This blog post will engage in the Laravel vs. WordPress debate. You will get clear and comparative insights that will help you decide on the best option for your travel website. Our discussion will cover essential aspects such as cost-effectiveness, security, and more. Let’s begin with brief introductions to both options. 

An Insight into Laravel

Laravel, an open-source PHP framework, was specifically crafted to simplify web development. This framework helps streamline the process and reduce the likelihood of errors by offering a range of built-in tools. 

Over time, this framework has evolved into a popular web development tool. Now, Laravel is widely employed by CMS web developers for building blogs and eCommerce sites. Developers can leverage several Laravel-based CMS solutions like Lavalite, October CMS, and WinterCMS to create robust and scalable websites.

This framework can thus be an excellent option if you run a travel agency business and want a powerful website for your online marketing endeavors. It’s important to note that Laravel is a robust platform and requires proficiency in CSS, PHP, and HTML to build a functional website effectively. 

Consequently, a Laravel-based CMS product is not recommended for beginners embarking on their initial web development venture. Nevertheless, for those with the requisite expertise, Laravel proves to be an incredibly scalable platform capable of accommodating projects of any magnitude. Now that you have learned about Laravel let’s head on to WordPress.

An Insight into WordPress

This is the budget-friendly solution that many travel agencies start with. WordPress, a content management system (CMS), empowers users to effortlessly develop, publish, and manage websites without requiring technical expertise. Being an open-source platform, it comes at zero cost and can be customized by developers to match their specific requirements.

WordPress offers a diverse range of features and functionalities. For instance, you will get customizable templates or themes to enhance the overall appearance of your travel website. Additionally, its plugins extend its capabilities by providing features like social media integration, eCommerce functionalities, and SEO tools.

The popularity and success of WordPress can be attributed in part to its vast community of users, CMS web developers, and contributors. This community actively engages through forums, blogs, and documentation, offering valuable support and resources. Users continuously enhance the platform by sharing knowledge.

Let’s now understand the differences between Laravel and WordPress. 

Performance and Scalability

Laravel

As a PHP framework, it employs various performance-improving methods to ensure smooth execution. It comes with a modular structure and comprehensive ecosystem that facilitates the creation of highly scalable websites. 

Furthermore, Laravel’s support of queueing systems, like Redis and RabbitMQ, enables you to manage tasks asynchronously. Moreover, a Laravel-based CMS solution benefits from the constant optimization of the powerful underlying PHP engine, which has been refined over the years.

WordPress

WordPress, constructed using PHP, has undergone substantial enhancements to optimize its performance in recent years. It provides an array of plugins and themes that enable you to improve your site speed significantly.

This CMS platform was initially designed for smaller-scale websites. But now, it can be scaled up with the help of caching plugins, content delivery networks (CDNs), and optimized hosting environments. This enables you to manage high website traffic effectively.

Ease of Use

Laravel

Laravel might appear overwhelming if you lack proficiency in website creation. Nevertheless, becoming a master programmer is not a prerequisite to utilizing this framework effectively. Basic knowledge of PHP and familiarity with CLI functionality should harness the power of Laravel.

To facilitate your journey with Laravel, there is extensive documentation available. For an optimal learning experience, you can explore the Laracasts library. Within this library, you’ll find in-depth video tutorials that guide you through the fundamentals of Laravel and teach you how to leverage its many pre-built features or packages.

WordPress

It is easy to learn WordPress, even if you lack basic CMS website design and development experience. It may take some time to have a fully functional website. But, the abundance of resources and tutorials available for WordPress makes it achievable. Additionally, the presence of an intuitive dashboard makes this CMS an excellent choice for beginners.

As you gain experience with WordPress, you will find it easier to build new pages and websites. You’ll become proficient with the Block Editor, learn to select the right plugins for specific situations and gain insights into choosing appropriate themes for travel and tourism websites.

Cost-Effectiveness

Laravel 

In the case of Laravel, building a reliable backend necessitates the expertise of an experienced PHP developer, while a front-end developer is required to create an appealing and user-friendly interface. 

Partnering with such developers could be expensive, considering they would need to develop all the essential features from scratch. However, this problem can be solved by opting for a Laravel-based content management system that makes creating and maintaining websites easy. 

WordPress

While WordPress is not entirely free, as you may eventually need to pay for plugins or themes, it can still be cost-effective and time-saving by eliminating the need for a developer’s services. Even if you work with a web development company to customize your website, WordPress developers are generally more budget-friendly compared to Laravel developers. 

This cost difference is attributed to the technology used, as Laravel might present challenges for heavily customized web applications.

Security

Laravel 

Laravel incorporates various built-in security features. This includes password encryption, authentication mechanisms, route protection, and defenses against common threats like cross-site request forgery and SQL injections. These aspects collectively make it a highly secure platform.

WordPress

There were security concerns in the past for WordPress. However, it has made significant efforts to address them. The CMS platform has seen security improvements and benefits from a large supportive community that contributes to its security. Nonetheless, ensuring website security on WordPress might involve taking extra precautions, such as installing security plugins and frequently updating the system.

Laravel vs. WordPress: Which Is Better?

Selecting between Laravel and WordPress will depend on your specific requirements and goals. Before making a decision on the ideal platform for creating your travel website, it is essential to carefully evaluate your project’s needs, development skills, and long-term vision. Collaborating with a skilled CMS web development company in NYC is highly recommended for optimal outcomes.

The post WordPress vs. Laravel: Which One to Choose for CMS Web Development in Travel Industry appeared first on SiteProNews.

Indexing your website is important because it helps in the success of your SEO strategy and include that your website pages will appear on the search result on Google. A quicker indexing procedure guarantees that readers will see your material more quickly, boosting the possibility of engagement and bringing more prospective consumers to your website.

But before you understand how you can index the website faster; it is important to know what indexing is and then how it helps in indexing the website faster on Google. So, let’s begin.

What is Google’s Index?

All the online pages that Google has crawled and is aware of are listed in its index. It won’t show up in search results if Google doesn’t index your website.

Nobody would be able to find your website, which would be bad for business. Hopefully, you now understand the significance of indexing for Google ranking.When users input queries into the search field, Google can swiftly gather and display pertinent search results because of this digital library of data on websites and their pages.

Ways to Improve Google’s Indexing of Your Website

For your content to be seen by more people and to increase traffic to your website, it is crucial that Google indexes your website rapidly.

1. Check Settings for Search Engine Visibility

The first thing you should consider is to make sure that search engines can see your WordPress site is the first step. By visiting the settings and then clicking on the Reading page and scrolling down to the Search Engine Visibility option, you can quickly verify this.

To allow search engines to index and crawl your website, make sure the checkmark is removed from this option.

2. Submit Website to Search Console on Google

All website owners can use Google Search Console, formerly known as “Google Webmaster Tools,” for free. To ensure that the proper people are seeing your website, it demonstrates how Google indexes and includes your website in Google search results.

Using the best SEO plugin for WordPress, you can effortlessly submit your website to Google Search Console and see if your web pages are indexed.

3. Remove Nofollow Link

Googlebot notifies Google to remove nofollow links from its index when it encounters them. Therefore, you must ensure that nofollow internal links are removed.

Simply search for and delete the rel=”nofollow” link tag. You can either accomplish this directly from the HTML code or by using the block editor in WordPress.

4. Build High-quality Backlinks

Search engines can tell that your material is useful and deserving of being indexed when you receive high-quality backlinks from trusted websites. To hasten the indexing procedure, use ethical link-building techniques like guest posting and working with influencers.

5. Social Media Promotion

To make your content more visible, share it on social media sites. Search engines may take notice of and index your material more quickly as a result of social signals. To increase the reach of your content, encourage users to share and interact with it.

6. Regularly Update Content

Search engines favor recent, fresh content. To maintain your existing information current and educational, regularly update and add to it. Request re-indexing using Google Search Console if you make significant updates.

7. Create an XML Sitemap

A sitemap makes it simple for search engines to navigate your website’s information. It provides them with a comprehensive inventory of your material in a machine-readable format.

Additionally, it lets search engines know how frequently you update your website and which links on your website are more crucial than others.

When you first start a blog or develop a new website, sitemaps are quite helpful because the majority of new websites don’t yet have many internal links or backlinks. Therefore, by generating an XML sitemap, you can ensure that all of your key articles and pages, including new content, are indexed by search engines.

The next step is to walk you through creating an XML sitemap using the AIOSEO WordPress plugin, which is the simplest method. The best part is that it alerts search engines immediately whenever you add, edit, or remove information from your website.

8. Submit Sitemap to Google Search Consoles

The next thing that you need to do is submit the XML Site map to the Google Search Console, you need to simply log in to Google Search Console.

Now, you can go to the sitemaps which are on the screen’s left side, and add the last part of the sitemap URL which is under the section Add new sitemap and click on the Submit button. You will start receiving reports in the search console once Google has crawled and indexed your website.

9. Optimize Your Robots.txt File

Since it serves as a website map for robots that crawl websites for search engines, a robots.txt file is an effective SEO strategy. Your robots.txt must grant Google permission to crawl the website, as you would have predicted.

However, as wp-admin pages are neither beneficial to your visitors nor necessary for Google to crawl, it is typical to forbid them. Search engine rankings can be improved and page speed can be increased by instructing Google not to crawl unused sites.

However, when it comes to indexing, you must ensure that your pages are crawlable and that no significant URLs have been blocked. Instead, you can instruct Google bots to give specific URLs priority when crawling them.

10 . Create Internal Links on the Website

Internal linking is one of the most efficient techniques to promote crawling and improve website indexation. Links help to build the crawling spiders’ routes through the web. The spider follows a link from one page to another when there is one.

Therefore, concentrate on building links to and from all of your most crucial pages. This notifies Google about your fresh and significant material, as well as the visitors to your website. You can utilize AIOSEO’s robust Link Assistant tool to make internal linking simple.

Click on the Links Report under Link Assistant in the All-in-One SEO menu. This report can help you find new opportunities for connecting as well as orphan posts—posts without any internal links at all.

There’s no need to manually modify every single post. Without leaving the page, you can quickly create both outgoing and inbound internal links using the Link Assistant.

Conclusion

The rate at which Google indexes your website can be considerably increased by implementing these tactics. Because it takes time for search engine algorithms to evaluate and rank fresh material, patience is essential. You may effectively increase your website’s exposure and online presence by constantly producing worthwhile, optimized content and making use of these strategies.

The post 10 Ways to Index Your Website Faster on Google appeared first on SiteProNews.

Sitecore Vs WordPress: Detailed Comparison

1. Ease of Use

WordPress: WordPress is renowned for its user-friendly interface and straightforward setup process. It has a simple and intuitive dashboard that allows users to create, edit, and publish content without any coding knowledge. The availability of pre-built themes and templates further simplifies the website design process, making it accessible to beginners and non-technical users.

Sitecore: Sitecore offers a more complex user interface compared to WordPress. Its interface is feature-rich and designed to cater to the needs of enterprise-level businesses. While this provides greater flexibility and functionality, it also means that there is a steeper learning curve for users who are new to Sitecore. Sitecore’s advanced features require some technical proficiency and training to fully utilize.

2. Scalability and Flexibility

WordPress: WordPress is highly scalable and can handle websites of all sizes, ranging from small personal blogs to large e-commerce platforms. Its extensive plugin ecosystem allows users to add features and functionalities as their website grows. However, when dealing with large volumes of content or high traffic, WordPress might face performance issues unless optimized properly.

Sitecore: Sitecore is built with scalability in mind, making it an ideal choice for enterprise-level businesses. It can handle complex websites with large amounts of content and high traffic volumes without compromising performance. Sitecore’s architecture is designed to handle demanding digital experiences, ensuring stability and scalability as your website or application grows.

3. Customization and Development

WordPress: WordPress offers extensive customization options through its themes and plugins. There is a wide range of free and premium themes available that allow users to change the look and feel of their website easily. Plugins further enhance the functionality, enabling users to add features like contact forms, e-commerce capabilities, SEO optimization, and more. WordPress also has a large developer community, providing support and resources for custom development.

