Looking for ways to further optimize your WordPress site’s performance? Easy…switch on Hummingbird‘s new Delay JavaScript Execution feature!
Most sites nowadays are laden with JavaScript files and inline scripts, which can be resource intensive and affect site performance and PageSpeed scores in areas like site rendering and load time.
As you will learn in this article, delaying the execution of JavaScript files to prioritise the load of more critical elements first can keep the overall load time of your site in check and improve your PageSpeed scores.
Even better, we’ll show you how to automate the whole process with just one click using our WordPress optimization plugin, Hummingbird (note: Pro feature only).
Why Delaying JavaScript Execution Helps To Optimize Site Performance
As mentioned earlier, sites nowadays are loaded with 3rd-party scripts for serving advertisements, tracking engagement, security verification, etc., which can block pages from rendering quickly on users’ browsers and affect your site’s user experience and search engine rankings.
Holding these scripts off from loading on your site until there’s actual user interaction with the page can significantly improve areas of your site’s performance like:
1. Faster Page Loading Times
By delaying the execution of JavaScript files until users interact with the page, web pages will load faster, allowing users to access and interact with the site more quickly. This helps improve user experience and increase user engagement.
2. Improved Rendering Performance
Browser rendering engines need to process JavaScript before they can display the page content. Delaying JavaScript execution until after users interact the page content has been loaded helps the browser render the page more quickly and efficiently. This means users can see and interact with the web page sooner.
3. Reduced HTTP Requests
Combining JavaScript files and loading them asynchronously can reduce the number of HTTP requests made to the server, which also helps to speed up page loading times.
4. Increased Google PageSpeed Insights Score
Google considers page speed as a ranking factor for search results, and delaying JavaScript execution can improve your site’s PageSpeed Insights score, potentially leading to better search engine rankings.
5. Lower Server Load
By loading JavaScript asynchronously and combining files, fewer requests are made to the server, reducing its workload, and helping to prevent server crashes or slow responses during high-traffic situations.
Improving PageSpeed Score Recommendations
Want to improve your PageSpeed Insights score? Try delaying JavaScript file execution.
Delaying JavaScript execution on your site can improve your Google PageSpeed score by addressing the following recommendations:
Remove unused JavaScript
This recommendation suggests eliminating unused or unnecessary JavaScript code from your web pages. Unused JavaScript can increase your page’s load time, as the browser has to download, parse, and execute the code even if it’s not being used.
By removing any unused JavaScript code, you can decrease the file size and improve your website’s overall performance.
Total blocking time
Total blocking time is a metric that measures the amount of time between the First Contentful Paint (FCP) and the Time to Interactive (TTI) during which the main thread was blocked for long enough to prevent input responsiveness.
In simple terms, it quantifies the duration when the page becomes unresponsive due to processing heavy JavaScript tasks. Lowering the total blocking time makes your website more responsive and improves user experience.
Minimize main thread work
The main thread is responsible for executing JavaScript, style calculations, layout, and other tasks required to display a web page. Minimizing main thread work refers to the process of optimizing the code and reducing the time the main thread spends on heavy tasks. This can be done by removing unnecessary JavaScript, splitting long tasks into smaller chunks, and optimizing the code’s execution.
A lighter workload on the main thread results in faster page loading, improved rendering, and enhanced user experience.
Time to interactive (TTI)
This performance metric measures the time it takes for a web page to become fully interactive and responsive to user input. A page is considered interactive when the main thread is free from heavy tasks, and users can interact with the elements on the screen, such as clicking buttons or scrolling.
Improving the TTI by optimizing JavaScript, splitting large tasks, and reducing render-blocking resources ensures a better user experience by allowing users to interact with the page more quickly.
Reduce JS execution time
Reducing JavaScript execution time involves optimizing the code to execute faster and use fewer resources. This can be achieved through techniques such as code minification, removing unused JavaScript, and optimizing algorithms.
Reducing the execution time leads to faster rendering, decreased total blocking time, and better responsiveness, providing a better user experience.
First Contentful Paint (FCP)
This is a performance metric that measures the time it takes for the browser to render the first visible element (text, image, or other content) of a web page. A faster FCP equates to a quicker initial page load, providing users with a visual feedback that the page is loading. Improving FCP requires optimizing critical rendering paths, delaying non-critical JavaScript execution, and prioritizing the loading of visible content.
A faster FCP significantly contributes to a better user experience and improved web page performance.
Delaying JavaScript Execution Methods
While faster page load times, reduced render-blocking, and prioritized content loading provide many benefits to users and can deliver higher PageSpeed scores, the actual methods available for delaying JavaScript execution on WordPress sites can be challenging for users without technical knowledge or web optimization skills.
For example, these methods can include:
Implement async or defer attributes: This requires you to manually add async or defer attributes to your JavaScript files in the HTML header, which tells the browser not to block the page rendering while processing the JavaScript files.
Combine JavaScript files: Use online tools or WordPress plugins to combine multiple JavaScript files into a single file, helping to reduce the number of HTTP requests and speed up page loading times.
Minify JavaScript files: Use online tools or WordPress plugins to reduce JavaScript file size, which helps to improve page loading times.
Prioritize critical JavaScript: Identify the critical JavaScript that needs to be loaded immediately to ensure proper functionality, and then load the remaining JavaScript files after the page content has been rendered.
While there are a few WordPress plugins available that can handle some of these tasks for you and help you to delay or defer JavaScript execution, our Hummingbird plugin does all of the above and more with the click of a button.
How to Use Hummingbird’s Delay JavaScript Execution Feature
The new optimization feature of Hummingbird delays the loading of all JavaScript files and inline scripts until there is user interaction on the page (e.g. mouse movement, keyboard action or screen tap) and improves all of the PageSpeed recommendations described earlier.
To enable this feature, make sure that Hummingbird is installed and activated on your site, then navigate to Hummingbird > Asset Optimization > Extra Optimization in your WordPress admin and switch on the Enable Delay Javascript toggle button in the Tools > Delay Javascript section, then click Save Changes.
Enable Hummingbird’s Delay JavaScript feature to improve your site’s performance.
Alternatively, you can enable the feature from the plugin’s main dashboard.
Enable Delay JavaScript Execution from Hummingbird’s dashboard.
Once the Delay JavaScript Execution feature has been enabled, it automatically goes to work, delaying the loading of any non-critical JavaScript files on your page that are not required above-the-fold.
The feature’s settings give you access to options like being able to specify a timeout for the scripts to load if no user interaction is detected, and the option to exclude critical JavaScript files from from being delayed on load by specifying their URLs or keywords.
Hummingbird delays the loading of JavaScript files until a set timeout limit is reached or a user interacts with the page.
If enabling this feature breaks something on your site and you identify additional critical Javascript resources which are essential to render the page, simply add them to the Excluded JavaScript Files area to exclude them from being delayed.
If there is no user interaction on the page beyond a set threshold, the JavaScript assets are forced to load. The default timeout is set to 20 seconds, but you can select a different value from the Timeout dropdown menu (currently ranging between 5-30 seconds).
Select a timeout option from the dropdown menu.
Notes
Enabling JavaScript Execution will automatically disable the Combine Compression option to ensure that your site’s scripts are loaded in their correct order.
The feature will only work when you’re connected to The Hub, as it pulls the list of continuously updated predefined exclusions from the API.
You can easily reverse any changes made by this feature by simply disabling the toggle and clicking save.
Delay JavaScript and Speed Up WordPress
Hummingbird’s Delay JavaScript feature is available as a Pro feature only. We recommend enabling this feature and testing your site using the PageSpeed Insights tool.
If you experience any issues using Hummingbird, check out the plugin’s documentation or contact our 24/7 support team for immediate expert support.
WPMU DEV’s free all-new and improved Broken Link Checker plugin saves you the time and tedious hassle of handling crucial link management tasks across all your WordPress sites.
“I have been looking to find an easier way to check for broken links. Thank you for making this tool so accessible.” Dena, WPMU DEV Member
Broken links are a negative indicator of site health and can have a major impact on your PageRank and your reputation. Staying on top of your site links is an essential and crucial aspect of good WordPress site management.
But… manually checking your content for broken links is time-consuming and tedious excruciating, especially if you manage multiple WordPress sites.
“This is potentially going to save a ton of time! Before now I’ve always done a manual check on all sites I create.” TNT Systems, WPMU DEV Member
This article shows you how to use our powerful link checking tool on unlimited WordPress sites – completely re-engineered with a top user-requested feature and a new API that works 20x faster, to deliver better and more accurate results, prevent negative SEO performance issues, and improve user experience.
We also include a comprehensive guide covering all you need to know about why link management is important and how to effectively manage broken links on all of your sites.
Let’s jump right in and take a look at the only tool you’ll ever need to check and repair broken links on unlimited WordPress sites.
WordPress Broken Link Checker (BLC) Plugin
Broken Link Checker is now even better and faster at finding broken links on WordPress sites.
WPMU DEV acquired Broken Link Checker many years back from ManageWP, and since then have implemented many tweaks and fixes to improve its capabilities, growing its popularity to 700K downloads and its user satisfaction to 4/5 stars.
[NB: Special shoutout to Patrick Walker, Team Lead at WP Engine’s Customer Experience Operations Team for his hard work in collaboration with our engineers to get our plugin removed from WP Engine’s and Flywheel’s block list.]
While we plan to continue maintaining and improving the old plugin version for the thousands of users who are still currently using it, starting from versions 2.0 and onward, we’ve also introduced a new cloud-based link checking plugin for WordPress.
Note: We’ll focus the rest of this article on our Cloud Link Checker. For more information on using the old (Local) BLC plugin, visit the plugin download page on WordPress.org.
Why Two Different Link Checking Engines?
The old Broken Link Checker plugin (we now call this version Local Link Checker) is a great tool currently used and loved by thousands of WordPress users to keep their URLs healthy.
If you love it, feel free to keep using it. Keep in mind, however, that it depends on your site’s resources to run scans, which can be affected by your hosting plan’s available resources, and, depending on what plugins are installed on your site, could cause conflicts or WP/PHP errors.
Our latest innovation — a cloud-based plugin — takes things to a whole new level and opens the door to an entirely new scope of possibilities that we couldn’t achieve before by integrating the best of the Local BLC plugin with cloud capabilities directly into The Hub (our all-in-one WordPress platform), all at no additional cost to users.
For example, some of the benefits of the new cloud-based BLC include:
Scalability: Cloud Link Checker runs on WPMU DEV’s engines not the individual site where the plugin is installed, so you can run broken link scans on sites of any size and server type.
Blazing Fast Scans: Being cloud-based means any dependencies on the performance of your server are eliminated, giving your scans a massive speed increase.
No Risk of Blocklisting: Pinging external sites repeatedly from your website raises suspicious flags with internet service providers and puts your site at risk of being blocklisted. Cloud BLC doesn’t use your site’s IP address, so there’s no risk of your site(s) being blocklisted.
Faster Updates and Instant Improvements: No more waiting for plugin version releases or worrying whether you site’s resources can handle the changes. We test, fix, and improve everything on the cloud and your site benefits instantly as soon as we deploy the changes and improvements to our engine..
Eliminate WordPress and PHP Errors: Our cloud-based link checker doesn’t run on your site’s resources, so you won’t experience site resource errors using the plugin.
Crawl Everything: Cloud Link Checker follows the same logic as search engine crawlers, so no URLs are missed on all standard pages and posts, menus, category pages, etc. Even better, use scheduled reports to discover broken links before the search engines see them.
WPMU DEV’s Cloud-based Link Checker provides better performance and faster speed.
Cloud BLC scans your site from top to bottom, monitoring external and internal links in your posts, pages, comments, blogroll – even custom fields.
It detects links that don’t work, as well as missing images and redirects. It will then notify you via the Broken Link Checker section of the Hub, or you can view a summary of the results in the plugin dashboard of your WordPress site.
“Love this new tool, especially since it runs off-site and doesn’t hog server resources.” Levi, WPMU DEV Member
Set Up
Whether you’re an existing Broken Link Checker plugin user or new to the tool, setup is a breeze.
You can set up the plugin from the WordPress dashboard plugin and from WPMU DEV’s Hub.
Let’s look at both methods.
From the WordPress Dashboard
Cloud Link Checker activation in the WordPress dashboard.
Install and activate the plugin.
Go to the Link Checker menu and select Cloud.
If you’re logged into WPMU DEV, click ‘Enable Cloud Engine’ (otherwise, the button will say ‘Connect to WPMU DEV’), and you’ll be taken through The Free Hub onboarding process, as well as the broken links checking tool component. This will lead you directly to the BLC service tab in The Free Hub.
From here, run a new scan. You’ll get a notification once the scan completes, so feel free to look around The Free Hub while you wait.
Once you receive notification that the scan is complete, you can view the results in the Broken Link Checker section of The Free Hub.
From The Hub
Broken Link Checker activation in The Hub.
After logging into The Hub, you’ll see Broken Link Checker listed as a new service in the menu (top & sidebar).
Activate this to install the plugin on the site.
Run a scan to see your results.
However you choose to install the Cloud Link Checker, the WordPress dashboard will display the Summary Report, while The Hub will have the Full Report – including the list of broken and dead links.
Scan results in the WordPress dashboard.
Click View Full Report to see the full scan report in The Hub.
The Hub displays a detailed list of your broken URLs after scanning.
Aside from locating your broken links, missing images, and redirects, the plugin has additional functions that let you schedule scans, send reports by email, search (with built-in filters), and export your lists for download.
Edit/Unlink Broken Links
Our members spoke…and we listened!
One of the most requested features for this tool was the ability to edit and unlink broken links.
We’re thrilled to announce that in addition to ignoring and reporting links as not broken, you can now also easily edit and unlink broken links from The Hub.
Simply click on the vertical ellipsis (3 dots) to the right of any link listed in the Hub’s scan report and select one of the available options.
Edit, Unlink, Ignore, or Report links as Not Broken.
Select Edit Link to point the link to a new URL, Unlink to remove the link and change it to plain text, or select one of the other options to ignore the link or to report false positives (note: we use Not Broken reports to improve BLC’s engine).
Note: New scans are temporarily disabled while the system is performing editing or unlinking operations. You can run a new scan after these processes have completed.
Also, to keep reports manageable, if the scan detects multiple instances of the same broken link URL, the report only displays the first 10 instances and notifies you how many other instances there are.
Scan reports are kept manageable by displaying only the first 10 URLs for the same broken link.
You can choose to edit or unlink only the first 10 visible links, or perform the operation on all instances of that same link.
Edit (or unlink) only the first 10 links or all links.
Note that the tool does not scan hardcoded links written in php files (eg template files, shortcodes, etc.).
Run Manual Scans
You can run a manual scan any time, in both the WordPress dashboard and The Hub. Just hit the blue Run Scan button. This can be helpful if you’ve done some clean up, and want to refresh your view of the list.
Schedule Scans & Send Reports by Email
Scheduling scans is done from the Broken Link Checker plugin section in the WordPress dashboard.
Schedule new scans for broken link checks in your WordPress dashboard.
At least one recipient must be added to schedule reports, so that it can be sent to a party via email.
Click on the cog icon to see the menu options for scanning.
From the Schedule Scan section, click Configure.
Check that you are on the Schedule Date tab from the top menu.
Choose the Frequency, from Daily, Weekly, Monthly.
Select desired time, day, or date from the dropdown options; then click Save.
The plugin provides many options for scheduling scans.
Now we will add recipients (at least one), so the report has a destination to be sent to:
Click on the Add Recipients tab.
You can either Add Users, from the list of those you’ve already added to the site, or Add By Email, for anyone at all. Remember to Save Changes.
Adding recipients to get scan reports via email is fast and easy.
You can deactivate the scheduled scan or change the sending schedule, as well as who it goes to, at any time.
Search
To easily locate your URLs, search results can be filtered from within The Hub.
From the summary screen, you can use the dropdowns to filter by Status or Domain.
