How would you like a WordPress website that remains fast, secure and performs at its best all year round?

Unfortunately many business owners neglect their website maintenance. It’s not enough to build a new website and just leave it. Setting and forgetting your site is not an option, especially if you rely on it for business.

WordPress is an amazing platform because you can literally make your website do anything you want. It’s very powerful but with great power comes great responsibility.

In this article I’ll show you how to maintain a WordPress website so that your site is open for business 24/7/365.

Table of contents:

– What is Website Maintenance
– Why is Website Maintenance Important
– How to Maintain a WordPress Website

What is Website Maintenance?

WordPress website maintenance is the process of updating, securing and testing your website on a regular basis to keep it performing at its best.

Some websites like eCommerce stores need to be maintained on a daily basis while others like simple business websites can get away with maintenance on a monthly basis. But the more often you perform maintenance the better.

Why is Website Maintenance Important?

On average, ~30,000 websites are hacked into EVERY SINGLE DAY. Keeping your website secure is one of the most important reasons to maintain your website. Don’t become one of the statistics.

Taking a proactive approach to website maintenance is key. You could wait until your site is hacked into or breaks and then fix it then. But at what cost?

If your website was down for days, you would not generate leads or sales that you normally would.

Possible scenarios if you don’t maintain your website…

• your website goes down for an extended period of time
• extremely bad first impression for first-time visitors
• loss of leads
• loss of sales
• stolen data by hackers (including customer credit card details)
• injected malware
• high costs to fix your website
• slow website
• problematic website
• incompatible software

Hopefully the above list gives you some good reasons to proactively maintain your website.

How to Maintain a WordPress Website

1. Check Hosting Resource Usage
2. Take Daily Backups
3. Update Software
4. Scan for Malware and Security Threats
5. Test Website Speed
6. Fix Errors
7. Clean Database
8. Test Contact Forms

1. Check Hosting Resource Usage

This is a really simple check but important to ensure you always have enough server resources. Doing this check can also uncover server and website problems. For example, many shared hosting providers have low CPU limits so if you are always exceeding this, then it’s potentially time to upgrade to a better hosting provider.

Monitoring resource usage for a client’s site.

This is a closer look at CPU usage over the last 7 days.

2. Take Daily Backups

Before you perform website maintenance, it is absolutely critical to take a full website backup. One that you can restore if something goes wrong during website maintenance like a new plugin breaking your website due to incompatibility or by accident deleted something you shouldn’t have.

Most good hosting providers will allow you to take daily backups, restore backups and take backups on demand.

If your hosting provider doesn’t support backups, I’d suggest moving to one that does. It makes life soooo much easier. However, if you can’t be bothered doing this, then I’d suggest using BlogVault. This is easily the best backup plugin you can get. Trust me, I’ve tried quite a few!

BlogVault is the best backup plugin that I’ve tried. 

3. Update Software

Updating your website software (aka WordPress, theme and plugins) is extremely easy to do. You just click a button. Keeping your WordPress version, theme and all plugins up to date keeps your website secure and running at its best.

When a software update is available, it usually means there is a security patch that is needed and/or improved functionality.

PRO TIPS:

– make sure the available update is compatible with all your other plugins and WordPress version (it will tell you within the ‘plugins’ section).
– ALWAYS take a full website backup before updating software.
– if possible, perform updates in a staging environment to ensure everything is working smoothly before pushing live.

WordPress Dashboard where you run software updates.

4. Scan for Malware and Security Threats

It’s not often that your website will get infected with malware but it’s still important to check. When websites get hacked, oftentimes the website owner is completely unaware.

Your website could be redirecting visitors to dodgy sites for ages before your realise. So it’s important to scan your site for malware and security threats on a regular basis. Monthly at the bare minimum!

I recommend using Sucuri SiteCheck to scan your website for free.

You could also use a security plugin like WordFence, which comes with an inbuilt security scan. Keep in mind this will slow your website down a bit.

PRO TIP:

– add a firewall to your .htaccess file. Go to PerishablePress and copy/paste their 6G Firewall into your .htaccess file.
– if you don’t know how to do the above, just integrate their BBQ plugin.

Security scan using Sucuri.

5. Test Website Speed

Have you ever visited a website that took forever to load? And then clicked away because you couldn’t be bothered waiting? I know I have.

If your website is slow, visitors are not going to stick around. People expect websites to load almost instantly.

Website speed is also a ranking factor in Google; for both desktop and mobile.

I recommend running speed tests using GT Metrix. Make sure to create a free account so you can use a testing server closest to your location.

For more tools, check out the best website speed test tools.

GT Metrix speed testing tool.

6. Fix Errors

Websites will eventually show errors in one way or another. Especially if your website is built using WordPress.

It’s quite easy to hope for the best and assume yours doesn’t have any errors but this could cost you.

Imagine if one of your website links was broken? Perhaps you changed it and forgot to add a 301 redirect from the old one to new one. The old one will still be indexed in Google, so everytime someone visits it they get taken to a 404 page. How would you know if this is happening?

Well, the best way to get started finding errors is by using the Google Search Console (GSC). GSC will monitor your website for you and let you know when errors show up.

Check out the GSC Coverage Report below that shows errors, warnings, valid pages and excluded pages. Make sure you integrate GSC so you can start monitoring your site for errors.

GSC is also great for tracking rankings in Google for specific keyword phrases.

Google Search Console coverage report.

7. Clean Database

Cleaning your WordPress database is important to reduce server resource usage and to keep your website performing at its best. The basics include removing post revisions and trashed posts.

I recommend using a free plugin called WP-Optimize. Just make sure to delete it when you are done.

8. Test Contact Forms

The very last thing you should be doing to maintain your WordPress website is testing contact forms.

This is especially important if you have updated software and/or if you use a caching plugin. Just fill out your contact form and make sure your email notifications are working.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully the above has helped you understand why website maintenance is important AND how to maintain a WordPress website.

I know there is a fair bit of work involved but it’s crucial to ensuring your website remains fast, secure and performing at its best.

Don’t be the business owner who neglects their website. If you are proactive in maintaining your website you will be rewarded.

Good luck!

The post How to Maintain a WordPress Website appeared first on Max Jacobs.

Is your WordPress website slow? Or perhaps slowing down?

In this article I’ll detail all the different ways to speed up WordPress. Doing so will make your website lightning fast. You’ll provide a better user experience. And you’ll increase your chances of converting visitors into customers.

Table of Contents:

– Why Website Speed Matters
– Best Website Speed Test Tools
– Ways To Speed Up WordPress

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Why Website Speed Matters

Users expect a site to load in less than 2 seconds, and almost half of those will leave a site that takes longer than that to display a page.

Do you find yourself always leaving websites that take too long to load? I know I do. According to Kissmetrics, 47% of users expect a site to load in less than 2s and 40% will abandon a website if it takes more than 3s.

I don’t know about you, but I think 40% is an alarming statistic! Having a slow website essentially means you’ve instantly lost 40% of potential sales.

There are many benefits to increasing your website speed. Some of these include higher Google rankings, more website traffic and improved user experience. All of which increase your conversion rate.

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Best Website Speed Test Tools

It’s important to note that each of them will give you different results. This is because they analyse your website in slightly different ways.

The best website speed test tool is the Google Lighthouse audit tool found within your Chrome Developer Tools. You could also use WebPageTest, GTmetrix or Pingdom. Google Lighthouse is by far the best tool for running speed tests though.

