Connect with us

Guest Post

Your PreLaunch eCommerce Checklist Not to Miss

Published

on

Your PreLaunch eCommerce Checklist Not to Miss 2

Launching an eCommerce store takes way more than just having a website. It encapsulates a thorough consideration of various key elements before the launch of your website. Failing to do so cost you sales, revenues, and customer trust. 

In this post, we are going to share your essential website prelaunch checklist, you wouldn’t want to miss out on. So, without further ado, let’s get started. 

  1. Pay attention to the design of category or listing pages

Help your customers easily find the products they are looking for. A coherent eCommerce website with well-designed pages doesn’t go amiss. 

Properly designed category pages optimized for SEO allows your customers to find the product of their choice. It also speeds up the checkout process which is a critical element ensuring higher customer satisfaction. 

Designing listing pages requires you to have the following key elements: 

  • Include a quick product view. 
  • Facilitate internal linking between categories and subcategories. 
  • Show stock availability. 
  • Have filtering and sorting options in place. 
  • Display best-sellers and customer reviews for social proof. 
  1. Make sure you have an effective shopping cart page 

Another vital element on your eCommerce launch checklist is an efficacious shopping cart page. The shopping cart is an extremely important place in your eCommerce store. 

So, how do we go about creating an engaging shopping cart page? Let’s get you started by sharing these key pointers. 

  • Avoid having any hidden costs, taxes, and shipping costs. 
  • Have an attention-grabbing ‘call to action’ for clear navigation. 
  • Display product details such as the product name, size, color, pricing, and quantity for an enjoyable shopping experience. 
  • Allow customers to add/remove products and change color, size, and quantity with sheer ease. 
  1. A well-designed and conversion-oriented checkout page

Let’s face it! The checkout page is the place where cart abandonment happens the most. 

As a far-sighted business, you must ensure that the checkout process is smooth for your customers. 

There are countless eCommerce stores in the digital scape and cart abandonment is a sore point for the majority of them and clearly due to the lack of a well-designed checkout page. 

  • Have a progress bar page right from the beginning to help customers know how many steps are left to complete the buying process. 
  • Have a live chat option to provide timely support to your customers. 
  • Refrain from adding unnecessary steps and combine multiple steps if needed as it will help expedite the whole process. 
  • Have ‘checkout as a guest’ option in place. 
  1.  SEO is important 

Your eCommerce store needs to have a robust SEO strategy in place to drive conversions. It is a myth that SEO is dead and numbers vouch for the fact. 

More than 37.5 percent of eCommerce traffic comes from search engines and if you do not invest in SEO with a well-chalked-out plan, you are surely missing potential possibilities. You will be left far behind in the competition. So, here is a quick SEO cheatsheet for you. 

  • Create and submit a sitemap. 
  • Leverage schema markup to increase the click-through rate. 
  • Make sure your target keywords are included in the product descriptions and categories. 
  • Make optimum use of keywords in meta titles, descriptions, and tags. 
  • Optimize your eCommerce website for speed. 
  • Focus on creating high-quality and SEO-rich content. 
  • Get rid of duplicate content. 
  1. Harness 3rd party apps and plugins on your eCommerce store 

There are numerous useful 3rd party apps out there in the WooCommerce space and you can use them to your advantage for better customer experience and conversion rates. 

It is no exaggeration that your eCommerce launch checklist is incomplete without considering to use 3rd party apps and plugins. Some of the apps/plugins you may want to use are mentioned below – 

  • Site optimization. 
  • Apps/plugins for products and inventory management. 
  • Apps/plugins for marketing and promotion. 
  • Apps/plugins for better sales and conversion. 

Speaking of the best WordPress plugins, we would like to share two of the most trusted plugins out there in the market. The first one on the list is a WooCommerce category plugin named: 

  • Product Categories Designs for WooCommerce 
Your PreLaunch eCommerce Checklist Not to Miss 3

The plugin is loaded with 2 wonderful layouts and 10 marvelous designs for WooCommerce categories. It offers a categories grid and carousel view. 

The best of this plugin is its seamless integration with all popular page builders including DIVI, WPBakery, VC Composer, Beaver, and Elementor to name a few. 

