B.A. Fegles's Blog, page 9
April 6, 2017
DiscoverTop live chat plugins for WordPress
Once you’ve given your brand a voice, interaction with visitors becomes a whole different story. What happens is that you’re taking communication to a more personal level, and help future customers feel more connected to your business, which eventually ends up being your shortcut towards more sales.
The best part about it is that you usually get a clean code to use for customer engagement, and the possibility to customize it in the desired way, such as notifying customers or welcoming them on your website.
There are many WordPress live chat plugins you can install for the purpose, including such that will only appear when you want them there. You can use them for live chat support, online and offline feedback, deals, and product discussions, and ensure in such way that you’re providing a more professional experience for your customers.
To make matters even better, WordPress chat plugins are in most cases free and require minimal effort to let customers get a quick response to all their questions and queries. The faster you reply, the more satisfied the customer will be, and that’s in short how great businesses came to be. WordPress live chat has become essential for all websites, and we’ve selected the best plugins that can help you get a grasp on this function for free.
Live Chat plugins for WordPress
Zendesk Chat, formerly known as Zopim Live Chat, is another excellent live chat provider, which also offers chat logs, analytic tools, and email transcripts. The chat widget, in particular, is easy to customize and adjust to the site’s main theme, regardless of the device on which it is being used. In fact, Zendesk Chat is known by the native iOS and Android apps it offers, and thanks to which agents respond to queries regardless of their location.
Comm100’s is another top performer in the live chat for WordPress industry that provides fast and streamlined communication service. The plugin integrates easily and offers all basic features and third-party integrations (Google Analytics, Salesforce, and others).
As it can be concluded by the name, this free plugin indeed makes it possible to secure a separate chatting area on your WordPress website where all users can create accounts and join conversations that are relevant to them. Agents, on the other end, will be there to provide basic support, but the drawback is that they won’t be able to chat privately with any of the users.
Many WordPress users around the world claim that Pure Chat is the best free live chat plugin, and that’s because of its breathtaking boxes. Alongside the numerous beautiful templates that come with it, the user can customize and build personalized eye-candy boxes, with unique color combinations, fonts, images, or even catchy animations.
Developers, however, offered more than appearance – the tool is capable of performing powerful analytics, managing multiple chat sessions at ones, and trigger proactive chat at any moment. The admin can schedule his live chat sessions, and redirect messages to his MailChimp account each time he goes offline.
If you’re looking for a plugin that takes literally minutes to get up and run, Tidio has you covered. The plugin offers three different designs where colors can be adjusted in a brand-friendly manner.
A native app for Android and iOS users is also available, and all offline messages are redirected to your email. From an agent’s point of view, this means that conversations remain active even after the visitor has abandoned the site for whatever reason.
Ending thoughts
Live chat plugins are great tools that help you improve customer service, and satisfy users by solving their problems on dot.
As such, live chat tools are proven to bring more conversions at your door and help you sell more online while eliminating all buyer friction. The best part about them, however, is that they help establish a personal contact with each customer and make him feel important and appreciated.
Businesses should definitely consider a live chat plugin for their websites, in particular looking at how many good and affordable solutions there are on the market.
Alongside meaningful direct contact, live chat tools ensure the owners can build a community around their brand, which in today’s terms means the world to popularity and social interactions. In less than no time, live chat users record a number of successful interactions and a dramatic change in their traffic and conversion rates.
At the end of the day, an online retailer should not look at live chat services as favors he is providing to his audience.
If you’re really expecting people to spend hard-earned money on your products/services, the least you can do is helping them learn more about what they’re buying. This way, they will trust the quality of your product, and better yet – recommend it to other interested users.
Last, but not least, live chat tools help brands look more official and professional, as users improve their perception of how the company operates and treats clients.
The most successful performers in every industry are those willing to help customers at any moment of time, which is in fact how they gained their good reputation. Words of mouth spread faster than promises, which is why you should never underestimate the good and pleasing impression personal relationships can create.
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The post DiscoverTop live chat plugins for WordPress appeared first on ThemeFuse.
April 3, 2017
DiscoverWordPress Internal linking – Examples and practices to consider in 2017
The internal link structure of your WordPress sites and blogs is one of the most critical SEO parameters to keep in mind in 2017. WordPress internal links between posts are important both for your On Site and On Page SEO and will boost traffic if handled properly.
Before anything else, bloggers should use relevant internal links, so that search engine bots are enabled to crawl and index their website. This is one of the smartest strategies used to dramatically reduce bounce rates.
As a webmaster, your priority should always be to attract and engage visitors and to encourage them to spend as much time on your site as possible. The more quality content you provide them with, the likelier they will be to return and become fans of your blog, which means you’ll already have a base of loyal users who share and distribute your content.
Internal linking also owns a good share in your SEO strategy, as page views, bounce rates, and on-site times are Google’s core metrics when determining the position of any website on Google. But how do you actually make users stay on your website? To start with, you have to feed the blog with some genuinely useful content, and then pay attention to how comprehensive and friendly the interface is to easily redirect people to other interesting reads. Internal linking makes this a breeze, allowing users to switch between posts with only one click.
In the case of experienced WP users who have a lot of content to display, internal linking handles most of the readership heavy-lifting. The heavier and more relevant it becomes, the lower bounce rates you’ll have to deal with, and that certainly makes sense to dynamic and active bloggers. With limited content, on the other hand, internal linking can be done emphasizing on the best ‘evergreen’ posts you have, so that more and more visitors would have access to them.
But what are internal links? Better yet, how to create internal links in WordPress to ensure the website ranks as high as possible? Here are some interesting ideas:
Internal Linking Best Practices
Use internal links for topics you want to clarify or explain
Add hover text (custom link titles)
Link out, as that’s also good for your SEO
Use a resource list wherever applicable
Make sure all external links open up in separate tabs for uncompromised navigation
The best internal linking WordPress plugins
What internal linking plugins do is to automatically connect specified keywords to related posts and pages. There are also such that create a whole new ‘Related’ Section placed under the article to motivate readers to explore.
SEO Smart Link Premium links automatically related blog articles, using the taxonomies you’ve inserted (categories and tags), or custom rules you can adjust any time to keep linking under control. For instance, the decision to link ‘making money online’ to a specific post will result in interlinking the same phrase in all previous/future posts where it appears.
Basically, Smart Link Premium allows you to insert as many internal links as you need which will cover and save time for large blogs with plenty of content. The premium version of SEO Smart Link handles caching as well so that the speed of your blog remains uncompromised. The price of this version is not exactly affordable, but satisfied users claim it is the smartest investment they’ve ever made.
The coolest thing about this plug-and-play tool is that it uses Facebook-styled mentions instead of classic links and therefore makes users even more eager to find what your content is about. The default function of the plugin is to relate keywords to internal posts, but you can easily adjust the settings and customize post types.
WordPress default search & interlink
You can also skip buying a plugin and stick to WordPress’s default search & interlink function. Although not automated, the platform makes interlinking possible by selecting a portion of text and then using a Hyperlink button to paste the desired link (also feasible with anchor text).
WP Optimize BY XTRAFFIC is one of the best SEO plugins for large blogs interested to re-promote an old post from their archive. There are several notable features about this plugin, but the most popular one is Optimize Links – thanks to it, you can establish automated connections between your keywords, pages, posts, and comments, or any portion of the content you’ve specified.
The plugin is also useful for optimizing images, as it reduces the size of the files to help them load quickly, and adds alt tags for Google to recognize them. Users concerned about property rights can also rely on WP Optimize to protect their images, as the plugin adds bulk watermarks to ensure no one would still them from you.
