How to Build Links for Your Website, Without a Location

ARE YOU A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION, AN AFFILIATE OR NETWORKING GROUP, OR EVEN A LOCAL GOVERNMENT? LISTEN UP!

Your website is a place for your members to go to for community or organization information. You host events, provide education, and post important notices.  You want the people you’re doing this for to be able to take full advantage of your efforts. In todays electronic world, you need online visibility! What makes this difficult sometimes, is that one of the most effecting tool in boosting Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may not be the most effective for you. I’m talking about Local Listings.

Example of Google Listing

Local Listings are directories where business owners can create an online profile detailing your name, address, phone number and more. But in most cases, to do this – you need a LOCATION. Some groups do, but a lot of them don’t. Many Associations meet at other local businesses, restaurants, meeting halls, etc for their monthly meet-ups and don’t have an actual physical address that would make sense for their group, or that isn’t already claimed by an established brick & mortar local business.

Now, that being said, just because you don’t have your own location – doesn’t mean you’re at a disadvantage for SEO! There are other ways to build links – and these practices I am about to suggest is arguably MORE effective than what a local listing service could provide.

Listings and directories are really about one thing, reputable link building. Years ago, people would buy links for their website on what were called “link farms.” All these pages did was create more links back to your website, tricking Google into thinking your site had really great, high-demand content. Google, of course, got smart to this practice and effectively shut it down, by penalizing businesses’ search rankings who had links coming from these farms. Confused? Don’t be. What matters most, is that this policy enforced a reward system to websites who built QUALITY links to and from their website.

FROM YOUR WEBSITE:

Link building from your website has two main parts.

1) Include links to your members websites, or better yet – create a directory of members! Wolf River Builders does a great job housing a directory of all of their builder members, linking the page up to their websites. And, any other associates that you are affiliated with, or – like NEW Business Success Summit – event sponsors,  should also be listed and linked.

2) Include links throughout your content. Linking to sources and supplemental information is a great way to build a link network with other trustworthy websites.

TO YOUR WEBSITE:

Best ways to build links to your website

1) There are many people who use Blog Comment Linking as a way to build links to their site If you have any type of blog – judging by all of the “spam-like” comments you receive, you can tell that it is practiced pretty heavily. So does it work? According to Matt Cutts, former head of Google web spam team, it’s perfectly fine. His tips for this are to leave topically relevant comments on topically relevant websites – add value to the conversation – not just a link to your website. Also, post from your name, rather than your business or website name, for will have a better response rate.

2) Finally, ask your members to link back to you! Whether its community businesses or members in a networking group. Let your businesses show their pride in their affiliations. Many times, as a web designer I have to go seeking out logos and artwork to share my clients associations. Shawano Country Chamber does an amazing job of reminding it’s members to share their affiliation and the benefits of doing so. Each year they email a dated membership logo and with a call to action for their members to use their logo on their website and within their marketing materials.  All networking, chamber, government, affiliate and non-profit groups should be doing this. Companies love to show what organizations they are in support of, and its a win-win for both of your search rankings!

In conclusion, there are many good link building practices out there – no matter what type of organization you are. Put some extra attention on your content and how you may be able to link that out to available resources for your visitors and cross-link with your affiliated members and groups whenever possible. Your analytics will thank you.

Save and Protect Your Brand Assets

Sometimes I think people underestimate the power of a brand. If you own a business, any business at all, listen up. Establishing an identity for your business IS important. Many small businesses seem to skip over creating a logo and other demographic elements that speak about who you are. Picking a business name identifies your company but the business name is only the first step in building a brand or identity.

Contrary to what you are probably now thinking, this post is NOT about why you should have a logo or why you should build a brand. What I would like to say is simple: When building your identity, protect the assets used to create it. 

1. Your Logo

Logo's range from text to graphic to a combination of graphics with text.

Text Logo

Graphic Logo

Mixed Text/Graphic Logo

Whether your logo is a complicated design of carefully placed graphic shapes and colors, or a simple text logo. Your logo could become very costly and difficult to replace or recreate if you misplace it. Many time customers come to me with a business card that has their logo on it - but their business card is the only place they have their logo.
Recreating to match is often more time consuming than creating new - even a text logo can take time to match fonts. And it matters. Once you have established a logo and identity, people will start to associate your logo with your own personal brand. Your customer service, your quality product, your timely delivery. Your brand becomes a statement of what you stand for.

