Tag Archives: browser

7 Ways to Improve Site Speed and Performance in 2019

Posted on December 28, 2018 by Hosting

The post 7 Ways to Improve Site Speed and Performance in 2019 appeared first on HostGator Blog . You go to a website and it feels like it is taking forever to load. What do you do? Do you wait patiently for the webpage to load in its entirety? Or do you simply close the browser tab and move on with your life? The fact of the matter is that page load time not only has a dramatic impact on user experience, but it also greatly impacts conversion rates, as well as search engine optimization. Regardless of the type of website that you have —whether it’s a blog, an e-commerce store, an online forum, or an affiliate landing page—it is in your best interest to provide the fastest site speed and performance possible. But how do you get there? Here are seven tips that you can use to reduce those load times and boost the user experience on your website in 2019. 1. Use a Content Delivery Network There are certainly a lot of steps you can take in terms of the actual content on your website. You can shrink images and optimize your JavaScript. But you also have to consider where your servers are located relative to the users who are accessing them. The Internet isn’t wholly virtual, because physical space must still be traversed. It is substantially faster for someone in Los Angeles to access to a server in San Francisco than it is for that same person to reach a server in London or even Chicago. The goal of a content delivery network, or CDN for short, is to improve website performance by picking a server that’s closest to the end user. We recommend you take a look at the way a CDN works , to get a better understanding on not only how the concept works, by also why it’s being used my the majority of top sites on the internet today. That’s where there’s a whole network to deliver this content. The best CDNs take this further by offering higher-speed storage, optimization tools, intelligent and dynamic caching, and security features to optimize performance even further. You’ll want a CDN with great global network coverage and high availability solutions. The pro plan from Incapsula starts from $59 per site per month, while the business plan goes for $299 per site per month.   2. Smush Your Images It probably won’t surprise you to learn that loading images can be one of the most taxing activities in terms of site speed and performance. Part of this has to do with resolution, but it also has to do with the level of image compression and other factors as well. There’s no real reason to upload and display a massive 20-megapixel photo if you’re just going to resize and show it as a thumbnail that’s only 200 pixels wide. You can start from the images you actually upload to your server in the first place. Generally speaking, you don’t need images that are several megabytes in size. Depending on circumstances, you can get away with 200 KB or less with no real discernible loss in quality for most users. Another great approach is a WordPress plugin called Smush . The goal is to cut “all the unnecessary data without slowing down your site.” 3. Shrink Your JavaScript and CSS One of the first and easiest places for you to look in terms of improving page load times is by addressing unnecessary inefficiencies in your site’s code. More specifically, JavaScript (JS) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can be very inefficient in their default code. There’s a lot of white space, for starters, and several lines of redundant code can be reduced down to something much shorter. As you can imagine, the less code a browser (and server) need to run through, the faster the page should load. If you have a WordPress site, it’s easiest if you use a plugin like WP Super Minify to do this for you. You’ll want to make a full website backup before you do, of course. As recommended by many of the top CSS sites , if you have a different kind of site or you’d rather just do it manually, there are several online tools that can do this to. Minifier is one such example. The tool works by removing whitespace, stripping comments, combining files, and optimizes/shortens a few common programming patterns.   4. Reduce HTTP Requests All else held constant, the simplest sites are going to be the ones that load the fastest. If you have a simple, plain HTML page with plain text and minimal images, it’ll probably be quite quick. If you have a dynamic page that calls upon a number of other factors and content types, you’re going to get bogged down. You can dramatically increase the speed of your site by reducing the number of HTTP requests. The cleaner the code, the better. Perfmatters is a performance-oriented plugin for WordPress that can automate most of this for you. It starts from $19.95 per year for one site, going up to $99.95 per year for unlimited sites. While many site owners and bloggers might not understand what each of these settings or commands actually are, the tool makes it extremely easy to check on or off which performance options you would like enabled.   