Why Should Every Website Start With a Coming Soon Page?

Starting a website isn’t easy. Whether you’re going for your first site or have several under your wing already, getting started with a new project may be exhausting. Beginners have it harder, that’s for sure because they still have a lot to learn and a lot of tools to find. But even professionals take time from the idea to the end result both they and the clients will be happy with. Even if you are developing locally, the chances are that you have already registered the domain or at least have that on the checklist. But instead of having an empty page shown to random users who end up on the site or postponing the registration process, you can start working on the marketing of your new site. That’s where coming soon pages come in handy.
What is a coming soon page?
Coming soon page is a simple landing page which entire purpose is to capture the attention of the first visitors. This simple page usually contains as little information as possible. It should tell website visitors that “the real” website is still in the workshop and should show that you care about those first visits.
What’s great about coming soon pages is that it’s a great
Source: https://managewp.org/articles/18409/why-should-every-website-start-with-a-coming-soon-page

source https://williechiu40.wordpress.com/2019/03/01/why-should-every-website-start-with-a-coming-soon-page-2/

6 Crucial Tips When Designing a High-Converting Website Or Blog

TABLE OF CONTENTS Many times marketers focus all their efforts on SEO to rank higher, building a social media presence to broaden their reach, and creating lead magnets to build their email list.
Because of this, they tend to neglect one of the most crucial aspects of growing a business — converting their audience into paying customers.
A highly converting website is how you become successful.
Highly Converting Website
After all, if no one subscribes, you can’t market your brand and encourage people to buy. And if you can’t get people to buy, you won’t make any money.
If you want people to take action on your website, whether it be to read your blog, subscribe to your email list, or purchase a product, invest some time into your website’s design.
Since 94% of people’s first impressions are formed based on design, it’s a good idea to follow these web design best practices if you’re looking to create a high-converting website.
Besides the fact that 40% of people will abandon your site immediately if it fails to load within 3 seconds or less, studies show that even a 1-second delay in site speed can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.
Source: https://managewp.org/articles/18408/6-crucial-tips-when-designing-a-high-converting-website-or-blog

source https://williechiu40.wordpress.com/2019/03/01/6-crucial-tips-when-designing-a-high-converting-website-or-blog/

YouTube + child safety: Is the service doing enough?

It has been a challenging month for YouTube.

As we recently reported, fresh concerns over child safety on the service came to light back on 17^th February.

In a video published to the site, vlogger Matt Watson details how the service is being exploited by paedophiles who were using comment sections under innocuous videos of children to leave sexually provocative messages, to communicate with each other, and to link out to child pornography.

Of course, journalists and news sites were quick to level criticism at YouTube. Many pointed out that this wasn’t the first time child safety on the service has been called into question. Others were critical that its methods for safeguarding children were too ‘whack-a-mole’ in their approach.

And then came the actions of the advertisers – with Nestle, AT&T and Epic Games (creator of Fortnite) all pulling their ads from the service.

So how has YouTube responded? Is it doing enough?

Memo directly sent to advertisers

On 20^th February YouTube sent out a memo to brands advertising on the service.

It detailed the ‘immediate actions’ it was taking to ensure children are safe in light of the recent allegations from Watson. These included suspending comments and reporting accounts to the NCMEC.

The memo reiterated that child safety is YouTube’s No. 1 priority, but also admitted there was more work to be done.

It laid out a roadmap of tweaks and improvements, including better improving the service’s ability to find predatory comments (set to be implemented this month) and potentially changing how ads are placed on channels.

Changes to Community Guidelines strikes system – are these related?

In a potentially related move, YouTube also announced via a recent blog post that it was going to make changes to its Community Guidelines.

The changes – which came into force on 25^th February – include a warning for users the first time their content crosses the line.

YouTube says: ‘Although the content will be removed, there will be no other penalty on the channel. There will be only one warning and unlike strikes, the warning will not reset after 90 days.’

The ‘three strike’ system still exists but is stricter and more straightforward. Now a first strike results in a one-week freeze on the ability to upload any new content to the service. Previously, first strikes just resulted in a freeze on live-streaming.

A second strike in any 90-day period will result in a two-week freeze on the ability to upload any new content. Ultimately, a third strike in any 90-day period will result in channel termination.

That YouTube has taken this opportunity to address its creator community directly is interesting.

The Guardian has reported that the fallout from Watson’s video resulted in a number of prominent YouTube users criticizing him, rather than the service. Their reasoning was that it was overreactive and a deliberate attempt to drive advertisers away.

Additionally, a report at ABC News shed light on stories from creators who have been the victims of false claims and extortion attempts by bad actors who promise to remove strikes only after they’ve received payment via PayPal or BitCoin.

With this in mind, we can see that YouTube have been quite diplomatic in how they’ve rolled this Community Guideline change out. Imposing stricter penalties against a backdrop of better transparency and simpler rules is quite laudable.

Further questions over safety since

In the wake of Watson’s video, further news stories have emerged which relate directly and indirectly to child safety on YouTube.

On 24^th February, pediatrician Free Hess exposed that some children’s videos available on YouTube Kids had hidden footage detailing how to commit suicide spliced into them (as reported at The Washington Post).

Additionally, on 25^th February the BBC reported that the service was stopping adverts being shown on channels which showed anti-vaccination content.

And the past couple days, widespread internet concern has raged over “The Momo Challenge,” a supposed challenge encouraging minors to do dangerous / potentially self-harming acts.

However, this morning The Atlantic reported that this has been a digital hoax. And that it has followed similar cycles as the so-called Blue Whale challenge, teens eating toxic Tide Pods, and the cinnamon challenge — all of which were found to have no reported deaths/injuries associated.

And yesterday, YouTube tweeted this:

We want to clear something up regarding the Momo Challenge: We’ve seen no recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube. Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges are against our policies.

