Move over, Don Draper. There’s a new player in town, and it’s making digital marketing easier, more efficient, and a lot funnier. We’re talking about artificial intelligence (AI), of course! With its ability to analyze vast amounts of data and make decisions in milliseconds, AI is rapidly transforming the way businesses reach their target audience and promote their brand. So sit back, grab a latte, and get ready to laugh as we explore the many ways AI is shaking up the marketing world.

1. The Rise of Chatbots: Marketing’s Hilarious New Best Friend

Who knew marketing could be this fun?

• Chatbots provide quick and convenient access to information
• AI-powered chatbots can learn from each interaction
• Chatbots add a touch of humor to the customer experience

2. Automated Ad Campaigns: No More Manual Labor, No More Mistakes

Remember the days of manual labor and endless mistakes while creating ad campaigns? Say goodbye to that tedious process, because AI has taken the marketing world by storm with automated ad campaigns! AI algorithms are now in charge of analyzing vast amounts of data and creating highly targeted, personalized ad campaigns for you. This means no more manual labor, and no more mistakes – just sit back and watch the ad magic unfold!

But, don’t worry about AI stealing your job, because let’s face it – even with AI, creating a successful ad campaign still requires a human touch. The algorithms can do the heavy lifting, but you’re still the mastermind behind it all! So, grab a cup of coffee (or a margarita), kick back, and enjoy the ride as AI takes your ad campaigns to the next level.

• AI streamlines the ad campaign setup process
• AI provides real-time optimization for maximum ROI
• AI eliminates the need for manual labor and reduces the risk of human error

3. Personalization: Knowing Your Customers Better Than They Know Themselves

• AI provides insights into consumer behavior for personalized marketing
• AI-powered personalization leads to higher engagement and conversions
• AI eliminates the need for generic, impersonal marketing messages

AI is making digital marketing a laughing matter. From personalization to automated ad campaigns, AI is changing the game in the funniest way possible. So go ahead, embrace the AI takeover and see just how hilarious digital marketing can be.

The post How AI is Revolutionizing Digital Marketing (And Making Us Laugh Along the Way) appeared first on Greenhouse Design Group.

1. Save Time

One of the biggest benefits of marketing automation is the time savings it provides. By automating repetitive tasks, businesses can focus on higher value activities and improve their overall productivity. Marketing automation can automate tasks such as email campaigns, social media posting, lead nurturing, and customer segmentation, freeing up valuable time for businesses to focus on other areas of their operations.

2. Increased Efficiency

Marketing automation allows businesses to streamline their marketing processes and workflows, leading to increased efficiency and better organization. With marketing automation, businesses can set up campaigns, track results, and measure performance in real-time, making it easier to identify areas of success and areas that need improvement. This improved efficiency also helps to reduce the risk of human error, ensuring that marketing campaigns are executed accurately and consistently.

3. Improved Personalization

Personalization is key to effective marketing, and marketing automation provides businesses with the tools they need to personalize their marketing efforts and connect with their target audience on a deeper level. With marketing automation, businesses can gather data on customer behavior, preferences, and interactions, and use that information to deliver personalized content and experiences to each customer. This leads to improved customer engagement and increased customer loyalty.

4. Better Lead Management

Marketing automation also helps businesses to manage their leads more effectively. By automating lead nurturing and scoring, businesses can identify the most promising leads and prioritize their outreach efforts. This helps to improve the efficiency of the sales process, as well as increase the chances of converting leads into customers.

5. Improved ROI

Finally, marketing automation helps businesses to achieve better return on investment (ROI) from their marketing efforts. By automating repetitive tasks, businesses can reduce their marketing costs, while at the same time increasing their marketing efficiency and effectiveness. This leads to higher returns on investment, making marketing automation a smart investment for any business looking to improve its marketing results.

Marketing automation is a critical tool for businesses looking to improve their marketing strategies and drive results. With its ability to save time, increase efficiency, improve personalization, better manage leads, and achieve improved ROI, it’s no wonder that marketing automation has become an indispensable part of modern marketing. If your business hasn’t yet embraced marketing automation, now is the time to start.

