Topnotch

Why Building Ecommerce To Sell Online Is A Good Idea

By Derek Robinson

There are two important things when it comes to a physical store – reaching new customers and communicating with the existing ones. If you have a physical storefront, then you know that these two can be a difficult task. Building eCommerce to sell online is one of the main methods you can make these things easy. The world is changing and any business that does not change with it will be buried with all the old methods it is using.

There are many reasons why you need an eCommerce site and we will look at a few of them and why they are important.

Give Your Customers The Freedom To Shop Where, How And When They Want

We live in an era where consumers are shopping at the comfort of their home. Buying items has become a few clicks affair. With an internet enabled device and an internet connection, consumers can now buy from where they want when they want. Not giving your customers this option is unfair and you will be missing out on a lot.

The main reason why most people are leaning towards online shopping through ecommerce sites is because they just do not like the hassle of shopping in physical stores. There is the waste of time in traffic among other inconveniences. Another reason is that most eCommerce shops are open around the clock all year round. This means they can buy from your business even when the physical store is closed. This means more business for you and this translates to more profits.

Increasing Online Visibility

Most stores have promotions that they would like to market and there is no better way than through the internet. Most people are finding information online and this means businesses need to be where these people are looking. Exposing offers and deals on eCommerce sites is easier. You will also have a better chance of collecting emails and customer data using these sites. Collecting this information might be difficult in physical stores but easier online where they will only need to fill a short form.

Reach more Customers

If your store is located in a less trafficked area, building ecommerce to sell online will create a level playing field for your business. If you work with the right web development and marketing team, you will get a good ranking and traffic will be better than what you are getting in the physical store. More online exposure will also drive more traffic to your physical store for people who like this kind of shopping.

The Cost Of Building ecommerce Sites

It is obvious that we cannot state an exact figure of how much you will pay for your business’s eCommerce site, but we can state a range. The cost will generally depend on what you want on the site and what you want your customers to see or use. Most of the eCommerce sites that have been created and launched range between $2,000 and $10,000 sometimes the budget can go higher depending on what the site will have. Regardless of the design and the budget, you need something that works well for your business and target audience.

Top Web Development Trends 2016 You Must Know

By Derek Robinson

We are already past halfway in 2016. Before the year goes too far, it is important to have a look at the top web development trends 2016 you must know to make your website better and improve user experience. This year has seen new frameworks, evolving technology and powerful development tools. In short, it has been and will be a great year for web developers and users alike. The following are some of the trends to keep an eye on:

Motion UI (Motion User Interface)

This is a Sass library that makes one part of the 3 parts of Zurb Apps foundation. The main reason it is widely used it its high speed in CSS transitions and animation creation. The use of Motion UI makes the transition of application is smoother and richer with the predefined motion. The process is also less complicated. The manner in which animation elements are integrated seamlessly in websites is the main reason why Motion UI has become a top preferred library by web developers. Motion UI has not been in operation for long, but it shows all the signs of staying for a long time.

New Responsive Designs Through Advanced Platforms

There is a lot of advanced technology getting into the market and this means things will change before the end of the year. The new technology is not only showing advances in 2016, the introduction of new applications will set a stage for years to come.

The introduction of responsive designs will not only be limited to mobile. This is because there are a bunch of other devices that require responsiveness such as wearable gadgets like the glasses and smart watches. The technologies used in better responsiveness are growing in popularity. In addition to all the other technologies, Sematic User Interface is a new design framework that has become quite popular and in demand.

Internet Of Things Is SEt To Be Huge

IoT, or internet of Things has become a significant part in development of apps. According to statistics by Technavio, Internet of Things is projected to enjoy a 31.72% growth from the year 2015 to 2019.

Gartner has also predicted that at least 50% of Internet of Things development will be from young startup companies that have been in business for three or less years.

IoT makes exchange of data easy in a way that was not possible before. This is through internet linking of smart devices.

We should expect to see more devices connected to the network. This will make sure users can access these devices. Developers will be upgrading solutions to make the communication between users and gadgets and equipment an easy affair.

Browser-based IDEs

Chances are that there is a development environment you love and are used to. It might be you are a fan of VIM or you love using IntelliJ. Well, let’s just say that this will be changing soon. Many people have started using Cloud based IDEs and we can expected that more will jump into the bandwagon.

