Tag: business website development

Seeing prompts to update your current software is a common occurrence. WordPress users are not exempt from this as prompts are sent via email whenever a new software update comes out. If you are not the type to frequently update your WordPress CMS, here is a quick guide on why it is vital to regularly update your WordPress version. 

Security purposes 

WordPress is known as the most popular website builder and is a familiar name to many web designers and developers not just in the Philippines but all over the world. WordPress was built by a community of developers who regularly work in ironing out the software and checking for any bugs to improve the overall performance of the site. This is the reason why WordPress plugins and features get better over time and sites are able to keep up with industry standards. 

Because more than a third of websites are powered by WordPress, it can be an easy target for hackers and data thieves. Added to this is the fact that WordPress is an open-source software, leaving it open for anyone to figure out new ways to hack into it. 

Whenever there are bugs, the web developers at WordPress work to put out an update that patches that bug so leaving your website outdated means leaving your site with security weaknesses. WordPress also comes with a wide array of plugins which can also be susceptible to hacking so updating these alongside the various themes is always a must. 

Bug fixes 

It is normal that bugs exist even with the amount of testing done by any web developer on a major update. This is why there are more incremental smaller updates to patch those issues. Even if you are not experiencing any of the said bugs, it is best to update your website nonetheless to prevent any encounter which can hamper your website. 

Website speed 

Speed is an important part of any website not just in SEO but in creating a good user experience. As web developers behind WordPress strive to always better their software, each update is intended to make WordPress run faster. 

Up-to-date on new features 

Performance is not just a goal of WordPress website developers. They also make sure to bring changes to WordPress such as through the addition of new features. These features can add to the quality of life of any person building a website in WordPress with the added improvements and accessibility to their interface. 

Staying up to date on new features also benefits anyone trying to troubleshoot WordPress website issues as support forums would often revolve around discourse using the most updated versions of the software. 

Keeping your WordPress updated 

Luckily, it is fairly easy to update your WordPress version and numerous themes and plugins. With the notification section of WordPress, you are updated for any available updates up for download. Go to Dashboard then click on Updates to install the updates and you are good to go. For those who do not frequently visit the WordPress backend, they can opt to turn on the automatic updates for major releases, minor releases (includes security updates and bug fixes), themes, and plugins. They can also turn on email notifications so that they get properly notified whenever a new update is released. 

Keeping up to date with WordPress along with its best practices can help any company make the most out of their website. Make sure you are utilizing your WordPress to the fullest for your website by partnering with a web design and web development company to help boost your overall business website’s performance. iManila specializes in business website development and design that has helped numerous companies have great websites. Connect with us and see how we can help take your website to the next level.

With 25 years of experience in the industry, iManila is committed to providing our clients with innovative digital solutions. We are a full-service website development and digital marketing company ready to help you with your web design, web and email hosting, and digital marketing needs. Inquire now and message us today!

The emergence of cloud technology has taken the world by storm and for hosting, it is no different. What exactly is the cloud and why is cloud hosting the better choice over the more traditional hosting option? We will take you through everything you need to know about cloud hosting and why you should migrate your website and emails to the cloud. 

Cloud technology 101 

Transitioning to cloud technology means moving or migrating your data, software, applications to the cloud where they can be accessed anytime and anywhere. This is a far cry from traditional means of storing your data which involve disks and drives in order to be accessed. 

The cloud has become very prominent to the point where most of the things that we interact with on a daily basis involve the cloud from storing our data online in drives, listening to music shared across multiple devices, and more. The defining characteristic of the cloud is that it is easy to access, making it extremely convenient for everybody. 

Why businesses should migrate to cloud hosting

There are many considerations for businesses to move to the cloud but one of the main reasons to do so would be to meet the ever-growing needs of customers. Companies that do not adapt to this can risk getting behind the trend and their competitors. The cloud can also help give easy solutions and offer a better environment for scaling in the future as it does not have any of the limitations traditional hosting faces. 

Benefits of cloud hosting 

• • Increased uptime of server – Hosting on the cloud can give you the maximum network uptime possible with no single point of failure. If one server is unable to take your request, any of the other servers can take its place — something that traditional hosting cannot do. 

