Kacee’s Posts

The Basics of Copyright Infringement

May 30, 2015 Beth Devine

what is copyright infringement — “Large copyright graffiti sign on cream colored wall” by Horia Varlan, used under CC BY / Modified from original

Whenever someone creates something and puts it into a fixed form, such as in paper, software, recording, or online, they own the copyright of the creation. This means that even your first drafts are protected by copyright law — whether or not it’s published, registered, or marked with a copyright symbol.

Of course, by taking extra steps to protect your work, you are not only taking your ownership seriously, you are increasing your chances for recovering damages. In the recent “Blurred Lines” copyright infringement case gripping the music industry for the last year and a half, Marvin Gaye’s family sued Robin Thicke and his co-writer for their 2013 hit “”Blurred Lines” as plagiarizing on Gaye’s 1977 “Got to Give It Up.” The Gaye family chose to be awarded $7.3 million in actual damages as opposed to choosing $9,000 in statutory damages.

What is copyright infringement?

Section 106 of the Copyright Law of the U.S.A. states that copyright gives the owner of the copyright the exclusive right:

To reproduce copies of the work
To create derivatives of the work
To distribute copies of the work for sale, rental, lease, or lending
To perform the work publicly
To display the work publicly

In Section 501 of the copyright law, it states that “anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner …is an infringer of the copyright or right of the author.” Anyone who engages in the activities deemed the to be exclusive to the copyright owner is an infringer of the copyright, unless they obtained permission.

Naturally, there are limitations and exceptions to these exclusive rights, and there are probably exceptions to the exceptions. Some of the limitations, called fair use, are listed in Section 107 of copyright law.

Original work of art cases continue to cite a Supreme court ruling back in 1883 in determining works that are protected by copyright law. Thanks to Oscar Wilde and his erstwhile photographer, your photographs can be claimed with exclusive copyrights from the moment you hit the selfie button.

What to do if your work has been infringed

If you discover that your intellectual property has been plagiarized, contact the infringer through social media, email, or through their website and ask them to remove the infringing material. Remember, your work doesn’t have to be marked with a © for you to claim infringement.

Most social media sites have their own online forms for reporting copyright infringement. You can also file a takedown notice with Google in the event your efforts for removal go unanswered.

Steps to take to protect your work

Include a policy on your website, particularly if you have a blog, that states your position on using your content. Create a permission page on your site where people may contact you to request use of your content. Include a copyright notice that states your position on the material as your own and requires permission for use.

While you don’t have to register copyrights to your work — you own it from its conception into fixed form, after all — real legal protection comes for those who are concerned about infringement by registering for a copyright. Check out Copyright Registration for Online Works from the United States Copyright Office for more information.

How to check for copyright infringement

There are a few ways to check to see if your content is being plagiarized. Copyscape will search for copies of your content on the internet with a simple copy and paste. You can also check for links back to your site to see if any content is being taken without your permission.

For checking images, you can do a reverse image search. There is a Google reverse image search, or you can use Tineye to check for misuse of your work. Since most infringements don’t involve any credit to the artist, and the title and any URL will be changed, a search by text will be ineffective.

Copyright infringement laws aren’t keeping up with the internet. According to Keeping It Legal, a senior registration specialist at the Copyright Office defines “published” as tangible material that’s distributed, which is generally considered material that’s printed. Fortunately, unpublished material is similarly covered to what is published.

5 Reasons You Can’t Do Without Online Newsletters

May 19, 2015 Beth Devine

The online newsletter continues to confound and perform after decades of relentless community building and information sharing. It has been called the cockroach of the Internet, the goose that laid the golden egg, tried-and-true, a direct line of communication, old-school artifact, the workhorse of nonprofits, and, perhaps most eloquently, “hand-curated pipes for mainlining quality Internet directly into our veins.” (Thank you for that, The Kernel.)

As a vein-clogging, direct line into our email inboxes, the online newsletter is a tool that will build your business and develop your brand image. Despite the Snapchatters and Whatsappers and Instagrammers out there, there is a time and a place where emailing your online newsletter is without rival.

Here are five reasons you can’t do without an online newsletter:

1. It’s easy to personalize and customize as part of your marketing plan.

Competing with Facebook isn’t so hard with a personalized newsletter. When you customize your newsletter so it contains personalized recommendations, the reader’s name, and reader-designated content, you’re more likely to keep your audience’s attention.

