Articles - Page 71

Brightspot Illuminates the Future of CMS with Human-Controlled, AI-Powered Storytelling 

matt-garrepy

With digital technology advancements – websites and web applications have evolved from static to rich and interactive customer experiences. User perception is most critical – so the poor, rushed design does not cut it anymore. User experience goes beyond on-screen design. It requires well defined web content management, product information management, digital asset management, omni-channel e-commerce and enterprise customer relationship management.
Pimcore helps their customers to create this balance and make things simple – they fit all the pieces together in one place.
They help their customers to build a seamless tomorrow by building rich user experiences and effective integrated enterprise applications.
Pimcore puts the pieces together
Pimcore has a unique platform where everything a software integrator, digital agency, professional or enterprise needs is all together in one place. A total digital transformation can take place with just the use of Pimcore’s own product suite which includes – CMS, DAM, PIM/MDM, and e-commerce.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pimcore1.png" />With Pimcore CMS, users can create, manage and easily maintain a digital experiences and its data all in a single source. It can then be published to all output channels: web, mobile, apps, social platforms, print and digital signage.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pimcore2.png" />
Managing a collection of digital assets can be tricky – but with Pimcore it is made much easier. Pimcore’s enterprise DAM platform enables users to easily consolidate, manage and share all digital assets by assigning meta-data, making them searchable, and delivering assets in the right format to any output channel.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pimcore3.png" />
For any organization with a large product base, storing and managing the enormous amount of product information is challenging. Pimcore’s PIM platform enables easy organization, aggregation, classification, and translation of product information – all in a single location. Because of the consolidated product suite, the data can be easily delivered to all output channels.
Almost all retailers today have online B2B and B2C e-commerce platforms. The Pimcore e-commerce framework creates flexible and responsive online shopping platforms for multi-channel and omni-channel retail. Their methodology is both efficient and effective, creating an outstanding user experience, across all channels – web, mobile, social, and POS.
Pimcore Success Stories
Pimcore has over 80,000 users around the world with success stories to prove it. Major well-known companies have used Pimcore to enrich and enhance their digital world.
Take for example, <a href="https://www.pimcore.org/en/ikea_c1349_233#content">IKEA</a>, an internationally known home furnishing retailer. They wanted to offer in-store shoppers a mobile touchpoint to view sales and promotions. Using Pimcore’s CMS, IKEA could build customized landing pages for each store that could be easily updated as needed. Shoppers were automatically directed to landing pages when connected to WIFI.
<a href="https://www.pimcore.org/en/GANT_c1464_233#content">GANT</a>, an international clothing company used various Pimcore products to achieve their digital goals. They needed a way to manage and distribute their product information. Using Pimcore’s MDM/PIM products they could easily and instantly send all product information to their stores and partners globally. They also used Pimcore’s E-commerce product to enhance their customer’s online shopping experience.
There is, of course, many more examples, all of which can be found on <a href="https://www.pimcore.org/en/resources/casestudies" target="_blank">Pimcore’s case study webpage</a>.

Open-Source Pimcore Digital Platform: Consolidating PIM/MDM, DAM, CMS & E-Commerce

mike-johnston

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigstock-database-server-management-sys-76883147830x0-is.jpg" />
Information security has become key for any business in the current technological climate. The need for experienced personnel to secure company assets and analyse potential risks to data is increasing daily. Public security breaches are becoming a regular news feature to the embarrassment of large companies responsible for losing vital customer information and security vulnerabilities are being exploited more than ever in the ever-increasing connectivity of our world.
<h2>CIA model</h2>
The ‘CIA model’ is used by security professionals as a guide for policies to ensure the securing of information within an organisation. Confidentiality represents the set of rules that limits access to information, integrity the assurance that the information is trustworthy and accurate, and availability is the guarantee of reliable access to the information by authorised personnel. 
To keep in line with the CIA model, it is important for companies to consider the extent to which information is spread across different applications and members of the enterprise. Content management systems represent a large chunk of internal and external information for a lot of companies, therefore it is important for those responsible to take the security of these systems seriously to prevent the loss or manipulation of important data.
The wide integration of CMS’s is understandable given the sheer amount of data companies have to handle on a day-to-day basis . A one-stop-shop to create and manage digital content is highly desirable for organising and distributing information. These systems are heavily relied upon to store a lot of data, some of which is of extreme importance and if compromised could affect a business’s productivity in a huge way. 
<h2>Security of Open Source Vs. Proprietary</h2>
One of the major questions people ask when deciding about the security of an application is whether it’s open-source or proprietary. Open source projects rely heavily on the community for evolving and maintaining software, whereas propriety projects are built and maintained by a single company and typically do not allow access to the source code.
Some conclude that due to past security breaches of open source projects, which were made public, the open model is inherently insecure. Those who come to such a conclusion believe that because the source code is made publicly available it makes it vulnerable to hackers reviewing the code and finding possible entries for exploitation. On the other hand, supporters of the open model believe that the transparent nature of the source code means that the community behind the project can spot bugs and security holes that are likely to go unnoticed by a smaller team of people. 
The reality is that both proprietary and open source projects have vulnerabilities and are susceptible to security breaches. It would be incorrect to say that open-source is more, or less, susceptible to attacks. The fact that proprietary projects are implemented by employed professionals and are distributed for profit can easily lull a buyer into a false sense of security, but it is important to note that this doesn’t make them wholly immune to security attacks.
<h2>Use Plug-ins sparingly</h2>
CMS’s generically have a wide variety of plug-ins and add-ons available for their platforms, and the benefits that derive from the wide variety of extensions give the user means to customise and utilise features that aren’t included in the original package. The disadvantages of using plug-ins however, is that there is far more vulnerabilities found in the source code of plug-ins than in the CMS itself, and integrating additional application gives hackers more scope for points of entry. Therefore, it is worthwhile finding out the exact requirements that suit the business’s needs to prevent the need for any unnecessary external plug-ins. It is also worth paying attention to reviews and recommendations from those in the CMS community, and not to be too quick to download brand new plug-ins which may have serious security flaws.
<h2>CMS maintenance</h2>
Regular maintenance of any CMS is mandatory to keep security at a high level. If there’s an update, it is worth taking some time to implement the newest version of the chosen CMS. This may sound simple, but the importance of updating can’t be stressed enough, as this is where developers will create patches for discovered bugs and release the most stable version of the system. With large amounts of confidential data, log monitoring should also be implemented to keep tabs on system events. So if anything were to happen, a detailed footprint will prove useful for analysis and in order to prevent a similar event happening again in the future. Log monitoring can be implemented by an experienced admin or utilising plug-ins for various CMS, but as stated in the previous point users should wary of the reliability of any plug-in and take appropriate steps to ensure the plug in is reliable.
<h2>Risk Assessment and Treatment</h2>
When it comes to information security it is a game of hide and seek. Hackers will find a hole in some software and developers will catch up to patch it up as soon as possible, until another hole is found and so forth. For that reason, risk assessment is used by info security professionals to assess the incidents that could potentially occur and what damage could be caused to the company’s assets. Once a detailed report of the potential risks has been developed, this allows for the best possible safeguarding against potential attacks. Using tools such as vulnerability scanners (some free tools aimed at CMS available online) allows admins to determine the weakest aspects of the systems being used and find methods to strengthen up the security. With this information, risk treatment guidelines can be created that will minimise the damage done in the event of a breach and should be implemented as part of an overall disaster recovery plan.
<h2>URL rewrites</h2>
One of the most common attacks experienced using popular CMS’s is through the generic URL’s provided when setting up the system (www.domain.com/wp-admin for WordPress for example). By targeting these generic URL’s, hackers can use sophisticated attacks that undermine the standard log-in procedure and gain unauthorised access to company data. After locating the log-in page, an attacker can use a brute force or dictionary attack to undermine weak passwords to gain access. By re-writing the URL and adopting secure passwords, sites are much less vulnerable to such attacks. Experienced developers can perform a URL re-write themselves and there are also plug-ins out there that will carry out the process automatically. Changing the default ‘Admin’ name from the URL and administrator account will also help prevent hackers stumbling across easy entry points. 
With the growing anxiety surrounding the security of information, provisions will continue to grow to safeguard the data our personal, and working lives have come to depend on. IT administrators should take at least 15 minutes per day maintaining all aspects of company systems, make adequate backups and patch installations if required. It is also worth noting that the weakest part of any security implementation is the human aspect. The most robust security in system on the planet won’t provide protection against staff who are easily manipulated into handing out credentials over the phone. Enlightening staff members to the importance of securing company data is the first step in the right direction in protecting the systems at the heart of any business.