Sitecore: Sitecore provides robust customization options, allowing developers to create highly tailored digital experiences. Its modular architecture and extensive APIs enable developers to build complex websites and integrate with other systems seamlessly. Sitecore’s flexibility makes it a preferred choice for organizations that require deep customization and integration with existing infrastructure. However, customization in Sitecore generally requires more technical expertise and development skills compared to WordPress.

4. Content Management and Marketing Capabilities

WordPress: WordPress offers a solid set of content management features, including easy content creation, organization, and publishing. It has a built-in editor that allows users to create and format content without the need for HTML coding. WordPress also supports basic SEO capabilities, enabling users to optimize their content for search engines. Additionally, there are numerous plugins available for enhancing digital marketing efforts, such as social media integration, email marketing, and analytics.

Sitecore: Sitecore excels in content management and marketing capabilities. It provides advanced features for content personalization, A/B testing, marketing automation, and analytics. Sitecore’s Experience Editor allows marketers to create personalized experiences based on user behavior and segmentation, facilitating targeted marketing campaigns and improving customer engagement. Sitecore’s robust marketing tools make it a preferred choice for organizations that prioritize sophisticated marketing strategies.

5. Security

WordPress: WordPress is a popular CMS, which makes it a target for potential security vulnerabilities. However, the WordPress community is highly active in releasing regular updates and security patches to address these issues. By keeping WordPress core, themes, and plugins up to date, implementing security plugins, and following best practices, you can ensure a secure WordPress website.

Sitecore: Sitecore is known for its robust security features. It provides granular user access controls, encryption options, and built-in security measures to protect against potential threats. As an enterprise-level CMS, Sitecore undergoes rigorous security testing and follows industry standards to ensure data protection and compliance.

6. Support and Documentation

WordPress: WordPress benefits from a vast and active community of users and developers. This community provides extensive documentation, forums, tutorials, and online resources that make it easy to find answers to common questions and troubleshoot issues. Additionally, there are many professional support services available for WordPress, ranging from community forums to premium support from WordPress experts.

Sitecore: Sitecore offers comprehensive documentation, developer resources, and a dedicated support portal for its users. The Sitecore community is growing steadily, with forums and user groups available for knowledge sharing and support. Sitecore also provides professional support services through its network of certified partners and offers enterprise-level support plans.

7. Cost

WordPress: WordPress itself is free and open-source, which makes it a cost-effective option for many users. However, there may be costs associated with hosting, domain registration, premium themes, and plugins. The pricing varies depending on the specific requirements and premium features you choose to incorporate into your WordPress website.

Sitecore: Sitecore is a commercial CMS, and its licensing costs are generally higher compared to WordPress. The pricing structure for Sitecore is based on factors such as the number of users, websites, and additional modules required. It is important to note that Sitecore’s advanced features and capabilities are designed for enterprise-level organizations, and the investment may be justified for businesses with complex digital needs.

8. Community and Ecosystem

WordPress: WordPress has a massive and vibrant community. It powers a significant portion of the internet, and as a result, there is an extensive ecosystem of themes, plugins, and developers available. The large community ensures continuous development, updates, and improvements to the WordPress platform, providing users with a wide range of options and support.

Sitecore: While Sitecore’s community is not as extensive as WordPress, it has a dedicated user base of developers and marketers. Sitecore organizes user groups, conferences, and events to foster knowledge sharing and community engagement. The Sitecore ecosystem includes certified partners who provide implementation, customization, and support services.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a CMS platform, Sitecore vs WordPress are two popular options with distinct strengths. WordPress is user-friendly, highly customizable, and suitable for smaller businesses and individuals. Sitecore, on the other hand, is a robust enterprise-level CMS with advanced personalization, scalability, and integration capabilities. Consider factors like ease of use, scalability, customization, content management, security, support, cost, and community when making your decision. If you’re interested in Sitecore development services, reach out to our experienced Sitecore development company to discuss your needs and leverage the power of Sitecore for your website.

The post Sitecore vs WordPress: Which CMS Platform Is Right For You? appeared first on SiteProNews.

OK, you got us. You can reap the benefits of taking some things slow, like eating, aging, and walking down precipitous stairs while bringing swords. But when it comes to SEO, there’s nothing worse than going slow.

So get ready because it will be a high-speed ride to higher rankings.

Why Is Having a Fast Website Important?

Would you rather wait more than two days for your parcel, send snail mail instead of a text message, or twiddle your thumbs waiting for a website to load? No one in their right mind would want to do that. Who has time for that? Certainly not your prospective customers.

Faster-loading pages boost your site’s performance, increase Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix scores, and rank better in search results.

But exactly how much does page speed affect SEO? A slow-loading page speed can lead to:

• A 7% decrease in conversions.
• 11% fewer page views.
• A 16% drop in customer satisfaction.

And with every second, those numbers become more and more appalling:

• Bounce rates can increase by a massive 103% after only a two-second delay.
• 53% will abandon a site that takes longer than three seconds to load.
• 79% of unsatisfied shoppers, due to the site’s load speed, are less likely to buy again.

How Can I View My Page Load Speed?

Several online benchmarking tools measure page load speed. They can also show you how big and resource-intensive your site is and suggest refinements. Best of all, you can use them all for free.

• Google PageSpeed Insights conducts separate tests for desktop and mobile, differentiating load time into different stages.
  
• GTmetrix gives an overview of the size, page load time, and resource allocation, just like YSlow.
  
• Pingdom offers a similar service to GTmetrix.
  
• WebPageTest is a bit less user-friendly than the others but tends to be more insightful. Of note are its advanced options, which consider how a site performs in different browsers.

When running these tests, select test locations closest to your audience’s physical location, as this will give the most relevant results.

Now that you know your site’s page load speed, let’s see whether you’re clocking a reasonable time.

How Fast Should My Website Load?

Generally, your pages should completely load in three seconds or less.

If your speed is around three to five seconds, you’re not entirely in a bad place, but your pages are performing less favorably than expected by today’s mobile-first standards. Anything over five seconds is considered poor. But no matter how fast your site loads, it could always benefit from a boost.

You should also pay attention to your time to first byte (TTFB). (WebPageTest and PageSpeed Insights show this data.) TTFB is the period browsers wait before they accept the first byte of data from a server. Google suggests a TTFB of 200 milliseconds or faster.

Here’s more insight into page load speed goals:

• Pingdom found that most pages load in under 3.21 seconds, on average.
  
• Google says 53% of users are only willing to wait three seconds for their phones to load before moving on to another website.
  
• Akamai found that the average mobile page load speed of 2.4 seconds leads to the best conversion rate.

But how can you improve your page load speed to attain the goal of three seconds or faster?

What’s the Best Way to Boost Page Load Speed?

Several factors can affect page load speed. Some strategies can be done right away and have an immediate effect. Others will take time and testing to see the benefits.

Here are some of the best methods:

1. Enable gzip compression.

2. Optimize images.

3. Turn on browser caching.

4. Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

5. Lessen HTTP requests.

6. Reduce server response time.

7. Consider implementing a CDN.
Bonus: Make WordPress-specific improvements.

On your mark! Get set! Boost!

1. Enable gzip Compression

Compression decreases the size of your files, allowing faster downloading. It’s one of the simplest and fastest ways for page load speed optimization. Using gzip for compression is almost a norm, though Brotli is an alternative but popular method. When enabled, gzip can bring down the size of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript up to 70%. (Run a gzip test to see whether you have it enabled.)

Most WordPress all-in-one performance plug-ins grant you the option to enable compression automatically. You can manually enable compression by adding some code to your .htaccess file for those who are more hands-on or using a different CMS.

2. Optimize Images

Some of the typical culprits contributing to large page sizes are images. Generally, your pictures should be adequately sized and optimized according to the following:

• Under 100 kilobytes.
• Set to the exact size the picture will be shown.
• Saved as JPG (unless it’s transparent, in which case use PNG).

With image compression comes a notable decrease in quality, so don’t let your desire for faster load times adversely affect the quality of your website’s design. But at the very least, if your website has a 600-pixel width, for example, don’t upload a picture that’s 2,500 pixels wide.

Optimize images before uploading them using Photoshop (paid) or GIMP (free). For added compression, you can also utilize an online optimizer such as TinyJPG. If you want another option and use a CMS like WordPress, Smush and EWWW Image Optimizer are good backup plug-ins. Some plug-ins also grant you the ability to enable a “lazy load” feature that gives priority to above-the-fold content and only loads your pictures when a visitor scrolls down — drastically reducing requests your server receives.

3. Enable Browser Caching

When visitors return to your site, their browser redownloads files like scripts, images, and style sheets — unless you’ve enabled browser caching.

With browser caching, static files are saved on the user’s browser. So the next time they access your site, they don’t need to download anything again, so your page loads much faster.

If you’re using WordPress, caching is relatively easy. Plug-ins like WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache guide you through all the needed steps and set it up for you. Just make sure to use only one of these plug-ins at one time. Also, enabling caching manually is a bit more complicated.

4. Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Minification removes redundant or unnecessary code without affecting performance. This includes eliminating code comments, lengthy function names, spacing, and so on — all things that aren’t visible to the user but weigh down your load speed.

WordPress plug-ins like WP Super Minify, WP Rocket, and W3 Total Cache are ideal for novice web developers to achieve minification. You will need to perform manual minification for other CMS and advanced admins. Some tools that can help are:

• HTML Minifier.
• YUI Compressor or CSS Minifier.
• JSCompress or JSMin.

5. Reduce HTTP Requests

This is a big one. Although it can get tricky, don’t let it scare you. Reducing requests is the ultimate goal of page load optimization. You should try to keep the number of HTTP requests below or around 50.

There are a lot of methods to streamline these requests, as well as speed them up.

6. Reduce Server Response Time

Changing servers is something you should do with seriousness and on the fly. But your hosting server plays a crucial role in load time, so knowing whether you have the best setup goes a long way.

Above all else, consult with your provider to ensure your servers experience sufficient uptimes, give enough bandwidth, and are located close to your target audience. If not, consider switching to a different hosting service.

Some other vital things to consider:

• PHP version
  If your site is PHP-based, you should use PHP 7 or higher. The easiest method to learn which PHP you’re using and which needs to be upgraded is by calling your hosting provider. But please remember that changes in PHP can affect some WordPress themes and plug-ins. You can quickly reverse your server’s PHP if anything seems faulty.
  
• HTTP/2
  HTTP/2 is a server-side protocol that can vastly improve site speed and efficiency. Not all sites utilize HTTP/2 when they can. You can use various online tools to check whether your server can support HTTP/2. Then, contact your hosting provider to know what options you have.
  
• Hosting type
  Most small businesses use cheaper shared hosting servers (like Bluehost, GoDaddy, and HostGator). Larger enterprises that see lots of site traffic typically need more powerful virtual private servers or direct servers to distribute their content. Decide which category you fall under using your budget and performance as metrics.

7. Consider Implementing a CDN

Content delivery networks are perfect for pages that serve many international locations or are looking for a speed boost to their regular hosting service. These third-party paid services not only give you HTTP/2 support, but also vastly reduce request times by hosting your files across an extensive network of global servers.

Some unique CDN options include:

• Cloudflare.
• StackPath.
• CacheFly.
• Google Cloud CDN.

Only some sites need a CDN (despite what GTmetrix might suggest), so we recommend executing the other strategies on this list first. Consider CDN a feasible option if your load times still need to catch up.

Bonus: WordPress-Specific Improvements

Other factors could contribute to your page load time if you use WordPress. You’ll want to address these issues along with the other methods listed above.

Reduce Plug-ins

Plug-ins are fantastic and can do a lot to enhance the speed of your site. But using the wrong plug-ins can have an adverse effect, and too many plug-ins installed can cause issues, drastically slowing down your site’s performance.

That’s why it is essential to:

• Routinely update and maintain your plug-ins.
• Routinely remove any unnecessary or unused plug-ins.
• See whether there are lighter or faster alternatives.
• Identify plug-ins with redundant functionality.
• Remove plug-ins for tasks you can easily do manually.

For example, suppose you have a Google Analytics plug-in installed. In that case, you’d be better off adding the snippet by yourself, through Google Tag Manager, or through the Insert Headers and Footers plug-in (which is much smaller than the former).

