Before we get started, don't worry, this isn't one of those Chat GPT articles, our small business website hosting guide is written by Stack Mode's back-end development manager who deals with hosting and maintaining websites on a daily basis! We've got you covered with reliable information on what you need to know about hosting a website for your small business.

Introduction to Website Hosting for Small Businesses

In a technology-driven economy, you're behind if you aren't online. Without an online presence, you're leaving potential profits on the table. Whether you already have a website live or you are getting ready to launch a new website, this guide will tell you everything you should know about hosting a small business website to ensure your website is equipped with the right resources.

For small businesses, a website is the best way to get started by putting your services or products in front of your potential customers. The issue is, even if a business owner gets as far as creating a website, not many people know the ins and outs of website hosting, and it can get complicated.

The good news is that it all becomes clear with a little bit of an explanation. Taking 10 minutes to read through this article will equip you with everything you need to know.

Generally, the way we web developers measure the performance of any given web host involves the quality of the server, security features, development tools, and what type of support is included (if any).

As a business owner, you have the option of choosing from various hosting providers. You also have the option of hosting your website in-house. However, most companies go with a trusted hosting company to take care of the nitty-gritty and many businesses who take no chances in allowing their online presence to go down will go as far as hiring a developer to oversee things.

If you are getting ready to host a website, it helps to know what these hosting providers do, what features you should look for & care most about, as well as where your money goes so you can weigh out the cost versus what you are getting.

Understanding What Web Hosting Is for Small Business

A good website can make or break your business but being successful online goes beyond the initial development of the site. Anyone who wants to claim some online real estate and make their site visitable to the world must have a way to host their website. Understanding website hosting can be a complicated topic, but we're going to break down the different aspects in a way that is easy to digest and understand. To start, website hosting refers to where and how your website lives on the internet.

You can think of it like your site's physical location, similar to a brick-and-mortar store. When it comes to websites, they are actually just files, some of the files can include HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, WordPress core files, and much more. Your hosting provider will provide a server where your files can be stored so people can access your files (your website) by visiting the connected domain.

Because hosting a website can get complicated, many business owners choose to work with a third-party to host the website on their server. There are various technical aspects when it comes to website hosting, many of which most small business owners are not experts on, and they shouldn't be, it can take years of learning about server-side technology and most business owners are busy being experts in their industry and growing their business. Another reason most businesses choose a hosting provider is that website hosting and running servers or networks on your own often involves complex and expensive equipment.

In theory, you could run your website from your own personal computer. However, this would require advanced technical knowledge. Your computer would also have to run 24/7 to keep your site up, and you'd have a hard time using it as a normal PC. This is generally not a good idea as there are much better options available to you.

Keeping your website running requires a physical server dedicated to that task. Buying it and setting it up in your home isn't feasible for most people. Most small businesses opt to pay a hosting company to use their servers instead.

Third-party website hosting companies usually have hundreds or even thousands of servers, located all over the world (this is important, we'll explain later why). When you pay them, you're essentially paying to rent the space on those servers as you would with a store. Many hosting companies will help you set up your website on their server, as well as provide ongoing support when you run into technical questions, this is called Managed Hosting.

Managed Hosting: Refers to a type of web hosting service where the hosting provider takes on various responsibilities and tasks related to the management and maintenance of a client's website or web application.  Some of these responsiblities can include server management, security, backups, monitoring, and technical support.

Understanding Terminology

If you're going to brush up on your website hosting knowledge, it's worth taking a couple of minutes to understand a little bit about web hosting terminology. Most companies that offer hosting services will explain your options, but it's good to have an understanding so you know what their services include and what everything means.

When you host a website, all of the data from that site needs to be stored somewhere. For all intents and purposes, your website will be stored on a physical "server." You can think of a server as a computer system designed to hold and share data over a network, the server you choose will hold your website files so they are readily available to people wanting to visit your website. People can access your website by visiting the domain you have associated with where your website's files are located. If we are comparing these aspects to physical property like a house, the domain is like the address, the server is like the land or location of your property, and the website files are the home.

As long as the server is "up," your website will also remain up. So, if the server goes down, or needs to restart or undergo maintenance, your site may go down. However, some hosts may have backup servers to avoid downtime.

Pro Tip: Most web hosting providers will offer 99.99% uptimes gauranteed. This is the standard and lets you know that most hosts are pretty relaible. If the server ever does go down, most will simply deduct a prorated amount off your bill. The server rarely goes down for long, so you probably won't even feel the difference in your bill. Also, uptime is important for any business. In most cases, 99.99% uptime will do but, for e-commerce businesses that are making online sales every minute, it becomes a subject that is a little more important since every minute is measured by revenue.

As mentioned earlier, there's a good reason why it isn't advisable to host out of your home. This is because it's too resource-intensive. You need specialized equipment and to pay your internet service provider (ISP) extra. Even if you aren't buying a bunch of expensive equipment to self-host your website, it helps to know what type of technology is used so you can understand the range of options third-party hosting companies have available for you. We'll go over the most important terms below.

Small Business Website Hosting Servers

The first concept to really understand is what type of servers are available. Here is a list of the different server options you have and what you need to know about each one:

Dedicated Hosting

A dedicated server is a physical hosting server set aside only for you. The only data or website on it will be yours. You won't have to share with other companies, and thus all the resources will be free for you.

Some common reasons a business owner would choose to go with a dedicated server might be that they are getting a good amount of traffic on their website, they notice their website is slowing down, or they are just willing to pay a little more to ensure their website is equipped with its own resources. 

In our opinion, dedicated hosting is the way to go for most businesses. At Stack Mode, all of our hosting options include a dedicated server, and it's what all of our clients are setup with. We believe it is in the best interest of any business to have its website hosted on a server with its own resources. There is no reason one business should be at risk of having their website go down due to another business's website on the same server taking up too many resources (shared hosting), or for any other reason. 

For many businesses, their website is how they earn revenue every day, and this is too important to have their website at risk of losing any revenue due to actions beyond their control. Having a dedicated server with dedicated resources generally means your website will run faster as well, and this is another important factor when a website is being used to generate revenue and needs to provide a great experience to its visitors.

It is worth noting that dedicated website hosting tends to be more expensive than other options like shared hosting, this is because all of the resources on the server are dedicated to your site. That said, the difference in cost isn't outrageous. Back in the day, many business owners opted for shared hosting because there was a significant cost difference between dedicated and shared hosting. These days, there is still a difference in pricing, but when the difference is only $15 - $30/month, it's almost irrelevant and an easy-to-justify business expense for businesses investing in their digital marketing efforts and dedicated to engaging with new clients and growing their business online.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is a hosting setup where multiple websites share one physical server. All of the physical resources and capacity of that server become shared. This means memory, bandwidth (speed), and disk space, among other aspects.

Shared hosting is one of the cheapest options. For this reason, it's one of the most common website hosting options for small businesses. Shared hosting means you would be splitting the costs with other website owners sharing the server with you.

Even though you are sharing server resources on shared hosting, the individual data privacy of each website/business is still guaranteed. The websites operate independently while sharing the same physical server. You can think of it as two stores sharing the same building.

There is the potential that sharing one physical server might lead to instability or lag. If some of the sites on the shared server experience super high traffic, it could eat up resources. This could cause others on the server to slow down.

Most hosting companies are pretty good about responding to this when it happens. Even a few minutes of downtime could make or break a sale. A frustrating experience might turn customers or clients off.

For many small businesses, shared hosting is a good starting place. However, they'll eventually look to upgrade to something better as they grow. Shared hosting is also a great option if you are just building a website as a side project, or even just to host the website during the stage that it is being built.

Virtual Private Servers (VPS)

VPS hosting operates on the same basis as shared hosting but with one major caveat. Although VPS hosting has multiple websites on one server, each site has its own slice of the resource pie.

In essence, each website on a VPS gets unfettered access to a percentage of the server's resources. This means that even if another site's traffic spikes, they won't dip into your portion. This increases the stability of your website but comes at a cost.

You'll pay for the resource percentage you want to occupy on that server. This can be flexible, but the price will also change based on how much you want to reserve. This option can be good for small businesses that can't afford even a second of downtime.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting leverages the capabilities of multiple servers to increase what's possible. Instead of relying on a single physical server, Cloud hosting spreads your data onto several. This has the twin benefits of increasing stability and security while reducing costs.

With traditional hosting methods, if the physical server died or got wiped, you'd be out of luck. Most responsible hosting companies keep backups of your data so that they can recover the sites on a new server. However, the downtime would still be noticeable, and you'd lose anything not backed up.

Cloud hosting splits your data onto multiple physical servers, which builds redundancy. In essence, should one server go down, the others can immediately fill the gap.

Because crucial and sensitive data gets stored in more than one place, the loss of a single server won't hurt. Many Cloud hosting companies will also back up your most valuable data onto other servers. Thus not only will a lost server not interrupt service, but you won't even lose any data either. If you are going to go with a cloud hosting option, it's important to find a reputable Cloud hosting company that keeps this in mind.

Now that we've taken a look at the different types of servers you can host your website on, let's take a look at what it means when a website is Managed vs. Unmanaged (this might be the most important part).

Managed and Unmanaged Website Hosting

The difference between managed and unmanaged hosting makes a ton of difference. It will depend on your own personal needs and how comfortable you are with managing your hosting technology.

Unmanaged Hosting is, as the name suggests - unmanaged. The server is, in essence, turned over to you to do with as you will. Because of issues with privacy and data access, most unmanaged hosting is on dedicated servers.

Unmanaged hosting is a good idea if you have the skills to run servers but can't or don't want to invest in the equipment. It allows you to work on your server and website whenever you want. Unmanaged hosting can also work if you have someone on your team, either in your office or working with you remotely, who is knowledgeable on server technology to ensure your website stays secure and to help troubleshoot issues as they arise (they will arise). 

Managed Hosting is the opposite. This is when you turn over management to the hosting company. They'll make the changes or updates you need them to on your behalf.

Most small business owners are not back-end developers, they are not expected to understand how server technology works, so this is a common solution for many. Managed hosting is a good idea if you don't have the skills to develop or edit the website yourself (not just "drag and drop" a website, but actually develop it). If you don't have expertise on managing servers and hiring someone to maintain your server sounds troublesome, this is a great option. With most managed hosting options, anytime you run into an issue, you can simply call or submit an online chat to get quick support and they will help you with any issues you are facing, and that can be a lifesaver if you don't know how to work with the server!

Because Managed Hosting involves having support ready to assist you with any questions or issues you run into, managed hosting is generally more expensive. Whereas, with Unmanaged Hosting, the hosting company doesn't have to allocate a budget for customer service so it costs a little less, but you'll appreciate having that support if you aren't experienced with servers and your business's website goes down!

Choosing the Right Website Hosting Option for Your Small Business

When it comes to web hosting, there are two things to keep in mind when looking for a good one. The first is the specs of the servers on offer, and the second is what you actually need them for. Knowing what you're working with will help you optimize your website.

All About the Specs

We went over the terminology earlier, but not all servers are equal. You'll run into different capabilities even within the same type of server. Some servers can handle more traffic than others, and a lot of that has to do with specs.

