Category: Technology

Top New Plugins of Popular CMS in 2021

Posted on by galaxy-admin

With over 50,000 plugins in a single CMS plugin directory, it can be difficult for business owners like you to find the right plugins from your favorite CMS platform. Plugins greatly enhance your website and there are several thousand plugins available on your chosen CMS platform and third-party websites.

Choosing the right plugins is critical for your website’s speed, security, and usability. Fortunately, some clear winners will benefit almost any type of CMS site.

In this blog, we’ve compiled a list of the best plugins for popular CMS. We’ll go over plugins designed to improve WordPress, Shopify, Craft CMS, and Joomla.

WordPress

Simple Responsive WP Slider

Simple Responsive WP Slider is a lightweight WordPress slider plugin. You can use the plugin to create and customize an unlimited number of sliders for your website. To add the slider to a webpage, you can use a shortcode or place it within Gutenberg blocks. The plugin’s features include unlimited sliders and multiple sliders on each page. Custom configuration options are available for each slide, including the navigation and slider. Adding dots or arrows to the slides is one of the basic configuration options for individual sliders.

Quick Audio Player

Quick Audio Player is a customizable WordPress audio player. The plugin is mobile-friendly and compatible with any WordPress theme. It works flawlessly on all devices and web browsers. The plugin includes an HTML5 audio player, live player editing, a player poster image, rich control settings, a player shortcode, player width and color customization, and a player color picker. The player supports a variety of audio formats, including.mp3,.wav, and.ogg.

Tutor LMS Elementor Add-ons

Tutor LMS Elementor Add-ons is a useful plugin that adds 25+ Elementor page builder add-ons. Users can use the plugin to create custom styling and layouts for Tutor LMS courses. You must install both Tutor LMS and the Elementor Plugin for this plugin to function properly. After you’ve activated all three plugins, you’ll be able to use Elementor to create single course pages. Course rating, course title, course author, course level, course duration, course thumbnail, course price, and many more are among the Elementor Add-ons. The plugin can also be used to change the appearance of your existing courses.

Job App Manager

Job App Manager is a simple WordPress plugin that allows you to display a job application form on your website for candidates to fill out and submit their information. To display the form on any webpage on your site, a shortcode is used. After completing a form, the user will receive a confirmation email. Go to the admin page and navigate to ‘All Submissions’ to find the submissions in the form. You can also search, filter, and delete forms from the admin page. There is also a dashboard widget that displays the most recent five form submissions.

Wall Pricing table

WordPress users can use the Wall Pricing Table plugin to create pricing tables for their websites. You can include the features of the various pricing plans as well as display the price table anywhere on your website. The pricing table includes the following fields: title, subtitle, price, button, and features (you can add as many as you want). Each plan can be distinguished by color. The plugin is available for free.

…

Craft CMS

Marketplace for Craft Commerce

Craft users can use Marketplace for Craft Commerce to turn their Ecommerce sites into a marketplace. Users can charge fees for your platform as well as add payees to products. You have the option of charging a flat or percentage fee. Stripe Connect is used to process payments.

Presence 

Presence is a Craft plugin that shows who is currently editing an entry. While editing any entry, the users are displayed in the right sidebar settings. For users who do not have a profile image, a default logo is set. Admins can review and approve the entries made.

…

Joomla

AA Tiny Audio Player

AA Tiny Audio Player is a Joomla extension that adds an HTML5 audio player to your website. The extension includes a responsive layout and animation support. It supports the video formats.mp3,.ogg, and.wav. It is also compatible with all templates.

MyRealPin

MyRealPin gives your website a Pinterest-like appearance. You can make your pinboards, and collaborate with your friends on them. You can modify the Joomla extension to meet your specific requirements.

AA Youtube Subscription Button

AA Youtube Subscribe Button is a Joomla module that displays a YouTube subscribe button along with the subscriber number of your site. It is simple to use and fully responsive. It is cross-browser compatible and can be used with any template.

…

Shopify

Advoz 

Advoz is a Shopify plugin that allows professionals to create high-quality Google, Facebook, and Instagram ads to promote your company. Once you’ve decided on a weekly budget, you’ll receive a custom graphic or video detailing how the ads will appear. The plugin will generate advertisements that will drive high-quality leads to your store.

Products Stories Convert Sale

Products Stories Convert Sale is a cool plugin that transforms your website into a trendy social network. Customers can view products in your store in a fun and easy way thanks to the plugin. Like Instagram feed stories, all of your catalogue will appear in carousel stories. Coupons will also appear in the stories to aid in sales. You will also receive real-time reports to assist you in determining what your customers are interested in.

ConvertOut Ambassadors

ConvertOut Ambassadors is a Shopify plugin that allows users to quickly set up an ambassador program. To get started, you don’t need any technical knowledge. The plugin begins working immediately after installation. ConvertOut will track the commission that must be paid to the ambassador for each sale. Payments are made to the ambassador’s PayPal account.

