Website Design Trends For 2015

In 2015, a lot of changes in website trends are expected to happen. Whether an increase in e-commerce mobile websites, progression in parallax scrolling, or changes in single page websites, the most critical thing is that designers should always keep up to date with the enormous development of new trends of website design by adapting their workflow.

In this article, I would like to discuss with you ten trends in website design for 2015:

  1. Optimizing mobile web design
    Website developers should put themselves in the shoes of their web visitors by making applications fit across various devices and platforms therefore they are comfortable when navigating without being obliged to scroll down and see.
  2. Creating responsive design for larger screens
    It is not enough to create a convenient screen for mobile users only. In addition, it is critical to set up a fittable template for smart televisions and large desktop. According to Chris Lake and Econsultancy’s director of product development, 20% of web traffic comes from visitors using devices of at least 1920 pixels wide. The picture represented below shows how firebox managed it successfully by creating responsive design for large screensResponsive design for large screens
  3. Emphasizing on hidden menus also called Hamburger menus
    Web developers are now being able to display larger pictures on mobiles with fast loading pace because of the evolution in responsive and adaptive web design techniques. Larger images encourage e-commerce businesses to boost their sales.
    Here’s an example of an online shoe store which displayed large image details to their buyers so they can even rotate it 360 degrees and still be able to see it clear:Large product detail page
  4. Creating video content
    Video content has proven to be successful in 2014 and continues to evolve in 2015. Publishing video content in product detail pages, blogs and youtube will entice purchasers to stick to the website and buy more.
  5. Recognizing the importance of Parallax scrolling
    Parallax website represent a pleasant experience to web visitors so each time they hover over the website and scroll the mouse the animation effects create enthusiasm. WordPress has parallax scrolling templates at very low expense.
    Parallax scrolling
    Parallax scrolling

    The good thing with parallax scrolling animation is that it lessens page loading time for users and eliminates the need for refreshes as the visitor is navigating around the website without having to click but only scroll the mouse and information things keep moving.
    In 2015, more web designers are expected to embed this style into their designs.

  6. Adopting material design
    Google has featured visual experience to web visitors knows as material design. The objective is to make all visuals and texts appear the same
    across all devices no matter what kind of internet enabled device 
    Material design
  7. Considering flat design
    Flat design continues to prosper as it results in visitors interactions because it keeps the website clear, fast and content focused. Although some have argued that there are some problems related to user interfaces, the main thing is that flat design is a suitable mechanism for website design.Flat design
  8. Designing Webgraphics
    Webgraphics are similar to infographic in visuals but differs in making the visitor interacts physically with data. They increase customer retention since they are more visually appealing than infographics and expected to rise in popularity as more customers are requesting it as part of a personalized design.

  9. Understanding the use of  typography
    The typography has given wide variety in font and styling that allowed designers to have more choices in designing their websites. Although it is important to adopt homogeneity and clearness when using proper fonts but the most critical aspect is to design an appealing as well as a distinctive look for your website.

  10. Implementing card design
    Card design entice visitors to scroll down and see more of what the website is offering. It is also expected to rise in 2015 as they are simple and represent wide variety for your audience. Also it keeps columns organized properly and maintain a neat look to visitors.

 

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/77729-6-Ecommerce-Design-Trends-for-2015

https://econsultancy.com/blog/65898-17-crucial-web-design-trends-for-2015/

http://webdesignledger.com/sponsored/7-crucial-web-design-trends-for-2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parallax design facts and benefits

History

Parallax came from the Greek word παράλλαξις (parallaxis) meaning, “alteration”. In 1980’s, Parallax websites have been used in classic video games, then later it has become an advanced trend in the web design.

What you should know about parallax design?

Parallax design has been growing in popularity because it offers web viewers a new interactive level of online viewing.
It uses several backgrounds to navigate at different speeds to create a sensation of “3D depth” as you scroll down the page.  The position of an object is never constant; it  rather changes when it’s being watched by two different lines of view; nearby objects have a larger parallax than more distant objects when watched from different positions.
Scrolling feature is used to identify distances; Background images move by the camera at a slower rate than foreground ones.

