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Toronto SEO Services Will Help You Understand Your KPI & Evaluate Data to Drive Performance

Toronto SEO Services Will Help You Understand Your KPI & Evaluate Date to Drive Performance

Issues Affecting Website Performance (and how to fix them)

Increase your site’s speed to improve performance

We all know too well that one of the main issues that can hinder a site’s performance is the page load speed. Page speed has become a ranking factor used by Google for both mobile and desktop searches. Slow loading pages have a high bounce rate and increasing your site speed is one of the best ways to improve the overall site performance.

This article is based on a research done by SEMrush on factors that affect website performance. The study featured 150,000 random websites which were analyzed to determine how well they performed. One of the shocking outcomes of the study is how most of the analyzed sites (precisely 82%) were found to have serious performance issues. However, a majority of those issues that hindered the site’s performance could be fixed using very simple site optimization and server configuration techniques.

Major issues found on analyzed websites

There are several issues that were found to have a negative impact on site performance. They include:

• Slow loading web pages
• Uncompressed CSS and JavaScript files
• Uncompressed pages
• CSS and JavaScript files that are too large
• Unnecessary CSS and JavaScript files
• Large HTML page size
• Too many redirects

Addressing common bsite performance issues

One of the issues that was very common on analyzed websites is redirect chains and loops. Do not test your user’s patience by having so many redirects on your website. Avoid redirect chains which could also confuse search engine crawlers. With each redirect, your page loses its original rank and because search engines have a limited crawling budget, this will ultimately undermine the page’s ranking.
Keeping your website structure clean gets harder and harder when your site grows. It’s easy for you to have so many redirects when your site is migrated to HTTPS or renamed. Just try and implement redirects only when it’s necessary. Remember that with each redirect, you create an unnecessary delay before the user gets to the destination page.

Put your page on a diet

Sounds cheesy, doesn’t it? But if you want to optimize your page performance try and avoid having heavy pages on your site or large JS and CSS files. In fact, your entire site shouldn’t be larger than 2MB. Anything larger than that is considered heavy and will hinder the site load speed. Don’t crowd your pages with too many visuals (images and videos). These two will take up the largest part of your site, therefore, try and get rid of anything unnecessary. Remember, less is more.

Minify your JS and CSS

This can simply be done by getting rid of any unnecessary lines, comments from source code among other stuff. When you reduce the size of these files, you’ll enhance the site load speed, give users a better experience and improve your search rankings.

Fix server issues

One factor that could significantly affect site load speed is its server. If the web server is not efficient, the web pages will take time to load. This means you need to ensure that your hosting service is top notch. You may have the best SEO Toronto but if you maintain the same inefficient hosting provider, your rankings will not improve. You may also get your own dedicated server if you can afford it.

Mobile websites need a very reliable server because most of their users are on the go and need a site that doesn’t take too long to load. In fact, by taking steps to improve your site load speed, you could increase your revenue. You may also want to check issues such as slow database queries that could be slowing down your server response time.

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The Most Important Factors of Visual Hierarchy in Website Design

The Most Important Factors of Visual Hierarchy in Website Design

Examples of Visualization Tools that Can Make your Data More Appealing

Turn your raw data into something appealing and user friendly

Data visualization tools come in handy when you want to add some flair and visual appeal to raw data. These tools can make data appealing and even easier for users to comprehend. We’ll go over a few free data visualization tools that you can use to make your raw data not only appealing but also more user-friendly.

D3.js

This is arguably the most popular data visualization tool available today. With this tool, you can come up with simple and complex graphs and charts using technologies like HTML and CSS. It’s a great tool to use if cross-platform compatibility is one of your main goals. However, D3 will only work with modern browsers after IE9.

FusionCharts

If you are looking for a data visualization tool that will give you a good number of charts and maps to choose from, this is it. This has been incorporated numerous times in modern web design Toronto. It has more than 960 maps and 90 charts plus supports some of the oldest browsers, unlike D3. This particular tool is mostly recommended for JSON and XML data formats. You can start with the free trial where you can use all of their charts for free until you sign up.

Datawrapper

If you have data in a CSV file that you would want to interpret, Datawrapper can help you to come up with a very interactive chart that simplifies the raw data. It’s very easy to use since you just upload the file and select the type of chart you want to create. This visualization tool has often been used by journalists in news articles and other people who aren’t so techie. In fact, it’s the most recommended data visualization tool to use for people who are not very tech savvy.

