MidBoh Web Services @midboh - Tumblr Blog

Are you aware of what gets blocked?

I'm not talking about the size or effectiveness of the forwards or other defenders in your sport of choice, I'm talking about the adblocker in your browser or more importantly the adblocker in your visitor’s browser. Let me explain.

I’m in favour of adblockers. I know that’s not the position of marketers or others that rely on the revenue resulting from showcasing their products or the revenue earned by others who display or prepare for display the ads of others. That's a big debate I don’t really want to enter into. But I do believe I am entitled to view the internet without the intrusion of ads. So my browser has an adblocker.

I visited a client site this last week - a site I built. One of the pages had the above image but it wasn't being shown. I took a while to realise my adblocker was preventing the image from loading because the name of the images was “advertising-banner-1.jpg”. As soon as I renamed the image “adv-banner-1.jpg”, made the appropriate changes to the page and then refreshed it, the image appeared.

So now, on my agenda of things to be done when reviewing a site is to make sure I visit it with the adblocker running. This is in addition to checking it on my phone and my tablet. This is just good practice.

What’s on your list of things to do to make sure your client sites are working properly?

#adblocker #periodic review #broken website

Warning Will Robinson. Missing content

The other night I was looking to find a restaurant to visit. The third one I visited had all the usual things - menu, about us, some contact options and it had a news item in the main (navigation) menu. This could be interesting I thought - secret ingredients, seasonal options, new chef, special prices, who knew?

What I found is shown in the above image. A big fat “Nothing found”. I found this same version of the website in the The Wayback Machine from February 2017.

This is not a site put together by a nephew or a rookie developer. This is a seriously good site using Wordpress with a good theme built by a professional organisation. So what went wrong?

I can’t say but I know it creates an unprofessional look when a visitor comes to the site and is interested in learning everything they can about the restaurant.

Common mistakes by website designers (midboh.com.au)

Links to non-existent content (blog.midboh.com.au)

Author:

Chris Faber

#fail #missing content

We’re sorry to see you go

Really? Is this an acceptable unsubscribe screen?

I attended one business gathering sponsored by my local council a few months ago. Prior to that meeting I had received only one email from them. After the meeting the emails started arriving.

The emails I started receiving from the council were poorly targeted including inviations to irrelevant industry technical briefings and seminars for those just entering the workforce. And there were just too many of them. I don’t recall at any stage opting to receive future communications on any subject other than subsequent quarterly business gatherings similar to the one I attended.

The email that broke this camel’s back included this line “Looking for empployment, apprenticeships, training or career advice?” (including the poor spelling of employment).

When I clicked the unsubscribe link, the image above was what greeted me.

Perhaps it’s just me but that is a very sad form. I have no idea if I am unsubscribing from one type of council email or everything. The missing radio option is “Did NOT subscribe”. I think an option to provide free format feedback would be good.

It happens that only a few days ago I re-read a post from Bernadette Jiwa called Well-Designed Moments Build Brands. When I saw the unsubscribe form I remembered one part of that post in particular “Cancelling subscriptions should be as easy as signing up. They rarely are. The trick is to see the moment when the bubble bursts as an opportunity to deepen the relationship.”

Perhaps someone in council should start reading Bernadette Jiwa at The Story of Telling.

Author: Chris Faber

#spam #thestoryoftelling

When will this SEO tactic fail?

These pots are not identical - a colour variation here, a minor size variation there. But they all do an identical job.

Recently, I went looking for an electrician to do some work at my home. Like many of us I asked some contacts for recommendations. When that didn’t get me the information I wanted I went to Google. I used the search string [electrician suburb]. Plenty of responses. In fact, it looked suspicious that there are so many electricians in my suburb. There aren’t.

The practice in this industry, and I suspect many others, is to create a list of suburbs the company is prepared to service. In extreme cases, the business creates a separate page for each suburb.

