Category: Website Design

Web Design Trends For 2018

Posted on March 28, 2018 by - Website Design

web_design_trends_2018

At BTI, we are always on the lookout for the next best thing in design, and we know that design trends often have roots in unconventional means. For example, how does a 2018 runway show impact websites in 2019? How does an update to mobile software manipulate the way we design websites and apps? It is all relevant. Continue reading to see what we’re predicting to be the top styling trends this year:

1. Think Mobile

Studies show that an increasing amount of web surfers are tuning in from their devices, taking part of 52.64% of total online traffic in 2017. Today, all e-commerce sites should be functional from a phone. Customers take action while they’re waiting at a bus stop, on a road trip, while comparison shopping in stores; and your site needs to be ready. Why does this matter? No matter how big or small your company is, it is time to take responsive design seriously. That is – how your website displays across various screen sizes and devices.

2. Duotone And Vibrant Colour Schemes

If you haven’t noticed the rising trend of colorful schemes in a lot of different brands, take a look at Spotify. Since 2015, brands have started maximizing colours in their advertising collateral and brand identities.

Packetlabs IT Security

Lazeez Shawarma

EgWine Co

Spotify

Milk Beauty

3. Big, Bold, Stylized Typography

Retro styles have started to come back into visual design, and typography has become a focal point.

Typography has been playing a significant role in design and most brands use it as a tool to tell a story or to strengthen the brand’s identity. Therefore, we predict that 2018 will be ALL about font treatments. See the 8Faces example below. As the minimalism trend is getting more popular, a lot of designers are having typography  interact with empty space to create a sense of sophisticated quality.

BTI Colours

8 Faces Beauty

Capo Capo

Ours Roux

4. Stylized Illustrations

Illustrations have been a great medium for storytelling and are widely used in different marketing materials.

While photography provides a direct visual of the product, illustrations are great for service-based brands that want to build their brand in a specific way. Creating custom illustrations can be helpful in giving the brand a character that is lively and approachable. As well as being highly customizable and versatile, a touch of illustration can go a long way.

Two Crazy Ladies

Stride

Boulé

Headspace

5. Integrated Animation

Instead of 2D graphics, more and more brands are using small and appropriate amounts of animations on their main page.

They say moving objects catch more attention, and that is true! Studies have found videos get more views and get the passerby to stay longer on the page.

Demac

Maverick agency

Design Better

6. Infographics and Data

Displaying data and results on a web page is a great way to tell customers that “hey, we’re doing great!” Rather than presenting boring numbers and analytics, we see web designers using infographics integrated with slight animation to spice up the visuals. When the content is eye-catching, it will intrigue the viewers to stop and wonder what it is all about.

Neomam Studios

Fire Works (app)

7. Simplicity, Simplicity

Minimalism is in.

It is a secret of designers to play with the balance of empty space and minimal content to create a visually pleasing aesthetic. Without too much distraction, the message that the brand wants to tell can come through strongly and leave a remarkable impression.


Lumina Lighting Sales

Grandir

ManCave

8. Artistic Photography

Photography is still the main source of product advertising that is used in all types of marketing material, from print to digital. It captures the realism of the products with a creative twist that can bring out the personality of the brand. As trust in advertising falls, people are more attracted to imagery that looks real, unedited and natural. That is why we see a lot of playful touches in them, such as 2D graphics and animation integrated with realistic photography or a simple, nicely captured photograph.

Mieu by KOMA

Manduka

Beats

9. Gradients and Colour Blocks

Gradients are making a huge comeback.

They’re bringing a dynamic, strong and playful colour movement into the design scene. A simple gradient background can be the perfect on-trend solution for UI/UX design when you’re going for a simple and sophisticated look yet want to add some dimension to the design. We have seen a lot of brands redesigning with gradient colours on their website, apps, or even logos. They’re not the most print-friendly option – but for business with an online focus – it makes sense!

