Author: Tim K

Web design Santee has been made easy by WordPress. This is a popular content management system that powers more than 30% of the websites. The best thing is that with WordPress you don’t need any web development skills to create your own website. All you need to do is to purchase a domain name, get hosting and install WordPress. Even so, you have to worry about search engine optimization. In this article we will be looking at the best practices that will help your WordPress website rank better in search engine results.

Install SEO optimized themes
A WordPress theme is what gives your website its look. You no longer have to code the layout that you need. You simply install a theme and install plugins to add new functions. As a web designer Santee, you have to be very careful when choosing a theme. As much as aesthetics are a priority, you still need to think about SEO. SEO optimized themes will have the following:

• Valid HTML and a clean structure
• Proper heading as well as Meta title tags
• Correct canonical URL Meta tag
• Integration of open graph Meta tag. This will make it easy for you to share on social media.

In addition to the above, the theme you select must be lightweight. If the theme causes your website to take long to load up, it will lead to high bounce rates which subsequently lead to poor ranking.

Install social media plugins
The more social media shares you have the more value your website will have in the eyes of search engines. There are so many social media plugins you can use. Make sure that you read the reviews before you install any plugin. Here are some of the best plugins you can install:

• Simple Share Buttons Adder
• Monarch
• Easy Social Share Buttons
• Social Buzz
• Social Sidebar for WordPress
• Super Socializer

Every social media plugin has its pros and cons. Ensure you understand the drawbacks of the plugin you want. You must also not add too many plugins as doing so will bloat your website.

Invest in inbound links
Links are very important in SEO. Search engines look at the number of high quality links that your page has in order to determine the page’s value. More high quality inbound links means high value and thus better ranking. Don’t forget to add keywords to your links.

High quality content
Last but not least, you have to invest in high quality content. The content you publish has to be relevant to your audience. It must also be search engine optimized. Create content that is unique, helpful and sharable.

Web design Santee

Web design Santee calls for more than simply installing WordPress and installing the best theme and plugins. There is a lot more that needs to be done. One of the things you cannot afford to ignore is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO will account for most of the traffic that gets to your website. Having a high ranking is hence a priority. In this article, we shall be taking a quick look at the best SEO tips you should start using now if you have not implemented them yet.

Your web content is the best optimization
You best tool for getting a high ranking is creating high quality content. This starts with finding the best keywords then creating high quality and relevant content. Don’t start creating your content until you identify your target audience. It is only with your audience in mind that you will be able to create focused content. As a web designer Santee, you will also need to make sure that the content on your website is updated regularly. Old content is considered stale and will not benefit your ranking. If you don’t update your content regularly, your website will be flagged as dormant and search engines will overlook it in ranking.

Go straight to the point
It is very easy for you to be tempted to start by telling an unrelated story before delivering the important points. This is a strategy that some online marketers still do. They tell unrelated stories in an effort to paint themselves as leaders in the industry. In the long run, they end up boring their audience. When working on your content, it is imperative that you get straight to the point. Remember that your target audience is running short on time. The sooner you deliver the point the better. If visitors keep abandoning your page because it doesn’t offer what they need right away, this will be recorded as a bounce. A high bounce rate tells search engines that your website is useless and will hence not be ranked.

Fill the Meta description
The Meta description provides Internet users and search engine crawlers with a snippet of what your page is about. You need to spend a little more time filling this area before publishing your content. Make sure that your Meta data includes the relevant keywords. The snippet should also be as concise as possible and entice visitors to visit your page.

These three tips will help you move further this year in online marketing. There are many more trends out there but make sure you take the time to evaluate them keenly before implementing them.

Web design Santee

Every experienced web designer Santee understands that web design and SEO are two separate but equally important entities. This is why when hiring a web designer you need to hire one that has SEO experience. In this post, however, we will be looking at SEO best practices.

Responsive website design
Implementing a responsive web design Santee is a requirement by Google and other search engines. Websites with responsive designs get priority in ranking than those that don’t. You should not implement responsive web design simply because Google says so but because the use of a responsive web design will significantly improve user experience. If visitors cannot read, navigate, view or share your website on any device they use, your website will be ignored. Responsive web design ensures that your website can be used on virtually any device.

Another notable benefit of having a responsive web design is that you will not need to have a mobile and a desktop version of your website. You simply run one website that loads smoothly on any screen size. You will save a lot of time on updating, engineering as well as managing your site.

Site structure
Since SEO is a priority for you, you must create a web design Santee that accommodates both search engines and users. The parallax structure, for example, is very user friendly but it can cause you to be penalized by search engines for keyword stuffing if not used properly.

