Monthly ArchivesSeptember 2021

WordPress is the most popular tool for website creation in the world. Over 40% of websites on the internet are powered by WordPress. Over 100 WordPress versions have been released in the last 18 years since it’s been on the market.

If you want to know more about them, just keep reading.

In this blog, we will cover:

• The latest WordPress version and what’s new in it.
• Why is it important to use the latest version of WordPress.
• Why new WordPress releases are pushed out regularly.
• Details about WordPress versions over time.

So let’s begin! 

What is the WordPress Current Version?

The Essential Guide to WordPress Plugins >>

What’s New in WordPress’ Current Version?

FUN FACT: Core WordPress developers are big fans of jazz music. All major releases since version point 1.0 are named after musicians that developers admire! This one was named after Esperanza Spalding.

A Closer Look at WordPress’ Current Version

Let’s do a short breakdown of Esperanza, the current WordPress version, below.

• Adjustment of font sizes in list and code blocks in detail.
• Drag-and-drop blocks from the inserter directly into the post.
• Alignment of blocks, you can adjust block size in any way you want now.
• Ability to change the size of social icons block in detail.
• Simplified default palette of colors.
• Switching from HTTP to HTTPS in one click, thus reducing the usage of search and replace.
• Default lazy-load of iFrames.

To summarize, WordPress version 5.7 made website creation significantly easier. 

Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Performance Optimization >>

Importance of Using the Latest WordPress Version

Once you get started with site creation, you will notice that you can create countless types of WordPress websites. No matter what type of site you are running, it’s of huge importance that you always use the latest version.

Why?

The answer is pretty simple. WordPress is free to use and the fact that it’s so popular makes it a target for hackers. They can study the source code and find exploits in it which will let them proceed with their malicious intent. 

How to Improve Website Performance in WordPress >>

Updating your installation constantly to the latest WordPress version will make sure that overall security of your site is up to date, that all bugs are patched, and that you are not missing out on any new features that developers push out. 

Why WordPress Releases Regularly

Just like we mentioned above, hackers look for holes in WordPress code. That is why developers have to stay on top of things all the time. In summary, a release of a minor WordPress version means that a bug or a glitch that could be exploited was patched.

Additionally, WordPress has a strong community and developers are listening to it. Releases of new versions often contain a feature that was requested by the WordPress users.

What Version of WordPress Do I Have? How to Check Your WordPress Version

You may be wondering, What version of WordPress do I have? It’s simple and there are a few different ways to go about it, which we outline below. Keep reading to learn how to check your WordPress version.

How to Check Your WordPress Version Through WordPress Dashboard

By far, the easiest and most commonly used method to check your WordPress version is through the WordPress dashboard. All in all, you just need a few clicks for this method.

Simply login to your dashboard with WordPress admin credentials and navigate to your main dashboard and click on updates.

Once you are there, you will see a screen that will look just like the one below.

As you can see, the WordPress version will be written in bold letters accordingly. If your installation is not up to date, you will have an option to update it.

How To Check Your WordPress Version Through Your Website Frontend

The second way to find out which version you are using is to open your site in the browser and then right click and select View page source. After you do that, another tab will appear and you will see the code of your site, similar to the image below.

While you are on that screen, press Ctrl+f on your keyboard to open a search bar. Type the word “generator” in the search bar and you will see this.

Your WordPress version will be highlighted and you will be able to easily spot it. 

How To Check Your WordPress Version Through Your Terminal

This is a bit advanced, but if your site is running on Managed WordPress, Managed WooCommerce, cloud or a dedicated server, you will have access to your terminal. You will need to use the SSH creds to access your server. If this is the environment that you are using and you are able to login to your server use this command. It will show you which WordPress core version is being used on the site.

You will need to be in the WordPress install directory in order to use WP-CLI;

cd public_html

Once you are logged in, run the following WP-CLI command:

wp core version

As a result, output will look like this:

5.7.2

In the hope that you’ll be able to find out your WordPress version more easily now, let’s check the version history of the latest releases.

Looking Back on WordPress Version History

WordPress is popular because its core is quite easy to work with. Additionally, it offers a huge variety of themes and plugins to extend the capability of your site. 

The 15 Most Popular WordPress Plugins in 2021 >>

Below you can find a short breakdown of WordPress version history and the key features in these WordPress versions.

WordPress Versions

WordPress Version	Release Date	Key Features
WordPress 5.7.2 (WordPress latest version)	May 12, 2021	Security update which patched vulnerability in PHP mailer
WordPress 5.7.1	April 14, 2021	Security update which fixed 26 bugs in total Data exposure vulnerability within REST API patched PHP 8 vulnerability within media library patched
WordPress 5.7 (major WordPress release)	March 9, 2021	Font size adjustment Reusable blocks Buttons block Drag-and-drop inserter One click switch between HTTP and HTTPS Lazy loading for iFrames Simpler color palette Social icons block New Robots API
WordPress 5.6.4	May 12, 2021	Same date and same features as release 5.7.2
WordPress 5.6.3	April 14, 2021	Same date and same features as release 5.7.1
WordPress 5.6.2	February 22, 2021	Small maintenance update which fixed user reported issues discovered in version 5.6.1
WordPress 5.6.1	February 3, 2021	Maintenance release
WordPress 5.6 (major WordPress Release)	December 8, 2020	Improved video captioning Improved layout flexibility Better control over auto updates Built in patterns for block creation Additional support for PHP 8 Updates for jQuery which affected 5.5 installations as well

WordPress Version FAQs

What is the Current Version of WordPress?

WordPress latest version stands at 5.7.2. The latest major WordPress release is 5.7.

How Do I Know My WordPress Version?

You can check it in your WordPress dashboard to find your WordPress version. You can also find it in the front end of your WordPress website.

What is the Latest WordPress Version 2021?

Version 5.7.2 is the latest WordPress release. It was released in May 2021. This security update patched a vulnerability in the PHP mailer.

What Versions of WordPress are There?

There are hundreds of versions of WordPress if you count every maintenance or security version. But major releases go from 1.0, 1.2, 1.5, 2.0 and all the way to the latest major WordPress version, 5.7.

Hostdedi Makes WordPress Better

WordPress is great, but you need a great host too.

Fully managed WordPress hosting from Hostdedi brings out the best in your site. With several premium tools at your disposal, such as Quebly Pro or TinyPNG, your site will be visually stunning. 

At the same time, iThemes Security PRO will make sure your site is secure.

Automatic image compression, a built-in content delivery network (CDN), and advanced WordPress caching features make your site load at a hyper speed. 

And just in case something goes amiss, Hostdedi’ WordPress experts are there for you 24/7.

Try two weeks of Hostdedi fully hosted WordPress for free!

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In the early days of ecommerce, there were fewer online retailers, which meant you were more likely to make a good amount of money selling your products.

According to Statista, there are now about 2.14 billion online shoppers. The competition is fierce, and several crucial ecommerce challenges have emerged in the process.