More features: 

  • Change post order
  • Display category title and description
  • 2 shortcodes
  • Include or exclude specific categories

Another plugin on the list is a great plugin for product sliders in WooCommerce called

  • Woo Product Slider and Carousel with Category
Your PreLaunch eCommerce Checklist Not to Miss 4

Woo Product Slider and Carousel with Category is a renowned plugin that is equipped with more than 50 predesigned templates and 8 layouts. You can put several sliders on display including best-rated products, best selling products, featured products, etc. 

More features: 

  • Show product rating 
  • Display sales
  • Custom CSS editor
  • Fully responsive 
  • Multi-lingual support
  • Easy integration with famous page builders
  1. Use email marketing to your advantage

Prudent eCommerce businesses use email marketing quite deftly to their advantage and you must also include it in your WordPress website checklist. There are different types of marketing emails you should use such as – 

  • Welcome or thank you emails. 
  • Survey emails.
  • Cart abandonment emails. 
  • Order confirmation emails. 
  • Promotional offers and festive discounts. 
  1. Setting up analytics 

This is a no-brainer, to be honest. No eCommerce business can be imagined without analytics. Make sure you have set up Google and Facebook analytics without missing any key steps. 

Also, verifying checkout tracking is important for your eCommerce store. Set up a Google search console and verify your site.  

  1. Download backup of your site 

This is one of the most crucial steps you should always bear in mind. You shouldn’t take for granted even a small change you made, because you don’t want to be in a situation when you cannot revert the changes. Also, use the services of a reputed hosting provider as it always helps you a big time. Make it a point to download the backup of your staging as well as the production site. 

  1. Run a mock order test 

Perform a mock order test before you launch your website. It should include auditing the whole checkout process of the cart and order confirmation. It goes without saying that you should include all the possible steps your customers would take in a real case scenario. Add a product and increase/decrease the quantity to make sure it is working. Add products to the cart and remove them apart from applying coupon codes. 

Here it is also important to see how the product page appears when a product is out of stock. Make a test purchase by checking out the cart, of course besides checking the payment options on there. Once the mock purchase has been made, head back to the My Account section. 

  1.  Migrate your website files and DB from staging server to production 

You must be working on a staging server and now it is time to move your website files and database to the actual production server. Again, before you do this, you must take a comprehensive backup. 

  1.  Enable search engine visibility 

Enabling search engine visibility is of utmost importance if you want to be discoverable on search engines. To do this, go to your WordPress dashboard, look for settings and click ‘reading’. 

Now look for ‘Search Engine Visibility’ and uncheck the box that reads ‘Discourage search engines from indexing the site’. 

Publish changes and you are good to go. 

  1.  Install SSL certificate 

Installing an SSL certificate is quite crucial if you do not want to face issues later on. It isn’t as complicated as it might appear at first. Install the certificate and activate it and once it is done, you will be able to see a padlock on the address bar. 

Your hosting provider should be able to help you with this as well, so if you do not know how to go about it, do not fret. 

  1.   Submit your sitemap

Submitting your sitemap to search engines allows them to index your website; however, it should be done only after you are set up 301 redirects correctly. 

Submitting your sitemap is fairly an easy process and by following just a handful of steps on Google Console you should be done. 

Simply log in to your search console or create if you don’t have one already. Look for sitemaps and click on them. Submit your new sitemap and if you are using an SEO plugin such as Yoast SEO, then the link will show something like this- /sitemap_index.xml

Hit ‘Save’ and that’s it. 

 Conclusion: 

Only a future-ready eCommerce business can survive in the cut-throat competition of the contemporary eCommerce market. We have tried to make the WordPress website checklist as comprehensive as possible. If you keep the abovementioned pointers in mind, you will see boosted sales and Increased profits. 

Author Bio: 
Amisha Parmar is a content writer and SEO marketing manager at Essential Plugin, which sells a WordPress Plugin Bundle that includes front-end utility plugins. Expert Inbound Marketing Tools, Templates, and Security are required for the overall development of a WordPress website.

Guest Post

The Top 10 Best Free Android Retro Games of all time

Published

on

By

Retro games are games that usually refer to 80’s and early 90’s games that have been endeared into the heart and souls of people growing up during that time period. Back when a certain Italian Plumber dominated the game market and names like Link, Sonic, and PAC Man was on the tips of every one’s tongue. The fact that these games can be played in the palm of your hand still astounds me – these games originally came out in the arcade, and required an entire large cabinet to house the electronics just to play this game.

