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Category : Website Designing

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What is Web 1.0, 2.0, & 3.0?

Web 1.0

In the evolution of the World Wide Web, Web 1.0 refers to the first stage. With a huge majority of users who are content consumers, there were only a few content creators in Web 1.0. Personal web pages were normal, hosted on ISP-run web servers consisting mainly of static pages, or on web hosting services.

Advertisements on Web 1.0 were banned while surfing the internet. Web 1.0 enables to showcase of the piece of information on the websites which is known as Content Delivery Network (CDN) also can be used as personal websites. Cost formula is per page view and it has directories that enable users to retrieve a particular piece of information.

Design Essentials of web 1.0

  1. Pages are static.
  2. From the file-system of the server, the content is served.
  3. Using Common Gateway Interface (CGI) or Server Side the page sare built.
  4. To position and align the Elements, frames and tables are used on a page.

Web 2.0

User-generated content, usability, and interoperability for end-users are some of the highlights of Web 2.0 which is also known as a worldwide website and another name for it is a participative social web. It doesn’t refer to any modification to technical specification, but to recreate in a good way web pages are designed and used. When the changes have occurred the transitions are beneficial, but it doesn’t seem that way. Collaboration is allowed with each other by Web 2.0 in a social media dialogue as the creator of a user-generated cant in a virtual community. Web 1 is an enhanced version of 2.0. In web 2.0 development the browser technologies are used, and it includes ajax and JavaScript Frameworks.

Features of Web 2.0

  1. It permits users to retrieve and classify the information collectively, and it also provides free sorting of information.
  2. It provides dynamic content that is responsive to user input.
  3. By means of evaluation and online commenting, information flows between site owners and site users.
  4. APIs are developed to allow self-usage, such as by a software application.
  5. Web access leads to an issue different from the traditional user base to a wider variety of users.

Related Post: Types of hackers & current scenario among the types of hackers

Use of Web 2.0

To share the perspectives, thoughts, opinions, and experiences the social web contains a number of online tools. Web 2.0 applications tend to have a conversation much more with the end-user. The end-user is also a participant of the 8 tools mentioned below:

  1. Podcasting
  2. Blogging
  3. Tagging
  4. Curating with RSS
  5. Social Bookmarking
  6. Social Networking
  7. Social media
  8. Web content voting

Web 3.0

The evolution and utilization of web interaction with the inclusion of alteration of the web into the database. After a long time of focus on the front-end, it enables the upgradation of the back-end of the web. To describe the evolutions of web usage and interaction among several paths web 3.0 is used. Instead of owning data, it is shared, where services show different views for the same data / same web. All the development process is done in Web 3.0, and all the Website Development Companies uses Web 3.0 for the website designing services.

Web 3.0

Establishments of “the world’s information” is promised by the semantic web (3.0) in a responsible way than Google can ever attain with their existing engine schema. From the perspective of machine conception, this is particularly true as opposed to human understanding. It is necessary for the semantic web for the use of a declarative ontological language like OWL to produce domain-specific ontologies that machines can use to reason about information and use it make new conclusions, and not simply match keywords.

Features of Web 3.0

Semantic Web

There is an involvement of the semantic web in succeeding in the evolution of the Web. In order to create, share and connect through search and analysis based on the capability to comprehend the meaning of words, instead of keywords or numbers, al this is used in the development of and improvement of the semantic web.

Artificial Intelligence

Mixing this capability with natural language processing, computers can distinguish information like humans in order to provide faster and more relevant results in web 3.0. to fulfill the requirements of the user it becomes more and more intelligent.

Related Post: Why Businesses must Integrate Artificial Intelligence[AI]?

3D Graphics

In Web 3.0 the three-dimensional design is being used widely in websites and services. Computer games, museum guides, eCommerce, geospatial contexts, etc. are some of the examples that use 3D graphics.

Connectivity

Thanks to semantic metadata, the information is more connected to web 3.0. As a result, the UI evolves to another level of connectivity that leverages all the available information.

web push notification, pushpushio

Ubiquity

The services can be used everywhere, content is accessible by multiple applications. Every device is connected to the web.

Ouriken is a standalone web design and digital agency. We design and implements powerful solutions for small and medium businesses in technology, business, and operations. Our standard web designing services include many features that contain home, blog, images, faq, contact us and many more. It is the best website designing firm.

Common Problems in Web Designing and how to Avoid it

While developing a website you can face a lot of problems which can ruin your whole development process, the precious time you had invested in developing the project and the resources as well. In this blog, I will be sharing a few common issues, time-suckers, and other things that arise that can deviate a project.

Each Website project is different, but according to my experience, there are a lot of common problems that arise in the phase of website designing. And we do our best to acting in advance to deal with the expected change guide course of designing very clear of any issues so we can save our client’s time as well as budget in Website Designing services.

Here is a compilation of 4 common problems/issues we have observed in web design projects over the years and how to avoid them effectively.  In order to keep your website production smooth and at a budget.

Wrong people in Charge

Many clients think that we are vendors they pay us to do the designing the websites, so all the responsibility is our own.

It’s very important to know that it’s a collaborative effect whenever we are beginning a web design project. To help you achieve your goals, we take our knowledge of the web, best practices and your option to create a website. To get there we need to have a point-of-contact that will be engaged, communicative, well-organized, and understand the large goals of the project.

We have run into issues where this does not go as expected, so once there was this client running the project without seeking approvals or feedback from anyone else on the team. Without the knowledge to us, we received approvals on things and then we got to the final stage. But when the CEO saw what we made, she hated it and we had to start over.

Assigning a wrong person in charge can be very destructive for the project’s budget and timeline – according to what we have seen. We should manage our time in terms of communication because the person in charge was not doing what they’re supposed to do, the less time we need to create a beautiful website.

Related Post: Factors to Consider When Choosing a Web Development Company

Ignoring the budget

The trickiest subject to deal with when it comes to a project is its budget. We arrange our projects based on the number of hours we think it will take. Based on historical data from previous websites, we come up with our estimates. We estimate our deadlines accordingly.

