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Article Note: This article “10 Strong Points That Make Drupal Perfect for Web Development” was first published on January 29, 2021. We last updated this article with fresh information on April 6, 2023.

One of the most well-known CMSs available on the market for free is Drupal. Drupal is an open-source CMS platform that enables users to develop powerful and scalable web solutions. Its modular architecture, active community, and security features made it popular among developers. Nowadays, it is one of the best for web development, so many state establishments, large-scale associations, non-profit organizations, and even companies from the Fortune 500 list build their sites on Drupal.

This content management system is easy for developers, safe, and accessible to customers, which makes it a universal choice for any business. It allows developers to create a wide range of websites, from simple blogs to complex eCommerce stores, ensuring scalability and security. This robust CMS platform can help you serve a global audience with multilingual support.

How Drupal managed to gain such popularity and what makes it special? Read the advantages of Drupal below. Keep scrolling the page to understand what makes Drupal the best fit for making secure and scalable websites or web apps.

Who Uses Drupal?

You can take your digital presence to legendary heights with Drupal. This CMS powerhouse is trusted by big names like General Electric, The Economist, and eBay, as well as global government agencies, charitable organizations, and universities. And it’s not just about the clout – Drupal is the perfect match for complex websites with tons of content and traffic. Plus, Drupal developers have proven time and time again that it’s the best platform for creating ambitious digital solutions that pack a performance punch. Get ready to soar with Drupal!

Julia Dashchenkova, the project management department head of Gole.ms, sheds light on the buzz surrounding the newest version of Drupal in her latest blog post. According to her, “Drupal 8 is currently the talk of the town, with an abundant supply of resources readily available for its configuration. However, it’s the release of Drupal 9 that has everyone’s attention. With little information and practical experience out there, curiosity and anticipation for this latest iteration are at an all-time high.”

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Key Advantages that Make Drupal Perfect for Web Development

The reason why Drupal is such a popular CMS is that it can evolve with your needs. You can start with a very simple corporate site and gradually add the required functionality (e-commerce, catalogs, rating systems, etc.). As the business world increasingly depends on the speed of decision-making, your ability to change your development priorities and set some new directions – that’s what we consider one of Drupal’s main advantages. Now, let’s look at the key features that make Drupal extremely popular for web development:

1. Modular Architecture with a Large Library of Modules

Drupal has a modular architecture, meaning you can add or remove features as needed. This makes it easy to customize your website and add new functionality without affecting other parts.

The modular architecture of Drupal consists of the following components:

• Core modules.
• Themes.
• Libraries.
• Custom Modules.

Drupal sites have a wide range of customization options. This content management system has a large community of users where thousands of developers contribute to the library of modules.

Its modules include a wide range of site features like:

• For social networks – ShareThis.
• For photo editing – Image Effects.
• Plugins for the calendar.
• CAPTCHA.
• GA.
• Plugins for meta tags.

The advantage of upgrading to Drupal 9 has resulted in easy and even better integration and usage of add-ons. There are currently thousands of free modules available for any website you can imagine.

2. Localization Capabilities with Multilingual Support

The superior advantage of Drupal is its localization capabilities. Drupal 9 has fantastic international capabilities. One can add geolocation features, such as making content or navigation links available only in certain countries. For example, you can publish different content for customers from the United States and Canada. Drupal provides the widest opportunities for the localization of everything that is on the site.

Drupal’s multilingual capabilities make it an excellent option for websites that cater to a global audience. With its four built-in multilingual support modules, users can seamlessly browse your website in their preferred language. Say hello to a more engaging user experience that transcends language barriers! Let’s see these 4 modules that Drupal offers:

Configuration Translation Module

Have you ever needed to create a website with multiple language options? The Configuration Translation module is here to save the day! This handy Drupal tool lets you easily translate configuration settings into different languages. It may not be visible to end users, but website builders will definitely appreciate its usefulness in creating a multilingual and user-friendly website.

It also supports importing and exporting translations, making it easier to manage translations across different sites or environments.

Content Translation Module

It lets you translate content entities and types like blocks, comments, taxonomy terms, custom menu links, etc.

Moreover, it supports translating content like pages, articles, blog posts, and others. This Drupal module allows you to create translated versions of this content so that users can view it in their preferred language.

Interface Translation Module

It is a core module of Drupal 8 and Drupal 9. This Drupal module provides support for translating the user interface (UI) of Drupal. The UI refers to the text labels, buttons, menus, and other elements users interact with when using the site.

The Interface Translation module allows you to translate these UI elements into different languages, making it easier for users who speak different languages to use the site.

It is worth noting that the Interface Translation module only translates the UI elements of Drupal itself. It does not translate the content on your site, which requires using the Content Translation module or other similar modules.

Language Module

This Drupal module supports creating and managing multilingual websites. It lets you define and manage languages. It configures how your site handles language-related functionalities.

The Language Module is a crucial tool for creating a website that can speak virtually any tongue. Without it, your multilingual dreams will remain just that: dreams. With this module, you’ll finally have the power to configure your site’s default language and add new ones as needed. It’s like having a universal translator built right into your website!

If you’re looking to expand your reach and ensure that all visitors can comfortably access your content in their native language, then you’ll want to get your hands on the Language Module ASAP. And if you’re unsure where to start, then don’t hesitate to reach out to a Drupal development team for expert guidance.

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3. Customizability Without Extra Knowledge

Drupal is highly customizable and can be used to build many websites and web applications. Its modular architecture makes it easy to add custom functionality and features to your website, and there are thousands of contributed modules available in the Drupal community. Drupal’s customizability is one of its key strengths, and it is achieved through a combination of modular architecture, theming, and a powerful API.

Whether you need a simple brochure site or a complex online store, Drupal provides the flexibility and customization options to meet your specific needs. This provides businesses using Drupal with a wide range of customization options for functionality and design.

Do you need extra knowledge to work with the site? It may be surprising, but you don’t need it! The Drupal interface is well-optimized, and people can easily use it regardless of their computer literacy level.

Technically, Drupal is processed on an internal server by your Drupal team, so you care only about the creative processes. Copywriters, editors, and administrators can interact with a site without experience in HTML or coding, thanks to a simple WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) editor. Its interface makes writing, editing, and adding content as easy as using a Word document.

Drupal boasts an impressive range of upgrades, from sleek HTML5 fields and new auxiliary libraries to enhanced accessibility features and slick user interface elements. Plus, with basic themes and improved performance, your site will be faster and smoother than ever before. Don’t settle for mediocre web design – step up your game with Drupal. Some of the most important features include:

Advanced Media Capabilities

With Drupal’s advanced media capabilities, you can seamlessly integrate audio, video, images, and even network video resources from popular platforms like YouTube and Vimeo. Elevate your site with engaging multimedia content that captivates your audience and takes your user experience to new heights.

Content Workflows

The content workflows module of Drupal offers a creative solution to help users define multiple work schemes. With the ability to create unpublished content versions that include necessary updates, you can painlessly manage your publication life cycle. Whether you’re running a news portal or any other content-heavy website, this powerful tool has got you covered.

Layout Builder

This amazing Drupal module empowers you to effortlessly create jaw-droppingly beautiful layouts for your website content without needing to know a lick of HTML. With its intuitive visual design tool, customizing everything from pages to templates has never been easier. Stop settling for bland, cookie-cutter designs, and let Layout Builder bring your creative vision to life!

Context Blocks

Context Blocks is a revolutionary module for Drupal that simplifies webpage design. With it, you can create or edit pages without any coding knowledge. Amazing, right? Most of the elements of the page are customizable blocks that can be moved or adjusted just by dragging them. This design flexibility empowers users to see the final result and make changes intuitively. Get creative with your website and captivate visitors’ attention with ease.

Quick Editing

Save yourself the hassle of waiting for content to upload to your site! With Quick Editing on Drupal, typing your text directly into the text editor is all it takes to enjoy lightning-fast content uploading.

Injecting creativity into website design just got easier. With Drupal, it’s possible to create a flexible architecture that seamlessly integrates composite features and customizable search solutions. Say goodbye to static layouts and hello to endless possibilities for your online presence. The power of Drupal lies in its ability to provide comprehensive examples that make designing a breeze. Get ready to unleash your inner designer and create a website that truly stands out from the rest.

4. Scalability

Another advantage of Drupal is its high scalability. It can be used to build websites of all sizes, from small blogs to large enterprise-level websites. This makes it popular among large organizations that run sites with high traffic. It advances the performance of sites by means of caching, reducing load time, and requirements of resources.

As per the latest w3techs market research, among other content management systems (CMSs), Drupal is used by high-traffic websites on the internet.

Drupal’s scalability is due to its modular architecture, which allows you to add new features and functionality to your website as your needs change.

This makes it well-suited for businesses that expect to grow and expand their business over time. So, for businesses looking to find a solution to meet their growing business needs, investing in Drupal development services will be perfect for you.

This content management system has several types of add-ons for caching PHP source code, which can give a significant advantage to a slow-loading site and significantly reduce the processing time of each request.

5. Security: The Safest CMS

With proper implementation and maintenance, Drupal is a safe, open-source CMS. It is impressively safe; therefore, numerous large-scale organizations trust Drupal as the primary CMS for their sites or apps. Its security groups are among the best ones, besides, one of the most extensive open-source developer communities contributes to the CMS.

Drupal has a strong security track record. Its security team works actively to identify and patch vulnerabilities. Moreover, Drupal’s security module provides additional security features like encryption, user authentication, and access controls.

However, you can consider some things to make secure your Drupal website:

• Keep Drupal updated.
• Use Secure passwords.
• Limit access.
• Use HTTPS.
• Use Security modules.
• Back up your data.

This makes Drupal website development well-suited for providing a secure website or web app to website visitors.

6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Friendly

Drupal is a digital powerhouse that comes with incredible built-in SEO capabilities to ensure your website gets noticed by search engines. Adding to its prowess is the ability to beef up those SEO features using specialty modules. With Drupal, enhancing your website’s search engine rankings is a breeze! In fact, studies have shown that Drupal-powered websites attract significantly more traffic and attention than any other CMS-powered web solution. So what are you waiting for? Boost your website’s SEO rankings and take it to the top with Drupal! Some of the features are:

Clean URL Structure

Drupal is designed to make your site’s URLs clear and easy to index, boosting your search engine optimization and bringing more traffic to your site. With Drupal, you won’t have to worry about tangled and inefficient URLs – just sit back and watch your website rise to the top of search engine results.

Mobile-Friendly

Luckily, Drupal’s responsive design makes it a breeze to create a site that works beautifully on any device. And with mobile searches now representing the majority of all online searches, it’s not just a nice-to-have – it’s a must-have. So stop playing small and start playing smart with Drupal’s mobile optimization capabilities.