Keep reading to overcome the following problems:

1. Security

2. Personalization and User Experience

3. Sales Sustainability

4. Traffic and Visibility

Retailing Problems

1. Security.
2. Personalization and user experience.
3. Sales sustainability.
4. Traffic and visibility.

Several hard aspects of ecommerce pose challenges to online store owners. Above are the four biggest challenges in ecommerce, and here’s how to solve them:

1. Security

Security is a hard aspect of ecommerce that requires critical attention.

Due to the number of transactions that ecommerce stores deal with, online retailers are a potential target for internet fraudsters.

Hackers won’t waste any time taking advantage of ecommerce stores and their unsuspecting customers once they sense a hole in the security system.

A couple of the security gaps that might be in your ecommerce site include:

• An unsecured ecommerce platform: Using an HTTP website instead of HTTPS is one of the biggest challenges in ecommerce.

HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It isn’t a serious threat when you’re simply surfing the web. But, the moment an HTTP website asks for sensitive information like your potential customers’ credit card details, it becomes a big security issue.

HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP that uses an encryption protocol called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which makes it harder for cyber attackers to access your website.

• Poor payment gateways: This is a common ecommerce challenge as poor payment gateways lead to lower sales, less trust, and a worse customer experience.

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The amount of money and customers you might lose from using a mediocre website builder and payment setup is far greater than the price of a high-quality website builder.

Your website security is a top priority. Every Hostdedi cloud hosting package guarantees website protection against cyber attacks, including DDoS, XSS, and brute force. And all of our websites come with iThemes Security Pro.

We also offer SSL certificates to ensure your website is safe and secure.

2. Personalization and User Experience

Personalization is one of the biggest challenges in ecommerce. In fact, due to online retailer giants like Amazon’s influence, 80% of shoppers want personalized digital experiences from ecommerce stores.

You will establish trust-based relationships with your audience and make more sales if you show them that you care about their experience on your ecommerce website.

9 Ecommerce Optimization Tips for Fast & Effective Sites >>

To solve this ecommerce challenge, start by dealing with the following points to create a personalized experience for them: 

• Mediocre website hosting: Website hosting is one of the vital elements of successful ecommerce websites. 

Partner with a web hosting company that offers website maintenance and cybersecurity services. This ensures your website is secure and your online store runs smoothly.

• Poor user experience: Mobile takes up about 50% of the world’s website traffic. Mobile optimization for your online store is important, although a hard aspect of ecommerce businesses.

Furthermore, 404 error pages and bad page transitions can put off customers from visiting your ecommerce store. 

• Using starter templates: Several ecommerce stores use starter templates that make their online stores look the same as others. 

But the truth remains that basic templates aren’t original. Your ecommerce site won’t get as much love, attraction, and sales as a custom-designed online store will.

While many online stores look basic and don’t offer a unique, industry-specific experience, Hostdedi’s StoreBuilder offers you full functionality to build a custom-designed ecommerce store and streamline your online business’s workflow through automation. 

With Hostdedi’s Cloud Accelerator, your website will be faster and put an end to slow ecommerce page speeds.

3. Sales Sustainability 

Ecommerce sales sustainability is a hard aspect of ecommerce and for many other forms of business.

After setting up your custom-designed ecommerce website, your next goal should be making online sales consistently.

While making sales requires a proper business plan and marketing strategy, certain website issues cause this ecommerce challenge. These include:

• Poor website layout: Your website layout should be simple, organized, and easy to navigate for online shopping. This way, when your promotions bring visitors to your online store, they won’t bounce the moment they reach your landing page. 

New customers need to take a look around your store, like your product, and likely see proof of credibility before making their first order.

• Disorganized product page: Make your product catalog eye candy. You don’t want to reduce your conversion rates because of a messy product page. 

Arrange your store and make it easy for customers to find what they are looking for.

• Complex checkout systems: Keep your buying process simple and make it as easy as possible for customers to pay you. 

Anything that breeds confusion or complexity can lead to shopping cart abandonment. It’s also a good ecommerce practice to add a refund policy to your online store for sales transparency.

With Hostdedi’s PCI Compliant Hosting, you can secure your store for processing credit card payments.

While the average cart abandonment rate is nearly 70%, Hostdedi’s StoreBuilder provides a cart abandonment solution to boost sales and revenue.

4. Traffic and Visibility

With so many ecommerce companies available, traffic and visibility are hard aspects of ecommerce several online store owners are still trying to decipher.

Gaining visibility and the right traffic to your online store will do a lot for you as an ecommerce business owner. But certain factors might stand in the way. These are:

• Wrong setup due to zero guidance: Setting up an ecommerce website is simple, but only if you know how to do it right. When done incorrectly, you can lose visibility and traffic from search engines.

10 Ways to Attract New Customers To Your eCommerce Store >>

You should invest in good SEO techniques and a hosting company that provides 24/7 support and expert guidance for setting up and maintaining your online store.

• Website crashes due to unreliable web host: Poor web hosting is an ecommerce challenge that will affect personalization, traffic, and sales. 

A mediocre host can cause slow loading pages, server glitches, and website crashes when your online store gets a high amount of traffic, which will ultimately cause you to lose potential customers.

Hostdedi provides Fully Managed Magento Hosting, a complete retail sales package for high-traffic ecommerce websites.

If you want to expand your online store’s traffic capacity, the Hostdedi Cloud Auto Scaling add-on will prepare your website for traffic surges and prevent crashes.

Final Thoughts: 4 Biggest Ecommerce Challenges and How To Fix Them

There are several hard aspects of ecommerce that online store owners face when trying to scale their brands. 

However, it’s more effective to fix the biggest challenges in ecommerce first to achieve your strategic goals. 

Counter the ecommerce challenges above to increase your website traffic, sales, and customer retention.
Ready to run a challenge-free and profitable ecommerce store? Get started with fully hosted WooCommerce from Hostdedi.

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Everyone and everything has a website nowadays. They even function as business cards. Websites are easier than ever to create with platforms like StoreBuilder. But there is still confusion around web hosting behind the scenes.

With so many options, how do you choose a web host? What makes a web hosting company worth it? What should you look for in a website hosting company?

If you’re here, you’re probably asking the same questions. This article will tackle the biggest hurdles you’ll come across when trying to select a good web host, and how to make the big decision.

How to Choose a Web Host: The Basics

Hosting is more than just the place that keeps the lights on and doors open for your website. There are different types, many packages to choose from, and certain options that work better depending on your needs as a user.

You can (and should) certainly check out reviews for hosts you’re interested in. Before you know what to look for in a website hosting company, you should probably figure out what good hosts provide. 

Recently, Hostdedi polled around 1400 customers about their experiences with web hosts. The top three areas that customers reported needing improvement were:

• Features and usability (20.7%).
• Performance and speed (19.89%).
• Cost (14.25%). 