One electrician website had 59 pages for suburbs they categorise as “Inner West”. Similar numbers exist for the other 18 Sydney regions they service. These pages have blocks of common text with minor variations and the suburb name for the particular page thrown in for good measure.

Where’s the value for the customer? Is it reassuring to see your suburb name listed on a page? Does a statement like “If you have an electrical problem in [suburb], feel confident that [company] have an experienced electrician in [suburb] standing by to assist you” offer any real information? I’m glad I’m not the copywriter asked to produce about 1000 variations on the same 4 paragraphs.

I get it. Google is allowing this spun content to rank. Why would the company or the SEO provider not use this technique? But it runs counter to Google’s much publicised Panda algorithm update.

How long will Google allow these sites to remain well positioned in the search results? No one really knows. Speaking as a consumer and as an SEO practitioner who abhors this technique, I hope / expect these sites to disappear from the top of Google soon. But I’m not holding my breath.

Google's search focus is still on user needs (blog.midboh.com.au)

Author: Chris Faber

Photo Credit: focus2capture via Compfight cc

#electrician #google panda #spun content

SEO and Growth Planning

When you have clarified your goals, objectives and strategies the tactical options that confront you will include digital.

Digital encompasses some very large and complex options such as

Newsletters

Email marketing

PPC

Social Strategies

No digital list would be complete without SEO.

I’m biased but this is the one option that can contribute to all the others, because it is about helping to achieve conversions, not just getting visitors to the site.

What is SEO?

It is an ever evolving, specialist field intended to improve the ranking of the website, leading to more traffic and more conversions.

What are the key components of SEO?

All SEO effort can be categorised into 3 broad areas - Structure / Links / Content

These are made up of many factors including

Structure:

hosting location / proximity to searcher

age of domain

page load speed

Links:

quality - linking domain / page / location on page / number of links

relevance (location and topic)

Content:

publishing frequency

is the content up to date

focus of site / focus of page (keywords)

quality of writing

There is no one silver bullet. The best SEO results come from improving as many of these factors as possible.

Be aware this is not an instant or guaranteed process. It is not a one time, set and forget effort.

Google's search focus is still on user needs (blog.midboh.com.au)

PPC v SEO: which one wins? (blog.midboh.com.au)

I will send it across to you to tweak as a SEO (blog.midboh.com.au)

Author:

Chris Faber

Photo Credit: The mind says via Compfight cc

#seo #business plan #business tactics

“If you think people are dumb, you’ll spend a lifetime doing dumb work.”

That is a quote from advertising legend George Lois. He may been speaking about advertising but it applies to so many elements in our lives. An example I've seen is a friend of of mine, let’s all him Ken.

Ken’s company sells chemicals to university and private research facilities. He often complains that his customers are “dumb” - they don't understand the buying process and are confused by prices quoted in foreign currencies. This often leads to explanatory support calls that waste time for buyers and sellers.

I've suggested Ken needs to spend time educating the buyers and making the sales process simpler. So far he has resisted my suggestion. He and his team will continue to spend time doing dumb work until the situation is resolved.

I don’t think the average research team at these laboratories are dumb. Perhaps they live in a relatively cloistered environment with little experience in the world of buying and selling. But they are highly educated and capable of further learning.

Are you doing your customers a disservice by not helping them interact with your company in a way that is efficient and helpful to both parties?

Author:

Chris Faber

Photo Credit: sinisterbluebox via Compfight cc

#dumb #sales process

FAQ Pages can drive traffic

What’s the most frequently visited page for your website? Have you looked? You might be surprised by the list.

The above image comes from a small visitor tracking system I use with my clients. In this example, pages visited in July 2015, the most frequently visited page is the home page. The second busiest page is a product page. No real surprises so far. But for this client, the third busiest page is an FAQ. This has been the case in virtually every month since the page was created and since I have been tracking the site.

Where do most of these visitors come from? A big proportion of these visitors come as a result of a Google search.

