The Best 10 Popular WordPress Themes for 2020

People ask us what WordPress theme will be the best in 2020. So sit back get some coffee and read through our findings. With more than 10.000 WordPress themes it can be tedious to select the best free theme that you need and we have researched through hundreds to create this blog article. It will help you to pick the best free WordPress theme.

WordPress is used by both experienced administrators as well as people that have little knowledge about coding. Why you would ask? Well, it gives you numerous options to choose from without the extensive need for coding. The WordPress platform has a lot of available plug-ins, themes and customization options that can be time-saving. WordPress is adaptable, organized and is easily configurable.

Without further a due here is our list of the Best, Free and most Popular WordPress Themes for 2020.

1. Astra 

A WordPress theme that we also use.

Currently, Astra is the most widely used WordPress theme out there due to the variety of options it offers. There are a lot of reasons why. We’ll mention the most important ones.

Pro’s

·        Amazing customizability from easy to complex web pages

·        Great for when you know little about coding, due to a lot of free tutorials

·        Beautiful design, responsive, lightweight and blazing fast

Con’s

·        A lot of pop-up notifications for reviews

2. Ocean WP 

The second most popular theme on WordPress and the best competitor of Astra for its easy usage.

This theme is lightweight and extendable and can be used by anyone.

Ocean WP WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Unique eCommerce features

·        Simple and complete

·        Large community

Con’s

·        Lacking good support for the premium version and unprofessional licensing system

3. Sydney 

A business theme with a lot of customization and flexibility.

If you want something more unique, then the Sydney WordPress theme is the one to pick.

 Sydney WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Highly customizable with multiple fonts and design options

·        Outstanding support

·        Fast set-up

Con’s

·        Lacking some common features such as customizable menus that are available in other free theme’s

·        Responsiveness of the theme could be further integrated into the theme

4. Ultra 

A theme with Elegance and Ease of use for even those who are new to WordPress.

The theme to pick went you want that fast plug and play WordPress website for 2020.

Ultra WordPress website

Pro’s

·        Elegant and clean design that will get you going in no time

·        Good support

·        Highly responsive

Con’s

·        Some items are not as customizable as with other themes

·        Responsiveness can be further developed

5. Hestia 

An easy setup theme for your eCommerce business and very light.

When you want to set up an easy eCommerce business without too much coding but still with a lot of customization options.

Hestia WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Amazing UI experience

·        Lightweight, fast and easy

·        Good support

Con’s

·        Some bugs reported in the free version, especially with the safari browser

·        No support for Multilanguage

6. Neve 

The fast theme that is optimized for SEO.

If you want to be on top in Google without too much hassle with plug-ins you should pick this theme.

Neve WordPress Theme

Pro’s

·        Blazing fast

·        Optimized for SEO findings that will get you to the top

·        Still pretty customizable

Con’s

·        Can crash when installing

·        More optimization required for the mobile UI

7. Uncode Lite 

The theme for our minimalists.

This theme offers a beautiful minimalist design that will suit those who want a designers page or similar.

Uncode Lite  WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Elegance at your reach

·        Requires very little coding

Con’s

·        Small community (only 9.000 installs)

·        Customer support can be improved

8. Poseidon 

A WordPress theme where WordPress was made for.

The theme for our travellers and other bloggers that want a simple set-up and simple layout.

Poseidon WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Beautiful theme

·        Easy UI

Con’s

·        A little heavier than other themes

·        Responsiveness can be improved

9. Lovecraft 

A theme for more text.

Love craft is our pick for those multi-column websites that contain a lot of text, but still, want to look beautiful.

Lovecraft WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Beautiful minimalistic design

·        Simple and elegant UI

Con’s

·        Not for everyone, due to its specific fonts and layout options

10. Elementor 

A plain-vanilla & lightweight theme for the Elementor page builder.

The theme that comes with Elementor has a lot of options and is simply put very good.

Elementor WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Strong integration with the most widely used Elementor page builder

·        Nice design, simple and fast

Con’s

·        To really enjoy this theme you’ll need Elementor Pro

·         There are no link styles available

Conclusion:

All the above-mentioned WordPress themes are great, however, you are the one who will decide which theme suits your business requires the best.

 In case you have any quest regarding WordPress please feel free to drop us a line and our WordPress experts would be delighted to help you out

The 12 Principles Behind the Agile Methodology

The need for Agile Methodology became apparent due to the enormous time lag between business requirements and the delivered technology. Due to this a lot of projects were being cancelled and customers & technology managers needed a solution for these challenges.

One of the prominent causes for these challenges was due to the lack of communication between client, project manager and stakeholders. The final product did not meet the client’s expectations.

The Agile methodology for development is the perfect resolution for these issues as it involves the customers at every stage of the project.

What is Agile?

The core of the Agile methodology is rooted around best practices that enable collaborative environments amongst diverse business units to ensure continuous learning, improvement, production & growth.

Agile model is a culmination of iterative and incremental project cycles focussed on process adaptability and customer satisfaction. By breaking the product into small incremental builds, Agile focussed development ensures rapid delivery of the project.

The main belief behind Agile is that every project needs to be handled differently and all the development methods need to be customised to best suit individual project requirements. All Agile tasks are divided into small time frames to deliver specific features in an iteration.

agile methodology

Each iteration involves cross-functional team coordination in various areas like −

  • Planning & Requirement Analysis
  • Coding
  • Design
  • Unit Testing and
  • Acceptance Testing.

In order to effectively implement the agile methodology in your organisation, you need to follow its 12 principles that support teams in driving the project with agility. 

1: Prioritise Customer satisfaction with Continuous & consistent Delivery

Customers love to stay on top of things when their product is being developed. Which is providing them with regular updates and demonstrating phases of the working product greatly improves their confidence and keeps them satisfied? This also ensures all the detrimental bugs do not stay unnoticed until the end of the project.

