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New Year’s Website Resolutions: January Tune-Ups That Pay Off All Year

An agenda open on a desk with "Happy New Year!" written on the middle of the right page in black ink. A black pen sits next to the agenda.

A new year often encourages many of us to reflect and make some kind of positive change, whether it’s to exercise more regularly, give ourselves more time for that hobby, learn a new skill, or stick to just one coffee in the morning. The annual changeover is also a great time to revitalize your website with the same kind of review and care. These January tune-ups can help maintain your website and will pay off all year.

Maintaining Website Functionality

New year website maintenance is an excellent chance to ensure your website’s general functionality. You want to make sure your website works properly to give the best impression to potential clients and customers. A dysfunctional website could send the opposite message. Here are some simple but effective January tune-ups for to ensure your website’s functionality:

  • Pages and their assets load: Every webpage loading with all its assets is essential functionality. Ensuring pages, text, images, videos, etc. load correctly by browsing through each page is an excellent way to ensure functionality for the new year.
  • Keeping things speedy: Along with everything loading correctly on your website, everything should also load quickly. Websites that take longer to load easily lose their visitors and are deprioritized in search results. Google has an easy tool that can help you check your website’s speed. One effective way to reduce load times is to optimize your image sizes, since bigger images take longer to download.
  • Check for broken links: The internet is not as stable as we’d like to think. Links regularly change, meaning old hyperlinks may suddenly lead nowhere. These could be links leading to other pages on your site or those leading to other websites. The latter group are especially likely to become broken as other websites remove pages or redesign their page structure. These broken links could frustrate users trying to navigate your site or create the wrong impression. Various tools can help parse through your website to ensure links aren’t broken.

 

Tuning Accessibility

Besides maintaining and tuning up general functionality for the new year, you should also review your website’s accessibility. Web accessibility is a requirement for any business with more than 50 employees in Ontario, and also a best practice since it allows the most people to use your website. Website accessibility is also not a “one and done” process, because the standards are continuously being revised and updated. While expert web designers will be most familiar with these best practices, there are also some you can begin to review this January:

  • Good alt-text on every image: Alt-text helps those with difficulty seeing get a better sense of what is being displayed in an image or graphic. This is essential for users to fully grasp what a page might be communicating, because otherwise a screen reader simply reads the image’s file name. Every image should have alt-text that accurately and fully describes its content. For example, include all objects and quote any text and its placement in the image.
  • Accessible font-choice: You want to ensure your website’s font is readable for all users to ensure maximum accessibility. This includes considering both the type of font and its size.
  • Colourblind friendly: Colourblindness is quite common and so is a key concern in website accessibility. If a graphic uses reds and greens, it may be indiscernible to someone with red-green colour deficiency. Using tools that visualize colourblindess can help identify potential issues on the website.

Checking Your Website’s Security

Another important maintenance routine that will prevent headaches throughout 2026 is to ensure your website is secure. There are few simple checks to perform in January that will help keep pesky hackers and malicious software from breaching your site:

  • Update, Update, Update: Keep your website and all of its plug-ins up to date. Older versions can leave security vulnerabilities that will leave your website vulnerable.
  • reCAPTCHA: A particular plug-in we want to highlight is Google’s reCaptcha. This service helps to keep your website secure from bots that can destabilize your website.
  • Checking for HTTPS: It is best practice today that websites use the HTTPS protocol to keep their pages more secure for their users. Reviewing settings can help to ensure this is being done.

 

Content Review

Some other new year’s maintenance that can take more time and effort is a content review of your site. This takes more time because it means looking through all the information provided on your site. This review helps to ensure information is up to date, such as your address or services/products provided. It also helps to identify outdated or now irrelevant information which no longer applies and could confuse visitors. These updates also improve your website’s SEO, since search engines review when web pages were last updated.

January Tune-Ups Pay Off All Year

Now you should have a good sense of the simple January maintenance that will set you up for a smooth new year. Various plug-ins and tools can help you perform any of these tune-ups, although content review or a formal website audit will require some more specialized knowledge and input. Either way, Rosewood Marketing’s web team will happily review and implement these tools or more generally assist with website tune-ups. If you’re interested in more comprehensive maintenance or a complete audit, our team is ready and happy to help you fully prepare for 2026.

