Event tracking in Google Tag Manager is one of the most powerful and useful things that you could be doing with the Google Tag Manager platform.  In this episode, I'll cover what is event tracking, why you should be doing it, and how to set it up with Google Tag Manager.  Link to YouTube episode:&nbsp;https://youtu.be/bQ1UNJNKXLM

Google Tag Manager: Event Tracking in GTM for Google Analytics

In this episode of the Web3 Marketing Debate Show, we talk eCommerce. Arguably the two biggest platforms in eCommerce are WooCommerce and Shopify.   We'll assess both platforms from the perspective of small to medium businesses who are considering setting up an eCommerce website or needing to add eCommerce to an existing one.   Which platform is the best one for selling physical and digital product and which one is better suited for small to medium business. Listen ahead and we will share our insights in this eCommerce episode. Let the debate begin! WooCommerce VS Shopify Episode show notes   James: Hey everyone. Welcome to the Web3 Marketing debate show. I am your co-host, James Banks   Joseph: and I'm your co-host Joseph Chesterton.   James: And today we'll be weighing in to an all time heavyweight debate, which is WooCommerce versus Shopify.   Which one is better? I will be taking the Shopify ring of the corner in this debate.   Joseph: and obviously I'm on the WooCommerce side.   James: All right, Well, without further ado, let's start. So, which one is better for selling physical products? WooCommerce or Shopify? What's your opinion, Joe?   Joseph: Okay, so first of all, WooCommerce. It's built on WordPress. It has a huge open source community made by the people that actually build WordPress whereas Shopify. It's all closed source and you can't actually modify your website to the exact needs that you require, whereas WooCommerce you can.   To actually sell physical products. It's a seamless integration with your website. Selling physical products on your website is an end to end solution. It starts from customer coming to your website. Your products are listed on your website, not on a third party platform. The customer chooses the products they wanted buy, clicks add to cart. Person puts in their payment details and is able to pay on your website using payment gateways that you choose.   If you're selling products that are physical products then you're obviously going to need shipping. So WooCommerce integrates really well with all the major shipping providers. With WooCommerce you can list an almost infinite number of physical products. Each product has its own product page with all the info that you would expect: description, gallery, variations and so forth.   So yes, it's a very good platform for selling physical products.   James: So you mention community. I mean, Shopify has probably one of the most, if not the most passionate community of eCommerce merchants in the world over 700,000 of them. Yeah okay, I might agree with you that there's more individual WooCommerce sites per se than Shopify. Data speaking, that is the truth. But are they active in the market? Are they passionately commerce, business people that are there to help each other out?   I think a big part of it is the difference between open source versus close source, particularly around selling digital products, is Shopify has everything you need to do to basically get an online store to sell physical products up and running within five minutes or less. Good luck trying to do that with WooCommerce. You're going to be there for a lot longer, trying to figure out the right themes, trying to figure out the right plugin mix to make it work.   And on top of that, you have also vulnerability. That open source has versus a close source. Secure platform, like Shopify does not have as much.   So that's my point of view why Shopify is superior for selling physical products online. What's your counter argument to that?   Joseph: Well, all platforms can be compromised, the fact, that it is a huge community building. The platform means that it's peer review, whereas who knows with Shopify, maybe it would be hacked in a second if someone just did some sort of exploit on the system.   Okay, moving on. So it's clear that both platforms can sell physical products, but not everyone needs to sell physical products. What about digital products... James?   James: Well...

