You know that feeling when your WordPress site just won’t cooperate? Maybe it’s running painfully slow, throwing up random errors, or worse—completely crashing at the worst possible moment. It’s frustrating, right? But here’s the good news: most WordPress issues have solutions, and they’re often easier (and cheaper) to fix than you’d think.

In this post, we’ll go over the common problems business owners face with their WordPress sites and how to fix them—without tearing your hair out.

1. Slow Website? Here’s What’s Slowing You Down

A sluggish website isn’t just annoying—it’s bad for business. Visitors won’t wait around for pages to load, and Google certainly won’t rank you well if your site crawls like a snail.

Common culprits:

• Bloated themes with too many bells and whistles
• Unoptimized images that take forever to load
• Too many plugins running in the background
• Poor-quality web hosting

The fix:
Start by running a speed test with Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. Then:
✅ Compress images using tools like TinyPNG or Smush
✅ Remove unused plugins and themes
✅ Enable caching with a plugin like WP Rocket
✅ Upgrade your hosting if your site’s getting too much traffic for a budget plan

2. Error Messages You Don’t Understand (But Need to Fix)

Ever seen the dreaded “There has been a critical error on this website” message? It’s vague, unhelpful, and completely terrifying if you’re not a developer.

Other common issues include:

• The White Screen of Death (WSOD) – where your site just… disappears
• Internal Server Errors (500 errors) – usually caused by plugin conflicts
• Database Connection Errors – when your site can’t talk to its database

The fix:

• First, don’t panic. Most errors happen because of plugin conflicts or a misconfigured update.
• Disable plugins one by one. If you can still access your dashboard, deactivate them all, then reactivate them one at a time.
• Switch to a default theme. If your site works again, your theme might be the issue.
• Check your error logs. Many hosting providers let you access logs that show what went wrong.

If you’re stuck, reach out to a WordPress expert—sometimes, a five-minute fix can save you hours of frustration.

3. Your Site Got Hacked – Now What?

Security is a big deal, especially if your site collects customer data. If your site has been hacked, you might notice:
❌ Strange pop-ups or redirects
❌ New admin users you didn’t create
❌ Google flagging your site as “unsafe”

The fix:

• Change all passwords immediately (including hosting and database access).
• Scan for malware using security plugins like Wordfence or Sucuri.
• Restore a clean backup (if you have one).
• Update everything. Most hacks happen because of outdated plugins or themes.

To prevent future attacks, install a firewall and enable two-factor authentication for logins.

4. Contact Forms or Emails Not Working?

If customers are trying to reach you and you’re not getting their messages, your contact form could be broken. This happens a lot with WordPress contact forms because some hosting providers block certain email functions.

The fix:

• Use an SMTP plugin (like WP Mail SMTP) to ensure emails get delivered properly.
• Test your form by sending yourself a message.
• Check spam folders—sometimes, emails end up there instead.

5. Plugins That Break Everything

WordPress plugins are great—until one of them breaks your entire site. Ever updated a plugin, only to find your website suddenly unresponsive?

The fix:
1️⃣ Disable all plugins. If your site comes back, one of them is the culprit.
2️⃣ Reactivate plugins one at a time to see which one causes the problem.
3️⃣ If an update broke your site, roll it back to a previous version using a plugin like WP Rollback.

And here’s a golden rule: don’t install every plugin you find. Stick to well-reviewed plugins that are actively maintained.

Final Thoughts

Running a WordPress site doesn’t have to be a headache. Most problems—whether it’s slow speed, error messages, security issues, or broken plugins—can be fixed with a little troubleshooting.

If you’re dealing with a stubborn issue and need help, don’t waste hours searching forums—get in touch with a WordPress expert who can fix it quickly. Sometimes, a small tweak can make a world of difference.

Cocoonfxmedia Ltd, a multi-award-winning digital marketing agency, has been awarded the prestigious Fair Payment Code (FPC) Gold Award. This accolade is given to companies that pay at least 95% of all invoices within 30 days and adhere to the principles of fairness, transparency, and collaboration with their suppliers.

Cocoonfxmedia Ltd has long been a champion of fair payment practices, consistently ensuring that its suppliers are paid within 30 days or sooner. Co-founder James Blackman has been actively advocating for better payment practices for over a decade, making fair supplier payments a key focus during his tenure as President of the Lichfield & Tamworth Chamber of Commerce.

“I have been working closely with the last three Small Business Commissioners to help level the playing field for micro-businesses. Ensuring timely payments is crucial for small businesses’ survival, and I have provided ongoing feedback to Liz Barclay, the current Small Business Commissioner, regarding the challenges small enterprises face in receiving payments on time,” said James Blackman, Co-founder of Cocoonfxmedia Ltd. “Receiving the FPC Gold Award is a testament to our ethical approach to business and our commitment to supporting a fairer business environment.”