We give updates on where we are with a budget, as we move throughout our web design project. Just address the concern and try to be mindful of the hours if you find out that the design phase is already wasting the development time.

Web Designing Services

 Some clients have requested that we keep updating the design and hope that we will have enough for the rest upon knowing this information. It does become an issue sometimes and clients end up getting very close to their budget or exceeding it.

You should hear those concerns and make any important adjustments to preserve the budget for the remainder of the project if your web designer is bringing up a budget in the design phase of the project.

Radio Silence on Feedback

There are many website projects which are based on approvals. We typically start with a sitemap/wireframe whenever we begin with a new project. And once that is approved, we go ahead with the design.

It’s important to really review the drafts you are given and make sure its what you want, it’s typically a red flag that they didn’t really review it and will probably change down the road if clients are too swift to approve a design. Make sure your review is thoughtful and specific.

Related Post: 9 Tips To Reduce Mobile App Development Cost

Assumption of the Template is a Right Method

We will sometimes recommend using a template to keep the budget low. Website templates help us put out a product quickly. But many clients opt for the template for the wrong reasons and don’t consider the long term consequences.

It doesn’t work in the long run, while the templates help us keep the budget less. A template has its own limitations. It could be further edited beyond its capabilities which will force the designer to use the custom website design, which will make the cost to custom website design so there is no use of using the cheap template for the use.

Conclusion

It doesn’t mean that every website project is doomed from the beginning, but if you are aware of the common problems, you can work with your company to avoid it effectively. We work hard to make our clients happy and to make a successful product that produces amazing results. And by collaborating to work on issues.

Ouriken is a standalone web design and digital agency. We design and implements powerful solutions for small and medium businesses in technology, business, and operations.

Maintaining a Website’s SEO After a Redesign

Planning to redesign your website but afraid of the SEO rankings? There need is some need to considering the maintenance of SEO rankings and your website’s DA before, after and during the redesign process. The aesthetics of the site is not the only thing you need to worry about when you think of redesigning your website, but we also need to take some time to look into the maintenance of SEO for your website and ways to improve it as well.

Many companies, since maintaining SEO for a website is a big deal nowadays, fail to understand the importance of attention to SEO while the redesigning of their website, but it affects them a big-time after in time. You could wipe out all your previous SEO efforts if maintenance of SEO is not done carefully. With major Web Design and Development activities, there are both technical and non-technical areas to consider for. Specific steps must be taken care of to ensure that you don’t demolish your SEO quality when transitioning from old site to new one.

Core Areas to Consider

There are three main areas to look upon in order to maintain the SEO rankings when redesigning your website:

  • What is acceptable with your current SEO efforts
  • During a redesign, what might be the possible common challenges
  • Changes that will come with a new website

You will be able to find out your weakness in SEO by focusing on these areas so you can improve it later.

Monitoring your SEO

If you have campaigns in place and currently monitoring your SEO rankings regarding those keywords then you have a good amount of data to analyze. In that case, one must be really aware of the keywords they rank for, the mapping for each keyword, the exact placement in rankings and the pages that deliver the highest organic traffic.

SEO monitoring

Related Post: Factors to Consider When Choosing a Web Development Company

Common Challenges to Face with SEO in Redesigning Process

There are a lot of issues that may pop up when you work on a site redesign, focus on rebranding, improving User Experience, and updating of backend. There is a list where one could face challenges:

  • Removed Content
  • Changed Content
  • Movable content based on the new site’s navigation or site map
  • URLs might change
  • Changes in Page-level optimization
  • Addition of new content, sections, technology, new features
  • New Technical difficulties
  • Internal Link structure edits
  • Changes in Domain or Sub-Domain
  • Changes in Protocol

These are the areas which may impact SEO in a redesign. It may be very hard to identify exactly what needs to be addressed with so many possible changes. Out of the above-mentioned challenges, changes in a domain are one of the biggest challenges as compared to other challenges, but each and every challenge must be overcome and the more challenges you have the more difficult it will be to maintain your SEO rankings.

How to not lose your SEO rankings checklist and redesign at the same time

Before starting the redesigning process it’s very important to undertint the best practices to preserve your SEO rankings. Some of the parameters are as follows:

An SEO audit must be run on your current website

Understanding all the keywords you are attempting to rank for and with what the pages are associated with. You should be concerned about pages and specific on-page optimization beyond redirects, which go from the Dev. to the live line state.

Setting up 301 and 302 redirects

First and foremost, you must redirect the old URLs to new ones. You’ll need to have a spreadsheet of all needed redirects if you’re making changes to permalink structure. Crawl the old list of URLs to ensure that everything redirects as it should once you have the new site live.

A permanent redirect from one link to another is called a 301 redirect. This redirection is used for website visitors and search engines, a 301 redirect is better for SEO over a temporary one because it transfers the internal link as well, approximately 90-99% of the time. This redirection method is the preferred method for new sites.

And a temporary redirection is called 302 redirects, redirecting users and search engines to the desired page for a short period of time until it’s removed. In order to give your users a seamless experience, you should use it during the update of a web page. What they say is right, excess 302 redirects will affect your SEO, so be careful when using it.

Maintain Website's SEO after a redesign

Multiple Tests

Assuming the live site will perform the same as a dev. site is kind of stupidity. A lot of time and resources are probably invested in testing, but in the real world, things can change. Usage of technical tools for site audits like Moz, Ahrefs, or DeepCrawl, these tools provide insights on technical issues. Also, running your domain through the mobile-friendly testing tool and the loading speed of the new website must be checked too. Last but not least, schema markup on the new website should be done and must not be forgotten.

Related Post: Why Responsive Website Development is a must for business?

How to Avoid Mistakes

We’ve covered almost everything that you should do, but how can we avoid mistakes that can cost you your SEO rankings.

  • Don’t start over on the content: If the content on your website is ranking, then you must not abandon it. If you do it will affect the rankings.
  • Redirects are your friends: when a 404 Page Not Found error is displayed to the user, which means the pages have dropped off Google’s index.
  • Internal linking is the key: Always remember to push this to the new website.
  • Outbound links must be added on need.
  • You can use Ahrefs to find these pages that have high rankings and multiple backlinks, try to preserve or transfer them.

