LDA | Website Design & Development Agency

Essential Features Every High-Converting Website Needs

LDA Staff Writer — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 19:28:11 +0000

A well-designed website isn’t just about aesthetics—it needs to convert visitors into customers. Whether you’re running an eCommerce store, a business website, or a personal brand, optimizing for conversions is crucial. In this guide, we’ll explore the key features every high-converting website should have to boost engagement, build trust, and drive more sales.

1. Fast Loading Speed

Websites that load in under 3 seconds experience lower bounce rates and higher conversions.
Use caching, image compression, and a reliable hosting provider to optimize speed.
Test your site’s performance using Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix.

2. Mobile Responsiveness

Over 60% of website traffic comes from mobile users.
Ensure your site automatically adjusts to different screen sizes.
Use responsive design and test on various devices.

3. Clear & Compelling Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

Every page should guide visitors toward a specific action (buy, sign up, contact, etc.).
Use contrasting colors and action-driven text (e.g., “Get Started Today” or “Claim Your Free Trial”).
Place CTAs in high-visibility areas, such as headers, mid-content, and at the end of blog posts.

4. Trust Signals & Social Proof

Add customer reviews, testimonials, and case studies to establish credibility.
Display trust badges (SSL security, money-back guarantees, partner logos).
Showcase real-time user activity (e.g., “John from NY just purchased this product”).

5. Simple & Intuitive Navigation

Reduce frustration with a clear, logical menu structure.
Use breadcrumb navigation to help users find their way.
Include an easy-to-find search bar for quick access to content.

6. High-Quality Content That Engages

Provide valuable, well-structured content that solves user problems.
Use videos, infographics, and bullet points to improve readability.
Optimize for SEO with keyword-rich headings and metadata.

7. Secure & Reliable Website Hosting

Security is a ranking factor and crucial for user trust.
Use SSL encryption (HTTPS) to protect user data.
Choose a reliable hosting provider with uptime guarantees.

8. Contact Information & Live Chat

Make it easy for visitors to reach you with clear contact details.
Use live chat features for instant engagement.
Add a FAQ page to address common questions.

9. Optimized Checkout Process (For eCommerce Sites)

Reduce cart abandonment with a simple, secure, and fast checkout.
Offer guest checkout options to speed up the process.
Display multiple payment methods for convenience.

10. Analytics & Performance Tracking

Use Google Analytics to monitor traffic, conversions, and user behavior.
Install heatmaps (e.g., Hotjar) to see where visitors engage the most.
Continuously test and optimize pages using A/B testing tools.

A high-converting website combines speed, usability, trust signals, and strong CTAs to guide visitors toward action. By integrating these essential features, you’ll not only improve engagement but also drive more conversions and revenue. Start optimizing today and watch your website perform better than ever!

Need Help Optimizing Your Website?
Want a site that converts more visitors into customers? Contact our expert team for a free consultation today!

The post Essential Features Every High-Converting Website Needs appeared first on LDA | Website Design & Development Agency.

Website Speed Optimization: How to Improve Load Times & Boost SEO

LDA Staff Writer — Sat, 04 Jan 2025 19:23:57 +0000

Did you know that a 1-second delay in page load time can reduce conversions by 7%? Website speed isn’t just about user experience—it directly impacts SEO, bounce rates, and overall site performance. Google prioritizes fast-loading websites, meaning slow pages can hurt your search rankings. In this guide, we’ll walk you through essential strategies to optimize website speed and improve SEO.

1. Why Website Speed Matters

Google considers page speed a ranking factor for both desktop and mobile searches.
Faster websites improve user experience and reduce bounce rates.
A slow site can lead to lower engagement, fewer conversions, and lost revenue.
Mobile users expect quick load times, making speed optimization crucial for mobile SEO.

2. Test Your Website Speed
Before making improvements, measure your current site speed. Use these tools:

Google PageSpeed Insights (provides performance scores & recommendations)
GTmetrix (detailed load time breakdowns & waterfall analysis)
WebPageTest (in-depth performance tests from various locations)

Look for issues such as slow server response times, unoptimized images, and excessive JavaScript.

3. Optimize Images for Faster Loading

Compress images using tools like TinyPNG or ShortPixel.
Use next-gen formats (WebP instead of JPEG/PNG for better compression).
Implement lazy loading to load images only when needed.
Resize images to appropriate dimensions before uploading.

4. Minimize HTTP Requests & Optimize Code

Reduce the number of CSS, JavaScript, and image files.
Combine CSS and JavaScript files to reduce requests.
Use minification tools (e.g., WP Rocket, Autoptimize) to remove unnecessary characters from code.
Implement asynchronous loading for JavaScript to prevent blocking page rendering.

5. Enable Browser Caching

Store static resources (CSS, JavaScript, images) in users’ browsers for faster repeat visits.
Use caching plugins like WP Rocket (WordPress) or LiteSpeed Cache (for hosting that supports LiteSpeed).
Set cache expiration headers for frequently accessed files.

6. Choose a Fast & Reliable Web Hosting Provider
Your hosting service plays a crucial role in speed performance.

Choose a high-performance hosting provider (e.g., SiteGround, Cloudways, Kinsta).
Opt for a dedicated or VPS server instead of shared hosting for better speed.
Use CDN (Content Delivery Network) services like Cloudflare or BunnyCDN to reduce latency.

