See also Website Content Readability

Visual Appeal

When people visit your site, they will see it as a reflection of your organization. If your site looks professional and is loaded with useful information, visitors will see you as an authority and expert. Likewise, if the site looks poorly designed and structured and/or out-of-date, they may make the same assumptions about your company. The website should highlight your product and/or service and the layout should look harmonious and consistent. If your website has blogs or articles that are dated, it makes sense to keep up posting and not look like you’ve neglected your site.

In general, as websites mature and grow, it often becomes apparent that certain parts just aren’t working well anymore. Website development is a complex thing. What makes your existing website tick will constantly be tested by new online technology sweeping through. You can’t just “set it and forget it” if you want your website to always look perfect. You may need to consider updating your website to achieve optimal effectiveness.

 Responsive & Mobile Friendly

If you don’t know this by now, the USA is a SMARTPHONE SOCIETY. We’re all spending on average 7 hours online on our smartphones every day. If you factor that the constant indexing updates that Google throws at us, ignoring the mobile market is a very risky business. The common practice to make a website mobile-friendly (responsive design).

Responsive Web Design is a collection of techniques that allow a website to flex and adapt to the size of the screen it’s being viewed on. Someone opening your site on a small smartphone could be shown on the same site as the person opening it on their laptop etc. For many businesses, it may even make sense to design your website “mobile-first”. If you haven’t updated your website in a while, chances are you may be driving mobile users and potential customers away.

Find information on our responsive on mobile website design.

Technique & Coding

Is your website browser compatible? Is your source code valid (HTML and CSS)? Does your website meet the basic web standards? Is the technique and/or (version) PHP programming language outdated? Do you have any idea about any of this? :) Every year web standards change radically and techniques to build websites become more advanced to comply with these latest standards. If your site was developed several years ago, it could have a lot of unnecessary HTML code, outdated SEO, non-optimized images and more. This all may be slowing down your website loads speeds – which may, in turn, impact your ranking in the Google search results. TEST YOUR SITE FOR YOURSELF – go to GTMetrix.com and put your businesses domain into it. Here’s how we graded:

We have no secrets here. GTMetrix is an actual Google tool that anyone “in the know” can use to see where their site’s weaknesses or strengths are. Performance, structure, layout, SEO, SO MANY THINGS make up your site and you want them to all be working at their optimum. Although you may be able to check your website’s grade yourself, what you do ABOUT issues may certainly concern you. That is why you should consider speaking with a website developer about your options. If website design isn’t what you do, it’s just not smart to rely on yourself to do it properly.

Content

Your website’s first impression really depends on the overall layout of it, but ultimately, the visitor is there because they are looking for useful information. A full site redesign could allow you to re-address how you communicate with all of your visitors and to write easy-to-understand copy that is specifically on target and more effective – remember, in the modern “go faster and faster” world you only have 2 to 4 seconds to engage new visitors.

The content of a website should be considered to be the most important thing, as it helps in determining how effective a website is. Fresh and unique website content is a very important factor in encouraging people to revisit your site more often.

If your website needs updating for optimal effectiveness OR if your business needs a new website developed, consider collaborating with Creative Juices Marketing Agency. We’ll use our creativity and ever-expanding experience to make sure your business is in the right position to compel your customer base, improve and build on your brand, and ultimately increase your revenue.  Contact Denise Hood at 434 964 7511.

The post Updating Your Website For Optimal Effectiveness appeared first on Creative Juices Marketing Agency.

A Great User Experience

Unintelligible copy on your website makes for a bad user experience. If you want people to understand your business, clearly state it. What services do you offer? What is your mission? Your website could have all of the latest technology and responsiveness for ease of navigation. The WORDS must be understandable and helpful.  Nobody likes to read something that’s difficult to follow, boring and/or overflowing with keywords. All of your online copy should be aimed and focused on your audience. It should be providing them with the information they need, a solution to their problem, or an answer to their question.  If you can do that, your audience will have a great user experience. Google will love you too.  Wasting time trying to trick the Google algorithm into high ranking your website isn’t necessary. Just give your audience what they’re looking for! 

Bottom line – Don’t repeat keywords because you think that’s what will draw people to you. Give helpful, intelligently-written content that lets visitors know they’ve come to the EXACT right place.

Get Your Site To Rank Higher Organically

You may think your content should be angled at “the bots”. Search engine bots are looking for cues to your site’s content on behalf of the search engine. It is MORE important that you provide great copy for your site’s visitors. THEY are the ones who USE the Search Engine’s to find you in the first place.  The user-experience on your website has a direct effect on your site’s organic SEO.  Google analyzes user signals (behavioral patterns) to determine how visitors relate to your site. For instance: if a user puts website design into Google’s search tool, Google gives them results that fit with that search.  If the user gets there and doesn’t find what they are searching for, they will bounce back to Google. This is a signal that the website does not fit the search query. It’s a sign to Google that the website they served up for that search is WRONG for it. Google uses this type of information to determine whether your site should come up for that specific search query. The content on your site needs to immediately show that it relates.

