Tag Archives: hostgator

What to Look for in a Website Builder

Posted on November 2, 2018 by Hosting

The post What to Look for in a Website Builder appeared first on HostGator Blog . You know you need a website, but you don’t know the first thing about how to build one. Without any coding or design skills, you’re not really sure where to start. But these days, you don’t need a complex set of skills to design a website, you just need a good website builder. Website builders make creating and customizing a website easy enough for anybody to do it—no coding required. When you start looking into which website builder to use for your new website, you’ll notice that there are a lot of options to choose from. Trying to figure out which one to go with can be intimidating, especially if you don’t know enough to even know what to look for. Top 10 Features to Look for in a Website Builder When choosing the right website builder for you, there are ten main factors you should consider.   1. Ease of use A website builder is supposed to make the process of building a website easy (that’s kind of the whole point). When you’re considering what website builder to go with, make sure you find one that has an intuitive editing tool so you can easily shape your website to look and feel how you want it to. Drag-and-drop functionality is a good feature to look for, since it means you can move components of the page around with your mouse—something anyone can do, regardless of their level of web design experience. And the editing tool should have features that enable you to change out colors, add new elements to the page, and upload any media you want to add without having to learn any new skills.   2. Lots of templates The first step to creating a website with a website builder is choosing your template . The template provides a design and structure for you to start with, so you’re not having to build your site from scratch. From there, it’s easy to make changes to the template to make your website better represent your unique brand. Building your website will be easier if you’re able to select a template that comes close to what you have in mind for your site. So make sure the website builder you go with supplies a good number of templates for you to choose from.   3. Responsive options People now browse the web on their mobile devices more than their computers. For your website to work well for the majority of visitors, it needs to be mobile friendly. The best way to do that is to build a website that’s responsive. Responsive websites have all the same elements and content no matter what device you visit them on, but they’re automatically arranged in the way that makes them look good on whatever screen size a visitor views them on. The website builder you go with should offer an easy way for you to make your website responsive. Offering responsive templates is a good option, since you won’t have to do anything extra to make your website mobile friendly—you’ll start out with it that way.   4. Customization options Templates are great for making the website creation process easier, but you want to be sure you can turn that template into something unique. A good website builder should provide plenty of options for customizing your website. You should be able to change out colors, add new pages, load your own images, and add icons and buttons in the shapes and sizes you desire. You don’t want a website that looks just like everybody else’s, the whole point is to create something that represents your specific brand. Go with a website builder that gives you plenty of room to customize the template you choose to turn it into something wholly yours.   5. SEO features With so many websites already out there, getting people to find yours will be a challenge. A website builder that has SEO features can give you a little head start by helping you optimize your website’s pages for visibility in the search engines. Adding relevant keywords to each web page’s URL, meta description , and image tags communicates to Google what your website is about so they’re more likely to include you in searches for that term. A good website builder will make that easy to do.   6. Social share features Once your website’s up, you want to promote it! And ideally, you want visitors that like your site to promote it too. Social share features can help on both fronts. You can easily push out new content to your social networks to let your followers know about it, and you can make it easy for visitors to share your web pages with their followers with one click as well.   7. Affordability You probably don’t have a ton of money to spend on your website. And website builders generally bill on a subscription model, so you have to consider the long-term costs as well as what you can afford at this moment. Choose a website builder that falls within your ongoing budget for your website. Most website builders cost somewhere in the range of $4-$40 a month. In some cases, the cost includes features or services you would otherwise have to spend more for, so make sure you consider everything that’s included in the price instead of just going with the cheapest option.   8. Image library All websites need images, they’re a key part of how people will experience the site. Unless you’re a photographer or illustrator, finding good images to populate your site with can be difficult and time consuming. A website builder that includes an image library can save you a lot of trouble, make your website look great, and help you get your website up and running faster,   9. Educational resources While ideally, the website builder you use will be easy to figure out, you still want access to helpful resources that lay out what all the features are and how to use them. Check if the website builder you consider offers tutorials on how to use it. You’ll get more out of your website builder if you’re able to get a full understanding of everything it can do for you and how to make use of it all.   10. Good customer support If you face any issues while creating your website, or worse, once it’s up, you want to trust you can get ahold of someone to help fast. Look for a website builder that offers 24/7 support and has a reputation for being helpful when customers need it. Hopefully you won’t ever need customer support, but it’s important to know it’s there and reliable if you ever do. A website builder should make your life easier and enable you to put together a website that does everything you want it to. But it’s important to find one that offers everything you need.   Meet the HostGator Website Builder HostGator offers a website builder that does everything on the list and comes with web hosting included. You can save a little money by investing in both things at once, and get started creating the website you’ve been wanting. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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How to Create a Social Media Holiday Marketing Plan

