As we have had some questions come in regarding this change, we wanted to issue a brief explanation of how this might affect our customers. For a little background, PayPal is changing their standards on what SSL certs they will accept connections from. PayPal states: “It is important to note that these changes are to address industry-wide security issues and are not unique to PayPal. When implemented, they will improve the privacy and reliability of your PayPal integrations.”

BCS Engineering is in full support of these changes. The recent upgrades to SSL on our hosted environments should address any concerns for customers who host with us. Any hosted sites should also be using the correct certs at this point.

For customers who host elsewhere and purchase SSL certificates through us, we have been changing customers away from the problematic 1024-bit certificates to the more secure 2048-bit certificates as renewals come up. If however, you have purchased a longer term 1024-bit certificate that has not expired before these changes were standard, we can re-issue an appropriate cert for an installation fee. Also, if your site is hosted elsewhere, it is possible your host may need to update your server to ensure compliance with these changes.

To read the full statement from PayPal, click here.

In the process of designing or redesigning a website, it is possible for very important aspects of this process to get overlooked. Whether this ends up happening due to a focus on design, a lack of attention to content, or to not having a good grasp on a site’s audience, the results can be disastrous. This article from webdesignerdepot.com asks the experts in such fields as SEO, content, and marketing on ways to avoid neglecting important parts in the website designing process.

One of the tips I am particularly fond of in this article came from Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases:

“A long time ago in a cyberspace far, far away, web design meant the use of frames, repeating backgrounds, blinking text, and auto-playing MIDI files. Chasing the next cool thing could have you trying to erase the modern day equivalent of parachute pants and fanny packs from your portfolio in just a few years. Design with an eye on the present while looking forward.”

This is particularly important advice. Most of these items were found unsightly or annoying by a lot of users (definitely by myself), but it is certain clients of web designers were asking for them merely because these items were the fad at the time. In this regard, it is much more important to be attuned with what your site’s audience expects from your site, as opposed to what lots of other websites might be doing.

Also in the webdesignerdepot.com article, is this tip from Josh Currier of Currier Marketing:

“Many small business owners look within their own industries for design ideas, and/or have some preconceived idea of what is most important in a web design. Often, they get stuck on one or a couple specific features they really like, but may actually have no real value to their customers/audience. The dilemma is that simply delivering what they want doesn’t always produce the results that are needed.

“Facilitating a conversation about the purpose of the website, ie. to act as a brochure, a lead generation device, a content platform, etc. helps educate your prospect (the business owner/decision maker), establishes you as the expert (helps to eliminate price shopping/commoditization of your services), and steers the conversation from what they want, to what they need in terms of a web design.”

This keeps in line with the previous quotation in that often what people want and their reasons for wanting it, are not compatible with the most desirable goal – which is an optimally performing and converting website. Before any items are changed or added to a site, it is important to make sure the changes are being made in a way the end user will react to in a positive manner. I suggest reading the full article here for more tips on web design.

While it might be written off by some as a new trend, mega-sized images seem to be getting results for sites that utilize them. As a person who uses the internet, I have noticed the shift to larger images taking hold on several popular sites. Personally, I find these larger images to be more aesthetically pleasing, even if it does not result in me making unplanned purchases. However, I would likely imagine that people who are browsing or are undecided about a purchase might be easily swayed by these larger images.

This article from webdesignerdepot.com presents several case studies to show how larger images can have a positive impact on conversions. However, this article should come with the caveat that these are case studies. There does not seem to be any solidly compiled statistics to show larger images will always work. However, I would argue that once larger companies establish a trend, consumers come to expect (and respond to) similar things from other companies.

One example given by webdesignerdepot.com of a site with mega-images is McDonald’s. I strangely found myself clicking on the below image to see what McDonald’s is up to with its marketing these days. I would largely say this was due to the mega-sized image and the overall aesthetic appeal of the page.

In closing, I would venture that larger images would help most sites with their conversions. The things to be cognizant of are your brand, your product, and ultimately your particular image. The best thing to do would be to test any changes image by image to see what works best for your site. To read the full webdesignerdepot.com article, click here.

Since mobile-friendliness is particularly relevant right now, a lot of small business owners are probably looking for a good resource to turn to for bringing their site into the mobile-friendly realm. This article from SitePoint provides a very good introduction into the world of mobile-friendliness. The article covers the following points:

• What mobile-friendliness is
• Why it is particularly important to be mobile-friendly now
• What steps you should take to achieve mobile-friendliness

For several small businesses (up to 94% according to the SitePoint article), mobile has not been much of a consideration up to this point. However, given the sharp increase in the number of people who use it as their main resource to access the internet (especially for shopping), the time to address the mobile marketplace is certainly at hand. The image below is a good example of how a standard website appears as opposed to one that is mobile-friendly.

The above image is a great example of how a non-mobile website impacts how mobile customers interact with your business. One of the most important goals for any business is to take down the walls between the customer and your product; this interaction needs to be as easy as possible for the purposes of driving sales. To this end, why make it more difficult for a large portion of your customer base to be able to read and access your content?

I am certainly not saying that every business needs to have a mobile site, or even a website at all. However, with the changing trends regarding how the average consumer is interacting with businesses and their goods, now is certainly the time to re-evaluate whether or not your business needs to take the leap to mobile-friendliness. Click here to read the full SitePoint article on Mobile SEO.

For several small-to-medium sized internet businesses, approaching SEO (search engine optimization) can be very daunting. A lot of small, online businesses might be adept in the niche of their services, but levels of “tech-aptitude” can vary greatly. In this article from SitePoint, several tips are given on how to improve search rankings. Some of these tips are very easy to implement. For the ones that are not, references are given on where to look or how to get started.

One of the more timely tips, is to ensure your site is mobile-friendly due to Google’s recent changes to their search algorithms. Our previous post on this change can be read here. Google’s change will affect your search results on mobile devices. However, since more and more people are using mobile devices as their primary (and often only) way to access the internet, this is extremely important for any site’s visibility.

Another of the tips discusses content – most importantly, proper use of keywords and ensuring the generation of new content. As the SitePoint article mentions, it is much better for you to check with Google to find what keywords are being searched as opposed to guessing on your own. This is particularly important if you have a niche industry. People might not be 100% familiar with what they are searching for, so they might use related terms in searches that you might not have considered. The image below from the SitePoint article shows keywords in use:

However, content and mobile-friendliness are just a couple of the topics discussed in the previously mentioned article. If you are looking for clarification or help on SEO concepts and starting points, you should read the full article.