RSS

Blog

The Benefits of a Strong nopCommerce Website
The Benefits of a Strong nopCommerce Website

nopCommerce is an e-commerce platform providing solutions to small and big online stores. If offers a multitude of shopping experience like order processing, discount options, tier pricing, news, blogs, user reviews, and private messages.

Utilizing nopCommerce functionalities will give your business benefits and advantages. Here are the benefits of nopCommerce development.

  • It is free. The product is supported by a team of professional software engineers, developers, graphic designers, customer care specialists, quality assurance, and product managers. You can bring your businessto a new level by using a world-class business solution without paying. And with the team of professional support, you are assured of getting quality support if the need arises.
  • Highly customizable – it allows Facebook-based login
  • Allows popular payment portals
  • It comes with a multi-store feature
  • It also comes with drop shipping feature
  • It allows integration of YouTube videos
  • SEO friendly
  • nopCommerce allows integration with shipping and couriers
  • It offers discounts, gift cards, and coupons
  • Easy to use and source code can be downloaded for free
  • It is stable

The amazing benefits of nopCommerce can greatly improve your business and customer experience. The use of this open-source business solution can offer impressive functionality.

nopCommerce is great for a business start-up as the platform does not require intensive technical knowledge. And since it is for free, downloading and installing it on Microsoft Azure is simple.

With the growing numbers of online shopping day by day, eCommerce is gaining more attention. It has become an important part of every business. Many companies offer eCommerce solutions to cater to the demands, but notnopCommerce remains on top of the list of eCommerce owners and professionals.

nopCommerce supports HTML/XML sitemaps and SEO specific activities which make your website visible in search engines. With nopCommerce features, your site content can be easily optimized to make sure it ranks higher in search engine results.

Appearing on the first page ranking helps you attract potential customers and sales. And if you have multiple stores, you can manage both in one single backend framework. Saves time, saves money.

nopCommerce solution also features ease of use payment process. This feature saves your business from incomplete purchases or abandoned cart scenarios. With the single payment process feature, customers are guided to easy payment and check out processes which make it time and energy saving. And with less hassle on payment and check out process, customers are likely to make future purchases again. More sales, more profit.

nopCommerce is not only easy to install but also stable and secure. Most of all, it offers an unparalleled cost – absolutely free. It is versatile and can be customized according to your business needs. With the help of a .NET developer, you can add the elements and features that can help in customer sales and retention.

With its powerful features, nopCommerce is one of the most preferred business solution to online business owners worldwide. Small or big, established, or just starting up, businesses should go for nopCommerce. Without a doubt, nopCommerce almost has everything you need for your eCommerce store.

Top 5 Advantages of an Online Store (Especially Now!)
Top 5 Advantages of an Online Store (Especially Now!)

The Internet has changed the way we shop. As time and technology progress, more and more people prefer to shop online due to numerous benefits. Small and big businesses anywhere in the world utilized the Internet for selling goods and services.

With the current COVID19 pandemic that the world is experiencing, everything has shifted. Some parts of the world are still on lockdown. And with limited movements, online shopping has been a huge help for people to purchase almost everything they need.

Online stores and Internet shopping have several advantages and benefits. Below are the top 5 advantages of an online store:

1. Convenient – the foremost reason why online stores are the real deal in today’s Internet era. Online shopping allows you to shop in the comfort of your own home. You do not have to step out of the house asshopping can be done in just a few taps of your fingertips. You do not have to wait for official store hours to do your shopping. No traffic. Lesshassle.

2. Cheaper Rates – most online stores sell products that are direct from the supplier or manufacturer; hence prices are cheaper compared to regular physical stores. Also, with the ongoing competition, online stores constantly offer shopping deals and discounts to attract regular and new customers.

3. Saves time – online stores save you time from going to and from the store. It also saves you time from waiting in long lines to wait for checkout. As most online stores offer more varieties, you save time from going from one store to another just to buy the product that you need.

4. Easy and no pressure – online stores do not have the regular sales staff that can influence you on what product to buy which you might end up regretting, spending on unnecessary things. With online shopping, you can take your time to thoroughly check the products available.

Also, it gives you ample time to make price and product comparisons. Online consumer reviews and ratings are accessible that can help you come up with a wise online shopping decision.

5. No schedule – unlike physical stores and shops, you can access products and services anytime, As long as you have an Internet connection, you can shop 24/7, 365 days a year. You do not have to wait for business hours to be able to make a purchase. Online stores offer a multitude of advantages for consumers across the globe. In a way, it gives consumers the freedom to choose the product that they want without the influence of a store assistant. It is a refreshing experience for individuals who hate crowded places. Online stores save shoppers travel time. It saves shoppers to avoid busy streets. Lastly, online stores and online shopping save shoppers fuel usage.Some things are better done at home and that includes shopping. With the ongoing COVID19 pandemic, the more reason for shoppers to take advantage of the comfort which online stores bring.

SEO Guide to Content Writing

What was the March 12 Update (Medic)?

The first Google Update of 2019 has caused major upheaval in the global search results. The update was a follow up to an existing update on August 2018 called Medic. This update directly affected websites that are considered a part of the Your Money, Your Life (YMYL) category.

Sites that fall under the YMYL categorization include sites that offer any kind of financial or health-related advice, products, or services. Google holds these sites to a higher standard because the content, products, and services on these sites will have a lasting effect on users.

In order to demonstrate to Google that the website is worthy of ranking for queries related to the health space, we must ensure that all technical aspects of the site adhere to the proper SEO guidelines and all content follows the rules related to Expertise, Authority, and Trust (E.A.T.)

You can learn more about E.A.T. and YMYL directly from Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (a guide Google provides to human website raters). This guide will also cover aspects of E.A.T. related to the company and an implementation guide.

 

June Core Update

Google never confirms what their updates are about. What is known about the update is that it directly affects content and the number of search results from websites that are displayed in SERPs (search engine results pages).

It’s believed that the update focuses on quality content, much like E.A.T. on a large scale.

Additionally, websites will be limited on the number of results that appear on a single SERP. For instance, where some companies may have appeared in 3 of the 10 results on page one for a search query; the algorithm will now limit that to 1 result. This means companies can no longer dominate on results for certain queries. It also means that companies have a higher chance to rank for more keywords.

 

E.A.T.

Expertise

– Establish expertise by developing unique content that highlights our knowledge in our target niche and related industries. Create blog posts that focus on providing niche insights while including citations from the perspective of a niche professional.

