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What is SSL Certificates and Why Are They Important?

Secure Socket Layer, or simply SSL, is a security protocol that encrypts the communication between a web server and a web browser. In this age of web vulnerability, WordPress SSL certificates provide an additional security layer by ensuring that the communication between a web server and a web browser is private.

When you visit a website, you will notice that the URL is either HTTP or HTTPS. The S in the HTTPS refers to the SSL certificate. Good crawlers also take this into consideration when they are compiling SERPs. A website with WordPress SSL certificate is given preference.

Google Chrome started marking websites without WordPress SSL as “Not Secure”. This resulted in visitors avoiding engagement on such websites. Site owners experienced a decline in conversions like sales, subscription, and more.

What is an SSL Certificate?

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encrypts the transferred data between a web server and a web browser. When you install a WordPress SSL certificate on your website, you will notice your HTTP protocol changing to HTTPS.

Here are the four key benefits of using an SSL Certificate:

• SSL Protects Data

The core function of an SSL certificate is to protect server-client communication. On installing SSL, every bit of information is encrypted. In layman’s terms, the data is locked and can only be unlocked by the intended recipient (browser or server) as no one else can have the key to open it. While dealing with sensitive data such as IDs, passwords, credit card numbers, etc., SSL helps you protect against the mischievous army of hackers and skimmers. As the data is turned into the undecipherable format by SSL, hacker’s skills prove to be an edgeless sword against the unsurpassable encryption technology of SSL certificates.

• SSL Affirms Your Identity

The second primary task of an SSL certificate is to provide authentication to a website. Identity verification is one of the most important aspects as far as web security is concerned. There is no doubt about the fact that the internet is increasingly deceptive.

When you want to install an SSL certificate, you must go through a validation process set by an independent third party called a Certificate Authority (CA). Depending on the type of certificate, the CA verifies the identity of you and your organization. Once you have proved your identity, your website gets trust indicators vouching for your integrity. When users see them, they know who they’re talking to.

Such verification makes sure that no impostor creates a fake website pretending to be yours. In technical terms, this is called Phishing. Thus, SSL helps users drive to your real website, saves users from fraud, and enhances your reputation.

• Better Search Engine Ranking

In 2014, Google made changes to its algorithm in order to give the upper hand to HTTPS-enabled websites. This has been evident in various studies conducted by SEO experts around the world. One such study conducted by Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko.com shows a strong correlation between HTTPS and higher search engine rankings.

• SSL is required for PCI Compliance

To accept credit card information on your website, you must pass certain audits that show that you are complying with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards. One of the requirements is properly using an SSL Certificate.

How Does a WordPress SSL Certificate Work?

An SSL certificate converts your HTTP protocol into an HTTPS protocol by encrypting the data that is transferred from a web server to a web browser. This process of data encryption involves a user submitting information, which can include name, credit card number, and home address.

This data is then encrypted and transported from HTTPS to your web server. Any attempt of a data breach will not leak out the information because it is encrypted.

Types of WordPress SSL Certificates:

• Single Domain

Single-domain SSL certificates can only be used on a single domain or a single IP address at a time.

• Multi-domain

Multi-domain SSL certificates can be used on more than one domain.

• Wildcard

A Wildcard SSL certificate is used on a single domain but can be extended to multiple subdomains.

• Multi-domain Wildcard

As the name suggests, the multi-domain wildcard is a hybrid of both, multi-domain and a wildcard SSL certificate. This means that the SSL certificate can be used on multiple domains and also multiple subdomains.

Top WordPress SSL Certificate Providers:

An SSL certificate is a third-party tool that you can get from several SSL providers. In this article, we will mention both paid and free SSL certificates for WordPress.

1. RapidSSL
2. Thawte
3. GeoTrust
4. Cheap SSL Shop.
5. Comodo
6. Let’s Encrypt
7. Cloudflare
8. WoSign
9. SSL For Free

Final Words: How safe would you feel if your browser warned you about a website being “not secure”? Because that’s what will be shown in the upcoming version of Chrome if you don’t have an SSL certificate. Do you want that? Of course, you don’t.

So, what are you waiting for? Add an unconquerable layer of protection to your website.

How To Choose A Website Design Company

You have less than eight seconds to create a positive impression on a visitor to your website when they first land on your website. Be very selective when it comes time to choose the website design firm for your website project.

Here are some suggestions/tips to consider when selecting a Website Design Firm:

1. Do they have a Portfolio? Make sure your chosen website designer has some experience under their belt. Website development has come a long, long way in the last ten years. One person can’t know everything necessary to design, program, and promote a successful website. Think hard about hiring that independent programmer who works out of his house. The price might be enticing, but what will you end up with?
2. Can the Website Designer you are considering cater to any type of Business? Look through their website portfolio for variety across industries. Also, do their client websites all look similar in format and structure? A custom-designed website establishes a much more professional image for your company. Templates can be a substitute, but are resold many times over. Your website may look like many others. Also, website templates require your content to be presented in a certain way – a presentation that may not be appropriate for your business.
3. How is that Potential Website Designer’s Response Time? This is vital to the success of your website. Take note of their choice of response on their website. Is it by e-mail, phone, fax, or instant messenger? How quickly did they respond to your inquiries? If you prefer to do business over the phone, your website developer should accommodate your preference.
4. Does the selected Design Firm have a Contract? Everything must be understood up front when beginning a website project. When it is written, it can be referred to. Also, before signing, make sure you read the entire contract, including all the fine print. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions. This will be best for you AND the designer. Answering questions and ensuring there is an understanding between the web design company and your company will help prevent bad feelings, a poor job, and/or missed deadlines.
5. How Reasonable are these Web Developers’ Prices?
You do get what you pay for. There are many “web designers” who work out of their homes. They have created a couple of websites, are hungry, and will price low to get more experience. Do you want them to gain experience on your dime? Most web designers work on an hourly basis – this is ok if they have a comprehensive budget they plan from. There is a good chance you will want extras once the website development process starts. You should check to see if your chosen website developer has planned for contingencies in their website proposal budget. Your website is going to the link between you and your customers, so make sure it is the best it can be given your budget constraints. Nowadays, you can find websites for $500 or website builder applications for a monthly flat rate. Be careful! Consider if you will get what you need in these “value” packages. How will your customers view you? You can always consider building your website in phases. This will help keep the cost down and the quality up.
6. Can your chosen Website Designer help you market your Website?
You may have a gorgeous, functional website, but if no one knows it is there, it is useless. Online promotion of websites has become a whole new industry – search engine optimization, search engine marketing, social media, linkbacks – all very important, and experience in these areas is essential to making your website a success. Ask your web design firm what they feel is best for your company. You should feel comfortable with their explanation and reasoning; otherwise, move on.
7. Does the Website Designer have happy Clients? Can you find client testimonials on the site? Ask for referrals and then CONTACT them. Ask probing questions like What was your overall satisfaction? Did the website designer go over budget? Is your website performing for you now? It’s better to spend 15 minutes on the phone than months of hassle and pain with the wrong web developer.
8. Can your chosen Website Design Firm meet all your needs? Do you want an e-commerce store, can they program Flash elements, or a custom web application? Can they perform search engine optimization and/or search engine marketing? Discuss their goals and confirm they can do what is best for your company and meet the expectations of your website goals. Choose a firm that has the full corporate solution for your needs – that usually means more than a guy in his bedroom or garage.
9. Can they Deliver on Time?
Discuss your goals as they relate to timelines. Be comfortable with their explanations of delivery. If you need your website done by a certain date, tell the designer/developer. Can the web designer you choose confidently state that they can complete it by that date?
10. Does the Web Designer you are considering take a Personal and Friendly Approach?
Is the website designer willing to help and suggest their ideas, or do they robotically go along, hoping they got everything you want? It’s always best to find a website designer who has some ideas of their own, with fresh ideas.

