by Nick Throlson | Aug 5, 2017 | SEO, Web Design, WordPress
Websites have become a staple in recent years. Without one, it?s incredibly hard for a business to get off the ground, as customers won?t be able to find you. Along with this, it?s become one of the easiest ways for businesses to get started, removing the need for a physical building. Websites are great. But, are you ready to start making your own? To help you answer this question, this post will be going through the skills you need to complete a job like this. Along with this, it will also have some great places to get help in areas you?re unsure of.
Bootstrap/WordPress/Other: Nowadays, there?s nearly no reason to start a website build from scratch. Instead, you can use a tool like WordPress or Bootstrap to lay the foundations for you. Using them will take some learning, though. So, it?s worth trying them out before you start on your final website.HTML/CSS: Most modern websites are built using a special markup language called HTML. Alongside this, a similar language called CSS is responsible for the styles on the website. Both of these are very easy to learn, with resources to be found all over the internet. It?s worth understanding them before you begin, though.Java/PHP/Plugins: Using bootstrap or another barebones system, you might have to learn some PHP and JavaScript to add applications to your site. On a service like WordPress, though, you may only have to learn about some different plugins.SEO: Websites need to be optimized for search engines to help them reach the highest rankings. Without this, customers wouldn?t be able to find your site. This area is very complicated, so it?s worth using everything at your disposal to help you. There are loads of add-ons you can add to your site to facilitate this work.Security: Most reputable websites are secured using a tool called SSL. Installing a security certificate isn?t an easy job, though, and you?ll need to do some research. Along with this, you should also learn a little bit about network security to make sure the service system you are using is good enough. People will be warned by their browser when a website isn?t secure.Databases: A website which collects data of any sort has to have databases to store it in. In most cases, this database will be a MySQL variant, making it easy to learn what you?ll need to know. This sort of database is very common, so it?s easy to find loads of resources to help you when you?re using your own.
Of course, you might have some missing pieces in this list, and that would make sense. Most web developers won?t do all of this work, leaving things like SEO and security to external companies. Finding the best SEO company is just a matter of reading some reviews and doing some research. There are loads of services like this, and you can also find options to help you with design, programming, and databases, too. It?s worth getting help where you have to with something like this. But, you should still be able to do a lot of it on your own.Hopefully, this post will inspire you to start working harder on the website your business uses. Most people have enough of the right skills to get a job like this done. It might take some learning, but it will be worth it in the end. Having professionals do the job from start to finish would not be cheap.
by Nick Throlson | Aug 4, 2017 | SEO, WordPress
There are so many web developers around but the quality of their services varies so you need to look for certain qualities in your web development company. It is very important to hire a web development company that makes use of WordPress to build websites. This is because WordPress offers so many benefits. WordPress based websites allow users to be able to make some modifications without consulting the developers.Search Engine OptimizationThere are millions of websites on the internet now and more are still being hosted. So, building a website is not enough. Optimizing it for search engines is equally as important as building the website. So, you need to hire a web developer who is also experienced in search engine optimization. Launching a website without optimizing it for search engines is like winking in the dark. The benefits of search engine optimization is not only visibility, it also pulls ready buyers to your website. This is because people who search about a product online are usually people who need the product.Content ManagementSearch engine optimization will only attract traffic to your website. It is the content that will make them order your products or services. Nobody really needs ordinary traffic that won?t make orders. In fact, no company can survive on mere traffic. It is their orders that will keep your company in business. So content is very important. Your web development company needs to be knowledgeable about content management too.Mobile Friendly WebsitesInternet is now accessed more via mobile devices than via PC or laptop. This is why mobiles apps have become indispensable to businesses now. The only alternative to mobile apps are mobile friendly websites. So, you should be sure that your web developer can develop a mobile friendly website. Companies whose websites are too big and complicated to be mobile friendly have mobile apps.Social Media IntegrationIt is important for your web developer to be able to integrate your website with popular social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This makes it possible for the visitors of your website to be able to share any post they come across on your website. When some of your posts are shared, it boosts the