NexToronto Web Devleopment & Digital Marketing

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/tips-wordpress-theme-compatibility-internet-explorer/

Tips for WordPress Theme Compatibility with Internet Explorer

Recently I was asked to modify a site to work across all versions of Internet Explorer. While I consider browser compatibility of the utmost importance, being asked to have a site work in IE 7 & 8 was a bit absurd but considering the target market for the products sold on the website I might give the benefit of the doubt.

How important is it have your website run in IE7, 8 and 9 in 2016 ?

I aim to build all my sites for IE 10 and above. In my opinion there is just too little traffic coming from the dinosaurs using IE 9 and below to even bother addressing. If you want a site that looks cutting edge then you will have to sacrifice backwards compatibility in the older versions of browsers. Trying to get one of the recent WordPress themes to work with IE7-9 is like trying to use your smartphone in the 1980’s.

The image on the right provides s snapshot from Google Analytics for a 30 day period from February 1, 2016-March 1,2016 of the number of users using Internet Explorer broken by version. As you can see an insignificant amount of people (8%)are using IE 7, and 9. Remember this sample IS NOT based on the OVERALL visitors on the site, but ONLY for users using Internet Explorer 7-9.

Recently I was working on a site that uses a WordPress theme called Canvas which is sold by woothemes.com. The theme itself is called canvas since it’s a bare bones template which can be built on. It isn’t the most cutting edge template out of the box but is already backwards compatible in IE but presents a lot of style issues that need to be addressed.

If you want to address CSS issues that are for specific Internet Explorer versions you use the following tips.

1. Create a new CSS file for the IE version you’d like to apply custom CSS for. For IE7 call it something like ie7.css

2. Upload the file to the theme folder’s /css directory. If one does exist then create one so you can store all your custom css files in this folder.

3. Add the custom code below to your header.php or preferably through the WordPress dasbhoard through your theme. Most templates allow you to add additional code through the themes management tool. Below are conditional tags that can be added to the header to call the appropriate CSS when necessary.

For IE 7:

<!--[if IE 7]> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/path-to-file/relative-path/IE7.css" /> <![endif]-->

For IE 8:

<!--[if IE 8]> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/path-to-file/IE7.css" /> <![endif]-->

For IE 9:

<!--[if IE 9]> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/path-to-file/IE7.css" /> <![endif]-->

You can get more information on how these header tags work by visiting: https://css-tricks.com/how-to-create-an-ie-only-stylesheet/

4. You can test the changes using the latest version of Internet Explorer. It comes with an emulator that allows you toggle back to previous versons just by hitting F12 and selecting the browser version from the dropdown.

own.

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/billion-dollar-hipster-matt-mullenweg/

The Billion Dollar Hipster

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NexToronto develops almost all websites on WordPress. Currently it is the leading content management system and makes up over 1/4 of websites on the internet. From a blogging software it has dominated the content management market with over 70% market share.

I was originally pro-Joomla until WordPress started making giant advancements. Once I started using it I completely abandoned Joomla and a handful of other ecommerce/content management softwares. I loved how WordPress was flexible, easy to use, secure, scalable and a handful of other benefits that literally made me a WordPress enthusiast. I’ve built or worked on hundreds of websites that were built on WordPress and I feel as though I have to pay my respect to Matt Mullenwag who is the founder of WordPress.

Just recently I wanted to learn more about the guy who made a huge impact on my career and for other bloggers, marketers and businesses by introducing such a game-changing software to the world.

So who is Matt Mullenweg ?

He’s a 32 year founder of Automatic which the company behind WordPress. He’s a soft spoken entrepreneur who seems a lot like Mark Zuckerberg who do not fit the corporate profile but are both billionairres. In fact, currently Matt Mullenweg‘s net work is $40 billion.

You would think that the lead web developer for the biggest open source software would be a computer science or mathematics graduate and would look like a character from Revenge of the Nerds. But Mullenweg graduated from the University of Houston in political science and eventually dropped out to pursue a job at CNET and looks like a pretty cool cat.

Although WordPress only employs just over 400 people, it has probably created hundreds hundreds of thousands of jobs globally. Although the WordPress open source software is free to download at WordPress.org, it revenue is generated from the hosted solution at WordPress.com.

Matt has received many accolades in his career including being named #16 of out 50 most important people on the web by PC World in 2007 to top 10 most influential people on the internet in 2011 by Business Insider.

I tip my hat to Matt Mullenweg. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to meet him one day at one of the future WordCamp’s held in Toronto.

