Tag Archives: christmas

The Right Way to Tag Your Blog Posts

The post The Right Way to Tag Your Blog Posts appeared first on HostGator Blog . It’s easy to overlook the humble post tag when you’re setting up your blog. But tags are worth a second look and then some. These little labels can deliver a lot of value when you know what they do and how to use them wisely. Tags on your blog posts can make it easier for readers to find what they’re looking for. They can help search engine crawlers understand the content that’s on your site. And tags can help you organize, update, and repackage your archived posts. With the right tracking tools, your tags can even show you which direction your new content should take. What a Blog Post Tag Is—and Isn’t Tags are similar to a lot of other site elements, and it can get confusing. Let’s start by clearing up what a tag is and is not. First, blog post tags are not hashtags. They have similar functions, but hashtags work across an entire platform, which is why you get results from about a million different accounts when you search for #puppies on Instagram. Post tags work within your site, so clicking the puppies tag will return only your posts about wee puppers. Post tags also aren’t the code snippets used to track marketing campaigns with Google Tag Manager. Two totally different things. Post Tags Complement Categories Tags are optional, but WordPress automatically sorts blog posts into categories. If you don’t set up your own categories and use them, your content will be “uncategorized.” That’s not helpful for your readers, you, search crawlers, or people using search engines to find the topics you write about. So please, use your categories. Some bloggers don’t tag their posts because they feel like categories take care of all their sorting needs. That can work if you have a small blog that you don’t update that often, but the more content you have, and the more varied your topics are, the more useful tags will be. Here’s why: Categories sort your posts into a top-level groups that provide a general outline of your content. For example, baking blog categories might be cakes, pies, cookies, and brownies. But you can tag posts in any of those categories with specific labels like Christmas, gluten-free, and so on, so readers can find all your Christmas or gluten free recipes in one tag search. Category and tag management menus in WordPress Post Tags and Meta Descriptions Have Different Jobs Meta keywords show up in a search results snippet for your post, and they get scanned by search engine robots. They can share some of the same words you use in your post tags, but tagging your posts doesn’t automatically generate meta descriptions. You need to enter them in the meta description box for your post. 4 Ways Post Tags Make Your Blog Better 1. Tags can help your SEO. Before you start freestyling your tag names, check out your Google Search Console data to see what keywords people are using to find your blog. By tagging with keywords, you help search engine bots find and categorize your posts. That helps new readers find your blog more easily. 2. Tags make a big blog more manageable and appealing to readers. Consider the tags on a TechCrunch post about robot food delivery . TechCrunch has been around for more than a decade, so they’ve got a huge archive. But they limit the tags to a few relevant labels. Seven of these tags lead to lists of related content that readers can scroll through. The Berkeley SkyDeck tag only applies to the Kiwi story for now. But as the startup accelerator gets more coverage, that tag may appear on more posts. You’ll notice one tag that’s not on this post is food delivery. Even though it’s central to the story, most TechCrunch readers are not there for food delivery stories. Their focus is tech. So keep your tags tied to what your readers are looking for. Resist the urge to toss in oddball tags, because you’ll end up with a bunch of one-off tags that make your site navigation harder instead of easier and don’t help your SEO. 3. Tags relate your blog posts to one another. Once you have a few posts with the same tag, you’ve got a little niche within your content that readers can explore. Behind the scenes, you can also use your tags to find related blog posts you might want to link to in new posts. You can do this manually or you can use a WordPress blog plugin that will automatically surface related posts for you. Once you have a few posts with the same tag, you’ve got a little niche within your content that readers can explore. Behind the scenes, you can also use your tags to find related blog posts you might want to link to in new posts. You can do this manually or you can use a WordPress blog plugin that will automatically surface related posts for you. You can review your tags to see if it’s time to put together a mega-post that updates and combines related content from several different posts in your archive. Tags can also help you pull together material for an eBook quickly. 4. Tags can show you which blog topics your readers like most. You can track metrics for your tags, and even your categories, but you’ll have to do a couple of workarounds for Google analytics to make it happen. One option is to create custom dimensions for your tags and categories in your analytics dashboard . If you do this yourself, you’ll also have to modify your tracking code, too. If you’d rather not mess with your tracking codes, you can use a plugin to set up your custom dimensions. The MonsterInsights Pro plugin has an add-on for exactly this purpose. Google Analytics Dashboard for WP by ExactMetrics also lets you set up custom dimensions for tags and some other post elements. Ready to set up your blog and start tagging your posts? Get started with HostGator’s managed WordPress hosting. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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How to Create Shipping Guidelines for Your Online Business in 5 Steps