Features ranged from email accounts, control panel dashboards, security options, compatibility, and frequency of updates. Over half the speed complaints came from people utilizing “cheap” hosting — and we’ll touch upon why a bit later.

5 Real Differences Between Cheap Hosting and Good Hosting >>

4 Types of Hosting

1. Shared

The cheapest type of hosting is shared hosting. Many websites are hosted on the same server and “share” resources, while much of the system administration is conducted by the host since as many users are being hosted.

Shared hosting is an option if you don’t mind giving up a bit of control. There are usually caps on usage which can impact your website’s performance, if for instance you experience a surge of traffic. Shared hosting is more vulnerable to security issues than other types of hosting.

2. Dedicated

If you don’t like to share, no problem. Dedicated hosting means the server is yours and only yours. You’re not sharing resources, and you can configure the setup exactly the way you like it. Your site is more secure on dedicated hosting. Because you don’t have to share resources, you’ll encounter better website performance, but it will cost more than shared hosting.

3. VPS

If you don’t like the costs of a dedicated server but gravitate toward the scalability and customizability options, a VPS hosting package might be your answer. Think of it as the middle ground between shared and dedicated. It’s all the DIY with caps on your resources, but at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated server.  

4. Cloud

The most reliable of all server options, cloud hosting ensures your site is always up by pulling from a number of different resources. There’s no risk of server failure and you can scale up at any time. This is the best option for heavily trafficked sites, but it costs a bit more.

Managed vs. Unmanaged

Simply put, managed hosting is hosting that is monitored for you. Much like the services shared hosting options provide, managed hosting makes sure everything on the backend is up to date and secure.

Related reading: What is Managed Hosting? >>

Unmanaged hosting leaves it to you to check on all your plugins, make sure your security certificates are up to date, and your site resources are updated and backed up.

What to Look for in a Website Hosting Company

Security

Updated and current security certificates are necessary for secure and encrypted communication between clients and servers. Outdated versions of certificates, such as PHP or MySQL, are red flags and warrant a conversation with your hosting provider if this is happening at your current host. 

Other security measures to consider include checking to see if they have a content delivery network (CDN) and firewall as well as mitigation plans for DDoS attacks, and backup/restores. Sites go down for a variety of reasons and having a plan to secure your data and get it back up and running is crucial if you have steady traffic.

What is an SSL & How Do I Get One? >>

You should also check to see if the host scans for malware. The safer your information and site is, the better. Website hackers and cyber-thieves can absolutely compromise data and make it a nightmare for you, your customers, and, if you utilize shared hosting — potentially anyone on your server.

Select a web host that encompasses the security features you need and has a demonstrated record of working with clients to get everyone’s sites up and running fast. 

Scalability

How many times have you heard about a website crashing because there were so many users that it overloaded due to traffic? That is a scalability issue. Scalability is a system’s response to a change in the processing of resources — more users, more load.  

If you hate waiting in line in physical stores, imagine waiting in line for hours only to find out the store has closed. If you cannot adjust for scalability when you suddenly have a boost in traffic, you’re in trouble. 

Downtime costs you money, so if you can avoid that altogether you’re avoiding lost revenue. Pick a host that offers auto scaling. 

Support

When things go haywire, you want everything back to normal fast. More importantly, you want to be answered by someone kind and helpful. 

With 59.98% of all customers in our survey reporting customer service/support being a top priority for their hosting experience, it is clear that the best hosts provide excellent support. 

Most anyone can answer a phone and read from a script. Not everyone can help you chroot a nameserver. Look for support options that are available 24/7/365 from industry professionals.

Why Hosting Support Is Important >>

Speed and Performance

If your website is taking forever to load, either you’re on dialup or something is wrong. You can get some mileage out of optimizing your website to improve page speed, but often the culprit is the hosting itself. 

Hosts can throttle bandwidth if you’re approaching your limits, particularly if you’re sharing resources with other users on a shared hosting plan. Ultimately, the type of plan you’ve subscribed has the biggest impact on your site speed.

Check loading times, Time To First Byte, and First Paint speeds — some of Google’s Core Web Vitals. Choose a plan that matches the traffic patterns you expect to need. Pick a host that has multiple data centers, preferably one close to you. The faster your host, the bigger your head start. 

What You Should Avoid When Choosing a Web Host

Unlimited Offers

As mentioned above, many survey respondents complained about speed and performance issues when using cheaper hosting options.

The reason these are so cheap and enticing is because there are usually caps on “unlimited” hosting. You may only be able to use a percentage of your bandwidth before you’ve reached your limit and visitors start getting an error message. 

Sometimes the phrasing is more specific, like “unmetered” — and if you examine the fine print, you’ll find wild criteria like if you’ve used more than X% of the system resources for more than 180 seconds, you’re in violation of the host’s Terms of Service. Yikes. 

No Refund Guarantees

Sometimes you make a snap judgement and a day later you realize it’s not what you expected. The nuts and bolts of what you’re working with just aren’t working out. Do you really want to be locked in for a month, or six months, or whatever you’ve signed up for? Probably not. 

When you’re picking a web host, you should go with one that makes it easy to opt out and get your money back. A good host will not only want you to stay on as a customer, but if you decide they’re not for you, they’ll want you to leave amicably. Good hosts want happy customers even on the way out. 

And if you’re stuck in a hosting plan you’re unhappy with, some hosts, like Hostdedi for example, will buy you out of your current plan.

Jumping The Shark

With all that in mind, do your homework before making the decision to commit to a host. We don’t just mean researching your host, either. Examine your needs as a site owner first and foremost. What do you need your host to do for you?

What kind of site are you building? If it’s a blog or even a membership site, maybe Managed WordPress is a good fit for you. If you’re building an ecommerce site, perhaps Managed Magento or Managed WooCommerce is more your style.

Maybe you’ve got it all mapped out, want total control, and are ready to make the switch to the cloud. Once you know what you need, think about how much you need and what options to consider.

Think about how many visitors you currently have or expect to have. Will you need scalability options in the future? How much technical know-how do you have? How much do you want to want to handle on your own? These are just some of the questions to consider when thinking about what to look for in a website hosting company.

Next Steps

Selecting a web host is not very different from picking a caretaker, a bank, or anything else you place trust in when handling something valuable. You want high quality and value for your money because they are keeping watch over something you don’t want compromised. 

When selecting a web host, we think we know what we’re talking about: we’ve been at this a long time.

Let us show you why Better is Built In with Fully Managed Hosting from Hostdedi. Try Fully Managed WordPress or WooCommerce from Hostdedi to experience it for yourself. Start your free trial today.

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Consumers’ needs are on the rise while their patience keeps running out. Ecommerce website speed matters — 57% of customers will leave your website and buy from another retailer if your website loads too slowly, and 21% will never come back.

It’s not just your customers who feel this way — Google uses site speed as a ranking factor. This is why you need to improve your ecommerce site performance, as slow ecommerce searches can kill sales and business growth.