Newsletters tend to come before everything else in terms of self-interest. As David Carr writes in The New York Times, “It makes sense. My personal digital hierarchy, which I assume is fairly common, goes like this: email first, because it is for and about me; social media next, because it is for and about me, my friends and professional peers; and finally, there is the anarchy of the web, which is about, well, everything.”

As an addition to Facebook and other social media, the online newsletter is a way to personally connect with your audience and be an important part of your larger marketing plan.

2. It keeps your audience informed (and entertained).

Your newsletters are designed to do more than keep your readers connected. Your audience is reading to learn more and receive something valuable. Whether it’s helpful information, up-to-date news on your brand, or a discount or reward, your newsletter is an effective way to continue the relationship with ongoing communication.

By continuing to offer your audience something useful, you’re showing them that the’re valuable and haven’t been forgotten. You already know that your readers are interested because they’ve signed up for your newsletters, so be sure to give them something useful.

3. It’s a low-cost way to reach a large number of subscribers.

Small businesses and nonprofits can’t dispute the low-cost, pennies per message advantage to online newsletters. When you have a marketing budget, newsletters are the lost-cost choice over other marketing channels like direct mail and search engine advertising.

You can easily send out a new edition of your newsletter to a target audience of thousands of people, whenever you choose and as frequently as you want.

4. It’s a simple way to be mobile-friendly.

Without having to invest in new technology, you are instantly mobile-friendly with online newsletters. Email allows you to reach your audience on all types of mobile devices in an increasingly mobile-centric society.

A Forrester Research study shows that “on average, 42% of retailers’ email opens now happen on smartphones, up from 28% in 2013, while email open rates on tablets grew from 16% to 17%.”

When seeking mobile-friendly communication, texts are the competing alternative. But email newsletters are free to your audience where texts can incur a charge, and email gives much more space for your message in comparison to texts.

5. It’s the best way to grab your audience’s attention.

So what’s worth paying attention to when there is a never-ending supply of information? Most people are lazy when it comes to searching out content that interests them. By having it show up in their inboxes, reading content that your audience selected just got a lot easier.

No need to go looking for what they might like. Newsletters make sifting through the endless stream of online information easier for your readers. When your newsletter arrives, they recognize the sender, know you as a trusted source, and are confident that this is content they’re seeking.

If you like what you read, feel to share using our social media buttons!

What is RSS Feed and Why Do You Need It?

May 14, 2015 Beth Devine

Are you ready to change the way you read information on the World Wide Web? The internet is like a massive library with books strewn all over the place. So much free information and entertainment available without having to get out of your chair, but how do you keep track of the things you want to follow?

As it turns out, it’s rather simple. If you like getting daily or weekly updates on certain topics, want to see it organized, enjoy following your favorite sites, and want it all in one convenient place, then you need RSS feed.

RSS is Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication, and it has the ability to inform you with real, personally selected, continually updated news. In comparison to what social media offers, this is an improvement over random, not tailored to your needs, late-arriving, often false news delivery.

RSS feed takes the websites you choose to follow and distills the information down to the most important parts. The feed from your favorite sites are automatically updated and republished in one place for efficient reading without ever having to visit them.

RSS Feed Is Better Than Bookmarks

Many of you probably bookmark sites for later referral. This is a problem for several reasons:

You have to manually return to the site for updates.
When sites don’t update frequently, you’ll keep seeing the same old information.
You might miss information when a site updates frequently because you forget to check your bookmarks.
It’s a complicated process when you try to keep track of multiple sites at once.
You’re doing all the work surfing the web through your numerous bookmarking and link clicking.

Who Publishes RSS Feeds?

Most websites and blogs publish RSS feeds, including magazines, news sites, stores such as Amazon and iTunes, and podcasts. You will often see a link with a picture, one of the universal feed icons labelled “RSS,” “XML,” “Subscribe,” or “Atom.” These are all ways for you to subscribe to a site’s content through an RSS feed.

The most common feed icon is a little orange button with a dot and two downward-curving bars. This tells you that this site’s feed is freely available.

What Are Some Ways RSS Feed Will Rock My Web Experience?

RSS feeds can help you in a number of ways:

Unclutter your email inbox by storing website updates in your RSS feed reader. Read them (or not) at your convenience.
Unsubscribe or subscribe to email lists without having to ever give your email address away.
Save time and stay informed on the latest updates without having to visit all your favorites sites.
Save your favorite sites and stories without having to worry about losing or forgetting the web address.
Read a whole lot of blogs and articles in record time by scanning through all the headlines and selecting what you want to read, all organized in one handy location.
Eliminate the distraction of advertisements on a site by sticking to the content only on your RSS feed.

