How do you improve the SEO of your website? Follow these suggestions to improve your search engine optimization (SEO) and watch your website rise the ranks to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).

1. Publish Relevant, Authoritative Content

We believe that on-page SEO is the key to improving search engine success on Google and other search engines. Quality, authoritative, authentic content is the number one driver of your search engine rankings and there is no substitute for great content—this is especially true when doing SEO marketing. Quality content created specifically for your intended user increases site traffic, which improves your site’s authority and relevance. Fine-tune your web writing skills and present yourself as an authority on the topic you are writing about.

Keywords

Identify and target a specific keyword phrase for each authoritative content page on your website. Think about how your reader might search for that specific page with search terms like:

• online masters in engineering management
• what is biomedical engineering?
• title IX education resources
• photographing northern lights
• how to apply for scholarships?
• when is the FAFSA deadline?
• what is the difference between engineering and engineering technology?

Multiple Keyword Phrases

It is very difficult for a webpage to achieve search engine rankings for multiple keyword phrases—unless those phrases are very similar. A single page may be able to rank for both “biomedical engineering jobs” and “biomedical engineering careers”. Ranking for “student affairs” and “dean of students” or “gender discrimination” and “violence reporting procedures” with a single page is unlikely.

If you want to rank for multiple keywords phrases with your website, you will need to make a separate webpage for each keyword phrase you are targeting.

Placing Keywords

Once your keyword phrase is chosen for a given page, consider these questions:

1. Can I use part or all of the keyword phrase in the page URL (by using keywords in folders)?
   1. Remember characters to avoid in URLs
2. Can I use part or all of the keyword phrase in the page title?
3. Can I use part or all of the keyword phrase in page headings and subheadings?

Answering yes to these questions can improve your search engine ranking. Be natural and user-friendly, though. For instance, you do not want the word “engineering” to show up three or more times in the URL or have the phrase Northern Lights repeated in the page title and also every heading. Readability and usability still trump search engine optimization.

Content

Beyond page URL, title, and headings, content is most influential on search engine rankings.  Optimizing your content is often referred to as ‘on-page SEO’ or ‘page optimization.’ Repeat your keyword phrase several times throughout the page—once or twice in the opening and closing paragraphs, and two to four more times throughout the remaining content. Be authoritative. Strategically link to relevant sources and additional information—both within your organizations broad website and even to other websites which are useful to your end user. The content that you create is key to improving your SEO.

Experience and Expertise

When developing your content, it is especially important to lend your experiences and your expertise to your target audience. This will help your content stand out against everyone else’s—including the plethora of content being created by generative artificial intelligence (AI) each day. Experiences and expertise builds credibility, engages users, and fosters long-term success. It aligns with search engines’ goals of delivering high-quality, relevant information to users and can contribute to a strong online presence and improved SEO performance.

SEO Formatting

Don’t forget to use bold, italics, heading tags (especially an H1), and other emphasis tags to highlight these keyword phrases—but don’t overdo it. You still want your language and writing style to read naturally. Never sacrifice good writing for SEO. The best pages are written for the user, not for the search engine. Read more about SEO marketing to help you find new content opportunities.

2. Update Your Content Regularly

You’ve probably noticed that we feel pretty strongly about content. Search engines do, too. Regularly updated content is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy, so be sure to keep it fresh. Audit your content on a set schedule (semesterly for example) and make updates as needed. Introduce new sources where appropriate, make additions and modifications, and keep your content fresh for your audience.

Blogging

Writing additional content, rich with keyword phrases, on your departmental news blog can also boost your search engine rankings. Blog posts can even be shorter updates about the specific topics you are targeting. Interlink your related CMS webpages and blog posts when it helps give the reader a better picture or additional information about the topic.

3. Metadata

When designing your website, each page contains a space between the <head> tags to insert metadata, or information about the contents of your page. If you have a CMS site originally produced by the UMC web team will have pre-populated this data for you. However, it is important for you to review and update metadata as your site changes over time.

Title Metadata

Title metadata is responsible for the page titles displayed at the top of a browser window and as the headline within search engine results. It is the most important metadata on your page.

For those with a CMS website, the web team has developed an automated system for creating …

Website promotion is an extremely popular concept in today’s business environment. Nowadays, most offline businesses are turning their attention towards the online space. Having a professional website that represents your brand or business is the best way to start with the right foot in today’s marketplace. Don’t forget to make your website mobile-friendly. Check an interview with Brand24’s designer, David Tkocz discussing web design and ways to promote your website.