How parallax design helps your website?

There are many benefits that parallax design creates for web viewers:

How parallax design has grown in popularity?

Parallax Scrolling service has become very popular when “Nike” has launched its web design named “Nike Better world” in the aim to aid the athletes worldwide; the result is that it obtained a significant number of positive reviews from several different sites because of its wonderful parallax scrolling techniques and web design.
There are many different parallax websites that are classified as great parallax scrolling such as G-star raw, Sony, Honda CR-V,Range Rover Victoria Beckham, the house of eyewear collection,Juicymo, etc…
Nowadays, Parallax is one of the most widely-used design on the modern web.

Over to you

Best Call To Action Practices

Optimizing your call to action for landing pages is one of the most important marketing strategies you should consider in order to increase sales and maintain long term conversions. Call to action (CTA) is the link between the message that encourages your visitors to go to the site and the site functionality that pushes them to make a specific action. In this article, I will give youin detail, the best call to action practices that you should take into consideration for lead generation:

First, present a compelling message that entices your visitors to click. For example, create a call to action request that starts with a verb. That way, you are presenting to your customers your main message so they become enthusiastic at the first moment they look at your CTA button. Examples of appealing call to actions are like “Get this free e-book”, “Download the form”. “Sign-in for free”, “Request a quote”, etc...

Second, your CTA request should be designed in a distinctive color that makes it unique from the other colors on your website but compatible at the same time as well. Also, keep it short, straight to the point and convincing.

Third, use a clear and short call to action request that doesn’t create any potential confusion to your visitors. It would be better if you use a short call to action with no more than five words in order not to distract or confuse your web visitors.

The landing page below represents a clear call to action that asks customers to submit a quote request. The call to action button is presented in a comforting color which is the green, plus it is short, clear, concise and starts with a verb.

 

A landing page with a call to action button

 

 

Fourth, provide a sense of urgency by showing your visitors an enticing message that requests them to sign-up as fast as possible. Doing so would urge them to make a further action quickly without giving them any potential chance for being reluctant. For example you can say “Order online now” or “ Get your product today” etc…

Fifth, focus on the location where you should position your call to action on your website. As your main objective is to generate leads, you must place your CTA request at the end of the post in the sidebar in order to increase its exposure in front of your audience.

Finally, place you CTA request above the fold. The most critical aspect is not to bother your customers by forcing them to scroll down the mouse to see your call to action button. The picture below, represents where the call to action button should be positioned.

Call to action above the fold

 

 

In summary, call to action button is one of the most impressing factors over your visitors behaviors that entice them to either take an action or abandon your site. As a result, you should implement the best call to action practices in order to make your request look appealing, clear and concise. Therefore, you are most likely to generate leads and increase conversions.

Why guest blogging is important for me?

As there are several ways that marketers can use in order to increase sign-ups, drive traffic, transform viewers into leads and increase sales like social media, email marketing, search engine optimization and Pay Per Click advertising, guest blogging should be considered among your major priorities as well, since it is one of the most effective ways that improves your marketing performance. There are several reasons why guest blogging is important for you:

  1. It mainly increases your website traffic
    As you carefully read a high quality blog post and submit a relevant comment accordingly, other people with the same business field that have significant influencers and followers might be interested to visit your site, thus your number of web visitors would increase as more viewers are likely to visit your page.
  2. It highlights your credibility
     As long as you are writing insightful and beneficial tips on qualitative blog articles, your target visitors will think of you as a credible source in the market. Consequently, they will be interested to view your site once they determine that you are really addressing what fulfills their problems and become your loyal customers.
  3. It facilitates getting quality back links
    Guest blogging opens up a path to you to benefit from link building. The links that you insert in the author bio at the end of your post is very critical because if they are clear and useful, will successfully direct users to your site. But one critical thing you have to put in mind is that the anchor text should include the target keywords for your site links.
  4. It boosts the opportunities for networking
    To be a guest blogger for high quality sites is also to be connected by influencers, business owners and decision makers who might have an indirect effect on guest buying decisions. Although the majority of them are busy and you are not able to ring their doors all the time, but trying to reach some to help you promote your products and services would be a good idea.
  5. It enables you to reach customers via social networks and email marketing
    If your post is highly relevant, social media followers of the site that you are a guest blogger to, might also become yours if they get noticed about your post that has been listed as a top blog in your niche. So they will be notified socially of any post you write. Furthermore, their email subscribers will get your posts in their social inbox so you have a major opportunity to build your own list subscribers.
  6. It allows you to gain new business opportunities
    If you submit a valuable post on strong blogs, you will be seen by people with new business opportunities so if they get interested about your product, they will visit you.