About Cocoonfxmedia Ltd

Cocoonfxmedia Ltd is a multi-award-winning digital marketing agency based in Lichfield, UK. The company specialises in effective design solutions and digital marketing strategies that align with clients’ organisational goals while maintaining best business practices and environmental considerations.

Since 2020, Cocoonfxmedia Ltd has been a carbon-neutral company, further demonstrating its dedication to ethical and sustainable business operations.

For more details about the Fair Payment Code, visit: https://www.fpb.org/fair-payment-code

E-E-A-T is an acronym for experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness in regards to Google’s page ranking algorithms. When you hit all the points perfectly, you’ll rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Many experts claim people never look past the first page of search results. Ensuring you rank as high as possible increases traffic and improves your chances for online growth. Knowing what E-E-A-T is and how to implement increases the chances you’ll gain significant SEO with just a little effort.

Google offers Search Quality Rater Guidelines for its third-party raters. They work with over 16,000 people to get feedback on various websites and how well they match user intent and offer excellent user experience (UX). However, businesses can tap into the recommendations to figure out ways to rank higher than the competition.

To better understand how to improve your search engine optimization (SEO), it’s crucial to understand how Google looks at E-E-A-T. Let’s define each element to fully understand just what Google looks for. We’ll also offer suggestions to improve each area for the best chance at better SERP results.

1. Experience

One of the factors Google considers is whether the person writing content for a website has experience in the area. Someone who has been in the field is much more likely to better understand terms and jargon of the industry. They’ll know first-hand what works and what doesn’t.

The problem brands sometimes face is learning how to translate that experience part of E-E-A-T into readable content. People can be quite knowledgeable but not able to break things down in a way that makes sense to a beginner.

The best writers have both experience and an understanding of the audience. To improve your content and meet this expectation from Google, try these tips:

• Know the topic better than the average person.
• Study the audience to understand their level of expertise and what language you should use.
• Define any industry jargon so anyone can understand the content. What terms aren’t known to outsiders? It’s okay to throw them in to show your experience but make sure you explain them and don’t overdo it.
• Look for topics or angles others haven’t covered. How can you present something useful but unique?

With a bit of effort, you’ll showcase the experience behind your brand without confusing people new to the industry.

2. Expertise

The difference between expertise and experience is often subtle, even by Google’s definitions. The person who is an expert likely also has experience in the field or with the topic. For example, a chef reviewing a local restaurant has expertise in the industry. However, if he hasn’t dined at local restaurants or that restaurant, he has no experience to base his article on. The best content merges both of the Es in E-E-A-T.

Knowing how buyers respond to content and promotions can also drive what websites publish. For example, the average retailer offers a sale of around 20 to 25% off several times a year and expects to see a sales boost around 20% during the promotion.

When content is centered around what the user wants, what the business knows and experiences, the numbers may be even higher. Google will also rank the content so it gets more eyes on it, drawing even more customers to the site.

3. Authority

Sites with authority are typically more established and have developed a brand reputation. For example, when you think of companies such as:

• Amazon
• Target
• John Lewis

Why do these sites rank so high in SERPs? You might have better content, more knowledgeable experts and a consistent keyword strategy and will still get outranked by big names.

Authority measures how established a site is, the amount of content, how well it meets user intent and if people trust the company. There are some things you can do to increase your authority, but there isn’t a fast approach to building up this aspect of your SEO strategy. You must put in consistent effort before you’ll be seen as the go-to on a topic.

You want a site that functions as it should, so avoid problem areas. For example, infinite scrolling can result in lower SEO and site speed can impact results.

Some things you can do is write articles for blogs and other sites and ask for a link back to yours. You only want to utilize high quality sites for this as the quality of the sites linking to yours matters. You should give talks, host webinars and consistently post on your own site. Even the age of your site impacts authority, so consider buying an established domain, too.

4. Trustworthiness

The final letter in the acronym stands for trustworthiness. The final consideration is the thing creators have the most control over. The search engines and rankers take into account factors like:

• Site security
• Transparency and information about site managers
• Accuracy
• Whether content matches headlines

The best way to improve trustworthiness is to write focused articles, share a short bio of any contributor, fill in information about site founders and all contact information. List any associations with reputable organisations. It’s crucial to have a strong site structure and avoid issues with hackers or downtime.

Meshing E-E-A-T Into a Cohesive Strategy

Google uses automated processes and a unique algorithm that changes constantly. However, ranking well means you must meet all the elements equally and continue to improve your content daily. Implementing an E-E-A-T approach for content SEO is a great start to getting ahead of the competition and attracting more organic traffic to your site.

Eleanor is the founder and managing editor of Designerly Magazine. She’s also a web design consultant with a focus on customer experience. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dogs, Bear and Lucy

A Brief History of Google SGE and AI Overviews

Google has been integrating AI into its search results for years, but the introduction of generative AI in search has been a significant shift. Initially, Google launched the Search Generative Experience (SGE) as an experimental feature in 2023, using AI to generate answers to search queries. The goal was to provide quick, relevant, and comprehensive responses directly in search results.