Does this traffic lead directly to sales? Probably not, but it will increase the credibility of the site for visitors as well as for the search engines. Being a reliable source of information can improve conversion rates and search ranking.

The site doesn’t produce a lot of content - there is no blog. And it has been some time since the FAQ page has been updated, but it continues to drive traffic.

This site does better than many of the other sites I monitor in terms of the relative importance of the FAQ page. My current theory for this is the questions and answers are mostly industry related (”Will it be safe to install ..?”, “Can I prevent ...?”, “How expensive is a ... to run?“), rather than company specific (”Will one of your designers come to my home ...?”, “Can you give me a quick estimate of ... cost?”, “What is the lead time for ...?). Both sets of questions are important, but I suspect Google is looking for sites that are less interested in selling things and more interested in those that provide useful information.

Do you have an FAQ page? Have you updated it recently? Is it a foot in the door towards a sale or does it help consumers?

Don't ignore this opportunity to drive traffic.

#FAQ

All pictures on the internet are free ... right?

My daughter was preparing content on her employer’s blog and was shown this photo as the perfect graphic to include. The source for this image was another health industry blog. Unfortunately there was no attribution for the image on the blog. She asked me it was okay to use it - she’s pretty switched-on and knew the answer but was hoping I could find a loophole.

Basic answer is - if you don't know whose photo it is and under what licence it is published, don't use it.

In the circumstances she had a number of choices

take a risk and use it anyway.

contact the blog and see if they own the image and if they would give permission to use it.

look for a similar photo and add the necessary text

Not really a great set of options.

I decided to try a long shot - use an image search to see if I could trace the origin of the photo or see if it has been used elsewhere with acknowledgement.

The search facility I used was TinEye. It reported 91 uses of this photo. To check each one for licence details would be time consuming. Fortunately, I found that one of the sites was Flickr - a great source for images released under a Creative Commons licence. At Flickr I found the information I was looking for - the photo was available for use provided a suitable attribution was used.

Soon, TinEye will be reporting the image has been used 93 times - my daughter’s employer’s blog and now this one as well.

I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t tell you what the penalties might be for using an image without permission. Nor can I tell you how likely action against you might be. But I can tell you if the owner of images wants to find out who is using their images, services such as TinEye will help them.

Play it safe - create your own images or ask for permission.

If a picture paints a thousand words ... (blog.midboh.com.au)

Author: Chris Faber

Photo Credit: posture.baby Beth Scupham via CC

#tineye #flickr

Just fishing for customers

Hi,

Are you planning to optimize your website?

There might be three main reasons, why you need search engine optimization (SEO)-

1. Increase rankings

2. Increase traffic

3. Increase Conversions

We are a certified partner firm with over many years of working experience on online marketing projects, with a large and satisfied customer base. All the techniques used are ethical, latest and proprietary.

I was wondering if you would be interested in getting the SEO done for your website.

If allowed, we can come on a quick call to discuss your needs?

Look forward from you.

Thanks,

Angela Ray| Business Development Manager

You may think SEO practitioners are exempt from SEO spam. Think again. We are not immune, and we don't like it either.

The quote above is one I received recently. It is one of the better ones (relatively - grammar is good, tone is polite, and message is direct).

Angela may be a real person and the company she represents may be good at what they do. They even seem to be pretty good at spamming.

My biggest concern is if this company is good at SEO why do they utilise a marketing strategy that is a polar opposite from the skill they claim to possess? SEO works hand in hand with strategies with names like content marketing, pull marketing and permission base marketing (which can include email). Unsolicited mail (aka spam) such as the one I received, is heavily in the interruption based marketing camp. The only thing this form of marketing has in its favour is that it is relatively cheap to get the message out. Does it reach a likely target or is it just spray and pray, you can never know? But I suspect the conversion rate is infinitesimally small. It is rarely well received and is just as likely to create ill will as it is to gain new business.

