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  • Product photography for eCommerce

    Product photography for eCommerce

    The importance of good product photography in boosting sales for ecommerce businesses

    Good product photography can play a crucial role in boosting sales for ecommerce businesses. With the rise of online shopping, customers rely solely on the visuals of a product to make their purchase decision. Having high-quality product photos that capture the essence and details of the product can help attract potential customers and convince them to make a purchase.

    A well-executed product photograph can convey the value and quality of the product and make it stand out from its competitors. It can also help customers visualize the product in their own lives, leading to an emotional connection and increasing the chances of a sale.

    Good product photography can also help establish a brand’s reputation and build trust with customers. Clear, accurate and professional-looking product photos can elevate a brand’s image, and help customers feel more confident in their purchase decision, leading to higher rates of customer satisfaction.

    The impact of high-quality product images on customer trust and confidence

    In the online ecommerce store, product images play a crucial role in capturing the attention of potential customers. High-quality product images are essential for creating a positive first impression, establishing trust, and building customer confidence. A well-crafted image can help customers visualize the product, understand its features, and even imagine themselves using it.

    When customers are browsing products online, they are looking for evidence that the product is of high quality and will meet their needs. A high-quality product image can provide this evidence by showcasing the product in its best light. A clear, well-lit image with a detailed view of the product can communicate its quality and build customer confidence. In contrast, a blurry or poorly lit image can create doubt and mistrust in the minds of potential customers.

    High-quality product images can also help customers make informed purchase decisions. By providing a detailed view of the product, customers can see its features, dimensions, and other important details. This can help customers to understand the product’s value proposition and make a confident purchase decision. Providing high-quality images also shows that the retailer cares about the customer experience and is willing to invest in presenting their products in the best possible manner.

    In addition to building customer trust, displaying high-quality product images can also lead to increased sales. When customers have a clear understanding of what they are buying, they are more likely to make a purchase. In fact, research has shown that good quality images can drive up to a 10% increase in sales. This makes investing in high-quality product images a smart business strategy that can pay off in terms of increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as higher profits.

    Product photography for ecommerce

    Photography to showcase product features, textures and colour accuracy

    Product photography plays a critical role in showcasing product features, texture, and color accuracy. This is typically the first point of contact that customers have with products, and thus, the quality of the photographs can make or break a potential sale. A well-executed product photograph can draw a buyer’s attention and create a desire to know more about the product, while a poorly-executed one can turn off a buyer and lead to disinterest.

    Texture is an important element of product photography as it helps to convey the feel and consistency of the product to the buyer. A good texture shot can make the customer feel that they are already in contact with the product, and bring them closer to a buying decision. For instance, if the product is a soft blanket, a photograph that captures the texture and softness of the fabric can create a sense of comfort and coziness, which is the ultimate goal of any product photograph.

    Color accuracy is another key component of product photography. The colors of the product have to be depicted as accurately as possible to ensure that customers perceive the product accurately. A product photograph that fails to accurately represent the colors of the product might lead to customer dissatisfaction when the product delivers and looks different from what was promised. Accurate color representation in product photography is crucial, particularly when it comes to online sales or when buying across borders, where physical product inspection is not possible.

    Lifestyle product photography

    By showcasing products in a real-life setting, businesses can help customers imagine what it would be like to own and use the product, as well as add an emotional connection to the item. This type of photography helps customers understand how a particular item can fit into their lives, which helps narrow down options for customers and increases the likelihood of a sale.

    Contextual product photography is particularly effective when it comes to showcasing products within their intended environment. For example, a furniture company might showcase a couch photographed in a beautifully decorated living room, or a cooking utensil company might showcase their products being used in a gourmet kitchen. This type of photography helps to showcase the product in use, rather than just as a standalone item. By showing the product within its intended setting, businesses can help customers understand how a product can be used in real-life circumstances, and how it can enhance their own lifestyle.

    Benefits of investing in high quality product photograhpy

    Investing in high-quality product photography can bring numerous benefits for long-term success in any business. In the increasingly digital age, consumers are constantly bombarded with images and graphics online. High-quality product photography can help businesses stand out from the crowd and make a lasting impression on potential customers. When a business invests in professional photography, it is building a visual identity that can help solidify its brand and make it easily recognizable.

    Having professional photography also helps a business to showcase its products in the best possible way. A high-quality image can convey the details and textures of a product, making it more attractive to potential customers. This is especially important for businesses that sell products online, where customers cannot see or touch the products in person.

    Investing in high-quality product photography can also lead to increased engagement from customers. Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are highly visual, and businesses with eye-catching photography are more likely to attract likes and shares. This can help businesses to gain industry recognition and increase their reach.

    Investing in high-quality product photography can save businesses time and money in the long run. By investing in professional photographs, businesses can create a library of images that can be used across multiple platforms, including websites, social media, and marketing materials. This can save businesses the time and expense of constantly creating new images and graphics.

    Outsourcing Product photography

    One of the main limitations of in-house photography is the cost of setting up and maintaining an in-house team. This includes the cost of equipment, salaries, and benefits. Smaller businesses may find the cost of in-house photography too expensive, and it might not make sense for them financially to invest. Moreover, it takes a significant amount of time and effort to create an in-house team with the required experience, which most small businesses may not have.

    Outsourcing product photography is a viable option for businesses that do not have the resources to set up an in-house team. Outsourcing the photography allows businesses to access top-tier photographers and equipment. Outsourcing also allows businesses to benefit from an outsider’s perspective, which can bring a fresh point of view to the products. It eliminates the need to maintain equipment and the expense of hiring staff, an especially cost-effective solution for smaller businesses.

