The field of web development is constantly changing, so it’s essential to remain on top of recent trends and technologies. Especially if you want to stay competitive. The future of web development is full of possibilities as the twenty-first-century advances. 

This post will examine new trends and technologies that influence the future. We’ll dive deep into what’s next and what it means for programmers, companies, and consumers. We will cover everything from Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality to Progressive Web Applications and Serverless Architecture. 

So be ready to learn what the future holds for this sector, whether you’re an expert or just a newbie.

Web Development In The Digital Age

The value of web development resides in its capacity to provide a solid platform to connect with a worldwide audience. A company may have a robust online presence, draw in new clients, and expand thanks to a well-designed website. Also, web development has made it possible to construct several web-based apps that have changed how people interact.

Web development aids the democratization of information and facilitates knowledge and idea sharing. With the emergence of social media and online collaboration tools, web development has enabled people to communicate globally.

Web development will remain a vital component of the internet, and its ecosystem as the digital era develops. Emerging technologies and trends each with advantages and difficulties will impact the future of website development. Success in the digital era will depend on one’s capacity to adjust to these changes and take advantage of recent advancements.

The Technologies And Trends Ruling The Future Of Web Development

New technologies and trends often emerge in the realm of web development. These innovations and tendencies are changing how we create web apps, improving their effectiveness, engagement, and usability.

Web developers must keep up with the most recent developments in web development and incorporate new technologies and trends to remain competitive in the digital era.

The following are some of the new trends and technologies that are influencing how we develop websites in the future:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artifartificial intelligence (AI) is the creation of computer systems that are capable of activities that traditionally require human intellect. For example, voice recognition, decision-making, and language translation. AI has essential ramifications for the future of web development, providing fresh approaches to making online apps that are more individualized, intelligent, and effective.

Among the applications of AI in web development are:

• AI can assess user behavior, preferences, and interests to give tailored content, suggestions, and search results.
• Chatbots, driven by artificial intelligence, may aid website visitors by responding to frequently asked questions, resolving common issues, and facilitating faster, more efficient site navigation.
• AI can produce content, such as automatically-generated news stories, product descriptions, and social media postings.
• AI can optimize websites and online apps for improved performance by analyzing data to spot trends, forecast outcomes, and find patterns.

Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR)

Users may engage with digital material more actively and interactively thanks to immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

Virtual reality technology provides an entirely artificial environment miming physical presence in a virtual setting. Users may interact with this setting using specialized headphones and controllers and have an entirely immersive experience.

Contrarily, augmented reality (AR) adds computer-generated information to the user’s actual surroundings by superimposing digital material onto the real environment. We can use mobile devices, tablets, and specialist eyewear to enjoy augmented reality.

VR and AR have a variety of applications in ruling the future of web development, including:

• Internet businesses may utilize virtual reality to build showrooms that let shoppers see things in 3D before purchasing.
• AR may provide engaging training scenarios for the manufacturing, construction, and healthcare sectors.
• VR and AR may be utilized to provide compelling product demonstrations that give buyers a one-of-a-kind and unforgettable experience with a product.
• Although AR may add information to real-world monuments and attractions, VR can provide virtual tours of popular tourist spots.
• VR and AR have entirely changed the gaming business by delivering more engaging and immersive gameplay.

Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

Online apps known as Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) provide users with a more smooth and more natural user experience by combining the characteristics of standard web pages with native mobile applications. PWAs are developed using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and are intended to function on any platform or device, such as PCs, tablets, and smartphones.

PWAs have several use cases, such as:

• PWAs may provide clients with a quick and easy way to buy online, letting them explore items, make purchases, and get alerts about deals and promotions.
• Even when a user is offline, PWAs may still serve the most recent news and media material, making for a more satisfying and dependable experience.
• Access to financial services like banking, investing, and money transfers may be made safe and dependable through PWAs.
• PWAs may provide consumers with a customized and practical travel experience, enabling them to book flights, lodging, and rental vehicles and access travel information and alerts regarding cancellations and delays.

Voice Search and Chatbots

Due to the increased need for more convenient and individualized digital experiences, voice search and chatbots have both increased in popularity. Voice search has become a more common method for consumers to connect with technology as smart speakers and virtual assistants have grown in popularity. Chatbots have grown in popularity as organizations explore methods to provide 24/7 customer service and automate repetitive chores.

Use cases for chatbots and voice search in web development:

• The use of voice search in web development enables users to conduct information searches using natural language, improving the usability and accessibility of websites.
• By giving prompt answers to frequent questions and directing users around the website or product offers, chatbots may be utilized to increase customer engagement and support.
• Created chatbots may be used in e-commerce to assist consumers in finding items, making purchases, and following up on orders.
• Moreover, chatbots may generate leads, helping to qualify leads and gather contact details from prospective clients.

Serverless Architecture

The cloud service provider administers the infrastructure and automatically allots and grows computer resources as a serverless architecture requires. Thanks to a serverless architecture, developers may concentrate on writing and delivering code instead of managing servers or worrying about infrastructure upkeep. Reduced operating expenses, enhanced scalability, and higher development productivity are all advantages of serverless architecture.

Serverless architecture use cases in web development

• Building and deploying backend APIs to manage heavy traffic loads and grow automatically in response to demand.
• Using serverless systems, perform data processing functions, including input, processing, and transformation.
• Created and deployed Web applications that can grow automatically and deal with heavy traffic loads using serverless architectures.
• Chatbots that can conduct natural language processing and reply to user inquiries using serverless architectures.
• Depending on demand, microservices that can interact and grow independently may be deployed and managed using serverless architectures.

The Future Of Web Development – Conclusion

Future directions for website development are being shaped by new technology and trends. Voice search, chatbots, and serverless architecture are some of the main trends and technologies to watch. These technologies are crucial resources for organizations because they provide advantages. These include a better user experience, lower operating costs, and enhanced scalability.

Due to the ability of companies to provide their clients with more individualized and practical digital experiences thanks to these developing technologies, the potential effect on users and businesses is substantial. As a result, there may be an uptick in client satisfaction, brand loyalty, and sales. These technologies make it simpler for people to discover information, make purchases, and obtain help by providing a more smooth and more natural manner to connect with technology.

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Business leaders and marketers across all industries want nothing more than to connect with their readers and grow their brands. However, they face many challenges along the way. One of the biggest hurdles is convincing users to invest in a product or service. The simplified solution is to build engaging product landing pages.

The thing is, not all landing pages are created equal. You have to know how and when to connect with customers if you want to find success.

Technology has changed the digital marketing landscape forever. We now have more ways than ever before to communicate company and product benefits. Marketers can improve on-site engagement and sales when they use the tools they have at their disposal.

Now, let’s dive in and look at several actionable ways you can use tech to create high-converting product landing pages.

Show Relevant Lead Magnets

Lead magnets are one of the best things you can do with your product landing page. Simply put, these are exclusive content and offers designed to generate leads and provide value to readers.

Common examples of lead magnets include:

• Discounts
• Case Studies
• Infographics
• Event Invitations

These offers are crucial for improving conversions because, on average, 40-70% of qualified leads are not ready to buy. If a customer leaves without interacting with your brand in a meaningful way, they will likely forget it exists.

On the other hand, if a user joins your email list, you have a direct line to stay in touch and build rapport through lead nurturing.

The key to getting people to click a lead magnet is to offer something the reader will find valuable. This concept will vary based on the intended audience. Segmenting visitors based on their unique interests, goals, and pain points can help you come up with inventive and effective lead magnets.

There are plenty of different lead-generation plugins that allow users to create attractive and engaging offers for product landing pages.

Make Mobile-Friendly Product Landing Pages

Google has made it clear that they want business leaders to optimize their websites for mobile. When you consider that over 68% (smachballoon dotcom) of the global population owns a mobile device, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Online shoppers use smartphones and tablets to engage with brands, read reviews, and shop. Mobile apps are on the rise that allows consumers to do all of this and more. If your website or app, including your landing pages, is not optimized for mobile, you could miss out on significant traffic and clicks.

There are many ways to ensure your site is ready for mobile users. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Use a landing page builder that comes with mobile templates.
• Reduce the size of images and host videos off-site for faster loading times.
• Make sure buttons and navigation work with handheld devices.
• Test your product landing page with multiple operating systems and devices.

You’ll find that putting smartphone users first in terms of page design and functionality can lead to a tremendous boost in conversions.

Optimize for Voice Search

While we are on the topic of mobile devices, let’s talk about voice search. Did you know that around 30% (pushengage dot com) of all searches were conducted without a screen last year? In other words, people use smart speaker devices or voice assistant apps on their smartphones and computers to search for websites, information, and products.

Websites not optimized for what a customer might say have a slim chance of appearing in the results for these types of searches. The good news is you can start making changes today to make your landing pages voice search-friendly.

We suggest including FAQs at the bottom of each product page. This seemingly small addition can significantly impact how people engage with your brand.

At face value, an FAQ section answers vital questions asked by your target audience. The option to see these questions and answers can guide users and help them determine if your product or service is right for them.

Behind the scenes, FAQs can help build your search presence, particularly when it comes to voice search. When someone uses voice search, they typically ask a question. If your landing page answers their inquiry in a concise and accurate way, Google may relay the answer you provided to the user.

You can also appear in the featured snippets at the top of Google for specific keyword searches. It’s worth mentioning that over 40% of voice results come from featured snippets.

It’s also a good idea to add schema markup to your website. Schema markup is behind-the-scenes code that allows Google to better understand your intent. Marketers use this SEO strategy to inform Google about product availability, prices, and more.

The bottom line is this; if you want to attract more visitors to your landing page, even if they aren’t using a screen, voice search optimization is a must.

Focus on User Benefits

A fundamental mistake many business owners make when designing their product landing pages is they spend too much time focusing on features instead of benefits. The two ideas are similar but differ in one important way.

Features are what your products can do. Benefits describe how features will ultimately help the end user. For example, a social media marketing plugin might promote a feature called a social wall. Most potential customers, even those skilled in social media marketing, will wonder exactly what they mean and why they should care.

Now, imagine if, instead of promoting a social wall feature, the company stated that this feature allows people to share all of their social media feeds in one place, which can boost brand awareness.

The second description is more detailed and explicitly tells users how they will benefit from this feature.

When designing your product landing pages, keep your customers’ needs in mind. Instead of writing a bullet list of features like you’re in an investor call, spend some time thinking about your product from your customer’s eyes. Write benefit-oriented descriptions, and people are far more likely to engage with your business.

Show Social Proof

Social proof is an excellent way to improve your landing page conversion rate. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, social proof is a psychological phenomenon that causes people to do things based on other people’s experiences. We all tend to trust people and businesses that are respected by others.

The most common type of proof is user reviews. Think about the last time you bought something from Amazon. There’s a good chance you scrolled to the bottom of the page to learn what other people thought of the product.

If you saw only 1-star reviews, you likely decided to pass and look for a similar product with better reviews. Similarly, a bunch of 5-star reviews may have prompted you to place an order.

Research shows that user reviews and other types of social proof can have a noticeable impact on conversions. In fact, surveys suggest that 83% (trustpulse dotcom) of people trust customer reviews over traditional advertising.

There are two primary ways to add reviews to your landing page. The first method involves placing an open-ended review form on your page, just like Amazon. Customers can review your products, and future visitors can see how others feel about your brand.

The other way to show reviews is to pull positive feedback from social media and surveys. You could include a section on the product page that reads, “see what others think of (product)!” A few glowing reviews can turn a prospect who is on the fence into a happy, paying customer.

You can also use live sales notifications and trust seals to capture visitors’ attention and convince them to take action.

Split Test Product Landing Pages

Much like the rest of your website, your product landing pages need to evolve with the needs of your customers. Split tests are a great way to experiment with new ideas and improve clicks.

Split tests, also known as A/B tests, involve changing a page, email, or social media marketing campaign for 50% of your audience. These changes can be subtle, like switching the verbiage on a call-to-action, or they can be something more noticeable, like a complete color swap.

The objective of split testing is to see which version of the page leads to more clicks and sales.

Let’s say a marketing team decides to test their call-to-action by changing “subscribe now”  to “subscribe and save.” After enough time has passed – we suggest two weeks to a month for each test – they look at the results.

If the subscribe and save option saw significantly more clicks, the team may use this new call-to-action on pages they want to improve.

It’s possible to test many different aspects of your pages, but it’s worth mentioning that tracking one test per page is the best option. Multiple tests make it hard to determine what led to better (or worse) results.

Final Thoughts

Online businesses need product landing pages to generate leads, sales, and interest in their brand. Every industry is different, so it’s always a good idea to introduce new strategies slowly so you can figure out what works.

The tips presented today will help steer your product landing page in the right direction. The tools and resources you need to improve performance and connect with more customers are out there. The only thing left to do is get started.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

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A business that wants to grow and scale will need a design team. According to Firstsiteguide, 70% of small-to-mid-sized enterprises invest more in their digital presence. As companies began to move online, the demand for user-friendly software to attract large numbers of customers has increased.

If existing enterprises require designers to create a website or application, startups also hire specialists to develop a product design. Software is essential for sales and recognition, so managers carefully approach personnel selection. If you’re looking for an experienced design team and want to know how to choose the best one, check out the tips for finding the perfect candidates.

When to Look for Designers

The online market is constantly improving, and with new digital features, customers are no longer willing to collaborate on the old model. To avoid losing your clients, you should keep up with innovations: update a legacy interface, introduce new communication ways and think about a payment system. Rapid adaptation gives the company a guarantee of maintaining sales and image.

Selling software needs a convenient and simple design, but only some entrepreneurs decide to improve it. To determine if it’s time to involve a designer in the project, analyze your situation:

• you do not have a selling website design or your product design;
• you are constantly selling your product or service using the software;
• you are not satisfied with your design quality at the moment;
• your potential users are not willing to interact with the content;
• your product design is different from the design of the application.

If you are familiar with these issues, your business needs an experienced team of designers who will analyze the product and create a modern structure for productive work with clients and partners.

Types of Design Teams

Before starting the search for specialists, managers decide on cooperation options. There are two types of employees: in-house and outsourced. Each has its pros and cons, making a choice more difficult.

In-house Designers

In-house specialists are full-time employees engaged only in the company’s project. They are fully involved in internal workflows and communicate closely with the team. In-house designers understand the product they work with, its values, and its philosophy. It is much easier for the manager to control the result of such an employee and set new tasks at no additional cost.

In-house designers are well-versed only in a particular industry, so tasks from other niches can cause them difficulty. Also, constant work on one project can lead an employee to burnout and dismissal. The primary in-house designer disadvantage is the expense of sickness and vacation pay. While outsourcing teams only budget for working hours, a full-time employee also counts on vacation pay.

Outsourcing Team

The outsourcing team is specialists who come to the company for a specific project or task. They help businesses free up time for more important things or help with tasks businesses can’t handle. Each outsourcing specialist offers a wide range of knowledge as they constantly interact with different niches.

A significant advantage of companies providing outsourcing or outstaff services is strict personnel selection. They choose only experienced employees and introduce them to the modern features of the digital environment. Outsourced teams do not require payment in the event of an employee’s illness or vacation. If one of the employees falls ill or is unsuitable for your project, they replace them with another in a short time.

The main disadvantage of outsourcing is the price. You need to pay for each hour of work of each specialist, reducing the quality of cost control. Also, you will be unable to assign additional tasks to an outsourced designer in other areas, which sometimes burdens internal processes. Outsourcing workers cannot be trained for themselves, as they come to your company for a certain period and work only on the agreed tasks.

Signs of a Professional Design Team

Meeting future colleagues for the first time can take time to determine their competence fully. Since candidates want to make a good impression, they will highlight their good qualities while glossing over their flaws. Catch the details to avoid falling for this trick and make the right decision.

Creative Portfolio

The portfolio of a professional design team should impress every beholder. And this does not apply to individual works but to the entire portfolio. When selecting candidates, check the quality of each design rather than picking only the best.

To understand your compatibility with potential employees, find a project similar to yours in their examples. If the design team already has experience in your industry, they know how to interact with your audience and hook them for a successful sale. Experienced specialists will tell you about your niche’s design features, what design details they can add to software development, and which ones you should avoid.