Conclusion

As the brand evolves, redesigning a website is a move that most companies should make. In order to maintain the SEO rankings, you must follow these best practices from a website redesign. Never start over on the content like your old website never existed, it will affect the rankings so bad. Feel free to add your tips, tricks, and suggestions in the comments below.

Ouriken is a standalone web design and digital agency. We design and implements powerful solutions for small and medium businesses in technology, business, and operations.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Web Development Company

Choices are very good as well sometimes confusing factors. Humans are gifted with quick decision-making capabilities, so the choices we get to choose from helps humans to decide completely depends upon the choices. Nowadays choices are ample, but the time to choose it very less. That’s is why we come up with some set of rules, regulations, and principles of our own to choose what is good for us. In the same way, choosing a Web Development Company for our business is a tedious task as well since there are almost 10,000+ companies to choose from Countrywide. Let’s look at one of the examples of what I’m trying to say.

In 1980, at the headquarters of Crest Toothpaste, there was a grand party. Due to a knowledge-intensive environment, the chief operating officer suggested coming up with new ideas and a new marketing strategy must be invented and implemented. And after brainstorming for a while they came to the conclusion of introducing new variations in the toothpaste and it will be good for the company, business-wise. Within the organization, this idea was well received. Without wasting any time, they came up with 52 new variants of the toothpaste, which were given shelves in the major supermarkets.

But, when Crest was working on its 52 variants, unfortunately, another company named Colgate launched ‘Colgate Total’. It was just a single toothpaste claiming to clean the mouth totally.

Now, what happened was whenever a customer visited the store he had choices. Either they can choose one Colgate toothpaste or they have to choose one from 52 variants of Crest toothpaste. According to me, the customer will choose Colgate over Crest. So after offering so many choices, humans get confused with its natural tendency because they want the best for them.

So, if you are planning to start a business or already have one, an obvious first mandatory factor is to have a website for the business. In order to achieve it, you can either use your internal resources for building a website or finding companies to build a website for you. And there are so many companies to choose from that is become almost impossible to choose the right one for you.

Let’s see some tips which you must consider before handling your website development job to a new agency.

Check Internal Resources

In this process, we take a look at our available resources in the firm, and according to it, we can set a budget for ourselves. The development of an e-commerce website requires serious skills. UI/UX design sense, what type of content needs to go on the website, testing, development, and quality control. After all this, we must decide on what e-commerce software platform to use. Later comes the digital marketing part containing SEO and so on.

If you and your team have an above-mentioned list of skills then it will play a vital role in getting your website launched quickly and will reduce the cost of the company. But let’s be real, no one has that kind of expertise laying on their hand ready to work, and most of the small businesses and even big champs didn’t have that type of skill set readily available and they didn’t have time as well. Here comes the Website Development Company into the picture, getting a website developer on board becomes imperative for a successful website launch. Let’s see the factors that one must consider before hiring a website development company for your e-commerce store.

Portfolio Enquiry

One does not think twice while asking for extras at a restaurant, so we must not hesitate t ask the portfolio of the company. A website is a medium where people will visit and make a purchase and you will make money out of it, so make sure you design your website is very well optimized and built according to your needs. Do not leave everything on the hands of the developer, they don’t know your requirements in and out unless you tell them to do so.

Ask them for their finished as well as ongoing e-commerce website projects, in that way you’ll come to know about their work as well as you can get ideas for your website, regarding UI/UX as well as components that will solve your problem. A simple background check of the agency is an optional thing to do, but it is possible just to be sure.

Related Post: What to consider while choosing the best Web Designing Company?

Handling Deadlines

This factor can be judged easily in the first few meetings with the client. The amount of time a vendor invests in each project can be checked by their portfolio. Enquire about the contingency plans and challenged the Website Development Company faced to build an e-commerce website for their previous customers. The company will be able to provide a clear-cut plan if they are experienced.

Factors to consider when choosing a website development company

Response Time of Agency

In the first meeting, it is impossible to know how efficient the developer is, but in 2-3 presales meetings you can be sure about the levels of commitment and speed of delivery is the vendor going to show after you’ve hired him. Get ready for not only missed deadlines but also unfulfilled commitments if the representative of the agency is not addressing your request for more information quickly and they provide unjustifiable reasons for the delay.

Do Your Own Research

Because of the advancements of the telecom sector, the digital world has become one big family they are always in touch with each other. For the search of perfect developer what you can do is ask our friends or friends of friends if they can refer anyone they can know. It’s the best way to find potential vendors as it can save time. Reddit and Quora are filled with good developers, you just have to search properly. A lot of good Web Development Companies and their customers are using these platforms to search and talk to each other. Pay attention to the reviews which people are writing about the company, if they are good then the company is actually good if they are bad they have a talk with the company about what went wrong and let them clarify the things and let them fix the situation to provide you better service.

Opt for All-In-One Package

Most of the companies usually have all in one package, to release some pain from the budget. It is a very wise decision of hiring an agency that has a team that makes sure that the website not only attracts scores of the customer very well but also website functioning perfectly. When you get all the information in one place, it becomes easier for you to stay updated with the progress that agency is doing, for creating something new and extraordinary a diverse team I required to brainstorm properly with your involvement as well. Always remember, more heads means more innovation.

Related Post: The Ultimate Guide to Web Push Notifications

Web Push Notifications

Conclusion

Starting a business is a very daunting task, which makes it way harder is to maintain the workflow run business smoothly and generates leads. That’s why a working website is a very crucial thing to have. If not taken seriously, the dream of success and money you want to generate will never come true. Try to provide the best experience otherwise, the customer will bag the product in the cart but not from your website. Keep these tips in mind and concentrate on getting the best website designing services.

Ouriken is a standalone web design and digital agency. We design and implements powerful solutions for small and medium businesses in technology, business, and operations.

8 Free Ways to Promote Your Business

Every business wants their products or services to be seen by potential customers. But, most of the traditional ways for promotion costs money and not everyone can afford it if they are just starting up the business. Well, there are ways to promote your business without spending a dime. So, let’s get into the list of the ways of 8 ways to promote your business. These ideas will not cost you money but they will surely cost you some of your precious time.

