Dear editor, I would like to suspend publishing this my article for 3 weeks as it has a dependency on my article on another resource. Thank you for the understanding.
How do we know when a user story is « done? » Can we say that the user story is done when it is coded and all acceptance tests for it are passed? Business representatives may say yes, but they do not know all the peculiarities of software development. So, such criteria as quality are not fully visible to them.
Inclusive design is all about designing sites with everyone in mind instead of designing for your own preferences. It’s an essential component in a professional-grade site and the cornerstone of a successful project.
Accessibility (A11y for short) is the technical branch of inclusive design. Accessibility is a science: it knows what markup is required to make the text available to the visually impaired; it knows the minimum button size for someone with limited motor control; it knows how complex navigation can be for someone with cognitive dysfunction. Accessibility is the engine that powers an inclusive design.
Because accessibility is so complex, it takes a huge wealth of knowledge to do it well. Luckily for you and me, there’s now a free resource you can use to brush up on your skills and improve the ROI of your site.
Stark has just acquired a11yresource and relaunched it as the Stark Public Library — reportedly the largest accessibility resource on the web. The library contains around a thousand different resources. You’ll find blog articles, checklists, formal courses, tools, links to web standards, and a whole lot more. As the library grows, the expectation is that Stark will add new features aimed at fostering a community.
Stark is a suite of accessibility tools for designers that integrates with XD, Sketch, and Figma. It’s free to use the basic package, and the commercial plan is $60 per year. The Public Library is free for everyone to access.
The post Stark Launches Public Library For Accessibility first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
The ‘need for speed’ is an essential item on every website’s bucket list these days. And why not? Enhanced speed is directly responsible for converting traffic into paying clients.
Anyone in any industry wishes to boost their website’s loading speed, providing an improved user experience. Plus, don’t forget that escalated site speeds also escalates the website’s ranking to more competitive spots on the search engine result pages and improves core web vitals. So, how can this need for speed be achieved? The answer is image optimization.
Image optimization is a process of delivering superior-quality images in the appropriate format, size, and resolution while keeping them at a compressed size. Image optimization, if done right, improves not only a website’s performance but also certain other metrics like:
However, the image optimization process can be accelerated for better efficiency if some modern tips are followed. ImageEngine, with its years of experience in the image optimization industry, has cherry-picked some tips that can help businesses in the year 2021 and beyond.
In this article, the top five tips to optimize images have been outlined to help you maximize business opportunities. All the tips included are backed by comprehensive research and years of experience in the image optimization industry.
Selecting the right image format matters a lot in the optimization process because every format is meant to serve a specific requirement.
Choosing the right format reduces bandwidth consumption for an improved webpage loading speed. However, a new format has joined the club: AVIF, that covers all the above image formats’ good qualities and surpasses even WebP while maintaining an excellent compression ratio. AVIF provides almost 50% savings in size when compared to JPEG format.
Serving images in the next generation formats like WebP and AVIF is a trending practice these days.
Once the correct format has been selected, it becomes important to reduce the images’ size through a compression method. There are two methods of compressing images:
Image optimization and image CDNs are a match made in heaven. Website images not only need to be optimized but have to be delivered fast and easily as well. An optimized image is of no use if it cannot be transported quickly. An image CDN (Content Delivery Network) takes care of this need. It makes the rapid delivery of optimized images possible by reducing the distance between the online visitors and the servers.
The global image CDN also serves a ton of other benefits like:
The carefully engineered image CDN from ImageEngine distinguishes itself from the rest with its unique features listed below:
The “Leverage Browser Caching” warning displays on the Google PageSpeed Insights tool when there is no caching rule in the place, or the expiration time has been set too low. In simple terms, the warning is a suggestion to improve website speed.
Browser caching instructs the visitor’s browser to save some specific files on the visitor’s local system instead of downloading them repeatedly. For example, a visitor needs to download the logo image of a website on the first visit. However, after every subsequent visit, such a visitor would load the logo file from the website’s local cache, provided that the browser caching has been enabled. The result? Faster loading because the visitor is no longer required to get everything from the website’s server directly. Browser caching can be used for images and many other types of files like statistical resources and object data.
There are many ways to leverage browser caching but simply adding the following lines of code to the .htaccess file is the most effective one:
Browser caching stores the images for a decided interval of time for easy and quick accessibility. A custom timeline or industry standards can be followed for this purpose. The timeline in the above-shared code snippet is one year.
The .htaccess file can be found with the help of an FTP program for connecting to the root directory of the website’s server.
Hotlinking means when an individual or business copies the URL of an image, which belongs to another website, and embeds it on their website. This results in the image being displayed as if it was an owned content. Hotlinking is a next-door neighbor of copyright infringement, but despite this fact, the practice is widespread. In many cases, hotlinking is unintentional, but it can cost the original owner of the image some money. It can even affect the website’s performance if a drain of the server’s resources happens.
