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What Is WordPress Ping Services And Why Is It Important For SEO?
Publishing a new WordPress post is the easy part. Getting the post indexed by Google and hitting the first page of Google is challenging. Today’s article will be about WordPress ping services and the list of WordPress pings that you should be using right now. I hope you like this WordPress tutorial!
Does WordPress Updates The Ping List Automatically?
WordPress is one of the best CMS in the world and yes, WordPress do updates the ping list automatically.
However, most of the time the WordPress ping list is not really updated and limited in nature.
Furthermore, there is absolutely no harm in having even MORE ping list services, right?
Here’s the full list of WordPress ping list services I had been using for some good years now … and I recommend you to have the same too for your WordPress blog.
The process of updating the ping list in your WordPress is rather easy. Here’s how you can update WordPress ping list.
Login to WP-Admin
Head over to Settings
Look for Update Services
Copy and paste the WordPress ping list services into the box and hit save.
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Young at heart and a deep passion for entrepreneurial success, Reginald is devoted to share everything he had learned about online marketing with the public. Follow him for more awesome postings.
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Oxygen Builder Review
I recently co-launched a new WordPress website, WPMaven.net and I knew the mistakes I had did in the past with this blog (and other blogs).
As a WordPress fanatic, I wanted to create a strong framework and structure to ensure that I could easily do ‘changes’ to the website (when needed) without spending a whole lot of money hiring freelancers.
For starters, I wanted to stick to Thrive Architect and StudioPress and I realized that I should get out of my comfort zone. I should try for something new instead!
I did my research and I discovered Oxygen Builder which is said to be a pretty cool visual builder. Of course, there aren’t many Oxygen Builder review because of two factors:
There is no affiliate program for promoting Oxygen Builder plugin
This plugin is still rather new in the market compared to the competitors
It didn’t took long before I decided to grab the Oxygen Agency plan and started rolling out with the new WordPress website. What you will get below is the honest review of Oxygen Builder.
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Table of Contents
Is Oxygen Builder Worth The Money?
I decided to do something different in this WordPress builder review. Instead of going with the introduction, I decided to start with my personal opinion with Oxygen Builder.
Oxygen is a WordPress visual builder used mainly by website developers. At this point of time, it doesn’t come with any free version and the lowest tier starts at $99 for a 1-time fee.
Here’s where it really got my head turning.
One time payment, unlimited usage and unlimited websites?
This is either too good to be true (like scam) or it’s just really that good.
I first came across Oxygen Builder during the last Cyber Monday deal. While there wasn’t any deal with Black Friday and Cyber Monday on Oxygen, many people were still discussing about it. And just like you, I wanted to know more about Oxygen Builder.
The more I read about Oxygen, the more I was interested with it. So much so that I took out my credit card and purchase it some days later.
What Is Oxygen Builder?
Oxygen Builder is a WordPress visual builder that is geared heavily for users mainly in the WooCommerce and website development niche. Despite that, Oxygen Builder is still a great plugin for typical WordPress users.
Oxygen Builder is firstly created to allow website owners to fully control over their WordPress website design through simple but interactive control buttons.
Oxygen Builder Features
Let’s start this Oxygen Builder review by checking out the features, shall we?
Oxygen Builder is the only WordPress visual builder that is 100% compatible with both Gutenberg blocks and WooCommerce. Most WordPress visual builders work well with WordPress but not with Gutenberg and/or WooCommerce. This is exactly why Oxygen Builder is above the competition.
Speedy Performance
Oxygen is lightweight and by far, it is the fastest loading WordPress visual builder by default. On average, websites using Oxygen Builder has a loading speed of under 1 second. This astonishing feat is achieved through removal of all bloatload and clean codes.
Visual Builder
Oxygen Builder is a powerful visual builder that allows you customize anything and everything on your WordPress site without limitation. Through my personal testing and experience, Oxygen Builder offers the most comprehensive visual builder features for WordPress websites.
Comprehensive Design Library
As a freelance WordPress developer, I count heavily on design libraries (such as demos) to speed up the overall web development works. Oxygen Builder comes with over 100 ready made designs, demos and other building blocks/elements to help you create a WordPress website without delay.
