Web Application Firewall (WAF)

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a web security system that monitors the traffic to and from your website. A WAF will monitor your site for malicious activity, and automatically block attackers. The main benefit of using a WAF is that it can protect you from many different types of attacks, including:

• Cross-site scripting (XSS)
• SQL injection
• Remote file inclusion (RFI)
• Remote command execution (RCX)

A WAF can’t do everything when it comes to protecting e-commerce stores, but if used correctly and implemented well, it can provide very effective protection.

Mvestor Recommendation: Cloudflare WAF

Anti-Robot / CAPTCHA

A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human. For example, if you have ever tried to sign up for a new email account, you may have been asked to complete a small task such as entering certain words and numbers into a box. This system is designed to keep automated programs (“robots”) from registering on your site and spamming other users with unwanted messages. In this case, having a CAPTCHA on your checkout pages will prevent these types of attacks.

In order for bots not be able to virtually impersonate us online under false pretenses simply by copying what we see or hear onto their computers through various means such as taking screenshots from our monitors using cameras installed inside laptops themselves! The easiest way around this problem would therefore be requiring people who register accounts with us through these types of interfaces first prove they aren’t bots before continuing the registration process successfully.

Mvestor Recommendation: Google ReCaptcha

SSL/TLS certificates

SSL/TLS certificates are not only essential but required for an e-commerce website. They’re the electronic keys that encrypt your site’s connection to users, and they make sure that you can be trusted when shopping online.

An SSL certificate is a digital credential that verifies the ownership of a domain name. It also shows that your website has been verified in order to conduct online transactions safely with customers or clients. If you have an SSL certificate installed, it means that any sensitive data sent over the internet between your customers’ browser and server will be encrypted so no one else can read it (or inject malware into their browsers).

The best way to get an SSL certificate is through your hosting provider. Hosting companies typically offer this service as part of their packages at no extra charge (e.g., Shopify Plus). However, if you have another provider such as BigCommerce or WooCommerce then these extensions can be purchased for around $50 per year depending on which type of plan you’re using.

Mvestor Recommendation: LetsEncrypt

3rd party processors (Stripe, Authorize.net, Clearent)

You might be wondering why you should use a 3rd party processor to handle your payments instead of keeping everything in-house. There are many reasons to do so, but perhaps the most important is PCI compliance, an indication of your e-commerce security. If you’re not familiar with this term, it refers to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) which establishes security standards for organizations that process, store or transmit any sensitive card holder data.

One huge benefit of using a 3rd party processor such as Stripe or Authorize.net is that they will take care of most of the PCI compliance requirements on your behalf so you don’t have to worry about it! This includes ensuring that all servers are properly configured and applications are patched regularly, as well as setting up encryption for all customer payment information (credit cards).

Another great thing about using a 3rd party processor like Stripe vs handling everything yourself is that payments never pass through your website at all – instead they go directly into their secure servers which reduces risk significantly. Furthermore, because these companies deal with millions upon millions of transactions each month there’s much less chance of something going wrong since they have more resources at their disposal than what small eCommerce stores typically have available (such as dedicated security teams).

Mvestor Recommendation: Authorize.net

Software Updates and Patches

Software updates and patches are important because they provide security fixes to your website. These updates can include new features as well, but it’s generally recommended that you update your software only when necessary.

WordPress plugins are one example of an essential piece of software that requires regular updates. When someone reports a bug in a WordPress plugin, the developer will release an update so that users can fix this issue. If you don’t update your WordPress plugins on time, you may find yourself vulnerable to hackers who exploit these bugs in older versions of the plugin.

Mvestor Recommendation: Your web developer

E-commerce Security should be a priority for every business on the internet.

Though we’d all like to think our data is safe, it’s more important than ever that you understand the threats out there and make sure you’re using modern, secure systems.

Security is critical for any business on the internet, but especially so for e-commerce stores. You need to protect your customers’ data as well as your own. Keep up with the latest security news so you can stay ahead of hackers looking for ways into your system.

Conclusion

The Internet, like any other place in the world, is not a safe place. It’s full of risks and dangers that you need to be aware of if you want to protect your business from security threats. The good news is that there are many things businesses can do to protect themselves against these threats, such as: using SSL certificates on all pages served over HTTPS connections; having website firewalls installed on their servers; implementing CAPTCHA anti-bot defenses; and ensuring that all third-party software they use has been updated with the latest patches available.

The post E-Commerce Security Features for Online Stores appeared first on Mvestor Media.

