Category: Web design

Why do you create a website for your business?

There could be various reasons for having a dedicated website for your business but none more important than having a digital presence.

In today’s hyper-connected world, if your brand don’t have a digital footprint, your brand does not exist.

What if get a website to have a digital presence but still your brand is nowhere to be found? As a business, you don’t want that but this is exactly what happens when you don’t design your website with search engines in mind.

Business owners make web design mistakes that cost them their rankings and brand visibility as well as revenue.

In this article, you will learn about common web design mistakes that push your website down in search engine rankings.

#1. Non Mobile Friendly Website

With ubiquity of mobile devices and access to high speed internet connectivity on the go, more and more people are using their mobile devices to access the web.

If you don’t have a responsive website, you will be losing out on this huge user segment.

That is not all; Google is also penalizing websites that have non mobile friendly designs and pushing such websites down its search results.

If you still don’t have a mobile friendly website, you might have bear the brunt in terms of lower rankings on search engines. What this means is that fewer people will visit your website and your conversion rate will be low.

Moreover, Google has also released a separate index for mobile, which goes to show how much importance search engines gives to responsive website.

#2. Annoying Pop Ups

Your marketing team might convince you to use pop ups to promote different offers but if you are using huge pop ups that covers the entire page or content, then you might get penalized by search engines like Google.

Yes, pop ups are great for conversions but make sure you use them where needed and make them as less intrusive as possible. Search engines pay a lot of attention to user experience.

If the pop ups are hampering the user experience of your website and users are bouncing off it, search engines will push it down its rankings.

If you go overboard with pop ups, it can frustrate users and they will abandon your website. As a business, you want your visitors to stay longer on your website so you should use pop ups only when necessary.

#3. Slow Page Load Times

Another important factor search engines take into account is page load times. If your website is loaded with all the bells and whistles such as fancy animations, high resolution images or videos, it will take longer to load. This does not go down well with search engines.

According to a research by Kissmetrics, almost half of your visitors will abandon your website if it fails to load in less than 3 seconds. What’s worse is that they will never come back to your website and won’t recommend it to others.

Get rid of extra baggage and make your website nimble so it can load instantly because users expect instant response from your website when they visit your website.

Any delay can increase your bounce rate as user leaves your website. Chicago web Design Company understands this and create web design that are functional as well as eye catching.

#4. Ignoring Heading Tags

Another common mistake that most businesses make is that they neglect heading tags and Meta tags. Have you ever paid close attention to a search result?

If you have then you might never ignore heading and Meta tag because that is what shows up in search results.

Search engines assess what your web page is about by Meta title and Meta description so they can present the right result on right query.

Take advantage of heading tags and include keywords in title and Meta description. This will increase your chances of ranking for that particular keywords.

#5. Poor Implementation of 404 Pages

When a search engine crawl your website, it looks at all the pages of your website and if your website has broken links or pages with 404, then it sends a negative signal to search engine.

Run a website audit and make sure all links are properly working. Use a site map to make it easier for search engines to crawl your website.

Even if you have 404 pages on your website, make sure you display the right message and ensure they are implemented correctly otherwise, it can negatively affect your rankings.

#6. Excessive Use of Flash

In quest to make your website look appealing, web designers tend to go overboard and excessively use flash. Yes, this might make your website look great but it will also make your website heavy.

This means that it takes longer to load. What’s more, flash is also not compatible with all web browsers, which makes using too much flash a risky option.

Users might bump into compatibility issues and will never visit your website again. For a business, that is a much steeper price to pay to make their website look good. There are other alternatives you can use instead of flash.

#7. Lack of Internal Links

You land on a website but could not figure out how to navigate to different pages of the website. What will be your reaction be? You will abandon the website, right.

As a business, it is your duty to make the user experience of your website as smooth as possible and allow users to jump to any page of your website.

