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How To Use Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools) Effectively

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Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) is Google’s suite of tools, data & diagnostics to “help you have a healthy, Google-friendly site.”

It’s the only place to get search engine optimization information about your website directly from Google.

Side note – Bing has a separate but similar tool suite at Bing Webmaster Tools.

Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools) is free. Any website can use it. But, simply installing it will not improve your SEO, or your organic traffic. It’s a toolset – which means you have to understand how to use Google Search Console effectively to make any difference on your website.

In 2018, Google has launched an all-new Google Search Console. It’s out of Beta and open to the public. If you are used to the old Webmaster Tools, much of the data & structure might be familiar. Many pieces were removed, but overall your access to data is much improved. There is way more data that is way more accessible than the old Webmaster Tools.

That said, it is still bit daunting to understand. This tutorial will go through what each feature is, what you should be using it for, and some ideas on being creative with it. [Read more…] about How To Use Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools) Effectively

GoDaddy Website Builder vs. Shopify for Online Stores

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GoDaddy Website Builder vs. Shopify – they are two of the most well-known brands in the website / eCommerce platform industry, but how do they compare directly to each other?

View Shopify’s Current Pricing & Plans

View GoDaddy’s Current Pricing & Plans

First, a bit of background. Over the past few years, online store costs have plummeted, and the technology to get a website from idea to reality has blossomed. Whether you’re using a text editor and uploading to the Amazon cloud, hosting your own site powered by WordPress + WooCommerce or using a drag and drop online store builder, there’s never been an easier time to create an online store.

All-inclusive eCommerce builders have been particularly interesting. Companies like GoDaddy, Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, Shopify, and BigCommerce – not to mention platforms like Etsy, eBay, and Amazon – have brought eCommerce to everyone regardless of their coding skills.

On the wide spectrum of eCommerce store building solutions, they all live on the end that is all-inclusive and provides everything you need to get started and grow your website.

That is in contrast to solutions where you buy, install, and manage all the “pieces” of your website separately. While that’s not a good or bad thing, it is something to be aware of when you’re choosing one of them as a solution since it affects your website both long and short term.

In the long-term, it affects your versatility, functionality, and, of course, your brand. In the short term, it can certainly add/take away a lot of headaches. That said, just like choosing a physical house or office, there is no such thing as an absolute “best” or “top” choice. There’s only the right choice relative to your goals, experience, and circumstances.

Using an online store builder is like leasing and customizing an apartment in a really classy development instead of buying and owning your own house. You’re still in control of decor, cleaning, and everything living-wise – but you leave the construction, plumbing, security, and infrastructure to the property owner. That point is key because there’s usually a direct tradeoff between convenience and control.

Ecommerce Real Estate Tradeoffs

Shopify, GoDaddy’s builder, and other options like Weebly as a group compete with options like WordPress (which provides the free software to build a website that you own & control – see my WordPress setup guide here) all the way to options like typing actual HTML code into a text file.

There are three last prefaces to straighten out.

First, is that GoDaddy is an all-around hosted website builder with eCommerce capability.

Second, Shopify, in contrast, is strictly a hosted eCommerce platform. This focus puts GoDaddy Website Builder behind as an advanced tool and Shopify behind as a super-easy-to-use tool. With their respective free trials, you can quickly see the differences.

Third, GoDaddy also offers hosting without the builder where you can install WooCommerce, Magento or other self-hosted eCommerce software. In this comparison, we’ll look at GoDaddy’s Builder product specifically. You can find GoDaddy hosting alternatives here.

Make sense? Awesome – let’s dive into the comparison.

Skip to the Conclusion & Next Steps

Side note – if you want this comparison in a BuzzFeed-style quiz, you can take my online store builder quiz here…

You can also look at my posts on –

Otherwise, we’ll look specifically at pricing, onboarding/user experience, design features, technical features, eCommerce features, marketing features, and customer support. [Read more…] about GoDaddy Website Builder vs. Shopify for Online Stores

Website Builders Explained

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Website builders are a type of software that turns visual design elements into HTML / CSS files that browsers can show as a website. Modern website builders are usually bundled in some form with hosting to provide storage & server abilities for those files.