Teamwork Ability

If you are hiring an outsourcing team for a project or using an outstaff, you need to determine how these people will interact with your full-time employees. Since designers communicate closely with developers and project managers, they will have to find a common language to understand and support each other. At the interview, ask your future designers about their attitude to working in a team with employees from different departments.

Organizational Skills

The outsourcing design team is fully responsible for the work specified in the contract. The project implementation is a long, complex process, but the specialist must adhere to the designated deadlines. The ability to self-organize and write a clear action plan to avoid going over budget is an important criterion when selecting web designers.

A person’s design skills, as well as managerial skills, play a significant role in the successful completion of a project. Experienced workers will competently build an action plan, and you will be calm about the timing of work completion.

Continuous Improvement

One of the vital signs of a good specialist in any field is the desire to grow and develop. Progress does not stand still, and the digital environment offers new solutions for IT engineers. Since any leader wants to make gradual progress in their product, they will opt for a designer who wants to learn something new and implement it into current projects.

An experienced worker will make changes to avoid confusing the client and let them get used to the latest software version. Thanks to the constant improvement of the user experience, the business will not only scale but also increase sales.

Where to Find a Professional Design Team

Finding a reliable outsourcing development team is a manager’s first and most challenging task. Many entrepreneurs need help finding professionals with extensive experience in their industry and how to make sure that they are experts.

The best way to search quickly is word of mouth. Ask for recommendations from your friends or colleagues who will tell you the right decision. You can also search the Internet yourself. The most popular sites for designers are Clutch, Dribbble, and Behance. These resources provide complete information about the company, customer reviews, ratings, and examples of work. Having found an attractive offer, you can read reviews about the design team on third-party resources and conclude.

Hiring employees is a responsible job that must be approached with caution. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to learn as much as you can about designers’ expertise. Hiring the right people can build a successful business and achieve your goals faster than your competitors.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

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According to UXcam.com, around 52% of the users drop out due to inefficient website user experience. How many times have you left the website if the aesthetics or user experience were not decent, fast enough, or the design was not engaging?

Your answer, as well as all other stats that are gathered globally, will indicate that viewer retention creates the bedrock of online customer acquisition. The user experience delivered by the user interface of the website/app determines everything about client and customer retention.

Statistics reveal that it takes about 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for users to shape a judgment about your website that decides whether they enjoy your site or not and whether they’ll stay or leave.

Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, and in this case — your company’s success, too.

Creating an attractive UI is one of the most significant advantages of recruiting ReactJS development services. These are programming designers who work with the ReactJS library, which is fundamental for producing custom UIs for various uses.

ReactJS library uses its knowledge and abilities to develop interfaces that will authorize users to effortlessly navigate and use the applications’ functionalities and, by extension, the business operating it.

However, there is a gaping hole between the demand and supply of top-notch React JS developers. This makes hiring the right ReactJS Developer a tricky business.

Let’s dive deeper and understand why you need to create a ReactJS developer job description to hire a React JS developer and how to do so.

Why Hire ReactJS Developers?

The difference ReactJS development services can make to your application/website is strongly substantiated by the below statistics.

• $62 billion are lost every year because of poor UX execution. (Source- intechnic.com)
• The ROI of UX is somewhere in the range of $2 and $100 for each dollar spent. (Source- intechnic.com)
• 48% of mobile users felt disappointed and irritated with non-mobile-optimized sites. (Source- ThinkWithGoogle)
• 61% of clients said they’d leave a site if they didn’t find what they required on it in a flash. (Source- intechnic.com)
• 59% of individuals lean toward a stylishly satisfying site. (Source- intechnic.com)

But how do you get a sophisticated UI? Your answer will remain — ReactJS developers.

What do you mean by React JS?

React is a javascript library used to construct UIs that are adaptable, decisive, and effective. Javascript is one of the significant web and portable application improvement languages, and a library is an assortment of pre-customized functions behind the product’s work by a developer.

Recruiting devoted ReactJS developers will utilize individual library capabilities to facilitate the turn of events and make them more precise.

To take advantage of an iceberg named React, you have to understand more than just the tip of it. It is behind the continuous changes that happen in an application. It delivers and refreshes the fitting application part when the individual information changes. Its decisive paradigm makes the essence more reliable and straightforward to troubleshoot by correcting mistakes.

And, there’s more to developers beyond what you may understand, and that’s where the expert Reactjs developers play their role.

ReactJS is an integral element of your application development procedure. With the specialized skill needed to build an aesthetic UI using it, it becomes unavoidable to employ dedicated ReactJS developers for the task. That way, you can assure that your final product will have an opportunity of satisfying your performance intentions.

It is crucial for hiring managers to know how to create and include a React JS Developer job description in their hiring services.

But before you create a React UI developer job description to hire the right candidate, know and include the following descriptions in your application inquiries.

ReactJS Developer Job Description — Required Qualifications

Not everyone qualifies to be a React JS developer. If you want to achieve promising results, it’s better to hire a Reactjs developer who is both book-smart and street-smart and knows exactly what they are doing.

Before you hire a React JS developer, make sure your job description for React developer mentions the following qualification standards:

• Capability in using React tools like Flux, Redux, webpack, etc.
• Four-year certification in Mathematics, Computer Science, or any significant course
• Experience with front-end development
• Detailed insight on the development of web-based UIs with React.js, Javascript, and Typescript

ReactJS Developer Job Description — Roles and Responsibilities

To make an experienced choice, here is a quick run-through of roles and responsibilities as React JS developers that you can add to your React developer job description:

• ReactJS developers influence the highlights of this comprehensive library to develop intuitive UIs.
• These UIs are easier to troubleshoot with additionally anticipated views.
• A ReactJS developer builds holistic parts that can regulate their states.

ReactJS developers use reusable components in React to involve one code for every one of the comparative elements in the application.

React js developers are responsible for making a complete bug-free application with high performance.

They are likewise expected to assemble any extra modules and take care of the app maintenance.

ReactJS Developer Job Description — Required Skills

Despite the ReactJS library’s adaptability, it will not foster an application by itself. It takes exceptional skills for a ReactJS developer to construct a proficient React application.

The following are fundamental skills that you ought to write for an entry-level or senior react developer job description –

HTML/CSS

ReactJS is a library for front-end development. Thus, the essential abilities expected in a ReactJS developer are HTML and CSS development. Hire a ReactJS developer who can make interfaces that attract and associate users. This requires detailed comprehension of the design principles.

Ideally, it would help if you look for competent developers working with advanced HTML and CSS tools.

Read: Best Frontend Frameworks That Accelerate Pace of Web Development

JSX and other ReactJS components

ReactJS developers should be open to working with JSX, virtual DOM, and component life-cycle to make the most out of this flexible front-end library.

Third-party tools to complement ReactJS libraries

In addition to in-built libraries, ReactJS developers should likewise have superb control over advances like Redux, React Router, Create React App, and Material Kit React; from there, the sky’s the limit.

Know the best practices for clean code

You may require onboarding other developers to work on your application. So the ReactJS developer who inscribes the primary code must assure code simplicity and cohesiveness.

Apart from these hard technical skills, also mention these soft skills in your full-stack React developer job description –

Recognizing and assessing project prerequisites and deliverables

When recruiting a ReactJS Developer, you must enlist someone who can fit your interpretation of the plan’s necessities into technical and performative details. Developers who share a similar vision of the goals as you are almost certain to create an application that your clients love to use!

Organizing tasks efficiently

Regardless of whether the developer will work under your project management team, they should be competent to schedule their tasks and hold to the agreed-upon deadlines. Hence, it would help if you looked for ReactJS developers who are specialists in planning.

Ability to take positive criticism and execute it in their task

The productive analysis is a fundamental part of the capacity to appreciate individuals on a deeper level that assists individuals with functioning admirably with teams. While recruiting a ReactJS designer, ask questions to measure how well the candidate has worked on their work with the assistance of criticism before. Without this expertise, finishing the ideal job by a ReactJS designer becomes uninteresting.

Problem-solving skills

Software development is as much about addressing the problem areas of the client as much about building just programming. So search for ReactJS engineers who are perfect at critical thinking and have problem-solving skills.

Those abilities are React developer requirements and are expected at each phase of ReactJS development – from selecting suitable tools and building an engaging UI to working with an intuitive client experience in the application.

Read: Flutter vs. Reactjs: Which One to Choose in 2022?

ReactJS Developer Salary Structure

For instance, if you are hiring a Reactjs developer for the first time, chances are you are clueless about the industry standards salary they deserve.

The typical ReactJS Developer pay in the USA is $120,043 annually or $61.56 each hour. Entry-level positions start at $82,500 yearly, while most experienced workers make up to $157,500 yearly.

According to Neuvoo, the average React Developer pay in the US is $121,992 annually (generally $62.56/hour). Entry-level positions start at $65,000 annually, while experienced specialists procure as much as $171,000/per year.

Different nations have changed figures, some of which are:

• United Kingdom – $70,903
• Australia – $73,497
• Ukraine – $21,600
• India – $11,804
• Philippines – $8,569.08
• Spain – $68,216
• Germany – $53,864
• Canada – $120,00

Hopefully, these numbers will help you give the promising Reactjs candidate a reasonable offer that is a win-win situation for both you and the candidate.

Conclusion

These are reasons and realities sufficient to demonstrate that ReactJS designers are in demand and have a splendid future.

Numerous applications, new companies, and associations are utilizing the capability of ReactJS and understanding the motivations behind why it is so famous.

With the proper React front-end developer job description and regular updates, you can hire an extraordinary candidate for your ReactJS requirements.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by ThisIsEngineering; Pexels; Thank you!

The post The Ultimate ReactJS Developer Job Description Template appeared first on ReadWrite.

Artificial Intelligence is widely used in various industries to automate routine tasks and increase the productivity and efficiency of business strategies. One more area where AI is becoming extremely useful is user experience and user interface (UX/UI) design. While AI can save designers time and perform routine tasks, such as image cropping, designers can focus on more complex tasks that require a high level of creativity. However, this is not the only advantage of Artificial Intelligence. ML models get “smarter” and can drive better UI/UX design. On that note, let’s dig deeper.

The Role of AI in UX/UI

Before we look at the importance of artificial intelligence in design, let’s briefly recap what UX/UI design is. User experience design (UX) is the creation of a product or service that meets users’ needs and expectations. How does the user interact with the product? How does the user feel after the interaction? These and other questions are key to UX design.

UX designers’ responsibilities are to analyze important product elements, create product schematics and prototypes, conduct user testing, and more. The primary goal of a UX designer is to make a product or service convenient, enjoyable, and accessible to the end user.

User interface design involves creating the interface’s appearance and functionality. UI designers strive to make the design clear, accessible, and inclusive, which helps the user navigate the interface. UI designers are also responsible for choosing the correct color palette, fonts, layout, and other elements. Overall, the work of a UX/UI designer requires creativity and flexibility in many tasks. So, there are certain tasks that AI can help designers with:

• Automate time-consuming manual work (image resizing);
• Perform localization of designs through AI-powered translation;
• Segment audiences and provide the right product with an interface;
• Give insight into what elements users interact with the most and which require the most attention;
• Provide system consistency between users and products by using wireframing and prototyping tools.

Thus, AI helps designers improve the user experience and reduces the need for human labor in various ways (data analysis, creation of design documentation). The interaction between AI and designers leads to increased productivity and efficiency, as well as increased customer satisfaction, which affects brand loyalty.

How does Artificial Intelligence enhance UI/UX design?

Now that you have an overview of the value of AI in design let’s shift the focus to specific examples. Here are some important use cases of how AI can improve UX/UI design.

Automation of routine tasks

Often a designer’s job involves routine tasks that can be time-consuming. Image cropping, resizing, and color correction of photos are some examples of how designers spend their time. Designers can’t automate simple tasks in Photoshop because the tasks require human curation and the ability to make quick decisions. What if artificial intelligence could do the job instead of designers?

Artificial Intelligence can relieve designers of time-consuming tasks, thereby increasing efficiency. There are many solutions offered by AI, such as Adobe Scene Stitch technology, which identifies patterns in an image, helping designers correct, edit, or reimagine a particular scene. In this way, optimizing repetitive, routine tasks with AI can free up designers’ time to think about other strategic product design decisions.

Human chatbots

In the digital world, chatbots are a great way for UX/UI designers to improve the customer experience and attract new audiences. AI-based chatbots improve user experience using natural language processing. Machine-learning-based chatbots are programmed to self-learn as they become familiar with new dialogues and words. In fact, if a chatbot receives unfamiliar voice or text dialogues, the number and accuracy of their responses increase. AI helps make interactions with UX/UI chatbots more comfortable and human-like, improving the user experience.

Efficient data analysis

Machine learning does, thanks to advances in technology and most of the data collection. But that doesn’t mean a company will need fewer analytics specialists. More analysts can perform a more accurate and in-depth analysis of user interactions with the brand by using the conduct of UI/UX testing, such as A/B tests or usability tests, to increase user engagement with their products. With AI, designers can track many critical UX metrics, such as:

• Pages visited;
• Session time;
• Products viewed;
• Bounce rates;
• Exit pages.

Collecting a huge amount of data allows designers to create a user-centered design. User-centered design, UCD, is a design process that focuses on the needs (behaviors, values, expectations) of users at every stage of brand interaction. Artificial intelligence models collect data about the target audience and identify user requirements and goals from different channels. In addition, AI tools allow designers to experiment with new ideas and concepts.

Information Architecture (IA)

In the world of UX design, users use digital products that are well-structured and easy to use. This is not unintentional but the result of a good Information Architecture. Information Architecture helps organize and structure information or content, including text, photos, and videos, in a digital product according to user requirements. For example, when designers create apps and websites, they plan the screen so that the user can easily find the information they want and navigate between screens.

Designers use information architecture to plan the navigation system to make users comfortable using the product. AI can help an AI model better interpret data, find patterns, and ultimately provide a user-centered approach to design. Without a good information structure, a machine learning model does not succeed because there will be no data to learn. Thus, combining AI and information architecture helps organizations focus on customer requirements by providing more structured content and an easy-to-understand interface.

Accessibility of the prototyping tools and wireframing

Communicating the value of an idea to those interested before designers create a product or design can be difficult. That’s why designers use rapid and advanced prototyping tools, which are used to evaluate a new product or design for further improvement. Designers only need a few sketches so that the artificial intelligence system can quickly transfer ideas from sketches to real life.

In this way, AI-powered prototyping tools help designers:

• Provide the intent of the ultimate design;
• Provide a user-centric design;
• Protect design solutions to customer feedback;
• Save time and money by making changes early on.

However, designers can use AI not only as a tool to turn raw drawings into highly accurate prototypes but also as a tool to explore wireframe ideas. User experience designers often use wireframes to provide clients with how a user interface will look and work in advance if it’s realized. By using artificial intelligence to create an interface, designers can set design direction, and machines learn possible design choices and then suggest the best solutions. Thus, prototyping tools’ and wireframing simplify the UX design process, reduce time, and allow designers to focus on the more important aspects of the project.

Can artificial intelligence take over the work of UX/UI design?

Artificial Intelligence helps UX/UI designers create and improve user-centric products, saving time and energy. While AI can learn from human experience, improve and produce better results, the ability to bring in creative alternatives, machines still can’t. Therefore, the lion’s share of product design work still falls on the shoulders of designers.

Understanding human needs and applying them to design is the key to success for UX/UI designers. Will AI replace designers? Share in the comments your personal thoughts about it.

Featured Image Credit: Picjumbocom; Pexels; Thank you!

The post How to Enhance UX/UI with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning appeared first on ReadWrite.

Most businesses need to build a website to be successful. You might be able to build a website using a free website builder and existing templates, but it might be better to work with a web development agency. If you go the latter route, what can you expect from the development process of building a website?

Why Website Builders May Not Be Good Enough

Before we get any further, let’s talk about why website builders may not be good enough for your website.

Free website builders are all over the place these days. Most of them follow the same formula, presenting you with a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor and hundreds of templates to choose from. In the span of an afternoon, even if you don’t have much website design or development experience, you can probably put a decent-looking website together.

But there are some problems inherent with this approach, including:

Creative Limitations

You’re going to suffer from severe creative limitations when building your website. Even if you’re willing to pay for a template, you’re still going to be working with templates primarily, meaning there are inherent restrictions on what you can do with your website. On top of that, there may be functional limitations for websites built with your free website builder of choice.

