website development

Make Your Website Unforgettable with These Effective User Experience and Usability Tips for Web Design

Posted on by Mario

web design tips

Have you ever been in a relationship with someone that no matter how good looking, kind and rich the person is; you still felt empty as if it was not good enough? I have, and it was not that the person I was with was imperfect – I am also imperfect myself. However, something is definitely lacking. When you are dating, it is not just about looks, wealth and personality – it is the shared activity that must not be overlooked. Yes, when it comes to maintaining a relationship, shared activities are the ones making the relationship unforgettable because shared activities are done and experienced together in order to create meaningful memories that can always be remembered. Looking at this that way makes me believe that the same way of thinking can be applied to web design as well. When it comes to a website, it is not just about how it looks like, but it is more about how your website makes visitors feel. Did your website provide useful information? Did the visitors find what they are looking for on your website? Did the visitors feel encouraged to buy your products? Or did they feel happy after visiting your website? Whatever it is, at the end of the day, what matters most is how you make them feel and how unforgettable your website is to them. I know it seems hard to think that way because creating a magnificent website like that is almost impossible for businesses. Don’t worry! After months of researching, I found that it is also not impossible to create a website that is unforgettable for your website visitors with user experience and usability in mind. How? Keep reading to find out!

Make the website simpler but unique

Sometimes less is more and more is less – and it’s true. While the look and feel of your website is important, most visitors are not coming to your site to evaluate how stylish the design is. Instead, they are coming to your site to complete some action, or to find some specific piece of information. There are some unnecessary design elements that make the website too complicated to remember. Make it simpler and unique but not too plain. For example, colours. Colours if used and chosen properly can make your website easily recognised and remembered; however, don’t use too many colours for your website’s design as you might lose your business’ true colour if that happens. Also, the typefaces you choose should be legible at the very least. A common recommendation is to use a maximum of three different typefaces in a maximum of three different sizes. As for graphics, only use them if they can help a user complete a task or perform a specific function, not just randomly use them.

Organised visual elements

When you are optimising for usability and UX, there is only one goal that should be prioritised. The goal is to lead visitors to complete a desired action but in a way that feels natural and enjoyable. Visual hierarchy entails arranging and organising website elements so that visitors naturally gravitate toward the most important elements first. Ask your web designer to adjust the position, colour, or size of certain elements, so that you can structure your site in such a way that visitors will be drawn to those elements first.

Make navigation easy

Not many may notice this, but navigation is kind of the most important part of a website. It basically leads visitors to the right place on your website to encourage purchase decision (the end result). Having intuitive navigation on your site is crucial for making sure that visitors can find what they are looking for. For that reason, a visitor should be able to arrive on your site and not have to think extensively about where they should click next and clearly, moving from point A to point B should be as easy as possible.

When you have done the three tips above, everything would be so much easier later. Trust me, when you don’t have too many navigation options on a page, it will be easier for your visitors to find stuff on your website. When the colours used for your website ‘branding’ are balanced and unique, it would be easier for your visitors to notice your business colour patterns and in the future, your website would be easily recognised and always remembered.

A Guide to Website Speed Optimisation You Can Advise Your Web Developers About

Posted on by Mario

web development tips

After years of living, we can’t deny the fact that what’s inside this Earth moves in a very fast pace. As time goes by, almost everything in this world is designed to be fast and easy. Remember when we used to look for a taxi if we don’t have much time to take a bus? I admit, life back then was very difficult, especially for me who lived in a very small village in my hometown. Even though I have a car, if the car is used by my parents, I have no choice but to take other transportation if I need to go somewhere. However, the hardest part of taking other transportation back then was the part where I had to find it. Living in a small village has its advantages and its drawbacks as well. While the air is cool and calm there (no pollution, no big buildings), taxis and buses are rare to find. Imagine if I was in hurry and no transportation passing the area. Sometimes I would call the taxi company but they always told me to wait for their call as they were also looking for the nearest taxi in my area. Thankfully, not long after that, my suffering finally met its end. Online transportation is now available in this world. Calling for a ride has never been this easy and fast before. I can get a ride in no later than 10 minutes. Thinking about this reminds me of my job. As a person who works for a web development, web design and SEO agency, I often have to face difficulties when it comes to website errors. Well, not really me, technically, since I am a content writer, not a web developer, but say, if there was an error in a website speed, I was also indirectly affected because people would get a hard time finding the content I have written, right? Therefore, we need to pay attention to details when it comes to website. Think about the last time you encountered a slow-loading website. You might have closed out the browser tab entirely or felt less inclined to patronise the site once it finally loaded. Don’t worry; if you have a business with a website as well as hiring a web developer, I’ve got a solution for you in this article. Keep reading to find out!

Before we begin this guide, first there is something you should do; find out if your website is really slow. One way to find out if your website is slow is to open a new private browser tab on your computer or mobile device, then type in your URL. Use a stopwatch to find out how quickly (or slowly) it loads. While his isn’t the most scientific approach, it’ll give you a general idea. If your website takes 10 seconds to load by your count, you know you have some work ahead of you. Once you are done with the testing, you have to…

Optimise image loading

Ever seen that circle spinning around when the image is loading? Oh, we all hate that. The easiest website speed optimisation tip for images is to upload the smallest possible version of your image for your site. For example, that your blog pages are 700 pixels wide. You would want to restrict your images to that width for optimal speed. However, make sure the images are not too small either. Test different image sizes on your site first to make sure they render appropriately on all screen sizes. After this step is done, start…

Optimising Javascript

Unless you know how to code, you will need a developer for this process. Javascript can prove fragile, and changing the wrong thing might break your site. Javascript allows you to put interactive elements on your website. For example, many forms work off a combination of Javascript, CSS, and HTML. If the Javascript has too much weight or is not optimised for speed, browsers will struggle to load and render it. That’s why it is important to keep communicating your needs to your web developers so that when you find troubles in your website, you can advise your web developers to fix it especially when it comes to coding and Javascript. Now let’s get to the next part.