— YouTube (@YouTube) February 27, 2019

The company has also just updated their Creator Blog with a post titled, “More updates on our actions related to the safety of minors on YouTube.”

In it, they summarize “the main steps we’ve taken to improve child safety on YouTube since our update last Friday.”

These steps include:

1. Disabling comments on videos featuring minors
2. Launching a new comments classifier
3. Taking action on creators who cause egregious harm to the community

It does seem that they are moving quickly to remedy the problems. But I think anyone would agree — they’ve had quite the month.

So the challenge is certainly ongoing…

All this does highlight the difficulty YouTube has in keeping all its millions of viewers, creators, and advertisers safe and happy.

We know the service is constantly updating its algorithm across its search function and its recommendations in order to give users better – more trustworthy – content.

We can also be quite sure that there has been a fair amount of activity in protecting minors on the service since 2017 when unsuitable content featuring Disney and Marvel characters was being found to be available on YouTube Kids. This timeframe is in line with the aforementioned memo which assures that the service has been working hard to improve in this regard for the past 18 months.

I’m not sure it’s entirely fair, then, to call YouTube’s approach to safeguarding children a ‘whack-a-mole approach’ or one which only sees the site take action when the instances gain media attention.

The sheer amount of content and users on the service is so massive, it depends on the community to produce the content and – at times – to monitor how it is used. In this instance, a user flagged an issue up and YouTube worked very quickly indeed. The service is always improving. But changes, tweaks, and improvements are not always newsworthy. The same can be said for Google.

Yes, there is more to be done. As online video continues to boom and the creator community continues to grow, we can expect issues to arise.

But I think it is unlikely that YouTube wouldn’t be proactive here. After all, its very existence depends on having great videos, trustworthy content, a safe community of users who are having a positive experience on the site, and an ecosystem where advertisers want to be.

The post YouTube + child safety: Is the service doing enough? appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

source https://searchenginewatch.com/2019/02/28/youtube-child-safety-service-doing-enough/

How to dominate Google News search in 2019

A few weeks ago, Google published a blog post on its webmaster blog sharing some tips on how to get more success in Google News search in 2019. 

2019 will be a hard fight against fake news as fake news outlets are increasing with time. Along with some social media platforms, Google is also responsible for the spreading of fake and misleading news. If you are running a clickbait rich site with a lot of crappy content, you may encounter Google’s punishment this year.

Generally, Google looks at these five factors when ranking news articles:

• Freshness
• Diversity
• Rich textual content
• Originality of content
• User preferences for topics or publishers

To succeed in 2019 your news content should be original, authoritative, and should provide timely news information.

Six important tips for news content

1. Articles’ headlines should be clear. Keep it in the H1 tag. Headlines should be a minimum of 10 characters, between two and 22 words.
2. Use proper time and date. Show clear and visible time and date below the title and above the article. Use structured data.
3. Be transparent in your content. Fake news is a major problem on the internet, especially from the last American presidential election. Google will try to scan out fake news content in 2019. Best practice for this time is to create a very user-friendly site, not something crappy with lots of pop-ups and ads. Add detailed information, mention sources, make it authoritative.
4. Don’t be deceptive in your content. Don’t mislead. Misleading information in the content can ban you from Google.
5. Secure your website’s every page with HTTPS. A website that uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)  confirms a secure connection between the browser and user. It protects users’ sensitive information. For a news site, it is a very good search signal.
6. Don’t participate in link spam to increase your ranking. Don’t buy links.

The five ‘w’s

To write your news content, you can use this popular news writing formula. Ask yourself the five ‘w’ questions and answer them all in your first paragraph of news content. The main aim is to provide a lot of information in the first paragraph.

Internet readers have a small attention span and most people scan the content, instead of line by line reading. This is especially true for news.

Write your first paragraph answering these questions.

1. Who?
2. What?
3. Where?
4. When?
5. Why?

Use proper nouns in the headline

Generic nouns will not get as much attention as proper nouns in Google search. Use proper names of brands, organizations or of people related to your news in the headlines. If you can creatively use proper names where other news outlets are not, you will get a huge advantage in the Google News search.

Graphics, images and video content

Use graphics, images, and videos on your news content to explain your news or to provide more information. Google loves this. With engaging videos and graphics, you can attract more readers, and make your content more shareable.

But before sharing your multimedia follow the guidelines of Google.

Beware the sensational, exceptional, negative, and current (SENC)

SENC is sensational, exceptional, negative, and current events, which is a general definition of current news. But, if you follow this definition to produce your news, they will not be authentic or convey real helpful information.

Shocking, scandalous things can be viral, but these types of sensational news should not be your priority.

If you prioritize only exceptional things, your content will become misleading.

Current news is full of recency bias. The present most recent things, without much in-depth and background information. But every recent event has a root in something old and slow systematic change. In your news content, you should present the actual root cause as much as possible to make the content more authoritative. It will earn you good links and build your brand.

Your news should be foundational not sensational.

On publishing breaking news, you should not be in a hurry to publish it faster than your competitors. Instead, before publishing the content, ask yourself what new information your article will provide that is not found elsewhere.

Pay less attention to CTR, dwell time, and other UX signals on the landing page

According to recent AMA of Gary Illyes, Google webmaster trends analyst:

“RankBrain is a PR-sexy machine learning ranking component that uses historical search data to predict what would a user most likely click on for a previously unseen query. It is a really cool piece of engineering that saved our butts countless times whenever traditional algos were like, e.g. “Oh look a ‘not’ in the query string! Let’s ignore the hell out of it!”, but it’s generally just relying on (sometimes) months’ old data about what happened on the results page itself, not on the landing page. Dwell time, CTR, whatever Fishkin’s new theory is, those are generally made up crap. Search is much more simple than people think.”

