Welcome to another edition of Sites Weekly.
In this week’s edition, you will find links to articles about the following:
- Content. Should you do more documenting, and less creating?
- Design. The right way to think about animations on your website
- Technology. Get a head start on your SEO improvements for 2018
- Strategy. Working from home isn’t as easy as it may seem
But first …
Last week on Sites
Are you having technical issues with your WordPress site? Then this podcast episode is for you. In this 23-minute episode, Matt Lawrence from StudioPress discusses how you can address the four most common technical issues with WordPress.
Listen: [28] How to Fix the Most Common Technical Issues with WordPress
And now, on to this week’s links …
Content: Should you do more documenting, and less creating?
According to Gary Vee, it might be a wise choice — especially if you’re trying to build your personal or business brand on social media.
This is a long blog post from Gary, but it’s well worth the read. He shares some insight on how he’s been so successful building his audiences on social media and, more importantly, practical lessons you can actually apply to your own work.
An important thought to consider:
“You have to understand that Instagram and Snapchat, and Twitter and Facebook are the new CBS, NBC, and Showtime. Except now you can reach hundreds of millions or billions of people every day.
I look at Medium, and WordPress, and Podcasts and Twitter like I look at the books on your shelf. It’s the modern platform for telling a great story.”
How to Tell a Story on Social Media (GaryVaynerchuk.com)
Design: The right way to think about animations on your website
If you’re thinking about incorporating animations into your web design, then make sure you read this article. It provides a good overview of the mindset you need to have when plotting the animations you’ll use, and where you should draw the line.
Here’s a key quote:
“Websites where the user is trying to learn about something require fewer animations. For example, if you wanted to learn about a business that sells bikes, you don’t want a lot of animations distracting you on the homepage. To put it another way, every homepage is like a shop window and if you’ve filled yours with strobe lighting, people won’t be able to see what you’re selling.”
Don’t Blind Your Users: Always Put Animations in Context (Design Beep)
Two of the most important decisions you will make about your WordPress website are your theme and your hosting. Wouldn’t it be great if they worked together to make your website more powerful?
Now they can.
Discover why over 213,675 website owners trust StudioPress.
Technology: Get a head start on your SEO improvements for 2018
The headline is clear: these aren’t good-to-know SEO concepts that you should pay attention to; these are must-know SEO concepts that all of us should be keeping in mind as we look toward the new year.
I picked up a few useful tips just from the first section, which includes a rundown of practical ways to improve mobile SEO. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go compress some images, reconsider a few pop-ups I have running, and take what’s called the “mobile-friendly test.”
5 Must-Know SEO Concepts to Help You Prepare for 2018 (Search Engine Journal)
Strategy: Working from home isn’t as easy as it may seem
Many of us who derive our income from online endeavors do so by working from home. And while the benefits of working from home are numerous, and most of them fairly obvious, the challenges of working from home often go unnoticed and under-appreciated.
Which is why I was so excited to see this blog post pop up on the Copyblogger blog. And even more than the topic, the author of the post had me excited. Kim Clark!
Kim doesn’t often peer out from behind the Copyblogger curtain, but it’s such a treat when she does. She’s fantastic. Having worked with Kim for several years, I know how much experience, knowledge, and wisdom she has to share. And after reading this blog post … let me just say that she clearly needs to write more. 🙂
So if you work from home, and could use a positive jolt of energy, read this post.
3 Simple Ways to Overcome Surprising Challenges of Working from Home (Copyblogger)
So …
Which of the ideas in these posts will you put to good use immediately?
I’ll be back with a new edition next week.
Keep building.