If a website has a lot of content and rich images to offer, but a portion of the users visiting the website doesn’t have a reliable internet connection, then this portion of visitors would not convert. This situation is no different than any lost business opportunity. Not all website visitors have access to fast and reliable internet facilities; therefore, it is recommended to optimize image content for spotty connections.
One trusted way of optimizing the images for slow connections is compressing the images appropriately in real-time. However, even before compressing the images, it is important to determine the network speed of users visiting the page and then categorizing them into buckets based on connection types like 4G, 3G, 2G, or slow 2G.
But ImageEngine simplifies the whole compression process. It fetches and optimizes the images in the right format, dimension, and quality directly from the URL and then delivers such images on the website’s front-end via global image CDN.
A lot of traffic arrives from mobile devices, and as such, it is important to have the perfect strategy for responsive images.
srcset attribute: This attribute can be implemented on the img element for defining the images at different sizes so that the browser can select the best option based on the device characteristics like width.
picture element: This is best to be used if different images are required to be displayed based on the device’s display size.
All the aforesaid discussed options offer different ways of displaying the optimized images to visitors depending on how they view the website. MDN’s responsive image guide and Google developer’s image guide can be referred to for learning more about responsive images and using picture elements or srcset attributes.
Images are required to be responsive to deliver the right optimal image for every screen size. It enhances the user experience and reduces load time. According to the browser or device in which images are viewed, images of different sizes are displayed, such as full-size, thumbnail, or featured images. To create a responsive image, you need to have different versions of the image.
The problem is to optimize a high-resolution image that looks great with details while displaying it on mobile devices; details can be missed, so instead of shrinking the image details, consider cropping or scaling down the image for mobile devices.
Advantages of responsive images:
The fundamental of Client Hints is simple — the client through a device sends the server some hints regarding the requirement. The server with responsibility serves them with the right resource according to the hint. For example, with hints, browsers ask the server for 600px images for the device layout — the image to be served based on the requested parameter. Even if the client informs that data saver mode is enabled, the server delivers identical images of a lighter version. The browser and server interact through Client Hints, the job becomes readable, shorter with the same functionality.
Client Hints with ImageEngine
ImageEngine delivers images with the required – width, DPR, and Data Saver. The responsive images are created based on client hints about width and DPR and later cover the Data Saver client hint.
Apple coined the term “retina displays,” which display clear and densely packed pixels to provide perfect vision from an appropriate viewing distance. Now, most smartphones and desktops deliver users a high crispy viewing experience. Apple with Retina squeezed four times the pixels into the same space to create a density of 326 pixels per inch (PPI), making the displays smooth.
Why Optimize Images for Retina?
The average screen pixel density is quite low, so the web-based standard images need to include 72 PPI to cover a certain height and width.
We need to maintain the appropriate density of pixels. Otherwise, the image will cram or get stretched. As a result, a fuzzy image is created with jagged edges that distract the viewer from your brand. To solve the problem, Retina class displays came into the role. They increased image resolution, optimized high pixel density in small space, and even displayed images decently over large screens.
People these days browse from a different device; most users access images from smartphones rather than desktops. So you need to optimize the image for Retina displays.
There are many tips and tricks to optimize images, but of all these tips, using a CDN has proven to be the most effective and long-term solution for many businesses all across the globe. Image CDNs automate the optimization process for a business to focus on its core activities properly. The good thing is that it is not all expensive to integrate image CDN. It is easy to get started with and generates the results in a short space of time.
[– This is a sponsored post on behalf of ImageEngine –]
The post Top 9 Tips For Optimizing Images in 2021 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
Google Fonts is one of the most useful tools designers have, with hundreds of amazing fonts provided for free. But if you just grab one of the top ten suggestions, you’re missing out on a vast wealth of typographic gems.
Just about every font on Google Fonts is worth trying out, but the very best designs — designs that engage, inspire, and delight — combine two or more fonts. It’s the same principle as sweet and sour; two competing tastes that are both familiar and surprising; that’s a good font combination.
But how do you pick out those flavors? How do you know what complements and what clashes? Does Inter work okay with Open Sans? Does Merriweather look good with Roboto?
Well, today we’ve got a deal for you that will answer those questions and more. Our sister site, MightDeals.com, has arranged an extraordinary discount on The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations. To date, it’s the single largest collection of Google font combinations ever produced.
Read on to find out how the PHBGFC will save you time, update your design choices, and keep you inspired throughout 2021 and beyond…
The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations is almost 8,000 pages long. If you use one of the suggested font combinations every week, it will take you 125 years to exhaust it.
We think you’ll agree that that’s a truly preposterous number of design options.
When you visit Google Fonts, you see a nice clean interface, with some dropdowns. You can pick a font. And then maybe pick another. But there’s no real way of discovering, trying out or otherwise selecting font combinations.