The post 5 Benefits of Marketing Automation for Your Business appeared first on Greenhouse Design Group.

The Impact of AI on Digital Marketing

Automated Ad Campaigns

One of the most significant impacts of AI on digital marketing is the ability to automate ad campaigns. AI algorithms can analyze data on consumer behavior and adjust ad campaigns in real-time to maximize their impact. This saves businesses time and resources, as they no longer need to manually monitor and adjust their ad campaigns.

Ad campaigns are a crucial aspect of digital marketing, and AI has made a significant impact in this area. With the rise of AI, ad campaigns can now be automated, allowing businesses to reach their target audience more effectively and efficiently.

One of the main benefits of automated ad campaigns is the ability to analyze consumer behavior and adjust ad campaigns in real-time. AI algorithms can analyze data such as the success of individual ads, the behavior of the target audience, and more. Based on this data, the AI algorithms can adjust the ad campaign in real-time to maximize its impact. This ensures that businesses are able to reach their target audience with the right message, at the right time, and in the most effective way possible.

Another benefit of automated ad campaigns is the time and resources saved by businesses. With manual ad campaigns, businesses need to spend time and resources monitoring and adjusting their campaigns, which can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Automated ad campaigns, on the other hand, allow businesses to save time and resources as the AI algorithms handle most of the work. This frees up businesses to focus on other aspects of their marketing strategy, such as developing new products or improving their customer service.

Personalization

Another impact of AI on digital marketing is personalization. AI algorithms can analyze consumer data to create personalized experiences for each individual user, from personalized recommendations to tailored ads. This leads to a more engaging user experience and increased customer satisfaction.

Personalization is the ability to create a more engaging user experience. AI algorithms can analyze consumer data to understand their preferences and behaviors, and use this information to create personalized experiences for each individual user. This can include personalized product recommendations, tailored ads, and more. Personalization leads to a more enjoyable user experience, as the user is more likely to find what they are looking for and receive content that is relevant to their interests.

Another benefit of personalization is the ability to increase customer satisfaction. By providing a personalized experience, businesses are able to build stronger relationships with their customers. This can lead to increased loyalty, as customers are more likely to return to a business that offers them a personalized experience.

Personalization also allows businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors, as they are able to offer a unique and customized experience that their competitors cannot.

The Impact of AI on Design

Automated Design

AI is also changing the way design work is done, with the rise of automated design tools. These tools can generate designs based on input from the user, freeing up time and resources for designers to focus on more strategic work.

Design is a crucial aspect of digital marketing, and AI is having a significant impact in this area through the development of automated design. Automated design is the use of AI algorithms to create designs and visual content, making design faster, more efficient, and more accessible for businesses.

One of the main benefits of automated design is the ability to create designs more quickly. With manual design, businesses need to spend time and resources creating designs from scratch, which can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Automated design, on the other hand, allows businesses to create designs more quickly and efficiently. AI algorithms can analyze data such as the target audience, brand guidelines, and more to create designs that are optimized for their intended purpose.

Another benefit of automated design is the ability to create designs that are more consistent with brand guidelines. Automated design ensures that all designs and visual content are consistent with the brand’s guidelines, ensuring a cohesive brand image. This is particularly important for businesses that need to create a large amount of visual content, such as product descriptions, advertisements, and more.

Improved User Experience

AI algorithms can also analyze user behavior and data to improve the overall user experience. This includes things like website layout, content recommendations, and product recommendations, leading to a more seamless and enjoyable user experience.

Design plays a crucial role in the user experience, and AI is having a significant impact in this area by improving the user experience. With the help of AI algorithms, businesses can now create designs that are optimized for their target audience, leading to increased customer satisfaction and engagement.

One of the main benefits of improved user experience through AI-powered design is the ability to create designs that are more aesthetically pleasing. AI algorithms can analyze consumer data to understand their preferences and behaviors, and use this information to create designs that are optimized for their intended purpose. This can lead to a more visually appealing user experience, as users are more likely to engage with designs that are aesthetically pleasing.

