What is the White Screen of Death?

 Among the most notorious errors of WordPress is the White Screen of Death (WSoD). You may be one of the users who’ve came across this particular error at least one time as it could be due to several issues. Its name, WSoD suggests that whenever you attempt to access your website, all you can see is a plain white screen. This could happen on both – just a part of your website or the entire website including the admin dashboard, depending on the core cause.

You can find a lot of issues which result in the appearance of WSoD. Usually, when it happens one of the areas of your website will be broken or incomplete in some manner. Themes and plugins which contain incorrect code or create a conflict with a few other part of the site are the primary causes. One more reason for white screen to appear could be not enough memory or your hosting server problems.

What Causes the White Screen of Death?

In summary, the WSoD is a totally blank screen which greets you whenever you try to access your website. Although there are lots of possible causes, you’ll typically discover the issue is right down to one of the following three:

  • Incompatibility in between your theme and a plugin (or plugins), or in between plugins.
  • A badly coded plugin or theme.
  • A low memory limit fixed by your hosting company (mainly observed in shared hosting environments).

Based mostly on these reasons, you can begin to create a plan of attack for coping with the WSoD.

Steps to Fix the White Screen of Death in Your WordPress Website

WSoD shows a plain blank page that could be hard to determine the main cause. However, if you are using the below methods, it is possible to fix the error swiftly and effortlessly. The methods that will be mentioned below are basically the most common solution to the principal issues:

Test Your Plugins

Do you recall the activity you carried out in your website lately, just before it going blank? You may have recently activated, altered, or updated any plugin. Plugins are often the major reason responsible for the WSoD error, thus if you have done changes to one recently, you need to instantly deactivate it. In the event after reloading your website, things are normal again, you’ve identified the cause of the problem. The following step would be to get in touch with the plugin’s developer, or log a ticket on its support forum for more assistance.

Take a Look at Your Theme

The same with your plugins, themes can also include outdated or incorrect code. There could be themes that are incorrectly coded, or create a conflict with one or two of the plugins. The issue also might be with installing or updating the theme which has left it unfinished. And finally, if you’ve done changes to the theme’s functions.php file, it could also result in an error.

Check Your Memory Limit

The WordPress hosting provider will assign a particular amount of memory into your installed plugins, or for files which execute scripts (like JavaScript), to be able to run correctly. In case this is fixed too low, it can possibly result in WSoD.

Make Use of the WordPress Debug Mode

In case you haven’t discovered the solution yet, you need to play differently then. You have to make use of the WordPress debug mode. WordPress’ debug mode is similar to a powerful telescope, helping you to refine on precisely what is wrong with your site.

In the event that you’re still encountering the WSoD right after performing all these steps, apart from clearing your browser’s cache, you might need to bite the bullet and speak to your hosting service provider for support.

How To Test It And Improve Your SEO

1- Page speed is often confused with “site speed,” that’s in fact the page speed for any sample of page views on a website. Page speed could be referred to either in “page load time” (the time it requires to completely show the content on a particular page) or “time to first byte” (just how long it will take for your browser to get the first byte of information coming from the web server).

You could look at your page speed using Google’s PageSpeed Insights. It is easy to access PageSpeed Insights at https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/. You could enter the URL there and after a few seconds the tool will return a page with some results regarding your website’s performance. Towards the top, you will see a general score, that is an average of numerous factors.

SEO Best Practices

Google uses its algorithm to rank pages. And research has revealed that Google may be particularly calculating time to first byte as when it points to page speed. Additionally, a slow page speed implies that search engines could crawl less pages utilizing their allocated crawl budget, and this can adversely affect the indexation.

Here are a few of the numerous ways to boost your page speed:

Enable Compression

Make use of Gzip, a software application for file compression, to minimize the size of your CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files which are bigger than 150 bytes. Don’t use gzip in image files. Rather, compress these on a program such as Photoshop in which you could maintain control on the quality of the picture.

Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML

Simply by optimizing the code (such as eliminating spaces, commas, as well as other needless characters), you could significantly boost your page speed. Additionally eliminate code comments, formatting, as well as unwanted code. Google suggests making use of CSSNano and UglifyJS.