To help locate issues, an excellent plug-in assessment tool like Page Performance Profiler can identify which plug-ins are taking a toll on your page load speed. (Don’t forget to remove it when you’re done.)

Clean Your Database

Over time, WordPress databases can get bogged down by saved drafts, post revisions, and other stuff your website doesn’t need to function. Occasionally cleaning this clutter can help boost your site’s speed. Some all-in-one performance plug-ins also have this capability (similar to WP Rocket), or you can utilize the WP-Optimize plug-in.

Update CMS and Theme

Ensure you’re always using the latest versions of your theme and WordPress install. (Don’t forget to back up your site before doing so.) If your site is still sluggish after updating and making all the changes above, you might consider trying a new theme entirely. While themes make your site look better, they can bring a lot of baggage that can bog down your site.

Fast Page Load Speed Is More Essential Than Ever

If you happened to miss it, Google is entirely mobile-focused these days. And it’s not about to shift any time soon, so your pages must load as quickly as possible.

We all have short attention spans — and they’re only growing shorter by the second. If your page doesn’t load quickly, plenty of cat videos can and will. So what are you waiting for? Now is the time to start! Implement these page speed and page experience improvements right now because SERPs wait for no one.

The post How to Improve Your Page Load Speed to Maximize Results appeared first on SiteProNews.

First of All, What is a CMS?

CMS stands for content management system – it allows the users to update and work with any website without necessarily understanding the code of the website. It is a user-friendly solution for non-developers to work with websites that are using some type of CMS.

What Types of CMS Exist?

We will discuss 2 types of CMS, when to use them, what the advantages, pains and limitations of each system are: Decoupled CMS and Headless CMS.

What is Decoupled CMS and When is It a Good Solution to Use?

WordPress or Drupal are examples of so-called decoupled CMS. They are called ‘decoupled’ as they provide extensions and plugins that decouple them from their front-ends. Naturally, there are advantages to using and working with such a CMS. These are ‘off the shelf’ solutions, and easy to use.

Decoupled solutions are ideal for:

• Single page or smaller websites
• Affiliate websites
• Websites without too much javascript
• If you have limited access to developers, or small dev teams
• Websites that are not for eCommerce

There are many SEO advantages to using this kind of CMS (the most well-known is WordPress):

• Complex SEO issues are taken care of
• Automated sitemap XML
• Automated robots.txt file
• Yoast SEO plugin, which makes many standard SEO tasks easy

What is Headless CMS and How is It Different from Decoupled CMS Solutions?

Headless CMS is a back-end only content management system built from the ground up. Headless CMS makes content available via API (RESTful API or GraphQL API) on any device without a built-in, front-end or presentation layer.

The name ‘headless’ comes from disconnecting the ‘head’ (front-end) from the ‘body’ (backend).

Why is Headless Good?

For a Headless CMS it does not matter where the content gets displayed – website, mobile app or smartwatch, the only focus is on storing and delivering the content and allowing editors to easily cooperate on existing or new content. It allows for the scalability of any project.

Headless solutions are ideal for:

• Big eCommerce websites
• JavaScript heavy websites
• Native mobile apps
• Creating personalised and interactive digital content
• When you need scalability and streamlining business processes

Top benefits of headless CMS for SEO:

• Stronger SEO readiness for multiple devices
• SEO-ready for omni-channel queries across desktop, mobile, wearables, smart devices
• Headless CMS that supports SSR (server-side rendering) which is best for SEO
• Better optimisation options for speed and CWV (core web vitals)

A few words on Client Side Rendering (CSR) vs Server Side Rendering (SSR):

Google can either crawl client-side rendering or server-side rendering.

CSR – client-side rendering (it is called ​client-side rendering​ because it uses the computing power of the client device)- is a cheaper option as it reduces load time on the server. But keep in mind the main issues for CSR. One being slower and poorer user experience as rendering JavaScript can add seconds to the loading time. Secondly, CSR affects Google bots because Google has so called ‘second wave indexing. That means that bots will first crawl the HTML of the page and come back to recrawl the JavaScript once available – this may result in missing important data or content served by JavaScript. Naturally, this will impact your search results.

Pros of CRS:

• Faster rendering after initial loading
• Javascript frameworks/libraries to support CSR

Cons of CRS:

• Slow initial loading time
• Bad for CWV optimisation
• Bad for SEO

SSR – website’s JavaScript will be rendered directly on the server of the website. The benefits are that bots and humans will be served the results faster! As the pages are rendered on the server, there is no risk of missing vital content like during CSR. For these reasons, Server Side Rendering is better and more beneficial for SEO performance.

However SSR is a more expensive option and it is intensive on server resources.

Pros of SSR:

• Very good for SEO – better crawling for bots
• Faster initial rendering

Cons of SSR:

• Expensive
• Lots of server requests

A few words on Core Web Vitals (CWV):

In 2021 Google announced the importance of Core Web Vitals. Google has made it known that speed is important and it is no longer all about the loading time (but loading time still remains important).

Google places importance on stability and interactivity of the pages as well. There are 3 vital measures to pass: CLS – cumulative layout shift, FID – first input delay and LCP – largest contentful paint. There have been many good guides written on CWV – please read more here.

What are the Technical Best SEO Practices for Headless CMS?

Now to take a full advantage of what headless CMS can offer, there are some best technical SEO practices to follow. WordPress helps you with most of these, but when buildings headless CMS from the ground up you need to tsake care of this yourself.

Absolute basics:

• Canonical tag
• Hreflangs tag
• Pagination tag
• SSL certificate
• Meta title and description
• SEO content box
• SEO friendly URL structure
• Headings – H1, H2s…
• Image titles and Alts
• XML sitemap
• Robots.txt file

Nice to have for the best SEO practices:

• Breadcrumbs
• Implementations for Structured data
• 404 page
• CDN
• Speed optimisation
• CWV
• Be Mobile SEO-ready and consider omnichannel
• Be voice search ready

Main Takeaways of the Headless vs. Decoupled Debate

Both headless and decoupled CMS have their advantages and disadvantages and there are good places to use either solution – it depends on your needs.

Consider your website’s purpose before choosing the correct CMS.

If you are building:

• an eCommerce, casino, or sportsbook website,
• a website that will need scalability in the near or far future,
• if you need to publish content across several different platforms (website, native mobile apps, etc.),
• or JavaScript heavy websites…

Go for Headless CMS.

If your website is:

• a small affiliate website,
• a website where CSR is sufficient,
• if your dev team is small or
• if you need out of the box SEO solutions,

Then WP or another decoupled CMS is the best solution for you.

The post Headless and Decoupled CMS and Their Varying Impacts on SEO Performance appeared first on SiteProNews.

When it comes to CMSs, other than making your website creative and functional, they (CMSs) should ensure it (the website) is fast, stable, and secure. There are several CMSs available that help builds all-around fantastic websites. But two of the best out there are WordPress and HubSpot.

WordPress CMS

Let’s start with the first one. Launched in 2002, WordPress is a free and open-source content management system that powers more than 43% of all websites on the internet today. Moreover, when it comes to market shares, WordPress powers more than 65% of all websites developed with content management systems, followed by Shopify, with a market share of just 6.6%.

So why is it so popular? Well, WordPress contains a range of free and paid plug-ins tools to ensure the best features and excellent appearance. Plus, it is very easy to learn, meaning anyone, whether or not they have prior training and experience in programming, can develop a website through WordPress. Moreover, WordPress is open-source, so it has a massive community of beginners to expert developers to help you with any kind of issue or query regarding any aspect of website development through this CMS.

Pros of WordPress CMS Development

Here are the pros of hiring a WordPress development company:

• Open-source: First and arguably, one of the best advantages of WordPress CMS is that it is open-source, which means anyone with adequate knowledge and training can make changes to the core platform. So changes are constantly being made to improve WordPress. Another advantage of WordPress being open-source is that developers regularly add new features to the platforms to make the websites more advanced.

• Cost: Another significant advantage of WordPress is that it is free to use. There are certain additional plug-ins and features that cost tens to hundreds to thousands of Dollars depending on their uses. But, as a standard, it costs you little to nothing to install WordPress and create and update a basic website.

• FTP Access: WordPress provides you FTP access that helps create fully-customizable websites. That’s why so many people and companies tend to hire WordPress developers for complete control over their websites.

• Support: As mentioned earlier, over 43% of all websites on the internet are powered by WordPress; so you can imagine the WordPress community in the millions. In fact, more than 77 million comments are recorded on the posts on WordPress community forums every month. So if you have an issue or query, there is a good chance someone in the community has already faced it. That means you will have a definite answer on the matter in a matter of a couple of days, if not hours.

• Plug-ins: Although you might be able to create a website with barebones WordPress, if you want to add more creativity and functionality, additional plug-ins and themes might help. In the WordPress repository (a credible source of free and premium plug-ins and themes), thousands of free and premium (paid) plug-in software exist to create the best websites possible. Plug-ins are used to make the website more feature-loaded, functional, and customizable. On the other hand, themes are used to customize the appearance of the website to your preferences. So when you hire a WordPress development company, they use the best plug-ins and themes to ensure your website is creative and highly functional.

After the pros, let’s check out the cons of WordPress CMS.

Cons of WordPress CMS Development

Here are the cons of hiring a WordPress development company or expert:

• Too Simple: Every coin has two sides. While WordPress is easy to use, its simplicity does mean it delivers way too basic of a website without the additional plug-ins and themes. That might be especially true if you have no prior training or experience developing a website through WordPress.

• Security: One of the most prominent attributes of any website is its security. Unfortunately, over 90% of the websites vulnerable to web attacks are powered by WordPress. So you have to ensure your website is safe from attacks by using a trusted host, encrypting the information exchanged between the website and its users, and updating WordPress to its latest version.

• Speed: Although you can develop a WordPress website, it might not have a good loading speed without you having any prior programming know-how.

Now that you know the pros and cons of WordPress, it might make your decision of whether or not you want to hire a WordPress developer a little easier. After WordPress, let’s move on to HubSpot.

HubSpot COS

Launched in 2011, HubSpot COS (content optimization system) is also among the best content management systems, but it is slightly different and, more so, one step above the traditional ones. Basically, it combines the normal content management system with marketing features to create excellent websites, emails, blogs, and landing pages.

HubSpot COS enables you to create their own customized themes and use the HubSpot App Marketplace to make your websites more functional through APIs. That means you won’t require lots of plug-ins to make the website more creative and feature-loaded.

Pros of HubSpot COS

Here are a few Pros of HubSpot COS:

• Live Preview: One of the biggest pros of HubSpot COS is that you can make changes or upgrades on a website and view the alterations live with the help of its built-in drag-and-drop tool.

• Support: There are millions of WordPress users, so support from the community forums will be possible. But this kind of support may seem a little scattered at times. However, with HubSpot COS, there is a centralized support center where you can reach out 24X7 via chat, calls, and emails.

• Distinctiveness: Although counted among content management systems, HubSpot COS is a little different and one step above as it combines the usual qualities of a CMS with marketing features to create excellent websites. The marketing and content tools you have to install in WordPress separately will be avail as stock in HubSpot COS. Here are a few features and tools in-built into HubSpot COS:

• SEO
• A/B Testing
• Built-in security features
• CDN services
• Responsive design
• Content collaboration
• Blogging tools
• AMP support
• Landing page creation
• Subscription
• Hosting
• Social media
• Detailed analytics and much more

• Built-in customization: With HubSpot COS, you can try and target new and recurring customers through personalized features on the website.

After the pros, let’s check out the cons of HubSpot COS.

Cons of HubSpot COS

Here are a few cons of HubSpot COS:

• Less Overall Control: Unlike WordPress, you don’t get FTP access. So you won’t have complete control over your website development. For instance, you won’t even be able to choose the host service provider.

• Not open-source: Again, unlike WordPress, HubSpot is not open-source. So, where WordPress has millions of expert developers constantly making upgrades and improvements, for HubSpot, it all comes down to the in-house development team. Simultaneously, you can’t make any changes to the platform either.

• Cost: It’s not cheap to build a website through HubSpot COS.

Now that the pros and cons of both WordPress and HubSpot COS have been covered, it might be easier for you to make the decision for your website. If not, let’s check out the differences between the two in brief detail.

