Tag Archives: web-design

SEO vs. PPC

Posted on July 1, 2019 by Hosting

The post SEO vs. PPC appeared first on HostGator Blog . After all the hard work you put into designing and launching your website, now you get to the even harder part: getting people to visit.  A website can be a powerful tool for driving more awareness of your business and convincing people to buy, but it can’t do any of that unless people find it. And in an overcrowded online marketplace, getting noticed by the people you want to reach is a serious challenge. Once you start looking into online marketing tactics to promote your website, you’ll notice two marketing options get a lot of attention: search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC) .  Often, new website owners with a limited budget try to figure out: “In the argument of SEO vs PPC, which should take dominance?” Before you can determine which tactic makes the most sense for your business, you need to understand what they are.  SEO and PPC are the two sides of search engine marketing (SEM). They have one main thing in common: they help you get found by people searching for what you do on the search engines, especially Google.  But they also have some notable differences. What is the Difference Between SEO and PPC? The difference between SEO and PPC is all about where on the search engine results page (SERP) you show up and how you get there.  What is PPC Marketing? With PPC, you buy spots on the SERP that show up at the top of page (if you pay enough), at the bottom, or to the side. PPC results often have the word “Ad” next to them, or show up in an image carousel with shopping details at the top of the page.   Brands get those spots by paying for them. Search engine ad platforms use a pay-per-click bidding model to sell ad results. The businesses willing to spend the most, get the best placements for the keywords they bid on, but they only pay when someone actually clicks on the ad, hence the name “pay per click.”  An SEO strategy operates differently. What is SEO Marketing? With SEO, you work to earn spots in the organic results—that’s the term for all the results on the page that haven’t been paid for. For many search terms, that means they show up below PPC results, but not always. Sometimes organic results can claim a rich snippet , like the answer box that shows up at the top of some SERPs. SEO results can’t be bought, they have to be earned. You claim organic spots by practicing a number of SEO tactics , including: Working to optimize your website for relevant keywords you want to target. Making sure your website provides a good user experience, especially when it comes to things like site speed and mobile friendliness.  Working to build authority for your website by earning backlinks from other sites.  Those are the basic differences between SEO and PPC to be aware of, but what does that mean for website owners? SEO vs PPC in 7 Categories Small business owners don’t have a lot of money to spend on an online marketing strategy, so what you really want to know about SEO vs PPC is how they shake out in comparison to each other in terms of things like cost and performance.  Here’s how the two SEM tactics compare in seven main categories.  1. Cost This is a tricky category for comparison. While it may seem like there’s an obvious answer, since PPC is paid advertising and SEO must be earned with work, you may assume PPC is more expensive. In reality, measuring SEO vs PPC in cost is complicated, as which costs more will really depend on how you approach each. To truly see results with SEO, most website owners will need to hire an SEO expert to help. A recent survey found that SEO consultants charge an average of around $500-$1,000 a month . While technically, you can spend nothing on SEO but time, more realistically, you should expect to spend around this amount.  One benefit of PPC is that costs are within your control. You can set a maximum daily spend within Google Ads , and the network will stop running your ads once you’ve gotten enough clicks to reach that amount. That means you can name your budget and never go over it. But if your budget is too low, you’ll run through your maximum spend too early in the day to get the results you want, and it will take longer to accumulate the data you need to build better campaigns.  According to one survey , small businesses that do PPC spend an average of $9,000-$10,000 a month. That doesn’t mean you’d have to spend that much, but it probably means that’s the amount others have found gets the best results. Winner: SEO, usually 2. Control SEO is all about doing your best to signal to Google the keywords you think you should rank for, and proving you’re authoritative enough to gain those rankings. While you can target specific keywords, you ultimately have very little control over what terms you’ll show up for, where you’ll show up in the rankings, and how your website will show up on the SERP.  For that last point, you can provide your own meta descriptions and use schema markup in the hopes that Google will display the information you’ve provided on the SERP. But it’s still up to the search engine how your website shows up—if it shows up at all.  With PPC, on the other hand, you have much more control. Paying for ads means you can decide: Which relevant keywords your ads show up for   Who sees your ads , in terms of categories like demographics, geography, and consumer behavior What your ads look like , since you decide on what the ads says, and can include elements that increase clicks like images, or ad extensions that provide useful information such as special deals and delivery information. Winner: PPC 3. Speed of results SEO is a long game. Expect to spend months, or even years, practicing SEO tactics before you start to see results. And even then, your first results won’t be for high-competition keywords.  For example, a small business that sells hot sauce will see results for long-tail keywords—the SEO term for keywords that are less competitive—like “hot sauce shop san antonio” or “ghost pepper hot sauce” long before it has the chance to claim a broad term like “hot sauce.” That doesn’t mean SEO isn’t worth doing. It absolutely is! There are plenty of benefits to SEO . It just requires patience.  