Website Desigm & SEO Success

2 Free Pro Tips: How To Use Your Domain To Build Your Website Rankings

2025-11-24T11:49:00.003-05:00

For years, Google Domains was the least expensive method to acquire your domain. But, that changed when they sold their domain service to Squarespace Domains a few years back.

My two Pro tips below will improve your website plan and contribute to enhancing your SEO strategy.

Wherever you have purchased your domains, the entity responsible for managing them is called the Domain Registrar. Every year you pay an annual fee to own that domain.

We all want the best service at the least cost, which is what Google Domains provides.

Many people believe that GoDaddy is the cheapest. They did massive advertising promoting 99 cents for a domain. But, after that, the annual down cost can be higher than any other Domino Registrars.

On top of that feature, GoDaddy charges you for everything. For example, GoDaddy charges you if you use website email addresses. The costs add up to prove they are one of the most expensive Domain Registrars.

On a long-term basis, Google Domains was the least expensive Domain Registrar. In my research, as of this point in time, Squarespace Domains continues to be the least expensive Domain Registrar.

METHODS

Buying your domain with Squarespace Domains also gives you the ability to build a website and use website email accounts at no extra fee.

Most people I work with use a service like gmail to receive and send email. It’s easy to connect your website email addresses to your gmail account, plus there is no subscription cost. You do not need to purchase Google Workspace to benefit from this feature.

Once you have your domain purchased, you select a website hosting service. For the Pros out there, this means setting up an account at Green Geeks or Verpex. Those website hosting service providers offer free email accounts that you can easily setup. Or, my shameless plug, hire me and I will do that for you.

PRO TIP #1

>br> To review, your Domain Registrar is where you purchase your domain. Then you choose a website hosting service, and they connect your domain to the hosting account and you pay a subscription to them.

Now, the real benefit of what I have described so far, once your have a website hosting account, you have the ability to use your gmail account. This means you can receive and send email using your website email address(es) for FREE. This is done by using IMAP and POP.

Instructions are provided by your website hosting service to set up IMAP and POP in your gmail account.

This means in your gmail account, you will see emails sent to your website address, along with being able to send email from your gmail account using your website email address.

The best benefit to you: there is no cost for using this process. That is right, this is FREE.

The majority of small and even some medium-sized businesses, especially service contractors, move forward with what I have explained. You do not need to set a Google Workspace account to take advantage of what I am describing.

PRO TIP #2

In your Domain Registrar account, with Squarespace Domains, you can easily add keyword links, aka backlinks, to your website.

Your website's reputation benefits because the Domain Authority of Squarespace Domains is 95. This type of high ranking domain, linking into your website, will help “pull up” your website ranking. This is a well-known fact in backlink search technology. To check your existing Domain Authority, for FREE, at ahrefs.

No other Domain Registrar gives you the ability to set a profile in your Domain Registrar account, and add a text description that includes customized text links.

When you have looked into your Squarespace account, go to “Account Settings” in the top right corner. The screen below is my profile. Created your backlink links in the “Bio” section. These are FREE, high ranking inbound marketing links to your website.

You benefit with new highly ranked backlinks into your website for FREE.

SUMMARY

If you are not already with Squarespace Domains, I highly recommend transferring your domain to them. This means Squarespace Domains will be your new Domain Registrar.

If you are already using them, be sure to insert your customized backlinks based on your keyword strategy.

Transferring your domain from one Domain Registrar to another Domain Registrar is FREE.

You benefit from these two FREE Pro website marketing ideas. Get started with them today!

If you have any questions, I am here to help.

Pro Tips: Website Marketing For Service Contractors - Sizzle versus Shine

2025-11-12T09:12:00.000-05:00

Search bots organize and run the internet. These five elements contribute to helping them understand your business and improving your organic search rankings. There is one distinction

with these tips: there is no paid advertising. To me, paid advertising is a sizzle aspect. Your website is only visible when you are paying ad fees. There is nothing wrong with a paid advertising campaign; it’s a separate beast, and I will cover it in another article. What you can achieve with my tips, based on my experience, is expect an improvement in organic search listings.

Overview

Service contractors offer a diverse selection of products. My work has been with home service contractors, numbering in the hundreds of thousands in the USA. Actually, I consider myself a service contractor: the owner of a small business that provides services to other businesses, specifically business-to-business (B2B).

What is a service contractor?

Most of the service contractors I have worked with are general service contractors, electrical service contractors, HVAC service contractors, and roofing contractors. I enjoy working with these types of businesses and have had successful website design and online marketing results. There are many who are DIY or have an in-house staff. One of my goals is to speak with contractors who want to improve their success by leveraging business growth advantages available in the digital business world. The elements below establish a solid foundation in website building and online marketing that transforms your business reputation with a digital platform.

Pro Tips

Search bots organize and run the internet. These elements contribute to helping them understand your business and improving your organic search rankings. There is one distinction with these tips: there is no paid advertising. To me , paid advertising is a sizzle aspect. Your website is only visible when you are paying ad fees. Paid advertising campaigns work great when you need them; it’s a separate beast, and I will cover it in another article. What you can achieve with my tips, based on my experience, is expect an improvement in organic search listings. Organic listings rely on SEO, and they make your website shine. We all like shiny objects. Why? Because shiny objects get our attention. What makes those listings shine is measuring your content with over 200 variables in Google's algorithm.

MARKETING

A successful website marketing strategy has three components, each with varying degrees of difficulty.

One is the website design, the second is your content (media), and the third is SEO techniques. While the trend is to use AI, Artificial Intelligence, to build websites, it is still in its developing stages. For example, some software you can purchase is a “drop and drag” method.

"58% of small businesses rely on digital marketing." ~ amraandelma.com

The drag and drop method for design has been around for a while, but suddenly it’s labeled as AI. Choose a design to represent your business. For many, they are not sure what that means. The easiest way to do it is find a website, or more than one, and use features, fonts, and colors you find there to create your website.

One software you can buy, and own, is Blocs. Another is RapidWeaver. Both of these are on Mac. Of course, you will pay a subscription to them each year. But they are simple to use and you own them. Both of those give you the ability to tweak your SEO, Search Engine Optimization, material. Platforms like Wix and GoDaddy don’t provide you with that ability. Almost half the websites in USA run on Wordpress, which has a depth of plugins you can use and they with their drag and drop method.

I can work on any website platform, and I encourage clients to own their website and not rent them from these gigantic platforms. One drawback, case in point Wix, is that when you build a website with it, you will not be able to move it. Later on, if you want to buy your own software or move to WordPress you will have to start from scratch with your design, content and SEO material.

