Ready to compare the features of 5 other best headless CMS in 2020?
We've got them ready for you to just dive in and:
survey the key reasons why you'd choose one over the other
discover each one's main use cases
narrow down your options
… and pick the one that matches your requirements.
What Is the Best Headless CMS in 2020?
5.6. Directus
An open source tool for managing and delivering content across an entire network of platforms and devices.
And here are some of the top reasons for choosing Directus:
it provides your editorial team with an easy to use admin app for managing content
it can be in the cloud or self-hosted
it provides API for your development team to fetch content
5.7. Netlify CMS
One of your top 10 headless CMS options, an open source one, that you get to add to any static site generator of your choice.
A React single-page application that provides you with an easy to use UI, playing the role of a… wrapper for your Git Workflow.
Basically, when using Netlify CMS your content gets stored in your web app's git repository (as markdown files), close to your codebase.
"How does a Netlify CMS Gatsby setup work?"
It's pretty straightforward:
You enter your content via that user-friendly interface, then Gatsby uses it to come up with the right pages for your web app.
Why would you use it?
it fits both large and small-sized projects, with fewer pages to create, to add content to, to edit, and to manage
you get to review/preview your content and make changes in real-time, and even control entries status in editorial workflow mode
it provides you with an easy-to-use UI, with just 3 tabs: workflow, media, and content
you're free to use it with any static site generator
you get to extend its functionality: add your own UI widgets, editor plugins, customized previews, etc.
5.8. GraphCMS
An API-first content management system, a GraphQL-native one, that allows you to distribute content across multiple digital platforms.
And not just anyhow, but… within minutes.
Your developer team gets to create content APIs in no time, whereas your content team gets all the tools they need for a smooth editor experience.
Source: capterra.com
GraphCMS vs Contentful: Main Differences
GraphCMS
works best for enterprise and mid-market companies, enabling them to build highly scalable applications
GraphQL is its underlying technology: an open source query language for APIs, that's been growing more and more popular among developers
Contentful
targets top global brands, helping them distribute digital content experiences across complex networks of markets and channels
REST is its underlying technology: a programming paradigm for distributed systems
And here are 2 good reasons for choosing GraphCMS as your go-to headless content management system:
you get a CMS that's client-side and JAMstack compatible
you get to tap into the benefits of a JAMstack approach to development (JavaScript & Markup & API)
5.9. Cosmic
A cloud-hosted headless content management system that provides you with both GraphQL and REST APIs.
But what makes Cosmic one of the best headless CMS in 2020?
Why choose the Cosmic Headless CMS?
it ships with features like content modeling, media management, localization, and webhooks
it grants you a smooth editor experience with its WYSIWYG editor, that you can use to incorporate (by embedding code) third-party services like Typeform and GitHub.
it integrates smoothly with AWS, Slack, Algolia, Stripe, HubSpot
5.10. Kentico Kontent
A cloud-based content delivery API that turns your structured content into content that's easy to be "consumed" by any device or digital platform that you might use as a front-end delivery layer.
Why would you choose it over other great options of headless CMS?
you get an AI chatbot when using Kentico Kontent
it provides webhooks and custom elements that make third-party integrations a lot smoother
you get content management API enabling content consumption
And we've come to… the END of the list of 10 best headless CMS in 2020.
Which one checks the most features off your list?
Now, if you're facing a "Headless Drupal 8 vs Contentful" dilemma, we're here to:
help you identify the one that works best for your business and your requirements
make your headless CMS-based project work
Just drop us a line!
Image by tdfugere from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Sep 26'2020
Overwhelmed with options?
Are you building your first (e-commerce) headless CMS and you don't know what headless CMS platform to choose?
What are the best headless CMS in 2020, so you can at least narrow down your choices and start... somewhere?
Which system matches most of your feature requirements?
Here's a top 10:
1. But First: What Is a Headless CMS, More Precisely?
Relax, I won't bore you with too many details — we already have an in-depth post on the differences between headless and traditional CMS.
So, if we were to sum up the concept in just a few words, we could say that:
A headless content management system is an architecture where content is separated from the presentation layer (the client-side front-end).
Meaning that you get to create, store, and edit "raw" content (with no design or layout) in the backend and deliver it wherever needed —wearable, mobile app, website — via API.
In short, what you get in a headless architecture is:
a database to store your content in
a dashboard for editing your content
Source: Zesty.io
As for the "head" that serves your content to the end-user :
you're free to build your own front-end, from the ground up
… and even multiple front-ends, if needed, that will all use calls from the API to retrieve and display content
2. … Then What's a Decoupled CMS?
Headless CMS vs decoupled CMS: what's the difference? And why headless over decoupled?
The role that the API plays…
That's what makes the difference (and why you'd want to go for a headless approach):
If, in a decoupled architecture, the API plays the role of an intermediary between back-end and front end, in a headless architecture the API can be used by any of the front-end portions for pulling data.
In other words, a decoupled CMS does come with a built-in front-end delivery layer, that you can rely on, but a headless approach is an API-driven content repository.
Which gives you more flexibility for delivering content to any type of display layer.
… to multiple "heads".
You're free to distribute it wherever it needs to get displayed.
3. Why Choose a Headless CMS? Top 9 Benefits
Before I "divulge" the best headless CMS in 2020 to you, here's a shortlist of the key advantages of using a headless CMS software:
you get to engage your customers with personalized content across an entire network of digital channels, at different stages in their journey
you can deliver richer digital experience, tailored to each channel
you gain platform independence
you're free to choose your technology of choice
you benefit from cross-platform support
you get to manage your content from a central location and distribute it to multiple platforms/IoT-connected devices, in a universal format
you're free to manage all your platforms from one interface
your development team gets to choose the development framework of their choice, integrate new technologies and, overall… innovate
you're free to redesign as often as you need to, without the dread of re-implementing your entire CMS from the ground up
4. … And When Should You Use It? 5 Best Use Cases
How do you know for sure that you need to adopt this approach?
