WordPress Archives - Web Help Agency https://webhelpagency.com/blog/tag/wordpress/ Tue, 22 Oct 2024 14:04:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://webhelpagency.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/cropped-wha-ico-512-32x32.png WordPress Archives - Web Help Agency https://webhelpagency.com/blog/tag/wordpress/ 32 32 The 15 Best CMS Systems Today & How to Choose https://webhelpagency.com/blog/the-15-best-cms-systems-today-how-to-choose/ Fri, 18 Aug 2023 08:46:20 +0000 https://webhelpagency.com/?p=5717 Any attempt to find the “best CMS” is condemned to fail. In truth, there are thousands of content management systems available and each offers its own pros, depending on your organization’s aims and needs. Analyzing CMS Hub, WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal? Research demonstrates CMS Hub is preferred for enterprises, WordPress for blogs, Joomla for memberships, […]

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Any attempt to find the “best CMS” is condemned to fail. In truth, there are thousands of content management systems available and each offers its own pros, depending on your organization’s aims and needs.

Analyzing CMS Hub, WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal? Research demonstrates CMS Hub is preferred for enterprises, WordPress for blogs, Joomla for memberships, and Drupal for high-traffic sites with lots of data.

These are just a few of the website possibilities with a CMS. Here we’ll explain different criteria for selecting a CMS platform for your firm. Then, we’ll go over some CMS systems so you can find the perfect match for your specific website needs and objectives.

Picking the Right CMS Platform

Freelancers and businesses that don’t possess the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript required to code a website may find that an easier method of creating a custom web design is by using a CMS platform and website builder. These offer a variety of features, pre-designed templates, and extensions to make customizing a website simple and straightforward. Alternatively, you can hire the best web developers to ensure your website meets all your specific needs and objectives.

Each of these tools presents different approaches for building and managing a website, so let’s examine them more closely and determine which one is correct for your site.

CMS vs. Website Builder

If you’re looking for a comprehensive web host and website construction platform, try a website builder. You can acquire a custom website domain, personalize your page’s outlook, and create interactive, multimedia websites with features such as animations and scrolling impacts. While you concentrate on design and material, your hosting platform will manage your website’s maintenance, security, backups, and much more.

In exchange for this uncomplicated usage, you must make a few sacrifices. Website builders lack the content organization features, functional expansion, and individualization settings that you can find in CMS programs. Thus, website builders are great for conventions, musicians, eateries, and other users who want to form multimedia-rich websites with speed.

For more custom settings and feature updates, use a CMS. By utilizing a CMS, you can direct the design of your webpage, add media, arrange content by labels and classifications, handle distinct users, alter your website’s code foundation, and many more. Although setting up and launching your site will take longer, you can craft and supervise a larger and more intricate website, with the ability to expand eventually.

If you have determined to build a website with a CMS, then you can further limit your choices with the subsequent criteria.

5 Criteria for Choosing a CMS

Selecting the right CMS platform for your business is a crucial step and should be aligned with your site’s requirements and objectives. Key factors to keep in mind include user-friendliness, customizability, security, pricing, and popularity. If a platform offers the features you’re seeking but comes at a hefty cost, then it’s not the ideal choice. On the contrary, a low-cost solution that would require immense maintenance and additions to fulfill your needs isn’t optimal either. Now, let’s delve into each of these criteria a bit more.

Ease of Use

Usability holds a prime place when deciding on a CMS since it considerably affects the adoption rate and workflows of your organization. A perfect platform should be easy to access and manage for all stakeholders in your team. For example, if both content marketers, and developers, will be active in the backend of the CMS, you need features that enable hassle-free work for both. Search for a CMS that sports a WYSIWYG editor for practical content creation and editing as well as modules for developers to quickly add custom code.

Customizability

Despite prioritizing user-friendliness, customizability mustn’t be overlooked. A highly flexible CMS like WordPress, which offers a myriad of customization options, is ideal for businesses that plan to expand gradually. Consider what customization options are available in the dashboard, how many extensions can be integrated, and if you are allowed to make adjustments to the source code. If you want to build a website with limited development resources, most CMS have pre-designed themes that you can customize accordingly.

Security

When deciding on a CMS, you ought to ascertain your content, users, and visitors are safe. To do this, enquire what role the platform will assume and what role you will have to assume to protect your site. Do you need to manually back up your site? Update the software? Put in place security add-ons? Purchase an SSL certificate? If you don’t have the time or knowledge for security best practices, then you need a system with foremost security protocols, features, and teams in place.

Pricing

Budget is an integral element of almost every business decision. With CMS, you need a solution that meets your needs, the expectations of your visitors, and your finances. Fortunately, multiple platforms offer different tiers of plans with adjustable resources, like WordPress’s free CMS. Furthermore, most of them allow you to upgrade according to your growth, indicating that the CMS can handle changes in the business.

Prevalence in the Market

Having knowledge of what other successful brands in your industry are using can help refine your choice. Looking at the CMS platform and websites of these brands can give you insight into their strategies and yours. Additionally, you can ascertain the value of a particular CMS from the list of prominent clients. Hence, researching security standards, the features of different CMS, and the market trends in your industry will help you make the right decision.

Popular Content Management Systems

  • WordPress
  • Drupal
  • Joomla
  • Shopify
  • Magento
  • Magnolia
  • Optimizely
  • PrestaShop
  • TYPO3
  • Crownpeak
  • Contentful
  • Storyblok
  • concrete5
  • Contentstack
  • Webflow

1. WordPress

Originally intended as blogging software, WordPress has become the most popular CMS platform to date. Open-source in nature, WordPress is often used in industries that focus on editorial features like articles and blogs. Its simple user interface and website themes make it great for small businesses that are just starting out with web strategies or have limited design knowledge.

Best CMS for

For small to large businesses that require editing teams, personal websites, and blogging needs, WordPress is a great option.

Key Takeaways

  • Beginner-friendly and easy to use.
  • The largest collection of plugins and themes.
  • Can take time to maintain the plugins and site.
  • Varied costs including domain registration, hosting, and premium plugins and themes.

Ease of Use

WordPress is user-friendly for those without coding knowledge. Its dashboard is simple to use with options to tweak the site’s appearance, install a plugin, change the permalink settings, add blog posts, and more.

The new editing interface, Gutenberg, uses drag-and-drop capabilities so users can develop pages with media without the assistance of custom code or plugins.

But if you need anything more advanced such as a list of random posts in the sidebar, you will need to install the appropriate WordPress plugins or add code to the files. This can be a challenge for those without coding knowledge.

Customizability

WordPress is highly customizable with 57,000 plugins available from the official directory and 31,000 WordPress themes available from the official repository and third-party marketplaces.

WordPress Top CMS Themes

These plugins and templates let anyone with limited technical knowledge create fully functional websites.

Ensure that the plugins and themes are up-to-date and compatible with the site to help keep it secure.

Security

Any CMS is susceptible to hackers and malicious users and outdated code increases this risk. WordPress sites that are out of date account for 49% of the infections in 2019.

Moreover, outdated plugins can compromise security. In 2019, plugin vulnerabilities accounted for over half of the known entry points for hackers.

It is not only important but mandatory to keep all software and plugins up-to-date. WordPress’ built-in update system makes this process easy. However, some updates may not be compatible with all extensions on the site which can take more time to upkeep and manage, especially for larger projects.

Pricing

WordPress is a free download. The costs occur from domain registration, hosting though, and any premium plugins and themes.

Average Cost: $11 to $40 per month + one-time fee of $200

Brands Using WordPress

TechCrunch

TechCrunch is an example of a website that uses the WordPress CMS to publish tech-related news, articles, and videos. Its homepage is centered on one large image with highlighted stories appearing with just text-based headlines. There’s also easily-navigable space for ad space.

TechCrunch WordPress Top CMS

In a 2018 announcement of the site’s redesign, TechCrunch noted why they’ve stuck to WordPress. “It handles content authoring, delivering, and caching very well. Plus, its massive community makes it so that our small team doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel and do it better than WordPress already has”.

IKEA
Ikea WordPress Top CMS

Internationally-recognized furniture and home goods retailer, IKEA, also makes use of the WordPress CMS. Being a highly visual brand, Ikea’s pages make use of a grid system with most page space being occupied by images with text overlays.

2. Drupal

As an exceptionally versatile, open-source CMS, Drupal is an ideal choice for developers, marketers, and agencies. It lets inexperienced marketers quickly create a website from a template, while developers can utilize it for tonnes of data and high traffic.

Drupal Top CMS

Best CMS for

Those with significant technical resources

Key Takeaways

  • This applies mainly to developers
  • An extensive selection of configurable modules and themes
  • Significantly higher security for open-source platforms
  • Customizing the site may cost thousands

Ease of Use

Developers designed Drupal for developers, so if you want to take advantage of its full potential, you’ll need a basic knowledge of HTML, PHP, and CSS. Also, setting up and configuring the site takes longer than with WordPress.

Customizability

Drupal’s directory has more than 46,000 modules and its theme repository contains thousands of free themes. Even though the number is smaller than WordPress, most modules and themes are highly adjustable, allowing you to create a site precisely as you envision it—if you possess the necessary coding skills.

Security

Data from the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures survey shows that Drupal has fewer incident-to-market-share instances than any of the other open-source platforms (including WordPress and Joomla). To make sure of the platform’s secureness, a devoted group of 40 community members release bug fix and security updates per month, and further on an annual basis.

Unfortunately, site owners will have to download the latest update manually and stick to best practices if they are to stay on the safe side.

Pricing

The Drupal download is as free of charge as WordPress, but the amount of money needed for building and managing an adequate website tends to be much higher. Unlike most WordPress plugins and themes, Drupal’s are particularly adjustable, but demanding coding skills are required to make the website how you initially intended.

Average Cost: $15,000 to $42,000, depending on the scale of the web project.

Brands Using Drupal

UNICEF
Unicef Drupal Top CMS

The UNICEF page is a clear demonstration of how adequately open-source platforms can be used to set up a high-functioning website with an attractive design.

Pinterest
Pinterest Drupal Top CMS

Pinterest’s business page is powered by Drupal, too. It showcases various promotional tips and resources related to advertising on the platform. Unconventionally, this page was designed for scrolling, relying on minimal text and with an emphasis on visuals, color, and calls-to-action. Such layout makes the webpage feel more immersive and entertaining.

3. Joomla

Designed to lie somewhere between Drupal and WordPress in terms of ease of use and cost, Joomla combines versatility and user-friendliness in one package.

Best CMS For

Suitable for larger companies and tech-savvy individuals alike.

Key Takeaways

  • 6,000+ extensions available, though installation & management can be tricky.
  • No built-in features for scheduling automatic updates, leaving sites vulnerable.

Ease of Use

Joomla has impressive built-in features, allowing users to manage hundreds of users, build pages in multiple languages, and create custom post types. Settings for articles, banners, menus, media, and SEO can be adjusted as necessary.