Now, in 2024, Google is transitioning from the term “SGE” to AI Overviews, making it a core part of search rather than an experimental feature. The new AI Overviews are built upon Google’s AI models, pulling information from various sources to generate short, informative responses to user queries. This marks a significant change in how search results are displayed and how users interact with them.

What Do AI Overviews Show in Google Search Results?

AI Overviews appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP), offering users AI-generated summaries of relevant information. Unlike traditional search results, which list websites ranked by Google’s algorithm, AI Overviews provide direct answers that blend content from multiple sources.

While not all searches trigger an AI Overview, Google is showing them more frequently for complex, long-tail queries where a synthesised answer is useful. These overviews often include:

• A short AI-generated summary
• Links to sources used to generate the overview
• Follow-up questions to refine searches
• Additional content, such as images, product listings, and local results

This means that rather than simply ranking websites based on traditional SEO signals, Google’s AI Overviews actively decide what information is relevant and credible.

How Does Google Decide What to Show in AI Overviews?

Google uses AI models trained on vast amounts of data to generate AI Overviews. The system determines the content by:

1. Understanding User Intent: Google’s AI interprets the query to decide if an AI Overview is necessary.
2. Pulling Information from Trusted Sources: It selects authoritative and relevant content to form the response.
3. Generating a Cohesive Summary: The AI synthesises information into a concise, readable format.
4. Providing Source Links: Unlike traditional search rankings, AI Overviews blend multiple sources to create a single, AI-written answer while displaying links to original content.

Not all queries receive AI Overviews, and the system constantly evolves. Google prioritises accuracy, authority, and user value when deciding whether to generate an AI Overview.

Will AI Overviews Replace Traditional Search Results?

No, traditional search results still exist alongside AI Overviews. However, AI Overviews change how users engage with search results. Since the AI-generated answer appears at the top of the page, users may rely on it rather than scrolling down to click on individual links.

This shift presents both opportunities and challenges for SEO professionals. Websites that traditionally ranked at the top of Google may now find themselves pushed further down, affecting organic traffic. However, if a website is featured within an AI Overview, it can lead to increased visibility and credibility.

How AI Overviews Affect SEO Strategies

The rise of AI Overviews means SEO strategies must evolve. Traditional SEO practices, such as keyword optimisation and backlink building, remain important, but new tactics are emerging to adapt to the AI-driven search experience.

1. Optimise for AI Overviews

Since AI Overviews pull information from multiple sources, businesses need to ensure their content is authoritative, structured, and relevant to appear in AI-generated snippets. This includes:

• Creating high-quality, well-researched content
• Using structured data and schema markup
• Answering common industry-related questions clearly

2. Focus on Long-Tail Keywords

AI Overviews often appear for long-tail search queries rather than short, broad keywords. By optimising content around specific, detailed queries, businesses increase their chances of being featured in AI-generated responses.

3. Monitor AI Overviews for Your Keywords

Google does not provide official tools for tracking AI Overview performance, but professional SEO tools can help monitor:

• Which keywords trigger AI Overviews
• Which sources are featured
• How AI Overviews impact traffic and rankings

Tracking these insights allows businesses to refine their SEO strategies accordingly.

4. Leverage Expertise and Authority

Google prioritises E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) when generating AI Overviews. Websites that demonstrate expertise in their industry are more likely to be referenced in AI-generated responses.

5. Enhance Content for Featured Snippets

AI Overviews often pull from content that already ranks in featured snippets (position zero in search results). Optimising for featured snippets increases the likelihood of being included in AI Overviews.

Can Businesses Track Traffic from AI Overviews?

Currently, Google Search Console does not provide direct tracking for AI Overview clicks. However, SEO tools can estimate potential traffic from AI-generated snippets, helping businesses predict the impact of AI Overviews on their organic search performance.

How to Compare Traditional Rankings to AI Overviews

To analyse how AI Overviews affect your rankings, SEO professionals can generate side-by-side comparison reports that:

• Show keyword positions in traditional rankings vs. AI Overviews
• Identify content featured in AI-generated answers
• Measure the impact of AI Overviews on website traffic

Understanding these dynamics helps businesses adjust their SEO strategies to maintain strong visibility.

How to Stay Ahead in the Age of AI Overviews

With Google’s AI Overviews changing search behaviour, businesses must stay proactive. The best way to ensure visibility in both traditional and AI-generated search results is by:

• Creating in-depth, authoritative content that aligns with AI-generated summaries
• Monitoring AI Overview trends for relevant keywords
• Leveraging professional SEO tools to track and optimise performance

Work With SEO Experts to Adapt to AI Overviews

The rise of AI Overviews presents both challenges and opportunities for businesses. Traditional SEO strategies must adapt to this evolving landscape to ensure continued visibility in search results.