With several posts and limited keywords to worry about, adding links manually won’t be that tedious or challenging. As your blog develops, however, there will be more hassle and frustration than you can handle, and that’s where SEO and internal linking plugins come out on the scene. Alongside emerging and recommended plugins devoted to content linking, you can consider Yoast’s Premium SEO features that also cover internal links, and optimize your website altogether. The downside is that this feature is available only in English.
Yoast SEO handles internal linking with a number of Insights tool used to depict the popular and prominent words in your post, and discover matching posts while content is still being prepared. The slew of related links is then organized and displayed in a right-side editor box, and you can choose which post you want to link to a specific word.
The implications of using internal linking plugins
Just because it is easy to create internal links with automated plugins, it still makes no sense to add ones that are not personalized and meaningful for readers. As practice shows, the best way to insert links is still manually, as using plugins involves the risk of repeating anchor text for different sets of keywords (and Google is now able to recognize that!) Basically, plugins are just new shortcuts towards easy optimization, and may impose the same consequences as other disloyal optimization practices. If you have the time, create them by hand, as this is way more credible for Google and your readers.
Whatever it takes, try to keep the structure of your site spotless, as that’s Google’s essential criterion for good ranking. When done right, connecting posts and pages is a great way to achieve that, which is why automation should always be your alternative plan.
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The post DiscoverWordPress Internal linking – Examples and practices to consider in 2017 appeared first on ThemeFuse.
March 30, 2017
How To’s & TutorialsAn introduction to cloud web hosting and how it can help your website
Cloud server hosting is very popular nowadays, and providers are struggling to make the best offers and to attract attention. There is no way you won’t be offered cloud software when looking for reliable hosting, and there is a good reason for that.
Despite being relatively young, this trend is spreading with rocket speed, and soon there will be no host that doesn’t recommend it as an option. More and more companies will entrust their websites to cloud hosting providers, competition will grow, and prices will get lower. Cloud solutions are even at this point of the time cheaper than all similar options, as they make use of several clustered servers, and combine their resources.
What this means to you as the website’s owner is that different aspects of your website will be accommodated on different servers, which will balance the load, take care of security, and give you access to a vast array of hardware resources you could use upon need. All those servers are clustered in a cloud.
Traffic spikes? No problem
Another thing cloud hosting handles well are growing traffic spikes, and here’s how that happens: The cloud (the group of servers you’re using) cooperate to host as many websites as necessary. Whenever a website gets more traffic than usual, all computers work together to process it.
It is also worth to mention that cloud software facilitates peak lead management, as there are no bandwidth issues to deal with, and you’re supplied with additional resources coming from another server. This wouldn’t be the case with a single server.
Have you an established website? Cloud hosting is a must
Cloud hosting is particularly useful to established websites that can no longer rely on shared hosting resources since they’ve outgrown their initial popularity, and their traffic is being restrained.
In such case, they can turn to dedicated hosting and let data reside on their own server, but they must keep in mind that this option is expensive and won’t really work without IT skills. Cloud servers, on the other hand, cover for most of the dedicated hosting capacity without putting you behind the wheel.
Cloud hosting is scalable
Speaking of advantages, we shouldn’t skip either the scalability of cloud hosting. Imagine a bunch of clouds: you website is hosted there, and suddenly there are more and more websites occupying the space around it. In this case, you start gathering more and more clouds around the site to support it, and your services are not degraded. Once these additional clouds are not necessary, you can easily ‘push’ them away.
What happens with traditional hosting is that you’re dependent on customer support, and have to wait for them to supply you with bandwidth allotments and other resources.
With a spike in resources, this means you’re risking degradation of your services, and eventual suspension compared to other websites operating in your field and sharing your server. And as far as this may seem to be, it will happen as your traffic is growing. Cloud hosting, on the other hand, makes those resources instantly available and preserves the quality of your services under any circumstances.
Savings, immediacy, and scalability are the core factors that make a website effective, and cloud hosting shrinks all necessary resources based on your needs. You can have all you want, any time you want it, usually paying a symbolic package that will upgrade itself automatically. At the same time, you can count on the fact that all data is secured and regularly backed up. Well, how is that for a good deal?
If not convinced, give Google a look – the leader of all search engines draws resources from hundredths of servers around the world and still has no downtimes recorded over the past ten years. This is because servers’ operability is very well organized: each server has a particular group of tasks to help with, and in case it fails, another one will instantly kick in to supply the owner with the additional resources.
This is a useful thing to know also when speaking of overloaded conditions – when using poor-quality hardware, you can’t expect performance to be spotless, but such implications never happen with cloud hosting.
Comparing it to other hosting options
If we ought to compare cloud hosting to its dedicated counterpart, we shouldn’t look further than reliability. Having several servers at disposal to cope with emergencies is always a better option than running out of resources, especially when you’re the only person on the battlefield that can solve this problem. Plus, dedicated hosting costs way more, and may break the bank with resilience and heavy traffic.
In the case of shared hosting and VPS, the pricing factor is out, but reliability goes away with it. VPSs, for instance, use a single server whose capacity is divided into several parts, each part managed by a different user which may or may not hand resources over. If reliability is not critical for you, however, you can still consider VPS for your website.
The development path of cloud hosting was nowhere close to a simple one. Enterprises may have grouped servers since we can remember, but small businesses were for a long time locked out of such opportunity. Luckily, prices reached unbelievably low levels in the past 5 years and enabled small-biz and midmarket players to jump on the cloud bandwagon.
As we find out from real examples, shifting to the cloud was the smartest investment of many prominent businesses, and represents a strong priority for companies which still haven’t done it. Some small businesses, nevertheless, still consider it to be too expensive for their budgets.
Advantages and disadvantages
The same as other hosting types, cloud hosting has many advantages and disadvantages to consider when looking at it as a potential choice for your business. Let’s talk about the good sides first.
The main advantage of cloud hosting plans is their flexibility. They were all developed with usability in the first plan, and the idea to give users enough space to expand (or shorten) space and services. This makes them ideal for dynamic websites that experience rapid growth and sudden traffic changes because cloud servers have the capacity to deal with sudden bursts, unlike their traditional counterparts.
Another important benefit is immediate access, as cloud hosting won’t require you to undergo a cumbersome setup process. This would apply if you’re the one who needs to put backup hosting in place, take care of updates and security, and handle all potential issues on his own.
Alongside technical advantages, cloud hosting offers a number of financial benefits to having in mind. A solid cloud hosted website doesn’t have to cost a fortune, and you’re not supposed to hire staff that would maintain it. Also, there are not extra expenses related to website analytics, IT support, or purchase of additional space or resources.
Let’s check the disadvantages now:
In theory, having resources coming from several servers at once eliminates the risk of an eventual downtime, but the catch here is that when cloud hosting providers go down there is no way back. This is why you should really turn to a reputed provider, with great uptimes and stability.
You should also be ready for unexpected bills. While it is easy to balance expenses with standard hosting, cloud hosting charges you for what you use, which means that acquiring extra resources may turn out more expensive than you ever expected.
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The post How To’s & TutorialsAn introduction to cloud web hosting and how it can help your website appeared first on ThemeFuse.
March 27, 2017
DiscoverWordPress risks and vulnerabilities you should be aware of
Nearly 50% of all WordPress websites operating at the moment are self-hosted, which means the platform bears most of the responsibility related to the safety of the installation process. Concerned owners can also take matters into their hands and trigger extra safety hacks and WordPress security features, but surprisingly enough, most of them choose not to do it. This is exactly why hackers have no troubles breaking into WordPress websites, and perform all types of malicious activities.
