Google’s Lighthouse accessibility audit tool has the potential to make billions of websites more accessible without legislation.

History tells us unless Google makes accessibility a ranking factor, we will continue to see slow progress.

Why does Google want the web accessible?

The answer is simple.  Google wants everyone to be delighted with their online experience.  This goal goes beyond the use of its products.   Just read these excerpts from Google’s accessibility statement for proof. [1]

• “Everyone should be able to access and enjoy the web. We’re committed to making that a reality.”
• “Google’s support of accessibility extends beyond products to include research, education, and design efforts.”

While most would agree that Google products make lives better, one question remains unanswered. Will Google provide an economic incentive to designers to use its new Lighthouse accessibility audit tool?    Improving the way we create websites as a result.   All while making lives better for millions of people with disabilities.

The History of ADA regulations and web accessibility

In 1990, legislators passed the American Disabilities Act (ADA) with no explicit reference to websites. This fact is not a surprise since the web was just starting to evolve in the early 90s.  In 1998, Congress changed the ADA to include Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.  Section 508 required federal e-government websites to be accessible to persons with disabilities, but it left the majority of websites unregulated.

However, since 1996, the Department of Justice has stated that the ADA applies to all websites since they are a “public accommodation.” The Supreme Court has not taken up the issue yet, but many lower courts have held that the ADA applies to websites.

Therefore, with no legal requirement make sites accessible, it seems like progress on web accessibility has continued at a snail’s pace.

Today’s Accessibility Laws and Regulations

Fast forward to 2017 and see that website accessibility lawsuit filings are still going strong, but current legislative action has been absent. Most court decisions have taken the position that meaningful access the Internet is a civil right. Court settlements forced many websites to be remediated to follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.   However, the Trump administration delivered a setback for accessibility advocates when it moved web accessibility regulation to its “Inactive List.” [2]   As a result legislative progress in the area of online accessibility is going nowhere fast.

42% of Federal Government websites fail accessibility tests

In March of 2017, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) released a study on accessibility of federal sites. [3] The findings show that 42 percent failed accessibility tests. The government websites that failed the accessibility test include the Internal Revenue Service (irs.gov) and the International Trade Administration (trade.gov). Therefore how can the federal government regulate accessibility standards when it can’t even keep its websites up to standard?

Google takes up the gauntlet for web accessibility

Google released Lighthouse at it’s I/O 2017 event. The focus of the product is to help the developer community improve progressive application development. Lighthouse also included an accessibility auditing feature. The accessibility audit feature is a positive sign for millions of people living with disabilities. Hence, with Lighthouse Google can fill the void where government regulators have failed to act.

Will the Google Lighthouse accessibility audit tool make millions of websites accessible?

It is hard to tell what impact Google’s decision will have on improving the accessibility of websites.   Lighthouse is one of the several automated tools for testing accessibility of a web page. Without Google providing an incentive for people to start using it, we may never see its full potential.  In fact, Google’s Lighthouse audit uses Deque Systems, Inc. aXe-core rules engine which has been around on GitHub since 2015. [4] The software is an open source JavaScript library that executes automated accessibility testing rules for web projects.

It seems like Google is just packaging an existing accessibility testing tool into its Lighthouse product. In fact, there are numerous free online tools for accessibility testing.  Many have been around for years.  You can try out 25 website accessibility testing tools by visiting Dynomapper.com.  Therefore if developers are not using these tools why should one expect Google’s dev tool for accessibility to be any different?

The Google Lighthouse accessibility audit tool makes accessibility programming easy for developers.

Why does Lighthouse make accessibility programming easy for developers?  Google packaged the accessibility audit in Lighthouse with the tools that developers will use to create progressive web apps. As a result, Google helped advance accessibility in three ways.

• First, it endorsed accessibility programming as something that must be part of the web development process. The decision to include an accessibility audit in Lighthouse is a bold statement which could give credibility to plans for future SEO benefits of having an accessible website.
• Second, a familiar Chrome developer toolbox displays the accessibility test results. Web designers can see the code and test results side by side. Hence developers can identify and fix issues quickly.
• Third, programmers can run experiments and see the results without lots of extra work.  As a result, this change brings down the cost of development for everyone.

Watch this video to see how programmers can leverage Lighthouse to improve accessibility:

Does the Google endorsement make website owners want to fix accessibility issues?

It is too early to know if developers will start using the accessibility test to make the web more accessible. To see the possibilities, we can look at Google’s products and how developers have used them over time.  Let’s consider Google’s products for improving website development.  Google has created popular search and development tools to improve the Internet.  These products include mobile-friendly tests, search console, structured data testing, Google My Business, PageSpeed Insights and now Lighthouse for progressive app development.

Here is why it could happen sooner than you think.

Google has a history of rewarding those who use its products.  Most noteworthy Google has publicly recognized that performance is a ranking factor.  This change has given a push to mobile-friendly sites and those that have a fast download speed. Hence web designers that use Google’s PageSpeed Insights and Mobile Friendly Tests can improve a website’s rank in search results.  Maybe we will see the same happening with the accessibility audit tool.

Will Google advance the Lighthouse accessibility audit tool by changing it’s search algorithm to favor websites that use it?

Google’s search algorithm can be changed to improve the web for everyone, including those with disabilities.  Here’s how.  The automated tool creates data points and a score.  Google can use these data points as criteria for evaluating websites. Hence Google could rank a site based on how well it scores on Lighthouse.

As of today, it is difficult to measure the exact impact of using these tools on search engine placement. Quality content is still the #1 driving force for search engine ranking, and as a result, we do not see this changing in the near term.  The vast majority of people use the Internet because they are looking for quality content.  Therefore Google needs to be the best at helping people find what they are seeking.

The approach many SEO experts are taking is this; if Google says something will improve search engine results for a website, then it may be worth doing.  As a result, it is difficult to justify making a significant investment.  Business decisions tend to focus on today’s ROI rather than what might happen in the future.

The future of web accessibility and the Lighthouse accessibility audit tool

In conclusion, it is not clear if Lighthouse will result in a considerable upgrade to millions of websites.  Google says it makes accessibility a priority, yet the vast majority of sites need improvements to allow access for people with disabilities. Maybe not right away.  Unless Google’s changes its search algorithm, the Lighthouse accessibility audit tool will only offer a minimal reprieve.  This outlook is because there is a limited financial incentive for website owners to take action.  Therefore a handful of webmasters may make the jump and start initiating changes, but this will do little in the long-term.

Google must show the world it takes accessibility seriously by making it a publicly recognized ranking factor. If not, websites will continue to fail for people with disabilities.  Maybe if everyone takes the time to ask Google to make the change, it will happen sooner or later.    If you agree, take a moment to use the get in touch feature and let Google know how you feel.

If you like this article, try reading why there is a strong business case for accessibility in web design.

Structured data is another underutilized resource waiting for a boost from Google.  Learn why by reading: “Hey Google: advance structured data.”

References

1. Google’s Accessibility Statement
2. President Trump Moved the Web Accessibility Regulation to Inactive List  
3. 92Percent of Most Popular Federal Government Websites Fail to Meet Basic Standards for Security, Speed, Mobile Friendliness, or Accessibility, New ITIF Study Finds
4. Google selects Deques aXe for Chrome dev tools

Contact one of our Boston accessibility web designers to discuss your project.  Call 978-851-9077

The post Will the Lighthouse accessibility audit tool help make the web more accessible? appeared first on New Hampshire Web Design.

If you own a law firm and are looking for SEO consultants, this article will give you a broad overview of SEO strategy and implementation. To make it an easy read we have outlined ten points including advice on search engine optimization (SEO), blogging and reputation management to squash or mute those negative reviews.

If you keep on reading, we’re going to share an SEO strategy with you that doesn’t take too long to implement but has the power of increasing your click-through rates by 30%!

Here is what the best SEO Consultants for Lawyers should know to improve your online presence:

1. Good SEO consultants always start with keyword research.

Do you know which keywords your customers are using to find you? For lawyers, this sounds like an easy task, but the English language with all its nomenclatures can make things complicated. Let’s start with the name of your profession. Are you a lawyer or attorney? How many people use them interchangeably? Don’t forget barristers, solicitors, advocates, and counselors all are used to describe the legal profession, but most people in the US will use either lawyer or attorney to find you, but which one should you use when writing content? Fortunately, most modern search engines like Google have already made adjustments for this, so if your SEO consultants are worried about the difference, they have not been paying much attention to search engine marketing trends.

Relevant keywords are now conversational.

Google updated its algorithm with Hummingbird in 2013 to take the guesswork out of the meaning of a user’s search, so you don’t have to worry about stuffing keywords anymore. However, you will need to consider more conversational queries—specifically those used in voice search. SEO Consultants should start targeting phrases that begin with “Who, How, Why and Where” as these will prove beneficial towards SEO. For example: “How do I know if my SEO consultants are doing their job?” We hope this article will help answer that question.

2. What is local SEO and why is it necessary for lawyers.

Most attorneys are specialized, whether it be in the field of insurance claims, business law, injury settlements or divorces. Your website’s content probably already reflects your specialized services. Hence you have already started the process of narrowing the focus of your message for search engines.

Consider also that you are licensed to do business in a particular region. For this reason, you will need to focus your efforts on local SEO. If you are too busy to take this on, it may make sense to hire local SEO Consultants. Read this article on Local SEO before you decide on which direction to take.

Here’s why you need to focus on local SEO.

First, an example of a global keyword: “lawyer with affordable rates.”

While this keyword may get a lot of searches, it may not be the most cost-effective. Millions of lawyers target broad keywords and end up wasting a lot of money in the process.