At Cocoonfx, we specialise in cutting-edge SEO strategies that help businesses navigate AI Overviews and generative search. Our expert team provides insights, tracking, and optimisation techniques tailored to your industry. If you want to maximise your search presence and stay ahead of AI-driven search trends, contact us today!

Google Lighthouse is a free, open-to-everyone tool that lets you check how your website is doing—no need to bring in a web design company. Not straight away anyway! It gives you a report card on how your site performs, how accessible it is, how well it’s optimised for search engines, and even checks a few other best-practice boxes. Here’s a breakdown and then we’ll show you how to access and use it.

What does Lighthouse measure?

• Performance: Looks at how fast your site is and whether it works smoothly. It checks things like how long it takes for the largest elements to load (LCP), how stable your layout is (CLS), and how quickly the page becomes interactive (TTI).
• Accessibility: Makes sure your site is user-friendly for everyone, including those with disabilities. It reviews things like clear link names, readable text with proper color contrast, and properly scaled viewports for different devices.
• Best Practices: Evaluates whether your site is up-to-date with web standards, like using secure connections (HTTPS), avoiding unsafe links, and following coding best practices.
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Spotlights areas to improve so search engines can find and rank your site more easily.

Why use Lighthouse?

• Easy insights: Get a clear, detailed report showing what’s working and what’s not—great for making informed fixes.
• DIY-friendly: Whether your site is public or behind a login, you can run Lighthouse on it.
• Better website: Use the tips to boost speed, security, and user experience while meeting industry standards.

Some of the findings you may be able to do yourself – others you’ll most likely need the help of a web designer. The main point of the tool for me is that it gives you control, third party information that you can use to make informed decisions.

How to use Lighthouse

First off you need the Chrome browser, you can download it here. The rest is in the video and following screen shots below:

Step-by-step

Knowledge is power and Google Lighthouse is an independent 3rd party tool that you can use to help be properly informed about issues related to your site. We’ve used it with clients who have been confused about the conflicting advice they have been given when trying to develop their site for marketing. They can see for themselves if the advice been given matches up.

Give it a go, or if you want to learn more get in touch, we’ll be happy to take you through things.

It’s seemed so straightforward. That was until your business idea needed transferring to web design.

Whether your website plans are to support a growing business, rescue a declining one or promote a great new project – getting the idea from the workplace to cyberspace is a whole other matter.

Often businesses start immediately by focusing their web design ideas on other site examples, templates or images. But here at Cocoonfxmedia, we’ve seen how jumping straight into graphics web design can cause your marketing objectives to quickly become lost in translation.

So for a truly successful website, web design should start at the very basics – with stakeholder analysis.

Introducing Stakeholder Analysis for Web Design

Knowing your audience is vital when considering what information should be included on your website and how it should look.

After all, your audience is the people that will keep you in business.

But stakeholder analysis isn’t solely about your website audience. It involves those who endorse and use your website internally and externally.

So to properly inform web design, here are some helpful questions for you to consider and then we’ll look at how your answers could influence the final design.

Who are the stakeholders that need to be considered for your web design?

If you’re already involved in the running of a business you should have a good idea of who your stakeholders and customers are (otherwise you may want to do a bit of research).

Stakeholders can include more than just customers, they can be staff members who will be using and updating the site, partners that you are representing and management staff that require the site to deliver business objectives within an agreed budget.

Your customers can also be quite different, so it helps to profile them into groups depending on their demographics (or firmographics) so that you can identify those with similar needs and which groups should be your priority.

Impact on Web Design: Incorporating the priorities of your most important stakeholders when starting web design will ensure you start on the right path and avoid having to make large changes later. So next, you need to identify the stakeholders who hold the most influence on the success of your web design.

How important is each stakeholder to the success of your site?

Stakeholder mapping is a great way to identify who needs to be considered and consulted during the web design phase. This is where we can use a useful tool frequently referred to as Mendelow’s Matrix; simply add each stakeholder group where you feel they sit in the chart depending on their interest and influence.

Every matrix will be different – but once completed you will need to remember that stakeholders in quadrant A will need to be kept satisfied (possibly in a legal sense) and those in quadrant B will be the ones that will influence your site the most; their needs should definitely be included in any plans or design requirements.

Impact on Web Design: Once you’ve identified the stakeholders that matter the most for your web design, their needs can be incorporated at the earliest stages, especially when it comes to budgets and the function of the site.

What are the needs of your stakeholders? 

Now we know that we don’t have to worry about pleasing every single stakeholder, we can focus on those with the most influence over the success of your site.