WEBSITE PERFORMANCE

There are several easy methods to gauge activity on your website. To understand what your website visitors are doing, I suggest using Google Analytics. They provide you with a script to paste in the header section of your website or specific web pages; it’s also a free tool. All you need is a gmail account to be able to login at Google Analytics and begin. On every website I admin, I also use a paid website analytics service, Matomo, that is based in Germany.

Another measurement of your website performance is backlinks. Obviously, the more you have, the better. However, you don’t just want any old backlink. You want quality backlinks. These are characteristics of backlinks to make your website shine:

- Have a domain authority of over 50
- Link must be relevant to your specific business service

An advanced SEO technique is using backlinks that are anchor text using keywords, which is determined from your keyword plan and business intelligence research.

The first phase is just establishing backlinks. One example is go to your Manage Your Google Account, Choose Personal Information, and scroll down to the Profiles section. Add your website links to a profile listed there.

FRESH CONTENT

Blogging is the best money you can spend on website marketing. This stellar effort will create, and sustain the best shine possible for your online business. When you blog regularly, you create more and more fresh content that keeps the search bots coming back for more.

"80% of businesses generate marketing results through blogging, with 76% using it as a key lead-generation tool." ~ semrush

Take it one step further, combine your blogging with an RSS feed, as discussed below, and you are distributing your content to all corners of the internet.

That sounds big, and maybe you are just a local bakery and don’t need the whole internet to know about you. With that goal, you can easily apply data snippets discussed below to localize your reach.

Today, the definition of reach you want to achieve is interpreted using your business profiles in Bing and Google, along with the free webmaster consoles in Google and Bing. Your expense is the sweat equity to keep them updated. Or you can hire me to get ‘er done. your reach.

Need a starting point?
Consider ordering a SEO audit today, or give me a call at (727) 370-0011.

SEO TACTICS

The three most important segments of a successful SEO plan rely on website content, blogging , and content distribution.

"It takes about 2-3 months for fresh (including AI-generated) content to rank in Google, according to 39% of marketers." ~ siegemedia

The website content must keep pace with trending search technology. One good is example of this is data snippets. Google developers created this years ago, and today it's the gold standard for helping your website shine.

This is the main website for learning about, installing, and testing your data snippets. Basically, a snippet optimizes your specific business content. If you sell hamburgers, there is a product snippet to use that displays a picture of your burger, its’ customer rating, and description - as an organic search result.

Anchor text is a method that uses text as a link from one page to another page on your website. This method is also used to link to other websites, and have other websites link to you. Google’s original patent states that they use anchor text to influence rankings.

What are the key words that will attract your potential buyers? Use those words in your anchor text. This is one example of anchor text in my website: SEO audit report.

Another resource I like for data snippets is ahref. They provide free SEO tools to help you learn details on data snippets, dial in on keywords, and identify your backlinks.

An RSS feed is an advanced SEO tactic. It’s easy to use your blog posts as items in your RSS feed. Place a link on this feed and site map so the bots pick it up. RSS readers easily connects to a feed and display the posts. People use readers to bring themselves customized aggregated news feeds.

Or, you can take RSS to a deeper level when you set up a free channel on iTunes and post short podcasts. Each session can be 10-15 minutes in length. This channel links to your website. I have done this for several clients. Send me an email if you need additional info.

Besides creating your own RSS feed, like mine for website services, there are more automated methods, such as an app, to auto-produce your RSS feed. One RSS tool I like is RSS.app. They have a free and paid version. Just provide the URL of your blog. They have widgets you can customize to display your blog posts almost anywhere in the digital world.

Summary

To have a website that is successful, you must become the shiny object to rises above the dusty and ghostly websites in the digital world.

In this brief article, we have covered ideas and tools that support your DIY website marketing and online marketing creative abilities, transforming your business into an online platform.

This is a journey, don’t expect overnight success. It takes time, consistency, and ongoing effort. But if you stay committed, you’ll see incredible rewards, not only in understanding how websites work, but also in enhancing your search rankings and having your site appear organically in search results.

There are additional steps involved in fully embedding your website into search engines. The purpose of this article is to introduce the fundamentals that help you build momentum.

Once you begin to apply these five key elements your website begins to shine. Take the step to improve your website design and SEO success today.

Steu Mann, (727) 370-0011

AIEO And SEO In Digital Marketing

2025-11-07T11:40:00.000-05:00

As AI continues its natural progression to collect and organize data to improve workflows, it sees a foregone conclusion that it will replace SEO since the entire web infrastructure is being integrated with varying degrees of AI functions.

SEO is based on website design, When it is successful the website is more visible with higher ranking on traditional search engine results pages (SERPs). THis is accomplished by optimizing for a wide range of keywords and content types. It targets broad search queries, including informational, transactional, and navigational intents, to drive organic traffic to websites.
Get an SEO audit today and improve the visibiity to of your online business.

AIEO is specifically designed to optimize content for AI-driven platforms, such as voice assistants and AI-generated search summaries. The goal is to deliver precise, context-aware, and conversational answers that AI systems can easily extract and present directly to users, often bypassing traditional click-throughs.

SEO vs. AIEO: Embracing the New Dawn of Website Marketing

2025-11-03T11:51:00.000-05:00

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is no longer the only game in town. Enter AIEO (Artificial Intelligence Engine Optimization), a cutting-edge approach reshaping how websites are discovered and engaged with in 2025.

What is SEO?

SEO has long been the foundation of digital marketing; building your online reputation. It focuses on optimizing websites to rank higher in traditional search engines like Google and Bing. This involves keyword research, backlink building, technical site improvements, and crafting detailed content to attract users typing queries into search engines. The goal? Drive organic traffic to your website, increase visibility, and convert visitors into customers.

What is AIEO?

AIEO takes optimization to the next level by targeting AI-driven platforms and voice search assistants. Unlike SEO, which primarily serves users typing queries, AIEO focuses on users interacting with AI assistants like Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and chatbots. It leverages natural language processing, structured data, and conversational content to optimize for voice queries and AI-powered search results. The aim is to provide direct, precise answers that AI engines can deliver instantly, often without requiring users to click through to a website.

Why AIEO Matters in 2025

With over half of all searches becoming conversational and AI-powered search experiences growing rapidly, AIEO is essential for capturing voice search traffic and appearing in AI-generated answer boxes. While SEO continues to drive the majority of organic website traffic, AIEO complements it by building brand trust through instant answers and enhancing user experience in voice-first environments.

How to Integrate SEO and AIEO for Maximum Impact

- Dual Content Strategy: Create comprehensive, keyword-optimized content for SEO alongside concise FAQ content optimized for voice and AI search.
- Use Structured Data: Implement schema markup and FAQ sections to help AI engines understand and feature your content.
- Focus on User Intent: Tailor content for both exploratory searches (SEO) and quick-answer queries (AIEO).
- Optimize for Conversational Language: Write naturally and include long-tail questions users might ask voice assistants.