It is important to find out why guest blogging is critical for your business. Although it is not a simple process, but it is not hard once you devote time for reading blog posts carefully and providing useful suggestions and recommendations for the audience in your niche who might become your customers in the future.

How To Decrease Your Visitors Bounce Rate?

Bounce rate is an analytic measurement that determines the percentage of visitors who land on one of your website pages but leave that single page without making any further action. Obviously, if the rate is high that means you have a critical problem. Either your customers didn’t find what they were looking for, or they were distracted by the complications that you are showing on your landing page. In order to decrease your visitors bounce rate, you have to follow these essential guidelines:

  1. Keep your content unique: Your landing pages should be characterized with fresh content and unique keywords that stands out from your competitors. Also add a dynamic view to your content and support your ideas with visual content in order to prove to your audience that you are credible. Also write an appealing meta description for search engines. Always keep up with the changing needs of your customers and develop a content accordingly.
  2. Set up an appealing page visibility: Write clear headings and subheadings, a content supported with large fonts, attractive color contrasts, bullet sentences and organized layout where it becomes easier to your customers to navigate around your site, comment on your products and easy to find search.
  3. Maintain good website design: Your website must be adaptable on different devices and fit properly on any screen size so customers would be able to view every page clearly without the need to scroll the mouse to see. In addition, you have to test your site performance on different browsers. One critical factor to focus on is page load time which is the most impressive factor pushing customers to bounce from your page, therefore you should always use little or no self loading multimedia content.
  4. Create clear call to action buttons: One of the biggest problems some marketers do is not paying attention to optimize call to action buttons. For example they use some buttons on a single page which will confuse visitors, placing call to action below the fold, or adopting colors that do not match page or website’s original colors. Call to action buttons should be clear and specific so it has an obvious request of helping users complete their requests.

Key takeaways

Mobile Website VS Mobile App: Which One Is Better For Me?

Business organizations have thought recently of adopting mobile device to fulfill their goals and satisfy their customers needs in addition to the desktop, as the number of mobile online users has been increasing. The mobile device offers two major sections for business owners: Mobile website and mobile app. Both of them are useful because they  boost sales and maintain loyal customers, but each one has its distinctive features and purpose of use. Therefore,  it is critical for you to decide which one to consider for your business: Mobile website or mobile app?
In order to decide which one is better for you, it is recommended to recognize the difference between each one.

Mobile website is composed of browser based HTML pages that are connected together and accessed over the internet. Mobile website has the same characteristics that are available in the regular version of the website. It allows your users to see images, videos and contents like any other website. Your prospects can also be directed to proceed a specific call to action such as submit an application or make a phone call. Mobile browser requires either a wifi to function.

Mobile app on the other hand consists of applications that are installed and downloaded through an app store or Google play rather than being accessed through a browser. Applications could be installed on smartphones and tablets without the necessity of the internet.

Mobile app allows you to better have control over your website users presence and track their behaviors and preferences.
The picture below illustrates the characteristics of mobile website and mobile App:

Difference between mobile website and mobile app

Each one has its distinctive purpose of use. For example, if your intention is to create blog content to be seen by a large number of audience possible, a mobile website is better to use. However, if your ojective is to build a specific app like an interactive application, then mobile app is the best way to go. Sometimes, both of them are required to use for your business, therefore it depends on your organizations objectives.