The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations changes that by lining up all the possible combinations in an easy-to-browse package.
Step 1: Navigate to the index at the front of the book.
Step 2: Locate a font you’re interested in, in the index.
Step 3: Click the font name to navigate to the corresponding page in the book.
Step 4: Scroll back and forth through the pages to review the possible combinations for your font.
It’s that easy!
The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations lays out all the best Google Font combinations for you — every font included has a regular, bold, italic, and bold italic version — saving you days of hunting through the site hoping to hit upon a combination that works.
The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations isn’t a set of rules or guidelines; it’s a tool to help you make the best design decisions you can make in the shortest possible time.
The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations purposefully doesn’t exclude any combinations — even ugly combinations are deliberately included — so you’re free to compare an unredacted list of font options.
Every design decision you take is yours, but instead of spending hours downloading, installing, and comparing prospective fonts, you can review a combination in seconds.
The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations is an essential purchase for anyone working with Google Fonts. It will save you time and improve your familiarity with one of the web’s best resources.
If you like fonts, then you’re going to enjoy just scrolling through the Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations. It’s a beautifully realized catalog of font options.
Whether you’re a design student, a web developer curious about design, or a seasoned design professional, The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations won’t just save you time; it will help develop your eye for great font combinations.
This incredible resource, designed to help you maximize your use of Google Fonts, will save you hours of fruitless hunting through Google’s UI.
The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations normally sells for $69, but thanks to our sister-site MightyDeals.com, WebDesignerDepot readers can grab it for just $24! That’s a suitably preposterous 65% off the full retail price.
Head over to MightyDeals today to download your copy of The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations and start making Google Fonts work for you.
You have probably read about Kubernetes, and maybe even dipped your toes in and used it in a side project or even at work. But understanding what Kubernetes is all about, how to use it effectively, and what the best practices are requires much more effort. Kubernetes is a big open-source project and ecosystem with a lot of code and a lot of functionality. Kubernetes came out of Google, but joined the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and became the clear leader in the space of container-based applications.
Let’s hear from Gigi Sayfan, author of the bestseller Mastering Kubernetes, Third Edition, about his methodologies and the approach he followed to create a powerful resource to acquaint learners all over the globe with the fundamentals and more advanced concepts of Kubernetes.
Jumpstart your next design project or speed up a workflow with some of these new tools and resources. With so many new tools being developed all the time, you are almost certain to find something that can help you with projects.
Here’s what new for designers this month.
Everypixel Patterns solves a common design problem: Creating seamless patterns with graphic editors is such a long and exhausting process. That’s why some people choose to get patterns from stock websites but that can be a challenge too (and difficult to search). This tool makes getting patterns less time-consuming. It includes a gallery of well-designed content, which you can customize and edit as needed.
Multiavatar is a free and open-source multicultural avatar maker. Type something in the input field and generate one of 12 billion avatars. (Everything is randomly generated and free to use.)
Lobe is a machine learning app from Microsoft that helps you create and train models. Start by showing the app examples of what you want it to learn and it will train a model for you. The tool is pretty easy to understand and you don’t need or experience or code knowledge to use it and you can train an app for free on your computer.
Laser Cat is a silly and fun Google Chrome extension that adds a cartoon cat to your browser that allows you to zap away anything you want to remove in the browser window. It’s light and fun. Go play!
Pattern Collect is a curated gallery of patterns by various designs and illustrators. You can download patterns for use in projects or submit your own to share with the design community. The library is searchable and you can get new patterns via email if you subscribe.
FarbVelo is a color palette generator that shows a new and random scheme with every refresh. The color choices are fresh and could work for a variety of projects, too.
CSS Clip Path Editor is a cool little pen by Mads Stoumann that puts an image inside of almost any clip path you can imagine. There are presets to choose from or you can adjust the settings and paths to create your own image shape.
Responsive & Configurable SVG Waves is a soothing pen by Jhey. Change the background and wave elements for a simple and cool animation in SVG.
Veed lets you host, edit, and deliver videos in the cloud using a REST API. It works on any browser, device, and bandwidth, and keeps your website light, even when delivering heavy video content.
Overlay is a plugin for Figma or Sketch that transforms components and symbols into clean and reusable React, Vue, or HTML code. The benefit? Use it to create more consistent websites and design systems more quickly and in a pixel-perfect manner.
List.js is a library for adding search, sort, filters, and flexibility to tables, lists, and other HTML elements. It is built so that it will work on existing HTML and be invisible. Plus, it is simple to install and use.
Design tokens are a “hot term” says Andy Bell. So, he wrote an explainer that breaks down what they are and how they might look in a standard data format like JSON. Read the explainer and you’ll be able to identify design tokens and understand them.