2: Welcoming Change throughout the development process

Getting a major change at the end of the project can be somewhat disparaging. However, the agile methodology is designed to not handle late changes but welcome them. Due to the incremental iterations, the probability of a major change in the project’s late stages is reduced quite a bit.  

3: Deliver Working phase of project Frequently 

Deliver working product frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, preferably keep a shorter timescale. The faster you deliver an incremental product, the faster you’ll receive the feedback and identify a wrong turn or a miscommunication from the client.  

4: All stakeholders and Developers Should collaborate Daily

Better decision making and faster resolutions are achieved when everyone involved in the project works together. It not only brings the whole team on the same page but since everyone discusses what they are working on, valuable insights can be derived in terms of project improvement.  

5: Motivated Individuals deliver better projects 

Provide your team with a supportive environment and trust them to get the job done. The agile methodology encourages self-organised teams that are capable of managing themselves and the work. Micromanagement is not necessary for the Agile model.

6: Face To Face Communication

The most effective method of relaying information within a team is a face-to-face conversation. Most of the time the development teams are often distributed and not there at the same time. Which is why every effort must be made to communicate often and increase the use of technical communication tools.

7 Working model Is a Primary Measure of Success

It is crucial for agile project teams to focus on developing a working prototype to show their progress.  Irrespective of the number of bugs that have been fixed or the hours you have put in the product development, the only thing that counts is a working product.

8: Agile Methodology Promotes Sustainable Development

The stakeholders & developers should be able to maintain a constant and consistent pace. Setting the right pace is necessary for the success of an agile project. Working overtime without consideration of the quality is highly detrimental for the project. Constant pace also improves forecasting capabilities.

9: Focus on Technical Excellence and Good Design

These are two of the most important elements that play their part in a project’s success. While applying Agile methodology, you do not have to spend time refining the code. With every iteration, the code automatically improves so you do not have to worry about it. Using scrum tools can further amplify the speed of the process without compromising on the quality of the final product.

10: Simplicity is Essential

When it comes to managing projects through agile methodology, you should keep things simple and reduce the time required in the documentation. Prioritise the basic functionalities before another add ons which won’t have an impact on the overall project.

11: Self Organising Teams

The best architectures and designs emerge from the efforts of self-organizing teams. Well organised teams that are cross-functional as well as confident in their execution.  A project manager should encourage this sort of culture and plan to reduce dependency as much as possible

12: Reflects on How to Become More Effectively

At frequent intervals, the team should reflect on how to become more effective and tune their behaviour accordingly. The agile methodology defines several practices such as Retrospective. This is done after each iteration and makes sure that the mistakes of the past don’t get repeated.

Conclusion:

The main intent of the Agile methodology is to align development with business requirements, and the success of Agile is apparent. All Agile projects are customer-centric and encourage their feedback and participation. Due to these features, Agile has grown to be a model for product development.

If you have any questions regarding Agile methodology or need product developed, please feel free to contact us.

PHP Website Development – Just about the most Popular Application

PHP Website development and design are becoming an important part of business online. Nowadays the opposition on the internet has grown to become fierce. And entrepreneurs are up to something to create a handy and developed site. According to the reasonable amount associated with designing and growth of a website. Entrepreneurs take all steps to decrease the cost and increase business.

PHP-WEBSITE-DEVELOPMENT-A

Even though there are numerous coding languages for website development, PHP is regarded as the popular web scripting language used in dynamic website development. It may be easily embedded into HTML that is uncomplicated to learn and understand.

Employ a glimpse along at the below-mentioned benefits which has made PHP one of the key programming language for development.

  • Among the many important advantages of using PHP is always that being an open source language, it can take no investment and it’s 100 % free and is easily installed.
  • PHP provides support a number of databases like Oracle, Sybase, MySQL and MS Access. Its functionality can be tailored based on one’s requirement.
  • PHP makes your blog post look more inviting by creating stunning visual applications and graphics.
  • The Processing speed of PHP is definitely fast therefore the page loading and navigation is sort of quick.
  • It is actually easy to use in comparison to other programming languages like C, C++, ASP etc.
  • PHP works with several operating-system like Windows, Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X etc.
  • The errors on your program could easily be located since the syntax rules of PHP commonly are not very complicated.

With the aforementioned benefits, PHP Website Development is very profitable for the business and will let you generate more revenues. So that it is a good plan to look for one of the best PHP Development Company if you are intending to bring about a cost-effective web application for your organization.

Top 13 Content Marketing Stats you need to know in 2019

 

In today’s world, content marketing plays a major role in the success of entrepreneurial ventures. Here we present some of the most important content marketing stats that you need to know in the year 2018. It clearly focuses on empowering the prospect customer with tools to make the best choice while making a buying decision; this, in turn, helps in solidifying the relationship between the customer and your brand.

Having said that it is distressing to find a lot of marketers still plan their marketing strategies based on gut feeling, rather than formulating their marketing budgets and techniques based on concrete evidence and latest content marketing stats.

well-defined content strategy not only builds a relationship with existing customer s but also reduces the need to improvise.

Hence, it is extremely crucial for digital marketers to analyze everything as having just great content is not enough. It is equally important to measure which piece of content actually resonates with people.

Here are some interesting content marketing stats for you to watch out in 2019.

The below content marketing stats have been curated from the best industry experts opinion and analysis.

1. “61% of consumers are influenced by custom content.” – Dragon Search Marketing

Who doesn’t like things made specifically for their needs?

custom content is created by the brands to communicate with their existing customers. Furthermore, it converts complex topics in a logical sequence so that it is easy to understand.

Although custom content can be used to convert new prospects, the main intent is to build relations with existing customers.

