A BIG misconception about SEO that drives me crazy

Not sure why anyone would think once you achieve a good rank on Google or Bing that now you're all set. Search engine positioning is a trial and error endeavor. Believe me, success is transitory. If you're on the top today, that's likely going to change tomorrow. Your ranking can often change as much as every hour!

Maintaining top position requires CONSTANT tweaks. And nothing is guaranteed... so if someone tells you they can guarantee your website a top ranking, they simply cannot control the search engines.

BTW, I think that's a good thing! If someone figured out the secret formula to getting and keeping a top ranking, Google would write code to change that.

The game is changing every day. Pay attention... and make your content relevant to your visitors.

And with Squarespace's SEO friendly websites, it makes it really easy to keep your site fresh.

Funny

Source: thedailywh.at via Kimi on Pinterest

Beware of the MX Records

I love launching a new website. Even though it's usually so anticlimactic after weeks of working on a trial Squarespace account, when we move over the URL, and everything is working sweet, it makes everyone happy.

Before I go into change any code or settings, and before the Cname is changed, I always ask a series of questions. One of the questions is "where is your email hosted?" The reason I ask this is because email is separate from your website hosting at Squarespace.

I also recommend moving a URL during off hours... like on a weekend, holiday or late at night. That's because stuff happens. And no one will be happy if their website is down, or their email.

How fun it was to launch the Cuyahoga County Board of Health's website last weekend. I'd been working on that website for months, training the staff to keep the content fresh, recording training videos, and learning about bed bugs and west nile virus and other creepy things. :-)

Not to mention, getting to work with an awesome, dedicated, and great group of professionals. I really loved this project... and that they had selected me!! unanimously from all the other Squarespace developers that applied for the project. How cool was that?

Well, this blog post is about MX records, and how scary they can be. So, as usual, I have digressed. Back to MX Records.

The staff I was working with went the extra mile and worked on their weekend. We moved the site over within moments. It was easy peasy. Everything seemed to be working great!

But, as luck would have it, the MX records we thought were current, were not. So their email was down for about 2 hours. The place that hosted their email eventually answered our distress call, and set us up with the more current records and order was restored.

A happy ending to what could have been potentially disastrous. So, a word to the wise, double check those MX Records IF your email has the same URL as your website.

URL TRANSLATION:

www.istheURLname.com

(p.s. if you don't know what an MX Record is, don't worry about it. As long as you know who you pay for your email hosting, the email hosting place is going to handle your MX Records.)

Practicing and preaching

I need to come clean. I've started countless blogs. Wordpress, Blogger, Squarespace. I think the first blog I started was so far in the past, they hadn't even figured out what to call it yet. Web logs, as I recall.

But I've only ever posted a few random thoughts, using the media as something like a rant on a topic of the moment.

I've been noticing lately most every client asks me how to get better SEO. So I always include having a blog in my list of things that are working today. (Observe today's date versus date of this blog... blog effectiveness could change next week, but it's still working nicely as of today.)

I've been using other people's blogs to educate myself on quite a few topics lately. And since I spend hours writing to my clients individually on a variety of web related topics, it's high time I shared the things that I know work with Squarespace websites, and more.

Since I've been so busy with client projects and holiday hoopla the past few months, I haven't had a chance to work on my website... and I've noticed a difference in my ranking as a result of my lack of effort posting new content.

For most of last year, I'd been on Google's first page, right at the top of the page... purely "organically". As a small business, I can tell you it's exhilarating to see your website first for your particular service.

But it takes work to get there. You can always hire someone to "work" the social media for you. And anyone can do it. Just be prepared to get very busy once you start using social media.

How to avoid an S.O.S. to your web developer

Last week, one of my favorite clients emailed me with a urgent distress call! Their website went funky during an edit session.

While we were developing their website months ago, I had recorded a selection of "how to" videos on this topic. They had been successful with other edits, so they were feeling confident.

I asked them what the last thing they were doing before the page turned funky. (The entire page now looked completely wonky.)

After a little investigative work, I found it was a very simple, accidental deletion of important code. Whew! So easy to do.

This is not the first time I've received a distress call with this type of emergency. I've done it myself. It happens so easily... your stomach flips upside down. It's a horrible feeling.

So now I'm on the bandwagon for all my clients! Listen! Grab the HTML code in the text editor and either drop it into Notepad, Text Editor or copy and paste it into a duplicate, hidden page on your website.

It will save your day. And that goes for your custom CSS, too. Always save a backup. Personally, I like to keep at least one or two backup templates of the same code... work on just one of them, and regularly copy and paste anything new I've added.

Heed my warning! If somebody has to fix it for you, it's going to cost you.