While there are those who feel strongly that employing any customization to WordPress themes is something to avoid at all costs, there are some good reasons why custom themes are recommended when it comes to WordPress websites.

Here are 4 reasons why customization is the way to go:

1. You Want to Ensure the Theme You Choose is Secure and Safe

WordPress is an open sourced software, whereby anyone can design themes and provide them at no cost. Unfortunately, some of these free themes can be subject to malicious code by those who wish to cause harm on the Internet. By choosing customization, you are avoiding the potential threat that may come with predesigned themes, which could expose your business to online threats of hacking.

2. You Want a Unique Presence on the Internet

You may be in a position where you want your company to stand apart from the rest and in order to do so, custom design is the way to go, not settling for free or premium WordPress themes that many others also use. If you want to be unique, then customization is the answer.

3. There Are No Available Predesigned Themes That Meet Your Business Needs

If you have a business that requires customized features that are specific to your company needs, your best bet is to look at optimizing a WordPress theme by way of customization. Through a custom WordPress theme, you can make the necessary modifications needed in order to add extended functionalities etc., now and in the future.

4. You Want a Theme That is Optimized for Speed and Quality

Not all WordPress themes are well optimized for both speed and quality, and if you’re concerned about the user experience, you will want to look at a custom WordPress theme for your site. Using a custom WordPress theme will allow you to make the necessary modifications to coding that will optimize the performance and the user experience that is the end result for your online visitors. As well, free and premium themes are often heavy with features that not everyone needs, which can slow them down.

While it may cost more and involve more time to move forward with custom design and development of WordPress themes, it often can be the right decision to meet your business and customer needs.

Websites are the first point of contact with potential new customers and clients. It is the first impression you give as a company, and it sets the tone for your professionalism, branding, and purpose.

Clients are likely to judge the reliability and quality of your company based on the navigability and design of your website. Moreover, even if you already have a site, online trends change regularly, and it’s necessary to stay on top of what’s popular.

There are numerous signs to look out for to guarantee that your website is performing exactly as it should; here we have listed the top 5 signs that you need a new business website:

1. Not mobile-friendly:

There are up to a trillion Google searches a year, and over half of those are on mobile devices. With these figures expecting to grow, Google has decided that focusing on mobile-friendly websites is the future.

Google now ranks websites based on their mobile adaptivity, which basically means how your website looks on phones and tablets. The perfect site in Google’s eyes loads quickly with all the information immediately at hand and works respectively for phone or desktop to give any device user what they want in an effective way. Meaning that if your website is not responsive, it will end up ranking much lower than it had previously.

2. Speed:

Consumers aren’t really as patient as they used to be. In fact, almost 40% of all consumers will abandon a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

A slow website can quickly be interpreted as belonging to an unprofessional business. Not only does a long loading time frustrate customers, but it is also damaging to your search engine rankings. Having a website that loads fast will ensure that your clients stay to see what your business is about.

3. Poor Design and Content:

An essential factor of your online success is how regularly you update your business website.

An up-to-date website gives consumers certainty that your business is active and well, and web design is just as important as the information on your site. Consumers don’t have to be web design specialists to recognize an old and outdated web design. If your website is more than 3 years old, it may require a major update.

4. Outdated Platform:

If your site is over 5 years old, then it is in business terms “outdated.” Trends are always evolving, and for you to stay relevant, you need to keep updating your website. If your site is even older and designed using tables, this is clearly a sign you need to invest in a new website on a current platform.

5. Security:

As technology unfolds and our lives become ever more connected to the internet, the risks rise, and security becomes more critical. The same goes for your website; users want to feel secure when they’re browsing the web, particularly when it comes to making a buying decision.

Updating your website’s security certificate to SSL or something even more encrypted is essential to increase the security of your site and to make your users feel more confident.

So now you know, if your site falls under even one of these signs, then it is time to invest in a new website. Here at WordPress Website Vancouver, our design and development team will work with you to get you a fresh new website that will meet your needs and attract your customers. Call us today!

