With our LiteSpeed Hosting solution, you address speed issues with a blazing-fast platform.  Read on to discover how it can help you build a site fit for the modern consumer.

What Is LiteSpeed?

LiteSpeed — a drop-in, speed-enhanced web server — is available with our Turbo packages. With LiteSpeed, our clients experience 20X faster page loads compared to traditional solutions. If you’re serious about boosting your site’s performance, you should make the switch to LiteSpeed.  Here’s why:

High-Performance

A slow website impacts your bounce rates, SEO rankings, and bottom line. With Litespeed, we take care of your site’s performance so you can focus on other high-value activities. Here’s what we can guarantee with our solutions:

• 40% faster CPU performance
• 2X faster to first byte
• 9X more traffic capacity
• 3X faster read/write speeds

Free Site Transfer

Are you ready to experience A2 Hosting but fear migrating to our servers on your own? Don’t worry; in most cases, we can move sites for free. Call our 24/7/365 Guru Crew Support for more information about our free site transfer.

With our worry-free migration services, you can eliminate all speed optimization barriers.

Developer Friendly

We’ve been serving various website needs since 2003, and we’ve always enabled our clients to enjoy the most popular development software. We support older versions, too! Here is some of the development software we can link to your account:

• PHP 5.6, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, or 8.0
• MySQL
• 6/MariaDB
• PostgreSQL 9.6
• Python 3.4
• PERL 5.10
• Apache 2.4
• js 12
• FTP/SFTP
• Free SSH Access
• SSL & Free SSL

Perpetual Security

Recent cyber security statistics reveal that hackers attack 30,000 sites across the globe every day. With our Perpetual Security feature, we prevent our clients from falling victim to such attempts. A2 Hosting accounts come with free HackScan Protection to block malware before they can do any damage. Also, our reinforced distributed denial of service (DDoS) Protection boosts the likelihood of remaining online even after attacks.

Benefits of Turbo Plans

At A2 Hosting, our goal is to provide our clients with the best web hosting solutions that are both ultra-fast and reliable, like our Turbo plans. These are the options we offer for such services:

• 40% faster CPU performance
• 2x faster to first byte
• Can handle 9x more traffic
• Improved user experience with fast page loads
• Better SEO rankings

Built for Speed

Below are some components that make our turbo plans super fast, apart from LiteSpeed Hosting:

• Non-volatile memory express (NVMe): Through this component, we offer 3X faster read/write speeds.
• HTTP/3: This feature is the new gold standard in providing faster and more reliable connections for sites and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
• Edge Side Includes (ESI): With ESI, you don’t have to designate entire pages as non-cacheable. Instead, you can determine which portions can be cached and those that cannot.
• Quick UDP Internet Connections (QUIC): This element is an ideal alternative to transmission control protocol (TCP). QUIC creates multiplexed connections between computers, which further enhances your website’s speed.

Advanced Caching Software

Every time someone visits your site, your server has to run a request to convert all information pieces to viewable parts in a web browser. This process sometimes causes sites to run slowly, but it doesn’t have to.

This process doesn’t vary much from visitor to visitor, making caching essential. Turning on your cache stores your files within a much faster random-access memory (RAM). When caching software, your site won’t have to run complicated processes. Instead, your server stores HTML files for a fast load speed.

Upgraded Server Hardware

At some point in your company’s life, peer-to-peer networking becomes insufficient. As you grow, your user demands will exceed the capacities of routers and shared storage devices. For this reason, upgraded server hardware can do wonders for your business.

With a trusty server on your side, you can manage email campaigns for more people, grant access to multiple users, and manage shared resources in the workplace.

Optimized Configurations

Our experts know our hosting infrastructure inside and out, making it easy to optimize our solutions for various sites. Whether you have a CSS, JS, or HTML site, we have the right hosting infrastructure to meet your needs.

With our optimized configurations, you can enjoy faster load times while reducing overall page size. We can help you save up to 80% bandwidth and boost your site’s performance tenfold.

The A2 Hosting Edge

A2 Hosting is nothing like your typical hosting company. We designed our Turbo plans for super speed, limited occupancy, and various performance add-ons to provide clients with the fastest web hosting services available anywhere.

With our solutions on your side, you can boost your user experience and conversion rates. Read on for more reasons to switch to A2 Hosting.

Super Speed

Fast web hosting servers allow you to customize your website in a way that addresses your unique requirements. These services are essential to thrive in the modern world.

Fast hosting leads to a quick load time — a crucial SEO component that encourages clients to hang around. Additionally, a fast website equates to better security and more revenue. If your slow internet is driving away clients, It’s time to say goodbye to mediocre hosting.

Guru Crew Support

With A2 Hosting, our exceptional services don’t end when you sign up with us. Our 24/7/365 Guru Crew Support proves it.

When you manage a company, you typically observe normal business hours. However, overseeing a website is a different story.

Websites require 24/7 support because anyone can access the internet from anywhere in the world. Any time of the day, you have visitors reading your content or making purchases. Every time you experience technical difficulties, you can lose traffic and credibility.

Whether you experience a breakdown or network outage, our support team will be there for you 24/7/365.

Money-Back Guarantee

We believe in all our groundbreaking solutions, inspiring us to offer a money-back guarantee. There’s nothing to lose but everything to gain from our offer, so why not give it a shot?

We don’t think you’ll cancel because we offer up to 20X faster web hosting to help you thrive in the modern world! However, if you do, we’ll give you a hassle-free refund. We hate breakups as much as the next person, but we won’t hold it against you.

99.9% Uptime Commitment

Uptime refers to a measure of system reliability expressed as a percentage of time a machine has been available. When hosting providers boast impressive uptime rates, it’s a good indication of high-performance servers. Our 24/7/365 support staff will get your site running in no time.

Upgrade Your Website Now

In today’s modern world, your website speed can make or break your online presence. A fast load time can boost your SEO, conversion, and sales efforts. Whether you need shared web or managed dedicated services, there’s an ideal Turbo Hosting for your needs. With its LiteSpeed Hosting feature, you never have to lose an online client again because of a slow website.

