Meredith's Husband: 0:48

It is a holiday weekend. It is a long holiday weekend. Yes. Coming back from holiday weekend here in the USA, anyway. Last week we talked about AI.

Meredith: 0:56

Yes.

Meredith's Husband: 0:56

And I mentioned that this week I was going to dive into the details of that, a little bit technical details. Yes. Last week was a little more conceptual. Yes. I was going to offer a little more technical advice this week. But being the holiday week and my birthday.

Meredith: 1:09

Yay. Happy birthday to you.

Meredith's Husband: 1:10

We're going to change plans a little bit. Excellent. Going to do that next week.

Meredith: 1:15

Okay.

Meredith's Husband: 1:16

And this week I'm just going to answer a few questions that have come in.

Meredith: 1:19

How about that?

Meredith's Husband: 1:20

So recently I've gotten questions about uh website platforms. Yes. Questions specifically about PixieSet. Yes. Webflow and PhotoBiz, which I had never even heard about before somebody I didn't know about it. Somebody asked me about it. A couple people asked me about it, actually. That's one, one of the question areas. Another is a drop in traffic. Plenty of people have been asking. I'm seeing a drop in traffic. And they give a you know a few details and say, what should I look at? I'm going to cover that a little bit because it depends on what kind of drop in traffic you're talking about.

Meredith: 1:51

Great.

Meredith's Husband: 1:51

And then they get a question about making changes to website, whether it's good to do it in batches or uh you know batch it together or do it little by little, et cetera.

Meredith: 1:59

That's a great question.

Meredith's Husband: 2:01

It is, yeah. Because everybody has to deal with that at some point. Yes. First, however, though, just in time for the holidays, Google came out with some announcements in the last week or so. Oh, really? With new they have new uh AI Agentic shopping features. So Agentic, it's that uh it's like kind of personalized shopping experiences. It's gonna help you shop. It's gonna look for prices. It's gonna one of the things what it suggests is if like this and the sort of case study that it said you could use this for is it's holidays, you gotta do Christmas shopping, you want to know if stores have things in stock. Yeah. Google AI mode will call the stores and find where it's in stock for you and tell you. So you don't have to, I guess, make the calls or make the trip yourself, which at first kind of blew me away. It's like, oh, that's awesome. And then it's like, no, I'm not, I'm really not gonna use that. Oh, because you just report it online. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I I imagine for some people that might be super useful. Another feature which they announced, this is not so new, but it's like price tracking. Use you, but all of this stuff you can just go to the Google AI mode and find it there. There's some shopping links to help you do all this stuff. There's price tracking, so you can know where, you know, where is the cheapest online, when is it how the price changes, etc.? I think they announced that one a while ago. That's not all that new. Uh, but the one that I actually am planning to use myself, and I don't know why I didn't think of this, is in buying gifts. You can describe your family, what they do, where they live, what they like to do, what their profession is, and it will come back and give you gift ideas. That's I'm going to try that for my family.

Meredith: 3:40

That's cool.

Meredith's Husband: 3:41

In fact, what I'm probably gonna do is I'm gonna try it with Google AI mode, and I'll also do it with ChatGPT, and I'll compare it.

Meredith: 3:47

That's a good interesting.

Meredith's Husband: 3:48

That's just what I do. That's like that's how geeky I am.

Meredith: 3:51

I do that too.

Meredith's Husband: 3:52

Anyway, just in time for the holidays, I thought I would share that news with you. That's a lovely thing. If anybody finds it interesting. So to the questions. Yes. First, the question about making changes in batches versus the case. Oh, we're going to the second one? Yeah, I'm just going to go.

Meredith: 4:06

That's a new order. Okay.

Meredith's Husband: 4:07

Yeah. I'm going to because that one's a quick, easy answer. Perfect. So I'm going to take in terms of like, you know, how easy that's I'm going to do first. Then I'm going to talk about the drop in traffic, then I'm going to talk about the platforms. Exciting. Okay. So the making changes, and the person who asked this was curious. Would making little bits of changes instead of batching them all together, would that be harmful to SEO? And no, the exact opposite. It would be good for SEO to make little changes all at once.

Meredith: 4:34

All at once?

Meredith's Husband: 4:35

No, to make, I'm sorry, little changes over time. To make little, yeah. Make do not make all your little changes all at once. You do not need to do that. Because Google likes to see, just like you've heard the argument that you need to blog for SEO, Google does like to see an active website.