You know it because your scenario describes one of the following use cases for headless CMS:
you're building a site using a technology you're familiar with
you're building a website with a static site generator
you're building a JS-based website or web app
you're building a native mobile app
you're building an e-commerce site and you know that the commerce platform you're using won't… cut the mustard as a CMS; or you need to enrich product info in your online store
5. What Are the Best Headless CMS in 2020? Top 10
"Which CMS should I use?" you wonder.
"The one that meets most of your requirements…"
So, you should start by pinning them down. What features are you looking for in a CMS?
Maybe you need a system that should:
be straightforward and easy to use for the marketers/non-technical people in your team
be built on… Node
be highly customizable and editable for your content team to be able to change overlay text, logo, background video/image
be simple to set up
integrate easily with Gatsby
support multi-site setups
not be tied up to (just) one specific database
provide ease of content entry and rich-text support
provide a granular permission system
provide native support for content types
What are the features that your project couldn't live without?
Now, with that list of "mandatory" features at hand, just drill down through your top headless CMS options in 2020.
Here they are:
5.1. Storyblok
A purely headless CMS that ships with a visual editor, as well.
Why would you go for Storyblok? What makes it one of the best headless CMS in 2020?
it provides the experience of a page builder for all those non-technical users in your team: editors get to manage content via a more user-friendly interface
it grants your developers easy access to the APIs they need
5.2. Prismic
Its major selling point?
It allows you to choose your own language, framework, technology…
And these are the 3 good reasons to go with Prismic as your headless CMS:
it allows you to model your content schema and to add your content
you're free to choose whatever framework that meets your feature needs: React, Vue, Next, Nuxt, Node, Gatsby…
you're free to choose either GraphQL or RESTful API to query content
5.3. Drupal 8 Headless CMS
Another great option is to exploit Drupal's headless capabilities and pair them with the JavaScript framework of your choice.
Here are some of the best reasons why you'd use a Drupal 8 API-first architecture:
Drupal's a mature and enterprise-level headless solution backed by a wide community, used by more than 1 million sites globally; you get to tap into its massive module collection and even create new custom ones to extend your website's functionality
its JSON:API follows the JSON:API specification; developers in your team can start using the API even if they're not experts in working with Drupal
you get to load your GraphQl schemas straight from your Drupal content repository; there's a specialized module for this: the GraphQL module
you get to use all of Drupal's famed features (granular access to content, processes, workflows, modules, etc.) right away; you get them out-of-the-box since the REST API is… rooted deep into Drupal
5.4. Strapi, One of the Best headless CMS for Gatsby.
It's an open-source Node.js headless CMS, a "host it yourself" one, that allows you to build Node.js apps in… minutes.
Why would you use it?
because it generates available RESTful API or uses GraphQL shortly after installation, making data available via customizable API
because it allows your developers to invest all their resources in writing reusable app logic (instead of having to use some of that time to build an infrastructure)
because it's fully JavaScript
because it supports plugins that extend the platform's functionality
because it's open-source: you'll find the entire codebase on GitHub
5.5. Contentful
Looking for a platform-agnostic solution?
A… content delivery network that would enable your development team to manage and distribute (and reuse) content to multiple channels?
Then this is the API-driven headless CMS you're looking for.
Here are 6 other reasons why you'd want to put Contentful on your shortlist:
consistent APIs
easy to set up
you're free to create your own models
easy to use: ships with a robust, non-technical, user-friendly UI
you get to add custom plugins quick and easy
you get to set your own schemas to get displayed the way you want them to, across different apps
Good to know! There's even a Shopify extension available. What it does is connect your online store to your content, stored in Contentful.
And if you'll need help with building, fine-tuning, and integrating your content hub, we're ready to tweak Contentful to your needs.
END of Part 1!
Stay tuned, for there are 5 more candidates for the title of "the best headless CMS in 2020" waiting in line.
Image by Couleur from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Sep 25'2020
A bit stuck? Are you looking to roll out your online store, but… you’re struggling with a Magento vs Shopify 2020 dilemma?
Which solution works best for the size and the type of your eCommerce business?
Which one covers most of your feature needs?
In today’s post you’ll get your answers to the following questions:
How are they different?
Why would you choose Shopify over Magento? What are its strongest selling points?
What are the cons of Shopify?
What are the pros and cons of Magento vs Shopify?
Which eCommerce platform works best for your type of business?
1. What Are the Major Differences Between Magento and Shopify?
The main reason why you’re torn between Magento and Shopify is that:
You don’t have a clear picture of the essential differences between them.
So, let me expose them to you:
1.1. Magento is an eCommerce solution for enterprise-level online stores.
It’s robust and flexible enough to power fully customized eCommerce websites, built from scratch — that you can further expand to fit your growth plan — by teams of Magento developers.
1.2. Shopify, on the other hand, is self-managed.
You don’t need any specialized skills — or server-side techs — to set up a Shopify store.
A front-end developer and a designer, at most, will do.
“How easy is it to use Shopify?”
Shopify is best-known for being beginner-friendly.
In short, the “Magento vs Shopify” dilemma comes down to:
Flexibility and customization vs Ease of use.
Which one's more important to you?
2. Magento vs Shopify 2020: Why Would You Choose Shopify?
What makes Shopify a candidate for the title of “the best solution for creating an eCommerce website in 2020"?
Here’s why Shopify could be the better choice for your online store:
you have no (or limited) coding skills
the idea of having a huge app marketplace at your disposal to browse through sounds tempting to you
you need to get your e-Store up and running… now: the drag-and-drop website builder allows you to set up a new store in… minutes
it’s an end-to-end eCommerce solution that you’re looking for, one that enables you to roll out and manage your online store with no technical experience
it’s easier to use: its interface is famous for being particularly user-friendly
you run a small or medium-sized eCommerce business
page loading time is critical for you: Shopify’s just… fast
Overall, it’s much less of a headache than Magento and usually the go-to option for small eCommerce business owners, with no web development experience, who need to get their websites rolled out fast.
3. What Are the Cons of Shopify?
What could make you hesitate to choose Shopify for your eCommerce website?
