The pop culture quote “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply to the internet. Just because you have a website published doesn’t mean people will be able to find you. It takes the right approach, the right platform, and a strategy for SEO.

That’s why businesses that are serious about growing take advantage of a WordPress Specialist. These gurus know how to build an aesthetic website that is easy to find, easy to navigate, and generates qualified leads for your business.

How do they do it? And is it really worth the investment? We certainly think so! But you should decide for yourself after reading these 5 highlights of hiring a web designer trained in WordPress:

The Advantages of Hiring a WordPress Specialist

Did you know WordPress is the #1 content management system (or “CMS”) in the world?  This massive platform makes up nearly 27% of the websites online today.

That’s why there are so many WordPress Specialists available. They know the in’s and out’s of this advantageous platform, and how to help your business make the most of it.

WordPress has and will continue to take over the web design world. Working with a WordPress specialist can turn website from a liability to a sales-driving asset.

Here are 5 ways a WordPress specialist will bring your website to life:

1. WordPress Serves as a Powerful Engine for Your Website

If your website isn’t built on WordPress, you could be missing out.

Google is a big fan of WordPress sites. They rank well in search engine results because of well-structured content and the tendency to have a steady stream of updates.

In fact, Google endorses the use of WordPress for site design. The advantages of WordPress allow you to build a custom website that serves as a lead-generation machine for your business.

After all, your site is more than just a digital billboard. It serves as the hub for most digital marketing strategies. Used correctly, it should turn your web traffic into conversions that grow your business.

Whether your business sells products via an e-commerce platform or you’re building a website designed to showcase your services, WordPress gives you the tools and options to create what you need without constraints.

But keep in mind that not everything about WordPress should be “DIY”. While anyone can create a website on the platform and select a theme, it takes an expert to know how to optimize it and integrate various features.

From mobile responsiveness to plugins to SEO optimization, there’s a lot that goes into building a professional and useful website design, which is why hiring a specialist comes in handy.

2. Having an Expert Build Your Website Saves a Lot of Time

When you’re running a business, time is precious. You don’t want to waste weeks–or even months–trying to overcome a learning curve in order to build a website. Not only are you wasting time better spent on running your business, but you also run a high risk of missing important web design steps or elements.

By hiring a WordPress specialist, you guarantee quality results while opening up your own time or the time of your employees to be better spent on their job responsibilities.

Plus, the task gets done quicker. The average timeline for a custom web design is often 6 to 8 weeks. In that span, a good developer mocks up, stagings, and launches your website for you.

As he or she goes about this process, they will use expertise picked up through formal education and/or training to ensure that your site is built correctly from the front-end to the back.

They can also train you on how to post blogs, make updates, or manage your website properly, or you can hire them to do this for you.

The latter of these two options is a worthy investment. One that saves you time while ensuring the job is done right.

3. The Ways a WordPress Specialist Makes Maintenance & Management Easier

Because websites require monthly updates after they’re published to maintain optimal functionality and SEO, it’s good to have an expert available who can handle it.

Typical website security and maintenance services include:

• Updating Plugins & Themes
• Monitoring Website Security
• Responding to and Preventing Downtime
• Initiating Website Backups

But what about the other stuff, like uploading new photos, creating new pages, or formatting and posting your company blogs?

Enter Website Management: a service most businesses choose in order to save money, improve efficiency, and gain peace of mind.

When you put your website’s management into the hands of a WordPress Specialist, you save on the cost of having to hire a website developer in-house in order to use your site to your advantage.

These individuals are no stranger to coding. From HTML and CSS to PHP and Javascript, they know how to create, maintain, fix, and update this foreign “web language” so your website maintains a professional look as well as its structural integrity.

They can also include this coding on any site updates you create. This is important when you’re making changes to your website. Even blogs have a unique set of coding that is essential to its formatting and SEO performance.

Not knowing how to update your website properly can lead to poor display, broken elements, and other “emergencies” you don’t want your web traffic stumbling upon.

4. A WordPress Specialist Can Help with Your SEO Strategy

Okay, so we’ve covered your website’s design and maintenance, but what about SEO? There’s no point in having a website nobody can find.

No matter how good your website design is, you aren’t going to pop up on the first page of Google overnight. It takes strategy to move up in search engine rankings, and the competition can be thick.

Currently, there are over 18 BILLION websites on the internet today–and counting. Carving your place on the world wide web requires you to prove to search engines your content and services are the best solutions to certain keywords researched by its users.

To do that, businesses develop or hire someone to develop an SEO strategy. This strategic marketing approach researches the most relevant keywords in your business, then uses both internal and external content to help you rank for them.

SEO is a full-time job for most businesses. It requires not only implementation but also maintenance. Your ranking changes in real-time based on new websites entering the pool and updates on existing websites trying to rank for the same keywords as you.

That means getting to the first page of search engines is only half the battle. The other half requires constant, daily monitoring and maintenance if you want to achieve optimal performance.

WordPress Specialists trained in SEO can do that by:

• Producing Relevant On-Page Content
• Producing Relevant Off-Page Content
• Building Quality Backlinks to Your Site
• Auditing Poor Backlinks to Your Site
• Improving Your Site Speed
• Improving Your Mobile Responsiveness
• And More…

All of these things are ongoing strategies, not singular tasks. They have to be implemented continuously in order to build and maintain your SEO performance.