Meta Tags

With built-in support for meta tags of Drupal, you can easily optimize your site’s content for search engines. Say goodbye to feeling invisible and hello to gaining more traffic and recognition. Let Drupal give you the boost you need to stand out and shine online.

XML Sitemap

With Drupal’s special XML sitemap generator, your site’s pages will no longer go unnoticed. This built-in tool automatically creates and updates your sitemap, ensuring that search engines can easily find and index your content. No more missed opportunities for organic traffic!

Redirects

With the redirect module of Drupal, you can easily manage and create redirects from one URL to another. These redirects not only prevent broken links but also ensure that your site’s SEO stays on track by ensuring that search engines are indexing the correct pages.

Performance Optimization

Speedy load times are the key to ranking high on search engines. Fortunately, Drupal has got you covered with built-in performance optimization features, including caching. Tweak your site’s performance and soar to the top of the popularity charts!

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7. Cost-Effectiveness

With its cost-effective approach to web development, Drupal can help you build the website of your dreams without burning a hole in your pocket. So what makes Drupal the perfect choice for those on a tight budget? Let’s take a closer look at some of the key factors that make it such a popular choice among low-cost web developers.

Open-source

Firstly, Drupal is open-source software that’s free to download, use, and customize. With over 40,000 free modules and 2,500 themes to choose from, building a website or app has never been more affordable. Say goodbye to pesky monthly fees and hello to endless possibilities with Drupal.

Community Support

The community of Drupal developers, designers, and fellow users is thriving and eager to offer their support. With a plethora of online forums, easy-to-understand documentation, and other invaluable resources at your disposal, your journey with Drupal is bound to be a smooth and cost-effective one. Why hire pricey consultants when you’ve got a whole community rooting for you?

Extensibility

Drupal isn’t just another website builder – it’s a toolbox that lets you customize your website to meet your specific needs. Unlike other platforms that force you to pay for features you don’t need, Drupal lets you pick and choose what you want. Plus, with a plethora of third-party modules and themes available, you’ll save development time and costs. So why settle for a cookie-cutter site when you can have the freedom to create something truly unique?

Hosting Costs

While the Drupal CMS platform itself won’t cost you a penny, the price of hosting can vary depending on the size and complexity of your site. Don’t worry though, there are plenty of affordable hosting options out there, from speedy cloud hosting to cost-effective shared hosting. So, get ready to launch your site without breaking the bank!

8. Access from Anywhere

Today, almost 60% of the world’s population uses smartphones! That’s over 4 billion people – a staggering number! With such a massive audience accessing content via mobile devices, it’s never been more vital to have a mobile-friendly website. Luckily, Drupal and its various modules have got you covered.

Regardless of whether your users are at home, at work, or on the road, your site will work flawlessly across all devices. And if you’re looking for cutting-edge mobile-first functionality, Drupal 9 should be your go-to CMS. With clever features like an adaptable admin interface, responsive image support, and the Breakpoints module, Drupal hits all the right notes for creating a truly modern website.

9. Powerful Site Search

The search function is among the reasons to opt for Drupal instead of other CMSs. Sites with high traffic and extensive databases can slow down due to poor search features, which creates a weakness in web application performance.

This content management system makes it possible to use Apache Solr, a well-known open-source full-text search platform, instead of the main search module, which gives a huge increase in power and speed. It also allows you to perform complex searches, and attach files (such as PDFs and others).

10. Flexibility of Integration

Drupal’s flexibility makes it possible to integrate with third-party APIs and to create one’s own endpoints of an API. It was specially developed on the API-first principle, which already makes it stand out from its competitors. An API makes it feasible to exchange such data between servers as posted content, information about users, or multimedia data.

Why is Open Source a Benefit?

The open-source software code has a license under which the holder of the copyright grants the right to study, modify, and circulate the software to any person and for any intention. This software can be improved collaboratively, and publicly, and this is the prospect of web development for the below reasons:

1. One of the key benefits is the high number of participants. With so many specialists who contribute to the platform, it is possible to solve problems quickly and effectively with a wide range of ideas, methods, and capabilities. Developers have worked out modules and plug-ins to meet all the needs of users.
2. Paid software often contains errors and is guided by an outdated command philosophy. Thanks to open-source, you can continuously adapt to create the best product. Thanks to the huge number of developers and designers who work on Drupal, there is an extensive knowledge base in which you can always find answers to your questions.

Drupal vs WordPress vs Other CMSs: What to Opt For?

Although WordPress is a great CMS, competing Drupal is frequently chosen for complex sites with high traffic and large databases. Its power, flexibility, functionality, and safety make Drupal a widely chosen CMS. WordPress is probably easier to use and suitable for most businesses. But Drupal has the depth and power that a lot of large-scale companies and agencies require for a professional website.

The latest Drupal update brings valuable functionality improvements. Many of the best modules have been integrated into the kernel, and the use of additional third-party modules has also been simplified. Drupal has shown significant improvements with every update, dramatically increasing usability and performance.

If you plan to create a website based on the best development practices, a website that will be relevant for many years and that will develop with you – Drupal is a decent option.

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Conclusion

Though many other reasons tell why Drupal is a perfect CMS for developing websites, the ones mentioned above are the major ones. With its advanced features today, users prefer hiring a Drupal development company to develop websites and web apps. So, just hire a reliable one and leverage the full potential of this CMS platform in developing your web solution.

We have written this article in association with Adam Parker. Adam is a web developer at HTMLPanda - a renowned Drupal development company. He loves to read about learning new technologies and sharing information on the internet by writing articles and blogs.

Vulnerabilities in outdated WordPress plugins or themes can allow hackers access to your website. WPScan is a vulnerability scanner for your site, identifying critical vulnerabilities and helping you keep your site up-to-date and secure from cyber threats.

The article serves as a step-by-step tutorial for beginner WordPress users to learn how to use WPScan to find security vulnerabilities. As security experts, we understand the importance of keeping your website secure from cyber threats. That’s why we’ve tested WPScan ourselves and can provide you with reliable information and guidance on how to use it to scan and secure your WordPress site.

WPScan is incredibly user-friendly and straightforward to use, especially for smaller sites. All you need to do is create an account, install the plugin, and you’re ready to go. However, for larger sites, if you want to use the plugin for free, you’ll need to select which plugins and themes you want to monitor. It’s essential to remember that vulnerability scanning is just one aspect of WordPress security, and a good firewall like MalCare will protect your site even if it has vulnerabilities.

WPScan is a vulnerability scanner designed specifically for WordPress websites. As the name implies, it scans your site for vulnerabilities and offers some hardening features. 

With one of the most comprehensive vulnerability databases available, WPScan can identify vulnerabilities in even the most obscure plugins and themes with fewer than 100 active installs. 

All that being said, WPScan is not a complete security plugin and doesn’t include a firewall or malware removal feature, which is critical for comprehensive WordPress security. For that, you’ll need MalCare.

How to use WPScan to find vulnerabilities?

Using WPScan requires a bit of setup and knowledge of how it works. In this section, we’ll guide you through the process of installing, setting up, and using WPScan so that you can protect your website from potential attacks.

Step 1: Create an account

When using WPScan, you’ll need to obtain an API token in order to access the service. This token is unique to each user and is required for the service to track usage and prevent abuse.

To obtain your API token, you’ll need to sign up for WPScan and create an account. Once you’ve created your account, you’ll be able to access your API token in your profile settings.

Step 2: Install WPScan on your WordPress site

There are two methods to choose from when it comes to installation. The first method is beginner-friendly and involves using the WPScan plugin directly from the WordPress dashboard. The second method is a bit more advanced and involves installing WPScan from the command line. Let’s take a look at both methods in more detail.

Install WPScan with a plugin

The quickest way to start using WPScan is by using a plugin.

1. Install and activate the WPScan plugin from the plugins page on your WordPress dashboard.

2. Obtain your API key by signing up for a WPScan account and finding the key in your profile.

3. Enter the API key in the wp-admin dashboard to enable scanning functionality.

4. Deselect any plugins or themes you don’t want checked, as the free version of WPScan only allows for 25 API calls per day. Each plugin or theme takes 1 API call. If you keep your WordPress version updated regularly, you can deselect that from the list of items to be checked.

Customize the scan settings to suit your site’s needs, but make sure to check all installed plugins and themes, especially if you don’t keep them regularly updated.

Install with WP-CLI

To install WPScan via the command line, enter one of the following commands in the terminal: 

If you’re using Windows: gem install wpscan

If you’re using a MacOS: brew install wpscanteam/tap/wpscan

Step 3: Scan your site with WPScan 

If you installed WPScan as a plugin, you can access it through your WordPress dashboard. If you installed it using a command-line tool, you’ll need to use the terminal to run scans. 

Use the plugin

After setting up WPScan, it will automatically run a daily scan at a fixed time. 

To run a manual scan, click on “Run All” in the “Click the Run All button to run a full vulnerability scan against your WordPress website.” box. 

Each plugin or theme will have a corresponding result and recommended action, usually to update if a vulnerability has been fixed in a subsequent update, with a link to more information.

You can click through to see the vulnerabilities discovered and reference links. 

Additionally, you can configure email alerts for scan reports.

Use WP-CLI

The basic scanner can be used with the following command: 

wpscan --url <your site URL here> 

This will check if your plugins and themes are up to date. There are several commands you can use from the command line. WPScan can also be used to test your site against brute force attacks. Bear in mind, some of the commands will require the use of the API token. 

Step 4: Check other hardening measures

Here are some extra things to look out for in a WPScan report, apart from a basic scan:

• Check for debug.log files: log files may contain sensitive information that can be used by attackers to exploit vulnerabilities.
• Check for wp-config.php backup files: wp-config.php contains sensitive data such as database credentials and password salts, and should be kept secure.
• Check if XML-RPC is enabled: XML-RPC presents a potential security risk as it provides an alternative way to log into a site. It is recommended to disable it if not needed.
• Check for exported database files: backups stored in publicly accessible folders can contain sensitive user data and should be kept secure.
• Check for weak passwords: use a password strength checker to ensure passwords are secure.
• Check if HTTPS enabled: make sure SSL is enabled on the site.

Pricing

WPScan is a great tool to have under your site security belt. It’s an important part of WordPress security that is easy to use and effective. With that out of the way, let’s talk pricing. 

The free version of WPScan is available for personal and non-commercial use, but it is not actively supported. Many people choose to use Jetpack instead.

