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Top 10 Web Design Trends of 2021

Are you looking for new leading trends in web design to give your website a refreshed look this year? In the web design industry, trends change and adapt to new society norms every year. At Nova Solutions we strive to keep up-to-date with these new trends and want to share with you a few of our top 10 favourites that can have a grand impact on your website’s design in 2021.

Light Colors

Firstly, using light colors has a huge impact on the appearance and visibility of your website. It’s often preferred to use lighter colors rather than using darker colors. The sharpness of the screen as well as the clarity can cause the colors to overpower and even be potentially stressful to the human eye. Adding those light colours to your web design will encourage users and visitors to stay and engage on your website page longer.

Negative Colors

Web designers have been implementing vibrant and bold colours as a way to draw more attention to the website design as well as to attract a younger audience by implementing those types of colour palettes. It’s been a very popular and effective way of keeping viewers engaged for years now and continues to be a leading trend in web design.

Black & White Illustrations With Textures

Black and white hand drawn designs have been in the journalism and web design industry for years now and over time these illustrations have had a great impact on web design. This trend that was once hand drawn by illustrators and cartoonists has made a huge comeback in web design in 2021 and adds a timeless and modern look to your website.

Creative and Atypical Product Photos

Using 3D designs and simulations adds a visual technique for keeping users on your site for longer. This trend remains one of the most popular ways to add more visual designs and content but in a more drastic way without being overpowering to your website visitors.

Collage Art

Collage art has been in web designs for decades now and continues to be the best and most effective way to showcase all of your content in one place without overpowering the look of your site. Adding solid colours, patterns and illustrations to your web design will not only upgrade the overall look but will also make it more inviting for users.

Seamless Surrealism

A popular trend of 2021 is adding a surrealist style to your already existing content and web graphics. Seamless Surrealism adds a new perspective and view on a product that is already existing but makes visitors see it in a completely different light. Using this trend will not only benefit the item that you’re showcasing but it will add a story behind the design which is particularly popular in 2021.

Playful Typography Effects and Animations

Using playful typography effects and animations on your website not only enhances the design but also draws in and keeps users interested and entertained while visiting your website. Creating a design that’s structured on shapes and different fonts is one of the easiest ways to complete your web design template and make your website stand out online.

Elegant Serif Fonts

Font styles for web designers have been changing and progressing over the years and it’s very important to stay ahead of new designs to keep your website looking up-to-date and refreshed. This is one of the easiest ways to update your website and keeps users in touch with the modern yearly trends.

Black Outline

Web designers have come to love using a black font or black outline in their designs. This technique has a very sleek way of adding definition and always has a very powerful impact on the engagement of users on your website.

Hover Gallery Menu

Lastly, one of the underlying elements of web design is the hover gallery menu. This very simple design technique adds an organized and simplistic look to your website that all users will appreciate every time they visit your website.

Web design trends change every year and as a designer it’s very important to stay on-top of these trends to make your website look approachable and engaging for your users. We love to share our top design trends yearly and learn new ways to upgrade any website look.

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The 4 Key Elements of Landing Pages

by nova

The 4 Key Elements of Landing Pages

We all know the importance of perfecting a landing page design to draw potential visitors in to turn them into new leads. We have come up with four different key elements of a landing page to successfully create a design that will help visitors to navigate through this page to inquire about your services.

No matter how you decide to organize your landing page it’s important to remember that this is the first page a visitor will see. We have broken them down into four key elements to ensure you have all a successful landing page!

The headers and Hero Banners

When a visitor clicks on your ads they are already making the decision of following through and accessing your website. The first thing they will see on your landing page is the header or the Hero Banner which is the most valuable real estate on your landing page. To have an effective banner you need to make sure that it has the following:

➤It should clearly show your branding and logo,

➤It should have a clean and captivating design to draw in the visitor,

➤And finally a headline or title that enhances and creates curiosity to your visitors.

Content

As the header is one of the first things a visitor will see once it opens up on the landing page it’s important to add all of the necessary content. This provides the customer with enough information before they’ll take action to move forward through your website. Having clear and strategic information on the landing page promotes the visitors to continue through your website and also clarifies all of the services that you provide upfront.

