Category: WordPress CMS

If your WordPress website is not running at lightning speed, unfortunately, this will significantly impact your customer conversion rates and Google rankings.

A two to three-second download would seem adequate for most people, but this is no longer the case. Start thinking one to two seconds.

So, let’s take a look at ways to start improving your websites speed. Some of these are quick fixes, and others will need a web development agency. In any case, the sooner you get onto this, the faster you’ll start to see improved site visitors, fewer bounce rates and higher Google rankings.

Also read: WordPress Plugins you can’t live without for 2021

1. Keep all your WordPress Plugins updated

You can get lazy and forget about updating old plugins that will slow your website. As soon as these plugins become outdated, they start to affect all facets of your site. For example, think about the security of your website. If the plugin is obsolete, this can compromise your entire site’s security, making it easy for hackers and viruses to play havoc.

For this, you will need an agency to get into the back end of your content management system and update all the plugins. They’ll do this fairly quickly so I would say that this is a speedy fix.

2. Make sure all images are fully optimised

Having all images optimised is probably one of the essential factors for page speed. Reason being, large photos can drag page load times down drastically. Video being the worst culprit. If you remember old printers and the way they used to print a pixel line at a time. The same goes for picture load times. They used to be super-slow, and you’d have to wait in some cases 20 or even 30 seconds for them to load fully. People were accepting of this, but you can forget about it nowadays. Images have to load in less than half a second if not quicker. One large image can ruin the entire site’s web experience, so take a look and see for yourself if some photos are slow to load if you have a gallery or portfolio of images.

A quick fix for this is to compress images, so they require less storage. Thre are WordPress plugins that can do this, such as Smush.it or EWWW Image Optimizer. If this is out of your comfort zone, get a web agency to handle this for you.

3. Try to avoid large pages of content

Try to avoid long content pages. Lengthy content pages will slow down your websites load times. Having images in the content will also further exacerbate load times. Plus, it makes it a challenging read for users who want to skim through the copy to find relevant sections. A way around this is to break the document up into paragraphs with clear subheadings.

Once you have reached 1500-2000 words, you will need to create a new page. Try to encourage your users to click on the next page to explore more of the article and keep them on your website. The more they delve into your site and the longer they stay there, the better this is for your SEO rankings. Remember, if you want customers to remain on the website, it has to provide a great customer experience. So, make it a super-easy quick read.

4. Don’t host videos on your site

If you want to show videos on your site, the best way to do this is to host them through a third party like YouTube or Vimeo. Try not to put them on your server as this will slow download times. All you need to do is create a YouTube account and upload your videos there. When you want to put the video on your website, copy and paste the link. WordPress makes this super-easy to do. Hosting videos on your website in a native fashion will slow things down, especially if you have many videos to showcase like real estate agents, health professionals and government agencies.

5. Lazy loading is a good idea

Do you sometimes see pages that load with text first then the images follow? Lazy loading pages are an effective weapon in your tool chest to make sure your site loads faster. A great idea as the reader gets to read the text first while images slowly load. Even though the pictures and other heavy load page elements are still there, the user gets to see some of the web pages without waiting for everything to download. To work effectively, you will need a competent web agency that knows how to do this or has a thorough WordPress knowledge.

6. Delete old blogs

You may have inadvertently written blogs years ago with rich video content and large pictures that you; ‘ve forgotten about Well, guess what? Google and your users can still access this outdated blog content. The best remedy for this is to either rewrite them or delete them. If they are old and obsolete, this is a good idea as Google will reward more current sites. Pruning old blogs or refining old copy will give your site a more polished look. Plus you will make it much faster.

7. Use a high-speed hosting service provider

Your website needs to be hosted somewhere in the cloud, and a significant factor determining your websites speed is your hosting provider. The hosting ahs all your WordPress website pages and files and needs to be fast, reliable and preferably local-based somewhere in Australia. If your hosting is slow and continuously going down, then this is a huge sign that it’s time to change. Slow-loading websites are often a direct result of cheap hosting providers.

