Latest news with #MeekyHwang
Forbes
27-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How To Optimize WordPress For Enterprise Success
Meeky Hwang, CEO at Ndevr, with 20+ years in web development. The digital landscape is competitive. Enterprises need content management systems that deliver seamless performance, robust security and strategic flexibility to drive success. Some of the world's biggest and most complex websites are managed using WordPress. As a digital strategist with over 20 years of experience optimizing content management systems for large media organizations, I've seen WordPress transform operations by boosting engagement and revenue. For enterprises already using WordPress, the key to unlocking its potential lies in strategic optimization. Without optimization, even robust platforms are at risk of slowdowns, security gaps or inefficiencies that erode audience trust and revenue. Enterprises must move beyond basic setups to build resilient platforms that deliver measurable business outcomes. Below, I'll share some proven strategies to scale and enhance your WordPress platform, ensuring it supports growth, engages audiences and withstands disruptions. Consider Managed Hosting For Scalability The foundation of optimization is a reliable hosting environment. Many enterprises start with shared hosting, which can struggle under high traffic and lead to costly downtime. Managed hosting providers like WordPress VIP, Pantheon and WP Engine (full disclosure: we're an agency partner for each of these providers) use tools to distribute traffic and store data efficiently, ensuring your site stays online during demand spikes. This approach prevents disruptions, which can enhance user retention and ad revenue. Evaluate your hosting setup and consider upgrading to a managed provider if your site falters under pressure. Boost Site Performance For User Engagement Performance is critical for keeping users engaged and boosting business metrics like subscriptions or sales. Slow websites frustrate audiences and lower search rankings, directly impacting revenue. You can speed up your site using tools to deliver content faster worldwide, as well as caching solutions like WP Rocket to reduce server strain. I also recommend compressing images to lighten page loads and conducting regular checks with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to reveal issues such as bulky plug-ins or large media files. Audit your site's performance regularly and apply these fixes to drive measurable business growth. Implement Robust Security Measures Security is a cornerstone of enterprise platforms, especially for those handling sensitive data. WordPress's core software is highly secure—in 2023, only 0.2% of security vulnerabilities were core-related—but outdated plug-ins and lax management invite risks. Only 63.9% of WordPress sites run the latest version (6.8), leaving many vulnerable. I strongly recommend automating updates for WordPress as well as all of your themes and plug-ins. It's like locking your office daily to keep threats out. Consider adding security tools like Wordfence and limiting user access to essential roles to further protect your site. Conduct monthly reviews to catch issues early, safeguard data and maintain customer trust. Leverage WordPress Features For Efficiency WordPress's flexibility streamlines complex enterprise workflows. Its multisite feature lets you manage multiple websites, like regional or branded sites, from one dashboard, saving time and resources. Connecting with business tools like Salesforce for customer management or HubSpot for marketing campaigns enhances efficiency, while compliance-focused plug-ins can help ensure compliance with regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Review your workflows and adopt these tools to eliminate inefficiencies and boost operational success. Plan For Future Growth And Stability Planning for growth ensures your platform remains a long-term asset. To prevent data loss, create regular backups and put a solid recovery plan in place. Make sure your hosting is scalable to handle traffic surges. Train your team on WordPress best practices to empower your editors to create content quickly and your developers to maintain systems effectively. Your goal should be to build a platform that evolves with your business, ensuring sustained profitability. Navigate Ongoing Optimization Challenges Optimization requires ongoing effort to avoid pitfalls. Make sure you continuously monitor your site as traffic grows to prevent slowdowns that hurt revenue. Plug-in conflicts can disrupt functionality, so conduct regular compatibility checks as well. Establish update routines. Large WordPress sites may demand skilled developers, which can strain budgets, especially for smaller enterprises. Consider budgeting for expert support when you need it. Conclusion WordPress empowers enterprises to achieve digital excellence. By optimizing hosting, performance, security, workflows and growth planning, you can drive engagement, revenue and resilience. Start by auditing your WordPress site to identify gaps in performance, security or functionality. This proactive step ensures your platform delivers exceptional results, now and in the future. Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