If I were to choose the 2nd best speed test tool, I would choose WebPageTest. Lots of options to test from different locations, devices and internet speeds. GTmetrix actually uses the same lighthouse metrics to test your site so best to get your data straight from the source. i.e. Google Lighthouse.

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9 Ways To Speed Up WordPress

1. Invest in performance focused hosting

2. Choose a server closest to your target audience

3. Use the latest PHP version.

4. Use a performance focused WordPress theme.

5. Minimise usage of plugins (as much as possible).

6. Integrate a premium caching plugin (if you don’t have server level caching).

7. Compress Images.

8. Optimise WordPress database

9. Run speed tests to see where improvements can be made.

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1. Invest in premium hosting

This is arguably the most important step and most effective way to speed up WordPress.

Hosting recommendations for different situations

– Simple Websites: if you have a relatively simple and static website (like this one), go with the entry level plan from Kinsta.

– WooCommerce websites: If you run a WooCommerce store, I recommend using something tailored to Woo stores like WooCart.

– On a budget but wanting performance: if you are on a budget but still want high performance, I recommend using Cloudways. You can pick between Google Cloud, Amazon, VULTR, Linode and Digital Ocean servers. I have a bunch of websites still with Cloudways that use a VULTR High Frequency (HF) server.

– eCommerce websites needing to scale: if you have a highly dynamic website that requires lots of resources then check out Pagely.

– eCommerce websites needing to scale ON A BUDGET: if you truly can’t afford Pagely, then I highly recommend JohnnyVPS. They can likely handle any website regardless of size, traffic and resource requirements. Johnny from JohnnyVPS is the definition of a performance expert. Check out my review of their services.

Just so you know, I use Kinsta and love it! I use them because they are all about performance. Kinsta uses the highest performance C2 machines from Google Cloud. Unlike other hosting providers (e.g. SiteGround) that only use Google’s general purpose machines.

I also recommend Cloudways, which I still use to spin up concept websites and play around. Cloudways is also performance focused with access to cloud hosting providers including: Amazon, VULTR, Linode, Digital Ocean and Google Cloud. Cloudways is cheaper than Kinsta but you need to know or at least feel comfortable with a little sysadmin.

For hosting providers that specialise in WordPress, check out my list of the best WordPress hosting providers in Australia.

Whatever you do though, don’t use poor hosting from the likes of GoDaddy or any of the subsidiaries owned by Endurance International Group (EIG). Some of these include Bluehost, Hostgator and JustHost.

You will most likely experience slow load times, poor support, frequent downtime and overall poor service. Here’s a good article that talks you through hosting providers to avoid.

Hosting providers to avoid

Below is a list of hosting providers I believe you should avoid (based on my own experience).

This list will likely grow over time. And I’m sure there a quite a few I forgot to add.

• any EIG owned hosting company
• GoDaddy
• Bluehost
• Hostgator
• Hostinger
• Justhost
• 1and1 (now called Ionos)
• A2
• Name Cheap
• OVH
• LiquidWeb
• InMotion Hosting

2. Choose a server closest to your visitors

Once you’ve decided on a premium hosting provider, it’s important to choose a server that is closest to your target audience and potential visitors. You don’t want your server in the US when your visitors are in Australia.

The greater the distance between your server and visitor, the longer the connection time.

To test your connection times, I recommend using a TTFB test tool from KeyCDN. They have a free tool that will show you connection times worldwide for your domain.

See screenshot below testing this website. Notice how the connection time aka Time to First Byte (TTFB) is ~30ms in Australia but almost 1s from Europe? Big difference and this is before your website content is loaded.

Pro Tip:

If you have visitors worldwide, then you’ll ALSO need to set up a content delivery network aka CDN. I recommend using CloudFlare to get started (it’s free to use).

3. Use the latest PHP version

There are two main reasons to use the latest PHP version…

Firstly, it will improve performance allowing your site to process twice as many requests.

Interestingly ~30% of websites still use PHP version 5, which is ~2 times slower than PHP 7.

The second reason is security. Just like any software, it’s best to run the latest and greatest version to keep up with recent security patches.

If you aren’t using PHP version 8 (this is the latest version), you could be missing out on a signficant performance and security boost.

4. Use a performance focused WordPress theme

Unfortunately most WordPress themes are not performance focused. Most themes are made with a gazillion features that make it easier to design and develop your website BUT slow your site down.

I recommend using Astra or Generate Press (this website is built using Generate Press).

The free versions are fine to start with. They have less design options but this means your site will be faster!

Just for this article I’ve created a new website using Astra, imported one of their free starter layouts and run a speed test. Even without optimising the website, the home page loads in under 1s!

5. Use Less Plugins

A great way to speed up your WordPress site is by simply using less plugins. Each plugin adds load time to your site.

It’s also important to delete any plugins that you aren’t using. Don’t just deactivate and leave them there. Doing this can also be a security risk.

More importantly than using less plugins is to remove resource intensive and slow loading plugins. Check out this detailed list of plugins to avoid.

6. Use a Premium Caching Plugin

Are you using a high performance host like Kinsta? Is your website caching done at the server level? If yes, well done, you don’t need a caching plugin. Your website should already be lightning fast. Faster than if it had a caching plugin installed!

If you haven’t upgraded to a performance focused host for whatever reason, I highly recommend investing in a premium caching plugin. I’ve performed countless miracles, optimising websites on super slow hosting like GoDaddy. Often reducing desktop load times from 10+ seconds down to ~1s, even on websites that use shitty hosting. Imagine how fast those sites might be on half decent hosting.

For more advanced users I recommend using Swift Performance. The premium version is great but they also have a decent free version.

WP Johnny has put together an epic guide to setting up Swift Performance. Make sure you check it out if you decide on using Swift.

For beginner users, I recommend using WP Rocket. Not as many advanced options as Swift but an amazing plugin that is very easy to set up.

Before picking a caching plugin, make sure you understand the differences between Swift Performance vs WP Rocket.

7. Optimise Media

Compress Images

One of the key components to load time is your overall website size. Most of which is made up of images. So optimising your images by compressing and removing unneeded EXIF data is key.

If your website uses video it’s also crucial to optimise the way they are loaded. Make sure you DO NOT upload videos directly to your website. Embed them instead. Most page builders like Divi and Elementor makes this very easy with video modules. Just copy paste your video URL.

Lazy Load Videos

I also recommend lazy loading videos so that they load upon user interaction. This will significantly reduce external requests and loading time. This is crucial. Don’t forget to do this.

Swift Performance comes with an image optimiser that is easy to use. It also optimises images on upload. So you can set and forget. Much better value than paying for a separate image optimisation plugin in my opinion.

8. Optimise WordPress Database

It’s important to optimise your database from time to time. For busy eCommerce websites this might need to be done weekly. For smaller, low traffic websites this might be monthly.

To clean and optimise your database it’s important to delete trashed posts and post revisions. Don’t let them build up.

The premium version of Swift Performance has a database optimiser making this very easy. Another great reason to use Swift. Always make sure to take a backup before optimising though!

I also recommend cleaning your wp_options table and removing autoload data that shouldn’t be there. It’s amazing how much stuff that loads that doesn’t need to. Usually from plugins and software deleted over the years. But also from poorly coded plugins and themes that make huge database queries. e.g. loading a huge list of google fonts, even though you only use one or none.

If your WordPress site has been revamped over the years, even just once, then I highly recommend learning how to do clean your wp_options table and removing autoloaded data.

