Websites.ca Podcast

Programmer and web app developer Ross Mann talks about enhancing your web presence with special tech, via his experience launching several startups. Plus: how you can manage a dev team to get what you want, on budget and on time. Ross's latest startup application is https://e-mission.ca/. * * * If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory in the country: https://websites.ca/search Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sean overviews several concepts discussed on the show so you can think more deeply about your online interactions with potential customers. From their entry to your website, to getting them on your mailing list, and finally to harvesting great reviews from them.  * * * If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory in the country: https://websites.ca/search Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Experienced website designer Paul Renault talks to Sean about some of the concrete ways that the website visuals can motivate a user to choose your business over your competitors. * * * If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory in the country: https://websites.ca/search  Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

EG Orren returns to do an in-depth brainstorm session with Sean about how small businesses can more than double their revenue (and free up the time of their best performers) by planning out email automation sequences. Book a free call with EG here: https://tidycal.com/egorren/custom-social-media-tips * * * If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory in the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sound engineer / audio consultant Brett Leonard joins Sean to talk about simple room setups that will help a small business owner capture cleaner sound for Zoom meetings, video shoots, podcasts, and other online marketing efforts, plus some accessible tips on what equipment to buy. Learn more about Brett at http://blpaudio.com/ If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Parthiv Shah, direct mail expert and data scientist, explains to Sean how he helps appointment-based businesses to sell more from their existing lead base and grow exponentially using a series of postcards.   Dentists who need help from Parthiv can go here: https://www.sellmoreimplants.com  Non-dentists can get his free marketing giveaway here: https://www.freegrowthsystem.com  If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

SEO expert Daniel Moscovitch returns to tell Sean his current top performing strategy for getting businesses to appear higher up on Google searches. You have to hear Daniel's take on how the pages and sub-pages of your website can net you massive traffic once you organize them properly. For SEO help, you can reach Daniel at https://www.morehotleads.com/. If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sean interviews award-winning filmmaker Adrian Halter on the power of video to help your business stand out. Learn more about Adrian's company Halter Media: https://haltermedia.com/ * * * If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory in the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sean interviews digital marketing consultant EG Orren about a social media strategy (particularly Facebook) that can transform your business. Get a free half hour of consulting with EG here: https://tidycal.com/egorren/custom-social-media-tips * * * If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory in the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sean interviews the "Email Supremacist" Ben Settle about building a rabid following and incredible customer relationships (and of course tons of sales) using email. Ben is a world leader in email copywriting. Get a free digital copy of his prestigious Email Players newsletter and access to his mobile app (with hours of biz building strategies) here: https://www.bensettle.com/ * * * If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory in the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sean interviews "local search" expert Nyagoslav Zhekov about building citations and cleaning up your business listings to get much better results on Google. Nyagoslav is the director of local search at https://whitespark.ca/, and can be contacted at nyagoslav@whitespark.ca. If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Websites.ca sales manager Ryan re-joins us to discuss some simple steps for doing an annual website review and checking the health of your online presence. If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/  Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sean interviews PPC expert Daniel Moscovitch on the right way to use Google Ads in your overall SEO strategy, plus some of the things to avoid. Learn more about Daniel at https://www.morehotleads.com/strategy/.  If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sean interviews SEO expert Jacob Kettner on the best ways to get your local business found on Google, how to get more online leads, and the major factors that affect search engine optimization.    Learn more about Jacob at https://firstrank.ca/.  If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/  Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sean interviews expert copywriter Lorri Yurkowski on the right strategies and approach to write your website text in a way that will appeal to your best customers. Learn more about Lorri at https://www.lorriyurkowski.com/.  If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/   Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sean takes you through two ways (one for B2C and one for B2B) that you can get better exposure on the web. If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sean lets you in on some of the top email marketing strategies. If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Wildfire Special! As Canadian residents deal with potential home evacuations over fires, we thought it was timely to discuss some of the foundational preparations you can put in place for your website and online presence in case of a future digital emergency. If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ryan and Sean discuss some of their favorite free online tools to enhance your website or internet presence. On this episode they cover the booking/calendar service Calendly, and the cloud data integration service Skyvia. If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ryan and Sean discuss how you can tap your web team to aid seasonal changes in your industry. They also start the conversation off with a support issue over Google's Page Speed ranking and why you should worry about basic user experience instead. Here is the article mentioned in that convo: https://business.websites.ca/page-speed-impact-is-load-time-really-that-important/ If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Go behind the scenes with our copywriter and marketing consultant Sean, to see if online content creation will actually help your business. Many hosting or website service packages come with an add-on option for "content creation". This usually means writing articles for your website. All too often, small businesses don't see any results from this add-on, and in the podcast Sean will tell you why. He'll also go into some of the ways you can properly approach content creation, and what kind of expectations you should have. If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ryan and Sean discuss managing your images, to get the best website results (across all browsers and devices), with the least back and forth. With modern mobile phones we are all equipped to take high-quality photos. But there are a few steps you need to take after that, to ensure they work properly online. If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ryan and Sean discuss ways to streamline your site. Starting from a strategic perspective, and then getting down into the details of some dead-weight modules/features that can be safely deleted from 99% of business websites. And finally, why it's okay that pages require scrolling. If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ryan and Sean talk about the pros and cons of contact forms on your website. The main complaint people have is spam, but there are some important things to know about how to handle that. They also discuss alternatives like Chat Boxes, including a free one you can use from Facebook Messenger. If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ryan and Sean discuss domain names and what they affect in terms of SEO, how many you need, how hard they are to transfer, and more.If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ryan is back to discuss small business website concerns heading into winter 2020. He and Sean talk about Google My Business reviews, and the alternatives for people who don't have or can't setup a Google account. They also talk about simple website order forms (in addition to phone and email options), and using Ads to get your site on top of search results until you can do it organically.If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sean discusses the 3 major online ad platforms (Google, Facebook, LinkedIn) and when you should use each.If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