• Better security – Cloud hosting equips businesses with an infrastructure that ensures data is secured at different levels from data, application, and physical security. Companies can rest assured that they get firewalls and backups, data isolation and storage segregation, customer identity management, and encrypted solutions. Traditional hosting lets you share your resources with other websites on the same server or get a costly private dedicated server. 

• Scalability – One of the biggest advantages of the cloud is scalability. Resources can be instantly allocated to meet the growing needs of your website. While the traditional hosting method requires physical machines which have their limits on resources, cloud hosting allows sites to add or remove resources such as storage, RAM, and bandwidth from the network of servers. 

• Backup options – Disaster recovery can be tricky with traditional hosting with just a single server. Cloud hosting is superior as they automatically back up data in their interconnected servers. 

• Cost-effective – Cloud hosting lets companies only pay for the resources that they need so there is no need to invest in any infrastructure that might not be used. This lets companies allocate their resources to more important areas. 

• Better performance – Cloud hosting benefits from the latest technology. This means that you can customize and integrate your software depending on your company’s needs. Sites hosted via cloud, in general, perform better than those hosted in a more traditional method. 

Ensure your company’s website is reaping the benefits of hosting on the cloud. Having the right kind of web hosting can help not just in your brand’s overall image but also help you achieve your business goals by having good performing and reliable business websites. iManila is a digital marketing company and one of the best web hosting providers in the Philippines with years of expertise in web hosting, email hosting, and web design and website development. Connect with us and see how we can help improve your business website today!

Do you currently have a website or are planning to create one soon for your start-up business? If so, then you’re definitely going to need cPanel! For those who are new in the online market and not familiar with this tool, cPanel is basically a popular web-based control panel that helps in your website’s management using a graphical user interface (GUI). 

Through cPanel, you can manage your website easily without the need to hire highly qualified website developers to create them for you. Moreover, compared to other website development tools, cPanel is quite easy to use and provides many beneficial features. 

With that said, however, there are still some people who tend to get confused when using cPanel. This is why the developers came up with an idea in creating a new cPanel theme, “Jupiter” which features two new main pages such as the Tools and Solutions page. Here’s a rundown of cPanel’s new features.

New Features of cPanel

The Tools Page

• Jupiter – Tools Page

To make cPanel much easier to navigate, developers thought of creating a Tools page. This is the default home page wherein all the listed cPanel’s applications have been grouped into categories. With this new update, you have the ability to click on and drag these groups to arrange them in any order. 

On the contrary, if you’re looking for additional information, all you need to do is go to the right-sidebar where General Information and Statistics panels display website and server details as well. 

• The Solutions Page

The Solutions Page was made specifically for beginners who are having trouble understanding cPanel. To help them use cPanel effectively and efficiently, the developers placed the top twenty questions users usually ask to cPanel’s Technical Support. 

Once you go to this page, all you need to do is click any of these questions and it will take you to cPanel’s public documentation to help you find a solution to your issue. However, if you haven’t found the answer you are looking for, you can also look for links, video tutorials, forums, or visit the cPanel University to know more.

Other Features To Look Out For in Jupiter!

• Guided Solutions

Due to the large number of features that cPanel offers, it is quite easy to get lost while using it. For this reason, developers are also working on creating a “Guided Solutions” feature to help those who are not familiar with using cPanel. This will introduce key features within cPanel, allowing people to deal with some of the platform’s more advanced tools.

• Customization

Another thing you definitely need to look out for this 2021 is the “Customization” feature that cPanel’s developers are working on! This tool gives hosting providers an easier way to customize color palettes and to change logos, without relying on complicated style overrides and custom CSS. Here are some examples of what’s coming next with this feature:

• Upload custom logos
• Change the color palette
• Add common questions to the help section
• Add resource links
• Link their own documentation and videos

Give cPanel a Try!

cPanel offers any person the confidence and control of running a successful online presence with its simple yet extremely powerful interface.

If you still have any questions regarding web hosting and website development or how to manage your online platform, then let us help! Here at iManila, our hosting and development solutions are engineered for powerful and reliable performance online. From shared and dedicated hosting to web design and development, you can rely on our solutions whenever or wherever. Connect with us and see how we can help improve your website. 