As an analogy, imagine a website is like a physical home. Website builders are a bit like pre-built houses or condominiums with infrastructure & services provided. Usually the land (hosting), address (domain) and services are bundled with the home. There are usually costs & limitations, but also much more convenience compared to building a home from scratch.

[Read more…] about Website Builders Explained

Website Hosting Explained

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Website hosting is reserved space on a computer server that stores & serves files related to a website (ie, HTML, CSS, images, etc) to browsers when requested via the Internet. Website hosting is usually connected to a human-readable domain name.

As an analogy, website hosting is like a plot of physical land…but on the Internet. Like a physical plot of land, it’s usually connected to a known address, and it’s only truly useful if you build something on it. Also like physical land, website hosting can come with an infrastructure to make your project easier / cheaper. It also has many tradeoffs.

[Read more…] about Website Hosting Explained

Namecheap or GoDaddy? Where To Get Your Website Domain Names

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Namecheap or GoDaddy? Where’s the best place to buy your domain name? I get asked those type of questions a lot. I’m a customer of both GoDaddy and Namecheap. So this review is based 100% on my experience with both companies as far as domains go.

Notes: If you are just looking for discounts, coupons, or promo codes – here’s what I’ve got for you. I’ve got links with promo codes built in from both GoDaddy & Namecheap. I get referral fees from any companies mentioned in this post, but any opinions are based on my experience as a paying customer.

If you click this link for GoDaddy – you can get a .com for $0.99 for the first year.

If you click this link to Namecheap, you’ll access their current flash sale.

Still with me? Great! Let’s dive into the full Namecheap vs. GoDaddy review! Because you’re already the type of person who knows that your domain name is your name on the Internet – and that it matters who provides it – I’ll break the review down into 6 categories that actually matter – price, user experience, interface, extras, upsells, and principles based on my experience as a consultant & owner of (way too many) domains. [Read more…] about Namecheap or GoDaddy? Where To Get Your Website Domain Names

Squarespace vs. Weebly vs. Wix: Website Builder Comparison

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Squarespace vs. Weebly vs. Wix – they are the three most well-known website builders. I’ve written about them individually here, here and here. But how do they compare to each other?

View Wix’s Current Pricing & Plans

View Weebly’s Current Pricing & Plans

View Squarespace’s Current Pricing & Plans

First, a bit of background. Over just the past few years, website costs have plummeted and the technology to get a website from idea to reality has blossomed. Whether you are using a text editor and uploading to the Amazon cloud; hosting your own site powered by WordPress or using a drag and drop website builder, there’s never been an easier time to create a website.

All-inclusive website builders have been particularly interesting. Companies like Squarespace, Weebly and Wix have brought websites to everyone regardless of coding knowledge or skills.

On the wide spectrum of website building solutions, they live on the end that is all-inclusive and provides everything you need to get started and grow your website. It’s in contrast to solutions where you buy, install, and manage all the “pieces” of your website separately. That’s not a good or bad thing. But it is something to be aware of when you’re choosing one of them as a solution since it affects your website both long and short term.

In the long-term, it affects your versatility, functionality, and, of course, your brand. In the short-term, it can certainly add/take away a lot of headaches. That said, just like choosing a physical house or office, there is no such thing as an absolute “best” or “top” choice. There’s only the right choice relative to your goals, experience, and circumstances.

Using a website builder is sort of like leasing and customizing an apartment in a really classy development instead of buying and owning your own house. You’re still in control of decor, cleaning, and everything living-wise – but you leave the construction, plumbing, security, and infrastructure to the property owner. That point is key because there’s usually a direct tradeoff between convenience and control.

Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix as a group compete with options like WordPress (which provides the free software to build a website that you own & control – see my WordPress setup guide here) all the way down to options like typing actual HTML code into a text file. Make sense? Awesome, let’s dive into the comparison.

Skip to the Conclusion & Next Steps

Side note – if you want this comparison in a BuzzFeed-style quiz, you can take my website builder quiz here…

You can also look at my posts on –

Otherwise, we’ll look specifically at pricing, onboarding/user experience, design features, technical features, marketing features, and customer support. [Read more…] about Squarespace vs. Weebly vs. Wix: Website Builder Comparison

Wix Review: 6 Pros & 6 Cons of Using Wix For Websites

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There are seemingly thousands of different ways to build a website now. Wix is one of the best-known brands in the website builder product type. They’ve been around for quite a while (circa 2006), and have built a large word-of-mouth brand. I recently had a small project, and a reason to try out several drag and drop website builders. I gave Wix a try, along with several others. Here are my 6 pros and 6 cons and full Wix review.