When it comes to specs or specifications, there are a few big ones to look out for:

Disk Space:

Dictates how much data a given server can store. A server with lower disk space means you'll run out of space sooner. If you're utilizing shared hosting, the disk space can run out faster than you'd think.

Memory (or RAM):

The server's RAM controls the speed at which the server processes the stored data. Without RAM, the server wouldn't be able to make use of any of the data.

High RAM means a faster processing time for large amounts of data. Low RAM means delays and potential crashes.

Network Bandwidth:

Controls the actual "online" internet component of the server. A high network bandwidth capability can transmit more data online at a faster rate.

Cheaping out on bandwidth is a great way to bottleneck your website's capabilities and ensure slow loading times.

Overall what you're after are speed and smoothness. These are crucial for website success.

Knowing What You Need

Better performance costs more. Since the servers and hosting options are business investments, it pays to know what you need. As a small business, you should look at the kind of content you'll have and what you'll use it for.

If you plan to have lots of videos on your site, you'll need better resources (servers). You can get around this a little by embedding videos from YouTube. However, there's sometimes no replacement for keeping content on your site.

Things like high-resolution photos or HD videos can put a drain on the server. High traffic or user numbers can do the same. If you anticipate either a high volume of users or a heavy data load of content, you need better servers.

Relying on Shared or VPS hosting will work if you have minimal videos and some quality photos (do you really want to be limited to that though?). If you find yourself with large galleries of videos or photos, you might run into trouble. Going Dedicated or using Cloud hosting can take some of the load off.

That said, there are more powerful servers available in every category. It might still be more bang for your buck to go with a shared option on a beefier server because a dedicated server won't help if the specs aren't up to the task.

It's worth every small business's time to think about how much juice they need and to look into server specs. Do this before picking which hosting company you'll go with, and compare your options.

Pro Tip: Including high-quality images and videos on your site is definitely something you want to watch out for and consider balancing when it comes to design vs. website performance. That said, the expert web developers know how to optimize your images and serve media in next-gen formats, which means your media file sizes will be reduced and your website performance will be improved even before taking into account the hosting setup. If you are using WordPress, one of the best image optimization plugins you will find is ShortPixel. 

Final Thoughts on Website Hosting for Your Small Business

Nowadays, you need a good quality website to take your business to the next level. Interruptions, lag, and sub-par user experiences are less acceptable to consumers than ever. Knowing about website hosting, how it works, and what you need can help you make the right decision and ensure your business is setup for success.

Whether you already have a website or are looking to have a website created for your business, Stack Mode offers affordable and reliable website hosting services for small businesses. We handle migrating your site to our dedicated server for free. Our hosting plans include daily back-ups, daily malware scans, uptime monitoring, SSL encryption, and much more. Many of our clients are small businesses without a dedicated marketing or IT department, teaming up with Stack Mode means equipping your business with website hosting and digital marketing experts that you can reach out to any time you need some assistance or are just looking for some new ways to bring in more business online. Get in touch to find out more information. 

Recommended Website Hosting for Small Business

Not sure where to start? Looking for the best web hosting service to host your website? Here are some of the options we would recommend:

• Stack Mode Dedicated Website Hosting
• Cloudways
• Vultr
• Linode

At this point, all businesses know the importance of a good website. WordPress remains the most popular website hosting for businesses. WordPress accounts for over 65% of all websites on the web with an identifiable CMS (Content Management System).

WordPress is a paradise for a person with limited or no technical coding knowledge. However, as you continue to build your business, you may find that WordPress doesn’t provide a lot of room for customization without genuinely understanding the core files, third-party builder capabilities, coding strategies, or how to effectively take advantage of all the capabilities within a CMS or, more specifically, WordPress’s CMS.

That’s where our Oxygen developers come in. At Stack Mode, we’ve proudly chosen Oxygen Builder as the tool that we use to deliver the highest quality websites. With Oxygen Builder, we can build a website that takes your business to the next level. Whether you’re looking to build a small business website or a worldwide e-commerce store, Oxygen Builder provides a professional set of tools that can help you get the best possible results on any web design project.

Speed, efficiency, performance, and that coveted 1st page on Google are within reach with Oxygen Builder. All you need is the right people and development tools in your corner.

Introducing Oxygen Builder

In a sea of web development strategies and tools, Oxygen Builder rises above. It isn't like any website builder or WordPress tool you've seen before. It's fast, flexible, and clean, and gives you limitless possibilities. Unlike the never-ending number of pre-made themes and “drag and drop” builders, Oxygen provides a blank canvas for developers to build the perfect website for just about any business.

But what is Oxygen Builder? Oxygen Builder is a development tool geared toward businesses of all types and sizes. It is a WordPress page builder, unlike any other builder, which breaks all the conventional practices. Oxygen's builder is geared towards developers with the need for advanced customization, the ability to code custom solutions, and professionals concerned less about quick & easy, and more so about development best practices that will ensure development projects have the highest chances of success.

It's not a theme, and it doesn't have a limited scope. Oxygen Builder is a plugin that actually disables all themes. It gives you a blank slate to work from, so you can design and develop to your heart's content. With pre-made themes, you are not only limited to the features built into the theme, but you are also stuck with poor performance rates if the theme has not been professionally developed, which seems to be the case more often than not.

So why isn’t Oxygen Builder the #1 builder available? That’s because it’s geared towards advanced developers and requires a proper understanding of development best practices, coding expertise, and enough design skills to pair quality code with a fantastic design that generates more sales. Oxygen Builder isn’t like the popular page builders used by the masses. In fact, despite its power, it’s nowhere near the most-used page builder due to its complexities and the expertise required to develop websites using Oxygen Builder and get the most out of it. Creating nicely designed websites takes much more work than dragging and dropping some pre-made elements, but the result is a much more powerful website designed to deliver results.

How Does Oxygen Builder Work for Oxygen Developers?

It's a fact that effective web development can help any business stay ahead of the competition and increase sales and revenue. Because of this, it's always worth investing in the right tools, skills, and people. It’s not only crucial for a business to get this right, but it’s also most beneficial to get this right from the beginning to save you the time and cost of having to scrap the poor quality site you initially started with, just so that you can start the process over with a powerful tool like Oxygen Builder that will allow you to equip your business with a website that is going to help you grow your business. Oxygen Builder crushes the competition. It’s not even close, so not using Oxygen Builder leaves efficiency and quality on the table.

Oxygen Builder gives you total power during the development process. If you know how to make the most of it, you'll have complete control every step of the way. From the design to the performance of your website, or the conversion strategies to the SEO best practices, Oxygen Builder gives Oxygen developers complete control.

What do we mean by that? Oxygen Builder is so customizable that you can turn everything off if you like it. This is how we start every web development project we deliver. You can strip everything down to nothing but a blank page, free to code and shape it into whatever you want. This provides a blank slate that Oxygen developers can use to build custom and high-performance websites that will generate results for any business.

As a web development tool, Oxygen Builder allows you to customize your usage based on your skill level. Oxygen Builder is an easy tool to access, but it's hard to master, so brushing up on some web skills is mandatory if you want to take your WordPress website to the next level with Oxygen Builder. To get the best out of Oxygen Builder, you should know some basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. To take things even further, it also helps to understand WordPress core files, PHP, MySQL, and how to select and optimize a hosting platform that has the tools that will allow you to get the most out of the high-performance website.

No Templates, No "Drag and Drop", and No Pre-Made Layouts with Oxygen Builder

The average web design company loves WordPress due to its many themes and features. With some tweaking, this cuts down on work and can look as unique as if you did it yourself. Of course, this is a common strategy for many web designers because it provides the ability to quickly deliver a nice-looking website. As convenient as this is, Stack Mode takes a different approach.

The problem with WordPress themes, templates, and layouts is that, in most cases, they're mega-bloated. They aren't designed to work on your website, but on all websites that use WordPress. This enforced compatibility allows tons of inefficiencies and messy code to sneak in.

Because of this, many standard drag-and-drop builders are slow and frustrating to work with. This all contributes to making the experience janky and slow. This is true both during development and for your visitors once your website goes live.

Pages will have a slow loading time, and you'll notice improper inputs. This can cause some frustration between both developers and users who visit your website. Studies show that the ideal loading time for websites is 1-2 seconds, and if your page doesn't load fast enough, you'll have an increased bounce rate. In addition to the poor usability the majority of WordPress builders provide, these important metrics have a significant part in how well your business’s website performs with search engines and advertising platforms. This means a bloated website can quickly kill any chances of success, regardless of the design.

We love WordPress and the power it gives developers, but all these extra features can be problematic. Many WordPress add-ons have compatibility issues with each other. This results in amateur developers using pre-built themes and plugins built with conflicting code to hold the website together, but it doesn't result in peak performance or optimal results.

We use Oxygen website builder to cut through all of that. We turn all these unnecessary features off. Doing this lets us work from scratch to custom-build the best website our client could wish for. Instead of searching for another plugin that can incorporate the unique features our clients are looking to include on their website, Oxygen Builder provides Oxygen developers with the perfect platform to custom code advanced features that not only function great, but allows the website to clock in with the highest performance metrics and ensures the highest possible results because the time was taken to code and do things the right way.

Clean Code Never Felt So Good for Oxygen Developers

A surprisingly large number of web development companies seem allergic to coding. Many companies rely on easy-to-use page builders and all the issues that come with them.

With Oxygen developers that use Oxygen Builder, you don't have to settle for subpar code that could become a liability for your website and business. For us, nothing feels as good as clean code. This is one of several reasons using Oxygen Builder is a no-brainer for us.

Oxygen Builder allows Oxygen developers to start clean so they can finish that way. Because we use Oxygen to build a custom website from scratch, we get to control the code that goes into it. We avoid all the junk and inefficiencies of using external WordPress themes and quick solutions.

We don't have to put up with pre-existing code that we didn't write or figure out how to work with foreign code, and we don’t have to locate a pre-made plugin that adds even more bloat to implement new features.

HTML Semantic Tags, Done Right with Oxygen Builder

Anyone with basic knowledge of HMTL already knows what a life saver HTML semantic tags are. For those who don't, it's easy to explain. HTML semantic tags are informative placeholders that allow you to organize code visually and deliver critical information search engines need to understand your site and present it to your potential customers.

If you've ever looked at the source code of a site and seen <header> or <body>, then you've seen an HTML semantic tag. The text inside these tags doesn't impact your site except to help search engines find relevant info. These essential tags give developers and search engines an idea of where everything is and what it does.

It's impossible to overstate how vital these tags are. Even the best developers can get lost in their own code without these tags. This is especially the case if revisiting an old section after a few months.

If another developer tries to take over your project or site, they have to deal with the legacy code left over. If they can't read it, and the semantic tags or notes are all over the place, they're in for a nightmare. This is why we use Oxygen Builder and prioritize clean notes and tags that anyone can understand.

Using Oxygen Builder means we don't have to start a project with pre-written code that includes messy notes and missing semantic tags. This saves us tons of time having to troubleshoot what parts we have the ability to edit or change, and worrying about any changes that could completely break the site.