Although this blog entry can seem like a no-brainer to some, many companies will often run into difficulties and conflicts within their website development project. These are simple steps that are often overlooked. Keep this list in mind when looking for a website designer, and you should find the right one to create a successful website!

Have you had a bad experience with a website developer? Do you have something to add to the list above? Please let us know in the comments section below.

5 Excellent Tools for Checking Google Keyword Rankings

Are you looking for ways to check Google keyword rankings? Do you want to know how your keywords are performing on Google?

Well, you have come to the right place where you are going to discover a few of the top tools to check Google keyword rankings. Not only that, but you will also learn why keyword tracking is essential and a few other important details in this guide.

What is Keyword Tracking?

We all know keywords are used by people on Google to find information online, so they can educate themselves and purchase later. That’s how online eCommerce sites are boosting their search traffic and sales.

Keyword tracking is the ability to track and analyze all the keywords that you are targeting. Keyword tracking helps you easily find out which keywords are performing well on Google so you can analyze those details to improve your keyword rankings.

Why is Keyword Tracking Important?

One of the essential elements of SEO is picking the right keyword, making it rank & track the keyword position in search.

It is necessary for a blogger or SEO professional to check their Google keyword ranking for target keywords. One of the most common mistakes bloggers and website administrators make is that they write and publish articles without targeting any keywords at all.

Every blogger must aim to use the keywords that users search for the most, especially those keywords that will help your website show up on one of the first few pages of search results.

If you accomplish proper on-page SEO, chances are good that you will appear in the first 50 search results.

In order to accomplish this goal, you need a tool that can tell you where a specific keyword ranks in Google’s search results without manually going through 100’s of search results and pages.

To help you do this, we have compiled a list of some excellent online tools to use to check your target keyword position in Google.

5 Best SEO Tools for Checking Google Keyword Rankings:

• SEMrush

SEMRUSH is a well-known, comprehensive tool. Instead of simply allowing you to check the rankings of a single keyword phrase, you get access to a wide range of statistics.

You can enter your website URL and determine which keywords you rank for.

You will be able to see your ranking for top organic keywords, along with monthly search volume and the average cost per click for PPC advertising for that keyword. Check keyword competition and discover other details.

It supports Google (you can select Google Search based on your target geographical region) and Bing search as well.

If you ever wonder, “What keywords do I rank for?”, SEMrush has got you covered. Simply add your domain name in the URL field, and it will show you all the keywords that you are currently ranking for.

SEMrush is professional software that is easy to use, and you can try it for a couple of weeks for free before deciding whether you want to subscribe.

The only downside is that SEMRUSH is one of the most expensive tools on the market. Unless you have a pressing need for its other features, you might be best off with another of the rank checkers.

• SERPWatcher

Mangools is famous for giving some really good SEO tools. A new addition to this is SERPWatcher. This is one of the best rank checker tools with which you can determine the keyword position for any domain. They have features with the help of which you can track keywords based on location. Their paid packages have competitive pricing, and they provide value for the money that you pay. You can track keyword position based on Geolocation  & devices (Desktop and mobile).

• Ahrefs

This website has several good features. This makes it very easy to monitor keyword rankings. The keyword for which your website is being ranked is detected automatically. If you want a ranking based on the country, then that feature is available on this website.

With Ahrefs, you can start tracking the rank of your website as well as your competitors’ websites.

• Google rank checker

Google Rank Checker is a free online tool for tracking keyword positioning. Though it does not check Bing, just Google.

It is a very basic utility that gets a basic job done. All you need to do is enter your target keyword phrase and the domain name of your website. You then select the region and press submit. Within seconds, you will know the search engine rankings for the keyword you entered.

• SERP’s keyword rank checker tool

SERP also has an amazing keyword rank checker tool to easily check all your Google keyword rankings. Simply enter your keyword along with your domain name and choose the search engine (including the location) to know your keyword rankings.

This tool is the fastest way to check your keyword rankings, and it’s completely free.

It shows you the top 250 search results. It also gives you information about search volume, CPC, etc, to know how your keywords are performing on Google.

Improve Your Google Keyword Rankings:

The bottom line is that you need to check your keyword rankings to monitor your performance. Whether you choose one of the web-based free checkers or purchase a membership from one of the advanced options, knowing where you rank for your keywords is the first step in improving your Google rankings

Once you know where your website ranks in Google, it’s time to improve it. While many people will offer you their services, we urge website owners to consider the long-term impact of such services on their websites and businesses.

Without a proper, longer-term ranking plan, any ranking gains are unlikely to be sustained over the medium to long term. Go through our recommended service to improve your website rankings.

SEO Vs. PPC Uncovered

After all the hard work you put into designing and launching your website, now you get to the even harder part: getting people to visit.

A website can be a powerful tool for driving more awareness of your business and convincing people to buy, but it can’t do any of that unless people find it. And in an overcrowded online marketplace, getting noticed by the people you want to reach is a serious challenge.

Once you start looking into online marketing tactics to promote your website, you’ll notice two marketing options get a lot of attention: search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC).

Often, new website owners with a limited budget try to figure out: “In the argument of SEO vs PPC, which should take dominance?”

Before you can determine which tactic makes the most sense for your business, you need to understand what they are.

SEO and PPC are the two sides of search engine marketing (SEM). They have one main thing in common: they help you get found by people searching for what you do on the search engines, especially Google.

But they also have some notable differences.

What is the Difference Between SEO and PPC?

The difference between SEO and PPC is all about where on the search engine results page (SERP) you show up and how you get there.

What is PPC Marketing? With PPC, you buy spots on the SERP that show up at the top of the page (if you pay enough), at the bottom, or to the side. PPC results often have the word “Ad” next to them or show up in an image carousel with shopping details at the top of the page.

Brands get those spots by paying for them. Search engine ad platforms use a pay-per-click bidding model to sell ad results. The businesses willing to spend the most get the best placements for the keywords they bid on, but they only pay when someone clicks on the ad, hence the name “pay-per-click.”

An SEO strategy operates differently.

What is SEO Marketing? With SEO, you work to earn spots in the organic results—that’s the term for all the results on the page that haven’t been paid for. For many search terms, that means they show up below PPC results, but not always. Sometimes, organic results can claim a rich snippet, like the answer box that shows up at the top of some SERPs.

SEO results can’t be bought, they have to be earned. You claim organic spots by practicing several SEO tactics, including:

• Working to optimize your website for the relevant keywords you want to target.
• Making sure your website provides a good user experience, especially when it comes to things like site speed and mobile-friendliness.
• Working to build authority for your website by earning backlinks from other sites.

Those are the basic differences between SEO and PPC to be aware of, but what does that mean for website owners?

SEO vs PPC in 7 Categories:

Small business owners don’t have a lot of money to spend on an online marketing strategy, so what you want to know about SEO vs PPC is how they shake out in comparison to each other in terms of things like cost and performance.

Here’s how the two SEM tactics compare in seven main categories.

• Cost:

This is a tricky category for comparison. While it may seem like there’s an obvious answer, since PPC is paid advertising and SEO must be earned with work, you may assume PPC is more expensive. In reality, measuring SEO vs PPC in cost is complicated, as which costs more will depend on how you approach each.

To truly see results with SEO, most website owners will need to hire an SEO expert to help. A recent survey found that SEO consultants charge an average of around $500-$1,000 a month. While technically, you can spend nothing on SEO but time, more realistically, you should expect to spend around this amount.

One benefit of PPC is that costs are within your control. You can set a maximum daily spend within Google Ads, and the network will stop running your ads once you’ve gotten enough clicks to reach that amount. That means you can name your budget and never go over it. But if your budget is too low, you’ll run through your maximum spend too early in the day to get the results you want, and it will take longer to accumulate the data you need to build better campaigns.

According to one survey, small businesses that do PPC spend an average of $9,000-$10,000 a month. That doesn’t mean you’d have to spend that much, but it probably means that’s the amount others have found that gets the best results.

