Websites Archives - Branding and Marketing

Why Does Your Website Need SPEED?

GTmetrix analyzing Branding and Marketing — GTmetrix tells you what is good about your website load speed and where you need improvement,

Fast! Websites have to load FAST!

Why is it so important to have your website load quickly?

Many people will click away if they don’t see it right away.

Maybe even more importantly, part of Google’s algorithm is connected to how fast your pages load.

What makes it load slowly? There can be a whole host of things (including your host) but it’s often the photos or your formatting. If you have a website like https://www.tubev.sex/?hl=hi, you are bound to have many images and files that need to load quickly. However, if your website takes too long to load, you will be more likely to drive customers away.

One of the sessions I attended at WordCamp Columbus was led by Tom Cottrill who presented on “Satisfying the Need for Speed - Making WordPress as Fast as Possible.”

You can see what my website needs to fix!!

One diagnostic resource that he mentioned that I found especially helpful was GTmetrix because you can enter your website, then it will tell you how fast the site loads and diagnose what needs to be fixed.

There was lots of great data and examples.

Another suggestion that Tom had was for those who have sites with lots of photos. Tom suggests you consider using Optimizilla to change the size of the images or maybe even host your images on a CDN - a Content Delivery Network. He suggested AmazonS3 , CloudFlare or JetMax.

By hosting your visuals outside your site, your visuals will get pulled into your website which will allow it to load much more quickly than actually hosting them in your media library.

WordPress Leads the Way for Managed Content Websites

Wondering about upgrading your website from a privately developed format into something that “anyone” in the company can hop into and make updates?

If so, you’re not along. WordPress is the platform of choice for one in four of the websites on the internet, according to Matt Mullenweg in his speech on the State of the Word 2015.

There are many reasons why it is the website software of choice.

I wondered, “How many different kinds of content management software are there?”

Although I started to count all the types of site on this chart, I stopped after 67… seemed kind of ridiculous.

WordPress Has the Easiest to Operate Managed Content System

I think that WordPress really has the easiest to operate managed content system. You can even install some plug ins that offer tutorial videos inside the dashboard to help you step by step. CMMS is a type of software that is useful for optimizing business operations all in one, like the Axxerion’s computerized maintenance management system for keeping on top of orders, accounts, etc.

Wondering about using WordPress? After really evaluating SquareSpace and Wix, I wonder why you wouldn’t select WordPress.

Interesting that both of those chose to run ads on the superbowl. SquareSpace was selected as one of the worst ads on the SuperBowl but it appears that Wix.com fared somewhat better by selecting former NFL players as spokespeople. Not that it matters that they used the Super Bowl to build awareness.

But how many times has WordPress bought commercials on the Super Bowl?

Mobile Friendly Websites

We know that today’s the day for Google’s new analytics to kick in for their search results on mobile devices. Is your site mobile friendly? Click here to find out now.

If it is not, don’t feel bad, even some of the largest companies in the world don’t (or didn’t when this article was written just last Wednesday) have their act together yet.

Some folks I’ve talked to say “no problem, I’m on WordPress”, but just having your website set up on WordPress is not enough, you must make sure it’s mobile friendly!

If you think your customers find you or check your company out during a board discussion, better make this a top priority to get started now.

The April 21st Change that May Effect Your Website’s Visibility

If you haven’t heard about Google’s April 21 deadline, it’s time to read about it now. Here, here and here. Basically, your website better be mobile ready. Your website’s visibility is at stake.

“But hardly anyone reads my website from their mobile phone!”

If most of your traffic is still coming from desktops, and your website is not mobile friendly but does have good SEO, you may be okay for the short term.

However it’s estimated that about half the searches are made on mobile now.

Now is the time to revise your website. Google is about to change their search engine formula for mobile results. While I’m not sure how they will give priority to websites that are mobile ready, I think that is the main point of this algorithm update.

“Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.”

It’s called responsive. The website actually will change and show up differently if it’s viewed from a phone, a desktop or a tablet. Even Android and iPhone phones don’t show necessarily show a website the same way.

Even if you’re on a WordPress platform, you may not have a responsive theme installed.

You can use this website to plug in your URL to check the responsiveness.

Don’t let your SEO tank, now’s the time to get responsive! Especially since mobile search is growing so quickly.

Selecting Specific Words for Marketing and Branding Your Website to Increase Traffic

Are you working on your website marketing and having second thoughts about your search engine keyword choices? Sometimes it may seem that hardly anyone is searching for the terms you have on your website. don’t despair, sometimes that exact phrase is what the people who are ready to buy are using to search.

But how do you know? Sometimes you don’t.

The words you use on your website matter- a great deal! They are so important not only to communicate your company’s brand but also in terms of bringing your marketing website up to the top of the search engine results. This contributes to building traffic to your brand’s website. Tips to generate leads may be something worth doing some research into, especially if this is the part of running a website that you may be struggling with. There’s no harm in asking for a helping hand.

Today Orbit Media Studio’s president, Andy Crestodina, has shared 131 words that will help you build a stronger traffic flow to your website. And more than just the list, he tells why some of them are searched at certain times during the buying cycle.

Take a minute to check it out and see how many of the words or phrases you use in developing your marketing copy for your website.

Want to improve your website so that it reaches a wider audience? If so, you might also want to consider reaching out to Web Site Development Professionals such as Rock Ford Web Development for some expert insights and advice.