Another benefit of improved user experience through AI-powered design is the ability to create designs that are more user-friendly. AI algorithms can analyze consumer data to understand their behaviors and preferences, and use this information to create designs that are more intuitive and easy to use. This can lead to a more enjoyable user experience, as users are more likely to find what they are looking for and be able to interact with the designs more easily.

AI has had a significant impact on digital marketing and design. It has made it easier and more efficient for businesses to reach their target audience and communicate their brand message effectively. It has also changed the way design work is done, freeing up time and resources for designers to focus on more strategic work. As AI continues to advance, it’s exciting to think about what other changes and advancements it will bring to the world of digital marketing and design.

The post Digital Marketing & Design in the Age of AI appeared first on Greenhouse Design Group.

There are many factors are involved in these costs and knowing about each of these items ahead of time will enable your business to optimize spending. In this article, we will review the various costs associated with starting a website and how to manage your budget. 

Establish Your Budget

The first part of planning is to establish a budget. Before jumping into any actual site development, your team should have an idea of the total funds you are willing to devote to building your web site.

Your organization should also decide on a road map for the development of the site and the scalability requirements. High user volume or high-performance features such as video streaming can drastically affect the total cost. 

Your organization should also determine whether the site will be based on a subscription solution. The following four factors will drastically affect the cost of the website: purchasing a domain name, hosting the site, hiring a developer, purchasing any WordPress themes or plugins and content development.

Cost of a Domain

First, let’s examine the cost of purchasing a domain. This sounds very simple, but there are several details to consider. For example, your organization may wish to explore other alternatives besides purchasing just a simple name.com. To protect the organization’s domain, you can purchase several similar country or area specific domain names. This will prevent other competing companies from posting competing websites with a similar domain name. Finally, consider a multi-year purchase on your domain for a long-term discount. 

Cost of Web Hosting 

The second factor to examine is the costs to host your web site. Your web hosting service can make or break your website. A hosting service provides not only aesthetic and functional features but can also affect the security, speed and performance of your site. 

The type of hosting needed will vary. In most cases, if you are starting out from scratch or are a fairly new business a shared hosting will suffice. However, if you know your website will grow quickly, you may want to investigate more robust hosting options like a VPS or cloud solution. 

Themes and Plugins 

Finally, your theme and plugins may also drive website costs. Premium themes can be purchased from shops such as ThemeForest, while other free alternatives may be found on sites such as WordPress.org. Premium themes are often more robust, offer customization, and come with support. Most site plugins are free. However, some paid plugins may also be worth the money for extra specific features. 

Also, if you are unable to customize the site to your liking using the non-technical editing options available, you will need to hire a developer or someone with the ability to make the needed changes. 

Content Development 

If you have the time and the ability to write all the content for your website, great. Unfortunately, this can be a time-consuming endeavor, especially if you use inbound marketing techniques like blogging. If you are going to write all of your content, it will be a considerable time investment. If not, you’ll likely need to hire writers and guide them through the process. You may be able to hire someone and bring them in-house or try to find a freelance writer that is knowledgeable or an expert in your field.  

Hiring a Team

If your business does not have an in-house technical team, you may wish to hire a developer, designer and or content writers. While hiring people can be costly, the right people can really help your business grow and move in the right direction. 

A Little Planning Goes a Long Way

When considering starting a website there are many factors to include in your budget. Be sure to investigate in detail your domain, hosting options, development and content costs, and themes. Each of these factors will affect the cost and performance of your site. Be sure to consider not only the cost analysis but ensure all the features that you wish your site to provide are planned for ahead of time. Don’t be afraid to make compromises to fit the website within your budget. 

With a little planning, you are sure to create the best website for your business without breaking the bank. If you need assistance ask us at Greenhouse Design Group we love to help your business grow!

The post Budgeting for Your Business Website appeared first on Greenhouse Design Group.