If you have an extensive eCommerce website that’s chewing up a lot of data or a site that receives significant amounts of web traffic, then look at upgrading your internet hosting.

Also Read: Are you paying excessive monthly hosting fees?

8. Configure Multi-Level Security

Hackers can be very creative and are always out there looking for ways to get into your site. They can gain access to your site on many levels: the server, the cloud and through your WordPress Content Management system. One thing they can do is ( and this has happened to a few clients we know that we’re not using our hosting service) is to drive lots of fake traffic ( and we are talking thousands of hits within minutes) which can cause a site to crash and infect your hosting environment.

Now you may ask what this has to do with site speed and the answer is simple; reducing any spam or malicious activity on your server allows it more processing power to keep your site ticking over quickly. Plus when a website is down for an extended period by hacking, it will send a signal to Google who may perceive your site as untrustworthy, affecting Google rankings. A huge NO NO!!

9. Avoid long comments sections

Have you ever been on YouTube or other websites with a vast comments section that takes ages to load? Well, there rules regarding comments sections that will help with WordPress website load times. All you have to do is paginate these 1000’s of comments and break them up into pages. The last thing you want is to slow your page load times because it takes time to load comments. Also, look at trimming or pruning comments that seem spammy as these bastardise the comments area’s intention.

10. Update to the latest PHP

You have to be regularly updating the security of your website and the latest plugins and your server. You must be on top of all PHP updates on your server to ensure that it runs at an optimum speed. If you are running your website with the latest PHP version, it will run faster. Simple as that. If you’re like most small businesses who don’t have a server, then speak to your hosting company to see if they have the latest PHP version running.

11. Update your WordPress constantly

Lastly, you have to update your WordPress website all the time. This task may seem like a hassle, but it’s necessary for so many reasons. WordPress is always changing its versions with new updates, so to give your site the best chance of being as speedy as possible, updates are essential. For best page loa speed times you must always have the latest version, and the good news is; they will let you know when a new version is available.

Contact us today to see how we can make your website function to its best potential. If you think it’s loading to slow, we can help fix this issue.

This article was written by Steven ( one of the marketing team at Hopping Mad Designs ). He has been helping small to medium-sized businesses with their website performance and Google rankings.

Stand out from your competition with a Hopping Mad Designs website!

 

WordPress websites are at the core of many businesses. And, for this reason, there are some fantastic plugins you should keep an eye out for in 2021 that will help your website remain current and help with some nifty marketing.

WordPress websites have many benefits which most people already know about and because it’s such a dynamic & versatile content management system you need to learn whats current and available now.

These plugins, combined with a web design team that knows what their doing can help customise your website to help capture new leads, perform better, become faster and help you achieve your business goals.

Below are our favourite 10 of the numerous examples of plugins that showcase the power of having a WordPress Web Design. If you have never thought of using WordPress as you’re preferred CMS, these should be enough to convince you.

1. Make your business more social with PeepSo

Socialising online is a great way to build loyalty among your customers and audience, and this is what PeepSo does. You can quickly build a social network plugin for your WordPress website.

It’s like having your own customised Facebook ( not as complex ) social network within your site. An excellent way for customers to interact with each other while at the same time, grow your brand and awareness online.

PeepSo is super quick to install, and it’s priced well for small businesses. All users need to do is pay a yearly subscription fee, create their business profile, and within minutes they are sharing videos, photos and messages.

2. Understand Google Analytics & grow your business with MonsterInsights

Many companies make design or marketing decisions on their website without fully understanding what their customers are doing on the site or consumer behaviour. With MonsterInsights you get real-time data to help you make informed decisions based on data and not guesswork. Far too many businesses rely on second-hand information about their websites actual performance. A big mistake and can cause you to head in the wrong marketing direction.

For 2021 install MonsterInsights and see how quickly you’ll love their interface, the information you can get and make constant tweaks to your site based on this information to help improve performance and conversion rates. If you have a WordPress site, you will be able to make these changes instantly – how good it that!