The enterprise edition of WPScan offers a free version that allows for up to 25 API calls per day. You can check how many API calls you’ve used in the “Account Status” box on your dashboard.

Commercial users can opt for Jetpack Protect, which includes WPScan. For enterprise users, developers can integrate WPScan directly into their site.

Wrap up

While WPScan is a great tool for identifying vulnerabilities in your WordPress site, it is not a complete security solution. If the scanner reveals vulnerabilities, your site may have malware already. To be absolutely clear, WPScan cannot detect malware at all. 

If you suspect your site has malware, you will need a malware cleaner to remove it. Additionally, to protect yourself from future attacks, you will need a firewall in place. 

This is where the MalCare plugin comes in. It is the most comprehensive security plugin that not only includes a powerful malware cleaner but also a firewall to protect your site from future attacks. 

FAQs

What is the use of WPScan?

WPScan is a security tool designed specifically for WordPress sites. It is used to identify vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins, themes, and the core WordPress installation itself. The tool scans for vulnerabilities using a database of known issues, and provides information on how to patch those vulnerabilities. WPScan can be used by website owners, developers, and security researchers to identify potential security weaknesses in their WordPress site and take necessary actions to prevent any potential attacks. 

Where do I put the API token in WPScan?

The API token can be added to WPScan’s dashboard, or used with the appropriate command from CLI. 

Some of the commands require an API token for WPScan’s advanced features, such as enumerating plugins and themes, test brute force attacks, and vulnerability testing. To use the API token with WPScan, you need to run the command with the –api-token option, followed by your API token.

For example, the command would look like this:

wpscan --url https://example.com --api-token ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789

Replace https://example.com with the URL of your website and ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789 with your API token.

The post How to Use WPScan: A Step-by-Step Tutorial appeared first on MalCare.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from MalCare authored by Editorial Team. Read the original post at: https://www.malcare.com/blog/how-to-use-wpscan/

Every website needs regular maintenance. WordPress maintenance involves checking your site’s configuration, functionality, security settings, available updates, unused files, and more. Just as with a house or a car, ongoing maintenance can prevent major technical issues down the line.

Most WordPress maintenance tasks take minimal time and can even be automated. You might even use a maintenance checklist (like this article) to help you remember every job you must do and how often. Doing so will keep your site running in top shape without paying for WordPress maintenance services or putting your website into WordPress maintenance mode.

This article will cover the ten most important WordPress maintenance tasks you need to execute. We’ll discuss how each task works and why it’s essential. Let’s get to it!

Table of contents

The Importance of Maintaining Your WordPress Website

WordPress maintenance is an ongoing process, much like Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s not something you can do once and then forget about.

If you don’t keep up with WP maintenance, visitors might run into errors and downtime while navigating your pages. Basic maintenance tasks such as plugin updates, backups, and performance optimization can greatly improve the user experience on your site, along with reducing security risks.

WordPress maintenance services can cost you a lot of money. However, there’s often no reason to pay for dedicated support if you know your way around basic WordPress maintenance tasks.

Of course, it can be difficult to find time for these maintenance tasks. However, it’s important to make the time because proper maintenance is key to maintaining a website and avoiding errors. Plus, some tasks – such as checking for broken links, performance optimization, and making your site more mobile-friendly – can even improve your pages’ SEO.

Overall, the more time you spend on maintenance tasks, the fewer site-breaking errors you’ll encounter, and the less downtime your users will experience.

Top 10 WordPress Maintenance Tasks

In this section, we’ll cover the most important website maintenance tasks you need to be able to carry out.

You don’t have to be a WordPress developer or WordPress security expert to be able to perform any of these tasks. All you need is a bit of time. By the end of this tutorial, you’ll understand the basics of how to keep your WordPress website running in top shape.

1. Perform Regular Backups

Performing a full-site backup is arguably the most important WordPress maintenance task. A complete site backup provides a restore point if anything goes wrong. If you run into a site-breaking error or your website gets hacked, you can simply restore it to an earlier backup instead of spending hours troubleshooting.

Ideally, you’ll back up your website every day. You can do this manually by copying your site and database files to a different storage location.

In most cases, the best option is to use a WordPress web host that backs up your website automatically every day. Many hosting services do this, particularly managed WordPress solutions:

If you don’t want to opt for managed hosting, another alternative is a WordPress backup plugin. Tools such as UpdraftPlus create copies of your site and even configure automatic backups on any schedule.

Whatever method you use, creating backups is the kind of maintenance task you should automate. Daily maintenance takes too much work. Plus, if you only back up your site periodically, you may lose a lot of information when you restore your website.

2. Update WordPress Core, Themes, and Plugins

One of the main causes behind WordPress errors and security issues is neglecting to update and maintain the core software and its components. If you look at update logs for any major plugin and WordPress.org itself, you’ll notice many of them are related to security and bugs.

The more time you spend using outdated software, the more often you may encounter errors. Moreover, updating WordPress and its components is so simple that there’s no reason not to do it often.

At least once a week, go to the WordPress dashboard and open the Dashboard > Updates tab. Look at the list of components that need updates, and execute all of them:

For themes, you only need to focus on updates for the one you’re currently using. However, updating all installed themes only takes a few seconds, so why not do it?

P.S. You might want to disable any themes and plugins that you’re not actively using to improve the security of your WordPress website.

Updating WordPress core, plugins, and themes can lead to errors sometimes. That’s why you must have a solid WordPress updates strategy in place before updating WordPress to a major new version or performing multiple plugin upgrades. It also pays to have as recent backup in case things go south.

Even better, is access to staging functionality; this is the safest approach to use when updating your website. You can run updates on the staging site, verify that they don’t cause any errors, and then push them to the live website.

Some managed WordPress hosting providers offer automatic updates for the CMS and its components. However, the process is so straightforward that we recommend checking for updates manually.

3. Delete Unused Themes and Plugins

If you find yourself updating dozens of WordPress plugins and themes regularly, but you’re not using most of them, it’s time to consider removing them. Deleting inactive plugins and themes frees up space, removes entries from the WordPress database, and makes maintenance tasks go smoother:

There’s also an argument to be made for reducing the number of WordPress plugins you use. If you’ve installed multiple plugins, take a few minutes to review that list. See which tools you’re actually using and delete the ones you aren’t.

Sometimes, using too many active plugins can slow down your website. Furthermore, the more active plugins you have, the more potential compatibility and security issues can pop up.

In terms of frequency, we recommend checking your list of active plugins every couple of months. If you update your site often, you’d be surprised at how many plugins can accumulate, so it pays to reduce that bloat.

4. Regularly Check and Optimize Your Website for Speed

When you launch a website, every page should load almost instantly. As you customize the site, add new plugins and features, and change its design, it can slow down. That means pages will take longer to load because they include more data.

This isn’t a problem if the loading times remain reasonable. By reasonable, we mean under a couple of seconds. Studies show that bounce rates start to increase drastically after the two-second mark.

You can use plenty of free tools to monitor page loading times. Some of our favorites include PageSpeed Insights (which also measures Core Web Vitals) and Pingdom Tools:

To test a page, enter its URL, and you’ll receive a breakdown of its loading time and potential improvements. That last part is essential if you want to decrease loading times across the board:

Here are a few ways to decrease the average page loading times:

• Optimize images. Optimizing images before or during upload can drastically decrease loading times, because image files can weigh a lot. You can optimize images using online tools or WordPress plugins like ShortPixel.
• Reduce the number of third-party scripts on each page. Third-party scripts and elements (such as Google Fonts) need to connect with an external server to execute. Waiting for responses from those services can increase page loading times. Therefore, reducing the number of scripts will help pages load faster across your entire site.
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN will cache your site’s content on its servers. These servers are configured for faster loading, which will decrease the load on your own.
• Leverage browser caching. You can configure how browsers cache your website’s content to reduce loading times for return visitors. At the very least, browsers should be caching images from your site.

There are a lot of things you can do to increase website loading speeds. These are just some of the most impactful changes you can make.

For the best results, we recommend checking the loading times for several of your site’s key pages every month and keeping track of the results. If you notice loading times increasing, there’s probably a problem with your site’s configuration or server load.

5. Harden Your Site’s Security

WordPress is a secure CMS out of the box. However, you can do many things to harden WordPress security. This is essential even if your website doesn’t store sensitive user data, as attackers might use your website to propagate spam or malware.

The most important WordPress security task is updating the CMS and its plugins and themes to the latest versions. Updates often include security patches, so you shouldn’t wait too long to get them.

Besides updating WordPress core, here’s what you should be doing to increase WordPress security:

• Enforce the use of strong passwords. Motivating (or forcing) users to use strong passwords is the most effective way to protect WordPress users’ information. That applies to administrators and staff as well. We recommend using a plugin to enforce strong passwords in WordPress.
• Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). Implementing 2FA in WordPress, alongside enforcing strong passwords, means accounts on your website should be basically unbreachable. Using 2FA means attackers cannot brute force their way into user accounts.
• Add CAPTCHAs to your WordPress forms. CAPTCHAs are so common because they’re elegant solutions to complex problems. CAPTCHAs make it almost impossible for bots to brute force login forms, inject malware, or submit spam comments. They also make your life easier since you’ll spend less time moderating spam, and you won’t have to pay for expensive malware removal services.

The more steps you take to secure your website, the less maintenance work you’ll need to do to protect it. That’s a good thing, because there are a lot of other WordPress maintenance tasks that will demand your attention.

6. Optimize the Database Often

“Optimizing” the WordPress database means removing unused tables and rows. Many WordPress plugins leave orphaned entries in the database after you’ve deleted them. This bloat can slow down database queries, which in turn slows down your website.

Navigating the database and determining which entries you can safely delete can be tricky. Before making any database changes, we recommend backing up your website. If you followed our automatic backup recommendations, that shouldn’t be a problem.

You can use several plugins to clean the database without needing to edit it manually. The WP-Optimize database optimization plugin is a great option:

The plugin scans the database, finds orphaned entries, and deletes them. You can also use WP-Optimize to compress images and change your site’s browser caching configuration.

Since optimizing the database using a plugin takes only a few clicks, we recommend doing this weekly or monthly. That way, you’ll minimize the bloat on the database as it grows.

7. Delete Unreferenced Files

As your website grows, you’ll likely accumulate files on its server that you don’t use. Images are the most common culprits. Most pages use multiple images, and if you’re anything like us, you’ll upload many files that you may not use later.

The result is that your server is storing hundreds of unreferenced files, sometimes big ones. They pose a problem both for storage and backups. Most hosting plans offer limited storage, so if you have WordPress unused files, it makes no sense to keep them on the server.

