Category Archives: News

Having a website is one of the main initial stages of getting your business online, however you have to be very careful with the kind of website you are putting online. It should be a website that will increase your sales and not only for online display.

Most people usually make a mistake of getting a sub standard website online which cannot provide a way for clients to request for services. You need to have your website well developed to allign with your business strategic goals and vision.

Some of the main reasons why most websites are unprofitable are:

1.Poor design and development of the website.

Everyone loves nice things therefor your website must look beautiful when a client visits it. Your developer should layout it well,every button,link,form or photo must be clearly placed.

2.Search Engine Unfriendly Website.

Most Search Engine Unfriendly Websites have heavy graphics, a lot of inline CSS, unfriendly URLs, have no h1 tags and less h2 tags, images lack alt text, no htaccess file, no robots.txt file, they are not registered in google webmaster tools e.t.c.

3.Poor online marketing.

Apart from creating a nice website you should do a well-organized online marketing so that people can discover your website. This involves creating social media pages on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter e.t.c.

Do you have a website which has never brought in new clients? If Yes you Need to do a Redesign of the website. You can do this by informing your developer to do it or you can hire our experienced developers to do it. Your website should automate your daily office operations.

How Do you Improve Your Website Performance?

Over 45 percent of people will leave your site if it takes over 5 seconds to load. Yeah, your site’s performance is that important. Not only that, site performance is a crucial part of your overall online presence. With a slow loading website, you’re automatically creating a poor user experience, which will only reflect negatively on the success of your site and diminish your chances to succeed. Plus, you’ll also rank lower in the search engines.  Below we offer five different ways you can easily improve the speed and performance of your WordPress site.

 

Measure Your Current Performance

You can’t improve your website performance if you don’t know your current metrics.

There are two different tools which will analyze your site and give you a breakdown of how it stacks up against the rest of the web.

The first is Pingdom, and the second is GTMetrix. You’ll probably get a similar report from both tools, but the more data you have to compare the better.

Open up the tools above, input your URL and record your results. You’ll use these to compare against once you’ve worked through the steps below.

1. Compress and Optimize Your Images

No matter what kind of site you run your images will probably be some of the largest files. For that reason, they can really wreck your loading speeds.

Luckily, there are a few different tools you can use to optimize your images and make them smaller, all without sacrificing the quality.

The first step is optimizing your images before you upload them to WordPress. This is done in two steps.

The first is resizing your images so the dimensions are correct. If your site only uses images that are 600px by 500px, there’s no point in uploading an image that’s 6000px by 5000px.

Once you properly resize your images, you can upload them to an online tool called TinyPNG. This nifty tool will compress your images and make them smaller without causing any loss in quality.

Now, you’re ready to upload them to WordPress.

To take your image optimization efforts even further you can install a plugin called Smush Image Compression and Optimization. This plugin will optimize any images in your existing library, and optimize images as you upload them to your site.

2. Optimize Your WordPress Databases

Over time your WordPress databases can become pretty cluttered and full of junk files you no longer need. Instead of letting these pile-up and affect your performance you can actually get rid of them with the help of a plugin.

Now, you can do this process manually. But, it involves accessing your MySQL database and is probably too technical for most users.

Two of the easiest to use plugins are WP-DBManager and WP-Optimize.

The process of using these plugins is simple. Install it from the backend of WordPress and decide whether you want to optimize, repair, backup, or even restore an older version of your database.

You don’t have to use both plugins, but instead, decide which one suits your needs best.

3. Use the Power of a Caching Plugin

Caching can be a very effective way for high-traffic sites to improve their performance.

Without a caching plugin every time a page or post on your site is loaded information has to be retrieved from your CSS files and databases. A static HTML file is generated from that information and served to your visitors. Since there are multiple levels of communication this process can take a lot of time.

A caching plugin will store versions of those HTML files, so they can be loaded anytime someone accesses that page on your site. And this helps to improve your website performance loading speed.

Two of the most commonly used caching plugins include W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache. When installed and configured the right way these plugins will drastically reduce loading speeds and improve your site’s overall performance.

If you’re using a high-performance WordPress host, then there’s a chance there’s already built-in caching. So, check this before you decide to install one of the plugins above.

4. Remove Unused Plugins and Themes

Over time, all of our sites experience clutter. It’s important to regularly clear out things that your site no longer needs to function to improve your website performance.

Maybe, you have a bunch of themes installed that you haven’t used in years. Or, you could have a ton of plugins installed, most of which serve no purpose.

If you have a lot of unused plugins and themes this not only leaves you open to more security vulnerabilities, but it’ll also negatively impact your site’s performance.

Go to your WordPress dashboard and deactivate and delete any themes or plugins that you’re no longer using. You could also have a lot of media that you’re no longer using or linking to as well.

To locate and delete this unused media install and use the plugin called Media Cleaner. This plugin will scan your site for media you’re no longer using, and give you the option to delete it.

5. Choose a Performance-Oriented Host

Carefully choose a faster hosting company to improve your website performance. So, if you’re still running on a basic shared hosting package, it’s probably time to upgrade.

Even if you implement all of the above tips, you probably won’t see much of an improvement if you’re using a slow host.

As a WordPress site owner your best option will be using a WordPress-specific host. This style of host will have a server setup that’s been completely optimized to run WordPress. You can also keep an eye out for things like an integrated CDN, which will store copies of your site on servers across the globe.