#spam

Mobilegeddon :: was it the apocalypse or just the first salvo?

On 21 April this year, after much groundwork laid, Google released a new algorithm update to recognise mobile friendliness as a factor in mobile searches. We here at MWS wrote about it a number of times (links below) and encouraged our clients to consider the potential of this update on them.

In the period since I’ve heard mutterings asking the question was this hype or the real deal? Two of those articles are

Mobilegeddon A Month Later: Small Business Study Shows…. Nothing Happened

How you were fooled by Google #Mobilegeddon update

Did Godzilla, sorry the other big G, Google just not show up or was the promised havoc not as visible as we expected?

There's almost no way to truly answer this question. Search results are so heavily personalised it is very hard to identify the specifics of any one change in the algorithm. Some possible reasons for this lack of havoc result described in the articles reference above might be:

Sample sizes were too small to generate meaningful results

Traffic levels were influenced by factors other than mobile friendliness, which skewed the results

Demographics of sample set were not heavy mobile users

The perception the change was focussed on rank improvement rather than rank protection

The catchy titles referencing “SEO-Pocalypse” and “Mobilegeddon” were great marketing but not a true reflection of the intent

Despite the differences between expectation and measurements seen so far, I don't think it changes Google’s intent to “encourage” mobile friendly websites. Their focus has always been on serving the needs of their users, who are largely people using the search engines to connect with businesses like yours. One way or another, those who best serve Google’s customers are likely to gain more traffic from this source.

Is this the dawn of the Mobile SEO-Pocalypse? (blog.midboh.com.au)

Mobile friendly trumps content? I think not. (blog.midboh.com.au)

Author: Chris Faber

Photo Credit: odeean via Compfight cc

#SEO-Pocalypse #Mobilegeddon #mobile friendly

No way to treat a client

Hello Client,

Unfortunately your email client is outdated and does not support HTML emails, our system uses HTML emails as standard. You will NOT be able to read this email.

HOW DO I READ THIS EMAIL?

To read this email please login to your xxxxxxxxx http://webaddress/ and click on Notifications to see a list of all sent emails.

Thank You

Customer Support

This is the plain text version of an email I received recently from a company supplying hosting services to me. I find this concerning for a number of reasons:

My email client is not outdated. I update it regularly. And it does support HTML. So the opening statement is factually wrong. I choose not to turn HTML on as the default.

It is not up to an outside organisation to tell me how to view email. This is shades of the “Best Viewed With Internet Explorer” era or Henry Ford’s “You can have any colour you like as long as it is black”.

I understand my choice may seem a little contrary to some. Perhaps you’ve even seen some of my messages when I reply to an email. In some cases the original message is rearranged even to the point of unintelligibility. That’s a downside to my choice but it’s my choice to make. Perhaps I shouldn’t include the original message in the reply - it would make the email smaller.

Maybe you are wondering why I chose to avoid HTML format messages. First and foremost, I think email is about communication. Unless fonts, colours and images are critical to that communication, I see them as a distraction, a waste of my bandwidth and in the case of images a potential invasion of my privacy. I don’t want to announce when I open a mail or if I clicked a link in the mail. It may be your mail to send, but that is not an entitlement to trigger an event on my PC.

In this same mode I also turn off the function in my email client to automatically download images and send return receipts.

I concede my privacy concerns mostly relate to automated emails - newsletters, marketing campaigns, etc rather than personal emails with an image for a signature. But for personal communication is there any need to send a graphic footer image or other images. In most circumstances it is unnecessary and wastes bandwidth?

Grumpy old man I may be, but it is my prerogative. I wonder why more people are not concerned about their privacy.