Authoritativeness

– Implement authorship to blog pages and credit posts to specific team members. Each author MUST have their own author page, similar to a LinkedIn page. Continue to write trending, timely blogs that focus on industry-related news. Ensure that all accreditation, sponsorships, and partnerships are on the site and clearly visible to users.

Trustworthiness

– Place additional focus on gaining links from trustworthy websites across the internet. This can include guest posts and quotes through HARO. All instances of NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) must be consistent across the internet and the website must be secure.

 

E.A.T. Best Practices (In order of importance)

-        Ensure all content fully, clearly, and accurately discusses the topic

-        Attribute resources and content to an author with credentials and experience

-        Create an Author page for said author

-        Add an “author blurb” to the bottom of the page (with links to social media)

-        Add citations when discussing facts or making any claims whatsoever

-        Link to valuable resources (internal and externally)

-        Quote industry influencers (non-competitive niche sites)

-        Outreach to gain links from valuable sources 

 

Google Is Your Toughest Professor

Think of Google as the strictest, toughest, pain-in-the-ass professor you had in college. The professor that would nitpick EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of your essays and tear them apart writing things like: “this is fluff”, “this section does not make sense”, “not enough sources”, “try again”.

Google does the same kind of nitpicking. However, instead of an F on your paper, Google will not rank you. No ranking is an F.

When you write content, think to yourself: “What would that hard-ass professor say about this post?” And be honest with yourself. Because Google does not accept extra credit, but you can keep trying. So keep writing good content!

 

Defining an Audience

Interpretation

NOTE: Don’t just consider your current audience, consider the audience you WANT to read your blog, the audience you WANT to purchase your product/service. If the audience you want includes 45-year-old women with kids and an executive position, write for THEM. You can and should infuse your passion, but it must SPEAK to the audience you WANT. The audience you WANT are CUSTOMERS – they buy, they order, they need your product/service.

We must always be writing for a target audience. Our content should be relevant to that audience, should interest them, should flow in a voice that they can relate with.

Write content that appeals to the interests of your target market and/or answers their questions. Not all posts need to be about your product or service, but they all should be industry related (See Below: High Final Targeting). Assert yourself and your company as an expert in your industry by writing content that is interesting and informative and do it better than your competition.

When creating an audience, consider:

-        Age

-        Location

-        Gender

-        Race

-        Family and relationship status

-        Income

-        Problems (this is what we want to solve!)

-        Interests

-        Favorite websites

-        Favorite social media sites

You can have multiple target audiences for the business overall. Each product or service may have its own target audience. The most important things to identify are the needs and problems of your target audience in order to provide a solution.

 

Unique Selling Proposal

As you may already know, a “Unique Selling Proposition,” or USP, is one of the main ways a company can differentiate itself in any industry. To choose a great USP, you need to put yourself in the shoes of a specific customer. Identifying the needs, expectations, and problems of your target audience not only helps you to understand them better, but it also ensures that you’re creating a product or service that’s going to have a real impact on the marketplace.

Think about what problems your target customer suffers from in their day-to-day life, and how your product solves those issues for them.

 

Empathetic Journey Exercise

The following exercise can help you uncover more details about your audience. This exercise is also great to do BEFORE you begin writing an article.

-        Get comfortable and try to relax. Close your eyes.

-        Begin the day in the mind of someone in your target audience.

-        “Wake up” in their shoes.

-        Pay attention to what you see.

-        Are they alone in bed?

-        What kind of house are they in?

-        Do they have kids?

-        Do they immediately check their email on their phone?

-        Do they immediately check their social media profile?

-        What do they have for breakfast?

-        What do they wear to work?

-        Where do they work?

-        What kind of car do they drive?

-        Do they catch the bus?

-        Are they heading to the airport to travel to a conference?

-        What is their boss asking them to do today?

-        What is stressing them out?

-        What are they happy about?

-        How are they communicating with coworkers or employees?

-        What part of their day are they dreading?

-        What part of their day can we improve?

Make notes where possible.

 

Profile Existing Customers

Do we already have information about our target audience? From other marketing sources, from other people within the business? Use Google Analytics to also look for indicators that help us define the audience. Look at “affinity” and “market section.”

NOTE: Remember, your current audience is not necessarily your target audience.

 

Competitor Check

Who are our competitors targeting? Read their content and get a sense of their audience. Focus on content that is ranking well for them.

Remember, this is also an opportunity to find their GAPS. If they are missing content or target audiences, that’s our opportunity!

 

EXAMPLE 1: I want to promote my wedding venue.

USP: It is a small venue, with a garden and the option to get in-house catering. It’s affordable compared to my competitors and its location in South Florida.

AUDIENCE: My audience is mostly female. Recently engaged, mother of the engaged, or wedding planners. My venue is affordable so I can target younger ages because they can afford it. I want to target ages 24 – 35. They are very money conscious because they cannot afford a lavish ceremony. My outdoor garden is beautiful and a big USP, so it will look great for their wedding pics and they will post them all over Instagram.

 

EXAMPLE 2: I want to promote my golf course.

USP: My golf course does not require a membership to play, unlike the businesses in the area. It is also an Eagle course designed by a world-renowned architect.

AUDIENCE: My current audience is made of mostly white males 45+, mid-tier income. They use the course to meet up with friends, escape from the family for a few hours and sometimes do business. Most of them use it as an escape for a few hours.

HOWEVER, this is not my desired target for this blog. Instead, I want to try and lure more millennials to the course. I want to go after this untapped resource. Here’s what I know about millennials and golf based on research:

-        Most of them find golf boring – “it’s what my dad plays I guess”

-        Most are money conscious!

-        Most millennials do not have lots of leisure time, they are constantly bombarded, and they work too much. There’s no time for an ENTIRE day of golf every month.

-        But, millennials do like to spend on experiences, they are not materialistic. Maybe golf is an experience?

-        And hey, they are overworked and bombarded, maybe a day on the course is actually what they need.

-        Most are on Instagram, taking pics of the fun they are having. This may be an opportunity for me to get free advertising. If they like the course, their friends will see.

-        Golf is expensive at first, clubs are so much! They will never pay for them.

-        Golf also takes a long time to master and millennials prefer instant gratification. This may be tough, but I really want to reach them. Let’s try.

There are lots of ways to target millennial golfers, but let’s start at the beginning. We should create a beginner’s guide to golf. That will cast a wide net which will include anyone who is unsure how to play, which include millennials.