If we’re talking about an online business, it’s obvious that a website is necessary. But how is your website going to make an impact? After all, you are competing with millions of other web masters that are trying to secure a profitable position in the existing marketplace.

Promoting a website is not difficult, but it isn’t dead simple either. We could state that website promotion is a complex activity which creates a lot of unpredictable variables, especially because you have to rank in various search engines. When you expect something to turn out just fine, you soon realize that everything went extremely wrong.

Today, we’ll take a short look at a few of the popular website promotion strategies. In addition, we’ll analyze the reasons why social media platforms are absolutely critical for your website promotion.

Popular Website Promotion Tips & Strategies

There are so many strategies and approaches; the smartest thing to do is to figure out which of the online promotion strategies will suit your business best, and which could bring the biggest potential and benefits.

To effectively promote your website and drive more website traffic, you need to reach your target audience. That’s one of the most important promotion tips — you need to reach people who find your messaging helpful.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO – search engine optimization is an amazing source of organic traffic. If you manage to reach the first page of any search engine (Google, Yahoo), you can really expect to have lots of visitors and sales. Besides that, everything’s passive once you establish your ranking positions.

Neal Taparia, founder of card game site Solitaired explains, “When users consistently see your brand when they search relevant terms, they begin to recognize you and trust you more. Moreover, you can continue to acquire users at a low cost. SEO has been instrumental in helping us build a strong brand for our solitaire games.”

Positioning in search engines is one of the most scalable ways of website promotion. Once you rank on high positions in major search engines, your audience will stumble across your website every time they search for a specific solution.

To make your page more SEO competitive, you should remember a few best practices.

Firstly, invest in the guest blogging. Guest blogging on reputable websites will build brand awareness and let you share your expertise with other people. Moreover, the number of websites link will increase. That trick will establish your domain authority and help you rank faster.

The SEO tactics you implement for Google will work on other search engines as well. Before you start creating content, perform keyword research. Discover a topic you’d like to cover in your own blog post. Target keywords that have high intent with your users.

To do that, you need to identify the pain points your solution is tackling. By becoming an industry expert, you will boost your online presence and, ultimately, generate new leads.

Google Ads

There are a lot of advertising options around the web. The most popular one is Google’s advertising platform (Google Ads), followed by Bing’s Ads. Let’s not forget about social media paid advertising options, but we’ll get into that later. With paid advertising, you’ll be able to directly refer your ads’ viewers to your website.

Google ads give you a unique opportunity to present your offer on the first position of Google search results. Ranking in the top positions for Google is one of the best ways to promote your website.

Social media

As previously mentioned, social media promotion is one of the top ways to improve your brand’s awareness and drive traffic to your website. A successful social media marketing example would be Dacia.

They’re using Facebook’s boosted posts option in order to improve their brand awareness and increase the sales. Note down everything that you believe is relevant to your business.

Every online business needs a Facebook Page. This feature is especially useful for local businesses where you can add your business information, such as address or opening time. You can promote your website via Facebook or provide your users with other useful information.

Also, check a guide to creating an awesome brand!

Email marketing

Email marketing is a great way to drive traffic yo your website. Unlike search engine optimization or Google Ads, email is a completely independent medium. You decide what and when you are going to send to your audience.

Try sending out pieces of content your audience will find useful and interesting. You encourage readers to visit your website, or download interesting content. That’s a very useful promotion tactic — you show value of your solution to your audience and gain visibility in exchange.

7 Critical Reasons to Use Social Media for Website Promotion

If you’re not yet convinced by the fact that every serious business already has a social media presence, let’s talk about the main reasons for which social media could prove to be a goldmine for your business.

1. Brand

As incredible as it may seem, 28 percent of small businesses do not have a website. This is a major lost opportunity, especially when 76 percent of customers report that they will typically investigate a business’s online presence before making a physical visit. The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to accelerate this trend, with more people enjoying the convenience of engaging with businesses online.

A new website can be a powerful tool in ensuring your brand doesn’t go unnoticed. Whether you’re redesigning an existing website to be more efficient and aligned with current design trends or finally launching a site, knowing how to promote a new website is an essential step in making it a cornerstone of your sales and operations.