MonsterInsights says: ” Our Audience Report shows you which country your visitors are from, what are they most interested in, which device are they using, their age, gender, and a whole lot more.”

3. Peace of mind for the security of your website With Sucuri

WordPress is the largest CM4. Get more customers with easy to use Lead Generation Forms With Gravity Forms
We all know how competitive it is online, and we are all looking at ways to reach more customers, grab their attention and market to them. Well, driving more customers to your website is a whole new ball game through SEO, and this article doesn’t have the space for that. But, what we can do is reach out to your customers and get as much information as we can from them through Gravity Forms.

It’s not just about adding a few simple fields; Gravity Forms is about customising your fields based on your audience and what you are trying to achieve. It’s so easy to integrate into your WordPress website, and you can customise so many cool features like welcome emails, for any new subscriber or inquiry. Plus you can also create the style you want, so it’s consistent with your branding.

On their website, it says:’ Build and publish your WordPress forms in just minutes—no drudgery, just quick and easy form-building. Select your fields, configure your options and easily embed forms on your WordPress-powered site using the built-in tools.’

5. Get much better Search Engine Rankings With Yoast SEO

Every business wants to have better SEO rankings. Build a website and ranking it on Google is the name of the game.

With Yoast SEO you can get all the data you need from individual web pages to help improve: page titles, descriptions, page speed, generate site map, implementation of 301’s, content optimisation and other vital small fixes.

The best part about Yoast is that it’s all in real-time so as you fix the errors Yoast will let you know. If you want to get better Google rankings, then this is the ultimate SEO tool. Make sure your web developer has installed Yoast as it’s super easy to do. You will see results and improved Google rankings fairly quickly once Google starts indexing your site.

6. Live Chat with potential customers with Pure Chat

Now you will never miss the opportunity to talk with your customers online with Pure Chat. Once installed, this nifty feature will have a pop-up box at the bottom of your screen so you can chat with customers in real-time. You can even customise the look and style of the chat feature, so it blends in with your branding. In a digital age where everyone wants immediate answers, this is the perfect solution—ideal for all industries and businesses that rely on customer interaction & quick sales.

7. Get your customers to attend events With The Events Calendar

If your company or business relies on people attending events ( whether in person or virtually ) then The Events Calendar is a great plugin. It says on its website: ‘Build your brand, bolster attendance, and connect with your audience’.

It saves loads of time as you can create any event and even sell tickets. Plus it integrates with zoom, which is handy especially in this COVID-19 environment.

8. Engage with your customers with promotions and giveaways with RafflePress

Giveaways and promotions are a great way to keep your customers loyal and coming back to the site for repeat visits. RafflePress allows you to integrate these giveaways, right within your site easily. All items are responsive so that they will work on mobile.

Another nifty feature is that it integrates seamlessly with your email marketing, and social media platforms so that reach out to existing customers about these exciting giveaways and promotions your business has. If you have some great giveaways and freebies, you’ll be surprised how many people start following you on social media for the next big giveaway!

Dangers with too many plugins.

Plugins are a great idea and a quick way to promote your business but the danger of having too many WordPress plugins is that is can slow sites down. Plus, there is a security issue of having to always keep these plugins updated. Some websites can overcome this issue by having a dedicated server for faster speeds or buy larger hosting packages but for most small businesses they need to be aware of the downside of excessive plugin use. Having said that your web design agency will be able to help you decide which are the best plugins for your site and optimise these for faster download times.

In conclusion

WordPress plugins give your business the best advantage of being at the cutting edge of technology. Be adventurous and explore all of these options and see just how quickly they can transform your website into a powerful marketing tool.

About the author

This article was posted by Steven who is one of the marketing team at Hopping Mad Designs. He’s been working on WordPress websites for over a decade and has helped many Sydney businesses succeed online. If you want to get more out of your website and generate more sales leads and engage with your customer base give Steve a call on 02 9360 8514.

In today’s competitive online space, you have to build a brand for your small business which can take the shape of many forms. And the beauty is having a  WordPress website makes this possible.

