This month has been a whirlwind of moving and balancing client/business work with seeking new web design and SEO projects. It has also felt heavy every time I see the news. In these times I try to find the bright spots — going outside for a walk, or looking for the good. This poem was one of those bright spots.
“I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and I thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate—once the crying of confusion stopped—seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too. This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.”
My greatest delight every October: getting to attend my parents’ fall party, a tangible example of the world I want to live in. This gathering of close friends has been going on for 45 (!) years. One of my favorite things about it is how everyone pitches in to clean the kitchen, put out sandwich makings, take out the trash, build the fire. I’m lucky to get to be a part of this community.
Monthly Tip: Add a few more pages to your basic website to boost your search impressions.
A year and a half ago I built a brochure website for a realtor. I built the website with my standard SEO best practices but we didn’t do any additional SEO work on the site.
In late June I worked with this client to create some standard pages that make sense to have on a realtor website — things like recommended home inspectors and info on new luxury developments. Since creating those very basic pages, website impressions have gone up and stayed up.
What we can take away from this: in general, the more related content you publish on your website, the better for your number of impressions. Even if this type of content has all been published before. Even if you’re not optimizing each of these new pages with search in mind. Even if they’re quick things you throw up on your website.
Clicks and average position for this website have improved since then too, but not nearly the increase that impressions saw. While the big jump in impressions is good… clicks, average position, and average click through rate are what we’d rather have in terms of getting more eyes on this website. But we can use this data to be strategic about what we do next on the website.
Google Search Console (GSC) makes it easy to see things like this at a glance. You can compare year over year (good for businesses with big seasonal changes) or to the previous period, and once you know what you’re looking for it can be a really helpful tool. It’s far more helpful in my opinion than the new Google Analytics/GA4 mess.
If you aren’t using GSC yet and want to figure it out, I created a Google Search Console 101 course for $49 that takes just an hour or two to get through. It’ll get you up to speed on everything you need to know. Learn more.
Website & SEO Updates from Around the Web
Google on what to do about 404 errors in Search Console
Google Search Console errors feel scary to receive. If you have a lot of 404 errors, check to make sure those aren’t pages that shouldn’t be 404s but leave them as-is if they are.
34 predictions for social media marketing in 2024
Surprise, surprise… AI appears many times!
The best time to send an email
Spoiler alert – there’s no hard and fast rule, so do what works best for you within reason.
The first tip is a great reminder: improve the content you’ve already written and published on your website.
New website accessibility guidelines are here
I’ll share more on this in the coming months, but this is a helpful (albeit technical) overview of what’s new in website accessibility recommendations.
SEO & site migrations: common pitfalls to avoid (podcast)
If you’re going to build a new website for yourself or move to another platform and SEO is important to you, it’s best to work with a website/SEO expert to make sure you don’t tank your existing rankings. But at the bare minimum, listen to this podcast episode before migrating.
Instagram is testing a feed that will only show posts from paying users
The only constant is change, huh? It’ll be interesting to see how changes like this impact the ever-evolving world of Meta ads that many small businesses rely on.
From My Blog: How Graphic Designer Margo Stoney Brings Accessibility Into Her Work
I’ve loved seeing my friend Margo of High Mountain Creative share about her accessibility journey in her graphic design business. It’s something I wish more graphic designers were aware of and talking about.
I got to chat with Margo recently about her accessibility journey — how it has changed her processes, how she learned more about accessibility, and why it matters to her. Read more on my blog.