BLOG PAGE STYLE #2
Yup, True Story –
On the phone yesterday with John Denton of Business Ready For Sale. We’re both in the same BNI (Business Network International) chapter. Plus we’re good mates.
I was doing my due diligence on BNI chapter websites and John Googled “BNI Australia”.
We were both astounded at the results, check it out. Here’s the search term and number of search results shown.
And here is the Social Media Beta results shown down the bottom of page 1, complete with my mug shot with 3 links, what a bonus, 1 to my LinkedIn profile, another to my core website and another to a page within my website.
So what does your online social profiles say about you?
Best you get cracking and check your short bio’s on FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube and whatever other’s you have in the mix.
Make sure you OPTIMIZE your social profiles otherwise you’ll be LOST in the myriad on wannabe experts in your field. Here’s 3 Tips straight up on optimizing LinkedIn.
“How do I get my website to rank better in the Search Engines?” is a question I must get asked at least 3 times a week, every week.
And this from both clients and prospects. Now this is a reflection on me, so for that I apologise straight up, I thought I’d educated my clients, but not well enough apparently because this question came from a client just this week.
To get a website ranking high for a particular search term most people’s response would be – right keywords, optimized title, unique content, back-links and so on. (For non geeks – the title is what you see in the blue bar at the top of your internet screen).
All theses elements are valid and important for SEO, but on their own they won’t help your website “hold it’s position”. They will produce very small results if you don’t combine them with consistency.
And you must have your website HOLD it’s position.
This is an excerpt from Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips – so kudos where kudos is due.
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You could launch a new website today with a lot of unique content and many links back to your site (back-links), but unless you keep adding new content and getting new links consistently over time your website would not rank high for any competitive keyword.
The opposite is also true. Even if you launch a website with little unique content and no back-links, you can still get it ranking high for competitive keywords if you consistently keep adding new content and getting new back-links.
Let me illustrate this point with some numbers. Suppose we launch two websites targeting the same keyword, website A and website B. On website A we publish 50 articles right away and manage to attract 500 back-links on the first day thanks to a social media campaign.
On website B, on the other hand, we work gradually publishing one article every other day and getting 10 new back-links per week. After 6 months I would be willing to bet that website B is ranking higher than website A, and that is because it has consistency.
In fact Google confirmed in the past that the pace at which a website publishes new content and gain new back-links is indeed used inside its algorithm.
Whenever you plan an SEO campaign for your site in the future remember that slow and steady can win the race, even on the Internet!
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Moral of the story? Be consistent with adding new content. The search engines love it, it means your website has credibility, authority and it’s obviously current and up to date.
Every single time you add a new post (article) you’re bringing the search engine back to your site.
How else to get traffic to a website? Google Adwords – is it valid? Of course it is, trouble is, only around 30% of people actually click on the sponsored “ads” (the search results in the right hand column and small section at the top).
So being consistent will get your website positioned in the main area of the Google results and that’s free, and that’s where at least 70% of people click anyway.
So where do you want your website to be?
So the plan?
Set yourself a regime – Monthly, fortnightly or even weekly. Stick to it. Set a time to write your post and then a time to publish it, and then a time to email it.
BREAKING NEWS! Read this to save time! We Cracked the Code!
If your website is static, and you’re not able to add new content we need to talk, seriously. If you’re not getting results, I have bad news, it’s only going to get worse. Contact me now so we set up a time to have a 15 minute chat.
Time to update your website to the new WordPress 3.5 ‘Elvin’
What’s new?
The most dramatic new change is a completely re-imagined flow for uploading photos and creating galleries.
If you’re a Standard 110 Member with Smarter Websites we’ll be doing this update for you. If you’re a Basic 55 Member you will need to jump in and get this done next Tuesday 22nd (that’s when we’ll have support available if you run into strife).
Here’s a quick video overview of everything you can share with your friends (the first 40 seconds shows the new WordPress galleries media stuff):
(Click to play)
The Genesis WordPress Framework is also up to 1.9. The newest feature is Google Author Highlights built in.
What does that mean?
It will show YOUR Google profile in the search results on your posts and content. How good is that? We all need to learn to play the game with Google. Here’s what that looks like (see how it gives you the edge):
Read why Google plays a critical role in building a successful online business and should be inevitable part of your content marketing strategy.