Contact our sales team today to discover how working with us can transform your business.  We’d love to help you achieve your 2022 business goals.

The post What is LiteSpeed? The Ultra-Fast Web Server You Should Know About appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Looking to start an eCommerce website or have one but not satisfied where you’re at? Two great options are WordPress and Shopify. But how to choose? While both platforms are great options, it’s important to first understand some key facts and use cases that are particular to each. 

What Are They?

 A2’s Managed WordPress

WordPress is an open-source platform dedicated to helping people get online. A2’s Managed WordPress plans are a cheaper way to get access to a high-quality WordPress site with amazing server management without the price tag. The best part about starting a site on WordPress is that it’s extremely customizable and can be used for many different functions through the implementation of different plugins, themes, and code changes. Users can install plugins like WooCommerce to create an eCommerce store similar to what can be created on Shopify. WordPress caters to a large range of potential users including:

• Web Design Novices
• Users with some web development skills
• Users with the budget for their own web developer

Shopify

Shopify is a SaaS company specializing in eCommerce and specifically built to help entrepreneurs establish online stores. Entrepreneurs that work with Shopify don’t own their own software but they do pay a monthly fee to access all that this company has to offer. Their product packages come with a variety of different drag and drop templates. All sites associated with Shopify are hosted on Shopify’s own servers (equivalent to a shared web hosting plan). 

Pricing

There’s a pretty big jump in the pricing when comparing A2’s Managed WordPress Plans to Shopify’s offerings.

WordPress

A2’s Managed WordPress comes with a significantly lower price tag and with the added bonus of server management and support around the clock. A2 also includes multiple sites on the higher-level plans and added security. All plans come with a free SSL for added security and 24/7/365 assistance through phone, chat, and email!

Shopify

Shopify’s pricing is a bit steeper than A2 Hosting’s Managed WordPress offerings. The most basic Shopify plans start at $29.99 a month. Their lower plans would work for someone just starting out but don’t include many necessary business options for professionals who are trying to grow quickly. For example, the lowest Shopify plan doesn’t include professional reports so users interested in any deeper statistical tracking would need to upgrade. This means that in order to truly take advantage of what Shopify has to offer users would need to buy one of the more expensive plans paying more than double the price of A2 Hosting’s most extensive managed WordPress plan!

Look and Feel: Templates and Themes

Templates and themes are lifesavers when you’re creating the look and feel of your website. Though both WordPress and Shopify offer these options, the variety and prices differ depending on which platform you choose:

WordPress

WordPress has thousands of paid and free themes. Many of them are very easy to edit and are mobile-friendly and responsive. They can be found at sites like Theme Isle or Theme Forest. When looking at the different themes out there, make sure you pick a safe theme for your site. Here’s a guide on how to pick the right WooCommerce theme for your online store.

Shopify

Shopify has 9 free themes and 70 paid themes. You can also get a specialized theme designed through their Shopify designers for an added cost. While their themes are professional they are much more limited than what you can get through WordPress. 

Content Management 

When looking at the CMS capabilities for each of these platforms there really is no comparison. 

WordPress

WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems online. It has content versioning which allows you to save all versions of your pages and posts in one system and revert back to old versions of your site if need be. WordPress also comes with a block-based editing system giving you more flexibility on page layout. 

Shopify

When comparing content management, Shopify only competes with WordPress in its capabilities for managing products and collections. Since Shopify is a dedicated eCommerce company they’ve made it easy to add products and sort them together. For WordPress users looking for this same capability, it’s as easy as installing the WooCommerce plugin which will allow you these same features and turn your site into an organized eCommerce site! 

Flexibility

WordPress

Seeing as WordPress is so large in the market and is widely used across the web, this CMS is one of the most flexible out there. You have the option to use thousands of plugins, templates, and integrations that will make your WordPress function however works best for you.  Since it is an open-source platform and you have control of your own host (we recommend A2 Hosting’s Managed WordPress plans) you can tailor your site in almost any way you can imagine to fit your needs! Pick from thousands of amazing themes and plugins to make your site completely your own and have the option to add almost any capabilities you can think of right at your fingertips.

Shopify

Shopify is a great site builder for beginners but it isn’t as flexible long-term if your company is looking to scale and grow quickly. Their drag and drop builder is easy to use and customize but it’s limited in its capacity to scale up dramatically without ratcheting up the price tag quite drastically. Though Shopify does have third-party apps that make it easier to add functionality to your online store, the support on these tools can become more complicated as you partner up with separate businesses’ support systems for each tool rather than just working with one party.

SEO and Content

WordPress

SEO and relevant content are an important part of the success of your website. One of the greatest parts about improving SEO when working in WordPress is their plugin YoastSEO. It’s one of the most popular SEO tools in the market! It analyzes content in real-time and guides users on different ways to improve their SEO ranking. Some of its best features include:

• SEO enhanced sitemaps
• Canonical URL’s that make sure there’s no duplicate content
• Analyzation of paragraph structure and keyword density
• Guiding for meta descriptions 
• Link support and more!

Another perk of working on WordPress in relation to SEO is your chance to choose your internet host. Your hosting company and the plan you choose have a big impact on your website’s potential uptime, how it handles traffic, and its overall ranking on google. Managed WordPress Hosting with A2 Hosting is a great choice if you’re looking for someone to take care of your server management so you can focus on your business!

Shopify

Managing SEO for websites set up on Shopify is a little more limited. Their site comes with the option to use an SSL and automatically creates an XML Site Map. You can configure 301 page directs if you decide to change your website’s name, which can be very helpful if you ever want to make big business changes or rebrand down the line. One of the downsides to SEO for websites built on Shopify is that it’s hard to create clean URLs. While Shopify has different SEO plugins available to help you nothing compares to WordPress’ YoastSEO.

