Nowadays the size of screens/displays is changing frequently. This change in dimension had a great impact on the web industry. Websites have to keep up with their pace and should be flexible enough to adapt themselves to almost all screen sizes. This approach to designing a website is called responsive design. A responsive website is a website that looks good on every device by adapting itself to any screen resolution, platform, and orientation. The website should respond to user behavior by automatically switching to accommodate for resolution.

All features of a website must adapt to various screen sizes and resolutions providing the customer a seamless user experience irrespective of the device used by them that leads to higher conversions and business growth. The combination of HTML and CSS two languages forms the base of responsive design where HTML oversees the content and structure of a webpage and CSS governs the design and display of HTML elements.

Responsive web designing makes the life of all team members included in the design of a website easier by developing only one website and optimizing it for most screen sizes. It has also saved a lot of money and time for businesses which they have to invest in designing multiple websites for multiple devices.

In the web industry, responsive design is the new standard now as users expect a seamless experience across all platforms and screen sizes which is provided only by responsive websites. Studies have shown that 78.5 % of internet users leave non-responsive websites. If you have a non-responsive website for your business, it will eventually incur a huge loss in your business by losing more than half of web traffic. So let’s discuss the practices to follow while designing a responsive website:

1. Adaptable layouts-use of relative sizes instead of absolute size

Earlier the layout of webpages and the size of every element in it was based on pixels. A static value was set for each element of the layout. Nowadays, designers use flexible grids where dynamic values are used for each element, and the size of these changes as per the size of the screen that is the grid. These dynamic values can be achieved by using either fluid layouts where the value relies on the percentage of the viewport width or flexbox layouts where items can be expanded to fill available free space or shrunk to prevent overflow.

Web layouts are divided into columns, and heights and widths are scaled. They automatically rearrange themselves to fit the size of the screen or browser window. It keeps your site consistent across multiple screen sizes.

In the case of mobile, designers must also make considerations for landscape orientation. Your website must be able to align itself in landscape mode without causing any distortions to its elements and content.

2. Responsive breakpoints- put 2-3 in the design

To provide the best possible user experience, designers make use of breakpoints that help the content and elements of the website to adapt as per the screen resolution. A breakpoint is the width of the screen where developers use a media query to implement new CSS styles.

With the help of these breakpoints, content and other elements like images will not be distorted or cut out while accessing the website on different devices with different screen sizes and resolutions.

These points are defined in the code and the website responds to these points and adjusts itself to a layout perfect for the screen of the device. Developers must also define landscape break points for the website so that when the website is accessed on mobile, it will adjust itself in both orientations that is landscapes well as portraits without causing any distortions to the content and other elements.

3. Responsive typography- don’t ignore it. 

People visit websites for information, content that is not necessarily conveyed by images all the time. Therefore, the content of a website is very crucial and must convey the vision of your business properly. This makes typography, the basis of design. Developers must choose typography that works well and presents the content of the website in an eye-pleasing manner on all screens and device resolutions.

Nowadays, designers of devices use what is called retina technology or hDPI technology where they are reducing the pixel sizes to a greater extent.  Therefore, UX designers must replace pixel (px) with some appropriate unit because one point doesn’t necessarily equal a pixel anymore. Also, pixels have a fixed dimension standard. Designers must use Em or Rem to size the font of the content. These units are based on percentage and are scalable.

While using these units’ font size, the content changes concerning parent container width. In this way, the typography adjusts to screen size and is easily readable on multiple devices.

4. Design for Mobile first

The developer should design a website for the mobile-first because it becomes easy to scale it up for tablets and desktops than scaling down.

The primary focus should be on mobile design as it is more practical and efficient and helps to evaluate the necessary functions. Here, developers design the minimized version of every element and scale it up for the desktop

Also, some visual effects take some time to load, therefore only those that should be taken included in the design are more important and fulfills the primary objective of having a website. Later, other visuals might be added to the desktop or tablet version. In the mobile version, the friction should be eliminated by focusing only on the primary objectives and adding the secondary and tertiary objectives later on in the scaled-up versions.

