Wordpress

8 Types of Websites You Can Create With WordPress

By Ashutosh Jha → Thursday, August 18, 2022

Barbara Januszkiewicz has rightly said, “Creative thinking inspires ideas and those ideas inspire change”. If you are a creative person, WordPress welcomes you to turn your imagination into the reality.

This globally renowned CMS platform opens endless possibilities for creative people. Whether you are a photographer, blogger, graphic designer or a young entrepreneur who has a great startup idea in mind, you can easily begin your online journey with WordPress.

WordPress is a very flexible content management system. With the correct combination of plugins and theme, you can build nearly anything with it.

It would not be wrong to say, with WP, the sky is the limit. The best thing about WordPress is, unlike most CMS platforms, the need of hiring a developer is almost slim to none.

8 Top WordPress Websites Types for your Next Business

Let’s have a look at types of websites you can build with this amazing CMS platform. These top WordPress website types will help you understand what all kind of websites can be built with WordPress so that you can start your online journey.

Blog

If you keep a passion for blogging and want to show your interest and talent to the world, you can’t find a better platform than WordPress.

WordPress was first started as a simple blogging platform and today it is a popular content management system in the world. Therefore, it understands each and every requirement of a passionate blogger.

Why WordPress is the Right Platform for Blogging.

Adequate Support

As a newbie, you may require technical support frequently. WordPress comes with easy support forum where you can get all kind of support to set up your blog.

Countless Theme Options

As a blogger, your primary concern might be the design of your blog. WordPress has a number of options for themes. Apart from official WordPress theme directory, there are countless marketplaces that provide both premium as well free themes.

Monetization

WordPress supports various ad networks such as Google AdSense, Propeller Ads, etc.

Some of the popular blogs built on WordPress are TechCrunch, Reuters Blog, After Ellen, Spoon and Tamago, Darren Hardy, The Positivity Blog, etc.

eCommerce

With the popularity of the internet and advancements in technology, more and more businesses are switching from offline to online. If you are also planning to enter online market with your products and services, WordPress gives you this opportunity through its WooCommerce plugin.

This free plugin allows you turn your WordPress site into an eCommerce store. The plugin lets you perform various tasks with just a few clicks such as accepting payment, managing inventory, product shipping, etc. WooCommerce needs to be installed and activated just like any other WP plugins.

There are various tutorials available that guide how to turn WordPress into an e-commerce site, one easy one you can find on 000webhost.com.

Online News/Magazine Portal

Over the past years, you might have noticed a huge growth in digital magazines and online news portals. You will be surprised to know that in the United States only, there are more than 18 million e-magazine readers and this count is growing with each passing day.

If you are planning to launch online news or magazine portal, look no further. WordPress has thousands of responsive themes that can give the best professional look to your online news and magazine and can handle all requirements perfectly.

The Newspaper is a well-known WordPress theme that lets you create a professional and eye-pleasing news portal. The theme provides exceptional ease to write blog posts. Apart from news portal, you may use this theme to build an online magazine and a review site.

Apart from themes, there are numerous plugins which have been specially designed to help you present your news in a better way. Some of the popular plugins that can turn your WP into an online magazine are:

• Storyform
• IssueM
• WP jQuery Pager
• WP Easy Columns
• Aesop Story Engine
• Gridster

Knowledgebase

If you are expert in your niche and want to impart this knowledge to others via an online medium you can easily build a knowledge website with WordPress. Such websites come with various service tools that help you provide your audience a quick answer to their queries.

There are hundreds of professional themes and plugins available that you can use to build a knowledge base site. Some of the popular ones are given below.

• InfoCenter
• Uncode
• Helper
• Flatbase
• KnowAll, etc.

Using these tools, you can easily create a Wikipedia like knowledge-base.

If you want to add documentation section on your current WordPress website, you may install Knowledge base plugin on your site. This plugin lets you build self-service customer desk within few minutes. Using it, you can easily create a professional resource of helpful articles.

Community Forums

For last few years, we have been seeing a huge rise in the community forums. They are the best platforms to create an open discussion on specific topics.

Even from the marketing point of you, community forums have proven quite effective. So if you’re looking for the right platform to build a community forum, invest in WordPress.

WordPress is the best platform for community forums. It supports various plugins and tools that can help your build an excellent forum support. Let’s have a look at few popular forum plugins for WordPress.

bbPress

This plugin lets you integrate a forum into your WordPress site. The best part is, it uses the same WP core and follow the same coding standards as WP.

BuddyPress

With this tool, you can create your own social network within your WordPress site like bbPress.

CM Answer

If you want to create a question-answer community on your WP Site, CM Answer lets you quickly set up this feature. This plugin can integrate with almost every WordPress theme. CM Answer will enable your user vote on question and answers.

DW Question Answer

It acts as similar to CM Answer. You can create a question-answer site in just a few steps. With this plugin, users can vote and comment on answers. Moreover, you can use it as a support forum.

Business Website

In the present digital world, having a professional website is quite crucial for every business. Today, if you don’t have a website you’re definitely going to lose some great opportunities.

You probably don’t know, but a business website can be used to run various marketing strategies. It has a wider reach than any other form of advertising.

WordPress is one of the best platforms to build any type of business website. With WordPress, you can create a professional looking website within a few minutes. Even some powerful brands such as BBC America, The New Yorker, Bloomberg Professional, Variety, Sony Music, PlayStation, etc. have chosen WordPress.