Losing your logo, or only having a small image file to use as a backup is not ideal. This is an example of a logo saved at 200x80px..

Because the image was saved as such a small file, once you attempt to make the logo bigger to fit the necessary printing or web resolution, you will find that scaling an image up isn't as easy as it seems. Resolution is PPI (Pixels Per Inch) and you can't add pixels once they're gone.

Save your logo as a VECTOR, EPS or PDF. If your logo has text in it, save or document the font used so that you can edit your files later.

2. Graphic Standards / Rules

Graphic Standards are basically a set of rules set for everyone to follow on what you can and cannot do with your logo. For example:  

• You can not stretch the logo horizontally or vertically, it must maintain it's original shape.

This

Not This

Or This

• Colors you are allowed to use are: Red, Green and Yellow
  (Specifically: Red #e11f26 ; Green #10723a ; Yellow #f8ef1e - which are the hexadecimal color codes assigned to each of these colors)

• You cannot change the logo in anyway or remove any of the elements.  For example a logo without all of parts should not be used to represent the company. 

These types of rules are important to maintain consistency in your brand identity. If you allow too many broad changes, your logo could evolve from one thing into something else, very quickly.  

3. Your Website Domain

It's great to get your online - visible to so many more people and potential customers. Maybe you had the phone company create a generic website for you, maybe a student created your site for the practice, maybe you hired a webs design and development firm to create your site, or even if you created the site yourself using any of the many end-user-friendly website building tools available (Wix, Shopify, GoDaddy, etc) Whatever is the right choice for you, you need to maintain access to your domain name.



If you have someone else manage your domain - make sure you have contact information available for them in the event you every want or need to transfer your domain or build a new site.
If this person ever decides to close shop, or no longer manage your domain - do what you need to to transfer your domain to a self-owned account ASAP and while they are still around to assist you with it.
If you purchased and renew your domain, yourself - make sure you record where you own your domain, your username and password.

Too many times, clients have had to purchase a new domain (and change all of their marketing materials) because they lost their domain or weren't able to gain access to it. I'm talking about business cards, brochures, vehicle graphics, apparel, local listings - everything!


In conclusion, treat your brand assets like they are a valuable part of your businesses success because they are. You may not see it's value in the everyday tasks of the product or service you provide, but some day in the future it may save you a lot of time, money and customers.

Writing Down Your Goals & Defining Your Vision!!

I've heard it said that if you tell people your goals they're actually less likely to happen. There's a science behind it called "social reality" where just by telling someone you feel relieved from the intense desire to accomplish and that relief tricks your brain into thinking that it's already been done. I can get on board that train, I've seen it in my life many times. I'm sure I was always thinking that telling someone will hold me accountable and I could get encouragement from them. But then I never took the first steps in making that dream come true.

What I also know to be true is that writing down your goals increases your odds of achieving them. This blog isn't about HOW or WHY that works. There are plenty of articles and books written on the subject, if you just google "writing down your goals" you will see... this is more about the WHAT. What should you be doing to set goals in your professional and personal life, and then go out and get them!

This kid is going places.

The Life Contract

For several years now I have been starting my year with an annual "life contract" This includes things like 

• "I will buy a more reliable vehicle"

• "I will start/finish three books"

• "I will pass all of my classes with an A"

• "I will get my dream job"

• "I will learn a new skill"

• "I will become pregnant/have a baby" became one when my husband and I struggled to conceive, and I even like to throw in a "I will be healthy and full of energy" for good measure.  

Each year I write my list of things I want to accomplish - real, attainable, life improving goals - and I sign it and tuck it away.  I'm not sure the best theory on what to do with this list. Some people I suppose will put the list in their wallet and look at it regularly. Some may hang it in the bathroom next to the mirror. I choose to keep mine in a notebook and peek at it occasionally - but what I've found is that each time I checked, I would notice that I had reached another goal. And some years I would forget all about it and come across the contract months after the year had ended and always to my amazement I had achieved everything I had intended to. 

The Dream Board / Vision Board

The dream board is a visual manifestation of your goals. Its about what you want from life. I generally look at dream boards as long term goals; where a life contract is one year this may be more of a 10 year projection. (That's only MY interpretation and how I would choose to use it.) Overall, I think a dream board represents what you want your life to LOOK like, in the future. It's the VISION you have for what you want your life to be. Your individual goals should always be bringing you closer to this vision.