Raw

Another data visualization tool that you should try out is Raw. This one is built of D3.js platform and is very simple to use. There are 16 chart types that you can easily select after uploading your data. One of the best features of this particular tool is that it enables you to customize your charts. You can even come up with your own custom layouts using this tool.

Timeline JS

If you’re looking for a tool to develop very interactive visual timelines, this is the perfect one to use. Timeline JS allows you to display a chunk of information in a very simple and visually appealing manner. Using this tool, you can present a lot of information using a small area and make it appealing to your web users.

Google Charts

This visualization tool is very easy to use and compatible with all browsers and platforms. Using this tool, you can create some of the simplest graphs and the most complex treemaps which means it is ideal for almost any kind of project you can think of. Google Charts offers a variety of charts and visualizations that are very easy to pull off.

Flot

One thing that stands out about Flot compared to other data visualization tools is that it has very clean charts and graphs. If you want a touch of elegance in data visualizations and graphs, use this tool. There’s a huge active community of Flot users who make the tool even easier to use.

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What’s Needed To Design High-Conversion Forms

What’s Needed To Design High-Conversion Forms

Common Mistakes to Avoid when Building Web Forms

Don’t do these things when building Forms

Online forms are a very integral part of web design Toronto. If the web forms are confusing or hard to navigate, you’ll not get as many users as you want clicking on the submit button and this ultimately lowers your conversion rates. A good web form takes into account user experience. We’ll cover some of the few bad practices when building web forms and explain how you can avoid them.

1. Poor input validation rules

To start with, you need to have very clear and fair input validation rules. For instance, don’t make it compulsory for a US phone number to have parentheses and hyphens. With very strict validation rules, you could end up blocking relevant users who might be used to different formats. Also, make sure you display hints on the web forms if you expect the user to input a specific format perhaps by giving an example below it.

2. Incorrect use of sliced fields

Sliced fields can work really well for certain kinds of inputs such as dates where the format is well known. You can just give a hint on where the month and date should be inserted. However, if you slice fields in the phone number section, you may just confuse users because there are so many different formats and the respondent may be unfamiliar with what you’re requesting for.

3. Not including labels

You may not include labels in your web forms in order to save on space but remember that these labels make it easier for people to remember what information they’re supposed to enter. When you use a placeholder alone it means that as soon as someone begins to type it disappears so it’s easy for the respondent to forget what the label was. Labels are also ideal for accessibility because screen readers pick them better than placeholders.

4. Using non-standard web form components

There are several components that are being used nowadays but many of them are not compliant or compatible as it is required. Before you implement any new feature in your web forms, think of whether it is going to work in older browsers and older devices. The standard components are ideal because you’re sure they’ll work in multiple devices, browsers and on different locales and languages.

5. Make users opt-in by default

One trick that many web owners use online is making decisions like opting in for their respondents. You shouldn’t have opt-in as a default setting. Give your respondents an opportunity to make these decisions deliberately rather than making it automatic.

6. Failing to allow users to sign in via social

Allowing users to sign in using their social media accounts is one of the best ways to simplify the entire sign up process for your users. You save the user time and instead of filling out a bunch of fields, they get to click a button and instantly sign up. Don’t make social login the only option because granted some users may have their reasons not to use it. Have a section for email and make sure you address what you will and won’t do once you access the user’s social media account.

The best strategy to build effective web forms is making sure they excellently communicate to respondents. Simple steps such as making the labels appear even after the user clicks or avoiding terms like invalid and providing more details on what’s required will give your users the best experience. If you commit any of the above web forms mistakes, you may end up making your online forms annoying which hinders overall user experience.

 

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A Guide to the F Pattern Layout for Text-Heavy Websites

A Guide to the F Pattern Layout for Text-Heavy Websites

Tips to Design Effective Textual Content

Make your content as visually appealing as possible

When designing a website, one of the issues that most people experience is dealing with text that ends up longer than expected. When the text appears too long, it tends to mess up the overall visual design. Issues such as text that overflows its container or becoming too small to be visible can be controlled with proper website design. We’ll share with you a few tips to fix such common issues and make sure your text is as visually appealing as it should be.