SVG Path Editor makes it easy to manipulate paths for any SVG element. The grid – if you choose to use it – helps edits stay symmetrical and easy to manage.
Operator Lookup is a practical and fun tool. Enter a JavaScript operator in the search box to learn more about what it does. (You can also choose from a “keyboard” of options.) Thanks for the tutorial, Josh W. Comeau.
Beacon is a tool designed to help you write, run, and share SQL in Slack. It makes collaboration easy so you can work on and run queries, debug, and resolve issues all in a single platform.
Plaiceholder transforms your images into lightweight placeholders using pure CSS or SVG.
Machine Translation is available as Cloud API, on-premise translation server, and SDK that can be easily integrated into lots of business cases. Both solutions work with 110 languages.
Draggable Blend Generator does just what the name implies. Change the blend mode of a background and foreground using a draggable tool so that you can see the changes in real time. Just enter the URL of a background image or pattern and color swatch and you are ready to go.
Jam Wand is a “magic wand” for making changes on your website, starting with copy. Click on any text, edit it, and submit the change to GitHub to be merged into the code. Copy changes as easy as click, type, and click again. (This tool is still in beta.)
Boost UI Kit is a collection of elements and components that will help you finish website design projects using a bright and airy style. It works with Figma for easy integration.
Romanizer is a fun game that tests your knowledge of Roman numerals. With two modes – a randomizer and a challenge you can participate in – you’ll learn to convert numbers visually in minutes.
Itmeo Market is a new online graphics marketplace with exclusive and ready-to-use templates for a variety of projects. Templates include elements for logos, UI kits, graphic elements, Instagram templates, landing pages, and more. (This is a paid/subscription-based resource.)
Bellmoco Handcola is a beautiful decorative typeface with fun swashes and serifs. The free version is for personal use only.
Bondie is a handmade brush typeface with fills in many of the letterforms. It contains 106 characters and is free for personal use.
Bovino has multiple weights that can work for display or body text. The modern serif is free for personal use.
Estilistica is a thin modern style sans serif with smooth lines and a vertical profile. It is best suited for display use and is free for personal use.
Vos utilisateurs et clients sont déjà habitués à utiliser leurs applications mobiles, comme Facebook ou Google Docs, pour interagir et travailler en toute flexibilité. Mais derrière le cloud computing, il y a bien plus qu’une simple interface web moderne. Le temps de réponse, le stockage des données, l’accès aux informations, la fiabilité et la sécurité sont autant d’éléments vitaux pour toute entreprise qui envisage une « migration dans le cloud ». Vos pairs vous auront sans doute parlé des avantages du cloud computing : accès aux technologies les plus récentes, flexibilité accrue et coûts IT réduits.
Le cloud computing propose des services tels que le stockage des données, la sécurité, la mise en réseau, des applications logicielles et de la business intelligence, via internet et sur la base d’un abonnement.
En découvrant peu à peu le monde du cloud computing, vous voudrez sans doute vous familiariser avec certains des mots, définitions et choix qui s’offrent à vous. Vous trouverez ici un assortiment d’informations pertinentes, y compris des explications des termes SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, cloud public, cloud privé, cloud hybride et leurs différences. Le cloud offre de nombreux avantages que nous allons d’abord brièvement passer en revue.
Le cloud computing est divisé en trois grandes catégories de services : SaaS, PaaS et IaaS. Certains fournisseurs combinent ces services et d’autres les proposent séparément.
Avec le SaaS (software-as-a-service), les logiciels sont hébergés sur un serveur distant et les clients peuvent y accéder partout et à tout moment, à partir d’un navigateur web ou d’une intégration web standard. Le fournisseur de SaaS se charge des sauvegardes, de la maintenance et des mises à jour. Les solutions SaaS comprennent l’enterprise resource planning (ERP), la gestion de la relation client (CRM), la gestion de projets, etc.
La plateforme en tant que service (PaaS) est un environnement de développement d’applications basé sur le cloud qui fournit aux développeurs tout ce dont ils ont besoin pour créer et déployer des applications. Avec le PaaS, les développeurs peuvent choisir les fonctionnalités et services cloud qu’ils souhaitent sur la base d’un abonnement ou d’un paiement à l’utilisation.
L’IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-service) permet aux entreprises de « louer » des ressources informatiques, telles que des serveurs, réseaux, du stockage et des systèmes d’exploitation, sur la base d’un paiement à l’utilisation. L’infrastructure est modulable et les clients n’ont pas à investir dans le matériel.
