Why Simple Updates Are Not Enough

Installing the latest WordPress version or updating plugins is a key part of maintaining a website. However, simply installing updates without a system to monitor their impact is an issue. Seemingly routine updates often create plugin conflicts, broken layouts or lost functionality. With professional website maintenance, you transition from a reactive approach that depends on theme and plugin vendors to fix issues, to treating every update as a change to a live system that must be carefully managed.

Website Maintenance Means Managing Change

From contact forms and booking systems to SEO plugins and site caching tools, every element on the front end and back end works together to create a functioning website. In this environment, making even minor changes adds an element of risk that could prove costly. To deal with this you need reliable WordPress website maintenance that puts every change through a complete planning, testing and review process. Taking this organized approach protects the stability of your site and delivers a better user experience.

Many Website Issues Start Quietly

At this point you may be picturing critical error messages or complete database collapse. However, many maintenance-related issues will not even be noticeable at first. A contact form could stop sending, search functionality might go down, and analytics could fail to track data. When these smaller problems occur, you will likely lose sales and create a poor experience for some visitors. Treating maintenance as a key aspect of your online business helps catch these issues before any customers are affected.

Having Backups Is Not Enough

When something goes wrong, a backup feels like the answer. But how many businesses have backups running without a clear process for quickly restoring them? In many cases the backup has never been tested, so there’s no guarantee it will function correctly when needed. With lost revenue and damaged trust on the line, maintenance planning should include a reliable process for restoring the site with minimal downtime.

Websites Do Not Maintain Themselves

Every live website is continuously changing, whether it’s a third-party plugin developer releasing updates or a hosting provider updating the infrastructure your site depends on. Site performance can also slow down as databases grow with old data. When you’re not actively involved in website maintenance, your website will gradually slow down and deteriorate, and at first you may not be able to see it. Just as your blog and social media need regular attention, the technical foundation holding everything together needs to be actively maintained.

Website Maintenance Is an Ongoing Responsibility

Websites work best when maintenance is built into normal business operations rather than being left alone until something breaks. Plugin compatibility, server settings, security updates and performance all need regular attention. Whether you manage that in-house or use a WordPress development agency, a WordPress maintenance plan helps keep your site secure, stable and performing properly.

What Is #Website Maintenance (It’s More Than Clicking Update) by @LissaDuty #SEO
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Professional WordPress Website Maintenance for Businesses

Don’t risk losing time and money to plugin errors, website downtime and broken functionality. Rocks Digital Marketing provides full-service website maintenance services for businesses of all sizes. Call (214) 989-7549 or request a website evaluation.

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The beginning of each new year is the perfect time to evaluate how your website is performing for your business in search results. While you should always be monitoring your website’s performance – particularly if you’re investing in SEO services – it often falls off the to-do list until traffic slows down or the phone doesn’t ring quite as frequently. At Rocks Digital we monitor our clients’ website performance on an ongoing basis, driving steady improvements in search visibility.

What Factors to Analyze in a Website Performance Audit

Before looking at the reasons for completing a website performance audit, let’s examine the basic metrics we’re going to analyze.

• Sessions – The total number of user interactions with your website within a specific time period.
• Organic Sessions – The number of visits that come directly from unpaid, organic search results on search engines.
• Total Users – The overall count of unique visitors who have accessed your website at least once.
• New Users – The number of first-time visitors who have never been to your website before.
• Views – The total number of individual pages that have been viewed by all users.
• Bounce Rate – The percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one page.

We referenced the importance of monitoring Google Analytics as part of our digital marketing tips for 2024, and it’s still just as relevant today. You’ll also want to consider the following data points, which requires deeper analysis of how each channel or piece of content contributes to overall performance.

• Sessions by Medium – Assess how visitors reach your website by traffic type (organic search, paid search, social media or referral).
• Top Traffic Sources – Lists the specific platforms driving the most traffic to your website.
• Top Traffic Pages – Highlights the most frequently visited pages on your website.