Wrapping Up

It is nearly impossible to run a CMS website without using plugins to add functionality. There is a plugin for almost anything you can think of on your website, whether you want to engage users through email opt-in forms, add social sharing buttons, compress images to improve website speed or optimize your content to rank in search engines.

Furthermore, plugins greatly improve and optimize the user experience, resulting in higher engagement and a better chance of reaching a larger audience.

If you’re not sure which plugins to install first, these well-known and trusted plugins will get you started.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We are your offshore CMS development partner and have state-of-art infrastructure and development expertise on the latest CMS technology trends. We have hands-on experience in customizing websites using multiple platforms, be it Shopify, Craft, WordPress, Joomla, catering to different business needs. We offer assistance from building custom CMS websites to website migration and maintenance processes.

Apple WWDC 7 June 2021 Keynote Highlights

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Apple knows how to make an entrance and the opening keynote of the WWDC 2021 that took place on 7th June was no different. It had everything for Apple’s line of devices from watchOS to macOS.

Although there were no new product announcements in this opening keynote, there are a few products that are awaiting upgrade like Macs with Apple M1X or M2 processors, which we can expect later this year. 

Highlights From Apple’s June WWDC 

The clear focus of this keynote was shared experiences and privacy. Here are some of the software updates planned for the autumn event that Craig along with the team showcased. 

iOS 15

The phones are getting bigger and more powerful so the software should follow suit. The next-gen iOS 15 brings powerful sharing and interoperability-rich features. As usual, it will also feature some tweaks to the interface and crucial security fixes.

Here are some of the iOS 15 features that were previewed ahead of the Autumn event: 

  • FaceTime Links
  • Interactive Memories within Photos
  • Keys & ID cards in Wallet
  • New night mode for Apple Maps
  • Notifications Summary
  • Live text
  • Focus
  • Enhanced offline Siri support

While a pre-release beta was made available for developers as the keynote came to a close, public beta is promised in July.  

iPadOS 15

iPad offers a different utility than that of iPhones and considering its significant user base it made sense that it had its OS and so it got it not long back in 2019. Both the platforms have similarities but the announcements made were hinting towards a more refined aesthetic and UX for iPadOS. 

Here are some of the iPadOS 15 features that were previewed ahead of the Autumn event: 

  • Larger Widget size for a bigger screen
  • App Library
  • Multitasking control menu
  • System-wide Quick notes
  • Swift Playgrounds is a fun way to learn to code on an iPad

iPadOS 15 is also intended to solve the stability issues of iPadOS 14.

macOS Monterey

The macOS 12 is now called Monterey. Craig showcased a host of new features along with the futuristic Universal Control and its crazy ability to utilize a single trackpad or mouse to move across mac and other Apple devices for interoperability. 

Here are some of the ‘Monterey’ features that were previewed ahead of the Autumn event: 

  • Shortcuts on macOS
  • AirPlay to mac
  • Spatial Audio
  • Redesigned Safari
  • Universal Control

watchOS 8

This update for watchOS 8 is about health and primarily mindfulness. It features a new Mindfulness app that integrates the existing Breathe app with a refreshed UI alongside a new Reflect experience which suggests mindful concepts to practice. 

Here are some of the watchOS 8 features that were previewed ahead of the Autumn event: 

  • Dynamic portrait photo face
  • Mindfulness app
  • Memories on Photos
  • Directly share photos with messages

tvOS 15

Although there were no updates that were geared towards tvOS, there are a few to accompany other devices like new multi-window security camera views for HomeKit-enabled cameras, Spatial Audio for compatible AirPods, and Watch Together support for iOS 15’s Share Play.

Other Updates

AirPods – AirPods were showcased with a new feature called Conversation boost that helps reduce ambient noise and provides boosted vocals for the hearing impaired. Also, AirPods are now a part of Find My network. 

iCloud+ –  This is more of an iCloud rebrand than an update but there are some new benefits like Encrypted online browsing and Hide my Email with unlimited temporary emails.

Conclusion

With this update Apple stands to change sharing, communication, and privacy for the Apple ecosystem, making it even more fluid, consistent, and tight-knit. All that was showcased in the keynotes was exciting but Universal Control stood out for us. We can’t wait to see it in action and catch that Minority Report feels. 

P.S.

We are pretty well-skilled with Apple iOS development. Get in touch with us here if you need a partner to help build, migrate, or scale your Apple projects.

Angular v12 Update – All you Need to Know

Posted on by galaxy-admin

The latest update of Angular was released on May 12. It’s got a bunch of major changes that are essentially facilitating the Angular ecosystem’s transition to Ivy. They are calling it “Ivy Everywhere”. Deprecation of IE11 support along with other changes were also announced. 

Let’s check out all these changes-

What is “Ivy Everywhere” 

It means that the ‘View Engine’ will now be excluded in future releases. Existing libraries on View Engine will however still work with Ivy apps. It is supported for now but it’s only a matter of time, so it is advised that library authors start working on the transition to Ivy. 

New Canonical message ID format

According to Angular’s official blog, the team is ditching the legacy message ID formats for a new canonical message ID. A conical message Id is more resilient and intuitive as compared to multiple IDs in the i18n system. 