But what if you need to rank fast? There is a strategy for that, too. It’s called Search Engine Marketing, or SEM. Many WordPress Specialists trained in SEO are also familiar with SEM strategies, including AdWords, Google’s popular platform for digital marketing.

The difference between SEO and SEM is that SEM is paid advertising. You’ve seen it before. From the banners on various websites to the top 3 listings on each of your Google search results, SEM puts you in front of your customers’ eyes.

For a price, of course.

If you’re interested in pairing an SEM strategy with your SEO, be sure to ask a website specialist about digital marketing opportunities.

5. A WordPress Specialist Can Improve Your Digital Marketing Campaigns

While we’re on the topic of marketing, another advantage to hiring a WordPress Specialist is he or she can help you get the most out of your digital campaigns.

From newsletters to landing pages to setting up call-to-actions, a good WordPress Specialist can adapt your website to whatever digital campaign you have going.

Have a sale on a product? Advertise it on your website via blogs, a landing page for SEM, or a slider image on your homepage.

Do you produce a monthly newsletter? Add a newsletter signup pop-up to your website to build your audience.

Perhaps you’re big on social media. Great! Add widgets or icons to your website in order to help new visitors stay connected.

When it comes to campaigns, there are numerous ways your website can both support and expand its reach. However, you won’t know how or when to use them without insight from an expert.

By hiring a WordPress specialist, you receive this expertise through a third party vendor, saving you the cost of hiring an in-house employee while making you money through advanced website development and maintenance.

Pretty cool, right?

Let Us Help You Optimize Your Website

Ready to have your website built and managed the right way? We can help your business grow with your website design, branding, SEO, and copywriting needs. We’ll set you up with a WordPress Specialist who can design and optimize a website tailored to your business.

Contact us to get started!

The post 5 Ways A WordPress Specialist Can Bring Your Website To Life appeared first on Midas Marketing.

As an entrepreneur, you wear many hats. Some of them fit you quite well. But as much as you’d like to be hands-on, there will be some aspects of starting and running a company that fall outside your expertise. Not to mention, you’re only one person, and there’s only so much you can do with your energy spread across all areas of your business.

So, here you are looking for a great WordPress developer to help you build or make changes to your website. Your biggest problem? You can’t tell the difference between CGI and Servlet if your life depended on it. How are you supposed to know how to hire the best WordPress developer when you don’t know what you should look for?

To help you find the right person, we’ve put together this comprehensive guide. We’ll look at all the necessary skills and qualities a professional WordPress developer must possess, present a few places where you can find them, tell you about the costs, and teach you how to interview and choose the best candidate for your project.

Know the Scope of Your Project

The first step in hiring a WordPress developer is understanding your needs. All websites are not created equal, and you have to determine your requirements.

Who you will hire will largely depend on how complex your site will be. If you need something small and straightforward, you could work with a junior developer. They are hardworking, motivated, and open to suggestions.

On the other hand, if your WordPress website will be highly interactive and will require specialized apps, it’s better to work with a professional developer or even a larger team.

Write a Good Job Description

It’s critical to have a clear understanding of what you want and be able to describe it meticulously to future candidates. A well-written job description can help you avoid costly confusions. If a developer knows that what you want is something they can’t deliver, they won’t apply for the job. On the other hand, if the job description is not well thought out and you neglected to add some important details, the developer might not understand what your requirements are and apply for the job even though they are not a good match.

Sure, creating an exhaustive job description will take time and effort on your part, but it’s a million times worth it than wasting precious resources on someone who is not the right fit for the job.

Here are some of the elements you should include in your job outline:

• Include Samples of Sites That You Like: They key is to help potential candidates understand your requirements and expectations. A skilled WordPress developer can use this information to review their capabilities and provide you with suggestions.

• Include a List of “Must-Haves”: For example, if you run a beauty salon, and you need your website to have a booking functionality, you should mention that in your description.

• Set a Time Frame: If you have a tight deadline, double up your time frame. For example, if you plan to launch your website within a month, mention in the job description that the deadline for the project is three weeks. Whether you’ve changed your mind about some of the site’s functions, or there are more coding bugs to fix than anticipated, you could expect delays in most projects. So, it’s better to plan in advance and allocate extra time to fix potential problems.

• Don’t Forget to Include a “Duties as Assigned” Line: As much as you’re trying to write a complete description, you might omit something. Or, the job requirements might change over time. To avoid a potential argument with your developer claiming that what you’re asking wasn’t listed in the job description, include a “duties as assigned” mention in the outline.

Think of everything and anything that might be relevant to your project and business needs. If you want your website to work the way you’ve imagined it, take the time to create a job description that explains your requirements clearly.

Setting clear expectations up front will give you the best chance at a wonderful web design collaboration!

How to Tell If a WordPress Developer Is Good

Judging a developer on his/her technical skills is easy. After all, all you need to do is check their resume to ensure they have the experience required for your project. However, even if they check every box in your description, it’s still possible that they may not be the right person for the job.

With that in mind, here are a few considerations to keep in mind when choosing a WordPress developer.