It doesn’t matter how good your customer retention or acquisition skills are if your website is slow. You need to know how to speed up WooCommerce for more traffic, a better conversion rate, and higher SEO rankings.

How Fast Should a Website Load?

Slow ecommerce search can lower your conversion rate and increase bounce rate. Your online store should load within two and a half seconds, according to Google’s Core Web Vitals.

Ensure you increase website speed, so your ecommerce site performance doesn’t fall short of Google’s standards. A faster website can also increase your SEO rankings.

Take a speed test on Google PageSpeed Insights to evaluate and optimize your slow WooCommerce site.

How To Speed Up Ecommerce Websites

1. Reduce HTTP requests.
2. Get a reliable hosting service.
3. Keep your content management system (CMS) up to date.
4. Practice caching techniques.
5. Use a content delivery network (CDN).
6. Optimize website images.
7. Minimize website plugins and webpage elements.

The above are the seven best practices to prevent slow ecommerce searches and boost your ecommerce site performance. 

Keep reading to learn how each of these works in optimizing your website load time.

1. Reduce the Number of Server Requests

Too many HTTP requests can cause your ecommerce site to load slowly. 

Webpages with large or too many elements can reduce page speed. Your content management system (CMS) has software and themes that load several external scripts, media files, and stylesheets that can slow ecommerce search. 

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The best way to improve ecommerce site performance is to reduce the number of server requests sent by these processes. Try the following:

• Disable and trash unnecessary scripts, plugins, and integrated software.
• Merge or minify JavaScript, HTML, and CSS files.
• Delete unused images and files.

By doing the above, you’ll reduce complex codes, lower HTTP requests, and speed up your page load time.

2. Get a Reliable Hosting Service

Ecommerce platforms can have a high amount of traffic and an endless catalog of products and media files. The surge of traffic and too much media content can make ecommerce websites crash unexpectedly.

An effective hosting provider can prevent the loss of valuable traffic and customers.

To speed up your WooCommerce site, you need a dependable hosting provider that can provide your website with more bandwidth usage and reliable web servers.

Choose a web hosting service that is reliable, flexible, easy to use, and affordable based on your budget.

Use an ecommerce host like Hostdedi Managed WooCommerce to save you the trouble of looking for a reliable hosting solution. With Hostdedi, you have everything you need in one place, including hosting, a built-in CDN, and image compression. 

3. Keep Your Ecommerce Site Up to Date

One of the easiest ways to boost your ecommerce site performance is to update your WooCommerce store and any plugins you installed.

To effectively speed up WooCommerce’s functionality, you should also:

• Edit your outdated content.
• Check if Google Analytics is still active.
• Add meta descriptions and keywords to rank higher in search engines.
• Update your WooCommerce theme and layout.
• Clean up your website cache and trash folders.

Keeping your online store up to date will improve your ecommerce site performance by reducing the loading time of your WooCommerce store. 

As your ecommerce store constantly evolves, so does the need to speed up WooCommerce. Evaluate your website performance continually to see what you can do to prevent slow ecommerce search and boost your page load speed.

4. Practice Caching Techniques

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Practice caching with cache plugins or remote and local methods to refresh and increase your ecommerce site performance. 

Caching is the temporary storage of ecommerce search queries to improve site speed and process HTTP requests faster. Caching fixes slow ecommerce searches because your browser only has to process a few resources if some have been cached. 

You can enable caching on your WordPress website, WooCommerce, or your web browser. With caching plugins like WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache, you can store certain information, merge and minify JavaScript and CSS, and get rid of irrelevant code.

When you enable browser caching, static files that remain unchanged across other pages of your ecommerce store are cached for future purposes. 

Caching reduces loading time and enhances ecommerce site performance, as the browser doesn’t have to process these static components every time a webpage loads. 

5. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A content delivery network (CDN) is a network of servers that help websites efficiently deliver content to users. 

By default, your ecommerce site’s users will experience varying load speeds depending on their geographical location. This is mostly due to the location of your web hosting servers. 

Why You Need a WordPress CDN >>

For example, if your hosting company has servers in New York, it will deliver content faster to a user living there than someone in a distant location.

It’s this “speed of content delivery” gap that CDN bridges. It can speed up WooCommerce load time for all of your website visitors, no matter their location.

With Hostdedi’s Managed WooCommerce hosting, you get a built-in CDN with 22 server locations for effective speed optimization.

6. Optimize Website Images

Images contribute largely to slow ecommerce searches. To speed up WooCommerce, we recommend practicing good image usage.

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There are two types of image files you’re most likely to use on your website — PNGs and JPEGs. 

For your ecommerce site, we recommend using PNGs because they’re clear and high-quality. These heavier image files will attract more buyers than JPGs that tend to have smaller file sizes but aren’t as high quality.

However, there’s an extra step to take before you upload PNG photos to your website. You need to compress images you want to upload. You can use free tools like Compress PNG Images Online and TinyPNG to reduce your image sizes.

Another essential image optimization hack is to use the right dimensions. Ensure you upload the recommended image dimensions. For example, uploading an image bigger than the product page can cause a slow ecommerce search on the front-end. 

7. Minimize Website Plugins 

While WordPress plugins are essential for running an online store to achieve visible growth, installing too many plugins can destroy your ecommerce site’s performance. 

Plugins add codes to your website. The higher the number of plugins, the heavier your webpages and the more complex it becomes to translate your website code — which can result in slow page loading speed.

It’s not just the number of plugins you have but their quality as well. Delete unused plugins and avoid downloading bad plugins. Bad plugins are poorly coded and will slow down your website significantly. 

Installing too many plugins can cause slow ecommerce searches. It can also:

• Slow your website down.
• Cause crashes.
• Create a poor user experience.
• Reduce website traffic and speed up bounce rate.
• Make your ecommerce website vulnerable to hackers and malware (if you use bad plugins).

Final Thoughts: How To Speed Up WooCommerce: 7 Vital Things To Fix

Whether you’re a new online store owner or an ecommerce entrepreneur who’s been in the game for a while, having a fast-loading website will boost your sales and increase your SEO rankings.

The steps above are effective ways to fix slow ecommerce search and enhance WooCommerce loading speed.

Ready to build a fast, high-performing online store? Get started with Hostdedi Managed WooCommerce hosting for free. Get optimized hosting for fast, high-performing online stores.

Start your two-week free trial of fully managed WooCommerce hosting today.

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It seems like just about every popular site and app is using gated content nowadays, doesn’t it? It’s almost like where don’t you need to put in a login and password anymore?

We all know why it’s a strong practice: the subscription model is a billion dollar industry and it’s only growing. Everyone wants a piece of the membership site pie and with limited oven space, you need a faster, better, smarter, and affordable solution. 

Meet Membership Sites with WPQuickStart 

Whether you’re a dev spinning up websites all day long or a one person show at your agency who just got this project thrown on their desk, every site you build is time consuming.

Membership Sites with WPQuickStart eliminates the tasks of having to choose from more than 50 membership plugins, find compatible add-ons, and select a theme that works with everything. 