7. Reduce Redirects & Fix Broken Links

Each redirect adds extra time to load a page.
Use tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider to identify unnecessary redirects.
Fix broken links to avoid 404 errors that slow down user experience.

8. Optimize for Mobile Performance

Use responsive design to ensure fast mobile loading.
Implement AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) for lightning-fast mobile pages.
Avoid intrusive pop-ups that can negatively impact mobile UX and SEO.

9. Monitor and Maintain Speed Optimization
Website speed isn’t a one-time fix—it requires ongoing monitoring.

Regularly test site speed using Google PageSpeed Insights.
Update themes, plugins, and code to maintain optimal performance.
Monitor Core Web Vitals in Google Search Console and address issues proactively.

Optimizing your website speed is essential for SEO success, user engagement, and higher conversions. By implementing these strategies, you’ll improve your load times, reduce bounce rates, and boost your site’s ranking potential.

Start optimizing today and give your visitors a faster, smoother browsing experience!

Need Help with Speed Optimization?
If your site is slow and needs expert tuning, contact our team today for a free speed audit!

The post Website Speed Optimization: How to Improve Load Times & Boost SEO appeared first on LDA | Website Design & Development Agency.

The Ultimate Guide to SEO: How to Increase Organic Traffic to Your Website

LDA Staff Writer — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 17:00:38 +0000

Are you struggling to get more visitors to your website? Without search engine optimization (SEO), even the best-looking website might go unnoticed. In this guide, we’ll break down simple, effective SEO strategies that can boost your rankings and increase organic traffic. Whether you’re using Shopify, WordPress, or another platform, these tactics will help you gain visibility on Google.

1. Keyword Research: Finding the Right Terms to Rank For
Before creating content, you need to know what your audience is searching for.

Use free tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, or Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator to find keywords.
Focus on long-tail keywords (e.g., “best SEO tips for WordPress” instead of “SEO tips”).
Analyze search intent (informational, navigational, transactional) to ensure your content aligns with user needs.
Leverage competitor research to find keywords they rank for but you don’t.

2. On-Page SEO: Optimizing Content for Search Engines
Once you have the right keywords, it’s time to optimize your website.

Title Tag & Meta Description: Keep the title under 60 characters and the meta description under 156 characters.
Headings (H1, H2, H3): Structure content with headings, including keywords naturally.
Internal Linking: Link to other relevant pages on your site to keep visitors engaged.
Image Optimization: Use descriptive filenames and alt text for better indexation.
Schema Markup: Implement structured data (FAQ, reviews) to enhance search visibility.

3. Technical SEO: Ensuring Your Site is Search-Friendly
Technical SEO makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site.

Ensure your website is mobile-friendly (Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing).
Improve site speed by compressing images and using caching plugins.
Submit an XML sitemap to Google Search Console for faster indexing.
Use HTTPS encryption for security and trustworthiness.
Implement lazy loading to improve page speed and user experience.

4. Content Strategy: Creating High-Quality, Engaging Content
Great content is the foundation of SEO.

Write blog posts, guides, and FAQs that provide real value.
Use the skyscraper technique—find top-ranking content and make it even better.
Keep paragraphs short and easy to read (2-3 sentences each).
Include images, infographics, and videos to enhance engagement.
Update old content regularly to maintain freshness and rankings.

5. Link Building: Boosting Authority with Backlinks
Google considers backlinks (links from other websites) a major ranking factor.

Guest Blogging: Write articles for high-authority websites in your niche.
Broken Link Building: Find broken links on other sites and offer your content as a replacement.
Local SEO & Directories: Get listed on Google My Business, Yelp, and industry directories.
HARO (Help a Reporter Out): Provide expert insights to journalists for potential high-quality backlinks.

6. User Experience & Core Web Vitals
Google prioritizes user experience metrics.

Improve First Input Delay (FID), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
Optimize for mobile usability and reduce intrusive pop-ups.
Use clear CTAs (Call to Actions) to improve engagement and conversions.

7. Measuring SEO Success: Tracking and Adjusting
SEO is an ongoing process that requires monitoring and optimization.

Use Google Analytics to track organic traffic and visitor behavior.
Check Google Search Console for indexation issues and keyword performance.
Adjust content and strategies based on data insights.
Track click-through rate (CTR) and tweak meta descriptions for better engagement.

SEO isn’t a one-time task—it’s an ongoing effort that rewards persistence. By following these strategies, you’ll improve your website’s visibility, attract more organic traffic, and ultimately grow your business online. Start optimizing today, and watch your rankings rise!

Ready to Boost Your SEO?
Need help optimizing your website? Contact our team of SEO experts today!

The post The Ultimate Guide to SEO: How to Increase Organic Traffic to Your Website appeared first on LDA | Website Design & Development Agency.

How to Secure and Protect Your WordPress Website

LDA Staff Writer — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 02:29:20 +0000

1. How can it affect my business?
2. What is hacking?
3. How are websites hacked?
4. Is WordPress the only platform affected?
5. How do I know if my website was hacked?
6. What should I do if my website was hacked?
7. How can I avoid being hacked?

How can it affect my business?

The affects of hacking can be devastating for a business (and consumers). Hacks have bankrupt and dissolved businesses. Just take a look at the Mt. Gox (Japan-based Bitcoin exchange) hack from 2011. Initially a hacker identified system credentials and successfully transferred over 2,600 bitcoins to another account. Not long after, they were hit with a second hack where over 750,000 bitcoins were stolen. They were forced to halt operations and file bankruptcy. Customers who had accounts with them lost their funds. Another great example is the data breach at Equifax (read more here).