Random Facts on Matt Mullenweg:

Follow him on twitter @photomatt

He’s a big fan of Jay-Z

He typically works from home

He works on a Mac & PC AT THE SAME TIME

He’s very disorganized

Usually late

He likes to work from 1am to 5am

His mom uses WordPress

Oh yeah, he’s a BILLIONAIRE…

Matt is BOSS!

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/backlink-checker-tool/

Backlink Checker Tool by Rank Signals

I typically work with startup to medium size businesses who are oblivious to the importance of search engine optimization (SEO). The misconception is that SEO professionals can be hired who have the ability to wave a magic want and suddenly your site is outranking competitors, millions of people are visiting your website and everyone is laughing all the way to the bank. Unfortunately this is not reality. SEO takes time, effort and in most cases money.

Part of an SEO strategy should be building quality backlinks. This has always been one of the most important ranking factors however if poorly done can have the opposite effect on your website. At one point it seemed that companies in India created an entire industry out of link building since it was essentially data entry that didn’t require strong language skills as they spammed away on forums, blogs and directories. I had even used these services for simple 1 page websites which would climb the search engines only to eventually become penalized. By the time they got penalized I had already profited off them.

Today it’s important to follow the rules so that you can climb the search results and hold your place in the long run. One way to do this is to not focus on gaining a large quantity of backlinks but instead focus on quality. One way to find quality backlinks is to see who’s linking to your competitors and see if you can get a link back from the same resource. Of the many tools available to research backlinks I would rank majestic, ahrefs and open site explorer as some of the best, however they require a monthly fee.

One tool i’ve recently come across is Backlink Checker by ranksignals.com. This tools works in conjunction with is chrome extension that provides basic site data such as Google PageRank (which is about to disappear), Alexa Rank (which is a pretty useless metric), Whois (this can come in handy) and above all a backlink checker. Installing the extension takes seconds however once installed you are required to also create an account at ranksignals.com. Once your user account is created, you can now use the tool.

Simply visit a website and click on the Backlink Checker icon on the top right of your browser to view a snapshot of the website’s information. Click on unique backlinks to get a list of all the links that are pointing to that website along with the pagerank and number of links associated with the referring website. With this data you can find out what are quality websites and try and get a link on those websites. Keep in mon

This is a great way to spy on your competitors to see where they are getting their backlinks from and best of all it’s FREE.

Looking to improve your search engine rankings? Contact NexToronto today!

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/choosing-a-wordpress-theme/

Choosing a Wordpress theme

Choosing the right theme is a crucial step when developing a WordPress website. Themes now go beyond simply changing the look of your website (ie layout, graphics, css etc) but are more like an integrated software and now come with an assortment of plugins & functionality.

A common mistake made by businesses or individuals selecting WordPress themes is that they are influenced mainly by the stock photos that come with them. So if a cooking company would choose a theme it would likely include cooking stock photos or a construction company would likely select a theme with stock photos of construction.

The right way to choose a theme

Instead of looking at the stock photography used in the template it would make more sense to look at functionality, support, plugins, layout and downloads/reviews to see how credible the template is. The stock photography that come with WordPress themes can be purchased for only dollars from sites like dollarphotoclub.com and istockphoto.com.

WordPress themes typically include page builders which allow website administrators to easily manage the layout and elements on their web pages using an easy to use drag & drop interface. When using these page builders to add elements on page they generate what is called a shortcode which is essentially just a special tag that gets translated into different content on a webpage. Switching themes can have detrimental effects because the shortcodes can no longer be translated and aren’t compatible with the new page builder associated to the new theme.

3 of the top WordPress templates currently found on themeforest.com are below with their associated page builders:

Enfold -> Avia Layout Builder Avada -> Fusion Core DT the 7 -> Visual Page Builder

The most commonly found WordPress page builder is the Visual Page Builder plugin. If you purchase a template and it doesn’t have a page builder then I highly suggest purchasing this plugin.

I’ll typically ask my clients to choose a WordPress theme from themeforest.com in addition to two or three websites they find aesthetically pleasing so I can get an idea of what type of design they are aiming for. Most of the time I’ll probably use one of WordPress’s top selling themes since they are flexible enough to achieve almost any look your going for. In fact, I can show you examples of sites I’ve developed using the 3 themes mentioned above and how they look nothing like their demo version.