Use the built-in filters to locate items more easily in your Broken URL list.
Export Lists
You can export your broken URL lists anytime in CSV format.
To do this, simply click the Export as CSV button from the summary screen in The Hub.
And … that’s it! You’re now a BLC pro.
Keep your site’s links healthy with the best free broken link checker tool for WordPress.
“I love this! Offsetting the resources to the cloud will help so many sites!” PTaubman, WPMU DEV Member
“But I’m happy with Local BLC and I don’t run multiple sites…”
If you want to keep using the older plugin, you don’t have to switch to Cloud Link Checker. Local BLC will keep working just fine and you can easily switch to the cloud version at any time inside your WordPress admin.
You can switch between cloud and local link checker inside the WordPress admin.
Just keep in mind that you can only activate one engine at a time, so if the Cloud engine is running, Local Link Checker will be inactive and vice-versa.
Switch link checker engines inside your WordPress dashboard.
Note: if you run a multisite installation, BLC cloud version will only be available on the main site when network-activated. Due to the complexity of scanning multisite, subsites will continue to use the BLC Local version.
Cloud Link Checker – Perfect For Agencies
Being able to manage all of your sites from one place (The Hub) and send clients white labeled reports makes Cloud Link Checker the perfect solution for agencies, freelancers, and anyone running multiple WordPress sites.
Clients will love you even more when they see you’ve taken care of their broken links.
You can also use the tool with a customized report as a way to generate new clients for your agency and upsell WordPress maintenance services to existing clients.
Use BLC with whitelabel reports to generate new clients and upsell maintenance services.
Compare our plugin with other broken link checking tools and you will quickly see why WPMU DEV’s cloud-based link checker is a no-brainer.
For example, here’s one of our competitors’ offering:
Free version limitations:
Only one website allowed.
Only 200 links checked per month.
Only internal links are checked.
Links are checked once every 3 days.
Cost: $30/month (credit card required to sign up).
Whereas, with WPMU DEV’s Cloud Link Checker…
No limitations:
Unlimited number of websites.
Unlimited number of links.
Internal and External links are checked (Local and Cloud versions).
Set your own schedule (Local and Cloud versions).
Manually check all your sites anytime.
Cost: Free (priority support included for members only).
No credit card required to sign up.
To get the full picture of what our broken links checker can do, see the plugin documentation.
Now that we’ve shared the good news with you about a powerful WordPress troubleshooting tool every web developer (and user) should have in their site management toolbox, let’s take a closer look at the harm broken links can cause if left unchecked and why you need a tool like Broken Link Checker.
How Broken Links Affect SEO
High-quality, relevant, and authoritative links are crucial to a website’s SEO and reputation. Broken links can have several negative impacts on search engine optimization, including:
1. Crawling and Indexing Issues: Search engine crawlers follow links to discover and index web pages. In fact, Google cites good working links as a best practice. When a crawler encounters a broken link, it cannot access the linked page and may struggle to navigate through your website effectively. This can prevent certain pages from being indexed, making them invisible to search engines and reducing their chances of appearing in search results.
2. Increased Bounce Rates: Bounce rate measure how long users spend time on a particular web page before “bouncing” to another one. Visitors who stumble upon broken links may abandon a site altogether. When visitors repeatedly choose to leave a web page almost immediately after landing on it, this leads to a high bounce rate, which sends a “low-quality” signal to search engines about the site.
3. Decreased Search Engine Rankings: Search engines aim to deliver the best user experience by providing relevant and high-quality search results. Websites with broken links may be considered less reliable and valuable by search engines, leading to lower rankings in search results. This can result in reduced organic traffic and visibility for your website.
4. Impact on Internal Link Structure: Broken links disrupt the internal link structure of your website. Internal linking helps search engines understand the relationships between different pages and establishes a hierarchy of importance. When broken links exist within this structure, it can confuse search engines and weaken the overall SEO structure of your website.
5. Lost Backlink Opportunities: Backlinks are an important factor in SEO, as they indicate the authority and relevance of your website. If other websites link to broken pages on your site, it can negatively impact your backlink profile. Broken links may deter other webmasters from linking to your site, reducing your chances of acquiring valuable backlinks.
To mitigate the negative impact of broken links on SEO, it is crucial to regularly monitor and fix them. Conducting regular website audits, using tools to identify broken links like BLC, and implementing redirects or updating links can help improve user experience, maintain search engine rankings, and enhance the overall SEO performance of your website.
Broken Links Can Also Harm Your Business
In addition to impacting your site’s SEO, broken links can also cause serious damage to your business and its reputation. This includes:
1. Poor User Experience: Studies show that 89% of consumers will shop with a competitor after having a poor user experience on a site. Broken links create a negative user experience by leading visitors to dead-end pages or error messages. Users expect links to provide relevant information or resources, and encountering broken links can be frustrating. This can decrease user engagement, increase bounce rates, and ultimately harm your website’s reputation.
2. Negative Impact on Revenue: Broken links can sometimes cause roadblocks in your sales conversion process. Investing money and time into marketing efforts to get potential customers to your site then losing sales because they cannot reach conversion pages means wasted time and lost revenue.
3. Security Vulnerabilities: Broken links can also lead to malicious attacks on your site, phishing scams, and broken links hijacking (see below)
What is Broken Links Hijacking (BLH)?
Broken Links Hijacking (BLH) refers to the practice of exploiting expired, unlinked, or inactive external links found within a webpage.
It involves malicious actors taking advantage of resources or third-party services that are no longer available or valid, such as due to expired domains. These attackers can seize control of these links to carry out various harmful activities, including defacement through acquiring expired domains, impersonation, or even cross-site scripting.
Attack Scenario and Security Risks
Let’s imagine a scenario where a business shuts down or forgets to create a social media page but still has the link to that page on its website. In this case, an attacker can simply create an account using the same name and then proceed to post offensive content or launch phishing attacks while pretending to be the business.
Illustrative Scenario
To illustrate this further, let’s consider a website called thewebsite.com that mentions a LinkedIn page URL but hasn’t actually created the page yet. As a result, when users try to visit the LinkedIn page using the URL (e.g., https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-website/), they encounter a “404 page not found” error.
Exploiting this situation, an attacker creates a fake LinkedIn page and customizes the URL to resemble “the-website.” Consequently, when a regular user accesses the company’s LinkedIn page through the URL, they unknowingly get redirected to the attacker’s controlled LinkedIn page.
What Causes Broken Links?
There are several factors that can lead to broken links. Some of the most common causes include:
1. Typo: Mistakes made when writing the link can result in broken links. This could be a simple error in typing or copy-pasting the URL incorrectly.
2. Deleted Pages: When a page is deleted from a website, any links pointing to that page will become broken. This can happen when content is removed or when a website undergoes restructuring.
3. Renamed Pages: If URLs are changed or pages are renamed without implementing proper redirects, the old links pointing to those pages will no longer work and lead to broken links.
4. Domain Name Change: When a website changes its domain name, any links pointing to the old domain will become broken unless appropriate redirects are in place.
Best Practices to Fix Broken Links
To fix broken links, it is important to follow these best practices:
1. Check Links with a Broken Link Checker (BLC): Use a reliable tool to identify broken links on your website. This will provide you with a list of broken links that need to be addressed.
2. Prioritize High Authority Pages: Start by addressing broken links on pages with high authority or those that receive significant traffic. Fixing these links will have a greater impact on your website’s overall performance.
3. Redirect to Relevant URLs: If a page has been deleted or its URL has changed, set up proper redirects (such as 301 redirects) to automatically send visitors to the relevant new URL. This ensures a seamless user experience and avoids 404 error pages.
Steps to Avoid and Fix 404 Pages
To prevent and resolve 404 pages (page not found errors), consider the following steps:
1. Preserve and Update Content: Instead of deleting pages outright, consider updating or refreshing the content. This helps avoid unnecessary 404 pages caused by removing content that other pages have linked to.
2. Implement 301 or 302 Redirects: If a page’s content still exists but its location or URL structure has changed, use 301 or 302 redirects to redirect visitors to the new page. This ensures they can still access the desired content without encountering a 404 error.
3. Reach Out to Webmasters for Updated Links: If a 404 error occurs due to an external website incorrectly linking to your content, you can try contacting the website’s author or web administrator. Requesting an update to the erroneous link can help resolve the issue, or alternatively, suggest changing the link altogether.
Fixing Broken Links: Manual vs Automated Methods
Fixing broken links has long been considered an essential practice among SEO practitioners. Broken links should be fixed quickly.
Google understands that broken links are a natural happening. However, SEOs know that taking time to correct these issues can significantly impact the site’s performance in search engines.
For these reasons and more, it’s clearly important to keep tabs on all of your site links. A small site with minimal content can easily handle checking for broken links manually. However, the more content your site has, the more difficult it becomes to conduct manual scans of your links.
Fixing broken links manually on a website and using automated methods each have their own benefits:
Benefits of Using Manual Methods to Fix Broken Links
1. Accuracy: When fixing broken links manually, you have full control and can ensure that each link is checked and corrected accurately. This allows for a more precise and tailored approach to resolving broken links.
2. Customization: Manual fixing allows you to review each broken link individually and determine the best course of action. You can update the URL, remove the link, or find alternative resources as needed.
3. Quality control: By manually fixing broken links, you can ensure that the replacement URLs are relevant, trustworthy, and provide value to your users. It allows for a more thorough evaluation of the content being linked to.
4. User experience: Manually fixing broken links allows you to consider the user experience in the process. You can choose appropriate anchor text, update navigation menus, and ensure a seamless browsing experience for your visitors.
5. Content review: While fixing broken links manually, you can review the content surrounding the broken links. This presents an opportunity to update outdated information, improve the overall quality of the content, and enhance the SEO performance of the page.
Benefits of Using Automated Methods to Fix Broken Links
1. Time-saving: Automated tools can scan your website and identify broken links quickly, saving you time and effort compared to manually checking each link individually.
2. Efficiency: With automated methods, you can fix broken links in bulk rather than addressing them one by one. This can be especially useful for large websites with a high volume of broken links.
3. Scalability: Automated tools can handle the detection and fixing of broken links on websites of any size. They can efficiently process a large number of links, ensuring comprehensive coverage.
4. Regular monitoring: Automated methods allow for regular and scheduled scans of your website, ensuring that new broken links are promptly identified and addressed.
5. Consistency: Using automated tools ensures a consistent approach to fixing broken links across your entire website. This helps maintain a unified user experience and prevents oversight of any broken links.
The choice between using manual and automated methods depends on your specific needs, resources, and preferences. The good news is, all of the risks associated with bad links are easily avoided if you make sure they are kept in proper working order.
Even better, is using a quality, automated dead link checker tool like Broken Link Checker removes the tedious and time consuming task of manually tracking and manging your broken links.
Take Link Maintenance to the Next Level with WPMU DEV’s BLC
Over 700,000 WordPress users depend on Broken Link Checker to keep their sites free of errors and performance issues caused by outdated and non-working URLs.
Our new cloud-based plugin version offers even more incredible value — enhanced speeds, no PHP/DB errors, ability to schedule scans and send email reports (including white labeled), plus the ease of managing unlimited sites from one central Hub – all while still (and always) remaining free.
Don’t let your site’s SEO and user experience take an unnecessary hit. Especially when a practical solution is directly within your reach.
Connect, scan, schedule, and fix broken links quickly and easily and keep your sites running optimally with the new Cloud-based Link Checker. Get it for free or as a WPMU DEV member.
WPMU DEV’s free all-new and improved Broken Link Checker plugin saves you the time and tedious hassle of handling crucial link management tasks across all your WordPress sites.
“I have been looking to find an easier way to check for broken links. Thank you for making this tool so accessible.” Dena, WPMU DEV Member
Broken links are a negative indicator of site health and can have a major impact on your PageRank and your reputation. Staying on top of your site links is an essential and crucial aspect of good WordPress site management.
But… manually checking your content for broken links is time-consuming and tedious excruciating, especially if you manage multiple WordPress sites.
“This is potentially going to save a ton of time! Before now I’ve always done a manual check on all sites I create.” TNT Systems, WPMU DEV Member
This article shows you how to use our powerful link checking tool on unlimited WordPress sites – completely re-engineered with a top user-requested feature and a new API that works 20x faster, to deliver better and more accurate results, prevent negative SEO performance issues, and improve user experience.
We also include a comprehensive guide covering all you need to know about why link management is important and how to effectively manage broken links on all of your sites.
Let’s jump right in and take a look at the only tool you’ll ever need to check and repair broken links on unlimited WordPress sites.
WordPress Broken Link Checker (BLC) Plugin
Broken Link Checker is now even better and faster at finding broken links on WordPress sites.
WPMU DEV acquired Broken Link Checker many years back from ManageWP, and since then have implemented many tweaks and fixes to improve its capabilities, growing its popularity to 700K downloads and its user satisfaction to 4/5 stars.
[NB: Special shoutouts to Patrick Walker, Team Lead at WP Engine’s Customer Experience Operations Team for his hard work in collaboration with our engineers to get our plugin removed from WP Engine’s and Flywheel’s block list and to Kinsta for providing suggestions that led to the development of our new cloud-based tool.]
While we plan to continue maintaining and improving the old plugin version for the thousands of users who are still currently using it, starting from versions 2.0 and onward, we’ve also introduced a new cloud-based link checking plugin for WordPress.
Note: We’ll focus the rest of this article on our Cloud Link Checker. For more information on using the old (Local) BLC plugin, visit the plugin download page on WordPress.org.
Why Two Different Link Checking Engines?
The old Broken Link Checker plugin (we now call this version Local Link Checker) is a great tool currently used and loved by thousands of WordPress users to keep their URLs healthy.
If you love it, feel free to keep using it. Keep in mind, however, that it depends on your site’s resources to run scans, which can be affected by your hosting plan’s available resources, and, depending on what plugins are installed on your site, could cause conflicts or WP/PHP errors.
Our latest innovation — a cloud-based plugin — takes things to a whole new level and opens the door to an entirely new scope of possibilities that we couldn’t achieve before by integrating the best of the Local BLC plugin with cloud capabilities directly into The Hub (our all-in-one WordPress platform), all at no additional cost to users.
For example, some of the benefits of the new cloud-based BLC include:
Scalability: Cloud Link Checker runs on WPMU DEV’s engines not the individual site where the plugin is installed, so you can run broken link scans on sites of any size and server type.
Blazing Fast Scans: Being cloud-based means any dependencies on the performance of your server are eliminated, giving your scans a massive speed increase.
No Risk of Blocklisting: Pinging external sites repeatedly from your website raises suspicious flags with internet service providers and puts your site at risk of being blocklisted. Cloud BLC doesn’t use your site’s IP address, so there’s no risk of your site(s) being blocklisted.
Faster Updates and Instant Improvements: No more waiting for plugin version releases or worrying whether you site’s resources can handle the changes. We test, fix, and improve everything on the cloud and your site benefits instantly as soon as we deploy the changes and improvements to our engine..
Eliminate WordPress and PHP Errors: Our cloud-based link checker doesn’t run on your site’s resources, so you won’t experience site resource errors using the plugin.
Crawl Everything: Cloud Link Checker follows the same logic as search engine crawlers, so no URLs are missed on all standard pages and posts, menus, category pages, etc. Even better, use scheduled reports to discover broken links before the search engines see them.
WPMU DEV’s Cloud-based Link Checker provides better performance and faster speed.
Cloud BLC scans your site from top to bottom, monitoring external and internal links in your posts, pages, comments, blogroll – even custom fields.
It detects links that don’t work, as well as missing images and redirects. It will then notify you via the Broken Link Checker section of the Hub, or you can view a summary of the results in the plugin dashboard of your WordPress site.
“Love this new tool, especially since it runs off-site and doesn’t hog server resources.” Levi, WPMU DEV Member
Set Up
Whether you’re an existing Broken Link Checker plugin user or new to the tool, setup is a breeze.
You can set up the plugin from the WordPress dashboard plugin and from WPMU DEV’s Hub.
