In Information Technology, the Principle of Least Privilege means that people should have only the level of access and capability that they truly need. When people can access more info than they need, or have abilities that they don't need, there's a greater potential that they'll cause damage (accidentally or deliberately). Also, never underestimate the […]
Imagine you have a fancy new website with striking design, spot-on SEO and all the bells and whistles. Now what? Your gut is telling you to leave the site alone … it’s working perfectly, right? Wrong! Not doing anything to your site after it launches is one of the biggest mistakes a website owner can […]
Businesses often make incorrect assumptions about their websites that hurt their online success, and in turn, hurt their business. I'm reading the book Duct Tape Marketing (an excellent marketing guide for small businesses), and it has a list of common assumptions that I recognize from my conversations with businesses. Let's look at these assumptions and why they're […]
Are you making mistakes with your small business website? Business websites exist to sell, directly or indirectly. Small businesses often lose sight of that, and make mistakes with the content, design, marketing, and technical aspects of their sites. Learn how to fix these mistakes so your site delivers business results. I gave this presentation, Website […]
I'm going to show you how to optimize your images in WordPress for SEO and accessibility. Optimizing images for SEO (search engine optimization) contributes towards the SEO of your page and site. Optimizing images for accessibility makes it easier for the visually impaired to understand the images you're using even though they can't see them. […]
How do you come up with content for your website? Whether you're creating a new website or revising your current one, the content (text, images, video, etc.) is the most important part. People visit your website for the content, not for the design or functionality. In working with our clients, we've found that this process works […]
I'm going to show you how to use keywords in links, which makes them better for readers and SEO (search engine optimization). Each link has anchor text, which is the text you click to follow the link. For example, in the link the OptimWise blog, "the OptimWise blog" is the anchor text. First, let's look at a […]
Sliders (AKA carousels or rotators) have become incredibly popular on WordPress websites, and websites in general. Sliders commonly display images, but can also display text and video. They are frequently used on home pages, but can appear on any page. More often than not, clients ask us to put them on their sites. The problem […]
"What does a small business website need?" This was one of the many questions asked at the Small Business Tech Panel at the Warehaüs, a coworking space in Holland, Michigan in March 2014. Here's an expanded version of the answer I gave. The items (in no particular order) are as follows: Effective content (text, images, video) Too […]
When I talk to small business clients about creating or redesigning their websites, I usually encourage them to include a blog. Many reply with, "We don't see why we need one," or, "We don't have anything to write about," or, "We don't have time for that." I then proceed to describe the many benefits of […]
I led a WordPress for Small Business Websites Q&A panel at WordCamp Grand Rapids 2013. We discussed goals, strategy, content, analytics, speed and performance, social media, SEO, and generally making sites effective. Below is a video of the panel discussion, followed by paraphrased versions of the questions asked by the audience. I'm so thankful for […]
I've been changing the permalink structure for WordPress sites to simply postname, and you can do the same! I'll show you how to generate the redirects you need. In the past, I've configured WordPress to use the permalink structure Day and Name, which formats the URLs for posts as /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/. Although I knew that a […]
