Search engine optimisation is one of those terms you hear often, but it seems to change so often that you might wonder if you really need it at all.

The answer is a resounding yes! There’s a reason WordPress has built-in SEO features (though a little more optimisation is always a good thing).

One of the most cost effective website marketing tools that also has a high ROI is search engine optimisation. If you’re still one the fence about implementing it, let the following reasons convince you to start today.

Gain Organic Traffic

Imagine spending a few minutes marketing and then getting traffic again and again with no additional work. SEO gives you something that other marketing methods fall short on – minimal time for optimal results. For instance, if you write an optimised blog post for your site, it could help you rank in search engines for years to come.

Some even call if free traffic because it comes as a result of something you were doing anyway, such as adding product description or updating your site’s content. Organic traffic comes from real people searching for what they need. It’s just one of the many reasons this type of traffic is so valuable.

Reduce Marketing Time

Social media, ad campaigns and email lists all take time. With search engine optimisation, your site is doing the marketing for you. All it takes is the time you’d already be spending uploading new content and maintaining your site. While the other types of marketing are important, wouldn’t it be nice to get results even when you don’t have the time or budget for other types of marketing?

Target A Specific Audience

When you think of SEO, you probably think of keywords. This is an important part of search engine optimisation and it still works well as long as it’s done right. The key is to forget about keyword stuffing and consider user intent instead. You can still focus on a keyword (for instance, this post focuses on “search engine optimisation), but work in common phrases naturally, such “optimise a website,” “SEO” and “website marketing.” By focusing on natural searches and long tail keywords, you optimise your site for a specific audience.

Out Rank The Competition

Search for your site’s basic purpose on Google and see how many results are there. For instance, I just searched for “WordPress developer” and got over 26 million results. So the problem is how to become more competitive and land on those first few pages of results. This is where a search engine optimised site is key. For instance, I don’t just optimise my site for WordPress development, I also geo-target by my location along with using other SEO tactics, such as:

• Using cleaner code
• Optimising page load speeds
• Updating content regularly
• Using a variety of keyword phrases based around user intent

The right SEO can help you out rank your competition.

Make Your Site Easier For Google To Find

Sitemaps aren’t covered much when it comes to optimising a website. However, they’re vital for helping Google and other search engines find your site. Think of them as a way for search engines to “read” your site and understand its structure. This leads to better rankings.

Become A 24/7 Store Front

The more important reason your website needs to be optimised is so it becomes a 24/7 store front for your business. With optimisation, it’s going to be difficult for anyone to find you without direct marketing. When you’re sleeping, SEO continues to draw in traffic for you. After all, this is the entire purpose of your site – to work for you, even when you can’t work.

Search Engine Optimisation Tools To Try

While you can do search engine optimisation on your own, WordPress has this great feature called plugins. As you may have guessed, WordPress has plenty of SEO plugins to choose from to help you out, such as:

• Yoast SEO
• All In One SEO Pack
• SEO Ultimate
• SEOPressor
• Premium SEO Pack

Each has its own benefits. You can also check out some of my favorite overall WordPress plugins.

Ready to optimise your website? Contact Darren today to get started with an optimised WordPress site.

Image: Maliha Mannan

It’s the goal of any ecommerce site – increasing online sales, but it’s not always as easy as it sounds.

You’ve probably tried different marketing methods and offered discounts. The results still aren’t as impressive as you would like.

While it might sound like a simple solution, WordPress plugins could be the solution to your sales problem. The right plugin makes your site easier to manage and better for your customers.

Why Your Sales Are Down

Before diving into which plugins to use, let’s take a look at why your sales are down. You have great products, but visitors aren’t converting into customers.

One of the problems might be that visitors forget about your site. Most visitors won’t make a purchase immediately, but instead, they’ll do a little research first. If you offer a limited time discount in exchange for their email address, you’re able to contact visitors long after they’ve left your site and remind them to come back.