WordPress vs. HubSpot

To compare the two content management systems, we have gone through a few important factors and analyzed which one is better for it.

Ease of Use

One of the most significant advantages of WordPress is its user-friendliness. You can create a fully-functional website with WordPress without any prior training or experience in programming. However, you may need the coding if you are looking to develop a more advanced website. Also, thousands of videos are available on WordPress.tv and Youtube that can help you install WordPress and start creating excellent websites in no time.

When it comes to ease of use, Hubspot isn’t far from WordPress either. It is optimized for use on mobile or tablet and ensures the user can get on with it very quickly. Additionally, there are several pre-designed templates on HubSpot that can help develop creative websites from scratch with no professional help whatsoever.

But unlike WordPress, which uses the common PHP, if you want to develop a website with HubSpot, you will need to learn its proprietary language HubL (HubSpot Markup Language). Also, the in-built templates in HubSpot may not be enough for the more prominent websites.

So when it comes to ease of use, WordPress CMS development holds a slight edge over HubSpot.

Website Hosting

Unlike WordPress, HubSpot COS doesn’t allow enough control over the website. For instance, HubSpot doesn’t let you choose the web hosting provider. WordPress, however, gives you the liberty to choose the web hosting provider as per your preferences. So when it comes to web hosting, WordPress has the lead. That’s why when it comes to web hosting, you might be better off hiring a WordPress development company.

Access to Data

It is one of the most significant aspects of any content management system. If you are the website owner, you will need access to the website data for a manual backup or CMS switch. Both HubSpot and WordPress give the website owners rightful access to the data.

WordPress is open-source and allows you to use, customize and distribute the platform any way you want. So you will have unlimited access to data, including comments, posts, navigation menus, pages, and custom fields. Just like that, website owners using HubSpot will also have unrestricted access to the data. So it is a tie between the two content management systems. When it comes to access to data, you can choose either CMS development approach.

Analytics

If you want to make any kind of money from your website, you must be able to monitor and analyze the web traffic effectively through analytics. When combined with its marketing tools, HubSpot provides robust analytics for your website. So with HubSpot, you can track the traffic and devise effective marketing techniques right from the moment of launch.

WordPress, on the other hand, doesn’t have in-built analytics. But there are several free and premium analytics plug-ins in the WordPress library that may fulfill the purpose just fine. If you are looking for choices in analytical functions, hire WordPress developers because they will provide you with all the relevant data to ensure higher sales and revenue. But if you want a one-stop solution for analytics, go for HubSpot.

Page Building

Every website needs multiple web pages, which can be created through coding from scratch or with the help of CMS, the latter being the most popular and easier way to do so. HubSpot uses drag-and-drop builders, through which your web page will look exactly like it does in the builder. So you can create it as per your preference.

On the other hand, WordPress has some amazing plug-ins and themes that help create the most customized web pages possible. These plug-in builders might do more than HubSpot’s page builders. So when it comes to page building, WordPress takes the cake.

Blogging

With its range of plug-ins and themes, WordPress is highly extensible. So even though HubSpot has some amazing features when it comes to blogging, WordPress might be able to compensate for all of them with its plug-ins. So although HubSpot is easier to use for blogging, WordPress will be able to provide you with more features. So WordPress wins because if you think of a feature for your blogging experience, this CMS system can help you with it.

Search Engine Optimization

HubSpot is an excellent CMS if you are looking to optimize your website for the best rankings on SERPs. It has in-built SEO tools that can help you with keyword searches, on-page SEO tips, and even strategic graphs for better content organization. Even though WordPress doesn’t have the SEO features built-in, its range of free and premium plug-ins will help you with all of the features HubSpot offers and more. Moreover, unlike HubSpot, WordPress plug-ins give you complete control over the structured metadata, further aiding your SEO functionality. That’s why a WordPress development company would be better for SEO.

Themes

You can’t make a unique, attractive website without themes, which both WordPress and HubSpot have. Most of the HubSpot themes are made with HubL language, which means you may require help from professional developers to use them for website customization. On the other hand, WordPress has thousands of themes available for customization, most of which can be used without any prior training or experience in coding.

Security

WordPress is an open-source CMS. So, on the one hand, you will have complete control and access to the website, and on the other hand, it might be more susceptible to online attacks and hacking attempts. To ensure your website is safe, you may try updating WordPress to its latest version, using a verified web hosting service, or hiring a professional WordPress development company. You may also try some of the security plug-ins to ensure your website isn’t susceptible to attacks. But HubSpot is closed-sourced, which means although you won’t have complete control over your website, it won’t be susceptible to attacks either.

Plus, HubSpot automatically performs all the necessary actions, like regular backups, scanning and testing, SSL protection, and updates.

So since both CMSs have their own ways of securing the websites, this is a tie.

Support & Training

WordPress has a massive community of users. Tens of millions of comments are recorded on the posts on community forums every month. So in case of any issue or query, there is a good chance that someone in the community has already faced it. That means you will have a definite answer on the matter in a matter of a couple of days, if not hours.

On the other hand, there is a centralized support center where you can reach out 24X7 via chat, calls, and emails. So there is no clear winner in terms of support.

Both CMS systems have their own pros and cons. So these comparisons might be enough for you to make up your mind about the CMSs.

So if you are looking for a new website, you can hire WordPress developers or Hubspot experts.

Final Analysis

From every piece of information listed above, you can see there is no clear winner between the two content management systems. Both provide immense levels of customization in terms of creativity and functionality. It all depends on what kind of website you want and what training you have in website development. So when developing a new website or hiring a professional for it, make sure you analyze every aspect and make a choice carefully.

The post WordPress CMS vs. HubSpot COS: An Overview appeared first on SiteProNews.

WordPress is a popular content management system that enables users to create and manage their own websites. It is an excellent platform for setting up your website, but did you know that you can also use it to add social media icons to your menus?

Social media has become an increasingly important part of the online experience, providing a way for people to connect with friends and family, share information and stay up-to-date on current events. For businesses, social media can be a powerful marketing tool, helping to promote products and services and connect with potential customers.

What Is the Importance of Incorporating Social Media Icons Into WordPress?

One of the benefits of using WordPress is that it makes it easy to incorporate social media icons into the design of the site. By including these icons, businesses can make it easy for visitors to find and follow their social media accounts, helping to increase traffic and engagement. In addition, social media icons can help to create a sense of cohesiveness between the website and the business’s social media presence, reinforcing the brand and making it more memorable.

Including social media icons on a WordPress website can help to boost engagement and traffic. By making it easy for visitors to find and follow your social media accounts, you can increase the number of people who are exposed to your content and products. This can help to encourage visitors to visit your website as well as your social media profiles.

Steps to Incorporating These Icons

If you want to include social media icons on your WordPress site but don’t know where to start, this post is for you. We will walk you through the process of adding these icons to your WordPress menus, as well as some tips on choosing the right icons for your business.

1. Log into WordPress and Navigate to the Menu Editor

Once you have logged into WordPress, you will need to navigate to the menu editor. This is located in the “Appearance” section of the WordPress dashboard. Click on the “Menus” link. This will open the Menu Editor. In the Menu Editor, you will be able to create and manage your menus. To create a new menu, click on the Create a New Menu link.

In the Menu Name field, give your menu a name. Then, in the Menu Items area, add links to your pages and posts. You can drag and drop the links to rearrange them as needed.

2. Click on the “Screen Options” Tab at the Top of the Page

Once you have clicked on the “Screen Options” tab, a list of options will appear on the right-hand side of the page. These options allow you to determine which elements of the page are visible. The default setting is for all elements to be visible, but you can choose to hide certain elements by selecting the checkbox next to them.

3. Check the Box Next to “Social Media Icons”

When you check the box next to “Social Media Icons”, a pop-up will appear with a list of social media platforms. Click on the social media platforms that you want to connect with your WordPress website.

This will add a row of icons to the bottom of your form where people can click to share your form on various social media platforms. Here you can select which social media icons you want to display and configure their settings.

4. In the “Link Type” Dropdown, Select “Custom Links”

If you want to create a custom link, select “Custom Links” from the “Link Type” dropdown. This will open the “Custom Link Properties” dialog box. In the “Link Text” text box, type the text for your custom link. In the “Url” text box, type the web address for your custom link.

Click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes. In the “URL” field, enter your social media profile URLs (e.g., https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Business-Name/1234567890)

5. Click on the “Save Menu Item” Button

Once you have clicked on the “Save Menu Item” button, you will see a confirmation message that the social media icons have been added to your WordPress menu.

Tips for Using Social Media Icons Effectively on Your WordPress Site

1. Choose the Right Social Media Icons

You need to consider which social media platforms will be most beneficial for your business. There is no point in including icons for platforms that you don’t use or that aren’t popular with your target audience. However, some of the most popular social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+.

2. Place the Social Media Icons in an Easily Visible Location

Don’t bury your social media icons in a menu where they are hard to find. The last thing you want is for the icons to stick out like a sore thumb and look out of place. Place them in an easily visible location where visitors will see them as soon as they land on your WordPress site. This will make it easy for them to follow you on social media.

3. Use Complementary Colors

When choosing colors for your social media icons, be sure to use complementary colors. Complementary colors are two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. This will make your social media icons stand out and be easy to identify.

Conclusion

Adding social media icons to your WordPress menus is a great way to make it easy for visitors to find and follow your business on social media. By following the steps above, you can add these icons in just a few minutes. And if you ever need to change the order of the icons or add new ones, the process is just as simple. Start adding social media icons to your WordPress menus today!

The post Incorporating Social Media Icons Into WordPress Menus: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on SiteProNews.

Have you been using WordPress too, or looking forward to using WordPress development services to build a website? If yes, this write-up is just for you! We’ve highlighted some of the best tips & tricks that can help you make the most out of WordPress development and enhance your website performance. 

Let’s dive in straight to the top 10 WordPress tips to take your site to the next level. 

1. Go With a Fast WordPress Web Hosting

Web hosting plays a critical role in ensuring your success. Before selecting your hosting provider, make sure that it provides you with a good number of resources to handle your site traffic and avoid website crashes and downtime. And most importantly- it should give you fast site speeds. 

Ideally, your website should load within two-to-three seconds. Anything beyond that could lead to soaring bounce rates. If your website does not have the capacity to load quickly, it can lose out on valuable customers. In a nutshell, the faster your website, the better your conversions. Some of the fastest and most powerful WordPress hosting providers are SiteGround, Bluehost, and DreamHost, among others. 

2. Use/Install an SEO Plugin

WordPress is known for its SEO-friendly nature. So, it’s possible to think that you don’t need an add-on to improve SEO anymore. However, installing an SEO plugin is an added advantage to your website, plus a great option to optimize your website for SEO and make it rank higher on search engine SERPs. 

When it comes to SEO plugins, there are plenty of options to choose from. Using them can help you analyze your content and keywords, and suggest improvements & manage all the technical aspects like sitemaps and robots.txt for better SEO performance. You can go to find your ideal SEO plugin in WordPress Plugin Directory. 

Some of the most widely used SEO plugins include HubSpot, Yoast SEO, and All in One SEO. 

3. Measure Your Site’s Success With Google Analytics

While running a WordPress website, installing Google Analytics is an effective way to track your performance, document data, and provide rich insights into how users communicate with your site. And do you know what the best part is? That it is absolutely free to use!  

You can directly add Google analytics code to your site by simply going to the ‘Admin panel,’ choosing the ‘settings’ option, and selecting ‘Google Analytics’. Here, you can paste the code. Note that you may need to verify ownership of your site to get this working. Alternatively, you can also use plugins & widgets to use the tool.

By having Google Analytics installed on your site, you can better understand your traffic & users’ behavior & have all the important information at your fingertips. Additionally, you will be in a better position to make data-driven decisions to improve your website’s performance.

4. Make the Best Use of Customizations

With millions of websites out there, the best way to stand out is to customize your website. The good part is- WordPress gives you multiple plugins and other customization options. 
However, developing a customized theme can be difficult unless you’re skilled in coding. The best option is to hire WordPress developer from a reputable WordPress development company, discuss your custom requirements and customize your website to deliver an excellent customer experience. All you need to do is convey your unique business requirements, and they’ll create a customized WordPress website that matches your brand’s persona. Right from customizing your WordPress theme to headers, sidebars, checkout pages, etc., you can have endless customization possibilities.