credibility and popularity of your brand.Incorporation of AnalyticsEvery website should have analytics incorporated into it. This feature gives you daily statistics about your traffic and products. Some of the important reports that you get are the number of daily visitors, the number of orders on each of your products. This daily report is very important. For instance, if the number of your daily traffic begins to dwindle, you will quickly find solution to it before your number of daily sales begins to reduce. Secondly, if the number of orders of a particular product reduces too, you will definitely find a solution to it. Remember, a problem identified is a problem half solved. Without analytics, you may not be aware of any problem until you have lost most of your customers.Our websites load easily and fastYour website should be able to load very fast even with weak signal. Any website that takes more than 10 seconds to load is unacceptable. You can only achieve this if your website isn?t heavy and has little functions. Heavy websites also consume more mobile data each time they load.Simplicity mattersYour web developer should consider simplicity and ease of use. There are so many other companies offering what you offer. So, why should anybody take a lecture on how to navigate through your website? It should be so simple and intuitive enough for a 10-year old kid to be able to navigate through on his own. This is why it is very important to include only functions that are important to the purpose of the website. Contrary to what most people think, too many functions don?t attract traffic, rather they make your website difficult to use.Universal CompatibilityYour website should support all kinds of browsers. It should be compatible with Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera Mini and others. This is very important because it does not make sense for anybody to change his browser because he wants to order your products. Or which is more convenient for you? To change your browser because you want to order a product from a company or look for another company that offers the same products?Your website should be secureThe most important details of customers are their credit card or payment details and these details will be used on your website to order your products. So, your website should be very secure. If anybody doubts the security of your website, he will never order your products no matter how cheap your products are.Improved turnaround timeA very good web developer should work with great speed. Time is very important to business. So, a good developer delivers projects even earlier than the agreed timeline. In fact, it is better to hire a developer that promises to deliver your website earlier than most developers.Competitive chargesWhen it comes to web development, higher charges do not always lead to a higher quality website so you need to negotiate better. Besides, you should compare the charges of several web developers. You can select the developer with the most competitive charges. However, you should avoid overly low charges. This is because it usually leads to poor quality jobs. Most inexperienced web developers adopt this gimmick to attract clients.Billing transparencyA trustworthy web developer should be able to offer billing transparency. There should not be any hidden charges or additional charges that will spring up when the service is on. Your exact charges should be laid bare for you even before you sign the dotted line.Consider ExperienceIt is better to consider a web developer with several years? experience. The longer you offer a certain service the more you get better with the service. The most experienced web developer is likely to be the best. However, some service providers inflate their years of experience to lure innocent clients. This is why it is advisable to request a documentary evidence for years of experience. You should not rely on only word of mouth.Hire a teamAlthough a single individual will charge you much less, it is better to hire a team of developers or a website development company for the sake of continuity. Change is the only constant thing in life and you will definitely have needs to modify your website. It is better if the modification is handled by the original developer. If you give it to a single individual, it is not likely that you will see him again after a year. He could have relocated, he could have gone back to school or he could have changed his profession.In conclusion, it is important to bear in mind that no single developer will have all the requirements so you should prioritize them to separate the ones that are very important to you from the ones that you can ignore.Author Bio:Harnil Oza is a CEO of Hyperlink Infosystem, a mobile app development company based in USA & India having a team of best Indian app developers who deliver best mobile solutions mainly on Android and iOS platform. He regularly contributes his knowledge on the leading blogging sites.
by Nick Throlson | Aug 1, 2017 | SEO, Social Media, WordPress
Job hunting is stressful enough. Being rejected is completely disheartening, and being repeatedly rejected can even make you feel like you aren?t worth it. Not only are there simple things that you can fix that?ll hopefully make you more appealing to potential employers, but there are also topics that you should learn and familiarize yourself that will wow them. Being hired is about selling yourself. Knowing these three topics can give you an edge over your competition because it shows that you know the basics of how the world today works.