With PPC, by contrast, you can start showing up on page one and getting new traffic the first day you launch a campaign. PPC is often a smart choice for businesses who are doing SEO, but want to start driving traffic faster while they’re waiting for SEO results to pay off. Winner: PPC 4. Amount of work Both SEO and PPC require ongoing work. With PPC, you need to complete keyword and audience research to figure out the best targeting for your campaigns. Then you need to set up your campaigns, monitor them to learn what’s working, and make updates to improve your results and make sure your budget goes further.  As with PPC, SEO should start with keyword and audience research, then you have a list of tactics to stay on top of: Optimize each page of the website for your chosen keyword by including it naturally in the title, headings, page copy and meta tags of the page. Consistently create high-quality content to keep your website fresh and target more of the keywords on your list. Undertake link building strategies to get other websites to link back to yours.  Maintain a SEO-friendly web design On the whole, doing SEO well usually requires more work than PPC. Winner: PPC 5. Trust As you’d expect, people generally trust the results that have earned top spots more than those that paid for them. 46% of people said they consider organic results more trustworthy than PPC ones, and 65% said they were more likely to click on an organic result for product-related searches. SEO is therefore a better way to earn the trust of people searching for the kind of products you sell. That said, a sizeable portion of the population— around 57% — don’t even register the difference between the paid and organic results on the SERP.  Google’s always changing how the SERP looks, so that number is subject to change, but there’s a certain type of consumer that won’t think any less of your PPC ad than if you earned that top organic spot. Winner: SEO 6. Click-through rate Recent data shows a clear winner in this category, but also shows that a lot depends on the type of device people are using. The click-through rate (CTR) for organic results on desktop computers is at over 65%, as compared to a little under 4% for PPC ads. On mobile devices, organic results get around a 40% CTR, with mobile earning a little over 3% (many searches on mobile don’t result in a click at all).  Either way, organic results get more clicks, making SEO rankings more valuable for traffic once you get them.  Winner: SEO 7. Analytics Analytics give you the power to consistently learn from everything you try, improve your campaigns based on that knowledge, and get better results over time. With both SEO and PPC, you can tap into valuable analytics.  Google Analytics , which is entirely free, provides a lot of data on how much of your traffic comes from organic search, where you rank for target keywords, and which pages people are finding through SEO.  And you can supplement all that free information with the additional data included in paid SEO tools that helps you clearly identify how your website compares to your competitors in rankings and what they’re doing differently to achieve the rankings they have, such as their backlink profile and the keywords they’re targeting. While SEO tools can provide a lot of useful information, ultimately there’s still a lot of guesswork behind why certain pages rank higher than others.  By contrast, the analytics provided in PPC campaigns can tell you exactly which ads perform well. And because you control every part of the ad, you can do A/B testing to gain insights into what your audience responds to—providing information you can apply not only to your future PPC ads, but also to every other part of your online marketing campaigns.  Winner: PPC SEO vs PPC Frequently Asked Questions Even with that extensive rundown, you may still have some questions. Here are answers to some of the common questions website owners have about the difference between SEO and PPC. Which Is Better: SEO or PPC? It depends on your priorities.  PPC drives faster results. You can start getting visibility and traffic on day one, but you have to continually pay for every person it sends to your website.  SEO is slower, but once you gain relevant rankings, the results last longer. A good ranking will continue driving traffic for as long as you stay near the top, and you can count on getting more traffic from a good SEO ranking than a PPC one. And while there’s a cost to the work involved in getting on page one, once there all the traffic it sends your way is free.  Does PPC Traffic Help SEO? Not directly, but some of the metrics SEO experts commonly believe to be ranking factors require getting more relevant traffic, which PPC sends your way.  For example, when people click on your ad and like what they see long enough to stick around, it results in a lower bounce rate and longer time spent on site—both metrics that signal to Google that people are happy with the page they land on.  You can’t buy SEO results with PPC ads, but getting traffic from relevant visitors is one of the first steps to doing a lot of things that do pay off in SEO. How do PPC and SEO Work Together? Good question! While the framing of this piece has pitted SEO and PPC against each other, for most businesses the goal should be SEO and PPC working together.  PPC helps you get the initial boost you need in visibility and traffic when your website’s new, or when it’s underperforming based on your goals. It’s a good strategy for short-term wins while you’re waiting for your SEO work to start coming through. SEO is the long-term strategy that delivers bigger and more reliable results once it starts working. But it’s hard when you’re starting from scratch, and PPC can bring some of the initial traffic and attention you need to get your SEO efforts off the ground.  For the Win: SEO and PPC Integration A good online marketing strategy combines the two tactics. If that sounds like a lot of work, well, it is. But you don’t have to learn both SEO and PPC from scratch to start getting more traffic for your website.  You’ll get better results, faster if you outsource the job to someone who already knows what they’re doing. HostGator offers both SEO and PPC services. Our team includes skilled professionals with years of experience in both types of SEM. If you’re ready for your website to start delivering bigger results, let us help . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Benefits of Joomla Hosting

Posted on May 3, 2019 by Hosting

