Remember what (hopefully) your parents taught you? "Don't sign anything till you've read it through!" Totally brilliant advice, but, let's face it, how many of us do? When you signed that life insurance, or car insurance application, did you read ALL the fine print? How about a mortgage or loan doc? You did? Wow, high fives and mega-kudos to you. The fact is, most of us ever read any of the fine print beyond maybe a line or two.

But, if you're signing a loan doc, or, as you will soon learn what prompted this post, a Merchant Services Agreement, you do look at the dollars and cents part of it, yes? And the term? And the penalties (if any) for breaking the agreement early? I think we all do (hopefully!!). But, 1 month, 6 months, 12 months down the track, do we remember what we signed? Perhaps you get the idea where this post may be going....

PayPal is good when you're starting out 

PayPal gets a lot of flak about their "high" fees, and, it's true, their fees are up there with the "best" of them. But they're no worse than most other "convenience" providers such as Square,

I'm pretty sure we've all had times we've said we hated Microsoft, or Google, or some other company whose product of service really ticked us off. It happens. But when it happens SO often that there are multiple court cases against a company whose practices seem "unfair", and there's even a Facebook Page dedicated to how much people hate them, you have to wonder.... 

Yelp, the name invokes different feelings depending on whether you're a consumer (in which case you likely love the helpful reviews), or you're a business owner (which usually bring feelings of hate. loathing and mistrust). True, I have talked to some business owners who seem to have a happy relationship with Yelp, but I honestly feel they're a very small minority... or they're paying for the privilege.

But hang on. Haven't many people tried to sue Yelp over its supposed bad practices? And lost? Yep, 100% of suits against Yelp have failed. So that makes them innocent, right? Yeah, well, the charges against Justin Smollett got dropped too, but what did the prosecutor who dropped those charges say? "We believe he did what he was charged with doing," he said. "This was not an exoneration. To say he

In the past, the Americans with Disabilities Act has, largely, been used against brick-and-mortar businesses to ensure easy access and movement for disabled people in stores.Alarmingly, for website owners, the ADA has turned its sights against online entities - whether or not they have a brick-and-mortar presence. Some high profile lawsuits over the last 12-18 months have had major businesses scrambling to make their websites ADA compliant.

The bad news is... there are no hard and fast guidelines 

Imagine sitting down to take an math exam, and, when you open the test paper envelope, there's a piece of paper that says, "This exam is going to test your math knowledge." and nothing else. It's going to be hard to complete that exam right? 

That's a little like the situation website owners are faced over the ADA and website design. We're told we need to be compliant, just not exactly HOW to be compliant. There are some guidelines - WCAG 1 & 2, Section 508, and PDF Matterhorn. The problem is there's a lack of guidelines on how to interpret it in regards website accessibility and how to implement it properly.

So what should YOU do?

Should you care?

If you

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 those in the next state or even the next city. They are ranking you against your competitors in the SAME town. If you search for "restaurant near me" and you're sitting in Central Auckland you'll get vastly different local results than if you were on the North Shore. Citrus heights will be different to Folsom, and Peoria will be different to Goodyear. So it's vitally important that you local listing information is up to date and relevant.

Reason 1

Their business listings are accurate and optimized. Because we're talking, mainly, about Google, we're, therefore talking about Google Business Listings. Are these up to date? Make sure all your contact details are correct. Add  photos and videos. Don't forget to add all your name variations. You need to do here, everything you can to make your business visible.

Reason 2

They have been proactive in obtaining more, more relevant, and more current reviews. Online reviews are a top ranking element in Google's ranking algorithm. That's why we began offering a great little