Another issue stems from complicated or unsecured checkout processes. The easier it is for a visitor to make a purchase, the more likely they are to follow through instead of abandoning their carts.

Finally, your site may not be showcasing your products in the best light. Videos, images and engaging descriptions are what persuade customers to buy something. Think about it like this. Would you be more likely to buy clothing online with multiple images from different angles or a single small image? You’d want to see multiple images before making a choice.

Three Changes To Make Right Now

The first big change you need to make is offering a way for visitors to sign up for emails. This is how you stay in contact with visitors and continue to make sales. Opt-in forms that are easy to exit work best. TemplateMonster increased signups by 600% after adding an easy exit signup form. Of course, you also need to offer value in your emails, such as discounts and items related to what they’ve viewed on your site.

The second change is simplifying and securing the checkout process. You need a few simple steps and a valid SSL certificate to encrypt customer data. Your checkout process also needs to offer multiple ways to pay, such as credit card or online payments, such as PayPal.

The final change is to optimise your product pages. Better descriptions, 360 degree videos or images of products and zoomable images help boost sales.

Increase Sales With WordPress Plugins

Increasing online sales might sound complicated, but WordPress plugins make it easy. For best results, use an all-in-one ecommerce plugin that also works with other services, such as email newsletters. These plugins help take care of all the major problems listed above.

The most popular by far is WooCommerce. It currently powers 39% of all ecommerce stores. The plugin makes it easy to manage your store, offer secure checkouts, accept various payment types, and it integrates with other services.

WP eCommerce is the second most popular ecommerce plugin. While it’s not quite as feature rich as WooCommerce, it works well for simple ecommerce stores.

If your ecommerce site only offers digital downloads, Easy Digital Downloads may work best for you. It offers powerful reporting, easy integration with other services and makes it easy for customers to make and receive their purchases.

Among these three, most stores still choose WooCommerce since it’s already compatible with a variety of other services, such as PayPal and MailChimp. Think of a WordPress plugin as your secret weapon to increasing sales online. When it’s easier to manage your store and easier for customers to interact with your store, sales increase.

Boost Your Sales Now

It doesn’t matter what type of marketing you use if your online store isn’t powered by a reliable WordPress plugin. When you want to make a great impression on visitors and keep them coming back for more, you need a store that offers everything a visitor wants, such as smooth checkouts, easy email signups and great ways to views products. You could do it all manually or rely on a plugin to do the heavy lifting for you.

Ready to implement a WordPress plugin to improve your ecommerce store? Contact StuartMedia today to see how to get started. 

Image: Crew

Every year, there’s a new list of trends with WordPress sites and 2016 is no exception.

Instead of going into the same tired list of responsive design and add more images, it’s time to list some hot trends that are still relatively new. While some sites are using them, your WordPress can stand out from the crowd by adopting a few.

Refreshing your site, even in small ways, makes a huge difference with your visitors. Go ahead and show them you know exactly what’s trending with a WordPress makeover.

1. Cards Layout

On the surface, the cards layout isn’t anything new. After all, it’s the core of Pinterest and many Tumblr blogs. Yet, how many major websites do you see using this layout? It’s one of the hottest new trends with WordPress and you’ll find quite a few themes are focused on a card style layout. With visitors wanting a quick overview of the content on your site, individual cards provide both an image and quick headline to grab their attention.

You can either have a theme designed or implement a plugin, such as Masonry Grid, to get the Pinterest style look on your own WordPress site.

2. Material Design

The past few years have focused on flat design, but that’s changing. The almost flat design is a major trend, but something a little more cutting edge is Material Design. It’s similar to flat design, but has a bolder flair. Google put this trend in the spotlight and it’s actually a collection of typography, colors, menus, tabs and much more. Some WordPress themes are focused on the new design or you can have a custom theme created.  Materializer is one of the first major plugins to have many of the Material Design shortcodes in a single plugin.