Complex sites can easily be built with Joomla, though doing so can be challenging for beginners. Those with experience in web development can better leverage the features Joomla provides for more substantial websites.

Customizability

In addition to the features Joomla includes, 6,000+ extensions can be downloaded for enhanced control over your site. Unfortunately, CVE data on WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal shows that Joomla has the most found vulnerabilities since 2005.

The platform’s security team regularly releases security patches, but without any built-in features for scheduling updates, your site may remain vulnerable. In fact, Sucuri’s 2019 report indicates that 90% of websites with infections were running outdated versions of Joomla.

Pricing

Joomla requires payment for domain registration, hosting, themes, and maintenance to create and run a website. Website hosting and design costs tend to sit somewhere between WordPress and Drupal. Overall, as reported by CMS2CMS, Joomla sites cost around $700-$6,500.

Average Cost: $700 to $6,500 to create and maintain

Brands Using Joomla

Nintendo Nordic
Nintendo Joomla Top CMS

Nintendo’s Nordic sites are powered by Joomla. Similar to the American sites, this CMS allows them to remain consistent with their branding, while still being visually appealing.

4. Shopify

Shopify is an e-commerce platform designed specifically for online retailers, allowing them to create and manage their stores.

Best CMS for

Ecommerce and beginning sellers

Shopify

Key Takeaways

  • Ideal for novice shopkeepers
  • Limited range of themes and apps
  • Comes with automatic backups and software updates
  • Offers three premium plans, with prices from $29 to $299 monthly

Ease of Use

Much simpler than creating a site on WordPress.com, Shopify makes it easy for novice shop owners to set up and run an ecommerce store, although some may eventually decide to migrate Shopify to WooCommerce for greater flexibility. Although they’ll lack some of the control over appearance and functionality, a suite of features, security, and customer support will be available to help them manage their venture.

Using Shopify’s blogging tools, customer reviews, payment options, abandoned cart recovery, they can quickly get their store underway. Additionally, Shopify handles backups and software updates.

Customizability

In exchange for convenience, some customization options may be lacking. As Shopify is proprietary, its code cannot be modified.

As a workaround, users can select from over 70 themes and around 5,700 free and paid applications from the Shopify store.

Security

In order to accept payments from Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover, the store must be PCI compliant. With Shopify, users can avoid the time and money spent on obtaining a Level 1 PCI certification, as all Shopify stores come with automatic certification.

Moreover, Shopify takes care of general security matters, manages backups, and updates the software as needed.

Pricing

Shopify has three paid plans, the least expensive of which begins at $29 each month. This package includes hosting, SSL certification—with a Shopify subdomain of username.shopify.com—and more. An additional fee will be required if the website owner wants a custom domain.

Upgrading to higher packages will provide more seats and features, such as rewards systems and enhanced reporting, and the priciest is $299 monthly.

Average Cost: Plans run from $29 to $299 per month

Brands Using Shopify

Briogeo
Briogeo Prestashop Top CMS

An example of an ecommerce website made with Shopify is Briogeo, a haircare company that only uses natural ingredients in its products. Its webpage serves as a great showcase of the platform’s capabilities, with product displays, mega menus, user accounts, checkout, image collages, blog, and even a rewards system.

5. Magento

Magento, an eCommerce platform owned by Adobe, offers myriad options to tech-savvy store owners. We’ll focus on Magento Open Source — more popular — here.

Best CMS for

Experienced ecommerce store owners and sellers.

Key Takeaways

  • Learning Magento and its features takes time, especially for beginners.
  • 3,800 add-ons found in Magento’s Extension Marketplace.
  • Security patches and updates require manual installation.
  • Average Magento store starts in thousands.

Ease of Use

Like Drupal, Magento Open Source allows you to build the exact site you want. But, understanding and exploiting its features and extensions demands experience in website development or a willingness to invest significant time.

Customizability

Install or integrate any of the 3,800 add-ons available in the Magento Extensions Marketplace to extend the site’s utility and power. Sync customer and order data to your CRM or raise your site’s SEO — Magento makes it a snap.

Security

Magento rolls out patches and security updates to address vulnerabilities. Utilize its free Security Scan tool to be advised of their availability and quickly install. All too often, site owners don’t install; research shows that Magento Websites were 87% out of date when found to be hacked.

Pricing

Magento Open Source is free, though better apps and themes are more expensive than WordPress. Additionally, Magento is complex. This invariably requires the help of a developer; a basic store can begin at $20,000 and climb to $40,000. Magento Commerce, the enterprise-fitted version, starts at $22,000 annually.

Brands Using Magento

Yakima

Yakima, leading bike rack and outdoor products provider since 1979, used Magento to redevelop its site and enhance online sales. Vast mobile-optimization and customizations — such as a make and model search tool — were made possible.

Boodles

Boodles, a luxury jewelry company, chose Magento for its open-source capability and the opportunity to capture younger buyers. A fully-visual, mobile-adapted site, with ecommerce integrations and an Instagram Stream block, amplifies the company’s presence in the jewelry market.

6. Magnolia

Magnolia is a comprehensive system which provides multi-site, multi-language, and multi-channel digital services. It offers two types of service: cloud and client. The cloud-based service helps businesses to launch projects faster, while the client-hosted option gives them the opportunity for Java development and specific integration.

Best CMS for

Large enterprises, startups, and ecommerce

Key Takeaways

  • User-friendly with customizable options to suit needs
  • The Pages App lets users have complete creative freedom
  • Costs need to be requested from sales representatives

Ease of Use

Magnolia is not considered as easy-to-use as WordPress; yet, they provide a series of tutorials to simplify navigation. The interface’s intuitiveness depends on the type of service they choose: cloud or client.

Therefore, businesses that lack technical knowledge are advised to prefer the cloud-based choice.

Customizability

Magnolia is based on modules and offers great customizability, letting organizations tailor their sites to meet their own requirements. Through Java customization, users can modify their pages, user interface and make server filters and more. It also integrates with several external services, like Google Analytics, React and Amazon S3.

Security

At Magnolia, the security is guaranteed by Java Authentication and Authorization Service and it is always checked if the user has access to a webpage, document, or data. The security app helps to manage this.

For external security, Magnolia suggests the Apache Web Server as a proxy for the application server.

Pricing

The cost of Magnolia is personalized and needs to be obtained by contacting the sales representatives.

Average Cost: Contact for a website quote

Brands Utilizing Magnolia

BMW

When it comes to BMW dealerships, Magnolia’s CMS is used to create specialized interaction platforms for information exchange. Implementing their innovative “What You See is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editing mode as an uncomplicated method of content management, the BMW team opted for Magnolia’s services. The CMS is hosted on BMW’s in-house servers, ensuring the data’s security is kept intact.

Atlassian

In the case of their international website, Atlassian utilized Magnolia’s CMS for their rebranding and launch. Features such as in-build translation and templating were implemented which resulted in 41 pages in 10 different languages. The content team was able to create new campaigns and reach out to translators via the workflow tool and release their work, all without developer support.

7. Optimizely

Well-known for its A/B testing functions, Optimizely’s suite of marketing tools has been gradually expanding. After being acquired by Episerver last year, the two firms together combined their capabilities to create the Optimizely Content Cloud.

This tool lets editors develop and share attractive content with ease and provides developers with a fast way to create and launch new pages and sites.

Best CMS for

Organizations that require fast, efficient solutions to build new websites or pages.

Key Takeaways

  • Completely compatible with multiple coding languages – not just one.
  • Time-saving tools like “publish everywhere” with expedited go-live time.
  • Headless content management for versatile projects.
  • Different backend & front end management systems.
  • Multiple package offers include everything you may need.

Ease of Use

Although their tutorials are somewhat sparse, Optimizely’s visual editor is straightforward in its usability. Like Magnolia, it offers a WYSIWYG platform that displays how the project will appear to viewers. Additionally, page elements can be easily modified with just a few clicks. With the “publish everywhere” feature, teams can swiftly create content once, and repurpose it for a variety of channels.

Customizability

As it is headless, this CMS allows for maximum customizability. Optimizely can, therefore, support an unlimited number of platforms and layouts. Make use of their features flag for real-time roll-outs across the sitewide, or deploy the killswitch if the launch doesn’t quite go as planned. You can even tailor rollouts to particular audiences or the entire crowd. Whether you’re working on a new project or honing existing ones, Optimizely gives you the control to make any adjustments to suit your needs.

Security

All exchanges appearing from visitors and end-users on Optimizely products are secured by Transport Layer Security (TLS). Additionally, Optimizely offers a bug bounty system to motivate reporting of security threats concerning their product.

For extra protection, Optimizely requires that their personnel utilize single sign-on as well as two-factor authentication to access any data that your business has stored. This guarantees that no one, inside or out, is able to access your data without authorization.

Pricing

Optimizely presents a range of packages. Prices are available upon request. All of these package features must be combined, however you may not find every single capability within just one offering.

Average Cost: Reach out for a quote

Brands Using Optimizely

Absolut

Set on eliminating server management, Absolut implemented Optimizely to host all their sites and shifted to the Content Cloud. With Optimizely’s capabilities, Absolut had the ability to release at a more agile pace and lessened their launch time. Using Optimize’s Content Cloud, both marketing and devops teams could oversee content from a unified place, as well as launch new sites in half as much time with fewer resources.

8. PrestaShop

PrestaShop is designed to occupy the middle ground between Magento and Shopify, combining the power of the former with the simplicity of the latter.

PrestaShop Top CMS

Best for

Shop owners and sellers with some technical experience

Key Takeaways

  • An ideal blend of Magento’s complexity and Shopify’s simplicity
  • Over 6,000 add-on modules and themes available
  • SSL must be enabled and software must be regularly updated
  • Expensive add-ons and support plans

Ease of Use

Getting started on PrestaShop is more complicated than Shopify since it is an open-source platform. You will need a hosting provider and to create a database and upload the software via FTP. Additionally, PrestaShop offers more out-of-the-box features, making the dashboard more complex.

Customizability

PrestaShop can customize messages for out-of-stock items and enable the shop in 65 languages, as well as configure coupons. Furthermore, its marketplace offers over 3,900 modules and 2,200 themes, allowing you to build an expansive ecommerce store.

Security

For security, enable SSL, regularly update the software, add code to your .htaccess file, and follow other safety protocols. Also, you can opt for Security Pro, which provides a firewall, protection against DDoS, two-factor authentication, anti-SPAM, anti-malware, and automatic backups.

Pricing

PrestaShop is free to download, but you must pay for domain, hosting, SSL certificate, and premium modules. A PrestaShop store typically costs between $53 to $560 per month, and you may need to pay for a support plan, ranging from $279 to $1,299.

Brands Using PrestaShop

Freshly Cosmetics
Freshly Cosmetics PrestaShop Top CMS

Freshly Cosmetics’ website highlights the ecommerce capabilities of PrestaShop. Its product pages are extensive due to its capabilities to provide customers with as much information as needed.

