Web Design
Essential Elements of an Effective Small Business Website
October 23, 2024 by in Web Design

So here’s the thing: small businesses need to provide their users with a relevant online experience if they want to continue to attract and engage their audiences online. Do you know why? This is because the average website user is busy and easily distracted. This is why business owners must incorporate modern website design principles into their websites.

You may wonder, what key objective does this achieve?

Well, first, it creates a good user experience and keeps the website ahead of the competition while connecting them directly to their customer base through social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Without mincing words, it is common for small business owners to get confused because they need a website that generates leads and sales, but have little or no experience in web design and business. If you’re not a web design professional, that’s okay. In fact, most small business owners are not, which is why they work with a professional web development company like Slinky Web Design.

Every small business website should include several important elements in its web design strategy, and it’s helpful to familiarise yourself with the dos and don’ts. This will ensure that the website you create is suitable for your business. Read More

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Content Management Systems
Why WordPress is Better Than Other CMS Solutions
June 6, 2024 by in Content Management Systems

There is a whole lot of planning that goes into building a new website, whether for personal branding or for your business. First, you must consider things like what the right target audience for your project would be interested in and how to attract that interest.

But you also have to make other necessary technical decisions about the project. One such decision is which content management system (CMS) to opt for.

There are a lot of CMS platforms around. WordPress takes the largest share of the market as the most popular CMS platform. For context, over 2 million websites – more than 60% of the world’s total websites – are powered by WordPress.

The other CMS platforms, including Drupal, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, and Joomla, have to fight amongst themselves for the remaining 40% market share. Isn’t that huge?

You are probably wondering why WordPress is such a popular choice for website owners. You’ll learn about the reasons in this article. Let’s start by understanding what a CMS platform is all about.

What is a Content Management System?

Some people see a Content Management System as a platform used for publishing, organizing, and editing text and media on websites. While this definition is correct, it is a limited description. Read More

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The Importance Of Maintenance For Your Bridal Website
Bridal Websites
The Importance Of Maintenance For Your Bridal Website
August 23, 2023 by in Bridal Websites

As we live in the internet age, it is a safe assumption that your bridal business has a website. How effective that website is in attracting visitors, who in turn become prospects and ultimately clients, will depend on many factors. The first will be how much traffic the website gets via organic means, such as SEO or paid traffic programs, such as Pay Per Click on Google or Facebook, for example.

Once traffic reaches your website, it is a matter of how well it has been designed. A well-designed website will keep visitors there for a reasonable amount of time, will also be easy to navigate, and will ultimately have clear calls to action, such as telephoning your business or entering details such as a name and an email address.

Conversely, a poorly designed website causes visitors to leave almost immediately and confusion due to no clear navigational menus. It will also have unclear or no calls to action and possibly malfunction due to a technical or coding issue. This last problem can be the death knell for a website’s performance and in particular, its ranking on Google. The tragedy is that technical issues and other problems can so easily be avoided if only website maintenance was in place. Read More

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5 Web Design Tips For Creating The Best Landing Pages For Your Landscaping Website
Landscaping Websites
5 Web Design Tips For Creating The Best Landing Pages For Your Landscaping Website
August 14, 2023 by in Landscaping Websites

Landscaping business owners may have heard the term ‘landing page’ when discussing their current website or a new website a web design agency has been asked to create. Whichever of those two scenarios apply to you, it is important, not only that your website has one or more landing pages, but that they are effective.

If you have never heard of the term landing page before, they are a simple, single page on a website that visitors land on from another website or search engine. What can be troublesome is getting them to perform, and that will come down to how well each of the five web design tips below is implemented when your landing page is created. But, before we outline them here is a quick summary of why a landing page is beneficial to your landscaping business.

#1 – Encourages visitors to provide email addresses or telephone numbers and permission for you to contact them.

#2 – Can spur visitors to click through to another page within your website.

#3 – Can provoke visitors to decide they wish to make a purchase.

#4 – Can encourage visitors to take actions such as leaving a review or feedback.

#5 – Can induce visitors to recommend your website and the services offered therein to others. Read More

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15 Essential Plugins You Should Install For Your WordPress Website Today
WordPress
15 Essential Plugins You Should Install For Your WordPress Website Today
July 15, 2023 by in WordPress

WordPress is the #1 CMS used to build websites for several reasons, including its ease of use and the vast array of themes that can be used to make every website built using WordPress unique. However, most users find the most helpful element of WordPress to be plugins.

Plugins are an app or software that can be added to a WordPress website that provides additional features and functionality. They can add this functionality either in the back end to make building and managing the WordPress site easier, or they can add it to the front end to benefit visitors to that website.

One slight problem, although some might say this is positive, is that there are so many plugins to choose from, and not all of them have the high levels of reliability that you want for your website. Thankfully, a core number of plugins have proved themselves, and today are some of the most installed plugins on WordPress, with many web designers considering them essential when designing a WordPress website.

To ensure you are aware of them, we have outlined fifteen essential plugins below, briefly explaining what each of them does. Note they are not necessarily in order of importance. Read More

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