Avada is a popular multi-purpose WordPress theme that you can use to build any kind of business WordPress website. It is a fully responsive theme, which can adapt to any screen size. As Avada is a Retina Ready theme, everything looks sharp and crisp. Moreover, it comes with dozens of pre-designed page layout that means you can set up your site within few minutes.

Online Business Directory

Are you planning to build an online business directory something similar to CitySearch, Manta, Yellowpages or Yelp? If yes! WordPress is the platform you were looking for.

There are numerous WP business directory plugins that can help you to turn WordPress into an elegant business directory.

As business directories and job boards are high in demand, building such websites can be your smart move.

Some popular WP plugins for online business directory

Sabai Directory

It is a fully responsive premium plugin that lets you create a community-driven directory like Yahoo Local, Yelp, Google +, etc. It gives you an option to display listing in a map, list, and grid view.

With this plugin, you can give your users option to search your listings by keywords, locations, distance, and category. Moreover, you can also set auto-suggestion feature for user convenience.

Connections Business Directory

It is another high-rated business directory plugin which you can use to build a business directory or link directory. Its simple design, unique features makes it more popular among people.

Business Directory Plugin

Business Directory Plugin is a fully customizable plugin you can use to create a local directory.

Portfolio

If you are a photographer, home designer or any other artist, a portfolio website is a great platform for you to showcase your talent in the best possible manner to your audience. By building a professional portfolio, you can take your business to the next level in a cost-effective and noticeable way.

The WordPress theme ‘Heat’ allows you to build an eye-pleasing portfolio site. Its layout is designed to fulfill the requirements of graphic designers, illustrators, and photographers. That is why countless artists across the globe are using this WordPress theme.

Some of its great features are:

• Responsive design
• Built-in shortcodes
• Custom post types for a large-scale website.
• Featured Content Slider.

Final Words

Started as a blogging platform, Today WordPress is used to build almost any type of website. Its powerful content management system is more powerful and easy to use than any other platform. That’s why 30% of the total internet is powered by WordPress only.

Website

DIY Don't: 7 Reasons You Shouldn't Design Your Own Website

By Ashutosh Jha → Friday, August 14, 2020

There are over 1.7 billion websites in the world today and new ones are launching every second. With so many people competing for attention, how will you make your business website stand out from the crowd?

If you're just starting out, it's easy to think a free website will save you money, but in fact, the opposite is true. A professional website is an investment in your business and will help you attract high-paying clients and customers.

Why You Should Not Design Your Own Website

Here are 6 reasons why you shouldn't design your own website and hire professional web designers to do it for you.

It's well said that Developing a website is not just a technical skill, it's much more than that!

1. Professionalism

If you're a serious business owner or a brand, your website is your business card. It's the first thing people will look at online and judge your brand accordingly. If you use a free web design platform or don't personalize your domain name, you won't attract any clients or turn a profit.

Consider hiring web development agency services to make sure you have a professional website made to attract and convert clients.

2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for ranking high on search engine pages. For example, in order for Google to find your website and decide how to rank it, the website needs to be properly optimized.

This includes using special plugins and tools that not all free web design platforms offer.

Not only these, if you're going to design your own website, but you also need to understand many common website errors and attributes as well. Some of those are like-

• 301 redirects
• Backlinks
• 404 error pages
• Schema markup
• Domain authority, Page authority, MOZ score, Domain Rating, and more such parameters
• Anchor Text and more

All these come under on-page SEO techniques that need to be done in order to rank a website.

3. Website Management

Having a website means you'll need to manage and update it constantly. Whether you want to add new images, blog posts, or pages, or want to view your analytics, most free platforms offer only the basic tools.

For example, if you want to design your own ecommerce website, you'd need to constantly update the products you offer. You'll need to migrate your website to a more powerful platform. This can end up costing you more money than professional web design.

4. Ownership

Before you create your own website design free of charge, think about the ownership. Web design platforms like Squarespace and Wix own your website because they own the software you used to create it.

If something happens to these platforms and they stop working, your website stops working with them. There are many other aspects as well like you're not the client of yourself. That means, even if you won't like many things, you will go with it as you have developed yourself. And usually, developers fall in love with what they do.

Further making changes on it will be difficult for you. But at the same time, if you are getting it developed from some professional agencies, you can be strict with the requirements. And even if your developers are not making as expected, you can always get it changed. With a professionally designed website, you can be sure it's always safe and secure.

5. Customization

Most free web design platforms offer a certain level of customization, but to truly personalize your website, you'd probably need to pay huge monthly fees.

For a good website, along with the programming skills, you need various tools for the different works. These may include image design, graphics, SEO analysis tools, Email marketing, and more. And getting all these one by one can be a tedious job and expensive as well.

A web designer can create the website of your dreams, exactly like how you imagined it. This way, you don't have to compromise between functionality and design - you can have both.

6. Timing

Let's say you have decided to launch a website in the next 6 months and instead of going with professional developers, you're creating yourself. Most of the time you will see the project is not on time. Although there are many free and paid project management software are available to manage the time but still it is very difficult. 

 

This might be due to various reasons and some of those are-

• You're stuck somewhere in technical errors
• You're not good in graphics designing
• Website load time is more
• You are not getting enough time to work on it
• Logic is not as expected and many such errors

Any of these issues can simply increase your project timeline and you will end up creating a huge mess. At the same time, if you are getting it developed by some agencies, it's their full-time work and they will follow your timeline.

7. Ads and Banners

If you're creating a website you must be either creating it for some services or some information. If you're creating for sharing some information then you may want to monetize website using some kind of ads.