Social Media
Social media is a topic that is both very easy to learn, and something that becomes increasingly complicated. You can know how to use social media, but the fact is, most people only know how to use it for their personal life. It is how to use it for businesses that can make you instantly more hireable. You don?t have to be an expert, but you learn the best practices.
Know how to increase engagement, how advertising on the social mediums works, and, most importantly, know its limitations. A great way to both practice social media marketing and have an example to show your employers is to start your own blog that you market. Think of it as your guinea pig where you can use trial and error to find the best strategies that work for you.
SEO
Search engine optimization is a digital marketing technique many people have heard about, but at the same time, know very little about when it comes to applying it to their business. Being knowledgeable in SEO strategies that increase page ranking is an incredible selling point for future employers. You can know everything there is about SEO, however, simply learning the basics and proving your knowledge can be enough. Once you are hired, speak to your company about improving their SEO ? lead them to companies such as Click Intelligence, who will help you with your apply SEO and link building into your business?s marketing strategy.
SEO increases page ranking. It means that people can find you when they use a search engine. The guidelines constantly change, so you need to make sure that stay on top of today?s best practices or hire a company to do it for you.
WordPress
WordPress is the most popular CMS with over 28.4% of websites using it. It is a versatile tool that most websites are built from, so knowing how to use WordPress is a critical skill to learn. If you want to be even more hireable, know how to use the other top content management systems like Blogger too. Be flexible. Be knowledgeable. Be hired. Knowing the basics of HTML and the other building blocks of the Internet like CSS is a bonus.
Whether you complete a course and get a diploma in them, or simply read up on the topics, they are great to know. Each one of these topics is crucial to any company, the second it goes online. Knowing the stakes and how the online portion of the business works can make you a more effective employee because it means that you can optimize your work for online from the get-go. It shows that you know more about the business than your competition. It will make you more hireable.
by Nick Throlson | Jul 10, 2017 | WordPress
If you are new to WordPress and you have just finished designing your site, you will no doubt be very proud of your hard work. However, before you can get your site published, there are a few things you will need to consider such as security. Although WordPress regularly update their site to include the latest security fixes, there are additional things you can do to improve your pages security. Here are a few ideas that will help make your site secure. Admin ProfileIt is so easy to forget to change your admin profile. However, it is important that you do change it as soon as possible. Hackers use brute force attacks to get past the admin accounts; then they can access all your data. By creating a new user and deleting the Admin profile, you will make such an attack less likely. PasswordsPasswords are another area that can be easily taken for granted. Your password has to be unique so that attacks can be nullified. Avoid using your name or your child's name as there is a chance they can be easily guessed. To be secure, you can try a password generator such as 1Password or LastPass. They will use numbers, characters and symbols to generate a password of any length. You will then have a more secure site with a difficult password for hackers to guess. Two-Factor AuthenticationTwo-factor authentication might sound a little extreme, but, if you want to have a secure site, it is the best option. It is especially true if you will have customers personal information stored on the site. The type of authentication we are talking about is already used by many companies including PayPal and Google so that it will be familiar to you. There are plugins that can help you set it up such as Rublon.PrivilegesIf you are the only one that updates or posts on your WordPress site, then you will have admin privileges. However, if there are others that regularly go to the site, they do not need to have the same privileges as you. If they are writing posts, then you can restrict the access they have to the site. The same applies to anyone updating or maintaining your site for you. Grant them the access needed, but remove it once they have finished the work. It doesn?t take long, and it will save any potential problems in the future. The last thing you need is your data to be lost or corrupted, if this were to happen, you would need to rely on back-ups or other security to help you resolve it. You can use a data retrieval company such as Secure Data Recovery to retrieve your data for you. It can be an invaluable service, especially if there was sensitive information involved. With these suggestions in place, you can be more confident that your data will remain safe, even if you have others using the site as well.
