The problem of getting infected with malware is that Google might mark your site as “unsafe”. A message may be displayed to that effect to the visitors. It could be a great deal of embarrassment and loss of face for your company. Also, if some malicious code is embedded in your site, a search engine would continue to crawl it and the links found in the source code may get indexed to your link profile. That could get you into further trouble.

How would you know that you have been hacked?

It is not always easy to tell if your site has been hacked. You should look for malicious links in your source code first. For example, if you have a site called yoursite.com, where ‘yoursite’ represents your website, and you see links and content that does not seem remotely related to your site, it is possible that your site has been hacked.

What would you do in the aftermath of a malware attack?

If you feel that the security of your website has been compromised, you should immediately start by changing and strengthening websites. If you have a WP powered website, you should change your FTP password and your WP admin password. Try to set longer and stronger passwords which use multiple characters because hackers often use software which are extremely quick and can use brute force to guess the correct password. You may consider changing the file access permission to ‘read only’ in case you find malicious links in your ‘.htaccess’ files.

One more important tip is to check your plugins in WP because they are often infected, especially if not updated. Just disable them by renaming the directory. If the live web scanner shows that your computer is now clean, you would know that that problem was in the plugin. You can now change the name of the plugin directory to the original one, and the site would go live again.

Conclusion

If you are not very tech-savvy or someone who is not good with programming, you could leave the problem to a professional expert. You may visit stackddesign.com, and create a ticket explaining the malware problem, and the professionals at ‘stackd.design’ will take care of the malware problem for you.

The post How to Remove malware from your Website? appeared first on Stacked Site.

WordPress checks the child theme first for a particular functionality and if it does not exist, then WordPress checks its parent theme for the functionality. According to ‘ElegantThemes’, 85% of WordPress users modify themes but only 35% use child themes. The reason could be a lack of knowledge about child themes or perceived difficulty in creating one.

Reasons for using child themes

• Makes updates easier: If you update without a child theme, you can either update or lose the changes that you have made to the theme or not update it at all. Of course, not updating the themes, plugins, and the software WordPress would make it outdated, and cause it to lose efficiency. Security may also be compromised.
• Makes the process of development easier: If you decide to make an update without a child theme, you may be adding snippets of code to the code base of the original theme, which could run into hundreds if not thousands of lines. That means, tracking the changes may become cumbersome later on. It makes more sense to make changes to the child theme which contains less number of files and also less code to handle. That makes the documentation process easier.
• Makes reverting to the original condition easier: If you think that customization of the theme did not go according to your plan, you can simply disable the child theme, and everything would go back to the original state.

Steps for creating a child theme

A child theme can be created by following these simple steps:

1. A theme directory needs to be created in the WordPress install.
2. A style sheet with appropriate information about your child theme has to be created.
3. You may now use the functionalities of the parent theme.
4. Activate the child theme, and the WordPress site would look like the original.

Conclusion

A child theme has a lot of advantages and is easy to use, contrary to popular belief. If you are a designer who makes frequent changes to your WordPress supported blog or website, start using child themes and enjoy the advantages.

The post Why should you be Using Child Theme for your WordPress Site? appeared first on Stacked Site.

While Robot.txt is an exclusion protocol and tells search engines what not to crawl on your site, sitemaps do the exact opposite. It helps search engines index important portions of the website and thus improve its visibility. Google was the first search engine to use XML sitemaps which are different from ordinary HTML sitemaps. Now, other search engines are also following suit and thus the importance of sitemaps have grown further from the point of view of SEO.

Advantages of sitemaps

1. A sitemap is like a blueprint: A sitemap is like a blueprint for building a house. It guides people who are working on the project to design a website. It should be kept in a central location and in a format that makes it easily accessible. It helps everybody working on the project to know the project status, the changes that have been made or changes that may be made. It saves wastage of resources and extra work that would have been required otherwise.
2. A sitemap helps to understand the goals: A sitemap gives a goal and a plan to the designer. It helps the designing team to understand what they exactly want from this website and what needs to be done in order to attain those goals.
3. Avoid duplication of content: It would be a waste of time and resources if you continue to create similar content again, and again, every time you need it. It is far more elegant and efficient to interlink content. A sitemap helps you to understand which pages exist where and how they have been interlinked. It makes the process of linking easier.
4. Sitemaps make it easier for search engines to index changes: Although search engines take a lot of time to index new pages or changes to your website, the process can be made more streamlined by having a sitemap which captures the changes.

Conclusion

A sitemap is an essential part of a website from the point of view of design, SEO, and navigability. Google does not even penalize sites if they have one XML sitemap and another HTML sitemap. As the importance of indexing increases and search engines come equipped with better crawling algorithms, websites would need good sitemaps to make the process of loading the site URLs quicker.

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With WordPress, you could choose from any of 16 designs for social media icons, and you can also add animation to them, like mouse-over effects or automatic shuffling. The social media icons could also be made to ‘float’. This makes visitors more likely to click on them, and they can be prompted further if you add ‘counts’ to the social media icons. The latter has a psychological effect (most people follow the herd, and if one or a few persons have ‘liked’ or ‘shared’ it on social media already, they are more likely to do the same).

