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How to Create a Business Plan: Ecommerce Business Plans

Proper planning is the key to success for any company and especially a new business. 

A 2019 study from Startup Genome found that 90% of ecommerce startups fail within their first 120 days of operation. Some of the reasons for failure include poor search engine visibility, a saturated market, and financial issues — all of which could have been addressed ahead of time with an ecommerce business plan.

It may seem like a daunting task. But learning how to create a business plan is the best step you can take to set yourself up for long-term success. 

In this guide, you’ll learn:

  • Why you need an ecommerce business plan.
  • What the elements of a business plan are.
  • How to create a business plan for ecommerce.

Why You Need an Ecommerce Business Plan 

An ecommerce business plan is just like the business plan you’d put together for any other business. It describes a company’s current status and eventual goals. 

If you’re figuring out how to create a business plan, you’ll need to consider all the details of building your business, including:

  • Products and services.
  • Financial models.
  • Operations.
  • Staffing.
  • Timeframe for achieving your goals.

Not every ecommerce brand launches with a formal business plan, but there is value in taking time to step back and study the market you’re looking to enter. That way, you can formulate a strategy to launch and grow a successful ecommerce site.

A solid business plan empowers you to:

  • Develop a strategy for growing your business.
  • Determine potential obstacles.
  • Identify the human, physical, or financial resources needed.
  • Evaluate the viability of your business idea.

Let’s go over the sections of a typical business plan. 

Elements of a Business Plan

  • Executive Summary
  • Company Overview
  • Market Analysis
  • Products and Service
  • Marketing Plan
  • Operations Plan
  • Financial Plan

Business Plan Template: How to Create a Business Plan for Ecommerce 

Writing a business plan is not as complicated as people assume it will be. Here’s how to create a business plan for your online business. 

Sum Up Your Plan With an Executive Summary

As the name suggests, the executive summary outlines the key points discussed in the rest of the ecommerce business plan. It is critical when you’re approaching potential investors with limited time. 

The executive summary is often the last section to be written, but it should be the first thing someone reading your plan sees. The executive summary’s goal is to encourage the reviewer to continue reading the rest of the business plan.

Keep it brief — an executive summary shouldn’t exceed one page.

Introduce Your Company With the Company Overview

The company overview introduces the business. By the time a reader finishes this section, they should know who you are and what you plan to do.

This section should provide an overview of your business in terms of:

  • Company and brand name
  • Brand mission, vision, and values
  • Business history: How did your company start?
  • Business structure: Are you a single proprietorship, partnership, corporation?
  • Business model: Do you purely sell products? Will you get into ads or affiliate marketing?
  • Value proposition: What makes your company unique?

Study Opportunities by Conducting a Market Analysis

In an industry as volatile as ecommerce, it’s no exaggeration to say that choosing the right market can make or break your business — you may continuously struggle to sell if you’re in the wrong market. As such, it’s important to do some market research.

This section of your business plan should discuss:

  • Market size: How big is your potential market?
  • Market share: What percent of the market have you captured?
  • Industry trends and growth: Explore other trends that may arise over time and other markets you can branch out to. A SWOT analysis can identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
  • Competitive analysis: How do you fare compared to your competitors? What strategies are you going to adopt? Will you differentiate, segment, or offer competitive pricing?

For ecommerce startups, you should also include the following when doing a competitor analysis:

Get Into More Detail About Your Products and Services

You will mention your products and services in other parts of your ecommerce business plan, but you can dig into the particulars in this section. 

A products and services section is crucial if you sell niche products or provide a unique service.  If you sell a variety of items, you can include general descriptions of each here.

Convince Your Target Audience To Buy With a Marketing Plan

Once you establish that you have a winning product to sell to a promising market, it’s time to determine how you’ll convince customers to buy. This could involve working with bloggers and influencers, sharing branded quips with market leaders on LinkedIn, or by signing up as a retailer with Amazon. 

A marketing plan discusses your strategy to advertise your business and reach potential customers. Your plan will highly depend on the profile of your target market.

Your ideal customer is the foundation of your marketing plan. Visualize what kind of person you want to buy your products or services to create a buyer persona. 

Come up with a set of general demographic characteristics such as:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Education level
  • Salary

You should also consider their specific behaviors — how do they spend their time and money? For instance, a stay-at-home mom has different interests and spending habits compared to a college student.

Additionally, most ecommerce marketing strategies include information on what Neil Borden calls the 4P’s:

  • Price: How much do your products and services cost? Why did you price it that way?
  • Product: What are the product’s salient features? Why should people buy it? What makes it different from competitors?
  • Promotion: How are you getting the word out? Are you going to do it through social media advertising? If so, what platform?
  • Place: What ecommerce platform will you use to sell your products?

How to Do SEO for Ecommerce Websites: Techniques, Tools, & Best Practices >>

Share Your Ecommerce Startup’s Day-to-Day With an Operations Plan

The operations plan details how you’ll run your online business. This section should demonstrate to potential investors that there are contingency plans in place if difficult situations arise. It should also define the specific nature of your ecommerce store, such as whether it involves dropshipping or print on demand.

Your operations plan should cover every aspect of the supply chain:

  • Suppliers and service providers: Where are your products sourced or produced? What about any raw materials that make them up?
  • Production: Are products made, bought, or will they be dropshipped? Are they physical products or digital products?
  • Facilities and equipment: Do you plan to have an office, physical retail space, or warehouse?
  • Sales channels: Aside from your chosen ecommerce platform, will you also be selling on social media?
  • Inventory: How much product will you have on hand? Where will it be stored?
  • Delivery fulfillment: What is your delivery lead time? Will you offer both local and international shipping?

How Do I Find the Right Dropshipping Suppliers? >>

Demonstrate Profitability With a Solid Financial Plan

The time or effort you invest won’t matter much to potential investors. Their top consideration is a business’s financial feasibility. 

Your financial plan is one of the most critical sections in your ecommerce business plan. With 82% of companies failing due to cash flow problems, potential investors want to know if a business will be worth their while. Digging into the financials will also help to determine how to fund initial startup costs.

Most financial plans include:

  • Income statement: This includes revenue sources and income statements which show whether the business was profitable or not.
  • Balance sheet: This provides a snapshot of your business’s equity, which is the difference between the assets and liabilities.
  • Cash-flow statement: This is similar to the income statement but provides a real-time report of your revenue and expense flow. More income than expenses indicates a positive cash flow, while the opposite indicates a negative cash flow. Aim for the former to keep your business solvent.

Final Thoughts: How to Create a Business Plan for Ecommerce 

An ecommerce business plan facilitates your business’s success by providing direction for where it should go. Writing an effective plan for your online store does not have to be complicated. 

If you spend time gathering information on your company, competitors, and future plans, then your business plan can be a roadmap to achieving your business goals. 

You handle the business plan, and we’ll handle your website. Jumpstart your ecommerce company with Hostdedi’s managed WooCommerce hosting packages and our online StoreBuilder today. 