Here also, if you are not much work in the area, then you will end up increasing the website loading time. This will again impact the website SEO and also the user experience will be impacted a lot.

At the same time, if you're getting it developed from professional developers, they know how to generate the revenue from the website without impacting the user experience.

Conclusion

Now You Know Why You Shouldn't Design Your Own Website and Leave It to the Pros.

Before you attempt to design your own website, think about the time and energy you'd be wasting. If you're serious about your business, it's best to leave web design to the pros so you can focus on more important things.

Want more business and entrepreneurship tips? Check out the other articles we've written on these topics and stay tuned for the newest industry trends and updates.

Website

Designing a Website Blog From Scratch- A Complete Guide

By Ashutosh Jha → Sunday, December 1, 2019

Did you know websites with a blog receive 434 percent more indexed web pages compared with websites without a blog?

If you want your website to rank high on search engines, creating a blog is a great place to start. However, starting a blog can also feel like you're designing a website from scratch.

Guide While Designing Website From Scratch- 10 Steps

Not to worry. In this article, we'll reveal how to get your blog up and running quickly with these simple tips going forward. Let's go!

1. How to Pick Your Blog Name

You might be panicking already cause you can't come up with an interesting, catchy and awesome blog name on the spot.

Remember, this is your brand name which needs to be relevant to the topics you're expecting to cover in your posts.

But also, you can always change your blog name later if you change your mind. If you're really struggling, then choose your name or nickname. For example, sillyharry.com.

You need your blog name to stay simple and to the point. You want to appeal to your audience, while also considering how the name appears to search engines. So always include SEO keywords.

2. Register with a Hosting Provider

Once you're ready with your blog name and domain name, it's time to register with a hosting provider.

This ensures your data files are accessible and secure. You can take advantage of free hosting providers. However, they always come with risks and low-quality services.

Alternatively, you can go with one of the many hosting providers which charge a subscription fee. These can usually save you money along the way by providing you with better website design, too.

You can discover more and compare the different hosting provider options available for your blog.

3. Picking a Blog Platform

You need to select a blog platform to write your articles and design a website from scratch. This is called a CMS (Content Management System).

A Content Management System (or CMS) is where you'll be writing, designing, and publishing your blog posts. You should be able to upload content here and select themes for your blog.

There are tons of blog platforms from Wordpress to Squarespace. You need to choose which is right for you.

4. Decide on a Blogging Niche 

Your best chance of becoming a successful blogger is to establish yourself as an influencer in your niche.

How can you do this?

You need to write about something you're already passionate about. But that's not enough either. You also need to know your stuff!

Research what your audience would actually be interesting in reading about. The more interesting your blog to your readers, the more effective you'll be at driving web traffic to your website. You can check most profitable blog niches to get some ideas.

5. Design a Blog Website

It doesn't matter what your content is about if you can't get your audience to stick around long enough to read anything.

Attention web designers - you've got 50 milliseconds to make a good impression with your website.

You need to instantly connect your audience on an emotional level. This requires an awesome blog design which draws you into reading the content.

That's not just about the aesthetics of the blog web pages either. While this is important, it's not everything.

It's also got to be easy to navigate around the web pages. Over 94 percent of users say that an easy to navigate website is a deal-breaker.

Users want your website to be intuitive to browse. They shouldn't have to second-guess each click. It needs to be obvious how it works.

6. Include Essential Web Pages

You've got to remember the boring bits of your blog website, too.

It's not only about fascinating blog posts and intriguing design. You also need to include the essential web pages, such as "About Us/Me," "Contact Page" and also, "Store/Shop".

Your "About Me" page should focus on who you are and why you're writing this blog. Talk about your background (why your opinion matters?) and what's your motivation (why you want to help?) to build authority.

Your "Contact Page" should simply include a basic email address and social media accounts. You can also include an option to call via telephone. You could also include a message box to encourage interaction.

7. Establish a Strategy

It's important to establish a strategy to connect with your audience.

First, consider what you want to achieve with your blog. Do you want to drive web traffic to your online store? Or, do you want to build your authority?

Make sure you learn who your audience actually is. You can discover information via Google Analytics and other tools. Knowing the location and demographics of your audience is important for engaging with them more effectively.

8. Make a Blogging Commitment

Your audience doesn't want to read a one-off blog post without ever hearing from you again. You need to show that you're reliable with a regular blog post.

Tell your readers that you're going to post every week or bi-weekly to maintain enthusiasm for your blog activity. Keep yourself organized to make sure you meet this commitment to maintain trust.

9. Include Images and Videos

Your audience doesn't just check into your blog for the words. You could also add videos to your blog to spice things up.

Your audience also wants images! In fact, blogs with images receive 94 percent more views than those without images.

10. Promote Your Blog

It's not as simple as "write the blog and they will come". You need to go out there and promote your blog yourself.

The best tools at your disposal are definitely social media networks. Whenever you publish a blog post, post it on Facebook and tweet about it Twitter. This is a sure-fire way to build your audience for your blog articles.

Designing a Website From Scratch

Now you know the tricks of designing a website from scratch to make a blogging success. Starting a blog can appear a lot of work at first. However, breaking it down to 10 steps makes it much easier to get going.

If you want to learn more about how you can make your blogging website successful, check out our consulting services here.

Website

Why You Should Design Your 404 Error Page

By Ashutosh Jha → Wednesday, April 24, 2019

The cool thing about the internet is that no matter what you do, there’s an explanation for everything. Even if a website is experiencing a glitch it will always let you know with a helpful 404 Error Message.

