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10 Tips on What Makes a Good Website Design

These days, an online presence is an essential part of running a successful business.

It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to sell products online or just want to make sure people can find you. Either way, you need to make sure your website has a good design and is easy to find.

If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to designing a website, keep reading.

Listed below are ten great tips to help you figure out what makes a good website design.

What Makes a Good Website Design?

It’s easier than ever to put together a website for business or personal use. But, in order for your website to really be effective, a good design is key.

These ten tips will help you answer the question “what makes a good website design?” once and for all.

1. Fast Load Times

Whether your business offers medical supplies or antique furniture reproductions, fast load times are essential.

If your website takes forever to load (in this case, forever means more than a couple seconds), people are going to go elsewhere.

Fast load times also improve your search engine ranking, which makes it easier for people to find your site.

2. Easy Navigation

Visitors don’t want to waste time figuring out how to navigate your website.

Make sure it has a clear, obvious layout with an easy-to-locate menu, obvious navigation categories, and a search bar.

3. Use an “F” Pattern

Another way to make your site easier to navigate is to arrange your content in an “F” shape.

Eye-tracking studies have found that people tend to scan a page in an “F” shape.

This means that they pay attention primarily to what’s shown in the top left portion of the screen. Information that’s located on the right side or bottom of the page often gets skipped.

Take advantage of people’s natural tendencies and make sure the most important information is located in the top left quadrant.

4. Keep it Simple

Clutter is unprofessional and uninviting. If you have a million images and icons on your site, it will be harder for visitors to find what they’re looking for. It also will decrease your site’s load times.

Before you add anything to your site, ask yourself what purpose it serves. If you’re not sure, leave it out.

5. Use the Right Font and Font Size

All the information on your site needs to be easily readable. Both the font and the font size that you use will help with this.

Look for fonts that are clear and easy-to-read.

Focus on simplicity and clarity; don’t look for anything fancy or overly stylized. Avoid using a variety of fonts, too. Stick to just one or two complimentary styles for a cohesive look.

You also should avoid using anything smaller than a 16-pixel font size. Sixteen is typically considered the bare minimum for text. Don’t make visitors squint to see what you have to say!

6. Make it Mobile-Friendly

Google recently announced its mobile-first index in response to the increase in the number of who are using their smartphone or tablet browser to visit websites.

This means that Google’s algorithms will start using the mobile version of a website’s content for rankings.

If your website isn’t set up to be viewed on mobile devices, you’re setting yourself up for failure in the SEO world.

A mobile-friendly device will adapt and rearrange itself so that it’s easy to view on a smaller screen. It will also be easy to use on any device, not just a desktop computer.

7. Make Your Contact Information Obvious

Don’t make visitors hunt for your contact information. Include your email address, phone number, and any other information you want people to have in an obvious location.

Ideally, this information should be available on every page of your website. And, you should have a separate contact page as well where people can email you directly.

8. Annotate Your Links

Don’t just use the words “click here” for your anchor text. It may seem like a smart move for getting people to click on your links. But, in reality, people need to know exactly what they’re clicking on.

Help your readers out. Start annotating your links so that people know where they’re going and what they’ll find when they get there.

This practice also helps visitors who are blind or have poor vision and may be using a screen reader. These devices allow them to skip from link to link to get an idea of what’s on the page. If your site is full of “click here” links, blind visitors will have a hard time figuring out what your site is all about.

9. Use the Right Colors

The colors you use when designing your website can make a huge difference to visitors’ experience.

When you’re trying to figure out what makes a good website design, you should think about the message you want to send with your color choices.

Visitors tend to associate certain colors with different emotions. For example, blue often signifies trust, while grey signifies professionalism.

In addition to choosing colors that send the right message to your visitors, you should also be sure to use colors in a way that makes your site easier to read.

Contrasting colors for the text and background make text easier to read. And, vibrant colors help draw attention to important elements (like a call-to-action button).