The post Benefits of Joomla Hosting appeared first on HostGator Blog . When you’re building your website, one of the big decisions you face is which web hosting plan to choose. As you research your different options, you’ll find that there are a lot of different types of web hosting plans out there. It can be a little confusing figuring out what’s what. Along with navigating the details of how a shared plan differs from a VPS, there’s also a whole category of application web hosting plans to consider. One of these is Joomla hosting . What is Joomla Hosting? Joomla hosting is a web hosting plan that provides compatibility with the content management system Joomla. For businesses and individuals that decide to build their website using Joomla, a Joomla hosting plan is a logical choice to ensure that your web hosting plan works well with the main system you use to run and maintain your website. What is Joomla? The reasons to consider a Joomla hosting plan probably won’t make much sense to you if you’re not already familiar with Joomla. Joomla is one of the most popular content management systems available. Over 2 million websites are powered by Joomla, and it falls only behind WordPress in popularity. If you’re still not sure what all that means, you should start by learning what a content management system is . What is a Content Management System? A content management system, regularly shortened to CMS in casual usage, is a type of software that allows people to create, edit, organize, and publish content online using an intuitive interface. For the many people who want to build and run a website, but don’t know the proper coding languages to build something from scratch, a CMS is a much easier option for creating a new website and making updates to it over time. In addition to providing ease of use, a CMS also provides the website owner control over the amount of access to allow different contributors to have. For businesses or media sites where a number of different people are involved in making updates and changes to the site, a CMS lets you decide what changes you’re comfortable allowing each person to make, and set a limitation on what they can do accordingly. That can save you from a contributor making big changes to your website without permission, or accidentally doing something that breaks an important page on the site. For any website that will publish a large amount of content—blogs, media sites, or businesses doing content marketing, for instance—a CMS platform is a valuable tool for managing all the content you’ve created. Because you can provide access to multiple people, it enables collaboration between the content creators, editors, designers, and anyone else who will be involved in a particular piece of content. You can use your CMS to keep track of which pieces of content are in draft form, scheduled for a future date, and already published. The functionality a CMS provides also helps you stay organized and on top of your content calendar. How Does Joomla Measure Up to Other Content Management Systems? If that all sounds like something you want when creating your website and updating it over time, then you should know Joomla is just one of several options. Joomla is one of the three main content management systems that dominate the CMS market; the other two are WordPress and Drupal. Before you can choose a CMS, you must know the differences between WordPress vs. Joomla vs. Drupal to see which one is the best option for you and your website. WordPress is the most popular CMS and widely regarded as being the easiest to use, particularly for beginners. WordPress hosting solutions are also available. Drupal is the third most popular and known for having a steep learning curve that makes it better for skilled developers than for beginners. But the added difficulty of Drupal comes with the potential for more power and customization options for those who know what they’re doing. Joomla falls directly between the two in popularity, ease of use, and functionality. It’s still an accessible option for beginners, although will take a little more time and work to learn than WordPress. By using the thousands of Joomla extensions available, you can add a wide range of features and functionality to your website, making it a flexible option that allows for extensive customization. Notably, all three options are available for free, but with plugins, Joomla extensions, or themes that sometimes come at a cost. And all three have a solid community of users who provide support and resources about how to use the CMS. They’re all good options, but for businesses that want a little more functionality than WordPress and are prepared to spend a little more time learning, but don’t have the level of skill required for Drupal, Joomla is the best choice. 5 Benefits of the Joomla Hosting Platform If you decide Joomla is the right CMS for you, you still need to decide on your web hosting plan. Joomla provides the structure for building and updating your website, but doesn’t offer hosting services. While most web hosting plans you consider will work for a Joomla site, seeking out a application web hosting plan rather than a typical web hosting plan can provide some unique benefits. Choosing Joomla vs. Drupal or WordPress hosting solutions will mean you can count on a few main things over the other CMS platforms. 1. Installation will be easy. Adding Joomla to a Joomla hosting account will typically mean one-click installation. You don’t have to worry about a lengthy process of connecting your Joomla account to your web hosting one. Within a couple of minutes, everything will be in place for you use and you’ll be ready to publish your Joomla-built website to the web. 2. Adding Joomla to your account will be free. While web hosting plans come at a cost, when you use Joomla hosting you can be confident that using Joomla with your web hosting plan won’t add any additional cost or fees to your subscription. Your web hosting cost will remain the amount you agreed to for the plan, even after you connect your accounts. 3. You can count on compatibility. The last thing you want is to figure out the web hosting plan you choose has compatibility issues with the CMS you built your entire website on. When you choose Joomla hosting for a website built with Joomla, you know right from the start that the two accounts will work well together. Your web hosting plan will have no problem accommodating your Joomla site, and your work in Joomla won’t cause any problems with your web hosting. 