Hit the play button and the video will give you a quick overview on what Oxygen Builder really is.
As you can see above, Oxygen is definitely one of the heavy hitters in the WordPress designing industry.
Why Oxygen Builder Isn’t Popular?
If Oxygen Builder is that popular among website developers, why isn’t it being discussed heavily and with the thousands of publications on Oxygen Builder reviews on the Internet?
Here are the reasons:
Oxygen Builder doesn’t have a free plan
Oxygen Builder doesn’t have an affiliate program
Oxygen Builder team is focused heavily in product development but lacks the marketing side
Okay, let’s face it. I’m a WordPress fanatic and a marketing guy. Oxygen is good, Oxygen is fun to use and I love Oxygen Builder. But no matter how many times I visit Oxygen official website, I was never remarketed in anyway.
Of course, I truly appreciate this but heck, this is going to hurt their sales by far.
*P.S. There is a possibility that I might not be the type of target audience that the Oxygen team wanted, but I know I certainly took out my credit card to purchase Oxygen Agency plan!
What Are The Advantages Of Oxygen Builder?
Let’s start this review by going through the features offered by Oxygen Builder. It is important to note that I will only review Oxygen Builder features that are unique to it (to put everything in context).
Now, I helped launch and design WPMaven.net using Oxygen Builder. So, what I’m sharing is based on my personal opinion and experience using this visual builder.
1. Oxygen Is Compatible With WooCommerce and Gutenberg
By now, you know the amount of effort is put into Gutenberg builder by Automattic team. Every visual builder I had used did not work well with Gutenberg—but Oxygen is different. It integrates perfectly well with Gutenberg block builder and the experience would be any more smoother than I wished for.
But hey, don’t just hear my words. Watch this video to learn more!
2. Powerful WordPress Visual Builder for WooCommerce
You can now build your own WooCommerce store as you wished, with Oxygen Builder. Yes, Oxygen Builder is the first WordPress visual builder than is fully integrated with WooCommerce.
If you love WooCommerce, you are going to love Oxygen Builder even more.
This is what I mean.
3. Super Fast Loading Speed
Are you a WordPress speed fanatic like I do?
If the answer is “Yes”, you are in luck!
Oxygen’s clean code output and lightning fast load times keep your website visitors and search engine bots happy. On average, websites powered by Oxygen loads under 1 second even with the shittiest web hosting provider.
This is because Oxygen Builder has zero bloatload and clean codes to ensure that your website only loads relevant items and not everything under the sun (which will lead to slower website loading speed).
How about the Oxygen’s loading speed compared to Beaver Builder, Divi and Elementor?
Here’s the stat:
As you can see above, Oxygen is 50x leaner than Divi, 25x leaner than Elementor, and 10x leaner than Beaver Builder. Oxygen generally only loads the scripts and styles absolutely required by your design.
But the other builders load everything, even when you don’t use it. Animation styles, icon libraries, motion effects, slider scripts, and much more are loaded on ever page, even when you won’t be using 95% of it.’
The below are 3 reasons why Oxygen Builder WordPress is the fastest visual builder in the market.
CDN Friendly. Use CloudFlare, Amazon CloudFront, or any other CDN. CSS is cached and query strings are avoided, making Oxygen work with all CDNs.
Google Font Weight Chooser. Force the use of only the chosen font weights, reducing the amount of font files that must be downloaded to display your site.
Bloat Eliminator. WordPress loads various unnecessary scripts and styles by default, which you can disable in Oxygen in one click.
4. One Time For Unlimited Usage
Last but not least, I absolutely love the pricing structure of Oxygen. For such an intuitive drag and drop builder, it comes with three pricing, $99 for visual builder, $149 for visual builder and WooCommerce integration, and $169 for visual builder, WooCommerce and Gutenberg integration.
The best part?
All these plans are one-time payment for unlimited websites.
I don’t know you, but heck, this is by far the best deal of the century for WordPress fans, website developers and WordPress bloggers.
There are several disadvantages using Oxygen Builder. And just like any other visual builders in the market, there isn’t a perfect website builder out there.
