Perhaps you’ve heard of it. It’s called the Page Experience Update, and it involves the “core web vitals” that has website owners everywhere scrambling.

The timing for this change is tricky. Just as we’re all emerging from the pandemic in new and more meaningful ways, we all have to pay attention to our websites.

But if you’re like many people I’ve been talking with, you’re probably trying to figure out how to adapt right now… given vaccinations, changes announced by Florida’s Governor, and other factors that are in flux.

Frankly: it’s a perfect storm.

And that’s why we decided to put together an in-person workshop on Saturday, June 5th.

We’ll talk about Google and your online visibility, but more importantly: your strategy.

Even if you’ve updated your marketing strategy in the last year… it’s critical to revisit your plans and check your assumptions about the behavior of the people you’re marketing to.

This isn’t just about digital marketing: it’s about ensuring that your business or organization thrives in this rapidly-changing environment.

And that’s one reason I’ve teamed up with Cassandra Decker for this hands-on workshop. Her background as a cultural economic anthropologist doing research in the field gives her a unique perspective on how to collect the most important data and then turn that data into a compelling story that people respond to. This is something we can all use—both strategically and practically.

We’ve kept the cost low. Breakfast is included. It’s also limited to the first 30 people who register, so please check out all the details here right away.

I’ll hope to see you there!

Oh! If you want to bring a spouse, business partner, or colleague, you can do it for half price.

We are committed to helping local business owners grow revenue through higher closing rates, greater sell-through, and more referrals, and avoid wasting valuable time and resources on unmeasurable and ineffective marketing campaigns with our Strategic Business Growth Assessment.

David G. Johnson

“We believe that behind every business is a dream. We exist to help bring those dreams to their maximum potential,” said David G. Johnson, founder of Grow The Dream.

Infusionsoft’s Certified Partner Program provides powerful solutions for small businesses such as web development, copywriting, marketing consultations and other professional services. This powerful combination has allowed Infusionsoft and its partners to be dominant forces in the small business success movement.

“Grow The Dream has undergone an intensive training program at Infusionsoft’s headquarters and passed very difficult qualification standards to become certified,” said Andy Simmons, VP of Global Partner Programs at Infusionsoft. “We don’t certify just anyone who wants to join our community, Certified Partners meet our exceedingly high standards to ensure our small business customers are working with only the best. Today we congratulate and proudly welcome Grow The Dream to our thriving community of Infusionsoft Certified Partners who are helping more small businesses everyday achieve new levels of success.”

To learn more about how Grow The Dream and Infusionsoft are helping small businesses like yours, take a moment to check out our eBook, The Ultimate Guide for Maximizing the Value of Leads.

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About Infusionsoft

Infusionsoft is on a mission to simplify growth for millions of small businesses worldwide. Built for growth-minded small businesses, Infusionsoft provides the leading cloud-based CRM platform with 145,000 users worldwide. Unlike single-purpose tools that don’t work well together, the platform organizes all customer interactions in one place, integrating with thousands of other apps to empower small businesses to deliver more personalized service and close more business. The privately held, eight-time Inc. 500/5000 company is based in Chandler, Arizona and is funded by Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures and Signal Peak Ventures. For more information, visit www.infusionsoft.com, or the Infusionsoft blog.

About Grow The Dream

Grow The Dream helps business owners and their teams avoid wasting time and valuable resources on ineffective and unmeasurable marketing initiatives. Through a mix of strategy consulting, content marketing services, and training and coaching, Grow The Dream helps business owners, entrepreneurs, and small business CEOs achieve high rates of return on their marketing investments. Based in Sarasota, Florida since 1998, Grow The Dream is a family owned and operated business serving businesses from local “Mom & Pops” all the way to multi-national conglomerates, and even household names like Ziglar, Inc. For more information, visit GrowTheDream.com or the Grow The Dream blog.

If you’re like most business owners, you also think about new goals. Did we hit our revenue targets for last year? What is a realistic number for this year? How do we get there?

As a business owner whose team spends all of our time thinking about how we can grow our clients’ businesses, the topic of increasing revenue (at least for our clients!) is never far from my mind. And being a lover of technology and a user of all manner of web and marketing tech — OK, I’ll admit it: I’m a geek and have been since my childhood — I spend more than my fair share of time evaluating how technology helps (and sometimes hinders) our efforts to grow our businesses.

With those things in mind, here are 3 areas that I believe are critical for you to have on your radar in 2018. Use this as you see fit, but I see it potentially having an impact on how you plan for the new year with your team (or for yourself if you’re a solopreneur).

1. Improve Security

More than ever, we store critical information “in the cloud.” We sign in to apps. We use web-based software tools. It seems like our lives are made up of an endless string of sign-in forms.

When was the last time you evaluated your own security practices? Whether it’s keeping sensitive customer data safe or protecting your computers (and your business) from being hijacked by ransomware, security practices in your daily habits and those of your colleagues, employees, and contractors are more critical than ever.

At the very least, using a good password manager (we use and recommend LastPass) will eliminate the worries that go along with generating sufficiently complex passwords and, perhaps more importantly, remembering them. If you use the same password on more than one website/app, or if you’re still using “monkey123,” here’s some helpful information on why you should choose passwords that are hard to guess.

But conducting an informal security audit of your business is a really good idea. And it allows you to identify potential areas where your business is vulnerable to an embarrassing and expensive hack.

Here are a few areas to consider:

• Where do you store important passwords for your business accounts? Your business Facebook Page should be accessed by individual users’ normal Facebook sign-ins, but that means that their password habits represent an area of potential vulnerability. Other social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat rely upon a single username/password combination that often needs to be shared with team members. How secure is that? What practices do you have in place for routinely evaluating who has the keys to the kingdom, so to speak?
• How do you handle our customers’ credit card numbers? Several months ago, I discovered that one of our clients had a major flaw in their internal processes in this area. When their CSRs were accepting telephone payments, they used the latest, most secure software available. It was all up to industry standards. By all appearances, they were PCI compliant. But there was only one problem: their web browsers had the “autofill” features turned on. This meant that, yes… you guessed it, every credit card number, billing address, CVV code, and expiration date they had ever typed in to their highly secure web-based payment processing systems had been captured by the browsers and were stored locally on their computers. Anyone walking by one of their computers could conceivably walk right up and gain access to hundreds and hundreds of their customers’ credit card numbers. Needless to say, they turned off the autofill features on their web browsers. (Need instructions? Here they are for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.)
• Do you and your team know how to recognize phishing attacks? Here are a few pointers if you or your team could use a refresher.
• Do you know who has access to your Dropbox, Google Drive, and other cloud file storage systems? That previous employee who signed in with their personal account, that contractor who needed access, or the person you shared that big file with who then shared it with someone else, and so on. All of these are areas worth reviewing from time to time.
• Is your website being properly maintained? If you’re like many small businesses, your website runs on a popular CMS like WordPress. Is the software up to date? What about plugins, themes, and other scripts and tools? Are they updated to the latest versions? Are they being properly maintained by their developers?
• Does your website use HTTPS? Not only is this an important security practice to help keep your website safe from would-be hackers who might “sniff” your login credentials, but it’s also gives your site a valuable boost in Google’s search engine results. Don’t know where to start? Here’s our guide for converting your website to HTTPS, including specific instructions for WordPress.