According to Angular.io

“These legacy message-ids are fragile as problems can arise based on whitespace and the formatting templates and ICU expressions. To solve this problem we’re migrating away from them. This format will reduce the unnecessary translation invalidation and associated retranslation cost in applications where translations do not match due to whitespace changes for example.”

Protractor Pushed Further

The community-driven end-to-end testing framework was given a pass for this release. The angular team is currently working with Cypress, WebdriverIO, and TestCafe to help users adopt alternative testing frameworks until the protractor becomes a part of a future release. 

Nullish Coalescing in Angular 12 

The Nullish coalescing operator is great for clean coding in Typescript classes. It has also made its way to Angular 12 templates to simplify complex conditionals. 

For example:

{{age !== null && age !== undefined ? age : calculateAge() }}

Becomes:

{{ age ?? calculateAge() }}

Stylish Enhancements

  • Angular components now support inline Sass in the styles field of the component decorator. 
  • You can add inlineStyleLanguage”: “scss” to angular.json to enable this feature, otherwise it’s available by default for new projects using SCSS.
  • Angular CDK and Angular Material now use Sass’s new module system. node-sass is no longer maintained, hence ensure that you’ve switched from node-sass to the sass npm package. 

Other Notable Features

  • Angular now supports Webpack 5
  • ng build now defaults to production
  • By default Strict mode is now enabled in the CLI.
  • Language service is also included as a default in the new update
  • Typescript version support updated to 4.2
  • Angular v12 will now show a deprecation warning for IE11 and it plans to end support with Angular v13

Conclusion

It’ll be exciting to see how all these new changes unfold and what Ivy has in store for the Angular v12 platform. With the focus converging towards more modern solutions and an evolving ecosystem, Angular v12 is doing away with certain features while adopting new ones. It’ll only help them better focus on what matters and provide better support to developers and users in the process.


Our Angular team here at Galaxy is also looking forward to testing how migrations and new projects on Angular 13 will turn out. If you’re in the market for Angular development partners then get in touch with us here and let’s discuss your project.

5 WordPress Trends For Business Growth in 2021

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Regardless of the stiff competition, WordPress has been growing steadily since its inception. It is constantly evolving with new trends and technologies. 

Our blog uncovers the most significant WordPress trends that will help future-proof your business. As a business owner, adopting these practices can give you an edge over your competitors.  

1. AI in CMS

Our lives are faster than ever. Chatbots, voice search, and other AI-powered utilities have become essential for our need for speed. 

Modern CMS platforms are now equipped with AI-powered functionalities that seamlessly integrate backend to a website’s front-end. Wix for example utilizes AI to help web developers and designers to create custom web templates based on their preferences. 

These CMS platforms are so advanced that a headless CMS can deliver content using chatbot interfaces on mobile devices just through API integration.

2.  Hybrid CMS

To make up for the lack of a visual interface to design and preview content in a Headless platform, businesses are adopting the hybrid way.  

The hybrid approach comes with the scalability of a headless CMS architecture and at the same time keeps things traditional with a content control perspective. WordPress paired with REST APIs is a great example of this hybrid approach. 

A hybrid approach offers the best of both worlds with a structured presentation while giving the essential content control to marketers to manipulate content for customers.

3. Focus on Accessibility

Smart speakers with voice capabilities have dramatically improved access to online content, as has captioned media, simplified navigation, and increasingly accurate voice search technology. With increased dependency on IoT for work, school, entertainment, commerce, and social connections, the importance of maintaining and improving accessibility for people with disabilities is more profound than ever. 

WordPress offers integrations for accessibility and encourages development for the same in the community. There are millions of accessibility themes and plugins like WP accessibility that highlight accessibility issues within your website. 

4. Motion UI

According to a rough estimate by Siteefy, 547200 websites are registered daily. With these many websites being released every day, the competition for user’s attention is a great challenge. You cannot rely on the traditional ways of gaining user’s attention. 

Users need visual stimulation, and we recommend Motion UI to do just that. You can offer a unique experience in a motion user interface by adding movement, animated elements, and transitions to your design.

Motion UI is not just for the aesthetic and edginess, you can also use it to direct visitor’s focus on important things. 

For instance, this website of a music band does a great job of grabbing one’s attention. It is interactive, keeps you engaged, and ticks the right boxes, helping them achieve their business goals. 

5. Voice Interface

Voice-based experiences are no longer just some novelty feature that companies use to sell their products. It facilitates web accessibility, thereby making the web more inclusive than it was 10 years ago. And besides everyone just loves interacting with their phones and other mobile devices via voice interfaces. Google reports that 27% of the online global population is using voice search on mobile.

Summing Up

These trends are reshaping the web and the way we use it. Your WordPress website can also take advantage of these trends to change your content management strategy for the better and drive your business. 

You can get in touch with us if you’re looking to partner with WordPress experts. Our team will understand your requirements and provide you with a robust and cutting-edge solution that puts your business on a fast track to success. 