Many small businesses should consider blogging, content marketing, e-newsletters and website updates to keep the content of their website fresh and their website relevant.

Doing this will build the trust of your website and help with its overall online visibility.

Unfortunately, most small businesses are far too busy running the daily operations to worry about these tasks but having a website built on a WordPress platform makes these tasks easy.

Following are ten WordPress benefits for small businesses.

1.WordPress is so much more than a basic content management system.

WordPress was the first blogging platform and was created well over a decade ago to help businesses get a basic website. Many small businesses clamoured to develop a simple web landing page, add a couple of blog posts and hey presto you were online. But, WordPress has evolved so much over the years and grown to be an essential marketing platform.

You have the flexibility to add more great features like an eCommerce store, menus, maps and delivery tracking.

Anything current for your business can be integrated into your WordPress CMS. All you need to do is think about how your business has grown and what additions you need to make to your website to reflect this. And, your WordPress platform will more than likely have the plugin to help you integrate it. WordPress has every extra module you could want from starting an online business through to adding extra website security.

2. Mobile Responsive is a Must

As web designers, we make sure that every WordPress site we build is entirely mobile responsive. Responsive design means that all elements of the web page such as images, text, videos will be rearranged automatically to fit all hand help devices, mobile phones and screen sizes.

We all know that websites must fit nicely on all screens and any hurdles hindering the user’s experience will have an impact on the time they spend on the site. This means that if your website is not responsive, the chances of people buying from you are minimal.

A quick test to see if your site is responsive is to check how it looks on you’re mobile phone. If it doesn’t reduce images and text to fit into the screen, then you need to get a web design team to look into this. Most small businesses over the last couple of years have realised the importance of having a responsive site, but there are still a whole bunch of folks out there with WordPress sites that are not mobile-friendly.

In most cases, this is a quick fix, so it’s something that you can do reasonably quickly.

3. WordPress lets you update security settings

Nothing is worse than finding out you’re website has been hacked. So, when you build, you’re WordPress website, make sure that you are up to date with all the latest security plugins. One of the best functions of WordPress is it will remind you if there are security updates needed. In most cases, it’s a quick click of a button for an instant security update.

4. WordPress websites allow easy internal linking

Whenever you write a blog, post or add a new page to your site, make sure you link internally to other pages. Creating an internal link structure is significant as it directs people to pages throughout your website. You might be writing a blog post related to a specific service offering, and you would want to have an internal link to that particular service page. Internal linkings has the benefit of keeping people on your website, which may encourage them to buy or make an inquiry. Plus more time on you’re site will reduce website bounce rates which is excellent for SEO, and you’re Google rankings.

Also, read The Do’s and Dont’s of Backlinks. Tips to make Google LOVE your link profile

5. WordPress helps you reduce and optimise image sizes.

Images and pictures on your website are generally the most extensive files. They can seriously slow your website load times which in turn can increase bounce rates and customers leaving your site. Slow load times are incredibly dangerous and can not only harm your Google rankings, but it can have an impact on sales and inquiries. You want your website to be fast, snappy and load in less than two seconds. WordPress can facilitate this by compressing and reducing all image & photo files, so your site is super fast to load.

6. WordPress has a great support network.

Like most things online, you will need help and support, and this is where WordPress is far superior to other CMS platforms. You can post a question to their forum and expect to get an answer swiftly but other WordPress experts. One of the best things about WordPress for small business is that it gives you autonomy. If for any reason you are stuck and need help the forum is there to help 24/7. Have a look at the WordPress Forum here.

7. WordPress gives flexibility in design.

Most small businesses are not designers and this is why WordPress is so handy. You can either choose from a range of free pre-existing templates that can match the style of your business. Or, you can completely customise your design based on your own unique style and taste. Obviously, you will need a Sydney WordPress web design agency to do this but the options are on the table for you. And, if you need any extra plugins added to you’re websites like a shopping cart, customised blogs or extra menus your web developers can easily add this.