Optimization of Website for Search Engines

In this digital world, what people do when they want to buy something? Well, they search for the product or service on Google or other search engines of their choice. The process of information gathering takes place about the product. They try to collect data from the internet so if your website is not the list which they are searching for their information on, so you virtually do not exist.

The easy fix for this is to hire a digital agency that can do the optimization of your website for you but, even in that case you need to be aware of the process, so that Google cannot penalize your website for some wrongdoings or against its algorithm. By reading some guides on SEO you can tweak your website and rank higher on Google and on other search engines as well. The good thing is agencies would not be able to fool you if you know some of the processes.

8 Free Ways to Promote Your Business

Business Listing

Vendors are being searched on business directories by buyers. If your products are mostly B2B, add a free listing on IndiaMart, Trade India and Indian Yellow Pages. These are some popular business to business directories.

And if you’re products or services are B2C then you can list your business on Just Dial, Ask Me and Get It for free. The biggest advantage of these platforms is that they have mobile apps and that attracts a huge audience.

If your business is selling software’s then SoftwareSuggest is a very good directory to list your business. The categorization of the software’s on this website is quite good, like HR, CRM, ERP, etc. Many small businesses have been profited by this.

Listing On Google My Business

Google is trying to make the search personal and now displays results that are tailored for your location. For example, if we search for McDonald’s, Google will show you the outlets in your city with a map. So, if your list your business on Google, it will be very beneficial for you, and it is necessary to get listed on Google as the rate of competition is increasing very rapidly.

Adding your business is very easy, Google made sure that the process is simple for addition and managing the added business for the location on the map.

Social Media is Powerful

Social Media Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, not only help you get more customers but also the engagement to get quality feedback from them for your products or services. One can get around 20% of traffic only from social media.

The key point in achieving most out of social media is the frequency of our posts, if we post regularly, the rate of popularity and loyal customers will increase. Business updates or news related updates can be shared with your industry. Competitor analysis on social media is very easy as well; we can follow some influencers and monitor their activity. Recommended is to post twice to thrice a week on Facebook and 2-3 times a day on Twitter.

8 free ways to promote your business

Answering Questions

It happens most of the time that people don’t get their desired answers on the Google search, so they turn up towards forums on the internet to solve their problems. QnA sites like Quora and Yahoo answers are one of the popular places where you can find new customers.  There are LinkedIn Groups that are also used for the QnA website.

How can we benefit from these sites? We first have to create accounts on these websites and start searching for your product or services; we will get a lot of questions related to your product or services. People will ask about the top companies that sell this product and they will compare different products and so on.

Always start by answering easy questions and then move the levels up a bit by bit. For Example in Ouriken, I searched for a web design and development company on Quora and got hundreds of questions related to the topic. Then, like I said start answering easy questions and keep recommending your website in the answers so that you will get organic traffic to your website that too, free of cost.

Related Post: What to consider while choosing the best Web Designing Company?

The same thing could be done on Yahoo answers and LinkedIn groups, all 3 of them are a good source for organic traffic and very influential. Talking about good things, all these websites are crawled or indexed by Google so your answers will get displayed on Google whenever someone will search for it. Tip for answering in these websites is to have the intention of helping the needy first then we can sell our things in between. Nobody likes hard upselling.

Attending Networking Events/Meetups

The Concept is to visit Events/Expos/Meetups and increase your network in order to find new customers. You can just search for “Business events in (your city)” and Google will come up with the list of upcoming events if there are any. Most of the events are free of cost, you just have to bear the travel expenses and they attract potential customers as well as distributors/resellers/consultants.

Gradually, there will be a realization in you that people attend these events just to meet other people and increasing their network, eventually increasing their customers. Meetup is a site through which we can meet a lot of entrepreneurs and startup owners meet frequently using this site. People with open minds come here to meet and or open for new ideas sharing and partnerships in the existing startups.

Uploading Videos on YouTube

Over 4 billion videos are played on YouTube every day, and this number is growing exponentially. So, uploading videos on YouTube of your product or service is a no brainer. The best part is, search results of your videos will appear on the Google search result page giving your website more visibility.

For product, a 2 min demo video of the product will do, and for service, you can upload a testimonial of the client and upload it. You should always remember to put keywords in the title or description of the video so it ranks up. If you come up with interesting content that has the potential to go viral and hit the jackpot, leads will flood into your inbox.

Offering a Deal to Customers

Deal sites like Groupon and Coupon Dunia attract millions of users to their portals. So, have a meeting with the deal website guys, brainstorm with them and come up with a deal that your customers cannot resist. And you can a good number of buyers at no cost.

Once you have decided the discount to give to your customers, the deals website will do the promotion for you. Since they have a large database of registered users. This process of offering deals will be more or less will remain similar in other websites as well.

Related Post: Why Your Business Needs Digital Marketing to Grow and Thrive?

Conclusion

These are just 8 ways, there can be or there are many more ways of promoting your business. You just have to be creative and have an out of the box thinking. Some of the points mentioned above will yield results instantly, and some will take its own natural time. If you’re on a tight budget for marketing you have to invest your time in it instead to promote your business. There are some startups who succeeded with literally ZERO marketing budget. If you have any other ideas to add in this list, I know there are. Feel free to comment down below.

Ouriken is a standalone web design and digital agency. We design and implements powerful solutions for small and medium businesses in technology, business, and operations.

What is Web Beacon (Bug)?

A Web Beacon is also known as Web Bug, pixel tag, invisible GIF, Clear GIF. In order to know what the user has accessed in emails or web pages, web bug is used. Mostly used for web analytics, a Web Beacon is mostly invisible. A Web Beacon arrives in the form of an image and can be detected by the user, only if the back end source code is checked. Web Beacon can work easily because it is a small graphical image with very little size and low bandwidth and weak network connection is not a problem to it.

Web Beacon is still a controversial topic and is still debatable whether to use it or not since it comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Some take it to be a good thing because of its ability of high-level real-time analytics for business. On the other hand, some people consider it as a tool for data theft and are causing disruption. Some find it extremely concerning.