For there are, indeed, some limitations to consider before going for this particular platform:
You’d be trading some of the control over your online store for… ease of use and the convenience of setting up your eStore quick and easy, with no technical expertise
You do get a huge collection of plugins to choose from but… they all come with a price tag on; one that you’ll need to consider when planning out your budget
You won’t be able to customize every single aspect of your website. By comparison, Magento puts no limitation on the configurations that you can make to your site
Shopify provides you with weaker SEO features
It charges a transaction fee per… sale
4. Why Would You Choose Magento over Shopify?
When dealing with a Magento vs Shopify 2020 dilemma, what could make you opt for Magento?
Lots of reasons... Here are the strongest ones:
It enables you (or your team of Magento developers in Toronto) to customize everything about your eCommerce website, from theme to checkout process, to main menu, to email template, to...
You get to build custom functionality for your website, that’s not available on the market
You have lots of extensions available to choose from — Magento being open-sourced — and to customize your online store
You benefit from its strong SEO capabilities
You get to tap into its multi-store functionality: Magento enables you to manage all your online stores from one central dashboard
“In fact, according to eCommerce Platforms research Magento SEO scores 95 out of 100, and that is great result!” (source: Cart2Cart )
In short, you’d want to go with Magento because it enables you to build pretty much anything that you might need for your eCommerce website.
5. What About the Cons of Using Magento?
For you need to be aware of the disadvantages of using this eCommerce solution, as well, before you make any decision.
Now, here are the most… discouraging ones:
Building a fully customized website in Magento takes time and requires web development experience and Magento expertise; you can’t get away without a team of back-end Magento developers to handle the whole process and all the customization wok
You do have a large and thriving community to rely on, but no 24/7 dedicated support (like you have with Shopify)
You’ll need to optimize your Magento website on a regular basis to make sure it keeps performing at its best
You’ll need to take into account the cost of all the extensions that you might want to add, of the web hosting service, and the Magento expertise needed
6. Magento 2 vs Shopify vs... Shopify Plus: Which One’s the Best Fit?
Considering that, starting June 2020, Magento 1.0 is no longer supported, your Magento vs Shopify 2020 dilemma turns into: “Magento 2 vs Shopify”.
What new features does Magento 2 bring to the debate?
simplified navigation
(even) better customization capabilities
better performance
a more admin-friendly panel
drag-and-drop layout editing
improved checkout
“And what about Shopify Plus?” you might then ask yourself.
Here are some of the enhancements that Shopify Plus ships with, so you can see for yourself whether it’s the best fit for what you’re looking for:
It gives you greater control over your online store: you gain more customization freedom
It’s robust enough to handle more than 10,000 transactions per minute, which makes it a viable alternative to Magento 2 for enterprise-level eCommerce businesses
You’re free to edit your checkout page (a feature that’s not available in Shopify)
You get your own launch manager: basically, a dedicated Shopify Plus team will handle everything for you, from implementing the custom Shopify theme that you need to code writing
7. Which Commerce Platform Works Better for Your Type of eCommerce Business?
Now that you have a clear(er) picture of the pros and cons of Magento vs Shopify, how do you know which one’s the best fit for you? For your business goals and size?
It’s simple: just pick the answer(s) that best fits your scenario from the following ones:
You’ll want to use Magento if:
you have a large product catalog
your customization needs are… above the average (i.e. complex product configurations): you want a fully customized online store built from the ground up
you need a commerce platform robust enough to support your entire network of vendor/supplier fulfillment channels
you have qualified Magento developers in your team (or the budget to hire some professionals, who know what they’re doing)
You’ll want to use Shopify over Magento in 2020 if:
it’s a small to medium product catalog that you need to set up
being able to integrate/cross-sell on multiple platforms is a crucial feature for you
you need to get your storefront online as quickly as possible
Does this head-to-head help you with your Magento vs Shopify 2020 dilemma?
No matter which one’s the “winner”, the next question stays the same:
“How do I get my Shopify/ Magento website built and suited to my needs?"
Just drop us a line and we’ll have either our Shopify or our Magento ecommerce developers assigned to your eCommerce project!
Image by Photo Mix from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Sep 18'2020
A few weeks ago, I had the chance to take the Acquia Site Studio (formerly Cohesion) Certification exam.
In this post we are going to discuss why I took this exam and more importantly, how I passed it and became an Acquia Certified Site Studio Site Builder.
Optasy and its commitment to quality through knowledge
You already know that quality is part of the corporate culture of Optasy. For us quality is a key factor to protect our clients' investments and guarantee them a high ROI. But having a good QA department is not enough. Actually, it's often too late when the QA team detects an issue.
At Optasy we prefer to ensure quality at the early stages of our projects, analyzing deeply the needs of our clients and transform them into effective digital experiences but we also know that the quality of the code we produce comes from the experience and the skills of our developers.
That's why Optasy has an internal 'skill knowledge acquisition program' to help its employees (optasians) to acquire new skills or improve them. This program gives to each optasian one day off per month (paid by the company) to study a particular field. As a way to ensure knowledge acquisition and validation, optasians also receive paid leave to study and give their Acquia certification exams. This includes the exam cost too, that’s why many of the optasian developers are actually Acquia Certified developers or Acquia Certified site builders
All things considered, it was a pretty easy choice for me to take the exam, not only do I get to improve my skills, but I get paid for it too!
What are the Acquia certification programs?
Acquia is a preferred Optasy partner that delivers a cloud-based digital experience platform built on Drupal that enables organizations to build experiences that scale. Acquia is committed to facilitating certification programs allowing developers to validate their Drupal skills year after year.
Acquia certification exams are administered at Kryterion Testing Centers in more than 750 locations across the globe. Exams are also available as online-proctored tests and are often offered at DrupalCons across the world.
What is Acquia Site Studio?
Acquia Site Studio (formerly Cohesion) is a low-code solution for building and editing Drupal sites. As an Acquia partner, our team got the chance to become an early adopter of the technology.