How do I read RSS feeds?

The way to read your RSS feeds is through RSS feed readers. These are websites that allow you to subscribe to selected blogs and articles by signing up for an account. Many excellent RSS feed readers are free and involve two components. The RSS feed and the RSS feed reader or aggregator.

The feed reader is the feed reading application, or news aggregator, and there are many different options. There are five categories of feed readers, depending on how you want to read your feeds:

Web-based Feed Readers

If you prefer to read all your articles from a browser, without any set-up hassles, this is the easiest and most flexible choice. Feedly, Digg, and Feedreader are popular web-based reader sites and are accessible from any computer with internet.

Desktop Feed Readers

Desktop feed readers let you read your feeds separate from your browser by installing them into your computer. Examples aren’t easy to find, probably because web-based RSS feeds are taking over, but I found two that haven’t been discontinued: NetNewsWire for the Mac and Straw for Linux.

Built-In Browser Feed Readers

It appears that these are disappearing fast, whereas many different apps are cropping up that you can download for a built-in feed reader. Opera still has a version as a browser, and many search engines offer a “My” site homepage with the ability for a limited RSS feed, such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL.

Email-Based Feed Readers

You’ve probably heard of Google alerts, an email-based feed reader. If you’re set on following your chosen topics via email, this is the way to go. There is also a Chrome extension called RSS Feed Reader and an application for Windows and Mac OS X called Feed Notifier. This option notifies you of a new item in your subscribed feed with a pop-up display on your desktop instead of in your email.

Mobile Device Feed Readers

These are growing in popularity and are available with Yahoo, Google, AOL, and Apple, all designed for on-the-go reading and keeping you connected to the information you want, wherever you go.

Stay tuned for more on the online RSS feed readers and how they rate.

Don’t Make These 5 Domain Name Mistakes

May 12, 2015 Beth Devine

Your domain name is a critical component to your online presence. As your internet address, it points visitors to your website. Without it, you have no visitors, no readers, and no customers.

Don’t make these domain name mistakes and risk the safety of your domain name and website.

Mistake #1: Falling for the Fake Renewal Notice

Because all domain names must be registered with ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, they are there for the taking by spammers and marketers who do Whois searches. By doing a ICANN Whois search, you can get a domain name’s data, including the owner’s name, address, phone number, and email address.

Having this one global internet has its drawbacks. After registering your domain name, you might start to receive marketing spam to the email address you used to register it with.

Watch out for the renewal notice sent by fake registrars (or very unethical ones). If you pay the renewal invoice to these fraudsters, you are not only losing money, but you could be initiating a domain name transfer. Your website and email, if you have it through your registrar, will crash and your original domain name provider will no longer be in effect.

Use extreme caution when you receive a renewal notice. Make sure you know who your registrar is and when your domain name expires. A quick check Whois search will answer these questions.

Any unsolicited domain name emails inviting you to either register for a new top-level domain name or to renew an existing one should be treated as if it is spam until you verify the information.

Mistake #2: Thinking You Own Your Domain Name When Using a Privacy Service

Whois privacy services are designed to protect your domain records from public viewing. Instead of our personal contact information, you will see the registrars (or whoever is selling the service). What most people don’t realize is that the name listed in the domain Whois record as the domain registrant is the owner of the domain.

In a rare dispute case, the owner of the case isn’t you, regardless of anything written in a contract of terms of service agreement. You have no legal rights to the domain.

Another concern is that some domain registrars will sell your private contact information for a small fee to anyone who asks. Also, if a law enforcement or government agency wants it, it’s as good as theirs. (This doesn’t seem like a problem, but the rumor mill has it that they will give out this information at the first mention of the word “infringement.”)

A simple way to handle this if you’re concerned about privacy issues is to have your web hosting company list their name and information. Having a good relationship with your web hosting company can help you solve a lot of potential website problems!

Mistake #3: Forgetting to Renew Your Domain Name.

Make sure you have a valid email address for your Whois records. Not only will this be used to contact you to verify any changes that are made, but to warn you of impending domain name expiration.

In both cases, there is often a time limit imposed by the registrant, and if not met, your domain name will be suspended. Trying to recover a lost domain name involves financial costs and a few headaches.