Plus, full copies of your site include every file in the server and the whole database. If the server contains many unreferenced files, backups will be larger and take longer to create.

To avoid this, we recommend checking the WordPress media folder every few months and seeing if there are any images or files you’re not using. If there are, go ahead and delete them.

8. Check and Fix Broken Links

Broken links can be problematic. If a user runs into a broken link on your website, they might think your content is outdated or no one is checking for errors. Moreover, broken links can harm SEO by hurting your search engine rankings, as they can lead to increased bounce rates and less time on site.

If the broken link points to an internal page, that’s even worse. For every click on a broken internal link, you’re missing out on users spending more time on your website. Plus, it makes your content look untrustworthy.

Modern websites often include thousands of links, both internal and external. Monitoring all those links manually is nearly impossible.

Fortunately, the Broken Link Checker plugin can automate this process:

You can use the plugin to scan your website for links to pages that don’t exist or aren’t loading. The tool also checks pages for missing images and redirects.

Once you’ve identified a broken link, you can correct it if it’s wrong or point it toward another page. By the end of the process, every link should work and point to relevant pages.

Links can break, so we recommend running full site scans for broken links every month. Functional links make your website look more professional and can increase engagement, so don’t put off this task.

9. Test Your Forms From Time to Time

Forms are one of the most important elements on any website, especially for ecommerce stores. Moreover, they’re one of the few fully-interactive elements in web design. If a form stops working, it can prevent you from receiving new leads, support requests, and even payments.

Considering how vital forms are, it stands to reason that you should test them periodically. That means using the form as a regular user and checking to ensure that it works. In most cases, when you submit a form, you should see a success message.

If the form doesn’t display a success message, make sure you’ve received an email notification when someone makes a submission. Depending on the type of form, you probably already get an email upon submission (such as for contact forms).

Your goal should be to minimize downtime for forms as much as possible. Therefore, we recommend testing your site’s key forms at least once per month.

If you suddenly stop receiving notifications about new submissions, that’s usually a sign that a form is not working correctly. In that case, jump right in and test to make sure the form is functioning as it should.

10. Regularly Check and Optimize Your Site for Mobile

One of the biggest changes of the last decade is that most people now browse the web via mobile devices. That means most of your site’s views may be from people on their smartphones. However, when you think about web design, you might still imagine layouts created primarily with big screens in mind.

That means every change you make to your website’s design and functionality needs to look and work perfectly on mobile devices. This is somewhat easy nowadays, since most WordPress themes are mobile-friendly.

Furthermore, the Block Editor makes it easy to design pages with small screens in mind:

Whenever you update your website, take a minute to determine whether the changes work well on a mobile screen. Testing with even one device is a good start, because it will reveal any glaring errors. However, if you can test your designs on multiple smartphones and tablets, that’s the way to go.

Ideally, you should be doing design and functionality testing for your entire website at least every couple of months. This will let you catch and correct usability issues before they scare users away.

Bonus tip: Monitor User Activity

WordPress maintenance boils down to knowing what is going on with your website and using security monitoring for changes and potential issues. The easiest way to monitor a WordPress website is by using an activity log plugin.

Tools like WP Activity Log provide an in-depth overview of everything that happens on your site. You can use activity logs to monitor what users are doing, look for specific activities, track e-commerce transactions, and even configure custom notifications.

For example, an activity log can help you monitor backups and WordPress updates. This way, you’ll be able to keep a maintenance record and see if you’re missing any key tasks while optimizing your website.

Second bonus tip: User management

Users are an important part of many WordPress websites. Keeping tabs on what users are doing using an activity log goes a long way; however, preventive measures are equally important. Make sure you assign the correct roles and review them from time to time as users duties change. Disabling inactive users can also help you lower overheads while reducing security risks. MelaPress Login Security allows you to set up policies for this, helping you automate an otherwise tedious task while drastically improving your WordPress login processes.

Use WordPress Maintenance to Keep Your Site Running Smoothly

Many people spend so much time working on content, looking for leads on social media, and growing their small business sites that they forget about maintenance. Maintenance isn’t fun, but it ensures that your WordPress site runs smoothly. Knowing how to carry out these tasks yourself will save you from spending money on expensive WordPress maintenance services.

Once you get the hang of site maintenance, it’s time to focus on hardening your WordPress website. That means increasing its security to ensure that visitors get the best possible experience and your WordPress user data is always protected.

Do you have any questions about WordPress maintenance? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!

The post Top 10 WordPress Website Maintenance Tips appeared first on WP White Security.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from WP White Security authored by Danny Sullivan. Read the original post at: https://www.wpwhitesecurity.com/top-10-wordpress-maintenance-tips/

Put simply, web development is the process of designing and building a website. Every website starts with an idea: an idea, a theme, a feeling, a product – something that gives it meaning.

Figuring out why a website is being built is integral to figuring out what it will contain, which will then determine how it’s built – within reason, of course.

Figuring out why you’re building a website is at once the easiest and hardest part of the process. If you’ve decided you want to build a website, you’ve probably put in a lot of groundwork already! Keeping your “why”  in mind throughout the development process is vital to ensuring that you communicate your vision with those helping you build, or, if you’re more of a self-starter, figure out how to do everything necessary to build the type of site that you want. If you’re building a website for a client, the same is true – make sure you know what your client wants, and make sure you ask plenty of questions to draw out their ideas to ensure that your final product meets their expectations.

The “why” for your website should govern everything from design choices like layout, colours, and which photos to use, to the level of help you get in making your website come into being. For those looking for help with web development in Melbourne, highly professional resources are only a click away; for those who want to do it themselves, read on!

What exactly does the website need to do? Which parts of the website do you want visitors to be guided to or spend the most time on? How many pages does it need? Answering these questions is key to defining the structure and flow of the website, also known as the layout. Some sites need to be structured: a company website used for selling products is going to draw visitors in with some flashy images and a few catchphrases, prompting them to click through to a product page that gives them the option to buy. But an event page or blog might want to make more information easily accessible right away and use a simplified layout, sometimes keeping most – or even all – content right on the home page.

High-Quality Photography

Regardless of what your website is about, there is one thing you will likely need plenty of, and that’s images. Photos of your products, your team, the subject of your blog – nearly every compelling website make generous use of photos. Photos help situate your website in the real world: they provide context, giving your visitors real examples of whatever your site is about that help connect your website and the information it provides to the physical world.

Which images you choose depends on the “why” of your site, but also the overall design theme. The colours in your website should speak to your audience: they should say something about you, your brand, and your products. Choose your colours wisely – they reveal more about you than you know!

Colour Scheme Trends

The colour schemes and layouts that look good on websites tend to change over time, much like fashion trends in clothing, cars, and other consumer products that people use to convey their own personal image to the rest of the world. Ensuring that your website uses an updated colour scheme ensures that your brand doesn’t lose credibility with your audience in ways that even they might not be able to describe!

High-Quality Copy

Once you’ve chosen a layout, a colour scheme, and photos, you’ll need to write copy, or written content, for your site. When it comes to copy, it’s often true that less is more, especially when advertising products. While clarity and detail are important, most marketing courses teach that using simple, direct language not only makes content accessible for more consumers or viewers, but also leaves more to the imagination, allowing the people reading your content to inject their own thoughts, feelings, and interpretations.

Including more descriptive content as users dig deeper into your website can be very beneficial, especially if you’re selling a very specialized or high-quality product, or if your readership expects technical detail to reassure them of your credibility on the subject. But it’s usually best to leave those details tucked away for the user to discover rather than forcing them on everyone who visits your site. There is a delicate balance to strike between making information easily accessible and not overwhelming the user with more than they ask for – a balance that an experienced web developer will understand.

And now for the tricky bit!

There are a wide variety of web-building tools available to beginners. Web development isn’t for everyone, but just about anyone can learn the basics and implement their own ideas from scratch if they take the time. Tools like WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace make web development, web design, and even basic SEO accessible even for beginners. These tools come with layout and colour templates that make it easy to get started and also offer deeper integration and customization options for those who know CSS, HTML, and other languages typically used to develop websites.

YouTube is filled to the brim with tutorials and how-to videos for these platforms, and WordPress and Squarespace both have notoriously helpful communities based in the web forums on their respective websites where knowledgeable professionals spend time with the express intent of helping others learn how to build.

It is possible to build websites from scratch, but anyone reading this article for information on web development would probably do best to seek outside help, or, at most, stick with the tools mentioned above to get started. If you’re determined to learn how to build digital content from the ground up, learning programming languages including C++, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and PHP are vital. It takes time and patience, but anyone can access enormous volumes of content online.

Whichever path you choose, we wish you the best of luck on your journey! Never forget why you’re building your site, so you can stay motivated and ensure that the end result meets your expectations!

iThemes, one of the oldest brands in WordPress that originally launched around theme products nearly 15 years ago, is rebranding to SolidWP. Over the years, the company’s products became increasingly centered on plugins, yet the old brand had so much name recognition that its leadership was not quick to change it.

“iThemes is known today for security, backups, and site maintenance – none of which are well-represented in the name ‘iThemes,’” StellarWP Senior Director of Ops and Marketing Matt Cromwell said. “Additionally, the brand evokes the early 2000’s Apple era of technology, and we want to look toward the future.”

This week the company kicked off a “rebrand in public” approach to updating its identity to be more aligned with promoting iThemes’ key offerings – its security, backup, syncing, and educational products. They will all be rebranded to the following:

• Solid Security
• Solid Backups
• Solid Central
• Solid Academy

“This shift in branding signifies our renewed focus on providing a solid foundation for every WordPress website,” Cromwell said. “Our whole team, as well as our products, will pivot to focus on security, backups, site maintenance, and training as we enhance and improve our solutions for all of our users.”

The rebranding is a massive undertaking, as the company’s products have millions of users and years worth of articles, webinars, eBooks, and tutorials. SolidWP will present reworked pricing and retire some legacy products in the process.

“Currently on ithemes.com you’ll find a lot of products that are either part of a bundle, or sold on other websites in a variety of ways,” Cromwell said in the FAQ section of the announcement. “Some products will continue to thrive on their own, and others will be retired. We plan on reviewing publicly the complete inventory of our current products and bundles and working with the community to shape what the future plan is for each.”

The company is not planning to increase prices on its products at this time but Cromwell said they reserve the right to adjust pricing as needed. iThemes will also be consulting its community regarding products that are slated to be retired.

“We will continue to support any and all who land in our support queue with our best efforts and service,” Cromwell said. “The official end-of-life for the products being sunset will be discussed with the community and decided on before the full launch of our new brand.”

Choosing the right content management system for your website is an important decision that can have a big impact on how successful your site is.