More plugins, more problems? Not really, however having more plugins does necessitate more updates, and staying on top of those updates can be vital to the performance and security of your website.

Depending on your availability of time resources and your level of experience, there are several ways to ensure you keep up with the latest WordPress plugin updates; to help you out, we will now cover each of them.

Why We Need to Update

Before we dive into the how, let’s consider the why. If your website plugins are working fine, why do we to continuously update them? Not all updates are meant to solely repair a problem or address an underlying performance issue, although fixing bugs is unfortunately a frequent driver. However, updates also frequently introduce new features, improve functionality, and increase security. All said and done, updates provide:

• Added new features
• Security enhancements
• Repairs for bugs or software glitches
• Speed and performance improvements

How to Update WordPress Plugins

Now that we have covered the why, let’s go over the how. In general, there are two ways you can go about keeping your plugins up to date, either have them update automatically or complete the process manually. Let’s explore the steps in further detail.

1. Automatic WordPress Updates

If you are the type of individual who neither has the time nor the expertise to manage manual updates, you don’t need to worry; it can all be taken care of for you with a few simple clicks.

Within WordPress, you can simply enable automatic updates from the settings page: Settings » Automatic Plugin Updates. From here, you can select the specific plugins you wish to have automatically updated, as well as turn on email notifications to keep you posted on updates that are occurring.

There are also other options. Using a site management tool – yes, there is a plugin for managing your plugins – you can have all your plugins update automatically. JetPack and Easy Updates Manager are two good examples that allow you to customize you updates and even select the types of updates you wish to automate and those you do not. For example, you may want to install major release updates only and leave minor ones on hold.

1.2 Automatic Updates with Code Snippet

You can also manage automatic updates by adding a simple line of code to your theme’s functions.php file:

add_filter( ‘auto_update_plugin’, ‘__return_true’ );

This may be a solution if you have many plugins and want to have them all updated automatically, without selecting each one individually.

2. Manual WordPress Plugin Updates

If you prefer to review an update before it is installed, you may want to manually install your updates. There are several steps in this process:

• Visit the WordPress plugin page or third party source and download the plugin .zip file.
• Extract the .zip file and put it somewhere easily accessible, like on your desktop
• Connect to your site’s server using a File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
• Navigate to the wp-content/plugins folder and either delete or rename the folder of the plugin you’re updating (you can return and delete it later if you prefer)
• Find the extracted plugin folder you just downloaded and right click and select upload
• Login to your WordPress dashboard to ensure the plugin is active and functioning correctly

This process may appear more laborious than it actually is. Once you have downloaded the required plugin update and extracted the zip file, you need to connect to your website using an FTP client. An FTP is required to upload files to WordPress and there are several good options available, including WinSCP, Cyberduck, and Transmit (Mac only).

After that, the process is relatively straightforward. Locate your wp-content/plugins folder and complete the steps outlined above.

Knowledge of how to perform a manual update is not only good for those who like to be more hands on with their plugins, but also for managing the occasional errors that occur during automatic updates.

WordPress Website Design involves customizing, conceptualizing, and presenting content planned for the Internet. Website design used for other purposes, such as web applications, portable applications, and UI structure requires coding. But WordPress Website Design service does not require coding.

• Navigation: Site engineering, menus, and other navigation instruments in the website design must be made with thought to how clients peruse and search. The objective is to assist the client with moving around the site effortlessly, proficiently finding the data they require.

• Media: Relevant video and sound upgrades in the structure can assist clients regarding the data, creating understanding the concept.

• Similarity: Design the site page, to perform similarly well on various programs and working frameworks, to build its survey.

• Technology: Advancements in technology gives the opportunity to include development and advancement, considering website architecture that is in every case new, dynamic, and expert.

• Interaction: Increase dynamic client support and inclusion with the WordPress Website Designing, by including remark boxes and assessments of public feedback in the structure. Convert clients from guests to customers with email structures and bulletin recruits.

