Why Website Maintenance is so important for your business?

Are you relaxed after creating a website for your business? Just do sit back after your website goes live and is working, it should not only work rather it should function effectively. Proper website maintenance is very important for website in order to make sure that you are not losing any customer. Creating a website is like building a house which will fall apart if proper care is not taken towards its maintenance. You need to maintain your website so that it works positively on every account.

After knowing that website maintenance is important, you might be wondering why it is not advisable to leave your website alone after its creation? The online world is changing at a rapid rate and if you will not be flexible, you will be left behind. You might think that putting your website live is all you have to do in order to mark your online presence but there are many other things which you need to do in order to mark a strong online presence. There are server updates and web browser updates which you need to regularly check and perform so that you go well with the latest technology. Several elements which could account to your website maintenance are listed below.

User Experience

Anything which is outdated and not catering to the need of the users is not relevant and will lead to a poor user experience. Your visitors will create an impression about your website according to the information and look they get on your page. Always be updated and up-breast with the latest technology and advancements in the industry. Keep new and unique content on your website to match the user's expectations.

Content

Content is and will always be the king. The regular update and checking of content is a must for your website. Some of the important things that should be surely added in your content are company news, industry news, products & services news, employee news and any other offers, etc. Your content should be unique and relevant for the user for them to be hooked to your website. Create the best content and your visitors will be glued to your site giving you more business and growth.

Broken Links

Your website should not contain any incomplete or broken links as it creates a negative impression about your website. When your website is linking to other sites or it is linking one page to the other page within your website, make sure that all your links are perfect. All the internal and external links should be properly checked and corrected in order to gain a higher rank in the search engine result. Broken links can be detrimental for your website and via-a-vis to your business.

Statistics

Use the tools available for checking your web traffic. Since your web traffic is of utmost importance for your website, you should always keep a track of it. Proper tracking of your website visitors will give you enough insights for formulating your policies accordingly. You should keep a track of the kind of traffic and their behavior in order to retain and grow them. Set right tool and strategy to target the right customers so that you can gain in the long run.

Image

Always keep a track about your company's image and reputation in the industry. If you really want to grow and develop as a business, you should always be aware about your market position. Google alert is one such tool which will give you valuable inputs regarding your company's performance and market position. Get informed about the outside world in order to formulate your strategy according to the need and requirement of the market.

10 Simple tricks for creating a good website

A proper planning and execution is needed to perform any work effectively and efficiently. Website designing is a very important and crucial task for your business growth and development. Designing your website can be a tedious task and thus needs a thorough and comprehensive approach. You should not miss any of the major elements while designing your website. There are quite a lot of things which needs to be taken care of before you actually set your website go live.

Right from spacing to various functionality and from various fonts to call-to-action, there are many elements which are instrumental in making your website a clear winner among many others present in the market. You need to create a unique and appealing website with all the necessary features and functions integrated into it. Here are some of the major elements which you should never be missed out while designing a website for your business.

Proper Space

Space is the element which dictates both flow and readability. Excessive spacing or less spacing both is not good for your website. Keep consistency while using space for similar elements. The space used between lines of a paragraph and images should be same throughout the page. You should always start with key elements like navigation menus and also make sure that a set spacing is used between various elements. All your button or word will appear clearly on its own if you will follow the above step.

Keep Simple Navigation

Go for an easy and simple navigation in order to enhance your website user experience. You can go for five to ten navigation items depending on the type of website you are planning to create and the number of web traffic you are hoping to generate. You can also use tools which users can use to navigate through your site. Go for simple navigation framework which will guide your users throughout you website by helping them where they are, where they want to go, etc.

About Us Page

Whether you are a small start-up or a giant player in the industry, you need to speak volume about yourself. “About Us” page should tell your visitors about your company's goals, philosophies, etc in order to gain the reliability of the users. Keep this page simple and less wordy to make it engaging and not boring for the website users. Give your brand a personality with this page by including photos of key members of your organization.