Six inbound marketing practices you should know!

 

Inbound marketing has become the most effective way to maintain your customers, strengthen your brand image and increase return on investment. While outbound marketing has not been any longer efficient as a technique, marketers should think of adopting the inbound marketing strategy. Basically, there are some recent marketing practices that help your business achieve the desired revenue:

  1. Create strong blog posts: Blogging is the most critical aspect of inbound marketing. It gives an identity to your brand, plays a major role in attracting your target visitors and transform them into loyal customers. Furthermore, the process requires a successful implementation of search engine optimization techniques to push your website to rank high in search results. Also, highlight your presence on different social media channels to allow your customers to engage with your brand and share their favorites.
  2. Decrease costs: The power of online marketing has replaced other forms of marketing such as direct mail and cold calling which are costly to your business and requires production, media and labor. Thus, exploit the best techniques of using internet marketing, save money and generate greater return on investment.
  3. Optimize call to actions and landing pages: It is highly recommended to build an eye catching web page in order to generate leads. To do so, you should accomplish all the essential criteria that lead to create appealing landing pages to your customers that entice them to make further actions on your website. For example, A/B or multivariate testing theories are very suitable to use if you consider improving your landing pages. In addition, display strong and appealing call to action requests among the various pages and contents of your website may stimulate the process of boosting your customers click through rates (CTR) and generate leads.
  4. Lead nurture funnel campaigns: Once you position successful call to actions,you are following the right path of converting your target visitors into sales leads, but that is not all the case; you have to segment these acquired customers to determine the need of every guest and create a funnel process so each one will be dealt with uniquely from the other one. That way you are focusing your marketing efforts on every customer accurately and get rid of chaos that might disturb your audience and increase bounce rates.
  5. Practice both on-site and off-site SEO: One major thing you should know  is to practice both on-site and off-site search engine optimization. While the on-site optimization is essential for new website aiming to obtain primary existence on search engines, the second one is also important for building backlinks. In the first one, you should focus on creating a strong blog post, with clear meta titles and meta descriptions, submit an XML sitemap because it lists all your URL links. This is very practical each time you create and post a new blog on your website so it will get automatically picked up by the spiders, thus appears in search engines results. As for the second, off-site SEO is obtained through careful guest blogging, press releases, directory listings and content marketing.
  6. Tracking and analysis: In order to determine the return on investment for your inbound marketing practices, you have to track and evaluate your marketing performance. If you find out undesired results, try to determine where mistakes originate from, therefore you will learn how to plan for the future. Google analytics is the best tool to use, through which you will be able to track your customers acquisition through blogging and social media and determine conversion rates.

Are Social Sharing Buttons Always Good To Include In Web Pages?

Social sharing buttons are definitely essential for marketers to feature on some of their website pages in order to increase traffic and improve their landing page conversions. But the question lies in whether these social sharing buttons will always yield positive results for marketers if they are included every time in web pages. In some situations, social sharing buttons can do more harm than good for your business despite their benefits in driving more fans. Therefore, business marketers should realize that it is not a good practice to think of inserting social sharing buttons all the time.Let’s take a closer look at some situations where these social icons might hurt your marketing activities:

Longer page loading time: Each social icon along with its corresponding channel needs javascript code in order to connect your site with social network servers. Moreover, if you are using wordpress for social sharing plugins, more javascript files need to be loaded from the supplier of the wordpress plugin .Thus, as you include additional social icons, you need more script for the page to load which cause the page to take longer to respond.
Page loading time is a major factor that should be taken into consideration since it forces users to either stay or bounce from your website. Web visitors expect your page to respond in 2 seconds or less, otherwise they will leave your website when it takes 3 minutes or more, according to a survey conducted by Akamai and Forrester research. In additon, page loading time might also affect your website SEO ranking.

Increase visitors confusion: There are many different goals you need to achieve when directing your user to a landing page. For example, if one of these objectives is to encourage your visitor to make a purchase and proceed a check out, social sharing buttons do not make sense in such a case because they confuse your users of what they were mainly looking for, consequently, they might forget their actual demand which is buying your product.