It will determine what features you can access and how easy it is for you to manage your content. With so many options out there, it can be hard to know which one is the best fit for you.

In this guide, we’ll go over some of the key considerations when selecting a CMS and provide tips on making sure you make the right choice for your website.

What Is a Content Management System? 

To ensure success, a content management system (CMS) is necessary for creating and managing digital content such as webpages, documents, and media.

It provides an organized way to store and update your content so it can be easily accessed by users. Popular CMSs include WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, and Squarespace.

Choosing the right CMS for your website is important in order to access features that will help make your site successful.

It’s important to do research on different CMSs to consider user experience and ease of use, security features, scalability options, and pricing plans before selecting one.

1. Understand Your Website’s Needs 

Before you start researching different CMS options, it’s important to understand your website’s needs.

Think about what type of content you want to create and how much control you need over the design and layout. This will help narrow down which systems are the best fit for you.

2. Research Different Content Management Systems 

Once you have a better understanding of your website’s needs, it’s time to start researching different CMS options.

Look at features such as ease of use, flexibility, scalability, security and pricing plans. Make sure that each system has the features that are most important to you.

3. Evaluate The Features Of Each CMS

Take some time to explore the features offered by each content management system and see how they stack up.

Make sure to check out user reviews and ratings, as well as what other people in your industry are saying about each CMS. This will help you get a better understanding of which one is right for your website.

4. Consider User Experience And Ease Of Use

The user experience of a CMS can make or break your website’s success. You want to make sure it’s easy for both you and your visitors to navigate and use the site.

Look at how user-friendly the interface is and if there are any tutorials that could be helpful in getting started with using it.

Opting for something like user acceptance testing can help with the research process. Thinking, “what is user acceptance testing?” Check out BugHerd’s breakdown.

5. Look At Security And Scalability Options

Security is an essential aspect of any website and you want to make sure that your CMS is up-to-date with the latest security features.

Also, consider scalability options so that if your website grows in traffic or size you can easily scale up without disruption.

6. Compare Pricing Plans For Each CMS

Different CMS have different pricing plans, so be sure to compare them before deciding which one is the right fit for you.

Consider how much the system will cost and if there are any additional fees associated with it.

7. Choose The Right CMS For Your Website

Once you’ve done all the research and evaluated each option, it’s time to make a decision on which content management system is best for your website.

Consider all the factors discussed in this guide and make sure that the system you choose is the right fit for your website’s needs.

8. Implement The CMS

Once you’ve chosen the right CMS for your website, it’s time to implement it.

Make sure to plan out the implementation process and create a timeline so that all of your content is migrated over successfully.

If you’re not too tech savvy or don’t want the headache of transferring information, there are middlemen that can help to transfer things to the new content management system seamlessly.

Conclusion

Choosing the right content management system (CMS) for your website is an important decision that can have a big impact on its success.

By following this guide, you’ll be able to make an informed decision when selecting a CMS that meets all of your needs.

With research and evaluation of features such as ease of use, security options, scalability plans, pricing plans and more, we hope you feel confident in making the best choice for your website’s future growth.

So what are you waiting for? Get started today by researching different CMSs so you can select one that will help drive great results!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimising a website to improve its visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

It involves various techniques and strategies, including keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, and more. Yoast SEO, on the other hand, is a popular WordPress plugin that assists with SEO optimization by providing various features to improve on-page optimization, readability, and technical SEO.

While SEO and Yoast SEO both focus on improving website rankings, they differ in their approaches and functionalities. In this article, we will compare SEO and Yoast SEO, highlighting their differences and similarities.

Note: If you need more knowledge or help reg it, visit Web Tools Advisor.

Keyword research

Keyword research is a crucial aspect of SEO, as it helps website owners to understand the terms and phrases their target audience is searching for.

SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google Keyword Planner provide keyword research functionalities. Yoast SEO, however, doesn’t offer any keyword research functionality. Users need to rely on third-party tools for this.

On-page optimization

On-page optimization involves optimising website content for search engines by including relevant keywords, meta descriptions, and title tags.

While SEO tools provide various features to improve on-page optimization, Yoast SEO is specifically designed for this purpose. It provides a readability analysis that checks content for sentence structure, subheading distribution, and other readability factors.

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO also provides a content analysis that checks content for keyword density, internal linking, and other on-page SEO factors. It also allows users to set focus keywords, which are the keywords they want their content to rank for.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO involves optimising the website structure and code to make it more search engine friendly. This includes improving website speed, ensuring mobile responsiveness, and optimising the website structure for crawlability.

While SEO tools provide various functionalities to improve technical SEO, Yoast SEO provides limited features in this regard.

Yoast SEO provides a sitemap feature, which generates a sitemap that helps search engines crawl and index website content. It also provides a feature to add canonical tags, which prevent duplicate content issues.

Content Optimization

SEO tools provide various features to improve content optimization, such as identifying and fixing broken links, optimising images, and suggesting internal linking opportunities. Yoast SEO provides similar features but also includes a content analysis that checks content for length, focus keyword usage, and meta descriptions.

User experience is an important aspect of SEO, as it affects website engagement and bounce rates. While SEO tools provide various features to improve user experience, Yoast SEO specifically focuses on improving content readability.

Its readability analysis checks content for sentence structure, subheading distribution, and other readability factors, ensuring that the content is easily readable and engaging for website visitors.

Integration with CMS

SEO tools are typically standalone software that can be used with any CMS or website platform. However, some SEO tools, including Yoast SEO, are specifically designed as plugins for WordPress.

Yoast SEO is a popular WordPress plugin that integrates seamlessly with the CMS. It provides a user-friendly interface within WordPress, allowing users to easily optimise their content for search engines.

This integration makes it easy for website owners using WordPress to improve their website’s SEO without having to navigate external software.

Pricing

SEO tools come with different pricing models. Some are free, while others require a subscription fee. Yoast SEO offers both free and premium versions.

The free version of Yoast SEO provides basic on-page optimization features, such as setting focus keywords, content analysis, and readability analysis. The premium version offers additional features, such as redirect management, internal linking suggestions, and multiple focus keywords.

In contrast, other SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz require a subscription fee to access their full range of features.

Learning Curve

SEO and Yoast SEO both require some level of understanding of SEO concepts and best practices to use effectively. However, SEO tools can have a steeper learning curve due to their comprehensive set of features.

Yoast SEO, on the other hand, has a relatively easy learning curve, as its features are primarily focused on on-page optimization and readability. The plugin provides helpful tips and suggestions to guide users through the optimization process.

Support

SEO tools and plugins may require support from their developers to address issues or answer questions. The level of support provided can vary between different tools.

Yoast SEO provides extensive support through its website, including documentation, tutorials, and a support forum. Premium users can also access one-on-one email support.

SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz also provide support through documentation, tutorials, and email support for their users.

Comprehensive Set of Features

SEO and Yoast SEO are both valuable tools for improving website rankings, but they differ in their approaches and functionalities.

While SEO tools provide a comprehensive set of features for keyword research, on-page optimization, technical SEO, and user experience, Yoast SEO specifically focuses on improving on-page optimization and content readability.

Ultimately, the choice between SEO and Yoast SEO depends on individual needs and preferences.

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Jennifer Aniston, 53, truly continues to get more gorgeous with age. The Friends actress took to Instagram on Nov. 2 to show off her natural blonde waves for a hair tutorial. Jennifer created the video to promote her haircare brand, LolaVie, which includes a plethora of products one needs to achieve Hollywood hair. “Air dry and a little bit of @lolavie,” the star captioned the stunning clip. While filming herself getting ready to take on the day, Jennifer rocked a cozy black robe, a gold ring, and chic gold hoop earrings. The 53-year-old also made sure to highlight the product she was using, LolaVie’s Lightweight Hair Oil.

Since Jennifer posted the video of her natural tresses, many of her celebrity friends and fans have taken to the comments section to compliment her. “You are the most natural stunning goddess,” actress Jenna Dewan, 41, wrote. Even Vine star Hannah Stocking, 30, couldn’t help but share her love for LolaVie. “The best hair products of all time,” she commented. One of Jennifer’s fans also chimed in and added, “Omg i [sic] love you so much! I am obsessed with your hair! Love love love yoooouu [sic].”

This is not the first time that The Morning Show actress did a hair tutorial video, as she has been busy promoting her new brand since 2021. The hair oil that she used on Wednesday was released in June, and the blonde bombshell took to the brand’s Instagram to talk about how she uses it. “I also mix it with my leave-in conditioner, that works really well,” Jennifer began. “Sometimes I mix all three, sometimes its next-day hair, there’s just a lot of options.”

The Emmy-winning actress, who made “The Rachel” an iconic haircut of the 1990s, opened up to Forbes about her new beauty brand on Sept. 8. Jennifer told the outlet how successful LolaVie has been after just launching last year. “Well, we’ve had such an incredible reaction from our consumers, so that’s probably the most satisfying,” she shared. “We won eight beauty awards and we had multiple five-star reviews and it just feels that the work we put into this product and the time we took, all of these products, has paid off.”

She also revealed that many of her own friends use the products and keep coming back for more. “We have a lot of return consumers that keep coming back for more. I have girlfriends that want our bottles to be bigger because they go through them so fast because they’re using them on their hair and their kids’ hair. We’ve had an incredible response and it was worth every second of it!”, the movie star added.

And when Jennifer isn’t busy running her haircare empire, she continues to work on the set of the hit AppleTV series, The Morning Show. She even shared a behind-the-scenes carousel of photos to update fans on Season 3 filming on Oct. 7. “Almost halfway through filming season 3 of @themorningshow show Sneak peek,” she captioned the post. Her costar, Reese Witherspoon, 46, commented on the post to joke about the filming schedule. “Wait … are we really???,” the Legally Blonde star penned. Many outlets reported that although the third installment of the show doesn’t have an official release date, it is likely to premiere sometime this fall.

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Shopify is one of the most popular platforms to sell online. It can help you create an online store quickly and easily. But what is Shopify, how does it work, or is Shopify good for your business?

We will explore everything you should know before opening your Shopify online store.

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What is Shopify?

Shopify is an eCommerce platform that helps businesses run their online stores. It offers an excellent alternative to opening brick-and-mortar stores to reach customers on a global level. It enables you to increase both your sales and reach without experiencing the growing pains that come with outlet expansion.

How Does Shopify Work?

Shopify is an easy-to-use application to start selling online. It also comes with a Point Of Sale (POS) app for payment of goods in physical locations.

Shopify offers merchants the ability to create a multi-channel experience that helps showcase the brand. With this subscription-based platform, you can create a website and use their shopping cart solution to sell, ship, and manage your products.

