The world of search engine optimization was born with all sorts of different hacks and shortcuts that many people use in an effort to grow their business.

This becomes evident as soon as you do a Google search about anything SEO-related, only to find pages and more pages replete with blog posts and videos disclosing all the tips and tricks you “need to know” in order to achieve the best SEO results, in the fastest way possible.

Knowing effective SEO tricks would be incredibly profitable, but unfortunately it’s not that easy.

In its essence, SEO isn’t about hacks, shortcuts, and hidden optimizations, but rather about resource allocation. Keep reading to learn why!

Be Careful About Over-Reliance on Hacks

Before we start talking about resources, it’s important to understand why the quick and easy SEO hacks we’ve all read about online aren’t as reliable as they might seem.

The reality is that yes, there are some traditional hacks and optimization tactics that many people swear by. However, SEO has become way too competitive for these hacks to still work.

Think about it: anyone can learn about these hacks and shortcuts in a matter of seconds, which means that anyone can use them, which means that they’re not going to help your website stand out. By way of example, when thinking about keyword usage, many websites simply decide to put them everywhere on their website, without actually planning and strategizing. Perhaps years ago, doing so would lead to excellent results, but that’s not the case anymore.

What I want to go over, and what I mean with this article, is that when developing your SEO plan, you should think less about hacks, and try to focus on strategy and resources instead.

As tempting as they might be, most SEO hacks won’t really go that far.

What does go far are those strategies and resource allocation decisions, which you can master as long as you know three things:

• Who your competitors are;
• What you have;
• and What strengths you can double down on.

Base Your SEO Strategies on Your Business’s Resources

So, SEO is about resource allocation – we know that now…but what exactly does that mean?

Well, this logic is based on something you might have heard of before, and that is the three pillars of SEO.

As a refresher, everything in SEO revolves around three pillars:

• Link building and referring domains;
• Content development and content marketing;
• Technical SEO.

Many businesses have a limited digital marketing budget and, as if that wasn’t enough, their SEO budget tends to be even more restricted.

This means that we can’t try every hack out there or do every campaign we can come up with, hoping it will lead to positive results. On the contrary, it means we need to be methodical and understand which strategies have the most potential and are actually worth exploring.

In summary, there’s one big challenge that every SEO team and company experiences, and that is the limitation of resources versus possible operations, and that leads us to a question: what mix of SEO pillars will give us a good shot at ranking high and surpassing our competitors?

Develop Your SEO Strategies Based on Your Inherent Strengths

The mistake that a lot of business owners make after reading SEO articles or hearing about amazing case studies is that they try and copy the strategies they learned about, from beginning to end.

However, contextually, each case study or article could refer to a strategy that was specifically optimized for a different type of business.

So, although copying what other successful businesses can work in certain situations when speaking about SEO, it’s best to borrow ideas and use the ones that fit your inherent strengths.

Based on the pillars of SEO that we discussed earlier, there are three strong points that a company can have:

If You Have a Strong Network…

Some businesses don’t have the resources to create an in-house content development team or outsource writing services.

However, they have another strong suit, which lies in their ability to go out into their community, speak, and be heard. They can do this because they have built a strong network over the years and, in cases like this, what we often do is use a backlinking approach.

When working with businesses that have a strong community presence, go out and double down on their network. Pitch their relevant contacts for guest speakership and guest posts, building thought leadership, while also driving links to their website.

If You’re Not That Popular But Are Good With Words…

Right now, some of you might be thinking: “Yeah, well, that’s easy when you’ve built the exposure, but not all of us are lucky enough to be well-known”.

Listen, I get it, we’ve all been in that position.

For clients and businesses that feel like they don’t have the brand equity or exposure to develop a strong backlinking strategy, opt for another route, and invest much more on content (and/or technical SEO, see below).

If the client has a team who’s ready to put its head down and get to work, then focus on producing a lot of content for their website.

Ultimately, the goal is to build a content library that is thorough and expansive, and that provides the client with more opportunities for keyword rankings, while also reinforcing the relevance of their website for those specific SEO keywords.

If Technical Knowledge is Your Forte…

You may not like (or have time) to write and you may not have a strong community presence, but if you have advanced technical skills and the ability to create a strong website quickly, then there’s another approach you can take.

This leads us into the third pillar of SEO: technical SEO.

This solution is indicated for technical teams that can create large websites, databases and user experiences in no time, and it is typically adopted by tech startups that are trying to create an app that provides user value.

First and foremost, winning at technical SEO requires strong technical skills that will allow you to build the web assets that you need, but that’s not all. It also requires you to understand how you can double down on these skills and manage large websites in the rather complex Google ecosystem.

So you need, for example, to know how you can get Google to notice and properly index the new pages you create on your website, even if you already have 100,000 pre-existing pages.

Or to ensure that each of your new pages is properly optimized for the best keywords.

Needless to say, using technical SEO does become a complex operation. However, when done right, it can lead your SEO to grow by sheer size, with the hopes that certain relevant keywords will start to rank for your business naturally.

Conclusion: Your Strategy Will Probably Be a Combination of the Three Pillars

When it comes to SEO, honing in on your strengths and accepting the fact that you can’t do everything is definitely the way to go.

When you’re running an SEO campaign, you should always focus on what you’re good at, know your resources, and augment what you already master – and that will put you in the right direction.

By focusing your resources on any of the pillars of SEO (or even a mix of them), you substantially increase your chances of achieving long-term success, which will not happen if you go for hacks and shortcuts instead.

A long-term, highly-organized, resource-allocated SEO strategy won’t only guarantee continuous success, but it can ultimately become self-sustaining, meaning that it will allow you to keep growing and growing, becoming an organic part of your marketing plan.

I’ve seen a lot of people try SEO hacks for two weeks, only to realize that they didn’t work and that their efforts had been in vain.

It’s unfortunate because by doing so, you’re turning your back on a marketing channel that is very valuable to a lot of people, and these hacks trick people into thinking it’ll be overnight.

So remember, resource allocation over hacks and shortcuts!

Source

2020 has introduced many of us to the idea of working from home.

While it’s absolutely not for everyone, this extended period of remote working has got the gears turning in some people’s heads. They’re considering doing this full time, or perhaps even starting their own business they can run from home.

Home businesses are nothing new, but there’s never been a better time to start your own. New digital tools and a number of guides on how to maximize your garage office has made the idea of following their dreams from the comfort of their own home more accessible than ever to the average Joe.

But how do you ensure that dream doesn’t die out? In this article, we’ll cover what makes a great long-term home business, ensuring your bedroom operation has staying power, and won’t have you scurrying back to the office with your tail between your legs by the end of the year.

An affordable idea

First and foremost, a great home business idea needs to be affordable and slot into your pre-existing life with little hassle.

A home business shouldn’t force you to restructure your home, put yourself at financial risk, or make your living space one full of delivery boxes and servers. Running a home business requires you to put greater attention towards a healthy work-life divide. You should be able to work without throwing your entire routine out the window.

Yes, there will be times you’ll have to spend the whole weekend fixing your website or stay up late to accept a last-minute product delivery — but it’s important you never go overboard with both spending and time commitments.

This is why business models such as dropshipping have become so popular in recent years. They take all the fuss and logistical issues out of running an ecommerce store. There may not be a direct comparison for your home business idea, but there will be ways to digitize your business to save space and reduce its impact on your life.

Great tools at your disposal

It’s said a great artist never blames their tools, but you can’t start much of a home business without the right equipment.

Home businesses are usually digital businesses — they focus on solving problems with machines or providing a creative or technical skill. These roles are hard to do properly without the best (or most comfortable) gear you can find.

However, these tools can often be quite costly. That’s why it’s usually best to use a provider such as cloud solution distributor inty.com or all-encompassing accounting software systems such as xero.com, as their packages include a number of essential tools in one you’d only end up paying for more individually anyway.

No matter what industry you’re in there are a number of tools you’re going to need. Here are just a few:

• Social media management (Facebook ads, customer service)
• Digital communications (Video conferences, internal messaging services)
• Content creation (High-quality graphics, grammar editing)

All of these will help prepare your business for expansion, keep it competitive, and ultimately save you time and frustration.