The New Dawn of Website Marketing

The rise of AI-powered search is transforming how people find information online. Website marketing now demands a hybrid approach that balances traditional content marketing SEO with AIEO strategies. This ensures your brand not only ranks well on search engine results pages but also becomes a trusted source for instant, AI-delivered answers.

In this new era, businesses that master both SEO and AIEO will dominate digital visibility, engage diverse audiences, and thrive in an AI-driven search ecosystem. It’s no longer just about driving clicks—it’s about delivering value instantly, wherever and however users search.

The Shift In Content Marketing - 2025

2025-10-21T11:26:00.000-04:00

Strategies to design your website design content, to engage your potential customers, will always be necessary. However, the techniques to make your content effective, aka engaging, are morphing rapidly.

SEO relies on comprehensive, keyword-rich content that covers topics in depth to satisfy a variety of user intents. It involves long-form articles, blog posts, and detailed pages designed to rank well on search engines.

AIEO prioritizes concise, structured, and natural language content that directly answers specific questions. It uses formats like FAQ schemas, bullet points, and short paragraphs optimized for AI comprehension and voice search.

To be successful with content marketing,a business owner must keep their website design and content aligned to solving problems for potential customers. That strategy will not ever change.

What is different in 2025 is that AI methods and tools have become a big player in distributing content, which makes AI impacts a large segment of search enging marketing. In your website building efforts, to be sustainable, you must constanly feed the AI machines. How are you monitoring your road map to intergraate AI? An easy way is SEO audit?

AI is the recognized method, according to tech giants who run the web, to organize and deliver the countless volumes of website data. This is what I learned last week over dinner from a few friends who work for those tech giants. I was curious about their “inside” view on the future of SEO.

Potential customers want the benefits of using your services quickly, in easy to read formats. Your website design content must be understood by AI platforms and software to be valued as a credible resource and included as a response in a potential customer's voice search.

Adapt, Weave, Excel: AI Will Enrich Your Business

2025-10-09T16:52:00.000-04:00

WEBSITE BUILDING IN 2025

Building website content is taking on new methods to maximize AIEO.

SEO techniques, used in successful in website design, include keyword research, on-page optimization, backlink building, improving site speed, mobile-friendliness, and enhancing user experience to increase rankings and organic traffic.

AIEO emphasizes structured data markup, natural language processing (NLP), voice search optimization, and creating content that AI assistants can easily parse and present as featured snippets or direct answers.

As an example, your new AIEO content will be shifting from SEO methods with the goal of producing your website as a specific "source" in LLM model.

TOOL TO BOOST WEBSITE RELEVANCE

Chatbots and virtual assistants are crucial for delivering personalized support with AI because they combine advanced technologies like natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), and continuous adaptive learning to provide intelligent, context-aware, and user-centric interactions.

A very effective method to begin aligning your website with AIEO is by installing a chatbot that serves two purposes. It’s an alternative to your contact page and makes it much easier to control spam entries using chatbot controls you can tailor to your needs.

That information can be an FAQ on products and services. It could be your process and procedures on specific topics related to how you do business. Another area is handling common questions about your ordering process or simply laying out your customer service policies.

Installing this type of chat bot on your website is adding NLP functions into your marketing arsenal. Your labor is setting up the chat bot with you FAQ and other info and keeping it updated. When someone uses your chat bots their interactions are recorded. You can use that information to help tweak your answers or website content. Be sure to update your privacy policy to let visitors know about your chatbot functions.

Below are four chat bot selections. Most require a subscription which depends on the level of functionality you are looking to use. All have a free plan with limited features and conversations.

Tidio

Known for its user-friendly interface and multichannel support (e.g., Messenger, WhatsApp),

Zapier Chatbots

This is a no code platform allows you to connect the chatbot to other tools in your tech stack, which is ideal for automating tasks like lead generation.

Landbot

This is a no code builder with templates and analytics features help you optimize user engagement.

Chatbase

A straightforward bot for non technical users, allowing you to train the chatbot with your website content or documents.

Website Builde Solutions: web design broker matches you with vetted pros fast.

2025-09-21T15:01:00.000-04:00

Find Your Perfect Web Designer with EZWeb’s Broker Service.

Save time and receive a custom website that fits your needs.

Answer 7 quick questions, and we’ll match you with top, vetted designers in very quickly.

EZ Web Broker Service provides you with free estimates on custom websites from vetted pros!

5 Methods To Convert Website Visitors

2020-08-27T16:57:00.003-04:00

Every website owner wants to build organic search results and convert website visitors. Honing your content creation and content marketing skills are fundamental to establishing and expanding your sphere of influence.

Make it easy for your visitors to opt in as a subscriber to your content.

Supply a simple subscribe box when a user clicks an image or button. Place a subscribe box in multiple locations on your web page.

More and more people are becoming subscribers at major retailers, which shows a level of comfort with connecting using subscription services. Put this new trend to work for you in your website plan. Are you selling a subscription service to your viewers?

A recommendation, including word of mouth and positive online reviews, is a key trigger for consumers to sign up with a subscription service. Subscribers report they want something new and innovative. Replenishment subscribers are more motivated by financial incentives, such as discounts, and by a strong need for the product.

7 Website Hosting Features To Fortify Your Online Business

2020-08-26T20:39:00.004-04:00

To run a professional website you need these seven basic features from your website administration company and hosting service. Without these, it does not matter how little you pay for your website to be hosted, because you have no real power in managing your content.

Website hosting features give you tools to manage content and the functions that publish your content to the world and the search engines.

Online Marketing: 3 Silos You Must Include In Your Arsenal

2020-08-21T12:05:00.004-04:00

Managing your online reputation requires digital marketing, a comprehensive approach to creating and publishing media about your business.

As you evolve and expand your online presence, mature your website owner strategy, you will find new methods to juice these silos. Be sure to begin collecting testimonials showing positive feedback.

Website media includes the content that you publish in marketing channels to create inbound links.

In the first phase you are showcase your products and services to create website traffic, that is hopefully your target audience. You are also working on an approach to successfully convert website visitors become a subscriber or a buyer.

The media in this first phase is geared to creating organic search results to show links to your website in Google search results.

"Nearly 50% of the world's population uses social media. That's over 3 billion users worldwide.
~ Statista

As you have the time and money you will create more long term media strategies.

... read more

SEO: Is It Necessary?