Consider signing up for automatic renewal with your registrar. Your web hosting company can also be responsible for your automatic domain name renewal, leaving you without the worry of following through on a reminder from a registrar.

Mistake #4: Paying Registrar Transfer Fees

You are free to transfer a domain name registered in a generic top-level domain to another registrar, assuming you meet none of the exclusions as outlined in ICANN’s policy on transfers between registrars. These include waiting more than 60 days from domain name creation, no evidence of fraud, and no reasonable dispute over the identity of the Registered Name Holder or Administrative Contact.

If you pay a transfer-out fee, which can be more than double the cost of the domain name registration cost, then you’re paying for a charge that’s in violation of the ICANN transfer policy. Ask your credit card company to reverse the charges, and be glad you’ve transferred out.

Mistake #5: No Registrar Change Protection

Unauthorized domain name transfers are easy to avoid by taking preventative measures. The registrar lock, once set by your registrar, prevents unauthorized, unwanted, and unintentional changes to your domain name.

Unless it is unlocked, no one can modify, transfer, or delete your domain name. While locked, you are still able to manage your domain name by renewing it. Only certain top-level domain names can have registrar lock, including .com, .net, and .org.

Another added security layer is auth code. Some of the top-level domains require an eight character authorization code before you can transfer it. The auth code is supplied by the current registrar, and you will need it to transfer to another registrar.

These protections are generally offered for free by your registrar, and are often put in place automatically. If you have a transfer complaint, go to ICANN and fill out their ICANN transfer complaint form.

The work of managing your domain name can be turned over to your web hosting company, leaving you worry-free. But it’s good practice to be aware of the mistakes to avoid as well as who is responsible for making sure your domain name is safe.

Domain Name Management and the New Name Extensions

April 29, 2015 Beth Devine

What is a domain name?

Your domain name is the unique name to your website using letters from the alphabet. It’s easy to remember, whereas the IP address (Internet Protocol address) associated with your domain name consists of a string of numbers that is difficult to remember.

There are two parts to your domain name: the top-level domain (TLD) and the second-level domain. The letters that come after the dot are called the top-level domain or extension, and the letters preceding the dot are called the second-level domain or the label. When you refer to a website, you use the label or second-level domain.

Registering Your Domain Name

Because your domain name is your online address, it must be registered in order for your website to be found. There are many domain name registrars. To find out what registrar your website uses, you can search using a Whois search for your domain name using InterNIC.

For more information about your website, such as who the registrant is, try doing a Whois search using http://whois.icann.org/. ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. They coordinate the internet’s address book by making sure the domain names all over the world can find each other. By keeping the Domain Name System (DNS) operating, we are able to have one global internet.

You can check to see if your registrar is an ICANN-accredited registrar. If it’s not, there is a simple procedure to follow to transfer to another registrar.

Managing Your Domain Name

The registrant of your website is the person who owns the domain name. There will also be an administrator and technical contact. A registration service provider might also be listed. Any or all of these could be your web hosting provider.

Having a domain name management plan in place is essential. This will assure that your website remains registered for your domain name without interruption. You should know who your domain name registrar is, how it is renewed, and whose name it is registered under. It is also important to know where the domain name points, or to what site it takes you.

As a business owner, records should be kept indicating all this relevant information in the event of any change, such as an employee leaving the company. Knowing who is responsible for what to do with domain names will ease any transition that might occur.

A clearly defined policy includes indicating which employees are designated for each of the following:

Domain name registration procedure
Who is named as registrant
Who is the technical contact
Who is the administrative contact
Which registrar or domain name company is used for registration
Renewal of domain name
Confirmation of where each domain name points
Password preservation and recovery

The New Domain Name Extensions

Did you know there are many new top-level domain names or extensions?

You might be surprised to find out that there are many other extensions besides .com, .edu, .net, and .org. New generic top-level domains are fast becoming available, with over 1,300 new names predicted over the next few years.

All the TLDs shown in this post’s picture are the real thing. Your imagination is the limit to what you can create.

Are the New TLDs Better?

Top-level domains have been under the control of ICANN, but in 2014 the creation of these URL extensions was opened to entrepreneurs. TLDs now comprise an endless number of possibilities as business owners can pay to have their website end with a specific TLD, such as jewelry, cafe, wedding, diet, and dentist, to name just a few.

There are over 5 million websites with new TLDs. Despite their obvious unique appeal, a study by Moz on generic TLDs showed that users weren’t likely to trust a domain based on its TLD. “A new gTLD is probably not a silver bullet.”