Apply Standard Sizes for banner ads

Banner ads work within the specs of the site where you plan to advertise. And since most sites use a set of common sizes, it is advisable to design in the size you will use the most. Google AdWords, lists the most popular standard banner ad sizes on the web as –

• 728 by 90 pixels for leaderboard at the tops or bottoms of pages
• 300 by 250 pixels medium rectangle, either embedded in text elements or floating on the right
• 336 by 280 pixels large rectangle
• 300 by 600 pixels half page
• 320 by 100 pixels mobile banner

You can take elements from the design in your most preferred banner size and reflect it in other sizes too. When you don’t take the time to resize or recreate your ad specific to the networks specs, your creatives become distorted and displeasing to the eyes of your target market.  Check out the banner ad for FatCow to see how your layout can work for a number of different banner sizes.

Create Hierarchy

All banner ads need to have a brand logo, clear message within 2-10 words about your offer  (High quality, Free Signup, Limited Time Only) and encouragement to click (Watch Now, Click Here, etc). The real challenge lies in the fact that there is not much room to do this so there has to be a right balance between these elements. Create a simple hierarchy of elements using size, space and color to draw attention to each.

This banner ad from JumpCloud showcases the company logo first, followed by the value proposition which calls attention to itself and the CTA button is smartly placed right at the bottom inviting clicks.

Pair Stylistic Typography With Images

Banner ads only have small spaces to play around with so make the most of it by using strong, easy to read typefaces with striking images. Make sure to use tight images and detail shots as there is a lot of competition for eyeballs. This banner ad by Cavender’s pairs playful text, handwritten type and great photography to effectively announce the brand and product.

Use Colors And Texture Appropriately

Color is generally the first thing we notice in banner ads. Different colors have distinct associations, and your choice of color will depend on the kind of emotions you want to evoke in your audience. Look up this great resource on color theory to know how best to use color in ads. Banner ads do not always have to be subtle so feel free to use contrasting and bold colors to draw the eye in. In this banner ad, the bright yellow rectangle ties in with the National Geographic logo and is highlighted even more against a black or blue background. The yellow CTA reinforces the brand and also invites quick action.

Incorporating texture within a banner ad can also create interesting dimensions, movement and depth to drive home the brand image. Check out the unique geometric polygon pattern in the limes of this ad for Corona by Vasiliy Yusov. The angularity of the fruit adds in dimension and edge to the product being advertised that you just wouldn’t get from a simple image or illustration.

Incorporate Stylized Illustration

Adding in illustration to your web banner ads can be simple or detailed depending on the message you are trying to deliver. Illustration can often speak volumes, especially if you add in animation to it. Illustration can be edgy and modern or fun and playful. Adidas ran a Line Runner sidebar ad campaign where the viewer was provided a black pen and prompted to draw a line which became a course for the runner with trees, buildings, hills, lamp posts popping up for an interactive digital adventure.

Focus On The Product

The ultimate goal of an ad is to sell so it helps to shine the light on the product. Tell your story using the product. Ikea is known for its space-conscious furniture and it highlighted this point by making the most of banner ad real estate too. Hovering over the ad would bring a product into focus and a click would send the person to the site to purchase.

Better Banners

Banner ad placements can certainly help users connect with your brand. And following some of these design guidelines will definitely improve your click-through rate and help you achieve your campaign goals.

The post Ideas For Designing Website Banner Ads appeared first on Greenhouse Design Group.

You want your visitors to not only find what they are looking for quickly, but you want them to linger a while and explore your site. And, if you have a lot of content, you’ll want to be able to find it easily. Your site’s success – or lack thereof – sits on the foundation of its organization.

Taxonomy: An Organizational Method

So, what is taxonomy and how can it help get you better organized?

Taxonomy is a hierarchical structure for the classification or organization of data that enables websites to be categorized according to topics and types, enabling easy information retrieval.

To me, the most beneficial aspect of taxonomy is that is reduces manual content management. It allows you to dynamically retrieve and display anything on a page based on enabled tags or structured fields within your content. Taxonomy gives you the opportunity to balance the page’s content with other relevant information.

How Does Taxonomy Work?

Logistically, the way it works is that you are making content load dynamically when a page is accessed by programming a search on any number of taxonomy tags or other fields within your content block or page.