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Hosting

The post How to Create a Social Media Holiday Marketing Plan appeared first on HostGator Blog . The holiday season is fast approaching, it’s time to get ready for shopping, spending time with your family, big meals, and… social media marketing? Yes, this time of year is perfect for developing a top-notch social media marketing plan! Marketing doesn’t have to be a challenging task anymore. There are plenty of different ways to reach a wide range of audiences. The most difficult decision you have to make now is deciding which sales methods you’re going to use this year. Fortunately, we’ve made it easy for you. Here are four top ways you can add some seasonal spice to your social media marketing campaign. 1. Link Your Social Media to Your Holiday-Themed Emails First, spread the cheer through your emails! You can use a tool like Constant Contact to build wonderful holiday-themed marketing emails. Make sure you take advantage of all of the holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and small, fun, social holidays in between. Email marketing is successful because you can reach a large group of people almost instantly. Typically, marketing emails have a 21.80% read rate and a click through rate of just under 3%. Initially, these numbers may not seem impressive. However, take the time to consider that if you send emails out to 10,000 people, about 280 people are going to click through. Those are now 280 people that are much more likely to purchase a product from you. One great way to boost your click-through rate is to increase your email personalization. You can do this by segmenting email lists based on previous behavior. For example, if someone clicked through on a previous email, send them more of that type of email to incentivize them to make the purchase.   2. Use Festive Hashtags If you’re looking for a way to boost your marketing reach with Twitter or Instagram, start paying attention to  holiday hashtags . When people use hashtags, all of the same hashtags can be viewed on one page. For example, if someone uses #EmailMarketing, anyone can click the phrase and see what everyone who used that particular hashtag is talking about. You may be wondering how this fits in with the holidays. It’s simple. If you use hashtags for the holidays such as Christmas, New Years, or Thanksgiving, your posts will appear when someone searches #Christmas or #NewYearsDay. When you use hashtags, you increase your visibility, especially when the topic you choose is being widely discussed, like during holidays. Don’t stop at just the mainstay holidays. There are plenty of fun “secondary holidays” that often start trending, like #NationalCocoaDay. Take advantage of these holidays by checking out an event calendar and scheduling your upcoming posts accordingly.   3. Incorporate Buyer Keywords Into Your Content Did you know that Google’s algorithm prioritizes certain content and businesses during the holiday season? This is because a user’s intent usually changes around the holiday season. They are more likely to buy. The first thing you have to do is make a list of keywords you’re going to target throughout your content. Google Keyword Planner is an ideal resource for looking up keywords and seeing how popular they are. If you are an eCommerce business, this is a great time to focus on creating content with targeted buying keywords. Some example of buying keywords to target this holiday are: Best holiday gifts this year Best gifts for entrepreneurs Cute holiday dresses Don’t forget: it’s normal to start working on holiday keywords months in advance. By the time the search volume is in the thousands, you’ll already be in a comfortable ranking position. Use Google Keyword Planner to find low competition, high search volume keywords to create content with less competition. If the competition is low or medium, you have a much better chance at ranking towards the top of Google.    Once you’ve decided on keywords, it’s time to put them in your content. SEO Yoast is a tool that lets you target specific keywords and ranks how well you use them on each page. Make sure you follow all of the suggestions at the bottom of the Yoast plugin, and you’ll increase your chances of ranking for your chosen keyword.   4. Add a Retargeting Pixel to Your Checkout Page Why is a retargeting pixel important for your checkout page? Shockingly, up to 80% of people who start filling up an online shopping cart will leave before making a purchase. These are people that were obviously close to buying but changed their mind for one reason or another. You can use a retargeting pixel to bring them back in and secure the conversion. There are multiple types of ads you can use to target these folks. One of the best ways to convert is by offering them a discount, as in this example from  Cole Haan : If they’re browsing the internet and see your add with “Get 10% off now” on the banner, it may be enough to bring them back to complete their order. You don’t have to worry about people who complete the checkout getting these ads. You can program the pixel to “burn” upon completion of their order, which will take them off the “audience” list.   Social Media and Your Holiday Marketing Game Plan Having a game plan is important in any marketing situation.  The holiday season is perhaps one of the best times to draw in new customers and get old customers to come back and try new products. Your social media is important in determining how much traffic comes your way. If you use the tips and tools provided, you should be able to get a steady flow of high-quality traffic to your business page, which translates to more sales. Happy holidays! Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Web Design Best Practices: A Helpful Guide