The main reason behind this shift is because these IDE versions are faster and more accessible. Some of them enjoy huge communities behind them. The most important element here is the flexibility. While these IDEs might not be your fulltime tools, it is important to be aware of their existence and how accessible they are especially if you want to handle a quick bootstrap code of jade test without the need of downloading any files.

Full Screen Navigation designs

This is an important feature geared towards improving mobile user experience on their devices. For instance, if a mobile user is using their mobile device to navigate a website and they come across a form they will need a different view. With this feature, a simple tap will have the form jump to full screen and this will give the user an easy time filling it.

We have seen many developers and designers develop and design websites that carry the full-screen navigation design and this trend is expected to continue.

Foundation For Apps

Foundation for Apps is a new single page framework for apps. It is created around the flexbox grid framework and Angular JS. The framework is geared towards quickening the creation of responsive web application through facilitation to a quick code writing unique to the app.

The framework was initially introduced in 2014 and featured the unique clean code and positioning capabilities. These features have not yet been fully discovered. However, we can expect to see the rise of foundation for apps as many companies have started the use of the advanced version of the framework in 2016.

Everything Real-time

2016 has seen the rise of multiple apps that operate in real-time. The implementation of real-time analytics in mobile and desktop apps has been on the rise. In social medial marketing, we expect to see the increase in use of live streaming. This is in a time when applications such as Meerkat and Periscope are becoming popular. With all the changes and the developments of real-time applications, real-time services such as Pusher.com will become more popular in the industry.

Containers Will Be Bigger

Though Containers have been in use for a long time, they have only become more popular with the Docker introduction. Docker is the container introduced to enable faster software development. The increase in speed is also seen in isolated environment. A container has the dependencies required to run an application and therefore it can do it on its own.

What this means for developers is faster building, testing and deploying of applications anywhere. This service will run in just about any environment. We expect that Docker will add new features and gain security.

Advertisement Blocking On Websites

Website owners have been losing money around the world courtesy of advertisement blockers. In UK, ad blocking grew by about 82% reaching 12 million users. This greatly affects the earning of small sites that depend on ad revenue and also big publishers.

2016 has seen the minimization of ad blocking effect by site owners.  You can expect new technology to be used in neglecting the advertisement blocking plugins you also will see the use of innovative alternative methods of delivering advertisements to users.

Security All Over

Mobile is becoming more popular by the day and this can have its own drawbacks. This is because mobile has become the new focal point for security issues. This year, and the future will see advances in security measures aimed at ensuring mobile is safer for users.

Improved Power Of The Browser

In the recent past, there have been significant developments in what you can do with your browser. There have been and emergence of different frameworks such as tracking.js and binary formats such as WebAssembly and this has positioned JavaScript as one of the main languages of browsers.

This has given more power to the browsers. It is yet to be clear which JavaScript frameworks and which tools will be preferred in this area. The one thing that is absolutely clear is that JavaScript has made its mark and will continue being important. It will retain its position as one of the most effective language in programming.

Bots Become Standard UX

Bots have been here with use for a while. The technology that exists today will make sure that these bots will get smarter and be involved in more activities. For example, if you sign up for a new Slack account, a bot will welcome and on-board you. The Slackbot will ask you for your name and automatically save it in the slack account and also ask you a number of other things. Keep in mind that this is not only about Slack. There are many bots that are emerging in most of the tools and apps we use whether it is WeChat, Telegram or Facebook. This is probably a new era, an era that we will see many bots that will make our lives easier.

We Can Expect A Lot

If you look at the web development trends 2016 you must know, and the current status of the industry, you will see that there is a lot on its way. Web developers are clearly dedicated to making the development process faster and easier. This is great news for anyone interested in web development or owns a website. These developers save time from their day-today activities to come up with applications and tools that will improve the user’s web browsing in future. You just need to keep an eye on new emerging trends that will make your operations easier and save you time.

Google Will Lowly Rank Sites With Pop-Ups

By Derek Robinson

This move involves devaluing sites that use interstitials and pop-ups. This includes fake interstitials. From early next year the search engine will not be ranking site pages that have intrusive interstitials as high as those that do not have. This will include sites with pop-ups that will trigger as a user views search results of navigating through the page.

