CitrusKiwi's Web Design, Internet & Marketing blog

Ever had this situation... You meet a prospect, who we'll call (very novel!!), John, and it seems your pitch went well. Then you ring back a few days later and they say, "Yeah, I'm probably going to s...

When is a referral not a referral? When it's a lead, a lead being slightly more than a cold call. At worst, a referral should be a warm call, and, if we, the referral giver, do our job right, it shoul...

Ever searched for "<business type> near me" or "...closest"? Google Trends  shows that those searches have double in the last 2 years. These searches aren't pitting your business against th...

 We're all told to be vigilant about internet scams, and to safeguard our online profiles. But, in trying to do this, have we unwittingly exposed ourselves more than we already were? A few years ...

When we began CitrusKiwi 9 years ago, no merchant processor would touch us. No surprise really. Brand new company, owner brand new to the USA, no credit history. We had a lot going against us. So we w...

One thing is for sure, video is IT! As the Boomers and the Gen Xers become much less of a driving force in the buying market, those in the know see a new trend in how the up-and-coming purchasers - th...

Today, May 25 2018, marks the introduction of a new law in the EU regarding privacy of data. For most of my clients (primarily based in the USA and some in New Zealand and Canada), the EU seems an awf...

First rule of ANY review - good or bad - is to reply PROFESSIONALLY, HONESTLY and COURTEOUSLY. There are 4 reasons for this. First, you encourage those who have left positive reviews by thanking them ...

There is no one right answer. How you can get clients is geographic, demographic and industry related. A properly constructed and optimized website is the foundation for any marketing strategy. Yes, I...

Over the New Year I added a new SSD drive to my computer. Nope, THAT wasn't free, but it was pretty easy, AND it is FAST! In case anyone's interested, I bought a 1Tb Samsung 850 PRO III SSD. Note, get...

If you're like me, you'll have heard that around 90% of all buying decisions start with an online search. And about 60% of those searches are done on mobile devices. A recent survey of 1000 people has...

A couple of times in my computing life, I've had that sinking, cold pit in my stomach where I realized that I've lost data and have no backup. It's not a fun moment, but, fortunately for me, the data ...

SEO is one of those industries which has, somewhat fairly, developed a bad reputation as a bunch of "snake-oil" salemen (and women!). How so? If you have a business email you'd have, at least in your life, gotten an email (usually from some foreign company) promising #1 on page 1 of Google - guaranteed! The problem is, no one can guarantee such results (at least shortterm) as no one but Google knows their algorithm that does the ranking. SEO usually takes time and the client needs to view this as an investment and know that they are trying to help their business for the longterm. The bad news/The lies "Guaranteed" results are only achievable one way - scamming the system. The problem with this is that Google is smart. They'll catch you. Guess what happens to your ranking then? That's if they don't totally ban your site from their index. Get...

While Healthcare isn't what we do, data security, and online security in general, is something we're very interested in. I got an email from IDShield today as part of my membership (IDShield is part of the LegalShield umbrella which we are affiliate, and recommenders, of. I thought it so important that I've added as a post so all my readers can be warned - cybercrime is huge and getting bigger. Is your healthcare data for sale? There are, alledgedly, 655,000 patient records for sale on a dark web marketplace. The hacker who's selling them, claims they are from 3 separate healthcare databases. Healthcare ID theft is the golden goose of ID theft. Steal someone's credit card details and you can sell them for $50-100 - limited life, limited value. But get hold of someone's medical ID - that's worth thousands to sell, and even more to use. Read the whole...

Passwords and how to store them Just recently, one of our clients had their GoDaddy account hacked. The hackers, fortunately, only pointed the domain at a random Vietnamese hosting company - it could have been much worse. However, the client had to go through all the hassle of being without a site for over a week, and dealing with getting access to their account so I could reset their settings. It could have been so much worse though. 2-step authentication If you have an account (like GoDaddy's) that offers 2 step authentication, turn it on. This sends a text to a specified phone number which the person trying to log on must enter to get in. It's a great layer of security, and simple to set up. Is is more painful for you to then log into your account(s)? Of course, that's the point. However, it sure beats being hacked!...

Feeling a little low today? Try this link to cheer you up - never fails with me! Warning, you may need an Australian slang book handy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syPSHe0kzMs How many times, have you phoned "customer service" and gotten someone you cannot understand. As an "import" it probably happens to me a little more, especially if that call center is based in the South, Though I rang DirectTV last week and got a very helpful girl based in Mississippi, and, while she had a strong Southern accent she was very understandable. Everything we do in business, especially how we interact directly with client and potential clients impacts our businesses. I cannot understand why companies have "customer service" departments where the customer is clearly unimportant and service is a superfluous word. Yes, no doubt they are cheaper than hiring an American with English skills to do it, but does anyone in management or...

I've had a client, from time to time, ask why they should keep paying their monthly subscription. Fair question. As business-people, we all need to be looking at our expenses and trimming where necessary. First though, let me ask a question.  Why have a website? With nearly 90% of all purchases starting life as an internet search there's really no question why. The fact is, whether it's a new hair product, a vacation, a car or even a house, we all head to one of the search engines to start our hunt. And if a business doesn't have a solid web presence, then they're already well behind the pack. So, back to the original question... Why continue paying every month? What the client is really asking is, WIIFM (What's In It For Me)? And, again, that's a fair question. Some business-people see adverts on somewhere like Craigslist for a website...

Wow - already January 17, and, to our embarrassment we look at the date of my last post..... The truth is, it's been pretty busy since late last year and then with Christmas and New Year, the blog got a little neglected. And now we're neck deep in revamping our CitrusKiwi site as it needs an overhaul. There have been things we were never totally happy with and we have tons new content going on it; so keep checking back! Expected launch date is the month's end (hopefully this month!! LOL!) Every year... We recommend that you look very critically at your site at least once a year. If you're one of our clients, then you'll be getting regular updates about traffic and rankings. From the traffic reports you can determine which pages visitors most frequent, and then you can spend time honing those pages to new-client-producing dynamos! And the...

I was asked this week, whether, 1) A "mobile type" website is needed at all, and 2) if so, what type? That's a great question and, at least, showed that the asker was engaged with basic website design ideas, or, at the very least, wanting to know. As the old saying goes, "The stupidest question is the one never asked!" Do I need a mobile version of any type? First part - "Do you need a mobile ready version of your site?" An unequivocal, "YES!" There is no doubt that a website that is not easily viewed on a mobile device is already at a serious disadvantage. And, with 60% or more searches conducted on some type of mobile device, that puts your business in a bad internet state. Which type to have? The 4 types are in the headline - Mobile, Responsive, App, or Nothing. They all work a...

I quite regularly hear clients and non-clients alike boldly proclaim their website is safe because it's small and insignificant. It doesn't have sensitive data such as credit card or social numbers on it. The reality is quite different. The 3 main hacking reasons Malicious "joyriders" For want of a better term (and to be polite!) I'll liken them to someone who steals your car, races it round town, then crashes it into something and runs off. These hackers are in it to either hack you because you're there, to see if they can, or to deface your site, either with nasty stuff or to promote something that's "dear" to them. This sort of hacking is usually very evident when you, or you client, visit the site. Data thieves These hackers are out for information, stuff they can either make use of - credit card details, social numbers, etc - or...