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What’s The Difference Between Good UI And Good UX?

The way your website visitors see your site and engage with its content is integral to the success of your business. For this reason, having a clear understanding of UI vs UX design is something all business owners should know, regardless of whether or not they outsource the management of their site.

UI Meaning

UI is viewed as the environment where people and computers interact. The ultimate objective of the UI is to ensure the people interacting with your website can find what they need quickly and easily. As such, UI is any design component that your website visitor might interact with while on your site. This includes:

  • Screens or touchscreens

  • Sound or video

  • Animations

  • CTA Buttons

  • Typography

  • Responsive design

What Makes for Good User Interface Design?

Regardless type of site you have – a blog, an eCommerce website, or even an online business – the way you design your website’s UI affects whether people will convert.

Here are the things your UI design should have:

  • Lucidity: Your visitors should never need to think about anything you’re trying to tell them or urge them to do. It should be clear what the next move to make is.

  • Consistency: Your site, and any extensions (e.g. social media profiles) should have a predictable feel when it comes to layout and design.

  • Familiarity: As individuals interact with your site, no matter the platform, they should have the option to utilize past experiences with your site, services, or products, to proceed with their interactions without any problem.

  • Productivity: Great UI doesn’t need site visitors to invest too much energy. Whether you want them to read your blog, click a call to action (CTA) button, or complete a transaction, it should be fast, simple, and consistent.

UX Meaning

User experience (UX) is the experience your website visitors have as they interact with your site, products, as well as services.

When it comes to creating a decent UX on your site, the following qualities should be considered:

  • Credibility: Your brand should be trustworthy. So having several 5-star Google reviews for your site will give you some much needed legitimacy.

  • Ease of use: Your site should be easy and simple to utilize, everything should be streamlined.

  • Attractiveness: The general look and feel of your site, products, and services should be visually appealing, without being overwhelming.

  • Findability: All significant information on your website should be prominent and easy to access.

Get A Professional

Creating a website that will maximise conversions is a daunting task for most newcomers. This is why you should hire the best website design experts in Perth to take care of both UI and UX.

At Ad Impact Advertising, we have decades of experience in website design, and our team of experts can build you a site that will substantially increase your business’ prominence. If you would like to find out more, then contact us today.

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How To Rank Higher In Google’s Local Pack

Google changes its algorithm around 500 to 600 times each year. For this reason, SEO is a dynamic and iterative process, one that never ends, but only evolves.

When engaging in SEO, local SEO and search results are particularly significant, especially for businesses who operate out of a single location. For this reason, it is important to make sure that your business is optimized for local searches, and that it is appearing in the local pack. If you’re wondering what the local pack is, then we’ve got you covered.

Google's Local Pack

Google’s local pack is the list of three local organizations that show up at the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), above organic search results. Google focuses on local business, giving organizations both small and large the opportunity to contact local audiences, despite high competition from online stores.

The local pack listings can show a wide range of important information about a business, including site links, business ratings and reviews, contact information, pictures, and other relevant information. A map also appears above the listing, which connects directly to Google Maps and recognizes the area of every business listed.

Google recently reduced the local pack from seven listings to three to show only the most significant results and to better fit mobile screens. That means the competition for those spots is fiercer than ever.

So, how would you acquire a spot in the pack?

We’ve compiled five different ways that your business can optimize for local searches and get a spot in the local pack.

1. Google My Business

One method to increase your business’ chances of appearing in the local pack is to ensure that your Google My Business listings are perfect, complete, and up-to-date.

2. Consistency

On top of having exact data in your Google My Business profile, your business should also have correct data across all other platforms. That means having the latest NAP (name, address, telephone number) anywhere your business is mentioned on the web. If Google starts contemplating whether it has the right contact data, your chances of landing a spot in the local pack are very low.

3. Positive Reviews

Star ratings and reviews appear under the business name in the local pack and Google Maps listing. Positive reviews also connect with higher local rankings, increased consumer trust, and higher click-through-rates. The more stars close to your business name, the more likely a customer is to click.