Based on the given content marketing stats, it’s obvious that existing customers are more likely to buy from you than new prospects.

2. “Only 55% of bloggers update old posts. Those who do are 74% more likely to get strong results” – Orbit Media

Creating a blog and making it successful is just not enough. We need to ensure that the same piece of content stays viable for as long as possible.

Any successful blogger knows that s/he would need to keep updating their blog content on a regular basis so that it does not become irrelevant with the changing trends.

This practice leaves the users wanting for more and keeps them coming to your blog for more up-to-date information.

Google loves newer content, anytime. Considering this, it is advisable to keep updating your old posts which are yet relevant according to market trends. Remember, old content act like an old wine. Hence, at times, if you update an old post, it can be better than writing a completely new one.

3. “76% of B2B marketers blog, and 73% publish case studies.” – Content Marketing Institute

Well, isn’t this one of the most interesting content marketing stats!

Blogging is an irreplaceable aspect in every content marketing strategy and, for the best of reasons. It not only builds awareness and domain authority but also provides a platform for businesses to promote their services and educate prospects.

Case studies, on the other hand, allow businesses to use relatable stories to move prospects through the buyer journey. Case studies are greatly helpful in removing any doubts that might be having.

By establishing the relationship between product and buyer’s intent, case studies ease the buying process and help to remove doubts the customers might have.

It’s a lot easier to trust a company whose content has demonstrated how to get something done successfully.

4. “The average blog post is now 1,142 words (up 41% since 2014)” – Orbit Media

Length-Blog-Post-content-marketing-stats

With the ever-changing search engine’s algorithm, the competition to get ranked on the first page of Google has increased drastically.

Gone are the days where blogs with 500 words were sufficient for keyword ranking.

Post-Panda and Penguin updates, now, Google analyzes each and every piece of content in terms of depth and quality as it’s one of many parameters for the ranking. Hence, the average blog content length has increased in recent years.

A study by SerpIQ found that top-ranking content is usually just over 2,400 words. This could be due to the fact that longer blog posts get more backlinks

5. “The average reader only spends 37 seconds reading an article post.” – News Cred Insights

article post

Majority of the users prefer to go through the content on the go using messengers and other applications. Therefore, marketers are finding innovative ways to structure detailed content into snackable components which are easy to read and assimilate at a fast rate.

Some of the techniques involve relaying the content in the form of small videos, infographics and slide shares.

You can be as creative as you want with content formats as long as it gets things done; the sky is the limit.

6. “Paid content promotion is up 5x since 2014” – Orbit Media

Fact – “98% of the searchers make their decisions from page 1 of Google

Therefore, it has become extremely crucial for businesses to secure theirs. One of the most prominent tools for paid promotion is Google AdWords, which reaches over a billion people. A report by Google shows that businesses typically see a 200% ROI from AdWords. Having said that please keep in mind that Even if you’re relying on Google AdWords ads or social media PPC campaigns, you have to be directly involved in content creation. Web marketing is primarily powered by content and always will be.

7. “Mobile will account for 72% of US digital ad spend by 2019.” – eMarketer

As previously mentioned, today’s generation prefers to go through their content on the go and mobile is just the right medium to do that. Increase in the usage of mobile phones has to clamour to advertise on the platform.

Mobile searches outpaced desktop back in 2014, so it makes sense that mobile-centric marketing efforts will keep increasing over the coming years.

8. “Only 8% of marketers consider themselves “very successful” or “extremely successful” at tracking content marketing ROI.” – LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community

The analysis is a critical activity that needs to be applied in every stage of the marketing funnel. However, the given content marketing stats implies that tracking of ROI of the content without the right tools does not give desired results.

Looking at most page views or most liked tweets is just not enough to track the entire aspects of a buyer’s journey from start to finish.

The entire analytical KPIs should be structured in such a way that it meets the goals of your respective business.

9. “63 % of marketers create content by buyer persona; 38% by vertical; 30% by geography; and 30% by account or customer.” – Curata

Buyer persona represents the ideal buyer’s personality based on the real-world market statistics which is highly specific to one’s business. This enables marketers to understand the wants and needs of their prospects and structure their marketing tactics accordingly. This technique results in higher conversion rates as people tend to take their business to one’s who address their pain points. Marketing Sherpa found using personas increases revenue by 171%.

Content marketing using geography and customers’ accounts are also effective but all of them are contributing factors while creating a buyer persona.

10. “57% of B2B buyers have already made their purchase decision before ever speaking to a sales person.” – CEB Global

Earlier buyer’s used to be solely dependent on the salesperson who used to be their first point of contact, for making their purchase decisions.

Consumers are fed up with in-your-face With the abundance of information available on the internet, buyers do not require a salesperson to make buying decisions. Hence it has become extremely crucial for brands to educate and build trust with the target audience, helping them move through marketing and sales funnel.

11. “B2B marketers use an average of 13 content marketing tactics.”- TopRankBlog

Any smart marketer knows not to put all their eggs in one basket while formulating an effective and successful marketing strategy for their business.

Diversify while still retaining your focus on the main goal, testing which of the component work best for your business requirements.

Consistently creating and distributing blog posts, videos, infographics, whitepapers, webinars etc. over different channel will always generate targeted leads.

12. “The most common content marketing delivery mechanism is social media, used by 87% of marketers.” – CMI

CMI

Social media networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest have transformed the way we interact with the world. These social networks are so popular and easy to use. The only thing it costs to push content via social media is your time unless you decide to run a paid ad campaign.

This is where your creativity in content really shines. A lot of companies are sending the same benefits and sale information through their social media channels and that is a tactical flaw. To get the most out of your social media marketing, focus on the “social” aspect and build reputation and trust with your followers. Give them truly helpful content, then refer them to your landing pages and nurture the relationship from there through email marketing.

