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Why a Blog is an Important Tool for Your Website

July 15, 2016 by Angela Leave a Comment

We all know that choosing the right host for your website is important for your business. Keeping your website online, functioning smoothly, easy to find—and doing all of that for a decent price—is one of the most essential ways of marketing yourself. However, simply having a website online is probably not enough to help you reap the full benefits of online presence. Another important way of bettering your business through your website is by having a personalized blog.

Here are a few of the most important reasons to have a blog:

To begin with, having a blog that is regularly updated with intriguing content and linked to your website’s other pages can improve your search engine ratings. This means that you are likely going to move closer to the top of the Google search results with every post! How is that for free advertisement?

Secondly, having a blog can interest your customers and inform them about industry relevant topics in a way that short posts on your home page may not be able. Having better informed customers is never a bad thing.

Thirdly, having a blog that is full of true and well-researched information can help establish you as an authority online. This is good for your credibility among customers and colleagues as well as, once again, your search engine ratings.

Fourthly, a blog can be helpful in simply making your website look interesting. Giving your customers a page full of interesting content written by you can help retain their attention after they have come to your website.

To conclude, blogging is simply a great and inexpensive way to market yourself. Whereas traditional methods of advertising are generally costly and time consuming, a blog is one of the cheapest and easiest methods of spreading your brand available.

Here at RFE Hosting we specialize in reliable and cost-effective hosting for your website. Contact us today to learn more!

Filed Under: Blog, SEO, Web Design, Web Hosting, Website Tagged With: blog, website, website optimization

7 Tips on Writing Content for You Website.

July 8, 2016 by Angela Leave a Comment

Starting a website is a fulfilling challenge that requires business owners to build multiple skills in various fields. For example, you must cultivate both the technical knowledge needed to use WordPress, as well as the deal-searching skills needed in order find the highest-quality, most cost-efficient hosting services. One highly important skill needed in order to develop a website tends to scare people more than any other: writing.

Thankfully, writing new content for your website doesn’t have to be painful. By following just a few simple rules, you can write excellent content for your new website that will attract new clients and customers—and maybe even teach you a thing or two about your own industry. Here are 7 quick tips that will help you make your website the best it can be.

Be original. It is sometimes painfully obvious to be reading something that was clearly re-worded from another website. Instead, rely on your own knowledge and research in order to write something that give real, original value.
Choose great headlines. No one wants to click on a boring headline, and unread content is not worth writing!

Be accurate and up-to-date. Inaccurate information will turn away customers and hurt your search engine rankings. Do your research, and insert links to trusted, up-to-date sources.
Be engaging. Make your website fun to read, and your audience will reward you greatly!
Use video, audio, and images. To build upon that last point—include lots of visual and audio content to make your website extra-engaging. Variety is always a plus!
Be concise. People are busy. Don’t waste their time rambling on and on.
Update, update, update. Search engines and people alike respond positively to content that is frequently updated.

Now that you’ve learned the basics, you’re ready to start writing! Good luck, and remember—the RFE Hosting blog is full of great advice for every step of your web-building journey!

Filed Under: SEO, Web Design, Web Hosting, Website Tagged With: Content, Optimization, SEO, website, writing

6 Essential Components of a Great Small Business Website

June 30, 2016 by Angela Leave a Comment

In today’s world, most businesses have a website. It is now easier than ever to get online and make a website with just a few hours of work. This is good news because it means you can advertise your small business cheaply and practically on the internet no matter what your budget or your schedule. However, it can be challenging as well because of the amount of competition. So how can you set your business apart from the rest? Here are a few of the most important aspects of a great website.

Simple Layout

Having a simple layout to your website that is navigable and easy on the eyes is a big deal. This can mean the difference between a potential customer and someone who takes one look at your website and turns it off. You do not want your customers to be confused or overwhelmed, especially by your home page.

About Us Page

Having an “about us” page is equally essential. There are few other ways for your audience to get to know you, your employees, your method, or your message short of an in-depth about us page.

Contact Us Page

Furthermore, how are your customers meant to contact you with questions or orders for your products without easy-to-find information about your address, phone number, and email address? These should all be found together in a concise list.