It’s possible your wp_options table is so full of plugin and theme options that you have no idea what is what. Some plugins have really weird names that make no sense so it can be risky deleting rows that you aren’t sure about.

If this is the case, I recommend doing a fresh install of WordPress with a new database, exporting content from your current site, then importing into your fresh WordPress install. Only install the plugins you need. Note that I do not mean using a migration plugin – this would just copy the same bloated database over.

This could be a lot of work though… Good luck!

9. Run Speed Tests

Tips for running speed tests:

– Run test before and after integrating your caching plugin

– Run at least 3 tests for each configuration. e.g. 3 tests simulating throttling on mobile, 3 tests simulating throttling on desktop, etc. Also, there is often a significant difference between pre and post cached loading times, especially if you are using cheap hosting. If loading times differ significantly, it’s most likely related to poor hosting.

– Simulate desktop and mobile

– Make sure you check the box for simulated throttling.

– Test from your target audience’s location (WebPageTest has ~30 locations to test from). Testing from multiple locations is crucial if you manage an eCommerce website that sells to customers in multiple countries. If this is you, make sure you integrate a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Good hosting providers should have a CDN option built into their platform. e.g. Kinsta uses KeyCDN, Cloudways uses Stackpath.

Final Thoughts

There you have it. A bunch of ways to speed up WordPress.

The list I’ve provided covers the most important elements of page speed optimisation. I’ll cover more advanced tactics in a future post.

Feel free to reach out if you need help.

Good luck!

The post 9 Best Ways To Speed Up WordPress appeared first on Max Jacobs.

How would you like to learn just one link building strategy that streamlines all of your content creation and online efforts?

If you run a business, you’ve probably heard about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and the importance of a link building strategy and link building tactics to improve your search visibility.

Unfortunately there are 100’s of ways to build links, not all of which align with the Google Guidelines. People talk about tactics, strategies, white hat, black hat and a whole range of SEO jargon that gets confusing very quickly!

So in this article, I’m going to simplify everything. I’ll teach you the best link building strategy and share a link building tactic that isn’t risky AF.

Table of Contents:

– What is Link Building?
– Why is Link Building Important?
– Link Building Strategy
– Link Building Tactics
– Link Building Software
– Link Building Course

What is Link Building?

Link building is the practice of increasing the number of websites linking to yours.

More technically, it’s increasing the number of hyperlinks (aka backlinks) that take people from one location to another. i.e. from one website to another or from one webpage to another.

Why is Link Building Important?

To improve your search visibility and drive more traffic to your website, you should be doing two things. Firstly you should be creating keyword driven content on a consistent basis. If you’re not doing this yet, start doing it. Secondly, you should be building links to your newly published blog content.

But why is link building important? Well, the very first algorithm that Google used to rank webpages was based on the number and quality of links to a website. This was called PageRank.

Google’s algorithm is much more complex now but it still uses links to a website as the underlying factor to determine its authority and rankings. But not just any links. You have to have quality links that are gained naturally. i.e. from people that actually want to share your content not by participating in Link Schemes.

CAUTION: Don’t Participate In Link Schemes

Do not participate in link schemes. If you do, your website might get blacklisted by Google and disappear completely. This is known as Black Hat SEO and should be avoided at all costs. Also, If you plan on hiring an agency or freelancer to do your link building, I’d highly recommend making sure they aren’t using link schemes. If they say all of their methods are ‘White Hat’, kindly ask them to detail the actual methods they’ll be using. This way you can check for yourself against the Google Guidelines.

Link Building Strategy

What is Link Building Strategy?

Your Link Building Strategy is your overall plan of action to naturally gain backlinks to your keyword driven website content.

The Best Link Building Strategy

The best link building strategy and the ONLY strategy that you need is to create and share valuable content that actually helps your target audience.

Don’t just create content for the sake of creating content because everyone else is doing it. Research your competitors and see how they are providing value. Aim to create content that is 10x better than theirs. If you create and share valuable content, people will naturally share and link to it.

Link Building Tactics

There are 100s of link building tactics aka off page seo techniques that you can use. However, many of them go against Google’s Guidelines so you need to be careful. I won’t bother listing out the never ending list of tactics. Instead, check out this awesome article from Backlinko. It is the most complete list of off page SEO techniques that I’ve found!

However, I strongly believe that your tactics should revolve around building relationships with your audience and influencers within your niche.

One of the best ways to do this is by simply reaching out to people and helping them. By helping others and providing massive value, you will increase the chances of people naturally linking to your content.

One of the best ways to do this is through Email Outreach.

Gaining Backlinks Through Email Outreach

When it comes to email outreach, it’s all about personalising your emails and providing value where possible. You could reach out to a website owner letting them know how much you enjoyed one of their recent articles. Or perhaps let them know about a problem you found on their website.

Here’s a script I wrote to give you an idea. Please don’t use it word for word otherwise everyone’s email outreach campaigns will end up being the same! Try to personalise it as much as you can. Season to taste. i.e. re-write so that it matches your own style of writing and communication. 

Hi [insert name],

Your article about [insert article link] was really interesting!

I especially liked how you [insert something specific to their article].

While I was reading it I noticed you linked to another site talking about [insert topic].

So I thought I’d reach out and let you know that I recently wrote a detailed guide to [insert link to your improved article].

Do you think this might be of interest to your audience?

I believe it could be a nice addition to your page and something that could really benefit your audience.

Would love to know your thoughts…

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Talk soon,
Max

Link Building Software

Backlink building can take a LOOOONG time and a lot of effort. Thankfully, there are awesome tools that will make your life MUCH easier. They don’t build links for you (stay away from tools that do this) but they will speed up the whole process. Below are tools I use and highly recommend.

• SEMrush
• Hunter.io
• ActiveCampaign

SEMrush

This tool can be used to find link building opportunities (it’s actually an all-in-one marketing toolkit!). Instead of manually finding each website that has linked to similar content to yours, you can use SEMrush instead to find potentially 1000’s of potential websites to contact.

Here is how to find 1000s of backlink opportunities. I’ve used this article as an example.

1. Sign up to a SEMrush 7 day trial.

2. Type your topic or keyword phrase into Google to see the top result.

3. Copy paste the top Google result’s URL into SEMrush.

4. Go to the ‘Backlinks’ tab and view ‘Referring Domains’. These are all of the websites currently linking to the article.

5. Export CSV list of all referring domains. This is now your list of websites to contact using the aforementioned script.

Hunter.io

Hunter.io can literally save you 1000’s of hours. Instead of manually visiting the websites from your SEMrush CSV list and writing down their contact details, you can upload your list to Hunter’s Bulk Email Finder, which automatically finds email addresses associated to each website. Pretty cool aye!?

1. Start using hunter.io for free.

2. Use the Bulk Email finder. Click ‘New Bulk’ and upload your CSV file list. Hunter.io outputs a list of email addresses for you to contact 🙂

Active Campaign

Once you’ve got your list of emails, you’re finally ready to do email outreach. For those who prefer to automate their email outreach and don’t mind giving up some degree of personalisation, I recommend using ActiveCampaign.

I recommend using this tool for all of your email marketing efforts (not just email outreach for link building).

a. Sign up to ActiveCampaign.
b. Create a ‘List’ and import your CSV list of email addresses.
c. ‘Create a Campaign’
d. Make sure to include a couple follow-up emails.

Link Building Course

Need more help? There is an amazing online course called ‘The Authority Site System‘ that has taught me everything I know about link building, keyword research and content creation.

