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🖊️Small Business, Big Lessons is a podcast from Buffer that goes behind the scenes with inspirational small businesses to explore how they are questioning the best ways to build a business and uncover the big lessons we can learn from their journeys (so far). Check out the second episode here.In 2014, Buffer was offered a nine-figure deal from a giant tech company but our founder Joel Gascoigne turned it down. He’s not alone. While it may seem counterintuitive at first, sometimes saying no to big money can be the best move you can make for your small business. Oftentimes, if accepted, this money comes with strings attached that can alter your vision for your company. Choosing to do things on your own terms instead – but on a tighter budget –  can lead to a more sustainable business that allows you to make a greater impact as well. In season two, episode two of our podcast, Small Business, Big Lessons, we spoke to entrepreneurs who chose to walk away from the traditional venture capital (VC) funding path without any regrets. In this companion blog post, we’ll share their stories and why pursuing alternative models of funding was the right option for them.What’s been the status quo for fundingStarting a business from the ground up is no easy task and usually requires at least some amount of money upfront. Traditionally, startups and small business owners might consider VC funding as a way to gather large investments. VCs will typically come in during the early stage and will inject a lump sum of money into the business to help get the ball rolling. But just because an investor agrees to fund your business doesn’t mean they believe in your brand’s mission wholeheartedly. The traditional VC model operates by spreading a large amount of money across a range of companies, expecting at least some of them to fail. They earn back their investments by relying on the few startups and businesses that do succeed. Once an investor comes on board, they usually will retain quite a bit of control over the business as well, impacting a company’s culture and operations. Unfortunately, the VC funding model is conducive to fast pace growth – which isn’t always the healthiest environment for these businesses. You may already be seeing some of the downsides to traditional VC funding. So does Rand Fishkin, co-founder of Sparktoro, a small business revolutionizing audience research. Rand has a ton of experience in small business growth – he previously co-founded Moz, a SEO tool and software. He believes that this business model can actually hurt brands. Oh, hello!If you’re looking for ways to step up your marketing game, sign up for our 2x monthly newsletter.No fluff, just actionable advice you can read in 8 minutes or less.Next issue goes out Thursday (Dec. 16)!https://t.co/pkWvHw4y1p— SparkToro (@sparktoro) December 14, 2021 “What I believe is that if you don’t force companies to pursue hyper growth, they are more likely to survive long term, and survival long term gives options for being profitable and giving off dividends to investors,” Rand said. The other drawback here is that when entrepreneurs are approached by VC firms or angel investors –  individuals who use their own capital when investing – they can feel a ton of pressure to accept the deal, even if their vision doesn’t completely align with the investor’s goals. Holly Howard, a business coach who consults entrepreneurs on the best strategies to pursue for their brands, also believes individuals should be more cautious when fundraising for their small business. Holly understands that entrepreneurs feel pressured to accept deals that seem promising on the surface. But she recommends individuals take a step back and really reflect on the deal. “When we’re in a stressful situation, we sometimes undermine our own values, because we feel like we need that money, or we’re not sure if any other money is going to come through,” Holly said.If you don’t accept these huge injections of cash, you may be wondering how else can a business get off the ground? Well, here are three other small businesses that managed to succeed without VC funds.How these businesses gained more by pursuing alternative funding routesWhile VC funding can garner tons of press and media attention, it is by no means the only option for growing a business. When working with clients, Holly reminds them that there are alternative routes that can be better suited for their companies.“Fundraising is such a broad question,” she said. “And oftentimes, when people come, they think it’s a very narrow question, you know, their concern is just raising money, and they don’t realize the broad spectrum of possibilities.”At Buffer, we’ve followed a somewhat non-traditional approach when it comes to growing as a startup. In 2018, we bought out our main venture capital investors. Even before then, back in 2014, Joel defied expectations when walking away from Buffer’s largest acquisition offer to date. But the decision didn’t come easily. It was only after many thoughtful conversations with the executive team that the answer became clear. In these meetings, Joel really reflected on Buffer’s mission and one specific question he asked himself was, “Are we done yet?” “It was great because it led to really thinking deeply about, ‘why are we doing this?’ ‘What more can we do here?’ What do we gain if we take [the deal] and what do we lose?’” Joel said. Something that helped @buffer in the early years: Asking “what is wrong with how other businesses are run?” and doing those things differently.Something that helps us as a ~12 year old business: Asking “what is wrong with how our business is run?” and changing those things.— Joel Gascoigne (@joelgascoigne) October 1, 2022 Ultimately, Joel realized there was still so much more he wanted to pursue with Buffer, and he knew the journey wasn’t over yet. Another reason he declined the large offer from the tech company had to do with their plans for the future of Buffer. Had that company taken over, the reality was Buffer would no longer be a remote and transparent company. “Where I really gained clarity was more in the cultural choices we made, especially the movements we ended up being a really big part of at the time, that was remote work … and then the other one was transparency,” Joel said. “Which to this day, we’re probably still one of the most transparent companies in the world.” By turning down this offer, Joel was able to keep Buffer’s core values intact.A friends and family round has given Harlow more flexibility with their businessHarlow, a small business that helps freelancers organize their work, was founded in 2021 by Samantha Anderl and Andrea Wildy. The duo knew they didn’t want to build a company that only valued growth, which is why they decided from an early stage that VC money wasn’t for them. Instead, they opted to do a family and friends round, which is a type of crowdfunding where many individuals – whether they be relatives or friends – can invest in your business. This kind of funding typically comes with fewer restrictions. A huge benefit of this is its led Harlow to have a variety of great investors who truly care about their business. