Monthly Archives: January 2019

For a modern web developer, what is the best to use: CSS Framework or CSS Grid?

CSS Grid is a grid system which allows you to define rows and columns in your CSS without defining them in your markup. Web developers are able to build page layouts with native CSS code without depending on the HTML markup, except for the presence of the containing grid. Over the years, CSS Grid has constantly improved its role as a visual language adding features which allow it to do more without Flash scripting or additional JavaScript.

Below are a few reasons why CSS has more preference to Frameworks.

1. Simpler Markups
Your HTML will be cleaner if you use CSS Grid. While this might not be the most important benefits, this could be one of the first differences you notice.

2. More flexibility
CSS Grid lets you make HTML into what it was supposed to be. Layouts can be rearranged with ease with CSS Grid without worrying about the way the HTML is written. This is popularly known as source order dependence and makes the job much easier for web designers and developers.

3. No Column Limitation
With CSS Grid, your grid can have exactly the number of columns you want.

4. Browser Support
With CSS Grid, it is easier to create web layouts. The natively available layout in the browser renders numerous benefits. The use of Grid cannot be completely replaced by Framework as either of them is a complete drop-in replacement for the other.

However, the reasons for using frameworks are multiple and not only about the containing grid system. Listed below are some of the most common reasons for using the framework.

1. A Framework provides ready-made documentation
Creating documentation required skill and time. If you are working on a project with other web developers, then any internal system you create will also need documentation so that the other can use it. A Framework gives your team ready-made documentation.

2. Easy Starting Point available
When you attempt to build a certain component, seeking assistance using Grid can be difficult, however, using a framework can get you moving and should you require assistance, it will be about how to style or modify a particular component, the answer to which can be readily available on the web.

3. Practicality
You can deliver your projects sooner if you opt for a framework as it does not need a lot of customization. When you develop MVP for something new, a framework is a preferred choice. This way, using the framework you can prepare the first version more quickly and deliver it to your clients and have some time to work on the feedback. Otherwise, you might just burn yourself out.
Also when you are developing the backend admin system for an app or a site and need to create additional admin screens. A set of ready built components can reduce a lot of work and increase your speed of work. Predefined themes for dashboard and admin screens can serve as a useful starting point for your design and development.

4. Designing Assistance
If you have to both design a develop a website and you do not have the necessary qualifications or the budget to hire a designer, CSS Framework should be your choice.

5. Handling Browser Compatibility
CSS Framework is responsive while grids might make it difficult for you to decide breakpoints for web pages due to bugs or the lack of support for certain features you use.

Which one should you implement?

The answer lies in the nature of your project and you and your team will be the best decision makers. It might be useful that you not only consider your current requirements but also look into the terms of the initial prototype development and also the longevity of the website. Irrespective of your choice, it is important to keep your skills updated so that you are better prepared to take on the future and deliver the best of products and services in the coming phases of your career.

Cleonix Technologies is a web design company located in Kolkata, India. We take advantage of the latest trend and technologies to design, redesign and develop websites. This is our blog where we publish information for the general people and web developers for their knowledge enhancement.

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Best 6 Image Optimization Plugins for Speeding Up WordPress

When it comes to WordPress image optimizer plugins, you have several quality alternatives. And to help you find the best of the best, we’re going to put six of them to a test in this post.

1. reSmush.it

reSmush.it is the best WordPress image compression plugin. It enables you to optimize images automatically when uploading and offers a bulk optimization option for older images.

2. EWWW Image Optimizer

EWWW Image Optimizer is an excellent option for compression of WordPress images. It is easy to use and can optimize images that you upload on the fly automatically. It can also compress and optimize your already uploaded images to a large extent.

3. Compress JPEG & PNG images

Compress JPEG & PNG is created by the TinyPNG team, and you need to create an account to use the plugin. With the free account, you can optimize only 100 images each month. It can compress images automatically when uploaded and you can optimize older images in large measure.

