As an entrepreneur in the digital age, the term “online marketing” is almost inevitable. It’s a key strategy for growing your business, making your brand visible, and expanding your customer base. But what does online marketing actually mean? What exactly does it mean and how can you apply it? We take you on a journey through the landscape of online marketing. Definition of Online Marketing Online marketing, also known as digital marketing, is the art and science of promoting products or services through digital channels, primarily on the internet. Think of your own website or webshop, social media and search engines. The ultimate goal is to sell these products and services by influencing the behavior of internet users and addressing the right people. But it goes beyond just selling. Choosing the right online channels to reach your goals is an essential part of the strategy. These goals can vary: you can aim for more brand awareness, a larger number of visitors, strengthening customer loyalty, or increasing conversion (from visitors to customers). The different types of online marketing SEA SEA stands for Search Engine Advertising. Let’s take Google as an example: Google Ads is Google’s advertising platform where you pay to display your ads above the search results. Google Ads lets you target specific keywords that are relevant to your business, so your ads are visible to people who are actively searching for what you have to offer. SEO and SEO Copywriting Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a method of optimizing your website to appear higher in Google search results organically, i.e. unpaid. It is a technique in which you design and optimize your website in such a way that it is attractive to search engines. SEO-copywriting is een specifiek aspect van SEO. Hierbij schrijf je websiteteksten die zowel interessant zijn voor je bezoekers als voor zoekmachines. Deze balans tussen menselijke interesse en zoekmachine-optimalisatie is cruciaal om een effectieve boodschap over te brengen, het vertrouwen van je publiek te winnen en hoger te ranken in zoekmachines. Conversie Optimalizatian Conversion optimization is the process of improving your website to increase the chances of converting visitors into customers. This can be done, for example, by improving the user-friendliness of your site, simplifying the checkout process, or making your offers more attractive. Contentmarketing Content marketing is about creating and distributing valuable, relevant content in a strategic way. Instead of pushing your product directly, you create content that fulfills the needs of your (potential) customer. It’s a way to build a relationship with your audience, showcase your brand personality, and establish your authority in your niche. Linkbuilding Link building is part of SEO: the process of getting links from external websites to your website. These links give your website more SEO value, giving you more authority on certain keywords in Google and reaching higher positions in the search results. Remarketing and Display Advertising Remarketing is a technique where you remind previous visitors to your site of your brand, hoping to encourage them to convert. This can be done, for example, with text and image advertisements on external websites. Display advertising gaat over online reclame maken met tekst- of visuele banners op websites die door je doelgroep worden bezocht. Dit kan dienen om extra focus te leggen op je merk of een specifieke aanbieding. Social Media Marketing Social media marketing is a form of online marketing that mainly focuses on creating and sharing content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. While the focus is often more on building brand awareness and interaction than direct sales, social media can be a powerful tool for reaching and engaging your target audience. E-mailmarketing Email marketing is the process of sending targeted messages to an email list with the aim of enticing customers to make a repeat or first purchase. It is a direct and personal form of marketing that, if used properly, can be very effective. Als je op reis gaat door het landschap van online marketing, vergeet dan niet dat het essentieel is om je strategie aan te passen aan je unieke bedrijfsdoelen en doelgroep. Het succes ligt in de details en de strategische keuzes. Online marketing is crucial in today’s business. It includes promoting products or services over the internet with the aim of influencing and converting internet users. However, it goes beyond just selling. With online marketing you consciously select the right channels that contribute to your business goals. These goals can range from increasing brand awareness and traffic to strengthening customer loyalty and increasing conversion. One of the most prominent methods is SEA, the most famous of course being Google Ads, where you pay to display your ads above the search results. Here you target specific keywords that are relevant to your company. This way your advertisements are visible to people who are actively looking for your offer. Another important strategy is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO is optimizing your website to rank higher in Google’s unpaid search results. SEO copywriting is a specific aspect of this. It is about writing website texts that are attractive to both visitors and search engines. The process of improving your website to increase the chances of visitors becoming customers is called conversion optimization. Content marketing, on the other hand, focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to meet the needs of your (potential) customer. Link building is also an essential part of online marketing and SEO, where you try to get links from external websites to your website. This increases the SEO value of your website and gives you more authority on certain keywords in Google. Remarketing and Display Advertising are techniques to remember and promote your brand. With remarketing you remind previous visitors of your brand to encourage them to convert, while with display advertising you advertise online with text or visual banners on other websites. Social Media Marketing and Email Marketing are methods of creating interaction and communicating directly with your customers. Social media marketing focuses on building brand

