Website Design Practices Archives • Page 10 of 12 • TotalWeb Partners

July 11, 2017

Drive Leads with 6 Critical Web Design Elements

There is a lot you can do to drive traffic to your B2B website: on-page search engine optimization (SEO), promoting it on social media channels, search engine marketing (SEM), display ads, direct mailers, and email campaigns, just to name a few.

However, what good is all that great visitor traffic if your website if you aren’t getting any new leads?

While the purpose of a website is not solely to drive leads, it’s often the most tangible ROI of any B2B website. For this very reason, it’s critical that any B2B firm’s website is maximized for lead generation. Below are six tips to start driving more website leads.

Intuitive Layout

Recently, we explored critical considerations for digital marketing and usability along with how this impacts the perception of your brand. It’s essential that your B2B website layout is intuitive, easy to navigate, and prioritizes things your prospects and clients care about.

If your firm’s contact information and access to the products and services you offer are the main concern for prospects, put those at the top of the page. If articles discussing how your products are best utilized or a demo of your products are important to your potential clients, make those very easy to find.

There is no one best layout for a B2B website (hence why template websites aren’t ideal), but the main rule is that you don’t want your users to have to hunt for information. Make everything easy to find and enable users to get to information within one to two clicks.

July 6, 2017

by TWP Publisher

How to Avoid 6 Common Web Design Mistakes That Hurt SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Website Design Practices SEO, Web Design

We can all agree that the best websites are designed for both users and search engines, right?

That means you never should sacrifice beauty over function, or vice versa.

Check your website for the following six common mistakes to see if your beautiful design is preventing your pages from ranking high in search engines.

Mistake 1: Missing H1 Tags (Especially on the Home Page)

Imagine entering a website with a nice background picture, a well thought out font, and an elaborate color scheme. It looks amazing. Browsing through feels like a walk in a beautiful garden.

Too bad nobody will find it in search engines.

Why? Because very often website designers and developers forget about essential SEO elements.

The most common offense is removing an H1 tag just because there is no place for it on the page.

The H1 tag is one of the first elements search engine crawlers will look at to determine what the page is about. Having this tag, and including your target keyword, improves your chances of ranking higher.

Here’s a website that has a clear H1 tag front and center:

March 9, 2017

by TWP Publisher

Get in on the web development gold rush with this complete front end to back education

Website Design Practices Web Development

Learning to program for the internet is the way of the future in an increasingly connected world. Getting started, however, can be intimidating. Take the pain (and tuition) out of getting a complete web development education with the Pay What You Want: Web Hacker Bundle, a 7-course collection of everything you need to start programming like a pro.

Here’s how it works. Beat the average price and you’ll get seven complete courses, and over 73 hours of content covering everything from Python to Ruby on Rails. Pay below, and you’ll still get a crash course in the fast-growing virtualization technology Docker, and the data management system, Apache Cassandra. Either way you win!

At the end of the day, though, it’s just a few dollars more to learn to expedite website construction with Bootstrap, master the web’s most popular language, JavaScript, increase web interactivity with PHP and MySQL, and much more.

The Pay What You Want: Web Hacker Bundle is currently available at the BGR Store, and includes all 7 courses if you can beat the average price.

March 7, 2017

by TWP Publisher

4 Trends in Website Design That Small Businesses Need to Know

Website Design Practices Website design

Small businesses are an integral part of our economy. Every business aims to solve a problem and create value in doing so. This is particularly true of small businesses. They provide a service or product that meets local needs and can fulfill requirements for larger businesses.

The benefits of small businesses are numerous, but often they can have difficulty creating, sharing, and establishing their message. Entrepreneurs, startups, and freelancers watch their budgets carefully, and expenses outside of delivering the product are kept to a minimum. That means marketing budgets get shaved first.

Websites for any product or service are today’s version of a first impression. Consumers make a variety of instant decisions about whether to continue on a site or jump to a competitor’s. A person’s eyes take just 2.6 seconds to focus on a particular element of a webpage when it loads, according to research from Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Brands working to establish and expand their digital identity can expect to see increased competition for consumer attention online. Consumers increasingly form opinions about brands on the basis of their browsing experience, making it imperative to establish a positive digital identity. Here is what we can expect in the evolution of small-business website design.

