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How to Find a Good Web Design Company

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A key part of any business’s digital marketing strategy is its website. This is the place where people can find you online and where they can browse your goods or services. In addition, your website is key for connecting with consumers and helping to build a positive image around your brand. It is, therefore, essential to have a responsive, well-laid out website that delivers an outstanding user experience.

The best way to achieve this is by hiring a professional web design company. This sees professional designers use all their expertise and knowledge to build a top-notch website for your business. With a lot of web design companies on the market, however, how do you find a good one?

Recommendations from your network

Networking is key to modern business and it often comes in handy when searching for a good web design company. This makes perfect sense as it enables you to get a trusted opinion on who to use from people you know. It also sees you getting recommendations on who to use from those with first-hand experience of the service on offer. Of course, networking itself can also be a great way to find a good company to use. Whether it is online at places like LinkedIn or offline events, this allows you to get to know the company personally and suss out how good they are.

Search online

It is also worth heading online to find a good web design company. Running a search for web design firms in your area in any major search engine is a fast and easy way to find ones to consider. Once you have drawn up a list of potential candidates, remember to check out online reviews of them. This is wise because it enables you to see how good the service they offer really is and what previous customers think of them. It is also worth looking at the company’s own website to see how well designed it is and if you like the feel of it.

Local advertising

Going online is not the only way to find good web design companies to choose from. It also pays to keep an eye out for adverts in your local area. This may be advertising in local print media, flyers being handed out, adverts in shops or leaflets pushed through your letterbox. All of these are great ways to find good, local design companies to hire.

First-class web design services from Real Internet

At Real Internet, we offer affordable web design services to businesses in the Gloucestershire/South West UK area. As a professional web design company, our expert team have plenty of experience in building responsive, agile and attractive sites. Get in touch today on 01454 806570 to chat more about your project.

 

How to Design a WooCommerce Website

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A WooCommerce website is a great way to get started with your eCommerce journey – it is one of the most popular global eCommerce platforms, hosting multiple virtual storefronts. That popularity, however, means you need to know what will make your storefront stand out.

For that, you need to understand the basics of good web design.

What makes a good WooCommerce website?

There are several cores to every good website, and the same principles will apply to your WooCommerce site. The first is making sure your website is functional. A good looking storefront is no good if it’s impossible to navigate when customers land there. Mapping out the easiest

There are several cores to every good website, and the same principles will apply to your WooCommerce site. The first is making sure your website is functional. A good looking storefront is no good if it’s impossible to navigate when customers land there. Mapping out the easiest possible path between finding a product and checking out is one of the best things you can do to encourage future success.

With function taken care of, it’s time to think about the visual impact of your website. You want to make a statement, but remember that simplicity is the key to success. A simple website with well-chosen elements, images, fonts, and colour schemes will be far more eye-catching and memorable than a website that’s far too busy. An elegant website that is intuitive to navigate will always be successful.

How do you get started?

So now you understand the elements of a successful website, how do you get started with WooCommerce?

Consulting a professional web design agency to assist you can be an invaluable investment. Whether you want to consult with them for more in-depth ideas about how to design your WooCommerce website, or you want them to take the lead and design your storefront for you, you should strongly consider it.

You want your WooCommerce store to look as professional as possible, to encourage trust from your first-time customers. A website design company like Real Internet can help you – if you’re interested in learning more about what makes a great WooCommerce website, or to get started building yours, contact us today.

 

How to Achieve Responsive Web Design

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One of the biggest directions in digital marketing and website management is responsive web design. This is something that all brands and business owners need to be aware of, especially if they are hoping to attract online visitors, build engagement, and win those all-important conversions.

But what, exactly, is responsive web design?

Essentially, responsive web design is a tech-led, intuitive way of designing websites so that they integrate and work seamlessly with a host of other online technologies, across a range of different digital devices and interfaces. Why does that matter? Because your customers expect to have exciting, seamless, and fast online experiences that allow them to do what they want to do.

Remember too, that today’s online customers have varied needs and different preferences in the way that they interact with brands and spend money online. Many will go online via smartphones. Younger buyers, in particular, will expect to see products and services advertised on social media and then click to buy in just a couple of swipes. Others will want to use web chats to make bookings, find information rapidly, or switch between branded platforms to engage with a range of content.

Designing with different users in mind

Most digital devices are now touch screen enabled, so websites now need to be designed with mouse and touch screen users in mind. Responsive design means thinking about these aspects and adjusting the design accordingly. For example, drop-down menus are fine for mouse users but less so for touch screen users, hence the rise of single-page scrolling sites.

The rise of the fluid grid

Most web designers are now using fluid grids to achieve responsive design. These fluid grids intelligently scale website components for better sizing, which adjusts to every user’s screen. This prevents users from needing to zoom in and out. Users must be able to enjoy the same great experience on your website, whether they access it via a smartphone or desktop PC.

