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Tag: website development

Poor Web Design Can Cost Your Business

Most of you are probably planning next year’s marketing strategies by now. But you might be forgetting about one important and mostly overlooked platform–your company’s website. Yes, a website may not be as interactive and as cost-efficient as social media but what businesses tend to overlook is that – websites are quite important! If you utilize it right, it might even bring you more revenue. How?

For starters, you already know that a well-designed and curated website is good for Search Engine Optimization, or in layman’s term, for ranking higher on search engines’ results pages. Nowadays, it’s not so hard to build your own website, but doing so may risk your business to have an unclear brand message and an unprofessional website. If you visit a company’s website with unruly information on its page or barely has information on it at all. Would you see that as a credible company? Probably not, right?

 

You Can Lose Potential Customers with an Unorganized Website

If your web design is all over the place, then the user will have a hard time finding what they’re looking for, making them exit your site unhappy. If you notice you have a high bounce rate, or that users leave your site after only visiting two pages, then check if they are having problems navigating from point A to point B. You may want to consult with UI/UX expert to see how else you can improve your user experience. A user-friendly website invites users to freely and easily move from one page to another – giving visitors the ease of finding what they’re looking for, while getting them more interested in the products and services that you offer. 

 

 

You Can Lose Brand Credibility With a Crappy Website

If your web design and overall aesthetic don’t have a coherent theme, it can hurt your brand perception. A well-put-together website that matches your print collaterals will help consumers connect your brand with references they’ll see later on. If you have an icon for your brand, and that icon is present on your website, visitors who may have seen your icon offline will now think, “I’ve seen this…” when they visit your site. Make sure you have a company background or an FAQ page for your website as this is useful for visitors that are interested in your business!

Search Engine Optimization is Important!

When you built your website, did you consider good SEO? Because you definitely should have! Good design and aesthetic can come and go. But a website with a good SEO ranking ranks higher on search engines’ results pages and makes it easier for consumers to find. You should also check if your website is compatible across all devices and loads fast. There are still a dozen other factors to consider for Search Engine Optimization. (You can read our related blog: SEO and SEM: The Perfect Online Marketing Tandem)

Colors Affect Purchasing Behavior

“Color is 85% of the reason you purchased a specific product,” says Neil Patel.

Research from QuickSprout indicated that 90% of all product assessments have something to do with colors. Although colors are subjective, at least use the right ones. Research states that big fonts, red colors in bold are good for headlines in your web design. On the other hand, the color blue generates a feeling of trust. “The Internet is a colorful place, and there is a lot that can be accomplished by using color in the right way, at the right time, with the right audience, and for the right purpose.”

 

All in all, don’t lose possible consumers because of a terribly designed website. Drop us a message to request for a free website audit from one of our dedicated Account Executives. We can help identify areas of your website that can be improved on! Email us at [email protected] or talk to us here. #iManila #WebsiteDevelopment #WebDesign #SEO 

 

 

 

Hire Web Developers or Use DIY Web Builders?

“Should I hire a web developer or should I just do it myself?”

The rise of DIY web builders is undeniable. In fact, some DIY web builders even claim that you can create your website in under just 5 minutes. This trend makes it tempting to go rogue on your website and just wing it instead of hiring professionals. Sure, it is your choice to make, and we have no problem with that.  But the question is…

Which is really the right path for your website? Here are a few things you can consider when starting a website:

Budget:

To be honest, hiring a web development company can be costly.  After all, these are professionals who studied and honed their skills through years of experience. You simply tell them your ideas and vision and they will craft it for you, sometimes, even suggest ideas that can make your website even better.

Design & Function

Visualize your website. Are you fine with generic themes you can find online or do you want something made custom for your brand? Using web builders give you an array of options to choose from. You can pick a theme you like and voila – you’re a step away from launching your website. However, professional web developers tailor their designs depending on how their client wants it – making it unique compared to the thousands of other websites out there! (You may also want to read: What Makes A Good Web Design!)

Another important thing to consider is the features you want to integrate into your website. Think about the features you would like your website to have. People who only want a website for their blogs often do it themselves. But, people who are starting a business or expanding their business online prefer to hire web developers as there are certain functions that are just too complicated for someone to do on their own. 

Domain & Hosting

Now here’s the more complicated stuff. When building a website, you need a domain name and a hosting account to make everything work. A domain name is your website’s address on the internet, whereas, a hosting account is where your website (including files and data) is stored. You can do it all your own through research OR find a company that can package everything for you. 