3. Creating Motion

You probably already know that video is a growing web design trend, but if you don’t want to fill your site with videos, another option is simply creating motion. One of the hottest trends with WordPress right now is animation. From subtle transitions from one page to the next or animated typography, this trend is highly engaging and eye catching. Image how much more effective a call to action would be with a little animation behind it.

While individual elements can be coded manually, the easiest way to incorporate this trend is via a plugin, such as Animate It.

4. Hamburger Menus

If you use a mobile device often, you’ve already encountered hamburger menus. Like their incredibly tasty counterparts, hamburger menus are stacked much like the parts of a hamburger. They’re used on mobile devices to hide the main menu and make the most of the limited screen space. Some sites are doing the same thing for desktop sites.

It creates a minimalist look and gives mobile users a more familiar environment as they transition back and forth. It’s still highly debated as to whether it’s an ideal design choice for desktop sites. If most of your audience consists of mobile users, it’s worth trying. Responsive Menu is currently the most popular free WordPress plugin to help you implement hamburger menus.

5. Animated Backgrounds

Don’t confuse this trend with animated or moving elements. A popular trend in past years (and still popular) is a single, full page background image. It’s aesthetically pleasing and a wonderful introduction to your site. Step that trend up a notch with the more engaging animated or video background. Newrow.com is the perfect example of using not only a video style background, but a vertical split design too (which is also trending).

There are a number of themes and plugins that support this WordPress trend. Just make sure to use small file sizes so your page loading speed isn’t affected.

Start Trending With Your Site

While these are far from the only trends with WordPress right now, they are some the hottest. If your site needs a boost, give one or two a try. Adding in some eye catching elements may be just what your site needs to keep more visitors on your site and get more conversions.

Want to incorporate any of these trends on your WordPress website? Contact Darren today to learn how to get started. 

Image: chichacha

It’s the dream of every business owner to reach their customers quicker and boost conversions.

Your website gives you multiple opportunities to reach your customers quicker. It’s why focusing on site performance and design is so important, especially for online businesses.

A few simple steps give you the power to bring more customers to your site and increase sales, newsletter sign-ups or any other type of conversion. Let your website work for you and increase profits and efficiency.

Optimise Your Site For Search

Many of your customers are likely searching for a keyword related to your business or even your business name. If your site’s not optimised, it might not show up in search results. WordPress already has some built-in optimisation, but you can make it even better. A few things to consider are:

• Using a responsive design to meet Google’s mobile requirements and the 1.5 billion mobile Internet users
• Using natural sounding keywords throughout content
• Developing a site with clean code
• Using alt tags for images
• Creating a clear site structure
• Using SEO plugins

These are just a few ways to optimise your site. When Google and other search engines are bringing visitors to you, you’re able to reach customers faster without as much marketing.

A/B Test Elements For Better Conversions

You’ve placed a sign-up form on the left side of your site, but what if it worked better on the right? The placement, font size and even colour of elements on your page affect how visitors engage with them. This is where A/B testing comes into play. You’re able to test the results of different strategies to see which works best for your audience. This approach works well for all aspects of marketing, such as email open rates, social media campaigns, content types and element placement on your site.

Showcase Feedback

Obviously, this works best if the majority of the feedback is positive. The idea is once visitors are on your site, you want to encourage them to complete an action, such as making a purchase. Just like you, customers like to know what previous customers think. Displaying real reviews from customers alongside a product helps customers make a decision faster without leaving your site to do research (and possibly find a competitor).

For instance, WikiJob tested conversions using real versus overly enthusiastic testimonials. The site saw a 34% increase in conversions with this one simple change.

Take Advantage Of Plugins

WordPress is highly customisable with thousands of free and paid plugins. Developers even create custom plugins to better meet a site’s needs. These plugins are designed to boost site performance, help you master SEO techniques, provide more control over a page’s layout post-design, integrate with social media and much more. Don’t be afraid to use them.