A more thorough security review may be in order, depending upon your business and how it operates, but hopefully the above list will give you a few ideas about where to get started.

2. Automate the Important

No matter how determined we are to get the most critical things done on a regular basis in our businesses, things happen. The authors of The 4 Disciplines of Execution call it “the whirlwind.” You’re familiar with the whirlwind—it’s the day-to-day chaos of running a business that keeps us from doing the “wildly important” stuff that helps us get where we’re going.

One way that we can help ensure that the critical stuff actually gets done is to automate the important tasks in our business, where ever possible.

One simple example occurred several years ago when we helped one of our clients develop a system that automatically sends a few carefully-crafted follow-up emails on behalf of their salespeople subsequent to key interactions and milestones (e.g. scheduling an appointment, sending a proposal, following a real-estate closing, etc.).  The initial system was fairly simple, and right away it gave them a boost to their closing rates.

And by “boost” I mean that their closing rates when up 150%, from ~20% to ~50% of their sales opportunities.

You might say, “well my salespeople are certainly following up on their sales leads!”

And I’m sure they are. That is, I’m sure they’re determined to. After all, their income (and yours!) depends upon it, right?

But like all of us, the important gives way to the urgent and even the hyper-critical stuff can be neglected.

(In case you’re wondering, we built that follow-up system with Infusionsoft, which remains the platform of choice for us when it comes to automating the marketing and sales functions in our clients’ businesses).

There are many areas of “low-hanging fruit” when it comes to automating the important stuff in your business, but here are a few that are worth considering:

• Add new leads to follow-up email sequences. Invite them to stop by your retail business (and offer them a special deal while you’re at it!), encourage them to take advantage of a free trial, win their trust by educating them, offer to schedule a call or appointment, or just make them feel welcome! Infusionsoft is a great tool for this, but automation is now available in MailChimp as well!
• Welcome a new customer by sending them important “how to” information, introducing them to your team, or inviting them to refer a friend! If you’re afraid you’ll forget to to do this, you can set it up to happen automatically when they get entered into your accounting system. Use Zapier if you’re on popular accounting software like Quickbooks and use email systems like Infusionsoft, MailChimp, Aweber, and others.
• Send simple “project management” updates to your clients when various milestones are reached in your service business.
• Remember your customers’ birthdays. Every time. Automatically send them an opportunity to tell you about their birthday by dropping them an email with a special “birthday” offer, then set up automation to reach out to them. This can be as simple as an emailed report that goes to someone from your team once per month so they can do “birthday cards” (this is old school, but it works!). Or it can be more sophisticated and automatically drop them a “happy birthday” email on their big day!

These are just a few ideas. But each one of them can go a long way toward making your customers feel special!

3. Be Intentional About Staying Informed

We all know that things change faster than ever. What to you do to stay up-to-date in your industry? On technology? On marketing?

Email is one way to approach this, but it’s easy for it to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of inbound email we all receive constantly. Sure, you can set up rules in your inbox to sort the important stuff out from the less important stuff, but when do you ever take time to dive back in and look at the stuff that wasn’t urgent at the time?

Surfing the web and following links you see in your social media channels certainly helps, but very often I find myself wasting time or following rabbit trails if I allow myself too much of this unrestrained activity.

So I’d like to recommend two critical tools that you should consider using:

First: a good podcast app.

Commuting and exercising are both fantastic opportunities to make excellent use of your smartphone and stay current on the topics that can have a positive impact on your business. Podcasts are available for every possible topic, and although you might have to try a few of them before you find the ones that are the best fit for you, the time and energy you invest in this can pay off in a big way.

If you’ve never tried a podcast app, I recommend giving PocketCasts a try. Install it in your iOS or Android device, and once you’ve identified the podcasts you’re interested in, the app will manage things from there. It will automatically download new episodes for you and keep track of which ones you’ve listened to (and where you are in a given episode if you’re like me and don’t always complete them in one sitting). This hearkens back to #2 (“Automate the Important”) above, because it allows you to set it and forget it! Each time you have an opportunity to listen, you’ll always have something valuable to hear.

Incidentally, some of my favorite podcasts are Security Now (hearkening back to #1 above, but fair warning: this is 2-hour weekly geekfest), Experience This (loaded with exceptional customer service/experience stories), and the Ziglar Show (carrying on the legacy of Zig Ziglar with tons of benefit for business owners and sales professionals). The bonus of that last one is that it’s co-hosted by my friend, Tom Ziglar.

Second: a feed reader.

Once you come across a great source of information that’s particularly relevant for your business, how do you make sure you don’t miss their content in the future? Sure… you could sign up for emails, but we’ve already covered why that’s not optimal.

Enter feedly.

Feedly subscribes to blogs, websites, and news sources for you. It collects everything in one nice, easy-to-use format, and eliminates distractions so you can digest the material you need quickly and efficiently.

Back in the day, I was a big fan of Google Reader. But, it went the way of all things back in 2013 when Google gave it the ax. Feedly is the “spiritual successor” of Google reader, and if you incorporate it into your routine, you’ll find yourself staying ahead of the curve in 2018 in ways you might not have imagined possible. And yes, there are apps for your smartphone, although I tend to prefer just opening it in the browser on my laptop.

And yes: you can subscribe to the Grow The Dream blog there.

What Did I Miss?

What’s on your radar for 2018? I look forward to reading your comments (add yours below) about what’s on your mind as you make your plans for this new year.

And may this one be your best year yet!

That’s right, it’s 2017 and it’s time to convert your website over from HTTP to HTTPS.

In fact, it’s been a good idea for a while now… especially since Google announced that it would begin to use HTTPS as a ranking signal back in 2014, which meant that sites using HTTPS connections for their visitors would begin to rank better in search results than sites that don’t (all things being equal).

But now, Google is beginning to show visitors subtle warnings when they visit your site without an HTTPS connection. For now, it’s happening on Chrome and Android browsers, and the warnings are “soft.” But they’re going to get a lot more alarming in the not-too-distant future.

“Help! Chrome is warning people that my site is not secure!”

This message came from a friend over the weekend, and I can tell you that this will be happening a lot more frequently in the days ahead. For now, the “warning” is only obvious if you offer visitors the opportunity to login or enter credit card information on an “insecure” (HTTP) connection.

But it’s only a matter of time before all visitors will be shown this warning, regardless of whether you’re asking them to submit any information or not.