4. ShortPixel Image Optimizer

ShortPixel Image Optimizer is one the most helpful WordPress image compression plugins. You need to receive an API key by providing your email address. The basic free account allows you to compress up to 100 images per month, and you have to move up to their paid plans to expand this limit.

5. WP Smush

WP Smush is another popular compression plugin for WordPress images. It compresses images automatically when uploaded and can also be used to compress and optimize old image files. You can also set maximum image resolution and compress your images to more reasonable sizes.

6. Optimole
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Optimole’s image optimization plugin is clean and modern, with most of the tools running out of sight without you knowing. It requires creating a quick account and inserting the key API. You can then view all optimized images in the dashboard and adjust certain settings, such as image replacement, large image resizing, compression quality and lazy load. Besides WordPress, Optimole also has its own dashboard. Detailed information such as optimization sizes and monthly reports can be found here.

Which is The Best Image Compression Plugin you should go with?

Optimole– For a fairly powerful free plan and included CDN, lazy loading, and making it possible to always display a version of the image that’s optimized specifically to the viewer’s screen and device.
Imagify– For excellent compression, features, and interface.
Smush – For unlimited free lossless compression (with a 1MB max for each image).
EWWW – For a free WordPress image optimizer and no file size limits. Just remember it works on your own server.
ShortPixel – For some of the best optimization and the sleekest interface.
TinyPNG – For excellent optimization and probably the simplest of all interfaces.

We hope you found this comparison of best WordPress image compression plugins helpful. If you have any further queries about the WordPress image optimizer tools, let us know in the comments below.

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How to Deal With Duplicate Content Issues On Your Website

Many website owners pay little attention to duplicate content because they don’t understand the after effect of it. However, if you are posting duplicate content all the time, it could spiral into a big problem for your website. One major problem that may happen is a drop in organic traffic to your website.

Some common reasons for duplicate content are:
www versus. non-www or http versus https version of a page
Scraped or copied content
URL variations
So, this post will guide you on how to prevent these types of issues on your website. Look at these following best possible solutions to improve the SEO of your website.

1. Perform 301 redirects
In some cases, the best solution is to redirect a permanent 301 from other similar pages to the page you need to rank on the search engines. This is usually necessary if you have a page that may not be exactly the same but has similar content and is more likely to rank for the same keywords. When a large company advertiser decided to redirect a 301 to remove one of its two similar pages, organic traffic on the page increased by 200 percent.

2. Use noindex tags
If you don’t want Google or other search engines to rank a page on your website, you have to add the content=”noindex,follow” meta robots tag to the page. This means that Google can access and view the content of the page without adding it to its index. The noindex tag applies especially to pagination problems where you only want the first page to appear in the search engines instead of all 10 pages.

3. Use canonical tags
It’s important to include rel=“canonical” tags to the URLs with the parameters as this tells the search engine that your favored unique URL should rank higher than the other variations of the URL. The links and other rankings gained through the duplicate pages are also transferred to your preferred address.

4. Use hashtag tracking
One way to prevent parameter tracking evolving into a duplicate content issue is to use hashtag tracking. A URL page such as “http://yoursite.com/page/#” followed by your parameters will be viewed as “http://yoursite.com/page/”. This eliminates the duplicate page issue for the page.

5. Use rel=“next” and rel=“prev” for paginated content
If you have content containing a series of pages, you may need to tell Google that the pages are in a series and that it should start from the beginning of the series which is the main page. To do this, In the coding section, the first and last page should have rel=“next” and rel=“prev” respectively.

6. Use hreflang
When you are marketing to an international audience with SEO, you don’t want your audience to see your page in a foreign language since that would make your content irrelevant. To do this, you need to include the hreflang annotation on your page. This will remove Google’s ability to view these pages as duplicate content and also serve the right content to the right audience.

7. Preferred domain
This is a very basic setting that should be implemented on every site. It only tells search engines whether or not a site should be displayed on the results pages of the search engine.