As for SEO, TLDs don’t offer any improvement. Search engine algorithms don’t include the new TLDs as a ranking factor.

According to John Mueller from Google, “There still is no inherent ranking advantage to using the new TLDs. They can perform well in search, just like any other TLD can perform well in search. They give you an opportunity to pick a name that better matches your web-presence. If you see posts claiming that early data suggests they’re doing well, keep in mind that this is not due to any artificial advantage in search: you can make a fantastic website that performs well in search on any TLD.”

Your first move in domain name management shouldn’t be worrying about your TLD. It should be checking the list to see that you know exactly who is responsible for each item, and keeping the information in a secure spot.

Latest Email SEO Scam On Mobile-Friendly Updates

April 21, 2015 Beth Devine

Why is it we’re more likely to question the credibility of unsolicited phone calls than we are to suspect emails? Unsolicited emails selling SEO services continue to run rampant, and now there is a new twist.

Google’s Mobile Friendly Update has brought with it a new spate of false email claims. The latest email SEO scam claims that your website isn’t mobile-friendly and will lose its ranking in search engines. The scam email might also include claims that your site isn’t “search engine friendly,” has an outdated design and layout, and a huge bounce back rate.

Of course, without their professional SEO services, your site is going to suffer numerous harmful search engine calamities, including losing potential clients. These self-proclaimed SEO experts say they have the instant fix to your SEO woes, and too many businesses fall prey to crooked or ignorant SEO marketing swindlers every day.

Stay informed and avoid getting taken advantage of with these tips.

Don’t Respond To Unsolicited Emails

If an email is unsolicited, there’s a 99.99% chance it’s not trustworthy, particularly if it is trying to sell you something and is using inaccurate information.

Google warns site owners to “be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.”

Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for “burn fat at night” diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.

Read that again. If you’re worried about your website not being mobile friendly, this is definitely not your answer.

Look for Red Flags

If an unsolicited email claims that you are in need of their services due to something you are lacking, your first reaction should be to question their information. Where’s their reports to back up their claims? Do they have proof of what they say they’ve analyzed, such as your site’s low rankings, high bounce rate, and absent mobile-friendly design?

You can check with Google Webmaster Tools to see how your SEO is doing. Begin with their Mobile Usability Report. Raise any concerns you have with your web hosting company before making any decisions.

Check Their Reputation

Don’t rely on a few good reviews and satisfied clients. This doesn’t mean that they’re not scamming you or haven’t scammed anyone else in the recent past. Take the extra few steps of checking with sites like the Better Business Bureau, Rip Off Report, and your state’s attorney general.

You can also search using the title of the company followed by “review,” “complaints,” “spam,” or “scam.” Beware of search results that include pissedoffconsumer.com, rippoffreport.com, or complaintsboard.com.

Any publicly posted complaints are obviously a bad sign. Even if some reviews are from disgruntled consumers who are overzealous, consider that there are potentially a dozen unhappy customers for every one who took the time to write and complain.

Do Your Own Investigating

Before you decide to respond to an email – preferably one that isn’t unsolicited – do your homework and check out their references. You can dig even deeper by investigating their website, their social media sites, and the websites in their portfolio.

All the pieces of the puzzle should fit together to point to a reputable, trustworthy SEO service. They know what they’re doing, and it doesn’t take much for them to build a facade with all these different tools. They are counting on the fact that they know more than you, and that most interested parties won’t take the trouble to investigate beneath the surface layer.

As “Mobilegeddon” spreads its pervasive new algorithm across the world wide web, website owners and publishers will want to make sure their sites are mobile friendly. Don’t let the mobile-friendly scare tactic fool you. It’s just the latest in a series of fast-talking pitches that promise to fix your website of things that might not even need fixing.

Check to see if your site is mobile friendly by reading our latest post, Is Your Site Mobile Ready? Then check with your web hosting company to see what needs to be done to make sure your site is responsive to all screen sizes.

Is your site mobile ready? Do you care? Google does.

April 16, 2015 Beth Devine

Google’s view on what makes your site mobile-friendly is about to affect your search engine results. Bad search results can cause your site’s traffic to diminish. This “significant impact in our search results” begins April 21, when Google changes the ranking signal for mobile searches worldwide and in all languages.

In other words, if your site isn’t designed for “mobile-friendliness,” you’re going to see a drop in your rankings. If you don’t know what a mobile-friendly website should look like, or if you even have one, read on.