Make an effort to request reviews from satisfied clients, and don’t be reluctant to utilize an assortment of review platforms like Google, Yelp, Facebook, and so on. This kind of user-generated content does wonders for local SEO.

4. On-page SEO

Solid SEO improves your search engine ranking and will help your chances to get a spot in the local pack. Be certain you’ve incorporated all of the SEO musts: A solid title tag and meta description, H1 tags, image alt tags, keywords, significant substance, updated pages, internal linking and fast page speeds.

5. Build Backlinks

Particularly locally pertinent links. Having your business show up in a variety of local listings and professional references will increase your chances of getting a spot in Google’s local pack. Google uses high quality as a local ranking factor, implying that it surveys how well-known a business is to decide its spot in the local pack. Increasing the number of backlinks to your business’ site will demonstrate to Google that you’re reputable.

A Little Help

As mentioned in the introduction to this blog, SEO takes constant care and attention in order to benefit from. If you lack either the expertise or the time to stay on top of it, then you can use our team of Organic Search specialists at Ad Impact. We’ll work with your business to find ways in which we can improve your site and online presence so you can land a spot in the local pack.

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4 Powerful Tools To Increase Your Social Media Presence

Managing social media campaigns can be incredibly time-consuming. It can be hard to find the manpower needed to execute a decent campaign, which is why you need social media tools to take care of your platforms.

Below, we’ll cover the top social media tools you should be using to assist you with saving time and increasing conversions.

1. Buffer

Buffer is a magnificent service that allows you to save time while optimizing your campaigns. It allows you to schedule posts for an assortment of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, as well as providing analytics.

One of the best aspects of Buffer is that it is so natural to utilize. There’s not a lot to learn about the platform, so it’s easy to pick up and use.

2. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a platform that makes planning and distributing automated and simple. Hootsuite is an incredible tool where you can schedule and distribute your Instagram posts, taking away the concern of forgetting to post.

It goes a step further than Buffer and allows you to track some important KPIs. You can track your competition, improve your engagement, and increase your followers.

3. Sendible

Sendible is an extraordinary social media management tool that not just allows you to schedule and distribute content but also allows you to essentially utilize Instagram through their platform.

Sendible allows you to generate analytics reports, answer your followers through a social media inbox, as well as work together with your team. It’s an incredible administration tool for independent ventures and brands to keep their online media in sync.

4. Hashtagify

Hashtagify is an application most popular for its emphasis on Twitter hashtags, but that doesn’t mean you can’t utilize it to help your Instagram too!

Hashtagify assists with showing you what is trending, what your competitors are putting out, and what direction you should push your content in.

It’s a simple platform to explore, and a ton of the specialties found within it come without cost!

Ad Impact Can Help

With different innovations and changes in market demands within the social media space, it can be difficult to keep on top of it all. Thankfully, you don’t have to bear this burden yourself. Ad Impact is one of Perth’s finest advertising agencies, and we can more than manage even the most demanding of social media campaigns.

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3 Ways To Improve Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is the key factor in building a thriving business. The trust customers give a specific brand is what determines a business’ success.

But how do you keep customers loyal? What are the most efficient ways of improving your relationship with them? Here is some of what you can do.

Ask Questions and Pay Attention to Complaints

One tip to improve customer loyalty is to request comments and feedback, and afterward pay attention to customer complaints. Having a candid discussion with customers allows you to address issues before they become too big to handle.

Taking care of an issue does more than improve the functionality of your business. It allows customers to feel heard, and important. Remember that frustrated customers won’t ever return to a business, while the people who get their problems addressed will stay faithful to the brand. To facilitate this goal, you could do the following:

  • Use surveys to request feedback. Ask for one query at a time and make it short.

  • For complaints, consistently reassure customers but remember to fix the issue.

