When using Google’s latest browser version, Chrome 68, you may see new warnings when browsing a non-secure HTTP site. Google is trying to reduce security risks and tampering by warning users when they are not on a secure (HTTPS) site.

Google wants website operators to move towards only HTTPS sites. By adding encryption between the browser and the host computer, HTTPS blocks problems such as injecting third party ads, or sending users to fake websites where passwords can be stolen.

Google made it clear in their announcement last week that the “not secure” warning users will see does not mean they have been hacked, just that they are not protected if someone tries to hack them. Of course, to be sure passwords and information are secure, it is advised users only do banking and other security-sensitive activities over a secure network connection (not in coffee shops or airports).

Currently the warning is seen in black words in the top left of the address bar. Come October, users will note that the wording for “not secure” will change to a more obvious red colour. Later versions of Chrome are expected to remove their green “secure” notice altogether, reflecting Google’s belief that all sites should be secure.

Chrome is currently the top choice in web browsers, boasting approximately 59% of web usage. This move towards a new, more secure Internet carries a lot of weight and could prompt other browsers to do the same.

Here’s an alphabetical list of the top 35 Canadian websites (as ranked by Alexa) that load over an insecure connection without redirecting to a secure, encrypted connection:

51.ca
appsconsultant.com
autotrader.ca
bollywoodcharcha.com
canadacomputers.com
canadiantire.ca
cbc.ca
cic.gc.ca
co930.com
concordia.ca
cra-arc.gc.ca
dailyhive.com
diply.com
djbaap.com
fanfox.net
gouv.qc.ca
haldimandmotors.com
iask.ca
insuranceco.club
interac.ca
lapresse.ca
mdpi.com
pangzi.ca
porngames.adult
senecacollege.ca
singtao.ca
thebay.com
thepornstudy.com
toysrus.ca
tvanouvelles.ca
umanitoba.ca
westca.com
yorku.ca
yorkbbs.ca

Not sure if your site is secure? Contact us today!

What is mobile-first indexing?

Mobile-first indexing means that Google will mainly use your mobile site and its content for indexing and ranking. Prior to this, the desktop version of a website was being used to establish the relevance of the page to the user’s search query. This change comes with the growing number of users accessing Google through their mobile devices.  There will still only be one index used.

Google will continue to show the relevant URL to desktop and mobile users in search results.

Some of the best practices:

• Mobile site and desktop site should contain matching content. This includes text, images and videos.
• Structured data should be on both sites. Ensure the mobile version of the URLs in the structured data are updated to the mobile URLs.
• Matching meta data on both sites. This includes titles and meta descriptions.

You can find more best practices here.

 

Will this affect or boost my ranking?

Google is on record saying that web content that is not mobile-friendly will not benefit from high rankings. Currently, Google uses indexed desktop content to display listings to both mobile and desktop users. With this change, Google will be displaying content indexed from mobile sites first. As long as your site is mobile-friendly, your rankings won’t be affected.

 

What factors will affect my ranking?

Since Google will rank based on the signals they get from crawling your mobile site instead of your desktop version, some important factors are:

• Mobile site page speed
• Title
• H1s
• Meta description
• Structured data
• Mobile content

 

What to expect moving forward

Google started with two indexes: mobile first and desktop first. Many mobile users are now starting to access the internet primarily through their mobile device instead of their desktop. In a blog post Google mentioned that they plan on moving toward a single index and are aiming at having their algorithms primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site.

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Structured snippets allow you to highlight key aspects of your products or services in your ads. You can add them at the account, campaign or ad group level. These ad extensions help provide context on the nature and variety of your products or services before visitors click through to your site. You can customize snippets, choosing when they should appear.

Each snippet contains:

Header

A header a list of features you would like to highlight:

• Up to two headers at a time can show on your ad
• Your header text must match one of the categories in this list from Google
• Add several relevant headers to your ads because Google will use their algorithm to determine the best combination of headers to show

Below is an example from Google of what using snippets might look like in an ad for a company that sells boots. The snippet is outlined with a red rectangle.  In this case, the header “Styles” was given four values (Chukka, Combat, Cowboy, Chelsea).

Values

• Values are a list of products or services that you would like to highlight
  • Minimum of 3 values needed
  • 25 character limit per snippet value
  • For mobile, limit text to less than 12 characters
  • Must follow Google’s policy and be family safe

Your header and values must match. A mismatch will result in disapproval of your snippet. Google explains values in more details below:

“Values for the Style header should be variations of a fairly specific category, like sandals or high heels, while values for the Type header can be variations of broader categories, like light fixtures or shoes.”

