Tag: Do I need a Website?

The reasons you need to have a responsive site

Posted on by Riturmi

More and more people are using the internet through their handheld devices, but many sites still aren’t optimized for different screen ratios. The best way to address this need is with a responsive site. Responsive design is the simplest and most effective way to create a mobile-friendly website that will work properly on all devices.

What is Responsive Web Design?

Responsive Web Design is a method of developing a website in such a way that the website provides a customized and seamless viewing experience across a wide range of devices, from mobile phones to desktop computers. The sites are designed to increase ease of reading and navigation with a minimum of scrolling, resizing, and panning.

Benefits of Responsive Website Design

Improved SEO Results

The advantages of responsive web design are that it improves the search engine rank. As of April 2015, Google takes into consideration the responsiveness of your website as one of the signals that determine the rank of your website on the search engine results page.

Improved User Experience

A responsive website leads to a better user experience. If your website scales and responds to the change in screen size, then the visitors won’t have problems accessing menus, links, buttons or filling out forms. As a result, their user experience will be better and they’ll spend more time on your site.

Better Website Performance

Responsive websites reduce the loading time for your pages. This not only improves your SEO results but also provides a better user experience. Responsive websites save time, and money, and save the development effort of creating another website or app for smaller devices.

Lower Website Maintenance Costs

Responsive design reduces the costs associated with maintaining your website. This is due to the fact that it takes much more time to run multiple versions of your website than it does to run a single version.

Lower Bounce Rates

Mobile versions of websites can suffer from a high bounce rate if the content they provide is too stripped down, or too different from the content offered on the desktop version. Visitors will be more inclined to click through and read other pages on your site and explore everything you’ve got to offer.

Social Media Increases Mobile Visitors

Over 55% of social media consumption now happens on mobile devices, so sharing links from social media sites like, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram to your website will mean even more traffic and viewing of your website from mobile devices.

Which businesses get the best SEO results?

Posted on by Adam Burrage

A common question asked is “which businesses get the best results from SEO?” Whilst there can be variations in terms of competition between sectors, the simple answer is the ones that put the most effort into SEO. It’s very rare to create a website and rank quickly for your main keywords unless you’re super niche or have created a specialism that no one else is doing, which is fairly unlikely. 

In this blog, we’re going to look at the reasons why businesses get good SEO results and what that can mean for your business.

What can vary SEO results?

If you’re a start up in an already competitive field like insurance or finance, where there are already well trusted and authoritive businesses that you will be competing against. If that is your area, you might need to look on a more local scale or even on less competitive keywords to start with in order to compete with the bigger players in the market. However, if you’re a local business focussing purely on local keywords your chances of quicker success are more likely.

With that in mind, you’ll still need to work on your SEO and improve your rankings in both scenarios – nothing happens by chance.

Why SEO results are important

Search engine optimisation is working on your website and domain to improve your rankings and getting your business onto page one. The click through rate for position one on page one – 39.6%, comparared to position two 18.4%. That’s double from position one to position two, and when compared to position five this drops to 7.4%. For page two (position 11-20) this drops to under 5% – so you can see the importance of being on page one and how that can affect your traffic to your website.

If we take a simple example of 100 visitors per month for one keyword. If you’re getting a conversion rate of 2%, that’s 2 conversions per month. If you slip to page two (even with 5% click through), you’ll be getting 7.92 average visitors per month, so to get the same two conversion you’ll need over one year of visitors for the same keyword, to get the same results as position one on page one – a big drop. Depending on the value of the sale, that could be a massive impact to a business if this is compounded across multiple keywords.

How businesses can get the best SEO results.

The best ways to get great SEO results for your business are normally centered around 2 things – Content and Authority.

  • Content

Having great content, written for real people is one of the core things that helps your website rank well. This might be the best written landing page for a particular keyword that answers the query the best, or a really in depth blog that really elevates your position as the expert in your field. As part of making the content the best for the particular search term, you would also need to make sure that site is technically sound with all the on-page SEO work to enable the best opportunity for the page to rank.