So now it’s time to ask, what does each priority stakeholder need to accomplish from the website? It can help to list 2 or 3 important information needs of each stakeholder; for example:

For your marketing manager:

1. The ability to easily update content
2. Easy ways to monitor success and customer conversions

For your target market:

1. Solutions to questions and concerns easily available
2. Secure sites for purchasing
3. Easy ways to make contact
4. Resources for additional information to support them to make informed decisions

For your partners:

1. Approval for use of logo and information
2. An appropriate representation of their brand

For legal bodies:

1. Meeting agreed on terms and conditions
2. No content or actions that could breach UK legislation

Impact on Web Design: Definite requirements can finally be put into the web design, including how the site will be accessed both by customers and those updating the content, and which additional sections and security are required. This is where professional web designers will include the best approach for usability, accessibility and functionality.

How will your website marketing objectives be met?

With the basis of the web design now in place, it’s time to incorporate your business and marketing objectives – in other words, what do you want the site to deliver?

It may be that you wish the site to generate leads, increase sales or just boost awareness of your brand? It may be all of these, but it’s best to focus efforts on just one at the web design stage.

So if the motivation behind your website is to generate sales, the web design will focus on engaging first-time visitors and making the purchase process as simple and efficient as possible

If your objective is to generate leads, the web design will need to focus on having clear incentives and sign-up details available.

Impact on Web Design: when business objectives are set at the start of the web design stage, they can be built upon so that each decision for content, graphics and layout will all lead towards meeting business goals; making your objectives achievable and easily monitored.

Why will stakeholders use your site?

Now we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty of web design; user experience.

This is where your knowledge of customer profiles and preferences come in handy.

It’s important to have a website that resonates with the customer; if it’s informal and fun, it may appeal to the younger generation, but that approach may not work if your customers are serious and professional businesses.

So identify why your customers are there.

Are they looking for prices? Or are they searching for product specifications? Maybe they want to find reviews or answers to unique questions. If you fail to include quality content that your customers seek out, you could lose out to competitors.

Once you’ve determined the content and details to be included on your site, it now needs to be displayed in a way that can be easily viewed and navigated through expert web design structures and visuals – but based on the expectations and preferences of your audience.

Impact of Web Design: Structures used for web designs will vary depending on the audience preferences and purpose of the site. The main elements of web design at this stage are to make it as efficient as possible for users to complete tasks, which in turn meets your business objectives. Therefore, web design elements will include:

• site structure: which will mostly be covered during the stakeholder analysis stage and include the function and layout
• visual design: the colours, graphics, images, screen resolution and device access that meets the preferences of your website user
• site navigation: ensuring it is easy for users to locate and travel through the site without getting ‘lost’ or ‘confused’ by including a menu and predictable options such as search, contact or FAQ.

Setting Strong Foundations for Successful Web Design

The next stages following your stakeholder analysis and agreed content are for the production of wireframes or blueprints that show how your site will be structured.

Due to the intricacies of web design, we can’t exactly include all aspects of it in this blog such as coding, search engine optimisation, widgets and so forth. However, you can be sure that you’re on to a winner if you start the web design phase by considering the needs of your stakeholders and incorporating business objectives.

And remember to test, test and test your website design to ensure it is meeting the needs of your users and stakeholders. One way is to simply ask.

Ask your users/stakeholders what they like, dislike or find difficult about the site and then fix it.

You could also present two different web designs called A/B testing to see which users prefer and then use the more effective version.

Great web design is an evolving process, and will require reviews, alterations and adjustments every so often to keep up with changing customer behaviours and expectations – but if you’ve laid the groundwork with web design stakeholder analysis, you can be sure you’ll always be on the path to success with your business website.

For a free consultation on professional web design and development, contact Cocoonfxmedia or call 0121 8203659.

5 Sources of competitive advantage

Competitive advantage is a set of circumstances or conditions (such as being first to take a product to market) that puts one company in a more favourable position than the other. Here are the 5 sources of competitive advantage that you can identify and build upon in your company every day. 

Sources of Competitive Advantage:

1. Superior Skills

“The distinctive capabilities of key personnel that set them apart from the personnel of competing firms” 
“The benefit of superior skills is the resulting ability to perform functions more effectively than other firms” – Chadwick and Jobber

By having the right personnel with the same values, with the right skills and drive will completely separate you from the competition. It may be that some of you don’t have Masters Degrees but have the flare and creativity to make things happen.

2. Superior Resources

Having superior resources can help massively. “The tangible requirements for the advantage that enable a firm to exercise its skills” Such as;

• The number of salespeople in a market
• Expenditure on advertisement and sales promotion
• Distribution infrastructure
• Expenditure on R&D
• Scale and type of production facilities
• Brand equity
• Knowledge

3. Core Competencies

The distinctive nature of these skills and resources make up a company’s core competencies. Capabilities that are critical to a business achieving competitive advantage. “Core competencies are the most important sources of uniqueness” 1990 Prahalad and Hamel. They are a “harmonised combination of multiple resources and skills that distinguish a firm in the marketplace”.

