Websites in the old days were set up to inform customers about a business, and hopefully impress them enough to buy a product or avail of a service. Yet with the competition among businesses online heating up, direct-response websites evolved precisely to demand online guests to take action. Direct marketing websites are designed to initiate leads and increase conversion rates.
Technology has changed the way people shop. Today, people won’t think twice about surfing the Internet to buy something they need. In fact, online retail purchases increased by 16% in 2017 which says a lot about the change in consumers’ mindset. Indeed, it is critical for any business these days to have a great e-commerce site.
E-commerce merchants should now be familiar with the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR. This law puts more focuse on personal data protection and levies stringent penalties for non-compliance. It is considered as the most comprehensive data privacy law and can affect firms which operate or have customers in Europe.
SSL certificate is needed to accept online payment and create a secure gateway for your website. Obtaining an SSL certificate for your WordPress website has become imperative owing to the new algorithm of Google Chrome browser. Starting from 1st July websites who do not have an SSL certificate will not be displayed by the Google Browser. So to assist you in obtaining a free SSL certificate, we have listed a few approaches, read along to find out.
Mobile phone users around the globe are predicted to be around 5 billion next year. In the United States, the average Internet user spends roughly 5 hours a day on a mobile device. Indeed, more and more people are using their mobile phones to go online. But there are also many mobile phone use misconceptions that people have.
What are these misconceptions? Read on and find out:
The usual image that people have about mobile phone users is that they are always on the go. It is commonly believed that people who use mobile phone for Internet access have a short attention span. They are also distracted and not fully attentive to their mobile phones.
But the truth is that mobile phone users are not exactly on the rush. In fact, there is this study made by Google in 2012 which showed that 60% of mobile phone usage occurs at home. Another study by comScore showed that the peak time of smart phone usage is from 6 to 10 p.m., or when users are at home chilling on their couches or beds.
Web designers often think that people who use smartphones are connected to the Internet. Yet a large chunk of mobile users is not always online especially those who are outside of the United States and Europe.
This is important for online merchants as their apps or websites should be showcased even over slow or intermittent Internet connectivity. App designers, for one, should design apps for a spotty connection.
Many app designers that periodic redesign can attract new users and improve conversions. But a fresh look is not the key. In fact, many mobile phone users detest changes in their frequently-used apps. It’s wiser to keep designs simple and familiar to users so they can get things done as quickly as possible.
June 30, 2018 is just around the corner. For many online businesses, the date is sort of a red-letter day because this is when changes to Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance will be implemented. Firms that process payments online should have made the transition to TLS 1.1 encryption by that date or they won’t be able to accept credit card payments. PCI compliance will affect many online businesses, to say the least.
Three years ago, the PCI updated its benchmark for encrypting online transactions. For many years, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TSL) protocols were considered robust enough to secure online payments. However, hackers have become wilier. The payment card industry has no choice but to adapt.
As a backgrounder, SSL and TSL are the two long-standing cryptographic protocols for securing conversations between systems online.
To put it in simpler terms, these protocols encrypt credit card and customer details that are relayed from the server and browser, keeping it private and secure.
But as early as 2014, SSL has not been considered secured. TSL which was released in 1999 has also replaced it as the standard for data encryption online.
Business owners may think that migrating to TLS 1.1 or TLS 1.2 is that easy. However, there are still some factors to consider in complying with this new PCI benchmark. These include:
Israeli website-building platform Wix has helped thousands of small entrepreneurs to sell online even those who have no prior experience in e-commerce. One example is vintage clothing shop owner Tiffany McCrary of Brooklyn, New York. McCrary admits not having any experience in building and launching an online store but found a willing ally in Wix.
Sharing her experience with Wix, McCrary says the website building platform made it easy for her to give her customers a seamless online experience. This was critical given that she used to sell vintage clothing and other pieces for a cheap rate of $10. While putting up an online store meant having to jack up prices, she said creating an online ensemble with Wix’s help made it all easier for her to justify the price hikes.
She said that Wix is very user-friendly and helped her build a website despite not being tech-savvy. She acknowledged that the platform helped her save a lot of time. For example, it allows her to upload photos taken from her phone without going through numerous steps. She can also add images to her website and share those on her social media accounts.
Another advantage of the platform is that it can make attractive websites that is so critical in businesses in the fashion industry, where images are more usually important than text descriptions. McCrary noted that with the platform, photographs of her products were put together in grids and slideshows.
