8 Deadly Mistakes a Pro WordPress Developer Should Avoid!

By James Tredwell on February 22, 2020

Mistakes are a sign that you are advancing and learning and what’s even experience if you haven’t made any mistakes along the way? The same rule applies to the web developers if you are a beginner reading this then it’s a smart move and if you are an advanced developer then chances are you might have made at least one of the listed below.

Website design is a challenging task and once you learn to do it you can breakthrough as a web developer and either work as a freelancer or join any web design agency. However, before doing that make sure you learn to meet the requirements that might come your way and one of the best ways to do it is practising making mistakes and learning.

As they say, if you make a mistake it’s natural but if you don’t learn anything from the mistake then it’s a mistake in itself. Here are a few of the most common WordPress mistakes that web developers make.

1. Confusing the WordPress platforms:

WordPress caters to the need of various users ranging from bloggers to businesses from beginners to experts and therefore, has two different platforms for each of these users. One of the mistakes which various developers especially those who are starting new fail to realize the difference between the two platforms.

For experts and professionals like those in a web development company WordPress has WordPress.org, this one is a self-hosted platform charging a premium with various features to build a personal domain based website. On the other hand, there’s WordPress.com that is designed for beginners it’s a free platform letting the beginners get a hang of on how, to begin with, the websites.

2. Having one file for all JavaScript Codes:

If you hate websites that take hours, okay, minutes to load then you must not do this mistake with yours. There are many web developer who does the grave mistake of saving all their javascript file in one folder and the size keep on increasing. This act makes your page to heavy to load, hence, it is advised to sort these codes out and make their related and appropriate folders. Secondly, the management of these codes become a tedious task in itself. Even if you queue them up and do a little update of any one of the codes it can mess up the whole sorting that you did.

3. Using common names for functions and classes:

WordPress has tons of plugins and each plugin has its unique name but at times these names become common and you might end up naming functions and classes a similar name. This can create quite a lot of trouble and confusion between codes and functions. This is why many developers around various best web development agencies tend to use the PHP model for naming this resolves confusion and moreover, increases the recalling of codes.

4. Wasting too much money on hosting:

How many times did you give up on the idea of a website just because the web development company asked you to pay half of your net worth? You need to identify the features that are absolutely necessary for your websites, research, learn and pay for what’s necessary. Moreover, with the plugins, website themes and a bit of tutorial you can even begin with a basic website yourself that will help you save some major chunk of money. Hence, wasting too much money on hosting isn’t a wise option what’s wise is to get the best results in fewer investments.

5. Not applying the right PHP codings:

PHP coding is like the CCTV camera for your website it can save you from all those trying to break in or if it is not a good one then it can ruin your entire website. WordPress initially is very basic however, there are codes that can strengthen the security of your website and can prevent any potential “burglar” or hacker from breaking in. Further, make sure that you are not “admin” change the username because that’s one name that’s easy to hack.

6. Failing to use WordPress to its true potential:

One thing very important about WordPress is it regularly updates itself and you can take benefit from the feature that WordPress provides. Instead of filling up your themes and plugins with additional files and weights lookout for similar options in the core themes and plugins. This will help you in creating an effective and efficient website. Moreover, by keeping up with the updates you will make your website secure and up to the requirement of the users.

7. Ignoring backups

Another mistake that commonly various WordPress website developers make is ignoring constant backups. Where many hosting companies or web design agencies will charge you for constant back up and work you can also learn to use these backup plugins already available on WordPress. This is very important to consider as it helps you from maintaining and saving your data and keeps your content from losing. And it also provides the necessary security to the website as well.

8. Ignoring the terms and conditions:

If you are someone who has always ignored terms and conditions and went ahead accepting them without even reading them now isn’t the time. As in this case you can’t simply ignore the terms and conditions implied by WordPress especially if you are using wordpress.org. WordPress will send you websites and notification telling about the updates and requirements that you need to fulfill for your website. Failure in complying with the requirements can throw your hard work into drains.

Conclusion:

Mistakes are one thing that only helps you learn and no matter what the level of your expertise is it’s always better to work harder and learn. Similarly, when it comes to WordPress website development there are some mistakes that everyone makes but for advance level developers this can be a shock to their careers. Hence, the list above is the compilation of all those mistakes that can ruin the hard work behind your website.

How to Make Your Website More Accessible? Try These 11 Tips Today

By James Tredwell on January 18, 2020

How to make your website more accessible? Well, experts are yet to find the perfect answer as it involves numerous factors like page designing, promotion and SEO ranking tactics etc. However, you do have the option of incorporating subtle changes to reap the rewards later on in the form of increased engagements on your website.

