Google Analytics – what's new? And why should you care?

If you aren't analyzing where your websites visitors are coming from, then you are probably operating in the dark. Hopefully I don't have to convince you that knowing where your visitors are coming from is important to the success of your online adventures. Google analytics is the gold standard for analyzing the traffic to your website. Google recently added seven new features.

The main new feature that excited me most is that Google Analytics demo account. It's great if you're just starting out and want to understand the power of analyzing the data Google has. Think of it as a sandbox of data that you can play around in to learn the power of Google Analytics.

Here is a great article that I found that goes over a few of the major new features.

If you want to be up to date with the latest Google Analytics features and make the most of them, you need to look at:

Calculated Metrics

Integration with Search Console

Property Moving

Google Analytics Demo Account

User Explorer Reporting

Custom Funnels

Data Studio

Original Author: Eugen Oprea

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If you aren't using Google Analytics to measure your website performance, you really should. It's free-it's from Google-and after all, they are the ones who control free traffic to your website. Let me know what you think of these new features in Google Analytics by commenting below.

Curated by: Laura Newton

The Divi theme from Elegant Themes has recently added a fabulous new update to their WordPress theme. Since Divi offers so many customization options for each module, they decided to reorganize how you access those options. They've added a tab interface that makes it very easy to find the option that you want to change.

In addition they've added a great search function to find the option that you're looking for. This will make customizing your WordPress site so much easier using the Divi theme from Elegant Themes.

Here is a great article that I found that goes over a few of the major new features.

First of all, every Divi option has been grouped into categories. Like-options have been combined into sub-groups within each of the three Divi options tabs. The three Divi options tabs have been re-named to allow for a clearer distinction between each tab, and all modules option groups have been moved around accordingly. These option groups have been organized with an understandable hierarchy, as have the options within each group. Finally, we have made the options searchable (and it’s really cool)!

Original Author: Nick Roach

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If you're looking to build a custom WordPress site, I strongly suggest you check out Divi theme from Elegant Themes. This new update makes it even easier to make your website look exactly the way you want to.

Curated by: Laura Newton

WooCommerce just released a major upgrade to its WordPress plug-in for e-commerce. There are a few things you should be aware of before you upgrade. As always do a complete backup of your WordPress site before installing any major upgrade to a core plug-in like this. In fact I would recommend that you have a staging area for your WordPress site and thoroughly test out any major upgrade like this before going live.

Here is a great article that I found that goes over a few of the major concerns.

On April 4th, 2017 a major WooCommerce version was released. Version 3.0.0 or WooCommerce “Bionic Butterfly”, brought in some great features for developers, store managers, and even clients. While version 2.7 had existed for a while, it was decided to “jump” directly to WooCommerce 3.0.0 because of the major leap the software has taken when compared to the previous 2.6 version. With its 3.0.x version, WooCommerce introduced great changes and new features both store managers and developers are going to love. Let’s see what they are!

Original Author: Spyros Vlachopoulo

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If you are selling products online and you are using WordPress for your website, you really should be checking out WooCommerce. It is a major plug-in for doing e-commerce and WordPress. It has a full feature set and has been around for years. I can't recommend it any higher than to say if you are serious about selling a product online – check it out now.

Curated by: Laura Newton

Divi Theme from Elegant Themes is one of the best WordPress Themes on the market today. It has come a long way in the past year. If you want to build a beautiful, customized WordPress web site consider trying out Divi. It is truly an amazing platform for creating the most functional, eye-catching sites for your clients and your business. Check it out by clicking here:

Below you will see part of Elegant’s Roadmap for Divi in the coming year.

The Divi community has a really exciting year ahead of it, and today I just want to take some time to give you some insight into our plans for the future. Divi has become this big, huge wonderful thing that is full of its own energy and innovation. Full of business owners, website creators, child themes, extensions, library packs, learning centers, meetups and friendships all sprouting from one piece of software. Here at Elegant Themes, we have been asking ourselves what we can do to help fuel that innovation and empower the community to become bigger and stronger. This year more than ever before, we want to focus on creating the perfect environment that empowers the Divi community to flourish.