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/https-domains-seo/

We Analyzed the HTTPS Settings of 10,000 Domains and How It Affects Their SEO – Here’s What We Learned

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/wordpress-training-now-available/

WordPress Training Toronto

Every NexToronto client always receives free training along with their website. Since we deliver content management systems which are typically developed in WordPress we decided to extend our training to individuals, businesses, students and bloggers who want to know more about WordPress. Having worked with WordPress for over 10 years we can gained an extensive understanding of this open source software and best practices. While you can sign up for free WordPress meetup groups in Toronto, they are typically used to lure individuals to pay for services. We also found that their training isn’t very focused on the individual or businesses needs. Our training ensures that when you leave our WordPress training session you will have the confidence to operate WordPress and all your questions answered.

This means that they can:

Create new company pages

Manage navigational menu’s

Create new blogs

Manage their online shop or catalogue

Update their home page content

Manage page elements such as images, video, sliders etc.

And more!

While many companies don’t provide this service so that they can charge for every little change. We like to educate our clients so that they can manage almost any aspect of their website. If our clients don’t want to be bothered with managing their own sites this is not a problem. We can provide monthly maintenance packages or simply charge by the hour at our affordable rate.

I am now offering WordPress training for individuals or groups interested in learning about the most widely used content management system in the world.

Who can benefit from our WordPress training ?

Students – Who are interested in attaining a basic understanding of managing content on WordPress. Currently there are many jobs looking for content managers, bloggers, content producers and marketing specialists who can manage company websites. We can provide you with an understanding on how to manage a WordPress website effectively.

Bloggers – Who are looking to run their own WordPress blogs more effectively. We can provide you with the same information as mentioned above plus help you get the right plugins installed to supercharge your blog to get more traffic, be more social and help you optimize your posts for search.

Business Owners/Staff – Who are simply looking to manage their content so they don’t have to pay their web company every time they need a small change made to their site.

Those looking to earn from their sites – If you’d like to learn how to make money from your WordPress website or blog then we can show you the way through the use of affiliate marketing or banner advertising programs that are free to join. This training session can potentially pay for itself.

Anyone who wants to learn about WordPress, has specific questions they need answered or about their custom WordPress website functionality.

NexToronto WordPress Developers can help you gain an understanding of the world’s #1 content management system. If you’re interested in signing up for an individual or group session just fill out the form below so we can schedule your first training session. We charge an hourly rate or can provide a group discount on WordPress Training.

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/a-quick-sunday-seo-rant/

A Quick Sunday SEO Rant

I first started on my journey to study SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 10 years ago when I was working at an infomercial channel. The site was typically getting about 2-300 organic visits per day and I went on a mission to figure out how I could rank for specific keywords and increase overall qualified traffic. Eventually I was able to get traffic up to 2-3000 organic visits per day and ranking for almost every brand on the website.

I absorbed everything I could from reading online articles, reading books, chatting on forums and eventually took a course in SEO which was almost pointless since I had self-taught myself much of the course prior to taking it. I could confidentally say I have a good understanding of SEO, clearly NOT to the extent of somebody like Rand Fishkin or a Matt Cutts. Just enough to give my clients an edge.

SEO is still such an ambiguous topic. People think that I have the knowledge to get their sites ranked at the top of search engines for extremely competative keywords magically. If I really did have this power I would probably be sipping margheritas on the beach right now instead of writing this blog.

I’ve met people in the SEO community in Toronto who deem themselves to be SEO experts but I’ve always looked at many of them as snake oil salesmen. I always think “If you really could guarantee your clients top ranking in search then why wouldn’t you do this to your own website?” or more obvious, “why not use that knowledge with affiliate marketing and make a million dollars?”.

I believe most businesses that hire someone an SEO will typically be dissapointed with the results or at least how long it will take for them to be top of the search for a competative keyword. I’d much rather

I offer a BASIC on-page SEO setup with all my websites. I also explain to my clients how they can further optimize their website and that it takes a very long time depending on the popularity of the keyword and what the competition is like. My clients are typically happy with my service and tend to rank well for multiple keywords and do very well in local search.

I recently spoke to a successful digital marketer who admitted he got out of SEO because there were no guarantees anymore. Today SEO is mostly about creating quality content and less to with building backlinks, repeating your target keyword on a page or whatever tactics I was using 5 years ago when I was a successful affiliate marketer.

I get emails almost daily from companies (typically in India) who make false promises about how they can optimize my site. I once asked them to send me an example of the work they would do or paid them for a sample of what I can expect and to no surprise it was just poor backlinks and even poorer suggestions on how to improve my on-page SEO. If you get one of these emails just delete it. You can expect success from these companies as much as your chances of getting that money from the prince of Nigeria.

