Tag Archives: brent-oxley

What Does Your Host Say About You?

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Hosting

The post What Does Your Host Say About You? appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . The following infographic was created by the very kind folks over at  http://www.whoishostingthis.com , who were gracious enough to allow us to share it with you here.  This is the beginning of a series of infographics that they will produce analyzing the customer base of various hosting companies.  We are honored that they selected our customer base for their initial infographic. We encourage you to go straight to the source to read more about their findings.  Their blog post is located at the following link: http://www.whoishostingthis.com/blog/2013/09/25/host-say-infographic/ And without further ado, here is the infographic they produced about HostGator users: Via WhoIsHostingThis.com Continue reading →

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Discounts and Deals Don’t Damage Online Brand Image

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Hosting

The post Discounts and Deals Don’t Damage Online Brand Image appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . As we approach the online holiday shopping season many websites owners are wondering about the value of offering coupons and discounts.  While some think that it can devalue a brand, we have found that it actually helps generate additional traffic and sales. A survey conducted by eAccountable in conjunction with our market research partner Clear Vision Research, provided valuable insight into consumers’ shopping habits as they relate to coupons, offers and cashback promotions. Our findings show that online coupons and deals are being used by those who can more easily purchase without discounts – the affluent.  The survey found higher income shoppers – women and those making above $100k per year – are more likely to use online coupons to find better deals. Respondents with an annual household income over $100k searched more than one website to find the best deal before making a purchase.  These online shoppers were also more likely to join a cashback, reward or loyalty website to get discounts.  In the last 12 months, 69% of respondents said they used an online coupon to make a purchase.  When looking at just the higher income respondents with yearly household incomes exceeding $100k, that figure jumped to 86%. Over 1,500 consumers responded to the survey, which was conducted for one week during the height of the December 2012 holiday shopping season.  There was approximately a 50/50 between male and females.  Read the entire report here . The majority of those surveyed use online coupons and the report shows that offering online coupons and deals do not cheapen a brand.  Rather, merchants can attract a desirable demographic with significant buying power,  by giving customers deals on their own website and through affiliate cashback, deal, offer and coupon sites these retailers and merchants work with. This research highlights just how much consumers value cashback, deal, offer and coupon websites and significant impact on the retail channel.  Whether the growth of online cashback, deal, offer and coupon usage was a result of the economic times, a flashback to offline usage or any other factors, the message was clear – discounted deals are here to stay. So, as you prepare for the 2013 holiday shopping season be sure to include and promote offers and deals with special landing pages and you’ll likely find that Q4 ends up being a very Merry Christmas for your bottomline.  *** Durk Price is the Founder and CEO of eAccountable , a Denver-based digital performance agency specializing in retail representation for clients including managing affiliate marketing, performance marketing, search, email, and social media campaigns. Continue reading →

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The Complete Guide To Updating Blog Content

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Hosting

The post The Complete Guide To Updating Blog Content appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . No matter what industry or topic you blog about, trends and technologies often update at a fast pace. If your blog site has been around for a while, chances are there are some obsolete links and dated references lurking in your archives. To keep pace with the fast-paced web, every blogger should update their content regularly.   Reasons to Update So why should you update your past blog content instead of leaving it as is? There are some compelling reasons: Search engines see all. When search engines pull up pages from your website, it’s not just the updated content they see. Although search algorithms seek out fresh content, a search for “latest tech trends” or “effective SEO techniques” can yield results from a year or two back if the post has seen a lot of traffic. Since these are fast-changing topics, such outdated information can reflect poorly on a blog. Avoid misleading readers. If a reader is in a hurry, or simply doesn’t bother to check the date of a blog post, they’re likely to just take outdated information and run with it. Fish out the gems. A benefit of going through your old content is that you can fish out well performing evergreen posts that are still as relevant today as they were when you wrote them. These types of posts are great for reintroducing, especially to newer audience members who may not be familiar with your past work.   What To Do STEP 1: Find your best performing posts. These are the ones that you want to revise first. You can do this in a couple of ways. You can check the number of shares and comments that each blog post has, but that might take some time. Another other way is to use your analytics. Check to see which posts have the most inbound links, unique page views, and popular keywords. That should give you a picture of which of your past posts are doing the best. STEP 2: Update your statistics. Chances are that if a post is more than a year old, the statistics or supporting research you originally used could use some updating. Do some research to find the most up-to-date information. STEP 3: Revise your language. This step comes after updating your statistics, just in case you want to add notes about certain changes that have happened since you first wrote the post. You’re probably a better blogger now than you were a year ago, so use this time to revise old posts to reflect your current voice. Just be careful to leave all of those helpful keywords intact. STEP 4: Update your SEO. SEO practices change faster than most can keep up with, so take some time to get up to date. For instance, earlier this year Google revised their guidelines concerning link schemes . STEP 5: Check your links. Links change and become outdated regularly, so it’s a good idea to check links for all of your posts to make sure they that still work. If you have WordPress, the Broken Link Checker plugin is a good tool to use. STEP 6: Use better pictures, or add pictures to blog posts that don’t have any. This is important for rich snippets that show up on social networks. The first thing people see is the picture, so make sure it’s something eye-catching. Also, with the advent of Pinterest, eye-catching visuals are all the more important. Melissa Taylor of Pinterest Savvy makes a great case for updating your blog posts for Pinterest. STEP 7: Add some transparency. Add a note to your blog post that it’s been revised and updated for accuracy. This also lets your readers know that you are making an effort to stay on top of your industry.   A few more tips: Revise the same post instead of creating a new one. An older blog post may be dated, but your best performing posts already have an established stream of traffic. Your evergreen posts are the ones that don’t need any updating. If you come across any, share them again for your newer readers, and the older ones who would want to rediscover them. It’s not always about the numbers. Some of your most popular posts of yesteryear may no longer be relevant to the current landscape of trends, or to your blog or business goals. Decide whether it is better to prune the obsolete content rather than update it.   As you can see, it’s not all very difficult to keep your blog updated over time. By doing so, you’re continuing to make your blog a valuable resource for your readers, no matter how long it’s been around. Continue reading →