Technical Skills

Create a list of the skills you want your developer to have. Use it to eliminate candidates who are not suited for the job. Here are some of the qualities to look for in a developer

•        PHP
•       JavaScript
•       HTML/HTML5
•       CSS/CSS3

Soft Skills

In theory, you want your developer to be able to focus and communicate, be creative, and have strong attention to detail. However, it’s not that easy to determine if a candidate meets all of your requirements. They might look perfect on paper, but when you start working, you may realize that they lack collaboration skills.

Here’s a checklist you can use to ensure you’re hiring only the best WordPress developers:

• How Fast Do They Respond:

o       Responsiveness is a vital skill, especially if your developer will work remotely. You want someone who will respond within a reasonable time frame to your requests.

o       If you’ve found a few developers you like, email them. That way, you can get a better sense of how fast they respond. Don’t immediately exclude those who don’t answer within the first day. They might be busy or have a bad day. But, if they aren’t very responsive, then it would be a good idea to drop them.

• Do They Have a Good Understanding of Your Requirements?

o      A lot of developers tend to apply for jobs without even reading the description. A smart way to rule out these types of applicants is to hide a question in your job description. It can be something like “What is your favorite movie?” Ask them to write the answer at the top of the application.

• Ask For Examples of Previous Work

o      Most candidates tend to sugarcoat their applications and only present the best versions of themselves when applying for a project. That’s understandable, but you want to learn about both their strengths and weaknesses. To see if someone is a good fit for your job and is capable of meeting your expectations, ask them to send you samples of previous projects.

Look for Someone Who Fits Your Company’s Culture

While work experience is definitely important, the biggest predictor of success is how they fit with your business. For example, a professional WordPress developer who has worked for a large corporation may not be a good fit for a startup. A startup may require traits such as adaptability, versatility, and risk-taking. However, these characteristics are usually not relevant in a big corporation, so it’s very likely that the developer won’t possess them.

How to Determine Compensation

Before deciding a salary, it’s essential to weight in the complexity of the project, the skill level of the position you need, as well as the amount you are prepared to spend.

• How to Set a Budget for a Small Project

Small web development projects, such as adding a few new features to your website or changing some functionalities, don’t take that much to complete. The best approaches in this scenario would be: a) work with an experienced WordPress developer and pay them on an hour basis or b) collaborate with a junior developer and pay them on a fixed price basis.

Experienced developers are highly efficient, so it’s cost-effective to pay them by the hour. They get the work done swiftly and efficiently. Keep in mind that professional developers cost between $90 and $200 per hour in developed countries and between $35 and $60 in developing countries.

Junior developers, on the other hand, will require more time and more revisions. A fixed price payment model will give you more control in the eventuality their work needs extensive changes.

• How to Set a Budget for a Large Project

A large WordPress development project could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to complete. Due to their size and the amount of work needed to complete them, large projects have more room for errors. That is why shooting for a fixed price is the right way to go.

This compensation strategy will protect you from a broad range of potential problems, such as developers underestimating the project’s difficulty or missing deadlines, and also from unexpected revisions and fixes.

Professional developers usually allow you a set number of revisions. For instance, you are allowed to ask for fixes up to three times. If you request more than the revisions approved, you may need to pay extra.

A smart way to avoid unnecessary costs is to plan your web development project thoroughly and discuss it with the developer to see if they notice any potential problems or challenges. The more time you invest in planning, the more likely you are to complete your project within a set budget. On the other hand, the more revisions you request, the more you’ll have to pay.

Where Do You Find Professional WordPress Developers?

There are many ways to find WordPress developers and many strategies to vet them by price, expertise, and availability. Unfortunately, for most people, the abundance of choices only leads to more confusion and stress.

Here are some of the best places where you can start your search:

• Freelancer Websites: Although generalized markets such as UpWork and Freelancer are excellent ways to find skilled developers, we recommend looking into WordPress-specialized platforms to ensure you are getting only the best of the best. Smashing Jobs, WP Hired, or WordPress’ official job board are some of the best places to look for a talented wp developer.

• Tap into Your Network for Referrals: More often than not, the most qualified candidates are only one or two connections away. So, post on your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages and tag people who you know work in the industry.

• Consider Specialized Agencies: Another good option is to look into web design companies that specialized in WordPress development (like us!). While this option is usually little more expensive, it’s also the most efficient. You know that you’ll work with a team of skilled professionals who will deliver quality work.

Interview Candidates before Hiring Them

Although intimidating for the employer and the candidate, the interview is an essential step in finding the right developer for your project. They allow you to get a sense of a candidate’s communication skills, analytical abilities, and personality. If you are hiring a web design agency, most will give you a complementary consultation.

Your primary objective is to determine if an applicant or team can do the job, and if they fit into your work culture.

Before the interview, request examples of the candidate’s previous work. Then, ask them on what portion of the site they’ve worked. Did they collaborate with a senior developer or did everything themselves? Did they manage to deliver within the deadline?

Ask a few behavioral questions as well, such as “Which colleague at your last job did you not get along with, very well and how did you manage the situation?”

Use a Short Trial Period before Making a Final Decision

The best way to know if you’ve found the right WordPress developer is to work with them. That said, we recommend you start with a small project to test whether the relationship is going to work.

Choose a non-critical project and ask them to complete it within a set time frame. Observe the person in action and analyze their expertise, efficiency, and punctuality. Did they go above and beyond to complete the project in time? How well did they execute? How well did they communicate?