Meredith: 4:51

Right.

Meredith's Husband: 4:51

Okay. So I have seen, I have had situations in the past. In fact, one comes to mind a client was redoing, we were redoing their SEO. And we, that's how typically how we would do it, is we would work on the title tags, then we'd do the et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And they they said, no, just do everything offline. Ooh. And then when it's completely ready, take it up, then replace the live site. And I didn't recommend that. And I said there's no, there's absolutely no reason to do that. And when they were insistent, I was very, I was younger, and I didn't know how to handle a situation like that. So I just said, okay. And we did it. And the rankings actually went down, which was the only time that has ever happened. So yeah, make changes as you can. You do not need to make them all at once. That's good. In fact, especially and for your workflow, that makes it easier too. I can't the only time that I would say it's good to make a batch of changes if is is if it helps your workflow somehow. And I can't even really think of you know when you would do want to do that. But like let's say you were if you were going to change all your title tags on all your pages, you might do that all at once. Sure. Okay, but that's not no no big drastic changes. Okay. So that was number one. That's good too. Number two, I've had some people ask about drops in traffic. Yes. So people have seen declining traffic this year, which is normal. Traffic coming through Google has probably declined over the last, I would say, just the course of this year.

Meredith: 6:19

Why is that?

Meredith's Husband: 6:20

AI. More people are searching in AI, they're getting more information from AI before they ever visit a website. So there is also a phenomenon called zero-click search where you search for stuff and you get it all right there. You either get it on Google AI mode or you get it in ChatGPT. You get everything you need. You never visit a website. Okay. Now that's not probably going to be a big issue for photographers. That would be more of like an informational-based uh website or something like that.

Meredith: 6:50

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Well, if you're asking a question and then they give you all the necessary answers about how to dive further.

Meredith's Husband: 6:57

But what might be happening with local businesses, including photographers, is instead of going out and visiting 10 local photographer websites, you go to AI mode or you go to ChatGPT and you ask it to list the top 10 and you know sort of what which one is going to match your style the most. And then instead of visiting 10 websites, you only visit two or maybe three. Just as an example, I'm throwing these numbers out there. But you can see how, on average, traffic to websites is going to decline.

Meredith: 7:29

Right.

Meredith's Husband: 7:29

However, I would say look at your conversion rates. That's going to be the percentage of people contacting, how many people are acting actually contacting you. That is hopefully at least the same or has gone up. Okay. Because fewer people visiting you. But by the time they visit your site, they have already asked AI Mode or ChatGPT what is Meredith Sanders' style? What are her prices? Where is she located, et cetera? Things like that. So they're more informed by the time they get to your website. So they have they're further along in the uh purchasing decision, the buyer's journey.

Meredith: 8:04

The buyer's journey.

Meredith's Husband: 8:05

Okay. So that's if you've seen this like a more of a say a steady decline over the last three, six, nine months, roughly. If you see a sharp decline, like over the course of like a weekend where your traffic drops like 30% or something like that, that's not the AI. That's something different. If you see something like that, you need to look what changes did you make to the website? I would say two to probably four weeks before that change. That's what you're going to start to think about because something changed. And this would be what we call forensic SEO.

Meredith: 8:39

Ooh.

Meredith's Husband: 8:39

Yeah, exciting.

Meredith: 8:40

Yes. CSI.

Meredith's Husband: 8:42

I think that's the new um NYPD blue franchise. It's going to be forensic SEO. Oh my God, that's going to be such a great show. One hour of a dude staring at a laptop. He gets excited though. Anyway, so that is so so those are the two most common types of declines in traffic. So look for one of those. Thank you. Okay, now website platforms number three. So people have asked me in the last couple of weeks about PixieSet. How is it for SEO? Same thing about PhotoBiz. How is it for SEO? And then Webflow. I get this question more from people in the business world, not so much photography, because those others obviously they focus on photographers. Webflow is a very similar platform, but not focused on photographers. It's just business. So first, let's talk about Pixieset. Yes. So I've Pixieset, you can host your website. Pixieset, I think, traditionally was known for galleries, hosting galleries.

Meredith: 9:40

Yeah, you used to upload galleries that you could share with clients.