  • Authority

Authority comes from other domains linking to your domain. The more quality links your site has, the more authoritative your site is seen to search engines, which helps your site rank higher. Gone are the days of getting links from anywhere, Google and search engines are too clever for that. You need high quality links to increase your domain authority, from domains that are already trusted. How can you get more links – the best ways to get the links are by getting your content onto other sites, via guest posting or creating really strong content that other sites want to link to because it helps explain their point, or give them a reference point.

Planning for the best SEO results

Creating backlinks or content with out a plan is poor practise. You need to understand your audience and what they are looking for and then tailor the content to meet their needs. Planning your content purely for search engines is not the best way to drive traffic – you’re after users visiting your site, so you need to think user-first and plan your content accordingly.

Are you looking to rank higher and get SEO results?

If you’re thinking you might need to speak to the experts, contact us and we’ll arrange a consultation to learn more about your business and your plans for driving more traffic to your website with Search Engine Optimisation.

Where do I start when planning to build a website?

Posted on by Adam Burrage

Building a new website is a complex task; it requires attractive UI design, functional backend development, content creation and much more. When planning to build a website, strategically developed steps can help you manage your budget, organise your task and build a functional website efficiently. 

Thoroughly planning a website can greatly impact its success, whether you work individually or in an organisation. In this blog, we will help you get your new website ready to launch in five easy steps. Here are the steps to guide you through the process. 

  1. Identify your website purpose and goals

Before building your website, establish the goals that it will accomplish and the purpose behind creating website. When identifying the website goals, it is important to consider your target audience and how they will use your site. 

Setting a purpose and goals can help you make an informed decision in the website building process. Ask the following questions to yourself to identify your goals and purpose effectively. 

  • What is the main function of your site?
  • Will your website be static or dynamic and publish new content daily?
  • Who is the target audience for your website?
  • What kind of information can visitors get on your website?
  • Will users purchase products on your website?

2. Create a sitemap 

Once you understand your website’s purpose and goals better, create a sitemap or content outline for your website. A sitemap provides a visual representation and overview of each webpage of your website.

A sitemap will make it easy for you to understand your website’s structure better. It will guide you throughout the planning process and provide references to build a website. 

3. Decide what features you will include

At this step, you can begin with deciding on essential components to include in your website. Consider the important features and how you will allow users to navigate your website. 

This step will help you with how you want to represent your website visually. A well-designed website has a significant influence on its success.  

4. Create content strategy

Construct a content strategy for your website with the idea of what type of features you will include. A website is nothing without its content. It plays an important part in shaping your website’s success. 

It is important to choose content which can reach your target audience effectively. Choose 2 or 3 types of content you want to publish to start your website while expanding your content strategy later. 

5. Test and launch the website 

Once your website is ready, you feel enticed to share it with the world. But before you do so, it is essential to run numerous tests to ensure your website is ready to launch. By testing your website’s performance, you can ensure you are offering the best to the world. 

Website testing can take various forms, such as checking browser compatibility, checking your webforms, running speed tests, proofing your content, checking 404 errors and optimising your website for different devices. 

If you want to learn more about website planning or how to get our services for your new website. Consult with Trident’s web design and development professionals and build your dream website with us.

What is the best card for business cards?

Posted on by Mark Brocklehurst

Physical business cards still have an impact in today’s world of digital technology. One paper communication that is still very popular and used to great effect are business cards. But there’s so many paper weights, types and finishes, what is the best card for business cards? Here we have outlined some of the most popular terms.

There is a vast choice available for your business card, from the paper used, shape, creased and folded. The type you chose allows for more information, to special finishes designed to make your card stand out from the crowd.

The Paper

The paper you use is an important factor in your decision when producing your business cards as the card represents not only yourself but your company as well.

Choose between recycled stock, which is uncoated and quite rustic in feel, or a premium silk material that will show off the fine details and vibrant colours of your design. We recommend going for at least 350gsm in paper weight. There are lighter options out there but they can appear to feel inferior and not always a good first impression to hand out to your potential new client.

The Finishes

There are also many finishes that can be applied to the card like matt lamination, which offers some protection to the card. A popular lamination that is currently used to a great effect is soft-touch lamination. This looks similar to the matt option but has a velvety soft feel which is very tactile.

