Unveiling the Web: 10 Things Small Businesses Don’t Know About Company Websites

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In the ever-evolving digital landscape, having a strong online presence is essential for small businesses looking to thrive in today’s competitive market. A well-crafted company website is often the first point of contact between you and potential customers, making it a vital aspect of your business strategy.With a decade of experience building WordPress websites and a track record of nearly 1000 5-star reviews, we’ve been privileged to work on over 1000 WordPress projects. Through our journey, we’ve uncovered some valuable insights that can transform the way small businesses perceive and utilize their online presence. In this article, we’re sharing 10 crucial things that often fly under the radar when it comes to company websites, helping you harness the true potential of this digital tool.

  1. WordPress Themes: Not All Are Created Equal

    When choosing a WordPress theme, it’s not just about aesthetics. Some themes may look great but are excessively heavy in terms of code, leading to sluggish performance and poor SEO. We recommend the “Hello” theme from Elementor for its lightweight and highly customizable nature.

  2. Freedom of Hosting Choice

    Contrary to common belief, you’re not bound to use WordPress.com as your hosting provider. WordPress websites can be hosted anywhere. Consider providers like GoDaddy, SiteGround, or Bluehost for flexibility and tailored hosting solutions.

  3. Unlocking the Full Potential of Elementor

    While Elementor and Elementor Pro are fantastic tools for website building, don’t overlook the power of extension suites. Premium Addons, Elements Kit, Depicter, JetEngine, Qi Addons, and Qode Addons offer more complex and sophisticated elements to enhance your site’s functionality.

  4. The Evolution of SEO

    SEO has evolved beyond keyword stuffing. Google now prioritizes user experience. Focus on making your website easy to navigate, keeping users engaged, and providing value. Natural language and well-constructed content will always outperform keyword-heavy pages.

  5. The Vital Role of Ongoing Maintenance

    WordPress websites require ongoing maintenance for several reasons. Regular updates are crucial for malware and virus prevention. Maintaining compatibility with other plugins ensures smooth operation. Additionally, ongoing maintenance helps fix bugs related to speed and SEO, ensuring your website stays in top form.

  6. Performance Optimization

    Website speed can make or break your online presence. Optimizing images, utilizing caching, and reducing unnecessary code can significantly enhance your site’s loading speed, improving user satisfaction and SEO rankings.

  7. Content Quality Over Quantity

    It’s not about how much content you have but rather how valuable it is. Invest in high-quality, informative, and engaging content. Regular updates and fresh insights will keep your audience coming back for more.

  8. Responsive Design is a Must

    In an era where mobile usage is skyrocketing, your website must be responsive. Ensure that it adapts seamlessly to various screen sizes and devices to reach a broader audience.

  9. Accessibility is Not Optional

    Ensure your website is accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities. Compliance with accessibility standards is not only ethical but, in many cases, a legal requirement.

  10. Analytics: Your Business Compass

    Don’t underestimate the power of analytics. Tools like Google Analytics provide invaluable insights into user behavior, helping you make informed decisions about your website’s content and functionality.

Conclusion:

As seasoned WordPress developers with a decade of experience, we’ve seen the impact a well-crafted website can have on small businesses. By considering these ten vital aspects of company websites, you can harness the full potential of your digital storefront, attract more visitors, and convert them into loyal customers. Your website isn’t just a tool; it’s a gateway to success in the digital age. Embrace these insights, and watch your online presence thrive.

Why a good design (UX) is more important than keywords in SEO

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UX (user experience) is more important than keyword density in SEO because search engines, such as Google, prioritize providing relevant and useful results to users over keyword optimization. A website with good UX will naturally attract users and keep them engaged, leading to a lower bounce rate and longer average session duration. These metrics are used by search engines as indicators of a website’s quality and relevance, and can positively impact a website’s search engine ranking. Additionally, a website with poor UX may have high keyword density, but it will not be helpful to the users, which will lead to a low click-through rate and high bounce rate, which will negatively impact the website’s search engine ranking.

UX refers to the overall experience that a user has when interacting with a website, including factors such as ease of navigation, design, and content organization. When a website has good UX, users are able to easily find the information they are looking for, and they are more likely to stay on the website longer, interact with more pages, and return to the website in the future. These behaviors signal to search engines that the website is relevant, useful, and valuable to its users.