No doubt, you’ve seen this, but haven’t recognized what was going on behind the scenes. Amazon’s site includes taxonomy-driven content publishing. Whenever you log in and go to a page of interest, notice how when you scroll down a little you’ll see a section telling you other customers who bought this bought that, too. Or, it will show you what you should buy today based on what you bought yesterday.

Another example can be found at online news services, such as Reuters. If you’ve ever signed up with one, you’ve been given the opportunity to personalize your experience by your unique interests. That way, you don’t have to waste your time scrolling through hours of news you’re not interested in. As soon as you log in, you get to see what matters to you.

Some taxonomy sites allow the visitor to interact and filter in ways I just mentioned. But, other sites don’t require user interaction at all. You can also develop a site with only a little user interaction.

 Taxonomy Considerations

If your site has proper taxonomy, you will be able to bridge across subjects, and better manage and often reuse your content – at scale. Of course, it will assist with effective navigation and will, ultimately, provide a better product and brand alignment. At the end of the day, it will improve SEO and findability, and even support social sharing.

When creating a sound taxonomy, the first few things to consider is its projected longevity and flexibility. This means thinking ahead to what your site might become – what additions might occur down the road. You’ll also want to think from the perspective of what terms your visitors might use and what structure will help support your business goals and help your content perform optimally. And, don’t forget to understand the scope of your project. Taxonomies can easily get out of hand.

To develop the scope of your taxonomy, imagine a Venn Diagram. The taxonomy lies at the intersection of your business context (or purpose), content and users – which are your target audience.

The Benefits of Structuring Your Own Taxonomy

Taxonomy can be a huge boon for your website. However, equally clear is that this is not something that can be built overnight. It requires strong input from both your multi-disciplined team and from your users. You have to thoroughly understand your target audience and have a good grasp on how they think. After all, you’re creating something that should be almost intuitive.

Taxonomy requires vision and commitment to plan and execute. Many companies don’t bother to standardize data definitions. Yes, it takes real time to properly define your data. But, the many benefits of having a taxonomy structure under your site are huge. Not only for your users but for your team. The many, many ways you can utilize such a structure are endless.

The post Taxonomy for design & Why Use It on Your Site? appeared first on Greenhouse Design Group.

Guide To Create a Dream Blog

Here’s a quick look at the few simple steps you will need to run through in order to start your dream blog:

• Choose your blogging platform
• Get a domain name and set up your own web hosting
• Configure and design your blog
• Start producing content for your readers
• Marketing your blog

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of each step in the guide to help you start your first dream blog.

Step 1- Choose Your Blogging Platform
You first need to select a blogging platform so that you can get your content up onto the web. There are many open source platforms around for building your blog and they are supported by most web hosting companies. The main blogging platforms you can choose from are:

WordPress – is a massively popular blogging platform with countless plugins/add-ons and customizable content management system (CMS) offering superior features built for bloggers so that they have complete control over how their blog looks

Ghost – is the new kid on the blogging block and it has created a lot of buzz in the blogosphere

Drupal – is a popular blogging platform but it is difficult for novices

Joomla – has a great CMS but there is a steep learning curve involved
For those who want to avoid paying for a blogging platform – however small the cost—you can grab one for free from Blogger, WordPress.com or Tumblr. But before you take a decision, know that free blogs have downsides too, including:

• You won’t be able to get a custom domain name with many of the free blogging platforms, which can seem unprofessional to potential subscribers and customers.
• There are many limits to free blogs such as level of customization or available bandwidth for uploads. Moreover you will not be able to fully monetize your blog.
• With Blogger or Tumblr or the free version of WordPress you don’t actually own your blog and they can shut you down anytime without any prior warning. All your site content can be deleted with no way to recover it for even minor indiscretions such as using copyrighted images by mistake.

Step 2- Get a domain name and Set up Web hosting
Next you will need a domain name, which is the URL or the site address for your blog online. Every blog should have its own domain but it can be hard to find a domain name that isn’t taken! For your blog, choose a short name that can be easily remembered. Also consider its uniqueness and what the domain says about your brand. Do remember to take into consideration copyright and trademark factors when selecting your domain name.  Once you have a domain for your blog, you need to think of where your blog will be stored online. Selecting a reliable webhost is essential because this company will be responsible for putting your website up on the internet so that anyone online can see it. All the content for your blog will be saved on there. Investing a little money on domain registration and a good webhost will ensure that your site gets backed up regularly and you can recover your website for any reason. It is wise to get your domain registered from the same place that you get your blog hosted to save you from future headaches.

