Subscribe Now!
...with web-based news readers. Click your choice below:
...with other readers:
FeedBurner makes it easy to receive content updates in My Yahoo!, Newsgator, Bloglines, and other news readers.
Learn more about syndication and FeedBurner...
Current Feed Content
-
It’s Time to Talk About Testimonials
Posted:Thu, 23 May 2019 10:45:50 +0000
Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the best ways to get new business — and high-quality business at that. But unless you’re focused on a very small space where everyone knows each other, it can be hard to get your clients to refer you to others on their own.That’s why you need to be willing to ask clients for testimonials and online reviews.
Look, consumers are smart. They know that anyone can build a website for their business and claim that they’re the best in their space. “We build websites that get you results” isn’t going to mean anything to prospective clients unless you have proof of those results.
That’s where client testimonials and reviews come into play. You’re going to let the words of former clients and proof of their satisfaction and results speak on your behalf.
How to Ask Clients for Testimonials and Reviews
As a web designer, it would greatly benefit you to collect as many client testimonials as you can for your website. And, beyond that, to start encouraging clients to leave positive reviews for you on Google.
Think about it like this:
consumers need to read about 10 online reviews before they can trust a business
Prospective clients are taking a big risk when they hire a designer to build their website. If they don’t know you, have never heard of your business, and don’t know anyone who’s used your services, how can they trust that you’ll design a great website for them?
Bright Local conducted a Local Consumer Review Survey a couple years back and found that consumers need to read about 10 online reviews before they can trust a business.
That’s because client reviews and testimonials are valuable. They give prospective clients a sense for what it’s like to work with you and what they can realistically expect to get out of the relationship.
For example, you can see here the level of detail included in this testimonial for BA Creative:
Then, you have to think about what happens when reviews come into a channel like Google and are assigned a star rating. That could be really great for standing out in search results amongst the competition. For instance, here is a search I did for “web designer London”:
Above the organic search results is this map snippet that highlights the most popular and well-reviewed results that match the search. Imagine what that would do for your business’s visibility.
That said, you can’t just expect former clients to start shouting to anyone who will listen: “This designer was amazing to work with and, thanks to the website he/she built for me, I now make 25% more in sales every month!”
It’s just not going to happen that way. You’re going to have to ask them for testimonials and reviews.
Here’s what you can do:
1. Create a Google My Business Page
According to the Bright Local survey, 86% of consumers are actively looking for and reading reviews for local businesses. So, if you have a physical address or P.O. box you’re comfortable associating with your business, you should create a Google My Business page. It’s completely free and takes no more than a few minutes to set up your business profile.
This is the only way your business listing will show up in Google search results, like this one for Ted Angel Design:
It’s also how you get your listing to show up in Maps results:
If you don’t have an address you can work with, Google won’t be an option. However, you can set yourself up with a Facebook page as Ted Angel has (Yelp will only work with an address, too):
Google loves to see positive customer reviews on platforms like these, so anything you can do to collect those reviews and get good star ratings will help you in search results.
Just make sure to monitor the reviews and respond to them, too. 89% of consumers surveyed by Bright Local said that they not only read reviews, but they look at the businesses’ responses to them, too.
2. Send an Offboarding Survey
In your client offboarding process, you should have a step where you follow up 30 to 60 days after the project ends. Why not put a link to a questionnaire in that email, asking them for feedback on the experience?
By putting it out there like that, you’re not pressuring them to say something good about you on the spot. Instead, you’re giving them a valid reason to share their positive sentiments. And, if they don’t, consider this a great opportunity to collect criticisms and improve your business.
Now, if you’re not comfortable combing through their response and asking if you can use their statement as a testimonial, that’s okay. Instead, make the last slide of the questionnaire say something like:
“It was an absolute pleasure working with you and I’m glad I had a hand in helping you create the perfect website for your business. If you were happy with the experience, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d leave a review on my Google page so other business owners like yourself can find my services when they need them!”
Stay positive, don’t sound desperate, and leave it up to them to take action.
3. Add a Link in Your Email Signature
Chances are good that the bulk of your communication with clients is through email. So, why not put something in your email signature about leaving a review?
Your email signature is always a good place to leave small notes, reminding prospects and clients of things they should check out or next steps they should take. An invitation to leave a review would fit right in.
4. Write a Testimonial for Them
In the past, I would ask clients at the end of a job if they’d be comfortable writing a testimonial that I could share with prospective clients. However, I found that most of them were reluctant to do so — not because they secretly hated my work, but because they were too busy to do so. What was nice, though, was that many of those clients asked me to just write it for them. That’s when I decided to change my approach.
These days, when I conduct offboarding calls and final training with clients, I listen closely to what they say. If they are really happy with the experience and what they got in the end, they’re bound to say something about it to me. Or they’ll email me later on, with their thanks and kind words.
If they do, I jot it down on a notepad. Then, I turn the quote into a testimonial and email it to them later in the day:
“I’m so happy to hear how well the project worked out for you. I was wondering if you’d let me publish a testimonial from you with a link back to your website? It would really help me get more clients like yourself!
I know you’re busy, so I took the time to write this up from our call/email earlier:
[Include testimonial here.]
If you’re happy with it, please let me know. Feel free to tweak it if you have something else to say!”
If you know that they were happy with the website you built and you’ve taken the time to summarize their thoughts into a concise testimonial so they don’t have to, why wouldn’t they say “yes”? Plus, they’ll get a free backlink to their new website, which is a fantastic bonus.
Wrap-Up
Don’t forget to make sure that the rest of your website is prepared to sell on your behalf. By publishing an impressive portfolio and sharing other trust marks from your clientele (past and present), you can more easily and quickly convince prospects to work with you over the competition.
Featured image via Unsplash.
Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!
Source -
4 Ways to Extract Website Content From a Client
Posted:Tue, 21 May 2019 10:45:04 +0000
In a perfect world, we’d all have all the content we needed before we ever touched a wireframe, on paper or otherwise. The hate for lorem ipsum is real, and I do understand why, but it’s a simple fact that we do not live in a perfect world. Clients are often ready to hand over a down payment, but not actually ready to build the site yet.If you find yourself in this situation (and it will happen a lot at the beginning of your career), you’ll need to help your client get ready. And if they don’t hire a copy writer, you’ll need to help them write the content themselves.
