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Mark Mapp

Need a new website? WordPress could be the answer

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What is WordPress?

WordPress is the most popular and free open source content management system (CMS) in the world. It allows WordPress developers to create websites, blogs, or apps. WordPress offers over 45,000 add-ons known as plugins. These plugins add features such as online stores, mailing lists, analytics and a lot more.

What is a WordPress Theme?

A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphic design of a website. The theme can change the way a website is displayed without changing the code. The theme files are sometimes called template files. There are thousands of WordPress themes available for purchase. You can also hire a WordPress developer to create or edit a theme to customize it for your business.

new website consider WordPress

What is a WordPress Framework?

WordPress frameworks are used as a parent theme template with all of the functionality. WordPress developers can create a child theme to add custom styling and leave the functionality to the parent theme framework or template. The framework is used to reduce web development time and usually has additional features. Canvas, Gantry, and Genesis are common WordPress Frameworks.

What are the features & benefits of a WordPress website?

WordPress is great for businesses with simple structured websites. It has basic installation, set-up, and maintenance requirements to save businesses time and money. WordPress is a useful CMS with a simple web interface for companies that want to provide their visitors with frequently changing content in attractive layouts. WordPress has a large community of users and developers that offer a huge selection of themes, plugins, and widgets with much flexibility.

Can You Create a Mobile Responsive WordPress Website?

Yes, WordPress website can be mobile responsive! Often, outdated WordPress software and themes are the cause of poor mobile sites. Choosing the right WordPress Framework can give you a mobile responsive website and better load time to help the user navigate with ease.

We recommend focusing on mobile first and working your way up to desktop computers. Use Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for faster load speed, better user experience, and to lower the website bounce rate. Remember, Google will predominantly use the mobile version of the content in the search engine results and ranking.

How to Improve Slow Loading Speeds for WordPress Websites?

According to a report by Microsoft Bing search team, a 2-second longer delay in page responsiveness reduces user satisfaction by 3.8%. It increases lost revenue per user by 4.3% and decreases clicks to the website by 4.3%.

I would recommend good hosting with Private or Dedicated hosting services to reduce the number of site on the server and daily backups. Implement the Content Delivery Network (CDN) to improve slow loading speeds whenever offered by the hosting service. Use an established WordPress theme and framework because they are updated to improve load speed as well as security. You can have a developer optimize the website for speed by optimizing images, the database, and code.

How to Avoid Stale Content & Build a Brand?

WordPress can help you create, publish, update, and archive old content or information. You can use SEO plugins like Yoast or SmartCrawl to improve the content for search engines. Adding widgets can help to populate a page with social media posts or sales promotions. The blog functionality is simple for you to both use, and to update to avoid stale content.

Use WordPress to offer different types of content to potential customers. Reuse content in other formats such as videos, infographics, podcast and PDF downloads. You can build brand awareness and manage an online reputation, too. The reviews plugins can help manage business reviews.

How to Maintain a WordPress Website?

The average lifespan of a website is 2-5 years. The maintenance of a WordPress website is essential to maintain features, functionality, and security. Outdated WordPress website software, themes, and plugins leave sites vulnerable to hackers.

A WordPress website should receive scheduled monthly maintenance to update the software, theme, and plugins. Whenever possible, remove all deactivated plugins from the site. Audit the website for broken links on the website with a broken link checker. Do not hurt your search engine ranking, create a bad user experience, or give the idea that your business does not exist. With proper maintenance, WordPress can provide the answer for your business website needs.

Still have questions? Contact our sales team for a free consultation or submit your questions in the comments section.

Why Your Business Might Need a One Page Website

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Among businesses throughout the world (and, possibly the universe), one page websites are becoming increasingly popular. Just take a look at this list of one page websites
from Awwwards. They go by several names – including “single page” and “pageless” web designs.

While there are lots of benefits to using this simple, visual, and text-light design, this doesn’t mean that a one page website is always the right choice, though. A perfect example is Parallax Scrolling – an often-used pageless layout. It emphasizes flat design and responsivity of background images. However, its use is limited to certain templates because of technical aspects of its programming.

Before you implement a one page website, decide whether or not it is right for your business and your unique marketing goals. If the following attributes sound like your business, you will most likely benefit from a single page or pageless web design.

one page website - South Mountain YMCA
See how we helped the South Mountain YMCA with a “pageless” home page.

1) Your Business Tells a Story

A continuous scrolling experience creates the perception that you are actually reading a continuous narrative or story. Each section naturally leads to another section because the bottom of each is a cliffhanger to the opening of the next. MayeCreate Design would agree with us on this one.

