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How to Combine Multiple Schema.org Itemtype Declarations in a Single Script

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Because “educator” is among the many hats that someone in our line of work must wear on any given day, I really cherish those moments of role-reversal when I find one of my clients educating me. It brings a welcome balance to the relationship and a dose of the kind of humility that all anointed “experts” should take from time to time. In a neighboring spirit, I also enjoy those moments when I discover some novel feature or quirk of one of the tools I commonly use that empowers me with a new perspective on the tool and makes me a more capable user.

In January, on one of UpBuild’s first days back following the holidays, I had a doozy of a day that gave me both of these experiences in quick succession. First, a client taught me something about SEO that I didn’t know. Then, in seeking to apply the new wisdom with the pertinent toolkit, I immediately encountered a problem that I’d never seen before. Then, a small amount of research online led me to a solution to that problem, granting me a new and deeper understanding of the toolkit along the way. Any day full of learning like that is worth remembering. If what you learned should be shared, it’s worth blogging about too. So, in that spirit, welcome! [Read more…] about How to Combine Multiple Schema.org Itemtype Declarations in a Single Script

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How We Make a Remote Team Work

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In this post, we’ll explore how UpBuild is able to work as a close-knit team while being geographically distributed throughout the United States (and sometimes the world).

At the moment, I’m waiting to board a flight from SFO to PDX. I just spent most of the day visiting one of my favorite clients (who am I kidding? They’re all my favorite!) and I haven’t actually been in my Portland office this week and won’t be stopping by tonight after I land.

I haven’t missed out on anything by being out of the office today, and I wouldn’t miss anything if I were traveling for the whole week. That’s because our team is 100% remote and we have been since Day One. My office is just a second bedroom in my Portland apartment, but whether I spend the day there, in a coffee shop, in the air, or in Brazil, I can stay 100% connected with the whole team. [Read more…] about How We Make a Remote Team Work

7 Reasons Why You Should Switch to HTTPS Right Now

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With the announcement of the Linux Foundation’s Let’s Encrypt project, the thought of migrating a website fully to the secure HTTPS protocol quickly, easily, and free of charge has passed from fantasy to reality. Accordingly, I’m sitting here scratching my head trying to dream up reasons why you still ought to hesitate to make this change on your site, or other considerations that you should mull over before pulling the trigger, and I’ve got bupkis. And now that our very own upbuild.io has taken the initiative, we’d be safe from charges of hypocrisy should we badger others to do likewise. So let the badgering begin!  [Read more…] about 7 Reasons Why You Should Switch to HTTPS Right Now

It’s 2017 and UpBuild Is Growing

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2016 was an incredible year at UpBuild and 2017 is on track to be even better. We’re growing our team, so let us know if you’re interested.

One of UpBuild’s core tenets is that we promote and defend focus — undivided attention on the tasks and goals at hand. That’s the reason why we cap senior team members at four clients max. When you have to switch between 6+ sites, stakeholders, and sets of business goals each week, it creates a fragmentation of attention that can compromise your ability to do great work (it’ll also drive you crazy in the process).

  • The upside of this limit is that we get to partner with clients we’re excited about and focus on them intensely.
  • The downside is that the number of clients we can work with is tied closely to the size of our team.

With our lean team of six, we’re currently maxed out! And yet, we have no shortage of prospective clients who we’d love to be able to work with. [Read more…] about It’s 2017 and UpBuild Is Growing

What I Learned at MozCon 2016

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Another year, another MozCon. You get a new theme and color scheme and Roger toy, you get a speaker list refreshed with new faces, and other trivial features of the Northwest premier marketing conference change as well — I’ll have you know the whole shebang moved across the street this year, and also I’m pretty sure it isn’t July right now — but the spirit of the thing endures beautifully and dependably, and that’s what keeps us all keep coming back. If you’re in this line of work, there’s simply no better conference on earth. You’re all but guaranteed to walk away thinking about 1) new big ideas that hadn’t occurred to you before it began, 2) new tactics that you can get cracking on immediately for the benefit of your clients, and 3) how much fun you had. How many other digital marketing events can offer up that trifecta?

Another traditional part of the MozCon experience for me, in each of the years I’ve been fortunate enough to attend, has been to blog about the presentations after the fact, and it’s a tradition that I don’t intend to break now. So come with me on a voyage back in time (one week) and have a look through my eyes at MozCon 2016 in all its glory. Here’s what I learned. [Read more…] about What I Learned at MozCon 2016