Why play them at all? Retro games are still played because the people that grew up with them have fond memories of playing on a lazy Saturday or Sunday with their friends. It represented the dawn of the hand held game, the beginning of an age where you didn’t have to go spend a load of quarters at the arcade to have the most awesome fun.

Ping Pong

The Top 10 Best Free Android Retro Games of all time 7

The original game. Back on the Atari 2600, this bad boy of the simplistic game world was based on a simple concept – table tennis, or ping pong, but virtually. What a bold idea, right?

PAC Man

The Top 10 Best Free Android Retro Games of all time 8

Likely the most recognizable arcade name out there, PAC Man has come in various forms – Mrs. Pac Man, Baby Pac Man, and Professor Pac Man – but the original still stands strong and proud as the original classic that released in 1980.

Frogger – The dodge the cars –

The Top 10 Best Free Android Retro Games of all time 9

And get to the other side of the road game (I wonder if this had anything to do with a chicken?) is back on Android with the Frogger ad supported version, or you can purchase the app for an ad free jumping experience.

 

Tetris

The Top 10 Best Free Android Retro Games of all time 10

Probably more spin offs from this than any other game, the Russian Computer Engineer who developed this has also gone on to create other works, including some Xbox titles, but none so influential as this puzzle masterpiece. With 20 Versions across multiple platforms, you can choose whatever you like, but we suggest Android free play.

Boulder Dash

The Top 10 Best Free Android Retro Games of all time 11

It came out the same year as Tetris, 1984, but not nearly as popular. Still, there have been 5 versions of this game since its original release date, and it seems that it will remain in our memory banks for at least a few more years to come.

Snake97

The Top 10 Best Free Android Retro Games of all time 12

We all remember the Nokia phone in the 90’s right? That all familiar ring tone? What about the game ‘Snake’ where you use the buttons of the phone to control the snake while it tries to get the stars, while avoiding hitting any walls. While it wasn’t completely high tech, few of these games rarely are.

Commander Genius aka Commander Keen

The Top 10 Best Free Android Retro Games of all time 13

This spawned a number of series (or episodes) that was favored by many in the 90’s, including episodes on the famous game boy, the earliest release of hand held gaming.

Sonic

The Top 10 Best Free Android Retro Games of all time 14

So let me get this straight, we want a hedgehog that runs really fast, collects coins, and spins around loops, and fights other animals. Sounds great! While I wouldn’t have wanted to be in that board meeting, I cannot deny the hours of fun this game will bring you. The challenges are still quite formidable, and the action is still fun.

Avid retro-gamers shouldn’t miss out on these 3 fabulous games in the LCD Retro Games Collection application that really capture the whole feels older games, back when graphics were simple and steering your character was a cakewalk. These games come in many titles, and will keep you entertained for hours so that you can relive your glory days as an 8 year old playing hand held games.

Space Invaders

The Top 10 Best Free Android Retro Games of all time 15

The classic battle to save earth from invaders from – well, space. You are armed with a laser cannon that you can move from left to right to shoot down the aliens, and go on to the next level. This was released in 1978, and still rocks today.

Overall, the best way to relive the good old days is to get a few of these free applications on your android phone – and spend an afternoon reminiscing.

Author Bio: Jason Phillips is the writer of this article. He provides his suggestion about the latest video games and technology through his articles. Even he has worked with a gaming site for Sniper Games 365 as an advisor.

Continue Reading

Guest Post

Guest Blogging Do’s and Don’ts

Published

on

By

Guest Blogging Do's and Don’ts 25In the world of Penguin, link building has become a sophisticated science. Getting links to your blog or website is harder than ever. One of the most effective ways to build solid and high quality links is through guest blogging. When done in moderation, blogging as a guest could provide a number of advantages, particularly in terms of the links you will be able to generate. However, overdoing it could make it counterproductive than getting the results you are looking for.

Yet, writing too many guest blog posts is just one of the mistakes you can make. There are many other guest blogging dos and don’ts you have to be wary of if you are to make the most of it. The interesting thing is that there are many bloggers and marketers who don’t yet gauge the importance of guest posts. In the current year, the happening trend in online marketing is content marketing. Guest blogging is one of the best ways in which you can get your content published and read by your target audience.

This is why you need to pay special attention to the choices you make when deciding to become a guest blogger. The key is to select the best possible blog or website and there are a number of criteria that can help you do so. At the same time, you have to make sure your choice of blog doesn’t end up hurting your own blog. So, without further ado, here are the dos and don’ts of guest blogging.