You’ve probably experienced it: you click on a link, wait… and wait… and finally click away because the website loads too slowly. Did you know that a slow website is not only frustrating for visitors, but also detrimental to your business? Research shows that visitors drop out en masse with every second of extra loading time. In addition, the speed of your website also affects your SEO ranking. Google values fast websites and rewards them with a higher position in the search results. In this blog post we share our knowledge and take a closer look at slow loading times of WordPress sites, the causes and what you can do about it. Attention! this article is quite technical at times and requires a basic knowledge of web techniques such as html, css, javascript and networking. Determine if your site loads fast enough You can of course press refresh on your PC or smartphone to get an idea of whether your site is fast enough, but that is not really a standard way or controlled environment. Your connection speed and local cache of your device will strongly influence the results. No, it is better to use an external tool that immediately gives you insight into what is happening. An important tool is of course Google’s Pagespeed Insights. Although this tool sometimes cuts corners when it comes to handing out penalties, it is of course Google that calls the shots when it comes to your score in the search results. If you want to go into more detail, we are fans of webpagetest.org. This site gives you 300 test runs per month for free and shows you relevant statistics and a waterfall diagram of your web page rendering. We ran the test again on our homepage, which scored well for a few months and noticed that a number of adjustments did not work very well. Is this all a bit too technical? Don’t stress, go straight to the next bit and we’ll shift gears there. With this waterfall you can see exactly how your page is loaded We notice two things in the above waterfall: first, the loading of the hero image (the one of the landscape) takes quite a long time (almost 2 sec), although it is loaded from the Jetpack CDN. So using a smaller image seems appropriate. The use of the new Google Tag Manager also has its drawbacks: we only see the cookieyes script load after the Google Tag Manager script has been downloaded and executed. But yes, that way we are in order with the GDPR. Another tool that you can use, which is also a bit less technical to interpret, is Pingdom. He also says there is work to be done. Why is my site loading slow? Ok, you’ve determined that your site isn’t loading as fast as you’d hoped after all. With the tools from the previous paragraph you can find out where the problem lies. Below are some common culprits of a slow website. Computing power and memory Most websites run on so-called ‘shared servers’, sometimes thousands of websites run on these machines. To prevent 1 website from influencing the others, resources, i.e. computing power, memory and access to hard disk, are limited. If your hosting package does not have enough resources, your site may respond very slowly, especially when heavy plugins such as WooCommerce and Elementor are active. You notice this by long times ‘time to first byte’, because the server on which your website runs needs a lot of time to execute all PHP files, the language in which WordPress is written, due to those limited resources. Too many plugins Yes, plugins are fun and they offer many new features. But too much is too much. All these plugins provide extra files that all have to be read and executed, the so-called parsing of the PHP scripts. WordPress may be the Swiss army knife and world leader in Content Management Systems (CMS), but it’s not exactly the best in class in terms of efficiency and speed. Well, life is made of compromises. Fortunately, by selecting plugins the way a foodie chooses restaurants, you can keep speed and overhead under control. Bad configuration Poor configuration of plugins, WordPress itself or conflicts between plugins can also cause time loss. Properly configuring media files is also crucial. Even simple things like disabling wp-cron (that’s a script that performs tasks periodically) and having it called by a real cron job can save seconds. How do I make my WordPress site faster? Dit is wat je wil zien (Pagespeed Insights) Infrastructure The simplest solution is to add more computing power and computing power. As Jeremy Clarkson often says: “more speed and power”. Sometimes it is simply necessary, especially in the case of webshops where more resources are often needed to go through complex filtering and search functionality. How exactly you proceed to get more resources depends on your hosting provider. In some cases it is even necessary to put your website on dedicated hosting or with a cloud provider. At Stormlabs we use Web-oké’s ‘power hosting’. This is more than sufficient for the more complex webshop or website. An upgrade to the hosting environment can mean the difference between a site that loads instantly and one that leaves visitors frustrated and clicking the back button. Keep in mind that many budget solutions for web hosting are very limited in resources and you will therefore quickly run into a wall. Use caching The use of caching is a widespread technique and probably the solution with the most impact on speed. On the one hand we have client-side caching, where certain elements of your website are stored locally on the visitor’s device. This means that on subsequent visits, much of the necessary information is already available on the device itself (such as images) and does not have to be retrieved from the server again, which can significantly speed up the loading time. On the other hand, you have server-side