How to Know if Your Website Is Mobile Friendly

If you’re unsure whether or not your website has Responsive Web Design (RWD), there’s a simple way to check. RWD is a web design that allows for easy reading and navigation across a wide range of devices, including mobile phones.

To find out if your site gives viewers optimal viewing on phones, Google has released a handy Mobile Friendly Test. Just type in your site’s URL and Google will analyze it to ensure you’re ready for the upcoming algorithm change.

Another way to check your site for mobile-friendly design is to do a quick search on your phone to see how it displays in the results. If your site is optimized for mobile, you will see “Mobile-friendly” before the meta description in search results.

What You Can Expect from Google’s New Mobile Changes

Google will reward website’s that are designed for viewing on mobile devices without the need of resizing, zooming, and scrolling. Another criteria to avoid is the fat-finger syndrome. This is the prognosis given to sites with links that are too crowded and buttons that are too small, causing the wrong links to be tapped.

Because the numbers of mobile device users is accelerating at high speed, Google wants to make sure websites engage their viewers with easy-to-navigate content. As a website owner, you want to give your customers and readers the best first impression, which is now often on a mobile device. Mobile-friendly sites won’t drive customers to competitor’s sites, and you will get better traffic and better revenue.

Which Is Better: RWD or Mobile-Dedicated?

There is a difference between Responsive web design and a dedicated mobile website. RWD is designed to respond to the size of the screen. The particular theme within your content management system (CMS) that controls the website’s content often has mobile website styles configured.

A dedicated mobile website is also known as a mobile web app. It has a separate website version from the desktop version that is designed to fit on small screens. It detects when a viewer is using a mobile device and redirects them to the mobile website version.

There are several disadvantages to a dedicated mobile website. Separate and duplicate web content for the desktop and mobile versions can be necessary. Sometimes a viewer’s device is not recognized with the site detection function, and the best version won’t display. Finally, the duplicate content can negatively impact Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

RWD doesn’t have the additional burden of creating and maintaining duplicate content. It is designed to give viewers the best experience for all devices, including phones, tablets, e-readers, and even new devices as they enter the marketplace.

As the world wide web continues to grow, it’s important to keep your audience in mind as you build and maintain your website. In many cases, your website is already mobile-friendly, thanks to its Content Management System. Ask your web hosting company to help you determine what the best option is for you and your audience.

How to Optimize Your Website for 2015

April 15, 2015 Beth Devine

website optimization — “death and taxes” by lucyfrench123, used under CC BY / Modified from original

As the saying goes, there are three things you can count on: death, taxes, and changing SEO. Okay, so I added number three because optimizing your website is also unavoidable. Thanks to perpetually changing SEO, you can count on having to keep your website up to date.

Best practices must not only be reviewed, they need to be revised. Adjusting to continually changing SEO or search engine optimization strategies is easier than meeting the tax deadline. So don’t get frustrated with the inevitable.

Read on and see how you can optimize your website for 2015.

Make your website mobile friendly.

Boost your rankings with Google and other search engines by making your website mobile friendly. It’s no surprise based on the numbers of mobile users that mobile-friendly sites rank better with Google.

By giving your visitors a better user experience, you are working with Google’s common mobile mistakes to avoid. Faulty redirects, blocked media, mobile-only 404s, and slow mobile pages are a few to check into.

Look for our next post for more about search engine rankings and Google’s new algorithm for mobile-responsive websites.

Maximize for Local Search Update, a.k.a. Pigeon

Google’s latest search algorithm update was coined Pigeon by Search Engine Land, because it’s a “local search update and pigeons tend to fly back home.”

Anyone who wishes for their business to be found locally on Google should maximize their site for local search results. If you serve clients at a physical business location and have a physical address, you may be affected by Google’s Pigeon update.

Continue with these tried and true best SEO practices for your local search strategy:

Get listed on Google My Business and create a Google+ page.
Create a content strategy with local focus.
Stay engaged on social media.
Keep your listings up to date. Check out Local Visibility System for a definitive list of local search citations. All your listings should include accurate data, including your business name, address and phone number. Include when possible such things as product descriptions, services provided, hours of operation, any coupons, photos, and payments accepted.

Maximize Your Website’s Speed

Fast load times becomes more and more important as users refuse to wait. Google made site speed a signal in their search ranking way back in 2010.