Also, while designing the mobile version of a website the native hardware of mobiles must be taken into consideration and developers should take advantage of it by photo-sharing on social media, because the media is already on your device, two-factor authentication, quickly checking stocks/analytics, credit/top-up card scanning as forms are often tricky on mobile,  performing web search with voice and many more. At Acmo Network, we ensure that your website design fits the mobile version, because its that handy gadget available 24/7.

5. Media queries 

The instructions used to modify the layout of a website as per certain conditions like screen width, type of browser, etc is called a media query. These instructions check certain conditions like the width of the screen or resolution and accordingly executes a particular and appropriate code. It is an essential part of CSS3 that lets all the elements of a website adapt themselves as per the device on which the website is accessed.

Developers design a website, test them, and see where breakpoints occur. These breakpoints are then planned accordingly with the help of media queries. Some developers may also predict the breakpoint depending on the device resolution rather than testing the website out on various devices. Media queries will help the designers to implement various styles in your website as per the requirements of your business as well as your customers. These will alter parts of the layout or the whole layout of the website to best suit it to various devices and provide a wonderful user experience to the user. Designers use numerous media queries while developing a website based on the unique needs of your design.

6. Design for touchscreens as well.

Not all users access the website using their laptops or desktops, a majority of the website traffic comes from mobile phones that make use of touch screens for access. Nowadays, laptops and desktops come with touch screens as well. Therefore, your website must be responsive to both touchscreens as well as cursors.

Developers have to design an alternative of appropriate size for each element like buttons to press, drop-down menu, and many more for the touchscreens so that all assets of the website are displayed properly on all screens of different devices. Additionally, on touchscreens, things are accessed using fingertips, particularly thumbs. Developers must keep this point in their minds and design a website for thumbs. Therefore, they must increase the size of interactive elements and must introduce more whitespace between interactive options so they are visible and can be accessed by the user without any difficulties.

7. Showing Or Hiding Content

To achieve the best possible user experience, developers need not include every element of the website on every device. They must not copy and paste the website from one device to another. They have to leave some things out for small screens. Website must contain the elements and content that perfectly reflect your business ideas, your way of doing business, and your business values that is essential content they are looking for while using a mobile device. The content must be prioritized and the one that delivers the maximum value to the users should be included in the website. The highest-priority content should be at the top and the content having low priority should be placed at the bottom. To simplify these things multi-device layout patterns include mostly fluid patterns, Column drop patterns, Layout shifter patterns, and Off-canvas patterns.

8. Flexible and responsive Images and videos

Websites are accessed on different devices depending on the availability and convenience of users. Now, either you have to hire developers who will design your website for different devices or make your website responsive and work on all devices. The first method is not effective and efficient and will cost you lots of money. Business owners go for 2nd method as it is very efficient and effective.

In a responsive website, your media like images and video along with your content must be able to adapt as per the screen size of your device. Making images and videos responsive is one of the difficult challenges in the design of a responsive website.

In responsive design, each element of a website is put in a flexible container that can resize itself as the user changes the browser window or switches to another device. The same is the case with videos and images where they are loaded in their original size unless the viewing area becomes narrower than the image’s original width. Either developer writes a code to resize the height and width of the image or they let the browser resize the images as per the need.

Also, developers use SVG(Scalable Vector Graphics) files to resize non-photographic images. These files have a smaller size and can be scaled to any resolution without quality loss.

9. Test Responsiveness

Access your website on different devices and see if it’s responsive enough. First of all, test whether your site is mobile-friendly with Google’s mobile-friendly test. Then, test your site on multiple screen sizes with a tool like Chrome Developer tools. BrowserStack offers numerous latest real devices on which you can check how a website looks, and if it is responsive enough.

These tests will verify what the design will look like exactly to end-users. Also, they will confirm the functionality of your website in real user conditions. If the website doesn’t do well enough in the tests, the developers can tweak the code and try to make it more responsive.