Oxygen Developers Use Oxygen Builder to Hit the SEO Sweet Spot

It's worth explaining how clean, efficient web development helps with SEO. Every small business website can benefit from effective SEO strategies, and the targeted traffic SEO efforts can deliver to your website. However, as we discussed, a website built from a template and packed with random add-ons will almost never perform well.

Oxygen Builder gives us the ability to comply with all of the SEO best practices. These include using alt tags and removing on-page errors from your site. We can also ensure we use headers properly and group the elements correctly.

Gaining Traction with Oxygen Builder

Many people don't realize that search engines crawl through the code on your websites. This is how they determine where your site should rank if someone searches for the right term. Two things help search engines decide this, one of which we mentioned earlier.

Your HTML semantic tags aren't just for your organization. They also help Google, among others, figure out if you're worthy of the front page. They check your tags to see what and where the critical content is.

Based on what info is in those sections, they efficiently weigh up your SEO rankings. They also look for signs of errors, redundancies, and inefficiencies. Any red flags that Google spots, whether noticeable on the user side of your site or not, are bad for your business and holding you back from getting the most out of your website.

Regardless of the design, A poorly developed website won't get good SEO traction. Because we are Oxygen developers and we use Oxygen Builder to keep our code clean and efficient, we avoid those issues. We make sure there are no errors and fix any that come up immediately.

We make sure that your site ranks higher for SEO, which means more traffic to your website and the ability to generate more revenue to help grow your business.

Oxygen Developers Make Lightning Fast Websites

A huge advantage we have as Oxygen developers is that we are able to get the absolute highest performance. If you check the Google PageSpeed Insights score for the sites we've worked on, you'll find them always in the strong 90s.

We can hit such high metrics because of our experience, skill, and our decision to equip our clients with websites developed with Oxygen Builder. Oxygen Builder helps keep our code clean and gives us perfect control over any media assets we incorporate. Google also cares about speed when it comes to SEO, so this is a huge bonus for any business, and it's not a common feature when looking at other WordPress page builders.

Keeping your website optimized is easier said than done, so it pays to understand how this is accomplished and to work with the right tools from the beginning.

Always Responsive and Excellent User Experience (UX)

Because we use Oxygen Builder, we can develop websites for all browsers and devices. This is regardless of screen size or the type of device being used to browse your website. We make sure everything scales right, and thanks to our clean code, any future modifications are easy to integrate.

The user experience (UX) is vital for the success of any business or its website. This means making sure that they can interact with your site and connect with you if need be. Chat services and support tickets and queries all require fast response times.

There's no room for lag, crashes, disconnects, or unresponsive interfaces. With Oxygen Builder, that all goes away. Our Oxygen developers ensure nothing gets in the way of bogging down what should always be a smooth and painless user experience.

Accessibility Never Takes a Back Seat

Your website is the face of your business, so you want to ensure that you can extend your best services through it.

Achieving an accessible website is possible for us thanks to Oxygen Builder. Developing pages that all ages and backgrounds can navigate and use becomes simple. Oxygen Builder allows Oxygen developers to create custom websites with scalable pages and use fonts suitable for readers with vision impairment.

We can also create contrast modes for color-blind users and add audio aids for the hearing impaired. The more inclusive you are to all your customers, the more users will appreciate your brand and return as loyal customers. Not only is this the right thing to do, but many businesses don’t understand that developing for accessibility opens your website to all audiences. This not only includes visitors with disabilities, but can also include visitors with temporary injuries, or visitors browsing your site from an outdated or defective device.

However, some businesses struggle to balance accessibility with good design. One of the most challenging aspects to balance for any developer is finding the perfect balance between a fantastic design and peak performance. Making an accessible website that's plain, laggy, and no one likes won't benefit anyone. Thanks to our Oxygen developers, you don't have to make that choice.

We can optimize your site to include all these accessibility features without any issues. This is only one of the many ways we can help you and your business stand out from the crowd by using Oxygen Builder to develop a high-performance website for your business.

Creating the Best Custom Website for Your Business with Oxygen Builder

Oxygen developers can build the best custom website on the internet. Any small business website would do well to pick a web development company that uses Oxygen Builder or a similar tool. Without using a tool of this caliber, making a responsive, accessible, and effective website becomes much harder. In many cases, it's impossible. Using page builders like Elementor, Divi, Wix, or Squarespace is an amateur mistake that won’t take your business very far, and you'll eventually benefit from investing in a professional website to help your business get the results you are looking for.

At Stack Mode, we know all about staying ahead of the competition. We live, breath, and code innovation and love helping businesses grow. To learn more about how we can push your business to new heights, don't hesitate to contact us or book a free strategy call.

Did you know that there are more than 1.14 billion sites on the internet today? We’ve come a long way since the first website was published in 1991!

When it comes to CMS systems, WordPress is the CMS of choice for over 60% of all known websites built using a CMS. WordPress is also powering over 40% of all websites on the entire internet!

First, let's look at what a CMS actually is....

CMS stands for Content Management System. It’s software that you use for all aspects of website development. Whether you’re creating a new page, writing a blog, uploading images, or changing the meta descriptions of your pages, all these activities and more happen within your CMS. Here is a snapshot of what the WordPress CRM dashboard looks like:

A CMS allows businesses to develop extremely powerful websites that can host and display data on the front end of their website in a very organized and efficient way. Depending on your business, this data could be anything, some examples include blog posts, houses for sale, cars for sale, wedding cakes, book collections, products for sale, and just about anything you can imagine. This provides a simple way to input and manage the data on the backend, but a very organized and strategic way to display that data on the front end.

Without a CMS, you would need to know in-depth coding to display your content on the internet!

Today, building a website is one of the first steps that a growing business should take. With ever-increasing rates of e-commerce and service-based businesses, and most web traffic coming from search engines, it pays to create a website that helps drive traffic to your site and increases sales.

CMS web design makes designing business websites more powerful than ever. Now, you don’t need to know any coding to set up a website; with CMS web development features, you can put a basic website together using the tools available. Even when working with a professional web development team, it’s helpful to know how your website is built so that you can tell your team exactly what you want and help with upkeep later down the line.

Curious to know more? Keep reading to learn all about CMS systems!

What are the Different Types of CMSs?

Depending on the size and needs of your business, different CMSs will work best for your company’s needs and financial resources.

Open-source CMSs are freely available for use. As mentioned earlier in this article, WordPress is the most popular open-source CMS choice, it is used on over 40% of every website that is currently on the internet, and WordPress is the CMS of choice for over 60% of websites using a CMS. WordPress is not the only CMS, but it's the most popular and well-known. Many businesses, whether they have their website professionally designed & developed, or they build it themselves, are using WordPress. Even though WordPress is most commonly used, there are some other great CMS options, some of which include Joomla, Webflow, and Statamic.

With WordPress, you can download the core files for free and start creating your site within minutes! However, you’ll likely start with a pretty basic template for your site, and if you want it to look more custom, you’ll need to spend time adapting the design or bring in the help of a design & development team. WordPress is not only a top choice for experienced developers building everything from simple brochure websites for small businesses to large applications for Fortune 500 companies, it's also a common choice for DIYers looking to launch a website for their own business. This is because the CMS system that WordPress provides is very powerful and has enough tools for non-developers to put a simple website together.

When you own a website built with a CMS system, you will also need to consider hosting, website security, and updates to your site, some of which will cost money.

CMS Plugins

One of the greatest benefits of using a CMS like WordPress is the plugins that are available to you. Some plugins are free, and others are paid. A plugin is a software that "plugs into" your WordPress site. These plugins add new functionality or extend the existing functionality of your site, allowing you to create virtually any kind of website, from online stores to portfolios, to directory sites.

The WordPress Plugin Directory features over 55,000 different plugins. There is a plugin for just about anything. Some examples of plugin capabilities include shopping features, payment processing, SEO tools, appointment bookings, performance & security tools, animation effects, and so much more!

Adding plug-ins to your site does come at a cost, so don’t assume that using plugins will always give you the ability to create professional-grade websites. While plugins provide an easy way to integrate new features into your site, it's important to be aware that, in most cases, you are trading website performance & security for easy feature integration. Most plugins will affect the performance of your website, this is why expert developers prefer to code new features into your site, which allows you to integrate new features while being mindful of the performance of your site, especially since the performance of your site will directly affect your SEO efforts, visitor usability, as well as other factors that determine the success your website will have in helping you generate more business.

How to Use a CMS for Your Website?

When you log into the CMS, you’ll be taken to your CMS dashboard. Once you have accessed your CMS dashboard, you can navigate to whatever part of the CMS you need. Although all CMSs are designed slightly differently, they all have the same main components. Using different CMS tools, you’ll have the ability to create any content that you need for your website.

While many people are using WordPress, experts and DIYers, it's no secret the WordPress system is powerful and capable of building even the most difficult projects. What most people don't know is that most people using WordPress that are not developers do not even fully realize the power of the system they are working with. To fully understand and be able to use the full power of WordPress, you need to understand how a Content Management System works. There are huge benefits if you know how to use it right. For example:

The WordPress CMS will allow you to neatly and efficiently organize your website's data to ensure your website operates at high performance, this will also help with ensuring building & managing the site makes more sense. One great example of how WordPress's CMS system is meant to operate is the Posts module. Instead of building a new page every time you have a new blog to post, you upload your new blog's content to a new record in the Posts module from the WordPress Dashboard, WordPress will then take that content and display it using your Posts page template.

Where this really starts to get powerful is when you use WordPress's CMS to accomplish similar tasks using the CMS system. For example, new modules can be developed to intake, host, and display all kinds of different website content in the same way. Maybe you have services pages, case study pages, real estate listings, products for sale, or whatever it may be. If you have WordPress's CMS system setup properly, you should not be building new pages whenever you need to add new content like this. Instead, you should have a module setup to intake this content (using WordPress's CMS system) and allow it to do what it does best by managing and displaying that content, rather than building a new page for every occurrence of this same type of content.

To recap, with CMS sites, you can easily organize content. This can be helpful for nearly any business, providing a way to organize and dynamically display data such as real estate listings, cars for sale, small business services, and more.

Designing a Page Using a CMS

Depending on the kind of CMS you use, page design will either start with a template or a “blank canvas,” so to speak. With a template, you can jump right into filling in your content for the page. If you’re not using a template, you’ll need to start from scratch and carefully arrange the page elements and place them where you want them on the page.

When you’re writing text content for your webpage, a CMS allows you to view the content in a WYSIWYG editor. Named as an acronym for “what you see is what you get,” this style of editor shows you your text content as if you were looking at a word processor (think Microsft Word or Notepad). That way, you can see exactly what your end-user will see while you write your page content.

If at any point, you need to see and edit the code behind what you’re writing, you can toggle to an HTML view as well.

Creating Blog Content

Depending on your business and industry, this can provide value in a number of ways. For example, you can use the blog feature to provide industry-related news, update your website members, and more. This is a valuable tool for many businesses, if you've ever heard the saying, "content is king," here is why. The more content you have on your website, the more opportunities you have for search engines to crawl your content and present it to your customers. Creating content relevant to your target audience is an SEO strategy that, if done right, can help you attract customers to your website.