The Visual Builder is the future of Divi. That being said, we understand that building things with a minimal visual interface is not the perfect environment for everyone and for everything. That is why we are building brand view View Modes that will give designers new ways to interact with and understand their content. We are exploring some really cool ideas in this area. Just imagine toggling between Visual Mode, Grid Mode, Hybrid Mode and maybe even Code Mode? The Visual Builder was built on a foundation that allows us to bring these ideas to life.

I really love Divi Theme for building out my custom WordPress sites. It gives me great flexibility to deliver what my clients want in their business websites. It is such a rich environment that I haven't found anything but I can't build with Divi.

Original Author: Nick Roach

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For more details, check out the Divi Theme here.

Curated by: Laura Newton

If you are running an e-commerce store, just like having a brick-and-mortar store — advertising is key to getting people in the door. Your offer needs to be compelling, eye-catching and offer something very special to your audience. Facebook ads are great for getting in front of a massive number of people. There are several pitfalls to Facebook advertising. But there are many online resources that will help you get started with Facebook ads.

A great starter article is on the Shopify blog. Here are some excerpts:

At the time of writing this article, there are 11 different Ad Objectives. You likely won’t use most of them for your ecommerce business, but let’s quickly dive into each one.

Clicks to Website – Pay each time someone clicks your ad and visits your website.

Website Conversions – Pay for each conversion on your website. This is tracked with a “conversion pixel”, a snippet of code that is placed on the goal page – for an ecommerce business, this would be the order confirmation / thank you page. When a Facebook user reaches that page (for example, after checking out or purchasing a product) it is recorded as a conversion in Facebook.

Page Post Engagement – Pay for the engagement your post gets such as likes, comments, and shares.

Page Likes – Pay to increase the amount of Likes your page has.

App Installs – Pay for each installation of your desktop or mobile app.

App Engagement – Pay when users interact with a specific part of your app.

Offer Claims – Pay to promote a discount or deal for your store.

Local Awareness – Pay to show your ad to users near you.

Event Responses – Pay to promote an event on Facebook.

Video Views – Pay to promote a video based on views.

Dynamic Product Ads – Pay to promote relevant products to users that have already browsed your ecommerce website.

Facebook has an array of options when it comes to selecting your target audience. Most of the options provide further detailed options for targeting Facebook users. I encourage you to play around with each option to fully see what’s available to you in terms of targeting your ad. On Facebook, you can target users based on:

Location

Age

Gender

Language

Relationship

Education

Work

Ethnic Affinity

Generation

Parents

Politics

Life Events

Interests

Behaviors

Connections

At the time of writing this article, there are 11 different Ad Objectives. You likely won’t use most of them for your ecommerce business, but let’s quickly dive into each one.

Clicks to Website – Pay each time someone clicks your ad and visits your website.

Website Conversions – Pay for each conversion on your website. This is tracked with a “conversion pixel”, a snippet of code that is placed on the goal page – for an ecommerce businesses, this would be the order confirmation / thank you page. When a Facebook user reaches that page (for example, after checking out or purchasing a product) it is recorded as a conversion in Facebook.

Page Post Engagement – Pay for the engagement your post gets such as likes, comments, and shares.

Page Likes – Pay to increase the amount of Likes your page has.

App Installs – Pay for each installation of your desktop or mobile app.

App Engagement – Pay when users interact with a specific part of your app.

Offer Claims – Pay to promote a discount or deal for your store.

Local Awareness – Pay to show your ad to users near you.

Event Responses – Pay to promote an event on Facebook.

Video Views – Pay to promote a video based on views.

Dynamic Product Ads – Pay to promote relevant products to users that have already browsed your ecommerce website.

Original Author: Corey Ferreira

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Facebook has over 1 billion active users and that's a huge audience. Placing your ads before a targeted audience that you get to pick is the most attractive feature of Facebook Ads. While you will have the ability to select your audience, you might want to stay broad with your first ad just to see how your ad responds to a global audience.

Remember you can always pause or kill your ad after spending just a few dollars. Don't be afraid, try Facebook ads.

Curated by: Laura Newton