With this approach, you’re optimizing your website for search terms that are too broad, and this is not the most efficient use of your time and marketing resources. Furthermore, customers would be contacting you from areas in which you are not licensed to work anyway. Unless you have a network of lawyers globally, this will end up costing you money without adding to your bottom line.

Take a look at this highly targeted local keyword instead:

“divorce lawyer in Boston.”

Immediately, the difference is apparent. This type of keyword may get less monthly searches, but for Boston area lawyers it is a more realistic target. Also, those who search for this term are more accessible. You can meet with them quickly, and they can be easier to convert into customers. Your customers or friends may know them, and it will be easier to make a personal connection. Furthermore, you’re offering the service they need in the area they reside.

3. Local directories and customer reviews

While location-based keywords are essential for your website’s organic rank, these Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) will usually get pushed down by local results including local directories, maps, and customer reviews.

While there are thousands of local directories out there, only a handful are driving all the traffic. We recommend focusing on these websites for Local Search and Reviews:

• Yelp
• Google My Business
• Avvo
• Lawyers.com
• Bing Places for Business
• Apple Maps

Update your local listing and keep them accurate.

Getting your business listed in local directories is easy but ranking well in local results requires a commitment of time and resources. You will want to make sure your listings are consistent, accurate and as complete as possible. Variations in your company name, phone number and or address can make a difference in how search engines perceive and rank you in local search results.

Don’t just set it and forget it!

Keep your listings regularly updated with photos, posts and quality content and you will see the best results. Lawyers benefit from having an updated profile in major local directories like Google My Business and Yelp because they dominate the traffic for most online local searches.

4. Good SEO consultants should help identify and implement structured data (using Schema.org)

Search engines love structured data because it helps them deliver answers to many search queries without users needing to click through and visit a website. Did you know that by implementing structured data, your click-through rates in the search engines get increased by around 30%?

Your website will be rewarded with higher click-through rates because you took the extra effort to make your content more accessible by making it structured. But before you can do this you need to identify the structured data on your website.

Identifying structured data for lawyers

Structured data may improve your local search results.

The most apparent structured data on almost every Lawyer’s website is the physical location of your firm. Search engines will know exactly who and where you are if you identify the name, address and phone number of your business as structured data. (for example, in the ‘contact us’ section, you can ask your programmer to highlight your office locations as structured data).

By using structured data to combine your company name with your contact information, it creates an additional location based signal for search engines. Although it is not official, Google will likely announce schema as a ranking factor for its local search algorithm.

Structured data for seminars and networking events

Face to face marketing is one of the most effective ways to win new clients. Many lawyers recognize this and hold educational workshops or networking events for local chambers or business associations. Your website can use structured data to highlight the “event” with a “date,” “cost,” and “venue,” and this helps search engines to answer specific questions about that event when people are searching for it.

Use structured data from government websites.

Government organizations have no incentive to add structured data to a website because there is no profit motive. For those who depend on search traffic to grow their business, this is a welcome opportunity.

If there are dates that new state or local laws are going to take effect, they are a meaningful event about which people will be searching. Your site could rank well if you use schema to identify the event details including when the change will happen.

For example, if you are a Massachusetts lawyer you should follow the Official Massachusetts Trial Court Law Updates Blog. This blog is an excellent resource for current changes to Massachusetts law. We tested the blog’s content with Google’s Structured data testing tool and did not find any structured data. However, the content on the blog is full of unstructured data that can be tagged, structured and reformatted for your website. Thus this can be a good strategy when coupled with good advice and tips on accommodating the change.

Legal articles and publications

Most Lawyers have already written educational articles and publications, so this structured data opportunity should be an easy win. Many lawyers don’t know is that the content they have already written is rich with Structured data. Therefore you will want to let Google know your page contains legal articles or news publications by identifying the headline, image, publisher, author name, date of publication that help inform searchers.

More Structured data for lawyers

Additional structured data opportunities include social media profiles and reviews. For more information on implementing structured data, please read our article: “All you need to know about Structured Data, Schema, SERPs, Rich Knowledge Boxes, Snippets and more.”

5. Quality content, blogging, and social media

Every good legal website needs a blog. By blogging about changes in the law, especially those that are currently in the news, you’re going to attract visitors to your website. People will be searching for these topics in Google, and if your SEO consultants have done their job, they’re going to be using the search terms in the content of your article.

By having relevant, optimized, quality content posted on your website, you’re accomplishing two things: you’re feeding the search engines the type of material they’re hungry for while positioning yourself as an expert in the niche.  For more on blogging read “How to make a successful blog – 8 helpful Tips for first-time bloggers.”

To get the most out of the articles you post, consider using a revised version for traditional media like the local newspapers and don’t forget to get the word out on social media.

6. The importance of optimized meta tags, performance, mobile compatibility and quality backlinks

SEO rankings are something that needs to be planned, achieved and maintained, and to do this you need to follow some basic SEO principles. For starters, your keywords need to be present in the following areas of your website:

• Meta description
• H1, H2, and H3 (header) tags
• URL
• Title

To fully optimize your site several additional technical elements need attention including:

• Keyword density
• Optimized graphics and use of alt image tags
• Videos with captions or a transcribed version

Introducing Google Lighthouse a tool for testing technical performance

Google has been on a performance binge lately where it has created a variety of tools that make it possible for developers and non-technical users to audit the performance of a website. You can bet if Google invested in tools to improve your site it is also going to reward you for using them, and that is what it has been doing.

Examples of Google website optimization tools include:

• Mobile-Friendly Test
• PageSpeed Insights
• Structured data testing tool
• Structured Data Highlighter

Recently Google introduced Lighthouse for developers.  This combined several of these website optimization tools into one comprehensive resource for testing web applications and websites. This Google tool is one that your web developer should be using and one about which your SEO Consultants should know.

Offsite SEO consultants and link building

Moving on to the offsite SEO, this mostly has to do with gaining backlinks to your website from relevant, quality sources. Again, we’re also just briefly touching upon it, since this topic requires a separate article to be appropriately covered (or even a whole book).

Just a final word on blackhat SEO consultants: don’t even think about using them. While they may look appealing, because they promise quick results, the cold hard truth is that the effects are usually not long-lasting, and in the long term, this type of SEO methodology will do you more harm than good.

7. Having social media presence is a great way to get in touch with your potential clients

Social media presence goes beyond gaining quality backlinks to your website (but they are indeed a part of the package). In essence, social media pages are an opportunity for you to establish a deeper, more personal connection with your audience. Through which potential customers can also come to you with questions you can answer. By making this connection and being responsive, you are going to gain their trust, which may very well be enough to tip the scales of them doing business with you.

Also, every time you post something new on your blog, you can even let your customers and followers know about it by posting it on your social media channels. Not only does it act as a high-quality social backlink to your website, but it also brings the content closer to the eyes of your readers.

8. Excellent design and professionalism go hand and hand

Never settle for a cheap-looking website. As a lawyer, you need to be a living and breathing example of professionalism; someone your clients can trust. Therefore, caring about your professional image must be at the forefront of your overall marketing strategy.

Not only does your website need to have a good design, but it also needs to be easy to navigate. In reality, you just have a couple of seconds to convince the visitors that they’ve come to the right place, and you cannot afford to lose a moment of their attention. Often, they’re not even going to read the content, merely skim over it, and decide on a whim whether you’re trustworthy or not. So you need to make the few seconds of their attention count.

9. Conversion optimization is the name of the game

No matter what you’re doing and how much you’re trying to appeal to the search engines, the end goal of your website should be to convert the visitors into customers. After all, your site is the most critical sales representative you have, and it’s working for you 24/7, winning you clients even while you sleep.

To this end, you should make sure that you have an industry professional write the sales copy. After all, the content must serve the end goal of bringing in new customers. If you don’t get new business, then you are just paying to host a website without the rewards that should come with it.

10. Good SEO consultants can help with online reputation management

Getting great reviews on Yelp and Google My Business is crucial, since customers may check the online reviews before doing business with you. Furthermore, search engines are looking for ways to improve the customer experience, and online reviews are one measurement for separating good lawyers from bad. Online reviews have been a ranking factor in the algorithm of most major search engines. Therefore your placement in search results will depend, in part, on your reputation and online reviews.

The three most visible review platforms are Google My Business, Facebook, and Yelp. Since both Google and Facebook allow you to ask customers for reviews and Facebook lets you turn the review feature off altogether, the most challenging out of the three appears to be Yelp. We will focus on Yelp.

Dealing with bad reviews on Yelp

If someone has given you a bad review on Yelp, do not engage in a fight with that person. Instead, use your legal skills and your knowledge of Yelp’s policies to see if there are other, more efficient ways of getting bad reviews removed.

For example, when the person leaving the review violates Yelp’s terms of service, including comments that include the following:

• defamation of character
• racist, discriminatory, personal insults, etc.
• intolerance to religion or beliefs
• and similar

You can message the website’s administrators and report it. If the review contains any of the above, it’s usually pretty simple to get it removed. But even if that is not the case, there is still plenty of hope. For example, if you have enough information to identify them, you may want to consider contacting the reviewer offline and convince them to remove the bad review. After all, being a lawyer, this should be right up your alley.

How to get positive reviews on Yelp

Even though Yelp isn’t fond of business owners asking for reviews, you can still do it if you’re smart enough to fly under the radar. Although Yelp discourages the practice, the most straightforward way of getting good reviews is just asking the customers you know you’ve provided an excellent service for, to leave you a good review. If nothing else, they’ll be more inclined to do it as a way to express their gratitude. And besides, Yelp has no way of knowing you asked for these reviews.

