For businesses looking to take advantage of this increasingly commonplace happening, responsive website design is a must. It’s not a fad, or attractive gimmick – but something businesses who want a mobile web presence, need to invest in, now.

Responsive design is quite a simple concept. The idea is that sites respond to the device they are being viewed on and position themselves on the display in order of shape, size and importance. In doing so, any website can fit comfortable on any display. Something that traditional websites, unresponsive mobile websites and apps don’t facilitate comfortably.

In addition, responsive design is also acclaimed as a big plus for SEO in mobile searches – something that’s increasingly pivotal owing to current trends.

UX

A responsive site provides the user with a clear and very usable layout of the site. It means that the amount of pinching and zooming is minimised and creates an overall more functional experience.

Traditional sites are hard to read on small screens, take a lot of zooming in and out and are in a way an annoyance. This increase bounce rates by up to 61% – something Google notes and applies to mobile SERPs. It then in part allocates rankings in accordance with the bounce rate.

Traditional mobile sites can be quite awkward too and as they differ per device and also from the desktop website design, things are positioned differently and this can also lead to a lower quality user experience. Responsive sites on the other hand, provide clear content, where it’s required and offer a better user experience, lower bounce rate and also aid SEO.

Internal Issues

A mobile site is a separate site to the original desktop site and it’s known on occasion to cause duplicate content and two sites competing for the same place unless it is no-follow. This can mean that if things go awry users could end up on the wrong version of your site depending on the device in use – then you’ll need to consult IT services.

It should also be noted it is possible to set mobile sites up with a script that detects what device is being used so the main desktop site is the site that ranks and features in the SERPS. If a mobile device accesses it, the script redirects to the mobile version of the site. However, for a first time site this can be a lot more trouble than a responsive site.

In a case where the owner already uses a highly complex website on asp or .net platforms moving to responsive is quite tricky, so they might want a simplified mobile version for mobile browsers. However, generally this is not the case.
Ranking

This separation also can cause back link issues if the site is follow or if there are issues with canonical tags.

So, in certain cases if you have two separate sites your mobile site won’t benefit fully from your existing desktop site’s backlinks. However, if your site is a responsive site, it’s just one site and this means it has all the existing back links, allowing you to benefit whether on mobile or desktop.
It also means that you only have to care for one site – saving a lot of time and effort on site maintenance.

Responsive sites offer significant opportunities for businesses and are currently still being underutilised considering their SEO benefits among other things.
However, if you’re looking to meet the future industry standard and also get a jump at your competitors it’s very benefical.

Cormac Reynolds writes for Soho IT a company that offers IT services in London. He is a lover of great website design and has written about the area for a number of years.

The post SEO Benefits Of Responsive Sites: Leap Past Competitors appeared first on Retro Edge™.

1. Real-time trend tracking. Social Media isn’t just about communicating… it can be used to really find out what’s going on in your market. By monitoring interesting trends and keeping a steady eye on the news, a web agency can really integrate current events into their social media campaigns for maximum impact. Has a piece of legislation just been announced that could impact on your business? Shout from the rooftops, and make your voice heard.
2. In-depth market research. You can learn a lot from understanding your audiences. Take the time to learn the attitudes of your potential and current customers, and you’ll reap the rewards when you can speak their language. Building on point number one, take the time to read up when something interesting is trending or occurring in the news. Keep an eye on what people are saying regarding this trend, and touch base with the people of interest.
3. Harness social media’s cost efficiency benefits. Social Media is, in the majority of cases, free to use. Not only that, but there is a huge range of free-to-use tools that compliment social media. When you’re putting your social strategy together, take the time to research the social platforms and complimenting tools available. There are time, and therefore cost saving methods available.
4. Don’t just engage, lead. Sure, riding the ‘trend waves’ can certainly bring benefits, but if you can ‘lead the pack,’ you’ll stick out in consumer’s minds. A great example is the company ‘Silk Tide,’ who, when the European Union announced their intention to bring in the Cookie Privacy Directive, really went all out with blogs and campaigns, free-to-use tools to help websites comply, and more.
5. Broaden your horizons. Prior to the internet, in most cases, small to medium enterprises (SMEs) were limited to selling where they were located. The internet however opened up the marketplace so even the smallest companies could gain an international presence. Now, with social media, small companies aren’t just limited to being able to sell online… they can get their voices heard and communicate, at a world-wide level, with their target market, and all of the potential and current customers this brings.
   To sum up – there are countless opportunities in social media. It’s about making sure you have the right strategy, the right time investment, and the right idea. Combine all of these things, and you’ll succeed in social media.