Customer Support

At the end of the day, people don’t prioritize customer support until a crisis arises, and then it’s everything. It’s always good to know you have support there when you need them. 

WordPress 

Managed WordPress with A2 Hosting is known for its support. With 24/7/365 customer service for all customers over the phone, chat, and email, there is always an expert there to assist. Please we have an extensive knowledge base of articles there to help you if you’re the do-it-yourself type of person. Our plans also come with easy backups, a free Jetpack Personal license, and WP-CLI pre-installed. Contact our sales team today with any questions!

Shopify

Shopify Lite customers receive chat and email support but to get phone support you must be on a higher plan. They also have a help center and a forum, but there’s nothing like talking to a real person to help you get your problems solved quickly and accurately. 

In Conclusion

Both Shopify and A2’s Managed WordPress plans have their benefits. If you’re just getting started and looking for a super simple experience without the bells and whistles, Shopify may work for you. If you’re looking to grow your website internationally with many different options and capabilities we suggest our Managed WordPress plans. It’s as easy as picking a theme and downloading WooCommerce so you can get your business up and running today!  If you want 24/7 support, flexibility, a cheaper price tag, and incredible uptime, check out our new Managed WordPress line today! 

The post Shopify vs WordPress: What’s the Difference? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

A recent Microsoft study shows that a whopping 90% of Americans consider customer service a crucial deciding factor in choosing a brand. Let’s face it: no one wants to do business with companies that treat customers poorly. Read on for six hacks to boost your customer service and support online for the holidays!

1.   Analyze Previous Data

One of the best ways to plan for the holidays is to review previous data, such as customer interactions, pain points, and online customer service improvement opportunities.

Below are some components you can research.

• Holiday shopping incremental customer volume versus the rest of the year
• Common customer concerns and questions
• Customers’ preferred communication channels

Analyzing this data will help you come up with a strategy to better accommodate the increased traffic and questions that are sure to come with it. Then you can make a more informed strategy so your support team can go into the holiday rush with a plan.

2.   Prepare for the Holiday Traffic

Holiday shopping is supposed to be fun, but studies done by the American Psychological Association reveal it stresses out eight out of ten Americans. Any website component can chase customers away, including slow loading times, confusing navigation, and complex checkout processes.

Remember to assess integrations, restock inventories, and beef up security measures to elevate customer experiences during the holidays.

3.   Get Ready to Scale

No matter how much you prepare for the holidays, you always need a contingency plan to scale up or down as needed.

If you find your staff overwhelmed with inquiries, you can automate e-commerce support, add manpower hours, or outsource business components.

4.   Make Self-Service Easy

Before the holiday season arrives, make sure your processes make it easy for potential buyers to find what they need on their own. Here are some ways to guide holiday shoppers:

• Links to FAQs
• Video guides
• Relevant articles

From tracking pages to complex AI-powered e-commerce support, digital self-service is a cost-effective way to deliver quick results for customers. With the right tools on your side, you and your online customer service team can celebrate the holidays without affecting your operations.

5.   Surprise Fans with Shipping Options

Don’t limit all the holiday cheer to your e-commerce store. You can create a strategy to expand your channels, such as:

• Online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Wish
• Social media pages like Facebook and Instagram
• International platforms such as Mercado Libre

If you decide to open new revenue streams, connect your channels for seamless transactions. It’s best to use a unified system to provide clients with a holistic experience no matter which platform they choose.

6.   Develop Relevant Marketing Campaigns

From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, there are many opportunities to make customers feel the love during the holidays. Personalized holiday offers have many advantages, including:

• Attracting massive audiences.
• Converting random visitors into customers.
• Reactivating inactive clients.

The season provides online business owners with an opportunity to boost sales. According to MuchNeeded, holiday shopping accounts for 30% of all sales annually.

Elevate Your Customer Service

Your customer service and support online play a critical role in your holiday success. Whatever strategy you prefer, make sure your e-commerce platform can address consumer needs.

At A2 Hosting, we offer hosting solutions 20x faster than our competitors, boosting load speeds, SEO rankings, and sales. We’re here if you need a reliable partner in prepping your business for the holidays. Talk to our sales team today to learn how we can help you and your eCommerce website!

Learn More:

Keep coming back to our blog this week to read our experts from all different departments of A2 Hosting advising you on how to get your site ready for Q4! We’re also running a sale on all of our A2 Turbo products so check out our website today for deals and discounts you don’t want to miss!

Related Resources:

• A2 Hosting’s Ultimate Guide to Getting Your eCommerce Website Holiday Ready
• A Developer’s Checklist for Getting Your Site Ready for the Holidays
• How Your eCommerce Business Can Nail Holiday Customer Service
• How to Handle Heavy Traffic to Your eCommerce Site During the Holiday Season

The post How Your eCommerce Business Can Nail Holiday Customer Service appeared first on The A2 Posting.

The holidays are fast approaching and many e-commerce retailers will be looking to increase sales. During this busy time, it’s easy to lose track of those potential clients who might have had additional questions and didn’t end up making a purchase. 

However, a little extra time spent addressing those questions now can go a long way when it comes to building a relationship with your clients and having a repeat customer. Investing in interaction now with a potential client could lead to a fruitful relationship for you both in the future.

Here are a couple of fundamental tips to help reach those clients who aren’t yet comfortable making a purchase:

Adding a human element to a website can help potential clients feel more comfortable and be more willing to make a purchase. This provides a method of receiving expert advice about a particular product that’s being offered on the site. There are many options available to help discuss options with potential clients:

• Live chat is a popular solution as it allows real-time conversation and proactive chatting if desired by a prospective client.
  
• A separate telephone line for the business is another fantastic option. Of course, while the live formats are best, it may not always be possible to keep them active 24 hours a day.
  If a separate telephone line isn’t feasible for your business, then a simple contact form would also work.
  