Loyalty Programs

Need to retain customers in the best but most affordable manner? Loyalty programs do some incredible things to improve the number of returning customers. Loyalty programs are explicitly intended to urge customers to keep shopping or to get involved with the business’ services in return for something. It can be for a free product, coupons, offers, and other deals related to the business.

While loyalty programs are successful in improving customer loyalty, they only work if they’re offering something of value. Loyalty programs should offer real worth to your clients and not simply customary discounts and normal gifts. Here is some of what you can do:

  • Utilize a simple technique, for example, a points system that isn’t intricate and confusing.

  • Develop a long-term and momentary level program to introduce higher levels of responsibility.

Build Lasting Relationships

Another tip to improve customer loyalty is to build a lasting relationship with your clients. If there is one benefit of small businesses over large ones, it’s that owners can engage clients face to face. They generally find an opportunity to make every client feel significant, valued, and appreciated.

Improving customer loyalty in an exceptionally competitive market is difficult. But buyers will pay more and decide to stay loyal if they feel wanted. A competent director or respectful owner taking as much time as necessary to talk with customers is only one method to create a lasting business relationship. You can also:

  • Build an affinity and proceed with your interaction even after the transaction is completed.

  • To establish trust with your clients, be direct, open, and humane.

Need A Little Help?

Customer loyalty is built both in the real world, and in the digital space. If you need help keeping customers coming back to your pages, then Ad Impact can help. The digital marketing experts at Ad impact understand how to build relationships with your customers that last, and how to build brands that retain loyalty.

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How Much Does Website Design Matter?

Quality web design has a variety of different purposes. Here are some of the many reasons to put serious thought into your web design.

1. Attract Customers

The goal of web design is to engage more users so you can boost sales. When you recruit a web design expert, they tweak and change your site in such a way that it can attract as many people as possible. A well-designed site also decreases the bounce rate, and therefore increases its search ranking.

2. More Conversions

Attracting users is only ever half the battle. What is really important is getting those users to convert. If a site can’t convert users, then there is no value in its high traffic. A professional website designer can construct a site in such a way that maximises its conversion rate.

3. Provide Information

Your audience may look up your site to find out some piece of information. An essential feature of website design is to present relevant information clearly.

4. Usability and Experience

It is imperative that your site be as user friendly as possible. If you fail in delivering a satisfying user experience, it will reflect poorly on your business as a whole. User interface includes a collection of different site features, including colour, format, and navigation, just to name a few.

5. Simple Navigation

Information should flow as naturally as possible in your website. It shouldn’t be difficult to find anything, and all your site’s information should be in logical locations. Also, try to take a minimalist approach to navigation. Don’t have too many pages, and give what few pages you do have as little text as possible.

Outsourcing

If you find web design to be a little overwhelming, know that you don’t need to take it all on board yourself. Ad Impact can design a perfectly optimized sited for your business. If you’re interested in building a site with quality design, then feel free to contact us today.

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5 Quick Tips To Speed Up Your Website

Nothing is more annoying than a slow-loading site. The attention span of the average user is fleeting at best, so a slow site will inevitably increase your bounce rate. In fact, slow websites have further reaching implications then just customer dissatisfaction. Google prefers pages that load rapidly, so faster websites are more likely to rank higher in searches. For this reason, it is vitally important to construct a website that is as fast as possible.

Here are a few tips to speed up the loading of your site:

1. Leverage on Content Delivery Networks

Organizations like Cloudflare and LimeLight Networks make a living by providing customers with steady and quick content delivery through server networks situated around the world. Utilizing a CDN will assist you with loading your pages a lot, regardless of where in the world your customers are located. Besides that, utilizing a CDN also offers additional protection against malicious assaults like DDoS attacks.

2. Reducing Redirects

Ordinarily, browsers accept different types of addresses which are converted into recognized ones by your server. Take for example www.adimpact.com.au and adimpact.com.au. Both can go to the same site, but the latter requires your server to redirect it to the recognized URL.