Advanced Strategies for Website Performance Audits

Beyond these fundamental metrics, what matters most is how visitors convert into leads – whether they’re completing contact forms, calling your business, or engaging with multiple pages across your website.

Crucially, Google Analytics lets you drill into individual page performance in detail. For example, when you spot high-traffic pages with high bounce rates, you have an ideal opportunity to optimize these pages and improve their conversion potential. It’s this level of detailed analysis and optimization that underscores the value of hiring an SEO company for your business.

Services pages are a prime example of pages that often receive a fair amount of traffic, yet suffer from a high bounce rate. This typically means that you’re securing traffic at the top of the conversion funnel—however, there’s a bottleneck preventing further interest, consideration or a sale. You might also notice this with blog posts that don’t capture visitor interest. At Rocks Digital we dig deep to find the issue, make the necessary changes and test the outcome.

Reasons to Complete a Website Performance Audit

Here’s why completing a website performance audit is so important.

• Improves user experience for higher engagement and more repeat visits.
• Increases search engine visibility to reach more potential customers.
• Identifies opportunities to optimize conversions and increase customer satisfaction.
• Gives you an edge over competitors with a faster, more relevant and user-friendly website.

Ultimately, conducting regular audits is one of the best ways to bring real-world benefits to your business and your customers. And with the help of Google Analytics setup and reporting services, you can let your SEO partners handle the complexities of data analytics and optimization, so you can focus on the task of delivering for your customers.

Why You Need to Complete a #Website Performance Audit by @LissaDuty #SEO
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Try Our Top-Rated Website Audit & Optimization Services

At Rocks Digital, we give businesses a complete picture of their website’s performance with our comprehensive auditing, tracking and optimization services. You can rely on us for results-driven tracking, SEO and web design solutions for more traffic and better conversions. Call (214) 989-7549 or request a website evaluation today.

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How to Complete the SEO Tab in the WordPress SEO by Yoast Plugin

Focus Keyword

• Look at your post title as well as the content and determine your Focus Keyword or Keyword Phrase.
• Enter this phrase into the Keyphrase area in the SEO tab.
• Under the Meta description you will see SEO Analysis. (This bulleted list will tell you if you have used your keyword or phrase in all the right places for optimal SEO. If one of these says “No,” I’d suggest you go back to that area and see if you can find a creative way to add in your Focus Keyword.)

SEO Title

• Copy and paste the title of your page or post in this blank.
• After entering your title, if the green bar under this blank turns red you’ll need to shorten your title until the warning goes away. (This title appears in search engines, and if your title is too long it will be cut off in the display.)
• When shortening your title, make sure the Focus Keyword is still included within the title.

Meta Description

• This is a brief description of your post or page that is displayed in search engines. Make sure it will compel the reader to click the link.
• The Meta description must be no more than 156 characters and contain the Focus Keyword.
• To complete this Meta description you can often take the first sentence or two from your post or page and shorten it up. (And if you choose, you can write a totally different meta description.)

Once you have filled in the Yoast plugin SEO tab and clicked “save draft,” it will then give you an SEO score – as well as list out the places where your post or page needs work to improve your score. Follow the basic steps outlined here and you’ll be on your way to increasing the SEO ranking of your posts/pages. The preview of your page/post information that users will see in a search will look something like this.

Desktop Result

Mobile Result

Completing the Social Tab Within the WordPress SEO Yoast Plugin

Once you have completed the SEO tab, you can now use most of that information to complete the Social tab.

Post / Page Title

• Copy and paste the title from the SEO tab into the Social tab in the blank for the Facebook title. We usually add the website or company name after the title. (Example: How to Complete the Yoast SEO Plugin | Rocks Digital)
• Copy and paste the title and information you listed in the Facebook area above into the Twitter title.
• For the Twitter title, change the company name to your Twitter handle (example: How to Complete the Yoast SEO Plugin via @RocksDigital). When someone shares your post from the share plugin, it will link to your Twitter account automatically.