Lack of Expertise

Without the proper expertise and access to the right tools, it might take you a long time to develop your website – and when you’re done, you may not be satisfied with the finished results. The truth is, even though free website builders can be used by almost anyone, they still require a bit of expertise if you want to make the most of them. If you don’t have that expertise, you’ll neglect some of the most important and valuable features of the platform.

The Template Look

It’s also worth noting that millions of websites are now being built with free website builders, so they all look the same. Anyone experienced with these platforms can spot a website built with a template – and that’s not a good look for your business. You know that competitive differentiation is powerful, so it often pays to go above and beyond when developing your website.

Difficulty in Scaling

Free website builders can also make it difficult to scale your operations. If you decide to add a couple of new pages, it shouldn’t be a problem. Still, suppose you want to expand the functionality of your website, significantly increase its performance, or take the design in a fundamentally new direction. In that case, your free website builder may not be up to the task. Getting your website professionally designed and developed will give you much more flexibility in the future.

The Web Development Process: A High-Level View

The website development process, when working with a professional web developer, usually unfolds in a series of phases. Each phase sets out to accomplish a set of goals and builds upon the last phase. Depending on the nature of your website and the ebb and flow of your working relationship, each phase could last a matter of days or a few weeks. Generally, if everything goes smoothly, you can expect this entire process to last between six and eight weeks.

Let’s dig into each phase.

Phase One: Discovery

Phase one is discovery. During discovery, your website developer will be working with you to understand as much as possible about your brand and about your project. Designers, developers, and project managers may be in attendance during these meetings, taking notes, so they have the information they need to build your website properly.

During this time, you’ll likely go over the following and more:

Your brand.

What are the core elements of your brand identity? Which colors represent your brand? What is your brand personality? What should people think when they see your brand for the first time?

Your vision for the site.

What do you want your website to look like? How should it function? One of the best ways to explain this is to provide examples of existing websites that you already like.

Your existing site (if one exists).

Do you have a website already in place? If so, what don’t you like about it? What are you trying to improve?

Your content and materials.

Do you have existing materials you want to be worked into the website, such as existing content, photos, and design elements?

Phase Two: Architecture/Site Mapping

Phase two is architecture and site mapping. This is a relatively simple phase in which you and your web developer collaborate to come up with the overall architecture for your site. What is your website supposed to do? Which are the core pages that are going to serve as the foundation of your website? What kind of navigation is going to allow visitors to seamlessly flow from one page to the next?

At the end of this phase, you’ll be able to approve a simple diagram that shows the high-level overview of your website.

Phase Three: Wireframes

Next is wireframing. You can think of this as a rough draft of your website. Designers will work with the architecture and site map diagram to better understand what your site is going to look like, and they’ll use this information to create a skeletal framework for future design. It’s not going to look pretty at this point, but it is going to give you a sense of what your website will eventually look like.

Phase Four: Design

Your website is soon going to be the face of your brand. That’s why it’s important to build on your existing wireframes and flesh out a full design. Considering your brand, your goals, and the state of modern web design, your designers will work hard to design a site that accomplishes everything you want.

Phase Five: Content

With the design in place, you’ll need to add written content. Depending on your goals in the web developer you’re working with, you may be able to provide the content yourself or lean on existing copywriters within the agency to write the content for you.

Phase Six: Initial Development

If you like the way the website looks and you’re confident in the content, you’ll be ready to move to initial development. This is typically the longest phase of the process since it requires the most time and effort. Developers will be working diligently in the background to take the existing designs and turn them into a reality.

Phase Seven: Testing and QA

At this point, you’re ready to launch, right?

Not yet. During this phase, you and your web developer will go through the website inch by inch, testing it to make sure it works as intended. You’ll test it across a wide range of browsers and devices, interact with every element, and make sure the site is functionally perfect.

Phase Eight: Launch

You’ve set up your website to convert visitors, but will it? You’ll find out soon enough. Once you’ve completed testing and QA, you’ll be ready to formally launch your website. You’ll also probably have the chance to celebrate with the people who made it possible.

Keys to Success When Working With a Web Developer

If you want to see better results when working with a professional web developer, follow these important tips:

Choose the right partner.

There are many different web developers out there with varying levels of experience and professionalism. Choosing the right developer is essential if you want the best website and the best overall experience.

Set clear expectations.

Be clear and straightforward about what your expectations are. If you have desires for the website, talk about them. If you don’t like the wireframe during the wireframing phase, say something.

Communicate early and often.

Similarly, it’s important to communicate early and often. Your web developer wants you to be an active part of this process, so the more information you can provide, the better.

Get involved in testing.

From loading pages to experimenting with chatbots, testing is essential to make sure your website works as intended. Go out of your way to get involved with testing so you understand how your website works on a personal level.

Getting a website professionally designed and developed is a major step forward for your organization. Assuming you’re able to find the right partner and go through these phases as smoothly as possible, you could be up and running with a unique, scalable, impressive website in a matter of weeks.

Featured Image Credit: Christina Morillo; Pexels; Thanks!

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While customer experience (CX) will always require a human touch, there’s something to be said about technology and its role in keeping customers happy and engaged. And if you look at the current landscape of business tools, you’ll see that there’s never been a better time to focus on modern CX.

What is Customer Experience?

Customer experience might sound like a buzzword or fancy term that Silicon Valley startups paste into PowerPoint presentations when raising a fresh round of capital. Still, it’s a tangible concept that has a real-world impact on your business (for better or worse).

According to HubSpot, “Customer experience is the impression your customers have of your brand as a whole throughout all aspects of the buyer’s journey. It results in their view of your brand and impacts factors related to your bottom line including revenue.”

Modern CX is especially important when you think about the sheer volume of options the average customer has to choose from. With so many similar services and products being sold by competitors, you need something that sets you apart. A positive customer experience can help you do this. Likewise, ongoing CX impacts loyalty, repeat purchases, customer lifetime value, and more.

Customer experience is created and influenced by two primary touch points within your organization: Your people and your products. If you’re going to enhance customer experience, start by thinking about (1) how you can improve the way your people interact with and serve your customers, and (2) the quality, utility, and perceived value of your products by the customer.

Exploring High-Tech Approaches to Customer Experience

If you want to elevate the customer experience and grow your business, you must reduce friction. And the best way to reduce friction is by streamlining your approach using technology and innovation.

Here are several technologies and approaches that successful companies rely on (and you can too).

1. IT Help Desk Software

If you’re still using a basic ticketing system to handle support tickets and IT requests, you’re playing from behind. Not only are your customers extremely frustrated with the slow pace and poor service, but your employees are drowning behind the scenes.

IT help desk software decreases end-user confusion, streamlines problem resolution, and makes quick use of pesky tickets. Some features of IT help desk software could include the following.

• Assign individual tickets to specific team members based on skillsets, certifications, experience, and availability. This ensures customers get the best (and fastest) support for their individualized needs.
• Automatically and intelligently triage support tickets so that simple fixes can be automatically addressed without requiring manual input from a team member.
• Get notifications and reminders on outstanding support tickets so that no customer request is left open for too long.

Most advanced help desk software is built on the cloud, which increases your team’s flexibility and allows you to provide customer support from anywhere (without being dependent on location or device).

It’s also entirely scalable, which makes it easy to continue providing great support, even as your customer base and volume of support tickets grow.

2. AI and ML Chatbots

People want as many different customer service options and channels as they can get. And they expect someone to be available to help them regardless of the time or day. From a company’s perspective, this creates a lot of pressure and expectation. Thankfully, technology comes to the rescue once again. This time, it’s in the form of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) chatbots.

AI and ML chatbots are essentially online chat technology with smart algorithms. Companies program them to understand and interpret customer questions. They can provide answers, suggest solutions, and/or triage customer support requests. Employees can then send tickets to the correct support person.

While some companies choose to develop their own chatbots, you can also leverage existing platforms.

3. 24/7 Social Monitoring

You can’t afford to clock out. While 9-to-5 may be standard work hours, companies with high modern CX scores are tuned into what’s happening with their customers 24/7/365…and you should be, too.

While 24/7 monitoring is important, you don’t have to physically park yourself (or employees) in front of a computer or phone around the clock. Using monitoring software, you can listen to what’s happening and gather insights about what people are saying on social media. You can also track, analyze, and respond to email and chat requests.

Some of the top 24/7 monitoring platforms on the market include Zendesk, Hubspot, LiveAgent, and Hootsuite.

4. Virtual and Augmented Reality

While maybe not as common as some of the other technologies listed in this article, don’t underestimate the rise of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). We live in a virtual world where more of the buying process is happening at a distance. This is leading brands are always looking for ways to increase customer engagement and enhance the shopping experience. AR and VR are game-changers in this regard.

Amazon, which is always on the bleeding edge when it comes to modern CX – is a great example. Their new AR View technology allows shoppers to view items in their homes before purchasing.

Amazon’s technology allows prospective customers to view products in the setting of their own homes before they make a purchase. They can make their purchases based on how the product looks and fits their current setting, color scheme, and so forth. They no longer need to move furniture around once something arrives only to discover it doesn’t really work as they thought. Instead, they use a smartphone to boost confidence prior to purchase.

Aside from being interesting and unique, this “view in your room” technology serves the distinct purpose of reducing the friction that shoppers often experience when they don’t know what a product will look like in their home and/or if it’ll fit the space. Customers who use this augmented reality technology end up happier with their final purchases and are less likely to return the products they purchase.

Measuring Customer Experience

If you’re going to commit to strategically improving your CX, you want to make sure you’re measuring it. (This is the only way to track progress and know if you’re getting the results you’re searching for.) Again, there are several ways you can do this, including the following.

• Start tracking your Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). This is basically a measurement of how happy your customers are with your products and service.
  • To calculate a CSAT score, you simply send customers a one-question survey after a purchase or support interaction that asks: “How satisfied were you with [company/product]?”
  • Typically, you ask customers to rank their satisfaction on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the most positive).
  • Over time, you can track your CSAT score and watch as it moves up or down. This will give you some context for how customers feel.
• It’s natural to have some churn. However, tracking customer churn rates will help you understand when and why customers are leaving.
  • Dig in and analyze the data. Determine the reasons for the churn and any actions you can take to reduce future churn.
• Engage with customers and proactively gather feedback. If possible, meet with customers face-to-face or have extended open-ended discussions via phone or video conferencing.
  • This allows you to measure both the experience and the sentiment. (You can tell a lot through tone of voice, inflection, word choice, etc.)

Adding It All Up

Customer experience is more than a buzzword. It’s a tangible measurement of the way customers feel about your brand and its products.

By prioritizing modern CX with the right high-tech investments, you can improve your results and experience success.

Featured Image: CottonBro; Pexels.com. Thank you!

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Every aspiring entrepreneur who wants to launch their business and get funding needs to know how to package and present a company to a potential audience and investors. A compelling presentation shows how well you understand your project and its development. According to Crunchbase, in 2021, startups raised $201 billion in investments during the initial stage of their launch. These statistics show that investors are interested in financing new projects and are ready to consider existing ideas. To get funding and successfully launch your business, you need to know what it takes to create an attractive presentation for potential investors.

What You Need to Do for a Successful Startup Presentation

Even if novice entrepreneurs have a brilliant business idea, this does not mean they will receive funding. More than 500,000 companies are created annually in the United States, but less than 1,000 per year may be of interest to venture capitalists. Therefore, to allow your project to develop and increase profits, you must prepare for a meeting with potential investors.

Deep Market Analysis

Most investors want to finance a project that targets a large market to allow the business to scale. To do this, startup founders need to analyze how many potential customers the product has, how much they can pay, and how their number changes over time.

In startup presentations, the market assessment is often underestimated or overestimated. This is because entrepreneurs do not have access to specific data or an experienced economist in the state. If you also face this task, pay attention to external sources with a good business reputation (reports of large analytical and consulting companies) or contact a specialist to confirm the statistics from the Internet.

Drawing Up a Financial Business Model

After successfully analyzing the market and receiving up-to-date data, you must draw up a financial business model. Again, you need to approach this task carefully since the investor is primarily interested in this.

Startup founders can build a financial model based on their assumptions and data, but the approval of a professional must support such a theory. It is an expert in the field of finance who will be able to create a competent model, which will include the following:

• competitive field;
• up-to-date market data;
• niche trends;
• realistic calculations.

Investors interested in the project will carefully check each conclusion reflected in the financial report. For them to be confident in the numbers and see the company’s future, it is necessary to have relevant specialists in your field.

Objective Assessment of the Team

The startup’s profitability depends not only on its owners but also on employees who work within the company. So during the project presentation, do not forget to tell investors about your team’s expertise:

1. Whether they have already participated in similar projects.
2. What successes have they achieved in the past?
3. Whether they demonstrate creativity and initiative at the moment and so on.

The same goes for the startup owners themselves. Funders need to know whether they have experience building a successful business and leading a team, specialized education, and a reputation in the market. Add reviews from customers about yourself and references from past jobs to your presentation.

Following Digital Technologies

If you have decided to launch your business in 2022, then you are probably aware of the crisis. Due to the pandemic, almost all companies had to go online to avoid losing consumers. Since the decision to digitize had to be made in the shortest possible period, business owners did not have time to test their ideas and lost a lot of resources. The specialists found a solution that helps entrepreneurs try their concept in practice, attract a potential audience and show the product to investors.

MVP is a reliable way to test your hypothesis before funding the development of a full-fledged product. This software will solve the following tasks:

• correctly identify the target audience;
• check the functions that are in doubt;
• show gaps in development;
• mitigate potential risks.

Since each startup occupies its specific niche, MVP can adapt to any project. For example, Dropbox used a short video for its minimal viable product, where it told consumers how the future software would work. When the startup received a positive response, its owners created one of the most popular file hostings.

Sometimes companies spend years trying to prove that a hypothesis is wrong. A study by CB Insights found that a lack of market demand causes 42% of startup failures. MVP helps ensure that the product is in need or abandons an unprofitable idea on time. MVP helps ensure that the product is in demand or promptly leaves an unprofitable idea.

To test your ideas and get investment, you must create an MVP and implement your product or service’s essential features. This way, you will attract new clients and fund and earn money for further development.

Communication with Other Entrepreneurs

To prepare competitors and investors for the fact that a new product will soon enter the market, you must constantly be present in the circles of the same entrepreneurs and specialists in your niche. These can be forums, business accelerators, development programs, etc. This presence will help you learn about modern companies’ trends and digital technologies. It is a chance to meet industry experts and invite them to join your team. This experience will simplify the presentation preparation and introduce you to potential investors even before the launch of the MVP. Bringing the project to the market will be recognizable and get more responses than if you did not leave the office.

What Should Be a Good Presentation for Investors

Properly presenting your startup is an essential skill for every aspiring entrepreneur. Through this skill, projects find investors, attract co-founders, select excellent staff, and, ultimately, bring their idea to perfection. A good idea presentation will include the following points:

1. Startup name and logo.
2. Problems and solutions.
3. Description of the value.
4. Competitive advantage.
5. Business model.
6. Marketing plan.
7. Analysis of competitors.
8. Leadership and team.
9. Financial forecasts and critical indicators.
10. Current status: achievements, timeline, capital consumption.

A good presentation should concisely summarize the investor’s most important data. Therefore, the defining characteristics of a good presentation are brevity, a clear description of the benefit, a vital visual component, and many facts.

Use a minimum of text support to present your project to potential investors to end with a successful deal. Instead, add specific numbers, product or service visuals, and infographics to your slides. Remember that information during the report must be structured and not overloaded with unnecessary details.

To stand out from other funding candidates, you need to collect all the relevant data regarding your business in advance and test the product or service with potential customers. It will show investors that you are committed to further development and scaling of the project, and with a high probability, you will be able to bring them the profit they are counting on.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by RODNAE Productions; Pexels; Thank you!

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When it comes to choosing a JavaScript framework, there are many factors to consider. For example, do you want a framework that is lightweight and fast or one that is feature-rich and robust? Do you need a framework that is easy to learn or one that has a steep learning curve but provides more features?

Many excellent front-end JavaScript frameworks are available, so it can be tough to decide which is right for your project. To help you decide, I’ve put together a list of the ten best front-end JavaScript frameworks.