Are they Core Competencies?

1. Relevance; they must give something that strongly influences the consumer to choose the product/ service.
2. Difficult to imitate; the competence must be difficult to imitate
3. The breadth of Application; Something that opens new markets. If it only opens a few small niche markets then success in these markets will not be enough to sustain significant growth.
4. Value Chain

The value chain is a high-level model developed by Porter. It is used to describe the process by which businesses receive raw materials, and add value through various processes to create a finished product, ready to sell to customers. The overall goal of the value chain is to deliver maximum value for the least possible cost to create a competitive advantage.

5. Differential Advantage

Unique benefits/ selling points/ characteristics that set the product/ service apart and above its competitors in the customer’s viewpoint.

Avoid the ‘me too’, syndrome otherwise price is the only thing you can be different about and the market is damaged. e.g. TkMaxx ‘big labels small prices’

• Promotion
• Price
• Distribution
• Product

Apply this model when drawing up competitive strategies for the market and explore what your company’s sources of competitive advantage are and how you can leverage them in marketing plans.

RISE of the Millennials Gen-Z! Death of the Freight Forwarder

The logistics & freight forwarding industry is incredibly challenging at the moment with the dreaded B word COVID and those pesky Millennials Gen-Z demanding quality of service & ethics (according to a survey). We all know the logistics industry is quite far behind like many industries when it comes to technology and marketing and particularly online.

Does your website look something similar to below? Old looking and non mobile responsive?

We did a quick search online on shipping lines to help write this blog and it wasn’t hard to find a lot of what we would describe as ancient looking websites. This is a non secure, non mobile responsive website. The typography is small, the content isn’t layout at all well. However this is a common issue within the logistics & freight forwarding industry.

Digitalisation of Logistics – Doesn’t mean just IT Systems.

When I started to write this blog, I was thinking about Millennials but actually your business needs to think about Gen-Z.  Both Generations are tech savvy and some of the newest billionaires are under 40. A lot starting apparel and fashion businesses which demand a supply chain and shipping thousands of consignments. If you website hasn’t been touched since 2007 you could be losing revenue. These individuals will not be using desktops they will be using mobile devices to search quickly for a logistics company which provides a quality and ethical service over cost. They will not hang around trying to navigate round old content, out of date imagery and really basic information on what your business does. You need to move with the times.

No one visits my websites! I does nothing for me! 

We often hear this or we don’t have time of the budget to fix our website or marketing. WRONG! you do have the budget and you need to make time or find someone who can help you market your website. It is very simply you could miss out on 100 TEUs or 10,000 shipments via Airfreight or storage because a 20 something could do the following:

1. Find your site on google or social media.
2. When they did stumble across your site it didn’t work very well on their mobile device.
3. Content was outdated and used freight terminology and buzz words from before they where born.

We know profit margins are tight in logistics as we’ve worked in the industry, but you can’t have that the old mindset that you can drum up business through cold calling and word of mouth. You need to add your website as your top sales person to drive enquiries you never had and the more you promote your website it will continuously pay for itself everyday. You need to change your mindset on technology and customer expectations. Customers now demand more at their fingertips and want an easy life trying to get to it.  Don’t miss out on an opportunity to modernise your business for the future. 

We can help with the above and we can help your business modernise to meet the demands of the next generations. If you want to find out more about our Web Design services please do get in contact.

The way people perceive your brand has a significant effect on how well you grow. If your brand name doesn’t match what you do or is too difficult to remember, you might lose customers before they ever find you.

Fortunately, you can rebrand or use other methods to increase awareness and take your business’s recognition to the next level.

Why Is a Brand Name Important to Customers?

The Small Business Administration estimates there are over 32 million small businesses in the United States. Figuring out which companies align with your values takes a lot of research. Once consumers find a business that stands for what they believe in and offers a quality product, they tend to be fairly loyal.

Your brand name can make you seem serious or fun. It can be linked to a great reputation or a poor one. It might even confuse people if it is too similar to another company’s name.

Here are some tips to help improve your brand name’s impact and the perception you have on your target audience.

1. Choose a Memorable Name

Whether you create an entirely new word or combine existing ones, think about the natural language people use when talking about your type of product.

For example, the name Swiffer helped make the product a household name. It is familiar-sounding, because of the word “sweep” but then plays on that word showing how the process with the product is quicker than without. The product outperformed its competitor by 500%, much of the success due to the name.

2. Conduct a Brand Perception Survey

One of the best ways to see how your brand name resonates with your audience is to survey them. Ask them what the name makes them think of. Does the name sound similar to any others they do business with?

You can also use some word association exercises to see what other words they think of when they hear your company’s nomer.

3. Study Popular Brands

Thinking about the branding of some of the more iconic brands of today can help give you ideas for your own name. Do you want to reach the younger generation? Studies show they’re highly educated, with around 57% of them enrolling in college compared to only 43% of Gen-Xers.