Check your plugins

If there are too many plugins on your website, it will likely slow down your website in the long run. The browser has to understand what all those plugins mean and how to assimilate them with your website itself. Too often, business owners and marketers install every plugin that looks like it might do something fancy. Worse, when they deactivate those plugins, they don’t delete them from their WordPress installation. For that reason, communicating this with your web developer is very important.

Page speed is one of the most important considerations when it comes to optimising your website. You want your visitors to get your content quickly and navigate to different pages as easily as possible. Remember, consumers have short attention spans. You don’t want to give them a reason to exit your site before accessing the important content on your website.

A Proper Rethink: Why Businesses Should Revisit Their SEO Strategy From Time to Time

Posted on by Mario

SEO tips

In the business world, some departments have it far easier than others. The HR and the finance department for example is usually static and unchanging, there might be certain periods where they’re much busier than the usual but you’re usually juggling around the same things. Contrast this to those working on the field of marketing, where trends change as often as the pop culture fads. In one moment, you might be making references to the latest Avengers film while in the next; you might be talking about something else entirely.

Marketing has always been about the zeitgeist, searching for something that’s currently dominating our current discourse and if appropriate, using them for our own benefit. This has been the case for decades and will probably remain true for the foreseeable future. As a relatively new branch of marketing, SEO is also bound by the same rules and as we go further into this discussion, I’m going to outline several reasons why it’s a good idea for businesses and SEO services alike to revise their SEO strategy from time to time to keep up with the ever-changing landscape.

Adapting with the latest marketing trends

Before the start of the final season of Game of Thrones, Mountain Dew aired a commercial featuring some of the brand’s usual collaborators humming the series’ theme song. During the Marvel-related euphoria that coincides with the latest Avengers two-parter, Infinity War and Endgame, my social media feed was also filled with so much Avengers-related content that you can’t swing a metaphorical dead cat without hitting Thanos’ absurdly large chin. The same thing also happened during the run-up to Harry and Meghan’s first child.

Taking advantage of the latest pop culture trends has been part of the marketing playbook for as long as that playbook has existed but it’s pretty common for brands to give the same treatment to their whole SEO strategy in general. Making fresh & original contents does help with SEO but that’s far from enough as SEO as a field encompasses a whole lot more than just content. SEO has one foot in technology and the other in marketing and the fact that these two fields never stay rooted in place should be enough to convince you.

Google’s algorithm are constantly updated

Search engine algorithms are constantly tweaked based on the data they’re getting from queries submitted by their public. Most of the time, these tweaks are minor but every now and again, Google rolls out one major update or two that should definitely prompt a proper rethink on your part. These major updates are usually announced beforehand and while the technical details of what the update would change is kept strictly confidential, some general information revolving around the update would typically be published to keep businesses from being caught off-guard.

To keep you abreast of what’s cooking at Google, it’s a good idea for business owners to subscribe to the Google Webmaster blog as that’s where news around Google’s search technology is published. Even if you aren’t fully in control of your SEO strategy, you have a contract with an SEO services company that does the heavy lifting for you, say, it’s still a good idea to at least keep yourself informed so you could tell when they’re doing the job you paid them to.

The world of web development are constantly updated with new technologies

SEO is broadly divided into two categories, on-page SEO and off-page SEO. The latter refers to things you do outside your webpage for the purpose of generating traffic such as posting on social media platforms while including a link to your website. Meanwhile, the former relates to the things you do inside your website such as uploading blog posts to your website and optimizing how your website is displayed and loaded, which directly revolves around the world of web design & development.

A decade ago, when a webmaster wants to optimize their website for mobile devices, they have to go through the painstaking process of stripping the more sophisticated elements of their website and adapting the size of the remaining elements to small screens and a portrait landscape. Eventually, with the advances made in mobile devices and web development, the concept of responsive web design becomes the new normal with websites now simply adapting to the size and orientation of the screen they’re displayed on.

Responsive web design is just one example in how web development practically changes the world of SEO as Google at the moment considers responsive web design to be the model for mobile optimization. However, this could change in the future as companies experiment with new display models such as folding phones and VR, which is why it’s important for business to adapt their on-page SEO strategy with the latest news in web development. What is considered a best practice now might turn obsolete in just a couple of years.

Being on the first page is good, being first period is better

Another reason why businesses might want to take a second look at their SEO strategy is simply because there might be a better way of doing things or because your current strategy just isn’t working. Comfort is the enemy of progress and thanks to the somewhat esoteric nature of SEO, there’s always something you could do in order to achieve a better result. It’s possible for example that the keywords you’re optimizing for is slightly too generic and your effort is practically being bulldozed by bigger brands with considerably more brand recognition. It’s also possible that your contents just aren’t relevant enough to be given top billing on search engine results.

The business of optimization is akin to a true friend’s work; it’s never done. There’s always something you could to increase efficiency, either by getting more results using the same amount of resource or getting the same amount of results by using less resource. Even if you feel your current SEO strategy is working well enough, it’s never a bad idea to take a second look as there are probably a couple of things to try out that you might’ve previously missed.