1. Give Them Constraints
If your client is writing their own content, they may need to be told what to write. Most people are not writers by nature. It’s a skill that can be learned by just about anyone, but it takes some doing, whether you have a natural talent for it or not. Most people, when told to write some content for a website, are probably going to stare at the blank screen for a while.
Most people are not writers by nature
Then, hesitantly, they might begin to pick out letters on their keyboard, one by one. It’ll be a slog, but they’ll have that first grand sentence: “Hi! Welcome to the home page of our website.” And then they might write a bunch of stuff that would be better suited to the “About Us” page.
People have long made the argument that total creative freedom doesn’t make for good design; constraints do. Constraints force us to solve problems, but they also give us direction, and purpose. Yes, it means doing some of their website planning and strategy for them, but no one said you had to do it for free.
2. Go Through The Process With Them Before They Write
Even instructions like, “Okay, you need a paragraph of introductory text for the home page.” might be a bit vague for people unfamiliar with writing website copy. Get on Skype, or even meet them in person to take your client through the plan you have for their website (wireframes or other prototypes may come in handy here), and give them examples of what they might say.
Also be sure to tell them how much content is intended for each page, page section, or UI element. If only a sentence or two will reasonably fit, make sure they know this. If they can go nuts on the “About Us” page, make sure they know that, too.
And yes, giving them a space to go nuts is probably a good idea. Everyone wants unleash their inner Hemingway, and if the “About” page ends up being as long and annoying as The Old Man and the Sea, that’s the price we pay for good relationships with our clients.
As you go through your instructions, write them down, and send them to your client via email for reference. This way, they’ll always know what the plan is.
Charge by the hour for this bit, at least.
3. Go Ahead And Annoy Them A Bit
Ever had a client give you a deadline, then disappear? You have no obligation to take that lying down. Now, they might be busy, and have other legitimate priorities. If they tell you a family member is sick, just work for another client for a while.
But if they just disappear on you, don’t be afraid to remind them once in a while. They might genuinely forget, and need the reminder. Even if they haven’t forgotten, they might need a little motivation. And yes, you might annoy them a bit, but clients should respect your time, too.
If they can’t finish even one project, there probably isn’t a long-term relationship on the table
Now don’t e-mail them every day. That’s excessive. An e-mail per week should be fine to start with, and you can always increase that number as deadlines approach. If they e-mail you back with something like, “Thanks, I’m working on it!”, or, “For god’s sake please stop, I’m working on it!”… you can safely stop sending them e-mails for a while.
Don’t worry too much about annoying them. If they can’t finish even one project, there probably isn’t a long-term relationship on the table.
4. Use Software To Make It All A Bit Easier
Of course, this is all a fair bit of work. You can automate the process of getting content from your clients just a little bit, though. If you’ve got the budget for one more darned SAAS product in your pipeline, you could try out Content Snare.
You literally just set up forms that specifically request the content you need. You can put in character limits, and basically define the information required with various kinds of inputs. You want constraints? They’ve got constraints, and automatic email reminders.
Now the downside to this software is the cost. At the time of this writing, the cheapest plan is $24US per month (billed yearly). It’s affordable, probably, for a designer with plenty of clients already. But when every dollar counts, this is one tool you can probably do without.
For anyone who’s a little cash-strapped, you can replicate the basic functionality for requesting content with a much simpler tool like Google Forms. Just make one for each page, and go. You can embed these forms, too, so if you already have something like a “client area” set up on your website, you could theoretically set each client up with their own set of forms to fill out, all in one place.
Automated reminder emails? Well, there’s no shortage of mass mailing applications out there. If you’re already using one, you could schedule some reminders pretty easily. Just be sure to turn them off once you’ve gotten a response.
Annoying them is one thing. Using robots to do it is another.
Featured image via Unsplash.
Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!
Source -
Internet Censorship is Here: How Far Will it Go?
Posted:Mon, 20 May 2019 10:45:20 +0000
Within hours of the recent mass shooting at a New Zealand mosque by a far-right terrorist, the country’s authorities were scrambling to ensure a sickening video the murderer streamed on Facebook was barred from the nation’s screens. Due to the nature of the Internet, the task of removal proved very difficult. But eventually, the government succeeded — using controversial tactics usually associated with Internet censorship by authoritarian regimes.For some, the action of one highly democratic nation was a worrying reminder that Internet freedom should not be taken for granted. For others it was a triumph of taste and decency over a Wild West online community that still refuses to accept regulation while simultaneously failing to take responsibility for its actions.
a billion Internet users are barely aware that Facebook and Google exist
Versions of this debate are being played out around the world, as authorities, online companies, journalists and web professionals try to strike a balance between free speech and protecting Internet users from highly offensive — and potentially also subversive — content. The spread of “fake news”, alleged attempts by foreign powers to meddle in elections, and the age-old difficulty of defining what should be permitted in a free society, are all part of this debate.
With the technology and the excuses for Internet censorship already in place, it’s a debate that will shape the future of the Web. Or should that be ‘futures’, plural?
Full Censorship Can Be Achieved
In China, a billion Internet users are barely aware that Facebook and Google exist. Authorities have no difficulty in ensuring unpleasant content is not seen on the search engines and social media boards that are available there: The Christchurch video was blocked just as effectively as disturbing footage of the Tiananmen Square massacre is, because the Chinese government has built a system of highly effective controls on the Internet known as “the Great Firewall of China”.
Officially called the Golden Shield Project, China’s system of Internet controls has made fools of the experts who said that the Internet could not be tamed or censored. Jon Penney, a Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Toronto’s Citizen Lab, told Open Democracy recently that although China’s technology is not yet fully understood by the west, it is:
…among the most technically sophisticated Internet filtering/censorship systems in the world.
“Basically, access to the Internet in China is provided by eight Internet Service Providers, which are licensed and controlled by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology,” he said. “These ISPs are important, because we’re learning that they do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of content filtering and censorship.”
Controlling ISPs was one crucial brick of that firewall that allowed New Zealand to take the Christchurch killer’s video down. Indeed, what was controversial for many was the use of such an approach — and the fact that the government used a set of unpublished ‘blacklists’ of the sites it required to be blocked. Kalev Leetaru, a big data expert, wrote on Forbes: “The secret nature of the blacklist and opaque manner in which the companies decided which websites to add to the list or how to appeal an incorrect listing, echoed similar systems deployed around the world in countries like China.”
