Neil Gass | Grow Smart Marketing

Hard Work Does Not Always Equal Results

You’ve likely heard the myth that if you work hard, you’ll get great results. You’ve been told all your life that if you’re not measuring up, you’re just not working hard enough. It can be quite demoralizing when you think about it – especially if you are working super-hard and still not getting the results you want.

Find Your Passion

The truth is, if you’re working hard at something you’re not passionate about and don’t care about, it will feel like you’re working even harder than you are. If you find something you love, something that wakes you up each day full of excitement, then you’ll find that work doesn’t feel so hard.

Ignore Naysayers

There are always going to be people who think that you’re nuts for getting off their treadmill. They’re not going to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. They’re still buying the myth that hard work alone pays off. Just put your nose to the grindstone and put your head down and follow your own path.

Accept Today for What It Is

You can’t change things suddenly if you don’t have a lot of money, so you might have to keep working the job that you hate while you work passionately for the things you love until you’re earning a living from the new thing. It’s okay; just practice acceptance for what is.

Work Smarter Not Harder

There are things that you do each day that make a big impact, and things that don’t. Even if you’re still in a job, you don’t have to keep doing things that no one notices and don’t matter in the scheme of things. Do what matters. Let the rest fall where it may.

Keep Your Ethics

As you grow, it’s important to stay within your own moral compass. You can still get ahead even if you aren’t willing to compromise. Sometimes the fame or money just isn’t worth it, no matter how hard you’ve worked on what you’ve wanted.

Make Important Connections

One of the most important ways you can succeed in life is by making solid connections with others. Whether they’re family relationships or business connections, making good ones and keeping them will help you immensely.

Remember the 80/20 Rule

This is also called the Pareto principle, and it states that 20 percent of your actions cause 80 percent of the results. When you identify the actions that are getting you more results, you need to double down on those.

The truth is, working smarter not harder is the best way to approach anything. Remember the 80/20 rule too. When you can identify the actions that get more bang for your buck, you’ll be more successful than you ever thought possible.

The Reasons You Need Strong Passwords and How to Create Them

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Hackers cause a lot of problems online, and making it harder for you to remember your password is one result of them. The main reason you need strong passwords is due to hackers. They use software to figure out your password, and then they use the information they get to break into your account to steal your information and even your identity. It’s just not worth it. If you want to prevent that from happening, here are some tips to help you create strong passwords that you can remember.

Don’t Ignore Any Account – One problem with some accounts is that you may sign in once, create a password and never go back. This is not good for security. If you do sign up for something and create a password, it’s important to note it someplace safe so that you can go back and cancel the account or change your password every three or four months.
Create Unique Passwords – Each password you create should be different. Don’t use the same one for every social media account or every bank account. This is asking for problems. Once they figure out one, they’ll end up with access to all.
Set Up 2-Step Verification – When any account offers it, set up 2-step verification. This can sometimes be a pain, but it’s a good way to prevent hackers from getting into your information even if they somehow get the password. This is because this system notes location and devices and can prevent and alert you to hackers.
Use Numbers and Letters – Not only should you use letters and numbers for your passwords, but also symbols when permitted. This will make it harder for any system to guess, as it gives that many more combinations of choices.
Don’t Use Patterns – Any patterns are bad when it comes to passwords, because that’s the first thing a hacker or a bot will try when they are trying to guess your password. They’ll use common patters to hack into your systems.
Get Rid of Biographical Data – Birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates and locations are always a bad choice when it comes to passwords. Sure, you can remember them easier, but hackers and bots can guess them easier too.
The Longer the Better – Longer passwords are always better due to the larger number of combinations a bot or hacker has to use to figure out your password.
Consider a Password Manager – There are password managers that can help you keep track, and some people recommend them. Yes, there have been breaches of these systems too, but they know they’ll be under great threat from hackers so they work all the time on increasing security.
Try a Password Convention – The best way to remember your passwords is to use a particular password convention that you make up for all your passwords. For example, let’s say you need to create a password for your Walmart account and one for your Google email. Start with certain letters and numbers that have no relationship, then add letters based on where you’re signing in.
Write Them Down – Having a hard copy of your passwords will not only be useful for you, but also for your relatives if something should happen to you. Keep them locked in your file cabinet or safe, and change them every three or four months.

