PSPINC Official Company Blog

PSPinc What's New Newsletter Vol.56 "Why SSL and the SEO Effect"

Mar

25

Vol. 56

SSL is an acronym for Secure Socket Layer, which encrypts communication between a website and the browser. The encryption ensures that passwords, credit card numbers, birthdates, etc. that the user 'enters' cannot be stolen during the communication.

In addition to this, SSL has another major role to play, it authenticates the owner of the site.

For example, our company's domain name is PSPINC.COM. But there is no proof that PSPINC.COM is Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. To issue SSL, the website owner needs to be certified, a legitimate company can be identified by this level of certification.

If a website does not have a certificate or does not have SSL, not only will the page not show up in some browsers but in many cases, it will not show up on search engines like Google. Therefore, we recommend that you authenticate your website with SSL.

If you have any questions about obtaining SSL, please contact us at support@pspinc.com. You do not need to be our customer to contact us.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#SEO #SSL #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #website

Impact of Website SEO with Search Engines: Page Speed

Feb

16

Last time we spoke about the impact of keywords on your website SEO. If you didn’t get a chance to read that article, we encourage you to go back and check it out.

Today we are going to discuss the role page speed plays in SEO. Often, people put less value on the page speed of their website compared with the content, keywords, and design. However, if your page loads really slow, it will affect your search ranking.

What’s going to happen if my page speed is slow?

Users are looking to get information immediately when they click a link. If the page takes too long to load, they will most likely leave your website. This will increase your “Bounce Rate”, Google may also grade your reputation as bad for lack of usability. Google research in 2018 showed that if your page takes more than 2 seconds to load, the “Bounce Rate” would increase by up to 32%.

How can I improve my page speed?

Image file compression

Large file sizes of images make websites load slowly and will cause a negative user experience. Image compression is the process of using compression algorithms to reduce the file size of an image file. There are a number of tools online for compressing images that you can find by searching for ‘online image compressing tools’. Professional programs like Adobe Photoshop are also more than capable of handling advanced image compression.

Browser caching

A web browser’s cache is what web browsers use to save data such as images that are needed to view your website. Saving this data allows the browser to load your website faster and more efficiently. When building a website if you define a longer cache for your assets that don’t change frequently, your web browser will store the information longer and further enhance your browser’s loading speed.

Lazy load images

Another solution is to delay loading images using JavaScript. Lazy loading images means you load images on your website asynchronously. After the above-the-fold content is fully loaded, the remaining images will only be loaded when they come into your browser’s viewport. This means that if users don’t scroll all of the ways down, images placed at the bottom of the page won’t be loaded. This lowers the time it takes for your page to initially load

Use fewer images and resource-heavy assets

The more images, videos, and 3rd party scripts/plugins you use, the longer it will take for your page to load. Try to have your website operate as leanly as possible. Using CSS to style text-based buttons instead of relying on images is an example of things you can do to make your site not only more accessible but run faster!

These are just a few tips for making your page load faster. A lot of these are best handled by professional Web Designers & Developers, so don’t be discouraged if these terms seem overly technical. At PSPinc, we have professional Designers and Developers who are knowledgeable of SEO and sophisticated web design! If you need help building a new website or updating an existing one, please let us know. We would love to talk to you about it further!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#PSPinc #PageSpeed #SEO #Website

4 Marketing Tips That DON’T Work

Jul

23

1. Posting as Frequently as Possible

This is a common marketing tip – “post often and consistently so your followers are constantly seeing your content.” At one point, this was a legitimate marketing tactic that worked for the most part. But now, users and social media platforms are more sophisticated – they promote and engage with QUALITY content, not quantity.

Instead, focus on creating quality content with a purpose and focus less on the quantity of posts.

2. Posting the Same Content Across Platforms

It’s SO easy to link your social media platforms with services like Hootsuite that it seems wrong not to. But, posting the same content on all your platforms can be repetitive and can bore your audience. And many people follow social media platforms for different reasons, so what works for one may not be the right message for another.

Try to think of the types of content that people like to see on each platform and create content to geared toward that audience. For example, users might follow your Twitter for quick updates, so posting long content on Twitter might have a negative effect.

3. Hashtagging Everything

How will users find my content if I don’t #hashtag everything? Yes, hashtags are a great way to organize similar content and find similar posts, but it can also be harmful. Users tend to find content with minimal or no hashtags.

Instead of trying to figure out the perfect hashtags to boost your posts, focus on creating content that answers a question, solves a problem, or brings value to end users. If you create content that is good enough to be shared by users and therefore reaches more people, you know you’re doing it right.