Woocommerce Vs Shopify: Which one to use for your eCommerce website

In this episode of the Web3 Marketing debate show, James and Joseph cover the best form of online marketing return on investment for your website. Its  vs   facing off back to back.   James is on the Google Ads side and Joseph is covering all things SEO and why SEO is better for small to medium businesses.   Who do you think wins this debate? What is the best marketing ROI for your business? Is Search Engine Optimisation or Google Ads Pay per click the better option for your website? Let the debate begin!   SEO VS Google Ads episode show notes   James: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the the marketing debate show. We've got an absolute fire starter of an episode today. An age old, old as digital marketing, old as the history of digital marketing debate SEO versus Google ads. Which one is better? we'll be debating that today. I'm your co-host James Banks.   Joseph: and I'm your co-host Joseph Chesterton.   James: And I'll be taking the Google ads side off the debate.   So without further ado, let's kick things off. I'll throw the question to Joseph. So Joseph out of Google ads and SEO. Why is SEO better than Google ads for small to medium businesses? Why is it better?   Joseph: Okay, well, firstly, Search Engine Optimisation is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to your website. Now that we got that out of the way, with SEO it is far longer lasting than paid ads. With paid ads you have to keep putting money in to keep your ranking in wherever it is the ad is being positioned, whereas with SEO, you do the work and maintain it with, if done right with minimal effort, and it lasts almost infinitely.   SEO works best with your marketing strategies, so as you're creating content and marketing to your audience. If you do SEO correctly, then the pages that you want to rank and your website will rank really well, and will stay in front of your target keywords and audience that you're trying to get in front of.   So with SEO, there's a formula to it but as long as you follow the formula, then you will get the best results long term for spend, whereas with Google ads, it's based on cost per click and the more money you put in, then the more clicks that you get. But that's not always the best solution for businesses a lot of the time.   Where does it actually end? If you have to keep putting money in to be positioned where you want to be positioned, why don't you just use SEO to get there and stay there?   James: Well, it shouldn't end as long as it's making the business money. That's the bottom line. And here's the thing is because SEO takes time. You don't just snap your fingers and you're automatically at the top of Google search. It doesn't work like that. Google ads, however, allows you to be at the top of search by simply paying your way there.   The businesses don't have to wait. And let's face it, small to medium businesses are often in a rush. We need to grow. We need to get more leads. We need to get more sales. We need to get more people to our website. And that's why Google ads gives you the facility to get in front of your audience for the keywords that they're searching for that you select that you control.   Yes, there's a paid factor to it. But you can start getting people to your website immediately and start turning that traffic into leads into sales as long as you know what you're doing and you doing it right.   SEO is like the turtle, you have to wait for it. And some businesses don't have the time to wait. They need to hit the market right now. So with that said though, you mentioned earlier before about Google ads isn't necessarily the right solution, or is SEO the right solution for every business. I agree. But why would SEO be better than Google ads to start with Joseph?   Joseph: Well, the thing is, SEO, it lasts far longer than Google Ads does by having to put money in to get yourself ranking, whereas, of course, SEO will cost money but once you are ranking...