The main reason behind why Google Will Lowly Rank Sites With Pop-Ups is the complaining by searchers. When Google first introduced signals that resulted in pages with app interstitials losing their boost in search engine results, most sites started using fake interstitials. This is something that looks like an interstitial that leads users to believing that an app is required for the content viewing. If the user scrolls, the real content appears. This was against the app interstitial change.

From 10^th January 2017, the fake interstitials will be ranking lowly. This is therefore an early warning. Site owners have nothing worry about until after the end of year festive season.

The changes will also target pop-ups. Mobile pop-ups are more obtrusive since they are difficult to close. In some cases, it is impossible to close a pop-up on a mobile phone. For site owners and managers, it means that pop-ups will have to be served on second page views when the user clicks from mobile search results. This will however not affect desktop pop-ups. It will however cause some inconvenience for sites with responsive designs that need to use pop-ups on desktops.

The following is what you need to know:

The examples below show techniques that are known to interfere with the access to content for users:

– The display of pop-ups that cover the main content when the user is going through the page or after the user navigates to the pages from search results.

– Displaying interstitials that need to be closed prior to accessing the main content.

– The use of layouts where the portion of the page above the fold appears to be similar to an interstitial and the original content is lined under the fold.

Google has pointed out that there are interstitials such that those for age verification and cookies notice will not be affected by the changes. the change mainly targets the interstitials that give users a bad experience.

Yelp was one of the early users of fake interstitial tactics and continues to use this tactic. Other sites such as Pinterest also followed suit. Most probably, these big sites will be in the first lane to make the necessary adjustments. You can still use banner app installs on pages.

Amidst all the changes, Google has announce that user intent will continue being strong. This simply means that a page will rank highly even with the interstitials if the search engine feels that it is an important page. Pages from reputable brands will still be high in ranks even with interstitials

Google Dropping Mobile Friendly Tag

By Derek Robinson

Considering that about 85% of results are mobile-friendly, Google dropping mobile friendly tag is a move that will work positively towards ensuring that the search results are cleaner. Initially, when only a few pages were friendly to mobile devices, the tag was very useful. Today, almost all pages are mobile friendly and this tag does not make any sense anymore.

To be clear, 85% of pages do not mean that 85% of websites are friendly to mobile devices. However, this number clearly indicates the significant rapid growth of mobile friendly sites. Most website owners are now working towards reworking their sites to be friendly to devices with smaller screens.

Google added the mobile friendly tag about 2 years ago as a message to web publishers and users about the direction the web was heading. In the past one year, mobile searches have surpassed desktop searches. The main reason behind this increasing number is the increase in the people using smartphones which can conveniently access the internet.

Though Google dropping the mobile friendly tag is big news, it will still maintain the ranking boost for mobile searches. Albeit this is the case, you will no longer be required to use the tag that tells users that the page is mobile friendly. When this change happens, webmasters will need to use the mobile friendly test to check if the site is mobile friendly.

This also means that the search results will have more room for lengthier descriptions. This is because the mobile friendly tag that appears in front of descriptions will be removed. The room can now be used for more characters and SEO keywords. This is space most search engine optimizers will be very happy to have back.

The announcement by Google made it clear that websites being mobile friendly is still a very important ranking signal. You will no longer see the sites that are not friendly to mobile devices because they will be lowly ranked. As mentioned, the popular sites and sites of the reputable brands will still be highly ranked. This simply means that Google dropping mobile friendly tag will most likely affect the small websites which is why you should ensure that your business site is friendly to mobile devices.

Smart Start To Google Analytics Report

By Derek Robinson

Google Analytics report is a very important tool for any webmaster. This tool has a lot of features that prove crucial for analyzing and tracking the performance of a website. Some of the important activities that are made easier by Google Analytics include identification of important demographics, understanding the behavior of users and measurement of website traffic. For this reason, this is a fundamental tool in bettering your brand, blog or business website.

The following is a guide geared towards beginners who are starting the use of this analytics tool. We will define the complex analytics terms and explain the metrics you need to focus on. Before we go into details, let’s have a look at the reasons why you need the tool.