Hire Slow, but Fire Fast

Take your time when hiring a developer, but if you realize that the person is not the right fit for your company, let him/her go as fast as possible. A developer who doesn’t work well can hinder the success of your project and be disruptive to the entire team.

It might be hard to fire someone, especially if you are a small business. But, think about the long game: the wrong person will inhibit your company’s ability to grow.

Over to You

We hope that after reading this guide, the prospect of finding and hiring a professional WordPress developer won’t seem so overwhelming. If you would like to add anything or ask us a question, don’t hesitate to contact us.

If you want to go the extra mile and create a website that will stand out, take a look at what we can do for you.

The post How to Hire a Professional WordPress Developer appeared first on Midas Marketing.

WordPress Website Design: Introduction

You could sell the most extraordinary products in the world and create amazing content, but if your website is designed poorly, you are only damaging your business. WordPress website design has become an increasingly popular topic in recent years, and for good reason.

It might sound like an exaggeration, but it’s the truth. Sure, in an ideal world people would only be interested in how your products perform and the quality of your content. But this isn’t a perfect world. People can’t help but judge a book by its cover.

Think about it this way:

You go to a five-star restaurant and receive the best steak you have ever tasted. Not only does it taste divine, but the plating is a piece of art. Now imagine eating the same delicious steak but on plastic plates and with some pepper sauce squirted on top of it. The food is the same, but the effect is different, and it’s going to affect your taste buds whether you are aware of it or not.

Even though it seems silly, a steak served on a paper plate will never taste as good as this. The same principle applies to your website design.

The same goes for your WordPress website design. Even with the best products or services in your industry, you won’t see the conversion rates you deserve if the design of your blog is all over the place.

In today’s post, we are going to show you the most important elements every website must include. We’re also going to teach you what you need to keep in mind to design the best website and sell more products.

Let’s dive right in!

First Things First: Make Sure to Understand the Principle of Visual Hierarchy

Most people think that the best way to create a great WordPress website is to use stunning color schemes, sharp images, and eye-catching headlines. While all these elements are important, they forget that good design should be about information. In other words, a well-designed WordPress website lets visitors know at first glance what the most important elements of the page are.

Imagine five triangles of different shapes and colors; some of them are in the foreground while others are in the background. Without any additional information about the triangles, would you be able to rank them? Of course you would. That’s what visual hierarchy is all about.

The concept of visual hierarchy tells us that some elements are more important than others and need to be highlighted accordingly. For instance, if you want people to subscribe to your newsletter, you need to make sure they notice the opt-in form. Or if you want them to buy your products, you should make the “Buy” button stand out.

Great design is about drawing attention to the most important elements of the web page. In this photo, the focus on the hands make the shot about the connection these two share rather than their individual characteristics.

To get optimum visual hierarchy you should focus on things like:

• Position – the place an element has on the page will influence the order in which the user sees it;
• Color – use a different color scheme for important elements to tell people where to look;
• Contrast – make something stand out to draw attention to it;
• Size – bigger is certainly noticeable, but that doesn’t mean you should make your “BUY NOW” button 10x larger than everything else.

Now that we’ve gotten this important web design lesson out of the way, here are ten elements every website must include.

1. Make White Space Your Best Friend

One of the most common mistakes most small businesses make when designing a website is that they tend to fill every available space with buttons, widgets, toolbars, and all sorts of bells and whistles. But here’s the thing: empty space is not wasteful. Au contraire – it’s a great way to make important elements stand out.

Take a fashion magazine and look at how ads are laid out. You will see that ads for luxury brands of watches and cars tend to have a lot of empty space (also known as white space) to highlight their products. Learn from them and use white space to give some balance and contrast to your WordPress web design.

An empty dinner plate is a bad thing when you’re ready to eat. But a website with empty space is always nourishing for the eyes.

2. Have an Intuitive Navigation Bar

One of the most annoying experiences you can have on a website is being unable to figure out where you are or where to go because you have too many buttons to click to get where you want.

Visitors are coming to your website for a specific reason, and they should be able to find their way around easily. If they don’t find what they need quickly enough, they will leave immediately.

Make your site logical and put information in front of your user instead of making them guess where it could be. Use icons to aid navigation and make buttons easy to find.

As a rule of thumb, keep important information such as contact details, services, or prices above the fold, so that visitors can see them first.

Ever been browsing a site and been unable to navigate to where you need to go? Yeah. It’s one of the fastest ways to have someone bounce off your site.

3. Provide a Stellar Reading Experience

When a visitors lands on your website’s blog what is their first reaction? If they’re immediately heading for the “close” button, then you’re doing something wrong.

The goal of your blog should be to offer people the information they need to solve their problems. But that doesn’t mean that if the content is good, the way it’s packed is no longer important.  Think about it this way, would you read an article that looks like a giant block of text? Probably not.

One of the most important things people judge a website by is how easy it is for them to read your content. To make it easy, pay attention to these elements:

• Font size: A font size of 12pt was cool and easy to read ten years ago. Now, when even your phone has a high-resolution screen, you need something bigger. So make sure the text is large enough to be read easily.

• Font Choice: If you think Comic Sans sends the same message as Helvetica, you are very wrong. Different font types say different things about your brand. Some make your webpage look modern while others make it look retro. Make sure you are using the right font for the job.

