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SMB 500 is happening in 6 days
July 13th - RESCHEDULED
We are currently delayed in the tarmac - we will reschedule tonight’s call
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Can You Use Your Website Without a Mouse?
Here is a 60 second test that will tell you a lot about your website. Open it on a computer, put your mouse aside, and try to use the whole thing with just the Tab key to move and Enter to click. Tab through your menu, your buttons, your contact form. Can you do everything without touching the mouse? A lot of people have to. Someone with a tremor, limited hand movement, or certain vision conditions navigates the web entirely by keyboard. So do people using screen readers. If your site only works with a mouse, you are shutting them out, and you will never see them leave. Here is what to look for during that test. 1. Can you see where you are? As you Tab, a visible outline or highlight should move from item to item so you always know what is selected. If that highlight is invisible, a keyboard user is lost. This is called a focus indicator, and many themes hide it to look clean. It needs to be on. 2. Can you reach everything? Every link, button, and form field should be reachable by Tab. Watch out for menus that only open on hover, sliders, and pop-ups. If you can see it but cannot Tab to it, it is broken for keyboard users. 3. Does the order make sense? Tab should move through the page in a logical order, top to bottom, the way you read. If focus jumps around randomly, it is confusing and hard to use. 4. Can you escape and close things? If a pop-up or menu opens, you should be able to close it with the keyboard and not get trapped inside it. Most of these come down to how your site was built, so the fix usually belongs with whoever codes it. But you do not need to be technical to find the problems. You just did the test. Note what broke, hand that list to your developer, and you have turned a vague worry into a clear, fixable punch list. Run the test on your own site today and tell us in the comments what you found. We will help you sort out what matters most. Goggles On. Let's Ride.
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How Google Decides Who Shows Up Locally
Ever wonder why one business shows up in the top three on Google while another, just as good, is buried on page two? It is not luck and it is not magic. Google uses three things to decide who shows up in local search. Once you understand them, you know exactly what to work on. 1. Relevance. How well your profile matches what the person searched. This is why your categories, services, and description matter so much. If someone searches "emergency plumber" and your profile only says "plumber," you are less relevant than the shop that listed emergency service. Fill your profile out completely and specifically so Google can match you to more searches. 2. Distance. How close you are to the person searching, or to the area they named. You cannot move your building, but you can control how Google understands your location. Set your address or service area correctly, keep it consistent everywhere online, and you will show up for the right neighborhoods. For service area businesses, list the towns you actually cover. 3. Prominence. How known and trusted your business is. This comes from reviews, mentions of your business across the web, links, and overall activity. A shop with 80 recent reviews and a steady stream of photos looks more prominent than one with 4 reviews from three years ago. This is the lever most owners ignore, and it is the one you have the most room to grow. Here is the part that matters. You cannot do much about distance, but relevance and prominence are almost entirely in your hands. Complete profile, right categories, real description, steady reviews, fresh photos, regular activity. Every one of those is a direct vote in your favor. If you have been frustrated that a competitor outranks you, pull up their profile next to yours. Count their reviews. Look at their photos. Read their categories. You will usually spot the gap in about two minutes, and that gap is your to-do list. Goggles On. Let's Ride.
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Photos and Posts That Win Local Search
Two features inside your Google Business Profile are doing almost nothing for most businesses, and they are two of the easiest ways to stand out. Photos and Google Posts. Let's fix that. Photos first. Profiles with fresh, real photos get noticeably more clicks and direction requests than ones with a single stock image or none at all. People want to see the actual place, the actual work, the actual humans before they call. 1. Upload real photos, not stock. Your storefront, your team, your tools, before and after shots of your work. 2. Add a few new ones every week. Google notices an active profile, and so do customers. A profile that was last updated two years ago looks closed. 3. Cover the basics. Exterior so people recognize it from the street, interior so they know what to expect, and your best work front and center. 4. Let happy customers add photos too. Their pictures carry trust that your own never will. Now Google Posts. These are short updates that show up right on your profile, like a mini social feed Google gives you for free. Most owners have never posted one. That is your opening. 1. Share an offer, a new service, an event, or a quick tip. Keep it short and add one clear next step like Call Now or Learn More. 2. Post regularly, even once a week. Posts keep your profile looking alive and give searchers a reason to choose you right now. 3. Always include a photo and a button. A post with an image and a clear action gets far more engagement than plain text. Here is the thread that ties our last few posts together. A strong Google Business Profile gets people to your website. Reviews and photos earn their trust. Then your website has to actually work for every one of them, on every phone and screen, or all that effort leaks out the bottom. Get found, build trust, and do not lose them at the door. Pick one profile this week and add five real photos plus one post. Small moves, real results. Goggles On. Let's Ride.
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5 Accessibility Fixes You Can Do This Week
Last time we talked about why an inaccessible website quietly costs you customers. Today, the fix. Here are five accessibility wins you or whoever runs your site can knock out this week. None of them require a rebuild. 1. Fix your text contrast. Dark text on a light background, or light text on a dark background. Strong, easy to read, no exceptions. If your brand colors are bright, like a vivid blue or orange, put dark text on them, not white. A free contrast checker online will tell you in seconds if you pass. This one change helps every visitor, not just those with low vision. 2. Add alt text to your images. Alt text is a short written description of an image that screen readers read aloud. Describe what the image shows and why it matters. "Our team standing in front of the shop" beats "image1.jpg." Skip it for purely decorative graphics so you do not add noise. 3. Make buttons and tap targets bigger. Every button, link, and form field should be easy to tap with a thumb. Give them room to breathe so people are not fat fingering the wrong thing. A good rule is a tap target at least the size of a fingertip with space around it. 4. Label your forms. Every field needs a visible label that stays put, not just faint placeholder text that vanishes the moment someone starts typing. Name, Email, Phone, Message. Clear labels help everyone fill out your contact form correctly, which means more leads land in your inbox. 5. Caption your videos. If you post videos on your site or social, add captions. Most people scroll with the sound off, and captions open your content to anyone who is deaf or hard of hearing. Many platforms generate captions automatically now. Turn that on and clean up the text. Pick one and do it today. Even fixing contrast alone makes your site easier for every single person who visits, and a more usable site keeps more visitors long enough to become customers. If you want a second set of eyes on your site, drop the link in the comments. Goggles On. Let's Ride.
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