Elje

Asana

10. 2D And Drop Shadows

Since the trend of simplicity is on the rise, 2D designs are coming back but as 2.0. With minimal colour schemes that are carefully chosen to represent the character of the brand, they are colour blocks, divider, text, and content. With the effect of using subtle drop shadows, it creates a 3D effect that makes the visual come to life. There are more and more brands that are choosing to present their products in the most simple way possible, which is to use close-cut product photography and add drop shadows.

Apple

LAMPS. By Stanislav Myzenko and Prof-IT Company

Sweet Donut by HEZY .org and Hezy Theme

All of the trends we noted above are exciting and beautiful and can be used to tell your brand story in a powerful way.

Do you think your brand could benefit from any of these trends? Get in touch with us today, we would love to talk!

Website Design: Professional vs. DIY

Posted on May 25, 2017 by - Website Design

Small businesses need a website to be their virtual store location to serve clients 24/7. With a virtual space, your business is never “closed”; there is always a way for consumers to find information about your brand from who you are, what you sell, hours of operation, appointment scheduling, to online shopping.

So your website is your brand, and thanks to search engines, potential customers can quickly compare you to all of your competitors to determine with whom they would like to do business. It is easy for consumers to write off your brand simply based on the look, or load speed of your website, so put your best face forward because you don’t get a second chance at a first impression.

There are many tools which allow you to build your own website for dirt cheap, but as the old adage goes “you get what you pay for”. Many of these cheap tools are made for school projects or personal websites but don’t translate well as a professional business website. Like many small business owners, you may believe hiring professionals is not within your budget, but not only can a website be very affordable, but the value of hiring a professional pays for itself.

These reasons explain why your website needs to be built by experts:

1) Branding:
Good branding is Important to your business and marketing strategy. Your website is your brand and should be perfectly branded to represent your business in the best way. From logos to colours and layouts, a website will look professional and stand out in the marketplace when branded properly, and not simply designed to fit a cheap template. You may not have an expertise in graphic design or front-end development, so hiring an expert will save you considerable time in trying to custom design a website to fit your branding.

2) Technical Support:
If you want to add advanced features to your website you need the technical expertise to do them. A website builder or a pre-built website is not able to build advanced features for you. Also, if a feature of your website is not functioning, you will often have to go through pages of forums in order to find the answer you’re looking for, instead of just turning to an expert who can come up with their own solution.

3) Flexibility
A good team of developers can create a website for you that considers future growth and functionality. They will develop the site in such a way that if, in the future, you wanted to add new features to it like e-commerce or forums it can be done in a shorter time at a lesser cost.

4) Cheaper in the Long Term
If you choose the wrong technology on an early version of your website, it will incur costs for you to switch to a suitable technology in the future. Why waste time and money in having to redo everything again in the future? An expert will choose appropriate technologies at the outset and save you from incurring additional costs in the future.

Not only does hiring an expert add a lot of value to your project, but here are some ways which using D.I.Y. tools do more harm than good:

1) Old Technologies
Many website builders use old technologies like Flash. Flash websites are not mobile friendly and many phones can’t even display them. Some website builders don’t produce mobile-friendly websites at all or only have parts of the website responsive.

2) Lack of Flexibility
Some websites are not flexible, as you are limited to the features and allotted number of pages which that software provides. If in the future you need to extend this website, it may not be possible, or, it may cost a hefty amount.

3) Cookie Cutter
Many people are using DIY or pre-built websites, and each of their websites will look just like yours. Often, the template options website builders offer aren’t designed particularly well either. So, your website will not be able to stand out in a crowd and cut through the clutter.

4) Not SEO Friendly
Search engine optimization is a crucial part of the website that can only be done by experts. A website builder does not have the intelligence to do that; it may have a tool or a plug-in, but the information that is input needs to come from someone who has strategically thought about an SEO strategy.

5) Slow Load Times
The DIY website often include lots of unnecessary codes because they are creating a template for generic use instead of designing the site with only your needs in mind. Because of the excess weight, the website is carrying in the form of unused features and plug-ins, your website load speed will be increased which is damaging to SEO and user experience.