That redirection takes up a little time and assets, so your goal is to ensure your site can be reachable through something like one redirection. Utilize a redirect mapper to check if you are doing it right. Given the intricacy of doing this right, we suggest utilizing a plugin-like redirection.

3. Minify Resources

Minifying your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files before you load them on the server will help speed up your website by removing additional spaces, comments, and eventually optimizing the code for a speedy delivery without affecting the functionality of the code.

Important note – The “minify process” may strip your code of the comments and formatting that would allow a future developer to make changes to your site – so you should always keep a duplicate of your source files.

4. Minimize and Optimize Your Image

Use an image editing tool like Photoshop or a free image re-sizer to size your pictures so you’re not causing users to download large files. To do this, first discover what the maximum allowed image size is for your website page or blog design.

If you use Html tags and a width or height specification, you’re not decreasing the image size on your server. When you decide on your ideal image size, save it as that size. if you’re utilizing an image editor, you can save at 80% quality which further reduces the file size. Alternatively, you can utilize an online resizer so you can choose options that reduce the image size by your ideal percentage.

5. Use Caching

Caching is the process of storing static documents so when users visit your site, your site can share from recently developed pages so that handling time is chopped down. In most cases, what you should focus on is server-side caching.

The most efficient approach to implementing server-side storing is through the settings in your Apache or NGINX server. You’ll have to go through those files and find the right settings that will assist you with setting your server caching.

A Little Help

If you find the technical aspect of this a little overwhelming, know that you don’t need to trudge these waters alone. Ad Impact can speed up your site using these techniques, and a variety of others known only to web design professionals. If you’re interested in improving your site speed, or any aspect of your website, then feel free to contact us today.

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Core Web Vitals: Google’s Page Experience Factors Explained

What Are Core Web Vitals?

Core web vitals are metrics that show how your pages perform, based on real-world data. They are based on the experience of the user and are measured using field data instead of previously used lab data. Core web vitals will be added to the page experience ranking factor and other components related to website security and user-friendliness. 

What Determines Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are measured using field data provided by Google in various reports and tools, including Lighthouse, Page Speed Insights, and Google Developer Tools. It is comprised of three metrics:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
First Input Delay
Cumulative Layout Shift

Core Web Vitals will be updated to reflect the most recent technological advances and changes in user behavior over time. Therefore, Google will re-evaluate the Core Web Vitals every year. This implies that the core metrics may also change.

The focus on three clear and consistent core metrics has a number of advantages. Google can analyze websites based on clearly communicated key performance indicators (KPIs). This provides web admins, developers, and SEOs with a solid foundation for arguing their case with customers about specific jobs and budgets. Alternatively, their management can show the proof of specific positive outcomes from optimised core web vitals.

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) metric measures the amount of time it takes for the largest content element on a page to load. Images, elements or blocks of texts with a background image can all be used. Loading times of up to 2.5 seconds are acceptable for LCP, anything between 2.5 and 4 seconds requires improvement, and anything less than 4 seconds is unacceptable. The page loading status determines the LCP of a page because the largest element is usually loaded last.

Improving the Largest Contentful Paint ( LCP)

Caching: Caching is a method of storing copies of assets after they have been downloaded once so that they do not have to be downloaded again each time the browser requests them.  If you want a high-performing site then using caching is critical.

Image compression: Image compression is the act of striking a balance between image quality and asset size.Because the LCP element for most sites is an image, optimizing your images is critical to achieving good LCP.

First Input Delay (FID)

The First Input Delay (FID) is the time it takes between when a user first interacts with a website and when the browser can respond to that interaction. Users will frequently visit a website and immediately click on the text or a button without fully loading the page. Often, nothing happens because the browser is busy loading the page. 

According to Google, anything less than 100 milliseconds is considered good, anything between 100 and 300 milliseconds requires improvement, and FID values greater than 300 milliseconds are considered poor. First Input Delay details can be found in the Google documentation on First Input Delay.