For other technical support issues, visit our Help Center available 24/7 at https://imanila.ph/help/.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! If you’re in the retail business, the Christmas season has always traditionally been the best time to boost your sales. Not only is Christmas usually the time of the year for consumer spending, but it’s also the time when consumers feel the most generous.

If you’re looking for ways to sell your product or services during this time of year, then you’re in the right place! Here in this blog, we will be providing you with several ways to boost your holiday marketing:

Give discounts and coupons

One of the best ways to attract customers during the BER months is by providing them with irresistible offers. So, make sure to think about what your offer will be and how you want to relay the message to the people. Some examples of the discounts and coupons that you can use include:

• Free shipping
• 50% off
• 20% Cashback
• Freebies
• Limited time offers
• Mega sale (10.10, 11.11, 12.12)

Provide them with a solution

While selling your product may be the main objective, it is important to market your product by means of showing consumers the kind of solution your product can provide. This will help establish trust and eventually help you gain loyal customers in the long run. For this reason, we recommend understanding how you can offer tips and tricks that will simplify the daily life of your customers, or offer a solution to their problems. Some examples you can try include:

• For toy stores, you can write a blog about “Ten skills your child learns while playing board games with their friends.” 
• For fitness establishments, you can write a blog on “How to maintain your weight during the holiday season”. 
• On the contrary, if you own a coffee shop, you can write about “How to add a little holiday twist to your latte at home”.

Choose your platform

The most important thing you need to remember is that you cannot advertise your brand anywhere online since it requires you to pay tons of money. This is why if you’re on a budget, you need to pick your platform wisely. 

Regardless if it’s print or online, you need to assess where your customers usually spend their time and promote there. At the end of the day, it all really depends on your industry and the location of your target customers.  Here are some examples you can try:

• If your business is inside the mall, it may help to target your ads to people who frequently visit that mall or live nearby. You can advertise using Facebook ads and use the mall as a point of interest as well.
• Additionally, if you are a fashion brand that has a physical store but also sells online, you can offer special online-only sales via email marketing, social media marketing, or SMS advertisements.

Know your target market

If you’re planning to sell your products or services online, it is important to take into account customers that are interested in what you’re offering. To gain revenue during this time of year, make sure to ask these questions to yourself:

• Who do I want to sell my products and services to? 
• Are the buyers composed of office workers or civilians who are simply looking for something that can help them during this season?
• What are companies looking for during the BER months?
• Which age group fits our products/services?

Change your branding and design

You may not be aware of this, but people actually tend to be more visual than text-based. This is why you always need to make sure that your design incorporates a great high-quality photo that will go with your message. 

Since it is the Christmas season, we recommend incorporating marketing materials that look festive while still retaining your branding aesthetic and accents. Moreover, if you want to go the extra mile to advertise your brand, you can also create limited editions of your products that incorporate the Christmas theme. Keep in mind that it is up to your branding aesthetic to see what fits well with your current design.

Happy BER months everyone!

Christmas is just around the corner, so it is important to always be prepared and ahead of your competitors. What are you waiting for? Make the best out of this season by planning early and offering something irresistible to your consumers today!

Here at iManila, we create various digital marketing strategies that can support your business objectives – whether that means driving awareness, generating leads, or increasing sales.

With 25 years of experience in the industry, iManila is committed to providing our clients with innovative digital solutions. We are a full-service website development and digital marketing agency ready to help you with your web design, hosting, and digital marketing needs. Inquire now and message us today!

These days, there are numerous ways to reach your customers through digital marketing. However, one of the most direct methods is through email marketing. Running email marketing campaigns has its own challenges but when done correctly, can give you the most loyal followers which may prove to be income-generating for your organization. Below we’ve outlined some email marketing tips digital marketers should know in order to add to their marketing arsenal and in order to create meaningful and well-converting campaigns.

Have a Good Call-to-Action Button

At the heart of every email is the call-to-action (CTA) button. The goal is to get customers to open and click your email in order to generate traffic to your landing page. Multiple CTAs can be a detriment and confuse readers from the real message that you are getting across, so having a singular powerful CTA can help drive better traffic to your website. 

