Tag Archives: search-engine

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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Google Ads: 7 Pros and Cons for Small Businesses

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Hosting

The post Google Ads: 7 Pros and Cons for Small Businesses appeared first on HostGator Blog . Small businesses desire to promote their products, and Google Ads can open doors to doing it the right way. Understanding potential consumers’ needs and interests helps your advertising efforts. Serial entrepreneur Neil Patel elaborates: “When people go to Google, they’re looking for something specific. That means they have intent. They’re actively looking for something to buy. They’re literally telling you what they want to buy by typing out words around your products and services. That’s why Google AdWords is so powerful (and profitable).” Before you get started with Google Ads , you’ll want to weigh the pros and cons. Check out what we found below. Google Ads: Pros for Small Businesses You want your small business to thrive. Here are a few benefits of using Google Ads.   1. Target Specific Audiences When marketing products, there’s value in talking to your ideal customer. Your brand will be more attractive to these buyers. The key to advertising is knowing the habits and behaviors of your target audience . This insight helps you pinpoint where and how to communicate with potential customers. Google Ads gives you the opportunity to narrow down who you can reach during a campaign.  By using a specific term or phrase, you can advertise to consumers actively researching products like yours. Figuring out who not to target is just as vital. For instance, if your product is a hazard for kids under five years old, you probably can rule out adults raising toddlers. Filtering out unlikely consumers improves your campaigns.   2. Set Up Quickly As a small business owner, time is a precious resource. The more time you spend on a task means you may neglect another responsibility. Therefore, when it comes to setting up your advertising, you want to get started quickly (without any unnecessary hassle). Google Ads wants you to start as soon as possible. Aden Andrus , director of content marketing of Disruptive Advertising, explains: “Google wants your money, so they make it pretty easy to set up an account and start advertising on AdWords. All you have to do is visit Google AdWords and hit ‘Start now.’ From there, you’ll be asked for your email (preferably a Gmail account) and the URL of your site.” Unlike other platforms, where you may have to call a sales representative, Google Ads takes you through easy-to-follow steps. Now, you can focus your time on building a worthwhile campaign.   3. Stay Within Your Budget Like most small businesses, you’re probably strapped for cash. Between paying for operational costs and unexpected fees, your budget isn’t always ready for an additional marketing cost. The landscape of advertising rates has changed drastically over the years. Back in the day, you had to pay thousands of dollars for a billboard or a newspaper ad. Now, with online advertising, more options exist, alleviating a lot of the financial burden. Google Ads works within your budget. You choose the daily campaign budget based on your advertising goals. Plus, you can change the budget at any time. By staying in control of the budget, you can map out where to allocate funds. Let’s say you have two campaigns running simultaneously. If Campaign A isn’t performing well, you can stop it immediately and move those funds to Campaign B. Google Ads gives you more flexibility with your budget.   4. Design Multiple Ad Types Every customer isn’t the same. Depending on your product, you may serve young hipsters as well as joyful senior citizens. Despite the differences, it is important that you engage each buyer in the manner they desire. Courtney Danyel , a digital marketing and business writer, agrees: “Businesses can choose from several different ad-types that appear around the internet. But if you want to make the most of the selection, you should choose the one(s) that offer the most value for your business and target audience.” Google Ads equips you with multiple ad format choices, including search, display, video, and app. Search ads pop up when a consumer types your designated keywords in the Google search engine, while video ads appear on the YouTube platform. This ad versatility supports your goals to connect with more interested buyers. Your ads become part of their normal shopping experiences, instead of an annoying distraction.   Google Ads: Cons for Small Businesses Every tool won’t be perfect. You’ll want to scope out the flaws before you make a 100% commitment.   1. Expert Management Knowing the basics will only get you so far. If you want to get the most from an advertising platform, it will require expertise. Some small business owners learn the hard way. They try tinkering with a new tool over a period of time and end up getting little to no results. Google Ads isn’t a platform you can learn in a day. So, you may need to hire an expert to consult with your team. Paying an expert may cut into your initial campaign budget, which means less money to target customers. But with their knowledge, you can make your marketing dollars go much further toward reaching new customers.  Interested? Check out HostGator’s expert PPC services.    2. Competitive Segments Today’s market is very competitive. Companies, big and small, are all vying for attention from consumers. That competition spills over into Google Ads when selecting similar segments. When businesses target the same keywords, Google expects you to pay more to advertise to that audience. You can get tangled into dishing out more money. “Google AdWords is one of the most challenging platforms when it comes to monitoring your success. You can quickly spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars and see little to no return on investment. The metrics are tricky to establish, and you could find yourself with $0 fast,” writes Brad Smith , contributing writer at AdEspresso. As a consequence, you may have to choose secondary keywords . Even though they may cost less, it may not meet your advertising goals. It’s a hard decision that every small business must evaluate.   3. Strict Policies When you’re using an advertising tool, you’re obligated to play by their rules. No matter whether you agree or not, their policies will protect the platform. Before jumping into any advertising space, you’ll want to assess their requirements. Then, you’ll have a better understanding of how to proceed. For example, with Google Ads, the company has policies that prohibit certain content. You can’t advertise counterfeit goods, dangerous products, or offensive content. Google also has editorial guidelines that restrict how you appeal to consumers. Your ads can’t be overly generic or use gimmicky language, like FREE. They only approve relevant and useful content. So, if Google deems your ad as unsafe, you can’t promote your campaign.   Moving Forward with Google Ads Advertising is a real challenge for any small business. Google Ads may be a good option to get your products in front of potential customers. Consider the pros and cons of the tool. It’s easy to set up with your team; however, you may need to hire an expert to manage the day-to-day operations. Learn what works for your small business. Explore Google Ads. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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How to Install a WordPress SEO Plugin