WordPress’s core installation is actually simple and well protected, and troubles appear only once the user adds functionality via themes, plugins, and codes with questionable origin. The more things you install, the more challenging it will be to secure your WordPress website, regardless of whether you’re running a personal blog or a complex business platform.
How to secure WordPress websites on your own? Here are some WordPress security tips and tricks you should consider to improve the safety of your website:
Discourage forced attacks by securing your login page
The URL of WordPress’s login page is a standardized one, which is why hackers find it easy to access backend operations by forcing their way through it. All they have to do is to paste /wp-login.php/ or /wp-admin/ next to the domain name of your site, and their mission will be half done.
This problem is nevertheless easy to solve – you should install a lockdown feature that will disable hackers to access the site after several failed attempts and incorrect password entries. These features also notify you each time an unauthorized activity is being performed on your website.
Update your WordPress version as often as necessary
Most of us choose to neglect the ‘Update available’ banner appearing on our WordPress dashboard, but a fresher version of the platform is the best way to keep it safe. Therefore, put updates on top of your security checklist, and close the vulnerability gaps hackers have already explored.
Update your themes and plugins
Just the way you renew your core installation, update the themes and plugins and uninstall those you’re not using. As good as they may be, themes and plugins can be used as backdoors to your admin settings and personal information, but with regular updating, there will be nothing to worry about.
Get rid of the themes and plugins you’re not using
The fewer plugins and themes you have, the more difficult it will be for hackers to attack your website, so why keeping the ones you’re not using? Unless you’re really willing to update them all the time, we recommend you to uninstall them as soon as possible.
Choose a username different than ‘admin’
Default WordPress installation uses ‘admin’ as a standard username, and keeping it like that makes hackers’ work easier. What you should do is to add an SQL query to PHPMyAdmin, and change the username into something more complex.
Log in with your email
Logging in with your email ID is a much safer approach than using whatever username. As creative and unique you think it is, a username is easier to guess than an email ID, in particular, because WordPress generates a new email for every user, and validates it for the purpose.
You can get a dedicated email using the WP Email Login Plugin. The plugin takes almost no time or configuration efforts and starts working immediately upon activation.
In order to evaluate its functionality, log out, and use your new email address to log back in.
Strengthen your password, and change it as often as possible
Instead of using personalized and easy-to-guess passwords, replace them with random letter-number strings, which you can create manually or use an automated password generator (Strong Password Generator and Norton Password Generator are great options).
Remember two-step authentication
Two-step authentication is a smart mechanism that helps prevent brute force attacks and one of the best WordPress security tricks you should consider. What this means is that while logging in, users will be required to provide an authorization code next to their passwords, delivered by email or SMS. There are several plugins that make this possible, such as Google Authenticator, Duo Two-Factor Authenticator, and Clef.
Avoid premium plugins offered for free
Generally, premium plugins should be downloaded only from their official vendors’ pages, as pirated and ‘free’ versions are frequently corrupted with malware. Most of the time, it is hackers that are offering them on illegal websites, and crack their original code to secure a direct connection to the backend settings of your site.
Disable the theme and plugin editor
Unless you’re using the plugin and theme editor installed on your WP dashboard on regular basis, it would be better to disable it completely. The reason for this is that once an authorized user’s account is hacked, the attacker obtains direct access to the editor and gets to modify all important codes contained there.
Disable PHP error reports
While plugin error reports are the best way to troubleshoot problems, they happen to include the full server path of your website, which won’t be such an issue as long as hackers don’t lay hands on them. This is why you should disable error reporting, and look for a different way to handle troubleshooting.
Use .htaccess to protect important files
.htaccess files are certainly familiar to experienced WordPress users, and so is their vital role and impact on the security of their entire websites. The reason for this is that .htaccess files are the core of WP’s functionality, and dictate the site’s ability to structure permalinks and protect itself. There is a variety of code snippets that can be inserted in .htaccess files to determine which files will be visible in the website’s directory, including #BEGIN and #END WordPress tags sourced straight from the WordPress Codex.
The first step we’d recommend you is to hide the wp-config.php file, as this is the heart of the website that contains all security details and personal information.
Get the best hosting your budget can respond to
None of these trendy security hacks will make sense without a solid hosting provider, in particular when using a shared hosting plan that offers no isolation for your website. Prominent hosting providers block unwanted visitors from accessing your site’s backend and ensure that the underperformance of other sites on your server won’t affect you in any way. Ideally, you should choose a hosting service catered exclusively towards WP sites, as it provides a WP firewall, updated MySQL and PHP, and constant malware scanning. Most of these providers also allow you to connect to a knowledgeable team of WP experts for all questions and inquiries.
Therefore, put aside a reasonable amount to cover the service, and pay attention to the web hosting security checklist before you’ve made a deal.
Keep your wp-admin directory protected
All core WP operations are governed from your wp-admin directory, which means that a hacker who’s ensured access to it literally has access to your entire website, and can thereof cause irreversible damage.
An idea to prevent unwanted wp-admin access is to protect the database with two unique passwords, one used to log into the website, and the second one to access the admin area. The admin will also be enabled to unblock selected parts of the wp-admin database and give access to particular users while preserving control over the rest.
The admin area is best secured using the AskApache Password Protect plugin, used to generate .htpasswd files, configure and correct file permissions, and encrypt both of the passwords.
Plugins that you should use
This plugin is used to monitor and examine all files available in the admin database, including posts and comments. It will report each suspicious activity such as inactive plugins and unusual file names, but it won’t remove them. Instead, it will notify the user and invite him to do that.
Security matters to a website owner just as much as performance does. BulletProof Security is a popular plugin that optimizes both performance and security and provides database security and backup, login security, firewall security, and much more. They also offer a Bonus Custom Code for websites processing large volumes of sensitive data.
How exactly does BulletProof Security optimize performance? While keeping your data secure, this plugin also makes sure your website won’t perform slowly or poorly, and that there will be no memory errors and non-essential storing of data to worry about. Ultimately, the plugin improves and speeds up performance, and does so with its Speed Boost Cache Bonus Code.
Ending thoughts
With all things put into perspective, it is plugins we ought to blame for most of our WP site’s vulnerability. The WP market is simply overwhelmed by supposedly useful plugins with a suspicious origin that may put your entire website at risk, which is why we ought to be extremely careful with the extras we’re installing.
The best way to protect our website from unwanted attacks is to limit the number of installed plugins to the ones we absolutely need. This is actually quite difficult to achieve, having in mind that most bloggers choose WP exactly because of the large plugin ecosystem. Of course, the owner is not expected to remove plugins altogether, but instead to eliminate those he’s not using and keep the rest regularly updated to lower the number of vulnerabilities and security gaps. We also recommend keeping an eye on plugins that are abandoned by their developers and to replace them with better alternatives.
Believe it or not, most brute force attacks are lucky guesses, as bot attackers try as many username-password combinations as they can think of to find the right one. This is fairly easy to prevent, by simply choosing a username and a password that are not easy to guess. This refers to complex, long, and unusual phrases that will give hackers the trouble they didn’t expect.
As you saw, WordPress is not that difficult to secure, as you’re already counting on the solid foundation created by its developers, and a large user community that suggests ideas on how to protect your blog from unwanted attacks.
Remember that the most attractive website zone for every hacker is the admin dashboard, and that’s where most of your precaution efforts should be concentrated. Therefore, do the impossible to prevent them from taking over your website, and causing damage you may never repair.