As a result, the sales of McCrary’s online and even in-store outlets have doubled over the past year. While her in-store sales continue to be robust, her online store has expanded her reach. She noted that before her online store, there was no call to action at all. Now she is getting sales from various parts of the world and more and more people are now going to her brick-and-mortar store.
WordPress is one of the biggest platforms in the blogosphere. Bloggers create their content and grow their businesses to great heights. However, WordPress has many undiscovered features that do not appear on the surface and one must dig deep to find them out. We have saved you from the trouble of finding those awesome WordPress features by giving you a list of four of these undiscovered WordPress features. Check out these here:
Well, when your full-time job includes computers and keyboards you must know all the little hacks and tricks to make your work all the easier. WordPress has many amazing keyboard shortcuts which help you do your job fast on your WordPress website.
WordPress gives you the option of splitting one page into multiple pages. This feature will help you to create a more user interactive content which is rather lengthy and might make it unappealing.
To enable this feature insert “<!- next page->” into your content or post for splitting into two pages. You can reuse the tag to split the content into more pages.
The dashboard on WordPress is a very important tool for the admin. The dashboard, by default, has certain tools and shortcuts that can be altered as per your liking.
In order to do so, you click on the “Screen Options” tab and can add or delete the boxes on the dashboard that point to different sections on your website.
Addition of images on your post is fairly simple. However, many beginners and newbies are not aware of the fact that WordPress provides basic editing tools for the images you add in the content.
To be able to do so, open the “Library” from “Media” and choose any image. From the pop-up menu that appears concerning the image, select “Edit Image” option.
So these are the four awesome WordPress features that you probably were unaware of. Now make use of these WordPress features to create greater content.
WordPress is a huge hub of many bloggers trying to enhance their business. But many of the users are devoid of the exciting hidden features that WordPress has to offer. WordPress houses many effective and powerful plugins to optimize your business websites. Below is a list of four WordPress tips & tricks to make the most of what WordPress has to offer:
Having the option to reset your blog on WordPress is always a relief. Writers make many blunders before they can deliver quality content which is “reset” comes as an added bonus. To be able to enable this plug-in, go to “Tools” on your account. You will find a “reset” menu and then you can begin resetting your blog.
Scheduling a post beforehand is a very smart way to maintain consistency even when you are busy with something. Many newcomers are unaware of this exceptional tool that can make your life easy.
To be able to use this WordPress tips, go to the “Publish box” and click on the button that writes “edit”. Now choose the content you want to post along with the date and times and voila! You are sorted.
Writing requires a peaceful environment where you can put your head entirely into creating innovative content. However distraction on the screen while writing on the screen can really block your creativity, which is why WordPress has a solution.
“Distraction-free” is a tool in WordPress which can be enabled by clicking on “Distraction-Free Writing” on the dashboard.
There are certain posts which do not remain valid after a period of time. Presence of these posts or articles makes the website seem obsolete which is why it is important to timely evict these post. However, searching and finding these old posts can be tedious which is why setting post expiry date on WordPress is an exciting feature.
To set the expiration date of a post, you need to install “Post Expirator” plugin, this plugin will do the job for you.
We hope that you will make use of these awesome WordPress tips and tricks and enjoy your experience as a WordPress user.
Several businesses operating on WordPress ask this question, “What more can we do to enhance our business websites?” Well, the answer is simple; WordPress already contains many plugins to help you boost your business websites.
Here’s a list of 6 powerful plugins that will boost your business website in 2018:
It is one of the most talked about optimization WordPress plugin. It allows the conversion of deserted website visitors into subscribers. This is a must-have WordPress plugin in 2018 for business websites if you need a great conversion rate software in order to enhance your email list.
This plugin is a service provider of email marketing. It allows you to create an email list and sends out emails to those contacts and subscribers. This plugin is suitable for beginners as it is fairly easy to operate and has built-in tools which mean less manual work.
BackupBuddy, as the name implies, is your very own Backup support in case of a technical failure or crash. This reliable plugin makes sure that your content is properly backed up to withstand any technical crises.
This plugin is extremely popular for the excellent service it provides. Yoast SEO was initially called as WordPress SEO. It optimizes your business websites for Google and other search engines.
MemberPress, as the name suggests, helps in creating a community on your WordPress website. With the help of this plug-in, you can add the option of membership on your WordPress site.
This plugin lets you restrict certain contents and display only what your subscribers have paid for. This tool is great for developing your blogging business.
This is an LMS plugin for WordPress which helps market and sell online courses. This plugin has several tools like adding assignments, lessons etc. to curate your own online course.
Make the most of these plugins and increase the reach of your business websites to grow your business in 2018.