So, care should be taken to protect your website from hacking attempts. But sometimes despite your best efforts, your website may still get hacked. The following are some sequential steps that you should take to recover your website.

Steps to repair and recover your website

1. Check your computer first: The local environment should be scanned for any viruses first. If your computer is infected, it makes the job of hackers easy. First, get your antivirus updated.

2. Change passwords: You will have to change all the passwords that may have been compromised due to the hacking attack. You will have to change passwords in the control panel of your website, your network and also your database so that the hacker no longer has access to sensitive information. You should change cPanel passwords, FTP passwords and SSH password. Also if your website has multiple user acoounts, make sure to create new passwords for all users. A hacker may use his access to create new users. If you closely scrutinize the user account administration of your website, you may be able to identify the bogus user accounts and remove them.

3. Understand what exactly happened: You should first try to determine the nature of the attack. Did the attackers inject any new code, did they include a remote file or did they hack the cPanel? Is your website the only domain hacked or did other websites also fall to the attack in case of a shared web host?

4. Contact your web host: Most web hosts have the right tools, a support team with the right skills and specific information about the hacking attack that can help you identify the nature of the problems or find a solution. They can also provide backup support. If you are on a shared hosting service, other domains hosted may have been compromised as well. So a concerted effort will be needed.

5. Update your CMS and plugins: You should always use updated CMS platform and also use the latest versions of the plugins because hackers often find a loophole in versions that have not been updated.

6. Remove your site from blacklists: Many search engines including Google may balcklist your website if they find it hacked or infected by malware. In such a case, you will have to request them to remove your website from such a list because it affects your SERP or they may even remove your website from search index.

7. Take your site offline briefly: If you can’t fix the problems immediately, take the website offline briefly. It would prevent further damage by the hacker and also stop your users from getting a malware alert which can damage your reputation. Instead, display a 503 error message to inform the users that the website is temporarily unavailable.

Conclusion

A website can be hacked due to many reasons and in many ways. But you should always take steps that mitigate chances of an attack. Don’t make it easy for hackers to attack your website. If you are not confident with coding, consult a professional in case of a hacking attack.

The post How to Fix and Recover a Hacked 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.

1. Nobody likes routine: The 21^st century is all about variety. A modern man is restless with routine and is easily bored with everything. The same is true about people who visit your websites. Websites whose designs are updated from time to time greatly please their followers as they provide some fresh air and break from the monotony. People want variety, novelty and freshness. This is definitely one of the most important reasons you should consider updating your website theme.

2. To make things simpler: Nobody likes a website which is difficult to navigate through. Today people like short-cuts. And as the owner of a website, you need to make sure you give them the shortest cuts possible! People hate clicking links and sub-links, headings and sub-headings. They just want the info, and they want it now. So try getting feedback about how you can enhance the ease of access of your website. Simple, functional websites are always better than complex, complicated ones.

3. To gain more trust: It’s common sense that a website which has the same consistent design from ancient times until now will be seen as one that is not worth coming back to. Why? Because your readers may just feel that since you are unable to get creative, you lack substance! This is why products, automobiles and even buildings keep wearing new faces every now and then. Letting that dust gather on your website design is going to make you lose your visitors.

4. To have an edge over competitors: And of-course, the most important of all- outshine your competitors! It is true that substance wins over appearance; But how will you present the substance of your website to your readers if the appearance is not catchy enough? A catchy and attractive theme will definitely increase the value of your content and your credibility.

Convinced but confused about what you can do? Just contact the pros and watch your website bloom into a masterpiece!

The post Four Reasons Why You Must Update Your Website Theme Today appeared first on Stacked Site.

A well-organized grid reduces visual chaos and provides a breathing space to each design element so that they stand out individually as well as a single unit. A well-coordinated grid layout can help the designer to determine the right color proportions and use the right balance between design elements and white space at the margin of each row and column.

Grids are also simple. Although a grid based layout may not be suitable for all projects, a bulk of the modern design projects which need speed and efficiency are using grid based layouts to establish order without looking monotonous.

Some of the benefits of grid-based layouts are as follows

1. Aesthetic appeal: Grids can maintain clarity within chaos. It ushers in a certain order which makes it possible for the designer to clearly highlight the different design elements and use vast amounts of content in a single grid layout without cluttering the space. It is sensual without being exotic.
2. Enjoys the benefits of economies of scale: A design grid once created can be used as a road-map for future design ideas and the time of creating a new design reduces. It allows different designers to collaborate effectively since the core grid is in place and all they have to do is create different designs by switching places of components on the same grid i.e. changing the alignment or using new components on the same grid.
3. Allows creation of responsive web design: A grid-based layout is ideal for creating a responsive web design because it uses a single set of design codes to be used for the creation of a website for different devices.

A grid based layout is cost-effective and saves a lot of time. If you are building a commercial web design, in 8 out of 10 cases, you would need to use grid-based designs for their inherent advantages.

The post Why do Most Experts Prefer a Grid-Based Web Design? 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.

• 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.