The biggest challenge using Oxygen Builder is the learning curve. Sure, Oxygen Builder is created for beginners and rather easy to use, but it certainly isn’t a straightforward WordPress builder that you can use instantly (especially when you lacks coding skills).
The core concept of Oxygen Builder is to provide the maximum flexibility for website owners to customize their WordPress website. While this is good, most beginners might find it challenging as the features can be really comprehensive.
Take a look at the above. While the layout looks sweet (c’mon, the layout is way better than Elementor, Thrive Architect and Divi combined!), it can be really confusing for WordPress newbies.
I took around 20 minutes to understand the entire flow of using Oxygen and another few hours creating website designs correctly.
Now, the second disadvantages using Oxygen Builder is that the content will be ‘held hostage’ by the plugin itself. In other words, the content on the website will be in codes and if you uninstall Oxygen, your entire website will not be readable.
Oxygen Builder Competitor: Thrive Architect
Until date, Thrive Architect is the only WordPress visual builder that do not hold your content hostage. In other words, you can uninstall Thrive Architect at anytime and the content on your website is still readable.
Thrive Architect Demo
About Me
Young at heart and a deep passion for entrepreneurial success, Reginald is devoted to share everything he had learned about online marketing with the public. Follow him for more awesome postings.
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Chasing For The Best Page Builder for WordPress
It has been over a decade that I use WordPress for personal (side hustle), business and promoting a service. One of the smartest things I had learn and discovered from my journey is that a page builder for WordPress is probably the best, God-given gift to all WordPress users.
No, I’m not preaching how good a WordPress page builder is but if you are blogger or a website owner, you know exactly what I mean.
With the constant change in technology especially in WordPress, which is the best page builder for you?
Carry on reading this post to learn more on the best page builder for WordPress.
10 WordPress Builders Tools That Rock
Build more websites, posts and pages faster with these awesome tools.
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Summary
Want to discover the best WordPress page builder plugin of all time?
The reason for my choice is simple. Thrive Architect is simple to use and by far, this is the fastest drag and drop WordPress builder plugin. A page builder is meant to speed up the process of building pages and websites (and not cracking our heads to understand how the coding works).
Using Thrive Architect, you can build new pages, landing/sales pages, blog posts and homepages under 5 minutes or less. And the visual builder is best to none. You can read my review here.
But wait. Thrive Architect may be best for bloggers and affiliate marketers. How about web developers?
I glad you ask.
If you are a web developer, I recommend you to go with Divi by Elegant Themes. The reason is simple. If you are serious in using front end editor to build your client’s WordPress website, there is no other tool that works better than Divi. Powerful from it comes, Divi is best used when you have strong background in CSS and HTML.
For the record, you don’t require coding skills to use Divi. However, having coding skills under your sleeves certainly help to make web development much easier.
Thrive Architect
Thrive Architect is a state-of-the-art page builder plugin for WordPress. Managed and developer by the popular ThriveThemes.com, this is the most popular WordPress builder tool in the market today.
For the record, 75% of the blog posts and pages in this blog is build using Thrive Architect.
Curious to see Thrive Architect in action? You can check out the demo right here, or head over to this blog post that was build entirely with Thrive Architect.
Pros (8 counts)
Front-end builder
Compatible with all major WordPress themes and plugins
Affordable (one-time payment for lifetime updates)
Constant updates (close to bi-weekly updates)
New product features launched every month
Fastest page builder for WordPress plugin
Over 275+ ready-made demo available
Don’t break your website upon uninstalling the plugin
Cons (1 count)
Most of the themes are build with several core concepts (core concept looks are fitted well for bloggers only—you might need to change some settings/layout to fit your personal needs)
The above is based on my personal experience using Thrive Architect (been using this plugin since beta time). While Thrive Architect is very useful and powerful (I really, really love it), I still don’t use this plugin that much especially with my client’s website.
Overall, Thrive Architect is a very solid page builder plugin for WordPress in which I truly recommend to bloggers and WordPress website owners.
Divi had gone a long way. Owned and designed by ElegantThemes.com, this is one of the most popular page builder tool for WordPress developers. The first few version of Divi (both theme and builder plugin) were kinda buggy. But, they did step up the game. The launch of Divi 4.0 was the change maker in the web design industry.