• Ultimately, the idea is to have an open line of communication with your potential clients for further discussion.
• Once that line of communication is opened, then it’s time to start thinking about conversations with potential clients. When discussing options with clients, take the time to get to know them and their situation. The reasons they’re shopping with you will vary, and each individual interaction should be given the proper attention and assistance to help find the right solution. The goal here isn’t just to answer generic questions about a product or sell the most expensive option available. Instead, try to find out:
  
  • why the client is looking to make a purchase
    
  • if they have any particular pain points
    
  • what is the reason they’re interested in your product
    

By investing the time to properly understand the client, it’ll help set up future interactions and hopefully create a long-term relationship. In the days of internet selling and fast purchases, the human element can be the difference between a client purchasing from you or another retailer. While these tips may be simple, the fundamentals of human interaction can often have the largest impact.

Do you know what else has a big impact on conversions? Your website’s speed and uptime! Keep coming back to our blog this week to read advice from our A2 Hosting experts on how to get your site ready for Q4! We’re also running a sale on all of our A2 Turbo products so check out our website today for deals and discounts you don’t want to miss!

Related Resources:

• A2 Hosting’s Ultimate Guide to Getting Your eCommerce Website Holiday Ready
• A Developer’s Checklist for Getting Your Site Ready for the Holidays
• How Your eCommerce Business Can Nail Holiday Customer Service
• How to Handle Heavy Traffic to Your eCommerce Site During the Holiday Season

The post How to Increase eCommerce Conversions This Holiday Season appeared first on The A2 Posting.

According to Google’s latest Core Vitals update, Part 2 will be rolling out in the next couple of weeks. Before this next update occurs, you’ll want to anticipate how this may affect your website and make changes accordingly. 

Introduction to the Core Web Vitals

Google’s Core Web Vitals initiative provides streamlined guidelines that aid in promoting a quality user experience on the World Wide Web. Wait, huh? 

They are metrics measuring the overall perceived user experience based on interactions with your website. You will receive a score based on your page’s overall UX. This page experience score is an official Google ranking factor. The question is, will you be among the mighty or the fallen?

How can I find my site’s Core Web Vitals?

First, you will need to sign up your domain with Google Search Console. Once your domain is verified and you have an account, you can continue to the enhancements section.

So what are the Core Web Vitals?

A quick Google search will show you this image,

Google loves their acronyms (and their primary colors), but what exactly do these acronyms stand for?

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures perceived page load speed. Strive for <=2.5s. 

What this means: This is the time from when the link is first clicked to when the main content is loaded and visible to the user on the screen.

Okay, but how is this any different from Time to First Byte? (TTFB) This measures the user’s experience and not simply the responsiveness of the web server.

How can I improve my site’s LCP? 

• Upgrade your server. Not a member with A2 Hosting or already a member and interested in upgrading? Let us help you.
  • Our Turbo servers use a drop-in Apache replacement called Litespeed, but are also built with NVMe storage, and the AMD EPYC processors making these the perfect upgrade for sites in need of additional power. 

• Consider a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Since your content is hosted on a single server, users farther from this server will have slower load times. A CDN will provide a link to both your server and any faraway users. Our servers are CloudFlare compatible so you can easily set this up.

• Compress images. In many cases, images are the largest element on a page. Improving the load and render time for these images has a direct impact on improving your LCP score.

For more suggestions, Google has a guide on optimizing LCP. Here are 3 platforms we recommend for measuring your website’s performance.

First Input Delay (FID) measures load responsiveness and interactivity. Strive for <=100ms.

What this means: This is the time from when a user first interacts with the site to the time it takes for a browser to respond.

What are some examples of these interactions?

• Clicking a link
• Tapping on a button
• Choosing an option from the dropdown menu

I get it but how is this different from page-load speed? FID does not simply measure load responsiveness, it measures the time it takes for users to interact with a page. 

How can I improve my site’s FID? 

• Reduce Javascript Execution. Optimize how JavaScript functions on your website. 

• Use a web worker. 

• Use a browser cache like Litespeed. Our Turbo servers include Litespeed, the fastest caching agent you can find. 

Read Google’s full guide on optimizing your FID. Here are 3 platforms we recommend for measuring your website’s performance.

Source.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures visual elements and overall design stability. Strive for <=0.1s. 

What this means: The elements on your page are stable as the page loads.

Users don’t want to play a game of “Link Tetris” where elements of your page are constantly moving around as it loads. Users want stability and reliability.

How can I improve my site’s CLS? 

• Include width and height size attributes to images and video elements. This guarantees image stability as the image is loading on the page.

• • Reduce ad shift. Strategically place, reserve static space, and include set dimensions for advertisements.

• Avoid inserting new content above existing content. The user remembers your site layout a certain way. Be careful with dynamic content or else your user will be left confused and frustrated.

Read Google’s full guide on optimizing your CLS. Here are 3 platforms we recommend for measuring your website’s performance.

How can I measure my Core Vitals?

Google offers a myriad of tools for measuring these elements. These tools include: 

• Lighthouse 
• PageSpeed Insights
• Chrome DevTools
• Search Console
• Web.dev’s measure tool
• Web Vitals Chrome extension 
• Chrome UX Report API

What other web vitals are there?

Is my website mobile-friendly?

Your site should be fully optimized for a mobile device with responsive themes, larger font sizes, and an accessible site navigator, among other practices. 

Check if your site is mobile-friendly here.

Does my site allow for safe browsing?

Your site should be free of malware, other harmful content, and deceptive downloads.

We’ve partnered with Sucuri services to provide superior website monitoring, firewall protection, and enhanced malware scanning services. 

Is my connection safe with HTTPS?

The connection to your website needs to be secure. To achieve this, you will need to add an SSL certificate.

Not sure if you have an SSL certificate? The method of finding out will depend on your browser, either:

• Look for https:// in your address bar. If it says http:// then your URL is unencrypted. 

OR

• Look for a closed padlock icon at the beginning of your address bar. If it isn’t present, your browser may say “Not Secure.”

An example of a site with a secure connection and encrypted data.

Beware of hackers! An example of a site with an insecure connection and unencrypted data.