Author Biography

Pete Campbell

Pete Campbell is a web design specialist at Jask Group. He got started by building his website when he was just a kid and now helps SMEs and global brands come up with and execute their online marketing strategies.

The post 5 Ways Web Agencies can use Social Media appeared first on Retro Edge™.

Has It Been Tested Thoroughly?

Your website may look terrific on a nice widescreen monitor, with all the smart text and well laid out graphics, but have you tested it on all types of media? Many potential customers will spend their lunchtimes looking at various websites on their smartphones. Has your site been tested for this format? If not, you could be waving goodbye to a lot of frustrated people. You can set up the site to be responsive, this means it will automatically resize to whatever screen the user is operating. All of these factors need to be sorted out before you publish the website.

Encourage Relationships

It would be great if every first time visitor decided to buy a service or product from your website, but this just does not happen in real life. What happens after they leave your site? They may well decide to return, but cannot remember the exact website name or URL details. You need to ensure that they have some encouragement to retain contact with your site. Include an offer that allows them to become a part of your website mailing list, but do not be too pushy.  They will remain a part of the business loop and may always return with their wallet in their hands. You can offer an incentive in return for their loyalty, think of something that will appeal to them.

Too Much Information

Nobody gets off on a bland looking front page, but you should steer away from trying to get too much information across straight away. You risk looking desperate and people will often become wary of your real intentions. Even if you believe that your website has one million great reasons for your customer to join, one good reason is more than enough. Let the customers know that you will deliver and tell them how you can back up this claim. Try to establish credibility of your business.

Avoid Being Too Flashy

Teenagers may enjoy a website with some cool effects and distracting graphics, but unless they are your target audience, you are going to be losing business. Your product or service need to be the thing that sticks in their minds, not the ‘angry birds’ video game.

John Miller, the author of this post, is an employee with Webfirm which is a mobile website design and SEO company.  In his free time, he likes to write about technology and all its interesting aspects.

The post How Not To Design A Website appeared first on Retro Edge™.

This article will describe the steps you should take to ensure that you’re doing SEO right, even if you’re on a small budget.

Website Analysis

The first step you should take with any SEO strategy is to first see where you’re at. Seeing where you’re at means analysing where your website is currently ranking for its desired keywords. If you see that you’re not ranking where you want for specific key phrases then you’ll have to put work in.

The worst case scenario is where you’re not targeting anything at all. However this can be changed quite quickly if you do some keyword analysis.

Competitor Analysis

After you’ve done your keyword analysis you should see what keywords your competitors are targeting. This will set a good baseline of what types of marketing and products they are trying to push through the search engines.

Although it’s good to know what your competitors are doing, you shouldn’t make it the sole focus of your campaign. If you get too wrapped up in what your competitors activities are you could lose sight of what your individual purpose is.

Keyword Analysis

After you’ve done a simple website analysis you should then look to see what keywords you are targeting and which ones you’re ranking for. You should always have a main keyword, secondary keywords and long tail keywords.

The best way to do your keyword analysis is through free tools with one good one being the Google Keyword Tool. You should seek to compile your best keywords and their ranking in an excel spread sheet as it’s one of the most simple ways to organise.

Content Production

One extremely important aspect of any SEO strategy whether it’s high budget or low budget is content production. If you overlook this aspect of SEO then you will most certainly be left behind by your competitors. Content production doesn’t have to be done on a large scale and you can often do it yourself if you have the spare time.

Content Outreach

The final piece of the SEO puzzle can be simply getting your content out there. Since you don’t have a large budget for SEO then you will have to produce the best content possible for you audience. If you do that properly then you can certainly gain a few fans and followers.

Whether you’re a website that’s established or just starting out you should try and build relationships in your niche. By doing so, you will have access to the other person’s audience and be able to share your content even further. These tips are basic but once you realise the value of SEO and take it seriously then it can be scaled for profit.