In Genesis 1.9 there’s also security updates and depreciated widgets. For the techy type read the detail here – Genesis WordPress Updates
This release was done Dec 11. Why did we wait so long?
For the plugin authors to make sure there is no software conflict issues to cause your website to glitch out.
So now we’ll be updating your whole raft of plugins (tools that do ‘stuff’ on your website).
IMPORTANT:
Basic 55 members will need to do this for next Tuesday 22nd (Remember to refresh your web page after to check nothing has glitched out).
There is a video tutorial in the Members Area – Login Here
Standard 110 Members and Premium 220 Members – kick back and it will be done for you, all a part of our obsessive and passionate service!
PS: Have you noticed the edge on web speed since the upgrade to the new server technology? It’s measured in seconds and micro seconds but we’re impressed.
Committed To Your Success,
Peter B Butler
Graphics & Design:
- No links in a main image, unless it’s your main web link and it’s obvious it is (Like Mark Fregnan’s in the video)
- Sharp images, not blurry graphics
- Size, not too big or small
- Mugshot, your photo for personalisation, and confidence, trust factor
- No links in the graphic, did I mention that already
Catch Cry or your BURPS or USP
Don’t use too many colours, make it gentle on the eye
Section-ise your signature so it’s easy to follow
Contact details (NOT your email address)
Links:
Tell them what to do:
Great to have a link to your website or social media platforms, but you will see an increase in click throughs if you tell them what to do –
- Visit our website: then the link
- Connect with us socially: then the various links
Reviews/Testimonials:
I don’t have them but it’s a great idea.
Getting more reviews and testimonials – https://www.smarterwebsites.com.au/smarter-reviews/
Memberships or affiliations:
ONLY that which is going to help prospect confidence, or some leverage
Booking/Appointment Software:
If this going to save you time, absolutely Just Do It
New Messages & Replies/Forwards SETTINGS:
- I can understand why some folk would deactivate the email signature on replies/forwards, say if you have a lot of internal business email traffic, but then again, maybe another way of communicating internally would be a better option. My recommendation is having your email signature turned on.
Disclaimers:
Make the text smaller, IF you really do need to have one, and likely a bit of space between the bottom of your signature and the disclaimer
Outcomes:
Here’s the thing.
Anything that once setup properly will deliver consistent results, even if only marginal, is worth doing, so just make it happen.
You WILL get more traffic through to your –
- Website
- Social platforms
- Calendar/bookings page
When I send out broadcast emails from our email marketing software we can track all click-throughs, so I SEE the free traffic that we generate from using a well setup email signature.
It works!
So, that’s just the free traffic we’re getting with an email broadcast, and I send a lot more emails one on one direct from Outlook.
There are more mobile devices on the planet than there are humans, go figure!
Mobile devices are all the rage – from iPhones, iPads, Androids, Smart Phones and Tablets all showing different views of YOUR website!
So how is this affecting your online presence, how does your website stack up?
Is it costing you business?
So what is the difference between ‘mobile friendly’ and ‘mobile responsive’?
Mobile Friendly:
Put simply a ‘mobile friendly’ version of your site will show predetermined ‘primary navigation buttons’ on the mobile device.
You get to specify what those ‘buttons’ are but that’s the simplest explanation.
This is great if you have a store front type business, say a café, and you want to simply display primary functions a mobile user may want to use such as a link to your ‘location map’, your ‘food menu’, your ‘contact page’, perhaps your ‘about us’ page, even a direct ‘email you’ button, etc.
When someone views your website on their mobile device you need to remember they’re ‘mobile’ (sounds like a given but needs to be said). They’re ‘on the go’ so they generally need to ‘cut to the chase’ on the info you give them hence using a simple ‘mobile friendly’ button navigation style to direct peeps.
Pros: Less expensive (We can easily convert your WordPress website to a mobile friendly version starting from $550.
Most ‘mobile friendly’ solutions will also give the option so the viewer can choose to revert to standard view or mobile view.
Mobile Responsive:
A mobile responsive website automatically changes the layout and/or content to fit the device you’re reading it on.