5. Be Careful While Picking Up Your WordPress Theme

With so many free and premium themes available out there, don’t rush to choose your perfect theme. Since every business is different, so should be its theme. You must pick a theme that matches your business needs and have the following features- 

• SEO-friendly 
• Responsive theme 
• Secure  
• Fast & lightweight 
• Support for plugins & extensions 
• Attractive look 

You may find some themes that are loaded with features & functionalities and are attractive. But remember, these themes can slow down your website speed. Rather, you must test the theme, make a list of features you want ahead of time, and consider buying a premium theme. 

6. Optimize Your Website Images

To speed up your website and ensure better performance, don’t forget to compress your images & videos. Compressing your images & reducing their size will further help you save storage space.  To do so, you have plenty of tools available that allow you to compress your images for free, like Kraken.io, ImageResize, and Optimizilla.

Other tips to optimize your images on WordPress are: 

• Use common image formats, i.e., jpg, png, or gif. 
• Resize your images following your layout 
• Use optimization plugins. E.g., EWWW Image Optimizer, WP Smush, ShortPixel Image Optimizer, etc. 
• Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network)
• Insert title tags & alt tags to your images 

7. Outsource WordPress Maintenance Services

WordPress is highly user-friendly and easy to use. However, some issues cannot be solved or taken care of by site owners themselves. These issues can be related to website updates, maintenance, hosting issues, coding failures, downtime, etc. This is where professional WordPress maintenance services help. 

Outsourcing WordPress services to countries like India can help you save time, cost, and effort and further ensure that your WordPress-based website runs smoothly at all times. 

Here’s what to expect from your WordPress maintenance service provider: 

• Website protection from bugs, malware, and hacking 
• Managing & moderating spam 
• Maintain backups 
• Updating plugins 
• Ensure maximum website speed 
• Update WordPress Core 
• Address downtime issues

8. Obtain an SSL Certificate

Getting an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is a great way to improve your site’s trustworthiness and instill trust among site visitors.  SSL is a kind of 

encryption that protects users by encrypting the connection between browsers and web pages. If you use an SSL certificate, your URL will change from HTTP to HTTPS. 

This certificate indicates to the visitors that their connection to your site is safe, strengthening your brand trust, increasing page views, and lowering your site’s bounce rates.

Besides this, even Google has prioritized site security for consumers and has adjusted its algorithm accordingly. The search engine gives preference to sites that have a HTTPS URL over those that do not. Additionally, it may display a red warning sign for websites that do not have an SSL certificate, informing customers that they are using an unsafe website.

9. Set Up an Easy Site Navigation

Your users can easily get frustrated with complex site navigation and can exit your website immediately if they struggle to find what they are looking for. Hence, ensuring seamless site navigation is critical for an excellent user experience. Especially if your website has too much content, having simple navigation becomes even more important. Site navigation directly impacts your bounce rate, time on site, SEO, and user engagement. 

Wondering how you can improve your overall site navigation? Here’s how: 

• List your categories & subcategories clearly 
• Add a sitemap 
• Optimize your site for mobile 
• Use breadcrumbs 
• Optimize your website Navbar 
• Fix your broken links 
• Create a footer menu & carefully choose widgets 
• Use consistent design 
• Give striking & actionable buttons 

Does it look overwhelming? Yes, it can be. Well, to get easy navigation & consistent design, the best solution lies in leveraging professional WordPress design & development services & getting professionals who can best design your site’s structure & follow best practices to ensure seamless navigation. 

10. Devise a Comprehensive Linking Strategy

Internal website linking helps search engines to understand & analyze your website better, add more authority to web pages, and help them rank higher. However, when linking your web pages, you must ensure that other pages or blogs must fit naturally within the content. Furthermore, your internal links should lead the site visitor to the next logical piece of content, like a glossary of terms or pages that describe a process. 

Other than building an internal linking strategy, you must also focus on developing a solid strategy for earning backlinks. Having a good number of quality backlinks play an important role in boosting online search rankings. To earn quality backlinks, you must focus on adding citable content to your website, add resource pages, and publish updated guides. 

Conclusion 

Besides following the tips mentioned above, don’t forget to frequently add fresh content to your site. As Google favors the most active sites, keep a note to add three to four blog content weekly. 

Following these tips & tricks can definitely pave your way to greater success & bring your higher conversions. If you already have a WordPress website running, you can implement these changes for better performance, while if you are looking forward to developing a website, make sure to discuss all these points with your WordPress development company. 
Executing these practices can help you reach your goals, make higher conversions, and enable you to make the best out of ‘WordPress Development’.

The post Top 10 Powerful WordPress Tips and Tricks for Better Performance appeared first on SiteProNews.

WordPress is undoubtedly the most popular platform in the world. It has been created by bloggers and for bloggers, so you are probably wondering: “is WordPress good for eCommerce?”, and rightfully so.  It has many serious flaws. Read on to learn more about which platform to choose for your business.

Why WordPress is So Popular

Let’s start by learning a bit more about WordPress and why it is so popular.

WP doesn’t require a substantial investment. It is open-source software, which means it is free for anyone to use. It has a straightforward installation process and a clear interface that allows a user with zero experience to quickly learn how to use the CMS. Due to the popularity of the platform, there are a lot of free tutorials answering virtually every question about the platform you may have. There is also a large pool of WordPress specialists that can help you for a relatively small fee.

There is a whole ecosystem around WP ‒ many template design options and plugins to expand functionality. You get the impression that you can make anything out of the WP platform. 

Can WordPress be used for eCommerce? There is a WooCommerce plugin that you can use to create an online store with WordPress. At the moment, most of the eCommerce websites run on this plugin.

This plugin can turn a blog CMS into a fully-fledged online store. It can further be upgraded with extensions that add even more features to your website. Sounds perfect, right? But what is the catch?

Disadvantages of WordPress

Even though it has many advantages, WordPress has a lot of weak points that you should consider: 

• Not intended for eCommerce – WP is a blog CMS. That’s why it lacks some vital eCommerce features. The WooCommerce plugin is a workaround for this problem, but it has limitations that you won’t have with a specialized eCommerce platform or custom-built website. 
• Poor security – Is WordPress safe for eCommerce? Not really. According to the Sucuri report, over 90% of infected websites with CMSs are built on WordPress. Due to its popularity and accessibility, WordPress is alluring to hackers. They discover vulnerabilities (especially among outdated versions) and attack several websites at once. Additionally, not all themes and plugins are trustworthy. They are at risk of infection, too.

• Limited customer support – Both WordPress and WooCommerce are open-source and free, so there is no paid support team ‒ only the community of users and contributors. 
• Low page speed – There are plenty of reasons for website speed problems: themes, plugins, WordPress configuration, external scripts, etc. As a result, not only do users end up hating your website, but also Google won’t rank you.
• Unreliability – When using WordPress you won’t be able to go without plugins because it is the only way to add new features. Furthermore, plugins are created by independent developers without strict quality standards, so you need to be careful when choosing them. Website maintenance can become a nightmare because some plugins are not compatible with each other which causes bugs. 

What Other Options Do You Have? 

Luckily, you have a myriad of worthy alternatives. You can choose from specialized off-the-shelf solutions or develop a website from scratch. Let’s explore your options.

Proprietary eCommerce Platforms 

Proprietary platforms are CMS solutions made specially for eCommerce. This type of software is different from open-source in that you have to purchase it from a vendor as a SaaS or license. This ensures that it will not be an easy target for those who want to exploit its vulnerabilities. In addition, since you pay for this type of software, the vendor will be responsible for quality and security standards, and customer support. 

Of all the alternatives to WP, Shopify is by far the most popular because of its attractive cost-benefit ratio.

When comparing “WordPress vs Shopify for eCommerce” the latter wins most of the time because of the following:

• It’s a SaaS platform and for a monthly fee starting at $29, it provides all the functionality, including hosting, so you don’t need to worry about it.
• It is designed specifically for commerce and offers stylish themes to customize an online shop. 
• It has reliable 24/7 customer support, so you won’t be left alone with your problem.
• It is user-friendly and easy to set up which makes it great for small businesses and startups.
• The platform has built-in tools and auto-created sitemaps for SEO.
• It provides users with insights on business performance and analytics of digital marketing campaigns.
• Crucially, Shopify has a higher level of security as it hires experts to monitor the system and issues timely updates.
• Offers multiple payment providers to accommodate different customers’ needs. 
• Additionally, it has fast page speed, so you don’t have to worry about usability and SEO issues connected to slow websites. 
• Shopify is also scalable, so if your sales suddenly grow your online store won’t crash, you’ll just have to upgrade your pricing plan. 

Custom Development

If you have specific requirements that ready-made solutions don’t provide, it is better to build a custom website. Custom development is the right choice if you require unique features or extra security, or you expect an influx of visitors or sales. Custom websites have the following advantages: 

1. Better user experience because it’s tailored to your TA
2. Increased brand exposure through great design
3. Unique functionality tailored exactly to your needs
4. Flexibility to change and add new features
5. Any kind of integrations with third-party systems or legacy bespoke software
6. Can have the ultimate level of security as only you and your team have access to the code
7. High loading speed as the website is optimized to your needs and there are no unnecessary features

Naturally, custom development also has its disadvantages. It takes months to build a unique website and is much more expensive than out-off-the-box solutions. So you need to consider the costs and benefits for your business.

Wrapping Up

WordPress is a powerful and well-known tool that many people use to create websites and online stores. But despite its popularity, this platform lacks some vital characteristics like page speed and security among others. WordPress disadvantages mean it is probably not the best choice for your online business.

Among preferred alternatives are proprietary platforms, like Shopify, which offer paid service with numerous perks. Another choice is custom development where a website is built according to your personal requirements. Depending on your goals and budget you can find a worthy option that is safe and functional.

The post Why You Shouldn’t Use WordPress for an eCommerce Website (and What Are the Alternatives) appeared first on SiteProNews.

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) with a market share of 64.7%. 

Indeed, WordPress is the most popular website platform in the world, with most CMS users choosing it as their platform of choice. 

To gain a comprehensive understanding of WordPress? Perhaps you’ll enjoy WordPress- The Website Champion and Market Leader. 

What are WordPress Plugins and why do you need them?

WordPress plugins are tools that allow you to add new functionality to your website. In the WordPress community, they are one of the most well-known technology developments.

WordPress (WP) plugins are certain to transform a standard WordPress website into a multifaceted one. There are approximately 59, 000 plugins in the official WP plugin repository, and it’s continually growing.

Why do you need plugins?

Imagine a smartphone with no apps installed. Isn’t it boring? Without Plugins, websites are also boring (or, to put it another way, it’s limited).

Plugins are required for website implementations, and they aid in improving the website’s functionality in a specific functional area. WP plugins are small pieces of software that enhance and extend the functionality of your website. Whether you want to develop an online store, increase site speed, add contact forms, monetize your website traffic or improve SEO, the building blocks of a WordPress site work for practically every aspect of your site.

From eCommerce to SEO, design features to social media, security to spam prevention, there’s almost no limit to what you can do with WordPress plugins. As previously stated, there are thousands of plugins accessible, but which one is the best match for your business to increase conversions? We will discuss a few of the plugins that will boost conversion on your website. 

8 Must-Have WordPress Plugins for your Website to Boost the Conversion 

Buckle up!! We will take you to the ride of 8 top WordPress plugins to boost the conversion of your website. 

Here’s the WordPress Plugins list: 

1. WP Forms

A powerful WP form is also called a conversational form. It’s vital to understand that conversational forms are a brand new feature in the WPForms plugin. The best part about conversational form is that your users can complete the entire form using just their keyboard, similar to as if they were having a chat conversation on Messenger.

The conversational form is a unique, successful, and efficient method. It will enhance user experience and works great for smartphones (mobile) and tablets making your forms more accessible for all.

There are a lot of other things you can do with WP forms like creating basic contact forms, payment forms, registration forms, survey forms, and newsletter forms for your WordPress website. 