A Different Internet
China’s great firewall also tracks and filters keywords used in search engines; blocks many IP addresses; and can ‘hijack’ the Domain Name System to ensure attempts to access banned sites draw a blank. This is thought to be done at ISP level, but also further along the system as well, ensuring that browsing even a permitted foreign site from within China can be frustratingly slow. But with sites such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia blocked, most Chinese users simply view an entirely different Internet and App ecosystem.
most Chinese users simply view an entirely different Internet
Adrian Shahbaz, the research director for technology and democracy at Freedom House, an independent watchdog for democracy, says other authoritarian regimes — including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — are already showing interest in China’s technology and censorship system. Russia is building its own version, which will allow it to totally isolate the domestic web from the rest of the Internet; ostensibly, this is to ensure the country’s ability to defend itself from a “catastrophic cyber attack”.
There are concerns that this censorship will spread to the West, where attempts to clamp down on hate speech, and to stop foreign ‘trolls’ pushing fake news in a bid to cause instability and influence elections, mean there is no shortage of justification for introducing controls. French President Emanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump are among the democratic leaders who have threatened crackdowns in the last few months alone.
Censorship or Responsible Regulation?
ISP controls and direct censorship are not the only threats to a unified and ‘free’ internet. With most people consuming their Internet through just a few very popular social media platforms or mainstream news providers, governments can also lean directly on these companies. Singapore — a country that admittedly sits in the bottom 30 of the Press Freedom Index — has just introduced a new “anti-fake news law” allowing authorities in the city-state to remove articles deemed to breach government regulations.
The country’s prime minister said the law will require media outlets to correct fake news articles, and “show corrections or display warnings about online falsehoods so that readers or viewers can see all sides and make up their own minds about the matter.”
Internet giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Google have their Asia headquarters in Singapore and are expected to come under pressure to aid implementation, meaning that those sites could look different when viewed from the city-state. Singapore may not be known for its freedom of speech, but its approach is telling as to how less authoritarian regimes — and those without China’s technology — can impose a creeping web censorship by leaning of the big tech companies that deliver most of the Internet users see.
The Singaporean premier added that “in extreme and urgent cases, the legislation will also require online news sources to take down fake news before irreparable damage is done.” It is not hard to imagine these words coming from a Western leader, or a judge.
Facebook is Already on Board
Facebook itself, after coming under intense pressure over the use of the site to spread everything from dubious news reports to videos promoting suicide, has now joined the calls for regulation. “From what I’ve learned, I believe we need new regulation in four areas: harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability,” Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement recently.
Copyright as Censorship
On the subject of data, Zuckerberg cited Europe’s GDPR — a set of regulations governing the use and storage of personal data — as an example to follow. But it is another EU law, passed in recent weeks, that threatens further Internet fragmentation.
The new Copyright Directive will require tech firms to automatically screen for and remove unauthorised copyrighted material from their platforms. Many campaigners have argued the directive will be harmful to free expression, since the only way to guarantee compliance is to simply block any user-generated content that references other copyrighted material in any way, including criticism, remixes, or even simple quotes.
until now, people have been relatively free to publish material online and then suffer the consequences
While the EU directive aims to bolster quality online news journalism by banning its wholesale re-use, sites that rely on user-generated content could end up looking very different when viewed from within Europe, compared to the US for example. Experts talk of a “splintering”, which means that there will effectively be different Internets in different jurisdictions.
Copyright enforcement, of course, is not censorship. And there have always been categories of images, for example, that are illegal in most jurisdictions. But until now, people have been relatively free to publish material online and then suffer the consequences, as was the case in the days of print. Proponents of tighter controls at source argue that simply removing material from sites once it is known to be illegal is a never-ending and ultimately pointless task, especially in the face of organized ’trolls’ who can re-post at will.
During the first 24 hours after the Christchurch attack, Facebook removed 1.5 million re-posts of the murderer’s video, for example. It was only the introduction of controls at ISP level that finally blocked it in New Zealand, at least.
The Human Element
“Extremist content” and “fake news’ look set to be the next targets for politicians who favor stricter Internet controls, or, as they may argue, greater responsibility from ISP providers or major websites. Unlike copyright, this is at least partially subjective, and would require real people, employed by the authorities, to decide what is acceptable on our screens. China, naturally, already employs an army of such censors; it even pays another large group to post material that is explicitly favorable to its policies.
Leetaru said: “Like New Zealand’s recent blocking efforts, China’s system officially exists for the same reason: to block access to disturbing content and content that would disrupt social order. In the Chinese case, however, the system has famously morphed to envelope all content that might threaten the government’s official narratives or call into question its actions.
“In New Zealand’s case, website censorship was limited to a small set of sites allegedly hosting sensitive content relating to the attack. Yet, the government’s apparent comfort with instituting such a nation-wide ban so swiftly and without debate reminds us of how Chinese-style censorship begins.”
Can’t imagine it happening? Britain’s government recently published a ‘White Paper’ — a way of signalling possible legislation — which proposed that social media companies should be forced to take down, within 24 hours, “unacceptable material” that “undermines our democratic values and principles”.
What Constitutes Fake News?
Exactly what constitutes “fake news” has always been open to interpretation: during election campaigns, some democratic leaders have already learned that it is a good label to discredit critical reports with. In Russia, fake news was banned recently, and is defined as anything that “exhibits blatant disrespect for the society, government, official government symbols, constitution or governmental bodies of Russia.”
One area that is being actively targeted in Europe is “extremist” material fostering violence or hatred. In Germany, which already has a system to force platforms to remove “hate speech,” this has recently included censure on a woman who posted pictures of the Iranian women’s volleyball team to contrast their attire in the 1970s (shorts and vests) and now (headscarves and long sleeves).
The following joke was deemed hateful enough to land the poster a social media ban: “Muslim men are taking a second wife. To finance their lives, Germans are taking a second job.”
Another area that Western governments are showing increasing concern about is private groups that carefully regulate membership, designed to allow like-minded people to share their views unchallenged. Already, there have been calls for Facebook to clamp down on these closed groups or “echo chambers”, on the grounds that they are able to serve undiluted misinformation without challenge. While these requests may once again sound reasonable, it is unclear what would constitute an echo chamber and what kind of ‘misinformation’ could be considered unacceptable — or indeed, who would decide that.
