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Make your Website Faster: The Importance of Website Speed & Performance

Graphic of "How to make your website faster"

Website speed is the number one determining factor for if a visitor will actually see your website. You already did the hard work of directing them to it. Don’t lose out on potential business by having a website that takes over 2 seconds to load.

Here are our recommendations for testing your website’s speed and then improving it.

Checking your website speed 

Web Page Test is a great free tool that you can use right now to check the speed of your site. 

Google Page Speed Insights is also an industry favourite. Just enter your website’s URL and it will calculate the speed for you. 

Are images slowing your website’s speed? 

Oversize images can drastically slow down the speed of your site. A good rule of thumb is that graphic files should be PNGs while image files should be JPEGs. If your images and graphic files aren’t right, then you can always upload them into Canva, and re-download them as the correct file. 

Another great way to change the type of file is by using a file converter, you can find a bunch of these on Google. Rosewood uses Converter & Bulk Resizer

Clearing your Website’s Cache

A cache is a storage location that collects temporary data to help websites, apps and browsers load faster. So when someone is returning to your website, it will load faster, since the cache automatically stored a bunch of useful information about your site on their first visit. Clearing your cache will help to increase your website speed. A great tool to use is SEO Site Checkup, it is free and will check your site’s cache for you.

Outdated Software, Plugins & Apps

Outdated software such as the core wordpress environment, or supporting plugins could also be another reason why your website has slowed down. If you don’t have the time to make these updates yourself, let Rosewood do it for you! Contact us to find out about our Maintenance plans. 

Website speed is a critical determining factor for who actually sees your website content. People won’t wait around for ever. Make sure your website loads quickly, fully and securely for potential visitors.  Your potential clients, and Google, will appreciate it! 

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Let’s Talk Surveys: SurveyMonkey VS Gravity Forms Add-Ons

Graphic of a computer with surveys on the screen

Do you ever sit at night wondering about what your customers are thinking when it comes to your business? Or maybe it’s not your customers, but the people within your company. Perhaps you’re gathering information about a new market, or product. Well, surveys are a great way to collect this information!

Two great tools to use for surveying are SurveyMonkey Advantage and Gravity Forms Survey Add-Ons. In this blog, we will go through some key differences not only between the two tools, but also between what each of their plans offers.

SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a platform that allows you to create surveys and review the collected data. We have broken down their 3 plans into a few charts, comparing prices and features.

Premier Plan Advantage PlanStandard Plan
$99.00/month$32.00/month$37.00/month
Phone support and 24/7 email support 24/7 expedited email support24/7 priority email support
Unlimited responses per surveyUnlimited responses per survey1000 responses per month*
*Please note that these prices are in USD and are subject to change*

The most notable difference between the 3 plans is the Standard plan only allowing 1000 responses per month. However, if you aren’t surveying a large group, then the standard size should suffice.

SurveyMonkey’s Features

Premier Plan Advantage PlanStandard Plan
Skip Logic OnlySkip Logic OnlySkip Logic Only
Quizzes with custom feedbacksQuizzes with custom feedbacksQuizzes with custom feedbacks
A/B testing, randomization, quotasA/B testing, randomization, quotas
File UploadFile Upload
Accept PaymentsAccept Payments
Advance branching and piping
Block randomization
Multilingual surveys
*Please note that features are subject to change*

As we can see here, each plan increases in features, with the Premier plan offering the most customizations when it comes to building your survey. Both the Premier and Advantage plans offers the ability to accept payments. This is a really great option if your survey is geared towards helping your customers make a purchasing decision based on their specific needs.

SurveyMonkey’s Analysis

Premier Plan Advantage PlanStandard Plan
Unlimited Filters & CrosstabsUnlimited Filters & CrosstabsUnlimited Filters & Crosstabs
Text analysisText analysisText analysis
Data exports (CSV, PDF, PPT, XLS)Data exports (CSV, PDF, PPT, XLS)Data exports (CSV, PDF, PPT, XLS)
Advance data exports (SPSS)Advance data exports (SPSS)
Custom variablesCustom variables
Sentiment analysis
*Please note that analysis features are subject to change*

Creating a survey isn’t very useful if you aren’t able to read the results! Each of SurveyMonkey’s plans offers more in depth analysis’ of the data that you collect. Both the Premier and Advantage plans offer great analysis features if you are looking to survey a large group of people.