Where should you place the social media icons?

You could do this at the top of the post. If a few people have ‘liked’ or ‘shared’ it, then that means the article must be interesting enough to read.

You could place it beside the post. This could be done in such a way that they always remain there, no matter how much you scroll up or down. Left or right? Research shows that people focus more on the left side – which is why Google has its search results on the left and paid advertising on the right.

The bottom of the post is also a good idea. If the content is great, people will want to click on them after reading the article.

What you should choose depends on the theme you are using, and also the length of the post. If it is too long, people might not get to the end of the article for them to click on the social media icons. If there is space at the sides, you might want to consider placing them beside your post. This especially makes sense if there are other call-to-action buttons at the top – you don’t everything bunched up together that the social media icons are lost in the crowd.

How many social media icons? And which ones?

A study shows that the most social media activity is caused by ‘tweets’, readers mentioning the link to your article on Twitter. This amounts to 38.6% of the total, and in second place is Facebook ‘likes’ (33.8%), followed by Facebook ‘shares’ (26.7%). Everything else is minimal, but LinkedIn can be great if your posts are aimed at those who work in an office. If you are into fashion, Pinterest and Instagram are also good choices.

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Do these things to reduce the spam you receive:

1. Disguise your email: The most common mistake that a website owner does is to put up the email ID exactly as it is. For ex. [email protected]: IDs like this easily find themselves on a spammer’s list and make you an easy target. Alternatively, what you can do is put up your email in all letters like this: abc(AT)alphabets(DOT)com. Not including email ID symbols means that it has very little chance of getting detected by a spammer. People who actually want to contact you can definitely know how to do that by substituting the alphabets with the appropriate punctuations or symbols. Now, what do you do if the people who want to contact you get confused by this? This brings us to point no.2

2. Put up a picture of your email: Instead of typing your email ID, convert it into an image, or put up a screen-shot or photo- anything that is not typed. Technically, you actually haven’t put up your email ID, but only uploaded a picture. This has got to be one of the best ways to outwit those spammers, ever. At the same time, you are eliminating any confusion for the one reading it- a complete win-win!

3. Add a contact form: By adding these forms you are asking the person who wants to contact you to give his or her details to you so that you can contact them instead of them mailing you first. As a result, you are not posting an email ID that can be spammed. Only a genuine probable client will bother to fill the form so what you get are mails from really interested people.

Need fool-proof ways to eliminate spam coming in from your website? Computer professionals can baffle you with the number of ways you can prevent spam. Contact a professional now and kiss those spammers good bye forever!

The post How to Prevent Spam Coming Through Your Websites appeared first on Stacked Site.

Many clients want to cut corners or simply want to get a job done at the lowest possible cost which may compromise the security or functional aspects of the project. A project manager has to step up to the task of telling the client about the pitfalls and the future consequences of a rushed job.

A project manager is also expected to evaluate the financial return on a particular project and try to utilize the best team available to maximize profit while creating value for the project. He/She also has to ensure that there is no gap between what is promised and what is delivered.

Flexible project plans are more effective

In order to succeed at a goal, a team needs to have a proper plan. It is important for a UX design team to focus on the process of building a website which is user-friendly and which generates leads for the client. That is only possible if the team has all the right information and inputs from the client. They will need to know what the users of the website expect from it and what kind of a target group the client has in mind. A project manager can step in to collect all the relevant information and pass it onto the design team.

Effective project management can help the two sides to set a measurable and realistic goal. It is important for them to agree on the metrics that would be used to measure the outcomes. Providing information early on will also make it easy for the client to allocate a budget for the website and also provide any other resources that may be needed. Project management is important for the UX design team as well as for the client. Whichever side you belong to, you have to use it effectively for all round success of a project.

The post What is the Role of Project Management in UX Design Projects? appeared first on Stacked Site.

Like it or not but as the UX debt of your website grows, your business interests would start suffering as well and your website will see a much lower conversion rate. The problem with user experience debt is that it is hard to recognize and pinpoint the cause(s). There could be a single factor or multiple factors, and fixing them may sometimes be very difficult as some of the problems are inherent to a particular website, being present from the time when it was first designed. Trying to fix the problem(s) would amount to changing the whole architecture of the website, which is often an unviable solution.

There are two types of user experience debts.

• Intentional UX debt – Sometimes, in the rush of business, you may have to take a few decisions without deliberating properly. It could be due to lack of resources or a genuine lack of will. Whatever the reason, these shortcomings are generally avoidable in nature. Do not ignore them because sooner or later, your users will notice these lacunae and your debt to them will grow.

• Unintentional UX debt – There are also times when you would not realize that you are making a poor decision because you do not know what your user actually wants. You may have created your website based on a survey and after closely scrutinizing the current trends. However, trends change so fast in the digital world and the needs of your users will keep shifting as well. An unintentional UX debt is created when you fail to factor in these probabilities.

How will you manage the debt?