8. Submit sitemap
The sitemap of your website is an XML file that contains all the URLs on your website. It’s a method for introducing your index to search engines in an organized manner and in turn, it helps search engines to create your website.

9. Ensure robots.txt file is functional
A file robots.txt helps search engines know which pages to scroll and which to avoid. With your optimized robots.txt file, you can restrict the crawling of your website to specific bots or set a delay before doing so.

10. Avoid using NoIndex, NoFollow attribute on internal links
This combined tag is advantageous for pages which should not appear in search engine’s index. Bots can scroll the page but can’t index it. The nofollow tag can be added to external links, but do not for internal links. If you decide that the canonical version of a website is www.mywebsite.com/, then all the internal links should go to http://www.mywebsite.com/website.html and not to http://mywebsite.com/page.html

11. Avoid keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing is a black hat SEO tactic that could incur a penalty and the pages could be removed from the search index. One way to avoiding keyword stuffing is to first think about producing meaningful content for your audience before thinking about the Google bots. Likewise, writing longer posts allows you to include your keywords without having a keyword density that’s too high.

To avoid duplicate content and indexing issues on your website, take these steps to inform search engines of your preferred pages. It’s important to make sure your website is indexed to have a chance of a higher ranking with SEO so that people can find your business.

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Comparison between Best Online Payment Gateways in India

If you are setting up an eCommerce store or selling digital products from your site, you’ll require a payment gateway to accept payments from your potential customers. From the growing list of payment gateways in India, we’ve carefully picked 10 best Payment Gateways suitable for small businesses.

1. InstaMojo Payment Gateway
Started in 2012, Instamojo first offered a way to collect payments for digital goods. Instamojo Payment Gateway enables traders to Collect online payments to easily collect payments online with or without a website. Charges of InstaMojo are also acceptable. You don’t need any documentation to begin a trial account with Instamojo, just answer a couple of questions and get started in minutes. For a full account, the bank statement and PAN card are only requirements.

2. CCAvenue Payment Gateway
Launched in the year 2001, CCAvenue is one of the oldest payment gateways in India. Nearly every bank and payment option is supported by CCAvenue. It is reliable and used by large eCommerce sites such as Snapdeal. Go to CCAvenue if you are looking for a tried and tested reliable payment gateway in India.

3. EBS Payment Gateway
EBS or E-Billing Solutions is the first Indian trading account provider to meet the PCI DSS 3.0 compliance standards. It is also certified according to the ISO 27001- 2013 standard for safety and process adherence. Therefore it is one of the most secured online service providers in the world.

4. PayPal Payment Gateway Service
PayPal is a global payment platform accessible to more than 200 countries worldwide. Over 173 million customers use Paypal on a regular basis. That’s the reason why you should have PayPal integrated into your eCommerce Store if you expect orders from international consumers. In India, merchants primarily use PayPal to receive funds from foreign customers, as an Indian company can not accept Indian credit cards via PayPal due to banking regulations.

5. FonePaisa Payment gateway
fonePaisa is an interoperable payment gateway that combines mobile worlds and payments. FonePaisa offers customized large payment solutions for B2B, B2C usage cases.

6. Cashfree Payment Gateway
Cashfree is the only Bulk payouts and Payment gateway company in India. It is a next generation payment gateway that helps Indian businesses both collect and disburse payments via almost 100 payment methods including Visa, MasterCard, Rupay, UPI, IMPS, NEFT, PayTM and different wallets, Pay Later and different EMI choices.

7. Atom Paynetz Payment Gateway service
Atom is promoted by the FT Group and an innovative payment service provider with more than 100 payment options, more than 15 million transactions and more than 4500 strong traders across the nation.

8. PayUbiz and PayUMoney
PayU India, the payment gateway solution provider, rebranded both its PayU Enterprise and PayUmoney products to become clear independent companies in May 2015. Now PayUbiz is focused on companies and is used by large companies like Snapdeal, whereas PayUmoney is PayU India’s consumer brand and has a consumer wallet and payment acceptance solution for SMB companies.