Bottom line – Thoughtfully written copy and strategically placed images should directly relate to the keywords that your audience will use to search for you.

Getting Higher Rankings On Google

There used to be a time when jamming keywords into your copy would improve your website’s rankings. Those times are long gone. Nowadays, you really need to consciously spread around your keywords in ways that read well.  Google has gotten really good at recognizing quality content.  It now recognizes synonyms, understands which words, entities, and content are related to each other.  In addition, search engines are becoming better at predicting what people want to read.  Whether you like it or not, those cookies (and we don’t mean chocolate chip) you pick up when you visit websites are being served up to search engines so they know more and more about what you’re looking for.  Search engines use that information to predict where users want to go. There is no guarantee for higher rankings. No SEO expert can promise that you’ll be at the top of the list. Getting higher rankings on Google is possible if the person writing your content really knows what they are doing.

Bottom line – keywords are very important, but use them carefully and be sure they flow with the surrounding content.

Google’s Algorithm

Overall, Google’s algorithm is trying to mimic a human. It tries to read text like a human would. As Google becomes more capable of understanding and scanning texts in a human-like way, readability will become even more important for your rankings. So, long story short, the trick to getting higher rankings on Google is writing easy-to-read content that is focused on your businesses purpose AND using keywords naturally and reasonably throughout your content.

Bottom line – Keep your copy smooth, concise, and interesting.  Is that too much to ask?  If you’re thinking so, GET HELP FROM AN EXPERT.

Accessibility Is Important

Keep in mind that not everyone who visits your website will experience it in the same way. Some people will visit on their phones while waiting for an appointment.  Reading lengthy text on a small device isn’t fun, even if the site is mobile responsive (which it SHOULD be). Much like Google itself, mobile users rely on the proper use of headings to understand what your text is about. Accessibility is important not only for mobile users, but any visitors to your website.

Bottom line – Well-written headers will lead your visitors right where they want to go and not scare off any mobile users.

Well-written headers will lead them right where they want to go.

See also The Importance of Mobile Optimized Websites

Readability For The Average Person

One of the most important things to remember with website content readability is making sure that the average person understands what you’re talking about. If I’m writing a blog about content writing (and I am), I won’t start throwing out a stream of tech terms and internet jargon that you folks may not have ever been exposed to. If I do use a tech term like Google’s algorithm, I’m going to hot-link it to an explanation of what it is. ;) In addition to that, the typical person visiting a website will scan through its text. They’ll read subheadings and the first sentences of the paragraphs they deem relevant. It’s very important that you get to the point and get there FAST. Again, remember –  All the things people do while reading your text are things Google will also do. That means that the structure of your text and the way you write your paragraphs becomes increasingly important. Core sentences – the first sentence of every paragraph – will need to contain the most important message. Making text easy to read and having a clear and logical structure in your text will be invaluable.

Bottom line – If your site considers the readability for the average person, it will be beneficial to the overall user experience AND the site’s search engine likeability.

Let’s Be Clear

Let’s be clear: your rankings won’t immediately soar when you improve the readability of your content. Improving your website content readability is an essential part of every SEO strategy. Strategically written content will result in more returning visitors and a higher conversion rate.

If your business needs help with your website content readability, consider hiring a professional marketing and advertising professional like Creative Juices Marketing Agency. We’ll use our creativity and experience to make sure your business is in the right position to compel your customer base, improve and build on your brand, and ultimately increase your revenue.  Contact Denise Hood at 434 964 7511 or send us this CONTACT FORM.

The post Website Content Readability appeared first on Creative Juices Marketing Agency.

Break Through The Noise

The normal human response to noise is to ignore it. That becomes impossible, though, when the noise is either very loud and annoying, or unforgettable. Most people will do everything they can to avoid loud noises, unless they are compelling ones. For example, it’s natural to tune out arguing neighbors or a screaming child. It’s just as natural to stop what you’re doing to listen to a songbird or a beautiful guitar solo. The latter noises are compelling, and that’s the type of “noise” you want your advertising to have.  It’s estimated that the average person sees and hears anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 branded messages every day.  Compare that to the average of 500 ads 40 years ago and you’ve got a whole lot of noise.

Why so many today? The enormous increase is due in large part to the ubiquity of smartphones and tablets. A recent Nielsen Company survey found that American adults spend more than 10½ hours consuming media daily, an hour more than the previous year. When you think about human reactions to noise, the important lesson becomes obvious. The best way to be noticed in the midst of advertising “noise” is to be compelling. And the most compelling ads are creative ones, which grab and maintain the viewer’s, reader’s or listener’s attention. The rest are just noise, which most people will avoid, ignore, or just plain overlook. As we said, creativity is a must!