On the other hand, keyword density, which refers to the number of times a keyword appears on a webpage compared to the total number of words on the page, is a tactic that was once used to try to manipulate search engine rankings. However, search engines have become sophisticated enough to recognize when a website is trying to manipulate its rankings through keyword stuffing, and will penalize a website for this behavior.

In summary, search engines prioritize user experience over keyword optimization because it is in line with their goal of providing the most relevant and useful results to users. Websites that have good UX are naturally seen as more relevant and valuable by search engines, which will boost their search engine rankings. While keyword density is not irrelevant, it should not be the main focus of a website’s SEO strategy. Instead, focus on creating a website that is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and provides valuable information.

Most groundbreaking new apps in the AI world and Web 3.0

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Web 3.0 refers to the next evolution of the World Wide Web, characterized by the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things. It is often referred to as the “Semantic Web” because it aims to make the internet more intelligent and intuitive, by creating a more meaningful and interconnected web of data.

Web 3.0 is expected to have a significant impact on various industries, including finance, healthcare, and transportation. For example, it could enable more secure and transparent financial transactions through the use of blockchain technology, and provide patients with more personalized healthcare through the use of AI-powered medical diagnostics. Additionally, Web 3.0 could improve the efficiency and sustainability of transportation systems through the use of connected vehicles and smart cities.

Overall, Web 3.0 is expected to make the internet more user-friendly, secure, and efficient, leading to new opportunities for innovation and economic growth.

 

Here is the list to keep an eye on:

Brave: Brave is a web browser that blocks ads and trackers, resulting in faster page loads and better privacy.

Odysee: Odysee is a decentralized video hosting platform that allows users to share and monetize their content, similar to YouTube.

Audius: Audius is a decentralized music streaming platform that allows independent artists to share and monetize their music.

Status: Status is a mobile app that allows users to access decentralized applications (dApps) and services on the Ethereum blockchain.

Metamask: Metamask is a browser extension that allows users to interact with dApps and make transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.

Presearch: Presearch is a decentralized search engine that rewards users with tokens for using the platform and contributing to its development.

Lumen5.com: Lumen5 is a content creation platform that uses AI to assist users in creating videos, social media posts, and other content.

OpenAI.com: OpenAI is an AI research company that aims to develop and promote friendly AI in a way that benefits humanity as a whole.

WordAI: WordAI is a tool that uses AI to rewrite and spin articles, making them unique and more readable.

ChatGPT: ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI that can generate human-like text based on a given prompt.

Microsoft Designer: Microsoft Designer is a tool that allows users to create and edit diagrams, flowcharts, and other visual aids.

Talk To Books: Talk To Books is an AI-powered search engine that allows users to find books by searching for phrases and ideas rather than keywords.

AI Dungeon: AI Dungeon is a text-based game that uses AI to generate unique and unpredictable stories based on player input.

Hunter.io: Hunter is an email finder tool that allows you to find the email addresses of people and companies based on their domain name.

Copy.ai: Copy.ai is a tool that uses AI to generate human-like text, such as product descriptions, blog posts, and social media content.

NestFi.io: It is a financial management platform that helps users track their expenses, create budgets, and set financial goals.

Pictory.AI: It is an image recognition and tagging platform that uses artificial intelligence to automatically organize and tag photos.

SynthesiaIO: It is an AI-powered platform that helps users to create personalized music tracks.

VeedIO: It is a video editing platform that uses AI to automatically edit, color-correct, and enhance videos.

InteriorAI: It is an AI-powered platform that helps users to design and decorate their homes.

CharacterAI: It is an AI-powered platform that generates unique and personalized characters for use in games, animations, and comics.

Midjourney: It is a platform that provides AI inpainting, outpainting, background subtraction, video creation, and more. Amazing AI image generation from any text prompt. 

WriteSonic: It is a text generation platform that helps users to generate creative writing prompts and story ideas.

AndiAI: It is an AI-powered platform that provides personalized recommendations for fashion and apparel.

CopilotAI: It is an AI-powered platform that assists users in writing and editing documents, emails, and other text.

EchowinAI: It is an AI-powered platform that helps users to optimize their website for search engines.

D-IDStudio: It is an AI-powered platform that helps users to create and edit digital images.

RepurposeIO: It is an AI-powered platform that helps users to repurpose their existing content into new formats.