This post is from Kev Massey from seo3D. Kev leads a team of experienced SEO and provides useful optimisation tips on how to rank your website on Google. seo3d.org  provides affordable UK SEO solutions for small businesses wanting a presence on the search engines.

The post How To Do SEO On A Small Budget appeared first on Retro Edge™.

If you feel that way though this can actually end up making matter worse and cause you to end up performing even worse as a result. The problem is that if you feel unsuccessful in your attempts to thrive online, then you can actually end up losing enthusiasm for what you’re doing and as a result probably start working less hard toward making it a success.

Ultimately, web success comes down to dedication and putting in lots of time to build lots of high quality content and lots of high authority links and if you start to feel you aren’t getting anywhere then it can be hard to find the motivation to do all this.

More to the point though you should be incredibly proud to have a website at all, and to even be involved in promoting yourself online. Getting as far as you have is already highly commendable and you should already be bragging about it to all your friends. You should stop viewing your SEO and your site as just a means to an end, and instead reflect on how far you’ve come already.

Why You Should be Proud

First of all, if you are working online in any form then you are pioneer. This is something that simply wasn’t possible ten years ago, and the very fact that you’ve had the drive and the vision to take advantage of new technologies is something you should feel smug about. One day more people will probably work from home and class themselves as entrepreneurs, but for now you’re ahead of your time for even trying. Just like Edgar Alan Po who was among the first to make a full time living from writing…

Then there’s the fact that you worked out how to do all this. If you built a website, even using a site builder or WordPress, then it’s safe to say that you have more technical knowledge than most of your peers. SEO as well is really pretty impressive when you think about it – it’s a combination of marketing and engineering that’s actually rather genius and working out how to manipulate algorithms is the kind of thing you probably never thought you’d be able to do back in high school maths classes.

Then there’s the fact that you feel passionate enough about a topic to create a website on it. And even if you’re only getting ten visitors a week to your site that still means ten people who are reading what you have to say and hearing your ideas. This is a great way to express yourself, to talk about the things you care about and to be creative. Don’t be disappointed if you don’t have a million readers yet, how many of your friends and colleagues can say they have ten??

Today’s guest post is written by Mike K, an internet marketing consultant at Wisdek. Having been in this industry for a considerable amount of time, he certainly knows the tricks of the trade. He has stated a few reasons why webmasters are so important to get your website on the first page of google in this article.

The post Webmaster And SEOs: Why You Should Love What You Do (And Be Incredibly Proud) appeared first on Retro Edge™.

Project Overview

Shabby to Chic is a recently opened beauty salon in Plymouth. The web site has been designed based on their salons shabby chic decor with shades of pastel blue and pink.

Built using WordPress, Shabby to Chic uses Advanced Custom Fields to make the home page slider and promo boxes easy to update from admin.

Shabby to Chic can also be found on Facebook, check out their page here.

The post Shabby to Chic appeared first on Retro Edge™.

So, you might be wondering how on earth you are going to market your skills so that you do not run short of projects. Ok, here I am going to give you a roundup of what you should be doing while trying to stay connected with prospective clients.

Do Not be Desperate

Desperate people do desperate things. I know you need projects badly but that does not necessarily mean that you will be badgering the lives of others by sending them bulk emails, sending friends request in Facebook or trying your level best to get connected with them in LinkedIn. These are traditional networking ideas and believe me; it will not work for you. And deep down your heart, you know the reason why it will not work. Yes, because everybody around is following these traditional networking ideas and thereby increasing the chances of your networking attempt being ignored.

You simply take recourse to traditional marketing when you find that you have no project left and you need one to get your business going. But there is a thin line of difference between networking and marketing. The purpose of networking is to know each other and then making the most of that acquaintance. Now, what you are currently doing is far from this basic concept of networking; in fact, you are just riding on the common marketing technique whose sole purpose is to get business.

You need to get out of this sickening mentality. You need to learn to network like real man who does not need anything in return. You need to make people aware how you are going to add value to his social life. Make sure that it is not going be another fly by night affair. Make sure that you are sending him occasional messages like a New Year Wish or post something nice on his birthday and I think he will remember you for long. So, when you will be approaching him for new projects, you will not look like another stranger strolling in the dark.