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How To Boost WooCommerce Site Speed & Avoid Slow Queries

We all know the worst thing about shopping in person is waiting in line. As ecommerce has become the norm for many customers, the online shopping experience also has to meet certain criteria to keep customers engaged. Site performance and speed are crucial to user experience.

If you have noticed your WooCommerce site speed isn’t performing as well as you expected, there is a good chance your customers are noticing too. In this article, we’ll discuss the root causes of slow WooCommerce sites (as well as slow WooCommerce queries) and what you can do to fix them. 

Why Is My WooCommerce Site Speed So Slow?

Some reasons for WooCommerce site speed taking a hit include active plugins, themes, poorly written code, and content delivery speed. All of these factors can result in slow WooCommerce queries too.

👉 Why is My WordPress Site So Slow? >>

Having a significant number of queries or even duplicate ones can drain your site’s performance abilities. This can be caused by visitors navigating your site, tracking, or even social media extensions you’ve added to expand your reach.

If your WooCommerce site is a person carrying groceries at the bottom of a five story walk-up, each additional query is someone handing you another bag of groceries at each floor. Your WooCommerce site gets a little slower every time the database gets queried.

Here is what you can do about it.

How to Boost WooCommerce Site Speed & Queries

Look At Your Plugins

Quality matters more than quantity when it comes to plugins. However, it doesn’t actually matter how many you use if they’re running fast and you know what they do for your site.

👉 The Essential Guide to WordPress Plugins >>

There are plugins like Query Monitor that you can use to identify, analyze, and debug your query and PHP errors. Using an observability platform like New Relic APM is preferable because it is an externally hosted tool that allows you to monitor, analyze, and troubleshoot your WooCommerce site without contributing to your database’s resource usage. 

Make sure to:

  • Monitor plugins with New Relic APM or Query Monitor to find the cause of duplicate or slow queries.
  • Reduce slow queries by using caching like Redis Object Caching and Hostdedi page cache.
  • Create plugin stacks that are complementary and don’t create conflicts. After creating a stack, check performance and monitor for any issues. 
  • Keep your plugins updated. Remove any plugins you aren’t using. 
  • Avoid plugins that make AJAX calls on the front end of your database. This can add 500ms to 1 second of processing time. 

Check Your Themes

Many available themes do not actually work well for WooCommerce sites even if they look great. The code behind it and how well it translates to mobile are both factors that contribute to poor site performance.

If you’re using a free theme, you likely will not receive support from the developers. If it contains bad code, you may end up with a site that contains malware, redirects, or utilizes SEO that negatively affects your WooCommerce site ranking.

👉 15 Best WooCommerce Themes You Need Today >>

If you’re using a premium theme, it simply may just have bloated coding that creates slow queries. They can utilize templates which generate a number of queries to your database to display products, for example. The longer it takes to process your site content through your database, the slower your site loads. 

Make sure to:

  • Do research. Check if the developer provides support. Search for reviews. See what users have to say about their experience with it. 
  • Pick themes that are optimized, have few installed plugins, and aren’t full of bloated coding. 
  • Delete unused themes. Storing them in your database can cause admin panel slowdown and site speed issues. 

Give Your Code A Trim

Poorly written code that wastes resources will slow down your site and make it harder for visitors to access content quickly. WooCommerce sites generating slow queries may have some unnecessary elements in their code. Bulky code means it takes more time to process. Every millisecond adds up. 

Make sure to:

  • Minify your code. Remove extra spaces, lines, and characters. 
  • Use Autoptimize to optimize and aggregate CSS and JavaScript code and files. 

Make Sure You’re Using a Content Delivery Network

If you’re old enough to remember the days of images loading line by line, you likely appreciate the speed and accessibility of content delivery networks (CDNs).

Rendering your content quickly and reliably for visitors is a must. There are a number of options available, including some free ones, but it is important to choose one that meets your needs. 

Choose a CDN that:

  • Is geographically close to your customers. 
  • Offers 24/7 support.
  • Supports SSL.
  • Can support small files as well as larger payloads.

Improve WooCommerce Site Speed With Optimized Hosting

You’re using a WooCommerce site for its ease, convenience, and flexibility. When all of that is compromised by slow site speed, your customers are going to start looking elsewhere. 

Because your hosting provider is the single biggest factor for site speed, consider fully managed WooCommerce hosting.

Remove the fuss of thinking about updating plugins and daily backups. Focus on what really matters 一 selling 一 while still having all the flexibility of customization. 

With fully managed WooCommerce hosting from Hostdedi, you get:

  • A built-in CDN.
  • High-quality security and support.
  • The latest cart abandonment technology.
  • Performance testing at your fingertips.

And most importantly, you’ll get an ultra-fast site thanks to instant auto scaling and visual comparisons.

Try fully managed WooCommerce hosting with Hostdedi. Experience faster site speed with a free two-week trial of fully managed WooCommerce hosting.

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Looking for Stellar WordPress Products? Look No More

July 28, 2021
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You may have noticed that our Liquid Web Family of Brands has been growing. And that has its benefits. 

We’re excited to share that we have attracted some of the most well-known and respected brands you love in the WordPress community to our Liquid Web family — and recently we announced that we’re creating a home for them under the StellarWP brand. 

Why Are We Doing This?

It’s simple.

Over 40% of the Internet runs on WordPress and we know that our customers are looking for the best WordPress-based solutions that help them build their sites and stores. And with a curated portfolio of the best in the business, we’re making it easier for current customers and new ones too, to do just that.

It’s what we call being the Most Helpful Humans in Hosting®

What Benefits Will I Get?

Well for starters, we’re running our first-ever Stellar Sale, where we’re offering 40% off all StellarWP products —including The Events Calendar, iThemes, GiveWP, and more.

If you’re a fan and you’ve been waiting for the right time — well, this is the right time!

Check out the sale >>

Snag These Products at Nearly Half Price From July 28-August 4th

These premium WordPress brands have some of the most beloved and dependable tools in the industry. And they rarely go on sale. Really!

Check out all the StellarWP products covered in this special offer here.  

Remember, it’s one week only!  

Stay Tuned

But wait — there’s more.

Stay tuned because we’re going to continue creating innovative WordPress solutions that you’ve been looking for —and waiting for — all designed to make building WordPress sites and stores faster and easier. 

Read more about StellarWP here.

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How to Speed Up Page Load Time

Page speed can make or break you on the internet.

A faster page load usually means better results overall for your site speed. Every aspect of a website’s success is linked to page speed, from SEO to conversions, to user experience and beyond.

From the hosting provider you choose to the application you decide to work with, there are a lot of areas that can be optimized. With so many areas to consider, improving page speed can be a complex process. Learning how to optimize web page load time in easy to implement ways is crucial to success.

So, what can you do to make sure you’re optimized? Let’s look at some ways to make your web page faster, how to speed up page load time, and other best practices for page load time and increasing speed.

