There are lots of reasons to redesign your small business website, but if you suffer from any of these 3 weaknesses, it’s time to invest in some changes.

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Is your website delivering the same user experience everywhere?

1. Redesign your small business website if it’s not mobile responsive

Potential customers are viewing your website on all kinds of web-enabled devices. If your website can’t be easily viewed on all sizes of browser-enabled devices you’re actually driving traffic away from your site and towards your competition.

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Over 50% of all potential web traffic to your website is coming from mobile devices.
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That’s right, in late 2016 the balanced tipped in favour of mobile. Now, over 50% of all potential web traffic to your website is coming from mobile devices – and that number just keeps growing.

Mobile users are on the go, viewing your site on small screens and they need a site that works with that reality. As a result, when they don’t find that, they leave and go off to another site that’s easier to use.

It’s that simple.

Not having a mobile responsive website leaves you behind and sends potential business elsewhere. If your business looks outdated, and comes across as out of touch, you won’t be attracting visitors as well as others in your market.

If your competition has a better website, they must have a better business too, right? That’s is one of the many assumption visitors will make about your business within a few seconds of visiting your website and measuring it against your competitors.

Can your website be easily used on ALL touch-enabled devices?

2. Redesign your small business website if it’s not touch-friendly

There seems to be a little confusion about what “touch-friendly” means. Most seem to think that’s the same thing as being mobile-friendly.

Not quite.

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Mobile-friendly and touch-friendly are similar, but not the same thing.
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Mobile devices are touch devices, so the touch experience is key there, absolutely. Touch-friendly is a part of mobile-friendly, but there is more to consider than just that. You can’t really design touch-friendly without considering all the touch enabled devices your website viewers are using.

Lots of laptop and desktop computers are touch enabled these days. I work on one everyday, so I’ve become very sensitive about this particular common weakness. And we’re seeing a rise of web-enabled touch devices everywhere, from appliances to automobiles. Understanding touch behavior and designing for touch is the future of digital design.

Providing an easy touch experience and not relying on hover actions for things to appear or work properly is an absolute must if you don’t want to send users away from your site in droves.

I see this mistake being made even by web design companies and professionals.

I’ve been doing my own competitive research lately and encountered several websites by design professionals that couldn’t be touch scrolled. Yikes.

Others suffered from poor touch function with navigation menus or had navigation elements that were hidden completely. Ouch.

Designers can be creating a poor touch experience in their designs without even realizing it if they are unaware of how touch screen laptops are used, and how they differ from mobile devices.

If you use a touch screen laptop you are probably well aware of what I mean and have experienced how frustrating it is to work with website designs and content elements that have ignored your user experience completely.

Touch-friendly design thinking leads to overall design improvements

Good design practices like touch-friendly design thinking can improve the overall user experience for every visitor. Correcting common touch-friendly problem areas like complicated navigation menus and hidden hover elements replaces unnecessary complication with simplicity.

Examining your website design to evaluate its touch-friendliness forces you to consider the user experience of others, not just yourself…an approach that always improves design overall.

The bonus of a touch-friendly design is that is doesn’t take anything away from the non-touch enabled device user experience. It’s a win-win way to approach usability for all devices.

Is your content sending the right messages and getting the right response?

3. Redesign your small business website if it has weak content

Content is EVERYTHING.

Literally.
You can’t design anything without content.
It’s what people view, take in and remember.
Content tells your story and drives actions.

Over 20 years ago Bill Gates wrote an essay entitled “Content is King” outlining the importance of content in the digital era.

Yet, all these years later, weak content is one of the most common problems I see when evaluating small business websites. And content is the biggest area of struggle for more website owners, during the design phase and afterwards throughout the life of the business and the website.

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Creating high-quality content is one of the biggest challenges small business website owners face.
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What exactly is content?

The words, pictures, graphics, videos, audio files – all the stuff that makes up a website is the content.

What’s wrong with most small business website content?