    How much does it cost to do Product photography

    The cost of product photography can vary depending on several factors. It can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars. The pricing may vary depending on the quality and quantity of the images required, as well as the photographer’s skill level and experience.

    Usually, a simple product photography session that includes basic lighting and background setup can cost between $50 to $150 per hour. For a photographer with more experience and knowledge of advanced techniques, the cost can be around $200 to $500 per hour. These prices include the photographer’s time, equipment, and image editing process.

    Apart from this, the cost of product photography also varies depending on the location and complexity of the photoshoot. A larger product like furniture or automobiles may require larger studio space, and hence, a higher price. Similarly, if the photoshoot involves hiring models, props, and makeup artists, it will result in a higher cost.

  • How much should I spend on Marketing?

    How much should I spend on Marketing?

    Marketing is an essential component of any business, regardless of its size or industry. It involves promoting products or services to potential customers with the aim of generating revenue and building brand awareness. However, the question of how much a company should spend on marketing is one that often arises, and the answer is not always straightforward.

    There are a number of factors that can influence the amount of money that a company should allocate towards its marketing efforts. These include

    • Company revenue (more revenue means bigger marekting budget)
    • Company industry (more competitive means more maketing required)
    • Target audience ( Audience demographics makes a difference in marketing costs)
    • Goals (Higher revenue goals means more marketing dollars)
    • Competition (Sharp competition means more spend)

    Here, we will explore these factors and provide some guidance on how much a company should spend on marketing.

    Rough marketing spend estimates

    If you are just starting out and want a rough estimate, US Small Business Adminstration recommends spending 7-8% of your gross revenue for marketing and advertising if you are doing less than $5 million a year in sales and your net profit margin is in the 10-12 percent range. However depending on other factors, some companies spend upto 40% of their gross revenue on marketing.

    Here, we will explore these factors and provide some guidance on how much a company should spend on marketing.

    Company revenue

    Company revenue is one of the most important factors to consider when determining how much to spend on marketing. Generally speaking, larger companies have larger marketing budgets than smaller companies, since they have a wider customer base and more revenue to invest. However, the size of the marketing budget should be proportional to the company’s revenue. A general rule of thumb is that companies should allocate 5-10% of their revenue towards marketing.

    For example, if a company has annual revenue of $1 million, it should allocate between $50,000 and $100,000 towards marketing. This budget can be adjusted based on the company’s marketing goals, competition, and other factors.

    Industry

    The industry in which a company operates can also influence its marketing budget. Some industries are more competitive than others, which means that companies may need to spend more on marketing to stand out. For example, the retail industry is highly competitive, with numerous companies vying for customers’ attention. In such a scenario, a company may need to allocate a larger marketing budget to gain a competitive advantage.

    On the other hand, some industries are less competitive, and companies may not need to spend as much on marketing. For example, a company that produces niche products or services may have a smaller target audience, and may therefore be able to achieve its marketing goals with a smaller budget.

    Target audience

    The target audience is another important factor to consider when determining the marketing budget. Companies that target younger audiences, for example, may need to allocate more funds towards social media marketing, while companies that target older audiences may need to focus more on traditional marketing channels such as print ads or television commercials.

    In addition, companies that target international markets may need to spend more on marketing to reach their target audience, since they may need to invest in translation services, cultural adaptation, and other factors.

    Marketing goals

    The marketing goals of a company can also influence the amount of money it should spend on marketing. For example, a company that is launching a new product or service may need to allocate more funds towards marketing to create awareness and generate interest. Similarly, a company that is trying to increase sales or expand into new markets may need to invest more in marketing to achieve these goals.

    It’s important for companies to establish clear marketing goals and develop a strategy that is aligned with these goals. This can help them determine the appropriate amount of money to allocate towards their marketing efforts.

    Competition

    Finally, the level of competition in a company’s industry can also influence its marketing budget. If a company operates in a highly competitive industry, it may need to spend more on marketing to differentiate itself from its competitors. In contrast, if a company operates in a less competitive industry, it may be able to achieve its marketing goals with a smaller budget.

    It’s also important for companies to monitor their competitors’ marketing activities and adjust their own marketing strategies accordingly. This can help them stay ahead of the competition and achieve their marketing goals more effectively.

    Talk to NetON and get a Marketing plan with budgets

    Unsure how much you should spend for your marketing, talk to us and we will put a marketing plan together for you with estimated costs for each element.

  • How to setup your Google Analytics Account

    How to setup your Google Analytics Account

    Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, currently as a platform inside the Google Marketing Platform brand. Google launched the service in November 2005 after acquiring Urchin. 

    Google Analytics gives your marketing team, insight into your website and your visitor behaviour. This allows you to understand your visitors better and use that to improve your website. Here is a quick guide about how to setup your Analytics and roll it on your website.

    Pre-requisites for setting up a Google Analytics.

    • A Google Email Account
    • An online property to setup the analytics account on and see the data

    Steps to setup a Google Analytics Account

    • Log into Google using your Google email and password
    • Go into Account Setup to setup a new Account in your Google Analytics Account
      If this is for your website, please use your company name as Account Name 
      Press Next
    • On the next screen: what do you want to measure, leave web as default (unless you also have an app) and click next 
    • On Property Details Provide the Website Name and website url 
    • Select Industry category
    • Select Reporting Time Zone 
    • Accept Terms and Services and click next. This should give you your analytics tracking code. 

    Getting your tracking Code

    • Once complete, you can find your tracking code under Tracking Info > Tracking code area on the left sidebar. You can now pass the tracking code to your developer so that they can start setting up the analytics code on your website. 