An additional finish that can also be applied is spot UV. This is a high gloss varnish that is usually applied over the top of the lamination and is used to highlight an area of your business card design. We love this technique on logos, it makes them really pop and look distinguished.

Foil blocking is another finish that can be used on your card. Traditionally the colours used are silver, gold & white but there is an endless option in foil colours available. We think that flourishes of this technique give your business card a prestigious and grand feel.

Folds

One way to make your business card a little different to others is to die-cut it into a shape or to have a style that is folded in half. This allows you to have more information within the design. This stand-out technique used on appointment cards, vouchers or tell-a-friend offers is really effective. 

Trident Design & Print Ltd are always available to discuss your business card requirements. We are happy to supply sample papers and examples just contact us

If you are looking for promotional merchandise Leicester we would love to hear your plans and help you achieve them.

What are the common SEO mistakes?

Posted on by Adam Burrage

By now, every company should understand the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to boost traffic to their website by increasing their rank on search engines, whether Google, Bing or even Yahoo. However, too many companies still make a variety of common SEO mistakes that impact their company’s potential. If you want to boost your search engine ranking, it’s worth considering whether your company is making any of these mistakes. 

Choosing the Wrong Keywords 

SEO is all about picking the right keywords, but it’s not as simple as choosing every word (and alternative word) you can find in your thesaurus. Knowing the right keywords all comes down to knowing your audience, which is something too many businesses ignore. A common mistake involves using generic keywords rather than focusing on unique – and longer – strings of keywords. Instead of highlighting a keyword for plumbers lean into the specifics. Where is the plumber? What do they specialise in? These specifics will help your web pages climb search engine rankings. 

Failing to Optimise Your Website 

Even the best keywords can’t help you if you fail to optimise your website. Slow loading speeds and a lack of mobile integration are two undeniable reasons why your website is bad and why you should make changes. As search engines test your website’s speed before considering a ranking, you must make sure it is as fast as possible. 

Not Creating Valuable Content 

Content is king in the modern world, which is why so many successful businesses emphasise its importance. Creating valuable content is not as straightforward as it appears, though, which is where many companies trip up. You need to keep your content updated and ensure it is unique if you want to optimise your website and ensure better rankings. A content calendar can help with this as it enables you to plan months of content and ensure you do not write something that has already been posted. 

Ignoring the Importance of Meta Tags

Meta tags are the secret ingredient for boosting your ranking on search engines. While it can seem complicated to first-time marketers, the reality is far simpler. It only takes a few minutes per blog post to add meta tags for the small preview you see under the link on Google and similar search engines. You can also use alt-text for images, making your content even more appealing and ensures it impacts your ranking positively. 

Lack of Cross-Channel Integration 

Your SEO approach should not be confined to your blog posts. If you want to maximise your company’s ranking potential, you need to remember how SEO is affected by cross-channel integration. If you make a blog post and share the link via Instagram, use matching keywords as hashtags. It helps to generate a communication culture with your brand’s social media department to ensure everyone is on the same page. Doing so means everyone is fully aware of which keywords you want to push. 

Boosting your SEO potential can be highly beneficial for your company. If you are struggling to find the magic formula for SEO success, using an SEO agency like Trident could be the fortunate turn your business needs, so get in touch today to find out more.

Are social pages more important than having a website?

Posted on by Adam Burrage

A question that can often come up when speaking about your website is are your social media pages more important than your website? That depends on the strategy behind your use of your website and social media channels. 

The benefits of your website over social media

One way to look at this is that your website is your home, it’s where all the main information about your business is and it’s your opportunity to sell to potential customers! This could be a sale in the sense of an online purchase, or your chance to sell your services and get enquiries via your website. Your website is where people can find out more about you and your business and ultimately decide if you’re the right fit for them.

Whilst you can control the content you post on social media, you cannot control the user experience, which is broadly the same in terms of how the channels operate – you can only control what you put out on each channel. You also don’t own the platform, you own your website. If Facebook or Instagram decide to change something and it doesn’t fit with your strategy – that’s pretty much tough, and you have to adapt to it. With a website – you own the whole thing and you can control the style and the end-to-end experience for your potential customers.