Meta Data
Meta data is made up of titles, descriptions, tags, keywords and other fields. The Meta data is simply a map that gives directions to both search engines and users. The Meta titles will inform users of what the page is about whereas the Meta descriptions will give a snippet of the information on a page. You need the Meta data for every page. Keywords should also be included in the Meta data. Ensure your homepage Meta title doesn’t just say ‘Home’ but gives more information about the website and the company. For example, instead of just using ‘Home’ as the Meta title, you can use, ‘who are we and what we do: webdesign, Santee.

Usability
As a web designer Santee, you have to account for load times, legible font, relevant pop-ups and SEO. The website you create should load fast, be easy to use and read and must be SEO friendly.

Bounce rates
Last but not least, you have to think about the bounce rates. A high bounce rate will cause your search engine ranking to go down. The average bounce rate for website is around 40.5% according to KISSmetrics. The web design and navigation has the biggest impact on the bounce rates.

Keeping these points in mind will help succeed online. The rule of thumb is to always remember that web design Santee is for end users and not for you. Keep your audiences first.

Web designer Santee

Web design Santee is very exciting especially when you get to see innovative and lovely designs. There is a vast amount of websites that are beautiful and functional. There is also a fair share of ugly and overdone websites that are simply useless. As you work on your website, the last thing you want is for it to turn out to be useless. As the New Year kicks off, there are certain practices you need to use as you work on your website.

Focus on the target audience
The whole reason for creating a website is so as to communicate with your target audience. This will not be the case if you don’t take the time to identify and understand your audiences. Every web designer Santee knows that a website is not just a lovely visual piece but also a portal for attracting the target audience and providing them with the information needed to make them your new clients.

Prior to working on a website, you need to answer the following questions:

• Are they familiar with your brand, products or services?
• What are they most interested in?
• How are your audiences different?
• Are you targeting different markets?

Focusing on your target audience from the beginning is very important. You must never lose sight of your target audience even as your website grows. Your target audience must be kept in the front and center even when making changes to your layout, images and design.

Branding must be consistent
Identifying your target audience is important but so is keeping branding consistent. The last thing you want is for your web visitors to feel like they landed on a completely different website when they open a different web page. A website design that lacks consistency is not just stressful but also confusing. You need to pick and settle for specific brand colors, and logo. The tone of your content should also be consistent. The key to achieving brand consistency is using predetermined logos, brand colors and messaging.

Simple layout
How easy is it to use your website? This is the question you need to ask as you review your current website. If the layout is not axiomatic, you need to think about redesigning your website. Simplicity in web design is more prominent today. Your web design Santee needs to have a simplified layout that is easy to navigate and one that allows every element to shine.

These three practices will come in handy as you strive to achieve more in 2019. Other things you should consider doing is to create a strong call-to-action, use high quality images/videos, enhance user experience and follow all the SEO best practices. Whether you are creating the website yourself or working with a web designer Santee, you need to ensure that the three crucial best practices are not ignored.

Web design Santee

An impressive web design Santee is not enough to give you the online exposure and success that you need. Once your website is setup, you will still need to get the word out. You have to advertise your online business extensively. There are several strategies you can use for this. In this post, we shall be looking at the main strategies. We will, however, not be considering search engine optimization.

Social media
The social media offers an excellent way for you to connect and engage with your audience regardless of their professional experience or age. As a web designer Santee, you will need to setup social media profiles too. You will need to create profiles on all major social media networks. You will not need accounts on all social media sites but just on the main ones: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google+. You will also need to make sure that these accounts are active.

Your social media channel will help you achieve the following:

• Organic: Share updates, articles, news, videos and other relevant information to your audiences
• Paid updates: Pay to share information with target audience. This is typically videos or articles.
• Paid Ads: pay to advertise to the target audience.

For the best results using social media, you need to use both paid and organic posts. You should also understand that social media doesn’t necessary drive leads but rather increases your brand recognition, engages your audiences and helps personalize your brand. You will also be able to build authority and extend your market reach.

Email marketing
Email marketing is not new but it is ideal for all types of businesses. Email newsletters offer the best chance to stay in front of your clients. Your newsletters can be sent quarterly, bi-monthly, monthly, weekly or daily. Here are some ideas you can use for your next newsletter:

• Links to your social media pages
• Content offers
• Recent blog posts
• Company highlights
• Industry trends
• Breaking news
• Current specials or promotions
• Credibility pieces

Retargeting Ads
These are Ads shown to users that have been to your website. They appear on a network of websites and are designed entice the users to re-visit your site. The retargeting campaign is normally inexpensive and will help you stay on top of the mind of your potential prospects.

Banner Ads
Here you work with a vendor to buy Ad space on another website. Your banner will then be placed on relevant websites. Digital banner advertising works great for some businesses.