As a result of no links to other pages, it is necessary to develop interactive features on your website – such as animations or lightboxes. Digital Telepathy discusses this in a recent blog post. Since users are always contained within that single page rather than multiple pages, you can easily concentrate their focus to engaging features. This means that your website is really a funnel to a contact form, subscription, or purchase that gets you in contact with users (UXPin Studio’s blog post). Every story leads to an ending.

web design services in Reading, Pa

2) Limited Content

For businesses with a small number of major products or services, a one page website would definitely be a helpful way to display that information. Without numerous offerings or plenty of content, save time and money by conserving the amount of space on your website (UXPin Studio’s blog post).

Also, straightforward or proprietary service-related strategies benefit from a one page website. If you technically or legally can’t talk for pages and pages about your business, use what suits you. Like shopping for clothes, a small amount of content needs a right-sized website to maximize users’ engagement.

website designer in Reading, Pa
NESPRESSO by KitchenAid’s one page Ecommerce website.

3) Selling Your Business a Whole Experience

Often, businesses sell products or services that nearly always go together. A single page layout is perfect if you usually end up selling your offerings as a package rather than as individual choices.

Users read about all of your offerings on “one page” or within the same space. This emphasizes that your products or services go together.

4) You Want Your Customers to Get Through the Website Fast

It is rarely the case that a business wants users to spend hours or even days visiting and returning to a website. The point is most often to drive profitable traffic to your office or phone, ASAP.

Pageless web designs are effective ways to quickly escort users through a brief introduction before generating meaningful interactions and conversions. WholeGrain Digital will tell you the same.

web design company in reading pa

5) You Want Your Website Cheap

Finally, what probably matters the most to you: the cost of one page websites. Good news! They are often dramatically cheaper than traditional layouts because of the consolidated amount of space and streamlined content (Digital Telepathy’s blog post).

On the Other Hand...

Again, be mindful that a one page website is not right for every business. This kind of web design might make it difficult to track data in Google Analytics and make the time to load your website longer (WholeGrain Digital’s blog post). So, if you’re focused on measuring or analyzing your website’s performance, a single page web design might not be your cup of tea.

In the end: you don’t want to make the decision to use or not use a one page website without the help of digital marketing experts (you know, like the folks on our team #shamelessplug). There are lots of aspects of your business to consider – including those listed, above.

Seen any well-designed one page websites? What do you look for in an interactive website? Let us know what you’re thinking in the comments, below. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get more digital marketing advice.

Why Stock Photography Shouldn’t Represent Your Brand

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5 Reasons Not To Use Stock Photography

Throughout my experience as a Web Designer, I have noticed that many businesses struggle when they have to make a decision on whether or not to use stock photography to promote their brand. Although there are several good reasons to utilize stock photography on branded materials (such as limited budget, accessibility, variety, and quality), the negative impact of using them can prove to be much greater. This blog covers the 5 disadvantages or risks of using stock photography when promoting your brand and what alternative solutions are out there to avoid these potential risks.

1. Limited Restrictions

When purchasing non-custom photography, there are always license restrictions to abide by. Always make sure to read and understand all license restrictions associated with your purchase. Some restrictions may include crediting the author while some images may only be licensed for editorial use versus advertising/commercial use. You can view iStock’s License Help or iStock’s Content License Agreement to get an idea of the type of licenses or restrictions associated to stock photography purchases.

Don't use stock photography for branding your company
Screenshot displaying iStock’s additional image license options.

2. Non-Exclusive

You must remember that the same website you purchase your photos from may be the same website your competitors are purchasing from. This factor alone makes stock photography usage non-exclusive to your brand. There is always that risk of competitors finding and using the same imagery you purchased.

3. Lack of Creativity

It is almost impossible for a designer to come up with a unique and custom design concept when limited to using stock photography. Remember that these images weren’t taken with your brand or products in mind. Therefore, you may find yourself paging through hundreds of images to find that one that you feel will best represents your brand. Although image options are limitless with stock photography, unique or original concepts are not.

reasons your business should not use stock photography
Screenshot showing 10 different images depicting the same woman in similar compositions or settings.

4. Predictability

Images submitted to stock photography websites cover a variety concepts. Since these concepts are limited, image options can seem to be very predictable or clichéd. It’s one thing to have a limitless amount of images to choose from. But, if you have 100 images depicting the same idea or concept, where is the variety in that?

iStock Search Categories
Screenshot displaying 6 of iStock’s 32 images categories to choose from.

5. Unnatural Compositions

When browsing through stock photography websites, it’s hard not to notice all the unnatural positions or “forced” compositions in most of the images containing people; especially people in business attire. Everything looks staged. This is the best way to make your website look like spam.

Stock Photography Example

What Are The Alternatives?

1. Custom Photography

It is always best to utilize custom photography to represent your brand or to tell your brand story. Purchasing in-house photography equipment or hiring a professional to do the job will prove to be a better branding method than using stock photography.