Security tips for CMS

Agility Inc, a fully-integrated digital experience platform offering Content Management, Online Ticketing and Real-Time Personalization, now offers Agility eCommerce, a solution providing scalable and responsive online storefronts. Agility eCommerce is managed centrally from the Agility platform and provides full freedom of design and customization.
“We strive to enable organizations to provide the best possible experience to their customers through their website,” said Joel Varty, VP of Innovation and Development at Agility. “Our platform was built with the intention of always meeting our customers’ unique business needs and requirements. This flexibility is now extended to Agility eCommerce, empowering our customers to easily integrate their online storefront with their website and to let the platform serve them, not the other way around. With Agility eCommerce our customers have total control over their own workflows and are able to provide their customers with a unique purchasing experience.”
Agility eCommerce is the result of an increased need among customers to take advantage of eCommerce sales, which are expected to make up 14.6% of total retail spending by 2020, according to eMarketer. One of the main challenges customers were experiencing with other eCommerce solutions was the inability to customize their online storefront to fit their exact needs, or to easily integrate with 3rd party providers of choice, such as payment, warehousing, inventory or CRM vendors. Many customers were also experiencing huge losses in revenue during particularly high-traffic periods due to their website crashing, as their existing eCommerce solutions weren’t scalable.
Agility eCommerce is integrated into the Agility platform and managed from the same location. It is highly customizable, allowing customers to build highly responsive and comprehensive product pages. Agility eCommerce also boasts unlimited scalability, with auto-scaling hosting options and additional cloud resources to accommodate high-traffic periods. Additionally, it provides in-depth reporting and custom reports covering customers’ entire purchasing cycle.
To find out more about Agility eCommerce and how it can help you boost your online sales, click <a href="http://agilitycms.com/ecommerce" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.

Agility CMS Helps Customers Unlock the Potential of Online Sales with Its New eCommerce Solution

Every day, countless people are searching the web for all different types of information. In response to this, google is constantly adding new features and adapting their search strategy so that people can get access to the most relevant information for their search queries.
If you run a website, it is important to always keep an eye on what is happening with Google in order to stay current and to take advantage of new opportunities. In the past little while, one very noticeable addition that Google has added is the featured Snippets.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/picture1722x0-is.png" />
<h2>What is a Featured Snippet?</h2>
A featured snippet is basically a summary of someone’s search query. In order to help bring the most contextual information to a person’s query, Google has started placing a search result at the very top of the page with information that they think is the most relevant to the search. The information is extracted from a website, and goes directly to the section of the site that features a result that most directly addresses the search parameters. The snippet is literally an open snap shot of the content they want from inside of a site.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/picture2722x0-is.png" />
<h2>How to Get Featured?</h2>
If you want to try and rank for a featured snippet, first try and decide what your target query is. You should focus on something that is relevant to your website, and that will likely draw higher numbers of search.
Generally, the “how to” category is one of the simpler ways to rank for a snippet. If you try to target a simple question, it is easier to ensure that your site will feature a straightforward answer. For instance, if you write about how to embed a video on a blog post and list step by step instructions, it will be easier for Google to recognize your step by step instructions as the most relevant answer for a search query about “how to embed video”.
Remember, it Is also critical that your post is using the correct markup. You need to ensure that Googles bots will scan your page and what could be the most relevant for a snippet. If you want to learn more about which elements are important to include, you can check out Wix’s SEO Hero article about optimizing snippets.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/picture3722x0-is.png" />
<h2>Can anyone be Featured?</h2>
Majority of the time, Google will choose snippets from sites that are ranking between 1-3 on the search results page. However, about 30% of the time the snippets are drawn from websites that are ranking lower on the page – to help create a bit of balance. So, don’t lose hope if your site isn’t ranking 1-3 on the search results page, you may still get chosen for a featured snippet. However, it is a good strategy to try and get your site ranking a little bit higher before you start focusing on snippets in order to prove your relevancy to Google.
Snippets are a powerful tool for bringing information that is relevant, easy to understand and concise for the person preforming the search query. Featured snippets also prove very trust worthy for the person preforming the search, leading in them spending additional time reading your site. So take some time to invest in snippets – it can add a distinctive edge!