A/B testing

Taloon, a Finland based hardware ecommerce store, had removed Facebook and Pinterest icons located in the original page, leading to a better conversion in the challenger page.
Taloon has realized that the presence of social icons were distracting their customers from their major goal.
In summary, it is critical to figure out that not all the time, social sharing buttons lead to a greater conversion rate or boost your number of fans. Ultimately, it depends on the outcome you are willing to reach. For example if positioning social buttons is among your plans, and the outcome your are willing to reach goes in line with your plans, go for it. However if your  objective is positioned toward an opposite direction you have to consider revising your plans and make the required edits.

10 Steps To Run Your Pay Per Click Campaign

Pay per click marketing is one of the most effective ways of online advertising to highlight brand awareness, convert target visitors into customers and increase sales. Advertisers are able to target web visitors with relevant ads, who have already visited the site but left without making any final purchase or action, therefore the ad of the left page will be displayed onto the page they are currently viewing. However, running PPC campaign for your business is not a simple task since it is costly compared to other forms of marketing and requires certain considerations you should think of seriously before you implement it. The following 10 steps help you run your Pay per click successfully:

  1. Define your objective
    In order to be more effective in measuring your results, you have to set up a goal for your paid search ads, whether your PPC is aimed at direct your visitors to sign-up for a newsletter, or buy a product... In addition, you should have a clear vision in mind of whether your major goal is just to increase awareness or boost conversions. If it is the first case, so you should only pay attention to the number of click-throughs, but overall, the most critical part is about increasing sales in which case you have to carefully see your conversion rates. Some keywords have high click through rates but low conversions and that is because your visitors are interested to collect information but don’t care about purchasing your product.
  2. Create a budget
    Marketers allocate a specific budget for each click resulted from a visitor. For example advertisers pay a cost of $1 every time a customer makes one click on an ad and expect $10 revenue for each click, but the thing is to apply the budget on these number of clicks not on the number of times or impressions your ad is displayed.
  3. Create a list of keywords
    Make a list of potential keywords that your visitors might mostly click to reach your page, so that way you optimize your PPC ad. You can also complete your final keywords you are willing to write through google keyword planner. Always keep in mind that you should focus on the keywords that are mostly related to your company’s image and reflect the content of your website.
  4. Neither be general nor too specific
    Targeting general keywords is not efficient at all because of the fierce competition taking place. While you should be more specific and target your visitors with long tail keyword research, but being very specific might limit your paid search exposure particularly if few visitors are searching for it. For instance why not inserting “how to increase twitter followers?” instead of writing “what should I do to increase my twitter followers?”
  5. Come up with an eye catchy headline
    Your PPC ad headline is the one that appears in search results and shown as a link in blue. Since your headline represents the ad you are offering, it should be done in an effective way to attract your customers to click. For example, it should contain up to 4 or 5 words with the major keywords that customers might search for and straight to the topic.
  6. Optimize your landing pages
    Conduct various testing such as A/B testing, or multi-variant testing experiments to test which landing page converts the best. Try testing different elements of the landing page such as adjusting your headline, body text or the keywords and find out which one is making the biggest difference to improve your conversions. In addition, call to action buttons play a significant role in generating leads, therefore you must think of designing them the best way and locate them in the right position.
  7. Pay attention to the body text
    Your body text is the same as the meta description that appears in organic search results, so it should include an explanation of what your ad is mainly about, thus your viewers get to click and see it.
  8. Do not lie to your visitors
    Always be clear in the advertising features and the benefit you are going to deliver to your customer in your PPC Ad. One of the biggest mistakes some marketers do is that they present an ad which is completely different from the expected one that they have already promised their visitors before.
  9. Always work on maintaining a strong PPC campaign
    As it was said earlier, it is not enough to obtain high click-through rates but also gaining significant conversions. As a result, focus on having a strong compelling ad copy along with an optimizing landing page.
  10. Evaluate the performance of your PPC ad
    Ensure a daily tracking of the performance results of your PPC ad and check out if you are generating the return on investment that goes in line with your advertising plan. That way you compensate every dollar spent on your pay per click campaign.