9. PayTM payment Gateway
Paytm has become a leading payment gateway because of its online consumer base with ‘Paytm Cash’ wallet. Thus paying with Paytm could be helpful for small eCommerce merchants. Domestic Credit Cards supported are Visa, Master, Maestro, Amex, Discover, and Diners. International Credit Cards supported are Visa, Master, Maestro, Amex, Discover, and Diners.

10. DirecPay
DirecPay is one of the largest payment gateway solutions service provider in India. Owned by Times Group, DirecPay has been around since past few years. It has not evolved with changing times but still offers limited payment options as compared to other payment gateways.

Other Payment Gateways to consider;- Razorpay, ICICI Payment Gateway, HDFC Payment Gateway etc.

Whole payment gateway outlook in India is changing rapidly. Apart from traditional payment gateways, we now have options to accept money using mobile wallets. Government is also pushing for digital payments by launching UPI and Bharat QR. Our recommendation is that you go ahead with at least two payment gateways to make sure you never miss a payment from your customer. We would like to hear your feedback in the comments section below.

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How to Rank Higher in Google My Business Listing

You can improve the local ranking of your company through Google My Business. Providing and updating business information in Google My Business can help the local ranking of your company in Google and increase your search and map presence. Once you’ve optimized your Google My Business listing, five things we’re going to explain are important.

1 – Business Listings
Getting positioned high inside Google My Business comes down to Google verifying that your business is real. It does this by determining how often your business name, address and phone number is listed on the internet. It is exactly the same as how backlinks are used to optimize the search engine. The more you have, the better your search rankings are usually.

2 – Consistent NAP
The listing of your business NAP( name, address and telephone number) in these directories, on your website contact page and in Google, My business listing must be consistent and up- to- date.
To ensure your NAP is consistent, complete a scan for your business. If the information on a website is incorrect, contact them and have it changed. This is something a couple of our customers have needed to do as they’ve changed locations or telephone numbers. Utilizing the best local SEO software out there, we can track our clients business listings to see their NAP.

3 – NAP On Website
You must have to list your business name address and phone number on your website. Many SEO companies say it’s good to have it in the footer or header of your website so it shows on every page. If you can do this, then go ahead as it’s good for the user experience. We’ve found that it’s fine to have the name, address and phone number listed on the contact page. Bonus points if you do so use the Schema markup.

4 – Embedded Google Map
It is good practice to have your business lists included in Google My Business on your contact page. This way Google can be sure you are situated at the location you have listed by confirming that with your Places listing.
Embedding is super easy. Simply search your business name on Google Maps. When you have found it click on three lines beside your business name in the search bar on the top left. Then click on “Share or Embed Map”. Once it is selected, click the embed map option at the top of the pop-up box. Now copy the iframe code and paste it into your contact page.

5 – Reviews
You need to get everyone to review your page.If Google sees a page with 20 or more reviews, will it not show that page over a page that has no reviews in the mapped listings? This falls in line with Google’s approach to search. Providing the searcher with the most relevant search result and business.

Once you have changed what is above and still notice your rankings are low, then you might need to have your business cited more. You can do this two ways.
Find out where the competitors rank higher than you are cited. Search for your company and find out if your company is listed in a directory. If not, then add it. Take advantage of our Google My Business package and the citation building service within it.

Hopefully, these features have given you a new reason to log in to your Google My Business account and get busy! Follow these instructions I have laid out in this post and watch your rankings improve.Follow these instructions we have laid out in this post and watch your rankings improve.