Meredith's Husband: 9:43

Right. And so you can do your entire website on Pixieset. I had never looked at the SEO behind a PixieSet website. I did recently, I ran a SEMrush scan looking to see what kind of errors it would come up with. And I gotta say, it was pretty good. Oh, yeah. It was pretty solid. Yeah. Because the person, one of the people who asked me this was like, I know it's not great for SEO, but it's so easy to use, and I've been using it that it's just so easy for me. So how bad is it for SEO? And the answer was like, it's actually not bad at all. It's like That's good to know. It's pretty good. That's good to know. Yeah. It had a good, it had a very good SEMrush score. So yeah. I I have I don't have first hand experience with it. I don't have first hand experience with any of these.

Meredith: 10:26

Yeah. I used to have Pixie.

Meredith's Husband: 10:29

Yeah, but didn't you? You just used it for galleries, though, right? Yeah. Okay.

Meredith: 10:32

Back in the day.

Meredith's Husband: 10:33

So the other one I've been asked about a couple times recently is Photobiz. I had never even heard of Photobiz, not on my radar. Yeah. Uh but evidently there are photographers using it. Um so I looked into Photobiz. I did something similar. I ran, I found somebody whose website was on Photobiz. I did a Sumrush audit. Uh I also went to the because I didn't know anything about it, I went to the Photobiz website and looked through their what they offer. Okay. So the Sumrush scan, not so great. It was, it was, I would say, similar to what I would expect from a Squarespace website. Similar issues. And going to their website, I was very much not impressed. Got it. Okay. So there's, and I'll tell you why. And this is just it really matches up with things I've seen in the past that I know after you know after the fact were not good solutions. So they offer off they offer SEO advice, all this SEO stuff, very similar to like Squarespace. You can call one of their experts and it's like a hundred. Is it a real person? Oh, probably, yeah. But you call and it's like 150 an hour to talk with their expert. And then they have a monthly subscription service, which I looked through to see what was being offered. And it was like it was near valueless, I would say. And I don't know how much per month that was, but it's probably another 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 a month, depending. Yeah, everything I saw on the PhotoBiz website talking about SEO, to me, again, based on my experience, was like red flag. That is not a good service. And I did just go to the homepage and I went to look at the for one of the first thing I could find what they said about SEO. And they have 10 quick ways to improve your SEO. It's a blog. And I'm pretty certain that whoever wrote this article doesn't know much about SEO. And there are, I mean, there's even this doesn't have to do with SEO, but it's like the headline, they have typos in the headlines. This one headline says, or sub-headline says, includes words in your blog posts, not just photos. Includes. Includes words.

Meredith: 12:41

Aaron Powell This includes words?

Meredith's Husband: 12:44

No, no, no. It's instructional. Like it's what it's saying here is make sure to include words in your blog posts and not just photos. Okay. And it says includes words in your blog post, not just photos. It's very Which is is okay. Yeah, that's true. Is that one of the top 10 things? Like No, that is like one of the best things you could do for SEO is to have a website. And again, this is very similar to what I have seen on Squarespace. So I would put PhotoBiz in a very similar bucket with Squarespace in terms of what's being offered for SEO. Gotcha. Now if you're already there, I would say, you know, it's it's okay.

Meredith: 13:22

Right. Like would you advise switching it to say Pixie said?

Meredith's Husband: 13:27

I would say if you're on PhotoBiz or Squarespace, that whenever you know you're going to relaunch your website at some point, you're going to redesign it.

Meredith: 13:34

Yeah.

Meredith's Husband: 13:34

Whenever that is, I would say that's when you want to think about migrating to something else.

Meredith: 13:40

Got it. You know, do you have like a list of top websites to uh like platforms, rather? Do you have a list of platforms that you would recommend when people relaunch their website? They do it on certain ones?

Meredith's Husband: 13:59

Some are better than others. Like I'm gonna actually Webflow is one that I think is pretty good. WordPress is probably the best in terms of SEO. I understand it's a little more involved, a little more technical. Uh Wix, I think is a good one. However, the downside to Wix, which I have learned since moving my own site to Wix, great for SEO, super duper awesome tools for SEO. Really, really not intuitive to use. Interesting. How so like just everything, like literally everything. Like even the most basic stuff that like I have to do often, like say adjust title tags. I every time I have to do that, it takes me 15 minutes to find where it is. It's really not so I'm gonna be moving off for that reason alone.

Meredith: 14:39

Fair enough.