Utilise Analytics

Do you know where your visitors are coming from? What if you’re spending all your time marketing on Facebook, but your target audience is on Twitter? Analytics help you figure out who your target audience is, where they’re at online and what they like best. For instance, if you’re running social media and email campaigns, analytics software shows you which one is most effective.

The more you learn about your customers, the easier it is to tweak your approach to reach them faster and easier. Of course, the more customers you reach, the higher your conversions will be. Luckily, there are quite a few analytics plugins to help you out.

Engage With Your Customers

Your customers want to interact with you. This means being active on social media, providing a feedback/contact form on your site and providing useful content. Talking to your customers helps build a strong brand reputation, which increases social recommendations. Adding useful content to your site on regular basis gives your customers something to talk about and it also brings new customers to your site through organic searches. The more you interact, easier it is to reach your customers and boost conversions.

Conclusion

Realising your dream of bringing in customers quicker is possible. All it takes is a few tweaks to your site and how you interact with your potential and existing customers. Make these improvements and you could finally see your conversion rate increase.

Need help changing your site for better performance? Let StuartMedia help you through the changes to give your business the boost it needs. 

Image: Marc Levin

Understanding your visitors’ behavior is key to knowing how to market and even revamp your website.

With an analytics plugin for WordPress, you’re able to learn where your visitors originate from, how long they’re on your site, which pages perform best and much more.

You can use all of this data to improve your content, see which calls-to-action buttons work best and where to concentrate your marketing efforts. If you want to get the most from WordPress, try one of these analytics plugins.

Piwik

For those who prefer open source software, Piwik might be the perfect analytics plugin for you. It’s open source and self-hosted, just like WordPress. It’s similar to Google Analytics, but all data is stored by you versus being stored on a third party server. Piwik also offers a cloud hosted solution for a monthly fee if you don’t want to have to host it yourself. It’s highly customisable and ideal for sites of all sizes.

Google Analytics By Yoast

If you already use Yoast, you might want to consider Google Analytics by Yoast. As the name implies, the plugin integrates with Google Analytics. Yoast provides both a free and premium version based upon your needs. The built in dashboard makes it easy to see what your visitors are doing and where they’re coming from. You’re able to set up specific reports to quickly see just the data you need most.

Google Analyticator

Google Analyticator is another way to integrate Google Analytics with your site. It supports advanced code tracking to track everything from page interactions to Google offers. You can choose to show your visitors some of your page stats or you can choose to hide all data. Either way, you have access to an easy to use dashboard for tracking data on every page of your site.

WP Statistics

If you’d prefer not to use Google Analytics at all, WP Statistics has you covered. It’s an ideal way to track data without relying upon a third party. All data comes from WordPress and the plugin provides a detailed dashboard for you to view all data. It’s easy to export data to create your own custom reports and even email the data to yourself or others. It offers just as much data without needing to connect to Google Analytics like many other plugins.

Jetpack

Jetpack isn’t just an analytics plugin, but that is one of the features the plugin offers. If you’re trying to minimise the number of plugins you use, Jetpack might be a good choice. It may not be quite as detailed as some of the other analytics options on this list, but it provides concise stats without adding any extra load burden on your servers. It’s the combination of analytics with numerous other tools such as visitor engagement, security and site customisation that make this plugin stand out.

Clicky Analytics

Clicky Analytics is another major alternative to Google Analytics. The plugin automatically installs the Clicky Web Analytics code on to your site’s pages. The dashboard widget displays detailed statistics and information to help you understand where visitors are coming from, how long they’re spending on your site and much more. Some features of the plugin, such as video analytics, do require a premium account with Clicky. The best part of this plugin is all data is in real time so you can quickly tell if any changes or marketing efforts are paying off immediately.

Conclusion

No WordPress site is complete without an analytics plugin. The one you choose mainly depends on your needs and preferences. Different dashboards, available statistics, reporting tools and even cost are all things to consider when choosing the right one for you.