Minimize Redirects

Every time a page redirects to a different page, your guest encounters more time awaiting the HTTP request-response cycle to finish. For instance, when your mobile redirect pattern appears like this: “example.com -> www.example.com -> m.example.com -> m.example.com/home,” every one of these 2 extra redirects can make your page load slower.

Eliminate Render-blocking JavaScript

Browsers need to develop a DOM tree by simply parsing HTML just before they could render a page. In case your browser runs into a script throughout this process, it must stop and execute it just before it could continue. Google advises preventing and reducing the usage of blocking JavaScript.

Leverage Browser Caching

Browsers cache plenty of information (images, stylesheets, JavaScript files, and a lot more) in order that whenever a visitor returns to your website, the browser doesn’t need to reload the whole page. Make use of a tool such as YSlow to determine if you have already an expiration date fixed for your cache. Then set the “expires” header based on how long you desire that data to be cached. Most of the time, except if your website design alters regularly, a year is a sensible period of time. Google has more details regarding leveraging caching here.

Boost Server Response Time

Your server response time is influenced by the quantity of traffic you get, the resources every page utilizes, the software your server utilizes, as well as the hosting solution you employ. To boost your server response time, search for performance bottlenecks such as slow database queries, slow routing, or perhaps a lack of sufficient storage and resolve them. The perfect server response time is less than 200ms.

Utilize a Content Distribution Network

Content distribution networks (CDNs), also known as content delivery networks, are networks of web servers which are utilized to distribute the load of delivering information. Basically, duplicates of your website are kept at multiple, geographically varied data centers in order that users have quicker and much more reliable access to your website.

Optimize Pictures

Make sure that your pictures aren’t any bigger than they should be, that they’re in the correct file format (PNGs are usually better for graphics with less than sixteen colors while JPEGs are usually better for pictures) and they are compressed for the web.

How To Earn Money From Google Over And Over Again?

If you own a small business and you want to earn money from Google over and over again, you are basically referring to digital advertising. Unless, of course, you start working for Google in some way. Instead, you can tap into the power Google has in terms of being the most popular search engine. More specifically, you utilize Google Adwords to get your small business right at the front of relevant searches.

You cannot go wrong with digital advertising through Google if making money is your goal. This is especially true when your budget only allows you to do so much. So, when you spend money on marketing, you have to do it with confidence. But how exactly do you compete with bigger companies that dominate the market already? Well, the best solution in this situation comes in the form of digital advertising. And to learn more about the benefits of digital advertising for small businesses, all you have to do is keep reading.

Very Budget-Friendly

The great thing about digital advertising is that it requires a very small budget. In fact, you can literally base a campaign on what you have to spend. Depending on how big you want to go, small steps will almost seem too good to be true due to the low costs. But the point is you are going to get more bang for your buck compared to any other marketing platform. Keep this in mind when you plan your next campaign.

Significant Traffic And Exposure

It is a fact that millions of people spend hours on the internet every day. And the number keeps growing as more people gain online access. It is also worth noting that search engine platforms are the gateways between your business website/directory and all those users. In other words, if you want to tap into a large audience, it does not get much bigger than the internet.

Break The Borders

Think about it for a second. Using Google for your advertising means you break all the typical borders. In other words, it does not matter if you want to reach customers in another country, you can still easily afford it. And you can do it in record time. With this advertising platform at your disposal, there is no reason why you cannot earn money from Google over and over again.

Create More Targeted Campaigns

If you put in the effort and get to know your audience, you can easily gear the advertising campaign in the right direction. This means you focus on specific consumers with specific needs. Because there is a much better chance of a targeted audience clicking where you want them to.

Quick Changes With Immediate Effect

Nowhere else will you be able to make immediate changes to campaigns than through an online platform like Google. This is very helpful when you notice a small mistake at the last minute. Or, if you make use of real-time analytics, you can replace the ad altogether with something more effective.

Very Affordable

Finally, digital advertising is very affordable, especially when you compare it to other marketing channels. Keep this in mind when you have to create a marketing campaign on a very tight budget.