5. Upgrade to Dedicated Hosting Most people who are just starting out with their first website, and indeed many veterans too, typically opt for shared hosting because it is usually the most cost-effective option. What this means, though, is that you are sharing resources (server and bandwidth) with other customers and you have no control over how they are using those resources. If another website on the same server suddenly sees a monumental influx of traffic, the site speed and performance of your website will suffer. There are many variables outside of your control. To overcome this, you might consider getting an advanced dedicated server . They have managed and unmanaged solutions, but the long and the short of it is that you get a server all to yourself. This allows for much greater customization, should you so desire. More importantly, you get dedicated hardware and much more consistent performance. That means faster speeds overall, especially when you opt for dedicated servers with better hardware too.   6. Enable Lazy Loading Generally speaking, when someone arrives at a webpage, the entirety of that webpage will try to load. Some elements can load simultaneously, while others must load sequentially. Depending on how the site is designed and laid out, users may experience really long loading times due to elements that they can’t even see yet (and they may not ever see). Or they’ll notice that the site is still loading in their browser, even though it looks as if the content of interest is already available. In both cases, this detracts from the user experience and hampers site speed. A way to overcome this is something called lazy loading. When lazy loading is enabled, elements on a webpage are loaded on an as-needed basis. In this way, items further down the page don’t get loaded until the user scrolls down there. This results in the perception of faster load times, as elements higher up the page are prioritized. There’s a great guide on the Google Developers Web Fundamentals section for more on this technique.   7. Minimize External Scripts Widgets can be great. They can be wonderfully convenient, updating your website with all sorts of dynamic content. Maybe you’ve got a Twitter widget in your sidebar that displays your latest tweets. Maybe you use a widget from Amazon to display featured products. There’s a world of possibility. The problem is that when you rely on these external scripts, you are also at the mercy of these external scripts for page load times. If Twitter happens to be hanging for whatever reason, then your site speed suffers as it waits for that widget to load correctly. And the same is true with all sorts of “hidden” elements on your page that rely on external services too. While it may not be completely practical to eliminate all external scripts altogether — you’d want to keep Google Analytics , for instance — it is prudent to minimize their use as to minimize their impact on page load times.   Better site performance tends to improve user engagement . Implement these tips in 2019. Your website visitors will thank you! Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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How to Set Up Google Adsense on Your Blog or Website

Posted on November 20, 2018 by Hosting

The post How to Set Up Google Adsense on Your Blog or Website appeared first on HostGator Blog . You’ve been creating great content for a while and you’ve finally gained a decent following. People like your stuff and keep coming back! Now you’re at the point where you can start making money by advertising on your blog .   Why You Should Use Google Adsense If you’re already maintaining a website and creating content, then Google Adsense provides a way to make passive income from what you were already doing. Here are a few good reasons to consider going with Google Adsense.   1. A lot of advertisers use it. As a Google property, Adsense is one of the biggest platforms for businesses wanting to advertise on the web. That means it’s an easy way to tap into a large network of people willing to pay money to make sure their ads get in front of people. Google Adsense uses a bidding model, which means that you’ll always get the highest amount possible for every click. 2. Ads are targeted. And one of the selling points of Adsense for advertisers is that they’re able to target their ads so they’re more likely to get in front of the right people. That’s a benefit for you too, since it means that your visitors are more likely to see ads that are relevant to them and you’re more likely to make money from them clicking on it.     3. You can control what shows up. You’ve worked hard to build trust with your audience. You definitely don’t want that ruined with an ad on your site for something that’s offensive or a product that you wouldn’t feel comfortable condoning. The Adsense platform lets you decide the categories of ads you want showing on your site and makes it easy to block any specific ads or advertisers you don’t want showing up.   A note: keep your expectations realistic. Adsense is free to sign up for and pretty easy to get started with. But you should keep your earnings goals realistic. You only earn when visitors to your website click, and you can only expect a fairly small portion of your visitors to click on the advertisements. Making money can be a slow process and Google will only send you payment when you reach $100. As long as you don’t quit your day job prematurely though, making some extra money is a good thing even if the amount is low.   