While in many cases, Web Beacons also constitutes an image which has a pixel size dimension of 1×1. But, Web Beacon has so many positive aspects and it could be used in the tracking of the following statistics:

  • The exact time for the web bug was used or accessed or viewed.
  • Type of Web Browser of a user who has fetched the web bug.
  • The physical Internet Protocol address of the system that accessed the web bug.
  • User Preferences are stored in the Web Beacon to use it later for remarketing Ads.
  • Advertisers have the ability to build up browsing profiles for customers to display a healthy amount of relevant ads.

For validating email addresses a Web Beacon can be used by spammers. The sender can validate if the user has accessed the email, therefore, the sender can validate the authenticity of an email address.

Working of Web Beacon

Images within the web page also get rendered when the browser tries to render a web page. A request by the browser is made to the server to download the images within the web page, with this request server keep a log of some information such as IP address, timestamp, and other few details. The process of tracking how many times you have accessed the web page could be done with the help of Web Beacon with the location information and few additional user specifics. Reference to an existing can also be made by this request which was sent to the server by the browser. By the means of this request, the webmaster understands the user preferences and builds a profile based on user preferences. It’s placed on the website by website design and development company in the backend, making it completely invisible. Web Beacon can not only be used over emails, but it can also be work over websites. Tracking and monitoring emails and their click rates is a common practice. Open Tracking, a Method that is used to insert images right in the emails. So whenever the email server tries to download an image in the mail, an alert is directly sent to the web server. In email marketing, it is an important part of analytics since they know if their email was opened or clicked.

what is Web Beacon

Web Beacon can also be a part of embedded links, most probably in the form of a reference ID within the URL. By clicking on the embedded link, one can identify if the email was opened and when it was opened. In 2007, Facebook implemented its own beacon which was also referred to as “Facebook beacons” existed. Facebook Beacon collected data from users profile from beacons partners of what that user accessed and other information. But without taking any prior consent, Facebook displayed this data on users profile’s which a breach of privacy and security, which was without really letting the users turn on or off this feature, which was a huge security issue. That was past, Facebook learned its lesson owing to privacy concerns they revoked the Facebook Beacons and had to suspend it from the website.

Related Post: What to consider while choosing the Web Designing Company?

Difference between Cookie and a Web Beacon

Most of the times both the components are used for a similar purpose, which is to track information. The purpose is to provide a better user experience. Perhaps they sound similar, but the working is different. Many of the times Web Beacons are used in conjunction with cookies. Cookie could be identified as a session cookie or a persistent cookie. Cookies are targeted to improve returning customer’s user experience by enabling faster interactions. Cookies have an upper hand that they can be accepted or declined. By default, cookies are turned on, but most browsers give users to choose the cookie preference.

On the other hand, Web Beacons are a part of images and are not visible to users in any way unless the user checks the source code. Web Beacons do not provide user preference to accept or decline them. But there’s a way to block the Web Beacons by just going into the browser’s privacy section. But this has to be done manually on all the browsers the user is using. By doing this few of the other websites or user interface may not work properly based on the configuration of the website.

Advantages of Web Beacon

It has some advantages that are the reason many websites and email marketing campaigns focus on this.

  1. Based on interest, Web Beacons allows advertisers to display ads to users very effectively.
  2. Easy to implement and extremely cheap.
  3. It enhances user experience with the help of selected personalization
  4. Data Insights are provided, which is data gold mines.
  5. It increases the Retention of customers and user engagement.

Disadvantages of Web Beacon

Basically, there are no disadvantages for Web Beacon, but there are some concerns which annoyed some users, they are listed as follows:

  1. Coding Expertise is required.
  2. Since it is technology dependent, and hence implementation can vary based on technology.
  3. To avoid any privacy-related issues it should be implemented carefully.

Related Post: Push Notification – Modern Advertising Channel!

Conclusion

Web Beacon can provide great insights making it a powerful tool. If implemented properly can provide great data insights. Without the requirement of any expensive analytics tools, Web Beacon is the most affordable option.

Ouriken is a standalone web design and digital agency. We design and implements powerful solutions for small and medium businesses in technology, business, and operations.

How to create an FAQ page that generates more leads?

A FAQ or frequently asked questions are the set of questions which customers have in their minds when they see your website or they are confused about your product or services, let’s put it simply, no matter how good your content is, people will still have questions. If we take the words literally, frequently asked questions are questions your business receives from the customers and prospects. So you’ll ask how FAQs will help you to generate more leads?

The answer is simple, but first, let’s understand what a lead means. Someone who is interested in what your business is and what is it that you are selling to them. Lead generation, on the other hand, is a process where we find out who those people are who are interested in your product and we help them to find us. FAQs are the type of simple questions that customers have in their minds and once they find the FAQ page they will know what they want to know without actually going anywhere and sometimes customers get irritated if they don’t find FAQ page on the website.

Marketers have been using ways to communicate and answer the questions which they want to be answered like blogs, contact us page, and customer support. But the most effective way to answer all the questions is integrating a FAQ page on the website. So how do we create an FAQ page that compels the visitor’s interests? Some of the advantages of creating a FAQ page is we could actually save the visitor’s time and giving them all the answers in one place rather than they contact us for literally everything. It also increases our SEO, visitors will be able to trust us, and most important of all it helps to build internal links to our website.

So, how to create an FAQ page?

We have to create the questions in such a way that the visitor understands the product or services and also get the answers which he came looking for. Here is the example of the FAQ page template.

Generate more leads with FAQ page

Start With Questions Which Really Matters

When we see other best FAQs for reference, we will find some really basic questions and you’ll think why this question is added in this list, but remember that list is a well thought and strategically implemented. There is a lot of brainstorming involved in creating an FAQ page; professional design agencies take their sweet time to identify the most common issues. The data which we can look into is some of the customers who left the page at checkout or some initial visitors who found some problems on the website or the product or any issue they are facing.