My 2016 Dream Board

Get Writing

I just want to give some tips when writing your goals and creating your dream board. I've never created my own dream board but I'm working on it now. It's not finished but it would look something like the one above.

1. Be Positive

Whether you're writing your goals down or taping pictures to a board, this is your life that you're talking about. I think most people, deep down, strive to be HAPPY above most everything else. Even most of our goals can be traced back to the belief that acquiring or achieving this thing will make us happy - so make sure that the language you are using creates a future full of positive. Say "I WILL" rather than "I will not." 

2. Dream Big

Write impossible dreams. Life has a way of making us not dare to want things out of fear of disappointment. Maybe we think that will never happen, we will never be able to afford that, I don't deserve, I'm not capable - but I'm saying if you really want something - be intentional. Write it down,  and then make it happen. To be clear, this isn't magic, this doesn't happen BECAUSE you wrote it down, rather its science/psychology that says you are much more likely. Do you believe it? Are you willing to trust in yourself that you can do it?

3. Where are you going?

"If you don't know where you're going, any road can get you there." Remember that when you live with a clear vision your choices reflect that vision. 

There a lot of tools available to help you with setting a path for business and personal success, but you can start today... with a paper and pen, write down what you will do this week, this year, this life. Write it down!

What are some ways you write down your goals and live your life with intention?

Why you Shouldn't get your Website from a "Rinse-and-Repeat" Company

I've recently been bombarded with "sponsored" posts and ads from a certain company that shows you how to create your own websites to "rent" to customers. He calls these "itsy-bitsy websites" that display basic information about the company, helping to generate leads. He justifies charging companies every month for their site by saying "they're too busy running their business to worry about this 'website stuff'."

See this ad, below.

Now let me tell you whats wrong with this business model. 

Faceless

There is more to a website than uploading your logo and <insert business name here>.
A site that isn't created with the client in mind doesn't think about the message it's sending. It doesn't capture a feeling or a sense of trust for the company, and should your competition use the same service you might as well be saying "Theres nothing special about my company."

Never in my life have I worked for or with a company who felt like they were "nothing special." As business owners you take pride in your work and believe that you are a competitive force to be reckoned with - if not, you wouldn't put in the daily effort it takes to run a successful business.  So be that competitive force! People want to know who YOU are. They also love do business with people they like. Whether its your companies quirky sense of humor or your strict policies on confidentiality, let those qualities come through all aspects of your communication with clients - and that communication starts with your website.

Maintenance

If you're looking to set up a website today and never change anything about your business, ever - then this kind of thing is for you. But that's not the case for most businesses. Sometimes businesses move or new services are added. You may decide that you're getting way too many emails from your website and want to set up an online form to organize the information coming in. I know from the professional experience of my clients (too many to count), companies like this HOOK you with a LINE of bologna, about all of the things this website will do for you and all of the ways they will help you, and then watch you SINK as the site becomes your enemy when you can't get just one person to respond to your requests for change; and the outdated and inconsistent information hurts your rankings.

Speaking of search engine rankings, the standards in SEO change so frequently that creating a website without a plan of regular maintenance is dangerous.  If you aren't updating your websites' coding and SEO to comply with current standards on a regular basis, your website is becoming outdated in a hurry. Unfortunately that is the reality of technology. Almost all of our clients who have come from a 'rinse and repeat' website service like this only had their website for less than a year and what they invested was a total waste.

DIY Websites

These aren't the only website services to be wary of, DIY website services should be used with caution and be a thoughtful decision. DIY websites I can respect.  Certainly I think there is value in doing for yourself, what could otherwise cost you or your company more than you can comfortably afford. But if you CAN afford it, hire the expert. One of our motto's around here is "do what you do best, and let everyone else do the rest!"Because here's the thing: if you can't afford to hire someone to fix your plumbing - can you afford for the damage caused when your own handiwork fails you?

Some of the DIY website services are Wix.com and Weebly.com -- while these sites are good in theory, its not until you get into them that you find they aren't as easy and customizable as they appear to be at first. They end up looking less like your vision of a fresh and modern website design and more like a first grade child's science fair project.