Make It Memorable

Many ads are eminently forgettable, whether they’re on TV, in print or online; they often simply blend in with the noise and have no lasting impact. The best example is Super Bowl advertising. This past year, ads went for more than $5 million for each 30-second ad, and more than 50 unique commercials were shown during the game.  In surveys done a week or so after the Super Bowl, though, most people only remembered only a few of the ads.

Commercials which people do remember stick in their minds for one reason: creativity. Those who are old enough can still visualise the futuristic 1984 Super Bowl Apple ad, or the 1979 Coke commercial with Mean Joe Greene; they became classics. Similarly, the 2018 Super Bowl ads that people do still recall, even though they aired in a virtual blizzard of advertising during what many consider to be the

best game of all time, were memorable because they were creative.

Only a few companies are in the position to spend millions of dollars on a single ad, and online advertising costs just a fraction of that amount. But the important takeaway is the same as it is for Super Bowl advertisers: audiences remember creative, outside-the-box ads. Unexpected creativity seems to work best.

Viral

There’s never a guarantee that your advertising will go viral, but a strategy that gets you there is ideal.  Coming up with something that makes people say “Wow! I wish I had thought of that!” is the ultimate goal. Something people haven’t seen that’s clever and creative gives you your best chance at going viral. Being creative and engaging will ensure that your exposure and return is positioned to be great. Creativity is a must!

Budget

It might seem counterintuitive that you can save money by producing creative advertising. After all, hiring talented writers, artists, designers or directors – or paying an agency for conceptualizing and developing an

ad – sounds like a budget-busting expense. It just might be, unless the advertising is creative and effective – which is the only kind that will give you the exact results you’re looking for.  Additionally, hiring a good agency that is programmed to be mindful of your business’s brand, your customer bases’ needs and the professionalism you need to portray to them.

A study published in the Harvard Business Review was designed to measure the financial impact of creative ads. It found that every dollar invested in highly-creative advertising campaigns, particularly if the ads are artistic and elaborate or brilliantly illustrate a product benefit, returned twice as much revenue as money spent on “ordinary” ads.

There’s one other cost benefit: creative advertising that works well has a much longer shelf life than a series of moderately-effective (or ineffective) standard ads. Producing just a few creative gems can save a lot of money which would otherwise be spent on dozens of ordinary ads, benefitting a company’s bottom line.  Bottom line is, if you go cheap with your ad design, you will most likely be wasting both the money you spend having the cheap ads designed AND the money you spend to run them.  Moreover, you could damage your business’ image and cause potential customers/clients to doubt your ability to impress them.

Branding

Of all the 5 reasons that creativity is a must for businesses, this one is the “mustiest”.  If no one knows your business, no one will hire your business.  Being creative in promoting your brand will cause consumers to recognize and appreciate the effort you make to put your business in front of them. Even if they don’t remember the specific advertising over the long-term, and even if the ad doesn’t convince them to buy right away, there is a long-lasting positive effect on the company’s brand overall. A professional designer/creator of ads will know just how to grab your potential customer or client by the shirt and then make them smile at their cleverness.  That’s the goal anyway!  :)

Creative Advertising that gets attention and gets people to take action takes work and focus. Hiring a professional marketing and advertising professional like Creative Juices Marketing Agency is a smart way to make sure your business is in the right position to compel your customer base, improve and build on your brand, and ultimately increase your revenue.  If your business needs creative advertising, whether it be print, radio, tv or digital advertising; contact Denise Hood at 434 964 7511 or send this CONTACT FORM

See also Ultimate List Of Graphic Design Tips

The post 5 Reasons Creativity Is A Must appeared first on Creative Juices Marketing Agency.

See also Website Content Readability

Glassmorphism – bringing a sense of depth to your website

Website designers have come up with some pretty clever tricks to give their work a sense of physicality. It’s very important that visitors feel interested, intrigued and comfortable on a website. Adding dimensionality to the design, for instance, if we combined a blur effect with transparency, pixels take on the slightly opaque quality of frosted glass. Extravagant gradients, heavy drop shadows, and excessive reflections are dominated websites. Textures meant to look like plastic, metal, and even wood grain are very popular. As exciting trends in website design go, this one is a cool one! Below is an example of glassmorphism.

App-Like Design Experiences – small, clean and user experience focused

Looking forward, it seems that smaller, experience-focused sites are the future of web design. Getting directly to the point of what you WANT from the user right away in a clean, simple way. The world has gotten used to apps, where interaction, animation, and dynamic experiences are the norm. The logical next step is bringing that energy to websites and creating more unique experiences there.