But, if you have the budget and aren’t fond of the idea of doing all the work yourself or just don’t have the time to create your website, you can simply just call a web development company. A lot of companies still find it best to trust the professionals, especially when it comes to building a custom website for you or your business.

 

iManila is a web development and web hosting company that has been in the industry for more than 20 years. Staffed with talented professionals, iManila can help build your dream website. Call us now at +632 3490 0000 or drop us an email at [email protected]. 

 

#iManila #WebDevelopment #WebDesign

 

 

Getting to Know More About WordPress

Developing a website can be intimidating for people who are unfamiliar with the world of web development. There’s a common notion that web development is complex, hard to understand, and only for computer geeks. That might be true in the olden days, but as we progressed further in technology, people have developed easier ways to create things on the internet. And this is what the team behind WordPress has done –they’ve created a pro website builder that allows for a more convenient and less complicated way to build a website.

Introduced in 2003, WordPress has become the most popular website builder or Content Management System (CMS), if you want to get technical. WordPress comprises about 30% of the websites on the internet.

So what exactly makes WordPress so popular and why do most web developers prefer this platform above others? 

It’s free and available for everyone

Yup, you read it right. You can create your own website for FREE on WordPress. For anyone who is just starting to create their digital presence, this should be a helpful factor. You can create your free websites at wordpress.com where you can enjoy a limited number of free templates and plug-ins. For beginners, this is the best way to practice your web development skills. Take note that if you’re using the free version, you don’t entirely own your website meaning, your URL will look something like this: yourwebsitename.wordpress.com. However, if you are looking to explore more, then the best option is to create your own website through wordpress.org. Here you can have your own domain, enjoy 11,000+ templates and plug-ins. 

It’s user-friendly

No need to be intimidated! With WordPress, you don’t have to be a web developer to create your own website. All you have to do is be familiar with the tools and you’re good to go. Plus, WordPress has a ton of plug-ins that need not require coding. Some would prefer to initially have their websites done by a developer then have that developer train them to do future updates on their website. 

It’s SEO-friendly

SEO is essential to any website as this is a factor for driving organic traffic to your website. WordPress is one of the best platforms to apply a well-thought-out SEO campaign. 

It’s not just for blogging

There’s a notion that WordPress websites are only for blogging. While some websites are for personal use amongst others, businesses now have also expanded their channels to digital, specifically through websites. For brands, a website’s purpose is to build and strengthen its brand awareness. While an e-commerce website is the core of any e-commerce business. 

With all the digital advancements nowadays, everything that used to be complex and difficult is now reduced to a simple drag and drop. This is what WordPress websites can give you an easy-to-manage website that can help your business grow. 

If you’re looking into creating a website of your own, but find yourself needing some help, iManila houses the best web developers in the market who can help you create, manage, and launch your website in the digital space. Don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or call us at 490-0000 so we can talk about how we can help you. 

Visit www.imanila.ph for more information.

What Makes a Good Website Design?

Good website design will never go out of trend. It’s not just about using beautiful graphics and a good color palette that matches your brand – a properly designed website should most importantly be functional. 

Form + Function

Structure, graphics, and layout are all essential parts of a website’s design. These things make up the website’s “form”, and what a visitor usually sees upon first glance of a website.  

Elements of the  “form” aspect of a website are always made with a purpose. The main purpose should always be about considering the user. The first few things that a good website designer should look into is how to make your website user-friendly, and make it easier for users to navigate around your website. This means that all graphics, photos, contents and the overall layout of the website should appeal to your consumer’s online behavior and preferences. 

Function, on the other hand, is how the elements of the form operate. When the form operates according to its predetermined function, only then can we truly say that we have a great design!

Why does this all matter?

Good website design will always make you win customers online. Why? Users, consumers, buyers, customers just simply benefit from it. Having a greatly designed website not only allows visitors to get the information they need, but it also allows them to easily find what they’re looking for. Websites with a great design and user interface attract online visitors to keep coming back for more. Not only does a great website increase a company’s reputation online but it also sustains a good user base, which increases your website’s visibility and ranking on search engines. In short, having a great website can not only change a consumer’s mind about your brand, but it also pumps up your online visibility organically in search engines. 