4. Making updates will be intuitive. One of the big benefits of using Joomla is that it makes all the ongoing updates you’ll need to make to your website—big and small—easy to do yourself, without having to call on a web development professional to help. With the right Joomla hosting plan, you can ensure that all the updates you make to your website are still easy with Joomla, and any updates you need to make to your hosting plan will be simple and intuitive as well. 5.  You have two sources for helpful support. If you’re not an expert on building and running a website—and maybe even if you are—you’ll hit up against issues working on your website where you need help. When you use Joomla to build your website, you gain access to a large community of Joomla users who provide help and support in the Joomla forum, in Joomla user groups that meet around the world, and at a number of events and conferences that are all about Joomla. And that’s in addition to the educational materials like courses and tutorials that are readily available online. With a good Joomla hosting provider, you also gain access to a committed customer support team who can help you out with many additional aspects of keeping your website working the way you want. This is especially valuable if you go with a web hosting provider that offers 24/7 customer support or provides additional skilled services to help out with things like SEO , PPC , or web design . Even with an intuitive web hosting plan and CMS like Joomla, many aspects of running a website can be difficult, so having multiple sources you can turn to for help is a valuable benefit. 5 Things to Look for in a Joomla Hosting Plan If you’ve decided that you want to use Joomla and invest in a Joomla hosting plan for your website, there are a few main features to consider in your search. 1. Scalability When choosing a Joomla hosting provider, you have to think about what you need today, but you’ll make a better long-term choice if you also consider what you could need in the future. Determine whether the web hosting company you go with provides room to grow. Will it be easy to upgrade your plan down the line if your website starts getting a lot more traffic, or if you decide to expand your website to include features that require a higher level of bandwidth? Figure out what type of plan best meets your needs today, but also look at some of the other plan options your provider offers. Do they look like a good fit for where you want your Joomla website to be in five years? Ten? 2. 24/7 Support A good web hosting provider will make a lot of what you need to do through your web hosting account simple and intuitive. But nonetheless, you may well have times where you need a little help figuring out how to do something or fixing a problem that’s not working right. When that happens, you want to get ahold of someone that knows how to help and can provide the information you need fast. Any web hosting provider you choose (as long as they offer paid plans), should provide customer support. But also check to see if the support they provide is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And check some hosting reviews to see if their customer support team has a reputation for having a good track record. The quality and accessibility of the customer support you receive can make a big difference in how satisfied you are with a Joomla hosting provider. 3. 99% Uptime Uptime is the term used in the web hosting industry to describe the amount of time your website is accessible to visitors on the web. Because web hosting servers occasionally have to go offline for maintenance, no company can promise 100% uptime. And web servers can go offline for a number of additional reasons, such as hackers, improper maintenance, parts breaking, or web servers being affected physically by extreme weather conditions like flooding. Part of what you pay a Joomla web hosting provider for is to keep their web servers well maintained and working consistently. The most reliable companies put a lot of work into delivering on that. Look for a web hosting company that offers at least 99% uptime, but ideally promises closer to 99.9% 4. Security Website security is an issue every website owner has to prioritize today. Data breaches and hacked websites are an all too common reality, and often websites built using a CMS are a particular target since hackers know how to find vulnerabilities in the CMS code. While there are a number of steps you can take to make your website more secure from hackers , including keeping your Joomla version up to date, one of the best ways to ensure website security is choosing the right web hosting provider, Check that your Joomla hosting provider has a reputation for using strong firewalls to keep their web servers protected, and that they offer key security features like an SSL certificate and security software. 5. Affordability Web hosting is a necessary expense if you want to have a website, but it doesn’t have to be a large one. A good Joomla hosting plan can start at less than $3 a month for shared web hosting , which is usually a good choice for new websites. When you’re considering your options, you have to think about what you can afford. In some cases, paying a little more can be worth it for what you get for the extra money—such as choosing a web hosting plan that includes features you need like an SSL certificate or a website builder. So consider carefully what you’re getting for the cost, and make sure it fits in your website budget. Find Joomla Hosting Today HostGator offers Joomla hosting plans that check all the boxes on this list. We also offer easy setup, full compatibility with Joomla, 24/7 support, and 99.9% uptime with a money-back guarantee. If you’re ready to invest in a Joomla hosting plan, get started today.Whether you are looking for cloud hosting , dedicated server hosting , or Joomla hosting, HostGator offers all the best web hosting plans. Talk to one of our representatives today to learn more about the pros and cons of each option. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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How to Build a Website From Scratch

Posted on April 23, 2019 by Hosting