Last, but not least, accept the idea that corrupted websites were not well protected to start with. Everything that happens is your fault for not assuming the responsibility of securing your website, so start doing something about it right now.
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The post DiscoverWordPress risks and vulnerabilities you should be aware of appeared first on ThemeFuse.
March 23, 2017
DiscoverBest plugins for WordPress business websites
Nowadays, businesses rely significantly on attractive websites where customers would familiarize with their activities and contact them upon need. It is very likely that without the appropriate website, many customers would neglect the company and the services/products it offers, which makes it imperative for it to create a website with WordPress or a similar CMS platform.
WordPress is nice as it offers great deployment flexibility – the user can host it locally or in the cloud. There are pros and cons related to both options, but the bottom line remains the same: small and developing businesses need a website to help them grow and acquire customers.
From the perspective of a small business, it may be a good idea to choose the hosted WordPress version, so that they’ll have a trusted partner handling the backend technicalities for them. As the business grows, however, its needs expand, and the hosted version starts looking too restricted or customization-unfriendly. If you’re also considering a hosted WordPress website, you should know about the following limitations:
You won’t be able to change how your website looks or feels – the theme looks as it does, and nothing on it can be altered.
Functionality can’t be expanded either – most themes work with a collection of carefully selected plugins, which makes it impossible to install the ones you need.
You have no access to the codes running your website, and cannot thereof customize its functionality.
But what if we told you there is a WordPress plugin for business websites tailored to cater to all corporate needs? Better yet, there are few of them you should know about, as you get to use them regardless of how your website looks:
OptinMonster is currently the hottest trend in conversion rate optimization, thanks to which companies collect the emails of abandoning visitors, and turn them into subscribers. Every expert out there will tell you this is a must-have system for those looking to grow their customer base.
But let’s not forget that the purpose of WordPress websites is foremost to let customers reach you anytime they want, and that makes installing a contact form plugin compulsory. The market’s top performer is WPForms, known as an easy and intuitive tool that develops beautiful web forms for contact, payment, or subscription with only a few clicks.
Google Analytics Dashboard for WP
Another thing every business needs is a business intelligence system for data analytics, where the leader is Google Analytics. The software localizes and compares visitors, and tracks their activity on your website to extract best practices and to improve your ROI rates.
If you’re looking for email marketing services, you must consider Constant Contract to manage your current and prospective subscribers.
The same as WPForms, this service is beginner-friendly, fast, and easy to install, and offers diverse signup forms and authentication options.
Speaking of content form plugins we can’t skip even Contact Form 7, which makes it easy for customers to contact you round-the-clock, but also leave comments and participate in dialogues that would add value to your marketing strategy. Currently, Contact Form 7 has over a million satisfied users and qualifies as one of the most popular WP plugins so far.
Yoast SEO was and remains the most popular WP plugin of all times. It is used to optimize content for SERP purposes, which is why it provides a fully configured checklist of best practices your posts are expected to comply with. Some of its impressive features are sitemaps, RSS optimization, custom Meta descriptions, and much more.
If you don’t consider WordPress speed in time, you’ll very likely be reminded of it the bad way. Speed is among the most important SEO factors for every website, as the faster pages load on that site, the higher it will rank on Google and the more conversions it will attract.
There are many manual hints owners use to accelerate loading, but having a plugin for the purpose is the best guarantee you want fall way behind the competition.
The plugin’s name is W3 Total Cache, used to cache files visitors are trying to open and to reduce the server load that slows websites down. As can be seen from satisfied users, W3 ensures both better user experience and higher SERP ranking.
Obviously, some businesses will find it handier to combine all of these functions in a single tool, and we recommend them to consider WP Rocket. This plugin is incredibly rich with features, among which:
• Browser caching
• Page caching
• Image optimization
• Lazy Load
• Minification
• GZIP compression
• Flawless integration with CloudFlare and other free CDN solutions.
With WP Rocket in place, all speed and content optimization functionality will be in place, and customers will be happy with the service you’re providing them.
Another task that will impose itself with the time is the need to optimize WP headers and footers with code snippets, a risky task that can cause serious problems with standard WP themes and templates. In order to skip causing a mess, try Insert Headers and Footer to add code snippets where needed, and edit you theme files rapidly and accurately.
Now, let’s pay a little bit of attention to businesses looking to build sustainable websites that can handle dramatic changes in traffic.
Their first priority will probably be to close gaps and tackle security vulnerabilities, for the purpose of which they would even scarify some of the glorious looks modern WordPress themes provide.
While it is true that a security breach may not end up with someone misusing sensitive data, it will almost certainly affect the way customers look at your brand’s reputation.
This means that all WordPress websites need a quality security plugin. Our recommendation is iThemes Security which offers security against common braches and brute hacker attacks.
What iThemes Security does is to secure and reinforce your passwords, hide your login pages to lock unwanted visitors out, and regulates roles in a way which will allow the admin to decide who can change or use the files stored in the system.
From a security perspective, companies should also take care of their data backup, instead of remembering this problem only once it has been lost. With the appropriate backup plugin such as Automattic’s VaultPress, they will be able to restore data in only a few minutes regardless of what had happened to it.
Ending thoughts
It is exactly the versatility of plugins and add-ons that make WordPress ideal for business websites, be those brand new ones or such you will migrate to acquire external hosting.
While designing this platform, programmers considered extending its core functions for business purposes, which is how we dare to claim there is no e-commerce feature that cannot be added to it. As specific as your business needs may be, WordPress will have a solution for them.
Looking for some of the best business WordPress themes?
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Architekt is one of the most popular premium business WordPress themes designed exclusively for corporate websites in need of a stylish and refined touch.
Its flexibility will allow you to modify each element directly from the admin panel, namely replace backgrounds, change colors, or further customize it with only a few clicks.
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Advisors is one of the greatest small business WordPress themes that suit every business, agency, or corporation. All necessary functionalities and features are already included, and the template can respond to diverse professional and consulting services. Large businesses will also find it easy to use, due to its professional appearance and multiple customization options.
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The post DiscoverBest plugins for WordPress business websites appeared first on ThemeFuse.
March 20, 2017
How To’s & TutorialsHow To Create An Effective Content Marketing Strategy For 2017
We live in an age of social media, where everyone creates something, gives something, shares something, talks about something… That is a kind of content created by people who are trying to develop different relationships with other people.They create and share messages, blog posts, photos, videos, presentations. The same things apply to the business world.
Sales without a content marketing strategy are impossible, or are possible but not in the way that an entrepreneur would want them to be.
And content marketing doesn’t mean just sharing and creating tremendous amounts of content without getting any effects on the business development.
The value of content is defined in terms of the assets themselves:
The success of an organization manifests itself through its ability to generate profit, meeting the needs of consumers in same time. For this purpose, organizations develop marketing concepts, through which they get closer to consumers, thus providing placement, sales and appropriate use of their products and services.
These companies focus on increasing the value of their products and services in the eyes of the consumers, including all their sectors in the process, starting from the marketing department, design, engineering, manufacturing, human resources, to the finance department.
Unlike in the past when most of the information was received from advertising in printed media, today almost everything is made online, which is a threat to the traditional producers and retail chains.
The growth of various social media around us makes the process of creation and distribution and the accessibility of different content for different people much easier. And content management doesn’t mean hiring some content creators who will deliver materials to the customers. It is an important process and the business owners need to generate profit from it since a lot of profit is going to be invested in developing the content marketing.
Content is solely viewed as a more efficient means to a sale:
Content marketing is actually the simplest way to get new potential customers and convert them into regular and faithful customers. If you want to achieve this goal, you need to follow some rules that will help you to improve the content that represents you and your business on the internet and to the target audience.
