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6 Common Website Design Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Author: Mario Diaz

6 Common Website Design Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Posted on by Mario Diaz

The first website was launched over 30 years ago, in 1991. 

A lot has changed on the world wide web in the past three decades. We now know that business success is linked to effective website design. Making website design mistakes can make or break your business. 

The good news is, these mistakes are avoidable. With the right know-how and the right website design team, these mistakes won’t affect your website and business. 

Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about website design mistakes and how to avoid them. 

1. Not Optimizing for Different Devices

One mistake to avoid when designing business websites is not to make your website accessible from different types of devices. 

Your website design should be functional and aesthetically pleasing from a desktop computer or iPad, and most importantly, it must be mobile-friendly. More consumers are using their smartphones to browse and shop than by using desktops or other devices.  

2. Confusing Navigation

One of the things that will cause a potential client to turn away from your website is confusing navigation. Website design should prioritize user-friendliness. Think of website navigation as a simplified map that takes the user to where they need to go. 

Some things that can help your website navigation are:

  • A well-placed navigation bar
  • Avoiding too many drop-down menus
  • Using specific labels
  • Avoiding too many options
  • Responsive website navigation

3. Weak Calls-to-action (CTAs)

A call to action is designed to prompt a potential client to take a desired action.

You should use web design tools to add content, describe your product or service, and include a compelling phrase to prompt action on their part. Some examples of calls-to-action include:

  • Get Started
  • Add to Cart
  • Buy now
  • Sign me up
  • Contact us today

4. Too Many Design Elements

Your website should be clear and concise. It should be appealing to the eye and should not be drowning in design elements. 

Too many design elements on any given page will drain consumer interest and have them. Avoid excessive text, distracting backgrounds, too many product listings, and too much media content. 

An increase from 400 to 6,000 elements per page, including titles, texts, and images, and the chances of conversion drop by 95%. 

5. Too Long to Load

Slow load times mean one thing—the loss of website visitors. Everyone wants fast access to information. 

Too many plugins, photos, themes, and videos increase load time. Slow load times also significantly affect your search engine rankings. Ensuring a fast website loading speed is an important element of successful web design. 

6. Hidden Contact Information

Clients want to reach you, but you have to give them the tools to do so. Make sure your phone number, email address, and location are easy to find with a clear call to action. You should also include a dedicated contact page. 

Say No to Website Design Mistakes

Now that you know which website design mistakes to avoid, you can build a new website or improve on your existing one. The best way to avoid aesthetic and functional website mistakes, consult with a professional website designer. 

At Enfuse Creative Design, we can assist you with any of your web development projects. No matter your web design budget, we can help you grow your business with website development and design, graphic design, and print media. Contact us today to get your web project started!

How to Choose an SEO Service: The Complete Guide for Businesses

Posted on by Mario Diaz

Were you aware that the global SEO industry is going to be worth more than $122 billion by 2028?

Anyone who owns a business needs to have a basic understanding of how SEO works so they can keep up in this digital world. If you don’t have anyone on your team who’s an expert at SEO, the good news is that you can always outsource this job and get brilliant results.

If you want to get the most out of your marketing efforts, then you need to hire a competent SEO business. Continue reading our guide if you’d like to know how to choose an SEO service.

Read Reviews for SEO Businesses

Since there are tons of different SEO companies out there, a simple way to start your search is to read some online reviews. You don’t need to worry about wasting your time on duds if you set a filter based on star ratings.

After you’ve done this, you can check out what other business owners have to say about their experiences teaming up with various companies. Keep a list of all of the SEO companies that have a reassuring reputation.

Set an SEO Service Budget and Compare Prices

Minimizing your expenses is a great goal, but you also need to think about how you can make every dollar you spend work as hard for you as possible. With this in mind, you should set a budget for SEO services so you can avoid going overboard.

Once you have a solid number, you can then start looking at each SEO company’s prices and hunt for the best deal.

Figure Out How Much Experience Each SEO Company Has

When it comes to SEO and keywords along with other strategies, you need experience to come up with an effective plan for each unique brand. Some inexperienced businesses may offer black hat services that can do much more harm than good.

Each SEO company should be transparent about how long they’ve been in the industry.

