Design Myths Web Design

Do Not Believe These Design Myths

If you are a web designer, there’s a chance that you have heard quite a few design myths over and over again. Whether it is from your friends, your parents, or the clients you work with, there are plenty of myths to go around. Sometimes designers will even agree with them! Note that this doesn’t always make it true.

Let’s debunk a few of these myths and get the better answers:

Myth: Design is an Artform
Not really. Design is design and there isn’t much else do it. by Professor Nigel Cross in his book, Designerly ways of knowing, as he defined design as the following: “Everything we have around us has been designed. Design ability is, in fact, one of the three fundamental dimensions of human intelligence. Design, science, and art form an ‘AND’ not an ‘OR’ relationship to create the incredible human cognitive ability.”

This means that you can’t really define what design is, which also means that you can only use the world “design” to define it.

Myth: Design is all in the Tools
When you design, you use tools. This means that most people think that all you have to do is learn how to master the tools and you will be able to be a designer. This isn’t really the case. You have to learn how to think and feel like a designer and then actually do the work. There are certain parts of design that you just can’t “learn” your way through if you want to be truly great.

That doesn’t mean that people can’t become designers or grow in their skills.

(more…)

Internet Business Consultant Online Marketing

It Makes Sense To Employ An Internet Business Consultant When Starting An ECommerce Business

Starting an eCommerce business can be exciting and in the long term, very rewarding financially if it is setup correctly. If not, it can become a costly nightmare which is why it makes sense to employ an internet business consultant when starting your eCommerce business.

The first thing they will be able to advise you on is which platform to use for your online store. For example, if you want to start with one or two private label products they are most likely going to recommend Amazon. If you want to have a much bigger range of products, then Shopify is an option. Beyond these two there are several other excellent eCommerce platforms that could be more suited to your business and this is why a eCommerce SEO consultant’s advice is important so that you get this right from the outset.

The alternative is that you plough ahead and pick an eCommerce platform only to discover several months down the road that it is unsuitable for you and by that time you will have invested a lot of time and money that will have been wasted unnecessarily.

The next way that an internet business consultant can help you is in relation to choosing products and sourcing them. You may know what sorts of products you want to sell, or it could be that you want to target a specific niche but aren’t sure yet what products your store will have for sale.

(more…)

WordPress Mistakes Web Design

WordPress Mistakes That You Need to Avoid

A lot of beginning web developers build their first website on a content management platform like WordPress. WordPress is easy to use, very affordable (or even free in some cases) and comes with a huge range of add-ons and plugins to improve your new site.

However, there are still a lot of things that can go wrong with WordPress websites, as many novice developers have found out. If you want to build a decent, functioning website, then you need to make sure that you avoid the following common mistakes that inexperienced WordPress users often make:

1. Not backing your site up

Backing up your website is absolutely essential, especially if you’re using a cheap hosting provider. Basically, backing up your website involves creating a copy of all your site’s content, including written content, images, videos and more. This can be done with various plugins or through dedicated website backup platforms. Many hosting providers also offer back-ups.

2. Using too many plugins

Although plugins can be extremely useful, and will make your life as an inexperienced web developer extremely easy, they can also slow your website down dramatically. It’s important to make sure that you only use plugins which are useful and which actually offer measurable benefits for your website.

3. Not optimising for mobile users

A huge percentage of internet browsing is now done on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. This means that you need to make sure that the website has a design for people who use mobile devices, otherwise you will find that your bounce rate is higher than it should be. The best tip for mobile web design is to make sure that your website is fully optimised and fully responsive.

(more…)

Social Media Followers Online Marketing

6 Ways To Get More People To Follow You On Social Media

When it comes to online marketing for lawyers and law firms, social media is one of your most powerful tools. If you own, run, or simply manage the marketing for a law firm, you need to be aware of social media best practices.

One of the most important things when it comes to social media marketing is gaining followers. The more followers you have, the more people who will see your content, and the more exposure you will have. However, getting more followers can be difficult at the best of times.

This is why we’ve put together a list of our top 6 ways to get more social media followers for your law firm. What are you waiting for – get started now!

  • Post Content That’s Relevant

If you’re serious about getting as many people following your law firm’s social media pages as possible, then you need to think carefully about the type of content you post. Make sure that it’s relevant, that it’s interesting, and that it encourages people to react or engage with you. For example, Family lawyers Perth would post relevant content for possible clients.

  • Think Carefully About How You Engage With People

The key to social media success is presenting yourself in a way that draws people in. Instead of being a boring old law firm page, show people the human behind the page. Sympathise with their problems, answer their questions, and do your best to help people wherever you can.

  • Run A Competition

Social media competitions and giveaways are great ways to increase the number of followers you have. A popular way to gain followers is to offer the chance of winning a prize to people who like and share your page (on Facebook) or Retweet (on Twitter). This will dramatically increase your exposure, and should result in more followers.

  • Use Paid Advertising

One of the best uses of paid social media advertising for law firms, such as Commercial Lawyers Perth, is page promotion. In many cases, this is a great way to gain more followers and increase your exposure.

(more…)

Adwords Marketing Online Marketing

Effective Ways To Make Adwords Marketing More Profitable

Millions of words have been written about Google’s search engine and how SEO can get you to the top of the first page. Often it is a much harder than you are led to believe and in a lot of cases virtually impossible. Thankfully, here is another way to get your website on the first page of Google’s search results and that is by using Adwords marketing.