    ROI focused Data Driven Digital Agency Melbourne

    Measurement is the first step to Business Improvement. We implement business intelligence and analytics solutions that increase business efficiency and competitiveness. NetON can help you make better business decisions by analysing your current visitor and customer data. Some of the platform that we work with include Power BI, Tableau, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Hotjar, Adobe Analytics etc.

  • 5 Tips and Tricks to get more sales from Shopify Online Stores

    5 Tips and Tricks to get more sales from Shopify Online Stores

    Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms at the moment. Recently, Shopify announced that they have surpassed 1,000,000 merchants worldwide. 

    If you’re one of these merchants, this is the number of Shopify stores that you are directly and indirectly competing against. So in the million strong pool of shopify online stores, how do you find ways to gain more sales from your Shopify store? How do you do better despite having this many competitors? 

    Is it okay to find role models? Is it acceptable to copy other stores’ strategies? What are the best decisions to make to earn more from Shopify?

    Recent news has reported that Shopify’s sales have doubled as the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt the regular world. So if you’re reading this during the pandemic, it’s the perfect time for you to get to work and take advantage of the situation. 

    Let’s find out the top 5 tips and tricks that can get you more sales from your Shopify online stores!

    1. Collect Customer Data and target personalisation

    Personalization is something that many marketers and customers value for a reason.  Everyone likes personalized content, even sometimes unconsciously, because it makes their shopping experience easier!  63% out of 2,200 consumers say that they hate old-fashioned generic advertisements that are constantly being promoted to them.

    In the United States, over 40% of consumers said that they have spent more than they were planning to just because they were receiving personalized content. But how can you personalize your marketing efforts? Through data collection!

    “Wait, isn’t that bad?” To be clear, its bad to gather and use customer data without consent. But with consent, this is very powerful and a win-win for yourself and your customers. 

    In some cases, yes, collecting customer data has gotten a bad reputation. But that should not scare or stop you because as long as you ask your customers for consent, it should be completely fine. But don’t sit on the data, have personalised newsletters going out to them every 2 weeks.  Stale customer data has its own problems. The key is finding the right personalisation and the right frequency to reach out to your customers. 

    2 weeks is also a great amount of time for you to be able to monitor how your customers’ behavioural changes every now and then if you want to dive deeper into that.  Interested in Shopify’s personalisation capabilities, here’s a quick personalization in retail guide from Shopify.

    2. Content Marketing!

    You have your customers, you have your visitors and you have your social media followers. You should have a content marketing strategy to 

    • get past customers to come back to your site
    • get visitors email addresses when they come to the site 
    • attract social media followers to your site 

    A robust Content Marketing plan allows you to target all of your customer groups and focuses on targets rather than a single messaging for everyone. We recommend using a combination of these 

    Newsletters (for existing customers) 

    If you don’t have a newsletter for your Shopify store, this is most likely what you have been thinking:  “Newsletters are a waste of time, nobody reads emails anymore.”  We are here to tell you that you have to let go of that mindset. Right now. 

    Despite how we feel about email, email marketing is still one of the most effective ways of converting your Shopify visitors. A 2018 survey from SaleCycle revealed that 59% of consumers believe that emails affect their purchasing decisions. Another 2019 study reported that for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average of $42 in return (USD).

    That’s surely a lot of ROI for a almost-free platform! Of course, you’re going to have to put more effort when thinking about what to send your customers weekly, but it’s something that you will be truly grateful for in the end. No pain, no gain?

    Not sure where to start? Here’s a guide on how you can start setting up newsletter sign-ups in your Shopify store.

    Offers (for visitors on site)

    Setup offers on site, 10% off your first purchase. Make sure that they are setup so that visitors who visit the first time see it, but its hidden from repeat visitors so that it is not too intrusive. 

    Social Media Offers

    Setup social media offers and competitions to generate more buzz. Work on building up your Facebook list, twitter list and Instagram followers. Frequent and engaging content is your key here. Think of social media channels as a conversation medium rather than a “promotions board” and you will find more loyal fans. 

    3. Run Loyalty Programs

    Loyalty programs have long been existing and are being used devotedly by many successful brands for a reason. In fact, according to an Accenture report, 90% of companies have loyalty programs. 

    Who doesn’t like discounts? 71% of consumers declare that loyalty programs are important for their brand relationships.  Loyalty programs target big spenders and this makes them spend even more. Some companies with the best loyalty programs are Starbucks and Sephora with their beauty pass. 

    (Read this case study from Zinrelo to learn more about the Starbucks loyalty program)

    (Learn more about why Sephora’s beauty pass program works from Divante)

    “How do I do something like this for my Shopify store?”

    Choosing the right loyalty program for your Shopify store is not going to be as easy as 123, but luckily for you, Shopify already created a guide to help you decide which loyalty program would be suitable for your store

    You can start easy, think about your local cafe (5th coffee free) or go intermediate(1 point for every dollar spent) or go complex (get 100 Qantas Frequent Flyer points when you buy product x) based on what your system can handle. 

    4. Influencer Marketing

    I think we all know about Daniel Wellington and how they absolutely nailed their influencer marketing game and became this big watch brand that they are today. 

    As proven and tested by many, influencer marketing is one of the best and most effective ways to gain more sales for your Shopify stores.

    90% of marketers find that the ROI of influencer marketing is comparable or even better to other marketing channels. 

    (Source: MediaKix)

    Although not everyone can ace influencer marketing, and influencers don’t really have the cheapest talent fees so you have to be careful when executing your strategy. 

    Check out this guide from YouTuber Sebastian Ghiorghiu if you need tips on how you can increase your Shopify sales by finding the right influencers for your influencer marketing. 