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because you are a small business that no one would want to hack your website. According to Symantec’s 2016 Internet Security Threat Report, phishing campaigns targeted small businesses 43% of the time.

Being hacked can destroy your reputation and erode all trust in your business. Imagine being a company that provides some type of security services or is entrusted with sensitive data. A security breach could destroy the business overnight. Malicious code that can be installed on your site from a hack and can cause issues with your organic search rankings. Google, Bing, and other major search engines will recognize the malware and block you from their indexes.

You could even be liable for losses that your customers incur as a result of their credit card numbers or other personal information being stolen due to a breach on your website.

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What is hacking?

You hear people using the terms “Hacking” or “Hacked” quite frequently, especially when it comes to websites. While there are numerous ways that you can actually be hacked, in general terms it is unauthorized access or intrusion into a network. This can be done manually by an individual executing code or unlawfully accessing accounts with known or guessed access credentials. It can also be completely automated. The hacker might suppress the website security or alter the website code in order to accomplish their intended goal.

Mirriam Webster defines a hacker as: a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system.

How are websites hacked?

Hackers can employ a variety of techniques for hacking, some of which include:

Vulnerability Scanner: Checks for known weaknesses and exploits them. This is why it’s so pertinent for you to quickly upgrade your website software. Once a security issue is identified and a patch is issued, automated hacks will begin on mass scale.
Key Loggers: These are designed to record keystrokes for later retrieval. They can attempt to parse out access credentials, sensitive personal data, credit card numbers, and anything else they can recognize.
Brute Force Attack: A brute force attack is when the hacker uses scripts to try various combinations until they figure out your password. This can gain them access to hosting accounts, cpanel, FTP, SSH, etc.
Password Cracking: Recovering passwords from data stored or transmitted by computer systems.
Trojan Horse: This is software that serves as a back door in a computer system to allow a hacker to gain access to a system at a time of their choosing. They can do things like install software that takes photos of your payment page and sends the screenshots with card information to their system. Many have had their website files encrypted and have been hijacked until they send ransom money in exchange for what they hope will be the encryption key so they can restore their website.
Packet Sniffer: These are simple applications that capture data packets so data can be analyzed and information parsed out, similar to the process with analyzing data collected from key loggers.
Spoofing: This is where email communications and/or websites falsify data by mimicking legitimate sites.
Viruses: Code that can replicate itself and typically causes damage like deleting, modifying, or corrupting files and/or data.
SQL Injection Hacks: SQL Injection is when a hacker enters malicious words and characters into a form that is unsecured to exploit the database.

Is WordPress the only platform affected?

WordPress might just me the most widely used Content Management System on the web. According to ManageWP.com, 74,652,825 sites are running on the software. With that large of an audience is (one of) the natural targets for hackers. WordPress (74%), Joomla (17%), and Magento (6%) seem to be among the most hacked CMS platforms. This is based on stats provided by Sucuri (a website security platform) from a sample size of 7,937 compromised websites in the third quarter of 2016. This doesn’t mean that WordPress is necessarily an insecure platform, it means that website owners neglect taking the proper measures and so leave themselves prone.

WordPress is appealing to many developers because it is an open source platform. Open source platforms offer rapid development and robust features to the development community. Unfortunately they are always under close watch by hackers looking for the next way to exploit vulnerabilities of the software for their own gains. Because of this, If you don’t stay up to date with the latest software updates you are going to be vulnerable to a website hack.

How do I know if my website was hacked?

If you don’t regularly browse your website or have software in place that monitors it for you, it probably all started with a customer reporting a strange ad, redirect to a foreign website, or message that their McAfee browser security plugin displayed. There are however a number of indicators and we’ll list some of the most likely ones here.

1. Spam or Malware Links Added to Your Website

One of the most common indicators is data injection. Hackers create a backdoor to modify your WordPress files and database. Usually these hacks add strange links for Viagra prescriptions or redirect you to foreign websites. Deleting the links will not solve the problem. You need to cleanse the malware.

2. Unable to Login to the Admin

No longer able to login to your WordPress admin. You can reset the login directly through MySQL, but until you cleanse the malware the hackers will likely just lock you out again.

3. Sudden Drop in Website Traffic

Many malware and trojan viruses out there that redirect your website’s traffic to other websites. In addition, Google’s safe browsing tool might be showing warnings to users regarding your website and they might remove you from their indexes.

4. Suspicious User Accounts

If you have user accounts because you sell something or have another reason for users to register for accounts on your website and are using spam prevention, then your site was probably hacked. The accounts will typically have administrator roles and you might be unable to delete them.

5. Your Website is Often Slow or Unresponsive

Hackers can install scripts that are running large processes, communicating with third party websites, and might even be using your resources for crypto currency mining. This can cause a major slowdown in the load times on your web pages.

6. Email from Google Search Console

You might get an email from Search Console informing you that your website has been compromised

7. Unknown Files and Scripts on Your Server

If you’re regularly working on your website and are familiar with the file structure and standard WordPress files, you might notice some files which were installed that are out of the ordinary.

8. Your Website Displays Another Website

Some hackers will re-direct your traffic to another website. You would see a new file or a modified existing file with code that looks like this:

9. Message on Homepage

You might see a message that you need to send a payment to an email account in exchange for the decryption key to your website files.

