The Spring Forward Issue!
Time to do some sprucing up and keep people engaged.
MORE FUD
Since my last newsletter, there have been several scary security issues, such as Heartbleed and the latest Internet Explorer bug that have plagued the entire Internet. Now some of you took my previous advice to get a security review. But most didn't. OK, fine. You have other things on your mind. And yeah, your web site is not the first thing on your mind when you wake up to greet the new morn! But I don't make this stuff up. We should be checking your site for holes at least annually, and more often in the case of emergencies like Heartbleed.
POSITIVE EXPECTATIONS
If I could change only one idea people have about the web it would be this: that Internet costs and benefits are fundamentally different from those of other types of marketing. Wrong. The web is like any other advertising: you get what you pay for. Unfortunately, many of us still think of the web as if it was 2003 when it comes to the costs both in terms of time and money and also the benefits. We may think that our site doesn't matter much (It does. Almost everyone who you do business with is checking you out on-line of course.) Or perhaps just the opposite (That it will be dead simple to have a big impact at little or no cost. Unfortunately, tthat ended about 2007.) Or we may think it's an impossible nut to crack for a small site given all the big players. (No, it's not easy, but it's always doable.) All these preconceptions are wrong, but they are all based on an antiquated view of the Internet as being this big 'mystery'.
Look, I know this stuff works. Fifteen years ago it definitely was more 'exciting' and easier to make a splash. But there was also a lot more trial and error. We wasted a lot of time on very clever things that just didn't get people interested (or did get attention, but never led to sales.) Nowadays things are better because we know what it takes to make a successful site. It's not free and it's usually not for amateurs. But that's what I'm here for. What I offer is a predictable set of services and benefits. In other words, the Internet has grown up and that means we can do this if we work together! (How's that for 'positive'?)
SEO TIP: MIND YOUR IMAGES
You're seeing more images and less text on the web. This is an intentional goal of all social media companies. They recognise that human beings (especially younger ones) have shorter attention spans, work on smaller screens (phones) and are instinctively drawn to pictures. So you definitely want to make strong, to the point images a main focus of all your marketing. The mistake many businesses make when posting images on social media sites is... posting images on social media sites. As much as possible, you should keep your content on your site and away from the social media sites you are sharing with. When you post a picture onto Facebook or Twitter, you're making a couple of mistakes:
1) You're giving them your content. Be clear on that; when you upload any content to a site you are giving them that piece of content to use however they see fit. Yes, they may have a 'terms of service', but note that virtually all companies reserve the right to change their policies at any time. And they do.
2) When you upload a photo to a site, you are instantly drawing people away from your site and reducing your SEO score. In other words, the traffic is going to that social media site and not where you want it.
The trick? Post links to your content but do not actually upload the content. If your web pages are properly set up this should be automatic. In other words, when you 'share' a page from your site, the proper images will appear on Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/et. al but they will register with search engines as having come from your site. Good. The trouble is that many sites are not properly set up to do this. If yours is one of them, we need to talk as this is costing you visitors and lowering your search engine visibility!
Another tip: When you share links, make sure that the description is exactly what you want. Although the picture is what humans see, it's that description that search engines see. A lot of people share images and don't bother with a decent description (because it takes time, right?) But when you neglect that last step, you're pretty much undoing the SEO benefit of sharing in the first place!
WORDPRESS 3.9
Yet another update for Wordpress (we're now at version 3.9.) If I've set you up with Wordpress, you most likely are now getting coreupdates automatically. If not, you should ask me about that. Again, there are enough security fixes that we should automate that process as much as possible. However, even if you're getting the core automatically, you're not getting any 3rd Party Plug-In updates. If you depend on those, you can be sure that their developers are releasing updates to match the new Wordpress core. Make sure that we update those Plug-Ins!
NEW TWITTER PROFILES!
If you haven't noticed, Twitter Profiles have really gotten snazzy. We should discuss redoing your Twitter Page to take advantage of the new features. Yes, Twitter is all about 'the tweets' but the fact remains that the first experience visitors will have when they click on one of your tweets is your Profile and its imagery. If that is not up to the same standard as your web site it sends the wrong message. As I always say: you should never miss an excuse to engage with your audience. A new Twitter Profile is a great way to do that.
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As I always say, I know you're busy. Hopefully my occasional nags help you think about how you can get more benefits from your e-marketing. But even if you don't have a thing for me to work on at present (shocking but possible) drop me a line anyway and let me know how things are going; market-wise or otherwise. It's always good to hear from you.
Spring Forward!
JC Harris
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