We’ve brought together the perfect set of plugins and themes to eliminate the stress and delay of picking products that don’t work together. The solution comes bundled with:

• The leading and fastest growing WordPress theme from Kadence.
• The easiest WordPress membership plugin to use — Restrict Content Pro.
• And fully managed hosting from Hostdedi.

It’s a curated bundle that helps you build membership sites in a fraction of the time it usually takes, for a lot less money than you’d normally spend.

Valued at $349 but with costs starting at only $49, the packages come with a set-up wizard, Restrict Content Pro, Kadence (along with built-in payment integrations), multi-level subscription packages, planned and automated emails, and easy-to-use reporting for insights into member subscriptions, payments, and business performance.  

But wait, there’s more! Because Membership Sites with WPQuickStart is built on top of fully managed WordPress from Hostdedi, users can also count on: 

• Automated, immediate scaling for concurrency during traffic surges.
• Improved page speeds through a built-in 22-location Content Delivery Network (CDN).
• Built-in advanced caching for ultra-fast loading.
• Always-on security monitoring and support from WordPress experts 24/7/365.

How Does it Work?

Using the intuitive Set-Up Wizard, you’ll answer a few questions about members, the type of plans being offered, and what type of content will be provided. From there, your site gets generated and goes live in minutes. 

If you’re migrating from another platform, you can easily import users directly into Restrict Content Pro. There are simple ways to integrate payment options and generate discount codes. With easy navigation and helpful tutorials available right on your dashboard, revenue from membership and subscription-based sites are a few clicks away because it just works.

At Hostdedi our continued goal is to make building sites easier. Our support team is made up of real WordPress experts who can help you get started, answer questions along the way, and even help your clients with their questions.

Ready to go? Get your logo and brand colors ready along with any content you’d like loaded right away. 

Check out WPQuickStart for Membership sites today.

Related Content

Many site owners ask this question. Why is my WordPress site so slow?

Our attention spans are getting shorter the more we use technology. The average attention span today is eight seconds. Think about what that means if your WordPress site is slow to load or function.

Why Your WordPress Site is Slow

Your website’s visitors have an attention span less than that of a goldfish. So they’ll click off of your site and find another option pretty much immediately if your site is slow to load.

Various things cause slow loading speeds on websites, including:

• Poor Hosting. Your website hosting server must have proper configuration or your website will load more slowly.
• Page Size. Large page files cause your website to load slowly. Large pages typically are caused by images that aren’t optimized or compressed for online use.
• Plugins. Poorly coded or infrequently updated plugins can slow down your site significantly. Also, just having too many plugins loaded with features you don’t use slows down your site. 
• Browser Cache. If your site is not providing cached pages, load times will be significantly longer.
• External Scripts. External scripts such as ads can negatively impact your site’s performance.
• Core Technology. Updated versions of technology contain improvements that will help better your site’s speed and performance. If you don’t update them, it will slow down your site.
• Bulky Themes. Some themes are just bloated with unnecessary features that slow down your site. 
• Images. Images are likely to impact loading time if you don’t make them as small as possible.
• Video. Streaming video onto your site from other sources like YouTube will drag down your site’s speed.

Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Performance Optimization >>

How to Speed Up Your WordPress Site

There are a lot of seemingly minor mistakes you can make that slow down your WordPress site. The good news is that there are also many steps you can take to speed it up.

Invest in Quality Hosting

Choosing a good web host is an essential step in keeping your site running quickly and performing well. Don’t just go with the first web hosting company you find. Instead, do some research and ask for recommendations. Be willing to invest in a hosting company with a strong reputation that balances speed with performance and cost.

5 Real Differences Between Cheap Hosting and Good Hosting >>

Avoid shared hosting if possible. Shared hosting is when multiple users share space on a single server maintained by the hosting provider. But, if you share, other people’s sites can slow yours down. This slow down is because you rely on them to take steps to keep their sites running quickly.

Update Core Technology

There is a reason that new versions of technology like HTML, PHP, etc. are released. They contain improvements and new features that will help improve speed and performance. The best practice is using the newest versions of these technologies.

Keep WordPress Updated

Make sure your version of WordPress and all of its components are always updated. Each WordPress version includes new features and bug fixes that make your website run better. Updating WordPress core keeps your site running its best and protects it from security issues. Be sure also to update plugins when you update WordPress.

The 15 Most Popular WordPress Plugins in 2021 >>

Choose a Quality Theme

Find a theme that’s just what you need and nothing extra. You should even consider getting a minimal theme and adding the functionality via plugins. That way, you aren’t adding anything unnecessary to your site’s operations.

Maintain the Database

Regular database maintenance is vital for keeping your database operating smoothly. Items to remove from the database include uninstalled plugins and post revisions. Tools and services are available to help you clean your database if you aren’t sure how to do it yourself. Plus, quality hosting companies do their own database maintenance. 

Set Up Monitoring

You can’t change what you don’t measure. Set up monitoring so you know how quickly your site is performing. 

Decrease Server Requests

A server request happens each time your browser asks for a resource (style sheet, script, image, etc.) from your server. The more server requests required to load your site, the longer it takes. Therefore, you want to minimize the things your server needs to do to load the page.

To reduce server requests:

• Decrease the number of posts shown on a page.
• Only show post excerpts on archive pages.
• Reduce the number of visual elements on pages.
• Deactivate and uninstall unnecessary plugins.
• Enable lazy loading to delay loading images until necessary.
• Reduce external resources like fonts.

Optimize Images

Images take up the most space on a page. They are likely to impact loading time if you don’t make them as small as possible. There are websites you can use to compress photos before you put them on your site. There also are plugins you can use to do it automatically. If a WordPress site is running slow, typically images are the first culprit. 

How to Convert to WebP Images on WordPress >>

Avoid Hosting Video

WordPress can host and play videos, but it’s not a good idea to use this feature when it comes to speed and performance. Hosting video on your site slows it down and makes it more difficult to back up. Instead, keep the video on its hosting site where it belongs and just embed it on your site.

Cache Pages

Cache for WordPress means storing commonly accessed data to speed up processing. Caching is the most common way to get your website to load faster and generally perform better.

Run a CDN

A content delivery network distributes the work of delivering content to your web browser. A CDN makes your site more efficient by increasing the number of sources, closeness, and caching. 

Use Minification

Minification reduces website load time by eliminating unnecessary content in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files. 

Try WordPress Hosting with Hostdedi

Hopefully, this post answered your question, “Why is my WordPress site so slow?”

There are a lot of factors that slow down your website. There also are a lot of ways to fix it. But the most critical factor for website speed is the host company you choose. 

A good host company, like Hostdedi, manages your site, so you don’t have to worry about slow loading times or other performance issues. Contact us today to learn more about WordPress hosting from Hostdedi.

Or, try it for yourself. Start your free 14-day trial of fully managed WordPress today.

