Posts by Amy Masson
There’s no such thing as a hack-proof website
Nobody wants their site to be hacked. But one myth that we all need to let go is that there is something you can do that will make it 100% impossible for someone to hack into your website. The only 100% effective way to not be hacked is to not have a website. If there…
Read MorePage Speed Matters
Is your site slow? If so, it’s a bigger issue than ever before. Last weekend I attended WordCamp US and one of the big sessions that was standing room only was a talk called “A View from Google: The Latest in Search and Mobile” by Maile Ohye. Unlike many of the speakers at WordCamp, Maile isn’t…
Read MoreEncryption is not the same as security
There’s been a lot of talk about SSL lately, mostly because next year Google Chrome is going to start showing alerts in the browser on unencrypted sites. But they’ve been pushing for encryption for two years now. It’s been a ranking factor in their search algorithm for two years and now even WordPress is pushing for…
Read MoreThis one time at WordCamp
I love WordCamp. This weekend, I had the opportunity to go to the second annual WordCamp US, and it was fantastic. What is WordCamp? WordCamp is a conference that’s all about WordPress. They have smaller ones all over the country all the time. I’ve been to them in Las Vegas, Chicago, Columbus, and Boston, as…
Read MoreWhat’s a CDN and should you use one?
CDN stands for Content Delivery Network. It’s basically a network of servers that deliver static content from websites to users based on their geographic location. So let me break this down for you to try to make it more clear, because it can be confusing. When you go to a website like sumydesigns.com, that website…
Read MoreHow Google AdWords Bidding Works
Getting started using Google AdWords can be really daunting and confusing. Luckily, we’re here to help you out. One of the things people get most confused about is keyword bidding. What is keyword bidding? When ads are set up in Google, you select your keyword phrases. These are the terms that you hope will trigger…
Read MoreHow to easily convert your documents into other formats
This actually comes up quite a bit. People send me doc files but want them on their website in PDF and don’t know how to create a PDF. Well, I have a secret method of convert documents. I can convert many documents – PowerPoint to PDF, JPG to PDF, Excel to PDF, Word to PDF.…
Read MoreCommon mistakes preventing you from getting sales in your online store
We don’t do a ton of e-commerce, but we do some. And one of the things people want to know is, how do I get sales? Or why am I not getting sales? And what I want to let everyone know first and foremost is this: It’s probably your fault. I don’t mean to be…
Read MoreHow to protect your content
We’ve had a problem for the last couple of years. Lots of people apparently love our content so much that they choose to use it on their own websites. None of them ask us first, or give us credit, but they post it as their own. It’s frustrating. It was a year or so ago…
Read MoreMaking the Most of Yoast
If you have a WordPress site, and we made it for you, then there’s a good chance you are using the Yoast SEO plugin. It’s a great plugin, and really has a lot of great options for helping you to optimize your site for the search engines. What I really want to do today is…
Read MoreIt’s time to encrypt your website.
A few years ago, I wrote a blog post when Google announced they were going to start using SSL as a ranking factor for searches. At the time, most sites didn’t use an SSL and the ones that did were usually e-commerce or other type of site collecting sensitive data. At the time, it seemed…
Read MoreMake sure your important content isn’t hidden on mobile
I always do what my Google overlords tell me to do. It’s important if you want people to be able to find your site. A few years ago we had “Mobilegeddon,” which is when Google starting giving a more favorable rank to sites that are mobile-friendly. And this is important, because more and more people…
Read MoreLet’s Talk about Landing Pages
First, what is a landing page? A landing page is a specific page about a topic or subject on your website that you want to direct website traffic to for one specific reason. Why might you need a landing page? I’m glad you asked. There are many times when you might need one. Here are…
Read MoreYou should have a FAQ page on your website.
When I have a question about anything, the first thing I do is open up Google. I’m not alone. But do you remember a time before the Internet, where you would sit and wonder about these questions, without a quick and easy way to find an answer? How a question might be something you have…
Read MoreHow to add users to your WordPress site – the right way
If you have a WordPress site, at some point, there’s a good chance you’ll need to add a user to it. Why? Maybe you’ve got employees who are going to write blog posts, have hired a new developer to give it a facelift or perform routine maintenance. Whatever the reason, you need to give them…
Read MoreHow to do Digital Downloads
This is coming up more and more so I thought I would do a quick post running down your options if you want to offer digital downloads. I’m going to cover three scenarios here. Offering free digital downloads. Selling digital downloads. Selling both physical products as well as digital downloads. Offering Free Digital Downloads on your…
Read MoreDIY Adwords – Great Idea or Disaster in the Making?
“What’s the best place to hide a dead body? Page 2 of Google.” That’s a common SEO joke. Everyone wants to be #1 in Google, but getting there organically is tough. One guaranteed way to get there is through Google Adwords. Google Adwords is an advertising program from Google that allows businesses to display ads…
Read MoreWhat to expect when it comes to SEO
More and more people are coming to us for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and there’s a reason why. We currently rank organically on page one in Google for 30 different web design related keyword phrases. Many of these even land us the #1 spot. Of course, we earned this by doing a lot of hard…
Read MoreHow to make your real estate website work for you
I’ve worked with realtors in buying and selling homes. I have friends and family who are realtors. And I’ve worked on real estate websites. I have some secrets when it comes to your real estate website, and it might surprise you. What makes a real estate website successful? Is it having listings? Is it having…
Read MoreRestaurant Web Design
What does your restaurant website need? I have lots of opinions on restaurant web design. It seems that most restaurants aren’t interested or willing to pay for the cost of having a good website. But the truth is that people do look at restaurant websites, but they do it with a purpose. Restaurant websites are…
Read MoreLet’s talk about link building
Link building is the process of getting your website ranked better by having other sites link to it. That’s the basics. But it’s not quite that simple. The search engines see links to a site as a way to gauge the quality of a site, simply because if other people are linking to it, then…
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