Let’s move on to the last but not the least content marketing stats.

“Gamification is the least common content marketing tactic, with only 10% of marketers using it.”- CMI

To put it simply, gamification is using interactive games and quizzes for the purpose of selling or promoting one’s products or services. However, this strategy has not been used much and only 10% of marketer apply gamification in the real world. This might be due to the fact that it requires a lot of resource investment.

If you have the resources, it may be worth your while investing in gamification content, helping you stand out from competitors who don’t embrace it. It all boils down to your core product or service and the stage of the buyer’s journey that your prospect customers are currently located.

Conclusion:

Believe it or not – not all the marketers are aware of all these content marketing stats.

Businesses need to transform their marketing tactics in accordance with the changing trends if they wish to thrive. In order to achieve this, they would need to embrace inbound content marketing strategy wholly and solely. Publishing the content adaptable to mobiles, using the trendiest themes to inspire users, aligning the marketing strategies as per the researched buyer’s persona and so on and so forth. Following these strategies will place you on top of the content marketing game.

It’s just not enough to approach prospects willy-nilly. Marketers need to create enough awareness and goodwill about their product so that the prospects should feel the need to buy all by their own volition.

Would you like to add anything here? Do drop in your thoughts in the comments box. We’d love to hear from you.

5 Horrible On-Page SEO Mistakes & How to Resolve them?

Nowadays, it is quite understood that it’s hard to rank a webpage on search engines. There are dozens of algorithms that are necessary to be followed or else, your page is neglected for being indexed. Some are hard to follow every time but most of them are mistakes that we unknowingly ignore. Here we have some on-page SEO mistakes which look ordinary but if solved, their impacts are extraordinary. 

So, consider going through the below-mentioned on-page SEO mistakes with their solution to rank your web pages on search engines.

1) Content Not Matching With Searcher’s Goal

2) Depending On Repetitive Keywords For Ranking

3) Not Optimising Title Tags & Meta Descriptions

4) Excluding Relevant Topics

5) Adding Inapposite Tags That Block Indexing

On-Page-Optimization-SEO

1. Content Not Matching With Searcher’s Goal

Not every time you will be able to understand the intent of the searcher typed in the search bar. Most of the time it becomes quite difficult to know what searcher wants to know.

The keyword used by the searchers has no specific intent. For example, if a searcher types a query “Pasta” then it becomes confusing for a Search Engine whether he/she wants to make pasta, order pasta or learn about pasta?

To know and learn what your audiences are looking for on your pages, you will have to take a look at Search Engine Result Page(SERP).

Search engines extremely test the searchers to know their search intent and to provide them with the information to which they are looking for. To know what genuine searchers want for their query, SERP works as an indicator which indicates the searcher’s query.

This way you can easily acknowledge the queries of your audience and can provide them with the information which they require.

2. Depending On Repetitive Keywords For Ranking

Earlier it was quite easy to rank keywords on Google’s first page by one of the most common methods i.e., stuffing keyword multiple times in the content. However, now their algorithms are mature. 

Google’s algorithms have improved but many webpages are yet not optimised and still repeating the keywords. Repeating keywords in some specific density in the body content was one of the best shortcuts to rank a webpage. 

At present, if you are stuffing your target keyword multiple times then the search engine will indicate your page as less satisfying for the searcher. And will not rank it on its first page as your content is more about keyword repetition.

On page seo keyword ranking

There are various tools to identify repetitive keyword stuffing in your previous content.  It’s better to answer the query instead of repeating it in your content.

With all being said, keyword repetition technique should not be thrown away as it is quite helpful in some specific situations. But not always as Google and other search engines consequently promoting quality content pages

It’s better to repeat the keyword in the body content that perfectly answers searcher’s question.

3. Not Optimising Title Tags & Meta Descriptions

Title tag and meta description are an integral component of on-page SEO. Both have their qualities that affect the search results. Title tag helps in ranking pages for some particular query. And meta description helps to increase the number of clicks on pages from search results.

Knowing the fact that these two are known to be the best on-page SEO activities from years. Still, digital marketing services providing agencies and individuals are avoiding it to increase the visibility of on-page SEO element like the content.

However, Google has some of the best optimization guidelines regarding the title tag and meta descriptions. Take a look at the following:

  • Every page should include the title tag as well as meta description.
  • Make sure not to use generic or repetitive text.
  • You can add descriptive words but remember to neglect keyword stuffing.
  • No need to add generic data. Your meta description should only include accurate information about your content.

If focused on these two elements with any fail, your page can get better ranking as well as organic traffic on the search engines.

4. Excluding Relevant Topics

At present, Google is promoting those pages whose contents are relevant to their topics.

According to the studies, it has been found that marketers focus on single keyword throughout their whole webpage. However, it is the most common mistake as searcher will not be using that same single keyword.

. Excluding Relevant Topics

The searcher does not know what to type on the search engine to find the answer to their query. Which is why it is necessary to focus on multiple keywords that are quite relevant to the focused one.

Always make sure to include words as well as phrases that are logically similar to your targeted keyword. Adding relating words connects the overall concept or else, Google will not accept your content as a relevant answer to the searcher’s query.

5. Adding Inappropriate Tags That Block Indexing

Your page content should be designed in a manner that sends search engines a positive signal!

Well, this is also counted as one of the most common on-page SEO mistakes i.e., adding useless tags on your webpage which prohibits your it being indexed on search engines.

Tags like noindex meta instruct Google to ignore the page out of its index. Consider going through your website for removing these similar tags if you want the search engines to crawl and index it in search results.

CONCLUSION

The above-mentioned are the most Horrible on-page SEO mistakes that many marketers follow and receive no exceptional results. However, every mistake has its solution and is mentioned with the same.