Acquia Site Studio is a sort of layout builder on steroids without writing any line of code. Not only can you build layouts or templates, but also you can build whole websites from the headers to the footers, and everything in between, like components and widgets, just by using the interface. No code required!
It's a kind of atomic design system (like Pattern Lab) where you can create and preview CSS style guides, components, template layouts, page layouts or view layout from a visual user interface with simple “drag and drop”. And all of this within your Drupal site!
To be fair, Acquia Site Studio is an amazing tool allowing designers and marketers to create and modify any layout component without calling the development team. If you’re a designer with no coding knowledge you’ll be able to create totally unique layouts based on your designs using intuitive drag and drop layout builder. If you're an editor, you may choose the layout you want to use and add all the pre-designed components you wish. Want to add a slider or a 'Related Articles' block? You drag and drop it in your layout!
5 tips to successfully pass your Acquia Certified Site Studio exam
As other Acquia Certification exams, the Certified Site Studio exam requires both experience and knowledge. Though the test is not difficult, it’s not something you want to run into unprepared.
From my experience, the questions ranged from a very low to medium range of difficulty, there were barely any difficult questions.
This exam validates your ability to:
Understand the features and functionality provided by Site Studio
Install and configure Site studio environment on new or existing websites.
Build a website using Site Studio style builder, components and website structure design elements.
The official description of this exam can be found on Acquia's certification overview page. But in short:
The tests are all multiple choice.
They don't require that you actually configure a Drupal site or write any code.
They are available in person at a testing center, or at home by installing the exam software on your computer.
The price was $155 (In my case, Optasy paid for the test)
Get a good understanding of Drupal Layout Builder
As I mentioned earlier, Acquia Site Studio is a Layout Builder on steroids and many concepts are the same, so having some experience with this Drupal module will help you a lot, like the inline editing tools or the concept of drawing element into the layout. This is not mandatory, but I felt really comfortable with Site Studio having this previous experience.
Read carefully the contents of the exam
On Acquia's certification overview page you'll find the blueprint of the exam like the following:
But below it, you'll find the content itself. Read it carefully and repeatedly. This should be your guideline during your study. This will help you focus on what really matters but also to recap and structure your notes.
Read and study the documentation
While there are really good videos on the Acquia Academy site about Site Studio, watching all of them won't be enough. If you don't have prior experience with Site Studio, it's a good starting point. But it definitively won't give all the knowledge you need to pass the exam.
Reading the documentation should sound obvious, but you'll really need to read and study all the documentation in depth. Don't leave anything behind cause the exam covers all the aspects of Site Studio, from the basics to more advanced topics.
This will also give you the right vocabulary to understand the questions of the exam, since sometimes they can try to trick you changing just one word. So the technical vocabulary has an important role, and that's where the documentation comes into play.
Write down some notes after reading each section. This will help you a lot during the recap!
Train on the Acquia Site Studio demo environment
You can request an online demo environment for free at the bottom of this page
The main benefit is that you won't need an API key or an Agency key, so you can test Site Studio for free, the environment acts just like a normal Drupal website. and the site will be all yours to experiment on.
This site will be your friend during your study, you should test everything you learned in the documentation here. Do it several times and try different cases.
The night before the exam, after reading back your notes, try to build a site from scratch in this environment to recap all the main concepts. This is key!
Don't forget the 'Miscellaneous concepts and features' part
These three concepts are not placed in one section, they are dispersed in the documentation. Study and practice all of them because you'll have a question about each one. They are only three, it doesn’t sound like a lot but they are worth 15% of the exam! That is a quick and easy win!
A bonus tip
What really worked for me was to read a section, practice the concepts of this section in the demo environment, read again the same section and take some notes. The day after, read all the notes of the previous day, do the same 7 days later, reading back your notes and practicing again on the demo site. That way, 80% of what you studied will stay forever in your memory.
Conclusions
Acquia Certification Site Studio Site Builder can be a good way to validate your skills and knowledge
There are barely any difficult questions
Study all the documentation because the exam is based on it, but also because the exam will cover all of it.
Practice a lot, recap a lot.
Karim Boudjema / Aug 27'2020
For it all comes down to this: what's the return that you'd get from switching to this new way of developing applications?
Why cloud-native apps?
How does migrating from cloud-hosted to cloud native applications translate into clear benefits for you? For your own business?
We've listed them, then... shortlisted them to the 6 biggest benefits that you can expect from developing cloud native apps.
Or, if you wish, the top 6 reasons why you'll want to use a cloud-native architecture from now on.
But First: What Are Cloud Native Applications More Precisely?
They're collections of independent, loosely coupled microservices, each one performing a single service or business function.
Unlike the traditional "monolithic" app architecture, where you have a single... block. So that whenever you needed to apply even a small change, you had to interrupt the entire app.
And it's precisely this intrinsic constraint of the monolithic approach — translating into limited scalability and flexibility — that has made the cloud-native model so "tempting":
it allows you to develop and deploy each microservice independently
so, whenever you need to apply changes, you're no longer constrained to wait first for all the components to get updated
you can incorporate the new features (in many cases, suggested by users themselves) and deliver the app to your audience right away
#1: You Get to Incorporate User Feedback into Your App in... Real-Time
Why cloud-native apps?
Due to their high availability:
You get to make real-time changes to your applications... on the fly.
... to respond to users' expectations of specific new features and functionalities faster than with the traditional app development model.
"Continuous improvement" is the key phrase here:
You're free to add and roll back new features and enhance its performance... constantly.
On the go.
#2: You Benefit from a Higher Developer Productivity
And this is another one of the key cloud native application benefits.
The cloud-native architecture:
speeds up the development process
helps your team save time, that they'd otherwise need to spend trying to solve various infrastructure issues and handling critical business requirements instead
enables easy remote access to their system, irrespective of their location
#3: Why Cloud-Native Apps? Because You Can Build, Update, and Deliver them Faster
The cloud-native approach enables you to scale your resources and comply with user demand way faster than the monolithic approach:
You get to bring new features online — requested by your users — more quickly. To roll out changes and start marketing your app much faster.