8. WordPress is the most common website platform.

Any web designers or developer will know WordPress and how to use it. The interface is really easy to use and most small business owners will know how to use it after a couple of hours of training. But, like most small businesses you won’t have the time to invest in this especially during COVID-19. So if you have any design or structural changes needed on the site you can get an agency to do this for you. It’s a worldwide platform and changes, amends or additions can be implemented by anyone, anywhere in the world. It means that you’re not tied in to any one particular agency.

9. WordPress works across all industries.

Travel, beauty, medical, professional, trades, start-ups, eCommerce and Governments all use WordPress websites. The platform is so dynamic and so versatile that it can be customised to suit all industries and all types of small businesses. WordPress websites are so easy to create that it’s the perfect platform for small business startups that don’t want to invest a lot of money in the beginning phase of their business. However, as the business grows the site can easily expand to accommodate any growth.

10. WordPress is 100% SEO & Google-friendly

You will find it hard to beat WordPress for small business SEO. It allows you to easily update and modify the content, titles, tags, meta descriptions and images. Plus if you install the WordPress All in One SEO plugin will even give you tips on how to improve your sites on-page SEO performance. It does the thinking for you and guides you through the process.

There are many benefits for small business web design when using a WordPress option. From easy to add plugins, a huge online community that is there to help you anytime to the flexibility in design options. Plus it’s super Google friendly. So it makes perfect economic and business sense to utilize the most powerful web platform in the world for your next website. We would love to be able to help you get your next web project off the ground and help you rank it on Google.

Contact us today to discuss your website plans.

Beat your competition with a Hopping Mad website!

 

This post was created by Steven Waldberg who is one of the directors of Hopping Mad Designs. If you’re looking for a WordPress website that can rank on Google and get loads of new business inquiries, Steven can help.

 

There are many businesses getting absolutely ripped off by website design agencies who have built a website for them and are charging them in excess of $100 per month for hosting.

If you are one of these people wake up and smell the coffee cause you are getting scammed.

We see it all the time and it’s a common scam used by many web agencies to get as much money as they can as a reoccurring monthly fee from you. Essentially, it’s not necessary and it’s fleecing you out of your hard-earned dollars.

What they tell you is that they need to do regular maintenance and back up and checks on the website every month and this is the cost associated with this. This is total BS and if you keep falling for this scam then you need to get out of your contract with the web company.

The issue here is that most of the websites built by these agencies are on their own proprietary content management systems (which they NEVER EVER tell you about before you start) and basically you are stuck with using them and abiding by their ridiculous fees as there is nowhere else to go. You are stuck with them forever as long as you keep using their CMS and this is what they want. The longer you are with them, the more money they get and it’s for doing nothing!! With open-source CMS platforms most security and mandatory updates happen automatically and they don’t charge you a cent for this.

Related Article: Benefits of WordPress for Small Businesses

Don’t get ripped off by paying too much for your hosting

If you would have had your website built using an open-source CMS platform like WordPress then none of these issues would be happening.

The big rip off here is that they tell you that their CMS is oh so SEO friendly and you are going to rank on Google using their CMS and the poor ignorant business owner who has never ever done this before believes all this slick sales talk and gets suckered into signing up with them. Every month from that day onwards they are slugged over $100 for their monthly hosting with all the unnecessary add ons (that will have absolutely no effect on your business).

They package it up so nicely that you feel as though you are getting the sweetest deal on earth. They tell you that their CMS is totally editable (which is a complete lie) and that you can make any change you want ( which is another scam). Basically, you can edit very little and that if you want to make changes you have to go back to them to do it and boy o boy will they start slugging you big dollars for this on top of everything else.

If you’re not using a WordPress CMS – you could be getting ripped off!

The worst part of this is they tell you that they are always updating their CMS in line with current trends including added security features, which is again a total load of garbage. They do absolutely nothing and this talk is all hype to upsell you.