1. Clear Calls to Action

A call to action (CTA) should be visible and easy to find.  CTAs should appear on multiple parts of the page, without interrupting the logical flow of the site content. Your calls to action should also be clear and concise and use language that encourages readers to act immediately.

A successful CTA button is a color that stands out from its environment; this allows users who are scanning your page without actually reading it carefully (a common occurrence) an opportunity to see the CTA immediately and click on it later if needed. It’s best when you can choose a button color that contrasts with surrounding text or images so it grabs attention easily—but don’t go overboard with bright colors because those could distract from other elements on your webpage (e.g., videos). And finally, make sure your buttons are responsive so they work well on mobile devices as well as larger screens like desktops/laptops!

CTAs have been proven to be an effective form of website lead generation.

2. Informative Articles

Informative articles are one of the most effective ways to generate leads on a website. A well-written article that is relevant to your target market will help you establish yourself as an authority in your industry and increase trust with your potential customers.

In order for an article to be successful, it must be relevant to your audience. The topic should be something that’s important for them, not just interesting or entertaining for you. This can mean anything from sharing information about a new product or service offering, educating readers on how to use their current products/services more efficiently, providing insights into industry trends that affect their ability to do business successfully—or any combination of these things! As long as there’s a clear benefit for users at the end of reading it (like saving time/money) then chances are this kind of content will work well for getting leads too!

3. Easy to Skim Pages

Make sure that your website pages are easy to skim. It’s highly unlikely that your site visitors are going to read every word of every page. They’ll skim headlines and look for relevant sections that they will be interested in.

• Bullet points are a great way to break up long paragraphs and make it easier for your customers to skim the page.
• Use clear subheadings/headlines when breaking up large chunks of text into smaller sections.
• Images can be used in the same way as bullet points, but they can also be used as “eye candy” if you need something that looks good on your site but doesn’t really add any value (like a section with only images).
• White space – leave some blank space between paragraphs or around an image or other element so it doesn’t feel like everything is crowded together. This makes it easier to focus on what you’re reading without getting overwhelmed by all the content surrounding you in an area where there’s not much room left over after everything else has been added in!
• Short sentences and words – don’t use long-winded sentences when shorter ones will do just fine! The shorter ones often have more impact because they’re harder for readers’ minds to process at once; this makes them more memorable than longer ones which get forgotten more easily because there was too much information packed into one sentence.”

4. Contact Forms

Contact forms are a great way to capture leads. They’re an easy way to get in touch with potential customers and can be used to collect email addresses or other information. Contact forms should be easy to find on your website so that visitors don’t have to hunt for them. Make sure you have unique fields instead of using the generic “Name, email, message” field format.

5. Landing Pages

Landing Pages are specific pages on your website that are designed to capture a visitor’s contact information. When someone clicks on an ad, for example, the landing page is the page they land on after clicking through the ad. Typically, the only way to leave this page is to close the tab/window, or fill out the form. No external links are found on the page.

They can be used for capturing other types of information such as:

• Email addresses (this is usually the primary goal)
• Company name and address so that you can send them marketing materials (newsletters) in the future.
• Demographic interests
• Product interests

6. Local Businesses: Name, Address, Phone

When it comes to local businesses and website lead generation, you want to ensure that Google knows exactly where you’re located. This helps your website generate leads for your business and can also improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

To accomplish this, add a map with the location marked on it. Include links to the website and social media page, along with any other contact information you have available. Make sure that the location is clearly marked and easily found by others who might be looking for it.

You could also include a link directly to an online form where people can request more information or schedule appointments at their convenience.

7. Testimonials and Reviews

Testimonials and reviews are great ways to build trust with potential customers. When people see what others have said about your business, they’re more likely to buy from you because they feel comfortable that other people like their experience as well. Reviews also give you more credibility online. In fact, 92% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase decision!

If you don’t have many testimonials on your website yet, consider asking clients who’ve worked with you in the past—or even friends or family members—to leave one for your business. You can also reach out to bloggers who may be interested in reviewing products or services related to yours (like photographers) and ask them if they’d like free access in exchange for leaving an honest review on their blog and linking back to yours at the bottom of it.

For local businesses, RevenueJump can be a great software that automates and optimizes this.

8. Lead Magnets

A lead magnet is a “free or low-cost product” that you offer in exchange for contact information. Lead magnets can be used in conjunction with landing pages, which are web pages designed to convert visitors into leads and customers.