CMSs will let you create blogs directly in the system itself. These are considered separate types of content from a static webpage. When you set up a blog, you set up a container or template page, and then associate different blogs with the blog template.

While this may seem convoluted, this feature allows you to use the same content across multiple sites. Suppose your business relies heavily on digital marketing. In that case, this can be a huge time saver, as you’ll be able to write a piece of content once but use it in multiple places across your site.

Storing Content

Most CMSs will include a “content repository” of sorts. When you upload an image or a file that you want to include on one of your web pages, these files are located inside the CMS. In WordPress, your files will be located in the Media Gallery. Then, you can pull the appropriate files from your content library when you want to place them on a page.

Working With a Web Developer

As you can see, there is a lot of knowledge that goes into CMS web development. While some CMSs are easy to use at first, if you want any in-depth functionality, it’s helpful to have an expert on your team. Getting the most out of your website means building your website for maximum performance and ensuring you are taking advantage of all the strategies that will allow your business to get found by visitors and convert them into sales or leads.

That’s where we come in. With our full-service web design and development services, our team of experts is sure to deliver a website that not only looks great, but helps you generate more revenue and grow your business. We have been working with WordPress for over 11 years, we understand the core files, performance strategies, SEO best practices, and how to ensure your website stays secure.

We develop every site with SEO best practices in mind, so your site has the best chance of being seen by your ideal customers. Our custom web designs help your business stand out from the crowd, and we’ll help you track and optimize your efforts to ensure you see the results your business needs.

CMS Web Design: Start Your Website Now

Using the right content management system is key to building an effective website for your business. CMS web design tools help you with content creation, storage, and more! Knowing how a CMS works will help you develop an effective website that you can expect to get results from.

Curious to know whether your current site is effective? Take a look at our ten signs of an effective website to find out!

When you think about your business, what do you see? The logo is the first thing people will identify with. It has to convey who you are as a company and set the tone for everything else that follows it. Creating a successful logo isn’t an easy task, but there are some common pitfalls to avoid when designing one. Take a close look at the our recommendations before you start your logo design project.

1. Choosing a logo that doesn’t represent your company accurately

You can’t afford to create a logo that doesn’t accurately represent your company because it will send the wrong message. If you run an accounting firm, make sure you don’t use a picture of an airplane in your logo, or people might think you’re an aviation business when they see your sign on the highway. If you own a real estate company, it would be wise to hire a firm with real estate Web Design Services in Reno or any other locale. An excellent way to make sure the logo represents your business correctly is to have it mocked up in various stages of completion. This will give you an idea of how it looks with and without color, if it’s easy to read, and what feeling it generates.

2. Not Getting Feedback from Their Target Audience

When you ask your friends and family about your logo, do they focus on its appearance or how much they love the design? More likely than not, people are going to tell you that they love it. They’re biased – they want to be supportive! So if you’re only getting feedback from people close to you, your logo might not be as good as you think it is.

Putting together a survey can help you get more unbiased feedback and learn about the perceptions of your logo from a broader range of people. In the end, though, don’t always trust surveys because sometimes they don’t reflect reality. When you gather feedback, focus on positive and negative results. But also remember that what people say is not always what people do – so take surveys with a grain of salt.

3. Not Focusing on the Logo’s Meaning

A logo is a visual representation of the company as a whole. And just like the company itself, it should convey a defined message and purpose. When designing your logo, make sure you understand what that meaning is and how your customers will interpret that. The colors used and the shapes designed within your logo all tell a story. In addition to understanding that your logo itself tells a story, also understand the story behind the logo. Some companies choose colors and shapes that they like without thinking about what those choices represent in their industry or company culture. If you are not careful with your design selection, you might end up with something unintended and costly (budget-wise and reputation-wise). If you want your logo done right, you can enlist the services of a real estate web development company in Reno like Stack Mode Marketing Group.

4. Designing a Logo That is Too Busy or Complicated

Your logo is the centerpiece of your brand. It’s what people will see first, and it represents the flavor of your overall business. You don’t want to over-complicate this step by trying to cram too much into an image that isn’t designed to hold more than a few simple elements. You also don’t want overly busy logos to the point where they become almost illegible.

This is a point that’s especially important now when businesses have to compete for attention with the avalanche of content and advertisements we’re all exposed to every day. If your logo is too complicated, people are likely to miss it altogether.

On the other hand, you don’t want your logo looking like something designed by a toddler using Microsoft Paint. You need a professional look that will attract customers and present your business as a modern, capable, and trustworthy entity in the marketplace. If you want a professional logo created, one great way is to hire a well-respected company with real estate Web Development Services in Reno, like the Stack Mode Marketing Group.

5. Focusing on Color and Not the Message

How do colors make you feel? Pretty darn good, right? They lighten your mood and brighten any room. But when it comes to branding your business, keep the focus on what matters most: Your message. The best logos represent a company’s mission, values, vision, and just about everything else that distinguishes them.

Beyond that, it can be helpful to create a color palette for your brand logo. After you’ve narrowed down what colors should be associated with your business and have designed a logo around one of the colors, stick with it throughout all of your branding pieces—from social media images to print ads. A real estate web design company in Reno can help make sure that your color palette is consistent across your design.

How Crucial is a Logo to a Business?

Having a good logo is vital to any business. Having a bad or unmemorable logo can ruin your chances of having customers remember you and your products in the future. A logo should be unique, memorable, and related to what the business produces. It’s not just something nice to have; it’s something that can help make or break a business. Without a good logo, a business may be passed up even if its products are excellent. If you want a memorable logo designed for your company, you can contact Stack Mode Marketing Group today!

Aspects of a Good Logo Design

There are a few critical aspects of a good logo design. One is that it should be unique and memorable. A flat design with no color or uniqueness will likely not be recognized by customers in the future if they see it on a different product, which can hurt your chances of making sales. Customers who remember products that have stand-out designs and products that do not stick out may have problems getting them to remember the product’s name, which it is typically labeled with.

Another critical aspect of a good logo design is that it should be related to what the business produces. For example, suppose you are a car dealership selling used cars. In that case, your logo should connect to cars somehow to be memorable for customers and not confusing. A car-related logo should be used because it’s something people already know about and are comfortable with, so they won’t be confused about the business’s products. This can also promote brand recognition which is very important for just about every industry. People will recognize your logo and may associate your business with the products you make, which can help move your business a long way.

Lastly, a good logo should be easy to recognize and read. A logo design should do its best to stand out without causing too much confusion. This means designing something readable, so customers know exactly what your company name is at first glance but also designing it in a way that makes it stand out and be recognized as unique. If the business name is hard to read or if customers have to spend too much time looking at the logo, your company may lose sales because they’re just not willing to put forth that much effort just for a company they don’t know anything about.

Is your website taking you to the top of the game or is it invisible to the world? Many business owners make the mistake of kicking their feet up once their websites are up and running but the job doesn’t end there. In any case, the fun’s just beginning!

Nothing is more important to a business these days than a website that brings leads. Since your website is your company’s front door, it shouldn’t just be “good” but should take you to greater heights by converting viewers into loyal clients and brand ambassadors. That’s our definition of a great website.

The fact is that there is more involved in running a website than what you see on the screen. And with all the hustle and bustle of governing your business, it’s quite easy to get caught up.

Gladly, Stack Mode Marketing Group is always at your service. Our inventive and gifted web designers and marketing team will ensure your website is always up to par.

Let’s run you through our list of the signs of an effective website so that you can check them off your to-do list. Does this sound like a solid plan? Good, let’s begin.

1. Your Website Is Up to Speed

Website speed matters a lot. Even Google declares that website load speed is a major determinant of a quality site because it concerns its search algorithm, so it’s worth taking note of. However, it’s not only Google. We all hate slow websites. Therefore load speed matters to your users as well.

So how do you increase your website speed? There are several ways to speed up your site.

First, and foremost, yours truly, the number one web design company in Reno- our site management team will monitor, analyse and optimize your website to maximize its output, including speeding up its loading time. We do this using subtle design tweaks to supercharge your site such as switching over to SSD Hosting.

SSD, short for Solid State Drives is the ulterior data storage. Compared to traditional drives, SSD packs 100% electronic componentry, much like how electric trains run at lightning speed in comparison to steam trains.

So if you want a reputable and fast way to heighten your website’s speed at an affordable cost, you should go for SSD Hosting.

2. Your Site Is Mobile-Receptive

More individuals lookup websites using their phones than with desktops or laptops. This means that setting up a mobile-friendly website is not something to consider but a must-have at this point.

To add to that, Google issued a warning that it won’t accept non-mobile-friendly sites on its mobile listings. This is more than enough to tell you how serious this issue is. You can assess if your website is mobile-friendly using Google’s mobile checker.

If it doesn’t pass the mark, you can address the issue using two options. The first option is to look into a mobile website builder. This offers you a side by side version of your site that pops up when your website encounters a mobile-based browser.

Option two is to enlist for a full Responsive Web Design (RWD). RWD is a kind of web design method where your website aligns perfectly on any sort of device as it reacts to the browser. Because this option is somewhat costly, you might want to consider option 1. So you don’t burn a hole in your pocket.

3. Your Website Has A Services Page

Do you have service-specific pages? Does it list the services you provide? If so, do the services have individual pages? If your answer is no to the third question, then your website hasn’t quite cut it. Most sites spread themselves thinly by not having individual serviced pages.

Say you do a search on “digital web services in Reno” and Google has to weigh between two pages- one on “digital web services” and the second on “web services”, chances are the first-page option will win. So consider casting a wider net and offering Google more specific content for it to index and rank.

However, don’t confuse creating specific content with keyword stuffing- you can’t outwit the system for sure. For instance, don’t start developing pages like “Affordable Instant Delivery Approved Digital Web Services Reno”. It is not only nonsensical but can also damage the chances of your website ranking. The best thing to do is to make a list of each service you offer and create a unique page for each of them.

4. Your Website Is Secure and Reliable

Another Google ranking gold card is reliability and safety and this comes from using HTTPS Hosting. HTTPS requires securing your website through the use of an SSL certificate.

Now simply applying HTTPS isn’t instantly going to make your site entirely safe nor will it give you a tremendous uplift on the rankings. The key though is to offer your users even the slightest form of security as they are browsing your website.

However, if you want to take your website security measure a notch higher, go for Web Application Firewall. It helps by constantly scanning your site for any security issues and restricts Malware from encroaching into your site.

Often these measures are delivered with a Security Shield, which when reinforced with a secure HTTPS will show your viewers that you take safety seriously.

5. Your Pages Are Favorably Long

Imagine you’re delivering a sales pitch to your potential clients. You want to be as thorough as possible, therefore, you take the time to explain the ins and outs of your products/ services and answer the tons of questions being shoved at you. At the end of the meeting, they will definitely be convinced that you know your stuff and boom! You have new customers.

The same concept should be applied to your service pages. Are they detailed enough? Do they answer some prime questions your users may have as they are perusing your website? If not, you need to solve this.