Why Is Google Analytics  Report Important For Every Website?

All bloggers, business owners and managers have unlimited questions revolving around the site’s performance. Simply put, the answers are all in Google Analytics. These answers are highly beneficial to your website. They will give you the information you require to better understand which of your marketing campaigns and initiatives are working, the content that works for your target audience and the pages that are getting the most attention.

The importance of these details is to assist you make the necessary changes, improvements and additions that will see your website performance doubled or tripled. If you are just beginning, you should learn how you can install the tool and with the information online, this should not be a difficult task.

Important Terms You Need To Focus On

Pageview

Page views are counted when a page is visited (the page has to have the Google Analytics tracking code). The page view count is recorded overtime there is execution of the tracking method. The counts include page refreshing, going back, and opening same pages in new tabs or browser. This is regardless of whether the page is cached.

Session & Page/Session

Session refers to the pages a user visits during the time they spend on your website. This is usually during a given time span (Google has a default time frame of 30 minutes. This can be modified to meet your needs). In simple words, everything the user will do from the time they enter to the time they leave your website is what is called a session.

As stated above, the default by Google is 30 minutes but you have the freedom to adjust this up to 4 hours to as short as 1 minute. This will depend on what you are looking for and the type of website involved. There are a few recommendations put forth by Google:

– If the website signs out the user automatically after they are active for a particular period, the session timeout should be matched with this period.

– If your website is full of information that you expect your target users to go through, you should set the session time to match the period you expect the users to stay. If the content is little, the period should be shortened.

Pages/Session simply refers to the average pages per session duration. The higher this average is, the more engaged the users are with your content. This also indicates the increase in navigation through the website.

Bounce & Bounce Rate

Bounce means the user has only visited one page and left. Keep in mind that this is regardless of the time they spend on that single page. This is a visit to the website that involves a single interaction. The bounce rate is a percentage representation of the people that bounce out of your website with one age interaction. If the bounce rate stands at 90%, it means that 9 out of 10 sessions involve a one page interaction. The lower the bounce rate, the better the interaction. A low bounce rate also means that the visitors are visiting other pages on the website.

UMV

UMV is abbreviation for Unique Monthly Views. This stands for the individual users who visit your site in a month. If you are a blogger or are selling advertising on your website, then this is information you will find useful. Most brands will ask for these metrics prior to handling any business with your site. This is one of the best ways to track your growth month after month.

User Behaviors That Matter

Traffic

Traffic flow is the first user behavior that you should pay attention to. The most important aspect is the source of the traffic. The reason this is important is so you can improve your efforts through the channels that are giving you high traffic. The secret is to put more effort in methods that work.

All the traffic sources are important but there some that are more important than others. The sources that you need to pay attention to include, organic, referral and direct traffic. The direct traffic will measure the number of users visiting your website through a direct input of your site‘s URL into the browser. Organic traffic will tell you the number of users that are searching your website through Google search. Referral traffic stands for users who visit your website after being directed by other sites such as blogs and press placements.

Website Content

It is important to understand what your visitors are doing as soon as they get on the website. Do they leave as fast as they get there or do they navigate for more details? If they are staying longer, which pages are they concentrating on? When you understand the website content that your users are finding interesting, you will be in a better position to give them a better experience. The information from Google Analytics can then be used to create content that will attract more users and keep them on the site for a longer period. If you are selling online, then you will be able to drive your visitors to the call to action and consequently to what you are selling.

User Engagement

After you have understood the type of content that is working and how users are finding it, you will need to find out how these users are engaging with it. The metrics you need to pay attention to are session durations and the number of pages per every visit.

The session duration refers to the time average the visitors are spending in a given session. When the number is high, it means the users are staying longer on the website and this translates to more engagement.

The pages per visit reflects the number of pages that the user views on the site when they visit. The higher the number, the more engaged they are and the more the exploration to find more information. If this number is low and the bounce rate is high, you need to make a few changes to avoid poor performance.