 Knowing the intent of the customer is very important if they don’t get what they came for they will choose someone else who is offering the same product. Another way to find out questions is to ask your family or friends to visit your website and ask them if they have any issues while navigating. If you have customer support teams ask them to provide questions as well and some questions will come via email, so wait for like a month to know almost every issue and note down most appearing questions and include them in the FAQ page. When you get all the questions, it’s very important to organize those questions. Most asked questions are always placed on top and least asked questions are placed at the bottom since the top placed questions are asked very frequently so it must be answered quickly. After organizing the questions, answer those in detail and on point. Answer only what’s asked, there is no need to provide extra information about something, if that is the case, make that a separate question. Sometimes a question is required to send a link in terms of an answer, so we can do it too.

Create Conversational Answers

Logically organized FAQ pages are the best, try creating a long FAQ page so that it’s easier to create multiple topics on a single page. How do we solve the problem by cutting it into smaller problems, in the same way, we shall break down the questions into smaller categories so that the customer finds his answer. Avoid using jargon, try to explain everything in the simplest manner possible, there is a possibility that the customer ends up on the FAQ page already irritated and he finds a bunch of jargon which he won’t understand to make more irate further losing a sale.

Keep in mind you are providing answers to humans, so try to make the answers conversational and short, because less is more. And if your FAQ page is conversational and easy to understand, then the possibility of getting discovered on Google increases. The more ‘How To..?’ questions, the better and answer them in favor of your business like, ‘You should’ or ‘We offer’. For example,

                Q: How do I know if there is a free trial for this product?

                A: We offer a free trial of 30 days. For more information, visit the website (share link).

Point is, do not make the FAQ boring and tedious. Think about in a way that your FAQ page is the voice of your brand which is communicating with the visitors or customers, so make sure your tone of the language doesn’t seem dull or dry. By doing this you will make the visitor comfortable and also build trust in him of your brand. Place the FAQ page where the visitor or customer can find it easily. Write your answers in such a way that it should resonate with the potential customer.

Related Post: Why Your Business Needs Digital Marketing to Grow and Thrive?

Keep Your Answers Short

Following the above point might get you to write a brief answer sometime which most of the customers don’t want, they come to the FAQ page to search for quick resolution, so conversational yes, but lengthy answers, NO! Customers don’t have much time to call the business up for small problems and they do not like being put on hold. Even if you write a lengthy answer, customers will skim down to the important point of the answer, so favor them by already stating what they want to. Keep your paragraph of answers short, about 4-5 lines and try avoiding complex sentences.

There comes a time when you have to write a lengthy answer, you can use bullet points to make the customer understand his issue and how to solve it or another best strategy is to provide link of the help and support pages, it’s a good thing for your website as well because it creates internal backlinking. By doing all this, your FAQ page will look tidy and clutter-free. But in order to generate potential leads provide the link of the main product page or link your landing page in the answer. If you want Google to link your site to relevant Google searches, make a landing page for each page on the website also increasing internal linking.  If you have any negative questions in the FAQ page which is okay, just frame the answer in a positive manner and straightforward answers are appreciated. We cannot ignore those questions because visitors will divert those questions to social media, and there is a possibility of them getting the wrong answers.

FAQs to generate more leads

 

Try to make your negative questions your strength by stating some of the unique features of the product which may be no one are providing in the market or your quality of the product is better as compared to your competitors. By answering these risky questions in a positive manner will deepen the trust of potential customers in brand thinking. And there are also some questions that may not be answered via plain text or website link. In that case, we can use multimedia as our option, meaning we can also use pictures, GIFs, info-graphics, charts, and videos to convey the message.

Include a Call-To-Action

Even though it’s not that necessary, but adding a call to action button like ‘Buy Now’, ‘Get Started’, ‘Contact Us’ after taking their feedback on the bottom of the answer. Or you can add a call to action in between your answers. Always add your company information in the FAQ page; it becomes easier for the customers to contact us, thus building another trust factor in the FAQ page. One can use plugins in the website design and development phase to integrate CTA (Call to Action) in their FAQ page.

Here are some of the best FAQ plug-ins for WordPress websites

  • Heroic FAQs
  • HTML5 Responsive FAQ
  • Ultimate FAQ
  • Arconix FAQ
  • WP responsive FAQ with category
  • FAQPlus
  • Fancy FAQ
  • Accordion FAQ
  • WooCommerce Product FAQ manager

Related Post: Why responsive website development is a must for business?

Investing efforts In Customers

Just like we have gone the extra mile to keep our product or services on the website well maintained. In the same way, we have to build our FAQ page putting the customer in mind and by thinking like a customer, we can overcome the challenges. Remember, the best FAQ page doesn’t let the visitors leave unless he takes any action. In my personal experience, I’ve noticed the FAQ page being kept on the bottom of the page, making the visitors or customers tough to search for it. And when it’s not found you cannot answer their questions which lead to loss of leads. Since the FAQ page can also rank up in the SERP (Search Engine Result Page) we need to use long-tail keywords in the questions or answers. Just follow these 5 tips in order to achieve the goals.

Conclusion

FAQs play a vital role for companies in nearly every industry, create the FAQ page with the mindset of the potential customer and try making maximum sales of your product or services. So be creative on your FAQ page, do not hesitate to experiment with the answer you provide and try to create more and more leads as possible.

Ouriken is a standalone web design and digital agency. We design and implement powerful solutions for small and medium businesses in technology, business, and operations.

8 Things you need to know about Gutenberg

Most of us know that WordPress has implemented its new content editor project called Gutenberg. It’s a new WordPress editor or Blocks editor, you don’t need to be a developer now to build your own page since Gutenberg makes sure it’s easier for everyone to make your webpage look stylish, minimal, and up to the mark. When it was launched, it was not smooth since it was in its beta stage and they needed feedbacks from users to improve their interface accordingly. Present-day, Gutenberg has evolved so much and now it’s capable of doing much more than that of its initial beta stage. According to the experts, the introduction of Gutenberg was one of the biggest changes in the history of WordPress. WordPress has a reputation for one of the best website development company.

