Improve your Google ranking with Peter Mahoney, 20+ years SEO & Wordpress experience
The link you have to make to share something to Twitter is quite simple:
http://twitter.com/share?text=text goes here
But getting a URL and hastag in there is a different matter. To be honest most developers do know how to include the URL, but hashtags have proved more elusive!
http://twitter.com/share?text=text goes here&url=http://url goes here&hashtags=hashtag1,hashtag2,hashtag3
Here’s an example to try out:
And that’s it!
The number of people I see selling SEO services who really have no idea is appalling. (I’d say shocking, but there are a lot of opportunists out there!)
I’m going to break my series of SEO posts into the following sections:
Naturally there is a lot of cross-over between them, but over the course of the series you’ll get a better idea of some key concepts, and some fairly original (but proven) ideas for their implementation.
All of course to get you more quality visitors!
I have a small series of files I copy and paste whenever I’m about to start a new project, they have default templates for various files I use a lot. Like a header, footer, index page, blank stylesheet, and something called “top.php” that I use to open sessions and connect to databases.
There are also some of my standard folders pre-made too (with the correct server permissions) like “img” (images) and “upl” (uploads).
This was going to be last week’s #fridayfreebie, but here it is on a Wednesday instead.
This particular version is the one I use most commonly, and it’s set up for:
I’ve zipped it up to share! Feel free to do whatever you want with it—although there is a lot of Peter Mahoney specific stuff in there, so you might want to take that out. Unless of course you like giving me credit for your work. 🙂
I was recently tasked with creating The Compliment Site, a place where random strangers can compliment each other to try and brighten someone’s day.
It’s the simplicity of it I like. A simple idea, and simple execution. The only images used throughout the entire site are user’s profile pictures, and social sharing icons for Facebook and Twitter. The rest is all just code, even the header. It makes for a very fast site, that if marketed properly, could do very well.
It hasn’t been launched yet, but it is there is you’d like to try something a little different.
Point 3. is a particularly interested topic–I have known people who get so precious that they refuse to deliver what their client asks for!
Certainly, as a consultant and professional with 17 years experience, if I think a project or part thereof should be done differently to the brief, I’ll suggest it with a solid rationale. But I also accept that if someone really wants to stick with their idea, they should be able too.
In some cases it boils down to this, I know web development, design, and online community–but my clients know their own businesses better than I! That’s why I like to get to know my clients and their businesses, because I want to make sure they’re using the web as effectively as they can for their business model.
I had considered something much more risqué to do with trying before you buy, but it seemed a bit crass in the context I intended it.
Whenever you buy something online, you have options. Product choices, price, and most of all, who to buy from. For every product there are several dozen people queuing up to sell it to you.
And the most successful online business are unsurprisingly excellent at selling.
But how can you tell who is going to offer you good after sale care? And the the case of products you buy to interact with online (i.e., online systems that you’ll log into to manage) how can you spot the people who care about you after you’ve parted with your cash, from those who just want to keep on selling?
I’ll start by putting this out there–for all sorts of reason, GoDaddy are not a company I recommend. In fact I do my best to warn people off them.
And this is a prime example of why. Below you’ll see a screenshot of the GoDaddy homepage. I’ve taken the liberty of highlighting in red, any area of the screen which is wholly, and unquestionably (I went easy on them frankly) devoted to selling.
Now to be fair their is a prominent support line number which is likely useful to both new customers, and exisiting ones.
But the only section devoted to existing customers is that small, plain looking “Log In to My Account” button on the top left. Now for sure a lot of business run this way, they are predominantly sales on the first page, and then the bulk of their information (and interactive systems) for clients is behind a password.
But I’d expect to see an obvious login box, with some graphic element drawing out attention to it. Not something so small my daughter’s Sea Monkeys could probably ride it like a tiny train.
GoDaddy’s after-sale support is well known to be, frankly, appalling. Unless you’re buying more products from them in which case they’d love to help you, yes sir, of course ma’am, have a nice day!
And you know what? I can see that right there, from their homepage. They haven’t given screen real estate to existing customers except in the most perfunctory, absolutely necessary way.
It’s just an example, albeit a solid one. Before you sign up for an online service (knowing you can very rarely try before you buy), have a look at how much they value their customers, by looking for screen space they’ve devoted to them.