Posted on October 26, 2018 by Hosting

The post Web Design Best Practices: A Helpful Guide appeared first on HostGator Blog . Your website is the main face of your brand online. And building your website with best practices in mind will ensure your brand is putting its best foot forward. What people see when they visit it influences how they see your brand – online and off. And your web design largely defines how people experience your website. In short, web design is important. A bad web design can make your website layout look unprofessional, lose visitors’ trust, or make it difficult for them to find what they’re looking for (and therefore increasing instead of reducing your bounce rates ). A good website design shows your visitors you know what you’re doing and that it’s worth sticking around and interacting with your brand. Whether you’re working on a building new website or launching a re-design for the one you already have, there are a few important web design best practices you should honor. 1. Make Your Site Navigation Intuitive. Part of the design process is figuring out how to organize all the pages and what to include in your website menus . Getting your site organization right is both important for your website architecture and because it determines how easy navigating your website is for visitors. When deciding what pages, categories, and subcategories to include in your website’s menus, think first about your visitors. What will make it easier for the average visitor to find what they’re looking for? But also decide what the most important pages you want them to find are. Strive to organize your website in a way that will make it just as intuitive to a first-time visitor as it is to someone who knows it well.   2. Maintain a Consistent Style. If you visited a website that had a specific style on the home page but changed to something completely different on the next page you linked on, you’d find the change confusing. You might wonder if you were in the right place at all or had somehow navigated away from the site you thought you were on. You don’t want your site visitors to deal with that kind of confusion. Early on in the design process, sit down to develop a web design style guide . A style guide is a useful web design tool that will help you make sure all the pages on your website visually match well enough to let visitors know they’re all related to each other as well as to your brand. Make sure it includes: The website’s color scheme The logo design to use (and any variations on it in terms of size and shape you’ll use throughout the site) The font(s) The visual style (for example, do you want a minimalist feel? A playful one?) As you move into the particulars of designing the site, your style guide will be a helpful resource to keep you on track.   3. Design Each Page With a Goal in Mind. You’re not just designing a website for fun, you want it to accomplish something. And even if you have one overarching goal for the whole website, different web pages will need to have more specific goals. For example, an eCommerce website will primarily be designed to get people to make purchases. But in order to do that, some pages will be focused on getting people to visit the website to begin with, so they’ll have the primary goal of improving search engine optimization  or encouraging social shares. Other pages will more directly try to get people to click that “Buy” button. Clearly define the specific goal you want and  to accomplish this and make sure your design for it centers the goal.   4. Keep Each Page Focused. Another good web design tip that goes hand in hand with having a specific goal for each web page is to make sure your pages have a clear focus. Don’t try to do too much on any one webpage. You don’t want your web pages to look cluttered – that not only makes it look bad (which makes visitors more likely to click away), but it also presents too many distractions. How will people know the next best step to take, if your page is filled with so many links and images and text that they can’t figure out what to focus on? If you realize a particular web page has too much going on, split it up into multiple pages. Having separate pages that each has a more clear focus will be good for user experience and improve your opportunities to optimize for SEO.   5. Make Your Website Responsive. Mobile use now surpasses computer use ,  and every year the amount of time people spend on the web on mobile devices only grows. For website owners, that means your web design has to prioritize the mobile friendly experience . In most cases, the best option for creating a website that works well both on desktop and mobile devices is to build a responsive website. Responsive web design involves identifying breakpoints on the page where the page can be cut off and everything to the side moved below the breakpoint without the experience losing anything. That’s why mobile devices often display the same images and text, but with all elements of the page that appear alongside each other on the desktop showing up as stacked above and below each other. When designing each page on your website, you need to define at least three breakpoints to ensure your pages work well on each of the three main device sizes (although many designers prefer to use more). To a large degree, responsive websites have become common enough that most web design tools or designers you turn to will automatically employ best practices for responsive web design. As just one example, all of the templates offered with HostGator’s website builder are responsive, so even newbie website owners that don’t know anything about HTML or other coding languages can easily create a website that’s responsive. No matter what web design tools you use though, make sure you design your website with mobile in mind and use responsive design best practices.   