How to Beat the Censors
For those wanting to beat EU copywrite laws and, for example, see a meme their friend in California is ‘lol-ing’ about, a virtual private network (VPN) should be a good solution. Already recommended by many security experts, VPNs are encrypted proxy servers that hide your own IP address and can make it look like you are browsing from a different country. For occasional use, even using a public proxy site, a ‘browser within a browser’ may well work.
There are various levels of VPN – an in depth look at the options is available here. However, sophisticated censorship systems such as the Great Firewall of China are capable of detecting VPN use and blocking that too.
A popular alternative to VPN use is the Tor browser, which is designed with anonymity in mind. Although experts rate Tor’s privacy features (and therefore its anti-censorship abilities) higher than VPNs, Tor can also be blocked. What’s more, you have to install the browser on your device and using Tor does not hide the fact that you are using Tor. Both Tor and VPNs are illegal in some countries and their use could put you at risk.
Tor is also the gateway of preference for accessing the Deep Web or Dark Web — which are also used heavily by activists and journalists who are trying to circumvent curbs on their freedom of expression. In a detailed article explaining how to access and use the Dark Web, technology journalist Conor Shiels says:
The Deep Web has been heralded by many as the last bastion of internet privacy in an increasingly intrusive age, while others consider it one of the evilest places on the internet.
The Deep Web is technically any site not indexed by search engines. Such sites would be an obvious place for private groups to base themselves if they are thrown of Facebook or even banned — although of course they may find it harder to recruit new members if they remain hidden from the casual user.
Although the Deep or Dark Web is a popular place for illegal activity, it is not illegal in itself. For those seeking an uncensored experience, it remains a place hidden from the authorities, but of course, the flip side is that you will be hiding your own postings from the vast majority of web users. This aspect of censorship will perhaps be the hardest to bypass as authorities move to cut off the most popular sites and platforms from certain news, views and activities.
Featured image via Unsplash.
Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!
Source -
Popular Design News of the Week: May 13, 2019 – May 19, 2019
Posted:Sun, 19 May 2019 10:45:26 +0000
Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers. The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that were posted, so don’t miss out and subscribe to our newsletter and follow the site daily for all the news.
Polypane: The Browser for Responsive Web Development and Design
PHP Isn’t the Same Old Crappy Language it was Ten Years Ago
Does Anyone Use Social Sharing Buttons?
What’s up with the New Facebook App Logo?
CSS Grid Based Website Builder
Is ‘The Fold’ Still Relevant in Today’s Scrolling and Skimming Culture?
Google Fonts is Adding Font-display
Animating CSS Grid Rows and Columns
46 Form Design Best Practices
5 Things to Be Mindful of When You Design Filters
Things that Come Back to Haunt Web Designers
Cut your Forms in Half
Design Notes: A Free Resource Library for Product Designers
Material Design Guidelines for Dark Theme
I Wrote the Book on User-friendly Design. What I See Today Horrifies Me
How Design Boosts Conversion
From Zero to Hero: Look at Hero Images in Web Design
Free Online Tools for UI/UX to Try in 2019
How to Choose the Best Static Site Generator in 2019
3 Big Mistakes I Made as an Illustrator and How You Can Avoid Them
Will You Get Sued for Using Old Adobe Apps?
The Flexible Future of Branding and the Death of the Logo as We Know it
Site Design: Lusion
Why is Pricing Design so Hard?
I Turned my Designer Interview Task for Google into a Startup
Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.
Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!
Source -
5 Common Design Mistakes That Disappoint Users
Posted:Fri, 17 May 2019 10:45:14 +0000
Designing an interactive interface or a website is not an easy feat. You have to analyze everything about your audience, in the first place their behavior, and then implement thorough planning. New technologies are making it easier but they are also making the users more tech savvy and hard to impress.Glossy images and hover effects are no longer impressive to users. Neither are animations or gifs – especially when everyone can make their own in just a few steps with their phones. So, how do you go about creating a great experience for your users? How do you make them happy and keep the conversions coming?
This is only getting harder if you make mistakes in your design in order to impress your audience. So, without further ado, here are some of the mistakes designers commonly make in order to amaze visitors:
1. Innovating Too Much
Design, in itself, is a creative endeavor. Designers are artists in their own respect and they always seek to express themselves through their work. They are always innovating and making sure that their designs stand out in the sea of other designs.
But if we are talking about designing a perfect interactive experience for your users, innovation might not always be the best choice. It might not be good for the niche or even that specific website. Users need to feel comfortable when visiting a website. They need that familiarity in the ways that they work with a website — you know, the common navigation patterns. They are very used to this and going off track in order to be clever or unique can only harm you, especially if you go too far.
For instance, you may have a great project in mind, some gamification methods for example, however, if you stray too far into the unknown the user will stumble onto your website, see the thing and just walk away because they won’t know what to do with it. Especially so if they are seeking just some basic information.
2. Confusing Navigation
This is a mistake we see all too often. So many websites start out as great experiences and then mess everything up with poor navigation. Some go for strange navigation places where users won’t think to look.
And yet the biggest problem users have is not that — it’s all the weird names for common pages. So, instead of the simple and sufficient “home, about, contact, blog” pattern, you get “our universe, the theory of an artist, follow your stars, always learn more”, for instance.
The thing is that users will appreciate the creativity in naming — at some point, if they manage to figure out what name is for what. It takes them a lot of browsing to find what they need. Keep in mind that most users are not there to marvel at your skill in designing but rather to find information they need to contact the company or learn more about what they have to offer. And the very purpose of the design is to allow them to do so quickly and simply, without wandering about for too long. If they do, they will probably leave the site and then the purpose of design is defeated.
3. Hating White Space
Once upon a time, sticking as many things as possible on your website was a trend. You had boxes of information all around the place, advertisements and much, much more. But that was then and we have moved (thankfully) far, far away from that. Simplicity is in. Zen is in. Users don’t want to be overwhelmed when they enter your website. They want a clear and streamlined experience that will give them what they need.
And yet, many websites still make the mistake of cluttering, thinking that they are actually not. But, you see, sticking to a single color scheme is fine but you need to think about other elements too. Having too much information on any page will have your readers running away. It also looks very, very spammy, no matter how much you want to promote.
So, nail the basics first. Then move on to creating something impressive to look at and interact with.
4. Not Using Contrast
Honestly, without contrast – what is there left?
It’s so important to use it to establish that visual hierarchy and move the user’s attention to the places where you want them to. It’s not just colors, it’s sizes, shapes, placement. Everything on a single website needs to be in contrast to another thing to show its value and importance in a subtle way.