Don’t get me wrong, I still believe SEO is still one of the most important factors in building your online presence. Most clients are more interested in how their website will look in the end as their top priority while completely neglecting whether any SEO or internet marketing strategy was implemented. Hiring the wrong developers will likely get them a beautiful website hidden from the world.

Looking to get a great website that is found online ? Contact NexToronto WordPress Development & Internet Marketing today!

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/monetize-your-wordpress-blog/

Monetize Your WordPress Blog

Affiliate marketing has definitely become more challenging over the years, especially since Google launched algorithmic updates that basically wiped out or affected thousands of affiliate based websites like some of my own. While many affiliate marketers pounded their fist in the sand I completely understood since Google’s mandate is to return the best possible results to the end user and most affiliate sites are just middle men between the consuer and the site selling.

Comparison shopping websites like Shopzilla, PriceGrabber, NexTag, BizRate and Shopping.com were giants in the affiliate industry and may still be. However it would be hard for me to believe that their model still works today as well as it had when we all were riding the affiliate gravy train pre-2009. As a web developer creating a site and populating it with products required no effort. I would scrape or patch together content using multiple sources and without surprise I were ranking above sites that sold the product. Of course some of my Search Engine Optimization tactics being used would be considered “Black Hat SEO” by today’s standards.

Today affiliate marketing is still alive however you really have to be a site that offers unique and engaging content. This is a talent that is extremely difficult to come by and is truly an art that I have not mastered myself. So if you’re a blogger and have a large readership there is much potential for you to be earning through affiliate marketing. Affiliate Marketing is a billion dollar industry so somebody must be doing it right.

Amazon Affiliate Plugin Worth Checking Out

WordPress has many affiliate marketing plugins available. One WordPress plugin that I’ve experimented with was WooZone. This plugin works with WooCommerce and connects to your Amazon affiliate account. Once configured you can easily search products through your WordPress dashboard, select and import them directly into your WooCommerce store. This plugin will import all product data including images, content, prices etc. I’ll admit this plugin would have been great 10 years ago but it can still be used today.

So let’s say you have a blog about fitness and nutrition. By using the WooZone plugin you could create a catalogue on your website of products related to your industry and also link to those products within your content. So If you wrote an article comparing different dextox programs (which are available on amazon) then you can either link to the WooCommere product page on your website or simply link directly to the Amazon page itself which in my opinion be more beneficial.

Another great feature found with this WordPress affiliate plugin is that it can suggest products that are most relevant to the content on your website. So instead of creating links and pages, it will automate this process for you. This approach is similar to the way Google AdSense works however affiliate payouts are much more rewarding in my opinion.

If you like to order the WooZone Affiliate Plugin you can find it below:

.fusion-button.button-1 .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-1 i color:#787878;.fusion-button.button-1 border-width:1px;border-color:#787878;.fusion-button.button-1 .fusion-button-icon-dividerborder-color:#787878;.fusion-button.button-1:hover .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-1:hover i,.fusion-button.button-1:focus .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-1:focus i,.fusion-button.button-1:active .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-1:activecolor:#787878;.fusion-button.button-1:hover, .fusion-button.button-1:focus, .fusion-button.button-1:activeborder-width:1px;border-color:#787878;.fusion-button.button-1:hover .fusion-button-icon-divider, .fusion-button.button-1:hover .fusion-button-icon-divider, .fusion-button.button-1:active .fusion-button-icon-dividerborder-color:#787878;.fusion-button.button-1background: #e8e8e8; background-image: -webkit-gradient( linear, left bottom, left top, from( #d6d6d6 ), to( #e8e8e8 ) ); background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient( bottom, #d6d6d6, #e8e8e8 ); background-image: -moz-linear-gradient( bottom, #d6d6d6, #e8e8e8 ); background-image: -o-linear-gradient( bottom, #d6d6d6, #e8e8e8 ); background-image: linear-gradient( to top, #d6d6d6, #e8e8e8 );.fusion-button.button-1:hover,.button-1:focus,.fusion-button.button-1:activebackground: #d6d6d6;.fusion-button.button-1width:auto;BUY WOOZONE AFFILIATE PLUGIN

If you currently own a high traffic blog and looking into making some extra income by monetizing your WordPress website then schedule a 3 hour 1 on 1 training session with NexToronto.

In our session we will cover:

1.) Setting up Affiliate accounts

2 )Basic On-Page SEO i) installation of WordPress SEO Plugin ii) managing title tags, meta description, keyword tags etc.