Morally Speaking

What's troubling about this ad most of all is that it's bragging about snagging customers through a simple email, throwing together sites for businesses with little to no thought or care, charging them month-after-month for years and if they decide to leave, its no big deal because they didn't actually invest anything in the website.  But there are real people behind these businesses, who trust their website company to help create their online presence.

Let me be clear, these companies do NOT care about your business. They care about a contract that says you own them $X each month.  But the demand for this type of service will persist as long as people choose not to see the value in the many techniques we implement to provide the best experience and product that we can, keeping with the tech standards of the time.

Or in other words, you get what you pay for... and, in this case, not even that.

6 Tips to Increase Engagement on Social Media and Drive Traffic to Your Website

Increase Engagement & Drive Traffic to Your Website 

Since March of this year, we've taken on a new social media manager and what a difference our clients have seen! Not only can I tell that the engagement has gone up on all of the pages that we manage (based on the obnoxious amount of notifications I get every 15 minutes - all day long) but we can actually prove the effectiveness by comparing past months to current months in their analytical reports.


I was so pleased and excited to report this that I asked Sammy, our social media expert,  for 6 tips on increasing engagement on your social media and driving website traffic using social media, beyond creating engaging comment.

1. Use appropriate networks

You definitely need to be where your customers are and there is nothing we like more than to see people using a social network that is appropriate to their business and target market. One great example is our neighbor and customer Mountain Bay Coffee & Gifts. Two social networks steadily gaining in popularity over the past couple years are Instagram and Snapchat and Mountain Bay has jumped at the opportunity to reach the emerging network's demographic.

Their gift shop offers an excellent opportunity to use Instagram to its full potential by posting captivating images of handmade gifts and crafts.

Handmade boot cuffs sold at Mountain Bay Coffee, featured on Instagram

Snapchat lets you share behind the scenes "fun" with your customers. It's not out there forever, only a max. of 24 hours, but just enough time to peak your customers interest and make them a fan!

Mountain Bay Employee pictured on Snapchat with a Pokemon Go character!

2. Follow trends

Speaking of what Mountain Bay is doing above with Pokemon Go...  I know some of you are sick of hearing about the popular new app/game,  but if you want to be relevant in the cyber world, you need to be following the trending topics.

Not sure how to find what topics are trending right now? Here are some places to check.

• Google Trends -  see the currently most trending searches.
• Twitter - Login to Twitter and you can see what is trending today (on Twitter) including popular hashtags. 
• Buzzsumo - great for finding HOT content on the web. Enter a topic of keyword and it will give you results of the most shared content on the web for that specific topic.

3. Like your own posts

Don't like your own posts as yourself, the business - that looks a little desperate - but definitely change the user on the post and like your posts as yourself, the person! This stirs engagement on your post and makes Facebook think that the post is of value and increases your probability of other Page Followers seeing your post in their news feed. It's not cheating, its encouraging engagement!

Click on the page icon (bottom right side of post) and select your User Profile to like, comment or share as yourself.

4. Hashtag

Use hashtags. If you don't know what hashtags are all about then I suggest doing some research. You want to be on this bandwagon. Not only do they have a really useful purpose of connecting conversations throughout networks, but they can be really fun - hence the reason hashtags are such a big part of pop culture.
#UseHashtags #YourTopic #UseTrendingHashtags #HaveFunWithIt

I just love this video of Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake using hashtags in place of regular conversation. 

6. Personalize your tone

Many compliments have come from the personable and friendly "Tone of Voice" we use in our social media posts. People want to be talked to like people; if your posts are too professional or void of personality, your post comes off as cold and inauthentic. Social media is an opportunity to connect with your customers. The best examples of brands and companies on any social network have a real comfortable and relaxed relationship with their followers.

Talking to your followers like friends is a great way to increase engagement.

7. Timing

Use your analytics and reports to see when your followers are online most and then schedule your posts for this time. If you find a spike in activity later in the evening, you wouldn't post in the morning because you may miss an opportunity to reach a majority of your customers.

What time is the right time for you to post?

  

What do you think? What suggestions do you plan to try in your social media efforts? What things have you done with your social media that has made a big difference?

Transferring a website from a shared cPanel account to Plesk control panel, including WordPress.

How to transfer from Shared cPanel to Plesk.