Need an analytics plugin for your site, but aren’t sure where to start? Contact StuartMedia for help with your choice and installation. 

Image: Blue Mountain Media 

WordPress plugins are the ideal way to add functionality and improve performance to WordPress sites.

While there are thousands of free and premium plugins available, I have my own list of favorites. From clients’ sites to my own sites, I’ve used all of these on a regular basis.

Each adds something useful to the site. From ecommerce tools to improved SEO, each is designed to make the sites I develop even better.

Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms provides a drag and drop interface for creating basic and advanced forms. It’s easy to build and customise forms to meet any site’s needs. You can even create your own fields and schedule how long a form is displayed.

Takeaway: If you’re building forms for WordPress, this plugin has you covered. It’s used on millions of sites for a reason.

WordPress SEO By Yoast

WordPress SEO by Yoast is one of the most popular plugins for optimising posts and pages. SEO can be confusing, but this plugin makes it as easy as filling in a few blanks. It double checks your content to ensure it’s optimised. It doesn’t just focus on keywords. It also creates XML sitemaps, provides meta and link element control and improves RSS feeds.

Takeaway: Don’t try to manage SEO fully on your own. Let this plugin give you the help you need for a more optimised site.

WooCommerce

Run a full ecommerce store with the WooCommerce plugin. You can manage inventory, accept payments, create sales reports, run marketing campaigns and much more. The long list of features provides everything you need for your store. Plus, there are hundreds of extensions available to boost the power of the plugin.

Takeaway: No WordPress ecommerce site is complete without this plugin. It currently powers 24% of all ecommerce sites.

Jetpack

Jetpack offers a wide variety of features for WordPress sites. My favorite features include WordPress.com Stats, Publicize and Sharing. The first provides detailed stats without degrading site performance. The latter two make it easy to automatically share posts and provide one click social media sharing.

Takeaway: Use just the features you need to optimise and learn more about your site. Plus, it doesn’t harm a site’s performance.

WP Migrate DB Pro

Migrating WordPress sites can be time consuming and difficult. WP Migrate DB Pro helps save valuable time so clients’ sites are moved quickly. It gives developers full control over the migration process, including backing up the database.

Takeaway: Reduce the stress and hassle of migration. Use this plugin instead.

Automatic Domain Changer

Automatic Domain Changer does exactly what the name implies. It’s a life saver for ensuring a smoother migration from one domain to another. The plugin detects domain name changes and updates all your WordPress tables to reflect any changes.

Takeaway: This is another must have plugin for WordPress migrations. It helps prevent annoying domain errors during the process.

Custom Sidebars Pro

Custom Sidebars Pro gives you full control over customising exactly how, where and even when widgets appear on a site. It integrates with the widgets area in WordPress to make it easier to manage complex widgets across the entire site.

Takeaway: Using this plugin gives you far more control over widget customisation. It also makes managing the look and feel of widgets even easier.

Easy Add Thumbnail

Easy Add Thumbnail automatically adds the feature image ID to posts, including old ones. It doesn’t actually change anything in your database. This removes the need to manually set it for every post. It’s ideal for any themes that don’t automatically add thumbnails for featured images.

Takeaway: Adding the thumbnail meta key for old posts takes hours. This plugin does it quickly and prevents you from forgetting to do it on future posts.

W3 Total Cache

A cache plugin is a must for optimising WordPress site performance. W3 Total Cache can boost page loading speeds by up to 10x when it’s fully configured. This helps improve a site’s rank and visitor satisfaction. It helps improve server performance and handles compression for optimal bandwidth savings.

Takeaway: Visitors expect sites to load quickly. This caching plugin gives site the extra speed boost they need to prevent visitors from leaving due to slow loading pages.

Post Thumbnail Editor

Some WordPress themes create thumbnail cropping chaos. Post Thumbnail Editor provides an interface to manually fix the random sizing and cropping issues of thumbnails on WordPress sites. This allows you to create a more uniform and professional look for thumbnails across the entire site.

