Crisis and Opportunity

Perhaps you remember the adage attributed to JFK “In Chinese language the word for Crisis is made of up the words Danger and Opportunity”. A bit of research shows that that’s not accurate, but whether it’s true in Chinese or not, there’s a grain of truth to it. This ongoing Covid-19 global pandemic  is obviously a crisis of major proportions. So many businesses large and small have shut down, many people are out of work, and all over the world families have lost income. But there are also people that are working overtime keeping us fed, the essential services open, healthcare systems in place, manufacturing needed medical equipment. Then there are the people who buy up limited essentials and then profiteering online.

Buf if you’re situated to pivot to the new business climate, you could maintain or even grow your online business now and in the future. If you provide a physical product, adding an ecommerce function to your site could provide an avenue to sales with low, low overhead costs. If you provide training, entertainment, or public speaking services, a switch to tools like Zoom, Skype, GotoMeeting, or Facebook Live can allow you to reach out and connect with others hungry for social connection. If you’re a crafter, you can offer how to lessons via YouTube. If you’re a chef, online recipes can help guide people struggling to cook something decent at home.

  • How’s your website doing? Maybe you had it built for you a year or two ago, then ignored it. Just like before, it is on duty 24/7 whether you need it or not. Is it working hard for you during this shutdown? Now is the time to think about changes and site improvements.
  • When was the last time your WordPress, Plugins and Themes updated?  I just checked in on mine after several months and I had 25 updates to take care of. Now that they are done, my site is much more secure and healthy. Websites can get viruses, too, you know. It’s nasty when they do.
    A monthly maintenance plan will keep your site updated, secure, fast, and happy. Sign up for yours today.
  • Are your products and services accurate? Is there anything you are offering now in this new business climate that should be added to the site?
  • Be ready for the months ahead. When business comes back there will be pent up demand. And we will all be very busy trying to catch up. Now is the time to think about what website feature you can add now that will make life easier for your customers or clients.
  • Is your site running on WordPress 5 or better? You may need to change to another theme if your theme is over 3 years old or no longer supported. It may still work  — for now — but at some point it will fail or be hacked, which never happens at a convenient time. And then you’ll have to update. Don’t delay. Update today!

Sirius Media has a few openings to address these issues for our existing clients during the month of April with a Pandemic Discount good for 10% off any work done or project contracts signed in the month of April. If I’ve worked on your site in the past, I’d love to offer you a chance to get your site in shape.

Don’t delay. Get Sirius Today!

[bookly-form category_id=”3″ service_id=”3″ hide=”staff_members”]

 

 

Sirius Media Receives a 2019 Best of Portland Award

I know it’s self-promoting fluff, but it’s always nice to receive a bit recognition. I was notified yesterday that Sirius Media was awarded the Best of Portland Award in the category of Web Design and Development by the Best of Portland Awards. This means I am eligible to purchase a lovely wall plaque or free-standing crystal award for my already overcrowded desk. They even put out a press-release on it, even though it says way more

However, I must say I’m very proud of work done in this past year. We gained two new non-profit clients, GLOBIO.org and ChimfunshiUSA.org. Both of which are projects I’m extremely proud of. I got to work with one of my favorite UX mavens, Liz Bacon, on her reboot of DeviseConsulting.com, and helped Elizabeth Higgins recover and rebuild her website full of glorious artwork. Another creative professional is newly published author Dana Brown, whose book “Single Is as Single Does” has just hit the stacks at Amazon.

Another Year in Site Recovery

Unfortunately, this year also included restoring several clients sites who had been hacked due to lack of regular maintenance. I encourage anyone with a WordPress site to sign up for regular Site Maintenance plans, which we now offer. Invest in a little peace of mind this year by signing up for one of our affordable plans. Your site will always be backed up, secure, up-to-date, and running efficiently.