6) Deceptive Pricing
These services seem to be cheap but you will be charged extra for each feature you want to add. Some of these services charge you monthly or annually for the website that is built and in the long-run, work out to be more expensive than just working with professionals in the first place.

7) You Won’t Own Your Website
You will not have access to the data or source code of your website because you built it on the website builder’s server and they don’t give you the access to it. If in the future you need to migrate your website to a new server, you won’t be able to do that. This means they own your domain and website.

8) The Site Contains Ads
Visible and hidden notes will be added to your website which indicates that the website is created by that company or website builder.

Web Design is a technical expertise like any other and can be compared to buying handmade, custom furniture vs. DIY box-store products. Yes, there are certain benefits to DIY, especially when it comes to upfront cost, but when you consider quality, longevity, and convenience, some things are better left to the professionals. Are you looking to have a custom website built? Let’s Talk.

The Secret to Site Success

Posted on March 23, 2017 by - Website Design

website_design

With so many designers, agencies, templates, and tools for website design, you can’t help but ask yourself “what’s the difference?”. Is there a value to hiring someone to design your website instead of designing it yourself? Is there a difference in hiring a freelancer vs. an agency?

Yes, it’s true that there are many people out there who have the coding skills necessary to build a website. However, building a successful website takes more than simply coding a website that functions. Here are the important keys to website success that a diligent, experienced agency will offer.

1) Brand Strategy Planning
Your brand is not just your name, your product, or your website. It encompasses all your brand elements and the consumer’s perception and expectations of you. Brand strategy planning considers long-term marketing support for a brand, which communicates its brand identity based on the defined characteristics of the target consumer. It includes understanding their preferences, and expectations of the brand.

A website is only a part of your brand strategy. A website should consider the total brand strategy to ensure that consumers get a consistent brand experience in-person and online. From brand assets to imagery, and tone of voice, all elements of a website should align with brand standards and guidelines.

2) Web Standards
Good web developers must stay up-to-date with modern web standards and practices, and not simply rely on the techniques they are comfortable with. Using latest technologies and standards makes your site clean, fast-loading and search engine friendly. It also leads to a more unique and personalized experience for consumers, as automated and dynamic technologies improve.

3) Right Technology and Framework
There are many options for building a website: Do you want a static website or a CMS system? If you want a CMS system do you want it to be custom built or to use an open-source system? If you want an open source system, there are dozens of options to choose from, each with their own benefits and pitfalls. An expert web developer will first try to understand your requirements and then advise on the best approach for your website needs.

4) Content
Website content is what differentiates one brand from another. When written strategically it drives users to action, which leads to conversions. Professional copywriters will provide this strategy, and deliver marketable content that is on brand and engaging to consumers. Suitable images and videos provide a great way to engage audiences and drive important messages in a format that is skimmable, which requires less effort than reading large amounts of text.

5) Drive Traffic
Expand your visibility by using latest SEO methods. SEO is an important part of website content strategy; it is important that descriptions, tags and keywords are properly implemented onto your site. The site itself should be designed cleanly so that it is simple for search engine crawlers to find the information they are looking for.

6) Measurement
One of the key advantages to websites is their ability to provide measurable interactions with consumers. A good agency has the ability to analyze this data to measure site traffic, quantify conversions, track where visitors are coming from, and understand content effectiveness. These reports lead to future website improvements and, on occasion, can lead to improvements in the business model as a whole.

BTI approaches all of our projects with these high standards, and with utmost diligence, to ensure our clients’ websites are successful. Call BTI now for a free consultation and quote for your website project!

What Is Social Media Marketing?

Posted on January 5, 2017 by - Social Media, Tips & Tricks, Website Design

Is there really a problem with social media marketing? Do you question whether the time, money, and effort you put into social media nurturing is worth it? We believe there is a HUGE problem with social media: the term itself.