by Nick Throlson | Feb 14, 2017 | Business, WordPress
Do you need to create a website for your small business? In this article, you'll learn why WordPress?is used to create?27% of content?on the Internet.WordPress is the industry leader and is likely?the best tool for your website.This article details?the 10 major reasons people love using WordPress to design their own website for blogging, e-commerce or?for other content management system (CMS) purposes quality backlinks service1. Affordability
One reason why WordPress attracts so many users is its affordability.Its features are inexpensive, and many services are completely free. WordPress has open source content, meaning that the source code?is freely available to use or modify according to your business needs.2. Visibility
Regardless of how affordable your website is, if it doesn't pop up on the Google results page, you're out of luck.It simply will not generate the traffic and revenue you want.Luckily, WordPress has in-built search engine optimization (SEO) functionalities. This means that people are more likely to find your website when they need it.Plugins are another reason why WordPress sites rise to the top of the list. They enhance SEO to attract?the customer you want with every search.3. Ease of Use
WordPress is highly user-friendly and accessible.Even if you have no experience in website development, you can find forums about everything from how to install WordPress to how to troubleshoot any problems you may encounter.The best part is, you don't need to know HTML or any other programming languages to get started. You just need a little time and a general notion of what you want your site to look and feel like.It's also easy to add multimedia elements to your webpage, including:
If you want to customize the template of your choice, you can change anything from the color scheme to the layout of text and images.If you know a lot about programming, you can also edit the code manually.Or?if you want to learn to program, using WordPress is an excellent way to get started. Since it is an open source product, you can scour the code in your free time. See it as an opportunity to learn without paying for a textbook.4. Support
Another?reason why WordPress is such a good choice for building a website is its community of millions of users and developers.When website technologies are first emerging or have a limited number of customers, technical support can be lacking. There may not be a lot of experts to ask, and there may not be a lot of other people asking the same questions.Thankfully, if you have a question about a certain feature of WordPress, you can almost guarantee that someone has already answered it. WordPress forums are comprehensive?and don't cost you a thing.Since WordPress is a hub for developers to create new features or improve existing ones. The competition benefits users by providing a wider selection?of options.If you're not up to building your website from scratch, you can easily find an expert who can do it for you.Since WordPress is open source, web developers can easily modify WordPress features to suit your needs. They can design a page tailored to your business that your customers will love.5. Blogging
If you look back to why WordPress was created, it started as a blogging platform?in 2003 and has since then grown into a multi-purpose website service.You can easily create a blog for your company using WordPress. In accord with its original purpose, certain blogging features have been fully integrated into WordPress from the?beginning.6. RSS
One such feature explains why WordPress has become so popular: their Really Simple Syndication (RSS) service.RSS sends out messages to customers who sign up. These messages let your customers know when you add new posts or products to your site.Instead of having to bookmark your website and check periodically for new products or content, RSS notifies your customers of updates right away. This fosters customer loyalty and keeps your brand fresh in their minds.7. Comments
WordPress also allows your customers to leave comments on your pages.This greatly benefits both you and your customers.Their comments on blog posts also provide you with valuable feedback on what they like and don't like.?Their feedback also offers clues into how you can improve your product or service.Plus, their comments can?give you ideas on topics for future blog posts. Posting?content they find useful and important will build trust in your brand.Your customers also feel appreciated when you respond to their questions and comments online. Comments are just another reason why WordPress excels in the industry.8. Design
Want to know another reason why WordPress has gained so much favor?in its users' eyes?Take a look at the variety of beautiful themes, and you'll see why.WordPress offers thousands of unique website templates to choose from. Clean layouts, engaging?photography and carefully overlaid text?will ensure a professional and enjoyable customer experience.Do you need an elegant and flirty motif?for your prom dress boutique? Or do you need a classic, simple design for selling medical supplies?Create a lasting impression in seconds with the click of a button and let their expertise do the work.9. Security
If you're considering using?WordPress to create a website for your small business, you may be asking questions about security:- How can I protect?my website from cyberattacks?
- How can I keep my customers safe?