Adwords is Google’s paid advertising platform and it is paying advertisers whose results you’ll often see at the top and on the right-hand side of the search results. Please note when you use Adwords and even though you are paying Google, there is still no guarantee you will be on the first or even the second page. To achieve this, and to get the best return on your investment. there are some simple rules you should follow when using Adwords marketing.

Before you do anything, you should first learn as much about Adwords as you can by reading the information Google provides about how it works. This is especially important as it will ensure you don’t fall foul of any of Google’s policies, which could result in your account being banned.

(more…)

SEO Best Practices Online Marketing

Tips For Keeping Up To Date With SEO Best Practices

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an essential part of any successful website. Without undertaking some specific actions to optimise your site for search engine crawler bots, there is very little chance of you appearing highly in search engine rankings. This means that you will receive very little organic traffic to your site, and you may find it difficult to obtain a decent audience.

However, if you ask SEO guru Peter Brittain, it is important to note that SEO best practices change regularly as different search engines update their ranking algorithms. It is therefore essential to perform regular maintenance to make sure that you continue to rank highly for your targeted keywords, especially if you depend on high volumes of organic traffic for your business to succeed.

Below are some of our top tips for staying up to date with the latest SEO best practices, each of which should help you keep at the top of your SEO game.

  1. Follow Some High Authority Blogs:

High authority SEO blogs are usually a good place to get the most up to date and correct information about SEO best practices. Find website which has good reputation, which appears to update their SEO information regularly, and which has a consistent high readership.

(more…)

Off Page SEO Online Marketing

A Beginner’s Guide to Off Page SEO Practices

Even the most amateur website designer should be familiar with simple on page SEO practices such as keyword density, keyword placement, and the use of html formatting. However, many people aren’t aware of the fact that the things that they do elsewhere on the web can also influence their search engine ranking.

If you aren’t using off page SEO practices yet, then you need to seriously think about what you are doing. You will usually be able to dramatically increase your websites ranking through a few simple actions, including:

  1. Build a good reputation:

If you have a good reputation, people will be more likely to talk positively about you and your website in other places on the internet. Believe it or not, search engine crawler bots collect data from places like reviews sites and forums to determine the perceived value of your website to your viewers. Building a good reputation can help you get decent reviews and an enhance the offline and online visibility of your website. This is especially important if you are selling a product or a service, as a poor reputation will effectively cripple you.

(more…)

Joomla Extensions Online Marketing

5 Joomla Extensions To Boost SEO For Your Website

One of the biggest challenges for any website owner using the Joomla CMS platform who wants to increase the number of visitors to their site is improving that website’s ranking within the search engines. There are several ways to do this but one of the most effective is with the use of search engine optimisation or SEO as it is commonly referred to.

According to SEO Experts, SEO Sydney there are many SEO activities which can be done externally to the website such as increasing the number of backlinks to the site, but there are also several which need to be undertaken within the site itself. To improve the effectiveness of this on Joomla websites the use of an SEO extension or plugin is recommended. There are dozens of these to choose from but here are 5 that have proven to work very well.

JoomSEF: The ‘SEF’ in JoomSEF stands for ‘Search Engine Friendly’ which is what this extension will do for your website’s URLs. It basically rewrites them so that they are more easily recognised by the search engines and more understandable by individuals when they see the URL. JoomSEF optimises your website’s metadata including its metatags, handles redirects such as 301 and also connects your site with Google analytics.

(more…)

Digital Marketing Agency Online Marketing

How A Digital Marketing Agency Can Help Get Your Brand Established

No matter how big or small your business currently is, or if you are only just starting a business, the importance of having a respected and powerful brand is crucial. You could try to do this yourself, but as with many functions within your business, the wisest way to develop your brand is by enlisting the help of a digital agency.

Not only will a digital marketing agency have the resources in terms of skilled marketers and branding experts, their experience of working with other businesses is a massive advantage to you. Their experience allows them to take what they have learned working for previous clients and implement it when working for you, which includes avoiding any branding mistakes that may have happened in the past.

To employ the services of a digital marketing agency you must first ensure that their credentials and track record are congruent with the standards you would expect. Remember that their task is to position your company and its brand in the best possible light, so the last thing you want is for the agency who are doing that for you, to have a less than stellar reputation themselves.

(more…)

Online Business Web Design

Why Planning Your Web Design In Advance Is Essential For Every Online Business

As a business owner, you should be aware that good web design is essential for your business whether it sells physical products or services. Your website is the storefront to an audience of thousands of potential customers and just like any brick and mortar store it must look professional and welcoming.

Excellent web design is about more than just making the home page look appealing, and if you want your website to be effective then planning its design and functionality is essential. There are three main web design factors to consider.

#1 What purpose does your website serve?

This crucial question is what poorly designed websites completely fail to answer. Knowing the main purpose of your website in advance and ensuring the design and functionality of the site match that purpose, will give you a huge advantage over your competitors. Some questions and possible answers to consider prior to designing your website:

  • Is it a corporate site? Should be visual with easily recognisable company branding and colours.
  • A Content site to provide information? Text must be easy to read, with simple navigation.
  • Single product sales page? Easy to skim, with focus on fonts and colours.
  • Is it an e-commerce site? Requires a shopping cart and an easily navigated product catalogue.

(more…)