See Wix’s Plans & Pricing here.

Skip to the Conclusion & Next Steps

But first, a bit of an overview of general website builder considerations. There really are more than a thousand ways to get what you want in the end (aka someone to type in a website address and see your information in their browser). Technically to create a website, you just need a text editor to hand code an HTML file.

But most people choose a solution on a spectrum based on their skill, time, and goals. The spectrum ranges from all-inclusive (ie, “we do everything for you, but also control everything) to 100% DIY (ie, “you do everything, but it’s quite complicated”).

Whether you are building a simple personal website or running a business, the way you build your site has a lot of consequences.

In the long-term, it affects your versatility, functionality, and, of course, your brand. In the short term, it can certainly add/take away a lot of headaches. That said, just like choosing a physical house or office, there is no such thing as an absolute “best” or “top” choice. There’s only the right choice relative to your goals, experience, and circumstances.

What Is Wix?

On the wide spectrum of website building solutions, Wix lives on the website builder end that is all-inclusive. You build your site on their software with their tools. Your website lives on their servers. You can only access your site via the Wix admin panel. It’s in contrast to solutions where you buy, install, and manage all the “pieces” of your website separately.

Like other website builders, using Wix is sort of like leasing and customizing an apartment in a gated development instead of buying and owning your own house. You’re still in control of decor, cleaning, and everything living-wise – but you leave the construction, plumbing, security, and infrastructure to the property owner. That point is key because there’s usually a direct tradeoff between convenience and control.

As far as direct competitors, Wix competes with all-inclusive website builders like Weebly, Squarespace, and WordPress.com.

Those all-inclusive options as a group compete with options like self-hosted WordPress (which provides the free software to build a website that you own & control on your own hosting – see my WordPress setup guide) all the way to options like typing actual HTML code into a text file.

Is Wix Free?

Wix has a free plan, but only if you use a Wix subdomain (e.g., yourwebsite.wix.com). You also have to display Wix ads and have limited functionality. To use a custom domain and have full functionality, you have to pay for a premium plan.

If you are looking for a free website builder option, you should explore these free website options. This review will explore Wix’s full product suite with a focus on anyone building a full, public-facing website.

Make sense? Awesome, let’s dive into the Wix review. [Read more…] about Wix Review: 6 Pros & 6 Cons of Using Wix For Websites

Web Hosting vs. Domain Registration Explained

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Web Hosting and Domain Registration are two elements of running a website. But it’s important to understand the difference and use cases.

Web Hosting is an account on a computer (aka server) that can store and serve website files via the Internet.

Domain Registration is leasing a human-readable word (e.g., amazon.com) that directs people to specific website files via a browser.

As an analogy, a domain is an “address” on the Internet. Hosting is the “land” or space where your website files live.

That’s the short version. But there’s more to web hosting vs. domain registration than their definition. [Read more…] about Web Hosting vs. Domain Registration Explained

Domain Names Explained

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Domain Names are human-readable words (e.g., amazon.com) that directs Internet browsers to specific files on a specific server.

As an analogy, a domain is like a physical address but on the Internet. Like a physical address, they don’t really do anything on their own, but they are critical to understanding when you are building an online project. [Read more…] about Domain Names Explained

How To Advertise on Quora Effectively

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Quora Ads are one of the myriad options for advertising online. Like eBay, Reddit, and LinkedIn, Quora is one of those Web 2.0 properties that feels like it should be dated but remains surprisingly relevant.

In fact, while Quora itself has been around since 2009, Quora’s self-serve Ad Platform only rolled out in 2016.

Quora has 300 million active users and some interesting reasons to advertise.

Why Use Quora Ads

First, you have access to both social data and search intent.

Like Pinterest and Reddit, you can reach people based on demographic and psychographic data AND you can reach people who are actively searching for answers OR you can layer both to run hyper-targeted campaigns to people who are both your target customer and actively researching.

Second, you have access to lots of qualified organic traffic. Quora has plenty of internal usage. But their organic search traffic is their secret weapon.