Understand Their Options for SEO Services

Every brand has its own goals for SEO and social media, websites, and more. Establish what services you’d like and don’t settle for SEO companies that don’t offer everything you need.

You should only have to work with one business to accomplish your SEO goals.

Ask for a Consultation

The final step you should take before you hire an SEO firm is to schedule a meeting. During this time, you can learn about some of the ideas they have to boost your success.

If you like how they treat you as a potential client, then you’ll feel better about signing a contract.

Now You Know How to Choose an SEO Service

Figuring out how to choose an SEO service shouldn’t be tricky. Following this guide by reading reviews, setting a budget, getting a consultation, and more will get you fantastic results.

Are you ready to watch your business flourish? Contact us to learn more about our SEO services.

Posted in SEO

The Benefits of Mobile-First Design

Posted on by Mario Diaz

About 53% of mobile website visitors will leave a page that takes over three seconds to load. In fact, bad mobile optimization annoys 48% of users. Without mobile-first design, you could miss a chance to appeal to mobile consumers. 

On the fence about investing in website development services to optimize your site this year? Here are five benefits of mobile-first web design to consider first. 

Read on before making a choice with your company’s future in mind today!

Appeal to More People

Nearly 60% of users won’t recommend a company with poor mobile web design. Optimizing your website with mobile devices will help you to appeal to more consumers. After all, more people are spending time on their phones daily.

You can appeal to consumers while they’re on the go and in the mood to shop. You could have an easier time attracting them to your business as a result. 

If your website isn’t optimized for mobile phones and tablets, however, you could alienate those customers. They might abandon their carts, costing you potential sales.

Provide a Better UX

A strong user experience (UX) indicates your website is easy to read, navigate, and use across all devices. Optimizing your website for mobile devices can improve the user’s experience with your website and brand.

Improving the UX can benefit your search engine rankings. It can also help you generate more leads and sales. 

Improve SEO Rankings

Search engine optimization (SEO) can help your branded content and web pages rank higher on search engines. Higher rankings can help you generate more website traffic, leads, and sales. Ranking ahead of competitors can boost your brand’s credibility in the industry, too.

Google will check the mobile version of your website first before determining your rankings. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices, your rankings could drop!

Before that happens, consider investing in website development services this year. 

Support Social Media Marketing

Most social media users explore their favorite platforms from their mobile devices. Having a mobile website will support your social media marketing strategy.

Otherwise, mobile users who click on a link to your website from your social media profile could struggle to explore your site. 

Strengthen PPC Advertising

Google Ads also checks the landing page experience you offer when determining your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising quality score. A low quality score can hurt your ad placement. It can also increase the cost-per-click for your campaigns, impacting your ROI.

A mobile website will benefit your PPC advertising campaigns. You can improve your rankings to reach new customers. Meanwhile, your mobile-ready landing page will help you generate more conversions, boosting your ROI. 

Go Mobile: Start Investing in Mobile-First Design Today

Don’t let your outdated website hurt your digital marketing strategy. Instead, invest in mobile-first design services this year. Improving your mobile website can help you improve the user’s online experience with your brand.

You’ll have an easier time generating leads and sales as a result. 

Ready to get started? We’re here to help.

Contact us today to learn more. 

5 Reasons Why Every Business Needs a Business Website

Posted on by Mario Diaz

About 38% of website visitors will leave an unappealing website. Another 38.5% judge a business based on a glance at its web design. If you don’t have a business website, you could miss a chance to appeal to your target audience. 

On the fence about investing in web design and development services this year? Here are five reasons every business needs a custom website.

After reviewing this guide, you can make a more informed choice with your business in mind. 

1. Make a Strong First Impression

Sometimes, finding your business online is the first time people interact with your website.

An eye-catching business website will allow you to make a strong first impression. Impressing customers could help you generate more leads. 

Each time they visit your website, brand awareness will grow, too!

2. Improve SEO Rankings

Search engine optimization (SEO) can help your web content rank higher on search engines. When someone looks for your offerings, they can find your site before a competitor’s.

Without a business website, you won’t improve your rankings. Your competitors will win those leads instead. 