10. Use Images to Your Advantage

Pictures help you establish your brand and connect with your audience. But, they need to be high-quality, professional photos. Blurry snapshots won’t cut it.

If you don’t have any high-quality photos to use, you may want to consider investing in stock photos to give your site a professional feel.

Infographics and videos are also great for communicating complex ideas in a simple way.

Visitors often prefer these options to reading a large block of text, too.

Want to Learn More?

You now know more about what makes a good website design. But, do you feel like there’s still more to learn?

Check out some of our other web design-related articles to improve your skills even more. With our help, you’ll be a web design expert before you know it!

4 Tips for an Effective Website Development Project Plan

Are you designing a website for an important client? Maybe you’ve got a great idea and you want to bring it to life.

Whatever the reason for creating an online site, it’s always going to be a process. It can be a slog, but it doesn’t have to be.

Benjamin Franklin, undoubtedly one of the wisest of the founding fathers, said: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. Before you promise anything to your client or write your first line of code, you need a plan in place.

We’ve got four essential tips for the ultimate website development project plan. Follow along and you’ll have the tools you need to create a website with minimum problems!

1) Begin At The End, With The Finished Product

Before you start, make sure you understand what the end looks like. How can you deliver a product without knowing what the end result is supposed to look like?

Your website development project plan needs to include a detailed roadmap of everything that is expected of you and your team.

Don’t skimp on the details! Make sure everything is outlined and clearly stated.

2) Communication Is Key

Whether it’s between you and your client or your team, clear communication is a must. Communication ensures you’re on the same page and working towards the same goals.

Almost 50% of employees leave a meeting without knowing what their next step is. Does that sound like you and your crew?

Make sure roles are clearly defined, make your deadlines explicit, and make sure you keep your door open.

3) Take It For A Test Drive

You have your checklist of what’s needed. You’ve been working in harmony with your client and your crew every step of the way.

It’s time to take your site for a test drive. Go over what you’ve got so far and see if you’re still moving in the right direction.

Needs change, visions evolve, and promises might have to bend but not break. If push comes to shove, you can always bring in a third party, like Slickplan, to help put the finishing touches on your project.

4) The End – And Beyond

Think your job is done the moment you hand your site over to the client to fill with creative content? Nope!

Your website development project plan has to include a post-site rundown. Here’s a list of crucial questions to ask yourself as soon as your project is finished:

• What went right? What are your team’s strengths?
• What could have gone better? Find out what your weaknesses are and work on them
• How can you create a more efficient workflow from your findings?

As you can see, the end isn’t the end – it’s just the beginning of the next phase.

Implement Your Website Development Project Plan

With these four tips, you can’t fail. You’ll be able to craft the ultimate website development project plan and grow more efficient.

Once you and your team are running like a well-oiled machine, you’ll be able to expand your business and capabilities.

Want to read more must-know tips and tricks? Check our blog often – we update it with the latest information!

How to Write Great Blog Posts on Your Therapy Website

Do you want a way to improve your website and make it more interesting to visitors? Are looking for ways to engage with people on a whole new level?

Instead of printing out more flyers and buying more ads, why not focus on writing content of your own to share with people?

Content writing and marketing can help business and professionals from all backgrounds, and that includes therapists. Blog content on your therapy website can improve your overall site traffic, and can even attract new patients.

If you want to know how blogging can help improve your therapy website, read on to learn more.

Blogging For Your Therapy Website

There’s proof that content writing can do wonders for marketing and bringing in new business, but some therapists may not know where to start.

You can blog about almost any topic of your choosing, including something as dense and important as therapy.

Do you want to create great blogs for your therapy website? If you follow this advice, you’ll see your web traffic and amount of new patients increase.

Think About Your Favorites

As a professional therapist, it’s safe to assume that you spend time learning about the latest news in your industry. You may have a favorite therapy website of your own that you frequent.

If you want to write great blog content for your website, think about what kinds of content you already enjoy reading.

As a therapist, you know what issues are going to matter the most to your clients. Use your own personal expertise to think about what content you think will resonate the most with readers.