• Line length and spacing: Take a book and open it to a random page. Assuming it’s a good book, you will find that there aren’t more than 50-75 characters per line. That’s because it’s hard for the eye to focus when there’s a chunk of text. Also, it’s hard for the eye to read the next line if the lines are too close together.

If your content isn’t easy on the eyes, it doesn’t matter how good it is for the brain.

4. Include Email Subscription Boxes

Your email subscription box is one the most important aspects of transforming your website from a listing of products and services into a lead generation tool. We can’t stress this enough:  collecting emails is one of the best ways to grow your customer database and consequently your business.

Make sure your email subscription boxes are visible. For instance, don’t place them at the end of a page because most visitors leave a website after scrolling 40% of the way down the page. They won’t even know they had the chance to subscribe if you put your opt-in form at the bottom of the page.

Try to make it as easy as possible for people to enter their email addresses. Install opt-in forms that  come pre-filled with instructions. Embed a data capture form instead of a link that sends visitors to a different signup page.

An effective list building strategy is the foundation of just about every business model.

5. Add Social Buttons

A lot of small business owners wonder about the impact of social sharing. “Are my social media sharing buttons improving conversion rates? Is all this sharing really doing anything to my bottom line?” These are certainly valid questions.

The short answer is yes; social buttons can make the difference between a successful business and one that sinks into oblivion.

According to one study, Millennial shoppers are twice as likely to buy a product they’ve shared on social media. Even for non-Millennial shoppers, social sharing can influence the purchasing decision by up to 40%. The study also shows that friends or acquaintances that were exposed to the shares of products are more likely to make a purchase.

So make sure to include all relevant social buttons to your WordPress website. “Relevant” is the keyword here. If your audience spends most of their time on Instagram and Snapchat, maybe you shouldn’t include your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles.

In our modern world, it’s impossible to deny the benefit of peer-driven marketing.

6. Add a Compelling CTA Button on Every Page

You spend time and money to promote your small business and bring in new customers. You create fresh, original content that adds value to your prospects’ lives. But if you neglected one important aspect and all your effort goes to waste: you didn’t include a compelling CTA button.

According to research by Small Business Trends, nearly 70% of small business websites don’t have a call-to-action button. Most of them think that CTAs are annoying and are driving customers away. But here’s the thing: if you don’t ask your prospects to take action, they are going to leave without buying your products or subscribing to your newsletter.

Even if you have CTA buttons on your website, there are a lot of design elements that can make or break the outcome. Color, for instance, plays an important role in your customer’s decision-making process. Red creates a sense of urgency and is often used for sales. Blue is the color of trust, order, and loyalty and is often used by banks and professional businesses to convey a sense of security.

A good webpage provides a clear path for the next action you want the user to take.

7. Install the Yoast SEO Plugin

While it’s tempting to focus solely on the aesthetics of your WordPress website design, its functionality is just as important. Yoast SEO plugin is one of the easiest ways to optimize a website for search engines. The tool allows you to add SEO titles, meta keywords, and meta descriptions to each page of your WordPress website. If you want to be sure search engines will be able to crawl your site and rank it high in search results, then you should definitely install the Yoast SEO plugin.

Being buried under your competitors in search results is a lot less fun (and profitable) than being buried by your kids at the beach.

8. Keep It Simple, Stupid

Cluttered pages, bizarre color schemes, and weird font sizes and styles are ineffective and can hurt your website’s ranking. Design your website with the user’s intent in mind. Keep the design simple and add directional cues pointing toward what might be of interest to your prospects. Pay special attention to the colors you use as well. Not only can they can have a psychological effect, but they can make the difference between easy-to-read copy and an annoying website.

Don’t over-complicate your message. (See what we did there?)

9. Include Images

Compelling offers, discounts, and great content will help you grab the attention of your visitors, but a powerful image will help them remember your website. According to scientists, people remember visual content six times more easily than text.

If you want your WordPress website design to generate more conversions, remember to include strong imagery, such as high-resolution photographs, infographics, even videos.

We could write 1,000 words on how relaxing the beach is. Or we could show you this image. Which is more persuasive?

10. Make It Responsive

Take your smartphone and use it to navigate your small business’s website. How does it look? Does it load fast? Do you have to scroll to the right and left to read the content? Then you have a problem.

As more and more people switch to mobile devices over desktop computers, it has become evident that small businesses need to make their websites responsive. In other words, they need to make sure that their sites display on any device without any problems.

“I can’t even read the text on this website! No way I’m ever buying anything!”

Conclusion

When it comes to good WordPress website design, it’s not just about the looks – it has to work well too. Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes and try out your design. Test your navigation menu, click all the buttons to see if they’re working, and make sure everything is clear, logical and easy to use. Otherwise you might end up with a pretty site that doesn’t convert.

It’s a harsh reality, but you rarely get a second chance to make a good impression. That is why your WordPress web design is so important. Keep these ten points in mind, and you’ll be well on your way to creating a website that converts visitors into customers at a very high rate.

If you find the process of designing a website on your own intimidating, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We  have the expertise and the creative skills to create websites that not only look professional, but work great, load fast, and are sure to impress your potential customers.

The post 10 Essential Elements of a Perfect WordPress Website Design appeared first on Midas Marketing.