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Understanding Google Search Quality Ratings and Why They Matter for a Business’ Website

Woman using laptop to review search quality ratings

Search engines like Google have a tough job of trying to deliver the most useful and relevant results from all over the internet to its users. A huge part of how they establish a hierarchy for delivering those results is search quality ratings. These ratings are extremely important to the SEO and discoverability of a business’s website. We’ll discuss what search quality ratings are, why they’re important, and the metrics behind these important numbers.

What Are Search Quality Ratings

Google works with over 16,000 external search quality raters to determine the search quality of a page or website. These raters examine the quality of results for internet searches to determine if the results are relevant and/or useful for users. These quality ratings are important for Google and other search engines because they ensure they function optimally. If search engines failed to provide relevant and useful results, people would stop using them.

Why a High Page Quality Matters

On the simple side, providing a high-quality web page means you are providing users with a quality experience on your website. However, that search quality is also an important metric for how Google generates search results. Pages with high quality will be given priority in search results, while those with low or failing quality will be delisted from searches entirely. Considering that Google still provides over 83% of all internet searches, it’s a serious concern if your pages aren’t being listed. Ensuring you meet Google’s quality expectations means that your website is optimized for search engines and is discoverable.

How Google Defines Search Quality

Since it works with so many quality raters, Google provides a thorough, 176-page document explaining how search should function and what kind of results should be returned for an acceptable quality. There are certain major criteria that search quality raters consider when determining the quality of a page: purpose, content, and its EEAT.

A Page’s Purpose

First, raters consider why the page was created and what is its main job is. They want to determine whether it does this job in a way that is beneficial for those accessing the page. Some of the main beneficial functions are sharing information or content, expressing an expert perspective, providing a place for others to share points of view, selling products or services, and entertainment.

A Page’s Content

When considering search quality, Google divides a web page’s content into three groups: main content, supplementary content, and ad content. 

  • Main Content is any of the content that is central to the page accomplishing its purpose. That will be the articles or the entire article itself on a blog page. On a business page, that main content could be services with descriptions or products with images and prices. This main content is a huge component of the quality rating. 
  • Supplementary content is anything that improves or aids the user’s experience. These can include navigation aids, links to articles or other pages, or even comment or review sections. If designed well, they add to a page’s overall rating; if designed poorly, they will reduce it. 
  • Ad content is any kind of content that is sponsored. These are less typical on business and nonprofit sites, but they are still a key part of the quality rating. Even if you did not make the advertisements, their quality will affect your page’s rating if the raters find them excessive, obtrusive, deceptive, or distracting.

The EEAT Rating

Google has search quality raters who consider a page’s experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust (EEAT) for its content and purpose. The major search engine puts special emphasis on that last one: trust. To determine the EEAT of a web page, raters need to consider the knowledge of the content’s creator(s) and the reputation of the website’s owner(s). This metric is especially important for pages that Google defines as “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) pages. These are web pages whose purpose or content can impact a person’s or society’s health, financial stability, or safety and well-being. Google considers these pages important and has search quality raters subject them to high scrutiny. Their EEAT rating needs to be thoroughly validated to obtain a high-quality ranking.

The Research for Quality Starts with Your Website

Search quality raters can conduct some thorough research to verify a page’s EEAT. To determine your website’s reputation and expertise, raters will search through the website for pertinent information. This will include information about your business, its owners, and staff, and look for any contact information to further verify the page’s credibility. As a result, these are all important things to include on your website in an “About” and “Contact Us” page.

Quality raters will similarly research any named creators of the content. That includes reading reviews about the website or business. The rater will also research whether the business or website is recommended by experts, mentioned in news articles, or has received any awards. Again, including or linking that information on your website will help make the rating process easier and increase your business’ trustworthiness for both quality raters and prospective customers/clients.