Stay in Touch

I hope you believe in long-term relationship despite overwhelming number of people preferring one nightstand. What I am trying to say is that when you at networking, you need to make sure that you keep in touch with people that you met at a conference or at any business meeting. Just exchanging business card or shaking hands with that person is not enough; you have to stay connected to that person. So, do not forget to call him once in a while or chat with him occassionally just to keep the relationship going. By doing so, you will be able to set yourself apart from the masses and therefore, when you will be approaching him for some offer, he will certainly have a look at your mail with patience.

Effective networking is all about staying at the top of people’s mind. Now, this is easier said than done. Since you cannot push people to receive your emails or respond to your chat request, you have to try to do network indirectly. You need to establish yourself as a thought leader in your niche. However, I know the difficulties involved in the process but there is no way around. You need to take some out of your busy schedule to promote yourself as a dashing designer always bustling with creative inspirations. Yeah, you are not going to get paid for this but its impact will be far reaching.

Make Mistakes

When you are trying to grow your network for the first, it is highly likely that you will end up offending some people. But do not take this by heart. This is bound to happen when you are taking on a new enterprise. Rather you should be trying your best to learn from the mistakes so that you do not repeat them anymore. This is the only way you can attain perfection.

These are few things that you can easily integrate with your networking initiatives to see better results.

Author Bio
This guest post was written by Michael Evans, who loves helping small business organizations and is associated with MotoCMS, which is an advanced Flash CMS.

The post How to expand your network as a Freelance Designer appeared first on Retro Edge™.

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So from now on those running PPC campaigns through AdWords who had previously been unable to get their promoted links onto Yahoo web properties will not be so restricted.

Search marketing expert Alex Fender spoke to Search Engine Watch about the news and said that this would be a real benefit for the wider webmaster community.

The main reason that he holds this point of view is that he sees AdWords as being a superior platform to those offered by Google’s rivals. Not only is it easier to manage successful PPC campaigns, but it is also able to expose promoted links to a much larger user base.

Google’s ability to reach 100 web users for every 1 that is reached by Bing is difficult to ignore, so its market share plays into the hands of webmasters who want to bring more traffic to their sites.

The deal will see Google supplying ads for both desktop and mobile versions of Yahoo sites. In exchange Yahoo is apparently going to be passing on some of its currently unsold inventory to Google.

A spokesperson for the big G said that Yahoo would become one of the many online outlets that the search engine works with so that it can ensure that its advertising service is as successful as possible.

Meanwhile Yahoo will be benefitting from a broader range of PPC ads for its sites, delivering promotional material which is of a greater relevance to users and making more cash for clicks as a result.

It is interesting to see that Yahoo was able to get away from the negotiating table without having to sign an exclusivity deal with Google.

As such its sites will still host ads from other platforms, such as those hosted by Microsoft’s Bing, which is of course responsible for handling Yahoo’s search service as well.

Yahoo admitted in a statement that it was having problems with ad relevancy, because content was harder to match to promotional links. Now with the near limitless power of AdWords, it should have a much better chance of catering to its customers and keeping the cash flowing in.

Rumours about a potential ad link-up between Yahoo and Google have been circulating for some time now and at one point it was even alleged that the pair would indeed ink an exclusive deal. This plan did not come to fruition, but it is clear that each company sees the process of strengthening their relationship as mutually beneficial.

Google’s dominance of the search market in the US and the UK remains a sticking point for certain rivals, but in the case of Yahoo it seems that it has decided to work with its rival rather than battle against it.

Author Bio: Blogger who researches and talks about the latest news in the internet marketing industry for the SEO company Integrity SEO.

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The user flow, as the name suggests, helps in generating the appropriate dialogue between the web and users. It helps in attracting more users by conveying the objective of the page & including all the basic requirements of the user flow. All the efforts to create a page design in accordance with the information architecture are incomplete if they don’t comply with user flow. Here are a few points to make sure that while addressing all the specifications of page designing we also take the user flow into account.