Takeaway: Automated thumbnail sizing tools don’t always work as expected. Use this plugin to fix any issues left behind.

Conclusion

I don’t just use these on clients’ sites. I also use them on my own WordPress sites: Retro Race Cars and The Startup Pitch. Professional developers utilise these plugins and many others to provide the best sites for their clients. It’s important to have a developer set up these plugins to ensure a site receives the most benefit.

Thinking of using any of these WordPress plugins on your own site? Contact StuartMedia today to see which ones are best for your needs. 

Image: Rob Davies

It’s great to give readers something for free, but membership sites give visitors something more valuable.

Building a membership business doesn’t have to be complicated. WordPress has everything necessary to create professional membership sites.

Boost revenue and sell valuable resources straight through your WordPress site by adding in a few extra features and plugins.

Membership Site Basics

Membership sites allow businesses to sell digital content and services. Members can sign up for a set period to access restricted areas of the site. You can change permissions on the site to allow for varying membership levels on a single WordPress site. Payments are accepted through your site via your desired payment method, such a PayPal or credit card. Non-members are only able to access free content, such as blog posts or product announcements.

Takeaway: Membership businesses are extremely popular and offer an easy way to increase business profits. Site visitors are eager to sign up to gain exclusive content and services. WordPress developers are highly knowledgeable on how to set up both basic and advanced WordPress member sites.

Types Of Membership Sites

While there are really  no restrictions to the type of membership site you create, the majority fall into five different types. Each has its own benefits. The one you choose to create depends on solely on what you wish to sell and offer to members. The most common types include:

• Courses – Sell access to educational courses complete with exclusive course materials, lessons, videos and even forums for students to interact.
• Periodical Content – Sell access to regularly uploaded content such as articles, tutorials, podcasts, videos and ebooks. This is the most common type.
• Evergreen Content – Sell access to previously created content a little at a time once a member signs up. This requires creating a larger content base to before signing up members.
• Downloads – Sell access to special members only downloads such as software, ebooks, videos and more.
• Community – Sell access to a moderated community for members to discuss topics related to your business. This requires an existing visitor base to create a thriving a community and the business will need to be involved in the community discussions.

Each of these types can be set up for a pre-defined period or lifetime. You can also restrict access to different levels, such as only offering certain downloads for standard members and additional downloads for premium members. Businesses can customise these membership types as much as they want to fit their business model.

Takeaway: Take the time before setting up a membership business to decide what you want to sell, create the necessary material and developer a membership structure. This makes building the site much easier. Plus, if you hire a WordPress developer, they’ll have an easier time turning your vision into reality.

Using Membership Plugins

One of the easiest ways to build a membership business with WordPress is by installing plugins specifically designed for this purpose. These plugins add all the membership features you need without drastically re-designing your site. They add features such as password protected material, membership levels, discounts, shopping carts, course creation and much more. Some plugins are free while others require a one-time, monthly or yearly fee.

Each membership plugin has its own unique feature set. Choose a plugin that includes all the features your membership site will need. If you can’t find one that does it all, hire a WordPress developer to build a custom plugin for your WordPress site. Most WordPress member sites utilize one of the following six plugins:

• Membership – Available in a free lite version and fee based pro version. It offers forums, protected areas, membership levels, resource areas and more.
• S2Member – Available in different licensing structures. The highly configurable plugin offers protected content, integration with Amazon S3/CloudFront, accept payments, add discounts and more.
• Paid Memberships Pro – The plugin is completely free, but will cost $97 for additional support from the developers. It offers all basic membership features and even provides trial membership options.
• Restrict Content – A free version is available, but the pro version is what most businesses need. It offers payment features, protected content, membership levels, discounts, reporting and more.
• MemberPress – Requires an annual fee and offers unlimited membership packages and levels. It’s similar to Restrict Content, but business may prefer the extremely user friendly interface.
• WP eMember – Requires a fee and offers unlimited membership levels, automated member setup, multi-site licensing and much more.