A short-list of common content problems:

• Too little content
• Too much content
• The wrong content
• Practically no text content at all.
• Content that doesn’t deliver the right message.
• Text content that is difficult to read.
• Content that repels visitors instead of drawing the in.

These are just a few of the most common content woes, but the list can go on and on.

There are so many ways to go wrong with content. You need to give it all a hard look to root out the problem.

Here are some questions to ask to start to see the weaknesses in your content:

• Can people clearly and simply understand what you do and how to work with you?
• Are you missing content that helps users solve their problems?
• Is your content on the page in a way that is easy to scan?
• Does your content give you credibility and have a sense of authenticity and authority?
• Is your content communicating your value proposition clearly? (do you even know yourself what your value proposition is?)
• Does the visitor know what actions you want them to take?
• Is your showing up on Google for your industry keywords?

Having a website for your small business is vital. But the website’s mere existence isn’t going to do much in this crowded and competitive internet. If you have expectations for your website’s performance it’s important to define them clearly, then make sure you have created the content that can deliver the results you after.

It’s important to remember that Google indexes web pages, not websites.

That means every page of your site needs to be evaluated and improved to stand a chance of being found for your desired keywords and phrases. Every page is an opportunity. You have to examine closely where you may have missed the opportunities with your content. Or, find places where you can create new ones.

Then you have to make sure that content engages the human audience. It has to be solving their problems, building their trust and getting them to take the action you desire. None of that is easy. But it’s necessary for any chance of success.

How will you use content to engage your audience?

It’s not just about the basic pages of your website anymore. Those need attention, but once’s that’s done the content work isn’t best to be over. Content quantity and content frequency can affect your web presence and ranking as well. We live in a content world and having content for social media and content marketing is also increasingly important.

You can start to see how after you get through the initial “design” part of your website that there is an ongoing need for content creation, content management and content publishing.

Like I said, content is everything.

Getting to the bottom of content problems and figuring out how to solve them is a big task. But it’s an important task to acknowledge so you can begin your budgeting and planning in order to create a website that better connects with your users.

Is your small business website suffering from any of these 3 problems?

The good news is, it’s never too late to fix these weaknesses and create a great user experience that will bring visitors to your website and keep them there.

My WordPress design packages are created with the needs of small business owners in mind. When you redesign your small business website with the the focus on what really matters you can create a better user experience, grown your website traffic and convert more visitors into leads…and more leads into more sales.

Further Reading:

Is It Time to Redesign Your Website?

3 Reasons Why Responsive Web Design is the Best Option For Your Mobile SEO Strategy

How Important Is Responsive Design?

31 Mobile Marketing Statistics to Help You Plan for 2017

Design For Fingers :Touch Screen Friendly Design

Touch Screen Friendly Design

10 Web Design Mistakes Even Professionals Are Guilty Of

Wake up brands! Why content is everything

The post 3 Signs It’s Time to Redesign Your Small Business Website appeared first on SUSAN DRYSDALE.

Understanding the concept of “The Attention Economy” is of great value when trying to understand how to design your small business website, and how to develop your content and content marketing.

The basic idea is this: we are all asked to give our attention to an ever-growing amount of content. But we only have so much attention to give. There are only so many hours in the day and we only have a finite amount of time to give attention to things.

Social media is asking for our attention constantly and social media networks understand what tricks to use to get our attention, pull us in a keep us there as long as possible.

You want users to pay attention to your small business website on their journey to making a purchasing decision.

But do you understand what gets and keeps people’s attention? Watch and learn! ????