Scan your favorite websites and think about what kinds of headlines and topics interest you the most. From there, you can start thinking of content to post on your own website’s blog.

Know Your Audience

If you want to keep your audience engaged, you need to understand what your audience wants.

As a therapist, you could probably speak about a variety of topics related to practice. Feel free to discuss whatever you like, but in general, it’s a good blogging practice to focus on writing content for a niche.

Think about the kinds of clients you normally see and write content that would appeal to them the most.

If your practice is full of marriage counselors, be sure to write plenty of posts about how to communicate with your spouse and how to properly resolve conflicts.

If you primarily focus on family therapy, fill your blogs with parenting tips and fun things to do together as a family.

As long as you know your audience and keep the focus on them, you’ll have plenty of loyal blog followers.

Go Beyond Written Posts

Blogs aren’t just for traditionally written posts. If you want to draw people to your therapy website blog, take time to explore other ways to create content for them to share.

Video content is more popular than ever right now, and you can easily create some to entertain your website visitors.

Record yourself giving a talk on a therapy topic that interests you. Gather a few of your professional friends for an informal roundtable discussion and record the results.

Pictures and other visual elements can enhance your posts, and in some cases can be entire pieces of content themselves.

Infographics are still popular ways to share information. Use a site like Piktochart to create interest infographics on topics that interest your readers.

If you go down the infographic route, be sure to but your logo and short link to your website. That way when it gets shared on social media, people will know who created it.

Consider Your Day To Day

We know that doctor-patient confidentiality is important for therapists. You should never write specifically about patients or use their names, but you can draw on your daily experiences for blog content.

If you had an interesting conversation with a patient about their insecurities at work, you can draw experience from that to write a post about building self-esteem and maintain it in the workplace.

Did you recently talk to someone that’s going through a bad divorce? Write a post about dealing with the ending of marriage and how to best care for yourself emotionally.

Have you talked to someone dealing with a lot of stress at home? That conversation can turn into a post about using stress journals to manage their feelings.

Every day you’ll find new material for a blog post. You just have to think about the best way to use your experiences.

Consider The Times

Content that can be read and relevant at any time of year is great, but you shouldn’t forget about the power of time and season-specific posts.

If it’s winter where you are, consider doing a post on what seasonal affective disorder is and how people can overcome symptoms.

If you’re writing posts during the holidays, write a post on how to handle the holiday blues and the best ways to deal with stress.

These posts may be time specific, but they’ll be popular search topics around those times.

Keep Presentation In Mind

Your website is going to be the first impression a lot of people have about you, that’s why it’s important to make sure that your therapy website and accompanying blog look professional.

Make sure your pictures are the right size and resolution. Posting blurry pictures or low-quality visuals won’t reflect well on the blog.

It’s also important to proofread your posts before you post them. Nothing makes someone look more unprofessional than content with a lot of spelling and grammar errors.

Also, keep formatting and the presentation of your posts in mind. Make sure text is properly aligned and that all of your links are working.

Next Steps

Now that you know how to write blogs for your therapy website, you may be interested in learning about other ways digital marketing can help your practice.

Check out our blog post about remarketing and retargeting so you can make sure your PPC ads are working.

And remember, our blog has content about nearly any topic you can think of. Explore it to find posts that matter to you!

5 Proven Strategies to Promote Your Ecommerce Website

If you’re looking to make some money online, setting up an E-commerce store is a great way to do so. They’re simple to design, only need basic maintenance, and can rake in some serious cash.

However, that last part is a lot easier said than done. Especially if you’re not accustomed to having to promote your website.

If this is your first dip into the E-commerce waters, you’re going to want to have a bit of fanfare and publicity to get the word out. Here are 5 proven strategies to promote your website and get people buying!

1. Post About It

One of the most effective ways to promote your website is by running a strong SEO campaign. With the right selection of keywords and a strong enough ranking, you can draw in clients from all around the globe.

But in order to have a strong SEO campaign, you’re going to want to create great content.