Posted on September 12, 2018 by Hosting

The post How to Install a WordPress SEO Plugin appeared first on HostGator Blog . Ranking in the search engines can be a powerful way to grow your site. By using a WordPress hosting plan you’re already giving yourself a head start, as it’s pretty well optimized. However, if you want to take your onsite search engine optimization even further, then you’ll want to use an SEO plugin for WordPress. Part of on-page SEO success is adhering to best practices to help your WordPress website rank. This includes optimizing your pages and other content the right way. The other aspect is offsite SEO, which involves things like building strong and relevant backlinks to your site . This post will focus on the first part of that equation, optimizing your site’s content for relevant keywords to help you rank. Luckily, this process can be simplified by using a WordPress SEO plugin. Below you’ll learn why you’ll want to use a WordPress SEO plugin, which plugins for WordPress are worth using, and finally, how to install a WordPress SEO plugin on your site. Why You Need a WordPress SEO Plugin As we mentioned, choosing WordPress as your CMS already puts you ahead in the SEO game. But, optimizing your WordPress site the right way still takes time and skill. So, if you don’t want to spend months learning the ins and outs of on-page SEO, you can rely on an SEO plugin for WordPress to guide the way . There are dozens of little tweaks you’ll need to make to properly optimize your site .  By using an SEO plugin you’ll save time and make your life a lot easier. Plus, if you want to rank in the search engines, then there are a lot of other, offsite SEO tasks you’ll need to be doing . Spending all your time on onsite SEO just doesn’t make sense. With the help of an SEO plugin you’ll be able to quickly optimize your content, so you can focus on the quality of your content, and other offsite factors that’ll really help your WordPress website rank.   Which WordPress SEO Plugin Should You Choose? Hopefully, by now, you understand why using a WordPress SEO plugin is essential. Now, it’s time to choose the best SEO plugin for your site . There are dozens of different SEO plugins for WordPress you can use. However, instead of diving into every plugin here, we’ll focus on the best one you can use: Yoast SEO. Yoast SEO is one of the most useful and comprehensive SEO plugins for WordPress on the market. Plus, it’s entirely free. With Yoast, you’ll get access to features like: Post title and meta optimization Keyword analysis and expert SEO recommendations XML sitemap creation and integration Taxonomy creation Google Webmaster Tools validation And more! It’s a feature-packed free plugin that will actually educate you about SEO-friendly practices as you spend time optimizing your site and your content.   How to Install a WordPress SEO Plugin Below you’ll learn how to install and configure Yoast SEO on your WordPress blog or site. For the sake of this tutorial, we’re assuming you already have WordPress installed on your site. If you don’t then follow this tutorial and do that first. For those who are already rocking WordPress, let’s dive in!   1. Install and Activate the Plugin First, you’ll need to install and activate the Yoast plugin to make your site more SEO friendly . To do this navigate to Plugins> Add New on your sidebar. Next, search for Yoast SEO and install the free plugin that looks like the one below. Now, click ‘Activate’ and the Yoast plugin will be installed on your site. With the plugin installed it’s time to start configuring the settings. You’ll probably notice that there are a ton of different settings you can play around with. Instead of focusing on every aspect of the tool, we’ll only focus on tweaking the settings that are most relevant towards improving your rankings. With that being said, click on the new ‘SEO’ tab on the left-hand sidebar of your WordPress dashboard. This will open up Yoast SEO.   2. Using the Configuration Wizard The