6. Use Fluid Images. Fluid images  can aid in responsive web design and improve user experience on your website. You can make any of the images you use fluid with the right HTML code. If you add “max-width: 100%” to the source code for the image, you’re letting browsers know to resize the image to fit the page on every device. As an example, the full code would look like: This will keep your images from blocking text or other parts of the page on devices where they outgrow the section of the page you want them to stay contained within.   7. Make Clickable Elements Large Enough for Mobile. Another important component of good mobile-friendly website design is thinking about how people use their mobile devices. Clicking a small button on a computer is easy with the pointer that you have total control over and that can get very specific in what it points to. On a mobile device though, you have to be able to “click” that same button by touching it with your finger. If a link or button is too small, or worse, if you have different links located too close together, your users will struggle to get the links to work. When designing your web pages, make sure you test each one out on a small mobile device to confirm that all the links and buttons are easy to use.   8. Use Visual Hierarchies. This relates back to the goals you developed for each page of your website. Every page will include the most important information that you want people to notice, as well as additional information and design elements that matter, but aren’t of the same level of importance. In order to make sure that every visitor on every device sees the most important parts of the page before moving on, develop a visual hierarchy for each web page. The most important elements need to go at the top so they show up for everybody, and the other parts of the page can fall further down for the people interested enough to keep scrolling to see the whole page.   9. Make Your Site Accessible. Your visitors don’t all interact with the web in the same way. While that’s useful to consider in general, it’s an even more important point to remember when designing for people with different types of disabilities. An important web design tip to keep in mind during the design process is, therefore, to aim for inclusivity and accessibility. The Web Accessibility Initiative has outlined a number of Accessibility Principles for web designers to honor when creating their websites. The people who benefit most from accessible web design may be in the minority, but some are very likely in your target audience. By building an accessible website, you open your brand up to a wider audience and can build goodwill with a community that’s often underserved.   10. Stick to Design Standards. Have you ever been confused by a website that has its menu in a different spot than you’re used to? Or had a hard time closing a pop up that had the X in a weird spot? While web designers can often benefit from finding ways to be creative or unique, there are certain  web design standards that  define how people interact with websites and what they expect to find. When you move away from these norms, you risk creating confusion and a negative experience for your customers. A few of the main standards it’s a best practice to stick with include:     Putting your logo in the top left     Putting contact information in the top right     Having your main menu stretch across the top of the screen     Putting your value proposition high up on the home page     Including a CTA high up on the home page     Adding a search feature to the header When you think about it, everything on that list is probably exactly what you expect to see when you visit a website. If you’re going to venture away from these standards, make sure you think thoughtfully about why and make sure you’re not creating unnecessary confusion in the process.   A Good Design Makes for a Good Website Your web design determines how your website will look and feel to the people that visit it. Getting it right is paramount to the success of your website . Take some time to understand the main web design best practices and create a website that people will find useful and intuitive. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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How to Embed a YouTube Video in WordPress

Posted on October 24, 2018 by Hosting

The post How to Embed a YouTube Video in WordPress appeared first on HostGator Blog . You’re here because you want to add YouTube videos to your WordPress-hosted website . You might want to embed your own videos, or maybe include videos that other people have made. Combining the power of your WordPress content management system and YouTube is just plain smart. By embedding videos within your content you’ll not only improve user engagement with your content, but it can result in more views for your videos as well—an added benefit if you’re trying to grow your own YouTube channel. Regardless, WordPress has a variety of methods you can take to accomplish this task. Below you’ll learn why adding YouTube videos to your site is a great idea, the different ways you can embed your video, and even uncover a few themes that are built for YouTube optimization right out of the box. Why Would I Want to Add YouTube Videos to My Site? YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. Creating your own YouTube channel can be a great way to enhance your existing online marketing efforts. But, you can also multiply your efforts on YouTube by incorporating your videos into your site. Instead of having to run your YouTube channel in isolation of your existing site, you can actually bring the two together, and enhance both your website and channel at the same time. First, your website visitors might not know about your YouTube channel. By adding your videos to your content you’ll get more people clicking over to your new channel. As you grow your views and your subscriber count, you’ll be well on your way to making money on YouTube . Second, adding videos to your content can greatly improve the quality of your content. Just make sure that you’re only adding videos that add value to your existing content . Third, since YouTube videos are generally a few minutes long this will also help to improve your on-site metrics, such as dwell time, which will have a positive influence on your search engine rankings . As you can see, the simple act of inserting YouTube videos into your WordPress website can bring you a lot of benefits—all without too much additional work.   