Concurrently we can notice businesses struggle hard to stay afloat in the market of changing demands and requirements. Frequent diversity in the business territory and escalating analysis of technology have upshot the requirement to boost master plan and approach towards success. Frontwards are a few business policies universally pre-owned to beat the hurdles in the dynamic business domain.

Connect with customers.

Knowing your customer in a wholesome manner is prominent to have a strong customer base. Knowing what they want, their preferences and desires, what they are looking for, and their purchasing behavior. Initially, customers used to come to their sellers, but with changing times, we have seen that sellers have to know their customers better due to cut-throat competition amongst the sellers. The market is enriched with hundreds of substitutes for one product or service. Maintaining an enhanced customer base will build confidence and loyalty in them for the brand and give the company free marketing in terms of word of mouth. Even customized services can be offered to customers by their needs and preferences.

Use of social media.

Social media has turned out to be one of the strongest tools in the business development strategy. Mobilizing and publicizing one’s product or service most quickly is made possible by social media tools. Numerous social media platforms allow the sellers to reach their potential customers in particular and the crowd in general. Being true and transparent about one’s service and product also has equal importance in maintaining a loyal client base. Putting up some information on the website and not providing services following that would impact the customer base drastically.

Stay current with technology.

Keeping up-to-date with technological changes is paramount to flourishing in the industry. Keeping a regular track of the technologies needed is important, but staying updated with other technologies evolving in the market can open doors for numerous development and enhancement. Knowing and learning new technologies can help businesses make sound decisions that can further help them to save time, money, and other resources. Updated technologies can help enhance business activities leading to holistic development and a profound market stand.

Change of marketing activities.

Online marketing has brought new horizons of expansion in the business proceedings. Many businesses following the traditional approach to their business operations are now switching to new online marketing techniques. Small businesses are opening new outlets on the online platform and offline retail to compare and analyze their impact on the business. To see what works for the business, what doesn’t work, and what will expand and flourish the business, one has to match and mismatch various marketing strategies continuously.

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Use goal settings to push boundaries.

If one sets the goal at a defined level, it becomes a target to achieve, and thus work gets oriented towards its accomplishment. Clarifying the focus, measuring the progress, and keeping track of achievements seems much more possible with the goal-setting formula. One can even push themselves to work more and work out of their comfort zones to achieve deadlines that are how businesses grow and gain long-term success. Long-term and short-term goals can be set in order with the requirements of the business or even single tasks with a defined target can help the business reach new levels of success.

Graphic designing.

Creating a unique brand image is very important for the business to exist in this ever-growing world. It plays an important role in increasing the value of the company. Brand value initiates whether there will be a potential shift from the audience to the customer. Initially, we need to ensure who is our target audience and what can be the subsequent proceedings. Identifying the characteristics of the customer base that is going to be targeted is very important in building the site. Furthermore, defining the vision and the mission of the brand is paramount to target the right audience. Then one even has to analyze and identify their potential competitors to make an up-to-date approach and not stay behind the competitors as this would eat one’s market size. Then select a unique logo name and design which can communicate to the crowd without any additional definition. Such logos are termed as the best communicators to the viewers. So all over designing should align with what the brand is offering and how it is going to help the target audience. So adopting a marketing strategy with an accurate design and layout leaves a long-term impact on the audience.

T-shirt Design.

Recent years have also seen T-shirt design as one of the widely used marketing tools. Brands have been using innovative techniques to market their products to customers. It even turns out to be a cost-effective method of marketing products and reaching their potential customers. It helps in spreading awareness of the brand when the clients or the employees wear them. It helps people recognize the business and will, therefore, boost the customer base and sales. Whenever the company gives away t-shirts to their clients, it will be a remembrance for the client whenever they see them.

Increasing productivity.

Regularly working on daily tasks and doing them more productively gives great outcomes. Managing time and not procrastinating things keeps the work well on track. People can even introduce certain measures to ensure greater productivity. Employers can introduce a worker-friendly environment at the workplace and provide flexibility to ensure quality work and better employee-employer relationships. The more effective one is, the better management of tasks is performed. The potential of small businesses increases by employing such measures.

Commit to continuous learning.