Let’s look at both methods.
From the WordPress Dashboard
Cloud Link Checker activation in the WordPress dashboard.
Install and activate the plugin.
Go to the Link Checker menu and select Cloud.
If you’re logged into WPMU DEV, click ‘Enable Cloud Engine’ (otherwise, the button will say ‘Connect to WPMU DEV’), and you’ll be taken through The Free Hub onboarding process, as well as the broken links checking tool component. This will lead you directly to the BLC service tab in The Free Hub.
From here, run a new scan. You’ll get a notification once the scan completes, so feel free to look around The Free Hub while you wait.
Once you receive notification that the scan is complete, you can view the results in the Broken Link Checker section of The Free Hub.
From The Hub
Broken Link Checker activation in The Hub.
After logging into The Hub, you’ll see Broken Link Checker listed as a new service in the menu (top & sidebar).
Activate this to install the plugin on the site.
Run a scan to see your results.
However you choose to install the Cloud Link Checker, the WordPress dashboard will display the Summary Report, while The Hub will have the Full Report – including the list of broken and dead links.
Scan results in the WordPress dashboard.
Click View Full Report to see the full scan report in The Hub.
The Hub displays a detailed list of your broken URLs after scanning.
Aside from locating your broken links, missing images, and redirects, the plugin has additional functions that let you schedule scans, send reports by email, search (with built-in filters), and export your lists for download.
Edit/Unlink Broken Links
Our members spoke…and we listened!
One of the most requested features for this tool was the ability to edit and unlink broken links.
We’re thrilled to announce that in addition to ignoring and reporting links as not broken, you can now also easily edit and unlink broken links from The Hub.
Simply click on the vertical ellipsis (3 dots) to the right of any link listed in the Hub’s scan report and select one of the available options.
Edit, Unlink, Ignore, or Report links as Not Broken.
Select Edit Link to point the link to a new URL, Unlink to remove the link and change it to plain text, or select one of the other options to ignore the link or to report false positives (note: we use Not Broken reports to improve BLC’s engine).
Note: New scans are temporarily disabled while the system is performing editing or unlinking operations. You can run a new scan after these processes have completed.
Also, to keep reports manageable, if the scan detects multiple instances of the same broken link URL, the report only displays the first 10 instances and notifies you how many other instances there are.
Scan reports are kept manageable by displaying only the first 10 URLs for the same broken link.
You can choose to edit or unlink only the first 10 visible links, or perform the operation on all instances of that same link.
Edit (or unlink) only the first 10 links or all links.
Note that the tool does not scan hardcoded links written in php files (eg template files, shortcodes, etc.).
Run Manual Scans
You can run a manual scan any time, in both the WordPress dashboard and The Hub. Just hit the blue Run Scan button. This can be helpful if you’ve done some clean up, and want to refresh your view of the list.
Schedule Scans & Send Reports by Email
Scheduling scans is done from the Broken Link Checker plugin section in the WordPress dashboard.
Schedule new scans for broken link checks in your WordPress dashboard.
At least one recipient must be added to schedule reports, so that it can be sent to a party via email.
Click on the cog icon to see the menu options for scanning.
From the Schedule Scan section, click Configure.
Check that you are on the Schedule Date tab from the top menu.
Choose the Frequency, from Daily, Weekly, Monthly.
Select desired time, day, or date from the dropdown options; then click Save.
The plugin provides many options for scheduling scans.
Now we will add recipients (at least one), so the report has a destination to be sent to:
Click on the Add Recipients tab.
You can either Add Users, from the list of those you’ve already added to the site, or Add By Email, for anyone at all. Remember to Save Changes.
Adding recipients to get scan reports via email is fast and easy.
You can deactivate the scheduled scan or change the sending schedule, as well as who it goes to, at any time.
Search
To easily locate your URLs, search results can be filtered from within The Hub.
From the summary screen, you can use the dropdowns to filter by Status or Domain.
Use the built-in filters to locate items more easily in your Broken URL list.
Export Lists
You can export your broken URL lists anytime in CSV format.
To do this, simply click the Export as CSV button from the summary screen in The Hub.
And … that’s it! You’re now a BLC pro.
Keep your site’s links healthy with the best free broken link checker tool for WordPress.
“I love this! Offsetting the resources to the cloud will help so many sites!” PTaubman, WPMU DEV Member
“But I’m happy with Local BLC and I don’t run multiple sites…”
If you want to keep using the older plugin, you don’t have to switch to Cloud Link Checker. Local BLC will keep working just fine and you can easily switch to the cloud version at any time inside your WordPress admin.
You can switch between cloud and local link checker inside the WordPress admin.
Just keep in mind that you can only activate one engine at a time, so if the Cloud engine is running, Local Link Checker will be inactive and vice-versa.
Switch link checker engines inside your WordPress dashboard.
Note: if you run a multisite installation, BLC cloud version will only be available on the main site when network-activated. Due to the complexity of scanning multisite, subsites will continue to use the BLC Local version.
Cloud Link Checker – Perfect For Agencies
Being able to manage all of your sites from one place (The Hub) and send clients white labeled reports makes Cloud Link Checker the perfect solution for agencies, freelancers, and anyone running multiple WordPress sites.
Clients will love you even more when they see you’ve taken care of their broken links.
You can also use the tool with a customized report as a way to generate new clients for your agency and upsell WordPress maintenance services to existing clients.
Use BLC with whitelabel reports to generate new clients and upsell maintenance services.
Compare our plugin with other broken link checking tools and you will quickly see why WPMU DEV’s cloud-based link checker is a no-brainer.
For example, here’s one of our competitors’ offering:
Free version limitations:
Only one website allowed.
Only 200 links checked per month.
Only internal links are checked.
Links are checked once every 3 days.
Cost: $30/month (credit card required to sign up).
Whereas, with WPMU DEV’s Cloud Link Checker…
No limitations:
Unlimited number of websites.
Unlimited number of links.
Internal and External links are checked (Local and Cloud versions).
Set your own schedule (Local and Cloud versions).
Manually check all your sites anytime.
Cost: Free (priority support included for members only).
No credit card required to sign up.
To get the full picture of what our broken links checker can do, see the plugin documentation.
Now that we’ve shared the good news with you about a powerful WordPress troubleshooting tool every web developer (and user) should have in their site management toolbox, let’s take a closer look at the harm broken links can cause if left unchecked and why you need a tool like Broken Link Checker.
How Broken Links Affect SEO
High-quality, relevant, and authoritative links are crucial to a website’s SEO and reputation. Broken links can have several negative impacts on search engine optimization, including:
1. Crawling and Indexing Issues: Search engine crawlers follow links to discover and index web pages. In fact, Google cites good working links as a best practice. When a crawler encounters a broken link, it cannot access the linked page and may struggle to navigate through your website effectively. This can prevent certain pages from being indexed, making them invisible to search engines and reducing their chances of appearing in search results.
2. Increased Bounce Rates: Bounce rate measure how long users spend time on a particular web page before “bouncing” to another one. Visitors who stumble upon broken links may abandon a site altogether. When visitors repeatedly choose to leave a web page almost immediately after landing on it, this leads to a high bounce rate, which sends a “low-quality” signal to search engines about the site.
3. Decreased Search Engine Rankings: Search engines aim to deliver the best user experience by providing relevant and high-quality search results. Websites with broken links may be considered less reliable and valuable by search engines, leading to lower rankings in search results. This can result in reduced organic traffic and visibility for your website.
4. Impact on Internal Link Structure: Broken links disrupt the internal link structure of your website. Internal linking helps search engines understand the relationships between different pages and establishes a hierarchy of importance. When broken links exist within this structure, it can confuse search engines and weaken the overall SEO structure of your website.
5. Lost Backlink Opportunities: Backlinks are an important factor in SEO, as they indicate the authority and relevance of your website. If other websites link to broken pages on your site, it can negatively impact your backlink profile. Broken links may deter other webmasters from linking to your site, reducing your chances of acquiring valuable backlinks.
To mitigate the negative impact of broken links on SEO, it is crucial to regularly monitor and fix them. Conducting regular website audits, using tools to identify broken links like BLC, and implementing redirects or updating links can help improve user experience, maintain search engine rankings, and enhance the overall SEO performance of your website.
Broken Links Can Also Harm Your Business
In addition to impacting your site’s SEO, broken links can also cause serious damage to your business and its reputation. This includes:
1. Poor User Experience: Studies show that 89% of consumers will shop with a competitor after having a poor user experience on a site. Broken links create a negative user experience by leading visitors to dead-end pages or error messages. Users expect links to provide relevant information or resources, and encountering broken links can be frustrating. This can decrease user engagement, increase bounce rates, and ultimately harm your website’s reputation.
2. Negative Impact on Revenue: Broken links can sometimes cause roadblocks in your sales conversion process. Investing money and time into marketing efforts to get potential customers to your site then losing sales because they cannot reach conversion pages means wasted time and lost revenue.
3. Security Vulnerabilities: Broken links can also lead to malicious attacks on your site, phishing scams, and broken links hijacking (see below)
What is Broken Links Hijacking (BLH)?
Broken Links Hijacking (BLH) refers to the practice of exploiting expired, unlinked, or inactive external links found within a webpage.
It involves malicious actors taking advantage of resources or third-party services that are no longer available or valid, such as due to expired domains. These attackers can seize control of these links to carry out various harmful activities, including defacement through acquiring expired domains, impersonation, or even cross-site scripting.
Attack Scenario and Security Risks
Let’s imagine a scenario where a business shuts down or forgets to create a social media page but still has the link to that page on its website. In this case, an attacker can simply create an account using the same name and then proceed to post offensive content or launch phishing attacks while pretending to be the business.
Illustrative Scenario
To illustrate this further, let’s consider a website called thewebsite.com that mentions a LinkedIn page URL but hasn’t actually created the page yet. As a result, when users try to visit the LinkedIn page using the URL (e.g., https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-website/), they encounter a “404 page not found” error.
Exploiting this situation, an attacker creates a fake LinkedIn page and customizes the URL to resemble “the-website.” Consequently, when a regular user accesses the company’s LinkedIn page through the URL, they unknowingly get redirected to the attacker’s controlled LinkedIn page.
What Causes Broken Links?
There are several factors that can lead to broken links. Some of the most common causes include:
1. Typo: Mistakes made when writing the link can result in broken links. This could be a simple error in typing or copy-pasting the URL incorrectly.
2. Deleted Pages: When a page is deleted from a website, any links pointing to that page will become broken. This can happen when content is removed or when a website undergoes restructuring.
3. Renamed Pages: If URLs are changed or pages are renamed without implementing proper redirects, the old links pointing to those pages will no longer work and lead to broken links.
4. Domain Name Change: When a website changes its domain name, any links pointing to the old domain will become broken unless appropriate redirects are in place.
Best Practices to Fix Broken Links
To fix broken links, it is important to follow these best practices:
1. Check Links with a Broken Link Checker (BLC): Use a reliable tool to identify broken links on your website. This will provide you with a list of broken links that need to be addressed.
2. Prioritize High Authority Pages: Start by addressing broken links on pages with high authority or those that receive significant traffic. Fixing these links will have a greater impact on your website’s overall performance.
3. Redirect to Relevant URLs: If a page has been deleted or its URL has changed, set up proper redirects (such as 301 redirects) to automatically send visitors to the relevant new URL. This ensures a seamless user experience and avoids 404 error pages.
Steps to Avoid and Fix 404 Pages
To prevent and resolve 404 pages (page not found errors), consider the following steps:
1. Preserve and Update Content: Instead of deleting pages outright, consider updating or refreshing the content. This helps avoid unnecessary 404 pages caused by removing content that other pages have linked to.
2. Implement 301 or 302 Redirects: If a page’s content still exists but its location or URL structure has changed, use 301 or 302 redirects to redirect visitors to the new page. This ensures they can still access the desired content without encountering a 404 error.
3. Reach Out to Webmasters for Updated Links: If a 404 error occurs due to an external website incorrectly linking to your content, you can try contacting the website’s author or web administrator. Requesting an update to the erroneous link can help resolve the issue, or alternatively, suggest changing the link altogether.
Fixing Broken Links: Manual vs Automated Methods
Fixing broken links has long been considered an essential practice among SEO practitioners. Broken links should be fixed quickly.
Google understands that broken links are a natural happening. However, SEOs know that taking time to correct these issues can significantly impact the site’s performance in search engines.
For these reasons and more, it’s clearly important to keep tabs on all of your site links. A small site with minimal content can easily handle checking for broken links manually. However, the more content your site has, the more difficult it becomes to conduct manual scans of your links.
Fixing broken links manually on a website and using automated methods each have their own benefits:
Benefits of Using Manual Methods to Fix Broken Links
1. Accuracy: When fixing broken links manually, you have full control and can ensure that each link is checked and corrected accurately. This allows for a more precise and tailored approach to resolving broken links.
2. Customization: Manual fixing allows you to review each broken link individually and determine the best course of action. You can update the URL, remove the link, or find alternative resources as needed.
3. Quality control: By manually fixing broken links, you can ensure that the replacement URLs are relevant, trustworthy, and provide value to your users. It allows for a more thorough evaluation of the content being linked to.
4. User experience: Manually fixing broken links allows you to consider the user experience in the process. You can choose appropriate anchor text, update navigation menus, and ensure a seamless browsing experience for your visitors.
5. Content review: While fixing broken links manually, you can review the content surrounding the broken links. This presents an opportunity to update outdated information, improve the overall quality of the content, and enhance the SEO performance of the page.
Benefits of Using Automated Methods to Fix Broken Links
1. Time-saving: Automated tools can scan your website and identify broken links quickly, saving you time and effort compared to manually checking each link individually.
2. Efficiency: With automated methods, you can fix broken links in bulk rather than addressing them one by one. This can be especially useful for large websites with a high volume of broken links.
3. Scalability: Automated tools can handle the detection and fixing of broken links on websites of any size. They can efficiently process a large number of links, ensuring comprehensive coverage.
4. Regular monitoring: Automated methods allow for regular and scheduled scans of your website, ensuring that new broken links are promptly identified and addressed.
5. Consistency: Using automated tools ensures a consistent approach to fixing broken links across your entire website. This helps maintain a unified user experience and prevents oversight of any broken links.
The choice between using manual and automated methods depends on your specific needs, resources, and preferences. The good news is, all of the risks associated with bad links are easily avoided if you make sure they are kept in proper working order.
Even better, is using a quality, automated dead link checker tool like Broken Link Checker removes the tedious and time consuming task of manually tracking and manging your broken links.
Take Link Maintenance to the Next Level with WPMU DEV’s BLC
Over 700,000 WordPress users depend on Broken Link Checker to keep their sites free of errors and performance issues caused by outdated and non-working URLs.
Our new cloud-based plugin version offers even more incredible value — enhanced speeds, no PHP/DB errors, ability to schedule scans and send email reports (including white labeled), plus the ease of managing unlimited sites from one central Hub – all while still (and always) remaining free.
Don’t let your site’s SEO and user experience take an unnecessary hit. Especially when a practical solution is directly within your reach.
Connect, scan, schedule, and fix broken links quickly and easily and keep your sites running optimally with the new Cloud-based Link Checker. Get it for free or as a WPMU DEV member.
SmartCrawl‘s Automatic Linking feature allows you to automatically turn specific keywords or phrases into internal or external links within your site’s content, saving you time and effort, making interlinking a breeze, and boosting your website’s overall SEO.
Interlinking web pages is essentially what makes the web the web. Smart and effective interlinking of web pages will improve your site’s SEO and play a crucial role in increasing the visibility and success of your website.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover practical uses of the SmartCrawl plugin’s Automatic Linking feature and how it can help automate an important aspect of your website’s SEO.
The Importance of Linking Web Content For Improved SEO
Internal and external linking are essential components of SEO that help to improve your site’s visibility and ranking on search engines and user navigation.