Due to their brand and the enormous amount of content, they rank well in Google & Bing for highly qualified search terms. I’ve written how you can use Quora for “barnacle” SEO and content.

But – that approach requires work. With Quora Ads, you can pay to jump to the front of the line. Advertise on pages that rank well for target keywords.

Quora Ad Alternative

Third, you get to define best practices & deal with lower competition.

Every big brand and agency is on Google & Facebook. Best practices and budgets are well-defined. Quora requires more work and thought to succeed.

I’ll share my experience in this post, but my main takeaway is that there is no “right” answer. Quora is still wide-open and open for testing & experimentation. If you have more time/skills than budget, Quora is a great place to go.

How To Setup Quora Ads

Quora has done an excellent job with self-service. The platform is straightforward and comes with a surprisingly useful email course.

To get started, all you need is some basic business information.

Within your Ads Manager Dashboard, you can Manage Ads, set up a Quora Pixel, manage your retargeting audiences, and set up email reports.

Whether you set up an ad campaign or not, I highly suggest that you immediately implement your Pixel, dabble with Audiences and set up a couple curated Email Reports.

Quora has a familiar menu of retargeting audiences. The standard setup is for Website Traffic.

In the next step, you’ll setup your Quora Pixel to tag visitors. You can also pre-segment your Website Traffic to make retargeting a bit easier.

3 Quora Remarketing

If you have a lot of educational content on your site, I would start with that segment. Quora is a common research tool, especially with high-consideration purchases. If you can reach users doing intensive research across platforms, you’ll be less likely to lose them.

Additionally, once you’ve built an audience, you can create a Lookalike Audience.

This feature is huge because you can reasonably expand your reach across Quora to reach someone who you *know* is familiar with your brand.

Remember how I mentioned that Quora is a hybrid between social & search? This is where that power comes in.

For example, imagine you are recruiting entry-level engineers out of college.

You have the ability to tag visitors to your site, and then reach them throughout Quora whenever they are asking career related questions.

Plus – you’ll get insight into the types of questions that your audience asks. This feeds back into a successful content strategy based on data that *only you* have access to.

Lastly, if you have permission, you can upload a list of current contacts to rebuild your existing customers within Quora.

It’s a lot of work, but for high consideration campaigns, it’s worthwhile.

Like any & all retargeting strategies – Audiences can be creepy, invasive, and sometimes illegal in the European Union without explicit consent.

Most people either consent or live in jurisdictions that do not require explicit consent. These tools do exist and are worthwhile for many businesses. Retargeting is here to stay. The key is to keep it classy. Time, thoughtfulness, and testing create the best outcome for advertisers, publishers, and customers.

Email Reporting is straightforward. But I would set the settings you like so that you actually view the reports rather than automatically deleting them.

4 Quora Email Reports

Now you’ll need to set your Quora Pixel, which is the snippet that “fires” on your webpage to track website visitors.

The setup depends on your website, but you’ll need to place it wherever you have your Google Analytics tag.

5 Quora Pixel

Now you can get started on a campaign! Head to Manage Ads and select your objective.

6 Quora Ads Create Campaign

If you select Conversions, you’ll need to select a conversion type to pass to your Quora Pixel. You’ll also have to manually tag any actions (like Add to Cart).

Conversion Tracking is accurate and can be worthwhile. But unless you are running large campaigns, some of this Conversion Tracking might not be worth the effort.

8 Quora Ads Conversions

For my campaigns (and most advertisers), I use the Traffic objective. But I also tag all of my ads so that I can track conversions within my existing Google Analytics setup.

9 Quora Ads Objective

Once you’ve created your Campaign objectives, you’ll need to set up a new Ad Set.

Ad Sets each have their own targeting and bids. After setting up an Ad Set, you’ll write individual Ads for each ad set.

But Ad Sets are where the fun really happens.

You have 4 primary targeting methods. I’ll cover each below. But the short version is that you can do –

  • Topic Targeting – Target content that falls within a category regardless of user interest.
  • Question Targeting – Target specific questions on Quora regardless of topic or user.
  • Audience Targeting – Target your audiences everywhere on Quora (see above).
  • Interest Targeting – Target people who are interested in a topic regardless of content.

After that, you can choose several secondary targeting methods. You can focus your ads by Location or Device. You can also exclude specific questions or audiences (ie, people who have successfully purchased from your site).