By now, you must have a certain type of content in your business in the form of images, presentations, manuals, brochures, leaflets, catalogs, instructions. In this first step, it is important to be aware that you need a strategic approach when it comes to the creation and distribution of content. That strategy will help you to create and distribute the new content and to distribute the old and already existing content. Another important question that you and the members of your team should think about is what kind of valuable content your business lacks at the moment, and try to create it in the future.
The key to a successful content strategy is a lot of research and planning, and if you decide to incorporate it into your business plan take a look at the following crucial steps:
1. Specify Your Business Objectives
The value that your company represents is what separates you from the other competing companies. It takes time and a lot of research to find the right way to present yourself to the target audience, but this step is essential meaning indicating whether your current visitors will become a regular customer or will continue searching for the service they look for in another place and in another company.
Once you start creating a marketing strategy, you need to have in mind all indicators that you will use to measure the success of your strategy. In this case, it can be the daily visits to your website, the new signups to your newsletter or the interaction on the social media.
If the number of sales is your main goal, then the number of completed purchases will be the indicator that you will follow. If you want to achieve a greater presence on social media, the focus will be placed on the number of shares of the content you post.
It is likely to have multiple indicators that will help you to realize if you are going in the right direction towards achieving the goals. What it is important to realize is that you must constantly go back and analyze which tactics work and which do not and why is it so? What needs to be changed in order to return to the desired path leading to goals?
2. Develop a Core Message
You always need to create a unique content that will attract more readers and will distinguish your brand from the competition. If you want to have a bigger audience that will read your content, which will in return convert them into loyal customers, you must know what kind of audience you have.
You need to know in what type of content are interested those who visit your website or read your content and how you should use this same content to be able to acquire new visitors.
For this purpose, it is necessary to consider the following question: What is your target group? If you have created a business or marketing plan, it is likely that the answer to this question is already known to you. But if you have not yet precisely determined what type of people are in your target group, you should do it immediately.
3. Analyze the Competition
Everybody wants to have no competition, but that is unrealistic and unachievable. Competition is an inevitable factor for any business regardless of its size, industry, market… Even if there is no competition, it does not mean that it will not appear.
But, there is no need to fear the competition if you implement a strategic and systematic approach to analyzing it. So, from time to time (preferably quarterly – 3 months) ask yourself the following questions about your competition:
– What are the most significant competitors that affect your business?
– What are the possible potential competitors?
– What are their products and/or services?
– Where are their products and/or services in relation to yours?
4. Use the Right Tools
What kind of content are you going to share? On which platforms you are going to present it? Where are your potential customers? When it comes to content marketing most of the people think of it as online content, but this marketing tool is implemented and offline through catalogs, brochures, newsletters, periodicals.
Because of that, you should brainstorm all possible types of platforms on which you can appear. Those platforms can be blog platforms, social media, printed newsletters, e-mail marketing, letters, instructions… Next brainstorm and analyze where are your potential customers. Whether they are online or spend less time on the Internet? Whether they prefer to read printed publications or electronic? Are they present on the social media? This step will ultimately give you a list of possible platforms. If your potential customers are people from the online world, you can incorporate website marketing strategy using WordPress since it’s free to use, very flexible and customizable.
5. Keep an Editorial Calendar
Content as the marketing means using different platforms for different market segments with different content for them.
Therefore, to increase the efficiency and effectiveness and to create an effective marketing strategy, it is good to create a calendar where ahead of time will be specified which content will be used, when it will be shared and by whom.
When you have a calendar, you can simply follow the implementation of the same. Try to ensure that what is stated in that calendar will be implemented in the period it is intended for in the calendar.
This is a process, not an ordinary campaign that has a beginning and end. Constantly in the period before the end of the calendar, update it with new content and responsibilities for the next period.
You must define how you will track your results and that would be the measurement indicators for those results. This is a cycle that never ends and you can always improve. The measuring will give you good information that will tell you what works well and what doesn’t work, what you need to change, improve, and what should be rejected in order to create a good marketing strategy.
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The post How To’s & TutorialsHow To Create An Effective Content Marketing Strategy For 2017 appeared first on ThemeFuse.
March 9, 2017
DiscoverBest WordPress Themes for Hosting Services
Those of you interested in creating stylish and streamlined hosting websites, and demonstrate in such way the safety and reliability of your service should definitely give WordPress Hosting themes a look.
When running a hosting business, it is essential to do so with a well-organized, visually pleasant and efficient interface, so that your plans and service offers would look more attractive to customers. A good way to start doing this is to look at our professional hosting collection and to narrow the choice down to a single theme that can respond to all your needs.
Arka Host is a WHMCS hosting theme for WordPress users that can be used on desktop and mobile devices. It is ideal for business, as it allows you to build your pages, prepare amazing slideshows and change colors. Developed by Elite Authors, this theme comes with the expected clean and simple interface, where you can create your ideal, professional website within minutes.
ALASKA is another representative of the most elegant WordPress themes which you can connect with WHMSC using the fully compatible WHMSC-Bridge plugin. The theme is ideal for hosting, software and technology agencies and organizations.
EasyWeb specializes in SEO, hosting, and web design, and offers just enough content customization features to help you create a practical website in few minutes. As a premium theme, it is packed with page building features, SEO and special host functionalities, and an advanced live customizer. At the same time, EasyWeb integrates with different types of visual composers, so that you could create complex layouts by simply dragging and dropping elements. No development skills will be required, as the theme’s code can be modified and personalized in less than no time.
MegaHost gives users an elegant corporate template that works for business just as good as it does for hosting and also serves bloggers and artists looking to display their portfolios. The design and the CSS are very flexible, which means you’ll have no trouble to modify or customize them.
The design is unique and created on the basis on Bootstrap 3, which means that there are tons of layout and color variations and that those apply to all mobile devices.
Total is a very responsive and up-to-date WP theme that brings under the same roof the creativity of the Visual Composer page builder and the power of the WordPress Customizer. Its distinctive advantage of this platform is the possibility to use it for all niches and professions, both as a sole proprietor and an owner of a large enterprise. The numerous settings and features make it possible to create any type of website or blog you like, just as you would with a premium WP theme. Check out some of the platform’s demos to see how it can help you build a professional website.
Multi hosting is 100% compatible with WHMCS-bridge to ensure integration for all pages and WPML plugins, RTL support, and the necessary page building features. It comes with a large array of shortcodes that help you customize your hosting website in no more than few hours.
Users appreciate the endless layout possibilities that help produce beautiful and responsive layouts. Among other features, they also get a client carousel, revolution layer sliders, search forms, working contact forms, pricing tables, testimonials, mega menus, several skins, and much more.
Rackhost is one of the cleanest and simplest WP themes for modern businesses with a large palette of color sets. The vast number of shortcodes and default functions allows you to build literally any type of website even when working with limited WP or HTML skills. The theme also offers several text file templates which you can import into your editor, and transform them in no more than few seconds.
Inhost is a business-exclusive WordPress theme that can be applied in all niches and industries. Its design is clean and sophisticated and offers hosting providers with all kinds of features necessary to enhance their business. All you need is already there – Inhost comes with 5 homepage layouts (a single page option is also available), 100% responsiveness and Retina readiness, Visual Composer page builder, WHMCS integration, and a variety of ready-to-apply shortcodes.