Internal linking refers to the practice of linking pages within the same website. It is an effective way to guide users through your website, make it easier for search engines to crawl and index pages, and establish a hierarchical page structure.
Internal linking can also help distribute link equity throughout a website, which can improve the ranking of individual pages.
External linking, on the other hand, involves linking to other websites or pages that are not within the same domain.
External linking can provide additional information or resources for users, and can also help establish your website’s authority and relevance in your particular field or industry.
What is SmartCrawl’s Automatic Linking and How Does It Work?
SmartCrawl’s powerful Automatic Linking feature automates your site’s internal and external page linking and improves your site’s SEO.
It works by allowing you to select the post types for which you want to enable auto-linking and the post types or taxonomies that can be linked to.
This means that you can choose which areas of your website you want to apply the automatic linking feature and select exactly which post type(s) the plugin should automatically insert links in. Every post type active on your site will then be available for keyword linking.
For example, let’s say you run a web development business and you offer a website building, web hosting, and web maintenance package called “Total Business Care Service” which has an information page where clients can purchase the service.
Additionally, let’s say you run a blog on your site where you post articles about topics related to WordPress information and want to link to the WordPress news blog any time you type the words “WordPress news.”
Without the SmartCrawl plugin, you would have to manually create these links each time you write the text in your pages and posts.
With SmartCrawl, you can enable and set up automatic linking in a few simple steps, and save yourself a bunch of time by letting the plugin do the work of linking the text to your internal and external pages automatically.
Let SmartCrawl automatically link to the internal and external pages you specify for certain keywords.
Step-By-Step Guide to Using SmartCrawl’s Automatic Linking
Using SmartCrawl’s Automatic Linking feature is super easy.
First, make sure that you have installed and activated SmartCrawl Pro. Automatic linking is not available on the free version of the plugin.
Next, go to SmartCrawl > Settings > Advanced Tools. Here is where you’ll find the Automatic Links section.
Note: If this is the first time you are using this feature, click the Activate button.
Activate SmartCrawls’ Automatic Linking feature.
This will enable the functionality on your website and display the Automatic Linking screen.
SmartCrawl’s Automatic Linking Screen.
The feature has four main tabs that let you configure exactly how you want the plugin to handle the automatic linking of keywords on your site.
Let’s go briefly through each tab:
Post Types
This tab lets you choose which areas of your website to apply the automatic linking feature. Use this tab to select the post types that you want to insert links from.
Every active post type on your site is available for keyword linking.
After selecting the post types to insert links in, a “Link to” field will display. Use the dropdown menu to select the post types or taxonomies to link to.
Select the post types or taxonomies to link to.
You have now specified the areas of your website where automatic linking will apply.
Remember to save your settings before continuing.
Custom Links
This section is where you take control of your linking strategy.
Add any keywords or key phrases that you want to automatically link to specific URLs (internal or external) here.
Specify your automatic internal and external links in the Custom Links tab.
SmartCrawl will now automatically create links throughout your site using the keywords and URLs you have specified.
SmartCrawl automatically creates the links in your content.
Exclusions
Use the Exclusions tab to ensure that certain keywords or URLs will not be linked to.
Exclude keywords and URLs from being automatically linked.
Settings
The Settings tab lets you specify global settings for your automatic linking strategy when using SmartCrawl.
For example, you can set minimum title and taxonomy lengths, maximum limits for links, allow auto-links to empty taxonomies, prevent linking in heading tags, and even process RSS feeds.
Other options include case-sensitive matching, preventing duplicate links, opening links in new tabs, adding nofollow autolinks, and preventing linking on no-index pages, image captions, and caching on autolinked content.
The Settings tab puts you in complete control of SmartCrawl’s automatic linking feature.
With all of these options, you can customize SmartCrawl to meet your specific linking needs.
Practical Examples of SmartCrawl’s Automatic Linking Usage
So, what are some practical uses of SmartCrawl’s automatic linking feature?
Let’s go through some examples:
Example #1 – Boost Internal Linking to Blog Posts
Suppose you’ve written a great blog post about WordPress themes. You can set up an automatic linking rule in SmartCrawl to target the keyword “WordPress themes” which will automatically link this keyword on all of your existing and new posts to this article.
Example #2 – Automatically Link to Top Product Pages
If you have an eCommerce store, you can use automatic linking to turn your top-selling items’ names into links that direct users to the relevant product pages on your site.
This will help to drive more traffic to your popular and best-selling products and boost sales.
Example #3 – Increase Visibility of Pillar Content
Use automatic linking to increase the visibility and boost the rankings of your cornerstone or pillar content by turning the keywords you are targeting for this content into site wide links.
For example, suppose you have a page that contains an article about XYZ Widget with a step-by-step tutorial and detailed instructions that your customers need to follow to ensure that they use the product correctly. You can create an automatic linking rule in SmartCrawl that targets the keyword “XYZ Widget instructions” and automatically links to this important page.
Example #4 – Cross-Promote Related Content
Use automatic linking to connect topic-related blog posts, guides, or how-to articles on your site, providing users with easy access to related information and keeping them engaged longer with your content and your site.
Example #5 – Link to Useful External Resources
Have you got a relevant resource on an external site that your readers might benefit from? Turn specific keywords mentioning these resources into links that will direct users to those external pages.
Example #6 – Boost Affiliate Marketing Revenue
Similar to the previous example, if you promote affiliate products or services on your site, you can use SmartCrawl’s automatic linking feature to create anchor text links connecting specific brand names or product/service categories to their respective destination pages or sites with your embedded affiliate link.
SmartCrawl’s Automatic Linking feature is perfect for affiliate marketing!
Sitewide Automatic Linking – Faster Than Blinking
SmartCrawl’s powerful and time-saving Automatic Linking feature helps you take your linking strategy to the next level while simultaneously improving your site’s SEO and user navigation experience.
Check out our documentation section to learn more about using the automatic links feature or access SmartCrawl Pro and start boosting your traffic, search rankings, and sales conversions today by becoming a WPMU DEV member.
SmartCrawl‘s Automatic Linking feature allows you to automatically turn specific keywords or phrases into internal or external links within your site’s content, saving you time and effort, making interlinking a breeze, and boosting your website’s overall SEO.
Interlinking web pages is essentially what makes the web the web. Smart and effective interlinking of web pages will improve your site’s SEO and play a crucial role in increasing the visibility and success of your website.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover practical uses of the SmartCrawl plugin’s Automatic Linking feature and how it can help automate an important aspect of your website’s SEO.
The Importance of Linking Web Content For Improved SEO
Internal and external linking are essential components of SEO that help to improve your site’s visibility and ranking on search engines and user navigation.
Internal linking refers to the practice of linking pages within the same website. It is an effective way to guide users through your website, make it easier for search engines to crawl and index pages, and establish a hierarchical page structure.
Internal linking can also help distribute link equity throughout a website, which can improve the ranking of individual pages.
External linking, on the other hand, involves linking to other websites or pages that are not within the same domain.
External linking can provide additional information or resources for users, and can also help establish your website’s authority and relevance in your particular field or industry.
What is SmartCrawl’s Automatic Linking and How Does It Work?
SmartCrawl’s powerful Automatic Linking feature automates your site’s internal and external page linking and improves your site’s SEO.
It works by allowing you to select the post types for which you want to enable auto-linking and the post types or taxonomies that can be linked to.
This means that you can choose which areas of your website you want to apply the automatic linking feature and select exactly which post type(s) the plugin should automatically insert links in. Every post type active on your site will then be available for keyword linking.
For example, let’s say you run a web development business and you offer a website building, web hosting, and web maintenance package called “Total Business Care Service” which has an information page where clients can purchase the service.
Additionally, let’s say you run a blog on your site where you post articles about topics related to WordPress information and want to link to the WordPress news blog any time you type the words “WordPress news.”
Without the SmartCrawl plugin, you would have to manually create these links each time you write the text in your pages and posts.
With SmartCrawl, you can enable and set up automatic linking in a few simple steps, and save yourself a bunch of time by letting the plugin do the work of linking the text to your internal and external pages automatically.
Let SmartCrawl automatically link to the internal and external pages you specify for certain keywords.
Step-By-Step Guide to Using SmartCrawl’s Automatic Linking
Using SmartCrawl’s Automatic Linking feature is super easy.
First, make sure that you have installed and activated SmartCrawl Pro. Automatic linking is not available on the free version of the plugin.
Next, go to SmartCrawl > Settings > Advanced Tools. Here is where you’ll find the Automatic Links section.
Note: If this is the first time you are using this feature, click the Activate button.
Activate SmartCrawls’ Automatic Linking feature.
This will enable the functionality on your website and display the Automatic Linking screen.
SmartCrawl’s Automatic Linking Screen.
The feature has four main tabs that let you configure exactly how you want the plugin to handle the automatic linking of keywords on your site.
Let’s go briefly through each tab:
Post Types
This tab lets you choose which areas of your website to apply the automatic linking feature. Use this tab to select the post types that you want to insert links from.
Every active post type on your site is available for keyword linking.
After selecting the post types to insert links in, a “Link to” field will display. Use the dropdown menu to select the post types or taxonomies to link to.
Select the post types or taxonomies to link to.
You have now specified the areas of your website where automatic linking will apply.
Remember to save your settings before continuing.
Custom Links
This section is where you take control of your linking strategy.
Add any keywords or key phrases that you want to automatically link to specific URLs (internal or external) here.
Specify your automatic internal and external links in the Custom Links tab.
SmartCrawl will now automatically create links throughout your site using the keywords and URLs you have specified.
SmartCrawl automatically creates the links in your content.
Exclusions
Use the Exclusions tab to ensure that certain keywords or URLs will not be linked to.
Exclude keywords and URLs from being automatically linked.
Settings
The Settings tab lets you specify global settings for your automatic linking strategy when using SmartCrawl.
For example, you can set minimum title and taxonomy lengths, maximum limits for links, allow auto-links to empty taxonomies, prevent linking in heading tags, and even process RSS feeds.
Other options include case-sensitive matching, preventing duplicate links, opening links in new tabs, adding nofollow autolinks, and preventing linking on no-index pages, image captions, and caching on autolinked content.
The Settings tab puts you in complete control of SmartCrawl’s automatic linking feature.
With all of these options, you can customize SmartCrawl to meet your specific linking needs.
Practical Examples of SmartCrawl’s Automatic Linking Usage
So, what are some practical uses of SmartCrawl’s automatic linking feature?
Let’s go through some examples:
Example #1 – Boost Internal Linking to Blog Posts
Suppose you’ve written a great blog post about WordPress themes. You can set up an automatic linking rule in SmartCrawl to target the keyword “WordPress themes” which will automatically link this keyword on all of your existing and new posts to this article.
Example #2 – Automatically Link to Top Product Pages
If you have an eCommerce store, you can use automatic linking to turn your top-selling items’ names into links that direct users to the relevant product pages on your site.
This will help to drive more traffic to your popular and best-selling products and boost sales.
Example #3 – Increase Visibility of Pillar Content
Use automatic linking to increase the visibility and boost the rankings of your cornerstone or pillar content by turning the keywords you are targeting for this content into site wide links.
For example, suppose you have a page that contains an article about XYZ Widget with a step-by-step tutorial and detailed instructions that your customers need to follow to ensure that they use the product correctly. You can create an automatic linking rule in SmartCrawl that targets the keyword “XYZ Widget instructions” and automatically links to this important page.
Example #4 – Cross-Promote Related Content
Use automatic linking to connect topic-related blog posts, guides, or how-to articles on your site, providing users with easy access to related information and keeping them engaged longer with your content and your site.
Example #5 – Link to Useful External Resources
Have you got a relevant resource on an external site that your readers might benefit from? Turn specific keywords mentioning these resources into links that will direct users to those external pages.
Example #6 – Boost Affiliate Marketing Revenue
Similar to the previous example, if you promote affiliate products or services on your site, you can use SmartCrawl’s automatic linking feature to create anchor text links connecting specific brand names or product/service categories to their respective destination pages or sites with your embedded affiliate link.
SmartCrawl’s Automatic Linking feature is perfect for affiliate marketing!
Sitewide Automatic Linking – Faster Than Blinking
SmartCrawl’s powerful and time-saving Automatic Linking feature helps you take your linking strategy to the next level while simultaneously improving your site’s SEO and user navigation experience.
Check out our documentation section to learn more about using the automatic links feature or access SmartCrawl Pro and start boosting your traffic, search rankings, and sales conversions today by becoming a WPMU DEV member.
Asking the right questions to evaluate a digital marketing agency before outsourcing your marketing needs is important. The questions below will help to ensure a perfect fit and a successful long-term partnership.
In this article, we list the essential questions you should ask before outsourcing to find the right agency for your needs and explain why asking these questions is vitally important for the success of your business.
We’ve grouped these questions into the following categories:
Questions To Ask A Digital Marketing Agency Before Outsourcing
Navigating the vast digital marketing landscape can be overwhelming. To ensure your business’s online visibility and growth, it’s important to find the perfect digital marketing agency that can not only provide tailored marketing solutions, but also help you achieve your desired goals through innovative, data-driven strategies.
Asking the right questions is crucial in determining the best fit for your specific marketing needs. To save you countless hours of research and time-wasting, we’ve compiled the list below. It includes all the questions to ask a digital marketing agency before outsourcing your marketing initiatives.
Note: If you’re a digital agency, use the questions below to help you gain a better understanding of your business and to position your services more competitively (go here for details on how to list your agency in our directory).
Agency Background and Experience
The questions below focus on understanding the agency’s overall experience and expertise in digital marketing. Ask these questions to help you determine if the agency has a proven track record of success within your industry or with similar businesses, to ensure they have the knowledge and skills needed to drive results for your business.
1. What is your experience in digital marketing? How long have you been in the industry?
Understanding the agency’s experience and longevity in the industry helps you to evaluate their expertise and stability. This question helps you assess the agency’s expertise and industry knowledge. A digital marketing agency with a proven track record of experience is more likely to have the expertise to handle your marketing needs effectively.
2. What sets your digital marketing agency apart from your competitors?
It’s important to identify the agency’s unique selling proposition, differentiating factors, or innovative approaches that make them stand out. Understanding the agency’s distinctive offerings can help your business make a more informed decision and ensure that you are choosing the right partner to help you achieve your goals.
3. Can you provide examples of digital marketing campaigns or projects you have worked on in the past and their outcomes?
Reviewing the agency’s portfolio and case studies can help you evaluate their past work and outcomes, assess their track record of success, and gauge their creativity, strategy, ability, and effectiveness to achieve results.
4. Do you have experience working with businesses in our industry or similar industries? How do you tailor your digital marketing strategies to different industries?
Businesses with experience in your industry will be better prepared to handle the unique challenges, trends, and audience behavior of your industry and develop targeted and effective marketing strategies and campaigns that cater to these unique needs.
Asking this question will help you find out if the agency has relevant experience and knowledge about the sector and the markets your business operates in.
Digital Marketing Services and Approach
The questions below are designed to gain insights into the agency’s specific digital marketing services and their strategic approach to driving success. This includes their process for developing and implementing digital marketing strategies, as well as their knowledge and experience in specialized areas such as content marketing, SEO, and social media marketing.
5. What digital marketing services do you offer? (e.g. SEO, PPC, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, etc.)
Different agencies may have different areas of expertise, like SEO, PPC, or social media. Knowing the agency’s core services will help you to determine if they have the capabilities to meet your digital marketing needs and align with your business goals.
6. How do you approach developing a digital marketing strategy for a business? Can you provide an overview of your process?
A well-defined strategy is essential for successful digital marketing campaigns. This question helps you assess the agency’s strategic thinking and planning process and understand how they create customized marketing strategies and what steps are involved in their process.
7. What is your approach to content creation and content marketing? How do you ensure that the content is aligned with our brand and messaging?
Content is a crucial aspect of digital marketing. Understanding the agency’s approach to content creation, quality, relevance, and alignment with your brand helps to ensure that your content marketing efforts are effective.
