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Why Your Website Page Speed Matters?

 

Website Page Speed — In this age of digital transformation, time is of the essence for all. What considers the best experience for most of the people is being able to do what needs to be done in the quickest time possible. And that holds true for most things, especially on the internet.

Websites these days are not just about design and functionality; it is also about the page loading speed. No matter how well designed and informative your website is, if it takes almost a minute to load a single page, then you are lagging behind your competitor’s websites who loads faster than yours.

There are more to your website loading time than what you’ve probably thought before. Below are the two crucial points that compel website owners like you to optimize your website’s loading time.

It matters to Users.

A website that loads fast leaves a good impression to the users. Aside from that, online users have a growing rate of declining attention span. According to an article of Timothy Egan posted on New York Times online, a survey of media consumption by Microsoft concluded that the average attention span of humans had fallen to eight (8) seconds from twelve (12) in the year 2000.

It is a crucial point showing that as technology improves, the attention span declines. Optimizing your website to meet this emerging user behavior will surely improve its performance.

And it matters to Google too.

Google puts user experience at the core of its technology and business. And what matters to the users, also matters to Google. It is the behavior and preferences of the online users that became the basis of all improvements applied to the search engine.

According to Google, the average loading time of a mobile landing page to fully load all elements is at 22 seconds. However, 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load. And that where the problem lies. While most websites take 22 seconds to load, the users’ attention span is only at 8 seconds – at the most.

Below are the critical points Google shared to webmasters.

 

crucial-website-loading-time-figures

In the same way, a slow page loading time might affect your website’s search engine ranking. Since Google prioritize user experience, it will not let a slow loading website rank on the first page of Google SERP despite having marvelous content.

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What do you need to do?

To improve your website’s loading time, below are the steps that you need to take to optimize it.

  1. Using the webpagetest.org, check the loading time of every element in your website.
  2. Improve what needs to improve such as:
  • Compress large image and video files
  • Remove unnecessary plugins that slow your website loading time
  1. ALWAYS, depend on a reliable and high-quality web hosting server to make sure that your website loads on an optimal level. Servers are also responsible for loading time of the website, if your server is too old and lacks resources, your website won’t load fast enough.
  2. And you are covering visitors and audiences across the globe, you need to also use Content Delivery Network (CDN) to speed up the delivery of your website’s page loading on areas far from the location of your web hosting server.

Page speed is indeed a crucial part in the success of a website. In this age when human attention span is shorter than the goldfish, the only way website owners need to do to adapt is to optimize their websites from content to loading time according to the behavior of the users.

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iManila is a trusted provider of both web solutions and digital marketing services that surely covers small and medium businesses online marketing needs. Our lines are open 24/7 and our sales executives are available Mondays to Fridays to assist you with your web, IT, and digital marketing queries.

Emails: info@imanila.ph / sales@imanila.ph / salessupport@imanila.ph

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

 

 

Sources:

  1. wisdekcorp.com
  2. nytimes.com
  3. thinkwithgoogle.com

Ways to Get Conversion on Social Media

 

Social Media has changed the way people are getting informed these days. Somehow, it became the second search engine used by the users when finding a person, event or even brands. And with the force of social media coming in full swing, it is becoming an unstoppable force that marketers need to use to their advantage.

In our previous blog we have discussed what KPIs you need to focus should you decide to go all out with your social media marketing. While most have chosen to go with branding metrics, some are aggressive enough to zoom into sales-centric ones. The question now is, is social media a perfect channel to convert audience to customers?

Related: Branding or Sales KPI?

Is conversion possible?

The answer is a big fat YES! Social Media has the ability to drive potent traffic ready for conversion. The key in maximizing that ability is by following these 6 key points we got from Entrepreneur.com on how to win more conversion on Social Media.

  • Unique Content per Platform

This is a basic rule everyone needs to understand. Different social media platforms have different cultures, setting it apart from other platforms. In that sense, users also have a different behavior towards content. While funny content can be the most engaging on Facebook, that doesn’t mean it works the same with Instagram. Instagram users are artsy, hip, trendy and post neatly than the users of Facebook. Feed goals are the new trend and incredible visuals are the king of all IG content.