Contrary to what most people believe, Google Analytics has more to offer than being a simple hit counter. What this post focuses on is just a small part of what Google Analytics can help you achieve. This tool will not only eliminate the usual guess work, it will also help a great deal in reducing marketing cost. With its power, you will focus only on productive campaigns and you will be working on proven numbers. This is because you will stop funding any campaigns that are not giving you a return on investment. You can then channel these funds to campaigns that have proven to be traffic pullers.

Though the tool can be overwhelming for beginners, understanding how it works will open doors to more success. Do you have any questions about Google analytics or about your website in general? Don’t hesitate to contact us for any question or inquiry.

Leave Your World Wide Web Presence To Professional Web Designers

By Derek Robinson

The web provides a vast market place for services programs and ideas. If you are interesting in creating room for your business in the internet marketplace, it is crucial that you find ways and means that will make it as unique as possible. For your business or brand to be unique among the other billions of businesses online, you need to consider working with a high profile web design team that will assist you in growing a brand to reach out to your customers as well as create awareness where your business is still unknown.

The process of building a website starts with the determination of the most ideal domain name that will go an extra mile in attracting the right buyers to the site. It is recommended that the domain name you choose matches with the products and services you offer so as to enhance your online visibility. The best way to approach this is using the company name or choosing the keywords of the products and services you offer. The work of the webs design team entails helping you create domain names that will go a long way in improving your internet presence.

Soon after a decision has been made on the most appropriate domain name, you will need to meet with the team of web designers where concepts will be formulated all geared towards creating a site that will serve the purpose of attracting customers. The concept discussions include things such as logos, color schemes among other visual aspects that are employed in efforts to create an effective online page. If need be to connect with existing customers, the website might include the company’s color theme as well as the logo. It is important to let the design team work on your site as they are professional in creating a site that will be unique and thus have an edge over the competitors in the industry.

The development of the website should be kept professional if desired goals are to be achieved. Customers prefer working with professional businesses and building a professional business website will go a long way in creating a perception of your business that customers will want to relate and feel safe interacting with. You can include features that allow online purchases to improve the customer’s shopping experience. This requires high level of security to convince customers to trust your site with their banking information. The work of the web designers is to ensure that the website is safe in all aspects thus providing a secure shopping avenue for the buyers.

There are many website design companies but the most important thing is to work with a company that will do more than just provide a standard website. You will require the skills of professional designers who will tailor make a website that will meet all your needs and serve its purpose exceptionally well. Choosing a bigger firm will not guarantee you great results. On the other hand a smaller web design company will work tirelessly in satisfying your needs and will pay more attention to your project.

When working on a web design project, there might be some changes and challenges that will require immediate attention. With large companies, reaching the support team might prove difficult. A small web design company will focus on their clients and thus the arising issues will be solved fast and sufficiently. A smaller web design company works closely with its clients which is why they are the best in solving personal issues.

It is crucial that you consider the importance of working with smaller web design companies instead of a larger one. The smaller company will ensure that the website is designed to your specifications up to the smallest detail. This will go a long way in giving you the safest and most professional website that will enhance your online presence and consequently improve your sales.

Creative Design and Internet Marketing

E-Commerce Success: Choose The Right Team

By Derek Robinson

E-commerce, also referred to as Electronic commerce, refers to the process of trading products and/or services using the internet. E-commerce involves other elements such as electronic funds transfer, internet marketing, data collection systems, and mobile commerce among many others. In this age of advanced technology, it is important to have all the necessary measures in place to match with what is going on around you for your business to succeed. If you run a business, you need to incorporate e-commerce to enjoy the multiple benefits and further grow your establishment.

There are many advantages to enjoy by including e-commerce in your business. One of the major benefits is that the buying process for your customers will be faster. E-commerce is geared towards centralizing all buying processes to an easily accessible online portal. Your customers can then access the portal, choose what they want to buy, and complete the process in a matter of a click and filling a brief form. A lot of people do not have the time to shop around the conventional way and will therefore find your website convenient for them it they can complete the buying without spending a great deal of time or having to walk into a traditional store.

On your end, there are multiple advantages all of which are co-related. You will have more customers since people are in search of an easy way to shop. When a consumer gets the feel of convenience, it is highly likely that they will recommend your business to other consumers. You will get rid of the bulky paper work thus save a great deal of money. With the speed at which information is shared online, it will not be long before more consumers come knocking. The reason why all these advantages are co-related is because the more customers you get the better your profits will be and the bigger your business will grow.