Google is Changing the Game with  Featured Snippets

When starting a new business, step one is to find out what software you'll need to run your business. Once your business is growing it will be much more difficult to create the technological foundation on which your business will continue to grow. Starting with the right software that suits the needs of your business will get your business intelligence funnel started from day one, instantly providing data you can use to make informed business decisions. Equipped with this data, you can determine what software, campaigns, and content are causing growth and what isn't. This article discusses the technological essentials you'll need to get started.<h3>You'll need software to build, manage, and host your website.</h3>Your website is the most essential part of developing a strong online presence. It is a digital representation of your brand. Keep that in mind when making decisions related to your website. The first step is to find the right <a target="_blank" href="https://www.solodev.com/">web content management system</a> (CMS) for your business. Do you need an informational website with a few web pages? Tools like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.squarespace.com/">SquareSpace</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wix.com/">Wix</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> are likely the best route for you. Do you need a custom web design with more advanced functionality? Tools like <a target="_blank" href="http://www.adobe.com/marketing-cloud/enterprise-content-management.html">Adobe</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentico.com/">Kentico</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.solodev.com/">Solodev</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitecore.net/en">Sitecore</a> are more suited to you. There's a lot to consider when choosing the right CMS for your business. Take your time, do your research, and don't pull the trigger until you've found the perfect fit.<h3>You'll need a CRM to manage your prospects, leads, and opportunities.</h3>Sales is the cornerstone of business. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform allows you to streamline your sales pipeline and convert more leads into customers. How does it do this? By giving you a bird's eye view of everyone in your sales cycle from prospects to recently closed opportunities. What CRM system you choose depends on your sales strategy and the size of your sales team. If you have a large sales team, products like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.salesforce.com/">SalesForce</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sugarcrm.com/">SugarCRM</a> might be for you. If you have a small sales team, free tools like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.zoho.com/crm/">Zoho CRM</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insightly.com/">Insightly CRM</a> are likely better options. Make sure your CMS can integrate with your CRM before signing on the dotted line.<h3>You'll need software that enables you to sell products online.</h3>Some CMS platforms have built-in E-Commerce functionality while others integrate with third party applications. Check your options and if possible, try and go with the native E-Commerce your CMS provides. If your CMS does not have E-Commerce built into it, you'll have to hunt for E-Commerce solutions unless you already have a favorite. Ideally, pick your favorite tools and find a CMS that integrates with them. For example, if you love <a target="_blank" href="https://magento.com/">Magento</a> ensure your CMS integrates with it. With the right E-Commerce solution integrated with your CMS, you won’t only have a great website but a shopping experience in line with the digital experience your website provides.<h3>You'll need a platform for managing social media content.</h3>There are a lot of options when it comes to platforms to manage your social media accounts and the content you publish to them. Which option is best for you depends on your goals with social media. Do you plan on publishing content on a regular basis to several social media channels? If so, you'll need a platform like <a target="_blank" href="https://hootsuite.com/">Hootsuite</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.spredfast.com/">Spredfast</a>, or <a target="_blank" href="http://sproutsocial.com/">Sprout Social</a>. These tools allow you to schedule the publishing of your content to your social channels. Don't plan on doing much on social media? Creating social media accounts for your business is still a must. The ROI on social is hard to quantify so consider a more aggressive social strategy. Regardless of the size of your organization or your goals, devising and executing a social strategy is essential.<h3>You'll need marketing automation software to put marketing initiatives on autopilot</h3>Sitting at your computer waiting for leads to come in so you can email or call them is not productive. Distribute relevant content when visitors perform specific actions on your website. Marketing automation tools are what make that a reality without human intervention. Tools like <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pardot.com/">Pardot</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.net-results.com">NetResults</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://mailchimp.com/">MailChimp</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.campaignmonitor.com">CampaignMonitor</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.marketo.com/">Marketo</a> are excellent to automate your website marketing and all have public APIs to integrate with your CMS. As mentioned previously, pick a CMS that allows you to choose which products to integrate with, not the other way around. Once your marketing automation tools integrate with your CMS you've synced up both your website and marketing – both of which are now on autopilot.<h3>You'll need tools to track the success of your digital initiatives.</h3>Even with the tools above at your fingertips, they are worthless without analytics. Key analytics can be conversion and bounce rates on your website. They can also show you what content is working the best. Website analytics allow you to make informed decisions based on the data provided. This leads to more conversions, sales, and a better experience for your customers. Tools like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gooddata.com/">GoodData</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.domo.com/">Domo</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.seoprofiler.com/">SEOProfiler</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://ahrefs.com/">Ahrefs</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://moz.com/">Moz</a> are perfect for this. Without analytics, everything you do is a gamble, as you have no way of knowing what is working and what is not. Your digital footprint is only as valuable as your ability to have a thorough understanding of it and make data-driven decisions accordingly.<h3>Conclusion</h3>Finding the right solution for each of the tools above is vital to your success. Remember that your website is the centerpiece of your online presence. Keep that in mind when selecting vendors for your marketing toolbox. The tools mentioned above all compliment one another. You cannot pick one or two; you're going to need one of each. The biggest decision will be what CMS you choose as that will determine your other choices. Pick a CMS that integrates with the marketing tools most suited to your business. Take your time, do your research, and don't pull the trigger until you've found the perfect fit. Learn more about filling out your online roster today at Solodev.com

The Essentials of Enterprise Software

Today, <a href="http://www.redpoint.net/" target="_blank">RedPoint Global</a>, a leading provider of data management and customer engagement technology, introduced the RedPoint Customer Engagement Hub™ (CEH) solution, helping enterprises overcome the challenges caused by the gap between ever-changing customer expectations and the actual experience brands deliver. The RedPoint Customer Engagement Hub enables brands to continuously connect with customers in a highly relevant way and ubiquitously deliver the promise of the brand across all touchpoints. RedPoint’s hub optimizes customer engagement by providing intelligent and timely orchestration of customer interactions underpinned by a dynamic, unified customer profile (or golden record), along with the most flexible and scalable real-time decisioning capability available in the market.
Consumers today desire frictionless and meaningful engagement with their brands of choice. However, heavy investments in channel-focused engagement systems and point solutions by companies over the past 15 years have inherently created barriers to achieving consistent and relevant brand experiences. This is due to the fact that point solutions are able to use only their partial view of a customer, their function-specific decisioning rules, and the business processes that have been optimized to support a specific function. In reality, point solutions lock up valuable customer data, making it unavailable for other parts of the enterprise in a timely fashion, and often times generate messages that actually conflict with other point solutions. The outcome of these conflicting systems tends to be over communication to customers with a lack of relevance and, ultimately, less revenue to the enterprise. In fact, <a href="http://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/bridging-the-customer-engagement-gap/" target="_blank">Gartner predicts</a>1 that “through 2020, silos of customer engagement will be one of the top three leading causes of customer dissatisfaction for enterprises across all industry segments.” Exacerbating this situation is the explosion of data and the proliferation of touchpoints which are being driven by new channels and the Internet of Things (IoT). 
“Today’s customers expect that all brands will provide targeted, highly-personalized, seamlessly coordinated engagement. To meet the high-level expectations that customers have for consistent, relevant treatments across all interactions, enterprises need a unified customer view,” said David Raab, founder of the Customer Data Platform Institute. “If the company doesn’t meet the expectation of the customer, the response to their disappointment is to look for another brand they believe will do a better job.” 
The RedPoint Customer Engagement Hub solution combines the power of its market-leading customer data platform to create rich, dynamic unified customer profiles with its real-time customer interaction platform that optimizes customer engagement across all touchpoints and enterprise business functions. With RedPoint, enterprises now have a hub for connecting all of their customer data, driving real-time decisions and intelligently orchestrating engagement with their customers.
“In today’s world, customer journeys are no longer linear in nature, as customers now desire dynamic, continuous, and real-time engagement. In response, brands often fall short of presenting themselves ubiquitously and with relevance at every touchpoint,” said RedPoint Global CEO Dale Renner. “Our clients are achieving fantastic results with double digit revenue increases based on the distinct advantages provided by our customer engagement hub solution. Brands with unified customer profiles and effective cross-touchpoint engagement will outperform competitors, which is where the RedPoint Customer Engagement Hub – underpinned with our customer data platform – will become the new standard in the modern enterprise.”
RedPoint’s Customer Engagement Hub is architected to support an open ecosystem approach, allowing enterprises to leverage legacy and new technologies while reducing the friction across these systems. The hub’s key capabilities include:
<ul>
<li>Connected Data: The CEH’s customer data platform processes and integrates2 any and all types of customer data including first-, second-, and third-party; batch and streaming; plus structured and unstructured data to build a unified customer profile — this golden record is then leveraged in real time for decisioning and analytics.</li>
<li>In-line Analytics: The CEH’s in-line analytics operationalizes machine learning, other advanced analytics, and real-time decisioning to drive next-best actions including offers, alerts, notifications, or other contextually correct and relevant messages.</li>
<li>Orchestration: The CEH orchestrates interactions with individuals (e.g. customers, members, patients, policyholders, accounts) across all digital and traditional channels, touchpoints, devices, and engagement technologies.</li>
</ul>
RedPoint was recently recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Marketing Hubs, which evaluated the RedPoint Customer Engagement Hub.3The RedPoint Customer Engagement Hub is an evolutionary step designed to reinforce RedPoint’s commitment to helping organizations improve customer engagement as a means of growing profitable revenue.
The solution offers flexible deployment options with high speed to value, including being cloud-deployable on Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS, in an on-premises private cloud or infrastructure, or as a hybrid option that takes advantage of the scale and ease of use of a public cloud for some functions and on-premises infrastructure for other functions.
The RedPoint Customer Engagement Hub solution is available immediately. For more information, call <a href="tel:(781)%20725-0250" target="_blank">+1 781-725-0250</a> or visit <a href="http://www.redpoint.net/" target="_blank">www.redpoint.net</a>. See RedPoint at the 2017 Gartner Data &amp; Analytics Summit March 6 – 9, Booth # 116.