10 Quora Ads Targeting

Topic and Question Targeting are my favorite options. They both target based on content, not the user.

When you are looking to expand reach or target based on intent – this is the option that you should use. Topic Targeting lets you quickly target a bunch of questions quickly.

The key to Topic Targeting is to provide Quora with a relevant but broad set of keywords. There’s a bit of an art to it, but be sure to play around with different combinations before committing to a set of Topics.

Additionally, make sure you manually explore those Topics to vet the questions, the likely audience, and related Topics that you are missing.

11 Quora Ads Topic Targeting

But if you have time, the best targeting option is Suggested Questions.

With this option, you can advertise with specific ads on specific questions.

From a pure data perspective, this targeting option is the only place to get Weekly Views stats for Quora questions, which can help your content marketing efforts separate from any paid campaigns.

13 Quora Question Ad Suggestions

Interest Targeting targets the user rather than the content that they are looking at. This option is great for casting a wide-net to reach your audience everywhere on Quora.

However, note that you’ll reach them even when they are looking at irrelevant questions. This option is great to layer with other options (like exclude questions). Be careful using it alone though.

12 Quora Ads Interest Targeting

There are also options for targeting an existing audience and also a Broad Topic option.

After selecting your targeting with exclusions and bids set, you’ll need to create your actual ads.

Quora provides lots of space and encourages “content-like” ads. They want complete sentences that are relevant to your targeting. They are not great for hard-sells, but pair *very* well with custom landing pages or educational content.

Be sure to add UTM parameters to your landing page URL to effectively track visits throughout Google Analytics.

 

14 Quora Ad CreationThat’s how you setup Quora ads. But keep in mind that the magic is in customized ads, landing pages, targeting and constantly improving each metric.

That said – how do Quora ads perform “out in the wild”? I’ve run a few campaigns for myself and for clients. Here are the results of my most recent campaign.

My Experience with Quora Ads

Now, I almost exclusively use Question Targeting for my Quora ads. I also commit to spending probably too much time on research for my small campaigns (although some of that research gets re-used for content campaigns).

The campaign highlighted below was a fairly small content promotion campaign. I had a new piece of content that I wanted to promote without traditional, manual outreach.

I found several questions that aligned with the content. I devoted around $100 for promotion.

Quora Campaign Results

This campaign aligned with the common takeaways from my Quora campaigns.

  • The impressions were high for such a niche topic – and surprisingly consistent day-to-day.
  • The CTR was uncommonly high for online ads.
  • Conversions were solid.
  • Cost per click was a bit higher than expected, but nowhere near Google Ads territory.

Additionally, I did not have to filter or account for a lot of spam (I’m looking at you, Google Display and Facebook…).

My numbers in Google Analytics lined up perfectly with Quora. The engagement was high and as I’d hoped.

Quora Ads Experiment

All in all, this (and all my campaigns) go back to the same general takeaways for Quora Ads.

  • Quora Ads are hard to roll out “at scale” but are very effective with the right amount of time devoted to set up & research.
  • They are great for high consideration ads and great to reach new, smart audiences.
  • You have to have the right website content to provide good, engaging landing pages.
  • Often small campaigns are worthwhile simply for the data.

In many ways, they remind me of both Pinterest and Reddit Ads. They aren’t for everyone, but certainly a solid opportunity for the right advertisers.

Next Steps

Quora Ads are not for everyone. There’s not a ton of inventory. To do it well, you really need to spend some time on your research and ad setup.

However, in an increasingly crowded and expensive online ad market, the market represents a solid opportunity.

At the very least, you should go set up an account and grab the Quora Pixel to build an audience.

From there, you can reach you existing users on yet another platform. You can expand your reach based on small tests and the time you have to research interests.

If you found this article useful, please link, share or bookmark. Happy advertising!

Ahrefs Guide: How To Use Ahrefs for SEO, Content & Link Building

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The biggest problem for website owners and marketers in 2018 and beyond isn’t the tools available. It’s figuring out how to use the tools they have.

What Is Ahrefs?

Ahrefs is one of the most powerful suites of social media & SEO tools that I’ve ever used. Most SEOs know it as a “backlink checker” that competes with Majestic and intelligence/analytics tools with smaller indices like Moz & SEMRush. But “backlink checker” grossly undersells Ahrefs as a marketing suite.