People automatically understand that the smaller button is less important than the bigger button. They understand that the bigger letters or more emphasized letters are more important
~ Donald Emerson, an design blogger at Writemyx
So, make sure that your design has plenty of contrast to show the user where to go and what to do.
5. Complex Forms
Forms are a pain for everyone. No one likes to fill them out. But, they are also a necessary evil if you want to get consumer data to use for further endeavors.
However, they don’t need to look ugly and be annoying. What leads to this? Well, for one, long forms that ask for too much. The user might go through with the form if they care enough. But in most cases, they don’t — especially not enough to do “where is the bus?” captchas — so, eliminate that ugly form and go for something simple and stylish.
Stick to the simple – first name, last name, email (add more basics if you need, like password, for instance) or even better, first name, email. Don’t ask for too much. And, for the love of design, test the thing. Some forms on the web ask for too much “optional” information but then when you opt out, they highlight all of the blank spaces and refuse to submit without them. Not really optional.
So, when it comes to design, it’s important to think of the user and efficiency first and then find ways to delight them without confusing them. Test everything. This is the key to having a design that’s both successful and pretty.
Featured image via DepositPhotos.
Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!
Source -
Does Your Web Design Business Need a Rebrand?
Posted:Thu, 16 May 2019 10:45:13 +0000
How long ago did you start your design business or side gig? Three months? Three years? And how long has it been since you evaluated your business since then?As a web designer, your job is to think critically and creatively for your clients, which is why you ask them probing questions like:
- How old is your business?
- What’s its mission?
- Who’s your target audience?
- What’s the personality of your brand?
- Where do you see your business in five years?
The better you understand the business, the more easily you can design a website and shape a brand identity around it for them. But I’m willing to bet you haven’t spent much time doing the same for your own business.
I know the last thing you want to do is to take time away from revenue-generating work to evaluate your business and potentially rebrand it. However, what if a rebrand could bring you better work, better quality of clients, and better pay?
There’s a reason why you put so much care into designing a website that perfectly aligns with a company’s mission and personality. You should do the same for your own.
4 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Business
Lots of companies undergo rebrands. In some cases, it’s because they want to clean up a tarnished image as was the case in Uber’s rebrand. In other cases, they decide to strengthen their branding with visuals that are more uniquely their own, like MailChimp did.
For you? Well, it might be more practical and simple than that.
Consider the following scenarios. Some may sound familiar while others don’t. However, if you do find any connection to the questions and situations I’m about to pose, then it may be time for your business to undergo a rebrand:
1. Did You Start Without a Niche?
Web designers work in a very congested and competitive space, especially as a younger generation of designers raised on computers and apps enter the workforce. That’s why you may find that working without a specialty doesn’t work so well for you.
For starters, a jack-of-all-trades doesn’t look all that different from other web designers that also claim to do it all. Secondly, it’s very hard for you to work efficiently if you’re taking on a coaching website today, a SaaS website next week, and a monstrous ecommerce site a month from now.
There’s something to be said for the kind of efficiency and quality output that comes from having a more narrow focus.
If your business name or website convey this “I’ll work with anyone!” mentality, it might be time for a change.
2. Did You Pick the Wrong Niche?
Let’s say that you did start your business targeting a specific niche or geographic area. If you’re finding success in this space hard to come by, it may be because you picked the wrong niche.
For example:
I have a client whose design agency was originally supposed to target companies in a specific segment of the medical industry. However, a month ago, he told me he wanted to shift the focus to a specific segment of the tech space instead.
He was right to make the switch. While he may have been passionate about the medical niche, the quality of client would’ve been bad for business. So, he carved out a new niche that he knew he’d be comfortable designing websites for and with clients he’d be able to build great relationships with.
If you’re kicking yourself for picking a niche that doesn’t feel right or isn’t profitable, it’s never too late to change.
3. Does Your Business Need to Look Bigger?
When many of us start out, we’re a one-man (or woman) show. It’s great in many respects since we get total control over the business and all decisions related to it. However, there may come a time when the kind of clients you want to work with expect you to have a team of professionals behind you.
Now, whether or not you actually hire anyone to help you build websites, write copy, or manage projects is up to you. However, if you’re selling a premium web design service to clients, your branding and messaging should convey that.
The rebrand could be a simple name change, to be honest. So, rather than market your business using your own name, you’d give it a formal agency name. Or you could switch from branding yourself as a local design company to a global one.
If you feel that giving your business the appearance of size would help you get more clients and, more importantly, ones willing to pay premium prices, a rebrand will help.
4. Have You Changed Your Services?
It’s not just a switch from basic to premium services that may necessitate a change in your branding and marketing. Switching the types of services offered could do it, too.
I have another client who came to me with a similar problem. Her story goes like this:
She launched her company back in the 1970s as a software solution provider for printers. As you can imagine, that type of business has needed to evolve greatly over the years. However, what hasn’t changed much is the name of the company or the design of their branding and messaging. Because of this, it’s been difficult to sell web design and maintenance services to clients.
To reduce confusion, they’re moving to a shortened version of the company name, changing the logo to match, and are now about to undergo a full redesign and rewrite of their website. It’s the only logical solution if they want to reach a modern audience with modern needs.
If you’ve made a major switch in the kinds of services you provide and you feel as though your branding no longer represents what you do very well, then it’s time to change that.
Does Your Web Design Business Need a Rebrand?
What’s nice about this exercise is that it gives you an excuse to stop and think about what your business currently is, who it serves, and where you want to go with it. That’s not always something you think to prioritize as a web designer since you’re so busy doing it for everyone else.
However, this is a great exercise to do once a year to make sure your business is on track to do what you want it to do. And, if not, to adjust your branding and design so that you can get on the right track before it’s too late.
Featured image via Unsplash.
Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!
Source -
Reputation Management 101
Posted:Wed, 15 May 2019 10:45:38 +0000
I really don’t need to explain how important your reputation is, do I?Short version: if people think you suck, either as a person or as a designer, they won’t hire you. It’s not a difficult concept, all things considered.
Figuring out what other people think of us is much harder. Controlling what they think about you is next to impossible, as any attempt to “change your image” will probably backfire, unless you’re a consummate actor. And then… then there’s one big, honking problem: the idea of “sucking as a person or as a designer” will vary from person to person.