The Shopify eCommerce platform comes with a range of tools that help you analyze every aspect of your online store. With these tools, users can design customized online experiences for customers and maximize the Return on Investment (ROI) on their marketing spending.

The technology also helps cut costs across the board by automating customer relationship management, inventory management, transactions, and more.

Is Shopify Good for Small Businesses?

Shopify comes with a full suite of features that helps you launch and manage your online store. And it doesn’t require any coding for users to start using it and requires no software installation or hosting services. So whether you sell crafts online or want to start a large dropshipping enterprise, the platform can work for your needs.

What’s more, Shopify is also cost-effective with plans ranging from $29 to $299/month. Plus, there are no additional transaction fees if you use Shopify Payments.

The basic plan comes with features that include:

• Abandoned cart recovery, gift cards
• Discount creation
• Fraud analysis

Shopify starter plan also offers the ability to sell in a whopping 133 currencies. Also, you can easily assign inventory to retail stores, warehouses, or other locations you store products. Shopify is best known for its ease of use and modern web design feature.

Additional perks include the ability to include unlimited products and a custom domain. What’s more, Shopify Payment lets you accept credit cards (in addition to PayPal payments) without setting up a third-party payment gateway, customer support, and more.

Additional plans are also available if you need more users and advanced features for growing businesses which is good news if you are experiencing growth.

In addition to the above features, Shopify also enables online retailers to sell on social media such as Facebook, generate reports and analytics, and even offer mobile access.

What is Shopify Used for?

The Shopify platform is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms, allowing business owners to set up their online stores quickly and effortlessly. The web-based platform, Shopify offers everything eCommerce shop owners require to succeed.

Here is what Shopify allows you to do:

Launch Your Own Online Store

With Shopify, you can easily set up your online store with minimal technical knowledge or experience.

From web hosting to integrated payment processing to shipping, the platform makes creating a fully functional eCommerce website easy.

On the Shopify theme store, you can find various customizable Shopify themes that allow you to create a unique look and feel for your online store.

Do Inventory Management Easily

Shopify allows you to manage your products and inventory, including adding, editing, and deleting products, setting pricing, and managing stock levels.

Process Payments Quickly

A great thing about Shopify is you can quickly process payments. You can integrate leading payment gateways to accept customer payments using multiple payment methods, including Apple Pay, PayPal, credit cards, and others.

Manage Orders

With Shopify, you can easily manage customer orders, process payments, track shipments, and issue refunds.

Check Finance

Shopify sellers can check critical financial information about their businesses easily. So if you want an overview of your sales, payments, pending sales data, or full finance reports, the Shopify platform is the way to go.

Grow Your eCommerce Business

The platform offers a wide range of marketing and sales features to help Shopify online stores grow their businesses.

From email marketing to social media integration to discounts and promotions, you have multiple tools at your disposal to grow your eCommerce sales. You can check the Shopify app store to find the right apps to build your business.

Pros of Shopify

Shopify comes with a set of tools that helps ease your e-commerce efforts. Besides creating additional revenue and accessing more customers for your business through online sales, it also offers the following benefits.

Ease of Use

Shopify helps you sell goods or services with a minimal amount of configuration. It comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor where you can edit the look of your online store homepage without the need for any coding.

Plus, it offers a good alternative for those who want a complete solution, with no technicalities related to site development and hosting.

If you want more control over the look and feel of your homepage, you have the option to edit your site using code as well.

Mobile-Friendly Designs for Your Online Store

The benefits of having an online store are that it allows for a rapid buying/selling process and ease in terms of finding the best product for customers.

Online stores operate 24/7, allowing customers to get online any time of the day and buy products and services. This has led to more and more customers moving from the traditional brick-and-mortar store to buying goods and services on the Internet.

Shopify comes with a mobile-friendly design that helps customers use their mobile devices to shop at your e-commerce store. Shopify’s mobile responsive themes help draw more customers to your store from the palm of their hands. Installing the Shopify app lets you log in to your account and start running your store from your mobile device.

Shopify’s app runs both on iPhone and Android devices.

Excellent Shopify Support

With Shopify’s e-commerce platform, you get round-the-clock customer support.

Support comes from experts available 24/7 through email, live chat, or phone to help resolve any issues.

Through Shopify Learn, you get access to free tutorials, online courses, and webinars to get a better understanding of online sales.

Ability to Use Your Own Domain Name

With Shopify, you can use your domain name and connect it to the platform from your Shopify admin. In case you don’t have a domain name, you can either buy a domain name through Shopify or a third-party provider.

Social Media Integration

With Shopify, you can sell not only on the web but through social media, online marketplaces, brick-and-mortar locations, and pop-up shops. To boost your marketing and sales, you can integrate Shopify with Facebook and Instagram to reach your target audience as well. This makes Shopify one of the most popular social media business ideas today.

Amazing Themes

With Shopify, you can customize or build the look and feel of your store by changing the website theme to suit your branding needs. Shopify’s Theme Store offers a collection of over 70 premium and free e-commerce templates.

Among Shopify’s best selling points is the availability of high-quality visual Shopify themes. Shopify offers diverse shop templates, of which a number of them are available for free. The templates are compatible with products, clothing and fashion, electronics, art, and other types of e-commerce sites.

These themes can be tweaked without requiring HTML or CSS knowledge and allow you to upload logos, change fonts, colors, and more. Users can also customize the layout of their homepage, add banners, slideshows, and more.

Dropshipper Friendly

Shopify touts to provide users with a lower-risk approach to start dropshipping. If you’re unfamiliar with this concept, consider taking a dropshipping course or reading more about What is Shopify dropshipping?

Simply put, Shopify dropshipping lets you sell products by using a supplier that holds the inventory and ships the product for you. Through it, you can find a product to sell, find a dropshipping supplier, build your e-commerce store, upload your products onto your site, and launch and start marketing your dropshipping store.

Cons of Shopify

Like any application, Shopify can fall short in some aspects. For example, Shopify charges a monthly fee to use the platform while open source solutions are free to download, some of the cons of Shopify may include:

Theme Customization Challenges

The most common type of Shopify theme issue is probably compatibility with HTML, CSS, or JavaScript code.

Often these issues relate to how different browsers, operating systems, and devices display your Shopify theme’s design and layout.

Transaction Fees

Although most shopping carts have dropped their transaction fees entirely over the years, Shopify has retained its 0.5% to 2.0% fees transaction fees. Users, however, have the option to have Shopify waive these fees when you accept payments through Shopify Payments.

Expensive Add Ons

Though Shopify offers almost every basic feature, it does lack many advanced features that e-commerce businesses might need.

To get these advanced features, you will need to purchase add-ons. In some cases, the cost of add-ons can significantly increase your monthly subscription fees.

Content Management Issues

Some issues related to content management when it comes to Shopify include the inability to edit tag pages; duplicate content; duplicate page titles; forced URL structure; and limits on page titles and meta descriptions.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify has something to offer for businesses of all stages and sizes. Shopify offers multiple plans: Basic, Shopify, Advanced, Starter, and Shopify Plus.

Though pricing is an essential aspect of any service, it is important to consider what solutions you need the most and which might not apply to you. The different Shopify plans on offer bring with them different features and abilities.

Shopify also offers a 14-day free trial for you to try out a Shopify account and see if the platform is the right fit for you.

Shopify Starter 

This plan comes with a budget-conscious monthly subscription of $5. With this plan, you can sell products through WhatsApp, SMS, email, social media, and more. It has essential features like a simple storefront, checkout, inbox, product pages, Linkpop, Shopify order management & integrated fulfillment network, and more.

Shopify Starter plan is ideal for businesses who want to test their business idea of selling online without opening a fully-functional eCommerce website.

Basic Shopify

This plan starts with a monthly subscription of $29 per month (if billed annually) and is ideal for businesses trying to build an online storefront.

It comes with basic e-commerce functionality. With this plan, you get to include two staff accounts, 24/7 support, unlimited products, an online store with a blog, and sales channels.

You also get a free SSL certificate, discount codes, manual order creation, and abandoned cart recovery. The downside is that if your products are expensive, there is a 2% transaction fee.

Shopify Plan

Shopify’s standard pricing plan is available for $79 per month (if billed annually) and is touted to offer everything you need for growing an eCommerce business.

It comes with everything you get in your Basic Shopify plan, including gift cards, professional reports, and five staff accounts. With this plan, you can add unlimited products with the abandoned cart recovery tool, which is a huge selling point.

With the abandoned cart tool, you can send automated emails based on your preferences. Transaction fees for this plan are set at 1% when not using Shopify payments.

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus offers you all the tools needed to run a large operation. This plan comes with a whopping $2,000 monthly fee in exchange for whatever additional features you need.

Unlike other plans, this plan offers tailored-made solutions to your particular business model. Shopify advertises that you can get up to 18% higher conversion with Shop Pay and a 60% faster checkout.

You also get AR, video, and 3D media on product pages, along with localized shopping experiences with multiple stores, currencies, and languages, for B2B and direct to customers.

Additionally, you can customize your checkout, offer advanced discounts and shipping rates, and get unlimited transactions, products, and 99.99% uptime.

Advanced Shopify Plan

The Advanced Shopify Plan is designed for medium to large online businesses for a monthly subscription of $299 (billed annually). This plan comes with shipping, rock-bottom transaction fees, and more advanced reporting.

Also, the advanced plan offers users the ability to create custom reports that include reports on your at-risk and loyal customers. You also get unlimited product uploads, and your transaction percentage fees go down a bit when using external payment gateways.

You can upload as many products as you want, post as many videos and images as needed, and bring in all the traffic you require. Abandoned cart recovery also comes with this plan, which ensures you can reach those sales numbers that make the increased plan pricing worthwhile.

Transaction fees when not using Shopify payments for this plan are set at 0.5 %.

Taxes

As a business, you might need to charge taxes on your sales and then report and remit those taxes to the government.

Bear in mind that tax laws and regulations can be somewhat complex and can change often. In this regard, Shopify can be set to automatically handle the most common sales tax calculations.

You also have the option to set up tax overrides to address unique tax laws and situations.

Shopify doesn’t file or remit your sales taxes for you. This means you will need to register your business with your local or federal tax authority to handle your sales tax. The calculations and reports that Shopify provides can help make things easier when it’s time to file and pay your taxes.

How to Grow Your Shopify Business

Shopify has you covered when it comes to building your online store; however, having a web presence is only the beginning.

You will need to attract customers, promote your products, and offer excellent customer service to make sure you remain competitive. There’s no single sure-shot formula to guarantee the success of your online store.