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Harlow (@meetharlow) “We lean on our investors all the time. If we’re struggling with any aspect of the business, there’s somebody on the cap table that can help us out,” Andrea said.  “And we were also able to be picky about the types of people that invested in the business and we’re really proud of the fact that over 50% of our investors are female.” This model of funding has also forced them to be very deliberate with their financial decisions. But Samantha believes this ultimately allows them to run the business in a more sustainable way as it forces them to deepen their existing connections. “We can’t just come out of the gates and spend, you know, $50,000 a month on paid advertising to grow and get the word out there. Again, that kind of comes back to the benefit of community and building your audience in a sustainable and lean way,” Samantha said. Both Andrea and Samantha are happy with their decision to crowdfund, as they know this has allowed them to run the Harlow the way they originally envisioned.Personally investing allowed Paynter Jacket to be more creative and intentional in their approachBecky and Huw co-found Paynter Jacket, a clothing company that releases four limited edition jackets each year, with 100 percent of their own personal savings. The co-founders were still early on in their careers, so the savings didn’t amount to much at the time. Still, they were able to stretch the money to cover all of their main costs: web designs, fonts, fabrics, and their manufacturing process. Becky believes the fact that they had a limited budget which consisted entirely of their own money played a huge role in their eventual success. “We had to make decisions that we felt were the right ones. We had to really consider those. I think also having a constraint definitely makes you more creative with your outcome … and it’s continued the way that we work today,” Becky said.Their personal savings weren’t enough to cover the manufacturing costs initially, which is why they decided to use the ‘make to order’ model, which has now become an integral component of their business. Paynter Jacket’s latest release: The Italian Denim Carpenter Jacket (Courtesy of Paynter Jacket)Today, Paynter Jacket drops sell out within minutes. This success has grabbed attention from multiple investors, but Becky and Huw aren’t interested as they don’t want to lose control over their vision for the brand. They’re very intent on being a different kind of clothing company, one that’s moving away from the fast fashion approach. For Huw, investing their personal money has made him even more connected to the business – and he and Becky don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. “We’re building real businesses, not businesses that we hope that one day we’re going to flip or sell…,” Huw said. “We love what we do. We want to be doing this for as long as we can. As long as we can keep getting away with it.”By foregoing the VC approach, you can provide more stability for your employeesWhat makes up a small business are the employees and team members who embrace the mission, put in the work, and create a unique culture. But more often than not, these very individuals become collateral damage – a consequence of following a traditional VC funding route. This is because VC funding leads to a high risk approach where people are seen as cogs in the machine. “I don’t understand how these high growth, high risk companies can attract people to them,” Rand said. “Who wants to work in an environment where it’s like, okay, ‘now probably next year, we’ll be out of business and have no jobs.’ What a pitch as an employee!”Fortunately, other investment models can put your employees first – not your business growth. When you create a beneficial atmosphere for your workers, you’ll often see your team members’ output and happiness will increase. That’s what we found at Buffer when we transitioned to a four-day work week in 2020. Your employees’ well being should be a huge factor in how you approach your business growth as they’re essentially the heart of your company.Staying true to your vision and higher purposeAri Weinzweig of Zingerman’s community of businesses turned down what many would consider an offer of a lifetime – opening up a store in Disney World. If he had pursued the offer, it’s safe to assume this would create a world of opportunities for Zingerman’s. Yet, for Ari and his business partner Paul Saginaw, the decision to pass on one of the biggest companies in the world wasn’t difficult at all. “The longest part of the conversation was how the [Disney team] wanted to explain to me why I wasn’t understanding how great of an opportunity it was,” Ari said. “And I tried to say, ‘I’m honored that you’re asking – it’s a really great compliment. But it doesn’t fit our vision.’ And finally, at the end, I just said, ‘if you want to open a Disney in Ann Arbor then we could talk.’” You may be a bit confused as to why exactly Ari chose not to partner with Disney. The entrepreneur practices visioning, that is, laying out clear goals of what success looks like for Zingermans, and he sticks to those goals when considering all business opportunities. Ari always knew he wanted to open up a community of businesses in Ann Arbor, Michigan specifically. Opening up a store in Disney World and venturing out of Michigan would mean straying from his initial vision, which is why it was so easy for him to say no to the offer. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zingerman’s Community (@zingermanscommunity) By sticking to these values, Ari has learned not to be reactive when making decisions, but intentional instead. He believes this has allowed him to keep his community at the forefront. While he does acknowledge this approach can lead to limitations, he believes these are good limitations to have. “And theres problems that go with [turning down big money] — you’re constrained. But it’s the constraints of your choosing, and you’re choosing to make your art in a way you feel really good about,” Ari said. Understanding your business’s higher purpose is essential when considering accepting money from investors. Holly believes that all entrepreneurs need to thoroughly assess who they talk money from, especially because this decision could mean releasing control over their vision. “What people tend to overlook when they are in the fundraising process is that they should be vetting the investors themselves,” Holly said. “You still want to understand if there’s mutual respect for values, and especially if there’s mutual respect for your vision of where the company is going.”All of these companies – Buffer, Harlow, Zingerman’s, and Paynter Jacket – turned down big money offers and are thriving to this day, proving that money isn’t always the answer when growing your business.Want more on turning down big money? Check out the full episode.The businesses we interviewed in this episode have further insights to share about turning down big money and its value for brands. Check out the full episode here.