A website is an essential part of the digital face of your company. But just as a physical store incurs costs for maintenance, light, heat and adjustments, there are also ongoing costs associated with owning a website and maintaining a website, if you want it to remain efficient. These costs vary depending on several factors, including the complexity of your site, traffic, and your specific needs. On our site you will find transparent prices for websites, adjustments and maintenance. But we think an extra blog post is in order to explain the costs of running a website and how you can make this investment pay off. Hosting Hosting is one of the most important costs of a website. These are the costs of putting your website on the internet and keeping it available for your visitors. Depending on the size of your website and the amount of traffic it generates, hosting pricing may vary. At Stormlabs, the costs of hosting are included in the maintenance contract. The hosting is in fact the rental price for the server, which is located at the web hosting company, on which the software runs that executes the scripts (including WordPress) and puts your website on the screen. The more bells and whistles your website has, the more computing power and memory this server needs to run your website smoothly. So don’t miss out on the discount packages that you can find online and run your website for a few euros per month or even less! These packages often have insufficient computing power and memory to run a WordPress website. At Stormlabs we have been working with Web-oké since 2014, this Dutch web host provides us with excellent service and attaches great importance to sustainability. What? Keep your website onlineHow many? Monthly cost: € 10 – 25 Updates To keep your website running smoothly and up to date with the latest technologies and security standards, regular updates are necessary. The cost for these updates may vary depending on the complexity of the updates and the frequency with which they are required. That is why this cost is also included in your maintenance contract with us, so no one will be faced with surprises. One month there is a little more work, the next a little less. The updates are probably the biggest expense when running a website with a CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress. Although WordPress has made the update process very simple in 2023, it must be performed at least every two weeks. For major updates, a backup should be made first. Afterwards we have to retest certain functionality. Unfortunately, it also happens that certain layout problems are caused by an error in a new version? Then why update at all? Via updates you not only get new functionalities, but you also keep hackers out. Vulnerabilities are often discovered and fixed in updates. Due to the popularity of WordPress, such websites also attract people with less good intentions. So why choose WordPress? You can read that here. What? Update pluginsMonthly cost: € 50, count on a multiple when an update causes a problem. Secure Updating is part of securing, but the story doesn’t stop there. Protecting your website from malware, hackers and other threats is essential to ensure the safety of your data and that of your customers. Besides hijacking your homepage, you also don’t want to make the news about how your customer data got into the hands of hackers. By the way, did you know that according to the GDPR legislation you must take adequate measures to protect the data of your customers? At Stormlabs, we have several lines of defense against hackers. The first is Cloudflare, a service that stands between the visitors and the website itself. The second layer is a security plugin on WordPress that stops attempts to break in and notifies us when we need to perform an urgent update. The third layer is the anti-virus/anti-malware tool that our web host has been using on all its servers since 2023. We can proudly say that not a single site has been hacked since 2014. But unfortunately we have had to intervene a few times to avoid this. What? Secure your website against hackersMonthly cost: € 0, as long as nothing happens… Adjustments Your business is alive and so should your website. New texts, optimization, adding new realizations, new photos, opening hours, you name it. As your business grows and changes, you may want to update or improve your website to keep it aligned with your brand and business goals. This also involves work. You can certainly do certain things yourself, WordPress is certainly user-friendly enough for that. But to relieve our customers, we carry out up to 4 smaller adjustments per month, included in our “Performance & Security” maintenance contract. What? Make changes to your websiteMonthly cost: depending on the adjustments. Count on an hourly rate of € 50 – 75 SEO & SEA Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Advertising (SEA) are two crucial aspects of your website’s online visibility. SEO makes your website easy to find by search engines, while SEA focuses on paid advertising that makes your site more prominent in search results. Costs for SEO and SEA can vary greatly depending on your goals, the competition in your industry, and the specific strategies you use. At Stormlabs we know better than anyone which strategy suits your company & objectives. Technically, it is not a necessary cost to keep your website in good shape, but we mention it here anyway. What? Be found in search engines and attract visitorsMonthly cost: Varies enormously. An average SEO & SEA package can cost € 2000 per month. Although it is difficult to determine an exact monthly cost for a website due to the many variables, we can say that managing a website is an ongoing investment. Whether you’re just starting to build a website or looking for ways to improve your existing site, it’s important