There you go, you got the answers to your queries. So, make sure to go through your website again and solve your on-page SEO mistakes. Or else, consider connecting to an SEO agency in Perth to resolve all your website issues.

10 Great Image SEO tips you Need to Know

 “A picture speaks a thousand words”

While some of us might consider this quote a cliche but it doesn’t make it any less the truth, especially in the case of the online world today. 

As we know, the consumption of content is shifting towards the picturesque side of things consistently and continuously. Visual images are consumed 60,000 times faster than text. Which is why marketers cannot ignore the importance of images any longer.

Now that we know how important images are in the world wide web the question that comes to mind is how to make the best possible use of it? This is where image SEO comes into the game, it is a special niche in SEO dedicated to providing a seamless experience with the images associated with your online presence.

When search engines index your web content they might not be able to understand the images but they do understand the text around it. Image SEO is all about optimising the images so that web crawlers can easily understand the images and rank them higher in the search results.

This can be achieved in several ways such as image file size reduction, contextual ALT tags and more. In this article, we are going to discuss all the things you can do to optimise your images.

So let’s get Started With Image SEO tips, shall we!!

1) Use Original & Beautiful Images

Why would anyone engage with an unimpressive image they’ve seen a million times? You should never post images for the sake of it instead, they should complement and support your textual content.

Your images should tell a story and leave a long-lasting impact upon the users. This is why creating beautiful branded images form the foundation of any image SEO strategy.

Beautiful-Images

Although Google doesn’t frown upon the copied images still you should get your image made by your graphic designer or you can also hire a web design company. A truly unique and contextual image would enhance your user experience.

You can also find beautifully curated images from resources such as Pixabay, Unsplash, Flickr etc. 

2) Use Optimisable File Size

Having high-quality images is it great, however a lot of times these come with a large file size that negatively impacts your webpage load time.

You can reduce the file size while ensuring quality does not get affected by using online tools like Adobe Photoshop. Make sure all your images are within 500kb to ensure optimal loading speed.

Not only that, the file format (GIF, PNG, JPEG) is crucial while maintaining the file size and image quality balance. Since these file formats have a different compression rate and affect the quality differently, therefore, it’s file format should be per the image type.

Mostly JPEGs are the best for photographs, PNG’s for line drawings & texts and GIFs should be used for moving images. 

3) Consider Accurate Image Name

As we mentioned before search engine crawlers scan the text associated with the image to understand what the image is about. This is why establishing a well-defined image nomenclature is an important image SEO activity.

To name your images effectively the name should contain the main keywords and should also be short as well as relevant. The easier it is for search engine crawlers to scan your image, the more are the chance of the image to rank higher in search results.

Ranking higher in the search engine’s results is the best way to ensure the images readily reach your target audience. You can use the insights from your website analytics to find out how your target audience is searching for your product or services to name your images.

4) Apply Vector Graphics

The use of vector graphics is ideally for images like icons, logos, text etc. all the simple geometric designs. Vector graphic implementation resulting in sharp results even in high resolution and varying screen sizes.

Apply Vector Graphics

One of the most widely used vector graphics is the SVGs (Scalable Vector Graphics) due to its high adaptability in varying devices. Don’t forget to minify the SVG file during optimisation and compress it with GZIP. 

5) Use Effective Image Captions

Users first come in contact with your images from a webpage which is where image captions come in. image captions not only describe the image, but they also help the search engines understand the image as well.

To create an impressive website caption, you should use them as image headlines. Keep the caption descriptive but short, and it should always be in the present tense.

Yes, image captions are helpful but overusing them also make the webpage all cluttered up. If you think your image is self-explanatory then let it be without captions.

6) Implement Best Image SEO Practices For ALT Text

Alt text like image name and caption are used to describe the image and help the search engines understand the image better and index them. Not only that ALT tags help users interpret the image on devices that are unable to process the images.

A well-optimised image ALT text short but descriptive and must contain the image SEO determined key words. And do not even think about keyword stuffing. 

7) Don’t Forget About Image Sitemaps

In case there are a lot of webpages the search engine crawlers sometimes fail to index all the webpages and images. To prevent this, sitemaps are implemented to help the search engines discover the images without a hitch.

 Image Sitemap

There is no need to add individual sitemap specifically for images you can add the image information in the existing sitemap. In case you are implementing WordPress or Yoast SEO in your website then images are added automatically in your sitemaps

8) The contextual Image Data Structure

By adding structured data property in your images the search engines can display them as snippets. Giving your images a richer listing in the search results.

Just make sure the image and text are aligned with one another and the URL are crawlable.

9) Optimise According to The Traffic Received from Image Search

The best way to determine your image SEO strategies are working or not is to analyse the image search traffic. You can either use Google Analytics or Google Search Console to achieve your objective.

Based on your insights you can improve upon the images that failing to attract the right traffic and replicate the elements that are doing well. 

10) Consider Lazy Loading

Lazy loading loads images when they need to be shown on the screen i.e. scrolling. It can speed up your web page speed quite a bit as the images are loaded in sequence and only if they are needed to be shown.

There are many different methods to apply this functionality, but almost all of them involve Javascript. In case you’re not familiar with the implementation, it may be worth consulting SEO services company to help with this.

CONCLUSION

The world can no longer ignore the importance of images in online content. It’s not about adding images just for the sake of adding. The more unique and richer images you use, the more are your chances of attracting the audience’s attention and elicit the desired action from them.

However, the application of Image SEO has a lot of elements involved and might be a bit complex. In case you have any questions or if you need any assistance with this, please feel free to contact us anytime and we’ll be happy to help.