I don’t use much of Divi on this blog but this new venture of mine, ArticleSumo.com is created entirely based on Divi framework.
The most popular page builder tool for WordPress developers
The best visual builder tool (WYSIWYG)
1-click import demos
Wide range of demos and designs for homepages, pricing page, contact us, about us and sales pages
Most affordable WordPress builder tool
Divi comes with both a dedicated builder plugin and Divi theme
Membership includes unlimited access to everything (other themes and plugins)
Lifetime pricing is available (massive discount and best value)
Cons (1 count)
Divi is heavier than most drag and drop builders which may impact website loading speed
If you are a website developer or managing multiple WordPress websites, Divi theme and Divi builder plugin are the best options for you to go with. Compared to other WordPress page builder tools, Divi comes with unlimited usage—which means you can install it in as many websites as you wish.
When added with the lifetime subscription of Divi theme, you are bound for some massive savings and deals.
Overall, Divi theme is a great page builder for WordPress … one which I have absolutely no regret in purchasing.
Are you still looking for the best page builder for WordPress?
Leave a comment below and tell me what you think.
About Reginald
Young at heart and a deep passion for entrepreneurial success, Reginald is devoted to share everything he had learned about online marketing with the public. Follow him for more awesome postings.
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How To Do Image Optimization In WordPress?
While WordPress is an excellent blogging CMS for beginners, WordPress is definitely not the best in doing image optimization. As a matter of fact, this is the single reason why the term “image optimizer WordPress” is often searched for by bloggers.
Imagine optimization is required in WordPress for two reasons—for improving website loading speed and to rank better in search engines.
As a WordPress developer myself, one of the biggest struggle is to build a WordPress website that is fast, beautiful, conversion-focused and super easy to manage.
Of course, this leads me to answer one major question—how to optimize images in WordPress?
Before that, I recommend you to bookmark and share this article with your peers.
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Here’s a quick 5-minutes video to kick start
How To Optimize Images Without Plugin?
An optimized image allows your website to load faster while reducing server resources
By default, images uploaded to WordPress are not being compressed. So, how to enable WordPress optimize images without plugin?
Photoshop is the best most effective tool in optimizing images before uploading to WordPress. As a rule of thumb, always upload images based on the exact size … simply because WordPress sucks at resizing the image and this process leads to straining your server resources.
If you hate Photoshop like I do, Canva is a great alternative tool to optimize images. Canva allows you to resize the images before uploading to your WordPress website.
There are many image optimizers that you can use. What these tools do is to resize the image, reduce unwanted pixels and of course, make the image size smaller. The smaller the image size, the faster it takes to load the images.
The free Smush plugin offers limited but sufficient features for bloggers who want to optimize their images. Smush Pro which is a premium image optimization plugin for WordPress offers more comprehensive image optimization including lazy loading feature that helps reduces website loading time. Download Smushit here.
EWWW Image Optimizer is an excellent alternative to Smush. It does not offer lazy loading feature but it has superb image optimization features to keep the images looking good (even with a reduction in size). Download EWW Image Optimizer plugin here.
I like ShortPixel because this plugin does compression not only for images, but for PDF files as well. Just like Smush, ShortPixel comes with premium features with a small monthly commitment. Download ShortPixel to compress images now.
If you are looking for a good WordPress image optimization plugin, Imagify is quite a go-to plugin for bloggers. With over 200,000+ installs, this plugin comes with easy to configure setting, effective image optimization and resizing. Imagify comes with free optimization services for a limited number of images and if you require more, there are paid optimization packages that you can choose from. Download Imagify here.
Using image optimizer WordPress plugin allows you to save time and makes optimization by default. When set up correctly, the process of optimizing images will be an automated process (so that you can focus more on your blogging business).
These WordPress plugins will enable image compression (often known as “Losslessly Compress Images” process) which will reduce the image size dramatically—without impacting the image resolution.
Specify Image Dimensions
Optimize WordPress images by spicifying the image dimension
There are many ways you can specify an image dimensions to optimize the image. Specific image dimension will ensure that the server loads the right size when required and no additional resizing needed to be done by the server. This will reduce the stress and improve the performance of the server … which leads to a faster response time.