• Control:

SEO is all about doing your best to signal to Google the keywords you think you should rank for, and proving you’re authoritative enough to gain those rankings. While you can target specific keywords, you ultimately have very little control over what terms you’ll show up for, where you’ll show up in the rankings, and how your website will show up on the SERP.

For that last point, you can provide your meta descriptions and use schema markup in the hopes that Google will display the information you’ve provided on the SERP. But it’s still up to the search engine how your website shows up -if it shows up at all.

With PPC, on the other hand, you have much more control. Paying for ads means you can decide:

A. Which relevant keywords do your ads show up for?
B. Who sees your ads, in terms of categories like demographics, geography, and consumer behavior?
C. What your ads look like, since you decide on what the ads say, and can include elements that increase clicks, like images, or ad extensions that provide useful information such as special deals and delivery information?

• Speed of Results:

SEO is a long game. Expect to spend months, or even years, practicing SEO tactics before you start to see results. And even then, your first results won’t be for high-competition keywords.

For example, a small business that sells hot sauce will see results for long-tail keywords—the SEO term for keywords that are less competitive—like “hot sauce shop San Antonio” or “ghost pepper hot sauce” long before it has the chance to claim a broad term like “hot sauce”.

That doesn’t mean SEO isn’t worth doing. It is! There are plenty of Benefits to SEO. It just requires patience.

With PPC, by contrast, you can start showing up on page one and getting new traffic the first day you launch a campaign. PPC is often a smart choice for businesses that are doing SEO but want to start driving traffic faster while they’re waiting for SEO results to pay off.

• Amount of work:

Both SEO and PPC require ongoing work. With PPC, you need to complete keyword and audience research to figure out the best targeting for your campaigns. Then you need to set up your campaigns, monitor them to learn what’s working, and make updates to improve your results and make sure your budget goes further.

As with PPC, SEO should start with keyword and audience research, then you have a list of tactics to stay on top of:

1. Optimize each page of the website for your chosen keyword by including it naturally in the title, headings, page copy, and meta tags of the page.
2. Consistently create high-quality content to keep your website fresh and target more of the keywords on your list.
3. Undertake link-building strategies to get other websites to link back to yours.
4. Maintain an SEO-friendly web design
5. On the whole, doing SEO well usually requires more work than PPC

• Trust:

As you’d expect, people generally trust the results that have earned top spots more than those that are paid for them. 46% of people said they consider organic results more trustworthy than PPC ones, and 65% said they were more likely to click on an organic result for product-related searches. SEO is, therefore, a better way to earn the trust of people searching for the kind of products you sell.

That said, a sizeable portion of the population—around 57%— don’t even register the difference between the paid and organic results on the SERP.

Google’s always changing how the SERP looks, so that number is subject to change, but there’s a certain type of consumer that won’t think any less of your PPC ad than if you earned that top organic spot.

• Click-through Rate:

Recent data shows a clear winner in this category, but also shows that a lot depends on the type of device people are using. The click-through rate (CTR) for organic results on desktop computers is at over 65%, as compared to a little under 4% for PPC ads. On mobile devices, organic results get around a 40% CTR, with mobile earning a little over 3% (many searches on mobile don’t result in a click at all).

Either way, organic results get more clicks, making SEO rankings more valuable for traffic once you get them.

• Analytics:

Analytics gives you the power to consistently learn from everything you try, improve your campaigns based on that knowledge, and get better results over time. With both SEO and PPC, you can tap into valuable analytics.

Google Analytics, which is entirely free, provides a lot of data on how much of your traffic comes from organic search, where you rank for target keywords, and which pages people are finding through SEO.

And you can supplement all that free information with the additional data included in paid SEO tools that help you identify how your website compares to your competitors in rankings and what they’re doing differently to achieve the rankings they have, such as their backlink profile and the keywords they’re targeting.

While SEO tools can provide a lot of useful information, ultimately, there’s still a lot of guesswork behind why certain pages rank higher than others.

By contrast, the analytics provided in PPC campaigns can tell you exactly which ads perform well. And because you control every part of the ad, you can do A/B testing to gain insights into what your audience responds to, providing information you can apply not only to your future PPC ads but also to every other part of your online marketing campaigns.

SEO vs PPC Frequently Asked Questions:

Even with that extensive rundown, you may still have some questions. Here are answers to some of the common questions website owners have about the difference between SEO and PPC.

• Which Is Better: SEO or PPC?

It depends on your priorities.

PPC drives faster results. You can start getting visibility and traffic on day one, but you have to continually pay for every person it sends to your website.

SEO is slower, but once you gain relevant rankings, the results last longer. A good ranking will continue driving traffic for as long as you stay near the top, and you can count on getting more traffic from a good SEO ranking than a PPC one. And while there’s a cost to the work involved in getting on page one, once they’re all the traffic it sends your way is free.

• Does PPC Traffic Help SEO?

Not directly, but some of the metrics SEO experts commonly believe to be ranking factors require getting more relevant traffic, which PPC sends your way.

For example, when people click on your ad and like what they see long enough to stick around, it results in a lower bounce rate and longer time spent on site, both metrics that signal to Google that people are happy with the page they land on.

You can’t buy SEO results with PPC ads, but getting traffic from relevant visitors is one of the first steps to doing a lot of things that do pay off in SEO.

• How do PPC and SEO Work Together?

Good question! While the framing of this piece has pitted SEO and PPC against each other, for most businesses the goal should be SEO and PPC working together.

PPC helps you get the initial boost you need in visibility and traffic when your website’s new, or when it’s underperforming based on your goals. It’s a good strategy for short-term wins while you’re waiting for your SEO work to start coming through.

SEO is a long-term strategy that delivers bigger and more reliable results once it starts working. But it’s hard when you’re starting from scratch, and PPC can bring some of the initial traffic and attention you need to get your SEO efforts off the ground.

A good online marketing strategy combines the two tactics. If that sounds like a lot of work, well, it is. But you don’t have to learn both SEO and PPC from scratch to start getting more traffic for your website.

You’ll get better results, faster if you outsource the job to someone who already knows what they’re doing. HostGator offers both SEO and PPC services. Our team includes skilled professionals with years of experience in both types of SEM. If you’re ready for your website to start delivering bigger results, let us help.

A Few CSS Snippits That I Can’t Live Without

CSS snippets are a great way to save time while developing CSS on your site. If you frequently find yourself using the same batch of CSS, it’s probably a good idea to save them to some sort of snippet library. If you don’t already have a library of CSS snippets, here are a few to get your collection going:

• Rounded Corners:

Standard:

1. -moz-border-radius: 10px;
2. -WebKit-border-radius: 10px;
3. border-radius: 10px; /* future proofing */
4. -khtml-border-radius: 10px; /* for old Konqueror browsers */

Individual Corners:

1. -moz-border-radius-topleft: 10px;
2. -moz-border-radius-topright: 20px;
3. -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 30px;
4. -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 0;
5. -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 10px;
6. -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 20px;
7. -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 30px;
8. -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 0;

• Box Shadows:

.shadow {

-moz-box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px #ccc;

-webkit-box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px #ccc;

box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px #ccc;

}

• Text Shadows:

1. p { text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #000; }
2. Multiple Shadows: p { text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #000, 3px 3px 5px blue; }

• Text Rotation:

.rotate {

/* Safari */

-webkit-transform: rotate(-90deg);

/* Firefox */

-moz-transform: rotate(-90deg);

/* Internet Explorer */

filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.BasicImage(rotation=3);

}

• *BONUS HTML SNIPPIT* Make IE6 Crash (My favorite, even though I’ve yet to use it):

<style>*{position:relative}</style><table><input></table>

What are some of your favorite CSS Snippets? Feel Free to Share!

eMUNICATIONS is a new Acquia Partner – One of Only 3 in Texas

eMUNICATIONS is Proud to Announce its New Partnership with Acquia!!