As you can see, the best way of getting high reviews for your Yelp listing is to provide an excellent service. Admittedly, this is harder to do at the beginning where you’re starting from scratch, but it gets easier after you get the ball rolling.

What won’t help you get good reviews on Yelp

But no matter what you do, you should not mass email your email list, asking them for reviews. Yelp engineered its algorithms to easily spot this, and consequently disregard these reviews entirely, rendering your efforts meaningless.

The final tip we’re going to share is that you need to respond to both good and bad reviews. We’ve already gone over why you just cannot remain passive when it comes to dealing with bad reviews (they can do your business some serious harm), but responding to the positive ones may not be an obvious path to take.

But if you take the time to respond kindly to everyone who has taken their time to leave you a great review, you’re coming across as someone who’s kind and compassionate and genuinely wants what’s best for the customer. Also, this is a free opportunity for you to turn the review into an educational moment. Whether you are letting customers and the world know about a new service offering or benefit of working with your firm, take this opportunity as a win-win.

Hire SEO Consultants that follow the best practices outlined in this article

When you hire SEO consultants, you need to know how to evaluate their performance against standard industry practices. This article will guide you in making the decision and managing that relationship. You need to know about many things to be a good lawyer, and the same goes for running a successful legal practice. SEO and online marketing are one of those areas that are critical to success.

Feel free to contact our Boston SEO Consultants for a free website review.  Call 978-851-9077

The post 10 Tips on Hiring SEO Consultants for Your Law Firm appeared first on New Hampshire Web Design.

The road to the future

For Google’s search engine to extend its reach to the conversational, the Internet must have a more formal structure. After all, when you are having a conversation, there is no time to wait or search for an answer. For Google, answers must come quickly and without pause. Therefore, if Google was going to become genuinely conversational, the Internet must be super-fast.  It also needs to be structured in a way that produces answers that are clear, accurate and precise.

Introducing Speed as a ranking factor

With this vision, Google launched PageSpeed Insights allowing webmasters to measure how quickly their web pages load. It also provides tips to help programmers and webmasters improve the load time for their pages. Google embraced AMP and in 2010 in announced that the load time of a web page was a ranking factor in its algorithm. It followed that up recently with a ranking factor announcement specifically for mobile websites. On January 17th Google said that it was planning to use page speed in mobile search ranking.   Speed has become a buzzword, and some website owners have been scrambling to improve their PageSpeed Insights score so they can rank high in Google’s SERPs (search engine result pages).

Big media websites fail PageSpeed Insights

Even with all the buzz, it is difficult to tell how much the ranking of a website gets improved in Google based on their PageSpeed Insights score. For many sites, work that is done to improve speed may never appear in the actual SERPs because there are too many other factors at play in ranking websites. Furthermore, after testing a few top-ranked sites using Google PageSpeed insights it is easy to conclude that PageSpeed is a waste of time and money.

On October 17, 2017, the following websites received ratings of poor or needs improvement:

[supsystic-tables id=’1′]

Speed and performance are only one ranking factor, but it seems for many websites, Google is not giving enough incentive to make optimization a priority.

The beginning of structured data

To become an ideal search engine that better serves our needs, Google needs websites to be rich in structured data.  Google’s focus on structured data started in 2009 with rich snippets, and then joined forces with Yahoo and Bing in 2011 to create schema.org and a universal standard for structured data.  ^[2]

Google helps others by helping itself

In 2012, Google launched its solution to help non-technical professionals add structured data to their website with the “Structured Data Markup Helper.” ^[3] For Google, it was a useful tool giving website owners the ability to markup their website with structured data without hiring a web developer.  Google promoted this tool as a great advancement for structured data.  However further discovery unveils that as of right now, Google is the only search engine that can read and interpret the structured data created by the “Structured Data Markup Helper.”  No other search engine or website could use the structured data created with the “Structured Data Markup Helper.”  The rest of the Internet would just need to wait for people to add structured data to their website.

Slow rates of adoption

While I don’t begrudge Google for keeping the structured data to itself, Schema.org has been around for over eight years now yet it seems that the number of sites that are using structured data is minuscule. In 2014 a study of 50 million domains by Searchmetrics showed that only 0.3% used structured data by schema.org on their web pages.^[4]  According to Schema.org, there are over 10 million websites that use structured data to markup their web pages and email messages, and according to InternetLiveStats.com, there are 1.2 Billion websites online.  ^[5]  According to these statistics, the number of websites using schema is still less than 1 percent of all sites online.  Therefore, we can surmise from these figures that structured data is progressing at a snail’s pace.

Google is falling short of reaching it’s goals for structured data mostly because structured data and speed optimization are happening at a slow pace.  Most website owners have no overwhelming motive to optimize for speed or add structured data to their website, and as a result, they see no direct benefit.

Enhanced SERPs

Adding Structured data as a ranking factor might help, but instead, Google decided to focus on displaying its results in an enhanced way. Google started using schema.org structured data to deliver knowledge boxes, cards, and carousels.  Enhanced search results may lead to a higher click-through, and conversion rates, and search traffic.  Watch this video on Rich Snippets to learn more about how this is done in practice.

According to Searchengineland, adding structured data to your site will increase your CTR by 30%, ^[6] which is a fantastic way to get more visitors to your site without really doing much work.  This change had some impact on website design as many could see the potential for improved click-through rates.  But what about SERPs?

The problem is that structured data is not being used as much by the webmaster community.   Google has rewarded some websites for implementing structured data with improved SERPs, but they stopped short of announcing that structured data was a ranking factor.

Who is holding back structured data at Google?

Many in the SEO community have speculated that Google will eventually modify its search algorithms to favor websites that use structured markup.  This argument has been passed around in SEO circles since the beginning of Schema.org. Just watch this video by Google Spokesperson Matt Cuts in 2012 as he downplays the idea of Google using Structured data as a ranking factor, but he does not rule out this from happening in the future.

Google Introduces SEO tools in Lighthouse with SEO tools that test structured data

Although Google did not announce that structure data was a ranking factor, it did include structured data as part of an official SEO Audit.  This is seen when a website is tested in Chrome using the Lighthouse Developer Audit tool.   If a website is successful with a passing score it produces the following message for structured data in SEO.   “Structured data is valid.  Run the Structured Data Testing Tool and the Structured Data Linter to validate structured data. Learn more.”  Hence Google is stating that structured data should be considered for improving SEO but it does not make structured data an official ranking factor in search results.   The question remains, should it?  We feel it should.

What are the stakes?

Structured data is not just about the webmasters; it is about achieving a better search engine experience.  By rewarding webmasters who use structured markup with significant improvement to PageRank, everyone wins; webmasters who comply (see more traffic), search engines (help more people), and the users (get help faster).

The goal of Schema.org was to make the Internet better by delivering answers and relevant content to users without them having to visit a website. Most would agree that structured data has produced real benefits for Google.  After all, getting instant answers without having to click through to the website results in real time savings for everyone.

However, as of right now, Google isn’t doing enough to encourage the web designers to implement schema. The private sector has some motivation because traffic and sales are needed for any business to survive. The public sector and small non-profits can do without structured data since there is no pressure driving sales. Therefore, a substantial percentage of webmasters just have no incentive to implement structured markup at all.

So, what can Google do to encourage structured data?

Bottom feeders to the rescue

A controversial way to approach the implementation of schema-driven search would be to work with what is already available. Content aggregators have been around for a long time. Typically, Google pushes them to the bottom of the search results because they are full of duplicate content, frowned upon by many as bottom crawlers of the web.

What if Google adjusts its algorithms to reward aggregators that use structured markup with better search engine rankings?  Wait, why should webmasters be listed first in search results for publishing someone else’s content? Because the primary objective of the search engine is to show the most relevant, high-quality search results. Content aggregators that use structured markup are contributing to this goal, thus benefiting the overall search economy.

In fact, one can easily argue that although controversial, this is at least a logical approach to creating a more structured Internet because businesses would not want their content hijacked by scrapers and aggregators.   A decision like this would prompt webmasters to implement structured data as soon as possible.

Crowdsourcing can help

A less controversial method is to use crowdsourcing.   Currently, Google’s “Structured Data Markup Helper” tool requires a verified search console account before someone can identify structured data.   Why is this ownership verification process even needed?  Besides, the Structured Data Highlighter does not modify the content of the website.

Google already has a large volunteer community in its Google Top Contributor program.  By allowing Google’s volunteer community to participate in tagging, we will have a fully structured Internet in no time.   All Google would need to do is create a structured data expert group.  Then give them encouragement to start tagging.

To facilitate this, Google could include the ”Structured Data Highlighter Helper” tool as a free Chrome browser extension.  This feature could also make it so anyone can tag data.  Google top contributors could moderate volunteers to make sure the results are high quality.   Wikipedia is proof that volunteers can create a fantastic resource.   Google should do the same to make the Internet a more structured information resource for everyone.

It’s time for a structured data revolution

“Hey Google” if you are listening, it’s time to focus on getting everyone to use structured data.   This effort is not just for you, but for the entire Internet.   What would it be like if searchers never had to click through to a website to get help?  Everyone could have the information requested neatly displayed in the search results.  What if we no longer hear Google Home say, “Sorry I don’t know how to help with that.  I am learning more each day?”  One thing is sure, having more structured data markup will produce more answers at the tip of our fingers.

Structured data is the way of the future. More and more Artificial Intelligence solutions are using it to provide answers to the users’ questions.  The success of Google depends on structured data and enhanced search results.  Therefore, Google needs to push more structured data.  What we see right now is just not enough, and this technology is too beneficial for everyone to remain underutilized.

[1] Jessica Lee (May 16, 2013). “OK Google: ‘The End of Search as We Know It'”. Search Engine Watch. Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC. Retrieved May 20,2013.