The post How to Build a Website From Scratch appeared first on HostGator Blog . You’re here because you want to build a website. Luckily, building a website is much easier than it used to be. What used to take months and months of work can now be done in a single afternoon. Even if you’ve never built a website before, you can quickly build a professional website, all with the help of a website builder. But, building a website requires more than just choosing the right website builder . There are a few foundational steps you’ll want to complete to help ensure the success of your site. Jumping in without a plan is a surefire way to get overwhelmed by the process. Below you’ll learn about the different types of sites you can build, how to plan your website, and finally, how to build a website from scratch without having to touch a single line of code. Why Build a Website? There are plenty of reasons to build a website. Whether you have an idea for a new personal website, want to showcase your passion, start a blog, highlight your portfolio, build an eCommerce website , or create a website for your existing business, it couldn’t be easier to start a new site. And best of all, you don’t have to be an experienced web designer to make one. Just a few years ago building a site was an intensive process. You either had to spend time learning to code yourself or hire a website developer to turn your vision into reality for you. But today, with the help of intuitive website builders the process is incredibly simple. Even if you’ve never built a website before, or even registered a domain name , you can have a website online in a single afternoon, if not sooner. Overall, the length of time it’ll take to build your website will depend upon the type of site you’re building. A simple 3-page website will be much faster to build than an eCommerce site that’s selling dozens of products. Step 1: Determining Your Niche The first step in website building is determining what kind of site you’re going to build. The approach you’re going to take to start a blog will be different than building a site for a physical storefront. Review the questions below to determine what kind of site you’re going to build. This will help you save time over the long run and ensure you’re building the right kind of site the first time around. Who’s Your Audience? Every successful website serves a specific audience. By taking the time to understand exactly who your audience is first you’ll improve your chances of creating a successful site. However, you won’t have to do this if you’re creating a simple website that you have no intention of building a business around. For example, maybe you’re creating a personal blog so you can practice writing in public, or you’re creating a simple one-page site for fun. But, if you want to grow and monetize your website, then you’ll want to place a focus on your target audience. Spend time browsing through other sites in your niche and attempt to infer the kind of audience they’re serving. Why do they like certain content types?  Why are some forms of content more popular than others? You can also head over to a tool called Buzzsumo to find the most shared content related to your niche. This can give you an idea of what your audience likes to consume and directions you can take with your site.   How Are You Serving Them? Once you know who you’re serving, it’s time to figure out the best way to do that. For example, maybe you’ve found that your niche loves video content. In that case, you’ll build a site that’s oriented towards videos. Or maybe you’ve uncovered a ton of related eCommerce products you can sell, in that case, you’ll want to build a site that has eCommerce capabilities. Spend time browsing through other sites in your niche to get an idea of certain site elements you’ll want to include. Maybe you’ve found a similar site that you love the layout of, or you like the type of messaging they use on their site. As you browse through competitor sites take note of the things you like and other elements you think you could improve upon. All of this will come in handy during the design phase. Step 2: Planning Your New Website Now that you know the type of site you’re going to build, let’s do some basic planning that’ll help to accelerate the site building process. Below you’ll get a basic feel for the elements that make up a professional website. Get these elements right and your site will stand head and shoulders above your competition. Site Structure Most websites look and function the same. It can be tempting to buck trends and create something wholly unique, but you’ll do yourself a disservice in doing so. Most users have certain expectations in mind when visiting a website. They expect certain website elements to be where they should be. The last thing you want is to confuse and overwhelm your visitors the moment they land on your website. Basic website elements include: An easy to use navigation bar, typically at the top of the site Homepage text and a sidebar, or no sidebar at all Logical site organization that lets users intuitively move from page to page The theme you choose should take care of your initial site organization. It can be tempting but try not to stray too far from the initial build. These templates are created by professional designers and developers and have web design best practices built in. Essential Website Pages The number of pages your site has will differ depending on the type of site you’re building. But generally, most sites will have the following website pages, no matter the niche: Homepage. This is the first page your visitors will see. It should be simple, concise, and immediately tell your visitor’s what your site is about. About page. Your about page is your chance to establish a relationship with your visitors. It’s commonly one of the most popular pages on your site, so you’ll want to spend time creating quality copy that draws your readers in, tells them what you’re about, and speaks directly to their needs and how you’re uniquely qualified to solve them. Services/product page. This will look different depending on what you’re selling and the niche you’re in. However, most sites (unless it’s purely for personal use) will have one of these pages, if not multiple. Contact page. Depending on the type of site you’re creating you’ll probably want to make it easy for your visitors to contact you. This can be through a contact form, an email address, or even your phone number or Skype address. Blog page. Most sites will be able to find some value in maintaining a regular blog. Some sites are purely content-based, while others will be able