2020-08-19T11:36:00.004-04:00

SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is a way to write content, format web pages, and optimize your website architecture so that more organic search results - connecting to your website - are displayed, on the first page of search results, when people are searching using terms related to your products and/or services.
"Only 5.7% of pages will rank in the top 10 search results, on the first page of search resutls, within a year of publication."
~ Ahrefs

Over 90% of websites never receive any organic search listings displays in Google search results because they fail on quality content and few to zero inbound links to their site.
Every website owner wants to achieve success, and the key indicator to being a successful website owner, is having organic search results without using your business name.
... read more

Website Owners: Do You Own Your Website?

2020-08-17T11:20:00.003-04:00

You own you business. Do you own your website? It's all about the longevity of your business presence. There are a number of factors to consider including website builder, domain, website design, your databases, and more.
When I talk about owning your website, I am talking about, you have in your possession the native files (html, PHP, asp) that are the architecture of your website, and that you can deliver those files to any website host company to publish your website on the internet.

CMS - Content Management System You do not own the CMS if you are using one. For example, Wordpress is a CMS. Most website hosting services provide Wordpress that can be used freely.

Web Design The design and format of your page are owned by you when you are building a website. If you do the design work yourself, or pay someone to do it, in either case you own it.

Domain Name Domains are registered with ICANN. Technically, you own your domain, and pay an annual registration fee for it.

Database(s) You own the database that is populated with content you placed there or that your website placed in the databases as it processes website functions.
... read more

Website Owners: 3 Tips and 2 Audits Tools To Optimize Your Content

2020-08-10T12:13:00.001-04:00

There are three significant measurements to building a website with quality content which are length, speed, and relevance. These are not new, however the specifics on them morph so, as a prudent website owner, you want to keep up to speed those modifications.

This article will explain those three characteristics and review a free audit tool, provided by Google Developers, to evaluate your page speed and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This is a “how to” of your website maintenance for all you DIY folks. If these topics cause confusion to you, or you just want some professional guidance, check out our website owner training program.
1. PAGE FORMAT AND DESIGN
According to the buzz at this writing, a quality page, according to Google Search Standards, is at least 1,500 words and 2,500 is better. The content on that page is unique and relevant to the topic that relates to the web site at where the article is posted. For example, if your web site is a bakery, then maybe your home pages discusses your services in general with specific links to each section of your site. One section is catering services. Another section is breads and pasties. One more section could be cakes. Still another section is your cafe.
It is never, ever, a good idea to make a link, on the top of your we page(s), to another website.

When considering the long term effort to sustain your site content, a base rule is 50 pages. When you have 50 pages or more, you have reached a real milestone and earned some additional credibility in search engine bot land.. This level of content tells Google and Bing that this web site is here to stay and, more importantly, has something to say.

FORMAT

When you are not sure how your web page design is being interrupted by the search bots, run a free check. This is the first fee audit tool in this article, from Google Developers, to see if your web page design is mobile friendly. You will find this link below in the Summary section of this article.

As a standard procedure, design your page for mobile devices first and then do the design for laptop or desktop viewers. This has been said over and over again for the last three years. Always use your website analytics to see what devices your website visitors are using.

Are you using landing pages with your target audience? New research is showing that people are moving away from that type of format.

”Only 17% of marketers use landing page A/B tests to improve conversion rates.”
 ~ HubSpot, 2020

A landing page offers a prospective customer a resource, such as an ebook or webinar signup, in exchange for their basic contact information. The goal of these pages is to generate leads, build your base, and it’s an ongoing effort.

From my research landing pages are being used on larger accounts and website ones using a platform, like Shopify, to produce their website. Smaller merchants and sellers are relying a simpler approach to connecting with their target audience. I am finding that most smaller business use their website as a showcase, and to establish/sustain a presence in organic Google search results.

This is old news by now, so probably the last time I will bring it up. You should always protect all of your websites with HTTPS, even if they don't handle sensitive communications. Aside from providing critical security and data integrity for both your websites and your users' personal information, HTTPS is a requirement for many new browser features.

Last week I was redesigning a website and the existing photos, when placed on the Webster architecture, would not appear in any browser until i switch HTTP to HTTPS. Just saying, the tech giants are serious about using HTTP. You can place a free SSL, secure sockets layer, certificate on your website from almost every website host these days. Don’t have a website host. Be sure to check out CloudFlare.

HTTPS makes safer internet by reducing the ways intruders intercept communications between websites and users' browsers. IT Here are loads of intentionally malicious attackers, and legitimate, but over zealous companies, such as advertising firms or hotels that want to place ads into pages, which they can do on HTTP.

Let's discuss how to optimize your structured data project to improve your website performance.

2. PAGE SPEED

Speed is has been brought into the mix of algorithms several years ago, today it plays a more predominant role as a ranking factor for websites in mobile searches.

Users want to find answers to their questions quickly and data is telling us that people really care about how quickly their pages load. The Google Search team announced speed would be a ranking signal for in ranking search results ablate two years ago.

Page speed is all about the software or platform you are using to publish your website. Two factors contribute to that which are page design and content optimization. For example, if your images are not compressed you are not going to like your page load score.

Three common mistakes include thinking if your page loads fast for you it loads fast for everyone. Second one is that a single point in time does not represent the ultimate measure meant of how fast your point loads. In other words, the speed measurement is constant. Third, along the same lines of constant measurement, no one action on your site represents an overall measure meant of page speed score.

What we are being told is that your entire site is measured that will then output a page speed score. Clear to see that faster is better.

”77% of smartphone shoppers are more likely to purchase from companies whose mobile sites or apps allow them to make purchases quickly.”
~ Think with Google
Our expertise will reduce your learning curve qith a website plan.
To continue reading click here.

Five Tips To Tune Up Your Website in 2020

2020-08-07T17:43:00.006-04:00

#1 A successful online business requires quality content to reach the correct target audience.
#2 Permanent media such as video marketing, is an excellent method to create and sustain SEO organic listings in the search engines.
#3 Your potential customers find you from your marketing campaigns and your embedded Google search results related to your products and services.
#4 What is an easy way to reduce labor in your sales cycle while also increasing the value of every sale you make in your online business? This is accomplished by website automation. A Type of automation that does not require a robot or artificial intelligence. It requires tools and should cost you a one time fee to set up and then it runs automatically. The process is connecting your existing tools: 1) payment processor with 2) your mail client software.
A payment processor is something like Paypal or Stripe. There are many to choose from and all charge the same processing fees.<br><br>

Your mail client is an account at Mailchimp or Constant Contact. There are many mail client programs out there to choose from.

Once you have connected those two, then every the name and email of each buyer are saved in your mail client account.

An email is automatically sent to the new buyer to let them know they will receive newsletters from you. If they want to unsubscribe there is a button for them to click to unsubscribe.<br><br>

After that, they are eligible to receive your newsletters. Congratulations! You now have a qualified new subscriber.