    5. Find Role Models

    What’s the best phrase to use here? If you can’t beat them join them? Keep your friends close but your enemies closer?

    If you have already done everything or you’re unsure which strategy you should follow to be able to increase your Shopify store sales, finding successful role model stores is something that you should work on. 

    These stores are successful for a reason, and picking up some tips from them isn’t bad. Just make sure that you don’t copy them exactly because finding your own identity as an eCommerce store is more important than anything to be able to grow.

    Check out this article consisting of 50 of the most role model worthy stores curated by Shopify.

    Shopify Online Store Build with NetON

    Starting a new eCommerce Store?or adding new functionality to your existing Shopify online store? With over 15 years of ecommerce development,
    NetON’s Shopify team knows how to make your Shopify store more functional, better looking and better converting.
    We can help you put up a new theme, customise you existing store, integrate with other platforms and bring your vision to reality. Read more about our Shopify Development Services and request a quote.

  • Great new features of WordPress 5.5

    Great new features of WordPress 5.5

    Welcome to the second major WordPress update of the year! As expected, WordPress 5.5 has released and is now available. Our WordPress team have been busy testing all the new features and developments on this release and have complied a list of new enhancements available on this Major Release.

    Released less than 5 months after the 5.4 version updates, WordPress is coming in again with some hot new features that are mostly focused on aligning with their goals to make the block editor better and better. Let’s take a look at the most notable changes that are in the update quickly! It’s great to see Automattic understand that there is a lot of work required for the block editor and move towards fixing that in the last year.

    Summary:

    If you don’t want to read the whole lot, here is a quick summary

    Core updates

    • You can now enable auto plugin updates

    GUI Improvements

    • A lot of improvements to the block editor/Gutenberg editor making it easy for non-experienced WordPress users to use the block editor.
    • Block editor plugins library so that you can add all sorts of new blocks
    • Inline image editing capability in the editor WYSIWYG view itself

    Customisation updates

    • You can preview how the site looks on desktops, mobile and tablets

    SEO Updates

    • Native Lazy Loading , so images load only when you scroll to them
    • Native XML Sitemaps functionality (finally!!)

    We are excited to uncover the hood and look at all the new fancy engine upgrades on this release 🙂  Lets jump into it.

    Block Editor Improvements

    The block editor aka Gutenberg has come a long way ever since it was introduced back in 2018 with WordPress 5.0, and they’re not yet done improving the feature to make it more user-friendly and convenient for everyone to use.

    But what kind of improvements are in 5.5?

    Improved User Interface

    Good UI (User interface) is a must for CMS. That said, I can count numerous CMSes who are still stuck with a single WYSIWYG box. hmm…. That’s why with every update, WordPress is trying to make the block editor look and feel much greater than the previous version. This update is no different. In this update, they added some changes such as borders and focus highlights when moving across blocks. You will also notice that they changed the way the “+” button looks.

    Initially while the block editor was good for WordPress developers and experienced WordPress users, the new updates make it easy for the average user to use the block editor easily.

    Introducing Block Directory

    When we say WordPress wants you to have the most convenient experience in their platform, we mean it.

    The block directory will be including searchable plug-ins that you might want to use for your designing needs and definitely makes the whole process faster.

    Easier Block Movements

    Say goodbye to Gutenberg’s hideous up and down arrows.

    No more having a hard time moving your blocks as WordPress 5.5 makes that much, much easier by finally allowing you to drag-and-drop your blocks inside the content editor.

    You can even set a “parent block” and select multiple blocks at once!

    Introducing Block Patterns

    Block patterns are pre-made blocks that helps you design your page instantly within just a few clicks.

    WordPress already added a couple of default block patterns in the editor with 5.5, but we can’t wait for the options to grow as developers catch up with this awesome, new feature!

    Inline Image Editing

    Before the WordPress 5.5 update, you have to go to the media library first before you can crop, rotate, resize, and etc. your images.

    With the new update, you no longer have to leave the editor to make such changes!

    Desktop, Mobile, Tablet Preview

    WordPress 5.5 gives you a faster way to see how your pages are going to look like on desktop, mobile, and tablet by allowing you to preview them through the editor.

    No more having to go through different devices just to see if your design is mobile or tablet friendly!

    Auto Updates for Themes & Plug-Ins

    WordPress 5.5 gives you a new update management system!

    By going to the admin dashboard, you may now allow WordPress to automatically update your themes & plug-ins for you.

    This is perfect for those who don’t mind not knowing what changes are going to be made to their themes and plug-ins after it updates as it will be much more convenient, especially for those who use A LOT of plug-ins.

    But for those people who want to read about the updates first, it’s great that this is only an option that you can turn off anytime you want.

    Native XML Sitemaps

    Finally!

    WordPress is finally eliminating the need for you to use plug-ins in order to have an XML Sitemap ready for your SEO needs in the 5.5 update by providing you native sitemaps! WordPress started making these changes after receiving feedback from Google.

    If you don’t know what XML Sitemaps are, they are essentially just XML format files that contain a list of URLs in your page that makes it easier for Google’s bots to crawl through your content. This gives you better visibility.

    Native Lazy Loading

    The updates keep on coming with this latest release. If you’re big on SEO, you want your pages to load fast because Google and other search engines value that a lot for optimum user experience.

    However, the majority of the times, you need to enhance your pages using images, and that actually makes your pages load slower.

    Lazy loading, it helps solve that problem by only loading the images that are currently visible on the viewer’s screen and loading the others later once the user scrolls up/down or swipes right/left.

    In this update, WordPress finally gives us native lazy loading! Yay!