For instance, if your website deals with certain product reviews, you should make your site accessible to all the people, including disabled individuals. Thus, customization of the website is necessary. If you are looking forward to draw more visitors, make sure your website has the following specifications:

1. Mobile-Friendly Optimization

You can expect almost 75% of your visitors to be using personal digital assistants like smartphones or tablets. Thus, you need to design your site accordingly. However, in order to make your site appealing, do not resort to high sensitive light, like a flashlight.

For instance, until now, it was known that using a strobe effect will get your visitors hooked onto the content instantly. But, recent studies prove that this is not the case in reality with most people resenting the effect.

2. Tagged Pictures

Want more engagements on your website? Then you need to take a look at the broad spectrum. Your site may be visited by visually-impaired individuals or even by people using outdated devices. Thus, it is safe to assume that most of the pictures that you insert in your site cannot be viewed by the people.

So, how do you plan to compensate for the issue? Well, you can try out tagging the pictures with relevant and descriptive texts. It will be accessible to the people using older machines, or even updated browsers.

3. Suitable Forms

How do you feel about taking things up a notch? Addition of forms is definitely worth giving a shot. While designing them, it is essential that you pay attention to minor details and label each field clearly. Place the labels beside the respective fields. It becomes easier for those individuals using a screen reader.

Also, you need to keep in mind that not all the visitors will have an idea of the content that is currently on display on the website. Thus, you need to provide adequate information so that they feel comfortable.

4. Proper Structured

Sometimes, making things better is not only about incorporating intricate aspects. If you wish to make your site visible to a large audience, you just have to structure your content so that it can be comprehended by all. And it can be done very easily by including appropriate headers for the content you have written.

Moreover, the individuals using a screen reader will also benefit from this step. This is because clear headers help in interpreting the pages easily. Also, in-page navigation becomes hassle-free. Just make sure that the readers are relevant.

5. Authentic Transcriptions

How to make sure that your heard-of-hearing visitors do not face any issue while browsing through your website? Well, technology is evolving to make sure no one is left out in this fast-paced world. Regardless, you need to do your bit.

If your website features videos or podcasts, make sure that you help out your visitors by including a transcribed version of the podcasts. As far as the videos are concerned, you can add a closed-captioning or you can provide subtitles so that they can get the hang of the content.

6. Resizable Texts

Have you tried enabling resizable texts? This strategy is beneficial as your visitors use a variety of devices to view the content of the website. If you enforce this feature, it will help out your visually-impaired visitors to readjust the text size for enhanced vision.

This should be taken into consideration while you design the website. You can use relative text sizes, which will make your site more responsive. Before your content is live, be sure not to disable the user scalability feature.

7. Keyboard-Friendly Optimization

If making your website more accessible is the number one criteria for you, you need to make sure that the website is not only restricted to mouse or track pad use. This is because people having disabilities rely on keyboards to scroll through the content.

Through the “Tab” key, they are able to navigate the website. Moreover, the keyboard is a versatile device which can be modified to provide the disabled visitors with shortcuts.

8. Proper Color Combination

As per a recent study, different people perceive colors in unique ways. Thus, if you want to improve the visibility of the website, use contrasting colors. You need to make sure that the text stands out from the background.

To make your website accepted by a diversified audience, it is imperative that you steer clear from red, green, blue and yellow combinations and use high-contrasting colors.

9. Simplified Tables

There are certain things which if executed correctly, yields productive results. Insertion of tables is one such aspect. Tables are used to display data in an effective way. However, you must keep it as simple as possible so that all your visitors can comprehend the information.

You must not use tables for lists, layouts, etc, as it is confusing for screen readers to distinguish the distinct data values. Thus, you must make sure that the tables have been used in the right places.

10. No Automatic Media

Media files playing automatically can be a bit disturbing for the visitors. Sometimes, even before the page loads, the music starts to play which can be inconvenient for some users, especially the visitors who are blind.

The sudden noise disrupts the peace of mind and can be frightening at times. This issue is more prominent for the visitors using screen readers. Thus, you must insert media which can only be heard by the visitors who wish to listen to it.

11. Accessible Content

Now that you have taken care of all the aspects, it is time to focus on the content. You should pay attention to all the minor details like elaborating the acronyms, and explaining the technical jargons that the common people might not be aware of.

In addition to this, you should make sure that the website does not have dynamic content. Also check that the links you provide are unique, so that people will be able to recognize it instantly.

Hopefully, the strategies mentioned above will help you out in drawing more visitors to your website. Good Luck!

Author Bio: Andy Alvin is an active blogger and a website developer. Moreover, he is associated with MyAssignmnethelp.com as a supervisor where he checks the assignments like “Ford SWOT Analysis” written by the experts.

