Monthly Archives: March 2019

6 Best WordPress Themes for This Year

WordPress

WordPress is considered the most popular content management system in the world, and with over thousands of WordPress themes available, it is challenging for the novices to find the most suitable theme for them. Also, many different individual WordPress themes fit all kinds of user requirement. You can use this type of multipurpose WordPress theme for building a website of any niche.

The theme is the backbone of any website development project. Having the right theme in hand can play a vital role in determining the success of a website building project. As mentioned, there are numerous WordPress themes and having a clear idea about the most popular from them is beneficial for the developer. Discussed below are the 6 most popular WordPress themes that are going to rule this year.

Divi – Multipurpose WordPress Theme:

Divi is considered one of the best among multipurpose WordPress themes available in the market. Developed by Elegant Themes, the world leader in WordPress theme development industry, Divi comes with premium membership plan that enables you to access all their plugins by paying for only one theme. Divi contains very easy to use modules, drag and drop design feature, predefined layouts, etc. Also, the theme comes with custom CSS panel which makes it unconditionally faster way to design high quality and modern website in no time. Divi has its library, in which you can save your custom layout for future use.

Ultra – Flexible WordPress Theme:

Ultra is perhaps the most flexible WordPress themes created by Themify. This theme uses some drag and drop tool, and you can create any website in no time just by using its powerful drag and drop tool. Ultra is available with a demo website setup that contains built-in designs in terms of settings, content tool, menus, widgets, and others. Also, Ultra theme comes with a unique library of predefined layouts and various landing pages. Professional designers create all these designs. Once you activate the primary theme, you will be asked to choose any one of the available pre-installed layouts. This is an optional choice, and once the demo content is imported, you can make changes in the content whenever required.

Beaver Builder – Web Page Builder Plugin:

Beaver Builder is not a WordPress theme, it is a website builder plugin, and it works with any WordPress theme. It is one of the best page builder tools available for WordPress website development. With this plugin, the developer can create a website in part by part. Once you are determined with the use of this Beaver Builder plugin, you can utilize this tool for any layout you want.

Another important thing that comes with Beaver Builder is that it is available with numerous unique page templates to choose from. Developing a website by using Beaver Builder is almost like an instant job. Pages created with Beaver Builder are 100% responsive, which means the pages will look good in all devices.

Astra – Customizable WordPress Theme:

It is a high customizable WordPress theme available in the market place. You can find numerous demo websites in this theme, and you can launch a prebuilt site by using these demo setups in just a minute. Once the initial set up is complete, you can then sit back in relax and customize the website look according to your preferences. Apart from these, many other features make Astra an inevitable choice for most web developers. With Astra, you can get the scope to remove the page title and sidebar if required. Moreover, this theme is compatible with any favorite page builder tool like Beaver Builder.

Avada – Best Selling WordPress Theme:

Avada is a multi-purpose WordPress theme that comes with 200+ predesigned website templates as well as 40+ preinstalled demo website setups. ThemeFusion is the company that created the Avada theme. It was first introduced in 2012, and as of now, it has over 15,000 active customers all over the world. Since it comes with literally unlimited design options, you can create and design any style without the need for multipurpose themes. All pages created with Avada theme is 100% responsive, and it appears fine in smaller screens as well.

Shoppe – Multipurpose WooCommerce Theme:

Shoppe is mainly used as a unique tool to build a professional looking e-commerce website instantly without applying much effort. Like many other WordPress themes available in the industry, Shoppe also includes the drag and drop feature, and you can also implement many different eCommerce website features like shopping cart, lightbox, search box, zoom image, etc. Although it is available with 50+ prebuilt website design layouts, they are especially suitable for WooCommerce. This type of theme could be the right choice for you if you are new to this field and want to start an online store.

An Age-Old Conundrum: Do Good Logos Need to Look Good?

Logos

Your business logo needs to be simple, distinctive, and good enough to convey a unique message. However, what makes a good logo? Do good logos always need to look good? How to differentiate between a good logo and a lousy logo? The specialist logo designers have made their mark doing that. Also, there is go-to-guide for the logo designers that help them create a standard logo design for their clients. However, according to industry experts, a good logo not necessarily needs to look good. The most important thing is how much the logo matters at all and what quality the logo has that it can affect a company’s marketing lineup.

In today’s online marketplace, where millions of logo design companies are boasting of creating great logo designs, it is confusing to choose someone who can help you create the most professional logo that stands out. Before you go for such a professional logo design company to draft the design for your business website, you must check out in-depth guide as to how to design a great logo that looks ‘good’ and at the same time feels ‘good.’