Now sure how to optimize an image by specifying the dimension? Here’s an example when you are uploading an image in the widget area.
Specify the image dimension helps to improve website loading time.
Combine Images Into CSS Sprites
Combining images is a great way to optimize images in WordPress
What is combining images into CSS sprites?
Sprites are two-dimensional images which are made up of combining small images into one larger image at defined X and Y coordinates. To display a single image from the combined image, you could use the CSS background-position property, defining the exact position of the image to be displayed.
CSS sprites is a collection of images put into a single image. A web page with many images can take a long time to load and generates multiple server requests.
CSS Sprite is very effective in optimizing images (serving a single request instead of dozens of request). However, if it require some CSS knowledge as it can easily break the ability for your site to load images properly.
Avoid Image URL Redirects
How does URL image direction impacts website loading speed?
Every redirect will lead to a waiting time—and having too many redirections will impact your website loading speed.
Image URL redirection often happens when you are changing from HTTP to HTTPS, changing from www version to non-www version or started serving images from a CDN.
Resizing images is the quick-and-easy way to reduce file size. It creates an exact replica of your image, but one where everything is smaller.
Shrinking an image beyond a certain point means some elements are barely visible. This is especially problematic when the focal point of an image is no longer clear.
Cropping is the alternative to resizing. Rather than shrinking the entire image, you are essentially trimming around the edges – like using a pair of scissors on a photograph. The part of the image you are trying to show becomes more prominent, and you cut away all the distractions from the background.
Here’s a demonstration of how cropping an image can be better than simply resizing it, using a trusty WordPress screenshot.
The resized image
Original image size (uncropped)
The cropped image:
Cropped image (optimized in size)
Of course, the benefit of cropping is that, just like resizing, it reduces image dimensions, cuts file size, and is therefore a great way of doing image optimization in WordPress.
Serve Images On A CDN
What is a WordPress CDN and how it helps in optimizing images?
Everything online happens in an instant, right? Well no, actually. Geographical distances between a visitor’s location and your website’s server have an impact on site speed – the larger the distance, the longer the wait.
To solve this latency problem, consider installing a content delivery network (CDN). CDNs store your website on multiple servers spread across the globe, then connect your visitors to the one geographically closest to them. Latency problems solved, your website is served more quickly.
If you want to speed up WordPress, you’ll be pleased to learn that Optimole plugin ships with its own free CDN – just for images.
All you need to do is install and activate Optimole. Voilà – your images will be displayed in record time.
What is Optimole? Optimole is your all-in-one image optimization solution for WordPress that offers image CDN (under it’s paid plan). Integrating Optimole will speed up the overall website loading speed because you are serving highly optimized images over WordPress server.
While Optimole is an excellent CDN for images, there are several other CDN services that offer a full range of speedy CDN services (serving JS and CSS for example). Here are two of the best in the market today:
By default, the WordPress software treats all images equally. However, this is quite clearly an inefficient use of resources, and especially if you want to do any image optimization in WordPress.
After all, an image at the bottom of the page won’t be seen until much later than the image at the top of the page – doesn’t the first image deserve priority?
Prioritizing images is exactly what lazy loading achieves. Images at the top of the page are prioritized, while images below the fold are loaded only when the visitor scrolls down the page. This makes lazy loading the “just in time” equivalent of web page loading.
Here are the best (and recommended) WordPress lazy loading plugins:
CloudFlare Mirage (Pro Feature) – reduces image requests, lazy loads images, and improves image load times on mobile devices with slow network connections.
Here are some additional details.
Resizes images based on a visitor’s device/connection. A visitor on a poor connection will get a smaller version (lower resolution) until they are back on a higher bandwidth.
Reduces amount of requests – instead of sending multiple requests for all images on the website, Mirage pulls this into one request so visitors can see images immediately.
Lazy loads images (only loads them once users scroll down and actually see the image).
CloudFlare Image mirage improves load time for WordPress websites
CloudFlare Polish (Pro Feature) – strips EXIF data and compresses images.
Cloudflare Image Polish automatically optimizes images for website owners
Last but not least, CloudFlare Hotlink Protection.