Bes t YouTube Video WordPress Themes Before we jump into how to actually embed YouTube videos into WordPress, we’ll look at a few themes that’ll help to simplify the process. Why would you want a WordPress video theme? If you’re building a WordPress site that’s going to be heavy on video content, then this might be a feature you require. Or, if you’re looking for a great way to showcase your videography work, then choosing a video-friendly theme might be the preferred route to take. Remember, if you’re going to have a media heavy website, then you’ll want to make sure your current web hosting for your WordPress site can support regular streaming video, without your site going offline. Here are a few of the best WordPress video themes currently on the market:   1. VideoPro VideoPro is a great theme that can help you create a massive video-sharing site that’s similar to YouTube. It’s a very flexible theme, so you can create any kind of video site you desire. There’s integrated support for the largest video sites out there, and of course, YouTube. It has many similar features to YouTube as well. For example, users can create their own video channels, create and manage playlists, and a lot more. Plus, there’s a useful membership feature that allows you to create a section of the site where you can sell premium content.   2. VideoFly VideoFly is an elegant video theme that has plenty of whitespace. The end result is a video site that’s very easy on the eyes and fun to spend time on. It’s very intuitive and easy to use, both in the setup and the user video submission feature. You can either embed, upload, or insert videos with this theme, or simply use the included YouTube importer. With the VideoFly WordPress plugin, there are plenty of customization options to help make your video site unique. Plus, you have multiple ways you can integrate ads into your site too.   3. Vlog Vlog is a theme that’s perfect for video bloggers. It’s very elegant and is equipped with a variety of layouts, so you can display your videos on your WordPress site however you want. You can embed the video in your blog posts, as a featured image, or even group your videos into playlists. Plus, this WordPress video plugin is compatible with most of the largest video sharing sites out there, including YouTube.   4. Soledad Soledad is a very versatile WordPress video theme. With its near endless ability to customize your layouts and display content in different ways, you can truly make your creative vision come to life. There are hundreds of included templates, or you can build your own layout entirely from scratch with the included Visual Composer. There are also built-in tools to easily embed and incorporate video content into your WordPress site. For example, you can use videos in place of the standard featured image.   6 Different Ways You Can Embed a YouTube Video in WordPress Like most things with WordPress, there are multiple approaches to accomplishing any task. Here are a few of the most common ways to embed YouTube videos into WordPress. As you’ll see below there are a few different embed types, depending on what kind of video content you want to embed, how you want it to display, or whether or not you want to embed your entire YouTube channel.   1. The Simple Add Media Approach The first method is also the most straightforward. With this approach, you’ll be using the Add Media function to embed a video into your site. First, navigate to any post or page on your site. From within the post or page editor click Add Media . Next, select the option on the left-hand side that says Insert from URL , and then input the URL of your YouTube video on WordPress . Click Insert into page and the video will automatically be inserted into your page. Note that this is different than uploading an entire video to your site. Instead, WordPress pulls and embeds the video from the URL. That way your site isn’t responsible for actually hosting the video. With this method, you can link to any video on YouTube, and it doesn’t even have to be your own video! This method is entirely functional and your viewers can either watch the video on your site or click through and watch the video directly on YouTube.   2. Embed Your Entire YouTube Channel If you have an existing YouTube channel, then you might want to embed your entire channel into a dedicated page on your WordPress site. This gives you a chance to show off all of your video content, and encourages your visitors to check out your channel on YouTube too. You can easily do this with the YourChannel plugin . To set up this plugin, navigate to Plugins> Add New , and search for YourChannel , then install the plugin that looks like the image below: Once the plugin is installed you can configure the plugin by navigating to Settings> YourChannel . On this screen, you’ll need to enter your YouTube API, along with your channel ID, or your username. The other options on this screen will let you configure the display options for your channel. Once these are to your liking you can copy and paste the WordPress shortcode and add it to any portion of your site where you want to display your videos.   