About Galaxy

We are your offshore CMS development partner and have state-of-art infrastructure and development expertise on the latest CMS technology trends. We have hands-on experience in end-to-end WordPress CMS development solutions catering to different business needs. We offer assistance from building custom CMS websites to website migration and maintenance processes.

7 Business Benefits of Choosing an Enterprise CMS

Posted on by galaxy-admin

An enterprise content management system is the beating heart of your organization’s digital presence. CMS users can avail themselves of a variety of document types and content on a website, then modify and expand the information posted without the need for a web programmer to set up the site and make updates.

When evaluating a content management system, managers need to contemplate numerous factors, including: 

  • How is what you have now compared to what is available in the market? 
  • What is the longevity of the solution you have chosen?
  • If you decide to invest in something different, how do you know it will be worth your while?

In this guide, we’ll help you learn everything you need to know about modern enterprise CMS, including:

  • Why an enterprise CMS specifically is key
  • What are the benefits of choosing a solution for enterprise CMS
  • Important factors to consider when you’re choosing an enterprise CMS

What is Enterprise CMS?

A content management system (CMS) is a software system that allows businesses to create, manage, and publish content for their websites, apps, and other digital assets.

As a central hub and publishing engine for marketing content, the CMS is critical to the success of any company’s marketing team. This is why it is critical for enterprise marketing leaders to select a specific enterprise CMS.

An enterprise CMS is a content management system that provides enterprise marketing departments with the features and capabilities they require to engage prospects and ultimately drive revenue.

Why go for Modern Enterprise CMS?

A content management system is used by more than 60% of websites. The following advantages demonstrate why choosing the right CMS is important to most businesses with an online presence – and why it should be important to you.

#1 Increase Your Website’s Functionality With Plugins

Most CMS provides a standard set of features and functions that are sufficient for the majority of users to have a basic platform. It is very likely that your requirements are different or that you require additional functionality. A plugin can fill this void and provide features that aren’t included with the standard CMS.

There are thousands of free and paid plugins available for almost any job or feature you can think of. There is an active community that develops software plugins that can extend the functionality of popular CMS platforms. Some are paid, while others are free to use.

#2 Omnichannel Selling Support

Omnichannel selling is another important advantage of using a CMS platform. Organizations frequently need to entice customers to visit their websites by marketing through various channels with different content that provides each user with insight into their brand. Marketing on each channel necessitates entering all of the brand’s information on each channel separately.

#3 Control Over Your Website Design

One of the most significant advantages of CMS over traditional websites is complete control over your website’s design. The main advantage of using CMS platforms is that they make website design and customization very easy and simple.

With a traditional website, you or your web development agency will need to scrap your old website in order to redesign a new one from scratch. The existing content will also need to be manually transferred to the new website design. This is inefficient and complicates and prolongs the website design or redesign process when compared to using a CMS.

#4 Multi-language Capabilities

Personalization is becoming increasingly important for brands that operate in more than one country to engage customers in meaningful ways. Having an enterprise CMS that can handle multi-language content, including translation and localization tools, helps ensure that you can deliver the right content in the right context no matter where it is needed in the world.

#5 Mobile Readiness

Over 90% of websites now report that mobile devices generate more unique visitors than desktop computers. According to Google, mobile visitors are 5X more likely to abandon a website that hasn’t been optimized for mobile use. According to Google, “mobile-friendly sites rank higher in search results.” At this point, an enterprise CMS capable of delivering content to your mobile apps and experiences is required.

#6 Automation Through Integration

As your business expands, so will your content workload, which is a great reason to use automation to do more of the heavy lifting. Through integrations with artificial intelligence-enabled tools, an enterprise CMS can enable content teams to leverage technology to automate routine tasks that would otherwise take humans a long time to complete.

#7 Easy Website Maintenance 

CMS websites make it simple for you to manage your site’s upkeep. If you believe you should have control over your site or if you want an in-house team member to maintain it, CMS makes it simple and quick. A CMS’s template-based structure makes it simple and quick to create pages and posts.

Wrapping Up

If you’re looking for a CMS that can help automate the many manual tasks associated with content management, enable efficient team-wide collaboration, facilitate content delivery that improves customer experience, and make the most of all your content assets and data, look no further. It’s time to implement an enterprise CMS.

If you aren’t quite ready to abandon your current traditional CMS, this in-depth guide will help you learn about 3 Things To Know Before Switching To A New CMS. Want to see what an enterprise CMS looks like in action? Contact our CMS team today.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We are your offshore CMS development partner and have state-of-art infrastructure, and development expertise on the latest CMS technology trends. We have hands-on experience in customizing websites using multiple platforms, be it Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, catering to different business needs. We offer assistance from building custom CMS websites to website migration and maintenance processes.

Top 7 User Frustrations on the Web and How To Fix Them

Posted on by galaxy-admin

What were the most challenging aspects of the website’s user interface that you encountered today? Users are often dissatisfied with minor details that go unnoticed. Vitaly Friedman, the famous author of Smashing Magazine, summarized the key areas that may exasperate your users. If you do not fix these issues on your website, it may harm your user experience. 