Dos of Guest Blogging

The first thing you need to consider when deciding to write a guest blog is the website it will be published on. There are several factors that make a website or blog a perfect fit for the type of content you want to share with the world. Here are some of the most important dos of guest blogging.

Theme of the Website

Relevance is crucial to success in online marketing today. Google pays a lot of attention to relevance and it is the name of the game as things stand. Your choice of blog has to depend on its relevance to what your website is about. This is important in terms of link building as well. A link will only be considered valid and high quality if it emerges from a website similar in theme to yours. Of course, you can be flexible regarding the theme and even subtle similarities work. This also ensures some level of reader overlap, meaning more people get to read what you post.

Ranking Factors

Ranking is also a crucial thing you need to consider when selecting a platform for a guest blog post. The two things you need to keep at the forefront are the Domain Authority and PageRank. A high score on both is imperative for a website to be considered worthy of guest posting. Otherwise, keep looking.

Guest Blogging Do's and Don’ts 26

Reader Base

You should make sure the website you are posting your content on has a large reader base. Otherwise, there is no use for you to make the effort. If your content is not going to get more people to read your content and visit your website, the endeavor is worthless. You can do this by checking the number of subscribers and also the social media activity of the blog. This way you have a clear idea of the number of readers you can expect to gain.

Frequency of Posting

Will the blog allow you to post regularly and how frequently do they expect new posts? These are important considerations. You need to know if you have enough time to keep coming up with quality content for your guest blog posts. Don’t take on a responsibility that make become very difficult to fulfill in the long run. This will only divert your attention from your own content marketing efforts.

Number of Guest Posters

This one is not commonly cited as an important tip for guest blogging but it could work to your advantage. You would benefit more from contributing to a website that has few guest bloggers. This is because your competitors will have a smaller chance of getting a link from that website. Also, it will be more lucrative.

Top 10 Blogs

Perhaps the biggest DO is that you should try your luck getting your post on one of the top 10 blogs on the web related to your niche. If you can manage to do so, you will be able to gain the maximum exposure and benefits from guest blogging. Else, you would have to work harder.

These are the dos of guest blogging you need to keep in mind. As you can see, they will enable you to select the best possible blog for posting. That is exactly what you need to do to get started off on the right foot with regards to becoming a guest blogger. It is time to look at the don’ts now.

Don’ts of Guest Blogging

Compared to the dos, the don’ts are relatively fewer. However, they can cause the downfall of your blog so make sure you pay due important to them and try to avoid them as much as possible.

 

 

Guest Blogging Do's and Don’ts 27

Free for All Blogs

There are many blogs online that accept content from anyone and everyone. They are simply looking to boost their content offering so there is no benefit for you of posting on them. You need to find blogs that are relevant to your own blog.

Ads

A blog that has a lot of ads is a strict no-no when it comes to guest blog posts. The intent is clear; they just want to make money.

Guest Blogging Do's and Don’ts 28

Web Design and User Experience

Perhaps the most obvious don’t of guest blogging is that you should stay clear of blogs that are designed poorly and offer substandard user experience. Not many people will consider spending time on such a blog.

Penalties

Simply avoid any website or blog that has been penalized in the past for any reason, especially low value links.

Contact Info

Blogs holding back their contact information are shady to say the least and should be avoided completely.

Social Media Presence

Blogs that lack a solid social media presence or have a low number of subscribers aren’t what you should be looking for to publish a guest blog post.

In addition to the don’ts mentioned here, you should also shun blogs that have a low PageRank and Domain Authority.

Keep in mind that these dos and don’ts are just the tip of iceberg. There are many other things you need to learn about guest blogging in order to become an expert. However, these will help you get started off perfectly. Best of luck!

Guest Blogging Do's and Don’ts 29Roman Viliavin, vice CEO at Promodo SEO Company.

Unconventional Thinker and candidate master of chess. Roman has been working in the field of search engine optimization since 2005 and is the moving spirit of the company. Participant and speaker of all major events in SEO business. Roman has successfully completed dozens of projects and gladly shares his experience with SEO community via articles and various online and offline publications. Follow Roman on Twitter and Facebook.