WPForm’s contact forms are well optimized for web and server performance because they understand the value of speed in SEO, marketing, and conversions. WPForms is, without a doubt, one of the fastest WordPress contact form builder plugins available with 5+ million active installations and a 10,000+ five stars rating. 

Here are the features of powerful and user-friendly WPforms: 

• Drag & drop form builder
• Responsive mobile-friendly
• Form templates
• Smart conditional logic
• Instant notifications
• Entry management
• Payments made easy
• Marketing & subscriptions 
• Spam protection and many more. 

2. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is the most popular WordPress plugin that assists webmasters in optimizing WordPress websites for search engines. This well-known plugin has been assisting millions of websites all around the world in improving their search engine rankings since 2008. 

So, do you really need the Yoast SEO plugin to improve the SEO of your website? Yes, the Yoast SEO plugin is required for top Google rankings and to increase visitors to your website. 

Google is the most important source of traffic for most websites. Regardless of how vital social networks are for a site’s success, SEO is typically the most important component. Not following SEO best practices, or not conducting SEO at all can affect the ranking of your website. So, let me explain why Yoast SEO is essential for any website. 

Yoast is a desired WordPress SEO plugin that helps you optimize your site for search engine visibility and increases search ranking. You may use Yoast to make your pages and blogs more search engine friendly. It also generates a sitemap for your website, which helps submit to search engines like Google. 

Now, let’s understand the features of Yoast SEO:

• Canonical URLs and Meta Tags.
• XML sitemaps- making it easier for Google to understand the structure of your website. 
• Faster loading times.
• Site breadcrumbs.
• Title and Meta description templating
• Keyword density
• In-depth Schema.org integration and many more. 

3. OptinMonster 

Every business or website, without a doubt, requires lead generation. OptinMonster is the prominent lead-generation plugin for WordPress users.

OptinMonster is the greatest popup builder and marketing plugin for increasing email subscribers, sales, and business growth. With OptinMonster pop-ups and conversion toolkits, you can turn abandoned website visitors into subscribers and customers.

With the help of this powerful plugin that boosts your website conversion, you can also make high-converting popups and bars on your website to draw out users’ attention to special deals or other onsite marketing campaigns. 

OptinMonster is also a No.1 best email popup and lead generation plugin. It enables site owners to develop attractive, attention-getting opt-in forms that increase conversion rates. Around 1,213, 437+ websites are using OptinMonster to swivel their traffic into subscribers, leads and sales. 

OptinMonster pop-ups are also compatible with all devices (mobile, laptop, tablet, and desktop). This plugin is a blockbuster and power-up with many benefits like it understands the importance of speed when it comes to SEO, marketing and conversion optimization, and a lot more. 

OptinMonster has a ton of tools that will help you increase your conversions with simple Optin campaigns.

• Exit-intent technology
• Full-screen welcome gates
• Clever monster links 
• Engage users with monster effects
• Smart A/B testing
• Email newsletter segmentation
• Mailchimp and many more. 

4. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is the best WordPress caching plugin that helps businesses instantly reduce load time and boost Google page speed & core web vitals scores. 

No one likes slow websites, not even Google. In 2010, Google stated that for a pleasant user experience, a web page must load completely within two seconds, and this is still often referenced today. In short, website speed is super important and so is the need for WP Rocket. 

WP Rocket is the best WordPress caching plugin. It’s one of the most extensively used caching plugins, with around 2,080,000 websites using it around the world.

WP Rocket aims to speed up your WordPress site by optimizing it. It does it as a simple WordPress plugin with a user-friendly interface and simple setup. If you are still not clear about how to install and activate the plugin, get in touch with our WordPress experts.

WP Rocket is chosen by the top WordPress professionals as it is compatible with the most popular themes and plugins. It’s also the only cache plugin supported by the leading Managed WordPress hosting providers.

What makes WP Rocket the most effective caching plugin out there? In terms of performance, the plugin incorporates all the latest features.

Let’s have a look at WP Rocket’s features:

• Page caching
• GZIP compression
• Cache preloading
• eCommerce optimization
• Browser caching
• Excellent compatibility.

5. Sucuri 

Website security is important to protect your business, brand, and website reputation, as well as to avoid financial loss and website termination. You’ll be able to maintain your website’s reputation while also retaining customers and/or visitors by installing the wonderful Sucuri plugin by WordPress. 

When it comes to WordPress security plugins, Sucuri plugin is at the top of the heap. 

This plugin is a powerhouse for security as it offers you Security activity auditing, file integrity monitoring, malware scanning, blacklist monitoring, and a website firewall are all included in this plugin. To verify your site, it uses a variety of blacklist engines such as Google Safe Browsing, Sucuri Labs, Norton, McAfee Site Advisor, and others. It will send you an email if something goes wrong.

It also protects your website against DDoS, brute-force, and other scanning assaults. Additionally, it keeps track of all activities and stores them in the Sucuri cloud. Your security logs will be safe at Sucuri’s security operations center even if an intruder manages to get beyond the security controls.

To learn more on WordPress security you can refer-Tips to Maintain WordPress Security.

Let’s have a look at Sucuri plugin features:

• Multiple variants of SSL certificates
• Security activity auditing
• Monitoring of File Integrity
• Remote malware scanning
• Blocklist monitoring
• Effective security hardening
• Notifications of security
• Post-hack security actions

6. Monsterinsights 

MonsterInsights, a digital analytics tool, is a WordPress plugin that makes it simple to integrate, customize, and manage Google Analytics website tracking services. It aids in the retention of customers as well as the rise of sales and revenue by tracking how people find and use your website, focus on the content, and receive all your critical store data in one place with MonsterInsights.

MonsterInsights makes it simple to set up Google Analytics in WordPress and gives relevant information about visitors from inside the WordPress dashboard.

MonsterInsights is the greatest Google Analytics WordPress plugin simplifying the most advanced Google Analytics features with only a few clicks.

The best thing is that you can access all the data from your WordPress dashboard. This implies that these reports can be viewed without logging into Google Analytics.

How can a company or business benefits from using Monsterinsights

• Increase traffic
• Improve conversion rate
• Improve the quality of content
• Get more email subscribers
• Can examine the stats that matter
• Identify performing and non-performing pages
• Can see reports in a dashboard

Let’s have a look at Monsterinsights plugin features:

• Page-level insights
• Affiliate link tracking
• Keyword tracking
• Custom dimensions
• Form tracking
• Audience and behavior report
• Site speed report and many more. 

7. Tidio Live Chat

Having live chat on your website allows you to communicate with your customers. You may convey a clear value to your customers through precise messaging, which will aid them in taking quick decisions to purchase. 

Example: Emirates saw an 87% lift in engagement using chatbot options on their website compared to traditional click-through ads. 

Convert your visitors into loyal customers now with Tidio Live Chat, one of the best WordPress plugins to communicate with your customers or visitors. Chats are managed using the Tidio Chat tab, which can be found in your WordPress dashboard. Installing a separate desktop, iOS, or Android app to manage chats is also an option.

Offline messages are sent to your inbox if you are unable to chat for whatever reason. Similarly, if a visitor exits the chat, the conversation can be continued by email.

Tidio Live Chat plugin is widely used by 160k+ websites in the US alone with 100k+ active installations. 

Let’s have a look at Tidio Live Chat plugin features:

• Real-time notifications
• Third-party integrations
• Virtual assistant
• Website visitor tracking
• Email management
• Customer database
• Complaint monitoring and many more. 

8. Contact Form 7

WordPress Contact Form 7 is one of the most in-demand plugins for developing lead generation forms. 

Why do you need contact form 7 on your WordPress website? The answer is simple, if you put your email address on the contact us page, chances are, you are missing out on many opportunities, mainly if you want to grow your business. 

A contact form has always been and continues to be an important aspect of allowing your visitors to contact you for the reasons like automating email responses, integrating your work with other tools, generating more leads, making yourself reachable, and so forth. 

Let’s take a look at some of its most appealing features:

• Multiple contact forms can be created and managed.
• Form fields can be easily customized.
• To change the content of your email, use simple markup.
• With the help of shortcode insert forms into any pages or posts
• Akismet spam filtering, Ajax-powered submission, and CAPTCHA are all supported by this plugin.
• There are numerous third-party extensions available to offer additional functionality.

Conclusion 

Plugins are very essential whether you want to optimize your site for search engines, improve security, or increase conversions. You won’t have to spend hours looking for the best WordPress that boosts conversions, because this post has already done the work for you!! 

So, have you tried the above plugins on your WordPress website yet? If not, you are free to contact us for choosing the essential WordPress plugins to increase sales and revenue.

The post 8 Must-Have WordPress Plugins for Your Website to Boost Conversions appeared first on SiteProNews.

1. WordPress – Open-source Technology to Build a Fully Functional Website

One of the top reasons why we use open-source technology is that it’s better than similar editions of paid software. That’s the case with WordPress. The platform that started as a blogging site now offers both frontend and backend management, handy eCommerce features, and lots more. Plus, WordPress has thousands of available plugins to cater to all types of online pages. So it’s no wonder that over one billion websites are using it.

2. Krita – for Those Who Enjoy Getting Creative

If you’re someone who enjoys creating digital art, and maybe you even do it professionally, discovering Krita will be a treat. You can use this open-source technology for web development tasks like editing graphics, digital painting, color management, etc.

Plus, if you’ve always wanted to try your hand at 2D animation, you can do that also with Krita.

3. KeePass – a Password Manager like No Other

What makes KeePass stand out from all the other password managers? Firstly, it’s super easy to install the software. But most importantly, it comes with all the industry-standard features that keep your accounts 100% secure. You’ll get two-factor authentication and AES encryption to protect all your stored details. And the cool thing about KeePass is that you can double-guard your database by carrying the program with all the passwords on a USB stick. That way, even the best hacker in the world won’t be able to access your details.

4. The Ever-Popular VLC Media Player

With this open-source technology, the introduction is unnecessary. We’ve all probably used the VLC player at some point in our lives. Whenever there’s a video or audio format that no other media player can play, VLC mostly does the trick.

Other than playing all imaginable types of files, VLC also enables you to add subtitles from pretty much any source. And it also works as a server to stream all sorts of media from DVDs to MPEG-4 or MPEG-2 files. So if you’re looking for software that can receive network streams, VLC is a tried and working solution for that endeavor.

5. Audacity to Make Sounds

The thing is that sound recording software is often pretty expensive. So people who are interested in processing audio as a hobby are not too keen to purchase it. Luckily, Audacity offers an excellent free alternative. It comes with a multi-track sound recorder you can use to tape your music, conversations, or any other audio. The program also enables you to slice, cut, and mix the sounds and then tweak the result to make it sound as pleasant as possible to the ears.

6. Advanced Video Editing With Shortcut

With open-source technology, the advantages come from the developers’ teams keeping working on the product even long after its release. So in time, they’ll update the software, add new features, and hone the software to perfection. That’s what has happened with Shortcut. When it first came out, the interface was pretty bland. However, it now has an intuitive timeline, lockable panels, and lots more. The latest edition even lets you add numerous effects to your videos without losing any quality. Plus, you can use it for some top-class color grading.

7. Python Makes Coding Easier

Python is an open-source technology platform used for coding. And because of its extensive list of standard libraries, it has become many developers’ first choice for a programming language. The libraries make coding much easier since they give you ready-made code snippets to use in your projects. So even some of the most prominent tech companies like Facebook and Google use Python for their programming.

8. Use PyTorch to Build Deep Learning Software

This one is a machine learning framework for super-advanced tasks like deep learning research computing via tensors. But what makes it noteworthy is that PyTorch is the platform big companies like Tesla use to build deep learning software for their autopilot feature. PyTorch comes with a plethora of libraries and features that make this free tool an invaluable asset to all tech research labs.

9. Build LEGO on Your Computer via Stud.io

We’ve all probably played with LEGOs when we were children. However, as the sets were pretty expensive, most of us probably never got to build our dream LEGO projects. But you can now do it digitally via the Stud.io platform. And once you’re happy with the results, Stud.io even directs you to the nearest shops where you can buy all the necessary parts for your ultimate LEGO construction.

