Wordpress is not only one of the best website CMS programs it’s also one of the most resource hungry ways to create a website. With its multiple CSS, JavaScript and PHP files and a heavy reliance on calls to databases a WordPress site can easily become bloated and slow. Web masters who use WordPress need to look at how they can decrease their website‘s page load speeds. Here are a few ways to help you.
How do I find out how fast my website is the first place?
To see how your site is performing and to get a list of recommended changes I would start with looking at “Site Performance” within the Labs section of your Google Webmaster Tools.
To check out your site on spec you can also install Google’s page speed plug-in for FireFox here http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/download.html. This site within Firebug (also required) and gives a page a score out of 100 along with what you need to improve.
Before we get started, a word of warning. BEFORE you make any changes to your site you must make a back up to cover yourself in case anything collapses. It literally takes a couple of minutes to do and will save you some serious heart ache! Read More…
Directory submission
Directories are not an effective method to build quality incoming links but they will build volume and are a good way to get the ball rolling. Most will have a low Page Rank and pass very little link juice on, but when added all together, it could be enough to get you up to PR1. Rather than try to submit to each one manually it is quicker and just as effective to use a bulk submission service. A quick search for “directory submission” will bring you back a list of potential suppliers. If you know of directories that deal specifically with your niche, make sure you manually submit your site to these as well to build relevant incoming links.
Twitter
Make it easy for your visitors to retweet your website/ articles with a retweet button. Also set up your own account to push news items, blog articles, and special offers to engage with your site’s users on a one to one level. Twitter exclusive offers or resources are a good way to build your follower base quickly.
Social bookmarking
Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicious, Reddit, Sphinn, Design Bump… there are dozens and dozens of social bookmarking sites, some broad others targeting specific niches, and they have the potential to be major traffic drivers for your website. Submit your site yourself and provide visitors with the ability to submit directly from your website as well.
YouTube channel/ videos
A marketing tactic long used by savvy affiliates, this is starting to enter the main stream for small budget websites looking for free traffic. Create a short video about your target subject using your keywords in the channel description, title, video name etc. Make sure your URL is used in your description and is visible in the video. Your video will then be shown in searches on YouTube and viewers can then follow through to your website.
Community
For every possible subject imaginable there is a community online supporting it. Sign up with related forums and engage fellow members to raise awareness of your website amongst your target audience. This will drive traffic and help generate incoming links from related websites. Leaving comments on related blogs is another tactic that helps to achieve the same end goal. In both cases use your domain name in your signature and become genuinely involved with valid comments, don’t just leave comments that simply state your URL and special offers you have on, it will have the opposite desired effect.
Google universal search
Google is much more than just web search, and for many keywords they will show results from blogs, images, video and product searches on the web search results page. These are often ignored by webmasters when it’s comes to SEO and can be a back door method to getting on to the first page. As with 99% of all SEO, it is all about your use of keywords, here are some quick tips (these are by no means exhaustive).
- Images: Alt tag, file name, anchor text
- Video: Channel’s title and description, video title and description
- Product: Product title, product type, description, URL destination, image file name.
- Blog: Specify it is a blog in the page title, link from home page, update weekly
- News: Submit a news sitemap, keyword in news title, opening paragraph, outbound links, regular news items
Purchase Email list
Despite the current rush towards social media, Email is still a cheap and effective method for marketing your services. As long as it is well designed, timed and targeted, an Email campaign will provide a positive ROI. Suppliers such as http://marketingfile.com/ will provide you with clean lists at around 20p per record. Services such as www.mailchimp.com will help you build your newsletter and send it out with full tracking services.
Write articles for peer sites
Very labour intensive and you will need to pick a subject that they feel deserves to be covered, but if you have the time, idea and writing skills, submitting an article to your industry’s leading news/ blog sites has many positive effects (e.g. raise your profile, incoming link and referral traffic). For example if I had a web design service or blog I would approach sites within the smashing network to write an article.
Buy low cost advertising
Purchasing advertising directly from appropriate websites can be cheaper and is often much more effective in driving converting traffic and developing your brand. Contact sites your own visitors are likely to visit for their media packs and advertising costs, for example, if you sell vitamins, websites that write about well being and healthy eating would be ideal targets.
If you are looking for a quick intake of visitors without having to wait for your SEO efforts to kick in, if you have the budget, Search Engine Pay per Click (SEPPC) is a good option. Each industry is very different and the costs involved vary a lot so you will need to research the CPC involved and whether you can afford it.
Another option available through Google is to advertise on their content network using text ads are banners. This is traditionally a lot cheaper than the search network but if poorly thought out and/ or left unchecked it can burn through a lot of money quickly. Go here to read more about advertising on their search network and content network.
There are plenty of ways to make a mess of your website, the six methods we explain here are just some of the easiest to avoid that will ordinarily contribute to ruining the user experience for your visitors, increase your bounce rates and make sure you get very few returning visitors.
1 – Random colour palette
With all the free website colour tools available there is no excuse not to have a consistent and pre-planned colour palette throughout your website. Even subtle differences such as a slightly lighter blue in the .gif logo than you used in your <H1> tag can create a sense that something is off and be uncomfortable to look at.
Aesthetically pleasing, easier to read, more professional, clear branding… there are dozens of reasons why you should maintain a consistent colour scheme and only one why you shouldn’t; laziness. Read More…
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