“Social media” is an umbrella term that incorporates dozens of websites and apps, each with unique features, benefits, and drawbacks. The problem is that all of these unique platforms are being grouped together and companies feel that in order to have a successful social media presence, they need to be involved in every social media platform.  This stems from the rise of social media in 2006, when to say “social media presence” meant being involved with Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter, which were all of the major platforms.  However, over the past 8 years, there has been rapid growth in the social media industry and dozens of apps and websites now fall under the term, but many marketers are stuck in 2006, when it was the norm to participate in all of them.

How is this a problem? A simple rule of economics is that specialization is necessary for an efficient and profitable economy – the same holds true for social media.

These problems may occur when involved in an excessive amount of platforms:

1) Unique Customer Relevant Content – Customer Presence = Poor Following

You may be providing unique, customer-targeted content for each platform, and spending a lot of time to do so, but since your customer presence may not be strong in all these platforms, the returns and following generated from your efforts and investment may not meet expectations.

2) Reusing = Irrelevant = Inconsistent Following

Another alternative is that you are saving time by posting the same content on multiple platforms, however, customers use different platforms with different expectations. For example, the same post may be very successful on Facebook but irrelevant on Twitter, making your Twitter presence and following suffer.

3) Platform Relevant Content – Customer Relevant = High Following

A third possibility is that you have a strong following in all your social media platforms, and have spent a lot of your budget in doing so. However, the demographics and content of different platforms vary greatly. In this situation, it is likely that content was created to match the audience on each social media channel, rather than to match the company’s target audience. Though following will be high, this does not translate into business because the content is not targeted at your potential customers.

So what is the solution? Strategic social media nurturing! Brands should treat their social media strategy the same way they’d treat any other marketing communication tool. Research each individual platform and strategically plan your approach. Consider the following for each platform: who is the target audience? What are the strengths and weaknesses? What are its unique offerings? Where are your competitors? Can you realistically provide effective content on that platform?

For a great example of effective targeted social media use, look at Apple, who for years only nurtured Twitter accounts. Apple recently joined Tumblr because they felt that Tumblr “separates itself from a creative standpoint”. They specifically use this account to advertise their iPhone 5c because its target audience matches up with Tumblr’s audience; 56% of Tumblr users are under 34, which is the same for the iPhone 5c.

Don’t let social media become a problem. Use effective targeting, strategy and planning to maximize its benefits and minimize waste. If you need a hand in coming up with strong, relevant, targeted social media strategy, we’ll be happy to help.

Fresh Is Best: The Importance Of Staying Up To Date

Posted on December 15, 2016 by - Content, Copywriting, Maintenance, Tips & Tricks, Website Design

You have just made the decision to create a new website for your business. It looks awesome, runs fast, generates additional revenue, and acts as a powerful representation of your brand. Time to unplug the mouse and keyboard and call it a day? Think again.

The key to a successful website with a long life is regular updates and maintenance. A website, after all, is a dynamic product that represents your business, and is really never a “finished product”, as there is always room for improvement. The Internet is an ever-changing environment; with newer technologies and software’s being developed each day, the code behind your website eventually becomes dated. Outdated code can result in performance interruptions over time; some sites can suffer from broken links, slow loading pages, security vulnerabilities, and a plethora of other complications. Performing regular maintenance on your site keeps it running smoothly, and ensures that your customers enjoy a positive website experience.

Being up to date doesn’t stop at back end maintenance; every business can keep their content dynamic by regularly adding blog posts, testimonials, and internal news. You can even link your social media to your website and have it posted for you when you upload new content. This way, customers, clients, and leads that follow you on various social media can be notified when new content is added, thus driving traffic to your site. Got an e-commerce store on your site? Regularly updating products will make your store seem more “kept”, and encourage consumers to regularly visit your website. Having a consistent flow of product updates will give consumers a reason to visit your site and keep current with what you have to offer. The same goes for company news, insights, and updates.