First, because your visitors and potential clients will highly appreciate the extra mile you’ve taken to inform them so that they make a sure decision.

Second, because Google takes note of this as well. Google surely notices when a page is nicely detailed to keep viewers glued to your website. Google interprets this as a reduced bounce rate, which serves as a positive signal that your page delivers exactly what your visitor is searching for. A lower bounce rate means a higher ranking on Google’s search engines.

“So how long should my pages be?” You might ask. An effective web page is between 500-1000 words. If content creation doesn’t come naturally to you, lucky for you it is one of the many web design services we provide. Our content creators are always on their tippy-toes to create the best page content that’ll get your site’s ranking skyrocketing.

6. You Utilize A Client Relationship Management System (CRM)

Still using email or spreadsheets to monitor clientele data? Huge mistake.

We recommend setting up HubSpot CRM, it stores every single interaction between your business and both potential and current customers. This includes all your phone calls, emails, and live chats (hoping you are using Live Chat!).

The problem with these traditional means of consumer data storage is that they have proved to be extremely time-consuming and disorganized. With Zoho CRM you can share information quickly, attract more leads and monitor all your statistics.

Additionally, introducing an element of automation in to your business allows you to send emails automatically or set reminders that you can follow up later. This guarantees that nothing gets lost between the cracks.

This high level of specialty is what distinguishes an exceptional business website from an amateur one.

7. All Your Pages Are Optimized

Just because you have a captivating website doesn’t mean your work ends there. Optimizing all your site’s pages is equally important. By this, we mean Metatags (Meta title and Meta description), Heading, internal linking and keyword-rich URLs. Top-performing websites usually have well-optimized pages.

Details such as indicating the location and niche in the Title Metatag and using Headings rich in keywords (especially H1 and H2) help you distinguish yourself as the best in class from the mediocre business.

8. You’re Getting Frequent Reviews

Statistics show that the most successful B2B websites have twice the number of Google reviews than lower ranking websites. If you’re a local enterprise, Google Reviews should be particularly important for you.

Obtaining Google Reviews is quite simple- just ask for them! Start with your loyal customers; you already know who they are. Don’t go overboard with getting hundreds of reviews in a single day though. Just form a habit of asking for reviews consistently, and the best time to do so is when you have a happy and satisfied client in front of you.

Begin this exercise right now, determining to get several reviews each month without fail and you’ll start to see its positive impact on your website.

9. Your Website’s Content is Top Notch

Your site’s content is just as important as its design. Imagine that 95%of the web’s information is in the form of a manuscript. With this in mind, a beautifully fashioned website filled with quality content is a match made in heaven!

• First, great content meets viewers’ expectations. For example, if your website is for real estate, most users will expect to see your property listings and directions to where each unit is located.
• Second, meaningful content is trustworthy. Trust is the ultimate key to persuasive power and it makes visitors believe in what you are offering.
• The best way is to include some testimonials on your website that serve as social proofs of your products/services genuineness. This will bolster passers-by confidence in your offerings.
• Third, is your text optimized for scanning? It’s important to adjust your content to visitors’ browsing tendencies. It’s a well-known fact that viewers don’t read everything on websites, they just sweep through.
• When a new user searches a website, the first thing they do is survey the content and categorize it into comprehensive pieces of information. By doing this a viewer is assessing if a website’s content meets his or her needs thus worth reading.

Here are some tips to make your content easier for user scanning:

• Optimize your content layout for the “F pattern.” Research on eye-tracking has shown that viewers scan pages in an F design. They only read the first few lines then start to skip lines down the page. This is why it is crucial to front-load your text by putting the most important information first so that it catches the eye.
• Break text blocks using images. A page with unending blocks of texts is most likely to be skipped. It is better to break up a text using images, headings or bullet points.
• Fourth, the best site content has minimal distractions. Mobile objects like video ads and animated banners easily capture attention but not in a good way. They offer an annoying and distracting experience. If you want a lower bounce rate of your website, then reduce such distracting objects.
• Fifth, make it easy for visitors to contact you. It may seem rather obvious but contact details can be easily overlooked. Contact information such as email addresses and phone numbers should be easily visible.
• Lastly, high-quality videos and relevant images are visually appealing. People grasp concepts quickly when they are delivered visually. A web designer who understands the meaning of the conventional phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” always provides exemplary imagery on their websites.

10. You Utilize Live Chat

If you are serious about your business growth, then Live Chat should already be among your site tools. And block out any voices of doubt in your mind that tell you customers don’t like to chat. The truth is people love to chat, some even more than phone calls because it feels less intimidating. We have adapted to chatting through apps such as WhatsApp. So don’t overlook this incredible tool as it offers so many benefits it’s hard to name all of them at a go.

Well, for starters, a Live Chat says that you take customer delivery seriously. It offers a fast channel to get your prospect’s contact details. It’s anonymous, free and fast to the client’s advantage. It is also efficient as one can chat on several platforms at the same time.

Finally, if your website is getting traffic, then Live Chat is the best mode of measuring the Return on Investment (ROI) in a short time.

Live Chat makes business running so seamless you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it!

11. What Can Affect Your Website's Success?

How then do you make your website meet users’ expectations? You may have applied all these ten steps but still unsure if your website is effective.

Well, you can’t just assume- you need to assess your web design to see how visitors interact with it as well as their emotional reaction to your design.

TETO Test

We advocate the TETO (test early, test often) module to evaluate the success of your web design project.

• Gather qualitative feedback. Observing and interviewing your users gives you answers to many ‘why’ questions such as why do users hesitate to fill out the payment form. You can fix some drawbacks that make your website’s navigation hard to deal with.
• Accept that you possibly won’t build a perfect product from your first attempt. Product design is a continuous journey for both you and your prospects. This means that you design a product, test it, redesign it and test again.
• Use approximate testing to get the finest solution for your visitors. If you have many remedies to a particular problem but uncertain of which one applies best to your product, you can utilize A/B testing to confirm it. You can then compare users’ response in one scenario against another and see which design works best.

The Re-Design Trap

Eventually don’t fall into the complete re-design trap. All too often web designers recommend the total overhaul of a website in the notion that it will lead to a more successful web experience.

eBay’s redesign disaster should be a great reminder of why users react strongly to drastic and huge changes. A dramatic redesign that offers extremely different visuals and an interaction layout might be overwhelming and produce a negative impact.

Rather than investing in a large scale redesign project, our web design team proposes focusing on subtle improvements. Make baby steps- progressive changes that can enhance conversions over time without users having to feel ambushed.

Wrapping Up

These days a huge chunk of marketing is done online. And amid all the activities you pursue online is your website. The fundamental concepts we’ve mentioned above are what will set your website apart from mediocre ones.

In any case, whether it’s creating a CRM, setting up a live chat or ensuring your website is speedy, secure and cross-browser enabled, Stack Mode will certify that you have a winning website.

Book your free consultation today!

Establishing a solid web presence is essential for sustainable business growth. Today’s consumers browse the internet for products and services. Hence, if you want your services availed, if you want your products bought, and if you want your brand recognized, then developing a website can make those things happen! It should no longer be a question why web development is essential, but still, here are some of the best reasons for how web development can be a decisive business advantage!

Adapting to Trends

Having a website for business should no longer be an option but a requirement! Paper advertisements are becoming obsolete, and people have recently been more inclined to online shopping. In fact, according to some surveys, in the year 2020, eighty to ninety percent of consumers across the globe shopped online. The 21st-century people’s digital lifestyle and desire for instant and convenient things require businesses to adapt by investing in digital marketing. People aren’t interested in services and products that are not relevant, and staying up to date with the latest digital marketing technologies ensures that you adapt to today’s latest trends. The technology market is fluid and very dynamic, and it pays to upgrade and develop your website now and then.

Visibility and Accessibility

The easiest way to reach potential consumers is through the internet! Investing in website development helps your business website increase its visibility by attracting more web traffic in and out. Having a website and developing it to provide user-friendly features and 24/7 service increases its accessibility, which is a massive advantage for your business! Even if your physical store is closed for the night, for weekends, or holidays, customers can still browse your website for products and ask questions through chatbots or FAQs. This is also beneficial if you have customers who are more active on the internet at night. Don’t limit your business opportunities by distance! Enjoy a wider audience reach and gain customers even from different parts of the world.

Brand Promotion and Recognition

If you’re a newly established business, it is imperative to let people know about you. How will you gain customers if people didn’t know you exist? You want to let your potential customers all about you. Who are you? How are you doing? How can you help them? After establishing a website, get a web developer that will design your website in a way that showcases your business’ personality and advocacy that would resonate with your audience’s values.

Low Cost, High Yield

Establishing, developing, managing, and maintaining a website is inexpensive! The search engines where you place your website do not charge you a “website placement fee.” Your costs will be more focused on hiring a professional web development company or purchasing some software or adding another person on the payroll assigned with web development. You don’t even have to spend a lot on ads! By properly structuring and optimizing content, you can save a lot during web development and still get as much traffic and conversions as you would if you were to put ads. It also saves you time and resources. Say, for example, you’re a real estate company; if transactions are made online, then your agents do not have to spend money to talk to potential customers physically. Investing in web development, in the long run, will cut your costs in other areas.

Increasing Conversions and Sales

Your website can be your leading digital marketing platform. People will buy your product depending on their overall experience with your website. Stay tuned with the most recent technologies and implement them on your website. The most updated and most user-friendly websites gain the most conversions and sales. What do online consumers expect from a good website? They need relevant content, seamless navigation, and 24/7 assistance with their queries. Aesthetic web design is also important as people can make purchase decisions based on colors alone!

Stay Competitive

Most businesses have websites, and most of them are investing in regular web development. Your competitors are likely doing it too, so you should too! Part of the reason people adapt to trends is to stay relevant. Having a well-developed website can also improve your credibility and reliability, something that you need if you want to convince your consumers to trust you.

Everyone should agree that having a website and developing it for digital marketing is essential for business. It shouldn’t even be questioned at all! By investing in website development, you adapt to the digital lifestyle trend and stay on top of your game. Establishing and developing a website helps you reach a wider audience resulting in increased conversions and sales without spending too much money or wasted effort on other forms of marketing. Finally, developing a website also means growing your business overall.

Speaking of website optimization, there is a great deal you can do to get more traffic, boost your sales and be at the top of your game. Therefore, learning how to optimize your website is important for your site’s long-term success. It will warrant that your website is working as powerfully as it should.

We would hate for you to miss out on awesome website optimization techniques and simple tweaks that can make a distinction between 5 website views and 50,000 website views.

Remember that the internet is a dynamic industry to work in and as website runners and online businesses, we face the risk of lagging. That said, we will specify ten website optimization tricks and tips you should definitely try to keep you ahead of your competition.

What is Website Optimization?

Website optimization is how you enhance your website so that it works successfully. It encompasses all the marketing and technical strategies to get more traffic, interact with visitors and turn them into your clients using a properly structured method that meets your predefined goals.

There are so many constituent categories of website optimization and in reality; the concept is so massive that it encircles many professions and skills needed to take the necessary corrective and website optimization efforts.