Twitter on the other has a different taste. Brevity is the key. Concise, witty and on-point content for brands is highly engaging. While most end-users treat their twitters as their private spaces for their up-to-date rants and angst – following the trending hashtags is still mainstream for both users and brands.

  • Go Beyond Links for Content Promotion

People don’t go to social media to be bombarded by the same content they see on their television set. The reason they migrated to social media is that of the authenticity of the content, and the value-adding content they get from it – not some heavy bullshit that feels like a rusting advertising knife stuck in their ears.

The content format can either be entertaining or informative. Users gravitate towards these type of content they felt are not sponsored. But for marketers, telling a story and sharing entertaining content like memes, GIFs, and clips to light up their mood really make differences. Promotional links are great, but they are the content promotion of the yesteryears. Social selling is the key these days. Give users sandwiches if they want it, but don’t forget to make your salamis and spreads hearty and fulfilling.

Embed the links on the catchiest and subtlest content to make it organically engaging.

  • Know Your Target Audience Well

A perfect conversational type of social selling is a fruit of knowing your target market (or audience) well. This is connected to number 2. Only when you know to which content your market responds well, is when you can be able to deliver the right message and posts that will resonate with them.  Remember, different market, different behavior. And different platform creates different sets of audiences with different behavior as well. If you will put that together, you can single out that niche audience perfect for your brand.

Related:  SMEs Guide to Understanding Their Market Online

  • Track Your Traffic

It is like aimlessly wandering around a big park if you are not abreast with your performance. Keeping track of how your content performs gives you the knowledge on ways to improve your next postings to make it more engaging and appealing to win more conversions.

  • Leverage on Relationship Marketing

You cannot win on your own. That is for sure. Even if you have the most potent product out there, or the best service yet, you cannot achieve the sweet success if your target audience does not know you. And that is where the help of other people or influencers come in.

You can form ties with communities and groups online who are directly involved with the use of your brand. They can be your brand ambassadors. They will serve as your key influencers who will subtly do content promotion to your prospects. You know how people love reviews from other users right? Word of mouth, even online, is a hundredfold more effective than branded or sponsored content.

  • Always Keep It Simple for Your Audience

Your audience online is not hermits who are blessed with enormous patience. They are decisive, but they get easily displeased and walks away when it takes a lot of their precious time. So when you are running promos on social media, always bear it in mind to make easy for them to sign-in and even to log-pout. Make the process short and simple for everyone to understand. Don’t make it intimidating for everyone. This way you are encouraging users to take more actions.

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Always keep in mind that the center of all your social media marketing efforts is your target audience. Everything revolves around them, what they want to see, what they love to click, and how easy it is for them to take an action.

iManila is a trusted provider of both web solutions and digital marketing services that surely covers small and medium businesses online marketing needs. Our lines are open 24/7 and our sales executives are available Mondays to Fridays to assist you with your web, IT, and digital marketing queries.

Emails: info@imanila.ph / sales@imanila.ph / salessupport@imanila.ph

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

Going Socials: Which KPI You Should Prioritize? Branding or Sales?

 

The social media hype for brands across the globe is real. Everyone’s jumping right into this seemingly unsinkable boat of social media and everyone’s like, let’s do this, this is the trend these days. However, before jumping into the boat of social you need to know these two things:

Is it for you?

The big question is, is social media fit for your business? Not all business is created with the same audience behavior? Some business especially B2B businesses have a highly ‘niche’ audience with a very discrimination taste for content. They respond differently and unpredictably at times. Lucky for the B2Cs as some groups of end-consumers behave in a predictive pattern. But with a high-end audience, social media isn’t always the Mecca of Digital Marketing. The key here is to determine if it is really fitting to your corporate goals.

Related Reading:  Online Duopoly: Facebook or Google?

How to Measure Success?