This thread from a couple weeks ago caused quite a stir. Perhaps we distract ourselves too much from the “simplicity” of what is actually search?

Ps — what are your thoughts on RankBrain and UX? Leave a comment below!

Muradul Islam is a Business Analyst at WeDevs. He can be found on Twitter @muradt20.

The post How to dominate Google News search in 2019 appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

source https://searchenginewatch.com/2019/02/28/dominate-google-news-search-in-2019/

How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress for Beginners

Do you want to install Google Analytics in WordPress? Knowing how your audience interacts with your website is crucial for your success.

The best way to know your audience is through your traffic stats, and this is what Google Analytics provides for FREE.

In this article, we will share why Google Analytics is important, and how you can easily install Google Analytics in your WordPress website (step by step).

First, we will explain why Google Analytics is important and how it can help you grow your website.

After that, we will show you how to sign up for a Google Analytics account and different methods to install it on your WordPress site.

Finally, we will explain how to view your traffic reports in Google Analytics.

Here is a quick overview of what you’ll learn in this article.

• Why is Google Analytics Important
• How to Sign up with Google Analytics
• How to Install Google Analytics Using MonsterInsights (Recommended)
• How to Install Google Analytics Using Insert Headers & Footers Plugin
• How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress Theme (Advanced)
• Viewing Reports in Google Analytics
• Making the Most out of Google Analytics

• Ready let’s get started.

  Why is Google Analytics Important for Bloggers?

  Once you start a blog, your #1 goal is to get more traffic and subscribers. Google Analytics help you make data-driven decisions by showing you the stats that matter. You can see:

  Who visits your website?

  This part of analytics answers what is the geographical location of your audience, which browser did the user use to visit your site and other important information such as screen resolution, JavaScript support, Flash support, language and more.

  This data is extremely useful, and it can help in numerous ways. When getting a custom design, you can use the user data to make sure that your site will be compatible with your audience.

  If most of your users don’t have Flash support, then you should avoid adding the flash element in your site. If most of your users are on 1280 screen resolutions, then make sure that your design is compatible with that resolution or smaller.

  What do people do when they are on your website?

  You can track where the users are going on your website, how long do they stay on your website, and what is the bounce rate (the percent of users exit your site on the first visit).

  By using this information, you can decrease the bounce rate and increase your pageviews.

  You can also find your most popular articles, articles that are not doing so well, and what kind of content your users are looking for.

  When do people visit your website?

  By looking at the hottest hours in the day for your site, you can pick the time when you publish your post. If that time zone is not compatible with yours, then you can schedule your post to meet that hour.

  How do people find your website?

  This section of the analytics shows you where did the users come from (for example: Search Engines, Direct Links, Referral links from another site).

  It also shows you what percentage of your visitors came from each of these sources. Google analytics gives you the breakdown of each of these categories. If it is the search engine category, then it shows you which search engine got you the most traffic, Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.

  The breakdown of referral sources shows you which sites you need to work with the most. If your top referral source is Facebook, then you need to have exclusive Facebook content to make your Facebook audience feel special.

  If your top referral source is an external website, then you might want to consider having a partnership with that website (guest post exchange or something else).

  How do people interact with your content?

  Google analytics shows how your users interact with your site’s content. It shows you what percent of the user clicked on which link on your site and much more.

  You can run A/B split tests by creating content experiments in Google Analytics to understand what works best to meet your goals.

  By seeing the user interactivity, you can work your content around your users. By seeing the answers to the questions above, you can focus on the strategies that work for your site and avoid strategies that don’t work.

  Simply put, eliminate the guesswork and focus on stats that matter, so you can make data driven-decisions.

  How to Signup with Google Analytics

  Google Analytics is available for free and all you need is a Google or Gmail account to sign up. The sign up process is quite simple, follow the step by step instructions below to create your Google Analytics account.

  Step 1: First you need to visit Google Analytics sign up.

  You will be asked to login with your Google account. If you already have a Google or Gmail account, then you can use that to sign-in. Otherwise, you can go ahead and create a Google account for yourself.

  

  Step 2: Once you sign-in with your Gmail account, you will be prompted to a screen like the one below. This is where you will signup for Google analytics with your Gmail account.

  

  Step 3: On the next screen, you will be given choice to choose between a website or mobile app. Make sure you select website.

  After that, you need to enter account name (It will be the Google Analytics profile name for this website), Website name, website’s URL, country, and the time zone.

  

  Once you have entered this information, click on the Get Tracking ID button. You will be presented with Google Analytics terms and service which you must agree to, so click on ‘I Agree’ button.

  Step 4: Now you will be presented with your Google Analytics tracking code. You can copy this tracking code because you will need to enter it in your WordPress site depending on the method you use below.

  

  We suggest leaving the analytics browser tab open as you may need to revisit it, once you have installed the code on your WordPress site.

  Now that you have setup a Google Analytics account, lets take a look at how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

  How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress

  There are a few different ways to setup Google Analytics in WordPress. We will show you three methods where the first option is the easiest and the last being the hardest.

  You can choose the one that best suits your needs.

  1. Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights

  MonsterInsights is the most popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. Over 1 million websites use it including the likes of Bloomberg, PlayStation, Zillow, and more.

  It is the easiest and by far the best way to add Google Analytics to WordPress (for all users beginners and experts alike).

  MonsterInsights is available as both, a paid premium plugin, and a free version. In this tutorial, we will be using the MonsterInsights free version.

  You can use the MonsterInsights Pro version if you want more advanced features like E-commerce tracking, Ads tracking, Author tracking, etc. The process of setting them up is the same.

  Let’s get started.

  The first thing you need to do is install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

  Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled ‘Insights’ to your WordPress admin menu. Clicking on it will bring the MonsterInsights setup wizard.

