Google to mark HTTP insecure – From July 2018, Google is rolling out huge changes to the way it considers sites without SSL certificates. Sites with HTTP instead of HTTPS will be labelled as “insecure”. This will have huge implications for these site owners – particularly those operating retail or eCommerce websites.

Of course, this is nothing new – over the past couple of years, the search engine giant has been pushing hard for sites to adopt encrypted communication protocols. If your site is yet to offer an SSL certificate, here’s what you need to know:

1) Your search engine ranking could suffer

Sites which use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) currently enjoy a boost in search rankings as per Google’s algorithm. When these sites are visited in Chrome, a green padlock icon is noticeable in the address bar. This highlights the fact that the site is safe to browse, and safe to enter personal details into. As you’ll no doubt be aware, search engine optimisation is important and now security is an increased part of it.

2) Consumer confidence in your site could drop

Sites simply without SSL don’t display the green padlock at present. As of July 2018 these pages will be marked as “not secure” within Chrome. This will ultimately result in a drop in overall consumer confidence, causing your prospects to convert elsewhere, after all, who would feel comfortable entering their credit card details on an insecure site? Don’t risk visitors abandoning your site at the first click – get secure today.

3) You may need to prepare straight away

Migrating from HTTP to HTTPS can be a reasonably large task. This depends on the scope of your project and the size of your site. If you’re still operating without an SSL certificate, perhaps it’s time to begin liaising with your eCommerce web design team to begin making the required changes – the sooner the better.

Ultimately, there’s no longer an excuse for sites to remain unencrypted. For more information on how to get your site ready for Google to mark HTTP insecure in July 2018, why not contact us at Designbox Media to discuss how to implement the changes required to retain or improve your current SEO rankings?

Planning The Launch Of Your Website?

For launching a new website when it comes to WordPress websites, at Design Box Media, we follow a meticulous process. Find out more about our top 40 checklist that we use to ensure everything goes well below…

Let’s Begin

• 1. Determine your goals. What are the objectives the website is aiming to achieve?
• 2. What offer are you going to include with the launch?
• 3. No doubt, you expect the launch to be big. It is a good idea to contact your merchant account provider to warn them that you will be expecting a large number of sales.
• 4. Are you going to offer a payment plan? This is something that needs to be considered for higher priced services or products.
• 5. Make it interesting and fun.
• 6. Set a date and time for your launch.

• 7. Clear your schedule in the lead up to the launch and create margin.

 

Pre-launch Website Checklist

• 8. Now, you’re into the pre-launch section, which involves creating the campaign. All blog posts and emails should be mapped out.

• 9. Craft a genesis story that evokes emotion.
• 10. Create a sense of identity and belonging to your service and product.
• 11. Ask your target consumer base if there is something they are interested in before you build it.
• 12. Acknowledge and include any audience involvement so you can demonstrate their commitment.
• 13. Release special pre-launch content to help you get some results in advance.
• 14. Prepare additional marketing materials.
• 15. Create the sales video or page.
• 16. Do something original that is going to make you stand out from the rest.

• 17. Review what is working so far.

Mid-Launch Website Checklist

• 18. Set up an order and checkout process.
• 19. Put together a welcome email, and make sure you follow up.
• 20. Get other people to review your sales page.
• 21. Triple-check everything.
• 22. Proof and edit the sales page and get someone else to as well.
• 23. Send everything – your email announcement and blog post – out.
• 24. Post on social media.
• 25. Update affiliates
• 26. Update people regarding the launch feedback so far.
• 27. Ask strategic partners for assistance with spreading the word.

• 28. Listen to your feedback and respond – often the most important point of them all!

Website Post-Launch Checklist

• 29. Now the launch is over, you should celebrate.
• 30. Follow through with initial buyers.
• 31. Create a survey.
• 32. Smooth out any kinks.
• 33. Wrap it up – remove bonuses and close carts.
• 34. Over-deliver on value.
• 35. Make the experience memorable.
• 36. Automate feedback.
• 37. Give your audience an update.
• 38. Review.

• 40. Plan ahead for your next launch.

In conclusion:

So there you have it!

The 40-point checklist we use to guarantee launch success! We hope you took something useful from this blog to assist you in whatever way it has. If you’d like to learn a little more, or find out something interesting, then check out the blogs below!

Our Most Recent Blog Posts:

Firstly, What Is Google Adwords?

Google AdWords is an incredibly effective way to drive new business if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t, it can be incredibly easy, yet frustrating, to spend a lot of money without seeing concrete results. In this article, we’ll highlight a few tricks of the trade that can help you to get a handle on your Google AdWords campaign and achieve the results that your business deserves.

Lets start simple!

We all have to start somewhere, so why not begin with your account? 