Sign Up for Your Site Maintenance Plan

Working with Us: the 10 Step Sirius Process

If you want a cookie cutter website you can find them elsewhere. Each Sirius Media website is hand crafted to tell your story in the most effective way possible. Our sites are finely tuned to engage your web visitors and convert them into customers. It’s both an art and a science. Here’s how we do it.
The Interview
We’ll meet in person or over the phone to learn about your business, your goals and gather information. You’ll learn about similar Sirius Media projects, and explore new possibilities. Ask questions — we’ll answer them! This in depth consultation and estimate is free to the customer.
Get a Bid
Bids are created in modules, so projects can be phased in as budgets allow. Work begins after the contract is signed and a 25% deposit is made. Once your deposit is made, your project is in production.
Review and Research
A look at your current site, analytics and your competition helps us know what has worked, what hasn’t and why.
Dig into Design
Can range from extensive custom design work with 3 layout options to choose from to selecting a standard WordPress theme to customize with colors and fonts. Includes information architecture and site mapping.
Collect Content
Gather information available and decide what needs to be written, which images are needed, or video to be recorded, based on site design and clients brands.
Time to Review and Refine
Review and Revise
Each step has two rounds of review built into the estimate. Additional changes will be charged by the standard hourly rate.
Interaction Maximization
Now’s the time to add custom forms, private content, embedded media, or ecommerce elements. Time for all the interaction bells and whistles!
Going Beta
Every site gets a pre-launch run through to make sure it works on all modern browsers and mobile devices.
Let's Launch
10, 9, 8….. we now have lift off! We carefully connect your domain name to the site, and make sure your emails are all working. Repointing the domain can take as little as 30 minutes to up to 2 days to complete.
The Sirius Extra Value: WordPress Training
We believe in empowering our clients to use WordPress to maintain their websites and provide each client a Website Guide with step-by-step instructions on how to do simple site updates, including all the security information to maintain the site.

12 Signs It’s Time to Update Your Website

Sirius-Media_2004_water_400

Sirius-Media.com in 2004.

Every business has to start somewhere.

You get going with what you can afford and, unless you’re a startup with angel investors, you make do until there’s some money actually coming in. Once business starts rolling along, it’s easy to forget about the website that got you launched.

Often, your first website is pretty basic. Maybe there wasn’t a budget to put it together, or a design student did it for peanuts, or a free website builder was used. Your site works, and may even look okay, but traffic has stalled. It’s time for a change.

It’s time to consider a new website if…

  1. It’s been more than 3 years since you redesigned.
  2. Your website uses Flash animations. Adobe’s animation darling is quickly becoming a faded flower.
  3. The site is difficult to maintain, which results in outdated, missing, or incorrect content. Out of date content detracts from your search ranking.
  4. It’s not friendly to mobile devices such as tablets or smart phones.
  5. Your site doesn’t have an SSL certificate. This is a feature modern browsers require and it’s a help with search optimization, too.
  6. Website doesn’t match current marketing campaigns. Branding consistency is so important. If your site doesn’t showcase your new logo, use your colors or displays an old tagline, then it’s working against you, 24/7.
  7. You’re not collecting new email contacts for marketing. Take advantage of email marketing by growing your email list.
  8. Feeling insecure? Hacking and malware attacks are omnipresent. If your site is running the latest security package, it’s vulnerable to the bad guys.
  9. Social share buttons are missing, or connections to your social media pages are absent.
  10. Your content is out of date. Google looks for content that has been updated or is new. Adding video, slideshows or podcasts are great ways to increase online engagement and dynamically tell your business’s story.
  11. Business contact info, hours or location is hard to find, or the contact page is missing. Hidden contact information is lost business. Make sure your phone, email, office location and business hours are clear and easy to find.
  12. Site traffic is not being measured with Google Analytics. It’s free, easy to install and a must for monitoring any website health.

Recently, the venerable community blog Metafilter redesigned after getting feedback from Google that their decade old site design made the content look out of date and unreliable. Website design can affect not just your branding, but also the perception of reliability, and search engine visibility. Even Google likes to see something new now and then.

Sirius-Media.com in 2008If your website meets 3 or more of the above criteria, it’s time to consider an upgrade.

Sirius Media is an expert in guiding clients through the upgrade process. We know what is working for businesses like yours, can recommend restyles that work on all devices, provide graphic design services, advise on SEO decisions, and install the analytics tools to monitor your site and measure success.

With a fresh new website built on the popular and robust WordPress platform, you’ll be able to easily take over site updates while being ready to do site improvements and upgrades in the future.

Take your business website to the next level. Get Sirius today!

Contact Sirius Media Today

 

 

 

 

Why “Click Here” is a Really Bad Idea

Stop Using Click Here!It is used all over the place. Click here to get this coupon. Click here to send us your story. To visit our webpage click here. It’s simple, direct and devoid of any clues. Out of context on the page, it is a meaningless call to action.

As a designer committed to enhancing web usability and clear communication, I believe using “Click here” as a web link is a bad idea. And the WC3, the worldwide authority on web standards and best practices, agrees with me.

Here are 5 ways that “Click here” violates both web standards and best practices.

