While those may sound easy, there are plenty of other features that lie within SharePoint. SharePoint is full of various technologies, such as SharePoint in Microsoft 365, SharePoint Servers, OneDrive, and more. You can do a lot more with SharePoint than simply share an Excel spreadsheet.

To take advantage of SharePoint and get the most out of your Microsoft subscription, you need a SharePoint consulting company. Today, we’re going to talk about how and why you should consult with a SharePoint expert to help you and your business.

They Know all of the Out-of-the-Box Features

As stated above, SharePoint is more than a simple way to share documents and spreadsheets amongst coworkers. Like the popular fast-food chain In-N-Out, there is much more than meets the eye.

When you first go through SharePoint implementation, you may notice many options but you’re not sure how to use them. Some of the most popular are:

• Business intelligence reports. Through Excel, Visio, and other features, a SharePoint consultant can create dashboards for users.
• Custom development. Experts can create logos and themes for your SharePoint, giving it a personal touch.
• 3rd-Party Integration. If you’re using other software or apps, experts can help you integrate this into your SharePoint.
• Content Management. File sharing and more are some of the key features with SharePoint, but an expert can help you do this more efficiently.

Even regular SharePoint users may not know about these features or may not know how to use them.

They Can Build up a Document Library

If your company is managing thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of documents, then you need an organized document structure. Not just for yourself and current employees but for any team members that may jump on later.

With multiple libraries, you’ll need organized folder structures, metadata, term sets, managed properties, and more. With so many documents, it can be easy to get overwhelmed and create a library that’s difficult to search and even harder to manage.

A SharePoint consultancy company can help set up your library in an organized manner with a clear flow to finding documents and more. If you try to do it yourself, you might create a library that makes it more difficult to find what you need.

SharePoint Continues to Evolve

SharePoint, just like every app, software, and program you can find, goes through regular updates. Keeping up with SharePoint and all of its changes can be a full-time job. SharePoint undergoes a major revision every few years. The last major revision took place in 2019 and brought over several new features as well as some big changes.

If you’re just occasionally managing your SharePoint, you might miss a major update or smaller updates along the way that could drastically alter your SharePoint experience.

Mistakes with SharePoint Can Set You Back

SharePoint has improved greatly over the years but it is still far from a ‘set up and go’ type of software. You need a long-term, planned strategy before you and your company start using it.

Like your library, you need to have a long-term strategy in place before you even upload your first document. Here are some questions you should ask yourself:

• What do I want the site navigation to look like?
• What about the sub-site structure?
• Do we need to have various security levels or groups for different users?
• How will we handle document sharing for those outside of our organization?
• Do we need to set up various permission levels?
• How do we configure our metadata?
• Should we be concerned with governance?

Your organization might find more questions that need to be answered, but this shows that not having a strategy in place could set you back. You don’t want to waste time and money playing catchup with a strategy you should have already had in place.

Less Training and Downtime

If you decide to go the solo route when it comes to implementing SharePoint, you might be playing catchup when it comes to training. Instead of trying to figure it out yourself, a SharePoint consulting expert will be able to come in and give more direct training to your employees and team members.

With an on-hand expert, you can rest assured knowing that your questions will be answered by someone with plenty of experience. This means you and your employees have access to immediate training and won’t have to waste time figuring out the nuances of SharePoint.

Seamless Integration with Other Tools

We’ve mentioned how a SharePoint expert can help you with integrating third-party tools, but there are also plenty of other Microsoft tools that may need an expert’s hand.

If you’ve got the Microsoft Office 365 package, there are plenty of tools that you can connect with SharePoint:

• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft Power Apps
• Microsoft Planner
• Yammer
• Microsoft Flow

When it comes to third-party tools, here are some we often see integrated with SharePoint:

• Nintex
• AvePoint
• Fly
• ShareGate

Integration with a SharePoint expert is a guaranteed way to make sure you’re getting the most out of all your tools and not wasting any time or money. Even if you’re choosing SharePoint online consulting, they can still make a difference.

Custom Development

Perhaps the biggest advantage (there’s a reason we saved it for last) is that a SharePoint expert can help you develop custom solutions for your business.

We’re big fans of custom software development and SharePoint developers can help make your experience unique and fit for you.

Many times, the out-of-the-box features don’t quite meet what you’re looking for and you need something a little extra for your business. This often means creating a custom or hybrid solution with SharePoint. That could look like developing ASP.NET applications, configuring custom workflows, or developing unique applications.