If you consider your account clean, organised, and you’re still having other issues, then just skip this simple bit; but, if you are really, horribly stuck, just press these little things down below!

Organisation

You must order your Google ads account: that is first thing on your agenda. A messy account is only going to slow you down, throw you aside, and eat you whole if you let it descend into chaos. 

Campaigns & Ad Groups

Right, create a campaign for your entire company. I recommend sticking to one campaign overall as it may throw you off and the time spent may be pointless. Once you have your campaign, create some lovely Ad groups and theme them according to your business. For example, if you sell a range of toys at a toy store, try considering splitting Ad groups into things like “garden toys” and “inside toys” etc.

Theme Them

When filling your lovely Ad groups with keywords, consider the theme you’ve placed your ad under to keep things orderly. Your “outside toys” should only have keywords related to outside toys. this will help get the most relevant clicks and leads too!

Negative keywords

Okay this is the one which probably sounds the most daunting…

I mean what is a negative keyword? What do they do? Are they bad to use?

Don’t you worry, you may be using broad or phrase match keywords and not negative keywords. This means there’s every chance that you’re wasting a lot of money on the wrong type of visitor. Put simply, negative keywords allow you to exclude people who won’t be interested in your products or services. For example, if you sell windows, then you probably want to make the word ‘Microsoft’ a negative keyword to avoid paying Google AdWords a small fortune for visitors who are actually interested in software. 

Be sure to check the ‘search terms’ report regularly and update your negative keywords list at least once a month. Negative keywords can be used to your advantage when fixing up your google Adwords!

Extensions

Sometimes, people won’t want to visit the website page you’ve selected for them. They might be looking for information that’s on another page or they might prefer to phone or visit you in person. Ad Extensions allow your visitors to do all of these things and it won’t cost you a penny more than a normal ad. In fact, since ads with extensions are proven to have higher click-through rates, it might even save you cash.

If you’ve never set up ad extensions before, then we’d recommend that you start with Sitelink Extensions. These allow you to select a number of additional pages that display underneath your ad and give potential visitors additional options. Contact details, other products, pricing information and special offers are examples of common extensions. Once the extensions are set up, your search ad will be far larger and more eye-catching and you may well notice an improvement in your click-through rate.

Hopefully, our advice will help you to improve your Google AdWords account and avoid some common newbie errors. Once you’re past these, the sky truly is the limit.

What is my hourly rate? As a freelancer or a small business, it can be hard to know what to charge for your services. Set your rate too high and you could put off potential clients. Set it too low, and you could be greatly underpaid for your services.

Whether you are just starting out or you are well established in your work, it is important to make sure that the price you charge is the price you are worth. Once you have set a rate, be sure to review it regularly and make sure it still fits you well.

Use our hourly rate calculator to find your ideal cost

Our rate calculator is designed to help small businesses and freelancers identify exactly what their costs are. To find the right hourly price for the work they do. It works for designers, writers, programmers, artists and anyone who offers services or goods on a contract basis, either part or full time.

All you need is your annual expenses, information on your working hours, and your anticipated profits. We take this information and turn it into two simple figures: your breakeven rate, and your ideal rate. From here, you can set your charges.

Try Our Online Hourly Rate Calculator
No data will be collected. This is just fun free online calculator we have made to help small business owners and freelancers work out their hourly rate.

Your business costs

The first thing to consider is the cost you incur by running your business. From rent, power costs and furnishings to equipment, materials and communication services, you incur costs every day that your business is open. You also need to take into account legal and financial services, travel, office supplies and advertising.

Your personal costs

You also need to consider how much you need to make to manage your personal costs. These include your rent and household bills, your daily expenses and one-off costs, and your savings and investments. If you work from home some or all of the time, these costs may cross over with your business expenses.

Your working hours

Your working hours each day include time spent directly working with clients, and also time spent working on your own business. You should take into account days you will take as holiday leave and days that you might need off sick or for appointments when calculating your working hours. Write down how many hours you work per day, and how many days you work per year. These are important factors when determining your hourly rate.

What do you expect to earn?

Finally, you need to consider how much you want to make from your business. If you’re just starting out with a new venture, you might be aiming to break even and cover your costs. If you have established yourself in your industry and have a steady workload coming in, you want to take home a good wage that can support you and your family. Decide how much you want to make at the end of the year, after costs.

Once all these factors are added to the calculator, you will be left with your hourly rate. Use this when pitching for work, when setting up contracts, and when advertising your services. Remember to adjust your rate annually in line with inflation, or to recalculate your costs each year to take into account new expenses and company growth.

Try Our Online Hourly Rate Calculator
No data will be collected. This is just fun free online calculator we have made to help small business owners and freelancers work out their hourly rate.

