Tag Archives: gator-website

On-Site vs. Off-Site SEO: What’s the Difference?

Posted on August 21, 2019 by Hosting

The post On-Site vs. Off-Site SEO: What’s the Difference? appeared first on HostGator Blog . Search engine optimization (SEO) comes in many shapes and sizes. It’s not limited to one technique or a single tool. If you’re just getting started with SEO , you will want to know the difference between on-site and off-site SEO. Each type offers benefits to help your business acquire more website visitors. While some strategies take a few hours to execute, other tactics will involve extra time to plan. Take this opportunity to attract people to your site. Learn the difference below. On-Site SEO Strategies On-site SEO focuses on optimizing individual pages to earn organic search traffic. By implementing these techniques, it’s easier for search engines to categorize your content.   1. Keyword Research All businesses desire more website traffic. To gain those visitors, it starts with understanding keyword research. Consumers enter keywords in search engines to find specific information. They search for everything from holiday gift ideas to cute puppy videos. Knowing your potential customers’ search intent will help you craft content with targeted keywords. That way, you receive qualified visitors, not just every curious person online. Keyword Planner and Moz’s Keyword Explorer are effective platforms for conducting keyword research and keeping track of trends. Garnering this insight gives you an edge over your competition. Stay away from broad terms. For example, if you sell women’s clothing, stick to distinct, longer-tail keywords that describe your products. Aim for “high-end winter plaid skirts,” rather than “women’s skirts.”   2. Internal Linking When an individual lands on a web page, it’s quite likely that she will want to learn more about the specific information mentioned. Internal linking gives you the chance to act as a tour guide, sending the visitor to another appropriate page. Linking boosts your SEO performance. Serial entrepreneur Neil Patel outlines the advantages: “One of the corollary benefits of internal linking is that it improves user engagement on your site. When a user sees an informative link that truly matches the context of the content, they are likely to click on that link. It can be an external link, as long as it’s something that the reader will be interested in.” Internal linking helps search engines crawl your site. So, direct visitors to another relevant page on your site.    3. Page Speed A few years back, search engines announced that a site’s page speed would impact its ranking. This guideline still influences SEO today. As a result, you should monitor your pages’ load time. According to Google , it takes on average 22 seconds for a mobile landing page to load.  However, “53% of mobile site visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load.” Their free PageSpeed Insights  tool analyzes the content of your web page and generates suggestions to make your page faster. It’s user-friendly and only takes a few seconds to receive your speed score. Large image files can negatively impact page speeds. You can solve this problem by using a tool like TinyPNG to reduce the file size and following image SEO best practices . Consider the number of widgets connected to your site, too. Excessive social buttons, comment areas, and pop-up ads can slow down page speed.   Off-Site SEO Strategies Off-site SEO is the process of improving your search rankings through referral traffic. These techniques include driving brand awareness and creating remarkable content.   1. Public Relations The perception of your business informs customers’ decisions. Public relations coupled with SEO serves the purpose of increasing your inbound links and brand recognition. Earning coverage in online publications and news outlets starts with developing an enticing story around your business. Jeremy Knauff , founder of Spartan Media, explains: “[Public relations] focuses on getting real humans who work at legitimate, authoritative publications genuinely interested in and talking about your story. It’s about truly adding value, which in turn tends to generate inbound links, as opposed to simply producing garbage links on websites that no one visits.” To catch an eye of a journalist, you’ll want to highlight a newsworthy activity. Maybe you’re partnering with a charity to donate funds, or you’re releasing groundbreaking research that supports your brand. You can generate buzz by writing a press release and initiating a social media campaign with a unique hashtag.   2. Guest Blogging Content writing is another way to obtain backlinks for your website. Through guest blogging, you can become a thought leader in your industry as well as maximize your SEO potential. Guest blogging involves crafting content for non-competitive sites with similar audiences. You’ll gain powerful relationships and site traffic. When guest blogging, it’s key for you to follow the rules described by the specific website. Below is an example from Mention , a social media monitoring tool. You’ll also want to choose a topic that will resonate with readers. If possible, tell a narrative about a recent experience, spotlight a customer story with humor, or even grab people’s attention with stunning statistics. Guest blogging is a perfect time to add your expertise to a larger conversation. You should aim to satisfy the publication and its readers.   3. Influencer Outreach You’re only as good as the community around you. To upgrade your circle and earn inbound links, influencer outreach offers a step in the right direction. Influencers are individuals who shape consumer buying habits. They can persuade people to visit websites, try products, and join social communities. For businesses, this engagement transforms into a huge benefit. Michael Quoc , founder and CEO of Dealspotr, gives his insight: “When your business engages with a new social audience, it unlocks the potential for more followers and engagement. This can lead to more site traffic, backlinks, and other factors that improve SEO.” Do your research when selecting influencers. It’s important that their values match your brand and their audience possess some interest in your products. Influencer partnerships will build your brand reputation faster. Plus, it gives bloggers another reason to link back to your website.   Focus on SEO Knowing when and how to apply on-site and off-site SEO strategies matters. Each type holds a different solution for your website to attract more visitors. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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4 Ways to Make Money With Your Small Business Website