RedPoint Global Unveils New Hub Solution to Solve Customer Engagement Gap

As an eCommerce business, one of your main challenges will be keeping your sales up and finding new revenue opportunities. But there is so much you can do to actually streamline your business processes around maximizing your existing sales and revenue channels.
When it comes to increasing your sales, the secret is to focus on your customers; in simple terms, how can you make it as easy as possible for your customers to make a purchase? How can you give them a positive user experience that will make them feel good about making a purchase, and encourage them to return in the future?
In this article we cover the top ways you can optimize your customers’ experience and increase your conversion rates. We focus both on your customers’ journey throughout your website and how this can be made as seamless and intuitive as possible.
1. Increasing your site’s speed and performance
Nearly 57% of visitors will abandon a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load. If this is the first experience your users have of your site, you are off to a bad start. Ultimately, a slow site could be costing you considerable missed out sales and revenue
eCommerce sites are particularly prone to slower performance due to the many integrations involved in the process of selling products, so it is especially crucial that you ensure your website speed is optimal. Look into your hosting options and upgrade if necessary. Ideally your site pages should load in under a second.
2. Ensuring a seamless user experience
Once your users are on your site, how can you make it as easy as possible for them to find what they need? The easier, the more likely they are to make a purchase. Think of ways to make the user journey as smooth and intuitive as possible, mapping out several alternatives and testing them to determine which one is best. This is an extremely critical, but often overlooked, step of developing a website.
When thinking about user experience also consider your branding: does the entire site and checkout process accurately represent your brand? How can you make your visitors associate the experience of being on your website with their experience of your facility or event?
In addition, is this experience consistent across touchpoints and devices? For example, is the user experience on your site consistent with that of your POS, kiosk and mobile channels?
3. Optimizing for mobile
Part of improving your customers’ experience of your site is ensuring it is mobile-responsive. According to Gartner, in 2017 mobile commerce will equal 50% of all digital commerce revenue, so if your site is not already optimized for mobile you could be missing out on significant revenue. Mobile-first design is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have.
Of course, this includes ensuring that the checkout process is simple and mobile-friendly, without excluding any of the capabilities of the desktop design, such as product variants.
Another aspect is enabling digital products, such as eBooks or tickets, to be generated in your customers’ desired format. This may include a downloadable PDF, or a text message with a link. The easier you make it for your customers to save their product or ticket, the more satisfied they will be.
4. Implementing a simple and intuitive checkout process
27% of online shoppers have abandoned an order due to a too long or complicated checkout process. If your checkout process becomes a frustrating experience for your customers, they will leave without purchase.
There are several ways you can make your checkout process as simple as possible:
<ul>
<li>Try and keep the checkout process to as few pages as possible, ideally one.</li>
<li>Reduce the number of form fields customers are required to fill in. For example, allow them to check a box if their billing and shipping addresses match.</li>
<li>Remove any steps of the checkout process that aren’t absolutely necessary.</li>
<li>Allow users to check out as guests if they wish to, rather than requiring them to create an account.</li>
<li>Other things you can consider in relation to your checkout process are payment providers; are you accepting the forms of payment your customers require or desire? Should you look into adding new ones, such as Apple Pay?</li>
</ul>
Finally, when it comes to your checkout process, design is incredibly important. Customers will feel more comfortable making a purchase if the site is well designed and mobile-compatible, as an outdated-looking site will give them the impression that it is not secure. Always ensure that your checkout pages are responsive and have an up-to-date design.
5. Increasing the value of customer accounts
Although creating an account should be an optional step for customers, it does provide a great opportunity to build customer loyalty and encourage return visitors.
The most important thing to keep in mind here is that account creation isn’t geared towards collecting lead data for your sales team. As with every other step of the journey, customer accounts should be ways for you to benefit your customers, not the other way around.
Each customer’s account should be a central hub for them to check their purchase information, find and re-download tickets where relevant and keep track of shipping and delivery.
You could also offer special deals and discounts to account owners, or implement a point-accumulation program to encourage future purchases or other actions. For example, you could award points every time a user completes a review or shares content on social media. These are all incentives that will keep you in your customers’ mind and encourage them to choose you, and not a competitor, for future purchases.
6. Upselling and cross-selling
The checkout process also provides great opportunities to generate additional revenue through upselling and cross-selling. You can do this by encouraging customers to purchase “upgraded” versions of your products, or by recommending relevant products.
Clearly display the upgrade options and recommended products as one of the steps of your checkout process and include positive ratings and “most popular” tags to make them more attractive and give them additional credibility.
Upselling and cross-selling is particularly effective when coupled with personalization, which is the next item on our list. Through personalization you can ensure that relevant recommendations are automatically generated depending on the item being purchased, increasing the chance that customers will purchase them or upgrade.
7. Implementing personalization
Personalization is fast becoming a key element of any web strategy, with marketers reporting a 19% uplift in their sales thanks to personalization initiatives.
A great way of implementing personalization on your site is to include relevant recommended products on each page. You can set up recommended products by assigning categories across your site content and dynamically implementing it on each product page.
Personalization can also be applied to content as part of your content marketing strategy. This is an area where you could take advantage of analytics to help you determine what kind of content is most popular with your target audience, and focus your efforts on that.
By including personalization elements on your site you are effectively tailoring the user experience to each of your customers and pushing them in the right direction towards making a purchase.
8. Providing great customer service
Finally, great customer service could give your users the final nudge they need to make a purchase. Typically, a customer will contact customer service when they are having an issue making a purchase, or when they are experiencing a problem with a previous purchase. In both cases, a positive customer experience could make a huge difference not only to their ability to make the purchase, but also to the likelihood that they will return to your site in the future.
Ultimately your aim here is to delight your customers; even if a customer is experiencing negative issues on your site, a positive interaction with your support team could radically shift their experience from a negative to a positive one.
Another thing to keep in mind is to make your customers’ experience as memorable as possible, to help define your brand and remain in your customers’ consciousness. This includes ensuring that your messaging is consistent across online and in-person communications. Is your website’s design and user journey consistent with that they experience when attending your events?
For more web strategy best practices, visit <a href="http://blog.agilitycms.com/" target="_blank">http://blog.agilitycms.com/</a>.