It pays to make the user happy

At this level a designer should be willing to put in some extra efforts in assessing the user’s demands while accessing a page. It deals with more than few technical specifications and shows the direct relationship between the user and the objectives of business.

Channel specific traffic to high potential users

We should be able to detect which user flow is going to provide maximum business and channel our flow according to them. Based on the nature of the business there is a wide variety of user flows, some of them are:

• Sponsored links for advertisements.
• Networking sites.
• Media sites and news items.
• Direct Communication links like email.
• Pure search links.

Step by step operations

A critical thinking for the analysis of customer approach should be adopted. Due consideration should be given to the changing priorities of a page visitor, subscriber or a purchaser. According to these points further strategies should be decided which can be implemented in the business.

Content to be displayed

After assessing the nature of the user, exact target segmentation, problems, maximizing attention, resonance in between customer needs and products can be aptly decided.

Display or Landing

This is the actual field where the need to focus on information delivery arises. Users are converted into customers by providing them with adequate information about the objectives of a business. It’s a crucial point for business and hence involves a smooth user flow throughout the path. Some of the key features are:

• Providing systematic and crisp information about business.
• Building confidence among users.
• To create an attractive image.
• Minimize the time and need for extra clicks.

For a wholesome experience – Stacking is a solution

The main objective of this stage is to generate maximum revenue by optimizing the number of end users; this goes a step forward than creating email subscribers. We cannot differentiate between the transaction funnels and information funnels as they both contribute towards generating revenues. Stacking highly depends on customer management.

Getting maximum advantage of the flow design

The strategy is to make the flow design focused and user oriented to get maximum advantage. This goes on by visualizing the future needs of potential users and further, orienting the flow design accordingly.

Today’s guest post is submitted by Adam Anderson. He works with a Palm Beach web design and provide tips for creating better user friendly websites through his posts.

The post Stop Designing Pages And Start Designing Flows appeared first on Retro Edge™.

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If however, like me you’d rather Google didn’t delete all those feeds you’ve spent hours organising then add your voice to the currently 80,000+ signatures – https://www.change.org/petitions/google-keep-google-reader-running

Whether Google decide to listen or not is quite another matter, so if you don’t want to run the risk of losing those precious feeds here are several alternatives to Google Reader:

The post Alternatives to Google Reader appeared first on Retro Edge™.

The following sites showcase the other end of the spectrum. Sites which have not only designed a great About Us page but spent some real development time on it.

The post 10 Cool About Us Pages appeared first on Retro Edge™.

Why Passion Matters

So why is passion so important? Let me count the ways.

The single most effective way to be a hit online is to make sure that you are posting articles regularly and likewise being equally as consistent with your link building. No one has success right away, so it’s crucial to make sure you don’t give up on your site if it doesn’t land you riches right away. If you stay consistent with your site promotion efforts, and if you avoid dodgy strategies to get rich quickly, then you will find that you gradually increase your reputation in the eyes of Google and build up a steady number of regular visitors.

To do this though you need to be passionate about your website, because otherwise you’ll get bored too easily and you won’t want to put the necessary time in. Likewise, if you’re passionate you’ll be reading up on your niche when you don’t have to and you’ll be more likely to come up with great new angles for your posts and articles/to catch the breaking news that will make a brilliant headline for your site. If you’re passionate for your website then it will come through in your writing, and this in turn will equate to better articles and more exciting content – which will bring in more readers.

If you’re passionate about your website this is also going to help you when it comes to promoting your site in person and networking too. For many people the general consensus it seems is that we keep our online and offline lives separate, rarely talking about our websites unless asked.

Of course this isn’t much use if you’re trying to spread the word and network and doing this will likely mean you miss out on a lot of opportunities. But even if you do speak up and try to sell your site to everyone you meet (like a good webmaster), you’ll find that it doesn’t really fly unless you really sound like you’re passionate about your website. The thing is, enthusiasm is contagious and if you sound like you’re really excited about the site you run, then you’ll find it makes other people excited about it too.

If you aren’t super passionate about your website then something is wrong. Unless you find a way to make your site more interesting, or change the way you feel about it, it will never be as successful as it could be. Get behind your site 100% and you’ll give it the best fighting chance possible.