 

Picking a Topic

Interpretation

Blog topics must be relevant to the niche, relevant to the users, provide value and be interesting. The best blogs are the ones that you would happily read. If you are happy when you reread your blog, then there’s a better chance the user will be as well.

Consider your own interests and passions but be sure to remain relevant and maintain a voice that speaks to your target audience. When you write passionately, the content will come alive and jump off the page.

NOTE: your topic doesn’t have to be about your service directly. Remember the sales funnel (see below: Sales Funnel). You can answer a question that your audience is asking and get them at the top of the sales funnel. You answer the question and they follow you back to your product.

 

Steps

1 – Use your target audience to identify a problem, find a relevant news piece or decide where they need valuable insight.

2 – Search for that topic on Google, Facebook, Quora, Reddit, etc.

3 – Create a Keyword list based on target, intent, volume, and competition (see below).

The best way to find topics is to immerse yourself in the industry. You should join groups on Facebook, join subreddits on Reddit, subscribe to newsletters, go to events, etc. When you immerse yourself in the industry you will find topics easily.

 

EXAMPLE 1: I want to promote my wedding venue.

Topics: what will these girls be searching for? Unique wedding venues, wedding venues with gardens, outdoor wedding venues. They want to find these beautiful venues, but they cannot afford some of the high-end places.

When I look on Reddit, most people are asking how to save money on wedding venues, DIY wedding backdrops (USP: hey, they won’t need that because we have an amazing garden!), the best small wedding venues in South Florida.

Ok, I’m going to write a blog about how to save money on weddings venues.

 

EXAMPLE 2: I want to promote my golf course.

Topics: I’m not going to be able to reach millennials by writing about golf directly. Most haven’t played golf and might be intimidated by the difficulty and the cost.

So I’m going to write a beginners guide to golf, filled with tips for millennials to get into the swing of it. This is broad but it will catch anyone who’s looking for advice. I will be able to instill a sense of trust, and maybe even promote our golf lessons too!

 

Sales Funnels & High Funnel Targeting

Interpretation

A sales funnel describes the journey your potential customers go through on their way to a purchase. You start with a lot of potential customers at the beginning. These are users who may have heard of your product or service. A smaller part of that group may want to learn more, and a smaller part of that group may actually contact you.

The further along in the sales funnel you travel, the fewer number of people you are talking to who are very interested in purchasing the product or service until you end up with the people who become customers. If you chart it out, it looks like a funnel.

 

What Does This Mean for Us?

Use this idea to craft topics and ideas. Think of blog topics in the awareness phase, what are users asking in this phase and how can we answer those questions? Then continue with interest. When users know about the service and they are interested, what questions will they ask next? Continue with this line of thinking all the way down to the eventual sale.

 

High Funnel Targeting

You can also target people who may not be aware of your product or service. For example: If I want to get more people interested in my diet supplement, I could write a blog that discusses 10 ways to stay healthy.

 

Finding Keywords – Target | Intent | Volume | Competition

Interpretation

NOTE: when determining target and intent, there is no wiggle room! You have to have the correct target and the correct intent in mind when picking a keyword. There is wiggle room for volume and competition. Lowish volume with low competition: YES! Medium volume with high competition: DEPENDS ON THE COMPETITION! Low volume high competition. HELL NO!

We have a limited amount of resources that we can dedicate to content every month, which means we should focus on high yielding results that we can achieve.

There are 4 important factors to consider when doing keyword research. Each much be considered and there must be a balance struck between all of them.

Break out an excel sheet and make 5 columns.

-        Column 1 = keyword

-        Column 2 = Does it match the target?

-        Column 3 = Does it match the intent?

-        Column 4 = Is there enough volume?

-        Column 5 = Is the competition high or low?

Find keywords that hit the mark on all four. That’s your blog topic keyword right there!

Target

As mentioned before, we must choose keywords that relate to our target audience and to our niche. There’s no point writing about something that our audience is not interested in and does not relate to our industry. It doesn’t always have to be about our product or service, but it must relate to our industry.

Writing about timely topics and news is very important. Recaps for events, opinions about upcoming industry changes, national holidays, even entertainment news.

Start by thinking about your blog title and what keyword you can use in the title to get clicks.

 

Intent

What keywords are used to search for this topic? Think about the topics that your target audience may use to search to find this blog piece. AND think about what they will type in the search bar to find your blog.

Remember that your audience is probably not going to use words like explore, premiere, expedient – these are marketing terms that are great adjectives and that should be used! But they are not keywords. Most audiences will use words like best, easy, fast. This is true of sophisticated audiences as well as casual audiences.

Now Google it!

Take those keywords and Google them. Look at the results. Are those results similar to the blog post you want to write? (They don’t have to be, maybe you’ve found an opportunity to fill in the GAP). BUT you want to make sure that a user would expect to see your blog in those results.

Would you think it’s odd for your blog to show up surrounded by all these other results? That’s a sign that your intent is not correct. You need to change your keyword, add some more detail, descriptive words, etc. and try again.

 

Volume

So, you’ve got the topic that identifies a problem and the intent matches what users would expect to see, now we need to research and find out how many users are searching these terms.

Use BrightEdge, SEMrush, Ahrefs or SpyFu to find your keyword’s monthly search volume.

Reference the table you created and add all these keywords in order of highest volume to lowest. Find the keywords with the highest volume that also makes sense for our users and their intent. That is your primary keyword! All the variations with lower volume are your primary keyword variations (AKA secondary keywords)!

 

Competition

Google your primary keyword and look at all the results on page 1. What does your competition look like? If you are competing against Amazon, Bootbarn, eBay and Outdoor World, then you are going to have a helluva time ranking. Same goes for sites like Wikipedia. ALSO, what do the ranking pages look like: how much content, how many images, how many videos. You are competing with them so you have to match the quality of their content to a certain extent. Keep that in mind.

 

EXAMPLE 1: I want to promote my wedding venue.

My topic is “how to save money on wedding venues”

Target: It does reach my audience; these are young ladies who want an affordable wedding venue.

Intent: The intent is there! When I google “how to save money on wedding venues”, all the results are related to that search. They all include tips, tricks, hacks, and cost-cutting.

Volume: the volume for “how to save money on wedding venues” is 20 per month. DRATS! This is nowhere near the volume I want. Back to the drawing board.

Competition:

Buzzfeed, theknot, nerdwallet  – these are difficult to beat.