*All of this information in this article has come from other sites — and I’ve endeavored to give correct attributions for all information gathered here.

1. AngularJS

AngularJS is a JavaScript framework that helps you build web applications. It lets you use HTML as your template language and extends HTML’s syntax to express your application’s components clearly and succinctly. AngularJS’s data binding and dependency injection eliminate much of the code you would otherwise have to write (osano.com). And it all happens within the browser, making it an ideal partner with any server technology.

Though it’s a front-end framework, it’s still confused with a backend framework like Django.

Features of AngularJS:

• AngularJS is a complete framework for web development.
• AngularJS is easy to use and easy to learn.
• AngularJS provides a wide range of features that make it a good choice for web development.
•  In addition, AngularJS is open source and free to use.

2. React

React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It lets you create reusable components so your code is easy to read and maintain. React is a declarative, efficient, and flexible JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It lets you create reusable components so your code is easy to read and maintain. React, and Angular is considered to be the two best JavaScript frameworks.

Features of React:

• React is a declarative, efficient, and flexible JavaScript library for building user interfaces.
• It lets you compose complex UIs from small and isolated pieces of code called “components.”
• React has a few built-in features such as support for multiple platforms, an easy-to-use syntax, and a strong community.

3. Vue.js

Vue.js is a progressive framework for building user interfaces. It is designed to be incrementally adoptable and can quickly scale between a library and a full-fledged framework.

Features of Vue.js:

• VueJS is very simple to use and understand
• VueJS has excellent documentation that is very helpful for beginners
•  Vue.js provides a wide range of features that make it a good choice for web development.
• Vue.js is open source and free to use.

4. Ember.js

Ember.js is a JavaScript framework for creating web applications. It provides a solid foundation for building ambitious applications. Ember.js is built for productivity. It includes everything you need to get started without any build tools or command-line interfaces.

Features of Ember.js:

• Includes features such as automatic two-way data binding, templates, and a routing system.
• EmberJS is open source and is released under the MIT license.
• It includes several tools that help developers get their applications up and running quickly.

5. Preact

Preact is a fast, 3kb alternative to React. It’s ideal for building performant, lightweight applications. Preact is a fast 3kb alternative to React. It’s small enough that your application’s initial load time is reduced, and its size is so tiny that you can easily include it in your application’s codebase.

Features of Preact:

• Preact is a complete framework for web development.
• PreactJS is a lightweight library that focuses on being fast and efficient.
• It has a small footprint and is easy to learn and use.

6. Inferno

Inferno is a fast, lightweight React-like JavaScript library for building high-performance user interfaces. It is similar to React because it lets you create reusable components and efficiently update the DOM. However, Inferno is significantly faster than React due to its use of a virtual DOM.

Features of Inferno:

• InfernoJS is a fast library that can render up to 60 frames per second.
• It uses a virtual DOM that makes it easy to keep track of changes and update the UI
• InfernoJS is easy to use, and it has a simple API.

7. Svelte

Svelte is a new way to build web applications. It’s a compiler that takes your declarative components and turns them into highly efficient vanilla JavaScript. By doing this, you can write concise code that’s still readable, and your applications end up being incredibly fast. It’s one of the best JavaScript frameworks.

Features of Svelte:

• Svelte uses a virtual DOM to keep track of changes in your app.
• Svelte is easy to use and easy to learn.
• Components are self-contained and can be easily reused in other projects.

8. Mithril

Mithril is a modern client-side JavaScript framework for building Single-Page Applications. It’s small (< 8kb gzip), fast and provides routing and XHR utilities out of the box (mithril.js.org).

Features of Mithril:

• Mithril includes built-in support for routing and XHR
• It has a small API with very few built-in features, making it more flexible.
• Light-weight and provides better performance

9. Aurelia

Aurelia is a JavaScript client framework for web, mobile, and desktop that leverages simple conventions to empower your creativity. It’s built on a standards-based, extensible platform that works with the industry’s most popular toolchains and libraries.

Features of Aurelia:

• Built on top of modern standards such as Web Components
• Easy to learn and use, and it has a very small footprint.

10. Polymer

Polymer is a JavaScript library for building web applications using web components. It lets you create custom HTML elements, using the shadow DOM to change their behavior. You can use it to build entire applications or use it to add an element or two to an existing page.

Features of Polymer:

• Very light-weight as well
• Uses Shadow DOM to change the internals of a component
• It promotes best practices for creating reusable components

Conclusion

Many different front-end JavaScript frameworks are available, each with pros and cons. 

However, the ten best front-end JavaScript frameworks listed above have unique strengths that make them stand out from the rest. 

Whether you’re looking for a lightweight and easy-to-learn or powerful framework that provides a more robust development experience, there’s a front-end JavaScript framework on this list that will suit your needs. 

What do you think other JavaScript frameworks should be on this list? Let us know in the comments.

Featured Image Credit: Junior Teixeira; Pexels; Thank you!

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Most websites are nothing more than static web pages that serve as branded placeholders for companies. However, if you want your website to serve as a powerful tool for generating leads or turning traffic into customers, you have to break through the traditional approach to website design and keep conversions in mind.

The Two Primary Types of Websites

Websites typically exist to showcase a company as an authority in their given field or to get a customer to follow through with a particular action, like making a purchase. The most successful websites manage to keep up a good conversion rate while also showing authority.

In order for a company to achieve authority, their website makes customers aware of the brand and positions them as authentic and trustworthy. You can think of it as a form of digital verification.

When you have a good website, you’re legitimate. On the flip side, if you don’t have a website in this day and age, people wonder why.

Websites that are designed with authority in mind are usually heavy on aspects like logos, content, service pages, and information about the company’s history, vision, and goals. The site is used to build trust and help prospective customers properly vet the business during their search process.

Then you have websites that are designed for the primary purpose of generating conversions. In other words, the website’s goal is to get people to buy a product or book a call with a salesperson. These are action-driven websites with very specific goals and expectations.

Conversion websites include e-commerce websites where customers can make a direct purchase. You’ll also find web properties where the objective is to get a prospect to schedule an appointment on your team’s calendar.

What Makes a Website Convert?

When it comes to designing conversion websites, there’s much less margin for error compared to designing authority websites that are more theoretical in nature. You can’t just sit back and hope that people like your site. You actually have to compel them to take action and part with their resources — most often time or money. And in order to do that, you must be mindful of a couple of important factors.

Friction

Nothing prevents visitors from following through on a specific conversion goal more than friction. In fact, if you assume that 100 percent of website visitors are qualified and interested in the offer, which is only the case in theory, friction is the only thing that will prevent them from converting.

So what is it? Friction can be described as anything that makes it harder, more difficult, more confusing, or more painful for a visitor going through a conversion process on your website. It’s basically anything that makes the user experience less comfortable or gives a visitor reason to pause.

Compulsion

In an ideal world, you have a totally frictionless site. But there’s another element that’s equally important in getting a visitor to convert: compulsion. Your website has to be compelling to the individual; otherwise, they have no reason or desire to take action. You must compel them to make a decision by evoking desire, stoking flames of fear or concern, or somehow showing them that you can solve a problem or help them accomplish a very specific goal.

To summarize, a high-converting website must minimize friction and maximize compulsion. It must plant a seed of desire that compels someone to take action and reduce or eliminate any friction that stands in the way of them actually following through on that next step.

4 Conversion Optimization Tips and Tricks

Understanding the basic foundational principles behind a high-converting website and actually executing are two different things. Here are some very tactical tips you can use to get your website pointed in the right direction.

Use Custom Website Design

You have multiple options for designing a website. The fastest and cheapest option is to use one of those basic drag-and-drop website builders that you see advertised everywhere. And while these tools can help you build a simple site, they’re rarely optimized for conversions. They tend to produce websites more focused on building authority websites.

You can throw up some basic content, create a professional image, and include basic functions like contact forms. Good luck developing a true high-converting website.

The second option is to purchase a template and customize it to your liking. Again, this is fast and cost-effective, but it gives you limited options. You essentially have to fit your square peg into a round hole, which requires compromise.

The third option is to build out a custom website. While it takes a lot more planning and may cost a bit more than using one of the “pre-baked” options, custom website design is always superior. This allows you to work hand-in-hand with a website design team and architect the entire site from the ground up. Many elements can be tweaked down to the individual pixel.

Observe Hick’s Law

Have you ever heard of Hick’s Law? It states that the time it takes for someone to make a decision is directly related to the number of choices the person has. To put it more simply, more choices equals more time. And in the world of websites, more time means less conversions.

This famous research study is the perfect example. In the study, researchers set up two display tables in a supermarket. One table had 24 varieties of jam for sale. The other table had just six. In theory, the table with more varieties should sell more, as it’s more likely to have a jar that appeals to each person. However, shoppers at that display were only one-tenth as likely to buy as shoppers at the small display.

When designing your website, do your best to limit the number of choices people have. Keeping your website focused should be the goal. More specifically, each page on your website should have just one primary call-to-action.

Choose the Right Layout

The overall layout of your website is important. Through the use of heat maps and eye-tracking software, researchers have found that users browse websites in an “F” pattern. They typically start at the top left of the screen, scan over to the top right, and then work down the left-hand column of the page while occasionally glancing back to the right. Mentally overlay a large “F” over any page, and this shows you where visitors are most likely to look.

Prioritize Site Speed

Few things impact a website’s conversion rate quite like website speed. Research shows that 47% of customers expect a page to load in two seconds or less. Those that clock in at 2.4 seconds have a paltry 1.9% conversion rate.

And the numbers get worse from there. If it takes 3.3 seconds for a page to load, the average conversion rate is just 1.5%. By the time you get to 4.2 seconds, it shrinks to less than 1%.

For every one second improvement in conversions, you should expect somewhere around 2% increase in conversions. However, your results might be even stronger. It’s not uncommon for websites to experience 5-7% increases in conversions by reducing page loading speeds by just a couple of seconds.

Reduce Opt-In Friction

Whether your conversion goal is to get someone to fill out an opt-in form in exchange for a free lead magnet or you’re trying to sell a physical product on an e-commerce page, minimizing friction at the point of opt-in is very important. The best way to do this is by limiting the number of fields required to complete the required action.

Create Your High-Converting Website

High-converting websites don’t happen by accident. They require an intentional approach, thorough planning, precise execution, and a willingness to constantly test over time.

In fact, this last part may be the most important. To be successful over a period of many months and years, you have to constantly keep your eyes on the analytics and what’s happening. Based on these insights, you have to optimize and tweak individual elements. Something as simple as rewriting a headline, moving a button, or changing the color on something could be responsible for significant increases in conversions. But you won’t know this unless you track and test.

Use this article to begin thinking more strategically about designing — or redesigning — your website. Remember to work with a custom website designer and to be actively engaged throughout the process. It takes time and effort, but you can build a high-converting site!

Image Credit: CottonBro; Pexels; Thanks!

The post How to Design a Website That Actually Converts appeared first on ReadWrite.

With the developments in the internet, eCommerce and the way we sell goods and services online are changing at all times. Merchants and retailers are investing in eCommerce website development to boost their sales with no geographical barriers. While being familiar with terms like PPC and CPC, and other key performance indicators can let you know where and how your products should be sold online, understanding the fundamentals of eCommerce is important. Here’s a detailed guide on the evolution of eCommerce – a glimpse of its past, present, and future that can help you learn how to sell products and services to your online consumers more efficiently. 

Take a Look at the History of Ecommerce   

Michael Aldrich, an English inventor, is the pioneer of electronic shopping or eCommerce. Aldrich’s system coupled a reformed domestic TV to a simultaneous payment processing computer through a domestic telephone line. This made the private information system open and shareable for external parties, thus, leading to the introduction of modern eCommerce. 

Since then, there was no turning back. The occurrence of significant events has made eCommerce what you see today. In 1994, Amazon was launched as an eCommerce platform for selling books online. Eventually, Jeff Bezos transformed the website into one of the largest eCommerce platforms for all types of products.  

PayPal also entered into the eCommerce industry as a quick money transfer solution for merchants. When PayPal united with the internet banking firm of Elon Musk, it experienced immense popularity as a token eCommerce buying platform.  

Furthermore, Google AdWords was introduced for eCommerce development companies as well as merchants to help them optimize ads for consumers using Google Search. Subsequently, eCommerce businesses started using this tool for running PPC campaigns. 

Several other platforms like Etsy, BigCommerce, Shopify, WooCommerce were introduced that broadened the eCommerce market and create new opportunities for retailers to sell products online. 

Now that we’ve discussed the history of eCommerce, let’s move ahead to the present of eCommerce and see what current trends are. 

What’s the Current Status of Ecommerce? 

• The Global COVID-19 Pandemic 

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has confined many people within the four walls of their homes and shifted regular purchases such as grocery, food, apparel, and entertainment online. This has led to the emergence of many new eCommerce stores which increased the demand for eCommerce website development services. 

Due to this drastic shift, customers spent 791.70 billion US dollars eCommerce businesses in 2020, up 32.4% from 598.02 billion US dollars in the past year, as reported by Digital Commerce 360. The global pandemic has not only changed the consumer buying habits but also transformed eCommerce and the way retailers used to sell products and/or services.  

• Integration of Artificial Intelligence Tools 

With the inception of Artificial Intelligence in the eCommerce world, online retailers have been able to increase business efficiency and reach out to more customers effectively. AI in eCommerce is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. According to a survey conducted by Tractica, it is estimated to be worth $36.7 billion globally by 2025.  

Google searches and Amazon Alexa shopping have made voice assistants an integral part of eCommerce. They allow users to perform product search and communicate with web services through voice commands. Moreover, the technology can seamlessly integrate into smartphones or smart speakers exclusively designed for voice-based interaction. 

Furthermore, chatbot in eCommerce helps customers in making purchase decisions. Chatbots usually communicate with the customer, addressing the common queries via text messages or phone calls. Chatbot integration in eCommerce websites helps businesses to provide assistance to customers 24×7 round the clock. 

• Subscription-based Business Model 

The subscription-based business model is the new trend, greatly used by companies like Netflix, Spotify, etc. Nearly 50% of all online customers have a subscription, and 15% of those are subscription for tangible products. Customers who own a subscription enjoy free or discounted shipping, store credits, discount offers on specific products, and special occasion benefits.   

Amazon Prime is one of the most popular subscription models. Its membership grew to 200 million members in June 2021.  

Future Ecommerce Website Development Trends 

B2B eCommerce sales is predicted to reach almost $1.5 billion in 2021, which 12.2% more from 2012, as eCommerce trends continue to impact the daily operations of B2B firms. In the coming year, eCommerce will experience changes and trends that are going to be very different from the ones in the past. 

1. Green Consumerism 

Since eCommerce is booming rapidly, there is a need for a sustainable and eco-conscious option. Customers prefer products that are environment-friendly. According to GWI, 60% of online consumers say that they are willing to pay more for eco-friendly products. It’s good to see that consumers are becoming more eco-conscious.  

2. AI-Based Shopping 

AI in eCommerce is another popular trend that is revolutionizing the industry. The use of artificial intelligence in eCommerce leads to a more enhanced user experience through personalized shopping experiences. Ecommerce businesses can use collected and processed data to provide personalized recommendations to their customers in real-time and create a more tailored buying experience. AI-based customer journeys create a personalized experiences tailored to the needs and interests of every customer. 

3. Voice Search 

In today’s digital age, we have numerous virtual assistant like the very famous ones Google Voice Search, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and Viv. These virtual assistants enable consumers to use voice commands for searching on major search engines. Voice search is gradually emerging as a trend for eCommerce businesses. According to Google, over 20% of mobile device queries are voice-based. Also, more than 40% of millenarians use a voice assistant to perform searches. 

Ecommerce development companies should consider integrating voice search technology to ensure customers’ loyalty. The implementation of AI can help in understanding the search query and catering to the users with relevant answers or results.  

4. Growth of E-Commerce 

As shoppers are using mobile devices for online shopping, it has led to the rise in M-Commerce. Customers are shopping through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. as these platforms have added “Buy Buttons” to help them buy products/services without leaving the site. Moreover, the one-click option helps customers to make purchases without re-entering the payment details by storing their card info once. 