When it comes to content management systems, WordPress is often touted as the gold standard. Founded as a blogging platform in 2003, this open source CMS currently powers a full 26% of the web. Every day, hundreds of new WordPress sites are created, and the platform hosts some of the biggest players in the publishing world. The New York Times, People Magazine, Forbes, and National Geographic all have websites powered by WordPress.

If you go into a forum or a subreddit and ask about how to go about creating a website for your business, a lot of people will strongly recommend WordPress. It does have a learning curve, but it’s something that even non-technical users can learn. Plus, it’s so popular that there’s a wealth of information available for it. There are plugins for almost any function you can imagine, along with a menagerie of visually appealing themes. Plus, many web development shops specialize in it. If you don’t have the time or the inclination to take a DIY approach, it’s not hard at all to find someone to do it for you at a reasonable price.

But for all its strengths and advantages, is WordPress really the best choice for every situation? WordPress is far from the only option. You can also hire web developers to create a custom-made, bespoke website. In some cases, you might even be able to get away with a static site that’s little more than HTML and CSS.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at a few of the reasons you might want to consider something other than a WordPress site.

You’re nontechnical, you’re on a bootstrap budget, and you just need something basic.

There’s a lot of content out there on the web that highlights WordPress’s advantages over competitors like Squarespace and Wix. Squarespace and similar platforms use a “(WYSIWYG) what you see is what you get” interface that makes it easy for even a complete novice to customize their web design. Similar capabilities are available for WordPress in the form of plugins, but part of the appeal of Squarespace and Wix is that most of the technical stuff is already taken care of for you. All you have to do is choose colors and fonts, add content, and set up pages.

Most people who work with websites, whether they’re SEO specialists or developers, will recommend WordPress over these alternatives. But there are certainly some use cases where a Squarespace site will work just fine. If you want a website for your brick and mortar business, but you don’t aspire or expect to bring in customers primarily through your site or through SEO, Squarespace can work very well. If you’re a freelance writer who brings in clients mostly through word of mouth, but you want a nice portfolio site you can link people to, the same applies. Squarespace and Wix aren’t as customizable as WordPress when it comes to technical SEO, but it’s certainly possible to setup a great looking site when SEO isn’t a major concern for you.

Photographers and other creatives often earn business on the merit of their work. This means that a simple DIY web editor can be an excellent choice, as long as it is able to properly showcase a portfolio of work.

You Need Something Static & Simple

WordPress is capable of building dynamic websites, which have interactive elements like contact forms or comment sections. But what if you don’t need those things? If you need a small three to five page website that’s essentially just a “brochure” for your business, a static website might be the easiest and most cost-effective option for you.

A web developer can build a customized static site for you using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Once it’s live, it won’t need regular maintenance or updates, which WordPress does require. Static sites can also run on cheaper servers, as they don’t require MyPHP or SQL.

The disadvantage to static sites is that if you decide you want to add something, like an online store or a blog, things get pretty complicated, and you might just find yourself moving over to WordPress after all.

You’re Selling Stuff in an Online Store

Ecommerce is certainly compatible with WordPress, but many people also opt to go with Shopify instead. Shopify is a “one stop shop” for building an online store, whether it’s very small or very large. The platform takes care of ecommerce-specific technical tasks and concerns for you, leaving you to focus on your products.

WordPress Isn’t The Only Option

WordPress is the gold standard for many reasons, and for a wide variety of use cases, it’s the best choice. It’s highly customizable and SEO-friendly, and you can choose from a massive selection of themes and plugins. But in a handful of cases, WordPress might not be the platform that’s best suited for building your website. It’s worth looking into alternatives as well — after all, the internet doesn’t begin and end with WordPress, and there are other options out there for creating your site.

To know more about your options and decide which option suits you best, get in touch with us

The post Benefits of Using WordPress: Is It Right For You? appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Everybody loves WordPress – there’s no secret to that. Its flexibility and ease of use have turned it into a preferred CMS option for both developers and novice users. Ask anyone, and they won’t stop talking about how WordPress turned the act of running a website into an enjoyable task.

At the rate WordPress is growing, it’s hard to stay up to date with all the amazing features it offers. Because of this, many good features end up getting overlooked. As a WordPress web design Portland-based firm, we thought you might enjoy our list of the best hidden WordPress features.

Get ready for some awesome stuff!

1. Paste to Make a Link

Whenever we tell people that they can select a word and paste to turn it into a link, their minds are blown. As it turns out, very few novice users (and even some experienced ones) don’t know about this amazing feature. All you have to do is copy the link, and then select the text and paste to make it a link. You are welcome!

2. Distraction-Free Writing

Don’t you hate it when you are trying to focus on creating the next post for your company’s blog, but you get interrupted by notifications? The good news is that WordPress allows you to create a distraction-free environment. If you have the latest WordPress version installed, you will notice a small Distraction-Free Writing Mode button right under the Text and Page Builder tabs. Click on it and all the unnecessary elements of the post editor will disappear, leaving you with a clean writing surface that you can use as a white canvas. If you want the old menu back, just move your mouse to the left or right corner of the screen.

Multi-tasking has been proven to be a myth most of the time – especially when related to tasks that require intense focus, like good driving and good writing!

