Windows ASP.NET Hosting – Tips for Instagram Marketing
CheapWindowsHosting.com | Cheap windows ASP.NET hosting review and comparison. Instagram has become one of the most powerful tools for sharing the visual story of a brand. With over 300 million active users, the app has surpassed Twitter as a social media platform. And why wouldn’t it? With an increasingly visual thirsty audience, Instagram gives brands a golden opportunity to interact with their audience in a more personal and intimate way.
Instagram is not only a great tool to establish brand identity and keep customers updated with latest company news, the app can also be used to share special offers, product launches and behind-the-scenes images with the audience.
There might be 50+ tips and tricks to use Instagram for marketing, but we have extracted the top 3 from the lot so you can get on board quickly and easily.
Use Hashtags
Hashtags are the driving force of Instagram. They’re one of the main ways of how the audience can find your brand through mobile Instagram searches. There are more than a few ways to use hashtags strategically to drive audience and increase brand awareness.
- General Hashtags – By using general hashtags you amplify the chances of being found for your particular products. For example. if you own a fast food chain and you post an image of your mouth-watering burger, include tags such as #burger, #beef, #bbqsauce in the caption.
- Brand Specific Hashtags – It is a good strategy to include your brand’s name in some of your hashtags. In fact, if your brand is running a new marketing campaign, you can create a hashtag for that particular campaign to increase promotion and awareness.
- Trending Hashtags – Instagram trends spread like wildfire. If you find a trending hashtag that resonates with your brand, use it in your post and it might be seen by thousands of consumers within a few minutes.
Leverage User Generated Content
When consumers are loyal to a brand, they absolutely love to share their experience. One great way to involve them in your marketing campaign is to ask them to share their pictures while using your product and include relevant hashtags. This will not only make them feel valued but also give a boost to your marketing efforts. Furthermore, it gives you a break from having to come up with fresh content twice or thrice a day.
Share Exclusive Deals
Although it’s great to post deals and special offers throughout all social networks, posting Instagram-only offers, contents, deals, and discount codes will give your audience a good reason to connect with your brand specifically on Instagram.
Instagram is a fairly new platform for most brands, but it’s strong potential for consumer engagement makes it an imperative part of their social media marketing strategy. Once you implement these tips to gain an active following, you will realize the power of visual marketing.
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Cheap Windows Hosting – Simple Tips Optimize Your WordPress Website
CheapWindowsHosting.com | Today, I would like to share with you thirteen quick tips on how you can optimize your website and decrease page loading times. If you follow these techniques and best practices, your website will load much quicker. The time it takes your website to load influences how successful it will be. If your website is slow, visitors will turn away in droves. They might even click the back button before your website loads. Website performance will also influence your rankings in search engines. In addition to being ranked higher, many website owners report seeing an increase in search engine spider crawling after speeding up their design.
Before applying these techniques to your website, I encourage you to check the speed of your website using a free performance service such as GTMetrix, YSlow or Google PageSpeed Insights. These services will inform you of your page loading time and the overall file size of your page. They also offer tips
[su_spoiler title=”Choose the Right Hosting Plan” style=”fancy” icon=”folder-2″]
The first step in optimizing your website correctly is to choose the right hosting plan. You are fighting a losing battle if your server is taking an age to process HTTP requests and MySQL commands. Performance services such as GTMetrix will advise you of the exact response time of your server. I recommend testing the response time of your own website against similar websites. For example, if you run a photography blog, see how your server response time compares to other photography blogs within your niche. Hosting companies are not always the cause. You may be with a great hosting company but see poor response times because your chosen hosting plan is underpowered. Customers using shared hosting plans, for example, are more likely to face slow loading times as hundreds of websites are hosted on the same server. However, any type of hosting plan will suffer from insufficient RAM and CPU throttling. Therefore, you need to pay attention to what your website needs to run smoothly. Do not be a cheapskate and go for the cheapest option. Choose a hosting plan that can handle traffic spikes efficiently.
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[su_spoiler title=”Monitor Your Plugins” style=”fancy” icon=”folder-2″]
Before you install any plugin on your website, ask yourself “Is this plugin necessary?”. Plugins are one of the biggest causes of WordPress websites being slow. The more plugins you install without research, the more likely you will face performance issues; however the sheer number of plugins you have installed is not the reason a WordPress website can slow down. Certain plugins are known for causing websites to be slow. There are many reasons for this including bad coding, calls to external servers and persistent calls and updating of your WordPress database. Pay close attention to how much CPU plugins use too. Many plugins can bottleneck your CPU due to persistent processes. If this happens, your whole server could go down.