Comparez le SaaS, le PaaS et l’IaaS et découvrez ce que vous pouvez attendre de chaque modèle « as-a-service ». La plupart des entreprises utilisent aujourd’hui un mélange des trois, et les limites entre les trois peuvent parfois s’estomper.
| SaaS | PaaS | IaaS | |
| Qui l’utilise | Utilisateurs Business | Développeurs | Administrateurs système |
| Ce que vous obtenez | Applications logicielles | Plateforme de développement | Ressources informatiques |
| Objectif | Mener à bien des tâches business | Construire et déployer des applications | Accéder en ligne au stockage, aux réseaux, aux serveurs et à d’autres infrastructures |
| Contrôles du fournisseur cloud | Applications, données, runtime, middleware, O/S, virtualisation, serveurs, stockage, mise en réseau | Runtime, middleware, O/S, virtualisation, serveurs, stockage, mise en réseau | Virtualisation, serveurs, stockage, mise en réseau |
| Contrôles du client | N / A – tout est géré par le fournisseur | Applications, données | Applications, données, runtime, middleware, O/S |
Il existe trois types différents de déploiement cloud : public, privé et hybride. De nombreuses entreprises combinent plusieurs approches et mettent en place un environnement multi-cloud.
Comparez les trois différents types de déploiements cloud pour découvrir celui qui conviendrait le mieux à votre entreprise.
| Cloud public | Cloud privé | Cloud hybride | |
| Environnement | Ressources informatiques publiques partagées | Ressources informatiques privées | Mix de ressources publiques et privées |
| Mise à l’échelle automatique | Élevé | Peut être limité | Élevé |
| Sécurité | Bonne – mais dépend de la sécurité du fournisseur | Plus sûr – toutes les données sont stockées dans un data center privé | Très sûr – les données sensibles sont stockées dans un data center privé |
| Fiabilité | Moyenne – dépend de la connectivité Internet et de la disponibilité du fournisseur de services | Élevée – tout l’équipement est installé dans les locaux ou hébergé chez un fournisseur de services en cloud privé dédié | Moyenne à élevée – une certaine dépendance à l’égard du fournisseur de services |
| Coût | Faible – modèle « payez pour ce dont vous avez besoin » et pas besoin de stockage et de ressources sur site | Modéré à élevé – peut nécessiter des ressources sur site telles qu’un data center, de l’électricité et du personnel informatique | Modéré – mélange de modèle « payez pour ce dont vous avez besoin » et de ressources sur site |
| Pour qui ? | Les entreprises qui souhaitent tirer parti des dernières applications SaaS et de l’IaaS flexible. tout en maintenant des coûts bas | Organismes gouvernementaux, prestataires de soins de santé, banques et toute entreprise qui gère un grand nombre de données sensibles | Les entreprises qui souhaitent préserver la confidentialité des applications et des données critiques – tout en utilisant les services de cloud public |
Le cloud est-il vraiment sécurisé ? La sécurité du cloud dépend de la manière dont il a été déployé et des capacités du fournisseur. Mais il a été démontré que, dans la plupart des cas, le cloud offre plus de sécurité que les installations sur site. Il y a plusieurs raisons à cela :
Les départements informatiques subissent une pression croissante pour passer du statut de centre de coûts à celui de créateur de valeur – et doivent maintenant mener la charge en matière d’innovation. Le cloud computing et le Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) peuvent être un catalyseur pour les DSI qui souhaitent maintenir avec succès un environnement informatique bi-modal qui encourage l’innovation rapide tout en soutenant en toute sécurité le noyau stable et critique de l’entreprise.
The post Qu’est-ce que la technologie cloud computing ? appeared first on SAP France News.
The world of search engine optimization was born with all sorts of different hacks and shortcuts that many people use in an effort to grow their business.
Knowing effective SEO tricks would be incredibly profitable, but unfortunately it’s not that easy
This becomes evident as soon as you do a Google search about anything SEO-related, only to find pages and more pages replete with blog posts and videos disclosing all the tips and tricks you “need to know” in order to achieve the best SEO results, in the fastest way possible.
Knowing effective SEO tricks would be incredibly profitable, but unfortunately it’s not that easy.
In its essence, SEO isn’t about hacks, shortcuts, and hidden optimizations, but rather about resource allocation. Keep reading to learn why!
Before we start talking about resources, it’s important to understand why the quick and easy SEO hacks we’ve all read about online aren’t as reliable as they might seem.
The reality is that yes, there are some traditional hacks and optimization tactics that many people swear by. However, SEO has become way too competitive for these hacks to still work.
Think about it: anyone can learn about these hacks and shortcuts in a matter of seconds, which means that anyone can use them, which means that they’re not going to help your website stand out. By way of example, when thinking about keyword usage, many websites simply decide to put them everywhere on their website, without actually planning and strategizing. Perhaps years ago, doing so would lead to excellent results, but that’s not the case anymore.
What I want to go over, and what I mean with this article, is that when developing your SEO plan, you should think less about hacks, and try to focus on strategy and resources instead.
As tempting as they might be, most SEO hacks won’t really go that far.