8. How do you handle social media marketing? Can you provide examples of social media campaigns you have managed?
Social media is a prominent digital marketing channel. This question helps you assess the agency’s experience and approach to social media marketing, their capabilities and their ability to to create and manage successful social media campaigns that will generate engagement and growth through various platforms.
9. How do you approach search engine optimization (SEO)? Can you provide examples of SEO strategies you have implemented for other clients?
SEO is critical for online visibility. Inquiring about the agency’s approach to SEO and their past strategies and proven successes can help you assess their expertise in optimizing websites for search engines, and evaluate their ability to improve your search engine visibility and drive organic traffic to your site.
10. How do you handle paid advertising campaigns, such as pay-per-click (PPC) or Google Ads? Can you provide examples of successful paid advertising campaigns you have managed?
Paid advertising can be an effective way to boost online visibility. This question helps you evaluate the agency’s expertise and ability to manage paid advertising campaigns effectively and their proficiency to generate desired outcomes a positive return on ad spend.
11. How do you handle email marketing campaigns? Can you provide examples of successful email marketing campaigns you have executed?
Understanding the agency’s approach to email marketing, including their strategy, segmentation, and automation, can help you assess their ability to create and execute effective email campaigns that drive engagement and conversions.
12. What is your approach to website design and development? Do you offer website design and development services or work with external partners?
Your website is a critical digital marketing asset. Knowing the agency’s approach to website design and development helps you assess their expertise in creating websites that are user-friendly, visually appealing, and aligned with your brand.
Tools, Technologies, and Data Security
The questions below are critical for understanding the agency’s technical capabilities and their commitment to data security. Asking these questions will help to elucidate the digital marketing tools and technologies they utilize, any additional costs associated with these tools, and their approaches to ensuring the protection of your business and customer data.
This is important because you will need to trust the agency and provide them with access to everything they need to run your marketing effectively – login details to your site, Google Analytics and social media accounts, etc.
13. What tools and technologies do you use for digital marketing? Are there any additional costs associated with these tools?
Knowing the tools and technologies used by the agency helps you understand their capabilities and efficiency in managing and executing effective digital marketing campaigns, and allows you to assess any additional costs associated with these tools.
14. How do you handle data privacy and security? How do you ensure that our business and customer data are protected?
Protecting your business and customer data is paramount. Data privacy and security are critical concerns, and asking about the agency’s data privacy and security practices ensures that they follow industry standards and will take appropriate measures to safeguard your sensitive information.
Performance Metrics and Reporting
Gauging the success of digital marketing campaigns requires effective tracking and reporting of performance metrics. The questions below address the agency’s process for measuring campaign success, the key performance indicators they track, and their approach to reporting and communicating these metrics to their clients.
15. How do you measure the success of digital marketing campaigns? What metrics do you track, and how do you report on them?
Clear reporting and analysis are crucial for optimizing campaigns and achieving desired results. Understanding the agency’s approach to measuring campaign success and the metrics they track allows you to evaluate their performance and accountability, set up realistic expectations, and evaluate their performance and campaign success over time.
This question will also help you understand if the agency’s performance metrics align with your business goals.
16. How do you handle reporting and communication with clients? How often will we receive reports, and what will be included in them?
Clear and regular communication is essential for a successful partnership. This question helps establish expectations for reporting frequency and content. It’s important to ensure there’s open communication and trust between your business and the agency.
You want clear and consistent communication about the progress of your campaigns in order to make timely adjustments and ensure that the campaign’s messaging and strategy remains aligned with your goals.
Collaboration and Coordination
Partnering with a digital marketing agency often involves extensive collaboration and communication with your internal team. The questions below cover how the agency plans to involve your in-house team, as well as their methods for coordinating with various stakeholders to ensure seamless execution and synergy.
17. How do you handle communication and coordination with our internal marketing team or other stakeholders? How much will you involve the in-house team? Who will be working on our account?
Effective communication, reporting, and coordination with internal teams and stakeholders are key to a successful agency-client relationship and allow for a smooth collaboration between your business and the agency.
If you have an internal marketing team or other stakeholders, coordinating with them is essential for successful digital marketing campaigns.
Asking the agency about their approach to coordinating and collaborating with your internal team or other stakeholders helps you understand how they will work with your team and ensure smooth communication and coordination throughout the campaign.
Knowing the main contact person(s) and the team structure will help to foster a healthy working relationship and keep communication streamlined. Understanding the dynamics of the team that will handle your digital marketing efforts, the agency’s reporting frequency, format, and how communication channels will be maintained helps you ensure that you receive regular updates and insights on your campaigns.
Pricing and Timeline
Understanding the costs associated with digital marketing services is essential for budgeting and decision-making. The questions below focus on the agency’s pricing structure, any additional fees, and their expectations concerning timelines and results. This information will help you plan your marketing efforts more effectively and determine if the agency is a good fit for your financial goals.
18. What is your pricing structure? How do you charge for your services, and are there any additional costs or fees?
It’s important to have a clear understanding of costs associated with outsourcing your digital marketing efforts to the agency. Understanding the agency’s pricing structure, payment terms, and any additional costs associated with their services helps you assess if their services are within your budget and if they provide value for the investment.
It’s important to have clarity on pricing and budget to avoid any surprise costs, hidden fees, or misunderstandings later on.
19. What are your expectations in terms of timelines and results for our digital marketing campaigns?
Setting realistic expectations and understanding the agency’s anticipated timelines and results ensure transparency and optimized goal-setting for both parties.
Additional Questions to Gauge Agency Success
Asking the questions below will provide additional insights into the agency’s overall success and adaptability in the ever-changing digital marketing landscape. Topics covered in this section include staying updated with industry trends, providing references and case studies, internal marketing strategies, expected result timeframes, and the agency’s ability to learn and bounce back from failures.
20. How do you stay updated with the latest trends and changes in technology and the digital marketing landscape?
The digital marketing landscape is constantly changing. It is essential for the agency to stay updated with the latest trends, algorithm changes, and best practices, and be able to adapt their strategies accordingly.
You want to know how flexible and adaptable their strategies are to changes in industry trends and technology to ensure they can adapt to changes in the market, deliver timely, effective and up-to-date marketing efforts, and maintain their relevance and competitiveness.
21. Can you provide references from previous clients or case studies of successful digital marketing campaigns you have executed?
Case studies and client references provide insights into the agency’s credibility, ability to drive results, and client satisfaction. Ask for examples of successful campaigns and whether you can contact existing clients to obtain feedback, verify the agency’s claims, and get insights from their previous clients about their experience, communication, and results achieved.
22. Which strategies do you use for your brand, and what has been working out for you?
This question is important because it helps evaluate the agency’s own digital marketing efforts and identify the strategies that have been successful in promoting their brand. By learning about the approaches they use for themselves, you can better understand their expertise and potential effectiveness in implementing those strategies for your business.
Asking this question also showcases the agency’s ability to adapt and innovate in the digital marketing space, demonstrating their willingness to stay ahead of the curve and continuously test and refine techniques. Furthermore, it shows that they practice what they preach and can be a credible partner for your business.
23. What is the onboarding process for new clients?
Understanding the agency’s onboarding process is crucial to ensuring a smooth and efficient transition into the working relationship. This question helps reveal the agency’s organizational skills, communication strategies, and their commitment to providing a seamless integration for new clients.
The response to this question will offer insights into their process for gathering necessary information, setting expectations and goals, assigning key personnel, and establishing communication channels. Additionally, it allows you to assess the agency’s dedication to understanding your business, objectives, and target audience, which is vital for creating and implementing tailored and effective digital marketing strategies.
A clear and well-defined onboarding process also demonstrates the agency’s professionalism and experience, ensuring that they are well-versed in managing projects and working with different teams. This information helps build trust and confidence that the agency can effectively address your unique digital marketing needs and cultivate a productive partnership.
24. When can I expect to start seeing results?
Setting realistic expectations regarding the timeline for results is crucial for both the client and the agency. This question allows you to gauge the agency’s transparency and the effectiveness of their strategies in delivering quantifiable results. It is essential while forming a suitable partnership, as it prevents potential misunderstandings or disappointments in later stages of the project.
The agency’s response helps you understand the typical timeframes associated with different digital marketing strategies and the time needed to achieve desired outcomes. It also provides an insight into the agency’s ability to deliver on their promises and their overall performance.
25. What are some of your recent failures, and how did you remediate them?
This question is not only about learning from their mistakes but also assessing the agency’s adaptability, transparency, and problem-solving capabilities. The willingness to share and acknowledge their failures demonstrates a proactive learning attitude and a commitment to continuous improvement, which are essential traits for a successful digital marketing agency.
Inquiring about their remediation efforts helps you understand the agency’s resilience when faced with challenges and their ability to bounce back and learn from their mistakes. This insight can inspire confidence in their services and provide a better understanding of their approach to overcoming setbacks and unforeseen obstacles.
Successfully Interviewing Digital Agencies – Additional Tips
It’s important to thoroughly vet and interview digital marketing agencies to ensure they align with your business goals, have the necessary expertise and experience, and can deliver results.
In addition to the questions listed above, the tips below will help you make an informed decision about selecting the right digital marketing agency for your business:
Contract and Terms
Review the agency’s contract and terms of service thoroughly and clarify any doubts before committing to their service. This will help you understand the legal and contractual aspects of the engagement and ensure that you are comfortable with their terms and conditions.
Team Expertise and Qualifications
Ask about the qualifications, certifications, and expertise of the agency’s team members. This will help you assess their skills, knowledge, and experience in digital marketing. A qualified and experienced team is more likely to deliver effective results for your campaigns.
Communication Channels and Response Time
Clear communication channels and timely response are crucial for successful collaboration with a digital marketing agency. Inquire about the agency’s preferred communication channels and their typical response time. This will help you set expectations and ensure smooth communication throughout the engagement.
Flexibility and Adaptability
Digital marketing is dynamic, and strategies may need to be adjusted based on results and changing market conditions. As covered earlier, it’s important to ask the agency about their flexibility and adaptability to changes. This will help you assess their ability to adjust strategies and tactics as needed to optimize results.
Client Retention Rate
Inquire about the agency’s client retention rate. This helps you gauge their ability to retain long-term clients. A high client retention rate is a positive indicator of client satisfaction and successful outcomes.
Ask For a Proposal or Plan
Request a proposal or plan from the agency. This allows you to evaluate their approach, creativity, and strategy in detail. A well-prepared proposal or plan provides insights into their understanding of your business, market, and objectives, and helps you assess their suitability for your digital marketing needs.
Additional Tip: Choose Local
Although we live in a global economy that allows us to do business with anyone, anywhere in the world, keep in mind that international laws can be complicated. Should your relationship with an agency go sour for any reason, you could find yourself in a difficult situation facing complex, challenging, and expensive options for resolution.
For this reason, we recommend hiring an agency within your own country or within the same region your business legally operates in.
Unlock the Full Potential of Your Digital Marketing Strategies with WPMU DEV’s Agency Partner Directory
If you plan to outsource your digital marketing needs to an external agency, it’s important to find the right partner that aligns with your business values, expectations, and objectives.
Asking the essential questions listed above when hiring a digital marketing agency is crucial to assess their expertise, experience, approach, and compatibility with your business goals. It will help you make an informed decision and choose an agency that can effectively meet your digital marketing needs and goals, drive successful outcomes for your business, and provide you with the backing and support you need to run a successful marketing strategy.
WPMU DEV’s Agency Partner directory is an invaluable resource that we have developed to help you find reliable agencies with the expertise and experience to help your business maximize online visibility and growth and ensure that your marketing goals are met and exceeded.
If you are ready to outsource your digital marketing needs, then familiarize yourself with the above questions and search through our directory of digital marketing agencies. You will be sure to find a suitable partner that will perfectly meet your needs.
And if you provide web development or digital marketing services, consider becoming listed on our directory. For more details, go here: Become a Partner.
Asking the right questions to evaluate a digital marketing agency before outsourcing your marketing needs is important. The questions below will help to ensure a perfect fit and a successful long-term partnership.
In this article, we list the essential questions you should ask before outsourcing to find the right agency for your needs and explain why asking these questions is vitally important for the success of your business.
We’ve grouped these questions into the following categories:
Questions To Ask A Digital Marketing Agency Before Outsourcing
Navigating the vast digital marketing landscape can be overwhelming. To ensure your business’s online visibility and growth, it’s important to find the perfect digital marketing agency that can not only provide tailored marketing solutions, but also help you achieve your desired goals through innovative, data-driven strategies.
Asking the right questions is crucial in determining the best fit for your specific marketing needs. To save you countless hours of research and time-wasting, we’ve compiled the list below. It includes all the questions to ask a digital marketing agency before outsourcing your marketing initiatives.
Note: If you’re a digital agency, use the questions below to help you gain a better understanding of your business and to position your services more competitively (go here for details on how to list your agency in our directory).
Agency Background and Experience
The questions below focus on understanding the agency’s overall experience and expertise in digital marketing. Ask these questions to help you determine if the agency has a proven track record of success within your industry or with similar businesses, to ensure they have the knowledge and skills needed to drive results for your business.
1. What is your experience in digital marketing? How long have you been in the industry?
Understanding the agency’s experience and longevity in the industry helps you to evaluate their expertise and stability. This question helps you assess the agency’s expertise and industry knowledge. A digital marketing agency with a proven track record of experience is more likely to have the expertise to handle your marketing needs effectively.
2. What sets your digital marketing agency apart from your competitors?
It’s important to identify the agency’s unique selling proposition, differentiating factors, or innovative approaches that make them stand out. Understanding the agency’s distinctive offerings can help your business make a more informed decision and ensure that you are choosing the right partner to help you achieve your goals.
3. Can you provide examples of digital marketing campaigns or projects you have worked on in the past and their outcomes?
Reviewing the agency’s portfolio and case studies can help you evaluate their past work and outcomes, assess their track record of success, and gauge their creativity, strategy, ability, and effectiveness to achieve results.
4. Do you have experience working with businesses in our industry or similar industries? How do you tailor your digital marketing strategies to different industries?
Businesses with experience in your industry will be better prepared to handle the unique challenges, trends, and audience behavior of your industry and develop targeted and effective marketing strategies and campaigns that cater to these unique needs.
Asking this question will help you find out if the agency has relevant experience and knowledge about the sector and the markets your business operates in.
Digital Marketing Services and Approach
The questions below are designed to gain insights into the agency’s specific digital marketing services and their strategic approach to driving success. This includes their process for developing and implementing digital marketing strategies, as well as their knowledge and experience in specialized areas such as content marketing, SEO, and social media marketing.
5. What digital marketing services do you offer? (e.g. SEO, PPC, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, etc.)
Different agencies may have different areas of expertise, like SEO, PPC, or social media. Knowing the agency’s core services will help you to determine if they have the capabilities to meet your digital marketing needs and align with your business goals.
6. How do you approach developing a digital marketing strategy for a business? Can you provide an overview of your process?
A well-defined strategy is essential for successful digital marketing campaigns. This question helps you assess the agency’s strategic thinking and planning process and understand how they create customized marketing strategies and what steps are involved in their process.
7. What is your approach to content creation and content marketing? How do you ensure that the content is aligned with our brand and messaging?
Content is a crucial aspect of digital marketing. Understanding the agency’s approach to content creation, quality, relevance, and alignment with your brand helps to ensure that your content marketing efforts are effective.
8. How do you handle social media marketing? Can you provide examples of social media campaigns you have managed?
Social media is a prominent digital marketing channel. This question helps you assess the agency’s experience and approach to social media marketing, their capabilities and their ability to to create and manage successful social media campaigns that will generate engagement and growth through various platforms.
9. How do you approach search engine optimization (SEO)? Can you provide examples of SEO strategies you have implemented for other clients?
SEO is critical for online visibility. Inquiring about the agency’s approach to SEO and their past strategies and proven successes can help you assess their expertise in optimizing websites for search engines, and evaluate their ability to improve your search engine visibility and drive organic traffic to your site.