  1. The link provides no usability clues, because it doesn’t tell you what you’ll be able to do or can expect to find when you get there.
  2. It’s not accessible for the blind for the same reason.  Providing clues to those who use a screen reader to navigate the web is not just polite — for government and public agencies, it is the law. For the rest of us, including accessibility in our web designs is simply good practice for an aging population.
  3. It’s bad for search engine optimization (SEO) because it tells search engines nothing about the purpose of the link. The words are generic when they could be hot, juicy, descriptive keywords. Using keywords in strong, descriptive links will beef up your SEO scoring.
  4. You won’t find any lazier copywriting anywhere. This overused phrase is a cliche that focuses on the mechanics of using the link instead of the benefit the visitor will receive.
  5. A web visitor deserves your respect, and “Click here”  implies they are stupid. This far down the road we do not need to tell people how a web link works. Hello — how do you think they got here?

“Click here” is just another way of saying You idiot. Put your mouse or cursor over this blue underlined text to proceed to somewhere you know nothing about.” It’s like having “turn page” at the bottom right hand corner of a book instead of page numbers.

Please join me in stamping out the  use of  “Click here” for web links whenever you have the opportunity. Better yet, send me prime examples of “Click here” used online. I’m starting a collection.

Watch for These Email Red Flags!

Red Skull and CrossbonesA client just forwarded an email they’d gotten about helping with search optimization and asked me if I thought they should try it.

At first glance it seemed legit. The copy was well written and it brought up some real issues about content and search visibility. But looking more closely I saw many red flags indicating, if not fraud, at least shady business practices.

  1. The originating email name was not same as the person who signed the email.
  2. The originating email was from a gmail (or other generic, free) account, not a email address from the company’s domain name.
  3. Cost of the service was not mentioned, although they specifically stated “No Contract” and “No Setup Fee”. Be assured there IS a cost involved and it is most likely significant.
  4. The company and/or domain name was not listed in the email.
  5. There was no website listed to investigate the firm.

Working with someone like this would be akin to accepting an offer from a stranger on a street corner whispering “Need someone to fix your SEO?” or “I can get you top ranking on Google!”

Don’t be sucked in to the scam. There are many legitimate SEO vendors out there, and you can check to see what they have to offer by reviewing their website. They can definitely make a difference in your search ranking.

Sirius Media is happy to offer suggestions, just ask!

Shaking the Long Tail for Better SEO

booster_dewey

Booster Dewey, from the Power Brake Booster Exchange, Portland, OR

I have a client with an old fashioned .html website. It looks just like it was created in the early years of the web and he isn’t interested in changing it.  He’s so old-school, he sends me updates in a letter and I call him with questions. He has no email address and doesn’t want one.

His website works for him. Customers find his business easily and learn what they need to know from the site. The site is not hip or trendy. It has 2 pages. It is not optimized to work on mobile devices.  The only photos are of car parts and him holding a power brake booster.

So yesterday, I was doing his yearly price updates, and thought just for the fun of it, I’d check his search performance in Google.

And to my surprise, he owns the first page of search results! Every link went back to his website, which hasn’t had any SEO magic applied to it. I was amazed!

I tried several different queries and results were the same. Search for “power brake boosters”, and it’s all him. I know clients who would pay huge amounts to get that kind of coverage.

So how did he get such high search rankings? One is domain name longevity. You can’t buy a long-time web presence, and Google ranks it very strongly in their SEO ranking score. It’s a matter of getting in and staying there.

But the second factor, and most important, is his product is a unique one that fits the definition of the long tail perfectly. The long tail is the holy grail of search optimization and he’s nailed it.

The Long Tail

  1. Fits a very narrow definition.
  2. Appeals to a small highly motivated group of customers.
  3. Is not being used by many competitors
  4. Provides exactly what that group is looking for.

Or to borrow from one of the search experts:

Specific, niche search phrases, usually more than 2 words in length, that offer a low competition, low search volume and high searcher intent.
From SEO 101: Defining the Long Tail

So, let this be a lesson to anyone building a website: Figure out how your product or service is unique and appeals to a small, motivated segment of the market and wag that long tail. Do you sell t-shirts? Highlight your handmade, hemp t-shirts for allergic pregnant women. Promoting a park? Blog about the trails that feature Great Horned Owl habitat in the winter evening hours. Focus on what is unique about your product, service or subject and your search optimization will benefit tremendously.

Thanks to BoosterDeweyExchange.com for the lessons learned and inspiration for this blog post. If you need a power brake booster for an older American car, go see my man Booster Dewey!