In short, you get to be more responsive to user demand and more relevant with the updates you make to your app in… real time.
#4: You Save Time and Money
From all the cloud native applications advantages, cost-savings must be the most tangible one.
And it’s pretty obvious if you come to think of it:
Since the cloud-native approach to developing applications allows you to build and release them much faster, you’re practically left with more time. More time to focus on your other revenue-generating tasks.
#5: You Can Make or Roll Back Small Changes Without "Freezing" the Entire App
Why cloud native applications?
Because you can minimize downtime when you need to update your app.
#6: You Get to Run Your App on Multiple Platforms
Cloud native applications run on both public and private platforms without you being forced to make any major changes.
For “flexibility” (along with “efficiency” and “high availability”) is another word for cloud-native.
So, Why Cloud-Native Apps?
It’s simple:
You get to innovate faster and to react to users’ changing needs and trends... faster.
Do you already have an app idea and you just need the right team to, ask the right questions, grasp your vision, and… make it happen?
Just drop us a line, let’s hear all about it and let's... build it!
Image by Ashish Bogawat from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Aug 15'2020
You've just started your WordPress site and you're facing a "Rank Math vs Yoast SEO" dilemma.
Which plugin should you use?
Or maybe you've already been running a WordPress site for a while now and you've been using Yoast during all this time.
But recently you've been having doubts that you're using the best tool: what's all this fuss about Rank Math?
Is Rank Math better than Yoast?
Which one should you choose?
And how do you choose?
In this post, you'll get straight answers to questions like:
"What do I get when I choose Rank Math?"
"When exactly would I choose Rank Math over Yoast SEO?"
"Are there any reasons not to use Rank Math over Yoast?"
"What do I get when I choose Yoast?"
"When is Yoast a better solution for me?"
1. What You Get When You Choose Rank Math: Top Features
Expect to get far more features for free.
Here are the most powerful ones:
Rich snippets
A dedicated SEO audit tool: you get a site-wide SEO analysis tool integrated right into your WordPress dashboard; it evaluates your pages based on... 40 SEO factors, so expect a much more detailed technical insight into your web pages
a visually-attractive UI: unlike Yoast SEO, Rank Math doesn't trade aesthetics for functionality; you have all your options organized into categories, which makes each operation far more intuitive
full schema support (for any type of content on your WordPress site, from Article to events, to video, product, and... recipe)
the option to noindex certain pages as you publish them
the option to optimize the same page for up to... 5 focus keywords (for free...): you get to check the SEO score for all of them
auto-link suggestions
redirects and 404 monitoring
local SEO
Google search control integration
clearer content analysis: instead of rating your content as "OK", "Good", or "Bad", Rank Math uses numbers in its SEO scores, making its analysis more to the point, more accurate
So, getting back to your dilemma — "Rank Math or Yoast?" — from a feature set standpoint we can say that:
Rank Math offers you much more functionality... out of the box (i.e. free of charge).
2. Rank Math vs Yoast SEO: You'll Want to Bet on Rank Math If...
you know your way around SEO, so you can use it to its full potential by checking every little setting you have there
you want to cut down on your plugins: since you get so much built-in functionality "by default", you don't need so many plugins (i.e. plugin for scheme support) or to get yourself tangled up in additional coding
3. 2 Reasons NOT to Choose Rank Math over Yoast SEO
For there are a few... inconveniences of using Rank Math that you should be aware of when you run a "Rank Math vs Yoast 2020" comparison:
indexing: it won't show up under your site:mydomain.com, so you'll need to go and click "Request Indexing" in the Google Search Console yourself
too many features: checking every single setting there might get a bit... overwhelming, especially if you're new to technical SEO or you just don't have that much time at your disposal
4. What You Get When You Choose Yoast SEO
Now, since it's a "Rank Math vs Yoast SEO" dilemma that you're struggling with, let's put the spotlight on the latter, as well.
Here's why you'll want to go with Yoast:
70% of its features are free
you can add unique tags, meta titles, and descriptions to all your web pages
you get to rank your WordPress website quickly (and, once it's reached a decent position, to level up to its premium version, maybe)
you can generate a sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console
5. You'll Want to Go with Yoast SEO If...
"Should I use Yoast?"
You should if you're an SEO beginner.
Or simply not familiar with all the technical aspects of SEO (maybe your WordPress site doesn't need that much SEO work done).
Then, Rank Math's heavy load of powerful features might seem too discouraging and... unnecessary for you.
In that case, you might want to use Yoast.
It's beginner-friendly, it helps you start your website ranking quickly and... it's backed by a huge community of WordPress site owners who've been using it for years.
The END!
Do you now have a clear answer to your "Rank Math vs Yoast SEO" dilemma?
But what if you do have a personal winner, yet just the thought of having to carry out all those SEO tasks recommended by your plugin is enough to... stress you out?
Maybe you don't have enough people available in your team to handle them. Or the time needed to complete them.
If so, just shift the burden to us.
Drop us a line and let's get your WordPress site evaluated for SEO issues and areas to be improved.
With that list at hand, we're ready to come up with its best version for both search engines and visitors.
Image by Surote Wongpaiboon from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Aug 13'2020
Why would you want to build your next app with Flutter?
Instead of... React Native? Or maybe Swift?
What are the key advantages of using Flutter?
Here are the best reasons why you'd want to give it a go for your next app project:
But What Is Flutter Used For Anyway?
... for building native-looking Android and iOS apps using a single codebase.
"But how is it any different from other cross-platform frameworks?" you might ask yourself.
Widgets...
That's right, they're Flutter's equivalent of the React Native components. Or of the native UI components, if you wish.
You get to put together a fully customed UI for your app by choosing, then mixing and matching several ready-made widgets.
They look either iOS-native or Android-native and... you can even create your own widgets, from the ground up.
A widget could stand for a menu or a button, a slider, text, toggle...
Reason #1: You Get to Share Both the UI Code and the UI Itself Between Multiple Platforms
In short: you can make the most of having a common UI and business logic for all your target platforms.