Acquia was founded by Dries Buytaert, the original creator and project lead of the Drupal project, and Jay Batson, previously founder and CEO of Pingtel. The Acquia Network provides an operations portal to deliver technical support and site monitoring services to maintain trouble-free Drupal websites. Additionally, by offering commercial-grade support from Acquia’s Technical Assistance Center, they help organizations implement Drupal with confidence.

After a lengthy application process, eMUNICATIONS was recently approved as a partner of Acquia. eMUNICATIONS is one of only three approved Acquia Partners in the State of Texas and the only approved Acquia Partner in Houston. As a partner, eMUNICATIONS will have access to Acquia partner tools to leverage eMUNICATIONS’ current Drupal knowledge, further benefitting eMUNICATIONS’ clients. Additionally, eMUNICATIONS will benefit from the referral program offered by Acquia. Further, this partnership enhances eMUNICATIONS’ position as a contributing member to the Drupal community.

So, if you are looking for a proven leader in Drupal development with strong ties to the Drupal community, you need to look no further than eMUNICATIONS. Contact us today to learn how we can benefit you with your Drupal project.

Designing Creatively in a Fast Paced Work Environment

Maintaining creativity in a fast-paced work environment can sometimes be akin to a doctor operating on a plane in severe turbulence. For most, creativity doesn’t subscribe to the “9 to 5” and certainly not in situations where time is of the essence.

Aside from brainstorming practices, here are a few things I’ve practiced over the years to help me avoid creative doldrums at the workplace:

• Take Notes:

Ensure you can always take notes at any time. I’ve found it very useful to keep a notepad or phone near my bed; I’ve had a lot of ideas come to me when I can’t seem to catch any Z’s. Most importantly, have these notes accessible when you’re working, which brings me to number 2…

• Organize your Inspiration:

Organize all your inspiring websites into a single bookmarks folder and keep all of your design books, magazines, print samples, etc, within arm’s reach of your workstation. The more time you have to spend looking for inspiration, the less time you have to work.

• Get some Fresh Air:

You may be surprised what a quick 5-minute walk could do to clear your head and get you thinking more creatively. Plus, it’s nice to see the Sun, sometimes.

Why Drupal Commerce is a best fit for your E-commerce business

Emerging technologies have changed the perspective of E-commerce businesses. With e-commerce on an enormous rise, many e-commerce platforms are frequently released into the market. E-commerce sites are always in demand for scalable as well as flexible business operations. An e-commerce platform must enable businesses to manage an optimized website capable of handling the high demand for security, integration with third-party tools, and time-to-market standards with fewer development costs.

Successful e-commerce is not just about selling your products online. It includes managing your data as well as client interaction across several platforms. So, if you own an e-commerce store, then you must choose a platform that can handle both content and commerce.

When you research e-commerce, you might come across an e-commerce platform called Drupal. It’s not a big surprise that many e-commerce firms implement Drupal Commerce for their e-stores.

Drupal Commerce is the most preferred e-commerce solution, which provides a powerful set of modules to meet e-commerce requirements and is chosen to build online stores for every kind of business.

Why Drupal Commerce might be the right choice for your Business?

Drupal Commerce is the most comprehensive open-source e-commerce platform, integrating commerce, content, and community to build engaging web experiences that bring online merchants more sales and revenue.

With Drupal Commerce, we can integrate digital content such as blogs, videos, and editorial content without any need for separate research and the checkout experience. Hence, this provides improved online sales along with better user experience and increased traffic.

E-commerce businesses always need a platform where CMS and e-commerce are on equal footing. For this reason, the majority of online store owners choose Drupal Commerce as their e-commerce solution, as it has several benefits which are discussed below :

• Integrated CMS and Marketing Platform:

Drupal Commerce is combined into Drupal at the core level and takes advantage of all the power Drupal has to offer. This assures customers have a seamless experience while using the website.

It has the flexibility to integrate third-party features such as management systems, social media buttons, payment gateways, Google Adwords, live chat, customer service management tools, and many others.

Drupal now comes with an apt framework that can be integrated with any existing frontend software systems to alter the website as per your needs.

• Security:

With an increase in cases of Hackers and security breaches, basic do-it-yourself security practices are not enough. These cases affect your brand image and online sales drastically.

With strong Drupal community support, Drupal is verified and tested consistently for any issues and vulnerabilities. The security team of Drupal releases constantly updates the community for any security announcements and provides modules to allow Tier-A security to site owners and module developers.

• Maintenance Costs:

Drupal is open-source, which is always free to use. Initially, you only have to pay for hosting fees, whereas in WordPress and Magento, you have to additionally pay for premium plugins or modules apart from Hosting charges.

• Easy to Customize:

Drupal Commerce is completely customizable. We can easily modify anything from the front-end to the back-end, including product appearance, shopping cart block, contact forms, checkout pages, and many more. With minor changes in design work, you can alter the look and feel of a Drupal e-commerce website. Additionally, these free and paid themes provide you with a lot of great options to choose from.

• Multiple Language Support:

With multiple language support, Drupal Commerce can help you reach a global audience. This marketing opportunity should never be missed by any e-commerce business. People prefer their native language the most while shopping online. Even if your enterprise might be widely popular but nothing can beat the familiarity of a regional language. This is how personalization matters.

• Mobile Responsiveness:

From a study, it was found that nearly half of the traffic to e-commerce websites comes from mobile. This is the reason why online businesses take mobile device usage very seriously.

Modifying your website to a responsive design will increase traffic and lead to more conversions. The latest version of Drupal comes with predefined themes and an admin interface that are device-responsive.

• Speed:

For every online business, the speed of your website matters a lot. A slow-loading website is detrimental, and it can degrade your efforts and investments.

As e-commerce websites are built with a lot of graphics and videos, performing image, CSS, JS compression, and basic theme improvisation can help a lot in improving website load time.

• SEO Supported:

Every e-commerce website needs SEO to increase conversions. These websites are loaded with huge data. For a customer, it might be easy to navigate an SEO friendly website, but for business owners, it is a hectic task to implement SEO and index every product page.

Drupal consists of modules that help to improve SEO, such as Robots.txt, which informs the search engine which pages to crawl and index. Alongside, Drupal has other modules such as Path Auto, XML sitemap, and meta tag, which can enhance the SEO of your website.

Conclusion:

Drupal Commerce is one of the robust E-commerce tools that allows you to scale and grow your e-commerce site. It’s the capability to integrate and provide business owners with extensive analytics that makes it a growth-friendly option. Drupal provides better control with flexible software that can be customized to the needs of the business. It is considered to be a rapidly growing e-commerce solution across the world.

If you’re building your e-commerce store or planning to migrate your store, we at emunications will assist you with Drupal development services. Contact Your Houston Website Designer & Developer

Drupal Dashboards

Dashboards!

Dashboards are user control panels installed on a site to help the user easily edit and maintain their site with little to no knowledge of web programming. We can create these dashboards for our clients using the content management system known as “Drupal”. With the combination of our programming expertise and Drupal, we can deliver an easy-to-use user control panel or “Dashboard” to our clients so that they can modify the content of their site without needing eMUNICATIONS to make the changes for them, thus saving our clients money and time.

With this dashboard, you can manage everything pertaining to your website: online calendars, email blasts, email newsletters, all done with the ease of submission forms and in real time.

Contact your Houston area Drupal experts today for an introduction to the world of dashboards.

Tips to Image SEO – Optimize Images for Search Engines

Image Optimization is the basic step for your SEO campaign. As the Search Engines are getting smarter and more intelligent, the process of achieving a good search ranking is getting more complex.

Now it takes much more than just quality content to get to the top.

Many factors contribute to showing up well in search engine rankings, one of the most important of them is on-page optimization. On-page optimization is the pillar of your SEO, and one of the important on-page optimization factors is image optimization.