Is my site free of intrusive interstitials?

Your site should be free of extraneous content and unnecessary pop-ups covering the majority of a webpage. 

Hopefully, by now you feel educated on Google’s Core Web Vitals. 

And now your homework for this week:

1. Test each of the Core Web Vitals.
2. Make sure your site mobile is friendly.
3. Add safe browsing-friendly services like Sucuri.
4. Get yourself an SSL certificate.
5. Just say no to those intrusive, pestering interstitials! 

If you’re still a bit confused on how Google Core Vitals impact your website or you’d like to purchase an additional search signal-friendly service, please contact our sales team today.

The post Google’s Core Web Vitals Is Updating and So Should You: A Guide to Optimizing your Site’s UX appeared first on The A2 Posting.

There are a number of ways, you can add a logo such as:

• A custom 3rd party theme
• 3rd party plugin
• With the help of simple code snippet

Today, we will focus on the code snippet so you don’t have to install any 3rd party themes or plugins. If you are interested on more in-depth information on how to install a custom logo onto your WordPress site rather than your login page, please click here.

Set Yourself Up for Success:

1. First, connect to your WordPress FTP or login to your cPanel.
2. Locate your theme folder (in this example, we will use “twentysixteen” theme).
3. From here, navigate to wp-content/themes/your-theme-name folder.
4. Create a folder “assets” and upload your logo image file

These first steps make sure your logo image is uploaded into the right place before you try and put it on your login page.

Begin Placing Your Logo:

• To begin, log in to WordPress as the administrator.
• Then go to your dashboard.

• Follow this path: Click on Dashboard ->  Appearance -> Editor

• Once you have reached the editor page, look at the right column where you see the “Theme Files”.
• Under theme files, you will see a list of all the files related to your theme. In this example, we are using “Twenty Sixteen” theme.
• Find the file “functions.php”
• Click on Edit to make changes in the file.
• Add this code snippet at the bottom:

function add_logo_to_login() {
    echo '<style type="text/css">
        h1 a { background-image:url('.get_bloginfo('template_directory').'/assets/images/logo.jpg) !important; width:300px !important;}
    </style>';
}
add_action('login_head', 'add_logo_to_login');

In the above code snippet, “/assets/images/logo.jpg” is the location of the custom logo. This makes sure your logo, as well as the rest of your images, are stored in one folder and easy to access when needed

Now, here is what the login page looks like with our logo as an example:

Remember, it is never too early to make customer aware of your brand by editing and personalizing your WordPress site. If you are interested in further WordPress edits, like changing the language of your site or the date and time, we have step by step instructions on how to do that as well in our Knowledge Base. Click here if you are interested in fast and reliable WordPress hosting to further improve your website!

Related Resources:

• Installing WordPress Themes
• Adding a Custom Logo to WordPress
• Changing the Language on Your WordPress Site
• Changing Date and Time Settings on WordPress

The post How to Add Your Logo to Your WordPress Login Page appeared first on The A2 Posting.

There are several ways your site’s UX can impact the profitability of your business. Due to changing trends and technologies, you may want to consider a redesign to ensure that your site doesn’t appear old and outdated. As such, by paying attention to your UX, you’re directly investing in your business.

In this article, we’ll show you how your site’s UX can be the fulcrum of your business’s success and share some tips for improving websites drastically. Let’s get to it!

How Your Site’s User Experience (UX) Can Impact Your Business

UX is a very important factor every website owner should dedicate time and resources to. It primarily impacts how your users feel about your site and your brand. Many people like to use the terms ‘User Experience’ and ‘User Interface’ (UI) interchangeably, but they are fundamentally different.

Though closely related, your site’s UI design is a subset of its UX site design. In very simple terms, UI refers to how your site looks while UX is more about how it works and feels. There are quite a number of technical factors that influence your site’s UX, such as content development, user persona development, and site architecture.

These design elements come together to decide whether or not a site’s user experience can be described as good or bad. Here are some of the ways good UX can impact your business:

• It drives traffic and conversions. With good design practices, you can easily lead more people to your website and keep them there. For example, AmeriFirst removed navigational links from all their landing pages as they felt they constituted unnecessary clutter. The result was a 10% conversion rate increase.
• It could boost your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Standards keep increasing every year with regard to SEO. However, your page speed will always be an important ranking factor, as are many others depending on UX design.
• Your customers will always be satisfied. A recent study revealed that an astonishing 86% of users deleted or uninstalled an app due to a poor UX. If you can get your site’s functionality and form right, you can easily retain more of your prospective customers.

Establishing the importance of good UX isn’t the end of the story. Taking the steps to improve it is obviously just as vital, as we’ll discuss next.

5 Tips for Improving Your Website’s User Experience (UX)

There are quite a lot of ways you can improve your site’s UX. However, the five following strategies could be the most effective for you.

1. Optimize Your Page Load Times

Your page load times and UX are linked. No matter how great your pitch and design may be, if you can’t display them quickly enough, you’re almost sure to lose them. An extra five seconds added to your average page load time can shoot your bounce rate up by as much as 20%.

As such, you’ll want to monitor your page load times with tools such as GTmetrix and Google’s PageSpeed tools.

These can help you assess your site’s performance and identify major areas of concern. GTMetrix in particular offers specific recommendations on how to improve your site’s performance scores. In general, when it comes to UX improvement, you should always start by keeping your site as fast as possible, and work from there.

2. Create a Call To Action (CTA) That Stands Out

A CTA is a powerful tool you can use to leverage user behaviors. An average site visitor relies extensively on visual cues when navigating websites. CTAs that contain action words and are strategically placed are effective in motivating the user to take a desired action.

Similarly, you should always experiment with color when designing a CTA. Many brands and marketers have observed varying results when it comes to different colors and shapes used in their designs.

3. Opt for a Mobile-Friendly Design

World wide web traffic is now generated mostly from mobile devices. In the first quarter of 2020, 51.92% of all online activities were carried out on mobile (excluding tablets). Therefore, it is imperative to implement a responsive mobile-friendly design across your website.

