Reading Time: < 1 min It’s long been known that keyword-rich domain names don’t really help with search rankings. If your site is “www.cheap-used-cars.com”, you’re not going to rank better for “cheap used cars” simply due to the domain name. That said, I never really saw much downside to them. They don’t help, but they don’t hurt. However, Google’s John […]
Websites
We all have accessibility needs
Reading Time: < 1 min Website accessibility is something I’ve shared a lot about. We’ve written about it on the GreenMellen blog, devoted a podcast episode to it, and there are a handful of posts on here as well. Polishing up the accessibility of your website is a great thing, and makes it so all users can consume the content […]
Set them free to do their thing
Reading Time: 2 min When building websites, or really any kind of marketing deliverable, we have to strike an interesting balance. On the one hand, we have a tight scope of work and a clear directive on what needs to happen. On the other hand, we’re not always sure exactly what that looks like. If someone needs a new […]
Keep it simple: Sonder to Empathy, or Experience to Work
Reading Time: 2 min I’ve written a few times on here about the goal of keeping things simple, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t fall prey to overly-exotic words sometimes. Two examples showcase that. Sonder First is the idea of sonder, which I wrote about a few years ago. While many people may not know the word, reading […]
A video on your home page is likely a sign of bad messaging
Reading Time: < 1 min This isn’t an ironclad rule, but if you have to include a video on the home page of your site to explain how your product or service works, it’s likely a sign that your messaging needs help. Not long ago, the guys on the Marketing School podcast made this very argument, and I tend to […]
Who can see your website right now?
Reading Time: 2 min I’ve come across two very different website visibility-related situations in the last few weeks, and I thought they were interesting cases on how Google is able to see your site. They’re both related to “the magic checkbox” being misused. The first is with a friend of mine. They’re building a new site with another company, […]
Precise attribution is nearly impossible, and that’s ok
Reading Time: 2 min When we’re helping a company with their marketing efforts, we have a variety of tools that we employ to help track data and understand how things are performing. Starting with tools like Google Analytics, we set up data scorecards, heatmaps, trackable phone numbers, and a variety of excellent tools to help with our efforts. At […]
Google extracts “near me” from search phrases
Reading Time: < 1 min I mentioned a few months ago that using the words “near me” on your website (or even in the name of your business) was unlikely to help improve your search rankings, and now there is some more data to support that. To be clear, people search for things “near me” all the time, myself included. […]
Does accessibility help your website rank higher?
Reading Time: < 1 min Online accessibility has become an important topic over the past few years. I’ve shared some tips on how you can improve accessibility on your site, and this short podcast offers a few more bits of advice. The question is — does Google reward your site for being accessible? The short answer is “no”, but the […]
Are your requests scaring customers away?
Reading Time: 2 min When we’re developing a website, we work hard to make sure that every single page has a goal. The call-to-action (CTA) might be to sign up for a newsletter, reach out with more questions, or to simply continue on to another article for more information, but you have to have something there. Too often I […]