SEO VS Google Ads: What is better for business

In this episode of the Web3 Marketing Debate Show, James and Joseph debate whether you should use paid social media or non-paid/organic social media. James is on the paid social media side and Joseph is on the non-paid side.   Should you use social media to grow your brand, gain new customers and build your business faster? Obviously we know the answer is yes but is it best to use paid or non-paid methods? Find out what Web3 think in episode four of this great marketing debate.   Paid vs organic social media episode show notes   James: Hello, everyone and welcome to another episode of the marketing debate show. I'm your co-host James Banks.   Joseph: And I'm your co-host Joseph Chesterton.   James: And today we will be debating another red hot subject, which is non paid social media versus paid social media. So I'll be taking the paid social media side of the ring, and Joseph will be taking the non-paid organic social media side.   Well, without further ado, let's start the debate. So, Joseph, what out of the two out of paid social media verses non-paid social media, why is non-paid or organic social media work better than paid social media?   Why is that working the best right now of the too? What's your opinion?   Joseph: The thing is, with social networks, they rely on content. So if you're creating content, then obviously that content is what they require. Non paid or organic social media content is number one because the platforms rely on users using the platform to then market to.   Yeah of course, there's sponsored or paid posts on social media, but without non paid social content, then the platform simply won't work because it would just be a whole bunch of ads, and that's it. Obviously you have to go to the right platform and your business can reach an infinite number of people on social media.   Obviously, they need to go the right platform like, for example TikTok, that's best for millennials and Facebook, possibly the older demographic as well as young.   As long as you're content appeals to the audience that you are targeting, then they will engage with it. They'll like, they'll share and they'll subscribe, and then eventually obviously, sell whatever it is you're selling, as long as the content that you're creating is engaging and people are interacting and liking your content, then algorithms will like that and show more of your content so you don't actually need to then pay to keep your rankings or keep your brand in front of the customers that you're targeting.   That's why non-paid social media is what's best right now. Obviously, you've got your opinion on paid, James.   James: Joseph. I think you're caught in a time machine in the year 2014 because the fact of the matter is organic reach on Facebook for businesses has been killed and they've killed it on Instagram, and they're killing it now. They're starting to kill it now on Linkedin.   This is how these platforms work. They give heaps of free organic reach. No, you don't have to pay for it. They get everyone using it, everyone loving it. And when they hit a critical mass and an inflection point, then they pull the organic reach plug out of the system, which then forces the people to have to pay for it. Or forces the businesses to pay for it to be taken seriously.   I think the elephant in the room is which one is best for making money. And if you want to use social media to make money, you have to be running paid ads. Relying on organic reach only means that you're going to reach the same, you know, relatively the same amount of audience, with the same amount of message. Growing out and reaching new people at scale, at targeted scale, there's no better or efficient way to do it other than doing it with the paid advertising platforms.   Plus it is what the whole objective, the commercial objective of these social media tools is, too get... Oh how they make money is through their advertising networks. So of course they're going to favour and sort of...

Paid vs Non-paid Social Media: What to use for your business

&nbsp; Episode Transcript James: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Web3 Marketing debate show. I am your co-host James Banks.   Joseph: And I'm your co-host Joseph Chesterton.   James: And today we've got another fire starter of a debate. Landing page software.   What is better? Third party standalone landing page software I.e. ClickFunnels, leadpages. Or is building landing pages in your existing content management system such as WordPress the better way to go? Which one is better?   Before we kick things off, I'll be taking the, do your landing pages in your existing websites content management system side of the debate and Joseph will be backing the why you should use a third party system to do this and keep it separated out.   So, without further ado, let's kick things off. Now, Joseph, I'll let you start. Out of building landing pages in your existing CMS versus building them in a dedicated landing page software. It's the Leadpages, ClickFunnels, so on and so forth. Why is building it in a dedicated landing page software tool better than just building it in your existing website system?   Joseph: Well, it all comes down to the software being built for purpose. Take WordPress, for example. Its aim is to be able to blog and create website pages for your website. Creating landing pages that are dedicated for purpose and specifically around converting leads into your business. Then, using landing page software that's built for that is far easier to do.   Just the time and cost associated with that. It's far less having things pre-built for you with layouts that have been tried and tested many times over. Not only that, but then being able to track and see what actually is working with the metrics available through the landing page software and then being able to improve on those landing pages that you build. It simply is night and day different to something like doing it yourself in WordPress or any CMS.   So that's why I think the landing page software is a better option. What's your opinion, James?   James: Well, you mentioned that it's going to save you time, and it's going to be easier. It's not. Because here's the thing. You got to learn another a completely new system. A completely new page builder to then create all these landing pages when, if you've already been able to put a site together or you're familiar with your existing websites content management system. Let's just say, for example, it's WordPress. Most people use it. It's the most popular one.   If you can pull together a page in WordPress, then you can create a landing page in it as well. You just have to change the header and the footer and then adjust the body of it to match the intent of what you need it to achieve.   You don't have to go and learn another system. You don't have to pay for another tool. You have to do any complex domain mapping between your existing domain on your existing site to a new one. You have to worry about any of that stuff.   You just create a new page and subtract a couple of elements. That's the easier way to do it. And you don't have to worry about another system to manage its simpler.   Joseph: It sounds too good to be true, James. I'll take your word for it. But at the end of day, which one performs better? Landing page software or WordPress?   James: Okay, let's back up. If you're using landing pages, and if your goal and objective is to use landing pages as part of your digital marketing strategy. Then we can safely assume that conversions and the objective to convert your audience and your traffic into some type of conversion goal. Whether be leads whether that be sales, whether that be opt-ins or whatever it might be, is the primary objective.   So why should that stop at the leading page? Your entire website should be fast. It should be performant. It should be optimised for conversions as opposed to, Okay, let's just have, like, a brochure Ware website. And let's just make the landing pages...