3. Use a YouTube Video Widget Next, you may want to add a video to your site, but you want more options than the simple embed in step one gave you. If your site has multiple widget areas, or at the very least, a widgetized sidebar, then you can use the plugin called YouTube Widget Responsive . To install this plugin navigate to Plugins> Add New and search for YouTube Widget Responsive , then install the plugin that looks like the one below: Now that the plugin is installed navigate to the widget portion of your site under Appearance> Widgets . Now locate a widget called ‘Youtube widget responsive’ and drag that widget to any section of your site. Now, all you have to do is enter the video URL and click Save . Then you’ll have a few additional customization options you can change to your liking as well.   4. Create a YouTube Video Gallery If you want to embed a gallery of videos, but don’t want to embed an entire YouTube channel, then you’ll want to use a gallery plugin. There are a few different WordPress video gallery plugins like YouTube Gallery , YotuWP , and Video Gallery – YouTube Gallery . Since this post is all about YouTube, then we’ll be using the Video Gallery – YouTube Gallery plugin. To install this plugin navigate to Plugins> Add New and search for Video Gallery – YouTube Gallery , and install the plugin that looks like the one below: To configure this plugin find the new Gallery Video tab on the left-hand side of your WordPress dashboard. On this screen select New Gallery Video , add a title for your gallery, and select the kind of layout you want. Now it’s time to add a few videos. To do this click on the Add Video button, and then enter the URL of the video. Click Save Video and you’re all set. The beauty of this WordPress video plugin is that you can add as many videos as you’d like. Once you’re done adding videos hit Save towards the top of the page and then you’ll have a shortcode you can copy and paste anywhere on your site.   5. Add a Video Without YouTube Branding Maybe you want to insert a video into your site, but don’t want to have the YouTube branding present. This can help to create a more cohesive look and works well if the video is part of a landing page, where you want to keep your visitors on the page (not clicking off to YouTube). It essentially allows you to use the video on your site, under your own branding, while still hosting the video with YouTube. To do this we’ll be using a plugin called YouTube Embed Plus . To install this plugin navigate to Plugins> Add New and search for YouTube Embed Plus . Then install the plugin that looks like the one below: Now, you’ll see a tab called YouTube Free on the left-hand side of the page. Here you’ll have all kinds of options, which will allow you to embed and turn off certain video display features.   6. Add a Pop-Up Video Lightbox For the final YouTube video embed, you’re going to learn how to create a video lightbox. These can be effective in placing your viewer’s full attention onto each video while giving it a cool effect. To achieve this you’ll need to use a WordPress plugin called WP Video Lightbox . To install this plugin navigate to Plugins> Add New and type in WP Video Lightbox in the search bar. Then install the plugin that looks like the one below: Now, on the left-hand column navigate to Settings> Video Lightbox . Here you’ll be able to properly set up the plugin to your liking. If you’re having trouble configuring the plugin, there’s extensive documentation that can help to walk you through any issues you’re having.     Can’t I Just Upload Videos Straight to WordPress? One common question when adding videos to WordPress is: why can’t I just add videos directly to WordPress? Now, it is possible. Just upload your video directly into your media library. But, taking this approach (instead of first uploading your video to a third-party provider) will usually greatly decrease your overall site performance. If your site gets a lot of traffic, then your site will probably go offline. If you have managed hosting of some sort, then your site will probably be fine. But then you’re missing out on all of that additional YouTube traffic, which in turn can help to grow your channel. Plus, by uploading directly to WordPress you make it that much more difficult to share your video to help it reach a wider audience. The only people who will see your video are those who actually visit your site. Do yourself a favor and upload your videos to YouTube, or another supported video provider, before embedding them on your WordPress site. You’ll get the best of both worlds.   In Closing Video is quickly becoming one of the most dominant forms of content across the web. If you’re only relying on text to get your message across, then you’re missing out on the opportunity to engage your visitors in new ways. Plus, if you have any existing YouTube channel, then linking both your website and your channel together is a great way to promote both and expose your work to new audiences. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of the multiple approaches you can take to add YouTube videos on WordPress . You don’t have to use every one of the WordPress video plugins highlighted above, but instead, just those that make sense in the existing context of your site. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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16 Tips for Promoting Your Small Business Website During the Holidays

Posted on October 22, 2018 by Hosting

The post 16 Tips for Promoting Your Small Business Website During the Holidays appeared first on HostGator Blog . If you’re reading this post, you already know that running a small business is hard work. And it only gets more difficult during the holiday season. As a small business owner, you may feel that each day with an “open” sign is a reason to celebrate. We get it. HostGator is turning 16 years old , but like so many other businesses, HostGator started as a small business with a single client. Our customer base grew quickly from dozens to hundreds, and hundreds to thousands, and so can you!   We may be turning 16, but we’re celebrating you – small businesses – and helping you succeed with a birthday sale and 16 tips to promote your small business website during the holidays. Let’s get started! 1. Determine your holiday marketing budget. Hopefully you have a regular budget set aside for online marketing. If not, it’s likely time to think about a budget, even a small marketing budget, particularly since some social media channels require a small “pay to play” amount. Yes, your Facebook business page is still free, but the Facebook algorithm gives high preference to sponsored posts and ads. As such, it’s harder to be seen in the busy news feed. One solution is to work incredibly hard at organic posts – publishing your posts multiple times or offering giveaways if your fans will share your page. The quickest solution, however, may be to buy small ads or promoted posts to ensure that fans see your posts. If you already have a marketing budget, great! Think about how much additional money you can contribute to your marketing budget during the holiday season. 