3) Social Media Setup & Best Practices i) Using HootSuite ii) Setting up Auto-Post with Twitter & FaceBook

4) Recommended WordPress Plugins Setup & Configuration

5) How to affiliate offers within your content

6) Google Adsense Setup

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/why-you-should-use-wordpress/

Why You Should Use WordPress?

I recently had a conversation with another web developer who works at a high profile app company who stated that he hated WordPress. As a WordPress expert in Toronto these words were like blasphemy. What’s there to hate ? It’s true there may be some projects that might require a different opensource platform however with almost all my projects WordPress has become almost a standard. Through its countless themes/plugins you can transform a website to look and function completely different than the next WordPress site. Whether you want to create a simple site, customer portal, ecommerce/catalog, online community or blog, WordPress is the perfect solution.

1. It’s FREE

WordPress is an opensource software which means it’s completely free. You can download a copy at WordPress.org or install it in seconds through your control panel through most web hosting companies.

2. It’s easy to manage your content

You can easily manage your content from an administrative dashboard. Adding or editing content is as easy as using Microsoft Word. I can train someone how to manage their WordPress website in 20 minutes.

3. There are thousands of available plugins available on WordPress.org

Plugins offer additional functionality that can be added to your website very easily. You can perform one-click installations from the WordPress plugin library to supercharge your website.

5. Google loves WordPress

WordPress is built to be SEO friendly which is why it’s loved by Google. You can install additional plugins such as YOAST for SEO or Google XML sitemaps to further optimize your website for search.

6. Thousands of themes that are mobile friendly and aesthetically pleasing

Just go to themeforest.com and choose from hundreds of beautiful WordPress themes and amazing plugins that typically cost an average of $50. Most themes that can be purchased typically include a handful of plugins such as sliders, page builders and other functionality. You can easily manage the look of your site through your WordPress dashboard.

7. It’s the #1 CMS used in the World

Not only is it the #1 CMS in the world but it’s also used by high profile websites that can be found by visiting the Showcase page on WordPress.org. Some notable sites include:

Vogue

Ringling Brothers and Barnum Baily Circus

Dole

Mercedez-Benz

Rush

Microsoft

Glad

Snoop Dog

Sylvester Stallone

8. Amazing community available online to help

The WordPress community is excellent if you need to ask any questions. I typically get an answer within 24 hours of posting a question on WordPress.org. For most paid themes & plugins i’ve sometimes gotten answers within hours.

If you’re looking to hire a WordPress expert than contact NexToronto WordPress Development today!

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/website-responsive-tester/

Website Responsive Tester

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/wordpress-plugin-migrate-joomla-to-wordpress/

WordPress Plugin: Migrate Joomla to WordPress

About 10 years ago I transitioned from using Joomla as my primary choice of content management systems (CMS) to build websites over to developing almost exclusively in WordPress. According to statistics WordPress makes up more than half of all CMS based websites on the internet while Joomla only makes up 8%. This is still pretty high however that number is dwindling as more websites switch over to WordPress.

I recently had a project where I had to rebuild clients website from Joomla to WordPress. The original site had almost 300 pages of content which I wasn’t about to migrate manually and I wasn’t about to pay a company to perform this task since there are companies that charge big money for CMS migration services. FG Joomla to WordPress is a WordPress plugin that accomplishes this task however I hit a snag when I tried using it.

The issue I came across was that it wouldn’t connect to the Joomla site to allow the import. I came up with the idea of just exporting the Joomla database and importing it into the same database as my WordPress install and then setting up the parameters to reference the local Joomla database. When I connected the plugin to reference the Joomla DB locally it worked like a charm.

I was able to migrate all pages successfully however another you will still need to audit the content. For instance if you have links/images that are referenced using relative paths then you will have to edit them manually. Installing a broken link checker plugin can help you identify them quickly.

Don’t forget to setup 301 redirects that point all your old pages to your new pages. This is to avoid visitors visiting pages that do not exist anymore. To avoid this from happening I recommend using a WordPress plugin for this called EPS Redirects. This plugin will allow you to set the original URL and point it to the new URL. In addition to this I also suggest re-submitting a new XML sitemap through your Google Webmaster Tools account to let Google know which pages on your site to index.

I was able to accomplish the task by using the free version of this WordPress plugin. You can purchase the premium version which provides additional features such as migrating authors, users, passwords, navigation menus and more.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this Joomla to WordPress plugin feel free to leave them in the comments below.