What should I do if my website was hacked?

If your site’s been hacked, you need to immediately change all of your passwords. We recommend using strong passwords. Change all our your passwords, which might include: cPanel, FTP, databases, and other admin accounts.
If you are lucky enough to have a recent backup of your website and database (and can determine it was from before you were hacked) restore the backup immediately.
Use reliable software to remove the malware. You can explore options like Exploit Scanner, Sucuri SiteCheck, or Gravity Scan.
Then immediately after make sure that you follow the recommendations in the “How Can I Avoid Being Hacked?” section.

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How can I avoid being hacked?

Place emphasis on how people access your website, leveraging things like Multi-Factor and Two-Factor Authentication.
Protect yourself against the exploitation of software vulnerabilities through use of a Website Firewall – focus on Known and Unknown Attacks.
Backups are your friends – your safety net – try to have at least 60 days available.
Register your website with Search Engines – Google and Bing have Webmaster Tools, leverage their infrastructure to tell you the health of your website.

Schedule regular backups. No this will not prevent a hack but in the event that it does happen it will make your life MUCH easier. There are numerous plugins that can do this for you if your hosting plan does not already. UpdraftPlus is one that we happen to like.
Use strong passwords. It’s tempting to use the name of your poodle, but use long passwords with a variety of upper-case letters, lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters. Make sure your usernames and passwords cannot be guessed.
Custom WP Admin URL. Change the default WordPress Admin url (http://www.mywebsite.com/wp-admin). Make it a little more difficult and stop some of the automated hacks. There are numerous plugins that can help you do this in minutes.
Update everything. Don’t wait until you have free time on the weekend, update immediately. If there was a software update that is addressing a security issue that means hackers are already exploiting it. Don’t make yourself an easy target, always update your software.
Two factor authentication. Install a plugin that sends a security code to your mobile device before allowing you to login. You can look into Google Authenticator.
Install security software. WordPress has a number of great security plugins. Here are a few that are worth looking into:
Sucuri Security
Wordfence
iThemes Security
Jetpack
BulletProof Security

The research for this article was done by a staff writer for LDA Interactive, a Los Angeles based web design agency. Contact LDA at info@ldainteractive.com or call (213) 342-1770 for a website consultation from one of our specialists.

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How to add Amazon Payments to my website – a complete guide

LDA Staff Writer — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 14:22:17 +0000

Amazon Payments is an online payment method, owned by Amazon.com, Inc., that you can integrate as a checkout option to your e-commerce website. As of June 2017 the service is available in the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, India and the UK. Existing Amazon users can make secure purchases from non-Amazon websites that accept Amazon Payments. If your customer selects this payment method, they choose an existing credit card and shipping address from their account (or add a new one) and checkout with a few simple clicks. Much like PayPal, using this service keeps the customers financial information private from sellers. The idea is that by making checkout quicker and adding more protection of customer data, merchants could increase conversions and sales.

How do I implement it on my Magento website?
How will it benefit me?
What does it cost?
Is there fraud protection?
Are there any added benefits for mobile shoppers?
Do I get all my customers order data?
Are there any con’s I should consider?

How do I implement it on my Magento website

There are already plugins developed to allow for an easy integration on e-commerce platforms such as: Woo Commerce, Magento, Drupal, X-cart, Shopify, BigCommerce, and many others. We have found that nearly all of these are free solutions, and most are developed by Amazon.

Here is a full list of the plugins that they offer: click here for list of Amazon developed plugins.

Amazon Pay Integration for Magento 2x Community Edition
While this focuses on Magento 2x CE, the integration for Magento 1x is near identical.

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1. Create an account with Amazon Pay.

Visit: https://pay.amazon.com/us/signup

Amazon will require you to fill out some basic information (first name, last name, email address, business website URL, website platform). Next they will give you the option to either “Create a new signin” or “Use existing Amazon signin”. Make sure that you do not select the latter option and use a personal Amazon account account. Only select this option if you have an Amazon business account. From here you will go through a series of other steps which include: Business setup (type of business, us/intl, etc.), Tax setup (business name, address, phone, category, annual sales, website url, agree to terms, credit card details), Configuration, and Success.

During the process they also will typically require some verification documents to be uploaded. They will also ask you to add a credit card to the account, “We ask for a card in the event that your account falls into a sustained negative balance”.

Once you have everything setup, you can login to your Amazon Pay account using this link: https://sellercentral.amazon.com

From the same location you can manage your Sandbox account which you can use for running transaction tests before deployment as well as your Login with Amazon should you choose to also utilize that functionality on your website.

2. If you don’t have one already, setup a free Magento account.

Visit: https://account.magento.com/applications/customer/create/

3. Download and install the Amazon Pay Extension

The extension was developed by Amazon Payments, Inc., and is free.

Visit: https://marketplace.magento.com/amzn-amazon-pay-and-login-magento-2-module.html

You’ll select from either enterprise or community, choose the default support option, and then “Add to cart”. Once you complete the process you will get a confirmation page with a download link.

While there are a few harsh reviews, we didn’t experience any issues with the extension during our installation on a default Magento installation and theme.

4. Get your private and public access keys

Log back in to your Amazon Pay account.
Hover over the “INTEGRATION” link in the header, and choose the option for “MWS Access Key”.

You can either “copy your keys” and paste that into the “Credentials JSON” which will (should) populate the info for all your required credentials or you can ndividually copy and paste the: Merchant ID, Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, Client ID, and Client Secret. Lastly, set your “Payment Region” and “Sandbox” mode to yes or no.