9. TYPO3

TYPO3 is an open-source CMS that’s designed specifically for constructing enterprise-level sites.

Best for

Programmers or groups with large technical resources.

Key Takeaways

  • Demanding to learn platform, even for experienced users
  • 6,000 extensions available in TYPO3 Repository
  • Updates and maintenance is up to site owners
  • Contractors and agency partners could be expensive

Ease of Use

TYPO3 furnishes more than 9,000 features out of the box. Such powerful functionality will enable you to create a complex multi-site installation — but it won’t be a breeze to install or set up. Even proficient users will need to invest a lot of time and effort into learning the platform.

Customizability

Despite its remarkable in-built capabilities, TYPO3 is lacking some typical features, like modules for including videos and adding image galleries to your page. To bridge the gap, you can incorporate any of the 6,000 third-party tools and services accessible in the TYPO3 Extension Repository.

Security

To aid protect your website, TYPO3 supplies built-in security components, compliance tooling, and frequent updates. The TYPO3 Security Team releases these updates regularly and informs site owners via email, yet upgrades and maintenance tasks are still the responsibility of users.

Pricing

According to T3Terminal, the average cost of a TYPO3 site lies between $100 to $30,000 annually.

Let’s go over the expenses related to constructing and launching a website on TYPO3. Apart from the normal rate of $15 for annual domain registration, hosting a TYPO3 site ranges from $6 to $69 per month. The average cost of premium TYPO3 templates and extensions is $49.

The biggest expense of setting up and maintaining a TYPO3 website is paying for a programmer or agency to take part in the process. Fortunately, you can find certified help right on TYPO3’s site. Unfortunately, the fees can range from a couple of hundred to some thousand dollars, depending on the extent and term of the web project.

Average Cost: $100 to $30,000 annually

Brands That Use TYPO3

Pearson

For user portals in Central and Eastern European countries, educational publisher Pearson used the TYPO3 CMS to digitalize their services and products. With this system, the company had the capacity to efficiently migrate its digital belongings, release its content to a desktop portal and a mobile app, generate a product catalog, and rebrand itself totally.

10. Crownpeak Headless CMS

Crownpeak’s CMS is user-friendly for beginners and those less familiar with tech. While the interface is simple to use, the CMS offers the same features as many of its more complicated competitors. Additionally, this hybrid headless CMS allows for a flexible integration into existing systems. Write and publish new articles, pages, and manage workflows easily in just a few clicks.

Crownpeak Top Headless CMS

Best for

Small to Medium-sized companies with limited IT resources

Key Takeaways

  • Set up easily without much IT support
  • Use your preferred programming language due to the headless functionality
  • Costs are determined by quote
  • Security is paramount, due to extra protection offered by Amazon’s Web Services

Ease of Use

Crownpeak’s system is designed to be user-friendly. The content editor offers a WYSIWYG so authors can see a real-time preview of their draft. Additionally, admins have the ability to control author functions, guaranteeing that edits are accidental-free.

Overall, Crownpeak offers a simplified approach so users can get started quickly.

Customizability

The headless function of Crownpeak’s CMS means that companies can customize their integration according to their framework and preferred programming. Moreover, marketers can take advantage of their A/B testing options, plus serve content specifically aimed for a targeted audience easily across various channels.

Security

Crownpeak’s platform is built on Amazon’s Web Services to protect data. The system has also passed several independent audits, plus meets the FISMA security standard for U.S. financial institutions. For extra security, Crownpeak provides 24/7 monitoring, cloud firewalls, and the ability to move data quickly to another region in the event of a crisis.

Pricing

Due to the variety of customer needs, Crownpeak’s pricing is offered on an individual basis. Reach out to get a quote and expert advice on which products meet your business needs.

Average Cost: Contact for a quote

Brands Using Crownpeak

Texas Mutual

Texas Mutual, a workers’ compensation insurance company, switched to Crownpeak to manage their marketing efforts. To ensure their customers had an optimal user experience, Crownpeak’s automated QA reporting feature enabled them to meet accessibility compliance requirements.

11. Contentful

Contentful is a cloud-based headless CMS for enterprise companies that provides tools to create, edit, and manage content, as well as an API to ship it to any digital channel.

Contentful Headless CMS

Best for

Medium to large enterprises with technical resources

Key Takeaways

  • Enterprise-level headless CMS
  • Uses an API-first design so there’s a steep learning curve
  • Allows for a custom content model
  • Security features provided by Amazon Web Services and Contentful

Ease of Use

With its content management tools, integrations with Dropbox, and advanced rich text editor, Contentful is designed to be easy to use for content marketers. However, the development side of Contentful – through its API – can be more difficult for non-technical users.

The API-first design offers benefits for enterprise organizations, but it might overwhelm smaller businesses or those looking to create web pages with added features they don’t need.

Customizability

Contentful requires developers and designers to create a content ‘skeleton’ to tell its APIs what kind of content to send. While challenging, it provides a unique opportunity to create a content model specific to the project.

Plus, developers can customize the Contentful web app with open-source field editors and the Forma 36 design system.

You can also integrate with in-house built applications or third-party cloud software directly in the web app.

Security

Due to its infrastructure running on Amazon Web Services, Contentful has features like data encryption, stateful firewalling, threat detection, and more.

Additional security measures include an application web firewall, DDoS protection, rate limits and captchas, 2FA and more. Read more on Security at Contentful.

Pricing

Contentful has three pricing tiers: a free edition, Teams (starting at $489 per month), and an Enterprise offering (price available upon request).

Average Cost: $0 to $489 per month

Brands Using Contentful

Clover

Clover, a credit card processor, partnered with the Contentful headless CMS to spread their centralized assets around numerous devices. This illustrates the power of headless content management systems – Clover used Contentful to display content on their custom processing devices without having to majorly reformat the content.

Furthermore, Contentful allowed Clover to localize their content which let the content editors make changes without fully relying on the engineering team.

12. Storyblok

Storyblok, with almost 40,000 developers and marketers, is a headless CMS regularly used to create corporate websites, ecommerce sites, mobile apps, screen displays, etc.

Storyblock Headless CMS

Best for:

Content managers and marketers.

Key Takeaways:

  • Most popular headless CMS for marketers and content creators.
  • Content is accessible across different countries, languages, and devices.
  • Pricing is tailored, providing suitable options for individuals and small businesses.

Ease of Use:

Storyblok is distinctive compared to other headless CMS platforms since its features grant easier access to content managers. On top of that, content creators and developers possess the liberty to deviate from traditional CMS by a modern headless rule and also generate new content experiences in various platforms.

The Visual editor of Storyblok may look different from the general WYSIWYG editor, yet it is the nearest replication in comparison to other headless CMS systems. It offers drag and drop functionality, designated content blocks and variable customization choices available in the sidebar.

Customizability:

Just as Contentful, Storyblok grants you the opportunity to upgrade the Visual editor as desired. Using Storyblok’s well-organized and varied plug-in system, it is possible to customize the editor with new specifics such as color pickers and google map selectors.

Another intriguing feature of Storyblok is the extended content localization access. You are able to configure your own localization strategy, thus distributing content to various countries, languages and device types.

Security:

Storyblok, like Contentful, is hosted on AWS with its access control and data security system.

Using Storyblok, users are protected against cross-site scripting, brute force attacks, and SQL injections with continuous security tests, monthly recovery tests, and daily backups.

Pricing:

Other than the free use option for an individual, Storyblok presents a selection of pricing plans suitable for different users. It begins with a $7 monthly cost for personal projects moving to two tiers for starting and small businesses that charge $12 and $21 respectively per user per month. Moreover, there is an enterprise plan.

Average Cost: $0 to $21 per user

Brands Using Storyblok

EF Education First

For EF Education, a world-renowned education company with thousands of pages of content in multilingual versions, Storyblok was the answer. With its help, EF Education has been able to quickly launch a brand-new global multilingual website, something infeasible under traditional systems.

13. ConcreteCMS

ConcreteCMS is an open-source CMS created with the aim of filling a gap in the market. Concrete5 is not overly complicated or intimidating and not overly simplistic either. The perfect balance between ease of use and a comprehensive feature-set – that’s what ConcreteCMS offers.

Concrete CMS

Best for

Beginners and those working in editorial roles.

Key Takeaways

  • User-friendly, making it simple to use like a word processor.
  • Small set of add-ons compared to other open-source options.
  • Auditing and updating of software and add-ons help maintain website security.

Ease of Use

ConcreteCMS is designed with simplicity in mind, taking cues from the user-friendly word processors of today.

Using its block editor, adding content to the page is only a drag and drop away. Text, images, videos, interactive forms, surveys and much more can be added with no need to resort to coding.

Both beginner developers and more experienced professionals can build sophisticated web applications with ConcreteCMS – like extranets and online portals – and make it look simple and straightforward.

Customizability

ConcreteCMS is supplied with many features out of the box, including pre-made templates, custom form fields and an integrated commenting system.

If You feel like a feature is missing, you can find the perfect add-on from ConcreteCMS’s own Marketplace. While 600+ modules is far less compared to those available on other open-source platforms, it is a respectable number.

The selection of available themes is also limited – fewer than 100 are available.

Security

Just like other open-source solutions, a team of developers maintain the core of ConcreteCMS. However, website owners are responsible for applying additional measures to ensure their code is safe from any malicious activities.

ConcreteCMS offers some noteworthy features that make sure your website is kept safe; from one-click software version updates and automatic add-on notifications for example.

Pricing

Since ConcreteCMS is open-source, the only around the expense pertains to domain registration, hosting and any premium add-ons or themes You wish to purchase.

Domain registration and hosting is similar to other open-source platforms, in which a domain costs around $15/year and hosting can range from $3 to $60/month.

On average, a premium module costs $25 and a theme – $40. In the end, you’ll be looking at a yearly bill ranging from $50 to $800 for Your Concrete5 website.

Average cost: $50 to $800 per year

14. Contentstack

Similar to Contentful, Contentstack is a cloud-based web CMS used for headless solutions. It unlocks the best of content management and digital experience capabilities so that organizations can centrally manage and deliver content across digital channels, like desktops, smartphones, autos, and wearables.

Contentstack Headless CMS

Best for

Large businesses which have a larger pool of resources in terms of developers.

Key Takeaways

  • Advanced headless CMS for enterprise businesses
  • Profound learning curve for non-developers
  • Scalable and customizable content types, rich text editor, available programming languages, & integrations
  • Substantial monthly fee

Ease of Use

Contentstack is crafted to be user-friendly & intuitive to use by developers & non-developers alike. Although, the latter would still need to go through a comprehensive learning process.

Content managers will find a rich text editor & a powerful scheduling & publishing tool to manage content without the help of a developer.

Meanwhile, developers will have to use the Content Type Builder to create content models that build the structure & formatting of the platform. This would mean that editing experiences are vastly different from a traditional CMS & its WYSIWYG editor.

If needed, users can access exclusive support from Contentstack through documentation, live chat, & customer success reps.