  

  First, you will be asked to choose a category for your website (a business website, blog, or online store). Select one and then click on ‘Save and Continue’ button.

  Next, you need to click on the ‘Connect MonsterInsights’ button.

  

  This will bring up a popup which will take you Google accounts where you will be asked to sign in or select a Google account if you are already signed in.

  

  Next, you will be asked to allow MonsterInsights to access your Google Analytics account.

  

  Click on the ‘Allow’ button to continue.

  The final step is to select the profile you want to track. You need to select your website here and then click on the ‘Complete authentication’ button to continue.

  

  MonsterInsights will now install Google Analytics on your website. After that you will be asked to select the recommended settings for your website.

  

  The default settings would work for most websites. If you use an affiliate link plugin, then you need to add the path you use to cloak affiliate links. This will allow you to track your affiliate links in Google Analytics.

  Click on the Save and Continue button to save your settings.

  Next, MonsterInsights will show you paid add-ons that you can access if you upgrade to PRO. You can simply click on the ‘Save and Continue’ button to skip this step.

  

  After that, you will be asked to install WPForms plugin, which is the best WordPress contact form plugin. You can install it or simply click on ‘Skip this Step’

  

  That’s all you have successfully installed and setup Google Analytics on your WordPress site. Remember, it will take Google Analytics sometime before showing your stats.

  

  The best part about MonsterInsights is that you can view your Google Analytics reports inside your WordPress dashboard. Simply visit Insights &raqo; Reports page to check out a quick overview of your analytics data.

  

  Note: MonsterInsights was formerly known as Google Analytics for WordPress by Yoast. WPBeginner’s founder, Syed Balkhi, acquired the plugin in 2016 and rebranded it to MonsterInsights. Now it is part of our family of premium WordPress plugins.

  2. Insert Headers and Footers Plugin

  This method is not as not as good as MonsterInsights because you will not be able to do advanced tracking configuration, and you will not be able to view Google Analytics data in your WordPress dashboard.

  First, you need to install and activate the Insert Headers and Footers plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

  Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Insert Headers and Footers page. Here you need to paste the Google Analytics code that you copied in step 4 into the headers section.

  

  Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

  That’s all, you have successfully installed Google Analytics on your site.

  3. Install Google Analytics in WordPress Theme

  This method is for advanced users who are familiar with the code. It is somewhat unreliable because your code will disappear if you switch or update the theme. We almost never recommend using this method.

  If this is your first time adding code to your WordPress files, then you should check out our guide on how to copy paste code snippets in WordPress.

  Add code in header.php file

  Simply edit the header.php file in your WordPress theme and paste the code you copied in step 4 right after the <body> tag.

  Don’t forget to save your changes and upload the file back to your server.

  Add via Functions File

  You can also add Google Analytics tracking code to WordPress functions file. It will then automatically add the tracking code to every page on your WordPress site.

  You will need to add this code to your theme’s functions.php file.

  <?php
  add_action('wp_head', 'wpb_add_googleanalytics');
  function wpb_add_googleanalytics() { ?>
  
  // Paste your Google Analytics code from Step 4 here
  
  <?php } ?>
  

  Viewing Reports on Google Analytics Website

  Google Analytics is capable of showing you a treasure of data collected from your stats. You can view this data by visiting your Google Analytics dashboard.

  

  You will see the built-in Google Analytics reports in the left column. Each section is divided into different tabs and clicking on a tab will expand it to show more options.

  • Real-time This report will show you a real time view of your traffic.
  • Audience tab will show reports to help you understand your users.
  • Acquisition reports explore where your users came from.
  • Behavior reports summarize what your users do after they arrive on your site.
  • Conversion reports show how well you’re doing against your goals.

  Making the Most out of Google Analytics

  Google Analytics is an incredibly powerful tool with tons of awesome features. Some of them are quite obvious and easy to use, others require some additional setup.

  Here are some of the resources that will help you make the most out of Google Analytics reports.

  • Track user engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics
  • Track WooCommerce customers in Google Analytics
  • Track outbound links in WordPress

  Google Analytics works best with Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools). It allows you to see how your website is doing in search results. See our complete Google Search Console guide to learn how to use it to grow your website.

  We hope this article helped you learn how to install Google Analytics in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide for beginners.

  If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

  The post How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress for Beginners appeared first on WPBeginner.

  
  
  source https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-install-google-analytics-in-wordpress/

How Convesio creates scalable WordPress sites in one click

When clients are paying your agency top dollar to maintain their sites — essentially entrusting you with their online businesses — let me tell you, it’s stomach-churning when your see their number on your phone outside office hours. You just know there’s a problem with their site, and they’re upset, so you’re going to have to drop everything and spend hours fixing it. Like other agency owners, this was my reality a few years back. Unexpectedly being called in to fix client sites on weekends when hosting failed and sites went offline. It was frustrating, to say the least; it was both a pain to deal with and damaged our relationships with clients. We struggled with managed WordPress hosting that didn’t meet or understand our needs.
As I wrote about last week, I went on the hunt for “unicorn” hosting that could provide what I need to support my clients’ sites. I wanted hosting that was redundant, provided managed backups, and could scale without costing an arm and a leg (I didn’t want to pay $400+ per month just for one site!).
Ultimately, I couldn’t find a solution that provided all of these things while also guaranteeing
Source: https://managewp.org/articles/18407/how-convesio-creates-scalable-wordpress-sites-in-one-click

source https://williechiu40.wordpress.com/2019/02/28/how-convesio-creates-scalable-wordpress-sites-in-one-click/