And this is where Flutter manages to stand out from the crowd of cross-platform frameworks:
It doesn't just have a unique codebase for all platforms: it also shares both the UI and the UI code globally, across iOS and Android.
In other words, one language, one UI, same business logic translates into UI consistency across platforms.
Reason #2: You Reduce Maintenance Costs, One of the Main Advantages of Using Flutter
And that's pretty obvious since you only have one codebase to maintain.
Reason #3: You Save Time and Money (And Get to Be More Productive)
Just imagine:
You will use the same codebase for both the Android and iOS versions of your app.
So, this can only bubble up to your... overall costs.
You:
build one app and run it on multiple platforms (saving time and resources)
get to build more apps... faster
reach a wider audience with a single investment
Reason #4: You Get to Inject Native-Level of Performance into Your App
"Why choose Flutter in 2020?"
Because it powers your app with close-to-native performance.
With Dart (Flutter's programming language) compiling everything into native code, and the need of accessing OEM widgets, out of the equation, you get better app startup times.
Reason #5: You'll Develop Your App Much Faster
The Flutter development experience is one of the best. And the main reason why developing a Flutter app is so much simpler and, therefore, faster.
Here's why:
The "hot reload" feature allows your developers to view the changes made in code on simulators, hardware, and emulators in... real-time. With no need to restart.
This speeds up processes like adding new features, building your app's UI, and even testing it. One of the main advantages of using Flutter...
And, where do you add that you have a huge collection of ready-to-use-widgets at hand, which speeds up your app's development process.
Reason #6: You Speed Up Time to Market for Your New App
Since you don't need to develop separate apps anymore, one for iOS and one for Android, you get to launch your app much faster.
And to reduce your time to market.
Reason #7: You Get to Fully Customize the UI
Another one of the strongest Flutter app development advantages is the huge customization potential.
You get to customize your app's UI in the slightest detail.
And here are 2 ways that you can do that:
browse through its impressive collection of prepackaged, core layout widgets, pick the ones that fit your needs, customize them to your liking and... create a fully customed UI
go for some of the pre-built widgets that mimic the behavior of the iOS and the Android design languages: Cupertino and Material
You're free to customize every aspect of your UI, no matter how complex, thanks to Flutter's ready-to-use widgets.
... and to save lots of time while doing it.
Reason #8: You Spend Less Time Testing Your Application
Just think about it:
The widgets making up your UI are part of the app itself and not part of the iOS or the Android platform. So, you're less likely to face incompatibility issues.
Which translates into less time invested in testing your app...
Reason #9: You Can Learn It in Just About... 2 Weeks
You/your development team will spend less time learning it. And this is one of the key advantages of using Flutter.
Here's why:
The UI in Flutter is code, basically. So, you can just put logic on the UI code to create, use, and... reuse components.
Reason #10: You Get to Build a UI-Heavy App in No Time
"Is Flutter a good choice?"
It is if it's a UI-heavy application that you need to build. And you need it built really fast.
The END!
Now, whether these 10 reasons are strong enough for you to give Flutter a go or... not quite, one thing's for sure:
You need a fast, great-looking app, that should incorporate all those powerful features on your wishlist.
Nothing easier.
Just drop us a line with that wishlist of yours and let's get it built!
Image by RSunset from Pixabay
Silviu Serdaru / Jul 31'2020
You need to launch your small eCommerce business fast and without breaking the bank... if possible.
So, what's the best eCommerce platform for small business in 2020?
And, most importantly:
Which is the best eCommerce option for your store? The one that meets your specific needs?
For, let me guess: your wishlist doesn't end there.
You also want it to:
give you enough customization freedom so you can personalize every aspect of your website
be scalable, to accommodate all those big plans that you have for your store
be easy to use both for you, as you build your storefront, and your customers
provide you with robust sales features (and advanced SEO tools)
be fast
have great software integration; you want to be able to add all the extra apps and tools that you might need quick and easy
Now, let's see which of these 6 best eCommerce platforms for startups ticks most of the boxes on your list:
1. Squarespace
What makes Squarespace one of the first solutions to evaluate first when choosing the best eCommerce solution for your small store?
It gives you total creative control over how your website will look.
Squarespace stands out from this list with its sleek, modern templates. Templates that are flexible enough to enable you to DIY your online store exactly how you want it to look.
With no coding skills or additional plugins needed.
Key Benefits
you get unlimited creative control
you get an entire collection of beautifully-designed templates, as well as tons of flexibility to further customize them to your liking
you get to sell your products on Instagram, as well
Main Drawbacks
you're not free to add any extra sales features to those that you get out of the box; there's no app market
you're quite limited when it comes to payment options; there are 3 options only: Apple Pay, PayPal, and Stripe
its multi-channel selling offering is limited to Instagram
its sales features aren't as powerful as those of other eCommerce solutions for small businesses
You'd Choose to Build Your Website with Squarespace If...
it's a visually-arresting storefront that you want to create
you want total creative control over your website's design
2. Best Platform for Small Business in 2020: Wix
Wix is any small-scale seller's (with little to no tech knowledge) dream come true.
You get:
an easy to use drag and drop system to put together your store (just drag text boxes and images and position them anywhere you want on the page)
tons of creative freedom over your website's looks: make your website look exactly like the one in your head
the chance to build your store with... zero costs (pay when you start to actually sell products/services on your newly built website)
What more could you want from a solution of eCommerce for small retailers!
Key Benefits
you can build your first online store in no time: you just drag and drop elements on the page
you're free to design it exactly how you want it to look
you get to add product videos, too
Main Drawbacks
you can't sell your products across multiple social channels
you get a less robust inventory, compared to other platforms (i.e. you can't bulk upload products)
Overall, the eCommerce tools that you get aren't as powerful as those of other platforms (i.e. Shopify).
You'd Choose to Build Your Website with Wix If...
you're looking for an affordable eCommerce solution
you want it to be super easy to use
you want to be able to personalize every little aspect of your store
3. Weebly
Image by Hannes Edinger from Pixabay
If you're looking for a 100% beginner-friendly and budget-friendly solution, Weebly is the one.