Which is why it’s time to offer a secure connection to your visitors and force them to use it.

What Is a Secure Connection?

On the surface, the issue comes down to the address of your site. For instance, this website used to be found at “http://GrowTheDream.com.” When we converted over to secure connections nearly 2 years ago, we no longer permitted users to connect to that address, instead requiring them to go to “https://GrowTheDream.com”

As you might expect, the “S” in “HTTPS” stands for “Secure.”

What it means is that instead of connecting using the “Hypertext Transfer Protocol,” visitors use the “Hypertext Transfer Protocol over TLS,” which is the latest update of HTTPS, formerly known as “HTTP over SSL” and “HTTP Secure.”

More importantly, it means that when visitors connect to your website, all the information passing from your site to their web browser (and back, if you ask the visitors to enter any information) is encrypted, end to end.

Naturally, for this information to be encrypted from your website and properly decrypted by the web browsers of your site’s visitors, there’s some techie magic that has to occur.

How Do I Convert from “Insecure” to “Secure” Connections for Visitors?

To change your visitors’ connections over from HTTP to HTTPS, there are a few basic requirements:

1. Your webserver must support TLS (“Transport Layer Security”)
2. An SSL Certificate must be issued by a recognized Certificate Authority for your website’s domain name.
3. The Certificate must be installed on your webserver.
4. Your webserver and website must be properly configured to force visitors to use the new HTTPS connection.

I realize this may sound like a lot, but it doesn’t have to be super complicated. In fact, depending upon what hosting company you use to host your website, it might be as simple as checking a box.

For most of us, though, there will be a few steps involved in the process. I’m going to tackle them here one at a time to make this guide as useful to you as possible.

So… where do we begin? With your hosting company!

Step 1: Check With Your Web Hosting Provider

Often, it’s worthwhile to log in to your site’s hosting account and just have a look around. You may discover something useful, such as:

You May Already Be Paying for an SSL Certificate That You Aren’t Using

Often, hosting providers offer an SSL Certificate as part of certain hosting packages. Look to see if you have a “Free” SSL Certificate (which most likely means that they’ve bundled the cost of the Certificate in with your other hosting fees).

Your Hosting Provider May Support Free SSL Certificates from Let’s Encrypt

The Let’s Encrypt project is a free and open Certificate Authority with backing from major privacy and security advocates such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Linux Foundation, to name a few. By automating certain critical components of the process of issuing certificates, they are able to significantly reduce costs and offer certificates at no charge.

Many web hosting providers are getting on board with Let’s Encrypt and offering full support of their free certificates. If you are considering moving your site to different hosting, one of our favorite hosting providers, WP Engine, supports the use of Let’s Encrypt Certificates, and even takes the work out of getting your Certificate issued and installed.

One quick caveat: there are a few rare situations where a Certificate from Let’s Encrypt may not be a good idea. If you happen to host a podcast on your website, for example, you may want to avoid Let’s Encrypt Certificates for now. But for most of us, they’re a great way to go.

Does Your Web Host Support the Use of 3rd-Party Certificates?

Some hosting providers are affiliated directly with a Certificate Authority or for other reasons require that you purchase any Certificate directly from them. Before you go any further, you need to know if this is the case.

If your hosting provider has a requirement like this, you may have no alternative other than moving your hosting to a different provider.

If you aren’t sure, check your hosting provider’s support information for articles related to SSL Certificates or contact their Support Department to get your questions answered.

Step 2: Acquire Your Certificate

Note: For the purposes of this article, we’re using the traditional term, “SSL Certificate” to refer to the digital certificate that you’ll need. Technically, webservers shouldn’t be using SSL (“Secure Sockets Layer”) anymore because that technology has been superseded by the more up-to-date TLS (“Transport Layer Security”). Perhaps the most precise way to refer to them would be to call them X.509 Certificates, but by far the prevailing terminology used on the web (and consequently by web hosting providers) is “SSL Certificates.”

Your next move is to acquire a certificate. Your specific method of doing so will depend upon what you discovered in Step 1.

• If your hosting package includes an SSL Certificate, then your hosting provider will have some mechanism to “Set Up Your Certificate.” They may use a different word like “Activate” or “Request.” Some hosts require that you contact their Support department to get the ball rolling.
• If your hosting provider supports Let’s Encrypt, then you’ll need to follow the specific instructions provided, because the process will vary wildly from one host to another. (But you won’t have to pay for your certificate!)
• If your hosting provider supports 3rd Party certificates, then you may find that an Essential SSL Certificate is a cost-effective way to proceed ($29.95 as of this writing). But it’s worth confirming what your hosting provider charges, because they may offer discounted certificates.
• If your hosting provider requires that you purchase your SSL Certificate directly from them, then you’ll need to follow their instructions to do so (or switch to a new hosting provider).

A Note About the Different Types of Certificates

As soon as you go shopping for an SSL Certificate, you immediately discover that there is an entire universe of digital certificate options out there. Since the Certificate itself is nothing more than a very small text file, you may wonder why anyone would spend hundreds of dollars purchasing one.

The differences in the different types of Certificates revolve around two main factors. One is term, or the length of time your certificate is valid. Let’s Encrypt Certificates, for example, are only valid for 3 months. Other Certificates are available in 1-year, 2-year, or multi-year terms. The other major factor is the type of validation. For a visitor to your website to be confident that your site is truly secure, they want to know who is making the claim about security. The Certificate Authority is responsible to validate that you are who you claim to be.

Here’s a quick overview of the most common types of validation

• Domain Validation — Often referred to simply as “DV,” this type of validation is the most basic form of validation available. In short, the Certificate Authority must confirm that you have control of the domain name before they can issue a certificate to you. Often, this validation process involves sending an email to the official email address of the Registered Owner of the domain name. But there are other methods as well. Let’s Encrypt, for example, has a number of options that simply confirm that the request is actually originating from the server where the website is hosted, thus automating the validation component.
• Extended Validation — This type of validation goes much further and confirms information about the corporate entity or identity of the domain owner. In addition to confirming that you have control over your domain, the Certificate Authority must obtain positive proof of your identity and, if a corporate entity is the Registered Owner of the domain, your position within that entity. This process is much more involved, and the certificates are more expensive as a result. But when it’s complete, your website visitors will see a message in their browser identifying the corporate entity in addition to just a nice big padlock, so if you’re conducting significant transactions via your website, you may find this added security more attractive.

There are many other options, including so-called “Wildcard” Certificates, which are valid for more than one domain or subdomain, and the list goes on and on.

If you’re just trying to convert from HTTP to HTTPS, often the most basic (and inexpensive) Certificates will be more than sufficient.

What Happens Next?

Once you’ve gotten the ball rolling on acquiring a certificate, often you’ll find that you have some waiting to do. Unless your web hosting provider uses Let’s Encrypt, where the domain validation process (see above) is automated, then you’ll most likely have to jump through some hoops to confirm that you do have control over your domain.