.fusion-button.button-9 .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-9 i color:#787878;.fusion-button.button-9 border-width:1px;border-color:#787878;.fusion-button.button-9 .fusion-button-icon-dividerborder-color:#787878;.fusion-button.button-9:hover .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-9:hover i,.fusion-button.button-9:focus .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-9:focus i,.fusion-button.button-9:active .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-9:activecolor:#787878;.fusion-button.button-9:hover, .fusion-button.button-9:focus, .fusion-button.button-9:activeborder-width:1px;border-color:#787878;.fusion-button.button-9:hover .fusion-button-icon-divider, .fusion-button.button-9:hover .fusion-button-icon-divider, .fusion-button.button-9:active .fusion-button-icon-dividerborder-color:#787878;.fusion-button.button-9background: #e8e8e8; background-image: -webkit-gradient( linear, left bottom, left top, from( #d6d6d6 ), to( #e8e8e8 ) ); background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient( bottom, #d6d6d6, #e8e8e8 ); background-image: -moz-linear-gradient( bottom, #d6d6d6, #e8e8e8 ); background-image: -o-linear-gradient( bottom, #d6d6d6, #e8e8e8 ); background-image: linear-gradient( to top, #d6d6d6, #e8e8e8 );.fusion-button.button-9:hover,.button-9:focus,.fusion-button.button-9:activebackground: #d6d6d6;.fusion-button.button-9width:auto;Download the FG Joomla to WordPress plugin

  If you are looking to hire a WordPress expert contact NexToronto today!

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/death-of-an-affiliate-marketer/

Death of an Affiliate Marketer

In 2004 I learned about affiliate marketing almost by accident as it became part of an experiment that combined by web development skills with my ability to optimize websites in search. The cost was low and the reward was high. For instance I would purchase a domain for $15, a hosting package for $5/month, build a quick website and promote products within a certain niche that were offered through various affiliate networks. My search engine optimization knowledge I had gained over the years came in handy as I would optimize product names I was trying to market and occasionally create microsites around my high performing products in order to outrank my competitors and monopolize search. It worked for a few years. Today most of the tactics I used would easily fall under what is called Black Hat SEO and would get sites penalized in search.

Within months from starting out as an affiliate marketer I was making hundreds per day and 1 summer I can remember the payouts reaching the thousands. I was on cloud nine. Things were going so well that I had quit my job that I had for years to focus on my newly created careers. I lie a simple and happy life out in the country. It felt as though I had won a lottery. My day consisted of working out daily, being in sweat pants all day with almost no stress. Unfortunately that gravy train crashed.

Like many affiliate marketers who relied heavily on organic traffic my sites were barely earning enough for me to survive. Google’s objective is to return the best results to end users and since Affiliate marketing is just a bridge between consumers and the sites that actually sell the products on their sites, I understand why their algorithms changed to affect affiliate marketing websites like mine.

Many affiliate marketers like myself had to get jobs as their sites dwindled or vanished in search due to Google’s algorithmic changes such as Panda and Penguin. Like others I started to earn less and less. This  once easy way of making money I had discovered years earlier had almost perished, however the truth still remains – affiliate marketing is still alive and well.

2 BIG mistakes I made in my affiliate marketing career

1) I didn’t diversify my online marketing strategy

Instead I heavily relied on organic search traffic. Affiliate marketers who survived the online apocolypse were those who were savvy enough with their online strategy. This included those who were successful with social media, search engine marketing, email marketing or those offering unique & interesting content.

2) I offered little to no original content

My websites didn’t have the most appealing content nor was it original for the most part. It was poorly written or “Frankenstein” content. I created online catalogues that weren’t any different than the shopping comparison sites like shopping.com and shopzilla.com who were affiliate giants also affected. I believe websites or blogs that offer content that keep their visitors coming back will always be successful in affiliate marketing. Promoting products on your website that are related to your industry or niche is just one way to succeed.

Today my career is not focused solely on affiliate marketing. I do still get monthly cheques from multiple affiliate networks however smaller they may be from my once glorious heyday. This year I plan on making a comeback in the affiliate game with a new strategy and a new team. This affiliate marketer has not thrown in the towel just yet and is very much alive.

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/5-essential-plugins-to-supercharge-your-website/

5 Essential Plugins to Supercharge your Website

With every website launched by NexToronto you can expect the following WordPress plugins to be typically installed on websites we develop. These plugins an benefit almost any website making them more search engine friendly, easily create custom forms, improve social sharing, tell Google which pages to index and improve web page maintenance.