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Infographic: Internet Privacy, Killing Bills

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Hosting

HostGator will always support a free and open Internet.  As such, we oppose all legislation that isn’t properly written to avoid removing any existing rights or liberties that need not be removed from the general populace in an effort to limit the abilities of those with nefarious intent.  In other words, we want laws that punish the bad guys without also punishing the good guys.  This can be accomplished via the passing of intelligent legislation.  In the interim, we have experienced the proposed bills outlined in the following infographic: Internet Privacy, Killing Bills via HostGator Continue reading →

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8-Step Checklist to Follow for Your Next Website Redesign

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Hosting

Every website needs a good overhaul now and again. Whether you’re rebranding your website or just updating the look and feel of it, several things must be taken into consideration before you begin. Giving your website a huge overhaul can be a long, tedious process. There are multiple factors to consider from the framework of your website to the impact a redesign will have on future marketing efforts. Checklists make the process go much smoother since you don’t have to worry about whether or not you’re forgetting anything. Here is a checklist to make sure you’re on track with your website overhaul.   Does your site have goals? Even if you’re doing a redesign “just because,” you should still have some solid performance goals for your website. After all, you want your site to perform just as well, or even better than its current incarnation. Consider metrics to improve on such as: Monthly unique visits Time on site Bounce rate Conversion rate Current ranking for keywords   Once you determine your goals, make them measurable. e.g., increase conversions by 25%. If nothing else, make a note of your current website metrics and make it a goal to meet or exceed them. Your current metrics also make a good benchmark by which to measure future performance.   Is your site usable? Usability is multifaceted, and is one of the most important considerations when redesigning a website. According to Peter Morville’s usability honeycomb , a website should be: Useful: Your content should fulfill a unique need. Usable: Your website should be easy to use. Checklist for usability. Desirable: Your website image, brand, and overall appearance should evoke a sense of appreciation. Findable: Content should be easily navigable and easy to locate both on-site and off-site. Checklists for website navigability. Accessible: Your website content should be accessible to people with disabilities. Credible: Users should be able to trust your website and what you tell them.   Are your site standards compliant? The World Wide Web Consortium sets standards for how a website should be built from the inside out. Why do these standards matter? Websites that are standards-compliant display better with modern browsers, rank better in search listings, offer better accessibility, and operate on less bandwidth. See Checklist for standards compliance.   Does your website have high-quality content? As mentioned above, a website’s content must be useful to the visitor. A pretty website without useful content is much like an empty jeweled goblet: Pretty to look at, but containing no substance. Your website’s content is basically information meant for visitors. This can include blog posts, articles, video, podcasts, audio, pictures, charts, slideshows, or a combination of these. Since people mostly come online to get information, having helpful, interesting content is your best bet for getting in your visitors’ good graces. See Checklist for content quality.   Is your website accessible? As mentioned above, users with disabilities should also be able to access your website without a problem. This usually involves marking up code so that screen readers and other devices can access it easily. See checklist for website accessibility.   Is your site optimized for search? It’s important that web designers become increasingly aware of the importance of SEO in the structure of a website. Page elements like titles, pictures, and even video can contribute to or harm a website’s place in search engine rankings. When redesigning a website, take inventory of your old site’s most valuable pages in terms of SEO: The pages with the most traffic, the most inbound links, and with the highest keyword rankings. Create a strategy for using 301 redirects so as not to lose any of that valuable SEO juice. See Checklist for website SEO.   Is Your Site Secure? Website security is often overlooked, until something goes spectacularly wrong. Plan ahead by taking website security measures including using encrypted login pages, strong password practices, backing up your files, and keeping tight file permissions. See checklist for website security.   Do some final checks. The tiny details matter. Spelling and grammar, typography, browser compatibility, and other small details can either make or break your website relaunch. See checklist for website relaunch.   A website redesign can feel daunting, but it’s actually less so when you have all of your bases covered. Each separate element of a website is connected to the other. That’s why it’s important to have concrete goals for your site redesign, to make sure that they all work together in the end. Even after your website re-launch, you will likely engage in constant tweaking and improving as you discover bugs and receive feedback. Improving a website is an ongoing process. Continue reading →

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