Top 10 SEO Tips For Noobs

SEO is something that all businesses need to be concerned with today. It doesn’t matter what type of company you operate or your target demographic; having a dominant online presence is a necessity. So, with that being said, let’s take a look at some basic SEO tips for beginners to get you started…

Top 10 SEO Tips: Let’s Jump In!

1 – Google Analytics!

Use Google Analytics to track your keyword performance. It will help you to extract useful information, that you can use to make informed SEO decisions down the line when that data may be needed. After all, how do you expect to improve your marketing efforts if you do not know how you are performing at present?

Not only this but being able to effectively track each page of your website allows you to optimise them accordingly. By looking at things like bounce rates and session times, you can understand the behaviour of customers/prospective customers. This allows you to revise your marketing strategies to ensure that they become more streamlined over time, further providing you with the opportunity to reach your intended audience.

2 – Link-Building!

Develop relationships with other websites. Incorporating links into your content, and getting others to do the same for your company, is a great way to boost your search engine ranking. However, don’t just choose any old website to partner up with. Make sure it is a high-authority website, i.e. one with a considerable audience that is relevant to your business.

There are several different methods you can take in order to build quality links for your website. One method would be to utilise your existing clients and ask them to provide a link to your website from their. This can usually be a mutual agreement where you can link to each other, providing your client is understanding of the benefits.

Another method would be to look for unlinked mentions of your brand. By entering your brand name into Google search results or using specialised tools, you can identify pages where your business has been mentioned. It is always worth reaching out to the owner of that website to see if they will change the mention to be linked to your website. Sometimes people will refuse but there are always some that are willing to help.

3 – Original Content!

Create content that is original, interesting, and engaging. people aren’t on your site to dribble at the sight of your design: they want to read stuff too! If your content isn’t as eye-catching as your website, then people will simply click off the moment your content lacks substance. 

This has become more apparent over time where unique and rich content has become perhaps the most vital ranking factor for the Google algorithm. When it comes to creating this content, the use of different forms of media is a great way to ensure the content is more useful. If you are able to provide video content, image content as well as text content on one page, that page is already deemed to be rich with useful information.

The most important thing to remember though is to ensure that you do not create duplicate content as this can lead to negative performance for your pages. Not only do you run the risk of your own pages trying to outrank each other, but you are also running the risk of confusing visitors to your site.

4 – Include Alt Text In Images

Make sure your images have descriptions. Search engines cannot see images as we can, so you need to add a description to make your website more prominent in search engine result pages. It doesn’t take long, and most of all, it really does make a difference. (google will love you a little more!)

Another reason for this is to improve accessibility for your page. For some people, they may have trouble viewing some images so being able to provide alt text allows us to provide each user with a suitable page experience.

5 – Keyword Placement!

Incorporate keywords naturally. Gone are the days of the more keywords, the better. If your content looks like it has been keyword-stuffed, this can actually have a negative impact on your ranking. Imagine reading this blog post and every sentence had the word “SEO” slumped in there – it’d be awful! Balance your content!

Keywords should be included in key areas of a page including the slug, title, headings and body text. It is important to balance these out with other keywords that essentially have the same meaning too, once again to prevent the idea of keyword stuffing.

Furthermore, adding semantic keywords that are both closely and loosely related to your main focus keyword makes the information on the page seem more relevant and therefore supports the efforts to rank better for your primary target keyword.

6 – Avoid!

Avoid flash. Flash may make your website look pretty, but it can ruin your SEO strategy. Google cannot pull information from flash, so therefore it is essentially a blob of nothingness when google comes searching round. 

7 – URLs Must Be User-Friendly!

Make sure your URLs are search-engine friendly. Name them with clear keywords. URLs are the things people see, copy and paste, put into their essays, and more! They are the lifeline of your website and if you don’t treat your URL with some serious respect, then your rankings will tell you a different, worse story…

8 – Sitemap!

Create a sitemap. A sitemap is a page that lists all of the other pages on your website and links to them. This makes it easier for spiders to search your website. If not, google might not even find your site in the first place, so all that SEO work will be for nothing as google won’t even be able to find your hard SEO work, bearing in mind read it.

9 – Link To Yourself!

Link back to yourself. This is one of the most basic yet essential SEO strategies. Integrate internal links to improve traffic to your individual pages. You want to keep your visitors on your site for as long as possible, so use links effectively to do that. Google will pick up on your linking efforts!

10 – Review, Review, Review!

Constantly review your strategy. The world of SEO is ever changing. If you don’t move with the times, you are only going to get left behind. Even refer back to the first point and use Google Analytics to review your SEO work. Sometimes you just need to sit back – and observe.

In Conclusion

Use all ten tips together and i guarantee that your rankings, visits, and everything, will improve for the better. Just be aware that SEO takes time to show results, so don’t grow weary of how little impact the work has in the short-term. Google is a slow reader, so give the old bot some time to read your site.