But look, there’s hope! These sites are also ranking on page 1: lover.ly, valuepenguin, womengettingmarried, fool.com, mic.com. These sites are easier to beat and if they are ranking on the first page, so can we! BUT, look at the content on those pages.

WOW: most are over 1,000 words, include infographics, videos, charts, Instagram feeds. If we want to beat them, we need to up our game.

BASED ON VOLUME AND COMPETITION, THIS IS A DEAD END FOR NOW – WE WOULD NEED TO FOCUS ON BUILDING A BLOG LIKE THIS OVER MONTHS. ADDING TO IT EVERY MONTH. AND ALL THAT FOR 20 SEARCHES. WORTH IT? MAYBE NOT.

IF YOU REACH A DEAD END LIKE THIS, START AGAIN!!!! YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME AND YOUR CLIENTS MONEY BY CREATING USELESS CONTENT. EVEN IF IT TOOK YOU 12 HOURS TO RESEARCH THIS TOPIC, START AGAIN.

 

EXAMPLE 2: I want to promote my golf course.

My topic is “Beginners Guide to Golf for Millennials”

Target: This topic is focused on my target completely. I want to reach millennials that may be interested in golf but have no idea where to start.

Intent: The intent is right on the money! I’m looking for millennials who intend to learn about golf.

 

Volume:

-        how to play golf for beginners = 260

-        beginners guide to golf = 140

-        golf swing for beginners = 720

-        golf tips = 5,400

-        golf for beginners = 1,900

-        golf lessons = 12,100

The volume is there! All these keywords give me a range of topics to include in my post. The keyword that matches closest to my topic directly and has the most volume is “golf for beginners”

I will make my title: “Golf For Beginners – A Guide to Golf for Millennials”

Competition: When I google: Golf for beginners the first 2 results are sites I may never knock off the list: Golf Digest, Golf.com. BUT the next 8 sites are not too tough to compete with, including: realbuzz.com, deercreekflorida.com, golfinfluence.com

I would say I have high volume and medium to low competition.

SUCCESS!! This is my blog topic!

 

Keyword Placement Rules & Guidelines

 

Interpretation

Primary keyword: The keyword you want your page to rank for. Each page should have a primary keyword associated with it. Avoid using the same primary keyword on other pages, which leads to keyword vampirism. Those pages will compete for rank and will both lose!

Secondary keyword: these are keywords related to the topic. These will help our piece rank for the primary keyword we are targeting. Find secondary keywords when looking for intent. These keywords will typically be used as subheadings (AKA subtopics) to create sections within the content that explains it more or answer additional/related questions that users may have.

Primary keyword variations can also be considered secondary keywords.

LSI keyword: (Latent Semantic Indexing). These keywords are “expected” by crawlers and users. These are not keywords that you target necessarily, but they are present in content related to this topic.

Cornerstone Keywords (Client Keywords): These keywords are used as anchor text within the content to link to cornerstone pages. The cornerstone keyword is THE PRIMARY KEYWORD OR THE VARIATIONS OF THAT PRIMARY KEYWORD FOR THE PAGE WE ARE LINKING TO. We want that page we are linking to, to rank for that cornerstone keyword/anchor text keyword.

It will then rank that page for that keyword. Success, client happy, we happy. Beers. (see cornerstone section below for detailed explanation).

GEO Targeting: Local businesses must include a location within keywords. If you are targeting an area, your primary keyword should include that area. I.E. [primary service] in [area].

 

EXAMPLE: “Golf For Beginners – A Guide to Golf for Millennials”

Primary keyword: Golf For Beginners

Secondary keyword Variations: beginners guide to golf, how to play golf for beginners, golf tips, golf for beginners

Secondary keyword Subtopics: golf swing for beginners, golf lessons, what do golf clubs mean, putting tips for beginners

LSI keywords: club, swing, stance, slice, hook, practice, training, driving range

NOTE: Millennial should accompany most of these keywords to ensure we are still targeting our audience.

 

Rules:

This page MUST be the only one that targets THIS keyword (avoid vampirism: multiple pages that target the same primary keywords)

Each page MUST have only ONE primary keyword. Variations are secondary.

Primary keyword MUST make sense in terms of target and intent.

Primary keyword MUST be in the Title Tag when writing services and guides

Primary keyword MUST be in the content (look at guidelines for how often)

There MUST be at least 1 variation of primary keyword present on the page

Secondary keywords MUST relate to primary keywords, they are NOT necessarily client keywords

Content MUST be more than 400 words

Primary keyword must be in the first paragraph of page

Follow guidelines frequently. If you are never using the guidelines, you are doing it wrong!

When making a claim, directly quoting a source, or using a statistic, you MUST cite the source

When explaining difficult topics, you MUST include your research about the topic (links to information) for the editor to fact check and review

 

Guidelines

Primary keyword should be in the Title Tag when writing news, blogs, and parody

Primary keyword should be in the H1 header tag

Primary keyword should be in the meta description

Primary keyword should be in every 100 – 150 words in on-page content

Primary keyword should be in image alt tags on the page

Primary keyword should be in the URL

Primary keyword should make sense in terms of volume and competition

Secondary keywords should appear at least once, each

LSI keywords are guidelines

 

Content Organization P.A.S.T.O.R.

Here is something interesting developed by Ray Edwards: https://rayedwards.com/031/

Interpretation

When you are organizing content around a product or service, it needs to flow correctly in order to entice a user to purchase. Use the P.A.S.T.O.R. method to organize the flow of the content. Place CTAs (call to action) with links to packages strategically through content. No CTA should come before “S” (Solution), but you can have multiple CTAs through the content. Don’t just wait for the end to sell.

 

“P” is for PROBLEM

You must begin by identifying the problem that you are solving. The simplest, most effective way to do this is to describe the problem in great detail.

It’s a psychological principle: the more accurately you can describe your reader’s problem in terms they relate to, the more they instinctively feel that you must have an answer to that problem. So remember your audience and the Empathetic Journey Exercise!

Remember, you’re not judging their behavior, rather you are describing their experience as it currently is. This means you have to understand their experience as it currently is. You have to know your audience and what they are thinking.

 

“A” is for AMPLIFY

The next step is to amplify the consequences of not solving the problem. This is really the key to making sales, and it is probably the most neglected step in the process.

What will motivate people to buy your product, invest in your service, or accept your idea is usually not the beautiful outcome framed in a positive light. It is, rather, realizing the cost of not attaining that outcome. In other words: what is it costing them to not solve this problem?