Why Page Load Time Matters

Before getting into how to speed up page load time, let’s first understand why it is so critical.

Google first announced that site speed would impact ranking in 2010 and has continued to demonstrate its importance. In 2018, Google introduced page speed as a ranking factor for mobile site speed.

SEO specialists quickly started trying to optimize on-page elements and make the search engine cut. Those that didn’t fell behind. And now, with recently announced core web vitals, speed is more critical than ever.

Want to learn more about how to improve page load speed? Here are some key areas to consider.

Page Speed Significance

Page load time has always been important for a pretty obvious reason: conversions. Simply put, fast sites increase conversions — and slow sites reduce them.

In fact, a 0.1-second improvement in mobile website speed results in an 8.4% increase in conversion rates for retail businesses, Google found in a 2020 study.

Site speed also impacts your bounce rates. When users encounter a slow site, they leave. A two-second delay in page load time could increase a website’s bounce rate by 103%, a report from Akamal Technologies found.

Testing Your Page Load Time

To get a snapshot of your website and create before and after benchmarks for the optimization process, the first thing you will want to do is test your current page speed. A couple of tools you can start with are Google’s Page Speed Insights and Webpagetest.org.

Make sure to run multiple tests and average your results. Web Page Test allows you to do this automatically in the settings menu. It is always wise to pick a testing location that is close to where your site is hosted to ensure you get the most accurate results. 

This is how we usually set up webpagetest.org for basic speed checks.  

Below you can see the results of a page speed test on the Magento demo site averaged out. We’ve picked out three of the most important and significant stats we want to use for optimizing the site.

Load Time Time To First Byte Bytes In
2.264s 0.318s 927 KB

The first stat is load time. This shows us the complete time it takes to load our page. Remember, if a page takes over three seconds to load, you may be losing half of your potential traffic. This number is the most important for us to change.

The second stat is Time To First Byte (TTFB). While it can help to provide guidance, TTFB can be manipulated relatively easily and its importance can vary. If you use Google Lighthouse, you can also track First Contentful Paint and First Meaningful Paint which report on how fast your page “paints” the screen with elements of your content.

Ever load a recipe and half of it hasn’t caught up with how fast you’re scrolling because you’re trying to get past all the ads and narrative? That’s because it’s FCP/FMP time is very slow. 

The third stat is the size of the information being downloaded to the page. If this number is very large, it may be useful to take a closer look at how long different page elements take.

Page Speed Waterfall

If you want to learn how to speed up page load time, isolate what elements are slowing down page speed and take a look at the waterfall. An example of what the waterfall looks like can be seen below. 

Once you’ve looked at the waterfall, you should have a better idea of what can be improved. Above, we can see that some of the front end .js files can likely be sped up slightly.

Lower down the waterfall (off the page), there are also some image files that take longer to load and should be optimized. Understanding what elements cause pages to lag is key when your focus is faster page load time.

How to Speed Up Page Load Time Via Web Content

Compress and Optimize Images

When looking at how to speed up page load time, image compression is a great place to start. Too often web designers make images that adopt uselessly high resolutions. High-resolution images take up more storage space on a server and can increase load times significantly.

Image Sizes for Page Optimization

We highly recommend scaling images appropriately. If an image is only going to take up a 100 x 100 pixel space on your site, there’s no need to make it 1000 x 1000. We recommend a plugin like Smush or EWWW Image Optimizer if you’re running a WordPress site. 

How to Convert to WebP Images on WordPress >>

Image Type Extensions

When saving images, knowing which extension to use is important. Should it be .jpg or .png? Did someone send you a logo in .svg? There is plenty of conflicting information out there about what is best. 

Many say .png (Portable Network Graphics) is the better option because it is designed to compress images as much as possible without losing quality. That is partially true. That being said, there are exceptions to the rule. For example, .JPEG files actually work much better when using photographs. 

Our suggestion is to check how saving your file a few different ways affects size and quality when displayed on a preview of your page. If you notice a clear difference, opt for the better extension. 

Compress Site Content

Images aren’t the only page elements that need a squeeze. You should also be compressing CSS, HTML, and JavaScript elements on your site. GZip is a highly recommended compression tool that Google suggests testing prior to implementing in a production environment. We recommend making use of a Dev Site environment that mimics your own production environment if you’re planning on doing this.

The thing about compressing your site content is that there’s some evidence that it can marginally increase Time To First Byte durations. However, it also dramatically increases the overall page speed load time, which some SEO experts suggest Google may actually prioritize. We recommend testing compression on individual pages rather than making a sitewide switch.

Simplify Web Design

If you want faster page load time, less is almost always more. Instead of adding additional functionality to core pages, how about settling on something simpler and faster? The fewer HTTP requests a page has, the faster it will usually load. 

In addition to improving page speed, simple web design has also been shown to improve user experience in many cases. In a UX study conducted by Google, it was found that users tend to judge a website’s aesthetics within 1/50th – 1/20th of a second, and that visually complex sites were almost always judged as being less beautiful than their simpler counterparts.

Simple Web Design Faster Pages

The more beautiful a website is perceived as, the better UX and SEO will be, and the more conversions will increase. A simpler website design is one of the quickest methods for improving page speed within a short period of time. However, we recommend running A/B tests in order to see how changes actually perform rather than making a 100% change straight away.

How to Speed Up Page Load Time Via Your Host

Your host also plays a large role in page load time. Here are a few ways to make page load time faster with your host.

Enable Caching

Caching is where repeat visitors are able to load your site much faster thanks to page elements being stored on their hard drive in a cache or temporary storage. For WordPress and WooCommerce sites, we make use of Redis Object Cache to manage caching functions. This will come pre-installed and pre-configured when you purchase a WordPress optimized hosting plan through Hostdedi.   

In order to optimize page speed even more, the Hostdedi Cloud allows for use of the Cloud Accelerator. This can easily be turned on and off with the click of a button under the performance section of the Client Portal.

Enable caching for website speed

Unsure whether you should turn on Varnish or NGINX? Find out more about the difference between Varnish and NGINX in our Definitive Guide to Optimizing Magento 2.

Caching and CDN

Caching with a CDN (Content Delivery Network) in place is a more complicated process and can require advanced setup. However, a proper caching configuration with a CDN can help you to reach that global audience as though you were with a local host.

For WordPress and WooCommerce, check our guide on how to configure the Hostdedi CDN with WordPress and CDN Enabler.

Other Areas To Consider

What Page Are You Optimizing?

Your site structure makes a world of difference when it comes to optimization. Thinking about which page you’re optimizing and how it’s relevant to total site structure is important. If you update one page, the pages it interacts with should also be considered.

For instance, it’s not helpful for us to just simply optimize Hostdedi.net, we also need to optimize Hostdedi.net/magento/hosting and Hostdedi.net/cloud/hosting. 

Before you set out to begin this process, put together a plan for what key pages are drawing in the most conversions and attracting the most ROI. Start here for the greatest impact.