Ahrefs has so many features that you can get lost and resort to simply staring at your own links – maybe rank tracking a few keywords. Here’s the guide to how to use Ahrefs that I wish existed when I first signed up.

*Reader’s Note 1 – this guide was originally published in Oct. 2015. It’s been updated throughout for November 2018 to reflect Ahref’s new design.

*Reader’s Note 2 – all images are clickable if you want to see the full resolution.

[Read more…] about Ahrefs Guide: How To Use Ahrefs for SEO, Content & Link Building

How To Redirect Old URLs To Reclaim Your Broken Links

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My client and I were able to build 1,120 quality backlinks pointing to 700+ of his website pages with a single line of code in less than 1 hour.

How? We found and decided to reclaim 404, dead or otherwise broken links that were already pointing to his site. We used a regex expression to redirect nearly every single broken link to the correct, existing page on his site. [Read more…] about How To Redirect Old URLs To Reclaim Your Broken Links

Google Domains vs. GoDaddy: Domain Name Providers Compared

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Google Domains and GoDaddy are two of the most well-known domain name registrars on the Internet. I’ve written about both Google Domains and compared GoDaddy to NameCheap (their other big competitor). But how do they compare to each other?

Visit GoDaddy’s Current Domain Coupon

Visit Google Domain’s Current Selection

Domain Registrars are a unique industry. Since ICANN issues all domain names, leaving Registrars mainly as bookkeepers, there is not a ton of scope to offer completely different products. At the end of the day, you simply need a domain name that you can associate with a server where your data lives.

And yet, not all domain registrars are the same (which is why you are reading this post, I’m guessing). I’ve tried dozens and have had every problem imaginable. There is no such thing as a “best” domain registrar. Everybody has tradeoffs. And Google and GoDaddy are actually a good example of very different approaches to domain registration.

I was a Day One customer of Google Domains back at their launch, and I’ve been a customer (and consultant to customers) of GoDaddy for 10+ years.

Here are my thoughts on Google Domains vs. GoDaddy based on company structure, pricing structure, domain selection, usability, customer support, and complementary products.

You can also Skip to Conclusion.

[Read more…] about Google Domains vs. GoDaddy: Domain Name Providers Compared

Blogger Review: Pros & Cons of Using Blogger (aka Blogspot)

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Blogger is the grand old man of Internet publishing. In fact, they arguably started the whole “everyone should have a voice online” ideal. Evan Williams started the company way back in the 1990s.

After Evan Williams sold Blogger to Google, he went on to found both Twitter and Medium – both pillars of Internet publishing in their own right. Additionally, it was Matt Mullenweg’s dissatisfaction with Blogger that led him to create the first version of WordPress back in the early 2000s.

All that to say – Blogger is an Internet standby. In fact, it’s such a standby that it gets unfairly disregarded for many web projects simply due to its age.

I recently gave Blogger a try for a small project, along with several other website builders. I tried to approach Blogger not as the platform that had my first blog back in 2004, but as a serious platform that might be a good fit for someone’s web project today, post-2017.

Check out Blogger here.

Skip to the Conclusion & Next Steps

But first, a bit of an overview on website builders in general. Whether you go drag and drop builder, an installed Content Management System (CMS), or hand-coded HTML files, there are a lot of considerations that go into building a website and/or blog.

In the end, you really want someone to type in a website address and see your information, presented well with the right functionality in their browser. Whether you are building a simple personal blog or running a business, the way you build your site determines a lot both long-term and short-term.

In the long-term, the tools you use to set up your website affects your versatility, functionality, and, of course, your brand. In the short-term, it can add/take away a lot of headaches. In fact, one of the most common headaches is moving a successful blog off Blogger. That said,  like choosing a physical house or office, there is no such thing as an absolute “best” or “top” choice. There’s only the right choice relative to your goals, experience, and circumstances.

What Is Blogger?

Blogger is Google’s blog-focused platform that focuses on accessibility, ease of use, and free for the price. Blogger made blogging a thing you do on the Internet back in the day, and still appeals to people looking to publish their words on the open Web rather than “closed garden” social media sites.