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[su_spoiler title=”Empty Your Trash” style=”fancy” icon=”folder-2″]
WordPress 4.4.1 introduced the WordPress trash system. Whenever content is deleted, be it a comment, post, page, media etc; it is sent to trash. From here, the content can either be restored or deleted permanently. It is effectively a fail-safe system that helps you recover anything that was deleted accidentally (in much the same way the recycling bin works in your computer). Trash can take up a lot of unnecessary room in your website’s database. The bigger the database, the longer it is to retrieve information from it. By default, WordPress will automatically delete trash after thirty days. This can be reduced by modifying the wp-config.php file. For example, you could reduce this to seven days by adding the following:
define ('EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 7);You can completely disable the trash system by adding this to your wp-config.php file.
define ('EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 0);[/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”Optimize Your Images for the Web” style=”fancy” icon=”folder-2″]
Images can help break up long pieces of text and can help your articles be shared more frequently on social media services; however they also take up a lot of storage. Therefore, pages that contain many images can take a long time to load. It is therefore in your best interests to optimise your images for the internet before you upload them to your website. Most photo editing applications, such as Photoshop, allow you to do this via the “Save for Web” option. A good plugin to optimize images that have already been uploaded is WP Smush.it. It utitlizes the Smush.it API to optimize JPEG images, strip meta data from JPEGs and convert GIF images to PNG. You should however be aware that the plugin uses up a lot of resources when it is converting images, therefore your website may be slow whilst it is running. If you do not want to sacrifice image quality, check out Lazy Load. The plugin ensures that images are only loaded when the area becomes visible to the user. This will greatly reduce page loading times. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”Enable Browser Caching” style=”fancy” icon=”folder-2″]Some of the largest files on your website rarely change. This includes CSS files, Javascript files, your website logo etc. One way to take advantage of this is to enable browser caching. Browser caching allows internet users to speed up the loading time of their favourite websites by storing a cached copy of your website locally. This reduces calls to your server and saves the user from downloading the same files again. You can enable browser caching by adding the following code to your .htaccess file:
## EXPIRES CACHING ## <IfModule mod_expires.c> ExpiresActive On ExpiresByType image/jpg "access 1 year" ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access 1 year" ExpiresByType image/gif "access 1 year" ExpiresByType image/png "access 1 year" ExpiresByType text/css "access 1 month" ExpiresByType text/html "access 1 month" ExpiresByType application/pdf "access 1 month" ExpiresByType text/x-javascript "access 1 month" ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access 1 month" ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access 1 year" ExpiresDefault "access 1 month" </IfModule> ## EXPIRES CACHING ##
The code above specifies how long a particular file type should be stored. Files will simply be downloaded again if they have expired.
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[su_spoiler title=”Install a Cache Plugin” style=”fancy” icon=”folder-2″]
Caching plugins allow you to publish static HTML files instead of dynamic files. This greatly reduces the time a page takes to load as there are no PHP or MySQL commands to execute. Additional caching features include minification, caching of feeds, Gzipping, Content Delivery Network (CDN) support, and much more. Caching your pages is one of the most effective ways of improving your page loading times, with many plugins promising an improvement of at least ten times. Popular caching plugins include WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache and WP Fastest Cache. All three plugins are available free. [/su_spoiler]
ASPHostPortal.com – Best and Cheap Web Hosting Recommendation
ASPHostPortal.com was launched in 2008. They are one of the best Windows Hosting in United States is ASPHostPortal.com. This company currently supports Windows Server 2012 hosting with ASP.NET 5/ 4.5 / 4.5.1 / 4.5.2, MVC 5.1 / 5.1.1 / 5.1.2/6, Visual Studio 2012, WebSockets, IIS 8.5, Wordpess 4.4.1 and support the latest Microsoft technology. All of its Windows hosting services are 100% compatible with ASP.NET 5. The price of ASPHostPortal.com ASP.NET 5 hosting packages is quite competitive, especially the Host One which we may recommend most here. Going through this promotional link directly and you will get FREE DOMAIN or DOUBLE SQL SPACE, the Host One Windows hosting package is $5.00/mo. This company offers money back guarantee if any of the clients fail to get the desired results. If the company does not work up to the expectations in a certain month, and the valid refund period is 30 days. In addition, the customer service is based on US and the representatives are working 24/7.
Cheap Windows Hosting – 10 Tips SEO Tutorial For Beginners in 2016
CheapWindowsHosting.com | Today we will learn about SEO. Do you know SEO? Nowdays almost people know about SEO, but there’s some people don’t know about that, so today we will tell you about SEO for beginner. Lets see it.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation ( SEO ) in 2016 is a technical, analytical and creative process to improve the visibility of a website in search engines, with the aim of driving more potential customers to it. SEO is the acronym for search engine optimisation. Search engine optimisation is the process of optimising your website and its content so that it can easily be indexed by search engines.