In this article, we’ll go over the top 7 most common user frustrations and how to address them. 

#1 Scroll hijacking

Scroll hijacking is when a website’s scrollbar is manipulated to behave differently. Scroll hijacking is commonly used to display specific animated effects. Crisp illustrations and fine animations, on the other hand, do not always make for a great web experience.

How to fix the issue?

So, how do we apply this incredibly cool effect practically and rationally? 

First, you must evaluate the user group and the type of experience you are attempting to create.

  • Is the group accessible to everyone?
  • How high is the visitor’s traffic?
  • Does it use multiple devices? 
  • Is the website ADA compliant?

Are you planning to create a website for a niche group, such as a med-advanced tech user, an early adopter, or device-specific? If you are contemplating adding parallax scrolling effects, you can consider this example –

Source: Valaire

This page scroll design is fantastic! You don’t get the impression that a robot has taken over your ability to navigate the content. You have complete control over the scroll speed and your position on the page. It’s a fun experience that makes me want to go out and explore more! The location indicator is useful, and the sticky menu items provide a sense of stability to an otherwise erratic design.

#2 Tiny click targets

The smaller the interactive elements (links, buttons, and other user interface controls), the more errors the user will make when interacting with your website.

How to fix the issue?

  • Touch targets should be easy to use with your fingers. The touch target should be 9mm x 9mm in size on average. According to Material Design, touch targets should be at least 48 x 48 px in size.
  • Padding should be added around touch targets. Microsoft recommends padding between touch targets of 10mm.

#3 Not working “Back” button

One of Jakob Nielsen’s ten usability heuristics for user interface design is user control and freedom. It states that users require a marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted action without having to go through a lengthy process.

How to fix the issue?

The Back button in a browser is the equivalent of an emergency exit. If you are concerned that users will lose their data by clicking the Back button, it is best to warn them by displaying the message “Your work will be lost” when they click the Back button.

#4 Small-sized text

Despite the recent popularity of video formats, the majority of information on the internet is still written. As a result, good readability and legibility are critical for a positive user experience.

How to fix the issue?

  • The font size should be at least 16px. 16px for body text is a good starting point, but keep in mind that the larger the screen size, the larger the text.
  • Line height should be 1.5em or 1.6em for best readability.
  • Always test your designs on a real-world device.

#5 Unexpected content shifts

You’re about to press the link. You move your cursor over the link and click it, only to realize you’ve made a mistake. Instead of the intended link, you click on the ad. Isn’t that the case?

Typically, the content shift occurs as a result of dynamically loading content. Because this operation is asynchronous, dynamic content is inserted into the page and replaces existing content.

How to fix the issue?

To work around this issue, measure the height of the dynamic content and hardcode it as a (min-height) for the container in CSS as done in this verge webapp.

Frustrations
Source: Verge

#6 Sign up walls

Sign-up walls are a requirement to create an account to use a service. Sign-up barriers keep users from exploring the service.

All software, including websites, should be built with this principle in mind: You should always try before you buy.

How to fix the issue?

Users usually try something new, form an opinion, and then decide whether or not to use a service. In the context of news websites, for example, it is possible to provide a limited number of articles that users can read without creating an account and then ask them to create an account only when they engage.

#7 Confusing forms

Forms are an important part of the user journey; they are used to log in, sign up, check out, and so on. As a result, it is critical to provide clear instructions both before and after submitting the form.

How to fix the issue?

  • Avoid relying solely on color to denote an error. Always provide actionable feedback to facilitate a correct entry.
  • If the form is too long, consider dividing it into logical sections and displaying a progress bar to show the user where they are in the process.

Wrapping Up

One of the most important aspects of creating a great web design is keeping up with industry trends and implementing the ones that will work best for your web product. Contact our UI/UX design experts if you want to create custom software with a pleasant and unique user interface.

AirTag | New addition to Apple’s Ecosystem

Posted on by galaxy-admin

2021 also turned out to be a year of virtual events and product releases. Apple has been dominating the scene lately after the virtual launch of the iPhone 12. The ‘Spring Loaded’ event on April 20th had some exciting and colorful announcements for Apple aficionados. 

AirTag was announced in Apple’s tight-knit ecosystem to keep track of things utilizing Apple’s large network of devices. AirTag will enable users to locate lost or stolen items through the Find My app on their iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

In contrast to their rival Tiles; AirTag is circular. Tiles and AirTag offer similar features. However, AirTag is backed up by a colossal existing network of millions of Apple devices. It also comes equipped with ultra-wideband tech, the same as iPhone 12 and other recent devices. 

Read on to find out all there’s to know about these exciting little circular trackers.

Apple AirTag Pricing

  • $29/£29 for one AirTag
  • $99/£99 for four AirTags

The Apple AirTag will cost $29 in the US or $99 for four in the US. It’s Apple so there are add-ons to buy along with AirTag like Hermes key ring, bag charm, and luggage tag. 