CloudFlare Hotlink Protection – prevents people from copying your images and pasting them on their own website, which (since you’re still hosting that image) will suck up your bandwidth.
CloudFlare Hotlink Protection protects your images from being hotlink to other sites
Overall, CloudFlare is an important tool for WordPress image optimization. It is powerful, easy to use and very effective for website owners who are serious in getting faster website loading speed. With no coding required, CloudFlare is excellent for beginners and advanced users alike.
Saving Images Using The Right Format
The differences between PNG and JPEG
Do you know that saving images using the right format is extremely important when it comes to image optimization?
Most of the time, images are uploaded to WordPress either in JPEG or PNG format. But do you know what they are really used for?
PNG is uncompressed (larger file size) and should be used in simple images without lots of colors.
JPEG is a compressed (smaller file size) which slightly reduces image quality but is smaller in size, and is used in images with lots of colors.
Optimizing Images With Alt Text
What is Alt Text? What is Alt Tags?
Optimizing images is more than just to ensure your website loads fast. It involves ensuring that you are sending the right signals to search engines (for your website ranking).
Using Alt Text (also known as Alt Tags) is a great way to send the right signals to Google and here are some information that is critical for your SEO ranking.
These should be the same as your image file name. You can use the Automatic Image Alt Attributes plugin to automatically use the file name as the alt text. As long as you’re using relevant images, some of them should naturally include (bits) of your keyword… there is absolutely no reason to stuff keywords in images, which risks a keyword stuffing penalty.
Add Alt Text To Images Automatically – use the Automatic Image Alt Attributes plugin. Now whenever you add an image, the plugin will add alt text which is the same as the file name.
ScreamingFrog is a free tool that helps you find missing alt text effectively
How to optimize images with Alt Tags?
The first step is to understand what Alt Tags (or Alt Text) are used for. In this case, these are important signals that search engine uses to understand what the image is all about. Spiders or web crawlers are able to understand words but not images.
The second step is to create short and specific alt tags that make sense to search engines. Here are two examples of alt tags for the below image.
What can you understand from this image?
This is a sample of a good alt tag: “A boy playing with a puppy”
This is a sample of a bad alt tag: “Dog”
Having the right alt tag is important for image optimization especially in WordPress. WordPress allows you to optimize the image by inputting alternative text in all images (as seen below).
Wrapping Up: Image Optimizer WordPress
The image optimization process is an important process that will impact the way your WordPress blog works/performs.
By using image optimizer WordPress, you stands a higher chance in getting more traffic from search engines and your blog will load faster.
Before you go …
This is the safest and most efficient W3TC configuration until date. Download and import directly to your W3TC now!
BONUS
About Me
Young at heart and a deep passion for entrepreneurial success, Reginald is devoted to share everything he had learned about online marketing with the public. Follow him for more awesome postings.
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Could Your WordPress eCommerce Website Hurting Your Business?
Off the shelf, WordPress is great for publishing and sharing content.
To make it work for ecommerce, however, the leading CMS platform requires some hands-on attention. Or, at the very least, there are a lot of hoops and hurdles that the ecommerce site owner needs to undertake to optimize their WordPress-powered website.
Sadly, many aspiring ecommerce entrepreneurs aren’t learned enough in the field of web development/design or conversion rate optimization. So much so that when they attempt to transform their WordPress website into an ecommerce store, they end up making mistakes (both those that are and those that aren’t so obvious to the general public) that cause their web visitors to click away.To help you avoid the exact scenario that I described, I’m going to share with you several reasons why your web visitors are most likely turned off by your WordPress ecommerce site.
If you’re seeing a relatively high percentage of your site visitors click away without having bought anything, then you need to check these out.
1. Your pages load terribly slowly.
Consumers expect ecommerce websites to load fast. How fast, you might want to ask? Three seconds. If your page takes longer than three seconds to load, there’s a good chance your visitors would have already clicked away by then.
The thing with WordPress is it has thousands of installable plugins. There are plugins for dropshipping, content creation, search engine optimization, marketing, etc. In a lot of ways, the library of plugins that WordPress supports gives their users an unfair advantage over their competitors.