[2] Introducing schema.org: Search engines come together for a richer web, Google blog, 2 June 2011.

[3] Introducing Data Highlighter for event data, Google blog, 12 December 2012.

[4] Over a third of Google search results incorporate Rich Snippets supported by Schema, Searchmetrics 2 April, 2014.

[5] Total Number of websites, Internet Live Stats, 05, November 2017

[6] How To Get A 30% Increase In CTR With Structured Markup, Paul Bruemmer, 29 December 2011

The post Hey Google: advance structured data appeared first on New Hampshire Web Design.

Today, we provide 12 restaurant marketing tips and advice to help seize the top spots in search engines and customer review websites.

If you’re interested in learning how to put an end to unjust negative reviews on Yelp (as well as the best practices on gaining as many positive ones as possible), make sure not to miss the final section of the article where we discuss these points in detail.

1. Leverage the power of customer review platforms and local directories

If there’s one thing you want to take away from this article, it’s how use restaurant marketing strategies to leverage the power of customer review platforms like Yelp and Google My Business.  Having a good presence with these websites will bring you a good chunk of traffic. Review platforms are high sources of traffic for desktop and mobile traffic, and the official Yelp app has a lot to do with this phenomenon.

After that, you should focus your efforts on Facebook, Bing, and Apple Maps. Local directories are important as well, but not more than the social media and search giants outlined above.

At any rate, listing your restaurant in the local business directories won’t cost you anything. Most of these are free, but even if you stumble upon a high ranking website with quality content that requires a listing fee, it may very well be worth it, since this can be an excellent source of leads.

Restaurant owners should focus on getting a business listing with the following websites:

Allmenus, Bing Places for Business, CitySearch, CitySquares, DexKnows, Facebook, Foursquare, Google My Business, Local.com, MapQuest, LocalStack, OpenTable, Superpages.com, TripAdvisor, Zomato, White Pages, Yahoo! Local Listing, YP, Yelp, 8coupons
(source: deluxe)

To succeed, do keep in mind that you need to actively manage and update these listings by adding specials, photos, and announcements. If this sounds like too much work, you may want to seek help from of our restaurant marketing and Local SEO consultants. Contact us for a free estimate.

2.Restaurant marketing includes using location keywords correctly in your website content

Using keywords such as “best restaurant in [your location]” do not produce results as they did ten years ago when Local SEO was about links and keywords, and your website’s meta tags had more influence. The reason for this stems from the fact that Google and other major local search platforms control most of the traffic and now focus on a customer experience more than keywords. In other words, search engine results now place a higher value on reviews which is why websites like Yelp are finding success.

In fact, search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and the one in Apple’s iPhone use Yelp’s database and extensive reviews to power their search results for local restaurant searches. Simply put, if you don’t have any presence there, using keywords such as the ones we’ve mentioned won’t help very much for bringing business to your door.

However using keywords like your town and city in content are still important because they send location signals which can help you rank in local search results. Just don’t expect massive results if you add “the best restaurant in [your location].”

3. Good restaurant marketing focuses on your community

Your website should have content that focuses on your community and things that are of interest to your customers. For example, if you are hosting a fundraiser for a local sports team or senior center make sure you promote it on your website. Don’t forget to include details about other local events your business is not involved with directly. This information can be helpful especially if potential event visitors need to find a place to eat before or after the game.

In fact, some local events may have websites that are low quality or have none at all because volunteers run them. So if your site includes detailed information people are searching for, it will be the one search engines display when people are searching. Hence adding featured content about local events and fundraisers will help get the word out about the attraction while boosting quality traffic and potential sales both before and after local events.

In summary, focus most of your efforts on making sure your website has quality content and is regularly updated. Local directory results use the quality of your site as a ranking factor, so updating it often with high-quality photos of your restaurant, event information, menus and specials will be a massive help to your raking in Local Directories like Google My Business.

2. Recognize and taking advantage of structured data opportunities

Using structured data is a great way to get an edge over your competition. Just by implementing it, your click-through rate may increase as much as 30% (source: search engine land ). But to do it efficiently, the first step is to identify the structured data opportunities on your website.

The restaurant location is the obvious one, but there’s a whole lot more you can do. For example, you can use structured data to tag the details (name, location, time, date, admission costs, etc.) of special events such as Darts Nights, Karaoke Night, Superbowl Sunday. If you have a venue and host events and activities, you have a perfect opportunity to get additional exposure to the restaurant if you know how to mark it up correctly using structured data.

5. Fast page loading times affect customer experience

In this day and age, we business owners are always fighting for the attention of our customers. Having an unresponsive website not only makes you look unprofessional, but it will also drive away the potential customers who will quickly lose interest and move on to another service provider. Google has also announced that they are using the loading time of your website as a ranking factor. It is hard to tell how much benefit it will give you but it is worth doing because it’s easy to measure using Google’s PageSpeed Insights and every advantage you can get is one step closer to getting to the top of search results.  First test your pages to see if you get a passing grade.  If you get a poor score you will want to reach out to reach out to a seasoned SEO consultant.   Contact us for an estimate if you don’t have someone you can trust to get the job done.

6. Stick to the whitehat plan when doing SEO for restaurants

SEO is part of every good restaurant marketing strategy.   However, it’s easy to fall into the lure of using blackhat SEO practices since they promise quick results. But in reality, even if you’re able to get some short-term success with them, it’s unlikely to last long, since your website stands a good chance to get penalized by the search engines as soon as they detect any optimization practices that are against the terms of service.

With whitehat SEO, on the other hand, the high search engine rankings are likely to stay with you long into the future, even if it takes a bit longer to reach your ranking goals. Hence it is best that you and your marketing team should read Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

7. Restaurant marketing plans include creating a professional looking website

The design appeal of your website is especially important for restaurant owners since, in this line of business, the presentation is everything. Apart from professionalism having a unique design will also contribute to better search engine rankings. So make sure your designer does not take shortcuts by designing your website with the same cookie cutter template they used for your competition.

8. Don’t forget about on-site optimization

While you’re in the midst of the process of acquiring natural backlinks, it’s easy to forget that on-page optimization is an essential part of SEO and every good restaurant marketing plan. Do keyword research, so you know the words and phrases your customers are using in their searches.  If you are using Google Adwords you already have access to a key word planner.  If not you will want to create an account since it is free and you have no obligation to advertise.  Review and update your meta tags as they are still a significant factor in search engine optimization. Do this by creating unique quality meta description, headers, titles for each page, but it doesn’t end there. It’s also important to think about having a proper keyword density percentage, fill in the alt tags for the images, include multimedia to make the content more lively.

9. Duplicate content is a no-no

If there is too much duplicate content on your website, search engines will mark it as low quality, and it will eventually get filtered out of search results. You can use professional-grade tools to check if your website contains duplicate content (like Copyscape or Duplichecker). Even though it may seem hard to come up with unique content for a restaurant, you need to have at least some of it. And if you’re just unable to get your creative juices flowing, there’s always the option of hiring one of our professional content writers to do it for you. Don’t worry our ghostwriters are 100% invisible and don’t need credit for the work.

10. Conversion optimization is what ultimately drives your sales

In the end, real people will be visiting your website, which means you need to think about how you’re going to convert them into customers (in other words, get them to visit your restaurant and spend their money). You need to motivate them by demonstrating how great your place is, showcase the menus available, lure them in with exclusive discounts, and other types of sales and marketing techniques.

11. Presentation is important in restaurant marketing

In today’s wave of rising demands, listing the menus on your website is just not enough. After all, this is what everyone else seems to be doing, and you always need to be on the lookout for ways in which you’re going to stand out from the crowd.

So here’s what to do instead: for every meal listed on the menu, have a top-quality photo accompany it, taken by a professional photographer and embellished by the best Photoshop expert you know. That way, you’ll make sure that the picture triggers an emotional response in your potential prospects, which will make them more likely to stop by your restaurant for a bite to eat.

12. Online reputation management

You’re probably going to have to think about adding reputation management to your restaurant marketing strategy sooner or later. Today, a large percentage of people will check the online reviews before deciding to do business with you. Reviews and customers testimonials act as a social proof (people are inclined to copy the behavior of others, in an attempt to reflect correct behavior) that should be a part of your overall marketing strategy. That’s the reality, and you’re going to need to develop a plan on how to execute it.

Don’t just wait for reviews to happen!

While many customers are willing to leave a review on their own, waiting for it to happen is like standing in the middle of the desert and hoping for the rain to fall. Therefore, taking the proactive approach is the better strategy. Unfortunately, it gets a little bit more complicated than that, since angry customers are more likely to leave a review than those who were satisfied by your services, which already creates a problematic situation for restaurant owners.

Can I remove negative reviews?

In fact, “can I remove negative reviews” is probably a popular search term used by many restaurant owners. For example, poor quality reviews of your business on Yelp affect your search rankings as well. Reviews have a smaller impact on franchise owners of big corporations like McDonald’s because they have a corporate brand to protect them. Small business owners, however, experience reviews as something that can make or break them.

There are many review sites out there, including Amazon, Google My Business, Yahoo user listings, Facebook, Twitter, etc., all of which have unique terms of service and each demanding a custom-tailored approach when it comes to online reputation management. But since covering all of this is way beyond the scope of this article, we’re going to be focusing on the most challenging customer review website of them all: Yelp.

How to deal with bad reviews on Yelp?

Before Yelp dealing with bad online reviews was not a critical part of restaurant marketing.  Well, unfortunately, it is now, and your first instinct may be to tackle the negative reviews head-on, explaining why the person who wrote the review is wrong. This approach should be your last resort if used at all because replying to negative reviews will make them less likely to get removed. Worse yet, by doing this, you risk having the discussion escalate to a flame-war, which certainly won’t do your online reputation any favors.