5. Mobile Wallet and Mobile Applications 

Only creating a mobile-friendly eCommerce websites is not enough. You need to integrate mobile wallet for payment into your website. Not only this, you should also consider building a user-friendly mobile application for your retail business. As the number of online consumers is increasing day by day, they shoppers understand the advantages and prefer to use secure mobile wallets for the payment. So, integrating a mobile wallet into your business website will help you boost your sales. 

Many online customers prefer to use mobile apps for making purchases as they are more convenient, and user-friendly. 

6. Rise in ROPO/ROBO 

Research Online, Purchase Offline (ROPO) or Research Online, Buy Offline (ROBO) is another significant eCommerce trend that has become increasingly popular in the past few years. However, it cannot be considered as the evolution of eCommerce world. It can be seen as pinnacle of eCommerce technologies of the past decade. 

ROBO or ROPO allows customers to search for products and/or services easily and at the best market price. ROPO helps online retailers to keep track of their offline sales conversions. As an eCommerce business owner, you need to make your digital marketing strategies focused around the ROBO approach. With the support of several metrics and CRMs, customer purchase history, mobile payment, and social media integration, you can efficiently meet the needs of ROBO customers. 

Whether you’ve invested in WooCommerce website development, or in Magento eCommerce development, or working with Prestashop developers, incorporating the trend of ROBO/ROPO can help you retain your customers and boost sales with enhanced shopping experience.  

7. Product Customization 

The demand for product customization is increasing in the eCommerce world. It is also one of the emerging technology trends for online merchants. As product customization feature makes customers’ purchases easy and convenient, it can eliminate the complications of online purchases and meet the requirements of today’s customers. 

Automation is also playing a vital role in the product/service customization. For example, YouTube offers recommendations of videos based on the user behavior. The service gets tailored based on the customers’ usage patterns. 

Many businesses worldwide are using this process. From the choice of clothes to entertainment to furnishing, product customization has emerged as the new eCommerce trend. Companies are customizing the products and services to make their customers’ purchase easier and more convenient 

8. Omnichannel Strategy 

Direct-to-Customer brands are redefining customer’s journey by improving engagement and interaction via multiple touchpoints across various marketing channels such as websites, apps, mobile, social media, and even physical stores simultaneously.  

Companies are now able to monitor the onsite and cross-channel user behavior and utilize this valuable insight to cross-sell business products through their inventory. In D2C model, consumers are interacting with brands on different platforms, touchpoints, and channels. Implementing an omnichannel strategy helps brands to track customers’ behavior across multiple channels and platforms. This further helps them to understand their demographics, pages browsed, how long they stay on each page, products or product categories viewed, and so on to gain a better idea about a customer’s purchase behaviors and intent. This information can be used to offer relevant product recommendations to buyers to upsell and cross-sell, thereby boosting the Average Order Value (AOV) for each customer. 

9. Social Commerce 

Social commerce is another eCommerce trend that is becoming popular among customers and brands as it connects them on a single platform. This enables them to engage in meaningful ways and allows customers to discover more and shop seamlessly.  

One of the most effective ways businesses are converting loyal followers to paying customers is through social proof, which involves influencer marketing, reviews, and endorsements. To create a seamless shopping experience with fewer clicks, businesses are making quick payments the essential part of the mobile-first shopping experience. 

10. Video Marketing 

Unlike other forms of content marketing, videos prove to be an effective marketing strategy for promoting your products and attracting new consumers. You can create and place video content on the key areas of your eCommerce website like your homepage, about us page, product pages, etc. as well as on your social media accounts. Unboxing videos, explainers, tutorials, and user-generated content can make your customers understand your offerings and help them make purchase decisions. 

11. Augmented Reality and New Technologies 

In 2022, eCommerce businesses will continue to incorporate new technologies to stay ahead in the market competition. Innovative features like product builders, product visualizers, 3D mapping, and augmented reality help online customers to explore, visualize, and test out products before buying. This prominent product merchandising allows you to recreate in-store experience that many customers crave while offering them an engaging shopping experience. 

12. Customer Journey Optimization 

With the rise in eCommerce website development, eCommerce has emerged as the main customer purchase path for businesses. Therefore, sellers must track and improve every customer touchpoint to stay competitive. For customer journey optimization, you need to focus on improving your product search, building a smooth mobile-first shopping experience, providing product merchandising, and improving your order fulfillment and return processes. 

13. Conversion Rate Optimization 

To run a successful eCommerce business, you must try to grab the attention of buyers from the get-go and eliminate any hurdle in the conversion path. Conversion rate optimization is one of the crucial parts of eCommerce website development and an evergreen eCommerce trend that will help retailers achieve both short-term and long-term outcomes. 

14. Leveraging Marketplaces and New Channels for Sales 

Customers often flock to online marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, industry-specific and curated websites. This indicates a shift in purchasing preferences toward speed and convenience that can be provided by these large marketplaces. So, instead of focusing on sales through your eCommerce website only, you can sell products on Amazon to leverage its wide customer reach and efficient services while maintaining the control and brand experience of your official website. 

15. B2B Ecommerce Trends 

B2B eCommerce has been facing significant changes over time. Today, paper catalogs and complex phone orders are being replaced by completely digitalized self-service shopping experiences, better customer service, and smooth back-end processes. B2B companies are considering updating their eCommerce platforms and benefitting from the latest eCommerce trends for 2022 and beyond. 

As a B2B business, you will need to create digital catalogs, offer B2C-like shopping experiences, and fulfill orders quickly and efficiently to remain competitive. Implementing effective B2B eCommerce strategy can help in boosting sales, increase average order value, and achieve greater customer satisfaction. 

16. International Ecommerce 

International eCommerce involves selling products/services online to customers who live in foreign countries. In fact, there’s no boundary to where you can expand your eCommerce business if there is a good market for your products and/or services. However, any business expansion into a new market needs a lot of resources, time, and effort. 

Both physical and online stores can explore new audiences by incorporating international eCommerce into their business strategy. With an integrated eCommerce solution, businesses can enjoy various benefits such as increased brand visibility and a large customer base.  

17. Multiple Payment Options 

Today’s online customers want the freedom to select their preferred payment option during the checkout process. Ecommerce websites that use diverse payment methods are more likely to build trust, retain more customers, lower cart abandonment rates, and encourage shoppers to purchase more.  

No-interest financing options like ‘buy now pay later’ and fast one-click payment method are likely to become more popular and will be preferred by customers for flexibility with their online shopping. 

18. Purpose-driven Shopping 

Shopping with purposes is one of the emerging eCommerce trends for any mission-led brands. Due to the effects of pandemic, there was a real upward shift in the conscious customer spending index, as people were looking for multiple ways to help people in need. 

The rising influence of important social causes has led customers to shop with a purpose, looking to support communities through their purchases or contributions. 

Be careful about the consequences of inauthentic cause marketing. You must incorporate this trend ethically to support your brand. 

19. Focus on Customer Data Privacy 

Customer data privacy is one of the significant eCommerce trends. Customers are becoming aware of the how brand use their data and their demand for more permission control is being recognized finally. This has led to enhanced user experience around direct control of permissions. Third-party cookies are also getting obsolete now.  

All these changes are going to affect companies that depend on digital marketing. However, you must remember that these challenges are the consequences of consumer demand. So, instead of perceiving increased restrictions around data privacy and control as a problem, rethink it as an opportunity to exhibit brand values through ethical and proper data handling. 

Also, try to focus on ensuring 100% transparency. Tell your users that you are interested in knowing more about them to help them enjoy a useful and personalized experience. In the coming years, zero-party data will be increasingly appreciated, so start planning for its creative collection in 2022.  

20. The Importance of Authentic Content 

Brands are going to accelerate the pace of content creation in 2022. Consumers are looking to engage with brands beyond their products, and content is the most effective way to connect and interact in this manner. 

You need to demonstrate legitimacy with your content marketing efforts to stand out and enjoy the benefits. If you’re a specialist brand, then you can use this opportunity to show your expertise. 

Mission-led brands can use this trend to narrate the story of their purpose and share the impact you are having on social causes and communities. 

21. The Use of Big Data and Analytics in Ecommerce 

The implementation of Big Data and analytics is helping eCommerce business owners stay ahead in the market competition. Big Data is a huge collection of data that companies can use to figure out which product or service, price, and advertising is best to increase their business profits. Ecommerce analytics involves the process of collecting useful data from multiple channels that impact your eCommerce store. You can even use this valuable data to understand shifts in user behavior and online shopping trends. 

Big data resources help in optimizing logistics, supply chain management, inventory, and business operations. This results in enhanced performance and significant cost reductions.  

Some of the key sources of big data include competitor offers, product cost, stock level, sales data, customer data, and all aspects of advertising. They are available in various forms and demand different approach to utilization by eCommerce business websites. 

22. Ecommerce Dropshipping 

Dropshipping is a kind of retail fulfillment approach where the store or the seller can sell products without keeping them in stock. So, as a seller, you can showcase and sell items from your website without essentially having them in stock. 

There are several advantages of dropshipping business model such as zero upfront inventory cost, no stress of handling logistics, and freedom to operate from anywhere.  

The idea of implementing an eCommerce dropshipping business model sounds exciting. However, it involves a lot of hardwork, time, and ability to handle long-term relationships with customers and suppliers. With the support of one of the professional eCommerce development companies, dropshipping can be a great opportunity to build your online business with low maintenance and higher scalability. 

Ready to Transform Your Business with These Ecommerce Trends? 

Over the years, eCommerce industry has gone through different phases, facing various ups-and-downs in the global market. Many more powerful technologies are yet to come in the coming years and disrupt the eCommerce industry. Mobile platforms will continue to be a part of eCommerce business and subscription of products/services will become important in the digital market. There will be a great revolution in the way of online marketing and product showcase. 

You need to make sure that your eCommerce store is prepared for future by incorporating these eCommerce trends within it. In case your store lacks any feature, you should quickly adopt one to stand out from the crowd. Get professional and reliable support of eCommerce website development company in this regard if you are ready to transform your eCommerce business with the latest eCommerce trends for 2022. 

The post Evolution of Ecommerce – A Glimpse of Its Past, Present, and Future appeared first on ReadWrite.

As a new business owner, it’s tempting to limit your focus as much as possible. Instead of hiring 100 new people to train immediately, you can focus on a few and gradually expand as you get more comfortable. Instead of reaching out to multiple different target audiences, you can focus on one market segment and specialize in them before expanding.

Similarly, most entrepreneurs are motivated to focus exclusively on one domain when building their business. But in many ways, it’s better to rely on multiple domains.

How does this play out? That’s up to you. There are many ways to utilize multiple domains in service to your primary business. You could set up separate domains to target different audiences simultaneously. You could use throwaway domains to market specific pieces of content. You can even set up multiple domains with slightly different content angles that complement each other and send traffic back and forth.

In any case, juggling multiple domains is much easier than it sounds and it could be exactly what your brand needs to become competitively dominant – even in your earliest stages of development.

The Benefits of Multiple Domains for Your Business

These are some of the best benefits of using multiple domains for advancing your business:

•       Convenient modern management. You might think that adding more domains to your business’s portfolio will overload or overcomplicate your strategy. But thanks to modern tools like WordPress Multisite, it’s easier than ever to manage domains in one centralized location. With one dashboard, you can keep an eye on several domains simultaneously – and coordinate your strategies between them.
•       Multiple potential streams of traffic. Creating multiple domains means you’ll be creating multiple routes for traffic to ultimately get to your main site, if you choose to use your additional domains this way. for example, you can create a separate marketing strategy for each domain in your portfolio, generating a flourishing stream of traffic for each individual. You can then use interlinking strategies to send traffic between those sites, providing a mutual benefit for each site in your network.
•       Risk diversification. Just like diversifying a portfolio, holding multiple domains is also a form of risk diversification. If all of your content, all of your traffic, and all of your reputation are contingent on one domain staying alive, you’re exposing your business to way too much risk. If your primary brand starts to face reputational issues, if your domain is blacklisted, or some other threat interferes with your ability to run the business, your other domains can serve as a backup – and a way to still capitalize on your existing audience. Obviously, you want all of your domains to survive for as long as possible, but it never hurts to have a thorough and multilayered backup plan.
•       Capitalization on type-in traffic. Don’t underestimate the power of type-in traffic, the traffic generated when people manually type out the name of your domain. Acquiring multiple different domains is a great way to capitalize on different types of type-in traffic. You can purchase domain names that are short and easy to remember, or ones that are targeted to very specific audiences; from there, you’ll have an easy time generating direct traffic.
•       Landing pages and niche appeal. Segmenting your strategy across multiple domains can also help you create more unique landing pages and cater to niche audiences. Rather than serving a generic audience or all of your audience segments at once with a single site, you can create hyper specialized content for your most lucrative audience segments.
•       SEO benefits. Multiple domains can be beneficial for your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy as well. Assuming you’re supporting all of them with a valid content creation and link building strategy, each domain will gradually generate higher authority on its own. Your interlinking strategy will allow you to mutually support each domain’s authority, generate more traffic, and gain more engagement from each visitor. The sum total of these effects will boost the authority of your primary domain, allowing you to rank higher in search engines.
•       Complementary effects. You can use multiple domains to execute complementary strategies and earn complementary benefits. For example, you can use one domain to create high-risk, high-reward assets, while a secondary domain is more cautious and conservative.
•       Experimentation and learning. You can also experiment with almost everything, from web design to marketing, and do it safely with multiple domains. You can take one of your lower performing domains and try and experimental, risky strategy with it; if the strategy doesn’t work out, you’re not out much. If this strategy does work, you can learn from it and apply it to your more valuable domains with a much better understanding of its risk profile.

Tips for Using Multiple Domains for Your Business

Of course, there are many ways to fail while using multiple domains. You could stretch yourself thin, neglecting your main domain and alienating your audience. You could overspend, compromising your ROI. And some of your domains may be total failures.

But these tips will help you make the most of the multiple domains you use in support of your main business.

•       Start small. You don’t need to treat every domain like a new business, nor do you need 400 domains to start. It’s usually better to start small. Acquire one or two additional domains and focus on improving them before you move on. This way, you’ll end up with much higher-quality domains at the beginning of your strategy, and you’ll stand to lose less when you make mistakes. You can always expand more aggressively in the future.
•       Diversify your holdings. Consider diversifying your holdings, the same way you would diversify an investment portfolio to minimize risk. Acquire a mix of long domains and short domains, and cheap and expensive domains. Generally speaking, concise and expensive domains tend to be highly competitive but highly valuable, while their opposites require very little in the way of initial investment, but also have a lower prospective payoff. It’s ideal to build a network with many types of domains, so you can fully realize the strengths and weaknesses of each one.
•       Look for great deals. Keep an eye out for extraordinary deals on domains – SEO-friendly, concise domains that are potentially appealing to unique audiences, yet are still only selling for a few bucks each. This is especially powerful if you’re trying to market to a small, niche audience. There won’t be much competition, so prices will be absurdly low, yet you can still appeal with high relevance to a loyal audience.
•       Always create unique content. Every domain in your portfolio needs to have unique content. It’s not enough do you superficially copy the content from one site onto a new one, nor is it a good idea to stock up on unoriginal filler content for its own sake. The best way to grow a domain from scratch is with the help of high-quality content marketing, and that means drawing up an archive of original work for each domain.
•       Cull the underperformers. Pay attention to how all your domains are performing, and don’t be afraid to cull the underperformers. If a domain isn’t providing the stream of traffic that you wanted, or if its performance metrics continually decline, it may be best to cut your losses and sell it to the highest bidder.
•       Boost your best domains. Conversely, look for the domains that are performing the best and analyze them so that you can learn from the strategies supporting them. Is there a specific type of content you’re creating here that isn’t present elsewhere? Are there specific tactics making this especially effective?

There’s no rule that says you have to have multiple domains serving your business objectives. But it’s becoming increasingly popular, which means it’s transforming into a major competitive threat. In this light, relying on multiple domains is a defensive strategy as much as an aggressive, expansionist one. In any case, when wielded properly, managing multiple domains can increase the amount of traffic you generate, improve your brand visibility, and ultimately increase your chances of business success.

The post The Case for Using Multiple Domains in SEO appeared first on ReadWrite.

If you have an internet-based company, especially an eCommerce site, you’ve probably already spent a lot of time optimizing your website design. Optimized web design, fast loading speeds, and attractive graphics are all part of drawing customers in.

