Three Questions To Ask Your Web Designer Before Starting A Project

When you’re deciding on the right web designer to work with for your website development, it’s a good idea to open the lines of communication so all expectations are in the open as the project begins. We like to make all of our projects as transparent as possible, laying out the exact project design vision, work flow, and list of components and functionalities, before website production begins. Here are three of the main questions and concerns our web designers address with all of our clients before a web design project begins.

Do We Share A Vision For This Web Design Project?
As a reference, ask your web designer for a portfolio of their recent work to get an idea for their design style and the quality of their work. Take a look at other websites and talk with your website designer about elements of the sites that you like and don’t like. You may not have the vocabulary to simply state what you are looking for, so being able to visualize particulars with the designer will ensure they have a good understanding of your preferred aesthetics, and there will be no surprises when the project is completed. Also, it’s important that you ask the web designer for their input as well. While it’s good to be involved in your web design project, it’s always best to allow the designer to direct the projects design – after all, they know a great deal more about what is available and are knowledgeable of what the trends are for great website designs.

Get to Know Your Designer’s Capabilities
Find out just how proficient your prospective web designer is. Will your website development be handled by an individual or a distributed team? Find out what platform your website will be built on, whether or not the person you are speaking to will be doing the development, and how they plan to build the site. Most websites need to be built to scale for content, traffic, users, and more. Trying to save a bit of money on the front-end by enlisting the services of an amateur website designer could end up costing you more money in the long run in revamps, redesigns, marketing and more. Making sure that your web designer is a talented and competent developer that builds standards based websites will only ensure a stronger end product.

Support After the Site Goes Live
Lastly, make sure you come to an agreement of what happens after the website goes live. A dependable developer will have a rider in the contract for maintenance services for a fixed period while any minor bugs may need to be worked out after launch. Many websites don’t require routine maintenance and upgrades, but most require content updates and improvements. Having a management plan in place before launch is a great way to avoid any unforeseen site errors or outages.

Elements To Look For In Solid Website Design

Your product is just what your customers have need for, and now is the time to present your branding and marketing strategy to an online consumer audience. The last thing you want to do is slap up a website without considering how it will function, and to avoid this, you will want to find a web developer who knows the ins and outs of website design to bring as much attention to your message as possible.

A website might look great to you, but if the elements of a solid website design aren’t in place, you will never realize its full potential. Companies such as Bricks & Mortar Creative can provide you with the service you need, and here’s how.

Website Load Times
Often overlooked by amateur designers, a page’s loading time is critical for customer retention. When a potential customer clicks on a link to bring them to a section of your website, they’re not going to hang around for long waiting for it to load. There are too many other options out there, and they want nearly instant gratification when it comes to seeking information. Your prices might well be the best out there, and your products may be exactly what they need, but if they have to wait for a slow page to load in order to discover this, they will simply click to another site instead.

Credibility
A customer is coming to your website to find a particular item or piece of information. If they are instead first bombarded with silly bits of ‘entertainment’ or a flurry of revenue generating adds they aren’t going to be pleased. Your site should be designed to give someone exactly what they want, when they want it. If they’re not getting it, the credibility of your branding has just been flushed down the toilet.

Clear Message
On the same note, make sure your content gets straight to the point. If you want to sell your customers a product, make it readily available for them to buy it. A main page with your company’s branding message should be the landing page, but then clearly marked sections should be available for the customer to go to exactly what they want to see. You may wish to forecast what else they would be interested in that relates to the product they’re looking for, but don’t go overboard. Trust your customers and your site designer to provide the right amount of information without muddling up your message.

Logical Design
Your brand is important to you and your customers, so ensure the design of the website matches your message. If your client demographic is adults between the ages of forty and sixty, you will want to ensure your graphic designs are fitting for that group. For example, you wouldn’t be utilizing a trending hip hop image to support selling timeshares in Boca Raton, Florida.

Finding The Right Web Designer for Your Next Web Design Project

Whether you’re developing a brand new website or just doing a website redesign, a bit of research into what can be offered is a solid first step to getting exactly what you want out of a contracted web designer. There are several options and sites dedicated to matching clients and designers based on price range, but you will want to focus primarily on the quality of work and the reputation of someone as your main consideration.