Your Guide to Crafting a UX That Will Increase Your Online Sales

Look.Marketing is way more difficult than most people realize.But, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.You’ve got the products. You’ve got the website. You’ve got the payments all set up, and you’ve got everything ready to be packaged and sent out.Now, all you’ve got to do is bring in some website traffic and convert your visitors into paying customers.It won’t happen overnight, and it will be a challenge. But, with some strategies in place, you’ve got a good starting point for successfully marketing your ecommerce website.The following ecommerce marketing techniques are some that really give you the most bang for your buck, and are a great starting point for those who have already spent time <a href="/products/shopify">building an ecommerce website</a>, have sold some products, and are ready to start bringing in new customers.<h2>Strategy One: Guest Post on Quality Sites</h2>You may be wondering what writing articles has to do with running an ecommerce website. I mean, you have products to sell. Why would you want to spend time writing articles?Because it’s a great way to demonstrate your industry authority and demonstrate your brand’s value. By sharing information related to your product niche, you show prospective (and returning) customers that you are the go-to brand to meet their needs.Approach different websites within your niche and find out if they do guest posting. Get familiar with their content, and then offer them a unique article on a topic related to both your ecommerce store and their target audience’s interests.Not only will this extend your audience reach, but it will also give your site some SEO juice when it gets links back to it.Can’t go wrong with that!<h2>Strategy Two: Offer Products for Review</h2>Just like many new authors will offer free copies of their books in exchange for honest review, you can donate a product to bloggers looking to do reviews.This approach does come with some expenses, but it’s a great way to get your product in front of new prospects and get someone else to share quality, rich content with natural backlinks to your ecommerce website.The more people see (and love) your product, the more you will be able to sell. Plus, your site gets even more SEO benefits out of this strategy.<h2>Strategy Three: Work on Your SEO</h2>Okay, it’s great you’ve got some backlinks now.But, you could have all the links in the world and it won’t do you a single bit of good if you’re not ranking on Google.You want to take time to invest in <a target="_blank" href="http://keywordtool.io/">keyword research</a> so you can rank for right terms for your brand, industry, and niche.Once you’ve started ranking for those keywords, be sure to structure your internal links and your site’s on-page content to match those terms. This is a great investment that will pay off in the long-run. You’ll increase your site’s authority, your website traffic, and the number of paying customers you have.<h2>Step Four: Learn Email Marketing</h2><a target="_blank" href="https://www.constantcontact.com/">Email marketing</a> is a GREAT way to connect with your ecommerce website visitors, customers, and prospective customers.You can build up your consumer-brand relationship, build trust, and keep your brand in the forefront of your customer’s minds.The more subscribers you have, the more likely they are to convert to paying customers later on down the line.Once you’ve started building your list, you have the opportunity to regularly offer exclusive offers, helpful content, important news about your brand, and a chance for customers to try new products at a discounted rate.People like feeling as though they are part of an exclusive group, which is why email marketing works so well. They will be getting content not publicly available, and will have access to offers nobody else gets to have. Exclusivity goes a long way toward helping your products fly off the shelves.<h2>Step Five: Create and Offer Must-Have Resources</h2>This is a great way to generate tons of backlinks, as well as position your brand as an industry/niche authority. It also helps build credibility and boosts your consumer-brand trust, which definitely helps drive sales.To do this, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.picmonkey.com/">create must-have resources</a> and make them available on your website. This could be a whitepaper, comprehensive guide for buyers looking for products like yours, a troubleshooting guide, a checklist, or a roundup post.There are lots of options here, but the specifics depend on your niche and target audience. What solutions are your customers looking for? What are the people in your audience talking about? What help do they need?Create resources that address these needs, and you will increase your conversions and drive sales.<h2>Step Six: Build a Social Media Presence</h2>Social media is about more than just silly cat videos and flower crown filters.It can be a massively powerful platform for spreading brand awareness and building up your audience. It may not directly drive your sales, but it can help you interact with your target audience, further your relationships with your customers, and improve your reputation as a quality brand.By encouraging your customers to interact with you (and with one another) on your social media platforms, you’re instilling a sense a community and helping build up a loyal fan base.One of the biggest issues with retail brands, whether they are brick-and-mortar or ecommerce stores, is how often customer interacts go unanswered on social media.By responding quickly and authentically, you show your customers you truly care about them and their needs. You facilitate that oh-so important consumer-brand trust that gets your products sold and gets your brand praised.Be authentic – you don’t need to do things just like everyone else. This helps your brand stand apart from the competition.Think about all those brands on social media who answer like they’re real people – Starbucks, Taco Bell, Iron Horse, Stone, Canva, and more. They respond quickly and as though they’re having a regular conversation.This all goes a long way toward making you the brand your target audience remembers first – which means your products sell and your customerbase keeps growing.

Six Surefire Marketing Strategies for eCommerce Websites

alexia-bullard

Power your CMS on AWS

Manage your websites & apps in the most trusted cloud.