Let’s take a look at 8 things you need to know about Gutenberg which makes our work easier and writing more fun:

Blocks

The newest and most unique in Gutenberg is the implementation of Blocks if we put in simple words, blocks are like Lego bricks put together. It is an integral new addition to the WordPress ecosystem. Imagine your content like you’re building something in Lego if you don’t like where one piece is placed you can easily replace or remove that brick. In the same way, blocks can be replaced, transformed or completely removed altogether, and the best part is you will not disturb other content which does not need editing.

This feature was not available in the classic editor where it was tough to edit and manage content properly as the user wanted. Every individual content in Gutenberg is its own block. Blocks include the heading, subheading, paragraph, image, gallery, video, quote, columns, list button, embeds and many more. There are two ways of adding blocks to your page, you can either click on the “+” button to add whatever block you need to add or while writing content just add “/” backslash, and write the name of the block which you want to add. Check out the images below to compare the looks of the classic editor and the new Gutenberg editor.

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OLD
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NEW

Editing

As we have already discussed that how the block looks and work in the new editor, another unique thing in new editor is what you see is what you get, meaning, while creating content what you see is almost exactly what you are going to see on the front end after publishing. This takes us to discuss another advantage that editing is way easier as compared to the classic editor, which makes blocks extremely flexible to use. Remember those days when we used to constantly save and preview how our content is going to look after publishing? Yes, those were tough days.

And when you take an initial look at the Gutenberg interface you will instantly notice that there is an increase in space real estate as compared to the classic editor. Editing font size in Gutenberg is easy too since they are more about in the “visual” side. There are now multiple options of changing the font size, there is a slider by which you can have a custom font size. But the best part is the introduction of ‘drop cap’ in Gutenberg editor. Drop cap basically makes your first letter of the word larger than the rest of the words which adds appealing personality to the content. As we all know content is king, so consider making good content on the website while designing it.

Related Post:  What to consider while choosing the best Web Designing Company? 

Less Technical Expertise Required

Before the introduction of Gutenberg in WordPress users needed to know basic HTML to add button, separator, tweet or table to your post. But fast forward to now, fewer technical skills are required to build that you can make everything that needed HTML by just copy-pasting URLs. Gutenberg allows you to create a rich post and page layouts and automatically convert all your content into blocks. While working with the blocks, it will only show you the editing options of the selected block in order to ease the editing process. For example, if you’re editing a text paragraph, you’ll only see the formatting choices and other settings that are relevant for that block, which decreases the rate of confusion while editing. The experience is clutter-free. If you still need some suggestions for how your content should look like, there are people who offer standard web designing services, feel free to reach them.

Document Outline

This feature is a minor addition as compared to Blocks yet very helpful. This feature is information about the content or a table of contents, navigating from one point from another becomes easy. It becomes available either when you add at least one heading to your content or by clicking on the “i” button next to the redo button on the top left corner of the editor. So it counts all the headings you have added, how many blocks are used and the document’s word count is also shown. It serves as a structure or skeleton of content.

Anchor Support

Name itself suggests that what it is about, everyone always dreamt of this feature since the beginning to add the HTML anchor to your content. By adding an anchor to your block you can link one part of the page or post to another or itself. It is very beneficial if you have long content or want to build your own table of contents.

Tables

Tables are featured in most of the content creation tools for a long time, but most of us know it was not with the case with WordPress. We needed third party plugins to add a table in the content, which made the page heavy and took time to load which is not good for any website as it increases the bounce rate. But the wait is over, you no longer need HTML or a plugin to add a table in your content, a table is available as a block in Gutenberg. When you select a table block, it will ask you how many rows and columns you need in the table after entering the values the table will be created and ready to accept values in it. But the table block does not support styling and adding or deleting rows and columns afterward.

Related Post: Boost visits by optimizing page load time for your website.

Buttons

Another feature classic editor lacked from the start was adding button in the content, and it was also implemented in Gutenberg. You can add a button with the help of the button block. When you create a button block, you’ll be able to edit its link and text. Unlike the table block, you can style your button with basic editing like adding colors to the text on the button and in the background as well. If you think its a good thing let me add one more in it. When you select a combination of color where the text could not be seen properly, Gutenberg editor shows us a message that reads “This color combination may be hard to read. Try using a brighter background color and/or darker text color“. Automation might be the future of Gutenberg, and this is perhaps just a glimpse of it. Let’s hope for the best.

Another minor yet very vital feature in designing content is text columns, it creates up to four columns where you can differentiate or segregate your content and show it in a different format than we traditionally used to see. it is different from normal text block because it lets you split your content across responsive columns. And each text column is a different block on its own so you can add content on each text column. For example, the first column consists of text and button, the second consists of only one image, the third consists of a paragraph. Let your creativity flow and use the text column in the way you want.

Full-width Alignment

Last but not the least, full-width alignment feature is introduced in the Gutenberg editor, this feature helps create full-width content, which means you can stretch your content to the entire width of the page. It cannot be used in the default theme, you need to choose a different theme from the WordPress Theme Directory. The good thing is almost every theme supports this new feature. In the image, block navigate to the alignment options and select full-width alignment to see it in action.

Conclusion

Change is the only constant. Such is the case with the Gutenberg editor, the classic editor was having its own share of problems and millions of content creators have found a workaround for it, yet they grew accustomed to the classic editor. Replacing TinyMCE editor with Blocks really feels like the classic editor was a work in the past and time-honored.

Ouriken is a standalone web design and digital agency. We design and implement powerful solutions for small and medium businesses in technology, business, and operations.

Why responsive website development is a must for business?

Introduction

“What is responsive web design?”This is a basic question that comes to your mind when planning to develop your website and when suggested by your developer to go for a responsive website rather than a normal website.

So first let me explain to you what is this response website all about. The simplest way to define a responsive website is “a website that changes its layout according to the users’ device or screen size.” It’s basically an approach whereby a designer builds a web page that “responds to” or resizes itself depending on the type of device it is being seen through i.e; desktop screen,smart-phones.tablets or laptops.

