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Top 4 Free WordPress Plugins For Bloggers

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Hosting

The post Top 4 Free WordPress Plugins For Bloggers appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . How many plugins are available to WordPress users? A recent count put the number at nearly 40,000 plugins, most of them free. That places an astounding array of functionality at the fingertips of WordPress users. But not all plugins are created equal. Some are of more universal value than others. And while value is in the eye of the user, the Huffington Post recently published their take on the top 5 free WordPress plugins:   #1: Pretty Link Pretty Link helps you to “shrink, beautify, track, manage and share any URL on or off of your WordPress website.” It’s an elegant method of directing traffic to other sites as desired, or to other pages within your site. Both free versions and paid versions of the Pretty Link plugin are available.   #2: Google Analytics Google Analytics is an invaluable, free tool for measuring, tracking, and tweaking the performance of your website. And the Google Analytics plugin by Yoast makes it super simple to install GA on your WordPress site. This free plugin will deliver all of the benefits of GA, and has been installed on more than one million sites. And if you want some help with making the most of Google Analytics, there’s also a premium version of this plugin available.   #3: WordPress SEO by Yoast WordPress is a great content management platform for search engine optimization. But the Yoast plugin for SEO builds upon WordPress’ compatibility with SEO. SEO is a constantly moving target. And staying in the good graces of the search engines requires great expertise – or the Yoast plugin. This plugin is typically updated several times per year to stay up-to-date with SEO best practices.   #4: SumoMe It’s bad news for a business website when most of the visitors are hit-and-run: they stop in for a brief visit and then flit away, never to return. But each visitor that arrives at your website represents an opportunity to cultivate a relationship, and eventually, a customer. The SumoMe plugin can help you to do that. SumoMe offers great value both for e-commerce sites and for bloggers.   Tip of the Iceberg With a field nearly 40,000 strong, there are certainly far more than 5 WordPress plugins that offer great value. And while the plugins listed above could be considered must-haves for most business sites, they represent only a tiny portion of a massive group of wonderfully useful plugins. Not all plugins are great, of course. Many aren’t worth bothering with. But a fun aspect of managing a WordPress site is browsing through all the plugins available. If there’s a job that needs doing on your WordPress site, odds are good that there’s a great plugin ready to go to work for you – for free.   ***** Chris Delker is a freelance copywriter based in Dallas, Texas. web hosting Continue reading →

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Presenting Optimized WordPress!

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Hosting

The post Presenting Optimized WordPress! appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . We are extremely happy to announce the launch of our Optimized WordPress hosting platform! WordPress is, quite frankly, one of the best back-ends for your website, period. This very blog you are reading runs on WordPress, and so do the websites for CNN, Forbes, and even Justin Beiber. We are experts on WordPress, and we’ve created a hosting package that we believe will actually simplify your life and allow you to focus on your business instead of on the management of your website. Optimized WordPress begins with a custom caching and global content delivery network (CDN), which allows for blazing fast page loads from anywhere int he world. You have access to premium WP themes in order to customize the look and feel of your site. We then pre-configure your WordPress install with the ideal suite of plugins to provide the perfect mix of additional features, including Google Analytics! We took everything a step further by also including industry-standard security features, daily malware scans and automatic malware removal, as well as automatic off-site backups (including one-click restores). We started with the idea of how to simplify your hosting experience so that you could instead spend your valuable time on your business or actual website content, and after months of development and testing, we are now proudly presenting Optimized WordPress hosting. There’s many more features including in this great offering, you can find out the full information by simply clicking the button below:   Get Optimized WordPress!   web hosting Continue reading →

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How To Find The Right WordPress Theme

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Hosting

The post How To Find The Right WordPress Theme appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Having been a blogger for over a decade now, it has been a first-hand experience of how difficult it can be to maintain a WordPress theme to keep up with the latest standards and demands. Sometimes I would find myself switching styles as frequently as every few weeks, but time has taught me an invaluable lesson — stick to what works for everyone, not just you. A good WordPress theme is one that serves the purpose of the website flawlessly, and the most important thing being the readability and accessibility of the content that you’re presenting. In my own experience, sometimes going through a hundred different designs might actually prove to be more rewarding than settling for a single theme you enjoy, since seeing more of what is out there — gives you an idea of which direction to take.   Free or Premium The most important decision you’re going to make about your WordPress theme is whether you wish for it to be free or premium. The difference in overall design can be pretty staggering. And the biggest advantages premium has over free are: It’s easier to switch styles and colors since most premium themes come with multiple styles. Features such as related posts and social buttons are automatically integrated within the theme. An extensive options panel that gives you access to modify the theme to your own liking, without any coding. I’m currently a customer over at MH Themes who provide nice and flexible themes for bloggers, magazine owners and small businesses who need a reliable solution to modern web requirements. Before that, I was constantly a user of free themes (even though I do have coding skills), but found that a premium theme can save me a lot of time that could be spent making more content, than trying to optimize the site for it.   Personal or Business One more thing I have learned to take into consideration is the overall audience of the blog/website that you’re building, is it going to be more of a personal blog that talks about your life and all the experiences you’re having, or is it going to be on a more business level — sharing stories and content that everyone can relate to? On the left side we have an example of a very simple and clean personal blog, no extra images or content, just a list of posts and that’s all. While on the right side we have an example of a magazine style blog, which is aimed at a global audience and is powered by all the latest gadgets of the web development world.   The Type of Content I think this is the one where you will spend most of your time on, to find a theme that resonates with the type of content you want to produce the most. For list posts, roundups and similar content types — a simple blogging/magazine theme will be just fine, but what about themes that compliment proper and insightful storytelling? Then there are websites like BuzzFeed , who focus on both roundups and also polls, quizzes and surveys type of content. Before you settle for a final theme, ask yourself these important questions about your content choices, and whether the theme you’re choosing is going to be able to reflect those answers. Amongst other things, look out for complete and total responsive integration (mobile support), make sure that the theme has been updated in the last year or so, that there are no previous security issues that might not have been taken care of, and avoid going for themes from shady and unverified sources, more often than not they’re polluted with encoded scripts that will rob you of your rankings and credibility.   ***** Alex Ivanovs is an online entrepreneur who has been writing about technology, business and developer topics for over a decade. He currently manages CodeCondo — an aspiring community for designers and developers. web hosting Continue reading →