Don’t give your web visitors any reason to feel uncertain. Problems with your website or outdated content can make your brand illegitimate. So regular content and maintenance updates will not only ensure brand legitimacy, but also make your visitors feel comfortable and confident in your brand. Check out Web Toaster’s content marketing packages to help you keep your content fresh, without having to lift a finger. Also, don’t forget to take a look at our “Hosting, Maintenance, & Support” packages for a great night’s sleep, knowing that your website is vacuum-sealed and always fresh.

Fail To Plan? Plan To Fail: The Importance Of Website Planning

Posted on December 4, 2016 by - Content, Copywriting, Maintenance, Tips & Tricks, Website Design

Fail to Plan

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Arguably, one of the most difficult steps in building a website is the planning process.

A good website will take hours of planning, mapping, proofing, and revising. Many small business owners fail to give planning the importance that it merits, and this is where the problems start. Your website is your business’s digital storefront, and its existence is just as important as any other aspect of your business. Therefore, it should be allotted just as much time and attention as you would give any other facet of your day-to-day operations.

Imagine constructing a house with no plans; the process would be full of headaches, messes, and would take much longer than if it was planned out beforehand. The same way, a webpage should be meticulously planned out as well. The planning process generally should involve setting a purpose, a budget, roles, a target audience, organizing information architecture, and content creation. A well-planned website will have a predefined structure before it is built, and will be proofed multiple times before launch. It’s easy to neglect internal projects for revenue-generating work, but the key is to treat yourself as a client and deliver the same (if not stronger) strategy and quality of work that you would for someone else.

Although websites are flexible, and can be changed, poor planning often can result in poor communication, and inconsistent back and forth between involved parties. Sometimes, this can force developers to make assumptions that might not fulfill the vision of the business, requiring them to backtrack and further prolong the process. Web Toaster provides all our clients with an easy-to-use questionnaire, which helps us get a feel for your business, and allows us to tailor your site to your vision. We also provide a straightforward content form, which will help you map your website and each page’s respective content. Web Toaster’s proven method streamlines the planning process down to the last detail, making your website creation an easy and stress-free process.

Time For A Facelift? (Part 1): 5 Reasons To Update Your Website

Posted on November 29, 2016 by - Content, Maintenance, Security, Tips & Tricks, Website Design

Image of 90s Computer Upgrading

Your website advertises you, your brand or business – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Use your site to show off what you do and give people the opportunity to interact with your business. When you have a great site, you become visible to the millions of people who go online every day, connecting with them at any time, and learning more about your business and brand grow. Updating your site isn’t just a facelift, it means updating everything inside and out: your brand, relevance, and security. Stay ahead of the competition and find out why you should update your site:

1) Great Design Matters.

A new design can go a long way for your site. Great design makes it easy for users to find information, learn what you’re about and contact you in a snap. Nothing is worse for your business than a poor first impression with an outdated design, broken links, or difficult navigation. Let users find out who you really are with a great layout, visuals that tell a story about your brand, and an experience that leaves them coming back to visit.

2) Faster Loading Times.

Research suggests that 47% of users expect a site to load within 2 seconds; if more people are leaving your site than engaging with it, this could be a symptom of poor design or a slow web host. Google tends to rank faster loading pages higher on the search engine than slower loading ones. A few tips to speeding up your site can be to get rid of old or unused content, reducing the file size of your images, installing booster plugins, or moving to a content delivery solution (CDN).

3) Finding You Easily with Good SEO.

Don’t you hate it when you can’t find what you’re looking for? So do users. Having good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) makes it easier for users to find what they’re looking for right away and stops you from becoming invisible. Search engines rely on metrics of relevance and importance based on what people do: discover, comment, share, and link to. A well-constructed site allows search engines to crawl your site with greater ease, and improves how users interact with it – contributing to a better overall SEO ranking.

4) Utilizing Online Metrics to your Advantage.

There are many tools that track and analyze incoming visitors to your site. For example, Google Analytics is a free tool and available when you sign up for a Gmail account. Other paid digital marketing tools allow more detailed breakdowns on customer insights, how your products are doing or seeing how your keywords are ranking.