As a final note – a new and well-designed website is not just something your company can be proud of, but especially in this day and age filled with so many distractions – now more than ever you need a website that will be able to catch AND keep your consumers’ attention! 

Need help? iManila has delivered more than 5,000 web and digital marketing projects since its inception back in 1996. Drop us a message at [email protected]!

What makes a website user-friendly?

In today’s digital age, many businesses are widely investing in digital assets. Most big brands nowadays are on Facebook, YouTube and a variety of other digital platforms where they can promote awareness and boost lead generation. In this day and age, having a website is a must-have not only to maximize online presence but also as a means to direct clients to a central location online where all users can see everything about your brand and product.

Your website not only serves as the landing page for all of your potential clients’ searches, but it also receives traffic from your followers on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. But, your online efforts shouldn’t just end after you’ve built your website. Having a website is also about maintaining it, keeping it updated and user-friendly, and making sure that it converts revenue and adds value to your business.

Below are three factors you can take note of, to ensure that your website is doing its job of being your 24/7 online ambassador:

Usability

One of the important, if not, the most important thing for a website to have is proper usability and functionality. This pertains to the links and buttons inside the website. Keep in mind that all website functions must be clickable and must always lead users to the right information of what they want to see and know.

According to HubSpot.com, 75% of website visitors prefer to find the most important information immediately within the main landing page of a website. If you construct your website in a manner that your visitors can easily identify what they need, such as your contact details, or an inquiry form, then you can rest easy knowing that the right customers can find you anytime.

Layout/Design

Keep in mind that website visitors always consider a website’s layout. Users are able to immediately identify a company’s legitimacy and modernity with just one look at their website. A company who may have not invested in a website since their time of establishment may be deemed as a fake business due to their lack of presence online. At the same time, a company that has an old website may lose customers to a similar company who sells the same products just by the way their products are presented and in the way the entire company is presented online.

Customer-oriented

Lastly, successful websites are always customer-oriented at its core. If your business is targeting millennials or fashionistas, make sure that your website has a sleek look that will entice users to buy your products. Always take note to combine the right colors and call-to-action buttons in order to lure them to buy or inquire. As for B2B businesses targeting professionals, create an informative and professional looking website that will let visitors know that they are dealing with a highly professional company.

In summary, having a website is one of the most essential things that a business can invest in. Considering the factors above can either make or break the success of your online business or your business’ reputation in the digital world. If you need any help in creating a website for your business, talk to us! Our website developers are adept and very intuitive when it comes to website creation. If you’re looking for an agency that can cater your web development and digital marketing needs, contact us at (+632) 490-0000 or leave us a message at imanila.ph/lets-talk/.

Is WordPress Still Secure?

 

It is not a secret to anyone that 26% of the world’s website population is powered by WordPress, and 60% of the entire global count runs on WordPress CMS. This has clearly revealed that WordPress has a wider reach over the net. It is a big global community that is continuously growing – an unstoppable force the powers more than ¼ of the entire internet. However, with this large user-base, it is also undeniable that it attracts the attention of the hackers – making WordPress websites prone to hacking incidents.

Now the question that website owners ask is, is WordPress still secure?

The answer is YES.

Surely most people will disagree but WordPress is still secured – diligence is the key for this.

What Constitute WordPress?

There are three elements of WordPress namely: the core code which makes up the WordPress install, the themes which determine how sites look and how it will function, and plugins which are small applications that extend WordPress in interesting ways.

What Causes Hacking Incidents?

Via WordPress.org, themes and plugins are made available from many other sources, that at some point, may even come from unscrupulous hackers who get their hands on commercial themes and embedded malware in them. The worse thing in this scheme is that these themes and plugins are given away online to people willing to get them for free. And that is where the threat lies. Because of the enormous size of the WordPress installed base and the complexity of its ecosystem, vulnerabilities could be just lying in a corner waiting for malicious activities to find them.

Why do We say It is Secured?

The core is maintained by a large group of volunteers who are incredibly good at their craft. These are coders and developers who secured the community by updating the system’s codes, themes and even plugins from vulnerabilities every now and then.

Like with app stores, WordPress sources take some measurable care in what is listed for users to use. Though there may have been unscrupulous themes on the internet, it is still safer to get from the main community. Themes on WordPress.org go through a testing process and plugins go through an initial vetting before they’re first allowed to be posted.

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Is WordPress Still Trustworthy?