If you have any questions, or need some help, use our contact page to send an email.
80% of business professionals believe that email marketing increases customer retention. (Emarsys)
59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions. (SaleCycle)
59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI. (Emma)

#5 What should SEO cost? There are three steps in the SEO life cycle. Each of these steps integrate the keywords and key phrases discovered by qualified SEO research. The two key questions everyone asks about SEO .....

1. How much is the SEO going to cost? Nearly every business today must decide how much to spend on search engine optimization (SEO).

2. Do I really need SEO ... to have to pay for SEO, or can I do it myself? Robust online marketing is imperative for survival in a web-driven world.

This post will answer those questions in detail and I' will be using a 2012 SEO research plus my 10+ years of experience working successfully with clients to accomplish quality SEO.

10 Common Website You Want To Avoid

2020-08-07T16:50:00.004-04:00

Website design is constantly being refreshed with improved technology and also enhancements to platforms.

Whatever platform you use for your website(s) be sure to keep the platform updated with security updated to reduce the threat from hacks.
What percentage of small businesses have a website?
71% have a website
79% of businesses with a website say it's mobile friendly
92% of businesses without a website say they will have one by end of 2018
Source: 2017 Clutch Small Business Survey

Reasons why businesses don’t have websites...
31% use a social media profile instead
25% lack of technical skills
23% think its not necessary
23% lack the time or money to procure a website

Source: 2017 Clutch Small Business Survey

<h3>Who Uses The Internet In 2018 & What Do They Surf?</h3>20% of American adults are "smartphone-only” internet users – meaning they own a smartphone, but do not have traditional home broadband service.

About 25% of USA adults say they are ‘almost constantly’ online.

42% of adults ages 65 and older now report owning smartphones, up from just 18% in 2013.

67% of seniors use the internet – a 55-percentage-point increase in just under two decades.

78% of 18- to 24-year-olds use Snapchat, and a sizable majority of these users (71%) visit the platform multiple times per day. Similarly, 71% of Americans in this age group now use Instagram and close to half (45%) are Twitter users.

68% of adults in USA now report that they are Facebook users, and roughly three-quarters of those users access Facebook on a daily basis; with the exception of those 65 and older.

YouTube users include almost 75% of USA adults and 94% of 18- to 24-year-olds.

Pinterest remains substantially more popular with women (41% of whom say they use the site) than with men (16%).

LinkedIn remains especially popular among college graduates and those in high-income households. Some 50% of Americans with a college degree use LinkedIn.

<i>Source: PEW, March, 2018</i>

Online Marketing Company - Ideas

2020-04-22T22:33:00.001-04:00

Tool: How To Easily Edit Vector Images (video)

2018-09-28T21:03:00.000-04:00
Great learning video that covers using Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer to work with images. She covers capturing a certain piece of a image, saving that to a new file or clipboard, and then using that "saved material" in a new image.

My challenge was I buy these vector images (EPS files) from a stock photo sites and then cannot figure out how to use part of the image. Those vector images have hundred ot thousands of layers in an image. Her video is a simple, quick solution to that challenge. Plus, she carry it out a tad more with some other ideas on using the tools for creating cool images. Well done video.

Privacy: 5 Amazon obscure settings you should change now

2018-07-28T21:59:00.003-04:00

The items we buy say a lot about our lifestyles, our finances, and our domestic lives. If you have an Amazon account, the amount of data that the retail giant collects is astonishing. Many people don’t know you get much more just free two-day shipping with a Prime account.

With these different areas collecting data about you, if you are trying to maintain some semblance of your privacy, you’ll definitely want to check these five not-so-obvious settings.

1. Remove your Amazon public profile

We don't often think of our "Amazon profile." However, that's precisely what it is. Your profile is created automatically, whether you want it or not, and it contains comments, ratings, public Wish Lists, biographical information, and other site interaction. This profile doesn't include your purchases or your browsing history, but it's very informative.

If you want to control what activity is visible on your public profile, do the following:

1. Put your cursor on the "Account & Lists," button and then click on "Your Account."

2. Scroll down to the "Ordering and shopping preferences" section. Click the "Profile" link, which is right above the social media preferences link.

3. Click on the link in the orange box to the right that says, "Edit your profile." Click the Edit privacy settings tab.

4. You can select or deselect items like Reviews, Questions, Who You Follow, Public Wish Lists, Baby Registry, and others. To simplify this, there's also a handy option to "Hide all activity on your profile," which turns everything off at once.

It’s sometimes hard to tell what other people can see. If you want a quick look at what information you're sharing publicly, click "View your profile as a visitor." You can tell at a glance if you're sharing anything you don't want to out in the public arena.

If your profile is showing your real name, or other biographical information you don't want, go back to the profile settings page and click the Edit profile tab. It’s located right next to the Edit Privacy settings tab.

You can edit or delete any information like your Bio, Occupation, Location, and more. You can even change the "public name" on your profile and post reviews anonymously.

2. Listen and delete your Alexa recordings

If you own an Amazon Echo, you probably know its strange secret: the device records a lot of what you say. On the upside, Echo uses this voice data to improve its functionality and obey your command.

Still asking Alexa only for the weather and music? Tap or click here for 21 Alexa commands you’ll use over and over. The downside: Echo doesn't store these recordings in the device itself but on Amazon's servers.

Many people don't realize you can review your voice log with the Alexa app on iOS and Android. The app allows you to scroll through your activity and listen to each recording.

It's a bit tedious, but it's possible to go back and listen to the very first command you've ever uttered to Alexa. There's nothing like hearing your two-year-younger child say "What's the weather?"

Whenever I check my settings, I am always surprised what Alexa saves that does not have the wake word in the snippet. Tap or click here for step-by-step instruction on how to listen and delete your Alexa recordings.

Keep in mind that Amazon warns, “Deleting voice recordings may degrade your Alexa experience.”

Related: You can enable Alexa to call 911. Tap or click here for the steps so that you or your family can ask Alexa to summon help when you need it.

3. Make your lists private

There are two main "lists" on Amazon, the Shopping List, and the Wish List. Many people use their Wish Lists for gift ideas, but we often use Wish Lists as a log of items we don't want to forget.

The trouble is, anyone in the world can find your Wish List by searching your name. Granted, if your name is “John Smith,” you may not be easy to pinpoint. But if strangers find out where you live, they may be able to deduce and identify your profile.

To check the privacy settings of your Amazon Lists:

1. Click on the "Accounts & Lists" drop-down box then select "Shopping List" or "Wish List."

2. Now on this "Your Lists" page, click on three dots (next to "Share List") then select "Manage List."

3. Here, you can change your list details like your list name, the name of the recipient, email, birthday and most of all, its privacy.