Mike K is an Internet marketing consultant at Wisdek. He has ample experience in the SEO industry and is rated as one the best in this field. He also takes time out from his busy schedule to blog about various aspects of his profession.

The post The Most Important Ingredient For Web Success – Passion appeared first on Retro Edge™.

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Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^111\.111\.1\.11$
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^111\.111\.1\.11$
RewriteRule .* http://www.retroedgewebdesign.co.uk/ [R=302,L]

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It is also predicted that one million minutes of video is expected to cross the web each second. So, videos will be easier to watch and there will be more of them. Ensure the videos on your blog are at their best by following these instructions:

1. Make sure you have good lighting! How many times have you stopped watching a video because the lighting has been rubbish? A nice looking video is always well lit and you can always clearly see what is being filmed. Try filming in a bright room, with lightly coloured walls to help reflect the light. If you’re filming at night, try to use white light.
2. Hold that camera steady! There’s nothing more distracting than when you’re trying to concentrate on what’s being filmed and the picture is jolty and unpleasant. This obviously isn’t always possible if you’re filming on the move but when you can, use a tripod.
3. Use the appropriate level of zoom. If you’re filming yourself talking, keep as still as possible and aim to have you head and shoulders dominating the shot. This makes it easier for the viewer to focus on what you have to say and is more engaging. If you’re not filming yourself try and keep whatever you are filming entirely in the shot leaving some space around object and the camera frame.
4. Think about editing – editing can make the difference between a home video and a professional looking bit of footage. It doesn’t take much extra effort and can make the video run smoother and can obviously cut out those mistakes! If you do choose to edit, try and stay in the same place and film all the footage at the same time of day to ensure the same lighting. Most computers have simple editing software inbuilt – even phones do, nowadays, so there’s no excuse.
5. Can you hear me?  There’s nothing worse than a great looking video that has poor audio quality. Try and film your footage in a quiet environment where you won’t be disturbed. You don’t want your video ruined by your other half yelling to find out whether you want a cup of tea! If you’re filming somebody talking, get them to wear or talk into a microphone (this could be out of shot) to ensure voice clarity. If your recording equipment’s microphone doesn’t pick up sound that well, consider doing a voice over or using music instead.

Bio: This article was written by Ruth Barton on behalf of Lambda, a company offering video production in Cambridge that specialises in effective online video marketing campaigns for businesses and organisations of all sizes. Visit their website to read more about the services they offer.

The post Video production for your blog: Five things to look out for appeared first on Retro Edge™.

• XML site map: Your website’s page index is one of the most important parameter considered by the search engines. If you are using XML site map, it will become easy for your site to get indexed by them. It is the most vital plug-in tool which will help you to boost site’s traffic.
• Deep linking: Deep linking is all about offering reference links to old post when they read new posts. You can make use of WordPress to get the maximum benefit. It helps crawlers to notify your link page. It is helpful for readers to make use of old posts.
• Guest post and comments: Guest posting is the other best SEO practice to get quality links. It is all about posting your articles on other websites and blogs. If you are posting good articles, you can build good relationship with them. Commenting is the other best practice to get good links to your blog or site. Read other blogs and post a comment along with your site link which will help you get good quality links.
• Social media network: Social media wonders like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube will work as communication data centres because of their huge customer base. You can stay connected with millions of customers by commenting regularly on each update, following recent tweets and posting latest content. You will get inbound links, if you are commenting on other pages, it will eventually increases your web traffic. Social media is an excellent SEO practice to improve organic traffic. According to a new report, sites like StumbleUpon, Digg and Twitter serve as a principal communication mediums.
• Title page: You need to use simple, clear title and essentially it should make sense related to your website’s content. Make sure that you link at least one keyword with your title and content.
• First paragraph: First paragraph of your site play a crucial role in increasing site traffic. Search engine’s robots will look for fresh content and keywords which are available on the first paragraph. If you want to get indexed by the search engines, combine valid links with right anchor text and right keywords. Make sure keyword density is vital to get more traffic. 

Author bio: Hello readers, I am Lucy from Liverpool. I am a tech writer and I am into health and finance. I have written articles on PPI claims. Catch me on @financeport.

The post Best SEO practices to boost your site traffic appeared first on Retro Edge™.