Lead magnets can include:

• Ebooks (how-to guides, research papers)
• Videos (product demos, testimonials)
• Guides (lists of tips and tricks)

Generate those website leads!

If you’re looking for better website lead generation, then look no further! These elements will help you create a website that is sure to grab potential customers with its attractive design and engaging content. Should you need any help from us professionals, please get in touch with us.

The post 8 Must-Have Elements for Website Lead Generation appeared first on Mvestor Media.

WordPress has been around since 2003, and it’s still one of the most popular content management systems in the world. It’s free, open-source software that you can use to create your site. However, you’ll need some development experience if you want to customize your site or add new features. If you’re looking for something that’s easy to navigate and learn, Webflow might be a better fit for you: it’s a website builder and CMS platform that gives users everything they need to create any type of website from scratch. For example, Webflow works great for viewing your changes in real-time, Webflow offers an endless number of options while keeping costs low!

WordPress is free, but the cost is development experience

With the WordPress platform, you can build a website for free, but you’ll still need development experience (or know someone who does). A great web designer will know how to use WordPress and be able to build your site—but they won’t be able to do it in their sleep. The same goes for any other platform: if it’s not their primary focus they’re less likely to do work in that area.

Webflow is a website builder and CMS platform.

Webflow is a website builder and CMS platform. It’s easy to use, and it has lots of features.

Webflow is a paid service that ranges from $12 per month to $99 per month (at the time of this writing).

Webflow has two free plans: Starter and Standard. The Starter plan is limited in several ways; it limits you to 1GB of bandwidth per month, restricts your portfolio pages and galleries, prevents you from adding custom fonts or colors to your site unless they’re included in their “free” theme library, doesn’t allow any custom code or plugins on your site unless they’re approved by Webflow staff first (and even then only after they’ve reviewed all potential issues that might arise), etcetera…

Webflow is a paid service, but easier to navigate and create. Some development experience is required.

Webflow is a paid service, but it’s easier to navigate and create. If you have some development experience, this may be the best option for you. Webflow is both a website builder and CMS platform: it allows you to create responsive websites with drag-and-drop ease and minimal coding knowledge. As with other tools that require no HTML knowledge, however, Webflow requires some development experience in order to make adjustments (margin, padding, etc) or add custom elements like buttons and sliders.

Also, note that although Webflow has an intuitive interface—it’s basically just like using WordPress except without the need for any coding—you can’t just drop in any old design; instead of uploading files from your computer or Google Drive as you might do with Shopify or Squarespace (for example), you’ll have to use their drag-and-drop builder tool where everything happens on screen rather than off your hard drive or cloud storage system. This makes navigation easier because there are fewer places where things can go wrong when creating content without knowing how exactly they work yet still being able to see results immediately after making changes!

With WordPress, you have tons of plugins to choose from.

When it comes to WordPress, you have tons of plugins to choose from. For example, if you want a simple contact form on your website or to add Google Analytics tracking code, there are thousands of free plugins available in the WordPress Plugin Directory. You can also find premium plugins that require a license (for a fee) because they offer more advanced features.

However, some premium plugins are poorly built and can cause serious problems for your site. So be careful when installing any plugin!

How advanced do you want your site to be?

If you use WordPress, then you have to be a bit more advanced when it comes to coding. This is because WordPress requires some coding knowledge in order to get your site up and running. WordPress also allows for custom functionality, so the sky is the limit here.

Webflow, however, is a drag-and-drop website builder that allows you to make beautiful yet fully functional websites on your own without any prior knowledge of code at all. You just need to be able to drag elements around until they look how you want them to!

There isn’t one clear winner, both will serve your needs.

There isn’t one clear winner, both will serve your needs.

When it comes down to it, both WordPress and Webflow are excellent platforms for creating websites. Both have pros and cons and you need to consider what your specific needs are before deciding which one is best for your project.

If you’re building a larger site with more dynamic content like news articles or product descriptions that get updated frequently, then WordPress may be better suited to the task. However, if you only need to create a small static site with infrequent updates (like an app landing page) then Webflow might be more suitable.

Conclusion

We hope this article helped you understand the pros and cons of both WordPress and Webflow. Each has its own benefits, so it really comes down to what kind of website you want to create. If you’re just starting out with an idea for a  business website, we recommend going with Webflow. It has more resources available than any other platform out there today—even better ones than Webflow! If however, your needs are more advanced then WordPress may be a better fit for you since it offers more flexibility in how things can work and function. In conclusion: both platforms offer great solutions for creating online presence; choose wisely!