How to Create an Adsense Account On the Google Adsense site, you’ll see a green button that says Sign Up Now. When you click, you’ll end up on a page with a form asking for your website, email address, and whether or not you want emails with performance suggestions. You’re expected to use an email tied to a Google account, so if you’re already using Gmail or Google Analytics, then go with the email you use for those. If not, you can create an account here . From there, you’ll be asked to provide your country and accept the terms. Then click on a blue button that says Create Account. Once you’ve taken this step, you’ll get an email from Google walking you through the next steps to take: Provide Adsense with your payment address. You’ll see a form when you first log into to Adsense that will allow you to do this. Verify your phone number. This step is only required in some countries, but you’ll see a note when you’re logged in letting you know if it’s necessary for you. Add the code provided to your website. This confirms for Google that the website is yours and officially connects it to your Adsense account. When these steps are completed, Adsense will review your website for compliance and, if everything looks good, approve your account to get started.   How to Enable Ads After your account is approved, you can start setting up ads on your page. Log into your Adsense account and select My Ads on the menu on the left side of the screen. Click on the button that says New Ad Unit. Then decide what to name your ad. The name is just for your internal use and to differentiate it from other ads you enable on the site, so it can be something simple and descriptive like Top of Page Ad. You’ll see a few different options for types of ads to allow on your page. This includes: Text and display ads – This is the most common type of ad you’ll see. Generally these show up along the side of a page or at the top of it. In-feed ads – These show up in a similar format to the content and links listed on a page, so that they look more like the other content visitors are browsing. In-article ads – These show up further down on the page in the midst of the content visitors are reading, usually in between paragraphs. Choose which type of ad you want on your site now. You can repeat this process later to add the others if you want more than one. On the next page, you’ll have the option to choose the ad size and colors. One of the size options is Responsive , which means that instead of the ad being a consistent size and shape each time, Google will choose the best size based on the space available according to the browser and device a visitor is using. After you fill in your preferences on this page, click save. Google will provide you with the ad code to add to the webpage the ad will be on.   Start Making Money If you want to maximize your Adsense earnings over time, keep an eye on which ads run on your page and how often your visitors click them. Experiment with different ad styles over time to see which ones your readers respond to. If you change up what you use based on what works best, you should be able to increase clicks (and therefore your pay) by sticking with the types of ads and categories your visitors like best. As you set up ads for your website, make sure to keep in mind the user experience. You don’t want your regular readers to be turned off by ads that are overly distracting, make the page look cluttered, or block the text. You can make money without ruining their experience of the site (and won’t make much if you do ruin it). And if you want to keep people visiting and clicking on those ads (and hopefully gain more visitors and clicks over time), keep creating the content that helped you earn your first visitors to begin with. You have to give them something to keep coming back for. Remember, Google advertising works both ways. You can sign your own site up to be featured in ads on other people’s sites. For help getting started with Google PPC on your blog or website, contact HostGator today . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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The 7 Best Video Tools for Bloggers

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Hosting

The post The 7 Best Video Tools for Bloggers appeared first on HostGator Blog . Video offers bloggers the opportunity to engage more with their audiences. Research shows that “viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.” To create the perfect clip, you’ll want to use the right video tools. You may want options to customize your footage, add an upbeat tune, or even include special effects. Get started with your video strategy today. Here are seven tools to check out now. 1. Animoto Animoto’s drag-and-drop editor makes it painless to create impressive videos for your editorial content, promotional campaigns, and social ads . Now, you can share what matters most to your fans. The platform lets you choose pre-built storyboards, or you can start from scratch.  Animoto teamed up with Getty Images to offer users access to a high-quality stock library. You’ll gain inspiration to turn your footage into a creative masterpiece. There’s also the benefit of developing slideshow videos. If photography is your talent, you can upload your images and incorporate quirky texts to make an engaging presentation. It’s an effective way to captivate people. This tool is all about simplicity in video making. You set your tone, customize it, and finalize your video. It’s a good option for the blogger who’s learning the ropes.   2. Hyperlapse Hyperlapse empowers you to make jaw-dropping time lapse videos without buying any expensive equipment. It’s your chance to transform any long process into a 30 second spot. Back in the day, this type of video was a clunky endeavor. You needed a tripod or a tool to keep the camera steady. The Hyperlapse app gives you cinematic quality with automatic stabilization. Don’t be shy when it comes to using this technique. Jason Boone , a video producer, provides his advice: “Once you’ve properly scouted the location you can begin the shoot. There are a few tricks to keep in mind when shooting a hyperlapse. The first is once you start shooting, keep shooting, and at a regular pace. The pacing and timing of your shots are important.”   