A 404 error message is an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) standard response code which means that the webpage you were trying to reach could not be found on the server. It is a client error which occurred for one of the following reasons…

• The page you’re looking for was removed from the server
• The page was moved to a different location but the URL wasn’t updated accordingly
• You typed in the URL incorrectly
• You followed a bad link

Does a 404 Error damage SEO?

If you’re wondering whether 404 errors have an impact your SEO efforts the answer is, not really. However, it could definitely cause a lot of missed opportunities if you don’t fix them. If you have old backlinks on your website that return a 404 error fix them, remove them or redirect your broken URLs to the new locations. If you have links on your website that direct users to broken pages, fix them as soon as possible to optimize your visitor’s user experience.

Why You Need A Custom 404 Error Page

A 404 error page is a very handy feature to have on any website. It lets visitors know that there’s a problem instead of having the screen randomly freeze up. But the standard 404 Error Page is just a white screen with simple black text stating, “Not Found. The requested URL was not found on this server.”

It’s pretty cold and impersonal. It also isn’t very helpful about what you should do next. This lack of personalization may even cause people to close the tab and leave your website altogether. Anyone with an online presence will tell you that this extremely bad for business because your audience may find what they’re looking for on another site and never come back to yours again. To help your website visitors get back on the right track you need to design and customize your 404 error page.

What to include on your 404 Error Page

Encountering a 404 error can be extremely annoying and frustrating for users. As the owner of a website, you should create a 404 error page that can transform a bad situation into a good one.

A user needs some direction when they land in an error page. Your 404 error page should include links to the following...

• A link back to your home page
• Links to some of your most popular posts
• A link to your category pages
• A contact page or form
• A way for users to report the error and broken link
• A search bar to help users search for something similar directly from the error page

Cool Ideas For Creating A Custom 404 Error Page

As a digital marketer, the last thing you want is a visitor leaving your website because of a bleak error page. Luckily there’s an easy fix. You already have an awesome website and know how to be engaging, fun and creative. So why not let that shine through to your 404 error page too? Here are a few tips to help you create a 404 error page that doesn’t look bleak and boring.

Use Your Unique Voice

A 404 error page is still technically a page within your own website. So make sure your custom message is written in a voice that’s consistent with your brand.

Use Pop Culture References

Don’t be afraid to think out of the box and customize your message to include a reference to the latest superhero movie, celebrity or song.

Look and Feel

Use text that blends in with your brand’s logo and the general look and feel of your website. It’s best to stick to the same style, fonts, colors, and voice that you use across all your other pages.

Explain

Try to give a little information as to what may have caused the error. Use something like, “The page you’re looking for is missing but we’re working on it.” A reassuring message goes a long way in keeping visitors happy.

Be Human

There’s nothing more annoying than an error page. So try to use humor or a light tone in your error message. Something like, “Looks like we have a few gremlins in the system” accompanied by some animation or illustrations can lighten the mood of a frustrated user.

Website

How To Make Website Successful: 5 Key Elements

By Ashutosh Jha → Thursday, April 11, 2019

Your approach to web design can determine your site’s success. If you want to rank in the search engines, acquire new customers and develop a healthy revenue, there are some key features you’ll need to incorporate into your new website.

How To Make Website Successful

However, you must look beyond beautiful aesthetics and focus on everything from SEO to online marketing. Here are five key elements that can make your website a success.

1. A Good Domain Name

The domain name you choose should not only complement your brand, but it should be easy to remember to encourage return visits. However, you’ll need to secure the name before someone else does. Once you have brainstormed a range of potential domain name ideas to suit your online venture or blog, find out how to get started with domain registration.

2. Visual Appeal

Your web design will provide your visitors with the first impression of your brand and business. If they don’t like what they see, they’ll be tempted to navigate from your website and potentially visit a competitor.

While every website should be unique in its design, there are some key features you should incorporate:

• White space (don’t fill a site with text and images to avoid clutter)
• High-quality photos and graphics
• An attractive layout

If you’re unsure how to create a beautiful website, contact a professional web designer to create a visually appealing site that will encourage your visitors to explore.

3. Visible Contact Information

According to a recent study, 64% of web visitors want to see a company’s contact information. If the details aren’t accessible on your website, they might leave your website for good.

To encourage your visitors to get in touch, you must display the following features on your homepage:

• A telephone number
• Email
• Contact form

It can prevent your visitors from browsing through your website to find your contact information, so they can quickly and easily get in touch with your company.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Unfortunately, many companies overlook the importance of search engine optimization when launching their first website. However, it is an element you can’t afford to disregard.

If you want your website to rank highly in the search engines and enjoy a wealth of traffic, you must embark on effective SEO tactics, such as:

• Content optimization
• Descriptive URLs
• Writing optimized meta descriptions
• Building internal and external backlinks
• Improving page speed
• A good user experience (UX)
• Updating your website with fresh, well-written blog posts

There is no point creating a stunning website if no-one can find it online, which is why you need to master SEO to exceed your competitors in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

5. Online Marketing

It’s not only SEO that can help your visitors find your site, as online marketing strategies can also help your target audience to find you online. To attract new customers, readers, and email marketing subscribers, you should:

• Write compelling social media posts
• Publish third-party guest posts (generate backlinks back to your website)
• Work with influencers to grow your brand recognition and traffic
• Run paid social media marketing advertisements

By following the above marketing tips, you could potentially boost your brand recognition, improve your web traffic and increase your conversion rate.