Gutenberg Components: Modal

Modals are really common in any user interface. It can be used for alerts, to render additional information or provide a way to enter data. In this tutorial, we will learn about the Gutenberg Component Modal and see what options does it provides to us.
If you’re interested in reading the source code of this component, head to the repository.
A great thing about this component is that you can call it anywhere in your application, but the Modal will still load in the parent node of the DOM, so it won’t be affected by any CSS rules such as overflow:hidden and such.
This is done because this component uses the function createPortal(). You can read about this in the React documentation.
The Gutenberg component Modal is built using:
IsolatedEventContainer – prevents certain events from propagating outside of the container; accepts ModalFrame,
ModalFrame – accepts ModalHeader and all children elements,
ModalHeader – shows the modal header with a close button.
Modal Properties
There are several properties which you can pass to the Modal component:
title – used in modal header,
onRequestClose – a function that is called when the modal should be closed,
Source: https://managewp.org/articles/18406/gutenberg-components-modal

source https://williechiu40.wordpress.com/2019/02/28/gutenberg-components-modal/

PressNomics 6 Announcement and Event Details

We have reserved an entire boutique hotel in charming Tucson, Arizona where we can network, learn, have fun, and grow our WordPress businesses together. PressNomics 6 takes place on Wednesday, September 11th – Friday, September 13th / 2019 at the Hacienda Del Sol Resort.
There are only 59 rooms so be sure to reserve yours quick – Call Summer Marshall at +1 (520) 901-1305 and mention reservation code: PAGELY. The rooms are $229 plus tax which is a great deal and a little less than our previous venue.
If you miss out on booking your room, don’t worry as the La Paloma Resort is next door (less than a 5-minute drive).
Tucson, AZ is about 2hrs SE by car from Phoenix, however our local airport TUS also features direct flights from several US locations. We recommend flying into Tucson on the 10th, Rent a car, Taxi or Uber to the Venue – approximately a 30min drive. Fly out the 14th.
PressNomics is a casual and highly engaging 3 day event for the WordPress commercial ecosystem to collaborate, learn, relax. 2 days of programming and a day of structured social activities (Golf/TBD). This is the 6th iteration of this not to miss event for the WordPress professional.
Our
Source: https://managewp.org/articles/18405/pressnomics-6-announcement-and-event-details

source https://williechiu40.wordpress.com/2019/02/27/pressnomics-6-announcement-and-event-details/

How to get started with data-driven attribution in Google Analytics

Google Analytics is used by more than 28.8 billion websites since its inception in 2005. And many have attempted to find a ‘one size fits all’ approach as far as attribution models are concerned.

While this is admirable in and of itself, it also goes against the very nature of Google Analytics. After all, the USP of the service is to customize reports according to your requirements. So why should attribution models be any different?

What is attribution?

Before we dive in any further, however, you must understand what we mean by attribution. In Google Analytics, the term attribution can mean lots of things, from giving credit for visiting the website to completing a particular activity, from a campaign to a kind of source. Attribution is mainly used for conversions and sessions.

Data-driven attribution

Now, attribution models can be of various kinds, but the one generating a lot of buzz lately is data-driven attribution. Rather than a traditional model, this algorithmically-generated model is exclusive to customers of Google Analytics 360 which offers an easy way to provide personalized experiences to your customers. Plus, you need to meet these two parameters across a period of 28 days:

• 400 conversions of every type with a minimum of two interactions in every conversion.
• 10,000 paths on your site, which is akin to 10,000 site users. However, a single user can create numerous navigational paths.

The standout feature of data-driven attribution is how it considers the touch points of the users before the start of the conversion process. The Model Explorer Tool reports these touch points. The data is then reviewed.

The data-driven attribution model serves as a baseline model in Google Analytics, enabling you to create new personalized attribution model. Create the new data-driven attribution model to share conversion credit with multiple touch points along the path of conversion before the implementation of personalized credit rules.

Use the data-driven attribution model to analyze both, the non-conversion and conversion path information. The latter is data gathered from visitors who were not converted by your site while the former is collected from the ones who did convert. A unique aspect of the data-driven attribution model is how it changes weekly.

Why does the data-driven attribution model work?

Understand that this model offers credit to the conversions of various touch points or marketing channels according to what they contributed in the conversion process. The touch point or marketing channel that offers the most assistance receives the most amount of credit for conversions, irrespective of whether it’s the initial touch, the middle touch, or the last touch. The rest of the touches or channels receive credit as per what they contributed during the conversion process.

As the task of assigning conversion credits depends on the latest conversion information rather than the touch point positions, the attribution becomes data-driven. This not only eliminates the need to assign random conversion credit to numerous touch points or channels but also explains why the entire model is called the data-driven attribution model.

Make it a point to remember that the validity of data-driven attribution lasts for a certain period of time since the model changes along with the conversion information.

What your business needs to implement the DDA (Data-Driven Attribution) model?

Never think for a second that an algorithm-based attribution model such as this one can be implemented by every business. First, meet and maintain various strict requirements, and only then can your business handle the data-driven attribution model.

1. Access to a Google Analytics 360 account

Unless you have a Google Premium or Google Analytics 360 account, you cannot use the data-driven attribution model.

2. High-quality data and its availability

Always remember that your DDA model’s strength rests on the information you submit. So a poor entry will beget poor results.

Now, the problem is, most organizations might be able to download and install Google Analytics 360, but they stumble hard when it comes to figuring out how to benefit from the service.

What’s more? Even though they have the resources to hire experienced analysts, they cannot always create and maintain large volumes of quality data gathered from different data sources.

Thus, the insights received from the DDA model are likely misleading, flawed, and unusable.

3. Compatibility of KPIs and goals

The KPIs and goals you select for your business need to align across organizations and marketing channels. Otherwise, the data-driven attribution model does not work. So, if the primary Twitter campaign target is to improve site sales, then your Facebook campaign goal should also be the same.

4. Conversion tracking

Set goals in Google Analytics Premium to monitor conversions as well as ecommerce. Using this conversion information, Google Analytics generates the data-driven attribution for your business, irrespective of whether you are permitted to use it or not.

