Choosing the right domain name for your business is a significant choice. Creating a domain name these days is harder than a few years back since a vast majority of good domain names have been taken. The reality is any person can enlist as many domains under his or her name and continue to renew the domain name to sell at a higher cost.

Keep in mind that your domain name is more than the words you type into the program, it’s the foundation for your online personality. Choosing the wrong domain could lead to the failure of your website presence, while choosing the right domain name could help you more easily reach online success.

Here are some basic methods on how to choose a domain name for your business, and the most important factors to consider to get your domain name right.

1. Make it Unique

A unique domain name is in every case outstanding. Most individuals lean toward an extraordinary name which can be simpler to recall and quicker to search online, as this also helps to boost google ranking.

Your domain name should incorporate your brand name right. Ideally, your domain name should immediately show what your website is about and try to capture the essence of what you offer or your services – or at the very least contain the company name or whatever it is you are known for. 

It is also wise to choose a short domain name rather than a long bulky name, which is hard to remember. It’s better to choose a domain name that is short and sweet rather than something that has more than 10 characters but states the entire name of your company. Think of something unique, yet short. 

2. Be Clever about your Domain Extension

As we all know, “Old is Gold”. The traditional extension of all domains is “.com” and it is still the most mainstream and popular among all extensions. It is actually SEO friendly, and this is the main reason that these websites with these domain extensions are easier to find. Everyone who wants to go to a URL address is always going to try a .com first before the rest, so try to get a .com extension first and if you are unable to find any of your desired domain extensions then go for .net, .org and etc.

These days, extensions signifying the country location of the company have become more and more popular. These types of extensions essentially tell users where your company is based or is located. But before going for an extension such as .ph or .uk look into the domain prices and requirements first to make sure that your company is eligible for this domain extension. 

3. Unlock the power of Keywords

Internet search is based on a framework of keywords and phrases when indexing addresses and sites, so take advantage of this when choosing your domain name. Always go for a complete keyword domain and contain relevant words in it. Keywords containing domains always come first in Search Engines.

Brainstorm keywords related to your organization and use these in shaping your chosen name. An appropriate name should be able to provide a description of what customers can expect on your website.

What keywords do people use to search for businesses like yours? Take advantage of those keywords and use them in your domain name.

Before choosing a domain name for your business, always keep in mind that your domain name should be catchy, easy to type and easy to search over the internet and must stand out against your competitors. In addition, give importance to Social Media Strategies for Branding.

With 25 years of experience in the IT industry and as one of the leading Digital Marketing Agencies in the Philippines, iManila has the skills and the experience to help you with your domain name, your hosting, website design and development, and digital marketing and remote technical support needs. Contact us and we can help you get started on your online presence! 

Since its inception back in 1996, cloud hosting has since been gaining attention. As many would say, WELCOME TO THE CLOUD ERA!  

As compared to other hosting options, cloud hosting allows your website to be hosted on multiple servers. If you’re hosted on the cloud, you may just simply migrate your site if any bugs or technical issues occur. Cloud computing technology allows numerous machines to work synchronously. 

Aside from its proven flexibility, security, performance, and reliability, its ultra-fast speed is also one to look out for.  

Before we unveil the not-so secret advantages of cloud hosting, we will first differentiate all the hosting options available in the market today.  

• Shared Hosting – In its very nature, shared hosting may assure you 99.99% uptime but is a little challenging to live up to. High traffic could automatically cause a downtime. The upside though is it’s cheap and suitable for smaller sites and businesses.  
• Dedicated Hosting – You are the sole owner of the server and have complete control over all of your resources. 
• VPS Hosting –  This is beneficial if you worry about server dysfunctions as the server is divided into multiple virtual servers.  
• Cloud Hosting – A network of connected servers divided into multiple virtual servers.  

Cloud Hosting vs Shared Hosting  

In terms of support, cloud hosting has unlimited everything, from storage, bandwidth, and databases, and continually advances as years go by. Shared hosting, on the other hand, has many limits. Overusing its limited resources could cause suspensions. 

In terms of security, the protocols of shared hosting are often based on applications and databases as these are the most vulnerable to hackers. Cloud hosting, on the other hand, has four major security controls such as Deterrent, Preventative, Detective, and Corrective Controls. Cloud hosting incorporates encrypted algorithms to further protect your data. 