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The Hottest Web Design Trends Of 2015

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Hosting

The post The Hottest Web Design Trends Of 2015 appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Now that we’ve made it half way through the year, now is a good time to look at the hottest web design trends of the year so far. The web is a constantly evolving place. By staying on top of the latest trends you can ensure your website will always be up-to-date. In this post we’re going to take a look at the most popular trends of the year and what they mean for your website.   1. Focus On Simplicity The web is a crowded and noisy place. You can see a lot of sites getting rid of everything that’s non-essential in order to have the cleanest and easiest-to-read site possible. This can include eliminating elements, such as, background images, complex layouts, full-page sliders and much more. Removing these elements not only provides a much more relaxed environment for the reader, but it can improve loading speeds as well.   2. All About Scrolling If you’ve been browsing the web at all this year, I’m sure you have, then you’ve probably noticed the trend of sites getting longer and longer. This has to do with more fluid scrolling, and the way users actually read across the web. It’s much easier for users to scroll through web pages than it is to click around to find the information they’re looking for. You can see this trend in action on parallax-style pages that have animated effects. It’s much easier to tell a coherent story when the user doesn’t have to click to find out what’s next.   3. High-Quality Images Those sites that are using images to invoke a feeling in their users are tending to lean towards using very high-quality custom images. Stock images are still being used across some websites, but it’s becoming more of a rarity. By having a unique photo you can ensure you’re never going to run across the same image twice. This will help you to convey to your users how much attention to detail you put into your website, and how this will trickle into your services and offerings.   4. Collapsible Menus This year we’ve seen the trend of hiding your navigation across your website really start to take hold. These hidden menus only become visible once the user clicks on the icon to display the menu. This design element is in line with keeping your site clean and free of distractions. Hidden menus are very prevalent across responsive websites on smaller screens, only now the transition is taking place across larger screens as well.   5. Massive Typography There’s been an increasing trend towards placing a larger focus on typography. Now that trend is growing, literally. More websites are using very large font sizes to get their message across. Usually, this is only done with websites that have a very bold message. However, it’s slowly finding its way to website of any style. Who knows if the above trends will be here years from now, but one thing is for certain. They’re here now, and they’re going to be around for at least another year. If you’ve been trying to make your website more timely consider implementing one of the current design features highlighted above. web hosting Continue reading →

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What Does Passion Mean For Your Small Business

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Hosting

The post What Does Passion Mean For Your Small Business appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . “The best advice I could give anyone is to spend your time working on whatever you are passionate about in life.” – Richard Branson Passion is a big word in the business world, especially with the growth of online technologies that now make it much easier for people to follow their passions and turn them into a business. However, that doesn’t mean the process is going to be any easier. As you know running your business is more than a full-time job, but when it’s a labor of love it can make the process much more enjoyable. In this post we’re going to explore passion in the business world, what it means, and ways to become passionate about your business if it’s not quite there for you.   Why Start A Business In The First Place? People start businesses for a variety of reasons. It would be impossible to list them all here. It doesn’t even have to be said, but most people are in business to make money. Most people don’t go into business to go bankrupt. A lot of people start a business because they see a hole in the market that can be filled with their business or service. Sometimes people are serial entrepreneurs and bounce from industry to industry finding problems and building solutions for those problems. Other people take a more artistic sense and are looking for creative fulfillment. This type of person seeks creative fulfillment through their product or service. They look to flex their creative muscles and solve problems using their unique service or product. Passion comes in many forms, as many forms as there are people on earth. If passion is your root reason for pursuing a business idea, then by all means pursue it until the end of the earth. If you’re wired to start a business about what you’re passionate about then a part of you won’t be satisfied until you do. After all, when you’re doing something you’re immersed in it doesn’t really feel like work.   Can I Become Passionate? If you started your business to fill a market need and you really want to become passionate about your work there are a few ways to nurture passion, without selling your business and starting a new one from scratch. If you started a business for the money and now you want to become passionate about your work, first you need to have a deep understanding of what you like to do and what your strengths are. If you can adapt these to your current work day, or introduce new aspects into your business then you’ll be well on your way towards bringing passion into your work. Below you’ll find a few questions that will help you uncover your passion and strengths: What would you do every day, even if you weren’t being paid to do it? What do you think your core strengths are? What could you immerse yourself in for hours at a time? If you could only do one activity for the rest of your life what would it be? Once you find your strengths the key is going to be building a bridge between passion and your current work reality. You have to be creative to do this, but I have faith in you. It might mean adjusting your work priorities, daily agenda, or introducing a new service or product for you to manage. Passion is an important ingredient to have, not only for your business, but for your life. web hosting Continue reading →

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