What does go far are those strategies and resource allocation decisions, which you can master as long as you know three things:
So, SEO is about resource allocation – we know that now…but what exactly does that mean?
Well, this logic is based on something you might have heard of before, and that is the three pillars of SEO.
As a refresher, everything in SEO revolves around three pillars:
Many businesses have a limited digital marketing budget and, as if that wasn’t enough, their SEO budget tends to be even more restricted.
This means that we can’t try every hack out there or do every campaign we can come up with, hoping it will lead to positive results. On the contrary, it means we need to be methodical and understand which strategies have the most potential and are actually worth exploring.
In summary, there’s one big challenge that every SEO team and company experiences, and that is the limitation of resources versus possible operations, and that leads us to a question: what mix of SEO pillars will give us a good shot at ranking high and surpassing our competitors?
The mistake that a lot of business owners make after reading SEO articles or hearing about amazing case studies is that they try and copy the strategies they learned about, from beginning to end.
However, contextually, each case study or article could refer to a strategy that was specifically optimized for a different type of business.
So, although copying what other successful businesses can work in certain situations when speaking about SEO, it’s best to borrow ideas and use the ones that fit your inherent strengths.
Based on the pillars of SEO that we discussed earlier, there are three strong points that a company can have:
Some businesses don’t have the resources to create an in-house content development team or outsource writing services.
However, they have another strong suit, which lies in their ability to go out into their community, speak, and be heard. They can do this because they have built a strong network over the years and, in cases like this, what we often do is use a backlinking approach.
When working with businesses that have a strong community presence, go out and double down on their network. Pitch their relevant contacts for guest speakership and guest posts, building thought leadership, while also driving links to their website.
Right now, some of you might be thinking: “Yeah, well, that’s easy when you’ve built the exposure, but not all of us are lucky enough to be well-known”.
Listen, I get it, we’ve all been in that position.
For clients and businesses that feel like they don’t have the brand equity or exposure to develop a strong backlinking strategy, opt for another route, and invest much more on content (and/or technical SEO, see below).
If the client has a team who’s ready to put its head down and get to work, then focus on producing a lot of content for their website.
Ultimately, the goal is to build a content library that is thorough and expansive, and that provides the client with more opportunities for keyword rankings, while also reinforcing the relevance of their website for those specific SEO keywords.
You may not like (or have time) to write and you may not have a strong community presence, but if you have advanced technical skills and the ability to create a strong website quickly, then there’s another approach you can take.
This leads us into the third pillar of SEO: technical SEO.
This solution is indicated for technical teams that can create large websites, databases and user experiences in no time, and it is typically adopted by tech startups that are trying to create an app that provides user value.
First and foremost, winning at technical SEO requires strong technical skills that will allow you to build the web assets that you need, but that’s not all. It also requires you to understand how you can double down on these skills and manage large websites in the rather complex Google ecosystem.
So you need, for example, to know how you can get Google to notice and properly index the new pages you create on your website, even if you already have 100,000 pre-existing pages.
Or to ensure that each of your new pages is properly optimized for the best keywords.
Needless to say, using technical SEO does become a complex operation. However, when done right, it can lead your SEO to grow by sheer size, with the hopes that certain relevant keywords will start to rank for your business naturally.
When it comes to SEO, honing in on your strengths and accepting the fact that you can’t do everything is definitely the way to go.
When you’re running an SEO campaign, you should always focus on what you’re good at, know your resources, and augment what you already master – and that will put you in the right direction.
By focusing your resources on any of the pillars of SEO (or even a mix of them), you substantially increase your chances of achieving long-term success, which will not happen if you go for hacks and shortcuts instead.
A long-term, highly-organized, resource-allocated SEO strategy won’t only guarantee continuous success, but it can ultimately become self-sustaining, meaning that it will allow you to keep growing and growing, becoming an organic part of your marketing plan.
I’ve seen a lot of people try SEO hacks for two weeks, only to realize that they didn’t work and that their efforts had been in vain.
It’s unfortunate because by doing so, you’re turning your back on a marketing channel that is very valuable to a lot of people, and these hacks trick people into thinking it’ll be overnight.
So remember, resource allocation over hacks and shortcuts!
It’s fun to see new website design tools that reflect current times and the state of the world. That’s very true this month with new databases devoted to diversity and women in technology, as well and resources to make your design life easier.
Here’s what’s new for designers and developers this month:
Ztext.js is an easy to implement, three-dimensional typography tool for the web that works with any font you want to use. With the popularity of 3D effects and animation, this tool has a lot of practical applications. Everything you need, including documentation, is available from developer Bennett Feely on his website and GitHub. (It’s free but you can show appreciation with a donation if you like it.)
Gradient Magic is a free gallery of fun and interesting CSS gradients. You can sort through a random selection or by category of color to find just the right gradient for your project. Some of them would make really neat backgrounds or image overlays.