Use a Double Visual Effect:

Some of the best logos in the industry utilize a technique of creating a visual double effect. This is the technique to use two overly fancy images combined into one through a tricky interpretation of the central concept or idea. Logos made by using this technique always come out as clever and memorable. Your potential visitors love to experience this type of duel mind game that you are displaying through your logo.

Color is Vital:

The beauty of a logo depends on its color. The color palette is the most important consideration for designing a good logo. Color signifies important messages and communicates business ideas. There are times when you have to choose colors according to your brand, but other times you have full freedom to explore different colors. The color you want for your logo should bring life to the design. Remember a good logo is not always need to be ‘good’ and colorful in appearance. It will still act its purpose well even when designed black and white. When it comes to choosing a color for a logo, going simple is always the key. There are many examples of good logos that are designed in black or any single color version. This would be a bit tricky, but it is possible if designed by an experienced designer.

Don’t Follow the Old Trends:

Each year, new design concept comes and goes away. Some good design trend that was great in the last year may look cliché this year. Therefore, do your research first on the latest design trends and design your logos accordingly. There is no use of repeating the same design concept again and again as people will never accept a design concept which has become cliché because of repeated applications. It is always a good idea to design according to what you have thought up yourself rather than using anyone else’s opinion. People hate seeing the same design concept used by several companies.

Use Custom Fonts:

Typography plays a vital role in determining the aesthetic beauty of your logo. There is almost nothing that can give your logo a unique feeling than custom typography. Very often you will see logos that are designed with a simple font. These types of logos are fine, but there is no harm in trying different typeface to check which font looks the best in your logo. Using custom font is especially important when you have hired the professional logo designers to draft the logo design for you. Custom fonts make sure that your logo becomes unique and stands out in the crowd.

Let People know what it means:

There is a story behind every successful logo design. Beyond that overwhelming colors and typography, there is a profound message that every logo wants to convey. Be careful not to be overly complicated so that people find it difficult to understand the hidden meaning. Try to include a ‘clue’ that helps people understand the hidden message that you are trying to convey. Regardless of its shape, color and typography, the logo design should show its client how much thought and ideas went into the design process.

5 Features Your Landing Page Should Have

Landing Page

A landing page is considered the essential element for generating high quality leads for a business. However, it is often overlooked, or most companies don’t utilize this marketing tool enough. In most cases, the website owners give more importance to the home page as it is the first place where visitors first land. Studies say that websites with landing pages can convert more than the sites with no landing pages. Therefore a landing page is crucial for any business as it offers a targeted platform for converting a higher percentage of visitors into targeted leads. A well-built landing page may have 10-15% conversion rate on an average.

This is reasons modern marketers have started to give too much emphasis on creating a unique landing page to driver targeted leads. Landing pages are being used in all types of marketing campaigns including email marketing, social media, Google AdWords, Facebook ads, and others. The idea behind this is to send targeted traffic to a specific location conveying the right messages to each potential customer.

Are you still wondering what to put in your landing to make it more unique and improve the conversion rate? Mentioned below are the five most important features every landing page should have:

Bold Headlines & CTAs:

A landing page must contain attention-grabbing bold headlines and sub-headline. This is something that connects with your readers; therefore you need to take time in creating an enticing but unique headline. The headlines should be followed by a brief description of what is being offered by you and at least one relevant image or a video. There should be important Call to Actions (CTA) through the page to capture customer’s information. Apart from that, you can include a form at the above the fold section (the portion of the page that your visitors can see without further scrolling down) of the landing page to capture user’s information.

Business USP:

Once the above the fold section is appropriately designed, the next step that you need to highlight in your landing page is your Unique Selling Propositions (USP). For example, you need to explicitly tell people about what your business is and why you are different from the competitors. This should be carefully communicated on your landing page so that visitors find it beneficial to go for your service/products, rather than looking for anywhere else. An excellent way to describe this section is to use bullet points rather than long and dull descriptions.

Visual Representation of Your Service/Products:

People love to view rather than read. Therefore, you need to include some visual representation of your business on your landing page. This will help your visitors to understand better what your business is all about and how your service could be beneficial for them. The idea behind using graphical representation in your landing page is to get your visitors a chance to place themselves in a similar scenario and visualize how they are using the same service or product. Choose high-quality pictures relevant to your service or product. Also, you can also include a video that describes your service or product. This is especially important when you are selling a physical product.