Page Speed and SEO

While page speed and SEO are intrinsically linked, make no mistake that it is not the definitive factor in determining page rank. Google themselves has said that if content is more relevant and people are willing to wait for it to load, they will not penalize that site.

Ultimately, page speed is an important part of optimizing, but content, quality, and user experience should always be the primary focus.

Accelerate Load Time with the Right Host

We’ve come a long way from waiting for images to load line by line. Page speed isn’t just something consumers complain about — it can also make or break conversions, rankings, and more. Doing all you can to increase page speed is ALWAYS a good idea. 

If you’re investing time and effort into improving page load time, you’re protecting your digital business. Match your sweat equity with smart investments. Make your next step choosing a host that has proven scalability, security, speed and support — like Hostdedi.

Hostdedi provides fully-managed WordPress hosting that includes:

  • Automatic updates.
  • SSL for security.
  • Built-in CDN.
  • Image compression.
  • Caching.
  • And more!

See for yourself with a two-week free trial.

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This blog was originally published in July 2018. It has since been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

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How to Find a Profitable Niche for Your Ecommerce Shop

One of the biggest reasons why small businesses fail is a lack of product strategy.

Too many online shops resemble marketplaces that sell everything. They figure this means they’ll be able to capture a larger market and more customers. However, when you try to sell to everyone, you end up selling to no one.

If you want to brand your online business or be an authority, you have to choose a product niche. Choosing the right niche establishes your credibility over competitors, ensures a more focused business, and opens you up to other income opportunities down the line, such as affiliate marketing.

What’s the result? Profitability.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

  • What a niche is.
  • How to find a profitable niche.
  • How to find a niche product.

What Is a Niche?

A niche is a profitable market segment with a focused audience. It is a subset of a large market defined by its own unique identity.

For example, the furniture market can be segmented according to use (i.e. office furniture, home furniture, or antique furniture), material (plastic, wood, or upholstered), or price.

The specific niche you choose can influence many aspects of your business, including:

  • What products you sell.
  • How much you sell.
  • Which suppliers you work with.
  • What kind of marketing strategies you should use.

Choosing the perfect niche is more complicated than it seems — you need to find a niche with products that are high in demand but low in competition.

Only when you find the right niche can you determine how to find a niche product. 

Below you’ll learn how to find a profitable niche.

How to Find a Profitable Niche

  • Brainstorm niches you’re passionate about.
  • Identify the problem of your niche market.
  • Look for profitable niche markets.

How to Find a Profitable Niche Idea #1: Brainstorm Niches You’re Passionate About

To start your search for a profitable niche, make a list of your interests and what you’re good at. This is just the brainstorming stage, so don’t worry about financial viability at this point.

The ideal niche is at the intersection of profitability and your interests. Business is hard work. If you’re in it for the long run, it’s best to create a business you know you’re going to enjoy.

Additionally, if you choose a niche you’re passionate about, you already have an idea of the basics, including: 

  • Who to sell to.
  • How to sell it.
  • What needs to be improved.
  • Where to get suppliers.

Who knows — you may even get to develop new products. 

How to Find a Profitable Niche Idea #2: Identify the Problem of Your Niche Market

Good marketers know the key to success and longevity in business is to identify an unmet or underserved need and create a solution.

Analyze your target audience and identify gaps in the marketplace. Your products or services should address a pain point that your audience is currently experiencing.

Here are some websites you can use to seek out that information:

How to Find a Profitable Niche Idea #3: Look for Profitable Niche Markets

Validate your business idea by checking on its value in the niche market. Otherwise, you’ll waste time and effort trying to sell something unprofitable. 

Remember: Not all markets are created equal. Some are more profitable than others. Choose a sector that has anticipated growth.

To start, read articles on ecommerce trends, and look through a list of profitable niches.

How to Find a Niche Product

Now that you’ve learned how to find a profitable niche, it’s time to look for products to sell. 

A suitable niche product should:

  • Have a relatively low amount of competitive products.
  • Be in demand.
  • Have the potential for long-term popularity.

Here’s how to find a niche product:

  • Check past and present trends.
  • Perform keyword research.
  • Study the competition.

To choose the best niche products, analyze past and current trends. Input keywords from the niche you’re eyeing in Google Trends to check their performance over time. 

For instance, the search term “weight loss pills” enjoys relatively stable activity because people will always be interested in an easy way to shed pounds.

Meanwhile, seasonal terms such as “candy cane” only see a surge in searches around Christmastime.

Avoid fads. “Bread baking” may have experienced a surge in search volume during the height of the pandemic. But its popularity has already dropped back to pre-pandemic levels, which indicates bread baking niche products will not be viable long-term.

How to Find a Niche Product #2: Perform Keyword Research

To find saleable niche products, do keyword research on popular ecommerce platforms such as eBay or Amazon. 

Amazon’s bestseller page is a goldmine for keywords you can break down into niches and sub-niches.

Let’s say you want to move into the beauty industry. On the bestseller page of Amazon’s Beauty and Personal Care category, you’ll find subcategories such as bath accessories, fragrances, hair care, and makeup. Explore these categories for new products to sell.

Look at the highest-rated items and their prices to validate what people are willing to pay for them.

How to Find a Niche Product #3: Study the Competition

Although you may want to break into a new niche, competition signifies a healthy business opportunity. 

Be wary of a niche that doesn’t have any competitors. They’re evidence of an existing market. Competition indicates people are looking for the kinds of products you want to sell.

When you study the competition, you can also identify gaps in their current offerings and the markets they’re targeting. Use tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to research your competitors’ top content, traffic sources, social media, and sales pages.

Final Thoughts: How to Find a Profitable Niche for Your Ecommerce Shop

Contrary to popular belief, it’s relatively easy to make money online, but many small businesses fail due to a lack of a product strategy.

Learning how to find a profitable niche and how to find niche products is vital to building an online business. Use the information to stand out from the competition, establish your credibility, and create a focused business.

Have you found your niche? Get your online store up and running fast — check out Hostdedi’s ecommerce hosting plans today.

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Learn How to Use WordPress

Why WordPress?

WordPress is user friendly, customizable, and powers 40% of the internet. With thousands of plugins available to extend functionality, it’s easy to see why so many use WordPress for their sites.

If you’re looking to learn how to use WordPress, you’re in the right place. Here, you’ll find out most useful WordPress resources. Keep reading to learn WordPress basics, performance best practices, and more.

Learn How to Use WordPress: Understand Your Options

There are a number of CMS options available. As mentioned, WordPress is the most popular choice. If you’re not sure WordPress is the right CMS for you, learn about Drupal vs. WordPress.

WordPress history extends back to 2003. As you can imagine, there are many WordPress versions available. But it is important to start using the most recent one.

There’s also headless WordPress to consider. This option is gaining popularity and aims to accelerate page load time. What is headless WordPress?

WordPress does not limit you to a certain type of site. You can create a blog, an ecommerce site, a portfolio, and more. Learn about the types of WordPress websites you can easily set up. You can even monetize your WordPress site.