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Please introduce yourself and your position with Kentico.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/petr-palas-500x500200x0-is.png" />I'm the founder of Kentico Software, one of the leading CMS vendors. I started Kentico in 2004 with a vision of making content management easier for both developers and business users. Over the past 13 years, we grew into one of the leading vendors with 230 employees and a partner network of over 1,000 digital agencies in 80 countries that use our products to create websites and online stores with a personalized digital experience. We're headquartered in the Czech Republic, with sales and support offices in the United States, UK, Australia, and the Netherlands.
Please tell us a bit about your product and its latest release.
We launched our completely new product Kentico Cloud in November at our user conference in Las Vegas. It's a cloud-first headless CMS. Cloud-first means that it was built as a true multitenant SaaS product from the very beginning. We take care of the CMS, including its upgrades, security, performance, etc. As a result, customers can focus on developing their applications and managing their content. Headless means that you store all the content in our cloud-based content hub and you can use it through our API on any channel—on your website, in your mobile app, or even in your chatbot. Since we provide a standard REST API, you can use your favorite platform and programming language to build your applications.
What do you think businesses need to keep in mind when selecting a platform?
They should certainly start with their business needs and look how the CMS supports them today, but also how it fits the latest trends. Many traditional CMS products were built for managing web pages, but we have seen a growth in the use of mobile, virtual reality, IoT, etc., which requires a more granular content model so that you can reuse that content across channels. The other major trend we see is a growing need to be more agile—companies want to launch new projects in a matter of weeks, not months, so they are increasingly looking for cloud-based solutions.
What makes Kentico the go-to choice for the enterprise?
Actually, Kentico Cloud aims to support a broad range of customers—from small to enterprise. You can start with a free plan and upgrade it when needed. For the enterprise customers, we provide a strong product as well as all the extras they need for mission-critical projects, like 24×7 support provided by our experts on three continents, SLAs, training, consulting, and a dedicated customer success manager who takes care of their onboarding and long-term success. Plus, they can choose from a growing number of Kentico Cloud partners—digital agencies who can build the projects for them if they do not have an in-house development team.
What do you consider to be the biggest trend for CX vendors in 2017?
We already see vendors moving to the cloud, and that will continue in 2017. However, most traditional CMS or CX vendors just take their existing products that were built for the on-premise world and offer them as managed hosting or PaaS, which is certainly not the most efficient model. We expect more customers are looking for true SaaS CMS options, which will give rise to new cloud-first headless CMS offerings.
How is Kentico positioned to be at the forefront of these trends?
We've been preparing for this for a couple of years as we always believed the cloud is the future. Our experience with the cloud started back in 2011 when we were the first CMS certified for Microsoft Azure. In the past two years, we built Kentico Cloud from scratch as we wanted to provide a true SaaS product and make sure it's ready for the multi-channel world we live in. At the same time, we leverage our experience, our skilled team, and the market presence we've built over the past years.
How do you see the market changing in the next five years?
I believe the CMS market is at just another inflection point. The cloud-first headless CMS will start replacing traditional CMS products as customers realize the benefits of the SaaS model. The vendors who don't make the shift to the new architecture and business model will disappear from the market. It will be similar to the shift from on-premise document management systems to cloud-based file sharing services. In five years from now, we will laugh at how we used to install and babysit a CMS.
What kind of evolution can we expect to see from Kentico?
We will continue enhancing our existing product, Kentico EMS, that fits well to customers who want a sophisticated all-in-one solution or do not feel ready for the cloud yet. At the same time, we will invest in the future and make progress with Kentico Cloud—we will grow its capabilities every week, and it will become a mature CMS during this year.
Final thoughts?
I would wrap up with a quote by Clayton Christensen, the author of Innovator's Dilemma, who said: “You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn't care.” Cloud-first headless CMS is a major change for many, but it's inevitable. We're at the very beginning of a new era of the CMS industry. The vendors, customers, and digital agencies who adopt this model first will gain a competitive advantage by being more agile and ready for the new communication channels that will go mainstream in the upcoming years.

Interview with Petr Palas, CEO of Kentico

Blogging has become very popular lately. And there are many reasons for that. Firstly, people start to realize that sharing their personal experience can actually help them earn money. And secondly, a blog is a very effective way to attract more visitors to a website. The more original content is published on a website, the higher search engine rankings this website is more likely to get. 
So, if the main reasons for starting a blog are clear, the only question that remains is how. This question is especially important if you have no idea about coding and web programming, let alone web design. 
MotoCMS Stands for Simplicity
MotoCMS can be your #1 CMS choice for starting a blog if you belong to newcomers to the blogging world. Starting a blog with MotoCMS is maximally simplified. Beginners will definitely appreciate little question marks one can find next to all the structural elements on a blog. You click on these question marks and get a clear explanation on a particular element and how to work with it.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/10.jpg" />
Moreover, MotoCMS does its best to ensure that everyone gets the smooth experience when trying their products for the first time. Via chatting, calling the Help Center, or addressing the “Quick help” option (which, by the way, includes short video tutorials about the page you are currently viewing!) you can get as much support as needed.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/16.jpg" />
Creating a New Post
If you want to start a blog with MotoCMS, you first visit the <a href="https://www.motocms.com/website-templates/" target="_blank">MotoCMS website builder</a> site that offers quite a number of different website templates. By the way, MotoCMS gives you a chance to try the template you find attractive for free within 14 days. This way you can work on your future online project having no worries about its cost. Although the prices for MotoCMS templates are already quite reasonable, the free trial definitely facilitates the whole pre-purchase process.
Having chosen the template you like, you can get the immediate access to the admin panel of this template. The first thing you will see on the admin panel is the MotoCMS dashboard. Right there, at the dashboard, you can find the Edit Blog button that redirects you to the Blog section. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1.jpg" />
This is where you find the Posts tab, a yellow Add button, and a pop-up window. Right here you mention your post name and its URL for the first time. Of course, you can change these elements later if there is need to do so. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2.jpg" />
Once you are done with a name for your post and its URL, MotoCMS offers you to start working on your content. The main principle here would be to drag elements from the left panel. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/4a.jpg" />
This left panel includes two tabs. The first one is Blocks. This is where you find content blocks of different kinds: headers, galleries, general content, partners &amp; clients, testimonials, contacts, footers. In short, completely everything you need for your blog post. So what you do now is simply play around (meaning you drag and drop) with these content blocks till you get the layout you need. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/5.jpg" />
The latter tab is Widgets. Here you find widgets that can add dynamics to your storytelling, for example, a contact form widget, social buttons, video and audio players, and many other useful widgets. One of the most powerful widgets that MotoCMS offers is MailChimp. This tool is perfect for generating new leads and facilitates sending emails to your subscribers. MailChimp can definitely boost your communication with the target audience. Extremely important for any blogger, right?
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/6a.jpg" />
Specifying the Main Page and the Post Templates
Now that you know almost everything about the Posts tab, it is time to move on to explore the Templates section. Here you can easily shape your Main Page. The hidden panel on the right will help you to work on the settings of your main page.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/8.jpg" />
It is right there that you can provide more details about your page settings, mentioning the post name &amp; its URL. You may also choose the publishing mode for your posts, i.e. public or password-protected one. SEO-settings are right here at your disposal too. Do not forget to mention your page title, specify your indexation preferences, and provide the page description and the keywords.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/9.jpg" />
Right below the SEO-settings, you can see the Code Injection tab. It is one of the most fascinating features that you can find in the MotoCMS settings. The Code Injection is a unique tool that helps you add any widget to your blog in 2 clicks. What you need is to find a widget you like. Then you simply copy the embed code for the widget into the Header or Footer text field and click “Save”. Two clicks and the widget is active on your blog! Amazing, right? 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/11.jpg" />
Also, when you click on a post on your main page, you are automatically redirected to the Post List tab. Here you work with settings and design for your posts list. For example, you can choose how many posts you want to see on your main page, change spacing, and decide whether you need a “Read more” or just “More” button. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/12.jpg" />
The Design tab allows you to play around with a number of options, like date style, button size etc.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/13.jpg" />
Another special area of your MotoCMS blog is located in the Templates tab – Post section. It is a template of the layout and design that will be applied for all of your posts. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/14.jpg" />
And finally, the Settings tab. This is probably the most basic settings tab you have ever seen, with only 2 options to choose from. These options are to enable comments and to choose the date format. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/15.jpg" />
So, MotoCMS has high chances to get popular among bloggers. It is approachable, fun to deal with, and definitely worth a try. Most buttons are right there where you expect them to be. Most buttons function the way they are supposed to. Start a blog with <a href="https://www.motocms.com/" target="_blank">MotoCMS</a> now and enjoy the blogging world!