5. Configure your settings in Magento

Login to your Magento Admin. Go to “Stores” and then “Configuration”.
Expand the “General” tab and then “Credentials”.
Populate all the credentials from step 4.

Expand the “General” tab and then “Options”.
a. Set “Enable Amazon Pay” to “Yes”.
b. Set “Enable Login with Amazon” preference.
c. Set “Payment Action” preference.
d. Set “Authorization Mode” preference.
e. Set “Update Mechanism” preference.

Expand the “Advanced” tab.
There are some settings here related to front-end design, sales preferences, and some developer related options.

The integration process should not take more than a few hours to install the plugin and properly test all aspects of the integration. Consult with your website developer, or we would be glad to assist you. Contact LDA at info@ldainteractive.com or call (213) 342-1770 for a website consultation from one of our specialists.

How will it benefit me

The idea is that using this service will make checkout easier for your customers and if your prospective customers have any hesitations about safety, security, or their information being compromised, using a trusted service by Amazon will alleviate those concerns. Large retail brands like ALLSAINTS were early adopters of the payment service. Richard Ascott and James Wintel have publicly spoken about the success they’ve seen with Login and Pay with Amazon, boasting a 34% increase in conversion rate. They also states that their average checkout time went down by 70 seconds.

Here are the suggested benefits:

Faster checkout
Easy integration
More secure
Less logins for customers
Increase in conversions
Fewer shipping errors
More payment choices

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What does it cost?

Fees are transaction-based. There is a fee for both processing and authorization the transaction. The transaction fee (domestic processing) is 2.9%. The authorization fee is 30 cents (plus tax where applicable) and is collected when the transaction is processed or when it has not been captured and closed or expires.

The international transaction fee is 3.9%. The authorization fee is 30 cents (plus tax where applicable) and is collected when the transaction is processed or when it has not been captured and closed or expires.

Disputed charge backs not covered under the “Payment Protection Policy” are $20.00 plus tax where applicable.

For refunds, you will be refunded the processing fee only.
**Effective June 19, 2017.
Full fee schedule can be reviewed here.

Is there fraud protection?

According to Amazon, “Checkout by Amazon is backed by Amazon’s leading fraud protection technology. Under our Payment Protection Policy, we will not hold you liable for fraud-related chargebacks if you and the transactions meet all of the requirements of the Policy. You could still be held liable for service chargebacks.”

You can read more on their user agreement.

Are their any added benefits for mobile shoppers?

While the payment solution is responsive and works well with all devices we have tested it on, we see no added benefits from a mobile payments perspective.
Amazon is launching “Pay With Amazon” buttons for mobile apps too which could be beneficial if you are also running an iOS or Android app as an extension of your website.

Do I get all my customers order data?

You get all the information that you need to process your order, which includes:

Customer Name
Customer Email
Shipping Address (address, city, state, zip, country)

While you do not get customer billing address or other payment related details, you don’t really need them.

Are there any con’s I should consider?

Custom e-Commerce Solutions. If your website is using a purely custom solution or uses a heavily customized solution, you could run into integration issues and added costs. In this case you have to decide whether the integration cost will be offset by the added value of adding Amazon as a payment option.

A-Z guarantee. Purchases are covered by Amazon’s A-Z guarantee and this means that your policies have no bearing on the transaction. There are also some quirks like customers can’t purchase more than 20 different items in one order.

Hold Period. Funds will automatically be deposited every day, after the 14-day hold period.

Ready to Ship. You can’t ship until you receive a “ready to ship” notification from Amazon. This typically takes 30 minutes, but has been reported by some to take up to 3 days in some scenarios. This is most likely working towards your benefit as they are doing their due diligence in fraud checking. You just need to make sure not to ship until you have the go-ahead or you might lose money for shipping an order that is later marked as fraudulent.

Freezing Accounts. There have been numerous reports by merchants that Amazon held their funds for 90 days + without prior notice. Some Amazon Payments merchants report being falsely accused of selling counterfeit goods.

The post How to add Amazon Payments to my website – a complete guide appeared first on LDA | Website Design & Development Agency.

Should I support Bitcoin as a checkout currency?

LDA Staff Writer — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 21:36:52 +0000

The focus of this article is not how cryptocurrency came to be or how you can mine it, but rather the information you should take into consideration when determining if you will accept it as a payment method for your e-commerce store. There are a number of these currencies evolving. Some are gaining more popularity than others, but for the focus of this article we will look specifically at Bit Coin which seems to be the most widely used at the moment.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a form of currency known as a cryptocurrency and is believed to be the first of its kind. A cryptocurrency is a digital asset or currency that is secured using cryptography. These types of currencies are organic in nature and are not issued by a central authority. The closest comparison is how Gold evolved as a form of currency. It is a finite resource and as the demand/value increases it becomes more feasible to mine at higher costs.

What is the value of Bitcoin?

There are a number of websites that track the historical value of bitcoin as it trades against other currencies. A few such websites are: coindesk, coinbase, and xe.
Here is a 10 year historical chart provided by XE. As of August 2017 the value of a single Bitcoin is over $4,000 US Dollars.

Who accepts Bitcoin?