WordPress Hosting

With WordPress, you’ll also want an optimized host to power your site in the background. But you have a few different options when it comes to hosting, such as managed WordPress hosting and shared web hosting.

What is WordPress hosting? And why do you need hosting for WordPress? Here’s a breakdown of the difference between WordPress hosting and web hosting.

There’s also WordPress cPanel versus Managed WordPress and DIY to consider.

You may already have a shared hosting plan for your WordPress account. But shared hosting plans can leave much to be desired. Here’s how to tell when it’s time to leave shared hosting and upgrade to Managed WordPress.

Top 10 Questions to Ask a Cloud Hosting Provider >>

Getting Started With WordPress

Now it’s time to get started with your WordPress site. You’ll want to research your options and select one of the fastest WordPress themes. Speed is critical to providing a good user experience. It’s also key to ranking on Google.

Get started building your site with WordPress Gutenberg — a WordPress editor that makes site creation simple and easy. By using Gutenberg, you can simplify the content creation process in WordPress.

From there, you can…

Learn How to Use WordPress Plugins

There are thousands of WordPress plugins available for your site. Not sure where to start? Start by exploring the most popular WordPress plugins. These ones are fan favorites and are widespread for a reason.

Learn more about the top WordPress plugins and how to use them strategically in our Essential Guide to WordPress Plugins eBook.

There are plugins for just about every function you could want on your website. For example, you could add WooCommerce to WordPress to start an online store.

Below you’ll find out recommendations for the top WordPress plugins for popular functions.

Remember, it’s important to keep all of your plugins updated. Managed WordPress hosts like Hostdedi automatically update your plugins.

Explore Fully Managed WordPress Hosting by Hostdedi.

Learn WordPress Performance Best Practices

Why is my WordPress site so slow?

Many site owners ask this question after getting their site up and running. But once your site is up, you need to keep it optimized. Here’s why website performance matters:

  • It is critical to the user experience.
  • It is necessary to rank well on Google.
  • It provides more visibility and organic traffic.
  • It improves your conversion rates.

Here are some helpful WordPress resources to improve performance.

Learn more in our Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Performance Optimization eBook >>

WordPress Resources for Developers

Learn about the built-in features of WordPress for developers, and how to best use them for your site.

Using WordPress Local Dev Environments

You can use a WordPress local development environment, and you have a few options outlined below. A local dev environment allows you to set up a server environment on your own machine, rather than on the server environment from your hosting company.

The benefit here is that you can go into the local dev environment to customize your site and make any changes you need, without having to push it online until you are ready.

Get Scalable, Secure WordPress With Hostdedi

With Hostdedi, better is built in.

Power your site with optimized WordPress hosting from Hostdedi. Hostdedi provides fully-managed WordPress hosting that includes:

  • Automatic updates.
  • SSL for security.
  • Built-in CDN.
  • Image compression.
  • Caching.
  • And more.

With Hostdedi, your site is optimized, secure, and fast. Contact us today to learn how Hostdedi can take on-site performance tuning for you automatically.

Or, give it a try for free. Start your two-week trial of fully managed WordPress today.

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What is Managed Hosting? How it Works

Web hosting provides a wide variety of features, plans, plugins, prices, and added bonuses. Today we’ll focus on managed hosting — including its features, aspects that differentiate it from shared hosting, advantages and disadvantages, and what you need to consider when choosing a hosting provider.

What Is Managed Hosting?

Managed hosting is a model where a service provider handles the management, setup, administration, and overall support of a server. When you choose a managed hosting service, the hosting company makes sure your sites and applications are running all the time – and they fix things that go wrong along the way. 

Understanding the Different Types of Hosting Services

Managed hosting is not the only type of hosting available. There’s also shared hosting, cloud hosting, VPS hosting, and more.

In simple terms, shared hosting would be like staying in an apartment building. You have a place to live, but you share it with many other tenants. It’s less comfortable than living in your own house.

Think of VPS hosting as owning a condo where you may end up sharing certain resources with your neighbors but you’re mainly responsible for your own property.

Top 10 Questions to Ask a Cloud Hosting Provider >>

Cloud hosting, on the other hand, equates to staying at a hotel or renting a room. In other words, it’s not your permanent home, but you have a place to stay. Dedicated hosting is when you own a house, which means others don’t have access to your resources.

In the end, a managed hosting company is your best bet. It’s like having a property manager to take care of all the work that needs to be done. That way, you can relax and focus on other things — like your business.

How Managed Hosting Works

A managed hosting service is a system combining support and technology.

To establish a hosting deal, you don’t need to own a physical server. You don’t rent it from the hosting company — you get space within the colocation site or data center. However, you are the owner who’s in control of all software and hardware settings.

The hosting company has a professional team of experts you communicate with — and they help you quickly react, upgrade, or downgrade certain features. In other words, they will take care of all the technical stuff so you can focus on creating the content and running your business.

Managed Hosting Features

The main aspect that makes managed hosting different from other dedicated hosting options are management services they provide.

Managed hosting companies are in charge of software and hardware setup and configuration, together with monitoring, updates, technical support, and maintaining the system. Managed hosting solutions can mostly be customized to meet the specific requirements of your business.

However, they cover general features like:

  • Technical support for dealing with problems. Managed hosting companies employ system administrators, technical staff, and network operations engineers specialized in a wide variety of technologies. They invest in their employees to stay up-to-date with the latest tech solutions which results in long-term customer satisfaction and better service for your business.
  • Security services. Security standards are crucial for both big and small websites. A managed hosting provider covers services such as intrusion detection, virus and spam protection, vulnerability scans, physical security (safeguarding data centers), etc.
  • Disaster recovery and (automatic and manual) backups. You need to make sure your data is saved even if your site goes down due to unexpected disruptions. A good company makes sure your data is saved by providing you automatic or manual backups, together with disaster recovery procedures.
  • Automatically managed updates. They allow customers to keep their programs updated without checking and installing the newest updates manually. The software should check for available updates, and install them without your intervention.

Pros and Cons of Managed Hosting

Pros

  • Time saver. When someone is taking care of maintenance and managing, you can spend more time focused on your business
  • Reduced risk. Hosting support is important. You get highly specialized technical support that’s always available and ready to help when issues arise.
  • Flexible up-to-date technology. A professionally managed hosting service keeps up with the latest technology and updates so you make the most out of your business and don’t lag behind.
  • Excellent performance and high speed. Regular shared hosting is made for basic site needs. It can also implement software and plenty of unnecessary modules that will slow down your site. Managed hosting solutions, on the other hand, provide only features you need for running your site and special plugins used there. This significantly speeds up the site and boosts website performance.

Cons

  • Price. Managed hosting services will cost you more than a shared hosting option. Keep in mind that with shared hosting, you don’t get the same level of support — just the basics.
  • No access to own servers. One of the disadvantages of a managed hosting service is that companies don’t allow their clients access to the control panel — since they manage your site for you.
  • No email hosting. If you want a plan with the option of hosting both your site and emails, a managed hosting solution alone won’t be enough.

