Posts in category: Web Design

Periodic website redesign is inevitable in the ever-evolving landscape of web design and development. Here are crucial factors for a contemporary update:

Responsive Design:
Ensure your website is mobile-friendly for optimal user experience and search engine rankings. With more users accessing services through mobile devices, a responsive design is paramount. Google’s “mobile-first” indexing prioritizes responsive websites, making them essential for better search rankings.

When considering responsive design, focus on presentation, content display, and interactivity. A website with a responsive design enhances user engagement and attracts more traffic, contributing to improved search engine rankings.

Content Management System (CMS):
Implementing a reliable CMS is essential for seamless website maintenance. A functional CMS empowers you to edit content, images, add or remove pages, and manage your website without professional assistance. This flexibility reduces the need for ongoing maintenance services, offering cost-effective and efficient management.

Blogs:
A vibrant and active blog section is crucial for business websites. It enhances credibility and is vital for search engine optimization (SEO). Regularly updating the blog with relevant content establishes your expertise and engages users. Prioritize a well-maintained blog section to benefit both users and search engine rankings.

Calls To Action (CTAs):
Driving user actions is the ultimate goal of any business website. Strategically placing calls to action (CTAs) is essential to guide users through their browsing experience. Include prominent CTAs such as phone numbers, subscription prompts, contact information, downloadable guides, and social media follow buttons. These strategically placed CTAs ensure users are prompted to take desired actions, maximizing the website’s effectiveness.

In conclusion, when contemplating a website redesign, consider these elements to stay current in the digital landscape. A responsive design, efficient CMS, active blog section, and strategic CTAs collectively contribute to an engaging and effective online presence for your business.

For long there has been a whole lot of discussion about the core elements of website design and development. This is especially true for businesses who are looking to hire web development services, as they wonder what comes with the package of website design and development services. Well, in this blog I will try to define two crucial services involved in web design and development services and I hope that by end of the blog you’ll be in a better position to understand the working of web development and design services.

Before we go any further, let’s just simply segregate the website development into two broad phases. The first one is the website designing aspect, which is taken care of by web designers.

The second phase is the development phase, which again can be divided into two distinctive categories; front-end web development and back-end web development.

Now, the designing aspect of a website is almost completely dealt by a web designer who is responsible to create the visual and aesthetic elements of the website including images, fonts selection, theme selection, color selections, logo design etc. The designing phase has nothing to do with any coding aspect of the website, however, it is much closer related to the front-end development.

Ok, so now that we have a basic picture of different services involved in website development and designing, let’s just see more closely the two categories of web development services.

Front End Development

As can be taken by name, “front-end development” is referred to the development aspects that are mainly concerned with the visual elements of the website or elements that are meant to interact with the users. As I have said above, the front-end web development services are somewhere in the middle of designing and development aspects.

The front end developers’ work in close collaboration with the designers, however, their primary work is quite different from designers. For instance, where designers are more expert in working with Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Front-end developers are expert in certain languages including CSS, JavaScript, HTML, and jQuery.

So at the end of the day, whatever you see or interact over a website is actually created by the combination of front-end development and design services, including elements like buttons, sliders, contact forms, fonts, menus, etc.

Backend Development

This is where the actual coding work begins. The backend development is mainly comprised of three distinctive aspects; firstly the main server, a central database, and an application interface. So, essentially when you book a restaurant seat through an online portal, you have actually interacted with the front-end development of the website. However, once your information is submitted in the system, the application that processes the information, the database that stores the information and the server that informs the restaurant of the booking are all domain of backend development.

Conclusion

So, I think by now you’ll be definitely in a better position to differentiate between each of these services. The line that differentiates development and designing services is too blurred for many people who aren’t into the trade, however, you should know the difference between each of these services to be able to better manage your business website.

About the Author:

Taimoor Khan is a savvy web developer with a passion for writing about new technologies. He offers affordable web development services in Auckland and Wellington for local businesses as a freelancer. He is also associated with a web design Sydney company – Starlinks.

 

In the business realm, there’s a pervasive misconception that bigger agencies equate to superior results. While large agencies boast impressive resources, this doesn’t guarantee superiority. The same principle applies to digital marketing agencies. Opting for flashier, larger agencies may not always be the best choice.

When it comes to digital agencies, smaller ones often outshine their larger counterparts in terms of efficiency and output. Here are compelling reasons why your company might thrive more with a smaller digital agency:

Personalized Attention to Your Needs:

Many businesses, including myself, initially gravitate towards big agencies for services like web design in Sydney. However, my experience taught me that amidst their massive projects, these agencies often lack the time or interest to focus on individual aspirations. Smaller agencies excel at providing personalized attention, listening to your goals, and collaborating to find tailored solutions.