Get bad reviews removed

When dealing with bad reviews, the first thing to do is check if they’re violating Yelp’s terms of service in any way. If they are, removing them is rather simple. If the review contains any derogatory remarks, is insulting or a personal attack on an employee, if it’s ethnically or religiously intolerant, you can file a complaint to Yelp directly, outlining the TOS violations. The same is true if the bad review is an ex-employee retaliation, or merely a four-word nonsense with no substance or meaning other than trying to cast a bad light on you and your business. Yelp is very cooperative when the person who left the review violated its terms of service.

Ask your customer to remove them

If you’ve tried everything we’ve mentioned without any success, you can always try to contact the lousy reviewer off the site and convince him to delete or edit the review. Afterwards, tell them you understand their frustration, displaying care and empathy in your tone of writing. Tell them that people who work there have families to feed and bad reviews may cause them to lose their jobs.

Convince them they are doing a good deed by editing or removing the review, and offer them a free meal or drink if nothing else works while making it known you’ve taken the critique to heart and are willing to make the necessary changes and ensure that it never happens again.

Always leave a positive reply for both good and bad reviews

If you can’t get the review removed, you can at least leave a positive reply. In fact, don’t let any comment on your business go unanswered, good or bad. Be professional and state the facts in your response. Have you been wrongly accused of not using all-natural and fat-free ingredients, for example? Remain calm and list your supplier sources. Ask unsatisfied customers to try your restaurant again and take this as an opportunity to promote the strengths of your business. Turn lemons into lemonade. It’s as simple as that.

Good restaurant marketing includes gaining more Yelp reviews

Hopefully, you’ve dealt with the negative reviews, so now we can finally focus on getting you some positive ones. First, a word of caution: Yelp, unlike Google My Business, discourages asking for reviews and has many filters in place for preventing fake ones.

Here are three things you should not do to get reviews on Yelp.

1. Never mass email your list of customers, asking for a Yelp review. If you do this, Yelp’s algorithms are smart enough to pick it up and discount the reviewer’s comments entirely. Reviews posted on the same day are going to raise all kinds of red flags.
2. Don’t ask people who are not already active Yelp users. Yelp’s system makes it difficult for new users to leave reviews that count as recommended. Therefore, if you ask someone that never used Yelp before, chances are it won’t become a recommended review, and that won’t improve the rating score for your business.
3. Never print business cards to hand out with a link to your Yelp page. It sounds like a good idea on its face, after all, how is Yelp going to know you handed out a business card imprinted with a link to your business profile. The direct link approaches have a high likelihood of failure. Yelp can recognize direct URL entries as untrusted reviews. Furthermore, a card with your Yelp link on it makes no sense because active Yelp users are likely to have a smartphone with the Yelp App installed. If Yelp users want to leave a review for you, all they would need to do is open the Yelp App and make their comments known before they depart your restaurant. In fact, they probably used the Yelp App to find your restaurant that same day while driving home from work on a Friday afternoon.

Getting more Yelp reviews without asking.

One option that could work is to ask a Yelp customer, who just received excellent service at your restaurant if they have ever left a positive review on Yelp. Active Yelp users might see this as a gentle reminder and leave you a good review. This approach does not violate the Yelp business guidelines because you are not asking for a review, but it might improve your chances for a positive review.

All in all, providing an excellent service should be the core of your restaurant marketing strategy. That way, you’ll stand a good chance of getting a hefty portion of good reviews the organic way, and when you do discretely ask active yelp users if they give reviews on Yelp, you stand a good chance of getting one.

The post Restaurant marketing Ideas, Reviews and 12 Tips to guide your SEM campaign appeared first on New Hampshire Web Design.

The term ‘structured data’ has gained a lot of traction recently. This article will give you the basics of structured data, what it is, who is behind it.  Why it is essential for SEO.  You will have the knowledge needed to enhance and improve your SERPs that impact search engine marketing results.

What is structured data and how does it affect my website?

Structured data is the standard vocabulary needed for search engines to capture and communicate essential facts and meaning from websites. This data makes it possible for search engines to display answers to user queries quickly without users visiting your site. The webmasters who use structured data don’t merely feed the search engines with content; they also tell them what that content means. Search engines show this information as enhanced results (SERPs) (rich knowledge boxes, snippets, cards, carousels, etc.).

Who created structured data and why?

Yahoo, Google, and Bing partnered to create a universal standard for structured data. The goal was to make the Internet better by delivering answers and content to users before they visit a website. The potential economic benefits are tremendous since people will spend less time searching and more time being productive workers. Happy search engine users equal delighted and more profitable search engines. As a result of the partnership, Schema.org was born, and so were the universal standards for structured data.

Who benefits from Structured data?

By using structured data, everyone is a winner.  Search engines can display more meaningful search results, and your website gets additional exposure by looking more exciting and professional. If you’re familiar with rich snippets, you’ll quickly understand what structured data is and how to use it. Search engines give rich snippets priority when ranking pages in search results because they are helpful.

What content qualifies as structured data?

Thanks to the Schema markup, almost anything can be structured. However, most search engines have focused on those items that appeal to a broad audience and are most helpful. This list includes articles, creative works, movies, events, products, restaurants, reviews, TV episodes, local businesses, and more. In fact, there are hundreds of structured data categories from which to choose.  By taking the time to look through them all, you’re almost certainly going to find options for your website.

Will Structured Date improve my Search Engine ranking (SERPs)

Many SEO professionals share the opinion that schema markup has some benefit for attaining better search engines rankings. Including structured data on your website will improve chances of Google showing your web pages in enhanced search engine results.  Schema results in better click-through rates.  It does not always translate into higher search engine ranking.

In fact here is the video of Google spokesperson Matt Cutts where he clarified Google’s official position in 2012.  Note that he leaves the door open to the possibility of Schema influencing page rank.  With the slow adoption of Schema and the development of new technology like Google Home, one wonders if it will change.   We believe it will happen in a future Google algorithm change.  Evidence has not been seen to validate this is happening today.

How do I add structured data to my website?

In a technical context, structured data requires inserting unique schema markup code on a website.  Search engines use this to convey valuable information that users need to know from a web page.

There are three ways to apply structured data by modifying the code of your website.

The first most common method involves using Microdata markup. Microdata markup is open community HTML specifications that use nested structured data to define the structured data within your website’s HTML code. Web designers place this in the body or head of the HTML.

Alternatively, you can apply structured data using JSON-LD which allows you to do the same thing.  Instead of doing it inside the HTML code, you do so by using Javascript and placing the markup in the head of the page. Google promotes this as a recommended method because it can be easily read by the search engine and can be used by content management systems to generate content dynamically.

Lastly, web designers can use HTML5 extensions called RDFa which are tag attributes which name properties as structured data. Similar to Microdata, web designers include RDFa in the body or head sections of your HTML.

Hence the process can be learned even if you don’t know a thing about programming. But also if that sounds like biting more than you chew, some alternatives allow you to do the same thing without having to modify the code in any way manually.

Is there a non-technical approach to implementing structured data?

To help non-technical users implement a schema for their website Google created a Structured Data Highlighter Helper tool. We found this method to be the most user-friendly way to achieve structured data without programming.  If you are new to structured data, you may want to watch Google’s YouTube video below before you continue reading.

With the Structured Data Highlighter, you can highlight specific portions of your website and define what they mean without programming. For example, you are organizing an event and want to have it appear as structured data.  Just highlight the relevant portions of your website, like the name of the event, the exact date, etc.  The tool will automatically generate the correct markup for your site.

The following are instructions for using Google’s Structured Data Highlighter Helper tool:

• Step 1) Gain access to a verified Search Console account

  Make sure you have access to an authenticated Search Console account.   Google requires proof that you own the website before you can use the structured data highlighter helper tool. Your content management system (CMS) may also make this possible.  If not, you may need help from a web designer.  Proof of ownership typically involves uploading code to your website or adding a DNS record.  If you are using WordPress, numerous plugins can help with this task.  Once you verify ownership of your site, wait a day or so before you move on to the next step.  Are you still having problems? Feel free to contact us, and we can help.

• Step 2) Navigate to the “Search Appearance” section and determine whether there is already any structured data markup on the site.

  Google provides this information in the search console, so there is no need to contact a web designer. Just open up Google Search Console and navigate your way to the Structured Data Report. The report will indicate where the errors are present and list the reasons why they are occurring. You may want to have your web designer correct the errors before moving to the next step.

• Step 3) Identify the different types of your content and figuring out which ones can be marked up.

  Google provides an essential guide to help you with determining structured data opportunities in what it calls a Search Gallery.   Note that this is the information which Google is currently displaying with enhanced search results. However, Google will likely expand this to include additional categories of structured data so your best bet is to visit Schema.org where you can get the entire list of possibilities.

  • Review Top Level and Extensions: Schema.org identifies the top-level Core vocabulary starting with a ‘Thing,’ and drills down to lower levels consisting of the following topics: action, creative work, event, intangible, medical entity, organization, person, place, product.   Then narrow down the possible candidates by ruling out the ones that aren’t applicable. After finally identifying opportunities in the top-level plan, check out the ‘core plus all extensions’ list.  This list will make sure you’re not missing any options.
  • Ask Questions: You can make things easier by asking questions. For example: Is this page selling a product,  announcing an event or publishing a creative work? Chances are you’ll be able to identify the correct category using one of these methods. You can also use Google to search for this particular type and take a look at some usage examples. This process may give you the right idea faster than reading through each category’s description.

• Step 4) Now, you’re finally ready to highlight the structured data opportunities on your website.