Website

7 Tips For Marketing Your Website

By Ashutosh Jha → Sunday, March 17, 2019

No matter what industry you're in, in today's world, it's all about the digital world. In fact, 85% of consumers look for local businesses online before making a purchase. With that knowledge in hand, it's clear that your website should be a large part of your marketing plan.

Let's assume that your website itself already rocks. It's well-designed and full of valuable information. It's also written and designed in a way that converts readers to customers. 

If that's the case, the next step is marketing your website. Reel in more users with these tips.

Tips for Marketing Your Website

You've invested in a solid website, and now you want to make it count by getting more views. Try these website marketing strategies.

1. Start a Pay-Per-Click Ad Campaign

One of the most effective ways to start getting traffic is with pay-per-click ads. Often called PPC ads, these are the ads that look like results listings at the top of your searches. In Google searches, the first three or four results are usually ads.

You can set any budget you want on your PPC ads, so it's an option for any size of business. If you have the budget for it, try to create several ads to target different consumer groups.

For each of those groups or each item you're advertising, create a dedicated landing page. The landing page should be catered to the same audience as the ad and should steer readers to take the next step in your sales funnel.

2. Become the You in YouTube

Videos are an essential element in any modern marketing strategy. They're engaging, familiarizing, and versatile.

Start posting regular videos to YouTube, but be careful what type of videos you post. Your goal should be to inform your audience and become a resource they trust.

For example, let's say you're marketing a nail salon. Create videos with nail care tips, new trends, a nail art design of the week, and more. If your content is valuable enough, you could become an influencer in your own right.

Of course, you need a way to direct those YouTube viewers to your site. Include a call-to-action in each video inviting viewers to head to your site for more great content.

3. Offer Text Alerts

Not all marketing is about introducing yourself to new consumers. You also need to drive the users who are already in your pipeline to make a purchase.

One great way to do that is with text alerts. Through your social media profiles, website, emails, and other marketing channels, invite consumers to sign up for your text alerts. Offer an incentive like an initial discount to those who sign up.

When you have a sale or at various intervals, send out texts about your products. It could be the reminder consumers need to head to your site and make a purchase.

4. Make Use of Your Social Media

Social media is a vital tool for every company, no matter your target audience or your industry. It's a way for your customers to get familiar with you and learn about you in a comfortable setting.

You don't have to be on every social network that exists. Choose the ones to focus on based on your target demographics. For instance, let's say you're marketing a product that's only useful for senior citizens. Since most of Instagram's users are under 35, it probably won't be worth your time.

As you start posting, make sure your posts don't sound like sales pitches. Your goal is to gain users' trust and let them learn who you are.

It's helpful to use the 70/30 rule: 70% of your posts should be sharing others' content while 30% should share your own content or promote your products.

5. Become a Podcast Pro

We've already talked about how engaging videos are, and the same goes for podcasts. While podcasts are nothing new, they're having a massive revival in popularity and you should take advantage of it.

Start a podcast based on your niche and your area of expertise. As with your videos, the goal isn't to directly tout your services and sell your products. The goal is to become an informative source and gain your listeners' trust. The revenue will follow.

Of course, make sure you bring it all back to your website. Include a call-to-action in each podcast to tell listeners how much more content you have on your site.

6. Up Your SEO Game

As much as ads and other marketing techniques can do, you can't replace the power of good old search engine optimization for gaining website traffic.

Start by finding the best keywords in your niche: we're talking high volumes and low competition. Work those keywords into your content, your meta tags, your URLs, and more.

Don't forget that search engines change their ranking algorithms all the time. For that reason, your SEO is an ongoing project. You should be constantly evolving your strategy, updating content, revising your list of target keywords.

7. Hand It Over To the Pros

Let's be honest: marketing your website is a ton of work. Too many entrepreneurs have spent countless hours and money they didn't have on the DIY approach to no avail.

If you want a more efficient job and you want to get the most bang for your buck, you need a professional. Talk to a variety of marketing teams and compare their proposals. A digital marketing proposal example will give you an idea of what to expect.

Giving Your Website Its Due

Every modern business owner with any degree of success knows how crucial their website is. At this point, you've probably poured your heart and soul (and money) into a website that builds your brand and speaks to consumers.

Even the best website in the world won't give you a return if no one sees. The tips for marketing your website above can give you those all-important views that turn into customers.

For more helpful info on how to build your business no matter where you're starting, check out our blog for entrepreneurs.

Website

5 Web Designer Skills Every Blogger Must Have

By Ashutosh Jha → Friday, March 8, 2019

With the average small business now spending around $75,000 a year on digital marketing, even small blogs have to struggle to compete. If you want to have a standout blog, you need to have a few web designer skills to stay ahead of the competition. Even if you're not using it as a marketing tool, to get the readers you're looking for, you need a solid design.

5 Web designers Skills Bloggers should have

Here are five skills that every blogger should have.

1. Mobile Optimization

Given that mobile browsing has far surpassed desktop usage for several years in a row, you need to make sure your blog looks good on mobile devices. It's vital to have a design that's optimized for mobile devices given that's where a growing population of your audience is going to be.

Reading on a mobile device introduces more challenges that are found on a laptop or a desktop. However, there are some great design solutions that have allowed more bloggers to stretch and scale their pages to optimize reading. If you're using a CMS like WordPress, there are a lot of plug-ins to help make things easier.

Make sure you're not causing your readers to squint or to have to stretch or scale your text. The text shouldn't be cluttered and should be in a standard and easy to read font. Avoid using white text on a black background or any majorly contrasting colors.