Customizability

Just as Contentful does, Contentstack grants developers the capabilities of creating content models that define how content appears on any target device like smartphones or smart watches. Content models also contribute to improving the formatting of the page.

With the rich text editor, developers can decide which formatting options to highlight & which ones to hide. Furthermore, they are free to use whatever programming language, frameworks, technologies, & integrations they need for the project.

Security

Security is also looked into by Contentstack with protocols that include protecting content over HTTPS via an access token & API key. Backup & versioning of content & assets is done daily & system scans are regularly executed to detect security vulnerabilities. Contentstack also makes use of AWS for improving its infrastructure.

Pricing

Contentstack offers three subscription plans. The Start plan costs $995 while the Grow plan costs $4,500 per month. For Scale plan, users will need to contact the vendor for pricing.

Average Cost: The plans sum up to be either $995 or $4,500 per month.

15. Webflow

Webflow is a “visual” content management system designed specifically for web designers requiring control over customizing sites, hosting, security, and performance.

Webflow CMS

Best for

Webflow is ideal for experienced designers and marketers.

Key Takeaways

  • Offers full control over site design
  • Included AWS Shield and security features such as 2FA & SSL
  • Assortment of various hosting plans with different price points

Ease of Use

The Webflow Designer comparable to using Photoshop in the browser. The user simply drags and drops elements onto a canvas and customizes them as they desire. While HTML and CSS are not necessary, knowledge of them will make the design process simpler.

When adding extra functionality, the site owner has two options; connecting to different platforms through an external integration or embedding code. To integrate, use Zapier and other platforms. To embed code, use pre-built pieces or custom blocks of code (premium plan or those with Webflow Hosting only).

Customizability

For full command of the site design, Webflow supplies various templates. Plus, users can directly customize color, background, typography, positioning, and more. All modified features can be converted to symbols and applied across the entire website.

Advanced users with HTML and CSS experience will find Webflow’s customization features unbeatable.

Security

Webflow-hosted websites receive AWS Shield protection, and include SSL certification, 2FA, role-based permissions, multilevel backups, and monitoring.

In addition, password protection for the whole site or individual pages is available with Webflow Hosting.

Pricing

Designing is free but a site plan and custom domain are necessary to deploy the website. Plans range from $12 to $212 per month for Ecommerce sites. Enterprise plans call for contacting Webflow straight for pricing details.

Average Cost: Usually, prices range from $12 to $212 per month, and there is a $15 annual fee for the domain. Additionally, enterprise plans are priced separately.

Deciding on the Best CMS for Your Needs

Although it is impossible to pinpoint the “Best CMS,” that would be compatible with all websites, you can find the most suitable CMS for your organization. Your preeminent platform should provide the CMS features you require, boost your teams’ capacity to regulate content, and eventually, grant you the capability to offer a desirable website experience for your customers.

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Tips for Managing a WordPress Site for beginners https://webhelpagency.com/blog/tips-for-managing-a-wordpress-site-for-beginners/ Wed, 22 Jun 2022 13:23:51 +0000 https://webhelpagency.com/?p=3615 Knowledge of managing a WordPress site is an important skill.  This is because WordPress is one of the top content management systems. It boasts of an audience of over 35% of all website users. Noting that there are about 2 million downloads per year. Thus, you can consider the tool to create your site. If […]

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Knowledge of managing a WordPress site is an important skill.  This is because WordPress is one of the top content management systems. It boasts of an audience of over 35% of all website users. Noting that there are about 2 million downloads per year. Thus, you can consider the tool to create your site. If you are planning to join the WordPress community there are tips you need to know. Through this you will have a better experience with effective WordPress site management.

Using WordPress comes with many benefits. You get the ability to customize websites for different uses. Then you can add features like a blog, plugins, membership plans, and many more to your site. This content management tool is friendly and both experts and beginners can interact with it. But as a beginner, having some tips will help you improve the website faster. 

The good thing is that you can learn these tricks and avoid making common WordPress errors. In this article, we will look at the tips for managing a WordPress site. This will entail three important phases that start from development, then launch, and end with publishing.

Getting started with a perfect WordPress site

WordPress is software that is easy to install and start the development process. To manage your WordPress site, you need to do everything right after installation. Something to note is that there are two types of WordPress. These are WordPress.org and WordPress.com. 

The difference between the two is in the hosting. WordPress.com will offer to host your site whereas with wordpress.org you get hosting services from a third party. By far WordPress.org is the best because you get to customize the site according to your business needs. Therefore, for his case, we will focus on WordPress.org.

Here are quick steps to create your first site on WordPress. If you want a website fast you can check the WordPress Services for our offers. Let’s start:

create a WordPress site

Steps to create a WordPress Site

1: Choose a Domain Name and Hosting Provider

The first step is to choose a domain name. A domain name is like the URL to your site. You should choose an appropriate name that is easy to remember. Then look for a good hosting provider. The term hosting means to house your website. Thus, a hosting provider will offer your servers to store website files. 

Remember, to choose a unique name for your domain name. Next, add the domain name to your hosting service provider.

2: Install WordPress

Download then install WordPress and connect it to the website’s domain name. Most hosting providers have included WordPress applications and this will be easier to install. However, you can still add files from the official WordPress Page 

3: Customize the theme

There are dozens of themes available. Some are free to use, others are paid. Depending on the one you choose, the processes of customization are similar. The best way to choose a theme is to consider your business Niche. If it’s a fashion company choose one from the recommended themes.

4: Add Pages and content to your website

After the theme is up and running add pages to the site. Ensure you add common pages like:

  • Homepage
  • Contact Page
  • Blog 
  • Policies Page
  • And other relevant pages

Then add the content needed for every page. You can consider hiring a freelance writer from this. WordPress outsourcing will help you get all the resources you need. Ensure you do everything correctly for effective WordPress site management.

5: Install relevant Plugins

Then Install all the relevant plugins from the WordPress marketplace. Consequently, you should install only those that are useful. Plugins are important to improve site performance and user experience. The two steps to set up plugins are to install and then activate them.  Moreover, you can hire a team for a Custom Plugin Development project.

Additional Activities After Setting Up a Site

The following activities will be undertaken when managing a WordPress site after setting up everything.

  1. Add posts to the Blog Page
  2. Customize the website to be user friendly
  3. Optimize the website for high speeds
  4. Add tolls to help you manage the site.

Tools to help you in Managing a WordPress Site

In managing a WordPress site there are common tools that will help you do everything faster. These tools are efficient for scheduling activities, promoting content, automation, email marketing, SEO Optimization, and many more. You can choose the best. This will help you ensure you have effective WordPress site Management.

Tools for WordPress site Management

Top Five WordPress Management Tools

The following are the tools to use:

  1. MainWP – This is a powerful open-source solution that helps users manage sites. Users can manage multiple sites from the same dashboard. With this tool, you can perform many activities across your WordPress sites. This is in simple clicks. Additionally, it checks on security enhancements by alerting about outdated plugins.
  1. InfiniteWP – This tool is important for managing a WordPress site. It comes with many features. You can control multiple sites on a single dashboard. You can also add users to the platform to help you in different roles. The tool also facilitates backup activities.
  1. ManageWP – The tool is good for automating workflows and other repetitive tasks. This ensures even when you are away your sites are running well. You can use this tool to save time and do more. Moreover, you can improve security for WordPress multisite with subdomains by checking for malware using this tool.
  1. WP Remote – This is a flexible and popular WordPress tool that allows you to do more on a single dashboard. With it, you can manage multiple websites in the same place. This management tool is free to use but you can use the premium plan for more services.
  1. WP Umbrella – This is one of the newest management tools in the market. It is super easy to use and comes with a great user interface. The tool allows for the management of multiple sites on a single page. The tool will help to update and manage plugins and themes. 

Other Bonus Tools include:

  • iControl WP
  • WP Central
  • Glow
  • iThemes Syncs

Tips for Beginners on Managing a WordPress Site

tips to manage a WordPress site

Effective WordPress site management is vital to achieving goals for the website. There are many ways to manage sites effectively. However, the best way to do this is to use some tricks and tips. Consequently, doing this will reduce the management cost, time, and other resources. All this is without compromising on performance.

In this section, we will look into common tips for managing a WordPress site. This will help you optimize the site, improve performance and satisfy site visitors. Are you ready for this? Let’s start.

Choose a convenient Hosting

There are many hosting out there and are all good but some will be better for your site. This will depend on your budget, level of expertise, and usage. Therefore, you need to choose a budget-friendly site that you can easily navigate and configure all settings. Then also consider the purpose of your website and match it with the right hosting provider.

Regularly Update the Theme and Plugins

You should constantly update your site to the latest release. This includes the Themes and plugins. This will ensure you can manage your site’s security levels. Outdated themes and plugins are always a loophole for attacks. You can avoid such cases by regularly updating them. Use website templates that have a security guarantee. 

Backup your website and Content

You have to always backup your website. This should be regular maybe twice a week or more for a website with higher data/ information. Ensure the backup is done to secure servers. This will help you to retrieve important information in the future.

Do Keyword research for Website Content

When managing a WordPress site ensure you have a good content plan. Then ensure you use the right keyword research and analysis. This will help you optimize your site for ranking on search engines. Depending on the Niche you choose some keywords to be evident for every content.

Install Analytics Tools

Analytics will help you know how your site is performing. This will give you an idea of areas to improve on. There are many analytics tools like Google analytics that will help you in this. Add these tools to your website and ensure you analyze the figures. Consequently, doing this will help you have a great performance.

Here are some bonus tips to help: 

  • Always use alt text for the images
  • Edit the default WordPress Permalinks
  • Limit the number of plugins you use
  • Pick the theme carefully depending on your brand
  • It’s better to use the Wordprees.org than the WordPress.com

Conclusion

WordPress is one of the best software for creating great websites and you too can create a great brand. You only need to be good at managing a WordPress site. But this can be a tussle when beginning. The good thing is that you can learn this. The above are tools and tips that will help manage your site. You can get these WordPress development services from our team and start your successful site.

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Best WordPress Plugins https://webhelpagency.com/blog/the-best-wordpress-plugins/ Tue, 22 Feb 2022 09:54:05 +0000 https://webhelpagency.com/?p=3315 There are thousands of WordPress plugins, it can be a challenge to find the best ones. To help you in your hunt for the best WordPress plugins we’ve compiled a list of essential plugins that are recommended based on functionality. Find out how these fundamental tools can assist in constructing and development of a WordPress […]

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There are thousands of WordPress plugins, it can be a challenge to find the best ones. To help you in your hunt for the best WordPress plugins we’ve compiled a list of essential plugins that are recommended based on functionality. Find out how these fundamental tools can assist in constructing and development of a WordPress based website that will meet your needs.

the best wordpress plugins

What are WordPress Plugins?

WordPress plugins are additional application modules that add features to your WordPress website. These plugins may contain anything from minor modifications on to full nascent features to which the user can add onto their site without even required to code.