One of the important benefits that you will enjoy if you let professional handle your e-commerce web design and e-commerce web is that the navigation will be easy and everything will appear professionally done and thus attractive. And this is why we exist. Our team of experts will ensure that top of the range designs are used in creating your electronic commerce website and that your needs are met. This will ultimately ensure that all your set goals are achieved within a short period. The team is up to date with current technologies and this only guarantees you of high-quality results.

If you run a physical business, then it is important that you incorporate electronic commerce for more sales and more profits. The idea of incorporating this crucial process sin your business is not simply enough; you will also need to choose the right web development and web design team that will work tirelessly to build a website that will deliver results and serve its purpose for the long haul. Make a smart decision today and you will not regret your choice. Work with our highly qualified team to build your e-commerce and enjoy all the benefits that come with a professionally developed site.

e-Commerce Website Development

Website Redesign – 10 Important Points To Keep In Mind

By Derek Robinson

There are different reasons behind website redesigning and you already know why you are doing it. It is however important to note that the standards used in the redesigning process will always change. You might be in need of launching a new product line or updating your cooperate image.

If your website is in the center of your business, then you have to know that the redesign will have a noticeable impact. You will need to ensure that this impact is positive in all aspects. This is why you are reading this post.

The following are top ten points you should keep in mind when redesigning your website. This is a simplified framework you can use in your website redesign project.

1. Have Defined Marketing Goals

The first step is defining marketing goals that will form the foundation of the redesign. Websites are used for sales, lead generation, and customer support. Regardless of the use, you need to have goals and these goals should be tracked using KPIs (Key performance Indicators)

The most important Key Performance Indicators are the conversions because they show the relationship changes. When a user fills the contact form and becomes a sales lead, this is an important event.

The main aim is to ensure that the visitors on your website are taking actions that are geared towards benefiting your business. The most important conversion actions include signing up for newsletters, downloading marketing documents and purchasing products.

It is important to use supplementary KIPs for purposes of tracking the performance of the site. For instance, pay attention to the bounce rate because when it is high, this means that there are many visitors visiting a page and leaving immediately. This might be as a result of inappropriate content or content that is not appealing to your target audience. Other important Key Performance Indicators include the average pages visitors view per session, and the average time they spend on the site.

Establishing KPIs and tracking them should be done before the redesign process because they will assist in establishing the comparison.

2. Know Your Target Audience

In most cases, people think it is a good idea to define their audience broadly, but it does not make any sense to exclude potential business. The danger in this is that while you try to include everyone, you might end up pleasing no one. The last thing you want is a website that reads like anonymous letters from a company.

The idea is to make the website read like a love letter to your audience. It is important to get into their shoes and understand what motivates them, what they are interested in and what they are looking for. Speak to them in a language they understand and make everything straightforward.

The task is to create a profile for all your target customers and ensure that the profile describes their needs, motivations, and interests. This might appear like hard work buy as you will learn, it will eventually pay. Keep in mind that you should focus on middle-level management when you are selling to corporations because they are responsible for making decisions that affect the company’s choice.

3. Provide Relevant Content

The main reason why a single company can dominate search engine result pages is content relevance. To search engines ‘relevant’ indicate that users find whatever it is they are looking for.

To your website, relevant content is what your intended audience will find useful. This is the main reason why you need to go through all the efforts to know your audience. This should be followed by content that represents their needs. Ensure you get into your target customers head to understand what they want or need.

Know why and how they got to your website, the problems they are looking to solve, the complications caused by the problems, how you can solve the problems in a different unique way, and how they will feel if you solve those problems.

The bounce rate on your website is a good sign of whether your content is relevant. The higher the bounce rate, the more irrelevant the content on the website is. This is because the bounce rate is raised by the number of visitors visiting your site and leaving as soon as they get there.

Relevant content will lower the bounce rate and increase the conversion rate. This is good for your website and good for your business. This is why it is important to work on your profile and the website content.

4. Search Engine Optimization

Phantom, Pirate, Hummingbird, Pigeon, and Panda – Google has continuously released algorithm updates. These updates are aimed at rewarding websites with relevant content. For this reason, you might want to ensure you are in the list of website being rewarded.