Nobody wants to sit there pinching, poking, and squinting at their phone just to view your website. So it should come as no shock that 50% of people will use a business less often if their site isn’t mobile friendly, according to Google.
But how can you be sure that your website is mobile friendly? Sure, you could check it on your own smartphone. But what about the hundreds of other kinds of phones and tablets that your visitors are using?

Today we’ll cover a selection of mobile friendliness tests that will give you clear answers and actionable tips. For each test, we’ll put our own site through the wringer, so you can make an apples-to-apples comparison of the results. Then we’ll take a look at what it means to be mobile friendly and how it can impact your SEO. But first… what even is a mobile friendliness test?

What is a mobile friendly test?
10 Best Mobile-Friendliness Tests
What does it mean to be mobile friendly?
Does mobile friendliness affect SEO?
Is responsive the same thing as mobile friendly?

A good mobile friendliness test will look at a wide range of factors. These include technical factors such as:

Site speed
CSS and Javascript use
Plugins like Flash or Java

They’ll also include usability factors like:

Is the text readable without zooming?
Does the content fit the screen without scrolling sideways?
Are links and buttons easily clickable?

But while most mobile tests will consider the same factors, not all of them will give you the same results. That’s why we’ve assembled a list of the 10 best mobile friendliness tests to consider.

1. Website Grader

Get Your Grade Right Now
Website Grader is HubSpot’s own test, powered by data straight from Google Lighthouse. It offers a 30-point assessment of factors that affect your mobile friendliness. Then it shows you easy-to-understand recommendations to improve your site.
Not sure what the recommendations mean? Click through into free video lessons on how to optimize a responsive website for mobile.
What stands out:

Also grades your website’s performance, SEO, and security at the same time.

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free
2. Google Mobile Friendliness Test

Instead of a grade scale, like some other tools, Google’s mobile test offers a simple pass/fail. Either your “page is usable on mobile” or your “page isn’t usable on mobile.”
If it isn’t, you’ll see a list of reasons why it failed. (We’ve included a screenshot below of the results from a failing website. Their URL has been hidden to protect the innocent.)

The one downside of Google’s Mobile Friendliness tool is that it only tests individual pages and not your website as a whole.
What stands out:

Clicking on the reasons for failure will show you a screenshot of the affected area.

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free
3. Page Speed Insights

Google’s Page Speed Insights is like the bigger, stronger cousin to their Mobile Friendliness Test.
Instead of a simple pass/fail, you’ll get individual ratings on various performance metrics that have a direct impact on your user experience. The upshot to this is that you’ll get a much more in-depth understanding of your website’s performance. The downside is that if you don’t already understand these terms, you’ll have some studying to do.
This makes Page Speed Insights ideal for sites that are supported by a web developer or dev team.
What stands out:

Provides a detailed list of diagnostics and actionable improvement opportunities, along with an estimate of potential time savings.

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free
4. MobiReady

MobiReady starts by offering interactive visualizations of how your site looks on various devices. Beneath that it gives you a score between 1-5, and compares that to the scores of the top 1,000 Alexa sites for context.
Underneath all of that, you’ll get a list of results, both good and bad, that explains the what, why, and where to find these issues.
What stands out:

Any failing results include a link that points towards how to fix it.