When installing plugins you expand what your blog is able to do and this can include contact forms, Seo enhancements, security factors, performance enhancements, and almost anything that is in existence.

WordPress has more than 50,000 plugins, available in the WordPress Plugin Directory, which means that there must be a plugin for every conceivable function you may need for your website, allowing you to create a very specific site since you can choose the functionalities that perfectly suit your desired objectives.

As an extension and addition to this fact, you should know that plugins are primarily the tools for additional features and options that can literally change your site from bad to better level of performance, security, and even add more features to your site.

Checklist on how to choose the best WordPress plugins?

Compatibility

Check that the current version of WordPress as well as the theme you are using supports the plugin. This is a plugin that conflicts and can actually mess up your site.

Regular Updates

Make sure that the plugins that you wish to use are developed constantly and supported by their creators. More frequent, it translates to the fact that the plugin is well maintained and supported to work well and securely with the latest updates of WordPress.

User Reviews and Ratings

Look for the reviews and rating of the users in the official WordPress Plugin Directory. The usually high ratings as well as positive remarks of other users offer a clue on the veracity of the plugin.

Support and Documentation

The plugins to be used must be those that are well backed and well documented. Sometimes good support can address problems faster and comprehensive documentation can easily lead the person through installation and configuration processes.

Performance Impact

Make sure that the plugin would not slow down the page of your site or have a heavy impact on the existing site speed. It is also good to monitor some of the plugins that they may slow down your site so that you need to check on them to see the time it as taken to load your site.

Security

Choose the plugins which are related with security issues more importantly than other things. Make sure the plugin has not been hacked before and if it was, how fast the developers work on a solution to such problems.

Functionality and Features

Compare the benefits & features of the plugin as provided by the developer and see if they will suit your requirements. Do not use several plugins that have the same set of activities since it may cause issues with the plugin and repetition of tasks.

Active Installations

Another thing that can be taken into account is the number of installations that are actively used by people. Extensions used by many people are generally more stable and frequently updated.

Top Recommended WordPress Plugins

Plugins have become an indispensable element of any website that is created using the WordPress platform and their amount impresses even the most fastidious user. As you can see, WordPress has multiple free plugins that can enhance your website in different ways, so, to guide you through the plethora of options, below, you will find the most useful WordPress plugins necessary for diverse aspects of website management.

Given here are the most used plugins which has been selected based on function, simplicity, and efficiency. Mentioned plugins can be of great value if you want to work with search engine optimization, website security, or performance improvement – all these tools will help you become successful when developing a WordPress website.

ACF

ACF

Easy-to-use field builder extensive documentation compatibility with various themes and plugins

ACF is an excellent plugin, that lets you add custom fields to the edit screens of your WordPress based project. It is recommended to adjust these fields in order to gather and display extra information about your posts, pages, and any other CPTs. ACF appears to be very flexible, and it serves it purpose for developers, who need more customization options than the basic WP ones.

Wordfence

Wordfence

web application firewall malware scanning live traffic monitoring

Wordfence is an all-in-one security plugin, where you will get a number of features to protect your WordPress site. This is divided into Firewall, Malware Scanner and Real time Threat Defense feed. From Wordfence, you will be able to view the live traffic, block the IP addresses, and protect the website against brute force attack.

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO

SEO analysis readability check XML sitemaps Google Search Console integration

Yoast SEO is widely used SEO plugin for WordPress, and it has some of the best features that help in SEO. Most of the functions found under this option are involved with helping you to optimize your website for the search engines, with features for keyword analysis and optimization, readability analysis, and meta tag generation and editing, among others. It creates XML sitemaps as well and offers connectivity with Google Search Console.

All-in-One WP Migration

All-in-One WP Migration

drag-and-drop import unlimited find and replace compatibility with various hosting environments

All-in-One WP Migration helps to transfer your WordPress site with very minimal hassle. It lets you backup your database, media files, plugins, and themes with ease and in just a few clicks. It is easy to import and export with a drag and drop function and is compatible with the most hosting services.

Bricks

Bricks

drag-and-drop builder pre-designed templates responsive design options

Bricks is the best page builder plugin out there which allows you to build remarkable websites in relatively less time. It has an easy to use drag and drop, templates and a host of other fields that make the designing of the site easy. Bricks is said to be flexible and they have features that are aimed at improving the performance of the site.

Rank Math SEO

Rank Math SEO

keyword tracking rich snippets 404 monitor SEO analysis

Rank Math SEO is a sturdy SEO plugin aimed to provide you an optimized content for your website. Some of the features include keyword rank tracking, rich snippets, and 404 monitor among others. Rank Math also uses the simple setup wizard and has essential SEO analysis options.

Classic Editor

Classic Editor

restores old editor supports old-style meta boxes compatibility with legacy plugins

Classic Editor is an official WordPress plugin that returns the pre-2017 WordPress editor, or the Edit Post screen. For you to be able to use plugins that work with the extension of the old editor, incorporate old style meta boxes and in general any feature that relies on the former editor, you will need to install this plugin.

Duplicate Page

Duplicate Page

One-click duplication supports posts, pages, and custom post types

Duplicate Page is one of the simplistic and effective plugins designed to make a copy of any post or page within a click of a button. It’s especially valuable when creating many new items from the layouts and templates created in a shorter amount of time.

Elementor

Elementor

drag-and-drop builder extensive design elements template library

Elementor is one of the best page builder plugins which provide a drag and drop feature to build any layout for the page. Currently, it offers an abundance of design elements, templates, and widgets which can help create truly stunning, professional looking websites without any programming skills on the user’s part.

LiteSpeed Cache

LiteSpeed Cache

page caching image optimization database optimization LiteSpeed Web Server integration

LiteSpeed Cache is fast caching plugin that will act as the caching layer for WordPress websites. It smoothly works with the LiteSpeed Web Server and, in addition, it has image optimization, database cleaning, and page caching.

Security Plugins

It is very important to secure your WP website against things like malware, hackers and other shortcomings. Here are some of the top security plugins that can help safeguard your site:Here are some of the top security plugins that can help safeguard your site:

Wordfence

Wordfence

Web application firewall Malware scanning Real-time traffic monitoring Brute force attack protection

Wordfence is a word press security plugin which has the feature of a number of powerful tools to protect the word press site. There are a web application firewall, a malware scanner and a real time threat defense feed. Wordfence too has capability of analysing live traffic and inform the user of attacks in the process and option of blocking IPs and also protecting the site from brute forcers.

iThemes Security

iThemes Security

Brute force protection File change detection Database backups Security dashboard with recommendations

iThemes Security, also previously identified as Better WP Security, comprises a vast array of features to for the protection of your WordPress website against the prevailing evils. It encompasses the protection based on force, as well as tracking of file changes and copying of databases. It also has features such as a security status where the program tells you the general security level of the particular website and some of the recommended steps for enhancing security.

Sophisticated attackers can easily exploit the standard WordPress install, which is why implementing these security plugins can improve the security features of your WordPress website. Reporting is also necessary for a website, and activity monitoring helps to keep data safe, including your data and data of the website’s visitors.

SEO Plugins

WordPress SEO plays an important role of enhancing the ranking of your site on search engines so that it can be easily identified. This is because through SEO plugins you will be able to work on and change your sites content, structure as well as performance in order to get better rankings in the search engines. Here are some of the top SEO plugins to consider:Here are some of the top SEO plugins to consider:

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO

SEO analysis readability check XML sitemaps Google Search Console integration

Yoast SEO is perhaps the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress because of the rich functionality joined with the ease of use. Other features provided by it on page optimization tools include; keyword optimization, write quality checks, and meta tags. Another feature of Yoast SEO is Site Maps that includes XML sitemaps also it conveniently connects with Google Search Console for easy tracking of the site’s SEO.

Rank Math SEO

Rank Math SEO

Keyword ranking tracking Rich snippets integration 404 monitor SEO analysis tools Setup wizard

Rank Math SEO is the professional tool which will assist in the promotion of any website and its content. It has extensions like keywords ranking, Rich snippets, and 404 monitor which are more advanced. There is also the quick installation wizard as well as advanced SEO analysis tools that assist in the process of proper SEO content optimization.

SEOPress

SEOPress

Content analysis Meta descriptions and title optimization Structured data types (schema) Google Analytics integration Social media sharing options

SEOPress is a general seizure SEO plugin that can function in enhancing key internet site components. It has content analysis, and meta descriptions and title optimization. It has other features like structured data types (or schema), Google Analytics and social sharing that are incorporated into SEOPress. Due to its easy to use interface and detailed documentation this plugin is preferred by WordPress users.

Backup and Migration Plugins

The other essential dimension that I have considered important while using WordPress is the need to have a regular backup service and the capability to seamlessly move the WordPress site. Here are some top plugins that simplify the process of backing up and migrating your WordPress website:

All-in-One WP Migration

All-in-One WP Migration

Drag-and-drop interface Database, media files, plugins, and themes export Find-and-replace functionality Compatibility with various hosting providers

All-in-One WP Migration is a WordPress plugin which is easy to use designed to help users migrate a WordPress site without stress. It enables the copying of the whole site, the database, the media files, the plugins, and the themes with just a drag and drop operation. The plugin works with nearly all hosting services and allows performing find & replace operations on the database at the export step.

UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus

Scheduled backups Cloud storage options (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) One-click restoration Migration capabilities

UpdraftPlus is another reliable and powerful plugin that has a great reputation for being the best backup plugin for WordPress. It lets you make full copies of your site and store the copies either on the cloud or on your computer. Another feature is back up that can be scheduled so that the user does not have the need of frequently initiating it. Available features of UpdraftPlus are copy, backup, restore, and migrate with only one click.

Duplicator

Duplicator

Site migration and cloning Package creation (database, files, and settings) Easy site transfers Ideal for staging environments

Duplicator is one of the most popular plugins that enables the easier migration and cloning of WordPress sites. It enables you to customize packages with the whole site from the database files and all the settings to be easily relocated to another place. To cut the long story short, Duplicator is suitable when you as a developer want to create a staging area or migrate the sites from one host to another.

Performance Optimization Plugins

Optimizing the performance of one’s WordPress site is very important to ensure that users are able to experience smooth navigation on the website. Here are some top performance optimization plugins that can help improve your site’s speed and efficiency:

WP Rocket

WP Rocket

Page caching Cache preloading GZIP compression Browser caching

WP Rocket is a paid caching plugin for WordPress web sites optimized to improve the performance of the web site. Some of the features it comes with are the page caching, cache preloading, and the GZIP compression to enhance on the loading time of the page and make it more user friendly. In its usage, WP Rocket depends much on the users; hence, it is incredibly easy to use even for the new WordPress users much as it also needs little configuration from the advanced WordPress users as well.

LiteSpeed Cache

LiteSpeed Cache

Server-level caching Image optimization Database optimization Advanced cache management

LiteSpeed Cache – this is a generous caching plugin that has the greatest set of features for WordPress site enhancement. It also supports the LiteSpeed Web Server and has features to enhance server caching, image, and database.