3. Make a Post Sticky

WordPress usually displays your most recently published posts at the top of your site and pushes the rest of the articles down the page. That means that any important article you wrote a while back it will get lost in the archives. Sticky Post is a great feature that allows you to keep important blog posts at the top of your website. This feature is especially handy when you have important information that you want to keep visible for an extended period of time.

4. Change the AutoSave Interval

Losing your content in the abyss of the Internet is a terrifying experience. Fortunately, there’s a feature that makes it possible for you to avoid this situation entirely. WordPress allows you to set when the post will be automatically saved. For instance, you can set it to save your drafts every 5 minutes.

5. Edit Images

You don’t have to open Photoshop or other photo editing app every time you need to edit an image. WordPress can perform various basic image editing tasks, such as cropping, resizing, or rotating. No filters yet, but this feature is a time-saver.

These are just five of the best features tucked away in your WordPress site. If you want to learn more about how to make your website better, or if you need help building one, don’t hesitate to contact us. We are a WordPress web design Portland-based agency dedicated to turning your business to gold!

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Best WordPress Plugins for Business: Introduction

It’s not an overstatement to say that WordPress is the best content management system (CMS) out there. But, while the platform offers tons of features and flexibility, there’s still room for improvement.

The best way to fill the missing pieces? Choosing the right WordPress plugins. However, with 46,539 plugins currently available for download at the time of writing this, it can be hard to figure out what you need.

Fear not! We’ve got you covered. Below, you will find seven amazing plugins every business owner using WordPress should know about.

As a Portland-based web design agency with extensive WordPress experience, we can personally stand behind every one on this list!

1. Yoast SEO

With more than one million active installs, Yoast SEO (formally known as WordPress SEO by Yoast,) is without a doubt the most popular WordPress SEO plugin. Easy to use and versatile, Yoast incorporates everything from real-time page analysis that helps you optimize every element of your page to a snippet editor.

2. W3 Total Cache

Looking to improve the performance of your site? W3 Total Cache helps you deliver a better experience to your visitors by reducing the download time and providing CDN integration. And, as we all know, a happy user is a converting user.

3. Defender

WordPress is a popular choice for creating websites, which make it a preferred target for malicious attackers. It doesn’t take too much for a hacker to create a bot that will infect millions of websites with the push of a button. That’s why setting up a good defense is important.

Defender is a WordPress plugin that scans your site for vulnerabilities and alarms you if any threats are found.

Unfortunately, taking basic website security precautions is like buckling a seat belt. It’s easy to do, but many still neglect to do it.

4. Jetpack

Jetpack is a WordPress plugin that offers a suite of amazing features. From analytics, enhanced security, and improved performance to content tools and social sharing option, this plugin offers everything you need to create a stellar experience for your visitors.

5. Akismet

Everybody hates spammy blog comments. Luckily, there’s an easy way to find and eliminate them. Akismet is a WordPress plugin that reviews and filters your comments to detect misleading links and other signs of spam.

6. Google XML Sitemaps

XML Sitemaps are a great way to help search engines index your website better. The only problem is that creating them is not easy. This plugin helps you create sitemaps that can help search engines crawl your site and retrieve information. Moreover, it will notify search engines every time you post new content.

7. Leadin

Are you struggling to understand you visitors’ behavior? Do you want them to turn them into leads more often? This plugin will make it easier for you to track your visitors’ behavior and identify conversion opportunities. Every time a visitor converts, Leadin will add them to your list and create a record of their activity.

Did we miss your favorite plugin? Let us know in the comments below!

If you still don’t know where to start or how to create a professional-looking website, don’t hesitate to contact us!

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Your customer is flipping through 15 different tabs, looking for information about a product. Will he stop at your site? It depends (more than you might think) on your website’s design.

You might think content is the most important element of a page, but it’s not. A customer makes up his mind about the quality of your information long before he has read it. Aesthetics, on the other hand, will make or break the customer’s decision to engage with your content.

If he doesn’t like what he sees, he’ll press the “x” button and abandon — even if you’ve got great content. How can you make him stay? Here’s three crucial tips to design WordPress website for the modern browser.

1. Follow the Basic Typography Rules

When it comes to good WordPress web design, typography might not be everything, but it sure comes close. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your copy is, if people can’t read the text, they will click the back button in an instant.

Here are a few things to focus on when choosing your fonts:

• Font size: A font size of 12px was appropriate ten years ago. Now, when even your phone has a high-resolution screen, you need something bigger. It depends on the nature of your content, and the responsiveness of your site. Either way, test everything for mobile consumption!

• Font Choice: Different font types say different things about your brand. Some make your web page look modern while others make it look like it got stuck in the ‘90s. Make sure you are using the right font for the job.

• Line length & spacing: Take a book and open it to a random page. Assuming it’s a good book, you will find that there aren’t more than 50-75 characters per line. That’s because it’s hard for the eye to focus when there’s a chunk of text. Make sure your web content follows suit.

2. Don’t Try to Reinvent the Color Wheel

WordPress web design professionals spend years to learn which colors go best together and how to use them correctly. Most people don’t have this ability and end up making mistakes that are harmful to the eyes.

Rather than wracking your brain to come up with creative color combinations, be smart about it and try using a tool such as ColorSchemer.com. The site offers a wide variety of color pallets you can browse through until you find something you like.