Post / Page Description 

• Click back to the SEO tab and copy the Meta description information, then click on the Social tab and paste that description into the Facebook description box.
• Copy and paste the description you listed in the Facebook area above into the Twitter description.

Featured Image 

• In filling out the Social tab within the Yoast SEO Plugin there’s one last step – select the featured image you would like to be displayed when you (or someone else) share the post or page on social media.
• Usually you’d select the image you added to the post or page as your featured image, but it can certainly be a different image. You have total control over selecting the image that is displayed.

Working through completing the Yoast SEO Plugin can be challenging and time-consuming at first, but it’s worth every bit of effort involved.

This plugin helps you ensure that each post and page is optimized for search. When done correctly, it will help increase your ranking on Google and other search engines.

#HowTo Complete the #WordPress Yoast SEO Plugin by @LissaDuty #RocksDigital
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Writing great content is just one part of the process. The next part is making it easy for others to find it through search and then share it.

Read more about the WordPress Plugins we recommend.

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When was the last time you assessed your business’ website? Looking more closely at website design and development, content and accessibility may reveal some unfortunate surprises. Thankfully, by taking the Rocks Digital online presence self assessment, you can make sure your website is viable for 2022.

5 Questions for Evaluating a Business’ Website

Evaluating the business’ website is the first of five stages designed to improve your online presence this year. Why not take the self assessment now and see how well you’re doing? Let’s start by taking a look at the steps involved in the first stage.

1. Does the website communicate what you do above the fold?

A user’s first impression when they land on a page makes all the difference. Is the website attractive, clutter-free and easy to navigate? This is necessary for visitors to stick around. Because Largest Contentful Paint (LCP, one of the Core Web Vitals) focuses on page load time from the user’s view, this means that to satisfy Google and your visitors, anything above the fold should load quickly and be relevant to the search query.

2. Is your website mobile optimized?

With the dramatic rise in mobile search in recent years, mobile optimization is a necessity – not an added bonus. Google’s switch to a mobile-first index means the algorithm uses the mobile version of the site for indexing. Therefore, a poorly optimized mobile experience will inevitably damage your overall SEO strategy. SEO is a core component of a business’ website, and it needs to start with mobile.

3. Do you have reviews or testimonials on the website?

Reviews and testimonials become even more relevant for website success rates as the years go on. In fact, a survey by BrightLocal saw that 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses. Simply put, if you don’t include reviews and testimonials on your website, consumers will find it hard to trust your business.

4. Is your phone number at the top of the website?

Website visitors expect to find easily accessible contact information on a website. The presence of a phone number adds an initial element of trust even when the visitor doesn’t call. To highlight this fact, research by digital marketing company KoMarketing found that 44% of visitors will leave a business’ website if there is no contact information.

5. Does your website have a contact form on every page?

It is vital that businesses make it easy for visitors to contact them. A Hubspot survey found that marketers listed generating leads as the top priority for their business. However, by adding unnecessary extra steps to contact their business, they can actually make it harder to generate new leads. In addition, these forms should be clearly labeled to be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Is Your Website Optimized?

After answering these questions, you should have a realistic assessment of your website and its overall viability. If your site is not fully optimized, it might be time for a website revamp. However, if you answered “no” to every question, the best solution could be starting from scratch.

Download the complete self assessment worksheet now and start evaluating your business’ online presence.

Assessing Your #Website for Viability in 2022 – Part 1 by @LissaDuty via @RocksDigital #SEO
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Get a Website Evaluation Today

When you want to improve your online presence, it’s best to start with your website. Contact Rocks Digital now and we will ensure your business stands out online. Request a website evaluation today or call (214) 989-7549.

