These days, a rising number of users are engaging with companies primarily – and sometimes exclusively – via their mobile devices. Due to this shift, brands boost their focus on their mobile presence, and build a website that is specifically optimized for the mobile platform.
But what does this mean exactly? How can designers be sure they are creating the best possible mobile website? By considering the following design tips and strategies, website creators can help guarantee that their mobile initiative is not only successful, but geared especially for mobile users.
First things first
As mobile becomes a more critical aspect of a business's online presence, a growing sector of the design community is taking a "mobile first" approach to creating websites. According to online marketing and search engine optimization agency Distilled, this strategy involves creating the mobile version of the website first, and then building the desktop version from the mobile template.
"There's nothing you can put on a mobile page that can't be loaded on the desktop version," Distilled pointed out. This approach is especially helpful for responsive and dynamically served sites, where the content on the mobile version of the page should be identical to the content on the desktop page."
Many experts recommend creating complementary desktop and mobile website versions that integrate similar color schemes and brand messaging. This assures users that they've reached the correct brand's page. This concept is much easier to integrate when the mobile version is created first and the desktop website is built off of it.
Responsive, shiftable grid layouts
Designers should also consider how their website content will be displayed on different devices. Many smartphone models differ in their screen size, not to mention the much larger displays of tablets. Copley Broer, CEO of LandlordStation, a property management software development company, told CIO that to ensure that content is displayed appropriately, designers should leverage responsive frameworks.
"These frameworks are basically simple ways to lay out elements in a grid and then shift that grid based on different screen sizes, so that elements on a large monitor are spaced just as well as they would be on an iPad [or smartphone]," Broer said.
Performance can help a website stand out
As the amount of mobile-based Internet traffic increases, so too does the number of mobile websites and applications available to users. Currently, there are more than 4 million mobile-optimized websites, according to Adobe's Andrew Henderson. In this way, designers have their work cut out for them when it comes to ensuring that their page stands out.
One way to differentiate a website is through performance. Many users won't wait for more than a few seconds for a webpage to load before they abandon it in favor of something else. This makes performance critical – not only for the design processes, but for quality assurance as well. Before the mobile website is rolled out, QA teams should be sure to thoroughly test the page for load times and performance under extreme usage levels to be sure it functions as it should in any situation.
Additionally, Henderson recommends balancing design elements in a way that drives optimal performance of the website on the mobile platform.
"Mobile devices are very underpowered compared to traditional computers. so the performance impact of design elements is even more exacerbated on mobile devices," Henderson point out. "It is important to balance design directions with the realities of what can be executed well on mobile devices."
Keep it simple
Above all, mobile websites should leverage a simplified design that is clean and streamlined. Because the mobile platform offers capabilities that aren't possible on desktops, some designers tend to go overboard with graphics, video or other content. A more focused design will ensure that the website loads quickly on mobile devices, and that users are engaged right away. Furthermore, a busy or cluttered page only serves to distract from the brand message.
"Remember that you only have a few seconds to convey who you are as a company," noted Caxy Interactive founder and CEO Michael LaVista. "This is true for any website design, but is particularly important when you are designing for smaller devices."
Taking these tips and best practices into consideration can considerably help design teams create a mobile website that stands out from the crowd, and will help further their brand.
WordPress site owners should take note of a large malware campaign reported by Sucuri that has compromised over 100,000 WordPress sites via a third-party plugin. The vulnerable component within WordPress is RevSlider, a premium slider creator plugin for WordPress site designers.
You may have RevSlider installed without having explicitly done so, as RevSlider is bundled with paid WordPress theme packs.
An estimated 70 million sites use WordPress for content management. The current attacks are only targeting self-hosted sites, not those who host via WordPress.com.
The good folks at Sucuri have made available a free site checker that can determine if your site is compromised.
Small businesses are migrating to the cloud every day, responding to a need for integrated solutions that encompass the evolving technology needs of a growing company. Even for the smallest of businesses, those offerings must meet best-of-breed standards of flexibility, reliability, scalability and security.
SMBs are looking for help as they move to the cloud, and AMI-Partners will discuss how you can profit in our free December 4 webinar, "AMI Partners Share Secrets of Profitable Cloud Resellers." AMI SVP for Worldwide SMB Cloud & Channels Ryan Brock discuss the opportunities for cloud reseller partnerships, what cloud solutions are SMBs investing in, and how SMBs buy these solutions. Brock will cover proven tactical initiatives for flourishing partnerships, taking examples from the best cloud partners in the industry.