Images make your webpages more appealing.

More likely than not, there’s an image on every page of your website. Without the proper optimization, however, you’re wasting a valuable SEO asset. Plus, the larger the file size, the longer it takes your page to load, and the higher your bounce rate will be.

Image optimization creates many advantages for your image assets, including better user experience, faster page load times, and additional ranking opportunities, both within the traditional and image search results.

Although visual search technology has made great strides of late, search engine bots are unable to identify the content of an image; they rely on the text associated with the images to fully understand what the image is and how it relates to your content or the topic of your page.

But which factors are most important to ensure your images are findable and don’t slow down your site?

To help you ensure you’re optimizing your images properly, here are six basic tips to get you off to a great start

Optimizing Your Images for SEO and Speed:

Speed plays an important role in SEO and user experience. Search engines consistently rank fast websites higher. This is also true for the image search.

Images increase your overall page load time. They take longer to download than text, which means your page loads more slowly if there are several large image files to download.

You need to make sure that images on your site are optimized for the web. This can be a little tricky to get used to since many beginners are not experts in graphics and image editing.

The best way to optimize images is by editing them on your computer using photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop. This allows you to choose the right file format to create a small file size.

Alt Tag:

The Alt tag is probably the most important image optimization factor. Alt stands for alternate. The text in the alt tag is displayed in place of the image if the image can not be shown or is taking too long to load.

Most of the major search engines are text-based, i.e they can not read images and videos. The location of your images appears as an empty space to the search engines. These empty spaces are not in any way good for your overall SEO. The alt tag not only tells the search engines that there is an image placed here but also informs it about the topic of your image.

Use Original, High-Quality Images:

The more original pictures you have, the better the experience for the user and the better your odds are of ranking on relevant searches.

Original images can be made by a designer at your company (e.g., data visualizations, infographics) or taken in-house using a quality camera.

Give your customers a glimpse of your company, or provide a high-quality product image that your visitors will respond to.

Many users ignore stock photos. High-quality original images allow you to stand out in the search results, so show your brand’s personality and attract more people to your website.

JPEG Best Practices:

A JPEG image provides the best options for maintaining a quality image when compressed or resized. They work with many colors, shadows, and patterns to display a high-resolution image, and is the most popular photo type in the digital space.

Due to its ability to be compressed considerably, the JPEG forms quality images in small file sizes.

One downside of JPEGs: it uses lossy data compression. This means that the image quality can suffer depending on your settings. There is also no support for transparent backgrounds like there is with GIF and PNG formats.

PNG Best Practices:

A PNG image is typically used when editing or downloading files from Adobe Photoshop. PNG is known to handle transparency, and is often used for logo image assets as the image appears small, yet the resolution is high quality.

PNGs can be saved as a PNG-8 or a PNG-24. The PNG-8 file type is limited to a palette of 256 colors, whereas the PNG-24 will deliver a much higher quality display, but result in a larger file size, which could disrupt the page’s performance.

Use a meaningful Image Filename:

Just as keywords are important in the URL, the same goes for images. Keyword-rich file names can help an SE determine relevancy. Avoid using default image file names like “DSC0019.jpg” as it does not give much information about the image. Use descriptive filenames with keywords separated by “-” (hyphen).

Create an Image Sitemap:

Create and publish an image sitemap to house all of your images in one place. This gives Google and other search engines more ability to discover the images on your site, increasing the likelihood that your images will be displayed in Image Search results.

OpenGraph and Twitter Cards:

If you’re providing valuable content and information to your audience, they will share the content on social media. From Facebook to Twitter, content is shared and links are distributed.

If you add the following image tag to the section in your page HTML, like this:

<meta property=”og:image” content=””

For OG tags, you can set the image you want within WordPress, but also create your meta property in HTML. Add the tag to the section of your page, so it looks like above

Conclusion:

Following these tips should increase interaction and engagement with your images, reduce page load speed, improve findability in image search results, and strengthen your keyword performance.

The most important thing is to make sure the image and alternative text are relevant to the page. Other key takeaways:

1. Reduce file size for faster page load speed.
2. JPEGs are generally the best option for website photos.
3. Never use GIFs for large product images.
4. Improve stock images with tools like Canva.
5. Do not overstuff keywords in the alt text; make sure it describes the photo.
6. Make sure the image is relative to the page.
7. For crawlability, create an image sitemap.
8. Create OG and Twitter Cards for social shares.

BEST WORDPRESS ECOMMERCE PLUGINS FOR YOUR ONLINE STORE IN 2019

There are hundreds of themes available that are specifically designed keeping WooCommerce in mind. Which means that you won’t be troubled with any type of integration issues.

Most of the themes and plugins offered by WooCommerce are Free or at the least comes with a Free version. This shows that WooCommerce is an economical way to start an online shop.

With WooCommerce installed you can sell digital goods, offer subscriptions, and provide appointments for bookings. There many in-built features like payment gateways and shipping options, that allow you to make your store online within minutes.

Another great thing about WooCommerce is that anyone can use it. You may be a beginner or experienced user, WooCommerce will serve you well. The overall interface is made easy for newcomers, while the REST API and other open development features allow the pros to make any customization they desire. Building an eCommerce website is a delight nowadays with more and more online solutions constantly emerging. You have some amazing SaaS platforms like Shopify, and BigCommerce, and some powerful WordPress solutions like WooCommerce. Surely, with the help of these platforms, you could plant the seed for your online store and watch it grow.

Several users who are planning to create a highly-functional online store often ask why they should use WordPress e-commerce plugins. Well, it’s essentially a combination of the platform’s low set-up costs, an incredibly powerful feature set (that can be easily expanded by using any of a number of plugins), and its overall ease of use (even for beginners).

It is crucial to realize that using the accurate set of WordPress e-commerce plugins can do wonders for your business and even help your brand to secure a strong online presence. However, finding the right WordPress e-commerce plugins may seem like a challenging task. This is because there is an abundant number of WordPress e-commerce plugins available in the market.

You could install any eCommerce plugin and turn your WordPress website into a fully functional online store. This very nature of quick transitioning and adaptability makes WordPress so desirable. And honestly, nothing beats it

What do you need to check in a WordPress eCommerce Plugin for Your Site?

Basically, you need to consider what you will be selling and what kind of features you would need to efficiently run your online store.

The Most important factors you need to look for when choosing an eCommerce platform.

1. Payment Solutions – Your eCommerce plugin should have support for your preferred payment gateways by default or through an extension.
2. Design and Customization – Your store’s design is your customer’s first interaction with your business. Make sure there are plenty of templates and easy customization options available
3. Apps and Integrations – Check out integrations available for third-party apps like email marketing services, CRM software, accounting software, etc. You’ll need those tools to manage and grow your eCommerce business more efficiently.
4. Support Options – Make sure that there are support options available. Good support can save you a lot of money in the long run.

Most users generally like to test the plugin out before they make their website live. We suggest the same. But those who are in a hurry, or looking for an alternative eCommerce plugin can check out the following checklist.

1. WooCommerce
2. Easy Digital Downloads
3. BigCommerce
4. Shopify
5. MemberPress
6. WP eCommerce

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is undoubtedly the most popular and widely used WordPress e-commerce plugin out there. This excellent plugin, which was acquired by Automattic a few years ago, currently has a passionate and loyal user and developer community. One of the best things about the WooCommerce plugin is that it has a fascinating selection of themes and extensions, such as Yoast SEO, Contact Form 7, Product Import Export Plugin for WooCommerce, and Smart Coupons for WooCommerce.

Why WooCommerce?