Strong understanding of the web

In today’s digital world, being a business owner requires a strong understanding of the internet.

You don’t need to be a technical wizard or understand the ins and outs of advertising through Facebook, but it’s crucial you have your finger on the pulse of digital trends and are willing to embrace new developments online.

If your business can’t speak the language of the internet or find an audience on these ever-popular digital platforms, it won’t get very far.

In the early days of your home business, make sure you have an understanding of basic digital marketing and commit to thorough audience research. When you’re the only person working for the business it can be difficult to balance multiple tasks, but this is perhaps the most crucial time investment you will make outside of your actual work. Google advertising, email marketing, and social media content will be the backbone of any efforts to attract clients, appeal to customers, and build your brand (and increasingly important part of running a small business online, as this hubspot.com guide explains).

Likewise, you need to have your finger on the pulse of great web design. Think of your website as the center of your business. It’s your backroom office and storefront at the same time. Your website is everything anyone needs to know about your business. It’s important you understand how to help it rank organically for important keywords, create a user-friendly experience that guides first-time visitors exactly where they want to go, and provides a secure experience that won’t put their personal data and information at risk

Consider researching how to promote yourself online, use some tools such as Google Trends to get a picture of your audience and the conversation around your sector, and start networking with other home brands that might prove to be interesting collaborators in the future.

A business plan with room for growth

If you want to ensure your business survives in the long-term, stick to your business plan.

Sure, it’s tempting to veer off track and expand into a new service or put money down on a new advertising scheme if you start to find some unexpected success, but it’s crucial to stick to the plan you set for yourself at the beginning of your remote working journey.

Slight tweaks can help your business capitalize on untapped markets and explore new profitable avenues, but you should predominantly look to stay on the path you set for yourself at the beginning.

However, it’s important that within this plan you have room for growth — and growth that fits your desire to keep working from home.

Home business growth takes into account whether or not you want to be in an office space a couple of days a week, how you’ll approach bringing in new staff as you expand, and generally how you can upscale a business while continuing to hold board meetings in your pajamas.

A long-term home business plan should have room for slight adaptations but should put your working goals ahead of all else. If you want to keep operating out of your bedroom you should put that goal at the center of your operations. Ensure you have the tools and research to back up your ideas and you’ll be set for the long-term.

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Photo by manny PANTOJA on Unsplash
Creator, Rodney Laws; Check out his reviews on EcommercePlatforms.io and you’ll find practical tips that you can use to build the best online store for your business. Connect with him on Twitter @EcomPlatformsio

Every day 45% of the human population is on social media. To put that into perspective, that’s 3.5 billion active users using social media channels. The pandemic is another reason that more people turned to social media with Tik Tok having a great piece of the pie.

People spend around 3 hours a day on social media on average.

Facebook is the market leader in this race with Youtube and WhatsApp being relatively close.

As you may understand, marketers focus a lot of their time on these platforms and spend a lot of resources to make sure that they are up to date with every little change. Not having a social media marketing plan as a brand jeopardizes your company’s longevity nowadays.

But how do you even start with social media and content marketing?

To start with we will try to understand why you need a content marketing strategy and then we will explore some actionable social media content marketing tips that can get you ahead of the competition.

What is content marketing in 2020?

Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to increase your brand’s awareness and at the end of the day your revenue. When a company spends huge amounts of money on marketing they want to see the return on investment.

The problem is that as the internet evolves, more and more content is online, and social media platforms become saturated. This creates the illusion that your content is not good or that content marketing is wrong for your company.

In fact, the answer is that content marketing is extremely competitive in 2020 and as a marketer, you will have to invest a lot more energy into creating pieces of content that stand out in social media.

Fun fact: A lot of people think that paid advertising for example is more effective than SEO, blogging, email marketing or social media marketing. This makes paid advertising the most overrated marketing tactic.

Although there are many strategies out there that can help a business grow, whether you are a shoe company, a toy manufacturer, there is a content marketing strategy that can improve your ROI.

So, how do we get rid of all the noise out there?

Here comes the action part so let’s start with tips about social media marketing.

7 Ways to Dominate Content Marketing with Social Media

The photo below shows the optimal journey that people do when engaging with your content. The truth is that this is the simple version of the situation which exists in a perfect world.

So, to close the gap between the perfect and the real world, let’s see what we can do from our standpoint.

1. Set Goals and Objectives

A strong campaign needs clear goals and objectives. It is essential that the marketing team should spend some time on what they want to achieve.

Goals are there when you want to determine if your tactics are working or not, so having a plan from the beginning is vital.

I know that goal setting is probably not a new tip for your team but you have to understand what I mean.

Every goal you set as a team needs to be extremely specific. Instead of saying “ we will increase engagement” you should manifest “we will increase engagement by 5% in 2 months”.

This attention to detail and organization is what will set you apart from other marketing teams. Write them down and refer to them regularly. Recent research showed that you could increase your campaigns’ chances of success by 30% by documenting your goals.

Yes, I am thinking the same. Let’s create some more goals, please!

2. Find Your Ideal Audience and Connect

Targeting the right audience is not always easy. Many marketing teams fail in this task because they lack essential data.

Having in mind your buyer persona can drastically improve the success of your social media marketing campaigns.

Learn about your audience’s pain points, behaviors, and interests and structure your campaigns based on this information.

So, how can you better understand your audience?

I got you covered on this.

• Survey your customers using emails, questionnaires, and quizzes.
• Find your target audience on forums and take part in conversations.
• Engage with your customers on your social media channels through the comments section.
• Take a look at demographics.

Once you have all the information for your target audience, start creating content to help them.

Also, try to engage with them consistently to make adjustments to your strategies. Probably, the most effective ways to engage with your audience are the following:

• Take advantage of the Retweet on Twitter.
• Find similar target audiences on Facebook Groups and engage.
• Use your Facebook business page and reply to the comments.
• Share content from users that tagged your brand

3. Focus on Producing Valuable Content

Creating great content doesn’t sound like a great tip but I am here to give you some ideas to improve your next posts.

Content is the key element of every social media marketing campaign.

As a brand, you need to ensure that you offer to your potential customers as much value as possible.

But, there is a catch. Every social media channel has different characteristics and thus your audience is seeking different kinds of content.

Copying and pasting the same piece of content across all channels will not get you far. Your team has to dive deep into what content works best in each platform, analyze the competition and THEN create.

Add visual interest to your content with interesting photos, fonts, infographics, or even videos.

Many companies are exploring the power of creating courses that are a massive bonus in providing valuable content.

Focus on these kinds of content and see what suits your brand best and how your audience engages with each type. Analyze the results and then pivot to your most successful pieces.

4. Leverage Social Media Trends.

Social media trends come and go and have the power to skyrocket your campaigns. Learning how to find and follow trending topics is a must. Take advantage of them, and create engaging pieces of content by including top hashtags.

With trends you have to become part of a group that is fully engaged with the theme just like going to a party. You will have to understand what topics you should post about and overall what to create.

There are a lot of trends that are completely different from each other. Some of these hashtags are #motivationalMonday, #icebucketchallenge ,or #pinkoctober. As a brand, you don’t have to follow every single one of them but you have to make sure that you leverage the trends that are valuable for the culture of your brand.

High-performing hashtags like those have the power to increase your social media and brand visibility, so take advantage of them.

5. Live Videos are crucial for growth

Video content is an effective way to share your brand’s story with your audience and build a relationship with them.

People love stories, behind the scenes and for that reason video content marketing is the way to go. Open your favorite platform and upload on a video your values while also portray a “behind the scenes” experience at your company.

The potential is even higher when it comes to live video. Instant feedback and opportunities for interaction create a more engaging product that help viewers have a closer connection with your brand.

Another great advantage of live video is the sense of community that your viewers are feeling when participating in your brand’s videos.

A great way to improve the customer experience while also creating strong bonds that ultimately help to increase conversions in the long run.

Live videos don’t have to scare you. There is a diversity of approaches you can go for such as:

• go behind-the-scenes of your production process
• portray workplace culture and collaboration procedures
• company events

Live video can create a lot of possibilities for your brand, so don’t waste more time and implement this strategy in your arsenal, TODAY.

