Small Business Shift

There are a bunch of websites and consultants advising that companies skip a website in favor of a Facebook Page. But it’s a really bad idea. You should have a Facebook Page, and a basic one can be put together in just a few minutes. But this can’t substitute for your real home on the […]

Google created Webmaster Tools to help you understand what Google knows about your website, and to help spot serious problems hurting your search rankings. Read on to learn how to setup Google Webmaster Tools and then get an overview of everything you can do with it. Signing Up To get started with Google Webmaster Tools, […]

Time for a first website, or a redesign? I hear far too many stories of website projects gone wrong – and even among those that finish, plenty of small business sites are lacking key features, such as good photos of their company. Sometimes the problem is just poor preparation. Take these three steps before seeking […]

When you search on Google for something that may be local (a restaurant, dentist, or plumber, for instance), the search engine returns a combination of regular and local results. About a year ago, these were always clearly separate, but have since become less easily distinguished. What’s interesting is that it wasn’t just the display that […]

I’ve run into businesses that have actually lost their domain name (yourcompany.com) when changing web hosting providers. This is usually because their old provider was an individual that quit the business, or the company was switching to a cheap/free host and didn’t know how do the changeover. This is bad, because you probably chose a […]

Writing great title tags can be one of the quickest and easiest ways to get more search engine traffic – and can even increase the number of visitors you get from social media sites. But the websites of many small businesses ignore title tags or follow bad advice – and drive away potential customers. Read […]

Running a good blog is a lot of work (notice my slow posting the last couple weeks – to be better after the 4th). Yet I firmly believe that blogging can be well worthwhile for a small business. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits – and consider how to make them even […]

One of the great things about running a website is that you can easily track much of what takes place on the site. But a surprising number of small businesses either don’t have this ability setup, or don’t take advantage of it. Google Analytics is a free (and great) program for tracking the activity on your […]

There are a lot of scams online. This makes people cautious. If they are going to buy from you, or give you their contact info, they need to overcome this caution. So you want to generate as much trust as possible. 11 Ways to Generate Trust A Decent Base – Anyone, even a scammer, can […]

Small Business Shift has some big news. I’m launching a solution for businesses that need a great website, designed for marketing their company, at a very low cost. How does that work? WordPress Made Easy I’ve written about why I think WordPress is pretty much the best solution available for a new website. Those reasons […]