Continue Reading

Guest Post

Four Tips For Beginner Website Designers

Published

on

By

Four Tips For Beginner Website Designers 35

Four Tips For Beginner Website Designers 36

Web design is a skill that many people claim to have, but few actually know how to do well.  Web design is one of those fields where someone could easily teach it to themselves, or learn in a classroom setting. Even though it’s possible for people to teach themselves web design, most businesses and companies will hire a web design company or a freelance designer to handle building and designing their website. When you’re working with your design clients, be sure to keep these tips in mind.

Keep It Simple

Nothing makes a website run slower or look tackier than putting in a variety of different design elements. In the ’90s when people were first starting to explore the web, web designers would put as many different themes and elements in their websites as possible. There would be different frames on each page, moving gifs in nearly every corner, and there would be a different eye-catching background image for each page. When you’re designing a website, pick one central theme or element to design your website around. When you’re finished the entire site will look well planned out and put together, and not like a design nightmare.

Value A Well Done Website Over 100% Customer Input

When you’re designing a website you’re going to hear a lot of suggestions from the client, and not all of them are going to be good. When you’re working in web design, you’re going to have to deal with clients that want you to add elements that won’t mesh well with the overall design.  Some web designers adopt an attitude that the customer is always right, and they’ll give their customers everything they ask for whether it’s a good idea or not. These clients may be happy with their website in the beginning, but once complaints from their customers and employees start to come in they’ll blame you for their shoddy website. As a web designer making a good and functional website should be your top priority. Never be afraid to tell a client that their ideas may not be the best for overall website design, but also be prepared to offer good design alternatives.

Don’t Ignore Mobile and Tablet Users

When you’re working on a law firm website design, making a separate page for mobile users may seem like it should be the last thing on your mind. A few years ago making a mobile version of a website was on the bottom of every web designer’s priority list, but today it’s essential for websites to have a mobile or tablet function for their users. Today people are used to seeing mobile-friendly alternatives to regular websites, and if they can’t easily access and navigate a website on their smartphone or tablet they’ll bounce from your website.

Talk About SEO Tools

When you’re client first talks to you about their ideas for their new website some more web-savvy clients may mention SEO, but there will be some clients who won’t have a clue about what SEO is.  When you’re meeting with your client be sure to ask them if they want SEO tools.  Some clients may not know what SEO tools are, but they will want a way to monitor their website’s traffic.  Some may even assume that there is a way to automatically monitor web traffic without having to use SEO tools.  If you bring up SEO tools when you first meet with your client you’ll be able to explain what they are and ensure that there won’t be any confusion down the line.

Mike has extensive experience in designing websites and knows all of the tools and essentials to create a successful and functional website.

Continue Reading

Random Search Terms

Title

Recent Posts: Fully Net Worth . com

Danny Towers Net Worth: How Rich is the Puerto Rican Rapper?

Danny Towers Net Worth: How Rich is the Puerto Rican Rapper?

Danny Towers is an upcoming rapper who is best known for his songs “‘Motel Hell”, “Geekin”, and “Trauma”. He is currently on tour with Ski Mask The Slump God and was a good friend to late XXXTentacion. As of 2019, Danny Towers net worth is estimated to be $300,000. Danny was born on April 17, […]

Quin NFN Net Worth: How Much Money Does the Rapper Make?

Quin NFN Net Worth: How Much Money Does the Rapper Make?

Quin NFN is an emerging American rapper who has released songs such as “Talkin’ My Shit” and “Gametime Pt. 2”. He was born on January 18, 2001, in Austin, Texas, United States. As of 2019, Quin NFN net worth is estimated to be $200,000. Though Austin has been the home of some big stars in […]

Travis Hollman Net Worth- How Rich Is Stephanie Hollman’s Husband?

Travis Hollman Net Worth- How Rich Is Stephanie Hollman’s Husband?

Travis Hollman is a Businessman, innovator, and philanthropist. He is currently the President and CEO of Hollman Inc. which is a well-known company working on making sports, fitness, and office lockers. As of 2019, Travis Hollman net worth is estimated to be $20 million. His father had initially founded the company and formed the base […]

Michael Strahan Net Worth.

Michael Strahan Net Worth.

Michael Strahan Net Worth Who does not like that rigorous American Football game that makes your adrenaline take a toll even though you would be just sitting on a chair amongst the spectators?! Everyone does. The mere sight of the game is enough for people to make them sit on the edge of their seats […]

Trending