Atiba is a Leading SharePoint Consulting Company

If you’re looking for SharePoint consultancy services, then you’ve come to the right place. With nearly 20 years of SharePoint experience, we’ve been working with companies of all sizes to help them integrate, customize, or tweak SharePoint to their business standards.

Do you already have a project in mind or do you just have a question? Get in touch with us today!

A thorough local SEO audit includes analyzing factors such as local keyword usage, Google My Business profile, local backlinks, and online reputation management. Focus on NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistency across various platforms to enhance your local search rankings.

Regularly updating and maintaining your local SEO ensures your business remains competitive in local search results. Taking the time to perform an audit can lead to significant improvements in visibility and customer engagement.

Understanding Local SEO

Local SEO focuses on optimizing your online presence to attract more business from relevant local searches. Key components include your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) consistency and leveraging local keywords effectively.

The Basics of Local SEO

Local SEO involves optimizing your website and online profiles to appear in local search results. This includes using location-specific keywords and creating localized content. For example, if you run a bakery in Boston, you should mention “Boston bakery” on your site.

Search engines use signals like Google My Business listings, local citations, and reviews to determine local rankings. Claiming and verifying your business on Google My Business is crucial. Additionally, you should encourage customer reviews and respond to them promptly.

Importance of NAP Consistency

NAP consistency refers to having your business’s Name, Address, and Phone number listed consistently across all online platforms. Discrepancies can confuse search engines and lower your local search ranking. Ensure your NAP information matches exactly on your website, social media profiles, and local directories.

Both citations and directories play a vital role. Accurate NAP information helps search engines verify your business’s credibility and location. Tools like Moz Local can audit and manage your NAP listings to ensure they are uniform across the web. Regular audits are essential for maintaining NAP consistency.

Proper NAP consistency ensures customers can easily find and trust your business.

Performing a Local SEO Audit

Ensuring you have a strong local online presence involves auditing your website, verifying local listings’ accuracy, and analyzing competitors’ strategies. Each aspect requires detailed attention to enhance your overall SEO efforts.

Starting with a Website Audit

Initiate your local SEO audit by analyzing your website’s performance and structure. Use tools like Google Analytics and Ahrefs to check for issues. Assess your site’s loading speed and mobile-friendliness using Google PageSpeed Insights.

Review your website’s content for duplicate content and ensure your metadata is optimized for local keywords. Analyzing backlinks and internal linking structure is also crucial. This helps in identifying any broken links or low-quality backlinks that could harm your SEO performance.

Local Listings and Citations Check

Verify your Google Business Profile and other local listings. Ensure that your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) are consistent across all platforms. Inaccurate or duplicate listings can harm your local search rankings.

Use tools like Moz Local or Whitespark to automate the process of checking for citations. Focus on high-authority local directories and review platforms relevant to your business niche. Inconsistent citations can lead to poor search engine visibility.

Analyzing Local Competitor SEO Strategies

Conduct a competitor analysis to see how your local competitors are performing. Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to evaluate their backlink profiles, keyword strategies, and content quality. Identify the top pages that drive traffic to their sites.

Monitor their Google Business Profiles to understand how they engage with customers through reviews and posts. This information can help in crafting more effective local SEO strategies and improving your own local online presence.

Optimizing for Local Search

Effective local search optimization involves detailed keyword research, strategic content and on-page element integration, and leveraging local business listings. These steps help improve your visibility in local search results.

Keyword Research and Optimization

Identifying relevant keywords is the first step in optimizing for local search. Focus on local keywords that include your city or neighborhood. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find terms with high search volume and low competition.

Incorporate these keywords into your title tags, headings, and meta descriptions. Ensure they naturally fit within the context of your content. Avoid keyword stuffing, which can harm your ranking.

By prioritizing local content, you signal to search engines that your business is relevant to users in your area.

Content and On-Page Elements

High-quality local content is crucial for engaging local audiences. This includes blog posts about community events, local guides, or customer stories.

Use on-page elements like title tags, meta descriptions, and headings to incorporate your target keywords. These elements help search engines understand your content’s relevance to local queries.

Optimize your images with local keywords in their alt text. This practice enhances accessibility and boosts your site’s SEO.

Leveraging Local Business Listings

Claim and optimize your Google My Business (GMB) listing. Ensure your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) is consistent across all platforms. Include categories relevant to your business and regularly update your listing with accurate information.

Encourage customers to leave reviews on GMB. Positive reviews can enhance your visibility and credibility in local searches.

Submit your business information to local directories and citation sites. This increases your online presence and improves local SEO.

Improving Online Authority and Reputation

Increasing online authority and reputation involves strategic link building and proactive management of customer reviews. Both elements are crucial for a comprehensive local SEO audit.