AirTag Specifications

  • 31.9 mm (1.26 in) Thickness : 8 mm (0.31 in)
  • 11 g (0.39 oz)
  • IP67 protection
  • User-removable CR2032 battery(Claimed to last about a year)
  • Personalization available

With personalization, you can customize your AirTag with an emoji or a name. 

AirTag Features

  • Find My app tracking
  • Precision Finding
  • Ask Siri to find
  • Seamless setup
  • Built-in speaker
  • IP67 Water and Dust resistance(up to 1-meter for 30 minutes)

You can easily attach AirTag to your everyday items to keep track of it. Its integration with iOS allows you to find things via the ‘Find My’ app instantly and with ease. 

How does it work?

The “U” in U1 stands for “ultra-wideband” (UWB). It’s a low-energy, short-range radio technology used for wireless data transmission. It’s more precise than Bluetooth. The distance measured between two UWB devices is more reliable as it is measured by calculating the time it takes for radio waves to pass to and fro between said devices, hence providing pinpoint precision to find things attached to the device. 

For the older devices that don’t have a U1 chip, AirTag also supports Bluetooth.

Finding with ‘Find My’

The easiest and the most Apple way to find your device would be by asking Siri when you misplace it. You can also use the ‘Find My’ app to ping the tag and quickly find something like keys via sound inside your home. 

What about when things get lost outside your home?

You can use your phone to see AirTag’s last seen location in the ‘Find My’ app. This is for more favorable scenarios like forgetting something at your friend’s place or office. AirTag is a game-changer when you misplace something or when something gets stolen. In that case, you can put the AirTag in the Lost mode and the device will utilize the wider network of other Apple devices to find your device.

This is a passive process that happens in the background; securely and privately. And when the device is found the owner gets an alert regarding the whereabouts. Everything is encrypted and happens passively, so people won’t be able to detect and steal others’ AirTags, not even Apple can’t see what’s happening.

What if someone finds my AirTag?

When someone finds your lost item with an AirTag, they can tap it via NFC and the Tag will show the owner’s contact info. They don’t necessarily have to possess an Apple device to interact with it and report it. It can be any NFC device.

What If someone involuntarily slips an AirTag to track me?

Apple has also thought of the downsides of this as well. It was one of our concerns too, what if someone misuses AirTag to track someone without their consent? Fortunately, Apple has designed AirTag with that possibility in mind. Your app will alert you in case an unknown AirTag is detected with you. You can disable them for your safety. 

We are always excited to see what Apple is going to do next. AirTag is a convenient piece of technology but the extent of its application is yet to be explored. We are also looking forward to developing iOS applications that utilize this advanced tech. Introductions such as AirTags present refreshing and creative opportunities for us to explore.   

Feel free to get in touch with us for any iOS development-related queries. We will be happy to partner with you.

5 High Impact Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Ecommerce Website

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Every business owner wants to increase traffic on their ecommerce website. Because more traffic translates to greater conversions. However, getting more traffic is not as easy as just saying that you need more traffic. 

It’s crucial for growth and survival when you’re starting and it’s essential to sustain when you’re mainstream. In this blog, we’ll discover 5 high-impact ways to drive consistent traffic to your business.

1. Paid Social Media Ad Campaigns

The world is on Social media and there is no better way to reach your potential customers than social media platforms. On average people spend 5 hours/day on social media of their preference. With the help of paid social media ads, you can deliver highly targeted ads to the customers who are most likely to convert. 

  • Facebook ads

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: Low

Impact: High

FB’s robust advertising platform lets you target users based on their interests, behavior, location, and more. 

  • Instagram ads

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: Low

Impact: High

Instagram has more than one billion active users worldwide, with 90% of accounts following a business according to Instagram.

  • Pinterest ads

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: Low

Impact: High

According to Pinterest, 72% of active users say they use it to find new brands and services, and, in another study, 90% of respondents said Pinterest gives them ideas about which products to purchase.

  • Google Ads

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: High

Impact: Very High

Google is different from others as it lets you advertise your products and services directly to people actively searching for them. 

2. Engage and be a part of a community

Engagement as a strategy is way more complex than it might look at first; like commenting on posts. To get people to visit your website you need to have an impact on them via a thoughtful dialogue, share and talk about things that drive emotion, and get people pumped. 

  • Get friends and family to share

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: Medium

Impact: Moderate

It might not look as impactful at first but it’s essential to drive that initial momentum, traffic, awareness, and sales.

  • Drive excitement with contests and giveaways

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: High

Impact: Very High

Everybody likes freebies. Contests and giveaways are a great way to get more followers on Instagram, increase social media engagement, and drive traffic to your website. 

3. Influencer marketing is well… Influential

Influencer marketing is building relationships with influencers with a huge following and getting them to talk and promote your product or service. You need to ensure that if the influencer’s content and reach are relevant to your industry, otherwise it’s futile.  