It’s a beautiful thing.
If you own that café and a potential client is browsing your site from a mobile phone, you certainly want to make it easy to navigate but it would be nice if you were able to keep your graphically gorgeous elements showcasing your business.
Typically there have been four general screen sizes that responsive design has been aimed at: the mobile phone, the tablet, the small desktop (or laptop) and the widescreen desktop monitor.
But if you’ve planned out your site well, using nice graphical ‘doorway’ buttons to direct your visitors along the right web ‘journey’ and you have other nice graphical elements or a slideshow it’d be nice for them to see that too right?
Mobile responsive design takes care of this all ‘on the fly’, and without multiple versions of your site to maintain.
Can you see the benefits of having differing content presented to people in different screen viewing circumstances?
A ‘mobile responsive’ site will ‘stack’ your existing site layout. So now you can still keep your branding, your graphics and perhaps that slideshow of your ‘to die for’ dishes (or any gallery) so regardless of what format it is being served up in you still get to give a good user experience. Has to be Google Brownie points for you huh?
But what makes good mobile responsive design?
While most people agree that responsive design is not the ‘magic wand’ that will solve all of your multiple mobile device usage problems, it is one of the best solutions we have right now — and it’s only getting better. The layout of your site and best use of website ‘real estate’ has always been important but now the world of mobile has to be factored in to the equation.
Base your design on the online journey you need to take people on, your information architecture so to speak, what doorways do you want them to ‘walk through’. You’re not building a web ‘page’ anymore but rather a ‘network of content’ that can be arranged and displayed to show it off in the best way possible, no matter where and how it is being viewed.
As you can see in the demo shopping cart site above, as the screen gets smaller, the content shifts and changes to the best display for each screen.
Do you need to go mobile friendly or mobile responsive?
In consideration of mobile usage, mobile search and the mobile shopper (won’t that be all of us one day) mobile friendly or mobile responsive websites are quickly becoming a necessity to a complete marketing effort. Whether you go the ‘friendly’ or the ‘responsive’ route depends on many factors.
If your website is older than 3 years old it may well be time for a ‘refresh’ anyway, and upgrading to mobile responsive may not as expensive as you think. More than happy to chat on 08 9439 2820 about what would give you the best ROI!
Wondering if this applies to you yet?
Check your web analytics to see what percentage of your traffic is coming from a mobile device. If it’s getting close to 10% or more, many would say you’re already running late.
And at the rate the times are changing, if you’re not ready yet, make sure you check your stat’s in 3 months from now!
Test Drive Your Site HERE:
In fact, StudioPress have their own mobile responsive website design testing tool.
Test drive your own site but also one test of our new mobile responsive sites so you can SEE a mobile responsive website in action – www.smartershop.com.au
(copy and paste www.smartershop.com.au into the mobile responsive website design testing tool ‘Test your own site… and hit enter’ to see it in action, remember to scroll all the way to the right to see the pc version as well as the mobile version)
Not sure on your mobile device traffic stat’s?
Give us a call NOW and we’ll give you a hand – 08 9439 2820
t’s a numbers game, and something has changed out there in the land of www. The rate of SPAM over the last few weeks has risen dramatically. Not sure whether they’ve started their own server farm but omg, email overload.
Why do I say numbers game? Send enough SPAM and you’re bound to get some opens or click throughs and achieve the ‘end game’ whatever that might be.
What to do?
Apart from the outright annoyance my biggest beef is the time loss in deleting them, and setting up rules in your email software (Outlook, etc) but there are 2 ways we can help stop them at the ‘front door’.
SPAM Assassin
If you’ve had an increase in SPAM contact us and we’ll enable SPAM Assassin at level 5. We can turn it up but we’re better off doing that 1 point at a time, don’t want to shut the door on legit emails.
Most times this will sort your SPAM issue for you. If your email address has been published on a webpage then you may be in for a hard time, really not a best practice. SPAM Bots roam the world of www looking for emails to scrape and SPAM.
BoxTrapper
If your SPAM is seriously bad another option is BoxTrapper. A little radical in that when an account that has BoxTrapper enabled receives an email, BoxTrapper automatically sends a verification email in response. The sender must complete the verification process before the email can pass to your inbox. If the sender does not verify the email, the verification fails and BoxTrapper never clears the message for delivery. After a period of time, the system automatically deletes the spam.