3. Establish Credibility

Your website’s design has a 75% influence on your brand’s credibility. Without credibility, consumers won’t trust your business. In fact, 88% of shoppers won’t return to a site after a bad experience. 

Many tell their friends about bad online experiences, which could hurt your brand’s reputation, costing you future sales. 

You can use your website to establish your credibility within the industry. 

For example, a professional, sleek website can help your brand look professional, high-end, and trustworthy. You can also add social proof, like badges, awards, and customer reviews to your site. 

Establishing your credibility will help brand trust grow, leading to more sales.

4. Unite Strategies

A strong omnichannel marketing strategy will help you reach consumers at different touchpoints. Your website will operate as the backbone of your entire digital marketing strategy. For example, consumers can visit your website through:

  • Social media platforms
  • Emails
  • Search engines
  • Other websites (through backlinks)
  • Pay-per-click ads

If you don’t have a website, however, you won’t be able to direct consumers to your business. You could waste valuable time and money on these digital marketing strategies, hurting your ROI.

Instead, you can use your website to generate more leads and sales than ever before using these digital marketing strategies. 

5. Improve Your ROI

Directing consumers to your website will allow them to learn more about your business. If they like what they find, they might convert into a lead or sale. Without a website, however, you’ll lose those leads.

Digital marketing strategies are cost-effective and therefore able to boost your ROI. Improving your ROI will help your business grow long-term. You can get leagues ahead of competitors before they get the chance. 

Boost Business: Invest in Your New Business Website Today

Don’t miss this chance to help your business grow. Instead, invest in a new business website this year. With website design and development services, you can wow customers with ease. 

Ready to invest in quality web design done right? We’re here to help.

Contact us today to discuss your next project!

How Often To Add Blog Articles to Your Site

Posted on by Mario Diaz

About 62% of marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets for the next year. However, not many marketers know how often they should post blog articles on their websites. Neglecting to consider your post frequency could affect your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

Without strong search engine rankings, consumers might not find your brand during an online search.

How often should you post blog content on your website? Read on to find out.

Ideal Frequency

Is there an ideal post frequency for blog articles? Some marketers post between two to four times a way to generate:

  • Brand awareness
  • Website traffic
  • Leads/sales

However, your niche can affect how often you should post. If you’re in a more competitive niche, you might need to post four to six times a week. Otherwise, consumers might not find your content among a sea of other posts. 

Companies that blog have 434% more index pages than those that don’t. Combining your SEO and content marketing strategies can help you appear for more searches. 

If you’re blogging for SEO purposes, make sure you’re prioritizing quality over quantity. 

Factors to Consider

When determining how often you should post blog articles, there are five factors you’ll need to consider. Review these factors to determine your own post schedule. 

1. Goals

First, take the time to outline your specific content marketing goals. For example, you might prioritize:

  • Generating website traffic
  • Gaining brand visibility
  • Establishing your credibility
  • Gaining brand trust/loyalty
  • Increasing online leads and sales
  • Improving search engine rankings

For example, you might want to cover an array of topics targeting different keywords to improve search engine rankings. If SEO is your primary goal, however, you won’t want to rush. Otherwise, you could compromise quality over quantity.

2. Niche

Look at the other businesses within your niche. Consider how often they’re posting.

Consider the movement within your industry, too. If there’s a lot of fresh news to cover, you’ll want to provide consumers with updated information and content more often. 

3. Resources

Do you have the marketing budget and team necessary to create four new blogs every week? If not, you might reduce your post frequency. You can also hire an agency to create content for you. 

4. Audience

If your customers have a lot of questions, you might want to make content more often to provide them with the information they need.

Make sure you’re providing consumers with valuable information, though. Otherwise, they might turn to another business. 

5. Existing Content

Think about how many blog posts are already on your blog. You might need to update old posts frequently if the information is no longer relevant.

Google looks for pages that were recently updated.

Make sure to link to other blog posts within your new articles to improve internal linking as well. 

Start Creating New Blog Articles for Your Business Today

To recap, how often should you post new blog articles on your website? It can vary based on your goals, industry, and audience. Consider working with an experienced agency to determine your ideal post frequency.

With help, you can improve your SEO rankings to reach new customers.