The Layout

The layout itself reflects a lot on the effectiveness of your landing page. It’s important to be strategic while implementing information and designs on your landing page. The landing page should remain uncluttered and have an inviting design for visitors.

Footers

And finally for our fourth key element we have the landing page footers. Most landing pages do include footers noting any additional information you want to have on the landing page for example this could be legal information, links to pages such as social accounts or contact information and much more. We found that if you convert the landing page to implement all of these key elements the visitor should already be drawn in after reading the initial header.

Including these four key elements on a landing page will create successful engagement and curiosity for your visitors while promoting more traffic from the landing page to convert into potential customers!

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Does Your Website Design Need To Be Mobile Friendly in 2021?

by nova

Does Your Website Design Need To Be Mobile Friendly in 2021?

Mobile-friendly websites have become an essential part of 2021. As the years go on and technology advances more users have been accessing information from their phones or mobile devices. It’s important to remember that not only are people searching topics on their phone but having a proper website design that is optimized to be used on mobile devices is crucial nowadays. Optimizing your website’s design to display properly on wireless devices should be the main priority for your website.

As we go into 2021, internet users will continue to rise throughout the year and it should be a priority to make sure you can accommodate users on their mobile devices to continue getting traffic to your website also to create potential new leads.

There has been a huge increase of users on the internet and an estimated 4.4 billion people accessing networks and websites online. Most people who are searching for topics or specific searches often click on the most accurate and user friendly website that comes up.

Enhancing your customers experience is a simple way to ensure you have recurring traffic and it can be done in a few simple ways. As we touched on optimizing your website to accommodate mobile devices, we also know that mobile-friendly websites are easy to navigate, look clear on a mobile device and are also engaging.

This would be a benefit for visitors as they would have a better experience since they don’t have unnecessary buttons, menus or task bars to go through to access the information they’re looking for. By optimizing your website design, the pictures and content on your website would be the appropriate size for a mobile device. Not only would the website design look high end but the website will load quickly and easily with the users network.

And lastly another important factor to consider is your website’s rankings. Google’s search ranking algorithms take hundreds of different factors into consideration when they compile all of the search results. Mobile usability is one of the most crucial factors that are considered when a user searches for your keywords and this increases the visibility to help visitors find your website.

Optimizing your website to be mobile friendly is something that most website designers will need to implement.. As the amount of people who own and use mobile devices increases in 2021, it’s important to remember that websites should also be updated to accommodate this growing amount of users.

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Why Does Landing Page Design Matter?

by nova

Why Does Landing Page Design Matter?

We are often asked why a landing page design matters to your overall website. We explain the main reasons why we find it to be one of the most crucial pages because it has the most effectiveness on a viewer.

A landing page design is the first page that a user will view after clicking on a Google search result, marketing promotion, marketing email or an online advertisement. From a viewer standpoint, as soon as they click this button they are interested in looking at your website. From there, it is your job to implement a highly strategic page so viewers can feel engaged and interested right away.

Ideally the best landing page is one that provides a clear design in order for the visitors to navigate naturally through your website. This page is one of the best ways to engage your visitor in moving forward with your services- that is filling out a typeform, survey or making a call to discuss your services and products that you offer.

Since ads may be significantly low in cost depending on your keywords, it’s important to have a page that is engaging to the visitor to promote using your website and moving forward with your services.

It’s important to remember that visitors are already interested and motivated once they click on your ads but it’s up to your digital marketing team to implement all the necessary information and to optimize your landing page to convert these visitors into leads and potential customers.

A landing page is the first thing that the visitor will see after visiting your site and it’s important to have the landing page as inviting and interesting for your visitors as possible. A landing page design is one of the most crucial parts of your website and it has the potential of turning visitors into new leads for your website!

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Website Design Costs in 2021

by nova

Website Design Costs in 2021

As we enter 2021, we’re often asked how much a web design costs in 2021 and we’re here to give you some insight.

You may be looking to create or revamp a website and you’re probably wondering how much the cost would be to do this in 2021. With professional web designers you could be looking at a wide range of prices to redesign or create a new website. At Nova Solutions we focus on the fact that building a custom web design with us is one of the best investments you can make.