The sad fact is that you can’t prevent all data breeches. Your information is only as safe as the companies you sign up for. Even if you have the best password, if they don’t have good security hackers may still get your information. Set up security on your credit report, banks, and other important information so that you’ll always be alerted to any threats.

Tips for Creating Strong Passwords

Passwords are a problem, not just for website users but also for website owners. You have to trust that your users will create strong passwords and not share them with others, and you have to ensure that the security you create is safe too. The best thing to do is teach everyone to create strong passwords from the start.

1. Write Them Down – First, whenever you create a password you should write it down and store it someplace secure. Keeping a password notebook that you put in your locked file cabinet is a good way to go. You’re going to keep it like a diary so that any person who accesses it can flip to the back page and find your most recent changes. Don’t tell the world that you have this notebook; put it in your will for your family or business partner.
2. Create a Password Standard – You can create a password standard for yourself that makes it hard for people to guess but easier for you to remember. It should be random but make sense to you only. Use this standard for every password you create.
3. Use Two-Step Verification – On websites that have it, always choose two-step verification because this is your biggest deterrent to would-be hackers. It’s kind of like how robbers don’t like to go into a locked car or house. Keep your passwords locked up and your accounts hard to get into, and they’ll leave you alone.
4. Close Out Unused Accounts – If you have online bank accounts, social media accounts, shopping accounts and any accounts that you never use that have passwords, consider canceling them. If you’re not using them, a hacker might decide to and you may not even notice.
5. Use Letters, Numbers and Symbols – The more random letters, numbers and symbols you can use, the better for security. Some systems don’t let you, but use everything you’re allowed to make the password the most random possible.
6. Make Longer Passwords – If a system lets you use 20-figure passwords, do it. The longer your passwords are, the harder it will be for anyone to guess or break into the account. It will take them much longer to guess 20 figures than it will seven.
7. Use Password Generators – These are really great for choosing truly horrible-looking and hard to figure out passwords. They’ll be truly random so that you can then use that as a password for the system. If you do this, be sure to copy and paste it someplace to save.
8. Ensure It’s Really Random – You want all passwords to be truly random without any identifying information within. No birthdays, anniversaries, locations or anything like that, even though it makes them harder to remember. Plus, do not use the same ones for each account you open.
9. Change Them Often – You should try to change all your passwords about every three to four months. You don’t need to do them all on the same day, but try to make it a habit to change them as often as you can to avoid problems.

Top Password Managers

Dashlane – This is a password manager and secure digital wallet that you can use to manage your password and your money. They have a free version and a paid version. It is recommended that you use the paid version to take advantage of all the features. If you need a way to keep track of all your account info in one spot that is secure, consider this one. It also comes with an awesome password generator.
Zoho Vault – Zoho offers a lot of amazing apps and software to use in your business, and Zoho Vault is no different. It doesn’t have form filling capacity, but it works great as a password manager.
LastPass Premium – This is one of the favorites of online business owners due to the inexpensive cost and the advanced features. They have had some security problems in the past, but people love them so much they stuck by them. L
RoboForm – Billing themselves as the best and easiest to use password manager in the industry, RoboForm has been around a while and is trusted by many. They help you remember all your passwords and it works on any type of device. They use familiar bookmark-style logins that are popular with many.
LogMeOnce – If you need a password manager and a way to feel safe logging in while on an unsecure server, then LogMeOnce might be your answer. This works on iPhone, iPad and Android too. It offers access to all platforms and is a great solution. Link –
Password Genie – Brought to you by SecurityCoverage.com, this secure system helps you remember your passwords and logs you in to any system that you need. It has two-step verification which makes it secure, as well as a password generator and strength rater that help tremendously.
Password Boss – This system offers a free version for charities and is a fully-featured password manager that offers a lot of features you’ll like, such as one password to access everything. They use bank grade security and are accessible from anywhere using multiple platforms.
True Key – This system is interesting because it can recognize you without you using any password at all to sign into the system and access your accounts. Once you set it up, you will be able to have access without concern. Using multi-factor authentication will ensure that you are who they think you are, keeping your information safe.

There is no doubt that password managers will make your life easier, but which one you pick will depend on your unique needs and understanding of the technology.

Expert Analysis of Google’s Pigeon Update on Local SEO for Businesses

Atlanta Local SEO, Brand Optimization, Local SEO, Local SEO Marketing, Medical Clinic Website, Medical Marketing, Reputation Marketing, Sales, Search Engine Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media

What Is The Pigeon Update?