After all, that new website isn’t going to be all that useful if nobody knows it exists. Getting the word out should be a top priority so you can lay the foundation for success for your website. Let’s look at six foolproof ways to do so below

1. Post on social media.

Regardless of whether or not your business already has a website, you most likely have some sort of social media presence. That’s why social media is a great channel for generating awareness about the upcoming launch of your new site.

To optimize your reach, you should use a mix of organic and paid posts when promoting your website launch. The average reach for organic posts on Facebook has plummeted to 5.2 percent, meaning only a small portion of your audience will learn about the website if you stick to free posts.

If plunging into the world of Facebook advertising seems intimidating, boosted posts can serve as a great middle ground that allow you increase awareness and reach by promoting a timeline post to individuals who don’t already follow your social media account.

Social media “teaser” posts are a great way to offer a sneak preview of the new (or revamped) website, as well as give your audience a brief rundown of what they can expect from the new site. Consistently posting about the new site before the launch, on launch day, and in the period shortly following the launch will keep your followers in the loop.

Tagging your employees and the company that helped with the website design can further expand the reach of your social media posts. Don’t forget to encourage your team to make their own posts encouraging people to check out the new site.

2. Send out emails or mailers.

Chances are you’ve gathered a fair amount of client contact information over the time you’ve been in business. Client emails and even physical addresses give you a method to get in direct contact with the people you already do business with. These pre-existing customers are among the most likely to check out your new website — and potentially make a purchase through it.

Because these announcements are generally going out to people who have already done business with you in the past, you will want to adjust the messaging and content from the more generalized announcements you make on social media.

For example, you could let customers know that the website will make it easier and faster to book appointments or buy products. Or you could highlight new features, such as a blog where you will post helpful industry tips. These are just a couple ways you could personalize the messaging based on your prior interactions.

Just be careful to not overwhelm your customers with too many emails. A good option could be to send a teaser email sometime before the website launch, and then an additional reminder email on launch day. Overwhelm them with messages and you’re more likely to get people unsubscribing from your email list.

3. Write a press release.

You don’t have to be a Fortune 500 brand to get meaningful press coverage. While a small business may not get coverage for their new website in a national newspaper, there are still local news outlets, trade publications, business association newsletters, and even networking groups that could be interested in your upcoming website release.

Your press release should be relatively concise, while offering all relevant details regarding the launch of your website. Your press release should take on more of a “newsy” rather than promotional tone that focuses on the specific features that will be included in the new site. For example, if customers will now be able to place orders online, that is definitely worth mentioning.

Including any relevant statistics or a quote from someone within your company can also help the press release feel more newsworthy to journalists. Quality information will give them what they’re looking for to write their own coverage of your website launch.

Checking out other press release examples could also be helpful as you try to fine-tune your content in a way that will be appealing to journalists.

4. Add a countdown timer to the website.

Even when the website isn’t fully complete, you can still have a placeholder page that your audience can go to. This can be especially important if you already have been using an active website as part of your business plan.

Something as simple as inserting a banner on the home page that says “Our new and improved site is coming soon” followed by a launch date (or even a countdown timer) will ensure that website visitors …

Overview

Firstly, the business put a lot of effort into driving growth and scalability for itself. There comes a time when businesses must look beyond the usual things in order to gain success. For corporates looking to sustain and grow, digital transformation is a must that can happen to them. Particularly for emerging markets and segments, this business must put forward a plan to grow.

When the question is about growth and scalability, businesses must think out-of-the box Especially for companies who are into manufacturing products and providing services. Especially in a services oriented company, businesses must look to expand their forte into providing value for customers and consumers. Companies that look beyond providing just value and go out of their way to see their consumers are benefited in the best way possible can excel in growth and scalability.

Business transformation is another important point is that I would like to mention here. As businesses sustains in providing services and benefits to consumers, there comes a time when a peak point is reached. This peak point is the ultimate point where only a fixed amount of revenue comes in every time. If businesses and companies need to go beyond this revenue target, they must think out-of-the-box and go beyond just helping consumers.

Business transformation is important. When done the right way can help open up new doors of revenue generation and help your company to grow and scale. This is an important feature of transformation. It helps you unlock new potential revenue generation methods and tactics.

When there is a lack of resources or talent that can help you to do things right, Outsourcing is the best option available to you.

Why Outsource?

You may ask me why do you need outsourcing? Well, the answer to this is pretty simple and easy. Outsourcing helps you to unlock true potential talent otherwise unavailable to you. You can depend on outsourcing for a variety of factors. This helps you to tap into cheap software development arenas that help you to minimize the overhead cost of software development. If it was done in-house you could have incurred expensive costs that would have eaten into your revenue. And you will be left with less revenue to start with. This means eating into your profit margins as well.