Once you’ve selected your keyword, write up a quick post about the exciting opening of your new site. Let readers know what they can expect from your E-commerce store by plenty of photos and details.

Blog posts are a great way to build hype, and you’ll strengthen your website’s ranking at the same time!

2. Get Social

There’s no ignoring how powerful of a tool social media is in today’s world. With billions of users around the world, social media can help you reach customers in a newer, more modern fashion.

Best of all, you’re going to where your audience is. No need to worry about bringing them to the content. After all, social media is about more than just the ‘likes’ and ‘shares’. It’s an incredibly simple way to generate some business for free.

Set up social media channels for the big 3: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and get to posting. Make sure that your pages look professional and reflect your business values.

3. Run an Ad

Of course, there’s nothing wrong a more traditional method of advertising. After all, banner ads have been an internet staple for a good reason — they work.

And now, thanks to Facebook Ads, you can combine the power of social media with the pinpoint accuracy of an ad.

It’s relatively cheap and you’re able to target customers directly through demographic options. Best of all, it actually works and you can track your results in easy to understand ways.

4. Host a Giveaway

While advertising fads come and go, one thing remains constant: people love free stuff. If you’re looking to drum up some quick interest in your site, connect with some businesses for a giveaway.

It doesn’t even need to be your own product. You may choose to use ticketliquidator.com to give a lucky winner some great seats to an event!

It’s hard not to get excited about free things, so keep this easy psychology hack in mind.

5. Run a Sale

If you can’t quite afford to give away free stuff, no worries. You can always discount some goods on your store.

Sales are a fantastic way to draw in new customers and move old stock at the same time. Just make sure to publicize your sale ahead of time so people know about it.

Final Thoughts on How to Promote Your Website

Thanks to social media and easy to use E-commerce sites, it’s easier than ever to promote your website. Keep these tricks in mind and your business will thank you.

And for more great content, don’t forget to sign up for your free Article City account!

How Link Building Can Help Grow Adult Website Traffic

The art of link building is not learned overnight. It takes multiple tries to see results from mastering your content. We’ve established our own approach to growing adult website traffic through the power of link building.  

Are you interested in finding out how you can spice up your website with some much-needed sex appeal?

Read on to discover the process of attaining more website traffic within the next year. 

Get To Know Your Audience

It’s been said before in the best marketing classes available — get to know your demographic. Understanding who your audience is comprised of can boost your link building power. Once you’ve narrowed down who makes up your audience you can use this information to market to them.

Your adult website audience is most likely going to be sexually active adults. Marketing how to use a bathmate to them would be a prime example of relevant content to add to your website. 

Another tip for improving your audience? Involve social media to carefully place your links throughout your website content. Focus on learning where your demographic spends most of their time. Do they like to stay on your home page? Place your links on your sidebar or underneath your posts.

Do they like to stay on your home page? Place your links on your sidebar or underneath your posts.

Redirecting your audience around your website is also helpful to do. Link everywhere you can to grow exposure on all areas of your website. If your audience scrolls through your posts, will they find working links to show them more? Consider following your Google Analytics data to find this information out. 

Create Visual Appeal 

By creating content that is visually appealing, you can organically grow your adult website traffic. You want to provide your audience will a first glance at what they will expect from your website or brand if they click through a link.

You’ll need to add striking visuals for your adult website to stand out from competitors.

It’s also important to get people involved in the sharing process by creating visually appealing photographs. When you combine high-quality photos with catchy titles or captions, you will instantly attract a specific visitor who is intrigued by your brand.

Continue the sharing process by adding these visuals onto multiple platforms. To attract even more adult website traffic to your site on a daily basis, you need to constantly update your content to stay relevant. 

Adult Website Traffic Improves With Links

Back in 1989, the discussion of linking was a hot topic. The world wide web was proposed as a pillar of HyperText and was discussed as a place to connect documents. Don’t hesitate to add links to beef up your current content.