They even have a free training video that guides you step by step on how to do all of the above (+ much more).

Highly recommend if you are looking to learn!

Final Thoughts

Increasing the number of websites linking to yours is something that will happen organically if you focus on creating and sharing content that is valuable to your target audience.

The best link building strategy is simply creating valuable content.

There are 100’s of link building tactics you can potentially use but the tried and true tactic is email outreach.

I hope this article simplified this topic for you. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below.

The post Link Building Strategy & Tactics That Aren’t Risky AF appeared first on Max Jacobs.

How would you like more traffic to your website, more awesome customers and ultimately more growth in your business? But without spending money on ads?

To do this you need to focus on SEO aka Search Engine Optimisation.

BAD NEWS: most websites aren’t optimised for search engines like Google 🙁

GOOD NEWS: I’ve put together an On Page SEO Checklist to help optimise your website content for Google 🙂

Make sure you do the PREP work first though!

Table of Contents:

– What is On-Page SEO?
– Why is On-Page SEO Important?
– PREP: Keyword Research
– WORK: On Page SEO Checklist
– MONITOR: SEO Software Setup

What is On-Page SEO?

Before I explain On-Page SEO, it’s important to understand what SEO is.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It’s the process of optimising your business website for search engines. More specifically, optimising your content for specific keyword phrases so that your content gets ranked as high as possible in search engine results.

In other words, when someone is Googling and looking for a solution to their problem, you want Google to know that your website has the solution. i.e. has the most relevant piece of content for the solution that was getting Googled.

Hopefully that makes sense…

Highly optimised websites focus on all 4 areas of SEO including: On-Page SEO, Off-Page SEO, Technical SEO and Local SEO.

So, what is On-Page SEO?

Well, On-Page SEO (aka On-Site SEO) is the process of optimising all of the text content ON your web PAGE for a specific keyword phrase.

Each page of your website should have one primary keyword phrase that it is targeting. i.e. trying to rank as high as possible for in the search engine results.

For example, the primary keyword phrase for this article is ‘On Page SEO Checklist‘.

Why is On Page SEO Important?

On-Page SEO is important because Google literally says it is. And afterall, we are optimising our website for Google. So we should definitely listen!

When it comes to ranking websites, Google is pretty sophisticated. Put simply though, Google is looking for websites that contain the same keywords that people are Googling. So if want to rank for the keyword phrase, ‘On Page SEO’, then you better make sure this keyword phrase is contained within your article.

Google explains this on their website. See screenshot below.

Screenshot taken from Google’s article on How Search Works.

Keyword Research Checklist:

1. Find your primary keyword phrase.

– find a relatively high search volume, low competition keyword phrase.

– use a keyword research tool called SEMrush to find a relatively high search volume, low competition keyword phrase. This tool will save you sooo much time and ensure you aren’t wasting your efforts.

– Make the most of their 7 Day Free Trial.

2. Find secondary phrases that are similar to your primary keyword phrase.

– SEMrush makes this super easy.

– secondary keyword phrases are also known as long-tail keyword variations, which can be used to help structure your articles.

– you can also use Google to find long-tail keyword variations. See screenshot below. Just type in your primary keyword phrase and Google will do the work for you! Of course you won’t get search volumes, competitiveness or any of the other highly valuable data that SEMrush provides. But this is a good start!

Screenshot showing how to do Keyword Research on Google.

As you can see from my screenshot above, you can get a good idea about what people are searching for related to a topic. On Page SEO being this example.

3. Determine questions people are asking related to your primary keyword phrase.

– SEMrush will show you all the questions you target audience is asking.

– knowing the questions people are actually asking gives you lots of potential content to write about. You could also create FAQs relating to your topic. Or just use the questions to help structure your blog content.

WORK: On Page SEO Checklist

1. Add primary keyword to URL.
2. Add primary keyword to Title Tag and Meta Description.
3. Add primary keyword within H1 heading (use only one H1 heading).
4. Add primary keyword within the first 10% of your page’s text content.
5. Wrap subheadings in H2 tags (and H3, H4, H5 and H6 Tags where relevant).
6. Aim for keyword density from 1-2%.
7. Link to relevant pages within your website.
8. Link to relevant, high authority websites outside of your website.
9. Add primary keyword to image file name, title and alt text.
10. Add long tail keyword variations throughout your page.

Additional Tips:

– Use WordPress
– Install an SEO plugin called Rank Math, which guides you through each step.

MONITOR: SEO Software Setup

• Install an SEO plugin like Rank Math (recommended) or Yoast
• Integrate Google Analytics
• Setup Google Search Console

Final Thoughts About On-Page SEO

If you want to drive more traffic to your website, win more clients and grow your business without spending money on ads, start by following this On Page SEO Checklist.

But remember to do your keyword research first and setup all the necessary software to track everything moving forward.

Let me know if you have any questions!

The post 10 Step On Page SEO Checklist appeared first on Max Jacobs.

Step 1 of this Local SEO Checklist will get you on page #1 of Google and on Google Maps.

If you’ve tried SEO, you probably know that it’s all about creating keyword driven content on a consistent basis and praying people will share and link to it.

But creating content, optimising that content and doing link building campaigns takes a lot of effort. And getting results can take months, if not years.

So before starting an SEO campaign, you need some quick wins.

In this article I’m going to share the quickest and easiest way to get found online. A way to get your business on the front page of Google Search and on Google Maps (and more). 

8 Point Local SEO Checklist

1. Claim Google Business Listing
   
2. Optimise Your Website
   
3. Add Business Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP)
   
4. Get Citations
   
5. Set Up Social Media
   
6. Request Reviews
   
7. Create Consistent Content
   
8. Secure Backlinks

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1. Claim Google Business Listing

By following this first step, your business will have a listing on the front page of Google. This is the most important step of the Local SEO Checklist. It also links your local business to your website, which will be a huge signal to Google that your site is legit.

Steps:

a. Claim your Google Business Listing
b. Follow the prompts.
c. Fill out the ‘Info’ section
d. Once verified, your business will be shown on Google Search AND Google Maps. 

2. Optimise Your Website

The next thing you’ll need to do is optimise your website aka On-Page SEO. If you are lucky, you’ve already built your website using WordPress. If you have built your website using Squarespace, Shopify, Wix or a similar Content Management System (CMS), your options might be limited compared to WordPress.

WordPress vs website builders like Squarespace and Shopify

WordPress is a great platform that gives you more design and functionality options than any other CMS.

But platforms like Shopify and Squarespace are way more user friendly, especially for beginners. If you aren’t that tech savvy and don’t have the budget to hire a developer to create your website and maintain it month to month, then Shopify and Squarespace might be a better fit for you.

These platforms are subscription based platforms so all of the backend workings are managed by the platform. Unlike WordPress where you need to manage it all.

So on one hand you’ve got WordPress that can do almost anything. On the hand you’ve got all of the other subscription based website builders that are extremely easy to use but lack the design and functionality options you would get with WordPress.

If you haven’t started building your website yet and don’t feel comfortable doing your own WordPress website maintenance, I strongly recommend looking into Squarespace if building a basic business website and Shopify if building an eCommerce website. Even though you might still get a developer to design and build your website, you want a platform that is easy for you or anyone else to manage following project completion.

The rest of this article is going to talk more about Local SEO for WordPress websites, even though most of this checklist applies to all websites, regardless of technology used.

If you aren’t using WordPress, check out this Shopify Checklist to optimise your website for search engines.