4. Optimizing for SEO

SEO is still very important, and so are long-tail keywords.

But, writing a blog post or creating a new page on your website that is ONLY optimized for SEO is a mistake. Stuffing your text with keywords will only make your content less relevant and ultimately rank lower.

Instead, focus on creating good quality content that again answers a question, solves a problem, or brings value to its readers. Quality content will naturally rank higher on search and social platforms.

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #Marketing #MarketingTips #PSPinc #SEO #SmallBusiness #SocialMedia #Technology

Why is my Company's Facebook Reach Declining?

Mar

21

image source: pixabay.com

Facebook had a rough year in 2018 and it’s hasn’t gotten any better so far in 2019. They acknowledged their mistakes and rolled out some changes to the news feed.

Like Google, Facebook determines how posts rank and which ones show up first in your news feed. In an effort to ‘save Facebook’ Mark Zuckerberg has implemented changes that cut back on showing posts that aren't from users' friends and family.

Since Facebook is now scoring personal posts above business posts, the change has been costly to companies trying to increase customer engagement. They've seen a significant drop in organic Facebook reach throughout the year.

What does this mean for your business?

Essentially, your company’s Facebook posts will (on average) be shown to only 2 - 5% of your audience. If you have 1,000 followers, that means only 20 - 50 of them will see your post. Our company has seen a stark drop in engagement this past year on our own social pages.

Companies will be looking for ways to get those numbers back and the fastest way to do that is paying for ads. We expect ad prices to start going up as more companies look to broaden their reach in non-organic ways. The good news is there are still ways to grow your organic reach:

1. Focus on the quality of your content instead of the quantity.
2. Facebook is putting more focus on ‘meaningful discussion’ so get engaged with users, reply to comments, rather than simply liking posts or comments.
3. Don’t oversaturate your page by posting too often. At most, you should post once a day but studies have shown that posting less than that doesn’t hurt your reach.

On top of everything, Facebook continues to deal with pressing issues like questions from congress over user privacy and an outage last week that lasted over 12 hours. Facebook is home to over 1 billion users and we don’t see that changing anytime soon. But the social media landscape is quickly changing and companies will have to adapt and work harder in order to get the same results that came so easily only a few years ago.

#Advertising #B2B #Blog #ENnews #Facebook #Marketing #OfficeTips #PSPinc #SEO #SmallBusiness #SocialMedia #WebDesign #WebsiteBuilder

9 Things Every Small Business Website Should Have

Mar

19

image source: pixabay.com

As a business, you want to make sure your office or storefront looks professional. You may apply a new coat of paint, add lighting and signage where it’s needed. You do this because you know your appearance has an effect on people’s opinion of your business. Well, the same concept applies to your online business.

Below, we share 9 elements that every website needs to put its best foot forward.

A Clear Description

When someone visits your website, they shouldn’t have to dig through pages to learn who you are and what your business does. State your business name clearly and sum up your products or services on the homepage. Don’t put everything on your homepage, just enough to give visitors adequate information about your business so they can decide if they’re on the right site.

Easy Website Address

When choosing a web address, note two things: Make it memorable and keep it short. If your web address is complex and long, your visitors might forget what to type in or misspell it. Keep it simple and try to avoid dashes, if possible.

Simple Navigation

So you don’t know how to code or anything about web design. Great! Keep your website simple and easy to navigate. Worry less about how pretty your website looks; instead make it easy to navigate and chock-full of great information about your business.

Clear Contact Information

It sounds silly, but you’d be surprised how many websites don’t have a clear description of the business or any way to be contacted. Contact information should be one of the top priorities when building a website. A clear and obvious section that contains your phone number, address, business hours, and email info can make a huge difference.

If you can, add a contact form on your website to make it even easier for visitors to contact you.

Customer Testimonials

Establish trust and legitimacy with new visitors by adding testimonials to your website. People love to hear from other people about their stories and experiences with a company. If you don’t have any testimonials, start asking your current or past customers to leave one on Google or Yelp. In exchange, you can offer to link to their businesses website from the testimonial they give you.

Call to Action

Each page on your website should serve a purpose and that purpose should have a ‘call to action’. What is the purpose of your homepage? It might be to inform visitors about your business and give them a way to learn more about your products/service. So in this case, you should have a call to action that leads visitors to your product/service information.

If the purpose of your product page is to lead customers to your contact page, have a call to action that links them to the contact page.

