Even if you’re not ready for a brand new website, there are some things you can do for your existing site to give it a quick makeover for 2017 – both customer-facing and behind the scenes. 1. Install an SSL Certificate This is becoming really important – Google has even made it one of its search result ranking factors. It means that your website address in the browser will show the little padlock beside it and ‘https’ instead of ‘http.’ When that padlock appears, it means whatever information goes back and forth between the user and the server (like credit card or other… Continue Reading
mobile friendly
Friday Link Wrapup – Mobile Friendly Sales, SEO Basics, Online Payments, Getting People to Sign Up
The top website and marketing links for this week. Still clinging to that old website that isn’t mobile-friendly? Techcrunch reports that yesterday was the biggest shopping day on Thanksgiving ever – $1.15 billion in sales by 5pm. And 54% of visits – $449 million of sales – of that was on smartphones and tablets. Do your customers and your business a favor and upgrade to a mobile-friendly site – I can help. If you’re new to the world of SEO or thinking about how to get your website to rank higher, here’s a good introduction to SEO basics for small… Continue Reading
Friday Link Wrapup – Mobile yet Unfriendly, Security Threats, Marketing Stats
The top website and marketing links for this week. Is your website mobile-friendly (yay!) but ridiculously hard to use on a phone? If that’s the case, you need to read “How to Poison the Mobile User” to understand how your website may be impacting your customers and sales. And then contact me because I can help you. Ever been hacked? Ever known someone who was? It’s very common, impossible to prevent, and can leave a big mess to clean up for the website owner. If it’s all Greek to you, here’s a quick primer on the 3 most common types of… Continue Reading
Friday Link Wrapup – Mobile Friendly Websites, Single-tasking, Pomodoro
The top website and marketing links for this week. How does your website look in a phone? Is it a breeze to use, with easy to understand navigation and a clear call to action helping users do what you want them to do? Or is it embarrassing – it looks just like a miniature version of your site on a desktop, and so can’t be read without zooming way in? It’s 2016. More than half of all web searches are done on phones and other mobile devices. If your site still isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re just shooting yourself in the foot… Continue Reading
Quick Poll: Smartphone Users’ Behavior on Sites That Aren’t Mobile-Friendly
I’d really appreciate your answer to this one-question poll! It will help me better answer clients when they say ‘I don’t need a mobile-friendly site – do I?’ or ‘in my industry it doesn’t matter if my site works well on phones.’ EDIT: The poll is closed – the results were: 48% said they leave a non-mobile-friendly site immediately. 47% said they will zoom in to view content. I guess I was expecting a less evenly distributed result…
Small Businesses Adapt.
This week I heard something from a few business owners I know that surprised me. I’d mentioned Google’s new use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor in search engine results, which is going to begin on April 21. The response was basically: “I don’t see why I should be forced to pay to update my website just because Google says so.” It surprised me because this isn’t about Google. It’s about customers. Google is acknowledging the rising tide of what customers have already been doing for quite some time – paying more visits to websites on smartphones or tablets than… Continue Reading
Google Begins Using Mobile-friendliness as a Ranking Factor on April 21. Is Your Site Ready?
Is your website mobile-friendly? If not, this news might make you reconsider that. On April 21, Google will start using mobile-friendliness (or responsiveness) as one of its ranking factors in search results. This is a natural addition given that the number of users using mobile surpassed desktop users in early 2014. How might this change in ranking factors affect you as the owner of a site that isn’t mobile-friendly? It depends on your industry, according to this recent post by Moz. If you’re in an industry where mobile-friendly content is prevalent, and your site doesn’t offer it, you could experience… Continue Reading