Related Reading

Have you identified specific areas of interest that your audience needs? Are you looking to develop a new source of revenue? Both? A membership site may be the answer.

Creating a membership site does not have to be complicated. Keep reading to learn how to start a membership site in nine simple steps.

What is a Membership Site?

A membership website is an online community that offers content only members can access. The site could consist of various types of membership content, including videos, online courses, or access to coaching.

The key to a membership site is to provide greater value than what you offer for free on your regular site. In other words, potential members have to see the value in paying for the content.

Why Start a Membership Site?

One reason to start a membership site is that you have valuable content to share and your audience is willing to pay for it. But that’s not the only reason.

Other reasons to start a membership site include:

• Continuous Revenue. A membership site creates recurring revenue — money that comes in every month from subscriptions. It’s an excellent way to supplement your income.
• Community Building. A membership site helps you develop deeper relationships with people who have an interest in common with you. It also allows you to help connect those people.
• Establishing Authority. You build a membership site around your expertise. But having a site where people know you for a specific topic helps you establish your authority too.
• Loyalty. The more information you provide and the greater relationships you build, the more loyal your audience becomes. Dedicated audience members stay, meaning you don’t have to spend as much time or money on recruitment or retention. Loyal audience members also are likely to purchase other products you provide in the future. Plus, dedicated audience members will recommend your site to their friends, helping you generate new leads.
• Monetizing Expertise. A membership site helps you give your loyal audience more in-depth information for a fixed fee.

Membership Site Challenges

At this point, starting a membership site probably seems like a no-brainer. But providing this type of next-level content is not without challenges.

Some of the challenges of membership sites include:

• Maintaining Relevance. You have to stay one step ahead of news and trends in your niche to make sure your members get the best content. Thinking creatively, strategically, and proactively about your niche is a full-time job.
• Recruitment. Members may leave your community. There is a constant need to grow your membership list.
• Frequent Updates. You need to continue offering new or updated content. Fresh content means more work.
• Tech Savvy. You’ll need the knowledge to build and run your membership site. If you don’t have this know-how, you have to hire someone else to do it or find the right resources.

How to Start a Membership Site

Starting a membership site today is much easier than in the past. But it won’t happen on its own or without thoughtful planning and technical expertise.

Here’s how to start a membership site in nine simple steps.

1. Brainstorm Membership Site Ideas

If you’re reading this post, you probably have a pretty good idea of what you want your membership site to offer. But perhaps you have multiple ideas or just know you have more to offer. 

First, make a list of your talents, skills, interests, and experiences. Next, think about what membership sites you use. Then, consider the types of content your audience needs. Finally, think about how you can fulfill those needs with different or better content than the competition provides.

2. Plan Your Membership Program

Once you settle on an idea that best fulfills your audience’s needs, think about what your offerings will look like.

Consider membership program details, including:

• What you’ll offer.
• Where will you land on membership pricing.
• What format you’ll deliver it in.
• How often you’ll post new offerings.
• The length of membership.
• How you’ll encourage your current audience to join.
• How you’ll recruit new members.
• How you’ll build community.
• What you’ll do to retain members.

There’s a lot to work to do before you launch a site to make sure it’s successful. Considering these things in advance will help. Of course, you can adjust along the way as necessary.

3. Research Tools

How will you host your membership site and provide the content?

You need three basic things to start a membership site today:

1. A domain name.
2. A web hosting account.
3. A membership plugin.

If you already have an audience, you likely already have a website. Your membership site can run off of it. Make sure your web host will provide your membership site with the support it needs. If you opt for the cheapest hosting, it’s not going to give the best experience. You need a full-service WordPress host company that cares about your site’s performance.

There are many free and paid WordPress membership plugins, including MemberPress, LearnDash, and Teachable. Each plugin has different features. But, the features make them bulky, which again makes having the right host essential to avoid performance issues on your WordPress site. 

To choose a WordPress membership plugin, determine what features you want on your site, then research which plugin does those things best.

4. Price Your Membership Program

Decide which tools you will use for your site. This will help you understand the overhead costs associated with running your membership site. Then you’ll need to decide how much you need to charge for membership and how long the membership will last. Don’t forget to account for your time. And, of course, you must consider how much your audience is willing to pay for the content you’ll provide.

5. Create Content

Once you’ve made the behind-the-scenes plans, it’s time to create the content you’ll deliver. Content creation is the most time-consuming part of a membership site. You need to make at least enough content to launch. Then you need a plan for creating more content as you go. 

Remember that people pay for this content because they expect it to be more in-depth, professional, and visually appealing than what they get for free.

6. Build Your Membership Site

How you build your membership site depends to some extent on the membership plugin you choose. You could go about building your membership site yourself, or you could use Membership Sites with WPQuickStart by Hostdedi. The the intuitive Set-Up Wizard sets up your membership site for you.

General steps for building your membership site include:

• Activating the plugin.
• Adding a payment method, including pricing and frequency.
• Creating membership levels, if you have them.
• Adding a pricing page.
• Restricting access according to plan.
• Adding members-only content.
• Adding signup and user login forms.
• Customizing emails or other membership subscription messages.

7. Market Your Membership Site

You can’t just launch your membership site and expect people to flock to it. Instead, market your site to existing and new visitors before it launches and at the launch. Then continue promoting the site and its various offerings as you add content.

8. Keep Your Membership Site Active

Launching a membership site then failing to keep it going is not only disappointing to paying customers, it’s fraudulent. It’s your responsibility to give members the content they pay for. You also must continue adding members and building community to make the site valuable.

9. Always Seek Improvement

You can’t build your membership site and forget it. You should always look for ways to improve your membership site and its offerings. In other words, you should always be thinking about how you can better serve your audience.

Start a Membership Site With WPQuickStart

A good host is a must-have for a robust and functional membership site. Failure to hire a professional hosting service will leave you with a number of problems including slow site speed, poor performance, and most of all a bad user experience. 

Hostdedi provides fully managed hosting for your WordPress site, including membership sites with WPQuickStart.

WPQuickStart is the ideal membership website builder, combining an intuitive set-up wizard with lightening-fast WordPress and perfect plugins. Use the WPQuickStart Membership set-up wizard to build a membership site in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

For more information, check out WPQuickStart for Membership sites today.

Related Content

High-quality product images are an essential aspect of every ecommerce shop.

However, many new store owners simply upload images without optimizing them for their online stores. These large image files slow websites down.

Store owners need to find a way to optimize product images in a way that speeds up WooCommerce. Some ways to do so involve modifying WooCommerce product image sizes and working with tools and programs to convert and deliver images quickly.

3 Components of High-Quality WooCommerce Images

The ideal WooCommerce product image has the following characteristics:

1. Correct dimensions. Clear product images are needed for ecommerce product page listings. Each WooCommerce image size has different dimensions depending on the type. 

Adding an image with different dimensions than what the WooCommerce store theme requires can distort its looks, often leading to image blurriness. 

