While the term "website design" is self explanatory, the design work itself might differ based on the needs of the business. Some websites might require an aesthetic update, others might need a complete overhaul from SEO to content and social media integration. Since it is an important investment for the future of your business and the best means to boost brand image and improve conversion rate for your products and services, it is recommended that you choose the best website design company. Are you wondering how to choose the right web design company? Let us help you with the factors to consider.

They understand responsive web design: This is not a fad and is in fact emerging to be one of the best ways to design a website. Simply put, responsive web design is a setup wherein the design and development of the website responds to your website user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation that they are using. Google has also recommended responsive web design as it makes it easy for your users to share and link to your content and helps the search engine’s algorithms accurately assign indexing properties to the page. When you are trying to answer the question - how to choose the right web design company, make sure that you consider the fact that the agency you choose is well-versed with responsive web design and can create the same for your website.

Backing of a marketing team: Along with looking at all the work that the design company has undertaken in the past (read customer testimonials), it is important to determine if they have sufficient marketing experience. The Internet has evolved and it takes a full-fledged digital marketing agency to ensure that your website design performs. The design agency that you choose should have good experience designing responsive, user-centric websites, and build sites that are both beautiful and successful. Together with marketing inputs, they should be able to convert you marketing goals into an optimized marketing site that maximizes the impact of your brand.

Portfolio of their work: Wondering how to choose the best web design company? Always work backwards from your website design plan to research, evaluate, get quotes and set up meetings with agencies that are made up of web strategists, designers, developers, project managers, writers, analysts and digital marketers. An extensive team such as this ensures that the agency has an impressive portfolio of case studies that spans various categories of businesses and services. Get to know who you are hiring as you are hiring a technology partner for your business. While the portfolio of their work will surely give you a glimpse into the quality and efficacy of their work, setting up time to meet them can help you understand what they value and how they work on their projects.

On-going support: Beyond the initial website design and development tasks, there are a number of ongoing updates that might be required based on the nature of your business. While a lot of web design companies will include a certain level of support in their budget, other companies might differ in their approach towards on-going support. Since the website project has a number of moving parts, you will need to ensure that there is a transition plan in place in case you would be taking care of these aspects in-house after the web design project is completed. For this, you will need to assemble a core team and have them trained by the agency and assign responsibility for the different elements of the website, including design, navigation, content, and more.

Studio1c is the right web design company that you can trust to achieve your goals, make your job much easier and focus on what you do best.

It is important to have your business website and its content updated from time to time. If your company has an old website with outdated information, your customers might reconsider business options with you. Wondering what’s the general consensus on how often should you redesign your website? With technology changes and newer web design techniques emerging, it might be important to update your website sooner than you think. Read on to find out more about the tell tale signs or reasons to redesign your website.

Sign #1: Your website does not function on mobile devices
Statistics show that one in three of web users login from their mobile devices. If your website does not load properly on a mobile device, users may abandon it. A mobile-friendly website specifically means a website that looks and functions great on any mobile handset that is internet-enabled. Google has a number of interesting tools and findings that help you find out more about how mobile speed can impact your bottom line, get advice from mobile industry leaders, and learn how to build stronger mobile experiences for consumers.

Sign #2: No longer represents your brand
From the logo and the header to the content and the font, every element of your website must reflect your brand. Apart from giving it a unique identity online, it helps your user remember your business and what you offer. They subconsciously begin to associate the brand elements that they see with your business. It’s likely that you have had a business leadership change or staff changes which are not reflected on your website. Perhaps you are offering more services or streamlining your system to offer less than before. Whatever your reason for change, it is essential to update your website accordingly. Remember that adopting and embracing new technology shows growth and stability on behalf of your brand.

Sign #3: It’s not secured with HTTPS
Your users expect a secure and private online experience when using your website and they are particularly concerned about the integrity and confidentiality of data between their system and your site. When you adopt HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) an internet communication protocol, you are assuring your users three layers of protection including encryption, data integrity and authentication. If you migrate your site from HTTP to HTTPS, this is considered to be a site move with URL changes by Google and this might impact your website traffic. It is recommended that you follow all the necessary steps for site movies.

Sign #4: You have a unique problem - bounce rate, site hack or others
Outside of the factors mentioned above, one of the main reasons for website redesign is the need to solve a problem that you are facing. It might be related to building your online presence and dealing with the increasing bounce rate (working on identifying your user’s needs and providing them the right product or service solution as quickly and conveniently as possible on your site) or even a dramatic event such as a site hack. When redesigning your site, it is important to discuss all the challenges that you want to overcome.

Sign #5: It needs fresh content
Your website is your business tool, a sales pitch and a business card that displays your products and services. It is essential for your brand’s success. When you have concluded that your website needs fresh content to enhance marketing efforts or showcase the added products and services, you can consider switching to a content management system such as WordPress or Drupal. You can turnaround your content into meaningful, informative and optimized for SEO.