Or this SEO Checklist for Squarespace.

And if you have or plan on building a Wix website, here is a Wix SEO Guide.

Local SEO for WordPress

To begin optimising your WordPress website, install and integrate an SEO plugin. I recommend using Rank Math SEO.

An SEO plugin isn’t a magic bullet, but it will help guide your Small Business SEO efforts. The main thing is making sure your website’s content is relevant to the topic you want to rank for. Let’s say you are a lawyer based out of Melbourne. If you want to drive traffic for people searching  for ‘Lawyers in Melbourne’, which gets ~1600 searches per month, then make sure your website’s text content talks all about Lawyers in Melbourne.

Steps:

a. Use WordPress for the many SEO benefits it has compared to other CMS platforms.
b. Integrate an SEO Plugin.
c. Do Keyword Research to determine high traffic, low competition keyword phrases.
d. Optimise your Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, URL’s, Headings and all text content to include the keyword phrases you found in Step C.
e. Follow prompts from SEO Plugin for each page. Examples might include ensuring your keyword phrase is used in the first paragraph, using just one H1 heading per page, use of H2-H6 headings that incorporate your keyword phrase, keyword frequency/density, total number of words, use of external links, etc.

To learn more, check out my On Page SEO Checklist.

3. Add Business Name, Address & Phone Number (NAP)

To ensure your new Google Business Listing is shown as high as possible within the listings, you’ll need to add your Business Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP) to your website’s footer on each page. Then add it to your Contact page and About page (if you have one).

It’s very important that your NAP is the same in all places. Not just on your website but every place found across the net. Consistency is key!

 4. Get Citations

Citations are places that reference your business including website link, business name, address and phone number. A great place to start is with local business directories like Google Business Listing (you should have already done this in step #1), Yellow Pages, Bing Local and True Local.

Steps:

a. add your business to Google.
b. add your business to Yellow Pages.
c. add your business to Bing Local.
d. add your business to True Local.

5. Set Up Social Media

If you haven’t already, set up your social media profiles. Start with platforms that your ideal customer uses. I recommend setting these up now even if you don’t plan on marketing through them yet.

Having a social media profile link back to your website will boost your local seo rankings. Each profile is like a citation with a backlink that increase your website domain authority. The more authority you have, the higher your rankings. Not to mention the ‘social signals’ that your website is getting when people interact with and share your content. The more social signals Google sees; the better.

There are 200+ social media platforms so you have quite a few options.

Steps:

a. a good start is with a Facebook business page.
b. add other social media profiles on platforms that your potential clients use.
c. make sure your website is using open graph meta tags so your content is shareable.
> Rank Math has this covered. Just add your social media profile links to its settings.

6. Request Reviews

Next you will want to start reaching out to previous clients and requesting reviews on all places where your business is listed. The most important place to start is your Google Business Listing.

Steps:

a. request reviews from previous clients by sharing your google business listing.
b. request reviews for all other business listings
c. request reviews for social media profiles like Facebook.

7. Create Consistent Content

This step is crucial to generating consistent leads. You don’t need to create content every single day (well done if you can!), but you do need to be consistent. Whether it’s monthly, weekly or daily, it’s all about consistency.

Steps:

a. research topics that your target audience actually wants to learn about.
b. create a 12 month content plan using a different topic each week.
c. commit to writing one blog article per week (or outsourcing it).
d. share it across all social media platforms.
e. send out to your list of email subscribers.

8. Secure Backlinks

This step is often the most difficult part of a Local SEO Checklist. However, if you are creating epic content, your followers will likely share your content,  ultimately resulting in people linking back to your website (aka backlinks). So it could be easy…

Steps:

a. create epic content.
b. share your content (hopefully people love it!)
c. get some quick wins/backlinks by reaching out to website owners that you actually know. Ask them if they can link back to your home page.
d. then start reaching out to relevant website/blog owners that you don’t know and seeing if they’d like to link to some of your recent blog content.

Backlinks are one of the most important factors for increasing your search engine rankings, not just your local seo rankings. Some people will pay 1000’s of dollars for a single backlink. I don’t recommend doing this because it is against Google’s rules but it just goes to show how powerful and valuable backlinks are. So definitely do this step!

Final Thoughts

So there you have it, your Local SEO Checklist. The easiest and quickest way to get your business found on Google in the next few days, is by creating a Google Business Listing.

Imagine telling your friends to Google ‘your business name’ and seeing it on the first page. Boom! 🙂

Then do the rest to get your actual website found online and climbing the rankings.

Got any questions? Comment below.

The post 8 Point LOCAL SEO Checklist appeared first on Max Jacobs.

Structure Your Site Right

Internal linking structure – which pages are linked to which others, and how they’re linked – is an important part of working your way up the results list for any search, including local ones. Done right, it even makes your site easier to use for customers, which means more sales and better reviews.

There are several guides on how to do this well, but for most companies, it’s best to make your priorities known to your website designer and make sure it’s part of the design from the beginning.

Include the Right Information

Some of this is common sense of course, but make sure you don’t miss anything vital.

Where are you?

Dedicated Contact Page with name, address, email and phone number. The smaller you are, the more detailed your information should be. For example, if you have a single location, make sure the whole address is in the footer of each page on your site.

How can they get in touch?

Your site has to be optimized for mobile devices. These are a major – and growing – proportion of search origins. An added benefit of mobile searches is that many of them – more than three-quarters – result in a phone call immediately after the search. Your site should be set up to make that phone call a single-click effort.

How can they find you?

Always include a map. For some, this will be the only way they can find you; for others, it will be a simple way to spot you in an area with which they are familiar. Either way, the point is to get feet into your store, and a map is a great way to make it easy for potential customers.

Make sure your name, address, email and phone number is consistent throughout the website. Special emails for sales or customer support are fine, but make sure the other data is identical (not ‘Street’ on one and ‘St.’ on another, for example).

If you have multiple locations, include a page dedicated to that, with active maps for each one.

Testimonials work

Google considers a testimonials link a sign of trustworthiness in a website or company. These can be paid ones, or those you’ve picked from your comments box. The best ones are always the real ones. You don’t have to include anything negative, but make sure they are genuine.

Schema

Haven’t heard of this? You aren’t alone.

Schema was invented to allow major search engine to share a common language. The correct schema communicates facts about your business to all of the major search engines. It will indicate that you are, in fact, a local business, for example, and not a multinational chain stealing the top line of the search for brand awareness.

You can develop your site’s schema here, or trust it to your website professional.

Social Media

Though this can be daunting for some, it is important to keep at least a basic presence on platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook, and if appropriate, Trip Advisor. Local review sites are also important.

Google My Business is the top dog here, because the world’s most popular search engine (Google) can verify the information there better than it can for other platforms.

Social media and (especially) review sites are important not only in order to engage with customers who use these sites, but also because Google often places review sites just under the initial three results on a list. This means that you could get onto the top three spots and have an additional mention just below them, complete with review stars. Set it up right and you potential customers’ first impression of your company will be one of trust.

Blogging

Because it’s a job that needs to be done on a regular basis, blogging is often neglected. Neglected at your search-engine peril, however, as this fresh content – especially if it is quality content – shows really well to a search engine.

Links to your blog (or citations in other blogs) mean links to your company’s website, which means a rise in the search rankings. A good blog will include local place names, references to other local companies, news, and events. Sponsoring events and covering them in your blog also helps generate these links and traffic – and all of that helps with search result rankings.