Landing Page Software Vs Building Landing Pages in WordPress

Episode Transcript:  James: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Web3 marking debate show. Today we will be debating content marketing versus SEO.   I'm your co-host, James Banks, and I will be taking the SEO side of the ring.   Joseph: And I'm Joseph Chesterton and I will be taking the content marketing side.   James: All righty, well, let's get the show and debate started. So, Joseph, why does content marketing work better than SEO?   Joseph: Content marketing is focused around creating, publishing and distributing content for a targeted audience online. With SEO, SEO actually can't happen without content marketing. So content marketing is the core for marketing to your audience. You could have the perfectly optimised SEO friendly website, but without content marketing, then what's the point? You're not reaching the people that you want to reach.   So content marketing is clearly the better option.   And on top of that, with content marketing, it's one of the ways to build your brand and to be able to, resonate and grow your audience. And finally on top of that, content marketing, you can see actionable results sooner getting in front of the people where your target market are. Whereas with SEO you have to wait until you've created the content then you can do the optimisations. That's my opinion on it. What's yours, James?   James: Well thanks for concluding the show Joseph, we'll see you all in the next episode. Nah i'm kidding.   Look. Yes content marketing and SEO are similar, but they're not exactly the same thing. They are different. SEO, ok let's say for example, why will you be doing both of these to begin with? Well, you probably the sole purpose is you want to be discovered. You want your target audience to discover you. Discover your website more than what is currently happening. That's why you would do either one of these two exercises.   But here's the thing. You know, content marketing you could be doing videos, audio's, blogging and doing all this stuff and getting it on your website. But if your website is not set up, I.E. the backend, the frontend, the strategy of how your audience is searching to find and discover all of this great content that you're producing If you haven't considered this as part of your traditional SEO strategy, then your content marketing strategy can miss the point. Or you get your content bang on, but because you haven't actually looked and probably audited it and assessed your website from a technical functional UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience) perspective. All of this effort and energy and resources that's going into content marketing gets subdued because of these issues that would of been fixed and solved if you looked at your website from the lens of a traditional SEO campaign.   That's why I believe that SEO is the one that should prelude content marketing because of the fact that, if done correctly, will solve these foundational issues that, once solved, will amplify the results of your content marketing efforts.   Speaking about results Joseph, why would you say? Content marketing produces better results than SEO.   Joseph: I kind of think we're comparing apples with oranges here. One typically starts on the website, then moves into social platforms, whereas the other one is predominantly on your website and moves into other areas. The ROI (Return on investment) is two different things, depending on what your ROI you're targeting.   So content marketing works better when you're building a brand and you're trying to reach an audience that is in a certain location not on your website. So really, we need to determine what the ROI is if it is to grow your business than honestly, I think we can draw on this one.   James: Well, I'm pretty sure this is the marketing debate Show Joseph. So there will be no fence sitting. There will be no drawing. Ha Ha Ha. Because here's the thing, because. Alright, when we talk about results, all right, let me bring back my...