The Attention Economy – How They Addict Us

Key thoughts & take-aways:

• Social Media networks, as well as services like Netflix are focused on “creating a habit” – getting you to give them attention is their main goal. This is why blogging, email newsletters and your social media posts matter – you’re trying to become part of your audience’s digital habit.
• Headlines have a huge impact – they are the first thing that gets our attention. Are you using compelling headlines that draw attention, or generic ones that repel attention?
• It’s all about relevance – you can only keep someone’s attention with your content when it has relevance. Otherwise visitors stop giving you their attention and leave if your content is unfulfilling.
• Social media posts are full of catchy headlines, and with ones like Facebook and twitter those headlines often precede links to other content – and where do those ads and links lead? To websites. So the network got your attention, and lead to the click, but what do they arrive at and does it keep their attention?
• Users are constantly just responding to stimuli – but is your stimuli rewarding? How is your website and your content keeping them focused.
• On average, we check our phones 221 times a day! Which means we are constantly looking for new stimuli…even if subconsciously. We’re looking for the dopamine rush that things like shares and likes give us. We also want to know what’s new, and we have FOMO (fear of missing out).

We all have the opportunity to use our voice in the attention economy. But is your voice being heard?
Are you losing people in seconds because you’ve failed to understand that attention is the first thing you actually are trying to get from them – not sales or a phone call, just simply their attention?

Then, from an ethical point of view, are you providing content that actually helps, and rewards users for giving you their attention? Or did you just create empty fluff that doesn’t pay-off on the attention they’ve given you? Or worse, created “Fake News” that misleads people. It will be hard for them to trust you again and want to give you their attention again if you are being manipulative.

So much to consider as you develop a web presence in this Brave New World.

Video segment from Real Time with Bill Maher, featuring Tristan Harris

More Resources:

The Attention Economy: Wikipedia

Five ways the “attention economy” is driving your business: Mark Schaefer

The Attention Economy: Why Some of Your Content Will Always Fail

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Images can have their own unique SEO value and can connect with traffic that comes from image search instead of the standard web search in Google. In fact, adding images to your pages and blog posts can help improve the overall SEO for the page. We are visual creatures and images help to break up text and, well, give us something else to look at. They are also very useful SEO tools.

Don’t overlook the value of Google Image search in your SEO practices.

I received a message this week from a British blogger who had found an image from my post Five Days in the United Kingdom and was interested in using the image in a post for her company blog.

Whether or not that’s a good idea is something I will discuss in another post, but for now, it got me thinking about how this interaction happens.

What led this particular person to this photo and in turn, my website?

I’ve had this experience often enough and I know that the answer is that they are image searching on Google and finding my content. Because I suspected that was the reason this connection was made, I did my own Google Image Search on the keywords I would expect led to my image appearing in her search results.

The location in the photo that the blogger requested is popular enough to have lots of posts and information about it on the normal Google Web Search. I knew my website was unlikely to rank at all for this place in a standard Google search. It can be very hard to outrank travel blogs, large news publishers and other sources that can get top ranking for several pages into the Google search result. Besides, the topic of my post where the photo sits is not specific to this place, but about London in general.

When I switched to Google Image search, there was my image, on the first page of search results. Not at the beginning of the list, but quite close to the top.

This is a good example of how images can have their own value in helping your website be found on Google.

It’s important to remember – especially if what you do or sell is in any way visual – to apply good SEO practices to images in the WordPress Media Gallery. You are best to do this as you are uploading new images, but you can always go back into the Media gallery and make these SEO improvements at any time.

Key Factors in the SEO value of images:

We’ll use this image of the TORONTO sign I took recently as the example of good SEO habits.

Night skating in front of the TORONTO sign

1. The file name of your image

Before you upload anything into WordPress you will need to edit and prepare the file.
Start with figuring out what keywords you want to associate with the image and be specific when adding those words to the image file name.

If I had just called this “Toronto-night” it’s not going to rank very well – that’s a very broad term, not specific to this location. Adding “sign” will help return results of the lettered sign in front of City Hall, and “skating” is going to help place it with other images of people at the skating rink and with images from winter.

This particular image of mine may not be ranking yet on Google, but if you searched the terms I’m using you will definitely come across lots of images that look like it.