Managed Hosting vs. Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is an option where your website “shares” resources with others on the same server. It’s a self-managed solution that comes in handy for beginners with brand new websites. Shared hosting offers a decent amount of resources for personal websites, start-ups, or local business needs.

When is it Time to Leave Shared Hosting & Upgrade to Managed WordPress? >>

Shared hosting is popular because of the prices. Since plenty of people are sharing the same server, costs for individual users are kept low.

Most shared hosting plans provide simple and easy-to-use features. For instance, you get a user-friendly control panel where you can make an email account, upload your site files, and add the databases that certain services need.

It’s suitable when:

  • You have a limited budget and only want to do things on your own. Price is certainly a legitimate concern, especially if you’re just starting or want to run a small website where you’re comfortable with managing it. You’ll need to cover things like backups, updates, and general server maintenance — depending on your host.
  • You don’t expect to have a web traffic boost. When you’re sharing resources and server space, you may experience slow speeds and lags, which shouldn’t be a problem if you don’t expect big amounts of web traffic on your website.

In terms of everyday life, think of shared hosting like taking public transportation. It’s cost effective, but can be packed at times and the route from point A to point B can take longer.

5 Real Differences Between Cheap Hosting and Good Hosting >>

Managed web hosting, on the other hand, is like taking a taxi. It will cost you more, but you’ll be more comfortable and get better and faster service.

Managed hosting solution is a better choice when:

  • You are not able (or don’t want to) maintain your website. If you want to work on expanding your business and constantly creating new content, you’ll need a reliable team that will cover all the technical features.
  • You need specific technical support for your website that can react fast. When you have a complex site with large amounts of traffic, you want to have a team that will help you solve all the potential issues as soon as possible. 

What to Look for When Choosing a Managed Hosting Provider 

Before signing on with a hosting company, be sure to check:

  • If the communication is professional. Even the best products can fail if they’re not supported by a professional team that will help you out with any questions or confusion you may have.
  • If the managed hosting company has its own hardware. If not, it means they either resell servers from another company or rent it. The first option here is usually more common. This can be a problem because your host won’t have:
  • Custom solutions. If you need some extra features or want to customize the setup, you’ll have to search for those somewhere else.
  • Spare parts. If the hardware goes down, they’ll need a whole new server, which means your website will be offline until they migrate it which may last for hours or days.
  • On-site support team. With no data centers, the company will use a third-party host to provide the support team — which can be lower quality and less efficient for finding solutions to your problems.
  • If the company is experienced with aspects crucial for your business. You want a host that will be able to deal with the specific niche you’re targeting and all the specific needs of your business. Ask about all the things you want to know. Specify your goals. Talk about applications, the CMS, and frameworks to make sure you’re collaborating with a team that knows what they’re doing.

Consider Managed Hosting With Hostdedi

Managed hosting is usually associated with WordPress, since it provides the flexibility and customization to shape your website the way you prefer. But there are many managed hosting options — including Managed WooCommerce and Managed Magento, for example.

Either way, running an online business can be pretty demanding, which is why you will, at some point, feel the urge to hire someone to handle the technical, backend aspects of hosting so you can stay focused on core business.

Now that you know the benefits of managed hosting solutions, learn some of the features you get with Hostdedi fully managed hosting:

  • Easy-to-use control panel. With a managed WordPress hosting plan, you get an approach to the proprietary control panel with a simple interface and the ability to handle more WordPress sites from one place.
  • Excellent performance and speed. Hostdedi owns more than 25,000 servers in their 3 privately-owned core data centers which provide exceptional speed and performance of their services. They provide expert network monitoring 24/7 which, amongst other things, helps to maintain the next important feature.
  • 100% Uptime. Hostdedi puts a lot of effort into keeping 100% uptime. Of course, the company outlines exceptions such as scheduled network, software, or hardware maintenance. Hostdedi even gives 10 times credit for the overall downtime the user experiences. For example, if your site is down for 1 hour, you’ll get a 10-hour hosting credit.
  • Professional support team. Hostdedi has specialized support staff, trained to help with all the problems your website faces along the way. They will provide you with useful information and helpful tips as well as guide you through the process of setting up your site.
  • Free migrations, no matter the reason. Not only that — the support team will help you throughout the entire process and make it all easier for you.

Get Started Today

For 24/7/365 support and limitless potential for your online business, explore Hostdedi hosting plans today — or start your free two-week trial of fully managed hosting.

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How Does Page Speed Affect SEO? + Improve Your Site Speed

You already have a well-designed business website or online store. Your content is ready, and your website is live. But wait, something’s wrong — your new website takes a long time to load. 

Speed is a crucial performance factor for your business. If your website loads too slowly, potential visitors might abandon it in the first few seconds, which will affect your conversion rate.

Unfortunately, many web pages don’t load as they should, and this can negatively impact your search rankings and revenue. 

In this guide, we’ll answer the following questions: What could negatively affect site speed? How does page speed affect SEO? And how important is page speed for SEO, anyway?

What Webpage Load Time Is

Your webpage speed is the amount of time in seconds or milliseconds it takes to fully load a single webpage. This is also known as the Time to First Byte or the server response time.

You might have wondered what page speed is acceptable for users before they close a tab and move on. 

Google indicates that more than half of mobile visitors will leave your mobile site if it takes longer than three seconds to load, so you should aim for a shorter loading time. 

Different pages can have different loading speeds depending on their page elements, such as images and code. 

What could negatively affect site speed? Here are a few examples:

  • Your server’s performance. 
  • The user’s internet provider. 
  • The browser used.
  • The type of connection used.

How To Monitor Your Website’s Speed

Screenshot
ALT: Screenshot of Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

You can check your website speed using a free speed test on Google’s PageSpeed Insights, which can also let you know what could be negatively affecting your site speed.

To check your website’s performance, Google’s Speed Score uses data from the Chrome User Experience Report and metrics such as DOMContentLoaded (DCL) and First Contentful Paint (FCP).

How Important Page Speed Is for SEO 

So, how does page speed affect SEO?

According to Google, page loading speed became a direct ranking factor for mobile searches in July 2018. It will become a ranking factor for all pages when Google rolls out its Core Web Vitals update in June 2021. 

Google, along with other search engines, is keen on ranking pages that provide a great user experience.

Page speed matters and has a significant impact on user experience. Fast loading pages make it easier for visitors to navigate your website.

SEO Trends in 2021: The Future of SEO, What Matters Most and Why >>

Optimizing your website for mobile devices for mobile searches is crucial. Don’t overlook this since search engines have moved to mobile-first indexing with mobile page speed as one of the search ranking factors.

Besides, in 2019, Google Chrome announced that it would flag slow websites to encourage faster user experiences.