Some imagine we’re headed back to times where sites were self-contained, esoteric, and curious. But new tools for site building make dynamic, interaction-focused designs significantly easier to build.

One Page Websites – keep it simple, stupid :)

Sometimes the most effective sites are the least complex ones. We have seen the increasing popularity of the one-page website that forgoes menus and navigation in favor of simple scroll navigation. One-page sites work best when the business’s subject matter is narrower without so many complex offerings.

Basically, good one page websites offer the visitor ALL of the information they need right in front of them. This delivers a better user experience because they’ll get a complete overview of what your business has to offer them without having to click away. That’s not to say you can’t have additional pages that offer more in depth information, but essentially, you’re giving the user a way to ‘skim’ your offerings all on one page. On the list of exciting trends in website design, this one is a little tame, but it also perfectly suits the way most people are absorbing information these days.

See also 5 Reasons Creativity Is A Must

Oversized Typography – bold design trends

Typography of unusually large size is a fresh, bold website design trend for this year. At a certain size, words become more of a graphic element than simply part of the copy. This is a versatile technique that can be used in minimalist or maximalist designs alike.

Motion Design – subtle, playful movement

Now that we’re talking about interactivity, it’s time to talk about responsible motion design, which we see starting to become a standard practice. While movement is an intriguing facet of web design, it’s easy to not go overboard, so motion should be used in subtle ways and responsibly. Take a look at the Lady Street Builders website that we designed. Scroll down to the READY TO COLLABORATE section and you’ll see how we added a subtle movement to the background photo. This draws the user’s eye to this very important section and also makes you feel that you’re touring the inside of a home as well.

Page Speed Prioritization – reacting to Google’s 2021 algorithm update

On the technical side of exciting trends in website design, page speed has become even more of front-of-mind consideration for web developers this year. Google’s 2021 algorithm update makes speed a more important consideration for SEO. This also reflects a users’ higher expectations for site speed performance since research shows that 53% of users will abandon a page that takes more than 3 seconds to load. To improve the user experience, website speed is essential. Google PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse are tools that can be used to assess your page speed optimization if you’d like to check your website’s speed. Good website developers use optimized images, specific fonts, and keep the access to a minimum. The best way to prioritize speed is to do it from the very beginning.

If your business needs a new website developed and employ these exciting new trends in website design, Creative Juices Marketing Agency is here to help! We’ll use our creativity and ever-expanding experience to make sure your business is in the right position to compel your customer base, improve and build on your brand, and ultimately increase your revenue.  Contact Denise Hood at 434 964 7511 or send us this CONTACT FORM.

The post Exciting Trends In Website Design appeared first on Creative Juices Marketing Agency.

Social Commerce

Social commerce (the use of social network in the context of e-commerce- ie selling products online) is nothing new, but it is probably going to dominate social media in 2022. Consumers want to have experiences in the places where they are already spending time. We will see more brands testing shoppable functionality on all social media platforms. From shop buttons to livestreams to ads to influencers, the ‘social sale’ will be at the forefront of smart social strategies for product-selling businesses.

Customer Service

Businesses will find that getting back to the basics of relationship building and customer service on their social media platforms would be VERY beneficial. Communicating and connecting on social media was always what it was there for, but from a business’s standpoint, it hasn’t really been a thing in the past. Business accounts were communicating the SELL SELL SELL ideas to drive revenue – which is their main goal. More recent social media trends show businesses that leverage a more personal communication with their audience are also building trust and loyalty within that group. I realize that organic engagement is tough, but people just don’t want to be treated like they aren’t important or focused on. Working the customer service angle on social media will be a very important trend for businesses in the future.

Recruiting

As Gen-X and Z-ers search for workforce opportunities, social media strategies must shift to meet them on their preferred platforms. Facebook’s popularity (57%) among Gen X-ers barely trails behind YouTube (60%); while Instagram (37%), TikTok (20%), and Snapchat (20%) follow at a distance.  Among Gen Z adults, however, falls behind YouTube (69%) and Instagram (67%). Using next-gen social platforms such as TikTok for employer branding and recruiting will be critical for both B2C and B2B in 2022. While TikTok videos aren’t heavily branded, they provide a great opportunity to humanize your brand and give talent a behind-the-scenes view of life at your company.

Showcasing Your Human Side

We talked a little about this earlier, but something that should never go out of style is a business being HUMAN on social media. Consumers are sizing up more than products and services in their social feeds. They are looking at how aligned a brand is to its purpose, mission and social issues. Marketers should lean into this and use social media to showcase their brand’s personality and perspective. Showcasing your human side will also make your audience feel they know you better and to KNOW you is to TRUST you. It’s a win win!

