Web design has changed a lot over the past few decades, with new technologies and tools appearing all the time. If you want to build a great website that converts visitors into customers, you might think that you should follow the latest flashy trends. But there are some fundamental principles of web design that have remained constant. While trends come and go, and can quickly make your website look outdated, design principles that have stood the test of time guarantee quality design that lasts. Read on to learn about 3 timeless principles of web design that can boost your business’s website!
Consistency and Standards
Imagine a person visiting your site for the first time. They should be able to navigate around easily, without getting lost or experiencing unnecessary confusion. Adhering to well-established web design conventions and maintaining consistency throughout your website helps visitors find what they are looking for, which makes them more likely to make a purchase.
Adherence to Conventions
Over time, many conventions have become entrenched in the world of web design. For example, most websites have the logo at top left. The main navigation is shown along the top on desktop computers, and collapses behind a clickable hamburger (or three line) icon on mobile devices. Besides the hamburger icon, there are many other familiar icons, such as the shopping cart on e-commerce websites. You might be tempted to do something different on your website, thinking yourself more creative, but making use of these familiar design patterns and elements ensures that visitors to your site can leverage their previous experience with other websites to quickly navigate through your site.
Internal Consistency
Your website should also maintain internal consistency, meaning it should have a consistent layout and navigation, a specific colour and typography scheme, and consistent use of images across all the pages of your site. Remember that it’s not just about how it looks, but also how it functions! For example, buttons and menu items should both look the same and behave in a consistent way when they are clicked. Creating cohesion and organization gives visitors a sense of familiarity and trust when they’re browsing different pages or sections within your site. And trust is important to people when choosing which business to buy from.
AESTHETIC AND MINIMALIST DESIGN
Clear and minimalistic design guides visitors through your website and presents them with content in a logical order – without unnecessary clutter. Someone visiting your site usually has a clear goal. They want to understand what you’re offering and decide whether they want to purchase from you. Keeping your site simple and aesthetically pleasing makes it easier for visitors to complete their goal without distraction. You can create a clean look by utilizing white space, and keeping the number of different colours and fonts used to a minimum.
USER EXPERIENCE AND USABILITY
User experience and usability are often overlooked aspects that can determine whether a visitor decides to stay on your site or leaves. User experience design focuses on making sure you’re always designing with your audience in mind. One part of that is usability, which focuses on keeping your website easy to use.
Responsive web design is one of the most important aspects of user experience and usability. Making your website responsive gives visitors a seamless experience across all screens, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. With many people accessing websites on their phone and abandoning them when they don’t work well on mobile, it’s crucial to make sure your site is designed for the way people use their devices.
Get a Free Web Design Consultation for Your Business
At Longevity Graphics, we work with business owners to create websites that convert! We design and build WordPress websites using the latest trends and technologies, but with an understanding of proven design principles.
For a limited time, we are also offering 25% off web design and no interest financing. Get in touch with us for a free 1-hour web design consultation to learn how we can help your business reach its online potential.
What is blog writing for SEO?
Blog writing for SEO is the process of writing content that will rank on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) such as Google. This entails researching keywords, writing high-quality content that matches user intent, and optimizing your content, headers, and images for easy page crawling.
7 Steps to Blog Writing for SEO
1. Blog Writing for SEO – Identify and Set Goals
Identifying and setting goals is the first step in all marketing projects. It is no different with blog writing for SEO. I have outlined some common goals below for blog posts.
- Educate your audience
- Grow your brand’s audience
- Increase website traffic
- Increase brand awareness
- Generate sales or leads
2. Blog Writing for SEO – Define Your Target Audience
Knowing who you are writing to and for will help you when it comes time to plan your blog content. Developing personas of your target audience can help you to really understand the audience for your blog content. Important information to identify includes:
- What are people searching for?
- Who is doing the search?
- When are they searching? (Seasons, Trends)
- What platforms are they using to search?
- Why are they searching? (Motivation)
- What problem are they looking to solve? (Challenges)
- What are their interests?
