Sanico's Blog

By god this is sort of controversial. Google provides many free services that I use daily but there was one tool that ruled them all… the TIMER! Figure 1 shows the timer in all its former glory, so simple, so elegant and now so non-existent. That’s right, when I searched up the classic word “timer” into Google last week my heart wretched at its disappearance. Figure 1: The free timer tool provided by Google when using their search engine.

Website Tip #5: Do not forget to add a favicon to your website. I say forget because it seems people usually forget to add the poor little favicon to their website and in doing so they miss out on an opportunity to increase brand recognition and verify the legitimacy of a website. I created this web tip because I am so surprised at the sheer number of websites that I see that forget this little impactful addition. No more, after you read this tip I hope it inspires you to add the favicon to your website.

Website Tip #4: Speed is an important SEO factor that needs to be considered by the website owner. I mean, how often do you access a website and wait a million years for it to load? I don’t know about you, but this happens to me more often than not and it really grinds my gears. I have a theory behind why many websites load slow and will share how you can test your own website speed for future fixes.

Website Tip #3: You might not know it but using HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) on your website is actually a page experience factor Google uses to rank a website. Many people think black magic, voodoo or casting spells helps a website rank better on Google, when in reality Google publishes a wide range of informative documentation to help websites rank better. Many misconceptions exist and people chase unusual tactics to rank better while they miss basic factors such as HTTPS.

Website Tip #2: A very common strategy websites use is acquiring newsletter signups via email addresses. However, the mistake many websites make is in the form of large popup windows. What do I mean by large? It is large enough to disallow a user from accessing content on the page as seen in figure 1. These pesky popup windows sound good to prompt users but can actually have negative effects on the website’s search engine optimisation (SEO).

Website Tip #1: You might not have expected it but the file name of an image actually helps Google understand your picture so that it indexes both the picture and your website better. Before I explain further I want to start with a few examples that will demonstrate the difference more clearly: Example of bad image names: image39_9394.png IMG_39382.png download_image_50053.png Example of good image names: dog-in-a-garden.png cat-playing-with-a-ball.png me-and-my-friends-at-the-park.png If you read the two lists, the difference is obvious. Without seeing the picture I understand that dog-in-a-garden.png will likely contain a picture of a dog in a garden. If I look at image39_9394.png I have no idea what it represents. If I find it difficult to understand then Google will also find it very difficult. When Google discovers an image it looks at many factors to understand what it represents. Google, as discussed in their official documentation, uses the file name as one of these factors.

Anyone can create a social media account. You can be in adolescence, a baby boomer or even a business. The fact is, if you have access to the internet then you can create an account. Applications such as Facebook and Instagram provide platforms at the initial cost of $0 and this is enticing from a business perspective. As any business owner that is just starting, they quickly become aware that the bills can add up in multiple areas. Therefore, staying cost aware and spending money wisely becomes very important. Many businesses research different ways to market their business and an extremely common response is to get active on socials!

We, Dom and myself, built a custom ecommerce website for Pup Hub Cafe, a local pet food company founded by Jo Rugless and based in Adelaide, Australia. Jo Rugless and her company Pup Hub Cafe sell homemade pet food with use of local ingredients from South Australia. I will discuss how we met Jo, our approach to build the website and some of the key things that we implemented. The Origins of the Job We met Jo at a local market in Adelaide where we saw her very unique homemade pet food. After selling at the market for the last few years she really wanted to grow her business online through ecommerce. A way to increase professionality, spread brand awareness and add an additional channel to sell her pet food.

I have been told that I am lucky I love software. However, many do not realise that I have invested much time and energy to feel these emotions. Software has been a growing passion of mine but the love did not start grand. I happened to program for the first time in a year 12 subject. They pushed the students to use a basic website-building program and I hated it, so I found an alternative by programming the website from scratch. The school subject was based on design skills and I left with the skill of basic programming - an unintended benefit. Did I know I wanted to program for my career? No… but I did know how cool it was to solve problems with code.

Welcome to Sanico’s Blog. We decided to create this blog because we want to share insightful information with local Adelaide businesses to help them leverage websites to create a stronger online presence and increase their discoverability on search engines such as Google in an organic manner. First an introduction of who we are! We are Sav and Dom Tripodi, two brothers from Adelaide, South Australia. We have been an inseparable brothership team even before the days of Sanico Software where we now work together professionally. We have lived together all our lives, both went to the same school, both graduated in software bachelor degrees, both got girlfriends from the same party and both have similar jokes. Ok… maybe we spend way too much time together!