Most of the time, you’ll want to just pay careful attention to the instructions you’re presented with when you request your certificate. The most common scenario, however, is that you’ll need to monitor the email address associated with your domain name. If you aren’t sure what email address that might be, it’s a good idea to search your domain name in a WHOIS lookup service (here’s one) and see what turns up.

Usually, the Domain Validation process will take no more than 24-48 hours. Sometimes, it’s even nearly instantaneous.

Step 3: Install Your Certificate

In the vast majority of cases, your web hosting provider will have to perform this step for you. If they support Let’s Encrypt, it will most likely be automated, which is another great reason to use those Certificates. If you’ve acquired your Certificate from a 3rd Party, you’ll most likely need to send it to your hosting provider for them to install. If you acquired it directly from your web host, then they’ll most likely handle this part of the process for you without much prodding from you.

If you have a “Dedicated” or “Dedicated Virtual Server,” then you may be responsible to perform this step yourself. If that’s the case, you’re most likely not in need of this article, but if you find yourself reading this and you’re in that situation and don’t know what to do, drop a note in the comments with information about who your hosting provider is and we’ll try to get you some help.

Step 4: Test

Once you’ve got reason to believe that your Certificate has been installed, give it a try! Just open up your web browser and type in your site address, but use “http://” instead of “https://” in front of the address and see what happens.

If you receive an error message, then the Certificate may not yet be installed. (It depends on the error, however, so it’s a good idea to pay attention to what the error message says.)

If your site loads up, or if it loads up but doesn’t look right, good news: you’re ready to move forward!

Step 5: Reconfigure and Redirect

Often, a website that has a newly minted SSL Certificate won’t look quite right when viewed in HTTPS mode. This is usually because there are requests for resources (e.g. images, javascript files, and other goodies that help your site look like it’s supposed to look) that are hard-coded to a specific URL. That URL often begins with “http:” and not “https:” …and that means that any modern web browser will refuse to go get those resources if you’re asking for only HTTPS stuff. At the very least, you’ll get a warning that says, “This site uses non-secure bla bla bla.”

The good news is that if you’re using WordPress (you are using WordPress, right?!), there are a few simple things you can do.

How to Configure WordPress To Use HTTPS

For starters, you’ll want to log in to the WordPress Dashboard and find your site’s “General Settings” (Settings -> General if you’re using the left-hand menu, or http://YOURDOMAINHERE.com/wp-admin/options-general.php if you feel like typing in the address) and change the WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) to reflect the new change. A word of caution: sometimes changing these values can result in problems. It’s a good idea to do this at a time when it’s OK for your site to have a few minutes of downtime just in case there’s a problem. If you can no longer access your website (or your WordPress dashboard) after you perform this step, the fix requires access to your hosting company’s Control Panel (or similar software) or contacting their support department.

Once that step has been performed, it’s a good idea to visit your site again and see what happens. I recommend using a separate web browser (where you aren’t logged in to the WordPress Dashboard, so not just a new tab or window) for this… just so you can be sure you’re seeing what regular visitors to your site will see.

If you still have images that aren’t loading properly or you see warnings about insecure content, then you might want to try one of the many SSL plugins available for WordPress. These plugins do all the heavy lifting for you of fixing any references to HTTP addresses and automatically converting them to HTTPS requests instead. I’ve tested a few of these and have had good results with WordPress HTTPS (although it hasn’t been updated in some time and so I tend to shy away from it these days) and Really Simple SSL.

If you’re using a caching plugin (like W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache), you will definitely need to purge your site’s cache, and you may also need to reconfigure any CDN settings to be sure they’re requesting your images from valid secure locations.

From here, if your site doesn’t look right, then there are a few different rabbit holes to go down in search of the most appropriate resolution to the problem(s) you may have. In the majority of cases, however, the steps mentioned here are sufficient to get your site looking good.

In our next post, we’ll take a look at some of the follow-up steps you’ll want to take now that your site has a shiny new Certificate and working HTTPS connections!

Can I put a video in an email without sending it as an attachment?

The answer is, “No.”

But you can do it. Or at least the recipient of your email will think you did (unless they know this simple trick). Either way: you’re getting the video to your recipient, and you’re not having to send them a big attachment.

Here’s how:

Step By Step Instructions for “Embedding” a Video in an Email

1. Shoot your video. I was traveling without any gear, so I just used my smartphone to shoot this video.
2. Upload your video to a hosting platform like YouTube or Vimeo. In my case, I was able to use the YouTube app for Android. It even allowed me to trim off the beginning where I was getting the shot angled correctly and wasn’t yet looking into the camera.
3. Embed that video in a blog post or a page on your website. Since I’m a WordPress user, this was really super simple. All I needed was the URL for the YouTube clip, which I copied & pasted into my blog post.
4. Take a screenshot of your video. I was traveling with my Chromebook, so I literally just played the video back in full screen mode and used the keyboard shortcut to screenshot the video.
5. Insert the screenshot in your email. Whether you’re sending an email to one person with a tool like Gmail or Outlook, or sending bulk email to your subscribers via a system like Aweber, MailChimp or Infusionsoft, you want to just place the image in the body of your email.Pro tip: If you have access to photo editing software, add a “play” button to the image. You can use fancy tools like Photoshop, a web-based editor like Pixlr (that’s what I used since I was on my Chromebook), or even simple smartphone apps or basic tools that may have come with your computer.
6. Link the image to the blog post you created. Every major email tool will allow you to link your image to any URL you specify. So just get the URL of the blog post (or page) you embedded your video into, and use that as the target for your link.

The end result is that when the recipient of your email opens the message, they see your image. When they click it, their web browser opens to the page on your site where the video is located, and they can click the video to play it.

Here’s how my mail reply looked when I sent it to my friend, Jim:

So… in hindsight, I could’ve grabbed a different screenshot so the “play” button didn’t end up looking like a giant clown nose…

If you have the “play” button overlaid on top of the image, then clicking your image will be very intuitive. If you don’t have a “play” button on the image itself, then you’ll want to add some language to your email to let people know they can click the image to view a video.

Don’t have a website? No problem (for this purpose, anyway!)… simply point the link directly to the YouTube or Vimeo URL for your video.

Questions? Ask ’em in the comments! (Below)

Update (March 19, 2017): iTunes has quietly added Let’s Encrypt to their list of officially supported SSL certificate providers. We’re going to test this out to confirm that it is indeed working. We’ll update this once we’ve confirmed it!

Recently, we learned a painful lesson about using SSL Certificates on a website that hosts a podcast.

Our website serves not only as the home of Grow The Dream, our digital marketing agency, but also as the home of the Grow The Dream Show, a weekly podcast we produce along with 2 colleagues — one a veteran journalist turned PR & messaging guru, and the other an entrepreneur and startup guy.

