We deal with a lot of website redesigns on a monthly basis. We see just as many that do it themselves or hire someone only to see their rankings on the search engines drop because of basic items that are forgotten. In this article we'll cover some of the basic items to look for in a website redesign. Many will apply to new sites as well but for this article we are going to focus solely on website redesigns.

You may have started your business solely on social media due to being quick to get online, you already knew social media, the price being free is a great price, you didn't think you needed branding, and it's where all your customers were and still are today. You've since learned that part of branding and building your relationship online requires more than just social media. Your business requires a positive message that you control and your customers can find you quickly and easily on mobile search. With a website you have control over all aspects to promote your business positively online in the way you want by your online employee that works for you. This doesn't mean that social media isn't important. It is and you should not neglect it; just like you shouldn't neglect your website.

Would you hire someone, assign them a desk, hand them your company brochures & flyers, tell them to sell, leave them be, and pay them? We think you probably wouldn't. This is why the first of the month is an important time for any website. Your website or as we call it your online employee is your cheapest employee that can help drive revenue, customer adoption, increase engagement, and more. In this article we will go over what we see as the first of the month checks every business online should do.

When the public started using the Internet back in 1995 online marketing was truly born. As each person came onto the Internet online marketing became more important. Today you will hear of many ways and solutions for what online marketing is. Who is right and what is the right way to do online marketing? We will cover what the top six items are and what the "real answer" truly is.

Everyone with a computer lives with passwords one way or another each and every day to protect our businesses and our personal lives. On June 6, 2012 LinkedIn was hacked. Yes, that was nearly four years ago. On that date it was announced that 6.5 million accounts were reported as compromised and stolen by a group of unknown hackers. Now in May of 2016 that list has been officially "leaked" and we are finding out that the initial believed list of 6.5 million was off (just slightly though – insert sarcasm here). The list contained 117 million account passwords from what was initially thought of. That is 110.5 million additional accounts that were stolen than previously expected.

In November of 2014 Google came out with a mobile site check and validation tool. Many businesses scrambled to get their business website mobile aware. Many still two years later fail at mobility in many ways. This week Google released an updated Mobile Friendly Testing tool. This updated tool allows for greater growth, shows blocked files, and better explains where faults might lie.

On my way from the office this afternoon I received an email from a client wanting to BUY fans in hopes of making more money. The email they received during the middle of the night promised to do just that. It will NOT. It will hurt you long term, hurt your running contests and marketing campaigns down the road.

Building a new or maintaining an existing small business is never an easy task. We don't have all the resources to do what the big businesses do but have the same aspirations of success and growth. We have to take that leap of faith that we will succeed, get over the fear of failure, and initially we start every day off knowing that failure could be around the corner with one simple and honest mistake. Each day we persevere and see that failure grows farther in the rear-view mirror as your business continues to grow.

When it comes to finding your business online the first stop for many is the search engines. The search engines contain billions of pages of content and you want to be found in the top free organic spots. To do this one of the items you need to focus on is your page title. As we take on more customers as part of their monthly SEO we've developed a checklist that we use to optimize the page titles of a website. We will cover a good portion of these items below.