Here are some other reasons why increasing your page load time is essential:

  • Reduces bounce rate.
  • Increases page views.
  • Increases dwell time.
  • Improves conversion rate.
  • Helps your ranking in organic search.

How To Speed Up Your Website

  1. Activate browser caching.
  2. Minify resources.
  3. Enable image compression.
  4. Implement a content delivery network (CDN).
  5. Optimize media files.
  6. Minimize HTTP requests. 
  7. Use the right web host.

Image source

Many factors could negatively affect site speed, including pages with poorly written code or too many page elements.

You can speed up webpage loading time if you:

1. Activate Browser Caching

Fetching the resources to load your website could negatively affect site speed as it takes time to load several page elements for new visitors. Browser caching lets browsers temporarily store information, including JavaScript files, stylesheets, and images.

Browser caching can speed up webpage loading time, as it loads pages faster on subsequent visits.

Free plugins, such as W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache, help reduce the number of file requests to the server, resulting in faster page load times.

2. Minify Resources

Using too many CSS files causes numerous HTTP requests, which could negatively affect site speed. It’s vital to minify your CSS files, which removes unnecessary characters, spacing, and comments in your content.

For your WordPress website, we recommend using WP Rocket to speed up webpage loading time. 

3. Enable Image Compression

Large image file sizes can also negatively affect site speed. Enable Gzip compression to help reduce the time it takes to download your CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files. 

Gzip compresses and later decompresses files when they get to your browser. Most modern browsers automatically process Gzip for all HTTP requests.

Top WooCommerce Image Size Hacks To Keep Your Website Fast

4. Implement a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

CDNs are a network of servers used to store a static version of your webpages in different locations, meaning a visitor can easily download them from the nearest server. 

What is a Content Delivery Network (CDN)? CDN Benefits & Features >>

CDNs identify where the user is and deliver content from the server closest to them. This is an essential way to speed up webpage loading time.

5. Optimize Media Files

Images and videos that are larger than necessary could negatively affect site speed, especially for mobile users. Ensure your image sizes are optimized by using the right image format and pixel dimensions. 

How to Convert to WebP Images on WordPress >>

For best results, use PNG or JPEG file formats. To optimize your videos, compress and reduce length. You can also upload them to YouTube and use the embed code on your page.

6. Minimize HTTP Requests 

Every file that a webpage requires to function, including HTML, fonts, CSS, images, and JavaScript, will need a separate HTTP request. 

Too many requests could result in slow page speed. Another issue is that plugins might add further JavaScript and CSS files. 

Minimize these requests to speed up webpage loading time. Some of the most effective ways include merging CSS into one file, reducing plugins that load JavaScript or CSS, and using sprites for images.

7. Use the Right Web Host

Your WordPress website’s host can determine how fast or slow your pages load. 

If your website is sharing a server with several other people, it’s more likely it will load slowly. This can frustrate your visitors, and they might abandon your website. 

To combat this issue, upgrade to a host optimized for speed, such as Hostdedi.

Final Thoughts: How Does Page Speed Affect SEO? + Improve Your Site Speed

How important is page speed for SEO? It’s an essential ranking factor in Google’s algorithm.

Every webmaster needs to think about specific user experiences as they build and maintain their website. If your website is slow, visitors are more likely to click the back button, which will affect your rankings and ultimately decrease conversions. 

Since many visitors will access your website through tablets or smartphones, mobile speed optimization should be a top priority. 

The single greatest factor to having a fast website is your host. The right host can improve website speed and boost performance.

If you’ve just created a website or you’re looking for better hosting, Hostdedi has a package to suit your business. Visit us today.

Or, get started with a free two-week trial of fully hosted WordPress or WooCommerce.

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Why Do You Need Hosting for WordPress? Advantages & Features

You’re ready to take the leap and launch your new website, but you keep hearing that you need to choose a hosting service first. So why do you need hosting for WordPress? Quite simply, because your site can’t function without it. 

Who you choose to host your site is as important as why you need a host. This post explains why you need a host with WordPress.

Why Do You Need Hosting for WordPress?

WordPress is software. It runs additional software to bring your content, images, and products to the browser. 

WordPress stores your content in a database. The application server queries the database and formats your content, then pushes it to a visitor’s browser. The person can then read and interact with your content from their mobile device or desktop computer. 

That’s a semi-technical way of saying that you need a service to hold the software and your content to get it online. You need a company to connect your WordPress to the internet pipes. The service listens to calls for your site’s domain from anywhere in the world and delivers the website to the visitor’s browser. 

The solution to making all of those steps happen is a WordPress host. There are many forms of hosting. They come at different price points, offering various levels of services and competencies.

With all the pieces mentioned above, you can imagine multiple points of potential failure and hundreds of ways things can go wrong. Making sure your website works properly for your customers is why you need managed WordPress hosting. 

Advantages of Managed WordPress Hosting

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Arthur C. Clarke, British science fiction writer.

You could rely on magic or work with a managed WordPress hosting company. A managed hosting company makes the internet magic happen for you.

With fully managed WordPress hosting from Hostdedi, you have the advantage of:

  • Speed. Your site is guaranteed to load quickly for visitors. 
  • Scalability. You can build out your site’s features as much as you desire. You also can have as many visitors as you want. Neither will slow your site down.
  • Security. You don’t have to worry about hacks or anyone stealing your customer’s private information.
  • Support. We don’t just launch your site, then leave you. We’re here to help whenever you need it.

With other shared hosting services, you get what you pay for. You might encounter slow site performance, which is detrimental to the success of your website. You might have to deal with an underpowered system, resulting in connection errors. 

The support technicians might not be WordPress experts and can’t help you when problems arise. You’ll end up asking yourself when it’s time to leave shared hosting and upgrade to managed WordPress. 

It’s better to start in the right place from the beginning and save yourself the hassle.

Features of Hostdedi Fully Managed WordPress Hosting

You can count on various features with fully managed WordPress hosting that you don’t get with shared hosting services. These features make the internet magic happen without you needing to think more about it.

As a result, you can focus on building your business instead of worrying about why your website isn’t functioning.

Hostdedi Fully Managed WordPress Hosting includes the following features.

Scalability 

What if you have a special discount sale or you offer something for Cyber Monday or Black Friday? You’ll have a short period with more traffic, more orders, and therefore a need for more server power.

Hostdedi WordPress hosting provides you with a seamless, scalable server configuration. It expands and subtracts according to your site’s traffic and bypasses the capacity limits. In other words, your site won’t crash because of increased traffic.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Auto Scaling >>

Security 

Hostdedi’s security services are essential for the safety of your business and your customers’ information. They provide you with ongoing malware monitoring, automatics SSL, PHP optimization, and automatic plugin updates.

In addition, instant backups secure your work and keep your data from getting lost or corrupted. In other words, Hostdedi protects you and your customers from hacks. 

Speed

Google considers the speed at which visitors receive your content when determining whether your site ranks for a good user experience. Core Web Vitals are now ranking factors for search engine results. 