Keep in mind that once you upload the image to the WordPress media gallery, you can change the other attributes for the image, but you cannot change the image file name, so if you forgot to name an image properly before uploading it, you really should delete it, go back, rename the file and uploading it again.

Poor File Naming. Be sure to save image with an SEO friendly file name BEFORE uploading.

For this image I’m using the keywords:

“TORONTO sign night skating” so the file name: TORONTO-sign-night-skating.jpg

When renaming the images, I’m making sure that these words are in the file name. Make sure to leave out “stop” words like “the”, “a”, “of” as they have no value because they are far too common in the English language. Also, put the words in the order that matters. TORONTO is first, because any other word first isn’t going to take me straight to this sign.

It’s also a good habit to separate the words in the file name with hyphens. WordPress used to do funny things to images that had spaces in between words. I’ve noticed recently that the hyphens are now inserted into those spaces automatically when uploading to the Media gallery. That’s a big improvement, but I still try to remember to add the hyphens when naming, before uploading. It’s just a good habit to get into.

If you aren’t sure what to name your image, run some google searches first to see what’s coming up for various terms.

2. The title of your image

When uploading to the WordPress you will be given the opportunity to add/edit the Title of the image. The default is the pull the image name as the title. If you’ve properly named your image before uploading, this image title will be fine. If you’ve not done that, you can always edit the image Title in the WordPress Media Gallery afterwards.
Just make sure those important keywords are in the title.

3. Alt tags on images

Again, as the image is uploading you can add this info. Alt Tags are very important, especially for connecting with bots and crawlers that look for this bit of info. Alt tags info is what allows these web crawlers to “see” your image and is one of the most important factors in image SEO.

4. Image Captions

This is where I have altered the format of the keywords a little.

The reason is that TORONTO-sign-night-skating doesn’t read very nicely with the image on the page. Find a way to keep the keywords in the caption, but make sure it’s going to look good to your blog readers. Bots are important, but humans are more so. Don’t sacrifice the human experience just to speak to bots.

If you want the image to display without a caption, you can skip this, but image captions can really help readers understand the details of your photos. I often come across images on websites that I wish had captions, or that the person who posted them had told me a bit about the location, or other details that might be useful. I know they say a picture says a thousand word, but adding three or four of your own words to bring context to the photo can make it that much more useful.

Be sure to fill in the details in the fields provided

5. The image size and weight

When preparing your images, be sure to save a copy of the image to preserve the original file. You never know when you might need to go back and use that image somewhere else.

Resize the image to a web-friendly size. I generally recommend 1500px wide so that the image can be viewed well at full-screen size on a large, wide-screen monitor or even a TV (because we can browse the web on SMART TVs nowadays!).

If, however, you know you want your image to display at a smaller size on your page, then save it smaller before uploading it. It’s not great to ask the browsers to resize an image from 1500px down to 250px, if that’s the size you are going to choose it to be on the page. But, if you aren’t sure, than the 1500px width has worked well for me and in most cases I’ve encountered.

When saving the image, make sure to optimize the file by reducing the weight of the file as well as the dimensions of the file. The smaller the better. I recommend not more than around 500KB. Under 100KB is ideal. Many photo editors will allow you to choose a “save for web” option. Others may have a percentage value option for compression. For displaying on the web you don’t have to be too concerned about losing resolution when shrinking your image. This is really only a concern for images going to print. Find the balance between looks good and loads quickly.

Keeping your file as light as possible makes it load faster on the page, which is very important. It also makes it more able to be indexed. Google tends to pay less attention to large images files.

Using low-res images also makes them a little less useful to thieves. They aren’t going to be useful for reproduction in print.
If you are concerned about your images being swiped and used improperly then make sure that you only display low-res files on your website.

If you are really concerned about image security, then save your image at an even smaller size – like 500px wide. This will further limit how large the image can be printed successfully. It’s not going to be possible to use an image for printing a billboard or even a t-shirt if it’s low-res and only 500px wide.