- Where are they located?
3. Blog Writing for SEO – Complete Keyword Research
Understanding the keywords that searchers are using to find information is key to writing a blog post that will be found in SERPs. Also, knowing how competitive the keywords are will determine whether your content will have an opportunity to rank. Selecting keywords that will drive the right traffic and rank will determine the success of your blog article.
Free Keyword Research Tools
- Google Keyword Planner – https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
- Google Trends – https://www.google.com/trends/
- Keyword Tool.io – http://keywordtool.io/
4. Blog Writing for SEO – Plan Your Blog Content
Planning blog content can get a little complicated with all these SEO guidelines. Remember that you are writing the content to answer the searcher’s questions and to provide value.
The best way for you to improve your chances of ranking is by writing high-quality blog posts with user intent in mind that offer a solution to the questions being asked.
What does that look like?
- Thorough answers
- Scannable sections
- Organized subheadings
- Visual aids
Remember the target audience profile you created. Keep your buyer personas, and their motivations, challenges, and interests in mind. Choosing topics that interest your target audience and that offer solutions to their questions make a successful blog post.
5. Blog Writing for SEO – Optimize the Content and Images
This is one of the most important steps in blog article writing. The keywords that you want to be found for should be used in the article and optimized for important sections of the content.
- Make sure that the keywords are used in headings multiple times. Use the keyword in your h1. Then use it again in H2s, H3s and H4s to break up the content.
- Use the keyword in the first paragraph of the blog content.
- Include keywords in your meta title and description.
- Add keyword rich alt tags to all of your images (and make sure your images are compressed for fast loading).
- Link to high-authority websites.
- Plan for longer posts that can be scanned.
- Link to other posts on your website.
- Optimize content for featured snippets (answer the question thoroughly and succinctly).
6. Blog Writing for SEO – Distribute and Promote Your Content
Refer to your target audience profile again. This will help you to determine where best to distribute your content.
- Social media is a great way to push new blog content out as it is free to post. The channels that we recommend posting on include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google Profile, and Twitter.
- Adding your blog content to your corporate newsletter is a great way to distribute to your existing client base.
- If the goal of the campaign is to drive traffic to the website, you may want to consider a paid campaign to drive traffic to the blog post.
7. Blog Writing for SEO – Measure Your Success
Finally, you will want to measure the success of your blog article. The measurement strategy will be determined by the goal that you set. Google analytics is a great way to measure traffic that has reached your blog article.
https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/
Finding out your best performing blog posts will help you to determine what your readers are most drawn to and what they are engaging with. This will help you to determine what future blog posts will be useful to your audience.
WHATS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEO AND SEM?
Here’s the short answer:
SEO is the process of getting your website ranked organically (or naturally) within the search engine results pages (like Google). You cannot pay Google to rank organically. The results are based on their algorithms.
SEM is paying to have your website show up in the results. This can include paying for ads in Google, in directories, or on social platforms.
For a more detailed answer, and to find which is better (or right for your business) keep reading below.
SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM) & PAY-PER-CLICK
The online marketing world has changed dramatically in recent years. Google Ads is one of the platforms driving this change. Google Ads is a paid advertising or pay-per-click (PPC) service offered by Google. It is one of the most effective methods of paid advertising online.
Pay-per-click (PPC) is a type of internet marketing service in which the advertiser pays a fee each time their ad is clicked. Once clicked, the ad directs the searcher to the advertiser’s website. The goal of the advertiser is to get the searcher to perform a predetermined action.
Common Actions Include:
- Filling out a lead form
- Completing a sale
- Signing up for a newsletter
PPC is a way to buy targeted visitors to your website, rather than gaining visits through organic methods.
Primarily based on keyword bids and other relevancy factors, ads will be displayed on the top or on the side of the organic results. Through their search query, searchers reveal their intent to purchase.