A responsive site will be able to scale up or down to suit any screen size. There’s really no magic formula for creating a responsive website in a jiffy. However, incorporating best practices such as making use of optimized fonts, including a mobile menu, and reducing form sizes will guarantee your mobile users a great experience.

4. Fix Your Broken Links

Broken links are a major pain you won’t want to put your site visitors through. While Google doesn’t punish site owners for having a few broken links, the majority of users will.

A site visitor may not pay much attention to the first broken link they find on your website. However, with more lurking under the hood, your site will quickly begin to look less authoritative.

Google Analytics is a powerful free tool you can use to get rid of broken links. It helps you to find broken links by generating a custom report, which then gives you the opportunity to do further work to clean things up.

5. Make Use of a Defined Heading Hierarchy

Finally, you must also pay attention to your website’s headings. They need to be very specific and targeted towards answering major questions potential customers ask. In other words, your headings should contain strategic keywords that are relevant to your niche, while also being clear and captivating to read.

Here’s a good example from the Tilde website of the type of heading hierarchy you should target:

You’ll notice that the headings are highly specific to the likely keywords targets. Apart from helping to retain the customer’s attention and sales conversion, this page is also well optimized for search engines. Search engines typically prioritize headings site-wide when ranking sites, and a well-defined heading structure will influence your traffic and conversion positively.

UX Site Conclusion

Maintaining good UX throughout your site is a crucial part of digital marketing. Solid UX not only drives traffic but can also help to retain old customers. Likewise, your branding efforts can benefit a lot from this.

In order to improve your website’s user experience, the most important thing to take into consideration is your page speed. After improving your page load times, you should also incorporate UX best practices like implementing unique CTAs, fixing broken links, and using mobile-friendly designs.

Image credits: kreatikar.

The post 5 Tips for Improving Website’s User Experience (UX) appeared first on The A2 Posting.

However, all you really have to do to improve your site’s UX is to look at it from the perspective of your end-users. When you consider features such as navigation, design, and performance through the lens of someone visiting your website for the first time, you can set your site up for success.

In this article, we’ll explain what UX is and why it’s important. Then we’ll cover seven tips you can use to improve yours. Let’s go!

Understanding User Experience (UX) and Why It Matters

UX is a somewhat abstract concept related to web design. It refers to how easy and enjoyable it is for people to use your website, including how relevant and valuable they consider your site’s content and features.

Poor UX can lead to a variety of issues that might prevent your site from succeeding, such as:

• Making it difficult for users to find what they’re looking for, and therefore difficult for them to convert
• Increasing your bounce rate because users don’t know what further action to take once they arrive on your site
• Fewer returning users, as visitors aren’t likely to come back to your site if they find it frustrating to use

On the other hand, improving your site’s UX can have the opposite effects – increased conversions, lowered bounce rate, and more loyal, returning users.

7 Tips to Create a Better User Experience (UX) on Your Website

Since UX covers many different aspects of your website, there are several factors to account for when trying to improve yours. Here are seven tips to help you provide a positive experience for your visitors.

1. Simplify Your Navigation System

Clear, easy-to-locate navigation links are central to your website’s UX. If visitors can’t easily move between pages, they’ll have little choice but to bounce (in other words, leave your site without taking further action).

Generally speaking, your website should have at least one menu. For example, on our site, we have a header menu that includes access to support, our customer login page, and information about our most popular services:

Some sites also include secondary menus, like the one in our footer:

This provides quick access to secondary content such as our blog, more support options, and our affiliate program.

That said, it’s important to keep your navigation simple and easy to understand. You don’t need a link to every single post and page on your site. Prioritize key content such as:

• Your home page
• Your About page
• A way for users to get in touch with you (such as a Contact page or chatbot)
• Post or product categories (depending on the purpose of your site)

Most sites shouldn’t need more than seven items in their main menus.

2. Make Sure Your Website Is Responsive

Mobile web traffic has been on the rise for years now. In this day and age, a responsive website is a must. This means your content should adapt to smaller screen sizes so users can see all your content without having to zoom in or do any extra scrolling.

There are several tools available to help you test your website’s current responsiveness. Platforms such as WordPress and Drupal also include several plugins and other extensions that can help make your online content more mobile friendly.

3. Adhere to Accessibility Best Practices

‘Accessibility’ refers to how easy it is for people with disabilities to use your website. This includes accounting for alternative navigation options (such as keyboard or voice commands), providing captions or transcripts for video and audio content, and much more.

Adhering to accessibility best practices such as those outlined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) will enable visitors who are deaf, blind, or have limited motor skills to still enjoy your site. However, it should also improve your overall UX.

For example, using legible fonts makes content more readable for visually impaired users. However, it also helps those on mobile devices. Likewise, captions enable deaf users to enjoy your video content, but are also useful to those browsing your site in public spaces where they can’t use sound.

4. Increase Your Site’s Speed

Pages that take a long time to load are frustrating, plain and simple. Improving your site’s performance so visitors don’t have to wait around to access the information they need can go a long way to improve your UX.

Some common techniques for speeding up your site include:

• Compressing and resizing your images
• Implementing browser caching
• Setting up a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Your hosting plan can also significantly impact your loading times. At A2 Hosting, we offer shared hosting plans on our Turbo Servers, which are speed optimized for WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.

5. Incorporate Adequate White Space

While functionality is integral to UX, design matters, too. How your site looks plays a key role in users’ first impressions of your site, so it’s important to make sure yours comes off as professional and trustworthy.

A clean layout that incorporates plenty of white space can help you achieve this:

Cluttered sites are more difficult to read. They also present more distractions for users, which could negatively impact your conversion rate.

6. Optimize Your Call to Action (CTA)

A CTA is a directive that tells users the next steps they need to take in the conversion process:

The Get Started button in the image above is one example. Others include:

• Buy Now and Add to Cart buttons
• A link to a product or service page where leads can learn more information
• Email list sign up fields
• Directions on how to contact your sales team

Well-designed CTA buttons make it easy for users to understand what they need to do to achieve their goals while on your site. They also streamline navigation.