Content Marketing VS SEO: The better one for ROI

Welcome to the eighth episode of Web3 Marketing Debate - an intense debate where we discuss content versus design.&nbsp; The debate of Content versus Design is much like the chicken and the egg scenario - which comes first and which is more important? James and Joseph take on an intense debate on which is more important for a business, particularly on landing pages; the content or design. This opens up various questions about what is more important to your own brand and how you measure success.&nbsp; Poor design can hinder your audience impressions of you, but poorly thought out content is what will break or break a sale. All looks, no leverage. TRANSCRIPT James Banks:Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Web3 Marketing Debate Show. I'm your host, James Banks. Joseph Chesterton:And I'm your host, Joseph Chesterton. James Banks:And today we'll be discussing... We'll be debating more like it, content versus design, which one's better, which one is more valuable. So for this debate, I'll be jumping into the design side of the debate. Joseph Chesterton:I will be on the content side. James Banks:All right, well, let's kick things off. So Joseph, tell me why is content superior or why is it more important for businesses to think about, to spend time, effort, energy and resource in as opposed to design? Joseph Chesterton:Content versus design I would say is almost chicken before the egg. You can't have good design without content. So if we're talking about a website, every page on a website needs content. Sure you can put the design into the website, but without text on the page then it's almost probably going to be useless. I would argue that content is very important for businesses. When people search for your business, they probably go to Google, if they aren't sure of your brand. Google indexes content, it doesn't index your design. So content is what is most important in that aspect for SEO as well, or to rank highly in search. My third point would be content helps people buy. You could have a beautiful design, but without content or actual context of the page by the text, then most likely people won't buy from you. So those are my three points on why content is most important. What do you have to say to that? James Banks:Well, I think it's one of those ones you write about chicken before the egg. How can you craft copy and content when you visually have got no idea what the end outcome is going to look like?&nbsp; I think just to clarify for our listeners, we're talking about in the case of creating a new website or a landing page or something that's going to go online for you to put in front of your audience.&nbsp; It makes it very difficult to be able to contextualise what content you actually need to put on the page when you've got no bearing or understanding of visually how this thing is going to look, or what the application is. I think just going to your point as well on search engine optimization, I don't think you're correct in saying that design isn't a factor, it is. And specifically when we break that down, what is design? It's a great user experience. It's great user interface practices. It's being able to create something that's both appealing and on-brand point, that communicates your brand values.&nbsp; It effectively engages and talks to your audience and pulls them in and magnetises them into one to find out more. And these are the types of things, particularly on the user experience side that Google is actively looking for and policing as part of the algorithm.&nbsp; So design still has its importance of ensuring that not only can you create an effective web experience, but you can also create one that ranks well in search. But ultimately if we look at both content and design, ‘what is more valuable’, why in your opinion do you believe content is more valuable as opposed to design, Joseph? Joseph Chesterton:Well, if you're getting technical on the certain aspects of search, then sure you...

Content Vs Design: Which One is More Valuable For Businesses?