Eager to get started? Contact us today to schedule a call. 

5 Tips To Create an Effective Landing Page

Posted on by Mario Diaz

About 38% of website visitors will leave a poorly designed website. If you’re using a landing page to generate digital leads, you could scare away potential customers. Instead, take the time to learn how to create effective landing pages this year.

Here are five easy tips you can use to create a landing page that will generate leads. With these tips, you can set your next campaign up for success.

Start designing with these page elements today!

1. Organization

A chaotic, cluttered landing page can scare visitors away. They’ll struggle to find the information they’re looking for, too. Instead of a messy page that lacks structure, use an outline to keep the page organized.

The page should include:

  • A compelling header
  • Imagery
  • A conversion opportunity (form, button, etc.)

Think about the page’s underlying purpose before you start designing. Focus on one goal. Otherwise, the visitor won’t know what action to complete on the page.

Maintain brand consistency throughout the page, too. Brand consistency will help consumers become aware and familiar with your brand.

To keep the page organized, use minimalistic website design trends. For example, you can use white space to give content room to breathe. Remove any unnecessary page elements as well.

Keeping the page organized can help your business look more attractive. Otherwise, you could scare away potential customers. 

2. Value

Think about the value you’re offering your customers. Communicate that value in concise and clear terms within the headline.

Creating a strong headline can help you grab the visitor’s attention. It can also keep them focused on the action they need to complete before leaving the page. 

3. Trust Signals

Consumers can feel more comfortable with your brand after reading customer reviews. Add trust signals to the page to show consumers you’re worthy of their trust. 

In addition to customer reviews, you can also add badges and buttons (like a “BBB Accredited Business” badge or “Top 50 Fortune 500 Business” badge) to establish credibility. 

4. UX Design

About 88% of shoppers who visit your site won’t return after a bad user experience (UX). Bad UX design on mobile devices annoys nearly 50% of customers, too.

Follow Google’s Core Web Vitals to improve the UX on your website. Positive UX can benefit your search engine rankings, too.

As part of improving the UX, make sure your pages are fast, easy to navigate, and mobile-friendly.

5. Simplified Forms

Simplify your forms to ensure they’re easy to complete on all devices. If there are too many fields, the visitor will leave without completing the form. You’ll lose a potential lead or sale if that’s the case.

You can simplify forms by asking for essential information. The customer’s name and email address are a good place to start.

Create an Effective Landing Page for Your Next Marketing Campaign

Creating a strong landing page can set your next marketing campaign up for success. Make sure the page has these five elements as you start designing. Improving your website design and development can help you generate leads and sales, leading to a higher ROI.

Need help with your landing pages? We’re happy to lend a hand.

Contact us today to get started. 

What Are the Key Website Trends for 2022?

Posted on by Mario Diaz

Whether you’re running a business or just maintaining a personal website to support your personal projects, there’s a tough reality to face. Your website has a lot of competitors for people’s time. At any given time, there are around 200 million active websites.

The good news is that many of those sites are foreign language sites. They’re still competition, but it’s competition for a smaller number of multi-lingual visitors. Even so, you must scrape for every advantage and that takes staying on top of digital marketing and website trends.

Not sure what website trends matter for 2022? Keep reading and we’ll cover the essentials.

User Experience

One trend that will never go out of style is good user experience on your website. You must think about user experience from the minute you start designing a website or hire someone to do it for you.

Everything about a successful website makes the visitor’s life easier. That extends from load times and navigation to the website layout and information availability.

In essence, you should ask yourself over and over, how can I make this easier for the visitor? When you stop finding ways to do that, you’re probably close to a website with a really good user experience.

Imagery Multilayers

Minimalism has found a lot of favor in recent years, in part because it typically makes designing a good user experience easier. Designers shy away from anything that smacks of visual clutter.

Yet, a minimalist design approach isn’t necessarily the best approach for every business or individual. Let’s say that you’re a photographer.

The idea of having a photo gallery that looks like every other photographer’s online photo gallery doesn’t leave you feeling enthused.

Imagery multilayers offer you a chance to show off some of your best images right on the homepage in a visually interesting way.