Know the Market Value of Web Design
It may feel like you are snooping around, but ask others in your industry what they paid for their website projects. Compare these costs to the final product and seriously ask yourself if that price seemed like a good value. Take into consideration not only the more obvious elements such as graphics and ease of navigation, but also the underlying design elements such as search engine optimization and page load time. These hidden aspects are crucial to receiving quality traffic and keeping visitors on the site in order to purchase or retain your site’s message. A slow loading page or one that can’t be found may look great, but it’s not doing what it was designed to do. For examples of top notch work, check out the excellent services offered on our portfolio.

Ask for a Portfolio
Every web designer is going to have a project they are most proud of, but it is in your best interest to investigate the scope of their projects. Ask for referrals, and when you receive them, contact them. You can find some important information simply by asking a few questions. Was the work completed on time? Was the price favorable in relation to the end product? How accessible is the designer when it came to adjustments and changes?

Another question to ask of the web designer is if they would be willing to share their least favorite project. Then, ask them what they didn’t like about it, and what they learned from the experience. No one starts a career as an expert, and having your potential designer walk you through what they would have done differently is a great way to determine what your project may look like in the end.

Getting Down to Brass Tacks
Lastly, have a frank conversation with your possible web designer concerning expectations. It is a given that you will share your requirements, but you will also need to know what they need from you and when. If a deadline is pushed because they were waiting to hear from you with vital information of a decision on a design question, you can’t rightly hold them at fault. Keeping a clear line of communication open is one way to ensure a great product when all is said and done.

Generate A Google Review Link In 2 Easy Steps

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that Google Reviews are an important factor when it comes to your online success. Google Reviews not only give your business authority and trustworthiness, but they are also a ranking factor in local search results.

It’s not always easy to ask your clients or customers to review your business, so when you are able to, it’s always a good idea to make the process as easy as possible for them. Sending clients a link that will bring them directly to the review form is obviously the best bet, but unfortunately, Google doesn’t make this an easy thing to do.

How To Generate A Google Review Link

Generating a Google Review link is actually pretty easy to do, you’ll just need to follow 2 steps.

1. First, you’ll need to find your “Place ID”. Start by going to the Google Place ID Finder and searching for your business name. Once you find your business, click the name and verify the location on the map. The map card that points to your location will include the Place ID. Copy the ID.
2. Now just paste your Place ID into the link below replacing the placeholder with your ID.
   https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid={PLACE ID HERE}

Using our business as an example, the final URL would look something like this: https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=ChIJ8wdEEj2r2YgR-BS9gUBdK_k

Now, just paste the link into a browser to test it. When the page loads, a form should pop up asking you to review your business.

Once you’ve confirmed your Google Review link is working, you can now send it to your clients and customers to review your business.

Five Tips For Leading An Efficient Web Design Project

After determining the website’s purpose concerning message, branding, and content, there are still a few outstanding elements that need to be considered when building or re-launching a website.
First, you’ll need to investigate audience reach, search engine optimization, traffic patterns, customer engagement, and a whole plethora of finely tuned details that will come together to make your online presence a success. Your first step should be contracting a web design and internet marketing company to get the biggest bang for your development buck.

Make a list of goals you would like to achieve, content you would like to share, and information you would like to include so that when development begins, everyone is working toward a clearly defined and shared goal.

Get Everyone On the Same Page
No matter how large your web development team is, make sure everyone has their clearly defined job and then get together and review what the goals are for the project. Start with an audit of the current website if there is on and an overview of what the marketing strategy is. Then look for what is missing, what could be added, and what general brainstorming around the aesthetic.
If possible, bring up the site on an overhead projector and use it as a customer would, noting what is working well, what isn’t, and what you would like to see. Reviewing these elements early on will bring everyone on board with a common vision for your web design project.

Have a Firm Number for Your Web Design Budget
Knowing how much you wish to spend is a great way to keep a project in control. You will need to determine how much will be spent on graphics, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, creative content licensing, and a whole host of other incidentals. You may also want to determine how much can be done in-house, and how much your web design and marketing contractor will need to accomplish.