Fresh Content

Updating your website with new quality content frequently will not only help your SEO, it will also give visitors the most up-to-date information. Websites that have old and outdated information reflect poorly on the business.

Links to Social

Your business should be on social media as another means to reach potential customers online. A great way to grow your social channels is to include icons on your website that link to your social pages.

Secure Hosting

Often overlooked, a secure hosting platform can make a huge difference when it comes to your website. Small businesses that collect user information need to protect themselves and their customers. It’s important to find a trustworthy hosting company that will keep your websites protected from hacker attacks.

Dreamersi is a product of PSPinc and offers secure hosting packages and SSL certificates that ensure your site is protected at all times.

#Advertising #B2B #Blog #DigitalMarketing #ENnews #Marketing #OfficeTips #OnlineMarketing #PSPinc #SEO #SearchEngineOptimization #SmallBusiness #WebHosting #Website

How to Upload Pictures to WebdeXpress

Feb

26

image source: dreamersi.com

If you’ve read our last two blogs, you now have great pictures and are ready to upload them! If you haven’t read them, here they are:

How to Take Better Pictures for your Business

Make your Pictures SEO Friendly

Now that your pictures are ready to go, let’s get them uploaded.

First, you need to login to your Dreamersi account, then click on WebdeXpress in the “Content Management System” menu on the top of the page. Once you’re on the WebdeXpress dashboard you’ll want to look at the grey menu on the left of the screen.

Click on the files tab, which should be fourth from the top. From here, a dropdown menu will appear with two tabs for “List Files” and “Upload Files.” Click on the “Upload Files” tab.

A new page will appear that will tell you which files are supported and give further instructions on how to upload them. To upload files click on the “Add files…” button in the middle of the page. If you have large files or if you want to further compress files, make sure you check the box that reads “Compress images upon upload.”

#Advertising #B2B #Blog #ENnews #Marketing #OfficeTips #PSPinc #SEO #SmallBusiness #WebDesign #WebDev #WebTools #WebdeXpress #WebsiteBuilder

Make your Pictures SEO Friendly

Feb

21

image source: pixabay.com

Name your Image Correctly

Use the name of your image to accurately depict what is going on in the picture and try to use correlating keywords. If you don’t know what keywords are, or if you need a refresher, read our blog on keywords here. Think of words and phrases that people are searching for that might pertain to the image. Remember, images are just as searchable as websites and they can lead people to your website.

Use Alt-Text

When images don’t load on a screen the alt-text is there to replace the picture. Use the alt-text to be descriptive about what is happening in the image. And again, make sure you use your keywords in the description. The alt-text isn’t just important for images that won’t load; it’s also there for web accessibility. If you hover over images, and depending on your browser settings, it will show the alt-text.

Add Images to Sitemap

Similarly to indexing your web pages, you can index your images with Google. Add images to your XML sitemap to help Google identify and map your website. This includes adding any internal or external links to images to help guide visitors through your website.

Decrease File Size

When we browse the web we expect everything to load quickly. How many websites have you left because things aren’t loading? There are two different ways to decrease the file size of your image so it will load faster on your website, which will help your SEO.

The first is to decrease the image size. You can do this in applications like Photoshop using websites like this one: https://www.picmonkey.com. The second way is to decrease the image quality, which will decrease the amount of pixels in a given image, making it load faster.

Choose the Right File Type

There are a myriad of file types to choose from, so how do you know which one is right for you? When looking at photo compression there are two main types: lossy and lossless. Lossy means an image will decrease in size and quality. Lossless means that it will decrease in size without compromising quality.

PNG – We keep the background of your image transparent and it is lossless.
GIF – Is similar to PNG because it’s lossless and can have transparency, but it can also have animation.
JPEG – This file type is lossy but is really good for large images, photography, and color gradients.

#Advertising #B2B #Blog #ENnews #Marketing #OfficeTips #PSPinc #Photography #PhotographyTips #SEO #SearchEngineOptimization #SmallBusiness #WDXnews

How To Take Better Pictures For Your Business

Feb

19

image source: pixabay.com

Rule of Thirds / Use the Grid

A super easy way to improve any pictures you’re taking is to use the gridlines on your DSLR camera or phone. The gridlines split the screen into nine boxes, which follow a principle of composition called the “rule of thirds.” This principle states that an image is more balanced and easier for people to view if it’s split into thirds. By aligning points of interest on the lines and intersections you can create an image that is easy on the eyes.