Takeaway: Numerous membership plugins are available. If possible, try a free version or demo of plugins first to see if the features fit your needs. Of course, custom plugins are always an option.

Conclusion

Membership business sites are easy to create with WordPress. You don’t need a special site. You can run your normal site and membership site through the same WordPress installation.

If you’re ready to build a membership based business through WordPress, contact StuartMedia today for everything from developing the site to custom built membership plugins.

Image: Robert S. Donovan

One of the most important things you can do as a site owner is learn how to backup your WordPress business website.

You never know when something will go wrong and you’ll need to restore a previous theme, existing content or settings. It also helps to have a backup on hand if you suddenly need to switch hosts.

Backing up your site should be done on a regular schedule and before and after any major changes. Most businesses should backup sites daily or at least once per week. Creating backups isn’t difficult and could save you many headaches in the future.

Manual Backup

Performing a manual backup does require the business to understand where all the site’s files are stored. A proper backup includes the content and settings for the entire site. Missing a single file could prevent a full restore if necessary. While this method is effective, it will require some expertise. Plus, it’s easy to forget to perform a backup. If you use this method, copy the backup to a separate drive to keep it secure.

Takeaway: Manual backups are the most difficult option. If you’re not comfortable doing it yourself, hire a WordPress expert to perform the backup for you. They’ll know exactly which files to copy and how to restore your site if there is ever a problem.

cPanel Backup

Many hosting platforms use cPanel which offers an easy to use WordPress backup option. In most cases, you’ll go through a guided step by step process to backup all files to related to your site, including settings, content and themes. The biggest downside is if you want to move your site to a new host or server, the destination host will also need cPanel for a successful transfer. However, it is easy to use.

Takeaway: If your business site’s host offers cPanel, create a backup schedule and store any backups in a safe location. Don’t store the backups on the same server you create them on.

Plugin Backup

For a more automated process, you can backup your WordPress business site via a plugin. Once you install a plug-in, you must choose the desired settings to create automatic backups. Most plugins allow you to choose the schedule, how many backups to keep, where to store the backups and even which files to backup. Many store the backup to a cloud server or a hard drive of your choice. It’s important to correctly install and configure the plugin or your backups may not be fully functional.

WordPress has several free backup plugins such as Ready! Backup, UpdraftPlus Backup and Restore and blogVault Real-time Backup. Forbes also recommends BackupBuddy which is designed specifically for businesses. If none of these are right for you, consult a WordPress developer to create a custom backup plugin for you.

Takeaway: Plugins are an ideal way to ensure you always have a backup on hand. If you have any problems installing the plugin, contact a professional WordPress developer to avoid placing your site backups at risk.

phpMyAdmin Backup

While cPanel is one of the most control panel for web hosts, many others still support backups via phpMyAdmin. The exact location varies depending on your host. However, once you find the option, it is usually a fairly easy to understand step by step process to backup your entire site. WordPress provides official instructions for finding phpMyAdmin on six different control panels. If you’re uncertain if the option is available to you, contact your web host for details.

Takeaway: This option does require you to initiate the backup every time. However, it is much simpler than the manual process. A WordPress professional can do this for you if you’re uncomfortable with the process.

Third Party Backup

The final option requires using a third party to backup your WordPress business site. In this instance, the business isn’t required to initiate or store any backups themselves. Many companies offer WordPress backup services. Before choosing a backup company, ensure they’re backing up the entire site and have multiple servers to prevent data loss. This is more costly than the other options, but it is an effective way to ensure backups are performed on a regular schedule without your interference.

Takeaway: Using a third party backup service lets you place the responsibility for backups in someone else’s hands. These services usually keep multiple backups at once. Ensure the service meets all your needs and offers multiple layers of security to keep data safe.