Your blog shouldn’t be a list of your products or descriptions, in fact avoid that. Instead, try to give some benefit to the reader. Get some real value in there that you give to them for free. That will keep the traffic flowing, the contact fresh, and the search benefits high.

Every new blog entry is a new blip on a search engine’s radar, so a regular blog can add up to a big return over time.

Maintenance

Finally, make sure that past work on your site is still working for you – not against you. Services like Whitespark Local Citation Finder, Moz Local, Screaming Frog, Buzzstream, and Ahrefs can help you keep an eye on where you’re linked up to other sites, which sites are linked up to you, and whether or not you have any errors – like the frustrating 404 – that might put customers off and harm your SEO quality.

Summary

Whether you tackle these jobs yourself, or hire a professional to make and monitor your site for you, it is important to ensure that each of these factors has been considered. Local business is the best kind, and making sure your place is found at the top of the list is an important – but very doable – part of maintaining an effective presence on the web.

The post Grow Your Small Business With Local SEO appeared first on Max Jacobs.

When we hear the term ‘Website Maintenance’, we often don’t know what to think. What is it? Why do we need it? What does it do?

Like getting your car serviced, it is an easy thing to ignore. As long as nothing goes obviously wrong, it is easy to think that everything is in excellent shape. If we don’t take steps to pre-empt problems though, by the time we detect them, there are often serious consequences.

We’ve compiled a short list of the issues and the business benefits of website maintenance to ensure your online house is in order.

If any part of your business relies on a website, these are issues you’ll want to know about.

1. Security Measures + Security Scans

Those who want to steal your data are always innovating. WordPress is always taking steps to protect you against their attacks. It’s an arms race between good and evil, legitimate business and crime, and it all hinges on your site being updated and current.

By regularly updating security measures and scanning for any breaches, you protect yourself and your customers from those who would steal important data like credit card information, customer names and addresses, and confidential business details.

2. Performance Monitoring + Optimisation

Our tolerance for delay on the Internet is almost zero. We want sites to load instantly, and a wait of three seconds is enough for us to think a site is dysfunctional, or substandard. And well… it is.

In addition, by making sure your site kicks back the requested pages and data in the blink of an eye, you know that you’re getting the upload and download speeds you’re paying your provider for, and that your site is optimised to use as little of your bandwidth as possible. Fast and efficient. That’s a message your customers can appreciate. It’s a message we can help you deliver.

3. Monitoring Website Uptime

If a website goes down, it’s the same as if a tornado picks up your store and drops it in Oz… it’s effectively gone. Non-existent.

To prevent this, 24-hour monitoring is recommended. You or your maintenance provider can solve the problem, but only once you know there is one. An Aussie site, down all night, means that the American customers had a day without access, just an error page. So much for making money while you sleep!

We offer 24/7 monitoring, and know immediately if there is a problem.

4. Daily Backups

Important information is kept on your site. If something goes wrong and it’s lost, the consequences can be substantial. Imagine making a contact for a major contract and losing it due to a crash. Even if you know the potential client’s contact information, calling them to get the details again, before the contract is even signed? It can kill a big deal right there. Your customers and partners need to know they can trust you with their financial and other information.

It doesn’t make sense to keep only one copy in only one place.

By backing up your data, we remove the risk of having to start all over again. Your customer lists, product information, and other data is not at risk.

5. Scanning for Broken Links

Another event that deflates our sense of a high-quality site, is a 404 message. This comes up when we click for information and the link doesn’t go anywhere. It’s broken. Now, the customer’s anticipation of seeing that great product, or of receiving that key information, is deflated. They instead stare a dead end in the face. In most cases, that’s enough for them to move on to another site.

With dozens, hundreds, or thousands of links on your site, some may be broken. Find them. Fix them. We can help.

6. Audience and Visitor Analytics

The best way to make your marketing money hit the mark is to know exactly what’s working and who is responding. Moving resources from areas that are making little or no impact to areas that are generating solid leads and sales? That’s a no-brainer. But it’s only possible if you have access to that information. Audience and visitor analytics is where to find it.

We get this information and make sure you understand what it means.

7. SEO Ranking Analytics

The Web is a big place, and getting to the top of a list of 100,000,000 results is an important part of online marketing. We can help get you to the top of those lists, and keep you there from week to week. Getting businesses found online is what we do best.

8. Updating Software

WordPress is an innovative company, and software updates, theme updates, and plugin updates are released regularly – sometimes quite rapidly. These updates are mix of security updates and functionality updates. To keep your site secure and running at its best, updates should be made every week.

Returning to our car servicing analogy, this is the equivalent of making sure the tyre pressure is right, checking the oil, and filling up the windscreen washer fluid. Little jobs that are easy to overlook or procrastinate, but that keep your site secure, looking sharp and functioning well as technology advances.

9. Support

New products? Find a typo? Ready for an overhaul of your look or structure? Those are big jobs to take on by yourself – especially alongside running your business day-to-day. Having someone on hand to take that burden on can help a lot, and ensure that it gets done quickly and well.

10. Weekly Maintenance Reports

No one likes to pay for a service and never be sure if that service is being done. You’ll also want to be made aware of any problems that occurred and were solved, or any potential issues that you might want to consider to increase sales or open up new marketing opportunities.

When we cover maintenance for our clients, we provide a weekly report that details everything done in the previous week and, where applicable, strategies or intentions for the week to come.

We’re Here to Help

Like with servicing your car, some people learn how to maintain their own WordPress website. Others, who either lack the desire, expertise or the time to do it themselves, hire others to make sure small, inexpensive problems don’t turn in larger, more expensive ones.

If you would like to discuss how we can help you ensure that your site is secure, up to date and always running smoothly, feel free to reach out. Please view our website maintenance plans or send us a message if you have any questions.

The post 10 Business Benefits of Website Maintenance appeared first on Max Jacobs.

Gone are the days when some companies had a web presence and others didn’t. Even companies that don’t do online commerce (and even these are rare now) still have an information hub online – and that means a website setup.

But not all website setups are equal, and not all of them suit the same set of needs. If your company is a small business, but hopes to grow into a bigger one, then you’ll need something that fits the limitations of a smaller outfit, but has the ability to scale with your success.

But how is that best achieved? Do you spend money on a professional build? How much? Do you do it yourself? Do you have the time? The know-how?

Don’t worry. There is a solution out there that is right for you, and it is easier to find than you think.

Template-Style Sites: The right pick for you?

There are a lot of ads out there for template-style, do-it-yourself website generators. These use a template to start, and have some customisation features to brand the site and make it do what you want – in most cases.

For a lot of small businesses, these sites are enough, but if your dream is to grow your company, and you don’t want to have to switch up your website in the process – especially if you’ve invested time and money into getting it ‘just right’ in the first place – then some choices are better than others. Let’s look at a few.

SquareSpace, WIX, and GoDaddy

Each of these has its strengths and weaknesses, but in general, they are designed for the complete novice. One attractive feature for many users is that they require no coding. In fact, inserting custom coding can sometimes interfere with the site working properly, and can cause problems that the companies are not willing to help you with – it’s kind of like opening up your iPhone to try to fix something yourself: Once you do it, your warranty is void.

The sites are quick to set up, can include eCommerce features, online support, and they look pretty good fresh out of the box. In most cases, the cost isn’t too bad either.

The problem is that they have limitations on the degree to which they can be customised, so sites tend to look a bit ‘samey,’ and changing up your template can mean losing all of your formatting and style work.