Using the results and insights from Google Ads and Google Analytics, advertisers are then able to measure the effectiveness of their ads and the quality of the traffic. They can then refine their ads and make adjustments as necessary.
If Google Ads is a platform you would rather leave up to the experts, then visit our Search Engine Marketing & Pay-Per-Click page to inquire about pricing and to learn more.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
What exactly does SEO mean?
Search engine optimization is the process of designing, writing, and coding your website so that there is a better chance that your website will appear at the top of search engine results page, like Google, for your desired keywords. Ultimately, it is a way for your website to get organic traffic from the search engine results page on major search engines – for free!
How it works:
The simple version: Google reads the content on your site (and other elements) and determines what keywords your website should rank for.
For the techies: Search engines used web crawlers (sometimes referred to as spiders or bots) to crawl the web and build an index of web pages, files, news stories, pictures, videos, and other media. When someone types in a search query, the search engine scours its database and returns only the results it deems to be the most relevant. It then presents the results in the form of a list, ranked from most relevant to least relevant. Each search engine has their own algorithms that use mathematical equations which contain hundreds of variables to determine the relevance and popularity of web pages.
Our team uses proven and ethical search engine optimization strategies to get your website ranked in the top positions for your industry keyword phrases.
Are you ready to start driving more traffic to your website? Visit our Search Engine Optimization page to inquire about pricing and to learn more.
What’s better? SEO or SEM
There’s a simple answer to this, it depends on what your goals are.
With SEM you have a lot more control over your campaign. You control your budget, keywords that you want to be found for, geographic area to target, immediacy of rankings, among other things. The down side is that this platform is becoming more competitive so you will have to have a regular budget to accomplish your goals. Once you stop paying for SEM, you will no longer show up in the search engines.
With SEO you may have to be patient to see results. Writing good content, generating back links to that content, and getting reviews takes time. Not to mention that you are competing with everyone in your industry as well as local directories for that first page spot. Working with a professional to complete proper keyword research and selecting the right keywords to target will help you to move in the right direction. And once you do achieve results, the traffic tends to convert higher than SEM and your website rankings will generally be maintained for a period of time. SEO tends to be a long term strategy.
We usually recommend implementing both strategies at the same time to achieve maximum results.
Are you looking for a great SEO company in Coquitlam to work with?
Longevity Graphics specializes in SEO and SEM for small to medium businesses specifically in the trades, professional services, and health services industries.
With search engines like Google dominating the online user experience, it’s crucial for you to cater to the top platforms. To increase traffic, Longevity Graphics uses SEO and SEM techniques to help your website rank for relevant searches (keywords used by the person searching). This is done through organic keyword use, as well as paid avenues such as Google Ads. When used in tandem, these techniques ensure more online success.
Contact Longevity Graphics today for a free one hour consultation, and learn how SEO can make a difference in your business. Call 778-229-5383.
Awarded to 1 Archbishop Carney Secondary Student Yearly
My daughter Zoe Boudreau graduated from Archbishop Carney Secondary School in 2013. She took part in all of the art programs while she attended including participating in the design of the school yearbook which won multiple awards. At the graduation ceremony, we were overwhelmed with the generous scholarships and grants that she was awarded for her achievements in the art programs that she was a part of. Zoe attended Emily Carr University of Art + Design. With the award money that Zoe received, she was able to pay for her whole first semester. It really helped out a lot.
We wanted to show our gratitude by supporting one graduating student of ACRSS who was pursuing post-secondary education in the field of art. Each year we donate $250 to a student who is selected by the school.
If you are interested in applying for this grant, contact student services to get more information.
Local SEO is Dominated by Google Reviews
We know local SEO, and from our experience, more reviews and better ratings help you rank better in local search results. By harnessing the power of 3rd party online review sites, you will improve your website’s visibility and ranking in search. With multiple ways to add 1st and 3rd party reviews to your website, you can turn your website into a sales funnel.
Google My Business (GMB) is essential to a successful local online marketing strategy. With Longevity Graphics GMB management service, you’ll unlock the power of your GMB profile with an optimized listing that helps capture new leads and convert searchers into customers.