You can get your dream blog up and running with the VPS Hosting package from HostLabs at a super affordable rate of $44.95/mo. HostLabs offers fast and easy setup for WordPress installation, intuitive control panel for easy website file management and 24/7 technical support.  If you already have a domain registered, HostLabs will provide you with the necessary information to easily transfer your domain. You can install WordPress on your blog in just a few clicks through HostLabs and then make changes from the WordPress administrator area.

Step 3- Configure and Design Your Blog
Take your time to configure WordPress themes as it controls the look and feel of your blog. You do not need coding expertise or design knowledge to design your dream blog. WordPress theme is a pre-designed template for you to customize your blog exactly how you want it to look. There are two aspects to every theme: the framework and the design element. To make your blog standout in the crowded blogosphere, first impressions with an impressive design theme count for a lot. You may select from thousands of free themes available online, but investing in a premium theme can help improve your brand image. Additionally, they are secure, fast, easy to navigate, and responsive designed for both mobile and desktop. You will find that they are also easy to customize and install. You can find themes for your blog at Themeforest, StudioPress or the WordPress Library.

Installing your theme is even easier as it comes in a .zip file format and you can upload it direct to your WordPress Dashboard by logging into your WordPress blog. If it is a free theme, you can click Install on the preview screen of your WordPress dashboard. WordPress also allows you to switch themes or go back to your old theme with just a few clicks and without fear of losing any precious content or images.

WordPress allows you to install and use plugins through its dashboard to make your blog feature rich and more functional. Do keep your added plugins to a minimum and install just the best ones you need.

Step 4- Start Producing Content For Your Readers
The soul of a successful blog is in its writing. If no one wants to read your content then your blog will not get too many subscribers. The two main types of content that you can create for your blog in WordPress are ‘Pages’ and ‘Posts’. Pages are static pages that will not see much change and it helps link to and from your navigation area/menus on your blog, such as the ‘About Page.’ Regular posts are what appear on the front page of your blog, with comments and the date of publishing.

The aim of a blog is to ultimately provide valuable content that people actually want to read and share with their friends. To create great content, you need to put thought into more than just words. Blogs should not be huge block of text without any visual breaks (such as bulleted lists). Posts should include images or videos and you can use stylized fonts and colors to make your content stand apart from the rest.

Step 5- Marketing Your Blog
You may have setup your blog properly and published great content but this is no guarantee of anyone ever discovering it online. For your blog to grab more eyeballs, you need to promote your blog correctly. There are several methods you can utilize to properly market your blog including:

• Social networks– When you publish your blog post do make sure to post a link on your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn account. Promoting your post on social media platforms improves your chances of getting more shares and you may also see an increase in traffic to your blog.
• Commenting on other blogs– You can access people with similar interest areas by leaving a comment on other related blogs with a link back to your own blog. Make sure not to abuse this method and only submit a useful comment to get people interested in wanting to learn more from your blog.
• Guest posting– You can also get readers of other blogs to hear about your blog by writing guest posts. Get in touch with other blog owners and offer to write a post for their site with a link to your blog.
• Online forums– Make sure you join popular online forums related to your topic to make helpful posts on the site. Most forums do allow you to post a link to your site in the signature at the bottom of every post you write. If your forum posts are high quality and informative, people will surely want to click on your blog to read more.

Now that you know the technical side of setting up your blog, let the fun times roll. There will be a lot of learning along the way but don’t let that overwhelm you. Welcome to the blogosphere and enjoy expressing yourself in your new blog.

The post Start Your Dream Blog In 5 Easy Steps appeared first on Greenhouse Design Group.

WordPress plugin expert Brian Lis says the key is to choose only a few plugins that fit your needs. Standard plugins can run for free and premium versions vary in price, but all are implemented in the same way a mobile app is: You download the plugins to your hardware, file them in your content directory and then activate them. The best WordPress plugins — often the premium ones — are consistently updated by their engineers and are easy to troubleshoot because of their large, collaborative user base.