In addition to using buttons over standard links, it helps make your CTAs stand out with contrasting colors. Their text should be short, direct, and clear.

7. Stick to Web Design Standards

Unique branding and style can help your site stand out from your competition. However, when it comes to certain web design standards, it’s usually better to stick to the status quo. Users have certain expectations for how websites should work. Deviating from them can result in confusion.

Some general guidelines to follow include:

• Having your navigation menu across the top of the page
• Putting your logo on the left side of your header and linking it back to your homepage
• Providing a search bar in your header
• Adding social media links to your footer
• Displaying your primary CTA above the fold so it’s visible without scrolling

Since users already expect these features from your website, they’ll know where to find them and how to use them without having to think about it.

Conclusion

UX covers a wide range of elements on your website, including its overall design, performance, and navigation system. While trying to make sure all your bases are covered may feel overwhelming, it’s within your grasp to provide your visitors with a seamless experience.

Throughout this post, we’ve covered several tips you can use to improve your site’s UX. Navigation is of the utmost importance, as are responsive design and accessibility. It’s also key to attend your page speed and design features such as white space and CTAs.

Image credit: Pexels.

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True localization accounts for many factors beyond language. Tuning into the nuances of various cultures and locales is what will help your site resonate on a deeper level with visitors from various points around the globe.

In this post, we’ll provide you with a comprehensive definition of localization and what it entails. Then we’ll share six ways you can improve this process for your own site. Let’s get to it!

An Introduction to Website Localization

Many people confuse localization with translation. While these concepts are undoubtedly related, they’re actually two distinct processes.

Translation is converting your website’s content from English into other languages. Localization accounts for nuances in culture that include but extend beyond just words, including:

• Regional dialects or slang
• Date and time formatting
• Currency and payment options
• Customs, beliefs, and trends

Given the global scope of the internet, localization is key if you want to build an audience outside of your own region. It will help your site appear more trustworthy to people from different backgrounds, and also make it easier for them to engage with your content.

6 Ways to Help Make Your Website’s Localization a Success

For the purposes of this post, we’ll assume you’ve already made some headway on translating your site and that you’re looking to take things to the next level. Below are six ways you can enhance your multilingual content to successfully localize your website.

1. Don’t Rely Solely on Automated Translators

There are many automated translation services, the most well-known being Google Translate. Many WordPress plugins are also able to instantly convert your content into other languages.

These tools are useful in certain situations and can help you make a start on your multilingual website. However, they’re not entirely accurate, and certainly don’t account for regional differences in the way people speak.

For instance, the way French is spoken in Paris differs from the way people speak the language in Madagascar, Canada, or Haiti. For this reason, it’s smart to hire a local expert to help you refine automated translations so they make more sense to people in a variety of locales.

2. Make Sure Your Website Formats Other Languages Properly

Another factor to consider when translating your site is whether it’s able to format other languages properly. For instance, many Asian languages are traditionally read top to bottom. Hebrew and Arabic are written right to left:

In addition to making sure the main text of your posts and pages is legible, remember to also consider your page layouts. You may want to move your sidebar to the left side of the Arabic version of your site. You may also need to reorder navigation links or change their location entirely.

3. Avoid Using Flags in Your Language Switcher

Multilingual sites include ‘language switchers’ to enable users to select the language they want to view content in. This feature is often a drop-down menu, but may also appear as a set of buttons or links:

Some language switchers only use national flags to indicate different languages. The idea is to enable users to select their language based on a common symbol of the country. However, this well-intended strategy tends to backfire.

Take our previous example of how French is spoken differently in many countries around the world. If your base language is in English and a Haitian user clicks on your language switcher, will they know what the drop-down represents, even though the French flag is present?

A better practice is to include labels in your available languages. For example, the French option should be labeled Français in your language switcher – you can see how we do it right across the site.

4. Choose a Payment Gateway that Supports Multiple Currencies

If you run an e-commerce site, currency is almost as important as language for localization. Firstly, make sure you have a payment gateway that can accept major currencies from around the world. If your site can’t accept Japanese yen or South African rand, you’re missing out on potential customers.

Fortunately, most popular payment platforms (including PayPal and Stripe) accept many common currencies. However, there are a few other money-related factors to consider.

Just as most American customers are very familiar with PayPal, shoppers in other countries have certain preferences when it comes to making online purchases. Do a little research to find out which payment gateways are considered trustworthy in other regions and add them to your site as needed.

Additionally, you may want to consider adding a ‘currency switcher’ to your site so shoppers can view prices that make sense to them:

You don’t want to have to deal with support requests as a result of confusion regarding exchange rates.

5. Implement Culturally Appropriate Design Choices

It may seem like your color scheme, images, and other design elements would have little bearing the success of your multilingual website. However, regional trends may dictate otherwise.

A popular example of this concept can be seen in regional changes made to Disney movies. For instance, in the English version of Inside Out, the main character refuses to eat broccoli. In the Japanese version, green peppers are used instead because they’re considered more repulsive by Japanese children:

To translate this to websites, a brightly-colored site might go over well in Brazil, but not so much in Sweden. While complete design overhauls for every localized version of your site isn’t realistic, it may be worthwhile to consider minor adjustments.

One way you might do this is to use localized images. For example, you might use a photo of Times Square in New York City for the American version of your site, and Shibuya in Tokyo for the Japanese version.

6. Consider Local Customs When Running Promotions

Finally, when running marketing campaigns for your site, remember that countries have their own unique holidays. It wouldn’t make sense to hold a Fourth of July sale for your e-commerce shoppers from outside the U.S.

Seasons are also different depending on which hemisphere you’re located in. Your winter sale in North America might not be applicable to your customers in Australia.

Consider sourcing or creating a calendar that notes local holidays and events for the countries where most of your traffic comes from. You can then run localized campaigns to engage your users.