to use the blog as a means to provide value to your visitors and improve search engine rankings. Keep in mind that most website building software will take care of the basic website layout for you. Once you select a theme or a template, this will form the foundation for the rest of your site. However, by knowing what other pages you want to add, and what site elements you’ll want to include you’ll be able to speed up the process and avoid wasting time when creating your site. Step 3: Choosing Your Website Building Platform By now you’ve determined the type of site you’re going to build, and you have a plan of attack for the website elements and pages you’re going to create. Now, it’s time to choose the right tool to help you build your website. As a beginner you’ll have a ton of different options at your disposal, from website builders to content management systems , and more. One of the easiest ways to build your site will be using the GATOR website builder. Website builders in general greatly simplify the website building process. There are many things you can do with the Gator website builder. You’ll select a theme or template that will act as the foundation of your site, you’ll use the tool to make changes and customize your site, you’ll add content, and then publish your site online. The process is quite intuitive and you’ll be able to build a custom website without having to change, or even look at, any code. In time you can test out other website builders, tools, and content management systems, but when starting out you’ll want to give yourself the advantage of using one of the easiest tools out there. Once you’ve successfully built your first site you’ll have more confidence when it comes to customizing your site, or using different tools altogether. Building a Website with the GATOR Website Builder For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll show you how to build a website from scratch using the HostGator website builder. This website builder is packed with a vast selection of professional themes that span dozens of niches. Once you fire up the tool you’ll be amazed at just how easy it is to customize your template, add site elements, add pages, modify text, and more. Follow the steps below to build a website from scratch using Gator: 1. Select Your Template The first step when launching your website through HostGator’s website builder will be choosing your template. This template will act as the foundation for the rest of your site, so choose wisely. You’ll be able to filter the template selection based upon niche, or you can browse through all of the templates until you find the perfect fit. Most of the themes can fit into a variety of niches. But, you’ll notice that the preloaded content and general structure is more niche-oriented. If you want to build your site as fast as possible, then choose a template that’s within your niche. Once you’ve found a template you’d like to customize, just hover over the template and click ‘Select’. 2. Customize Your Template With your template selected it’s time to start customizing. You’ll probably want to spend a few minutes clicking around and getting used to the layout. It might seem a little confusing at first, but it will get easier. Almost every element of your theme can be customized by clicking. When you hover over and click any element of your site the tool will bring up a window to give you your customization options. If you like the existing layout of the site, then all you’ll have to do is edit and switch out the existing text, and upload your own images. On the left-hand menu you’ll be able to edit any additional pages, add new site elements and sections, along with changing out the overall color scheme. Once you’re satisfied with your site all you have to do is click ‘Publish’. However, it’s probably a good idea to preview your site to catch any last-minute errors before you publish your site online. Get Started Building with GATOR As you can see, building a website is much easier than it used to be. Today there are myriad tools that can help you build a website in a single afternoon, all without having to touch a single line of code. With the GATOR website builder, you can quickly and easily build a professional website completely from scratch. For beginners, it’s hard to beat the usefulness and simplicity of the GATOR website builder. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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We Buy UK Hosting Companies

Posted on April 23, 2019 by Hosting

Hello everyone, If you are looking to sell your UK hosting or web design business then please get in touch. We are interested in small… | Read the rest of http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1761769&goto=newpost Continue reading →

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Website Builder Packages: Everything You Need to Know

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Hosting

The post Website Builder Packages: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on HostGator Blog . The time has come to take the plunge and learn how to build a new website . You’ve already decided that using a website builder is the right choice for you— a web designer is too expensive, and you don’t have the skills to build it from scratch. Now you just need to decide on the best website builder package for you. What’s Included in Website Builder Packages? Website builder brands generally offer a number of different website builder plans that each package together different features, customization tools, website templates, and services. Since every plan is different, what’s included in a website builder package depends on the particular company you go with and plan you choose. There are some common features and services you can expect to find in the website builder packages you consider. Common Features Included in Basic Website Builder Plans Most website builder packages you encounter will include most, if not all of these basic plan features. They’re some of the most essential things to look for in a website builder plan. Web Templates Part of what makes creating a beautiful website with a website builder so easy is the option to start with a design template. The web design template provides a basic structure for you to start with so you don’t have to build anything from scratch—you make changes to what’s there already. Any good website builder package you consider