Frequently Updated Blog

To boost your website’s search engine ratings, teach your customers about what you do, and interest both customers and colleagues, make sure your website has a blog that is not only easy to find but frequently updated.

Clear Description of Products/Services

Having a page with a short—or long, if necessary—description of what your product does and/or how it works is highly advisable, not only because it is practical and useful to your customers, but because it can make your website seem more professional and informative.

Cost Effective Hosting

Finally, having cost-effective, professional, quality hosting is a necessity for literally every website out there. For information and professional help with this aspect, visit RFE Hosting at our website today.

Filed Under: SEO, Web Design, Web Hosting, Website Tagged With: SEO, web design, web hosting, website

3 Important Decisions All Business Owners Must Make About Starting A Website

June 23, 2016 by Angela Leave a Comment

Whether you’re a new business looking to introduce yourself with a killer webpage, or a more established business hoping to finally break in to the online scene, building a website for your company can be both exciting, fulfilling, and…bewildering. There are so many choices to be made along the way that it becomes easy to lose sight of the prize. With a discipline, focus, and a bit of optimism, however, it is possible to get through the process and arrive at that rewarding day when you finally launch. Here are 3 decisions that you can expect to make along the journey.

Marketing and information vs. Direct e-commerce. One of the principle classifications that you’ll want to make for your website before you even get started is whether or not you’ll be performing e-commerce through your site. If you do plan on selling items directly through your site, that will influence a lot of your site’s design and infrastructure—you’ll want a page that encourages sales and that is equipped with security features such as SSL encryption. If your page is not an e-commerce website, on the other hand, you’ll probably be focused more on giving your customers/clients valuable information about your industry and marketing your physical location.
Building it Yourself vs. Hiring Help. Once you have a clear vision of what your website is going to be, it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty details of actually building it. With a plethora of web-building services available, an increasing number of businesses are now hiring professionals to build their websites. Don’t be sold too easily, however—using WordPress is easier than you might imagine, and it can be both personally and financially rewarding to build your own website.
Choosing a Hosting Service. Hosting services matter. Picking the best hosting service with great customer service, minimal down time, and world-class technology is an indispensable part of building a successful website. Contact RFE Hosting today for more information on how we can help you reach your clients and customers online!

Filed Under: Marketing, SEO, Uptime, Web Hosting, Website Tagged With: business, business owner, web hosting, website

Is WordPress Right For Me?

June 16, 2016 by Angela Leave a Comment

When creating a website, there are a lot of choices to be made. One of the first and most important of these choices is which method or you will use. Whereas in the past many websites were built from the bare bones using coding methods like HTML, nowadays there are many different ways to construct websites. One of the most popular ways to do this is with a Content Management System, such as, for example, Joomla, Drupal, or WordPress. While a Content Management System (or CMS) is undoubtedly in most cases easier and faster than doing all of the coding yourself, all of them have their benefits and disadvantages. In this article, we will be comparing the positive and negative aspects of the most popular CMS–WordPress.

Advantages of WordPress

WordPress is easy to use. WordPress is one of the easiest platforms to use, because it is designed to be user-friendly, particularly for beginners who do not already have experience building websites.
WordPress is cheap. There are few costs involved in creating a website via WordPress. The only entirely necessary cost of running a website using WordPress is the small cost of domain and hosting. You may choose to buy extra themes and plugins, but these are not necessary as thousands of themes and plugins come entirely free.
WordPress is popular and thus has a large support community. Because WordPress is so popular, the online community backing it up is exceptionally large and knowledgeable. If you are having a technical problem, the odds are you will be able to fix it easily.

Disadvantages of WordPress

WordPress lacks the advanced functionality of some other platforms. Many platforms come equipped from the start with a number of functions that, on WordPress, you would have download extra plugins in order to use. This makes advanced changes to your website longer and more difficult to make.
WordPress is not always lightning-fast. The way that WordPress is run, along with the sheer number of plugins you will likely want to download, can sometimes result in less-than-optimal loading times and overall lethargic behavior on the part of your site.
WordPress is subject to greater security threats than other platforms. Simply because it is the most popular and widely used platform, the odds its security being compromised is higher than with many other, less popular systems. This is not to say WordPress is unsafe, by any means–it simply means that web administrators may wish to place an extra emphasis on security if they are using WordPress.