Posted on June 4, 2019 by Hosting

The post 4 Ways to Make Money With Your Small Business Website appeared first on HostGator Blog . You’ve finally got a website for your business , because you know it’s the key to getting found by new customers who start most of their searches online. But your website can do more than raise your visibility in search results. It can also provide another revenue stream for your business. Whether you sell physical goods in a brick-and-mortar location, provide in-person services to a local market, run a restaurant, or offer your freelance expertise online, there are ways you can make your website work harder for you. One or more of these options may be just right for your small business site. 1. Build an Online Store If you have a brick-and-mortar retail shop, selling your products online is an obvious choice to expand your market, but other businesses can benefit from having an online store, too. Own a coffee shop or bakery? You can offer your branded merch (t-shirts, mugs) online along with special coffee blends or cakes and gift baskets. And any type of business can offer gift certificates online. No physical products? No problem. If what you sell is expertise, consider putting some of it into e-books on topics that matter to your clientele, and sell them in your online shop. (We’ll talk more about expertise in a moment.) Setting up an online store is easier than you may think. Gator Website Builder’s eCommerce plan gives you the templates and drag-and-drop tools you need to set up shop online fast. The eCommerce plan supports HD video and audio so you can create compelling product videos, and you get tools to manage your inventory, calculate shipping and sales tax, and offer coupons to your customers. 2. Let Customers Book Appointments Online Worldwide access to global knowledge is great, but I think the real benefit of the internet is being able to book appointments without a phone conversation between two harried people who toss out days and times until one works. Setting up appointments online is easier for everyone—your receptionist can focus on other tasks, and your customers don’t get stuck on hold. Online booking also lets customers reserve a spot whenever they’re ready, instead of having to wait for office hours to make a call. When you make people wait, they sometimes forget—or find a competitor who lets them book online, so you lose out. You can add booking capability to your WordPress website with a plugin. One of the most popular is Booking Calendar , which lets you customize the fields customers will fill in, notifies you of new booking requests, and stores all your booking information in a single database so you don’t have to toggle back and forth to manage your client list and appointments. 3. Share Your Knowledge Online Once you’ve been running your business successfully for a while, you’ll probably have insights other people will pay to learn. Writing, design, and coaching businesses are a natural fit for online one-on-one entrepreneur mentorship programs and group courses aimed people in the same field who want to learn more about some aspect of the business. Other businesses can use this approach, too. Maybe you grew your landscaping business from zero to six figures in under two years. Other new landscapers will want your advice on marketing and customer retention. Does your HVAC repair company have the lowest employee-turnover rate and the best customer reviews in town? Other contractors will want to know how you retain top talent. There’s one big difference between selling this type of expertise online and setting up an online store or booking tool: You’ll need to reach a different audience from your regular customer base. That requires some research to see if there’s a demand for your knowledge, and to find out where your potential customers hang out online so you can start connecting with them. You’ll also need to establish yourself as an expert, with a blog, podcast, or videos that gives away some of your knowledge for free. You can set up a blog fast with the Gator Website Builder and its blogging templates. You’ll want to make sure your business website’s hosting plan can handle more traffic and load audio and video content fast. It may be time to upgrade to cloud hosting if you expect spikes in traffic when you open new course registrations, or if you need faster load times for your instructional videos and podcasts. Building up this type of revenue stream takes some time, but it can be lucrative if there’s enough demand and you put in the marketing work. And if your main line of business is seasonal, like landscaping or air-conditioner repair, an online sideline can help smooth out income peaks and valleys. 4. Add Ads and Affiliate Links to Your Small Business Website With a decent amount of traffic, your site can also generate revenue through affiliate links and ads. Affiliate marketing is big business, and just about anyone with a website can take part. Simply defined, affiliate marketing lets you earn commissions on sales of other people’s products that you promote on your site. Let’s say you own a cupcake shop, and your shop’s website has a popular blog that features tips on decorating cupcakes. You might sign up for the affiliate program offered by your favorite decorating tools company, include links to their products in your posts (along with an FTC-required disclosure that they’re affiliate links), and earn a commission on each sale that comes from your links. You can also run ads on your website. Google AdSense is the most popular option, because it’s easy to integrate with your site, it gives you control over which ads appear, and it tailors ads to your content and audience. It can take a while for your AdSense ads to bear fruit—you need to reach a $100 threshold before you receive your first payment. But as far as revenue streams go, it’s a low-effort, low-maintenance way to start monetizing your site. Want more ideas for making the most of your small business website? There’s always something new and useful on the HostGator blog . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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4 Free or Inexpensive Resources to Help You Start Your Online Business