The post Battle Royale: WordPress vs WebFlow appeared first on Mvestor Media.

For many remote or hybrid marketing departments, leaning on technology has been especially instrumental to keeping everything running smoothly and getting the job done. Marketing automation is just one of many technologies that can eliminate inefficiencies in the day-to-day functions for your marketing and sales teams.

Who is marketing automation a good fit for? Well, it may be fair to say that every marketing department can find use for a marketing automation platform in some way. Whether it’s CRM management, integrating your website, or creating email workflows, automation is one of the major pieces of the puzzle that can elevate productivity and streamline all communications.

If you’re looking to do more with less, here are 5 reasons to invest in marketing automation:

1. Save On Time (And Use Time More Efficiently)

Investing in marketing automation can improve productivity no matter your organization’s size. Automating some of your day-to-day coordination can certainly free up time for tasks such as:

Email marketing
CRM and list management
Reminders
Organic social media posts
Form submissions and follow-up messages
Customer service requests
Once you have a process nailed down in a platform, there are plenty of options to create templates to turn around emails, content, and other communication components quickly. Having these daily tasks managed automatically allows for your attention to be kept at a bird’s-eye view of the overall strategy and success.

2. Understand Your Target Audience Better

We often recommend our clients gain an understanding of a target audience by doing one thing in particular when it comes to digital: test. Your customers will tell you what’s working (and not working) for them—and this can all be uncovered and managed through a marketing automation platform.

Certain features like content, imagery, subject lines, and timing can all be tested to help you stop the guessing. Keep in mind to test one thing at a time though, as you may not know what specifically made an impact!

And if you’re not using analytics from these tests to drive your next move in your digital marketing, then now’s the perfect time to start.

3. Stronger Marketing and Sales Alignment

Most marketing automation platforms (Pardot, Marketo, HubSpot, etc.) have CRM integration, which can help maintain cross-collaboration between marketing and sales teams. You can also leverage advanced features to qualify leads, prioritize sales efforts, and manage your sales funnel.

There is considerable insight to be gained from marketing automation that marketers can arm sales teams with. Tapping into what blog content generates the most traffic, what email marketing content triggers the most clicks, or what landing page garnered the most leads are all helpful to understanding your audience on a deeper level.

Having access to this kind of tool and data has so much potential. It can allow for better communication and trust between marketing and sales. Working through the data together to solve problems and work towards a common goal can take your team to the next level.

4. Get Personalized Through Audience Segmentation

Having your CRM integrated with a marketing automation platform opens a unique opportunity to leverage first-party data about your prospects and customers to get hyper-specific with your targeting and content. You can get creative with personalized communications in a few different ways, in email marketing for example:

Showing different imagery based on a specific target audience segment
Adjusting subject lines based on where a person currently is in your customer journey
Including (or excluding) content based on what website pages someone visited historically
This type of tactic allows for increased relevancy in a timely, strategic manner – in the hopes of increasing chances to reach your marketing and sales goals.

Before you implement a tactic using consumer data, though, consider learning about increased privacy regulations in recent years on our blog, The Impact of Privacy on Digital Marketing.

5. Clearer Proof of Marketing Success

Marketing automation helps to consolidate where your marketing efforts live, allowing for a more streamlined measurement of success. If you’re running an automated campaign, these platforms all have an analytics and reporting section to tie each piece of your automated communications together.

It’s still up to us as digital marketers to analyze and determine any optimizations that might be needed, but it does save time making insights when the information is consolidated. This reporting can be nice campaign-specific data to review alongside your everyday Google Analytics account as well as when thinking about big-picture marketing strategy.

Want to incorporate marketing automation for your new business website? Get in touch and we can discuss.

The post Top 5 Reasons to use Marketing Automation appeared first on Mvestor Media.

Top Social Media Plugins to Add to Your Website

Let’s get social with your consumers and future ones who found you on Facebook. The importance of social media for any business in this millennial world helps you directly target your audience.

Easy Social Share Buttons

We live in a world where “easy” is the best four-letter word, so a social media plugin with the simple phrase is a most for your website. The easy social share buttons are essential for any company to add their social platforms to their website or make it simple for your consumers to share your products on social.

Monarch

If you want a social share plugin to blend well with your site theme, Monarch is the perfect plugin for the top social media plugins to use your website. Elegant themes present this addition for the Divi theme. It allows you to display your social in multiple locations and has buttons for over 35 networks.

