Entrepreneur knows a bit about how to get noticed

Nina Hale started her business career as an 11-year-old who took advantage of her parents' home along busy Lake of the Isles Boulevard to open a lemonade stand that netted about $200 a weekend -- after deducting the cost of the mix she was buying wholesale, of course.

And when sales slackened two years later because folks apparently thought Hale was too old for such shenanigans, she hired two younger neighbors to run the stand while she stayed in the house, binoculars trained on her "employees" to gauge when a fresh bucket of water was needed.

That was just the beginning: When she was 14, Hale organized a neighborhood "babysitter's union" to forge what she called "a standard pricing" agreement aimed at foiling a few cheapskates in the area.

The entrepreneurial spirit endures more than 25 years later with Nina Hale Consulting, a Minneapolis search-engine marketing firm that has accumulated a blue-chip clientele with its ability to place corporate websites at or near the top of Google, Yahoo! and other search engines.

Hale, daughter of Roger Hale, retired CEO of the Tennant Co., started the business in 2005 and has doubled her revenue every year on the way to a projected $940,000 gross in 2009. Her client list includes the bulky likes of General Mills, Medtronic and Regis Corp., not to mention Edina Realty, Gold'n Plump and Hazelden Foundation.

Indeed, the business has grown so fast that Hale, 42, has been forced to move to larger quarters three times in the past 18 months. Not bad, considering that her own marketing strategy has relied mainly on word of mouth, which has left her "writing project proposals as fast as we can and hiring like crazy."

What's the attraction? Ward Tongen, a former senior interactive marketing analyst at Medtronic, talked about how the online marketing environment "changes so rapidly, with new applications, services and upgrades, and somehow Nina finds a way to keep up with them.

To suggest that Hale has latched onto a growth business is a bit like saying the Timberwolves could use a little help: In little more than 10 years, search-engine marketing has grown into a $14.7 billion industry, according to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Association.

As one of this area's leading Luddites, however, my problem is trying to understand just what search-engine optimization means. Given my simplistic view, I figured it mainly involved finding a couple of keywords to lead online prospects to your website. Big whoop!

A glimpse of Hale's operation reveals a far more sophisticated process that starts with in-depth research to understand just what words folks use in online searches -- after which there's the chore of persuading a client to use them.

Take, for example, the owners of a weight-loss clinic who liked to describe the business in such elegant terms as "fitness retreat." Hale, however, figured out that most people searching for weight-loss help simply use the words "fat farm," a term the client resisted including on the website.

Hale's solution: The site now talks about how its fitness retreat "is much more than a fat farm." Result: It now shows up consistently at the top of search engines.

There are other complexities: Ads often are programmed to show up on certain days or times of day that research shows are the optimum periods for delivering leads and sales.

Web timing is key

For a Medtronic procedure to treat enlarged prostates, for example, ads are designed to run from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m., when many potential patients have been awakened by the need to use the bathroom.

Search engine optimization goes far beyond the pursuit of keywords. A crucial aspect involves building a network of links to a client's website.

If an interior designer client wins a national award, for example, "we'll alert all the interior design bloggers and online news bureaus," Hale said. The information might quickly become old news, she said, "but the links endure."

"There are a hundred tiny things" that go into the process, Hale said, but the priority is "a balance between attractive, user-friendly design and sufficient content to attract search engines."

In short, we're talking a complex business that, by all accounts, plays to Hale's strengths.

"Nina was always good with puzzles," said her father, recalling a maze puzzle he gave her as a birthday gift when she was a youngster. It involved guiding a steel ball through a maze to reach a shelf where he had placed a $50 bill.

"I tried to work it and it took me an hour to figure it out," Hale said. "It took her about one minute to crack the code. I was flabbergasted."