You would be surprised at the number of businesses that now accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. In 2013 Bitcoin was used for the purchase of a Tesla Model S at Lamborghini dealership in Newport Beach, CA. At the time is appeared to be more of PR / Marketing strategy to get free publicity, but with the growing number of businesses accepting the currency its becoming commonplace.

Here is a short list of some businesses that now accept Bitcoin:

Overstock.com

Subway

Microsoft

Expedia.com

Etsy Vendors

Bloomberg.com

Dish Network

Braintree

MovieTickets.com

Rakutan
Inuit
PayPal

Will accepting Bitcoin increase my website checkout conversions?

At the moment there is no research which studies the impact on website conversions attributed to the acceptance of Bitcoin. While there is growing acceptance and increased usage of the currency, it is by no means mainstream and consumers seem to be unsure of how secure various wallets that would store their currency are. Since the currency cannot be traced to an individual, you might see conversion increases for websites that offer questionable or “black market” products/services. A good example of this was AlphaBay.

Is there any risk?

There are currently no government regulation. At the moment, the government doesn’t have a very clear stance on cryptocurrencies. We need to consider that Bitcoin is not taxed and is in direct competition with all government issued currencies. One might assume that Uncle Sam and other governments will eventually find away to tax income funneling through Bitcoin. After all it’s the perfect currency for money laundering and tax evasion. New York State Department of Financial Services finalized regulations in 2015 that would require companies dealing with the buying, selling, transfer or storage of bitcoins on transactions of $10,000 USD or more to record the identity of customers, have a compliance officer and maintain capital reserves.

An increasing number of competing currencies. Newer and more improves cryptocurrencies are being created regularly and offering faster transactions, more anonymity, and other benefits. These emerging currencies could take market share and decrease the value of Bitcoin.

The currency is incredibly volatile. The value of a bitcoin fluctuates based on the laws of supply and demand. The price is determined by what the market is willing to pay. Bitcoin’s can be significantly more volatile when compared to other currencies due to its small market size. Typical 30-day volatility is around 40 percent and a 90-day volatility is close to 70 percent.

There are no safety mechanisms. In simple terms, if you lose access to your digital currency wallet you lose your funds. There’s no bank, no government agency, no way to change the password, and no way to verify your identity and reclaim your account. A Bitcoin wallet service inputs.io was hacked twice and roughly 4,100 Bitcoins were stolen. This was done via a social engineering attack, gaining access to inputs.io’s systems. A leading Bitcoin exchange service, Mt. Gox, filed for bankruptcy protection after “losing” $468 million worth of Bitcoin.

Do I need a electronic wallet?

Bitcoins are stored in wallets and you need to choose a storage method in order to secure and spend them. There are desktop, mobile, online, hardware (Trezor, Ledger USB), and paper wallets. Wallets store the private keys that you need to access a bitcoin address and spend your funds. Some examples are: Bitcoin Core, BitGO, Keepkey, Trezor, Xapo, CoinBase, Wirex, and Armory.

How to I accept Bitcoin on my website?

Your easiest option is directly through your Payment Gateway. Stripe for example allows you to add Bitcoin as a payment method in their payment gateway. A separate integration is not required. You just need to make sure that your payment gateway integration software is current.

If your payment gateway doesn’t currently support Bitcoin, you can integrate with a service that processes the transactions and deposits the bitcoin into your wallet.

Here are a few, each of which have software available for Magento and WordPress integrations.

Bitpay
Wordpress: https://bitpay.com/integrations/wordpress

Magento: https://bitpay.com/integrations/magento

Coingate
Wordpress: https://wordpress.org/plugins/coingate-for-woocommerce/

Magento: https://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/coingate-bitcoin-payment-method.html

ChainPay
Wordpress: https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce-chainpay/
Magento: https://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/chainpay.html

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Your Website is Slow and it’s Affecting Your Search Traffic

LDA Staff Writer — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 02:31:34 +0000

Website speed is and always has been critical to the success of a website. Don’t think that just because the infrastructure in the US is improving and our home/mobile internet speeds are improving that this no longer applies. According to Kiss Metrics, “40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load”. As if you didn’t have enough pressure from consumers, Google and other search engines will even penalize you for a slow loading website and you can read more here. Combine these two together and you have decreased organic traffic and conversions.

How is my website speed calculated?

Your site speed is essentially how quickly users are able to see and interact with content on your website. The scores might be broken into the visible area in the browser (above the fold) as well as how fast the entire page loads. Usually There are factors which affect your site speed that are related to:

Website Programming
Domain Name Servers
Website Hosting

There are numerous tools that you can use to measure this, and their scores are weighted and the metrics used can vary. Typically these tools will look at how quickly your page(s) are loaded in different: operating systems, devices, browsers, and locations. Many choose one standard screen resolution they are analyzing. The load time for various events/elements of the page will be logged, things such as:

Image Loading Speed, Optimization, use of CDN
Deferring of JavaScript
Use of Caching
Minification of CSS and HTML
HTTP Requests
DNS Lookups
Number of requests

Equally important is also the time to first byte (TTFB). This is the time is takes from when a user makes an HTTP request to your web server till when the first byte of data is received by their browser.

How can I test my website speed?

There is a plethora of tools available that are a quick Google away. I happen to favor GTmetrix, but I’ve also included a list of some others:

GTmetrix
Google Page Speed Insights
Pingdom
WebPageTest
UpTrends
DareBoost
GiftOfSpeed

Most tools you simple enter in your website URL you wish to analyze. Some have configurations for resolution, location to ping from, and so on. GTmetrix saves your searches and has historical charts which is nice to monitor your performance over time in the event a recent change might have caused a negative impact.