Conclusion

Whether you do it yourself, rely on a third party or hire a WordPress developer to help, you should backup your WordPress site regularly. When the worst happens, a backup will save your site and possibly even your business.

If you need help with your backup  needs, contact StuartMedia for assistance.

Image: playerx

For most WordPress users, the basic WordPress installation doesn’t include all the features they want or need to create their website.

While themes often include many of these missing features, they don’t include everything. The answer to increasing the functionality of your website is simple – WordPress plugins.

Much like themes, plugins help you create a more user friendly site that’s also easier for you to administer.

What Are WordPress Plugins?

Plugins are a collection of scripts and assets that extend the functionality of an existing WordPress installation. Since WordPress is designed to be lightweight in order to improve page loading times, you only have the most essential and common features and functions by default. When you need added features or want to improve upon a feature you already have, you can either install a plugin or add code to your existing theme.

WordPress only includes two plugins by default. The first is Akismet which helps protect sites against spam comments. The second is Hello Dolly which randomly displays lyrics from “Hello Dolly.” While you’ll likely never use the latter, it’s actually the first official plugin designed for WordPress. The former is widely used to help cut down on useless, spammy comments.

From analytics and security to forms and page sliders, plugins can help a WordPress site do almost anything. The key is finding the right balance of plugins to maintain optimal page loading speeds and function.

When Should You Use Plugins?

The biggest question surround plugins is when should you use them. With thousands of free and premium plugins available, it’s tempting to load a site with hundreds of them. After all, more plugins should equal a better site, right? Wrong. The right plugins make a better site.

You should only install plugins if they’ll truly add something beneficial to your site or make administering the site easier. The more plugins you install, the slower your site loads. While higher quality plugins typically don’t affect site performance much, lower quality plugins will noticeably slow down your site and drive visitors away.

How To Install Plugins?

The installation method depends mainly on the plugins you choose. Some require you to copy and paste the code snippet into your current theme’s code. Some walk you step by step through the installation process. Others are included with your theme and only need to be activated to be used.

If you’re not comfortable editing code, it’s highly recommended to hire a WordPress developer to install plugins for you. They know exactly where to place the code so the plugin functions correctly. Pasting the code in the wrong place could cause problems with your site.

What’s The Difference In Free And Premium?

Free and premium WordPress plugins are available all over the Internet. A search for WordPress plugin along with the function you want to accomplish could easily yield hundreds of results. Odds are, you’ll see both free and premium options. The main difference of course is price.

The quality of the plugin is also a big difference depending on where you find the plugin. Free sources are sometimes questionable as some plugins could be dangerous. However, some sources are highly reputable, such as official plugins from WordPress.

Premium plugins often provide special functionality you won’t find elsewhere. These plugins may also combine several functions into one plugin. Plus, they tend not to affect site performance nearly as much as their free counterparts.

Where To Find Plugins?

You have two main options for finding plugins – search online or hire a WordPress developer to create a custom one for your site. Custom plugins are usually the best choice if you can’t find a reputable plugin online and don’t want to settle for something that doesn’t do exactly what you need it to do. It’s also a good idea if you have a custom theme.

The following sites offer a wide variety of plugin options:

• WordPress.org – With over 30,000 plugins, WordPress is the most reputable source of free plugins.
• MakeUseOf Plugin List – Find the best plugins (free and premium) divided into categories such as social and core functionality.
• WPPlugins – This premium plugin marketplace has over 100 plugins to choose from.
• WPMUDEV – The site has an easy to search premium plugin list.
• Code Canyon – Find exactly what you need from hundreds of premium plugins.

Besides searching for specific plugins, you can also install a WordPress theme that already has all the plugins you’re looking for built-in. In most cases, you’ll need to buy a premium or custom developed theme to get exactly what you need.

WordPress plugins are ideal for taking a WordPress site from basic to professional and highly functional quickly. They’re easy to install and a must have for any real WordPress powered site.

Image: Harsh Agrawal