Achieving responsive web design

For better digital marketing, most businesses are now outsourcing their website design to a professional website design company that can deliver a responsively designed website that is future-proofed to integrate with all emerging technologies and to engage customers. Contact Real Internet to find out more about our excellent web design services that are designed to help businesses of all sizes enjoy better results from their digital assets. We provide affordable and adaptable websites, and cover the whole of the South West.

How to Write Content for Digital Marketing

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Much of your success in digital marketing will rely on a steady stream of web page updates, blogs, news items and social media posts; fresh, dynamic content that informs, educates, persuades and influences.

Here are a few tips on content to get you started. These form the basis of an effective content marketing strategy.

How to write content for digital marketing

1. Know your audience

Good content talks directly to your ideal customer. You need to drill down on your target audiences and their buying behaviours and preferences. What do they want to hear?

2. Reinforce your brand

Page visitors and social media browsers make their minds up about you in a split second. They won’t linger to read lots of flowery text or wade through endless scrolling images, so make your brand statements loud, clear and compelling. Tell them why they should buy from you, in a way they can appreciate instantly.

3. Look at your competitors

Evaluating your own content strategy against your main competitors should be a constant process. What are they saying and what imagery are they showing?

4. SEO matters!

Your content is the central pillar of Search Engine Optimisation. Keep track of what keywords and questions your customers use when searching for your products or services. Make sure to work those naturally into your copy, as ‘keyword stuffing’ detracts from your SEO and your credibility.

5. User experience (UX)

Carefully consider the best ways to improve the UX on your mobile responsive website and within your social media. For example, your text should be succinct and sum up your products and services in a clear way. Your images should be strong.

For eCommerce websites, pay particular attention to content and UX on payment pages. Make the process easy and reassuringly safe to use.

6. CTAs

Lastly, make your calls to action prominent and persuasive to encourage your customers to get in touch with you or make a purchase.

If you’re looking for web design services you can rely on, give us a call

How Long Does It Take to Design a Website?

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Creating a website from scratch can take days, weeks, or even months. With so many variables in the website development process, the time required varies from one project to another. While we cannot give you a definite answer of how long website creation takes, we will be sharing the four steps of website creation and will give you a rough estimate of how long it takes to design a website.

Planning process to design a website

Without proper planning, you will lose sight of your goals and end up creating a website that isn’t suitable for your business. Therefore, the first thing you should do when developing your website is gauge your needs and create a plan. Communicate your primary goals with your website developer and let them know the pages and functionality you want your site to have. The planning process for a standard website takes about one to two weeks.

Design process

Once you have a plan of action in place, it’s now time to start designing your website. At this stage, your web designer should give a mock-up of how your website will appear based on your requirements. If there are any changes that you want to be made, communicate them early before development begins. The design process can take anywhere between one to three weeks.

The development phase

In this next stage, your website developer takes all the information you’ve given them and turns it into a fully functional website. Your web designer should always keep you in the loop of the progress being made because you may wish to change a key part of your website once you see it in action. As expected, this stage takes longer to complete because changes take longer to make. In most cases, it takes at least one month to fully develop a standard website.

Final review

Before any website is officially finished, it must go through one final round of revisions. This is to ensure that it looks and works as you anticipated. If there are no major changes required, then this process should take no more than two weeks.

At Real Internet, we cover the entire web design process from initial design to build. If you are looking for a reliable website design company based in Gloucestershire, contact us today to speak to our team of experts.

 

How To Do Market Research For Digital Marketing

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Market research is used to generate a greater understanding of the existing market, including what your potential customers and clients are looking for. By collecting this research, you can refine and adjust your business to suit demand and boost success. Once you have determined your targeted demographic, you can also more easily set out a marketing strategy and create appropriate content or products that will reach your target audience. So, how should you conduct market research?

1. Take inspiration from leading experts

You can learn from industry leaders when conducting your market research. Researching global leaders or successful businesses in your field will be hugely advantageous to gaining inspiration for how to boost your own business. Explore what steps these businesses took when they were in their early stages, note what worked for them and what didn’t, and apply this to your own business. Many larger companies and corporations have published their market research, and this may be valuable for those trying to reach their desired audiences.

2. Be aware of your competition

Having an awareness of your competitors is important for ensuring your own business success. Sharing a target audience with other companies and businesses can be daunting, but an advantage to take from this is that you can judge your competitor’s reach to your targeted audience and learn from their mistakes and their successes. You can research the best strategies to take to maximise the awareness and presence of your business for your audience.

3. Maximise the potential of social media

Social media is such a dominant aspect of everyone’s everyday lives, which is why it should be utilised to the full to benefit your growing business. Ad campaigns across social media are one of the most successful ways to increase the awareness and presence of your business or brand. If you set up a Facebook business page, you can monitor the activity of your audience and use this to ensure you are reaching the right people with your product or service.

If you would like more information about how to conduct market research for digital marketing, contact our professionals at Real Internet for more information. Based in the South West of the UK, Real Internet specialises in website design to boost businesses.