Dominating Video Content

Video content remains one of the most engaging forms of content on Social Media. According to a Cisco study, by 2022, 82% of all online content will be video content. This clearly shows how important it is to start utilizing dominating video content to stay relevant in the social media domain.

If your business is interested in leveraging the latest social media trends but doesn’t quite know where to start, Creative Juices Marketing Agency is here to help! We’ll use our creativity and ever-expanding experience to make sure your business is in the right position to compel your customer base, improve and build on your brand, and ultimately increase your revenue.  Contact Denise Hood at 434 964 7511 or send us this CONTACT FORM.

The post Leveraging Social Media Trends appeared first on Creative Juices Marketing Agency.

With the number of internet users increasing day by day, the count of social media users is also at its peak. Day by day, different social media platforms are launched that deliver unique features which convert visitors into regular users. But as the numbers of social media platforms are increasing, they are also showing a remarkable capability to convert the users into verified customers. Social media experts play a vital role in increasing your business’s online visibility and driving traffic to your website.  Creative Juices Marketing Agency maintains the social media marketing for numerous businesses, but Social Media Guru is not what we call ourselves, although we are most certainly social media enlightened 😁 If you are planning to maintain your social media accounts, we have some tips for you:

Update Your Profiles

Proceeding ahead without knowing the different social platforms will totally be a waste of time. There are numerous social platforms, but few of them are famous and are highly visited by the global users. So, you must have a working hand on all those platforms.  1 million new active mobile social users are added every day. To target such a huge audience, you need to be purely familiar with the platforms you are going to work on.

Be In Contact With Experts

If you have decided to maintain your social media marketing in house, you may still want someone with experience to get the ball rolling in the right direction first.  Without proper guidance, you’ll spend a great deal of time testing the waters and running different experiments to find out what your audience will respond to.  You don’t necessarily need an in-house social guru, but and expert and influencer in social media marketing could set up strategies that work for your business and guide someone within the business to maintain it going forward.  That way, you’ll at least be heading in the right direction with your campaign.

Read Articles On Social Media Marketing

There are many online companies that publish articles on how-to, tips or tricks for successful social media marketing. Make an effort to stay informed on the latest strategies.  The online world is ever-changing and we just need to make an effort to keep up. Now read this one that we wrote – Power of Social Media

Attend Webinars/ Events

To be the best, you have to spend some time learning from the best.  Experts from all over the globe hold numerous webinars and events you could attend. So, if possible, you must visit as many events as possible. In such events, experts from different countries share their success mantra or any tips that can be helpful for the others.  You can note each and every tip and execute them on the available social platforms. After you attend any conference, you will acquire a level of confidence that will help you to execute different strategies successfully.

See also Social Media

If you are looking to become your business’s social media guru, we hope these tips have helped.  Hiring a professional marketing and advertising professional like Creative Juices Marketing Agency is a smart way to make sure your business is in the right position to compel your customer base, improve and build on your brand, and ultimately increase your revenue.  If your business needs someone to strategize, maintain and manage your company’s Social Media Marketing campaigns; contact Denise Hood at 434 964 7511 or send us this CONTACT FORM.

The post Social Media Guru appeared first on Creative Juices Marketing Agency.

Retro Fonts

As with fashion and music, many old things become cool again, and then in turn become even more UNcool.  Amongst the new website design trends, retro fonts have experienced this same type of ebb and flow in their popularity, and many designs featuring vintage typography haven’t aged well.  However, throwback typography has made a comeback. We’re not seeing the same tired fonts like Arial and Times Roman. Rather, stylization and a bit of artistry are reimagining what retro fonts can be.  You’ll notice this trend emerging on Spotify’s Carnival Sound promotion. Instead of feeling stale and cliche, they actually use the design to breathe new life into traditional bold fonts by mixing them with a retro font and feel. Making traditional fonts cool again with a modern spin, but still AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, maintaining legibility.

Multimedia Experiences

With most people having access to faster internet speeds, multimedia web experiences are popping up everywhere. This new website design trend brings together text, images, video, and audio makes for a much more rounded user experience – and a more unique one.  There are some important things to keep in mind:

• Keep it simple.  If you have too much going on, it can be distracting and even overwhelming.
• Make sure to maximize accessibility of content with thoughtful layouts.
• Include closed captioning and transcripts if using pre recorded multimedia in your design.
• Always include alt text for images, and accompany complex images with longer descriptive text.
• Ensure that all text used in your design is made with HTML rather than embedded into your images.  They won’t work for you otherwise.
• Avoid auto playing video or motion content. Instead, provide a clear “play” button that allows the user the option to play and pause the content.