Why typography is important in website design

Typography can make or break your website design. Your choice of typography will determine whether your content is readable and appealing to its users. This means you have to decide on the size, color, spacing, and placement of text on your website wisely. Making good use of negative spacing is also recommended in website design. Take your time to understand how different elements need to fit on a page in order to make the content easy to consume. Remember that when readers feel overwhelmed, which often happens in text-centric websites, they will abandon the site altogether. We’ll share some tips and tricks below on how to make your text enhance user engagement and ultimately boost conversion rates.

Use space to make text breathable

Negative spacing is one of the most important features of modern website design. The texts you show on your page needs to be properly separated from each other. Don’t be afraid to use lots of space in different sections of the page. For instance, use space to separate the paragraphs and divide the information into chunks making it easier for your readers to follow through. Spacing is especially important for landing pages, blogs, and portfolio sites. These are pages that need a great readability score.

Choose the right font color

Your choice of font color will also play a huge role in determining the text readability. The wrong choice of color can irritate the reader and make users leave the page. Take your time to learn about the psychology of colors and how this impacts your website design. Don’t use a very light font color on a white background because you reduce the text’s visibility. If the elements are overlapping, the difference in their colors shouldn’t be so extreme. Learn how to use certain colors such as red which is often used in e-commerce web design to highlight slashed prices.

Choose the right font size

The size of the font will determine the flow of content on a page. For instance, if a larger font size is used it means that part is leading the content that follows. Use titles and subtitles wisely making sure they’re helping you to structure your content in the right way. Use bigger font sizes when you need to emphasize on certain text.

Mind your content size

Try and divide large chunks of content into shorter bursts. This really helps your readers to commit to the content and follow through to the end when they can see there’s not too much going on. Online users are more inclined to visual content so if you want them to read through text, you need to ensure that the font size, color, spacing and amount of text is just right.

Parting shot

There’s no secret formula for designing dynamic text. There are so many new changes in typography being introduced that it can be hard to keep up. Use text designs to engage your readers and give your site better rankings. Hire a SEO Toronto company to help you optimize the content for search engines and you’ll be good to go.

 

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7 Types Of Content That Will Increase Your Business

7 Types Of Content That Will Increase Your Business

Increase Your Website Authority in 90 days

Calculate your website authority

If you have been struggling to secure increased organic traffic this article is for you. Your website’s authority is a vital factor that determines the traffic you get from Google. The higher the authority, the more traffic your website gets. As much as Google focuses on ranking pages and not websites, it will be easier for you page to get a good ranking if your website commands significant authority. So what are the things you need to do if you’re building website authority within 90 days?

Before we dive into the actions you ought to take to achieve a healthy website authority, let us look at the process of calculating website authority.

Authority calculation by SEMrush

When you visit the SEMrush page- a search engine and SEO analytics software- you will notice there is a number (on a 100-point scale) the software allocates to every domain known as an authority score. This number indicates how important your domain is, meaning the higher the number the more website authority your site has.

The Authority score utilizes machine learning for calculation and it is a proprietary metric. The software uses a domain’s specific metrics to measure the authority level. This specific metrics includes a domain’s organic search traffic/position, backlink profile, and other traffic data relating to the specific website undergoing ranking. That is how SMErush calculates website authority. Now, let us look at ways of building website authority.

Tactics for good website authority in just 90 days:

1. Guest Posting

Toronto SEO experts will tell you that creating and publishing high-quality content (in websites that fall in your niche) which has a high domain score and popularity when it comes to your audience, is one way of increasing the authority of your website. This is guest posting.

When you guest post, you will want to link back the audience to a related post on your website thereby creating some degree of authority for that website.

2. Get links from friends

Find out if your friends are ranking for similar keywords as you. If this is the case, ask them to do you the favor of adding a link back to your website in their content. Make sure that the keywords they are ranking are core to your business but not to theirs. This ensures that you do not have conflicting interests.

3. Utilize Podcasts

By being invited to speak as a guest on podcasts, you can greatly benefit from backlinks and mentions in the show’s notes. Find out how you can utilize a high authority podcast and the results will amaze you.