On the wide spectrum of website building solutions, Blogger lives on the end that is all-inclusive and provides everything you need to get started and grow your website. It’s in contrast to solutions where you buy, install, and manage all the “pieces” of your website separately.

It’s like trading off some control for more convenience.

Using Blogger is like leasing and customizing an apartment in a nice development instead of buying and owning your own house. You’re still in control of decor, cleaning, and everything living-wise – but you leave the construction, plumbing, security, and infrastructure to the property owner. That point is key because there’s usually a direct tradeoff between convenience and control.

All the functionality and design that are included with Blogger work seamlessly together as a platform. That’s what allows them to have drag and drop design, layout, and content.

One note about Blogger is that it focuses 100% on blogging – ie, reverse-chronological publishing of posts. It has very little in terms of content management (as I’ll mention in the cons section). Google has a product called Google Sites that focuses on static websites.

As far as competition, Blogger competes directly with all-inclusive website builders like Weebly and WordPress.com in addition to pure-play blog/social networks platforms like Medium and Tumblr.

Website builders as a group compete with options like WordPress.org (which provides the free software to build a website that you own & control – see my WordPress setup guide here) all the way to options like typing actual HTML code into a text file. Make sense? Awesome, let’s dive into the Blogger review. [Read more…] about Blogger Review: Pros & Cons of Using Blogger (aka Blogspot)

Keyword Mapping for SEO: How To Use Keywords On Your Website

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Anyone who owns a website and recognizes the opportunity to get visitors from Google organic search suspects the importance of keywords. But how do you use those keywords on your website to actually get traffic? Put them in the meta=”keywords”? Use them over and over on your site?

Note: nothing against Bing, but I’ll be using “search engine” and “Google” interchangeably in this post

It’s been more 15 years since simply using keywords on your website was the only way for search engines to understand the relevance of your website. It’s no longer about just stuffing keywords all over your site. Search engines have gotten much smarter.

Google and Bing use hundreds of signals to try to decipher and rank the relevance of your website. They factor in what other people say about your site; they try to place your content in a graph of topics and entities, and perform all sorts of semantic analysis.

But keywords are still part of the foundation of how search engines understand your website.

Using keywords effectively on your website will help you tell a better story to both your visitors and search engines, and it will help communicate what searches your website is relevant for…so that you can get more visitors from search engines.

Here’s how to use keywords on your website with what is known in the SEO industry as a “keyword map.” [Read more…] about Keyword Mapping for SEO: How To Use Keywords On Your Website

NameCheap Shared Hosting Review w/ Pros & Cons

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NameCheap is an independent (ie, not owned by a big holding corporation) ICANN-accredited domain name registrar founded in 2000. In addition to domain registration, they offer a complementary spectrum of hosting services.

Check out NameCheap’s plan and current pricing here.

NameCheap also provides email, a website builder, SSLs, and various services with 24-hour support and a 30-day money back guarantee.

I reviewed NameCheap as a domain registrar here, but have received questions for years about their hosting services. Readers ask because NameCheap Hosting is really cheap – like, suspiciously cheap.

Although I like to keep my hosting and domain registration separate, I had a small project to launch, so I decided to put it on NameCheap and see how the service turned out.

Here’s my NameCheap Shared Hosting review – structured with pros & cons based on my experience as a customer. [Read more…] about NameCheap Shared Hosting Review w/ Pros & Cons

WordPress Hosting vs. Web Hosting Explained

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Choosing the best web hosting plan for your specific project has always been a bit confusing. Plan features never line up. Terminology never matches. And pricing varies according to current discounts and plan length.

But that was before the latest trend – WordPress-specific hosting plans.

Nearly every hosting company offers a “WordPress Hosting Plan” in some form.

View my guide to WordPress Hosting companies here.

Sometimes those plans are nothing more than a headline change. Sometimes they very well-priced for the extra services. And sometimes they are plainly upsells with dressed up “features.”

It’s maddening – because here’s the thing. WordPress software runs fine on typical web hosting.

You do not need “WordPress Hosting” to run WordPress software. All you need is a Linux-based hosting account that supports PHP and mySQL.

Both are run of the mill features since the early 2000s. So what’s with all the WordPress Hosting plans vs. Web Hosting plans?

Well – sometimes a WordPress-specific plan is absolutely worth paying for. WordPress does have some needs & requirements that are not “generic” so some companies can offer seriously better service, support & performance for WordPress installs.