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free
5. WebPage Test

WebPageTest’s results start with simple summaries that are easy to understand, even if you’re less technically inclined. For those with more dev skills, clicking on these results will take you on a deep dive into your performance issues and related tips.
After that, you can switch to one of 14 different categories of results, including your core web vitals, content, and image analysis.
What stands out:

See how your page loads as a filmstrip, short video, or waterfall of processes.

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free
6. Pingdom

Pingdom provides you with both a letter grade, as well as a score from 1-100. Beneath that, you’ll get a short list of performance improvement recommendations. Clicking on them will reveal plain-language explanations for your problems.
These explanations won’t turn a novice into an expert, but they provide a good place to start.
What stands out:

Allows you to choose the geographic region of your test. (For example, North America, Europe, Asia, etc.)

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free
7. Bing Mobile Friendliness Test

Bing’s Mobile Friendliness Test is a fast and simple tool that’s good for a quick check-in.
Just like Google’s Mobile Friendliness Test, Bing’s tool gives you a simple pass/fail, along with a list of reasons why. Unlike Google’s test, many of Bing’s reasons don’t come with any explanation.
What stands out:

Shows a simple rendering of what your site would look like on a mobile device.

Offers actionable tips: Kind of
Cost: Free
8. SiteChecker

SiteChecker gives a grade on a scale of 100, and a wealth of information about your site’s performance. And while they call it a Mobile Friendliness Test, you’ll get a large list of improvement recommendations for both desktop and mobile.
You’ll see suggestions for content, coding, linking, social media, and more. And for each issue, you’ll find a “how to fix” button that provides info on why it matters and what to do.
What stands out:

Also provides a detailed accounting of your site’s CSS and Javascript files.

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free with 7-day trial
9. WooRank

WooRank is a marketing SaaS that’s known for its SEO extensions and plugins. Their website scoring tool will analyze the performance of your site, including its mobile friendliness.
In a matter of seconds, they’ll give you a score between 1-100; however, you’ll need to sign up for their service to see the reasons behind it. This makes WooRank’s test a good option for those who are already in the market for a suite of SEO tools.
What stands out:

If you sign up for an account, your results are connected to the rest of their tools.

Offers actionable tips: Upon signup
Cost: Freemium
10. BrowserStack

BrowserStack’s tool is different from the others on this list, in that it’s actually a responsive design test. (We’ll explain more about the difference later on.) So while it won’t give you a grade, or a list of improvements, it will let you see how your site renders on over a dozen different devices.
We’re including it in this list because it’s extremely useful when used in tandem with another mobile friendliness test. Your visitors will judge your site on how it looks, just as much as they will on how it works.
What stands out:

Paid accounts can also run interactive testing on over 3,000 different browsers and devices.

Offers actionable tips: No
Cost: Free

What does it mean to be mobile friendly?
“Mobile friendly” means that your website (or app) looks good and performs well on a smartphone or tablet. Many factors contribute to mobile friendliness, but they all boil down to a good user experience.
To be considered mobile friendly, your site needs to be fast, simple, and easy to use no matter what device the reader is using.

Does mobile friendliness affect SEO?
Yes, mobile friendliness absolutely does affect your SEO. In a rare bit of transparency, Google announced in 2015 that they would be “boosting the ranking of mobile-friendly pages on mobile search results.”
That’s a big deal, considering that 64% of searches are done on a mobile device, according to research by Sistrix.
But what about desktop searches? Does mobile friendliness affect them? That’s a little less clear; however, in 2018 Google signaled its intent to switch to mobile-first indexing. That’s a fancy way of saying that Google would be considering your mobile version first when choosing what to index.
And while indexing and ranking are not the same things, we know that Google only maintains one index. That means it’s reasonable to assume your mobile friendliness may potentially influence how well you rank in desktop searches.

Is responsive the same thing as mobile friendly?
Responsive design is a great way to be mobile friendly, but they’re not the same thing. Think of mobile friendliness as the goal, and responsive design as the way to get there.
Responsiveness means that your website automatically adapts to whatever device the reader is using. The text and images will scale to fit the size. The layout will rearrange to suit the screen. And whether a visitor arrives on a smartphone, desktop, tablet, or even an e-reader, they’ll still find a quality user experience.
Don’t let a bad mobile experience put you in a pinch
As you can see from the screenshots, the scores that you receive can vary wildly. Because of this, it’s important not to get too hung up on chasing a number. Use your grade as a guide, but focus on the improvements, and work toward a great mobile experience for your visitors.

Is there a web app or some piece of software that can tell if a website is running Facebook or google ads? And if yes – then how many ads? https://preview.redd.it/5o1a3pg5k8t91.png?width=221&format=png&auto=webp&s=3fcade9d401af2f9961e2c3a2f177e8f7c469b89 The input can be Facebook URLs. I’m just tired of running Selenium bots. And not just if the website has Facebook pixel or Google analytics. submitted by /u/Premalone10 [link] [comments]