For several years, web shops have become indispensable for entrepreneurs who want to sell their products or services successfully. Opening an online store offers numerous advantages over a physical store, including cost savings and flexibility. In this article we discuss why starting a webshop in 2023 is a smart move, with a focus on the most important financial benefits. No heating costs or electricity costs While physical stores have to spend significant amounts of money to heat their premises during cold months, online stores don’t have this problem. This means that as a webshop owner you have more money to invest in other aspects of your business, such as marketing, inventory management or improving the user experience of your website. Physical stores often use a lot of electricity for lighting, security systems and electronic equipment. Online stores, on the other hand, have much lower electricity costs as most of the energy is consumed by the servers hosting the website. This results in extra cost savings that you can use to further grow your webshop. Save on rental costs Unlike traditional retail stores, which often pay high rents for commercial properties in prime locations, online stores can be operated from the comfort of your own home or small office. By not paying rent for an expensive retail property, you can save significantly on operating costs and increase your profit margin. You can simply store your products in your own home, garage box or another cheap location. Convenience for customers Online shopping has become the preferred option for many people due to the ease and speed of purchasing products. By starting an online store, you offer your customers the opportunity to shop at any time of the day or night, without leaving their home. This improves the customer experience and can lead to higher customer retention and repeat purchases. Easy inventory management Managing the stock of a physical store can be time consuming and complicated. Webshops, on the other hand, use advanced inventory management systems that make tracking inventory and processing orders easier. This helps you work more efficiently and save time that you can spend on other important aspects of your business. With a webshop you can make inventory management easier and more accurate. You can use real-time inventory and inventory management systems to track inventory status and receive alerts when inventory is low. This ensures that you never sell more than what is in stock and that you don’t disappoint customers by selling out of stock products. Moreover, a webshop also offers the possibility to accept backorders. This means that customers can still order products that are currently out of stock, but which will be delivered later once stock is replenished. Low start-up costs Setting up an online store usually requires lower start-up costs compared to opening a physical store. There are plenty of affordable e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify, Squarespace, WooCommerce  that you can use to set up your online store quickly and easily. This means that you can start and grow your business with a relatively small investment. Flexibility Another advantage of starting an online store is the flexibility it offers. You can easily adapt and expand your business as demand grows, without the need for additional physical space. A webshop also enables you to easily add new products and services to your offer, without having to invest in extra space or resources. You can quickly respond to changing trends and the needs of your customers, and make your business scalable without being constrained by physical constraints. This offers many opportunities for growth and can help to differentiate your webshop from competitors in the market. Greater range With a webshop you are no longer limited to customers in your immediate vicinity. Instead, you can offer products and services to people all over the world, significantly increasing your potential customer base. This gives you the opportunity to grow your business and take advantage of new markets. Moreover, by using online marketing tools and social media, you can easily promote your webshop and increase the reach of your business, which can result in more traffic, conversions and profit. 24/7 open  A webshop is open 24/7, which means that customers can make purchases at any time of the day, even during the holidays and outside regular shopping hours. This offers great convenience to customers, especially those who work during the regular opening hours of brick-and-mortar stores.This offers a lot of convenience and flexibility for customers and can result in more sales for the webshop. Starting a webshop in 2023 is an excellent idea, especially from a financial point of view. By saving on rental, heating and electricity costs, you can invest more in growing your business and remain competitive in the dynamic online market. Take advantage of the benefits of e-commerce and start planning your webshop today!