3. Powtoon Video isn’t limited to you hopping in front of a camera every day. There’s also the choice of using ready-made characters and design. That’s where Powtoon steps in. This video tool lets you create animated presentations and animated explainer videos. With access to r oyalty-free footage and music, you have the control to craft something truly different for your audience. For example, if you just started a fashion blog , you can create a quick video announcing an upcoming Meetup or a discount code from one of your sponsors. No more boring surprises; you can do it with a little flair. Your video possibilities are truly endless with Powtoon. You can select from a wide variety of characters, objects, layouts, and backgrounds to add to your video. Plus, there’s a user gallery to spark new ideas for your own creations.   4. Adobe Premiere Clip As a novice, you’re probably not going to shoot ever video perfectly. So, you need a tool to help you edit out any unwanted footage. Adobe Premiere Clip polishes your mistakes and turns your finished video into a work of art. It’s a powerful editing platform where you can drag and drop clips, adjust the exposure, and even out your audio levels. Need to spruce things up? You also can insert titles, transitions, and slo-mo effects. Here’s Andy Betts , a former print journalist and magazine editor, discussing more about the tool’s features: “Looks are a series of filters you can apply to your video to change the color, contrast, and overall tone. There’s 30 to choose from, some less subtle than others. Just tap on the thumbnails to see the effect in action. You can change them again later.”   5. Loom Loom is one of my personal favorites. This app makes it convenient to capture your screen and record with your front-facing camera. In a few clicks, you can share your video with a unique link. It’s useful when you desire to do an impromptu video for your blog fans. Let’s say you want to send a personable message to a few readers. With this browser app, you can record when you feel comfortable without any cumbersome setups. Security is a big issue nowadays, especially with ongoing data breaches . Loom understands their users’ concerns and takes security seriously. Therefore, all videos are uploaded over an SSL-encrypted websocket. The company can remove any of your files from their systems upon your request. With Loom, you get to communicate easier with your followers. This benefit makes building relationships better.   6. Giphy When it comes to video creation, most bloggers forget about the power of the meme. It’s not a traditional video, but you can use clips to craft a catchy meme with Giphy . “A good GIF can be playful and full of dynamism, or it can be slow and smooth; whatever describes the feeling behind the moving images. The key is to understand what makes an eye-catching GIF and create a language that fits the mood of the message,” states Lisa Hassell , founder and director of Inkygoodness. Use the GIF maker by uploading one of your best-performing videos. Then, then trim the video to capture a specific emotion, like happy, funny, or shock. For a bonus, you can include stickers and captions.   7. Canva A video without an attractive thumbnail gets scanned over by visitors. Your goal is to prevent that from happening, and Canva offers a solution. With this graphic design tool, you can produce a thumbnail highlighting the purpose of any video. Using a colorful, clean image means more clicks for your blog. Canva’s easy-to-navigate interface makes the process simple. You can add graphic design elements, like banners, icons, and frames. Non-designers can feel relaxed when tweaking templates because there’s an undo button to erase any errors. If a picture paints a thousand words, you’re in good hands with Canva. Your thumbnails will be professional and irresistible to your fans.   Lights, Camera, Action! Video is helpful for driving engagement with your blog visitors. Select a tool that works with your marketing strategy. Try different platforms to attract and maintain your audience. Is your blog on WordPress? Check out these top WordPress video plugins. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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10 Ways to Speed Up Your Website

Posted on October 3, 2018 by Hosting

The post 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Website appeared first on HostGator Blog . There’s no doubt about it – website speed matters. As average internet connection speeds increase around the world and mobile use dominates, web users are becoming less and less tolerant of slow load times.   53% of mobile users will abandon a website that takes longer than three seconds to load, and nearly 10% of web users will bounce after 2 seconds. Clearly, every second counts. At the same time, Google has stated unequivocally that page speed is a ranking factor in search results . In short, a fast site gets better results both from visitors and Google. To take advantage of these dual benefits, you need to make site speed a priority on your site.   