A website is somewhere people like to go and read great information. They definitely don’t want to be surrounded by useless things that distract them from what they are there for. If you’re like most people there is a good chance you are messing up the design of your site, so maybe it’s good idea if you look at some of the best ways to simplify it. Test these out individually and see what effect they have on the overall success of your site, and that means your bank balance.

One action

When you’re designing specific pages you don’t want to give people too many options to choose from because they won’t choose the one you want in the majority of cases. If you want to lead someone to your sales page it seems crazy to have links going off in a dozen different directions. Lead someone down a clear path they can easily follow and they will end up where you want them. Have too many distractions about the place and they could end up anywhere.

Get rid of the crap

You want to have a clean page, but before you do that you will need to get rid of everything that shouldn’t be there. Think carefully about this because some things that don’t need to be on one page could maybe go on another. You don’t just want to have everything on your site pointing to your product because that will earn you the trust of no-one. If you can’t find a place for something then don’t be scared to say goodbye to it forever.

Reduce your page count

Have you looked at all the pages on your website and decided all of them are bringing you great value? If they’re not bringing you great value then maybe they don’t need to be there, or they could even be condensed into fewer pages. Everyone would prefer finding all their information on the same page because it makes life easier. How many people do you know that have an ‘about’ page for themselves and their brand? What is wrong with having them on the same page?

Go above the fold

When you want something in the face of as many people as possible it needs to be above the fold. This is the part of the website that everyone will see the majority of the time. Take your important things from down below and include them in the most important area of your site. Just because you’re putting more than one thing above the fold doesn’t mean you’re asking someone to perform more than one action. You can have a sales page link, testimonials, and other things that make your site look great.

Choose a few colors

When you try and use too many colors it just destroys the look you really want. Plain and simple doesn’t mean turning your pages into something that resembles the aftermath of an exploding rainbow. You can choose a few colors at the most and turn them into the ones everyone associates with your website. This will also make it a lot easier on your visitor’s eyes. Another good thing to keep in mind is that a website is better having a light background.

Alexander Shekaroff is well known for his crazy and funky artwork. He works as a part-time web designer. He mostly writes articles related to web design, SEO and blogging. He recommends ITW Consulting to his readers who are looking for something different for their website.

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1) The Website

Your brand’s website is one of the most important tools in relaying the message of your brand. Here you can use the website to provide visitors with all of the facts on the brand, how your products and services compare to the competition and what the brand is doing outside of selling products to help the environment or philanthropic ventures. Essentially, the brand’s website serves as a detailed resume of the brand you want customers to see. The website, along with other online tools, can also be used to communicate directly with your target audience.

2) Twitter

When you want to reach your customers quickly and directly with your brand, Twitter is an efficient tool. With Twitter, you can easily interact directly with your followers to take care of customer service topics as well as sharing news and other information about your brand. In order to maintain the interest of your followers, you can also provide helpful tips related to your brand, post links to useful resources and share information related to your business or the industry in general.

3) Facebook

Facebook is another tool that will help you and your customers directly interact, though Facebook is a platform that allows for longer, more detailed information. With Facebook, you can post links to a variety of websites (including your own, of course) and share with your followers articles you have written, interviews you have participated in and any other activity you have done to help put your brand out there. Facebook is also a great platform if you want to offer discounts to your products or run contests that will help promote your brand. You can also use Facebook to cross post videos, tweets and other materials from other social media sites related to your business.

4) Youtube Videos

Entrepreneurs and businesses can move past the written word and explore the world of video advertising. Youtube is an excellent place to work with video branding. On this platform you can provide reviews and tutorials of your products, news on upcoming events and other important information. A video platform sometimes works better in different industries, such as technology and entertainment. Providing video as well as text is important to reach the widest audience for your business.

5) Guest Blogging

When you want to present your brand as an authority on a specific topics or industry, guest blogging is a tool that can help promote your expertise. Finding the right guest blogging opportunity and the right topic is important. A good guest blogging opportunity should feature your thoughts on a timely subject in your field of expertise and it should appear on a prominent blog in that industry for maximum exposure.

Webfire is a New Zealand owned and operated web hosting provider who also writes SEO, Hosting and Branding related articles.

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