easiest way to set up WordPress Yoast SEO is by using the configuration wizard. Click on the link that looks like the picture below to get started. Select Your Environment. The first step is easy. Click the box that says ‘Option A’. Unless you’re building a site that isn’t quite ready to launch to the world. Select Your Site Type Next, you’ll select the type of site that best matches your site. Choose Company or Person. Next, you’ll choose whether this site will represent a person or a company. This will help when ranking and displaying your site in the Google Knowledge Graph. If you choose ‘Company’ you can also add your logo during this step. Add Your Social Profiles. If you have any existing social media profiles, then you’ll want to enter those URLs now. This will help the WordPress Yoast SEO plugin provide more details about your site to Google. You don’t have to enter every single profile you have, just the ones you use most often and are actually related to your website. Select How You Want Your Site to Appear in the Search Engines. Now, you’ll decide if you want both your posts and pages to show up in the search engines. You’ll probably want to leave these default settings and allow the search engines to index your entire site. Determine Authorship. If you’re going to be the only author for your blog, then you’ll want to select ‘No’. This will help you avoid any duplicate content issues that can reflect negatively on your rankings. However, if you will have multiple authors on your site then choose ’Yes’. This will create individual archive pages, so people can access posts written solely by that author. Integrate Google Search Console. Google Search Tool is a valuable tool that will provide you with relevant search information about your site. To configure this you’ll need to have an existing Google Search Console profile. If you don’t have it set up already, then this post will show you how to do it . You can always set this up later if you don’t want to go through the process at this time. It isn’t necessary for the proper functioning of Yoast SEO. Choose Your Title Settings. Your title is the main headline that will appear in the search results. Here you’ll choose your website name and the separator you want to use. There are a few more sections to click through, which will ask you to sign up for their newsletter and upgrade to the premium version of Yoast. However, you don’t have to do either of these if you don’t want to. Just keep clicking through until you get to the ‘Success!’ page. Congratulations! Y ou’ve now properly configured the Yoast WordPress plugin for your site.   Optimizing Your Pages and Posts One of the coolest features of the Yoast plugin is how easy it is to optimize your pages and posts. To do this open up one of your existing posts or pages. Towards the bottom of the page (underneath your content), you’ll see a box labeled Yoast SEO. Here you can change your title , meta description , URL, and enter your focus keyword.  Then, you’ll get a score and recommendations for how you can improve that score based on search engine optimization best practices. For every page and post on your site, you should aim for ‘Green’, which means that your content is properly optimized for your chosen keyword. If for some reason Yoast WordPress SEO plugin isn’t the right one for you, then spend some time finding an SEO plugin that works better for you. The installation process will be the same as the first few steps above.   Start Optimizing Your On-Site SEO Hopefully, you have a better understanding of how to install a WordPress SEO plugin on your site and set it up the right way. Finally, it’s important to note that your host can actually have an influence on your rankings, so make sure you choose a quality hosting environment . If you have any more questions about how to install a WordPress SEO plugin , please contact us at HostGator today! Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Benefits of WordPress As Your Content Management System