Any of the following ten tips will help to get you started on this important path. 1. Optimize Your Images. Every time someone visits a page on your website, their browser has to load every part of the page. On many pages, the parts that take up the most space and therefore take the longest time to load are the images. One of the best and easiest ways to get your pages loading faster is therefore to optimize your images . This quick two-step image optimization process can go a long way to speeding your website up.   Step 1: Re-size your images before uploading them. If you use a content management system (CMS) like WordPress or Joomla , you’ve probably noticed that you can upload images at full size and then adjust their display size within your website’s backend.  That’s convenient, but you may not know that doing so forces web browsers to execute multiple commands each time someone loads the page. They must pull up the initial image and then re-size it on the fly – which slows down your site. To prevent this from occurring, use an image-editing program to adjust images to the correct size yourself before adding them to your site. Most of us will have access to a simple tool like Preview (on Mac) or Microsoft Paint (on Windows). With these programs all you have to do is open up the image and re-size it in your editor of choice.   Step 2: Compress your images. Once you’ve done this you can take your image editing to the next level with a compression tool. Even after re-sizing an image the total file size could be large enough to still slow down your site’s loading speed. One of the best image compression tools available is ImageResize . All you have to do is click the link, upload your re-sized image and this tool will reduce the file size without reducing the resolution. Then, all you have to do is download the image and upload it to your site. Your images will look exactly the same, but will load much faster.     2. Do a Plugin Purge. The huge number of plugins and scripts that available for free makes it tempting for website owners to add more than they truly need. Keep in mind, every plugin you add requires resources to run – and more resources means a slower site. If you notice your site is running slowly, or you believe it could be running much more effectively, perform a plugin review. Go through the list and identify any plugins you aren’t actually using or that don’t seem to be adding anything worthwhile to your site performance. Go ahead and get rid of these. If you still feel your website isn’t loading as quickly as you’d like, do a test to find the culprit. Disable every plugin on your site, one by one. After you disable a plugin, run your site through a tool like GT Metrix to check the speed of your site with it gone. If your site speed increases after deactivating a particular plugin, then you’ve found the problem. If the plug-in in question provides a necessary functionality, experiment until you find another plugin that does the same thing without slowing your site down. To save yourself from this trouble in the future, ask yourself moving forward before adding a new plug-in if the functionality is really worth the trade-off in site speed.   3. Ensure Your Site Scripts Are Up to Date. Depending on the CMS or e-commerce platform your site uses, you may need to check back regularly to determine whether new releases of your site’s scripts are available.   If they are, upgrade your site as soon as possible (making sure that you have a current backup file in place first).  Site script developers are always working on improving their code for future releases, particularly when it comes to site speed.  Updating your scripts to the latest versions could go a long way toward eliminating coded roadblocks that prevent your site from loading quickly. If your site runs on WordPress, then you’ll find these updates within the Updates tab of your WordPress dashboard. Just one click and your site will install the latest software updates. No need for anything else on your end. Admittedly, remembering to check-in and update your website can be tough. Lucky for you this isn’t something you have to do on a daily basis. Once a month is enough to do a simple run-through of your site and install any updates that might be available. Set a recurring event on your calendar and set aside an hour every single month. Usually, it’ll take much less time than this, but it’s important to build the habit of always ensuring your site and plugins are running the latest version. Plus, having all of your software up to date will help to patch up any holes that could lead to your site being hacked .     4. Make Use of CDNs. Content Delivery Networks , or CDNs, are vast networks of servers that are housed around the world. Typically, if you’re not using a CDN, then your site will load from your web hosting server’s central location for every visitor to your site, no matter where they are geographically. This can lead to slow site speeds, especially if your visitors are located far away from the central location of your server. Additionally, if you’re just using a single server, there’s a chance it could get overloaded and cause your site to crash. CDN’s solve both of these problems by letting your users access a cached version of your site from the web host that’s closest to them. Better yet, if one of your server locations is overloaded, they can be switched to a new server location, ensuring faster speeds all around. To get started, look into the CDN services offered by SiteLock TrueSpeed , MaxCDN , or Cloudflare .   