Aox Host is designed for creative and modern hosting businesses, technology sites, and agencies, but with some tweaking here and there, it can work for virtually any type of business. It is fully integrated with WHMCS-bridge, and also supports a variety of WPML plugins that make it ideal for retail. Another thing you will like about it is that it is available in several languages.
Hosting was designed to meet the needs of experienced WordPress developers and consultants and makes it possible to launch creative and powerful projects in few hours. Satisfied audiences rate it as very safe, reliable, and visually appealing.
HostingPress has known by the fact it meets all hosting and domain needs of WordPress developers, and that it is fully compatible with WHMCS-bridge. Using it, you will benefit from 20 amazing templates, 4 unique homepage variations, and 2 landing page variations. Customization is another of its strong sides, as with HostingPress, you get to rearrange and edit the structure of your pages any way you want.
myHosting meets the needs of both hosting businesses and corporations and responds equally well on mobile and desktop devices. The theme is compliant with CSS3 and HTML5 standards and gives you the possibility to choose between 10 available color skins, custom shortcodes, and post types. You can also use it to create and modify content, design portfolios with category filters, and much more. Give their demo site a look, and test the numerous amazing features.
DC Agency is designed for hosting providers and creative agencies, but also meets the needs of SEO, consultancy and personal businesses that would use a Visual Composer to customize their pages. Fast and simple, DC Agency allows you to create websites in less than no time, as it provides you with all live customize and theme options needed to make your business unique.
NRGHost is a flat and fully-responsive hosting theme that allows you to choose between 3 homepage variations, and several WHMCS templates and order forms. What you will like the most about it is the intuitive and easy-to-use interface that will get your hosting business running in only a few minutes.
ServerEast is a well-known premium WordPress theme that integrates seamlessly with WHMCS-Bridge, several WPML plugins used to connect it to WHMCS, and the Visual Composer that makes it suitable for hosting creative agencies and organization, and a variety of businesses.
Zionhost is a professional WordPress theme designed exclusively for corporations which need a functional platform to build sites in less than one hour. The theme is fully integrated with WooCommerce, which means you can also use it to sell product and collect customer data.
FoxuHost is a fully-responsive hosting & corporate theme that allows you to choose from several inner pages, color variations, and amazing sliders. There are 7 layouts total, all of them fully-featured and completely customizable.
Veda is the definition of how a massive and genuinely universal WordPress theme should look like, as with it, you get 20 demo pages all bundled in the same pack. It is because of this that designers think of Veda as a theme paradise, and rely on it to cover all of their needs. Note that Veda’s demos are all handpicked, and you can customize them to make them suit your business.
If you are looking for a minimal, yet very responsive WordPress theme, Hostme v2 has you covered. The theme was developed using CSS3 and HTML5 coding, and thereof offers a variety of shortcodes and features you can implement to design the perfect website. It is recommended for hosting providers, creative agencies and businesses, and professional portfolios.
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March 6, 2017
Did you knowWordPress vs Drupal: which one is best?
WordPress and Drupal have been on the market more or less for the same time, which is why they have a pretty similar reputation.
Drupal CMS, nevertheless, seems to have transmitted the leadership to WordPress quite easily, as the platform has 10 times more users than Drupal, and is only becoming more and more popular. But does this really mean that a Drupal website will be less proficient than a WordPress one?
From what we know, neither of the two online content management systems requires too much coding or technical expertise, which means they’re both ideal for beginners and inexperienced users. But let’s compare them in detail:
Which one is easier to use?
Regardless of whether we’re experienced in website management or looking to launch one from scratch, we’d all opt for a CMS that is easy to use. In this case, beginners with limited knowledge looking to run their site immediately should definitely overlook Drupal and move to WordPress. The later is the more user-friendly option which makes it possible to blog within minutes, and that’s all because it provides an easy WYSUWYG editor.
WordPress will become even handier as you get a grasp on its functionality, as it has an amazingly large community of users that are willing to respond to all of your questions and queries. Drupal’s community is not small either, but it is still the smaller from the two.
In terms of functionality, advantage must be given to Drupal, but that’s exactly what makes it more complicated to use. Let’s say that Drupal will give you more of what you perceive to be full control over your content, but the question then would be whether you know how to handle those advanced features.
Without the necessary knowledge, they will only confuse you, or hinder your work with details you don’t even need. Unlike WordPress, Drupal makes use of content types, content blocks, taxonomies, analytics views, and many other features that can be a blessing in disguise for professional users.
Thereof, choose Drupal to manage a variety of content types and page templates. Doing so, you will also get advanced user permissions, and appoint a site admin that will decide who gets to edit and see personalized content. What this means is that a Drupal site can be managed by multiple stakeholders at once, which is not the case with WordPress.
In terms of upgrading your CMS, WordPress is again the simpler choice as it updates automatically in every 3 or 4 months, and doesn’t require IT involvement to do so. Drupal, on the other hand, has a specific upgrading process (sometimes even by replacing your whole design), and can hardly be completed without the help of a professional programmer.
But what is the logic behind it? Let’s say that Drupal was a gift from developers to developers, which can be as good as it is bad in certain cases. Professional site management in Drupal requires solid experience, not just because you can mess up its functionality, but also because without knowledge, you’ll be ignoring some of its most important features an expert would appreciate. The good side of the story is that developers are already working to simplify the CMS (Drupal 8), and make it more accessible to first-time users.
WordPress, at the same time, derives from the idea of a casual blogging no-brainer which would be extremely easy to use, and where each and every of us could write down thoughts while on the move. This is why developers made the effort to provide us with handy mobile apps, automated upgrades, and unlimited responsiveness in all circumstances. Drupal, however, doesn’t have a mobile app yet.
Customizing possibilities
By customization, we refer to the possibility to tweak functionality and make on-site operations activity-specific and to add plugins and themes that would expand the functionality of your website. In short, customization refers to how ‘changeable’ the initial version of your website is.
The absolute winner in this category would once again be WordPress, as developers ensured users would have access to more than 35,000 plugins (roughly estimated to 37,000 so far and growing as we speak), and just as many themes which come as free or premium. If you have a solid premium theme combined with the right plugins, there is almost nothing you can’t do on your WordPress websites.
The rationale behind it is the open-source community of developers which is huge and devoted and works constantly to improve users’ experience. With Drupal, flexibility is somehow granted and no plugins are necessary to make changes, but that’s once again only when you know how to make use of it.
Drupal does offer a number of advanced plugins and modules that are very convenient, but which would require you to pay much more. Plus, the themes for Drupal are not as many as the ones for WordPress, and users usually end up paying designers to revamp their website and make it unique.
Pricing
The main reason why Drupal charges more than WordPress is the availability of good developers who’d work on it. As you can imagine, the job market comes tight compared to the one of WordPress.
The core versions of both CMSs are free to download and you only pay to use premium themes and plugins, in which case you’d pay more for Drupal than for WordPress (considerably more!). Nevertheless, Drupal’s free themes are good enough for you to skip paying for premium ones.
Protection and security
The leader here is Drupal. Generally, WordPress is a safe CMS too, but its huge popularity doesn’t really make it undesired by hackers. Plus, there are a variety of free plugins and cheap themes you’d be tempted to install, and which bring up more vulnerabilities to your website that you’ll actually be aware of. Interestingly enough, the best way to protect your data is to install a security plugin to keep you safe.
Drupal is a whole different story, as it comes packed with enterprise-grade and in-depth security features, which is why large corporations and governments decide for it. Currently, it is also being used by whitehouse.gov.