Online Presence Self Assessment Quick Links

Assessing Your Website for Viability – Part 1 (You are here!)
Assessing Your Google Business Profile for Local Visibility – Part 2
Assessing Your Business’ Online Reputation – Part 3
Assessing Your Business’ Social Media Presence – Part 4
Assessing Your Business’ Local SEO Footprint – Part 5

The post Assessing Your Website for Viability in 2022 – Self Assessment Part 1 appeared first on Rocks Digital.

Any chatbot developer with the nascent passion for bot development will tell you that chatbots are no longer the underdogs they used to be. This is because the much-adored mobile apps and mobile websites are slowly losing altitude in terms of being seen as the best communication solution for any business. With the changing business environment and customer preferences, businesses are now looking for alternative communication technologies to apply in their business models.

If You’re Happy with Your App, Do You Even Need Chatbots?

So what’s the biggest question we should ask? It’s this: Should businesses continue clinging onto apps, or shift focus to the chatbots?

In this article, we’re going to give an in-depth analysis of mobile apps and chatbots to determine which one is the best. For starters, what’s the difference between the two?

The Apps vs. Chatbots Breakdown

Mobile apps are softwares and programs specifically built for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. These apps turn mobile devices into small powerhouses filled with function and fun. The custom mobile application development also allows users to enjoy multiple apps which can come pre-installed on these devices, while others can be accessed via the app stores.

There are multiple advantages of having mobile apps as part of your customer communication strategy, including wide interaction options and dynamic reloading. Let’s break them down.

Wide Interaction Options

Mobile apps provide significantly wider options for the users to interact with. As a matter of fact, app usability and design possibilities are limited only by the developer’s imagination and budget.

Dynamic Reloading

Another unique selling point of mobile apps is that the content can be dynamically reloaded. However, it’s important to note that this doesn’t change the app’s basic functionality, as this can only be done through updates.

Just like with their chatbot peers, there are multiple mobile development services and platforms that help developers build feature-packed mobile applications across all major platforms.

Chatbots Facts

Chatbots combine artificial intelligence and NLP to simulate conversations and interaction by responding to questions posed by users.

It’s an undeniable fact that chatbots were underdogs until recently. To put this into perspective, in 2017 alone, 268 billion app downloads generated over $77 billion. This is in comparison to the $88 billion in 2016 and $45 billion in 2015. On the other hand, chatbot projected revenues are expected to hit $1.23 billion by 2025, showing that it’s still at the infant stage.

The mobile application development market is saturated with all sorts of apps seeking to solve every kind of problem. You can virtually shop, send messages, and even chat with a friend using them.

But here’s where the problem begins…

Recent research has shown that no matter how many apps an individual has on their phone, on average they will use 30 of them in a given month. This means that the rest are rendered irrelevant.

Then come the bots…

Bots have emerged as the most efficient way to reach out to a wide customer base. It’s estimated that in the next few years, at least half of the world’s population will have some sort of bot on their phones. Large corporations are leading the charge with bots like CNN News Chatbot, Spring (E-commerce Chatbot), Hyatt (Hotel Chatbot), and much more.

Four Benefits of Using Chatbots

1. More Human, Compared to Apps

Although bots may sound like just a messaging service, a bot is a sort of intelligent assistant. For instance, Facebook Messenger bot is more interactive and speaks human language. By so doing, they respond to requests in a more human language, which is simply what every user wants.

For communication purposes the chatbot technology utilizes natural language processing, which allows bots to understand and contextualize the different keywords of any text.

2. Unified Interface (UI)

A critical analysis of various UI elements reveals that mobile apps are just information assortments. However, when programming a chatbot, a creative chatbot developer can factor in other services to reach a larger audience.

With the increasing chatbot integration, regular services such as purchasing movie tickets, buying groceries, or even hotel booking can be merged into a single convenient messaging app, as opposed to multiple apps that consume device storage. Chatbots can also reduce the multiple downloads.

Finally, the flexibility to integrate chatbots into websites gives businesses an even wider reach.

