How to let an AI agent send a fax without losing control
Some paperwork still ends in a fax, and agents now reach that step. Six controls that keep an agent's fax inside the limits a person set.
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Tips
Everything filed under Tips in the Synapse notes, newest first, with the most recent work at the top.
How to check whether ChatGPT cites your site
Write down the questions your buyers ask. Ask each engine several times with web search on, and log every source. The method we ran on our own site.
AEO vs SEO: what we measured on our own site in launch week
SEO decides whether a page ranks. AEO decides whether an AI answer cites you, and what it says about you. Our own numbers from launch week show the gap.
Moving an 8-year-old WordPress site without losing a single URL
We moved synapsereality.io off WordPress. All 2,026 old addresses in the redirect map resolved in one hop on launch night. Here is the map.
B2B email marketing: turning leads into sales
The gap between a lead and a sale in B2B is a committee, a budget cycle and a risk assessment. Email is good at exactly one of those, and pretending otherwise is why sequences…
Google Analytics alternatives worth a look
What the main alternatives do differently, and what you lose by moving. Then the one reason to switch that has nothing to do with disliking the interface.
Nine content marketing moves that lift traffic and conversions
Nine checks for a site that already has content. Review existing pages, search performance and the next step offered to readers before deciding what to change.
Writing content that ranks: nine rules that still hold
Nine rules for writing pages that earn a position. The one that matters most comes first. Answer the question in the first paragraph, before anything else on the page.
Eleven ways content marketing grows a business
Eleven specific mechanisms, each with the condition that has to be true for it to work. The mechanism matters more than the tactic, because the tactic changes and the mechanism…
Lead generation strategies that hold up
Twelve strategies, each with the condition that has to be true before it works. And an honest note on which ones produce leads that never buy.
Eleven SEO fixes you can ship in a day
Eleven changes that take an afternoon each, in the order we would do them. None of them rescue a site nobody wants to read. All of them clear obstacles that stop good pages being…
Ten free ways to bring traffic to a website
Ten routes that cost time and not money, sorted by how long each takes to pay back. The first three are where a new site should spend its first month.
Growth hacking and traditional marketing: the real difference
The difference is not speed or budget. It is whether the distribution lives inside the product or outside it, and that decides which one you can actually use.
Growth hacking, and what it means once the hype is gone
Growth hacking was a real idea before it became a job title. What survives is a method: find the one constraint on growth, test cheaply against it, and keep what compounds.
An SEO guide for beginners
How search works, what you can change, and the order to change it in. Written for someone with a site and no background, who wants to know what is worth their time.
Five free ways to get website traffic
Five routes that cost time instead of money, with an honest note on how long each takes and what it is actually worth.
Five ways content marketing grows a brand
Brand growth from content comes from being recognised as the person who explains the thing well. Five ways that happens, and why four of them need patience the fifth does not.
Content marketing trends that actually changed the work
Six changes that altered how content marketing is done, and four that were predicted loudly and changed nothing. The difference between the two lists is worth more than either.
How to recover SEO traffic you have lost
Find which pages lost traffic and when. Compare indexing changes, search updates and demand before choosing a fix.
SEO techniques for beginners, ordered by payoff
Six techniques worth learning first, in the order that pays. The order matters more than the list, because doing them backwards is how a beginner spends a year on the wrong thing.
What are the different types of social media?
Eight types of social media, grouped by what people do there: networking, forums, microblogging, professional, video, live streaming, messaging and community servers.
What website traffic is and how to read it
A visit count on its own tells you nothing. Three numbers next to it turn traffic into something you can act on, and one common metric is worth less than people think.
How to measure an email marketing campaign
Mail privacy features and security scans limit what opens and clicks can tell you. Compare delivery, replies and later activity, and state what your filtering cannot establish.
Why is a public image important to a business?
Your public image decides whether people buy from you, work for you and trust you before you ever speak to them. Where it comes from now, and how to check and fix yours.
SEO and SEM: what each one buys you
Paid search funds ad delivery. SEO works on unpaid visibility. Compare their measurement limits and the questions each can help you test before deciding where to spend.
What makes a website SEO friendly
An SEO friendly site is one a crawler can read, a phone can load, and a reader can use. Most of the work is structural and happens before a single word is written.
What a content marketing strategy has to contain
A content strategy that works fits on one page and answers four questions. Everything else in the document is decoration, including the editorial calendar.
What website development involves
What actually happens between deciding you need a site and having one, what the roles are, and where the money goes. Written for someone commissioning their first build.
What is content marketing
Content marketing is publishing something useful enough that the people with your problem find it and remember who wrote it. Here is what separates the version that works from the…
Ten email marketing tips that survive contact with a real list
Ten things that hold on a real list, starting with the one that decides everything else: whether the message arrives in the inbox at all.
How to optimise a Google Business Profile for local ranking
Keep your Google Business Profile accurate and useful. Start with the category and business details, then check the information customers need before visiting.
On-page and off-page SEO, and which one is your bottleneck
On-page SEO is everything you control on your own domain. Off-page is everything other sites say about you. Working on the wrong one is the most expensive mistake in a search…
Starting an SEO campaign without wasting the first quarter
An SEO campaign loses its first quarter to work that could not have paid off. The decisions that determine whether it pays were never made. Two of them come before anything is…
Local SEO: twenty things that move the map pack
Twenty local SEO actions, starting with your Business Profile and working through the website, local references and regular upkeep.
SEO practices worth keeping
Practical checks for useful content, clear links and accessible pages, with sources for the technical guidance.
Five digital marketing tips
Five things that hold across channels, budgets and years, each written as something you can act on this week.
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