Forbes
09-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
10 Must-Have Tools For The Best Digital Marketing Workflow
getty Digital marketing evolves at lightning speed, and staying effective means leveraging the right tools. From AI assistants to SEO analyzers and customer relationship management systems, the best marketers know what works and stick with it. These tools aren't just helpful—they keep campaigns on track, get leads converted and allow teams to move fast. Below, 10 members of Forbes Agency Council share the most essential tools they can't live without in their daily workflows. Read on to learn how these tools help them win in an increasingly competitive digital world. Perplexity with custom Spaces is my daily digital marketing essential. I've created tailored instructions that I refine regularly to stay current. It's like having a personal AI assistant that understands my workflow and provides insights, campaign tracking and content ideas in one place. This customized AI approach saves me hours of research and keeps me ahead in this fast-paced field. - Meeky Hwang, Ndevr, Inc I rely on Google Analytics daily. It cuts through opinions and shows what's actually happening—real user behavior, real conversions and real problems. Without data, marketing is just guesswork. Analytics turns campaigns from 'hope and pray' into 'test, measure, scale.' - William Polson, Australian Internet Advertising I use Semrush daily to spot ranking shifts, content gaps and competitor moves before they become problems. It gives me the kind of clarity that makes decisions feel less like guesses and more like strategy. It's the one tool that actually changed how I think about search—less like a checklist of rankings and more like eavesdropping on what people are trying to figure out. - Dmitrii Kustov, Regex SEO Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify? Using HubSpot CRM daily streamlines our sales and marketing by centralizing data, automating outreach and providing real-time insights. Our sales team can track deals, prioritize leads and personalize follow-ups, while marketing can nurture prospects with automated workflows. We can drive alignment, improve efficiency and accelerate growth with a unified view of customer interactions. - Elyse Flynn Meyer, Prism Global Marketing Solutions My reminders app is the tool I leverage daily as a digital marketer. I have separate reminder categories for all parts of my workflow—leads to follow up on, proposals to do, content to edit, posts to drop, ideas to work on and more—all compartmentalized nicely within one hub. It's become a crucial part of my marketing success by ensuring I know all I need to do to effectively market. - Tony Pec, Y Not You Media Instant messaging tools remain a go-to for efficient team interaction, real-time collaboration and streamlining workflows. They also help foster a more engaging employee experience through features that support recognition, gamifying work and team dynamics. Combined with calendar integrations, they help keep everyone aligned and on schedule. - Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne Advertising Spreadsheets may not be sexy, but I live in them. Going all the way back to my days as the CMO of Gateway Computers, from forecasting to campaign analysis, spreadsheets give me clarity, speed and control over the numbers. I pour over the precision they provide because when you're making decisions that move fast and affect the bottom line, precision matters. - Mary Ann O'Brien, OBI Creative One tool I rely on daily is Google Search Console. It provides essential insights into keyword rankings, click-through rates and indexing issues. This helps me adapt our strategy based on real-time user behavior, optimize low-performing content and maintain technical SEO health. It's a core part of ensuring our organic performance stays aligned with search intent and business goals. - Ajay Prasad, GMR Web Team I use Ahrefs daily to monitor backlinks, track keyword performance and analyze competitors. Having real-time SEO insights allows me to spot opportunities quickly and adjust strategies before trends shift, keeping campaigns agile and data-driven. - Boris Dzhingarov, ESBO Ltd I personally use ChatGPT daily for the simple fact that I can, in essence, 'collaborate' and build on ideas whenever I need to. Our teams have taken to this as well—creating ad messaging variations, repurposing content and even analyzing data. We love to collaborate as a team; however, when time is short, ChatGPT can be an invaluable tool for ideating, expanding and improving ideas on the fly. - Bernard May, National Positions