• There are hundreds of themes available that are specifically designed keeping WooCommerce in mind. Which means that you won’t be troubled with any type of integration issues.
• Most of the themes and plugins offered by WooCommerce are Free or at least come with a Free version. This shows that WooCommerce is an economical way to start an online shop.
• With WooCommerce installed, you can sell digital goods, offer subscriptions, and provide appointments for bookings. There are many in-built features like payment gateways and shipping options, that allow you to make your store online within minutes.
• Another great thing about WooCommerce is that anyone can use it. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced user, WooCommerce will serve you well. The overall interface is made easy for newcomers, while the REST API and other open development features allow the pros to make any customization they desire.

Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads(EDD) is a fantastic WordPress e-commerce plugin that enables users to sell digital products in a simple and fast way. This plugin is pretty easy to use, and it is equipped with several innovative and powerful features. The presence of these excellent features will help you to easily create a stunning and highly professional digital goods store.

This WordPress e-commerce plugin is exclusively designed for the sole purpose of selling digital goods. Another important thing to note is that more than hundreds of extensions are available for the Easy Digital Downloads plugin. Apart from that, you will even be able to find plenty of add-ons for services, platforms, and payment gateways.

The overall process is simple as well. As soon as someone makes a purchase, the system automatically sends an email containing the download link to the buyer. And just so you know, EDD comes with built-in Shopping Cart and Checkout Page, so your visitors don’t have to spend much time and can minimize the number of clicks needed.

Why EDD?

• Like we mentioned before, EDD works great with digital downloads and thus should not be used to sell physical products. It also comes with features that support advanced solutions that’ll help you sell eBooks, music, documents, videos, and other similar items.
• The Extension Library is filled with dozens of add-ons. Therefore, you can create a more advanced digital store, like as allowing frontend submissions or including software licensing.
• You can also include some great payment gateways that will make the day easy for your buyers.
• EDD comes packed with a built-in shopping cart, discount and coupon codes, customer management, data collection, and reporting. You’ll also get features like refund tracking, affiliation systems, mailing lists, and much more. All these features make this eCommerce plugin quite special.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is another cloud-hosted eCommerce platform to get your online store up and running quickly. BigCommerce is best suited for small to medium-sized online stores.

Unlike Shopify, BigCommerce comes with an absurd number of features out of the box, without costly add-ons or transaction fees. BigCommerce is also shipped with a lot of responsive eCommerce templates to choose from. Having a ton of options to choose from is nice, of course, but may be overwhelming if you’re looking for something more streamlined.

Additionally, BigCommerce has bundled discounting and segmentation tools that let you seamlessly offer promotions for driving more sales.

You can even integrate BigCommerce into your WordPress website. That way, you can manage your content with WordPress and an eCommerce storefront with your Bigcommerce account. The benefit is that you can offload eCommerce requests onto BigCommerce and free up your WordPress site’s server resources. You’d also like to check out this comparison between BigCommerce vs WooCommerce.

Why BigCommerce?

• You will experience one of the best content management systems working along with one of the top standalone eCommerce platforms out there.
• As some of you may know, BigCommerce works with many payment processing companies. Which means that you are going to get much better credit card processing rates, which is always a welcome treat.
• Since the eCommerce side of your store is managed by BigCommerce, you don’t have to worry about the speed. And with WordPress coming in the front-end, you can manage your content better and effectively. All this means that your website is going to run pretty fast, and you will save money on web hosting.
• One unique thing about BigCommerce is that you don’t have to worry about your website being PCI Compliant, as it will be handled by BigCommerce itself. While in the case of WooCommerce, you need to contact your web hosting provider for the same.
• What might attract some users out there is its ability to run multiple sites without a hitch. So, if you’re one of them, you can surely opt for it.

Shopify

The fast-growing and immensely popular e-commerce platform, Shopify, is capable of handling all your online store requirements without any hassles. It is crucial to realize the fact that Shopify is not exactly a WordPress e-commerce plugin, instead, it can be defined as an all-in-one solution for your web store-related needs. Users, even those who are new to the world of WordPress e-commerce plugins, will be able to easily use Shopify.

One of the most noticeable features of Shopify is that it possesses the ability to handle the selling of both physical and digital goods. Another interesting aspect of Shopify is that it comes with a bulk importer and an inventory editor. These creative additions will make managing inventory a pretty simple task for users, including amateurs.

Why Shopify?

• Whether you’re selling physical goods like shirts or digital downloads like music, Shopify can handle it all.
• Shopify makes it easy for you to accept credit cards both online and in person. Their shipping system streamlines your fulfillment process with direct integration with popular providers like USPS
• No need to worry about the technical aspects of an eCommerce store, such as setting up SSL, integrating with different payment gateways, handling shipping, worrying about taxes, etc. Shopify handles it all.

MemberPress

MemberPress is another popular WordPress e-commerce plugin that is used by thousands of users to sell subscription-based digital services and products. What makes MemberPress WordPress e-commerce plugin unique from all other plugins is that it comes with multiple numbers of integration options. This excellent plugin is even capable of integrating with WooCommerce. If you are looking to sell pay-per-view content, membership plans, or subscription-based products, then you will instantly fall in love with this plugin.

The powerful access control of the MemberPress plugin presents a unique opportunity for users to access content restrictions and levels. However, only the ones who have permission will be able to access this content. In short, MemberPress is the ideal WordPress e-commerce plugin out there when it comes to building a membership website or selling subscription-based products.

Why MemberPress?

• Allows you to easily sell subscription-based products, membership plans, pay-per-view content, and more.
• Powerful access control allows you to define user access levels and content restrictions. Only users with permissions will be able to access restricted content.
• You can integrate it into your WooCommerce store or LearnDash LMS. There are tons of extensions to connect MemberPress with third-party services.

WP eCommerce

WP eCommerce is the oldest WordPress eCommerce plugin, but it’s not as popular as WooCommerce.

WP eCommerce comes with a lot of features out of the box that let you create a beautiful online store from the ground up. It offers integration with tons of different payment gateways.

Why WP eCommerce?

• WP eCommerce is a good replacement for WooCommerce. But if you’re someone who can’t imagine going through the setting process and then WP eCommerce is one for you. The premium customer support, although paid, can be much more helpful than what you would find with WooCommerce.
• You can expand your online store with the add-ons that WP eCommerce offers. Many WordPress users and business owners enjoy the flexibility these extensions have to offer. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on the add-ons as WP eCommerce comes packed with most features that are necessary for an eCommerce store.
• If you’re someone who is aware of the WooCommerce environment and how the plugin works, then using WP eCommerce should be easy to start with.
• The main drawback is that it is often reported as buggy, which makes people switch their platform to WooCommerce or other e-commerce solutions down the line. Another disadvantage is that you can’t find as many extensions when compared to WooCommerce or Shopify.

Conclusion:

Web designers and developers who are in search of a WordPress e-commerce plugin with greater flexibility, control, and features should consider settling for the WooCommerce plugin. On the other hand, individuals who are trying to sell digital goods should choose the Easy Digital Downloads plugin over other available options.

Finally, online shop owners who are looking for a plugin that will enable them to easily set up a store and sell products online without any hassles will surely be impressed with Shopify. If you are still unable to decide which WordPress e-commerce plugin is the accurate choice for your online store, get in touch with us, as we will be able to help you with that.

Houston Business Journal’s Largest Web Designers

Congratulations to eMUNICATIONS’ Clients

Thank you, clients of eMUNICATIONS! Because of your belief in our ability to provide compelling, well-designed websites, eMUNICATIONS has ranked 19th on the Houston Business Journal’s Book of Lists for the Largest Houston-based Web Design and Development Companies as published in the July 1, 2011, Houston Business Journal.

As our clients and potential clients know, there are a lot of choices in web designers in Houston and web application developers. We are very proud that we have been selected enough times to make such a ranked list. If you are not a client of eMUNICATIONS, why not? Contact us for your next website design or web application and see why so many choose eMUNICATIONS. Help us move up the list for 2011!