Autoptimize

Autoptimize

Minification and caching of scripts and styles Inline critical CSS Defer JavaScript Image and Google Fonts optimization

Autoptimize is one of the famous plugins that specifically work on optimizing the front end of a website. It reduces the size of scripts and styles, and stores them locally, inserts styles in the head section and moves and delays scripts into the footer. It also deals with image, google fonts and async javascript optimization to load the webpage very fast and provide smooth experience.

Perfmatters

Perfmatters

Disable unnecessary WordPress features Script manager Database optimization Lazy loading images

Perfmatters that is a light weight yet effective performance enhancement tool that works to eliminate all the services on Site and even enhance scripts. It lets you turn off selectively options in WordPress that are not helpful for your site’s performance such as emojis, embeds, and XML-RPC. This also incorporates a script manager enabling specification at page level of which scripts should run, and which should not.

Page Builder Plugins

Page builder plugins help the users develop and style the WP site design without having the technical know-how of a web developer. The hosted site gives you set of plugins which are based on drag and drop and hence you can create highly professional look pages with them. Here are some of the top page builder plugins for WordPress:

Elementor

Elementor

Drag-and-drop builder Extensive template library Responsive design options Advanced design elements and widgets

Elementor is one of the most popular page builder plugin that is easy to use with a drag and drop functionality and of course offers lots of design options. It mostly comes with many design aspects, layout choices, and widgets to let users create good and mobile-friendly pages. It is a plugin that allows site owners to manage every conceivable aspect of the website’s template by headers, footers, and content blocks.

Bricks

Bricks

User-friendly drag-and-drop interface Pre-designed templates Fast and efficient performance Customizable design elements

Bricks is a performance-oriented and unbelievably beautiful page builder plugin with which people can build their website. It is easy to use with available and easily customizable templates and different design tools. It is fast in rendering the website pages and makes sure that no matter how many layout structures are applied to the site, page loading shall not be a problem.

Oxygen

Oxygen

Drag-and-drop builder Dynamic data integration Custom CSS and responsive controls Advanced design capabilities

Oxygen is one of the most easy to use and flexibly setup the builder page plugins that I have come across. It makes it possible for you to arrange the page with a mouse and has other features such as the Data Insertion tool, CSS styles, and controls that responds to the font size. It can be noted that oxygen is most famous among developers and designers who have to have precise control over the appearance of their website.

Form Plugins

You really cannot do without form as it is used to capture information from users, create leads and also as a communication tool on your WordPress site. Here are some top form plugins that can help you create and manage forms easily:

Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms

Drag-and-drop form builder Conditional logic File uploads Multi-page forms Third-party integrations (PayPal, Stripe, Mailchimp)

Gravity Forms is an efficient and functional plugin that provides the user with an ability to create a complex form on a Word Press site. It has the ability to drag and drop yours form builder that allows the creation of diverse fields such as text, email, drop down among others. Another feature that has been made available to users is the conditional logic, the capability of including files in the form, and featured multi-page forms. Also, it is compatible with most of the third party features like Paypal, Stripe, and Mailchimp.

WPForms

WPForms

Drag-and-drop form builder Pre-built templates Smart conditional logic Form notifications Spam protection Integrations with email marketing services and payment platforms

WPForms is a user-friendly form creation plugin for WordPress that is simple to use even for beginners and will help design professional forms. It has a drag and drop feature and ready to use templates to help you create contact forms, survey forms, orders forms and many others. Some of the features that are available for use include; Smart conditional logic to allow users to build complex forms easily, form notifications for notifying the form users, and spam protection whereby users’ forms are secured from spam access. It also works well with most of the used email marketing services, and payment systems.

Other Essential Plugins

Other crucial plugins which are not in the earlier categories include; Security, SEO, performance optimization, paginated builders, and form plugins. Here are some top recommendations:Here are some top recommendations:

WordPress Classic Editor

WordPress Classic Editor

Restores old editor interface Supports old-style meta boxes Compatibility with legacy plugins

WordPress Classic Editor is WordPress’s official plugin that enables users to get back the earlier version of WordPress editor and the Edit Post page. This plugin is kind of useful for users who like to stay with the old editor and use lots of plugins that have not been migrated to the new interface yet.

Duplicate Page

Duplicate Page

One-click duplication Supports posts, pages, and custom post types User-friendly interface

Duplicate Page is relatively basic but functional; it helps in creating a copy of any post, page, or a custom post type with the simple click of a button. This is beneficial in terms of easily involving the creation of new content frequently out of old and already designed formats and layouts.

Redirection

Redirection

Easy 301 redirect management 404 error monitoring Detailed logging and reporting

Redirection is an all-round plugin for handling 301 re-directs and for tracking 404 errors. It makes it simple for you to create and manage your redirect and see to it that users and search engines are taken to the right page. This plugin is vital for keeping up with search engine rankings and enhancing the visitors’ experience.

Better Search Replace

Better Search Replace

Search and replace within the database Supports serialized data Preview changes before applying

Better Search Replace is a simple plugin to use for copying and editing of the database of your WordPress website. Maybe it’s especially helpful in updating the URLs when transferring the site and changing mass amounts of content.

EWWW Image Optimizer

EWWW Image Optimizer

Automatic image optimization Bulk optimization Lossless and lossy compression options

EWWW Image Optimizer is a WordPress plugin that can assist in optimizing images on your website by making their size smaller thus the quality being affected. This enhances simplicity and productivity of the website, which is paramount in satisfying its customers and search engine ranking.

GeneratePress

GeneratePress

Lightweight and fast performance Extensive customization options Full compatibility with Gutenberg

GeneratePress is an ultraal minimalist theme that is compatible with the Gutenberg editor and allows for so much customization. It has got an array of features and is recognized by fast running and neat code quality.

Google Site Kit

Google Site Kit

Integration with Google tools Easy-to-read dashboards Comprehensive site performance insights

Another official WordPress plugin is Google Site Kit that connects your sites with data from different Google tools right at your WordPress dashboard. It connects to Google Analytics, Search Console, AdSense and many more, making available detailed information about efficiency of your site.

Imsanity

Imsanity

Automatic image resizing Bulk image resize option Configurable maximum width/height

When it comes to images that are uploaded in the Web site, Imsanity makes it even resize these large images to size that is much more reasonable, thus preserving the space in the server and the performance of the Site. This is quite handy for such sites that have numerous authors, who occasionally publish images in their original and larger sizes.

ShortPixel Image Optimizer

ShortPixel Image Optimizer

Image compression and optimization Lossy and lossless compression options Automatic optimization for new uploads

ShortPixel Image Optimizer reduces the file size of the images that are used in websites to boost performance. There is lossy as well as lossless compression that guarantees the user to obtain high-quality images at reduced file sizes.

SVG Support

SVG Support

Safe SVG uploads Inline SVG rendering Full control over SVG files

SVG Support was designed to also enable users to upload and use SVG files securely in their WordPress site. Inline SVG rendering is also supported which makes your images and icons more flexible and easy to manage.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce

Product management Multiple payment gateways Shipping and tax options

WooCommerce is the most used eCommerce plugin for your WordPress in this respect because it enables you to set and run an online shop. It has features as product catalog and display, payment processing, and delivery methods which make it an all-in-one solution for eCommerce.

WP Forms

WP Forms

Drag-and-drop form builder Pre-built templates Smart conditional logic Form notifications Spam protection

WP Forms is best considered as a form builder tool that has extremely easy to use for newbies or beginners and is know to offer professional WP Forms. The program has a GUI and provided schemas to create contact forms, survey forms, order forms, and other forms.

Starting from the search engine optimization by Yoast SEO plugin and security by Wordfence to the powerful page creators like Elementor or the performance boosters such as WP Rocket, all of them are created to make your website as effective as possible. Some of the common plugins to integrate include the form plugins like Gravity Forms and WPForms for facilitating the interaction of users and generating leads and for the back up of data, UpdraftPlus.

Applying all these plugins in your WordPress site requires that you choose and incorporate them properly for you to have a responsive, secure, and high performance website that helps you meet your audience needs as well as helping it be ranked highly by the search engine. This knowledge will help avoid difficulties and keep the site efficient and secure updating the plugins and knowing the new tendencies.

As you embark on enhancing your WordPress site with these plugins, remember to use the latest version of the plugins and ensure that they are updated regularly to avoid the threats.

Check the performance of your site and be able to change the number of plugins you are using based on the result of check.

Seek help and advice from the WordPress community in using plugins and how they can be of better help.

Thus, while utilizing these plugins, you can stay on the right path: creating exceptional content, interacting with people, and expanding your presence. Adopt these tools and you will see your WordPress site evolve from a simple tool into a rich and functional interface.

In case you have any other questions or haven’t found what you are looking for in the article, you are welcome to contact us or use other resources in the WP sphere. Cheers to creating a more efficient and mightier WordPress blog!

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Website Design Problems – How to Avoid https://webhelpagency.com/blog/website-design-problems/ Tue, 15 Feb 2022 10:18:12 +0000 https://webhelpagency.com/?p=3303 In this age of technology having a cool and user-friendly website is important. This helps to boost the business operations of a company to the internet. With this, the company can serve a larger audience. However, for the website to bring more sales you need to ensure the design is appealing to customers. This is […]

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In this age of technology having a cool and user-friendly website is important. This helps to boost the business operations of a company to the internet. With this, the company can serve a larger audience. However, for the website to bring more sales you need to ensure the design is appealing to customers. This is done by using website designs that are user-friendly and informative. There are common website design problems that can lower the effectiveness of a website.

A development team should avoid these website design problems to make the website stand out among customers. This will make it a guarantee that the customers like the design and they are persuaded to buy. At Web Help Agency we have done tons of WordPress services and we know some common problems found on web designs, for instance. So, we will discuss them in this article to help you design better websites.

Website Design Problems


List of the 6 Common Website Design Problems


Here are the web design problems that occur in most web development projects.


1. Leaving the customers’ needs out of the design


This is common in web designs. If you fail to consider the customers’ needs you will not be competitive enough to get sales. It’s good to beautify a website, but, doing this without considering the site visitors is a bad step. So, consider what the customers find to be important in the niches of your business. Then look for creative ways to present that on the design. If you are using WordPress there are dozens of plugins that can help you to present what matters to customers. Better yet you can get a good software solution from experts including plugin development teams.
Thus, the goal is, to ensure potential customers get adequate information to lead them to make a purchase.


2. Too Much Information on the Web Design


The web design should inform the potential customer about the products and services, but don’t overdo the presentation. The design should encourage the web visitors to stick to the site and check out the products. When you keep the visitors focusing on the design too much, they may end up not finding the call to action. This is why you need to give moderate content.
Point to note, include only the necessary information and avoid going into details on the design.