Best Practices

Keep these in mind when creating and/or optimizing structured snippets:

• Provide sufficient information. At least 4 values per header
• Consider mobile users. Shorter snippets for customers using mobile
• Increase your options. Adding multiple header-value set. This provides more options and ensures that relevant extension will show with your ad
• Pick the right format. Structured snippets should highlight a complete group of products or services that your business provides

Here’s an example of what a structured snippet should look like:

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Hubspot has emerged as one of the top marketing automation tools used to enhance online marketing efforts because it places everything into one convenient interface.

The only catch? It costs an arm and a leg if you’re a small business!

The basic plan is $200 USD/month.

The professional plan is $800 USD/month.

The enterprise plan is $2,400 USD/month!

Pricing like this can be deal-breaker for small businesses that have a goal of increasing sales and automating marketing efforts.

We’ve prepared a list of some free alternatives to HubSpot that a small business can use to achieve the same benefits and results. These HubSpot alternatives allow you to enjoy similar benefits while achieving the same results.  The only downside is you will have to monitor several platforms to obtain the statistics HubSpot give in one location.

Let’s break it down per category:

Analytics Dashboard

Google Analytics – it’s a freemium web analytics service that’s offered by Google. It’s main purpose is to track and report website traffic.

Once you start delving into Google Analytics you can connect it with Adwords to start tracking landing page quality and conversions while also being able to review your online campaigns. Some of the goals that you can include and track are:

• Sales
• Lead generation
• Sales activity
• Social media marketing

Google’s approach is to show high level dashboard-type data while also allowing you to go in-depth with the report set. Using Google Analytics you can also identify:

• Poorly performing pages
• Where visitors come from (referring websites and links)
• How long they stayed on the website
• Geographical position
• Demographics

Google also has an e-commerce function that can show:

• Site’s transactions over time
• Revenue
• Conversion rate
• Cost per acquisition (CPA) – Target CPA vs Actual CPA
• Product quantity

These are just a few free features that can help you understand your site’s performance. Once you’re comfortable creating and managing your dashboards you can exponentially increase the efficiency and value of Google Analytics. You can find out how to create Google Analytics dashboards here or from Kissmetrics.

Social Media Management and Automation

 

 

Hootsuite – this is a social media management tool. It allows brands to manage multiple social media channels under one platform. You just sign in and connect your accounts. It allows you to connect to:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Instagram
• WordPress

Its main goal is to improve productivity. It allows you to post one thing across as many social media platforms as you wish. You can schedule posts in advance and forget about them.

With the free account (which is all you’ll need as a small business) you can manage up to three social profiles. As a small business you shouldn’t be focusing on more than 3 social media channels because you’ll spread yourself too thin. Social media is an investment where too much diversification can actually hurt you. If you post on too many platforms,  you’ll be posting in a market where your target customer doesn’t hang out. Finding, and learning about your target market is extremely important to your social media strategy. Here is a link from the Digital Marketing Institute that may guide you on how to choose the best social media channels for your business.

Hootsuite also provides social media analytics and works with Google Analytics as well as Facebook Insights. All for free!

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

 

 

Google Analytics – Google Search Console – Google’s search console provides data and analytics to help improve your sites performance in Google’s SERPs (search engine result pages).

Search console displays data regarding what your users see in their Google search results before they click your site or other sites. As Google says “You can use this data to identify opportunities and prioritize development efforts to increase the number of visitors to your site”

Google explains the ways to benefit from Search console here.

• Identify landing pages on your site that have good click-through rates (CTR), but have poor average positions in search results. These could be pages that people want to see, but have trouble finding.
• Identify search queries (keywords) for which your site has good average positions, but poor click through rates. These are queries for which your pages get attention and improved content could lead to more visitors.

To activate this, all you have to do is connect the search console to your analytics property and its data becomes available in your Search Engine Optimization reports.

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Moz – is a suite of user-friendly inbound marketing tools. They’ve got some great tools for SEO and Local Marketing.

• Open Site Explorer – helps you uncover content and link building opportunities. Helps you track your site’s links over time and compare to your competitors for targeting link building.
• Keyword Explorer – helps you research, analyze and leverage a keywords database to discover and prioritize the best keywords for your industry and site.
• MozBar – is a browser toolbar addon that lets you go on your competition’s webpage or your own to examine and analyze important search, social and page metrics in your chrome browser.

MOZ has even more features and tools for Local Marketing like My Business Listings and My Business Console, which can help you understand how your listings appear on local search engines and directories along with how to improve and manage them.

These are only some of the alternatives to Hubspot. There are many more free tools and ways to create, analyze and grow your digital marketing efforts.

We’d love to hear from you! What are your favourite tools?

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