Not long ago, our commercial SSL certificate was expiring, and I made the decision to deploy a Let’s Encrypt certificate in its place.

The process was astonishingly simple and straightforward: since we use NGINX as our web server, I was able to connect to the server via SSH and run a few simple shell commands (more on that in a moment) and within about 60 seconds we had a shiny new certificate. Oh and thanks to the automation, that 60 seconds included the Domain Control Validation phase of the process.

But the best part? Let’s Encrypt isn’t just automated, it’s also open.

Oh… and the cert is free.

Immediately I tested a whole bunch of stuff to verify that it worked. Typical stuff: open the site with fresh browsers on various operating systems, including Android, iOS, various versions of Windows, Ubuntu, etc.

And yes… to be certain that our podcast was working properly, I opened the iTunes desktop client for Windows 64-bit operating systems (painful though it is to even launch that software) and it found our podcast’s RSS feed, updated, and downloaded the latest episode—the one published within a few minutes of the time that the cert was updated.

Perfecto!

That is until the next day.

That’s when I discovered that our podcast’s official listing at iTunes.com was not updating. Even worse, when I used Apple’s new iTunes Connect interface for Podcast Providers (a/k/a “Podcast Connect”), I found an enormous error message staring me in the face:

“Can’t read your feed. sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target”

Even worse, the “Refresh Feed” link was gone, as you can see here:

Interestingly, although the main function that reads feeds for iTunes was apparently unable to process our feed, the “Mirror URL” was perfectly up to date.

Every Apple device (I have friends with Macs and iPhones) seemed to work. We checked with the other major podcast aggregators where our show is often featured (Stitcher, Player.FM, Pocket Casts, and so on), and they all showed our newest episode and were therefore updating just fine.

The Let’s Encrypt Community Responds

As you might expect with any good open project, there’s a community. And in this case, someone within the Let’s Encrypt community had already started a discussion thread about this very problem.

While there was a fair amount of speculation, ultimately my research yielded a simple set of facts. Apple’s main engine for iTunes runs on a version of Java that did not include the Let’s Encrypt Root Certificate from the Let’s Encrypt Certificate Authority (“CA”), therefore Let’s Encrypt is not in its list of trusted CAs. Thus, the software written on that version also does not trust the Let’s Encrypt CA.

Since iOS, Mac OSX, and other similar systems have their own list of trusted CAs, often the iTunes software or Podcasts App had no problem reading a feed encrypted with a Let’s Encrypt certificate (which is signed by the Let’s Encrypt Certificate Authority).

The builders of Let’s Encrypt anticipated scenarios where their Root Certificate would not be included, so they had it “cross-signed” by IdenTrust, which would create trust for their Certificates… at least in theory.

In the case of iTunes, for whatever reason, this isn’t sufficient.

The iTunes store, long considered the “official” directory of podcasts (probably because “podcast” includes part of the word “iPod” in the very name of the medium) ultimately simply doesn’t trust Let’s Encrypt certificates.

This means if you submit a new podcast to iTunes for inclusion in the directory, and your podcast’s official RSS feed is encrypted with a Let’s Encrypt Certificate, iTunes will reject your podcast.

On the other hand, if you have a podcast already listed in the official iTunes directory, and you change to a Let’s Encrypt Certificate from one that had previously been trusted by Apple’s platform, your feed will stop being updated.

iTunes Support Responds

As you might imagine, I didn’t just accept that the status quo had to remain. I contacted Apple via the iTunes Connect interface mentioned earlier, and thus began a support dialogue that went on for weeks.

When I began the dialogue, I did not understand what I do now about the fact that their system did not (and does not, as of this writing) support Let’s Encrypt Certificates. I was simply contacting them about the error message.

Let’s just say that their efforts at diagnosing the problem left a little to be desired. But I can hardly fault them for this, as I imagine that the ins and outs of encryption, SSL, Certificates, and whatnot are not for the faint of heart, and are hardly likely to be everyday fodder for their support mill.

In the end, an Apple support representative provided a list of “known working” Certificate Authorities and urged me to use one from their list.

I Give Up

What is the importance of the “official” podcast directory at iTunes?

It’s hard to say. Ultimately, I can say that our download numbers suffered during the time period that our RSS feed was encrypted with a Let’s Encrypt Certificate. By how much? That’s also hard to say. Podcast statistics are difficult enough, with a huge number of variables to factor in, to isolate the importance of any one factor.

However… a sneakier unknown loomed behind the knowledge that Apple’s system did not trust my certificate, and that is this: what other systems don’t trust my certificate?

Sadly… I relented.

I contacted the our commercial SSL Certificate [note: that’s an affiliate link*] provider of choice, and bought a new, low-cost certificate. For less than $30, I had a new commercial certificate, which I installed with a far greater level of difficulty than the super-simple Let’s Encrypt process.

As predicted by iTunes Support, within a few hours (they said up to 24), the error message at iTunes was resolved and our listing updated. By this time, several weeks had elapsed and thus several new episodes of our show suddenly appeared. Unfortunately, what little statistical data that iTunes provides (e.g. the relative “popularity” of a given episode) is permanently lost to the world for those new episodes, as well as for other episodes where interactions occurred on Apple’s devices and software platforms during that time period.

Not to be satisfied, I replied back to the Support thread with as much detail about the problem that I felt would be digestible, and asked why Let’s Encrypt Certificates weren’t being trusted. Apple responded with an acknowledgment of the fact that my new Certificate had resolved the error message, and that they have since updated their Podcast Connect FAQs with their list of trusted Certificate providers, saying:

iTunes requires an SSL certificate from one of the following providers:

…and of course, our preferred provider* isn’t on the list (although they are a reseller for some of the providers Apple identified).

Tech Details

We host the site on a Digital Ocean* droplet, which is a decision we made because it allows us to have the autonomy of a VPS along with the scalability of a hosting platform where we can readily access additional resources as needed.

That autonomy allows us full control over facets of our hosting such as:

• exactly how we deploy SSL (or TLS, to be more precise) — the answer is: sitewide, with HSTS to ensure that no resources are accessed without encryption
• exactly what web server software (we use NGINX) we use, and exactly how we configure it
• fine-tuning the entire configuration for speed, security, and so forth (I’m sure there’s lots of room for improvement here, but we enjoy the process).

Why Use SSL at All?

Some might argue that hosting a podcast and a relatively straightforward website for a digital marketing agency really doesn’t merit running encrypting the data between our web server and our site’s visitors.

And while I see that point, I disagree.

Certainly, Google has famously created an incentive for website owners to run full SSL, and while we’re grateful for any benefit we might enjoy where our site’s search engine rankings are concerned, that really isn’t the primary reason to encrypt.

We encrypt transfers between our site’s visitors and our web server for one major reason: to protect our site visitors.