10. Compose Documents with LibreOffice

LibreOffice is compatible with most formats, displays a dynamic word count, and keeps the interface simple and traditional. It’s nothing too flashy, but you wouldn’t expect that from an office platform anyhow. LibreOffice is reliable, constantly updated, and completely free. And that’s enough to make it one of the best software of its kind.

11. GIMP – a Tool to Edit Images

Gimp is an open-source tool you can use for photo editing. With a customizable interface, and extra support for filters and layers, its flexibility is quite close to Adobe Photoshop. But so is its complexity. So it can take quite some time to learn to use all the advanced editing tools, masks, additional plug-ins, etc.

In Summary

So this was our overview of the best available open-source mobile technology in 2021. Whether you need to edit your videos, write code for web development, or build your dream LEGO project, there are tools available for all of that. And the best part is that they’re free of charge.

What are some of the best open-source technology examples we missed? Let readers know your favorites in the comments.

The post 11 Most Promising Open-Source Technologies appeared first on SiteProNews.

There are 58,000+ plugins for WordPress website, and it can be difficult to decide which plugins to use. In this huge number, there are also various niche-specific plugins. 

There are, however, many plugins that every website should use. In this article we will look at the Top 11 most important plugins for your WordPress website. But, before that, let’s clearly define the meaning of the term ‘Wordpress plugin’.

What is a WordPress Plugin?

WordPress Plugins are bits of software (tools) that contain functionality that you can add to your WordPress website. They can also be used to improve/expand the existing functionality of your WordPress website. 

WordPress plugins allow you to add a new function to your WordPress website without writing or editing code. If you want to add a new feature/function to your website, there is probably a plugin for that whether it relates to Ecommerce, SEO, Design features, social media, or security. There are numerous plugins for everything.

Now let’s have a look at the Top 11 crucial plugins for a WordPress website:

Top 11 Must-have Plugins for your WordPress website in 2021

1. Yoast SEO

Search engines are the best to drive organic traffic. Every day, Google handles more than 9 billion searches. The organic traffic that you get is based on the SEO of your website. 

Yoast SEO is the most popular SEO tool for WordPress websites, and since 2008 it has helped millions of websites to rank higher in the search engine results. 

Key Features:

• Helps in finding and adding the right keywords to your website to improve the ranking, indexing, and reach of your website.
• Shows the optimized percentage of your website and can improve it with suggestions.
• The readability check helps you in improving the quality of your content. 

Price:

Yoast SEO offers a base version for free. Yoast also provides a premium version that comes with advanced features and support. The pricing begins at $89/year. 

2. WPForms

Every website needs a contact form so that visitors can easily contact you directly. It is an important part of your website because this is where a visitor can be converted into a lead/client. 

The drag and drop feature of the plugin allows you to easily create contact forms, payment forms, online subscription forms, online order forms, and any other form that you want. 

Key Features:

• Creation of fascinating forms for free.
• Integration with multiple payment platforms to build the perfect form in less than 5 minutes. 
• Pre-built templates to build your form quickly. 

Price:

WPForm offers a free version and also a premium version that comes with multiple templates and integrations. Pricing for the premium version starts from $ 39.50/year. 

3. UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is a backup plugin that offers automatic and manual backups for WordPress sites. 

On average, 30,000 websites get hacked each day. Moreover, plugin updates can cause crashes and errors. At times like this, a backup can save you time and money. All WordPress websites should have a backup strategy. 

Key Features:

• Automatic and manual backups as per your requirement. 
• Easy restoration of your website to a previous version. 
• Local as well as cloud backup. 

Price:

UpdraftPlus offers a free, as well as a premium version which is priced at $42 per year and up. 

4. Elementor

Elementor is a website designing tool that you can use to craft your page with attractive and appealing original designs. The plugin allows you to create attractive designs and provide impressive effects without spending money on graphic designers. 

Key Features:

• Customization of your website based on your preference and taste. 
• Effects like background overlays, hover effects, animations, and many more with just drag and drop. 
• 150+ templates to enhance your website into a beautiful masterpiece. 

Price:

The Elementor plugin is free for use, but a pro version is also available which provides more features and benfits. The premium version costs $49/year and up.

5. Constant Contact

How do you connect with your users when they have left your site? Email is most widely used for customer contact. 

Constant Contact is a marketing tool plugin that allows you to create an email list and then send impactful and effective newsletters to the users. 

Key Features:

• A very useful email marketing tool. 
• Easy and quick set-up for even non-tech users. 
• Effortless creation of email lists. 

Price:

The Constant Contact pricing plan begins at $20/month.

6. Wordfence Security

Almost 30% of all websites are powered by WordPress and, as a result, it has become one of the most frequently hacked platforms. The Wordfence security plugin can help safeguard you from hackers. 

The plugin can put up a firewall, perform regular security checks, and help get rid of malware. 

Key Features:

• Provides complete protection to your website. 
• Works in autopilot mode.
• Helps to block thousands of attacks every month. 

Price:

It offers a free version and also a premium version that costs $99 per license and up. 

7. Optimole

Did you know that if your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, you will lose half of your visitors? In many cases, they will not visit your website again. 

Images take more time to load, and therefore they can increase your website’s loading time. You do not want your website’s content to kill your website’s loading speed. In such a case, optimizing images can help you improve your website’s loading speed, and Optimole helps you by doing this. 

Key Features:

• Automatically compresses graphical content. 
• Optimizes PNG and JPEG images. 
• Helps in resizing images uploaded to your website. 

Price:

The Plugin can be used for free up to 5,000 visitors a month. After that, you can use the premium version for $22.52 per month. 

8. Revive Old Post

The most used mobile app category is social media apps. People use social media apps regularly, and they spend hours on these apps. Therefore the best place to target them is on social media platforms. 

The perfect plugin for this is the Revive old post plugin which can bring more traffic to your website by taking your website’s old and new publications and sharing them on Twitter and Facebook. 

Key Features:

• Auto sharing of your site’s new and old articles on FB & Twitter. 
• Drive more traffic to your website
• Helps in scheduling social media posts. 

Price:

Revive Old Post offers a free version or you can opt for the premium version which has more features. Premium version pricing starts at $88.50/year. 

9. Sassy Social Share

Have you seen various social media buttons when you read articles or when you are on a website? These little social media buttons allow you to effortlessly share the content of a website/web page on social media platforms. 

Sassy Social Share plugin allows you to add these social media buttons to your website so that visitors can easily share your content. 

Key Features:

• Offers sharing buttons for all the widely used social media platforms. 
• Displays the current share counts for each page. 
• Allows you to pick and customize button styles. 

Price:

You can choose the free version with basic functionalities, or you can opt for the premium version that comes with various add-ons and is priced at $7.99 and up.

10. Cookie Notice and Compliance for GDPR/CCPA

Do you receive a cookie notification/pop-up when you visit a new website? This is mandatory for various countries under their laws and regulations for data privacy. 

You can enable cookie notifications for your site using the Cookie Notice and Compliance for GDPR/CCPA plugin. 

Key Features:

• Showcases the cookie notice to all visitors. 
• Provides a notice template or allows you to write your own cookie notice. 
• Enables visitors to check the cookie settings of your website. 

Price:

Cookie Notice and Compliance for GDPR/CCPA is a free plugin. 

11. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is a plugin that will decrease your site’s load time and increase page speed. It is a cache plugin that creates a dynamic cache of your webpages so that the server can easily and quickly load them, resulting in faster loading speeds. 

Having a faster website has a direct impact on your site’s  UX. 

Key Features:

• Creates cache of your website’s dynamically generated pages
• Helps load pages faster
• Improves the user-experience of your website. 

Price:

WP Rocket’s premium version pricing starts at $49/year.

Conclusion

This sums up our picks of the Top 11 crucial plugins for your WordPress website. We hope you find some interesting plugins in this list and that it helps you decide which plugins to use.

If we missed any must-have WordPress plugins that you think should be in this list, do let us know in the comment section. 

The post Top 11 Must-have Plugins for WordPress Websites in 2021 appeared first on SiteProNews.

Picking a Blog Host

The fact that I went with DreamHost is not a recommendation on which host you should choose as there was no particular reason why I went with DreamHost although they are one of the hosting companies recommended by WordPress.org for their 5-Minute Installation. Much appreciated, each step I needed to accomplish was sent to me in different emails by DreamHost. That provided a paint-by-number system for me to follow.

The first step was to set up my email accounts and change my FTP password. Selecting the Create New Email link and by following the instructions on the screen, it was very easy to set up email boxes and have the email from this account forwarded to an email account I regularly check. Next, I changed the FTP password by selecting Manage Users On the web panel > Edit.

WordPress.org User Admin

The next email from DreamHost gave info about setting up the WordPress.org user admin. Clicking on the link in the email I received took me to the 5-minute WordPress.org installation page.

As I am somewhat apprehensive about new processes, I opted to read and print the Readme documentation before I got started. 

For new tasks, such as this, I set up a binder system with all related emails, instructions and passwords that I keep for as long as I feel is necessary – sometimes I never get rid of the documentation.

It’s a fine line between hoarding and erring on the side of caution! As I am not updating or migrating to a blog, I skipped that part of the readme documentation and moved onto the task at hand – my 5-minute install.

Logging Into WordPress.org

Within a couple of seconds, the WordPress.org log in screen for my blog appeared. Wow – that was quick! After logging in I was taken to the WordPress.org dashboard to get started on setting up my blog.

Walking Through the WordPress.Org Dashboard

While it is tempting to just get started, I recommend you select Learn more about getting started, which is located on the right-hand side of your dashboard. This walks you through your first steps using WordPress. Unless you are already familiar with WordPress.org blogs, I recommend you print and read through this tutorial.

Make sure you check out the Planning Session and the Information sections. The information contained in each will help you with your next steps which are: Customize Your Site and Add an About Page. While I have been procrastinating setting up this blog, I have in my spare time written a few blog posts (although actually, my time would have been better served writing my About page).

Having a strong About page, is akin to having good descriptions for your products. Customers love a back story. Presenting in a cohesive fashion information about yourself and the purpose of your blog is key to attracting and keeping visitors.

Customizing Your WordPress.org Blog

I recommend you select change your theme completely and browse through the available themes. WordPress.org allows you to look at a Live Preview of each. While you’re considering your theme, think about a strong tagline. A tagline is a short descriptive slogan or phrase about your blog. A good tagline is memorable, witty and somewhat descriptive of your blogging purpose.

Fine-Tuning Your WordPress.Org Blog

The next page in this series of articles about starting a WordPress.org blog gives tips and techniques for fine-tuning your blog such as adding pages to your header and registering it with search engines.

Adding Links to Your Header

Okay, this was a completely bone-headed mistake on my part, but I spent hours going through WordPress Codex to figure out how to add links to my header.

Your theme will come with two links already – Home and About.

To save wear and tear on your nerves, keep in mind that any page you create will automatically be added to your header as a link.

Then the only problem is when you have too many pages. You don’t want your header to look like a link mess. Reading through Codex indicated that there is a way to go into the header.php file for your blog and modify the code.

A little too much work for me. A better practice is to create subpages. When you create a new page, on the right-hand side of the screen, you’ll see a box called Page Attributes.

From the drop-down menu, select the parent article and select the order in which you want your new page to list under the parent link on your blog header. This couldn’t be easier to do and update.

Modifying WordPress.Org Code

Before you try to modify any code, copy and paste the existing code into a word doc so you can copy and paste it back if you hopelessly screw up your blog during the modification process.

Fixing Blog Entries

Previously, I mentioned that you need to use a text editor rather than a word processing program like Word for your blog because of formatting issues.

Well, I emailed myself some blog material that I had written in Notepad from one computer to another which got screwed up during the email process.

If you have a rudimentary knowledge of html, this is easy to fix. Just click Text at the top of the blog text box, delete all the stuff in < > and go back to the Visual view. Using your WordPress blog tools, change what needs to be changed. Use standard html < /p > < p >in the Text view to re-insert your paragraphs if need be.

Register Your Blog With Google

Google will eventually index your blog. To kick-start this process, register your blog with Google by going to Google’s blog search page. If you don’t already have a Google account you’ll have to set one up. It’s quick and easy.