Building Quality Backlinks

Focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites. Conduct a link analysis to identify existing backlinks and assess their quality. Tools like Ahrefs or Moz can help with this.

Competitive analysis can reveal backlink opportunities your competitors are leveraging. Aim to get backlinks from industry-relevant websites to boost your domain authority. Guest posting, collaborations, and industry directories are effective strategies.

Avoid spammy or irrelevant links, as they can damage your website’s credibility. Quality over quantity is key when building backlinks to improve your online authority.

Managing and Responding to Reviews

Reviews significantly impact your online reputation. Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on platforms like Google My Business and Yelp. Always respond to reviews, whether positive or negative, to show you value customer feedback.

Address negative reviews professionally and promptly. Offer solutions and demonstrate a commitment to improving your services. This can turn a dissatisfied customer into a loyal one.

Monitor reviews regularly to stay informed about your business’s reputation. Tools like Google Alerts can help you keep track of new reviews. Engaging with your customers’ feedback positively affects your online presence and enhances trust.

Measuring Local SEO Performance

Accurate measurement of local SEO performance is critical to improving your website’s visibility and effectiveness. Focus on tools like Google Analytics and Search Console for detailed traffic data, and review rankings and user experience to understand what works best.

Utilizing Google Analytics and Search Console

Google Analytics helps you track website traffic and user behavior. Look at metrics like sessions, bounce rate, and average session duration.

Use Google Search Console to monitor search queries, impressions, and click-through rates. Paying attention to these metrics reveals how users find your website and interact with it.

Key Metrics to Monitor:

• Traffic Sources: Determine where your website visitors are coming from.
• Page Performance: Check which pages attract the most traffic.
• User Behavior: Study metrics like pages per session and session duration.

These insights help you identify successful strategies and areas needing improvement.

Reviewing Rankings and User Experience

Regularly check your local search rankings to understand your position in search results. Tools like Moz or Ahrefs provide valuable data on keyword performance and competitor analysis.

Focus Areas:

• Rank Tracking: Monitor keywords important for your local area.
• User Experience Metrics: Use Core Web Vitals to ensure fast load times and mobile usability.
• Conversion Rates: Analyze how well your website converts visitors into customers.

Improving user experience with responsive design and fast-loading pages can enhance engagement and conversion rates. Pay attention to reviews and local listings for feedback and further optimization opportunities.

In my last column I brought up the question that many companies have been asking themselves the past few months:

“Are we ready for AI?”

For the most part, the bigger players asked this question a few years ago.  Large enterprises with big budgets have been the vast majority of the early adopters.  Using AI for everything from customer service, to sales, to recruiting—the big kids have been off to the AI races.

But for the rest of us, the small and medium-sized companies of the world, the AI revolution is just starting.  Many of us are not only asking if we’re ready for AI but are also wondering specifically about how to get started.

How much will it cost?  Will my competitors pass us up?  How do we get started?

Every company is different, but the process to becoming an AI-enabled business is similar for all of us.

As I mentioned in my last column, the first step is to do an “AI Assessment.”

The goal is to proactively identify your company’s challenges and opportunities and then figure out if AI can address them.  There are common themes on where AI can help, but the list itself is unique to every company.  Factors around industry, budget, long-term goals, and company culture must all be taken into consideration.

Once you have your list of challenges and opportunities that AI-based products can potentially solve, the fun part begins.

It’s time to deep dive into all the AI tools available and decide which one’s deliver the most “bang for the buck” for your company’s needs.  The end result will be your “AI Tech Stack.”

Here are some examples of just a few of the tools that make up our company’s AI Tech Stack:

• Sales: We decided to use HubSpot ChatSpot (an AI-based chatbot for our website) and Apollo.ai to automate part of our email marketing.
• Accounting: We are taking hard look at Booke.ai, an AI-based accounting tool that automates and streamlines common finance tasks like accounts payable and bank reconciliation.  We plan to test this more to decide if it’s the right fit for our needs.
• Marketing: We have already been using various AI tools to help us manage our social media accounts.  But we decided to try MarketMuse, which is an AI tool that helps us analyze and perfect the specific content we generate.
• Productivity: We have been using ChatGPT to save time on common tasks like building PowerPoint presentations or generating agendas for meetings.  This has worked well, but we plan to add Microsoft Copilot as it improves, which could save us time using Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook.

Once you have your AI Tech Stack in place, the final piece of the puzzle is what we call our “AI Roadmap.”

The AI Roadmap is simply a plan of attack to implement the AI tech stack.  It covers prioritizing, timing, and the project planning needed to deploy each tool into your organization’s work.