Like I said, a bit radical but very specific on what emails will get through.
Email Filtering – DIY Email Filtering – How To Stop SPAM Email.
A lot can be done at the webmail portal level if your hosting provider runs cPanel. In this video we show you how to setup email filters to fine tune your SPAM Filtering.
Wrong…
How would you like an easy way to capture your ideas to start to collate all the data, the information you need for the best online marketing strategy, and marketing year you’ve ever had?
[Transcription] Hi, Peter Butler, Smarter Websites.
When I talk to business owners, a lot of the time I find out that they sit down to start to prepare to set up a marketing campaign or a series of marketing campaigns. Wrong. Personally, my ilk (bent) is that when we’re out and about we have ideas, the ideas aren’t the problem.
It’s a matter of capturing the ideas and then to start to build on that, add information slowly.
Look, whether you use a whiteboard, Post-it notes.
I use Trello. It’s a beautiful little platform. I’m a raving fan for those who know me. Trello, have a look at it. It’s free. This whole section here is called a board. This board is my Marketing, Blog Posts, Email Marketing. These are lists and these are cards. Each individual one is a card.
How I’ve set mine up and you work how you work, but this is actually where I come up with the idea, right. I just create a card, give it a title. I make notes within the card and this is where I’m starting this year.
I am going to make sure that this year, I take action, massive imperfect action. This is the year of that.
Now this video won’t get edited much at all, I’m just going to get it out there, get it up because I’m sick of trying to get it perfect and I know so many business owners don’t move forward because look, I’ve just got to do this, I’ve just got to do that, whatever it is.
Look, you’re better off just getting it out there even if it’s imperfect because at least you’re in action.
I captured the idea in this particular list and I had elements of information. I’ve got snippets of information in each one of these. This is a new thing that’s happening with Chrome and I’ve captured some website links, some information and so forth, and I’m starting to collate the information.
When I’ve got enough information and I’m really inspired to move forward with it, remember, I’m just capturing ideas.
Look, this is a big scroll list. There’s no shortage of them and I’m sure most business owners are in the same position. Once I’ve created that card, collated a little bit of information, I want to move it on. I move it over to here. This is my blog post, email topics. I’ve moved it onto the next stage.
When I’ve added some information, so video marketing, I’ll just share a few of the blog posts, the information that’s actually coming up that you’re going to get information about and, hopefully, it’s going to add value to your business.
Remember I said massive imperfect action so that’s one of my team members checking in for this morning and we’re going to edit that out and I don’t care.
Video marketing, there’s a new video plugin for Genesis. That’s not yet, but it’s moved along. What I also do is in this particular list, this is the delivery order. This is the email campaign we’re doing right now so blogs, emails, brain storm, strategy session.
The next one that’s going to come out the following week is smarter reviews.
Now, I’ll just share a little bit about that. You’ve got to make it easy for people to become raving online fans. The best way to do that is to get them in an online platform, whether it’s LinkedIn, Google Reviews, and True Local and so on. If you actually focus on Google Reviews, there’s massive SEO benefits. Social reviews is social signals and it is just so powerful.
The whole point being that people are now doing more due diligence than ever before and you really do need to set yourself apart, and the old catch phrase what others say about you is infinitely more powerful than what we say about us. There’s a lot of service providers providing online platforms now. It’s the new thing. The trouble is it’s on another online platform and we can actually incorporate this into your website.
Anyway, enough of that. We’re going to do a blog post about it.
This is my delivery order. This is the email we’re talking about now. What are my notes there? Do video showing My Trello Marketing Board, show snippets of each sort of like, teaser, but actual added value share. It’s a good takeaway so you can go and do this. I make no money and, hopefully, it adds value to your business.
We’re going to then roll out the smarter reviews email.
I’m going to talk about email signatures.
This is something that does my absolute head in. You’ve got to make it easy for people to get a hold of you.
We’ve recently been doing some renovation work and some of the people that I’ve been communicating with, getting quotes from, they got a lousy email signature. I’m going to go and get their number. I go back to the email. Oh, my God. It’s like seriously, people, make it easy for people to find you and get hold of you.