Outsourcing is a beneficial way of helping you to get software related development access. This helps you to tap into potential which was not available to you earlier. It helps you to get access to important resources and talent that puts you on the right track to progress. Therefore when you need support and guidance for your software development activities, you should always rely on outsourcing as it helps you to connect to the right talent and professionals to streamline and pave the way for development and progress.

Benefits of hiring developers through outsourcing

Now that we know how you can tap into outsourcing thus helping you to set the right path for your digital transformation, let’s check out the various benefits of hiring developers through outsourcing.

Create efficient software

Particularly, outsourcing helps you to tap into the unused potential that was otherwise unavailable to you. This helps you to access the right resource at the right amount of time so that you can carry out software development activities that set the pace for your digital transformation. Creating efficient software requires you to access the right professionals at the right time so that you can carry out your software development activities the right way. This also leads you to an efficient way of developing software by making available the right talent for your development needs and requirements.

Create a minimum viable product

In this era of cut-throat competition, it is important for businesses and companies to know the benefits of creating a minimum viable product. This is is a piece of prototype software or app that helps you to showcase the various uses and benefits of y0ur software to your business investors and your end consumers. Getting the right entry at the right time into the market can help you gain a lot of business opportunities of increasing your revenue and thus put you to the right path through outsourcing.

Get Your business transformation done

When you try to perform business transformation you need to access professional services through quality outsourcing. This helps you to keep your standards and expectations high by using the right talent and professional services at your budget and cost. Getting your business transformation done through software development outsourcing is the right way to streamline your business. This ensures that your efforts are put in the right direction to help you scale your company and business.

Increase efficiency and productivity

Hiring quality software developers can help you to scale and grow your business. This helps you to meet your customer expectations well and helps you to grow your business easily and efficiently. You can increase your business efficiency through quality software development. Outsourcing services that connect you to the right talent and provide you with professional services is the way to go.

Digitize your business

The digital transformation when done right can help you to grow multiple folds. Unlock multiple streams of income generation through providing quality services to your customers. It helps you to increase your business processes efficiency thus you have minimise any inconsistencies.

Get more revenue generation opportunities

When you do use …

If eyes are the window to the soul, your website is the portal to your brand. Oftentimes, the website is the very first interaction a person may have with your company. Studies show that users tend to stick around for about 59 seconds – so you better make a good impression in a short time.

How do you ensure you have a phenomenal website that showcases your differentiation while catering specifically to your target audience? It all begins with your web developer. But, with literally thousands of developers vying for your attention (and dollars), how do you know which one to pick? We’ve made it simple.

Top Questions to Ask A Web Developer Before Hiring

1. How many websites have you built?

Like so many things, experience is everything. Think about the first time you tried swinging a golf club or driving a stick shift? Did it go perfectly? Probably not. When it comes to custom website design and development, you’ll want to ensure your developer has years of experience. After all, you want your new website to be a masterpiece, not a practice run.

2. What platform will the site be built on?

WordPress. Magento. Wix. Shopify. There are dozens of mainstream web platforms. A web platform is essentially the foundation of your website on which the rest of your site will be built. There are pros and cons to each, so you’ll want to not only ask which one yours will be built on but the reasoning behind it.

3. What research do you complete prior to starting the website design?

This question will really separate amateurs from pros. While many will just dive on in and begin building any site, the premier developers will ensure they are building the right site. This research should begin with establishing your unique market positioning and target market and grow from there to represent your brand. What are your goals? What’s most appealing to your target market? What’s your unique brand identity? All of these are essential in building a successful website.

4. What tactics will you use to ensure the site is SEO friendly?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) refers to the steps taken to ensure your website appears on Google (and other search engines) when key terms are searched. Don’t be fooled by developers who insist this happens after the site is designed. The best and most efficient SEO is planned into the very foundation of your website. We frequently see entire websites being built out with zero SEO and then the development firm asks for big bucks to incorporate these features after the fact.

5. What’s your area of specialty?

No one is an expert at all things. And with good reason. If you try to be good at everything, you’ll never be more than mediocre at anything. Dig in with your potential web developer to determine their areas of expertise. Perhaps it is large, e-commerce stores. Or maybe they are experts at niche boutiques. Each web developer will have certain areas of expertise. Ensure your developer is a good match for your business.