However, there are some great tips that can raise your chances of success. Here are some tips to grow your online store.

Test Your Mobile Settings

Let’s face it, mobile devices are the new online frontier when it comes to online sales. Devices like tablets and smartphones are now the number one go-to devices for Internet browsing and purchasing. If you want to succeed in the online market, ensure your online store is mobile-responsive for maximum success.

Optimize for SEO

You will need to optimize your web store for SEO in order to drive more traffic to your store.

Your store’s online traffic will mostly come from search engines like Google. As such, you will need to rank high among your competition.

Ranking high in search engines can get you more daily traffic and is a cheaper form of capturing customers through search engines versus paid advertising.

Use High-quality Photos

The quality of images in your store impacts your brand image. If all the images on your eCommerce store are top-quality, your audience will perceive your store as more professional.

So always use high-quality images for products, social media, Instagram, or Pinterest.

Create Some Ads

To harness the power of online selling, you will need to effectively and efficiently reach your target audience.

You can run ads on Facebook, Google, Instagram, and other social networks. To be effective, however, you will need to identify the platform where your audience spends the most time and the media that are best for your niche.

You cannot overlook the benefits of online advertising for your business to deliver relevant, personalized, and timely messages to your customers. You can use paid media to target the right market but watch out for mounting costs.

Add Positive Reviews to Your Site

Social proof comes in handy when customers are on the fence about buying your products. Good reviews and star ratings help shoppers shortcut their research and make decisions faster and with greater confidence.

A positive reputation by way of reviews on your products and services positively impacts your sales.

Encourage customers to write reviews of your product and services to help garner that much-needed third-party validation. Good reviews can boost sales because consumers actually go through customer reviews—even those written by strangers.

Also, you should make a practice of regularly responding to reviews your customers leave. Try to address the grievances of your customers proactively to let them feel that you care for your audience.

Use Social Media to Give Your Sales a Boost

You can use social media to create a relatable brand for customers to support.

Social media allow your business to connect with customers, leading to a direct increase in sales and interactions with your brand. You can integrate your Shopify store with your blog and social media accounts, including Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

The key to success is to understand you need to be consistent with social media if you want to gain a bigger online presence. The more you engage your target audience, the more loyal they will be, and the more your followers will grow.

Shopify enables you to grow your audience across 100+ social media channels and 80+ online marketplaces. And the best part is you can manage your products from one place.

Put Shipping Tracking on Auto

By offering shipping tracking, you not only provide real-time updates on the status of the delivery but more importantly peace of mind that your delivery is en route.

One of the main advantages of investing in a shipment tracking system is that you can greatly lower your logistics costs. Shipment tracking can help you reduce your expenses, as it allows both you and your customers to gain better insights into the status of a package.

Add Blog Posts

You can add blogs to your online store to provide customers with information and updates on your products and services.

Your blog posts can also drive traffic to your site by boosting your store’s SEO, converting visitors into customers, and increasing customer engagement.

Unlike investing in ads that could impact your bottom line with content marketing, you can drive free organic traffic to your store.

Ideally, you should create and share helpful content on your blog to help your audience make informed decisions. How-to guides, product comparison guides, and gift guides are some blog post ideas for your Shopify blog.

You should also think about writing guest posts on relevant websites to increase your brand exposure.

Offer Free Shipping

Free shipping is a powerful tool to sway your audience’s mind into buying. If you don’t incorporate free shipping, you may lose tons of leads to your customers. This is because 68% of US customers don’t buy things online for at least half of the time if the retailers don’t offer free shipping.

If you’re not in the position to offer a no-string attached free shopping policy, you can opt for conditional free shipping. For example, customers can avail of free shopping if the cart reaches a certain (or more). Conditional free shipping is also an excellent strategy to increase average order value (AOV).

In addition to free shipping, you should also offer an easy-to-return policy to delight your customers. As 52% of customers don’t purchase online, fearing a difficult return policy, having an easy-to-return policy can help you increase your sales.

Use Upselling and Cross-Selling Techniques

Though two different tactics, cross-selling and upselling work in tandem to grow your store’s revenue.

Cross-selling persuades shoppers to buy complementary products, and upselling persuades them to upgrade their purchases.

For example, someone is interested in buying a coffee maker from you. Persuading them to buy coffee powder from your store would be cross-selling. And encouraging the shopper to buy a higher model of a coffee machine than the model they have already added would be upselling.

Cross-selling and upselling are often done by showing related products to the shopper.

Run Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing is the most effective tool to reach your target audience.

Plus, it is cheaper than other marketing avenues, like paid ads. And return on investment for email marketing is excellent. For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you will receive $42 in return.

Shopify makes it easy to leverage email marketing for small business owners. With Shopify Email, you can:

• Create branded emails easily
• Use a pre-built template that can automatically fetch products, pricing, and branding from your store
• Automate email campaigns quickly
• Manage and track all email campaigns in one place

The best part of Shopify Email is that you can send 10,000 emails (manual or automated) each month. After that, you just have to pay $1 per 1000 additional emails.

Shopify Email is available for all Shopify plans.

Take a Shopify Course

When you start selling on Shopify, you may not know all the things required to succeed. So taking a Shopify course can help you learn about how exactly Shopify works, SEO strategies to grow your business, and marketing strategies can set you on the path to success and increase your online retail sales.

The good news is Shopify has a rich library of learning resources to help you succeed. In these courses, you can learn a wide range of skills, from email marketing to SEO to Facebook ads.

And the best part is it does not cost you much to access these courses. Select a plan starting at $9 per month, and you can access these courses for free.

Shopify Collabs

To boost the success of your Shopify store, you have to increase the reach of the store. And collaborating with creators, influencers, and other brands is one way to do it.

With Shopify Collabs, you connect to an active community of creators, influencers, affiliates, and brands. You have to set up your profile and connect with brands or influencers that are in line with your products/services.

Shopify Alternatives

If you find Shopify costs higher, you can pick another alternative to start selling online.

The most important thing to look for when shopping for an e-commerce website builder or platform is that it lets you build, customize, and run an online store.

Most platforms in the market come with tools to help walk you through the entire process of setting up your e-commerce venture.

They will also offer help in navigating through the steps involved, such as hosting, design, pricing and payment options, marketing tools, and reports. Below are some of the Shopify alternatives:

Woo Commerce

Woo Commerce is a customizable, open-source eCommerce platform built on WordPress.

You can add the WooCommerce plugin to any WordPress site and set up a new store in minutes. You can even add features and extend the functionality of your online store with official extensions from the WooCommerce Marketplace.

This online selling platform is easy to use for both vendors and customers. It comes with free features that offer complex coupon campaigns, product and inventory management, order management, sales reports, a customer account area, control over shipping and tax charges, and more.

You can also manage your online store on the go through WooComemrce’s mobile app.

Wiz Ecommerce

Wiz eCommerce is a multipurpose WordPress WooCommerce theme. Wiz’s theme is suitable for any kind of eCommerce store, is fully responsive, and is lightweight.

You can tweak your landing page to your heart’s content, including the color scheme, social icons, scroll-to-top, custom background, and other features.

Wix

Wix is a cloud-based web development platform that offers lots of flexibility to customize whatever you want to do with your eCommerce store.

You can use it to promote your online business or showcase using Wix’s website builder. Its unstructured editor lets you drag and drop elements anywhere you want on a page and packs tools like restaurant ordering, music distribution, appointment scheduling, and more.

When it comes to themes, you will not run out of options as it offers more than 500 themes.

Squarespace

Squarespace is yet another alternative to Shopify for small businesses. It offers some great templates that can help your business to draw attention to your products, and are also easy to customize.

It lets you explore which tools you want to add to your online business —whether it’s setting up an online store, booking services, or adding third-party extensions.

Additional tools under its hood include an inventory system and analytical tools. To market your business, it comes with built-in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features, on-brand email campaigns, and social tools. These features make it easy to retain customers and grow your audience.

When it comes to Shopify Vs Squarespace, both offer free trial periods. So you can compare the features and user experience for yourself.

Is Shopify legit?

Yes, Shopify is legit. With Shopify, you can start your eCommerce business and manage it from anywhere, with no coding or design skills needed.

With it, you can sell products and services, add customer reviews, improve email marketing, publish your products on Facebook, or get in-depth analytics.

Shopify comes with a selection of free themes that can be loaded onto your store automatically, where you can start customizing any way you want.

You can choose free fonts or up the color scheme, add your own photos, arrange sections, and more. This makes Shopify ideal for beginners wanting to dive in or play around with the feel and look of their online store.

Shopify doesn’t limit the number of products you can offer in any way. You can sell unlimited products on all Shopify plans. It allows you to sell both online with your own website and/or in person with its Shopify POS system.

Shopify’s online store builder has features for everyone from novices to experts. There’s plenty of functionality that comes with this platform that can help you convert website visitors into buyers and one-time shoppers into loyal customers.

The Bottom Line

Shopify has established itself as one of the leading e-commerce platforms. It makes it easier than ever for businesses to start selling on Shopify.

The comprehensive suite of features offered by Shopify enables Shopify merchants to easily manage their stores, listing products and managing orders alike. On the Shopify dashboard, you can find the most valuable metrics that provide you with insight into the performance of your store and the behavior of your customers.

What are you waiting for? Register for a free trial of Shopify to check how this ever-popular e-commerce platform can help you start selling online.

Can I use Shopify on my phone?

Yes, You can use Shopify on your phone. By installing the Shopify app, you can log in to your account and run your online store from your mobile device. Your staff can also log in to the Shopify app, but they will have limited access. They can only view the areas of the Shopify app that they have permission for. But with the right access, they can review orders, products, and customers.

What is Shopify Plus?

Simply put Shopify Plus is a more robust version of the core Shopify plan and includes the following:

A dedicated account manager: Unlike getting support through phone, email, and live chat Shopify Plus offers personalized and dedicated support to your store.

It assigns what it calls a Launch Engineer to your website to help you navigate any obstacles that may arise during your store’s setup or migration stages.

The Launch Engineer is on standby to help you iron out third-party integrations or find partners to work on projects specifically targeting your business.

More theme customization and access to Liquid: With Shopify’s standard plans, you can only customize your Shopify theme using the editor, and can be challenging to switch to a completely new theme.

However, Shopify Plus comes with a higher degree of flexibility in terms of customization, as you can access Shopify’s theme language, Liquid.

With Liquid, you can make changes at the code level and also have greater control.

Unlimited staff accounts: Shopify’s basic plan only allows a few limited staff accounts while Shopify Plus allows you to add unlimited staff accounts and additional permission settings.