2. Vectors/Illustration

Instead of using photos, more and more companies are using vectors or illustrations to promote their brand. Take Google for example.

3. Customize Your Stock

If you are going to use stock photography, find different ways to utilize the photo. Whether it is cropping out a certain portion of the image or combining two different images or concepts. These are just a couple of ways to make stock images as unique and original as possible while diminishing the chance of someone using the same image, idea, or concept.
To learn more about different visual branding methods and which one best suits your company, contact us! We’d be more than happy to chat with you.

Branded Assets to Consider When Redesigning a Website

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Branded Assets to Consider When Redesigning a Website

When business executives make a decision to redesign, or give their website an updated look, there are other important branded assets or materials that may also need redesign considerations as well. Not taking these other assets or materials into account can cause a disconnect between your brand and potential customers that may want to use your services. Therefore, before beginning your website redesign project there are some important questions that may need some answers.

Is your logo in need of an updated look or redesign?

Now that mobile accounts for over 54% of the devices used to browse the web, it is important that you understand how your logo will be displayed or viewed at these resolutions. Things such as fonts, colors, and taglines can greatly affect how your logo is displayed especially at the smaller sizes required for most mobile or responsive websites. Familiarizing yourself with up-to-date logo design trends will help you decide if it’s time for a logo design overhaul.

What about the rest of your identity package?

Yeah, what about it? Well let’s see…If you did in fact need to update or redesign your logo based on the latest design trends, then your next step in the process would also include updating or revamping your identity package. Identity package materials can range from business cards, letterheads, envelopes, pens, etc. A decision will have to be made on what design elements are going to be carried over from these materials to the new website design to retain consistency, if any at all. However, this is something that should also be addressed.

Is your brand message going to be the same?

Your brand message is definitely one of the most single important aspect of your business. What you are trying to convey to your customers and how you want them to perceive your business is dependent on how effective or strong your brand message is. Brand messages are usually what drives the design process for most businesses, and what they generally rely on to remain brand consistent. If as a business you decide to change your brand message, be prepared to address all other content being used to promote your business.

Are you going to update the design/content on your marketing materials?

Well, if your business decided it is best to change or update its brand message, then it would be a great idea to review your current promo/marketing materials design and content to see if they align with the new brand message. These materials can be anything from a company brochure, catalogs, folders and folder inserts. This may also include social media accounts as well. If the design and content doesn’t align with your new brand message you may have just added another project to your redesign list. Always remember the goal is to create brand consistency.

As you can see there are other branded assets and materials that may need some attention when a business decides to redesign their website. Taking these other assets into consideration will help your business to streamline the redesign process and prevent any issues upstream that may cause a possible disconnect between your brand and potential customers you are trying to engage with. Maintaining a consistent brand is key especially when it comes to establishing healthy, long-term business relationships.

For more information about branded assets to consider when redesigning a website, contact us or leave us a comment below!

5 B2B Web Design Trends to Consider in 2016

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Web Design Trends
created by freepik.com

Introduction:

Back in March 2015 I wrote a blog which covered “Five New Web Design Trends for 2015”. Although several of these trends have managed to survive 2015, there are some additional trends that could affect the usability of your B2B website. In this blog, I will go over five (5) additional trends that can help improve usability, increase website traffic, and help drive conversions.

1. More Unique & Creative Typography

With the emergence of affordable or free web-safe fonts options like Google Fonts and Adobe Typekit, typography is becoming much more unique, and creative. On many B2B websites, headers are becoming much bolder and body text is appearing much larger in size. In addition to latest evolution of the Cascading Style Sheets language, CSS3, styling typography will offer unlimited options on how it’s presented on the web going forward. Sites like StephenCraver utilizes great use of typography to carry the layout of the site.

According to HTTP Archive, the use of custom fonts has increased over the past year. Bolder, more unique typefaces will continue to be used in B2B web design going forward. While designers may still play it safe when it comes to choosing fonts for readable type and body copy, expect to see more unique and experimental font being used for website headers and supporting text.

2. Cards, Cards, and Even More Cards

As you browse the web, you may notice that many B2B companies are leaning more towards a card design look. This web design trend is most common on social media platforms, and most commonly associated with Pinterest, however many companies have adapted this trend and you should see more of it in 2016. Several other notable sites utilizing this trend are ESPN, Dribble, The Guardian, and Amazon.

3. Less Photography, More Illustrations

Before 2016, they were plenty of B2B websites that were overloaded with stock images as means of telling their brand story. If the appropriate images aren’t chosen, this direction could cause a big disconnect between your business and potential clients. In 2016, you will notice that many businesses will move away from stock photography (especially if they are not personable) and rely more on illustration graphics to tell their story.