Learning never has an end and never has an age. Committing oneself to regular learning and diversified learning is going to build prospects for new business ideas. No matter how much a person has gained and achieved, there will always be more and more to explore for greater success. Even if the person does not have time for traditional classroom pieces of training, he or she should continue to learn for their business to thrive. Learning continuously and knowing one’s business environment in and out can be done through various modes like online training, self-paced programs, integrated opportunities, mentoring, and reading as much as one can. Implementing proper time management and devoting time in the right direction will always help in the long run. Learning and development of self always add to that of the business.

9 SEO Hacks for Successful Ecommerce Sales.

It is undeniable that e-commerce platforms became the new shopping trend in the past few years. Now, there are tens and thousands of e-commerce sites online, making a competitive environment for brand owners.

With this tough competition online, you should strive to make your website rank up Google’s SERPs to get noticed by potential customers. This is where SEO services for e-commerce websites come into good use. Incorporating such strategies on your website should increase your position in the SERPs in the long run.

This article will present you with nine hacks to follow when considering SEO services for an e-commerce website.

Research General Information About Keywords.

Keywords are considered the basic foundation for optimizing a website to make it SEO-friendly. As there are different types of keywords, so give yourself time to understand each one so you will know what approaches you can take to apply them to your website. Study basic keyword researches that most people are likely to use for their queries and match them with your business’s product descriptions, titles, etc.

Add Blog Posts to Your Site.

While you can add keywords to your product descriptions, it is much better to have a place to naturally put them, and blog content is a great head start. Take that section as a chance to artfully promote your products and introduce your business, and give your site an opportunity for backlink creations. Engage with other website owners with similar content as yours and arrange exchanged backlink activities, from your site to theirs and vice versa. These backlinks will help you gain traffic from new sources.

Make Use of Long-Tail Keywords.

Long-tail keywords are usually phrases with three to four words that describe something in a very specific way. Most competitors do not focus on this area so you should take this as a chance to get ahead of them and construct product descriptions and blogs containing these kinds of keywords. When correctly done, this will help you earn prospects that are specifically looking for something related to your business.

Keep the Site’s, Architecture Simple.

If your web page’s architecture is very complicated, the web crawlers will have a hard time indexing your web content. Your website will not appear in the search results because bots will not consider your content as relevant, even though it matches a person’s search. Having a simple architecture will help bots to index your site properly.

Check Your Website for Underlying Errors.

Take note that no matter how much effort you put into building your site, it will be all for nothing if your web page has hidden unsolved errors. Make sure that your site is free from errors like broken links and duplicated content because these things will push you further away from being on the top of the SERPs. Have regular checkups on your site so you get to know which areas need improvement and attention.
Remember, an error-free site earns good user feedback and high conversion rates.

Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly.

When you build a website, it is automatically oriented to fit on a desktop screen and not on mobile devices. It is important to customize and optimize your page to make it mobile-friendly. The majority of consumers and web browsers use mobile devices if your website doesn’t fit on their devices, these prospects will refuse to stay on your site and make successful purchases.

Provide Fast Loading Speed on Your Site.

Yes, loading speed does count as a factor for Google SERPs rankings. If Google detects that your site loads way slower than an average website, it will result in penalties and hurt your potential ranking. In addition, consider the fact that most web audience uses mobile devices for browsing. These devices are more likely connected to a 3G or 4G network source than to a Wi-Fi router. This alone should implicate that their connection is slower. You should optimize your website to get it to load quickly even with slow network connections.

Utilize Simple Website Designs.

To simply put it, do not pile up your landing page with unnecessary gadgets and tabs. Be straightforward with your site to avoid confusion among visitors. Provide a simple and clear navigation path so prospects will have a good impression of your site – this will increase potential product sales.

Include Meta Descriptions in Your Web Content.

Meta descriptions are summaries of your web content which can be seen when it turns up on a result page. Most consumers base on these descriptions as to whether that page is what they are searching for. Because this section is short, make sure that you stick with a direct-to-the-point description and be creative to encourage visitor clicks.