More control over the checkout: Shopify Plus lets you offer clients personalized offers to high-spending customers. You can also customize the checkout experience based on shopping cart values or any other condition.

More API integrations: You also get more Application Programming Interface for your website to facilitate integrations with third-party apps such as GiftCard, User, and Multipass.

Exclusive apps: You also get access to some top-end exclusive Shopify apps that are not available to regular Shopify users.

What is Shopify Lite?

The Shopify Lite plan allows you to create a simple e-commerce store within a few minutes. For just a $9 monthly subscription, Shopify Lite can help integrate e-commerce into your website or social media page, including a blog and Facebook.

You can merge your store with your current Facebook Business page by simply adding a Shop tab on the page while also displaying product galleries along with your own shopping cart inside Facebook. Besides getting an integrated Facebook store, you also get a live chat module powered by the Facebook Messenger app.

In addition to selling on Facebook and blogs, the ‘Shopify Buy button’ is the prominent main draw for Shopify Lite. This plan gives you the ability to provide embeddable modules for products and collections. You can also embed a shopping cart and customize each module for your brand.

Note: Shopify Lite is not available to new merchants. So new merchants can try the Shopify Starter plan.

Can I choose my own domain name with Shopify?

If you buy a domain through Shopify, your domain will automatically be configured to work with your primary domain. Usually, your primary domain has the format’ ***.myshopify.com‘ when you sign up for Shopify. If you want to change the domain that’s displayed to customers while they browse your online store, then you can add a custom URL, such as www.****.com.

Alternatively, if you already own a custom domain from a third-party provider, then you can use a domain that you already own. You can either connect your custom domain to your online store or have the option to transfer management of the domain to Shopify.

Is Shopify good for beginners?

Yes, Shopify is widely considered to be beginner-friendly. It is an easy-to-use platform that lets users quickly set up an online storefront without learning complicated coding languages or having a deep understanding of web design.

What’s more, Shopify offers a range of easy-to-customizable themes. With a large active community of Shopify users, you can quickly get support and guidance whenever you are stuck.

The platform includes all of the tools and features needed to run an online store, including payment gateway integrations, shipping and tax options, and inventory management. So once you choose what to sell on Shopify, it’s easy to get up and running quickly.

So without any doubt, Shopify is an excellent choice for beginners to start selling online without having any coding or designing knowledge.

Can I pause my Shopify subscription?

Yes, if your store is eligible, you can pause your Shopify subscription.

To be eligible for this feature, your Shopify store should be on a paid plan, past the free trial. In case your Shopify store doesn’t meet these criteria, you cannot pause your Shopify subscription.

Eligible owners of Shopify stores should go to their Shopify admin panels and select Pause and Build.

Is Shopify better than Amazon?

It is difficult to say which platform scores more in Shopify vs. Amazon comparison. This is because both platforms serve different purposes.

Shopify is an e-commerce platform enabling you to build your own online e-commerce website and start selling online. On the other hand, Amazon is the biggest online marketplace that allows you to list and sell your products online.

The better platform between Shopify and Amazon is the one that aligns with your business goals.

Image: Depositphotos

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Using FAQ structured data can make virtually any website eligible to show up in Google with an enhanced listing, resulting in more search traffic.

Implementing this structured data is relatively easy. It can even be automated.

In this article, learn more about FAQ schema, why you should use it, and how to implement it for on-page SEO.

What Is An FAQ?

FAQ is an acronym for Frequently Asked Questions.

An FAQ is a type of webpage that evolved as a convenient section of a website to answer common questions.

People who had specific questions could follow a link to the FAQ section of a website and identify the relevant question.

Later on, webpages began adding FAQs directly on the relevant webpage.

That way, a website visitor with questions related to the webpage they were on could find the answers right there on the same page.

Adding an FAQ section to individual webpages saves the website visitor from having to click on an FAQ section and then taking an additional step to navigate to the correct question and answer.

Thus, a dedicated FAQ webpage or an FAQ section on individual webpages serves to answer frequently asked questions.

What Is FAQ Schema?

Structured data is information that is organized specifically for a machine to be able to understand.

Webpage structured data organizes information by labeling the name of the author, images, review content, questions and answers by labeling each one.

The structured data works by explicitly telling Google that this is the author’s name, this is the question asked, and this is the answer to that question.

Labeled information is easy for Google to use to add rich results in the search results, which benefits websites with more traffic.

Who Can Use FAQ Structured Data

FAQ Structured Data is specifically for pages with pairs of one question and one corresponding answer.

What is unique about FAQ structured data is that it can be implemented on virtually any kind of website, whether it’s a local service, ecommerce, or an informational webpage.

The near-universal applicability of FAQ structured data makes it ideal for any webpage to use to gain a ranking edge.

The only websites that cannot use FAQ structured data are ones in which multiple answers are given by website visitors, such as in a web forum.

Why Use FAQ Schema?

There are several reasons to consider using FAQ schema.org markup that goes beyond simply gaining a better search presence.

There are practical reasons for using it that can increase relevance, improve conversions and provide users with a better user experience.

1. FAQs Can Lead To Enhanced Search Listings

Enhanced search listings for FAQ structured data have multiple benefits.

A significant advantage is dominating more digital space in the search results.

This not only makes your search presence larger, but it can also push a competitor to the second page of the search results.

The above example shows two websites displaying FAQ-enhanced listings. What’s important to notice is that Google only shows two FAQ questions per website.

Google originally allowed around six FAQ questions to display when Google originally rolled out the FAQ-rich results feature.

That resulted in one website dominating virtually the entire search results on mobile devices and nearly half the search results on desktops.

So Google scaled back the number of questions displayed in the search results to offer other websites a chance to rank on the first page of the Google SERPs (search engine results pages).

2. FAQs Create A Better User Experience

A good user experience is to provide website visitors with the exact content they need at the moment.

But sometimes they need additional information.

A publisher or ecommerce store can choose to add paragraphs and paragraphs of more content.

But it’s a better user experience to use an FAQ format because it makes it easier for visitors to zoom in on the relevant question quickly.

FAQ sections on individual webpages provide a convenient way to answer questions without slowing down other visitors, which is why FAQs are said to improve the user experience.

Another way they improve the user experience is that questions can be grouped together by topic, with links to the answers further down the webpage.

This makes it super easy for a visitor to identify the relevant topic quickly and then click on the relevant question.

FAQs are a convenient alternative to paragraphs and paragraphs of content. It’s great for visitors and publishers because it helps create happy customers.

3. FAQs Increase Webpage Relevance

Product pages can be frustratingly similar to pages published by other merchants selling the same or similar products.

This can result in product pages that lack uniqueness.

In the old days, some ecommerce merchants used to write paragraphs of content at the bottom of the page to make it rank for their targeted keywords without distracting consumers from the products.

FAQ content allows merchants to add useful content in the form of questions and answers discretely that doesn’t distract shoppers while also helping the consumers who have questions.

The benefit to merchants is that the additional questions and answers add useful and unique content that increases the relevance of those webpages, helping to boost them in the search results when done right.

4. FAQs Add More Content To Thin Pages

There are many situations where a webpage doesn’t have too much content or lacks original content.

One example is a service area page for a local service provider that serves multiple communities.

City pages can be similar to each other, increasing the risk that they’ll be seen as thin content because there’s little on the page that is unique to other pages.

FAQs allow service providers to add unique content to webpages that would otherwise be near-duplicates of all the other city service area webpages.

The unique FAQs containing unique content specific to each city make each page more relevant for search queries.

5. FAQs Can Help Conversions

Creating frictionless customer experiences is important to help them decide to take the desired action, such as purchasing a product or filling out a contact form.

Paragraphs of content can be distracting.

FAQ sections on individual webpages provide a discrete way to add more content without distracting potential customers.

The answers can be hidden behind a “click for answer” link, shrinking the amount of space occupied by the questions and answers.

Thus FAQs help to maintain the desired frictionless experience that doesn’t slow down motivated consumers and sales prospects.

FAQ structured data provides all of the above-described benefits plus makes the webpages eligible for an enhanced listing in the search results.

When Should I Use FAQ Schema?

Considering all the benefits to visitors and publishers, some might ask, “when should I not use FAQ schema?”

And that’s actually a reasonable question because there are reasons why adding FAQ Schema (and the associated FAQ) might not be useful.

One consideration is website speed. Adding FAQs can require adding JavaScript to create the hidden answer function.

Using a plugin for adding FAQ structured data can also slow down a page with JavaScript.

The reason JavaScript (plus style and font downloads) can be problematic is that they contribute to slowing a webpage down.

Also, sometimes the content on the webpage is enough, and adding additional content in the form of FAQs might begin to make the webpage less relevant rather than more relevant.

Lean toward improving the user experience in answering questions.

If the FAQ is superfluous and doesn’t really add relevance or helpfulness, then maybe it’s better not to use the FAQ on that page.

How To Create FAQ Schema

There are many WordPress plugins today that offer FAQ structured data implementation.

Some WordPress SEO plugins like RankMath offer FAQ schema functionality built into them.

The WordPress plugin archive offers a selection of dedicated structured data plugins that make it simple to add FAQ structured data.

For those who want to add the structured data individually, a search for FAQ structured data generators yields many sites that offer a fill-in-the-blanks method for creating the correct structured data.

Every Content Management System (CMS), both open-source and proprietary SaaS closed-source platforms, should offer the FAQ and FAQ schema functionality, if not built-in, then with an add-on extension or plugin.

But if you really want to optimize your pages, it’s fairly easy to hand code the necessary template and add the structured data manually to each webpage.

Just consult Google’s Developer Page for FAQ Schema to see what variables are needed for a successful outcome.

Google’s FAQ Schema Guidelines

An important rule that applies to every kind of structured data is that everything that is in the structured data script must also be visible on the webpage itself.

Adding structured data information that doesn’t exist on the visible part of the webpage can result in a manual action penalty from Google.

Beyond that, there are three guidelines Google recommends all publishers follow when adding FAQ structured data:

Also, take time to read the entire Google developer page dedicated to FAQ structured data.

How To Validate Your FAQ Schema

Schema Validation is the process of testing to see if the structured data conforms to Google’s FAQ structured data requirements.

Structured data must be valid for the webpage to become eligible for an enhanced listing in the search results.

The best way to validate FAQ structured data is with Google’s Rich Results Test.

That test will provide feedback if anything is missing and show if the code is valid and eligible for a rich result.

Conclusion

FAQ Schema.org markup is something that every site should at least consider adding when creating a webpage.

The usefulness of adding this to a webpage goes far beyond becoming eligible for an enhanced listing in Google’s search results.

More resources:

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