Retro Looks

Another design trend that’s picked up some ground recently is retro design options. For example, the typographic hero image is popular right now.

Rather than focus on an image as the first thing people see, the site presents a text message as the core visual. This hearkens back to the early days of the web when images ate up too much bandwidth, so most sites were made almost entirely of text.

A different approach with a similar end goal, evoking nostalgia, is the Memphis design approach. Memphis design features the kinds of chaotic patterns and borderline gaudy colors that were popular in the 1980s.

Website Trends and You

If you’re looking for some key website trends for the year, start with user experience. Not only will you keep your visitors on your site longer, search engines evaluate it as part of their ranking approach.

If you’re of a creative bent, imagery multilayers can work for websites where images play a crucial role. Think in terms of art, design, or photography websites.

Embracing some visual retro-magic can yield dividends with patterns and bright colors piquing visitors’ interest.

Enfuse Creative Design offers website design and marketing services. For more information to discuss an upcoming project, contact Enfuse today.

What Are the Awesome Benefits of Digital Marketing?

Posted on by Mario Diaz

81% of consumers do online research before they make a purchase, whether that’s in-store or online. This means that if you don’t have a strong digital presence, then you need to fix that ASAP. Otherwise, you might be missing out on a lot of potential business.

You can always create a wonderful website, but you also need to pair this with effective digital marketing. While you’ll need to spend some money, it’ll be a worthwhile investment.

Here are the benefits of digital marketing you should know about.

You Can Target the Right Audience

With traditional ways of marketing, it’s tougher to serve your ads to a specific audience. It’s usually a scattergun method, which can waste marketing spend.

But digital marketing allows you to narrow down which demographics you want to market to, which is a win-win situation. Not only will your marketing be more effective, but it’ll also ensure you’re serving people relevant ads.

You’ll Have a Wider Reach

Offline marketing has a limited reach. Even if you take out ads for the radio and TV, this is only a national reach.

Digital marketing lets you serve ads to a global audience, which expands your reach exponentially. This makes it one of the best digital marketing benefits, as you can offer your products and services to a wider pool, which can then boost sales significantly.

You Can Target Customers at Every Stage

You can personalize the customer journey with digital marketing, which enables you to target customers at every buying stage. Depending on the actions they’ve taken, users can be served with different ads that’ll help nudge them to convert.

Better relevancy means a higher chance of conversions.

It’s Cost-Effective

Digital marketing can be more affordable than traditional offline marketing. In fact, some (like search engine optimization, or SEO) can be free to begin with!

This makes digital marketing an excellent way for a small business to grow without excessive spend.

You Can Accurately Measure Your Results

It can be challenging to quantify your results from offline marketing campaigns. But there are many marketing analytics tools for digital marketing that compile data and allow you to measure everything, such as how many people saw your ad, how many people clicked on the ad, and the time spent on a page.

From there, it’s easy to calculate your return on investment (ROI). It’ll be much simpler to show your company that your marketing efforts are working.

In addition, it’s straightforward to determine what’s not working for your campaign. Tweaking and testing strategies will be easy and quick to do.

Enjoy the Benefits of Digital Marketing

These are but just a few benefits of digital marketing. There are many more, especially when combined with offline marketing.  With the right marketing strategy, you can pull ahead of your competition and thrive.

But don’t try to do it alone. A digital marketing specialist has the right experience and skills to put together customized campaigns that’ll work for your company.

So if you’d like an expert to help with digital marketing, then contact us today. We can help with website and graphic design too.

How Often Should You Add a New Blog Article to Your Website?

Posted on by Mario Diaz

Google, by far the most widely used search engine, processes a staggering 8.5 billion searches every day. For your business’s website to be competitive, it’s critical to regularly update it with a blog article post.

Blog articles are a huge factor in a website’s SEO or search engine optimization. A website with good SEO is more likely to appear in a Google search.

If you aren’t sure how often your website needs blog updates, this is the guide you’re looking for. Read on to learn how often you should post new articles to your website blog!

How Blog Article Posts Affect SEO

Think about the kinds of things you search on the web day to day. The top search results are often blog posts on businesses’ websites. This is one way businesses get people to visit their websites. 