Balancing your Time, Money and Expertise

If you are a small player now, but want your company to grow, there is an option out there that gives you the versatility you need, without requiring a computer science degree – or a lot of money spent on IT specialists – to get you up and running with impressive style and reliable function: consider WordPress.

WordPress

Just in case you think these are empty words of praise, consider this: WordPress is currently used for 32% of ALL WEBSITES on the Internet. That’s right, about a third of all websites use WordPress – and that number is growing. Their market dominance means that WordPress isn’t going away, and will be there to support you in your business endeavours.

So why the dominance?

WordPress does provide templates (called ‘Themes’) to get you started, and you don’t need to be able to code to use them. In this sense, WordPress isn’t a lot different from those other providers.

The difference is that WordPress is designed to go further. It is designed to allow for professional website design and building if the money and the need are there. It is also designed to let you build your own site when you’re small and struggling, and then bring in pros later on – if you need them – to build in special features and increase the wow factor.

In short, it allows for you to apply as little, or as much effort as you want, so you can allocate your time, money, and expertise to those places you feel they will be most effective. If that assessment changes, your WordPress site can change with you.

Best of all, the service won’t break the bank.

The Backup Team

The website itself isn’t all you need. Most template-based sites include hosting, so it looks like a single product, even though it is a bundling of services. With WordPress though, you can choose your hosting service, which means you can tailor that to your needs too, taking advantage of premium hosting services that can benefit your company and help it to grow.

Premium Hosting

Premium hosting benefits include faster site speed, better security, more automation and control in terms of WordPress updates, and world class customer support. Let’s consider a couple of the best ones.

My Recommendations

Simple Websites

If have a relatively simple and static website (like this one), go with the entry level plan from Kinsta.

WooCommerce Websites

If you run a WooCommerce store, I recommend using something tailored to Woo stores like WooCart.

Budget Websites

If you are on a budget but still want high performance, I recommend using Cloudways. You can pick between Google Cloud, Amazon, VULTR, Linode and Digital Ocean servers. I recommend going with a VULTR High Frequency (HF) server.

HUGE websites that get millions of visitors

If you have a highly dynamic website that requires lots of resources then check out Pagely. However, if you truly can’t afford Pagely, then I highly recommend JohnnyVPS. They can likely handle any website regardless of size, traffic and resource requirements. Johnny from JohnnyVPS is the definition of a performance expert. Check out my review of their services.

Just so you know I use Kinsta and love it! I use them because they are all about performance. Kinsta uses the highest performance C2 machines from Google Cloud. Unlike other hosting providers (e.g. SiteGround) that only use Google’s general purpose machines. Their plans are a little more expensive though. But worth because everything is done for you. Unlike Cloudways that requires a little bit of tech know-how.

I also recommend Cloudways, which I still use to spin up concept websites and play around. Cloudways is also performance focused with access to cloud hosting providers including: Amazon, VULTR, Linode, Digital Ocean and Google Cloud. Cloudways is cheaper than Kinsta but you need to know or at least feel comfortable with a little sysadmin.

Check out my full list of recommended WordPress hosting providers.

Your Web Support Arsenal

By using WordPress as your platform, you build your web presence on a solid foundation of security, simple construction, and all the versatility that you need to grow – when you need it.

Website Setup Summary

Setting your small business up with a robust, high-quality online presence doesn’t need to be intimidating, difficult, or expensive.

By choosing the right tools, early on, you’ll be able to have what you require now, and to develop it while allocating your time, money, and expertise as best suits you and your company.

This website setup can grow and change as your needs do, and you won’t need to change platforms, hosts, or any other tools to support your growth. It’s the market’s best offering for those small business owners with the ambition to become big business owners.

The post The Best Website Setup for Small Businesses with Big Dreams appeared first on Max Jacobs.

Some things are obvious. You lock your car when you head into the office. You lock your business when you head home. You don’t give the general public unsupervised access to your files, accounts, or products.

Good policies? Absolutely.

When extending these to your company website though, it gets a bit more complicated. The nature of the crime is different, the ability to spot it is different, and the consequences can be far more severe.

The Nature of Cybercrime

If someone breaks into your warehouse, you’ll know it. There will be a damaged lock or door, and goods will be missing. There might even be malicious damage to property.

Cybercrime is different. There are instances when the criminal will be very obvious, but others when you won’t even know you’ve been breached for years to come… or ever.

Obvious Cybercrime

You’ve probably heard of businesses turning on computers in the morning only to find that they have been infected by ransomware. These programs are set up to delete (or publicise) data at a certain time unless money is sent to an account provided. Often the amount demanded increases hour by hour. Many companies pay the demanded money immediately, as the potential loss to business finances and customer trust would be devastating.

Secret Cybercrime

There is another type of cybercrime, however, and it is on the increase at an even faster rate. This type of crime depends on secrecy – not only during the criminal act, but for as long as possible afterwards.

The object of these attacks is to gather as much customer information as possible, without having been detected. The data is then sold for various reasons. Some is used for corporate espionage and trading advantages, but far more often it is the identities of the customers that is the most valuable commodity.

By ‘identities,’ I mean not only the names, but the personal data that come along with them. If a criminal can get a genuine name, coupled with personal information such as passwords, identification numbers, birth date, banking information, and a whole host of other seemingly-mundane bits of data, then that criminal has something valuable to sell. The longer they can use those identities in secret, the more valuable the data become.

It is estimated that most stolen data is not used for two to five years after a breach has occurred. If the breach is undetected or unreported, your customers might be victimised without even knowing – for years. If it comes out later that the breach occurred through your company, the company you’ve spend years building and growing, the consequences can be devastating to you as well.

Small Fish versus Big Fish

Some small businesses fall into the error of thinking that they are too small to be a target. In reality, small companies tend to have more breaches in their online systems, and are less likely to detect breaches, so they are a rich mine for ill-intended hackers.

Likewise, it isn’t the wealthy or famous customer these identity thieves are after. The most valuable identities belong to people who are less active in finance, and who own fewer belongings. The data (identities) of children, for example, are far more valuable than the data (identities) of millionaires or billionaires. The criminal will have years to build and exploit illegal use of those less visible identities before detection.

Loss of Reputation and Revenue

Of course none of us wants to be the reason someone else is victimised, or to be the connecter between a criminal and a victim. It would feel bad, and trigger intense empathy. Leaving that aside though, and looking at things from a purely business-centric point of view, there are other consequences that damage the company and create a victim of it, too.

If a car becomes known for exploding on impact, people will stop buying it. If someone tampers with a certain medication and people become sick, or die from it, people stop trusting it. If an executive embezzles and customers lose their life savings, whole companies can buckle.

If we don’t trust a company, we will go elsewhere.

The loss of reputation and trust incurred in the aftermath of a cybercrime can cost you more than an empathy-driven sleepless night or two; it can mean the loss of your business entirely.

SSL Certification

This is one of those things that many Internet users have seen, but relatively few understand. What is an SSL certificate, and why should your company have one?

What is an SSL Certificate?

An SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate is really just a small file that activates a secure link between your site, and each user. It works by encrypting the information that flows to and from your site, making it extremely difficult to understand the information passed between you, even if it is intercepted in some way.

There are three levels of SSL certificates, and the one you need depends on your business. Your provider or tech advisor can help you determine which one to get.

Why do you need an SSL Certificate?