As a beginner to search engine optimization (SEO) you need to understand that there is no magic way to rank your web site in the first page of Google, Bing or Yahoo. Search engines are governed by complex algorithms and it takes a lot of effort to ‘convince’ them that your web site or page deserves one of the top spots.
Nevertheless, there are certain rules you can follow to optimize your web site and provide the bots with the necessary signals. While the web is floated with SEO tips and advice these are explained in a theoretical level and not how they can be applied in practice. In my opinion, this is why most web site owners are confused and they either give up with SEO or simply do not get the expected results.
1. Page Titles and description
Page titles
Page titles are a very important aspect of SEO and this is why it is first on the list. My findings the last couple of months show that page titles are more important than ever especially for Google SEO. Exact page titles for low volume keywords can give you a competitive advantage in search results but this is something I will discuss in another post. For now the most important characteristics of a page title are:
- Each page needs to have a unique page title that accurately describes the page’s content.
- Be brief and descriptive.
- Help the user understand what the page is about
Home page title: The title for your homepage can list the name of your website/business and could include other bits of important information like the physical location of the business or maybe a few of its main focuses or offerings. For example:
Post/other pages title:
Title of other posts/pages of your web site should accurately describe what the page is about and be attractive for the searcher.
Description
A page’s description meta tag is also very important. It gives users, Google and other search engines a summary of what the page is about. Google may choose to show what you type in the description as a snippets for your page or may decide to use a part of your page’s content. In other words it does not mean that what you write in the description will show in the snippet. The guidelines for writing a good description are:
- Always provide a unique description for all pages, post, products of your website.
- Keep the size between 150-160 characters.
- Avoid repeating the title in the description
- Don’t add too many keywords
- Try to use the description as a way to ‘advertise’ your page to the reader so that they click on your title and visit the page.
You can see from the examples above how I use the description tag for my pages.
2. Permanent link structure
The permanent link structure is a term used to describe the format of URLS for pages (categories/tags) or individual posts of a web site. It is shown in the browser address bar and in the search results (below the page title).
Guidelines for optimized link structure
- Make Urls simple and easy to understand for search engines and users
- Use hyphens ‘ – ‘ to separate the words that make up a url
- Avoid lengthy Urls with unnecessary information
- Use words that describe what the page is about but avoid keyword stuffing
Examples of BAD url structures
- http://www.example.com/UK/123213/5005.html
- http://www.example.com/socialmedianews
- http://www.example.com/id=7&sort=A&action=70
Examples of GOOD url structures
- http://www.example.com/social-media-news
- http://www.example.com/2002/12/social-media-news
3. Internal links
When we talk about internal links we mean links in a page that point to other pages within the web site i.e. not external links. In the example below when you click on the link with anchor “increase the intensity” you will be redirected to a page with-in the web site to find out more information on how to increase the intensity of an exercise.
Internal linking is a very important factor for web site SEO but still many web site owners are not using it correctly. The rules to follow for internal links are simple:
- Link related articles together either by using keyword anchor text or by using the full article title
- Make sure that the links are useful both for the user and easy to understand by search engines.
- Don’t make links for search engines only. An internal link should help the user navigate the site better.
- Do not use terms like ‘click here’ or ‘[..]’ for internal linking.
- Don’t overdo it. 4-5 internal links per page are enough (create more if really necessary)
Don’t always link old posts from new posts but every couple of weeks go back and link newer posts from older posts. It’s not an easy task to do especially if you have a lot of posts but it’s a very valuable tool for on-site SEO.
4. Text formatting and the use of H1, H2 and H3
Don’t just publish text on your web site without first doing some basic formatting. This is not good for the user experience and works against your SEO efforts. General guidelines for formatting a post or page on your web site:
- Use H1 tags for the title of your post
- Use H2 tags for the main headings of your post.
- Use BOLD and Italics to draw users attention
- Don’t use H2 tags for all your headings
- Write small paragraphs
- Use a font size that is easy to read
When formatting your posts always have in mind the user experience. Can the user identify the main sections of your post (H2 tags) just by looking at the page? Is the text easy to read even on other devices
5. The 404 Page
SEO is about improving the user experience and a proper 404 page contributes to that goal. The 404 page is the page shown when a user is looking for a page on your site that doesn’t exist or mistypes a URL or follows a broken link. When the 404 page is not configured looks like this:
This is not useful for the user and negatively impacts the user experience.