Writing Website Content

MP910216414When beginning a web project, often coming up with the written copy is one of the hardest parts. Clients often tell me “I know what I want to say, but am not sure where to begin”. I often feel the same way. Here are 10 tips to crafting better website content.

  1. Begin with a content outline. Decide what the main elements of your copy are, what info goes where.  Then get word counts from your web designer and be sure to use them.
  2. Start with the big questions. For a bio, tell readers who you are, what brought you to where you are now, what are your passions. Do share quirky and pertinent details that are memorable. Don’t share quirky not pertinent details that will only distract.
  3. Answer the searches. How will people ask Google for your product or services? Convey the information you want to share by answering the searches made to find you. Do some searches yourself to see how results vary by framing the question differently.
  4. Do include details. Instead of saying “We sell widgets”, try “We carry wooden wide load widgets for on greased gizmos and green gadgets”. Every detail provides more clues to lead the web visitor through your website. And it also provides more ‘Google juice‘ to enhance your site ranking.
  5. Use the active voice. Imagine yourself in a conversation with the web visitor. Be engaging, answer questions you know they’ll ask, and invite exploration by cross-linking to other content within your website.
  6. Break it up — Readers scan quickly when reading online. It’s actually good to use sentence fragment subheads, bulleted lists and one-sentence paragraphs. Sprinkled liberally with calls to action. (See what I did there?)
  7. Headlines and subheads must use descriptive keywords. Web readers scan quickly, so need to know exactly what you’re talking about before they’ll actually read your content. As Jakob Nielsen advises, use “links and category descriptions that explicitly describe” your products.
  8. Don’t use made up words or jargon. Remember search engines don’t understand clever innuendo or elegant wordplay. Do use terms likely to be used by your audience for searching.
  9. Have somebody else proofread all content. Do it before posting, then again after it’s on the website. Seeing content in action can change context, but always be sure copy is polished before giving it to your web designer. Edits take time, which costs money.
  10. Find a photo. Copy gets more attention if it has a photo or illustration to catch the eye and illustrate the concept. Use stock houses, your own photos, or public domain images to be sure you have legal copyright to use it. Do not just save images you like off the web. That is illegal and reputable web designers will not use them.

Shaking the Long Tail for Better SEO

booster_dewey

Booster Dewey, from the Power Brake Booster Exchange, Portland, OR

I have a client with an old fashioned .html website. It looks just like it was created in the early years of the web and he isn’t interested in changing it.  He’s so old-school, he sends me updates in a letter and I call him with questions. He has no email address and doesn’t want one.

His website works for him. Customers find his business easily and learn what they need to know from the site. The site is not hip or trendy. It has 2 pages. It is not optimized to work on mobile devices.  The only photos are of car parts and him holding a power brake booster.

So yesterday, I was doing his yearly price updates, and thought just for the fun of it, I’d check his search performance in Google.

And to my surprise, he owns the first page of search results! Every link went back to his website, which hasn’t had any SEO magic applied to it. I was amazed!

I tried several different queries and results were the same. Search for “power brake boosters”, and it’s all him. I know clients who would pay huge amounts to get that kind of coverage.

So how did he get such high search rankings? One is domain name longevity. You can’t buy a long-time web presence, and Google ranks it very strongly in their SEO ranking score. It’s a matter of getting in and staying there.

But the second factor, and most important, is his product is a unique one that fits the definition of the long tail perfectly. The long tail is the holy grail of search optimization and he’s nailed it.

The Long Tail

  1. Fits a very narrow definition.
  2. Appeals to a small highly motivated group of customers.
  3. Is not being used by many competitors
  4. Provides exactly what that group is looking for.

Or to borrow from one of the search experts:

Specific, niche search phrases, usually more than 2 words in length, that offer a low competition, low search volume and high searcher intent.
From SEO 101: Defining the Long Tail

So, let this be a lesson to anyone building a website: Figure out how your product or service is unique and appeals to a small, motivated segment of the market and wag that long tail. Do you sell t-shirts? Highlight your handmade, hemp t-shirts for allergic pregnant women. Promoting a park? Blog about the trails that feature Great Horned Owl habitat in the winter evening hours. Focus on what is unique about your product, service or subject and your search optimization will benefit tremendously.

Thanks to BoosterDeweyExchange.com for the lessons learned and inspiration for this blog post. If you need a power brake booster for an older American car, go see my man Booster Dewey!

Accessibility

Skip to content

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close