That doesn’t mean that it can’t be stolen and republished on the web, but at least you’ve limited the options.

6. The rest of the copy on your page

While this is about images, the place where you post your image can have an impact.
For instance, I’m not going to get good SEO for my example TORONTO photo with this post, because this post isn’t about the “Toronto sign night skating” – it’s about image SEO value. Although, the more I keep using those words on in this post, the more Google is going to look at the overall content of the post and connect that phrase with this post and image. In most cases your page/post content would relate more specifically to the images in the post.

Other things to keep in mind with images:

Should you take extra steps to protect your images from being stolen?

There are so many stories out there about people whose work gets knicked and used without their knowledge or permission. The blogger who requested my image had the decency to ask, but many don’t.

It’s a legitimate concern for photographers who publish their original works online. If you want to protect your work, there are some extra steps you can take, although I generally tell people the simple fact is, if you publish it on the web, it can be stolen. So, if you really worry about that, just don’t publish it online.

Watermarks:

If you look at the big stock photo companies like ShutterStock you’ll see all their images have big watermarks across the entire image. This makes it really hard to do anything with it.

You can choose to do this as well, but it makes your image less attractive to your readers. Find a balance between what looks good and what protects your work. But don’t be fooled into believing that the watermark protects you absolutely. If someone really, really wants to, they can edit a watermark out of an image. It will take them a long time, but it’s not impossible for someone proficient with image editing.

If you just put a watermark at the edge of the image, it won’t be very hard to crop it off.

Plugins:

There are also plugins that can prevent anyone from right-clicking and downloading your images from your WordPress site. Some themes also offer this as an option. At one point I was using the No Right Click Images plugin, but it hasn’t been updated in a long time and that can lead to problems. If you are going to use a plugin for this, make sure to use with caution and test thoroughly.

And remember that anything that is displayed on the web can be screen-captured, cropped, edited and republished, so not even disallowing right clicks will fully protect you. It just prevents the download of the full-sized image.

Your WordPress website allows you a lot more control over images than when you upload them to social media sites, so use the control you are given to maximize the SEO value of images and you’ll see the results.

Related Articles

A good video about Image SEO from moz.com

The Pros and Cons of Watermarks

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The Science of Persuasion

Key thoughts & take-aways:

Reciprocity:

• The more you give, the more you get.
• People feel they owe someone when they’ve been given a “gift”.

Scarcity:

• When something is in short supply we want it more.

The video uses the last flight of the concord jet as an example. But the most local example I can think of is the LCBO. In the last few years there have been looming strike threats right before big holiday weekends – most recently, just before the big Canada 150. Every time this happens the LCBO has huge sales influx just prior to the strike date, because we Canadians love our alcohol and the thought of not having access to it drives us to go stock up. I’m starting to believe that the LCBO purposely stalls negotiations with unions specifically so they can get this sales bump.

Authority:

• People follow the lead of knowledgeable experts.
  This is a reason why blogging and content marketing are so important for businesses these days.
  Showing your that you are an authority in your industry can give you and edge over your competitors.
• When someone else says you’re the expert, people are more likely to believe that and respond positively. This is why things like testimonials and social proof are valuable.

Consistency:

• “People like to be consistent with the things they have previously said or done.” The example references a study that showed people were more likely to say yes when a small request was presented in advance of a larger request. So, getting people to agree to a small thing lead to them saying yes to a larger thing later on, when they would have originally said no to the larger thing.

Liking:

• Three important factors:
  1. We like people who are similar to us
  2. We like people who pay us compliments
  3. We like people who co-operate with us.

Anyone who has worked in customer service should already know these things. Any good sales person will find a way to ingratiate themselves to potential customers in this way.

Consensus:

• If other people are doing something, we are more likely to do it to. I think selfies are a great example of this. Suddenly everyone is sharing selfies…because everyone else does it, so it’s OK to do it yourself too. How else can you explain the sudden explosion in selfies everywhere?
• Another example is every small business website having a blog. Every small business website these days is doing it, so you should too, right? The answer is yes, you probably should. The prevalence of these blogs is the consensus. (Although, just having a blog, and having a really good, useful to your potential customer content marketing blog are two different things.)