No matter how wonderful you are, somebody will…misjudge you…That’s life
Everybody wants something different out of life. Some people will think you’re an arrogant know-it-all if you talk too loudly or confidently, and others will think you’re weak and indecisive if you’re quiet. Some will expect their website to be loaded with as many shiny things as possible; others will dismiss you if they get even a metaphorical whiff of JavaScript.
If you’re looking to this article to help you control how others perceive you, don’t bother. No matter how wonderful you are, somebody will misinterpret you, misjudge you, or just not pay enough attention. That’s life.
On the other hand, what you can do is build a reputation that appeals to the clients you want. You know, the fairly reasonable ones. These tips can help you to minimize the number of negative interactions you have with clients in general. The more positive interactions you have, the better your reputation, the more clients you actually like will come knocking at your door.
Get A Set of Principles, And Stick To Them
This seems like a no-brainer, but people often start out with good intentions, but ill-defined principles. I did. It has led to a situation or two where a client asked me to implement a sort of “grey pattern”, or do something a little sketchy, but ultimately not “bad”. This would inevitably end with them asking me to do something I just wouldn’t do, and my relationship with those clients never ended well.
refuse to make the same mistake twice
Unfortunately, it takes some trial and error to find out just how far you’ll go, and what you’re willing to do for a client. The best thing you can do is learn quickly, and refuse to make the same mistake twice. As you develop your set of principles into something codified and clear, you’ll learn how to avoid clients who would put you in awkward positions.
Be As Direct As You Can
Be honest, while being as tactful as you can. You don’t have to blurt out your life history to anyone who will listen, like I do, but you should be direct in your communications. Never, ever depend on subtext to do your talking for you. More often than not, people will misunderstand you.
They might misunderstand you anyway. People will sometimes try to “read between the lines”, even if there’s nothing there to read. There is nothing you can do about this, but as long as you’ve been honest, then it’s not your fault.
Bonus tip: keep a record of your communications, so you can refer back to it to resolve disputes and (if things go very wrong) lawsuits.
Be Careful About The Promises You Make
Both in your advertising and in your direct communications, be wary of making commitments you can’t live up to. This is difficult, especially when you’re freelancing, or struggling as a business. It’s tempting to say “yes” to everything when you’re just getting started, but don’t.
You might take on too much at once, or worse, you might agree to build something you do not yet have the skill to build. God knows I have. Asking, “How hard can it be?” is an invitation for the universe to beat you over the head with some harsh truths.
A broken promise might be the single worst thing you can do to your reputation
Sometimes you don’t know what you can do until you try, but it’s probably best to try on your own time, not when there are paying clients waiting. A broken promise might be the single worst thing you can do to your reputation, so be very, very careful about what you commit to.
Oh, and always give yourself some wiggle room with your deadlines. You might think you can pack two projects up close together in your calendar, but that so often ends in disaster; besides, you need time to unwind, and let your brain rest.
Own Up To Your Mistakes the Moment You Discover Them
And for God’s sake, do your best to remedy them. Offer a discount or partial refund if you have to, but only as a last resort. A show of willingness will often be enough to smooth things over, and even when it’s not, it makes a great start.
Advertise With Discretion
The way you advertise yourself is a big part of your reputation, especially at the beginning. Want to make a good impression? Don’t use pop-up modals. Don’t blast people’s eyeballs with unwanted interruptions of any kind. And for goodness’ sake, don’t try to make people feel bad for not wanting your newsletter.
If you’re going to upsell, time your upselling properly. Ideally, you will do it in person, and do it right after your client has said something like, “That’s amazing! We love what you’ve done.” That’s the time to ask if there’s more you can do for them. Not before.
Advertise confidently, not insistently.
There’s A Lot You Just Can’t Control
Get used to it. All you can really do is this: do your best work, and treat people kindly and compassionately. That won’t always be enough, and some people will still misjudge you. Some will try to take advantage of you. Ditch those people fast, and keep looking.
A good reputation is a long-term project. In time, good clients will see your honesty and hard work. Those qualities are precious enough that they’ll want to protect you, and yes, they’ll want to pay you.
Yay!
Featured image via Unsplash.
Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!
Source -
What’s New For Designers, May 2019
Posted:Mon, 13 May 2019 10:45:13 +0000
There are plenty of cool new tools and resources available for designers this month, and you’ll be especially happy if you are looking to find photos with ease, increase productivity or even create better documentation.If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new app or resource that should be featured next month, tweet it to @carriecousins to be considered!
Creative Commons Search Engine
Looking for photos that you can use anywhere just got easier. Creative Commons fully launched its search engine, which can help you find photos from a database of more than 300 million images from 19 collections with easy to understand attribution rules. Creative Commons is the standard for open-source and with attribution sharing of assets. The nonprofit organization enables sharing and reuse of assets through tools and standardized licensing for creative works.
Milanote
Milanote, a note taking app now has an app that integrates with the desktop tool. The app is important, and different, from other tools because of what happens when you log in on your desktop computer. Organize content into visual boards designed to feel like a wall in a creative studio. All of your notes, images, links, tasks and files can be laid out in a shareable visual workspace. It’s fast, flexible and fun to use—think Trello meets Pinterest.
FlowCV
FlowCV is an online resume builder that can help you create, format and design a resume with ease. You can design it online and download a PDF for free. The biggest bonus might be prompts and resume advice packed right in to the tool.
CSS Grid: Style Guide
CSS Grid: Style Guide is a beautiful example of how to create documentation. You’ll want to fork Olivia Ng’s pen.
CSSfx
This collection of effects allows you to click-to-copy CSS. The collection is designed with a focus on fluidity, simplicity and ease of use with minimal markup. Every effect is open source and ready to use.
Mailtolink.me
Mailtolink.me takes all the hassle out of mailto links. Just fill in the fields and copy the code. All the markup is automatically generated.
Code Guppy
Code Guppy is a collection of resources and tutorials for kids, teens and adults to learn JavaScript. You don’t have to have an account to work through tutorials in a number of categories including drawing, math, games and more.
Nicedoc.io
Tired of ugly readme files? Nicedoc.io is the solution. It is made to create instant and beautiful documentation for any github repository. It’s compatible with any markup format and has light and dark themes.
WebThings Gateway
Mozilla WebThings is an open platform for monitoring and controlling devices over the web, including smart home gateways focused on privacy, security and interoperability. The associated framework is a collection of reusable software components to help you build your own “web things.”