I’ve got another local business owner who’s just had their signature redone by a graphic designer, absolutely gorgeous and you want to see what they’ve done wrong. It’s actually embarrassing and I’ll share the detail of that in that blog post.
Owning your own domain name, that’s coming up soon as well.
I own peterbutler.com.au. Hello?
Why would you not own your own name, especially given that in today’s world with due diligence, imagine this, you’re vying for a gig. You’ve got a proposal out there and that person is looking at two people. How are you going to differentiate yourself? You need every edge and this is one way to do it. It makes it personal and people want to do business with people they know, like and trust and this is one way to achieve it.
Anyway, back on track. These are also posts that we’re going to do for our membership and managed support services. You can see I’ve got some sort of structure to this.
As I said just to refresh, this is where I capture the initial idea. I then populate some information and then, I move it along over to here. I capture ideas from my members here. Then I go from here over to there so that I can get the delivery order and then once they’re sent, they will get moved along to there.
I’m hoping that this adds value to what you do in your business and gives you a platform or a tool or some ideas, inspiration to start to set up your own marketing for this year because the bottom line is we need every edge we can get.
Now if we’re able to, if you need help with setting up a marketing strategy, hey, give us a shout out. It’s what we do. It’s what we’re good at.
That’s Peter Butler, Smarter Websites, helping business owners achieve local world domination. Get marketing.
Does your site have a secure connection online?
Really easy to find out if it does. Does it have a green lock?
Open your site now and check up in the address bar
Website with NO Green Padlock (No SSL)
Website WITH a Green Padlock (Yes SSL)
If your website is NOT showing the green padlock, your websites ranking and authority WILL be affected.
For the non-techy types that DO NOT have the green padlock, we need to talk, really.
Have you seen the recent news about websites and SECURITY ONLINE?
With all that is going on with hacking, you just can’t leave it to risk, speed IS of the essence here, leave nothing to risk.
Watch this short video I did on the world’s top 4 browsers showing you what to look for –
Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Internet Explorer, Safari won’t run on Windows 10 so sorry.
(some old IE users might even get a red flag if they visit your site, be warned)
[youtube_advanced url=”https://youtu.be/G2W4ZVdzl_A” rel=”no” https=”yes”]
WATCH the VIDEO NOW TO QUICKLY CHECK YOUR SITE!
[magicactionbox id=”12374″]
For the tech types or those who want to get the ‘gist’ of layman’s techy talk (I do talk human).
There are 3 major steps in applying an SSL Certificate to your website:
1: Procuring and applying the certificate (also choosing the right type of certificate)
2: Configuring your website correctly so everything still works as it should, images, forms, coding, etc
3: Making sure Google know your new web address is ‘httpS’ instead of just ‘http’ PLUS RE-verifying your site with Google
The last thing you want is for your website rankings to plummet OR even worse fall off the Google charts. Plus, you still want ALL your Google tools to work, analytics, search console, 301 redirects to be set, etc
1: What type of SSL you need depends on your website. For most sites, a domain validated certificate is ample. If you process credit cards, take client information then a higher level certificate may be required. If you have subdomains a wildcard certificate would be needed and the top certificate is the extended validation which lists the business name as well. We can advise you on this.
2: After a certificate is placed on your site we need to reconfigure a whole gambit of settings. All the images and other data are filed under http and until we get this right or the green lock won’t appear.
3: Play the game with Google and Google will play the game with you. We jump in and reset your website tracking to your ‘new’ site as it were, with ‘httpS’ and also make sure we re-verify your site with Google so your Google Tools still track your site accurately. We don’t want you plummeting down the Google charts.
The bottom line is IF YOU DON’T get your SSL setup properly, it’s going to cost you a lot more that what this one off task is going to cost you, simples…
[magicactionbox id=”12374″]
Google Chrome will start labeling websites as NOT SECURE if you don’t have an SSL Certificate!
D Day for SSL Certificate labeling by Chrome is 24th October!
The SSL Certificate encrypts the data between your website and your visitors.
It ensures that malicious third-parties can’t get their hands on the sensitive data your customers may be typing into your website, such as passwords or credit card details.