Use Textured Backgrounds and Muted Colors

Rigid grids and flat blocks of solid color can really drain the personality from a website design. Grainy textures can give them a more natural and organic feel.  There’s beauty in graininess and lo-fi design elements that feel more warm and homey than the slick perfection that’s commonplace in many web designs.  Subdued colors are very appealing in new website design as well.  Muted colors are the perfect backdrop to the hand-drawn styled text and illustrations. 

From the ever-expanding no code movement to cool retro typography there’s a lot of new website trends to be excited about.  The last year and a half hasn’t been easy.  Gallons of hand sanitizer, awkward Zoom meetings, homes filled with toilet paper and the looming anxiety of uncertainty have made us all a little nutso, but gave us plenty of room (and alone time) to be very creative with our website layout ideas.

Retro Fonts

As with fashion and music, many old things become cool again, and then in turn become even more UNcool.  Amongst the new website design trends, retro fonts have experienced this same type of ebb and flow in their popularity, and many designs featuring vintage typography haven’t aged well.  However, throwback typography has gone through a bit of a resurgence. We’re not seeing the same tired fonts like Arial and Times Roman. Rather, stylization and a bit of artistry are reimagining what retro fonts can be.  You’ll notice this trend emerging c8 on Spotify’s Carnival Sound promotion. Instead of feeling stale and cliche, they actually use the design to breathe new life into traditional bold fonts by mixing them with a retro font and feel. Making traditional fonts cool again with a modern spin, but still AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, maintaining legibility.

Read also:  Ultimate List Of Graphic Design Tips

Multimedia Experiences

With most people having access to faster internet speeds, multimedia web experiences are popping up everywhere. This new website design trend brings together text, images, video, and audio makes for a much more rounded user experience – and a more unique one.  There are some important things to keep in mind:

• Keep it simple.  If you have too much going on, it can be distracting and even overwhelming.
• Make sure to maximize accessibility of content with thoughtful layouts.
• Include closed captioning and transcripts if using pre recorded multimedia in your design.
• Always include alt text for images, and accompany complex images with longer descriptive text.
• Ensure that all text used in your design is made with HTML rather than embedded into your images.  They won’t work for you otherwise.
• Avoid auto playing video or motion content. Instead, provide a clear “play” button that allows the user the option to play and pause the content.

Use Textured Backgrounds and Muted Colors

Rigid grids and flat blocks of solid color can really drain the personality from a website design. Grainy textures can give them a more natural and organic feel.  There’s beauty in graininess and lo-fi design elements that feel more warm and homey than the slick perfection that’s commonplace in many web designs.  Subdued colors are very appealing in new website design as well.  Muted colors are the perfect backdrop to the hand-drawn styled text and illustrations.

From the ever-expanding no code movement to cool retro typography there’s a lot of new website trends to be excited about.  The last year and a half hasn’t been easy.  Gallons of hand sanitizer, awkward Zoom meetings, homes filled with toilet paper and the looming anxiety of uncertainty have made us all a little nutso, but gave us plenty of room (and alone time) to be very creative with our website layout ideas.

Retro Fonts

As with fashion and music, many old things become cool again, and then in turn become even more UNcool.  Amongst the new website design trends, retro fonts have experienced this same type of ebb and flow in their popularity, and many designs featuring vintage typography haven’t aged well.  However, throwback typography has gone through a bit of a resurgence. We’re not seeing the same tired fonts like Arial and Times Roman. Rather, stylization and a bit of artistry are reimagining what retro fonts can be.  You’ll notice this trend emerging on Spotify’s Carnival Sound promotion. Instead of feeling stale and cliche, they actually use the design to breathe new life into traditional bold fonts by mixing them with a retro font and feel. Making traditional fonts cool again with a modern spin, but still AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, maintaining legibility.

2r1

Multimedia Experiences

With most people having access to faster internet speeds, multimedia web experiences are popping up everywhere. This new website design trend brings together text, images, video, and audio makes for a much more rounded user experience – and a more unique one.  There are some important things to keep in mind:

• Keep it simple.  If you have too much going on, it can be distracting and even overwhelming.
• Make sure to maximize accessibility of content with thoughtful layouts.
• Include closed captioning and transcripts if using pre recorded multimedia in your design.
• Always include alt text for images, and accompany complex images with longer descriptive text.
• Ensure that all text used in your design is made with HTML rather than embedded into your images.  They won’t work for you otherwise.
• Avoid auto playing video or motion content. Instead, provide a clear “play” button that allows the user the option to play and pause the content.

Use Textured Backgrounds and Muted Colors

Rigid grids and flat blocks of solid color can really drain the personality from a website design. Grainy textures can give them a more natural and organic feel.  There’s beauty in graininess and lo-fi design elements that feel more warm and homey than the slick perfection that’s commonplace in many web designs.  Subdued colors are very appealing in new website design as well.  Muted colors are the perfect backdrop to the hand-drawn styled text and illustrations.

