One of the key requirements for a successful career in any creative industry is the ability to keep up with trends. These eminent changes are a product of experimentation, modification, and innovation. In the web design industry, there are multiple new trends and styles nearly every year.

While every business hopes to be on the cutting edge of website design trends, it is important that you work with a San Diego web developer that understands the practicality of some of the latest design techniques for your type of business and audience, and only make use of those that make sense to your brand. Making the right decision can mean the difference between improving website usability and sacrificing profits.

Here are some ideas that a skilled web developer in San Diego can use to identify the most ideal trends for your website:

1. Web design is not art While art communicates feelings and provokes emotions, design helps people pursue action. Everything in web design, from content to imagery to navigation must serve a meaningful
purpose. Many old websites have accumulated large amount of clutter over the years. So the first step when redesigning an existing website is to perform a content audit and remove whatever does not aid in the customer journey. If building a website from scratch, the web developer should start by identifying the top tasks, wireframes, and sitemaps as a way to emphasize clarity.

2. Use actual numbers to build credibility A San Diego web developer that has built 50 websites appears more credible than one who has “year of experience in the industry”. Similarly, an agency that has stores/offices/big clients in 5 different cities appears more established than one claiming “nationwide” presence, especially for clients looking to work with a local business.

3. Personalize pre-made themes Coders are increasingly using available CSS frameworks and grids as a basis for their web design projects. They are great for beginner web developers looking for inspiration, and allow established agencies to streamline their work. While frameworks have been accused of contributing to bloated code, they drastically reduce development time and feature device responsiveness, which makes them ideal for most personalization projects. Moreover, developers of paid templates continuously iterate their products based on customer feedback, giving you access to a professional website fast with moderate customization.

4. Stock images versus realistic images While some professional websites can use stock images without diminishing credibility, web developers must know when to use real images that highlight the product or service. An effective image is one that is genuine and relevant. An authentic image could be a product image, a believable story about people benefiting from the product/service, an image showing your expertise or superior quality of product, or an image showing ethics – green, charitable, organic, etc. These could be great alternatives to overused stock photos that could make your site appear outdated.

Final Note While a web developer should be enthusiastic about trends and how they can benefit a client, it is important to choose the elements that showcase the business as credible, ethical, and passionate about their work.

One of the advantages of working with a reputable San Diego web design company is that you have unlimited access to an ever improving range of features aimed at providing a more powerful experience for your audience.

A professional website is one of the most effective tools for informing your audience about the products and services you have developed. This is particularly important if you are targeting a local audience, because more and more consumers are conducting online searches to compare items between different businesses before making a purchase decision.

Upgrading your website allows you to:

• Build a strong brand and online presence – An innovative design can make your business look professional and establish you as an industry leader in your area of operation
• Save more time and energy – Newer technologies make it easier to organize your content, schedule content posting, optimize your content, and perform a myriad of other essential tasks that enhance your lead generation and conversions
• Improve your return on investment – Improving the interaction and engagement with your website visitors improves customer conversion and retention, increasing your sales.

Choosing the right San Diego web design company can help you transform your website into a revenue-generating powerhouse by implementing strategies such as:

1. Market Landing Pages Landing pages are unique pages of content on your site that are specifically created to appeal to your market segment. So, if you are serving multiple local markets spread across San Diego, you can use landing pages to focus and work on your specific markets. Market landing pages are also great for improving your website SEO.

2. Add videos Most websites today feature blogs that offer informative content to introduce company offerings and expand on the commonly asked questions. This content can be tailored for consumption in different ways, including infographics, photos, and videos. Videos are particularly great for SEO and showing your consumer how to benefit from your product/service. You can embed a single video on your website homepage, or create a page that is dedicated to videos so you can share more video content.

3. Use forms to create an email list You may consider adding a simple form on several webpages requesting your visitor’s name and email address in exchange for receiving a weekly newsletter that adds value to them –
coupons, offers, how to’s, etc. A successful form strategy will not only help you stay in touch with prospects who are yet to make a purchase, but also provide meaningful content to existing customers so your brand stays fresh in their minds.