Despite this, many businesses don’t focus on adding internal links. The easier you make it for users to explore your website, the more they will explore. Add internal links to make website navigation less of hassle for users.

Which is the biggest web design mistake you have made that has negatively influenced your search engine rankings? Feel free to share it with us in the comments section below.

This article is contributed by Syed Hassan, Mobile app developer at Branex — Chicago web Design Company.

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Do you have a great product idea which can turn over mankind?

You will surely want to test it against a few product validation methods before jumping in with the idea. Indeed, do not start to invest more time and energy into your product until and unless you determine whether it is going to be viable or not.

The only way to make sure whether it is actually viable is by taking help of few validation methods that will get you an idea about the market consumers whether they are interested in purchasing your product idea.

#1. Go for Cash Register

The very first and foremost way to validate your product is to prioritize sales as nothing is more important than the customers who are seeing the value in your product and exchanging it for the money.

Always remember that it is a vital part of your business building to talk to some potential customers until and unless the people pay you their list of assumptions. You can also try to figure out the right path in the right direction by taking help of some market research, surveys and feedbacks as the real validations only begin after setting an appropriate strategy. This will happen after a few sales where complete strangers will purchase your product and you will get to know if that has fulfilled their need.

#2. Concentrate on Competitive Analysis

When you are in the ideation stage or want to sell your product, ‘Research’ can become useful as by exploring the market trends in real-time helps you to mitigate risks and boosts confidence in your ideas before spending too much of time and money. Ensure to evaluate the market before launching your product to see if there is enough demand to build a viable business. There always exists a healthy market to sell by your products if you pay a little attention at your direct competition and find out what are they doing compared to what you are planning to do.

Discover your competitors using Google search and also you can go for hashtags on Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook. Research on how your competitors are interacting with their customers on social media though posts and products. With all of these tactics, you can check out the negative feedback about your product and also search for some new ways to improve them.

#3. Catch the Trends

Go for analyzing the demand and search volume in order to validate your product and its market. You can try your hands on Google Trends — an open source and free tool which allows you to check how often customers have been looking for your product and analyzes the market behavior to make a more informed decision for figuring out which type of products are trending up or being stagnant.

After having the sense of your customer base, it is vital to find better ways to communicate with them so they can provide some feedback. A free survey can be added into your web development which is considered as one of the quickest and easiest ways to provide friends and family with your minimum viable product and gather feedbacks.

#4. Consult your Customers in-person

You can also try to recommend them to sign up for a craft show or a local market. This will help to provide a convenient way to gather quick and first-handed feedback from potential customers. Selling the product in person adds an extra benefit of a strict deadline which you need to take action for. Such deadlines act as a forcing function which will help you to get your products ready and to get yourself ready by selling them.

Go searching for the markets that fit well in your brand or product. Consider a set of questions ready to ask customers like their preferences on color and flavor and what if they compete products they are currently using. In the end, test the different price points to check if a certain price works the best for your product when you are in your early stages.

The Road Ahead

It is vital for all the entrepreneurs to keep in mind not to let validation turn into any kind of procrastination. It is useful to do the initial legwork in order to validate your product as it boosts your confidence by giving yourself out there and avoid any costly mistakes by saving time and money.

Every product has to learn ad they grow and so companies will need to predict how everything will play out with just delays from shipping to selling a real product. Dipping your toes in the water can actually teach you a lot but all your personal research and analysis can ultimately get you to the top of that pivotal moment when you finally dive in.

This article is contributed by Stephanie Donahole,Business Analyst at Tatvasoft Australia — web development company in Australia

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Your website serves as a platform to promote your business. It’s an excellent tool to sell yourself, as well as your products and services. It’s also your biggest marketing asset.

But in this fast-paced and digital world, it’s challenging to catch up with the latest trends. Also, you know how cumbersome it is to entice people with ads, get your website positioned the right way, and build organic traffic.

To help you out, we’ve compiled the seven practical ways you can boost your site’s UX and organic reach.