Improving the First Input Delay

Breaking up long tasks: JavaScript execution frequently causes delays, which means users may not interact with the website. Tasks can be broken down to help with this. Long tasks, according to Google, are those in which a piece of code blocks the main thread for more than 50 milliseconds.

Prioritizing interactivity: This means giving priority to code required for site interactivity, which means it is loaded first.

Using a Web Worker:A Web Worker allows heavy JavaScript files to be executed in a separate thread, allowing the main thread to remain unblocked.

JavaScript execution times: It should be reduced by scrutinizing all JavaScript files executed when a website is loaded and deferring unnecessary ones.

Cumulative layout shift (CLS)

The total number of layout shifts that occur on a web page as it loads and is interacted with is measured by Cumulative Layout Shift.

Google measures CLS to judge the overall page experience, along with the other two core web vitals, FID & LCP.Multiple content shifts on a single page will lower CLS scores. A page with minimal CLS provides the best page experience.

A layout shift occurs when something on the page visibly moves within the frame. This can include anything from changing text fonts to images loading slowly and pop-ups that shift the page around as it loads.

Improving for the Cumulative Layout Shift

Specify the image and video element sizes:Specifying the exact size (W x H) of images and videos can prevent users from being surprised. Alternatively, the space required for these elements can be defined using CSS’s aspect ratio. In this manner, the browser can reserve the exact amount of space required for the image or video while it is loading.

Ads with no height or width information:  According to Google, Ads are one of the most common causes of website layout changes. This is because advertising networks, such as Google Ads, frequently use dynamic ad formats. Placeholder elements can help in this case. For instance, historical data will allow you to choose the most likely size for specific ad space.

Going Forward

Google has gone all out to increase transparency on Core Web Vitals, publishing extensive documentation that provides web admins, developers, and SEOs with all the information. Prospective web designers need to understand how the individual criteria are set fully, what elements are critical, and, most importantly, how websites can now be optimized for Core Web Vitals.

If you face any trouble, you can hire the best digital marketing agency in Perth, Ad Impact. We can help with your SEO, content strategy or any digital marketing query you may have. Get in touch with us to discuss solutions for your business.

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Why You Need To Keep Innovating Your Website

Your website is one of the clearest and most important representations of your brand. For most people, it will be the first experience they have of your business, and the initial basis by which they judge you against your competitors. It is important then that your website does not fall behind, that its layout, navigation and indeed every aspect do not become obsolete.

For this reason, we have decided to explain why you need to keep innovating your website.

Your Website Reflects Your Brand

An outdated website is a warning sign to consumers. It signals that your business is anachronistic, that it has failed to keep up with advances in your industry. It is therefore necessary to upgrade your website every couple of years, and to adopt the lessons learnt in website development.

For instance, a site that isn’t optimized for mobile devices has no chance of surviving now. More than half of web traffic and ecommerce purchases are now made through smartphones. So if your site is too cumbersome on smartphones, you won’t only have a higher bounce rate, your brand will be seen as outdated.

Users Are More Likely To Engage

Modern websites have been tailored to user behavior. Many of the developments made in the past decade have been for the purpose of keeping users engaged for as long as possible. So if you want to maximise your chance of conversions, you need a modern website.

Furthermore, modern websites allow you to monitor user behavior, and make further changes to your site to improve the client experience. For instance, you can introduce personalization, and have your site recommend specific things based on your users’ past visits.

It Is Your Best Marketing Tool

A well-designed website is a natural marketing campaign. With site optimization comes decreased bounce rates, and greater user engagement. From this comes improved SEO, and therefore improved search rankings. So by updating your website, not only will you get further engagement, you will get increased exposure.

Outsourcing

It’s hard to consistently keep on the cutting edge of website development. Trends are constantly changing, and they need to be implemented as quickly and efficiently as possible. If the work of maintaining a modern website seems like too much for you, then consider hiring the best web development agency in Perth, Ad Impact. Contact us today for more information.

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The Top 5 Web Design Trends

Your website is your most important piece of advertising. It will be the first point of contact the vast majority of your clients will have with your business. It will determine how they judge the legitimacy of your company, and how likely they are to engage with you.

