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Category: Our Ideas

Is WordPress Still Secure?

 

It is not a secret to anyone that 26% of the world’s website population is powered by WordPress, and 60% of the entire global count runs on WordPress CMS. This has clearly revealed that WordPress has a wider reach over the net. It is a big global community that is continuously growing – an unstoppable force the powers more than ¼ of the entire internet. However, with this large user-base, it is also undeniable that it attracts the attention of the hackers – making WordPress websites prone to hacking incidents.

Now the question that website owners ask is, is WordPress still secure?

The answer is YES.

Surely most people will disagree but WordPress is still secured – diligence is the key for this.

What Constitute WordPress?

There are three elements of WordPress namely: the core code which makes up the WordPress install, the themes which determine how sites look and how it will function, and plugins which are small applications that extend WordPress in interesting ways.

What Causes Hacking Incidents?

Via WordPress.org, themes and plugins are made available from many other sources, that at some point, may even come from unscrupulous hackers who get their hands on commercial themes and embedded malware in them. The worse thing in this scheme is that these themes and plugins are given away online to people willing to get them for free. And that is where the threat lies. Because of the enormous size of the WordPress installed base and the complexity of its ecosystem, vulnerabilities could be just lying in a corner waiting for malicious activities to find them.

Why do We say It is Secured?

The core is maintained by a large group of volunteers who are incredibly good at their craft. These are coders and developers who secured the community by updating the system’s codes, themes and even plugins from vulnerabilities every now and then.

Like with app stores, WordPress sources take some measurable care in what is listed for users to use. Though there may have been unscrupulous themes on the internet, it is still safer to get from the main community. Themes on WordPress.org go through a testing process and plugins go through an initial vetting before they’re first allowed to be posted.

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Is WordPress Still Trustworthy?

According to ZDNet.com, WordPress is still trustworthy. However, if you would really like to make the most out of your site and keep is secured, there are still caveats that go with using WordPress.

  • If you are not keen or well versed with web maintenance, you might want to have it hosted via WordPress.com.
  • If you opt for freedom in customizing your website but couldn’t do web maintenance, you can hire someone who can maintain the website professionally, and who will update it regularly from themes to plugins.
  • As much as possible, refrain from downloading commercial plugins or themes from sketchy source especially those which you can get for free.
  • If you customized your WordPress with WordPress.org, you also need to make sure that you are hosting your website securely with a trusted hosting server.

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Despite the issues about the security of WordPress, it is still undeniable that it is probably one of the best platforms for website available. Again, all it takes to secure your WordPress is diligence or trusting service providers who specialize in creating WordPress-based websites.

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: [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]

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

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

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: [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]

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: [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]

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

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

 

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: [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]

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

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

 

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