Posted on May 22, 2019 by Hosting

The post 4 Free or Inexpensive Resources to Help You Start Your Online Business appeared first on HostGator Blog . There’s a lot to learn before (and after) you start your own business, and if you don’t have a business degree or previous experience running an online business, your exciting plans can feel a bit overwhelming. So can sorting through all the advice and information out there for new and would-be business owners. To help you get off to a strong start on a small budget, here are some reliable free and low-cost resources to help you plan, launch, and grow your new business. 1. Mentoring from Experienced Professionals Want answers to specific business questions or insights from someone who’s been there and done that? SCORE is a nonprofit supported by the US Small Business Administration that provides free, confidential mentoring for entrepreneurs in person, online, and by phone. With more than 10,000 volunteers providing advice nationwide, the odds are good that you can connect with someone in your niche. You can enter your location on SCORE’s Find a Mentor page to see all the SCORE volunteer mentors near you, search for mentors by industry or keyword, and find the closest SCORE office. The SCORE website also has a resource library full of blog posts, webinars, podcasts, videos, and templates on thousands of topics. Some of the webinars charge a small fee but most of the resources are free.    2. Courses to Build Your Business Skills Khan Academy has a group of videos in its Careers section that feature different small business owners and freelancers talking about what they do, how much they earn, how they work, and how they got started. The range of careers covered is relatively small, but even if your niche isn’t included, there’s good advice on running a business in several of the presentations, and you can get an idea of all the tasks that go into being your own boss. If you’re ready to tackle business topics at the college level, check out OpenCourseWare from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The site provides free access to the materials for most of MIT’s undergraduate and graduate-level courses. You can search by academic department for classes on accounting, marketing, and other business topics. Or you can explore OpenCourseWare’s Entrepreneurship portal , which includes dozens of classes covering planning, pricing, finance and accounting, marketing, patents, sales, operations, and much more. The only catch? It’s up to you to download and work through the course materials on your own. Coursera also offers college-level instruction, and it provides graded assignments and feedback in courses from universities around the world. Unlike traditional distance-learning classes, Coursera courses don’t come with a traditional tuition price tag. Some courses can be audited for free, and if you want to earn a certificate or access all the course features, a subscription plan runs about $50 per month. One Coursera option for budding business owners is Michigan State University’s 6-course specialization program called How to Start Your Own Business , which is designed to walk students through the process of starting their own businesses as they launch it. The classes you may need will depend on the type of business you want to run. Planning an e-commerce business? OpenCourseWare’s undergrad-level Economics and E-Commerce course materials cover pricing, sales taxes, different types of e-commerce, advertising, and search. One recommendation from me: If you’re planning a service business like freelance design or writing, event planning, or repairs, it’s a good idea to learn as much as you can about negotiation before you begin, both to earn what you’re worth and to build good relationships with good clients. Becoming a good negotiator can help you in many areas of your business, from setting rates and writing bids to working with vendors and hammering out the fine print in contracts. Coursera offers more than 50 negotiation courses, and MIT OpenCourseWare offers materials for several negotiation classes from the Sloan School of Management’s curriculum. Whatever you decide to study now, remember that successful business owners are always learning. Free and low-cost courses are a low-stress way to keep up with trends and innovations in your niche. 3. Guidance for Building a User-Friendly eCommerce Website In late 2018, Google published its UX Playbook for Retail : Collection of best practices to delight your users. Google reviewed hundreds of retail sites to come up with its recommendations, and the result is probably the best free resource you’re going to find for learning what to include on your site and why to include it. The free-to-download playbook uses Sephora, Warby Parker, Boots, ThredUp and other best-in-class e-commerce sites to show you exactly what works for six key areas: the homepage or landing page, menus and navigation, search, products and categories, conversion, and forms. For each area, there are details on what to include and what to avoid, to help you create a site that looks professional and is frustration-free for shoppers. There are also charts showing the ease of implementation, impact, and key metrics to track for each suggestion in the playbook. Don’t let the playbook’s 108-page length discourage you from diving in. The guide’s design—lots of screenshots, checklists, and charts—makes it a fast, informative read you can consult as you plan each section of your site. 4. Easy Tools to Create Your Website DIY website design used to be reserved for hardy amateurs who enjoy coding and don’t mind spending time tinkering and consulting support forums. For the rest of us, website builders have opened up high-quality site design to anyone who can drag and drop. Site builders like Gator Website Builder make setting up a small business website or even an online store fast and easy by packaging everything you need to get started and making the design process a snap. For example, every Gator plan includes site hosting, domain name registration, an SSL certificate to protect your data and your customers, analytics to help you measure and improve your site’s performance, and support. You also get unlimited pages, storage, and bandwidth so there’s no limit to how much your site can grow as you add products, services, and testimonials from your best customers. You can also upgrade to Gator Premium for priority support or to Gator eCommerce for priority support plus online store functionality. Ready to get started? Choose your Gator Website Builder plan now . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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10 Reasons to Love HostGator’s New Gator Website Builder

