The SiteGround Blog

How to use social media to get traffic to your shop

Ecommerce has definitely gained huge popularity in the last few years. In fact, holiday ecommerce sales reached a total of $126 billion last year — up from $108.2 billion in 2017. That’s a 16.5% increase in online sales! Most people do not feel like going to crowded malls anymore. They prefer shopping online and finding the largest discounts from the comfort of their own home.

Industry experts say social media plays a major role in ecommerce businesses because it helps companies establish a strong web presence and increase their website traffic. When it comes to Black Friday, people are particularly ready to spend. That is why you have to make sure your ecommerce store is ready for this special day, and come up with the right strategies, which include social media.

Santa’s Got a Bag Full of PHP 7.4 Goodies

PHP 7.4 is already available on all SiteGround servers and we have invited our great friend Cal Evans, who is also one of the most admired people in the PHP community, to share which are the best things in the new PHP version.

It’s that time again. Time for Santa to hitch up the ElePHPants that power his sleigh and deliver that present all good developers have been waiting for, the newest release of PHP. I took a quick peek in Santa’s bag and here are my top three features coming in PHP 7.4.

How to maintain a fast ecommerce website

Whether you’re adding functionality to your website through a plugin, a theme, or carrying out bespoke development, it’s important to review any changes you make and the impact they have on your site performance.

For any website, but especially for ecommerce, performance is extremely important. Your website speed has an impact on how you rank on search engines and on your customers’ experience when shopping with you. Slow websites result in fewer page views, a reduction in customer satisfaction, and fewer conversions.

10 Design tips to maximize sales this shopping season

If you sell products or services online, you know that a well-designed site is crucial for success. You have probably put a lot of thought into the look and feel of your site, using attractive, readable colors and fonts, and selecting featured product images that are engaging and compelling.

You have also probably thought carefully about the wording on your site, to make sure your customers clearly understand the value and benefits of what you offer. You’re displaying this content using a well-architected site layout that follows the voice and aesthetic of your brand. You’ve put a lot of work into your website design, but is there more you can do to improve the shopping experience for your customer?

Planning tips for your first online shop

When setting up a new business that sells a product, whether it is physical or digital, one of the first things you will create is a website. Ecommerce sites cater to all walks of life, like those offering a service, manufactured goods, or digital downloads.

Although it's an exciting project that puts your product out into the world, it can also be a daunting task. There is a lot to plan, from what the design will look like to what content should you put up.

With so much to think about, there are often questions that don’t get asked before going live that have to be addressed after the fact. Here are five questions, some obvious and others not so, to help you set up a great ecommerce shop.

8 Black Friday promotion ideas that aren’t discounts

Many businesses can profit enormously from the Black Friday/Cyber Monday craze but it’s important to evaluate this opportunity within a larger business context. Not every store should adopt deep discounts as a sales tactic, but this doesn't mean they can't ride the Black Friday wave. In fact, there are many alternatives besides discounts you can do to promote your online store or business during the holiday shopping season.

How to monetize digital content

“If you build it, they will come.” The now eternal words that were ominously whispered in the popular 1988 movie Field of Dreams was great advice for the cornfields of Iowa. It even worked for companies like Google and Facebook, whose incredible appeal attracted thousands, then millions, and now billions. But if you’re selling digital content, you’ll likely learn the hard lesson that I learned: you can build it, but they won’t come.

Contributing to Open-Source: Insights On the Latest Major WordPress Release

Plenty of work happens behind the scenes of a regular website. But even more work is needed for the maintenance and development of a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress – the software that powers 34% of all websites on the web. New WordPress versions are released regularly to provide new functionality, security improvements, and all types of fixes. In the case of WordPress, which is an open-source software, a big part of the work is thanks to the voluntary support of dedicated individuals and companies within the WordPress community.

The team at SiteGround has a long history of WordPress involvement - we organize and sponsor both local and worldwide WordCamps, work on WordPress core and plugins, and are active on the WP.org security, community, marketing, and hosting teams. So we were stoked when our WordPress community manager, Francesca Marano was selected as a Release Coordinator for the latest major version, WordPress 5.3. On the verge of the official release, 12 weeks after she took upon that role, here is our chat with Francesca about her role and responsibilities in the process, and of course – what you can look forward to with the new release.