10. How do you handle paid advertising campaigns, such as pay-per-click (PPC) or Google Ads? Can you provide examples of successful paid advertising campaigns you have managed?
Paid advertising can be an effective way to boost online visibility. This question helps you evaluate the agency’s expertise and ability to manage paid advertising campaigns effectively and their proficiency to generate desired outcomes a positive return on ad spend.
11. How do you handle email marketing campaigns? Can you provide examples of successful email marketing campaigns you have executed?
Understanding the agency’s approach to email marketing, including their strategy, segmentation, and automation, can help you assess their ability to create and execute effective email campaigns that drive engagement and conversions.
12. What is your approach to website design and development? Do you offer website design and development services or work with external partners?
Your website is a critical digital marketing asset. Knowing the agency’s approach to website design and development helps you assess their expertise in creating websites that are user-friendly, visually appealing, and aligned with your brand.
Tools, Technologies, and Data Security
The questions below are critical for understanding the agency’s technical capabilities and their commitment to data security. Asking these questions will help to elucidate the digital marketing tools and technologies they utilize, any additional costs associated with these tools, and their approaches to ensuring the protection of your business and customer data.
This is important because you will need to trust the agency and provide them with access to everything they need to run your marketing effectively – login details to your site, Google Analytics and social media accounts, etc.
13. What tools and technologies do you use for digital marketing? Are there any additional costs associated with these tools?
Knowing the tools and technologies used by the agency helps you understand their capabilities and efficiency in managing and executing effective digital marketing campaigns, and allows you to assess any additional costs associated with these tools.
14. How do you handle data privacy and security? How do you ensure that our business and customer data are protected?
Protecting your business and customer data is paramount. Data privacy and security are critical concerns, and asking about the agency’s data privacy and security practices ensures that they follow industry standards and will take appropriate measures to safeguard your sensitive information.
Performance Metrics and Reporting
Gauging the success of digital marketing campaigns requires effective tracking and reporting of performance metrics. The questions below address the agency’s process for measuring campaign success, the key performance indicators they track, and their approach to reporting and communicating these metrics to their clients.
15. How do you measure the success of digital marketing campaigns? What metrics do you track, and how do you report on them?
Clear reporting and analysis are crucial for optimizing campaigns and achieving desired results. Understanding the agency’s approach to measuring campaign success and the metrics they track allows you to evaluate their performance and accountability, set up realistic expectations, and evaluate their performance and campaign success over time.
This question will also help you understand if the agency’s performance metrics align with your business goals.
16. How do you handle reporting and communication with clients? How often will we receive reports, and what will be included in them?
Clear and regular communication is essential for a successful partnership. This question helps establish expectations for reporting frequency and content. It’s important to ensure there’s open communication and trust between your business and the agency.
You want clear and consistent communication about the progress of your campaigns in order to make timely adjustments and ensure that the campaign’s messaging and strategy remains aligned with your goals.
Collaboration and Coordination
Partnering with a digital marketing agency often involves extensive collaboration and communication with your internal team. The questions below cover how the agency plans to involve your in-house team, as well as their methods for coordinating with various stakeholders to ensure seamless execution and synergy.
17. How do you handle communication and coordination with our internal marketing team or other stakeholders? How much will you involve the in-house team? Who will be working on our account?
Effective communication, reporting, and coordination with internal teams and stakeholders are key to a successful agency-client relationship and allow for a smooth collaboration between your business and the agency.
If you have an internal marketing team or other stakeholders, coordinating with them is essential for successful digital marketing campaigns.
Asking the agency about their approach to coordinating and collaborating with your internal team or other stakeholders helps you understand how they will work with your team and ensure smooth communication and coordination throughout the campaign.
Knowing the main contact person(s) and the team structure will help to foster a healthy working relationship and keep communication streamlined. Understanding the dynamics of the team that will handle your digital marketing efforts, the agency’s reporting frequency, format, and how communication channels will be maintained helps you ensure that you receive regular updates and insights on your campaigns.
Pricing and Timeline
Understanding the costs associated with digital marketing services is essential for budgeting and decision-making. The questions below focus on the agency’s pricing structure, any additional fees, and their expectations concerning timelines and results. This information will help you plan your marketing efforts more effectively and determine if the agency is a good fit for your financial goals.
18. What is your pricing structure? How do you charge for your services, and are there any additional costs or fees?
It’s important to have a clear understanding of costs associated with outsourcing your digital marketing efforts to the agency. Understanding the agency’s pricing structure, payment terms, and any additional costs associated with their services helps you assess if their services are within your budget and if they provide value for the investment.
It’s important to have clarity on pricing and budget to avoid any surprise costs, hidden fees, or misunderstandings later on.
19. What are your expectations in terms of timelines and results for our digital marketing campaigns?
Setting realistic expectations and understanding the agency’s anticipated timelines and results ensure transparency and optimized goal-setting for both parties.
Additional Questions to Gauge Agency Success
Asking the questions below will provide additional insights into the agency’s overall success and adaptability in the ever-changing digital marketing landscape. Topics covered in this section include staying updated with industry trends, providing references and case studies, internal marketing strategies, expected result timeframes, and the agency’s ability to learn and bounce back from failures.
20. How do you stay updated with the latest trends and changes in technology and the digital marketing landscape?
The digital marketing landscape is constantly changing. It is essential for the agency to stay updated with the latest trends, algorithm changes, and best practices, and be able to adapt their strategies accordingly.
You want to know how flexible and adaptable their strategies are to changes in industry trends and technology to ensure they can adapt to changes in the market, deliver timely, effective and up-to-date marketing efforts, and maintain their relevance and competitiveness.
21. Can you provide references from previous clients or case studies of successful digital marketing campaigns you have executed?
Case studies and client references provide insights into the agency’s credibility, ability to drive results, and client satisfaction. Ask for examples of successful campaigns and whether you can contact existing clients to obtain feedback, verify the agency’s claims, and get insights from their previous clients about their experience, communication, and results achieved.
22. Which strategies do you use for your brand, and what has been working out for you?
This question is important because it helps evaluate the agency’s own digital marketing efforts and identify the strategies that have been successful in promoting their brand. By learning about the approaches they use for themselves, you can better understand their expertise and potential effectiveness in implementing those strategies for your business.
Asking this question also showcases the agency’s ability to adapt and innovate in the digital marketing space, demonstrating their willingness to stay ahead of the curve and continuously test and refine techniques. Furthermore, it shows that they practice what they preach and can be a credible partner for your business.
23. What is the onboarding process for new clients?
Understanding the agency’s onboarding process is crucial to ensuring a smooth and efficient transition into the working relationship. This question helps reveal the agency’s organizational skills, communication strategies, and their commitment to providing a seamless integration for new clients.
The response to this question will offer insights into their process for gathering necessary information, setting expectations and goals, assigning key personnel, and establishing communication channels. Additionally, it allows you to assess the agency’s dedication to understanding your business, objectives, and target audience, which is vital for creating and implementing tailored and effective digital marketing strategies.
A clear and well-defined onboarding process also demonstrates the agency’s professionalism and experience, ensuring that they are well-versed in managing projects and working with different teams. This information helps build trust and confidence that the agency can effectively address your unique digital marketing needs and cultivate a productive partnership.
24. When can I expect to start seeing results?
Setting realistic expectations regarding the timeline for results is crucial for both the client and the agency. This question allows you to gauge the agency’s transparency and the effectiveness of their strategies in delivering quantifiable results. It is essential while forming a suitable partnership, as it prevents potential misunderstandings or disappointments in later stages of the project.
The agency’s response helps you understand the typical timeframes associated with different digital marketing strategies and the time needed to achieve desired outcomes. It also provides an insight into the agency’s ability to deliver on their promises and their overall performance.
25. What are some of your recent failures, and how did you remediate them?
This question is not only about learning from their mistakes but also assessing the agency’s adaptability, transparency, and problem-solving capabilities. The willingness to share and acknowledge their failures demonstrates a proactive learning attitude and a commitment to continuous improvement, which are essential traits for a successful digital marketing agency.
Inquiring about their remediation efforts helps you understand the agency’s resilience when faced with challenges and their ability to bounce back and learn from their mistakes. This insight can inspire confidence in their services and provide a better understanding of their approach to overcoming setbacks and unforeseen obstacles.
Successfully Interviewing Digital Agencies – Additional Tips
It’s important to thoroughly vet and interview digital marketing agencies to ensure they align with your business goals, have the necessary expertise and experience, and can deliver results.
In addition to the questions listed above, the tips below will help you make an informed decision about selecting the right digital marketing agency for your business:
Contract and Terms
Review the agency’s contract and terms of service thoroughly and clarify any doubts before committing to their service. This will help you understand the legal and contractual aspects of the engagement and ensure that you are comfortable with their terms and conditions.
Team Expertise and Qualifications
Ask about the qualifications, certifications, and expertise of the agency’s team members. This will help you assess their skills, knowledge, and experience in digital marketing. A qualified and experienced team is more likely to deliver effective results for your campaigns.
Communication Channels and Response Time
Clear communication channels and timely response are crucial for successful collaboration with a digital marketing agency. Inquire about the agency’s preferred communication channels and their typical response time. This will help you set expectations and ensure smooth communication throughout the engagement.
Flexibility and Adaptability
Digital marketing is dynamic, and strategies may need to be adjusted based on results and changing market conditions. As covered earlier, it’s important to ask the agency about their flexibility and adaptability to changes. This will help you assess their ability to adjust strategies and tactics as needed to optimize results.
Client Retention Rate
Inquire about the agency’s client retention rate. This helps you gauge their ability to retain long-term clients. A high client retention rate is a positive indicator of client satisfaction and successful outcomes.
Ask For a Proposal or Plan
Request a proposal or plan from the agency. This allows you to evaluate their approach, creativity, and strategy in detail. A well-prepared proposal or plan provides insights into their understanding of your business, market, and objectives, and helps you assess their suitability for your digital marketing needs.
Additional Tip: Choose Local
Although we live in a global economy that allows us to do business with anyone, anywhere in the world, keep in mind that international laws can be complicated. Should your relationship with an agency go sour for any reason, you could find yourself in a difficult situation facing complex, challenging, and expensive options for resolution.
For this reason, we recommend hiring an agency within your own country or within the same region your business legally operates in.
Unlock the Full Potential of Your Digital Marketing Strategies with WPMU DEV’s Agency Partner Directory
If you plan to outsource your digital marketing needs to an external agency, it’s important to find the right partner that aligns with your business values, expectations, and objectives.
Asking the essential questions listed above when hiring a digital marketing agency is crucial to assess their expertise, experience, approach, and compatibility with your business goals. It will help you make an informed decision and choose an agency that can effectively meet your digital marketing needs and goals, drive successful outcomes for your business, and provide you with the backing and support you need to run a successful marketing strategy.
WPMU DEV’s Agency Partner directory is an invaluable resource that we have developed to help you find reliable agencies with the expertise and experience to help your business maximize online visibility and growth and ensure that your marketing goals are met and exceeded.
If you are ready to outsource your digital marketing needs, then familiarize yourself with the above questions and search through our directory of digital marketing agencies. You will be sure to find a suitable partner that will perfectly meet your needs.
And if you provide web development or digital marketing services, consider becoming listed on our directory. For more details, go here: Become a Partner.
From cost savings to leveraging expertise, outsourcing your digital marketing needs to our Agency Partners is a smart and cost-effective decision, especially if your business has limited resources.
Is your business struggling to keep up with the constantly changing marketing landscape? Hiring external professionals or agencies to handle certain tasks or functions that would normally be done in-house will provide significant benefits and advantages.
In recent years, outsourcing has become a prevalent business strategy, especially for businesses looking to scale up, and marketing is no exception.
Digital marketing is one of the services that businesses commonly outsource.
Digital marketing is the most outsourced service after accounting and IT. Source: Zippia
In this article, we will explore the many advantages of outsourcing your digital marketing efforts to an agency and why this can turn out to be more cost-effective for your business in the long run.
As part of your own digital marketing strategy, your business will have to decide whether to handle its digital marketing needs in-house, outsource to a digital marketing agency, or a combination of both.
To understand some of the key reasons why you may want to consider outsourcing your marketing, let’s start by looking at content creation, which, according to research on digital marketing trends, is the area that many businesses are increasingly focusing more of their efforts on.
However, businesses also face significant challenges trying to meet their digital marketing strategic goals. These challenges include having limited budget and resources, lacking systems and processes to generate content and collect data, and more.
Businesses need to engage in marketing activities to remain competitive, but many struggle to afford and manage the marketing processes required to create and deliver effective results.
Content creation, however, is only one aspect of your digital marketing needs. What about advertising, analytics and reporting, branding, SEO, email marketing, video marketing, social media, etc.? These are also necessary for an effective digital marketing strategy.
Since we are focusing on whether outsourcing your digital marketing needs is more cost-effective than building an in-house marketing team, let’s start with a brief overview of the benefits of outsourcing.
The Benefits of Outsourcing Your Digital Marketing Needs
Outsourcing your marketing needs to a digital marketing agency offers a number of benefits, including:
Cost Savings
One of the key advantages of outsourcing your marketing needs is cost savings. Hiring and maintaining an in-house marketing team is expensive, as it involves costs such as salaries, benefits, office space, equipment, and training.
Outsourcing will help to avoid these costs as you can simply pay for the services you need on a project basis or through a retainer, depending on your requirements. This will result in significant cost savings and increased ROI, especially for SMEs with limited budgets.
Flexibility and Scalability
Outsourcing provides you with the flexibility to scale your marketing efforts up or down based as needed, without the need for permanent hires or layoffs.
During busy seasons, you can increase your marketing efforts, and during slow seasons, you can scale back, without having to worry about hiring or firing employees.
This flexibility allows your business to adapt its marketing strategies to changing market conditions without the overhead costs associated with an in-house team.
Access to Specialized Expertise and Resources
Marketing is a complex field that requires expertise in various areas such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), social media management, content creation, content marketing, email marketing, and more.
Outsourcing your marketing needs to an agency will give your business access to a team of professionals with specialized skills, expertise, cutting-edge tools, technologies, and resources that may not be available or feasible to invest in-house.
For example, external marketing agencies can provide your business with access to cutting-edge technologies that will help to analyze data, track performance, and optimize your marketing campaigns, resulting in more effective and targeted marketing strategies that will drive better results.
Professionalism and Experience
Marketing agencies are specialized entities with a wealth of experience in handling marketing campaigns for different clients across various industries. They have a pulse on the latest marketing trends, strategies, and best practices, and can leverage their expertise to create effective marketing plans tailored to your business goals.
Additionally, agencies often have a diverse team with specialists in different areas, allowing them to bring a well-rounded approach to your marketing efforts.
Time and Resource Savings
Outsourcing your marketing needs frees up valuable time and internal resources for your business to focus on its core competencies.
Instead of spending time on marketing tasks, your in-house team can concentrate on their primary roles, leading to increased productivity and efficiency.
The Hidden Costs of In-House Digital Marketing
In-house marketing may seem like a viable option, but it also comes with often overlooked hidden costs that can add up over time, making outsourcing to a digital marketing agency more cost-effective in the long run.
Some of the hidden costs of in-house marketing include:
Hidden Cost #1: Training and Development
Keeping up with the rapidly changing marketing landscape requires ongoing training and development.
If you plan to build an in-house marketing team, then expect to invest in continuous education, certifications, workshops, and seminars to ensure that your team stays up-to-date with the latest marketing trends and best practices.
These training costs will quickly add up.
Hidden Cost #2: Employee Turnover
Employee turnover is a common challenge in the marketing industry with professionals often changing jobs or seeking better opportunities elsewhere.
This can result in significant costs associated with hiring, onboarding, and training new employees. Additionally, turnover and mis-hires can disrupt marketing campaigns and strategies, leading to delays and added costs.