6. Create Facebook Groups

We covered a lot until now but all these tips are ineffective unless they reach the right audience.

Groups can help you foster a community sense and build a better relationship with your audience. Facebook Groups can create new networking opportunities and expand the reach of your company.

You can engage in Facebook Groups by sharing customer testimonials, answering questions, and organizing webinars or Facebook events to improve customer interaction with your brand.

Here are some additional benefits of Facebook Groups:

• Promoting new content to a targeted audience.
• Growing your email list.
• Understand your audience’s needs better.
• Increasing your website’s traffic.

7. Use Promotions and Retargeting Ads

As we mentioned earlier, great content can have a massive impact on your brand awareness—but if your audience isn’t there to engage, you will not see great results.

That’s where advertisement comes into play.

Promoting your content is crucial if you are a brand. The marketing world is saturated and advertisements are there to give you some extra push.

Facebook Ads Manager is an excellent tool for that reason. It enables to target users based on interests, behaviors, demographics and more.

Run one or two Facebook ad campaigns, and try to analyze the results to see whether your ad works. For more advanced users, make sure to set up the Facebook Pixel to gather more data about your campaigns.

Facebook Pixel is a great way to start maximizing the impact of your ad budget. But how can you do that?

The pixel gathers information when someone clicks on your ads and gives you feedback that can help you create your ideal buyer persona.

Campaign after campaign you have all the information you need to create more targeted content while also having the ideal audience which is interested in your product or service.

Keep in mind that a great campaign should have great visuals and a strong call-to-action to make the users take action.

Many companies are sharing testimonials as part of their promotional campaigns as it creates the necessary social proof to help potential customers convert.

At the beginning don’t go all-in with the promotional campaigns. Start small and work your way up when you are comfortable with the platform and have a better understanding of your audience.

The takeaway

Social media marketing is becoming more and more sophisticated and there are not as many opportunities as it used to be. In this dynamic landscape, brands have to make sure that they follow the best strategies to get ahead of the game.

With the right content marketing strategy, you can meet your objectives and benefit from a more engaged audience.

Keep in mind that changes need to be applied gradually. Avoid implementing all the tips at once. Instead take your time to analyze the best tips that should work for your company and add one after the other in your arsenal.

This is part of understanding which of these content marketing tips is helping you achieve your goals, and which don’t work for your brand.

Keep in mind that social media is about consistency and patience, so test and pivot towards the tactics that work for you and your brand.

Let me know in the comment section, which of these tips will you try first? Until the next one…

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Creator, Alex is a content writer at Moosend,
Find out more on LinkedIn.

If you work in higher education marketing, you understand just how integral your content strategy is for reaching your target audience.

Your content strategy includes any marketing material that you create, including your website, email communications, and more. It’s what promotes your school to prospective students, delivers relevant updates, presents campus opportunities to current students and employees, and provides resources to alumni.

With coronavirus still disrupting universities during this school year and pushing many to remote learning, it’s a good idea to take a look at your current content strategy to ensure you’re doing all you can to maximize opportunities and serve your constituents.

After all, societal norms seem to be changing daily, with some schools having to pivot to remote learning at a moment’s notice. Without on-campus resources informing students of university opportunities or in-person tours to show prospects what your school offers, it can be difficult to connect with your various audiences and provide necessary resources.

This is why your higher education content strategy is more important than ever— it ensures that everyone stays informed and educated.

Here at OmniUpdate, we understand how critical your school’s website is— and how essential it has become to marketing and recruitment. To help universities better engage their communities, we’ve compiled the following tactics to boost your higher education content strategy:

1. Understand the needs of your audience.
2. Utilize multiple communication channels.
3. Prioritize accessibility and compliance.

A great content strategy should accurately represent your school while providing value to your college or university’s audience. Ready to learn more? Let’s begin.

1. Understand the needs of your audience.

As you already know, your higher education institution serves many different people. The school’s achievements and progress act as a thought leader for other university professionals, provide resources for those who are interested in your school, and aim to educate students through classes and other opportunities.

With people turning to your school for different reasons, your university content strategy has to reflect these differences. How can you create a content strategy that provides genuine value to your entire audience?

To answer this question, let’s explore the common types of people who engage with your university, what their needs might be, and how your content can serve them:

• Potential students. Without the opportunity to offer on-campus tours, your university is likely limited to mailing brochures, updating website content, and emailing prospective students more than ever. Your higher education content strategy should keep this in mind and offer additional ways for interested students to connect with your school. For instance, you could post a virtual campus tour on your website with interviews of current students to help prospects better familiarize themselves with your institution.
• Current students. Whether you decide to continue remote learning or offer a hybrid of in-person and live classes, there will be a greater emphasis on your university’s online community. Who knows whether in-person events and engagements will be possible at all, so prioritizing digital marketing is crucial. Form your content strategy with this in mind. Advertise ways for students to get engaged virtually through social media or include online articles with top tips on how to make the best of the college experience from home within email newsletters.
• Alumni. Alumni often reach out to their alma mater in order to connect with others, give back, and explore alumni events. Make sure your content strategy reflects that, especially on your website and email communications. Create dedicated web pages for alumni networking, online donations, and event registration. Within your communications, advertise these resources clearly, linking to the appropriate page within the content.

Each group (and any others your university serves) should have a personalized content strategy. This is especially important for prospective students. Even if they applied to your school and were accepted, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll attend. Presenting your school’s strengths in a compelling way online can be the deciding factor.

One of the best ways to reach your entire audience at once is with your website. Your university website is the central hub of your online presence. Organize content targeting your audience segments within the navigation menu and include dropdowns for different audiences such as students, alumni, and parents. The better you understand your audience, the easier it is to create your higher education content strategy.

2. Utilize multiple communication channels.

For any organization, a dedicated and comprehensive marketing strategy will utilize multiple channels to engage the appropriate audiences. The same ideology applies to your higher education content.

Universities exist to serve several purposes for a variety of audiences. In the last section, we discussed how each audience deserves their own targeted content strategy in order to provide optimal value and meet their needs. However, the way you share that content with your audience is important too.

You likely depend on your university website as the hub of your content strategy. But, depending solely on your website to deliver your content isn’t the most efficient method, especially if you want to reach constituents quickly or leave room for feedback. Consider the additional marketing channels:

• Email. Email reaches a wide number of people. To ensure your email content stays personal, segment your recipients by notable traits, for example, whether they’re prospective students or alumni. After all, these different groups shouldn’t be receiving the same content. Use email to send monthly newsletters, update constituents on upcoming events, remind students of certain deadlines, and announce other mass communications.
• Social media. Some surveys say that 90% of teens ages 13-17 use social media, with about 51% checking their accounts daily. Maximize these popular media channels, and you could even consider asking a team of current students to run it. For instance, you may use Instagram to generate excitement for an upcoming football game with pictures of players or the mascot.
• Text message. Text messages reach people in a quick and efficient manner. Research shows that text message open rates are as high as 98%, compared to just 20% of all emails. However, not everyone will want to receive text messages from your university. A good idea is to create text subscription lists that users can opt into. This way, people can choose whether or not to receive texts. It’s a good idea to still instill campus-wide alerts though, like for urgent weather warnings.
• Direct mail. Direct mail is one of the most traditional marketing channels for university content. It’s a great way to reach prospective students as well as keep alumni updated on events and engagement opportunities. However, direct mail can be costly and detrimental to the environment, so be judicious with the content you send via mail. Ask your audience what they would prefer, and if they would rather not receive direct mail, make sure to note that.

Now that you know the benefits of different marketing channels, which ones are best for which targeted content strategy?

For starters, take a look at the users who are already active. Within your university database, refer to reports and data trends to pinpoint which audiences frequent which marketing channel. According to Accudata, data-based marketing is one of the best ways to create targeted content that effectively reaches your audience. You may find that parents tend to check email and your website more often while current students engage with your school’s Instagram posts for pertinent events.