What is a good speed?

I think it goes without saying that the faster the better. Some will run into limitations of their current hosting plan and the platform the website was built on. Regardless, with the right hosting plan + setup, and properly optimized website, you can achieve a good result. If at all possible I would try to keep it under 4 seconds. Here are some interesting stats from a study that Moz did.

If your site loads in 5 seconds it is faster than approximately 25% of the web
If your site loads in 2.9 seconds it is faster than approximately 50% of the web
If your site loads in 1.7 seconds it is faster than approximately 75% of the web
If your site loads in 0.8 seconds it is faster than approximately 94% of the web

What if my website is slow?

You aren’t the only one. Most website owners aren’t even aware of the importance of site speed. But, now it’s time for you to do something. If you are tech savvy you can try addressing some of the main issues that were flagged in your site speed report. Otherwise I would suggest contact a business or technology professional that has expertise in this area. Unfortunately, not all website development companies are optimizing the websites they build before they deliver them to their clients. If that is the case for you, find someone else who can help. Feel free to reach out to us for a consult at 213.342.1770 or send a message from our contact form.

The post Your Website is Slow and it’s Affecting Your Search Traffic appeared first on LDA | Website Design & Development Agency.

7 Things to Know Before Buying Customer Service Ticketing Systems

LDA Staff Writer — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 22:35:54 +0000

In 2017, it’s rare that a product or service is truly unique, and differentiating your website is a challenge for most Los Angeles based website owners. Providing a good customer service experience for your customers has become paramount to online business longevity.

Once incredibly effective way for a brand to increase their customer lifetime value (CLV) is by providing exceptional customer service to its existing customers. Having a great team is an absolute necessity, but without the right set of tools there will be no efficiency and it will not be financially sustainable. This is where a customer service ticketing system comes in to organize, delegate and streamline communication with customers.

Customer service ticketing systems are more or less email management systems that create tickets which log communication over the lifetime of your customer and make it easily accessible to anyone in your support team (or in management if required). The tickets also identify the team member(s) that assisted the customer, the order the correspondence relates to (if applicable) and shows reassignment for escalations.

Here are some valuable features you should expect to find in a Magento customer service ticketing extension:

Flexibility: Each business has its own way of dealing with its customers tickets. The right customer service ticketing systems should provide options that can be configured to meet your business’ requirements of managing tickets. It should also be able to communicate with APIs to unify various tools and create a seamless workflow.

Support multiple channels: A customer service ticketing systems should have the ability to collect and sort communications from multiple channels like chat, phone, email, social media, etc. and present them as a chain. Without this ability, communications through multiple channels can easily create confusion.

Automate the workflow: Customers should be encouraged to submit tickets through the customer service ticketing system. When the ticket has been created, it should be assigned to respective teams or individuals. Based on predefined rules, certain tickets may be attended to by the system automatically.

Knowledge-base and community: Self-help resources can cut customer service tickets considerably by helping customers help themselves. While a customer is in the process of creating a ticket, the flow should provide links to related self-help articles. On the other hand, a forum can help build a community and brand loyalty. It also encourages customers to help other customers.

Reporting and analytics: Real time reporting and analytics can provide critical insights into operations. The best customer service ticketing systems will provide detailed reports and analytics of all activities enabling real time decision making.

Custom branding: Branding is an important part of building a loyal customer base. Basic and advanced CSS re-branding of the ticketing system helps create the feel of a professional environment. Customers tend to trust businesses that pay attention to such details.

Support for handheld devices: Customers are increasingly using mobile and handheld devices for contacting customer care. It is important that customer service ticketing systems have sport a responsive design that looks similar on all devices and adapts to the screen size. It should also allow you to respond to cases on-the-go. A mobile app is a bonus.

Businesses that operate a Magento eCommerce store or Magento Website can also add Magento Extensions to automate customer service ticketing systems. Magento Extensions can help enhance functionality of your existing Magento website.

Here are some Magento extensions that are currently on the market:

Zendesk (http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/zendesk.html): The leading help desk solution on the market. All necessary features out of box.
ROBIN e-commerce customer service (http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/robin-e-commerce-customer-service.html): The customer service app with everything you do need. And nothing you don’t.
CRM Ticket – Customer Service Tool (http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/crm-ticket-customer-service-tool.html): CRM Ticket handles all the communication with your clients and organize the customer service process.
Help Desk MX (http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/helpdesk-1.html): The leading helpdesk solution on the market. All necessary features out of box.
Help Desk Ultimate by aheadWorks (http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/help-desk-ultimate-by-aheadworks.html): Help desk solution for ticket management with elaborate statistics, case tracking & resolution system.

The post 7 Things to Know Before Buying Customer Service Ticketing Systems appeared first on LDA | Website Design & Development Agency.

Magento Website Search Enhancement Extensions

LDA Staff Writer — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 06:06:35 +0000

If you are a Los Angeles business owner running an eCommerce website, you understand the importance of a customer being able to quickly, easily, and accurately find a product. Even more so when you are running digital marketing campaigns to attract new website visitors. If a customer is looking for a specific item and cannot find it with 1-2 clicks, they are going to use your search. If your Magento website search is slow or returning irrelevant results, your prospective customer will move onto the next website and the money you just spent acquiring them resulted in a bounce.