Perhaps the single biggest protection this affords them is that of preventing man in the middle attacks.

While we don’t have any delusions that our content is life-alteringly important to the point that someone would want to tamper with it, per se, the truth is that any website whose content, downloads, and whatnot is delivered over the unencrypted http protocol is subject to having it monkeyed with by ISPs, cellular carriers, and others… not just a malicious hacker sniffing wi-fi traffic at the local coffee shop.

For more on the importance of encrypting the web, check out this report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

In Conclusion

For now, Let’s Encrypt may not be best suited for everyone — especially those who publish content on the web for commercial purposes. If you use Let’s Encrypt, you accept some risk that a percentage of your audience (however small) may not be able to access, or even discover, your content.

For noncommercial purposes where that risk may not come with an economic cost, Let’s Encrypt is already a fantastic solution.

We look forward to the day when those few holdouts that don’t seem to trust it come around.

I’m looking at you, Apple.

*Disclosure: We have an affiliate relationship with some of the providers linked to in this post. If you click one of those links and subsequently make a purchase, we may make a small amount of money. Our policy is that we do not recommend any providers we do not also use and believe in, so the affiliate relationship does not change who we are linking to.

And what’s surprising me most of all is that the things I took away from the event are both nothing new and nothing short of revolutionary at the same time.

First: What Is INBOUND and Why Should You Care?

(If you were there or you already know about the conference, you should skip this part… seriously.)

The INBOUND Conference is an annual event put on by HubSpot (disclaimer: we neither endorse, nor sell, nor even use HubSpot software… but we’re very grateful to them for listing our podcast as one of the “8 Best Podcasts You Should Be Listening to Right Now” on their marketing blog.)

This year’s gathering boasted 14,000 attendees (up 4K from last year!), most of whom are marketing personnel or executives—some from marketing agencies, but most from brands. We heard from well-recognized names like Brené Brown…

SUPER excited for this morning's keynote with @BreneBrown ! #INBOUND15 pic.twitter.com/0OBO1o9aHt

— David G. Johnson (@TheDavidJohnson) September 9, 2015

and Dan Pink…

Most of how people feel about sales is because of information asymmetry @DanielPink #INBOUND15 pic.twitter.com/NhhmNmrGLr

— David G. Johnson (@TheDavidJohnson) September 11, 2015

…whom we may or may not have booked for an upcoming episode of our podcast, but who has written some incredibly impactful books like A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future, the hugely important Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and his latest: To Sell Is Human (which I have yet to read).

Other big names included Seth Godin (whose keynote was held in a tiny room that filled up early), actor & comic Aziz Ansari, podcaster Marc Maron, and Co-Founder of Buzzfeed, Jonah Peretti.

Perhaps equally important as the big keynotes were the more than 250 breakout sessions (!) which covered just about every imaginable facet of content marketing, social media, and all things “inbound.”

Second: Why Is Everyone Referring to This Stuff as “Inbound” Marketing?

You have, no doubt, long ago figured out that traditional “interruption” marketing doesn’t work, is too expensive, and—no matter how simple it may have been to “figure out”—is dead. At least for small business. (Sure, there are exceptions. Complain in the comments section below.)

But exactly what has replaced the old ways?

This is where you’ll hear lots of different ideas.

… is it Social Media? Perhaps… but your Facebook Page reach is probably as bad as everyone else’s.

…is it Blogging? Sure… you should be doing that. But even if you get great Google rankings and lots of subscribers, we both know that those things don’t make the proverbial cash register ring.

…is it _________? (You can fill in the blank with any one of a dizzying number of other tactics)

Well… the truth of the matter is that something more holistic, more strategic, and more cohesive is probably the most effective way to answer this question.

For years now, I’ve been using the term “content marketing,” because I like the simplicity of it. You put out “bait” that your future customers are hungry for… and you lead them on a trail right to your door.

Naturally, the simplicity of the term belies the complexity of the actual execution… but that’s the way these things go.

But perhaps the arguably broader term “inbound” has an even more deceptive and seductive simplicity. I might adopt it, because it does a better job of implying just how backwards this approach is compared to the old ways.

The idea is simple: you attract customers to you… and the arrive like flights coming into O’Hare… rather than you seeking them out, which is what the old, expensive, and ineffective methods amounted to.

I also like the term “inbound marketing” for another important reason: it explicitly describes the ultimate goal of all these efforts: actually generating leads.

Third: So What Did You Learn That Was So Shocking?

It’s simple really. I learned that we aren’t “all in” on inbound marketing.

And by “we” I mean me, since I’m the one leading my team.

If you know me (even a little), you probably know that we’ve built our business around these ideas. Since 2006, we’ve been training customers to create fresh content for the web, make low-risk offers that generate subscriptions, use automated follow-up via email, and ultimately drive those customers to irresistible offers that create revenue.

…in other words, the very essence of the essential elements of inbound marketing.

9 years is a long time. How could it be that we aren’t “all in” on it yet?

Exactly.

But that was the most shocking revelation for me at #INBOUND15 last week. I’m not really committed to it.

It pains me to admit it. But it’s true. And I mainly blame this guy:

The good-lookin’ guy in this shot is Marcus Sheridan, AKA @TheSalesLion

Marcus Sheridan / The Sales Lion

Marcus is famous primarily because of the startling business turnaround story he tells of his own pool business. (If you haven’t heard it yet, check out this episode of the Grow The Dream Show.)

Since saving his own business from the brink of disaster, Marcus has been helping other companies adopt the methodologies of inbound marketing… and with fantastic success.

I’ll admit that I primarily attended his session just to shake hands and meet in person, since we’d only ever met via Twitter, email, and our podcast.

Sure… I was expecting to get some juicy nuggets that would be valuable, but in no way did I expect him to give me the “come to Jesus” moment that I got.

It began with another deceptively simple idea that he opened his breakout session with:

The #1 problem facing this industry today is a lack of buy-in from top leadership.
—Marcus Sheridan

OK… I get that. I’ve seen it, too. The owners & top leaders within some of our clients don’t get it either.

But that’s when the sucker punch came.

The longer Marcus spent sharing about what this lack of “buy-in” really looks like, the more I began to recognize myself.

Here’s what I mean…

The Story of Yale Appliance

Marcus told the story of Yale Appliance, a major retailer in the Boston area. Some years ago, they adopted blogging and other elements of content marketing.

After one full year, their website traffic had grown, but not by a whole lot.

You see… as Marcus told the story, they believed in inbound marketing, but they hadn’t yet gone “all in.”

As Marcus put it, you might adopt inbound marketing as a “program.”

But that’s not going to get it done.

Instead, it needs to become a culture.

Like payroll, inbound marketing has to become a “religion.”

When it’s a “religion,” it doesn’t just happen when someone gets around to it or when they feel inspired. And it doesn’t get “phoned in” or otherwise executed half-heartedly.