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Latest E-commerce Web Design Trends for 2019

As we are in starting of 2019, we have to ask ourselves what the future for e-commerce will bring in this year. Well, we know one thing about it is that the improved user experience is always in demand.
When designing e-commerce websites for an online audience in 2019, developers should be aware that web features should be simple but attractive. Also, functionality should be preserved.
Let’s look at some retail website design trends for 2019, and some of the best e-commerce web design inspirations for any business owner looking to capitalize this year:

1. Attention to a background

Your site must have the capacity to keep users interacting with it. Focusing on the background is one of the best ways to attract and make users stay on your site. Minimalism is a very important element of design. In 2019, the website design will cover the use of video or animated content in the context of the layout of the website. You can definitely expect a spike in traffic to your website, and consequently, the conversion rates will also increase.

2. Micro-interactions

Using micro-interaction technology in web design is a relatively new trend that will also make its way into 2019.This feature aids users in the following ways:
Provide important feedback to users or the consequences of an action they have taken on the website;
inform users when they have completed a task successfully;
help users stay engaged on the website;
prevent operational errors by showing users every step of the process.

3. Machine learning and chatbots

Many sites use bots more and more to improve communication between seller and buyer. Chatbots can also help your sales team find promising business opportunities more efficiently. Increased customer interaction with your site will create more opportunities for you to further develop your brand.

4. Different grid layouts

One of the most important trends in web design for 2019 involves thinking outside the box. Two distinct patterns will form the base for all grid designs on websites. These are the broken grid and the asymmetrical layout.
The above formats make it feasible for business owners to structure their sites. Contents such as images, videos or other types of content can be easily added to a broken grid.

5. Using different geometric figures and shapes

Designers have noticed that sites that use geometric figures and shapes receive friendly reactions from the visitors. Another key benefit of this trend is that it is very cheap to implement. If you don’t want to add video or animated content to your website design, the next best thing is to use shapes or cinemagraphs.

6. Attention to a company

Before you start the design process, take the time to identify all the key features of your brand. In short, highlight the things that make it what your company is. Once you do this, the next step is to figure out how to make it a reality and present it to the rest of the world. The aim is to be as authentic as possible, so you should create all your content unique.

7. Material design

Material design provides the tools that you can use to complement your user interface to make the most of it. The material design works based on various design features such as grids, colors, space of a webpage, the typography used, and the images. All of the above design features are taken into account to create a website that serves your company well.

8. Minimalism

The minimalist approach to web design is another trend in this list that isn’t new. Users are more likely to remain on a website designed to be simpler. This is because complex website designs are embarrassed and users find it uncomfortable to explore. One of the most important reasons for the minimalist approach is that the site acts as a guide to the user. You will not have problems browsing your website, searching for products and finding the information you are looking for. Remember, less is more, and that also applies to web design in e-commerce.

9. Hamburger Menu

The Hamburg menus are three parallel lines of icons. They are normally placed on the top left or right side of a web page. Once a user clicks on the icon, they have a different menu to navigate the website. Website designers have chosen different names, such as the option button, the side menu, the hotdog, the sandwich, etc. Just look at the Gizmo homepage, apart from other impressive design features, you’ll see a hamburger menu at the top right of the page.

If you have your own website you should definitely follow the trends of web design. Discover the tendencies, techniques, and tools of web design that will take a leading position in 2019. It’s up to you whether or not to follow these trends, but every industry professional should be aware of them. Pay attention to every detail and make sure you design carefully. It is time to make your move and prepare yourself for the future of e-commerce.

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Voice Search Optimization Strategies in the SEO Services

Whether it is a speaker or a smartphone, the use of the voice search is increasing rapidly. The advent of personal assistant apps like Siri, Google Now, and Cortana have made it a lot easier for smartphone users to perform voice search and get accurate answers to their queries. Leading research companies predict that between 30% and 50% of all searches will be carried out by voice by 2020.
Now is the time for brands to create a voice search optimization strategy to move ahead.

Impact of Voice Search on SEO:-
According to Mary MeekerVoice and image searches are probably going to contribute at least half of all searches by 2020. It is therefore in the interests of websites to adapt to this seismic shift, which can be expected in the coming years from text search to voice search.

