Red Kite Creative

Getting Help

Announcing Our New Business Blogging Service

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A blog can help your business!If you’ve considered blogging as part of your business marketing efforts, but never had the time or weren’t sure how to actually do it, our new done-for-you blogging service is just for you!

Blogging is good for business. It can:

  • Drive more traffic to your website.
  • Ensure potential customers that you are an active, engaged business owner by posting regularly.
  • Establish your expertise in your industry while you educate your customers.
  • Get you found more easily on Google – it’s good for SEO (search engine optimization).
  • Reduce costs of pay-per-click or other paid advertising (organic leads are cheaper).
  • Get new customers to buy/sign up when you include a call-to-action in every post.

But blogging can be quite intimidating, right? If you think you’re not good at writing, or don’t know what to write about. Or maybe (like the rest of us) you just have very little time.

Our blogging service can help!

You and your blogging specialist will work together to develop topic ideas that will help your business grow. You’ll get an editorial calendar to follow, and your blogging specialist will write 3-4 posts per month (or more if you prefer) for you based on your topics. The posts will be optimized to help searchers find your content and will be published under your name or a team member’s name.

You can choose to test the waters with a short 4-month commitment, or go longer until you feel comfortable taking blogging into your own hands.

Learn more about our new blogging service – get started here.

Will Switching to HTTPS Hurt My SEO?

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Earlier this week, a client expressed concern about losing search engine result rankings if they made the switch from HTTP to HTTPS. They’d been told that making this move can result in big rankings losses for 6-7 months, and I was pretty sure that was not the case.

But it really depends – making this move (which is a great thing to do, highly recommended both for site and user security and for SEO too) can cause major problems with rankings if it’s not done right. It’s the equivalent of changing domains which can have a big impact on rankings, potentially very damaging.

Fortunately, I’ve done about 15 of these moves (including two of my own sites) and do know how to do it right. It involves 301 redirects, updates and changes to Google Analytics and Google Search Console, canonical tag updates, and updating internal links, among 20 or so related tasks. I follow a checklist to ensure everything gets done.

The information I gathered for my hesitant client indicated that if done correctly, you can expect a 10-15% drop in search rankings for 2-4 months (faster if you have a smaller website, slower if your site is huge). Then the site should recover to previous levels.

So why move to HTTPS?

Because:

  1. HTTPS is a ranking factor for Google Search. Not a big one, but it is a factor.
  2. Security is important! Google takes it seriously and so should you.
  3. Your site users will generally feel more comfortable seeing that padlock in the browser address bar rather than a “this site is insecure” warning.
  4. Do people buy things on your site with credit cards? HTTPS is essential. Not even a question. If you don’t have it, people shouldn’t buy from you because you put them at unnecessary risk.
  5. Are you at a coffee shop right now? Are you logged in to their public wifi? That’s a big reason to switch.
  6. You should get a bit of a speed boost after switching. Modern browsers support HTTP/2, a major revision of the HTTP protocol that brings many performance improvements, but only when using HTTPS.

If you want to make the switch to HTTPS and need help getting it right, please get in touch.

Friday Link Wrapup – Value of Professional Design, Original Content, Customer Testimonials

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The top website and marketing links for this week.

First impressions matter – especially online. What does the design of your site say about your business? A lot more than you think! If you look like an amateur, it reduces your credibility. It’s going to be harder for you to convince people of your value, especially if you have a service-oriented company. Learn more about why it’s critical to have a professional design for your business site.

Along those same lines, it’s also important to have original content on your site. Learn why original content is important for SEO.

Finally – learn about the power of social proof. Understand how gathering a nice volume of customer testimonials and using them effectively throughout your website may have a big impact on your bottom line.

Friday Link Wrapup – Site Migration Problems, Landing Pages

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The top website and marketing links for this week.

Ever tried to migrate your site from one host to the other and found you’d lost all your Google link juice? This post is for you: learn how to recover your organic search rankings after a bad migration. This is a bit advanced, but very thorough and worth some time if you’re having this problem with your site.

If  you’re in the process of coming up with new landing pages, here’s a great post on 2016 landing page design trends that might provide some inspiration.

Followup: Last week I shared some resources about how to choose and hire a VA (virtual assistant). I’m happy to report that after going through the job posting process on UpWork and reviewing the skills and backgrounds of the 20 or so people that responded, I found two people who fit my requirements really well.

I hired them both for 2-week trials, then I set up a Trello board for each of them and got some tasks ready. Both have done quite well so far… I’m pleased, I’m getting stuff done without personally spending time on it. It’s helping me out a lot. I’ll say it: I should have done this a while back.

I’ve learned a few things too… I’m getting a handle on how long it takes me to set up a concise task, and write up documentation if needed. Also, at the beginning I was worried that having one VA in Europe (8 hours ahead) would be a problem, but it hasn’t turned out that way at all. As long as there’s a 1-2 day window for a task, we’ve had no problems.

I think I’m going to have a hard time choosing at the end of two weeks…

Friday Link Wrapup – Hiring a VA, Membership Site SEO, Website Redesign

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The top website and marketing links for this week.

Too much to do, not enough time? If you own your own business, this is you.

Ever thought about hiring a virtual assistant (VA) but weren’t sure you could keep them busy? Here’s a list of all the things you might consider outsourcing to a VA.

If you run (or are thinking about starting) a membership site where premium content is behind a paywall, check out these tips on membership site SEO.

And finally… as 2016 approaches you may be like me, where you do some serious business analysis at the end of the year. If your website’s look is one of those things you’re thinking about, read this list of good reasons for a website redesign. It may be time!

I'm Not a Vendor.

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I just had a prospective client, whom I sent a quote last week, write me and tell me they had decided to go with another vendor.

No problem with that at all, and I really appreciate it when people actually take the time to let me know one way or the other. But ‘vendor?’ That made me pause…

I’ve never thought of myself as a ‘vendor.’ My goal is to be a partner, a resource, a trusted problem-solver for the clients I work with. The people I work best with tell me they view me that way and see great value in the relationship, because I help them do better business. Or business better. However you want to put that.

‘Vendor’ implies a situation where you fork over some cash and get a website. End of story. And I know there are web designers who operate like that (I’ve personally run into them). But Red Kite’s not one of those studios.

If you’re looking for a vendor to make your next website, don’t bother with me; that’s not the kind of relationship I want with clients. If you want a professional you can trust to give you high-quality product, sound advice, and be here when you need help with your site, then get in touch. Red Kite may be a great fit for your company.