  If your site organized into subfolders and you have data in the same place, it will be easy. Google asks you to identify structured data on a few pages and uses that to determine data throughout your website. Hence you won’t need to do this for every page. For less classified sites, Google will expect you identify the structured data one page at a time. You can do this by using your mouse and cursor to select text on your page. Once you choose the content, you are prompted to indicate the data type on the right of the screen. For example, if it is an article you will need to select the title, author, date published, image, category, and rating.

• Step 5) Submit your results to Google and monitor your website

  After you submit your results, Google will format your page’s structured data for it’s enhanced search results. The next time Google crawls your site, Google uses your markup to understand the data on your site.

Limitations and Problems with using Google’s Structured Data Highlighter Helper tool

The “mystery of the disappearing content, and URLs not found.”

When using Google’s Structured Data Highlighter, you may not see the page, or information may be missing. Incomplete or missing content are common problems. Google fails to warn users that you can only tag data that is already indexed by its crawler.  Wait until the material is indexed before tagging it as structured data with Google’s Structured Data Highlighter.   Furthermore, The Data Highlighter can only access public pages. If Google hasn’t crawled or can’t crawl pages, such as behind a login page, the Data Highlighter won’t work.

Why did Google stop recognizing structured data on my web pages?

Disappearing structured data is a problem for webmasters who are continually trying to improve the slug or URL.  This issue may happen if you are trying to make it more search engine friendly. By changing the URL webmasters brake the pattern used for structured data and Google can’t tag your pages properly anymore. The way the Google Data Highlighter works is as follows. You tag 4 or 5 pages, and Google records a pattern in the layout of your pages.  It then applies the same structured data logic to the other pages on your website. Google uses this model for all pages having all the same URL structure. Delete the original page sets if you make changes to the way your pages display information or change your URLs.  Then create a new page set to teach the Data Highlighter about the new structure of your site.

The Google’s Structured Data Highlighter Helper tool has limitations.

This tool is fantastic for small companies that cannot afford to pay a web designer.  Unfortunately, other search engines and websites will not be able to access Google’s markup to format their search results.  If you only use the Google Structured Data Highlighter helper tool, your website is at a disadvantage.  Facebook or other sites won’t be able to give priority to your structured data in the same way. Therefore you may want to invest in having a web designer implement schema.org markup to the pages on your site. You can use the work you already did with Markup Helper as an example to follow.

It is no surprise for Google to want to keep this information all to itself. Afterall Google wants to be the best search engine for delivering the top search results. For small businesses, the Google Structured Data Highlighter helper tool is all that’s needed. Those who want a more comprehensive approach will want to modify the pages of their website.  Doing this will keep it fresh and more modern for the entire Internet community to use and share.

How do I know if my programmer has implemented Structured data correctly?

There is an easy way you can test if the markup was applied correctly, and it’s called the Google Structured Data Testing Tool. You can access it through the Google Search Console. Errors may come up at a later date, so continue monitoring the Structured Data Report in the Search Console.

How can I help my content appear on the first page of Google as enhanced SERPs?

Here are a few guidelines for implementing structured data:

1. Make sure the way you format structured data is technically correct, standards compliant and does not contain duplicates.
2. Include only accurate information on your website. If Google shows the wrong information as enhanced results, millions may receive and make decisions on the false information.
3. Make sure your data is as complete as possible and includes the required values.
4. Don’t hide structured data when the user visits your website. Showing one thing in structured data and another, when someone visits the page, is a violation of Google’s rules.
5. Don’t display content that is misleading or not representative of the main content of the page.Refer to Google for a complete list.

If you are having difficulty with structured data in practice, you will want to refer to Google’s guide for using structured data.

Conclusion

As you can see, using structured data will benefit your website in many ways we’ve discussed above. There are user-friendly free tools to help you apply schema markup to your site without coding.

Don’t ignore doing this for your site as Schema is playing a significant roll in the development of new voice search technology and artificial intelligence. New hot products link Google Home, Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri will use schema to power voice search results. Therefore with the popularity of voice search growing, Schema mark up is becoming increasingly essential over the next few years.

If you need help implementing structured data on your website, contact someone from our web design team, and we can help.

The post All you need to know about Structured Data, Schema, SERPs, Rich Knowledge Boxes, Snippets and more appeared first on New Hampshire Web Design.

Hummingbird and Fred are two of Google’s recent algorithmic updates.   This article was written by our top Boston SEO consultant and is designed to answer some of the most common questions about this massive change in the search results.

Undoubtedly, businesses are going to have to adapt to these changes if they want to retain their rankings in the future. So let’s dive into what these changes are and what they mean for your online assets:

What SEO consultants have learned about Google Hummingbird

Hummingbird completely changes the rules regarding how Google understands the search queries. Before, it was all about searching for the keywords found within the content, but now, the search engine knows the user intent of the search.  This change uses machine learning technology to take Google search beyond keywords.

Now, it doesn’t matter whether you enter “how to lose weight as a teenager” or “weight loss for teens,” since Google knows you’re looking for the same thing.

Moreover, Google now understands what stage searchers are in the buying process. For example, if you’re searching for “how to” type of keywords, it recognizes you are in the information-gathering phase. If you’re entering “product name + review,” it knows you’re ready to buy a product and are trying to find reviews.

This algorithmic change also helps Google understand voice queries with ease.  Moreover, there is no need to worry about keyword stuffing since Google Hummingbird already does the work for you.

What you need to know about Google Fred

Google Fred was designed to combat the websites using overly-aggressive monetization tactics. According to Google, these types of sites were providing a negative user experience. So in essence, this algorithmic change aimed to penalize the websites that prioritized monetization higher than excellent user experience.

Notably, the sites that were hit the hardest not only annoyingly placed their ads but also weren’t helpful regarding content, which was thin and full of fluff.

Another aspect of SEO targeted by Google Fred was the poor quality of backlinks. In concrete terms, we’re talking about broken links, links with poor domain authority and unnatural links.

How to adapt to these SEO changes?

Hummingbird: answer the needs of your visitors, not just provide them with facts. Don’t try to stash as many long tail keywords in the content. Write meaningful and helpful content.  Long tail keywords should appear in your content in a completely natural way without deliberate intent.

Fred: make sure that the content on your website is excellent, well-written, and meaningful.  Your backlinks should be relevant and of high quality.  Don’t get too greedy when it comes to monetization. Take an approach to marketing your website that does do not rely on excessive advertisements.   Make sure their placement is non-obtrusive.

Conclusion: Publish Quality Content

If you have been publishing quality content to help and inform your customers, you have nothing to worry.   Go ahead and keep up the excellent work.   However, if you have been keyword stuffing and other spam techniques you have a lot of work to do.   Adapting to Hummingbird and Fred is merely crucial for the longevity of your business, at least if you’re relying on organic SEO traffic to generate sales.  If you understand these changes and implement a robust strategy on how to adapt to them, you will make sure that your website receives a healthy amount of traffic.

Contact one of our NH Web Design SEO consultants for a free SEO audit.  We can help you get back on track.

The post Are you prepared for Fred and Hummingbird? appeared first on New Hampshire Web Design.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is mostly about Local Business Pages, Citations, and Reviews

You are not the first to ask: What is Local SEO? Many confuse it with organic SEO. In fact, they overlap each other in practice.   Local involves listing your business completely and accurately in local directories and updating them regularly.  It includes actively managing photos and reviews on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor. You’ll also want to pay attention to your profiles on local social networking sites like Facebook and other local listings like Google My Business, Bing for business, and Apple Maps. Refer back to your social pages at your physical locations by encouraging people to check on social media websites in when they’re visiting your business.   It’ll help to push your business out into people’s news feeds and get you heard out there thanks to worth-of-mouth marketing.

While you’re doing this, you’ll also want to make sure that your website and your listings are using high-quality photography and that you’ve checked the copy for errors. Local SEO is your chance to make a first impression – don’t blow it with blurry photographs and spelling mistakes.

Finally, don’t just create stuff and forget about it. If you create a listing and join a local social networking site, stay active.  Continue to add new content and photos to your business listing.  If you blog about events in the local area, keep blogging. Don’t just launch some half-baked initiative and then abandon it after a couple of weeks. It takes time to get results, but once you do start to rank for local search terms, it’s a gift that keeps on giving.

Local SEO also involves creating local content for your website.

Have you ever asked the question: What is Local SEO? At a basic level, when we talk about local SEO, we talk about optimizing your website for your location.  The goal is to have your contact information appear at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) when customers look for your products or services in your area. For example, if you’re a physiotherapist in New York City, you’ll want people to find you when they search ‘Manhattan physio’ or ‘Brooklyn physical therapy.’  It is also essential to rank when they search for physiotherapist near me.

One of the best ways to do this is to create content that’s specific to those areas. For example, the physiotherapist may want to build pages for each of the boroughs of the city with unique content targeting relevant keywords.  This strategy is called organic SEO, and it can be an effective to improve your website’s position local search as well.

You will also want to make your name address and phone number visible on your website. Possibly on the bottom or top of every page.  This practice sends local signals to search engines telling them where to find you.

Why Local SEO is Important

The question of why local SEO is essential is similar to the question of why SEO, in general, is critical.  You will want customers to find you when they are shopping instead of spending a lot of money to chase them down.  Therefore create a solid SEO and social media marketing strategy so that you stay front and center in customers’ minds at all times.

Every business can benefit at some level from local SEO. After all, 97% of consumers use the internet when researching local products and services (BIA/Kelsey). Furthermore, 50% of consumers who search for a local business on their smartphone visit a store on the same day. (comScore)   Local SEO is something that impacts the bottom line of your business.