You can tailor the content on a website

You’re not limited to a certain character count or size of the image – you can do with it as you wish. With that in mind, you can tailor the content to your users to make sure they get the information they need.

Whilst you can pin a post or you can highlight certain company information on your social channels, your website content will stay the same and not move down the feed when you update the site. By their very nature, social media channels are very transient and the content moves quickly so you need to keep refreshing the content in order for the message to be present.

You can optimise your website for search

Whilst you might be able to get your social media profiles and posts searchable in a Google search, it’s less easy to control. With a website, you can do Search Engine Optimisation to ensure that your content is found in the search engines. You can tailor the keywords to your business, and ensure that your content is found and ranked highly by the likes of Google.

So are social media pages not important?

Absolutely not, I’d suggest that like with all marketing, your social media pages should work in tandem with your other channels – and that includes your website. It’s worth thinking that your social channels are a mouthpiece of your business and a way to reach new audiences, then bring them back to your “home”, ie: your website. 

If you’re wondering how to get the best out of your website, contact us for a free consultation to look at how you can improve your content and start to improve your online presence.

What’s the quickest way to build a website?

Posted on by Rebecca

What’s the quickest way to build a website? Simple 7 hacks to make your life easier. Sometimes when that big event, new product or big marketing campaign creeps up on you and you need a new website, like yesterday. The problems with rushing your new website are infinite, from incorrect pricing, broken links and hasty design choices. But there are ways to speed up the process…

Here are a couple of tips that will help you through making your new website something to be proud of, especially if you’re in a hurry:

1. Analyse your previous website

In order for your new site to be exactly what you want, start with looking at what worked and what didn’t work on your previous site, reflect on it and ask yourself:

  • Why do I need a new design or overhaul?
  • What hasn’t been accomplished with my existing site?
  • How will a new website help my business?

The answers to these questions can help you and your designer to really understand what is needed for your business and inform goal setting for your new site.

2. Is your branding ready?

Including your brand styles on your website will mean your site will come across as credible and consistent with the rest of your business, before you start your site you’ll need a minimum of:

  • A logo
  • Fonts and colours that are in line with your identity 
  • A mission statement, values and a tagline that you use to solidify your messaging 

You’ll probably already have these for your business but, if you don’t check out our graphic design services

3. Check all of your images, and make sure you do have permission to use them

If you have purchased from a stock library you will be covered by the licence from the stock library. If you have had your photos taken professionally at your business, you need permission from the people in the photographs, especially if they include children or vulnerable adults.

4. Enlist a copywriter 

Hiring a copywriter will ensure that your tone of voice is kept consistent. They will cover all your main bases including; incorporating keywords and phrases for SEO, ‘call to actions’ to ask your customer to buy or enquire, internal links and structure. They cover so many bases most people wouldn’t even think to write, trust us, they are worth it! 

5. Proofread everything!

Proofread and check everything before you put it on your website and proofread it after you have put it on your website, especially if you have pricing and product descriptions on your website. If you struggle spotting errors, installing Grammarly on your internet browser is totally worthwhile.

6. Do you have our domain ready?

You might already have a domain from your previous website, in which case it’s time to dig out that old password earlier than later and pass it on to your designer so there are no delays after your site is completed. If you are new to the website game, your domain is as important as your brand name- which isn’t always available. Our tips for domains are:

  • Get a web address your customers are familiar with, if your customers are based in the UK stick to .co.uk
  • We recommend GoDaddy, you can buy your domain there, prices starting from 89p for your first year 
  • Make sure your domain is easy to pronounce and spell
  • Make sure it doesn’t spell something else, we know you know what we mean.

7. Finally Announce it on social media a couple of days after you go live 

Just in case! Don’t give yourself unnecessary stress, it’s okay if your website launch is delayed by a day. By all means share it with your team, your mom and your friends and see if they spot anything with fresh eyes, then after that shout it from the rooftops! 

If you want to find out more about website design or speak to someone about the quickest way to build a website. Consult with Trident’s web design and development professionals and build a fantastic website with us.

