Web Work Weekly: Net Neutrality and 2018 E-Commerce Tools

From the Featured Article Series:
Web Work Weekly

By Milo Cruz | Last Updated: December 24, 2017

FCC Repeals Net Neutrality

The Internet has been buzzing over the FCC’s decision to repeal regulations for internet service providers (ISPs) last week. These regulations stop broadband providers from throttling your connection speeds, blocking websites, or charging for content access.

  • Groups like the American Sustainable Business Council are on record with an open letter about the adverse effects of the net neutrality repeal on small businesses. Many small businesses concur.
  • Here’s FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who voted against the repeal of net neutrality, on what small businesses stand to lose.
  • The repeal is only the latest in sweeping changes wrought by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who also lifted regulations that limited how much broadband providers could charge businesses.
  • Members of Congress are attempting to push a bill that will reinstate net neutrality rules. Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is leading a multi-state lawsuit against the FCC, due in part to the millions of fraudulent comments used to support the repeal.
  • Even Senator Jeff Merkley, a staunch supporter of net neutrality, has reported finding his name used in forged comments supporting the repeal. The New York Attorney General’s Office has made a portal to help you check if your name’s been used, too. Check it out today.

Mapping Out Customer Journeys

Are you interested in turning new customers into recurrent clients? Designer Bree Chapin talks about how customer journey maps can help you achieve that.

By visualizing key points in your customers’ experience, you can identify potential points of friction, streamline the whole process, and make it easier for customers to keep coming back to your company. Chapin imparts helpful tips for building an effective customer journey map and putting it to good use.

From WordPress to Mobile App

Mobile apps are on track to rake in $188.9 billion in 2020 — that’s a huge increase over their 2016 haul, which already weighs in at a whopping $88.3 billion. Is your mobile-responsive website enough to capitalize on this growth?

On Web Designer Depot, Rafay Ansari notes that it might not be. He walks you through the best plugins to turn your WordPress-powered site into a mobile app, ready for taking over customers’ mobile devices in 2018.

2018’s Hot E-Commerce SEO Tips

Speaking of 2018, are you ready to reel in new customers? Web Designer Depot also offers 10 fantastic SEO tips, especially for e-commerce websites. These range from the standard reminder to generate original content, to more specific details like modifying your robots.txt file. Check these out and gear up to rock next year’s search result pages.