Posted on August 6, 2018 by Hosting

The post Benefits of WordPress As Your Content Management System appeared first on HostGator Blog . Benefits of WordPress As Your Content Management System Setting up a new website is like setting up a new physical store. To help people find what you’re offering, you need to display your goods in a way that looks appealing, makes sense, and is easy for you to restock and update. In a retail store, the solution is fixtures; for your website, it’s a content management system (CMS). There are lots of CMS options, but for new site owners, the WordPress content management system offers a lot of benefits right out of the virtual box. 9 Benefits of Using WordPress as Your CMS   1. Your CMS Is Free. There are a lot of reasons to like WordPress , but the fact that it’s free is a pretty compelling reason to use WordPress as a content management system on its own.  It’s normal to wonder if “you get what you pay for,” but even big companies like Disney and major media outlets like Time and TechCrunch use WordPress as their content management system. And many of the plugins for WordPress that add functions and features are also free, or come in free and premium (paid) versions. Using WordPress and free plugins leaves more money in your budget for content production and promotion.   2. You Can Present Your Content the Way You Want. Because there are thousands of themes and more than 55,000 plugins for WordPress, your blog, store, or business site can have its own unique look. Consider that the official websites of Sweden , Beyonce , and BBC America all use WordPress, but have radically different looks, features, and functions:     Many WordPress themes are customizable, too, which gives you control over your site’s fonts, colors, and formatting within your chosen theme’s overall structure.   3. Your Content Is Easy to Publish, Revise, and Update. The biggest benefit of the WordPress content management system is that it’s easy for writers, photographers, video producers, store owners, and podcasters to publish their content without knowing code. Publishing a blog post and adding images is not much more technically challenging than creating a text document or a slideshow. With the right plugins, sharing videos and podcast audio is easy, too. When you want to make edits and updates, just go to the post, make your changes, and click the update button.   4. You Can Easily Add More Creators to the Mix. When you’re ready to add other contributors to your blog or hire a photo editor to update your product photos, WordPress makes it easy to add them and specify the level of access they have to your content. Most designers and writers are already familiar with WordPress because they use it for their own sites and/or because their clients use it, so you won’t have to spend a lot of time and money training new people on the basics of your CMS. And if you want to change or upgrade your site in a particular way and can’t find a plugin to do it, there are lots of developers who know WordPress and can help you create what you want.   5. Your Online Store Is Easy to Set Up. Products are your most valuable content when you run an online store. With the free WooCommerce plugin for WordPress , you can set up an easy-to-navigate, mobile-friendly catalog and product pages that convert. WooCommerce extensions for social media, payment services, and shipping companies help you promote, sell, and ship your items seamlessly.   6. Your Content Gets Found. You want your audience to find your posts, products, or business. WordPress makes it easier for that to happen, by formatting your site in a way that’s easy for search engine crawlers to navigate and by giving you a way to enter and refine your content’s title tags and meta descriptions without any coding. These tags and WordPress’ optimized structure allow search engine crawlers to quickly see what your content is about. There are also SEO plugins to optimize your site’s search engine performance even more. The free version of the Yoast SEO plugin lets you quickly optimize your keywords, preview your pages in Google results, and more. The Google XML Sitemaps free plugin builds a crawler-friendly map of your site and pings search engines when you add new content.   7. Your Content Is Mobile-Ready. You’ve probably heard many times that your website needs to be mobile friendly, and I’m going to repeat it here because it’s so true. More than half of all web traffic worldwide and almost 40% of US-based web traffic now come from mobile devices. Every type of content you include on your site—images, text, reviews, videos, product catalogs—needs to load fast and display properly on mobile devices. A mobile-optimized WordPress theme makes sure your content looks right on mobile devices, and managed WordPress web hosting delivers the fast load times users ( and Google ) expect. Together, these WordPress tools and plugins use your content to create the best possible experience for your smartphone-wielding site visitors.   8. Your Content Is Easy to Share. WordPress website business owners have many options for social sharing tools, and many of them are free. One of the most popular plugins for social , Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons, does what it says in the name, with added features like RSS feed support so people can subscribe to your content updates and a choice of social button styles to coordinate with your site’s design. Yoast SEO users can opt to use the social sharing tools built into that plugin. WooCommerce also has social media options so you can promote your products on Instagram and other channels.   9. You Can Display Customer Reviews. Your web content isn’t limited to posts and media created by you and your team. Your customers can (and hopefully will) create content for your site, too. The most valuable customer-generated content is the review, because most of us check reviews before we make spending decisions now. Embedding customer reviews on eCommerce websites can keep visitors on your site while they do their research so you don’t risk losing them when they click away to look for customer feedback. WordPress plugin WP Review has a free version that lets you choose your rating system, colors, language, and design. This plugin also supports Google Rich Snippets so your review boxes can display nicely in search results. Ready to build your WordPress site? It’s easy to get started now . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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How to Start a Food Blog in 5 Steps

