Reading Time: < 1 minWhen I cook, which is fairly rarely, I try to follow the French concept of mise en place, where you have everything prepped and ready to go before you actually start. Given my weak cooking skills, it’s very helpful to do that. I’m finding that writing works best for me when I follow the same […]
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Does accessibility help your website rank higher?
Reading Time: < 1 minOnline accessibility has become an important topic over the past few years. I’ve shared some tips on how you can improve accessibility on your site, and this short podcast offers a few more bits of advice. The question is — does Google reward your site for being accessible? The short answer is “no”, but the […]
Are your requests scaring customers away?
Reading Time: 2 minWhen we’re developing a website, we work hard to make sure that every single page has a goal. The call-to-action (CTA) might be to sign up for a newsletter, reach out with more questions, or to simply continue on to another article for more information, but you have to have something there. Too often I […]
Keep It Tight
Reading Time: < 1 minI’ve shared before that I tend to use as few words as possible when writing or speaking. It was something that I tried for a while to “fix” before I realized that it was already a pretty good thing. Fewer words doesn’t mean that something needs to be thin, just that you can remove the […]
Write first, fix later
Reading Time: < 1 minI’ve talked a good bit about the idea of writer’s block, and how a blank page can be a tough thing to get past. However, if you can just get a smidge of an idea started, that’s often all you’ll need to get the full concept written out. When you get it all written it […]
User engagement doesn’t impact your search rankings
Reading Time: 2 minKeeping users engaged on your website is vitally important, but Google says it doesn’t affect your rankings. I suspect they want it to, but they don’t have a good way to tie your site engagement to the rankings. The problem for Google is two-fold: If you have Google Analytics on your website, which captures many […]
I write and therefore I know
Reading Time: < 1 minIn a recent episode of the “Focus on This” podcast, host Blake Stratton shared something that I found very interesting. The topic was about journaling, and how it can lead to clarity. Blake took the idea of externalization and put it like this: Usually you think, “Oh, I know and therefore therefore I write,” it’s […]
Taking an idea from a car thought to a blog post
Reading Time: 2 minSeth Godin has said repeatedly that “writer’s block is a myth”. He said it’s really more like “I have a fear of bad writing”, as he explains in this short video: However, I tend to disagree. When I sit down to write, I’m not afraid of bad writing, but I often just don’t know where […]
Collective sharing versus collective building
Reading Time: < 1 minThe internet is at an interesting place right now, where sharing is becoming easier than ever, but building is becoming more elusive. As people continue to run to Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and other platforms, they’re finding it increasingly easy to share content. That’s a not a bad thing, for sure. While I work to obtain […]
500 days of blogging
Reading Time: < 1 minWhen I started on this back in October of 2020, I was pretty confident I’d make it through the end of that year, and even 100 in a row didn’t seem too bad. However, 500 is a different animal and I’m pleased I’ve been able to keep it up this long. Because I don’t write […]