Who benefits from Local SEO?

Local SEO is ideal for smaller businesses or for those who cover a given area. It can also be used to promote events, tourist destinations and services like wedding venues, golf courses and even pop-up shops and art installations.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking that local SEO is only relevant for smaller businesses. It also has implications for big multinationals and companies with multiple locations in different countries. Large companies need to consider SEO on an international scale, a national level and at a local level.  All three approaches require a different set of tactics and localization.  It takes time to do it right, but it’s worth it. The results speak for themselves.

In fact, even drop shipping businesses and internet-based service companies with no address can still use local SEO.  An example of this would be an online retailer that optimizes pages and subsections for the different delivery areas.  Another example is creating blog posts that cover local topics and events that are relevant to local areas.   They can upsell their products from there.

Local SEO can also help big businesses with outlets across the country.  Then it is ideal for small mom and pop stores and specialist hobby shops that cater to specific audiences. Local SEO has the interesting side effect of leveling the playing field. For small businesses, this is huge. They can now take on massive multinational companies with substantial marketing budgets – and win!

Conclusion: What is Local SEO?

Many overlook Local SEO, but it’s one of the most critical aspects of a search engine marketing strategy.  As a general rule, it’s usually a good idea to take advantage of as many different marketing channels as possible.

Boosting your local SEO presence will help your SEO efforts as a whole, as well as your social media presence. Every new like, share and follow has regional meaning. Every new inbound link and piece of content that you create will have a positive effect on Local SEO.

Now all you need to do is measure the results in your analytical suite.  Then continue creating great content that brings in local searchers. The results will continue to roll in over time.

Do you need more information on what is Local SEO and how it can help your business?  Read our article: Should I hire a Local SEO Consultant or do it myself?

The post What is Local SEO and Why is it Important? appeared first on New Hampshire Web Design.

In today’s article, we answer the most common plugin-related questions you might have and provide some helpful tips.

Why do we need WordPress plugins?

Without plugins, the core functionality of WordPress would be severely limited. It’s thanks to them that the platform has managed to take off so well. At the given time, you choose from well over 40-thousand plugins (both free and commercial), all of which serve various purposes.

Furthermore, even average webmasters can use them to improve their website without writing a single line of code. For example, just by using a simple WordPress plugin, you can transform your website into an e-commerce store or a private membership hangout. Some of them make your front-page look beautiful, and others add functionality in the background. The possibilities are nearly endless.

Installing too many poorly coded plugins can slow down the load times

Some plugins introduce too many lines of code into the script.  For example, Javascript and multiple CSS files.   The additional code can cause render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content and cause a delay in rendering your web pages.  Some plugins are worse offenders than others, but the more you have installed, the more time your website is going to take to load.

The reason being is that every plugin needs to send an HTTP or database query to the server at one point or another. Therefore, disabling or uninstalling the plugins you no longer need is considered to be a good practice, since you’re going to reduce the strain on the server.  You can try to defer or asynchronously load blocking resources, or inline the critical portions of those resources directly in the HTML.  If you don’t know what this means consider hiring a programmer who can optimize the scripts for you.

Too many plugins at once can cause stability and security issues

The fact of the matter is that individual developers abandon their projects after a while, which means no more security updates.  Not updating your plugins can introduce potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Since the plugins are no longer officially supported, other types of problems may occur, like stability problems.

So how many WordPress Plugins are too many?

There’s no need to worry over every WordPress plugin you decide to install. For example, any number of plugins that’s below 20, is still considered to be acceptable. This figure is just a ballpark estimate, and if you happen to have slightly more, there’s no need to worry.

It’s not (solely) about the number, it’s about the choices you make.  Quality is more important than quantity.

Admittedly, making a right call on which plugins are poorly coded and which ones are not, is a bit hard to make for someone who doesn’t know how to code. However, by reading the webmaster forums and Googling for answers, it’s relatively easy to find the answers pretty quickly.

Seven ways of ensuring your website remains operational at all times

1. Take a minimalist approach to WordPress Development

WordPress programmers are supposed to follow the same WordPress coding standards, but they don’t typically communicate with each other during development.   This situation brings up the possibility of naming convention conflicts in coding.   Multiple plugins might listen when your website is executing scripts.  WordPress Plugins can stop working and even make your site crash.   Therefore, the potential for problems will increase when more than one web designer is creating code.  Your costs of debugging and troubleshooting will grow with each new plugin you install.   For this reason, a minimalist approach is the best approach to WordPress Plugins.

2. Cut out the plugins you don’t need and those with similar functionality

If you are experimenting with WordPress plugins, the chances are that you have more than one plugin installed with the same functionality.   You’re making sure there is no excess clutter on your website by making a choice and removing either one or the other.

3. Install the plugins one by one

It’s important to wait a couple of days before each plugin installation and not try to add too many at once.  By installing each one individually, you can see how each plugin performs and determine whether it causes a slowdown in your website’s loading time.   Use online testing tools like Google PageSpeed Insights.   If you had used the plugins before and trusted them, well then go for it.

4. Update WordPress and plugins regularly

Some people think that updating their WordPress core is enough, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Keeping your website as secure requires that you take care of your WordPress plugins by ensuring they are regularly updated. Then hackers will have a harder time exploiting a previously-patched vulnerability to compromise your website.

5. Take care when choosing your plugins

Your choice regarding which plugins to install is more important than the sheer number of them you have. Your task is trying your best to avoid installing the poorly-coded ones. Generally speaking, installing plugins from well-known developers is a lot less risky than installing the relatively unknown ones.

6. Uninstall the plugins you no longer need

By doing this, you will improve the speed of your website as well as make yourself less susceptible to hacks and exploits.

7. Avoid unsupported WordPress plugins

You can view when a plugin was last updated within your WordPress dashboard as this type of information is publicly displayed.

8. Set up a staging platform and test before upgrading

Perform updates on a clone of your production site   Check your site thoroughly and identify any offending plugins.   If one crashes your site or causes problems, you can wait to make upgrades to that plugin.   Once you are 100% satisfied all your features and functionality are working properly it is safe to perform updates to your live website.

How many WordPress plugins are too many?  The secret lies in making balanced choices

If every plugin can potentially make your site slower and less secure, how can you know you’re on the right path? Simply put, you’re going to have to accept that no matter what you do, your website will never be able to have all the positives without negatives. Such a thing is just impossible to achieve in real-life situations.

M you make healthy choices and test thoroughly.   Plugins can yield significant payoffs concerning the benefits of added functionality to your website. If you feel like installing a plugin will help your site, then – by all means – go for it!

From here on and onward, it’s also about setting specific goals and priorities. What is more important: security, fast loading times, or functionality? Answering this question will point you towards the correct path of developing your website in the future.

Conclusion: Plugin Overload Dilemma

By following these simple principles we’ve discussed above, you’ll be on your way towards a faster, more secure, and a more reliable website and your carefully-chosen WordPress plugins.

Want some help with WordPress?

NH Web Design can provide custom web design, WordPress development and managed web hosting services for those who want to have a worry-free WordPress website. Contact us for a quote on your next project.

The post How many WordPress plugins are too many? appeared first on New Hampshire Web Design.

Setting up and launching a website can be a stressful business. Even when you know what you want, it can be difficult to explain this to someone else, and when you try to do it yourself, you often end up way out of your depth or creating a website that just doesn’t do your vision justice.
The good news is that if you do it right, working with a web designer doesn’t have to be painful. Here are ten tips to make the process smoother and much more enjoyable.

1. Communicate your business needs thoroughly when working with a web designer

There’s no point having a fantastic website if it’s not meeting your business goals. That’s why it’s a good idea to set up either a meeting or a remote screen sharing session so that you can go through competitor and industry websites. Tell your designer what you like and what you don’t like and discuss what you can do to make yourself stand out. Remember that remote calls can save time (and money) by cutting the amount of time your designer spends on meetings, but only if you’re both comfortable with using remote technology.

2. Do a good job communicating your brand

Your company’s marketing standards play a huge role in the design phase, so it’s important to share essential information about colors and font preferences, logos and the visual imagery that you use to convey your message. Some people think that they need a new website and discover that they need a rebrand, while others fail to share brand information and end up causing delays and higher costs down the line.

3. Work with a professional web design company

Many people are tempted to work with freelancers or to give the job to the lowest bidder in an attempt to cut costs. This approach is usually a bad idea because there’s no guarantee of quality and it’s impossible for any one person alone to know everything there is to know about every area. A company, by contrast, can offer subject matter specialists in different areas and form a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.  When you have problems working with a web designer from that company you can usually ask for a new one and they can usually accommodate you quickly without going through a month-long search and rescue which is what you might need to do if you have to start over.

4. Find ways to lower your costs and that of your web designer

One way web design companies make a website more affordable is by limiting creative design options.  If an artist doesn’t limit creative options, they risk getting abused by a difficult client who insists on seeing as many design options as possible.  I had one client that LOVED the first design our designer created, and they said it was perfect.  After further consideration, they insisted on having us create two additional design options.  WHY???  Well, our contract stated that they could have up to 3 designs and the next design could be better than the first one, so they insisted on seeing more options.    This “grass could be greener” in the next design drives up costs unnecessarily and can cause relationships to sour.   It’s better to get it right first time and to focus on the revision process.

5. Consolidate feedback when working with a web designer

Avoid sending hundreds of emails with every little change that you think of because this will take up more time for your designer and potentially lead to things being missed out and forgotten altogether. Instead, consolidate the feedback as part of a list and pay particular attention to key decision makers at your organization so that you know they’ll be happy to sign off on the final design.