Scrollytelling

How do you like that term?  Nice, huh?  We’ve seen a growing trend in website designers using visual storytelling in their layouts.  Compelling users to continue on through the website.  The best applications of scrollytelling practice restraint:

• Keep motion within a small area.
• Provide interactions on the user’s terms: provide obvious playback controls to play/pause/stop interactions and motions.
• Make sure that any scrollytelling elements help to emphasize the story, rather than distracting from important text.

Custom cursors

Cursors are probably one of the most overlooked aspects of web design. When a designer can take this insignificant part of a website and turn it into something cool, this is quite the achievement.  Check out this website The Pen Tool.  They take their circular cursor one step further with animation and text coming together for an almost psychedelic effect.

Read also:  Why You Need A Responsive Website

If you’re thinking of have a new website developed, knowing some of the new website design trends from 2021 can help you wrap your head around what you’re looking for.  Hiring a professional marketing and advertising professional like Creative Juices Marketing Agency is a smart way to make sure your business is in the right position to compel your customer base, improve and build on your brand, and ultimately increase your revenue.  If your business needs creative advertising, whether it be print, radio, tv or digital advertising; contact Denise Hood at 434 964 7511 or send this CONTACT FORM.

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Web developers seem to have risen to the 2021 occasion by exploring many different avenues of visual communication that will increase levels of engagement. This includes novelty typography art, unusual color schemes, unique and lively videos and more.

Typography Trends For Websites

The old belief of using sans serif fonts as the go-to font style for web design has been changing with the times. Indeed, sans serif fonts have always been loved by web designers for their sleek legibility and simple structure. In 2021, screen sizes and resolutions are larger and clearer than they once were. Contrary to their “outdated” predecessors, the screens we now design for are more inviting to decorated, heavier serif fonts. Larger screens, for example, enable serif fonts to appear less cluttered and more readable — thanks to increased space around the words. Likewise, the higher resolution makes the heavier or more illustrious letters look clearer. Utilizing more unique typography is one of the most important, top website trends for 2021.

Take a look at the top 10 most popular serif fonts for websites HERE!

There are also new and exciting website plugins that allow designers to now use circular and wavy text paths on websites. Anything that is eye-catching and unique is terrific. Take a look at Elementor’s Text Path Widget.

Lastly on the typography trends for websites is EMOJIS. Whether two people are 1,000 miles apart or 5 feet apart in the same house, people are constantly interacting through type. This includes emails, texting, social media, messaging applications, and more. Communication has grown far beyond words – playful emojis inserted within written text elements are now an essential part of digital design plans. The rising popularity of emojis has made its way to the web designer’s tool box, too. Web creators are leveraging these illustrated gestures in a language familiar to users of all ages and backgrounds. Communicating with target audiences of all languages and dialects thrives on this technique — your brand voice can now be heard in a visual, non-verbal way.

Color Design Trends For Websites

Using light colors in website design represents one of the biggest differences between print and web design. The quality and visibility of light colors often get compromised when used in print design — losing their richness and boldness. Light colors have the opposite effect on-screen, and may even be preferred over dark, bolder colors. The screen’s sharpness and clarity can actually cause dark colors to be overbearing and even stressful to look at. Designers have now embraced the advantage of using light colors in order to avoid the latter. In fact, light colors are also conducive to user engagement.

At the other end of the color spectrum lies a color trend of an entirely different nature – Negative Colors. More and more designers have been gravitating towards using very bold colors, with an emphasis on primary colors: red, blue and yellow. This often involves multiple deeply contrasting primary color combinations that make you think of comic books and 90s retro style. It goes without saying that these types of color palettes often target younger audiences, accentuating an upbeat, exciting vibe. Negative colors in website design would not convey the professionalism of a doctor or lawyer’s website, for example. A gym or video production company – YES.

Images and Illustration Trends In Website Design

Once upon a time in the journalism industry, printing in color was not an option. To add artistic effects to their content, newspapers would feature black and white, hand-drawn designs created by cartoonists. This unique, cartoon-inspired style compensated for the lack of colored visuals and imagery. In digital design, however, color has never been an issue. The issue now is to always STAND OUT and in this 2021 world of COLOR, those same tricks used ‘back in the day’ in print are being used for their now fresh uniqueness in website design today!

All that being said, texture-based illustrations created digitally inevitably causes them to look slightly different to their hand-drawn predecessors. Whether identical to the original style of texture-based illustrations or not, it’s exciting to see this design trend reappear in the top website trends of 2021 because they are darn cool.

