There are so many things to think about when you start a business, and as technology improves, a lot of new company owners find themselves feeling lost and confused. If you haven’t heard of robots.txt files and why they’re essential for your business, then read on.
What is a Robots.txt File?
Robots.txt is a tiny file that might seem of little importance, but it can destroy your website. Every search engine has bots that crawl a website and determine which pages to index. When your pages are indexed, they show up in the search engine results page.
You can use robots.txt to tell search engines not to crawl individual pages, which means those pages won’t appear on the search engine results page.
How it Works
Every search engine follows a set of rules to ensure it delivers the best results for both users and website owners. A search engine will check to see what your robots.txt file says before it begins crawling and indexing your web pages.
Robots.txt is useful because you can configure your files to cancel out certain web pages, which means a search engine won’t index them. This can be beneficial if you have duplicate pages, broken links and specific areas of your website that you don’t want spider search engines to crawl and index.
Most search engines can only crawl a limited amount of pages every day, so when you configure your robots.txt file to eliminate less valuable pages, you have more opportunities to rank on the results page.
How to Use Robots.TXT
You can check if you have a txt.file by typing this formula into the search engine: [domain.com/robots.txt). Once you know if you have a file, you can use it to direct search engines to the pages you want them to crawl.
Here are some of the things you can do with a robots.txt file.
Allow Everything
Most websites find it’s easier to allow search engine bots to crawl and index their entire website because they don’t have to configure their txt.file. Using this option means crawlers can find new pages and automatically crawl them.
Block One Sub-Directory
If you have a specific area on your website that you don’t want spider search engine crawlers to find, then you should use the block one sub-directory option. This option enables you to block the checkout area, specific files or an adult section on your site.
Block Certain Files
Some people like to display images on their website, but don’t want them to be indexed by the search engines. Using this option means you can block GIFs, PDFs and focus on the vital information.
Block Certain Webpages
If you want to block your terms and conditions pages or any others that might take up valuable crawling time, you can use a command to make sure search engines ignore them. Your website visitors can still discover less important pages, but you won’t have to worry about missing out on your most important pages being crawled.
The Bottom Line
Now you know the basics of robots.txt files; you can use them to make sure the search engines crawl your most important pages, which will increase your visibility. You can use these commands to configure your robots.txt file.
Would you like to know how to create web pages that turn visitors into customers? Click here for our extensive guide.
Do you remember the old Nokia phones? People were so excited about being able to send text messages and play snake. Fast forward a few years and Smartphones have become a staple for most people, so businesses have to adapt to consumer trends. One of the latest things companies must consider is accelerated mobile pages.
In 2018, mobile usage finally took over desktop, meaning Google had to come up with a way to help websites optimise themselves for mobile browsing. Their solution is AMP.
What is AMP?
AMP was developed by Google to improve how websites are optimised for mobile search. In basic terms, AMP refers to a framework that works around existing HTML to create an effective way to streamline the information browsers exchange with each other.
By using AMP, users get a faster browsing experience, and loading speed for mobile pages is instantaneous. The most significant advantage of AMP is it integrates well with all browsers and content management systems.
Accelerated Mobile Pages SEO Benefits
It’s important to note here that while AMP isn’t a ranking factor for your SEO, but implementing it does offer two major benefits. Let’s look at them now.
Faster Page Load Times
Google recently announced that in 2021, its ranking factors would change to include user experience. One of the most significant aspects their algorithm will look for is page loading times. AMP can boost the speed of your web pages, which will result in your search result page ranking.
According to Google, implementing AMP into your website means your web page loading time could be under one second. As Website Magazine points out, slow loading pages are one of the most significant reasons people leave a web page so that AMP can make a big difference to your SEO.
More Visibility in Search Results
Google makes certain websites that use AMP are rewarded by enhanced visibility in the search results. As you can see from the image below, AMP pages are highlighted by a lightning bolt so users can see which sites use it.
AMP is also a deciding factor in if top stories will rank highly in the search results. If you don’t implement AMP, Google won’t include your post in the top stories carousel, so for blogging and content marketing purposes, AMP looks like it will become a vital integration for all sites soon.
Things to Think About
Implementing AMP is a good idea, but before you dive in head first, there are a few things you should consider.
Is AMP a stable investment?
What we mean by stable investment is can you invest once in AMP and expect to not make any future investments on upgrades? Unfortunately not. Google continually updates its algorithm, and it’s likely accelerated mobile pages.
Is there more work involved?
You’ll need to either have a development team in place or partner with a developer if you want to create content. SEO is more complicated with accelerated mobile pages, so it’s worth considering if you can afford the extra costs, time and input.