3. Prioritize web accessibility and ADA compliance.

As you’re taking steps to optimize your current higher education content strategy, you’ll likely be creating more digital content and making plans to increase your online presence. The last thing you don’t want to forget during this time is your content’s accessibility and ADA compliance:

1. Web accessibility ensures there are no barriers to accessing content for people with physical disabilities, situational disabilities, and even socio-economic restrictions like bandwidth limitations.
2. ADA compliance refers to how compliant your website is with Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This act declares websites as “places of public accommodation” to ensure that websites uphold their accessibility standards. Failure to comply with- ADA standards on your website could result in legal action.

It’s crucial that you create an accessible strategy for all higher education content. Maintaining accessibility throughout all possible content, including your remote learning resources, is highly beneficial and ensures that you engage with your audience.

Prioritizing accessibility and ADA compliance is even more important now, with your digital engagements likely currently acting as the core method through which you reach your audience. You don’t want to inadvertently turn a prospective student away simply because the content you created is hard to access.

Consider these quick ways to increase accessibility for your higher education content:

• Don’t overuse text.
• Avoid graphics with flashing lights.
• Include alternative text or captions for images and video.
• Compress large images to reduce load speed.
• Take advantage of multimedia.
• Ensure content is mobile-optimized.

While these are good tips to generally keep your content more accessible, it makes sense to conduct full audits or input your website into an accessibility checker like this one. For more guidance, check out Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.

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As the spring semester approaches, there is still a lot to consider in terms of how students experience campus life. That’s why your higher education content strategy is more important than ever. Make sure to create targeted content based on your specific audience. This way, you can better provide valuable information and engage with constituents in genuine, productive ways.

Use a well-designed content strategy to motivate prospective students to attend your school, keep current students updated with upcoming events and opportunities, and provide alumni with the resources they need. Good luck!

Want to create an amazing yet one-of-a-kind mobile application that grabs users’ attention? If yes, then you’re at the right place to question “HOW.” Discover some refreshing mobile app design practices that will surely help you to reap millions of downloads and skyrocket your sales funnel in 2020

What are the essential mobile app design practices to follow in 2020? Well, the final look of any product depends heavily on aspects like technology, the trendsetter in a particular industry, project requirements, business and user needs, and much more. It means predicting what will generally dominate each sector is not so easy as it seems since each business has its own set of rules.

Let’s take the example of Uber. It was one of the most dominant and early-adopter companies to embrace the public transport, cargo, and taxi-hailing service market. Soon, the other applications copied this solution. Trends and designs may vary depending upon the industry. It is worth following the larger companies because they often act as a trendsetter and dictate how the particular design and features will look.

This article will give you an overview of what mobile app design practices should be followed in 2020 and how future apps would look like. Maybe these design practices may help your app to become a trendsetter in this highly disrupting app market.

Why Mobile App Design Trends/Practices Are Essential?

Considering how jam-packed the app stores have become, it is quite challenging to build an app that effectively grabs the user’s attention. You don’t need to be a simplified interface; instead, you need to create something that’s not difficult to use, striking the right balance between design and usability in a positive way.

To maximize the benefits, it is essential to incorporate the latest technology in your UI/UX design practices. The system-centric app design has shifter to be human-centric. How well your app pleases and comforts consumers has become the primary agenda for app success regardless of how well it is built and the features it offers.

So, what are the best mobile app design practices to be followed in 2020 and onwards? Let’s get started.

Mobile App Design Practices You Can’t Afford to Miss Out In 2020

1. Dynamic and Functional Animations

Dynamic and functional animations play a crucial role in personalizing the user experience. It makes the conversation a two-sided affair and keeps the user engaged in the experience. Several ecommerce sites like Amazon have started adopting this animation by incorporating a 360-degree view of the products.

Even small and minor animation like icon popup upon a single tap or change in the title size while scrolling can improve user interaction and experience. Another trend that’s picking the pace in app design is personalized animation. Having mobile elements that behave exactly like your interaction is fantastic. The modern analytical algorithm also supports such personalized mobile elements.

2. Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality

AR and VR technologies are among the most current product design trends that are highly incorporated in mobile apps, especially in sectors like E-commerce, real estate, etc.

Let’s take an example of IKEA – one of the best smart home solutions that combine the latest AR technology to experience the specially curated collection within a tap. It allows users to visualize how a real place would look like their products and compels them to purchase the products.

Snapchat is such another example that emphasizes social distancing by introducing an AR-powered lens that allows users to measure 6 feet distance in a real-time scenario.

3. Voice Technology

Voice interfaces have already entered its footsteps in ecommerce and streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and much more. There are currently multiple voice control technologies available, such as Amazon Echo, Siri, and Google Assistant, to name a few.

Voice technology has made accessibility to the technology quite handy. It has allowed us to control our interfaces while multitasking, whether it’s cooking, walking, or driving.

Let’s take the example of Google Maps.

Google Maps allow free-hand control of the app. It let users allow using voice commands to drive safely while hitting the road. Users can make commands such as: “when’s my next turn?”, “How’s the traffic to office?”, “nearby Gas Station,” etc.

4. Reasonable Personalization

Personalization has become the critical factor of enterprises in various sectors. More than 90% of the top mobile app development companies and industries believe that providing highly personalized services is the topmost priority to engage your app in their lifestyle.

Let’s take an example of Spotify. The app is preparing personalized listings like Top songs 2018, Weekly mashup, Discover Weekly, Top 10 most listened to songs global, etc. The app allows discovering the new brands based on your song selection. The more users have a content based on their taste, the more likely they’re to associate your product with their lifestyle.

5. IoT and adaptable interfaces to different devices

The internet of things is a network of connected devices that exchange and interact information with each other. With the increasing popularity and the more diverse use cases, it will surely be one of the top trends in mobile app designs in 2020.

Let’s take the example of Apple. Its universal clipboard functionality shows how easy and comfortable it can be to use different devices through a shared, connected software. With Apple products, there is a singular environment shared across multiple devices, be its smartwatches, MacBooks, iPhones, or iPads.

These trends are expected to increase in almost every field and domain, giving you endless possibilities such as analysis, prediction, real-time communication, and responses. If your offline product isn’t compatible with any online technology, it’s high time to get started.

Key Takeaways of Mobile App Design Trends 2020

• Focus on real user demands and deliver problem-oriented solutions.
• Please pay close attention to the user experience since it can make or break the product.
• Incorporating AI will uplift your application to the next level and leverage unique functionalities in real-time scenarios.
• Dynamic and functional animations are the future. The smoother your interface, the more users are about to remain hooked with the app.
• Focus more on app personalization.

We hope that our list of mobile app design trends in 2020 will help you build a top-notch app product that your users would love to use.

Did we miss out on anything? Do you have something more valuable to share? We’d love to hear back more on design trends. Do let us know in the comments section below.

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Photo by Daniel Korpai on Unsplash

An age-old SEO tactic, link building is simply the process of getting other relevant sites to link back to your web pages. As a digital marketer, you are probably guilty of either undermining the importance of link building or putting it on the backburner assuming the process to be time-consuming and complex.

Well, it’s time you get rid of any such misapprehension as backlinking is more relevant today than it ever was. All good things take time and effort and building your backlinking strategy from scratch is no different. However, once you’ve set the ball rolling, you’re going to watch some of your critical content marketing and SEO metrics skyrocket like never before.

Don’t fret if you’re a little confused about the nitty-gritty of how exactly backlinking is useful. Allow us to break it down for you.

So, why is link building important?

Google algorithm considers it as a huge factor in determining your SERP ranking

Among several other important factors, Google uses backlinks as a major determinant in deciding the ranking of webpages. This essentially means that if your webpage has received a good amount of backlinks from multiple other relevant sites, you are likely to rank higher than your competitor that does not have any backlinks. In fact, as per the observations on Google algorithm’s ranking factors made by First Page Sage, 16% weight is given to backlinks.

Therefore, if you work on steadily building a network of backlinks for each of your critical web pages and blogs, they will rank way higher in SERP for your target keywords and drive much more organic traffic. You slowly get to improve your site’s discoverability without making any change in the content. Backlinks are simply an indicator for Google that a particular webpage has been referenced by multiple other authoritative sites, therefore it deserves a higher search ranking.