A while ago, SEO was all about playing the system, but things have been changed by these algorithm updates. The plays and games no longer work because these algorithm updates keep getting meaner and friendlier to the users.

Today, SEO is about different practices that are aimed at ensuring that Google and other search engines can easily understand your content. A competent website designer will incorporate these practices when handling the redesign project.

Keyword research is the other important part of SEO. There are many tools available online that you can use to conduct keyword research and identify the terms that match the motivations and interests of the audience you are targeting.

When you are selecting the keywords, it is crucial that you select one keyword for each page on your website. You can then optimize the page by using the keyword in the URL, title and through out the page content.

The exact method of optimizing the page is a debatable subject. This is because Google does not provide information on how it ranks websites. You can take advantage of Google Webmaster to find the terms Google considers relevant.

5. Explainer Videos Can Help

Days are gone when people used to only rely on images and text to tell their stories on websites. Today, you get an easier way of explaining things through videos.

Explain videos are popular because they actually work. When you have a video that has been well produced, a great script and visuals that engage the audience will capture their attention and this is all that matters. Through the video you can explain what you are all about in a way that appeals to the audience.

With a video, you can showcase the personality of your brand and this is a good way to ensure that the viewers retain the information. Videos can help in increasing the conversion rates and in achieving higher ranks on Google.

6. Responsive Design vs. Mobile- Friendly

You know that you that your redesign should appear attractive on different screens and there are 2 ways you can achieve this.

The cheaper option of the two is a mobile-friendly website. This simply means that your website will work the same way regardless of the size of the screen in use. Your content will scale to fit smaller screens and this means that you need to use smaller images. Because there are some features such as drop-down menus that will not work on mobile devices and you need to eliminate them.

If there are more than 35% of your visitors accessing your site using mobile devices, you will need to spend a little more for responsive designs.

Responsive designs are website designs that will adapt to the environment. The images and texts will resize and realign depending on the screen being used. The unnecessary images will be hidden when the screen being used is small.

7. Analytics Utilization

You should at least be using Google Webmaster and Google Analytics. These services are free and are highly assistive. It is important to start by tracking your website before the redesign so as to identify the things that need to be altered.

Google Webmaster Tools are more important with search engine optimization. After the redesign, you should take a few months then check to see the keywords that are performing well. You can then continue with the optimization of pages that are underperforming. You can also introduce new pages that are based on keywords considered high-value.

You can track the Key Performance Indicators using Google Analytics. These should be the KPIs that you defined prior to starting the redesign process. These tools can also assist you in tracking your marketing campaigns among many other important aspects.

8. Marketing Automation

As you plan the redesign for your website, you need to decide on whether you need to invest in marketing automation. Some of the automation tools will cost you a fortune but based on the benefits they bring on the table, investing in them is worth every cent.

The marketing automation vendors will provide all the comprehensive toolkits which will give markers an easy time planning, coordinating, managing and measuring all marketing aspects and efforts online and offline. Normally, these vendors will give you tools that help in building and tracking your landing pages, growing email lists and many other processes.

9. Existing URLs Forwarding

The redesigning process might also include the elimination of outdated pages. The unfortunate thing is that the visitors that arrive through the legacy links will be welcomed by the 404 error Page. This probably means you have lost that visitor for good. And this is bad for business.

A good solution to this problem is the redirection of all legacy URLs to existing pages that have been redesigned and contain relevant content.

Start with a map to the existing web content. List all the URLs. If you are eliminating any of the pages during the redesign processes the server-side 301 redirect. This will help in sending the visitor to the appropriate pages.

10. Conversion Path Optimization

The first step in the website redesign process was defining the marketing goals. Just because the website is launched, it does not mean that the process is over.

Once the website is launched, and you have traffic on the pages, you will need to ensure that the conversion paths are optimized. This is a process that is geared towards making alterations to the landing pages for purposes of increasing website visitors.

When you think in the line of conversion paths, you will also have a chance to change the other parts of the website that bring the visitors to these landing pages. The optimization of conversion paths is part voodoo and part science and this is why this skill is in high demand. In most cases, a 1% change or less can have a huge impact on the results you get.