should offer a number of templates for you to choose from. Drag-and-drop functionality Good website builders provide an intuitive website editor that allows you to move items around on the page easily with the drag and drop function. When you want to move a button or image a little to the left, simply click on it and drag it to where it should go. It makes turning the template you choose into the website you imagine a simple process. Ability to change colors and add original images In addition to moving elements on the page around, you also need to be able to change out the color scheme to your preferences and include images that are unique to your site. A good website builder should let you select your color and fill in spaces on the page with a simple click. And it should make loading and positioning your original photographs or illustrations an easy process as well. Some storage All the different elements of your website will take up some space. Each image and word requires some bit of storage, and bigger files like videos or audio will require more. Even the most basic website builder plans should provide some storage for you, although for free or cheap plans, it might not be much. Customer service Even for website builders that are easy to use and generally work well, you may come up against an issue where you need help from a human. Any website builder package worth considering—particularly any that comes at a cost—needs to include access to customer service staff you can reach out to when you need help. Educational resources Often it’s more convenient to find your own answers though, and website builder plans should also include a library of educational resources such as tutorials, articles, or videos that explain how to use the website builder and all the different features included. Premium Features Included in Some Website Builder Plans While for some people, a simple website builder that includes little more than the features above will work just fine, for a lot of website owners, especially for those making a business website who want to run an ecommerce store, you’ll need a website builder package that provides more advanced features. Here are some of the features included in premium website builder packages. Ad free With free website builder plans, the company often makes money by displaying ads on your website. You have limited control over what ad shows up where and must accept a website that looks more cluttered and  not as professional because of the cost of choosing that plan. One of the main benefits of paying for a better website builder package is getting that control back and knowing your website will be ad free (or only include ads that you profit from directly). Domain name Once you register a domain name , that will be the main address people will find you with on the web. Choosing the perfect domain name that’s memorable is important for any website to have. Some website builders may come with a free domain name included—either one that’s a subdomain of the website builder’s domain (e.g. something like websitebuildername.yourname.com), or a unique domain (yourname.com). There are branding and SEO (search engine optimization) benefits to having your own unique domain name. Website builder packages that don’t come with a domain name included in the cost may still make it easy for you to find and register one from within the platform. Web hosting Web hosting is a necessary expense for any website that wants to go live online. But it’s an expense you can save on if you go with a website builder package that includes it in the price. If you do go with a website builder plan that includes web hosting, make sure it comes from a web hosting provider that has a strong reputation in the industry for consistent uptime and speed.   Email accounts If you send people emails from a Hotmail or AOL account, you look unprofessional. Gmail’s a step up, but it’s still not quite as impressive as sending an email from an address at your own domain name. Many premium website builder packages include the option to create email addresses at your domain name . Sometimes they’ll allow just a limited number, sometimes you can create as many as you want, which is a useful option for large and small business owners that want all employees to have a branded email address. eCommerce options Not all website owners will need eCommerce options, but if you hope to ever sell products through your website, then they’re essential. Some premium website builder packages specialize in eCommerce store features, providing shopping cart functionality, an easy checkout process, and a secure way to accept payments. If this is something you’ll need, it’s important to find a plan that supports it. Mobile friendly options Having a website that’s mobile friendly is no longer optional. A good portion of your visitors will view your website on a mobile device and, if it doesn’t look good or the functionality is lacking in that format, you’ll lose them. A bad mobile experience is also bad for SEO. A good website builder plan will include easy ways to create a website that’s mobile friendly, such as offering responsive website templates. Supports multiple websites Some website builder packages will allow you to use the builder to create multiple websites under the same plan. You’ll still need a separate domain for each, but you can do all the design work and monitoring in one place without paying extra. Ability to take your website with you Website builder plans typically use a subscription model, meaning that you’ll pay monthly or yearly for as long as you keep your website. If down the line you decide you want to switch to a different website builder, many plans won’t allow you to take what you’ve built with you. Some premium plans will let you export the website you have so you won’t have to start from scratch with a new plan. Unlimited pages For simple websites that don’t include many pages, a basic website builder plan that allows for one page or just a few will do the trick. But for more complicated websites that will include product pages, a blog, or lots of educational resources, you need the option to expand. Many premium website builder plans allow you to build websites with unlimited pages. High level of storage As previously mentioned, all website builders should provide some level of storage, but premium plans will often offer much more of it than basic plans. For any websites