Complete Contact Information

Your contact information should be depicted in the most complete and comprehensive manner for your website users. Whether you are using it in the header or Contact Us page, it should clearly show your contact information. It should be properly visible having clear cut information about phone number and physical address. Try to add contact information to all headers and footers with a clear mention of your physical address and a contact form to contact your business directly through email.

Call to Action prompts

Any website without proper integration of call-to-action prompts is not complete. After analyzing the purpose of your website, you can design various prompts which will lead your users to click on the right button. You can guide your website visitors through various call-to-action prompts and make them do what you actually want them to do. Place your call-to-actions prompts where they are clearly visible and next to the item it relates to.

Go for Search option

Adding a search element in your website will make it more user-friendly and convenient for your website visitors. This tool is very important for repeat users as they might like to check something many a times. Place search box at the top right corner of your page and make sure to use a big box so that terms from your website can be typed there. This will make it easier for the visitors to find and use it for their information.

Informative Footer

A footer can be used as a medium to inform your visitors regarding many important things without obstructing your design. Being the best place to put your sitemap, company contact information and various important links, footer should be properly used for each page of your site. Keep your footer simple and design it according to your website design. Use footer to connect to your website users and tell them about all your important traits.

Button- Styling

All the buttons which you are using in your website should be of same shape and size regardless of the various uses they are put to. For creating various distinct set of buttons for all the pages of your website can be a tough task, you can go for various design kit available for this purpose. Go for a unique and distinct set of buttons for all your clickable items.

Beautiful Images

Adding images can improve user-engagement and make your site interesting for your visitors. Nothing attracts people more than beautiful and appealing images placed at the right place in your website. Use photos to make your website appear more appealing and interesting for your website users. Do not use too many images as it can increase your website loading time. Go for custom images rather than going for stock images.

Unique Fonts

With the availability of many fonts, designers can choose the best font for the website and make it look more attractive. The two major things which should be checked before going for font selection are compatibility and licensing. Go for the best font to implement beautiful and interesting typefaces so that your website appears unique and better than the others. You can get various fonts through Google web fonts which is free tool available for you.

How to choose your ultimate CMS website?

It is always better to make proper planning before doing anything. Even while going to the grocery shop, you carry a list so that you do not forget something. Why can't the same thing be applied while going for your content management system. Choosing the best CMS based website can be a tricky exercise. With so many options available such as Wordpress, Joomla, Magento, Drupal, etc you might get confused without a proper planning. Choosing a content management system can be tricky. Without a clearly defined set of requirements, you can be deceived by the various fancy functionality which is both costly and not fit for your use.

The complete checklist which should be referred before going for a CMS website is given below.

Core functionality should be atleast present

You should atleast focus on core functionality like creating, deleting and editing pages while going for CMS. It should not be taken for granted that all CMS provide this core functions. For instance, though most of the blogging platforms allow owner to manage and organize pages, there are a few which does not allow so. You should first choose the basic functionality which you are looking for in your CMS website. Though there are many content management system present in the market with basic functionality, they vary in their usability. Go for a trail test before finalizing your CMS.

The editor is of prime importance

One of the most important feature of CMS is editor. Traditionally most of the content management systems use WYSIWYG editor. It is a tool in the hand of user which helps in adding and amending content. New age editor has much more relevance as it is used for marking headings, lists, links and other elements. Before selecting your CMS, you should ensure that all your requirements are fulfilled by the editor in your CMS. Nowadays, more appropriate solutions have come up instead of editor to make the whole content management process an easy and comforting task.

Manage images and files in the best way

Your images and files should be managed in the best possible way to ensure that no technical issue arises. The bad management of these important attributes can lead to poor accessibility and usability. Choose a CMS that allows you to add <alt> tags to images and further provide you with image editing tools like cropping, resizing and rotating. Your content management system should allow you to upload and attach PDF files without a problem. Go for the basic requirements but have a future prospect as well.