Sign up for this educational webinar now!
Hostway's upgraded Managed Private Cloud is coming early in Q1 2015, offering the isolation, versatility and assistance required for a worry-free virtualization experience.
This single-tenant virtual environment, running Windows Server 2012 R2 and utilizing the Windows Azure Pack, is hosted in Hostway's world-class data centers, providing increased scalability, lower overall costs and freedom to micromanage your VMs – or leave the details to us.
Hostway’s expert engineers configure your highly customizable system based on your specific requirements. Access to the Windows Azure Pack (WAP) interface gives you whatever functionalities you need from it. Hostway provisions your managed private cloud, creating or closing virtual machines at your request. Backups and basic monitoring are included, with virtual private network (VPN) service also available.
Benefits of Managed Private Cloud
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Use, Then Close: Spin down VMs, migrate workloads when requirements change – ideal for test environments.
Remote Management: The hypervisor’s separate management layer enables you to control your VMs remotely if your operating system stalls.
Basic Monitoring: Server metrics (RAM, CPU, HDD) tracking and ping testing included.
What Sets our Private Cloud Apart?
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Miss our first Cloud Connex demo? Never fear! Hostway's back for another run-through on our private label reselling platform.
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Join us December 11 for a free demo of the platform. Walk through a live version of the platform to learn how Cloud Connex can provide a new recurring revenue stream.
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Customers find their preferred vendors and service providers through a range of avenues, including brand-focused marketing and organic online searches. While some businesses treat these efforts as two separate entities, brand marketing and search engine optimization become much more impactful when they are aligned.
Web presence solutions provider Conductor found that paid searches result in 6 percent of consumer traffic, whereas 47 percent comes from organic searches. Through a combination of these efforts, both sides can be optimized. Ray Comstock of BusinessOnline, who specializes in aligning SEO and marketing, noted that when these aspects are treated separately, businesses are missing out on considerable opportunities.
"Our goal for any campaign is to better align as many marketing channels as possible with SEO best practices in order to better leverage all of these marketing activities from an organic search perspective," Comstock wrote in a post for Search Engine Watch.
Here are a few best practices for coordinating marketing and SEO strategies:
1) The use of regular and long-tail keywords
Using similar keywords and key phrases within both SEO and marketing content presents a unified message across platforms and better aligns these efforts. When choosing these words and phrases, decision-makers should consider what their target audience submits to search engines and what points will lead them to the brand. While singular keywords are important, Synecore contributor Kevin Page recommended focusing on long-tail phrases, as these constitute as much as 70 percent of all search terms. Page also advised utilizing these items strategically, and not stuffing keywords and phrases where they don't organically fit or belong.
"You should determine your long-tail keywords in the same way as you choose your regular keywords and include them within the text of your content, ALT text, meta descriptions [and] subheads," Page wrote. "Best of all, develop content around long-tail keywords that aligns with your products or services. This sets up your company to become a solution to your prospects' problems."
2) Leverage internal links
Organizations can take their keywords and phrases a step further by utilizing internal links to the company's top landing pages.
"Internal links are hyperlinks that send users to another page on your website or blog to ensure visitors stay longer on your site, while exposing them to more relevant and interesting content your company has created," Page noted.
Links can be included wherever keywords and long-tail phrases are used, including within digital marketing campaigns, blog posts, news releases and other business-focused content. As with keywords, internal links should not be overused. Too many key phrases and links can appear spammy and over-promotional.
3) Social media SEO and marketing
Comstock also advised leveraging social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a company blog for both SEO and marketing purposes. This platform can help "extend messaging, promote content, and engage our target audience" through thought leadership that includes a focused, keyword-centered theme. To take this to the next step, a brand can utilize its social media page to support and encourage readership of its digital content. For instance, if an enterprise leader writes a particularly thoughtful and engaging blog post that includes strategic keywords, the business can promote and link to the post on its Facebook page. This will lead existing and potential customers through the business's different channels, from its social media page to its blog and eventually to its landing pages.
4) Internal training and communication
In order to underscore these efforts, Comstock recommended including this focus within the firm's internal communications to ensure everyone is on the same page. Furthermore, specific training on SEO and marketing can help build a unified team and empower all employees to contribute to the strategy. Comstock suggested training key staff members in keyword research and usage, web page and public relations optimization, social media and search engine optimization best practices, as well as internal linking strategies.