The post How to Create Shipping Guidelines for Your Online Business in 5 Steps appeared first on HostGator Blog . Your new online store may have the coolest design, the greatest products, and the most reasonable prices, but does it have the one thing shoppers really want? We’re talking about a great shipping policy—one that gives your customers free options and fast options and provides delivery tracking—can seal the deal with today’s e-commerce customers. Here’s how to create shipping guidelines that can help your store compete.   1. Give Your Customers Multiple Shipping Options People are particular about shipping when they shop online, and they like to have choices. A 2018 international survey of e-commerce shoppers found that half have ditched an online shopping cart because they didn’t like the merchant’s shipping options . It’s a good idea to offer at least two options—a free option for people who aren’t in a rush, and a faster, paid option. Depending on what you sell, where your inventory is stored, and where your customers are, you may also be able to offer local same-day delivery through a third-party service. 2. Calculate Your Shipping Costs The most complex part of creating your shipping guidelines is comparing rates from different shippers and figuring out what shipping will cost, so dive in and get it done first. Your shipping costs will include not only the rates you pay to the carrier but also the cost of packing material and time spent handling and packing the orders, printing shipping labels, paper and ink for labels, etc. All these costs should be built into the shipping charges your customers pay or built into your product pricing if you’re offering free shipping. To keep your shipping-related costs as low as possible, spend some time with different carriers’ rate tables and package classes. See who offers free boxes and envelopes for flat-rate shipping. Compare the rates for those containers with what it would cost to provide your own packaging and pay based on weight. A lot depends on the weight of your products and how far they must go. You’ll also need to figure out the costs your customers will pay at checkout, and it’s almost mandatory to offer some sort of free shipping option, because shoppers expect it. “75 percent of consumers surveyed expect delivery to be free even on orders under $50 , up from 68 percent a year ago,” according to the National Retail Federation’s data. That doesn’t mean every customer wants free shipping every time, though. The same survey found that 35% of online shoppers are willing to pay more for faster, more convenient delivery options when they need them. Whatever you choose to offer, you don’t want to lose money through your shipping choices. Keep in mind that most carriers raise their rates at the beginning of each calendar year because demand is so high. That means you’ll need to review your shipping policy and product pricing each fall—those rate hike announcements usually appear during or just before the holiday season, so don’t miss them amid the holiday rush. 3. Set Up Shipping Security Best Practices If you offer same-day or next-day delivery, make sure your payment processor provides thorough screening for transaction fraud , especially if you sell expensive or rare but popular items. Faster shipping options are popular with scammers because they can sometimes get their merchandise before the bank or the merchant discovers their payment fraud and stops delivery. Always track your shipments, no matter how small. Why? If the item is lost, you’re out the purchase price, and if the customer charges back the purchase through their card issuer, you’ll also have to pay a chargeback fee to your payment processor , which can run anywhere from $20 to $100, depending on the size of the transaction. Tracking keeps your customers happy, cuts down on inquiries to customer service about deliveries, and gives you a way to prove your packages are delivered. Finally, work with a shipper who won’t re-route packages from your store without consulting you first . Scammers sometimes use an unsuspecting consumer’s card and delivery address data to make a purchase, and then call the shipper directly to have the item sent to their lair instead. The result for your store is a loss of merchandise, the value of the sale, and a chargeback fee. 4. Plan for Holiday Season Shipping Changes The holidays are the peak season for most retailers, and they’re crunch time for shipping carriers, too. Every e-commerce store owner needs to keep tabs on holiday season shipping surcharges and timetables to avoid getting stuck with unexpected shipping costs, delayed deliveries, and unhappy customers. Most carriers announce their peak surcharge rates at least several months in advance. You can search your carriers’ sites for surcharge information and use it to adjust your pricing and shipping deals during the holiday season. For example, UPS peak surcharges during the 2018 holiday season ranged from 27 to 99 cents per package, depending on shipping speed and date. If you’re planning a holiday special that cuts your profit margin on a popular item in order to sell more, make sure holiday shipping surcharges won’t push your deal into money-losing territory. Shipping windows and cutoff dates are important for store owners and shoppers alike. Once your shippers publish their cutoff dates for the season (the last dates by which you can ship an item for delivery by Christmas Day), you can add the time it takes to process and pack orders to come up with your store’s cutoff dates. Post them on each page of your site during the holiday shopping season. 5. Share Your Shipping Policy After you decide on your shipping policy, feature the basics on every page of your site along with a link to the fine print in plain English. Put it up high on the page so visitors don’t miss it. And if you have a special shipping deal, include that information, too. Nike does this by promoting its free-shipping offer in exchange for customers’ social media info and/or email address. “Free Shipping for Members. Want it faster? Upgrade for two-day or next-day delivery. Join now.” And just in case shoppers miss that message at the top of each page, Nike also includes a free-shipping dropdown info box on each product page. Set Up Shipping for Your Online Store You can create shipping policy notices on your store pages easily with Gator Website Builder’s drag and drop tools. Gator also gives you a choice of e-commerce templates, coupon tools, inventory management, and other features to help your store run smoothly. Be sure to add an SSL certificate to protect your store from hackers and data thieves, and to help your store do better in customers’ search results.   See how easy it is to get started with Gator now . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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