Voice Search Optimization Tips
Whether you optimize your web content for Google Voice Search or any other popular search engine, there are some basics need to be borne in mind, that includes:-

1. Consider Micro-Moments

Efforts to optimize Voice Search must be based on the micro-moments in which an online user typically executes a search query.

2. Add a FAQ Page

If you haven’t already, then you must add FAQs on your website to manage basic inquiries your target audience might have.
Online searches can be broadly categorized into the following three types: Navigational, Informational, Transactional. By addressing the What, Where, When, Why, and How in your FAQs around these three search types can help you provide the most accurate information for someone using a PC or voice search application.

3. Incorporate Longtail Keywords

The fact that voice searches focus on natural language increases the number of queries for search engines. Any good digital marketing agency will emphasize the importance of optimizing the website by including these keywords for long- term use.

4. Use Microdata to Optimize for Local SEO

Voice-based search queries are a boon for companies relying on local search traffic. More than half of the USA Teenagers and 41 percent of American Adults use voice search every day in accordance with Northstar Research. Another fact is that a large number of voice searches are around navigational queries such as finding nearby/local businesses. It is therefore important to structure your content in order to address this increase in local search queries. It means while optimizing your web content, you must make it a point to include all business locations, nearby attractions, landmarks, phone numbers, store hours, etc.

5. The Hummingbird Update

Google’s 2013 Hummingbird update was a breakthrough in how Google responded to queries typed on its interface or spoken about it. This update dealt with the intent to understand conversational search queries.

6. Optimize for Natural Language

Conversational questions for virtual personal assistants are increasing, as the Mary Meeker trends report shows that almost 70 percent of Google Assistant requests are in natural/conversational languages. A conversational question that you put to a personal assistant on your smartphone, therefore, tends to be more specific.

7. Improve your Website Speed

The fact that most searches are carried out by people on the go makes it important to make sure that your website is good and effectively fast. Test a page load to see if your site loads quickly on all browsers and devices.

Conclusion
Google has recently added 8 additional Indian languages to voice search. The next wave of internet adoption will come from Indian regional language internet users which are expected to grow at a CAGR of 18% to reach 536 million by 2021 in comparison to the English internet user base growing at 3% to reach 199 million, as per an April 2017 Google-KPMG study.

You need a search engine optimization and digital marketing agency that is always on top of such updates in a proactive but not reactive manner. From online reputation management to app store optimization and a lot more, at Cleonix Technologies we have scaled every peak there is in the digital ecosystem and have proven credentials to deliver the best digital solutions for your business.

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Guidelines for Writing Super Readable CSS Code

When designers talk about style guides, they usually mean an agreed upon manual on the coherent look and feel of a website or an application, with a well-designed color scheme, typography, and UI that’s used across the whole project.
There is another type of style guide that can also be used in web development, and it is just as important but rarely discussed: style guides for the code itself. Code style guides are designers rather than developers, and their main objective is to optimize the CSS or other code.
The use of proper code style guides gives us a better organized, consistent code base, better readability of the code and more maintainable code. It’s not a coincidence that major technology companies like Google, AirBnB or Dropbox utilize them.

This blog presents 5 coding techniques which can dramatically improve management and simplify maintainability of your code.

1. Divide and conquer your code
First, look at the layout structure and identify the most important modules in your CSS code. Before starting coding, group common elements and title each group in separate sections. For example, you can choose Global Styles( body, paragraphs, lists, etc), layout, headings, text styles, navigation, forms, comments, and additional information. Select the appropriate flags or striking comments to clearly separate code fragments. However, this methodology probably won’t be sufficient for large projects where a single module is too large. In such cases, master stylesheets are used for importing groups. It is also helpful for large projects or large development teams to have a brief update log and some additional project information. In addition, you can include a CSS debugging code to take care of diagnostic styling if you run into a problem.