It’s always best to go with a professional when in doubt. Often times you will find yourself spending twice the money when you try and get a good deal with a “cheap freelancer”. In the world of web design and web development, you truly get what you pay for, so make sure you find a web design company with a promising track record.

Identify Your Customer Base
Current analytic information for your current website can be essential here, as you may not be reaching the audience you initially designed your project around. Also, you can take the time to determine why certain demographics aren’t being reached – examples of this would be a youth orientated site that requires credit card verifications. If your audience doesn’t have a credit card for age verification, then how can they interact with your message?

It’s best to have someone either in-house or on contract who can modify and easily add new content to your website, so that when any adjustments are needed in order to better communicate with your audience, they can be made.

Be Prepared to Adjust Your Initial Plans
As your web design project takes shape, it may become necessary to insert new elements, change functionality, add additional content, remove elements or a number of other situations in order to have the project ‘flow’ more smoothly. Your initial brainstorming sessions will prove invaluable, but nothing should ever be set in stone. Be ready to compromise in the best interest of the web design project.

However, the more preparation you do before production starts, the less likely project detours will be. The more precise you make your planning in the beginning, the easier it will be to identify potential flaws and issues, allowing them to be addressed during conceptualizing, as opposed to on the fly during project production. This will save you time, money, and lots of headache in your project.

Know What the Next Step Is
Once your site goes live, you will want to be ready for the follow up tasks, such as marketing, branding, and gaining traffic. Knowing how these elements will be accomplished. It’s always best to start right away with your search engine optimization efforts, but depending on the size of your site and marketing budget for your web design project you may not be able to dive right into a PPC campaign. There are a number of more inexpensive methods including social marketing, social content marketing, content marketing, video marketing, content creation and more, that can help you develop an audience. Once you have a large enough audience, you can make more educated decisions on your advertising buy’s, allowing you to proceed with more confidence.

Free SEO Guide and Checklist For Web Designers

When creating a new website for a client, you should optimize it for a couple of keywords to get them started becoming indexed in the search engines. Start at the beginning and do as much or as little as you’d like.

First…
Determine whether they’ve already purchased a URL. The URL is very important for a websites search ranking as it is the first indicator as to what a website’s content is about. If your client has not already purchased a website URL suggest a few to them that are keyword rich, but not spammy. If the client already has a URL purchased, you can still optimize the URL’s of the sub-pages.

Before you start optimizing think you should first plan a few things out. The first step in this SEO guide, develop a list of a few keywords that make up the core content of your website. Once you have this list you should single out a “core keyword” for each page. This core keyword should be included, or tried to be included, somehow in all of the areas mentioned below. For the purposes of this starter SEO guide, our sample core keyword will be “Fort Lauderdale Web Designer”.

Now That That’s Out Of The Way Take A Look At The Title
The page title should be concise, coherent, and keyword rich without exceeding 60-65 characters (with a very maximum of 70). The page titles shouldn’t be stuffed or fragmented, we find they work best as summary statements of the pages content. To use our sample “core keyword” in an example we could say “Fort Lauderdale Web Designers & Internet Marketers – Bricks & Mortar Creative”. This simply states what the page is about, ‘Fort Lauderdale Web Designers and Internet Marketers’.

You don’t have to use the business name, although clients typically like to see that, and you can be more detailed, as long as you maintain the character length restrictions.

Meta Keywords… Who Cares
Use them if you want. Leave them blank if you want to save the time. Just don’t skimp on the meta descriptions.

Meta Descriptions. Google’s Page Cliff Notes
The meta description is a ~160 character summary that should not only include the core keyword, but should properly and coherently convey the main idea of the web page. It can be one to two sentences long. Don’t stuff this full of keywords, make it spammy, or write it awkwardly or incoherently. Just clearly and concisely sum up the pages contents and include your core keyword.

At all costs, avoid using duplicate meta description content. Matt Cutt’s from Google has publicly said that it’s better to have no meta tag at all rather than a duplicate meta tag. More about that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4gr88oHb-k.

