Website Optimization & Traffic
11 Ways To Refresh, Repurpose, And Get More Value Out of Your Old Blog Posts
One of the unexpected consequences of blogging for any length of time is that at some point, part of your job becomes managing all of the content you've written. Older blog posts can lose their popularity over time, but that doesn't mean you should send them out to pasture!Instead of...
My Top 10 Ride-or-Die WordPress Plugins
So, here's the dealio. It's easy to go crazy when it comes to WordPress Plugins -- you can make your site do cartwheels and expand its functionality to the moon and who doesn't want that? The problem is, not all plugins are well-coded (even the ones you pay $ for as I found out the hard way) and...
How To Use Content Upgrades To Build A Bigger, Better List
List building tactics come and go, but content upgrades provide so much value to you and your site visitors that it's safe to say this method of list-building is here to stay. If this is a new concept to you, let's start from square one... What is a Content Upgrade? A content upgrade is a free...
How To Choose The Right CMS For Your Website
Should you use SquareSpace, Wix, or WordPress? There are a lot of feature-rich and affordable website solutions these days that allow you to build beautiful websites for your business without knowing how to write a single line of code. But, it can be challenging to decide which platform to choose...
Divi vs Elementor: Speed, Features, Ease of Use, Price, Community & Support Compared
When it comes to choosing a website page builder for WordPress, the question I hear most often these days is which is better -- Elementor or Divi? Put 100 web pros in a room and you'll have a 50/50 split of (very) strong opinions, so I thought I'd dig into the issue a bit deeper to help you decide...
Google’s Change To The “No Follow” Link Attribute & What It Means To You
This week Google announced that after 15 years, they plan to evolve the "no follow" link attribute. If you're a blogger and you're participating in affiliate programs or doing sponsored posts, you know that the "nofollow" attribute allows you to safely link to external sites without losing good...
3 Things You Should Do With Your New WordPress Website To Prevent Future Headaches
>> Pssst. If you haven't set up your WordPress website yet, check out How To Set Up A WordPress Website From Scratch - A Helpful Step-By-Step Tutorial << Before you start designing or adding content to your new WordPress website, there are a few things you'll want to do to set things...
Setting Up A WordPress Website From Scratch – A Helpful Step-By-Step Tutorial
So you've decided to take the plunge and set up a self-hosted WordPress website, congrats! It's the most widely-used platform for bloggers and businesses for a reason -- the sky's the limit when it comes to what you can do with it! But setting up a WordPress website might feel intimidating if...
Pogo Sticking In SEO – Why It’s Bad & How To Fix It
"Pogo-sticking" is a term I hadn't heard until recently, but as soon it was explained to me, I instantly knew that I'd been making some innocent but potentially impactful mistakes with my blog content (affecting my ability to rank on Google). So I did a little digging and want to talk about the...
8 Helpful Strategies For Finding Time To Blog
Finding the time to blog when you're juggling a laundry list of life priorities can be brutal. It's probably the #1 complaint I hear when I talk with people about what holds them back from making progress. Effective time management for bloggers is all about working with a strategy, using a system...
Tripwire Marketing: Earn Trust, Win Clients & Make Passive Income
The "tripwire" is one of those horrible, jargon terms that make even my most hardcore marketing friends cringe. If you're wondering, "What is a tripwire?" let me break it down in real-human-person language: A tripwire is a low-cost offer that's designed to turn a member of your audience into...
The Most Powerful Way To Use Testimonials On Your Website To Boost Conversions
This question comes up a lot: "How do you present testimonials? Should I create a testimonials page or put them in different locations on my website?" Website testimonials are most powerful when they're placed in close proximity to your marketing claims and back up what you've promised. This not...
4 Free & Cheap Keyword Research Tools & How I Use Them
Since you've landed on this page, you already know that SEO traffic is the holy grail of traffic and you want more of it. You also know it's all about choosing and using keyword phrases strategically and using them correctly in your (high-quality) content. Using keyword research tools is a vital...
3 Types of Blog Posts to Create A Perfect Content Mix
Every business blogger struggles to create consistency; we get stuck wondering things like "what should I write about?" and "how long should my blog posts be?" rather than doing what we really should be doing: writing blog posts. The key to bringing order to this chaos is to create a content mix....
Win the SEO Game and Take the Number One Spot
The following post was written by the brilliant Hristina Nikolovska of SEOTribunal “Get a website,” they said. “You’ll get loads more business,” they said. “It will be easy,” they said. Well, we’d love to know who “they” are and be able to give them a stern talking to. In the early days of the...
A Simple Trick to Improve Your Services Page Copy
Over the last few months, I've been fine-tuning a new service offering: testing it out on beta clients, ironing out all the kinks, and creating a well-oiled process I feel confident about. So when it came time to write the sales page copy, I thought I had all the pieces I needed: WHAT it is, WHO...
How To Drive Traffic To Your Small Business Website For Free
It's a question every website owner has, "How do I drive traffic to my website?" Paying for traffic (advertising on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google, et al) isn't feasible for most business owners I know who are bootstrapping their brand and don't have thousands or even hundreds to spend....