A good email is one that guides the readers to eventually click on the CTA, teasing the different benefits of going to your landing page. Make sure that the message you are displaying in your email is the same as what is displayed on your landing page. Having a corresponding message can help make whatever you are offering more resonant to your readers. 

Encourage replies through a strong subject line and personalization 

Marketing today is more engaging than ever. Emails are not exempt from this as they can also be the starting point of conversation between a potential customer. You can encourage this by starting off with a strong and enticing subject line. What are you promising your reader? How can you make your email stand out in your reader’s inbox? 

Refrain from sounding robotic and impersonal. Much of effective marketing relies on that connection that you make with your potential customer. Try to personalize your email and make it sound like it is coming from a real person and work on your tone of voice. Personalization also matters in the content of your email, catering the message and content to what your segment or demographic may find most appealing. Are you using the tools that let you use your reader’s name? Are you sending out emails at the most optimal times? These are all personalization considerations for your email marketing strategy. 

Send test emails 

Think of this step as a way of proofreading your email before you send it to your actual recipients. Use this time to ensure everything is in order. Do they look the same way? Are they working across various email platforms? Is it optimized for mobile users? These are things you can check when sending test emails in order to make sure the actual email is at its best. 

Monitor analytics 

In order to gauge the effectiveness of a campaign, you turn to what the data says. These can bring a lot of insights to your campaign. For those using Google Analytics in their websites, you can integrate your data by tagging your emails with the campaign codes, giving you more insight into how visitors are getting to your landing page. Here are some of the most important metrics in email marketing: 

• Open rate – How many people open your email versus those that receive it. This tells you whether your subject line is enough to draw their attention. 
• Click rate – How many people actually clicked on your links or CTA versus those that opened it. This tells you if your content is compelling enough for readers to take the next step into your landing page. 
• Unsubscribe rate – This tells you if your message is resonating with your audience. High rates can mean that your mailing list could be the wrong target market. 

Despite having been one of the older channels of marketing, email marketing has continued to evolve with the trends. Creating meaningful engagement with customers is key to building that trust with them and turning them into customers. If you are looking to grow your business through email marketing, working alongside a digital marketing company can help bridge that gap faster. iManila is a digital marketing agency in the Philippines that is dedicated to helping businesses achieve their goals through their marketing expertise. 

Schedule a consultation with us and see how we can work together.

With 25 years of experience in the industry, iManila is committed to providing our clients with innovative digital solutions. We are a full-service website development and digital marketing agency ready to help you with your web design, hosting, and digital marketing needs. Inquire now and message us today!

Ask any successful business owner and they’ll tell you that they have been running their business towards a main objective using a variety of strategies to promote their brand and grow their business whether it’s through traditional marketing techniques or by doing their marketing strategies online. 

When it comes to online though, there are a variety of platforms and strategies that are available for your business. These days, many businesses run social media marketing campaigns through Facebook or Instagram, while others utilize search engine marketing or Google and YouTube ads. Others prefer to go the more traditional route of search engine optimization, while others prefer to target specific clients through email marketing. Whatever your strategy or objectives may be, in this article, we’ll lay out the top reasons why, regardless of what stage your company is in the growth process, your business needs a digital marketing strategy to grow and succeed. 

• To make sure your business is in the right direction. 

Without a digital marketing strategy, companies often fail to define their strategic goals to gain new customers or to strengthen relationships with existing customers. You won’t be able to accomplish your goals without any goals in mind. Thus, you won’t achieve the success you desire. 

Ideally, you should outline what you’re trying to accomplish through digital marketing for your business. Be clear as to why you’re investing money and resources in it. By setting goals, you can map out your path.  

It is impossible to allocate capital and resources correctly without a goal. In addition to your appointed resources being directionless, all your money and efforts would be wasted.

• To stay one step ahead of your new and old competitors. 

A good marketing strategy can give you a competitive advantage.  Invest enough resources in digital marketing. By not doing so, you will lose ground to your competitors. However, you shouldn’t rely on just any random approach, instead, your strategies have to be clear. 