Success without the Exorbitant Costs:

Unless you’re a large corporation aiming for a global market, hiring expensive services from big agencies might be unnecessary. Small digital agencies are adept at delivering successful projects that resonate with your audience and accurately reflect your business strategy. Their immediate physical presence can also facilitate better connections with local audiences.

Flexibility of Small Agencies:

Industries like web design, development, and digital marketing require constant adjustments. Smaller agencies offer flexibility, swiftly implementing necessary changes without subjecting clients to the prolonged processes often associated with larger counterparts.

In conclusion, size doesn’t always matter in the world of digital agencies. Smaller agencies offer a personalized touch, cost-effective solutions, and the agility to adapt swiftly, making them a potent choice for businesses seeking effective and efficient digital marketing solutions.

Losing focus is one of the most common mistakes small businesses are often guilty for. Too many times small businesses are too hooked up with the aesthetics of the web design that they forget to concentrate on functionalities and efficiency of the website.

The problem is, most web designers encourage this approach, as they find it super entertaining to please clients with fancy designs without giving in too much efforts to the functionalities. Designing extravagant and pretty websites mean, the only KPI designers have to worry about is aesthetics with no other measurable outcome.

Now, super fancy web designs aren’t much of a problem as long as they are able to address the functionalities and efficiency as well. But unfortunately, that’s not the case most of the time.

So, while you want to make your first small business web design super cool and engaging, it’s important not to sacrifice the functionality and effectiveness of it. One needs to understand the importance of creating the perfect balance between aesthetics and functionalities, to be able to create the most successful small business website design.

– Confidence is the key to success

The success of any website design lies in mutual trust between client and designer. To be able to achieve a winning design, you need to have complete trust over your designer and if you don’t have trust on the designer, it’s better to move on and find one that can be trusted upon.

 Content is art

Perhaps the biggest dilemma of small business web design is the negligence of content creation. Most of the time to save pennies out of their pockets, small business tends to cut short on funds for the content creation and that’s one of the biggest mistakes they made.

Content is and always has remained one of the most crucial aspects of the online industry. The way you tell your story to the audience has the potential to make or break the deal for you. Today, users are exceedingly looking for businesses that are open enough to share their complete business model. Users like to know as much as possible about businesses they are dealing with and a great content is your most potent weapon to hook on to your audience.

Remember: People aren’t really interested in looking at your fancy designs but are more interested in figuring out your business operations and how you can solve their problems.

– Designs aren’t forever

Remember, even the most aesthetically pleasing, vivid and enchanting web design will become outdated in a few years. But what that this mean? This means that you shouldn’t worry much about creating the most majestic web design, but to adopt a minimalist approach.

Practicing minimalism in design, while concentrating more on functionalities and effectiveness of the website will ensure that your small business website will remain relevant even after a long time. Just make sure you are able to offer value to the clients and let them interact with you openly.

– Websites aren’t meant to show off your designs, they are meant to solve problems

When designing your first small business web design, you should keep in mind that websites are meant to address users’ problems and not fascinate them with extravagant designs. The more you are able to offer simple solutions to their problems, the more traffic you can expect to drive to your website. 

. Websites don’t start to generate results from the first day

Ok, this is one of the biggest concern that I have faced over the years from small businesses. For them websites are some sort of magic wand that once launched will start driving traffic to their business. The fact of the matter is, websites are more like a marathon and less like a sprint. They don’t start giving results from the first day rather takes a long time and much efforts to reach KPIs. SEO, AdWords, testing, analytics and many other operations are needed to ensure your web design start performing as per expectation and drive traffic to your business.

All in all, one should keep in view minimum 3 months of rigorous testing, analytics, and marketing to be able to see web design start performing.

– Minimalism – the gateway to success

In past, one might argue that the efficiency of fancy designed websites was better than the simplistic design. However, in today’s online industry, the sure shot to success lies in taking a minimalist approach. Don’t clutter your web design with too many elements, rather keep the focus on bottom lines by taking a minimalist approach.

– Glitches are part of the journey

Lastly, one important aspect to remember is that there is no smooth sailing for a successful web design. In my decade of experience working in the industry, I haven’t been able to meet one single client that is completely happy with their web design agency. The point is, you got to take glitches as part of the journey as expect them from the very beginning. The best websites are designed after many testing and modification and only by trial and error you can come up with the best web design that suits your small business.