Reasons You Should Use Infographics In Your Blog

 

Infographic is one of the most valuable type of content marketing to your visitors. It is not just used to catch the attention of your audience, but also a stimulant factor for search engine optimization, increase visibility and generate leads. Marketers should really think of using infographics in addition to texts and images because of many considerations:

Plain texts are essential for search engines because you need to always feed spiders with content. At  times, it is also important to vary your content marketing strategy to include other forms of content, one of which is  creating infographics into your blog. Your web visitors will get fed up and might abandon your site if you don't include any variation and support your content with proven facts like figures and charts. These reasons are enough to encourage you to start thinking to use infographics in your blog.

Responsive vs adaptive web design

Responsive web design has its own characteristics which are totally different from adaptive web design. In this article, you will learn the exact difference between responsive and adaptive web design.

Responsive web design RWD is an approach of using flexible layouts,  grids, images and CSS media queries to adapt the same URL  and  HTML code to desktop, tablets and smartphones. If the  process is done correctly, your page is optimized across all devices ensuring quality user experience and facilitating for them to  better make purchase decisions.

Responsive web design

The same design fits desktop, IOS phones and tablets.

 

Why responsive design is highly recommended to use?

Google webmasters recommend to use RWD because of many aspects:

  1. A single URL is used for the content which allow your users to better share and link to your content and google algorithms are more capable of assigning  index properties to your content.

  2. Loading time is less for users as they don’t  need a redirection to get to the device optimized view.

  3. It allows your site as well as google crawlers to save resources.  Google crawlers detect your page once instead of crawling them several times with different google bot users to retrieve your content. This effectiveness  has allowed  google to better index your page content and keep it fresh.

Responsive web design (RWD) has become important due to the rise of  mobile usage.  According to “who’s hosting this?”, responsive design is very important:

Importance of web design

There are three major technical elements that  responsive web design is composed of:

  1. Fluid grids: A percentage based design that adapts to the screen size accordingly.

  2. Flexible images: Images sized in  their corresponding units to avoid them being displayed out of their containing elements.

  3. Media queries: A way to apply CSS rules to the page based on the size of the displaying browser.

Google algorithms recommends to use the following CSS media query for smartphones: @media only screen and (max-width: 640px) {...}

Google algorithms look for the max-width values that relate to smartphone users screen resolutions.

Adaptive web design (AWD) on the  other hand, uses series of static layouts  based on breakpoints and adapt web  pages on devices at three different sizes ; for example  320  pixels for mobile phones, 720 pixels for tablet devices and 960 pixels for desktop browsers. Adaptive Web Design doesn’t respond when you control your browser window as the responsive design does, it rather detects the device and requests the property sized layout to view. Using a predetermined set of sized layouts based on device screen size with Javascript and CSS3 media query, Adaptive web design approach adapts to the detected device.

Adaptive design

The same size could not fit all devices; each device has its own size.

There are three cores that set up the AWD approach:

  1. Page content: HTML

  2. Presentation:CSS and styling

  3. Client side scripting core: Javascript

 

10 ways to build quality inbound links

Inbound links are the hardest to build compared to outbound and internal links, especially the one that comes from within the same industry authority website; however the procedure is not that complicated if you devote time and effort for building backlinks.

The role of link building is to increase your web traffic; When someone else likes your website and gives you a stamp of approval that indicates your backlinks are valuable, and when more people visit repeatedly your web means you’re fulfilling what they exactly want for their website, which in turn boosts your traffic.

Here are ten ways that help you create inbound links:

  1. Test the links on your website: Use keyword rich anchor text each time you link to your website. Don’t worry if the links you’re using are “no follow” links but what matters is the citation alone. In addition, you have to think from your customers perspective not only from SEO view.

  2. Publish your blog content online: Publish articles on high quality sites that allow you to post for free in order to make your site more reachable to the audience. At the end of each blog, there’s something called ‘’author bio box’’ through which you are able to control your content as well your links and let your viewers to click through the links you include to your website.