Heading Tags. When And Where To Use Them
Heading tags are great places to use not only your core keyword, but core keyword variants. Keyword variants of our core keyword would be “Fort Lauderdale Web Developer”, “Fort Lauderdale Magento Website Developer”, etc. Heading tags are signaled in your code with the h1, h2, h3, h4 and so on tags and are also useful for design because you can assign different styles to each heading style to vary headings throughout your site.

The h1 tag is the most important and should only be used once throughout the page. This tag can have any amount of text but if possible should include your core keyword. Try not to use too many words as this tag is meant for headings, not body content.

The h2 tag is also a strong indicator to spiders what a page is about, but can be used more often throughout a page. While it seems there is no real negative effect from taking a few liberties with lengths of content of h2 tags, you should never intentionally be spammy. That’s not cool.

The rest of the header tags are more valuable from a design and aesthetic standpoint than a search engine optimization standpoint, but then the more organized and easily digestible your content is, the more readers you will attract and the lower your bounce rate will become, which could have a positive effect on your search engine rankings, so always be as organized as possible.

Body Content & Content Links
Your page content is extremely important in how Google will rank your website. The more engaging, relative content you include the better. You should always aim for a minimum of 500 words in whatever your publishing, but for a highly optimized page, 750 would be even better.

Page content should be on topic, relevant, well written, and include your core keyword 3-5 times so as not to appear spammy, unless it would naturally occur more often. The more engaging you make the content, the more likely it is also to receive social share, which can have a very positive effect on search. This is more in regards to blog posts/articles/videos, but it applies to regular pages as well.

Throughout your body content, you should include links to other pages throughout your site with keyword rich anchor text. Anchor text is the text clicked that links to the other page, as this indicates what the link leads to. Don’t stuff the page with these, but use 3-5 in accordance to how much content you have.

Footer Text Links
The footer area of the website often goes under utilized by web designers, not realizing how appropriate is to not only store a full index of site links, but to store valuable anchor text in these site links. You can be as brief, or as detailed as you like with these links, but at the very least it gives you an opportunity to add keyword rich, text links on every single page of your site to your desired pages without appearing as spam.

Image Alt Tags
When you’re adding an image in, whether it’s hard coded or with a CMS, you should really add a keyword in the alt tag. This keyword should be a support keyword and you could rotate through a list of 6-8 on the images of your site. This won’t have a massive effect on your search results, but does help a bit with optimization.

Rich Snippets
Rich snippets allow Google to better understand, index, and deliver certain types of content that may be present on your site like products, articles, video, music and more as structured data. This helps show reviews, price ranges, songs, photos and more for a listing.

Not every SEO guide suggests rich snippets, and they can be optional. They can help Google index product and article information more accurately but it may be a more daunting task than it is worth for some. In that case, if you can figure out how to use them, or a plugin or extension that can help, then you may as well, and if not don’t worry about it.

Website Page Speed
Another thing often ignored when it comes to a websites search performance is the websites load time and web page performance. Properly configuring your websites database, servers, and code to most efficiently deliver the content is important to do regularly as Google considers this to be important in the consideration of search rankings.

You can test page speed with a number of website tools, but if you need any assistance just contact us.

Use Advanced Custom Fields in WordPress REST API Response

The WordPress v2 API can be an extremely powerful tool when developing custom websites, web apps, or even mobile apps if you know how to wield it properly.  In our experimentation and research with the WordPress API, one issue we ran in to was the ability to utilize the hugely popular plugin Advanced Custom Fields in the native API response. Advanced Custom Fields allows for rapid addition of new data points to just about any page or post type, so being able to include these data points in our API response would allow for a much more rapid development process. After a little bit of google-fu and tinkering, we came up with this script that can be used in the ‘functions.php’ file of any WordPress install.