You get to:
sell for free (and upgrade later to one of its eCommerce plans)
set up your small-scale eCommerce website with no tech skills
Key Benefits
you get to build your online store on a budget: it doesn't get any cheaper than Weebly
you can get your website up and running in no time: Weebly's the most beginner-friendly eCommerce solution you'll find
Main Drawbacks
you're not free to customize your checkout page (a crucial page on your eCommerce website)
it doesn't provide you with multichannel selling features
You'd Choose to Build Your Website with Weebly If...
you have a really small inventory, so you don't really need any advanced selling features
4. BigCommerce
It's one of the best eCommerce options for small businesses with... big ambitions.
Why? Because:
you get lots of powerful eCommerce features from the get-go (robust SEO tools and selling features); you don't need to look for (and pay for) any extra apps if you need to incorporate specific selling features into your website
it is the most scalable eCommerce platform for a small business
Key Benefits
you get to grow your small business... fast
you get to expand your store's reach and keep your costs within budget by selling across various platforms (BigCommerce comes with lots of multi-channel integrations)
Main Drawbacks
its advanced tools come at a cost: a steep learning curve
it's not as beginner-friendly as the other eCommerce platforms on this list: don't expect to get your BigCommerce store live in... a matter of hours
if you don't plan to grow your business any time soon, you'll find yourself paying for powerful features that you just... don't need
You'd Choose to Build Your Website with BigCommerce If...
you have big plans for your small eCommerce business and you want to make them a reality... fast
5. Square Online Store
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
What makes it the perfect candidate for the title of “the best platform for small business in 2020”?
it's affordable
it's easy to use, for any beginner trying to launch his/her first online store on his own
it taps into AI to help you make the best choices when building your site
Key Benefits
you get to build your website and start selling with... zero costs: Square Online Store does offer you a free plan
the AI tech that it uses makes it so much easier (and faster) for you to build your store (i.e. you save valuable time when loading your products since it points out what categories they fit into)
it's the “best value for money” type of eCommerce option for small-sized businesses
Main Drawbacks
you're not 100% free to customize your website
you'll find its selling features to be quite... basic if you're planning to grow your small business
You'd Choose to Build Your Website with Square Online Store If...
you want to be able to combine your offline sales with your online selling strategy
you're on a shoestring budget and you have zero tech skills, so you're looking for a really affordable and easy to use eCommerce platform to build your small online store... fast
6. Shopify
New to eCommerce and you're looking for a turnkey solution to launch your business fast?
Shopify could be the best choice for you:
it's easy to use and code-free
it ships with 50+ different store themes (the Shopify themes are some of the best-looking ones in the marketplace)
you have lots and lots of apps to choose from to incorporate precisely the functionality that you need into your store
The whole process of building your eCommerce website with Shopify could get summed up to 3 simple steps:
you select the store theme
you add on your content
you import your products' CSVs
There! You're now ready to launch your Shopify store.
Key Benefits
you get a huge app market and the most advanced sales-specific features on the market
you get multichannel selling options (Amazon and eBay integrations here included)
you can sync your inventories if you're already selling on another platform: centralize your inventory management
you get a robust inventory system (i.e. you get alerted when one of your products is out of stock)
you get built-in dropshipping tools, essential when you run a small business on a budget and you don't have storage for your products yet
Main Drawbacks
it's not exactly the most budget-friendly eCommerce platform for a small retailer
expect to be charged transaction fees on your sales, unless you use its in-house payment gateway: Shopify Payments
You'd Choose to Build Your Website with Shopify If...
you're committed to building a successful eCommerce business (you're not selling just a couple of products)
you want to create a solid foundation for your store: Shopify provides you with powerful tools to build and manage your store and a big app store to browse through and grow your business
The END!
The best eCommerce platform for small business in 2020 is on this list, but the real question bugging you is:
“Which one's the perfect choice for my own store?”
It really depends on what you value most:
a low price?
powerful sales tools and features?
creative freedom to customize your product listings, your checkout page, your...?
If what you need is a visually-appealing, easy to manage online store, equipped with advanced eCommerce features that best fit your needs, then what you need is Shopify.
Now, if the idea of:
digging through a huge app store
browsing through a big collection of store themes to pick the one that suits your niche and store's personality
setting everything up (optimizing it to rank high in search results here included)
... seems too time-consuming for you, we're here to help.
Just drop us a line and let's get you that Shopify store that engages and drives sells.
Image by Darwin Laganzon from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jul 29'2020
See? We are a team of our word.
As promised in Part 1, we're back with 5 more steps to add to your SEO Shopify checklist.
And to boost the ranking of your new Shopify store (and its traffic, and the sales, and... all the "good stuff" that comes from an effective SEO strategy).
So, let's dive right in. Here are the other 5 simple, yet effective improvements that you can make to your eCommerce website:
Step 6: Optimize Your Product Pages
"How does a Shopify store rank on Google?"
It "bets" on a mix of unique product descriptions and on-product-page SEO best practices.
"Often times product pages don't have the content that they need to perform well in the SERPs" (MOZ.com)
With so many eCommerce brands still striving to get the most out of these 2 totally ineffective tactics:
using the same description on multiple product pages across their websites
displaying the manufacturers' descriptions on their product pages
... you stand high chances to get your own product pages to rank higher in the SERPS.
Now, let's get specific.
6.1. 4 Best Practices to Increase Engagement on Your Product Pages
add unique content to each page (don't be that Shopify store owner who uses the same content across all his/her product pages!)
write your own product descriptions (and make sure to create one for each product in your inventory; focus on their best features and benefits)
add product reviews and highlight ratings
add high-quality images and videos of your products
link to related products
Source: spiegel.medill.northwestern.edu
Tip! One of the best SEO Shopify apps that you could use at this point is Product Reviews. It'll add SEO-friendly scores to all your product pages.