3. Technical Superiority

Mobile apps are a conglomeration of less personalization and static user experience. On the other hand, chatbot development utilizes a combination of AI and NLP (Natural Language Processing), making them smarter and expandable. In fact, chatbot technology is premeditated to learn from your behavior to give you super-personalized responses. Bots can constantly learn from user behavior, and offer much more personalized responses. This intelligence becomes apparent once you compare the initial responses to the most recent ones.

4. Faster Development

Any chatbot development company out there will admit that writing a chatbot code is relatively easy compared to iOS mobile app development, or even hybrid application development. With the right skills, there are multiple bot development platforms that make it easier to create your own chatbot.

Using Chatbots Can Increase Customer Engagement

Apparently, hybrid application development still has a long walk before going obsolete. However, the steep upwards curve seems to have stagnated. People will continue using them due to the wider interaction options, but the diversity just won’t be there. Most companies will have to look for an alternative channel of reaching out to customers, such as chatbots. Chatbot use can be seen as a natural progression in customer engagement.

Bots are more versatile, inclusive, and multipurpose. As a business, you may want to build a chatbot – or risk being left behind. If you aren’t a bot developer, there are multiple online tutorials that will clearly guide you on how to build a chatbot from scratch. Whether you try your hand at bot creation or hire a pro, you may want to get started with creating a chatbot sooner rather than later.

#Mobile #App vs Chatbots – What’s the Best Option for a #Business? by @Mobilunity #RocksDigital
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What’s your perspective on chatbots? Are you quite happy with your current mobile app? Do share your thoughts on bots in the comments!

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As videos are becoming more popular with individuals and brands, video marketing will be getting increased attention. This rising consumption of video content is why everyone is jumping on the video marketing bandwagon. It won’t be wrong to assume that if you shy away from video marketing, your brand might no longer be able to compete.

Take Video Marketing Out of the Toolbox and Put It to Work!

With the increased customer engagement, more and more brands are experimenting with different video formats to modify their marketing strategies, and tailor them in a way that will be most appealing to the audience.

8 Hot Video Marketing Trends

In recent years, we’ve seen some new emerging trends in the video marketing world. Here are a few things you should look out for if you’re planning to start your video marketing journey,

1. Live Video Streaming Is on the Rise

Live video is the new marketing tool for businesses. There’s no longer any need to make a video and put it on a video-specific platform. Just go live and give a sneak peek into your business – go behind the stage, flaunt your workplace, address customer queries – it can work wonders for you. With the launch of Facebook Live, this trend has gained more popularity, with multiple brands using it to showcase their awesome products and company culture.

Live video has more appeal: 80% would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog, and 82% prefer live video from a brand to social posts.

In fact, when it comes to live video other platforms haven’t fallen behind – Twitter also launched its Live video feature soon after Facebook Live rolled out.

More and more brands are turning towards live videos for advertising. Live videos are helping brands build better relationships with their customers.

2. Rise in the Popularity of Homepage Videos

With around 55% of users spending less than 15 seconds on a page, many conversion prophets have got a new trick up their sleeves to make users stay. Behold, the homepage videos.

If you’ve noticed, most websites today have an explainer video on their homepage. Explainer videos are like a sales pitch, showcasing your business idea and benefits in 60–90 seconds. Since people love watching videos, you can be sure that your website visitors will stay to watch the video. Plus, since these homepage videos are designed to impress and convert the viewer, a number of SaaS companies like Dropbox (got 10 million additional customers), CrazyEgg ($21,000 additional revenue each month) and RankWatch (27% higher account signups) have all revealed stunning conversion success reports.

3. The Emergence of 360-Degree Videos

The concept of 360-degree video is fun and engaging. Users have shown interest in watching content in 360-degree format. Magnifyre has shown that the same video gets 28.81% more viewers when published in 360-degree format.

Here’s a 360-degree video published by Microsoft that gives a 360-degree view of the quietest room on Earth.

While this format may not be suitable or economically viable for every brand, it can help boost your sales if used properly.