From web design to development and from SEO to display speed, website optimization takes a three-step approach namely Search Engine Optimization (SEO), optimization technical performance and optimizing conversion and user experience.

Simply put, you can’t get traffic if it is unqualified and if your web designer cannot convert it. On the other hand, a technically optimized site will be irrelevant if it doesn’t get qualified traffic.

How to Optimize Your Website in 10 Easy Steps

1. Optimize Your Website for Search Engines

SEO should be at the top of your investment list if you want to raise traffic to your site. There are millions of other websites to compete with and you have to work hard to be the best of the best.

One way to remain a step ahead of the competition is by getting clued on the best SEO tools and techniques.

Hence, when it comes to optimizing your website for search engines:

• Do your keyword search homework.
• Correct broken links.
• Decrease bounce rate.
• Include sitemap.
• Boost page speed.
• Ensure your pages consist of at least 2000 words.
• Acquire more back links.

SEO isn’t only about kick-ass content but also about the user-friendliness of your website. It makes perfect sense, the more sophisticated your website is, the more Google desires to link you.

2. Provide Exemplary Customer Delivery

Great customer service pays off in numerous ways. First, if your client delivery is commendable, customers will buy more of your products and recommend your services to others.

Second, customers are less likely to cancel requests or ask for refunds if they have nothing to complain about.

Third, amazing customer service increases your conversion rate. For example, if a client has to inquire about your services, they’ll want to reach out to you and expect an immediate response, not wait for days. Given two options, more clients prefer purchasing from a company with live support.

Stack Mode Marketing Group offers live chat, email support and round on the clock messaging services. We offer web design services that ensure you are happy 24/7!

3. Decrease Your Website Bounce Rate

Your website bounce rate is the rate of visitors who quit your website without viewing more than one page. The more curtailed your bounce rate, the better for your site.

The following are more of our picks to help get you started:

• Ensure readability.
• Foster website speed.
• Improve your posts’ featured images.
• Update your content.
• Reduce adverts.
• Interlink blog posts.
• Assess various anchor text for website navigation.
• Include related or prominent posts at the bottom of your articles.
• Rearrange posts on the category page section to display the most viewed.

Improving your bounce rate will also greatly aid your SEO.

4. Improve Your Website Speed

Increasing your website speed will have a positive impact on search engine ratings and conversions.

Funny enough, so many people create new pages and posts every day without thinking twice about how their site is functioning in speed. This is a serious issue and it is very important we help you tackle it if your website is running at a snail’s pace.

Sure enough many of you have dealt with websites that took ages to load before only to give up and search for another website. If you’ve clicked the ‘back’ button on a website before, what makes you think that your visitors won’t follow suit if your site is super slow?

Remember, Stack Mode isn’t only a web design company but we also offer a wide range of other services including getting to the root cause of a slow running website and helping it to run faster.

5. Update Your Website Frequently

Consistently upgrading your website will greatly enhance your search engine rankings, increase your conversions and lessen your bounce rate.

Only a small percentage of visitors will be interested in reading content that was relevant in the 1990s. No one wants to buy an outdated product either.

Visitors that come to your site want to be convinced that your website is the best and it is worth looking into. So make it worth their while.

Below are a few tips to keep in mind when updating your website:

• Create fresh blog content.
• Indicate dates in posts.
• Repair broken links.
• Copyright date.
• Upgrade social media accounts.

6. Conduct a Split Test on Your Conversion-Generating Pages

Because split testing is mostly reserved for advanced bloggers and website owners, this topic can overwhelm newbies, leaving them confused in a pool of supposedly helpful information. So we will explain in the simplest way possible because we want you to succeed.

Split testing is much like conducting a controlled experiment to improve a website metric such as form completions, purchases or clicks. Split testing is often used to evaluate changes to registration pages, signup forms calls to action and any other website component where a quantifiable goal can be fostered.

You can change nearly every element within your web pages for a split test including:

• Layout: the setup and size of buttons, forms and menus.
• Visual elements such as colors, pictures and videos.
• Text: descriptions, headlines and calls to action.
• Visitor flow: how a visitor interacts with your pages.

Here are a few simple split testing practices to begin with:

• Home in on the call to action: This text conforms differently to the type of audience.
• Removing some page elements: Fewer elements offer fewer distractions from the conversion intention.
• Offer symmetric and coherent experiences: Create steady test changes throughout the user flow to enhance conversions at each stage of the process.

So what does split testing accomplish? It helps you assess conflicting opinions and your site visitors will indirectly guide your final choice on the best design.

7. Track and Analyze Your Traffic

Again this is something a lot of website owners take for granted or fail to understand its essence. Tracking and analyzing can open doors for your website or blog in surplus ways, all of which earn you a huge deal of income.

Do you know how many times visitors click on your website’s pages? Which is the most clicked page? How long does the average user of your website access your content? If you have no clue how to answer these questions, then how can you know the direction your business is heading and most importantly where are you going wrong?

Tracking and analyzing your website gives you a clue on what you are doing wrong thus changing your strategy until the problem is resolved.

Google Analytics offers a plethora of benefits when it comes to setting up goals to measure and improve your website performance. These goals are your website conversions in the form of email signups, sales, video watching, leads and more. You can then measure how effective your online marketing is using these goals and whether you are getting a return on any advertising incurred.

8. Polish Up Your Website Filter

You may be tempted to create an intricate website thinking it looks sophisticated but no one wants to wander through a website like a treasure hunt game where they have to keep guessing and searching for clues.

When a user visits your website, you want to guide them through an incredible tour that prompts them to effortlessly click from one page to another.

Here is an example of what we mean:

Home page -> Learn about us -> Services page -> Solutions page -> Blog post -> Related blog post -> Contact page.

The goal is to get your visitors to engage with your website without leaving. It is important to scheme out how you want your visitors to maneuver through your website and ensure that every page is optimized for what you want to achieve.

9. Have a Killer Website Design

A huge chunk of website optimization comes from improving your web design. It is right next to SEO. Though SEO does most of the work by bringing traffic to your site, the design is equally important.

Just imagine clicking on a top-listed result on Google for one of your searches only to find out that the web layout is unappealing! You immediately click the ‘back’ button and search for something else.

If you suspect that your visitors are doing the same, you can always reach out to us and we will assign you to our five-star web designer who will revamp your website from top to bottom. You must try to stand out from the crowd with a breathtaking web design that makes you the shepherd rather than the sheep.

10. Revise Your Website Content

Truly content is king! Remember that creating articles isn’t just about churning post after post. It is about solving issues that people have or offering ways to meet their needs, inspiring them or showing them stumbling blocks they can avoid.

Awesome website content should appeal to the crowd, whether it will involve adding some images, videos or audio files on your posts.

However, sometimes fresh blog ideas are hard to come by no matter how hard you crack your head. It’s not that you’ve lost your touch or that you care any less about your website but we all run out of things to say at times.

If you hit rock bottom, the best web design company in Reno, Stack Mode gladly steps in to remedy this situation. Our creative content creators can help you write eye-catching content that will keep your visitors hitting the ‘click’ button.

Summary

These are 10 actionable tips to help you get the most out of your website. We certainly hope these tips will help you massively increase your website traffic.

Let us know which website optimization tip(s) made a tremendous impact on your site. And if you have other honorary mentions we are more than happy to hear them.

Call on Stack Mode Marketing Group for the ultimate website optimization and any other web design services.

Go big or go home- that’s our motto!

You are on your way to creating a website as an initial step to establishing an online presence. Congratulations! You’re on the right track! But wait, hold up! Designing a website does not only consider coding knowledge. Before hiring a Web Development Company in Reno to go technical and set up the site, you have to sit down and do an important step that businesses should do before entering the world of digital marketing.

This step is called market research, and it should never be underestimated. Market research is an effort to get to know one’s target markets and competitors to determine if your product/service or website will be feasible and successful. Therefore, it would be best to integrate market research as an essential business strategy when creating a website.

Here in Stack Mode Marketing Group, we create 100% custom and highly effective websites for our clients to generate more business. Through market research, we learn about your business and your goals, helping customize your website to your specific needs.

Having a good website does not only mean having a visually aesthetic one but also invites your target audience, delivers well, and solves real-life problems. Another thing to consider is your online visibility. Will your website reach your target audience in the middle of a thousand other similar websites? Market research can help you with that. It provides a sturdy archive of information to serve as the foundation for all your website design and development strategies. It gives insight into many things that will help you develop your website, attract your target audience, and engage and drive conversions.

Three fundamental aspects to include in your market research assignment

1.Target Audience and Demographics

First identify a particular group of people who might be interested in your products and services. It is not enough to just know who they are, but also to know their personality, their problems, and desired solutions. In this aspect, imagine being tasked to get a present for a person who is a stranger. Imagine also that despite not knowing the person, you want to put extra effort into getting a gift that he or she will appreciate, which is practically useful and meaningful. How do you proceed? You will have to research about this person. You might want to know their gender, age, hobbies, likes and dislikes, what they do for a living, and other relevant questions. In the process of learning about your target audience, you would like to develop a customer persona. A persona in digital marketing terms is a fictional character that serves as a proxy for your target audience. It represents the user type you expect to engage with your website content. The more you understand your persona/s, the more you can develop your website that directly targets them.

• To learn more about your audience and develop your persona, start your market research with the following valuable questions.
• Who are your target customers?
• What are their key demographics?
• What are their problems? What are their needs?
• What solutions do they need solved?
• What are their interests? What do they value?
• Why would your business be relevant to them? How can you help them?
• Where do they search online? What websites are they using? What social media platforms are they present on?
• Who and what influences their purchase decisions?
• How do they make transactions?

These are some of the fundamental questions required to get to know more about your customers. Your goal is to develop a customer persona that will enable you to connect with your real-life clients personally. Understanding your audience’s wants and needs will help you design and create a website that will naturally appeal to them. Learning about your target market is the most important and one of the primary steps in business, whether it be creating a website or a product. Here in Stack Mode Marketing Group, we especially have experience in working with start-up businesses, and we have helped many before you in terms of target market research.

2. Competition

Competition is fierce in whatever industry. Your business might still be new, but it does not excuse you to start shy and lay low in the competition, which is why your market research should have information about your competitors as well! Identify first your main competitors and then do your research. Apart from knowing how much they earn, here are a few key points that you should know about your competitors:

• How did they create their website?
• What content are they putting up on their website? How does it look?
• Does their website look well-maintained? Is their website SEO optimized?
• What strategies or campaigns are they doing to attract customers?
• How are their clients responding to their websites?

Apart from this, the best way is to evaluate your top competitors’ websites and experience it from a customer’s perspective. Is it user-friendly? Is it engaging and interactive? Is it appealing? Are you enticed to buy it? Research about your competitors will give you insights into why customers are buying from your competitors. If you are still new in the business, you don’t necessarily have to take a competitive approach and perspective if that would seem overwhelming for you in the first place. Instead, you can take a more “friendly” approach and conduct this research with the mindset that you are looking up to these more popular or mainstream businesses as your role models in terms of goals for success. Later on, you can level up your market research to stay competitive in your industry. Get professional help from a Reno Web Development Company with a solid team of researchers who know what, where, and how to research other business websites.