  • Send free samples to Instagram influencers

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: High

Impact: Very High

4. Content Marketing is a necessity

Content Marketing is one of the most organic and very reliable ways to get loyal visitors to your website. It typically includes the creation of interesting, informative, and engaging content. Blogs, podcasts, videos, guides, and ebooks are some of the popular mediums to engage your target customers with. 

Content marketing is also considered a best practice as far as search engine rankings are concerned. You can use free tools like Google Keyword Planner and Keyword.io to identify relevant content that matches customer’s intent and be visible in front of a larger audience in the process. 

  • Write blogs to provide information or solve problems

Tactic type: Long-term

Effort: High

Impact: Very High

According to WordPress, the world’s largest blogging platform, each month 409 million people view more than 20 billion blog pages. If blogging is a part of your strategy, then you’d need WordPress experts to get the most of your potential traffic. We can help.

5. SEO will help amplify your visibility

If your customers can’t find your store online then all the efforts will go in vain. When people search for your products your store should be amongst the top results to appear. A solid SEO strategy and consistent efforts to apply that strategy will ensure that you appear in those top searches. 

SEO or Search Engine Optimization tweaks your website to increase its chances of ranking highly in search results for relevant keywords.

  • Write titles that match search intent

Tactic type: Long-term

Effort: Low

Impact: High

Google explains, “Titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result and why it’s relevant to their query. It’s often the primary piece of information used to decide which result to click on, so it’s important to use high-quality titles on your web pages.”

Pro-tips for efficient SEO:

  • Create unique titles for each page.
  • Keep page titles to less than 55 characters.
  • Keep writing style consistent with the use of title or sentence case across all your pages.
  • Include your target keyword.
  • Ensure you match the search intent of the query.

All the tactics we’ve covered in this blog are tried and proven to be very effective. Moreover, the tactics will help you optimize your website for conversions and increase high-quality traffic. An increase in high-quality traffic could mean more customers and more sales; which is our ultimate goal. 

About Galaxy

Our team at Galaxy prides itself in designing some of the best Ecommerce solutions for businesses globally. Contact Us right away for a free consultation!

5 Factors to consider for selecting the right CMS

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Although CMS products are all designed to produce similar results, they all do not offer the same features. It is critical to ensure that the product you select will work for your organization. There are numerous CMS available for you to choose from, and therefore, the process of selecting a CMS can often take longer and more complex.

The amazing content you produce needs to be presented and managed perfectly, or you will not make the right impact. Let us ponder on the factors that should be considered while selecting a CMS? What features should you put first? 

In this blog, we’ll show you the answers to these questions.

#1 Technology integration

In an era when technology affects every aspect of your business, your CMS must integrate seamlessly with your other marketing, sales, communication, and project management initiatives.

Tip: Begin by conducting a technology audit. Make a list of the tools/technologies you use to complete the following tasks:

  • Marketing automation
  • Customer relationship management system
  • Project management system
  • Forms management
  • Email/Social media marketing
  • ERP
  • Customer support

The majority of these tools will either feed or pull data from your CMS.

For example, your blog post could include gated content or a lead magnet. This lead magnet connects to your lead acquisition tool, which connects to your marketing automation and email marketing tools. Once a lead is marked as qualified, it should be routed to your CRM. This is then integrated into your marketing automation tool to further nurture the leads.

This creates several dependencies that influence your CMS choice. The more tightly your CMS is integrated with your other marketing and sales tools, the smoother your marketing machinery will run.

#2 Business Impact

Tip: When considering the effects of a CMS on your business, you should consider the responsibilities you accept when choosing a platform.

With a development platform, you will either require internal resources to manage them or outsource the services required. When you build your website on these platforms, you have to go through a lot more steps in terms of functional requirements and development cycles to get to the final product.

The majority of the development is completed with a solutions platform, and your company will need to configure the platform to meet your specific needs. Adoption is also generally faster because these systems are designed to be user-friendly.

#3 Ongoing Requirements

The process of creating a website for your company can be difficult. Managing stakeholder expectations, ensuring you deliver on business requirements, and getting your vendor to deliver on their promises are just a few of the issues that arise during the process.

The build, however, should be considered the start of your digital journey. The hard work begins the day the website is launched and you now need to validate the assumptions you made many months prior during the discovery phase.

Tip: Integrated analytics serve as a springboard for your responses, A/B testing of content, and user journeys. This then leads to website updates, content changes, and the launch of landing pages for specific campaigns. Understanding how the CMS platform behaves when there is a need for continuous change should be part of the decision-making process.

#4 Security

Security is a major consideration. You need a CMS that will protect your content and customer data from current and future threats.

There are four things to think about here:

Security features: Does the CMS include built-in security features (for example, two-factor authentication)? If not, does it have security plugins and third-party integrations?
Infrastructure requirements include: Is the CMS in favor of infrastructure-level security upgrades?

Environment for plugins/modules: Are your most frequently used plugins/modules secure? Do their developers check for updates regularly?
Development speed: How quickly do developers release updates and security fixes? This is especially problematic with open-source software.

#5 WYSIWYG content creation

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) user interfaces have become a standard feature of CMS platforms ranging from the most basic to the most sophisticated.

