Featured Movable Type Site: Portent Interactive

The riddle of how to increase search engine rankings is one of the hottest topics in business today. A high Google ranking almost certainly leads to greater visibility and increased revenue, and the secret of SEO has become the holy grail.

As search traffic continues to expand, web design and development firms are scrambling to integrate SEO-friendly practices into their offerings. For web development firm Portent Interactive, the topic isn't new at all; for the past 13 years, improving search engine metrics has been central to the value they bring their customers. Known for their deep SEO knowledge, this Seattle-based firm is often tasked with helping clients improve search engine rankings.

For some of those clients, the answer is to build a website in Movable Type. "From an SEO perspective, publishing and updating often is key to increasing search engine rankings," says Ian Lurie, principal of Portent Interactive. "Because Movable Type makes it so simple to publish and update web content, it has become a valuable tool that we use to help our customers reach their SEO objectives."

Lurie describes Portent Interactive as an Internet marketing agency, where clients not only come for nuts and bolts development but also for strategic help in creating a strong online presence. From building online e-commerce sites to creating internet marketing strategies for small- and medium-sized businesses, the 29-person team at Portent uses a comprehensive approach to help clients succeed.

No matter the project, one objective remains the same: creating sites that are easy to update. "Movable Type is easy for our clients to get their heads around," Ian says. "It doesn't have a lot of extra features that they don't want. We show them how to log in and use all the basic functions so that they can quickly publish and manage content." Using Movable Type's Pages functionality, Portent builds websites that are customized to each client's needs - some of which include a blog as part of the site, and some of which do not.

For Groomstand, a site that provides high-quality gifts for groomsmen, Portent Interactive used the Movable Type asset manager to enable the company to manage a wide variety of products and images and publish a wide variety of content.

For business consultant Fred Janssen and business development coach Lenora Edwards, Portent designed sleek, professional sites in Movable Type that enabled these independent professionals to reach a broader audience.

Portent Interactive uses their own website as a showcase of how a custom site can be built on Movable Type. Various staff members regularly post on the firm's blog, providing valuable search engine tips, content management strategies and much more. Ian Lurie's book Conversation Marketing provides yet another layer of insight to potential clients, and cements Ian's position as a guiding voice in the marketing dialogue of the Web 2.0 community.

Inside the firm, Portent's developers find that MT simplifies their own internal processes: "Movable Type allows us to implement multiple sites with a single install on our server," Ian reports.  "And that makes us more efficient."

Most importantly, "Movable Type allows us to say 'yes' more often," Ian says. "We combine our SEO knowledge with tools like Movable Type to enable our clients to gain visibility and stand out from the competition."