What are the changes you NEED to know?
Google Chrome currently warns users by placing a ‘Not Secure’ label in the address bar if they are visiting an insecure web page that contains a credit card or password input field.
Does your website address have the word ‘Secure’ and a ‘Green Padlock’?
This NEW update will extend a further two scenarios:
- When a user fills in ANY input field type on an insecure web page (such as a contact form)
- ALL insecure web pages when browsing via incognito mode
Google Chrome NEXT plan is to extend this warning to users to show for ALL insecure web pages, even when there’s NO INPUT FIELDS and regardless of whether they are being viewed in regular or incognito browsing modes.
Your site WILL be penalised sooner or later by Google IF you don’t act.
[magicactionbox id=”13365″]
Straight from Chrome themselves. This shows the ‘NOT SECURE’ label visitors will see when they visit your website.
https://blog.chromium.org/2017/04/next-steps-toward-more-connection.html 
I’ve been making businesses aware of this for a while, this SSL blog post from back in May >
https://www.smarterwebsites.com.au/wordpress-security/is-your-website-secure/
There are 3 major steps in applying an SSL Certificate to your website:
1: Procuring and applying the certificate (also choosing the right type of certificate)
2: Configuring your website correctly so everything still works as it should, images, forms, coding, etc
3: Making sure Google know your new web address is ‘httpS’ instead of just ‘http’ PLUS RE-verifying your site with Google
The last thing you want is for your website rankings to plummet OR even worse fall off the Google charts. Plus, you still want ALL your Google tools to work, analytics, search console, 301 redirects to be set, etc
For most sites, a domain validated certificate is ample. If you process credit cards, take client information then a higher level certificate may be required.
The bottom line is IF YOU DON’T get your SSL setup properly, it’s going to cost you a lot more that what this one off task is going to cost you, simples…
[magicactionbox id=”13365″]
The D in D Day stand for ‘designated’ day, by the way.
Again, the ‘NOT SECURE’ label visitors will see when they visit your website.
Source:
https://blog.chromium.org/2017/04/next-steps-toward-more-connection.html
Don’t you think you should?
Shouldn’t this be a part of your online IP (Intellectual Property) strategy, and protection?
To my mind it’s all a part of positioning yourself online, AND protecting the integrity of ‘you’ as the person behind your brand.
When I started online 10 years ago trying to make a name for myself, I couldn’t even get on Page 1 in Google!
So if someone was doing their ‘due diligence’ on me, checking me out as Peter Butler they would see all the other Peter Butler’s in the world but not me ?
The bottom line is people still want to do business with people they know, like and trust. Even if your branding is ‘corporate’ and you are simply the ‘silent’ face behind the business a lot of folk will still do their homework and due diligence and check out the person behind the business.
So, there I am, Page 3 in Google, it was a tough gig being a Peter Butler.
I thought I was popular, turns out I was just common 
. There are a lot of Peter Butler’s out there, I was up against Football players, Plastic Surgeon’s, a Guitarist, and all manner of people with the same name, a competitive gig it was 
So, shouldn’t you at least secure your own personal name as a domain name?
I think so.
Go and see if your name is still available, you can do that here > DOMAIN NAMES CHECK
We’re a reseller of domains, we only make pocket-money from it, we became a reseller as a convenience to help clients out, plus we were sick of some domain crowds having extortionate pricing for domains.
It’s about $25 for your own .com.au domain for 2 years, so not big $$$.
Anyway, see if your personal named domain is available NOW.
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Here’s a great resource too
No Sign Up, Feel Free to Distribute (Just don’t edit or plagiarise)
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We also created the ‘Smart Profile’ websites, only $770 gets you a personal profile website, your personal name, built-in profile, social media icons, your mug shot or choice of image, all built-in WordPress, contact details, even a built-in blog if you want.
Plus, it’s an opportunity to get a little more personal. Remember, people do business with people they know like and trust. Plus it protects your own name in branding.
Here’s a couple of folk we’ve helped protect and position with their OWN –
Personal Named Branded Website –
http://warrenblack.com.au/
http://warrenkruger.com/
http://www.peterbutler.com.au/