But have you ever thought about taking it further — and making web design an integral part of your branding efforts?

Of course, when most people think of website branding, they focus on the visuals, like making a company logo stand out and color choices. And those are essential parts of a brand, for sure.

But there’s more to it than that. Any interaction between your online company and a customer is really a branding opportunity because branding is all about perception in the public eye.

This means that the overall design of your website is even more important than you thought.

Website Design Aesthetics And Your Brand

As mentioned, one of the first things that people think of when it comes to a brand is the visuals: the logo, the graphics, the colors, the font.

Not coincidentally, visuals are an integral part of your web design, too. Statistics indicate that it takes only 0.05 seconds for a visitor to develop an opinion on your site, which means that the opinion is mainly visually-based. After all, 0.05 seconds doesn’t give them much time to navigate through your pages and see what you have to offer.

Creating an aesthetically pleasing website

For that reason, creating an aesthetically pleasing website should be near the top of your priority list to minimize your bounce rate.

You should also maximize your branding within the website design. Include your logo on each page — the most commonly used location is the top left corner. Utilize your brand’s color palette, and incorporate branded fonts, graphics, and images.

Overall, picture your website as though it is the actual house in which your brand lives. Aesthetically and visually, it should reflect and amplify your brand to truly become the foremost part of your branding efforts.

Related: Design for Startups: The Aesthetics of Web Apps in 6 Questions

Website Optimization and Customer Service

How your website loads and operates is another significant factor in the overall quality of the design.

Again, users form opinions on sites they visit in staggeringly short periods. So if your website takes longer than that 0.05 seconds to load, there’s a good chance that they could bounce right out of there.

Make faster loading time by optimization of images

Optimization of your site, images, and layouts to help to make shorter loading time and increases the chances that your initial visitor will actually get to the site — let alone remain on it. A well-maintained site that respects the time of its visitors will, on its own merits, provide a bit of extra shine to the reputation of a brand.

At the same time, it’s more than just the loading time that provides an actual customer service experience. Make sure to include all vital and relevant information in your layout, including contact information and product listings. Make navigation easy to understand and use. Let your website do the job it is designed to do, and your brand will benefit from it.

Web Design Technology and Impact On Branding

One of the most significant factors for many newer brands is how “cutting edge” the brand is perceived to be. Especially for an internet-heavy, eCommerce-type site, the ease of use and innovations in technology are big draws to new customers, as well as helping the retention of established customers.

This means that keeping your site new, updated, and on the cutting edge, using any relevant technology, gives your brand a significant boost.

Maintain your site with fresh, relevant content and optimize for mobile

This means not only that you maintain your site and include fresh, relevant, actionable, or entertaining content regularly. It also means making sure that you optimize your site for a variety of platforms, including laptops, desktops, mobile phones, and tablets.

Designing for a wide variety of platforms is what enables a brand to reach the broadest range of consumers. Remember that 40% of online transactions this last year were done with a mobile device and the number of mobile users vs. laptop users continues to increase.

At this point, 50% of websites use responsive design, which means that if your site is lagging behind, it could have a significant impact on the perception of your brand.

Related: New Web Development and Design Techniques

Web Design — The New Branding Trend

As web design garners more and more attention, more and more importance will likely continue to be placed on it. And since your website is the “home” of your brand, it makes sense that your web design directly impacts how your brand is perceived.

With attention to the beneficial use of new technology, aesthetics, and overall UX, your web design could be more than just the home for your company. It could be the face, the representation, of your brand as a whole.

Image Credit: RODNAE Productions; Pexels; Thank you

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You need to have a website. There’s no other way to build a successful business in the modern era. But if you’re new to the world of entrepreneurship, you’re quickly going to realize that your website’s design, development, and maintenance are not easy decisions to make.

Do you hire a professional web designer to put together a layout for your website, paying thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege? Or do you try to put together a website on your own with an investment of time only?

DIY web design is certainly appealing, and for more reasons than just the low-cost basis – but most DIY web design projects inevitably fail.

Why is this the case, and can you prevent it?

The High-Level View

Before we can understand the reason why so many DIY web projects fail, we need to understand “failure.” What does it mean for a website to fail?

There are several potential failure points. First, most people want their website to be functional, present their brand in a positive light, and ultimately persuade visitors to take action – like buying a product or filling out a form. Because of this, a website could conceivably fail in any number of ways, such as providing a horrible user experience and ruining the reputation of the brand, suffering catastrophic losses from a cyberattack, or just dealing with a permanently low conversion rate.

Why Most DIY Web Design Projects Fail

The simplest answer is because of inexperience.

There’s a lot to learn about effective web design and development, from the essential components of website operation to the latest trends in user experience. However, if you don’t understand these elements and you try to piece together a website from scratch, even the best web builder in the world isn’t going to help you surmount the obstacles you’ll face.

In other words, inexperience leads to a bad design, leading to bad results.

The Allure of DIY Web Design

It’s no wonder why DIY web design is so appealing. As we’ve mentioned before, it’s much less expensive than designing a website from scratch with an agency.

These days, it’s also easy. There are dozens, or even hundreds of free website builders that promise the experience of designing an effective website in a matter of minutes. Thanks to WYSIWYG editors and helpful guides, even an amateur can get something up and running.

On top of that, DIY web design gives you much more transparency and control over the development of your website. If you’re new to the world of web design, or if you’ve had a bad experience with pro designers in the past, you might be skeptical about what happens on the backend – or you might just want more autonomy over the process.

The Problems With DIY Web Design

DIY web design also tends to be a problem because of the sheer number of things that can go wrong.

For example:

• CMS platforms and choices. There are dozens of viable web builders out there, and hundreds of options for your content management system (CMS). Some of these platforms are objectively and completely better than others. Most of them have unique strengths and weaknesses worth considering; they may be perfect for one type of business, but practically useless for another. The time it takes to exhaustively research every possible CMS, weigh their pros and cons, and come down on the right decision is significant – and it’s not something you can afford to ignore. If you end up with the “wrong” CMS, it could cause a massive ripple effect.
• Cybersecurity issues. Cybercrime is a massive problem you also can’t afford to ignore. Cybercriminals worldwide are constantly looking for easy opportunities to exploit people who don’t follow best practices. All it takes is a single flaw in the design and development of your website, such as a missing patch, a corrupted file, or a lax password, to ultimately compromise your security. If you don’t know what you’re doing, one of these vulnerabilities will undoubtedly rear its head – and it’s only a matter of time before it affects you.
• Templates and resulting problems. It’s natural to gravitate toward template-based designs if you don’t have much experience or want the fastest and easiest web design solution. But templates themselves can present an array of new problems. For starters, working with a template means you won’t have as much control or flexibility as you would creating a website from scratch.
• Core file damage (and inability to recover). What would you do if you accidentally damaged or deleted a critical, core file of your website? A skilled developer would have a backup, or they’d know how to attempt a patchwork fix. However, if you’re inexperienced and unfamiliar with this type of complication, you might end up with excessive downtime – or a totally broken site.
• Lack of direct access to your database. Similarly, if you use a free website builder or a similar platform to construct your website, you may not directly access your database. Again, this may not be much of a problem for simple and small-scale websites. But if you run into issues down the road or want to expand your operation in the future, this lack of access can result in massive problems.
• Improper optimization. Your website might technically work, but is it loading as quickly as your users would like? Is it being loaded properly across different operating systems and browsers? To achieve these goals, you’ll need to optimize design elements like images properly. If you don’t have the skills or technical expertise to accomplish this, you could end up with a clunky (or barely functional) site.
• The possibility of a significant break. You might get lucky and have your website work perfectly fine, on an indefinite basis. But if it suddenly becomes impossible for a customer to buy something in your online store, your entire business model is going to collapse. More than one business has succumbed to significant losses due to extended periods of downtime. You might be able to recover and continue your business once you find the issue and correct it – but that leads to another potential problem.
• General troubleshooting issues. If something does go wrong with your website (and given enough time; eventually it will), do you know what to do? Skilled web developers can usually track down the root cause of the problem and correct it quickly. But with minimal experience backing you, you might be completely unable to resolve the problem on your own. At the very least, you’ll need to hire a professional to help you figure out what’s going on – and that can compromise your otherwise low-cost basis.
• Inability to scale. Finally, building your own website means you won’t have as much flexibility to scale. Most introductory web builders and simple web design tools aren’t made to support large-scale sites with complex functionality and substantial user bases.

Design Isn’t Everything

It’s also worth noting that design isn’t everything. Even if you manage to put together a functional and beautiful website on your own, there’s no guarantee it’s going to be a success. You’ll still need to optimize the site for conversions, invest in marketing and advertising, and continue promoting the site as it grows. It’s certainly possible to DIY everything here – but it’s not easy.

For the most part, DIY web design projects are doomed to fail, in one way or another. The good news is that there are many potential solutions.

You could, for example, invest enough time and effort studying the fundamentals of web design and development to become an expert in your own right. But for most entrepreneurs looking to create a website from scratch, it’s easier to work with a professional agency.

Image Credit: Kaboompics; Pexels; Thank you!

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Whether you’re a graphic designer or just an average web user, the world of web design is a fascinating one. But even acknowledged industry experts will be quick to wish you good luck predicting the future of web design.

Looking at websites from the late 1999s or early 2000s is like a blast from the past. The clunky interfaces, ugly fonts, and horrendous color schemes look objectively awful through our spoiled eyes. However, keep in mind that they were genuinely best-in-class designs for their era.

In 20 years, will we feel the same about the seemingly beautiful websites we enjoy today?

Somehow, I doubt that. But I do know that web design is set to evolve further and in some exciting and significant ways. So what exactly can we predict about the future of web design? And what makes predicting future web design changes so hard in the first place?

Why Making Predictions on the Future of Web Design is so Difficult

Let’s explore why web design predictions are so hard to make.

We don’t have a crystal ball that allows us to gaze into the future. The only way to predict web design trends is to look at historical patterns. After that, we can speculate about the variables that could influence web design and estimate how those influences could impact the future.

Even the best web design experts can only look a few years into the future. Beyond that, we simply don’t know what factors could be at play. For starters, consider the following four factors.

1. Technologies

In 2002, it would have been hard to predict that the future of web design would be governed by the fact that most people now access the web primarily with a mobile device.

Few tech experts could have predicted that mobile devices with internet access would become commonplace just a few years later. Future devices with internet access may enable us to browse the web in new ways. In that case, our web design fundamentals will necessarily shift.

Today, mobile devices demanded more flexible, responsive designs. Some future new technology could force us to rethink our previous principles. Obviously, we simply don’t know what those technologies could be.

2. Consumer Preferences

According to Website.design, another wrinkle is rapidly changing consumer preferences. In 2021, web users will strongly prefer minimalistic layouts, simplistic designs, and muted colors. It would be a bold/foolhardy prediction to speculate that this will eventually shift to favoring cluttered or manic designs. However, stranger consumer preferences have emerged in the past. When it comes to the aesthetic flavors of web design, we’re at the mercy of consumer attitudes — and consumers are notoriously fickle.

3. Major Events

Major world events can also impact web design, at least to an extent. Suppose there’s a radical shift in the government’s influence over the internet or a nationwide internet outage for a prolonged period of time. In that case, it could drastically change how we think about web design — and in unpredictable ways.

4. Push and Pull Factors

Sometimes, designs fall out of favor because they’re overused. Sometimes, new designs emerge simply because influential “cool” brands use them. Push and pull factors are complex and unpredictable, and even minor differences in small variables can add up to have a massive influence over how the future develops.

These four factors notwithstanding — and there are more — we can make at least some predictions about how web design will change in the near and distant future.

Streamlined Coding and Better Design Tools

First, we’ll definitely see improvements in how we can code and design websites from scratch.

Today, almost anyone can easily create a decent-looking website for free using one of several free (or cheap) website builders. These tools use WYSIWYG editors and simple modification widgets so that even amateurs can piece together a website from scratch.

In the future, this will likely become even easier and more accessible. Plus, experienced web designers and developers will probably gain access to even better suites of tools to support their work.

Responsiveness 2.0

One of the most significant leaps forward in web design was the introduction of “responsive” design, which forces elements to shift around based on the size of the device/screen viewing the webpage. But what if we could take this concept a step further? In the future, we could have the opportunity to interact with websites using a variety of high-tech devices, such as smart mirrors or projected interfaces from glasses we wear. Could our current web design adapt to these new types of layouts?

Conversational Designs

Customer engagement is essential for helping your brand grow. That’s why so many modern websites employ the use of chatbots and other forms of immediate user interaction when someone visits the site. In the future, we’ll see even more leaps forward in “conversational design,” enabling customized experiences and more interaction from the outset.

Personalization

Speaking of customization, there’s little doubt the future of web design will depend on greater personalization. Already, companies such as Google and Facebook do everything they can to track your online movements and better understand who you are — all so they can provide better customer experiences. What if you could offer radically different website designs based on the preferences and histories of the people accessing your site?

AR and VR

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have been foretold as total technological game-changers. Unfortunately, they haven’t entirely caught on with mainstream audiences, but their time is coming. Once AR and VR become commonplace, users will expect dynamic interactive experiences from websites in these simulated worlds.

AI and Machine Learning

These days, AI engines and machine learning algorithms are already capable of learning from user engagements on the fly and making adjustments to serve those users better. Therefore, we could see better incorporation of these algorithms into websites in the future. This would allow them to dynamically adjust based on the actions of the people interacting with them.

Greater Security

Security has become an increasing priority for web designers and developers for many years. With hackers and cybercriminals constantly racing to improve their abilities, security experts will have their work cut out for them to keep pace. Obviously, the burden of security will fall more on backend coders and technical service providers than actual designers. However, the whole team will have to pull together to ensure web security.

Incredible Speed

Speed has always been a priority for web designers and developers. As a result, we’ll see better support for rendering, processing, and internet speeds in the future, opening up the door for web designers to get more experimental and include more novel elements in their designs. And, of course, users will benefit from faster loading times as well.

One-Page Websites

Recent trends have pushed web design toward minimalism and simplicity. Modern designers want users to scroll, rather than click. They want fewer elements and more streamlined layouts. In the future, this could evolve further, leading to the common development of “one-page websites,” where all necessary information is compiled in one central location.

Constant Evolution

My most confident prediction is that web design is going to constantly evolve.

There may be a handful of sudden, significant leaps forward. There might be periods of a few years where not much changes. But, for the most part, we’ll see a steady stream of new technologies. We’ll see unique consumer preferences and new cultural trends pushing for web design changes. Each year will see the onset of new trends, the death of old trends, and interesting new ideas that allow us all to progress.

If you’ve spent any time as a webmaster or a business owner with an important website, you know how hard it is to keep up with the latest web design trends. This is because web design principles change so quickly — and in such unexpected directions. But if you want to stay relevant and provide your users with the best possible experience, monitoring these trends is the price you have to pay.

Image Credit: picjumbo; Pexels; Thank you!

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Making a website popular is one of the most straightforward ways to build wealth online. Whether you’re interested in selling a specific product or service or just using advertising to monetize your visitors, if you can make a website sufficiently popular, you’ll have no trouble making plenty of money.

You can always pay to attract visitors to a website. With the help of strategies like paid advertising (and maybe even a bit of bribery), the sky’s the limit for how many people you can attract. Obviously, if you don’t have an unlimited budget, this isn’t really an option for you.

So what if you have a limited budget or what if you’re starting with almost nothing? Is it possible to make a website popular for free?

What Is “Free?”

First we need to dig into the semantics. What exactly is “free?” You might be able to use a strategy to make your website more popular without spending any money, but that usually means you’ll have to spend a lot of time doing it. For example, you could go door to door introducing people to your website one at a time; eventually, you could generate hundreds or thousands of new visitors and you wouldn’t have to spend a dollar to do it, but this would be a total waste of your time.

If you consider time as a cost, then the answer is no, it’s not possible to make a website popular for free. That said, if you consider both time and monetary costs, it is possible to make a website popular for cheap.