4. Write High-Quality Content

When you write high-quality content you will definitely attract more links to your website. Here are examples of content that have the potential of generating the most links:

• Authoritative content answering popular questions
• Strong political or opinion posts
• Content providing original insights and research
• Authoritative news content relating to new developments or products

5. Utilize social media for content promotion

By promoting your content regularly via social media channels you expose more people to it. If these people love what they are consuming from you, there is a very high possibility that they will share it on their own platforms for others to see thus increasing your chances of getting links. Nevertheless, you have to share new, captivating content multiple times if you want to gain more attention.

By utilizing the above tactics you will increase your website’s authority in a short period.

Content Should Be Optimized And Well-Written

A few years ago, when black-hart SEO techniques had taken over the web, many people wrote content in order to trick search engines to rank their pages high on SERP. Search engines later revised their algorithms to ensure people pay attention to the quality content that was being published on their web pages. Gone are the days when you would fix keywords in a blog title that made it sound unnatural in order to rank high on search.

Search engines will really look at how users have interacted with your content in order to determine how well it is going to be ranked for relevant searches. For instance, if your blog contains all the relevant keywords with proper placement, but it doesn’t flow naturally, most people will visit the page and move away fast because of poor quality content. Search engines will translate this high bounce rate as a negative factor that undermines your rankings. That’s why SEO specialists are taking time to develop content marketing strategies with a goal to remain creative, unique and SEO friendly.

Generate Engagement And Boost Traffic

The best type of content is not only well-optimized for search but also engaging to users. Web users will always share your content if the information you provide is helpful, interesting and new. If you make it a habit to rewrite posts that have been covered on different platforms, you risk negatively affecting web rankings due to duplication and also losing user interest.

Content writers should focus on what they do best, which is making sure the information is captivating and relevant to users. SEO experts on the other hand, should be able to help bring out the content in a way that search engines will easily crawl and index the web page. This includes taking steps to make the post or page SEO friendly like adding meta description and title tags.

Avoid Duplicated Content

The worst that you can do is to copy and paste content from different platforms and share it like your own. Google considers this as a major issue and can even penalize your website for it. You never have to reinvent the wheel by coming up with fresh information. Get inspiration from other platforms that offer a similar product or service and then make it uniquely yours. Make sure the content is published well, avoid heavy images, very small fonts and make use of internal links to boost SEO.

Look For Fans On Google+

The first step is connecting with the Google+ community and establishing fans over time. You have to look for people who will identify with your brand and find your content engaging. These are the people who will read your messages and share them with others in their networks. They become some sort of brand advocates. They not only love your product but are also eager to tell the world about it. A good way to go about this is to let Google+ connect you to such people. This increases the group from which you can form your audience and potential new clients.

You may need to group the various connections in three circles depending on their eagerness, characteristics and the likelihood of them sharing out your content. As such, you may have potential candidates, engaging fans and your brand ambassadors. In your first search, target a wider group to increase chances of finding users who can be brand ambassadors. You will be looking for users who are discussing your topic and product. You can also use keywords and hashtags related to your industry, brand and product. Another source can be your competitors’ pages who may provide you with people more likely to identify with your product. You can also identify users with greater influence by using the ripple feature. This indicates the public shares a user’s link generates and shows you the influence a user wields.

Engage With Your Circle Members

Adding people to your circles is just the first step and it is an easy one. The second step involves you getting on these people’s radar. This will take long and more work as you have to start commenting, sharing and engaging them. It will take some time for them to notice you but soon you will see people also engaging with your content and these you can now move to people who engage circle. High level of activity on your Google+ profile will also positively impact your SEO results overall.

Offers And Inviting Users Through Private Emails

This is a good step which allows you to identify the people who can be your brand ambassadors. All you have to do is create a special offer for the people in your ‘fans who engage’ circle and send it to them using private message via an opt-in. The message and offers you give should fulfil the receivers’ needs and be more unique than the usual discount offers. You do not want to be viewed as a spammer but as someone offering a special unique deal. Those who opt in can then be moved to the third circle of brand ambassadors.

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Video Optimization Guide For Search Engine Optimization

Video Optimization Guide For Search Engine Optimization

How to Utilize Video Schema Markup on Your Video Pages

Utilize Video Schema Markup correctly

It is such a shame that there are some companies out there which are yet to realize the importance of video schema markup up until now. Markups are an influential way of assisting search engines in understanding what you are providing on your post in a detailed way.