4. To change the list's privacy, simply click on and select "Private" on the drop-down box.

4. Stop Amazon from tracking your browsing

Like almost any search engine, Amazon also tracks all your browsing activity by default. The company saves your searches, including items you recently viewed and product categories you browsed. All of this information helps Amazon create targeted ads. Although your browsing history is hidden from the public, you may find this habit unsettling.

Here's how to stop Amazon from tracking your browsing activity:

1. Log in to your account at Amazon.com

2. On the upper menu, click on "Your Browsing History."

3. On the next page, click on the "Manage history" drop-down arrow.

4. Toggle "Turn Browsing History on/off" to Off

Note: You can also clear your entire browsing history here by clicking the "Remove all items" button

Meanwhile, you can also turn off personalized ads, which many customers find eerie and exasperating. Here's how to turn off targeted ads on your browser:

1. Go to "Your Account" page.

2. Under "Email alerts, messages, and ads," click "Advertising preferences"

3. On this page, select "Do Not Personalize Ads from Amazon for this Internet Browser"

4. Hit "Submit"

5. Set a PIN on Alexa purchases

“Alexa, order more shampoo.” It’s convenient to purchase items from Amazon Echo using only your voice.

But I'd rather turn off my Echo's Voice Purchasing option altogether and use Amazon's app or website to shop. This process is much more direct and secure, and you reduce the odds of making a mistake.

To turn it off:

1. Open your Alexa app.

2. Tap Settings and scroll down.

3. Tap Voice Purchasing and toggle "Purchase by voice" to Off.

If you still want the convenience (and the sci-fi vibe) of Echo voice purchasing, you should set up a PIN code to avoid unauthorized purchases.

To set it up:

1. Go to the same Voice Purchasing settings page on your Alexa app.

2. Toggle "Purchase by voice" to On.

3. Toggle "Voice code" to On as well.

4. This will prompt you to enter your 4-digit PIN code.

Once you have a Voice Code configured, the 4-digit code has to be spoken out to complete a purchase on your Echo.

Of course, anyone can listen in and reuse your code. A voice-purchasing PIN adds a veneer of security, but it's hardly foolproof. As I said, I'd rather have Voice Purchasing set to off entirely.

What digital lifestyle questions do you have? Call my national radio show and click here to find it on your local radio station. You can listen to the Kim Komando Show on your phone, tablet or computer. From buying advice to digital life issues, click here for my free podcasts.

Copyright 2018, WestStar Multimedia Entertainment. All rights reserved.

Online Business: Three Free Tools From Google In 2018

2018-07-11T13:11:00.001-04:00

With these three, free, tools you are upgrading your website technology and online marketing to easily receive important benefits: 1) producing robust organic listings in search engine results; 2) using the most advanced security; and 3) taking advantage of an easy marketing tool .... in the busiest search engine in your community and the world.

#1 Data Structure Information - Search Engine Tool
Adding this tool provides explicit clues to search bots about how to classify and categorize the meaning of your page in the Google mother lode. Google uses structured data that it finds on the web to understand the content of the page, as well as to gather information about your business services - features and benefits. This is a top-shelf SEO (search engine optimization) tool.

This is an introduction to this search engine tool: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-structured-data

#2 Google My Business Profile - Marketing Tool
Google has offered the free local business directory for a few years now. Two months ago they released a new version of this digital marketing tool that allows for new information about your business. This revised profile format includes multiple, comprehensive search engine tags that describe your business. The caveat to use this tool is you must receive mail at a street address used in your profile.

One new important piece of this update, your profile can display videos. Videos marketing is the red hot trend and every business needs videos about your features and benefits.

#3 Spam Catcher - Security Tool
Hopefully, your website is designed with a contact form page that lets your site visitors send you a secure message. This is an contact form excellent technology versus the old way of just posting an email address on your web page. Plus, it gives your website a professional characteristic.

The best, and free, technology available is Google reCaptcha. This service protects your site from spam and abuse. It uses advanced risk analysis techniques to tell humans and bots apart.

You can read more about this security tool upgrade here: https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/v3beta.html

To receive technology assistance send an email today.

Newsletter: Tune your Digital Intelligence

Online Marketing Tips: 10 Content Marketing Facts (video)

SEO: 3 Steps To Buying SEO

2018-07-04T10:31:00.001-04:00

What Is The #1 Goal of Any SEO Effort?

We always hear about SEO will get us more website visitors, but what is the best measurable result of SEO dollars?

The first goal os any SEO effort is creating sustainable organic listings on the first page of search results (FPSR).

Today, in 2018, Google/Bing have made great strides to display local businesses on search results pages to improve local results. Those local results are produced at the whims of algorithms. Being an organic results on the first page of search results (FPSR), using proper SEO techniques, is a highly sought after achievement and considered a marketing success.

For example, the Google Local Business maps and the Bing Local Business maps display local business results at top of FPSR. But, we know that those maps do not show all local businesses today, And, Google/Bing continues to make efforts to improve those local business results.

On a national basis, when searching for a product or service, the websites that have the optimized SEO are the ones displayed on the FPSR. Time will tell if Google introduces algorithms to manage those search results.

Three Steps Of Purchasing SEO

There are three steps in the SEO life cycle. Each of these steps integrate the keywords and key phrases discovered by qualified SEO research.

Content
In this step is the designing and producing the content, creating the platform of your business reputation, and each content piece must be SEO'd with proper techniques. This content comprises several types of media. For example, website pages, graphic images, videos, and podcasts to name a few.

Technical
The focus in this phase relates to the engine algorithms regarding data structure. For example, the architecture of a website, the naming of files, meta tags, adding keywords to a video and so forth.

Frequency
When you have the content completed and the technical aspects installed, you are ready to publish your material. Search engine algorithms consider many variables, one of which is the frequency at which content is published. For example, it is a well known fact that Youtube channels who publish consistent new videos will be displayed more often on the "referring" section in pages of videos being viewed. Successful YouTubers have stated 3 videos a week is optimum. I have seen results with publishing one video a week.

Always remember, SEO does not happen over night. Depending on the SEO goal, results can takes months to appear. Overall, the foundation of seeing success in SEO is finding the right chemistry in you business marketing of these three phases.

Article: What Does SEO Cost?

Newsletter: 7 Signs Your Digital Marketing Is Broken And The Fixes (2018)

Article: Online Marketing Research - Statistics That Will Surprise You

GMAIL USERS BEWARE Developers Read Your Email Reports An Investigation

2018-07-03T18:10:00.005-04:00

Your private emails are being read by third-party Gmail app developers, an investigation into data privacy has revealed.

Developers behind a number of popular online services designed to work with Gmail trawl through private messages sent and received from your email address, it claims.

It is common practice for some of these third-party app creators to instruct employees to read personal emails.

One app, which is designed to help users manage their Gmail inbox, lets employees read 'thousands' of emails, the Wall Street Journal investigation found.