5. Importance of meeting and maintaining the minimum conversion threshold

Be certain that the Google Analytics Premium view to be generated meets the minimum conversion threshold. Also, know that it doesn’t matter if your Google Analytics’ view meets the minimum conversion threshold once; it does not allow for continued DDA analysis in Google Analytics. Make sure the minimum conversion threshold is maintained.

6. Minimum conversion threshold for every type of conversion

The Google Analytics view you’ve selected must not only meet the minimum conversion threshold for every type of conversion; it needs to be maintained as well. Each kind of conversion generates its own DDA model, and it’s always possible that the generated DDA model works for certain conversions but not all.

If you’ve implemented data-driven attribution and the generated model does not work for that conversion, then GA is going to flash a warning sign right above the attribution model reports.

Valuate your organic search channel with the DDA model

Open the ‘Model Comparison Tool’. Begin a comparison between the ‘last non-direct click’ and ‘data-driven’ model and the ‘last interaction model’.

It is best to select the ‘last interaction’ model as it is the basic model for Google Analytics’ multi-channel funnel reports. The ‘Last non-direct click’ works since it is the basic model for non-multi-channel funnel reports. Finally, choose the ‘data-driven’ model rather than ‘time decay’ because:

• The former not only analyzes the details from the Google Analytics account but other linked accounts as well, such as Google Ads, Doubleclick Campaign Manager, etc.
• The DDA model uses an algorithm to assign credit to conversions, which is more reliable than credits given through the ‘Time Decay’ attribution and/or manual conversion.

Check the column labeled ‘% change in conversions (from ‘Last Interaction’) to find ‘organic search’

Use this report to measure the percentage by which organic search conversion changed from the previous interaction model to the data-driven model. In this case, you can see that it is 22.66 percent. This means if the DDA model is used to offer organic search conversion credits, the process will yield 22.66 percent more credits. So, the last click model undervalues organic search by 22.66 percent.

Once you’re done, download the DDA model into an excel sheet by simply clicking the button marked ‘Download the full model’ to the above right side of the ‘Model explorer tool’.

Concluding remarks

Choose the data-driven attribution model in Google Analytics to implement it for your business and experience the benefits. There are lots of other attribution models available but this model is in a league of its own.

The post How to get started with data-driven attribution in Google Analytics appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

source https://searchenginewatch.com/2019/02/27/data-driven-attribution-google-analytics/

Identifying the Stakeholders of WordPress

While The WordPress Governance Project collectively begins the creation of a proposed Governance Document to support WordPress, it is useful to identify some of the stakeholders the project serves. About the exercise
This exercise is a useful way to determine the various resource requirements and constraints that may be present but not clearly documented. Deep understanding of a target audience is fundamental to creating exceptional products. Identifying stakeholders helps a team find the answer to one of their most important questions, “Who are we designing for?” By understanding the expectations, concerns, and motivations of target users, it’s possible to design a product that will satisfy users’ needs and therefore be successful. Understanding the nuances of each stakeholder and their preferences, actions or relationships can better articulate the needs for governance in the WordPress project.
Noteworthy: People and organizations involved in WordPress can span multiple stakeholders and take on different roles depending on context. For example, a WordPress meetup organizer in Nigeria can also be a theme developer. It is also very likely that involvement can
Source: https://managewp.org/articles/18404/identifying-the-stakeholders-of-wordpress

source https://williechiu40.wordpress.com/2019/02/27/identifying-the-stakeholders-of-wordpress/

Selling WordPress Plugins and Themes From A Website – All Best Practices In 1 Place

Gone are the days in which you could wrap a few PHP functions into a WordPress plugin or even quickly convert a PSD file into a generic WordPress theme and successfully sell them as an end product to thousands of site owners. Even though the WordPress’ market share only keeps growing – in today’s market, this does not fly. There’s just too much competition out there for selling WordPress plugins and themes, and the average customer now knows exactly what they’re looking for and is less likely to buy a pig in a poke. This complete guide includes all of the best practices for selling WordPress plugins and themes from your own website: from deciding on a sustainable product and a business model that makes sense, then narrowed down to pricing it correctly, while collecting usage data and user feedback. All with the final goal of turning it into a thriving business in today’s rugged commercial WordPress ecosystem.
This complete guide includes all of the best practices for selling WordPress plugins & themes from your own websiteTweet
While the market is indeed becoming increasingly crowded and difficult to navigate, it is important to learn how to separate
Source: https://managewp.org/articles/18403/selling-wordpress-plugins-and-themes-from-a-website-all-best-practices-in-1-place

source https://williechiu40.wordpress.com/2019/02/27/selling-wordpress-plugins-and-themes-from-a-website-all-best-practices-in-1-place/

How to Easily Create a Quiz in WordPress

Quizzes are a fun way to increase user engagement on your site. You can use them for educational purposes or use them to create viral content like BuzzFeed and others to get more social shares.

Quizzes are basically online forms that collect user input, calculate responses, and show results.

In this article, we will show you how to easily create a quiz in WordPress.

Why Add Quizzes to Your WordPress Site?

Quizzes are fun and highly engaging. Due to their interactive nature, users find them more rewarding than other types of forms.

Marketers have been using quizzes to generate leads since the very early days of the internet.

There are many scenarios where quizzes can help you capture audience interest, gather data, and add interactive features to your site.

• Viral quizzes can help you gain more traffic from social media. BuzzFeed is probably the most popular example of viral quizzes
• Educational quizzes to accompany your online courses
• Quizzes to asses customer needs and recommend them solutions.
• Quizzes that require users to sign up for your email newsletter
• and more…

Having said that let’s go ahead and see how to create easily create a quiz in WordPress.