In 2023, an effective online presence is critical to the success of any business. A professional website can help your business stand out in the competitive online marketplace. In this article we discuss the importance of having a website made, with a focus on four important aspects: tailored design, SEO optimization, fast loading time and security. Custom design a unique and attractive online presenceA custom design ensures that your website is unique, attractive and user-friendly. It helps your business stand out from the competition and leave a lasting impression on visitors. A well-designed website provides an optimal user experience, making customers more likely to return and purchase your products or services. SEO optimization better visibility and higher search engine rankingsSearch Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential to make your website more visible in search engines such as Google. A well-optimized website attracts more organic traffic, which leads to a higher conversion rate and more sales. Stormlabs ensures that your website is optimized for search engines, using the latest SEO techniques and strategies. Fast loading time better user experience and higher conversionsThe loading time of a website is a crucial factor for both user experience and search engine rankings. A slow website can lead to a higher bounce rate and lower conversions. Stormlabs ensures that your website loads quickly by optimizing images and code, and by using the latest technologies and server configurations. Safety protection of customer data and company informationSecurity is an essential aspect of any website, especially if you handle customer data or sensitive business information. A secure website protects your business from cyber-attacks and ensures customer data is safe. Stormlabs takes security measures. From the default mandatory HTTPS connection to installing a full firewall to keep your site safe from hackers and bots. Having a professional website created is an investment that pays for itself by helping your business grow and compete in the digital world. A website with a custom design, SEO optimization, fast loading time and the necessary security ensures a better online presence, attracts more visitors and increases the chance of conversion and revenue growth. By partnering with us, you can ensure that your website meets these crucial aspects and takes your business to the next level. Customizability and scalability A professionally created website is easier to customize and expand as your business grows. We provide flexibility in the design and architecture of your website so you can easily add new features, update content and expand your offerings without major overhauls or technical issues. Support and maintenance Regularly maintaining and updating your website is crucial to avoid technical issues and keep your online presence relevant. We often offer support and maintenance packages to keep your website running smoothly, secure and up-to-date with the latest technologies and trends. Analysis and optimization A well-designed website allows you to analyze your visitors’ behavior and adjust your marketing strategies accordingly. By using analytical tools such as Google Analytics, you can gain insight into where your visitors come from, which pages they visit and how long they stay on your website. This valuable information can help you to further optimize your website and make your marketing efforts more effective. GDPR GDPR compliance is essential to ensure the privacy of your website visitors and maintain customer trust. We specialize in implementing GDPR-compliant solutions, such as cookie policies and data processing agreements. By working with us, you minimize the risk of fines and legal problems. Protect your business and your customers by investing in GDPR compliant web design.   Having a website made by professionals is of great importance to compete in today’s digital market. With a custom design, SEO optimization, fast loading time, secure access and other important aspects, your company can enjoy a strong online presence, a growing customer base and an increase in sales. Invest in the future of your business by choosing a professionally designed website that meets all these crucial requirements.