Utilizing online metrics can tell you a lot about users coming into your site, and using this data can help you figure out how to make their online experience better by improving your site. If users are navigating directly to your products page, consider making your home page focus on feature products. Or if the majority of your visitors are using Internet Explorer 8, consider updating your site to accommodate them. Use this information to help understand your clientele better and apply these changes wherever possible.

Use Metrics To Improve Site

5) Boost your Search Engine Ranking with Updated Content.

Great site content helps users connect with your brand and establishes you as an authority in your industry. Consider having a blog with tips or advice, integrating your site with social media, or having a featured page with events, latest news, or media coverage that you or your company has been featured in.

Having an updated site leaves the impression that you’re on top of things and a company that users can trust. Search engines love fresh content; if they see fresh content every time they index your site they will boost your rankings. When a site hasn’t been updated in a while, your ranking may begin to drop for important keywords.

Interested to see how Web Toaster can help you make the best first impression? Then let’s Get Toasting!

Time For A Facelift? (Part 2): 5 Questions You Should Ask Yourself

Posted on November 9, 2016 by - Content, Maintenance, Security, Tips & Tricks, Website Design

Image of a 90s computer being upgraded

Building a website is a daunting task.  This domain of pages essentially represents your business in a big way online, where the world can see it.  So, typically it is critical that your website is always performing and looking its best.  The following are five questions you should always ask yourself before hitting “publish”.

1) What’s Your User Experience Like?

User Experience, or UX, looks at how humans interact and engage with technology, in order to build the best web experience possible. 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience, so it is a very important factor to consider.

Having a great UX means that your site is easy to navigate, users are able to find information easily, and the site is purposely designed to maximize user engagement. However, UX isn’t just a design payoff. According to Jasmine Henry, “User experience carries a significant, measurable ROI for organizations… brands with exceptional UX win repeat visits, and eventually, new customers.”

2) Is Your Site Achieving Great Results?

What is the objective of your website and how does it play into your business or brand? Are you trying to drive sales, generate leads, or establish authority in your field?

If you’re not seeing the results you want, try getting your site audited to see where it’s falling short. An audit can determine why you’re not seeing results you want and suggest ways that you can meet those goals. An audit and update will re-structure your site to align more with your business objectives, while fitting customer needs, and generating the results that you are looking for.

3) Is Your Site Secure?

Updating your site isn’t just about looks, it is about what’s underneath too. Having an updated site means having the latest security patches and bug fixes to keep hackers out and stop them from wreaking havoc on your site. Poor security puts you at risk for losing private customer information when your site becomes compromised. Also, once a site is hacked, viruses can spread easily to other users or even be blocked on search engine sites. After a site has been hacked, it becomes very difficult to recover from.

Website Security

 

4) Is Your Site Mobile-Friendly?

If your website is not responsive, it will not show up as a Google search result when users are browsing on their smart device.

To put this in perspective, in 2014, there were 18 million smartphone owners in Canada and 7.8 million tablet owners. According to the Toronto Star, Canadians spend 33 hours per month online, and almost 50% of that is tied to mobile devices – even more importantly, 1.3 million Canadians a month will exclusively use mobile devices to access the Internet.

If your site isn’t mobile, then you’re invisible to this growing number of consumers!

5) Is Your Site AODA Compliant.

By January 1, 2021, the Ontario government requires all sites to be compliant under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). Although it seems like a long time from now, there are requirements that are currently being phased in.

As of 2016, Public Service Organizations and large companies (that provide goods, services or facilities to third parties and have over 50 employees) are required to have new content and intranet be AODA compliant. Accessibility requirements for these organizations include, but are not limited to: large print, high contrast visuals, and recorded audio captions or descriptions.

Guidelines that dictate these standards are governed by the World Wide Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0). Companies and organizations that fail to ensure AODA compliance are subject up to a $100,000 fine!