Somewhere around the last week of July, Google rolled out a brand new search algorithm update that rocked the world for local SEO and local business marketing.

According to Google, this new search engine update was designed to “improve” the search results for local businesses by leveraging hundreds of ranking signals as well as it’s own internal search features like spelling correction, synonyms, and the Google Knowledge Graph.

What Are The Experts Saying About The Pigeon Update?

Many of the top SEO experts across the industry have weighed in to share their research and findings from the impact on their clients.

Search Engine Land made the following analysis:

“It looks like Yelp and other local directory-style sites are benefiting with higher visibility after the Pigeon update, at least in some verticals. And that seems logical since, as Google said, this update ties local results more closely to standard web ranking signals. That should benefit big directory sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor — sites that have stronger SEO signals than small, individual restaurants and hotels are likely to have.”

Moz’s David Mihm (Director of Local Search Strategy) had the following comments:

“Directories with strong brands (like Yelp, as Matt McGee already pointed out) often show up multiple times for the same search, especially on recovery searches for specific small businesses – many of which occur when the searcher clicks a Carousel result. But they’re even prevalent on far less-specific discovery searches, and on searches performed on mobile devices (in my own limited testing).”
“A number of folks have commented in places like Max Minzer’s Local Search community, and Casey Meraz highlighted it as well, that there seem to be many more two and three-packs than there were before, which takes even more real estate away from small businesses and increases the relative opportunity for directories.”
“I’m at a bit of a loss as to any economic benefit this boost to directories (with easier-to-reach, larger Adwords budgets) might provide Google, but I’m looking forward to hearing what other commenters have to say.”

It’s important to note the consistent message across all of the SEO industry’s top experts – local directories with recognizable brands such as Yelp, YellowPages.com, Kudzu, etc. are now getting even higher and stronger positioning across local searches. This has the direct effect of pushing the local business listings farther down the results pages and onto the 2nd page in many cases.
Another SEO expert, Greg Gifford (Director of Search and Social at Autorevo) made the following analysis:

“In the past, “used cars CITY” always brought up a map pack. We’ve seen a few isolated cities where the map pack has disappeared for that query… Before Pigeon, those would have all resulted in seven-packs.”

Nicole Hess, Senior SEO Strategist at Delphic Digital made the following observations:

“There were a few locations that are not appearing in the local pack of results, though at some previous point did appear there. The average drop in traffic for a location that is no longer in the local pack is 16% less traffic month over month (and this is in a good season where overall organic traffic is increasing)… Being out of the local pack correlates with a loss of organic traffic for a few locations. A loss of organic traffic is also occurring where listings are competing against paid ads that have star ratings.”

Here again, we note the drop in rankings for individual local businesses. Many local businesses have fallen out of the “7 Pack” listings, resulting in a drop of approximately 16% of organic traffic for some businesses. We also see that businesses are continuing to lose traffic to some of the paid ads (PPC) that have star ratings. So it’s becoming increasingly important that we continue to increase the star ratings for our clients to remain competitive in local SEO searches.

Another SEO expert, Andrew Shotland, a Local Search Engine Optimization Consultant at LocalSEOGuide.com commented:

“We are really interested in how this update moved Google more in the direction of hyperlocal search. Something that has been flying under the radar on this update is the neighborhood specific location settings that previously seemed to be just a test are now live everywhere as far as I can tell.
“I am also seeing a number of the local directory type sites I work with have almost all seen five to ten percent increases in organic traffic since the update. This lines up with the contraction and elimination of many of the local pack results that others are reporting. Directories would be one of the benefactors of this.”

One of the early observations concerning the Pigeon update is that many of the “7 Pack” (map) listings for local businesses have completely disappeared for as much as 50% – 60% of the searches for local businesses – leaving just the “regular” 10 listings per search results page. Andrew’s comments here suggest that because so many of the 7 Packs have disappeared the major directory companies’ listings are now showing up more often in the top 10 results – pushing the local businesses farther down the results.
Mike Blumenthal of Blumenthals.com observed the following:

“The update does appear to have reduced duplication between the organic and local results. After the October 2013 update that ended blended results, a number of sites were seeing both organic and local pack results. Those seem to have been reduced to one or the other… The directories, at least anecdotally, appear to have benefited from the change.”