Benefits of using WordPress Website Designing

1. SEO Friendly

WordPress Website Designing allows options to keep your website updated to rank in search engine. There are many features includes plugins that help to drive more traffic.

2. Free Source

WordPress is open source which is allowed to design website. A huge number of code scholars, engineers, and all-around individuals have added to its creation and development since WordPress Website Designing in 2003.

3. Easy to Customize

It is easy to include plugins, content and themes to your wordpress site. By simple clicking, you can add a page or post, at that point by composing your content, including a few pictures and clicking one to add to your site.

4. Mobile Optimized

The technology is ever changing from past to the present. You can make a website that will work for gadgets like iPads, PCs, advanced mobile phones or tablets. It’s called Responsive Web Design. Through website wordPress design, you can design mobile-optimized website.

5. Support

With this numerous sites out there, you’ll see it VERY simple to have some options to help for your inquiries, concerns or needs. From YouTube channels and WordPress blogs, you can understand and fix it.

6. Dynamic Functions

WordPress offers some extremely good features including blogging, remarking, dropdown menus, and email marketing. With some steps you can add plugins to work dynamic functions such as occasion schedules, slideshows, video exhibitions, online networking and more. You can customize your site with WordPress Website Designing.

You can connect with WordPress Website Vancouver for the best WordPress website designing. Get in touch with our team and develop your website.

Since its inception in 2003, WordPress has grown considerably and now commands an enviable market share in website development. With nearly 40% of all websites built on its platform, WordPress continues to dominate the market and shows no sign of slowing down.

The popularity of the WordPress platform is largely thanks to numerous improvements, platform upgrades, and a vast community of active developers providing a wide range of additional themes and plugins. With a renewed focus on usability, accessibility, and technology, here are 9 WordPress trends to watch out for in 2021.

White Space and Minimalistic Themes

From clutter in their homes to clutter on the websites they browse, today’s audience believes less is more. With a focus on providing simple, innovative navigation paired with clear copy and plenty of white space, minimalistic themes began gaining popularity in 2020, and the trend will continue in 2021. Developers are using WordPress to create websites that allow users to quickly scan for the information they are looking for while instinctively drawing them toward the intended call-to-action.

Accessibility for Everyone

There has been a lot of enthusiasm surrounding smart assistants and voice searches, however one often overlooked benefit of this trend is accessibility for hearing and sight impaired users. With the world becoming increasingly reliant on the internet for even the most common day-to-day activities, improved voice capabilities, closed captioned media, and better navigation tools are allowing individuals of all abilities to easily access important tools and stay connected.

Ecommerce Evolution

2020 saw an unprecedented rise in online shopping, and platforms such as WordPress, through plugins like WooCommerce, quickly pivoted to accommodate the increase in ecommerce transactions. Rather than going backward, 2021 will see the ecommerce trend continue to grow, with better integrations, more seamless checkouts, enhanced security, and new payment methods.

Virtual Reality

Limited ability to shop around in-person and the rise in ecommerce transactions, staples of 2020, have led to a demand for improved visuals, which will continue to grow in 2021. One such area in particular is virtual reality and 3D imagery. From virtual real-estate visits to trying a sofa in your living room before buying, WordPress VR plugins have allowed businesses that traditionally depended on in-person interaction to shift entirely to an online platform.

Video Backgrounds

No longer limited to static backgrounds, WordPress now offers video backgrounds that help grab a user’s attention and add a dynamic artistic element unachievable through fixed images alone. Video backgrounds have been shown to significantly lengthen the average amount time spent on a website – and improved user engagement directly influences conversions. While not limited to this format, the vast majority of video backgrounds are compressed GIFs, making them surprisingly light and quick to load.

Chatbots

As more tasks are moved online, the need for 24/7 support has also increased. There are many reasons why businesses large and small have been so quick to adopt this technology; Chatbots offer limitless opportunity for response customization, are able to handle multiple dialogues at once, keep an exact detailed recording of all conversations, and most importantly, are able to provide instant replies any time of day.