Don't crowd the space with ads, videos, and images. They can be used to break up text blocks but placing them side by side makes it harder to read. Make sure things are scaled to fit on any kind of mobile device without any awkward margins.

Mobile traffic is increasing day by day and being a website owner or business owner, you can't ignore this at any cost.

2. SEO

Search engine optimization is more than just adding the right keywords. Search engine algorithms now know how to tell if your site is well organized and designed properly. They can tell if you're adding images that are too big or too small for devices you're displaying your information on.

There are also a lot of opportunities to connect your site to search results. You can add undisplayed text to the "alt" tags behind each imaged. You can also add keywords at the header of every page to help direct searches to you.

When people are using a search engine, they're either looking for specific service or the answer to a specific question. Your blog can answer those questions while offering your talents or specialty as the solution at the end of each post. If you don't offer services, you can use links to other posts to keep them engaged.

The longer that you keep people on your URL, the higher you'll rank on search engines. With lots of quality content that's all linked together, you'll get a high ranking on your favorite search engine. Combine all of these elements and you'll get lots of valuable traffic.

3. Integrating Media

Given that video is slated to account for more than 80% of internet traffic in the coming years, you need to give the people what they want. Even if you're a much better writer than a videographer, you need to add some media to your blog. People want to see video explainers, how-to videos, or get an introduction to who you are and what you're about.

If you can't get it together to make a video, you can accent your posts with videos or gifs. They bring content alive and allow readers to see another perspective on what you're writing about. When you're looking to engage with your audience, you need to offer the kind of content that they're looking for.

Images and videos are good for engaging with your readers in a memorable way. While some people can remember and recall text exactly as they read it, pairing ideas with an image helps to solidify the idea in their minds. When you're able to integrate your text with images, you'll build a dedicated audience who understands your style.

You can build a unique style through all the elements of design and some well-placed pieces of visual media.

4. Designing Logos

Your logo is going to be what becomes your brand. People will look at your logo as a way to get an idea of what you're about. The way you design your logo is going to influence how people treat you and the content that you post.

If you're designing a fun and friendly website for kids and families, you want to have a colorful logo with lots of images. You can turn your letters into fun shapes and use a more playful font.

If you're creating a site for professionals to get advice about succeeding in their industry, you're going to want to play it cooler. Add a minimalist logo with a simple color scheme to ensure that people take you seriously. You can check- how to create free business logo online.

5. Adding Links

Links are part of the way that you design your website and attract an audience. Part of the way that you design your website needs to include links that are cleverly and carefully integrated. Your links should be clear, but not too distracting and not overly promotional.

If you're going to promote other products, other writers, or your own writing, you need to do so in a way that isn't distracting. There are other link styles that aren't as ugly and garish and still let people know they can find more information.

Check out this site for a how to on creating a custom WordPress.

Web Designer Skills Take Practice

When you're trying to hone your web designer skills, it'll take some trial and error to get it right. Just make sure that if you get better at what you do, that you revisit some earlier posts to get everything up to the standard you're trying to meet. You never know when an old post might suddenly take off.

If you're looking to generate some leads that turn to sales, check out our latest guide to make a little bit of money from your blog.

Website

Do You Have Website Conversion Rate Formula For Your Page?

By Ashutosh Jha → Tuesday, February 26, 2019

The terms "conversion rate" and "website conversion rate formula" may sound intimidating to anyone who lacks confidence in math, but you don't need to be a mathematician to figure them out.

The conversion rate measures how many visitors to your website are doing what you want them to do — often this can mean buying your product. However, it could also mean completing a form, contacting your business, using your online chat, signing up for your subscription, registering with your company, downloading some software, using a feature on your website, upgrading with you, or simply engaging. 

To find out more about conversion rate formulas and how to improve yours, check out the guide below.

What's a Website Conversion Rate Formula?

A conversion rate formula is the method you take to calculate your conversion rate. The essence of a conversion rate is actually quite simple.

At its core, a conversion rate is the total number of conversions divided by the total number of website visitors, multiplied by 100 percent. When you dig into it, however, there are far more metrics you can take into account.

You can use your conversion rate formula to target specific kinds of conversions. This can help you better develop specific aspects of your marketing strategy. It will help you find out more about how to convert users.

Why Website Conversion Rate Formula Is Important?

A great conversion rate is not magic. It comes from the ability of your marketing team. Their ability cannot improve without effective analytics.

Whenever you run a new advertising campaign or implement a new design, you can track conversion rate changes to determine if they had the intended impact. Then you will also know who to give the credit for the success.

Measurement Periods

There are a lot of different metrics that can affect your conversion rate. You need to consider how short or long the conversion rate should be. Then, you need to consider your product and development cycles.

Should you choose a longer measurement period, it shouldn't be too long to measure what affects your profitability. Measurement periods near one year may show stable numbers but are too general.

If measurement periods are too short, they may not account for the daily fluctuations that occur during normal business cycles. For example, there may be fewer conversions during holidays or other periods where there is less staff in house.

Finally, your measurement periods should align with your user experience shifts. Don't spread them across more than one design change or marketing campaign.

Making Your Business Successful

In a world with 4 billion Internet users, a successful business needs a good conversion rate formula. Make sure to use this guide to figure out if your formula is working for you.

The first step is to figure out what aspects of your marketing strategy aren't working. Use specific conversion rate formulas to target things like keywords and individual ads. Analyze the numbers and improve those marketing strategies. Here is a table showing summary of the website conversion rate formula which you can use for reference.

For more tips and tricks on how to make your business more profitable, don't forget to check out our consulting services.

