More often nowadays we are seeing video clips on business websites. They shouldn’t be too long; the viewer will get turned off by 50 minutes of “why we are great” and “here’s a description of everything we sell“. Short (30 second) infomercials are the current thing. Almost everyone has, or knows someone with, a camera that takes short video clips (even cheap mobile camera phones). Uploading to YouTube is usually the first option but it looks more professional to embed video into your own pages and obviously without an advert appearing for your competitors. Here are a few reasons why you should consider a video clip on your webpages: Video proves your…
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Designing a Landing Page
The Christmas shopping has begun. People are searching for the best deals and are purchasing more than they have all year. Online advertising can be a great tool in order to get the word out about your special offers and landing pages can be a great tool to help those eager customers convert. Let’s start with the basics. A landing page is, in the most general form, a page that a visitor views after clicking on a link. This could be your home page or any other page on your site, but I would like to focus on custom pages. We previously discussed why landing pages are so valuable and how they…
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Blog Post Writing Tips
One of the best ways to improve your site’s SEO and get higher rankings is by maintaining a blog. A good blog will both prove to Google that your site is high-quality, and create content that is more likely to be shared on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It’s also a great way to provide extra information to viewers, stuff that doesn’t quite fit onto the site. Of course, setting up the blog is the easy part. Figuring out what to say can be much trickier. It’s the content that will boost your SEO, so it’s essential that what you’re writing is clear, easy-to-read and above all, useful. You…
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Mobile Friendly Websites
The days when we needed desktops and laptops to surf the internet are totally behind us. The Internet today has moved from just being accessed from the desks to being with us anywhere and everywhere we go. Mobile Phones with internet access today has become the most basic amenity of any household. This has also give rise to the term “Internet at your fingertips” or “Internet on the go”. The internet on mobile has also moved on from GPRS to GPRS edge to 3G to 4G. In some countries users today have access to the 4G LTE(Long Term Evolution). Some of the top trends of the year like the Instagram…
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How to disappear from the Internet forever
Sick of horribly embarrassing things showing up when potential employers Google your name? Tired of everyone knowing you live in a garden level dungeon apartment? Perhaps you just don’t like the fact the Internet makes you easy to find. Thankfully, it’s not that hard to delete yourself entirely. Here’s how to do it. For mildly famous (or infamous) individuals, disappearing is essentially impossible, but for the average person it’s surprisingly easy. It just depends on much info is already out there. Step 1: Delete your social network accounts Chances are the first results that pop up on a Google search of your name are your social network profiles. This likely…
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Tips for Effective Website Redesign
Thinking about giving your website an upgrade? Keeping your website fresh and modern is essential for engaging customer interest. An up-to-date website signals an active business that is on board with the latest trends. A website redesign can sometimes be tougher than creating from scratch however. There are tough decisions to be made; mixing the components that are already working well with new elements can be a tricky balance. Consider the following key points when planning a major overhaul. Re-identify your target audience. Chances are your business has changed significantly since you developed your previous website. Perhaps you have discovered your niche, or conversely have opened up new audiences and avenues…
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Pondering Clean Web Design
Clean web design is part of an overall design trend towards websites that are intuitive, user-oriented, and minimalist. It means stripping back unnecessary elements and bringing that which is most important to the fore, and arranging it in a way that is clear and concise for the viewer. Doing this while still maintaining the personality and functionality of a website can be a tricky balance, but it is a worthy aspiration. Clean websites look fresh and modern, and will help to fulfil the overall goals of the site. Clean Web Design Tips And Best Practises Clean up the content. Before you can design an efficient website, your content must be…
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Web Design For Search Engine Rankings
There are two main viewers who should be catered to in any good web design: your target audience, and search engines. The latter may seem rather strange to some, given that search engines don’t exactly have eyes or a buyer’s agenda. It’s important to realise, however, that search engines do in fact “read” your website in a very specific way. By scanning it and looking for certain criteria, they’re trying to figure out whether your website is a good result to give to people searching for a particular phrase. Knowing these criteria and how to make your site look good to search engines is a crucial part of web design.…
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Web Content Topic Ideas To Smash Writer’s Block
Having trouble thinking about what topics will engage your viewers? Great website content will never go out of style. Not only will it engage your visitors and encourage them to share what they find, it’s also hugely important for SEO. That said, it’s not always easy to hit the topic sweet spot. Here are some tips that will help to develop compelling topic ideas for your web content: 1. Write what you know. The hardest question of content is what to write. The fact is, you probably already have the answer. Your content should be related to your specific industry or business, utilising your knowledge and experience. A lot of…
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Website Contact Page Tips
Your homepage is your website’s most important page. Your contact page is the second most important. OK, well for e-commerce/shopping cart sites it might be the third or fourth most popular page, but either way your contact page is jolly important. The ultimate purpose of many sites is to encourage potential customers to make contact with you. Think of your contact page as a lead generation form. The key to a successful contact page is simplicity and accessibility. It’s important to include clear contact details. Adding an email link is often a good way to go, but if you want to elicit further information, then you need to be sure…