Companies like Bing, Google, and Yahoo have been using these rich snippets for nearly 6 years and clearly, you can see the great wonders its doing for them. The reason why on-page markup is so important for such companies is that, where there is an embedded video, the search engines will provide you, the viewer, with information about the subject matter on the page.

Trust us, this markup is very crucial for you because failure to utilize it on your website means that the marketing videos you have posted are less likely to be viewed than those of pages that are utilizing them. To ensure that you don’t undergo such disappointments, we have composed this short guide in order for you to understand how you can effect markups on the sites of your video pages

What difference do they bring to your video pages?

Lacking on-page markups means that the only thing the search engines will have about your video is the heading, a description, and a summary.

On the other hand, if you use them, you will be able to tell the search engines about who made the video, those who starred in it, its duration, the copyright holder and even better, a video transcript which is just amazing especially for SEO purposes.

Other useful tags you can use to make a difference include:

• Expires: This shows how long the video will be available and relevant for viewing
• Upload Date: Shows when the video was first broadcasted and it’s a great way to show users if the content in the video is significant or not.
• Content URL: The URL to the original video file
• Embed URL: This specific URL indicates where the hosted video is. It’s very helpful in assisting search engines to find the video quicker.

How do you optimize your videos with markups?

The simplest way to do this is by including a map for search engines to follow. All you require to do is to make sure that the schema markup is included in the HTML code of the video page.

The uniqueness of doing this is that the pages will still look the same and the site users will not view them. What’s more, this information will help search engines to mark the pages and to display them in an upgraded form in the SERPs.

Overall, there are certain things you ought to realize for a smooth and easy time:

• Using consistent keyword phrases ensures that the intended audience watches the video. Utilize it in the heading, the video page, definition and if possible have it in the transcription.
• To be sure that the videos of your choice get the broadcast you hoped for in the SERPs, make sure to test that the markup is working right using Structured Data Verification Engines. We recommend using the one for Google.
• A great way to assure connection to the engines is by making sure that the markup is visible without execution of Flash/JavaScript.
Are Video Sitemaps worth it?

Although it requires more work to generate a sitemap, having it will help search engines to properly understand what the video is about and to correctly display it as you expected in the SEPRs.

Nova Solutions encourages you to start taking markups seriously because not only is it vital for Search Engine Optimization, but it also helps your video to stand out in the search results of videos having the same content as yours.

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Tips For Designing An Innovative And Functional Website Navigation

Tips For Designing An Innovative And Functional Website Navigation

5 Unconventional Website Navigation Systems You Can Learn From

Take a look at some unusual website navigation systems

There are so many features that you can integrate on your website to give it a unique look and feel. One of the most prominent features in any web design is the navigation system. A unique navigation system can set your website apart from your competitors. We’ll take a look at some websites that have managed to pull off unique navigation systems which complement their brand. If it’s inspiration you’re after, these websites will give you some brilliant ideas to pull off your own unique website navigation systems.

1. Faces of power

Let’s start off with the Faces of Power website. These web pages have been beautifully arranged in a unique layout making it easy for anyone to develop an instant interest in presidential history. First off, the home page is very catchy and instead of the presidents being listed in a grid layout, there’s a film-like strip at the very bottom with frames representing each president. We love just how the site has taken advantage of geometric portraits to display its content. There’s a navigation on the right-hand section of the site where you can find more information on each president. This is the perfect example of boring content being presented in a clean and interesting way enticing users to find out more.

2. Curry Explorer

If you’re looking for new ways to present your information on your website, the Curry Explorer Site is a great inspiration. This site has a variety of curries which are presented in an interesting navigation style. The navigation makes it very simple for users to narrow down their choice of curry based on what they prefer.

3. Who Cares Agency

If you’re looking for a new, fun and engaging website navigation system, this is it. The website has a fresh, sci-fi inspired design that gives you an illusion of being far off in a different planet. The design is certainly catchy and different. The use of color in this design helps to further create the illusion of being in a different planet. This is one of those website designs that takes time and attention to detail in order to pull off. There’s no room for laziness in this website navigation system.