Now that your team has decided that social media can be an important channel to your digital growth, the next crucial step is not the content planning yet. Determining your KPI should be the next thing that your team needs to finalize. Without concrete goals and sets of Key Performing Indices, you cannot measure your initiative’s success. And if you’re battling the two sides of the coin whether to go for branding or with sales KPI, you really need to a have a perfect focus to ensure success when rolling out to social media. These two are different in some degree.

If your team is still confused about which KPI to use, you can refer to some considerations mentioned below.

  • Are you a start-up?

If social media happens to be your first digital initiative the most logical approach is branding over sales. You need to build a good brand awareness and brand recall before you make sales pitching over social media. No one wants to hear selling from a brand or a business that they barely know. And if we are talking about branding, building A FAN-BASE, CONTENT REACH and ENGAGEMENT are the best KPIs to go with.

Related Reading:  SMEs Guide to understanding their online market

  • Are you in dire need of lead acquisitions?

Some businesses live and breathe through leads. Well for most B2Bs – YES, this is the business’s bloodline. And leads, when well-nurtured becomes sales. This middle-ground is a little aggressive than branding but should be lesser than sales-driven methods. One must have a landing page inside a corporate website which will catch all of the referred traffic from social media. The landing page should be designed to be enticing enough to take an action either in the form of sign-ups of inquiries. The best KPIs for these is LINK CLIKS or WEB CLICKS.

  • Is your company already visible online?

If your company or your brand has been making buzz online, either on the search engines, display networks or in other channels like guest posting via blogs, turning to social media could be easier than the previous two.

For most companies who have established a good brand recall and reputation online, going for sales goals on social media is likely to happen.

Call-to-actions such as Buy Now, Book Now, Call Now, are the usual go-to CTAs by businesses. And KPI of CLICKS can be used to measure this.

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After finalizing your sets of KPIs, you can now proceed to the drawing board to kick start with your content planning.

iManila is a trusted provider of both web solutions and digital marketing services that surely covers small and medium businesses online marketing needs. Our lines are open 24/7 and our sales executives are available Mondays to Fridays to assist you with your web, IT, and digital marketing queries.

Emails: info@imanila.ph / sales@imanila.ph / salessupport@imanila.ph

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

 

Important Keyboard Shortcuts of Photoshop CS6 – Mac

The entire population is definitely not a bunch of  Windows users, and that is a fact. For those you opted to buy Mac Book or Mac machine, they’ve lavishly knocked on the gates of the walled garden of Mac and find it much comfortable in that environment. The thing is, aside from default applications, shortcut keys, and the operating system itself, Mac holds a different keyboard shortcut for Photoshop.

It is still vivid to me when I had my first encounter with a Mac laptop. It felt so foreign yet inviting. The interface is very endearing and it makes you want to work with it. But as I had my hands on it, did some typing, and executed the same keyboard shortcuts that I knew from using applications from Windows — I was terrified! There are key combinations that set it apart from Windows, and not knowing it felt embarrassing and frustrating for someone who has been accustomed to the fast and efficient use of keyboard shortcuts for years.

To make it easier for Mac users (which I am definitely not) who are brand loyalists, below is a rendition of our previous cheat sheet just for CS6 just for Mac users who are heavily reliant on graphic design.

 

Photoshop-Cheat-sheet-for-Mac

 

The current playing field among brands and business nowadays is more focused on content marketing. It is starting to be a core marketing strategy for both consumer goods, durables, and even services. And If you are looking for help with your content marketing, from write-ups to graphic design, call us and we’ll configure how to do it for you. All you need is to click the button below or use our contact details below.

Emails: info@imanila.ph/ sales@imanila.ph/ support@imanila.ph / salessupport@imanila.ph

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

Important key board shortcuts of Photoshop CS6 – Windows

 

Graphic designing is a tough job. The process of carefully choosing the right imagery to be combined with tasteful design styles to summarize the entire idea in a single imaging takes a lot of work. This job requires a superior talent for design, substantial skills in manipulation images and design, and mastery of the editing software to produce a quality output.

