Top Principles Of Effective Web Design

Websites that are not well designed tend to perform poorly and have sub-optimal Google Analytics metrics (e.g. high bounce rates, low time on site, low pages per visit and low conversions). So what makes good web design? Below we explore the top 10 web design principles that will make your website aesthetically pleasing, easy to use, engaging, and effective.

1. PURPOSE

Good web design always caters to the needs of the user. Are your web visitors looking for information, entertainment, some type of interaction, or to transact with your business? Each page of your website needs to have a clear purpose, and to fulfill a specific need for your website users in the most effective way possible.

2. COMMUNICATION

People on the web tend to want information quickly, so it is important to communicate clearly, and make your information easy to read and digest. Some effective tactics to include in your web design include: organising information using headlines and sub headlines, using bullet points instead of long windy sentences, and cutting the waffle.

3. TYPEFACES

In general, Sans Serif fonts such as Arial and Verdana are easier to read online (Sans Serif fonts are contemporary looking fonts without decorative finishes). The ideal font size for reading easily online is 16px and stick to a maximum of 3 typefaces in a maximum of 3 point sizes to keep your design streamlined.

4. COLOURS

A well thought out colour palette can go a long way to enhance the user experience. Complementary colours create balance and harmony. Using contrasting colours for the text and background will make reading easier on the eye. Vibrant colours create emotion and should be used sparingly (e.g. for buttons and call to actions). Last but not least, white space/ negative space is very effective at giving your website a modern and uncluttered look.

5. IMAGES

A picture can speak a thousand words, and choosing the right images for your website can help with brand positioning and connecting with your target audience. If you don’t have high quality professional photos on hand, consider purchasing stock photos to lift the look of your website. Also consider using infographics, videos and graphics as these can be much more effective at communicating than even the most well written piece of text.

6. NAVIGATION

Navigation is about how easy it is for people to take action and move around your website. Some tactics for effective navigation include a logical page hierarchy, using bread crumbs, designing clickable buttons, and following the ‘three click rule’ which means users will be able to find the information they are looking for within three clicks.

7. GRID BASED LAYOUTS

Placing content randomly on your web page can end up with a haphazard appearance that is messy. Grid based layouts arrange content into sections, columns and boxes that line up and feel balanced, which leads to a better looking website design.

8. “F” PATTERN DESIGN

Eye tracking studies have identified that people scan computer screens in an “F” pattern. Most of what people see is in the top and left of the screen and the right side of the screen is rarely seen. Rather than trying to force the viewer’s visual flow, effectively designed websites will work with a reader’s natural behaviour and display information in order of importance (left to right, and top to bottom).

9. LOAD TIME

Everybody hates a website that takes ages to load.  Tips to make page load times more effective include optimising image sizes (size and scale), combining code into a central CSS or JavaScript file (this reduces HTTP requests) and minify HTML, CSS, JavaScript (compressed to speed up their load time).

10: MOBILE FRIENDLY

It is now commonplace to access websites from multiple devices with multiple screen sizes, so it is important to consider if your website is mobile friendly. If your website is not mobile friendly, you can either rebuild it in a responsive layout (this means your website will adjust to different screen widths) or you can build a dedicated mobile site (a separate website optimised specifically for mobile users).

For more details on our products and services, please feel free to visit us at Best Online Marketing Company, Online Marketing Company, Online Marketing Companies, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing Company

Importance Of Video In Digital Marketing Part - I

Video marketing techniques are flooding today's social media outlets and websites. These days almost any type of business would benefit from the production of a short video to introduce their products and services. Studies have shown that consumers are at least 64% more likely to purchase a product or service that has video representation. This makes establishing a personal connection with buyers through the means of video marketing a key element in the future of online marketing.

Impressions

There was once a time that attaching a picture of one's products or services was enough to entice buyers. While images can most certainly enhance your business and communicate with a consumer, videos have a much further reaching effect on today's media driven culture. People are presented with so much information that they have to make a decision about what they take the time to read and view. Video promotions will bring a clearer understanding of the benefits of a product or service. Consumers also find it more convenient to watch a video while trying to accomplish other tasks. Providing this convenience to the consumer has proven to be a highly effective marketing technique.