2. Optimized for website speed. WooCommerce product image sizes often affect website speed and performance. The larger the file size, the longer it takes the website to load, which customers don’t like. 

Ecommerce store owners must optimize product image sizes to speed up WooCommerce. We’ll discuss this in more detail later in this guide.

3. Different perspectives. With online shopping, customers don’t get to see the product up close. They have to rely on the shop page’s product photos to get a holistic view of what they’re buying.

   Add product images with different perspectives to give customers a better idea of what the item looks like in real life.

WooCommerce Product Image Size

WooCommerce product images come in different sizes. WooCommerce image dimensions depend on the theme used, store user interface, and whether the store uses an image zoom plugin. 

A minimum WooCommerce image size of 800 to 1000 pixels is recommended for standard products. If you have more complicated and detailed products, a larger image (e.g., 2000 pixels and above) will let customers zoom in to see the item’s details.

WooCommerce image types include:

• Catalog image. These are medium-sized images used in single product page loops such as the Shop, Product Category, and Related Products pages.

ALT: WooCommerce catalog image from tanksthatgetaround.com 

• Single product image. Also known as the main or featured image, this is usually the first and largest image on the WordPress product listing. The main image width is usually 600 pixels and is uncropped by default.

• Thumbnail image. These are the small images used in the shopping cart, widget, and product gallery. They’re usually square and cropped.

The thumbnail image size can be adjusted depending on usage. The WooCommerce thumbnail size is set to a default of 600 pixels in width, and cropping aspect ratios can be customized by the store owner. 

On the other hand, the gallery thumbnail image has a default size of 100 pixels x 100 pixels.

ALT: WooCommerce single product image and thumbnail from tanksthatgetaround.com product page.

Setting Up WooCommerce Image Sizes

One of the most common problems with ecommerce product listings is heavy or blurry product images. 

When images are blurry, your WooCommerce product image size settings may be too small, or your images need to be higher resolution.

The latest WooCommerce version empowers you to crop, resize, and regenerate images. Images are also compatible with WordPress themes.

Since WooCommerce 3.3 was released, themes can be designed with defined image sizes. If the theme developer does this, store owners cannot change image sizes, and only the cropping option will be visible. 

There are three image cropping ratio settings available. New image dimensions depend on the cropping method and image width.

You can modify image settings with WooCommerce’s Customizer. To do this, go to Appearance > Customize > WooCommerce > Product Images. 

You can also use a product image plugin like WooThumbs for WooCommerce, which lets you change image sizes.

Optimizing Images To Speed Up WooCommerce

There are tricks you can do to your images to speed up WooCommerce. These include:

ALT: WPSmush plugin page.

• Setting up a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN is a network of servers that deliver content closest to the user’s location. CDNs are best for static content like images. 

You can sign up for a separate CDN service, but some web hosting providers like Hostdedi include this feature in its managed hosting plans.

• Converting your images to a different format. The most common image file types are GIF, JPG, and PNG. One of the newer image formats that are optimized for websites is WebP. WebP images are 30% smaller than JPGs.

There are several plugins you can use to convert images to WebP.

Final Thoughts: Best WooCommerce Image Sizes To Speed Up WooCommerce

Product images are an essential part of product pages.

Ecommerce shops require high-quality images, which usually have larger file sizes. However, these large image files tend to slow websites down. 

There are many ways an ecommerce shop can optimize WooCommerce product image sizes, including resizing, converting, and compressing images. 

Investing in a CDN also speeds up WooCommerce, but you have to sign up for a separate one if your web hosting doesn’t include it.

With a Hostdedi managed WooCommerce hosting plan, you won’t need to sign up for a separate CDN, as we include it in your package.

Sign up for a free trial of Hostdedi’s managed WooCommerce hosting plan today.

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Maybe you’ve created your membership site already. Maybe you’re thinking about starting one. Once you’ve got one up and running — then what? 

Building a great site might seem like the biggest hurdle but after you get past that barrier, how do you get your base to keep coming back? In this article I’m going to provide several strategies that increase member engagement for membership sites.

Onboarding Strategies for Member Engagement

1. Modify Your Registration to Deliver Immediate Value

When you’re building your membership registration, the normal approach is going to collect a limited amount of information and then register members. 

You collect their money, create their account, and they get access to protected content. 

But that’s not enough. 

If you want to surprise and delight your members, you’re going to want to ask them a couple more questions. You’re going to want to understand a little bit more about who they are and then immediately deliver additional value to them.

What kind of value am I talking about?

Let’s imagine that you’ve segmented your membership in three or four different personas that sign up for your membership site. That also means you’ll know the four kinds of problems or challenges that they’re facing. 

Your job during registration is to have them self-identify. By getting that information upon creating that user account, you can also immediately send them a targeted download or PDF, something that immediately mitigates that known and major issue.

When a customer feels surprised and delighted, they’re confident that they’ve made the right call and chosen the right community. And that drives engagement.

2. Build Onboarding That Drives Connection 

The second strategy is similar in that your onboarding has to be brilliant. Again, it will require that you collect a little bit more information during registration so that you better understand who signed up. Then you tailor that onboarding to them. 

This means you might end up with three or four different onboarding email sequences (based on how you’ve tagged that member) that you can choose from when sending your initial sequences.

One part of onboarding is where people connect. Could be Slack, Facebook Groups, Discord, or some other community solution. And in each of those, you’ll have several groups or channels that are driven by objectives, characteristics, or even the location of your members.

Your job during onboarding is to figure out, based on what you know about your new member, where to put them. If you know they’re on the West Coast, put them in that channel. If you know their interests, and have a channel for it, put them in there. 

The point is that you should place them or introduce them to their community as part of your onboarding. It will certainly help with member engagement.

3. Create More than a Membership Directory 

For the third idea, I’m going to wrap up this idea that your registration is so critical. Here’s one more way to leverage your enhanced registration.

First, know this: you have to choose and decide what information you’re collecting and what you’re going to show to others. 

You can immediately foster member engagement with a membership directory — more specifically, one that’s not boring.

When you create a membership directory, you should do more than just present the names and the titles and the companies they come from (and maybe their emails). You should do more than that. 

You should highlight their experience or expertise. This comes from collecting that information when they’re registering.

I was once part of a membership site that put information like companies we had worked for, our current role, how many years we’d been in that role, and more into a directory. That became really helpful so that others knew when they should (or shouldn’t) hit me up for advice.

In the last strategy we talked about helping people find their “tribe” in your membership. But sometimes people want to find and connect with people that aren’t like them. That’s where a great directory comes in.

Interaction Strategies for Member Engagement

Now the fourth idea takes us in a different direction. Can we agree that everyone wants more leads, more traffic, and more business? 

If that’s the case, this strategy will do two things at once — help you create content for your site, and put a spotlight on your members that will drive them more traffic (and potentially leads).

It’s the strategy to co-create content together with your members. You do this by asking a question and giving members an area where they can respond. Put out a form. Let anyone who wants to fill it out. Then you use that as part of your digital content strategy.