These are just some of the advantages you get when you decide to earn money from Google. And who knows, maybe there are other ways you can make money directly from Google? But if you already have a small business you want to get off the ground, use every opportunity you get. And Google should be at the top of your list.

If you do not have this of budget you could also try a search engine optimisation route where you try to rank a website naturally in Google search without using Google Ads or AdWords. A great source of SEO Cape Town information is this website which offers great online courses.

 Facebook is home to millions of potential buyers and it’s important to tweak your ads to ensure the leads continue to pour in. If it is time to generate new customers, start with the best practices listed in this guide.

1) Broad vs. Specific Targeting

Targeting is an essential component of running Facebook ads. It’s important to have a clearly defined audience that is going to see the ads. Otherwise, it is impossible to generate good returns and it becomes difficult to continue pumping money into new ad sets. It’s recommended to understand what the target audience is all about before running new ads. This can ensure the ads do generate good results when they are put up.

2) Focus on the Objective

What is the objective when it comes to the ads?

There is nothing worse than having the wrong objective in relation to what the ads are supposed to do. For example, are the ads supposed to drive traffic to a company website? Are they supposed to generate sales on a sales page? These are important questions to inquire about and have in mind when it is time to create a brand-new campaign. Focus on setting the right objective as that will allow Facebook to put the ads in front of those who are willing to do what you want them to.

3) Budget Optimization is Important

How much money is going to be spent on the ads?

It’s important to set a budget and then make sure to send a certain amount on each ad type. This will provide new data to help optimize what you show to the target audience. Cut out the ones that don’t deliver results and continue with those that are gaining traction. This will lead to an improved conversion rate based on your objective.

4) Go Mobile-Friendly

Is the ad as mobile-friendly as it needs to be or is it missing something that will help bring in mobile traffic?

A lot of ads on Facebook don’t do a good job of this and that takes away from their efficiency. Take the time to make sure the ads work well on mobile devices and are put in front of mobile audiences. This is a must when it comes to generating better results.

5) Use Placement Optimization

Placement is a must when it comes to optimizing an ad. The goal is to ensure the ad is being put on various devices. Once you have new data incoming from the different ads, you can start to cut out the ones that don’t convert as easily.

6) The Copy Should Match Your Visual

Your copy should sync with what is being shown in the visual. If you are looking to go professional, it makes sense to have a professional visual. Balance is key when it comes to any ad on Facebook. Otherwise, the target audience will ignore what is being said to them.

7) Use One Call-to-Action Per Ad

A good call-to-action (CTA) is wonderful but it is possible to overdo things. You don’t want to inundate the audience with CTAs because that becomes cumbersome after a while.

Put in a single CTA and make sure it says what it needs to say.

Final Thoughts

These are the best practices to keep in mind when it comes to Facebook ads and ensuring they work out as intended. There is a lot to think about in a situation such as this and the best marketers are the ones who take the opportunity to leverage a platform’s potential with a strategic setup. Use these practices and know you are heading in the right direction.

Instagram Vs Pinterest: Which Is Better For Your Business?

Social media can be an effective tool for anyone that’s trying to market their business. With that said, it’s likely that you have a limited amount of time to spend on social media. You may want to make sure you’re focusing your attention in the right areas. If you’re looking at Instagram vs. Pinterest, and you’re trying to decide which one is best for your business, these are a few questions you’ll want to ask yourself.

Where Are Your Customers?

Above all else, you’ll want to make sure your social media presence is visible to your customers. If your customers tend to be active on Instagram, then you’ll naturally want to focus all of your attention there. If you find that your customers are more likely to be using Pinterest, you’ll want to spend lots of time on that platform.

Your time is valuable, and you should look at the time you spend on social media as an investment. You won’t be getting much out of your investment if you don’t spend your time focusing on places where your customers are. If you don’t know much about the social media platforms that your customers use, you may want to do some research on your target demographic.

Are You Taking Advantage Of Social Media Tools?

Even though you have a limited amount of time to spend on social media, you may not have to decide between Pinterest and Instagram. There are a number of tools that allow you to manage all of your social media profiles from one place. If you use the right tools, you might have enough time for both Pinterest and Instagram.