When it comes to performance, cloud hosting can guarantee you an ultra-fast, auto-scalable and customizable platform. High traffic does not nudge the cloud hosting servers. In fact, it is highly recommended for sites with high traffic. While shared hosting, with its limited resources, speed could be an issue. Not to mention, the possible downtimes. 

Cloud Hosting vs Dedicated Hosting vs VPS 

VPS functions similarly to cloud hosting, as these two are serving multiple servers. The only difference is that cloud hosting’s resources are on demand. Cloud hosting users can instantly gauge and have full control over their resources and get charged according to their use. While with a dedicated hosting or server, owners are given their own server that cannot be shared. Although having a dedicated server is more flexible in terms of resources than your affordable shared hosting, dedicated hosting is the most expensive hosting model as you are the only one paying for your server and its resources. 

In terms of infrastructure, both dedicated servers and VPS use single physical servers, only that VPS is shared and dedicated is only used by one entity. With cloud hosting, on the other hand, resources are distributed across multiple servers situated in an isolated virtual environment.  

Now, in terms of location and scalability, both dedicated hosting and VPS are off-site, in contrast to cloud hosting that may be both off-site or on-site. While for scalability, VPS may be upgraded or downgraded manually, while a dedicated server is unfortunately un-upgradeable – lest you move to a different dedicated server altogether with more resources. Cloud hosting, on the bright side, may be upgraded or downgraded within seconds, and has zero downtime.  

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There are a variety of hosting packages available in the market today. Choosing one would depend on your business’ requirements and priorities. If you ask us though, the best option today is cloud hosting, especially with its advanced features when it comes to security, performance, speed and resources. 

With 25 years of experience in the industry and as one of the leading Digital Marketing agencies in the Philippines, iManila is always at the forefront of innovation offering reliable cloud hosting services starting with a storage of 60GB all the way up to 240GB. We’re proud to offer our newest Cloud Hosting packages available here. Drop us a message today and we can help identify the best hosting package for your business’ needs. 

Behind every great website strategy is the goal to convert traffic into actual paying customers. After all, if your website doesn’t convert, then chances are there’s a lot of room for improvement whether it be on the user interface or in terms of the digital marketing efforts you are investing in, if any at all. In most cases, traffic alone won’t be enough. We’re now in the competitive digital world wherein visitors should be influenced to perform certain actions on your website.

By working on simple changes on your website, you’ll be able to convert traffic by letting your website do its work of turning visitors into paying customers. Let’s take a look at some key website elements that can help influence and encourage conversions.

Clear Message and Navigation

Websites with a lot of content need to focus on presenting and focusing users’ attention on content that is useful and relevant. Upon landing on your website, you’ll need to make your message precise and clear.

Make sure to quickly address why they are at your website in the first place. Provide them with beneficial information. What are you offering? Would they benefit from it? If so, how?

In addition, keeping your website simple and straightforward is the way to go. A simple website allows your visitors to easily move around your website, which improves user experience, which then boosts your conversion rates.

Social Proof

Showcasing social proof and other social sites on your website is the best way to instill trust in users and get them to connect with your brand. Nothing is still as powerful as word-of-mouth marketing, social shares, comments, and reviews since it is the digital equivalent of a friendly conversation.

Integrating social media into your website can help show your target audience that your business is thriving, engaged, and has a successful community offering a more informative glimpse of what your business is all about.

Mobile Optimized

We’ve said countless times, a mobile-optimized website is a must. People that connect through the digital world often engage through their mobile phones. Not having a mobile-optimized web presence is a major downfall to your website and a surefire conversion killer.

A majority of online consumers and digital natives have more access to a mobile phone. Everyone expects websites to function just as well on mobile as they do on a desktop. Make sure that users’ expectations are met and offer a clean, vertical mobile-optimized browsing experience.

The right Call to Action (CTA)

The main goal of your website is to monetize the traffic coming in, or interest the visitors closer to that goal. We all know by now that going digital is also the way for your business to thrive in the new normal. Call-to-action buttons (CTAs) are an incredibly important factor in the conversion process.