Not only is this a very real kind of protection for you, your company and your customers, it also sends out a clear signal that you take security seriously. Some browsers warn users away from sites without a secure connection, or with improperly-configured SSL certificates. If you want to ensure the free flow of customers to your site, and to let them know it is a safe place to do business, then an SSL certificate is a must. They increase your customers’ confidence in you, and discourage would-be thieves from hacking your system. Not to mention the SEO penalty you will face if you don’t have an SSL certificate installed, which is obviously no good when it comes to SEO for your small business.

The User as a System Component

Most people accept that cybercrime is a problem. Diligent business owners will even take steps and spend money to ensure that their online presence and interactions are protected against criminals to the best of their ability and resources. There is, however, one aspect of site security that is often overlooked, and undertrained: the user.

It’s best to think of your employees as extensions of your online presence. The ability for a criminal to contact your employees can act as a way past your firewalls and even the best efforts at making your system secure can break down if your employees don’t know safe practices in using it.

To keep the hardware and software components from presenting a breach opportunity, make sure all software (applications and security software) is fully up to date. Turn systems off when they don’t need to be on, and maintain regular backups of all data. Monthly or quarterly is often recommended.

Most of the employee precautions are simple – if you take the time to train your personnel.

• Don’t open emails that appear to be spam
• Don’t download anything that you don’t recognise or expect
• Don’t sign in to anything directly through an email link
• Use a strong password
• Change your passwords every two to three months

The Team in White Hats

The community of cyber criminals is highly motivated, active and constantly adapting to get around new security measures. The global nature and reach of online connectivity means that jurisdiction over and suppression of these crimes is difficult in many cases, and currently impossible in others. It’s the wild west out there, and the best way to keep the guys in black hats away is to maintain your own team of good guys.

You may not be an expert in keeping your system secure, but the combination of diligence and preparation, with the expertise of your tech provider and online security products, can form the wall that keeps you and your customers from being victims.

A criminal who faces these defence measures may simply move on to easier targets – and your efforts will be successful.

So, is your business website secure?

Hopefully that explains the importance of website security.

Got a question? Comment below.

The post The Importance of Website Security for Your Small Business appeared first on Max Jacobs.

Changing Times

I had the difficult job, a couple of years ago, to convince a group of franchisees to change the structure of their businesses. These people were successful, had been running their branches of the company for decades in some cases and – perhaps unsurprisingly – my words fell mostly on deaf ears, even when backed by data and trends. The younger people were on board, and ready to make changes that made sense to them. Many of the older ones, however, were not.

The difficult part of the situation is that the strategies and principles these people used, had worked for thirty or more years, and were still working.

But less so each year.

They blamed the economy for the decreases, and in that they were right, but it wasn’t a depression in the economy that was causing the dip in their sales – it was the astronomical rise of eCommerce, and the emergence of a new generation of consumer.

The New Consumers

We’ve all heard of Millennials, by now. Most people even know that the term refers to people born after about 1981 (a little later in more rural areas) and before about 1996. After them, are the post-millennials. All of these people, everyone born after about 1981, are what we call digital natives.

Digital natives are people who have never known the world without easy access to the Internet. It’s as familiar to them as a pencil and paper are to their elders. These individuals have a lot of similarities to generations before them – they want to look good, feel good, be entertained and educated, fill their homes with beautiful and useful items, and be able to communicate and maintain close relationships.

The difference is not primarily in what they want, but in the delivery system they choose to use, and to which they have developed strong attachments. The new consumers stream entertainment on laptops, tablets or phones. They store books digitally and buy most items online – using a phone to do so, more than laptops, and way more than desktops, which are becoming rare outside of the workplace.

There is no fear of making purchases on the Internet, and a lower drive to shop in brick and mortar shops, sometimes amounting to an outright aversion. These consumers are happy to have robots pack and ship products to them, and even to interact with robots online – known as chat-bots. Many users can’t even tell it is a robot helping them with customer service, and most who can tell, don’t mind.

In general, just over half of the market – and this is growing – is comprised of people who shop primarily online, and when they do visit a brick-and-mortar store, it’s not for the products – it’s for the experience and the social interaction. There are exceptions on both sides of course, but in general, the goods people buy are similar, but the way they buy and consume them has changed.

The Market Shift

Perhaps you’ve already done the math, but the older Millennials are now in their thirties and forties, with the majority of the Post-Millennial generation well into their twenties. They’re earning more. They’re having kids and building families and family homes. In other words, they’re taking on an increasing share of the consumer market, while their parents’ generation – still a significant portion of consumers – is steadily shrinking in size and in many cases decreasing their consumption due to a decrease in income.

Many who are financially well off are adapting to the new market along with the younger generations. It is not uncommon now to see a senior on a smartphone, and many have tablets. This often starts as an easy way to keep in touch with grandchildren, but once the technology barrier is broken, and the associated anxiety is somewhat relieved, other uses follow. Technology companies have begun taking elderly users more seriously as a potential market, tailoring hardware and software to the needs of older users. Many age-old business principles are teetering, and it is anyone’s guess when a given one may fall. Some already have.

We are not in a digital economy yet – but we’re no longer in the old one either.

The Razor’s Edge

As a business owner, you are in a difficult time. The scales have been heavy on the side of the Baby Boomers and Generation X, but it is now balanced out by the net-savvy, data-hungry, and famously impatient Millennial and Post-Millennial generations.

The older crowd often wants the brick and mortar store. They want to call on a phone and have a human being – a local one – pick up on the other end of the line. They want personal interaction and they want to see someone’s face when they hand their cash or card over the counter.

The Millennials want online purchasing from their mobile phone and same-day or overnight delivery. They want to bring up an FAQ or chat window to answer their questions, not to be bothered talking to some stranger on the phone. They want privacy from interaction, but have no hesitation in using a PayPal account or other online payment system.

Your job, as a merchant in the new millennium, is to either keep both happy, or abandon the one in favour of the other. If you abandon the older crowd, you alienate a significant portion of the buying public. If you abandon the younger consumer, the sales you made this year are probably going to be the highest you’ll ever make, as your target market dwindles away in the face of relentless time.

Abandoning either one means lopping off the top of the profit graph, and for most businesses, that would be crippling or fatal to the bottom line. Your job? Ride the razor’s edge between the two sides of the digital revolution, with a strategy to follow the growth where it happens.

Why this is Difficult

The reason this is such a difficult thing to do comes back to that job I had, convincing successful business people that what they’ve been doing, and what has worked, needs to change. You may be at the head of your company or department. You may be the decision-maker that can put into place what needs to be there to ride this transition through – but that doesn’t solve the problem.

Each industry, and each niche within it, will have unique needs. Some things will stay the same as they are now, some will need to change right away, and others can wait a bit. You’ll bear the burden of convincing stakeholders (owners, management, employees, and even existing customers) that what you’re doing will improve your business in the years to come.

You’ll need to implement things that you don’t need yet, because you will need them, and by the time you do, it will be too late to implement them cost-effectively and without negative PR. You’ll need to decrease focus on things that have been working, and shift it to things that will also work, but are set to grow, rather than shrink.

Finally, you’ll need to do all of this in an environment of risk, balancing income and outlay, and there is no clear instruction manual that will lay it out for you. In short, you’ll need to be nimble, agile, and open-minded.

The Digital Revolution, like any toppling of an older regime, brings with it chaos, unexpected twists and turns, and an uncomfortable uncertainty. What is certain though, is that the revolution is upon us, and profound change is on the doorstep.

Are you ready?

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