Impossible Checkbox is a fun little divot that you’ll want to play with and emulate. Click or tap the slider to activate and a nifty little friend pops up. Now here’s the fun part: You can’t leave it checked, and take note of the changing expression of the checkbox character.
Diversify Tech isn’t your average job board; it is a collection of resources – and opportunities – for underrepresented people in technology. It includes a weekly roundup and everything from scholarships, to events, to jobs, to speaking opportunities.
Women in Tech is a list of apps made by women. The apps are ranked and chosen based on upvotes and is a good resource if you want to help support women-owned projects. Search or submit an app for inclusion.
Devello Studio is a tool that allows you to write code in the cloud. You don’t have to install anything and no matter where you are, just can open a project in-browser, and continue development where you had left off last time. Plus, it works with GitHub support built right in.
Hustl is a premium Mac app that allows you to create time-lapse videos of your screen. Use it to show off work or projects or create a cool video for your portfolio. Plus you can use it to capture just one active app so you don’t have to do a lot of editing later.
FeedBaxley is a user feedback tool that helps you (and users) figure out what’s frustrating before it becomes a real issue. You can customize everything to match your brand and set it up with copy and paste tools. Feedback integrates with Slack, making it easy for you to analyze information with a team.
BestTime launched a major update with a new tool that makes it possible to analyze visitor peaks of public business (cafe, gym, etc) for whole areas. Using the heatmap API you can find businesses at popular times, locations, or by business type.
Pixeltrue is a new collection of free SVG illustrations and Lottie animations in a trendy style. They are available for commercial and personal use and add a bit of whimsical delight to website projects. (The error illustrations are particularly fun.)
Previewed has tons of cool and realistic mockups that you can use to create the perfect setting for digital projects. You can find mockups for a variety of devices and cool panoramas that work perfectly for elements such as app store previews.
The Alt Text Overlay Bookmarklet solves a common problem: It shows what images use alt text and what that text is. The tool was created by Christian Heilmann and he’s put it on GitHub for you to play with and test.
MergeURL allows you to merge and shorten up to five links. Enter the links and mergeurl.com/o/xxxxx, for example, will open all the URLs associated with that link. The tool is free to use and you don’t have to register to use the service.
Infinity Search is a new search engine that lets you look for things privately and efficiently. Search the web, images, or videos. Here’s a little about how it works: “While we retrieve results from other search engines like Bing and Wikipedia, we also have our own indexes of links that are displayed in our search results. We are actively working on improving these indexes and they will only get better.”
Blade UI Kit is a set of renderless components to use in Laravel Blade Views. It’s built for the tall stack and is completely open source. It includes 26 components and you can contribute as well.
Trusted News is a Google Chrome extension that uses AI to assist in evaluating the quality of the online content. In its first release, it scores the objectivity for a selected article, testing whether it is written from a neutral perspective as opposed to a subjective one.
BaseDash allows you to edit production data without coding. You can make changes to the database with the ease of a spreadsheet. This tool makes it easy to find and edit information in a hurry. It works with all major databases including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Amazon Redshirt, Microsoft SQL Server, and more.
Email2Go is a service that helps you create email templates and test them on dozens of physical devices and applications. It’s free right now while it is in early release.
The Iconscout Converter allows you to convert icons and images from one file format to another for free. Convert SVG, PNG, JPG, and PDF with a single click.
Shape 2 is a massive collection of 5,000+ unique icons and illustrations with a full-blown web editor. Customize colors, stroke width, size and full variations that can export to SVG, PDF, PNG, GIF, and React. This is a premium tool and includes a discounted release price for now.
Aestetico is a beautiful sans serif that includes a massive family with 54 styles. This premium typeface is highly readable and has modern lines and curves that make it a great option for a variety of uses.
Arcades is a modern display font with a retro, 1980s-style vibe. It includes regular and italic styles.
Brimington is a handwriting style typeface with rough strokes and smooth curves. It includes a set of 227 characters and 219 glyphs in a readable design.
California Signature is a typeface duo with a slab serif and handwriting style that are perfectly paired. The thick and thin options provide a yin and yang effect.
Eastblue is a script typeface with long swashes and interesting curves. It includes a solid character set and is free for personal use only.
In today’s look at the latest research for web designers, we’re going to look at studies and reports from Payoneer, Robert Half, Hootsuite, and Contentsquare to see what they have to say about things like:
Payoneer’s The State of Freelancing During COVID-19 had to take a different approach to reporting on the freelancer workforce than in years passed.
Here’s why:
When 1000+ freelancers around the globe were asked how demand for their services changed during COVID-19, this was the response:
Less than 17% of freelancers experienced an increase in demand for their services and less than 23% saw demand remain the same.
An overwhelming majority of freelancers experienced a shrink in demand, with nearly 29% saying it slightly decreased while almost 32% said it greatly decreased.