Maximize Your Local SEO & Online Reviews
We value our customers and would like to recommend a new tool for your business to Gain More Online Reviews at an exclusive price.
This new software uses advanced features to help your company gain more online reviews, making the feedback process easier. It will create personalized text messages and emails that will request reviews from your customers. You will receive detailed reports of feedback statistics and notifications for new reviews, allowing you to interact with your customers.
With this software, we can track all of your online reviews on Google, Facebook, and more.
We can then use these reviews to be implemented onto your website as verified reviews. This helps substantially with building credibility and authority on your website.
Local SEO is highly influenced by Google reviews. This software will help you:
- Gain More Online Reviews
- Interact With Your Customers
- Improve Local SEO
- Direct More Traffic To Your Website
We truly think that this is an exceptional tool and highly recommend it to help manage and grow your business online. Cost of software $75/month.
There is a management fee of $250.00 / month.
Let us know of any questions that you may have.
Why are title tags important?
Title tags are shown on search engine results pages (SERPs) and are important for usability, SEO and social sharing.
Title tags are a large part of search engines understanding what your page is about. It is the first impression that people have of your page.
Title tags are found and used in:
- Search engine results pages (SERPs)
Even if your site ranks high, a good title may determine if someone clicks on your link.
- Web browsers
Unique, easily memorable titles with important keywords will help people follow your message. Especially when they have multiple tabs open.
- Social networks
Websites like Facebook will have their own meta tags. This lets you specify titles different than your main title tag which allows you to optimize each network and provide longer titles where they’re needed.
How do I write a good title tag?
- Watch your title length
When a title is too long, search engines may cut characters or words off. Because of this, if you are not careful, you could lose important words. It is generally recommended that titles are under 60 characters long.
- Don’t stuff keywords
This means that you should not overuse a keyword in a title. Avoid titles that repeat the same keyword over and over. This looks unprofessional for those looking on a search page and could also potentially get you in trouble with search engines.
- Put important keywords first
Keywords closer to the beginning of your title tag will probably give more impact on search rankings.
4. Take advantage of your brand
Adding your brand name to the title may help boost click-through rates. Especially if you have a strong and well-known brand. There are cases such as your home page or about page where you want to be more brand-focused.
We keep hearing about the importance of “S.E.O.” Debunk some of the SEO myths revealed by industry expert Hubspot.com.
Some of the myths that stood out are the following:
- More links are better than more content
A link to a website is more than just a link. It’s a way of saying “Here is a source that I trust. Check it out.”
It’s essential to focus on quality links rather than just the quantity of them. Less can be more if you know how to build links the right way.
Remember that one of the best ways to generate quality backlinks is to start by creating content of quality.
- Keywords matter more than anything
When Google introduced a new search algorithm in 2013, the analysis of phrases instead of keywords alone marked the switch from keyword to topic-focused SEO.
Simply dominating a few keywords is not enough anymore to produce successful results. Hubspot recommends marketers explore a topic cluster strategy.
- Meta descriptions don’t have a huge impact
Meta descriptions influence whether or not your page is clicked on. What makes a good meta description is keeping it under 160 characters. Mobile meta descriptions cut off at 120 characters. Also, include your entire keyword or keyword phrase.
- My home page needs a lot of content
Your home page is the gateway to your business. It’s the time to make a first impression and to convey what your business is about.
But, for marketers, there is a need for a bit more content and context.
Your home page should clarify who you are, your service, your location, your value proposition, and what visitors should do next.
- The more pages I have, the better
Just like link-building, creating content just to have more pages isn’t enough. If you don’t have good content, you won’t rank well and those pages you created won’t help.
- I don’t need a mobile optimization strategy
In 2015, Google updated an algorithm called the “Mobilegeddon.” The update rewards mobile-friendly websites and penalizes those that aren’t optimized fully for mobile.
