ImagesMagUK_June_2021

www.images-magazine.com JUNE 2021 images 25 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT what device they’re using to browse the internet. The Core Web Vitals section tells you how well your website meets these criteria; there are two separate reports (one for desktop, one for mobile) that can tell you which of your pages take a long time to appear or jump around a lot while loading. 4. Mobile Usability Mobile browsing has become the norm – most of us are now more likely to view websites on a smartphone than on a PC. For this reason, it’s very important to ensure that your web pages are easy to read and navigate on a small screen; Search Console’s Mobile Usability report will alert you if that’s not the case. 5. Manual Actions If someone at Google decides to penalise your website for breaching their guidelines (eg because you’ve been engaging in ‘deceptive or manipulative behaviour’) then you will be notified of this in the Manual Actions section of Google Search Console. Hopefully you’ll never see anything in this report, but it’s worth checking every so often just to be sure! G oogle Search Console is an indispensable tool for website owners. Not only does it allow you to monitor your website’s performance in the Google search results, it also helps you to spot and fix errors that visitors might find off-putting. If you’re not used to keeping an eye on your Search Console reports, you might feel a little overwhelmed when you first log in – there’s an awful lot of information in there, especially if you have a large website with a wide variety of content. But don’t worry: you don’t have to pore over every last bit of data just to keep your website running smoothly. Here are five key reports that you should focus on. 1. Performance When you click on this report, it tells you how many organic clicks and impressions your website has received on Google in the last three months. This is great for quickly checking how your website has been doing lately and whether things are heading in the right direction. If you want to go into greater detail, you can also view click-through rates, check your average position for each query, change the date range, and filter your data to focus on specific pages or search terms. 2. Coverage Want to know which pages of your website are eligible to appear in Google search results? Check the Coverage report – here you’ll find a list of indexed pages, along with any warnings and errors that Google might have picked up while crawling your site. 3. Core Web Vitals The Google algorithm likes websites that load quickly and give users a good experience regardless of Google Search Console: Five key reports to check regularly Joel Dear is from ETrader, one of the industry’s leading suppliers of websites to garment decorators across the UK. www.etraderwebsites.co.uk I ’m too old and don’t have enough time for social media.” “Social media is a fad and will fizzle out anyway.” That’s what people said about YouTube and Bitcoin. Enough of the excuses. The value and potential of social media is too big to ignore now. You have so much knowledge, expertise and value that is untapped; if you follow my top tips for posting on social media platforms you’ll be able to share your experience – and the benefits of working with your company – with many new and potential customers. Talk to the camera The number one fear is public speaking: it may feel scary at first, but so is anything worthwhile. You can hide, but that means you will struggle to grow. Don’t show a price Show the problem and your solution. You probably didn’t buy your car purely on the price, but instead imagined yourself driving it and thought about how it would make you feel. The price tag is less important than you imagine and it can be off-putting looking at someone’s social media feed that has been built like the Argos catalogue. I would much prefer to watch videos and see demos and understand the value added to my life if I purchased the product. Make inflammatory statements For example, “This is the best”, “Prove me wrong” or “I have a secret method”. If your comments section causes debate then that engagement will sky rocket your reach and the post will be shown to a new audience organically. Give 90% and ask 10% I answer questions, I demonstrate techniques Top posting tips for social media newbies and give access to free templates and downloads. Then, when it comes to me asking for something I am rewarded. The followers feel like they are supporting us and paying us back. I don’t have time I hear this a lot, yet the same people then spend thousands of pounds on trade stands and flyers. It took time to make that money. If you don’t fancy doing it yourself, hiring someone to purely create content and communicate with customers might be the answer (content increases SEO and builds credibility too). Chessie Rosier-Parker is director and studio manager of Squeegee & Ink, a screen printing and embroidery studio that also provides pre-exposed screens and film to printers along with tutorial videos and resources. www.squeegeeandink.co.uk/ learn-to-screen-print