The post Is Your Web Design Aligned With Your Digital Marketing Strategy? appeared first on Stacked Site.

A/B tests can offer you helpful insights on optimizing your site. Here’s what you need to know about A/B tests according to the top digital marketing agency Brisbane.

Common A/B tests

• Free vs purchase: You can test how your site fares when you offer free trials as opposed to just the purchase option. Some businesses have reported an over 100 percent increase in the site visitor sign up rate on switching to free trial from purchase option.

Some users may drop out during the course of the trial, say marketing business solution agency, but if you have a sound conversion rate, then retaining the free trial might be a good choice.

• Chat help: While you may have a search bar and site map in place (so visitors can find what they came looking for on your site), it may still not helps solve all site visitor queries. Many businesses include a chat help for this reason. You want to include one on your site to see if it makes any difference to your site conversion rate, as it answers customer questions instantly.

• CTA: The colour and placement of the CTA button could make a difference to your conversion rate. Consult your website design Brisbane agency to evaluate what changes you should make to your CTA button, before you test it out.

How to choose an A/B test

Some businesses go wrong with their A/B testing, as they randomly try and pick tests. If you are unable to decide which A/B tests suit your website’s needs it is best to outsource business solutions to an expert.

The point of A/B tests is to identify problem areas in your site that are negatively affecting the conversion rate and fix it.

This is where random A/B tests fail, according to business process outsourcing experts. You want to carry out a site analysis to determine which parts of your site appreciate good or poor traffic, and the corresponding conversion rates as well.

Check out the user drop-out points in fill-out forms, and the pages that get the most number of hits, so you know what aspects to focus on while picking A/B tests.

These tests will be able to pinpoint what is/isn’t working for your site- whether it is a long form or complex navigation that is causing users to leave the site. Once you have fixed the problem areas on your website that were leading to a high bounce rate, the next step is to check out what your competitor sites are doing, so you can up the ante.

The post Using A/B Tests to Drive Your Conversion Rate appeared first on Stacked Site.

CTA

Don’t place your Call-to-action statement in the corner of a page where it is hard to find. You want your CTA to stand out against the rest of the page so the site visitor’s attention is naturally drawn to it. You want the CTA button to be placed off the grid that has the rest of the site content.

Use directional cues, if you can, to lead to your CTA button. Ideally, you do not want the user to scroll down the page to locate the CTA button, and it should be easily accessible at first glance.

Next, if you have a form that visitors have to fill to subscribe or inquire about your service then keep it short. Users will think twice if they have to fill out a long form, and it could mean lost conversions for your business.

You should know that visitors can be directed to any page on your site, and not necessarily the home page. You want to make sure that there are relevant CTA buttons placed on other site pages as well.

Keep it simple

We have all come across those sites which have a lot happening, and leave you confused as to where to look.

No doubt, you have a lot of information to convey to visitors, whether it is the customer testimonials or accolades that you have won. However, it may not work in your favor to have it all displayed on your home page.

Your home page should have a clean visual hierarchy, with the layouts logically placed and broken into different grids. Add a search bar so visitors can easily find what they came to find on your site, and a site map as well.

Trust quotient

What’s the one thing that makes or breaks user’s decision in investing in your service? The trust quotient of your business.

If your website looks unprofessional, or has broken links, the credibility of your website naturally takes a hit. Make sure your site design and content are both updated and consistent.

Don’t forget to include stories of customers and employees on the site. It can add a personal touch to an otherwise robotic site, and in turn gain the trust of users.

The post Web Design Tricks For Higher Conversion Rates appeared first on Stacked Site.

Content and design go hand in hand

Many businesses make the mistake of working on their website design first, and then the content strategy. A strong website design is no doubt important for your business to make a good impact on visitors.

However, without a strong content to accompany it, visitors will probably move on to the next site they can find. Focusing on your content and web design efforts from the start will help structure your site as a well-rounded content publishing platform- one that sports a clean design and has informative/ interesting content. This in turn translates to good SEO rankings.

Easy to navigate

Some businesses like to get creative with their web design layouts, and while it’s not a bad thing, and can bring in that wow factor to your site, it can also work against it. If the quirks and creative elements in your website design make it difficult for site visitors to navigate or find things on your site, then you have a problem.

Most visitors will not take the trouble to stick around on a site that is not easy to navigate, and that could mean high bounce rates for your site. Google is quick to notice bounce rates while ranking sites, so if you want your site to rank well, then you may want to play it safe sometimes.

Of course, there is always room to be creative and original with the visuals on the site, but as far as the navigation goes, you want to go by the book.

Responsive design

Google has been emphasizing mobile-friendliness of sites for a while now. In fact, it recently announced that starting May 2016, mobile-friendliness will be given increased priority in the search engine rankings.

Businesses that do not have a responsive design for their site yet, should get going about now.

Given the number of users who access sites through smartphones and tablets, businesses which do not have a mobile-friendly site are missing out on some serious opportunity.

A responsive design naturally detects the size of the device, and auto-fits the page for hassle-free interaction, supporting better visitor retention, and SEO ranking.

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