Why does 'P.S. This is not an automated email' in an email suggest it's anything but automated. (blog.midboh.com.au)

Strange things you read in unsolicited email (blog.midboh.com.au)

Spam SEO Emails (blog.midboh.com.au)

Author: Chris Faber

Photo Credit: paulthompson3747 via Compfight cc

#privacy #html email

Voice search - no longer just in SciFi shows

All of the major smartphone operating systems (Apple, Android, Windows) have a version of voice interface with the device. This can be used to check the calendar, send an email or make a phone call. All wonderful stuff. Shades of Captain Jean-Luc Picard dealing with the computer on the Enterprise. But these voice interface can also be used to ask questions, the answers to which will be supplied by a search engine.

Questions can be simple or complex and the appropriateness of the answers will vary. But I think we can be confident this will continue to improve and will inevitably become commonly used.

The convenience of using a voice interface while driving rather than risking fines or worse by handling a phone makes this a very attractive proposition.

“Ok Google (or Siri or Cortana), where is the nearest petrol station, auto mechanic, coffee shop, fast food outlet, etc, etc”. The possibilities are many and varied.

There are a number of differences between spoken and written searches and these differences have implications:

search queries tend to be longer, which means long-tail keyword phrases are more likely to be relevant. This encourage the transition from highly targeted, very specific keywords to a more contextual focus for content creation.

many of these searches imply an intent to purchase / interact. This is potentially a win for those organisations that are found in these searches. It is likely local businesses that are defined to the various mapping services may be more likely to be found, particularly where the search includes geographic terms like “closest”, “nearest”, “in [Name of Suburb]”, “with 5 kilometre radius”, etc.

only a limited number of search results are likely to considered. In some cases only one option will be provided. This will depend on the query but use of superlative adjectives like “best”, “closest” or “cheapest” may limit the options to one.

various forms of data embedded on the site using Schema Markeup (Schema.org) may help with some specific forms of searches e.g. location schema for searches involving geographic terms, opening hours schema for time of day searches (e.g. nearest chemist open now) or price schema.

online reviews linked to the business may help with search for “best ..”.

This is an evolving area within search engine optimisation. The good news is the tactics you implement to target spoken searches will not be an impediment for mobile searches in general or even desktop searches. Be aware, spoken searches for desktop computers are not that far away.

Why does 'P.S. This is not an automated email' in an email suggest it's anything but automated. (blog.midboh.com.au)

Strange things you read in unsolicited email (blog.midboh.com.au)

Spam SEO Emails (blog.midboh.com.au)

Author:

Chris Faber

Photo Credit: Yuya Tamai via Compfight cc

#ok google #siri #cortana #voice search

Content creation vs Time. It's a balancing act.

"Every business needs to start thinking and acting like a media company. All companies need to be putting out content. Period. This is what I believe in."

Gary Vanderchuck How small businesses can compete with Fortune 500s

Gary V is a passionate proponent of content marketing. You only have to look at his career to see the impact it has. While Gary spends his time these days helping larger organisations based on his belief in content marketing, he is just as adamant of the need for small businesses to follow this same path.

Strangely, on the same day I read that article I also read this from Chris Brogan

"We are TRASHING the opportunity to create great content marketing. Attention gimmicks are just that. They earn us attention. Briefly. And then what? If you’ve got no “next,” then you’ve just wasted it."

37 Blog Posts to Stop Writing – And What She Did Next Changed Everything

If you only read the above items from Gary and Chris you may be tempted to think they are at odds. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both are strong in their advocacy for great, relevant, and useful content. So how do we as small business owners manage that when we are time poor and perhaps feel inadequate about our skills or our inspiration to strive achieve greatness?

To probably misquote a well trampled line ... “Even the longest journey starts with a single step”. And while in the mood for inspirational misquotes ... “When is the best time to plant a tree - 30 years ago. And the second best time is now”. Both of these quotes are about ignoring time wasted in the past, and to concentrate on getting started.

First order of business is to commit to the process of creating content. Second step is to allocate some time to do the creating.