2. Define a table of contents
To keep an overview of the structure of your code, you might want to consider defining a table of contents at the beginning of your CSS-files.
Setting a table of contents makes it easier for others to read and understand your code. You can also print it out for large projects and have it in front of you when you read the code. This advantage should not be underestimated when working in a team. It can save you and your colleagues a lot of time.

3. Define your colors and typography
Since we do not yet have CSS constants, we need to find a way to quickly refer to the “variables “we use. One way to get around the lack of constants in CSS is to create some definitions at the top of your CSS file in comments, to define constants. A common use for this is to create a color glossary. It means that you have a quick reference to the colors used on the site to avoid using alternates by mistake and, if you need to change the colors, you have a quick list to go down and search and replace. ” The same applies to typography. You can also add some important notes to the “system “of your definitions.

4. Order CSS properties
When writing the code often it’s useful to apply some special formatting to order CSS properties — to make the code more readable, more structured and therefore more intuitive. Some developers use a more interesting approach — they group properties in alphabetical order. Whatever grouping format you are using, ensure you clearly define the format and the objective you need to accomplish. Your colleagues will thank you for your endeavors. Furthermore, you’ll say thanks to them for sticking to your format.

5. Indentation is your friend!
For a better overview of your code, you might consider using one-liners for brief fragments of code. This style could lead to messy results if you define more than 3 attributes for a particular selector. However, you can emphasize dependencies between all elements of the same class, which are moderately used. This technique increases the readability of the code dramatically if you find a specific element in your style sheet.

CSS style guides are helpful if and only if they are used properly. Avoid too many style guides for too many elements bundled in too many groups. Your objective is to obtain a readable and maintainable code. Stick to it and you’re going to save a lot of trouble.

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Essential Tools & Applications to Turn You into a Twitter Power User

Twitter is an amazing tool for businesses when used correctly. It can help you to create leads, strengthen your branding and establish links with your prospects. Nonetheless, the challenge is getting more tightly and merchants are looking for some useful tools that gear up their Twitter marketing campaign.
Use these great Twitter tools and apps, and let us know how these work for you!

1. Buffer: The Buffer app can help you in a smarter way by letting you schedule the particular tweets regularly all through the day. This is an amazing strategy to tweet your target followers when they are online.

2. ManageFlitter: This tool helps you to better manage your Twitter account with valuable insights. The ManageFlitter has a simple interface that lets you figure out the image without a profile, inactive and fake accounts in your list.

3. Hootsuite: The Hootsuite app is an effective solution to manage Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn account from a single place. This application allows you to easily manage multiple Twitter accounts and a special feature allows you to tweet multiple profiles automatically.

4. Audience: The Audience app also helps you to filter the searches based on many aspects such as the date you followed, date last tweeted, influence rate, date they followed, language, geographical location, and profile type.

5. Crowdfire: The Crowdfire lets you keep track of followers and helps you figure out if there are any inactive accounts in your list. You can follow them and reach those interested in your tweets, which is the first step in being established on the social network.

6. Klout: The Klout app ranks the profile users based on this aspect and you can utilize it to learn where you stand in the competition. This tool also helps you to find high- ranking people in your slot, who can help you make some strategic plans.

7. TweetDeck: The TweetDeck app is already acquired by Twitter Inc. and works from its interface. Online marketers use this app to track prospective customers ‘ real-time conversations. You can see the accounts which you follow under the mutual friendship tab. This lets you be up to date on the topics or people that matter.

8. Twitonomy: This is a great tool exclusively for Twitter marketing that allows you to have comprehensive visual analytics on mentions, replies, tweets, retweets, hashtags and more. The Twitonomy app also allows you to search, filter, browse and gain insights into the accounts and accounts you follow.

9. Tweepi: Do you want to know those accounts which you follow but they don’t follow you back? The Tweepi app lets you quickly check the list of these not so favorable accounts. You can see the accounts which you follow under the mutual friendship tab. The other accounts that you follow but don’t follow you back will be just shown in the following tab.