The reality is that creating good design and getting good results from that design has a lot to do with understanding human behavior.

All to often I find business owners wanting to do something on their website because they assume the website visitors will do what they want.

This is simply not true. The way to get users to do what you want starts with understanding some basics about human behavior, then adapting your tactics to conform to that known behavior. You’ll get much better results and be more satisfied with your efforts when you start to adopt this approach.

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Proud Canadians lined Danforth, Woodbine and Queen St. E. as the parade headed to Kew Gardens in the Beach. Penny was joined by other Canadian Olympic athletes from present and past, including 3-time Olympic swimming medalist Elaine Tanner. Tanner won 3 medals in Mexico in 1968, making her the first Canadian to win three medals at an Olympics. Oleksiak beat that record in Rio by winning 4 medals – 2 bronze, 1 silver and 1 gold.

More Articles

CBC.ca: Penny Oleksiak among Olympians celebrated at east end Toronto event

Toronto Star: Parade celebrates return of Penny Oleksiak, local Olympians

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The thing that has really stayed with me about Bill is how he makes choices about who and what he shoots.
If he doesn’t find something to be interesting, he just keeps his camera down. Anna Wintour calls that “death”, and indeed, that lack of action speaks very clearly for itself, but I find this approach to be very wise.

Bill doesn’t shoot something that he dislikes and then let writers say mean spirited things about it. The absence of the images speak his opinion, but the silence is still far better than hurtful words. In this modern digital era of mean comments, vitriolic rants and judge-y attitudes, I think Bill can teach us a lesson about how to be classier than all that.

You don’t have to like everything. You don’t have to agree with everything. Instead of taking a pot-shot at it, just be quiet. Say nothing. Shoot nothing. I use the approach in my photography as well. If there is something I don’t like – a place, a piece of public art, etc, I just don’t shoot it.
That way, it’s impossible to know. Did I not shoot it because I just haven’t got to it yet? Do I not like it? Am I indifferent to it? I’ll keep that info to myself. Because, like Bill, I think it’s best to take the high road. Shoot what you love and leave the rest alone.
The other thing I love about Mr. Cunningham is that he keeps it very simple when it comes to his photography equipment. He’s still shooting film, with the same camera he’s had for decades.

He’s not a “gear head”, which is what I call people who think good photography is all about what model your camera and lenses are. He feels no need to get some heavy DSLR, and expensive lenses. He has his technique and it has served him well for a long time. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. (In fact, it seems this philosophy extends to other areas of his life as well, and I adore that about him.)

This is important to me because there is always the tempation to believe that a higher model of camera or a new, more expensive lens will make for better images, and this really isn’t true. Shoot with what you have and what you know. Make yourself better, don’t expect the equipment to do it for you.

Bill Cunningham is a huge inspiration to me, even though I don’t shoot film, or street photography. His attitiude, his longevity and his amazing eye for design and style makes him one of the most inspiring creative people out there.

UPDATE: Bill passed away on June 25th, 2016 at the age of 87. The fashion and photography world has lost one of the greats, but his work and the inspiration he created will live on for generations. RIP Mr. Cunningham.

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I was so happy to discover that the Warming Stations art project returned to The Beaches again this year.

The temporary art installation stretches across 2 sections of the beach this time, at Woodbine near the pool, and further east along Kew-Balmy Beach.

I caught seven of the eight in total. Somehow I missed the one called “sauna”. Hoping to head back again to check it before they’re gone.

The installations will be on the beach until March 20th, 2016.

The Winter Stations Design Competition was launched by RAW Design, Ferris + Associates and Curio.