$post_type = “case_studies”;

function case_studies_rest_prepare_post($data, $post, $request) {
$_data = $data->data;

$fields = get_fields($post->ID);
if($fields){
foreach ($fields as $key => $value){
$_data[$key] = get_field($key, $post->ID);
}

$data->data = $_data;
}
else{

}

return $data;
}

add_filter(“rest_prepare_{$post_type}”, ‘case_studies_rest_prepare_post’, 10, 3);

In this case, I have two custom post types I am exposing to the WordPress API, ‘case_studies’ and ‘clients’. I can now access these custom post types along with their Advanced Custom Fields via the standard WordPress V2 API route, for example http://www.yourwebsite.com/wp-json/wp/v2/case_studies.

When it comes to utilizing your API route, one approach you can take is using cURL to request and parse the data. Once your request returns a response, you can then easily use the data in any framework you’d like, for example React or StencilJS. You can also just use the API to hook in to the WP data and plugin functionalities and run everything through a more secure, faster custom HTML5 website.

No matter the need, the WordPress API can be used as an excellent option for content management for an MVP / bootstrap web application, mobile application, static web design project, or other R&D website development project.

HTML5 Video Tutorial

This HTML5 Video Tutorial will cover the html5 video element, it’s use and practical applications. HTML5 not only makes it much easier for you to embed your self-hosted videos, but also processes and displays them in a much smoother, faster-loading manner. Before HTML5 Video, to include a video your options were pretty much limited to embedding from youtube or embedding a flash element. Now you have the ability to simply use the “<video>” tag.

To give you an idea of the what the code looks like, here is an example of how you would include a video using html5:

<video width=”320″ height=”240″ controls>
<source src=”YourMovie.mp4″ type=”video/mp4″>
<source src=”YourMovie.ogg” type=”video/ogg”>
Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>

This would include a video in both the mp4 and ogg format at 320px by 240px and will include video controls like play, pause, and volume controls. You can also control the volume of your video using jQuery if needed. In this case we only used mp4 and OGG file types, but the video element can also use the webM video format.

Each browser type has a different number of video types that they work best with, and unfortunately no one file type is accepted universally by all major browsers.  If you’re able to include an MP4 and OGG video file though, your video should be viewable by just about any potential user.  To give you a better idea on what video types work where, you can consult the table below.

For a real world example on how we used this HTML5 video tutorial, you can view our work on the Haber website. We created a responsive layout that features a full page video upon landing, featuring their latest brand video. By self-hosting the video, Haber did not have to host their content on Youtube and they were able to serve their content quickly and with almost no loss of quality.

Using HTML5 to include video on your website is a great way to give your users and clients a much deeper and informative view into what it is you’re presenting.

How to Buy Magento Extensions

Savvy research for optimizing your Magento extension purchase

You find yourself in need of either picking up a fresh Magento extension package, or perhaps are looking at updating your current application. Either way, searching for a product to fill your needs can be a hassle. But, it doesn’t have to be. Simply knowing what to look for and what things you’ll want to know about before beginning your search is a great first step. Follow these tips for stress free shopping process and come away with the right Magento extension for your specific needs.

Look for Reliability
You want ensure the product you’re looking for is ready to run out of the package, so look for suppliers offering tested products, rather than those who simply pass on pre-bundled deals. The company should be able to give firsthand knowledge of your extension’s installation ease and requirements, as well as configuration access for fine tuning once it is in place.

Customer Service
This one is always big no matter what you are buying, so make sure your Magento extension supplier is available for any questions or installations issues that might arise. Look for a provider who has a money back guarantee where if you’re not satisfied with your choice, they will be there to make things right.

Application Licensing of your Magento Extension
Look for a provider that will license to your flexible needs. Some companies prefer to apply licensing to individuals, no matter what the situation. Your provider should be able to work with you, offering to license to either your store, by edition, or even by installation. There’s no need to complicate matters.

Compatibility of Magento Extensions
It may be that your first purchase and installation was through a separate developer, and you will want to assured the compatibility of the new product you are putting into use will work seamlessly with your existing platform. Before purchasing, speak with the representative about what versions are supported, so you won’t be loading in a Magento extension that can’t communicate.

Seek Flexibility
Magneto extensions come in a variety of forms with specific applications in mind. Instead of saving what seems a few dollars in buying a bulk package filled with multiple extensions you won’t use, look for a provider who will let you pick and choose your own bundle and base price off of that.