Are you more left-brained or right-brained? This intense debate about Data-driven vs Content Marketing will have your undivided attention (see what I did there?). James and Joseph find out which marketing strategy is more important for your business and why.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It’s often considered a personal preference to each marketer and business, but there are some guidelines for knowing which way you need to go. Data answers the questions of ‘when’, ‘why’ and ‘what’, whereas creativity comes in to play with the ‘how’. But this isn’t always the case.&nbsp; So do you think you’re more of a data director or a creative connoisseur? We’ve done the research, you decide who won you over.&nbsp; Listen in to what we uncover in our intense debate: Data-driven Vs. Creative marketing and what is more beneficial for you. We’d love to hear your thoughts, so let us know who do you agree with in the comments below. Data-driven&nbsp;Marketing Data-driven marketing optimises your brand based on vital information about the customer. This data predicts their needs, desires and behaviours to create insights that aid your ROI. Data-driven marketing emerged with the rise of digitalisation. Before marketers could analyse the online behaviour of their customers, they went primarily on instinct. How times have changed, turning marketing into a quantifiable process. Targeting your audience Insights produced by data turn prospects into buyers. This helps you develop a deeper understanding of who your audience is. Data-driven marketing can then target these demographics that resonate with your brand based on how they interact with you. This is extremely important once you have a following and before you release a big campaign. By understanding how they behave will help not only you but them too. You’re giving them what they want, building rapport and translating that into engagement.&nbsp; Boost &amp; Measure results As well as boosting your return of investment, data also tells you how you’re performing. Informed insights drive your decisions as a marketer, helping you measure and track future results. Data can give you an understanding of your customers’ response to your campaigns to tweak.&nbsp; Marketing is constantly evolving, making it hard to keep up, but a lot easier with data to help. If one strategy isn’t performing well, it is easy to analyse and find an alternative. Consistency It’s hard to say data-driven is more important than creativity, but there is evidence that data-driven marketing should come first, followed by creative execution. Consistently hitting a goal comes from data, as we will say again, numbers don’t lie. Long-term strategies tend to collect and measure then refine data in order to execute marketing at a faster rate. Creativity is beautiful, but if done wrong, it can sometimes be hit and miss. In saying that however, using too much data can lead to limited innovation.&nbsp; Creative Marketing Creative marketing isn’t only thinking outside the box. It involves tactics to leave a memorable and positive experience for prospects. Creative marketing is a big accelerator for brand recognition and long term sales.&nbsp;Creativity is beautiful, but also extremely strategic. Creativity is beautiful, but also extremely strategic - James Banks. Emotions are essential We all make decisions based on our emotions. This is why emotion is extremely powerful when done right. You can have an abundance of data about the time and place to market. But if you don’t have the right, impactful message, you don’t have your sale. Emotion will encourage decision making and push your audience to take action. It is what lets businesses reach milestones in their marketing efforts. When it comes to online engagement, content thrives off shares, clicks and likes. In a fast-paced world, this is exactly what emotion will persuade your audience to do. Your business needs to appeal to your audience’s needs,...

Data-driven Vs. Creative Marketing

This podcast addresses two major marketing strategies: Brand Marketing and Lead Generation. This fiery debate discloses what drives sales faster and what is more beneficial for your small to medium-sized business. Want to get more business but don't know the best way to do so? As a digital marketing company, we come across this question almost every day. Businesses get stuck in the loop of wanting brand awareness but needing the leads and audience to progress. Let us help you make the best decision for your business, stay tuned. Brand Marketing&nbsp; Brand marketing promotes your products or services while highlighting the essence of your business. The goal is to show your business's identity, values, and personality to your audience. Essentially, your brand is the bridge between your product and your customer. Build Brand Awareness Small businesses must build brand awareness and attract customers before lead generation can be successful. Customers won't give out their details if they don't know who you are. Along with brand awareness comes brand reputation. The more people know and talk about your brand, the more likely others will do the same, creating the Butterfly effect. Boosting your brand's reputation will create opportunities to infiltrate large markets.&nbsp; Brand marketing allows small businesses to compete with big brands to level the playing field.&nbsp; The Brand becomes the Product What do you think your customers associate your brand with? Having your brand come to mind when customers think of a product or service is the goal. Reputable brands market their name until their name becomes the service.&nbsp; For example, when people ask for Panadol they're asking for paracetamol. Or if someone mentions they want to buy an Apple, do you think of the fruit or the brand? Sometimes you may even struggle to think of the actual product before these brand names.&nbsp; What do these brands have in common? Trust. Reputable and trustworthy brands foster brand loyalty, which helps to skyrocket sales.&nbsp; Brand marketing = Brand loyalty&nbsp; Digital marketing allows small businesses to keep their customers longer. Brand marketing ensures customer not only remember, but love your brand. Rather than finding you online, the customer associates with your brand, making it easier to sell. This process comes naturally, showing how brand awareness and digital marketing lay the groundwork for lead generation. Having a strong brand means you don't need to chase leads - they chase you.&nbsp; Do you have enough visibility for lead generation to be as valuable as possible?&nbsp; Lead Generation Marketing Lead Generation is the process of capturing prospects and turning them into leads by piquing their interest. It allows you to nurture them until they're ready to take action and buy your product or service.&nbsp; All about Conversion Leads turn into Customers, which then produce sales. The most beneficial aspect of lead generation is increasing your sales.&nbsp; Lead Generation is perfect if your business offers value to the customer. Most people are wary of entering their details and try to avoid inundating spam emails. This caution disappears once guaranteed beneficial information and resources unique to your brand. A compelling call to action is imperative to generating leads. Identifies prospects &amp; Targets customers Lead Generation allows you to target and understand customers. This broad understanding of their needs and preferences will help to target them more effectively. Your strong brand marketing efforts will help to tailor the value of your product or service to their needs. Cue, lead nurturing and building relationships. Provides Measurable Results&nbsp; Lead generation marketing is the key to staying current in the competitive market. It is the cheapest direct marketing method that will translate to a better ROI.&nbsp; "Without leads or customers, you do not have a business." James Banks Marketing strategies are not...