The artistic style of the 90s era has also made its comeback in web design trends — this time in the form of simple shape motifs integrated throughout design schemes. These simplistic, two-dimensional shape illustrations boast one shade of color and no depth or texture. These basic shapes may also have text written on them and are often reminiscent of stickers-design from the 80s or 90s. These shapes may also be used as buttons (either static or animated), or as a sticker that informs us about a limited time promotion. No matter what these stickers look like or entail, their common goal is to draw the attention of the website visitor.

Using creative and a-typical imagery on a website draws a great deal more attention than common, straightforward photos. Conceptualized photography that is thought-provoking and unusual will intrigue website visitors and make them think. Beyond the basics of that, many e-commerce websites are using 3D simulations to allow shoppers to see the product “in real life”. 2021 trends are bringing even further-enhanced 3D visualization techniques, with detailed intricacies and extremely high resolutions.

There you have it, the top website trends of 2021. If your business needs assistance with outstanding and on-the-edge website design, graphic design, social media marketing, or other content creation; feel free to contact Creative Juices Marketing Agency to discuss.  Call 434 964 7511 or click to CONTACT US.

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Ask yourself, where is your website traffic coming from? Did you know 93% of experiences on the Internet start with a search engine? What happens after someone makes a search? If you’re relying on people to find you through a Google search, search engine optimization (SEO) needs to be at the top of your priority list. You won’t be able to generate leads for your business if no one can find you.

The reason why other websites are ranking higher than you on Google is because they are making a consistent and conscious effort to improve their SEO. There are certain things you can do to increase your chances of getting ranked higher on Google searches.

See also Website Content Checklist

Improve your page loading speed – speedy is best

If your load speed is too slow, Google will recognize this, and it will harm your ranking. But a slow website will also impact the way your website visitors engage with your pages. Many will leave quickly and, as a result, those negative interactions will hurt your ranking too.

Research shows 40% of visitors will abandon websites if the page takes longer than 3 seconds to load. What’s even more shocking is that 80% of those visitors won’t return to that website. This is terrible for your SEO ranking because it ultimately kills traffic to your site.

But on the flip side, if your page loads fast, people will keep coming back. Google’s algorithm will recognize your website’s popularity and adjust your search ranking accordingly. This makes it extremely important to optimize both your page speed and server response time.

If you want to test the speed of your website, there are online services such as Pingdom or GTMetrix are available for free.

Produce high quality content – How often do you update your website?

If you haven’t touched your website since the day you built it, you probably don’t have a great SEO ranking right now. To drive more traffic to your website and increase its popularity, you need to give visitors a reason to keep coming back.

Your content needs to be high quality, recent, and relevant. You can obtain that by writing blogs, have a social media feed on your site, or just updating information on whatever new news your business has.

Another factor that impacts your SEO ranking is so-called ‘dwell time’. This relates to how much time people spend on your website per visit. If your site has fresh, exciting, or newsworthy information, it will keep visitors on your page longer and improve your dwell time. Websites that provide highly informative content typically have longer dwell times.  Make the cha cha cha changes to high quality website content and you’ll improve your website SEO.

See also Tips For Writing Compelling Content

Optimize your images – Pictures and other images are great for your website

But you need to make sure they are optimized properly if you want these images to improve your SEO ranking. I’m referring to factors such as the file format and size. Huge images can slow your page loading time, which, as I’ve said, hurts your ranking.  Always resize or compress your images to optimize them before adding them to your website.

It is also important that you use your images to sneak in keywords by naming them accordingly. For example, let’s say you have a website that promotes your authentic Mexican cuisine, you might want to name an image ‘awesome handmade guacamole’ rather than ‘avocado’.  Strategically use keywords in the title of your image as well as the caption or description and do it in every single image and you’ll improve your website SEO.

Start blogging – it’s great for your business

Blogging is an outstanding tool for lead generation and helps you engage with visitors to your website, but most of all, blogging can improve your website’s SEO rankings.  As I’ve mentioned above – producing fresh, updated, and relevant content can drive people to your website and give them a reason to stay on your pages for a while.  Well, blogs are the perfect channel for you to accomplish this.

If you can establish a large group of faithful readers, you can get lots of traffic to your site on a daily basis.  Plus, you can incorporate other things I talked about so far into your posts as well, such as images and header tags.  Other elements, such as links, increased readability, and keywords, can also be incorporated into these posts.  All of this positively impacts your search engine ranking.

See also Benefits Of Blogging

If you don’t feel comfortable writing your own blogs, one of the many services Creative Juices Marketing Agency offers is Ghost Blogging.  You could leave the work to us!  See ghost blogging

While there are many more ways you can use cha cha cha changes to improve your website’s SEO, we will stop here.  We hope these tips will help you.  Let us know if we can help further. If you need assistance with website design, graphic design, social media marketing, or content creation to promote your business; feel free to contact Creative Juices Marketing Agency to discuss.  We’d love to help you!  Call 434 964 7511 or click to CONTACT US.

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