1. Less reliance on custom code

Businesses have traditionally hired design firms to design their websites. Websites are perceived to be difficult to create and highly technical to maintain. But platforms that allow non-tech savvy individuals to develop their sites in a drag-and-drop format have begun to rival the value of web design firms. For small businesses, do-it-yourself websites are a viable alternative.

The less you rely on coding to create a beautiful site, the less complicated it will be. Uri Foox, president of the e-commerce website design platform Zoey, says that despite SaaS platforms’ ability to remove much of the complexity associated with running an online store or website, code is still needed to customize the front-end design of a site, for almost all platforms.

March 2, 2017

by TWP Publisher

21 Steps to Becoming a Successful Web Developer

Website Content, Website Design Practices Web Developer, Web Development

This is important to ask, because so many people around the world are web developers, but how many of them are successful at it?

My goal for this article is to equip you with the mindset, knowledge and skills to stand out from the crowd and make a success of your web development career — whether that’s at a company or freelancing for yourself.

This article is intended for aspiring web developers and web developers who are struggling to break through the “barrier of mediocrity.”

These 21 steps will help you succeed in web development and beyond.

1. Is This Something You’re Truly Passionate About?
“Passion” is a word so commonly used that the actual meaning gets distorted. It actually means “a strong and barely controllable emotion.”

Passion is not passive: it’s a pursuit to act. Most people hate their 9–5 jobs, but few do jobs they love and are passionate about.

It’s important to ask yourself these three questions:

Does the thought of creating websites and web apps excite me?
Would this be an exciting career for me to do?
Would becoming a web developer be in line with the lifestyle I’d like to have for myself (and my family)?

If you answered yes to the above questions, you’re on the right path to becoming a web developer.

February 28, 2017

by TWP Publisher

Is Web Design Dying?

Website Design Practices Web Design, Web Development

Web design isn’t dying. It’s just being folded into full stack development.

There are several design specializations that are relevant to web development, such as user experience design and visual design.

Web design is no such specialization – it’s a more general term that’s traditionally associated with building static websites, or dynamic websites built on top of an off-the-shelf content management system like WordPress or Drupal.

But web applications are becoming more complicated. This complexity requires additional skills. Hence the rise of the full stack developer, who is comfortable with front end development tools (like React) and back end development tools (like Node.js).

Also, the term “web design” has generally fallen out of favor – at least here in San Francisco. Plenty of laypeople still refer to the act of building websites as “web design” but far fewer practitioners refer to themselves as “web designers.”

This question originally appeared on Quora. the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, and Facebook. More questions:

Top 2017 Web Design Trends

Website Design Practices Web Design, Web Design Trends

Every year, the web design industry goes through some sort of evolution cycle to stay relevant and inspiring.

Last year, I wrote about the top web design trends to watch in 2016, many of which have taken root and changed the way we understand design forever.

This year, like a number of UX experts, I’m betting on AI-powered chatbots, VR, and immersive storytelling trends to leave a permanent mark on the industry. Undoubtedly, we will also see a lot of last year’s trends continue to shape and influence the web design space.

Without further ado, let’s explore what design innovations can give your website a serious facelift in 2017.

VR and 360º video

Although the gadget world was abuzz last year with the exciting virtual reality (VR) announcements, the trend hasn’t made a huge impact on web design trends so far. One great example of how VR and 360º video can be incorporated into web design to create a breathtaking, interactive experience is Peugeot 208’s promo campaign that utilizes both technologies to showcase a new product.

Google’s Daydream VR headset is at the forefront of this movement, expanding our imagination of how the technology could be adapted for everyday use, but many other brands are jumping on the wagon too, including Playstation, HTC, and Microsoft. With so many possible practical uses of the gadget, we’re bound to see VR and 360º video finally bleeding into the web design space too.

Card design and grid layouts

First popularized by Pinterest, card design layouts continue to shape and influence web design trends and we will be seeing more of this dynamic grid style in 2017. What makes cards so appealing is the simplicity, organization, flexibility and responsiveness that they create. Grid layouts are particularly suitable for pages with an abundance of data, as they make the information more accessible and enticing. A web development agency htmlBoutique utilizes the grid layout to create unique compositions of case studies and give their portfolio an extra oomph that sets it apart from typical showcase pages.

