Author: footloose

As most of us do,  I spend a lot of time looking for the stuff.  Searching and scouring the net for this and that.

Turning page after page. Taking wrong turns, missing what should be obvious until I trip over the one link I need. Generating traffic, clicks and hits.  The very stuff that drives the web and adds value to all we do.

Experience.

Information and know-how that we could share. We have all the tools we need to make it happen.  To offer a service. To make ourselves useful. To add value, improve and grow a resource we all use.

Local knowledge, local experts, local advice and assistance – Web Guides

I experienced a problem with one of my Add On domains.  Every time I tried updating I would get locked out. This we sort of resolved by deactivating the Mod_Secuity setting.

But there was still a problem. I couldn’t upload an image until I figured out that I needed to upgrade to the latest version of php installed on the server.

A little thing that takes up way too much time to sort out.

There is a section on the Dashboard called Site Health which lists any exceptions that have been noted. Something I have never bothered with.  But I looked at it and discovered I was running on a version of php which was out dated. This took me to Cpanel/Software where I clicked on Select PHP Version.

The last one was  native 7.2 which I shied away from and selected 7.4 instead. I am not sure why nor what the implications are. Nor do I know why I then pressed Reset Defaults. But it appeared to work. Site Health changed to Good.

But I still couldn’t upload pictures.

They were apparently too big. From what I understood there was 2 meg limit in the WordPress settings and I had already resized the images I was working with. What I didn’t know was that there is server setting in Cpanel under the PHP Version which I needed to edit after clicking Options and scrolling down to the last field.

We have to get our two boys into school in the UK. But itgets a little complicated. Particularly with our eldest son who is seventeen and who has not sat the GCSE’s which he needs to get into College.

Another long term project digging out the information that should be easier to find than it is and archiving it on a couple of workshop sites.

Home schooling options as well the steps one needs to take to get the boys placed in a school and how they are going to catch up what is now two years of formal schooling.

Way out of my depth here.

Am getting mobile usability alerts for one obscure page on On the Coals. Understand it should have something to do with the template and the settings. So I have installed Neve which is supposed to be mobile friendly and have fiddled with the settings under Header layout – Title alignment. Although I am not sure what that does or does not do.   Makes no difference to what I see on the laptop.

At the same time I have installed Neve on Kids at Play and Great British Banger.  As these two sites are on the same server and search console dashboard and have or I think had the same problem. But have not edited any of the settings.

I think had because after interogating the Search Console I see no mention of mobile usability problems. What I did find on Great British Banger were references to the Photographers pages I removed. This prompted me to submit a blanket removal request for /commercial-photographers-in-the-uk/

I also found two urls that ‘have been crawled’ but not indexed.

How, once again, I have absolutely no idea. The one greatbritishbanger.co.uk/premium-cumberland-sausages-in-the-uk/artisan-gourmet-sausages-in-the-south-of-england/ is a double up of two existing urls. Both of which are indexed. However the extension artisan gourmet reads gourmet artisan in the live post.

Similarly  with greatbritishbanger.co.uk/the-english-sausage/legges-of-bromyard-artisan-sausages/ I have no idea where the add on legges-of-bromyard-artisan-sausages/ comes from.

 

 

Bruce Bartie

073 544 5660 or 044 382 0266

Sales Funnel? An Income Funnel? Terms being bandied about with gay abandon by those with all the answers.

The latest and the greatest internet scoop, if they are to be believed. A strategy anyone can use to accumulate wealth beyond ones wildest dreams.

Sadly I am a slow learner.

Shuffling slowly behind the crowd wondering what the hell is going on. Apparently the “definition of the sales funnel (also known as a revenue funnel or sales process) refers to the buying process that companies lead customers through when purchasing products. A sales funnel is divided into several steps, which differ depending on the particular sales model.”

Nothing particularly remarkable in that.

It is just another reinvented strategy. A sales strategy which I have never been particularly good at and the reason, I am stuck somewhere between points two and three.

The point at which I lose it.

Then there is the fourth phase. The Decision phase. Impulse buying. The point at which I would argue, the internet is supposed to changing lives for the better.

But it is not.

I always understood that the world wide web is supposed to be an information super highway, giving us access to everything we need to make rational decisions. It is not supposed to get mangled and twisted into a modern day version of the age old “Chain Letter” phenomena.

A flaw that can’t be blamed on the internet. Nor the advent of smart phones and technology.

It is us.

It is how we are, how we relate. How we focus and how we use the tools that are available to us that determines the outcome.

If we want to change the way things are, we are the first, that need to change. We need to re-look at and understand what we, so blithely, refer to as free enterprise. What we understand as freedom and what we understand as enterprise. We need to understand the difference between socialism, social enterprise and free markets.

We can easily build a small business that can be run from home with the tools we have. Many have already done it. It is possible to build an online business and wealth beyond ones wildest dreams. But nothing will ever change unless we start making some radical changes to the way we think and we should start by evaluating Googles rather trite dictum of “do no evil”.

Google’s Search Console and the Community Forum

Have opened an account for Emsworth Local and have made an index request for The Coffeeman’s advert as well as the Medical Practice post .

I then opened a different account and added An English Breakfast making an index request for the First Meal of the Day. I have also added Selsey Local and requested indexing for Places to BBQ.

All indexed within 12 hours.

Have requested that the three outstanding posts on Emsworth Local are crawled as well as Charley’s Jobs Wanted and Rafbar Plumbing adverts. Wanted to add Workshop Web but can’t verify so added African Story and requested the addition of the  three outstanding posts.

Workshop Web verified after twelve hours. But had a problem opening site map list after enabling Site Maps. Wasn’t able to display a page returning an Ooops error report. Waited another twelve hours and problem resolved. Submitted site maps and outstanding posts. All updated

Submitted crawl requests for the rest of the Adverts on Emsworth Local . Also submitted Chichester Harbour.

Some but not all Adverts now indexed on Emsworth Local. Boat Trips on Chichester Harbour not indexed yet. Have submitted site maps for all Local sites. But not crawl requests for the posts.

Every now and again the Search Console comes back with a read error when trying to submit a Site Map.  Sometimes clears simply by clicking the record, other times by resubmitting.

 

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Where does this all it take one?How many is too many?