Google is taking mobile very seriously these days. Over 60% of searches on Google are done via mobile devices!
“Responsible web design, dynamic serving and separate URLs serve as three implementation methods for creating a mobile-friendly website.” – Hubspot
Use Google’s Mobile-friendly test to see the status of your website and discover resources for improving mobile usability.
Are you the right fit?
We are looking for a skilled digital designer to work at our award-winning agency!
If you say yes to any of the following, then you may be a good fit for this position
· Do you have a degree in communication design or web design?
· Do you have a minimum of 2 experience in design and/or experience in an in-house or agency creative position?
· Do you have a portfolio of your past design work available?
· Do you like to go above and beyond on all of your projects?
· Are you organized, detail-oriented, and dependable?
· Are you a self-starter who is reliable and takes responsibility for tasks?
· Do you hold yourself accountable for the work that you produce?
· Are you resourceful and able to work on multiple projects at one time?
· Do you have strong written and verbal communication skills?
· Do you want to work at an Award-Winning agency?
· Are you looking to work for a company that allows you the flexibility to innovate?
We are looking for the right candidate (s) and are flexible with the schedule.
The successful candidate will be working in the design department as part of the development team to communicate with clients and manage aspects of their web design projects. Customer service is always a priority, therefore strong written and verbal communication is required. This role will interact directly with all our clients, team members, and vendors; the responsibilities are listed below.
YOU HAVE DEMONSTRATED THE FOLLOWING:
· The ability to learn new skills and concepts quickly in a fast-paced environment.
· Good communication skills and the ability to work well with others.
· Capability to contribute positively to teamwork and the projects.
· Problem-solving skills. Be resourceful.
· Strong understanding of the formal elements of design, not just limited to the web and including typography, layout, balance, and proportion
· Able to take initiative and accept feedback and guidance.
· Excellent interpersonal, written, oral, and customer service skills
· Organization and time management; able to handle multiple priorities simultaneously.
· High proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite; demonstrated strength in Adobe InDesign, Illustrator,
and Photoshop
· Experience in some of the production tools commonly used in modern web, UI, and graphic design and prototyping—things like Sketch, Figma, XD
RESPONSIBILITIES WILL INCLUDE
Leadership
· Lead information gathering with company departments to support company-wide objectives.
· Oversee the creative functionality and look of all design projects.
· Lead front-end design across the presentation layer.
· Inspire, lead, and direct design team in creative development.
· Provide creative leadership on issues relevant to technical digital design.
· Support and track creative projects executed by the team from start to finish.
· Ensure consistency and quality benchmarks are met in design execution.
· Support team members and clients with training and resolving technical/design issues.
Communication
· Develop a comprehensive understanding of project needs through client’s briefs, attending discovery meetings, and designing smart interactive experiences.
· Effectively coordinate projects and execute the production of creative assets across multiple campaigns throughout ideation, production, and delivery.
· Great communicator, both in conveying design best practices and project ideas.
· Ability to assess the effectiveness of product imagery and presentation needs against requirements.
· Present work and build alignment around design direction and execution with key stakeholders.
· Prioritize and manage multiple projects within design specifications.
· Ability to receive constructive feedback on projects.
Design
· Provide creative design direction and work collaboratively with marketing and development teams.
· Create a wide variety of deliverables for print, digital, and web/UI using Adobe Suite.
· Execute all visual design stages from concept to mock-ups.
· Design print-ready assets including posters, handouts, sales materials, business cards, and more.
· Create digital assets including sales banners, social posts, Google Ads, web graphics, and more.
· Organize and maintain creative production files.
· Design within brand guide standards for a diverse client base.
· Image research, sourcing, and resizing.
· Maintains technical knowledge by attending design workshops/classes/communities.
· Assist developers with page layout setup in WordPress (Gutenberg/Framework).
· Proven portfolio of professional UI/UX design work for both web and mobile platforms.
· Strong knowledge and understanding of best practices for conversion optimization.