Website

Business Marketing 101: The Importance of A Website

By Ashutosh Jha →

Small businesses all over the world are blowing up, making hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions. The people behind these businesses didn't spend 10 years in college, some of them didn't go to college at all.

How is this possible?

More importantly, how can you and your business get in on this action?

7 Top Importance of a Website

Read on to understand the importance of a website for your small business and how you can improve your revenue exponentially. If you're looking to start a website, you may check how to start a website on WordPress from Scratch and How to create a free blog on blogger.com.

#1 Information

One of the major contributions websites offer for businesses is getting their information out there.

When people are searching for businesses near them, they need to know things. A good website will tell your customers where you're located, what your hours are, and how to reach you.

A website will also tell your customers what you do and why they need you.

Often, if a website doesn't offer enough information that the consumer is seeking, they will go somewhere else.

#2 Extended Reach

The more people that walk into your business, the more revenue you will make. This is simple statistics.

If you make one sale for every 10 people, logically, you should make 10 sales for every 100 people. These statistics punctuate the importance of a website for your business: more traffic = more sales.

The struggle for most businesses, however, is getting high volumes of traffic through the door.

That is where your website comes in. Having an online storefront means your potential client base is no longer restricted to your localized store. Your potential client base is now anyone with an internet connection.

Now, the value of a website for your business is amplified if you integrate it with social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram.

To make the most of social media, make sure you understand or seek help to build a following and use SEO properly.

#3 Build Relationships

A website will allow you to build a relationship with your customers. Being online will allow customers 24-hour access to your business as well as provide them a safe place to contact you.

People can browse your website and get a feel for who you are and what your business has to offer. If you have a blog page for your website, you can offer a greater experience to customers with entertaining and informational articles.

These articles can contain links guiding readers to your product page, further increasing your sales.

#4 Showcase Your Business

Recent studies have shown that 85% of consumers use the internet to find local businesses.

[Image Source: Yelp Blog]

Therefore, the major importance of a website that should never be overlooked is its ability to showcase everything people need to know about your business.

If a customer drives by your store, maybe they'll stop, maybe they won't. If they have somewhere to be or are exhausted from work, you aren't getting their business.

They may never come into your store.

However, if your business is as easy to explore as picking up a phone, people will be much more likely to take a look, either leading them to your brick and mortar storefront or to your products page.

#5 Cater to Less Active Consumers

From ordering pizza to buying toilet paper, everything can be done online. You never even need to leave your home.

That's how we like it.

If you aren't offering online shopping to your customers, you can bet somebody else is, and customers will always go with whatever's easiest.

Having an online shop that offers shipping will make shopping easy and products more irresistible for the average consumer. This is a guaranteed way to get more sales.

#6 Lower Costs

Depending on your business, it might be beneficial to close down your brick and mortar storefront and operate exclusively online.

It is now possible to run a store and sell endless products without needing an inventory, negating any need for a physical location.

In this scenario, you would affiliate with a distributor. Your clients would buy products through your website. You then place the order with the distributor (at lower cost), and the distributor sends the product to your client.

Yes, you would basically be a middleman.

There is another option in which you do have products and an inventory, but they are stored with a third party. You pay them a monthly fee, and they hold your inventory and ship it to your customers.

#7 Credibility

In America, 77% of us own smartphones. We use them for everything. Most of us would be completely lost without one.

[Image Source: pewinternet]

However, as a business owner with a website, this benefits you.

When people are searching for a product, local or otherwise, the first thing they do is a search for it on the internet. As mentioned above, 85% of consumers use this approach while shopping.

What that statistic doesn't express, however, is that these consumers will judge a business based on its website.

A good website can increase your sales tenfold. A poorly done website, however, can drive your sales into the ground.

These sub-par websites have what's called "high bounce rates", meaning potential customers leave the website after only viewing one page. This is usually an indication that the website isn't very appealing or easy to use.

A bad website will drive customers away and lower your credibility with online consumers, while a good website will keep customers coming back for more.

To understand more about quality web design and see how the experts do it, visit this page.

The Importance of a Website, Yes It's Worth It

Although this is all new and may seem incredibly complicated, you can do this.

The days of brick and mortar stores being enough are over. With the digital age upon us and growing, those who don't understand the importance of a website for their business will not be able to compete.

Luckily, there are many people out there who have studied and perfected the art of website design and online marketing. These people make businesses profitable.

If you know deep down that you need a website, and a little help building one, we're here for you.

Search the rest of our site or reach out to us for help!

WordPress Hosting

5 Things To Know Before Starting Self-Hosted Blog

By Ashutosh Jha → Monday, January 28, 2019

For months you’ve been contemplating starting a blog, as a way to showcase your interests and talents while teaching people about a topic that you are passionate about. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to throw a ton of content on a page and call it a blog.

5 Things to know about starting a self-hosted blog

Let’s start and see what all you should consider before starting a self-hosted blog. If you are serious about a career as a professional blogger, there are a few things that you need to know.

#1 Set Goals

While you may have already decided on the niche that you'll be blogging about, you still need to have a clear understanding of your goals for the blog. Without establishing achievable and quantitative objectives, you won't accomplish much. Setting goals gives you both long-term vision and short-term motivation, according to MindTools. When you think about the goals for your blog you want to be sure to set goals with measurable quantities, set deadlines for completing your goal and try not to consider failure as an option.

#2 A Self-Hosting Blog is Best

If you want your blog to provide you with an income eventually, then you need to get a self-hosted blog. Even though you will need to buy a domain name and pay for hosting, it will be worth the investment when you start to make money from your blog. The best hosting 2019 companies make the entire process simple with easy setup and installation. You’ll also need to factor in the expenses for your theme, testing, and marketing.