Creating a Website

Everything starts with your ability to create a website. You can’t make a site popular if it never exists in the first place. There’s currently an abundance of free website builders that purport to allow you to create your website for free. But this is a bit misleading. While you may be able to build a website without spending any money, there are a number of drawbacks you should also keep in mind:

•       Advertising. Some website builders require you to host their advertising as a form of payment. You may be stuck with a different domain name and you won’t be able to host any advertising of your own.
•       Limited templates. You may also be forced to choose from a small number of different templates as the basis for your site. This may restrict you, preventing you from executing your creative vision for the site. More importantly, because many business owners and webmasters will be choosing from this pool of templates, your site will end up looking unoriginal.
•       Limited hosting and security options. Free website builders also offer limited hosting and security options. By extension, your site may end up with significant security vulnerabilities. It may also fail to perform in line with your expectations.
•       Limited builds. Most free website builders are only effective if you’re creating a simple website, like a blog or informational site. If you need something more advanced, you’ll have no choice but to create it from scratch.

If you want to build your own website, and avoid relying on templates, you can expect to pay at least a few thousand dollars. This is a reasonable cost and a good investment, but it obviously prohibits you from building a website for free.

Free Marketing Strategies

But let’s imagine that your website is already created and you’re not worried about startup costs. Is there a way to make your site more popular for free?

•       Onsite content marketing. One of the best tools at your disposal is going to be onsite content marketing. The basic idea here is to write high quality content that makes your site more trustworthy and authoritative while also attracting new people to your site. You can start with a simple blog, writing articles relevant to your audience and your industry. As you begin to develop a better reputation, your blog readership can grow, and you can start increasing your content efforts, developing white papers and eBooks to invite even more subscribers. Onsite content marketing also has useful synergies with a variety of other inbound marketing strategies, as we’ll see. You can pay someone to write your content and plan your strategy, but this is also a strategy that you could technically do yourself for free, as long as you put in the time and effort.
•       Search engine optimization (SEO). Optimizing your website for search engines is another free way to boost the visibility of your site, if you don’t mind spending the time to do it. Google and other search engines prioritize websites they deem to be trustworthy and relevant to user searches. you can make your site more trustworthy by writing keyword optimized content, making your site more functional and secure, and establishing links with major trustworthy publishers. It’s a long term strategy that takes many months to start paying off, but it’s not exceptionally difficult to learn. If you struggle to take off, you can always work with an agency to increase your chances of success.
•       Social media marketing. Social media marketing is also somewhat free, since you can create your profiles and business pages without spending any money. It’s hard to get organic reach naturally on social media platforms that have paid advertising options, but if you post consistently, you engage with new people, and you get active in local groups, you can facilitate a much better following.
•       Offsite content marketing. Offsite content is the perfect counterpart for onsite content. With the right strategy, you can get articles published with offsite publishers routinely. This way, you’ll get more brand visibility and you’ll have the opportunity to build valuable links back to your site; these links, in turn, will be able to generate both referral traffic directly to your site and higher authority, ultimately boosting your search engine rankings. Over time, you’ll earn a better reputation for yourself as an author and you’ll be able to work with bigger and more influential publishers, expanding your audience in the process. Again, it takes a lot of time and effort – but it doesn’t have to cost you money.
•       Email marketing. Despite countless other digital marketing strategies that have emerged in the past couple of decades, email marketing remains one of the most effective digital marketing strategies you can use. This is partially because of how inexpensive it is. You can create an account with an email marketing platform for free and usually send regular emails to thousands of subscribers for free. As long as your content is interesting and you’re working actively to build out your email subscriber list, you should be able to generate significant recurring traffic and improve the visibility of your site.
•       Networking and referrals. Don’t forget about networking and referrals. It’s free to meet new people and talk with them, and while it can be time intensive, it can also pay off in spades. If you introduce your website to even a handful of new people and they’re all impressed enough to share the website with their circle of friends and colleagues, you could quickly reach hundreds of new people.

Achieving Peak Popularity

Some of your success will depend on factors beyond your control, such as your industry, your timing, and economic conditions. But much of your success will be totally in your hands. Even if you don’t have a significant budget, if you’re willing to invest a little bit of time, you have the potential to make your website much more popular, ultimately attracting thousands or tens of thousands of unique monthly visitors. It’s not something that can happen overnight, and it’s not going to be “free” in the strictest sense of the word, but it is achievable, easily understandable, and appropriate for the majority of websites. 

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Business growth is always a good thing, but it can be challenging to create manageable growth without impacting your business processes and the user experience (UX).

Growing businesses need a robust infrastructure to serve increasing customer volumes and more complex operations. Shopify Plus has been specifically designed to support high-growth businesses ready to scale.

Many businesses think Shopify Plus is limited to enterprise businesses with a global customer base, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. While it may be overkill for startups, Shopify Plus is intended for businesses of any size that are looking at rapid growth.

You can find many examples of small and midsize businesses that put their trust in Shopify Plus and scaled as a result.

What is Shopify Plus?

Shopify is a popular ecommerce platform that offers several plans to suit different business needs. Shopify Plus provides top-tier headless commerce options and offers every feature Shopify has, as well as some exclusive and desirable features of its own.

These features include:

Advanced Scalability

Shopify Plus offers unlimited bandwidth with scalable hosting, which means your ecommerce site is fully supported and flexible to your needs as your business grows.

Global Expansion

Many businesses are realizing the benefits of opening themselves to international customers and shipping. However, switching to international ecommerce isn’t as easy as opening one website up to international customers.

Success on an international scale comes from having dedicated storefronts for each country, all with the appropriate currency, language, and payment options. Shopify Plus allows up to 10 different clone stores in addition to the original so that you can operate up to 11 storefronts from one centralized Shopify Plus account.

Each storefront has its own backend, so you can manage content, orders, and inventory separately and according to the parameters for that country.

Rapid Transactions

One of the most critical aspects of an ecommerce business is a fully operational website. All of the marketing efforts and conversion tactics in the world won’t matter if customers can’t complete purchases on the site.

During busy periods, ecommerce stores can struggle to handle the volume. If your site crashes while people are shopping, it could negatively impact the customer’s impression of your business. In addition, every second of downtime is lost revenue when you’re looking at high-volume sales.

Shopify Plus can manage 8,000 orders a minute and 500,000 hits per minute, so it’s ready for your big sales periods.

Improved Customization Features

Many of the basic platforms offer limited customization options, so brands end up using the same designs or themes. How can you differentiate your brand if your website looks like everyone else’s?

Shopify Plus offers more customization than any other plan. You can make your site look unique without needing a developer and include stylish layouts that represent your brand. If you have coding knowledge, Shopify Plus offers JavaScript and CSS control to modify your pages with ease.

Customizable Checkout Pages

The checkout page is a vital part of the user experience. With Shopify Plus, you can customize your checkout page to reflect your brand and provide the best possible experience for your customers.

Shopify Plus offers a checkout page that’s up to  60 percent faster than standard Shopify checkout rates. When you have a higher customer volume and more orders, a faster checkout process can mean the difference between hundreds or thousands of completed orders.

This not only affects your bottom line, but the experience for a customer. For example, if the checkout page is frustrating or confusing, your customer may not complete the order. Or worse, your customer may not complete the order and may never return to your site in the future.

On most platforms, businesses have to DIY their checkout or hire an agency to optimize it. Shopify Plus also offers virtually limitless checkout customization included in your plan. You can adjust the checkout process to suit your brand and customer needs.

Here are some of the options for checkout customization:

• Shopify Scripts: This feature offers short bits of code to customize different aspects of the user experience. You can use this tool to create a customer-focused checkout experience that decreases cart abandonment and encourages future sales. Scripts require some coding knowledge, but the platform makes it easy to customize the customer fields, payment options, inventory alerts, order processing, order status, and more.

• Shopify Scripts Editor: If you want more customization, Shopify Scripts Editor allows you to personalize the checkout experience with promotions and discounts that trigger for chosen customers. You can schedule sales in advance, so that customers can get promotions and discounts automatically, or organize BOGO and bulk discounts.

• Customer Customization: Cultivating genuine relationships with your customers can be challenging in an online environment, but a customized checkout page lets you tailor the experience according to the customer’s needs. With the ability to identify specific customers, you can add automatic discounts and promotions, such as free shipping or BOGO discounts. You can also tailor the messaging and offer special incentives for VIP customers.

Automated Workflows

Running a business takes a lot of time, to begin with, but it’s more demanding as you scale. You have a lot to juggle and many day-to-day tasks to manage, which can take you away from the overarching core focus of your business.

Shopify Plus was designed to support scaling businesses, so you can benefit from an array of automation capabilities that handle the busy work for you. Shopify Flow lets you integrate and automate tasks like:

• Identifying and canceling high-risk orders

• Organizing products for visual merchandising and search

• Tracking and rewarding top customers

• Notifying customer service of new draft orders

• Hiding, pausing, and republishing products based on availability

• Re-ordering inventory at a predetermined threshold

• Expediting shipping notifications for logistics teams

• Following up with customers after returns and exchanges

In addition, Shopify Plus has a Launchpad tool that automates marketing campaigns. For example, you can schedule tasks like flash sales and product launches, taking a lot of stress and time out of the process. The tool also keeps track of success with real-time analytics so that you can improve your campaigns each time.

Streamlined Integrations

Front-end performance matters for an ecommerce site, but the day-to-day operations behind the scenes can make or break a business. As you scale, managing these background processes may not be sustainable.

Shopify Plus has you covered with integrations for critical systems to reduce costs, improve productivity, and enhance accuracy. High-growth businesses can use tools like OMS and CMS to manage multiple stores, fulfillment centers, relationships, and channels.

The platform can work with most high-growth backend technologies, including:

• Order management systems

• Inventory management systems

• Third-party logistics

• Product information management

• Enterprise resource planning

• Warehouse management software

If these technologies don’t offer the solution you need, Shopify Plus leverages partnerships with some of the world’s best technology companies.

Multichannel Capabilities

Shopify Plus offers more than just an ecommerce platform – it also sets you up for native social selling. The platform connects crucial social media platforms seamlessly, including Facebook Messenger and Instagram, all with a connected front and backend.

With this integration, you can automatically send abandoned cart reminders, promotional codes, and order updates to a customer’s messaging app.

B2B Capabilities

If you’re planning to scale your B2B ecommerce business, you have your work cut out for you. Wholesale B2B commerce orders can comprise a huge chunk of revenue, but managing a wholesale site alongside a retail site literally doubles your tasks and efforts. This isn’t feasible for a business looking to scale.

Shopify Plus helps here too. The platform allows you to integrate your B2C and B2B operations so that you can manage everything from one place. You can also use the automation features to make running your wholesale channel easier.

The wholesale channel is password-protected, so only wholesale customers can log in and purchase. You can also control the rest of the experience and offer special pricing for these customers, tiered pricing levels, volume discounts, and minimum and maximum order thresholds.

Cybersecurity

Malware attacks happen all the time, leaving businesses and customers vulnerable to sensitive data leaks and identity theft. If you experience a breach, you can lose the trust of your customers.

Up to 92 percent of consumers have concerns about making purchases on unfamiliar websites. As a result, security is essential to ecommerce shoppers, and many customers will abandon their cart if something comes across as suspicious before they enter payment information.

On-premise solutions allow you to deploy PCI-compliant storefronts, but at the end of the day, you’re responsible for ensuring compliance as the owner. Concerns about liability and cybersecurity can cause stress and pull you away from the critical tasks for running your business. In addition, testing and deploying security patches take a lot of time and resources.

Shopify Plus is among the best for data and customer security. You can rely on the platform for hosting and protection in compliance with Level 1 PCI DSS, the ultimate in security standards for businesses that handle online payments. In addition, the platform handles compliance assessments and risk management, so you can focus on the tasks that matter most.

While many sites use SSL encryption technology and HTTPS protocols to protect customers’ sensitive information in the checkout process, Shopify Plus protects the entire shopping experience. All payment information is encrypted in transit and, at rest, includes user passwords.

Shopify Plus sites direct traffic through domain-validated SSL and offer customers extended validation SSL for added security. These certificates instill the maximum trust in customers, since they require the most effort to validate.

Shopify Plus Pricing

While most Shopify plans are straightforward with pricing, Shopify Plus can be a little more confusing. No prices are listed, so you have to contact Shopify to get a quote.

Pricing for Shopify Plus is based on usage and sales volumes, meaning that it can vary for each business or month-to-month.

Shopify Plus pricing considers:

• Build costs: Using a pre-designed template is cheaper, but most businesses investing in Shopify Plus are looking for something that’s unique and customizable. As a result, you can expect to pay a third-party design agency somewhere between $30,000 to $250,000 for a site design.

• Licensing costs: The monthly fee for Shopify Plus starts at $2,000 and can go up to $40,000. From there, it increases incrementally after $800,000 in sales, but reaches a limit at $16 million.

• Transaction costs: All Shopify plans have payment processing fees. Shopify Plus has lower fees at 1.6 percent + $0.35 per transaction when using Shopify Payments. With a third-party processor, a 0.15 percent fee is added.

This is a significant investment, but it can be cost-effective compared to other solutions.

Is Your Business Ready for Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus is intended for businesses that are already generating high-volume sales. The features can offer a growing eCommerce business an opportunity to boost growth and sales quickly and automate many processes, but it may not be ideal for all businesses. 

Ultimately, Shopify Plus is the best choice for businesses that want to focus on manageable growth, rather than just maintaining the current sales volume. Businesses that are outgrowing the current platform or struggling with technology issues will benefit from what Shopify Plus has to offer.

Here are some other things to consider:

• Is your business doing $85,000 in monthly revenue, or $1 million a year?

• Are you growing quickly and struggling to keep up?

• Are you expanding globally or planning to in the future?

Get Started with Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is an incredible ecommerce platform that can accelerate a brand’s growth and sustain it into the future. The entire platform simplifies scalability, whether in sales volume or international reach, and allows you to focus on the mission-critical tasks that matter most for your business.

However, the plan isn’t cheap, so it’s vital that businesses only invest when they hit the milestones for sales and growth to make the expense worth the spend. Even if you’re not ready right now, you know what Shopify Plus has to offer when you hit those sales milestones.

Image Credit: Provided by the author; “laptop;” Thank you!

The post From Improving Checkout Experience to User Experience: Here’s How Shopify Plus Helps Expedite Business Growth appeared first on ReadWrite.

We are at the forefront of the digital revolution, with virtually all of us now dependent upon it. Just the use of the Internet and various services related to it, like using a social media platform, has become an integral part of our lives. There are several aspects for which we feel tied to these practices and websites. They are addicted stuff, nonetheless, because of various factors, and design is one of them.

The Importance of Web Design

While for big business and famous websites, the requirement for the design is critical as it must be impeccable. Companies need to think about how and what they need to make their web design stand apart. That is where expertise in web design and development is an integral part. If you plan to launch your business in the UAE or try to make your established business grow, you need to give it every chance to succeed.

And a great design can make all the difference.

Businesses Need to Assess the Demands of their Customers

Think about what you can do to make things work in your favor. Small businesses and start-ups do not have much amount to shell out on the marketing aspect, so getting to know their customers is more important.

Surely web design can help businesses, but to what extent and what precisely is required is the million-dollar question. Think about integrating content and design strategy to make a deadly combo can be a great way to start the proceedings.

Web Design and Content

Taut web designing can never be achieved until you are fully aware of what needs to be done. Likewise, design can never achieve greatness until it is perfectly complemented by content. Design can influence the minds of the visitors of any website, but if done with the conjunction of apt content, it can be the icing on the cake.

Content is perhaps the most important aspect that is ignored by businesses. However, there are certainly some aspects that are truly required to make the design work. For example, description of the products can only be done through content as most people may not be aware of the features of a product. Thus, it would be best to look for something that makes users think of the website exceptionally well to make a great impression. So, of course, the first point of action is to have a great design that makes people remember your business.

Never think of the content that can’t work in your favor. Content is the basis of any website, so that it can work for it regardless of the design. But when the design can complement the content perfectly, the result is a website that can be marvelous, to say the least. But what else can work for a website so that it can get the attention of its visitors in the first few seconds?

It is the use of CTAs that can offer something exceptional to the visitors.

Let me define this aspect in every detail so that you can easily understand my viewpoint.

The Use of CTAs, Perfectly

Call to action buttons or content are used for giving attention to any particular aspect of our website.  There can be several ways to be done, but if you are not aware of how to make it perfect for your website, you will miss a golden opportunity. The use of CTAs can make things easier for everyone to grasp what they are trying to think but Call to Action is something out of the ordinary. And some brilliant approaches can make the work easier for you.