5. Enable Browser Caching. Browser caching is a technology that allows a visitor’s browser to store copies of your site’s individual pages so that when the visitor returns in the future, the content can be called up from within the cache rather than reloading the entire page. This saves the number of resources used to display your pages, resulting in faster overall load times for your visitor. If you use WordPress, you can easily enable browser caching with a plug-in like W3 Total Cache .  To install this plugin on your WordPress site, follow the steps below: Navigate to your site’s Dashboard, then Plugins > Add New , and search for W3 Total Cache. Click Install , then Activate . Once the plugin is activated, navigate to the new Performance tab at the top or lefthand side. This is where you’ll control all of the features of the plugin. There are a ton of features that you can turn on or off with this plugin. If you want to fully configure this plugin, then check out  this post by WPMU DEV . Alternatively, talk to your web developer about ways to integrate browser caching into your server-side scripting.     6. Turn On Gzip Compression. Gzip compression is a technology that minimizes the size of browser-based HTTP responses – sometimes by as much as 70%.  If that doesn’t make sense, don’t worry. You don’t need to fully understand how it works to implement it for your site. There are three ways to turn on Gzip compression on your site.  You can: 1. Add the following code to your site’s .htaccess file: # compress text, html, javascript, css, xml: AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript   # Or, compress certain file types by extension:   SetOutputFilter DEFLATE   2. Add the following code to the top of your HTML or PHP page:     3. Install a Gzip compression plugin like the  W3 Total Cache  tool for WordPress (just keep in mind what we said earlier about installing too many unnecessary plugins!).   7. Keep CSS files at the Top and Javascript at the Bottom. Finally, keep your site’s code neat and tidy by adding CSS files to the top of your page’s code and Javascript snippets to the bottom when working with raw HTML pages.   Adding your CSS files to the top of the page prohibits progressive rendering, saving resources that web browsers would otherwise use to load and redraw elements of your pages.   Adding Javascript to the bottom prevents your pages from waiting on full code execution before loading – leading to a faster browsing experience for your visitors.   8. Reduce Http Requests. When someone new visits your website, every single element on the web page has to download for them to view it. That includes images, videos, animations, style sheets, scripts, fonts — you name it. For each element you have on the page, a different http request is made. The more different parts each page on your site is made up of, the more http requests are made each time someone visits your site, and the longer the page will take to load. That doesn’t mean you need to strip your web pages down to a minimalist web design to slow down your loading time. There are tricks you can use to identify and reduce the number and size of http requests on your page without losing out on the style you want your site to have. To start, spot how many http requests are on a page on your website by using your browser tools. The process is similar in different browsers, here are specific steps for the main two: In Chrome:       Right-click on the webpage       Choose Inspect       Click the Network tab       Reload the page In Firefox:       Right-click on the page       Choose Inspect Element       Click on the Network tab       Reload the page This will show you not only how many http requests are required for the page, but also how long each one takes to load. You may be able to spot some items on the list that aren’t worth the time they require that you can remove altogether. Even if you don’t, you have options to speed things up:   Option 1: Reduce file size. Look for opportunities in the list to reduce the file size of different elements. Our section on optimizing images includes some good tips. You can also minify the codes in your HTML, CSS, and Javascript files by removing any unnecessary coding or whitespace. Online tools like Autoptimize (for WordPress) and HTML Minifier can make this step easier.   Option 2: Combine files. If you have more than one Javascript or CSS file for your webpage, combining them will reduce the number of http requests the page has to make. Tools like JCH Optimize and Cloudflare  can help with this.   9. Minimize and Optimize Redirects. Sometimes redirects are necessary, but if they’re used any more than required they can slow down page load times. Regularly check the links on your website to make sure that all your links — internal and external — go directly to the main URL for a page. In the cases where you do need to use redirects , make sure you only use one redirect for a page. You never want a browser to have to do the work of redirecting a visitor from one page to another that redirects it to a third. And avoid having additional URLs that redirect people back to your main site. It can be tempting to buy up all the variations on your URL name and primary keywords you can think of and have them all point page to your website, but that will both slow things down and could cause confusion for your visitors.     