It has been estimated that somewhere close to 75% of business professionals watch promotional videos at least once a week for relevant products and services. At least half of the content is watched straight from YouTube.com. Of those that watch these online ads, half of them will end up visiting the promoted company's website.

Live action ads are also more likely to be shared through social media outlets versus text based information. It's been recently rumoured that Facebook has updated its algorithm to favour video posts above all other types of content. A business now has the ability to reach a larger viewing audience by creating or sharing memorable or funny videos. Video ads and promotions will entice a person to an emotional response. Most often, a person will share information they identify with the most, allowing your business free exposure to a potential clients friends, family, and followers.

Confidence

The rapid growth of e-commerce has resulted in more consumers becoming comfortable with the idea of making their purchases online. This makes it increasingly important for companies to establish an engaging and personal connection. Videos that welcome a consumer to the website (such as this one) gives an immediate association to the product or services. Naturally, movement catches a person's eye and compels the viewer to pay closer attention. Websites that utilise videos to draw the attention of the viewer have an immense advantage over those that rely on simple text and images.

While techniques used for promotions are constantly evolving, consumer behavior still suggests that purchases are made when personal connection has been established. It is normal for a person to feel a greater connection to another person when they have the ability to read body language. Videos bring that association to a consumers mind and allows for greater trust and confidence in a business.

Not only is personal connection established through the use of this form of media, but seeing a product in action will produce a greater faith in its capabilities. The use of eye catching visual media will help a buyer feel more confident in their purchase. This brings trust and credibility to a company's website and products.

For more details on our products and services, please feel free to visit us at Best Online Marketing Company, Online Marketing Company, Online Marketing Companies, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Using Keywords Strategically Part - II

Every blog entry you post gives you a new opportunity to use SEO keywords in your content. By performing keyword research, finding the keywords and phrases that searchers looking for a company like yours would most likely use, and then using those keywords strategically in your blog posts, you can really improve your search engine optimization results.

To improve your outcomes, use long-tail keywords that your target audience will likely use during their research as part of the buyer’s journey. But remember to avoid keyword stuffing.

Backlinking

It pays to build relationships with other organizations and websites. Blogging offers you the chance to include links to other relevant websites. As a return, these organizations may link back to your site, which will help you generate even more web traffic that you couldn’t otherwise generate on your own.

It’s important to build relationships with reputable and high-quality websites that fit your niche when backlinking, however. Otherwise, you could be penalized by search engines.

Increasing Your Popularity Rank

Sometimes, SEO is a popularity contest. Search engines will move up your rank on their result pages if they notice that your blog entries are shared frequently and clicked on often. The best way to win this popularity contest is to commit to only publishing high-quality content that your audience will actually want to read. Sharing your blog however you can and suggesting that others do the same can also help.

Posting Fresh Content On Your Website

Search engines love websites that are updated frequently. This shows them that the websites are fresh and relevant, rather than outdated. Search engines don’t want to list irrelevant, outdated webpages for their users. They want to post the most up-to-date and new content possible to ensure that it’s as useful as possible.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many chances for you to update the other areas of your website. Your company’s history and about us page will never change. Your price page and product pages will only rarely change, if ever. You might update your home page content a couple times a year, at the most.

Starting a blog gives you the opportunity to continuously publish new posts on your site. You can post multiple times a day if you want to. The more fresh content you post, the more pages you’ll have for search engines to index, which means more opportunities to take the #1 spot on search engine result pages.

Why Blogging Is Important

One of the most important reasons why blogging is important, however, is because it can boost your SEO results. Search engine optimization (SEO) involves a series of activities that optimizes your content in order to improve your organic, or “free,” traffic. The better you optimize your blog posts for SEO, the higher your webpages will be listed on search engine result pages, so more people can find your website and get to know your business. In fact, companies that blog typically gain at least twice as much web traffic as those that don’t blog.

Optimization Techniques

There are other in-depth optimization techniques which on being followed will help you rank better thank your competitors. Some of these techniques to verify your business page and overall optimization are listed below.

1.) NAP

Name Address Phone number (NAP). Other than these important attributes if you also pay attention and add a category of your business and ask your visitors to leave a rating. it gives a very good impact to the next visitor. A person while visiting a business page makes his mind on the basis of the reviews and ratings witnessed by him on the business profile.