Enter your art blog’s address in the text box and hit Submit Blog. I did this on a Saturday and checked back on Monday – I was indexed.

Register Your Blog With Bing

Pretty much the same process to submit your site to Bing. Doing so brings you to a page asking if you want to sign up for Bing Webmaster Tools.

I haven’t had the time to work through the instructions which include a verification process (that is – proof that you own your blog). When I do, I’ll post more information.

The post Walk Through the Quick and Easy Steps to Setting Up a Monetized Blog appeared first on SiteProNews.

Maybe you want to add additional capabilities to your website, but aren’t sure how or don’t think it’s possible. Many small to mid-sized businesses think that their websites can’t possibly compete with larger businesses. This does not have to be true and the reason is WordPress. If you are looking to improve your website, a web redesign using WordPress might be the best option.

So why should you use WordPress for your web redesign? This article will share ten of the most important WordPress benefits you should take into account before starting a redesign.

1. WordPress is free

WordPress is a free platform that is usually referred to as a content management system or CMS. A content management system provides the ability to edit and change the appearance and content of your website. You may have heard the name WordPress before when talking about blogs, but its capabilities go much further than that. You can easily create and organize every page and all the content you want to include on your website.

2. WordPress is an All-In-One Platform

Although many people still think only of blogs when they think of WordPress, it has come a long way since then. Perhaps you are looking for just a blog to expand your website’s reach. WordPress can do this. Or maybe you are looking for a full-service website with multiple pages of both static and dynamic content. WordPress can do this too. As your needs change, your WordPress website can change along with them.

3. WordPress is Mature

WordPress has been around for over 17 years and has gone through many reinventions and undergone many improvements since then. It has been tested by millions and then refined many times since its original launch to keep up with business’ changing needs. This can give you the peace of mind that it is a truly reliable platform to support all your website needs.

4. WordPress is Easy to Use

A web redesign can be a complicated process when you have a lot of moving parts to your website. However, an important WordPress benefit is that it is very easy to use. You do not need to be an experienced website developer to be able to use it effectively. WordPress is even known for its 5 Minute Install. Once you have installed it, everything you need to access or edit will be available directly from the dashboard. None of the changes you may want to make are going to require knowledge of coding. Even the most inexperienced user will be able to navigate their way through the process. In the event that you do need assistance, WordPress is known for its extensive online community. There are countless support forums where you can quickly find answers to your questions.

5. WordPress is Open Source

Almost all other website building tools and services have some restrictions on what you can and can’t do. You will not encounter these limitations on WordPress because it is open source. This means developers all over the world can contribute to its software, any time. This can be in the form of plugins, themes, and security and safety updates. But what does this mean for you and your web redesign? It means that the platform is constantly getting better and you will never have to pay for these changes.

6. WordPress is Constantly Updating

The best part about the changes that come because of WordPress’s open source structure is that they occur automatically. While it averages over 20 updates every year, you never have to worry about remembering to update it. As each update is available, the platform will automatically update itself. Plus, the updates mainly focus on safety and security. Having constant updates gives you the confidence that your website and all its data is always up to date. It will always be in line with the best, most current practices.

7. WordPress is SEO Friendly

If you want your web redesign to give you the most benefits, you need to make it SEO friendly. In fact, 70% of marketers say SEO is a more effective way to drive sales than PPC. A true SEO strategy can require a lot of time and effort, but WordPress can give you a great place to start. One of the biggest WordPress benefits is the fact that the platform itself is inherently SEO friendly. It has been designed so the framework is easy for search engines to crawl. You can rest assured that your WordPress redesign will not compromise on SEO. For additional help improving your site’s SEO, there are numerous options available. Yoast SEO is one of the most popular plugins. This app will give you step-by-step information showing you how your content ranks. It also gives you clear guides for how to improve your site’s readability for search engines and users.

8. WordPress Has Inexpensive, Professional Themes

One of the best parts about a WordPress redesign is that you don’t have to spend a ton of time building it from scratch. Thousands of themes can be found from WordPress or from other third-party websites like Webnus. One of our favorites is the Deep Theme. It is a powerful and robust theme that seems to have tons of potential for any website builder. The price for a theme generally ranges from free to about $300, with the average being $40. This is significantly more affordable than a fully custom site.

If you are concerned about your site looking just like everyone else’s because you used a theme, don’t worry. Every theme can easily be further customized so it looks exactly the way you want. This will give your website the ability to reflect your branding and the overall personality of your business. Colors, text, fonts, and images are just some of the things that can be changed to customize your site. In addition, you can add additional features to your website using plugins. Plugins are like apps that you can add to a website to expand its features. As previously mentioned, there are SEO plugins that can assist you in improving your SEO ranking. Another popular type of plugin are security ones that can further the safety of all the data on your website. You can also find plugins for contact forms, payment gateways, foreign language translation, and social media integration.

9. WordPress is Mobile Friendly

More and more people are using their phones to search the internet every day. Your website needs to be attractive and easy to use on mobile devices to keep users there. Most consumers will not hesitate to leave a website that doesn’t load or doesn’t look attractive on their mobile device. With millions of results every time you search on Google, it is easy to simply look elsewhere for the same information. Most of the themes you will find for your WordPress redesign will be mobile friendly by design. Designers and developers know that websites need to be mobile optimized in order to stay relevant.

WordPress has also designed its dashboard to be mobile-friendly. This allows you to manage and update your website anywhere, whether it is on your phone or your desktop.

10. WordPress is Trusted by Many

If you are still unsure about choosing WordPress for your web redesign, consider that it is the most commonly used CMS around. At last count, it powers over 35% of all websites today. Not only do small and mid-sized businesses like WordPress, but some of the largest companies in the world do as well. The New York Times, Microsoft, Vogue, and Disney are just some of the big, global businesses that utilize WordPress.

WordPress has everything your small business needs to create a visually appealing, fully functioning, scalable website. 

And clearly since it can support websites like Disney, it is also able to support growing traffic and budgets. WordPress will allow your website and its capabilities to grow just like your business does.

Redesign Your Site

If your business is looking to undergo a web redesign, WordPress should without a doubt be at the top of your list. A redesign can be very time consuming, with numerous moving parts. With WordPress, you can quickly take your website from unappealing and boring to attractive and engaging. It has the capabilities to satisfy your business’s needs, whether you are looking for a static website or a dynamic one. Whether you are at the beginning of the process or in the middle of it, reach out to the professionals to help guide you through your web redesign.

The post Why You Should Use WordPress for Your Next Web Redesign appeared first on SiteProNews.

• The design of your website should look great
• You need to protect your website from spammers
• Your site should be well optimized for search engines
• Your customers should be able to navigate conveniently

The question is – how can you manage these?

One answer is WordPress plugins. 

WordPress runs more than 30% of the internet and is the most popular platform for managing content. 

Along with thousands of pre-made themes, WordPress has over 55,000 plugins to choose from. 

Undoubtedly, WordPress plugins are beneficial to increase the functionality of your website. 

They help to optimize your website, protect it from spammers, improve user experience, and much more. 

But with this vast collection of plugins, how do you know which ones you need?

Every business has different needs. But, there are some WordPress plugins that every website should consider regardless of their industry. 

Today, I’m going to round up my list of ten must-have WordPress Plug-ins for your website.

Let’s get started.

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is a smart pick for all of your SEO needs.

It is an all-in-one solution with 5 million+ active installations and one of the most popular plugins out there. 

Yoast is an essential WordPress plugin which helps you optimize your website’s on-page SEO – which is quite crucial to help you rank your keywords in search engines. It’s also quite helpful for increasing traffic to your online store.

Moreover, it assists you in examining your content for SEO optimization and readability. Yoast SEO not only makes it easy to optimize your content but also guides you throughout the process.  

Wordfence Security

According to stats, almost 30,000 websites are hacked daily. Clearly, impenetrable security should be your top priority. 

Are you concerned about the security of your website?

If yes, Wordfence has got you covered.

The Wordfence security plugin is one of the most effective and powerful plugins for your website’s security.

This plugin has over 3 million+ active installations and is equipped with several features that will aid in securing your website.

It includes features like malware scan, login security, website audit, firewall protection, and much more. Wordfence is an all-in-one security plugin and is worth checking out.

The plugin fights against spam, malware, and other threats in real-time. 

Antispam Bee

Comments spam is a menace for WordPress sites globally. 

You can get rid of spam comments for free, super easily and quickly using Antispam Bee. With over 500k + active installations, this plugin is undoubtedly a smart choice. 

It allows you to take care of spam by automatically screening all incoming comments. 

Antispam bee blocks any spam comments and trackbacks effectively. It is free, lightweight, and 100% GDPR compliant. 

UpdraftPlus

You must consider regular backups to protect your valuable files if anything unfortunate occurs. 

Just as your computer is prone to online threats, so is your website. 

Apart from your security precautions for your website, you must backup your site regularly. 

Backing up your WordPress website is easy. You just have to install a plugin called UpdraftPlus. With 2million+ active installations, it is one of the most popular backup plugins.

It allows you to manually or automatically backup your site with a single click. You can choose the frequency of backups and their location. There are multiple options to store your backups, including Google Drive, Amazon S3, Dropbox, etc.

Restoring your data is as easy as the backup itself. You can restore your backups, whenever needed, with a single click. 

WP rocket

You can face high loading time due to many reasons such as large images, unclean code, too many ads, JavaScript issues, and much more. 

Website loading speed is crucial for user experience and search engine optimization. 

Adding a cache plugin will help you to speed up your website. 

WPRocket is an exceptionally versatile plugin. It is simple, user-friendly, and also includes advanced features like page caching, file compression, and much more. 

Shortpixel

Shortpixel is an image optimization service, which has two different plugins; Shortpixel Image Optimizer and Shortpixel Adaptive Images. 

ShortPixel Image Optimizer “SPIO” helps reduce the load time of your site by compressing images. It is beneficial if you have a lot of high-resolution images.

Shortpixel Adaptive Images “SPAI” does more than just optimizing images. It not only optimizes your images but also scales them down to the appropriate size for display on different devices.

For example, if you open a web page on a desktop or on a mobile phone, it will scale images according to the screen size.

WP Reset

Debugging WordPress issues can be quite time-consuming. It can take hours to find and fix even small bugs. 

With WP Reset plugin, you can speed up maintenance & development of WordPress plugins and themes.

This plugin resets the database of your site to default installation values, without amending any files. 

With over 100K active installations, the WP reset plugin is fast and safe to use. 

WP 301 Redirects

There may be an occasion when you want to change the URL of a page or a post. When this happens, you need to redirect traffic from the old post to the new one.

This is where WP 301 Redirects is very useful. With over 80K active installations, the plugin helps to efficiently create and manage URL redirects. 

It monitors traffic coming to 404 pages and easily redirects your visitors to the pages they want to see. 

You spend a lot of time and put a lot of effort into creating remarkable content to draw visitors to your site. Good SEO practices will surely help you out, but adding a smart plugin will make the job a lot easier and effective. 

SmartCrawl is a plugin that makes your website more visible to search engines. It informs the web crawlers whenever you update great content on your website. 

SmartCrawl’s one-click setup will allow you to create automatic sitemaps, keyword and content analysis, scans, reports, and whatnot. Don’t like the extra load that Yoast SEO places on your website? SmartCrawl might be a better option for you.

Under Construction

Sometimes it happens that you are working on your website and don’t want people to see what you’re doing until it is completed.

Using this plugin, you can create under construction pages relatively quickly.

With this plugin installed, your website visitors will see the “coming soon” or “site under maintenance” pages.

The plugin is fast and easy to use, enabling you to instantly create fun, informative, and user-friendly pages. Visitors will see you have everything under control and return to the site later without feeling frustrated.

Predefined themes and customization options allow adjusting the page to fit your needs and branding requirements. It also helps to ensure that Google doesn’t penalize your site while it is under construction.

Conclusion

When it comes to creating a website, WordPress is flexible, scalable and great for SEO.

You can add various features to your site using WordPress plugins, but remember to avoid plugins that have not been updated in a while bcause they may compromise your site’s security. And, be sure to check out user reviews before installing a plugin.

The post 10 Awesome WordPress Plugins for 2020 appeared first on SiteProNews.