10. Upgrade Your Web Hosting. When starting out, you probably selected the cheapest hosting option for your website. That’s normal and usually works well enough for a new website while you’re starting to build visibility and traffic. As your marketing efforts start to pay off and your traffic increases, your hosting needs change. If your website traffic has increased considerably and you haven’t upgraded your hosting plan to match, that’s likely to cause slow or spotty performance issues. Going from shared hosting to cloud hosting , or from shared to a VPS , can make a huge difference to how quickly your website loads for visitors. Check with your web hosting provider to see if it’s time to upgrade, or consider if it might be time to switch to a new provider. HostGator’s known for having a 99.9% uptime guarantee and has representatives that will answer any questions you have about selecting the right web hosting plan to keep your website fast and functional.   Conclusion Although these are only a few of the different techniques that can be used to speed up your site, they’re some of the easiest to implement.  This list is a great place to start if you notice your site slowing down. When every second counts, every step you can take for a faster website is worth it. Having said all of the above, sometimes a slow site is simply caused by inadequate hosting. With HostGator , whether you have a cloud hosting, shared hosting or VPS hosting plan, your site will be served from industry-standard technology and backed by 24/7/365 award-winning technical support via telephone and LiveChat. We make it painless to transfer and are happy to assist every step of the way. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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15 Steps to Proper New Website SEO

Posted on August 27, 2018 by Hosting

The post 15 Steps to Proper New Website SEO appeared first on HostGator Blog . Your 15-Step SEO Guide for New Websites The best time to start thinking about SEO for your website is when you’re just starting out.  You can get things started on the right foot and save yourself some trouble later. If you’re in the early stages of building or launching a website , there are a few main steps you should take now to get your new website SEO into place.   1. Choose Your Domain Name Carefully. Domain names are one of the ranking factors search engines look at to figure out what a page is about. If it’s possible to choose a domain name that’s relevant, easy to remember, and incorporates the main keyword you want to rank for, that’s ideal. It’s not something you should force. For example, if your business is called Howard’s Deli and the domain www.howards-deli.com is available, that’s probably a better pick than www.egg-salad-sandwiches.com . That’s likely to cause confusion when the customers that already know you try to find the site. There are a few good tools that can help you brainstorm domain name ideas based on what’s available, so you don’t set your sights on a name you can’t have. 2. Select a Reputable Web Hosting Provider. Google has been upfront about site speed being a ranking factor for SEO. Visitors are impatient and expect webpages to load within seconds (or less), so Google tries to only deliver results that will satisfy that requirement. While you have a number of strategies you can try to make your website faster over time, one of the best steps to take from day one is choosing a web hosting provider that can deliver consistent speeds.   3. Perform Keyword Research. Keyword research is a big part of SEO. In order to do a lot of the other things on this list effectively, you need to first have a clear idea of the main terms and subject areas you want to focus your SEO efforts on. A number of SEO tools provide keyword suggestions and data on the amount of traffic and competition you can expect to deal with for each keyword. Most of them will cost you a subscription fee, but you can use Google’s Keyword Planner for free to get started:  When choosing your keywords, be sure to be realistic. SEO is competitive and a brand new website isn’t in a good position to compete for popular, broad terms. Get specific and find long-tail keywords to target. For example, something like “ east chicago modern art sellers ” is more attainable than just “ art sellers .”   4. Plan Out Your Site’s Architecture. If you’re starting with a simple site that just has a few pages, this may not seem all that important right now. But it’s still smart to plan out your site architecture in advance so you have a structure in place as you go. For most websites, your site architecture should have a pyramid structure. Your homepage is at the top, with the next most important pages (typically the ones that go on your main menu) right below that. Underneath those, you’ll add any subcategories and individual pages that fall within them. When you plan your site architecture in advance, you’ll make sure your website is organized to give priority to the most important pages in terms of how easy they are for visitors to find, and you’ll make it easier on visitors to navigate between pages on the site to find what they need.   5. Use a Mobile-Friendly Design. Many of the SEO algorithm updates Google has announced in recent years have been all about mobile. As more and more people turn to their phones to do most of their browsing, users and search engines alike expect websites to provide an intuitive mobile experience. When you’re building a new website, it’s imperative that you make it mobile friendly .   