    Changes for Developers

    WordPress 5.5 allows developers to test out a lot of new things for their own themes, plug-ins, and etc. But the most notable updates involve the following:

    • Developers will be allowed to control the auto-updates for their themes and plug-ins.
    • New external libraries such as phpMailer, Simplepie, Tweemoji, Masonry, and etc.
    • 65 new dash icons
    • Improved PHP compatibility issue scanning

    WordPress 5.5 Demo website

    We love checking out all the new features before a major release. We keep an up to date demo site with the latest (sometimes even nightly builds) of WordPress that you are welcome to have a look at. Click here to view WordPress Demo site“. Please ask us for a username/password to test the site. This will let you test run all the new features without putting your live website at risk.

    NetON WordPress development services

    Neton is your go to team for any WordPress development services in Australia. Our team is constantly working on WordPress website development, WordPress Design, WordPress Hosting, Strengthening WordPress Security, running SEO Optimisation on WordPress Websites and upgrading Core and WordPress Plugins.

    Whether you are starting a small blog or an enterprise fortune 500 company, we can help build and maintain your WordPress website for the best results online.

    Our WordPress websites are customised based on your business and you requirements. We have built large scale eCommerce websites, traffic generating/ad revenue websites, community building websites, Business 2 Business Websites and Business 2 Customers website. All of them are completely different in their lead generation and revenue models. Please contact us for more details on our WordPress Services.

  • New Features of WordPress 5.4

    New Features of WordPress 5.4

    WordPress is an open-source content management system that was originally created for blog publishing, but has since evolved into supporting various types of web content, and is still continuously evolving. It’s latest version, WordPress 5.4, is named “Adderly” after the trumpet playing musician, Nat Adderly, as WordPress has a tradition of naming versions after Jazz musicians. It was released on March 31, 2020, and is the first major update of WordPress in 2020.

    Currently, WordPress is on a “development freeze,” which means there are no new features introduced to the editor but they are consistently improving existing features. In this release, a lot of the improvements focus on their content editor, mainly the block editor. “Every major release adds more to the block editor,” WordPress states.

    New Blocks

    WordPress 5.4 introduces two new blocks to their block editor.

    1. Social Media Icons Block

    You’re now allowed to add social media widgets to your posts. These widgets will allow your visitors to click on the logo of a certain social network’s site from your post and redirect them to your social media page. However, to allow your visitors to share your post into a social media site, you will still need a plug-in.

    2. From Button to Buttons (with an “S”) Block

    As the name change suggests, the previous button block is now in plural form. This improvement allows you to create buttons inside the same block, side by side! Now all you have to do is adjust the buttons’ colors, size, input links, and you’re good to go.

    New Color Options for Multiple Blocks

    WordPress 5.4 gives you new color options for multiple blocks, allowing you to pick gradients for the buttons and cover block, toolbar access to color options in the rich text blocks, and color options in the group and columns block.

    New Block Selection Tool

    Have you ever nested blocks inside a group block and had a hard time reselecting a certain block? If so, your life just became easier. There is now a button in the toolbar that allows you to easily select blocks. Just by clicking on this tool called the “select” tool, and clicking on the block that you would like to select.

    Default Full Screen

    With the ability to focus on your content more in mind, WordPress 5.4 sets your screen on fullscreen mode by default. You may click on the “W” icon in the upper left corner of your screen to reveal the admin area, but if you want to switch off the default fullscreen setting, you have to go to the editor settings and uncheck the “fullscreen mode” option.

    Featured Images and Gallery Block Images Improvements

    Just drag and drop your images to the “featured images” section, and instantly add your photo there. No need to manually upload them anymore. On top of that, you can now select the size of your images in the gallery block directly from the gallery block settings!

    Latest Posts Block Improvement

    The latest post block now includes “featured images,” which makes the block more appealing! You may choose to rearrange the images’ alignment and size.

    Clearer Interface and Easier Navigation

    You may now see which block you’re in very easily and quickly because of block breadcrumbs. The “tips” are also gone and has been replaced by a “welcome guide” that you may bring up only when you need it. Your screen reader now also tells you if you are in edit or navigation mode. Because of these new improvements, WordPress says that loading is now faster by 14% and typing by 51%.

    Better Mobile Editing

    Mobile editing in the WordPress app is now easier, with the toolbar placed on top, fixing the previous issue where it was hard to edit using the mobile app.

    Tiktok Videos

    With the rise of the mobile app Tiktok, WordPress 5.4 now allows you to embed Tiktok videos to your posts. Although now, CollegeHumor is gone. 🙁

    Privacy Improvements

    • Personal data exports now include users’ session information and users’ information. This may be found in the community events widget
    • You may now see progress as you process export and erasure requests
    • Privacy tools now have a newly improved, cleaner look

    Developer Improvements

    • Developers can now add custom fields to menu items.
    • Keyboard shortcuts may now be added to the block editor.
    • Two new APIs: block variations and gradients
    • Simpler block styling

    NetON WordPress development services

    The WordPress development team at NetON has built 100s of WordPress websites for clients in Australia and overseas.

    Our team is constantly working on WordPress website development, WordPress Design, WordPress Hosting, Strengthening WordPress Security, running SEO Optimisation on WordPress Websites and upgrading Core and WordPress Plugins.

    Whether you are starting a small blog or an enterprise fortune 500 company, we can help build and maintain your WordPress website for the best results online.

    Our WordPress websites are customised based on your busines and you requirments. We have built large scale eCommerce websites, traffic generating/ad revenue websites, community building websites, Business 2 Business Websites and Business 2 Customers website. All of them are completely different in their lead generation and revenue models.