Colors can be tricky. Make sure you research, experiment, and get feedback before you commit to a final scheme.

3. Make Effective Use of White Space

Most people think that they need to fill every available space on their WordPress website with buttons, toolbars, and other bells and whistles. But, what every professional WordPress web designer will tell you is that empty space is not wasted space. Au contraire – it’s a great way to make important things stand out.

Take a fashion magazine and look at how ads for luxury brands are laid out. You will see that they tend to have a lot of white space (also known as negative space) to highlight their products. Learn from them and use white space to give some balance and contrast to your WordPress website.

Here’s the hard truth: you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. That is why your website is so important. These three tips aren’t rules written in black, just guidelines that have proven helpful to many inexperienced web designers.

Still not sure what design elements to include in your website? We are a WordPress web design company who is happy to serve clients in Portland and beyond!

The post 3 WordPress Tips and Tricks for Beginners To Help You Customize Your Website appeared first on Midas Marketing.

10 Best WordPress Plugins for Business

WordPress is the most widely used content management system, which basically means it’s a platform for creating dynamic websites that anyone can learn to use. Whether you’re a seasoned web design pro or a newbie just trying to make a splash, WordPress is for you. Once you get started with WordPress, it won’t be long before you start exploring how “plugins” can empower and enhance your business’ website.

One reason for WordPress’ incredible popularity, in addition to its amazing ease of use, is the staggering amount of plugins available. What’s a plugin? Put simply, a plugin is a way of adding special features to your WordPress site. It’s like an app for your smartphone. Some of these will affect how the site looks and acts while others perform tasks “under the hood” that make a huge difference to how your website will function. Many WordPress plugins are free, although some will come with a (usually small) price.

We’ve compiled a list of 10 essential WordPress plugins to grow your business and make your website shine.

You can find any of these plugins by searching by name for them in the plugins section of your WordPress dashboard.

1. Simple Share Buttons Adder (free)

Part of growing your business involves ensuring you have a presence on social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. As the name suggests, this plugin adds buttons that easily allow your site’s visitors to quickly share your website’s blog posts. If you’ve made your content relevant and engaging, then your readers will want to share it – and this plugin makes it a snap for them to do so.

2. Yoast (free)

Yoast is the king of SEO optimization plugins for WordPress. This SEO plugin ensures helps you target keywords, modify your posts, and optimize your content to rank well in the search engines. It’s a vital tool for any website that wants to be discovered organically through online search.

3. iThemes Security Pro ($80 – $150 per year, or $247 permanent license)

Although this plugin does come with a price tag, it is completely worth it. While WordPress is an incredible platform to use, like anything online it is vulnerable to hacks and malware. The last thing your business needs is a website that doesn’t work and iThemes Security Pro will protect your site from hackers.

4. Contact Form 7 (free)

Don’t let business slip away because customers couldn’t find your contact information! A prominently displayed “Contact Us” page is vital for any website. If your customers, or potential customers, visit your site with questions, Contact Form 7 will be ready and waiting to take their query and email it to you. You can literally get your contact page setup in minutes.

5. Mailchimp For WordPress (free for the plugin, cost to use Mailchimp may apply)

Mailchimp is an incredibly versatile email list management system. Used the world over by businesses and marketers, it’s an excellent way to not only keep your customers informed but to drive your sales. Mailchimp For WordPress will seamlessly integrate Mailchimp into your website, automatically adding new subscribers to your Mailchimp list when they sign up on your website.

6. Backup Buddy ($80 to $150 per year, or $247 permanent license)

Another essential plugin from iThemes, Backup Buddy does what the name suggests. Time is money for your business, and a broken website or lost data is something you simply can’t afford to have. Backup Buddy helps to easily and effectively automate the backup process for your WordPress site, ensuring that important information is never lost.

7. Visual Composer ($25)

While WordPress comes with a sophisticated text editor for creating web pages and posts, it can be limiting in many respects. While the built-in editor allows only for full-page display of text, Visual Composer will allow you to jazz up your pages by adding columns and other more dynamic layouts. This plugin will help give your business presence that extra bit of spark that will wow your visitors and make your site unique, without the headache or expense of custom coding.

8. The Events Calendar (free)

This plugin is a must-have for any business that hosts events of any kind. The Events Calendar enables you to put a calendar of events up on your site, showing exactly when they are scheduled in detail. Not only that, but the plugin will allow you to sell tickets to your event – all from your WordPress site!

9. WooCommerce (free)

Have an inventory to sell? WooCommerce is the ultimate online selling tool, and it’s completely free. This incredibly flexible plugin allows you to add shopping carts, checkout, online catalogs and integrates seamlessly with an online payment processor such as PayPal.

10. W3 Total Cache (free)

This is one of those “under the hood” plugins that is absolutely essential. It “caches” your website information, which means it stores the unchanged information so that it speeds up your website, sometimes to a dramatic effect. It’s a night-and-day difference for your website speed, and your customers will definitely notice how lightning fast your website operates.

Dominate Your Niche with These 10 Best WordPress Plugins for Business

Having the right plugins for your business’ WordPress site can mean the difference between a website that sells and informs versus one that merely takes up space. Grow your enterprise with these tools that will help educate and engage your visitors while ultimately adding to your business’ bottom line!

Midas Marketing is a digital marketing and web design agency in Portland, OR

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