  3. Link trade with other colleagues: This could happen when your friends have websites that belong to the same target market as yours but serve complimentary or relevant products. Or in another way, if their products and services would favor your customers or vice versa, it would be very logical to link back to their sites or them linking back to you.

  4. Contribute to collaborative blog posts: This is an effective way to build inbound links. It’s done by a blog created by a website owner who calls other bloggers to give their opinions and feedbacks on a specific topic and asks them to share their tips on a blog post; when bloggers write what they have along with their links, all of them will be gathered in a large blog post so your post linking to your website might be published and promoted by contributors.

  5. Get listed in relevant quality directories: Though some directory listings are not seen by SEO but they might be good for your brand visibility. Determine both free and paid directories in your nearby areas that are of high quality, trustable and get listed. These might be portfolio sites, yellow pages and trade association sites…

  6. Share links on social media: At least connect your RSS feed blog to your social networks such as FB, TW, Linkedin and google+, so each time you post a content to your blog, your posts are automatically shared with your social networks. Also, don’t forget to bookmark your posts on popular social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon and Digg to create additional site mentions, citations, and backlinks.

  7. Always publish high quality and relevant content: Write consistently interesting and fresh content to your blog so your readers will always stay enticed and you might also gain more followers, and they in turn share your posts with their networks across all the major social media platforms as well as your links at the end of your posts.

  8. Become a guest blogger: In order to increase your visibility, you have to share your experience with other website owners and get accessed to their audience who also might be your future guests; you could attract them with your high quality posts and comments and get them to click on your link and visit your website. But to submit a highly relevant guest post, you have to identify your blogs that are mostly valuable and relevant to their needs. Although these blogs serve the same audience that you do, so you have to encourage your customers with something unique and different. You could also make researches of your nearby industry website owners, look at their blogs, what their audience like and dislike and deliver them a brand that’s in accordance with their needs.Try to introduce yourself to website owners at an event, then share your topics with them on your site, so their audience are likely to see your links in your “author bio” and visit your website.

  9. Review industry products, books, and media on Amazon: The good thing with Amazon is that it offers an effective way to review books and you will accordingly be able to display your profile with a link to your website. Amazon is considered as a satellite blog through which you could display interesting tips and insights to customers trying to find the right book or product. It ‘s a wide opportunity that gives you the chance to get seen by a new audience. “But the thing is not to use your reviews for self promotion or spamming.”

  10. Comment on others blogs: Read carefully other blog posts and write insightful, relevant and interesting comments. If others like your reply, they will be likely to click on your link and go to your website.

Steps that improve your website ranking

In order for your website to rank high on search engines, you have to optimize your pages for best results. Search engines focus on major factors when ranking your page, and the formula that they use is called algorithm that identifies keyword relevancy and ranks pages; but each search engine has its unique algorithm to rank web pages.They will take into consideration your page title, meta description,bounce rate, content, quality and quantity of inbound links… The following are the most effective procedures you should implement to push your website to rank high by search engines:

  1. Page titles: Every page or content should have a unique title. Your page title should include the main keywords for that page. If you write for example an article of how to cook an octopus, you have to mention it as a keyword within your title or maybe “best ways to cook an octopus”. As a result, if someone is searching for how to cook an octopus you are likely to appear in search engines because you have used those keywords. Titles tags should not exceed 60 characters.

  2. Meta description: It should include the main keywords of your blog content so these keywords are used in search results when your page is listed. If your topic is about the best ways to cook an octopus, then your meta description is likely to be “learn easily how to cook an octopus at quickest time possible” as this description is short and contains relevant keywords. Meta description should not exceed 160 characters.