The four are the best digital marketing strategies you can use. The rule of thumb is to ensure that you use a strategy that works best for your type of business.

Web design Santee

For most people, web design Santee is all about installing the right theme and customizing it to the client’s desires. That is not the case. In addition to what you see, there is a lot that goes into web development. In this article, we shall be looking at the things that are done when designing a website.

Research
This is the first phase of web development. Your web designer Santee will listen to your website needs and conduct a thorough research to know what needs to be done. The web designer will research everything including competitor websites, industry terms, images and the new trends. Research helps create the foundational knowledge of where the firm stands in the marketplace. The research will help the web designer understand what your target audience finds compelling.

Content strategy
This is another important thing that has to be done before work starts on web design Santee. The content strategy is for every page on your website. The purpose of this step is to help create a website that is cohesive and one that achieves the desired goals. The content strategy is basically the roadmap for the website design. The content strategy will also take into account the target market, business resources, objectives and website goals.

Wire frames
This normally takes about 4 hours. Wire frames are sketches that guide the designer and writers as to what is really needed and where everything will go. The wire frame represents how the website should look. It helps visualize the website.

Copywriting
The content on your website is what tells a story, creates the mood, highlights the benefits and describes the products and services. Creating compelling content is of great importance. Copywriting normally takes between 50 and 80 hours.

SEO
If search engine optimization will be part of the website project, it has to be factored in before you give your web designer Santee the green light to build the website. The right keywords will be selected at this stage and used in copywriting. A link building strategy has to be developed too.

Design
The design work starts after all the aforementioned steps. A web designer Santee will decide on the most compelling and efficient way to present the content in a web design. He considers such things as how it will impact usability, development, and user experience. Design revisions will follow.

Web development
This is the coding process that builds the website design and makes up the biggest part of a website. The content is entered after web development. The final step is quality assurance and control.

Web design Santee

The actual work on web design Santee should start after thorough planning. You cannot just get up one morning, open a website builder and start creating your business website. A lot of planning goes into the creation of a great website. In this post, we shall be looking at the important decisions you need to make before you start designing or redesigning your website.

Determine the sales strategy
Long before you start shopping around for a great web designer Santee, you need to determine how your new website should support your business sales efforts. Do you need a website where you can sell your products or services online or simply a marketing platform to direct traffic to your business? You must be sure if you need a website that generates leads or one that sells products/services.

Set a budget
How you want your website to support your sales efforts is what will determine the amount of money you will have to invest. When setting a budget for your new website, you need to work closely with a reliable web designer. The designer will help you know what your website must have and what it can do without. The budget should also account for maintenance and marketing costs.

Pick a tone for your copy and design
Defining the tone for your web copy and the visual design is something you need to do long before you start working on a new website. It is the intended tone that will determine the look of your web design Santee. The important question you need to answer is this; do you consider the relationship with your clients contemporary, professional, conservative or relaxed? An honest answer to this will help define the tone.

Select the bare minimum of info that is needed
You have to determine the bare minimum information that your website must have both visual and textural. Your website should cover these areas:

• Who are we?
• What we do?
• How you compare with other companies in the same industry
• Why choose us?

The website you create must communicate clearly who you are and why clients should choose you. Keep in mind that visitors have a short attention span. If you don’t grab their attention right away, you will lose them.

Call to action
Last but not least, you will need a clear call-to-action. What do you want your visitors to do once they get on your website? You need an effective call-to-action.

Getting the above things ready before you get started on web design will help smooth things. Make sure you have done all the above before giving a web designer Santee the green light.

Web design Santee

Once the web design Santee phase is done, the next phase is content creation. The content on your website is what keep visitors coming back and is what compels them to take the required action. But how do you create great content? Here are a few great tips you can use.

Create a sitemap
The first thing you must do before writing any content is to draft a site map. This should be a hierarchical list of your web pages and how they relate with one another. A good sitemap will help organize your pages in a clear-cut manner. Your web designer Santee will come in handy in this stage. Don’t be afraid to give notes on how the sitemap and individual pages should look like.

Create your brand message
The last thing you want is for your content to sound unrelated. This happens when you don’t have an overarching brand message. What is the main message that you wish to convey about your brand? Not being clear on this will keep your brand from being unique. Know what sets you apart from the competitors and create a story around your uniqueness. It is your overarching brand message that will guide your web content.

Get right to the point
Internet users have busy schedules. That is why they skim through content to find what they are looking for. When working on your web copy, you need to get to the point right away. Don’t start with a senseless story before sharing the big secret. Your content should have clear headlines and subtitles. The use of bullet points will further help the visitors not miss the point you want to send across. Remember that you have 10 to 20 seconds to engage your visitors. If you miss that window, you will lose your traffic to your competitor regardless of how great your products are.