If you want to see authentic results, revisit those old blog posts and add relevant links to boost your overall SEO ranking. Share the old posts on your social sites to take the extra step.

Achieve organic search rankings by building trustworthy links in all of your blog posts for the highest SEO optimization.

Let’s Drive More Traffic 

Link building can be difficult to master. However, it’s necessary to understand how crucial it is to building loyal visitors. Having powerful links will drive traffic and will ultimately lead to more revenue. 

Have some link building knowledge to share? Or tips for boosting adult website traffic? Leave a comment below.

5 Smart Promotional Strategies for Your Legal Website

Busses and benches had their time, but now the internet is the best place to reach potential clients. What promotional strategies can you use to get people to your legal website?

Legal marketers face many issues, but increasing your online presence can solve them.

This article will give you strategies to expand the reach of your legal website. Once you get more traffic, you can start converting those leads into paying clients.

Take a look at your current marketing strategy, and let’s get into improvements.

Mobile Optimization

So many companies optimize their websites for mobile users now that people expect it. They’ll go to another website if yours isn’t optimized.

Create a responsive design for your website. That will analyze what device the visitor is using and adjust the layout accordingly.

Google favors websites that take usability into consideration. Proper mobile optimization improves your SEO scores.

Content Marketing

If you’ve read an informative blog, you’re benefitting from content marketing.

Unlike invasive, annoying advertisements, content marketing focuses on providing value to the consumer. With informative blogs, you can create a helpful reputation with potential clients.

Content marketing also improves your SEO scores by building links and keywords.

Content marketing is over 60% less expensive than other promotional strategies. Plus, it generates three times the leads.

Overall, it provides valuable information and directs them towards your legal site. That’ll generate more leads than pestering them with ads.

Social Media

Social media is vital to spreading your online presence. You’ve nailed down your audience, so research which social media outlets they use.

The legal industry can confuse the average person. Social media is a great way to answer their questions with valuable information.

This also gives them an outlet to share great experiences with your law firm.

You want to engage people. Consider asking for their opinions on hot button topics related to your services.

Be Accessible

In the era of everything online and on-demand, clients want 24/7 access to you. If they’re looking at your website or social media, they want you to answer their questions right away.

One of the best promotional strategies is referrals. Provide a website experience your clients will happily refer.

For example, industry leader Babcock Partners has a live chat function on their website. If clients have questions, Babcock Partners can answer immediately.

Automated Promotional Strategies

Your marketing team shouldn’t waste their time sending out hundreds of emails. Automate your marketing process anywhere you can.

Many services exist to send out emails automatically. That way, leads get a prompt welcoming email when they sign up for your email list.

You can also program automated social media posts. Your team can spend more time replying to comments than posting.

Pulling it All Together

Promoting your legal website involves a complete presence on the internet.

You can’t just blast people with ads and expect traffic. With tactics like a social media presence and content marketing, you can generate organic traffic to your website.

Have you used any of these strategies? Which ones perform the best?

Leave a comment to let us know! 

How to Make a Gaming Website That Makes Money

If you’re a gaming enthusiast thinking about monetizing your passion, you’re only a few simple steps away from making it a reality.

Playing games has long been a favorite past-time for millions of people. And in today’s digital world, making money from this hobby is easier than ever. All you need is a simple website and enough gaming knowledge that you can share with your readers.

Gaming websites are a great way to do what you love without taking up too much of your time.

No matter what your level of expertise is, providing genuine value to your visitors will surely set you apart from other similar websites.

But do you know how to make a gaming website that’ll bring you passive income? Read on to find out.

How to Make A Gaming Website That Makes Money

Write Compelling and Useful Content

The best, most efficient way to get your website noticed and visited is to write quality blog posts. The articles have to be valuable for the readers and solve a certain problem.

You can do reviews of your favorite games, write pieces about the gaming industry or guides and walkthroughs.

If you’re offering free games on your website, consider making some of them paid, i.e. players would need to buy a code in order to access them.

Finally, pay special attention to the SEO aspect of your website if you want to rank well on Google.