 

“S” is for STORY and SOLUTION

Once you have described the problem and amplified the consequences of not solving it, it’s time to share the story of how the problem can be solved.

This will be different depending on your situation. It might be the story of how you yourself finally solved this persistent problem. It might be the story of how you helped a client or customer discover the solution on their own.

It does need to be more than simply a description of what the solution is: telling the story of Bob, the frustrated business owner who was on the edge of bankruptcy, whose family had lost faith in him, and who, out of desperation tried one last idea that saved his business, is infinitely more powerful than simply saying, “One day, Bob figured out the answer.”

It should go without saying, but I will say it just in case: the story must absolutely be true. Don’t make these things up. And if you’re thinking, “But what if there is no story?” I would suggest you just haven’t looked closely enough.

There is always a story to tell. NOTE: Remember to include your Unique Selling Proposal.

 

“T” is for TRANSFORMATION and TESTIMONY

The next key step in writing your copy is to remember that whatever you’re selling, whether it’s a home study program, a book, a seminar, your consulting services — anything at all — what people are buying is not the “stuff,” it’s the transformation.

When people buy the P90X workout program, they did not wake up one morning and say to themselves, “I sure hope today somebody tries to sell me a bunch of DVDs and a wall chart.”

Those things (the DVD’s, charts, etc) are the stuff. What buyers of P90X are actually purchasing is that lean, healthy, youthful physique they want for themselves. The transformation.

It’s also important that you offer testimony, real-life stories of people who have made the transformation that you are teaching, and who have done so successfully. Study the most successful infomercials, and you’ll discover that they consist of about 70% testimonials.

And while most of us will not be writing infomercials, it’s important to remember there are three questions people are asking when you sell them coaching, consulting, or instruction about anything. The questions are:

-        Has this person been able to do what they are describing for themselves?

-        Has this person been able to teach other people to achieve the results they are describing?

-        Will this person be able to teach me how to achieve these results?

 

“O” is for OFFER

So far, you have defined the problem, clarified the cost of not solving it, told the story of the solution, and helped your reader visualize the transformation through testimonials from others just like themselves.

Now is the time to describe exactly what you are offering for sale.

This is the section of your copy where you lay out your offer. You can even create a subheading for the section called something clever like, “Here’s Exactly What You Get.”

Make certain that you focus 80% of your copy on the transformation itself. You do have to talk about the deliverables (the class schedule, the DVDs, etc.), but that should only occupy about 20% of your copy in this section.

Just remember that as you describe the deliverables in the offer section, you must keep tying them back to the transformation and benefits your buyers will receive.

 

“R” is for RESPONSE

This is one of the areas where copy tends to often be the weakest: the response request. We are asking the customer to buy.

At this point, you should not be shy about making this request. You should tell the customer exactly what to do in order to get your program, your consulting, your book, etc. You should remind them why it’s important to do so.

And then I will write very specific, directive copy telling them exactly what to do next: “Click the button below, fill out the order form, and we will immediately ship your entire package to you. It will contain everything you need to get started.”

Some people shy away from strong language like this, but the fact is if you truly believe that you have a solution that will solve a problem for people, why on earth would you not be as direct as possible in telling them how to get that solution? In fact, aren’t you doing them a disservice by not making the strongest case possible?

 

Citations

Interpretation

Google, Facebook, Instagram, the internet as a whole is trying to combat the spread of misinformation online. This is one of the reasons that Google is only ranking websites that adhere to the E.A.T. guidelines. We must demonstrate that we are credible, trustworthy, experts in our field. News sites are good at this! They consistently create and upload unique, valuable content. And they use citations or expert quotes when making any claims. So must we!

How

It is better to link to exterior sources at the bottom of the page and use superscript (1) in content. We do this because we don’t want users to click the links in content and leave our site. This is exactly how they do it on news site and Wikipedia.

When

Any claims, quotes or statistics MUST have citations. Think of the Google professor writing on your paper “CITATION NEEDED” or “Where’s your source?”.

There is no minimum or maximum citation needed per post.

What

Avoid linking to articles that are going to compete with your post, you’ll just give them all the credit and all the rank!

Also, be sure to cite the source! If you find an article on Forbes that references a statistic, then guaranteed Forbes has a source for that statistic. Don’t cite Forbes, cite their source directly.

Be sure to use credible sources!

Tip

Struggling to find a source? Use Google operators!

Put your Google query in quotes and you will get results that contain that exact query. Also try the site search operator, to look for sources on specific sites.

Example:

“smoking is the leading cause of cancer” = will only return pages that have that exact phrase

“smoking causes of cancer” site:nlm.nih.gov = will only return pages with that exact phrase on the NLM website and nowhere else!

Still struggling to find a source? Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Maybe your claim is not actually true. You can get it wrong too. This is why Google Professor wants you to check, to ensure you pass on credible information.

CornerStone

Interpretation

Cornerstone content plays a significant role in any SEO strategy by increasing the main page’s overall ranking for search terms that are very popular. Providing the correct internal link structure between your posts tells Google which article is the most important.

All your other posts about similar topics should link back to their corresponding cornerstone article so that page’s importance is clear from your site structure. This internal linking structure will increase the chance of your cornerstone content articles ranking in Google searches.

This strategy also aids in overall E.A.T. score.

 

How it Works

Google bots will read the anchor text, follow the link to the cornerstone page, and realize that the anchor text is explaining what that page is about.

Page 1 links to Page 2 using Page 2’s primary keyword. That means that Page 2’s primary keyword is actually in Page 1’s content. Page 2’s primary keyword (or secondary, mix it up!) is used as the anchor text which points to Page 2. Page 2 should rank higher for its primary keyword, which is the anchor text pointing to it from page 1.

Content Clusters

Interpretation

Clustering content allows for search engine crawlers to reach lower pages.

-        Interlink to related drugs from each supplement page.

-        Mimic the “people also searched for” section on each Amazon product. This will aid in indexing and ranking.

 

URL Structure & Best Practices

Interpretation

URLs should follow a clear and easily identifiable path that contains user-friendly and search engine friendly keywords. Consistency is key!

 

URL best practices:

-        Top level directories should contain broad category, primary keywords

-        Second level directories (subdirectories) should contain secondary, specific keywords

-        Page names should contain very specific keywords that identify the purpose of the page

-        URLs should all default to the lowercase version (.htaccess file)

-        URLs should contain fewer than 80 characters, avoid anything over 120 characters if possible

-        URLs should all default to trailing slash, or non-trailing slash

Wordpress Website Winners
Wordpress Website Winners

Congratulations to our two winners of the 'Win a Wordpress website for you or your company' Competition.