Default Magento Search Functionality is Insufficient

Magento’s website search functionality is not a strong point of the platform. It really does not compare with the business intelligence features of competing enterprise level eCommerce platforms. More often than not, due to poor implementation, customers are unable to find a product or service even when it’s listed in your product catalog. Default search functionality just does not have intelligent enough algorithms and items that would otherwise be an expected match are not shown in the search results set.

One solution to this problem is utilizing one of the many available extensions for enhancing website search. An enhanced website search can be faster, more accurate, and have added features like providing suggestions when the customers search may not find an immediate match. Even common occurrences like plural searches and spelling errors will be corrected.

Ordering of Magento Website Search Results

An effective site search will order the results of your website search results more accurately. Irrelevant products mixed in with your results will translate into users aborting their search and likely exiting your website. Accurate results will increase your website conversion percentages. Showing products based on popularity and conversions will be far more beneficial that the default alphabetical ordering.

Features Available in Most Search Extensions

Stop Words
Synonyms
Search by Category and Tags
Correction of Typo’s
Singular/Plural Search
Showing “out of stock” products Last
Uses AJAX
Drop-down Box with Product Image and Price
Fast Indexing

Some Magento Website Search Enhancement Extensions

Sphinx Search Ultimate (https://mirasvit.com/magento-extensions/sphinx-search-ultimate.html): Sphinx Search Ultimate is a Magento extension that combines the most modern approaches to the product search for online stores. Here you’ll find all you need in order to create an ideal product search in your online store.
Search Pro (https://amasty.com/search-pro.html): Your customers will be happy with this advanced Magento instant search solution with extremely high relevance. Let people quickly find exactly what they are looking for.
Smartest Instant Search (https://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/search-smartest-instant-search.html): Intelligent cloud hosted site search with self-learning search technology. Guaranteed to increase in search led conversions.
Search Autocomplete and Suggest by aheadWorks (http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/search-autocomplete-and-suggest-by-aheadworks.html): Improve your online store’s usability to attract new customers and increase your sales.
Magento Ajax Search And Autocomplete extension (http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/magento-ajax-search-and-autocomplete-extension.html): Magento Ajax Search And Autocomplete extension will help your visitors to find what they are looking for in easy and fast way. Ajax Search extension improves Magento default search with great Ajax autocomplete feature. Store visitors will see suggested products right after they will type first several letters in search.

If these Magento search enhancement extensions don’t offer all the features you are looking for, hire a professional Magento extension developer to create a custom solution for your business.

The post Magento Website Search Enhancement Extensions appeared first on LDA | Website Design & Development Agency.

Increase Repeat Purchases with Website Reward Point Programs

LDA Staff Writer — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 20:51:17 +0000

Reaching new customers on your Magento website can be a time consuming and costly task. This makes customer retention incredibly important and an ongoing struggle for businesses of any size. There are a number of strategies that can be employed to work towards this effort, but we’ll focus on Magento extensions that offer reward point programs.

Offering reward points can be a great incentive to promote repeat purchases. There are various ways you can structure the rewards. They can be used as a credit towards a purchase, to claim eligible “rewards” products, towards the use of a discount code or free shipping. There are a large number of extensions available for your Magento website, you just need to think about how you would like to structure your rewards program and pick the best fit.

In addition to offering reward points for making purchases, online store owners can also offer Magento reward points for a variety of other actions.

Website user actions that can be rewarded with rewards points

signing up for an account
subscribing to a newsletter
referring friends that complete an action (purchase, signup, etc.)
adding as a friend/posting/sharing on social

According to a study conducted by ClickFox, 54% of participants would be encouraged to make repeat purchases from a e-commerce store if reward points were offered by the seller and 46% of the participants said that they have already earned and used reward points.

It is no secret that running an online store has a lower overhead cost when compared to physical stores. These savings have been typically passed onto the user through discount codes, but this strategy doesn’t work in the long run because it only brings customers back when a store offers a discount. There are number of reasons why setting up Magento reward points program is a better long-term investment for Los Angeles business owners. The cost of offering reward points is much lower than what you would spend on other methods to retain customers. Setting a reward point usage threshold motivates customers to make another purchase to reach the threshold just to be able to use the reward points they earned from their first purchase.

Reward point programs keep customers happy and excited about their next purchase from your store. They are similar to the points you earn on your credit card. Over a period of time the increase in repeated purchases will bring down your cost of customer acquisition and customer lifetime value (CLV). There are a number of Magento extensions to help you manage your loyalty program, take a look at the top 5 extensions .

The top 5 Magento extensions for reward point programs

J2T Reward Points + Referral program (http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/j2t-reward-points-referral-program.html): Give your store an incentive points-based loyalty system with J2T Points & Rewards.
Sweet Tooth Loyalty & Reward Points (http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/sweet-tooth-loyalty-reward-points.html): Create a loyalty and rewards points program with Sweet Tooth. Reward customers to increase loyalty and sales!
Points and Rewards by aheadWorks (http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/points-and-rewards-by-aheadworks.html): Points can be awarded automatically (and manually by the merchant) and later redeemed for discounts.
Punchtab Points (http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/punchtab-points-1.html): Add a loyalty program to your Magento site, instantly. Reward purchases and incentivize social sharing.
Reward Points Program – Loyalty Extension (http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/reward-points-program-loyalty-extension.html): Reward points Extension for Magento is the best way to create customer loyalty program. Free Update & Support!

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