So, there you have it.

The path to AI is to assess your needs, determine the AI tools that will meet those needs, and then put together a plan of how to deploy them.

Are we ready for AI?  It’s an important question that every business leader should be asking themselves.  If the answer is no, it’s time to dive in.

JJ Rosen is the founder of Atiba, a custom software development firm and Nashville IT support company. Visit Atiba.com for more info.

Our company had its annual strategic planning retreat a few weeks ago.

We usually start with a recap of the past year and then move on to defining our plan of attack for the next 12 months. How can we grow? What mistakes have we made that we can learn from?  Do we need to adjust our budgets?

There are a ton of questions we hope to answer over a couple of days camped out in our conference room.  All of them are important in helping us on our constant quest to be the best we can be.

But this year, there was one question that stood out among all the others.

Are we ready for AI?

As a software development and IT support firm, AI has been top-of-mind for us for the past decade or so. We initially saw demand for AI development only from larger companies and well-funded startups who could afford its relatively high cost.

But in the past couple of years the AI landscape has changed.

With the advent of ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google’s Gemini, and literally thousands of other great products, the costs have dropped, and technology has improved.

Large, medium, small—AI is now within reach of pretty much every company.  And what’s more, those who struggle to implement it are likely to find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

But where to start?

The first step is to do what we call an “AI Assessment.”

This is the all-important planning phase, the blueprints for the house.  It’s essential. Without some planning and analysis, there’s a risk of making an AI mess.

Our own AI assessment project, which we code-named “AtibaAI” so it sounded cooler, took shape as a planning phase with the goal of defining the internal business challenges and opportunities that AI could help us solve.

Some of the challenges we have are common to most every company.  Sales, marketing, finance, and operations—there’s always room to improve.  And other challenges are unique to us, or at least unique to our industry.

To organize our AI assessment, we decided to focus on three areas:

• Risks. This is simply a list of the “what could go wrong” items that we could potentially mitigate with AI tools.
• Operational inefficiencies. This is a list of routine tasks and processes that AI might help us do better.
• Opportunities.  This is the fun one and explores how we can use AI to meet our long-term growth goals.

We then ranked our list by priority, putting the items with the highest potential impacts at the top.

We were now ready to find AI solutions to help us reduce risk, become more efficient, and help us grow.

Finding the best AI-based solutions for any business takes some time.

Just like every organization can have its own unique challenges, choosing the right AI solutions is not a one-size-fits-all.

Cost constraints, ease of implementation, cultural implications and ROI (return on investment) calculations all come into play. We were of course tempted to use AI to help us do our AI assessment, but we quickly realized this was a process that needed the human touch.

The end result of our AI assessment project is our “AI Tech Stack,” a set of tools we decided to use and in some cases program ourselves to meet our needs.

Embracing AI as an opportunity rather than a threat is our mindset.  In my next column, I will share the AI tools that are working for us and some of the ones we recommend to our clients.

JJ Rosen is the founder of Atiba, a custom software development firm and Nashville IT support company. Visit Atiba.com for more info.

Better later than never?

When it came to getting COVID, I was hoping for never.

I’m that guy.

I’m the germophobe, who, despite the pandemic being over, remains at the ready with a mask and a bottle of hand sanitizer in my pocket at all times. I’ve still been dining outside as much as possible (even when it’s cold,) avoiding crowds, and holding my breath at the grocery store.

Undeterred by some eye rolling from friends and family, it took 1,503 days (about 4 years) by my count from the first case of COVID until this past week when I felt the beginnings of scratchy throat and a stuffy nose.

I hoped it was a cold, strep throat, or some psychosomatic ailment that would go away in an hour.  Anything but COVID!

But alas, with the onset of a fever and positive test, I accepted my fate.

The timing was par for the course for me.

Unlike COVID, where it’s impossible to completely control when you get it, in most everything else in life I’ve always been what marketing people refer to as a “late adopter.”

Despite being in the tech field, or perhaps because of it, I’ve always been one of those people who takes their time before jumping on any bandwagon.

I waited for version two of the iPhone before giving up my Blackberry. I sat on the sidelines for years when Facebook began to catch on preferring to wait and see before going all in. And I let others try Uber before I finally felt comfortable trying it myself.

Like many things in life, my late adopter tendencies have been both good and bad.

On the one hand, here and there my late to-the-party strategy has put me behind the curve on things that have proven to be useful.

I loved the technology behind the cloud, but before moving all our company’s infrastructure, I wanted to see how it worked for others.  I have gotten deep into using AI to make our business more efficient, but I spent a year testing it before making the leap.