2. Make a “set it and forget it” plan for social media marketing. In the hustle and bustle of trying to work your business during the holiday season, give yourself a break by planning and pre-scheduling as much as you can. Social media may be the last thing on your mind when the holiday season ramps up, so create a social “set it and forget it” media promotion plan. Creating and scheduling social media posts in advance can save you a ton of time during the busy season, and it will free up your mind to be more creative in the moment. Make a list of at least three posts per week that you can pre schedule. Your scheduled post can be as simple as a reminder of your holiday hours or as detailed as a featured item of the day or a blog post you’ve already written. If social media content seems too overwhelming during the holiday season, consider hiring a freelance social media manager. You can find affordable freelancers on websites such as Fiverr . But hiring a freelancer doesn’t completely eliminate your need to be involved. A freelance social media manager will likely want to schedule a meeting with you to go over ideas, and may even request your approval of the content before posting to social media. A freelancer can certainly be helpful with on-demand needs such as if you expect to get more inbox messages on your page. If you have social media-savvy staff members, consider giving them access to post on your social media accounts during the holiday season. Ultimately, be smart about what will pose the least risk for your business and will also help maximize your time during the holiday season. 3. Be sure that your physical location and office hours are correct and consistent. Be sure that your physical location and office hours are correct and consistent across the internet. Don’t forget to check all mentions on your own website, all ‘about’ sections on social media, your Google My Business listings, and any other local listing websites. In the long run, consistent information will give you credibility with search engines which may, in turn, list your website higher in search results. Take a few minutes to be sure all your information is correct and consistent. If you have special holiday hours, be sure to list them and consider noting that they are, in fact, holiday hours. Customers are more likely to shop with you if they can trust that you’ll be open when your website says you will be open. 4. Offer a holiday coupon. According to a 2016 CouponBox survey , coupons can increase revenue for retailers up to 40 percent. But what type of coupon should you offer? First of all, determine your profit margin and create a coupon that brings revenue without cutting into your profit margin. Create a coupon that will be intriguing for your customers, and share the coupon as often as you want – on social media, in email marketing, or even a traditional printed coupon stuffed into shopping bags for future purchases. Create unique coupon codes for each coupon that you offer in order to track which coupons are most popular. For instance, have a coupon code such as “EMAIL” for email offers and a different code, such as “SHAREME,” to indicate coupons found via social media. At the end of the holiday season, count the coupon codes to know which coupons were most profitable for your business so that planning for next year will be easier. Online coupons are very shareable, which can be in your favor, but keep in mind that online coupons can also be picked up by sites like RetailMeNot. Be sure you are able to sustain a coupon (and orders) on a large scale. 5. Develop an email marketing campaign to promote your sales & holiday promotions. Email marketing is an efficient and cost-effective way to communicate with your customers. As social media feeds continue to limit timely exposure to your fanbase, email marketing allows your customers to see and open your emails on their own schedule. To make it easier on you, set up email automation by scheduling a series of emails to distribute throughout the holiday season. Use your email campaigns to promote the coupons, holiday gift guides, and other holiday sales you have going on during the holiday season. 6. Develop new ideas for your holiday campaigns by reviewing last year’s analytics. You know that statement about learning from your past? You can apply the same concept to your holiday marketing efforts by looking at last year’s data to find ideas you can apply or tweak this year . Create a list of all your data and analytics that could be helpful such as Google Analytics, analytics from your email marketing software, and social media analytics for paid and organic posts. Review your data from October to January, and look for trends such as what your audience reacted to, which posts received the most traffic, and what time of day your website received the most traffic. You can learn a lot from last year’s analytics that can help shape your holiday marketing strategy this year. 7. Build your following by co-sponsoring a giveaway with a complementary brand. Word of mouth still has a strong influence on shoppers. One way you can capitalize on word of mouth is to partner with other small businesses or brands. Look for small businesses that offer products or services that would be of interest to your customers. Consider small businesses with a strong social media following that is larger than yours or has customers that are similar to yours. To double your exposure, both companies should tag the social media promotion. 