Tutorial: Animating Links
Have you ever wanted to animate a link? This tutorial from Learn CSS Animation has the solution. It will walk you through how to animate the underlines on links, combine multiple transitions, group animation keyframes and look at the pros and cons of using animations in this space.
Editor.js
Editor.js is a free block-style editor. From the developr:
Workspace in classic editors is made of a single contenteditable element, used to create different HTML markups. Editor.js workspace consists of separate Blocks: paragraphs, headings, images, lists, quotes, etc. Each of them is an independent contenteditable element (or more complex structure) provided by Plugin and united by Editor’s Core.
Bubble
Bubble allows non-coders to build software. It’s a code-free programming language that lets you create web applications. The tool includes free and premium plans and include everything you need to create and host a responsive web app with drag and drop tools.
Google Duplex
Google Duplex is an AI assistant that can talk to humans to get what you need. Powered by Google’s AI and tucked into Google Assistant, you’ll be able to book reservations or schedule haircuts in seconds. The system makes the conversational experience as natural as possible, allowing people to speak normally, like they would to another person, without having to adapt to a machine.
Emojim
Search emojis and click to copy to your keyboard for easy pasting in documents, mockups, blogs or social media websites. Emojim’s essentially an emoji keyboard for your desktop and it’s amazingly easy to use.
City Life Icons
City Life icons is a fun set of vector shapes in SVG and PNG format. The icon pack includes 50 designs in full color and line styles. Use them in digital or print applications.
Developer Survey Results
Stack Overflow surveyed over 90,000 developers to find out how they learn and “level up,” what tools they use and what they think about the industry. Top takeaways include Python is growing as a most-loved programming language, half of respondents were writing code before age 16 and devops specialists are among the highest paid positions.
Dellmonte Sans
Dellmonte Sans is an elegant uppercase display font. It includes letters, numerals and some punctuation.
Gangster Grotesk
According to the designer: “Nodding to its historical roots in the 1920s, Gangster Grotesk is a contemporary typeface that combines a sharp contrast with angled terminal strokes that curve inward ever so slightly. These elements are simple but effective, lending the typeface character while being practically invisible at small sizes.” It includes a full character set with light, regular, bold and alternate options. The font is free with newsletter signup.
Ohio Script
Ohio Script is a modern brush typeface with a full set of upper- and lowercase letters. The script is free for personal use and you can buy the paired sans serif.
Pondspell
Pondspell is a brush typeface, with a handwriting style that is made with a natural brush or marker. The free version includes only letters. The design is flowy with connected characters and interesting strokes.
Public Sans
Public Sans is the font integrated with the design system of the United States government. The simple sans serif is strong and neutral and includes multiple weights with a full character set for pretty much all text uses online.
Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!
Source -
Popular Design News of the Week: May 6, 2019 – May 12, 2019
Posted:Sun, 12 May 2019 10:45:08 +0000
Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers. The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that were posted, so don’t miss out and subscribe to our newsletter and follow the site daily for all the news.
Disney’s Hollywood Studio has a New Logo – And We’re Wholly Uninspired
CSS Scan 2.0 — Instantly Check or Copy Computed CSS of any Element on the Internet
An Ultimate Guide to Form Design
Html Colors
A Styleguide for the Galactic Empire
Norwegian Passports Design
Little Details in UX Design: Developing a Design System
Thanos: Super-Villain and Terrible Designer
Ecommerce Cart Design Best Practices
Debugging CSS Grid
Site Design: Closer Cards
A Short Guide for Non-designers to not Suck at Design
Liquid Death is 2019’s Stupidest Branding
The Vandalisation of UX
Consider Margin
Here’s the Coolest Stuff Announced at Google I/O 2019
Figma Plus
Create a Responsive Grid Layout with no Media Queries, Using CSS Grid
A Beginner’s Guide to User Journey Mapping
Vertical Rhythm on the Web
Zero to 60 in Six Months: Designer Eva Cremers on Learning 3D Animation
Color Palettes
Why Agile Doesn’t Work
Typography in Design Systems
FOUND COLOR · Schemes for Web and UI
Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.
Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!
Source -
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About WordPress (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Posted:Fri, 10 May 2019 10:45:50 +0000
WordPress is the most used CMS across the world today. It has attained the number one position because it is so simple to use and maintain, not only from a designer’s point of view, but also from the end user’s perspective.In this article, we will look at a few different questions people have about WordPress. Some may seem downright silly, some a little technical, and some questions will be the ones that you yourself always wanted to ask!
How did we come up with the questions?
I simply searched for the term “WordPress” and Google suggested what people usually ask in its “People also ask” section from within the search result page itself.
So, let’s get the basics out of the way before we move on:
How Do I Start Using WordPress?
To create a self-hosted WordPress site you first need to download a copy of the latest version of WordPress.
Once you have the files, you need a place where you can host those digital files securely. You need a location that is always accessible online, a web server. This is going to be the home of your WordPress/Website files.
If you are just starting out, you can buy shared hosting which is relatively inexpensive. And you can move up to a VPS, Dedicated, or Cloud-based solutions as your needs increase with the popularity of your website.
Next, you need to invest in a domain name. It is the address that users will type to access your website.
Usually, both can be purchased through the same hosting company or through different vendors. Once you have these in place, you can easily install WordPress manually or using the famous 5-minute installation.
If you want to host locally on your computer you will need to download XAMPP on your PC or Mac. It will create the environment necessary to run WordPress locally. Usually, WordPress is set up on your localhost for development purposes only.
If that all sounds too complex, then you can simply create your blog or website on WordPress.com. It may be the best option when you are starting out.
Is It Free To Use WordPress?
WordPress is absolutely free to use both for personal and commercial use. As they say on their site:
Beautiful designs, powerful features, and freedom to build anything you want. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.
Though the software itself is free, you will still need associated services to put up a site of your own. And those can cost you money.
These associated services include a domain name, hosting, and the time offered by a WordPress professional to design and maintain your site.
This cost can be minimized by not hiring a designer and rather choosing a theme of your own, either free or paid. And investing in a little time understanding how to use & customize it. (Themes control the layout and design of your WordPress site.)
How Much Does It Cost To Build A WordPress Website?
As I mentioned in the above point, there are some costs that are incidental to setting up a WordPress site. And these include the cost of domain and hosting.
Domain names cost an average of around $10 per year. And hosting can cost you as low as $4 to $5 per month. All in all, it should not cost you more than $100 per year.