However, in today’s competitive age where marketing relies mainly on quality content to effectively send the right message to the right market at the right time, efficiency in doing graphic design is the new battle ground. No matter how compelling the content is, if it was too late a hero, it is not effective anymore.

Content are now like news; they have expirations too. And usually, the expire as fast as the news. The next day, you’ll see a new trending content, and if you can speed up your content production, you’ll lose.

To make sure that your creatives can work efficiently using their well-loved Photoshop software below is a helpful cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts to cut every additional second in every click and navigation in Photoshop. By the way, this is a window’s version.

Photoshop-keyboard-shortcuts-for-windows

If you are looking for help with your content marketing, from write-ups to graphic design, call us and we’ll configure how to do it for you. All you need is to click the button below or use our contact details below.

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Emails: info@imanila.ph/ sales@imanila.ph/ support@imanila.ph / salessupport@imanila.ph

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

Remote or On-site support: Which one fits your needs?

 

Ever experienced having to call a lineup that took so long to pick-up? Or sending emails that took forever to get a response? That pretty much sums up a very bad client support. What if you are in a hurry? What if your business suddenly slows down because your machines or server’s not working? It becomes much frustrating that there’s no one to take in your call of even send you something useful and urgent? What if there’s no one who could help you get through your disastrous days in your daily business operations?  It may sound dramatic, but it happens.

Ever experienced having to call a lineup that took so long to pick-up? Or sending emails that took forever to get a response? That pretty much sums up a very bad client support. What if you are in a hurry? What if your business suddenly slows down because your machines or server’s not working? It becomes much frustrating that there’s no one to take in your call of even send you something useful and urgent? What if there’s no one who could help you get through your disastrous days in your daily business operations?  It may sound dramatic, but it happens.

In times like this, whom should you call? Definitely not the ghost busters, even if you are too much desperate to get some help. The best thing to do is to contact a reliable tech agency to keep technical and hardware matters covered. Oh, wait do you even have one?

If you don’t have one yet? The initial step is finding a reliable tech partner to help you out.

Related reading: Outsourcing Hardware Maintenance

If you are already in the middle of the talking and you feel like you have chosen a provider, the next step is to determine what kind of support you need to include in your agreement. Below are the things you need to consider to determine which one you should go for:

 

1) Remote Support

Usually, this kind of support entails less cost because the tech guys do not need to be physically present in your office. This will best serve you if you have some personnel who has knowledge in maintaining your machines but lack the mastery of doing it. Remote support has three dimensions:

 

  • Email or Chat Support

This kind of remote support users online connection to send the communication back and forth. Some client opted to go with chat support as this one provides real-time feedback.

  • Phone call support

For some clients, this kind of support works for them. They have somehow a feeling of security because they speak directly to the support person. It saves them the effort of typing and putting their concerns into writing. They can tell directly their concerns.

Thank God (and the developers) for bring TeamViewer to business. iManila, for example, uses TeamViewer in the most challenging remote support that we need to attend to. TeamViewer enables one part to access a machine who has TeamViewer too. As long as there is a stable internet connection there will be no problem.

 

2) On-site Support

In times when a client’s peace of mind relies on seeing a support specialist in the flesh, this will the next option. The process is pretty simple, the support specialist will get his/her hand on the device to diagnose and fix what is needed to be fixed in the machine.

This kind of support is the go-to option of most SMEs because of the lack of a capable personnel to grasp the step-by-step escalation. They need the support specialist to do the repair directly in the machine that needs it.

 

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Given this two situations, which support do you think your company needs? If you do, then you are now ready to seal that deal. Just make sure the frequency of the support is clearly defined in your contract terms. Some provider caps it to two (2) remote per month, and some have 1 on-site per month.

Depending on your agreement, the frequency varies and even the inclusions of the support.

If you haven’t scored any sit down meeting with any tech agencies, talk to us!

iManila is a trusted provider of both reliable hosting services and tech support service that surely covers small and medium businesses IT concerns. Our lines are open 24/7 and our sales executives are available Mondays to Fridays to assist you with your web, IT, and digital marketing queries.

