of shifts, you might need more. Generally, certification takes only a few hours. To keep your skills up, you should repeat the training every two years. Post a list of CPR and first-aid certified employees at key locations in your building to ensure easy access during an emergency. An automated external defibrillator (AED) provides another tool to help certain heart attack victims survive until emergency help arrives. Experts estimate that 50,000 heart attack victims could be saved every year if rescuers had access to an AED. The most beneficial AED program is one that not only can provide an AED, but also integrates this life-saving equipment into a comprehensive program that includes clinical expertise and quality assurance to assure the highest level of responder preparedness. For more information, please contact the PCOC Insurance Program professionals of EPIC at (877) 860-7378 or, email us @ ProPest@epicbrokers.com. Also, check out our website: www.pcocinsurance.com. Paul Lindsay 
Legislative Update
The rodenticide bill has been the topic of conversation for what feels like this whole year. Just recently, there were some amendments added to the bill. Not the ones that we wanted but the bill was amended. The changes were primarily that Senator Stern became co-author, that the use of anticoagulant rodenticides can be used for control non-native invasive rodent species on offshore islands, and that special local needs or emergency exemptions can be gotten under FIFRA. As far as the last one, we are not sure what kind of impact that will have, but we do believe that means that Federal EPA will need to grant those exemptions in conjunction with DPR. These amendments were added by the author to address some of the concerns that we brought up, but we are not sure what kind of impact they will have on the end users of these products. But even with all of this in mind, we have not let up on the pressure on the author’s office or the other legislators that can influence the outcome of this bill. Darren Van Steenwyk, M.S., BCE
Comings & Goings
Congratulations to Mike McKenzie, who was inducted as President at our Expo.
Congratulations to this year's recipient of the Harvey Logan Lifetime Achievement Award, Carl Doucette. Carl's family watched on as he received his award, which was presented to him by Bob Gordon and Paul Lindsay.
Congratulations to the 2019 Professional Women in Pest Management Scholarship recipient, Natalie Sullivan
We had two of our Scholarship Foundation Scholarship recipients in attendance at Expo,
Look in the Fall Issue of The Voice magazine for more pictures from Expo!
Frequently Requested Information
*NEW* NPMA Login for Joint Membership (Through June 30, 2019)
LOGIN: Email or Personal ID PASSWORD: npma Frequently Asked-For WebsitesDepartment of Fish & Game Department of Food & Agriculture California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) DPR on Facebook DPR on YouTube (see "playlists" for videos pertaining to new surface water regulations) DPR on Twitter DPR LinkedIn Healthy Schools Act Structural Pest Control Board Find Your Legislator NPMA's QualityPro Accrediation Application One Thing in Web Marketing
When it comes to SEO, there’s no easy answer for how to achieve online success. The journey to the number one ranking on Google differs for lots of different industries and lots of different markets. It’s safe to say strong title and meta tags, quick page load speed, and quality content are the safe bets for SEO growth. These strategies make it easy on Google to match searchers with content that is most relevant to them. On the other end of the spectrum, there are absolutely things you shouldn’t be doing to boost your ranking. Over the years – and through countless Google updates – SEO tactics have grown and changed as search engines become smarter. Perhaps the first step to understanding how to get to page one of Google is to know what practices kill your ranking. The following are some of the SEO tactics of yesteryear which can unfavorably affect your pest control Website’s ability to show up well on Google. These tactics range from simply being outdated to straight up bad news for your Website’s place in search results. Duplicate Content One of the more common SEO blunders small businesses commit is using duplicate content. This refers to text that is identical on multiple pages. The main reason this isn’t recommended is because of the strain it puts on search engines. Google wants to provide searchers with the most relevant and accurate pages as possible. When the same content about termite control exists on multiple pages of your site, it puts the search engine in a position where it has to choose one page over the other. As a result, both pages with the content in question take hits in visibility. Duplicate content can also describe when your company has multiple Websites that you have yet to merge. A good SEO strategy makes finding your Website as easy as possible, so make sure you have all of your unique content on one Website. Keyword Stuffing (and Other Black Hat SEO Strategies) If you aren’t familiar, Black Hat SEO refers to strategies used to boost your site’s ranking that violate search engines’ terms of service. While they were more common in the past, these tactics definitely don’t fly nowadays and will surely tank your ranking if you don’t eliminate them from your site. More often than not, businesses with Websites that use Black Hat tactics are unaware of these violations; they usually just trusted some SEO “expert” (notice the air quotes) to get their Website on Page One as quick as possible. The following are the most common Black Hat Strategies:
If your Website is guilty of either of these, you’ll want to clean this up ASAP to improve your ranking! Slow Page Load Speed We aren’t accusing anyone of purposefully slowing their Website Page Load Speed (the speed it takes for every part of your Website to load on computers and mobile devices), but your Website may feature some content that is doing just that. Google knows no one likes to wait for a site to load, which is why they favor faster-loading sites in search results. If your Home page features large photos, videos that play automatically, or third-party widgets such as YouTube videos or Twitter feeds – chances are it’s taking a little long to load that page. Your Home page is usually the page you need to worry the most about, so make sure to keep things simple when adding content to it. Make sure you optimize your photos so they are clear but not a huge file size. As far as featuring a video, we recommend only adding one embedded YouTube video – any more might be overkill. To get a get a free, detailed look at your Website’s Page Load Speed, enter your URL on Google’s PageSpeed Insights. If you would like help understanding the report, we’re happy to help. Outdated Content Part of keeping your Website fresh in the eyes of Google is checking in on and updating the different aspects of your site. One of the most common things we see on Websites is broken links; these can be outdated YouTube videos, links to affiliations that no longer exist, or just an incorrectly formatted link. While they may have worked correctly at one point, broken links tell Google that your page is outdated and in need of an update. Another thing to look out for is pages with a low word count. Perhaps you had planned on adding more content to your “Rodent Control” page at some point but never got around to doing it. It’s recommended your page have at least 300 words to best get the page’s point across to Google. The more detail you provide in your content, the easier it is for search engines to match your Website with its related search terms. Also, remember that pest control threats are always growing and changing, meaning that your Website’s content should be doing the same! For every good SEO practice, there’s an equally harmful tactic that can tank your rankings. While it may seem difficult at first, the main idea of a good strategy is simple: keep your content updated and relevant to people searching for it. The more you stay on top of your SEO strategies, the easier it is for search engines to notice you and put your Website in front of the people that should see it.
Alain Parcan, Director of Marketing for Market Hardware, Inc., contributed this article. Alain brings nearly 10 years of experience in educating businesses so they can market themselves more effectively. Market Hardware helps small businesses compete on the Web and offers special discounts for PCOC members. You can Reach Alain’s team at 888-381-6925. |
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We just got back from our Expo in Carlsbad last week and wanted to thank all the PCOC members, sponsors and speakers who made it a terrific event. It was an action-packed few days beginning with our golf tournament on Tuesday and ending with our banquet on Friday evening.