Hidden Cost #3: Equipment and Software Costs
An in-house marketing team requires investing in technology and infrastructure like specialized equipment and software tools to support your marketing efforts and execute tasks effectively.
Investing in website development and maintenance, hardware, software licenses, subscriptions, marketing automation tools, CRM systems, analytics platforms, and other marketing technologies is expensive. Moreover, these tools require regular updates and maintenance, which will further increase costs over time.
Hidden Cost #4: Management and Overhead Costs
Managing an in-house marketing team requires additional overhead costs, such as salaries, benefits, office space, utilities, and other operational expenses. This will strain your budget and divert resources from other core functions.
Hidden Cost #5: Opportunity Cost of Diverting Resources
Doing digital marketing in-house requires diverting resources like time, effort, and budget from other areas of the business which results in less focus on other critical business operations.
This opportunity cost of diverting resources from other areas of the business can be significant and could seriously impact overall business performance.
Hidden Cost #6: Performance Monitoring and Optimization Efforts
In-house digital marketing requires investing time and effort into monitoring and optimizing marketing campaigns for optimal performance.
This includes analyzing data, conducting A/B testing, making adjustments to strategies, and continually optimizing campaigns for better results. These ongoing efforts require time and expertise, which may be overlooked when you consider the total cost of in-house digital marketing efforts.
Hidden Cost #7: Risk of Skill Gaps and Burnout
Running an in-house digital marketing team can result in skill gaps and burnout. Your team may need to handle various digital marketing tasks simultaneously, which often results in skill gaps in certain areas or even burnout due to the workload.
The net effect of this is decreased productivity, increased turnover, and additional costs associated with training or hiring new personnel.
Hidden Cost #8: Risks of Campaign Failures
Marketing campaigns do not always yield the desired results and in-house marketing efforts can fail to deliver on expected ROI.
When marketing campaigns do not perform as expected, it often results in wasted resources, lost opportunities, and additional costs to rectify the situation.
This risk can be mitigated by outsourcing to a marketing agency that has the expertise and experience to create effective marketing strategies and campaigns.
Hidden Costs Of Outsourcing Digital Marketing
Like in-house marketing, outsourcing also has hidden costs, so let’s explore these briefly:
Hidden Cost #1: Management and Coordination Efforts
Outsourcing your digital marketing requires spending time communicating with the agency, providing feedback and approvals, and managing the overall relationship.
The amount of effort and time required for managing agency relationships is often underestimated, so you need to have realistic expectations and include these in your cost calculations.
Hidden Cost #2: Lack of Direct Control and Visibility
Outsourcing your digital marketing needs often results in a lack of direct control and visibility over marketing efforts, and challenges monitoring and overseeing the agency’s activities, resulting in potential misalignment with your business objectives or ineffective strategies, and hidden costs in the form of lost opportunities, delays, or rework.
Hidden Cost #3: Dependence on Agency Expertise and Availability
Outsourcing typically leads to some type of dependency on the agency’s expertise, knowledge, performance, and availability. This can result in potential delays or additional costs finding alternative solutions.
Hidden Cost #4: Contractual Obligations and Fees
Outsourcing often involves contractual obligations and fees that your businesse may overlook. These include contract termination fees, additional charges for changes or revisions, or unexpected fees for using certain tools or technologies.
It’s crucial to thoroughly review and understand the contractual terms and fees associated with outsourcing digital marketing to avoid hidden costs.
Hidden Cost #5: Potential Quality or Cultural Misalignment
Another hidden cost of outsourcing is potential quality or cultural misalignment. If the agency’s work does not meet your expected quality standards or align with your business’s values and culture, you could experience additional costs to rectify or align the work. These include rework, revisions, or additional efforts to align the marketing efforts with your brand and messaging.
Outsource Your Digital Marketing Needs or Build An In-House Team?
As we have just seen, while outsourcing your digital marketing needs to an agency has many benefits, there may also be associated hidden costs, so it’s important to evaluate the pros and cons before deciding whether to outsource or run your digital marketing in-house.
Every business has unique needs and preferences, so it’s important to do your own research and cost-analysis.
Before making any decision, first calculate the cost of running your marketing in-house versus outsourcing. Various sites provide comparison tables that can help you with this.
For example, the table below from HubSpot illustrates an estimated general cost of putting together a one-month digital marketing campaign in-house (calculated as 40+ hours of work in-house), versus the cost you could potentially expect to pay if outsourcing to a digital agency (around $6000).
Components of a marketing campaign completed in-house versus potential cost of outsourcing to an agency. Source: HubSpot
Note: When looking at the above, keep in mind that:
a) The table does not take into account additional costs like salaries, training, technology, research, developing marketing expertise, etc.
b) Some of the estimated number of hours depicted in the table assigned to areas like creating blog articles and an email nurturing series seem to underestimate the time it takes to create high-quality content.
WebFX offers a great breakdown of digital marketing costs as illustrated in this summarized table…
There are other sites that provide lists or breakdowns of expected costs associated with outsourcing your digital marketing needs, including the article we wrote on additional marketing services web developers can offer.
Enter your details into a tool like DigitalStoryteller’s calculator to compare the cost of in-house marketing vs outsourcing.
To calculate the cost-effectiveness of using an in-house vs outsourced marketing team, look up estimated salaries using the links provided above and then enter your own figures into the calculator for fields like employee benefits and payroll taxes.
Tips for Outsourcing Your Marketing Needs to an Agency
Let’s say you’ve assessed the marketing needs of your business, done a comparison of costs, and decided that outsourcing is the more cost-effective option. Use the tips below to ensure a successful outsourcing experience:
1. Define Your Business Goals
Before outsourcing your marketing needs, clearly define your business goals and expectations. Communicate your marketing objectives, target audience, budget, and timeline to the agency to ensure that they align with your business objectives.
2. Research and Select the Right Agency
Do thorough research to find a reputable marketing agency that has a proven track record of success. Consider their expertise, experience, client testimonials, and case studies to evaluate their capabilities. Request proposals and compare pricing models to select an agency that fits your budget and requirements.
3. Establish Clear Communication Channels
Communication is key to successful outsourcing. Establish clear communication channels with the agency, including regular meetings, reporting, and updates. Define roles, responsibilities, and expectations to ensure a smooth working relationship.
So, set realistic expectations and understand that it takes time to see results. Trust the expertise of the agency and allow them to implement their strategies effectively.
5. Monitor and Evaluate Results
Regularly monitor and evaluate the performance of your marketing campaigns with the agency. Review reports, analytics, and metrics to measure the success of your marketing efforts. Provide feedback to the agency and collaborate on any necessary adjustments to optimize results.
Outsourcing To A Digital Marketing Agency – Next Steps
When it comes to evaluating whether to outsource or keep your marketing in-house, it all boils down to this:
If it’s more profitable to focus your time and resources on your business and outsource your marketing needs externally, then you are better off outsourcing and utilizing your time and resources to find and serve new and existing clients.
You will experience cost savings in terms of opportunity cost, as you can now potentially generate more revenue from activities that outweigh the expense of outsourcing, focus on your core services, and manage your time and resources more efficiently.
If your research and calculations show that outsourcing your marketing needs:
Is more cost-effective than running an in-house marketing team,
Will help to improve brand awareness, increase website traffic, deliver higher conversion rates, and drive business growth
Provides desirable benefits like cost savings, the flexibility to scale your marketing efforts based on your needs and budget, access to specialized expertise and professionalism, time savings, and more
Then the next logical step is to reach out to a digital marketing agency and begin exploring what services they offer and how they can help you achieve your marketing goals.
If you don’t know where to start, we recommend putting a list of questions together and checking out our digital marketing agency directory.
Our agency partners are experienced professionals who can assist you with all your digital marketing needs.
WPMU DEV can help you find the right digital marketing agency to outsource all your marketing needs.
To view all listed agencies and their available services, visit our Agency Partner directory or contact our 24/7 support team if you have any questions.
Breadcrumbs are now baked into SmartCrawl, along with another hotly requested feature… setting primary categories for posts and products!
SmartCrawl 3.5 gives you the ability to improve your WordPress site navigation for users and search engines with two new powerful features: breadcrumbs, and the ability to specify primary categories when assigning multiple categories to your posts or product pages.
In this article, we explain the benefits of using SmartCrawl’s latest new features and how to get the most out of them. We’ll cover:
In the classic fairytale, siblings Hansel and Gretel left a trail of breadcrumbs when they went deep into the forest so they would not get lost and have a path to navigate on their return.
Aptly named, breadcrumbs are an essential navigation aid that can help visitors and search engines better understand your website’s structure.
And it goes without saying that improving your site’s navigation is also good for SEO, as it helps search engine bots crawl your pages and index your content more efficiently.
Here are some other reasons why you should use breadcrumbs on your WordPress site:
Breadcrumbs help users figure out where they are on your site. Visitors usually land on your site through an article link or search result and need a way to orient themselves quickly. A breadcrumb path can provide this orientation, making it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for. It can also help to reduce bounce rates (i.e. the percentage of visitors who navigate away from your site after viewing only one page).
Breadcrumbs improve user experience. By providing a clear and concise path, users can understand not only where they are on your website, but also how to get back to previous pages or go up a level or two in your site’s hierarchical structure.
Breadcrumbs can improve your search engine visibility and potentially increase traffic to your site. Google uses breadcrumbs to categorize information on your site, helping it to index and organize your content and present it correctly to users. In fact, search engines like Google display breadcrumbs in search results pages, making them a valuable tool for improving your click-through rates.
Google displays breadcrumbs in search results.
Where Can You Use Breadcrumbs?
Breadcrumbs are a type of secondary navigation scheme that show users the path they have taken to reach a particular page on a website.
They don’t replace your site navigation menu, they support and complement it. So, a good place to put them is at the top of a page, just below your site’s primary navigation menu or the main header section.
You can display a breadcrumb trail at the top of your content.
However, you can also use them at the bottom of your page or even on your sidebar.
As you will see later in this post, you can pretty much add a breadcrumb anywhere on your site using a shortcode.
Don’t know why you’d want to do this, but you can.
The best way to find what works best for your site is to test different locations and use tools like heatmaps or analytics to measure your results.
Test different locations to sprinkle breadcrumbs on your site.
Breadcrumbs and Multiple WordPress Post Categories
What happens if you assign multiple categories to a post? How do breadcrumbs choose which path to display?
Which of these categories gets the breadcrumb?
The answer is… breadcrumbs will choose whichever category you have specified as the primary category for the post.
Make sure you can assign a primary category to posts with multiple categories.
Primary categories are the main classification of your business, product, or service and can help search engines understand the primary focus of your website, so the ability to select primary categories in SEO is important.
This is the category your breadcrumb patch will display.
If you assign a primary category to your posts, breadcrumbs don’t have to guess. It’s as simple as that!
A breadcrumb makes your site less humdrum.
How to Add Breadcrumbs to WordPress with SmartCrawl SEO Plugin
SmartCrawl not only makes it easy to add breadcrumb navigation to your website and assign primary categories to your posts and product pages, but it automatically adds structured data to your breadcrumbs. This helps search engines to understand and categorize your content and present it correctly to users.
Plus, SmartCrawl gives you complete control over how your breadcrumbs appear, making it easy to provide visitors with the information they need to navigate your site.
SmartCrawl’s breadcrumbs give you more SEO for your dough.
To activate SmartCrawl’s breadcrumb feature, go to SmartCrawl > Advanced Tools > Breadcrumb and click on activate.
Activate SmartCrawl’s breadcrumb feature to configure and use it on your site.
Activating the feature gives you access to a range of settings and options for configuring your breadcrumbs.
SmartCrawl gives you loads of breadcrumb customization options.
Configuring Breadcrumb Settings
Let’s go briefly over SmartCrawl’s breadcrumb settings:
Add Breadcrumbs to your Webpage – Add breadcrumbs to any page and anywhere on your website using a shortcode or adding PHP code to the template page.
Preview – This section lets you preview how breadcrumbs will display on your pages.
Breadcrumb Separator – Choose a breadcrumb separator from the list of presets or add your own custom separator using HTML characters.
Configurations – This section lets you enable additional breadcrumbs settings for your site, such as adding a prefix at the beginning of the breadcrumbs, adding home breadcrumbs to the trail, hiding the post title from the breadcrumb trail, or hiding the default WooCommerce product breadcrumb from your site if you use WooCommerce.
Breadcrumb Label Format – Here you can customize various breadcrumb label formats across your site, such as Post, Page, Archive, Search Results, and 404 Error Page label formats.
Deactivate – Deactivate the feature if you no longer want to display breadcrumbs on your site.
Let’s look at a few ways to customize breadcrumbs by tweaking SmartCrawl’s settings.
Choose a Breadcrumb Separator
The Breadcrumb Separator section lets you specify a separator symbol from a list of presets, but you can also add your own by entering HTML characters.
So, for this example, let’s add an emoji into the custom separator field…
Add your custom separator HTML.
Here’s the result…
Create fun trails for users with custom breadcrumbs.
Add a Prefix
You can also add a prefix to your breadcrumbs in the Configurations section…
Add a prefix to your breadcrumbs.
And here’s the result…
Happy trails…
Hide Title in Breadcrumb
Let’s do one more tweak and hide the post title from our breadcrumb trails…
You can hide the post title from displaying your breadcrumbs.
And here’s our customized breadcrumb sans title…
This humble breadcrumb is neither titled nor entitled.
Breadcrumb Label Formats
SmartCrawl gives you additional options to customize breadcrumb label formats across your site.
Customize breadcrumb label formats with a wide range of options.
This allows you to add additional information to your breadcrumbs such as post authors, dates and time, your site title, etc.
Customized breadcrumb label formats? Is there anything SmartCrawl won’t do?
SmartCrawl… the Crumb de la Crumb of Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs improve your website’s SEO and search engine visibility, provide visitors with an easy way to navigate your site, reduce bounce rates, and increase click-through rates.
Smartcrawl’s breadcrumb feature is customizable, flexible, user-friendly, SEO-friendly, and compatible with all WordPress themes and plugins.
Additionally, SmartCrawl automatically ads breadcrumb schema markup and the ability to specify a primary category for posts and product pages with multiple categories assigned.
SmartCrawl is the free SEO plugin that lets you have your cake and eat it too… right down to the tastiest breadcrumbs!
See our documentation section for more information on using this feature and, if you have any questions, ask our 24/7 support team or check out our new AI Assistant by clicking the Support tab inside The Hub.
Mind maps can help you visually organize your ideas and information, streamline your development process, and facilitate collaboration. Here are six ways to speed up your WordPress web development process with mind mapping…
But what about tools to help you get your thinking organized before you actually start working on a project? How do you sort, filter and organize everything when there are so many different ideas and paths you can take in the initial stages of a project?
This is where mind mapping can help.
In this post, we look at different ways to use mind maps to get your web development projects done faster and with less costly distractions.
Mind mapping is a cognitive tool that helps you visually organize your thoughts and ideas, as well as make connections between them.
It is a graphical representation of information, typically starting with a central idea or concept and branching out into related topics or sub-topics.
The structure of a mind map is hierarchical, with the central idea serving as the main node from which other ideas radiate. These nodes are connected by lines, which represent relationships or associations between the ideas.
Basic mind map structure where topics and subtopics flow from a central idea.
Mind maps can be used to brainstorm ideas, plan projects, outline information, or solve problems.
In addition, mind maps can include images, symbols, or colors to help emphasize or illustrate certain concepts.
All of these makes mind mapping a valuable tool to help organize your thinking during the initial stages of the web development process.
Benefits of Using Mind Maps in Website Development
The benefits of using mind maps in your web development approach include:
Enhanced creativity: Mind maps encourage the generation of new ideas, making it easier to develop creative solutions.
Improved organization: Mind maps help organize information in a visual and easy-to-understand format, making it simpler to see the big picture and identify potential issues.
Improved efficiency: By outlining your website’s structure and content in a mind map, you can streamline your web development process and save time.
Efficient problem-solving: Mind maps can help developers break down complex problems into smaller, more manageable parts, leading to quicker and more effective solutions.