Another important thing to note here is that improving your search engine ranking is not merely a function of the volume of backlinks you receive, but also the quality of those backlinks. Quality of a backlink is determined by a plethora of factors including, the domain authority, relevancy, and credibility of the site you receive the backlink from, and the uniqueness of the anchor text.

Therefore, if you receive a backlink from a highly credible source (thought leader in the industry) with impressive authority, you are more likely to rank higher as opposed to one from a random site not relevant to your business. Let’s say if all other factors are the same between two pages, the quantity and quality of backlinks received can make a whole lot of difference in their Google ranks. Also, one backlink from a highly authoritative domain is worth more than several links from bad ones.

Backlinks improve your site’s credibility and authority

If various sites are linking out to your webpages, Google, as well as consumers, take it as a sign of high authority and credibility. You get established as a thought leader in the field if multiple other relevant sites consider you worthy enough to be linked in their content. You not only drive more referral traffic but also have higher chances of converting visitors who landed on your page from another credible source as they start considering you as an industry expert.

Think blogs like HubSpot or Neil Patel’s. One reason why they have the credibility and authority they do is that every second blog post on internet marketing links out to either of them. So, every time you come across a statistic that is sourced from either of these blogs, you are hardwired to believe that it’s accurate and trustworthy.

Backlinks are an indicator of the relevancy of your page’s content

No webpage or blog is going to link out to your content if it is outdated as it would only decrease their credibility. Therefore, backlinks are a clear indication that the content of your page is fresh and relevant till date. This especially works magically in case you receive a backlink for your blog post from 5 years ago. You now know that it stands relevant even today and if you monitor your analytics, you might even observe its ranking improve with an increase in the number of backlinks.

As a rule of thumb, you must revisit your previously published content and update it regularly so it has higher chances of being linked to as opposed to content that is once created and never updated or overhauled.

Now that we’ve discussed why backlinks are important, let’s also look at how you can create such powerful content that attracts backlinks.

How to get backlinks to your webpages

Create valuable, share-worthy content

While it sounds straightforward, it’s important to reiterate that your site content forms the foundation of your backlinking strategy. The kind of content you put out determines the quality of backlinks you attract and therefore, your primary focus must be on creating authoritative and share-worthy content. Make sure your blog posts are in-depth, cover a wide range of topics, and are based on primary as well as secondary research. If your posts don’t offer enough value, you cannot expect others to link out to you and so creating extremely high-quality, SEO-friendly content that ranks well on search engines will help you get discovered by those creating similar content and looking to quote or link to content from experts.

Taking inspiration from HubSpot, you can create your very own content checklist that you refer to for each post to ensure that it meets all quality standards and is share-worthy.

Enrich your content with data points and statistics

Needless to say, data points have higher chances of being picked up and quoted by other sites to back their content or opinions. Therefore, enriching your content with figures based on primary or secondary research will substantially improve the page’s chances of receiving a backlink. Make it a point to back your content with statistics and highlight them while sharing your blog posts on social media, to make it explicit that your posts are well-researched.

HubSpot often publishes posts that revolve only around stats, which makes them extremely shareable and snackable. Here’s an example:

Supplement your pages with appealing visuals

Enough has been said about the power of visuals in improving a page’s engagement or ease of content consumption. What is often ignored is that visuals are also high share-worthy. Marketers often look for detailed illustrations or graphics from high authority sites that they can reference for their own content, thereby giving your page a backlink. Experiment with alternate content formats such as infographics, charts, and graphs since they have extremely high chances of being linked back to as they contain data and are easily consumable.

Here’s an example of an infographic by Venngage that beautifully illustrates the topic:

Image Source

Therefore, wherever possible, make sure you include innovative and appealing visual elements in your pages and blog posts and also assign them proper Alt texts so they are easily discoverable via a Google image search.

Double down on list posts

Second, only to infographics, a study by BuzzSumo confirmed that list posts are one of the most shareable formats of content. This is most likely because list posts are easily digestible and evoke curiosity, while the title instantly reveals the time commitment required from readers. Think about it. Wouldn’t you be less inclined to read this blog post had it been titled ‘Why You Should Be Paying More Attention Towards Backlinking in 2020′? The number in the headline is a promise of something highly specific, which attracts readers owing to its predictability.

Therefore, make sure you include a decent number of list posts in your monthly content plan and share them extensively on social media.

Network aggressively on LinkedIn

Staying active and networking extensively with folks from your industry will ensure you are updated with the ongoings and never miss out on an opportunity to collaborate for link building activities. For instance, if you provide SEO services and notice someone in your network share a blog post on ‘Top SEO consultants to consider in 2020′, you can always send them a quick message suggesting they include your company’s name on their list.

Moreover, ensure you have a solid social media strategy at your disposal wherein you post and target each of your content pieces so they reach the right audiences and attract likely linkers.

Don’t shy away from cold reach out

Whether it is bloggers, journalists, or branded content creators, don’t hold back from reaching out to people who are likely to link back to your site. A simple Google search for your business’ relevant keywords will direct you towards these prospects.

Once done, you can dig up their email ids using tools such as Meerkat.link, Scrab.in and FindThatLead and send them personalized messages suggesting them to include your content in one of their pages or blogs and give you a backlink. The trick is to craft your email to ensure that you highlight the benefit they are going to receive by linking to your post. You could even go a step ahead and suggest a link exchange activity for mutual benefit wherein your page links back to one of their posts and vice versa.

Here’s an example of a simple cold email you can send out to receive mentions and backlinks from other blogs:

Finally, think of link building as a long term activity

Don’t be fooled into believing that you can reap the benefits of link building in a few weeks. Backlinking is a long-term goal that ensures your content remains relevant, fresh, and keeps driving traffic and conversions on your site. Backed by strong content marketing, social media, and distribution strategies, link building is not all that hard if you keep at it with perseverance and have an eye out for opportunities that might be lurking in plain sight.

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Photo by Stephen Phillips – Hostreviews.co.uk on Unsplash

You would think that hiding content with CSS is a straightforward and solved problem, but there are multiple solutions, each one being unique.

Developers most commonly use display: none to hide the content on the page. Unfortunately, this way of hiding content isn’t bulletproof because now that content is now “inaccessible” to screen readers. It’s tempting to use it, but especially in cases where something is only meant to be visually hidden, don’t reach for it.

The fact is that there are many ways to “hide” things in CSS, each with their pros and cons which greatly depend on how it’s being used. We’re going to review each technique here and cap things off with a summary that helps us decide which to use and when.

How to spot differences between the techniques

To see a difference between different ways of hiding content, we must introduce some metrics. Metrics that we’ll use to compare the methods. I decided to break that down by asking questions focused on four particular areas that affect layout, performance and accessibility:

1. Accessibility: Is the hidden content read by a screen reader?
2. Document flow: Will the hidden element affect the document layout?
3. Rendering: Will the hidden element’s box model be rendered?
4. Event triggers: Does the element detect clicks or focus?

Now that we have our criteria out of the way, let’s compare the methods. Again, we’ll put everything together at the end in a way that we can use it as a reference for making decisions when hiding things in CSS.

Method 1: The display property

We kicked off this post with a caution about using display to hide content. And as we established, using it to hide an element means that the element is not generated at all. It’s in the DOM, but never actually rendered.

The element will still show in the markup, if you inspect the page you will be able to see the element. The box model will not generate nor appear on the page, which also applies to all its children.

And what’s more, if the element has any event listeners — say a click or hover — they won’t register at all. And as we’ve discussed already, all the content will be ignored by screen readers. Here, we have two visible buttons and one hidden with display: none. All three buttons have click events but only the two visible buttons will render and register the clicks.

Display is the only property that will affect image request firing. If an image tag (or parent element) has a display property set to none either through inline CSS or by selector, the image will be downloaded. On the other hand, if the image is applied with a background property, it won’t be downloaded.

This is the case because the parser hasn’t applied the CSS when an HTML document is parsed and it encounters an tag. On the other hand, when we apply the image to an element with a background property, the image won’t be downloaded because the parser hasn’t applied the CSS where the image is called. This behavior is matched across all latest browsers. The only exception is IE 11, which will download images in both cases.