Hopefully, you’re better equipped to speed up your existing WordPress site. As our attention spans continue to get smaller your site’s speed will become more and more important.

If you’re looking for a WordPress host that cares about and understands performance, then we hope you consider Namecheap. Consider these important tips to  improve your website performance.

We all have belongings we hold onto for way too long; Things that are way passed their prime but technically still function, so why bother replacing them?

Many of your prospect’s first impression of your company will be based on what they see on your website.  If you’re on the fence about investing in a website redesign, we’ve compiled a list of eight reasons it’s time to pull the trigger on a website redesign.

1. You Want to Create a Better User Experience

User experience (UX) is a newer discipline of design that’s become increasingly crucial in a website’s success. It deals with the emotional experience a visitor has when navigating through your website and how it aligns with their intentions.

A site that is tough to navigate, has slow load times, or is unnecessarily complex can leave a bad taste in your visitor’s mouth and cost you valuable leads. In fact, 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience.

If your website is guilty of these bad UX practices, you should look into a website redesign that focuses on creating a more enjoyable experience. To improve the UX of your website you should:

• Understand your users’ behavior
• Think of the goal of your website and what action you want your visitors to complete
• Implement the use of a user analytics software, such as Hotjar, to keep continuously improving your site’s UX.

2. Your Website Just Doesn’t Work

Have you ever been to a site that was almost impossible to use? You wait forever for it to load only to be presented with broken links, outdated offers, and a layout that isn’t optimized for a modern day browser?

Not only is it frustrating, it makes you less likely to view that website as being reputable.

Your website might not be at this level of broken, but areas of your site may be dated and in need of a tune up. For example, maybe you haven’t optimized for the latest browsers, or you’re linking to old pages that no longer exist and were never properly redirected. These issues may seem small, but they play a significant role in the overall effectiveness of your website.

Neglecting this for too long can have a significant impact on your traffic and lead gen efforts.

3. Your Current Website Isn’t Mobile Responsive

This should be a no-brainer. Living in today’s multi-screen culture, you need to make your website satisfies this behavior. Plain and simple, if your website isn’t mobile optimized, chances are you’ll miss out on valuable leads and even customers.

A study released by Salesforce found that “83% of mobile users say that a seamless experience across all devices is very important.” People want to be able to get the information when and where they need it and if your website can’t deliver it to them, they’ll look elsewhere.

If you haven’t mobile optimized your site yet, look into a content management system that’s out-of-the-box responsive (for example, the HubSpot Website Platform). This will get you up and running faster with little development knowledge needed. I also recommend investing in a browser testing software, such as BrowserStack, to make sure your website looks consistent from device to device.

4. You Need to Re-align Your Website with Your Marketing Goals

As your company grows and evolves it’s not uncommon for your sales and marketing goals to also evolve. Keeping your website aligned with those goals can be a tough task, but it’s an essential piece of digital marketing success.

Try reviewing your site quarterly to make sure it’s actually working towards your specific goals (i.e. increased traffic, leads, etc.). If not, it’s time to make some updates.

5. You Want to Optimize the Buyer Journey on Your Website

Your website is a key player of your sales team. It works around the clock to create a positive impression for visitors and deliver current prospects the vital information they need. That’s why it’s important to tailor your website to the specific buyer journey of your persona.

A well-thought-out user journey takes into account your buyer’s journey and will keep them moving through your sales funnel.

In our blog post “How to Embrace the Inbound Buyer’s Journey on Your Website,” our Chief Strategy Officer, Tom DiScipio outlines a few strategies for infusing elements of the buyer journey into your website. They include:

• Thoroughly researching and defining your buyer personas. Understanding their goals and behaviors.
• Map out your buyer journey in an easy to understand chart
• Make use of tools such as Hotjar and HubSpot to research your buyer’s on page behavior

6. Your Branding is Outdated

Similar to your marketing goals, your company’s branding needs to be consistent with your website.

If you’ve recently undergone a rebrand, you’ll want to update your site to reflect these changes.

When updating your site keep in mind a rebrand isn’t just about your logo or colors, it also includes the content and language used on your site.  You don’t want people to land on a page and think it doesn’t look or sound like it came from the same company.

7. You Have Outdated Third-Party Tools on Your Site

Most websites today feature third-party tools that give us the ability to add new functionality to our sites (very common on WordPress site).

Some of the popular tools include eCommerce plugins, scripts to embed social media feeds, and exit-intent popups. While these tools add value to your site, over time they can become outdated for today’s standards and end up doing more harm than good.

HubSpot suggests asking yourself these questions to determine if it’s time for an update:

• How are these third-party tools working?
• Are they slowing down your site speed?
• Are there new-and-improved versions available?

8. You Want to Convert More Leads

Perhaps the appearance of your website is fine, but your website is still not converting prospects into leads or customers. If this is the case, consider revisiting your landing pages and calls-to-action (CTA), or conversion paths in general, to see where they are falling short. Perhaps your landing pages are too complicated. the language used in your CTAs is unclear, or people simply can’t find one when they need it.

Either way, you should try to make the necessary changes to pull customers deeper into the sales funnel.

Conclusion

A well-designed website is one of the most effective marketing tools you have at your disposal. Make the most of it by keeping it updated and easy to use. If you can relate to a few of these points it might be time to invest in a website redesign.

What do you think are some other signs its time for a website redesign? Let me know in the comments below!