Here’s what you need to know to speed up your website:

You can test your site speed using Google’s PageSpeed tools. This will analyze a web page’s content for both a desktop and mobile device and give suggestions on how to increase the speed.
Reduce your image sizes and optimize them for the right file format. PNGs are good for graphics fewer than 16 colors, and JPEGs are good for photos.
Use a quality web hosting company whom you can trust and who can handle your site load.
Too many plugins can slow a site down.
Embedded video can also slow down a website.

Use Proper Page Titles

Search engines identify your page titles and headings by their tags. When you use a Content Management System like WordPress, you won’t see the code that brackets the titles. <H1>, <H2>, and <H3> tags tell a search engines the level of importance of the content. You can see this by viewing your content in the Text or HTML mode.

Each page or post should have only one H1 tag at the top of your content. All other tags should follow below and be H2, H3, and so on. The H1 tag should include the most important keywords when possible. Most importantly, it should tell your reader what the content is about.

Heading tags should tell your readers and search engines about the page’s or post’s topic. Avoid using generic terms, such as “home,” “introduction,” “overview,” or “products.” Others are adjectives that can indicate something appealing, such as “help,” “best,” and “top.”

Don’t use generic keywords that attract visitors who aren’t interested in what you are offering. Keyword phrases that specify an otherwise generic term, like “toy,” are preferable, especially in high-competition categories.

Finally, if your H1 tag is an image, use the image alt tag to include the important keywords.

Why You Should Worry About HTTP vs. HTTPS

Google is pushing for heightened security on the internet. The importance of using HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) over HTTP means that your website is encrypted and can’t be hacked.

Google is currently using the HTTPS as a ranking signal in less than 1% of their global queries, but they may decide to strengthen it because they’d “like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.” Having an action plan is a wise idea should Google move to rank secure sites higher.

How to Rid Your Blog of Dust Bunnies

March 27, 2015 Beth Devine

repurpose your blog post — “Dust Bunny Large Enough to Have a Name” by Kim Carpenter, used under CC BY / Modified from original

Are your blog posts collecting dust bunnies? Or in extreme cases, is your blog attracting mammoth-sized versions of dinosaur bunnies?

Getting rid of your blog’s dust bunnies is a simple matter. All you need to do is a little spring cleaning, get out your duster ––er, your creative cap, and repurpose your blog content. Take those dust balls and brush them off when you extend the reach of your blog, and create new and relevant content that will add life to your hard work.

Repurposing your blog content can turn it into new media formats. This saves you time, money, and prolongs the life of your online marketing investments. By taking your old content and making it new again, you can offer a new audience an updated format, sending the digital dust bunnies off to distant oblivion.

If you’ve been blogging for awhile, or you have empty warehouse syndrome (aka, you’re out of ideas), and the dust bunnies have moved in for the kill, you’re not alone. Here’s the scoop on how to do some spring cleaning and repurpose your blog content.

Brainstorm: Which blog posts are best for repurposing?

Which posts received the most traffic? Which posts are evergreen (content that continues to be relevant long past its publication)? Which posts could use updating?

Once you’ve determined which content in your stockpile is best for repurposing, you’ll need to decide how you want to reuse it. Different formats appeal to different people and their learning styles.

Hit the Refresh Button

Some of your blog content will have a lot of value, but it just needs a little tweaking to be current. Depending on how things have changed, you will need to modify your content to be relevant with the new information that’s available. This could mean writing a new article, in which case you could add a note at the end with a link to the post’s original content.

If the changes are minor, plugging in a few alterations for a makeover allows you to salvage your original post. When you repurpose in this manner, keep the post’s URL the same so it retains its SEO value, but change the date to a new publishing date if possible.

Make Quote Pictures

Adapt the one-liners that stand out in your blog posts to create images with text. Name the new image with the post’s title, or write a totally new headline and include this as your image text. If you used a clever-sounding title the first time, change it to something more SEO-friendly and searchable.

Think about how you will repost your content with this image, and adapt it for that social media platform. Finding new images to repurpose content is easy with so many different free and legal online photo sources. My most recently discovered resource is Unsplash. Sign up and you’ll get ten free new photos every ten days.

Choosing which online photo editing site can often mean going back to your tried and true favorite, but try something new and see how you like it. Canva is great for social media because it has all the templates prepared for you. Or try an app like Wordswag for on-the-go creating.

This is the best time-saver in repurposing content. You created a new quote picture to share on social media, and you didn’t have to change any content in your blog post. Sweet.