Top 5 Best Front-End tools to Explore today

At present, a perfectly designed website is an integral part of every business which is connected with the online world. People all around the world are now quite familiar with all the internet stuff.

Every individual knows what they want and how they will get it online. The only aspect that is considered by the online audience is the website design.

Front-end web development matters a lot when it comes to generating ROI, engagement, website efficiency, etc. These factors are responsible for your business which is running through a digital platform. However, it is important to choose the right front-end tool for better web development.

And for your guidance, we have listed some of the best front-end tools below.

  1. One Subscription
  2. Node package manager (npm)
  3. TypeScript
  4. CodeKit
  5. WebStorm

1) One Subscription

one-front-end-tool

One Subscription is known to be one of the best and an effective front-end web development tool that is capable enough to access quality digital products.

This front-end tool will allow you to launch top-notch online stores, other websites, blogs, and landing pages.

All in all, One Subscription offers dozens of templates and themes, graphic elements and plugins, extra genuine services and much more.

Features:

  • Complete support for all its digital products.
  • One year free license to use all its services.
  • Updates are regular.
  • The subscription cancellation process is quite easy as you can cancel it with the 14 days from the day it starts.

2) Node Package Manager (npm)

Node-front-end-tool

This front-end tool is a Node package manager for JavaScript. Npm helps to identify packages of used code and assemble them which results in a new powerful way.

It is a command-line based web development tool that is better used for interacting with the database repository supporting the packages.

Features:

  • Npm offers 470,000 free code packages within its registry that can be used unlimited times.
  • Allows to discover new code and can share the same within the teams.
  • Can publish newly discovered code and complete control access to Namespace.
  • Handles private and public code according to the same workflow.

3) TypeScript

TypeScript is counted under the list of best front-end tools as its an open-source scripting language. It is a set of JavaScript that integrates static typing as an option.

TypeScript is particularly designed for front-end development of bulky applications and to compile them into JavaScript.

Features:

  • It supports other JavaScript libraries.
  • You can use TypeScript on any platform that JavaScript works.
  • TypeScript is capable of reading definition files that have type information of existing libraries. For example, C or C++ header files.
  • It is accessible throughout the browsers, operating systems as well as devices.

Also Read: Exciting Features to Look Forward in PHP 7.4

4) CodeKit

Codekit- front-end-tool

CodeKit is such a front-end tool that offers support to create websites faster and easier.

The best part is that it is capable of optimising images so that you do not require any third-party tool for image optimisation.

It even combines syntax-checks and minifies JavaScript to make them work together.

Features:

  • CodeKit allows changing CSS without reloading the entire page.
  • You can reduce HTTP requests by combining scripts.
  • It compresses the code to reduce the file size.
  • Without any mess, CodeKit automatically works with almost every web-development language.

5) WebStorm

webstrom-front-end-tool

For JavaScripts, WebStorm works as smart coding assistance. It provides coding support for React.js, Meteo, Angular, and Vue.js.

It’s a great tool that makes web-development quite easier for developers while pursuing larger projects.

Features:

  • For bigger projects, WebStorm is a developer’s tool as it assists them in coding easily.
  • This front-end tool has its built-in tools for tracing client-side, debugging, testing, and Node.js applications.
  • It is capable enough to work combining with popular command-line tools.
  • With the help of Spy.js which is a built-in tool will allow you to trace Javascript code.
  • WebStorm has its UI through which developers can easily work with various control panels.
  • You can customise it according to the different coding style as it is highly customisable.
  • For Node.js apps and client-side code, this front-end tool offers built-in debugger.

CONCLUSION

Here you have the best front-end tools for web development. With these tools, your front-end development will become way much easier as they cut downs a load of manual coding.

Go, check out these above-mentioned tools and give your website a new elegant look. For more further details, feel free to contact us.

Exciting Features to Look Forward in PHP 7.4

Have you ever wonder? what’s new in PHP. After PHP 7, PHP 7.4 is about to release on November 28th, 2019. No alpha or beta version, PHP 7.4 will be getting released as General Availability in the market.

The most exciting part will be to see the new features in this version that will make PHP website development much reliable and faster. 

Though it has already been approved that PHP 8 is the real milestone for PHP performance, still it’s quite far from being released. 

php 7.4

Here we will be focusing on some of the new features that you will be getting with PHP 7.4.

Constructors & Defaulters

Let’s take a keen look at how typed values are initialised. If the value is scalar types, it is possible to provide the default value: 

class Foo{public int $bar = 4;
public ?string $baz = null;
public array $list = [1, 2, 3];}

If the type is nullable then you can only use “null” as a default. Well, this is quite obvious to understand but there is some uneven behaviour with the parameter defaults where the following is included:

function passNull(int $i = null)
/* … */ } passNull(null);

Fortunately, this uneven behaviour with typed properties is not allowed. Also with “object” or class types, it is quite impossible to get default values. To set their defaults, you will have to use constructors. To initialise the typed values, usage of constructors is obvious:

class Foo
{
private int $a;public function __construct(int $a)
{
$this->a = $a;
}
}

However, you will have to make sure that writing uninitialised property outside the constructor is valid. The uninitialised check will not perform until there is something to read within the property.

Uninitialised

Is the following code valid or not?

class Foo
{
public int $bar;
}
$foo = new Foo;

PHP will display an error message when “$bar” is accessed even if its value is not an integer after making an object of “Foo”:

var_dump($foo->bar);
Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Typed property Foo::$barmust not be accessed before initialization

As you can see there is a new type of “State Variable” called uninitialised.

The value will be “null” if the “$bar” does not have any value. It is impossible to acknowledge whether the type nullable property was set or is forgotten if the “types” are nullable. This is because the new variable “uninitialised” will be introduced in PHP 7.4.