4. More Marketers Are Using Videos in Email Marketing

Combining email and video will help shift the focus from heavy text content, and will help businesses rely on videos to promote their brand. Just using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19%. Plus, email with videos gets click-through rates of up to 65% more.

NotifyFox tested out the potential of video in their cold pitch emails and got 100+ new users from their campaign. Here’s the video they used.

Email marketing gives your video more exposure, which means that the power of email and video content is combined in one.

5. Disappearing Video Content – Watch It or Miss It

With Instagram’s video story feature and Snapchat’s temporary videos, we can expect the rise of “disappearing” video content in the future.

With billions of new content pieces created each day, know that your yesterday’s content will fade away into digital purgatory. No wonder – platforms like Instagram and Snapchat already offer temporary video content that disappears after a while. Various brands have made effective campaigns with this feature.

Such content should be actionable and create a sense of urgency in the user. You can use such video content for promoting ongoing offers (with deadlines) or something like WWF did for a good cause. Check out their #LastSelfie Campaign.

6. More Companies Are Spending on Pre-, Mid- and Post-Roll Video Ads

Despite being interruptive advertising elements, these video ads have helped many brands in reaching out to their audience and turning them into customers.

These ad formats deliver the message in a short time-frame, and can be very effective in helping you establish your online presence. We mostly see these pre-, mid- or post-roll video ads on YouTube. Remember the “skip in 5 seconds” ads that pop up at the start of the video? Well those are pre-roll video ads. If designed well, these video ad stories can get viral.

7. Multichannel Video Marketing

Video content is no longer restricted to YouTube. Social media platforms have offered exposure to video content, thereby offering more visibility.

Due to the diversity of platforms available, you can reach out to a wide variety of audiences. In fact, due to the different nature of these marketing channels, you get a plethora of options to choose from.

Multichannel marketing allows flexibility. With so many marketing channels available, it has become easier to target the right audience.

Also, consumers that see ads in multiple channels convert 24% more than those who see it on one.

8. Animated GIFs for Engagement and Sales

The recent outburst of this trend can easily be seen on Twitter. Animated GIFs are similar to videos but cost less time and effort to produce. These GIFs are great to convey an idea, to create humor, or to tell stories.

GIFs come with multiple advantages. Your audience can understand the message easily, plus it connects with them on an emotional level.

Also, considering the fact that there are various free tools that allow you to generate GIFs, they make for a cost-effective marketing strategy – whether you intend to use it on social media or in newsletters to your subscribers.

Create Good Content Using these Video Marketing Tips

These changing trends offer you various ways to engage your customers. Go live, and give a 360-degree glimpse to your audience. Use animated GIFs and incorporate some humor to tickle the funny bone. Above all, monetize these strategies by making use of multi-channel marketing.

Before we go, here are some tips for creating good video content:

Create multiple short videos instead of a long one.

Instead of stuffing all your content into just one video, it’s better to split it in multiple videos so it doesn’t become too heavy for the user. This especially holds true for tutorial videos. Split them up into small explainer videos.

Focus on the timing, because timing is everything!

User engagement is directly influenced by the length of the video. If you don’t want to lose your video content to digital purgatory, make sure the video doesn’t drag on too long.

Speak in the language of your target audience.

It isn’t necessary to stick with a formal tone all the time. You can make it informal, crack jokes – do anything that engages your audience and connects with them on a personal level.

Video Marketing Is Here to Stay

Again, feel free to be light-hearted and non-formal in your video when appropriate, but this new age in video marketing must absolutely be taken seriously. According to Cisco, videos will be eating about 82% of all internet traffic by 2021.

Look at it from your own point of view – you’re almost surely a consumer of video content yourself, so you have first-hand knowledge of the importance of this trend. Boost your video marketing today starting with the trends above and the tips for good content. And let us hear how it works out!

Visually Speaking – Use #Video #Marketing to Engage Your Audience by @crackitt_ #RocksDigital
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Have you noticed any new video marketing trends or techniques? Let us know in the comments.

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