However, the data collected wasn’t just assessed on a global scale. Payoneer also looked at freelancing demand trends in various parts of the world:
Notice the differences between Asia and Australia (who were hit with COVID-19 earlier) and North America and Europe (where the pandemic arrived a little later).
It appears as though Asian and Australian freelancers are, economically speaking, already starting to feel the effects of recovery from the pandemic with demand working in their favor.
So, if you’re feeling like there’s no end to the hardships you’ve faced during COVID-19, and were considering dropping your prices, hold on for just a little bit longer. Freelancers are starting to feel optimistic about demand for their services increasing. If you go devaluing yourself now, it’ll be hard to return to where you were before COVID-19 when things get back to normal.
On a related note, let’s talk about demand from the employer’s point of view.
According to Robert Half’s 2020 Salary Guide for creative marketing professionals, there’s big demand for digital talent:
So, that’s number one. We know that almost 50% of hiring managers feel as though their digital teams are inadequately staffed. That’s good news for web designers.
However, these same managers complain about creative marketing professionals’ lack of up-to-date skills as the biggest barrier to hiring or retaining them. Although the report doesn’t say so, I’m going to assume this refers both to employees as well as contractors.
This should be a no-brainer. By keeping up with the latest web design trends and techniques, you can make top-dollar for your services — and hold onto those valuable client relationships for a long time.
According to the report, this is how much you stand to earn working in web design (in the U.S.) today:
If you’re eyeballing those salaries in the 95th percentile, then you know what you need to do. Hiring managers have spoken up about what’s holding them back from hiring.
For those of you who feel as though you’ve gone as far as you can as a web designer, it might be worth exploring a new specialty. Like one of the following:
As you can see, designers in the UI, UX, and interactive space (along with web developers) have the opportunity to make more money, even earlier on in their careers. You may also find that more job opportunities are available as you move into these niches (because of less competition), which might cut down on any demand issues you’ve been experiencing because of COVID-19.
Hootsuite’s Digital 2020 report is always a great resource for learning about social media marketing trends. That said, that’s not why I read it.
It’s for hidden gems like these:
It’s no surprise that we’re seeing changes in retail and ecommerce during COVID-19. What is a surprise, however, is how consumers’ online shopping habits have changed.
Here’s what we’re seeing when we compare 2020 ecommerce data with the pre-COVID benchmarks:
Site visits are 1.7% lower than expected. That would make sense considering how budget-conscious consumers are right now. It likely keeps them from going on unnecessary shopping sprees.
Session durations are 3.3% lower. This could be related to fewer site visits. It might also indicate greater consumer confidence. If they come to a website with a plan for what they need to buy, they’re going to take a straight line to conversion instead of spending time window shopping that prolongs their session.
The number of transactions is 19.1% higher and the conversion rate is 21.6% higher. Considering shoppers aren’t spending as much time with ecommerce websites, this point suggests that there’s a massive shift happening from in-store shopping to online shopping.
If that’s the case (even if consumers are currently spending less money), that means web designers need to set their sights on the ecommerce space. With the holiday shopping season expected to start sooner rather than later this year, now is the time to get in there and make sure these sites provide as streamlined an experience as possible.
Contentsquare analyzed more than 7 billion user sessions globally to create the 2020 Digital Experience Benchmarks report.
There’s some interesting data in here about website traffic and conversion trends, but what I find the most valuable is the breakdown by industry.
It was this chart, in particular, that really caught my eye:
According to Contentsquare’s data, between 60% and 75% of a website’s content is unseen. Some industries fare better than others, like home supplies and luxury retailer websites, but the numbers still aren’t flattering.
For example, what does it mean when consumers miss 75% of a financial service provider’s content?
Does this mean that the financial advisory content — which I’m assuming comprises the bulk of the pages on the site — is useless or irrelevant? Or perhaps it’s an issue of discoverability since blog content and other resources often take a backseat to service and product promotion?
What about ecommerce brands in the apparel or beauty space?
If two-thirds of their pages are unseen, does that mean their websites are overrun with obsolete inventory? Or, again, is it an issue of navigability and discoverability around the store?
As a web designer, I’d suggest performing your own unseen content analysis on the websites you’ve built. If over 60% of your pages never get any views, you’re going to have to decide what to do with them:
Option 1: Fix the navigation or search function so people can actually find these unseen pages.
Option 2: Remove them from the site and make room for content your visitors actually find valuable.
As you encounter research and reports online — whether it’s written specifically for web designers or other creative professionals — spend some time looking for hidden gems.
As you can see above, there’s a ton of relevant research for web designers out there, even if it’s hiding behind the mask of a larger issue or matter. And it’s this data that will help you get a leg up on the competition since it’ll get you thinking about your business and your approach to design in different ways.