1. Why choose WordPress in 2023 Why WordPress in 2023? WordPress has been with us for a while, with first versions in 2003, and the first stable version in 2004. In IT terms, this is an eternity. Who can still imagine what the web looked like in 2004? Why still choose WordPress in 2023, is WordPress not a dinosaur and is in danger of extinction, as is the underlying technology stack? Aren’t there better solutions available today ? Why choose WordPress in 2023? “I read a lot about Wix, Shopify or Squarespace, where I can just build my own website?”, you might think. In this article we explain why we still choose WordPress or Woocommerce for our websites in most cases. Have you already invested in another technology or product? No stress, we are not averse to other technologies. Disclaimer: The products discussed below are constantly evolving, so it is possible that certain advantages or disadvantages described below are no longer 100% correct by the time you read this. Do you notice that something is not right? Then let us know. Inhoud Introduction WordPress in 2023 What are the alternatives to WordPress in 2023 Wix Squarespace Shopify Drupal Why choose WordPress? Why choosing Stormlabs is a sustainable choice 2. WordPress in 2023 WordPress has been transformed over the years from a simple blog software to a complete Content Management System with all conceivable functionalities. In 20 years, it has firmly held the absolute leading position as website software. An estimated 810 million websites will run on WordPress in 2023. That’s 34% of the internet! As a CMS, it has about 62% market share! Thanks to a combination of user-friendliness, functionality and extensibility, it is the perfect choice to build a website with. And above all, WordPress software is open-source and free! However, this also has disadvantages: Due to the large market share, WordPress is of course also in the spotlight with hackers and people with less good intentions. Where the basic functionality of WordPress ends, the plugins begin. These plugins, both free and paid, extend the functionality of WordPress. Think for example of a booking system, forms, members module, search engine integration and so on. There is a plugin for just about every conceivable function. Does it not exist? For example, do you have a very specific need for certain functionality? Then it can be custom made by a WordPress developer, as we do at Stormlabs. 3. WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace vs Shopify vs Drupal Stormlabs has been making websites since 2014, before that also in student employment. In that time we have worked with different technologies. Drupal, WordPress and just PHP and HTML/CSS development. WordPress turned out to be the winner after a few years, in terms of ease of use and the time it takes to make a good site. But in recent years, website builders such as Squarespace and Wix have emerged. These builders allow you to do everything yourself as a layman. You don’t need to know anything about code, servers, hosting, etc. Telecom operators and web hosting companies also often offer their own builders these days. We will not make a detailed comparison below between the different features and plans of these players, that would lead us too far, but they do have one thing in common: you build a website with their tools and software, which runs on their environment, with all advantages and disadvantages associated with this, for as long as you pay (monthly). It is a closed system, which is called SaaS, Software as a Service, or in this case, Website as a Service. This in contrast to the more hands-on approach when we use WordPress, Drupal, Joomla! or start using another open-source system. In this way we will run the code ourselves on a server. This brings more responsibility, but also much more freedom. You run your own version of the code, so you can decide for yourself which functionality you use and you can adjust almost everything to your own liking. This code is also ‘portable’, you can easily switch to another service provider or hosting without having to start again. For example, are you not satisfied with your payment provider? Then you can easily switch to another. Do you need a very specific application for your business? Then this approach can be perfectly tailored. 3.1 Wix We’ll start with Wix, one of the most popular ‘website as a service’ platforms of the moment. Anyone can build a website quickly and easily on this platform, no technical knowledge required. Everything is done via a drag-and-drop interface and Wix takes care of the rest. In exchange for a monthly fee, your website is hosted on top of the Wix platform. Depending on which functionalities you want, you pay more or less each month. If you want search engine optimization or analytics, you pay extra for this, if you want to have payments made through your site, you pay for this at… At Wix, at the time of writing this article, you pay between € 5.5 and € 44 per month, depending on the options you want. Of course, you still have to add the cost price for developing the site, unless you are going to do this yourself. What Wix excels at is the ease with which you can launch a site, even without design experience. Among other things, there is an AI tool that generates a theme for your site based on a few questions and answers. Certainly useful for companies and individuals who do not yet have a corporate identity or design in mind. Be careful, because once you have chosen a theme, you cannot change it afterwards! Speaking of themes, there are over 800 themes to choose from. That sounds like a lot, but there are more than 10,000 themes available for WordPress, although they are not all of the same quality. We also read that many themes are a bit dated compared to other services such