Choose One Subject

Before you begin taking pictures of products, people, or your office space, you need to decide on one subject. A big mistake people make is focusing on more than one subject, which makes it hard for people to differentiate what to look at. Make your subject clear, obvious, and easy to discern. Simplifying your pictures makes it easier to choose one subject.

Negative Space / Symmetry

Choosing a background for your images can be daunting, but embracing negative space can not only make for better pictures, but also make your job easier. Negative space refers to blank or open space within a picture. This style of photography has become extremely popular. When you leave negative space in your photo you will make the subject even more powerful.

If your subject doesn’t have a background, you might try looking for patterns and symmetry. It can give a sense of harmony to your pictures that will make it more pleasing to the eye.

Leading Lines

Leading lines draw attention to your subjects and tell the viewers eyes where to look in a picture. You can find lines all over and there aren’t any specific rules for how to use them. The more comfortable you get using the grids on your camera the easier it will be to see lines in everyday life.

When using leading lines, you want to have your image at the intersection of the lines. Leading lines don’t always have to be straight, they can be circular and even wavy, it’s up to you to frame the lines to direct viewers eyes.

#Advertising #B2B #Blog #CameraTips #ENnews #Marketing #OfficeTips #PSPinc #Photography #PhotographyTips #SEO #SearchEngineOptimization #SmallBusiness #TakeBetterPictures #WDXnews

How Search Engines Rank Websites

Jan

31

image source: pixabay.com

What is ranking?

When you type something into a search engine there are typically 10 website links that appear on the first page, with multiple pages of results that follow. The position at which a website is listed is considered its ranking; the higher the position, the better the ranking. Websites that appear lower down the list of links have a lower ranking.

How do search engines rank?

Search engines rank using two methods -- indexing and crawling -- which help determine where they rank each website. When someone performs a search, a list of top websites appear that are deemed to be the most relevant to the search. This list is the “answer” to your search question or query.

Search engines determine this relevancy on multiple factors including site link structure, content and keyword relevancy, traffic volume, and link quality. The links within your website are the roads by which search engines find your content, the better the roads, the easier it is for them to get around. Content and keywords on the pages your links take you to must be relevant to what is being searched. You should always write your content for users, NOT search engines. The quality of a link is determined by the number of relevant websites linking to it.

Conclusion

It takes more than typing a bunch of keywords on your website to rank well on search engines. And although there isn’t a secret formula, there are steps you can take to get better results: 1) Think about the content on your web pages as the answer to someone's search query, to help you get started. 2) Write the content for users, not for search engines. 3) Build out the link structure of your website to make it easy for search engines to find your content.

#Advertising #B2B #Blog #ENnews #Google #Link #Marketing #OfficeTips #PSPinc #PageRank #SEO #SearchEngineOptimization #SmallBusiness

Keywords: Why They Still Matter

Jan

29

image source: pixabay.com

What are keywords?

In terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and websites – keywords are the words and phrases that define your content. If you take a single web page and you only look at the text, your keywords are the words or phrases that appear repeatedly.

Why are they important?

When someone goes to a search engine they type in keywords or “search queries.” Keywords are the road between what a person is searching for and the content you’re providing. When building a website, writing a new blog post, or even when adding pictures to your website - keywords matter. If your goal is to drive organic traffic to your website, the keywords you choose will define what kind of audience you attract.

Take Mars bars for example (yes, the candy bar). If they try to rank for just the word “mars” they might rank really high on search engines, but they’ll get extremely different types of traffic. Some people might be searching for the planet, while others are looking for something to satisfy their sweet tooth. It’s important to think about the searchers intent and align that as best as you can to the types of keywords you use.

What are long-tail keywords?

Keywords can be broad or they can be specific. Broad keywords will get you lots of searchers (and lots of competition!) but might not bring people at the right stage of their search. Long-tail keywords, 3 words or more, have more intent behind them. For example, the phrase “used cars” is broad and might have a different meaning depending on who is searching for it. But, “used sedan in Spokane Washington” is a long-tail keyword that might indicate they’re looking for a used car to buy, and soon. Using long-tail keywords might bring you less traffic but they will have less competition and bring you a more targeted audience.

Does it matter how I use keywords on my website?

Trying to rank for certain keywords isn’t about jam-packing your website full of them. Search engines, and your visitors, want to read content that brings actual value by providing an answer to a search. The goal is not to trick search engines into ranking you high; it's to provide information that’s relevant to the keywords. Part of SEO 101 also includes adding keywords to your URL, headers on the page, meta descriptions, and in the alt attributes of images.