Metric	Result
Is the hidden content read by a screen reader?	?
Will the hidden element affect the document layout?	?
Will the hidden element’s box model be rendered?	?
Does the element detect clicks or focus?	?

Method 2: The visibility property

If an element’s visibility property is set to hidden, then the element is “visually hidden.” Being “visually hidden” sounds a lot like what display: none does, but it’s incredibly different in that the element is generated and rendered, but invisible. This means that the element’s box model is present, giving it dimensions that continue to occupy space on the screen even though it doesn’t appear to be there.

Imagine you’re wearing an invisible cloak that makes you invisible to others, but you are still able to bump into things. You’re physically there, even if you’re invisible to the human eye.

But that’s where the differences between “visually hidden” and “not displayed” end. In fact, elements hidden with visibility and display behave the same in terms of accessibility and event triggers. Invisible elements are inaccessible to screen readers and won’t register events, as we see in the following demo that’s exactly the same as the last example, but merely swaps display: none with visibility: hidden.

Metric	Result
Is the hidden content read by a screen reader?	?
Will the hidden element affect the document layout?	?
Will the hidden element’s box model be rendered?	?
Does the element detect clicks or focus?	?

Method 3: The opacity property

The opacity property only affects the visual aspect of the element. If we set an element’s opacity to zero, the element will be fully transparent. Again, it’s a lot like visibility: hidden where we’re draping an invisible cloak on the element where it’s invisible, but still physically present.

In other words, what we have is a hollow, transparent element that acts like any other element, only it’s invisible. Sounds a lot like the visibility method, right? The difference is that a fully transparent element is still accessible to a screen reader and can register events, like clicks, as we see in the following example.

Metric	Result
Is the hidden content read by a screen reader?	?
Will the hidden element affect the document layout?	?
Will the hidden element’s box model be rendered?	?
Does the element detect clicks or focus?	?

Method 4: The position property

Pushing an element off-screen with absolute positioning is another way developers often hide things. Using top and left, we can push the element so far off the screen that there’s no way it will ever be seen. It’s like hiding the cookie jar outside of the house so the kids (or maybe you!) can’t find them.

“Absolute” is the key word here. If we set position to absolute, an element is taken out of the document flow which is a way of saying it no longer adheres to its natural position in the DOM. In other words, the page doesn’t reserve any space for it, which knocks the element out of order visually, positioning it to it’s nearest positioned element if there is one, or the document root if nothing else.

We take advantage of absolute positioning by taking the “hidden” element out of the document flow and offsetting it toward the top-left with values of -9999px.

.hidden {
  position: absolute;
  top: -9999px;
  left: -9999px;
}

Metric	Effect
Is the hidden content read by a screen reader?	?
Will the hidden element affect the document layout?	?
Will the hidden element’s box model be rendered?	?
Does the element detect clicks or focus?	?

If the hidden element contains focusable content, the page will scroll to the element when it is in focus, creating a sudden jump.

Method 5: The “visually hidden” class

So far, the position method is the closest we’ve seen to an accessibility-friendly way to hide things in CSS. But the problem with focusable content causing sudden page jumps isn’t great. Another approach to accessible hiding combines absolute positioning, the clip property and hidden overflow. Scott O’Hara blogged it back in 2017.

.visually-hidden:not(:focus):not(:active) {
  clip: rect(0 0 0 0); 
  clip-path: inset(50%);
  height: 1px;
  overflow: hidden;
  position: absolute;
  white-space: nowrap; 
  width: 1px;
}

Let’s break that down.

We need to remove the element from the document flow. The best way to do this is by using position: absolute. This will remove the element, but we won’t push it off the screen.

.visually-hidden {
  position: absolute;
}

We can hide the element by setting the width and height property to zero. Unfortunately, that won’t work because some screen readers will ignore elements with zero width and height. What we can do is set it to the second-lowest value, 1px. That means the content will easily overflow the space, so we also need overflow: hidden to make sure it doesn’t visually spill over.

.visually-hidden {
  height: 1px;
  overflow: hidden;
  position: absolute;
  width: 1px;
}

To hide that one-pixel square, we can use the CSS clipping property. It is perfect for this situation, as it doesn’t affect screen readers. The content is there but, again, is visually hidden. The thing to note is that clip was deprecated in favor of clip-path but is still needed if we need to support older versions of Internet Explorer.

.visually-hidden {
  clip: rect(0 0 0 0);
  clip-path: inset(50%);
  height: 1px;
  overflow: hidden;
  position: absolute;
  width: 1px;
}

Another piece of the “visually hidden” class puzzle is to address smushed off-screen accessible text, an oddity that removes white-spacing between words, causing them to be read aloud like one big string of words. For example, “Welcome back home” will be read out as “Welcomebackhome.”

A simple solution to this problem is to set the white-space: nowrap:

.visually-hidden {
  clip: rect(0 0 0 0);
  clip-path: inset(50%);
  height: 1px;
  overflow: hidden;
  position: absolute;
  white-space: nowrap;
  width: 1px;
}

And, finally! The last thing to consider is to allow certain element with native focus and active sites to display when they are in focus, while continuing to prevent other elements, like paragraphs, from displaying. We can use the :not pseudo-selector for that.

.visually-hidden:not(:focus):not(:active) {
  clip: rect(0 0 0 0);
  clip-path: inset(50%);
  height: 1px;
  overflow: hidden;
  position: absolute;
  white-space: nowrap;
  width: 1px;
}

Metric	Result
Is the hidden content read by a screen reader?	?
Will the hidden element affect the document layout?	?
Will the hidden element’s box model be rendered?	?
Does the element detect clicks or focus?	?

Honorable mentions

There are even more methods than the five we’ve covered. For example, the text-indent property can push text off the screen like the position method:

.hidden {
  text-indent: -9999em;
}

Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t jive with RTL writing modes. That makes it less adaptable than other solutions we’ve covered.

Another method is using transform to scale or move the element out of the way. It works the same — visually only — like opacity.

.hidden {
  transform: scale(0);
}

Let’s put everything together!

We got to a solution that will visually hide content but still be accessible. Then, should you stop using display: none? No, this is still the best way to hide an element completely (visually and accessibly).

That said, It is worth mentioning that if you want to achieve an opposite result — hide something from the screen reader, the aria-hidden="true" attribute will hide the content from screen readers, but not visually.

With that, here is a complete table that compares all of the approaches. Use it to guide your decisions on how to hide content next time you find yourself in that situation.

Metric	Display	Visibility	Opacity	Position	Accessible Way
Is the hidden content read by a screen reader?	?	?	?	?	?
Will the hidden element affect the document layout?	?	?	?	?	?
Will the hidden element’s box model be rendered?	?	?	?	?	?
Does the element detect clicks or focus?	?	?	?	?	?

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The post Comparing Various Ways to Hide Things in CSS appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

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Landing pages are a must-have for every business today. It’s not a homepage of your website but a separate marketing tool to attract traffic and convert it into leads. You design a landing page to speed up the sale process when promoting a particular product or service.

A landing page is what explains and proves your awesomeness to website visitors. The goal is to provide them with information, get them interested in your offer, and encourage them to take action.

And that’s where you might hit a snag:

People come to your landing page, scroll through it, shrug shoulders, and… nothing! No registrations, orders, or subscriptions. They just go away.

How can it happen? You follow the latest design trends, add or remove text blocks, play page length, and employ A/B tests to find out what button color works better, don’t you?

But:

Do you pay enough attention to what exactly you write on that page?

Sales copywriting is what lets you communicate with a target audience successfully. Text content is your weapon to convince visitors that they are in the right place, encouraging them to buy from you.

In this post, you’ll learn some copywriting tricks to consider for your landing page to convert better.

1. Keep to a structure

Whether you write content for events, products, or services, its structure matters a lot. A landing page needs to include definite elements. More than that, these elements need to fall into a logical sequence so that visitors could move deeper into the page and take the desired action.