On the flip side, however, these plugins can have an adverse impact on conversion rates. This is because installing too many plugins can slow a website down. As an ecommerce entrepreneur, you need to be wary of this. You need to be choosy about the plugins you’ll install.
To help you determine if your website speed is still acceptable after installing all the plugins that you think you need, you can use an online tool like GTMetrix.
After entering your URL, the tool will show you its results after scanning your website. To show you how it works, I entered “bing.com” as an example:
GTMetrix shows you how fast or slow your website loads, and gives you a score.
Many factors can cause a slow page load speed, such as:
Excessive plugins installed;
Photos are extra large or not optimized;
Numerous file requests (RTTs);
JavaScript issues;
Too much flash content, etc.
GTMetrix also recommends some actions you can take to improve your page speed. As you improve it, your conversions and sales will eventually improve.
2. You have a poor ecommerce interface.
Because WordPress doesn’t have any of the most crucial ecommerce functionalities built in, site owners need to put in some extra effort, transforming their websites into full-blown online shops.
They do the tasks that professional web developers and designers do — even if they don’t have the skills or knowhow to do it well. The result? The WordPress site ends up having missing or faulty ecommerce functionalities.
Not only that, but the website design and the experience it gives to the users also becomes less than stellar. If you want to build your ecommerce site with WordPress, you need to have an outstanding ecommerce interface. You can achieve that by installing reliable ecommerce plug-ins, such as BigCommerce.
Installing plug-ins like BigCommerce allows you incorporate ecommerce functionalities like shopping carts, wish lists, shipping, product integration, payment processing, and others, into your WordPress site seamlessly — all without you having to type countless lines of code.
3. Your product pages aren’t UX-friendly.
Customers hate it when they have a hard time finding your products, or if your item list is incomplete and your product pages aren’t categorized properly. They may also find your product pages dull when they’re not interactive, and have poor content or descriptions.
When ecommerce store owners build their product pages from the ground up, there’s a good chance their visitors will have a poor experience on the page. This is because the store owners are unfamiliar with what makes a user experience interactive and exciting.
When that happens, your customers lose interest and click away. You also lose opportunities for conversions and sales. If you have this kind of problem, you can fix it by hiring a professional website developer or conversion rate optimization expert.
These experts enhance your entire site UX/UI and ensure your product pages are primed for conversions.
4. Your site security is weak.
Content management systems (CMS) like WordPress are often vulnerable to cybersecurity issues like brute force attacks, SQL injection, and malware. Ecommerce sites like yours are hubs that see financial transactions, customer and business information, and other data assets valuable to you and the hacker.
Thus, it’s imperative that you secure your WordPress ecommerce site and make it obvious to your visitors that your site is secure — otherwise, they will only click away for fear of buying from a website that isn’t secure.
How to check if the website is secured?
One way you can do so is by applying for a secure sockets layer (SSL) certification. An SSL-certified website with HTTPs is secure because it indicates that it’s encrypted; that is, a hacker has to access an additional security layer with encryption keys. You’ll know your website is SSL-certified when you see a padlock icon beside your URL and HTTPS instead of HTTP.
WordPress, when you first install it for your website, is not automatically secure. You must apply for SSL certification and protect your site with HTTPS.
5. Your site is not mobile responsive.
Did you know that 82 percent of Internet users in the United States have shopped from mobile devices? More and more people are now into mobile shopping because it’s convenient. That means they also value UX/UI (user interface) even on their smartphones and tablets.
As such, you must ensure that your website is mobile responsive. If your site is responsive, it is user-friendly and navigable. The components of your website, including banners and menus, will also remain intact and not disordered.
If you want to see how your site looks on mobile while on your desktop, follow these steps:
Open your site on your browser.
Right-click anywhere on your site.
Select
The page will then look like this:
You can even choose to view it on specific devices, like iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Nokia, iPad, and more.
WordPress, as a platform, does support responsive page design. Some older themes, however, do not. When you select an ecommerce-centric theme for your WordPress site, be sure to get one that is also responsive. A good idea would be to use the best WooCommerce theme out there. You will rarely find themes that aren’t responsive, nowadays, but just in case, be sure to check.