Innovation
· Build industry-leading solutions by staying up-to-date with design best practices and the latest technologies.
· Create industry-standard rules and guidance for projects and brief all teams on these rules.
· Identify areas of opportunities to solve functional challenges through brainstorming and digital design solutions.
· Collaborate with developers to understand technical requirements and projects.
This is an excellent opportunity to join a well-established company. We are looking for the right fit to join the team. Flexibility is available for part-time and contract work.
This posting is now closed. Please check out our careers page for current openings.
Handling every aspect of your hosting experience can mean unnecessary added weight on your shoulders. This is why we believe that we can make your hosting simple.
We ensure that your website has the resources it needs to meet its needs. We offer plans featuring unlimited storage, bandwidth and Monthly Visitors. Additional things that managed website hosting may provide you include:
- Expertise and Security
Hiring us will allow us to run:
- Virus scanning
- Spam filtering
- Configuration of the software firewalls
- Security audits.
We will identify any vulnerabilities so that your servers do not get attacked. This will allow you to focus on your business goals. You will be ensured that we’ve got any security issues covered so you get peace of mind.
- Lower Operating/Hosting Costs
With unmanaged website hosting comes hidden fees. You need to hire database admins and other staff to manage your services.
However, signing with us to manage your website hosting can eliminate these added costs. This allows you to save money and do your job better.
- 24/7 Access to Support
Forget about having to deal with multiple vendors or hiring additional staff for IT. With us, if there’s an issue, technical support is available at no added cost. This will allow you to save time, money and resources.
- Backups
You will never have to worry about losing your data as it is backed up automatically and secured.
Without unmanaged hosting, there are no ways to back data efficiently. This may mean that you can potentially lose some, making it your responsibility to take measures to prevent it in the future.
Features and Specs of Managed Hosting
- Unlimited High Speed Storage
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Quarterly Resource Usage Analysis
- LVE Linux Containerized Resources
- 2 vCPU’s (Scaled as Needed)
- 3GB Dedicated RAM (Scaled as Needed)
- 4MB/S IO (Scaled as Needed)
- 5 PHP Workers (Scaled as Needed)
- Immunify360 Virus, Malware and DDOS Protection
- Daily Backups with 90 day archive.
- Daily Malware and Reputation Scans
- Ticket Based Support
- Weekly Human Verified Security and Plugin Updates, including WordPress Core and Plugin Updates
- cPanel Access
- Modern PHP Support, and included PHP Version upgrades per PHP Lifecycle
- Constant Uptime Monitoring on our 99.9% uptime average
Overall, having managed website hosting grants you 24/7 support, the ability to save time and money, improvements on your security and backups to save all your data.
Ditch the unneeded vendors and get a free quote today!
Contact us here: https://www.longevitygraphics.com/contact-us/vancouver/
Part of StrongerBC, B.C’s Economic Recovery Plan is introducing the Launch Online Grant program investing $12 million to help small and medium-sized businesses move their business model online.
This grant provides funding to BC businesses to create an online shop and/or improve its experience to attract new customers and expand to new markets.
The grant pays up to 75% of eligible expenses with a maximum of $7,500 for each business.
It is first come first served so be sure to get the funding while it lasts.
Eligibility
- BC-based business
- Under 149 employees
- Sales of more than $30,000 in the past year
- Does not have an online store currently or has an online store that has a limitation
What the Funding Covers
Funding will help up to 75% of the expenses such as:
- Service provider costs:
- Platform and website development
- Copy and online content writing
- Developing an online inventory of goods and products
- Pictures (including a photographer), stock photos
Digital customer costs:
- E-commerce platform subscription (up to 1 year)
- Online advertising (up to 1 year)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Banners and other embedded advertising
- Staff training to manage the online shop, learn about digital marketing, etc.
Restrictions
- Successful applicants must use one or more B.C-based service provider(s) to build or improve their online store. You can search for a local service provider here.
- You must start and finish your online shop within 12 weeks
- You must submit a project proposal in order to get funding