JasperAI: It is an AI-powered platform that helps users to create chatbots and virtual assistants.

PixelaAI: It is an AI-powered platform that helps users to create pixel art.

Rize.IO: It is an AI-powered platform that helps users to create 3D models and animations.

Volleyapp.com: It is a platform that allows users to create interactive polls and surveys.

play.ht: It is a platform that allows users to create and share interactive visual stories.

Soundraw.io: It is a platform that allows users to create and share sound effects and music loops.

Premium WordPress themes vs custom-coded themes

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There are several reasons why it may be better to create a WordPress website using a premium theme instead of building one from scratch:

  1. Time savings: Using a pre-built premium theme can save a significant amount of time that would otherwise be spent designing and developing a custom theme.
  2. Cost savings: Premium themes often cost less than hiring a designer or developer to create a custom theme from scratch.
  3. Professional design: Premium themes are typically designed by professional designers and developers, so the design and functionality of the theme is likely to be of high quality.
  4. Flexibility: Many premium themes are highly customizable, allowing you to modify the design and functionality of the theme to suit your specific needs.
  5. Regular updates: Premium themes are often updated regularly to ensure compatibility with the latest version of WordPress and to add new features and functionality.
  6. Support: Premium themes often come with support from their authors which can help users with issues and questions.
  7. Security: A well-built premium theme that is regularly updated is less likely to have security vulnerabilities.

Keep in mind that while a premium theme might be a good starting point, you will still need to invest time and effort to customize and set up the theme to your requirements, but this should take less time and effort than a theme built from scratch.

Why not to build your own customer portal.

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Why it is not a good strategy to try to build a functional customer portal from scratch in WordPress and not use an existing third-party portal.

Building a functional customer portal from scratch using WordPress can be a challenging and time-consuming task, and there are several reasons why it may not be a good strategy:

Lack of scalability: Custom-built customer portals built on WordPress may not be able to handle the large amounts of traffic and data that come with a successful portal. Existing portals are built to scale and can handle large amounts of traffic and data without issues.

Limited functionality: WordPress is a content management system and not built specifically for customer portals. While there are many plugins available for WordPress, they may not provide all the features and functionalities that a dedicated portal platform would offer.

Limited security: WordPress is a widely-used platform and as such, is a popular target for hackers. While there are security measures that can be taken, a dedicated portal platform will often have a higher level of built-in security to protect both you and your customer’s data.

Limited ability to integrate with other systems: Custom-built portals built on WordPress may have difficulty integrating with other systems, such as your CRM or billing system, which can make it difficult to manage customer data and automate processes.

Limited customer service and support: Building your own portal can be difficult, and if you run into any issues or problems, you may not have the same level of customer service and support as you would with a dedicated portal platform.

Overall, building a customer portal from scratch using WordPress may not be the best strategy as it can be time-consuming, costly, and may not provide the same level of functionality, security, scalability and integration capabilities as an existing customer portal platform. It might be more beneficial to use an existing third-party platform that was built specifically for customer portals which already provide most of the required functionalities, scalability, security, integration and support capabilities for a customer portal.

Here are ten popular white-label customer and user business portals:

Salesforce CRM – a customer relationship management platform that allows businesses to manage and track customer interactions and sales.

Zendesk – a customer service platform for businesses to manage and respond to customer inquiries with a white label customer portal.

Mindbody – a software for fitness and wellness businesses that offers a white label customer portal for managing class schedules, member information, and billing.

Thinkific – an e-learning platform that allows businesses to create and sell online courses with a white label customer portal.

LearnDash – a WordPress plugin that allows businesses to create and sell online courses with a white label customer portal.

Teachable – a platform that allows businesses to create and sell online courses with a white label customer portal.

Podia – a platform that allows businesses to create and sell online courses, digital products and memberships with a white label customer portal.

Infusionsoft – a CRM and marketing automation platform that offers a white label customer portal for businesses to manage customer data and automation.

Agorapulse – a social media management platform that offers a white label customer portal for businesses to manage and track customer interactions on social media.

Lessonly – a learning management system that offers a white label customer portal for businesses to manage and track employee training and development.

These are some examples of popular white label business portals in specific areas, but as always it is recommended to research and evaluate different options to find the best one that fits your business needs and budget.