Time is a challenge for all of us. We only have 24hrs each day to do the things we need to / want to. Sometimes we have to forego the seemingly urgent to make time for the important. But before we drop doing the payroll or skip the meeting with the accountant, is there some other time in the day that could be commandeered into the cause. Perhaps you can cut back on an hour of television by skipping a show that's not “must see”. If you really need to see it, consider time delay options like iView, Netflix or a personal video recorder. Another option is to miss or shorten the long "business" lunch. However you manage it - find an hour per week to get the process started.

Any form of content creation is a positive step.

Write your content for your target audience. (midboh.com.au)

Is your content just digital tumbleweed? (blog.midboh.com.au)

What's stopping you? (blog.midboh.com.au)

Price and the long term buyer / seller relationship. (blog.midboh.com.au)

How to use Bed Bugs in Content Creation (blog.midboh.com.au)

Content creation is an investment not an expense (blog.midboh.com.au)

Narrow view of Facebook participation (blog.midboh.com.au)

Have you considered FUQ? (blog.midboh.com.au)

Author: Chris Faber

#content creation #time #getting started

The idea “First Impression You Make is Visual" is no longer true

I read the expression “The First Impression You Make is Visual” in an article about selling. There was a time when it as true, but in the online era it is more accurate to say “the first impression you make is digital”.

The article was talking about the need for a salesman to dress appropriately when making first contact with potential customers, as part of the need to make a first impression. I am absolutely in agreement with the need to create a strong first impression but my website doesn’t look good in a suit and tie.

Research abounds supporting the idea that customers do a lot of research online before making a phone call or walking into the showroom for the first time. If your website doesn’t inform and impress, your salesman may not get a chance to create his first impression.

Author: Chris Faber

Photo Credit: manecavalcanti via Compfight cc

#website #first impression #salesman

Mobile friendly trumps content? I think not.

By prioritizing mobile-friendly sites over their desktop-friendly counterparts, Google is effectively telling us that content is now secondary. Who cares if there are better, more accurate results out there? These results look better on your phone, so these are the ones we’re going to show you first.

http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/04/21/google-mobile-update

Wow! What a narrow interpretation of the so-called Mobilegeddon (aka Mobile Apocalypse) update by Google to their algorithm. Even so, we have to remember it is their algorithm and they can do anything they want to it.

I can’t agree with the interpretation that Google now sees content as secondary. The search algorithm is based on over 200 ranking factors. This change has added mobile friendliness to that list. But this particular factor is only applied when the search is conducted on a mobile phone.

Google have always considered the searcher’s perspective as key to their algorithm. If a web page serves the needs of the searcher the page will be eligible for display. How well it serves those needs will determine how high the page will rank.

Google has always looked at various signals, such as does the searcher return to the search after visiting a page. A quick return suggests the searcher didn’t find what they needed there and move to the next option or refined the search. A page with bad user experience not matter how good the content is unlikely to satisfy the searcher if the user experience is marred by a poor experience because of rendering problems on a mobile phone. In that way mobile friendliness has been influencing search results for some time. The new algorithm is a way of formalising that pattern and giving web site owners a means to assess the effectiveness of their site.

Even though the algorithm changed in April 2015, the issue of mobile friendly has been around since mobile technology started its inexorable rise in significance. I found this article from back in December 2011 - Create Mobile Friendly Site. We even discussed the topic in our post How does your website look on a mobile phone? Have you checked? in April 2012.

Even though the date for Mobilegeddon has come and gone, it’s not too late to fix your website. First step is find out if you have a problem. Talk with you trusted adviser and take action.