8. Ask current customers for reviews. Building on the word of mouth concept, customers are highly likely to read online reviews before purchasing. In fact, customers often read product reviews on multiple sites during their decision making process. According to research from BrightLocal, 88% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Online reviews are also important for search engine rankings. Websites may rank higher in search results if the company has reviews, especially positive reviews. If a customer has a positive experience with your business, encourage them to share it on one of the review sites. You can get started easily with reviews on Facebook, Google My Business, Yelp, or even reviews posted on your own website. One thing to note – search engines usually want these reviews to be and feel organic. If you were to run a contest and encourage people to complete a review in order to enter the contest, Google may see this flood of reviews as spammy. Bottom line, keep it organic and honest. 9. Make sure your website is ready to handle the holiday traffic boost. Many businesses start with a small, shared web hosting plan, but eventually reach the point where they need to upgrade. Small businesses may choose to upgrade their website hosting for more server space, more speed, or if they want a more secure server environment. But how do you know if it’s time to upgrade to a dedicated server ? If you’ve experienced slow website performance or if you keep highly sensitive information, it may be time to consider a dedicated server.  During the holiday season, you’re likely to expect more traffic to your website, and upgrading to a dedicated server could the perfect solution to ensure your website is ready to handle the traffic spike. 10. Update your website to a mobile-friendly design template. The rise of website traffic from mobile devices , as compared to desktop computers, continues to grow. Some people who browse the web on their mobile devices don’t mind seeing the full website, but others want to find the information as quickly as possible. You can make your website responsive , meaning the layout adjusts based on the screen size of the user. As your customers are out on the road during the holiday season, they will certainly appreciate being able to access your website from their mobile phone or tablet. Added perk? Google will give higher search engine ranking preference to websites that are responsive. 11. Add social media links and feeds to your website. Social media is a channel that offers high return for sharing content with your fans, but did you know that you can make it easier for your fans to share your content across social media ? Add social share buttons to your website so fans can hit one button and quickly share your content without ever leaving your website. Consider adding a social media feed to your website, either on the sidebar or embedded in a page, so website visitors can easily see the sales or promotions you may have on social media. 12. Offer exclusive events for your members or top customers. Throw a holiday-themed party for your customers to encourage brand loyalty. If you can, time the event with a product preview, product launch, or a “sip and see” for your new product line. Promote the event on your website, in an email invitation, and even on social media. Try to host this party early in the season such as October or November when your customers begin to think about holiday shopping. 13. Create a holiday gift guide. As you know, shopping for everyone on your holiday gift list can be overwhelming. Make shopping easier for your customers by creating a holiday gift guide. A holiday gift guide organizes the best of your products and gifts into categories based on the gift recipient, dollar amount, or by theme. For example, sort products by gifts for her, gifts for him, gifts under $50, gifts for teens, gifts for the home, and more. A guide will highlight your products, make shopping easier for your customers, and will be easy for your customers to share with their friends.  14. Reorganize your website by gift categories or themes. Now that you’ve created a holiday gift guide, consider updating the main navigation of your website to match your holiday shopping categories. Many people visiting your website during November and December will likely be purchasing gifts. Make it easy for them to find your top recommended gifts so they will be more likely to purchase.  15. Bring customers back to your site by remarketing on social media. Have you ever searched for a product online and later saw an ad for the same product on social media? That’s a feature called remarketing that allows you to reconnect with people that have visited your website. You can use remarketing ads on social media platforms, on Google search, and in other websites that support display marketing ads. A remarketing campaign is an effective method to ensure customers keep thinking about your product and have easy access to the link when they are ready to buy. 16. Take website security seriously. Get an SSL certificate. Website security should be a top priority for you year-round, but especially during the holiday season. During the holidays, more people are shopping online, but so are hackers who are shopping for credit card information or personal data. If you haven’t heard, in July 2018, Google Chrome released a security update that will alert your website visitors if your website doesn’t have security measures in place. An SSL certification is meant to create a secure transaction of personal information such as contact information and credit card data. If you don’t have an SSL certificate, your website visitors will receive an alert message discouraging them from checking out on your website. What can you do about it? Many web hosting companies offer SSL certificates for purchase and they are usually a low-cost option to securing your website. If you don’t have an SSL certificate and aren’t sure if you can get one, switch to HostGator where a free SSL certificate comes with all web hosting packages . In conclusion… With 16 tips for how to promote your small business website during the holidays, there’s bound to be a few that would work for your business. Try them out and let us know your results ! What are your “must do” tips for other small businesses? Comment below with your best advice for how to promote a small business website during the holidays!   Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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