Search feature should be duly considered

Search is one aspect which can be instrumental in your website's visitor experience. More than half of your visitors will be using this feature while looking for relevant content. Your search functionality should be fast and exhaustive to display everything to the online visitor. A speedy and thorough display will boost your website performance. Go for the best search option to get into the good books of your website visitors.

Customization is the key

Your CMS website should be fully customizable so that it can be modified and used according to the user's needs. Your content management should not be over-powered by technology rather it should be manually controlled by the user. Choose a content management system which allows full flexibility as far as content retrieval and presentation is concerned. Flexibility is the only thing which will make your CMS stand out from the rest in the market.

User interaction is taken into account

Your CMS should give you adequate opportunity to interact with the visitors. Gathering user feedback should be the an important aspect of any CMS website. Tools used for communicating with customers, news feed and RSS feed should be properly integrated in the website. Managing users should also be done in an effective way. You can interact with your users through emails, customize the fields depending upon the functions provided by your CMS.

Multiple website support is given

With the latest trend of running multiple websites from the same installation, your CMS should provide this facility. You might not need it presently but this will surely be required in the future. With your decision of targeting a narrower audience, you can easily switch from one website to the other with the same installation. You can also create a separate website exclusively for mobile as mobile web is increasing at a phenomenal rate.

Conclusion

While considering the various features available is important, there are other issues also which needs to be taken into account. The reliability of the service provider, support, accessibility and security are some of the major things which should be taken into account before choosing your CMS. Go for the best CMS website which serve all your needs and comes at a pocket-friendly price.

Why WordPress is Still the Best CMS?

Wordpress, an opensource CMS (Content Management System) was launched in 2011 and has taken the world by storm since then. Being the most popular CMS, it is loved and accepted by web designers, web developers and users around the globe. The ease-of-use which wordpress provides has lead to its popularity. Its acceptance and popularity can be judged from the fact that around 15% of the top million websites in the world are powered by wordpress. The number of users opting for wordpress is growing exponentially with each passing year since its launch. 

Though Wordpress has faced competition from other CMS like Drupal and Joomla but it has come up as a winner every single time. Listed below are the reasons why Wordpress is still the best CMS for building your website. These reasons make it clear why choosing wordpress over other CMS will be a wise decision for your business website. 

1. Constant Improvement 

Wordpress comes up with more advanced features at regular interval to suit the needs of the users. It includes content of various types and can be used for ecommerce sites also. Wordpress offers over 38000 plugins for its users to ensure that they have endless opportunities. 

2. For Non-Technical Users

Not everyone present out there is a technical genius, Wordpress has made it easier for these beginners. You can run your website powered by wordpress even if you are not comfortable using HTML. Other CMS require greater technical knowledge as against Wordpress.  

3. Saves Your Money

Cost is always a constraint while creating your website. Since the basic software and most of the plugins are free, Wordpress appears easy on the pocket of website owner. Though custom themes costs you but still it costs lesser than professional web development which costs you a bomb. 

4. SEO Benefits

Nothing sounds better than your posts being automatically optimized by Wordpress plugins. There are plugins which by default gives you the SEO benefit, thus increasing your web traffic. SEO is an important element which is responsible for the success of site, being covered by Wordpress. 

5. Installation is Easy 

The downloading and installing process of Wordpress is super easy making it popular among beginners. It is possible to complete the entire process of downloading and installing Wordpress without handling any of the files. Detailed directions of managing Wordpress is available on web.  

6. Active & Instant Support 

Unlike the other conventional system of support, Wordpress has a quick and active support community. This community of forums sends quick responses to all your WordPress questions and emails. Even the follow up is good, if your question does not get answered in the first instance. 

7. Global Acceptance

Wordpress is a globally acclaimed and accepted CMS bridging the geographical barriers. People  around the globe use Wordpress which has eliminated the problem of multi-national with its plugins for conversion of languages and currencies. 

Though there are options available in CMS for building your website, WordPress is still the most widely used CMS in the world. The kind of user experience it provides with infinite variety has made it the best option in today's scenario. Wordpress is here to rule and is not going to be dethroned from being the best CMS anytime soon.