But as a techie, I know that early versions of new products can sometimes come with kinks that take some time to be worked out.  And just because something is initially popular doesn’t mean that it will continue to be.

Laser disks, Bitcoin, Google Glass, 3D TV’s—the world is littered with innovations that in hindsight would have been best to avoid.

So, where’s, the sweet spot?

Business is a game of taking calculated risks and making smart tradeoffs.  Too much caution around embracing innovation carries with it the risk that the competition will pass you by.  But jumping on an unproven bandwagon too soon can be costly if you’re wrong.

Being an early or late adopter isn’t an exact science.  And while most of us trend toward one or the other, I’ve found it’s best to recognize your comfort zone and then take on innovations as they come—one at a time.

As I came out of my COVID fog, I was reminded that there are many times where being early or late isn’t something you can choose.  So, for me at least, when I do have a choice, I’ll likely continue to be just behind the crowd—with my mask on.

JJ Rosen is the founder of Atiba, a custom software development firm and Nashville IT support company. Visit Atiba.com for more info.

Click, click again, and then click again.

To most of us it’s tedious, but to a select few it’s fun.

The little-understood role of “tester” takes an eye for detail, patience, and technical know-how.  And the good ones are both perfectionists and good communicators.

Testers are the unsung heroes of the tech world, and outside the tech world they are just plain unsung.

Some call themselves “test engineers” while others are described as QA (quality assurance) professionals.  Although there are differences, the mission is the same: make sure that the software, websites, and mobile apps we all use work to perfection.

Testers play a critical role in the software development process but rarely get the credit they deserve.

No one I know grows up with a dream to become a tester.  Most of us in the tech industry started with the ambition of becoming a genius software developer, a highly respected network engineer or tech startup founder.

But those who land in these more sought-after roles know that without great testers, building great software would be next to impossible.

A tester’s role is to try to break the software that the development team has built.  They test for everything from bugs, to security, to performance with the goal of making sure that when a product is released into the wild it will work as expected.

There are different types of tests that software applications must pass before it goes live.

Load tests check to see if an application can handle a large volume of users without crashing. Security and penetration tests emulate hackers to ensure that by the time an application is launched it will be secure.  And functional tests are designed to confirm that the features of an application or website work as intended.

There are also different techniques that good testers master.

Manual testing is just what it sounds like—painstakingly trying to find issues one click at a time.  Automated testing involves writing scripts that emulate manual testers with the push of a button.   And now, AI-based testing is starting to catch on.

When I first started programming, I figured I could just test my own software myself.  As every developer knows, this never works.

Just like writers need editors and bookkeepers need auditors, anyone who undertakes complex endeavors needs someone looking over their shoulder to make suggestions and find errors.

So, it’s not only time we give testers, editors, auditors, and the like their due, but it’s time we embrace these roles in all aspects of business.

As a custom software development firm, we recognized the value of QA professionals long ago.  But while we have always prioritized testing the applications we build, we’ve not always applied this to other parts of our company.

Whether it’s coming up with a sales strategy, hiring a new employee, or designing a new logo, having someone to check your work is something we could all benefit from.  As we make our way into the new year, I’m looking for ways to road-test all of our business practices.

For us, the first phase of this is to re-emphasize an office culture where there’s no shame in making a mistake.  The idea is to make sure all of us know that ”business bugs” (like software bugs) are unavoidable—no one is perfect.

Our next step will be to analyze the mistakes (bugs) we have made in the past and figure out how best to test our work to avoid them in the future.   In the software development world, this is the “test plan.”

After a few more click, click, clicks, I’ll report back to share the results.

JJ Rosen is the founder of Atiba, a custom software development firm and Nashville IT support company. Visit Atiba.com for more info.

I crept up the driveway and cautiously looked both ways.

The coast was clear.

As I slowly made my way on to our snow covered street, I was careful to keep an equal distance between the wide but shallow ditch on my right and the narrow but deep ditch on my left.  They both looked treacherous.

With no one else on the road, my strategy was simple: drive slowly, stay in the middle, and avoid the ditches at all costs.

Making my way down our hilly street I noticed several of my neighbors’ cars were already stuck.  Two were on my left, in the wide shallow ditch that appeared to have gently slid off the road. And one was in the narrow but deep ditch on my right, that looked to have a decent amount of damage.

To avoid joining them, I kept my focus on staying in the middle, careful to avoid the pitfalls that threatened on both sides.  It wasn’t easy, but I was holding my own.

Like many of us that live in the South, my ditch-avoiding experience during a snow storm is limited.

