Tips Tuesday – What if Google Didn’t Exist, Theme Design Choices
Tips this week include:
- New agency coming soon
- Update on swapping themes and choices I had to make
- How bad design hurts SEO and speed
- Why to go simple with a theme
- Is Google broken or not?
- Where folks are searching now
- Video is key to brand building
- What if Google didn’t exist?
- WP 6.6 Beta 2 is out
- Highlights from the recent WordCamp Europe
BlogAid Happenings
My head’s on fire, but not from the summer-like heat!
Let me tell you what’s going on.
New Agency in the Works
Last week I was in the process of setting up the EZ Metrix membership.
And then it dawned on me that it doesn’t need to be on the BlogAid Learning Center.
For the past month I’ve been having conversations with key players who offer services and courses for the online sales niche, plus business coaches, VAs, and more.
For years now I’ve been preaching that all bloggers need to move into having their own products.
And I’ve watched those who listened to me start making real $$$$, far beyond blogging for ad revenue. In fact, many have dropped ads completely and saw immediate growth in their audience due to a far better site experience.
The problem is, you have to jump through a bunch of different trainings and courses and groups to figure out how to make the thing and then set stuff up to sell it.
Plus, you need a way to start from where you are and then grow your empire.
I’m here to help you do all that.
I’m creating a new agency that will take you step-by-step through this journey, no matter where you’re starting it or where you want to go with it.
And I won’t be doing it alone – hence the agency.
It will offer done-by-you courses as well as done-for-you services.
And I’m starting it from where I am – with the EZ Metrix course.
I’ll have more for you when it launches, as well as a live webinar so you can see how easy custom Looker Studio reports make digging into your metrics fast and fun.
Need Help Setting Something Up?
If you’re in the midst of trying to get a trip wire or a product launched, or even an integration done, contact me for help with it.
I’m offering done-for-you services even ahead of the agency launch.
Talk it Through
Struggling with figuring out what to sell, or even how to sell?
Wandering what the best platform is for what you want to offer?
Can’t decide between ThriveCart, Etsy, or Shopify?
Tell me what you want to do and I’ll help you get there, and bring a wheelbarrow full of ideas that will help you make more money in ways you never even thought of.
Theme Tips
Now is a good time to consider modernizing and future-proofing your site.
My money is where my mouth is on this point.
Let me tell you about my experience with it over the past couple of weeks.
Update on BlogAid Theme Swaps
The theme swap from Genesis to Kadence for the BlogAid Learning Center and the Webmaster Training sites went very well.
We’re now working on the BlogAid clone and will likely swap it out later this week.
Michelle Phillips at Codefetti has been making quick work of the changes too!!!
I want to share some of the choices I had to make while doing this.
Y’all know that I advocate using native WP blocks instead of any specialty block plugin.
That advice was learned the hard way with all of us having to come out of Spectra blocks.
I had to take it off 5 of my sites, with 1 having it on practically every post and page. I’ve still got 1 site left to go.
But, some of the native blocks just did not lay out well with the new theme swap; however, only the home and landing pages were affected. That’s where I had the most layout styling going on.
So, we are using Kadence Blocks, and on some sites, Kadence Blocks Pro to regain the styling options.
I’m okay with that, as I really don’t have that many landing pages on the site that need extreme layout control.
Using Kadence Blocks Sparingly
But I will also say that there is a bit of a learning curve to do Kadence Blocks properly.
It’s based a little more on containers with nested blocks than I was counting on.
And both the container and the nested blocks have styling options.
You need to be super careful which one you’re in when you apply those styles, as you could make the conflict with each other or get unexpected results.
Plus, you could end up with a bunch of inline styling instead of letting the theme handle that.
Bad Design Impacts Speed and SEO
Doing a bunch of inline styling affects your load time and how things appear on different devices, or even different browser window sizes between huge desktop monitors and smaller laptop screens.
And this is where hiring a designer is SO worth it.
They know which blocks to use to properly control the layout, and how to avoid the styling caveats with nesting, not to mention knowing things like how the design impacts speed and SEO. Yes, SEO. Too many site owners use headings for style. That’s not the way to do it!!
Think about writing a book and using a title font or an H2 just for emphasis in the middle of the page.
That confuses the crap out of the reader, but worse, it confuses search engines.
Go Simple
Plus, when you’re looking at a bunch of themes to decide what you want for your new design, you will ALWAYS go for the WOW factor.
That’s a mistake.
Visitors are there for the content.
When your theme is highly decorated, it distracts from the content.
And the fact is, you’re shopping only by the home page. If you’re doing your promotion properly, that’s the second page folks visit, not the first.
They just need to see what else you offer, not a circus of styles and too many choices that are confusing the message.
I want you to go look at the home page of BlogAid.
The hero section at the top tells you what I do and who I do it for.
The courses and services section tells you how you can get that help.