How to Start Your Personal Blog with MotoCMS

Agility, a fully-integrated digital experience platform offering Content Management, eCommerce and Real-Time Personalization, has launched Agility Ticketing, a solution designed to allow current and future customers to sell tickets online. The all-in-one solution includes mobile QR ticket generation and on-location ticket redemption using a dedicated scanning app.
“At Agility we believe that customers deserve an amazing experience, and that all starts with a great website. We have long helped to provide online ticketing solutions to our clients,” said Joel Varty, VP of Innovation and Development at Agility. “As we continue to work with visitor attractions we are seeing a real need for an integrated ticket offering that allows for a more seamless purchasing experience. Bringing that into the platform means we can provide more efficient workflows and processes for our customers, giving them more control. We are continually striving to align our product offerings to the needs of this segment, and we are excited to deliver Agility Ticketing as a first-class citizen in the Agility Experience.”
Agility Ticketing is the result of an increased need among customers to provide online ticket sales. They wanted an integrated solution that could be easily managed and customized. Many customers were unhappy with existing standalone solutions, citing slow load times, template-restricted designs and inefficient manual processes. Third party ticketing solutions usually require heavy integrations with the website, which often result in poor site performance and complicated checkout processes. As a result, customers were losing visitors mid-purchase due to a poor user experience.
Agility Ticketing is built into the Agility platform and managed from a single central hub. It is highly customizable and provides secure and flexible integrations with customers’ payment, shipping and CRM providers of choice. The platform also boasts unlimited freedom of design, a mobile-friendly user experience, customer account creation and tracking, multiple ticketing variant options and in-depth reporting.
Agility Ticketing is part of a wider product offering to visitor attractions, one of the segments that Agility is currently servicing. To find out more about Agility Ticketing and how it can help you sell more tickets and create a better experience for your customers, click <a href="http://agilitycms.com/ticketing" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.

Agility CMS Officially Launches Agility Ticketing

dotCMS, a leading Java-based content management system, and Authentic, a Digital Agency, today announced they have entered into a partnership agreement to support dotCMS’s rapid growth in the US.
“Authentic’s vision for the future of digital marketing, passion for quality, and culture of innovation is what we find compelling,” added Tim Brigham, CEO of dotCMS. “We are at the forefront of where customers want to go digitally, and Authentic has demonstrated with their success that clients agree with that thinking. I couldn’t be more excited to see where our partnership takes both of us.”
dotCMS, as both a company and a technology, fits with Authentic’s overall vision to work with enterprise-level clients create authentic digital experiences for their customers. dotCMS, a java-based CMS tool, provides flexibility, ease of implementation, and faster-to-market solutions that appeals to clients in today’s fast-paced, results-driven marketing environment.
“We’re excited about the expansion of our capabilities to offer clients a robust tool and dedicated management team in dotCMS that will allow both firms to continue growth in the US and beyond,” says David Roe, CEO of Authentic. “As a global company, we now have the ability to further tailor our offerings and service models to meet the individual needs of each client by better serving our ever-growing list of both international clients, and clients supporting a global brand presence.”
About Authentic
Authentic is a world-class digital agency that is reinventing the way companies leverage digital channels to reach their customers. We know how digital can be used to create a personalized, constantly evolving marketing approach that garners measurable success. This approach means that our clients can be more creative with less risk, and our clients’ customers can get authentic digital experiences that matter to them. Comprehensive digital marketing services include marketing and user experience strategy, creative ideation and production, technology implementation, and more.
Authentic is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia with offices in New York, New York; Washington, DC; and Lima, Peru.
To learn more, visit beauthentic.digital.
About dotCMS
dotCMS is a leading , open source content management platform for companies that want innovation and performance driving their websites and other content-driven applications. Extensible and massively scalable, both small and large organizations can rapidly deliver personalized and engaging content across browsers, mobile devices, channels, second screens and endpoints — all from a single system.
Founded in 2003, dotCMS is a privately owned US company with offices in Miami, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts and San Jose, Costa Rica. With a global network of certified development partners and an active open source community, dotCMS has generated more than a half-million downloads and thousands of implementations and integration projects worldwide. Notable dotCMS customers include: Telus, Standard &amp; Poors, Hospital Corporation of America, Royal Bank of Canada, DirecTV, Nomura Bank, Thomson Reuters, China Mobile, Aon, DriveTest Ontario and ICANN. For more, visit <a href="http://www.dotcms.com">www.dotcms.com</a>.