Proof of Company Credibility:

Online marketing is entirely based on credibility and the best way to show your company credibility is to show what people are saying about your business. It is important to include a couple of your customer testimonials. You can also add a testimonial video to illustrate that other people have purchased what you are offering and are happy with your service. Visitors are more likely to convert into real customers when they see that other people have used your product before or are satisfied with your service.

Closing Argument:

You should have a final chance to communicate the benefit of your service before your customers finally leave your landing page. Therefore, include something catchy and bold statement as your landing page comes to close. This gives visitors a short reminder about what they have visualized in the entire landing page and your primary value proposition. Similar to the above the fold section, the closing argument should also be included with a couple of call to actions.

10 Reasons Why You Should Switch from Wix to WordPress?

Wix to WordPress

A website is the face of a business. Business owners invest money and time in designing a great website not only to market their products or service but to create an online platform which can be a perfect alternative to their brick and mortar store. Websites today are more professional and build in such a way so that they can give competition to others.

If you a non-technical person and prefer to hire professional web designers to create your website, there are many factors that you need to keep in mind. For example, choosing the right content management system (CMS) for your website is essential. Creating a visually appealing website is fine, but when it comes to select the right CMS, you should be more careful as you may need to upload/remove new contents in the long run.

While WordPress and Wix are both considered as the most popular CMS for professional websites, there are differences between the two. For example, the ease of use of WordPress can easily make it the better choice over Wix. Apart from that, there are many other reasons why you need to switch from Wix to WordPress.

WordPress is a Self-hosted Platform:

The self-hosting nature of WordPress platform gives it a uniqueness. With WordPress, you have the right to choose your own hosting company and run your website in the same. You also have the right to switch between the web hosting service providers according to your wish. On the contrary, to run a website on Wix, you must choose it to host your website as well. This means you have to stick with only one hosting forever. Therefore, if in case you feel that your website is running slowly due to the poor hosting, you cannot just go for another one and transfer your website’s data to another hosting service provider.

WordPress is the Most Popular CMS:

WordPress is the most popular CMS and mostly used in the world. Therefore, you will have countless opportunities and online support to help you if in case you need assistance to manage your WordPress website.

Open Sources Platform:

WordPress is an open source platform, which gives you the chance to access its codes more frequently and use your theme, plug-ins etc. This gives you an overwhelming ability to customise your website according to your wish. On the other hand, Wix only has some limited number of tools and apps, created by their team, and you can integrate Wix tools into their website builder.

Unlimited Free Themes and Theme Modification:

With WordPress, you can have the opportunity to choose from an infinite number of free themes to design your website. Besides, there are premium themes that you can purchase as well. Also, the themes can be modified and adjusted according to your design requirements. When it comes to building a website with Wix, you will have more than 400 templates to choose from. However, none of them is customizable, meaning you cannot modify the code or make any specific changes to the design.

Unlimited Plug-ins:

Similar to the themes, you can have access to unlimited number of free plugins in WordPress. Also, WordPress gives you the ability to create your own plug-ins and customise an existing plug-in according to the requirement. Unlike WordPress plug-ins, Wix offers self-made apps to manage their website, but there are a lot less to choose from.

Better Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

WordPress gives you a chance to optimise your website according to the latest SEO parameters. WordPress website is very SEO friendly with numerous SEO features in it. You can use WordPress plugins to add meta descriptions to your pages, analytics, search console code and others. However, Wix offers minimal SEO features.

Heaven for the Bloggers:

If you are a blogger, WordPress is a heaven for you. WordPress was initially launched as a platform for blogging. Creating a blog post is very easy in WordPress, and even the non-technical users can publish their blogs as quickly as writing a story in a notepad.

WordPress is More Affordable:

When it comes to the cost of building a WordPress website, it is more affordable than any other platform. With WordPress, you have to pay for the initial set up of your domain, plus there is an ongoing hosting fee. After that, you can freely run your website by using the free themes, plug-ins available to you.

Wix offers a free website builder tool, but it comes with too many advertisements, which you cannot remove. Also, Wix doesn’t give you control over the domain name. While many of the Wix apps are free, you will have some limitations of use if you don’t upgrade the same to the premium version.

Ownership Rights:

The most pathetic thing is that Wix doesn’t let you own your website, domain content and hosting, unlike the WordPress, which is a self-hosted platform and gives you the ownership for all content you upload in your website.

WordPress Community & Support:

If you need help or support, you can quickly look for the WordPress community, which is full of experienced web developers, who are ready to assist you. However, with Wix, you will always need to go to Wix.com for any assistance.