December 31, 2016

by TotalWeb Partners

Forbes – 7 SEO Trends That Will Dominate 2017

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Website Content, Website Design Practices

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a game that’s all about staying one step ahead of your opponents.

One of the best ways to accomplish this competitive dominance is to be aware of how search engines are changing, and adjust your content and SEO strategy before your competitors have a chance to catch up. The SEO industry is always moving, so it pays to be aware of these evolutions.

It looks like 2017 will be an interesting year for SEO, with the following trends dominating the arena:

1. The Rise of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs).

2. The Rise of “Dense” Content.

3. Machine Learning Will Change the Way the Algorithm Works.

4. Personal Branding Will Become an SEO Secret Weapon.

5. User Experience Optimization (UEO) Will Start to Blur the Lines with SEO.

6. Apps Will Feel the Love.

7. Personal Digital Assistants will Become More Sophisticated, Changing the Way Many of us Perform Search Queries.

December 6, 2016

by TWP Publisher

7 Suggestions for Better Mobile-Friendly Web Design

Website Content, Website Design Practices Web Design

Recently, Google made a statement that the volume of search queries on mobile devices has now surpassed desktop. This along with their most recent algorithm updates means that much more value is being given to well-designed mobile websites. Desktop sites failing to conform to the standard are likely to witness a marked decline in SEO rankings and traffic.

So what does this mean for mobile web designers & marketers?

Well for starters, if you haven’t created a mobile website or introduced responsive features into your existing one, you are likely missing out on valuable SERPs rankings and traffic since the majority of your users will likely be visiting on their phones.

Here are 7 suggestions you need to know to update your website to modern mobile standards.

1. Understand usability
Usability is arguably the most important aspect of a mobile website, after all; would you buy an unsteerable car? The same point can be made for your website, your users don’t want to visit a site they can’t use.

You should start off by viewing your current website on your mobile. If you have to pinch in and zoom around to read everything, and it takes several attempts to navigate to a new page, you’ve gotten a clear view of the mobile experience you are offering your users.

2. A responsive website isn’t always the best answer
Depending on your current website, you may want to consider developing a responsive theme that adapts to your users’ browser or device resolution. However, sometimes this isn’t achievable and you may want to opt for a dedicated mobile website instead.

Building a separate mobile site has its benefits, for example they are often easier to develop than integrating responsiveness into your existing site and costs can often be significantly less (especially when using a third-party mobile website builder), however a separate mobile page means you will have to maintain 2 different code bases and upload content to both.

Whichever route you decide to go down, research is needed to ensure which option is more suited to your marketing and business model in the long run.

November 28, 2016

by TWP Publisher

5 Ways Web Designers Can Create Amazing Websites

Website Content, Website Design Practices Web Design

All masters in their domain have secrets they might not be willing to reveal, but their products and practices can speak for themselves and offer clues to achieving greatness. Web designing is such a field. It demands creativity, attention to detail, and practice. Understand what the best web designers do and you can become a master yourself. Here are 5 ways to amp up your web design skills and create powerful websites:

Avoid slideshows and carousels

Slideshows and carousels are suitable only if you are seeking to feature a lot of information on a single page. Remember though, many of your visitors might not stay on your website long enough to absorb all the information in a slideshow or carousel. Given visitors’ short attention spans, it’s typically better to offer a concise value proposition, especially on your home page, and avoid slideshows carousels. When you are seeking the attention of someone, it is important to deliver content that’s meaningful and remove anything not relevant.

Simplify the navigation through your design

A complex website might seem appealing at first, but it will not be very welcoming for a random visitor. Infusing too many options can be counterproductive. Simplifying the visitor’s experience is recommended so a visitor won’t lose time in an attempt to find the information they need the most.

Do not crowd your header or sidebar. Remove as many links as possible. Dropdown menus might adversely affect the aesthetics of your design and the user experience and can be difficult to use on mobile devices – consider eliminating them

Use a sketchbook!

This old-school hack is a must for designers. When ideas come or you feel like organizing a concept, grab your book and sketch it out as the inspiration flows. Tablets can also help you in drawing your design thoughts, but the feeling of sketching out a design on the paper is irreplaceable. This method can assist you during brainstorming and help organize your design process better.

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