With a multi-layered caching service built on the latest PHP version, and server caching with Varnish, Hostdedi answers powerfully to your need for speed. It integrates with the content delivery network across its owned data centers and with premium image compression. Hostdedi optimizes your site for fast delivery.

It’s a fancy way of saying that visitors won’t have to wait for your site to load. And Google rewards you for having a fast site.

5 Advanced Techniques to Speed Up Your WordPress Site >>

Support 

Hostdedi provides tools that help with an optimized rollout and configuration of the servers. They provide you with separate staging and production servers. These servers allow you to test new features or a new layout on the staging server.

This server means the trial is out of sight from the public and doesn’t interrupt the existing site’s business. You can use the staging server with the one-click staging or cloning of your site. You can test your new tool or design using all the data from your live site. 

With Hostdedi hosting, you have access to a team of WordPress experts who have experience working with thousands of sites. Put simply; you aren’t alone. We’re always here to help.

Why Hosting Support Is Important >>

Choose Fully Managed Hosting from Hostdedi

Your website contributes to your business’s bottom line, so signing up for managed WordPress hosting is a prudent decision. It optimizes your site’s visibility on the net. It’s kept secure from hacking and corrupted data. And, when something goes wrong, you have a team of experts at your fingertips.

To learn more about Hostdedi fully managed hosting or to host your site with us, contact us today. Or start a free trial of Fully Managed WordPress hosting.

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The No Code Movement Explained

For a really long time, the only people who could build websites were the tech-savvy. You had to know a fair amount of code and do all of the work of creating the functionality your site needed manually. Then came platforms like WordPress, and pretty soon, user-created sites were cropping up all over the Internet. Thus, the no code movement was born.

Now, the no code movement has been typified as more than just a PaaS category, but as a mission-based business model that’s leveling the playing field for small businesses and less technical players.

What is the No Code Movement?

The no code movement is a sector of web tools that make building apps, websites, and automations easy for people with absolutely no coding knowledge. 

Sometimes called ‘low code’ or ‘visual development’, the no code movement represents an industry innovating on the heels of a mission: to make technology accessible to everyone.

Over the years, an array of tools and platforms have been developed to meet the market need for development tools that don’t require coding experience. These no code development platforms (NCDPs) have risen to the task of handling everything from visual web development, to no code form integrations, and even no code app development platforms.

In 2019, WebFlow hosted the No Code Conference in San Francisco, California, featuring industry speakers from platforms like Asana and Atlassian. Makerpad, an online community that plays host to a wide array of educational resources on the subject, now hosts over 180 tutorials and a community of over 1,500 members who grow and innovate in the space.

The no code movement has taken hold, and now, web development is officially anyone’s game.

But What About the Developer Job Market?

We’re a community of small business owners and developers here at Hostdedi, which puts us in the unique position of seeing both a benefit and a drawback to the no code movement. 

While this new array of platforms and user-friendly tools enable small businesses to get a leg up on a shoestring budget, it also means that developers are being cut out of that process in some cases.

However, in spite of the availability of these tools, the web development industry is still predicted to grow at a rate well above average. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, web development from 2019 to 2029 is predicted to grow at a rate of 8%, thanks in large part to the massive growth of the ecommerce sector.

In addition to the strong demand for ecommerce developers, the demand to develop NCDPs is also providing job security to counteract the market share those platforms are simultaneously taking.

3 Benefits of the No Code Movement

It’s not just another SaaS gimmick – the no code movement is addressing some very real problems. Here are the Benefits of the No Code Movement:

1. Reducing the Developer Backlog

When you’re working on an app, even small changes in copy and design have to be fed into the development team’s queue. More often than not, that queue is already backlogged with bug and UX fixes that trump a minor change to branding. 

With no code app development platforms, more team members can now work within the development environment, reducing the burden on developers to make minor changes to content.

2. Reducing Costs for Small Businesses

The average app can cost between $20,000 and $70,000 to develop, depending on the complexity. With no code app development platforms like Bubble, the costs can be as low as free, and as high as $500/month for developer accounts working on multiple applications.

3. Speeding Up Technological Inclusivity

It’s no secret that the tech world has struggled with inclusivity for a long time. There have been enormous pushes to diversify the industry, including coding classes for women and underserved communities, but the pace for the change that NCDPs can bring is much faster, empowering anyone with an Internet connection and a willingness to learn to go from idea-to-app in record time.

Drawbacks of the No Code Movement

Dependence on NCDP Platform

Like anything that makes starting a website or building an app easier, there are tradeoffs. In the case of NCDPs, the biggest one is your dependency on these platforms to keep your business going. 

For example, if the form building tool you’re using suddenly goes out of business, you have a broken link in your system, and you’ll need to deploy a fix that may not work with your other integrations.

Not Scalable

Another reason an NCDP may not make sense is that they’re not always scalable. While no code platforms are excellent, low-cost ways to validate an idea, ultimately as that business grows, it may require more robust solutions that require custom coding.

You can think of it like the use case for WooCommerce versus Magento. While a WooCommerce store is more user-friendly to build for someone without coding expertise and is incredibly scalable, it’s not the most practical ecommerce platform for enterprises who require extremely high-performance sites and a lot of custom development.

In short, no code development platforms work for a business until they don’t, at which point hiring a developer to build a custom solution may be required (but also, a lot more realistic given that you have an operational business at that point).

No Code Development Platforms We Love

Bubble

Bubble is a no code development platform that empowers people with zero coding experience to build custom applications.

Zapier

Zapier is an automation tool that allows you to connect different apps and set up event triggers to automate parts of your business and work, with absolutely zero coding.

Convert Pro

Convert Pro is an email opt in and lead generation plugin for WordPress sites. We love it so much, we’ve included it with our Managed WooCommerce plans at the Creator level and above.

Learn More

Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is a visual building tool for WordPress sites that allows you to create customizable drag and drop designs – no coding experience required. It’s another one of our favorite WordPress plugins, and is included with all of our Managed WordPress/WooCommerce plans at the Creator level and above.

Learn More

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is as user-friendly as it gets when it comes to email marketing. Using this user-friendly tool, you can design custom email templates and automate campaigns that sync directly with your website.

Sharetribe

Sharetribe is a no code development platform that allows users to create a dynamic marketplace site, without having to code a custom solution.

Typeform

Typeform is a no code form creator with a beautiful user experience. Using this tool, you can create custom forms that sync beautifully between your website and CRM.

Decisions

Decisions is a workflow automation tool that cuts hours out of your day by automating parts of your business for you.

There are plenty more no code tools to choose from, including n8n, Saltcorn, Rintagi, OSBP, or ManyChat.

Empowering Small Businesses with No Code Platforms

The No Code Movement is more than just a business model for platform developers. It represents another step in diversifying and democratizing the tech industry. 

The no code movement isn’t a threat to the web developers and agencies Hostdedi serves, but a way to expand opportunity to serve small businesses who can use these tools to create their own success story.

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