If you start with the traditional newsletter strategy, you can advance later to placing multiple campaign-driven lead generation forms on different webpages.

4. Post testimonials User reviews, and more specifically, positive feedback from real clients, gives your company and business automatic credibility. Testimonials can either be placed on their own separate webpage, or throughout your website for each item.

Keep in mind that a multi-functional website can only be successful with careful planning and patience, testing different approaches over time to create a working strategy. A reputable San Diego web design company can help your customers/prospects find you online, identify your brand, and trust your ability to deliver what they need.

Great web design starts with a great BRAND!!!!
You only have a few seconds to capture your customers attention. Your BRAND often times dictates how your customers will react when coming to your site. When I search for a service or product online I am like speedy Gonzales. I make decisions quickly. My eyes will scan a site and look for things that jump off the page that say integrity, shop here, trust, professional, etc…

As a web designer I make design decisions by using the color and style of your logo. If you have a great logo you have a solid foundation on which to build on. If your logo does not show integrity it may be time to re-think and re-design your logo before investing thousands of dollars on a new website.

If you already have a great logo then here are some tips to using the logo on the website “Your logo is an important part of your brand, so make sure it’s located prominently on your site,” says Tiffany Monhollon, senior content marketing manager at online marketer Reach Local. “Use a high-resolution image and feature it in the upper left corner of each of your pages,” she advises. “Also, it’s a good rule of thumb to link your logo back to your home page so that visitors can easily navigate to it.”

When you decide it is the right time to design a new brand San Diego Webworks has over 16 years of designing great logos.
Check us out and get quote today.

Building a website that is visually stunning is not enough to ensure effective online presence. Just by creating a website you cannot expect people to come and connect with you online. In order to reach your target market, you’ll need to make your website search engine friendly. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process by which you can increase your website’s visibility on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. There are always things you can do to make your site’s design and content comply with the various parameters of search engines.
Following are some tips that can help you determine if your website is SEO friendly or not:
  
1. Is the URL structure of your website SEO friendly?
Meaningful URLs are the best when it comes to search engines. Generally, the search engines do not use human beings to index the websites; it is done by an automated process. Therefore, it really helps if your content makes sense to the search engines, starting from the structure of URLs.
There are many who are at a disadvantage from the very beginning by using popular content management systems like WordPress and hanging on to the default settings for URL generation. For example, by default, WordPress might choose the following link for a page:
www.example.com/?t=5645432 This URL will not only make no sense to search engine spiders but will also make little sense to humans.
A better URL would be:
www.example.com/blog-on-health You can easily change the settings in content management systems to create meaningful URLs.
  
2. Does my site include relevant keywords?
Keywords are the most important part of any SEO operation. Google will not be able to find a website that fails to add relevant keywords in the content of your website.
You can use Google Adwords Keyword Tool to find keywords that are relevant to your website. It will give you an idea of the phrases that people are using to search for similar information or product, along with an insight into how stiff the competition to get your site ranked for those keywords is.
  
3. Are the images on my site optimized?
Most site owners pay a lot of attention to the text content of the website but pay little attention to images; however, Google does pay attention to images while determining a site’s position in the search engine.
By keeping the size of your images small, you will greatly reduce the time your site takes to load; this will increase the performance of your site. The fact that Google mentions site health in AdSense indicates that the performance of a site plays an important role. Also, don’t forget to include a keyword in the description of the image. It will help search engine spiders find the images content. It will also help the visually impaired who use a screen reading software.
Additionally you can also ensure that your site is integrated with social media platforms; especially Google plus. Even though Google plus might not be the most popular social media platform, it does give an additional advantage to sites that share on their platform.
The information shared above is surely a great starting point to making your site more SEO friendly.

There are a variety of options that one can find nowadays to build a quick website. But just because you can create a website easily does not mean that it is a good website. There are a number of things that need to be taken care of to make the online presence of your business effective. Easy to build websites are made by keeping in view the very basic requirements; they do not cater to the specific needs of any business.
  