Improve Site Readability

People rarely read every text that is posted online these days. They merely skim through it. It’s essential that your pages are well-structured and give the basic notes on the most vital information.

Simplify your language and cut the fluff. Take off any unnecessary or difficult wording.

An excellent tip to ensure that your writing remains clear and concise is to check with the Hemingway app, then take in the suggestions there. It’s straightforward to use and often gives suggestions to improve the structure of your sentences.

Note that there must be a space between the headers and texts. Breaking up paragraphs into smaller chunks will make it easier to read. Lists and bullet points should also be used.

Use White Space Wisely

A key element in excellent web design is whitespace. Also called as the negative space, it’s a margin that’s created around the content to make images and text blocks stand out.

The spacing makes your website more open and relatively easy to use. It functions like a web page’s “breathing room.” It makes your content readable and compelling.

Research has shown that using whitespace on texts and headlines improves the user’s attention by over 200%. It’s because users are only focusing on one thing, instead of being distracted with the sidebar and other site elements.

By making room for more whitespace, users are more inclined to engage with that particular content.

Note, however, that you also have to balance the need for valuable content versus whitespace.

Present a Prominent CTA

Users are navigating your site via visual cues that take them between vital pieces of content.

Calls to action, also known as CTAs, utilizes bold buttons and active words that help users navigate around your site. It also prompts them to take the next step.

Note that when you’re crafting your CTA buttons, also consider the influence of colors in human psychology. Different color hues evoke different feelings and results from users. The colors of your CTAs can either cause you a disjoint in UX or a boost in conversions.

Also, consider the words you place on the buttons. Using active verbs usually drives more actions and better results. The more time-sensitive and actionable your CTAs are, the better your conversions will be.

Improve Your Site Navigation

You don’t want web visitors to be stranded while exploring your site, making them frustrated and leaving eventually. Provide a well-organized navigation.

You don’t need to have several tabs in your navigation, just stick with the essential ones. You can place another navigation in your footer, so it’s convenient to go elsewhere once users reach the bottom.

Place the search at all times, that way, users can easily find anything.

Content-wise, place internal links (several of them) to ensure more information page available in context.

Don’t Use Stock Photos

Making an excellent first impression is crucial. A lot of people are already judging websites before they can even decide to go further.

The moment they land on your site and see a generic stock photo they saw somewhere on the web, some of them will click away, never to return.

Stock photography somehow decreases credibility and trust. It also sends out a message that your brand is generic and not authentic.

The bottom line here is that although stock images are high-quality, it doesn’t form a connection with your audience.

Stock photography isn’t capable of conveying your brand, products, and services. Only your actual images and photos can do that.

Use your images and put them on strategic areas to support your content and provide a visual break on your texts. Also, make sure that they’re relevant to your brand.

Optimize Your Site for Mobile

There’s no way around it ‒ your site needs to be responsive and mobile friendly. Users are accessing your site not only through their desktops but via their smartphones and tablets as well.

Optimizing your site for mobile is one of the most effective ways to improve the usability of your website.

If this fact hasn’t convinced you enough, users are five times more likely to leave if a site isn’t mobile-friendly.

So it’s crucial that your web design should load in all types of devices.

Google is penalizing sites that aren’t mobile-friendly. So if you want to show up on the top results, you need to make your website more responsive.

To know whether your site is mobile-friendly or not, take Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.

Optimize Your Site Speed

Have you ever been to a site that takes forever to load? Chances are, you left and moved on to faster loading sites.

Your site speed is the most essential element on your site because it enhances the overall user experience. People these days don’t have the patience to wait. So, you must ensure that your site loads quickly.

If you want to check your site speed, Google has PageSpeed Tools that test your site speed. That way, you can optimize your site properly.

Over to You

So there you have it! We hope that these tips have inspired you to make changes on your site and give your audience the best user experience. Hopefully, you’ve gained some ideas to revamp your website, making it more user-friendly without needing to have a complete website redesign.