Creating a WordPress Quiz with Formidable Forms

As the saying goes, there’s likely a plugin for that. You can find many WordPress plugins for making a quiz, but it’s always your responsibility to choose the best one.

For creating this tutorial, we tried out the best WordPress quiz plugins available and picked Formidable Forms plugin as the best WordPress-focused solution.

Formidable Forms is the most advanced WordPress form plugin available on the market. It comes with a simple but powerful drag and drop form builder which helps you go beyond just contact forms.

Using its powerful interface, you can easily create advanced forms like quizzes, surveys, calculators, registration forms, and more.

Formidable Forms plugin comes with a Quiz Maker add-on for creating quizzes in WordPress. It allows you to easily build quizzes and display them on your website.

Let’s take a look at how to do that, step by step.

Step 1: Install the Formidable Forms and Quiz Maker Addon

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Formidable Forms plugin. For creating a quiz, you will need to purchase at least their ‘Business’ plan which includes the Quiz Maker addon.

For detailed instructions, check out our step by step guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

Next, you will need to install the Quiz Maker addon. Go to Formidable » Add-Ons, navigate to Quiz Maker addon and click the Install button.

It will install the addon in a few seconds and show the addon as ‘Active.’

That’s it!

Now, you are all set to start building a quiz using Formidable Forms.

Step 2: Create a WordPress Quiz with Formidable Quiz Maker

Now that you’ve installed the Formidable Forms Quiz Maker, you are ready to create your first WordPress quiz.

Navigate to Formidable » Forms from your WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Add New’ button.

Next, you will see different ways to create a form with Formidable Forms. You can either start with a blank form, use a form template, or import from an XML file. In our guide, we will show you how to start with a blank form.

Start by clicking on the ‘Create with a blank form’ button. Next, you will see the plugin’s form building interface.

As shown in the screenshot above, you will see the main 3 steps to create a form. First, name your quiz. Second, add fields to your form. And third, save your form.

Quizzes can be used for different purposes including satisfaction test, personality quiz, market research, knowledge test, etc.

You may need different types of fields based on your quiz type. We recommend having a list of your questions and answers ready before creating the quiz.

In this guide, we will show you how to create a simple WordPress knowledge test quiz which includes different fields including single response ‘Text’ field as well as multi-response ‘Dropdown’ and ‘Radio Buttons.’

Let’s get started with the name of your quiz form. Then, you can add fields to your form by simply clicking or dragging the fields on the right.

Here, we added a ‘Text’ field for the first quiz question and replaced the field title with the question.

Next, we added a ‘Dropdown’ Field for a multi-response question.

Replace the field title with your question first. Then, add options for your question.

Similarly, you can add more questions to your form. Once done, add the ‘Quiz Score’ field to your form.

The Quiz score field is important because it’s where you can enter the correct answers for your quiz questions. Simply right-click the ‘Add an entry’ link to open in a new tab.

Doing so will open the ‘Entries’ page in a new tab.

Now, you can enter or choose correct answers for your quiz questions. The plugin will later evaluate the users’ entries based on your entries here.

Once done, put a check on the box next to ‘Set this entry as the quiz answer key.’ After that enter a descriptive name in the ‘Entry Key’ field and click the ‘Submit’ button.

Once your entries are saved, you can close the tab and go back to the form making page.

Next, you need to click the ‘Create’ button.

Upon clicking the Create button, it will open the form General Settings. On this page, you can set up settings for your form including what to display when a user completes your form.

You can review all the settings and then change them or simply leave them as default.

Then, scroll down to the Messages section to customize the message users will get when they complete your quiz.

If you want to show the quiz score immediately to your users along with this message, you can add a shortcode including your Quiz Score field key or field ID.

You can find your Quiz Score field ID or the key under the ‘Fields’ panel on the right.

As you can see on the screenshot, the Quiz Score field ID in this example is [161]. Now, you can add a shortcode to the message box including this ID or key in the following format:

[161] – For fraction correct. Example: 5/10.
[161 show=count] – For correct answer count. Example: 5.
[161 show=percent] – For percent count. Example: 50%
[161 show=grade] – For letter grade. Example: F.

Here’s how you can add the shortcode to the message box.

Once you are done, click the ‘Update’ button at the end. That’s all. You’ve created your first quiz.

Step 3: Adding Your Quiz to Your WordPress Site

Now that you have successfully created a quiz form, you are all set to display it on your site. You can add the quiz to your site easily using the Formidable Forms widget.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to add that on a page.

Go to Pages » Add New from your dashboard.

First, you will need to add a title and then click the ‘Add Block’ icon to add the Formidable Forms widget. Under the Widgets tab, you need to click the ‘Formidable Forms’ widget.

After that it will add the Formidable Forms block to your page area. Simply click the dropdown in the block and select your quiz form.

Your quiz will now load on your page.

Now you can go ahead and publish your page.

That’s it! Your WordPress quiz is live and your users can start answering questions.

Here’s how users will see the quiz results after clicking the submit quiz button.

We hope this article helped you add a quiz to your WordPress site. You may also want to see our guide on how to add a client feedback form in WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Easily Create a Quiz in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

source https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-easily-create-a-quiz-in-wordpress/

How important are featured snippets and how can you get them?

Featured snippets are one of the main engines of economic growth today, with countless businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs relying upon them to get their message out to prospective clients.

Despite the fact that featured snippets are a vital part of contemporary marketing and SEO success, however, many still struggle when it comes to properly leveraging featured snippets to the greatest extent possible, with some unlucky few having no idea where to begin at all.

Just how important are featured snippets, and how can you go about getting them?

Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of featured snippets and how you can bolster your SEO.

Today’s searchers are dominated by featured snippets

If you’re familiar with just about any popular search engine, from Google to Bing, you’ve likely already encountered featured snippets many times, even if you’re unsure of what they are.