    Please contact us for more details on our services.

    Our contact details are on the Contact Us Page.

    WordPress Demo Website

    Want to try out all the new features :).  We keep an upto date demo site with the latest (sometimes even nightly builds) of WordPress that you are welcome to have a look at.

    Click here to view WordPress Demo site

    Please ask us for a username/password to test the site. This will let you test run all the new features without putting your live website at risk.

  • Content Marketing Platform – the background

    Content Marketing Platform – the background

    The search for a Content Marketing Platform

    Since last year, we have been heavily involved in Content Marketing. We have worked with a number of clients in improving their content marketing to make it more authentic, custom focused, conversion focused and measurable. However over time, the excel spreadsheets and word documents became a non-effective issue on their own. We started looking for a content marketing solution and at the time, the solutions we looked at were not a fit for us for the following multiple reasons:

    • Too complicated to setup; while most platforms did fit our early needs, the sales cycle and setup was too complicated for us to move on them quickly.
    • Too expensive; If a platform did fit our needs, it was usually too expensive to justify our Return on Investment.
    • Didn’t cover the basics; Some platforms just didn’t cover the basics, we needed something that will help us create ideas, not just organise content that we had already

    Our inbuilt Content Marketing Platform

    We decided to build our own platform to see if we can create a solution that fits our exact needs. We spent a few months building a MVP product that we were happy with and worked for us. It was easy for us to come up with ideas, assign them to our pool of writers, analyse them for seo and publish them. We also built a functionality to generate content ideas, keep track of competitors and use inspiration boards to make it easy to create content.

    Launch of the new Content Marketing Platform

    We are now launching the new Content Marketing Platform for end Clients and Agencies in Australia. We are offering the platform for a introductory fee and looking for clients who will use the platform and help us guide it to be better and more efficient.

    Features of the new platform

    The focus of the platform is to make it easy for you to come up with content ideas, turn them into converting content and then publish them. That said, under the hood there are a lot of features that help you manage the process and measure/analyse the effectiveness. Plus we haev a local Australian support team to answer any questions.

    Please click here to view the list of features

    Request a demo

    We will be running demos of the platform from the first week of February. We would love to show what we have built and see if it fits your needs, please reach out at info@neton.com.au and we will setup a quick session to take you through the platform.

  • 6 Top Systems and Development Improvements for 2020

    6 Top Systems and Development Improvements for 2020

    At NetON, at the end of the year, while our clients are on holidays and it’s a bit quieter, we always spend time reviewing our processes and improving them. All this is done to make our processes faster and more efficient. This makes our projects faster for our clients and more economical. We also spent a considerable time this holiday break looking at our gaps and how we can improve our processes.We also made a number of improvements to provide better and faster development and marketing services this year.  Looking at what was done, it feels like we are starting the year with a bang. Here is what we have fixed/rolled out this time

    Better wireframe builder

    Wireframes are usually clunky. They take a while to build and dont accurately reflect how the final product will be rolled out.  There are a number of platforms that provide wireframes but mostly the end result doesn’t reflect on the initial work because they don’t accurately reflect on the amount of work and estimated cost. This year, we have taken this onboard and built our own wireframe system which is faster and accurately reflects the clients budget and the end result of the application/product. We have tried to make the wireframe platfrom as close to the final look and feel that you will get when we deliver the project. 

    Collaborative feedback on WireFrames

    As part of our new wireframe builder version 2, we have also introduced a built in feedback collector which allows multiple users to provide feedback in real time for the iteration of the wireframe. No more emails, no more excel files and no more word documents (yikes). It’s all handled in a single screen and easy to access, review and make sure that nothing is lost between the cracks. We expect this new process to speed up eCommerce development, WordPress Development and most Marketing Automation processes. When wireframes change, there is a new feedback screen but it also carries over previous feedback that wasn’t incorporated.  

    Ad visualiser for faster generation of ads

    As part of our offering, we are doing a lot of Ads for our clients on a number of platforms. We setup Google Adwords Ads, Google Display Network Ads, Google Remarketing Ads, Facebook Ads, Facebook Remarketing Ads, Instagram Ads, YouTube Ads and LinkedIn Ads. The problem with working with multiple platforms is that you lose sight of the bigger picture pretty quickly and start spewing out ads based on platform rather than based on what you want to achieve from the Ads. We have now pulled all the ads into a single platform so that when we build Ads for you, they are cohesive, have the same brand messaging, have the same call to actions but can be deployed on multiple platforms.

    Content Marketing platform that helps you generate more content

    We are also rolling out our new Content Marketing platform codenamed “Hugo”. We have been more and more involved with our clients in content strategy, content development and Content Marketing. We are rolling out the platform we use ourselves to our clients and agencies. The platform makes it easier to come up with content ideas, assign them to your team or external content developers, approve content, roll out content and review content. The platform also has calendars to see what content is planned for the next 6 month or 12 months and a sneaky way to keep an eye out on what content your competitors are pushing out. 

    Content Marketing platform helper

    As part of our content marekting platform, we have also built a “smart AI” to help with the Content Marketing. It’s like having someone reminding you of generating content, doing summaries, doing smart titles and coming up with ideas for your Content Marketing. We are only demoing this to clients who are interested in our Content Management platform, so if you would like to know more about this, please send us an email at info@. 

    Marketing Automation emails, forms and landing pages builder

    We provide a lot of Australian companies support with their Marketing Automation platforms mostly Pardot and Marketo. We are constantly building Emails, Forms and Landing Pages for such Marketing Auatomation campaigns that we do. To speed up delivery of these campaign assets, we have now setup a templated builder that helps us generate Landing Pages and Emails quickly and also allows us to provide our B2B clients with DIY templates that they can use in their Marketo instance to create emails quickly and effectively. 