Jaclyn and Jennifer were the lucky two contestants who won the prize! We will be in touch with you both early next week to start the requirements phase.

Why did we pick two winners?

Although Zulu Shack Creative members have worked on many websites, they have mainly been for other media houses. Jobs we have thoroughly enjoyed. We do however wish to expand our own portfolio and help more clients under our own umbrella.

We look forward to serving our new clients like loyal and fierce impi warriors. Our plans are to develop great relationships and create excellent user experiences for you and your clients.

Why did we change the style of competition?

We changed this up because this time around there were only 11 entrants, instead of having the competition drag on we decided we will pick two and get started! We kept the task simple and used the Random Online picker to pick our winners. Here is a video below to show you what that looked like ;)

A message to all of our contestants

Although not all of you won the competition, you will be happy to note that we will be having more draws in the future. We will also be in contact with you to discuss your ideas more.

Thank you to all the contestants and Happy July 4th!
- Zulu Shack Creative

Game of Thrones Custom Chatroom Solution
Game of Thrones Custom Chatroom Solution

Only a few more sleeps until Game Of Thrones airs on the East Coast of America. 9:00 PM! To be precise!  Swords will clang against ice bodies, Wildlings, dragons, queens, kings, slaves, warriors and magic will captivate our TV screens for the next few weeks.  To say we are excited in a little bit of an understatement.

To add to this excitement, Zulu Shack Creative has collaborated with one of its clients, Fascination City, to host a dedicated chat room for all fans. The chatroom is free to use, simply sign up and start chatting. Prizes will be randomly drawn each week for one lucky member. Members will get an entry for each day they login and another one for chatting.

Zulu Shack Creative always do their best to make every project reusable, scalable and extensible. The Game of Thrones Chat Room was a great example of taking an existing solution, tweaking the source code and re-skinning with a great look and feel.  By creating modular code, we were able to extend some of the core features and add new ones specific to the Game of Thrones theme. With a central database in place users can easily switch between websites with the same credentials.

Email campaigns will be used in conjunction with this tailor-made solution in aims to drive more business to Terry’s business. It’s an interesting thing… chatrooms, so popular in the early 90’s, we often wonder if they still have a place on the internet. For Terry and us at Zulu Shack Creative, we are eager to see the results of a trending chatroom. Sometimes in business your idea may start off as one thing but evolve into another, we have a feeling this might be the start of a new type of application or may even evolve into an alternate way to chat on the internet, by bringing back some of the old and introducing them into the new technologies. Only time will tell in this case. We are happy to be a part of this journey and just like Tyrion Lannister be the cool headed adviser.

GOT Sign Up!

Zulu Shack Creative Registration Sports Camp Theme Launched
Zulu Shack Creative Registration Sports Camp Theme Launched

We have been quiet for a while and for good reason, our creative Impi’s at Zulu Shack have been crafting a powerful all-in-one Sports Camp Registration Theme designed for coaches and schools.

The template solution will allow for coaches and school administrators to sign up with Zulu Shack Creative and get started with a Sports Website that will allow them to create Camp Registration products and processes, that allow their clients to sign up their kids.

The Zulu Shack Creative Sports Camp Registration Theme Solution (phew! we know... it's a mouthful) covers all known processes required to run a camp registration website. Taking care of things like guardian information, player information, emergency contacts, important medical forms, site notifications, schedules, orders and reporting.

Our goal is to offer coaches and schools a more affordable and flexible solution to current systems on the market. One they have more control over too, especially in regard to branding and engaging content. At Zulu Shack we also have a Musketeer-like mentality, all for one and one for all. We are happy to announce, that with the way we have built the system, all new features will be easily rolled out to existing clients. In this way we can keep all of our clients up to date with new trends and methodologies.

Sound good? Here is a quick guide to get started:

  1. Contact Zulu Shack Creative and talk to us about your idea and camp registration needs
  2. We discuss start up plan and strategy
  3. We customize the theme to meet the style of your brand
  4. Run a full test cycle on our development server with your own products
  5. Zulu Shack Creative will help you migrate our current data over or create new data if you are new to the business
  6. Choose a hosting style that will suit your needs
  7. Go live!

Now, there will obviously be some points after and in between as queries and ideas will differ from client to client, but rest assured the start up processes will have you up and running in no time. With every new client, we streamline our process that much more.

For more reasons on why to pick Zulu Shack Creative for your registration website, read our article on our demo site here.

Zulu Shack Sports Template Demo

Please feel free to test drive our demo here. This is the base theme we keep mentioning :) with some of the core features on display:

  1. Slider
  2. Featured Camps
  3. Staff
  4. Blogs
  5. Testimonials
  6. Checkout Process
  7. Sign up process
  8. Social Integration

For a back end demo please contact us to setup a meeting using the contact form. We  would love to hear from you and your idea, whether it be a Sports related or a different idea altogether. We can help you build it.

Zulu Shack Creative Recommends WP Engine

Finding good hosting is important for your website and ultimately your business. An excellent hosting provider will offer as close to 100% up time as possible, speed, security and ease of use when it comes to admin users operating and making decisions on the back end.

Zulu Shack Creative works with many hosting providers.  Of which, many of them have great tools and benefits. It is important to note that while we have our favorite hosting companies, we also understand that different projects call for different hosting plans. Zulu Shack Creative clients are normally either a WordPress client and a custom .NET solution client. Our two favorite companies for these types of clients are WPEngine and Winhost respectively. In this article we will outline why we choose WP Engine when it comes to WordPress sites.

Why does Zulu Shack Creative recommend WP Engine?

Easy to Migrate

WP Engine have made it extremely easy to migrate existing sites over to their platform. By providing their in house WordPress plugin and easy to use streamline instructions you can migrate your website in no time at all.

One click Install a new site

Ok, we didn’t count the clicks but it truly feels like one click to get started. Setting up your website couldn’t be easier. Zulu Shack Creative has successfully performed many new installs and migrations on the WP Engine platform.

Multi-site Environments

This is a developer’s dream and in todays age an ideal working environment. By providing three environments, production, stating and development for your website. Why would you need your website in 3 environments you may wonder? Imagine you wanted to add functionality or create a new design for your site, operating directly on your live site or having you developer work on it locally may not give you with visibility and convenience you need to see progress. Furthermore, you may break your live site. By having a staging and dev environment you can successfully manage your processes and big site changes.