The Bottom Line
AMP holds a lot of benefits, but it seems while larger companies embrace it, SMB’s need to think about whether the pros outweigh the cons. There’s no doubt that accelerated mobile pages for SEO are important, but it’s not a cheap option for companies on a budget.
WordPress is one of the most popular website builders and content management systems in the world. What makes it so good are the sheer number of plugins available. In this post, we’re going to look at the best WordPress plugins available.
Yoast is our go-to tool here at Zapp Sites. We know how important SEO is, and Yoast makes it so much easier. There’s a free version and a paid version, but both are excellent. Using Yoast means you can update your meta titles and descriptions. It also shows you how many times your focus keyword appears in your test and gives you useful tips on how to improve your SEO score.
The premium version of Yoast has more capabilities, including synonym keywords and other words. It’s an excellent option for larger businesses, but the free version has everything you need to get started with your SEO efforts.
Web designers UK and worldwide use Visual Composer to create their sites. The frontend and backend page builder enables you to modify existing pages and create new ones with ease. Better still, the fully responsive plugin will integrate into any theme you choose, and it has full responsiveness.
Visual Composer isn’t one of the free WordPress plugins, but for everything it offers, it’s worth the money, especially if you want to build high-quality websites.
If you’re already familiar with WordPress, then you know how essential widgets are. The most significant issue users have is that if you don’t give your widgets a title, the word ‘text’ displays. It causes problems if you have multiple widgets on your site, but you can remove the text with this free plugin.
While this plugin might not seem like a big deal, it makes all the difference when you want to manage your widgets and titles from the backend.
Most people think WooCommerce is just for selling physical products, but you can also use it for subscriptions. It’s one of the best free WordPress plugins around and has endless add-on features. You might have to pay for more premium add-ons, but overall WooCommerce is ideal for people that want to maximise their selling potential.
If you want to begin selling on your WordPress website, you can integrate WooCommerce and save yourself some money. The plugin is quite complex to use, so you might find it’s better to get a professional to help you set it up.
Everyone knows how important a mobile responsive website is, especially if your business operates locally With so many people using their phones and tablets to browse the net, you need to make sure your site works across all devices. The AMP plugin enables you to optimise your website for Google and make sure you have the best chance of ranking on mobile searches.
So, those were the best WordPress plugins you can’t live without. If you’d like to learn more about developing your website, check out our helpful guide on web page design and the best practices to make your site stand out.
Do you remember the simple websites of the 1990s? Take a look at Amazon through the years, and you’ll see how technology has advanced. One of the latest and most significant advancements is UI and UX design. But, what exactly is it, and why is it so important?
In this guide, we’ll cover UX and UI design, and guide you through the best practices.
What is UX Design?
User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are both different practices, but they’re equally important. While user experience focuses on how users experience and interact with a website, user interface refers to the more technical design elements such as colours and typography.
In this guide, we’re going to focus on user experience, which refers to:
The experience of purchasing, opening and experiencing a product for the first time
How products work
Learning how to use products
Upgrades
Educating people about the product and customer support
So what is a good UX? It offers ease of use and is a mixture of strong marketing and seamless engineering. UX can only be successful if it’s supported by UI design because without essential elements such as text and typography, the user won’t have a good experience.
Now we’ve covered UX design meaning; we’ll talk more about the process involved and how you can make sure you create a strong user experience.
The UX Design Process
You can split the UX design process into five stages, which are research, design, prototyping, testing and measurement. While there are no set rules about the user experience process, you should follow these steps to ensure you cover all the bases.
Research
Research is the most important aspect of UX design because it enables you to understand your end-users. What are their pain points? Which products do they use already? Some companies can access their current customer base and find the information from them, but others might need to conduct research and create personas.
Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are fictional representations of a real audience, and they can help you to market your products. For example, say you conduct research and find that your product is most suitable for young, professional women. You can create a persona to cover the following points:
What products do they currently use?
What do they look for when they’re purchasing a product?
Where do they shop?
Which social platforms are they most active on?
Once you have one or more buyer personas in place, you know where to access your audience and how to market your product/service effectively.
Design
The second part of the UX process is designing your site. After you collect and evaluate your research, you can start to think about the customer journey and develop your product around that. The customer journey refers to the content and marketing collateral that will convince the buyer to make a purchase and the steps they’ll take when using the product.
A lot of companies use the process of wireframing to plan, structure and organise their product. Wireframes help you and your team to build a blueprint for future designs, and then you can expand on the interface elements by creating a mockup based on that blueprint.
If you’re not sure about how to use wireframing, there are some excellent web design templates to use here.
Using this technique enables a company to focus on providing the best experience for users and make sure elements such as responsiveness and page navigation are effective.
Prototyping
It’s essential that you don’t skip to creating and marketing your product straight away because the prototyping stage allows you to test your product and correct any bugs that occur.