Besides, security mechanisms have improved significantly throughout the years, and many platform-specific applications have appeared to help users handle risks. Drupal users should consider Pantheon and Acquia, while WordPress ones should give a look to MediaTemple and their WP service. Remember that it is the server where most vulnerabilities are coming from, so make sure you’re working with a reputed host that won’t cause you additional protection troubles.
Size concerns
If we had to choose a winner, we’d say Drupal. This platform was designed exactly to eliminate size concerns, which is how it handles single-page static sites just as well as it does dynamic ones with hundredths of pages. Plus, Drupal won’t ask you to compromise on traffic – thousands of people can read the same content simultaneously, and the website will still perform impeccably.
WordPress is a reasonable option too, having in mind that it is predominantly a blogging platform looking to accommodate large portions of content, but does slow reading down more frequently than Drupal.
Google’s preferences
When it comes to SEO, you should have in mind that SERP rankings don’t really depend on the platform you’re using, but rather if you applied all needed tricks to distribute content properly. SEO comes with both platforms – Drupal uses it by default, why WordPress expects the use to install a variety of plugins that can enhance it.
With loading times being the essential criteria for good ranking, you should remember that it is Drupal pages that load much faster (because of default caching), and that’s what will attract the engine’s attention. Plus, Drupal’s loading is not really tackled by the amount of content displayed, and engines also like sites that offer plenty of content.
The most important differentiation point is how the two platforms handle mobile optimization. Drupal’s mobile themes, to start with, will run much better off a subdomain, which means there should be two different URLs which would index them on search engines (www.yoursite.com and www.m.yoursite.com). In WordPress, things are done much simpler, as almost all themes are mobile-responsive, and indexation issues are handled back-end. You really need to take care of mobile indexation in time, so that the website versions run both from the same domain and Google is not confused whether there are two sites or one.
Drupal also gives you more content fields for each page, which can by choice appear on both subdomains or only on the mobile one.
If you ask a WordPress user, he’d probably tell you that the reason he chose this platform is the availability of plugins, including such that make use of social media and handle SEO. In the Drupal scenario, these plugins are called modules and come for free despite being just as powerful as their WordPress counterparts (especially when speaking of Drupal 8). The challenge is how you’d manage their functionality, as most essential module updates in Drupal will make you dependant on your developer.
When running a creative agency site, for instance, and wish to redesign your theme and to showcase unique projections, Drupal will be a piece of work but it will help a lot. This is because you can customize it and because it stores without any problem all of your clients’ and corporate data. With priorities such as storage, email marketing, or even retail, Drupal is the way to go.
If interested to publish or multi-author content, on the other hand, WordPress will be just fine. Nevertheless, try to predict the growth and development of your website, as WordPress may not be enough to handle sudden traffic spikes. Obviously, you can always change CMSs with a large website at stake, but that’s just a long, complicated, and too expensive process.
For those of you looking to build a ‘one of a kind’ website, Drupal has the right advanced toolkit and undisputed flexibility. Once the ropes are mastered and page caching is understood, Drupal can help you build all types and genres of websites which look just the way you want them to.
The usability advantage of WordPress remains, as this is what makes the platform way more popular. It is supported, easy to set up, and even easier to use. If you know how to combine themes and plugins, there is no reason to worry that WordPress won’t meet your projects and design needs.
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March 2, 2017
Discover2017’s top web hosting services
There is little chance that a website will be successful without a solid, if not the best-hosting provider, which is why you should give the question of choosing one some serious thinking.
At the dawn of their business’s development, many owners opt for hosting WordPress sites on poor servers and realize what a big mistake that is only when it is too late to fix it.
The smartest course of action is to consider multiple opportunities and to do research so that you’d narrow the list down to providers that can genuinely meet your needs. Honestly speaking, that’s nowhere close to an easy process, as there are hundredths of web hosting companies competing for your attention.
So how do you choose the best WordPress hosting? The most important task is to examine the bandwidth capacity and disk space they offer, especially if you’re looking to host a site with multiple pages and graphics, and if you anticipate sudden traffic growth. There are unlimited plans that won’t compromise the functions of your website, but they are not exactly beginner-friendly as they cost a lot.
Compatibility is another important factor to consider, looking predominantly at the operating systems your future host can respond to. Since most website owners wouldn’t settle for redesigning their website, it makes sense to double-check this aspect before they’ve invested their money.
Other essential characteristics are availability and reliability, where you should be looking for rates no lower than 98 and 99%. In most cases, they will be referred to as ‘uptime’, and confirmed with case studies and real time practices you should consider first.
Obviously, the best WordPress hosting should also be secure and offer several data encryption mechanisms such as firewalls, user authentication, firewalls, and more. Top performers in the industry will also keep you notified whenever someone attempts to breach your data or performs any time of suspicious activity.
Which providers should you consider?
HostGator
HostGator is world’s leading hosting provider with a straightforward interface and an array of affordable pricing options that meet the needs of startups and large companies. The same as other hosting providers, HostGator offers VPS (virtual private servers) and dedicated hosting, but what really make it special are its shared hosting packages.
This host is a suitable alternative for WordPress website owners who’ve chosen to host those outside the platform. Using it won’t be an issue even when you don’t have experience, as on the customer portal you can find the Quick Links tab, and open a handy, dedicated interface where you can install your own plugins and applications. The same tab will lead you to a ‘get Started with WordPress’ section, where you can learn how to manage your website in a profitable way.
DreamHost
DreamHost is another hosting provider that offers advanced features and budget-friendly plans, but we’d recommend it to experienced web administrators rather than novice users. The service is outstanding, and there are all business-related or personal features you could think of to run the perfect website.
The offer includes the popular dedicated plans, virtual private servers (VPS), and flexible sharing options for smaller websites.
The leading plan is the Tierless Plan (starts at $9.95/month with annual subscriptions or $10.95 for month-to-month payment) which includes unlimited domains, storage space, emails, and data transfers per month. The security options are also exclusive, and bandwidth is unlimited, while skeptic users will also appreciate the money-back guarantee in case they are not satisfied with the service.
InMotion
InMotion is an attractive and robust web hosting service you can use personally and professionally. The same as our previous recommendations, InMotion offers shared, dedicated, and VPS hosting packages, all of them packed with e-commerce functionality for online retailers.
What makes InMotion really popular is unlimited tech support, as experts are available 24/7 via live chat, phone, and email. A FAQ self-service knowledgebase is also available and offers amazing video tutorials and live forums where you can consult other users and share experiences.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy also counts as one of the main players in the hosting industry, and that’s because of its analytic background. Even the Economy Plan designed for limited budgets helps give sense to numbers and maximize monitoring and offers parked domains and unlimited bandwidth. The only drawback would be the limited disk space (100GB), which is still a reasonable amount of small businesses and simple websites. Email accounts and MySQL database allotment is, however, the lowest we’re discussing in this article (capped at 10), which is why you should give GoDaddy a second thought.
Despite these limitations, GoDaddy has a remarkable reputation that could hardly be ignored and owes most of it to its remarkable uptime and security. Setup is also way simpler than with similar hosting providers.
Bluehost
Bluehost is a real bargain when it comes to the money you’d pay for it, but it will nevertheless surprise you with functionality. Features other providers treat as extras are provided by Bluehost for free, as for instance shared SSLs and anti-spam filters. Plus Bluehost is one of the rare providers that would allow you to build up your own feature list to start with.
Looking at Bluehost, novice users are pretty likely to underestimate its power, o refuse it because of the limited disk space (100GB) and email accounts (100). However, we still believe this is one of the most reliable hosting service providers for small websites that don’t really need that much storage.