Security and Back ups

With each site and install your purchase WP Engine provides a free SSL Certificate for the year. It is important to have an SSL on your website these days, one may argue that if you don’t do transactions on your website it isn’t necessary. Where that may be true it is known that Google ranks websites with SSL’s more favorably. Also, its nice seeing that lil padlock on your website, it makes you and your users feel safe.

Support

This is our stand out reason. We at Zulu Shack feel the support at WP Engine is top notch. WP Engine offers support 27/7 every day of the year. The quality of support technicians are of high quality, it is rare you get bad service or a support agent who does not know what they are doing.

You can definitely find cheaper hosting out there, but at Zulu Shack we lean towards peace of mind and going with who we trust and we like to promote companies who provide excellent user experiences.

Being in the game for while we have also organized discounts for WP Engine hosting, should you need hosting the following links will provide you up to 20% off.

There are many other reasons and benefits for going with WP Engine like CDN’s (Content Delivery Networks), Studio Press themes and the likes. Zulu Shack Creative is happy to assist you in your hosting decisions and help you start your Wordpress solution, whether it be from scratch or a migration. Feel free to contact us and let’s get started!

WPEngine Hosting Discounts

We are living in a world where things are constantly changing, new technologies give us great power to access more online, communicate better and in most cases improve our life styles.

And just like Uncle Ben told young Peter Parker, with great power comes great responsibility. When creating a website or an app a big responsibility should be making your solution accessible to the disabled.

Why do I have to make my website accessible?

Besides the obvious of being a good person. It is said that Google favors sites that meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG). These guidelines have been around for some time, it is only over the last few years it has become an ISO standard.

Also you may want to lean on the side of caution, in 2017 Winn-Dixie lost an ADA (American with Disabilities Act) compliance lawsuit. The general consensus and preventive lesson here is that if you have a website that serves the general public, you may want to follow the guidelines.

What is ADA Compliance?

The Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990, in a nutshell it prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in all areas of public life. Although in the past it only focused on private sectors with 15 or more employees. Early this year new federal regulations will take effect stating that all federal institutions websites must meet AA compliance set out in WCAG 2.0.

How do I make my website ADA Compliant?

Although the long list of guidelines set out in WCAG 2.0 can seem quite daunting, it isn’t as difficult as it seems. If you have a good web developer, you can check off the requirements fairly seamlessly.

It is important to note it is easier to work accessibility features into your website through out the design and development cycle. Putting off the accessibility checklist to the end will take longer and may interfere with your initial design.

Ok great, so you now you have a long list of items to work through to make your website compliant. But how do you know if it is compliant, how is it measured? Luckily, there are a few good online tools out there to get you started and help you along the way. We have picked our favorite three.

1. Google Lighthouse

Lighthouse is a free to use, automated tool you can use to improve the quality of your web pages. It is a tool that audits and measures performance, accessibility and progressive web.

Lighthouse checks things like:

  • Color contrast ratios, a test to see if your background and foreground colors have enough contrast to be visible to people with impaired vision.
  • Elements like buttons and links have discernible names
  • Elements describe content well. Things like correct uses of title and alt attributes

When you run your report you will notice a list of recommended manual checks:

  1. The page has a logical tab order
  2. Interactive controls are keyboard focusable
  3. Interactive elements indicate their purpose and state
  4. The user’s focus is directed to new content added to the page
  5. User focus is not accidentally trapped in a region
  6. Custom controls have associated labels
  7. Custom controls have ARIA roles
  8. Visual order on the page follows DOM order
  9. Off screen content is hidden from assistive technology
  10. Headings do not skip levels
  11. HTML5 landmark elements are used to improve navigation

2. WAVE– Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool

Another handy tool that can help you work through your accessibility check list, is WAVE. WAVE, like Lighthouse will audit your website and provide you feedback and suggestions on how to adjust your site.

It’s powerful interactive checklist will highlight and warn you of issues that should be addressed. Because it is interactive, you will be able to click on the checklist result and it will take you to the problem area, ironically a great visual and intuitive aid for us.

3. Contrast Ratio Tool

Thirdly, a nifty website tool that allows you to measure color contrast ratio. By supplying the background color you and text color you want to test. You will be given a score, ideally you want to be over 4.

Phew.... last words

By using all three tools and some manual testing with your trusted web developer your website should be more inline with ADA and WCAG 2.0. At Zulu Shack Creative we can help you gear towards ADA compliance, that being said we are not lawyers, so what is perceived as compliant can at times be a grey area.

Nevertheless, it is nothing you should feel disheartened by, remember creating compliant websites is for the greater good. Ultimately you want your message or products reaching as many people as you can.

Win a Free Wordpress Website for you or your Company
Win a Free Wordpress Website for you or your Company

Zulu Shack Creative is a strong believer in giving back to the community and contributing to the for ever growing beast out there, the internet.

Now what could this beast do with? Your new website of course! Zulu Shack Creative is running a new competition where you can win you or your company a new website!

To enter the competition simply click the 'Enter Here' button and complete the form. We will ask you things like what kind of website you want to build, should you win and who you would like to build it for, if not yourself.

This will be our first competition this year, expect to see one later in the year too. Competition entries will end on the 4th of July 2019.

What kinda website do we accept, what are the specs and details?

Great question!  This is what you stand a chance to win and a rough guide to our terms and conditions:

The website will be your choice of a WordPress Theme available on the  Envato Market . The cost will be paid for by Zulu Shack Creative.

  1. The winning website will be hosted with Zulu Shack Creative for free, for the first year.
  2. It is best the winner have control over your domain, so it will be up to the winner to purchase their domain if they do not already have one. Our Zulu Shack Creative experts will need these details come day of the launch.
  3. Free SSL for the first year.
  4. Free weekly back ups courtesy of Zulu Shack Creative.
  5. 5 pages configured and customized to your brand or idea. Yes! we will go into the template of your choice and match it to your image and logo
    Five common pages are something like:
    i) Home Page
    ii) About Us
    iii) Services
    iv) Blog
    v) Contact Us
  1. As far as types of sites go, most are accepted. We do however, reserve the right to eliminate any entry we don’t see fit. Things like hunting Rhinos, torture or nasty things like that are a definite no go.

How to enter

  1. Simply fill in the entry form by clicking the “Enter Here” button

And that’s it! You will get a confirmation email confirming your entry and Zulu Shack Creative will keep you updated with the draw date and next steps.