Responsive Web designing has become a vital tool for anyone with a digital presence. These days we are witnessing a drastic shift of users from desktops to mobile devices. More and more people are using mobiles and tablet to view webpages. Recently Google also announced that will be considering mobile-friendly websites first while following their algorithms of Indexing and Crawling.

Related Post: The Most Important Things To Consider While Redesigning Your Website

website development

Responsive Website Vs Traditional Website

Canonical Tags

Responsive website prevents canonical problems and duplicate content. This is an important benefit when using a responsive website design as against traditional design as is it eliminates the need for canonical tags. Such tags are being used currently in the traditional web designs to make three different websites into one. By using the responsive web design, this method is no longer needed to limit the duplication of content in mobile or desktop versions.

Content remains consistent

Responsive website development helps retain the content as consistent across sites. In the case of traditional web design, this content issue is a great concern as the developer has to maintain several versions of the website especially when any change has been made to the content. But in case of responsive design, it will keep these versions the same and consistent across the board. That means, when any change is made, that will appear correctly on the desktop computer, mobile phone, and the tablet. This enhances the value and position of the website to visitors and to all of the search engines.

Compiling In-bound links

A responsive website compiles or gathers all of the inbound links to one location. This helps to solve the problem of traditional web designing company in relation to inbound links by utilizing the same URL for multiple devices. The competition on the Internet is immense and companies or businesses are all aiming to get to the peak. To get to the top of the ranking, every website gets votes. And these votes grow from the plenty of credible inbound links that the website gets. So more the inbound links generated by your website helps it to rank on the top of the search engines. So it is very essential for all inbound links that come from a wide range of devices to be verified and counted.

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Lower Cost and Less Time

One of the benefits responsive web design and its advantages the traditional designs are more affordable and less time-consuming. The cost of building a responsive website is lesser than a traditional website. The time consumed also is less as at one go the website is developed on platforms available in the market. Whereas in the case of a traditional website, the developer has to design different layouts and versions for different devices.

Lower Bounce Rates

A responsive website gives a much better user experience to the visitor as compared to a traditional website. Since if the user is visiting a traditional website on a mobile device it is more likely that the layout or display will not be that appealing. But in case of a responsive one, it does not matter from which device the user is accessing the website as it changes dynamically as per the user’s screen size, indirectly reducing the bounce rate. Also, it is more likely that the user will stick around for a longer period of time and explore different areas of your website. Alternatively, if your website is not responsive, it is very difficult to keep the visitor engaged and its more likely that they will bounce.

So to conclude we may say that a responsive website benefits not only the designers or developers but the businesses and, most importantly, users. As people are shifting their usage on the internet from desktop to laptops and laptops to tablets or mobile devices!

Ouriken is a standalone web design and digital agency. We design and implements powerful solutions for small and medium businesses in technology, business, and operations.

What to consider while choosing the Best Web Designing Company?

In today’s marketing scenario, every business needs to create a web presence for themselves. So having a website is must today in this ever-evolving world of technology, especially small and medium business enterprises dealing in products and services.

If you planning to have lots of customers, then you need to create an online presence for your business that gives them information at just one click of a button. Businesses cannot afford to lose customers just because they are not present online.

So once the company decides to develop or design a website for themselves, then a big question which comes is what to consider while choosing the best web design company from among the array of options available.

Consider your Business Ideas

You’re an expert in your industry. As such, you know what you’re selling, and you have some idea of how you need to present it to your potential customers. No one knows your business better than you do. If a web design company won’t listen to your ideas, then you probably don’t want to work with them. Your designer needs to be able to put your ideas into action, not create their own pet project.

Related Post: Push Notification-Modern Advertising Channel!

web designing company

They Must Have Creative Ideas

The ideas which come to you for your business is only worth when it has been implemented practically. So the web designing company should be able to understand those ideas and put them on the front end for actual users in a creative manner. It should not happen that they just keep listening to your ideas recklessly and generate or design its replica without putting their own creative thinking. Your designer must be able to present interesting ideas on board.

Must have a great marketing team

Without a marketing team, a web designing company is like a car without an engine. Though the website developed and designed may look great but it won’t take your business to anywhere. Your business requires more than an eye-catching website and also one that works wonders for the business. When a web design company has an efficient and creative team of designers, developers, and marketers, you can be confident enough that the final product will be more than just a large paperweight.

They know responsive design

Responsive design is not just a style. It is actually these days the best way to design a website. Even search engines like Google thinks so. If a web design company is not well-versed or equipped with creating a responsive website or are suggesting you create a separate website for mobile devices then they are not at all advisable or right for you. A responsive design website is usually the preferred solution. People using mobile devices or laptops are increasing steadily so its very necessary to make sure your business is optimized for every device.

Portfolio with live websites

The best way to decide between various web designing companies is to have a look at the work done by them in past and the live projects that are going. This gives a clear idea about how efficient they are in putting concepts action. Take time and go through their portfolio and actually visit the websites and judge whether they will be able to put all the factor which you want on your website.

Their persistence and longevity

These days with the wave of start-ups coming and going. There are very few companies who can survive this cut-throat competition in this software industry. Every year there loads of new web designing companies that pop-up and many close down also. But there are few of them who are able to survive. So the best of such companies having longevity or persistence will be able to give you good results and help you in the future updating required in this ever changing web world. The more experience, knowledge, and exposure a design company has, the more able to change and adapt to the many new trends of the internet. And more they will be able to help and support you in the future.

web designing company

Related Post: Boost visits by optimizing page load time for your Website

Experience of working with varied industries

The best website designing company who has worked with varied industries will be able to design and develop a unique website that will help a business reach its target audience and on a big scale. Your website will stand out and will be above the competition. If we talk about varied industries, it also means that they should have good exposure in local as well as international business. This expertise will help design a website which appeals to both local and international audience boost the growth of the company. Also, it should be able to create a website for a business like E-Commerce, Customized, booking portals and so on.

Locating the best web design agency is not the simplest job you have as a business owner. But once you discover the right designer, your job becomes a lot easier.!!

Ouriken is one of the best web designing companies providing web designing services in the US and India. Ouriken’s digital solution services not only help the client create integrated digital ecosystems but also to strengthen brands, increase ROI, new business value.