Use YouTube Advertising

YouTube is the most popular broadcasting platform in the world. And as a gaming aficionado, you’re in the perfect position to use it to monetize your website through their special gaming section.

For instance, for every article, review or guide you post, make a short video to accompany it. Include actual footage of the game or step by step instructions.

Many people also like to watch gamers play, so you can record yourself playing your favorite games and make money in the process.

Sign Up for Affiliate Marketing Programs

If you’re posting reviews of gaming products on your website, this is a great way to add some affiliate links.

The most popular affiliate program is Amazon’s, but you can sign up for others of your liking.

So, whenever you review something like the best router for ps4, you’ll add affiliate links for all the routers mentioned. And if someone clicks on the links and/or buys the product, you’ll get a commission.

Create and Sell a Digital Product

If you have in-depth knowledge of the gaming industry or niche, you can make money by creating and selling a digital product.

This can be an audio book, an ebook or a course on a certain topic. Though most of the information can be found on the internet for free, you’re gathering it in one place and giving your readers instant access.

Bottom Line

Now that you’ve learned how to make a gaming website, it’s time to test it and see if it makes money.

If you’re patient and follow our advice, you’ll be making your first dollars in no time.

Over to you – do you have any tips on monetizing your gaming website? Let us know in the comments below!

Why Your Medical Supply Biz Needs a Fast Website

On the internet, there are two truths that must never be overlooked:

1.) Cat videos own Youtube.

2.) Speed is king.

While both statements are unequivocally true, only one applies to your medical supply business.

Search engines, in particular, Google, have changed the rules of search rankings over the past year. Before, if you had solid content and a bunch of links going to your page, you were good.

In the past, you could simply post a blog about polymem wound dressing and anyone searching for it would find your page if you were an active site. Now, if your page doesn’t load fast enough, it’s dropping in the rankings.

This is especially true after the mobilpocalypse, in which Google decreed that if your site wasn’t mobile friendly, it was going to be lowered.

What does this mean?

You better be fast.

There are good reasons Google made this move. According to their research, if a shopping or travel site takes more than three seconds to load, consumers will find another site.

If you run a medical supply business, that can be disastrous considering the amount of competition that’s out there. To put it simply, the question of “why your medical supply biz needs a fast website” can be answered with two statements:

Customers leave you if you have slow loading times.

We live in an age of instant gratification. What used to take 45 minutes to make in an oven takes 4 minutes in a microwave. It used to take 10 minutes to get on the internet using AOL. Now it’s just a matter of opening up a laptop.

You have three seconds until your customers either think something is wrong with your page or that something is wrong with you. Either way, the end result is that you are losing money.

Customers will never find you because Google will bury your page if it’s slow.

In the online world, competition is everywhere. If you search for the products that your page is selling, it’s almost guaranteed that there are thousands of other pages doing the same thing.

The difference often comes down to where you are ranked. The results on the first page of Google search results get 91.5% of the traffic. Those customers have already purchased their goods without even realizing you exist.

Now That You Are A Little Bummed Out, Let’s Talk Happy Things

No, not the cat videos that were mentioned earlier.

The good news is that it’s easy to check the performance of your website. Run a speed test designed by Google, and get your results.

From there you can look at your web page and figure out what’s slowing it down, and then fix it. Get rid of images that aren’t important. Get rid of some HTML on the main page.

Minimize your JavaScript and JQuery code. There are some simple things that can be done to fix the problem.

This might seem like a pain or a lot of hard work. If you catch yourself thinking that, just picture your customers giving your competitors money.

That image alone should tell you why your medical supply company needs a fast and efficient website.

Don’t Wait To Get Started!

A business that isn’t moving forward is failing. Often websites will get put on the backburner because of an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality.

Even if you have a brick and mortar store, your website can be the cornerstone of your success. It’s profit with far less overhead! If your website is your only store, there is no excuse to not fix these problems today.

Don’t allow something as fixable as slow loading times derail your customer satisfaction.