Optimize Your Images For SEO, Social Media, & Pinterest
Optimizing your images for seo, social media, and Pinterest is an often-overlooked detail that can make a big difference to make sure your content is discoverable in search. First, let's clarify what it means to "optimize images"... There are a few factors that go into creating a great social...
How To Get More Social Shares & Look Great Doing It
I'm a frugal business owner and I use a ton of free tools to run my business, but when it comes to getting the maximum results from the content I create (with the limited time I have), I rely on the premium plugin Social Warfare Pro to help get my blog content shared on social media. For $29/year,...
How To Write An About Page That Converts
Your ABOUT page is likely to be your second-most visited web page: it's where your site visitors decide whether or not you're the perfect person to help them and whether or not they like and trust you too, so getting it right is much more important than most people realize. It's also one of the...
Should You Add A Blog To Your Small Business Website? Pros and Cons…
One of the most common questions I get from my small business web design clients is, "Should I add a blog?" I always worry a little when this comes up because a lot of business owners don't understand how much work there is to it. On the other hand, blogging is one of the very...
8 Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Winning Clients
You’re brilliant, talented, and hard working … so how come clients aren't signing up? It might not be you that's the problem, it could be that your website is letting you down in some big way. A question for you... Are you spending a lot of energy on traffic but none on your website itself? Your...
My Favorite Free & Must-Have Website & Marketing Tools For Bloggers & Freelancers
If you're planning to DIY your brand and build your own website, it's important to use the right tools so you can be efficient and smart with your budget. Some of the links below are affiliate links but some of them are not. For example, tools like Canva and Squarespace don't have affiliate...
3 Powerful Marketing Insights Your Website Visitors Can Teach You
When people tell me about their online struggles, one of the first questions I ask is, "What do you know about your site visitors?" And pretty much 100% of the time, they answer, "I have no idea." Every small business owner who depends on their website to work hard for them to attract clients...
Are You Using Your Website Like A Résumé And Expecting Client Leads?
One thing I've noticed about many one-person business owners is that they often plan their websites still in "job mode." They set out to trade in their former big boss for lots of new little bosses (clients), so their websites wind up reading like a super-fancy digital résumé. The problem is, if...
Skyrocket Your Website Conversions With This One Simple Trick
I hear this one a lot: I need more traffic. Okay, we all need traffic. Lots of it. But if clients aren't signing up, what you think is the problem (not enough traffic) probably isn't the problem. Here's the truth: traffic's easy to get. You can buy as much as you need at "the traffic store"...
5 Conversion Copywriting Hacks To Spice Up Your Website Copy
First a definition: Conversion copywriting is designed to entice a user to take action on your website. Brand copywriting is something different — that’s your story, your unique voice, your personality, your tone. Use these tips to help you punch up your copy wherever you want a site visitor to...
One Simple Trick To Get More Website Visitors To Take Action
We all make a dizzying number of choices every day, from deciding which toothpaste to buy to which Facebook posts to click on. An abundance of choice seems like a great idea because it means having the freedom to do and have what you want, but... Too much choice leads to a phenomenon known as...
9 Ways To Empower Your Website For Higher Conversions
Let's talk about how you can empower your website for better conversions and turn it into your hardest-working employee--whose job it is to build awareness and trust, generate leads, increase sales, and help you grow your business. Launching a website is a blast, it's exciting and hopeful―but...
Understanding Google AMP: Should You Make The Switch?
As we prepare for 2017, AMP is one of the biggest issues concerning your website on the horizon, especially if you're a blogger. Because more people are searching on mobile devices than desktop now, Google's looking to provide the best user experience possible. Enter: AMP. Defining AMP in plain...
The Truth About Traffic Stats + 5 Quick Tips For Beginner Google Analytics Users
Do you feel like a total imposter when you hear other people talking about their website traffic? Does logging in to Google Analytics leave you so depressed you consider giving up your entrepreneurial dreams? Before you throw in the towel, here are some truths that should make you feel better......
5 Fatal Mistakes People Make When Hiring A Web Designer
From time to time a potential client comes to me after having a bad experience working with another web designer. I mean, I've really heard some horror stories y'all: money flushed down the drain; a website they've paid for but isn't serving them; domain names held hostage after the relationship...
Establishing Credibility Online: How To Earn Your Site Visitors’ Trust
What factors cause people to believe the information they find on the web? How will your site visitors know whether to deem you credible and to trust you? Let's see what research has to say about it establishing credibility online... First, a little story about how one...
Taking a Copy First Approach to Designing Your Website
"Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design; it's decoration." — Jeffery Zeldman Most business owners who need a new or improved website start the web design process somewhere in the middle: rather than getting clear about their business goals and their customer, or...
Evaluating Your Own Website: A Zen Approach to Optimization
Looking at people’s websites is a big part of what I do for a living. I can almost always spot areas that, if improved upon, will lead to better results (including my own website, believe me...). But talking to other people about their websites is a touchy business... unless they've hired me to...