Your landing page should have:

• an eye-grabbing yet relevant headline and subhead
• an engaging picture, known as a hero image
• a clear selling proposition, revealing the features of your product/service in the context of its value for customers
• trust signals (social proof, customer reviews, etc.)
• a call to action and alternative ways to contact you

A well-structured landing page can help to increase conversions and sales by far. However, please keep in mind that a structure alone can’t do the magic: You need to know your target audience inside out, with all their pain points, and stick to a clear marketing goal when writing a text for your landing page.

2. Use neuro copywriting tricks in headlines and subheads

Professional copywriters know that their work is a mental process for the purpose of selling. In other words, they need to get inside people’s heads and find hooks that will ultimately engage readers and motivate them to act.

Known as neuro copywriting, this skill works with landing pages in the best way possible.

1. A headline grabs attention and encourages visitors to stay on a page to learn more. It needs to be short, up to a point, yet compelling enough. Active verbs, power words, and beneficial adjectives are your writing tools to use here for better results.
2. A subhead appears just below your headline and provides more details about what’s in there on the page. It needs to be concise yet descriptive and punchy. Subheads persuade visitors to keep on reading. Questions, quotes, odd numbers are neuro copywriting tricks to try here for a positive response.

3. Consider SEO

When writing a copy for your landing page, ensure to use words and word expressions your target customers type to Google search when looking for solutions your product/service can solve.

Please do keyword research and focus on those most relevant to your offer and marketing goals. Simultaneously, the keywords you’ll insert into a landing page copy need to match your prospects’ search intent.

Search intent is the why behind a query. Why do users do that search?

(Do they want to learn anything? Or, are they looking to buy a particular product? Or, maybe they aren’t sure what service to choose, so they look for reviews or comparisons?)

Not only will SEO-adaptive copy and design of your landing page attract potential customers, but it will also give higher ranks to your website in search engines. Giving users information that matches their search intent, you’ll influence the bounce rate and dwell time of your landing page.

4. Think of a hero image

Efficient landing pages are hard to imagine without images or any other visual content. No wonder:

Most people perceive information through pictures better than through words, and that’s why a leading image of your landing page can play a core role in their decision to stay and learn more.

Please pay particular attention to a banner picture of your landing page. Also known as a hero image, it builds the first impression of your website, grabs attention, and helps a visitor understand what your business is about.

It looks like this:

Ensure to choose a high-quality hero image that will be relevant to your selling proposition, fit the overall design of your page, and trigger positive emotions. Also, this image shouldn’t distract visitors from your CTA button.

Why do we call it a hero image? That’s because it demonstrates to users that they’ll benefit from working with us, and they’ll become heroes once they’ve made our desired action.

5. Craft a selling proposition

When writing a copy for your landing page, remember the 4 Cs copywriting formula: The text needs to be clear, concise, compelling, and credible. The first two characteristics are key here because visitors won’t spend a long time reading and guessing what you want from them.

To get things going, make your target offer clear and craft a straightforward explanation of all the features and benefits users will get from you. Use words with positive meaning, reveal what makes you different from others, and answer the “What’s in there for me?” question.

Writing tips here:

• Try to avoid the passive voice and too many adverbs, such as “very,” “actually,” “easily,” “obviously,” and so on.
• Say no to redundant pairs a la “each and every,” “first and foremost,” etc.
• Edit your copy without mercy, deleting all the redundant modifiers and determiners that may confuse readers or lead to your marketing message’s misinterpretation.

Your selling proposition needs to be unique and explain how it will solve a customer’s problem.

6. Provide an added value

An added value is some extra perk a user can get when choosing you. Human nature is so that most of us crave additional bonuses, emotions, and benefits from brands; so, why not provide them at your landing page for better conversion and customer retention?

Think of some reward for working with you: a discount, a free subscription to your extra features, a gift card, or any cute byproduct you can give to visitors who turn into your leads.

You can also come up with a lead magnet for their subscription: a free e-book, checklist, issue-related ultimate guide, etc.

7. Speak the same language with your targets

You write a landing page for potential customers, not college admission officers or editors of The New York Times. It’s often tempting to use professional slang or jargon in texts, but you need to know your target audience inside out and write so they would understand what you mean.

When writing, remember that you talk directly to customers. Use words that would resonate with them, driving them to explore your product or service. Avoid tech terms, unclear abbreviations, or any lexical items your targets may misinterpret.

8. Keep to the rules of UX writing

As I’ve already mentioned in one of my articles, UX writing is writing for users. While UX design helps them navigate a website, UX writing explains what and why to do and where to click, compelling visitors to take action.

So, make your landing page intuitive and straightforward. Please don’t overload it with too much info, buttons, images, and other visual elements. The text content of your landing page should be easy and comfortable to read.

• Write in short sentences and paragraphs.
• Avoid large text blocks.
• Choose the font type and size carefully. (Up to three different fonts is OK to use on one page.)
• Consider spacing before and after subheads.
• Remember about color-contrast ratio: Poor font and background color combinations make it exhausting for readers to consume the information.

9. Add trust signals

Trust signals are a core element of your landing page: People want to feel secure when doing business with you, so you need to provide them with signs that your brand is trustworthy.

Trust signals can take different forms: guarantees, testimonials, social proofs, badges, customer reviews, numbers, and so on. All they influence your landing page’s conversion rate, demonstrating to visitors that you’re worth trust and encouraging them to take action.

10. Remember about a call to action

All your landing page information serves to grab attention and reassure visitors that they need your offer. But it’s a call to action (CTA) that converts them into subscribers and customers. So you need to pay precise attention to its design and text.

Make sure your CTA stands out from the rest of the page elements. (Visitors should understand that it’s exactly where and what to do next.) Make this button big, of a different color, and with words or expressions that invite to click:

Active verbs describing what will happen after click (“Claim offer,” “Learn more,” “Download,” “Take a gift,” etc.) are great options to try.

11. Tell them how to contact you

According to Quality Evaluator Guidelines from Google, every online business needs to provide proof that it’s real. For that, please do your best to include several contact methods on your landing page: It can be a contact form, a physical address and phone numbers, social media buttons, and emails.

In the case of contact forms, please keep them short and ask for minimum info from users. While most of them are OK with sharing names and emails, they’ll hardly be happy to give you phone numbers, physical addresses, postcodes, and other personal stuff like this.

A great tool to increase loyalty and trust, attract, and retain users is a live chat option on your landing page. It stimulates visitors to communicate with a real person, ask all the questions they have, and make certain of their choice.

If you don’t have enough resources for live chats on landing pages, consider chatbots. Just make sure to choose a good one.

Final thoughts

Writing matters, but you never know what will influence your conversion rates most. That’s why please do your best to try different options and test your landing pages regularly.

Testing is what helps you choose the most convertible headlines, calls to action, selling propositions, and trust signals for your page. Remember to track its performance and optimize it accordingly for better lead generation and sales.

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Photo by Visual Design on Unsplash

Imagine this scenario: You get an email from the design team. It contains a link to a high-fidelity prototype of a React app they want you to build. You click the link and get ready to inspect the work only to find… the components have already been built.

Huh?

It might sound like a dream or wishful thinking, but that’s exactly what Anima 4.0 does. For years, Anima has worked to streamline the handoff between design and development, and with it’s latest update, designers are brought fully into the fold by turning designs into developer-friendly code.

Let’s repeat that again, but more specifically: Anima 4.0 lets you cherry-pick elements straight from a design and get fully written React components that just work.

The easiest design handoff ever

Anima isn’t your typical design-to-development workflow. It actually feels a little inaccurate to say that it facilitates handoffs because development is part of the process all along.

Consider what’s involved in a design handoff. Sure, it varies by organization, but they generally flow something like this:

• Design creates high-fidelity mockups.
• Design creates a package of the work, possibly including assets, like images and fonts.
• Design and development meet up and talk things out, possibly with an interactive prototype.
• Development gets started.
• Development demos the work.
• Design requests changes.
• Development makes those changes.
• And on and on…

With Anima 4.0, that process is more like this:

• Design creates code-based prototypes.
• Development works alongside, with the ability to reference prototypes, grab assets, generate code, and test things out.

So, what we have is less of a handoff and more of a productive and collaborative process that saves boatloads of time… and frustration to boot.