Whatever tell tale sign for a website redesign, you need to choose the right web developer for this job. If you’re looking for an agency to build your new website or help you with answers on how to redesign your website, speak to us today!

How to Create a Successful Content Strategy For Your Business
Does your organization have a content marketing strategy? If you’re either in the group that has a strategy but never documented it or one that has no strategy at all, we’re here to help. These days, content is one of the best ways to raise awareness of a brand, services or products among a targeted audience. We recommend that you start by setting out your mission, goals and the KPIs for success of your content marketing strategy. Goals are an important part of any marketing initiative and content marketing goals are especially important as they set out what your business will achieve from content marketing. Examples of goals include - increase in webpage traffic, improving sales or getting more leads from your website. To measure success, you can use KPIs such as page views, organic users, number of subscribers or revenue targets.

Deciding on the Content Types
What forms will your content take? Will you stick to the tried and tested blog posts or will you opt for interesting infographics and explainer videos that draw the attention of your targeted customers? As you begin creating content in different formats, you will have a number of channels to choose from to publish them. From owned properties such as your website and blog to social media properties such as Facebook and Instagram, you need to determine the right content type that visualize your company’s message and importantly, assert your position as an authority in your market. Once you have defined your content’s target audience, also referred to as a buyer persona, you can begin brainstorming ideas - including evergreen content and news-worthy content from time to time. Tools such as BuzzSumo and HubSpot blog ideas generator are a step in the right direction for anyone starting out on the content marketing journey. Over time, you will be able to arrive at the content format with the highest views or shares for your product or services.

Allocating Content Resources
Once you have decided on the content types, it is crucial to earmark the resources who will help you in developing this content. You need to finalize on the content marketing resource who will produce and maintain the content, digital tools and resources that you will leverage and your content scheduling options. The content production process needs to be outlined and audited often to ensure that you are staying abreast with the content marketing trends in 2020.

The Content Calendar: An Invincible Resource
Here are a set of questions that you should ask yourself to determine what your editorial calendar should look like.

• How frequently do you publish content and where? Do you have stuff going live through the day on your website and social media or do you publish once a week
• What are the content types that you use? Does it include YouTube videos, blog posts and social media posts
• Do you have an established content pipeline for content topic approval and publishing checks? Do you need a calendar that includes different stages of content creation?

Once you have answered these questions, you can create a perfectly robust calendar using Google Sheets or shared Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. You can even opt for a number of tools available online for creating editorial calendars.

Ready to get started with your content marketing strategy? Need help with SEO, Internet Marketing or building your website? We create custom high-quality designs that cater to your unique requirements. Our experienced team provides ongoing SEO, website development, content development, hosting, website maintenance and much more.

Marketers find themselves in poorly charted waters every time a recession hits the market. Even if you have studied marketing successes and failures of leading brands, nothing can prepare you as the circumstances are not always alike. However, one thing remains. Customers begin to set stricter priorities, reduce their spending and postpone any new investments as well.

A popular adage says, “When times are good you should advertise. When times are bad you must advertise.” In the current scenario that we are in, one thing is for certain. Advertising decisions should be made and implemented, no matter what the state of the economy. Here’s why and how!

• When you choose not to spend on advertising during recession, you are bound to lose your “share of mind” with your customers. This has the potential to bring down your current and future sales. An increase in “share of voice”, even during crisis situations such as downturns is sure to drive up “share of mind” as it is likely that your competitors are cutting budgets, consumption patterns are shifting from expendables to essentials. While a downturn is a trying time for customers and businesses alike, there is an undercurrent of stress and fear beneath that surface. If you are able to tap into and appeal to your customers emotionally, you have a better chance at “share of mind”.
• Analyzing and tracking your budgets are crucial during the recession and digital marketing allows for specific and measurable marketing campaigns. There’s no better way to identify your best performing marketing strategy, reach the audiences you want and deliver compelling ad campaigns. Together with creative merchandising and launch offers, you will be able to innovate for a successful way even during the times of a financial storm. So what are you waiting for?
• Seize market share from timid competitors. During the 1990-91 recession, two leading food chains took advantage of a fast food giant’s decision to curtail advertising spend. The food chain’s sales increased over 60% and the fast food chain’s sales actually declined.
• What’s trending online? The answer to this question holds the answer to all your online marketing queries to start with. Monitoring Google Trends and other related sites is important to know what people are asking about your industry or services at this time. You can begin creating content around related topics and your pages will be ready and available when sales picks back.

Even in the uncertain times of a lockdown, people still search for information online. It’s time to start investing in your web presence. Contact Studio1c for information. We will take a comprehensive look at your entire online marketing presence and create a customized plan suited for your business needs.