The 3 Best Web Page Speed Test tools for improving your SEO

Best Web Page Speed test tools

This article is more than just a few links to some web page speed test tools, it’ll also explain why they’re good and how you can use them to improve your web page speed loading time. When it comes to ranking your website on Google, there are some very complicated algorithms which factor in more signals than the average mind could begin to comprehend, just ask the US Congress if you don’t believe me. One factor you can definitely control however and plays a huge role in not only in your websites desktop & mobile ranking but also in the user experience is your web page speed. Important to note When measuring your website speed, you’ll see conflicting results across numerous websites in terms of page score and time. This isn’t a sign of the speed testing tools being incorrect or inconsistent, they’re just measuring for different things. DIY website …

What goes into the cost of a wordpress website

Wordpress pricing website

If you’re reading this article you’re likely either a business owner doing their due diligence to avoid overpaying on a new WordPress website or a website designer, trying to figure out a pricing strategy.  For this article, i’ll mostly be focusing on WordPress as it’s the CMS and framework we use and it’s also the most popular one on the internet holding over a 27% market share. To clarify further we’re talking about developers coding with the open source code from WordPress.org – not the wordpress.com version which is a more closed off version. You don’t have to look far online to see people promising the world for some very affordable looking prices, yet when you email some experienced digital marketing/web agencies you may get some eye-popping numbers back. So if they’re both on WordPress – what’s the difference when the price differential is in the thousands? Everyone is a copy cat …

What is a domain? Including 3 useful tips you should read BEFORE buying

What is a domain? Including 3 useful tips you should read BEFORE buying

With any new client looking for a website, one of the first priorities we always have is picking and choosing a domain. Based on your digital experience, you may already know all there is to know about domains, TLDs, DA and much more and if this is the case. This is not the article for you. This article is for those who might understand some basic concepts of what domains are for but want a little more research before they choose one and want to prevent stress and save money! What is a domain and why do I need one? Your domain is a bit like your vehicle registration plate in the car scene, it’s how other drivers (customers/competitors/clients) recognise you and it’s how the authorities keep a track of you to make sure you’re behaving (Search consoles – Google, Bing). It can include a country code so people know where …

What is a WordPress Plugin?

Wordpress Theme - What is Wordpress Plugins

WordPress is an open source CMS for building and creating websites. It’s one of the webs best tools for content marketing and that’s why it makes up over 28% of the internet today, trusted by huge websites like Sony and Disney. It’s also hugely scalable and that’s why businesses of every size should consider it as their foundation, as it doesn’t have the limited services or terrible content transferring tools of other platforms. WordPress plugins are a major part of why WordPress has become so successful and similar to Apples slogan of ‘there’s an app for that’ in WordPress for any question typically asked, the common reply is ‘there’s a plugin for that’. Plugins are very much like an extension is to chrome or a app is to your phone. It expands the software and makes it even more powerful!   So what is a WordPress plugin? A plugin typically …

The Problem with using Nulled Plugins

The Problem with using Nulled Plugins

If you’re familiar with the WordPress platform, you’ll know the entire CMS runs on plugins. 95% of which have no affiliation with the original WordPress team. Developers have gone on to run successful companies by providing a service and need for web developers, clients and end users globally. Most WordPress plugins are free so how do they run a successful business model? Free models These are plugins that solve users basic requirements and are often developed by fellow freelancers or small organisations. Usually, these are funded one of two ways Donations – Often these developers will rely on users donating out of goodwill for a headache that they’ve solved. Extra features/add-ons – As said before – often these plugins will solve a basic need but if you want to take full advantage of the power of the plugin which may not only solve your problem but turn it into a …

Publisher information: Chrome block ads changes & Website advert standards

chrome block ads

Google continues the quest for a better web Google is leading the way to a cleaner web with every algorithm change but now they’re fixing up their software also. You wouldn’t expect Google which makes a huge amount of revenue through its display network on the Google network on advertising to start blocking adverts. Which is why they’re not completely getting rid of advertising – just the obnoxious ones. If you’re a publisher or a curious web user, here is what you need to know Google Chrome will block adverts that The advert is larger than 30% of the screen density Cover your screen and show a countdown timer Autoplaying videos ‘Sticky panels’ Screen covering popups – partial or full Essentially if your adverts are resulting in a poor user experience – you can expect it to be blocked on chrome. If you’re a publisher interested in learning more about …

What to Look for in your Basic Business Website

Basic Business Website

What to look for in your basic business website Every company needs a basic business website at the very least. Having a Facebook page or other social network page alone is not enough – especially when you consider that you’re at the mercy of these companies should they change their algorithms or shut down. The problem however for most small business owners is knowing how much to invest, what features they should have and this on-going mystery that is SEO. So what features should your basic business website have? Analytics Your website should have some form of Analytics setup. Afterall why would you invest in a website if you’re not going to take advantage of the most powerful feature this form of advertising has over the traditional methods? You can take the time to learn the lingo yourself or hire someone else to manage your analytics & SEO coverage. With …

Secure your website or lose your traffic – Google is serious about security

https secured websites

What’s changing? From Googles web blog For the past several years, we’ve moved toward a more secure web by strongly advocating that sites adopt HTTPS encryption. And within the last year, we’ve also helped users understand that HTTP sites are not secure by gradually marking a larger subset of HTTP pages as “not secure”. Beginning in July 2018 with the release of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as “not secure”. Stop what you’re doing. If you’re on chrome – look up at the URL bar – to the left of the bar where the URL address is entered – you should see that this website is secure!   Depending on your knowledge of HTTPS vs HTTP, whether you have an account you log in with or pay with then it might give you some added trust & faith in the website and brand that follows the padlock. Of …

10 Foolproof Security Tips For WordPress

Security tips for Wordpress

Foolproof security tips for WordPress Website security is often an afterthought for most business owners with everything else you have to manage between advertising, accounting, sales and more. It is however still one of the most vital aspects of running a website and especially eCommerce businesses. So what contributes to poor WordPress security? First time WordPress designers or Business Owners going at it themselves Http instead of https Poor security practises – reusing passwords across multiple websites, writing down passwords and failing to store them securely. Website owners connecting to their admin in public areas / public wi-fi. Failing to set up malware/firewalls on servers Using poorly secured website servers/web hosts Failing to take precautions against BruteForce attacks Not maintaining a blacklist Debatable – Leaving the WordPress admin URL as the default. What are the consequences of poor security? Website databases including customer information will be at risk Website risks being …

WordPress vs Wix – Which is better?

Wordpress vs Wix

WordPress vs Wix Which is better? Unless you’ve paid in the tens of thousands or maybe even hundreds of thousands – chances are you’re running websites on CMS – content management systems like Squarespace, WordPress or Wix. Each of these have pros & cons. Which we’ll explore below. About WordPress     It’s important to realise that WordPress.com isn’t the same as WordPress.org. WordPress.com is the companies own website with its own hosting & packages. It’s much more limited than wordpress.org because .org is open source and web developers can move it on to high performing servers. WordPress websites makeup at least about 25-26% of the internet today and are by far the best content marketing CMS owing to being built for blogging. WordPress is highly optimised for SEO & is suitable for small-scale businesses to large-scale businesses. It does, however, require some technical knowledge to make the most of its …