4. Radiooooo.com

This site has really invested in a proper navigation system that seems to simplify its user experience. The site basically allows you to discover music you’ve never heard of before in a very interesting and engaging way. Users get different options to choose from which are not as cliché as what other industry players are using. For instance, users can choose between fast, slow or weird music. You can find classic music from any country you’re interested in.

5. Torque Editions

This website is owned by a publisher and it offers a very creative navigation system that properly displays each printed work they have released. When you navigate through each book, you get to see the cover and more details about the project. It’s so easy to browse through from title to title. The unique navigation in place helps to enhance user experience. Users are actually drawn to the website content simply because the navigation is so easy to use and doesn’t result in a tedious experience.

It’s very easy to choose the common designs and patterns as you try as much as possible to play safe. However, a creative navigation system on your website can take your design to the next level. Don’t be afraid to try out different navigation systems in web design Toronto.

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8 Image Search SEO Tips To Give You Extra Traffic

8 Image Search SEO Tips To Give You Extra Traffic

Invest in a Better UX to Enhance Organic Traffic

How good UX effects rankings

Did you know that a better UX can have a positive impact on your rankings? If you want to learn how to increase organic traffic, start by working on your UX. One of the main goals of search engines like Google is to present users with web pages that are not only relevant to their query but also give them the best and easiest browsing experience. When a user interacts with the website, they need to find it easy to use, valuable and relevant to their search. This is what UX is all about.

Is UX a ranking factor?

Even though Google doesn’t say outright if UX is a ranking factor, most SEO experts can agree that sites which provide the best user experience are often favored by Google crawlers. This is not to say that your web pages will never rank if the UX is not exceptional. Certainly not. However, you need to try your best to give user’s the best experience. Search engines are very smart and they understand what users’ intentions are in every query.

One UX ranking factor that we’re all too familiar with is the preference on mobile-friendly websites. Search engines are looking to give their customers the best results for each query. This means not only providing quality and relevant information but also making sure users can get to it. Therefore, you may not regard UX as a ranking factor but it is one of the best practices needed for your site to perform well on popular search engines.

Work on UX to enhance conversion rates

When you think of a good reason to improve your UX, think of how it will affect your conversion rates. Perform tests and make changes based on actual data. Simple UX improvements can actually help you to enhance organic traffic on Google. If you’re driving users to your website to complete a commercial task such as buy a product or sign up for a service, you can witness an increase in completed tasks simply by making adjustments to your UX. Furthermore, a better UX makes users feel more welcome on your website which also helps to increase the number of returning visitors.

What needs to be changed and how to get it done

First things first, you need to review your Google Analytics data to have a better idea of what needs to be changed and why. Review all UX metrics for organic traffic. You can start with the most important pages such as the service/product pages. Look for signs of trouble such as high bounce rate and lowest average time spent on page. Both could be an indication that the UX needs a major adjustment. You may even find out that your users are clicking on places they aren’t supposed to and you end up losing them as a result.

Get valuable feedback from your users

The best people to let you know what kind of UX issues your website has are its users. You can use the feedback tools available online to ask users relevant questions which will help you improve UX. For instance, ask your website visitors if they have found what they’re looking for and give them an option to explain why they haven’t.

A\B Testing to enhance user experience

As soon as you have an idea of what UX issues your site presents, work with a SEO company Toronto to run A/B tests to get an idea of what your users want. Among the metrics that you can use to understand what page elements give users the best experience include bounce rate, time spent on site, number of clicks to link and exit rate.

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Content For Web Site Design

Content For Web Site Design

Font Pairing Tips for Website Designers

Choose Fonts that work well together

Font pairing simply means picking fonts that go well together and it’s a very important step in effective website design. The right choice of fonts can help information to easily flow on your website and give you a visually appealing design. Furthermore, the right fonts can make your content more presentable, readable and professional.

With that said, we’ll show you how to choose two fonts that work well together and will contribute to making your design look the part.

Why is it important for fonts to look great together?

Your website design company Toronto may ask you to give information on what fonts to be used on the site depending on your brand. This is because they know too well how fonts can make or break a site’s design. Fonts that don’t work well together can break the overall web page design. To start with, the fonts will distract the user and make it harder for users to read the content. Sometimes the poor choice of fonts can make them compete with each other and overwhelm the readers. The right choice of fonts can make the important information on a page to stand out. For instance, you can choose a different font for your headings and another for the body copy but ensure they both work together to give you a cohesive design.