#3 Google Analytics is Vital

Google's free analytics tool can be your new best friend when you learn how to use it correctly. It can help you come up with new blog topic ideas and lets you see if a subject that you've already blogged about is worth revisiting. The tool also provides you with the data that you need to find out where your visitors are coming from, how long they spend on your site, and the platforms they are accessing it from. According to the site Yola, having access to your site analytics will help you understand your visitors' behavior, so you can better optimize your website.

#4 Keep your Quality Consistent

When you start a blog that you are hoping to earn an income from, it is essential that you provide posts that are relevant and filled with value-added information. If you've committed to writing a new post every week, each of those posts must give value to your audience. Your readers want to know that each post that you provide will be as insightful and engaging as the last one.

#5 Patience is Essential

Your favorite blogger didn't just start to write one day and end up with hundreds of followers the next. Each one worked hard to get where they are today. It is essential that you are patient when it comes to your blog. When you first start, take the time to focus on your visitors by looking at their comments, social media shares, and emails to determine how you can continue to improve your site.

Wrapping it up!

Starting a blog can be incredibly time-consuming and challenging. There are a lot of steps that you will need to take before you can even publish your first blog. Avoid common mistakes, and you will be well on your way to a long and happy career as a blogger. If you’re just starting with the blogging, you may check how to start a WordPress blog from scratch. Or if you’re looking for the free blog, check how to start a free blog on blogger platform.

Website

Live in the Now: Tips to Get Your Website Updated for 2019

By Ashutosh Jha → Sunday, January 27, 2019

With the average small business set to spend around $75,000 a year on digital marketing, it's important that those dollars go to the right place. One of the places they have to go is to get your website updated on a regular basis. An outdated website makes it look like you don't care about your audience or your overall web presence.

Here are four tips to ensure it's clear you know how to communicate online.

1. Focus on SEO

If you want more traffic on your site, you need to ensure that you've got your search engine optimization plan in place. Search engines rank sites based on how relevant their keywords are, how much new content they're regularly creating, and whether they have a far reach. If people are not only visiting your site but hanging out for a while, you're going to have a strong SEO ranking.

If you want to get a good SEO ranking, you need to find ways to have your site constantly updated. The best way to do this is by starting a blog.

When people jump on a search engine, they're either looking for a specific product or the answer to a question. By writing a blog, you get the opportunity to capture both audiences by answering questions where your products and services are the solutions. A regularly updated blog with lots of great content is going to be shared multiple times and ensure that your reach expands.

SEO also comes into play across your site in a variety of ways, through metadata and undisplayed text. When you have images or videos on your site, there are elements of code to help describe what the videos and images are on your site. This descriptive text goes undisplayed and often gets tracked by search engines, helping to add to your ranking online.

SEO changes constantly so you need to update it to ensure that you're on top of the latest changes.

2. Have a Call To Action on Every Page

If you have call to action buttons already, you're on the right track. You may have them and not even realize. However, many web designers skip them altogether because they don't see the value.

A call to action button entices visitors to explore your site more by directing them to another article or to leave a comment.

Once you have your call to action buttons in place, you might think that you can set them and forget them. The thing is, as you seek repeat visitors and an ever-changing clientele, it's vital for you to change your calls to action from time to time. You need to keep your first-time visitors as interested as your repeat visitors.

If you want to keep your website updated, your calls to action need to have updated language from time to time. If you have the perfect language, you can change the SEO around your call to action or update your landing page. The more time you devote to improving, increasing, and updating your calls to action, the more of a response you're going to get.

You also need to avoid the same call to action on every page. Unless all of your pages have the same goal—in which case, why do you have repeat pages?—you should have different calls to action on each page. Vary them based on what each user is doing on each page, even if they end up in the same place.

3. Try a New Template

If you're using a tool to help you build and maintain your website, there are probably a wide variety of templates available. Each one has their own merits, but it's vital that you try out as many of them as possible. Don't deploy each one, but try them out so that you can see what else your site could look like.

If you have to pay for a new template, it's probably not that much and the rebranding could be well worth it. After a while, it's hard to ensure that your old site, with all of its foibles, is still as easy on the eyes as it once was.

Another issue is whether or not your current template is the best one for mobile devices. It's vital to think about how mobile devices display and load your website as your company grows and we get ever deeper into the mobile era. With mobile taking so much more traffic away from desktops, this is an absolute necessity.

Templates are offered with the need to do too much tweaking. Usually, you can just plug in your data and it'll populate like you'd built the site with that template initially in mind.

It so much more affordable to try out a new template than to redesign your site from scratch. If this is an option for you, it's the best one that money can buy, hands down. When adding things to your website update, consult this checklist to make sure you've got everything you need.

4. Use More Visual Media

If you look at where the internet is headed, it's soon to be a video-dominated medium with a few images and a little bit of text. In the future, the content you'll be looking at, much like this article, will be a video, even if it's just voice synthesized over generalized infographics.

For now, you need to make lots of useful content and media for your visitors. With video set to become more than 80% of all of the traffic online in the next few years, it's important to consider what this medium means.

On top of videos and photos, create lots of infographics to try and grab your audience on another level.

Keep Your Website Updated All Year Round

When you're worried about keeping your website updated, you need to follow the latest trends and styles. If you're feeling like you're behind what's hot right now, hire a consulting agency to help you.

Check out our guide before you hire anyone to help you.