It is therefore important to incorporate modern web design trends into your site. For this reason, here are the top 5 web design trends to consider when designing a website.

Mobile-Friendly Design

The majority of web traffic no longer comes from desktops, but from smartphones. It is therefore of paramount importance that you design websites to be easily accessible on phones.This is where the mobile-friendly websites comes into play. By optimizing your sites for mobile devices, you will dramatically decrease the bounce rate of your users.

Dark Color Schemes

Dark color schemes can provide numerous benefits to the look and feel of a website. Among them are:

  • Naturally highlighted portions of text due to contrast
  • Easier information flow
  • Lower energy consumption due to lower laptop brightness
  • Easier on user eyes

Voice Functioning

Voice-activated internet interfaces can enable quick online contact, allowing customers to get their needs met quickly.Users can specify their needs without having to wait for a longer response. As a result, your website will be made to be both enjoyable and engaging.

Muted tones

For the website background and color graphics, it can be a wise move to use more peaceful, neutral, and muted tones. It allows you to draw attention to the content of your website, rather than the background of that website.

Chatbots

Chatbots have the potential to replace customer service and support entirely. They improve human responses and help e-commerce businesses in a variety of ways. Even in website design, after selecting actionable items, chatbots may manage 90% of consumer conversation.

Investing in chatbots is one of the most cost-effective methods for organizations to save money. A single chatbot can perform tasks that would take multiple humans to complete. This makes a chatbot a viable option for your website.

Standing Out

With millions upon millions of active websites online, you need to do everything you can to stand out from the competition. Listed are only some of the many optimisations you can implement to give your website an edge. If it all seems to be overwhelming, you can hire the best web design company in Perth, Ad Impact, to take care of all of it for you. Our team of professional web designers can create a website that communicates to your customers effectively and concisely.

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Top 5 E-Commerce Website Tips

Since the rise of COVID-19, E-commerce websites have only grown in importance. Billions of dollars are spent every year through E-Commerce sites, and that number is only going to grow over time. However, the project of creating an E-Commerce website is one that requires great knowledge and skill, which is why most people outsource its creation to the best E-Commers website development company available. If you decide to keep the development inhouse, then here are 5 things to consider when creating an E-Commerce website.

Create An Informative & Attractive Layout

When developing your site, you need to make sure that both your products and information about them are displayed as cleanly and clearly as possible. Make sure the color, design and images complement each other.

Provide A Lot Of Information

Users want to know a great deal about a product before they decide to buy it. You should be comprehensive in the information you provide, so for each product you should mention the category, price, occasion, brand, color and anything else that is relevant.

Make sure you can use high-quality images on your website. Furthermore, make sure you have multiple images for each product, preferably at different angles, so your customers get a clearer sense of what you are selling.

Highlight The Shipping Charges

If you highlight the shipping charges or any other additional cost, it will provide an unexpected benefit to your site. Sites which don’t highlight shipping costs come off as suspicious, because customers feel as if you are raising the price when they are not looking. On this point, it is best to have as low of shipping costs as possible, so as to not create the aforementioned impression.

Provide Support & Contact Information

Make it clear to your customers that they may contact you by phone, text, email, or live chat. Assist them if they have a problem by ensuring that someone is constantly there to help them. If you hide any contact information or means of communication on your website, customers will be less likely to do business with you.

Easy Checkout & Payment Options

Ensure your website provides users with enough payment options, such as credit/debit cards or PayPal. Furthermore, your website should accept both Visa and MasterCard payments (as these are the most widely used cards). A simple checkout procedure that’s uncluttered with extra details will also serve to benefit the customers.

Making A E-Commerce Site

These details are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to designing your own E-Commerce site. If you don’t feel confident you can undertake this task yourself, or you simply wish not to deal with all the labour that goes into it, you can hire the experts at the best E-Commerce website development company in Perth, Ad Impact. For more details, check out our website today.