Emails: info@imanila.ph / sales@imanila.ph/ support@imanila.ph / salessupport@imanila.ph

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

Why Should You Consider Outsourcing Hardware Maintenance?

 

Hardware is one of the infrastructures your company needs to spend a hefty amount on. They house all the applications, tools and data needed by your individual employee to fulfill their day-to-day tasks in the office. And hardware maintenance is also a crucial investment to make sure these infrastructures will serve its operational purpose till obsolescence. Imagine a day when a chunk of your computers shut down altogether in the most crucial day of the month – say a month-end reconciliation or board meetings?

That will be a disaster.

In this age when most corporate organization feel the tight competition, the race towards fulfilling the yearly targets seems so exhausting to all stakeholders, including your employees. And, it will be better for everyone to rely on a team that can do the job of hardware maintenance when the company is in need of it.

Forming an in-house Tech Team

It is not actually bad for you to form an in-house tech team. It is actually in your best interest that this team is on the lookout for any possible software and hardware failures in the organization. But this operational decision is not for every business.

There are those who opt to proceed with the business with even having one tech guy in the organization. Reasons are:

  • It is not their operational interest to form a team yet since the operation can barely support the entire organization.
  • Some business owners feel that tech team may do less than what the other department does since not all the time there are units to repair or server to set-up.

The is the usual mindset of the budding enterprises. And whatever operational decisions the management made isn’t questionable since the growth is the first priority.

However, a business that is growing with hardware that is aging with time, an IT personnel who will conduct hardware maintenance is a must. And if getting a person or a team to be your in-house IT is too much for your operational expenses, then outsourcing is the next best step to take.

Why outsource?

This question has become the most epic question discussed inside the board room. Management with their consultant will do roundtable discussion just to make the right decision whether the business needs to outsource or not. And if you are asking why, below are the two things that you might want to take into consideration.

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  • The truth is absolute; it is financially challenging for a small and medium business to keep an in-house team.

The financial discussion has been the roughest part of any management discussion. The entire business operation nestles on the company’s resources. Without tight budgeting, the operation will fall apart.

Keeping a regular employee could be a little burdensome for the financials. While putting him on contractual and casual status is unethical. This where you might consider outsourcing the job to a Tech agency who can do the job for a lesser cost.

  • The Average Lifespan of Machines

According to hardware.ittoolbox.com, the average lifespan of machines is around three (3) to five (5) years. With maintenance, a machine can last for five years. Well-maintained servers, on the other hand, may last for ten years. Most corporations also use this lifespan as their benchmark for forecasting the effectiveness of all machines and hardware. Below are the factors that IT department uses in predicting the lifespan:

  • Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) of the hardware
  • Increased performance demands of software (requiring more powerful systems to keep performance up)
  • Depreciation rates assigned by the accountants

If you are a company operating on aging machines, you might need to heed the advice or help of IT companies to keep your operations running.

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Do not let hardware failures ruin your day-to-day business processes. Here in iManila, we have more than a million-man hour of experience in handling hardware and software issue. Entrust your hardware maintenance with us. We have Standard and Premium packages that will surely suit not just your budget but also your needs. Talk to us!

Why Is Client Support Essential in a Hosting Service?

 

Client support, for a fact, is the core of most service-type of business for both B2B and B2C. Its importance is widely adopted and used even with consumer durables. Electronics, vehicles and even gadgets are applying the same principle to keep their product loyalists and earn more clients in the long run.

Hosting service is in any way not an exemption to this kind of business principle. Not all marketers, managers, senior executives, and directors are tech savvy. They all rely on their tech guys too. And in most cases, their tech guys are not round-the-clock ‘bots’ that can check every “bit” lurking in their information system.

There are many errors that clients cannot solve on their own.

One thing is for sure, not every difficulty can be handled well by the client. Even with IT guys around, there are times when things go out of hand and the client may feel that they’re in the dead end in some situation.