"By demystifying SEO across various groups within the company, we are able to align all of the groups against the goals and priorities of the SEO campaign," Comstock wrote.
5) Maintain a focus on end-user needs
Within this approach, company leaders should ensure that there is always a prime focus on providing for end-user needs, recommended Search Engine Land contributor Jim Yu. By using these demands to frame and govern both marketing and SEO strategies, the organization can be sure it is creating and offering content that matters to its customers.
"Optimizing content for search … has a massive impact on the value of your content while, at the same time, increasing productivity and efficiency of the SEO and content teams," Yu wrote. "This is in addition to the most important wins: greater outcomes for your business and a better experience for your visitors."
With these strategies in mind, your company can present a coherent message. Your SEO and marketing will sing in harmony.
When you build your own website, there are a number of essential factors to consider. These are not limited to the brand messaging, products or services to be featured and other content included on the platform. However, if the website is not optimized for search engines, users will have a very hard time finding – let alone visiting – the page.
For this reason, it is incredibly important that e-commerce firms, as well as businesses in every industry, pay close attention to their online presence. Understanding how Google finds and ranks your website in its search results can make all the difference. Taking this a step further with content marketing specifically geared for search engine optimization is a smart move that every company should consider.
First things first: Googlebot
Before the optimization process can begin, business leaders and website administrators must have a clear understanding of the steps taken by Google to examine and rank the website. Google uses three strategies for its search: crawling, indexing and serving.
Best practices for SEO
Armed with an in-depth understanding of how Googlebot works, website administrators can then utilize certain best practices to ensure that their pages are optimized for high search result rankings. These include:
The holiday shopping season is just around the corner and there are a number of things retailers should do to prepare. One aspect many companies still need to address is the range of payment options customers will seek to utilize as they purchase gifts.
Although Google Wallet has been around for some time, its popularity is on the rise thanks to similar emerging technologies. One such system is Apple Pay, the new digital wallet feature included on Apple's recently released iOS 8. Tech Times contributor Nicole Arce noted that Google Wallet, an Android mobile payment system, was first on the market, but didn't see the mass utilization many were hoping for. This may change as Apple's new technology heralds an age of widespread consumer use of mobile payment systems.
"[C]onsidering Apple's influence and track record of changing consumer behavior, Apple Pay could finally make secure mobile payments more mainstream," Arce wrote.
With the holiday season quickly approaching, retailers need to be aware of these emerging technologies, how they work and what it will mean for their business. Let's take a look at two of the most popular systems today: Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
The basics: Google Wallet
According to Google, the company's mobile payment option is a secure way to pay for goods and services. It can also be used to send money to recipients both online and within brick-and-mortar stores. The system features Google Wallet Fraud Protection, encryption protection, and can be remotely disabled should the app or physical card linked with the account be lost or stolen. The program also includes a four-digit PIN used to unlock the application and send funds. Users can also benefit from the system's notifications, which alert both the sender and receiver when money is transmitted.
The basics: Apple Pay
Apple Pay is comparable to Google Wallet in that it allows for transactions online and in physical retail locations. Apple Pay also features a range of security measures to ensure protected financial transfers, including using the Find My iPhone app to suspend the program or completely wipe the device. However, as opposed to Google Wallet's PIN system, Apple Pay enables users to utilize the phone's Touch ID biometrics system, as opposed to just a passcode.
The technology behind digital wallets
Both Apple Pay and Google Wallet leverage near-field communication technology to function. This allows device owners to simply hold the NFC antenna their phone is equipped with near a retailers' contactless reader to make a purchase. Currently, a number of companies accept NFC payments, including restaurant chains like McDonald's and Subway, retail stores like Foot Locker and Macy's and drug stores like Walgreens. As this type of payment option becomes increasingly popular other businesses are very likely to begin to accept it as well. However, they will have to equip their websites and physical stores with the necessary hardware and e-commerce software solutions to allow for this type of payment.
The potential for a secure alternative
Tech CheatSheet contributor Nathanael Arnold noted that it will likely be worth merchants' time and effort to allow NFC payments of this kind, as they present a more secure alternative to debit and credit cards. Especially in the wake of the numerous security breaches that took place during last year's holiday season, consumers are exercising more caution than ever this year.