Conclusion

Simply translating your site isn’t the same as localizing it. In order to connect with users from around the world on a personal level, you’ll need to consider other cultural elements and adapt your website accordingly.

To help get you on the right track, we’ve discussed six key factors of website localization:

1. Don’t rely solely on automated translators.
2. Make sure your website formats other languages properly.
3. Avoid using flags in your language switcher.
4. Choose a payment gateway that supports multiple currencies.
5. Implement culturally appropriate design choices.
6. Consider local climate and customs when running promotions.

Image credits: Unsplash, Disney/Pixar via Business Insider.

The post 6 Ways to Help Make Your Website’s Localization a Success appeared first on The A2 Posting.

It’s essential that you understand these concepts, however, as they are at the core of your website’s experience. The easier and more enjoyable your site is to use, the longer people will stick around. They’ll also be able to find the information they need faster, which make them more likely to come back or even make a purchase.

In this article, we’re going to talk about what usability and user experience mean when it comes to web design. We’ll also discuss some usability fundamentals, and show you examples of websites that get these elements right. Let’s get to it!

Why Usability and User Experience Are Vital

In web design, usability refers to how easy a website is for visitors to interact with. For example, some sites are visually stunning but difficult to navigate, which makes it hard for users to find what they need. Such websites are on the low end of the usability scale.

User Experience (UX), on the other hand, is all about the way visitors feel about interacting with your website. Usability is about functionality, while UX is (as the name suggests) about experience.

Let’s break down why these elements are both so important:

• If users can’t find the information they need, they’ll often become frustrated.
• The more difficult your website is to use, the higher your bounce rate will typically be.
• A poor experience can mean fewer return visitors, less referral traffic, and even a decrease in conversions.

It’s important to understand that usability and UX are closely connected. In most cases, bad usability decisions lead to a poor UX. Fortunately, creating a highly usable design isn’t that hard if you keep a few fundamental techniques in mind.

4 Fundamentals of Usability in Web Design

There are no shortcuts when it comes to creating web designs people will enjoy using. In most cases, it’s just a matter of common sense, as well as thinking about what elements you appreciate when using other websites. However, these four elements will help you start improving your site’s usability and UX right away.

1. Clear Navigation

A lot of websites split their content between multiple pages, and enable users to navigate between them using menus. It might sound obvious that you should make navigating your site easy, but some sites sacrifice clear navigation schemes in exchange for flashy designs.

However, there’s no reason you can’t have your cake and eat it too. For an example, take a look at the Moller website:

This site looks stunning thanks to its video backgrounds, yet it still manages to offer simple and clear navigation options. You can find all the site’s main pages right at the top of the screen. There’s also a lot of contrast between the video and menu items, which makes the latter stand out. Using contrast this way is a simple, yet efficient method of making your navigation menu user-friendly.

However, the Moller site is not a perfect example of usability. Its persistent usage of video backgrounds can impact performance on certain devices. This can be an issue, since performance also impacts usability.

2. Performance

Your website may look compelling and be easy to navigate, but it can still feel sluggish. The problem with performance is that it can be hard to gauge how slow your website feels for other users. As a rule of thumb, however, your site should always take under two seconds to load. Otherwise, you’ll scare a lot of visitors away and lose out on potential conversions.

Fortunately, websites don’t need to be boring or look bare to be fast. Check out the Steam homepage, for instance:

A single page on this site contains dozens of elements, yet it still manages to load quickly. Your website can be just as fast if you choose a web host that takes performance seriously. Even then, it doesn’t hurt to roll up your sleeves and look into other ways to improve your website’s performance even further.

3. Readability

A lot of the content you interact with online is text-based – such as this very post. If your design makes it difficult to read and digest that content, then you have a usability flaw on your hands.

There are several ways to improve your content’s readability. However, in most cases, it will come down to the fonts you choose and your use of contrast. Take a look at the WordPress.org homepage, for example:

This page is nothing special from a design standpoint, but it’s very easy to scan. Finding the content you need is simple thanks to a clear navigation scheme, and the page uses easy-to-read fonts. It also has a clear single-color background, to make it as easy as possible to read the text.

There’s a reason white backgrounds are so popular on websites, and it’s not because designers are a boring bunch. The truth is that it’s simpler to implement high-contrast elements and ensure readability when you’re working with a white background. Those contrasts, in turn, help lead your visitors’ eyes to the content they want to find.

4. Responsiveness

Your website may look stunning on a large monitor, but you’ll also need to adapt it for mobile users. These days, people consume more content through their mobile devices than they do on desktop computers. This poses a problem when it comes to usability, since a lot of websites aren’t designed with small interfaces in mind.

This is where responsiveness becomes important. This feature enables your site to work smoothly regardless of what device it’s displayed on. Here’s an example of a stylish website that still manages to look compelling (and function well) on a smartphone screen:

Adapting your site for mobile devices isn’t that complicated these days. In fact, most modern WordPress themes are responsive out of the box. However, even responsive websites might not offer clear navigation schemes or properly scale down content. It’s your job to keep an eye out for these potential issues and address them.

Conclusion

The better your site’s usability is, the more users will enjoy their experience. If your website has an excellent design, offers outstanding content, and is fun to use, you have a winner on your hands.

When it comes to usability, there are four fundamentals you should keep in mind to get the best possible results:

1. Clear navigation: The easier your site is to browse, the happier your users will be.
2. Performance: Slow websites loose visitors, so you need to optimize for performance.
3. Readability: Your content should be easy to read, so that it doesn’t confuse or frustrate.
4. Responsiveness: Mobile traffic is more important than ever, so your site needs to work well on all devices.

If you’re looking for additional design assistance, make sure to visit DesignRush.com!

Related Resources

• 7 Tips to Create a Better User Experience on Your Website
• Is User Experience the #1 SEO Ranking Factor

Image credit: Startup Stock Photos.

The post An Introduction to Usability and User Experience in Web Design appeared first on The A2 Posting.