To put it simply, featured snippets are those tidbits of information and links to websites that appear the highest in search results. When customers plug a question into Google, the first link and answer that comes up is known as the “zero position.”

It’s this option that gets the most clicks and pageviews.

It’s thus naturally desirable to have featured snippets in as much search queries as possible, as it necessarily directs customers towards your page and information rather than that of your competitors.

So how do I get a featured snippet?

The easiest way for you to ensure that your business or website can cash in on featured snippets? Make your content search engine optimized. This helps the algorithms which power sites like Google direct curious web-surfers towards your content.

There are many ways to make your content SEO, though some dated methods are still in use when they’ve long-since grown out of fashion.

Focusing your content on a single word or search term, for instance, used to be a staple strategy for getting featured snippets. However, it’s no longer ideal as the way algorithms operate has changed with time.

To avoid relying on these outdated methods of getting featured snippets, you should take some time and study up on the common SEO mistakes that too many small businesses make when trying to stand out in the digital realm.

You need more than digital expertise to make your content stand out – sometimes, you just have to make sure it’s not ladled with common errors and simple mistakes that a little homework ahead of time could have prevented.

As brutal as it may sound, the next step is scouting out your competition to steal their techniques and swipe away their snippets to make them your own.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and your business needs to do whatever’s necessary in order to stand out from the crowd. Finding and stealing major snippets that drive traffic to your rival sites is thus an imperative part of success in the 21^st century economy. 

The exception being, of course, that you have zero intention of cashing in on the ongoing digital boom.

By targeting the snippets your competitors rely upon the most, you’re building your market share by swiping away their consumers and luring them to your superior products or services.

Stealing snippets from your competitors

Don’t be uncomfortable with the notion of “stealing snippets” from your competitors. First of all, you’re not actually “stealing” anything in the illegal sense.

Furthermore it’s a necessary part of success in today’s market that everyone is aware of. You should rather view this as a natural consequence of the cut-throat nature of modern marketing, where only those on the top get any page views at all.

The first thing you should do is head to a service like SEMrush and type in the URL of your competitors so that you can get a glimpse at their site analytics.

By heading into the “organic research” tab and clicking on “position,” you’ll be able to view the keywords your competitors are using to drive traffic to their site.

Be sure to mirror this language as closely as possible if you’re trying to mimic the success of a thriving competitor.

Other low-hanging fruit that you can focus on includes the social media posts of others in your industry. These are likely jam-packed with viral content which you can study so as to embrace the better parts of their ad campaigns.

Recovering snippets that have been stolen from you

You should also take some time to learn about how to recover snippets which have been stolen from you. After all, your competitors aren’t going to stand idly by as you swipe their customer base out from under them.

Mastering the art of tracking down and reclaiming your lost featured snippets can seriously bolster the traffic you enjoy on a monthly basis, and it can even become a sense of pride for entrepreneurs when they reclaim their lost mantle at the top of the search results in their economic niche.

Take a deep dive into the art of recovering stolen snippets and don’t be afraid to run an audit to see if your competitors have been sniping away at your customer base.

This brutal aspect of running a business should serve as a constant reminder of how fierce competition can be, which is why it’s so important to distinguish yourself from the crowd and establish your links as credible and click-worthy.

Making your featured snippets last

Many small business owners are enthused when they get their first featured snippet, as they rightfully recognize this moment as the turning point in their digital careers. Sustaining the momentum you’ve started to develop is easier said than done, however, and making your featured snippets last once you have them should be at the top of your to-do list.

By tapping into ever-spirited nature of social media, you can guarantee that your brand and links are always generating a buzz.

Making your featured snippets last isn’t always possible; sooner rather than later, someone may kick you out of your spot, or worse yet your content might just become dated and thus unable to attract viewers at all because it’s simply stale. Producing engaging content on a regular basis is thus an essential part of staying at the top of the featured snippet scoreboard, and to do that you should be mastering today’s leading social media platforms.

SEO-content and social media boards go together hand in hand, so you need to integrate your strategies for the two if you want your digital brand to endure. Content promotion and link-building aren’t easy and investing in advertisements and SEO-content that helps you bolster the potential of securing a featured snipped doesn’t always come cheap. Getting a featured snippet to prominently display your brand or services online can be a godsend, however, and generate tons of business for even the smallest of companies.

Consider enlisting the help of some social media talent to help you generate a digital buzz, and never stop on your quest to produce engaging, SEO content that will cut through the noise and reach out directly to users when they search.

Chris Porteous is the CEO of Framestr / My SEO Sucks, building high performing sales funnels and marketing workflow solutions for businesses across North America.

The post How important are featured snippets and how can you get them? appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

source https://searchenginewatch.com/2019/02/27/featured-snippets-how-important/

TranslatePress – the Easiest WordPress Translation Plugin

Feeling stagnant in your local market? You have probably considered bringing it to the whole new level by turning your company into a global one. This idea has probably crossed your mind multiple times. You can probably already see yourself as the biggest and meanest player in your niche. Still, you are well aware of the challenges you would face on your way there. Before your product hits the international market, your website should already be big there, and that requires translating it. It is fundamentally important because one of the main obstacles when it comes to purchasing is when people can’t understand what they are buying.
So, it is not an overstatement when someone says that whether you translate your website or not can make or break your business on the international market. This task is, nevertheless, daunting. It may feel like you are starting all over again and that is, unfortunately, not that far from the truth.
How do I translate my website then?
First, find a translator. Translators can be a pain in the neck. True, finding a native translator, with the number of freelancers on the internet, is no biggie. However, knowing the language you need is not all that
Source: https://managewp.org/articles/18402/translatepress-the-easiest-wordpress-translation-plugin

source https://williechiu40.wordpress.com/2019/02/27/translatepress-the-easiest-wordpress-translation-plugin/