dotCMS and Authentic Announce Partnership

Studiopress has been a major player in the WordPress community for years with their flagship theme framework, Genesis. I’ve come to expect a certain level of quality from the people behind StudioPress. When I heard that they were offering a moderately reasonable managed WordPress hosting service. I had to check it out myself in this <a href="/studiopress-sites">StudioPress Sites</a> review.
In this review, we look at the pros and cons of using the new <a href="/studiopress-sites">StudioPress Sites</a> managed hosting service.
<h2>Overview</h2>
Before getting into the details, I want to go over a brief overview of my main thoughts on the service. Consider this a quick reference to what I consider the top three pros and cons of going with their service.
<h2>Pros</h2>
<ul>
<li>Responsive time from support was more than adequate.</li>
<li>Having 20 of StudioPress’s themes included made this a great value.</li>
<li>From a security standpoint; having their intrusion detection and malware scanning is comforting.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Cons</h2>
<ul>
<li>The “fast loading performance” could have been faster. I have set up sites on a standard SSD VPS that ran faster. The fact that I had to contact support to enable a caching plugin was slightly frustrating.</li>
<li>I felt the “partner plugins” was a bit misleading. There should be some sort of label on the ones that have affiliate links. I don’t have a problem with affiliate links; but appreciate transparency.</li>
<li>The bloat. I’m so used to StudioPress products being light. Having to remove a bunch of demo content from the get go was less than satisfying. I think they should incorporate an option on install whether or not to create the demo pages and posts.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
Genesis is known for being light and fast. Right after setting up my StudioPress Site (complete installation guide below) I ran a speedtest on Pingdom Tools. I thought this an important metric to track since StudioPress advertises as “Fast Loading Performance”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_1.png" />
The speed was alright. I would have expected it to be a bit faster but without having a caching plugin installed it is more than acceptable. So that’s what I did. I installed and activated WP Super Cache and was returned with an error. This was a great opportunity to test their “World-class support” as they advertise it.
Support answered the question within just under 24 hours. Their answer: “Caching plugin are not necessary on StudioPress Sites since we include a very powerful caching technology that is 100% compatible with our stack.”
I also asked them in a separate ticket a non-technical question (that I already knew the answer to since it is on their <a href="/studiopress-sites" target="_blank">sales page</a>)
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_2.png" />
I was pleased to get an answer within just over an hour. Pretty good response rate in my opinion.
<h2>Overview</h2>
<h3>StudioPress Software Monitor</h3>
After setting up your StudioPress Site (instructions below) you will have access to the standard WordPress Dashboard.. plus some extras. We aren’t going to dive into the default WordPress dashboard as you can <a href="/products/wordpress/">read about that here</a>; but rather focus on the StudioPress stuff.
First we’re going to take a look at the Site Tools under the StudioPress header in the dashboard.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_3.png" />
There are several helpful (and some not-so-much) items here. Think of this as a general “how healthy is my site?” type of information. This tells you if you have any inactive themes or theme issues as well as the ability to take a snapshot of your current themes.
I don’t see the real benefit to the snapshots as it doesn’t save any settings from your themes. I could see this being handy for those who add custom CSS.. if it backed that up. The StudioPress Software Monitor also has the same features for plugins that it does for themes.
<h2>StudioPress Themes</h2>
Yes, you read that right. StudioPress Sites comes with access to many of the popular themes created by StudioPress. This has got to be one of my favorite pros. Installing a theme is a simple as clicking on Use This Theme.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_4.png" />
<h2>Partner Plugins</h2>
StudioPress has a built in list of what they call their Partner Plugins. At first glance I didn’t think anything of this.. until I saw OptinMonster was included? Could this be? Although I prefer ThriveThemes as my optin plugin.. If OptinMonster is included for free with your StudioPress site that is a huge win as it would normally cost you a minimum of $108 per year.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_5.png" />
Sure enough.. I clicked the blue Activate button and unfortunately, it isn’t free. My Dashboard now prompts me to “GET OPTINMONSTER NOW”. Nope. I have a feeling that these “Partner Plugins” are just a sales funnel with affiliate links. Yep.. that big green button teasing me to get OptinMonster is a shareasale affiliate link. Well played, StudioPress.. Well played.
<h2>Content Optimizer</h2>
Not much to be said about the content optimizer settings. When enabled, it allows you to set your SEO tool preference, URL, security method (ssl or non-ssl), user permissions, and post types.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_6.png" />
<h2>Mobile Menu Bar</h2>
I think this feature is absolutely great. We are in a mobile-first world and having the ability to fully customize your mobile menu is a must. This allows you to make only the important menu items appear on mobile.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_7.png" />
<h2>SEO Settings</h2>
You don’t want to gloss over these settings. If you want search traffic to your site (you do) than you need to have things set up right from the get-go. The Genesis SEO Settings gives you the ability to customize default titles, meta descriptions, meta keywords, robot meta tags, and the ability to remove unnecessary header tags. The robot meta settings is important as you can noindex category archives, tag archives, etc.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_8.png" />
<h2>Setting Up Your StudioPress Site</h2>
As with my previous experiences with StudioPress; I expected setup to be elegant yet straightforward. And for the most part they met those expectations. As noted previously you will need to have your own domain registered elsewhere.
Once you have your StudioPress account made and logged into the dashboard you will see a page similar to what we have below. After which you will want to click on Setup a New Site.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_10.png" />Great! Now we are at the point of actually getting to start setting up our new website. Click Got it. Let’s get started! to begin the process. You will be prompted to enter your domain name, site name, and create an admin username.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_9.png" />Fill in the required information and click on the Complete and Review button.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_11.png" />
Now that you have these first steps finished you need to connect your new hosting account to your domain. It is essentially as simple as managing your DNS records to point to the StudioPress IP address.
We aren’t going to be able to show you how to perform this step because it varies per your domain registrar; but StudioPress does have instructions for most popular registrars.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_12.png" />After connecting to your domain, you will now have access to view your Live Site Info (the globe icon). After your domain name finishes propagating you’ll be able to log into the WordPress dashboard. This should be located at yourdomainname.com/wp-admin.php as shown below.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_13.png" />After clicking on your URL login you’ll be prompted to type in your username and password. This is case-sensitive. Click Login and you’ll be in the standard WordPress Dashboard
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/studiopress_sites_review_-_14.png" />
Now at this point we see that StudioPress has, by default, propagated your new website with loads of posts and pages.
I know StudioPress did this so you can see what the website could look like fleshed out with content; my suggestion would have an option during setup to include or not include demo content. We need to go in and delete all of that content so we have a fresh slate for our website. This includes posts, pages, and menus.
After removing the bloat you’re left with a standard WordPress installation on moderately fast servers.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
I did not like feeling mislead with the plugins (such as OptinMonster) being included only to lead me to an affiliate link. Felt kind of like a bait and switch. Some sort of label would have been nice indicating purchase required.
Although I get that StudioPress is proud of their fast servers and “built in caching technology” I don’t like not being able to activate and use a caching plugin. With speed being a ranking factor for Google and users not wanting to wait.. I want my website as fast as possible. I’m not sure what type of caching technology their support was referring to since Pingdom Tools indicates the need to leverage browser caching.
I did like that StudioPress includes 20 of their premium themes with the service. I’d say if you are looking at purchasing one of their themes and it is one of the included 20 it may be worth just going for the service as a whole.
For non-technical questions support was very prompt; answering in just over an hour. For a technical question support took nearly a day to get back with me. I didn’t like the answer support gave me on the caching plugin; and unfortunately there was no support phone number for me to call and discuss options.
Here’s my final thoughts on if StudioPress Sites is worth the money. If you’re looking for a managed WordPress hosting solution than <a href="/studiopress-sites" target="_blank">StudioPress Sites</a> would be a candidate worth considering. If you’re more tech savvy and can handle your own than I would suggest getting hosting with more flexibility. If you need help designing your website, we do that too!

StudioPress Sites Review

vince-polston

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