6. Target Primary Keywords for Each Page. Your initial keyword research can help you gain an overall picture of the language to use when building your website, but it’s also good practice to choose a target keyword (or a couple) for each individual web page on your site. To avoid competing against yourself, choose unique ones for each page.   7. Optimize Page URLs. Customize the URL of every page on your website. To the best of your ability, you want each URL to be easy to remember, communicate what’s on the page and, where possible, use your target keyword for the page. Your site architecture should also help you create a structure for your URLs that provide the visitor information on their positioning in the site. For example, if one of your top-level categories is Shoes and a subcategory is Boots, a product page might look something like   www.your-website.com/shoes/boots/product   8. Optimize Title Tags. The title tag is part part of the website Google looks at to learn what the page is about, which makes it another good spot to use your target keyword. Try to keep your title tag short – Google will only display 50-60 characters on the search engine results page and even less of the title tag will show up in the tab at the top of your browser. And don’t keyword stuff here. Using your primary keyword once should do the trick.   9. Optimize Images. Every image you use on a web page provides a few additional opportunities for optimizing your page for your main keywords. Customize the name of each image to include the keyword you’re targeting (e.g. primarykeyword.jpg) and update the alt text on the page with your keyword as well. If you have a WordPress site, then you can easily update the alt text in the media editor when you load the image: If not, you can update the alt text in the html of the page. The html should look something like    10. Optimize Headings. When writing for the web, headings are a good tool to better organize your copy so that it’s easy to read and scannable for your visits. As an added bonus, your headings are another signal to Google on what your page is about. Strategically include your target keywords in the headings on your web page – but only where it makes intuitive sense to do so. You don’t want to force words in if they sound strange to the reader, but if you can use the keywords in a way that makes sense, do so.   11. Optimize text on the page. You have to be careful here because search engines notice keyword stuffing and your website can be penalized for it. But as long as you only use your target keywords (and relevant synonyms) in contexts where they make sense then it’s a good practice to incorporate them into the text on the page. In most cases, as long as you’ve chosen target keywords that are relevant to what the page is about (which is important!), then this part should come naturally.   12. Write Unique Meta Descriptions. While meta descriptions don’t directly influence rankings, they do play a role in your click-through rates from the search results. When a person sees your web page in the search results, they’ll see your meta description below the page title: Any words in your description that match the terms they searched will be in bold, helping draw their attention to your result. Since they’re trying to decide which of the results to choose, you can use this text to make a case for why your page is worth the click. Always write a relevant meta description for every page on your website. Try to incorporate your keyword(s) for the page naturally in the description to hopefully end up with some bolded text on the search results page (as with “ cloud hosting ” in the example above), and use the space to provide a brief description about what’s valuable on the page.   13. Link to Other Pages on Your Website. Internal linking gives you a way to signal to Google what your page is about through the anchor text you use. If you’re not familiar with the term, the anchor text refers to the words that are hyperlinked. Google sees the words used each time there’s a link to a web page and takes that as information about what’s on the page. Internal links also give you a way to show the search engines how your different pages are connected and drive traffic from one page on the website to another. Since you ideally want your visitors to stick around and spend some time on your website (which is also good for SEO), providing helpful internal links is a good way to make that happen.   14. Submit Your Sitemap to Google. Before your web pages can show up on the search engine results page, Google has to crawl your website. Usually Google’s crawlers will make their way to your website over time even if you don’t do anything, but you can speed things up by submitting your sitemap through Google Search Console . You can directly communicate to Google that your website exists and tell them all the specific pages on it.   15. Create an SEO Plan for the Future. If everything on this list already sounds like a lot, you’ll have to get used to it because you’re just getting started. SEO is a long-term, ongoing process. To show up in the search engines when people are looking for the information or products you provide, you have to put some real work into providing consistent value on your website and building authority around the web. Start on your plan for long-term SEO sooner rather than later. Consider if you can learn the ropes and do the work on your own, or if you need to hire skilled SEO professionals to help. Whichever route you choose, it’s important that you decide to make it a priority and take the long view on making progress. SEO is slow and the sooner you start, the better off you’ll be. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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