Thumb Scrolling

It’s not just the amount of time we are spending online and what we are doing that has changed, but also how we are doing it. While older generations may still use one hand to hold and one hand to scroll on mobile devices, much of the younger population has adopted one-handed, also known as thumb scrolling. This may not seem drastic, but this shift actually has a large impact on how the user interface needs to be laid out. Ever on-top of development trends, WordPress offers many themes that cater to this thumb movement.

Website Builders

WordPress has become the platform of choice not just for web developers, but also for individuals with little to no actual coding experience, to design beautiful websites. Thanks to simple drag-and-drop website builders, virtually anyone can build, maintain, and update a website, without having to write a single line of code. DIY drag-and-drop websites are expected to continuing growing in popularity throughout 2021.

Ever evolving to meet user demands, there is little doubt that WordPress will continue to be an important platform for developers and website builders in 2021 and beyond.

There isn’t much debate around the fact that WordPress is a popular and well-known platform used by online businesses from all types of industries, and that it continues to rise in popularity today.

Just like any software though, there comes a time when you encounter errors on your website, and this can hold true for WordPress plug-in errors as well. When it’s time to fix WordPress plug-in errors on your website, consider these following 4 errors and fixes:

1. Syntax Error

The annoying syntax error relates to issues within your website’s coding and is often typically located within the functions.php file. Although it doesn’t give a lot of detail in terms of the error itself, it will point to what the issue is and its location within your coding. To fix this, you will need to use an SFTP tool, such as FileZilla, in order to access the affected file and make the necessary changes required.

2. White Screen of Death

A rather tricky error to solve, as the white screen of death error is not displaying any type of error message, nor any guidance on how to resolve the issue, it simply displays a white screen and nothing else. In order to resolve this error, you will have to try different troubleshooting techniques (a sort of hit and miss strategy). Some things you could try are disabling your WordPress plug-in, in the event it is faulty, disabling your theme and perhaps replacing it with a default theme offered by WordPress, increasing memory limits, or clearing out your site cache.

3. 404 Error

A very common error found on the Internet, which often indicates a website has broken links or a changed URL. If you find your website encountering a 404 error, it may be related to the

htaccess file. Try regenerating this file, and if this does not resolve the issue, try re-uploading a newhtaccess file. When creating the new file, use this default code:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModulemod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ – [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

4. Connection Times Out

WordPress plug-in errors can result from connection time-outs, which are caused by not having enough memory to work with. A simple fix is to increase the memory within your

wp– config.php file by adding the following code to the file:

define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’);

WordPress plug-in errors happen on your website, but when it comes time to fix them you can source out some solutions online or consider getting assistance from a professional company, such as WordPresswebsitevancouver.ca.

If you are running a website, search engines are incredibly valuable sources of organic traffic, leads, and customers. As WordPress is widely known as an SEO friendly platform, you should use a well-optimized WordPress theme, coupled with a top WordPress SEO plugin, to reap the real benefits that optimization can offer. However, with hundreds of SEO plugins available, it may sound like a challenging task to choose the best SEO plugin for WordPress.

Continue reading

A staging site is frequently used while building a new website, but it can also come in handy when updating and upgrading an existing site. By working in a staging setting, you ensure that the experience of your visitors isn’t interrupted as you make edits. The original site continues to operate normally until a decision is made to push those changes live.

Continue reading

When people think of the cost of WordPress, they tend to focus on how much it takes to get a WordPress site up and live. But, what about the yearly fees for maintaining your WordPress site?

The costs associated with a site don’t end once the site is built. Building a good WordPress site isn’t just about getting a domain name and paying for hosting. WordPress users should think about the long term and how much WordPress will cost them over time. Continue reading

When most people think about social media marketing for business, they typically think Facebook or Instagram. While these social media marketing tools are effective in helping to harness online business success, there are other social media channels that can be very effective for online business success, such as Twitter. Continue reading