This article is contributed by John Vuong, sole owner of Local SEO Search Inc. who also offers Calgary SEO..

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For many years, web designers and developers are at loggerheads over the use of Python and PHP for web development. Today, these two important programming languages govern the web development industry. PHP, the oldest language for website creation, seems to have lost its grip on the market with the introduction of Python in the market. Python offers unique functions to users, enabling them to create amazing websites, blogs, business portals, E-commerce websites, etc, easily & comfortably. In order to keep you out of the turmoil, have a look at some points which demonstrate why Python is the perfect choice compared to the PHP programming language.

#1. Design

As a programming language, PHP is not graceful. An experienced PHP developer can create amazing websites or applications, but with some limitations. PHP has certain idiosyncrasy, which can frustrate novice developers. Furthermore, many aspects of this programming language are nuanced and deeper. As per several website/app developers, as a programming language, Python offers excellent options for web developers. It makes their developing experience easier and comfortable. Compared to PHP, you can write great codes in Python in an easy way.

#2. Python Can Be Your Long-term Business Partner

If you are a web developer, custom PHP development may be an easier task to learn and implement in daily life. But if you have experience in Python, you are likely to earn more in the long term. Everything is quite simple in PHP development. You can become a creative web designer. However, when you focus on your long-term career, then Python is your real partner. It has a laborious learning curve and allows you to create amazing websites and applications.

#3. Python is More Readable Than PHP

Always keep in mind that PHP has a traditional approach. Everything in this language is documented. When you talk about Python, it uses forced actions with grooves that are pretty tough. It is legible and easy to implement in web design and development activities.

#4. Python Has More Features Than PHP

In theory, every web developer who is engaged in PHP website Development, because of its rich libraries and structures. You will be surprised to know that Python provides that mostly with Django. It is a de facto version of the web infrastructure in Python. PHP has symfony, Kohana, Zend and Codelgnitor on the other hand.

If you combine all these structures, each infrastructure is different than the other. The more you learn about PHP frameworks, the more expertise you have in website creation sooner or later. Python infrastructure offers a convenient interface and rolls outs latest features updates from time-to-time.

#5. Python Gives Uncomplicated Debugging Tools

Python offers numerous debugging tools for developers. You can use these tools easily and make lots of benefits. For working with PHP, many tools are needed. On the other hand, you don’t need to use too many tools to create websites and apps. You get lots of debugging tools when working with Python. This is not a case with Custom PHP Development.

#6. The use of Language in Practice

Always keep in mind that Python is a general-purpose programing language. You can automate the web development work by using various frameworks, system utilities, and applications. You can learn Python yourself apply your expertise in a wide range of applications from web development, scientific and mathematical calculations for desktop graphical user interfaces. It is also perfect for prototyping.

With this amazing programming language, you can create desktop applications with a graphical interface and create games easily, for which there is a special library. Always keep in mind that the basics of algorithms and programming in the Python language are suitable for creating applications for mobile devices. Furthermore, Python also uses very simple and compressed syntax and dynamic typing.

If you have the Knowledge of algorithms and Python programming, you can create websites/apps & run it successfully. Always remember that If you need a language to quickly create applications and scripts in several areas, it will be difficult for you to find a better alternative than Python. Universal use, simplicity, popularity among programmers and demand for experts, cross-platform, high-quality documentation, etc, make it a better option than PHP programming language.

Final Words

So, now we know that Python is also one of the oldest web development languages created by Guido van Rossum at the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the Netherlands in the early 1990s. It is heavily borrowed from C ++, C, and other scripting languages.

Its interpretive nature makes the program code executed by the interpreter every time when the user starts up. Furthermore, the interpreter and standard library are available in binary or source form from the Python website and can work seamlessly on all major operating systems. Many web developers often get into the debate of Python Vs PHP. It is clear that Python is more helpful that PHP in some cases.