The other one-time associated cost lies with designing the site. If you download a free theme and learn to use it and customize it, then you avoid the most significant cost in setting your own site or blog.
Or you can hire a freelancer who can setup and customize your theme for a few hundred dollars. Of course, there is no upper limit to what you can pay a design agency in developing a customized theme for you.
It all depends on what you want to do with your site, and your budget.
How Long Does It Take To Build A WordPress Website?
The answer to this question would depend on the type of website you are building.
If you are just installing WordPress and applying a new theme to a blog and customizing the logo, header, and footer. The whole process could be completed within 4-5 hours’ time.
For a WordPress site, customizations could take longer. As you will have content to be updated for each of the pages too. 10-20 hours should be enough for this task.
If you are building a theme from scratch, I would break it up like this:
- Approximately 24-30 hours for designs for the homepage, internal page layout, archive pages, and the blog page.
- Coding the theme would take another 40 to 48 hours
- For testing and final touches, keep aside 10 more hours.
(If you are building a larger site, it would inevitably take longer.)
Keep in mind that these are only estimates. And when working with a real client these estimates could be stretched beyond your wildest imaginations. No joking here.
What Are The Benefits Of Using WordPress?
There are innumerable benefits to using WordPress over other Content Management Systems. Listing a few of them briefly below:
- Easy and intuitive to use: Using WordPress is easy and involves very minimal learning curve if any at all. And if you are a designer or a developer, the same holds true for you too. You will be up and running with the necessary skills to service your clients in no time at all.
- Easy to setup: You will be surprised with the fewer steps you need to set it up on your web server or localhost. It usually takes less than 5 minutes to do this.
- Lightweight and speedy: WordPress is lightweight right out of the box. It is around a 10MB download when you first download it from WordPress.org site. And therefore, very easy to handle in terms of uploading it to your server, backing it up, moving from one server to another, it occupies less space, runs faster etc.
- Highly scalable: With the right infrastructure and resources you can scale it up to several hundreds and thousands of users at the same time. So, no surprise that some of the most used sites like TechCrunch, The New Yorker, Sony Music, Time Inc, and many other significant names use WordPress.
- Most popular CMS: When it comes to its popularity, it is the number one. Today it powers 32% of all sites on the internet. This far exceeds the market share of any other CMS available today.
- Easily add features and functionality: WordPress can be easily extended to add more features and functionality as per your need. And you can do that easily with the help of plugins without knowing how to program or code in WordPress. Plugins are bits of software that can be easily installed on your existing WordPress site to add additional features and functionality.
The other advantages of using WordPress include a thriving WordPress community, active development of the product, free software (also for commercial use), easy to find answers to your WordPress questions, active support through community Forum, a mature and stable product etc. The list of advantages goes on and on.
How Do Beginner Blogs Make Money?
I doubt that you would start making money as soon as you start a blog. If you are just starting out, then, of course, there is a long way to go for you.
The process of generating income from your blogs would generally be in this sequence:
First, you would have to start a blog. You buy a domain and hosting and install WordPress. You choose WordPress as it is the best blogging platform out there. Then you choose a theme of your liking and your blog is ready.
But a blog is not a blog unless you have some useful content there. So, you have some niche or demographics that you want to cater to. That is a good strategy because then you would know exactly what type of content you want to create. Ideally one should focus on creating content that solves some problems and helps change the lives of your audience for the better.
Next step would be to get your content in front of your audience. Sharing on social media, engaging with your audience, a bit of on-page optimization, a bit of SEO, and lots of time and patience.
Once your blog starts to become popular. When the readership increases with time, it is time to start monetizing now. Monetization could be in the form of advertisements, AdSense from Google, affiliate marketing etc.
It is not easy. But nothing worthwhile in life ever is, right? It takes a lot of hard work, learning, and patience to create a sustainable income stream from your online blog. But it is totally doable if you are up for it.
Do I Need Hosting For WordPress?
All websites need hosting to be accessible over the internet. Therefore, yes you need hosting for WordPress.
If you sign up for a blog or a website at WordPress.com, then the hosting is already configured for you. You don’t have to buy your own hosting separately. You simply register a subdomain with them as part of the signup process and start treating it as your own blog or website.
However, for the self-hosted option, you need to download the WordPress files from the WordPress.org site. You are more in control of your website with this option, and therefore, you are responsible for everything that is needed to run your website.
And that includes Hosting.
Is WordPress A Website Builder?
WordPress is not a website builder. It is a Content Management System (CMS).
Website builders are more like visual editors. You drag and drop an element on a page, and you can see exactly how the page is going to look. While with WordPress the design is already set. The theme you have chosen for the site will control the appearance and layout of the site.
With a site builder, you expect to be able to change the site design as you deem fit. But with a WordPress site, this expectation is not there. It is understood that the design is already in place. You focus more on the content part of it, i.e. adding and editing content on the site.
Site builders are easier to use in terms of design changes, but site builders are less flexible in terms of what they can accomplish. WordPress, on the other hand, is very flexible and can be extended in many ways to add more features and functionality through programming & plugins.
However, if you like the idea of the convenience of a site builder, you might enjoy WordPress’ latest innovation: Gutenberg. Gutenberg is a completely new way to design WordPress sites, along the lines of a site builder.
Is WordPress Good For SEO?
It is indeed the most SEO friendly CMS out there today. It takes care of so much of the SEO stuff just out of the box that you don’t really need to be an expert to create SEO friendly pages and posts on your blog. They are automatically created for you.
For example, it creates pretty permalinks for all posts and pages. It also gives you the option to manually alter the URL yourself, so you are in full control. When you have a meaningful URL, both humans and bots can understand better what the page is all about.
Image resizing and optimization is also handled by WordPress. It takes care of URL canonicalization and other necessary HTML markups so that you won’t have to worry about them.
It would also generate a page title automatically for you. However, there are numerous SEO plugins that you can install that can handle this process in a smoother way.
All in all, WordPress today is one of the best SEO friendly Content Management Systems out there.
Final Thoughts
In this article, I have answered many of the questions that people frequently ask on WordPress. As you know, it is an overwhelmingly popular CMS and people have many questions about it.
Did I answer your question? I hope so. If not, then feel free to ask them in the comments below. I look forward to answering them for you.
Featured image via Unsplash.
Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!
Source
FeedBurner delivers the world's subscriptions wherever they need to go. Publish a feed for text or podcasting?
You should try FeedBurner today.