Social Warfare

It’s a war out there to get the attention of your target audience, so you need to have the appropriate weapons to win your battles. Social warfare offers a free and premium version with lightweight social buttons and Pinterest-specific images so the DIY-ers can find you while browsing for crochet bag patterns.

Mvestor Places the Right Plugins for Your Website

WordPress hosting is tough for a company to do alone. Mvestor offers the ease of hosting without you having to do all the work. Connect with us today to see how we can help you!

The post The Top Social Media Plugins for Your Website appeared first on Mvestor Media.

This is generation now, and folks don’t want to wait for a website to load. If your site is slower than molasses, that valuable web traffic will jump back into the search results and visit a competitor’s site instead. Even worse, slow websites will take a hit in Google search rankings.

And that’s nothing new. Google started using site speed as a ranking signal in 2010, and doubled down in 2018 by applying page speed as a ranking factor in mobile search results. And as of May 2021, Google has incorporated a major ranking factor called “Page Experience,” of which the number-one component is loading speed.

Just how slow is your site? Don’t rely on your personal experience, as your browser will have cached those pages. Check your speed with Google PageSpeed Insights.

2. Your Website Is Not Mobile-Optimized (Responsive)

More than half of all internet searches now take place using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. If your site isn’t optimized for these devices, you’re turning off a lot of prospective customers, and arguably losing a lot of business. This one is basically a no-brainer: if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, it’s time for a new site.

Being responsive — meaning the site adjusts to multiple display settings and devices — isn’t enough nowadays. You need to make your site mobile-first, as it will load faster. Furthermore, Google and other search engines now gauge their search results from the perspective of mobile devices and not desktop computers. There is no indication that user engagement will do anything but increase on mobile devices, so your new website should utilize a mobile-first design.

3. The Bounce Rate Is Sky-High

Your website’s bounce rate (which you can find in your Google Analytics reports) is the percentage of visitors who land on your website and then leave without looking at any other pages on the site.

A bounce rate around 50 percent or less is generally considered good. The criteria for determining what is a “good” bounce rate include a number of factors (i.e., your home page versus a blog post). Users landed on your site because they thought they’d find something they wanted there, but if most are quickly leaving without taking any action, then they aren’t finding it. Great web design will help visitors find what they need and encourage them to take action.

4. You’re Not Ranking in Google Search Results

There’s a lot involved in SEO (search engine optimization), so start simple with organic and branded searches. As search engines usually know precisely where users are located, you should be ranking highly for important keywords relative to your business.

When your website isn’t ranking near the top of organic search results for important keywords, then you are missing out on traffic, leads, and sales. If you’re hard to find, then your site likely needs some work under the hood and possibly even ads to successfully compete.

And if you’re not in the top three results when your own brand name is used in the search, then you’re in big trouble! Search engines are so good that most people don’t bother to remember domains that they don’t use constantly, opting to just search for their target in Google instead.

Creating a new site that is optimized for SEO (shall we mention how often Google updates their algorithms?) can cause a dramatic shift in your search engine rankings.

5. It’s Been 5+ Years Since Your Last Website Redesign

How does your website look compared to your competitors? Consider how quickly electronics and technology are updated or improved. With near-constant changes in search algorithms, an ever-growing supply of new applications, and varying trends in design, a website more than five years old is very likely hurting your business.

It’s not just cosmetics, either. Big slider images were very popular a few years ago, but then we all realized that a series of huge images on websites can lead to slow loading speeds, negatively impacting user experience.

There are also an enormous number of useful new tools, widgets, and applications that can be worked into your new site. Take the opportunity to incorporate things like responsive home pages (that change the content on the page according to what brought the user there), maps, automation, online scheduling, or a hundred other things that will improve conversion and save you time.

6. Your Website Isn’t HTTPS

HTTPS is a way to encrypt information that you send between a browser and a web server. The way that happens is with an SSL certificate. This protects your website’s users from “man-in-the-middle” attacks, where someone steals the information being sent to a website, like credit card information or logins.

In the past, only sites with sensitive information have been HTTPS, but as it has become easier to implement, it is becoming the standard. Nowadays, users expect secure sites and are wary of trusting sites that aren’t labeled as secure. The last thing you want is for Google to warn users about your site, so update your site now if you aren’t using an HTTPS protocol.

7. You Have Poor Conversion Rates

Leads are great; conversions are better. Whether you’re bringing in lots of traffic organically or with paid ads, it’s a shame if those leads don’t convert. It could be slow loading times, confusing navigation, broken links — or they just don’t find your site useful.