Your website introduces your business to the online world. There are many who will only see your website and not the physical location of your business. Without a well-designed site you will not be able to add credibility to your online business. Web users are a lot more sophisticated nowadays, and they will only do business with companies that have a strong professional outlook. The most effective way of showcasing the credibility of your business to your online customers is having an easy to navigate and a clean looking website.
  
There is a lot that goes into a professionally designed site. Each and every web page needs to be designed in a way that the content can be read effectively. The information shared on your website should be able to make your potential customers quickly recognize the opportunity they have from you.
  
Remember that the average visitor to your website only reads about 30% of the content shared on the page, so using good headings, bullet lists, proper spacing and text formatting will go a long way in keeping your potential customer interested. You will need to create a unique brand identity, and convey a very clear message that’s followed by an effective call to action.
  
Keeping in view the various devices that potential customers use to access your website, you will need to ensure that your site is fully accessible on all platforms; this includes desktops, laptops, tablets, smart phones, and other mobile devices. For this you will need to make your website mobile optimized or responsive. This will allow your potential customers to read through information shared on each and every page of your website without needing to zoom in or zoom out.
Keep in mind that your website will be the most visible extension of your business. It could easily be the difference between closing a deal with your potential client or not. In many cases, before a customer interacts with you, he or she would have visited your website to gather information. A major portion of your marketing activity should be focused towards making your website impactful. This is the main reason why quick and easy websites will not be able to fulfill all the requirements of your online business. Only with the help of a good web design company will you be able to do make a good impression online.
  
A good web design company will be able to create a website that fully meets your requirements and is flexible enough to cater to the future developments of your business. The requirements of each and every business change every time the business grows or when the expectations of the market change. Quick and easy to use website templates might look very appealing in the beginning but will become obsolete in the long run. If you are serious about your online business then invest in a good website with the help of a professional web design company before reaching a dead-end. This is why web design companies will always be needed.

Gone are the days when SEO was all about stuffing keywords into the home page text to earn the top spot on Google. Search engines have evolved tremendously and majority of the age-old fast result achieving SEO practices have become obsolete.
  
In 2014, with the new Panda updates, low quality content was severely penalized. The Pigeon update improved local search results. The HTTPS/SSL update improved the credibility of secure sites. However, with 2015 right around the corner, it becomes highly important for all SEO agencies to find the most up-to-date SEO techniques. If you fully understand how search engines work, you’ll know that it’s pretty simple. Following are some tips that will help you identify what matters the most in SEO in   
2015:
  
High quality content: Consistently creating high-quality content has always worked for promoting a business online. It is not important just from SEO perspective, but also from your business point of view. Google is constantly trying to detect original and well-written content. It rewards consistent quality content creation, as it proves that the business is genuinely becoming a part of the intranet dialogue. High quality content is also appreciated by visitors, which results in social sharing and greater engagement, which will be factors that affect ranking in 2015.
  
Organic link building: Perhaps the biggest changes in search engine optimization during the past five years has revolved around one the thing – which is stopping people from manipulating the link-based algorithm of Google. And while linking still remains important, the best way to get them is to share high-quality content with webmasters, journalists and bloggers, who will willfully link to your site. It is no longer about gaining links by any method possible, it’s about earning it.
Use of +1: Using the social sharing icons to encourage visitors to share your site’s content is highly beneficial; however, there is one social media platform, which if emphasized will pay high dividends. This platform is Google+. None of the social media platforms influence Google’s algorithm, except for YouTube and Google+; the reason for which is obvious.
  
An engaging website: It’s true that Google has been deflecting from the idea that they consider sites that people regularly visit and stay on for a long time, for example Yelp, Wikipedia and Amazon; however, evidence is starting to show that Google is beginning to consider these factors.
  
Quick loading and secure websites: Tens of millions of dollars are spent by Google to make its search results appear a hundredth of a second faster to its users. Being a company that cares so much about speed, it will certainly favor sites that serve its pages rapidly. Google also works hard towards keeping its users safe from hacked websites; therefore, sites that are encrypted will also have an advantage.
  
Even though there many more ways to obtain better rankings, many of them are not worth focusing on, as they offer only a small incremental effect. The criteria mentioned above are highly effective, and if used will surely make your online presence more dominant in 2015.