Archives for July 2017
Major Internet Trends That Could Influence Your Marketing
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The internet is constantly evolving, as is the way people use it to obtain information and communicate with others. Here are a few of the biggest trends for 2017 that could influence the way your business engages in digital marketing moving forward.
Continued growth in advertising on Google and Facebook
At this point, advertising revenue and growth rates on each of these platforms are growing so quickly that any business not using these platforms is missing out. Facebook has seen a particularly large boom in ad revenue and continues to make advertising much more intuitive for business owners.
Increasing use of voice search and input
Speak-to-text applications are becoming more popular than ever with mobile devices. There are now such applications available from providers like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple. Statistics from Google indicate about 70 percent of all search requests on Google’s Assistant come in the form of natural or conversational language, and about 20 percent of all mobile queries are made by voice. That latter figure is expected to continue a rapid increase over the next few years.
Continued growth in usage of ad blockers
Internet users continue to take more steps to block intrusive ads to improve their web browsing experience. Many browsers come with built-in pop-up blockers, but Adblock Plus and various other browser extensions and applications make ad-blocking abilities even stronger. This is perhaps the biggest reason why native advertising has become one of the fastest-growing types of marketing—it usually features higher quality content and does not interrupt the user experience, while also being exempt from ad-blocking features.
Mobile growth has finally started to slow
Eventually, it was inevitable we would reach the point where mobile use could no longer continue growing at the same blistering pace. We have finally reached that point. Mobile use is still growing, but with a larger percentage of people than ever using their mobile devices for regular internet browsing, that growth is not at the same levels it was in years past. Marketers must still make mobile a cornerstone of their strategies, of course.
For more information about digital marketing trends for this year and beyond, contact our team at Viral Solutions.
How You Can Get the Most Out of Your WordPress Website
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Your website may be the first – and only – place customers interact with your business. A professional-looking website lets customers know you can be trusted with their business.
Fortunately, you don’t need to be a tech genius or have a fleet of IT staff to build a great website. WordPress has been making it easy for individuals and businesses to create well-designed web pages for over a decade with its free, open-source content management system (CMS).
Secure your own domain
Having a URL that sounds like your own business is key to sounding legitimate. Sending customers to yourbusiness.wordpress.com sounds like you’re running a small (and cheap) operation. You can register a web domain with WordPress, or if you’ve already secured one (see below), add your WordPress site to that domain. Be sure to set up your email through that site as well.
Host your website on a secure server
If your company doesn’t have its own servers, you’ll want to purchase secure web hosting. Web hosting services allow you to lease the host’s server space, thereby powering your website. Many web domain services like GoDaddy also offer hosting plans, so you can purchase a domain and hosting through that site then register your domain with WordPress. However, as soon as you can afford it, use a domain host with some oomph behind it – this will help your load speed for first-time visitors. Watch your bounce rate to determine if this is a factor for you.
Customize your theme
WordPress offers a number of excellent site themes for free, and there are many more premium themes available for purchase. Customization is key: you want your site to strongly represent your brand and match your other marketing materials. Consider hiring a web designer to help create a custom WordPress site. WP sites are image-heavy; this is another factor with your site loading slow for the first-time visitor. Having your WP designed professionally, rather than buying a cheap template, could be a wise alternative.
Make your site mobile-friendly
Mobile optimization boosts your web ranking and makes it easier for customers to access your site on their increasingly preferred platform of choice: smartphones and tablets. Look for themes that include responsive design, which will simply reformat your website for mobile screens, rather than create a separate mobile site. Almost all WP sites today are mobile-optimized – make sure your design morphs itself as you desire it to for the mobile user.
Let plugins do the work
There are several plugins that can help business websites:
- WordPress SEO by Yoast – helps you create SEO for your pages
- iThemes Security – WordPress’ recommended plugin to prevent hackers
- MailChimp – if you use MailChimp for newsletters, you can add an email sign up form on your page
- Contact Form 7 – use contact forms instead of listing your email to prevent spamming. Add a plugin like Really Simple CAPTCHA to further prevent bot spamming.
- Gravity Forms – a more advanced form that creates the workflows required to connect to sites like PayPal
- LeadPages – a way to create custom landing pages for special events on the fly
- WooCommerce – one of the best ecommerce platforms for WP
Contact us today at Viral Solutions for help in getting the most out of your digital presence!