6. How much involvement will I have?

Perhaps the second part of this question is also, how much involvement do I want to have? Do you want to be a part of the process, every step of the way? Or would you prefer to hand off your specifications and say “take it away”? The important part of this question is ensuring your wants are met. If you are expecting to provide approval and make changes along the way, make sure that is clearly agreed upon upfront.

7. Will the website be fully editable?

Again, this one comes down to your individual wants and needs. However, if you are expecting to be able to make changes to text, banners, images, and other features without knowing coding, you need to establish this upfront. When complete, what will you be able to edit and what will you need to pay someone to edit?

8. How long is your web development process?

Good web development takes time. It is not a process that should be rushed into. However, it’s important to understand the timeline. If you are expecting an amazing website designed and launched in two weeks, you should probably think again. However, different web development companies have significantly different timelines ranging from a month or two to a year. A lot of this will also depend on your specific requirements, but this is something you certainly want to be aware of before signing a check.

9. What is the end-to-end expected cost?

Despite what some may lead you to believe, websites certainly do not fall under the If you have to ask… philosophy. We certainly don’t advocate finding the cheapest, as that usually costs more in the end. Websites are an investment, but their development should not be an endless money pit. A good web developer will be able to outline your costs upfront and work with you to ensure it falls into your budget before beginning.

10. What examples do you have? May I speak to your clients?

Previous achievement is the most common prediction of future achievement. Make sure you don’t just take a web developer for their word. Ask to see examples of their work. Ask to speak to their current and former clients. A good developer will be happy to supply you …

Now that you have made up your mind to take your business online, it is time to explore the web application development market facts to be on the right track.

To begin with, let’s explore some interesting trivia about websites, including some amazing facts about web development and behind the scene elements that affect the website’s performance.

Interesting Web Application Development Facts

So, here are some amazing facts about web app development that will improve your understanding of your website and help you set your digital goals before you form a partnership with a web application development company.

Before you run through the content, here take a quick look at the video to know what is to come.

Now, read on the detailed description.

1. A Website Doesn’t Look Same on Diverse Computer Screens

Browsers on each device render a website in a different manner. It is this reason, a website that looks a certain way on Google Chrome in desktop computer looks different on Safari in your iPhone.

How a website will look on the screen depends on factors such as parsing and rendering, means how a browser translate the code in a website and display it on your screen.

2. Most of the Readers Simply Scan the Website

In research on how people read websites, Nielsen Norman Group found that 79% of test users scanned the website, and only 16% of users read the text word by word.

This means a website must have scannable text, including keywords, sub-headings, bulleted lists, only one idea in a paragraph, and fewer words to enable readers to run through the content.

If a copy is not properly formatted for skimming and scanning, website visitors might lose their interest and skip to the next option in the search result. Good quality graphics, outbound hypertext links, and good writing together forms a great copy.

So if you do not have your own team of copywriters, check with your web development company if they offer such services or you might take help from the external vendors.

3. Two Third of Web Usage is on Mobile Devices

The rise of smartphones has changed the medium through which users reach out to a website.

Most of the users browse the Internet on smartphones. and so make sure your web application development company must optimize the website to deliver a delightful mobile experience.

4. Life Span of Website is Just 3 Years

Digital space is continually evolving. From hardware to software, every aspect of the Internet is bound to change in a few years, and its result affects the websites too.

So, a website designed three years back must be upgraded to the latest technology available to provide the optimum level of user experience.

In the current scenario, emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and Blockchain have begun impacting websites.

Top companies have already powered their website with new-age technologies to adopt a data-driven approach and get visibility into the system.

5. Source Code of Website Affects Search Engine Ranking

Search engines read the source code of your website, and so it is essential that web developers make the code SEO friendly.

Search engines like Google pick up the ranking signals from different HTML elements.

Web developing during the application development process must focus on elements such as HTML title tag, meta description tag, header tags, and structured data tag.

6. Website Template can Restrict the Capabilities of a Website

In the web application development market, website templates have become a common favorite of those who have little idea of coding and do not want to spend too much time on web app development.

Although, website templates are the easy way out, it limits your capabilities to use design elements of your choice or at times bloat coding as well.

7. Multimedia Content Can Have Positive and Negative on Your Website

Multimedia content such as videos and images must be used judiciously to achieve the desired result.