Here Are The Reasons Your Website Is Bad

Posted on by Adam Burrage

It can be hard to realise that a project you’ve put time and effort into structuring is faulty or has not given you results you had hoped for. At these times, the best thing to do is review your progress and figure out what might have gone wrong along the way. In this blog, we look into the reasons your website is bad… even if its just a bit.

A good way of getting around this problem is to identify those issues that you may or may not have noticed or contributed to. In this post, we hope to make that process easier to deal with by discussing five reasons your website may be dysfunctional, or, quite frankly, bad at achieving the purpose it’s been designed for:

Problematic Mobile Compatibility

It’s estimated that around 72% of website activity is found through mobile devices or devices outside of the usual ‘desktop computer or laptop’ web browser environment. For this reason, it’s essential to make sure your website offers suitable mobile compatibility for a range of devices and screen sizes.

What matters is utilising a web design agency like Trident, which can help you make image spreads compatible and adjustable, and that features or widgets can be loaded. Regular testing is also important and the smooth running of your website can be helped with regular maintenance.

Poor SEO & A Lack of Google Optimisation

If you hope to encourage organic traffic, you need to make sure your website is optimised for Google. Appropriate keywords, helpful content that solves issues, and good formatting gets you most of the way there. It’s also a good idea to make sure that the custom links for each post are properly defined.

Check the best SEO tips to make sure you conform to those standard practices.

A Lack Of Cross-Platform Promotion

Ultimately, you need to promote your website. Cross-promotion can be achieved by posting article titles to sites like Twitter, for example, using the hashtag feature there to increase visibility. If we wait for solely organic traffic to come from our search engine ranking, we’ll effectively neuter just how many visitors may be exposed to our website in the first place. Make sure you’re promoting outside of your own page and reaching people on other channels.

Slow Loading

Slow loading pages are often caused by unoptimised web formatting as well as large images. This can be a problem when those with slower connections wish to visit your website, but it can frustrate those with fibre broadband, too. Google now includes page speed as a ranking factor, so a slow website can hurt your SEO. Remember, a good portion of your users will rely on cellular data. As fast as 5G is, our foresight in web design should perform the grunt work when delivering our content to visitors.

Broken or Defunct Pages

Most people know exactly how frustrating and tiresome it is to utilise a website only to be greeted with pages that don’t load, are broken in their formatting, or return a 404 as if they had never existed in the first place. This is especially annoying if it’s encountered when trying to do something essential, like managing an account or booking a service. Make sure that all of your links redirects head to valid pages, and it can be healthy to integrate a ‘report this page/bug’ feature so that users can quickly inform you of any issues you may be unaware of.

Poor user experience

A poor user experience can be a number of the above adding up to a poor user experience, but it goes beyond this. A poor user experience relates to the design and how the person can use your website. This might mean them missing key bits of information, or not accessing the right pages because the layout is poor, through to not purchasing or getting in touch because the call to action is in the wrong place or missing altogether. 

With this advice, you’ll be able to go back to the drawing board and manage a much better website next time around. If you need a bit of help and would prefer to put your website in the hands of professionals, then get in touch with us today. We take all the hassle out of your website design, ensuring that it functions intuitively and innovatively. If you have a website that you think is performing poorly in search results, or you need support maintaining it – we can help you.

How To Build a Website On a Low Budget

Posted on by Adam Burrage

We’re often asked, “how to build a website on a low budget”? This might be relevant to a new start-up business or a business going through some changes that need to be actioned quickly and the marketing budget has already been spent for the year. Having a larger budget usually means that you’re going to have a much more polished website with a higher spec in functionality, it is possible to do something with a lower budget.          

In the years I have worked on designing and building websites, we’ve found ways that can help reduce the budget for a client. The following ways are how you can build a website on a lower budget. It must be said that a “low budget” for one business might not be low for another. 

1. Build it yourself (not recommended if you’re busy, running your business)

This might seem like the “cheapest” way to do it and that’s to build it yourself. It’s totally possible, but if you’re busy running your business the time it will take you to learn WordPress or Wix and build a site yourself, you’re likely to have wasted much more of your time and earning capacity building the site than if you’d hired a professional to do it for you.