Responsive design ensures that your web visitors not only have great UX/UI on desktop but, just as importantly, on mobile. Your customers can then enjoy browsing and buying from your ecommerce site wherever they may physically be, increasing your sales and conversions.
The bottom line
WordPress is ideal for blogging, and using it for ecommerce too is feasible – if you develop and optimize your site accordingly. If any of the reasons for repelling your customers apply to your WordPress-powered ecommerce site, you need to work toward resolving them.
As you enhance your WordPress site, you’ll be well on your way to keeping your customers and watching your sales skyrocket.
About Me
Young at heart and a deep passion for entrepreneurial success, Reginald is devoted to share everything he had learned about online marketing with the public. Follow him for more awesome postings.
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Choosing The Best WordPress Themes for SEO Agencies
SEO agencies are all about branding and professional outlooks. I mean, let’s face it. You need to use the best WordPress theme for SEO agencies and you don’t mind spending a fortune on it because an SEO project can easily earns you thousands of dollars each month.
Carry on reading more to learn more about the best WP theme you should be using today.
What Does A Good WordPress Theme For Agencies Do?
I’m sure you have this at the back of your head—but I’m going to share some of my personal thoughts too. If you know this, please scroll down to the next part … right to the best WordPress themes for SEO agencies.
Advantage #1: It’s good for SEO
A good WordPress theme helps you with SEO. As a freelance SEO consultant myself, I spend money on well-coded premium WordPress theme for my SEO business.
Why?
Because no two WP theme are made equal—and there are many WP themes that are badly coded.
Advantage #2: Professional looking
The SEO industry is a super competitive one—and you are going to generate more SEO project leads if you start looking professionals.
Let’ me ask you a simple question. Take a look at both the images below (and tell me what you think—I’ll tell you mine!).
Lacking focus on website design and user experience will lead to high bounce rate
What you are seeing on the left side of the screen is a badly design website theme. If your SEO agency is using something like this, you got to change to the right WP theme … like right now.
Failure to address this issue is going to lead to multiple SEO problems!
Now, this is what I call an awesome WP theme. This theme has multiple call-to-actions that are properly placed with the right colour (your eyes are attracted to them and not on the entire page).
The fonts are easy to read and the hero image on the website resonates closely to what the audience (potential customers) are looking for.
Beautiful WP theme that generates lead for business
Finally, what that being said, there are any reasons why you need to use a good WordPress theme for SEO agencies/businesses.
Here are the top ones you should be using for your SEO agency today.
Divi Theme
The first choice in choosing a WordPress theme for SEO agencies or SEO businesses is Divi by Elegant Themes.
Divi Theme is a drag and drop WordPress theme from Elegant Themes that could revolutionize the way you build websites—which fits perfectly for SEO agencies.
Divi allows you to customize every expect of your website (H1, H2, tags etc.) in just a few clicks. I’m sure you know exactly what I mean!
Thrive Architect is a great WordPress theme choice for SEO agencies
The second best WordPress theme is definitely Thrive Architect. But here’s the thing—Thrive Architect is not a WordPress theme.
Thrive Architect is a drag and drop WordPress builder that is compatible with any WordPress theme in the market. You can easily download and install Twenty Sixteen, and integrate Thrive Architect directly to it without any issue.
There are many advantages using Thrive Architect—for starters, it comes with over 375 ready-made templates and landing pages. Instead of spending hours trying to build a perfect WordPress page, you can now focus on your SEO business.
Through the years using WordPress, the drag and drop feature of Thrive Architect is by far … the most superior one I had ever used.
Conversion Focused WordPress Theme for SEO Agencies
Personally, I recommend going with Divi theme as it is comes with both Divi theme builder and Divi builder (plugin). Divi builder plugin is an excellent addon if you are looking for a drag and drop builder to integrate with your current WordPress theme.
My decision for recommending Divi theme is due to its flexibility, customization and pricing.
Still looking for the best WordPress theme for SEO agency?
I hope you find this article useful and if you need anything, drop me a message and tell me all about it!
About Me
Young at heart and a deep passion for entrepreneurial success, Reginald is devoted to share everything he had learned about online marketing with the public. Follow him for more awesome postings.
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