All the reasons we’ve outlined on this list can contribute to poor conversion rates. Your website is a tool to help you achieve your key marketing goals. Plain and simple, if you aren’t getting enough leads or conversions from your site, it’s likely time for an upgrade.

Book Your FREE 15-Minute Website Planning Session

Did your website fall under one of the categories above? If that’s the case, then it’s time you schedule a website redesign consult with Mvestor Media.

Ian Rogers

The post 7 Signs Your Business Needs a New Website appeared first on Mvestor Media.

Digital Marketing Trends for 2021 and Beyond

Mobile-First Indexing

Well over half of all Google searches come from mobile devices. Our search engine overlords have emphasized mobile-friendly websites for years already, but they recently became the default.
This means that when Google is indexing your website to determine your place in search results, it’s going to look for your mobile site before it looks for the desktop version. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, your rankings in SERPs are going to take a hit.
While you can have a separate mobile site or use a plugin to make your site mobile-friendly, it’s best to build from the ground up with a responsive design that adapts to whatever device is being used. Mobile design is no longer a secondary concern; it’s now your primary objective.
You can check to see if your site is mobile friendly simply by entering your URL into this tool.

Reviews Are a Big Deal

Would you care to take a guess as to how many people use online reviews when choosing a local business?
There’s variation between industries, but it’s around 90 percent. Reviews in all the right places (who are we kidding, Google is king here too) have become an especially important factor both for customers and search engines. Too few reviews or a poor rating can not only deter a customer from giving your business a chance, but eliminate you from search results completely.

Video Content Is All the Rage

People love videos, so much so that 87 percent of people say video is their preferred form of content. Video content gets 1,200 percent more shares than text and images combined.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. While that might be true, some experts estimate that one minute of video is worth about 1.8 million words online.
Even if it’s a simple walkthrough of your office or an introduction, video builds trust, and more customers will visit your website after viewing a video. Incorporate videos into your site, on your home page, in your blogs, and on social media channels and then watch the leads come pouring in.
Create videos about your team, your community, and your industry and post them to YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

Use Featured Snippets

Have you ever searched for a recipe and found the instructions conveniently featured in a box at the top of the results page? That’s a featured snippet, and you just proved they work!
But if you give away the content before they go to your site, where is the value? Featured snippets are very trustworthy to users, who can already see that your site has exactly what they are looking for, which is why they account for more than 35 percent of clicks on SERPs!
If ranking #1 is good, then ranking #0 (where snippets are technically ranked) is even better. All you need to do is produce the right kind of content, positioned to answer a question, and then share it on your blog.
While it’s a bit technical, you can learn how to use structured data to make search engines love you so much that they put you above the search results without having to pay them a nickel!

Update Your Digital Marketing Strategies

In the Internet Age, things change fast. Billboards and radio spots are less useful than a viral Facebook post, and yellow pages have gone the way of the dinosaur. A website that utilizes the newest tools to align with your marketing strategy can attract more traffic, more leads, and more customers.

The post 2021 Digital Marketing Trends appeared first on Mvestor Media.

Understand the Connection Between Website Navigation and User Experience

At a basic level, the user interface (UI) is the series of pages, buttons, links, and icons that enable a user to interact with your site. User experience (UX), on the other hand, is the way visitors perceive your website as they use that interface.
You want everyone who visits your site to have a good user experience.
Many aspects of web design go into creating the user experience:
· Fonts, colors, and images
· Headlines and CTAs (calls to action)
· Availability of contact information
· Page load time
· Form design
Website navigation is vitally important in web design because if visitors can’t find your web form, it doesn’t matter how pretty it is. Efficient navigation allows visitors to flow from one page to another without frustration. If you’ve done your job well, visitors leave your site with the intention to return and might even buy something from you or sign up for your email list.

Website Navigation Best Practices and Tips

You may have outgrown your site if your menus are becoming cluttered and it’s difficult to find articles or information. Whether it’s a fresh start with a new site or a much-needed update, follow these best practices for building effective navigation.

1. Streamline your navigation bar.

Many websites have either too many or too few links in the top menu (which should be on nearly every page of your site). Only have the top-level or most important pages linked here. The entirety of your site should be able to fit in a hierarchy of 4-7 categories in your heading.
Your homepage has the most “authority” with search engines because more sites link to your homepage than to your interior pages. This authority flows down to deeper pages through your navigation.
If your homepage has tons of links, this dilutes the authority passed from it down to your interior pages. This reduces the likelihood that your interior pages will rank.