  3. Meta tags: You could assign to each of your page concise relevant keywords. These keywords that describe your content are set in a form of meta tags. They are hidden descriptors that appear in your HTML CODE, inside your <head> tag; even though they are not visible to your web visitors eyes,  but search engine crawlers could still recognize them; they are composed of a title, description, and keyword tag like the following:

<head>

<title>Title of Your Site</title>

<meta name="description" content="Description of your site here.">

<meta name="keywords" content="keywords separated by commas">

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  1. URL structure: Generally your website URL should be short and include relevant keywords as this would positively favor search engines. It’s recommended therefore to use search friendly URL to each of your pages. There’s also a major factor that SEO has a significant influence which is the location of keywords: vbout.com/scheduling would work better than vbout.com/357/826/posts/scheduling.

  2. Body tags: It’s very important to divide your content into sections or paragraphs in order to let your viewers read your content more easily. You could assign a heading to each section known as H1, H2, H3, H4 tags… Your main heading of your page should be H1 and H2, H3 are considered subheadings. Search engines use these tags in order to determine what’s important within your content. So whenever you write keyword rich headings for your page, assign in the form of priority in H1, H2, H3 title tags. Crawlers use them to distinguish important content.

  3. Keyword density: Try to focus on keywords and use them in different forms with the same meaning within your content. However don’t use them excessively because you might risk being banned by search engines. Try to keep your word density in a limited percentage. This problem could be solved by broadening your vocabulary skills.

  4. Image SEO: In order to make your website more enticing and appealing, use images. The same thing should be applied to images as well as your page titles when using keywords. You should assign your images relevant keywords as you do for your text. If done the right way, people will find you on search engines when searching on google images. Another way is to use “ALT attribute” with a description to your image to make them more effective to SEO.

  5. Internal links: While external links are important for your site to rank better, links that point to other pages within your website is very critical not only for people navigating around your web but also for search engines to find all your pages.

How to write great blog content?

Blogging is the most effective way to improve your inbound marketing and increase your web visitors number. The procedure is simple once you determine the essential guidelines that assist you in writing a great blog post, define your target audience and focus on the product you’re selling.  The following are several steps for writing a great blog content:

  1. Find your niche: It is very critical to define your target market within the huge battle among competitors. When you write a specific topic that identifies the needs of your customers, solves their problems and fulfills their expectations, they are likely to stick to your website and get to buy your product. For example, why not target seafood lovers within a large market whose fierce competition is between Italian restaurants and blog to your visitors accordingly?

  2. Write an eye-catching headline: Before you write an article, you have to think of what keywords your visitors are going to type in their searches as this would also be very helpful for search engines. In order to write a successful headline, you have to write it in a way that is useful to your readers.

  3. Insert a great content: A content that is relevant to the topic your readers are looking for would grab their attention. Furthermore, images, infographics and a design with suitable colors entice your readers to read your blog. Adopting the right formatting of your text that includes appropriate subheads, bold font, bullets, lists, line breaks would also be helpful as to increase your blog attractiveness as it would be easier for your readers to scan through blocks of content. Hence, they don’t have to read every single word.

  4. Call to action: This process takes place after the reader has sticked to your blog and you want to take him a step further. It could be accomplished by asking your reader to submit an application form, but whatever the CTA (Call to action) request is, it should be specific and related to the blog post itself.

  5. Social sharing buttons: Allowing your blog readers to click on Facebook, Twitter, linkedin, and Google+ buttons and see what you are doing on social media is a must. When your visitors share your blog post on social media, others would then see your post and like your social channel pages, which will lead them to your website.

What are the characteristics of a professional logo design? - Siteforbiz

Professional logo designer use a unique logo for their brand image in order to improve their product visibility to their target market and increase customer loyalty. However they should not fall in some common mistakes that a lot of marketers make like using too many design images because of several business partners so their viewers get confused  when the size of the logo design is minimized; also the logo should leave a memorable sign to their audience.

As a result, there are several aspects that lead to create a professional logo design, these aspects are:

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Nike professional logo design
Over the years, Nike has  not made a significant change with its logo badge, but it has revised its logo and made few adjustments with the symmetry of the swoosh to fit a modern look. Such a logo is perfectly timeless that made it impossible to be imitated or exploited by competitors.

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The author has used this logo since she is in love with nature especially trees and birds.

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Example of a simple logo design used by a music agency