Companies such as Starbucks, Snapchat and Coca-Cola all serve as easily recognizable names for various reasons. Think about which works best for your industry and how you might come up with something as memorable.

How do these brands protect their name and image over time? Has anything changed from when they opened their doors?

4. Identify Your Audience

Knowing who your audience is and how they relate to words can make the difference in brand perception. For example, those grieving may not react well to words related to death or sadness. Take the time to write out user personas. Seek control groups and see how the audience you want to target response to different names and branding efforts.

You can base your buyer persona on internal information about your current customers. You should also seek out information that is more general in nature by looking at who follows your competitors or thinking through what types of people might be interested in your product.

For example, if you sell memorial stones, you might currently market to Gen-Xers whose parents have passed. However, there may be other categories of potential customers, such as those wishing to memorialize a young person who passed or parents and spouses of soldiers killed in battle.

Do your research on each potential segment and see how they might react to your branding and reputation. What do you need to adjust to reach them and make a positive impression?

5. Resonate With Your Customers

Link Once you have a buyer persona or two, think about the best ways to resonate with them. In the past, your brand reputation could carry you a long way. In today’s marketing environment, though, it’s more important to reach your audience on a personal level.

Think about the colours, emotions, language and imagery you must invoke to make a positive impression. Using psychology helps you make a connection with your buyers no matter what your brand name is.

6. Take Constructive Criticism

Does your name make people think of poop? If your customers keep making comments about your brand name or image, pay attention to what they’re saying. One person complaining might not seem like a lot, but keep in mind all the others who feel similar and never say anything.

Companies with a poor reputation might also consider rebranding and coming up with a new name. Although you can do damage control, sometimes it is easier to refresh and start new. Getting rid of a name with negative associations might encourage people to give your brand another try.

Work on Recognition

The most creative and interesting brand name won’t go far if people have never heard of you. Get out in your local community. Sponsor a little league team. Attend a local art fair and pass out freebies. Look for ways to connect with your town.

At the same time, take out ads on social media and have a strong presence. Answer questions in your industry without any expectation of people buying from you. Support causes you to believe in and that your customers care about.

You should also work on getting positive feedback going. Most people search online for reviews from their peers before they make a decision to buy. Ask your loyal customers to write a review on Google or another review platform. The more exposure you receive, the more likely someone will give your business a try. Your name is everything, but you can enhance it even more with a little effort.

Eleanor is the founder and managing editor of Designerly Magazine. She’s also a web design consultant with a focus on customer experience. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dogs, Bear and Lucy. Share

8 Tips To Create A High-Converting Blog Post

Content marketing is one of the most valuable ways of converting casual readers to your site into new subscribers or customers. It involves marketing principles that encourage site visitors to complete an action that you have as a goal for your blog posts. This could lead to more leads and increased sales for your business or brand. 

However, there’s no fixed formula or blanket recipe to create content that can automatically convert leads, as each blog post and brand is different. But, you can apply the tried and trusted methods used by successful blog writers to improve the conversion rate of your content.

This article lists notable tips to help you create a high-converting blog post. Continue reading below to learn more. 

1. Know Your Target Audience 

One of the most crucial steps in crafting high-converting blogs is to understand the audience your content is intended for. Without a focused analysis or discovery process to find out who your target market is, your content could have a large bounce rate percentage even if web traffic is high. This means your readers might look at your content but will leave without completing any actions. And for that reason, a target audience strategy is necessary to tailor your messaging to people who could be interested in the content you’re creating. 

Constructing audience personas has been helpful in discerning who your readers are. These are fictional profiles that represent your audience’s character, lifestyle, motivations, values, and behaviour. Knowing this can assist you in finding ways to appeal to and resonate with them and create valuable content that they can relate to and benefit from. 

You can also use this information to improve your existing website’s ease of use. If perhaps, you suspect that your blog site might be too complex for your target audience to navigate, you can view this list post to find solutions to streamline your reader’s journey.

2. Create Content That Is Timely 

Knowing what your audience is looking for in a blog post is just as important as knowing when to post your content. This is especially true since timeliness can be a critical factor in determining whether your target audience interprets your post as relevant to them. 

For instance, if your content topic is about weekend activities with the aim of converting visitors to book for a restaurant, posting on a Monday could yield low conversions. The same could be said about calendar events. 

That said, make sure that you post your blog posts timely, possibly close to when your content is suitable for your audience to take action. This can also give you the advantage of creating urgency with your call-to-action (CTA) by making it timebound.

3. Conduct Keyword Research 

The keyword research process involves optimizing your content for search engines. Doing this makes the content on your blog more visible and easier to discover, allowing you to reach more audiences. However, these keywords should be used sparingly and distributed evenly throughout your blog post so that you don’t engage in keyword stuffing. This can cause the search engine to penalize your content and lower its ranking. 