A WYSIWYG content authoring environment, as the name implies, allows marketers and non-technical users to create content using familiar formatting tools (such as those found in Microsoft Word).

Consider the following:

  • Can marketers use the editor to easily change the look and feel of content?
  • Does the editor support multiple delivery channels with previews of content?
  • Is the editor responsive and quick, or is it slow and difficult to use?
  • Does the editor allow you to embed video on product pages and other web pages to support your video content?

How to make the best choice 

Choosing a CMS is a difficult task. You must balance multiple requirements from various departments, evaluate dozens of options, and choose something that falls into the Goldilocks zone of cost, complexity, and ease of use.

Hopefully, this blog will assist you in making a more informed CMS decision.

Here are your next three actions to take before you leave:

  • Inquire with your marketing, editorial, sales, and IT departments about their CMS requirements.
  • Examine your current technology stack and skills concerning all stakeholders.
  • Estimate a budget and take into account the cost of implementation for both open and closed source solutions.

The flexibility and features they offer are out of the box, along with their content-first approach they are not too high up on the learning curve. All these features combined, make them our go-to for nearly every custom web project.

It is an essential component of our web design and development capabilities. Are you interested? Contact us, and we’ll be happy to discuss how they can improve your site.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We are your offshore CMS development partner and have state-of-art infrastructure and development expertise on the latest CMS technology trends. We have hands-on experience in end-to-end WordPress CMS development solutions catering to different business needs. We offer assistance from building custom CMS websites to website migration and maintenance processes.

7 Clever Ways to Boost Ecommerce Store Sales in 2021

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Increasing conversions and enhanced customer engagement is the primary goal of all Ecommerce businesses, both large and small. This leads to more sales. However, increasing sales and conversions is not a cakewalk. 

There are numerous ways to increase your online sales, many that can be implemented with an immediate effect. We have curated 7 such practices which will help you get more conversions and thereby, more sales swiftly. 

#1 Cross-selling is BIG in Ecommerce right now

It is a strategy for selling products that are related to the items that are already in the customer’s shopping cart. They may fall into a completely different product category! Did you know that using a cross-sell on the checkout page can increase conversions by up to 3%?

Cross-sell items should be at least 60% less expensive than the item added to the cart. If you offer your customer a complete package, such as a camera and batteries at a lower price, they will not hesitate to purchase both.

#2 Create a streamlined UI/UX

How simple is it for a typical user to interact with your store? A streamlined user experience and interface are critical for your website’s growth. Put product recommendations at the bottom, for example, and include “frequently bought together” options as well.

#3 Optimize newsletter sign-ups

Email newsletters are the go-to option for promotions in both B2B and B2C market space. Digital marketers understand the importance of email newsletters in shaping a brand’s tone and image. It is convenient to capture customer’s attention with the help of a simple newsletter sign-up popup.

#4 Offer a range of filters

Your existing customers have an understanding of your online storefront. The new browsers, however, need some guidance to navigate through your store. Consider them to be the online equivalent of window shoppers. 

This is where product filters come in handy. They help organize your products in a manner that enables visitors to easily pick and choose products based on their preferences.

#5 Enable guest checkout method

If you want to convert your customers into repeat buyers, instead of forcing them to create an account, offer them the option of checking out as a guest. Allowing for a guest checkout option could do wonders for your online business. 

Currently, many Ecommerce websites require a user to sign up for an account – and this may be doing more harm than good to your business because many website visitors do not have ample time to create accounts.

#6 Cover a Range of FAQs

Because you are not physically available to answer every other customer question, provide all of the information necessary for your customers to make a decision. Don’t overestimate your customers’ knowledge. Make as many arrangements as you can for them.

Be clear and transparent in your conversations and transactions with them, from Frequently Asked Questions to Return Policies, and from Shipping Dates to your Shipping Policies.

Put yourself in the shoes of a buyer and consider what questions they are likely to ask. Cover everything you can think of.

#7  Work on Improving Loading Times

KissMetrics report state that 47% of customers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less. A simple 1-second delay can result in a 7% decrease in conversion rate. 

You might be frustrated when a website you’re trying to access takes forever to load. If your website’s loading speed is slow, your visitors will likely feel the same way. Consider the following factors:

  • Optimize images
  • Optimize CSS delivery
  • Prioritize above-the-fold content
  • Reduce the number of plugins
  • Reduce redirects
  • Minimize HTTP requests
  • Reduce server response time
  • Enable compression
  • Enable browser caching
  • Minify resources

To sum up!

Although there are numerous other Ecommerce best practices that entrepreneurs should consider, incorporating these listed seven will not take much time and effort. We recommend evaluating your conversion rates regularly and making changes to your strategies as needed. Keep in mind that what works for one brand may not work for you. Simply continue to be unique, and your customers will reward you with the loyalty you seek.

We hope this practical piece curated from our experience in Ecommerce will help you drive sales. And if you want to interact with your customers in a whole new different way and enhance your conversion rate, contact our experts here.