Now here are some instances which explicitly show that clients really need client support.

  • When the website’s page loading time is slow like a slug.

This is, in fact, the duty of provider to make sure that things are in the optimal condition for their website to load properly. There are some IT professionals employed by the clients who may opt not to meddle with the server so as not to jeopardize the situation further. And normally, in this kind of situation, providers need to step in to help the client.

  • Mailing difficulties related to the server.

This one is probably the most frequent thing hosting providers like iManila usually deal with daily. There are times when clients fail to monitor email activities of their employees and forgot to remind them to always clear their email trash – or to delete old emails that no longer bear importance. This could congest or bloat their current server space that may lead to some glitches with other software and/or applications hosted on the same server.

  • Hacking incident

There are gateways for hackers to intrude servers and some of those are usually available and vulnerable, to which is no fault of the hosting provider. Though this one may pose a lot of questions and arguments on both sides, hacking remains to be the top issue that needs client support.

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Let’s face it, customer support is one of the criteria that sets a great web hosting provider apart from the lousy ones. And even in the coming years, customer support will remain a vital business aspect that will continue to drive growth for businesses.

iManila is a trusted provider of both reliable hosting services and tech support service that surely covers small and medium businesses IT concerns. Our lines are open 24/7 and our sales executives are available Mondays to Fridays to assist you with your web, IT, and digital marketing queries.

Emails: info@imanila.ph / sales@imanila.ph / support@imanila.ph / salessupport@imanila.ph

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

Your Online Brand Starts with a Reliable Hosting Service

 

I heard this a lot from potential clients asking our tech support about our hosting packages. These potential clients are looking for a reliable hosting service provider. However, some of them are not quite knowledgeable. Perfect examples are those who are hesitant to know more about the hosting service they’re inquiring about. Most of them are marketing professionals believing that they need to focus more on growing the brand and creating a solid marketing strategy online. That is why they are passively asking inquiring because they simply need it – or just because they’re asked by their IT peers.

This is usually the pitfalls for some marketing executives. Not being able to understand the parameters and limitations of your hosting server usually lead to disaster.

As we always say, your brand online always starts with a reliable hosting service. And here are the reasons why.

  • Hosting server is your primary business data repository

All the information and files you upload to your website (and the website itself) are all housed inside your server. Whatever happens to your server will definitely happen to your website and your web applications such as your in-house CRM and ERP (if there are any).

Even if there are other factors affecting your website performance, your hosting server also takes a crucial in dictating its performance.

Your server’s specifications have something to do with the efficiency in retrieving data from folders in your server going to your website. Factors such as the bandwidth and processing speed have something to do with the loading time. If you are really uploading large media files such videos, you might need a better and bigger server.

Your business brand online is dependent on the content you upload online. Interactive mediums are usually bandwidth and space-hogging files. Often times, good marketing branding depends on the authenticity and creativity of the content created and uploaded on your online assets. And usually, the most effective content format these days are motion graphics and videos.

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  • Security of your hosting server says a lot about your data’s longevity

This digital age treasures, not just paper bills and bonds, but also data. Whatever we post online about our business, plus the things that we gained from it such as lead list, mailing list database, client lists, and even transaction histories are undeniably valuable business assets that should be protected.

Negligence and complacency can open doorways for hackers to get in and mess up with your valued database.

Find a hosting service provider who can give you security options to keep your peace of mind is the next best step that your company needs to do.

 

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No matter how we try to justify that hosting servers don’t matter that much in online marketing – it will always come back to haunt us just like our past mistakes. A server keeps everything visible online, it is, in fact, the foundation of all online efforts. Undermining it is like claiming to build a tower without a solid foundation.

iManila is a trusted provider of both reliable hosting services and tech support service that surely covers small and medium businesses IT concerns. Our lines are open 24/7 and our sales executives are available Mondays to Fridays to assist you with your web, IT, and digital marketing queries.

Emails: info@imanila.ph / sales@imanila.ph / support@imanila.ph / salessupport@imanila.ph

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

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