2. Save money on the domain

Buying the domain can be expensive. If you’re looking to make savings, getting a cheaper domain would help you with your initial investment but also on the ongoing costs. Domain extensions like .com or .co.uk or .org usually carry more of a premium than .tech or .xyz. The cheaper domains don’t have the same prestige but you may be more likely to get something that hasn’t already been registered. 

3. Keep the design simple.

If you’re planning to get your website on a lower budget, you’ll need to lower your expectations on what you need with the design. If you’re hiring an agency, agencies usually price on time spent and the more complex the design the more time they will spend to achieve the design for you. One way you can keep the design simple is to choose a pre-designed WordPress or Wix template that either matches your branding or is a pre-designed template for your industry sector. Whilst this isn’t ideal as someone is likely to have this one. It could be a competitor and might cause confusion.

If you’re speaking to an agency, having an idea of what you like already can help keep the cost of your website down as it means that they’ll spend less time researching and coming up with design variations for you.

4. Development

You can save costs in the development of your website as well. There are a few ways to do this. The first would be to limit the number of pages. 

If you’re thinking of other ways to reduce the budget of your web development, I would recommend keeping the number of complex functionalities to a minimum. This might mean leaving out e-commerce or a booking engine from the site. Or this could be just keeping the movement and animation on the site to a lower end because this is where additional HTML or CSS development can add to your budget.

It’s worth caveating here that a website should deliver for your business as a tool to either drive leads, or save you time by having functionality that moves your business forwards. If you’re stripping functionality and pages out to such an extent that it is a carcass of a site – you may be better to save some money to do the job properly as you’ll probably waste money in the longer term by having to re-do the whole thing again.

5. Hosting 

Hosting for your website is important. A slow site can hamper your SEO as Google does count site speed as a ranking factor. Cheaper hosting can mean slower, but there are plenty of budget hosts that you can use for a few pounds a month that will be ample fast enough until you need a larger plan. At Trident, we host on Amazon AWS – this is because it’s scalable and provides a seriously reliable hosting service – it hosts the main Amazon site for a start, plus other big brands such as Netflix, BBC, so we figured if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us and our clients.

If you’re embarking on a lower-budget website – just plan what you really need and then start at that point. Remember: your time may be better spent running your business than learning a new platform like WordPress. 

If you need help planning out your new website and some professional expertise, at Trident, we are more than happy to help. Contact us today for a free consultation.

How do you price a brochure design?

Posted on by Adam Burrage

There are many factors to take into account when looking at the price of a brochure design. From the style of design to the total amount of pages (Pagination) that the brochure will consist of. Costs can vary from brochure to brochure, but generally, the points below will give you an understanding of how to best get your desired brochure within your budget

Brochure design

Will your brochure have many individual graphics or design elements needed? or will images be at the forefront of the style? An understanding of the style that you are looking for is essential before pricing up the brochure. Have you got an idea of what you are looking for, or are you happy to leave the style and design up to your Graphic Designer?

Content

The content of the brochure will have an impact on the price of the design, Will you be supplying all of the written content or will you just outline what the brochure needs to say to the reader? The latter will add additional costs as a content writer will be needed who is capable of writing in the ‘voice’ of your industry. The images used within a brochure can often be the focal point. There are many image libraries which supply quality photographs. If your requirement is very specific then you may need to look at hiring a professional photographer to get the shots you need, which can prove costly. These all need to be factored into your budget.

The brochure’s final pagination will need to be known in order to calculate the time taken to add the content into the brochure, if not known at this stage an approximate page count can be costed up and a price given for any additional pages that are required

It’s always good to know the budget that you are working to, as suggestions can be made in order to try to meet your target costs.

Finished brochure

How will your brochure be presented, will it be viewed online or will it require printing? If you require it printed, then have this quoted up at the same time as the design, as all these costs will need to be evaluated into your total budget. Printing costs can vary drastically depending on the quantity required, pagination, paper grammage and any special finishes that are required. 

If the means of getting your brochure in front of your customers is via post then this is another additional cost to factor in. There are many different service levels of mailing which can be explored to try and meet your budget.

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