Let’s take a look at some of the major points to remember about uninitialised:
  • Reading from uninitialised properties will result in displaying a fatal error message.
  • If the type is non-nullable, you will be able to create an object within the uninitialised property as this state is verified while accessing the property.
  • Before reading, you can create an uninitialised property.
  • Unsetting an untyped property will make the value “null” but if using “unset” on a typed property then the value will be uninitialized.

You can keep a note on the below-mentioned code where the non-nullable and uninitialised property is set just after creating the object is valid:

class Foo
{
public int $a;
}
$foo = new Foo;
$foo->a = 1;

Type validation is done at the time of writing and uninitialised state is only analysed at the time of reading the value of the property. This makes it sure that no invalid type will end up as a property’s value.

Inheritance & Type Variance

It does not matter if PHP 7.4 has improved type variance, the typed properties are still the same i.e., invariant. For a better explanation, take a look at the following code:

class A {}
class B extends A {}
class Foo
{
public A $prop;
}
class Bar extends Foo
{
public B $prop;
}
Fatal error: Type of Bar::$prop must be A (as in class Foo)

If the above-mentioned example does not make any difference then consider taking a look at the following:

class Foo
{
public self $prop;
}
class Bar extends Foo
{
public self $prop;
}

This new version of PHP will be replacing “self” in the backend with the child class a while before executing the code. The only solution to handle it is mentioned below:

class Foo
{
public Foo $prop;
}
class Bar extends Foo
{
public Foo $prop;
}

If we talk about inheritance, it will be difficult for you to come up with any better use of cases to replace the types of inherited properties.

It is quite strange to see that it is possible to change the type of every individual inherited property. However, it is only possible if the access modifier is changed from “private” to “protected” or “public”.

Take a look at the following valid code:
class Foo
{
private int $prop;
}
class Bar extends Foo
{
public string $prop;
}

But, changing the type from nullable to non-nullable or vice-versa is not allowed in this version of PHP i.e., 7.4.

class Foo
{
public int $a;
public ?int $b;
}
class Bar extends Foo
{
public ?int $a;
public int $b;
}

Fatal error: Type of Bar::$a must be int (as in class Foo)

Types

Let’s see what can be typed and in which form. However, make sure that typed properties work underclasses. For making them work, access modifier or keyword “var” is required in front of them.

In PHP 7.4, almost every type can be used excluding “void” & “callable”. “void” refers to the absence of a value which is quite clear that it cannot be used to type any value. Similarly with “callable”, it seems nuanced.

The following code shows how a “callable” looks like in PHP:

class Foo
{
public callable $callable;public function __construct(callable $callable)
{ /* … */ }
}
class Bar
{
public Foo $foo;
public function __construct()
{
$this->foo = new Foo([$this, ‘method’])
}
private function method()
{ /* … */ }
}
$bar = new Bar; ($bar->foo->callable)();

Here, “callable” is a private “Bar: :method”, though it is contexting the “Foo”. Due to this problem, PHP 7.4 do not include “callable” support.

However, it’s not a big deal as “Closure” is included as a valid type in PHP 7.4 that will call “$this” context when required.

Here’s a list of types that will be available in PHP 7.4:

● int
● float
● bool
● aray
● string
● iterable
● object
● self & parent
● ? (nullable)
● Classes & interfaces

Strict Types & Coercion

PHP is known to be a dynamic programming language to which many developers loves and even hate. If you are passing a string where you expect it an integer, current PHP will approach and will convert it into a string automatically:

function coerce(int $i)
{ /* … */ }coerce(‘1’); // 1

The same applies on the typed properties. Take a look at the following valid code which is converting “1” to 1.

class Bar
{
public int $i;
}
$bar = new Bar;
$bar->i = ‘1’; // 1

The best thing is if you do not want this behaviour, you can simply disable it by applying strict types:

declare(strict_types=1);
$bar = new Bar;
$bar->i = ‘1’; // 1

Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError:
Typed property Bar::$i must be int, string used

Well, these are some of the important types of properties that you will see in the new update of PHP i.e., PHP 7.4 GA release. Feel free to contact us to know more about PHP web development service.

How Zoho Commerce Plus is the future of eCommerce?

Ecommerce giants such as Amazon and Alibaba have transformed the way we shop today. Not only that, but they have also provided extraordinary opportunities for small businesses to sell their products through their platforms as well.

However, these privileges come with the cost of their own. To avail their infrastructure and client base, small businesses have to shell out a sizeable chunk of revenue from sales on the platform as commission. Furthermore, this arrangement does not give much space for branding and marketing of their own.

Now the question is how can you overcome these challenges? Either you can continue utilising the big guns portal to selling your product or you can try to build your client base with the help of Ecommerce shop builder.

If you wish to explore option no. 2 then you are at a great place, as today we are going to be discussing Zoho commerce plus one of the leading eCommerce operating systems.

Let’s talk about some of its key features and how Zoho Commerce Plus can help you out in your eCommerce venture.

Personalised Branded Store

Zoho Commerce Plus is an addition to Zoho One, the operating system, It is a fully integrated, end-to-end platform for the eCommerce industry. 

From marketing to sales to promoting customer loyalty. It is a fully scalable platform to run your eCommerce business like well-oiled machinery.

zoho crm services

You can build your professional online store without the need for writing a single code line. Personalise your branded customer experience using the drag-and-drop store builder, which also comes equipped with a variety of customizable templates.

Timely Order Management

Delivery and order management is the lifeline of and eCommerce business. A customer just wants their orders to get delivered as soon as possible. Which is why it is utmost important to deliver the right order within the stipulated time limit.

Zoho Commerce Plus ensures that you are always equipped with the information needed to optimize order fulfilment. Zoho boasts about its unified interface for every individual order made across every channel, throughout numerous warehouses as well as shipping carriers.