6. Write the content first or ask your web designer for help

Designers are business owners too, and the faster they get a job done, the sooner they can get paid and the more money they make. They’ll be able to pass those savings on to you if you speed up the process by preparing the written content beforehand instead of causing delays and redesigns later on in the process.  Furthermore, given that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) requires creative content, many web design firms now have full-time creative writers on staff.  If you let them take on your writing, you may find that your pages will get a higher rank with search engines in the process.

7. Work with your web designer to create a schedule of deliverables

When there are deadlines and deliverables in place, you know what to expect and when to expect it. Make sure that you consider the vacation plans of your decision makers so that you avoid rescheduling and putting extra pressure on an already busy designer. The best web designers run a busy shop and have a lot of work in production, so proper planning on your part will make their life easier and improve your relationship with them.  If your web designer is promising to complete the job in less than one month, that is a red flag, and maybe there’s a reason he is not so busy.

8. Agree on a scope

Work with your designer to create a written scope of work that details everything that the final website should contain.  For complex sites and systems, a design document includes pages of business rules and database designs.    The designer or programmer can refer back to this scope of work or design document, and you can use it to solve any disputes.   It’s also fairer for both parties because if you set a fixed price, that price covers everything in the scope – but no more and no less.   If you receive a one-page proposal for an e-commerce website, run the other way.

9. Keep deadlines on both sides

Web design takes time.  Be assertive if they miss deadlines but do it professionally.  If you constantly badger your web designer for updates, it may take even longer. Trust them to meet their deadlines and repay the courtesy by meeting any deadlines on your end for when you’ve agreed to pay invoices or sign off on designs.

10. Foster the relationship

Don’t just forget about your designer after you complete the project. It’s likely that you’ll want to make modifications down the line and at some point, you’re going to need to refresh the design or to launch a new version. That’s why it’s a good idea to stay in touch with your designer after the project is over in case you need to work with them again in the future.  Besides, you should consider the fact that making updates to your website is critical because its environment frequently changes.   Unless you’re working with a web designer to make upgrades and improvements a priority, your site will go stale and give your customers a bad experience.

Conclusion

Working with a web designer doesn’t have to be difficult. As with most forms of collaboration, communication is essential, so the best thing you can do is to stay open and transparent with your communication throughout the process. By following the ten tips in this article, you’ll be off to a good start.
Good luck – and enjoy your new website.

Want to work with a great web design firm?

NH Web Design can provide custom web design, development, SEO and managed web hosting services for those who want to have a worry-free WordPress website.  Contact us for a quote on your next project.

The post 10 Tips for Working with a Web Designer appeared first on New Hampshire Web Design.

Before you hire a web designer, you should consider what might happen if you hire the wrong person or company. You may be thinking; “does it matter who designs my website? I mean, the neighbor’s kid is good with computers. They could pick a free template and then put your old newspaper ads online, that would be good, right?”

Wrong! Let us stop right there. Don’t do that. It would be bad. We have seen the wreckage after a lousy web design experience, and here are some of the things that can go wrong. Continue reading and learn six steps needed to avoid a bad experience when you hire a web design company. You will also learn what can happen when you make the mistake of hiring the wrong web designer.

After a month of back and forth, I needed to fire my web designer and start from scratch.

The person who made this statement hired a web designer that didn’t spend time learning about the business; it’s brand, customers, and the competition. Now the web designer created a website that:

• doesn’t reflect their vision
• does not fit with their business
• displays graphics that don’t make sense to their customers
• doesn’t include vital information about their company.

Your entire online presence is your website, and a bad one can damage your brand. You have no choice but to cut your losses and start over with a new web designer.

Now that you’ve lost your web design deposit, it is time to think about what went wrong.

How much money did you waste: $1,000.00, $5,000.00, $10,000.00 or more? Now you are wondering if you may have paid too much upfront before they started working for you. What is a reasonable deposit for a web designer anyway? Most web design firms ask for 50% upfront, but it would have helped if your deposit was smaller. As a result, you would have observed the low quality work, saved money, and avoided a disaster.

So, you wasted your time and deposit, or whatever you agreed to pay the web designer to start working. That’s water under the bridge now. I know it is no consolation prize, but at least you learned from the experience. You did have time to think about your needs and the kind of website you don’t want. That is a good starting point for the next web designer.

Trust me, your experience with a web designer could have been worse!

Losing your deposit and hiring a new designer might not have been that bad when you consider what could have happened. We have heard horror stories, where business owners gave the designer access to everything. This unrestricted access included the login credentials to the domain registrar, website login, and full access to hosting services. The security breach resulted in having a website and domain hijacking. There was also a fraudulent activity that included several email accounts. If all the company’s revenue was from online sales, it might even file bankruptcy as a result!

Now here is a real story about how a web designer was hired to design a website and almost destroyed the business.

Jenna and Robert Lazar are owners of Epoch Trading Company, an Asbury Park business. They hired an overseas web developer online to work on their website almost destroyed their business. The developer redirected domain traffic to a porn site. The couple claim he stole their domain name and faked ownership of the site so digital companies couldn’t give it back to them.   Read this article on how a web developer nearly killed the Asbury park small business.    Hence, if you don’t take the right precautions, this could be your business. 

Keep reading our article, and we provide the security protocols that would have prevented Jenna and Robert’s disaster from happening.

How do you stop yourself from hiring a bad web designer?

Before you go out and share this experience with your next web designer, you need a solid plan. Start by documenting your needs and what you want your web designer to do for your business. Here are some questions you need to answer before you hire a web designer:

• Do you need a new website, a redesign, or a stylistic refresh? 
• What about your brand? Do you need someone to create a logo?
• Have you researched the competition and your industry? 
• Want your website to be like a brochure, generate leads from SEO or both?
• Do you have or need a blog?
• Do you need new content? 
• Need a photographer?  
• Will you host the website where it is now, or do you need migration to new hosting?
• Will the website be used as a digital brochure? 
• Do you sell online? 
• Is there a customer login?
• Do you need online advertising and search engine marketing?

After you document what you need, determine if you need help from one or more individuals or an agency. 

Whether you are looking to hire a web designer for a new website or a website redesign, you will need to decide who will do the work. What about creating content? Will this task be done by you, or do you need help with writing? Most web design firms have someone on staff that can do this or have resources for helping with things like creating copy, photography, and logo design.

As a result, knowing the requirements and the kind of services you will need will help determine if you can work with a small web company or an agency. The more services you need, the more likely you will want the approach that an agency can provide.

Six Steps needed to avoid a bad experience when you hire a web design designer:

By following these steps, you can prevent a bad web design experience, tighten security, and lower your financial risks:

1) Create a detailed RFP for hiring the web designer that includes: 

• your requirements, a description of your company and its goals, 
• your competition, and 
• samples of websites that appeal to your target marketing, 
• examples of sites that have a look and feel that is like what you would like to see for your company.  

2) Meet with potential web designers and take the time to educate them about your business.

Don’t expect a web designer to read your mind and know your business. The best designers will ask the right questions during your interview. If they don’t, you will still need to educate them before they create something that doesn’t match your expectations. 

3) Ask for customer references and call them.

Check online reviews and the Better Business Bureau. Buyer beware if reviews are bad or none to be found. Thus, if the web designer is in business for the long term, they’ll care about their reputation and won’t take the risk of getting a bad review. 

4) Make sure the final contract you sign details with your requirements, deliverables, and payment milestones.

Your web design contract should include:

• A complete and detailed scope of work. What will your web designer do for you, and what are the deliverables?
• A section that states what happens if you both need to cancel the agreement. If you need to negotiate a settlement, it will help to have a common understanding before you start.  
• A statement about who owns the final deliverable and intellectual property. Web designers like to control all the code so they can reuse it. Letting them keep the system may not be a good idea if you are concerned about them selling it to a competitor or becoming a competitor. As a result, you will want to protect your brand, your customers, and the intellectual property created from the process of creating your website.
• How and when will you make payments?
• When will you launch the website?

5) Now that you had a bad experience with hiring a web designer, you will want to negotiate a small deposit.

In addition to a small deposit, you should also have several milestones that are manageable and require deliverables and an approval process. It is not a good idea to pay a web designer more than 50% of the project cost. Therefore, you should try to negotiate favorable payment terms and lower your financial risk. 

6) Only provide the credentials that are needed to do the task at hand.

In our experience, web design companies and agencies usually get more access than they need. Sometimes they get full access to manage a company’s domain, DNS, server, and email. As a result, third parties have access to sensitive information, domains can get hijacked, and security compromised. 

Follow these three steps to maximize security and prevent your website from being hijacked by a web designer.

• Create a backup of your website. As a result, you’ll have a fallback if the web designer hacks your website and installs a virus or ransomware.
• Contact your hosting company for help setting up a staging website. Ask them to help you give your web designers ONLY the credentials and access that they need to do their job.   For example, if you have a static site, a web designer only needs sFTP access to your hosting environment to make changes.   If you have a dynamic website with a database, ONLY give them access to sFTP and the database admin.  Hence, you will be giving them everything they need to do their job and no more. 
• Be careful not to provide admin credentials to manage your domain, email or DNS records.  Instead, be sure to reach out to the company that controls your domain or your website hosting company for help launching your website.   As a result, you will be separating access to your domain name and email from the web design project and this will help protect your business from getting hijacked.  

We are here to help with your web design project!

We hope this article has helped you improve your next web design project. Our team is here to help you with your next website design project. Therefore reach out to us for support, security, SEO, or any other topic in this blog. No project is too big or small, and we love to help.

Did you like this article? Read our article, “10 Tips for Working with Your Web Designer” for more tips on hiring a web designer.

The post How to Hire a Web Designer appeared first on New Hampshire Web Design.