So moving forward, if you are stuck using an old outdated CMS system and you are paying excessive monthly hosting fees to a web design agency please make the move and get rid of them. Be smart and start using a WordPress CMS. This will put you back in the driver’s seat and save you lots of money. There are loads of cheap hosting providers like iinet and Ventra IP that will be able to offer competitive pricing for monthly hosting that are much cheaper than you are probably paying right now. I have provided the links to these companies so give them a call and see the huge savings you can make for your yearly hosting.

One really interesting point to note before I begin is that WordPress powers nearly 25% of the internet – can you see why we love it so much. It’s that popular for a good reason.
It’s Super Google-friendly.
Let’s be very real here. You want your website to rank on Google it’s as simple as that. WordPress websites have the inbuilt functionality to adjust all titles and description in real time so that your website is very Google compliant. Plus all the add – ons and security features make this CMS platform the golden child in the eyes of Google. At Hopping Mad Designs we have migrated websites over to WordPress from other platforms and have seen SEO rankings shoot up immediately just because we have transferred  the site over to WP.

It’s amazing how quickly Google responds to this. A point to note here is that if you are migrating a website over to WordPress you do need to implement a whole lot of whats called: ‘301 redirects’. So speak to us before you do anything as you certainly do not want to compromise any Google rankings you have. Having said that we will migrate your old website over to a WordPress with all the love and care it deserves so you preserve and improve on those precious Google rankings.

It’s Extremely easy to understand and use.
Like all businesses things change. Staff come and go, services are added, new product lines are introduced and you want to be able to have the ability to add and delete website content whenever you like. WordPress facilitates this like no other CMS platform we have ever used in the past. OMG…it’s so simple to use. All you need to do is get into the back end through a very secure admin area and the rest is child’s play. You will get the hang of it within 10 minutes.

WordPress is totally intuitive, meaning that you can add content, blog posts (blogging is great for SEO), images, products, shopping carts, news items, social media…what ever you can think of, WordPress will do it. On top of all this, when you get Hopping Mad to design and build your next website, we will train you in WordPress – this is all part of our great customer service.

It’s very flexible.
People sometimes think that because we build our websites using WordPress we are using a free theme which is very common amongst some websites. A lot of businesses actually use these themes and they work to some extent quite well. BUT, the beauty of WordPress is that we use the CMS as the building blocks for a custom-built website. See, every site we design is completely customised based on your business. Remember you are coming to us because you want you website to look completely different from anything else.

WordPress is so flexible that is allows us to get in there and create a stunning, unique looking website all within its CMS platform. PLUS WordPress allows us to design your website so that it’s mobile friendly. It’s absolutely FANTASTIC! Image, you get a completely customised website that is going to render perfectly on your mobile phone that is super easy to update.

It’s an open source platform.
This is a really important feature of WordPress & all business owners should sit up and pay attention to this 1 point if any. It is really a BIG ONE!
Ok, what does open source platform mean? It means that developers from around the globe are all working on WP to improve its usability. It is open to everyone. This means that any programmer can use it from any where in the world.

So how can this benefit my business I hear you ask? Let’s say for example you have had your website built by a company that uses it’s own in house CMS platform. This means you are essentially, tied to that web development agency for the life of the website. You are stuck, you cannot go anywhere, and if this turn sour, you are stuffed cause they own the CMS. I have seem these types of web design / client relationships turn really nasty cause the web developer will not relinquish their CMS access to the client when the relationship goes belly up. With WordPress you are not tied to anyone agency. Being open source gives your the business freedom to take your website anywhere you like.

Believe me when I tell you that this is a real issue for many people who get caught out being stuck with a bad web agency and MUST use their CMS. Basically, you have to throw you website away and start again from the beginning. In some cases this is fine but just imaging if you have a massive eCommerce site…how can you simply delete it? WordPress = Freedom! Do not forget this fact.

As your WordPress website designers and developer in Sydney, we’d be more than happy to answer any questions you might have about using WordPress.

Obviously this blog tells you why we love WordPress but as a web , SEO and digital agency we do so much more than just working with WP. Why not give us a call on 02 9360 8514 to see how we can help grow your business online and get all those new sales leads that are out there waiting to be had.