Never assume anything from your side without proper research. Look for something which can attract visitors to no end. Think about the recipe for success, and CTAs can rightly be termed a great way to make things better. The designing of the CTAs is not something that can be perfected overnight. The consultancy from design agencies can offer great support to the business as they look to work on how to make things easy for them.

That’s why you must look for the support of a reputed design (I like dubaimonstersdotcom for good web design), for great effect.

How to Make CTAs Work?

You will find CTA buttons on virtually every other website. But only a handful of them really nails it. Eight out of ten websites you will see will only use a CTA button, but it doesn’t make sense. Or offer them a mediocre or below-average tagline or one-liner with it. That’s why there are several ways to perfect this, but most people don’t know how to do it.

Call to action buttons are all about making things easier for the visitors. When anyone is browsing through a website for the first time, he doesn’t know what to do and where to proceed. A CTA provides them with a direction and makes them go towards a link or web page.

There is no need to mention that everything is done to facilitate the website and the business rather than the customers. But it is done so in a way that it looks like everything is meant for the visitors. And how they can use the website perfectly and according to their advantage.

Design to Impress

The design of the CTA button and whatever content is written on it should be professionally researched before execution. You may think that anything you will white will make the visitors go for it. But even if a visitor is eagerly looking to buy a product, the price and other factors can be against you.

That’s why CTA is used to compile a user’s remains on our website and browse through it. A clever and smart CTA can do a world of good for any website, and the result would be in their favor.

While the shape of the buttons is usually oval or with rounded edges, it is the execution that counts. Never underestimate your customer’s ability to understand exactly what you are trying to sell them and the advantages of buying your product over all the others.

If you think that you can fool your customers and make them buy a substandard product, you may do it for some visitors but not for all. And very quickly, your scam will be detected by all the visitors.

Honesty is the first thing that you must always apply in your business, and the same holds when you offer CTAs, which must be true to the core.

Over to you

What is your experience of using CTAs, design, and content? Please share everything with us so that all the other readers of this blog can benefit.

If you think that you can add something valuable to this blog please do. We can all help each other out in this business. If you want to ask a question, you are more than welcome. Please use the comments section below in this concern.

The post The Importance of Web Design appeared first on ReadWrite.

If you wish to build a retail website that actually converts, you’ve got to move beyond the aesthetics and imagery. According to data, it takes only 50 seconds for a user to form an opinion about your website. Naturally, creating a lasting first impression should be every eCommerce website’s priority.

AI is Changing the Face of Modern Web Design for Retailers

To make a lasting first impression, you’ll want to tap into the true potential of your website, you need to provide an end-to-end simplified and personalized user experience. This is where AI is making its indelible mark. In this in-depth guide, we will deep dive to understand the tips, tricks, and benefits of integrating AI into your website. Let’s jump right in.

How Technology is Transforming the Retail Industry: A Data-Backed Perspective

First things first, it is critical to understand the increasing role of AI in today’s digitally-driven eCommerce landscape. Amidst the fears of physical shopping and social distancing, retailers have adapted to the new normal by integrating a host of intuitive technological features to better cater to their user base’s demands. These include:

• The Powerful Visual Search Technology:

Wouldn’t life be simpler if you could simply shop using images from your web or smartphone? eBay’s powerful AI-led visual search tool allows you to do just that. Its “Image Search” feature allows a consumer to take a photo of an item they wish to purchase or take an existing image from their phone’s Camera Roll.

When they log onto the eBay website, the platform will show listings of visually similar items when compared to the uploaded image. In simpler words, the AI technology reduces the consumer’s effort (and time) to search for products using the right keywords and makes the buying process becomes seamless, quick, and efficient:

Pro tip: This tool can be integrated on the landing page to provide contextual product recommendations to the consumer and address complex user queries visually, within seconds. ASOS also uses visual search technology to make the consumer’s life easier:

• Chatbot technology:

  Chatbots, a.k.a., virtual assistants make use of complex natural language processing (NLP) systems to mimic human interactions and drive more meaningful conversations with users.

  These bots can literally take over a live agent’s workload and assist customers by helping them make purchases, by providing personalized product recommendations, by assisting them in making payments or completing an order purchase, and so on.

  Take a look at Nordstrom’s chatbot, which effectively asks users a series of questions about what they want and then generates custom-made ideas based on the answers:

If data is to be believed, chatbots will drive $112Bn in retail sales by 2023. So integrating this intuitive and intelligent technology into your website design is a must if you wish to retain the competitive edge while adding a ‘personal touch’ to your website.

• Artificial design intelligence (ADI): While still in its nascent stages, the ADI technology can automatically build websites based on the latest UI/UX trends and double up as a virtual web designer for all intents and purposes. This technology leverages key data points such as website analytics, user preferences, product catalog, etc., to come up with a customized theme, content, and color palette. It also uses AI to produce functional and attractive web designs without human intervention. Here’s an example of an ADI design by the web development platform, Wix:

All in all, this data-powered process makes web designing more accessible, quick, and affordable. However, the ability to customize the website might be restricted, making your overall design less unique than human-made custom designs. Additionally, it might lack a seasoned graphic designer’s personal and creative touch, so tread with caution.

Pro tip: If you have an e-commerce website that routinely receives thousands of Request for Quotes (RFQs), you can use the ADI technology to power and optimize your website, and drive data-driven interactions with customers. You can also use this technology if you have a product launch or a new event coming up, and need a microsite to be set up within minutes.

The learning: Considering how Covid-19 has accelerated digital adoption, particularly in the eCommerce sector, it makes sense for businesses to invest in the right mix of AI-driven tools to boost conversions through increased responsiveness, drive user happiness, and deliver a hyper-personalized, engaged, and rich experience to users at scale.

Moving on, let’s understand why AI needs to be integrated into your eCommerce website.

Top-5 Reasons Why AI is the Super-Fuel Retailers Need to Boost Growth

The smart consumers of today demand a customized, features-driven, and optimized shopping experience. This is where a slew of AI tools can lend a helping hand by:

• Enhancing your website’s appearance, usability, user experience, as well as speed
• Optimizing the search abilities–be it visual or voice search
• Enhancing the quality of user interactions and accelerating the query resolution time
• Providing a hyper-personalized user experience based on real-time consumer insights such as spending habits, user behavior, demographics, etc.
• Targeting consumers through strategic digital campaigns and providing in-depth reports on the campaign’s performance
• Acting as a web design diagnostic tool by way of running A/B tests, maintaining high design quality, etc.

These are just some of the important use-cases of how AI can drive user engagement and improve the UI/UX of your overall website design.

The learning: With more and more customers becoming avid online shoppers, owing to the global pandemic, the time is ripe for eCommerce brands to integrate AI into their web designing strategy and provide unique experience to customers while boosting their digital footprint.

How AI can be Implemented into Retail Websites: Useful Strategies & Hacks

In this section, we will highlight key strategies to embrace while implementing AI into your retail website:

#1. Use AI to enable shoppers to discover complimentary products–from size and color to shape and fabric, there are many factors to consider while delivering contextual search capabilities. For example, Pinterest allows users to choose an item in any photograph online. It then showcases identical items using image recognition software:

You can also integrate AI-powered quizzes into your website and provide tailored recommendations based on the user’s inputs as ThirdLove demonstrates below:

#2. Use AI tools to drive informed decision-making on key areas of focus such as design, content, structure, layout, graphics, etc. By empowering a model that analyzes existing websites and encourages real-time suggestions, AI can enable brands to deliver an improved user experience and target the right users at the right time with the right messaging.

#3. Use Artificial Design Intelligence to create smarter websites within minutes, without the hassle of coding. Here’s an example of AI that’s integrated into web designing to provide a clean, functional, and seamless browsing experience by Wix. The platform asks the users a series of questions to understand their website requirements and suggests layouts as well as designs accordingly:

#4. Engage in effective, reliable, and quick quality checks. AI tools can be used to address tedious and repetitive tasks of quality assurance checks. As you can imagine, this leaves your developers with saved time to focus on other areas such as enhancing the existing features or taking care of bugs. Additionally, AI tools can bolster your website’s security, and uphold the privacy and sensitivity of your consumer’s data–one of the biggest concerns among users today.

#5. Personalize the online experience using real-time user data. AI can analyze content as well as consumer preferences to personalize the website experience from start to finish. For instance, Sephora’s Virtual Artist makes use of augmented reality and allows consumers to virtually ‘try on’ products, thereby enabling an informed purchase experience:

This functionality can be integrated into your website’s high-performing product pages to enhance the customer experience, connect better with users, and drive brand loyalty. Today, customer loyalty is no longer restricted to loyalty points and rewards, it is all about driving an innovative and convenience-led experience for the customer.

The learning: AI has doubled up as a crucial web designing tool, assisting eCommerce businesses to leverage technology and improve the user experience via real-time and accurate user data, via contextual product recommendation, via convenience-led voice and search capabilities, and so on. It also does much of the heavy-lifting with respect to key stages and elements of the web designing process such as coding, privacy and security, user experience, quality analysis, among others.

Top Factors to Pay Attention to When Setting Up AI-Powered Chatbots

When you are setting up your own AI-powered chatbot, here are a few important best practices to keep in mind:

• Think about the end goal that the chatbot should achieve–it could be better user engagement, gathering real-time user feedback, analyzing user preferences, providing personalized product recommendations, and so on.
• Strategize and conceptualize your chatbot’s tone of voice as well as personality. Customers do not want to speak to robot-sounding dull bots that answer in one-word or singular sentences. It helps to lend your bot a warm, friendly tone and a quirky/funny personality if your brand positioning allows it. Plus, your chatbot should be well-trained to drive meaningful conversations with the user, drive contextual recommendations, and self-learn with every interaction:

• Keep a backup ready by enabling chat routing to the next available live agent, if the chatbot is unable to effectively address the user’s query. Making the customer wait and then providing incorrect solutions is a complete no-no.
• Use a variety of formats to deliver the message to the user instead of using plain text. You can introduce new products via images or videos as shown below:

You can use GIFs, emojis, etc., and drive engagement by literally speaking in the customer’s language. You can include quizzes to gather user feedback or collect user information on product preferences. The idea is to play with a variety of formats and provide diversity to the onlooker.

• Ensure that your bot is capable of providing multilingual support if you wish to cater to a global audience.
• Integrate your bot with the right messaging channels that your customers frequent such as WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.:

Closing Thoughts

There’s no doubt that AI is disrupting nearly every industry, area, or domain–with eCommerce web designing being no exception. eCommerce brands are beginning to understand the vital role AI plays in augmenting the human effort of designing by taking over routine and repetitive tasks and driving a seamless, personalized and consistent browsing experience. That said, you should brainstorm to understand the key gaps within your website and then strategize on how AI technology can help address the specific pain point. Implementing any and every new AI-driven technology, without strategic thinking, will only make the browsing experience chaotic or worse, senseless.

Article Image Credit: from the author; thank you!

Top Image Credit: kaboompics; pexels; thank you!

The post How AI is Changing the Face of Modern Web Design for Retailers appeared first on ReadWrite.

Magento is the most popular open-source platform for ecommerce stores. You can find some customized features in Magento to develop your online store with all SEO tools. If you want to sell your products from your own ecommerce website then you can choose Magento to develop your online store. 

Magento SEO Tips for Your E-Commerce Website 

Before you develop your online store on Magento, you need to consider the following things: 

• Remove duplicate content from your pages

• Optimize your online store with HTML sitemap

• Use the XML sitemap in Magento 2

• Optimize your product images with the right alt text

• Increase the upload speed of your website

• Change the Robot.txt to Magento 2

• Add proper title and Meta description for each product

• Rewrite your URLs and remove the default store code from URLs

• Add a blog page in your store, where you can share your news and updates

• Use relevant links and optimize your content with proper backlinks

Check out the details below: 

• Avoid duplicate content for your ecommerce

• 

You should not use duplicate content in your ecommerce store. You can add some products in the same category, but there are some variations in colors, sizes and shapes in your products.

So, you need to write a proper description for each product. To avoid duplicate content in Magento, you can use the canonical tags.

Choose the stores option, click on configuration, go for the catalog and change the canonical link tags from your products. 

• Optimize HTML sitemap 

• 

Magento does not create an HTML sitemap automatically, and you need to use some extensions to optimize your HTML sitemap.

There are various extensions available to configure the sitemap. You can try the Dynamic HTML Sitemap for Magento 2.

You can add an external link in your sitemap and you can add your products with comas. Once you configure the XML sitemap in Magento 2, it will automatically update your pages.

In Magento 2, you can click on the stores, go to the settings, click on the configuration, and change the XML sitemap from the catalog option.

If you do not know the coding then hire a Magento developer for your ecommerce website.    

• SEO for product images 

• 

You can use multiple images with your product to attract potential customers. Such images will decide the ranking of your website on search engines and you need to optimize your product images with alt-text.

Do not use multiple keywords as alt-tags for your product images and you should add relevant descriptions as alt-text.

You can change the alt text of your images from your admin panel in Magento. Simply, check your product catalog and double click on the thumbnail of your products and go to their detail page.

Scroll down the page and check your images and videos, and then double click on the images and add alt text in the given field. 

• Increase the upload speed of your site 

• 

The loading speed of your website can have a significant impact upon the search engine ranking and people can wait for few seconds to check your website.

You need to design your ecommerce with lightning speed and you can try the following ways to increase the loading speed of your site: 

• Remove caches from your site. Click on the System, go to the cache management and remove the caches from your site. 

• Enable the flat category for your products and you can find this option under the product catalog. 

• Merge the JavaScript and CSS files from the stores’ option in Magento. Click on the developer option under the configuration of stores and enable the merge option to optimize your website.   

• Configure Robots.txt

• 

Robot.txt can block some of your pages from search engines and you can change the Robot.txt of your pages to avoid indexing in the search engine. For example, if you do not want to index some of your pages or products in a search engine, then you can change the Robot.txt of such pages and add no-follow option.

In Magento 2, you can easily configure your Robot.txt from the general option and you can click on the design and edit the robot.txt according to your needs. 

• Title and description in Magento 2

• 

You can find a default section in Magento 2 to add a title and description for your products.

You must edit such fields and include a description and title with proper keywords. Click on your admin panel, go for the content and design, and configure the description of your products.

You can use 50-60 characters as title tags and the description should be 150-160 characters. Do not use multiple keywords in your description and always use some relevant ones for SEO. 

• Rewrite the URLs 

• 

You need to use some SEO-friendly URLs for your online store. You can rewrite the URLs of your products and pages in Magento 2.

For example, you can use the default setting of Magento and set the URLs for categories like domain/category and you can set a different URL for subcategories like domain/category/subcategory.

Do not use stop words in your URLs like, and, but, or, of, fine etc. Also do not use special characters in your URLs like, ” < > # % { } | \ ^ ~ [ ] ` etc.   

You can go to your admin panel, click on the stores and change the URL from the general section of Magento 2.

You can also remove “index.php” and set up some unique URLs for your products and pages.

You can also enable the search engine optimization in your Magento 2 to set such URLs according to the search engine results. You can simply go to your stores, click on the configuration and enable the search terms from the catalog option.

But, if you have any root file in your Magento then you need to change your .htacess file and you have to hire a Magento developer in this regard.     

• Do not use the default store code

• 

You should remove the store code from your URLs in Magento. You can change this code from your admin panel. You can click on the stores, go for the configuration, choose the general option and click on the web.

You will find URL options here, and you can disable the store code from this section. Once you remove the store code from your URLs, you must clean the cache from your Magento site.  

• Add a blog to your online store 

It is very important to add a blog page to your ecommerce store. You can use the Magento blog extension free of cost and add a blog to your website. You can share your new lunches through your blogs, and you can promote your brands and products in the same way. It will give you a better ranking on search engines. 

• Use quality links for your ecommerce site 

You need to create quality inbound links for your website, which will help you to get high rankings on search engines. You should use your content with proper backlinks and together you should know how to hire a Magento developer (see my post on Medium).

Magento is an open-source platform designed for an ecommerce website and it has all features that can give you the flexibility to design your website. It is free to download and you can check Magento Forums to know about their updates.

You can optimize your online store for search engines and you can design a well responsive ecommerce store on Magento. 

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