These questions are particularly important for businesses that engage in e-commerce.You can rest assured knowing that CNN, UPS and Samsung Camera all trust WordPress for their blogging websites.In addition, many successful clothing brands,?including VanHeusen and IZOD, trust?WordPress for their e-commerce needs.Additionally,?WordPress has millions of users. Its popularity ensures that updates of WordPress, its themes and its plugins, are constantly being developed.So if there's a bug in the code, chances are that someone has already noticed it and created a fix. It's up to the user to stay up-to-date by implementing the updates regularly.WordPress also offers numerous plugins that can safeguard your webpage. You'll find multiple plugins that prevent common, brute-force attacks.Some plugins?can identify suspicious activity on your site and notify you immediately. Other plugins can?bar unauthorized use of your site?based on the?user's IP address.The security of your website also depends on your password. Choosing long, complex passwords helps safeguard your site.Hefty strings of digits, symbols, and letters form the basis of a strong password.All of your registered users also need to create passwords that are difficult to guess.10. Constantly Evolving
In this age of information, content on the Internet seems to change every day.Technology is continually improving, and the possibilities for change?are almost limitless.That is the?last reason why WordPress is such a great tool. Just like our society, WordPress is constantly evolving. Every day someone adds new and innovative content to make?it better.Just as one great idea can spark another, so one person's creativity sparks another. We will probably look back 5 years from now and marvel at how much has changed.Why WordPress?
WordPress is the content management system (CMS) industry leader for a reason.It is affordable, easy to use and secure. It can increase your SEO visibility, provides access to great customer support and is easy on the eyes.Its blogging capabilities, such as RSS and leaving comments make it ideal for most users.Still, creating a website is a big project, and not everyone has the time or motivation to do it themselves.If you would like professional assistance with your website from a trusted expert in WordPress, contact Nick Throlson today for a quote.
by Nick Throlson | Jan 19, 2017 | Business, Web Design, WordPress
Beautiful images. Bold color schemes. A sleek design.These are all important elements of a great website design. After all, they are the first things a new visitor notices and judge you by. Your website acts as a virtual front door to your business. If people don?t like what they see inside, they hit the back button and leave without converting. But, here?s the deal: although the design is one of the most important factors in deciding the credibility of a company, functionality plays a more important role. Think about it that way: would you spend time on a site that looks good but works poorly? Probably not.Let?s take a look at all the important elements that, together with the design, make your website a force of nature.
The number one trick to follow is to build your website so as to provide comfort to your customers. You want everything to be as easy and flowing as possible. That said, if any design feature interferes with your site?s functionality, then you should disable it. Try to identify what would provide users with a seamless onsite experience and implement those instead.Last but not least, make it easy for potential prospects to contact you. Include a search bar, preferably on the top of your blog. Fast, easy access to desired information is essential.- Responsive Website Design
One the same note, you want to make your website responsive for mobile use. A wide majority of the time spent online is on mobile devices. You want your web design to be easily translatable into various screen sizes. To make sure your website runs smoothly via smartphones and tablets, test it with Google?s Mobile-Friendly Test. - Make It Relevant and Specific
While you do want to have enough content and features to cover up a wide spectrum, relevance is still important. In other words, you need to cut the fluff and stick to what matters to your audience. Sure, everyone might be talking about the latest trend in tech, but that doesn?t mean you should jump on the bandwagon if the topic doesn?t fit your business profile.
This might sound obvious, but your website?s design and functionality must fit your customer?s needs like a glove. Know your target audience well enough to translate their needs into your web design. Think about what they might want when they land on your page and try to put that information in front of them. Make navigation simple and intuitive and don?t make them think too much about how to find their ways around your site.If you don?t know where to start from, try asking yourself this: Why would anyone want to visit my website?Do a thorough research ? there are plenty valuable resources out there on what user-centric design is and how to apply it.
Last but so not least, don?t forget that a well-designed website can help with your SEO efforts. Google prefers websites that have a clean structure with friendly navigation, solid backlinks, and descriptive image file names. ?Building a good website that looks great and works properly is no easy task. By paying attention to these elements, you can rest assured that your website won?t be just another pretty face on the internet. 