Recently we have taken on the task of transferring all of our websites from A Small Orange (who, disappointingly, took a nosedive in their customer service) to Netsonic, a local hosting company right in our back yard! Well, maybe Pulaski is Green Bay's backyard but you get the point.

With Netsonic we took on the added responsibility of managing each of our clients hosting accounts. Rather than having them all on one, now each client has their own account. It doesn't mean much for the client, but its a better, more organized way of managing the 70+ websites that we now currently have.

Herein lies the challenge, how to transfer a WordPress website, with all of its files and databases, from a Shared Hosting Account to Plesk.

Upgrade to VPS Hosting

First, with your typical shared hosting account you won't have WHM (Web Host Manager) access, and you need this access to tap into your account using the migration tool in Plesk.

Once you upgrade or purchase a VPS hosting plan, have your current host migrate all of your data from shared to VPS. This won't make the websites run off of the VPS server, you actually will have to go in and point your DNS (and if you're transferring to Plesk then its not necessary to point the DNS until you point it TO your Plesk server), but regardless it will migrate the files and databases.

WHM

Next, once the your data has been migrated to WHM, all of your websites will still show up under the ONE account (if you had your websites set up as addon domains under the one, main URL) You will need to extract the websites from here.

You do this by selecting "Transfer" from the WHM menu and then clicking on the box that is labeled "Convert Addon Domain to Account" Inside this menu you will find all of the possible domains to convert.

The result is each website listed as its own account.

Plesk Migration and Transfer Manager

In your Plesk dashboard, open the Migration and Transfer Manager under "Tools & Settings"

Then select "Start New Migration" 

Fill out all of the information necessary to transfer: IP address, username, password, etc. *It may ask you to enter a temporary password that Plesk provides you. In that case copy the temporary password go back to your VPS WHM, click the plus arrow to expand the domain you are migrating and enter the temporary password where it says "Change Password" and back in Plesk continue with the migration.

Congratulations

There will be a few other steps to making your website secure on the new server, but beyond checking the security and making a few minor adjustments, the only other thing you need to do is point the DNS to your new server, wait a few days for propagation, and BAM! You did it!

I'm feeling super accomplished! :D 
If anyone out there has experience doing this, or has done this before and has some tips or suggestions to go along with these steps please comment below! 

Creating Custom Images for your Blog & Website, Makes More Effective and Engaging Social Media Sharing

Custom Images for your Blog

Including images on your blog post and your website is great way to supplement the content. In terms of SEO, the content is, without a doubt, the most important aspect of your blog but what would it be like for the user without pictures? Boring? You bet!

Its great to share photos that relate to the topic, or graphics that illustrate what you're talking about.  I use a lot of screen shots so users can visualize what I am saying.

But let's talk about social media. When you are sharing your website or blog to your favorite social media, almost every network will automatically pull an image from that page as a preview to that post. This is fine, but it's not great.  Let me show you why...

Example: How to Separate Scams From Legitimate Opportunities

The Image

I found this post in my Pinterest account and I'm using it because it has a custom image created for Pinterest. Its a great example because the custom image shows us WHAT the blog/page is all about. What can the user learn or gain by clicking on the link?

TIP: It also includes their logo on it so someone else can't use it and try to pass it off as their own.

The Problem

The problem isn't with this example specifically, but what would this post look like if there wasn't a custom image created to describe what the article/blog was all about? I'll tell you. Here is the Facebook preview:

The image is taken from the heading, and while on the blog it is paired with the title, this image may in some way represent "scams" but it doesn't say that by just looking at the picture. In addition, the supplemental photos work within the blog, but separately would you know either of the following images was an article about 'scams vs. opportunities' ? 

Pinterest

Custom images are most important when using Pinterest, a visual bookmarking tool. Keyword: VISUAL. Pinterest is all about sharing images and users may read the description if an image peaks their interest, but a majority of users scroll through reading and looking at the pictures. If you aren't telling the users what the post is all about, they are passing you by, and they are certainly not "pinning" your post to their boards.

This is the norm, and everyone is doing it because it works!

You can do it!

Start creating custom images for your blog and website today. There are many tools that anyone can use to create these. Picfont is an online tool that doesn't require a download. You can upload your image and simply save the new image when you are done.  

I've also included this really nice blog post from The Next Web, below, that outlines some great apps that will do the same. 

• 9 Outstanding Apps for Adding Text to Your Pictures