3. Conversion Strategies

Another vital aspect of market researching is conversion strategies that your website can use to transform lookers into customers. Your website will contain basic information about your company and your products and elements of conversion strategies.
Essential webpage elements that can help you score leads include:

• SEO optimized keywords/content
• Powerful headlines
• Call to Actions (CTAs)
• User-friendly features: fast download speed, accessibility, mobile compatibility
• Reviews and testimonials

Knowing which conversion strategy to use will also depend on the information you obtain from knowing your target and competitors. In this aspect, let us focus on SEO. SEO is currently one of the best digital marketing strategies to integrate into your website content. The purpose of SEO is to rank up your website on search engine results to increase the amount of traffic that comes in and out of your website. What’s the use of your newly made website if there is no opportunity for people to come across it? Researching about SEO strategies and implementing them is essential. Many companies even have a designated job position for this! Indeed, SEO is another field of expertise that you should invest in. Simply throwing in keywords will not do. To compile a list of effective keywords, you must know your audience and what topics are relevant for them. You can also use what keywords your competitors use. Or you could hire a Reno web design company who have a team of designer and SEO specialists that can work together to make sure your website is designed to be conversion-ready and SEO optimized.

These are just a few of the basic things you have to include in your market research assignment. Conduct your research well and apply what you have learned in website design. However, you don’t stop here. Don’t make the same mistake as other businesses do. Market research is a dynamic and continuing process. You are learning about a relatively volatile market. Your audience’s interests adapt to trends, and your competitors’ strategies also change. Consumer problems become louder over time which is why your marketing strategies are not here to stay. Even after successfully setting up your website, you still have to conduct research continually. Regular market researching allows businesses to remain competitive and relevant for an extended time. Get in touch with web development services in Reno where a team of researchers can be tasked with regularly conducting market research and website maintenance for you, from pre-launch of your website and beyond.

Think before you act.” This famous quote applies to businesses as well, “Research before you act.” Market research is an essential step before building your website. It allows you to identify your target customers, what your competitors are doing, and what strategies you can integrate in your website. Additionally, market research is a continuing process. If you do not know how to start, get professional help from a web development company Nevada such as Stack Mode Marketing Group. Our team consists of many specialists from web design to research to SEO to make sure that everything is taken into account before and after your website has been established for our website development services.

Can’t wait to create your new business website? Contact us now! Let us see how we can help you start establishing your online presence!

Unsure which marketing method between SEO and PPC is right for your business? Chris Foti, the founder and President of Stack Mode Marketing Group, provides valuable insight into where these strategies fit within your long-term marketing goals.

Let’s dive right in!

A common question we are asked as marketers is “which between SEO and PPC would make my business more profitable?” The truth is there is no definite answer because it all depends on your business’ current circumstance, market place and objectives.

Stack Mode is currently big on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Foti’s over 10 years experience in the marketing industry has taught him well that when organic search is performed efficiently, it can deliver more volume at every lead that surpasses paid search.

However, new enterprises will have to work extra hard on SEO whereby paid search may offer faster results in search marketing than the former. That said, it all depends on your digital marketing initiatives. Understand the market and how people utilize the web in the best way to evaluate whether organic search or paid search or a merging of both is right for your distinct case.

In this post, we will cover the pros and cons of both SEO and PPC as a marketing technique and offer hints to selecting the best fit for your unique business needs. We will also touch on how integrating SEO and PPC will enhance the results of your search marketing efforts.

SEO vs. PPC

There are two major contrasts between SEO and PPC. First, the traffic from organic search via SEO is free whereby PPC traffic has a cost for every click.

In many situations, SEO and PPC produce the best results when they are aligned strategically and integrated but we’ll let you decide after you’re done reading this post.

SEO Marketing Strategy: Boost Your Organic Traffic

SEO involves improving your organic traffic on the search engine results page (SERP). When you are searching on Google you will see that organic listings rank after the paid ads or shopping results.

To successfully increase your SEO rankings, you must know how to properly optimize your website such as ensuring the search engines can crawl into your site, upgrade your content, index it and increase the credibility of your website.

With Google’s algorithm being influenced by more than 200 ranking factors, it takes a top of the line marketing team to understand how to win the game. Lucky for you Stack Mode Marketing Group has an international class team of marketers who can help you stay ahead with technical SEO, on-page SEO, link building, content marketing, UX, you name it!

However, ranking is not a walk in the park! In comparison to other channels, SEO is multiplex and considering that Google constantly upgrades its algorithm, it requires the right blend of multiple factors for your website to rank well.

The Advantages of SEO

1. Cost-effective: Organic SEO offers one of the most affordable ways to enhance your site’s ranking and can place you right in the eyes of your potential clients when they run a search for businesses similar to yours.

2. More attraction: SEO averagely attracts 10 times more clicks than paid search. That means that you get a wide flow of traffic to your site without investing in ads.

3. Targeted content: With SEO you can develop content that targets every stage of the funnel without having to pay for any click.

4. Stability: Organic SEO offers more stability. If you do your site optimization right, your rankings should remain stable for longer.

5. Sustained outcome: Once you’ve attained robust rankings with SEO, you are guaranteed sustained results because your site shows to prospective clients 24/7.

6. Free organic clicks: When you get your SEO strategy just right, you are rewarded with free traffic. Obviously, it requires resources and time investment but clicks won’t cost you a cent!

The Disadvantages of SEO

Every coin has two sides and while SEO has a pretty glossy side, it has some setbacks that don’t always make it the right strategy for your business.

Let’s take a look at the cons of SEO:

1. No guarantees: Even with a tight and sound strategy, you are not certain to outshine competitors. When it works though, you’ll definitely earn the big bucks. It is an imperfect technique that needs persistence and patience.

2. Time-consuming: SEO takes time, which can be mind-boggling and tiresome particularly considering that Google makes a ton of updates to its algorithm each year. It can take months for your site to rank in the top searches for competitive keywords. You’ll always need to be in the know with any algorithm changes to stay ahead of your competition.

3. The process is never ceasing: Rather than being a one-time strategy, SEO is a prolonged process that needs sustained investment. Apart from constant improvements and tweaks, you’ll need to be aware that your website will never be 100% optimized. But our Stack Mode team will ensure to grant you 99.9% optimization with kick-ass content creation, link building and ongoing technical SEO audits. We promise to make your investment worthwhile by hiring us as your specialist agency.

PPC Marketing Strategy: Laser-Focused Visibility

PPC consists of paid clicks on search engines run through Bing Ads or Google Ads. PPC opportunities include search ads, shopping ads, YouTube ads, display ads, Gmail ads and re-marketing.

Unlike SEO that offers free clicks, PPC ads need you to pay each time a visitor clicks on your ad. With PPC, you can therefore spend even thousands of dollars a day to lure visitors to your website.

Even with its high cost, PPC comes with its perks. Here are some of the profits of using PPC:

The Pros of PPC

1. Not susceptible to Google’s algorithm updates: With PPC, you don’t have to keep checking for Google’s changes to its algorithms. You’re already bidding on the top margin so your organic searches won’t make much of a difference.

2. Fast and easy: PPC allows you to run quick A/B tests and split tests with Google Ads. This enables you to take a continued testing approach to run your campaign and drive consistent enhancements and better returns.

3. Data benefit: Running a PPC operation offers you volumes of data on the ads and keywords that visitors click on before buying your products or services together with those that lead to a purchase. That means that you can promptly make upgrades to your campaign for better optimization and improvement of your ROAS (return on ad spend).

4. Target customers with ads: With the right advertising formats such as video ads, search ads, shopping ads and more you can amplify your reach to the audience and stir them up to purchase or make an inquiry. Organic listings lack the same variety of strategies to target your audience.

5. Hire a small expert team: Unlike SEO, you need a smaller team of experts to run and manage your PPC campaign. In most cases, you’ll only need a paid search specialist and a copywriter to write striking ads and landing pages.

6. More targeting opportunities: PPC offers you the chance to amplify your business’ presence on search engines through call outs, phone numbers and enhanced site links. So you have increased chances to capture a searcher’s attention to your ad.

7. Increased visibility: Whether on desktop or mobile searches, PPC ads are always at the top of the page and the first thing a searcher views before any organic results. PPC gives you that competitive edge that is impossible to achieve using SEO alone.

8. Guarantees instant results: Immediately after your PPC campaign launches you will begin to notice clicks, conversions and traffic. The same results take months to achieve with SEO.

The Cons of PPC

While PPC provides a plethora of advantages to businesses, it has its fair share of hitches too. Here they are:

1. Traffic ceases when ads turn off: You need to consider if your website will survive once you click the off switch on your PPC campaigns. It can be tempting to become too dependent on PPC alone but a successful website needs an all-rounded strategy approach that assures no controversies in the future.

2. Too costly: You’ll need to factor people costs in addition to click costs. You will have to hire an agency, a freelancer or a marketing team to monitor your campaigns.

3. Higher initial investment: Starting a PPC campaign can be too expensive especially for a start-up enterprise given that you’ll need to pay for clicks. Moreover, as new adversaries begin to advertise, click costs can increase. You may incur more costs to drive a conversion.

4. Risk of wasting clicks and money: With PPC, the more you invest the better the results in terms of an increased number of conversions and clicks. However, you’ll have to keep an eye on your conversion rate because if your traffic isn’t converting, your hard-earned cash and clicks will go down the drain.

5. Higher click costs in some industries than others: By now you are aware that traffic from PPC advertising isn’t free. You’ve got to pay for every single click on your website via an ad. But some industries have higher click costs than others with the insurance niche grossing with the highest CPC of $ 17.55 in the U.S. Other niches with a high CPC include real estate, e-commerce, stock market, loans and attorney.

SEO or PPC: Which One is Right for Your Business?

It’s not possible to say which one of these two strategies is the right one for your business because every corporation is its unique set of needs.

Therefore, if you choose to venture into a single channel, you’re going to consider your business’ specific situation including the long-term and short-term goals and balancing the cost of investment against the rate of income received.

Here are some prevalent scenarios that would dictate which channel to go for:

• If you want to raise awareness of your business using top-of-the-funnel traffic, SEO is the best to emphasize a strong content strategy.
• If you want quick marketing and traffic results despite the toll, best to go for PPC.
• If you’re looking to assess the success of a new product or service, choose PPC because it is simpler to attract traffic to your website, you can plan your budget and flip the off switch on your ads if need be.
• If you already have leads from other sources but want to invest in your long-term returns, use SEO.

Using SEO and PPC Together For Better Results

In reality, it is hardly possible to use either one of the search strategies and forgo the other because when integrated, they both support each other for greater results.

Therefore, if your pocket allows, it is better to use both to balance your short-term and long-term results.

Below are some key benefits of running SEO and PPC together:

• Increasing your brand’s reputability and awareness through both organic and paid searches.
• Conversion and keyword data can be channeled from PPC into organic search (SEO).
• Targeting visitors at all phases of the purchase journey from research to comparison to purchase and feedback using commercial keywords.
• Increasing your total traffic volume by targeting clicks in organic and paid searches for effective keywords.
• Assessing your keyword strategy in PPC before attending to long-term SEO techniques.
• You can easily move high-volume, low-converting or high-cost keywords from PPC to organic search.
• Re-marketing enables you to interact with visitors from the get-go using organic search and personalized messaging.
• A/B evaluation of ad copy and landing pages can be funneled into your organic listing.