There are a variety of factors that go into a design cost that could include the amount of pages, the style of the design, SEO placement, responsive designs, and much more. Web design is one of the main factors in building a new website and it’s important to invest in a web designer who understands and knows how to build a beautiful website as well as an online presence that will draw users in.

Considering that 75% of users judge a company’s credibility by it’s website design it’s important to invest and implement all of the key elements into your web design. At Nova Solutions we have learned over the years how web design trends change and adapt year after year and we’re always staying up-to-date with these trends to ensure we’re able to successfully create a web design to remain modern and innovative.

The most important factor to consider while discussing web design costs is that it’s entirely scalable. Not only is this important but another consideration in managing your web design costs is how your website will look and the functionality of the website afterwards. The team at Nova Solutions are experts in web design and create a functional and user-friendly website that can increase your potential new leads.

If you’re thinking of having a website redesigned or even creating a brand new website design from the ground up it is an investment that’s worth making. Having the right team of web designers who understand and can achieve the best functionality and create a great design for your website is one that should never be looked over. At Nova Solutions, not only are we focused on creating a new design but also achieving great online presence while having your website meet all of the expectations and criterias of the web design in 2021.

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How To Research Keywords For SEO

by nova

How To Research Keywords For SEO

As a website owner, keywords are perhaps the most crucial part of your SEO strategy. They fit in your content, links, anchor text, title and even the meta description of a page. Keywords help optimize your content so it can reach a larger audience and a higher ranking on the search engine result pages. Many times finding the perfect keyword can be extremely difficult. Even with the various tools to find keywords, often, you cant find your hidden gems. So what are some of the ways to get those unranked keywords that can be a gold mine for your business?

why is keyword research important?

When it comes to keyword research, you might have noticed that even if you have a good keyword with lots of searches, it still might not get you a lot of traffic. That is because the keyword you choose probably is a high search volume or popular keyword. This means that a lot of people are trying to rank for this keyword. When that happens, your page tends to get lost in the sea of pages, and larger pages with more authority than yours tend to land the top spots. This is exactly why you need to find keywords that still have a good search volume but don’t have a lot of competition in rankings. There are many ways you can go around doing this; you can use the help of tools or do manual research to find your optimum keywords.

choose long-tale keywords

Most new website owners often forget that they don’t necessarily need their keyword to be a single word. In fact, long-tail keywords or phrases are a great way to find some words that may have a lot of queries but not many people target. So how do you find these long-tail keywords? Well, one manual way that many overlook is through the google related results.

When you type in your popular keyword, go further down in the search result to find out what other people are searching for. This will give you alternative phrases and words for that same keyword that might have less competition and allow you to rank better. For some queries, there is even a “people also ask” section. This further gives you ideas for phrases that you can use to rank better. You can also click on that question and see the “people also ask” again if you want a variety of questions to choose from.

A pro tip is that you shouldn’t ignore all the search engines other than google. If you can’t find a good related search on Google, you may be able to find some unique ones on Bing or Duckduckgo. So cover all your basis when conducting keyword research.

reverse engineer your competitor's pages

Another great way to get options for keywords is by finding out what your competitors are ranking for. To do that, you first need to figure out who your competitors are. You can do this by typing in your primary or most important keyword and seeing which pages show up in the search results.

You can then go onto tools like Ahrefs site explorer or any other keyword research tool you prefer with the competitor selected. Here you will check to see their most high ranking page or one that brings in the most traffic. By inspecting these pages, you can find your keyword and a topic that you haven’t covered. Since these pages are your competitors, most likely, they have the same niche as you and thus will write similar articles.

After finding all possible keywords to rank for from one competitor, you can go ahead and find another competitor and repeat the process.

Look out for forums in top search results

Google generally doesn’t let user pages rank in the top spots since they don’t have a lot of credibility or authority. That means if you do see a forum like Reddit or Quora ranking for a keyword in the top spot, it means that there is less competition for that keyword. Hence ranking for the same keyword and producing a high equality piece of content can get you one of the top spots.