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Hosting

The post 10 Reasons to Love HostGator’s New Gator Website Builder appeared first on HostGator Blog . HostGator is pleased to announce our new website builder, Gator Website Builder . Gator was created for anyone who has an idea for a website and wants a frustration-free solution to build and launch a website with ease.   Gator is a full-featured website building and hosting tool with an easy to understand, drag-and-drop page builder so you can get started quickly. In addition, Gator comes with some of the basics you need such as free website hosting , security basics like an SSL certificate, and a free domain name. Unlike other website builders, the Gator Website Builder offers a breadth of tools to fit every need. No more shopping around for a site builder that has either blog or eCommerce functionalities, Gator has it all. Plus, it’s backed by HostGator’s powerful website hosting, so you can upgrade your website as your online business grows.   Unlike other website builders, Gator by HostGator offers a breadth of tools to fit every need. No more shopping around for a site builder that has either blog or eCommerce functionalities, Gator has it all. Plus, it’s backed by HostGator’s powerful website hosting, so you can upgrade your website as your online business grows.   10 reasons to love Gator Website Builder by HostGator:   1. Drag-and-drop elements   Using Gator, you can add dynamic elements to your site, without the help of a professional designer. Some of the things you can add to your website with our easy website builder are buttons, images, maps, text blocks, videos and more! When you set up your account, the first thing you’ll see is a quick, interactive tour that shows you how to add sections and make revisions  to your site. Follow these instructions and you’ll be designing a website in no time! 2. More than 200 professional design templates to choose from.  These design templates are so good that you might wonder why they’re free. Where other website builders limit your options, Gator comes with more than 200 professional design themes, all of which are scalable to fit your business. When you set up your account, scroll through all the options available and choose the one that best fits your business. The templates are organized by category so you can quickly find find a theme that is suitable for your type of business. There’s even a full screen preview so it’s easy to see all the theme’s features. Plus, the designs are fully customizable – you can quickly change the color scheme, fonts, or text style to match your business. 3. Mobile-friendly design templates.  Search engines give a boost to rankings of mobile-friendly sites and can penalize websites that are only optimized for desktop computers. Since so many people are browsing websites on their phones, in the long run, you’re hurting your business if you don’t have a mobile-friendly version. With Gator Website Builder, all of the professional design templates come with a mobile-friendly version. You can view the desktop and mobile version of your site individually to be sure the necessary information is correct and looks great no matter which device your site visitors use. In addition, you can make changes in the mobile editor that won’t affect your main website. This is handy if you want to reduce some content for mobile website visitors.   4. Stock photo library included and integrated.  No more searching for stock photos, downloading, and then uploading to your website. Gator Website Builder comes with an integrated library of high-quality stock photos courtesy of Unsplash. These photos are available in all Gator packages at no charge and are license free, meaning you can use them however you want. Best part? The photos are searchable and sorted by category to make it easier to find what you need. If you have your own photos, that’s great! You can upload and store them in your Gator “my images” library. 5. Integrated website analytics and tracking.  Analytics can be intimidating, but with Gator, you can keep on eye on the backend of your website right within the platform! Easily keep track of pageviews, bounce rate and visitor demographics with a few clicks of your mouse. This detailed data about your website visitors will help you make informed decisions about what to do with your website and how to promote your business. But, of course, if you’re already using Google Analytics, Gator has an easy way to insert your tracking code in the “manage site” section. 