According to experts, this 'dirty secret' is now common practice among some firms.

The revelation comes just a few months after it was revealed political data firm Cambridge Analytica had siphoned private data from third-party apps on Facebook.

According to the investigation into Gmail, the hugely-successful Google email client allows third-party developers to scan the inbox of anyone who installs their app.

These apps can provide additional functionality to the Gmail inbox, like the ability to compare prices from different online retailers, or quickly unsubscribe from any marketing emails sent to your address.

The Wall Street Journal report was based on the testimonies of more than two dozen employees of companies who create services around Gmail – the most popular email service in the world, with 1.2 active monthly users.

One company involved in this practice is New York-based firm Return Path, which helps marketers drive revenue through email.

Last year, Return Path employees trawled through 8,000 personal emails as part of an effort to train the company's software, according to anonymous sources.

Employees at Mountain View-based Edison Software also reviewed the emails of hundreds of thousands of users while building a new feature for their mobile app, which is designed to help people organise their emails.

Neither company asked users for permission to read users' messages but say the practice is covered by user agreements.

'Some people might consider that to be a dirty secret,' Thede Loder, the former technology officer at eDataSource, which provides competitive intelligence for email marketing, told the Wall Street Journal.

However, he said this type of behaviour was now 'common practice'.

The question of data privacy has been an increasingly important issue since Facebook's Cambridge Analytica controversy.

The social network allowed third-party apps to request permission to access users' data, as well as data of all their Facebook friends.

This enabled developers to mine the private information of 87 million Facebook users, when only 270,000 people had used the service and granted permission.

Almost anyone can build an app that connects to Gmail accounts using an application programming interface (API).

(C) Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5912763/Gmail-users-beware-party-developers-READING-private-messages.html

7 Steps To Creating Success With Digital Marketing (video)

2018-06-29T11:33:00.001-04:00

Like it or not, if you want your website to gain traction in search engines, as an organic result, you must apply the seven steps in this video.

These are seven distinct steps and each one has something specific you can do, and then measure the results from that action in Google Analytics.

No use thinking you are going to beat the odds, online marketing is a process that is best accomplished step by step. Real success is not going to happen overnight or even in weeks. Be cautious of people promising you instant results to obtain organic results in search engine marketing.

Newsletter:  Video Marketing Research (2018)

Newsletter: Digital Marketing - Two Proven Methods (2018)

Techniques: 5 Tips To Build A Better Website

Online Marketing Success: 2 Helpful Data Views In Google Analytics - 2018

2018-06-27T14:12:00.000-04:00

If you are serious about your online marketing success, then you have to become familiar with Google Analytics.

This free data tool will measure many aspects of your website traffic. It can also be used to understand other channel traffic like your blog, Facebook and YouTube sites.

In this post we will cover two basic data views you MUST know in order to understand the 1) characteristics of your visitors are and 2) what activity your blog or website visitors accomplish in a visit.

Once you are logged into Google Analytics you can view data or setup a new property. A propoerty is a website or blog ... any URL you want to measure traffic on.

ADMIN Screen

To add or edit a property look at bottom left of the screen for the ADMIN icon that shows a gear.

That will display this screen where you can choose the best button to continue your work.

Link to full image of "Google ADMIN Screen".

When you first login to Google Analytics you see the screen below.

Home Screen

Link to full image of "Google Analytics Home Screen".

#1 Overview Of Website Activity
Choose "Audience" and then "Overview" from the selection on the left of the screen to see the data view screen below.

Traffic Overview

This data view tells gives you a quick view on your website visitor activity.

To change the date range and display results for new dates, make modifications to the date bar in top right corner of the screen.

Link to full image of "Traffic Overview".

Users: the total number of people visiting your property (site).

New Users: number of new users only. not total users.

Sessions: total number of visits to your site.

Pageviews: the total number of pages viewed during all visits.

Bounce Rate: the percentage of visitors that exit your site on the same page that they entered your site.

Pageviews is now, and has been, the recognized measurement of website traffic.

About the Bounce Rate, the smaller that percentage the better. When that percentage is smaller it means more visitors view more than one page of your site.

#2 Website Page Activity
Choose "Behavior" and then "All Pages" from the selection on the left of the screen to see the data view screen below.

Pageview Activity

This data views informs you what pages your website visitors viewed.

To change the date range and display results for new dates, make modifications to the date bar in top right corner of the screen.

View full image of "Pageview Activity".

Looking the heading of the columns on the table you see the following:

Pageviews: the total number of views on pages at your site.

Unique Pageviews: If a visitor looked at the same page five times, that will be counted as one pageview in this column.

Entrances: This number is increased on the first pageview or screenview hit of a session.

Google Analytics: Data View Count Example

In this example, a user enters a website and navigates to two pages:

Enter → Home Page → Gallery Page → Exit

You would see the following data for each page:

Home Page: 1 Entrance, 1 Session, 1 Pageview
Gallery Page: 0 Entrances, 0 Sessions, 1 Pageview

Tune Your Digital Intelligence

Newsletter: 2 Proven Digital Marketing Methods (June 2018)

Newsletter: Video Marketing Research (2018)

7 Signs Your Digital Marketing Is Broken And A Fix (2018)

2018-06-25T22:39:00.002-04:00

These are the clear signs that your digital marketing needs some tune up attention on any website platform, including Wordpress.

#1 Video Marketing
Your website traffic has not increased visitor traffic and/or your website pagesviews have not increased since you began your YouTube channel.

FIX
Revise the tags on your YouTube video to be more specific. Or, include name of YouTube channels that are synergistic with your channel, meaning that when the synergistic channel videos play your videos will be displayed as a recommended video.

#2 Voice Search
Your website shows on first page of search results (FPSR) with organic listing using a traditional search - typing into the search field, however; site does not display organically in a search using Siri or Android Voice Command (AVC).

FIX
The best resolution is adding more content to flush out more features and benefits of your services/products. Either add more web pages or add more content to existing pages. Google considers one webpage to be an "authority" when it contains over 1,500 words.

#3 Website Visitors Exit Site On Same Web Page They Entered Site
The "Bounce Rate" tells you the count of people who left your website on the same page they entered your site. For example, if the Bounce Rate is 90% and you had 100 visitors, you know that 90 visitors only saw one page.

FIX
Goose up your engagement strategy. Convert your pages into section of bands. Cover one topic in a section or band and provide button to another web page with more content on that section/topic.

Offer a special promotion and use a button on all web pages to access the web page containing the promotion.

Use more images and link the images to content pages that are the index page of a folder on your web site. Images are great to peak interest.

#4 Website Does Not Display in Google Search Results With All Directories Displayed.
Below is a photo of a website showing all the directories displayed organically on FPSR.