More Articles:

Winter Stations contest breathes life into lifeguard stations

Interactive art brings the wintry Toronto beaches to life

Art on the beach gets a warm reception

Winning Entries Revealed for 2016 Winter Stations Competition

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If your website was created before 2015, it may be understandable that you just haven’t upgraded to responsive yet. Understandable, but unfortunately, it’s less and less forgivable. So, if you haven’t yet upgraded to responsive, or even identified the need to do so, here’s a look at why it must become a top priority on your web presence to-do list.

What exactly is responsive web design?

Responsive web design (RWD) allows your website to be properly viewed on all devices – phones, tablets, and any other web-enabled gadget – by allowing elements to shift on the page to facilitate proper viewing on smaller screens.

This website is responsive, so looking at it on a phone and then on a laptop will show the way responsive sites work.

You can also resize your browser window on a desktop or laptop to see how the page elements move based on the size of the screen that is displaying it for a better understanding of responsive behaviour.

“Content is like water: “Put water into a cup, it becomes the cup” ”

– Josh Clark, Content and Design Strategist (adapted from a quote by Bruce Lee: “You must be shapeless, formless, like water…”)

Why is responsive web design so important?

Up to 80% of traffic to your website comes from smartphones. That number is only going to keep growing. If your website can’t be viewed quickly and easily on all devices you are turning people away.

In addition, since April 2015 Google is using mobile friendliness as a ranking factor in search results. So, if your perfect customer is searching for you on a smartphone or tablet, your site may not even come up as a search result. Ouch. That should be enough of a motivator to make it clear that responsive design isn’t just a nice to have, it’s an absolute must have for all modern websites.

But the impact has even greater reach than that. Not providing a device friendly website experience is reflecting poorly on you and your business. It raises the question – Do you not know that this is important? Or do you not care? Either way, your web presence is coming across as out of date, and your brand as out of touch. Neither of those match up to the impression you want to be putting out there, do they?

What about just having a separate mobile website?

Some website creators may offer a mobile version of the main website as a way to address the needs of mobile users. The way I see it, this is a workaround for starting with a system that doesn’t offer responsive functionality in the first place. It’s a better option that not having any mobile responsiveness, but not the best solution to the problem.

There are those who advocate that your mobile site should be different than your desktop site, because mobile users want different information than on a desktop website. They are on the go and just need a simplified version of the details.

I really don’t agree with that argument. How often do you reach for your phone to search something, rather than go to your desktop or laptop? If you’re anything like me, the answer is all the time. Our smartphones are everywhere we are. They are just smaller computers. We need the same info and level of accessiblity with them as any other device.

Because we access the web on smartphones and laptops/desktops interchangeably, we should be given the same content and have the same user experience on all devices.

The other big reason for a responsive website, vs. desktop+mobile is simplicity. The majority of my clients are small business owners and independent artists who all are seeking to be improve their web presence, or create a beautiful new one. All of them have the same needs: A website that is as easy to manage as possible.

Let’s face it, you barely have time to think about your website as it is, let alone think about 2 different versions of it. A single responsive website that can be viewed on all devices solves this problem in a simple way to give users what they need. If you’re website currently is not multi-device friendly, moving to responsive design is the first step in the right direction.

How can you make your website responsive?

The very easiest way is to use a platform that begins with Responsive Design as an option. For me, that’s one of the biggest advantages of WordPress, which has been offering responsive functionality for a few years now.

If you’re already using WordPress, upgrading to a responsive theme is the easiest option. How long that can take will depend a lot on how your site was constructed within WordPress, but just having your content within the WordPress environment gives you a head start on transitioning to creating a responsive website.

If you have a old-style static HTML website, or some other platform that doesn’t offer a responsive option, it really is time to move up to a better platform. I recommend WordPress for many reasons, but making responsive web design easy is a big plus.

Quick Tip: To check how google ranks the mobile friendliness of your website, you can do a quick check with the Google Mobile Friendly Test

The time is now to transition to Responsive Web Design

The types of devices that your website can be viewed upon is ever-changing. Having a responsive website ensures that your content can be seen by all your website visitors, regardless of what device they are using. Not having a responsive website is actively turning people away from your website and your brand. In effect, your website is actually working against you if you’re not providing an enjoyable user experience across all devices.

