However when you do update, it’s important to do so correctly. When updating the WordPress CMS software itself, always make a back up of your entire website. It’s possible for things to go wrong, and if you don’t have a way to restore your old site it can be a nightmare to fix. Follow the official instructions carefully if you need to make a manual update, however with certain builds or hosts you will be able to update automatically.  

Plugin updates are almost always automatic (however you need to manually check for and instigate them), however it’s still a good idea to be cautious. Update one at a time and thoroughly check to make sure nothing has broken before moving onto the next. It’s difficult to trouble shoot if you make more than one change before checking.

It can also be a good idea to do a quick search into the plugin name and version that you will be updating to – sometimes there’s a bug or issue that developers don’t catch and it will usually be all over various tech help forums if it’s a widespread issue. Sometimes it’s better to hold off and wait for the next update if the problem is really major.

Plugin updates aren’t released on any particular schedule, as it’s up to each individual developer to create and release them. Check regularly to see if any updates have come out is best practice, but at the very least, scheduling a day every 6-12 months to routinely go through and make any updates is essential. If you don’t, you risk exposing your site to serious security threats as well as missing out on improved functionality and features.

Going beyond the basic functions, there are a number of ways you can maximise Google Drive’s excellent functionality. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Create Forms. One of the lesser used file formats in Google Drive is the form – these are customisable surveys that can be shared by sending a direct link or via email. You can construct a form using multiple choice, checkboxes, text boxes, scales and grids to get the exact feedback you want. Once filled in, Google Drive automatically compiles the data into a spreadsheet, making it one of the most efficient ways to conduct market research or gather opinions.

2. Attach to Email. Google’s products are designed to work together seamlessly, which is why it’s so easy to attach files from your Google Drive to your Gmail. When composing, simply click Insert Files Using Drive next to the Add Attachment symbol. Cutting down the number of steps needed to save, browse for and reattach files is a huge plus to using the Google suite, and because you send a download link rather than an actual copy of the file, there is no size limit. This makes it great for sending video or other large files.

3. Download To Computer. Although you can use Google Drive purely as a cloud-based storage system, downloading it will create a physical folder on your harddrive that is directly linked to the Drive, allowing you to add, grab, edit and navigate items inside it just like a regular folder. You can also pin it to the task bar by dragging it to the Windows Explorer icon.

4. Recover Files. Google Drive keeps a revision log of all the changes you make to a file – for up to 30 days. This can be a real life saver if a file accidentally gets over-written, and you can even restore deleted files within this time period. Open a file on the browser version Google Drive and hit Ctrl + Alt + G to view the revision history and restore from a chosen point in time. You can also mark certain versions to never be automatically deleted, giving you a secure fallback.

These extra features and tricks add value to Google Drive as a business tool, providing more features and efficiency.

RSS is great for both authors and readers. For readers, it makes it easy to follow multiple blogs or websites and keep up with updates without checking a dozen different sites every day. For authors, it makes your content that much more accessible and encourages the audience to continue interacting with what you make on a regular basis. However despite its exceptional functionality, RSS is not as widely used as you might expect. Many users have simply never heard of it, or aren’t rabid enough blog consumers to see it as necessary.

This lack of mainstream usage has caused one of the biggest and most popular readers, the Google Reader, to be closed down. Google cites a desire to conserve energy and resources for larger projects as the reason, but it has been a bitter pill to swallow for the many who used it as their preferred RSS reader. Google has given ample notice in order for users to extract their feed data from it so they don’t lose all their subscriptions – but then what?

Top Google Reader Replacements

Immediately following news of the closure, smaller RSS Feed applications and providers seized their chance to get a look in on a market that had been previously dominated by the search tool. For those despairing of the loss of Google Reader or looking to get started with RSS, the following options have emerged into the spotlight:

The Old Reader – Does exactly what it claims in the name – faithfully emulates the Google Reader experience as closely as possible. Import all your old feeds and be greeted by an extremely familiar interface. However there is currently no mobile version available.

Feedly – Even before the closure of Google Reader, Feedly was popular for its efficiency, quality search algorithm and social media integration, allowing you to share your favourite new updates with your social circles. Mobile version available.

With these options available the blow of losing Google Reader is felt much less, allowing a new generation of content consumers to get on board with this useful tool.

Markup describes the coding language used to tell a browser how it should load a particular page – for most websites this is a combination of HTML and CSS. Similarly, microdata tells search engines about that website so that they can understand its contents for the purpose of creating search results. Though there are several existing markup formats that do this, Schema has selected an entirely new one to ensure consistency across all the search engines and to make it clearer for designers as to which they should employ. The syntax is fairly straightforward, and it is a small investment that will add a lot of value to your website.

The reason microdata and Schema are so important can be seen when you search for something as simple as a film title. A listing for website without microdata will simply show up as a standard link and description, while a listing for a website with microdata can be used to show detailed information such as onsite ratings, dates, related links and much more right from the search results page. This additional information is called a “Rich Snippet” and gives searchers a much deeper insight into your website, and allows you to emphasise the important information.