It's beginning to look a lot like mobile shopping for Christmas (blog.midboh.com.au)

How does your website look on a mobile phone? Have you checked? (blog.midboh.com.au)

Going mobile - one step at a time (part 1: struggles with external files) (blog.midboh.com.au)

Going mobile - one step at a time (part 2: the trouble with forms) (blog.midboh.com.au)

Going mobile - one step at a time (part 3: Flash rears it's ugly head) (blog.midboh.com.au)

Going mobile - one step at a time (part 4: Turn down the volume) (blog.midboh.com.au)

Going mobile one step at a time (part 5: Show your phone number somewhere obvious) (blog.midboh.com.au)

Mobile websites and Flash don't go together ... no exceptions (blog.midboh.com.au)

Is Google warning mobiles users away from your website? (blog.midboh.com.au)

Fix mobile usability issues found on [website name] (blog.midboh.com.au)

Is this the dawn of the Mobile SEO-Pocalypse? (blog.midboh.com.au)

Author: Chris Faber

Photo Credit: gcman105 via Compfight cc

#mobile #mobilegeddon #Mobile Apocalypse

Getting content shared is a challenge. Best start with shareable content.

Here’s the bad news is — most people don’t share content. Facebook tells us that one-half of one percent of a brand’s fans share their content. Twitter reports that on average, its users only share one out of every 318 tweets they see.

Mark Schaefer “Three marketing truths for an information dense world“

I can't confirm Mark's statistics but they seem about right to me. If they are accurate do we give up on social media and go home or find a way to be on the good side of those numbers?

If we walk away, what do we do instead - resort to push marketing like letterbox drops, billboards, newspaper ads, radio & TV ads or ads in Google or the social media? There are pluses and minuses to all of those approaches but they can be expensive (in cash not just time) and not always effective.

We need to develop content a random viewer will find interesting - not content full of corporate jargon or a push marketing ad disguised as a social media post. If we don't do that we won’t get anyone to look at our content, let alone share it.

I have a relative in the extended family who sells and installs synthetic grass. Let’s call him Peter. I'm very sure he does a great job. I’m not certain because I’m still mowing weeds regularly. Peter hasn’t yet convince me to make the change to synthetic. Instead, I've convinced Peter he needs to produce content for his business Facebook page other than photos of his kids, who are photogenic but not relevant to synthetic grass. He has seen the light - sort of.

Peter regularly takes a photo of completed jobs and posts them to Facebook. The image below is one of these.

Peter’s wife, sister-in-law, mother-in-law and business partner regularly do the right thing and Like these posts. This one even reached 38 people with four likes. Highly likely they are the same 38 that see most of Peter’s posts. I don’t seem to be able to convince him he needs something more.

Here are some things I think Peter should consider to reach a wider audience for his posts:

show a before and after photo to highlight the benefits

include the home owner / business representative in the photo (maybe even shaking Pete’s hand) to give an implied endorsement.

make a more complete description of the installation. Details like thickness, colour, underlay, etc are essential.

any challenges overcome during the install, such as slope, access and scope

send the URL of the post to the owner / representative as part of a “thank you” email

tag the owner / business in the photo if he knows their Facebook page

This is just the start of ideas. I’d love your input. Add your ideas in the comments below.

#Facebook page

Is this the dawn of the Mobile SEO-Pocalypse?

Two weeks ago, I wrote about a notification from Google for a site I manage. The background to that notification may be best explained by this post on Official Google Webmaster Central Blog - Finding more mobile-friendly search results

I suspect Google is only sending notifications to those sites likely to be the most impacted by this change and not everyone likely to be impacted. So the absence of a notification may not be a reason to celebrate. It is clear this change will impact rankings for an unknown number of sites as it isincorporated into the algorithm from 21 April. The extent of the impact cannot be estimated, either for individual sites or the number of sites involved.

If you currently have a low mobile traffic volume from search you may feel this change doesn’t impact you. However, the overall adoption of mobile grows at an increasing rate and will impact ever niche, every demographic and that means you will be affected sooner or later. However, beyond 21 April the impact on your website may be hard to detect. You will not see the traffic from searchers on mobiles Google doesn't send you.

NB: I first heard the term “Mobile SEO-Pocalypse“ on Search Engine Land (How Much Traffic Will You Lose From The Upcoming Mobile SEO-Pocalypse?)