7 Tips For Effective Promotion Of WordPress Design Company

By James Tredwell on January 4, 2020

An increasing number of people are looking for professionals who can convert HTML to WordPress websites or migrate from other formats to the open-source platform. The demand for WordPress designers is growing by the day and it has become a good career option. Many people start their own design firm after getting a few projects. The challenge they face is in the promotion of WordPress design company to attract new clients. Providing quality service is the key to establish yourself in the domain but marketing is equally important. Professionals must know how to promote their agency in the virtual world so that a large number of people come to know about it. Professional service along with an effective promotional strategy can be a winning combination ensuring success for the business. In this article, we are presenting a few valuable tips that will be helpful to WordPress design firm owners.

1. Research Your Target Audience

Cold calling is an old marketing tactic which involves reaching out to an unknown potential customer. A variation of it is sending cold e-mails to prospective consumers. Many professionals use this strategy in the hope that at least a few people will show interest. This will only result in the loss of valuable time. Designers must identify their target audience. They can choose a business category which they have worked for before. This must be followed by researching the target audience to find people who are in need of web design services. This will always be a much better approach rather than sending random emails.

2. Leverage Social Media For Your Benefit

Social media has emerged as a powerful marketing platform and you must use it to promote your business. Create your profiles on major networks and post useful content on them. Post updates about the work you have done on channels like Facebook and Twitter. This will help in building up the image of your company as an expert in the domain. Quora is another good platform for the purpose. You can answer questions related to your area of expertise along with a link to your website. Remember that being active on social channels does not mean posting content every hour. This will only lead to spamming and will be harmful to your business.

3. Build A Presence On The WordPress Theme Directory

The WordPress theme director is a good avenue for promoting your agency. It is the first stop for users looking for pre-built templates for their websites. Create a few themes and upload them on the directory. Include well-written descriptions so that people are interested in checking out your products. It will be sensible if you focus on a particular industry in the beginning. You must build the new themes for a business segment you have experience in. This will also be helpful in narrowing down the target audience which will increase the chances of getting a client.

4. Plan Your Online Advertising Campaign

Online advertising is a good strategy for the promotion of WordPress design company if used intelligently. Plan your advertising campaign in detail and think about the content that will prompt a person to click. Create a specific landing page where people will be directed to after clicking on an ad. Put a relevant call to action on this page so that visitors can be converted into users. Many people see increased traffic to their websites after posting ads but the conversion rate does not improve. It requires a well-thought-out strategy like one mentioned here to make advertisements work to your advantage.

5. Devise A Pricing Strategy For Online Job Boards

Many people frequent online job boards in search of clients. The challenge is to stand out among the crowd of WordPress designers on such forums. More often than not, a client uses price as the deciding factor when making the selection. You must make a careful assessment of the prices being offered by other professionals. Do not try to beat the competition by setting the lowest price. Try to choose a figure that will appeal to clients as well as secure your profit. Job boards are good places for making money but never depend solely on them for getting work.

6. Build An Email List

One of the best ways to create a sustainable user base is by building an email list. Once people visit your website, encourage them through call-to-action to join your mailing list. Follow up with them at regular intervals of time by sharing useful content with them. Hire professionals to create good quality content matter for your emails and newsletters.

7. Conduct A/B Testing To Improve The Efficiency

Split testing or A/B testing is a good method to test the efficiency of the promotional strategy. When you use a promotional tactic, try to employ two versions of the same method. For instance, create two kinds of newsletters and see which one generates more response. Use this strategy for assessing the effectiveness of all the promotional methods. This will help in fine-tuning your overall marketing strategy and improving the business prospects of your firm.

Conclusion

Owners need to be proactive while doing promotion of WordPress design company in order to build a sustainable user-base and establish themselves in the business segment.

6 Major Reasons to Integrate CMS to Your Website

By James Tredwell on December 24, 2019

Hello, Do you agree with the fact that the website is the heart of your business? If yes, then CMS (Content Management System) is the core of your website. 

And the report says, more than 65% of the web applications across the globe are developed using CMS. Some of the popular websites developed with CMS are Quart, BCC America, TechCrunch, Van Heusen, and many more. 

Why so many websites go for CMS?

Because CMS allows you to maintain every single thing for your content without the need for technical knowledge. 

So, why CMS is important for your web application? Why go for CMS? How it can help to increase the ROI of your business? Is CMS good for digital content?   

Are these questions troubling you? No worries! In this article, I’ll give the answers to every question mentioned above.         

6 Reasons To Choose CMS For Your Website

The popularity of CMS is increasing day and day. Below given are the few reasons for it. 