Naturally this makes the link stand out and become a very attractive click for viewers. The Google team also haven’t directly ruled out that simply adding Schema to your site may boost rankings in itself.

Schemas are extremely diverse, and whatever the focus of your website there will be additional information you can add such as:

• Names, genders and biographical details for people
• Location, opening hours and access for physical locations
• Reviews for services and restaurants
• Offers and products for eCommerce sites

To add Schema to your site, you can either go straight to the source at Schema.org to learn about the different codes and applications for yourself, or if you’re using a CMS such as WordPress you can try out a suitable Schema plugin.

If you haven’t looked into adding Schema to your site, now is the time to get familiar and think about getting on board with this trend that is set to add a lot of additional value to your hard-earned SEO results.

1. Match the theme and tone. Depending on who your blog is aimed at, consider whether your theme should be chic and modern or more traditional and familiar. Many literary blogs go for simple, clean layouts that emphasise type and words, whereas cooking and homemaking blogs tend to have warmer, friendlier designed with lots of images and colours. Design Is Mine is a great example of proving the authority of the blog with a slick design.
2. Make it easy to find content. Tagging your posts and providing a page with links to browse different tags is an excellent way to make older posts more accessible. WordPress and Blogger hosted blogs allow you to create extra pages, where you can manually link to older posts under sections or categories. A search bar is a simple addition that will give your post archives a new lease on life. The Fat Free Vegan uses categories to help readers find the recipe they’re looking for.
3. Clear navigation. Use straightforward menus to guide users to where they want to go. Find the most popular topics and sections of your blog and give them a beeline to them. The best navigation has as few categories as possible. Popular exercise blog Blogilates keeps all their posts organised by categories and menus from the very front page.
4. Maximise social sharing and subscriptions. A slew of social media buttons for all the major networks can be easily added to any blog, and will appear on each individual post for maximum sharing potential. Similarly, RSS and e-mail subscription options will make it easier for people to follow your blog and share new posts with others as they go live. The SEOmoz Blog has examples of both.
5. Utilise extra pages. Most blogging services allow you to add pages of static content in addition to your blog feed. Use these to organise content, add information about yourself and your blog, to link and receive reciprocal links, or simply add content that you find doesn’t need to be updated much. StoneSoup uses these to advertise their books and other print media to increase their blog revenue.

A well-designed blog will make your content more attractive and shareable. Consider the tone and theme of your posts, and above all make sure it is easy to navigate both old and new posts.

1. Write powerful copy. The text on your product pages should do all the work of a salesman, offering solid reasons to buy the item. It should be friendly and highly readable, with information broken into lists and headers wherever possible. The text on your main and landing pages should be focused and easy to skim – most online shoppers will give your website a brief visual assessment before deciding to look any further.
2. Display superb imagery. If your product photographs look stunning, then it will make your product so much more compelling. The DIY photography approach is hard to get a top result, so seriously think of sourcing a professional photographer that has an impressive portfolio.
3. Provide exceptional customer service. It’s easy to be misled into thinking that online sales aren’t from “real people” when they only show up as numbers on your computer, but your customers deserve just as much care and service as their physical counterparts would. Reply to all enquiry emails promptly and with a friendly, human response. For optimal results, try to talk to people on the phone. Quickly resolve any issues and provide updates if dispatch or shipping is delayed.
4. Put the customer experience first. Just like a store in a mall, you want to design your website with the customer and their thought pattern in mind. Think about who your customers are and what they’re immediately looking for. Show them ways to directly achieve their shopping goals. Create a website that’s professional and aesthetically pleasing, that makes them feel like they’ve come to the right place.
5. Think online marketing. Your eCommerce success is dependent on how well you market your website. Having a great online marketing strategy will make the difference between success and mediocrity. Consider SEO, advertising, social media and viral marketing techniques.
6. Review and improve. It’s important for you to be in touch with your site and monitor what works and what doesn’t. Keep an eye on statistics provided by services like Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to find out where people may be losing interest, or where they disengage with the sales process. Make changes and experiment, optimising towards the more popular items and pages.

For those familiar with traditional retail, some aspects of the eCommerce strategy will come more easily. Successfully blending solid real-world marketing fundamentals and new online marketing techniques will help drive a high-performing website.

Not exactly. Counting page views is highly misleading because really you have no way of knowing whether those page views came from a hundred people clicking ten pages each or a thousand people clicking one page each. Even if you could tell the difference, which would be better for your site? Fortunately, Google Analytics provides you with more solid numbers that help you not only determine your real traffic count but the quality of that traffic too. These statistics are represented as Unique Visitors, Return Visitors and New Visitors.

The main way Analytics assesses traffic is through the count of Unique Visitors. Each time someone visits your website, a cookie is stored in their browser that marks their use of the site as a single event, not multiple page views. This cookie lasts for two years, meaning any visits from that person during that time are not measured as unique. A second cookie is used to measure individual visits from the user, and this one expires every 30 minutes. It also measures how long they stayed on the site, giving you a good idea as to whether or not your website is engaging.