2. Put your navigation in a standard place.

Creativity is great, but not when it comes at the expense of user experience. Put navigation in places where people expect to find it.
This includes the header navigation bar, sidebar, and footer. Make use of those areas so visitors can find what they need. If you want to add creative elements to navigation, such as by images or buttons, make it obvious that visitors can click.

3. Make hypertext obvious.

On that note, don’t let design get in the way of utility. If visitors can’t tell a hyperlink from body text, you have a problem.
The easiest way to make hypertext obvious is to make sure it’s different from other elements on the page — and not just when visitors hover over the link. Format it in a different color, underline it, or make it bold.

4. Keep sidebars separate.

A sidebar shouldn’t look like the rest of the content on the page. It should stand out.
Many websites accomplish this with color. The designer might format the sidebar with a different background color than the body copy.
White space — or negative space if you prefer — works well. Make sure there’s plenty of separation between your sidebar and other elements.

5. Make menus clear and descriptive.

Use descriptive labels for navigation whenever possible. You may have trouble avoiding generic terms like “contact” or “services” on the top-level menu, but any subsequent navigation should tell users precisely what is on the other side of that link.
Descriptive labels in your menus also tell search engines about the topic of the page linked. If you have one page listing all of your services, it will never rank in SERPs (search engine results pages).
A website optimized for search engines will have a page for each service, each product, and each team member.

6. Don’t forget the footer.

Done right, footers can add a lot of value to the user experience. Most of us have visited a website and, after not being sure where to click up top, scrolled straight to the bottom to find things like contact information, privacy policies, sitemaps, and links to social media channels. Users expect to find certain information in the footer, so make sure you have one and design it well!
Some links (such as contact information) might be present in the header navigation and the footer but, as a guideline, the heavy-hitters that are most important to your business should be in the top navigation, and secondary information could have a place in the footer. Some things that might be included:
· Branding: Always include your organization’s name and logo in the footer, and keep the overall design of the footer on brand.
· Contact information: Users will expect to find contact info within the footer, but avoid displaying the actual information there. Instead, include a link to a separate contact page. This helps you understand your web traffic better.
· Social media links: Having social media links in the footer will help drive engagement on those channels, which adds credibility to your website.
· Legal stuff: Your privacy policy, copyright information, and terms of service should be contained or linked to in the footer.

7. Leave the buttons for CTAs.

Too many buttons is clunky visual noise, so don’t use them in menu navigation. The fewer buttons you use, the more significance each one has. If you walked into a room with 1,000 buttons, you might push some of them…or none. If you walked into a room and there was a single, shiny button atop a pedestal in the center of the room, you’d really want to push that button.
Reserve buttons for CTAs. You might ask visitors to sign up for your email list, download a lead magnet, or schedule a call. Whatever the case, make it bolder and beautiful so it stands apart from text and other links.

8. Make website navigation 100 percent optimized for mobile.

If your website navigation doesn’t render properly on mobile, you’re in trouble. Google has shifted to a mobile-first algorithm, and nowadays more searches occur on mobile devices than on desktop computers.
Design your menus for touch, using large fonts (16+) and leaving space for fingers (44+ pixels). Minimize multilevel navigation, and make sure your menus are intuitive and clear. Options like hamburger menus work great for mobile navigation design.

9. Be wary of using drop-down menus.

“But you told me to organize my menu, so why can’t I use drop-downs?” They may provide you with additional space to provide more links, but they can be problematic.
First, users find them problematic when they are too extensive — especially on mobile. Second, people will skip important pages when using them, and we want our marketing funnels to work! Finally, search engines often have trouble with them, and they can greatly reduce the domain and page authority of your site.
If you decide you must have one, go all in and create a mega-menu, as seen on most popular retail websites.

10. When in doubt, hire a pro.

When you need your site to align with your marketing strategy, you need design that offers a comfortable user experience to earn you leads and sales. Make your navigation work for human visitors and search engine bots. If it’s time to chart a new course, Mvestor Media can chart you a new path in just 15 minutes.

The post 10 Tips for Better Website Navigation appeared first on Mvestor Media.

After years of working with business professionals, physicians, attorneys, and small-business owners, we’ve perfected a few quick things that you can do to convert your website traffic into paying customers.