But the concept of avoiding ditches isn’t unfamiliar.

As a businessperson, whether it’s winter, summer, spring or fall, I have to navigate around ditches every day.  In many ways, these “business ditches” are even more treacherous than roadside ditches because they are more difficult to spot.

In business as on the street, there are three types of ditches you can fall into:

• Narrow but deep.
• Wide but shallow.
• And the worst of them all…wide and deep.

Narrow and deep ditches are easy to jump over, but if you happen to fall in it’s bad news. These are tasks that have low risk of failure but if you do fail, they can have severe consequences.   There’s a low chance of losing your top three clients in one week, but if it happens it can be a deep hole to climb out of.

The wide but shallow business ditches are nearly impossible to avoid but with careful planning they are quick to get out of.  An internet outage at your office, a typo on social media post, double booking a meeting—these are the everyday pitfalls that we all fall into but recover quickly from.

Wide and deep business ditches are the ones you must make every effort to avoid.   These are challenging because they are both easy to fall into and hard to get out of.  Cash flow issues, company-wide employee morale challenges, client concentration risks—the scary list goes on.

None of these dicthes are fun to fall victim to.  But, staying in the house forever, never taking any risks at all, also has its downside.  Deciding whether to take a chance on an ice-covered hill or stay inside is tricky.

I’ve found that when you do venture out, whether it’s navigating snow or navigating business risks, the key is to slow down, keep your eyes peeled, and resist the temptation to make any sudden turns that can send you sliding.

 JJ Rosen is the founder of Atiba, a custom software development firm and Nashville IT support company. Visit Atiba.com for more info.

Well, that was cool. Literally.

For a post-holiday company outing last week, we decided to do something different—curling.

Yes, curling.  That weird sport that you see every four years at the Olympics with a sheet of ice, a dart-board-like target and a bunch of people with brooms frantically sweeping.

Like many, I’d never understood curling and was never sure why it was considered a sport. It’s always been the one Olympic competition that seemed like even someone with limited athletic ability (like me) could quickly learn.  Using a broom is easy, right?

We showed up at Tee-Line, Nashville’s first “curling bar” at about 6 p.m.   My first impression was that the size of the curling “sheets” looked much bigger in person than they did on TV.  And of course, it was very cold.

After being equipped with no-slip rubber covers for our shoes, we divided up into teams of five for a quick training session.

The “thrower” is the person who slides on one knee and aims the 40-pound “curling stone” toward the target (aka “the house”) over 100 feet away.  Once the stone is on its way, the “sweepers” take over frantically using their brooms to reduce the friction along the stone’s path to guide it to the center of the target.

There are a lot of nuances that determine who wins or loses. But overall, the rules of the game aren’t complex. When we finished our 10-minute training session, we were ready to start.  After some friendly curling trash talking it was game on.

It only took us a few minutes to realize none of us had any chance of making the Olympics.

Most of our throws either stopped way short of the target or just went right over it thumping against the back wall. Sweeping went well, but not well enough to save our off-the-mark throws.  And even when one of our stones landed on the target, our team would accidentally knock it off on the next throw.

After an hour of playing, we’d only managed to land one stone on the target across both teams.  The final score one was one to zero.

Despite our lack of success, there was laughter and plenty of high-fives as we walked off the ice. What a unique and fun way to spend time together.

But it also reminded our team of an important lesson.

Curling, like business, is something that is much harder than it looks.

From the sidelines, curling looks like a sport that could easily be mastered by anyone with a broom and willingness to simply give it a try.  But as we quickly discovered, looks can be deceiving; it only took a few minutes to be humbled.

Business is similar.

When I first got into the business world, I knew it would be a challenge, but it didn’t take me long to discover that it was even harder than it looks.

Sales, marketing, HR, legal, customer service, macro-economics, micro-economics, negotiation, mental fortitude—being good at business takes a lot of skill. And that’s on top of needing a good product or service and a good worth ethic.

There are some that make it look easy. But for every success story there are hundreds who are just getting by, missing the target more often than hitting it.  Just like curling, in business, mastering the right combination of luck, hard work, and know-how can make the difference between a clean sweep and getting left out in the cold.

What Does Responsive Design Mean? Answer here.

The primary idea behind responsive web design is to have a website appropriately adjust for the device the visitor is using. Whether the website visitor is on a mobile phone, tablet, or desktop, the website should be able to respond appropriately.

However, not all phones, tablets, and computers are made equal so the responsive design must go a bit further than simply adapting to the device itself. Screen sizes can vary widely and what happens if a user decides to flip their phone in portrait mode? What happens when they zoom in and out?