Designing for Quality

Search quality ratings are vital to your website’s SEO, which is why you want to design a website with high-quality pages. Without suitable page purposes, quality content, and a good EEAT rating, pages can remain undiscoverable. A poor-quality rating will severely reduce a business’ discoverability since many pages on a website are designed for SEO to increase discoverability. This is especially why blogs on websites need to be well-written and accurate. Their content needs to meet quality standards, or it will begin to negatively impact the reputation and trustworthiness of a website and overall decrease its quality rating. If you’re interested in improving the quality of your web pages or designing an entirely new quality website, contact us at Rosewood Marketing.

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Google Ads Are Great for Small Business

Google building hosting ads great for small business

It’s a misconception that the monolithic online advertising platform of Google Ads is only for large businesses. Google Ads provides a platform that is actually advantageous for small businesses to grow their reach and brand discoverability. Scalability, precise targeting, and detailed reports make Google Ads great for small business. If you’re curious how, keep reading.  

Budgeting that Scales

Scalability is one of the central reasons Google Ads is perfect for large and small businesses alike. Google Ads doesn’t require running a full marketing platform of every kind of campaign with a massive budget. Instead, small businesses can start with a single targeted campaign and expand as you determine what methods are successful. After that, it is easy to scale up and down as needed. This is great for small businesses who occasionally have product or service launches, special promotions, or more active seasonal periods. Google Ads makes it easy to run those additional campaigns at the appropriate times and scale back to more standard ads when its timely.

Pay Per Click Model is Great for Small Businesses

Google Ads run on a pay or cost per click model, i.e., a business only pays for each click on the ad. The rates for these ads are according to the search terms set for the ad. More popular key terms will have a higher fee than those searched less frequently. This is great for small businesses because they often operate in a niche, meaning their ad key terms can be more focused and cheaper. Furthermore, you will only be paying for the ads that are working, meaning an ad’s cost is directly relational to its performance.

Targeting Locality

Today, many small businesses benefit from online sales, but they still rely largely on local customers and clients. This makes Google Ads especially great for small businesses. Over 46% of Google searches are for local information. This means nearly half the searches made by those near your small business are providing ideal advertising opportunities. With Google’s Geotargeting, you can define your ads to appear specifically in searches made in the area around your business. Google’s detailed metrics even allows you to target certain demographics within those locals. Overall, Google Ads are great for increasing your business’ local presence and discoverability.

Customizability where Ads Appear

Google Ads can appear in Google searches, shopping suggestions at the top, maps, Play apps, and partner websites. This provides a small business with a wide assortment of places to put their ads. These further allow a business to target a specific demographic or potential client. For example, product-based businesses can have their products appear at the top of any search as a shopping suggestion, increasing your business’ discoverability as a shopping option.

Clear Metrics and Transparent Results for Small Businesses

Google provides thorough and clear statistics and reports for any ads and campaigns you run. These statistics will indicate which leads generate clicks, where ads are most effective, and what kind of ads people respond to. For small businesses that will be creating fewer and more targeted ads, this provides immensely valuable information for tracking performance and selecting and creating the most effective ads. Those metrics also include detailed budget tracking that is highly beneficial for small businesses. These clearly show the ROI of each ad and campaign so you can properly scale and allocate your advertising budget appropriately.

Great Feedback for Small Business SEO

Advertising tends to provide more immediate results for determining what generates clicks and visits to your business’ website than building up its search engine optimization (SEO). Smaller businesses tend to add pages slower to their websites, since they inherently have a smaller content production pipeline. This can make optimizing search engine performance a lengthier process for a small business. However, SEO is vital for the performance of your business’ website in searches and growing your brand’s discoverability. The performance metrics from Google Ads are great for a small business to determine what potential customers or clients are interested in, helping you tailor your site’s content to organically appear more often in their searches.  

Getting Started with Google Ads

Hopefully this short list of key features of Google Ads makes it clear how the platform is great for small businesses. It’s scalability, local functionality, diverse tool set, and detailed reporting make it ideal for small business advertising. Want to start growing your business’ discoverability with Google Ads? Contact Rosewood and ask about our Google Ad services to help you get you started!

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