If you scroll past that section without clicking, I failed with my home page design.
Everything below that section is just to bolster what’s above it and get you hooked into me one way or the other.
Get on the Waitlist
Y’all, listen up.
If you’re thinking about a theme redesign, or swapping from Astra or Genesis to Kadence, Michelle is booked into fall already.
I strongly suggest that you consider a consult with me if you want a redesign, to help you get away from throwing the kitchen sink at the home page, and get super focused on making money. Plus, learn which design elements to use, and where.
No matter whether you do that consult with me or not, get on Michelle’s wait list sooner rather than later.
SEO Tips
Is Google Broken or Not?
This article on Search Engine Journal is the kind of blathering nonsense that keeps this question from actually being answered.
The fact is, more searchers are getting crap results on Google and Google won’t admit that something has changed, and in a negative direction.
The other fact is that Google is still making plenty of money from search.
And the only way to get Google’s attention is for them to lose money.
Where Folks Search
The problem is, most folks don’t even know the names of other search engines.
Instead, they are searching on their favorite social media platforms.
X and TikTok have been recently named as top news sources.
The takeaway is that people want to hear from people, not manipulated agencies with an agenda.
And this is why it’s important for you to promote on these, and other social platforms instead of being so concerned with just Google SEO.
Marketing Tips
Video is Key to Brand Building
Why do you think big brands buy ads on YouTube – because it works!
So do brand sponsorship videos across all social platforms.
See this Search Engine Land article on how video is the key to building brand identity and engagement.
And scroll down to the chart that shows what types of videos they are making – short-form videos for social media are leading the pack.
Brands have bigger budgets than you and I have. But they still need to spend it where it gets the most bang for the buck.
Short-form video on social media is that place.
Guess what?
You can compete there too!!!!! Several of my clients are making real $$$ with brand sponsorship, TikTok Shop and more.
What if Google Didn’t Exist?
Think about this for a minute – seriously, think about it.
What if there were no search engines?
What would you do to get the word out about what you offer?
I want to challenge you to live as if that were true.
Make a list of where you can meet folks and help them with whatever it is you have to offer.
That list could include:
- Gatherings in your hometown
- Online groups that focus on your topic of interest
- Collaborating with creators in a related niche who can introduce you to their audience
- Blogger/creator masterminds/organizations
- Invite your newsletter subscribers to engage with you
Personally, I think SEO is the laziest way to reach folks.
And that’s created inertia with finding other ways to reach folks, and engage with them!
I know a LOT of bloggers got started because it was a great way to broadcast their knowledge without having to engage with others.
Those days are over.
The entire reason that TikTok took off, and is beating the pants off other social media is that creators are engaging with other people.
Think about that.
It’s time to move on from being a broadcaster and into being an engager.
What ways can you shift into talking to and with people instead of at people?
Let us know in the comments, or anywhere you see this post online.
See what I did there?
Go From Writing to Talking
One way to move from just writing blog posts is to make an audio version of them.
There are LOTS of ways to do this, including using AI voices – they are getting REALLY good at expressiveness these days.
In fact, some folks miss my Tips Tuesday podcast and they have AI, or some other text-to-speech tool to read it to them.
And why do you think Tips Tuesday sounds so conversational? Because I read it for my podcast!
It takes practice to animate a script. One of the tips is to smile while you’re speaking. It literally lifts your voice into a happy state. It’s just an automatic thing I do now in all of my recordings and live sessions.
Here’s a helpful post from The Smart Passive Income on how podcasts work and how to get started.
And while you read it, I want you to keep in mind that Pat Flynn’s podcast is how he grew an empire audience.
YouTube Does Audio and Video Now
If you’re thinking about a podcast, don’t forget to put it on YouTube!!
If you’re thinking about short-form video content, be sure to post it on YouTube as well.
Evergreen content does exceptionally well on YouTube. My woodworking channel alone buys me groceries every month.
See this post from The Smart Passive Income on how to start a YouTube channel and seriously consider doing it.
WordPress Tips
WordPress 6.6 Beta 2
The second beta for WP 6.6 is out. I expect either the Beta 3 or the RC1 to be released today.
An RC is a Release Candidate and means that nothing new will be added, just bug fixes will be done.
The final release is scheduled for July 16.
I’ll be sending special update instructions to my site audit Hub members and Webmaster Training members when I feel that it is safe to do so.
And I’ll be making a post for everyone with what’s new around the time of the final release.
WordCamp Europe Highlights
WordCamp Europe was held over the weekend.
And the WP blog has a nice highlights post for us.
This is also an opportunity for Matt Mullenweg to give a mid-year update on the state of WordPress.
To me, the biggest development is to WordPress Playground, which allows you to spin up a WP site in minutes to test things, code, or whatever you want to try.
It can push the whole thing to your GitHub, which is a real boon for devs.
You could also use it to try free plugins and themes too.