Overall, SurveyMonkey is a great tool to use if you plan to ask a lot of questions, or if you plan on surveying a large group. You can choose from multiple different styles of questions of questions. They’re also user friendly, as build your survey by dragging and dropping! You can find more about SurveyMonkey and their plans HERE

Gravity Forms Survey Add-On

Basic License Pro LicenseElite License
$59.00/month$159.00/month$259.00/month
1 site3 sitesunlimited sites
Basic Add-OnsBasic & Pro Add-OnsBasic, Pro & Elite Add-Ons
*Please note that prices are in USD and both prices and features are subject to change*

Gravity Forms Survey Add-On’s plans all offer base features, with addition add-ons based on the paid plan. This is great, as you get quite a lot for their basic license. Down below is all of their base features. With each license upgrade, Gravity Forms includes more add-ons, plus the add-ons from the tiers below it.

Unlimited Forms Unlimited Entries Conditional LogicMulti-Page Forms
File UploadsWordPress Multi-SiteAutomatic UpdatesStandart Support*
*Elite License offers Priority Support

Elite Add-Ons include PayPal Payments Pro, Strip, User Registration and Advanced Post Creation, plus much more.

With Gravity Forms Survey Add-On, you get more control over how your survey will look. The reason for this is because you build the survey form on your own website. Since Gravity Forms surveys are built off of your WordPress website, you can integrate different functions into it. You can find more about Gravity Forms Survey Add-On HERE

In Conclusion

You are probably thinking “well, now I know the differences between the two, what one is the better option?” If you don’t have a WordPress website, or need to run a survey on your website, then perhaps SurveyMonkey is the better option for you. In contrary, if you do have a WordPress website, and would like to more freedom in creating your survey, then you will most likely find Gravity Forms Add-On more useful. Both Survey Monkey and Gravity Forms provide you with a reporting tool where you can see the data that has been collected from your surveys. All in all, after comparing the two, your decision should come down to which option is better for you and your business.

If you need help with your Gravity Forms Survey Add-Ons, Contact us HERE! We would love to help you set up your next survey!

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Why Every Business Should Have a Blog (Following Best Practices!)

Man reading a blog about hiring a PPC Ads Manager in Newmarket

Last week we talked about content repurposing, and how you can turn one blog post into multiple pieces of content. This time, we wanted to talk about why your business should have a blog

There are two aspects to why you should be posting blogs: Technical and Business. 

Technical Reasons For Why You Should Have A Blog

There are two very important technical reasons why you should have a blog: Increase Your Organic SEO (i.e. Impress Google), and Backlinking.

  1. Increase Organic SEO, i.e. impress Google’s algorithms and backlinking. 
    Blogging is effectively the single best way to increase your website’s organic SEO. Your SEO, also known as “Search Engine Optimization”, determines your ranking in Search Engines for relevant search terms.

    When blogging, you can write in a way that boosts your SEO score, that allows both your blog and your website to appear closer, if not at the top of the results page while Googling. This is how you impress Google’s algorithms. Google wants to show the search results that are the most recent and most relevant to the search inquiry. Examples of ways to write to impress Google’s algorithms is to include focused key words. This blog is full of them! Can you guess what they are? 
  1. Backlinking
    Backlinking is essentially any time another reputable website publishes a link to your website. This could be as supplementary info to their blog (i.e. check out so-and-so’s blog for more information!).

    The more people that find your blogs useful and link it to their website, the better your website will perform overall. This is great motivation to not only write blogs that are good for your SEO, but also enjoyable and informational to the reader. 

Business Reasons For Why You Should Have A Blog

There are three business-related reasons why you should be blogging regularly: establish your business as the expert, resonate with readers via real-world applications/case studies and create content to be redistributed on other platforms.

  1. Establish Your Business as the Expert:
    Sharing your knowledge, industry news, tips and tricks, or even news about your business through effective blogging gives you the opportunity to have your clients, customers and industry peers recognize you as an expert in your industry. 
  1. Anecdotes, Case Studies and Projects
    By sharing anecdotes, case studies and projects, you’re allowing the reader an inside view into your operations. They may even touch on issues the reader is experiencing and outline a solution to their own problem. By blogging, you are resonating with your readers. 
  1. Repurpose Valuable Content Quickly & Efficiently
    Blogs allow for a wealth of content to be redistributed with a few extra clicks. You can quote your blog and turn snippets into Canva Graphics. Then post these on your Social Media and backlink to your blog (See what we did there?!) 

Overall, blogging is a great way to drive traffic to your website, which in return will help increase brand awareness and conversions (contact inquiries and/or e-commerce sales). We understand that blogging can be a daunting task, especially if you are learning on how to improve your SEO. Here at Rosewood, we offer blogging services for all business levels, whether it’s needing help improving your SEO or because you don’t have the time to blog, we have you covered. If you are interested in blogging, let’s get in touch!  

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