Does that title sound like click bait or what? Let's start with this. WANT TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST? You'll see that this post is indeed the most comprehensive post on writing a perfect blog post that you'll ever see. The idea is that I don't hope you read it - I have a specific strategy …
8 Questions Your Web Developer Should Have Asked
BUT DIDN'T I'm constantly amazed when I hear complaints from website owners that their site isn't helping them reach their goals. I'm amazed not because they have a bad website, but because this conversation never happened. By this conversation, I am referring to a series of questions that …
Slack, Chat or Discord?
TL;DR: I'm looking at the pros and cons for using Slack, a Chat app, and Discord for client or visitor interaction and would love your help. HELP! When I started this site way back when I was focused on all forms of communication and actively listening. I have always maintained that as a …
Unsplash Bought by Getty Images
As you might know, I've always warned you about using images that are not your own. You also might remember that I suggested using images from Unsplash.com if you couldn't use your own images as it was a safe place to find safe and legal images to use. I remember talking about it on one of our …
Malware in Your Contact Form
This week is a little different from normal. While this started out as a question from one of my clients, "Hey Mike, is this real?" they asked, I've now seen it across multiple client sites and more and more out in the wild. It's a new scam that comes in via a comment or form submission seemingly …
What Can You Do With Google Workspace?
What used to be called G-Suite is now called Google Workspace. I've been doing a lot of custom client work in it lately. Most know it just as the place they have their email handled (MX Servers) so that they can have cool email addresses like mike@areweconnected.com. Hey! I've used it since the …
20 Dirty Secrets that Web Designers don’t want you to know
We have a new FREE report and we're pretty excited about it! It's an insiders guide to all the dirty little secrets web designers don't want you to know. No, this isn't some kind of mamby pamby, light weight, cut and paste job. This thing has some series meat to it. It's 22 pages long and 2 MB …
2MT: How to do this in Video or Audio
Hey! It's been a while, but 2 Minute Tuesdays is back! This week, I answer a question from one of my clients, Marie, who said she liked this format that I was doing and wondered how to do something similar on her site in either video or audio. What a great question and a perfect topic for 2MT …
WordPress powers 40% of the internet!
There was some big "WordPress" news last week when W3Techs announced that WordPress now powers over 40% of the top 10 million websites! WordPress plays in a league of its own. It's not only the usage numbers, also the ecosystem around WordPress is absolutely remarkable. There are more than 58,000 …
An Introduction to Lead Capture
Good News! The shortest podcast you will ever hear is back! 2 Minute Tuesdays is back! I want to start with an introduction to the complicated and often times confusing world of Lead Capture - and guess what? 2 minutes is just scratching the surface. Well, to be clear, this 2 minutes is going …
How To Stop “Form Spammers” (better)
A few weeks ago I showed you how to stop the spammers from swamping you with bogus emails from your comment and IDX system. You can read more about that: "How to Reduce SPAM". I also dabbled a bit for your website forms and discussed the idea of Akismet, the Honeypot, and CAPTCHA. One of the …
Local SEO Ep4: Consistency
To earn better "Local SEO" we know that Google really likes consistency. Consistency comes in 2 parts: would be the 'A' in your N.A.P. would be in your posting schedule. Here's how to be consistent in both and improve your ranking for local keywords in your area. CONSISTENCY IN …