If you want to be certain how to get the number one ranking for that keyword, you can use a backlink checking tool; there are many free ones available that tell you how many backlinks a page has. For a low competition keyword, the number of backlinks is usually low. Doing this gives you an exact number of backlinks you need to establish to get the top spot. Although other factors affect the ranking as well, a professionally made website will have an advantage over an online forum.

Run A Content Gap Analysis

The chances are that if your competitors rank for a certain keyword, it may also be of interest to you. To find these keywords that you might be missing out on, you need to run a content gap analysis. You can find a free tool for it relatively easily, and it will be able to find you any missed keywords. Before you can run a content gap analysis, you need to figure out your competitor domains. After that has been decided, you enter the three domains and check which keywords all 3 of them are ranking for. You may see most of the keywords you already rank for, but the chances are that you will also find some that you have yet thought of.

In the tools, you can then also check the stats of the keyword you select to find out its ranking and search volume before you write content around it.

Get Creative with your keywords

What most webmasters face trouble with is getting creative with their keywords. You may have their primary keyword down, but as the content and pages keep increasing, it can be difficult to find new and interesting keywords each time. That is where the tool “AdWord & SEO Keyword Permutation Generator” comes in. Here you can enter your primary keyword phrases. Depending on how long you want the keyword to be, you can add multiple lists. Then you press the “generate permutations” button, and it creates keyword phrases for you. This allows multiple new options for keywords that you may not have considered. You have to remember, though, not all the keyword phrases generated will make complete sense, so you will have to sort through them to find your perfect keyword.

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The Effect Of Data Encryption On Paid Search

by nova

The Effect Of Data Encryption On Paid Search

Why you need more than just HTTPS and SSL on your website
HTTPS and SSL might not be enough
When HTTPS was introduced in 2014, many SEOs rushed to move from HTTP especially after it was announced by Google that the move could help boost rankings. As a result, every SEO company Toronto recommended their clients to get the certificate in order to increase their chances of ranking higher on Google. The truth is, moving your site from HTTP to HTTPS shouldn’t have anything to do with rankings. The main reason why Google mentioned rankings in a post they did to introduce HTTPS was so that they could get people’s attention.

Enhancing web security

One of the main goals of Google, being the largest search engine, is to make the web secure for its users. HTTPS was introduced in order to enhance user’s security when browsing the web. Google doesn’t want its users to visit websites where their credit card details could be easily stolen and hence will not show such websites in their search results. The search engine will prioritize on sites that have HTTPS because it means they will serve users with quality and safe results.

What does it mean to have an SSL certificate?

One thing you need to understand is that having an SSL certificate doesn’t make a website secure. There are lots of fake websites that still use the HTTPS technology. This is because for you to access this technology, all you need to do as a website owner is to obtain the SSL certificate. Once they obtain this certificate from third parties and implement it on their site within just a few minutes, the web pages are considered secure as far as the browser is concerned.

How does SSL certificate work?

Getting an SSL certificate for WordPress website is important but first, try and find out how it works to determine if this is the only sure way to secure your web pages. We’ll try and explain how SSL certificates work in a simplistic way.

When browsing the web and you access a site that has the certificate, the browser will first verify the validity of the certification. It will determine if the SSL certificate is valid for that domain and has been issued by a trusted certificate authority. The browser will also check to ensure that the certificate hasn’t passed its expiration date. Once the verification is complete, the connection is completed by the browser and the user is able to access the site directly. If not, the browser will warn the user that the site is insecure or even deny access to the site.

To understand how secure your website is with SSL certification, you need to know how HTTPS works. The HTTPS technology allows communication between the browser and website server to be in an encrypted format making it hard for hackers to read or tamper with the data. However, the information is decrypted by the browser when it receives it or by the server when it receives it. This means that the server can store some of this data giving hackers an opportunity to access it. In a nutshell, HTTPS allows data to get to the web servers securely but it doesn’t control how well the data is stored.

How to make it work

SSL and TLS are both important technologies that should be implemented properly but also combined with HSTS to prevent data breaches and hacks. These two technologies alone may not secure your website against malicious attacks. Therefore, when designing client websites, it is important to educate the website owners that they need to invest in more secure technologies and not just HTTPS if they seek to protect their users.