It gets treated as the high-priority requirement that it really should be.

When Yale Appliance made the decision to create a culture of inbound marketing, several things happened:

• Creating content became “required” for all staff
• They began measuring how many pieces of content each team member had contributed to
• It went into the job descriptions of every employee
• and so on…

You can see the evidence of this on the Yale Appliance blog (pictured at the right), where the staff are ranked according to how many pieces of content they’ve contributed to.

OK… So More of Them Started Producing Content

Sure… and the volume of content they were creating went up, which meant the frequency was increased.

It’s easy to see why that would help, right?

But those are not the biggest factors in the success of their inbound marketing efforts.

What is the biggest factor?

I’m glad you asked.

The nature of the content changed.

Marcus has a saying that I really like. (I’m quoting him here so that I can go on record that I got this nugget from him. Later, when I’ve fully assimilated it as my own, it’ll be nice to know that he’s been credited!)

Your content is the soul of your business.
—Marcus Sheridan

What do you think happens to your content when it’s being produced by front line staff? You know… the people who actually spend the majority of their time with the customers?

In the case of an appliance business, I’m sure that means service technicians, sales associates, dispatchers and customer service representatives.

What happens is that your content gets a lot less fluffy and a lot more real.

If you as a business will allow it to happen, the content will get a lot gutsier.

Marcus told some of his own stories about gutsy content on that podcast episode I mentioned earlier. (Haven’t listened to it yet? Go do it now. I’ll wait.)

Gutsy Content

But when he shared the story of what Yale Appliance did, it took things to a whole new level of gutsy.

In one blog post that Marcus cited, Steve Sheinkopf of Yale Appliance listed the major brands of products they sell and ranked them based upon actual service call data for 1 year according to which brands resulted in the fewest service calls!

I can only imagine the phone calls from the manufacturers’ reps after that one got published… especially since Yale Appliance’s blog is atop the search engine results for any number of searches!

When Google offers visitors a chance to search within your site… it means you have a lot of content.

Today, this retailer based in Boston sees more than 400,000 visitors arriving at its website each month.

They’re “all in.” And most importantly: they have measured the impact on their sales and their bottom line.

There’s More…

But this post is already longer than I planned to write. Suffice it to say that we—my team and I—are taking a hard look at our own approach, and we’re going to be expecting our clients to go “all in” with us.

Seeing the amazing results that some of them have already achieved, I can’t tell you how excited I am to see where this will take them in the future!

For more key takeaways from INBOUND15, listen to this week’s episode of our podcast.

In this training, originally made available exclusively to our members and alumni, we show you how to get great-looking graphics without special skills using only free software.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn:

• Exactly what software you need and where to get it at no charge.
• Where to find great-looking photos you are free to use in your business at little or no cost
• How to brand images with your logo or business name
• How to easily add text and simple visual decorations to images
• A primer on copyrights & royalties for when only premium images are suitable
• …and more!

We also took a fun look at internet memes and how to use them as part of your social media strategy. Enjoy!

For links to the software and other tools we used, check out the Grow The Dream Recommends page. (Link opens in a new tab so you’re video viewing won’t be interrupted!)

Questions? Drop them in the comments below!

The data around blogging is huge. Businesses who blog get more web traffic, more leads, and better ROI on marketing than those who don’t. In fact, according to inbound marketing software giant, Hubspot, marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI on their marketing efforts.

As a conference speaker and consultant, I’ve been pounding the drum since 2006 that business owners and their teams should be blogging consistently. And although I’m also a huge believer that you can gain the skills to blog well, there are also really good reasons to hire a quality content team to produce your blog (and other) content for you.

Reason #1: It Will Get Done

As a business owner (or member of a small business team), you inevitably wear a lot of hats. When your team is smaller (and I’m a huge fan of smaller teams!), no matter how you try to make “marketing” someone’s responsibility, invariably there are significant competing priorities. On any given day, there are fires to put out, customers to serve, challenges to overcome.

When you hire a professional content team, your content strategy will get executed.

For example, at Grow The Dream, we’ve assembled a team of writers, editors, and designers who make your business our priority so that your blog (and social channels) have fresh content on a consistent basis.

Sure, there are always advantages to having the content created by those inside the business. But if you’re spinning plates, all to often, the marketing plate doesn’t get the attention it needs until it’s too late.

Reason #2: Perspective

Often, when you work inside a business or even an industry for long periods of time, it’s easy to lose perspective. You forget how much you know about your business… or rather, how little your customers know.

One of the hardest jobs I have in developing marketing strategy with business owners is helping them understand just how much expertise they really have. Sure, there’s always someone who knows more than you do, and chances are, those are the people whose books you read, podcasts you listen to, and blogs you follow.

But almost without exception, your customers know less than you do. And that means that your content needs to educate and inform just as much as it needs to persuade.

This is why hiring a content team who will take the time to learn about your business without actually becoming experts in what you do can often produce better quality educational content for your blog. By being one step removed from the ins and outs that you yourself know all too well, professional content creators can more easily maintain the perspective of the outsider.

This helps your content avoid:

• making assumptions about what people know,
• using jargon that makes people feel excluded rather than included, and
• fundamentally missing the mark when it comes to providing valuable and useful information

Reason #3: Staying Current on Tactics

It goes without saying that technology changes constantly. And while the strategy of delivering value and providing useful content doesn’t change, the mechanisms we use to do so are constantly in flux.

What size should the graphic be? Where should it go in the post? Should I create a separate graphic for Facebook from the one I use on Twitter? (…or Pinterest? …or Twitter? …or the new social network du jour?)

When I publish the blog post, should I share it immediately? When I share it to Facebook, should I use a link post or should I upload a photo and put an link to the content in the description?

These are just a few examples of the many types of decisions that go into how your content can be maximized to deliver the most value to the highest number of people possible.

And they can change almost daily.

A professional content team who produces and monitors the effectiveness of content on a daily basis will, by necessity, know how best to answer these questions and more. And when you put them to work for your business, they’ll use all their expertise to help you get the most out of your investment in content.

Reason #4: Measuring Results

This reason is very closely tied to reason #3, because staying current on tactics relies in no small part on this piece of the puzzle: measuring and monitoring.

If keeping up with creating the content is challenging for you, then finding the time to quantify its impact is even more likely to get left behind.

Professional content creators go beyond just putting words together with graphics and hitting the “publish” button. Quality content teams will take the time to put the metrics in place that are necessary to understand what’s working and what isn’t.

Tools like Google Analytics are an invaluable component of a measurement strategy, but are often only the first step when it comes to measuring real ROI.