6.2. 3 Best Practices to Keyword Optimize Your Product Pages
include your target keywords in the title tags, product descriptions, and meta descriptions
remember to add it to your ALT text for images, as well
make sure your keywords fit naturally into the text
And, again, I can't stress enough the importance of original and unique product descriptions!
Step 7: Add a Blog, Another Critical Step On Your SEO Shopify Checklist
"If you’re seeing that Google is ranking more blog/article types of content for the keywords mapped to your Shopify store, your best bet is to go out and create that content yourself." (MOZ.com)
Now, let's say that, as you're building the SEO for your Shopify store, you're trying to rank for quite a lot of informational keywords ("How to...", "What's the best...", etc.).
You've already mapped them all to your store (i.e. to your product and your category pages) and... nothing. Your Shopify store's still on... page 10 in the searches for those keywords.
But what about those stores that do rank high for the same keywords with informational intent?
Is it their product/category pages that Google ranks? Or rather post from their blogs, that include those keywords?
Mystery solved.
If you want to have your store rank high for keywords with informational intent you need to add a blog to your Shopify site.
It's there that you can write informational (and epic) content around those specific keywords.
"Google is starting to prefer to rank more informational content above transactional. " (MOZ.com)
7.1. 4 Reasons Why You'd Want to Start Blogging on Your Shopify Store
face it: only a ridiculously small percent of your website's visitors access it with a clear intention to buy. To increase chances to turn them from visitors to customers, you need to... educate them; to provide them with informational content for each stage in the buyer's journey
once you write high-quality content on your blog you can send some of that authority to your product and category pages (which, otherwise, are so hard to link to); internal linking still is on of the best SEO tips for Shopify that you should make the most of
blog posts make great tools for "pitching" your products (just make sure you target the right keywords)
a blog is a perfect place on your website to add informational content that Google ranks high
"But what should I blog about?"
Glad you asked.
Here are 3 simple ways that you can come up with some killer blog post topics:
a. Ask yourself how your customers could get more value out of your product.
For instance, you might be selling... hand blenders. Then, you could come up with recipes on "how to make creamy tomato soup in just 3 minutes" using a particular feature of your blenders.
b. When you do your keyword research, make a list of all the user questions around those keywords.
Then, go ahead and "exploit" them: write blog posts around the questions that your future customers have.
c. Or, you can... brainstorm those questions.
Ask yourself what inquiries and dilemmas related to your products your customers might be dealing with.
For instance, you could be selling clothes made of a... revolutionary type of linen.
Your potential customers could be wondering: "What makes it so revolutionary?". Or "Why is linen so expensive?" or "What's the difference between cotton and linen?"
Step 8: Find and Fix all the Duplicate Content Issues
Removing all duplicates is one of the crucial steps to take for improving the SEO of your Shopify store.
It's also one of those issues common to Shopify stores in particular:
2 versions of your domain (with the same content) get indexed: the myshopify one and the custom domain one.
Tip! When you add your custom domain to Shopify, make sure to check that all the traffic gets automatically redirected to your primary domain.
How? Just go to Online Store > Domains and, if the message that you get there is “Traffic from your domains is not being redirected to this primary domain.”, click "Enable redirection".
If it says “Traffic from all your domains redirects to this primary domain", then you're safe.
But it's always best to check first.
This way, you avoid the scenario where you're making it harder than necessary for Google to rank your Shopify store. For it won't know which of the 2 indexed versions is the "official" one.
And speaking of the "duplicate content" danger that's greater in the case of Shopify websites, here are 2 ways that this eCommerce platform duplicates content.
8.1. It duplicates collection pages via pagination
Meaning that it duplicates the first product category page in a series.
You'll see “?page=1” included in the URL to the first page in that series.
And this URL is highly likely to have the same content as the first, non-parameterized URL.
So, when working on the SEO for your Shopify store, make sure to identify and to remove all the duplicate paginated URLs.
8.2. It duplicates product pages
You'll have your product pages rendering at 2 different URL paths:
the canonical one: /products/
the default, non-canonical one: /collections/.*/products/
Basically, Shopify creates several links for each category that a product is in.
How to fix that?
You can address this issue right in your theme's .liquid files. Just follow the step-by-step guide there to get it fixed.
Step 9: Use an Alternative to Robots.txt File to Control Google's Crawl
Why would you want to add this point to your SEO Shopify checklist?
Because in Shopify you cannot adjust the robots.txt file.
And, since you don't want Google to crawl the content on your website altogether, you'll need to look for alternatives.
You could, for instance, consider canonical or "no follow" tags.
Step 10: Build Links to Your Shopify Store
It's sill is one of the most challenging parts when doing SEO for Shopify in 2020.
But it's also one of the most powerful tactics, that can make or break an effective SEO strategy.
Still, no need to get discouraged.
There are a few simple and effective ways to get quality, relevant links to your Shopify store and boost its authority:
guest blog on relevant websites (remember to add a link to your online store in your blog post)
reach out to those websites that have already mentioned your brand (your products, your brand's name, etc.), but "overlooked" to include a link to your website, as well
form partnerships with publishers or other eCommerce businesses in your industry
find out who's linking to your competitors' stores and reach out to them
Our Recommendation for You Is...
... to balance out your SEO efforts and your efforts to provide the best user experience.
Your mail goal, as a Shopify store owner, should go beyond that of achieving a higher ranking:
More sales is your ultimate goal.
And for that, delivering the best user experience (a fast loading site, helpful image descriptions, useful content, etc.) is critical.
So, in addition to these 10 points on your SEO Shopify checklist, be sure to add another one:
Provide users with what they're looking for on your website. And make it easy for them to find it.
The better their experience will be, the higher your chances to have your site pushed up in the rankings.
Now, if you'd want to have your store bumped up in the search results, but without having to:
get tangled up in link building tactics
be on the lookout for duplicate content issues
come up with a unique and keyword-optimized description for every single product in your inventory
... just shift the burden to us.
Drop us a line and let's start building out the SEO strategy that'll set your Shopify store up for success!
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jul 17'2020