Okemos-based Netvantage Marketing announced Thursday that the Mid-Michigan Food Bank had won its recent contest, which offered pro-bono services for a non-profit organization in Michigan. 

As the winning organization, the Mid-Michigan Food Bank will receive six months of free search engine optimization services including keyword selection, link building, article writing and submission, and coding recommendations.  Additionally, Netvantage will perform free Web analytics consulting to help the organization better understand how their site is working, and what can be done to improve its performance. 

"We chose the Mid-Michigan Food Bank because they have a tremendous impact on our community, and that this organization could best benefit from our services,” said Adam Henige, Managing Partner of Netvantage Marketing.

The Mid Michigan Food Bank is a division of the Mid-Michigan Red Cross. For the past 25 years, the organization has aided hunger prevention in mid-Michigan by supplying salvaged food to area non-profit agencies serving the hungry and the homeless. The organization serves to warehouse, inspect, and deliver food in seven Michigan counties.

“We just changed our name from The American Red Cross Regional Food Distribution Center to the Mid-Michigan Food Bank, and America’s Second Harvest, the national food bank, has just changed their name to Feeding America. So – we have branding issues!” said Mid-Michigan Food Bank’s Community Relations Coordinator, Alison Bono. “I am really excited about this opportunity. We are really under-staffed when it comes to our online communication efforts.”

The food bank has several events planned in the next few months that will direct greater traffic to its Web site. September is Hunger Action Month and Sam’s Clubs in Michigan will host a food drive on Saturday, Sept. 27. In the Lansing area, the Eastwood and Edgewood Sam’s clubs compete against each other as the East Lansing – Lansing food Fight. Additionally, the Mid-Michigan Food Bank will host an “Empty Bowls” event on Oct. 14. A $20 donation offers event-goers a handcrafted bowl donated by local artists, and choice of soup and drink donated by local restaurants. All proceeds assist feeding the hungry through the Mid-Michigan Food Bank.

 “Many non-profit organizations build nice Web sites to communicate their mission and message” said Joe Ford, who is also a managing partner at Netvantage. “It is important for these organizations to be able to learn how to drive more visitors to these sites in order to fully maximize the potential of the web as a communication medium.” 

Ford and Henige hope that through their assistance to the Mid-Michigan Food Bank, other non-profit groups will realize the importance of search engine optimization. 

“To be a successful organization, just having a Web site isn’t enough,” said Henige.  “If you can’t be found by search engines, you’re requiring people to know your name or your web address.  So if they’re looking for a need, and not a specific organization, that user is going to go somewhere else.”

Netvantage Marketing is a search engine optimization, pay per click management and Web analytics consulting company.  More by calling (517) 853-5838 or visit http://netvantagemarketing.com.