Easy Access & Collaboration

CMS allows many users to have access to your website, as well as collaborate on various projects. In short, with a content management system, from a single account, multiple people can edit, update or add content. 

You even don’t need to send multiple files as CMS allows you to store the content online and anyone can access it. You can access it from anywhere you wish too. It is the most convenient feature ad it gives the flexibility to work remotely. Besides all, it is much more suitable for on-the-go people. They can rapidly make changes in content with CMS.   

No Technical Knowledge Required

It is the key advantage of the CMS, you can seamlessly manage your website despite not having any technical knowledge. You can edit content or upload images just with dew steps.  It is as simple as creating a document in Microsoft Word. You can even style your content with the editors available on the content management system. 

Changes in Design are Simple

If you’re in a plan to make changes in the design of your site, CMS will help you with that. In CMS, content and design are two different parts. Henceforth, it is easy to change the design while keeping sight functional. One more advantage here, you can alter your administrative dashboard and it automatically gets propagated to the entire site. And it is important for branding. CMS will even improve the mobile interface of your site. 

In essence, the new design will replace the old design, without any need for a complete overhaul of the website.     

Affordable Option

To make changes in the website is troublesome, time-consuming and costly. With the help of the CMS, you can save time as well as money. As you can make simple changes with CMS on your own. The best thing is you don’t need to rely on developers. You can make changes as per your niches. I can say that CMS puts you on the driver sit for your website. 

Advanced Plugins & Tools for SEO

CMS comes with the advanced plugins which, in turn, will help your site to rank better on most of the search engines. Using these tools with your regular marketing strategies will help you to get more traffic. The advantage you get here, these plugins and tools are up-to-date with any changes made by the search engines. Therefore, you can keep your website optimised as per niches.  

Security

Today, hacking is a serious issue for website owners. And it is more common for the eCommerce sites. The main reason to hack a website is to gain the personal information of the users. However, CMS constantly undergoes various tests by the expert developers and designers to keep your website safe. Moreover, to increase the security of your website, CMS has designed various tools and plugins.  

CMS to Increase ROI of your business

Yes, you heard it right CMS development services can help you to increase the ROI of your business. 

CMS is up-to-date with the changes made by search engines, therefore your web application will know the latest changes. By continuously updating or creating new content, you can keep the search engines happy and, in turn, increase the ROI. Search engines crawl website faster when you adapt changes and do it regularly. This will keep your website on the front pages helping you to get more traffic and increase ROI. You have better chances to get better rankings in SERP. 

CMS saves the information of contact form thus you can never miss any business leads. Thereupon, your business will make more conversions. A CMS will let your web application create a more efficient online presence and lead to increase ROI. All you need to do here is hire CMS development company and you are done. Thus, you don’t need more staff for your business and save a few bucks here.  

Popular CMS platforms

After getting every glimpse of the CMS, let us go through some of the most popular CMS development websites.

WordPress:

WordPress is one of the largest CMS platforms around the world. They have millions of plugins for your website. It will allow you to add anything you can think of. Since its launch in 2003, WordPress is a favorite platform among users as it is easy to use.  In one word, it is an all in one marketing platform.   

HubSpot:

HubSpot will let you all the features you need in an integrated CMS that is easy-to-use. The platform is famous for offering WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) page design. Wherein you can edit the content, responsive designs and much more. In addition to all these, it will allow you to personalize your website and get a multi-device testing for the same.  

Joomla:

It is the second most used open-source CMS to build websites. Joomla will allow you to create the most innovative website pages without coding. Joomla is used by more than 75 million websites across the globe. If you are looking for a simple CMS without any advanced features, it will suit you the best.  

Are you Ready to Integrate CMS to Your Web Application?

I can say that the content management system can be a game-changer for your website. It can save your time and money, by giving you a good ROI to your business. 

What are you waiting for? Go and get the CMS development company for your website!!

In case you run out for any queries, let us know in the comment section below!

Everything You Need to Know About Green UX

By James Tredwell on November 27, 2019

With the many benefits that technology brings, it also drags along the dark cloud of climate change. This dark cloud hanging over all of us – which is mostly made up of CO2 – is a deadly threat to our future. As a matter of fact, the rise in carbon emissions is largely attributable to the IT sector – the sector that defines the 21st century and includes everyone from tech giants such as Microsoft or Google to UX designers. Connecting the entire globe, the whole sector requires an enormous amount of energy.

If you zoom into it a little, you’ll realize the internet alone is responsible for 300m tonnes of carbon emissions annually, higher than the collective annual output of the aviation sector. A study conducted by Mozilla revealed that data centers alone hold the same carbon footprint as global air travel.