Speak like a human
The worst mistake you can make is forgetting that your visitor is a living, breathing human being. Your copy should have a conversational tone. Talk to your audience like people. All in all, you need to leave the ‘LOLs’ and emojis out.

Solve the pain points of your clients
For your web copy to win the heart of your visitors, you must show your readers that you understand their plight. The purpose of your copy should be solving an issue that your target clients have. Let them know how you can help them with specific issues.

Include a clear and concise CTA
Visitors want to be told what to do next. You do this with a call-to-action. This needs to be clear and concise. Your CTA should give visitors a reason to reach out to you.

The above tips will help create better web content. You also need to keep an eye on the online marketing trends and always work with a skilled web designer Santee.

Web design Santee

Web design Santee has several unavoidable costs. These include the cost of buying a domain name, hosting and at times the cost of using a content management system. SSL is an addition to these costs. Currently, your website does not necessary need to have SSL. However, in the next year or so, SSL will be made a requirement. Google is stressing on the use of SSL. But what exactly is SSL?

What is SSL?
The SSL is short for Secure Sockets Layer. This is a certificate that you purchase and is indicated by https://. Websites that don’t have the SSL certificate have the http://. Almost every web designer Santee that you contact today will recommend that you buy SSL certificate. The SSL certificate is what protects your company and your website visitors by encrypting data that you exchange with them. It is simply an added layer of protection which safeguards the transfer of sensitive data. The SSL certificate will display in the URL just like the domain name and will be visible to your users.

Why does the SSL matter?
An SSL certificate matters a lot more so when you consider the sensitivity of the information people share online. The sensitive information ranges from the credit card information when making a purchase to providing their email and name when signing up to a service. More and more people are learning of the importance of SSL. As a result, you will be surprised by the sheer number of people who will be reluctant to share any information with you if you don’t have the SSL certificate. Lacking the SSL certificate sends the message that your website is not secure hence not trustworthy.

With that being said, having the SSL certificate will actually increase your revenue, build a better email subscriber list and also improve lead generation. Internet browsers, with Chrome leading the way, are today alerting users when they visit a website that doesn’t have a valid SSL certificate. Having the SSL certificate helps you demonstrate how credible and safe your website is.

How much does the SSL certificate cost?
An SSL certificate costs between $0 and $1,500 per year. There are certain vendors that offer the SSL certificate for free. However, if you need optimal security, you have to invest in a paid SSL certificate. This is for the simple reason that paid SSL certificates come with additional protection such as advanced encryption and higher warranty. Some of the leading SSL certificates vendors are GoDaddy and Norton.

As aforementioned, an SSL certificate is not yet a requirement. However, to be ready for the future, you need to get the certificate for your current website and when working on a new web design Santee.

Web design Santee

The first two steps in web design Santee is the purchase of a domain name and second is getting the right hosting service. Website hosting is a service that will enable Internet users to find and access your website. After getting a hosting service, your website will be assigned a space on the server of the hosting provider. This enables people from all over the world to view your website. Just like your domain name and the SSL certificate, the website hosting is an upfront and ongoing website cost.

The cost of hosting per year is between $24 and $24,000. This cost will depend on the hosting company you use, the package you select and the nature of your website. Based on your needs, a web designer Santee will be able to let you know which package is best for you.

Why is web hosting important?
The hosting service you select will have a significant impact on the overall function of your website. While free hosting exists, it is very rare for a professional website to use these free options. Your website hosting will affect the following:

• Web page loading speed
• Website’s expansion capabilities
• Level of customer support you get

You have to be very keen on the terms of service before selecting a hosting service. It is also vital that you look at the requirements of your future website. You must also consider the reputation of a service provider before getting hosting from them.

How much does web hosting really cost?
For a business, hosting will cost between $24 and $10,000 per year. The cost will depend on the package you select. There are four categories:

• Shared hosting: This will cost you between $24 and $120 per year. Your website will be on a shared server which means the performance of your website will be sluggish on peak hours.
• Website builder: Website builders offer hosting too. With Wix, for example, you will spend from $60 to $180 per year. Hosting by website builder is a great idea for the startups and small businesses.
• Virtual private server (VPS): This will cost between $240 and $600 annually. Your website will be sharing a server with several other websites but will have full access to the server’s resources thus no sluggish performance.
• Dedicated server: This is a premium package and will cost between $1200 and $24,000 every year. You will get your own server with complete server resources. This is the option for websites that get over 100,000 visits every month.

Website hosting is as important as your website. That is why you need to make a good investment long before you start work on a web design Santee. Always seek advice from your web designer before selecting a package.

Web design Santee