1. Yoast for SEO

Yoast for SEO is a game changer. This is typically the first plugin I will install on almost every WordPress website and i’m sure almost every web developer would agree with this. This WordPress SEO plugin has evolved immensely over the years and allows you to optimize your website for search by allowing you to easily manage meta information, page analysis, XML  sitemaps, social integration and more.

2. Contact form 7

If you’re looking to have contact forms or custom forms on your website you can easily achieve this through this easy to use ajax-powered WordPress plugin. You can create multiple forms on your website, create new fields, supports CAPTCHA and anti-spam filtering and more. Contact form 7 is great for websites that require custom forms such as request a quote forms, appointment booking or just a simple contact form.

3. Super Socializer

I find when it comes to social media plugins for WordPress there are many to choose from and each have their unique benefits. I’ve integrated this social media plugin on a number of websites. It provides the ability to integrate social sharing, social comments and a social login to your WordPress website.

4. Visual Composer

This WordPress plugin is a page builder that allows you to easily manage web pages through a drag and drop interface. It allows you to easily customize the layout of your page including 60+ predefined layouts, 45+ content elements and includes over 150 3rd party addons. It’s commonly found on purchasable themes on Envato and has been used on over 1 million websites. I will typically install this plugin if a page builder isn’t already included with the WordPress theme I’m working with.

5. Google Analytics for WordPress

This plugin is one that I find useful since it provides a snapshot of how your website is performing and provides key web analytics reports right from your dashboard. This plugin can be installed in minutes and provides real-time data and an in-depth look at visitors, acquisition channels and traffic sources without having to login to your Google Analytics dashboard. It gives my clients a snapshot of how their website is performing rather than being left in the dark as many web development companies have been known to do.

If you’d like assistance installing these plugins or to improve your WordPress website than feel free to give us a call at 416.893.3231.

NexToronto is a professional WordPress Development company that can help your business succeed online.

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/seo-toronto/

Are you being found online ?

Unfortunately for most startup businesses looking to get a new website will typically hire based on cost. In my experience very few of them even ask for a portfolio which I’ve always found strange. Both of these two factors are very important when hiring a person or business to build your website but 1 major factor is overlooked which I would say is even more important than the two factors mentioned. SEARCH VISIBILITY.

A simple test can be done to verify whether the company you are hiring is going to provide search visibility. Google the company names of websites they’ve created in the past. Are they showing up first in search for their company names or are they invisible to the World Wide Web ? In my opinion if they can’t get the website to rank for their company name then you may not be making a sound investment in your web presence.

Ranking for competitive keywords is one thing but I believe your website should be ranked #1 for it’s company name. I’ve revamped a couple websites in the last few months who had paid marketing companies to build there sites and weren’t even found for their business name on page 1 of the Google search results.

1 example is the site Ma Maison Gourmet (www.mamaisongourmet.ca) a recent site we revamped. This site was outranked by www.mamaison.com however after our basic SEO setup they are enjoying the top spot for their company name or even just “Ma Maison”.

After implementing Nextoronto’s Basic SEO setup for Ma Maison Gourmet they are sitting comfortably on top of the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page) in just under a month. The Basic SEO setup we provide  is something  included with all NexToronto WordPress websites developed. We take pride in seeing our clients succeed online and believe that your websites should be a marketing tool to help your business succeed. After all, what good is your website if nobody an find you ?

If you’re looking to hire the right web company to build you a website that has visiblity in search then hire the best WordPress experts in Toronto and contact NexToronto today!

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/how-to-improve-wordpress-website-performance/

How to improve WordPress website performance

Having a slow loading website can have a drastic negative impact on your website and bottom line. Just think about what you would do when you get to a website that takes forever to load.

How page speed can impact a website:

40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

A 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.

If an e-commerce site is making $100,000 per day, a 1 second page delay could potentially cost you $2.5 million in lost sales every year.

Having a high performance website can not only affect usability & conversions on your website but it can also affect how your website ranks in Google. Google’s objective is to return the “best” results to the end user’s queries so you can safely assume that having a slow website can be detrimental to your websites ranking.

WordPress has several plugins that are available that can improve the speed and performance of your website. I’ve tested several to see which work well together and make the greatest impact to performance.

One WordPress plugin that you can be installed to make a small impact to your WordPress website is WP Performance Score Booster. Simply install it through your WordPress plugin dashboard and activate it and you’ll see similar improvements featured below. I have tested this plugin on a default installation that is running the Avada WordPress theme which is one of the most popular WordPress themes available however it’s unfortunately very slow according to gtmetrix.com.