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Hosting

The post How to Start a Food Blog in 5 Steps appeared first on HostGator Blog . How to Start a Food Blog (Step by Step) Are you an aspiring food blogger who’s dreaming about making a living by sharing your recipes with the internet? To make that dream a reality, you need to take the plunge and set up your own website. But how do you get started? It might seem super complicated to start your own website but these days anyone can start a blog that looks professional and will attract a ton of traffic. Let’s break it down. Here’s how to start a food blog, step by step. 1. Pick a Name and Buy a Matching Domain If you’ve already been thinking about starting a food blog, you might have a couple ideas for names. If you haven’t decided on a name yet, start brainstorming. A good blog name is easy to remember, descriptive and short. For instance, She Simmers  is a great example of a catchy name that includes a pun on cooking. After making a list of blog name ideas and deciding on the best option for your food blog, you need to purchase a domain that matches. You can purchase a domain from HostGator starting at only $12.95 per year. Before you purchase your domain, you need to make sure the name you chose is available. HostGator allows you to search a domain to make sure no one else has already taken it. If the name you want is available, you can go ahead and make it yours!   2. Choose a Hosting Platform and Install WordPress After you’ve decided on a catchy name for your blog and purchased a domain that matches, you’ll need to choose a reliable hosting platform where your website will live. It might seem like a crazy, difficult task to create a beautiful website but it’s actually super simple and you don’t have to know a thing about code.   Step one is to purchase a hosting plan. HostGator is a great option for beginner bloggers because it’s affordable, it’s easy-to-use, and it’s fast.   After purchasing your hosting, the next step is to download WordPress which is very simple. After you sign up with HostGator and login for the first time, head on over to your Control Panel. There you’ll see a button called “One-Click Installs.”  Click on it and then choose WordPress. Perform the simple steps that follow and then a progress bar will let you know when the download is complete. Once it’s finished, you’ve got a website for your food blog.   3. Pick a Gorgeous Theme We eat with our eyes first and that applies to your delicious food blog as well, so you’ll need to pick a gorgeous theme for your site that will have your visitors wanting to stick around for a long time. There are tons of free and paid WordPress themes that you can install with just the click of a button that are easy to navigate and mobile-friendly. Choose a theme specifically designed for food blogs so you’ll get all the features you’re looking for.   This theme from Foodica is a perfect example of a clean, minimalist design for food bloggers who want their recipes to be the center of attention . It offers six different color themes and a featured slider and carousel to showcase your best recipes.   4. Download Plugins Next you need to download some WordPress plugins to ensure your website is fully stacked and optimized. There are a number of free plugins you can download for your WordPress site that provide value, including: Yoast SEO to make sure your site is optimized for SEO WPForms to create a contact me page MonsterInsights to connect your WordPress site with Google Analytics AddtoAny Share Buttons  to enable your followers to share your content on social media There are also some WordPress plugins designed specifically for food bloggers that can really step up your blog game. Tasty Recipes formats your recipes for search engine optimization, creates print-friendly recipes, adds star ratings, and more. 5. Start Blogging and Get Some Subscribers Now that your website is all set up, you need to start blogging. Begin creating content that your visitors will love and will keep them returning to your site again and again. You’ll also want to start growing your email list , it’s one of the most important aspects of any blog. Having an email list gives you the ability to reach out to your audience any time you want, whether you’re emailing them about a new recipe you posted or announcing a sale for your new cookbook. You can easily gain more subscribers by adding popups to your site with  OptinMonster’s lead generation software. OptinMonster provides numerous options for grabbing the attention of your visitors and enticing them into clicking that subscribe button, including an Exit-Intent popup that can track when a user is about to leave your site and send a popup at exactly the right time. Start Your Food Blog Starting a food blog isn’t as simple as just writing some recipes and posting them on the web but it doesn’t have to be difficult either. With these tips you’ll be able to start the food blog of your dreams that will have people salivating. Congratulations on your new food blog. Now get out there and start blogging! Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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