Meredith's Husband: 14:39

It's good for SEO, but I just I can't use it. It's very frustrating.

Meredith: 14:42

That's good to know.

Meredith's Husband: 14:42

WordPress, great one, like I said, technical. Webflow is another good one. Yeah. Webflow is something I get asked about more, like I said, in the business world. And I don't, I have never used it. I have never created a site, but I have I have spoken with people who use it, like companies who use it, and I very much respect their decision. Like I know that I know that they know what they're doing, and if they're using it, I would trust them.

Meredith: 15:06

Right.

Meredith's Husband: 15:07

I know that they make good decisions. I also have seen their websites that are on Webflow, and they are very snappy. They are very fast. Yeah. They are they are just a really good user experience.

Meredith: 15:17

Now, how would that compare with PixieSet?

Meredith's Husband: 15:19

Oh, I would say much better. Oh, so the feet like so the features on I am familiar with the features that they offer on Webflow. They are good. They are solid. I also know that they have a have you heard of Figma?

Meredith: 15:33

No.

Meredith's Husband: 15:33

Figma is a web design tool.

Meredith: 15:35

Figma, like a Fig and Ma.

Meredith's Husband: 15:37

Figma. Yeah. Figma is a website design platform. It's used by like it's it's legit. It's pretty strong. I know like, you know, kind of fancy designers who use it. Like it's uh it's a it's a good tool. So if if there is a tool on Webflow that migrates your Figma design to Webflow, that is a pr also a pretty solid sign.

Meredith: 15:58

Aaron Powell Got it.

Meredith's Husband: 15:59

And but you know, bottom of the line is the I know that the features that they say they offer on the website are good, and they don't have all this BS stuff that is common to like other Squarespace and PhotoBiz. And they they are legit. I can tell by the way it's written. I'm like, oh, whoever wrote that, this they know what they're doing.

Meredith: 16:18

Aaron Powell And how do they compare to WordPress?

Meredith's Husband: 16:21

Probably pretty similar. Now, Webflow is like I said, it's more of a business world solution. Right. And to get those like fully custom features, I know my companies I've spoken with who are using Webflow, I know that they end up spending like three, four hundred dollars a month. I also know that you can start at like 15 bucks a month. So it's 15 or 20. It's like I think it's less than Squarespace. So you don't need to be able to do it.

Meredith: 16:47

Squarespace or or Yeah, Squarespace.

Meredith's Husband: 16:49

I don't know what PhotoBiz is, but I know Squarespace is like 20 a month, 22, 20.

Meredith: 16:53

Oh, but what about WordPress?

Meredith's Husband: 16:54

WordPress, there is no month, there is no cost for WordPress. WordPress is free.

Meredith: 16:59

Oh.

Meredith's Husband: 16:59

It's wherever you are getting your hosting. Yeah. Which is going to be if you're on again, or not again. I've said it other places. If you are running WordPress, I recommend SiteGround as a website host. Bar none. It's the best. Okay. Like, yeah. And they, SiteGround, will offer a free migration from wherever you are to SiteGround, which is difficult. And they do it manually. They their team does it.

Meredith: 17:23

Oh wow.

Meredith's Husband: 17:24

Yeah. Whoa. It's and it's yeah, it's free. Used to cost money. I don't know how they do it, but they I don't, I mean, I don't know how they do it and still make money as a company.

Meredith: 17:32

Right.

Meredith's Husband: 17:32

But their support is fantastic. For a number of reasons, SiteGround is like the best solution.

Meredith: 17:37

S I T E Ground?

Meredith's Husband: 17:39

Yes.

Meredith: 17:39

Got it.

Meredith's Husband: 17:40

Anyway, back to my story. What was I talking about? I have no idea.

Meredith: 17:43

You're talking about web web w whatever it was. The third one.

Meredith's Husband: 17:48

Oh, right. Okay. Yeah. So Webflow probably can be, I'm sure, just as good or perhaps even better than WordPress. Those sorts of features might be in the pricier plans. I'm not sure. But I do know just right out of the box, like what they say about SEO. I'm like, that's good stuff. That's good to know. Yeah. So I hope that's helpful stuff. If you have questions, follow the link below. There's I have a form for like feedback and submitting questions. And if you want me to talk with your group online about SEO stuff, anything you want to ask me about, you can do down there, including submitting questions. Excellent. Thank you. Bye bye.