There is more to marketing than promoting your products and services or increasing your company’s exposure. Creating your brand also means defining what your business represents and why your target market would want to be your customers. A good full-service digital marketing agency can do this work for you. 

• To identify your target market.

On the online platform, we can’t satisfy all types of people. With that said however, there are still some individuals who are most likely to become a long-term customer. This is why having a digital marketing plan is important for your business.

By assessing your target market strategically, you will be able to know their desires and show them how your product or service will meet their needs, and solve their problems in the process.

If everything we mentioned seems to be necessary for your business and you don’t know where to begin – let a digital marketing agency such as iManila help get you ahead of the game. 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 digital marketing strategy! Contact us now to learn more!

Web hosting is the most underappreciated part of the World Wide Web. Some people might not realize it, but every website actually involves hosting so that users can access it. 

Websites are hosted on servers. Servers are powerful computers that store and process data, and web servers are those which store the files that make up websites and process requests to view these files.

Web hosting is an invisible yet essential element of the online experience. So, If you care about your website, it is important for you to make sure that your online site is in good hands. In this blog we’ll share with you some web hosting tips that you and your IT team should know.

There’s a huge gap between the different types of hosting. 

If you’ve spent any amount of time on a web host‘s website, you’ve probably seen terms like shared hosting, VPS, dedicated server, cloud hosting and WordPress hosting. They represent the different web hosting types, but not every web host provider offers them all. Plus, the hosting types differ from one another in significant ways. Take a look at some of the various servers below:

• Shared hosting

The cheapest form of web hosting is shared hosting. This hosting basically lets your website share a server and server resources with other websites. This level of hosting is really best suited for small sites that don’t need a huge amount of bandwidth. Since you are sharing resources with other sites, you should be prepared for the occasional slowdown should one of your site-mates start attracting a lot of visitors.

•  VPS hosting

VPS hosting is most likely a high-powered version of shared hosting, except that far fewer websites share a server’s resources, which are also a bit more segregated. In effect, VPS hosting is usually more expensive than shared hosting.

• Dedicated hosting

Compared to other hosting servers, dedicated hosting basically refers to an Internet hosting option in which a physical server (or servers) is focused on a single business customer. With this type of hosting, customers have complete control over the machine, so they can optimize it for their unique requirements, including performance and security.

• WordPress hosting

WordPress hosting lets you build a site in an environment that caters to the world’s most popular content management system. 

• Cloud hosting

Cloud servers are the newest type of hosting and the most popular among the websites today. With its latest developments, it lets you easily scale website power across multiple servers, though not every web hosting provider currently offers this as it is a new technology. 

Domain and hosting are not the same thing. 

Right from the start, you need to find a dependable and trustworthy registrar. Domain names don’t have to be registered at the same company.

Ultimately, domain name is the most expensive and irreplaceable asset, as it is your online identity, while hosting services are just there to accommodate the website. Most web-hosting providers would prefer to have your domain registered with them, as it is their other profitable revenue stream. However, it won’t be that convenient if the web hosting company decides to go down together with your domain. At the same time,if you are able to manage your domain and hosting across separate vendors or providers – then by all means do. The bottomline is you should always purchase your domain and hosting from a company that can provide you the proper support you need – including reminders to tell you that your domain is due for renewal! 

Know your hosting’s bandwidth and disk space. 

Bandwidth and data transfer are frequently used interchangeably to define the amount of data that your website serves to visitors, but the terms, technically, do not have the same definitions. Bandwidth represents the total amount of data that can be transferred at one time, while data transfer is the throughput or the actual amount of information that can be used over a given period of time.

Most websites won’t go past their bandwidth quota by high traffic alone, but if you have some files for download on your website, remember that it can possibly happen.

Don’t fall for “unlimited” storage! 

​​Web hosts will entice you to sign up for their web hosting plans with the promise of unlimited storage or monthly data transfers. Unlimited Storage seems like a great offer doesn’t it? RULE OF THUMB: Don’t believe it because it’s not an honest deal. Unfortunately many web hosting companies will tell you this with the knowledge that you probably won’t read the entire details of the server that you purchased. 