A properly configured 404 page should:
- Give some info to the user of what happened rather than displaying “Not found”
- Have a design consistent with the rest of the website
- Give options to the user to navigate to other pages of the site.
If you are using a professional theme (like Thesis), it takes care of the 404 page. This is how my 404 page looks like:
6. Image Optimization
Images are sometimes necessary to enhance the user experience but care should be taken not to create other side effects like problems with page load speed or slow response. Especially after the success of Pinterest many webmasters started using more images in their posts. If you do decide to use images, mind the following:
- Use Alt Text to describe the image. You can add keywords but don’t overdo it.
- Use keywords in image filenames (separated with dashes). Avoid using filenames like image1.jpg or person1.jpg. Instead use meaningful names with dashes. For example woman-working-out.jpg
- Keep all image files in a dedicated folder in your site i.e. www.mydomain.com/images/
- Optimize the image size. The smaller the size of the image (in KB) the faster is your web site. You can use this free tool from Yahoo to make your image size smaller without losing the quality.
7. Page Speed
Google has many times said that page speed is a ranking factor and yet many webmasters don’t optimize their web sites for speed. Their aim (Google’s) is to provide the searcher with the most accurate results in the fastest possible way. It is certain that page speed (as a ranking factor) will gain more importance in the next couple of years.
Fast web sites improve the user experience and it is a factor to encourage the visitor to come again. In addition, a web site that loads in less than 8 seconds is more likely to:
- Rank better in search results
- Get more page visits per user
- Get more conversions
How to tackle the page speed problem?
- Remove any unnecessary plug-ins (if you are using WordPress) or java script from the pages.
- Optimize the size of your images
- Use a caching service or plug-in (I use WP Super cache and W3Total Cache).
- Go to http://www.webpagetest.org/ and test how many seconds it takes for your pages to load from different locations, internet speed and browsers. The analysis report at the end will also tell you which components of your page take too long to load so that you can remove them.
- Go to Google Page Speed Service to analyze your web site and get performance recommendations.
- If you have a lot of images on your site and you cannot improve performance with the recommendations given by the tools mentioned above you can consider using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) service such as Cloud Flare or Amazon Cloud Front
8. Google authorship
What is Google authorship status?
It’s a way to bind your content with your Google+ profile. When you do that successfully your picture appears in the Google search results next to your content (see example with my picture above)
How Google authorship status relates to Search Engine Optimization?
- It improves the credibility of a web site in both the minds of users and search engines.
- Studies have shown that more people are likely to click a link from the search results if the author is verified.
- You increase the chances of getting natural links (people are more likely to link to your web site or page if you are verified).
- There is also a confirmed hidden benefit from authorship status which gives you additional listings in the SERPS.
9. Mobile friendly web sites
A significant number of searches performed each day are through mobile devices. Many studies over the last 6 months identified that the number of searches using smartphones is steadily increasing especially when it comes to making online purchases.
I am sure that if you have a look at your analytics data you will see a good percentage of your daily visits coming from mobile. In the example demonstrated below, almost 30% of the traffic is from mobile with Apple products (iPhone, iPod and iPad) being on the top positions
It’s not in the scope of this post to go in detail into mobile SEO but there some simple steps to follow to ensure that you web site is mobile friendly.
- First thing to do is understand the difference between a mobile friendly web site and a native Android, iPhone or Windows Mobile app. After talking with a number of webmasters I realized that many people fail with their mobile strategy because they do not understand this difference and because they have not yet realized the enormous potential of mobile markets.
- A mobile friendly web site is optimized for viewing on the mobile browser (i.e. Chrome on android or Safari on iPhone). A native android (iPhone or Windows Mobile app) is an application that can be downloaded from the mobile markets (Google Play or Apple Store). I will cover this with more details in another post but for SEO purposes you must provide a mobile friendly version for your users coming through mobile browsers.
- The easiest way to create a mobile friendly web site is to use a plugin (if you are using WordPress) or a service (there are free and paid) which will optimize your web site for mobiles.
10. User Sitemap
A sitemap is a list of all posts/pages of your web site. You need 2 types of sitemaps. First an xml sitemap to submit to Google, Bing and other search engines and second an html sitemap to help visitors find your content easier. It is recommended to place a link to your user sitemap from the main menu.
SEO vs. SMO: What’s the Difference and Why Do We Need to Know?
Online marketing is all about awareness and visibility. Most of the time, people find your small business online in one of three ways:
Your company came early in the search engine results,
You mentioned or recommended by others or sites they visit, or They already know about your company and go looking for you Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of strategies with broad goals to bring more people to your website in a way that first, by increasing your search engine rankings. Social media optimization (SMO) can be one part of SEO but also contribute to all three ways people find you online. Read More