The reason these blogs come up first in the search is that the business optimized the blog using keywords and formatting. In addition to the use of keywords, Google tracks several other factors when determining how one site ranks against another.

While one optimized blog post will help your website ranking, it will drop in ranking quickly without regular maintenance. Website updates show search engines that a business is regularly maintaining the site.

While it may seem difficult to come up with new ideas, even reviewing and updating old blog posts can help your site’s ranking. Articles can stay current for as long as three years, and a quick update can help SEO as much as a whole new blog post.

How Often to Post

While it’s easy to post too infrequently, it’s difficult to make new blog posts too often. The biggest factor is how many blog posts you feel confident your team can make without sacrificing quality.

Things like spelling and grammatical errors, poor formatting, or uninformative fluff can hurt your SEO marketing. If you’re trying to post more than you can handle and quality is slipping, you should scale back.

Even with one person creating blog content, one post per week is a manageable number that will keep your website ranking.

When you have more resources to dedicate to making blog posts, aim for two posts per week. Eventually, posting three times per week or even daily will generate a huge amount of organic traffic.

However, remember that Google’s metrics track quality over quantity. If your blog content isn’t getting read due to poor writing, it doesn’t matter if you post twice a day.

Generate More Organic Traffic

One of the best ways to keep your website ranking in Google searches is to post a new blog article regularly. While there is no real maximum amount you can post, a good number to shoot for is three posts a week.

If your team is new to writing SEO content or you’re just getting started, one blog post a week is a decent maintenance level.

If you need your website optimized by professionals, Enfuse can help. Contact us today to learn how we can help you manage your blog!

A Quick Guide to Social Media Content Ideas in 2022

Posted on by Mario Diaz

This is the truth in 2022: brands must be present on social media to develop. Business social media accounts draw in the public and convert them into devoted followers who become customers and give you a steadily increasing income.

But that’s easier said than done, isn’t it?

You need a creative strategy, and social media account for this to happen. Isn’t it time to come up with some new content ideas to include in your social media content strategy? Keep reading for social media content ideas that will boost your page!

Social Media Account Takeover

You should always be in control of your social media posts. However, you can hand over the reins and let someone else post for you for a day.

You can ask employees to make posts if you wish to advance them within your organization. They can either write about themselves or what it’s like to work for your company. Make sure to provide pictures of the staff so that your followers will recognize them.

You can also request that a third party publish postings for you outside of your organization. You might invite a professional in your field to write about their opinions of the field. You could even assist a local author who wants to write about local problems.

Answer Questions 

You must engage with your followers if you want to build a devoted social media following. In order to ask inquiries regarding their goods and services, many individuals follow businesses. When a follower asks you a question, you should always respond.

If your followers ask you multiple questions that are related to one another, respond to them in a post. A FAQ page for your website can also be created, and a link to it can be placed on your social media profile. This will save you from asking the same questions over and give your website a natural backlink.

Share High-Quality Images

One of the excellent photo-based digital marketing strategies is sharing images of your workers. Many businesses concentrate their written content marketing efforts online. Sharing pictures will help you stand out from the crowd.

Infographics offer important details about your business, sector, and goods. You can provide information about your business or sector. Additionally, you can provide succinct training on how to use your products or resolve significant issues.

Always share photographs in high definition that you have created yourself. Stock images can come off as stiff or inadvertently funny. It’s acceptable to share a customer’s photographs, but make sure you do so without infringing on their copyright rights.

Host a Contest

Contests of many kinds can be organized on social media. Depending on how many comments or shares your article receives, you might offer a prize to the person who garners the most attention for it.

But there are more engaging ways to grow your business and fan base. You can invite your supporters to create artwork that somehow relates to your business. They can create brand-new logos or create a mascot for your business.

After receiving entries, you can invite your followers to vote in public polls for the contributions you favor. You can display the winning mascot or logo on your website and award the winner with free merchandise.

Use These Social Media Content Ideas

Using creative ideas for social media marketing will assist you in gaining thousands of new followers or customers. Now that you’re aware of these engaging social media content ideas, you can look forward to more interaction on your social media accounts.

Want to learn more about marketing yourself online? Click here for more information about starting your own marketing journey!