If you’re already using tools, and you simply don’t have enough time to stay active on multiple platforms, then you’ll want to weigh the pros of Instagram against the perks of Pinterest. However, if you’re not using tools, then you might be able to devote time to both platforms.

How Will You Use These Platforms?

Pinterest and Instagram are used in very different ways. Pinterest allows people to “pin” links and images that they want to save; it’s essentially a virtual scrapbook. Instagram is a social media platform that revolves around sharing photos. It’s a great place to share photos and video content with an audience.

Typically, businesses that use Pinterest pin helpful articles they’ve written as well as links to the products that they sell. Companies may also choose to place ads on Pinterest. On Instagram, companies often showcase pictures of current products and future products with their customers. Instagram can also be an effective tool if you’re trying to build a brand identity.

Where Else Do You Have A Social Media Presence?

When you’re building a social media presence, you shouldn’t focus all of your attention on either Instagram or Pinterest. You should be active on at least one of these platforms, but you’ll want to spend time on other social media platforms as well. It’s particularly important to have a presence on Facebook. Facebook Messenger makes it easier for potential customers to contact you.

If you already have a strong presence on a platform like Snapchat, then you might not find Instagram to be worthwhile. However, if you’re not sharing images on any social media platforms, you may find that an Instagram presence is important.

Both Instagram and Pinterest are incredibly popular platforms, which is why you should consider using both of these platforms for your business. If you only have time for one of these platforms, you’ll want to learn more about both options so that you can make a choice that benefits your business.

Top 7 Facebook Ads Best Practices You Need to Implement

 Facebook is home to millions of potential buyers and it’s important to tweak your ads to ensure the leads continue to pour in. If it is time to generate new customers, start with the best practices listed in this guide.

1) Broad vs. Specific Targeting

Targeting is an essential component of running Facebook ads. It’s important to have a clearly defined audience that is going to see the ads. Otherwise, it is impossible to generate good returns and it becomes difficult to continue pumping money into new ad sets. It’s recommended to understand what the target audience is all about before running new ads. This can ensure the ads do generate good results when they are put up.

2) Focus on the Objective

What is the objective when it comes to the ads?

There is nothing worse than having the wrong objective in relation to what the ads are supposed to do. For example, are the ads supposed to drive traffic to a company website? Are they supposed to generate sales on a sales page? These are important questions to inquire about and have in mind when it is time to create a brand-new campaign. Focus on setting the right objective as that will allow Facebook to put the ads in front of those who are willing to do what you want them to.

3) Budget Optimization is Important

How much money is going to be spent on the ads?

It’s important to set a budget and then make sure to send a certain amount on each ad type. This will provide new data to help optimize what you show to the target audience. Cut out the ones that don’t deliver results and continue with those that are gaining traction. This will lead to an improved conversion rate based on your objective.

4) Go Mobile-Friendly

Is the ad as mobile-friendly as it needs to be or is it missing something that will help bring in mobile traffic?

A lot of ads on Facebook don’t do a good job of this and that takes away from their efficiency. Take the time to make sure the ads work well on mobile devices and are put in front of mobile audiences. This is a must when it comes to generating better results.

5) Use Placement Optimization

Placement is a must when it comes to optimizing an ad. The goal is to ensure the ad is being put on various devices. Once you have new data incoming from the different ads, you can start to cut out the ones that don’t convert as easily.

6) The Copy Should Match Your Visual

Your copy should sync with what is being shown in the visual. If you are looking to go professional, it makes sense to have a professional visual. Balance is key when it comes to any ad on Facebook. Otherwise, the target audience will ignore what is being said to them.

7) Use One Call-to-Action Per Ad

A good call-to-action (CTA) is wonderful but it is possible to overdo things. You don’t want to inundate the audience with CTAs because that becomes cumbersome after a while.

Put in a single CTA and make sure it says what it needs to say.

Final Thoughts

These are the best practices to keep in mind when it comes to Facebook ads and ensuring they work out as intended. There is a lot to think about in a situation such as this and the best marketers are the ones who take the opportunity to leverage a platform’s potential with a strategic setup. Use these practices and know you are heading in the right direction.