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SEO Backlinks – What are they?

by nova

SEO Backlinks - What are they?

Learn How to Build Back Links and Common Mistakes to Avoid
Start building links effectively
Link building has and will probably always be one of the most challenging SEO tactics to implement. Make one wrong move and you could end up being penalized by Google after working so hard on your rankings for years. Before we get started on how to build back links that will enhance site rankings and traffic, let’s look at some link building techniques you should always avoid.
• For starters, stay away from low-quality links. Getting numerous poor quality links from untrusted sources adds no value to your web pages. Google understands this and that’s why they penalize sites that are caught up in the act.
• Secondly, make sure you trust the agency working on your SEO Toronto. It’s always recommended to hire SEO specialists to do the heavy work for you but make sure the people you choose to partner with are not only competent but also understand the current trends.
• You also need to avoid using exact match anchor text. The anchor texts used on your website should be relevant to the content on that page. Don’t just stuff keywords on the anchor text, make sure they’re relevant if you want the page to rank better.
• Most importantly, avoid black hat SEO techniques if you don’t want to be penalized by Google. Google will notice if you obtain a large number of links within a short period of time and penalize your site for it. Don’t look for shortcuts such as using people’s content to boost your on-page SEO. Google will soon take notice and penalize you.

Should you disavow a link?

One of the best link building practices is knowing when to accept or disavow links. Don’t be quick to accept links unless they are relevant and add value to your website’s current content. If you notice a link appears to be too promotional or spammy then do not accept it. Also, do your research to make sure that the site you are linking to is relevant to your users. Remember that if you link to a site that Google sees as having spammy content, your site will also be affected. Do not link with sites that contain malicious code or pages that are yet to be indexed by Google. Some sites may have a low domain authority but really good content. In such cases, it makes sense to link to it.

In a nutshell, below are a few sites you should avoid linking to:

• Sites that are malicious or suspicious such as porn and gambling sites
• Sites that have keyword-stuffed anchor links
• Link farms and link exchange websites
• Sites that are not relevant to your niche
• Sites that have a high spam-risk score

Getting started

You need to start by identifying any potentially bad links on your website. You can do this by performing a backlink audit. By using a tool such as SEMrush, you can easily get a list of all the sites that are linking to your website. Start by removing the sites that you’ve never heard of from that list. Check for sites that have unusual anchor text or with foreign language and get rid of them. You may have to check some of the websites on that list manually before you decide to disavow them. Make sure you disavow links only when it’s necessary.

Getting numerous links all in one go is very tempting but always remember that it’s never a good strategy that you can sustain. Cloaking, link buying and hacking promise you a lot of backlinks in a short time but the risk is far greater than the reward.

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Developing Website Marketing Strategies

by nova

Developing Website Marketing Strategies

How Website Design Impacts on Your Content Marketing Strategy
Pay attention to your website design
A properly designed website gives visitors the right first impression of your brand. When web visitors are turned off by poor web design, it ends up affecting your content marketing. This means that you really have to pay attention to the font, color, styles and elements you incorporate into your website. All these components will determine how effective your digital marketing strategy will turn out to be.

Marketing your content and choosing the right design

Content marketing involves giving users information that is relevant and helpful without promoting a brand directly in order to spike an interest in your product or service. This can be done in different ways including publishing blog posts, guides and tutorials on your website which provide users with helpful information and answers the most frequently asked questions. Although a how-to blog may not be a direct form of advertisement, an avid follower is likely to purchase products from that website because they have already established a relationship with the brand. This kind of online marketing can open doors to convert and retain clients.

How do users access and read your content?

The effectiveness of your online marketing strategy is somewhat tied down to how the content is presented on the web. You may have the best content but if it’s not properly presented, accessible and readable, no one will take notice. Below are a few questions to ask yourself when coming up with an online marketing strategy and developing an effective design to complement it.
Is it accessible?

Making sure the content is accessible is a key consideration. Accessibility is simply making sure the content can be easily found and read online. To achieve this, the page must be easy to navigate. Choose a navigation system that users are familiar with so they don’t have to click through unnecessary content before getting what they’re looking for. Ask your website design company Toronto to develop a straightforward navigation system which will make your content accessible. Features such as drop-down menus can be used to make information easily accessible to the user.