You will find illustration being implemented in a variety of ways such as, large-scale, hero images and backgrounds, or on much smaller scales such as icons and user interface elements. Two nice examples of websites utilizing illustrations as it’s main source of graphics are McWhopper and Ice & Sky which combine large background illustrations and animation to tell their brand story.

4. Bolder use of color

In 2015, B2B companies who implemented flat design into their website more than likely utilized a color palette which was just a flat as the design itself. With that being said, 2016 promises to be much more colorful than years past.

Color has always been one of the most single important tools for expressing a company’s brand story or message. In prior years, many B2B companies stuck to “web-safe” palettes because of the some technology limitations. If you are looking for color inspiration websites like Adobe Color CC, Paletton, Coolors can help you put together some interesting color palettes. A couple examples of good color implementation on their websites are Bose and History Of Icons.

5. Keep On Scrolling and Less Reloading

To scroll, or not to scroll. This has always been a highly debatable topic for many. It seems that more people are finding it easier to scroll down a page rather than clicking, and loading another page. This is more relevant to smartphones users browsing on slow or limited data networks. Whether on mobile or desktop, scrolling can be a very effective way of telling a company’s brand story. If your B2B website is accustom to getting a high volume of mobile traffic, scrolling would be a much better user experience than a page refresh on any device.

Websites using a Parallax scrolling effect are often implemented as a way to tell a story and make layouts more dynamically appealing. Scrolling allows the content to be incrementally readable, allowing more options and visibility to other Micro Interactions. One of my favorite scrolling or parallax designs is the Lexus website. This website implements an excellent one-page design with sections that lead to other Call To Actions (CTAs) or micro interactions.

Conclusion

While it may not be necessary to implement every new trend into your website, many of them have the potential to improve user experience. Before following new trends, it is best that you have some knowledge of what they are and how they can affect your business. Once you have a strategy in place, implementing new trends and having the ability to test them will help you streamline that process. This will help you adapt to a trend that best reflects you and your business goals.

5 Best Practices for Better B2B Website User Experience

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It’s generally a good idea to start your web design project using best practices, especially if you haven’t accumulated any data to support a specific design change, or direction. Remember that you shouldn’t end your design solely implementing best practice solutions; however, you should use the data feedback, by use of analytics, to optimize and improve user experience. Here are five effective best practices that can help you get started.

1. Make Your Navigation and Visitors Location on the Site Highly Visible

Users should know where they were, and where they are on your site. This can be accomplished using elements like breadcrumbs, page-headers, highlighted menu options, progress bars, thank you and confirmation pages. Not using these elements can cause an unhappy user experience when they try to navigate deeper into your website or try to navigate through a purchasing process.  Always remember that creating a smooth and comfortable user experience is your ultimate goal when designing your B2B website.

navigation-example-image
Showing active navigation links, page header, and breadcrumb implementation.

2. Match Your Content to Real World Language by Eliminating Jargon

The language used on B2B websites should be familiar to the visitor rather than using industry specific terms or jargon. Using jargon, or language that is too technical to comprehend can create a disconnect with the visitor. To find out what words and phrases your website visitors are using it’s best to do a little keyword research. This will help you define how you go after potential customers or leads using language they are comfortable with.

3. Allow Total User Control and Freedom From Automated Processes

Simply put, eliminate anything that takes control out of the user’s hands. If not implemented correctly, elements such as popups, auto-play videos, and automatic carousels can cause lack of user control and freedom, hence creating a bad user experience. If the user doesn’t want to subscribe to a newsletter popup, or watch a demo video they should have a way of exiting or navigating away from that element without any complications.

popup-example-image
Showing a popup giving the user a way to exit without complications.

4. Create Your B2B Website Using a Minimalistic Design Approach

For the past several years, taking a minimalist approach seems to be the most effective way to create a B2B website. In a study conducted by Google, it was scientifically proven that minimalist design are more appealing to buyers. In addition, an effective use of white space can clearly guide buyers to the important sections of information. Cluttered websites don’t effectively allow this to happen and that’s why it is best to focus on the important information visitors are looking for.

5. Offer Solutions and Help Documentation

If designed correctly, your website shouldn’t need much of this best practice solution. However, offering help solutions is a big plus. Help solutions such as live chat pop-ups, FAQ’s, pricing tables, and microcopy, which are little words or phrases that enhance the subscription or buying process that helps to reduce friction and get people taking action. Usually, if you submit a form without the required information being entered, you may receive a prompt in the form of microcopy letting you know that the information for that field is needed to submit the form request.

Conclusion

Whether you are creating a new website, redesigning, or just optimizing an existing one, utilizing best practices will offer a great peace of mind. Although the best practices mentioned aren’t actual principles or laws of web design, they provide a good starting point in most cases. Also, remember that these best practices are backed by data which support their effectiveness.

What other B2B website best practices do you recommend not mentioned in the blog? Please provide your comments below.