This article is contributed by Mary Scott, Sr Php Programmer cum technical writer of Stellen Infotech — best web development services Company.

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Are you curious about Magento 2 pricing? Well, anyone who is planning to take their retail business online to expand their global reach is worried about how much it takes to develop and maintain an eCommerce website.

So, what could be the nearly precise cost of an eCommerce site using Magento? Sadly, it is a little difficult task to predict and estimate the cost of a Magento eCommerce website due to frequent changes introduced every now and then by Magento.

If you are into Magento 2 Development, you probably would like to see more accurate price tags to charge for your services. If you are an entrepreneur, you must be finding the best deals you can get. But in both ways, you have to figure out the best price for your Magento development. So, what would be the price estimation for the Magento eCommerce site?

Magento Community or Magento Enterprise — The Basic Cost Hampering Factor!

Unlike other eCommerce platforms, Magento has limited offerings when it comes to setting up the storefront. Either you can opt for Magento Community edition or Magento Enterprise edition.

• Implementation Cost — Considering the implementation cost, Magento community edition costs approximately $3K to $55K whereas Magento enterprise edition costs greater than $50K.
• License Cost — Magento community edition costs 0, whereas enterprise edition costs more than $22K.
• Hosting Cost — For Magento community edition, the hosting cost could be less than $300. On the other hand, the cost of hosting for enterprise edition would range from $700 to $5K.

What about the cost of developing the site using Magento Community Edition?

When it comes to developing the website, developing a website using Magento community edition could range from $2500 to $45000. If you want to have a basic eCommerce website, you don’t have to pay more than $2500. However, if you want to get some customization done, you may have to pay for the following things:

• Custom themes
• Integrating back office systems with the customized site
• Integrating with a social media platform
• Shipping functionality
• Custom scripts and business specific features to cater the business requirements

Maintenance cost for the Magento 2 site build using Magento Community edition could range from $0 to $250 per month. You can Hire Magento 2 Developers to get it done for you!

Cost of developing & maintaining Magento Enterprise Edition site

While developing eCommerce site using community edition is quite simple and straightforward, working with enterprise edition is a little tedious task to bring it out. Here, your annual license cost will be affected by your gross merchandise sales value.

Website development using Magento Enterprise edition could range from $50K to $250K and even more than that. Obviously, everyone wants extremely powerful and feature-packed eCommerce site but the more features you want, the more complex logic you will require to build it. Moreover, you may also require Custom Magento Extensions to get the work done for you, which means you have to pay additional costs.

Aside to the development, maintenance cost could also vary from partner to partner. However, many Magento 2 providers often ready to negotiate when it comes to finalizing the maintenance cost of the website. Starting from $100 per month, you may have to pay additional cost if you opt for hourly payment conditions with the partner.

The Technology Partner and Location — Could be a turning point!

The cost of service of Magento technology partner can vary drastically based on the location and credits of the agency. In case you opt for hiring the professional solution partners, including Global Elite Partner, Enterprise Partner, Professional Partner or Business Partner, you may have to consider bearing additional prices and charges from them.

The location of the agency/developer could be a crucial cost aspect. For example, if you hire services from Canada/US, you may have to pay $80 to $150 per hour. On the other hand, if you get help from the agencies located in Eastern Europe, it would cost around $20 to $40 per hour. Among all the locations, India is preferred by the majority of the startups and enterprises when it comes to eCommerce development due to significantly lower charges.

There is no denying that Magento is a great platform when it comes to eCommerce development. But when it comes to pricing of developing and maintaining an eCommerce website, you just need to decide on what your requirements are and which version fit into it to give you the best deal for your online storefront venture. Ensure you do enough homework before approaching the agency. Want to know how Magento 2 providers can help you with your eCommerce development and maintenance worries?

This article is contributed by Nishant Desai, Digital Marketing Strategist at Pixlogix Infotech Pvt. Ltd.

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