Although, according to a report, 73% of visitors are influenced by videos, excessive use of videos and images could slow down the website significantly.

As a result, visitors may leave the website out of frustration. Besides, it can also make the website look messy and confuse them.

8. Demographics Impact the User Behaviour

One-size-fits-all websites are on extinction. Since people follow different cultures in different places, they react to technology differently as well.

It means demography plays an important role in user behaviour.

To tackle this, businesses must conduct deep research of their visitor demographics to get a positive response from their users.

9. Users Form Their Opinions in 0.9 Seconds

It just takes 0.9 seconds for the users to form an opinion. So, make sure that the first few seconds when users land on the website provide them with a good experience.

You can create a good impression by using a proper content layout, images, and background theme.

Conclusion

It’s tough to mess with facts. But this does not mean that you have to develop a website that is simply a copy of other popular websites.

There is always room for experimentation and innovative ideas, but of course without meddling with facts.…

Consumer spending habits are shifting to ecommerce—fast. As a result, the demand for web designers is high and likely to remain so, with an expected growth rate of 13 percent for the profession, much faster than the anticipated rate of growth for the job market overall.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a hyper-local brick-and-mortar retailer, a regional brand, or a community nonprofit, to optimize your digital presence you need to hire a web designer with design and technical skills who understands your brand and your target customers. But how do you go about attracting design applicants, assessing their work, and selecting the right web designer to work with your team?

The following five steps can help you find a designer whose vision meets your needs:

1. Create a budget for your web site design
2. Write a web designer job description
3. Assess applicant resumes and digital portfolios
4. Ask the right interview questions
5. Draw up a project brief and contract

Do You Need a Web Designer or Developer?

Before you begin your web designer hiring process, you need to determine whether you need to hire a web designer or a web developer—and you need to know the difference.

A web designer will create your website’s graphic presentation, including images, and typography. They will also design the user experience: how the user travels through the site and encounters information along the way. Some designers also have web development skills and credentials, allowing them to design and implement your site’s functionality.

More often, designers focus on your site’s visual elements, while developers implement functionality, for example, by making sure your site employs responsive design across all platforms, especially on mobile devices. They can also increase navigation speed and help prevent customers from bouncing from your site to a competitor’s. To hire a web developer, you’ll want to follow steps similar to those outlined for web designers in the process outlined below.

1. Create a Budget for Your Web Site Design

Contemporary web sites are more than just brand marketing tools. A well-designed commercial web site can be a reliable source of pre-purchase product research and a sales driver. It needs to look good and work well. If it doesn’t—if your current site is static or outdated—chances are you’re leaving money on the table.

How critical is your web site design? Data indicates that 38.5 percent of consumers judge products and brands by their web sites, 38 percent will stop interacting with a poorly designed web site, and 50 percent will opt for your competition if they have a negative experience on your site.

That’s why it’s crucial to hire a web designer who ishighly qualified: either a freelance designer or (if your business frequently adds components to your site) a full-time web designer. Depending on the scope of your business, costs for web site design projects vary greatly, but hiring a freelancer, or even an inhouse designer, is likely to be less expensive than hiring a full-service agency.

2. Write a Web Designer Job Description

Once you’ve decided whether to hire a staff designer or freelance web professional, you’ll need to create a web designer job description. Begin with a short description of your workplace that makes your business’s focus and mission clear. You should also explain why you’re a great business partner or employer and why this project presents a fun and creative challenge for the right candidate.

As you list the qualities you’re looking for in a designer, emphasize what makes these professionals so unique. For instance, you’ll likely want to hire a web designer who has a unique combination of technical know how, visual flare, and customer focus.

3. Assess Designers’ Resumes and Digital Portfolios

Once you start getting responses to your job listing, you’ll need to gauge applicants’ resumes for qualities that make a good web designer:

• A bachelor’s degree in graphic design, digital design, or web development
• Adobe certification in web design and/or development
• Previous experience as a web designer
• A demonstrated sense of visual design fundamentals, including image composition, typography, and informational hierarchy
• An understanding of user experience (UX) and information architecture
• Experience using coding languages, such as HTML or JavaScript
• Familiarity with cascading style sheets (CSS), content management systems (CMS), and Adobe Suite software, particularly InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator
• An understanding of search engine optimization (SEO) and mobile optimization

Once you’ve narrowed down the resumes to a core number, you’re almost ready to hire a web designer. The next step is assessing designers’ digital portfolios, which will include work they’ve done for other employers or clients. The top candidates’ portfolios will demonstrate web design best practices, such as clean design, intuitive navigation, and clearly actionable calls to action.