Drupal PCI Compliance Issues With User Login Form

Here’s another quick one,

We recently had a client report that they received a PCI violation because Drupal login forms do not feature the “autocomplete=off” attribute. This could be fixed with a custom template, or hacking core (!!!) but I whipped up this quick module to fix it instead, so that I wouldn’t have to worry about issues integrating with client templates and could distribute the module out over our entire farm.

function emunications_form_user_login_alter(&$form, &$form_state) { $form[‘#attributes’][‘autocomplete’] = ‘off’; } function emunications_form_user_login_block_alter(&$form, &$form_state) { $form[‘#attributes’][‘autocomplete’] = ‘off’; } drop the code into your own module (and of course, change the prefix to match) to use it.

I’ll be Speaking At OpenCa.mp This Weekend

I’ll be speaking at OpenCa.mp this weekend about module development. Be sure to come down and check it out, as it’s sure to be an interesting presentation. I’ve crammed a lot into 40 minutes, so everyone should walk away with something new. The presentation will be archived and made available here and on the OpenCa.mp site, so check back if you miss the conference.

I spend some time reviewing the basic concepts surrounding module development in Drupal and then dive right in with an overview of a working module. I also spend time discussing some strategies for speeding up the development of modules and some of the common pitfalls that you will face.

If you’d like to follow along with the presentation, you can find the source code for the simple module we cover here. It’s a simple image carousel based on the jQuery cycle plugin. We use a much more advanced version of it in production here at eMUNICATIONS.

Feel free to contact me with questions about the presentation or the code linked below.

Our Artwork Featured on MTV’s Real World: San Diego

If you’ve watched the latest season of MTV’s Real World, you’ve seen a logo in the fish tank created by yours truly. I’ve been designing for Reliant Aquarium since they first established themselves as a business about 5 years ago and have had the pleasure of watching them grow into the business they are today. Reliant prides themselves on a professional image and I’ve been happy to help them achieve that.

We’re Ranking High on Footer Fetish

eMUNICATIONS’ own Ryan Martin has moved into second place on Footer Fetish! Because Ryan has something of a footer fetish anyway, this honor only seems appropriate.

Ryan’s entry in the graphic design contest is from the Foster Creek Veterinary Hospital website. Go check out the whole website design and then click over to Footer Fetish to vote for Ryan’s footer graphic design. Go, Ryan!

You can reach Ryan by emailing him: ryan@emunications.com

The Horrible Hat-trick: 3 Terrible Fonts That Should Always Be Avoided

They say art is in the eye of the beholder; as much as I want to agree, there’s still no excuse for ‘terrible’ typography. Among the worst offenders are the following fonts:

Comic Sans is essentially the stereotype for bad typography, and few fonts have ever caused more rage amongst designers. This sort of font is abundant in armchair graphic design – it has no place in the professional realm a is a surefire way to cheapen your brand.

Although this style has its place in design, Curlz MT does not; there are several alternatives available when you’re looking for whimsical fonts. Neutral fonts can be used over and over by many brands without consequence, but a very custom/unique font like Curlz MT is used ends up being distracting and ultimately disastrous. (Not unlike the next font, Papyrus).

Like Comic Sans, Papyrus is another running joke among designers. At first glance, it’s safe to assume Papyrus was created for a specific brand. Alas, Papyrus is used by thousands of companies all over the world. Most designers will say it “jumped the shark” long ago (after its first use), but even non-designers will claim it jumped the shark after it was featured in the ever-so-popular movie Avatar. Avoid this font like the plague.

Development of a CCK Webform Module

Here at eMUNICATIONS, we love to play paintball. The game has a lot to offer: teamwork, adrenaline, exercise, and good old-fashioned sunlight (something usually alien to the eMUNICATIONS team).

Naturally, we also like good quality websites (something usually alien to the paintball community). Most paintball websites I’ve come across are in a state of disrepair — there’s usually little to no thought of the end-user, core information is hard to find, and very few of them are using social media in a useful way.

Until recently, most field owners I’ve talked with seem to dismiss their website as an afterthought. This wouldn’t have been a major problem five years ago, but in today’s world, the quality of your website is just as important as the quality of your field.

Not everyone has an eye for design, but when your online presence is clean and professional, it communicates that your business is clean and professional. You may not want to pay for professional design in order to cut costs, but avoiding this expense will only help your costs in the short term; your revenue will suffer in the long term.

One of the biggest frustrations I’ve experienced with paintball field websites is the lack of pertinent information or poor placement thereof. Within the first five seconds of viewing a website, the user should be able to identify your field’s hours, prices, location, and contact information. Some paintball fields keep wacky hours or will open up on random days, and they don’t do a good job of letting their customers know when these things occur. This is where social media comes into play.

Many field owners are reluctant to use social media — some dismiss it as hype, some are intimidated by it, while others simply don’t care. Facebook, for example, is a great way to let your customers know of any unscheduled open days or last-minute changes to field hours. It’s also a great way to get more people to your field and more people looking at your business.

One of the latest social media services is “location-based”. Companies like Gowalla, Foursquare, and now Facebook are all working in the location-based realm, and this sort of thing is VERY advantageous for paintball field owners. These services allow users to “check in” where they are. So they’ll broadcast to every one of their friends, “I’m at Joe’s Paintball Park” which is a clickable link with your field’s contact information. If only five customers check in, that’s generally at least 300 people who were exposed to your company. You can even create an offer like this: “x% off admission when you check in using Facebook.”

So, paintball field owners, you have a lot of work ahead of you and a lot of new players to catch the attention of. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Want to know more? Drop us a line.

See you on the field!

Best Page Builders For WordPress

If you want to create stylish posts and pages for your WordPress website, then a page builder plugin is the best way to do so. The best page builder plugins add a new content editor interface to your website that lets you do so much than what’s currently possible with the default editor.

Not only do these advanced web design tools let you work through a drag-and-drop user interface, but they also provide you with a selection of useful elements that can be added to your website. Some even include high-quality pre-built page layouts for a range of projects and purposes.

If you’d like to start using one of these tools but aren’t sure which one to pick, this comparison of the best free WordPress page builder plugins will help you find the right option for your needs. And, best of all, if you’re on a budget or aren’t ready to invest in a paid tool, this page builder comparison only includes options that are free to use.

To help you find the best page builder for your website, we’ll explore the user interfaces of these tools, their most useful features, and how easy they are to use.

We’ll also look at how popular these plugins are, based on their total active installations, recent download rates, and ratings from users. This information should help you choose a plugin that’s not only been popular in the past but also stands a good chance of being well supported and maintained long into the future.

To help you find the best page builder for your website, we’ll explore the user interfaces of these tools, their most useful features, and how easy they are to use.

We’ll also look at how popular these plugins are, based on their total active installations, recent download rates, and ratings from users. This information should help you choose a plugin that’s not only been popular in the past but also stands a good chance of being well supported and maintained long into the future.

What is Page Builders?

Page builders are tools that enable you to put together websites in record time, by providing you with pre-built elements you can arrange in any way you want. You can insert them into your pages, move them around, and see the effects immediately.

WordPress page builders make it easier for users of all skill levels to create awesome websites by:

• Making it possible to build custom pages without a background in web development.
• Letting you customize complex elements and features with a few clicks.
• Including drag-and-drop functionality, so you can arrange all the elements on your pages as you see fit.
• Enabling you to preview how your site will look when it goes live.

Let’s take a look at what you should keep in mind when comparing the best WordPress page builders, so you can choose the right one for your needs.

Compatibility:

If you’re not interested in changing your existing WordPress theme for a page builder plugin, then the first thing you need to check is whether the builder you want to use is compatible with your WordPress theme.

If you find any compatibility issues, then you might want to use a builder-compatible theme for your site. Most builders in this article are compatible with all themes.

Features:

You need to understand the unique quality of each builder when comparing the features. For example, some builders are shipped with a lot of built-in layouts, while others offer dozens of animation effects.