No more “How does this thing work?”

That’s probably the question I ask the most with any design handoff. Front-enders have to be aware of so many things and that often leads to lengthy meetings and numerous emails about how things are supposed to work.

• Where does this link to?
• Does this have an active state?
• Will this image be SVG?
• …you know how it goes

That’s where Anima shines. The deliverable is not just a flat design, but a fully interactive prototype. All of the links, states, assets, and anything else you can think of is right there for you to view and interact with, including animations and effects.

Oh, and if your design is responsive (which, of course, it is), it’s easy as cake to see how it behaves at any breakpoint, whether you’re using the integrated browser in the design application or in the Anima prototype.

Getting the responsiveness of a design down pat is probably one of the more time-consuming parts of a project. I’ve had so many back-and-forth discussions with designers that would have never happened if it was possible to test the design in a real browser during design in the design tooling that designers are probably already using, including Sketch, Figma and Adobe XD. And because Anima generates all the code, that would have saved a lot of my time trying to get the breakpoints just right. It would have also saved the designers time without having to document that behavior and answer all my questions.

No more “That’s not how it was designed!”

Not only do you have a prototype that realistically simulates a live site, but you get all the code you need! And no, this isn’t like the HTML and CSS generators you’ve probably seen in the past. Anima outputs extremely clean code, complete with semantic HTML elements and modern CSS features. Here’s the CSS I got from a quick design of a hero component I threw together:

@import url("https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/meyer-reset/2.0/reset.min.css");
.hero {
  background-color: transparent;
  flex-shrink: 0;
  height: 1037px;
  position: relative;
  width: 505px;
}
.hero-container {
  background-color: var(--royal-blue);
  height: 1024px;
  left: 0px;
  position: absolute;
  top: 0px;
  width: 505px;
}
.shape-circle {
  background-color: transparent;
  height: 444px;
  left: 283px;
  position: absolute;
  top: 593px;
  width: 222px;
}
.shape-dots {
  background-color: transparent;
  height: 646px;
  left: 43px;
  position: absolute;
  top: 189px;
  width: 418px;
}
.shape-triangle {
  background-color: transparent;
  height: 332px;
  left: 0px;
  position: absolute;
  top: 79px;
  width: 269px;
}
.video {
  background-color: transparent;
  height: 294px;
  left: 43px;
  overflow: hidden;
  position: absolute;
  top: 278px;
  width: 418px;
}
:root {
  --royal-blue: rgba(67,83,255,1.0);
}

Lots of precise numbers in there that normally would have taken some time-consuming guesswork. And those are class names and custom properties I can actually pronounce! Will I change any of that code? Maybe! But at least I was part of the process all along, and have a solid head start that I would have otherwise spent time writing myself.

But, the real gem here is that Anima 4.0 goes where no other platform has gone because it can…

Turn anything into a functional React component

All it took was a single click and here’s what I got:

import React from "react";

function App(props) {
  return (
    <div className={`hero ${props.className || ""}`}>
      <div className="hero-container"></div>
      <img
        className="shape-circle"
        src="https://anima-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/projects/5f8e220bdff56f27ee5b7cc7/releases/5f9082de53033dac763b4b6c/img/desktop-hd-learn-path-2-DC8E0494-121C-40B1-8AE1-3C8BEAC833A7.png"
      />
      <img
        className="shape-triangle"
        src="https://anima-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/projects/5f8e220bdff56f27ee5b7cc7/releases/5f9082de53033dac763b4b6c/img/desktop-hd-home-triangle2x-BA81FE1D-AE06-47A2-91D5-20EC51D5F0F8.png"
      />
      <img
        className="shape-dots"
        src="https://anima-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/projects/5f8e220bdff56f27ee5b7cc7/releases/5f9082de53033dac763b4b6c/img/desktop-hd-home-rectangle2x-4EFFE4A8-CAD1-47C7-A175-D3256F2E5124.png"
      />
      <div className="video">
        <iframe
          style="border: 0; pointer-events: auto;"
          id="ytplayer"
          type="text/html"
          width="100%"
          height="100%"
          src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rk71kS4cY7E?rel=0"
          frameborder="0"
          allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"
          mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen"
          msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen"
          oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen"
          webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen"
        ></iframe>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

This is real — and brand new in Anima 4.0! And I can do this with any element in the Anima interface. Select an element, mark it as a component, then generate the code.

You can expect the same for Vue and Angular in future releases.

Why this is a big deal

Perhaps it’s obvious by now, but I see tons of benefits from where I sit as a front-end developer. Getting HTML and CSS is great, but having a tool like this that integrates with modern frameworks and code practices is more than impressive — it’s a game-changer. There’s a lot less context switching and time spent on things that I’d rather spend doing better work (or getting started on the next project)!

Like many of you, I straddle the line between design and development and see how this fills a lot of the gaps on the design side of things as well. I can’t get over the in-app browser previews. All of the time spent design QA’ing responsive breakpoints instantly opens up when that stuff can be done at the point of design — not to mention the time saved with the code it generates.

Here’s a quick video of moving from Adobe XD to a real rendered React components in the browser:

Anima 4.0 is available… today

As in, it literally shipped today, October 27. In fact, there’s a virtual party happening and you’re invited. I’m told it’s going to be an epic geeky event with great folks, demos, and even gifts. Hope to see you there!

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I still think the Google-devised Core Web Vitals are smart. When I first got into caring about performance, it was all: reduce requests! cache things! Make stuff smaller! And while those are all very related to web performance, they are abstractly related. Actual web performance to users are things like how long did I have to wait to see the content on the page? How long until I can actually interact with the page, like type in a form or click a link? Did things obnoxiously jump around while I was trying to do something? That’s why Core Web Vitals are smart: they measure those things.

The Lighthouse Tab in Chrome DevTools has them now:

They are nice to keep an eye on, because remember, aside those numbers having a direct benefit for your users once they get to your site, they might affect users getting to your site at all. Web Core Vitals are factoring into SEO and for the new carousel requirements that were previously reserved only for AMP pages.

Tracking these numbers on one-off audits is useful, but more useful is watching them over time to protect yourself from slipping. Performance tooling like Calibre covers them. New Relic has got it. SpeedCurve tracks them.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is a tricky one. That’s the one where, say, the site has an advertisement at the top of an article. The request for that ad is asynchronous, so there is a good chance the ad comes in late and pushes the content of the article down. That’s not just annoying, but a real ding to performance metrics and, ultimately, SEO.

Nic Jansma’s “Cumulative Layout Shift in Practice” offers deep dive.

CLS isn’t just “does page do it or not?” There is a score, as that illustration above points out. I’d say 0 is a good goal as there is no version of CLS that is good for anybody. There is lots of nuance to this, like tracking it “synthetically” (e.g. in a headless browser, especially for performance tooling) and with real users on your real site (which is called RUM, or Real User Metrics). Both are useful.

If you’ve got CLS that you need to fight, that can be tricky. SpeedCurve has some new tooling that helps:

For each layout shift, we show you the filmstrip frame right before and right after the shift. We then draw a red box around the elements that moved, highlighting exactly which elements caused the shift. The Layout Shift Score for each shift also helps you understand the impact of that shift and how it adds to the cumulative score.

That would make it pretty easy to root out and fix, I’d hope. Particularly the tricky ones. I didn’t know this, but CLS can be caused by far more subtle things which Mark Zeman points out in the post. For example:

• An image carousel that only moves horizontally can trigger CLS. That feels like a bummer as that’s what they are supposed to do, but apparently, you can trick it by moving carousels only with CSS transform.
• If you have a very large area, that’s extra risky to move. If it moves just a smidge, it will affect CLS by a lot.
• Flash of Unstyled Text (FOUT) is a cause of CLS. Even though that’s good for performance for other reasons! Catch 22! It’s a good excuse to reach for perfect font fallbacks.

Tricky, yet important stuff. I really need to get performance tests into my CI/CD, which will really help with this. Feels more and more like web performance is a full-on career subgenre of web development. Front-end web developers really need to understand this stuff and help to some degree, but we’ve already got so much to do.

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