6. Easy blogging feature.  Some website builders give you the choice of either a basic website or a blogging platform. However, Gator Website Builder gives you both options on the same website. If you’re ready to start a blog , Gator has blog templates that seamlessly integrate with the design of the rest of your website. The “blog” tab allows you to easily organize your blog posts into one place so you can create, edit, and schedule your posts with confidence. If you’d rather start a blog later, the blog feature comes with all Gator packages so you can easily add a blog as your business grows. 7. Build an online store with eCommerce plans. Our special eCommerce Plan has all the functionality you need to sell your products or services in a professionally designed, mobile-friendly store. Simply choose your favorite eCommerce template then add your product images and details. Gator includes inventory management and coupon features to help you run your business efficiently. The eCommerce store also comes with our integrated statistics feature. Using this feature you can explore which products are your top performers so you can continue to drive more sales, more revenue, and more growth. 8. Add and manage all your social media accounts.  Quickly and easily communicate with your customers by cross-promoting your social media accounts from your website homepage. This drag-and-drop feature allows you to seamlessly connect your live-feeds from popular social networks like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Additionally, Gator has a social media productivity tool, My Social Suite, that allows you to seamlessly engage and communicate with your customers as you make updates to your website. My Social Suite is an add-on product that makes social media marketing easier than ever by allowing you to manage multiple social media profiles from one dashboard. 9. Website Security.  HostGator offers free SSL certificates for all of our customers!  An SSL certificate shows website visitors that your site is secure and that they can shop or browse confidently knowing that their personal information will be protected. 10. No ads.  Some website builders promise that your website will be free, only for you to later find out they will add advertisements to your site. With Gator Website Builder, you don’t need to worry about unwanted ads on your site because all Gator plans have zero ads. After all, we know that your customers should focus on your business, nothing else. Ready to get started? No matter what type of website your business needs, Gator Website Builder has you covered. Gator gives you access to customizable design templates, image libraries, live social feeds, and integrated analytics to help you keep tabs on your website performance. The frustration-free, drag-and-drop website means that creating and editing your website requires no prior website building or coding experience. Simply choose a template for blogs, business sites, or eCommerce sites from a category that aligns with your goal, and get online fast. Choose your Gator package and get online today. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Free Webinars You Don’t Want to Miss in February

Posted on February 5, 2019 by Hosting

The post Free Webinars You Don’t Want to Miss in February appeared first on HostGator Blog . The HostGator team is pleased to announce not one, but two, FREE webinars we’re hosting this month to help you get more out of your website and web hosting! Learn more and RSVP at the links below: February 13: Build Your Website with the Gator Website Builder! It’s now easier than ever to build a professionally-designed, reliable website without needing a ton of technical skills – thanks to the new Gator Website Builder from HostGator! Join us February 13th for a FREE webinar as the product team from HostGator.com demos the powerful new Gator Website Builder.It’s time to make your website dreams a reality. Register now . February 20: Live Demo: HostGator’s New Customer Portal The updated HostGator Customer Portal arrives March 2019, with an intuitive new look designed to make your life easier, so you can get back to focusing on what matters – creating great content for your website and managing your business. Join us February 20th for a FREE webinar where we’ll share an exclusive sneak peek and guided demo of the new customer portal. Register now. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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