Does your site look professional?

The design of your website can quickly draw in users or turn them away. Therefore, as you plan on coming up with the best content, make sure your site looks the part. Avoid web pages that are unprofessional, visually unappealing or outdated. If the first impression is that your company website looks unprofessional, users may hesitate to consider you as a valuable resource. Focus on a design that is clean and simple if you want to bring out a professional and authoritative vibe.

Is the content easy to read?

Readability is a key concern when coming up with an online marketing strategy. There are several factors such as choosing too many different fonts, small font sizes and large chunks of text that make your content difficult to follow through. Stick to a maximum of 3 fonts on your design. Choose one font for all titles and another one for body copy. Choose a font color for text that is contrasting your background to make sure visitors don’t strain to read the content. Make sure the font size is large enough so that no one struggles to read through.

Make use of visuals

Visuals like images and videos are easy to consume for web visitors. When you incorporate proper graphics in your content, you make it easier for your users to fully comprehend new topics and any new piece of information you’re trying to pass on. Take advantage of visual content to give potential clients an idea of how your product or service can be used. From a design perspective, make sure your website has a suitable layout that works beautifully with visual content.

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Keeping Your SEO Ranking Up While Your Website Is Down

by nova

Keeping Your SEO Ranking Up While Your Website Is Down

How to Avoid Losing Traffic After Redesigning Your Website
Keep your brand on top of SERPs.
Every site will require a redesign at some point in time. Redesigning is an important step to ensure your site doesn’t look outdated or no longer fulfills the needs of the online user. In fact, revamping your website can help you to increase traffic, conversions, and sales but it has to be done right.
Unfortunately, many website designers are taking on redesign projects without planning ahead of time. Among the important issues to consider when redesigning a site is how to avoid traffic drops during the site redesign. Your sit can lose substantial traffic days or even weeks after the new design is launched. We’ve seen this happening quite often. As a reliable provider of web design Toronto, we’ll share with you tips to avoid these traffic drops and keep your brand on top of SERPs.

What causes traffic to drop after redesigning your site?

Before we get to how to avoid traffic drops following a redesign, it’s important to understand the causes of the drop in website traffic. First things first, you need to understand that a minor drop in traffic when you launch the new site is quite normal. Therefore, don’t panic if you notice a decline of less than 10% of your previous traffic after uploading the new site. This temporary decline in traffic is because Google has to crawl and index the new pages. However, traffic shouldn’t drop significantly for more than a few days. If it does, it’s probably a big issue that needs to be addressed.

Set up proper redirects

One common cause of traffic drops after a website redesign is failure to set up proper redirects. While it’s not realistic to redesign a site and have no redirects, there are ways to make redirects work for you without compromising your site’s crawlability. Make sure any new pages that have been moved to a new location or any changes in URL structure are properly redirected to avoid an unnecessary traffic drop.

Create a new sitemap

This is often a necessary step if your site structure changed considerably after the redesign. The sitemap simply gives search engine crawlers a list of all the important pages on the site and speeds up the process of indexing the pages which means you can quickly restore traffic after the web design Toronto. Check all internal links to ensure none of them is outdated or that they don’t cause any crawl issue.

Use ranking keywords in your copy

If you create new pages that don’t use the keywords that they originally ranked for, you may lose substantial traffic due to this. Your site will not show up on search if it no longer has the information that it was ranking for. Work with a SEO to help you determine which pages rank for what target keywords so that you can maintain some of the content and avoid losing relevant traffic after the redesign. In fact, consulting with a SEO agency throughout the process helps to avoid issues that affect traffic in the long run. The SEOs will go through your site and take an inventory of all the top-ranking pages so that they can maintain the valuable information in the redesigned version. You can also use this information to build a new site structure that works for your brand.

Ensure the analytics tracking code is in place

Before you launch the new site, make sure you’re able to track your website traffic. This means the Analytics code should be in place. It may seem obvious but it’s one area that many designers overlook when redesigning a site.