According to ZDNet.com, WordPress is still trustworthy. However, if you would really like to make the most out of your site and keep is secured, there are still caveats that go with using WordPress.

  • If you are not keen or well versed with web maintenance, you might want to have it hosted via WordPress.com.
  • If you opt for freedom in customizing your website but couldn’t do web maintenance, you can hire someone who can maintain the website professionally, and who will update it regularly from themes to plugins.
  • As much as possible, refrain from downloading commercial plugins or themes from sketchy source especially those which you can get for free.
  • If you customized your WordPress with WordPress.org, you also need to make sure that you are hosting your website securely with a trusted hosting server.

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Despite the issues about the security of WordPress, it is still undeniable that it is probably one of the best platforms for website available. Again, all it takes to secure your WordPress is diligence or trusting service providers who specialize in creating WordPress-based websites.

iManila is a trusted provider of both web solutions and digital marketing services that surely covers small and medium businesses online marketing needs. Our lines are open 24/7 and our sales executives are available Mondays to Fridays to assist you with your web, IT, and digital marketing queries.

Emails: [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

Why Your Website Page Speed Matters?

 

Website Page Speed — In this age of digital transformation, time is of the essence for all. What considers the best experience for most of the people is being able to do what needs to be done in the quickest time possible. And that holds true for most things, especially on the internet.

Websites these days are not just about design and functionality; it is also about the page loading speed. No matter how well designed and informative your website is, if it takes almost a minute to load a single page, then you are lagging behind your competitor’s websites who loads faster than yours.

There are more to your website loading time than what you’ve probably thought before. Below are the two crucial points that compel website owners like you to optimize your website’s loading time.

It matters to Users.

A website that loads fast leaves a good impression to the users. Aside from that, online users have a growing rate of declining attention span. According to an article of Timothy Egan posted on New York Times online, a survey of media consumption by Microsoft concluded that the average attention span of humans had fallen to eight (8) seconds from twelve (12) in the year 2000.

It is a crucial point showing that as technology improves, the attention span declines. Optimizing your website to meet this emerging user behavior will surely improve its performance.

And it matters to Google too.

Google puts user experience at the core of its technology and business. And what matters to the users, also matters to Google. It is the behavior and preferences of the online users that became the basis of all improvements applied to the search engine.

According to Google, the average loading time of a mobile landing page to fully load all elements is at 22 seconds. However, 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load. And that where the problem lies. While most websites take 22 seconds to load, the users’ attention span is only at 8 seconds – at the most.

Below are the critical points Google shared to webmasters.

 

crucial-website-loading-time-figures

In the same way, a slow page loading time might affect your website’s search engine ranking. Since Google prioritize user experience, it will not let a slow loading website rank on the first page of Google SERP despite having marvelous content.

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What do you need to do?

To improve your website’s loading time, below are the steps that you need to take to optimize it.

  1. Using the webpagetest.org, check the loading time of every element in your website.
  2. Improve what needs to improve such as:
  • Compress large image and video files
  • Remove unnecessary plugins that slow your website loading time
  1. ALWAYS, depend on a reliable and high-quality web hosting server to make sure that your website loads on an optimal level. Servers are also responsible for loading time of the website, if your server is too old and lacks resources, your website won’t load fast enough.
  2. And you are covering visitors and audiences across the globe, you need to also use Content Delivery Network (CDN) to speed up the delivery of your website’s page loading on areas far from the location of your web hosting server.

Page speed is indeed a crucial part in the success of a website. In this age when human attention span is shorter than the goldfish, the only way website owners need to do to adapt is to optimize their websites from content to loading time according to the behavior of the users.

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iManila is a trusted provider of both web solutions and digital marketing services that surely covers small and medium businesses online marketing needs. Our lines are open 24/7 and our sales executives are available Mondays to Fridays to assist you with your web, IT, and digital marketing queries.

Emails: [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

 

 

Sources:

  1. wisdekcorp.com
  2. nytimes.com
  3. thinkwithgoogle.com

MOBILE FRIENDLINESS RANKING FACTOR: Why You Need to be Mobile-Responsive

 

MOBILE FRIENDLINESS IS NOW A THING — It is common knowledge to most marketers that Last April 2015, Google search has expanded its mobile friendliness algorithm known as “Mobilegeddon”. This update from Google has marked the beginning of a shift of focus from desktop to mobile searches and has affected a lot of websites that are not mobile-responsive. Some of the affected may have experienced a decline in their Google SERP ranking or even to the volume of their monthly traffic.