Responsiveness:

You need to make sure that the page builder you choose allows you to create responsive, mobile-friendly layouts out of the box. For your convenience, every page builder we’ve listed in this article lets you create mobile-friendly layouts.

SEO:

You need to make sure that your page builder is creating SEO friendly layouts. Luckily, all page builders listed in this article are 100% SEO friendly when combined with the Yoast SEO plugin.

WP Bakery Page Builder

WP Bakery Page Builder is possibly the most well-known WordPress page builder in the market since many premium themes ship with it included. Its support for all types of themes and sites is excellent, and its front-end editing features make it very easy to use.

• Includes an extensive collection of pre-made layouts.
• Supports CSS customizations for all of its elements.
• It is fully compatible with translation plugins such as WPML.
• Let’s you edit any page using a front-end visual editor.

WP Bakery Page Builder is a premium plugin ($46), but it also ships for free with plenty of themes.

Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is a front-end editor that also gives you true what you see is what you get editing. When building your pages, you see the same view as your future readers.

The included modules (or elements) let you add contact forms, CTA buttons, videos, and lots more.

You also get powerful controls for when these modules display. You can choose to only display each module for certain devices or user roles. All Beaver Builder pages are responsive by default, but this feature will help you build even better mobile-optimized pages.

And if you don’t want to start building from zero, Beaver Builder includes templates for both landing pages and content pages

Beaver Builder will work well with whatever theme you’re using, but it shines when you use the included Beaver Builder Theme (only included with Pro and Agency plans). This theme utilizes a combination of the regular Beaver Builder plugin with the WordPress Customizer to give you full control over every aspect of your site.

Beaver Builder has been updated well along with the Gutenberg project. So, it works fine with your new Gutenberg editor.

Elementor

Elementor is the first free and open-source advanced page builder for WordPress. With its quick drag-and-drop builder, you can make instant page edits from the frontend of your site. Elementor is well-known for its high-speed performance, which makes it fun and easy to build with.

With its extensive template library, you get hundreds of beautiful WordPress templates from their top-notch designers, which can be exported to different websites through the page builder.

Elementor supports the responsive, mobile-friendly design, allowing you to build web pages that work great on any device.

You can build a brand new landing page without a header or footer, optimized for high conversions. For maintenance, you can get your site offline with its built-in maintenance mode. Integrating your website with a third-party web application is a breeze using its Zapier integration.

The biggest thing that we don’t like about Elementor is that its license is very restrictive. If you’re a freelancer or agency looking to use Elementor on client websites, please know that their Pro version is not GPL.

Divi Builder

Divi Builder is a popular premium page builder from Elegant Themes. While it’s most commonly used as part of the Divi theme, Divi Builder is also a standalone plugin that you can use with other themes, as well.

The Divi builder works on almost any WordPress website. It gives you endless possibilities to create the most advanced layouts without having to touch a single line of code.

Divi Builder lets you edit your content using both a visual front-end interface as well as a back-end interface, though most users will probably prefer the front-end interface.

With Divi Builder, you’ll get 46 content modules that allow you to add testimonials, portfolios, pricing tables, and lots more.

Divi Builder also ships with more than 20 pre-made layouts, so you don’t always need to start building from scratch.

Divi is slow as compared to the others and leaves a lot of wasted code behind if you remove it from WordPress.

SiteOrigin Page Builder

Front-end and back-end editing. Theme independence. Undo/Redo. Styles for rows/widgets.

Instead of custom elements or modules like other page builders, you build pages with widgets.

Beyond the core WordPress widgets, SiteOrigin Page Builder also offers a free Widgets Bundle plugin that adds a modular set of 23 widgets that you can use. It also includes ~25 pre-built templates that you can use, though these are pretty barebones in comparison to other page builders.

You can’t save your designs as templates, but you can easily clone existing pages, which gets you similar functionality.

Unfortunately, while SiteOrigin offers a free widgets bundle to give you some much-needed flexibility, you still won’t achieve the diversity of elements offered by premium page builders or Elementor.

With that being said, if you don’t need diversity and just want a free way to build pages, SiteOrigin Page Builder is certainly worth a look. Over one million active installs don’t lie!

Themify Builder

The Themify Builder comes with a drag-and-drop interface that helps you create any layout you can imagine with ease. The builder comes with over 60 prebuilt layouts and animation effects that you can choose from. This means you can quickly build beautiful pages without having to start from scratch. All you have to do is simply import the layouts you want to use, replace the images and text, and you’re done.

The builder comes as a standard feature for all Themify themes. You can also use their builder plugin with any third-party WordPress theme.

From the compact backend interface, you can use the drag-and-drop feature to build modules quickly and easily. In the frontend, you can preview the design and make live edits to your modules.

To enhance the capabilities of the Themify Builder, you can find tons of different add-ons that can be purchased separately or as a bundle

Thrive Architect

Thrive Architect is a page builder that’s built for conversion-focused websites. Thrive Architect is developed by the same folks behind Thrive Themes, a company that sells conversion-oriented WordPress themes and plugins.

Thrive Architect is shipped with a drag-and-drop editing tool and 271 prebuilt landing page templates.
With Thrive Architect, you can quickly create a stunning homepage, sales page, blog posts, and everything you could ask for.

To purchase Thrive Architect, you can either get a single site license for $67 or subscribe to the premium Thrive Membership that gives you access to all Thrive products for $19 per month.

Conclusion

Almost every builder plugin out there comes with a drag-and-drop builder on the backend and a live editor on the frontend. It’s important to understand what makes each WordPress page builder unique.

After our comparison, we’ve found that WP Bakery Page Builder, Beaver Builder, and Elementor are by far the best drag-and-drop WordPress page builders. It comes with all the features that you need to build awesome website layouts. You can use its extensive collection of pre-built layouts to quickly build a page from the ground up. After selecting the right layout for your site, you can customize the page the way you want.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress page builder for your needs.

White Space Is Not Your Enemy

The term “White Space” is often misused; many believe that it refers to any space in a design that’s white. White space actually refers to the “negative space” of a composition. It’s not simply “blank” or “unused” space, it plays a key role in the design process.

Another crucial role white space plays is eye movement, commonly referred to simply as “movement”. White space allows our eyes to take a break, all while guiding them to the next point of interest. A page with very little white space doesn’t give its users time to slow down and reflect on individual pieces of content, often leaving readers frustrated and uninterested in pursuing more information. Additionally, a lack of white space often gives off the feeling of “cheap” or “amateur”. On the other hand, many upscale brands are designed with a heavy amount of white space, which casts the emotion of “classy”, “elegant”, “luxury”, etc.

Clients often struggle with their content; they want their users to know everything about their company, all in one composition. When a composition is oversaturated with content, the effectiveness of the ad or website begins to diminish (see tongue-in-cheek graph to the left):

Take the following ad into consideration:

A very simple composition using white space to generate interest and flow

And now, let’s remove white space by adding more content and enlarging elements:

As we enlarge elements and add content, the composition starts to become overbearing.

So, what can you do to avoid overcrowding? How can you use white space to your advantage? While there’s no easy answer, I’ve come up with 3 tips to guide you in the right direction.

• Rank pieces of content in order of importance:

This will help you distinguish mandatory content from important content and non-essential content.

• Come to terms with your loss:

Know that by removing non-essential content, your essential content will get that much more attention from your viewers.

• Consider the sizing of various elements:

Arguably, one of the most frequent requests designers hear is “Can you make the logo bigger?”
Ask yourself why you want your logo bigger. Remember, logos are not your only form of branding, and there a myriad more effective solutions to make your logo stand out more. Remember to tell your designer your problem; don’t provide them with a solution (e.g., “make the logo bigger”).

Ryan Martin

Ryan Martin lives in Sugar Land, TX, where he’s the lead designer at eMUNICATIONS.com. With over 10 years of experience, he’s worked with clients such as Visa, Pepsi, and Cessna Aircraft Company.