Managing the debt is more difficult than you imagine at first because a lot of the problems here are subjective and there is no universal language or a standard parameter against which you can test the problems. However, you will have to at least recognize and quickly resolve the intentional UX debt issues. Communicate with your team about the need of solving these and how you plan to progress. Connect with your users and carry usability studies frequently. You may try A/B testing every once in a while to understand the pulse of your users. Keep a track of the latest best practices but keep enough room in your design so that any future changes can also be incorporated without a massive overhaul.

The post How can you Recognize and Reduce the UX Debt of your Website? appeared first on Stacked Site.

If website conversion is unchartered territory for you, then you won’t go wrong by implementing the following conversion best practices. So, here is the list of 5 best practices that can really make a lot of difference to the conversion rate of your website.

1. Turn your CTA into a button: Using buttons instead of links for your CTAs can make a lot of difference to the conversion rate. Using 3-D effect is very common these days and it helps the visitor to identify the CTA easily. You don’t want your customer to miss the CTA, would you? You may also consider using contrasting colors to the CTA and the surroundings to improve its visibility.
2. Put the CTA on the upper fold: Very often, visitors don’t have the patience to go through the entire length and breadth of the page. They take a cursory glance and if their information need is satisfied or if they don’t find what they are looking for, they simply bounce out. They miss important CTAs and notifications which may be below the fold. As a marketer, it is your duty to ensure that the visitor finds the CTAs at the appropriate place so that they can easily take a favorable action if they want to.
3. Use a proper headline: The headline in your web page should clearly describe the content without any ambiguity. It should be succinct and honest. A good headline will not only force the visitor to go into the body but also convert.
4. Use a video: Using video tutorials to teach your customers or making them see how the product works is a good way to increase the trust factor and making them convert.
5. If you have received awards, show them: Awards and recognitions received from credible organizations can really reinforce customer confidence. So, if you have something worth showing off, put them on the homepage itself with a small description.

If you implement these ideas today, you might see improvement in conversion rates soon.It never hurts to take a little chance, does it?

The post 5 Ideas That Can Improve the Conversion Rate of Your Website appeared first on Stacked Site.

• Optimize the content on your site with the right location-augmented keywords. You also want to choose keywords based on how you think users would enter search phrases. For instance, if a user wanted to find a restaurant in Miami, then they are probably going to be typing in ‘restaurant Miami’, ‘Miami restaurant’, or ‘where to eat Miami’. You can also use keyword tools to optimize your site more efficiently.
• Make sure you have information such as the hours of operation and address of your local business mentioned in the landing page, so site visitors can easily find it.Visitors won’t have the time to comb through your site to find the information.
• Mobile devices and local searches have grown synonymous in the recent past. If you want to cater to a local target audience, then you need a mobile-friendly site. A site that is not compatible for mobile devices will lose leads. With mobile-friendly quotient of site becoming a ranking factor in the Google search algorithm, you have even more reason to be setting up a mobile-friendly site. It’s either go mobile, or go home for local businesses.
• If you’re looking to rank well in your local SEO strategy, then you don’t want to stop with just incorporating location-specific keywords on your landing pages. You will be surprised how much of a difference having location-specific content on your site can make to your site traffic and SEO rankings.
• Stay active on social media platforms, and interact with your audience. You need to consistently engage your social media audience, which takes time and effort. However, it can pay off, and help your business gain better visibility and draw more traffic to your site. Social media signals impact your SEO rankings as well; another reason why you should take social media marketing up for consideration for a better SEO score.

For more information or assistance with SEO marketing, you can get in touch with our Brisbane digital marketing agency.

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Clear message

Can a user understand the service/product/value you offer within the first few seconds of visiting your site?

The average site has under 7 seconds to help make a visitor understand what it does, according to digital marketing Brisbane experts. Given how user attention spans are getting lower, don’t be surprised if some visitors spend as much as just 3 seconds to decide whether or not they want to stay on your site.

Your website should be designed so it sends through a clear message to the visitor. Ask any professional Brisbane graphic design agency and they will tell you how image sliders and too much information translate to higher bounce rate.

Businesses like the idea of using clever tag-lines and quirky web design formats for their pages. But given how little a time users take to decide whether or not they want to stay on your website, you are better off sticking to standard web design formats and punchlines that convey a clear business message.

Visual cues

Visual cues are a great way to capture the attention of users. However, if you include too many visual cues, you will leave the user confused. So you want to use visual cues sparingly, and strategically, say advertising agency Brisbane experts.

You may be tempted to use stock photos for your website landing pages as it an easy option, but they don’t always have the intended impact. Try using exclusive images of your business instead, so you can connect better with your customers.

For instance, if you operate a food delivery service, have a professional photographer take pictures of your staff in action during their workday, and that of happy customers, instead of run-off-the-mill photos.

Videos can be a great way to keep site visitors hooked as well, say marketing agency Brisbane. Rather than explaining what your business does in page-long content, put up a video for users to watch so they can understand what you do.

Of course, you do not want your video to be set on auto-play; if anything it will dissuade the user from watching the video, as most users like to choose the what and how of consuming online content.

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