Moreover, now when technologies like 5G come to rule the near future, using up more electricity to deliver data faster, it is a ridiculous idea to ignore the energy consumption linked to IT. The increasing electricity-intensive demands for IT translate into more coal burning.

Luckily, UX designers are playing a role to alleviate this trend of consuming without giving a thought about the repercussions that will follow. The goal is now to deliver a great experience to users while also managing to reduce energy consumption as much as possible. This is where Green UX aka Sustainable UX comes into play.

Sustainable UX design means smarter websites, a better UX, and a greener internet.

3 Ways Sustainable UX Can Help You Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

So designers, it’s time to bid farewell to dirty energy. Take a look into how you can fight back your carbon footprint through sustainable UX.

1. Leverage Remote Tools

It may be surprising, but the digital design can leave a humongous carbon footprint. Sharpies, iPads, business travels – all add up fast. Luckily, they are ripe for reduction.

Secondly, what you can do is minimize traveling. Although it is not as easy as cutting back on stationery, you’ll be astonished how much reducing travel can positively impact the climate. Yes, users have to be interviewed, conferences have to be attended, clients have to be met. But here’s the good news: remote tools are here to save the day. If you’re a typical designer or a web design company in Dallas or located anywhere else for that matter, there are several design-sharing tools like InVision that allow you to easily carry out reviews remotely without disruption. From remote research tools to workshop alternatives, you have various tools to fit your specific needs.

Say, for instance, 900,000 employed UX people around the globe save three tons of CO2 each year, collectively it’d be a saving of 2.7 million tons of CO2 compared to business as usual. That is tantamount to shutting down an entire coal-fired power-station.

2. Save Bytes, Reduce CO2

The next step is to trim down the amount of data your sites and services use to significantly reduce pollution. Just like you may swap a gas-guzzler for a hybrid to decrease your mileage.

Merely switching to green internet services doesn’t fix the issue of internet-derived CO2 emissions, and therefore doesn’t suffice. You may have the power to choose the data center you wish to use. However, once the bits and bytes leave the building, you still have to make your way through the internet – a mixture of CDNs, copper and fiber, home cable, network switches and of course Wi-Fi – while ensuring you have the energy to keep the data moving.

The average web page has mushroomed from a size of 500KB in 2011 to 4MB in 2019. A modern site typically uses multiple JavaScript libraries, high-resolution images, web fonts and video, all of which need to process large volumes of data.

Majority of the designers add these features into their designs without taking into consideration the impact it will have on page size or site speed. Usually, people don’t feel the weight of the web pages due to the fast internet connection. But people on slower connections feel the slowdown when web pages take ages to download.

There are multiple businesses recognizing the benefits of cutting back the data-intensity of their web presence. Basically, minimizing data use speeds up sites and improves the overall user experience. Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean a low-data site will provide a poor user experience. A low-data site can still be attractive and interactive. Guess what you have?  Higher user satisfaction, better conversion and more sustainable UX. It is a win-win situation!

Let’s dig into some remedies that can help you reduce data use. Check your existing URLs through measuring tools like PageSpeed so as to seek suggestions on speeding up your website, cutting down data and thus, saving CO2. Another good trick is to optimize images through tools since images occupy the biggest portion of your site’s data footprint.

3.Use Green Hosting

Stopping to use the web is clearly not an option, but building and powering it the right way can not only make it planet-friendly but also user-friendly. Google, for example, is transitioning to green hosting, powering its server farms with renewable energy. Amazon Web Services (the largest cloud hosting provider) is also moving in that direction but is still relatively dirty.

So when it comes to choosing cloud solutions, look at their green index to know which video streaming platforms or social media we should be using to enhance our sites. You might want to check out GreenPeace’s report to get a better idea. Say when choosing a video provider, you might want to know that YouTube scores an A for sustainability. On the other hand, Vimeo gets a D. This will prove to be extremely helpful.

Wrapping It Up

In the wake of global warming, overlooking the environmental effects of our websites and internet use is a huge blunder. Green UX is an invitation for designers to realize the benefits of internet and identify what is required to keep it going. They need to incorporate Sustainable UX design to keep a tight rein on our energy consumption and move forward in this digitally connected world without harming the environment.

Author Bio :- Loius Martin is a Creative Marketing Manager at Invictus Studio. Along with managing the digital aspects of Theresaworthy.com – a motivational speaker in Atlanta, he does guest blogging for multiple websites.

 

Contact Us for Free Consultation

Are You Planning to outsource Digital Tansformation services? Feel free for work-related inquiries, our experts will revert you ASAP,