The 4 main types of fonts

Before we get to the part where we discuss the website design fonts that work well together, let’s start by talking about the different types of font available on the web.

Script: This font type is considered fancy with letters linking to each other.
Serif: This font type is said to have the smallest feet (embellishments) at the very end of each letter stroke.
Sans Serif: This font type doesn’t have feet or embellishments at the end of the letter strokes which is why it’s called Sans Serif (“no feet”).
Decorative: This is a less professional font type that is often used on signages and headlines.

Choose contrasting fonts

One thing to remember when pairing fonts is making sure they contrast with each other instead of competing with each other. For instance, if you choose two decorative fonts on the same page, they end up competing with each other. You can go for one decorative and a Serif font which contract with each other. Avoid fonts that are too similar. You can even create a hierarchy by using bold and italics if the fonts appear too similar.

Choose a diverse font family

If you want to easily find a number of fonts that work well together, choose a font family that has different versions of the same font. For instance, you can find a font type such as Segoe that is available in Serif, Sans Serif, bold and italic versions. This means you don’t have to do all the work of selecting different fonts and pairing them together. You already have options from that font family that you could use.

Avoid using more than 3 fonts

Every font you choose on a page brings its own unique personality. When you use too many fonts on the same design, you end up overwhelming the users because they’re all competing for attention. As a rule of thumb, use two to three fonts maximum in a design. This helps to keep it simple and avoid creating chaos.

Proper kerning is key

Kerning simply refers to the spacing between the letters in a word that is typed out. Some fonts will even appear better when you add a bit more space between the letters. However, there are fonts that generally don’t look well when you add space between the letters. Play around with different variations to see what would work well.

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Responsive Website Design: One Site Fits All

Responsive Website Design: One Site Fits All

Investing in a Responsive Website or an App

These are the differences between an app and a responsive website

Many website owners rush to invest in apps before they fully understand if and why they need one. They see apps as the latest trend to stay ahead and attract millennials, part of whom are their target market. They invest a lot of time and money on apps only to find out when it’s too late that those digital natives they were targeting don’t download that many apps every month. What they really need is a responsive website design Toronto.

What are apps?

In simple terms, apps are software that is designed to fulfill a specific purpose. The purpose in which the app is designed to fulfill should be impossible for your site to achieve.

Next question, do you need an app?

As mentioned earlier, you need to determine if the app is going to fulfill a purpose that a website cannot. This is the only way to determine if the app will not only be relevant but also desirable for users. For instance, apps are very ideal for brands that already have considerable recognition. For instance, if you have a huge following and need to create a reward system for your audience, an app would let them keep track of such rewards.

However, one of the main mistakes people make when building apps is duplicating the same information on their website on the app. Remember that apps should be built to serve a different purpose and if you use it as a copy of the company website in app form, It beats the point of having an app. If people want to find out more information about your brand or product, they can always visit your site. If someone just discovered your brand, they’ll probably not want an app yet. They would want to learn about the brand first and then decide whether they are interested enough to even get an app.

Does your idea fit an app?

Most people will rush to create an app with the justification that brands like Uber and Snapchat created their businesses using the same model. However, your idea must fit into one. For instance, you can’t visit the Snapchat website to upload disappearing photos or videos. Users feel the need to download the app because of this reason. Successful apps must be original and with a functionality that users feel they must have. Instead of rushing to invest in an app, work on a responsive website design.

How likely is your app to be a success?

There’s really no shortage of apps that fulfill different needs on the web. For you to come up with a new app that makes it to the top charts next to the likes of Instagram and Snapchat, you will need to invent or discover an idea that is completely new and fulfill a need that hasn’t been met. Plus, you can’t compare the average cost of creating a responsive website based on your needs versus the cost of app development. iOS apps are said to have a 3.2% retention rate 30 days after they are downloaded. This means that at the end of 30 days after downloading the app, only 3.2 % of users still have it on their phones.

Good reasons to invest in a responsive web design

Most website owners request for apps so that people can buy their products using their mobile devices. Responsive websites can serve the same exact purpose and at a more affordable cost. Remember that people search for businesses on their mobile browsers and they’re likely to land on your site and convert compared to an app where there’s usually no intention to purchase.

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