Adapt Your Content for Tweets, Twitter Cards, and Other Social Media

Share your evergreen content by reposting it as part of a social media management strategy. This is a great way to make contact with people by hitting different time zones, using different headlines, and reaching new followers.

Your high-value blog posts will gain new value from their initial publishing date through re-promotion on different social media platforms that highlight different types of content. This Twitter research shows how reposts in the form of retweets can gain 75% of its previous number of retweets.

Twitter is an easy place to post repurposed content by turning snippets of content into tweets, and then linking back to your original post. Just be sure to use less than the 140-character limit to allow for retweets by your followers.

Try adapting content into Twitter cards and add a call to action to your blog post content. Twitter cards come in seven formats, including the Summary Card With Large Image. This is more likely to attract attention in twitter feeds, and a click on your image brings your followers to your blog post.

As a content creator, save yourself time and reap SEO benefits when you repurpose content. Remember to think about adding value to your original piece, and you’re repurposing efforts will grow your audience and extend your content’s life.

Say goodbye to dust bunnies and hello to a fresh start.

How to Convert Website Traffic into Leads

March 18, 2015 Beth Devine

If you sell a product or service online, the big question that arises is, “How do I convert website traffic into leads?” Turning traffic into leads begins at the top of the marketing funnel, where discovery happens.

The all-important secret to your business begins right here. By understanding who your audience is and what their needs are, you can direct your website traffic. Know who your audience is and it will help you with the following ways to turn traffic into leads:

Share Content Your Audience Actually Cares About

Cater to your audience by creating content that they’re interested in. Speak to the humans who are looking for answers. Use the term “you” as if you’re talking directly to them and their personal needs.

Use blogs as an online tool to share this content, making it easier for search engines to find your brand when your topics are Googled and searched. According to research by HubSpot, the average company that blogs generates 55% more website visitors, 126% more leads, 97% more inbound links, and has 434% more indexed pages.

Use social media as a no-pay way to get attention as news feeds screech to a scrolling halt when they spy your eye-catching posts. Remember to communicate on each platform in the appropriate manner, including visuals whenever you can. Share your blog post links and photos, as well as entertaining items meant to capture your brand’s identity.

Writing and sharing your content is a critical step in getting your audience’s attention. You’re letting them know where to go for future information and entertainment value.

Keywords That Cater to the SERPS

You’ve heard the terms before: relevant, targeted, and organic keywords. It means using pertinent keywords to use in your site copy so your audience will find your brand in search results and ultimately land on your website.

Think about these keywords as you create copy. Optimized content helps with not only being discovered, but it’s proof that you’re knowledgeable and capable in solving the problems your audience is searching for answers to.

Somewhere out there they are looking for you. Help them to find you with a roadmap of keywords.

Offer Your Audience Something Compelling

They’ve discovered you at last. So what’s next?

This is where CTAs come into play. Call-to-actions are the go-to buttons for a compelling offer. These offers can be any type of freebie from a newsletter option to an ebook. Include the CTAs on your social media platforms, your promotional emails, and your landing pages.

Ask your audience for the most minimal information, their first and last name, and their email, allowing you to make future contact while giving them the opportunity to learn more about a program, sign up for a demo, download a white paper, watch a webinar, or get the deal. See Hubspot’s great CTA examples for a terrific source of inspiration.

If you include a CTA in your social media, it’s a good idea to use a URL shortener when you post a link that takes them to the landing page or designated form. CTAs are the most straightforward way to turn traffic into leads, so include them whenever it’s appropriate.

For your landing pages, CTAs are included as part of a clear and specific form, as detailed in Get Better Form Conversion With These 10 Tips. Don’t forget to label your CTA button with something besides “submit.”

Include an Email Subscription Offer on Your Blog

You’ve worked hard on your blog posts. Don’t let that effort go to waste.

Include an offer to subscribe in all your blog posts as a logical way to continue giving value. Take this database of email addresses, add them to your marketing email program, and grow your leads and attract potential customers.

Effective CTAs in your blog will help end your post with a bang. An enticing, concise call to action invites your readers to take a specific step by clicking on a button, or on a few lines of well-written text at the end of your post.

Make the invite as seamless as possible. Try something simple: “Like what you’ve read? Join us for our email update each week by adding your email to the form on the right.”

Or try something sassy: “Pssst. Want access to our blog updates each week and be in the know before all your friends have the scoop? Sign up here with your email and we’ll keep this our little secret.”

So what are you going to work on? How will you keep your content filled with inviting ways to turn traffic into leads?

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