What is Mobile Friendliness?

There are 75.4 million unique mobile users in the Philippines, comprising 74% of the nation’s population. Almost everyone these days considers themselves to be “tech-savvy” with the advent of the internet allowing even the simplest devices to do an amazing amount of tasks.

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Let’s face it, with a market as large as that, you probably want your brand to be etched on the consciousness of these users.  This is exactly why it’s time for your website to go mobile.

Opting for a mobile-responsive website or the mobile friendliness of your website enables it to be sent instantly dynamic as it fits symmetrically on any screen size, minimizing usability issues such as links that are not clickable, images taking forever to appear, scrolling problems and lagging issues.

Simply put – a mobile-responsive website enhances user experience.

Want to know how to make your website friendly? Say hi to one of our account executives, or leave us a message on our contact form.

Mobile version vs Mobile-Responsive

On the off-chance that you live under a rock, you might probably be more familiar with the term “mobile version”.

Mobile version is different from mobile-responsive. The former means developing a version of your website customized for mobile users and uses a separate URL commonly beginning with “m” (such as m.facebook.com). It’s like having two unique websites with one dedicated to desktops and another for mobile devices.

The latter, on the other hand, automatically resizes the content of your website based on user device allowing for optimum user experience.

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Post-Mobilegeddon Updates

Aside from the ‘mobilegeddon’ released on 2015, other updates released were Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which launched in February 2016, and ‘mobile­first indexing’, which Google has been working on for quite a while now.
The AMP or the Accelerated Mobile Page Project is an open source initiative of Google launched in October 2015. This update works towards increasing the performance of the mobile web, loading web pages instantly, even with rich content or ads.

 

AMP is not a mobile ranking factor, however, its objective is to improve the functions of mobile websites with stripped-down versions of web pages. This enables users to read and scan your content with ease, improving your website’s traffic and in time, improving your SERP ranking. Google AMP lets publishers focus on great content while depending on other components like image carousels and social plug­ins for high performance and great user experience.

 

Another recent update is mobile­first indexing. Google has been adjusting their algorithms to primarily use mobile versions of website content to rank pages, understand its structured data, and show snippets from those pages on their SERPs. Here are some of the recommendations of google about dealing with the mobile­first indexing update:

  • Stay on your responsive site or dynamic serving site on desktop and mobile version;
  • If the two versions of your website’s primary content are different, you should make your structured data uniform, make your mobile website crawlable, and maintain canonical links unchanged;
  • Verify your desktop and mobile website versions against Google Search Console;
  • Launch new mobile sites only when they’re ready, to avoid any unwanted effects on your desktop sites that may arise from faulty mobile ones.

What is for business online?

Businesses that rely heavily on traffic and leads coming from online sources should prepare to change extensively, otherwise, their potential sales will be flushed down the drain. Below are the advantages of making your website mobile-responsive:

Know more about the benefits of a mobile-responsive website or its mobile friendliness by calling our sales executives or by sending us a message through this LINK.

It strengthens your website’s optimization.

With Google recently releasing an algorithm specifically targeting websites that aren’t mobile-responsive yet, now would be the best time to do so. Having a mobile-responsive site brings more traffic to your website which then opens doors to increase sales and revenue. A great search rank on desktop and mobile would be beneficial for your business because that’s brand awareness reaching your market through multiple channels.

It saves you time and money.

With a mobile-responsive website, you can focus your resources instead in building and creating new campaigns and content instead of developing a separate website for mobile devices.

It keeps you ahead of your competition.

There are a lot of businesses who have yet to invest in this new kind of technology because, well, it’s new; and new is a mystery few have the courage to explore.

Going mobile-responsive automatically puts you ahead of the curve because you’re already building your rank up while others are still flirting with the idea.

It provides an optimum user experience for your consumers.

With smartphones and tablets continuously increasing in terms of usage, giving your market the ability to browse through your site with ease is one step to earning their trust. Because everything is organized and made faster, potential clients are more likely to explore your website than leave it the moment they see the home page. Your site will have perfectly scaled images and readable texts so there’s no reason to not give it a chance.

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Sources:

  1. Straightarrow.com.ph
  2. Webmaster.googleblog.com