3. Complicated website navigation Interface


Moving from one page to the other should be simple. This is through features like the navigation bar and backlinks. Unfortunately, most websites are difficult to navigate through. In such cases, the visitors don’t know where to access the products page, contact page, etc. This makes them leave the site without meeting your objective. This is why at Web Help Agency we recommend using tools like Figma, Adobe XD and Sketch to make the designs on how the pages will link together.
Tip always ensure your website navigation is up to date when you add a page or a feature that potential customers may need.


4. Poor Color Consideration


This is a common problem in most web designs. This is mostly for companies that are not sure of the theme colors to use. So, this makes it unprofessional and difficult to go through the site. The Web Development Team and Graphic designers need to plan and work on the web design and the logo that contains a great color combination. Through, this the dedicated development team will know which colors to use. Moreover, ensure the links, buttons, paragraphs, headings, and background contrast well.


5. Choosing between Landscape and Portrait Images


This is common that most websites use images that don’t fit accurately. This is caused by a poor choice of images between portrait and landscape images. So, there are many sites out there that offer great images. Thus, you need to know which place needs a portrait image or a landscape one. This will ensure customers are happy and they experience a taste of professionalism. When outsourcing your WordPress development services ensure they are aware of which images to use.


6. Not focusing on Conversions


In conclusion, most sites focus on the design part and forget the conversion part. Most websites have this web design problem and it leads to low sales. So what should you do? You need to prepare the website design to make it both user-friendly and convincing to site visitors to become customers. As a result, we recommend using WooCommerce for your online store. This tool is great and comes with features to boost conversion rates.


Conclusion


There are many common website design Problems that every web developer and web designer should avoid. So, this is to ensure the website gets sales and makes the business competitive. The above are the common web design problems and the solutions. Finally, at Web Help Agency we value creating an ecosystem of websites that bring profits.

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Company’s Website that is not Delivering on Leads or Sales https://webhelpagency.com/blog/companys-website/ Tue, 08 Feb 2022 08:54:01 +0000 https://webhelpagency.com/?p=3291 There is nothing bad to a business like having a website that is not begetting on leads and sales. This is even worse when the traffic to the site is high but few visitors make purchases or subscribe to your services. At this point, the IT department can quickly point to the website design. This […]

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There is nothing bad to a business like having a website that is not begetting on leads and sales. This is even worse when the traffic to the site is high but few visitors make purchases or subscribe to your services. At this point, the IT department can quickly point to the website design. This can also cause a company to review its marketing strategy or the SEO of the website. While one of these could be the problem. The truth is that you cannot get the solution to the problem if you don’t come to the root cause. Thus, it is important to investigate why a company’s website isn’t delivering leads or sales.

The problem can vary from one website to another. Thus, it is good to dig into the specific problem your website could have. Pinpointing these issues will make the next step of solving the problem to be easier. Because at Web Help Agency we have worked on many WordPress sites we will share the solution to such websites.

Company’s Website



Steps To Revive A Company’s Website that Isn’t Delivering on Leads/Sales

A website should help you achieve the goals of the business. The following five steps will help you to get a remedy for a website. This will help you identify the problem and formulate a successful solution. Are you ready to start making sales? Here are the steps to follow:



Get straight to the problem

Many reasons cause a company to have few sales. This is why you need to narrow it down to the unique problem in the corporate website. Outsourcing for a system auditor is one way to achieve this. In this case, you mandate them to go through the website and its resources. This includes the databases, the source code, and the website design. After that, they will come up with a report that will include the recommendations.

Another way to get the cause of these low customers is to get the user’s feedback. This is through reviews or surveys. This will help you know why the visitors to the site are not buying your products or services. Your IT department can also compare your company’s website with other successful sites in the same niche. From this list down some key differences that your site lacks.

Some common issues you are likely to find are the website design, typos, poor representation of information, lack of call to action, forms with poor link to the backend, erroneous policies or a complex contact form, etc.



Formulate the Solution for the Company’s website

After getting the list of problems, list down a solution to each. This is better if you know what caused the issue. The solution can range from simple edits, editing the source code, or redoing the website. Be sure to choose the best and the cheapest solution.

When you use a system auditor this process is easier. This is because you will only need to use the recommendation in the final report. Also, your web development team should suggest what to do.



Get the Right Tools and Development Team

To ensure this time you don’t make any mistake that can limit the level of sales, you need to change some tools. Furthermore, you may consider adding tools that you were not using before. This will ensure you get better services. The tools we recommend at Web Help Agency are:

  1. Analytics tools
  2. Designing tools like Adobe XD and Figma
  3. Recommended Plugins
  4. Marketing Tools
  5. Social Media Management Tools

These are the common tools to use. You can add many more from different enterprises. At least as you solve the issues ensure you use these. You also need to re-adjust your development team. This will ensure the services that were not there before are now included. An alternative to this is to train the team to be more vigilant to avoid previous problems.



Implement the solution to the Company’s website

After crafting the solutions you can know how to implement them on the company’s website. Whether you redo the whole website or make a few edits, ensure you do not change the domain name. You should only change if there are clear reasons. As you implement the changes don’t interfere with any feature that is working well.

In some cases especially when working on complex issues. You will need to inform your customers in advance that the website will be under maintenance. This will avoid inconveniences when they visit the site.



Change the Marketing strategy and check if the problem is solved

The final step is to change the marketing strategies. The reason for this is to avoid targeting the same audience that was not buying your products or services. This is because some of them may have lost interest. Retargeting a new market will ensure you get new customers that will trust you.

After that, now check if the problem is solved. In most cases, this will work well. The website will now start delivering sales and leads.



Final remarks

There is always a lot to do to ensure a company’s website gives the business more profits. This is especially when something is not working well on your site. At Web Help Agency we have proven the above steps to help a company’s website to start making sales. You can get in touch if you have any questions.

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Business Website – 5 Effective Ideas to Improve It https://webhelpagency.com/blog/business-website/ Thu, 03 Feb 2022 09:04:18 +0000 https://webhelpagency.com/?p=3253 Websites are important to any business, this is why you need to ensure they are in the best condition. You need to use effective ideas to improve your business website and have an impactful online presence. Which is the greatest recipe for creating a great brand. You need to improve your business website to adapt […]

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Websites are important to any business, this is why you need to ensure they are in the best condition. You need to use effective ideas to improve your business website and have an impactful online presence. Which is the greatest recipe for creating a great brand. You need to improve your business website to adapt to new features and plugins. Also, this will help in performance, security, customer convenience, user and content management, etc. There are many ways to improve a business website. Read this article to learn these ways.

Business Website ideas


The 5 Ideas to Improve a Business Website


At Web Help Agency dealing with many websites and services ranging from WordPress sites to others, we have learned the best ways to improve any website. Here is a list of the top recommended ways.


This may seem to be a simple thing but it is not. If the users on your website cannot identify the clickable links to read them to other pages or sites, then you are losing a great opportunity. This is common when you don’t highlight the clickable objects. You should use different colors and fonts. Also, try using the underline and bold features.

A visitor on your business website is a potential customer. You don’t want them to miss clicking the link or button that will read them to the service or products page. Furthermore, we recommend using tools like Adobe XD and Figma to design these clickable objects.


2. Give the business website visitors a call to action (what they should do)


People visiting your websites have to know what they should do next after reading an article or going through a page. You also have a goal on what you want them to do. So, this will depend on the business model you are using. If you want them to subscribe to the newsletter, buy a product, enroll in membership or visit your business offices, you have to make it clear.

Improve your website by evaluating whether the articles and the pages give a clear action for web users.


3. Make your goal clear on the Landing Page


Your business goal needs to be clear from the start. A visitor to your site should know your goals, mainly on the homepage. The goal should at least be something that most people are looking for around your niche. This will ensure user satisfaction. When outsourcing for a web developer ensure you let them know the business goal.

An effective way to improve on this is to ensure the logo gives a clear view of what your business does. A tool like a sketch can help you get such logos. With this, when visitors come to your website, they already know about your business when they see the logo.


4. Indicate your location, services, and official social handles


Including your business location will improve your business website in a great way. This will help potential customers who want to visit your offices. Then, also include the services you offer. This makes it easier to convert the visitors to customers. Finally, include the social media handles. This helps to avoid fraudsters from using unauthorized accounts to perform malicious activities.


5. Make it simple for visitors to contact your team


Having a great business is about satisfying the client’s needs. You need to ensure you solve their problems and give them top-notch WordPress services & products. Therefore, to improve your business you have to consider improving the way the site visitors contact you. So, this will help you to offer them better products and services. Your team should have the experience to respond to customer requests.


Final Remarks To Improving Your Business Website


You will always need to improve your business website as new technologies pop up. So, this will help you remain competitive. Finally, you can always reach out to us at the Web Help Agency and we will be glad to help you improve your business website.

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Corporate Website. Choosing Features and Web Agency https://webhelpagency.com/blog/corporate-website/ Tue, 01 Feb 2022 09:27:37 +0000 https://webhelpagency.com/?p=3247 A corporate website is a real deal for businesses in the current world. This is to tap into the vast online audience that is looking for a product or service that your enterprise offers. Thus, choose wisely what your professional website looks like. This will help you make a reputable brand. For this, outsourcing for […]

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A corporate website is a real deal for businesses in the current world. This is to tap into the vast online audience that is looking for a product or service that your enterprise offers. Thus, choose wisely what your professional website looks like. This will help you make a reputable brand. For this, outsourcing for the right web developer is an essential need.

Many features are suitable for web applications. But, you don’t need all, you only have to select a few perfect features. Then go ahead and select a perfect web agency to meet your goals. In this article, we will help you get the best corporate website. At Web Help Agency we have proven and thus, recommend the following considerations.

Corporate website



Invest in Proven Modern Technologies


There are many technologies out there that offer web services for corporate setups. With the current trends in the field of web development, you can get a website through different techniques. Amazingly, it is possible to get a fully functional site with zero coding. This is why we recommend you choose proven modern technologies. Then ensure the web agency you choose can deliver on the demand. A platform like WordPress is a good CMS to use, and you can add more features on the way using plugins.

Then ensure the flexibility of the technology you use is perfect. This will help you customize the site to meet your taste easily. You also want a technology that will be easier to debug. For this, we recommend that you share your idea with the agency and see how they will help.


Know your customer’s feedback by reading customer reviews


Customer feedback is important to any corporate website. This is good to understand what the customers are saying. Thus, you can choose an agency to tailor a site that will meet the customer’s needs. This will help your business use the website to scale its activities to become more competitive. Read the reviews on Google Maps, social media platforms, and other sites where customers write reviews. From this, you can choose the list of features you need. Sites like Figma and Adobe XD can help you simulate the site. This will ensure the site includes all the important features.

Moreover, the team you work with should integrate a portal that allows users to give feedback on the web services. This should be both about your business model and their experience on the site.


Set an Achievable Goal for your Corporate Website


Setting a goal for your website is a great strategy to ensure you are specific to the agency on what you need. This will ensure you choose the right features, model and also you will not have any problem guiding the dedicated development team. This is even better when you choose an achievable goal. This will help the agency to customize your website perfectly.