    General Sales and Service Improvements

    We have also improved our sales and customer service to provide quicker quotes, invoices as well as faster responses to issues. 

    Content Marketing Agency in Melbourne

    NetON is a leading Content Marketing services company based in both Melbourne and Sydney. We have worked with Australian and International clients in their Content Marketing for over 10 years. Our Content Marketing methods use the best industry practices and aim to deliver successful results and higher conversion for our clients.We have been providing high-quality Content Marketing services to companies big and small for over 10 years with clients ranging from the biggest Australian companies to family-owned local businesses.

  • 5 point SEO checklist for a new website

    5 point SEO checklist for a new website

    Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is crucial for improving the number as well as the quality of traffic to your website through organic search results. Although the concept of SEO is fairly new, i.e. it only caught the wind in the 2000s, SEO today has a huge role in digital marketing. If you are planning to build your brand on the internet or just create a photo or blog sharing website, you need to know the basics of SEO.

    We get asked all the time for a handy SEO checklist for when you are launching a new website. So we thought we would come up with a checklist of five things you can do to make sure your new website is getting its SEO right.

    We will keep this at 5 SEO tips to make sure you can do this without spending a lot of time.

    1. Title tags and meta descriptions

    Usually all new CMS’es do this automatically now. However you still want to check and make sure that all your pages have relevant Title and Meta Description tags. Don’t have all your page titles saying your company name for example.

    Title tags and meta descriptions also help to improve click-through rates. This can be done by enticing people to click on your link rather than your competitors’ link by creating a much more engaging title or description. You need to make sure that every page has a title and description set up. This will help users navigate through the page more easily as well as enable search engine crawlers to move through your website faster.

    2. Google Search Console

    Signing up with Google Search Console will provide you with a set of tools and reports that will help you measure your website’s Search traffic and performance. The Search Analytics feature will help optimize your content so that your content ranks higher in Google Search results.

    It will also send you alerts on any issues on your website and will help you fix them. With the Search Console, you will be able to better understand how Google looks at your website and hence optimize your website accordingly.

    One handy info you also get is what keywords users are finding your site with. If they are not relevant, you need to fix your keywords, titles and content.

    3. Device optimization

    Optimizing your content for mobile devices is very important, especially considering Google’s recent initiation to index mobile-first. What this means is that Google’s ranking system will now typically look at the mobile version of a page’s content to evaluate its relevance to the user. Mobile optimization, therefore, plays a significant role in helping a website shine on Google search results.

    4. Google Analytics

    Google Analytics is an important tool used for website optimization. This web analytics service allows you to track and record user activity on a website such as a website traffic, session duration and bounce rate. The information from Google Analytics has shown to have a great deal of impact on the website’s performance.

    5. HTTPS security

    The whole world wide web is moving towards encrypted connections. Google has been recommending websites to use https for over 2 years now. We still see some sites going live without https. So please make sure your site has https when going live. With a plethora of new technology, this is usually free and only takes about 15 minutes now.

    What is Search Engine Optimisation

    Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of tweaking your website content to help search engines index your site better and eventually help users find your website through search engines such as Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo.

    NetON’s Search Engine Optimisation(SEO) Services

    NetON uses ethical Search Engine Optimisation techniques recommended by Google for all our SEO offerings. The primary SEO objective currently is creating authentic valuable content rather than over-optimised and over-filled content. Our SEO offerings include Keyword Research, Competitor Research, User Research, On page analysis, On-page Search Engine Optimisation, SEO Copywriting, Keyword Ranking tracker, mass content optimisation, old content revitalisation and finally Analytics and Measurement to see what results you are getting from your SEO efforts.

    We have built our own On-page SEO Tool (NetON BOLT) that helps us identify the issues with your page and fix them.

    We have been improving keywords rankings for our clients in Melbourne and Sydney for over 10 years.

    Learn about our SEO Melbourne Services and request a quote.

  • WordPress 5.2 has just dropped with more security than you can shake a stick at

    WordPress 5.2 has just dropped with more security than you can shake a stick at

    WordPress 5.2 has just dropped :). This is a major security release for WordPress and needs to be rolled out to all sites immediately. The new release is named “Jaco” in honour of renowned and revolutionary Jazz bassist Jaco Pastorious.  If you want to listen to Jaco, please find a video at the end of this post to listen to while we work on updating your site 🙂

    Our team will be working on making sure your site is up to date with the new security release and making your WordPress website secure. You and your team will be notified when the upgrade is complete.

    This Security Release version focuses on Making WordPress more secure from malware and attacks while helping you run it error-free.

    We are really excited about all the new security features that web designers have been waiting years for on this Security Release.

    In this post, we will look at what’s new in WordPress 5.2, and which features you should notice or play around with after updating to this version.

    To view all the updates, bug fixes and new features included in this new version, please visit on over here.

    Lets find out what new features are available in WordPress 5.2.

    Whats new in WordPress 5.2?

    This latest update of the most popular website CMS in the world comes with the following features:

    Site Health Check

    Site Health Check feature has had an update from the previous version and now has two new pages to help debug most configuration issues in WordPress. These new pages give you site status and recommendations as well as overall info on your site which includes directories, drop-ins, active themes, themes, plugins, media handling, server, database, wordpress constants and filesystem permissions.

    WordPress Site health check

    WordPress site health info

    PHP Error Protection

    This update builds up on previous error protection and allows an administrator or developer to safely fix 500 errors or “white screen of deaths”. This update also bring the recovery mode which allows you to log in without plugins/themes.