The prototyping stage includes:
Experimenting with various designs until you find one that fits your product/service and your customers’ needs.
Checking for bugs and inconsistencies.
Gaining valuable data and using it to improve your product.
Presenting products to management and investors.
Evaluating the functional aspects of products.
Most designers conduct the prototyping stage before they even think about coding.
Testing
After you create your prototype, you can start to test your product on your audience. You can do this in many ways, including conducting customer research, surveys and using website testing companies.
You can also conduct your own form of A/B Testing and present different versions of your product to test groups. Once you gather your data, you’ll be able to see which product receives the best response. It’s also worthwhile to note that different demographics might prefer a specific version, so you can consider targeting various age groups and genders with their chosen product versions.
The primary purpose of testing is to evaluate how effective your product is and fix any bugs or issues that arise during testing.
Measuring
If you think that once you release your final product, the UX process is over, then you couldn’t be more wrong. UX design is a continual process, and you should continuously evaluate and make adjustments throughout the products lifecycle.
For example, if you operate an e-commerce website, it’s recommended that you implement a live chat feature to offer better levels of customer service. However, technology advances all the time, and as live chat features improve, you should make sure you update your chat to the latest version.
Only with constant evaluation can your product continue to provide a good experience for your user and retain the relevance of your product in a competitive market.
The Bottom Line
UI and UX design are vital tools for every company to utilise, and with time and practice, you can learn to implement both of them across your products. Remember, UX is applicable for websites, products and even services, so if you want to access professional support, talk to a top web design company in the UK.
If you’d like to learn more about UX design, then check out our guide on how to create the best web pages. Also, feel free to add your comments below. We’d love to hear your thoughts on UX and UI.
In the business world, nothing is ever certain. You can have the best ideas, a fantastic website and offer low prices, but without your customers, you’re nothing. Today, businesses are using the benefits of live chat to scale their customer service efforts, but what is live chat?
What Is Live Chat?
Live chat enables customers to receive support in real-time. Instead of sending an email or picking up the phone, they can chat to an operative through websites, apps and Facebook messenger.
Most large companies use live chat, and smaller companies are starting to see the benefits it has. Let’s look at why you need live chat.
More Convenience
Imagine you operate your business in the UK, and a potential lead in Canada visits your website. Research shows that the average person will visit a website nine times before they make a purchase, but live chat can help you reduce the number of visits by offering more convenience.
Few people enjoy picking up the phone, and most businesses reply to email within 48 hours. While that may not seem a long time, if your customer is actively searching for a product/service, they want to find what they need instead of waiting around.
Live chat means you can answer your visitors’ questions in real-time, and provide expert advice.
Better Reputation
Customer service can make or break a business. That’s a fact. HubSpot has a useful list of statistics that shows how vital customer service is to any business, to make sales. But it’s also essential if you want to maintain a good reputation.
There are so many businesses around; it’s challenging to stand against the competition. Live chat can build your reputation with your audience because it shows you’re ready to help them with whatever they need when they visit your website.
Now more small businesses are implementing live chat features, in an attempt to compete with retailers such as Amazon. It’s crucial you don’t get left behind because your company will suffer.
Cost Effective
Live chat services are bigger and better than ever before. Newer software has multi-chat functionality, which means you don’t have to hire multiple operators. You might be able to cut back on your administrative spend if you have experienced operators, so live chat might be a more cost-effective option for your business.
There are some free live chat options available, including Zoho but if you want to generate reports, you’ll have to pay. Apex Chat claims that including live chat in your customer service strategy can increase your conversions by up to 40%. An initial investment in the software could mean a steady increase in your profits.
Higher Conversion Rates
People rarely want to part with their hard-earned cash, so it’s your job to convince them. Live chat is a great way to interact with potential customers because you can build a level of trust. Think about it like this, would you rather search through a website and choose a product you think you want or speak to a real person that can help you to decide?
When you offer sound advice and listen to your customers’ needs, they’re more likely to trust your brand and will make a purchase.
Monitor Employees
It’s common practice to ask customers to fill out a survey if they’ve accessed your telephone support, but how many do it? Not many at all. But with live chat, you have the logs at your disposal to monitor how your team interacts with your visitors.
Customer service is essential for any brand success. Statistics from Customer Thermometer show that 47% of people will switch to a different company if they receive poor support. Evaluating the performance of your operators means you can assess whether they need more training.
The Bottom Line
Now you know the benefits of live chat, it’s time to consider integrating it into your website. The impact of COVID means that companies will have to really up their game to survive, and improving your customer service could be the difference.
If you’d like support with accessing live chat business services, Zapp sites are here to help. We have a range of cost-effective website packages, with fully customizable add-ons. Contact us today to build your business for a better future.
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