You won’t be able to convert your visitors into paying customers unless they take specific actions, which is why you need to guide them on what to do next. That’s where your call-to-action buttons (CTAs) come in and stand out. The more comfortable and interested your users are, the more likely they will be to complete a conversion.

Your CTAs are the important on-site elements that need to be highlighted on your website to push your conversion rates to a higher level. They can be in the form of buttons, images, or even videos or anything that drives users to take the next step.

With 25 years of experience in the IT industry and as one of the oldest IT companies in the Philippines, trust that iManila can help improve your website conversion rates through our variety of digital marketing services from hosting, website design and development, and digital marketing. Contact us today to learn more! 

Facebook has been dramatically evolving, updating, and innovating since its inception. This has given many brands and advertisers the worst headaches while at the same time the best successes of their lives, as the platform grows not just to be more complex but to be highly beneficial at the same time.

In this blog, we will show you 10 of the most useful Facebook advertising tips and tricks that will positively improve your Facebook ad campaigns.  

Optimize ads for awareness instead of engagements 

While engagement ads allow you to increase your number of likes, comments, shares, etc., oftentimes it’s not aligned with your goals and most of the time impractical. Brands or advertisers who are fairly new to the field, will mistake engagements to be a sign that the ads are performing. Worst is if the client might be expecting leads, messages, etc., which is a nightmare for any strategist. What they may not know is that the ads optimized for engagements will only dictate Facebook’s machine learning to deliver the ads to people who are most likely to engage and not convert.   

On the other hand, awareness ads bring a more meaningful business outcome. This is because awareness ads are delivered to people who are most likely to remember the ads, not just engage with it. The metric that Facebook uses to measure the success of the campaign is via ad recall. 

You may, however, run these two campaigns at once. You may boost the same ad for engagements and awareness so you can get the amount of engagements that you need while also reaching people who could be your potential consumers.  

Use different ad formats 

Ad formats allow your brand to present your products the way you want it. You have the option to use a single image, carousel ad, instant experience, or collection ad formats.  

Single ad images are mostly utilized for awareness campaigns like brand awareness ads and reach ads. This is oftentimes used in engagements and page likes ads too. This ad format only requires one image but should be optimized in certain ad sizes in respect to the placements such as the feed, story, and marketplace for better performance.  

While the carousel appears to be a catalog presented in boxes, aligned horizontally, which contains your products, a collection ad on the other hand, is like a full on ad experience, where you put a banner and products are seen below it. You may click on the button below the ad so you may view the rest of the catalog. An instant experience can be both. You may customize the format based on your liking while also considering what you offer.  

Align your campaigns with your goals 

Before you select an ad campaign, you should first and foremost clear out your objective. Your goal should be aligned to your campaigns. For example, you shouldn’t run an awareness ad campaign if you are trying to get leads and inquiries. 

You should be transparent and clear about what you want to happen for the campaign. You cannot expect conversions, ad recalls, or engagements all at the same time unless you have the budget to do so. 

Use automatic placements 

Unless you know exactly who your target audiences are, you should use automatic placements. This is located on the ad set level. You may choose to do manual placements if you feel like your ad does not fit on Instagram or if you only want your ads to appear on someone’s feed. This is definitely something you can customize, but again, unless you know and have worked back and forth using those specific placements, you should instead use automatic placements.  

The main reason behind this is that you wouldn’t want to miss any opportunity along the way, especially on your first try. Trust Facebook’s algorithm to bring you the best possible results for your campaigns otherwise, run an A/B test first if you’re pressed for time.  

A/B test creatives or ad graphics  

One of the most important things you should do upon doing your first campaign is testing your creatives. Like others, this is one great factor in your overall performance. You should seek out what creatives work for your audiences and what does not. You should not feed your audiences with the same graphics that they don’t even like. Test and test until you see the results that you want.  

These are only a few of the most important things that you should consider upon setting up your first campaign. Before you delve into the setting up process, gather all our thoughts and create a media plan. Generate sales successfully using social media. If this is something too hard for you to do, get assistance from Facebook advertising experts like iManila to do the job for you. We have highly qualified and certified Facebook Media Buying professionals who you can entrust your campaigns to. With 25 years of experience in the industry and as a certified Digital Agency in the Philippines, iManila is ready to help you with your website development, hosting, digital marketing and technical support needs. Inquire now and message us today!