Tech Help Canada

Deleting old pages? Don't redirect them all to your homepage. It looks tidy in a redirect plugin. For visitors, it's confusing. Someone looking for an old pricing page, product, or tutorial lands on your front page with no idea where the thing they wanted went. Google may not count it as a proper redirect, either. Its guidance says a removed page with no similar replacement should return a 404 or 410, and it can treat redirects to an unrelated page as soft 404s. Match the redirect to what actually happened to the page. Moved, replaced, gone for good, or away for a while: each one gets a different answer, and the chart covers all four. After a redesign or two, it's also worth checking for chains. If old page A redirects to B, and B redirects to C, point A straight to C. Then update your menus, buttons, and internal links so they go to the final URL. Your redirects should catch stragglers, not carry your main traffic. Which redirect to use, including 307, 308, and meta refresh, and how to test one: → techhelp.ca/redirection/

You get a few seconds with a door hanger before it lands in the recycling bin. Don't spend them introducing your whole business. Where distribution is permitted, use the space to offer one clear next step. Respect property restrictions and no-solicitation notices. A lawn care company offers a free yard assessment. A dog walker offers a first-week trial. A restaurant runs a Tuesday pickup special for the surrounding streets. Keep the copy to four parts: 1. One pain 2. One benefit 3. One offer 4. One action If you add a QR code, send it to the page that matches the offer. Someone who scans for a free estimate should land on the estimate form, not your homepage. A dedicated landing page or promo code can help track responses. Compare attributable sales and contribution margin with printing and distribution costs; some responses may still be unattributed. The same rule works for flyers, postcards, event handouts, and anything else someone holds for a few seconds.

Add one line to your weekly meeting invite: "If there's no decision, blocker, or live discussion needed by [deadline], this meeting is cancelled and replaced with a written update." Recurring meetings survive by default. Nobody wants to be the one who cancels, so the meeting happens whether or not it has a job that week. In Atlassian's 2024 survey of 5,000 knowledge workers, 54% said they frequently left meetings without clear next steps or task ownership. Before each one, ask three questions: 1. Is there a decision to make? Send the options ahead so people can think. 2. Is there a blocker that needs live discussion? Name it in the agenda. 3. Is there alignment work that can't happen in writing? Say what needs aligning and who has to be there. If all three answers are no, cancel and send the update. Routine status updates work fine as a short written note: done, next, blocked, decisions needed, risks. When the meeting does happen, spend the time where talking changes the outcome. The agenda in the image gives 17 of 30 minutes to blockers and decisions. And close with names and dates. "Great discussion, let's keep this moving" leaves everyone guessing. "Priya owns the vendor shortlist by Thursday" doesn't.

What colour should your "Book now" button be? A colour that is easy to notice and read in that page’s design. A red button may stand out on one page and disappear among red elements on another. A blue button can work on a blue-themed site if its shade, contrast and surrounding space make it distinct. There is no universal winning colour. In the image, the same orange button sits on two different pages. On one of them, it nearly disappears. So before you change the colour, look at what surrounds the button: • Does it stand out from the background, or blend into it? • Is anything else competing for attention nearby, like a second bright button, a banner, or a popup? • Can people read the label easily? WCAG Level AA asks for at least 4.5:1 contrast for normal-size text. • Does the label say what happens next? "Get my quote" tells people more than "Submit." And if you do test button colours, change only the colour. Keep the copy, placement and offer the same, and compare randomized groups during the same period when you have enough traffic. Changing three things at once makes a colour-specific conclusion harder. What the research says about colour and buying decisions, and where the popular colour charts get it wrong: → techhelp.ca/how-color-influe…

Google doesn't use your meta description to rank your page. It can still cost you clicks. The meta description is the summary you write for a page. Google builds most search snippets from your page content, but it may show your description when it describes the page better. Your ranking decides where you show up. The snippet helps decide whether anyone clicks. In the image, you'll see a weak and a better description for the same local plumbing page. The weak one names the topic. The better one tells the searcher what they can get done and why this result is worth picking. Where to start: 1. In Google Search Console, find pages with plenty of impressions and low click-through rates. Compare similar queries, positions and devices before assuming the description is the cause. 2. Read each title and description together. Does the description add a reason to click, or repeat the title? 3. Put the strongest point early. Snippets get cut off, especially on mobile. 4. Only promise what the page delivers. A disappointed click doesn't help you. Then give Google time to recrawl the page before you judge the result. Snippets can vary by search and device. Examples by page type, plus a checklist: → techhelp.ca/meta-description…