10. Bit.ly: The Bit.ly app works basically as a URL shortening tool but in fact, it offers a lot more than that. It has options to track the link clicks. The app allows you to share the links directly from your dashboard on any social media account including Twitter.

11. Twiends: This incredible app allows you to develop your Twitter follower completely free of charge. And it also helps moderate the community to filter inappropriate and counterfeit users. This feature enables long- term connections of quality.

12. Tweriod: The Tweriod app helps you to identify the most feasible time you need to send particular tweets that make the best impact. The app comes with special features to perform a proper analysis of both your followers’ tweets and your tweets. And the app lets you identify the best time you can start tweeting for a particular audience.

13. Twtpoll: The Twtpoll app helps you get the feedback through several means such as questions, quizzes, photos, and videos. This is one of the best ways to empower your Twitter marketing by knowing the audience mindset.

14. GroupTweet: This app lets your team tweet from the same account without the need of sharing passwords. The GroupTweet app also lets you approve the Tweet from your email before it is made public. The other options that come with the tool include smart scheduling, contributor analytics, custom tweet format or retweet and more.

15. Paper.Li: The Paper. Li app uses social signals and natural language processing to explore and dig out the most engaging and relevant stories for you. By automatically delivering the content, this app lets you reach your prospects and audience despite wherever they are.

16. TweetReach: The TweetReach lets you do that by instant searching for a username, hashtag, or keyword. You can find out the top URLs and hashtags with reference to audience response. You will be informed of what works and what does not work in your Twitter marketing campaign with detailed competitive analysis.

These are just a few among the many advanced Twitter tools that can make your business a whole new level. Hopefully, you will find these Twitter tools useful to your social media marketing strategy.

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3 Common Mistakes to Avoid While Advertising on Facebook

It’s a well-known fact that Facebook offers one of the biggest, most vigorous advertising platforms for businesses of all sizes to achieve their target customers.

The only problem with Facebook Ads is that they don’t follow the adage, “If you build it, they will come.” Actually, many people lose a lot of money with Facebook ads because they don’t know how to use it properly. In other words, many costly errors are made.

In case you’re new to Facebook or if you’re a seasoned professional looking to boost your outreach, below are three mistakes to avoid so you can take advantage of your Facebook advertisements.

1. Viewing Likes, Comments, and Shares as Your Primary Success Metric
Having a measurable goal when Facebook promotion is the foundation for meaningful returns. If lead gen, purchases or conversions are your goal, create ads that match those goals. Tracking proxy metrics such as likes, comments, and shares are not enough. A like is not the same as a lead. There are many different types of Facebook ads that we cover extensively in the new Facebook advertising track, so make sure you use the right ads to match your marketing objectives.

2. Analyzing Cost-Per-Lead as a Post-Campaign Result
Your cost per lead metric will really help you understand whether your ad campaign works, and you can’t do that if you don’t know how much each lead is worth to you. To find out, create a baseline by calculating your current cost- per- lead. Once you have set your cost per lead, you will be empowered to determine which advertising types complement your marketing strategy and budget. It is important to note that the cost of various types of campaigns varies greatly, depending on which type of lead you generate. Take the time to determine what kind of strategy, advertising and budget are best suited to your marketing needs and resources.

3. Optimizing Ads for Desktop Only
It is very important that you give mobile users a good Facebook experience at all stages. Since many marketers create their materials on a computer and not on a mobile phone, checking your ads on a number of devices is imperative. If you do not ensure that your ads are responsive, you must ensure that your ads are mobile- optimized from now on. Because 80% of social media consumption is mobile! Do not forget the engagement of the audience because your ads appear sloppy on mobile devices.

Facebook advertising is a great marketing tactic, but silly mistakes can significantly undermine your efforts and cost you time, money and audiences. By keeping these three mistakes to the top of your mind when you build your Facebook ads, you are set to succeed.

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