How to win

  1. We will randomly draw 5 entries on the 4th of July 2019 from all the entries submitted.
  2. The 5 entrants drawn will be contacted and asked to re-confirm their email address. Failing to confirm your details will unfortunately mean forfeiting your spot.
  3. Zulu Shack Creative will then run a voting pole in which your friends and family can vote for your entry.
  4. After 1 week of voting, we will tally up the points and confirm the winner!

How the points are tallied

  1. When the 5 entries are randomly drawn, points will be assigned in relation to the number they are pulled:
    - So for example if you are pulled 1st you get 1 point
    - If you are pulled 2nd... 2 points and so on until 5 points. Ideally you want to be pulled last for the greatest change of winning.
  2. The top 3 in the voting results will be assigned points as well!
    - 5 points for the 1st place
    - 3 points for 2nd place
    - 2 points for 3rd place

In the event of a tie, the entrant with the most votes will win.

Let’s show one example of how it would go down

On the 4th of July 5 entrants are randomly drawn...

  1. Billy’s Resume Site
  2. Evergreen Insurance Site
  3. New Chef in Town Site
  4. Speedy Movers Site
  5. Ian and Elne’s Wedding Site

This would mean Ian and Elne’s wedding website are currently in the lead with 5 points. Billy on the other hand has 1 point.

Zulu Shack Creative then makes a Facebook post, where the peeps can vote for who they want to win. Let’s say the top 3 are as follows:

  1. New Chef In Town Site (5 points)
  2. Billy’s Resume Site (3 points)
  3. Ian and Elne’s wedding site (2 points)

Final scores are as follows:

  1. Billy’s Resume Site (1 + 3 = 4 points)
  2. Evergreen Insurance Site (2 + 0 = 2 points)
  3. New Chef in Town Site (3 + 5 = 8 points)
  4. Speedy Movers Site (4 + 0 = 4 points)
  5. Ian and Elne’s Wedding Site (5 + 2 = 7 points)

So as you can see the winner of a new website is the New Chef in Town Site.

From there the client will be contacted and the new website will be underway! The other top 4 will be offered discounts should they still want to persue their dream of a new and amazing website!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many times can I enter?
You can enter one time per email address. Please respect the competition and do not spam. We reserve the right to disqualify any one who abuses the competition.

Should you be drawn more than once in the top 5, we will re-draw for those spots.

Q: I won now what?

Zulu shack Creative will contact you and discuss the next steps in your website.

Q: I am in the top 5 how do I claim my discount

Based on your final position Zulu Shack Creative will send you an option to still build your website at a discounted rate. The discount will depend on where you finish. That’s why it is important to get your friends to vote for you. The higher you finish the better your discount, should you not win.

Q: How long will my site take to build

We will schedule your project in just like any other project, with a 2 to 4 week turn around. A lot will also depend on you and how readily your are available with content.

More Questions? Please use the contact form provided.

Good Luck to all the contestants!
- Zulu Shack Creative


How to Make a Website More Accessible
How to Make a Website More Accessible

We are living in a world where things are constantly changing, new technologies give us great power to access more online, communicate better and in most cases improve our life styles.

And just like Uncle Ben told young Peter Parker, with great power comes great responsibility. When creating a website or an app a big responsibility should be making your solution accessible to the disabled.

Why do I have to make my website accessible?

Besides the obvious of being a good person. It is said that Google favors sites that meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG). These guidelines have been around for some time, it is only over the last few years it has become an ISO standard.

Also you may want to lean on the side of caution, in 2017 Winn-Dixie lost an ADA (American with Disabilities Act) compliance lawsuit. The general consensus and preventive lesson here is that if you have a website that serves the general public, you may want to follow the guidelines.

What is ADA Compliance?

The Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990, in a nutshell it prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in all areas of public life. Although in the past it only focused on private sectors with 15 or more employees. Early this year new federal regulations will take effect stating that all federal institutions websites must meet AA compliance set out in WCAG 2.0.

How do I make my website ADA Compliant?

Although the long list of guidelines set out in WCAG 2.0 can seem quite daunting, it isn’t as difficult as it seems. If you have a good web developer, you can check off the requirements fairly seamlessly.

It is important to note it is easier to work accessibility features into your website through out the design and development cycle. Putting off the accessibility checklist to the end will take longer and may interfere with your initial design.

Ok great, so you now you have a long list of items to work through to make your website compliant. But how do you know if it is compliant, how is it measured? Luckily, there are a few good online tools out there to get you started and help you along the way. We have picked our favorite three.

1. Google Lighthouse

Lighthouse is a free to use, automated tool you can use to improve the quality of your web pages. It is a tool that audits and measures performance, accessibility and progressive web.

Lighthouse checks things like:

  • Color contrast ratios, a test to see if your background and foreground colors have enough contrast to be visible to people with impaired vision.
  • Elements like buttons and links have discernible names
  • Elements describe content well. Things like correct uses of title and alt attributes

When you run your report you will notice a list of recommended manual checks:

  1. The page has a logical tab order
  2. Interactive controls are keyboard focusable
  3. Interactive elements indicate their purpose and state
  4. The user’s focus is directed to new content added to the page
  5. User focus is not accidentally trapped in a region
  6. Custom controls have associated labels
  7. Custom controls have ARIA roles
  8. Visual order on the page follows DOM order
  9. Off screen content is hidden from assistive technology
  10. Headings do not skip levels
  11. HTML5 landmark elements are used to improve navigation

2. WAVE– Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool

Another handy tool that can help you work through your accessibility check list, is WAVE. WAVE, like Lighthouse will audit your website and provide you feedback and suggestions on how to adjust your site.

It’s powerful interactive checklist will highlight and warn you of issues that should be addressed. Because it is interactive, you will be able to click on the checklist result and it will take you to the problem area, ironically a great visual and intuitive aid for us.

3. Contrast Ratio Tool

Thirdly, a nifty website tool that allows you to measure color contrast ratio. By supplying the background color you and text color you want to test. You will be given a score, ideally you want to be over 4.

Phew.... last words

By using all three tools and some manual testing with your trusted web developer your website should be more inline with ADA and WCAG 2.0. At Zulu Shack Creative we can help you gear towards ADA compliance, that being said we are not lawyers, so what is perceived as compliant can at times be a grey area.

Nevertheless, it is nothing you should feel disheartened by, remember creating compliant websites is for the greater good. Ultimately you want your message or products reaching as many people as you can.