SiteGround
SiteGround’s development team made an outstanding effort to ensure all users can get a grasp of its functionality, especially looking at the StartUp plan that bundles nicely all functionality needed by average-size business sites and personal blogs. The Plan will do even for small retailers, assuming that they don’t have a long list of products to offer.
As your website traffic grows, you can always enrich the list of features with premium resources and shift to the GrowBig plan which will easily accommodate heavy traffic and multiple pages. Consumers with several sites should also consider it, as the price is really affordable.
A2Hosting
A2Hosting’s strongest side is speed, as this is the preferred choice of webmasters looking to take shared hosting to a whole different level.
The amazing loading time is due to the use of advanced SSDs in the shared environment other hosts avoid because of the price. A2Hosting definitely knew how to turn this into a competitive advantage, and it is thus the fastest and most advanced hosting on the market. Users can also count on active development support, particularly those looking to adopt the last versions of their programming software. Based on this, A2Hosting is definitely one of the most trustworthy providers out there.
Flywheel
There isn’t that much information concerning Flywheel’s uptime, but the actual results provided by customers have been nothing but positive. As they claim, Flywheel’s uptime goes as high as 99.99%, and they’ve never experienced any serious issues or difficulties using it. W can also think of few personal examples that confirm that.
Flywheel is also a smart choice observed from a security perspective, knowing its scanning and malware monitoring capacity that is simply unsurpassable. To make matters better, Flywheel joined forces with WordPress’s leading security solution called Sucuri.
Media Temple
Media Temple is what we’d call a flexible hosting choice and a definite favorite for bloggers. It offers a variety of hosting possibilities, including the chance to construct personalized, Linux-powered sites.
What Media Temple is mostly known for is reliability and scalability, especially in cases with serious traffic spikes. At the same time, the company offers enterprise-grade email service, full responsiveness on different operating systems, and reasonable prices.
Rackspace
Rackspace may not be the leading web host on the market, but it is certainly the largest one. Currently, it serves over 300,000 customers located in 120 states, be those the owners of enterprise-grade websites or small blogs. The thing that is specific about Rackspace is that it doesn’t offer shared hosting, and may not give you all the features necessary to sell products online.
How does Rackspace work? Setup is one of the simplest and friendliest we’re familiar with, and so is server configuration. The same as with other dedicated hosting platforms, it is the user who builds up the server and decides how to use it. The better he does his job, the better the specs will be, and he will eventually manage to sell more.
KnownHost
KnownHost is not a new name in the business environment, as it predominantly focuses on VPS hosting, and looks to attract growing sites likely to switch to a higher package in future. The strategy proved to be right, which is why their VPS plan is the most popular one on the market for the time being.
It doesn’t take to be an expert to conclude that such a successful VPN provider is actually a stable and reliable company which manages operations from a personal data center, and has almost no service interruptions to compromise that reputation. With KnownHost, you get 99.995% uptime, and that’s more than any other host can guarantee.
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February 27, 2017
DiscoverWhy a web design agency should use multipurpose themes
Since the creation of the platform designed for bloggers by the time the multipurpose sites of big brands started using it, WordPress has gained the trust thanks to its simplicity, functionality and customer support.
Today, there is no easier way to create a quality website than using WordPress, even if you have no knowledge in programming and web design. Tens of thousands of people around the world today are building their careers professionally using WordPress.
Another advantage given by WordPress is that you will easily find the design that will satisfy your own purposes and will reflect your corporate spirit. You can integrate the themes with the ambiance of your primary website or adapt an existing design.
The multipurpose WordPress themes are finding their way in all types of industries. People use them for personal blogs, for promoting their businesses, for selling products, for creating their portfolios and much more. The different layouts are allowing to customize the theme just the way you want.
You always need to make a deep research when choosing a theme for your business. The key is to choose the right WordPress theme that will present you and your company in the best way possible.
There are many competitors and businesses in the online world that try to attract the same customers that are your target, so you need to give your best when choosing and developing your design.
Multipurpose themes – a solid trend
Now, a growing trend in the WordPress world is the usage of multipurpose themes. People are turning their attention toward these themes because they give the capability to create multiple types of websites. The multipurpose themes have a page builder that offers a simple management of multimedia content.
Without much prior knowledge, everyone can successfully manipulate photographs, video clips, graphics and texts on the site. This means that the people who manage the content do not have to be programmers. The interface is user-friendly, free and very pleasant to work with.
Versatility
What makes a multipurpose theme so desired are the many advantages they have when compared to the single purpose themes. It offers many types of widgets and plugins, shopping lists for e-commerce sites, galleries, data analytics, optimization tools, which have been downloaded several thousand times.
No matter for what kind of business you need to use WordPress, the multipurpose themes will always satisfy your preferences.
A great thing is that the multipurpose WordPress themes are totally responsive to all types of devices. No matter if you will use them on a tablet, laptop or mobile device, you will always be provided with the highest quality.
Many new and modern plugins are offered and the user is able to create multiple layouts on the same theme.
The idea behind the introduction of the multipurpose WordPress themes is to offer a single website template that people will be able to use for any type of business.
As we already stated, the themes are completely responsive, offer the possibility to be used for promoting and selling all types of products and services, for eCommerce sites, also they can be used for portfolio creation, blogs of all types and much more.
Flexibility
The multipurpose WordPress themes are very flexible and you can modify them with ease. WordPress gives you the chance to use the colors, fonts, sizes, positioning of the elements as you desire. Like that, you are able to create the site that you have always been dreaming about.
With these themes, the way that you will represent your brand or business is completely in your hands.
Since everything is left up to you, you need to use the flexibility of the multipurpose themes wisely. Always keep in mind that if you present yourself well on the market, you will attract more customers and expand the business.
If you don’t like the offered website template, you can modify it easily. All the basic materials are offered to you, such as the homepage, one-page site, internal website pages, all you need to do is “play” with them and accommodate them per your wishes.
Choosing a multipurpose theme
Now, you may think that since these multipurpose themes are covering all possibilities, they must be bad in delivering content. This assumption is true only if you end up choosing a theme that is poorly coded and not well organized.
Take your time and carefully choose the theme. There are many multipurpose themes available in the market, the majority of them are well organized and developed well, allowing for quick and easy customization.
Sometimes, the multipurpose themes may confuse the new users, since they offer many options in order to cover as many customizations as possible. Because of that, they provide multiple layouts and with that increase the possibility that the user will find the type of design that he is looking for without making any customizations.
Since the website of your agency is the first thing that a potential customer sees, it must be designed with the highest quality.
Now, almost every business is making its path to the online world in order to target a bigger audience. Like that, the number of competitors in the online world is rapidly increasing.
Because of that, you need to give your best in order to stand out from the crowd, and the way for becoming recognizable and wanted is to offer the best possible design and user experience.
If you have a web design company, you must develop an appealing brand that will shine with creatives and uniqueness. Only on that way you will sparkle the attention of the customers and motivate them to choose your brand.
Always make sure that the website through which you offer your services is compatible with all types of devices. Also, don’t exaggerate with the visual design. Everything needs to be beautiful and peaceful for the eye of the visitor in order to be able to convert him into a customer.
Ending thoughts
A good looking and professional website is essential for the success of every business that tries to get in the online world.
Make sure that the website is responsive and functional. The good thing for the multipurpose WordPress themes is that they merge all of the functionalities in a single package.
They are made ready for direct usage in every type of industry, with the capability to be transformed in a brand-new page with a few clicks. But, remember, always take your time when choosing the right theme. Nothing great can be achieved overnight!
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The post DiscoverWhy a web design agency should use multipurpose themes appeared first on ThemeFuse.