FIX
Make sure your top level directories in the website architecture contain a file using index (php or htm or htm). All the other web pages in that directory need to link to that index file - in the content of the index file -preferable as a text link.

#5 Photos On Website Do Not Appear As Organic Results in Google Under Results of "Images"
All images are categorized by the search bots according to thier file name and the "ALT" tag description of the image.

FIX
To have more of your images displayed in organic search results, examine the text used in the "ALT" tag of the image and the actual file name of the image. Do those two items match or are they very close? If not, make sure they are almost identical or identical.

Use a hypen to separate words in a file name. For example, the-file-name.png.

Lastly, be sure that the "ALT" tag and file name words are also used in the top header on your web page.

#6 Web Page is Slow To Display
This is best link so far that I use for speed and optimization score: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/. Its an easy location to test your site speed/optimization and receive instant feedback.

FIX
There are many variables that contribute to page speed. It's probably the best step to focus first on making your mobile website the highest performing site. Google favors mobile devices and has a "mobile search tool" in the Apple and Android stored.

There seems to be more SEO juice in using the warehouse method for images rather than inserting - storing the image in your web page of your site. Warehousing images will definitely increase the speed of uploading your website.

For sites loaded with images, like a store catalog, remember to keep thumbnail images small and the actual image not larger that 250 px wide.

#7  Difficult To Measure Marketing Results
Your website is up and running, but you are not sure what your website visitors are doing or what they should be doing.

FIX
Every website needs a vision to carry out a three step plan ...

1. Inform website visitors about your product/services
2. Educate website visitors about features and benefits of products/services
3. Convert website visitors into a subscriber or a buyer

When it's difficult to measure the progress a website visitor makes in those three steps, take time create/structure your content marketing with the goal of linking those steps.  Those links are known as a "call to action".

Newsletter - Turn Your Digital Intelligence

WordPress - Nine Common Mistakes In Websites - 2018

Content Marketing With WordPress - Nine Common Mistakes In 2018

2018-06-24T20:24:00.001-04:00

There are many great platforms to build your website. Each platform uses a unique process to edit and publish website content.

WordPress is a popular platform. According to whoishostingthis.com in a 2018 report there are 175 billion websites of which about 75 million are WordPress sites. From that number about 37.5 million are hosted at the WordPress official site.

Two Methods To Start A WordPress Website

You can do a WordPress site in one of two ways.

1. Pick a website host. For example hostmonster.com. Purchase a plan from them that usually costs around $5 to $10 a month per year. Once you have a plan, install WordPress and you are off to creating your website. At Hostmonster they have 7/24 phone support and helpful videos for all web host plans.

2. Go to wordpress.com and select a plan. Once you have a plan you move right into the creating your website. There are many forums integrated into WordPress with a question/answer format. These forums are excellent resources to research problems and solutions, along with reviewing features of plugins from actual users.

Nine Common Mistakes WordPress Owners Make With Content Marketing

Content marketing is the method or process of building content to substantiate and demonstrate your product/services, along with the process of converting website visitors into a subscriber or a purchaser.

The content used in a content marketing effort includes web pages, photos, and videos on your website, and also in marketing channels that includes social media and YouTube.

#1 Security

Wordpress releases new versions of the software from time to time. This updating process is just a natural segment of every software life cycle.

The security issue lies in many website owners don't install the updates that WordPress releases.

This allows hackers an easy way to take advantage of the older versions of WordPress sites. For example, hypothetically, say Wordpress has a new version in June 2017 that fixes a piece of code which hackers have been using to do damage to WordPress sites. That piece of code, to fix a security issue, is not updated/installed into a website/blog until the website owner/admin installs the new version of WordPress.

"Less than 1/3 of all WordPress installations (websites & blogs) are updated to the latest version."

- WordPress.com

Wordpress is very good about making it clear that a new version is available to install. A notice appears on the Wordpress dashboard of every website/blog. But it's up to the website owner/administrator to do the install.

Be sure to read the notices that WordPress provides about software updates.

NOTE: There is a second security concern. Be sure to change the username and password that is supplied as the default when you open your WordPress account. This mistake is more common than you think.

#2 SEO - Search Engine Optimization

There are a couple of items to address here.

A. DEFAULT TAGS: Be sure to change the default tag line that is automatically installed.

B. SEO TAGS: Install and use a SEO plugin for each web page. I have used the Yoast SEO plugin and seen some excellent search engine results with it.

C. PHOTOS & SEO: Photos/Images do not have the "Alt" tags completed. Each photo/image should have a short text description in the "Alt" tag to tell the search engine what it's depicting. For example, if you have a before/after landscape image, the "Alt" tag may read as "Landscaping project in (city name) before/after photos".

That example is an effective "Alt" tag when your SEO target is Landscape Contractors in (city name) or with a SEO target of Landscaping services in (city name).

D. PAGE SPEED: The speed at which your web page displays to a visitor is an important factor, according to Google, in determining your search engine organic ranking(s). Most sites I have seen don't have/use a Cache plugin. I like W3 Total Cache plugin which is also free. Of course, when you have your site encrypted (see below) you are not going to need the cache plugin.

#3 Architecture

A. FILE NAMES: Without making this too complicated, filenames play an important role in SEO. As a general rule of thumb, use the header of your page as your file name - at least the first five words of that top title on your page. Follow that rule on every page of your website.

Proficient SEO habits mean each page contain a unique "Heading 1" title at the top of the page. That heading structure gives search bots clear direction on what to be looking at - synthesizing - on your web page.

There are SEO methods that go deeper than the rule I just provided, however; if you are new to this SEO concept of file naming, that general rule will get you started in the right direction.

B. ENCRYPT SITE: Google came out in 2017 and said that encrypted websites get favored in search results. You can get a free SSL Certificate at clouflare.com and install it on your site/blog. They also have paid versions of the certificate. For a single business owner, you have everything you need with the free SSL certificate. The SSL certificate modifies your site from http to https.

We will encrypt your site if you need help and here is a link.

#4 Sales Funnel

Many sites I have worked on do not contain a clearly defined sales funnel.

That means lost opportunity to sell products/services and also makes it more difficult to measure your marketing success in Google Analytics.

The sales funnel is the process used on a web site to accomplish the following steps ....

1. Inform the viewer of your products/services
2. Educate the viewer on features and benefits of your product/services
3. Convert the viewer into a subscriber or buyer of your products/services

In the web page content/media to accomplish those three objectives you will place "call to action" opportunites. Those opportunites could be, as simple as, a button to call you. Or, maybe a button to send their email address to you and become a subscriber.

Your call to action strategy will vary with your marketing objectives.

We hope this has been helpful to you building a better web site.

If you have any questions, drop us an email.