Enhanced collaboration: Mind maps can be shared and updated in real-time, facilitating collaboration between developers, team members, clients, and stakeholders.
Improved project management: Mind maps can serve as a roadmap for the entire web development project, ensuring that all stakeholders are on the same page and that deadlines are met.
Enhanced communication: Mind maps can be used to explain complex concepts and processes to clients, stakeholders, and team members in a way that is easy to understand.
Increased productivity: Mind maps can help developers stay focused and organized, reducing distractions and increasing productivity.
Now that we understand some of the benefits, lets look at the practical application of using mind maps in your web development business.
6 Ways To Use A Mind Map To Speed Up Your Website Development
Here are several ways to incorporate mind mapping into your website development approach:
1. Organize Website Structure
Mind mapping can help you create a clear and organized structure for a website. By mapping out the website’s content and information architecture, you can easily see the relationships between pages and make sure the user flow is logical and intuitive.
For example, you can use mind maps to visualize the hierarchy of pages on your website, such as the homepage, service pages, blog page, etc.
In the above example, the central topic would be the website name, with each of the major sections (e.g. company, products and services, blog, FAQs, etc) branching out to subsections and individual pages of the website.
By mapping out the relationships between these pages, you can ensure that the user flow is easy to follow and that the website is organized in a way that makes sense to users.
2. Brainstorm Content Ideas
Mind mapping can be a great tool for generating content ideas to match user intent. By brainstorming and organizing content ideas in a mind map, you can ensure that your website content is useful, accessible, and easy to interpret.
For example, you can use mind maps to generate content ideas for your website’s blog. By brainstorming topics that are relevant to your target audience and organizing them in a mind map, you can ensure that your content is aligned with user intent and will be useful to your website visitors.
Use mind maps to brainstorm content ideas.
3. Collaborate with Clients and Team Members
Mind mapping can be a great tool for collaborating with clients and team members. By sharing a mind map, you can get feedback and input from others to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the website development process is moving in the right direction.
For example, you can use mind maps to collaborate with clients and team members on website design and development. By sharing a mind map of the website’s content and information architecture, you can get valuable feedback on the user flow, content organization, and other aspects of the website development process.
Miro lets you create mind maps collaboratively with your team.
4. Manage Project Tasks
You can use mind mapping to manage project tasks during the web development process. Creating a mind map of project tasks lets you quickly identify the key tasks that need to be completed and assign them to team members.
For example, you can use a mind map to assign tasks to team members, such as “Develop Home Page,” “Create About Us Page,” and “Design Contact Us Form.”
A project management mind map created with Xmind.
5. Save Time and Increase Efficiency
Mind mapping can help you save time and increase efficiency in the website development process. By visualizing the website structure and user flow in a mind map, you can identify areas for improvement and make changes before the website goes live, saving time and reducing the need for post-launch revisions.
For example, you can use mind maps to identify areas of the website that may be causing user frustration or confusion. By making changes to the website structure and user flow in the mind map, you can save time and ensure that the website is optimized for user experience before it goes live.
6. Improve an Existing Website’s UX
Using mind mapping is a versatile and effective technique to improve user experience on a website redesign, map out the ideal user flow for your website visitors, and make the website more user-friendly.
The mind map would include the key pages on the website, the various links and CTAs on each page, and the relationships between different pages. This helps your team understand how data is structured on the website.
By identifying the paths users typically take when navigating through a website and potential issues and areas where they may get stuck, you can make UX decisions to remove roadblocks and improve the user experience, and create a mind map of the target version of the website that is more user-friendly than the existing site. It also ensures that all stakeholders are on the same page throughout the project.
Practical Applications for Mind Mapping in Web Development
Let’s explore now some of the practical ways mind mapping can improve your web development processes.
As mentioned earlier, mind mapping can be used when creating new projects or improving existing websites.
Let’s start with improving an existing website.
A) Using Mind Mapping to Improve User Experience
To use mind mapping to improve user experience, follow these five simple steps:
First, create a mind-map template to understand the current information architecture on the website. List out how data is currently being structured and how you plan to structure it for the future user-friendly version.
Second, map out the ideal user flow by thinking about how you would like your website visitors to engage with your content and what actions you would like them to perform.
Third, compare the ideal user flow to the current behavior flow available on your Google Analytics. This will show you how users are currently engaging with the website’s content and what paths they usually take when navigating through the current information architecture.
Fourth, identify the roadblocks to providing the best user experience, such as poorly structured content, irrelevant features, or too many tools that don’t respond to users’ needs.
Finally, make the appropriate UX decisions to influence user behavior by turning chaos into a logical content hierarchy, trimming irrelevant page elements, and adapting web pages’ content structure to the needs of specific audience segments.
Creating a mind map is just the first step, but turning it into powerful UX decisions should be your main objective. You can turn your mind map into an effective sitemap or customer journey map.
To illustrate this, imagine you’re targeting three different customer personas on your website. You would need to plan three different user flows, grouping web pages into categories corresponding to each audience segment.
Then, do some user behavior mapping to determine how each customer persona should navigate to the corresponding web page and click the CTA placed there.
Make critical UX decisions, such as setting up relations between various pages on your website, designing the best CTA for each type of page, and including key information on a page, depending on the customer persona accessing it.
Now that we have looked at how to improve an existing website using mind mapping, let’s turn to using mind maps when creating new web development projects.
B) Using Mind Mapping for Website Development
WPMU DEV member Lucas from Ondata Marketing shared with us how he uses mind mapping in his web development business to summarize the most important information gleaned from his client briefings.
Here’s what Lucas does, in his own words…
“First, the way to use the mind map is to insert a text or image in the middle, which can be the customer’s name, logo, niche or any other image that makes sense for use at that time.
After this first insertion, you start to draw lines from this highlighted center to another part of the sheet, then inserting another word or summary information, which can also have derivations (and maybe in this part you realize that you should have made the first derivative word less near the end of the sheet).
And after entering all the information, you would have leads, thought paths or subject groupings divided by the sheet, but all visible on the same page. And if all goes well, you will have a sheet where you can more clearly see the subject that the mind map was made and all your information and ideas derived from it.”
Lucas uses mindmaps to create websites in two ways:
Method #1 – Use A Mind Map For Web Development Research
The first way Lucas uses mind maps is for research:
“I put the topic in the middle, I go searching on the internet about the client’s company, about the niche it operates, about competitors or even listening to videos while I do other work tasks that are more automatic.
This is a mind map with less discretion, where I’m actually inserting anything and then, usually after a day or two, I’ll go over it and evaluate what still seems to make sense. And what happens is that generally about half of these things don’t make sense anymore to continue in the project as useful information.”
Method #2 – Use A Mind Map To Organize Website Elements
The other way Lucas uses mind maps is to summarize and organize the information gathered throughout the client briefing.
In his own words…
“After the client brief is done, I organize the information on paper and in my head. For that, I use a method that is to group some specific subjects in imaginary squares.
To explain it better: I imaginatively divide the mind map sheet into 9 squares, where the middle one is the text or image highlighted on the map, and the others are for other subjects. Using yet another analogy, it’s like using a hashtag #, where the middle is already filled with the theme.
And in the remaining 8 squares, I usually divide the insights and issues like this:
1 – Graphic references, font names, colors, branding rules. Simple things like drawing a square or a circle (which is one of the briefing questions I ask: “Think about shapes and images…â€.
2 – Tone of voice, personality, brand word, feelings you want to arouse.
3 – Products and services. Except, of course, when there are many, then I just insert a general description of all or categories.
In tables 4 to 8, it’s always something different for each client, but in general terms, I put phrases that the client said in the briefing, the actions that the client expects his end client to do when entering the site, the things that end customer has to know that makes the company different.
The point is that people do not always have the answers to every question, and the answers they may have are not always good for every question, but there will always be some precious jewels among them that your own customer will have said and that will surely also serve to delight your customer’s customer.”
Lucas also provide some essential rules for making a good mind map:
“First rule: there are no rules. Always try to adapt to what makes the most sense for you.
The second rule: don’t fully respect imaginary squares. For each customer, the amount of content will be different in each subject. There is no problem if a large part of the mind map is filled with some kind of content if that content is relevant.
The third rule: be concerned about making sense, but summarize as much as possible. Remember that the mind map is something to organize your thinking, so you should always make it easier to visualize it by writing highlighted words, short sentences, or even simple drawings.
And one last tip: personally I really prefer to use paper. There is something magical about putting ideas and notes down on paper with all the imperfections, misalignments and scrawls that your own fine motor skills can produce. But you can also use other online tools and methods, to do it directly or to clean it up, especially when you need to present it later, or where mind maps become too large to fit on one sheet.”
Speaking of tools, lets look now at some of the most popular mind map tools available.
Mind Mapping Tools
Mind maps can be drawn by hand on paper or created using free or paid digital and online tools.
Website tree structure mind map created with PowerPoint.
However, you can also use the dedicated free and paid mind-mapping tools below, which offer additional benefits over general drawing tools, such as specialized functions, collaborative features, integration with other tools, better organization, more customization, and better visualization options:
Mind Map Pro
Mind Map Pro integrates mind mapping and a dynamic visual sitemap tool into WordPress.
Mind Map Pro is a powerful tool for mind mapping that offers various perspectives, such as map view, tree view, and 3D view.
Its user interface is user-friendly, and it has a simple process to get started. The color and shade of ideas can be changed using the color picker, and the size of idea boxes can be adjusted automatically or manually. Keyboard shortcuts are available to make mind mapping easier, and background images can be moved around the canvas by dragging and dropping. Zoom in and out using icons or a mouse scroll is also available.
Moving ideas and changing their relationships can be done by dragging and dropping, and additional associative links between ideas can be created. Contextual labels can also be added. The doodles can be exported to an Office document or an image, and the mind map can be kept private or public.
Mind Map Pro has a plugin to build a visual sitemap for your website, allowing you to drag-and-drop pages to edit your site’s structure and rearrange the architecture of your site. It can also connect with WordPress, allowing you to stay on track with tasks from your dashboard. You can add tasks from your dashboard or directly from a post or page.
Overall, Mind Map Pro is a versatile tool that can help you explore your ideas in different ways.
MindMup
MindMup – A frictionless online mind map creation tool.
MindMup is an easy-to-use online mind-mapping tool. You can create mind maps for free without registering and export your mind maps as images or an outline document.
The free version offers a number of customizable features but limited capacity. The paid version options includes many additional features and increased capabilities.
MindMeister
MindMeister
MindMeister is a web-based collaborative mind mapping tool with a range of powerful features and versatile tools to help you organize, plan and execute your projects.
MindMeister lets you easily create to-do lists, website planning sheets, and arrange team assignments. The app also allows you to share the workspace online or via mobile devices like Android and iOS, and create email reminders for tasks.
Collaboration is made easy with MindMeister’s cloud-based platform. The “Opinions” feature, lets you get feedback from your team in real-time. Collaborators can vote “yay” or “nay” to individual nodes in your shared mind map and you can divvy up the work via drag-and-drop if you use MeisterTask to manage your projects.
MindMeister offers several different plans and a range of premade templates to help guide you in getting started with your own mind map. The free basic plan supports up to three mind maps at no cost. If you need more and additional features like including multiple users, custom themes, branding, multiple admins, custom domains, or group sharing, then you’ll need to upgraid to one of its paid plans.
MindNode
MindNode
MindNode is a popular and easy-to-use and versatile mind-mapping software available for Mac and Apple iOS devices. It offers a simple and intuitive user interface, which makes it a great option for both beginners and experienced users. With quick entry features, you can start creating your mind map within seconds, allowing you to capture your ideas and thoughts on the go.
One of the best things about MindNode is that it allows you to create simple or elaborate mind maps, making it perfect for brainstorming sessions or organizing your daily tasks. You can even use it to set priorities, make to-do lists, or create annual goals. And with its syncing capability with Apple Watch, iPad, or iPhone, you can access your mind maps on the go, no matter where you are.
MindNode also offers import/export features, which make it an ideal tool to integrate with your workflow. With the ability to attach images, links, and files to your mind map, you can easily visualize and organize your ideas in one central location. And with the ability to fold nodes and use focus mode, you can easily manage complex mind maps without getting lost in the details.
Xmind
A mind map from Xmind’s mind map gallery.
Xmind is a powerful mind-mapping software that offers a range of features to create clear, concise, and customizable mind maps for brainstorming ideas, managing a project, or simply organizing your thoughts. It’s available for Mac, Windows, and iOS.
One of the key features of XMind is the Zen mode, which allows you to focus on a single mind map without any distractions. This feature is especially useful for when you need to concentrate on your thoughts and ideas without any external interference. In addition, XMind also has an equation feature that lets you add mathematical and chemical equations to your mind maps.
With XMind, you have access to a wide range of mind map templates that are designed to suit various needs. The multi-branch colors also help you to identify different nodes, making it easy to navigate your mind maps.
XMind allows you to protect your mind map files with passwords, ensuring that your data is safe and secure. It offers a smooth workflow, responsive graphics engine, distraction-free mode, and all the basic features you need to create and format mind maps. You can also export your mind maps as PNG, PDF, or markdown files, which makes sharing and collaborating with others easy. The mobile app for iOS and Android devices is also available, allowing you to work on your mind maps while on the go.
XMind lets you create mind maps easily using just the keyboard, and there are plenty of formatting options available. The themes and templates are attractive and allow you to jump-start your mind map. XMind also provides a range of useful project management and reference features, including task-based icons, adding notes and file attachments, and hyperlinks to web pages and mind map nodes. The Pro version adds even more features.
XMind is a subscription-based app for personal use, which may not suit everyone. Additionally, there is no cloud sync between devices.
Miro
Miro
Miro is a collaborative online whiteboarding platform that includes a mind mapping feature. The mind mapping software allows you to visually organize and connect ideas in a non-linear format, making it easy to brainstorm, plan projects, and solve problems.
With Miro, you can create and customize mind maps with text, images, and icons, and collaborate in real-time with other team members. The platform also includes features such as comments, voting, and tagging, which make it easy to gather feedback and keep track of important ideas.
Miro is designed for use by teams of all sizes, and can be integrated with a variety of other tools and platforms to streamline workflow and boost productivity.
Coggle
Coggle
Coggle is a web-based mind mapping tool that lets you map out complex processes, connect related ideas, and visualize information with intuitive controls and features for creating, sharing, and collaboration.
Coggle’s drag-and-drop interface lets you add images and text anywhere on the canvas to annotate and organize your map. The software’s advanced features give you complete control over connection paths and styles, enabling you to create loops, join branches, and add multiple central items as starting points to map related topics together in one workspace.
With real-time collaboration and a built-in chat tool, Coggle is a great tool for teams to communicate and co-create diagrams simultaneously, without the need to log in. Plus, Coggle’s change history feature automatically saves all changes, so you can revert to a previous version from any point.
Coggle works seamlessly with Google services, making it easy to share files and collaborate with colleagues using Google accounts. Its template gallery also provides access to pre-built, customizable templates for setting SMART targets, root cause analysis, meeting notes, and more.
While Coggle’s web app interface does not offer all the full-featured native apps’ capabilities, such as themes, images, presentation, and brainstorming mode, its simple and intuitive design, floating text and images, and lively color scheme make it a cool and fun tool to work with. You can even use your smartphone to create or edit mind maps on the go.
Map Out Some Mind-Blowing Web Development
Mind-mapping is a flexible and adaptable tool that can help your web development business in many ways… from note-taking and brainstorming new ideas for websites and content creation to project planning, problem-solving, and decision-making.
There are various tools available to help you create mind maps that will speed up your web development, make your work more efficient, and help you communicate your ideas to clients more easily.
We hope this article has inspired you to expand your mind and map out new approaches to building a better web development business.
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A special thank you to Lucas from ON|Data Marketing for his contribution to this post. ON|Data helps companies to position themselves professionally and creatively on the internet through WordPress websites.