that will have a lot of pages, images, and media elements, having more storage will allow you to grow as you need without limitations. More bandwidth The amount of bandwidth your website builder plan includes will affect how fast and consistently your site loads for visitors. This is especially important for websites that get a high level of traffic or include media elements that require more bandwidth to load, like high resolution images and videos. Premium plans usually include higher bandwidth so you can count on faster load times for your visitors. Add-on apps Many website builder packages include access to an app store which offers a number of different apps you can add to your website builder to increase the functionality of your website. Add-on apps can provide new e-commerce website features, more advanced analytics, different ways to embed social media, and additional security options. Before settling on a particular website builder package, consider what add-on apps are available that may be useful for your website. SEO features With so many websites online, getting noticed is a challenge. Search engine optimization is important  because it’s  one of the best ways to make sure people can find your website when they’re searching for the kind of information and products you provide. While there’s a lot to doing SEO well, the right website builder package can make some of the initial steps easier with handy SEO features that enable on-site optimization, such as customizing your URLs, creating SEO-focused title tags , and adding image tags with target keywords. Mobile app If you want the ability to work on and update your website on the go, look for a website builder package that includes a mobile app. When you can easily make updates to your website from your phone, that provides flexibility to get your website done faster and more efficiently, no matter where you’re working from. Automated backups Even if creating your website is quick and easy with a website builder, that doesn’t mean you want to risk having to start over from scratch due to losing everything. To keep your website safe and avoid having to re-do work, consider a package that includes automated website backups or offers the option as an affordable add-on. You won’t have to make a point of remembering manual backups, and you’ll always have easy access to the last version of your website if you need to restore it. Security features Websites get hacked. It’s an unfortunate risk of putting yourself out there on the web. That’s why it’s so important to secure your website from hackers right from the start. You can reduce your website’s vulnerability with the help of security features like an SSL certificate and security software. Some website builder packages will include security features as part of the cost, or as add-ons you can buy. Analytics Analytics give you a snapshot of how many people are visiting your website, how they find it, and how they interact with it once there. No matter what your website goals are, whether that be for a business or blog, following your website analytics is the best way to understand how well you’re achieving them and determine any changes you should make to do better. A good website builder package will provide access to analytics in your dashboard so it’s easy to check how your website is performing every time you log in. The Cost of Website Builder Packages As you’d expect, the more premium features a website builder package includes, the more you’ll be spending. Most basic affordable website builder plans start at around $4 a month and provide all the most essential features you need to build a simple website with just a few pages and elements. For a more complicated website that will require a lot of pages, an e-commerce store, or more media elements, you’ll want to consider a website builder package that offers more of the premium features you need. These fall somewhere in the $10-$50 a month range. Keep in mind that, in some cases, spending more on a website builder package can save you money by avoiding the cost of expenses you’d otherwise pay for separately. For example, no matter what, you’ll need to invest in web hosting for your website. If your website builder plan doesn’t include it, you’ll be paying separately for it. Carefully consider both the cost of the plan itself, and what you’ll be getting for that cost. How to Compare Website Builder Plans in 4 Simple Steps There are a lot of website builder plans out there. Trying to research them all to find the right one can be overwhelming. Here are a few tips to help you figure out how to hone in on the best one for you. 1. Figure out your priorities. You’ll have an easier time identifying the right plan for you if you start by defining what you need. Some of the features listed above will be necessities for you. Some will be nice-to-have, but not required. And others will be completely inconsequential to the website you plan to build. Figure out which features fall into which category so you start your search with a list of what you need and want. 2. Research different providers. Now go looking for website builders that offer the items on your list. You can easily rule out any plans that don’t provide your must-have features and compare the plans that offer your nice-to-have ones. 3. Consider a company’s different plans. For website builder companies that offer packages that cover all the bases you need, also take a minute to look at their higher-level plans. Even though you may not need all the features offered in their more expensive plans right away, you want to have room to grow. If you’ll need those premium features later, it’s good to know you can easily upgrade with the website builder you choose now to get them. 4. Make your choice. With your list and a little research into your options, you should be able to easily identify the website builder packages that come the closest to what you need for a price you can afford. Decide which of them is the best fit, and make your purchase. Start Building Your Website HostGator’s website builder offers users many of the features included in the list, including free website hosting from one of the most respected providers in the industry. If you want to get started with one of our website builder packages, sign up for our hosting services today. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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