Now you know some of the important elements that you need to pay attention to when you are redesigning your website. This will ensure that your website is attractive and can keep the visitors glued to the content and convert them from visitors to buyers.

Why Branding And Identity Are Important For Your Business

By Derek Robinson

Branding is a word that bring into mind, the image of a traditionally dressed rancher ready to press a hot iron rod bearing his mark on his cattle. The process of branding might not be that painful but sure does follow the same procedure of making something your own and letting it be identified as yours. Identity is another word that is associated with the papers or card that we carry in our wallets showing who we are. In the world of business, identity is important because just like we deal with other people, nobody really wants to associate with strangers. This is the reason why you need to brand your business and give it an identity.

You all know of some of the great brands that have dominated different industries. They all followed one trick and it is making an original brand and sticking by it. When you market your business using a certain identity, people will use it to recognize your business and this is how you become popular in your market of operation. If you work with professionals in building your brand and giving your business and identity, you will have an opportunity to build a strong foundation on which your business will sail to success.

Most people do not understand the different between a logo and a brand. They are closely related but a logo is the symbol which represents your business. On the other hand, a brand is all about your character as a business; it is about who you are. A logo is meaningless without a brand because it will not be representing anything. However, logos are crucial because they are the identity of your business and remind the consumers of your products and services.

The benefit of involving professional branding and identity experts is that your business will stand on solid ground and be in a better position to compete well with other similar businesses. There are millions of businesses in all industries and since you are not the only one, it is important to be unique and stand out in the crowd. The best way to do this is through effective branding and this kind of branding can only be achieved when you decide to work with experts in this field. You do not have to worry because we are here to provide the best services revolving around business branding and identity.

If you want your business to turn into a household name, the kind of name all consumers will be thinking about when they are interested in the goods and services you sell, then you will need a highly experience and skilled team to work with you. We will ensure that you are working with the best experts in branding and your ideas will be transformed into a professional business brand that will not only attract consumers but will also keep them coming back. Business is all about what consumers think about you and with proper branding and identity; they will see you as a professional business.

The Wonders Of Animation In Marketing

By Derek Robinson

You must have watched an animation filmed and loved it; these films are adorable. Animation is the creation of motion through the use of illusion. The process takes advantage of rapid display of static images that have minimal differences. When the images are displayed, they create a motion and this is the foundation of the complex animation that is turned into our favorite films. Away from the films and into marketing, animation has found its place in the effective marketing of businesses online and on television. Of late, animation is becoming an effective tool in marketing and there are a number of reasons why this is so.

Have you ever thought of creating an advertisement for your business and found something difficult to achieve? Well, this kind of restriction is not known in animation. This is because professionals in animation can create just about any kind of illusion and not have to deal with the limitation of using a camera and actors. With animation, your pizza will fly to its destination and your products will transform into talking toons. Whatever you want to achieve with the advertisements, expert animation artists will deliver.

We all know how expensive commercial advertisements are. You will need to pay an advertisement firm to take care of the advert and the amount you pay will not be anywhere close to peanuts. The problem is that there are many commercials out there and for yours to be exceptional you will have to do something out of the ordinary. This is tricky especially if you are shooting the advert with a camera and real people. With animation you will not have to worry about your wallet because the advert will not cost you as much money and the limits will no longer exist.

People are in love with animation and would not mind watching an animation video on your website. This is how you attract attention and ensure that your visitors are staying on your site long enough to grasp a few important details that will lead to them actually buying something from you. You can also use the animation in your video marketing campaign on video websites such as YouTube. The most important thing is to ensure that the animation video is professionally done and that it contains the kind of content that can easily convert a visitor into a buyer and a buyer into a loyal customer.

Animation is obviously not everybody’s cup of tea and you will need to find the best animation artists to deliver what you are in search of. Luckily, you do not have to search far and wide, we have a team ready to start working on your ideas and transforming them into a short but interesting animation video that will market your business. Unlike the normal kind of videos, a simple animation video will not take a lot of time to create and thus you will use it within a short period of making an order. The good thing is that you will be working with our team of professionals who will incorporate you in the process to ensure that everything goes according to your will.