Text, images, buttons, content, and more needs to be able to respond to the user’s actions in order to make the website visitors as positive and easy as possible. Everyone wants a clean and easy to use the website.

Besides grabbing the nearest phone or tablet, you can check what your website looks like on various devices from your own computer.

1. Press F12 (if on Chrome) to open up the developer tools

2. Select the following option in the developer tools menu

3. From there, you can check out what your site looks like on various devices, resolutions, and even in portrait mode.

It’s fairly simple to do and can give you a quick check on your site’s performance.

The ultimate goal is to make browsing a website as seamless and flexible as possible, no matter what device is in the hands of the users.

The Benefits of Responsive Design for Websites

Mobile-Friendly vs. Responsive Design

From the outside, it’s easy to get these terms confused so let’s run over them quickly.

Mobile-friendly refers to a website having a mobile version for their website. Pretty much every website out there has a mobile-friendly version. You’d really have to crawl through the depths of the internet to find a website that isn’t mobile-friendly.

What makes responsive design unique is the ability of the website to adapt to the user’s actions and device. That means making sure it adapts to portrait view, various mobile devices, and zooming in and out.

Pictures should be optimized, buttons need to be easily clickable, and text needs to be readable. It’s not hard to make a site mobile-friendly but it can be a challenge to have the right responsive design. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your site is responsive just because it’s mobile-friendly.

Mobile-First Indexing

Finding someone without a smartphone is about as tough as it was finding someone with a smartphone 10+ years ago. They’re used for everything these days,  like looking up cute cat photos, laughing at memes, or checking the latest sports scores.

That’s almost unbelievable, a 222% rise in mobile traffic over the last seven years!

Such a drastic shift to mobile search caught the attention of Google, who officially switched to mobile-first indexing back in July of 2019.

What exactly does this mean? Let’s hear what Google has to say:

“Mobile-first indexing means Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking. Historically, the index primarily used the desktop version of a page’s content when evaluating the relevance of a page to a user’s query.”

Basically, Google is going to be looking at your mobile site before they check out your desktop site.

Google uses their smartphone crawler tool to judge a website’s mobile usability and functionality. If you haven’t already, you can check your Google Search Console to see when your website officially switched to mobile-first indexing. If you don’t see any notice, it’s likely because the switch happened months ago and you unknowingly clicked by the message.

So, what happens if you don’t have a proper mobile website? The answer is both easy and bleak: you’re going to start slipping in the rankings.

Having your visibility drop could cost you valuable clicks which eventually leads to a loss of conversions and customers. All the work you put into boosting your rankings and local SEO could end up being for nothing. Ensuring you have proper responsive design means a mobile-friendly site which equals a better chance of moving up the rankings.

Mobile Usability

If you’re someone who regularly checks Google Search Console (which you should be doing anyway), then you might already be somewhat familiar with the Mobile Usability option on the sidebar.

The mobile usability tab will show you how Google views the mobile version of your website. It goes a bit further than simply double-checking that your site adheres to their mobile guidelines. For example, it will tell you which pages pass the test and which pages, if any, have errors on them.

This relatively new feature is incredibly handy when checking your website and ensuring it ticks all the right boxes. You might have to hand some things off to your web developer to ensure that these issues are taken care of and don’t harm your rankings with Google.

What Google Search Engine Team Says About Responsive Website Design

When it comes to world secrets, Google’s algorithm is up there along with the recipe for Coke and what really happens at Area 51. While Google employees will often host webinars to answer questions and dispel any myths, they never give away the whole pie.

We do know, however, when an update comes out. The results pages see high volatility for a few weeks before everything (somewhat) settles down. The most recent update was the May 4th update which saw high volatility in industries like travel and real estate.

Google is always nice enough to warn people about the updates, as they’ve done with the 2021 update that focuses on page experience. Page experience will now play a role in ranking.

What goes into “page experience”? Google has listed out a number of core vitals, which are:

• Mobile-friendly
• Safe and secure browsing
• Loading performance
• Interactivity
• Cumulative layout shift

But what does this have to do with responsive web design?

Sites that have responsive design load faster and are more likely to have minimal layout shifts.

Cumulative layout shift (CLS) is a new metric that ensures if the page is stable during loading. It seeks to find out if buttons, images, text, ads, and more move during loading. If you’ve ever tried to push a button on a website only to have it move at the last second, you’ve experienced a negative layout shift.

Proper responsive web design can ensure all those images, buttons, and more are stable during loading. Sometimes, fixing those issues can be difficult which is why having an experienced web developer is key for moments such as this.