    Minimum PHP version

    With WordPress 5.2, the minimum php requirement is now 5.6.20. Using a later version of php makes your site safer and faster. So please make sure that your PHP is upgraded before you run this update.

    Other updates

    There are a host of other updates mostly focused on developers and making it easy for them to develop your site easier such as a new theme page template, a conditional function, two css classes, a new body hook (wpbodyopen) and addition of webpack and babel configurations under scripts.

    About WordPress

    WordPress is the most popular website CMS in the world. The latest version of WordPress has been downloaded more than 50 million times. Did you know that 60% of all CMS run websites run on WordPress.

    NetON WordPress Security Release Update Policy

    WordPress security is one of the most important considerations for us. We want to make sure that your WordPress website is safe, malware free and attack-resistant. The NetON team will immediately update your WordPress website installation on our hosting as we do with any Security Release.

    The new Security Release 5.2 of WordPress makes your site safer and faster. If your WordPress site is not hosted with us, you should upgrade your PHP asap and update your WordPress to the latest version.

    NetON WordPress development services

    NetON is proud to provide a 360 degree solution of WordPress development in both Melbourne and Sydney Australia.

    We offer WordPress Website Development, WordPress Website Design, WordPress Website Hosting, WordPress security, Maintenance, WordPress SEO Optimisation and Upgrades.

    Whether you are starting a small blog or an enterprise fortune 500 company, we can help build and maintain your WordPress website for the best results online.

    Our WordPress websites are customised based on your busines and you requirments. We have built large scale eCommerce websites, traffic generating/ad revenue websites, community building websites, Business 2 Business Websites and Business 2 Customers website. All of them are completely different in their lead generation and revenue models.

    Please reach out to one of NetON’s Account Managers for more of our services.

    Our contact details are on the Contact Us Page.

    WordPress 5.2 Demo website

    Want to try out all the new features :).

    NetON maintains and upto date demo site of the latest version of WordPress that you can browse through.

    Click here to view WordPress Demo site“.

    Please ask us for a username/password to test the site. This will let you test run all the new features without putting your live website at risk.

    And here is a tune from Jaco Pastorius to listen to while we are updating your site:

  • WordPress 5.2 Beta Released, whats coming in WordPress 5.2?

    WordPress 5.2 Beta Released, whats coming in WordPress 5.2?

    The newest Beta Release for the most popular website CMS in the world is expected to be released this month. We have been following the release notes and development of 5.2 closely and have listed the new features and development here.

    WordPress 5.2 comes with a number of new features as listed below and focuses on fixing existing bugs and introducing some new features to the block editor.

    This article will feature all the features and screenshots of WordPress 5.2. We are really excited about all the bug fixes on the Gutenberg editor, allowing admins to login in case of site errors and all the speed improvements on this Beta Release.

    Please note that WordPress 5.2 is still in development. Not all features and enhancements listed below are guaranteed to make it in the final version.

    What new features are coming up in WordPress 5.2?

    This latest update of the most popular website CMS in the world comes with the following features:

    Updates to the Gutenberg/Block Editor

    WordPress Block Editor, Gutenberg has been adding a lot of improvements and fixing a lot of the niggling bugs over the past few months and we feel like its come to the point where its fully usable. Here are the new updates to the Block editor

    • 35% faster load time for larger posts and 100% faster keypress time
    • Addition of 5 new blocks, Rss for displaying rss feeds, Amazon Kindle embed block, Search Block, Calendar block for displaying calendars and a tag cloud block for displaying tag clouds
    • Allowing hiding blocks using the block manager. This allows you to hide the blocks you don’t usually use.
    • Block editor is also coming to the WordPress mobile app to allow you to make changes easily from your mobile devices

    Fatal Error Protection

    If there is a fatal error on the website now, WordPress will pause the error and send a link to the admin allowing them to log into the backend and fix the issue. This is a very welcome feature and will help out a lot of web devs because logging into FTP was a massive pain and would take a lot of effort.

    Please note that you will need minimum PHP version 5.6 to run WordPress 5.2 website. So this is the best time to upgrade your PHP before WordPress 5.2 becomes available later this month.

    About WordPress

    WordPress is arguably the most powerful blogging and website content management system (or CMS) in existence today. 60% of all CMS run websites run on WordPress.

    NetON WordPress Beta Release Update Policy

    Our team will not be updating your WordPress site with this version until it is released. Please read through this post to see what is coming to WordPress, however noting that the final version may be slightly different from the Beta Release.

    Please note that the NetON team won’t be updating your website with this version because this is not a final version. We will update your installation when the full production version is released.

    NetON WordPress development services

    NetON is proud to provide a 360 degree solution of WordPress development in both Melbourne and Sydney Australia. We offer WordPress Website Development, WordPress Website Design, WordPress Website Hosting, WordPress security, Maintenance, WordPress SEO Optimisation and Upgrades.

    Our team has worked with small to enterprise companies in creating, managing and running successful WordPress websites in Australia and around the world. Our WordPress websites are customised based on your busines and you requirments. We have built large scale eCommerce websites, traffic generating/ad revenue websites, community building websites, Business 2 Business Websites and Business 2 Customers website. All of them are completely different in their lead generation and revenue models.

    Please reach out to one of NetON’s Account Managers for more of our services.Please use the contact details on our Contact Us Page.

    WordPress5.2 Demo website

    We love checking out all the new features before a major release. We keep an upto date demo site with the latest (sometimes even nightly builds) of WordPress that you are welcome to have a look at.

    Click here to view WordPress Demo site.

    Please ask us for a username/password to test the site. This will let you test run all the new features without putting your live website at risk.