Data from any third-party systems can be imported into the platform’s Analytics and analyzed to empower you with provided blended insights.

Multichannel Marketing

Marketing to customers is all about communication, only by understanding the thought process and actions can you find all the ways and medium at every step of their buyer’s journey.

Now different customers choose different paths to interact with your brand, which is why eCommerce Plus enables you to construct customized customers journeys to communicate based on their stage in the buying process.

The more the better, with Zohos Omni-channel customer communication platform you can enable context-aware dialogue with prospects and customers. 

Multichannel-marketing

Since customer information is flowing across multiple communication channels such as emails, chat, social media, etc. Your marketing, sales, and support representatives have a singular view and context of each customer which empowers them in delivering a consistent, cohesive experience.

In-Depth Analytics

Zoho commerce plus has one of the most comprehensive analytics platforms in the market. It offers multiple inbuilt dashboards and reports for businesses. These reports and dashboards cover e-commerce, operations, etc. that offer a multitude of insights.

Most of these invaluable insights are regarding the visitor’s behaviour on your eCommerce store, which also includes heat maps, scroll maps, and conversion of products sold on the eCommerce store. This helps you optimise your eCommerce platform for better customer experience.

Conclusion

Zoho commerce plus provides a multitude of easy website building tools that you would need to create a sustainable brand, along with a robust back-end infrastructure that can help with content management as well as security.

The system leverages upon Zoho’s customer experience on analytics, and intelligence software providing businesses with an interconnected, first-of-its-kind eCommerce platform.

However, all the above points discussed are only the tip of the iceberg which is Zoho. If you need more info about Zoho commerce plus capabilities or wish to apply it in your business please feel free to contact us for Zoho implementation or drop us a line in the comment section and our experts will reach out to you in no time.

How to Promote Business with YouTube Video Marketing?

If you ask any online marketer about the most trending online content, then you’ll get only one answer. The way of the future content consumption is through videos. And when it comes to video marketing then there is no better channel than Youtube.

In fact recent according to research statistics by Cisco almost all the internet traffic will be through videos. Which is why you should seriously consider using Youtube video marketing for the brand.

Having said that, Youtube marketing does come with its own challenges. As of today, there are over 50 million content creators of Youtube, producing videos on an almost daily basis. And secondly, people aren’t huge fans marketing while watching video on his channel. So if your video content becomes overly salesy then you will definitely lose quite a few subscribers.

If you are in the process of setting up your Youtube marketing channel or planning to optimise your Youtube then you are at the right place. In this article, we’re going to discuss various strategies you can apply to skyrocket your Youtube marketing and create a niche for your brand in this competitive arena.

So Here We Go with YouTube Marketing

Let’s kickoff with your Youtube account

1) Let’s Kick-Off With Your Youtube Account

While creating the youtube channel for your business it’s highly advised that you do that using a Google brand account. 

Starting off with the brand account has an advantage over the normal one as multiple authorised users can log in together.

Your brand’s Youtube channel has lots of elements that require monitoring so it would be better, that more than one of your resources coordinate with each other to run the channel. 

2) Find Out About Your Audience

It’s marketing 101 to find out as much as you can about the people you’re planning to market to. Now the question is how Youtube video marketing channel can help you out with this?

With the help of Youtube’s analytics tab, you can get valuable info. about your audience demographics and user behaviour. When we say user behaviour we mean data such as time spent on your channel, most visited videos, engagement rate etc.

Using this data you can determine which of your videos are resonating with the public and which are not. This is perfect for optimising your Youtube marketing channel.

You can also gain qualitative data about the user’s perspective by reading their comments and interacting with them from the comment section.

3) Do Not Forget To Check Out What Your Competitors Are Doing

As we mentioned before Youtube marketing has become extremely competitive. So if you wish you wish to pull ahead quickly then its time to roll up your sleeves and start researching your competitors are running their channel.

Browse your competition and make notes about their video that are doing great. These videos will help you greatly while formulating your own Youtube marketing strategy.

By analysing the keywords your competitors are using and implementing them in your video descriptions you can boost your Youtube video search ranking.

If your competitors are posting their video links in your video’s comment section then Youtube gives you the option to block them.

4) Try Teaming Up With Influencer

Influencers are like knowledge expert on one or more topics. And they have a huge fan following on social media channels.

Join these influencers and gradually build relations with them. So you can ask them to talk about your Youtube channel in one of their videos.

Some of the big influencers might charge you a certain amount for the mention. But your channel can gain a lot of traction from this activity.

5) Curate Your Channel

Now that you have done the necessary research now optimise your channel so that more and more audience would subscribe to your Youtube marketing channel.

Youtube video marketing

Here are some of the ways you can do that.

  • Use compelling thumbnails for your videos to attract the user’s attention.
  • Make sure that you have used appropriate keywords in your video title and description so that your videos gain in Youtube’s search ranking.
  • Create an exciting story for your brand’s description giving a clear message about your products or services as well as how your consumers will be benefited by them.
  • Compile similar video into sequential playlists so that users can easily find all the videos regarding the subject of their interest.

6) Schedule Your Posts

Don’t post your videos randomly rather publish them in a specific timely manner. So that your audience knows when to expect your videos.

Doing this manually can be tedious which is why it’s best practice to use scheduling tools like Buffer so that your videos would be posted automatically on the specified day and time. You can upload your YouTube videos in advance and cross-promote them on other social channels all from the same dashboard.

CONCLUSION

Videos are the future of consumption and you should start inculcating them in your business structure sooner rather than later. You can start with Youtube and then discover more channels as your video collection grows.

We hope you found our take on optimising you Youtube marketing useful and if you require any assistance in setting up or running your channel please feel free to contact us as a Youtube Marketing Agency and we would be happy to help you out.