To find the most commonly used keywords for your content, you can create a list of words related or relevant to the content you create. You can also look into how your competitors rank with the keywords you’ve identified. To do this, you can use a keyword research tool that’ll show you how many times the keywords were used in a blog post.

You can analyse the data to look for related and outlier keywords that are unique but still have a high search frequency. These are the keywords or phrases you can use to include in your blog post. Doing this allows you to draw your target audience to your blog quicker without having to use the same keywords as your competitors. 

4. Write For Readability

How you format your content in your blog post is also essential to retain readers’ attention. Positioning your content in a layout that’s easy to scan and read through seamlessly has a higher chance of audiences staying to read the whole post. Readability also concerns the writing copy that can be understood by your target market using common words they’re familiar with and doesn’t go beyond their difficulty level.  

As such, high-converting blog posts have content made from short sentences that are easy to follow and contain a single subject. Most often, five sentences at maximum can be used to make a paragraph. Then the large white spaces are used to break up each paragraph section sorted into secondary headlines. 

In addition, to increase your copy’s readability even further, you can add listicles and bullet points to summarize your ideas. This especially applies to long-form content that needs to hold a reader’s attention for an extended time.  

5. Use An Attention-Grabbing Headline 

Your blog headline is generally the first glimpse or exposure your target audience will have to your content. This can either be on the web search engine page, a landing page, or shared with them as a link. That said, aim for a headline that’s compelling and intriguing enough. It should be something that can spark your reader’s curiosity and interest. Also, note that your headline could be a factor in whether your readers will continue reading your blog post or bounce from it.

There are several approaches to creating attention-grabbing headlines. For instance, you can add and use ‘trigger’ or emotive words to establish a personal connection with your audience. Words such as ‘free’ and ‘online’ also tend to appeal to readers looking for information and reviews about tools or products they need at a bargain for instance. More so, readers looking for universal experiences to relate to or personal development respond well to words such as ‘improve’ and ‘better’.

The general rule for crafting unique headlines is to keep them brief. Also, keep in mind not to give too much away in your headline. Otherwise, your audience could lose interest in reading further.

6. Include Visual Media

Several studies have shown that web users are more attracted to eye-catching visual media than written text and are more likely to engage with it too. This is due to pictures, videos, and infographics being interesting and conveying a single idea in a shorter period successfully. And more so, viewing them doesn’t take as much mental ability as reading. 

As such, keep in mind that most readers prefer consuming information that’s concise and easily digestible. This doesn’t mean that you should skip writing content. Rather, utilize visual media to complement your writing. 

Additionally, high-quality visual media can also boost your blog site’s credibility, particularly in the case of the infographic to organize statistics and information. These visual aids can make it simpler to interpret and remember data. And once this trust has been established, more of your audience will likely be willing to convert to consumers and subscribers.

A tip to note, it’s ideal that you use two types of visual mediums at the most per post. However, try not to embed too many in one post, or it could distract your reader by taking attention away from your written work.

7. Make A Call To Action 

Ultimately, the key to creating a converting blog post is the call to action itself. This is the vehicle that can drive browsing readers and site visitors to become consumers and potential leads. And as such, your call to action should be simple but can prompt users to go through with the goal you want them to take.

It’s advised that your call to action be placed at the end of your post so that it can guide your audience to their next steps. They can be simple and direct phrases such as ‘buy now’, ‘learn more’, or ‘subscribe to our newsletter’ if your CTA goal is lead generation. Furthermore, if your CTA includes phrases such as ‘hurry while stocks last’ for instance, it tends to create a sense of urgency and may even help increase conversions at a faster rate. 

Additionally, an important consideration for retaining purchasing conversions is your landing page. Once visitors click on your CTA button, the land page should ideally have simplified information on how to proceed and complete the action. Otherwise, you might find that many visitors fail to make a payment or click the exit button, decreasing your conversion rate in the process.

8. Boost Blog Post Credibility 

Getting readers to complete a prompted call to action will need them to trust that you and your blog are reputable. This is particularly the case wherein your conversion goal is a signup or site visitors completing a purchase. Your target audience needs to feel safe that you won’t spam them, misuse their information or that your website is secure enough to enter their payment information. 

Thus, to boost your blog’s reputation, you can refine some of the profile features that best display your brand identity. For instance, you can create a recognizable and fantastic logo or a personal image visible on your blog post. You can also include personal information such as an about us section, email address, social media handles, and a business address.

Wrapping Up

A highly converting blog post aims to increase customer leads and acquisition using content marketing. Your blog post can achieve this by focusing on what your target audience can gain from your blog and using ways to get them to complete your call to action. And in terms of visibility, using keywords and optimizing your content for search engines can ensure users find your posts easier. 

And ultimately, all of the elements listed above can be used together as part of a strategy to turn your casual readers into new consumers. Share