Premium WordPress plugins perform reliably and minimize problems, such as website downturn, that can come with running a site. Functions such as defining “security vulnerabilities, conflicts, and increased load times,” are most important, because they prevent system crashing. It’s ironic, then, that certain plugin combinations will cause a site to crash, especially when developers use too many of them at the same time.

The nature of plugin development is the cause of the challenge. Anyone can build a WordPress plugin, and sometimes official instruction documents that detail build conflicts aren’t available. For these reasons, Lis says, top developers often use fewer than 10 plugins per build. “Anything over 30 plugins is generally an invitation for problems.”

Even if a WordPress plugin seems like it’s optimally useful, thorough testing and analysis bears out the truth. Lis says he once worked on a site using a single stat-tracking plugin that “took over 1.5 gigs in [the site’s] database [while] their website was only 50 megs. The speed difference once that stat-tracking plugin was removed was significant.”

The factors that go into load times can be varied and include what type of server or provider you use, whether your site is multimedia heavy or uses slow caching or whether it is connected to a content-delivery network. It might also be a signal that the website is coded poorly. In any case, a select combination of premium and standard plugins that work well together and offer serious benefits, like security and reduced load times, while unsexy, are more important than checking off every box of possible site functionality.

 Plugins Every WordPress Site Should Use

Before adding plugins, businesses should back up all files. Plugin failure rates are at 1 percent, but that tiny percentage can cause serious damage to the infrastructure.

Here are the WordPress plugins no site should do without:

Security: Limit Login Attempts (standard)

Hackers can brute-force their way into WordPress software because it allows unlimited login attempts. The best way to prevent this is by locking the number of attempts, and this plugin does it cleanly and efficiently. Users have noted the great customer service.

E-commerce: WooCommerce (premium)

This is a fully featured suite of great plugin applications. The software offers extensions that help both small and large businesses provide a variety of product options, including shipping choices, recurring payments, CSV product importing, one-page checkout and even a deep suite of marketing features.

Forms: Gravity Forms (premium)

Managing forms is a breeze using this plugin. You can create order forms with pricing fields, add PayPal for add-ons, create configurable entry lists, and a lot more. It’s also easy to customize any form, including CSS column layouts.

Membership: WishList Member (premium)

WishList Member is an awesome membership curator that can grow with your site. If you’re a major blogger who wants to offer a few paid articles in between tons of free content, you can offer free, trial or paid memberships, or you can create member upgrade levels for each of paid post.

Backup: WordPress Backup to Dropbox (standard)
You need to back up your whole system on a server, but your content also needs backup. WordPress Backup to Dropbox takes your files and SQL database and sends them to your Dropbox account folder (subscription required). The plugin uses the OAuth (authorization standard), so your account details are secure.

Analytics: Google Analytics for WordPress (standard)
A lot of people use Google Analytics, and this is the best plugin incorporating it. According to load-speed analysts, this tracking software is swift. It also comes with a wide variety of customizable demo options, such as categories for page views per user.

Social Sharing: Sociable (standard)
A customizable plugin that makes icons easy to see on a webpage is also one of the most popular. With two different choices for styling (including Skyscraper, which incorporates commenting data), it nicely features the big networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Digg and StumbleUpon.

Despite the many ways plugins can help, it’s important to temper expectations. Lis says the difference between hugely successful sites and modest ones comes down to execution of content, not necessarily plugin use.

The best sites “have meaningful content followed by a community of advocates for that website,” he says.

As a result, the best practice for beginners vetting plugins is to keep things simple and use the free ones “until you’ve perfected the core functionality. Once your core functionality is tested and true, [you can] begin adding in the bells and whistles [of the premium sites].”

Website owners with modest budgets can easily build out a site with plugins for analytics managers, file trackers, SEO enhancers, XML sitemaps, social sharing, social feeds and graphics software.

The post Choosing the Right WordPress Plugins for Your Site appeared first on Greenhouse Design Group.