If you ask, “Has anyone hired more than 25 people in a single month?” and give them the space to tell their story and tips (via a form), you are getting great material for a post. 

You’re also going to be able to publish something with a quote from them or their story in it. Backlinks will be great, and your members will love it. They’ll share it with their friends and associates.

As a result, you might even grow your membership. But the best part is that when other members see the benefits, they’ll be looking to get more engaged. That’s the main point of the strategy to begin with.

5. Invite Members to Connect Live Once a Week

The fifth strategy is one of my favorites.

Just because you build a membership site doesn’t mean you can’t create another place for people to gather. One of the communities that I’ve been helping to build has a weekly Zoom call. The fifty folks or so meet every week and talk about what went great in any given week, along with what was a struggle.

This is one of the most compelling parts of this community. They feel connected and cared for. They get advice from each other and they don’t feel so alone.

So if you can create something like that, you will foster and build more community, which will drive greater engagement inside your membership site.

6. Hold Virtual Events for Your Membership

For number six, I want to shift from Zoom to a different strategy — and that’s to hold virtual events.

I have worked with a membership site for years that used to have physical events. But when COVID hit, they had to shift to virtual events. They used to be called New York Wine Events. They now have a new name: Crush Wine XP.

That’s because they shifted from doing physical events only in New York, and now they do them anywhere, virtually. I’m talking about virtual wine tasting. Think about that for a second. 

You sign up because there’s a limited number of spots. You get access to the Zoom call where other people are going to do this virtually, too. There’s going to be a sommelier or someone who’s going to take you on a tour of one of the vineyards that they’re at. But you also get to order the samples in advance and have them delivered to you. 

So people are in their home and they’re able to participate in this virtual event while learning more about the wines — and they actually get to taste the wines.

So hold a virtual event. 

And if you’re wondering how to pull this off, check out Events Calendar Pro’s extension for Virtual Events. It’s fantastic.

Strategies To Add Value for Members

7. Provide Early Access and Discounts

Idea number seven is to provide early access to buying something. Let’s say that you have created a report and this report is super valuable to your membership, but also to the outside world. So you say, 

“Hey, I’m going to put it on sale on Friday to the outside world. But on Tuesday, I’m going to make it available to members. And in fact, I’m going to also immediately add a discount so that members pay way less and get access to it earlier.” 

I’ll tell you, sometimes in the right setting, simply giving people early access is all you need to keep them highly engaged.

8. Gamify Your Giveaways

Here’s number eight: giveaways. You can gamify all of the interaction and interactivity for a giveaway.

There are tools out there that will help you do giveaways the gamified way. They require that participants take actions to earn “tickets” or a chance to win.

You can drive any kind of engagement that you want — tweets on social, signing up for newsletters, sharing content, and more.

Each time a member takes one of these actions, they get an extra ticket into the raffle. And at the end of the month, you’ve not only driven engagement, but you get to give away a cool prize.

9. Create Courses for Members

The last strategy is all about education. Your members may want or need specific help solving specific challenges. Use that to create online courses or even mini-courses. These don’t have to be huge.

But the nature of adding a set of courses automatically will drive higher engagement by those who are constantly logging in, watching content, and marking it complete.

Additionally, members will love it because they feel like they’re getting more than anyone else anywhere else. In other places, you have to pay for courses. But in your membership, you’re making them available for free.

Launch Your Membership Site With WPQuickStart

The key to member engagement is about value and making sure that you’re delivering value consistently and constantly.

So there you go — 9 different ways to drive member engagement. And they’re not mutually exclusive. You can combine several of these strategies to really help your membership site take off. 

Get started with a membership site of your own. Try our new membership focused solution, WPQuickStart. All you need to do is…

• Answer a few questions.
• Load your content.
• Set up membership levels.

And you can go live in minutes. It’s the only solution on the market to match premium software with premium hosting specifically tailored to WordPress.

Related Content

SOUTHFIELD, Mich.  JULY 20, 2021 — Hostdedi, the fully managed, high-performance digital commerce platform built to optimize WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento sites and stores, today announced the release of the first product in their new WPQuickStart set of WordPress solutions — Membership Sites with WPQuickStart, the fastest and most affordable way to build a membership site on WordPress.

Membership Sites with WPQuickStart eliminates the burden for creators that comes with having to choose from more than 50 membership plugins, the need to find compatible add-ons, and selecting a theme that works with everything — only to find out that something doesn’t work after spending hundreds of dollars up front.

“We’ve designed the ideal solution for people in or entering the membership space,” says Chris Lema, a known membership expert in the WordPress community. “We bring together the perfect set of plugins and themes, eliminating the stress and delay of picking products that don’t work together. Now business owners, creators, and developers can build membership sites in a fraction of the time, for a lot less than they would normally spend.”

This solution comes bundled with the leading and fastest growing WordPress theme from Kadence, the easiest WordPress membership plugin to use — Restrict Content Pro, and fully managed hosting from Hostdedi. 

Starting at $49, the Membership packages come with an intuitive set-up wizard and extraordinary value from Restrict Content Pro, an industry leader Membership plugin provider. A $349 value is included in every Membership Site with WPQuickStart plan with powerful features such as built-in payment integrations, multi-level subscription packages, planned and automated emails, and easy-to-use reporting for insights into member subscriptions, payments, and business performance.  

Because Membership Sites with WPQuickStart is built on top of fully managed WordPress from Hostdedi, users can also count on: 

• Automated, immediate scaling for concurrency during traffic surges
• Improved page speeds through a built-in 22-location Content Delivery Network (CDN)
• Built-in advanced caching for ultra-fast loading
• Always-on security monitoring and support from WordPress experts 24/7/365

Restrict Content Pro and Kadence are part of StellarWP, which along with Hostdedi live under the Liquid Web Family of Brands, powering the online potential of growing businesses, organizations, and the designers, developers, and agencies who create for them.  

Over 40% of the Internet runs WordPress and we’re focused on making it faster and simpler for designers, developers and agencies to build sites and stores. “We’re in a unique position to combine superior WordPress plugins with superior hosting in a wizard-like experience,” says Jim Geiger, CEO. “It’s never been easier to enable fast-growing digital commerce experiences tailored specifically for the WordPress community.”

Learn more about this innovative solution here.

About Hostdedi

Hostdedi has been serving SMBs and the designers, developers, and agencies who create for them for more than 20 years by providing a fully managed, high-performance cloud solution built to optimize WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento sites and stores. As a company within The Liquid Web Family of Brands, we own and manage 10 global data centers, and collectively serve over 45,000 customers spanning 150 countries and provide unparalleled service from a dedicated group of experts 24/7/365. As an industry leader in customer service, the rapidly expanding brand family has been recognized among INC. Magazine’s 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies for twelve years.  

Learn more about the Liquid Web Family of Brands and StellarWP.

Media Contact

Rachel Martin, Hostdedi VP of Global Marketing

[email protected]