 

A Picture Worth A Thousand Words : How To Choose Great Photos For Your Site

Posted on October 28, 2016 by - Content, Tips & Tricks, Website Design

Mosaic of pictures

You’ve probably heard this quote about a million times: “A picture is worth a thousand words”. When choosing images for your site, this statement couldn’t be more true. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, don’t select any pretty picture to go to your site. Think about what you want to say with your photos and how these photos tell a story about your brand.

Want to make the right impression with your photos? Here are some tips to help you out!

1) Choose relevant photography that aligns with your website’s purpose.

As you choose the photos for your website, take a second to think about the purpose of your site and who the audience is. Typically your photos should speak to your target audience while tying into what your business is. Users tend to make a lot of assumptions about images without reading its correlating copy. Choose images that communicate the message you’re trying to convey.

2) Is It Useful?

Choose photos that are simple, self-explanatory, and effectively communicate what the product, service, or site is all about. Photos can help enhance a user’s understanding of your product, so think about the context of the photo: does it help them understand something? Does it teach the user how to use the product? How does it apply to the user or their business?

3) Quality Matters.

One of the golden rules of choosing images is to choose high-quality images. Having small, grainy, and pixelated images on a site can be annoying to downright infuriating depending on your audience. While high-quality images tend to be large, there are numerous image compression sites and programs that can reduce the file size so it doesn’t slow your site down or eat up memory.

When working with images, an important tip is to not stretch the photo. This will destroy the quality of the image. Keep in mind, you can always crop the image to make it smaller, but it’s harder to make a small image larger.

4) Don’t just Google It.

While Google makes it easy to find images, it doesn’t mean that they are free to use and the majority of them are copyrighted. Unless you have permission from the original owner or hold the license that grants the permission for you to use that image, the Google image cannot be used under any circumstances. If you’re caught using a copyrighted image from Google, companies can take legal action against you for unauthorized use of their material and demand a high settlement fee.

5) Use unique photos for your site.

Stand out from the crowd and use your company’s own branded photography. Using actual pictures of your staff, office space, and product shots that tell a story about your brand. If you have to use stock images, not all images are created equal. Expensive stock sites offer pictures with better quality, natural-looking images while cheaper stock image sites tend to have pictures that are more cheesy and artificial. Another great option is using royalty free images which allows you to use the image for free, even for commercial use.

Interested in making the right first impression? Find out how Web Toaster can help you!

No-Stress WordPress: What Makes It A Super CMS?

Posted on October 2, 2016 by - Content, Maintenance, Security, Tips & Tricks, Website Design

A Wordpress Superhero

Every day at Web Toaster, our designers and developers are hard at work creating sites left, right, and center. In order to offer great sites at affordable prices, we build our sites on WordPress because it’s a flexible platform that allows us to customize what you want in the time frame you need.

Here are the reasons why we use WordPress and how it can benefit your business:

1) Easy-To-Use.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to learn how to use WordPress. Bloggers, businesses, and novices alike use WordPress because of its user friendly interface and their all-in-one platform makes it easy for you to manage your site. If you’re posting a lot of content, WordPress makes it easy to post, and schedule them ahead of time.

2) Flexible and Customizable.

As a platform, WordPress can be used for everything to a personal blog, eCommerce site, online brochure, or a personal portfolio. At Web Toaster, we love WordPress because of its endless possibilities for design and different customizations that suit your business needs. WordPress has numerous features and extensions that enhance your site’s functionality and can create the website you’ve always wanted.

3) SEO Friendly.

If you want to aim for the top on Google, you’re in luck! In order for your site to rank high, your site needs to meet various predefined parameters. The more parameters you fulfill, the higher your site ranks in search results. Everything from faster loading times, being mobile friendly, having specific keywords or descriptions all play a part in your Google ranking.

WordPress has the basics covered, already being optimized for mobile, and plugins that can help you monitor analytics and managing your keywords. However, if the basics don’t cut it. The Web Toaster team has got you covered with enhanced packages that can help you outrank the competition.

Interested in what Web Toaster can do for you? Let’s talk!