With the benefit overkill offered by both SEO and PPC, we must look into the various ways to integrate the two for increased online visibility.

1. Utilizing Shopping Ads to Increase Leads

If you run an e-commerce business, you definitely can’t afford to overlook shopping ads. Even if you already have a strong SEO campaign, you’ll also need a captivating and efficient pay-per-click strategy.

Potential buyers are constantly drawn to product listing ads that display images and prices on the SERPs. We all want to buy products that we can view alongside their prices. So, you should be investing in shopping ads besides SEO to ensure that you’re increasing your visibility on SERPs and concealing all options on how your clients want to look into competitor products or services.

2. Harness the Power of Ads and Apply Data to Enlighten Your SEO Campaign

Your PPC process can feed the SEO strategy to help gain meaningful insights. Data and results obtained from ad headlines, conversions, calls-to-action (CTAs) and messaging can be used to heighten your SEO campaign built on keyword groups and terms that have the most ideal conversion rate.

This analysis from your PPC strategy offers you a hint of the areas that might require more focus for increased success.

Looking to create successful ads and efficiently optimize your landing pages? Our PPC experts will research all there is to know about your business model to provide a more customized and dedicated search campaign. This way you can centralize your attention on other strategic tasks.

3. Refocusing

Did you know that you can generate ads to target people who have already visited your website? This strategy is called re-marketing or re-targeting and is very efficient in capturing visitors who have already interacted with your site.

For instance, a user places your product on their basket but does not finish purchasing. You can serve them ads to motivate them to complete the transaction through banner ads on the Google Display Network or SERPs ads.

4. Brand Bidding

It’s quite common for another company to bid on your company’s name. Sounds shocking? Yes, businesses often use ads to bid on another business’ brand name. Though you could top the organic search for your brand name, an adversary that bids on your brand name stands a higher chance of beating you on the SERPs.

In such situations, you can use PPC to bid on your brand’s terms to increase your visibility, meaning that a user is most likely to wind up clicking on your website despite the route they take to your site, either organic or paid clicks.

Which Strategy Matters the Most?

In our experience with real estate, retail, travel, telecommunications and pretty much any other industry in the market, we can say that without a shadow of a doubt that an integrated search approach using both SEO and PPC is the best for optimal results.
Though not a perfect fit for some businesses, companies that experience high growth often develop a holistic search engine campaign that synchronizes SEO and PPC rather than each in isolation.

What are your experiences with SEO or PPC? We would love to hear your achievements or lessons from using either SEO or PPC or both of them together. You can always reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Get in touch with us today!

WordPress has been the talk of the town for some time now and it’s easy to see why. At its core, WordPress is the most seamless and prominent way to set up your own blog and website. On top of that, over 40% of the web is powered by WordPress.

You don’t have to be tech-savvy to build your website using WordPress but you can always reach out to Stack Mode Marketing Group for assistance with web design and web development services. Stack Mode Marketing Group boasts its five-star reputation that keeps clients coming back for more!

What is WordPress?

WordPress is an open-source Content Management System (CMS) authorized by GPLv2. Ideally, WordPress is as free as the air you breathe! This means you have the freedom to download, install, utilize and modify it. In the end, WordPress makes website development accessible even to the most old-school non-technical person on the planet.

Who Invented WordPress?

The origin of WordPress is extensive… WordPress was created in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little as an independent project branching from the previous b2/cafelog venture.

WordPress has greatly evolved since 2003 and largely due to the huge community of contributors; it has become the most sought after solution for website development.

What Kind of Websites Does WordPress Power?

Though for a long time WordPress was only used to create blogs, in this day and age, thanks to improvements to the primary code and WordPress’ huge ecosystem and themes, WordPress empowers you to develop any type of website your heart desires.

Not only is WordPress a powerhouse for a massive number of blogs and business sites, but it’s also the go-to tool for setting up eCommerce stores as well. The following are just a few examples of what you can create with WordPress:

• Blogs
• Business websites
• eCommerce stores
• Forums
• Membership sites
• Portfolios
• Resumes
• Social networks
• Anything else you can think of…

Many of our clients often ask “Why do I need WordPress when my old website works pretty much the same?” “Do I need to change to WordPress from my business’ current platform?” Let’s dive into those questions and see if it’s the right fit for you next website.

Why WordPress Is The Best Platform For Your Business?

Because of its powerful qualities, WordPress is used by world-class brands and businesses such as Sony, The New York Times, Disney, Time Magazine, The Rolling Stones, Facebook, The New Yorker, Microsoft and even The White House just to name a few.

Why should you follow suit?

1. WordPress Is Open Source

This is the biggest factor that makes WordPress so cutting edge. It is completely free! But while you’ll need to incur a few pennies for hosting, WordPress will never charge you to use it unlike its alternatives such as Squarespace and WIX.

2. WordPress Is Straightforward to Design with Plugins and Themes

Interestingly, many WordPress users have no prior knowledge of web designing or programming. If you and IT are like water and oil, the best solution is to use WordPress. It offers thousands of free website themes to choose from that suit any kind of website.

The best part is these templates are painless to customize as they have an options panel enabling you to create alluring sliders, switch colors, change the background, upload logos and personalize the website to your preferences without writing a single line of code.

Plugins allow you to include custom functionality in your site. Similar to themes, WordPress avails thousands of free and premium plugins.

3. WordPress Is Completely Secure

WordPress offers an entirely safe platform to run your website. Furthermore, you can find quick assistance if you ever have any concerns. There are loads of blogs, forums, Facebook groups, tutorials and developers you can turn to for free and paid aid if need be.

Unfortunately, in the real world, the internet can be unpredictable as hackers are always on the hunt for sites they can sink their preying hands into. We recommend Wordfence to protect your WordPress account against internet threats such as malware and brute free attacks.

4. WordPress Is Easy to Manage

WordPress has an built-in update management system that enables you to upgrade your themes and plugins from your WordPress admin control board.

WordPress also includes a WordPress backup login to protect your information from hacking or accidental loss. The backup login allows you to set up backups simultaneously and securely store them in an isolated spot.

Furthermore, you can monitor your WordPress site from any location using WordPress mobile apps. This gives you more flexibility.

5. WordPress Can Handle Numerous Types of Media

Good news- WordPress doesn’t limit you to text writing. It comes with an integrated media uploader to import images, audio and video files.

To top it off, WordPress underpins oEmbed activated websites that allow you to embed Instagram pictures, YouTube videos, SoundCloud audio and Tweets by simply pasting the URL in the WordPress post editor.

6. WordPress is SEO Friendly

WordPress is constructed using standard conformity top-of-the-line code and creates semantic markup. In layman’s terms, this feature makes WordPress lovable by Google and other search engines. This explains why WordPress powered sites often rank higher than other sites in search engines.

By configuration, WordPress is extremely SEO friendly. You can also apply additional WordPress SEO plugins to integrate your website even further.

Before you get super riled up to create your WordPress site, you need to be aware that there is a difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

Let's take a look at the difference....

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

The difference between the two stems from the party that hosts the website.

With WordPress.org, you host your own blog or website via a third-party hosting source. This is a hands-on experience where you get to download your WordPress software, purchase a domain name on a third-party site and manage your server.

If this sounds tiresome to you, WordPress.com offers to host your website for you. With this option, you don’t need to download any software or regulate a server. If you select the WordPress.com option, your website’s URL will be www.xxxxxxx.wordpress.com. If you decide to upgrade your WordPress.com account and purchase a custom domain from a third-party source, your URL will be www.xxxxxxxx.com.

How To Decide Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org

To decide which one of the two is a better fit for your business, let’s explore a few of the pros and cons of both options so you can make an accurate decision.

Both platforms are exemplary- it all depends on your needs. Therefore the perks and drawbacks are subject to your specific goals.

WordPress.org

Pros	Cons
Ideal if you want full control over customizing and managing your website.	There is a lot of work involved in managing a WordPress.org website such as buying and creating your own domain name, editing your website’s code, installing and uploading plugins and themes and monitoring your site’s security.
It is free to utilize.	You have to incur the costs of everything needed to run a website.

WordPress.com

Pros	Cons
An all-in-one choice that does most of the hard labor for you such as managing your server, buying a domain or paying for your hosting.	The free version restricts you to a subdomain and you can’t upload custom plugins or themes.
Avails several customization options that help to build out your website in your own preferred design.
Has both a free and paid version where the premium upgrades offer more control and features in addition to the option of purchasing a custom domain via a third-party site.

To harness the full power that WordPress has to offer, we’ve compiled a few tips and tricks to help you create a website that is purposeful and user-friendly.

WordPress Handy Tips

1. Don’t stray from the basics if you want to get a kick out of your WordPress theme and create the best user impact that makes your business and website content stand out.
2. Avoid underscores when naming your WordPress files. Use dashes instead. This is because Google considers underscores as joiners, making your file seem like one huge Word blob. That can affect your SEO. Dashes indicate that your SEO content is separate words. Therefore, use www.xxxxxx.com/I-am-SEO rather than www.xxxxxx.com/I_am_SEO.
3. WordPress’ online support is always available to address all your questions and concerns while you are creating your website. Just reach out to the WordPress experts using many forums and contact information they have provided on their website.
4. Remember to back up your site frequently. That way if you ever experience technical difficulties, you’ll have everything you need to recover your content. The Snapshot Pro plugin is made especially for backing up WordPress content.
5. Always keep tabs on your website’s performance to know what appeals and doesn’t appeal to your visitors. WordPress offers several plugins for this task and you can also use Google Analytics which is just as effective.
6. Set up custom permalinks. Permalinks are indefinite URLs that are kept static for the conceivable future. They come in handy to improve user experience and enhance your WordPress site SEO.
7. Ensure your WordPress site is mobile friendly. These days people are looking up online businesses while on their mobile devices. A plugin will help you attain an accessible mobile WordPress configuration.
8. Streamline your WordPress site and plugins frequently. WordPress will inform you when updates are ready. This will ensure your website looks crisp and runs effectively.
9. Select a CRM that synchronizes with your WordPress site. A CRM can mitigate the way users interact with your website and business. Some of the best CRMs to use with WordPress include Zoho CRM, Capsule CRM, Agile CRM, Insightly and HubSpot.

So what’s So Powerful about WordPress? It’s The World’s Most Popular Platform for Building a Website!

WordPress isn’t incredibly popular for no reason. If you want to create any type of website from a blog to an online store, WordPress is a great option that should be a part of your research into what platform you will use to develop your site.

Remember that WordPress.com and WordPress.org are not the same things. In many cases, WordPress.org is what you want to fashion your website as it gives you more control and ownership as well as opens access to all the perks of the WordPress group.

You can always call on us for unique and effective website development services. Our creative team of web developers, SEO professionals, and digital marketing experts strive to deliver our clients the highest-quality work on every project.