Responsive Web Design Equals Positive User Experience

Another Google tool that you should be making use of is Google Analytics. There, you can find statistics on how people found your website, how long they stay on your website, and which pages they visit.

It can also tell you the bounce rate of your visitors, or the percentage of people who enter your site and leave after visiting just one page.

Having a high bounce rate isn’t always a bad thing. If you see an informative blog or content piece that has a high bounce rate, that may be normal. Visitors visit the page, get the information they want, and then leave. It’s not the worst thing in the world, nor does it have an effect on how Google sees your website.

If you’re running an eCommerce site, however, then having a high bounce rate could mean users aren’t browsing your store or checking out products.

It can be difficult to track exactly why users are bouncing off, but the poor user experience is often one of the leading causes.

Page load time, for example, has a direct effect on bounce rate according to a 2018 study by Pingdom.

A slow web page or page that has a lot of shifting content is going to frustrate users and they’ll leave before they read your blog, check out the store, or browse around.

It’s like owning a storefront and having the front door accidentally locked during opening hours, not displaying product prices, or being absent behind the register. Basic things that should be taken care of are already shooting you in the foot.

By ensuring your website uses responsive design, you’re providing a positive user experience to your visitors. They may not end up a conversion, but you’re giving yourself a better chance at success by following sound tactics.

Proper responsive web design is more than just picking the right theme for your website. You need experienced developers who can tackle any problem and make sure your website fulfills all the necessary requirements for not just Google, but your visitors as well.

If you’re looking at improving your web design, reach out to us today for a project quote. We look forward to working with you.

Hopefully 2023 was a good year for you.

Whenever I’ve had a good year, I’m tempted to give myself a gentle pat on the back and celebrate.  Business, health, personal—nothing is easy.  A good year is something to be proud of.

But then I see it and my inner Debbie Downer clicks in.

Like clockwork as the year winds down, I run across the line that throws everything off: “Past performance does not guarantee future results.”

Always in small print in the footnote of my retirement plan statement, it can turn a moment of celebration into a moment of trepidation.  “You did great last year, but that doesn’t mean you will do great this year.”

What a bummer!

But it’s true. New technologies, macro-economic cycles, life-events, aging, everything is in a constant state of flux. As the world changes year over year if you want to maintain or improve your lot in life you may have to change along with it.  Sears, Kodak, Blockbuster—the business world is full of examples of companies who had great past results only to miss the boat on future earnings.

But wait a minute.

Failing to change with the times isn’t the only factor behind the “Past performance does not guarantee future results” warning.

Although I’ve never seen it in any financial disclosures, there’s another statement that I always hear that seems to say the exact opposite: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

This is true as well.  If something’s working well, why mess with it?

Whether it’s Tiger Woods’ golf swing or the original formula for Coca-Cola, fixing something that’s not broken can be equally dangerous to future results.

So, if you want to build on a good year, the trick is to decide what to tweak and what to double-down on.

I think about this challenge for our technology consulting firm every January.  What levers do we need to pull and what levers should be left alone to keep our momentum going?  How do we decide?

To keep things simple, we make two lists.  The “ain’t broke don’t fix it” list and the “needs to change” list.

Here are just a few of the “ain’t broke don’t fix it” items we came up with for our company:

• Our culture.  Our core values of empathy, responsiveness, and flexibility have worked for us, and we feel like we need to build on them long-term.
• Our “end to end” technology focus.  We have always provided both IT (information technology) support and custom software development to our customers.  There’s been debate over the years on whether we should focus on one or the other. But in the end, with all the interdependencies of technologies, we have decided to stick with our vetted approach.
• The “office optional” stance for our team members. We were office optional even before the pandemic, allowing each employee to decide for themselves where they are most productive.  This works for us.

And here are a few examples of our “needs to change” list:

• AI focus.  We’ve already started our AI implementation push for ourselves and our clients.  We need to push harder on this in 2024.
• Growth by acquisition strategy.  We want to formalize a proactive plan (in the past we have been more reactive.)
• Our internal communications. We’re going to redo our company SharePoint intranet site to make it easier for employees to find information.

After 30 years, you would think filling out each list would be easy. But it’s not.  It’s half art and half science, requiring a combination of intuition and data analysis every year.

Of course, your company’s lists will be different, but the process can apply to everyone.

So, it’s an important warning for all of us—past performance does not guarantee future results.  If you’ve had good 2023, pat yourself on the back and then start pulling the levers to make 2024 even better.

JJ Rosen is the founder of Atiba, a custom software development firm and Nashville IT support company. Visit Atiba.com for more info.