Also, categorizing your business helps your customers to easily locate you. Say, if a person is looking for tours and travel business to help him book a trip. So, he begins his search by selecting the same category. You might have the best deals but what is the point when your business profile does not pop up at the right place. Now, at this moment, had you categorized your business it would have popped up to help you gain that customer.

2.) Verification

Google may use multiple methods to verify your business or maybe just one. The verification method could be either a phone call, an email or a postcard. Claim your business and get it verified because only after your business is verified you will be able to communicate with your audience. Thus, the verification of your business profile is a paramount step and must not be compromised on.

3.) Register with business listing websites

When other websites reflect the details of your business like the Name, address, website link, etc. Its hints Google that you are running a real business. There are several local marketing websites that maintain the directories of the local businesses. You can get your business added to such directories this will fetch you customers from their website as well as increase your Google credibility. So, either way, it is beneficial to your local business.

Conduct a small survey over the internet to find the top citation website in your city and get your business listed with them. Doing so will help you utilize their traffic to promote your own business page, there will be a much higher lead rate and accordingly, the conversion rate will also rise.

4.) Update the existing listings with the new updates

There will be times when you may shift your physical address or change your phone number, do not forget to get the same updated on all the web directories your business is listed at. If you forget to update your business, it will certainly confuse your customers and make it difficult to locate your physical office or reach you by phone or email, in case you change that too.

Thus, it is crucial to keep your customers updated with the necessary details. Also, if you do not update the given information, there are chances that Google will flag your site as a duplicate. You certainly don’t want that so it’s better to be cautious and alert about such minute yet important details.

5.) Increase your SEO via Google local listing

People often search for nearby businesses using certain categories or area selection. A business which is listed with Google has a higher reach if it is properly listed with Google Local Listings. This is in reference to the specified categories, area, local address, phone number, etc.

Your operations in your local area will be smoothened because the nearby residents will be informed and updated with the local business that is operating in their local area.

In a nutshell, I would sum up the concept and advantages of having your business registered with Google Local Listings. We have already read in detail the base concept of listing the local businesses in an area. The perks of getting your business listed with local listing Google that work online and are popularly accessed by the people living in that local area.

The major impact of registering local businesses on local marketing directories, maintaining business listings, to keep the updated details of a local business, in that particular area or the areas nearby, are the increased SEO, easy access to information, and a smooth communication.

90% of the businesses, whether startup or established, already have their business/company registered under Google Local Listing and several other local marketing directories like Justdial, etc.

Note: Adding your business to the Google local maps is an equally important task to give directions to your customers. By following the above-mentioned information, you are all set to walk the optimized path of communication and business reach.

How to Set Up Your Business on Google Local Listing

Benefits of Listing your Business on Google Local Maps

By now you are already clear about the idea that what exactly do we mean by Google Local Listing, how can you register your local business online under Google Local Listing and what are the best ways you can exploit the most to get a higher ranking and a massive reach. To simply we have listed the primary benefits of having your local business registered on Google Local Listing and being able to have a business page on Google which can be further managed manually in case of any errors or omits.

1.) Better visibility

2.) Easy access to information from the customer’s point of view

3.) Easy to locate

4.) Authorized and reliable source of information

5.) Single click location share

6.) Can be made very descriptive with the help of pictures and other interesting texts.

7.) Announcements made easy

8.) Ratings that increase the credibility

9.) Pictorial updates to enhance the descriptiveness

10. Easy to recommend to a friend

11. Directions on the Google map it much easier to reach the exact location.

Requisites to take your business online and register under Google Local Listing

There are certain specific requirements without which a local business cannot register online. Read on to know them-

• A unique business name or DBA (Doctor of Business Administration)

• A registered address, phone number (this should be a local area number)

• The office address must be a physical space not a virtual office address

• One on one contact with the customer, Real business does not take place virtually

Consider the above-mentioned points to be of utmost importance in order to get your local business registered online under Google Local Listing.

Now, after you have listed your local business with Google and also you have optimized your business page to the fullest, the next thing that comes up is the follow-up. First from Google to verify your information and then the customers who visit your business profile. You will receive orders online or you may simply get plenty of calls for various queries. Thus, the point here is that the work goes on and you must be active in receiving calls and giving the correct information each time.