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Over the years we’ve had many clients asking us if they should continue buying Yellow Pages advertising. My answer is the same. Look at your websites visitor data and see how many visitors are coming directly from yellowpages.ca. Use the numbers to determine if it’s good value or not. This year I received a different call, not from a client, but a prospect out in the west coast. He asked if he left Yellow Pages could we ensure that his website still be found in Google for his business name? “Of course”, I said, “you don’t need them for your …

Google Warned Us and they are on a Roll: Back in 2016 Google warned us and we warned you, that your website needed to be mobile friendly or your rankings would suffer.  Google warned us that they would be switching from a desktop focussed index to a mobile-first index and it’s happening now. Below is an excerpt of the confirmation that Google is sending to our Webmaster tools for all accounts. Mobile-first indexing enabled for https://cmswebsolutions.com This means that you may see more traffic in your logs from Googlebot Smartphone. You may also see that snippets in Google Search results are now generated from the …

Important Reminder from Google: Review your Data Retention Settings before they take affect on May 25th, 2018! Effective May 25th, 2018 Google is changing the data retention controls of your Google Analytics. If Google Analytics is set up on your own account (as is the case with most of our clients) then you would have or should have already received reminders about this. By default, Google sets the User and Event data to expire in 26 months. This can be changed to: 14 months 26 months 38 months 50 months Do not automatically expire Should you require other settings you …

What is an accessible website? An accessible website is a site that can be used by all of your visitors, including those with disabilities, no matter what tools they use to navigate the web.  Some of your visitors may have reduced vision and use a screen reader to listen to websites. Other visitors may have limited motor skills and use a keyboard instead of a mouse. Accessible websites allow all users to access the information they need with the least difficulty possible. How do I make a website accessible? Making websites accessible is not difficult if you start some basics: …

Question: how often do you experience Microsoft, Apple or other apps sending you updates? They do it because of security patches, upgrades and improvements. So, who’s doing that for your company website?  In the last few years web designers have gravitated towards purchasing themes. These are pre-made templates often loaded with small scripts of codes called plug-ins. Buying and customizing themed websites is usually cheaper than a custom built website. Cost-sensitive businesses like the lower upfront cost. But what they don’t realize is that they come with technical debt, meaning they kick some costs to the future.     Many unsuspecting business owners don’t realize their websites need maintenance. They think it’s like …

We get it. We’re business people like you. We too look for ways of getting the most out of our marketing dollars.  Have you noticed the increasing number of marketing vehicles available to you? Offline, online, social, Pay Per Click. Confusion and doubt sets in. Then a salesperson or email arrives announcing that they have the answer. You buy their solution only to find that it wasn’t effective. So how do you ensure you don’t waste your money again and again? Coming from the world of website development, we see ways of using your website to help remove the guess …

Back in March of 2007, I wrote a blog post called Business from your Home or Cottage. It was about people who were starting to work from home. For 9 1/2 years we have been implementing technology to make it possible for our team to work remotely. I’m happy to report that any one of us can now work anywhere in the world. This ability has made us more resilient and the people that work with us happier. It has also allowed for us to hire contractors that prefer to work from home, changing our business a bit. Recently we moved our …

There is a saying: “before climbing a ladder, make sure the ground is solid and that you’re climbing the right wall.”  It seems straightforward, but many companies start climbing without asking the right question. They end up going down a path that is more complex than required. They also waste time and money. And worst of all, they will create an ineffective website.  So what’s the wrong question? Asking, “What do I need in a website?”  Tell the truth. Isn’t that the question you asked yourself? You let that question generate a list of “requirements” that you took to your web developer.  Most developers worth …

I sat across from my accountant, who is also a web client, and asked her “Do you think your website is important to your business?” She answered “Oh yes. I even got a nice client yesterday who picked us over the competition because of our website.” Next I asked, “So what percentage of your business do you believe you get because of your website?” She thought for a moment and then gave me the number – a good portion I might add. So then I said, “Multiply that number by your revenue.” “Got it” she said. I then asked the big question, “If your website is responsible …

Starting in April 2015 Google wanted your website to be more mobile friendly and if it wasn’t they started penalizing non-mobile friendly websites, on their search engine, when visitors searched from a mobile device. (Google article here) “The search engine already promotes sites that work well on mobile devices over ones that don’t, a change introduced in April 2015”. In typical Google fashion, they are signalling that they will be taking mobile search even further…very soon. Google will be switching from a desktop focussed index to a mobile-first index. “Google is fully splitting its search index into two distinct versions: a rapidly updated …