You only need to use the features that are needed. This will ensure you launch the website soon and also ensure you don’t overspend. Here are tips to help you when choosing goals for the website.

  • Evaluate the business model you are using e.g. B2B, B2C, etc.
  • Consider the size of the company i.e. a larger company will have more goals.
  • Choose on-point goals.
  • Ensure the goals have a web feature to implement them
  • Use different design tools like sketch to simulate the goals


Place Key Emphasis on Technical Aspects for the Corporate Website


It is important to ensure the technical aspects are well taken care of. This will ensure the features appear professionally for the corporate website. Ensure you ask the agency if they can implement these technical features. This includes web responsiveness, web hosting configuration, domain names services, etc. Moreover, you want to know if the website package includes the administrator’s control panel.

Another important question is to inquire about the security features the agency will incorporate. This will help your IT department keep away from spammers and hackers. For this, you may consider outsourcing a security audit expert to ensure all matters on security are in check.


Avoid using Complex Features


Corporate websites are known to attract many website visitors. This is because web visitors can check your site from any part of the globe. This is a good thing for your business because you get more potential customers. But, this can cause embracement when you are not keen to have a user-friendly site. You don’t want to use complex features that users will not utilize. This calls for you to be keen on the agency you choose. Ensure they understand the customer’s needs.



Conclusion


Corporate websites are very good for professional companies to make their brand better. This is why you want to be sure the website is perfect from the landing page to the other pages. But, as we have seen this can be a challenge when you choose the wrong web agency. This is why the Web Help Agency undertakes consultations with our clients to ensure we give them the best. You can contact us with any query.

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Website Problems and How to Solve Them https://webhelpagency.com/blog/website-problems-and-how-to-solve-them/ Thu, 27 Jan 2022 12:24:43 +0000 https://webhelpagency.com/?p=3240 Designing a great website that will attract more visitors is the goal of every web dedicated development team. All IT departments want to ensure that their company has a website that will have a friendly user interface. This gives the organization more benefits like customer satisfaction, an increase in sales, and positive reviews from customers. […]

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Designing a great website that will attract more visitors is the goal of every web dedicated development team. All IT departments want to ensure that their company has a website that will have a friendly user interface. This gives the organization more benefits like customer satisfaction, an increase in sales, and positive reviews from customers. But, this is only achievable when you solve the common website problems that can make it fail to satisfy end users. These problems are in both the UI and the backend side of the site. To achieve this the team should be ready to solve the problems.

So, to help you have the best functioning website, we have this article to show you the common website problems, and the solution to each. This will ensure you avoid them and help you troubleshoot them if they occur.

Website Problems

Here is a list of this website problems, and the remedies:


1. Poor Website Design


Everyone loves to see something appealing to their eyes. This is the same for the visitors visiting any website. The common problem that most web developers make is using poor color combinations. This entails the text color, button’s background, title colors, page background, etc. It’s either the colors don’t match or the color is out of order. Another issue is using a low guilty logo or placing it in the wrong place. All these issues lead to poor website design.

Solution

The solution to this is to ensure you do the UI/ UX design of the website using tools like Figma and Adobe XD. This should be before the development process starts. This will ensure the choice of color combinations is perfect, and the logo is well done. Outsourcing a UI/ UX designer is a great way to get these designs.


2. Long Loading Time


This is a common issue, where most web applications take a long time to load. Remember, it takes site visitors an average of 3 seconds to wait for a site to load. Sadly, some sites take longer than this. This can cause a poor user experience for potential customers. This also affects the website ranking on search engines like Google.

Solution

The perfect solution for this is to reduce the file sizes on all pages, mainly the homepage. Then use different tools to measure the loading time, do this as you make adjustments until you have a faster loading time. On WordPress, there are plugins like Yoast to facilitate this.


3. Use of substandard Images


A famous quote says that Pictures speak a thousand, compared to words. This is why most web experts maximize the use of images. The only problem with this is that most images have low standards. This can cause the customers to hesitate to purchase anything from the site.

Solution

The solution to this is to invest in professional Photographers. At Web Help Agency we also recommend using tools like Sketch to edit images before uploading them.


4. Poorly organized Landing Page


The landing pages are the most important part of any website. It needs to be great to attract a visitor to look at the other pages. The problem is that some landing pages don’t meet high standards. The common issue is the poor presentation of information. When there is no order on your home page it is a bad image of your brand.

Solution

The solution to this is to simplify the content and the message on the page. Also, be clear and straight to the point. A call to action will work to prompt the site visitor to do something.


5. Inadequate Information and Contact Details


Websites are the best places to attract customers from different geographical locations. This can help you make more sales, whether it’s a WordPress, WooCommerce, or custom site. But, a simple mistake that web owners make is failure to include contact details. This makes the website visitors doubt the genuineness of the site.

Solution

The solution is to ensure you include valid contact details. Then you can include a “Contact Us” page where the potential customers can leave a message. Make it better and add the Social Media handles. Finally, some plugins implement chatbots, and you are free to use them.


6. Poorly Written Web Contents


It is a common website problems to find substandard articles. This can either be the blog posts, about us articles, FAQs, Terms and Conditions, Policies, and other content. So, the common issues are grammar errors that lead to few potential customers understating your business. This can make them seek the service or product elsewhere.

Solution

The solution to this is outsourcing professional freelance writers to do the writing. Then use editing tools to edit the article before publishing.


7. Poor Integration Services


In our earlier article, on planning website integration for WordPress sites. We did a summary of the major benefits of Integration. This is a great way to offer more services, but, when the platforms are not well connected to the system. This makes it difficult to manage everything.

Solution

Only use the website integration that is easy to implement. Then train your team on how to use the services, before implementing them.


Conclusion


Finally, there are many common problems that a web development team can solve. So, this can lead to problems, but luckily there are solutions to this. At Web Help Agency we know that these solutions work. You can trust the above solutions. In case of an issue get in touch with us.

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How WooCommerce for WordPress has Simplified Online Shopping https://webhelpagency.com/blog/how-woocommerce-for-wordpress-has-simplified-online-shopping/ Mon, 03 Jun 2019 07:22:46 +0000 https://webhelpagency.com/?p=1851 What does Online Shopping entail? Today, the Internet and its immense potential are increasingly changing society as we know it as well as transforming the manner in which we conduct our everyday business. With the massive amount of information available to us, we are individually relying more on our smartphones to act as personal assistants […]

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What does Online Shopping entail?

Today, the Internet and its immense potential are increasingly changing society as we know it as well as transforming the manner in which we conduct our everyday business. With the massive amount of information available to us, we are individually relying more on our smartphones to act as personal assistants that influence (in one way or the other) our daily life. Whether it is for entertainment purposes or interaction with other people on social media platforms, we are each using the Internet to link us to all our beloved services on a daily basis.

Online shopping marks one of the most cherished services, which have become part of our daily routine. Aside from being an efficient and convenient shopping method, it has given way to an entirely new world of lucrative businesses opportunities globally.

In recent years, stories of online retail success and the online shopping space, in general, have been on a steady rise. Initially, this was seen as a reserve for big companies where they would venture, especially when the demand for their goods or services could not be managed within the hours set for opening their retail stores.

With the Internet becoming increasingly intuitive and flawlessly connected with our daily lives, small enterprises and sole proprietors have seen the need to join the e-commerce space by starting to sell products globally through the Internet.

Despite various retailers having concerns regarding the drop of sales in their physical stores, one thing’s for sure, online shopping is here to stay, primarily due to the many advantages associated with it. Aside from convenient shopping locations and hours, online shopping offers simple search functions, including flexible delivery, customizable options, and multiple choices. Furthermore, most stores can deliver your order the next day, free of charge.

Customers are not the only ones who enjoy these benefits but sellers too. How? You may ask, well, operating an online store comes with lesser overhead costs, simple card transactions, a 24/7 open shop, and an automatic inventory check just to highlight a few… Who wouldn’t want such a business?

In case all these positives are compelling enough to make you contemplate jumping on the eCommerce bandwagon, but you don’t know what you need to do next, read on!

Involvement as a Seller

Over the last decade, the growth of online shopping has played a critical role in molding the present digital economy as well as improving digital technology. To meet our daily living requirements, the demand for simple to use and professionally designed online store sites has been increasing by the day.

Do you want to begin selling your products online? Well, here is how simple the process is:

  • First and foremost, you have to use a website platform as the foundation of your entire online operation.
  • The next step involves downloading the WooCommerce Plugin, which is designed to integrate flawlessly with WordPress.
  • Lastly, begin selling your products. Yes, it is as simple as that!

WooCommerce and what it entails

Established back in 2011, WooCommerce is currently the most well-known, global e-Commerce solution that provides developers and shop owners to complete freedom and control to create and customize shops to their preferred website specifications. The WooCommerce plugin is fully open source and can be utilized in meeting your e-Commerce requirements.

With WooCommerce being integrated into WordPress, you can select the desired template from the wide variety of template options as well as modify them with time. Most of the standard templates come at no cost, which means you can create a shop to fit your requirements as opposed to spending a lot of money to get a fully customized website.

How to Begin your WooCommerce Journey: The Practical Bit

You can download the plugin by clicking here or…

  • Register or sign up to WordPress
  • Click on the plugins selection and then Add New
  • Look for WooCommerce
  • Make sure you check the descriptions and ratings
  • Select Install and click enter

In case you are uncertain about how to progress from here and you are somehow not sure which ideal practice guide to follow on the Internet, then maybe you ought to try leveraging the in-built Quick Set-up WooCommerce wizard that enables to create a standard shop setup comfortably and quickly.

In case you fail to keep such settings for future versions of your particular online shop, WooCommerce will provide you with an insight into both the configuration and set up of a normal shop as well as help you familiarize yourself with navigating the website using the WooCommerce plugin.

Quick Set-up Wizard for WooCommerce

Normally, the wizard automatically goes through these aspects:

  • Location screen for the store (comes with both pre-calculated tax & shipping details)
  • Page set-up (intended for my account page, checkout page, cart page, shop page)
  • Product dimensions and weight
  • Store currency (automatically synchronizes with the location of the store even though it can be altered)

These are the core aspects of an online shop. In case you do not have adequate time to customize the site, then this is an excellent place to start selling your products.

See also: Shopify to Woocommerce and how to migrate.

Enabling Online Payments- The Easy Way

PayPal is the best and easiest way to make and receive payments online. WooCommerce gives you the opportunity to choose a PayPal plugin that can be integrated with your online shop at no cost. In fact, PayPal is the most secure, best-rated and broadly used (by sellers and buyers) online payment selection. In case you need more details, check out the PayPal integration information on the WordPress page here.

In case you are not certain about creating an e-commerce site, do not hesitate to reach out to us. We are a web development agency situated in Ukraine, with several professionals who are eager to help you launch your WooCommerce shop.

The post How WooCommerce for WordPress has Simplified Online Shopping appeared first on Web Help Agency.

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