In fact, a survey from CreditCards.com found that 45 percent of the 865 respondents said they would "definitely or probably" not shop with retailers that have been the victims of data breaches. In addition, 16 percent said they "definitely would not return" to a hacked retailer.
As many breaches in the past involved the theft of payment card numbers via infiltrations of point-of-sales systems, NFC technologies could provide peace of mind for careful consumers. Arnold pointed out that despite some glitches with the rollout of the system – including Bank of America customers being double charged when using Apple Pay – the security potential could bring increased profits for retailers this holiday season.
"A few technical hiccups during the launch of new payment system[s] is to be expected, and they are fairly inconsequential compared to the peace of mind that Apple Pay's security features could offer to consumers who are worried about having their card data revealed by hackers this holiday shopping season," Arnold wrote.
Modern businesses simply cannot do without the applications that keep processes humming along. These programs can encompass a whole host of operations – from inventory and supply chains to client relationship management – but each app needs the proper support.
When decision-makers examine their options for hosting applications, whether in-house or outsourced to a service provider, several considerations should guide their choice. Because applications play such a critical role in today's business processes, factoring in these key aspects is absolutely critical.
1. Current and future storage needs
With application hosting, one of the first factors is how much storage the company will need for its programs both now and in the future. TechTarget contributor Kackie Cohen noted that administrators should ask themselves a few key questions to get an accurate outlook on storage requirements:
Answering these queries can help companies ensure that they have enough space in place, and are not paying for unneeded or unnecessary resources.
2. The level of control
This is an especially important issue, particularly with outsourced application hosting. When a vendor provides this service, they are also responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the system and the content living there. Mike Maguire, ConvergEx Group managing director of global communications, noted that it is essential that decision-makers understand just what level of control they will have within an outsourced application hosting environment.
"[Y]ou may not have control over maintenance schedules and the like," Maguire wrote. "Make sure you choose a provider who can be flexible given your business requirements."
3. Disaster recovery and business continuity requirements
Businesses should also look into the business continuity plan for disasters or events that might interrupt services. Administrators should have a scheduled backup plan in place with their service provider to ensure that, in these kinds of instances, they will have access to the most up-to-date content possible. Cohen also recommended asking what the process is if the vendor's data center is totally unusable or inaccessible and what the continuity plan would be in such a case.
"Define what is expected to be backed up, how often and when," Cohen advised. "Include files, databases and BCVs. Don't forget to determine how many snaps a day are required for each BCV, and when snaps stored to disk are to be moved to tape."
4. Security needs and protocols
It is also important to note that certain applications, depending on the information they house or are able to access, will have different security requirements. Programs containing lists of client information, for example, should be properly safeguarded to prevent any unauthorized access or data leakage. For this reason, administrators should also consider the security protocols in place within the hosting environment. This is particularly critical with an outsourced provider as decision-makers must make sure that the vendor has protection measures that fit the business's requirements.
5. A complete picture of availability
A hosted application is only useful as long as it is available. Due to this fact, company leaders must also factor in the availability of the environment and any chances of downtime that might be incurred. Cohen recommended looking into every aspect connected with uptime to ensure a complete picture of service availability.
"Key performance indicators are great, but only if they show what is important to you," Cohen noted. "Be sure you define all areas of availability that are important to your organization, including not only the overall level of availability but the core hours during which availability is required."
6. Help desk support
In the event that service is down or users run into another issue with their hosted applications, the company should be sure that they have support resources that they can turn to. The business should identify who is able to call the help desk and who they should notify to report a problem.
With these issues addressed for each potential solution, businesses should be able to make well-informed decisions on housing their applications.
Our website series, “Get Found. Get Followed: Building an Online Audience for Your Business,” concludes Tuesday with its second segment, "Using SoMoLo Strategies to Capture Business." We know that marketing your company online can be daunting when you’re busy running every aspect of your business. We want to equip you with the tools to get the job done efficiently.
Part 2 covers the purpose, uses and techniques of SoMoLo Marketing – the Social, Mobile and Local elements that go into driving traffic. The integration of these strategies is no longer an option but a necessity for SMB success. Learn how to develop a following on social media, what evolving mobile technologies offer for marketing and e-commerce efforts, and draw and target consumers near your physical location.
Register now for this event!