Here’s how they differ along with features worth paying for, and what to look for when shopping for the right host for your specific project and next steps. [Read more…] about WordPress Hosting vs. Web Hosting Explained

How to Understand & Use Pinterest Analytics

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You already know social media analytics can be a powerful tool in your marketing toolkit. Not only can they tell you about how your content performs on social (like Twitter & YouTube)… but the data can also give you tons of insight into your target audience and new potential business opportunities. Pinterest is no different.

Pinterest Analytics is a powerful social media tool that allows you to see what people Pin from your profile and website, as well as what your audience enjoys to pin outside of your own content.

[Read more…] about How to Understand & Use Pinterest Analytics

My 99designs Review: Using 99designs For Blog Logo Design

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There are tons of free options for graphic design on the web. I love using everything from Hipster Logo Generator to Canva to Stencil to Pixlr. But when it comes to website or blog logo design – or really anything related to graphic design that makes your blog stand out – you’ll need expertise.

And professional graphic design expertise isn’t cheap. So how can you make your website or blog really stand out – give it that extra ‘pop’ that it needs without turning hiring a professional graphic designer directly?

One option is crowd-sourced design. It’s a way to help make good graphic design accessible to all budgets, while giving freelance graphic designers a vibrant marketplace.

I’ve used 99designs for a couple of my website projects. I’ve had clients use their design contests feature as well. Based on those experiences, here’s my 99designs review with how it works, along with pros and cons…

Skip to the Conclusion & Next Steps

*Editor’s Note – this post was originally published in April 2013. It’s been updated and re-published for September 2018.

Disclosure – I receive referral fees from any companies mentioned. All data and opinion is based on my experience as a paying customer.

[Read more…] about My 99designs Review: Using 99designs For Blog Logo Design

Weebly Review: 6 Pros & 3 Cons of Using Weebly For Your Website

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When it comes to getting a website up, there’s never been an easier time. Weebly is one of the fastest growing and longest standing brands in the website building space. They were mentioned in the first edition of the 4-Hour Workweek. Ever since then, they’ve grown and continued to revise their software. I recently gave Weebly a try for a small project, along with several other website builders. Here’s my overview, pros, cons, and full Weebly review with tour and notes on ecommerce.

Check out Weebly’s Plans & Pricing here.

But first, a bit of an overview on website builders in general. Whether you go drag and drop builder; an installed Content Management System (CMS), or hand-coded HTML files, there’s a lot of considerations that go into building a website.

Skip to the Conclusion & Next Steps

In the end, you really want someone to type in a website address and see your information, presented well with the right functionality in their browser. Whether you are building a simple personal website or running a business, the way you build your site determines a lot both long-term and short-term.

In the long-term, the tools you use to set up your website affects your versatility, functionality, and, of course, your brand. In the short-term, it can certainly add/take away a lot of headaches. That said, just like choosing a physical house or office, there is no such thing as an absolute “best” or “top” choice. There’s only such thing as the right choice relative to your goals, experience, and circumstances.

*Aside – I did try to sort the best choices by typical uses/goals in my best website builder quiz here, though.

What Is Weebly?

On the wide spectrum of website building solutions, Weebly lives on the end that is all-inclusive and provides everything you need to get started and grow your website. It’s in contrast to solutions where you buy, install, and manage all the “pieces” of your website separately.

It’s like trading off some control for more convenience.

Using Weebly is sort of like leasing and customizing an apartment in a nice development instead of buying and owning your own house. You’re still in control of decor, cleaning, and everything living-wise – but you leave the construction, plumbing, security, and infrastructure to the property owner. That point is key because there’s usually a direct tradeoff between convenience and control.

All the functionality and design that are included with Weebly work seamlessly together as a platform. That’s what allows them to have drag and drop design, layout, and content.

As far as competition, Weebly competes directly with all-inclusive website builders like Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress.com.

Website builders as a group compete with options like WordPress.org (which provides the free software to build a website that you own & control – see my WordPress setup guide here) all the way to options like typing actual HTML code into a text file. Make sense? Awesome, let’s dive into the Weebly review. [Read more…] about Weebly Review: 6 Pros & 3 Cons of Using Weebly For Your Website