Providing an effective web presence is just good customer service, and these days that includes responsive web design.

Related Articles:

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Responsive Web Design is a Small Business Must-Have

Now Is The Time For Responsive Design

Josh Clark debunks the 7 Myths of Mobile Web Design

The post Responsive Web Design: An Absolute Must for Your Business Website appeared first on SUSAN DRYSDALE.

If I’m going to have one resolution, that’s it.

Because I know that there is value to blogging, but I’ve been avoiding it.

Let’s be honest: Blogging is hard

Some people seem to find their way with it easily, but for many it’s a bit scary.

What should I blog about? Who cares what I have to say? What is it I should say anyway?

Let’s be honest. It’s time consuming and doesn’t seem like a priority. It’s easy to let it slide.

Up until now, I’ve mostly been interested in the mechanics of building a blog. But once it’s built, it’s not really very useful unless you keep at it.

Even with the limited blogging I’ve done I know that the right posts do connect with the right people. And when you get it right, you see the value of having a WordPress website.

Engagement is important. Blogging is a great way to engage.

Blogging can be useful

It’s one of the things I advise my clients when they want to get more traffic to their websites.

But it’s not just about driving numbers. It’s about shaping a picture of what your brand is about.

So, if I’m going to blog more, it has to be more about the things I think matter to my clients and to me. That means adding topics about: Working with WordPress, Creating a web presence for your business, Using the internet for small business, and the general topics of visual design/ photography.

These are things I know a lot about. More than I give myself credit for. I should be sharing that knowledge.

When clients ask me what they should blog about or write in their newsletters, I tell them to think of the conversations that they have most often offline, with clients or colleagues. These are your areas of expertise. Start with what you know, and what you believe is important within those things.

Just having a blog doesn’t mean much if it doesn’t connect with an audience. It needs to have a voice and needs to be authentic. Starting with what matters to you is a great place to start.

Isn’t having a blog kinda futile?

Writing? Ick. Am I right?

I think that’s the scary part. In person I can prattle on at length on many topics and I know I can be very informative.

But I go to write it all down and immediately second-guess myself. Who cares about my opinion? No one in is listening anyway. Is it a futile exercise?

No, actually. It’s not.

If you can create a post on a topic that someone out there is searching for information about, and you’ve helped inform them in any way, it’s not futile.

I think about all the blog posts I come across randomly when searching the web for knowledge and opinions, I realise that I have just as much to offer as any of them. I also see areas where people aren’t talking about things I think should be talked about.

Even in this world of way-too- much information, there is still room for good content and useful opinions.

Like most things, the difference is in the doing. At some point, you have to just stop having ideas and actually out something out there.

Writing and finding a way to communicate what is important to your brand is something I find many website owners and business owners struggle with. I definitely do.

But like anything, it just takes work to overcome.

Blogging can be valuable

You have to use your website to get the most out of this fast-paced online world.

It’s like getting a car. If it sits in the driveway all the time, is it the car’s fault you don’t go anywhere?

A blog is a tool. When you use it, it has more value.

How often you should you use it? Experts will tell you that you have to blog often, and stick to a schedule.

That may be true for some, but I think you have to find the balance of what works for you.

Make it relevant and it will be valuable.

An older post that has lots of good content will continue to get traffic long after you post it.

So, rather than focussing on quantity, stick to quality. Stay focussed on how you can help visitors solve problems.

Good information remains good for a lot longer than fluff.

So, to blog or not to blog?

Well, for now, it’s to blog.

Here we go.

Publish.

Related Articles:

Why I Blog

Is Blogging Really Necessary

12 Reasons You Should Start A Blog Today

The post To Blog or Not to Blog appeared first on SUSAN DRYSDALE.