Brand Awareness Vs Lead Generation Marketing

So you’re building a website and want to not only attract but increase all the right customers to your site? This podcast uncovers two of the best ways to increase traffic to your website: Design and Performance.    Depending on your goals as a business, your website’s needs will vary completely. This is something we’ve learnt working with many of our diverse clients. Each website we develop is custom-designed and encapsulates the brand's essence to appeal to customers.&nbsp;    Most people think you have to sacrifice one to get the other. In some aspects this is true, but not always. This tug-of-war debate will help to guide your online strategy and make your website easily stand out from the competition.&nbsp;  James: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Web3 Marketing Debate Show. We've got another firecracker of an episode today. What's better?&nbsp; Is it having a nice, really awesome, beautiful, pretty website that is the benchmark of design?&nbsp; Or is it better to have more of a stripped-down, not as well designed website, but it performs like a bat out of hell? So I'll be taking the website design side of this debate. Joseph: I'll be taking the website performance side. So let's get stuck into it. James: Awesome. All right, let's get started. So, all right, Joseph, performance. Why do you want to have a high-performing site as opposed to one that looks like it's the Mona Lisa of websites? Joseph: It's funny you say that because you can actually have a nice website and it can be good at performance. There are times we've seen nice websites, but are absolutely trash when it comes to performance.&nbsp; You need a high-performing website that loads quickly converts customers, and is a true asset to your business. It's super important to have a high-performing website. Now, performance doesn't come out of the box. You do need to tune your website to be performing. Take our website, for example. I would say our website looks quite spectacular, but it's been tuned and built for performance.&nbsp; The results show when you have a high performing website, the ROI and results you get from the website are night and day. Whereas, if you just have a nice-looking website, chances are you're losing a lot of traffic and performance that your business deserves. So James, tell me why design's better than performance. James: Well, I'm a videographer and have some fantastic 4k high-resolution films that I want to show. I want to have people when they land on my website, to see my video and the high-resolution, detailed work. I don't want to have them click through to some embedded YouTube play. I want them to see it as soon as they load.&nbsp; It might take a bit of a performance hit, but it allows me to immediately engage my audience with the work in which I do.&nbsp; Why can't I have that, Joseph? You're a developer. You know that it's a trade-off.&nbsp; Performance means sacrificing one or the other at some stage. Why can't I be able to achieve the design that I want? Why do I have to make sacrifices when it doesn't make sense for my business to do so, or my audience? Joseph: Well, the thing is, you don't need to make a huge sacrifice in instances like that. There are techniques that you need to use for video to make sure that your website performs how it should.&nbsp; You can have videos and a pretty website. But out of the box, (particularly on a lot of WordPress themes that buy from marketplaces) are trash when it comes to performance but look nice.&nbsp; At the end of the day, your website is an asset and needs the best performance it can for the best ROI for your business.&nbsp; James: Well, you could load a straight HTML document with a couple of words on it and call it your website. But it's all black and white. If your audience lands on a website like that, they're going to have a pretty poor impression of your business.&nbsp;&nbsp; It will look like you've half-assed it.&nbsp; It could be the...