4. Ask the Right Interview Questions

The best web designers tend to have a unique skill set. They’re visually gifted, technically innovative problem solvers. They’re creative, but also deadline-driven and highly organized. The questions below will help you select a candidate with this rare combination of skills:

• What kind of information do you look for from your clients before you begin a project?
• What are the differences between desktop and mobile design?
• How do you manage the expectations and opinions of multiple stakeholders on a project team?
• How would you assess your time management skills, and what do you do when deadlines approach and some elements of a project are still unresolved?
• Describe a web design

Website development is the key to your business’ success regardless of whether you are a start-up looking for a new website or an established business looking to revamp your existing website. Hiring a full-time website developer is certainly one of the options you have; however, hiring a professional website development company in India to get the job done is better of the two options.

1. Planning and strategy

Planning and strategy is the key to a successful website development. When you hire a website development company in Ahmedabad you get access to a team of website development experts. They work on your project keeping mind your long and short term goals apart from your target audience’s preferences and purchase behavior.

2. Time-efficiency

Another value-added advantage of hiring a website development company in India such as Gatistvam Technologies is time-efficiency. As a professional web development firm, we ensure that all our projects get completed on time with the highest level of quality.

3. Project management & Quality assurance

Professional web development companies also have project managers and quality assurance experts to make sure that the end product is up to the mark and tested on a number of quality parameters.

4. Affordability

Partnering with a website development company offers you plenty of benefits ranging from timely completion to better project management and affordability. If you think hiring a website development company in India will be a costly affair, you couldn’t be more wrong. Since, you get access to a team of developers, designers, and marketing professionals, it is always a more economical solution as compared to hiring one in-house developer.

For more information related to website development frameworks or Gatistvam’s website development solutions, feel free to get in touch with us.…

An attractively designed and well-coded website will help you convert customers, rank high on Google, and avoid frustrating errors and downtime.

You can build and maintain your website using a website builder or a WordPress theme and plugins. However, working with a developer has lots of advantages, especially for business owners: you will have greater flexibility over your website’s appearance and functionality, you can rest assured that everything will function as it should, and you will also cut down on your own workload.

Whether you are creating a new website, updating it, or simply maintaining it, hiring a developer can save you time and ensure your site runs smoothly.

We’ve previously looked at how to hire a developer for a custom WordPress theme, and today, we’ll take you through how to hire one for any website project. We will look at how to outline your project and identify the type of developer you need, where to find and hire developers, and what your budget should be.

Already know the answers to some of these questions? Use the links below to skip ahead to the information you need:

• Determine the Scope of Your Project
• The Types of Website Developers
• Where to Hire a Developer
• How Much Does Web Development Cost
• How to Evaluate the Quality of a Web Developer

How to Determine the Scope of Your Project

Outlining the project requirements will help you choose the right web developer and budget appropriately. It will also help you communicate exactly what you need, so you are more likely to have a positive working relationship with the developer.

One of the biggest things to consider is whether the project relates to the website’s design, coding and functionality, or both.

• Design projects: These are normally tied to branding and user experience. Perhaps you want a new homepage layout, a more accessible color scheme, or different fonts.
• Coding and functionality projects: These typically relate to the features your website has and how it functions. Maybe you want a chat box or a less time-consuming way to add new products to your online store.

Sometimes, projects require both design work and coding. Your new homepage layout, for example, might need new code to embed videos or collapse and expand text.

What Kind of Developer Do I Need?

There are many different kinds of website developers, but now that you know the scope of your project, you can work out which one you should work with.

1. Designer vs. Developer

If you just need design work, then a web designer is your best option. However, if it is a functionality-based project, you will need a developer. If the project touches on both, you have a couple options: you can hire both a website designer and developer, or you can work with an agency.

You might wonder if a graphic designer could do the job instead of a web designer. While both graphic designers and web designers create brand imagery such as logos and color schemes, a web designer also uses CSS, HTML, and potentially other programming languages to bring the designs to life on your web page.

Plus, and perhaps even more importantly, they design with user experience in mind. This means they consider accessibility for screen readers, SEO best practices, and what your website will look like on different screens and systems.

We’ve written a guide to hiring a designer to create a custom website, so if you decide a designer is what you’re really looking for, check that out. However, if you need a developer, keep reading.