When we work with clients, we develop key performance indicators (KPIs) that — depending upon the individual business and its objectives — might include components like:

• # of visitors from organic search, referrers, social channels, etc.
• # of “click to call” actions taken from a company website
• # of email subscribers, e-mail opt-ins, free report downloads, etc.
• conversion rate for opt-ins, e-commerce purchases, and other business-specific goals
• # of leads generated
• quality scoring for leads generated
• and many, many more.

Professional content creators will take the time to help you develop strategy around what metrics matter most to your business and will take the time to monitor those metrics for you and make real-time adjustments as needed in order to help you hit your objectives.

Reason #5: Built-in Editorial

As my good friend, 30-year veteran journalist and former Executive Editor turned PR/messaging consultant Rod Thomson, always says, “Everybody needs an editor.”

There isn’t a single writer in existence, no matter how skilled or experienced, who doesn’t need someone to review, check, and — yes — correct their work.

Is the content a good match for the audience? Does it hit the target for delivering value? Is it boring? Is it free of spelling errors? What about typographical errors? Is it reasonably grammatically correct? Does it match the “voice” of the business?

With all the hats you wear, finding the time to write can be challenging enough… but who will edit your work when you do write?

With a professional content team, there’s always an editor looking for these and other factors before content goes live on your blog. Sometimes, content might even go through a re-write or two before you ever even see it.

Reason #6: Access to Storytellers

“Those who tell the stories rule the world.” —Hopi American Indian proverb

Creating content that’s useful and valuable to your customers is one thing. And it’s phenomenal to execute well on that goal.

But when you introduce story in into your business, your content becomes more unforgettable, useful, and meaningful to your audience.  And that makes it more likely to get results for you.

Storytelling is a valuable art that any business owner should master. But it also takes time.

A professional content team will help you tell the story of your business in 3 key ways:

• They will help you find & develop your story through strategic work,
• They will help you tell your story in written form, woven throughout your blog content, social posts, etc.
• They will help you tell your story visually through compelling graphics that accompany your content.

It’s not realistic to believe that every single piece of content will — in and of itself — be an amazing story. But when you’ve taken the time to hone the story of your business, a professional content team will help you weave your story into the fabric of every single piece of content.

And that is priceless.

Are you ready to outsource your content creation? At Grow The Dream, we’ve assembled a team of writers, designers, and editors that are passionate about making your business more successful than ever. We’d be honored to work alongside you to tell your story in powerful, meaningful ways that measurably contribute to your business objectives. Get in touch today to get started.

There’s a fair amount of confusion about it, so let’s do what we can here to clarify what’s going on and how it affects you.

What’s Changing in this Google Algorithm Update?

First of all, this change will affect Google search results.

That means that if you have a website, you will most likely be impacted in some way — either because your site itself is rewarded (or punished), or because the other sites that “compete” with you for search rankings on a given search result will be rewarded or punished.

Specifically, Google will be changing how sites are ranked based upon how “mobile friendly” they are, as measured by Google.

This is a direct response to the explosion in mobile traffic that has occurred in recent years, and nobody understands this better than Google, whose revenues from mobile users have been rapidly expanding while desktop revenues have declined.

It’s also not the first time Google’s algorithm has been adjusted to reward sites that create a better user experience for mobile visitors than others. But this is anticipated to be the most dramatic change ever.

How Can You Tell If Your Site Is Considered “Mobile Friendly?”

Thankfully, you don’t have to wonder about it. In fact, you may have already seen some evidence about what Google thinks about your site’s mobile-friendliness.

In recent months, 2 indicators from Google have surfaced. One is the “mobile friendly” label accompanying certain search results, which is intended to signal visitors that they’ll likely have a good experience when visiting those websites from a mobile device.

Google Webmaster Tools Mobile Usability Email from March, 2015

The second indicator will have arrived in your email inbox if your site had mobile usability issues AND if you had registered for Google Webmaster Tools.

If you saw one of those emails, it might have seemed like a nice gentle note from Google that wasn’t all that urgent.

In fact, it’s something you should not ignore.

As an aside, generally any email from Google Webmaster Tools should scream for your attention, since they often leave important messages for you in your Webmaster Tools account which they never bother to email you about!

If you haven’t noticed any labels next to your site’s listing in search results and you haven’t gotten any emails, don’t worry… there’s a test.

When you visit Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, simply plug in a URL and their test tool will report back to you what it finds.

What you’re hoping to see is an “Awesome! This page is mobile-friendly.” in nice big green print.

If that isn’t what you see, then read on. We’ve got some tips for you.

Keep in mind: the test results are only for the specific URL you submitted.

In other words: you could have some pages that “pass” the mobile-friendly test while others fail.

Theoretically, you would have to submit every URL for your entire site to be sure, but thankfully most of us won’t need to do that.

What If Your Site Isn’t Mobile-Friendly?

If you don’t see the “Awesome!” on your test result, then there isn’t much time left to address the problems before you could see your search traffic from Google begin to decline.

While no one knows with 100% certainty exactly what’s going to happen on April 21st, there are a few things we do know.

In its blog post from February 26th, Google announced what is arguably more than it has ever announced prior to any algorithm change we’ve seen.

Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.

Here’s what we take this to mean:

1. Sites that are not “mobile-friendly” (according to Google) will likely move down in search rankings.
2. Sites that are “mobile-friendly” will most likely get a boost in search rankings.

Why do we believe this?

First of all, when you see Google announcing something that, “…will have a significant impact in our search results,” this is a huge statement. Google usually does not use language this clear and this bold regarding search results. This is why I must urge you to pay attention.

Secondly, as many as 40% of the top 25,000 websites may not be ready to meet Google’s mobile-friendly standard. My guess is that sites that don’t even make it into the top 25,000 may be even more likely to not be ready.

This means that it’s your opportunity to get ahead of some of your “competitors” — at least those sites with whom you compete for search rankings (and therefore traffic) on given terms.

What Can You Do to Make Your Site More Mobile-Friendly?

We’ve been advising clients for the last several years now that sites should follow responsive design principles.

By far, the easiest way to move to a responsive design is to use a content management system like WordPress. This has been one of our most oft-repeated recommendations since we first discovered WordPress in 2006.

So… the first step is to get your site moved over to WordPress.

The second step is to ensure that your WordPress theme is responsive. These days, you would be hard-pressed to find any good theme developer that isn’t using responsive design techniques to build their themes. (There are some out there, but if you do a little homework, you can easily avoid them.)

Changing your WordPress theme is relatively inexpensive (compared to building a site from scratch), and —depending upon your level of skill and courage — may even be something you undertake yourself.

If you do need help, WordPress developers are very common. You can also reach out to us and my team may be able to give you a hand with this transition.

But don’t wait. Many of the best developers are already too busy to take on new site conversions before the deadline.

What Questions Do You Have?

Feel free to drop a question in the comments below. I’ll do my best to tackle them for you here. You can also check out the latest episode of The Growth Show for more discussion about this with my good friends Rod Thomson and Josh Muccio.