Write your exit plan before you need one. Not because your platform is about to shut you down. Because the time to figure out your backup is when nothing is on fire. Five questions every online seller should be able to answer: → Which products would you move first? → Where would your customers go? → Who has access to your data exports? → Which provider could replace your current checkout? → How long would a full migration take? Those questions are boring when everything is running fine. They're everything when it isn't. Keep a current, secure copy of the information you are permitted to export, and check what a replacement provider can actually import. An untested backup plan can leave important gaps. If you want practical emails that help you think through decisions like this before they become emergencies, join the newsletter. techhelp.ca/subscribe

If every blog post centres on your product, you may miss the questions people ask before they start comparing vendors. Shoulder topics help you reach them earlier. They're the problems your buyer deals with right before or right after they need what you sell. An accounting software company can write about getting ready for tax season. That topic can be relevant to the same audience without being a product pitch. To find yours, ask two questions: What does my customer need to figure out right before they need me? What do they need right after? Use the answers to choose topics you can cover well. A relevant, useful article gives people a reason to remember you when they later compare options. Just keep it close. If a reader lands on the post and wonders why your company is writing about this, you've drifted too far.

Pressure can make an otherwise useful offer harder to consider. Reactance is one reason: people can resist when they feel their freedom to choose is being threatened, even if the offer could help them. These tactics can create that pressure: → Use fake countdown timers that reset every visit → Box people into "buy now or lose it forever" ultimatums → Shame them for not buying ("Don't you want to succeed?") The fix: Respect autonomy. ("Here are your options.") Offer real choices, not ultimatums. Use urgency honestly, or don't use it at all. Give people enough information to decide whether the offer suits them, including the price, terms and what happens next. A clear offer gives the customer room to make an informed choice. techhelp.ca/psychological-fa…

Consuming information and building skill are not the same thing. You can watch every tutorial, save every tip, buy another course, and still be stuck at the same level because you're staying busy around the skill without doing the work that builds it. Improvement follows a loop: Do the work. Study the strongest outcomes. Compare strong against weak. Notice the details other people miss. Remove the mistakes that keep producing weak results. Repeat. The uncomfortable part is the early reps. They're supposed to feel rough. You're not proving you're great on day one. You're gathering the experience that makes the next version better. That gap between your taste and your ability? It's not failure. It's the entry fee. A tight feedback loop gives you something specific to improve on the next attempt.

Before buying another AI tool, consider the other ways you could address the problem. Capital. Money placed in the right spot: better inventory, equipment, talent, or supplier terms. Distribution. An audience, brand, search presence, or partner channel that carries your message to buyers you couldn't reach alone. People and process. A skilled employee, a clear handoff, or a better operating rule can remove delays across an entire workflow. Sometimes better training beats another software license. Business model. How you sell and deliver can change everything. Productized services, group delivery or self-service may reduce custom work. Subscriptions may change when revenue arrives. Each option has costs and trade-offs. AI. Drafting, classifying, summarizing, automating at low marginal cost. If your constraint is distribution, producing more content alone may not help. Check how useful material will reach the people it is intended for. Figure out which lever needs pulling before you pick the tool.

Trying every link-building strategy at once makes it hard to focus or learn what works. Different goals need different approaches. Here's how to match them: Building authority? → Original research, digital PR, expert commentary, guest posts on reputable sites Local visibility? → Local citations, local news, chamber of commerce, community involvement Supporting a commercial page? → Build a useful resource, earn relevant references to it, and link to a related service or product page where that helps readers Looking for existing opportunities? → Lost links, broken destination pages with existing backlinks, unlinked brand mentions and relevant partner resources Sustainable long-term growth? → Recurring assets like annual reports, benchmarks, free tools, and templates Pick the approach that fits where you are right now, execute it well, and expand from there. We cover 74 strategies organized by category in the guide, with suggestions for matching tactics to your goal. Full guide + templates here: techhelp.ca/link-building-st…

"Different is better than better." — Sally Hogshead Most businesses spend their energy trying to be "the best." The best quality. The best service. The best value. Problem is, everyone else is saying the same thing. And when everyone claims to be the best, the word stops meaning anything. Hogshead's point is practical: instead of trying to outperform competitors on the same criteria, find something they can't replicate. Your specific perspective. Your process. Your personality. The way you explain things. The type of customer you're built for. Choose a difference that matters to the people you serve and that you can demonstrate. Being memorable helps only if the right customer has a reason to choose you.