Mike’s comments continue to support the other SEO experts’ observations that the major local directories (Yelp, YP.com, kudzu, etc.) have benefitted from this Pigeon update with higher rankings – resulting in pushing local business listings farther down. But he also makes another interesting observation that where a local business might have had a listing in the 7 Pack (maps) section and also in the other listings outside of the 7 Pack, many of those businesses have lost one or the other listing, resulting in only one listing on the first page where they formerly had 2.

Mary Bowling, Co-founder at Ignitor Digital had this to say about the Pigeon update:

“Google has made several moves lately for the purpose of better aligning desktop and mobile results. Google’s interpretation of the searcher’s location may now be playing more into which results they see on their desktop, just the way it has been playing into which results they see on smartphones.
“Some of the things people are reporting are a reduction in the number of local packs seen in the SERPs and a widespread reduction from 7 results in the local packs to 3 results. This may also be an attempt to better mirror on the desktop what mobile searchers see.”

This is another interesting observation that both Andrew (above) and Mary are observing, specifically that Google is now more consistently observing the location of the person doing the search on a desktop and providing results specific to that location.

“This suggests that the part of the search results page composition algorithm that handles determining when to serve local pack results has undergone a revision rather than elimination for many of these effected terms. The dial has been turned back some, if you will, and other qualifying elements have been introduced in how it functions.
“Specificity of the query is an additional element. When Google first began displaying the local pack, they inferred locality intent associated with queries like “house rentals” or “pizza”, etc. For whatever reason, the assumption of local intent has now been dialed back in a number of cases, most likely based upon some sort of usability testing, or out of desire to further reduce “clutter” in search results.
“Overall, the news that this update bumps up web search ranking signals more so than some of the local factors doesn’t necessarily pose a huge fear factor for local businesses. On the other hand, local companies that were enjoying good local pack rankings, despite having an SEO-weak website presence, will now have to step up their game in order to recover.
“Finally, some directory sites appear to have benefited. To me, the recent shift has heavily benefitted Yelp (I think they likely need to Shut-The-Front-Door on whining about Google mistreatment). Yellowpages.com also appears quite prominently in my sampling, as well as some vertical directories.
“Some of the more marginal, less-popular online yellow pages and business directories are not all that visible or prominent these days. In some business category and market combinations, the organic search results are more populated by these directory sites than by the websites of local businesses – which will necessitate a bit of a shift in local companies’ online strategies.
“If these ranking changes for local-intent queries were intentional upon Google’s part, it seems clear that they feel that there are many cases where searchers desire to perform comparative research to decide upon businesses prior to selecting listings. Businesses will have to adjust their strategic approaches accordingly.”

What Does Pigeon Mean For Local SEO For Businesses?

So the messages from the SEO experts seems rather clear…

The major online directories like Yelp and YellowPages.com are seeing higher rankings and more frequent rankings – pushing the local business websites farther down the search results.
Many searches for local businesses that used to show 7 Pack (map) listings no longer show those 7 Packs at all.
In many searches, the 7 Pack of local listings has been reduced to a 3 Pack instead.
Google seems to be placing more emphasis on using the exact location of the person doing the search by delivering results that are “hyper-local” – very specific to the immediate geographic area.
Star ratings that are shown on the search results definitely have an impact on the number of clicks that a listing will get.

So for those of us who do Local SEO, Local Marketing and Reputation Marketing, this update sends a clear signal that it is increasingly important to have our clients local citations and local directory listings complete, accurate and optimized to give them the best chance of showing up in those directories that are now gaining higher prominence in the search results.
We have also noted that star ratings continue to have an impact on the organic traffic for four clients’ websites. So we must continue to work hard to get those online reviews posted to the major review sites (especially Google+). In this regard, our industry leading Reputation Marketing packages should give our clients a considerable advantage over their competition.
Finally, as fewer 7 Pack listings show up in the search results, it becomes even more important to implement effective local SEO strategies that get our clients ranked higher in the results, to compete with the increased rankings of the local directories.
On that note, I would like to share a little of our own anecdotal evidence that when done effectively, a good SEO program can still beat out the major online directory sites in the search results. At Grow Smart Marketing we have a good number of clients that are still ranking at the top of their local search results and consistently beating Yelp, YellowPages, and the others even after the Pigeon update.

If you’d like to speak with one of our Grow Smart Marketing consultants about implementing an effective local marketing program for your business please contact us today for a free, no-hassle step-by-step strategy session.

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