If you have ever studied the Terms of Service or Service Level Agreement of your web hosting service thoroughly, you will surely see a section about its CPU/Server Usage. We’re almost sure that there’s a limit stated there (as there is always a limit for everything in life!) in which case your hosting is not “unlimited”. 

This only means that if your website uses more than a certain amount of storage, it violates the Terms of Service and will be subject to termination. Of course, it is necessary for just about every hosting service to have something like that in their Terms of Service to protect resources on their servers from improper usages. However, many web-hosting providers are using the CPU/Server Usage to get around their Unlimited Storage promises. Bottom line is to make sure to read the Terms of Service thoroughly to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. 

With 25 years of experience in the IT industry and as one of the first Internet Service Providers in the Philippines – and a Tech Company at heart, iManila has the skills and the experience to help you with your online presence whether it be through website or email hosting, website design and development, applications development, technical support or digital marketing. We have a variety of hosting packages that are available to suit your needs. For more information, you can check out our Shared Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Business Cloud Hosting, WordPress Hosting and Dedicated Hosting services. Contact us and we can help you identify the best hosting package for your business needs.

Having a visually striking and aesthetically pleasing website is always a must when creating one for your business. While having strong messaging in your website can help conversions, it is often the visual and functional aspect of it that convinces viewers to stay a little bit longer scrolling through your pages. This is where a great website design comes into play, as a website’s design helps it to be more appealing and functional to its viewers. For new website owners who may not know where to start, we have rounded up important key factors to consider when designing a website. 

Design with an audience in mind

Your target audience will be the ones who will get to experience your website first hand. This is why it is important to think on their terms. Here is where you think about their pain points, what they are looking for to address those, questions and queries they might have, and an idea of their buying habits. These are just some of the information you can consider that can help you define your audience better and help give you a clearer picture of what your website should look like. 

Balance of form and function

Having the best looking website is always a must, but if it sacrifices speed of loading time and ease of navigation, then the design would be pointless. Add just the right amount of visuals to keep loading time short and play with options when it comes to the color scheme and layout to match your brand’s personality and help you stand out from your competition. 

Good design must also be very functional and since this is a website with many different pages, it must be easily navigatable by first-time users. Ensure that the most relevant information would be seen easily by viewers. Keep in mind that since the average viewer has a limited attention span, that they should be able to see the most important parts of the site. This is where hierarchy comes into play because adding all information in one place can be very confusing for website visitors. 

Create call-to-action buttons

One of the most important aspects of navigation in your website is a clear and distinguishable call-to-action. This is the best way to turn website visitors into actual leads and to potentially make a sale. Placing the call-to-action buttons in key locations in your website can be the push that your visitors need to make that purchase. Call-to-action buttons can range anywhere from: sign up, learn more, buy now, get a quote, contact us and more. 

Link your social media pages

In building brand awareness today, it is not enough to just utilize one channel. Make the most out of the website by also linking your other social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Websites are more informational so giving the visitors a chance to visit your other channels through social media platforms, allowing for two-way interaction between businesses and customers. Doing so is a great way to create another channel of communication with your users and consumers. The key is to create as many touchpoints with your customers and leave a lasting impression. 

Keep it SEO-friendly

It is not enough to just have a website. Having one that is SEO friendly is a huge step in being more visible to your visitors. Search engines like Google place a huge value on how SEO friendly a website is when it comes to how it ranks websites on its search engine results pages. 

Things like ensuring your website text has the right and relevant keywords you are targeting, adding alt text to images, and aligning your meta titles and descriptions according to best practice all point towards good SEO. Related to SEO is building great quality content, so building your website with good and direct-to-the-point content in mind would be most ideal in getting the most out of the traffic. 

At the end of the day, websites are there to generate web traffic for your business and turn them into customers. Having great web design is just one of the ways that you can help achieve this goal. What better way to start than by having experts create a compelling and unique website design for your business. 

With 25 years of experience in the industry, iManila is committed to providing our clients with innovative digital solutions. We are a full-service website development and digital marketing agency ready to help you with your web design, hosting, and digital marketing needs. See what iManila can do for your business today!