1) Have a Clear Call to Action

When a prospect lands on your home page, what action do you want them to take? The “Call to Action,” or CTA, is the one thing you’d like someone to do when they engage with your content. For example, do you want them to sign up for your newsletter, call you, or download a lead magnet (more on that later)? Said action should be very specific, simple to do, and prominently displayed — above the fold if possible.
You may have multiple goals on site, depending on what page a user is on. Just try to have only one focus per page. If you have traffic coming from specific sources or ads, you might even have a specially-designed landing page that will lead visitors by the nose to that CTA.

2) Give Away Something Valuable

If you have valuable products or services to sell, perhaps you have something valuable you can give away. This might be content, such as a lead magnet that can be downloaded with valuable tips or information. It could be an entry into a drawing, a consultation, or access to free tools on your website.

Whatever it is, you’ll want to connect it with a clear CTA (above) to entice visitors to participate. If your site gets lots of traffic, you’ll want to automate the process. This will prevent the process from becoming a time sink since the automation handles communication and tracking information for you.

3) Let Them See You

There’s a desirable trend in the information age: people want to see you. We want to see who is behind the business, and achieve a connection through your site, your content, your social media. While you don’t need to turn your site into a personal blog, it’s good to show a bit of your personality.

Show people photos of your team, your office, and yourself. Instead of using stock photos to illustrate your site, take relevant photos yourself. Make sure the pictures are high quality and fit with your personality and brand.

Have a quick tip, update, or product announcement? Make use of that smart phone and talk to the camera, because that’s what the people want. If they feel a connection to you, feel that they are getting to know you, you will have created a sense of loyalty. And that ties in nicely with our next point …

4) Video Marketing

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then 30 frames a second is worth 30,000 words. Video content is interacted with at far higher rates than other media. We like to introduce customers to our clients right away by embedding video right on the home page. You can include tutorials or short clips in the content of your site, or use video to replace text- and image-based ads on Facebook.

You can also post useful content across multiple channels, utilizing the popularity of platforms like YouTube or Vimeo. Link those useful videos to relevant content on your blog or website, or use in-video messages to help drive traffic to the right pages on your site.

You don’t have to spend a fortune, either. It’s never been easier to integrate video into your marketing. With a little preparation, your smartphone can capture remarkable video and sound.

5) Focus on Internal Links

Internal links can have a huge impact on your traffic. They create a better user experience, and search engines love them! It’s standard SEO (search engine optimization) practice to link relevant content between pages of your website. When Google crawls your website, those links help determine the hierarchy of your site and the relevant subjects your content covers, which gives those links a higher value and those pages a higher ranking on search engines.

If you have plenty of content, articles, videos, and service or product pages, you want visitors to be able to find the information they are interested in — no matter which page they started from. When you are posting new content, be sure to go back and build links between the new content and the old.

6) Utilize COLOR

Color can evoke complex emotions and create a more cohesive brand. Since colors have a strong effect on branding, utilize them as consistently as possible. Quick — what colors are associated with McDonald’s? Starbucks?

Try out a few color schemes and see which one suits your business the most. Perhaps you don’t have an artistic bone in your body. Recruit help, whether it’s a professional designer, friends or family, or an online focus group. You’ll be able to better focus your marketing efforts once you have a distinct look. Not only will this attract more customers, but you’ll also improve your branding for existing ones.

The post 6 Quick Fixes to Improve Your Business Website appeared first on Mvestor Media.

The web design of your site offers your clients an insight into your business and products, so a simple and thorough theme makes the message read clearly.

3 Responsive WordPress Themes

When you are looking to change your website’s design to be more aesthetically pleasing, consider some of these concepts.

Shasta

If your company is closer to nature, this WordPress concept is the perfect one for you. Shasta offers full images for you to present your company through photography. This theme is also a great minimal design for lifestyle bloggers to show your work or define your brand. Be one with Mother Earth with this natural theme.

Divi

For those of you who want to put a bit of pop into your company site or you have more an exciting concept for your business, Divi is your responsive WordPress theme to consider for a redesign. With a large image in the power zone of the site, this theme is a pop of your brand and allows you to present your best to consumers. Use Divi to make a vivid impression and give your site some pop.

The Essence

Website styles for a blog will keep your readers intrigued for more of your writing. The Essence is a responsive WordPress theme for lifestyle brands who want to keep their following excited for the next post. With engaging large content images and a clean layout, your blog is on its way of being everyone’s go-to site for tips and tricks.

MVestor Offers New and Inviting WordPress Themes

If your website needs a facelift, you can trust MVestor will give you the web design you only dreamed of having. We offer WordPress hosting for your company needs. Connect us today to see how we can help you!

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