The Benefits of installing WP Performance Score Booster include:

Remove any query strings from static resources like CSS & JS files

Enable GZIP compression (compress text, html, javascript, css, xml and so on)

Add Vary: Accept-Encoding header, and

Set expires caching (leverage browser caching).

BEFORE AFTER

Building quality WordPress websites is what we do. While most web developers & marketing agencies will typically give you a bare bones WordPress install,  NexToronto provides the best WordPress plugins that will make your website perform better for your visitors & business.

Looking for a WordPress Development company in Toronto ? Contact NexToronto Web Development today at 416.893.3231 or email us today.

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/yoast-for-seo-wordpress-plugin/

YOAST for SEO WordPress Plugin

One of the biggest benefits to getting your website built by NexToronto is having a website found in search. In my opinion this is the most important piece to a website which most web developers/web designers/web companies tend to skip. It amazes me when I’ll look at an established company and notice they have “Home” as their main page title tag.

Search Engine Optimization is something that is incorporated with all NexToronto websites since we believe your website shouldn’t be an art piece sitting on a server. Instead it should be a marketing tool that generates sales/leads and promotes your business.

We develop our websites mostly in WordPress which is the world’s leading content management system for numerous reasons. With every installation by NexToronto Web Development we typically install a certain set of plugins that will supercharge your online marketing efforts and optimize your site for search. Yoast for SEO is a WordPress plugin that is one of them.

This out of the box SEO plugin can be installed in seconds from your WordPress dashboard through the plugins repository or by visiting WordPress.org. Since 2008 it has evolved into a plugin that goes far beyond just managing your on-page SEO.

Some of the benefits of using YOAST for SEO include:

On-Page Analysis – This WordPress SEO plugin acts like an SEO checklist for your pages to make sure your on-page SEO elements such as title tag length, keyword use, whether your content is long enough, use of subheadings and other on-page factors that will help increase your chances of ranking for a particular keyword. YOAST for SEO will provide a score and greenlight if you’ve used the focus keyword correctly on the page.

XML Sitemaps – Sitemaps are used to tell search engines which pages to crawl within your website. It is not visible to users but submitted to search engine tools such as Google Webmaster Tools or Bing Webmaster Tools. YOAST allows you to configure and generate a sitemap for your website.

Social Media Integration – It is well known that social media is can influence search engine rankings. YOAST improves the way your content is shared through Facebook, Twitter and Google+ by filling out meta information.

There are many other SEO plugins available for WordPress such as Platinum SEO however YOAST for SEO has been my first choice for years. In fact it’s the first plugin I install with any WordPress installation.

If you’re looking for a reliable WordPress Developer in Toronto then contact NexToronto Web Development today! We specialize in WordPress development, search engine optimization, social media marketing and most of all can help your business grow it’s online marketing efforts.

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New Post has been published on WordPress Development Toronto

New Post has been published on http://nextoronto.com/wordpress-customizable-search-plugin/

WordPress Customizable Search Plugin

WordPress has literally thousands of plugins available to choose from in their library. As I’ve said in previous posts I always try to experiment with as many as I can to improve my arsenal. This is how I’ve been able to create my go-to list of WordPress plugins I typically install on most websites. Once in a while I’ll be faced with a challenge that will require me to customize existing WordPress plugins such as a recent project I was working on which required me to create a resource library page that looked and functioned similar to the one found on this page http://www.telmetrics.com/resources/

I tested different search plugins but none provided even close to the desired result. I eventually stumbled upon the WordPress Search & Filter plugin which was very flexible, intuitive and customizable. Through the backend I was able to customize how my search form was going to function and which categories to filter. It uses Ajax on the front end to display the results. With the help of their support forums and a little PHP/CSS I was able to pull off the design and functionality I wanted.

Some of the modifications I made to the WordPress Search & Filter Plugin included:

1. Using CSS to make the search bar horizontal instead of the standard vertical design. 2. Modifying the template to display the results in a two column layout by working with the WordPress templates design 3. Adding the featured image on the left of the search result 4. Adding a clickable button to the search results 5. Displaying the categories in a linear format instead of the bullet format

If you’re interested in the Search & Filter WordPress plugin you can find it by visiting the link below. Although there is a free version available, it’s very limited so I highly recommend paying the $20 and getting the premium version.

http://www.designsandcode.com/wordpress-plugins/search-filter-pro/

Their is a support forum that you can use to post any questions you may have. It typically takes about 24-48 hours for their support to get back to you but they were very helpful in providing any answers I needed.

If you are looking to hire a WordPress Expert in Toronto contact NexToronto WordPress Development at 416.893.3231