Although doing things this way will produce a lower number than if you were to just measure page views, the data is far more accurate and practical. If that visitor returns within the two years of the cookie, they will count as a Return Visitor, whereas when they arrive at your site for the first time, they will be counted as a New Visitor. This way you learn about the real, human users of your website, and the data teaches you about the true usage patterns of your site. Of course, counting page views is still useful as it gives you insight into how long users are staying engaged with your website for, and whether the initial foot traffic is converting to interest and sales.

There are also some shortfalls with the cookies method – some users will have cookies turned off, and if they use two browsers then it will count as two separate visitors. By and large however, these are just the natural fluctuations you can expect with any data gathering. Overall, it is important to regularly review your site traffic totals to develop a more realistic picture of how well your website is performing.

1. Befriend the trash can. Check through and ensure any disused pages have been properly moved to the trash or removed from the site – in a CMS like WordPress you can still retrieve trashed items, so don’t worry about losing them forever. Just get them out of your hair.

2. Take a holistic view of pages and their contents. Are two pages doing the same or very similar jobs? Is there a point at which it might be unclear which one the user should visit? Over the year a lot of new content may be added without too much checking of how it fits into the site as a whole. Use this chance to review and collate.

3. Clean up your media. Images and video files are the largest elements of a website, so it’s best to keep these as organised and efficient as possible. If possible, use the same URL for the same image across the site, and save them as appropriate file types – graphics appearing on every page such as logos and banners will often be smaller and load faster as gifs.

4. Update your plugins. It’s good to regularly check that the plugin versions you’re using are up-to-date to en sure that there are no security issues and to get the benefit of any new features that are released. Sometimes plugin updates can break things, so it’s important to do a full site test afterwards.

5. Update your dates. It’s good to check any year sensitive dates mentioned in your site. Do your copyright lines in your footer still mention last year? Do you have a booking page where dates need to be updated? Do you have content that is out of date?

Good website housekeeping practices will keep you on track to maintain a professional online profile.

This made for a total of 1.4 million online customers in 2010 – 35% of whom were serial shoppers who had made at least 6 purchases throughout that year. The rate of online business here is higher than Australia or even Asia, where large online retail “malls” are common. Despite having no local equivalent of Amazon or the massive Chinese mega-mall Taobao, New Zealanders are still finding ways to buy online. 44% of consumers use a search engine to look for their purchase, and 34% will do research online before buying. This makes online shoppers much more educated consumers, with online reviews being checked by 57% of people before buying. Perhaps this is another reason Kiwis are taking to Ecommerce; with fewer retailers and brands here, it’s important to maximise your choice.

Or maybe we’re just an antisocial lot. 1 in 2 New Zealanders find online shopping more convenient, and it’s not hard to imagine why. Malls and superstores are crowded and noisy, especially during the holidays. 3 out of 5 New Zealand internet users also find it easier to compare prices and products online, which takes a lot of pressure out of shopping. Top online purchases included air tickets, entertainment and travel – all items that can vary vastly in price.

One thing the statistics don’t mention however, is how much of this shopping is done on local sites, and how much is done internationally. It could very well be that New Zealand businesses are failing to capitalise on this expanding market, with consumers choosing to use Amazon or other overseas retailers instead. The New Zealand dollar has been reaching a solid value against the greenback in recent years, and the cheaper price of American goods and electronics (especially when they haven’t even reached our shores) is extremely tempting.

Kiwi businesses looking to get in on this lucrative consumer audience should understand what makes New Zealanders consider a website for purchase. They look for signs of trustworthiness, take recommendations from friends, and prefer sites with tangible contact information. User reviews, product info and delivery information are also formative to making a purchase.

A website redesign can sometimes be tougher than creating from scratch however. There are tough decisions to be made; mixing the components that are already working well with new elements can be a tricky balance.

Consider the following key points when planning a major overhaul.

• Reidentify your target audience. Chances are your business has changed significantly since you developed your previous website. Perhaps you have discovered your niche, or conversely have opened up new audiences and avenues of business. A website redesign is an excellent time to reconnect with your intended audience and decide what content is the most important on your website going forward.
• Review your content and goals. Similarly, you may now want your website to do different things. Would a blog add to the customer experience and boost SEO? Are there new products or ways of making purchases you could include on your website? Should you add more video? Analyse the way you want users to interact with your site. Creating outstanding content is the key to getting a website firing on all cylinders.
• Keep the essence similar. If it’s too strange and new, you may risk alienating existing clients with a complete website overhaul. You don’t want to make them feel like they’re dealing with an entirely new company. To ensure the design flow, you may want to keep some of the old elements such as the colour, logo or overall page structure and rejuvenate and refresh them instead.
• Keep SEO in mind. This is the number one mistake we most often see. A website redesign can profoundly affect search engine rankings due to the restructuring of the site. If possible keep the page URLs the same and use 301 redirects for any page URLs  that have to change. Review what pages are popular and important on the old site and make sure these pages exist in the new site.

The hardest part about deploying an effective website redesign is often judging the balance between old and new. It’s useful to consider combining your site rebuild with a business plan review and then ensure there’s a strong relationship between the two.