2. Front-end vs. Back-end Developers

The front end of your website is the visible part the reader interacts with. The back end is the part that you use to upload new content, do security updates, and more. Sometimes, these are also called client side (front end) and server side (back end).

These two parts of your website are built with different programming languages, so many developers specialize in either one or the other. Before you start speaking to developers, you will want to work out if this is a front-end or back-end project — or both.

Bear in mind that some back-end developers describe themselves by the programming languages they specialize in, e.g. PHP developer or Ruby developer. If you’re looking for a back-end developer online and know what language you need, try searching for that instead.

3. Full-Stack Developer

Let’s say that your project involves both the front end and back end of your site. You have two options: you could either work with two developers or hire a full-stack developer.

A full-stack developer can work on both ends of the website. They are proficient in all the main languages and frameworks and tend to be more expensive as a result.

It’s a particularly good idea to work with a full-stack developer when you are designing a completely new website build because they can advise you on the bigger picture.

4. Freelance vs. Full Time

Depending on the complexity and duration of your project, you might find it best to work with a freelancer or hire a full-time web developer. Both options have their pros and cons, but it shouldn’t be too hard to work out what’s best for you and your company.

For one-off projects with no maintenance required, a freelance website developer will likely suit your needs best. Similarly, if minimal …

Contrary to what some may believe, web development is still an extremely vital part of any marketing strategy. A common belief today is that social media platforms have replaced the need for a conventional website but that simply is not the case.

It’s true that in recent years there has been a shift toward online interactions with social media sites, mobile devices and apps topping the charts. As a result, the way people access the web to shop, chat and find information has also changed dramatically. Businesses of all shapes and sizes have had to adapt their web presence to stay in front of their consumers.

So with all the digital and social advancements, why is web development still important? These 5 reasons outline why your website is key to building a successful online presence for your business.

1. Maintaining Ownership

It’s critical to protect your brand identity by owning your web address and website. This will avoid surrendering control of your brand to a third party website and their ads. Remember, owning your own domain name and using a reputable host company is just as important as choosing the domain name itself. Owning your domain name is vital to your business, brand and online presence. Not only does it build your brand, it also makes people more likely to engage with your website.

2. Control Your Content With Good Web Development

The old adage that “Content is King” still rings true to this day, possibly even more than before. How you present your content is just as important. Make sure content is original, relevant and interesting to effectively get your message across. With good web development, you control the user experience, manage content relevancy and your conversion process.

Good content is what sets your website apart from everyone else and delivers the right message to your customers. Website content always begins with proper market research where you identify your high-value customers (HVC). From there you can start defining personas for your website.

3. Create a Content Hub

It’s no secret that blogs are fundamental to your digital marketing strategy and should be the focal point for all your content marketing activities. Use your social media presence as a means to engage your audience and ultimately bring visitors to your website.

Your company blog will also increase the number of relevant inbound links that send readers to the main parts of your website. This, along with SEO, will increase traffic and the duration of each visit to your site.

4. Attracting Search Traffic

Good web development means a fully optimised website which plays a vital role in attracting valuable search engine traffic. Consumers are essentially still looking for information by using keyword searches in Google and other search engines. Implementing the right keywords and topics on your website will significantly help visitors find your site.

Website traffic is an important indicator and driver of business growth and really helps you to:

• Determine ROI to see how well your marketing is working
• Gather insight into your audience to make informed decisions
• Improve your SEO and search engine credibility
• Generate more leads, increase conversions, and get more customers overall

There are many SEO tactics you can perform on every page of your website to increase their search engine rankings and get more visitors. Take a look at one of our recent blog posts on Adaptive SEO Best Practice For Top Google Rankings.

5. Monitor, Tweak and Improve

Effective web development gives you the ability to accurately analyse website statistics. It includes measuring conversion rates, monitoring backlinks and assessing visitor engagement, all of which are essential to improve all your online marketing activities. The goal is to ultimately achieve a return on your web investment and integrating Google Analytics, Google Webmaster tools and a CMS will certainly help.

If you are serious about digital marketing and truly want to achieve success, don’t neglect your business website; it’s your most valuable online asset. Just take a look at the recent WMA Awards where WSI’s website was among the winning submissions.

Get in touch if you need help improving your website or if you have a new web development project in mind. We provide digital marketing services including SEO, PPC, Marketing Automation, Adaptive Web Design, Social Media and Email Marketing among others.…