Website Design vs. Performance

You’ve heard the saying quality over quantity, right? We are sure it has come about when talking about food at restaurants, television shows, and now even what type of hosting to choose as a business. It’s essential to know when to make the right call for what business expenses need priority.&nbsp; Is choosing premium hosting worth the higher cost? Or can you get everything you need without spending more than you need to?&nbsp; In the debate; Premium Vs. Affordable hosting, we uncover the hidden truths behind choosing the right option for your website. Affordable hosting Affordable hosting is often a server with generic software where you can build whatever you want. Thousands of websites opt for this option because of the price. If you are willing to spare one coffee per month, it may be worthwhile. It is perfect for smaller businesses with limited traffic, files, and storage on their pages. They are stored and hosted on a single, shared server. These perks do not always have to mean they lack functionality. But, they're built for any platform which can lead to performance and security issues. Cons The term shared hosting is an interchangeable word for cheap hosting as it does just that. By opting for cheap hostings, you will be sharing the features with others. It may result in a slower load speed. You will also be limited to other features such as security and resources like a personalised domain name.&nbsp; Your audience may question the authority of your website when it ends with wordpress.com. A clean and on-brand URL will help put the metaphoric cherry on top of your website. Cheaper plans have storage caps and data limits that will restrict your capabilities on your website. Storage caps directly affect your page's performance and can even extend to your search engine ranking efforts.&nbsp; Nobody likes a slow website. Sharing the same hosting server with other sites will increase your load speed and decrease your click-through-rate. Pros Do you love to hear the bad news before the good, or is it just us?&nbsp; Shared or Standard websites are more affordable, less complicated, and quicker to finish up. You still get all the necessary features to keep your website up and running in a cheap and obtainable way, letting you focus on other areas of your business in more detail.&nbsp; The main feature which stands out is the price. You will be saving up to ten times more by relying on shared hostings. The extra money in your pocket can make the difference for other significant business aspects that may not have cheaper options. You can always upgrade at a later stage.&nbsp; You can look at it like you are renting an apartment - you share the space. It means you cannot use up a lot of space on your pages. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. I mean, minimalism is trending after all. Because you are renting this space, that means the landlord will look after any maintenance or updates along the way.&nbsp; Premium Hosting If you flinch at the words: painfully slow, hacked or crash, you’ve probably experienced this from a cheap hosting service. You are not alone. After receiving increased traffic or running out of bandwidth, your site can often come to a halt. These are some of the reasons why premium hosting may be for you.&nbsp; The Pros Your website is your most valuable asset. Security is an important feature that drove James and Joseph to invest in premium hosting to grow Web3. Premium hosting servers have reliable measures to ensure your website is safe and secure. They send data through a secure SSL network for monitoring that enhances their reliability. These protocols also mean reduced load time, even while being inundated with traffic. Your website will have 100% allocated for optimal performance, which will aid your Search Engine rankings. You can feel rest assured that your site is in safe hands.&nbsp; The Cons&nbsp; Premium hosted websites often cost more and take more time to finalise. At web3, we...

Premium Vs. Shared Hosting

Web3's Marketing Debate Show is the ultimate digital marketing battleground where the biggest and juiciest debates of all time are settled once and for all. 

Hosted by James Banks & Joseph Chesterton, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of Web3, an Australian digital marketing agency that helps organisations become market leaders online. 

Learn the latest battle-tested, practical and actionable tactics in the fields of web design, online marketing, PPC, SEO, content marketing, social media, conversion rate optimisation, analytics and digital strategy in a fun and unique debating panel format.

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