With Ryan away, Sean talks about some latest internet news (new Google ranking factors), and then discusses the situations when you should create a unique landing page, and how to structure such a landing page. If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io"Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ryan and Sean talk about the ideal type of website for the majority of small businesses in Canada. What is "just right" for features, design, and support? If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/ Music from https://filmmusic.io"Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Learn about the latest email scam being used on small businesses.Plus, Ryan and Sean discuss general red flags to spot fraudulent emails, and even how the spam folder of your email account may contain some (real) treasure... and why it ends up there.If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/Music from https://filmmusic.io"Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ryan and Sean take you behind the scenes on how web designers and support teams think and talk. That way you can dictate your requests so that they get done more efficiently and quickly.This topic focuses on general requests, but we also deep-dive on targeting keywords on your web pages, and the Dos and Don'ts of making an effective keyword list.If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/The keyword article mentioned in this podcast is here: https://business.websites.ca/how-to-choose-keywords/Music from https://filmmusic.io"Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ryan and Sean discuss some simple ways that businesses can pivot online (in times of crisis, or just in general). The focus is on simple, actionable tips that don't cost a lot and can be implemented quickly.If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/Music from https://filmmusic.io"Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ryan talks about your potential website security risks, and how to best respond to a breach (which is unlikely for a small business). Then Ryan and Sean discuss online trolls, and the three ways businesses can deal with them -- including an idea of how you can profit from troll comments on social media.If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/Music from https://filmmusic.io"Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ryan talks about using a simple contact form to generate leads from your site (which of course also comes with some spam), and he and Sean bring you up to date on how your Google My Business description affects your search results, when you should say “thanks” on your site, and why not to worry about scary-sounding emails about your domain expiring.If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/Music from https://filmmusic.io"Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Website update troubles, fake Google calls, and wasted web design “real estate”.If you have a small business in Canada, get listed for free in the fastest growing website directory of the country: https://websites.ca/Music from https://filmmusic.io"Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)