Website Design Trends To Watch Out For In 2016

Web design trends are fast evolving and becoming more multifaceted with each day that passes in the internet world. This is mainly because the Internet has become indispensable and is now an integrated aspect of our daily lives. From smartphones, tablets and iPads to traditional PCs, almost every person uses one of these gadgets.

Web design is all about transformation and experimentation using new ideas. With the current pace at which the internet world is growing, the introduction of new web design trends is inevitable.The past years have seen several web design trends emerge, some website design trends that have come up in 2015 and are going to get even more advanced in 2016 include;

Responsive design- In 2015 there have been several tools and technologies that have been designed and improvements made to make web designs more responsive especially for mobile device users. A website need to be extra responsive such that if you visit this site on any any device, you'll be able to clearly view the images, themes and text on any any device.This web design trend is yet to fully mature, which means we are yet to see more improvements in 2016.

Scroll in place of buttons - more and more people and businesses nowadays are using 'One page' type designs for their website.This makes possible for site visitor to read more content on a single page by simply sliding the page with a finger or just scrolling up or down,there is no more need to change page.This is as a result of the ever expanding mobile phone market where most users don't like having to move from one page to another.

Using larger and higher quality images (image based designing)- Modern site visitors prefer image to text, giving rise to info-graphics.Using more images passes the message faster to the viewer and also allows the visitor to share the images containing the intended message when they go online on social media such as Instagram, Facebook and Whats app.This has a greater impact in terms of marketing. Imagery is for successful web design.

Sleek site navigation, impactful imagery, relevant content and site responsiveness are key to great web design.

Search Engine Optimization – Is it Worth the Effort?

Search engine optimization is constantly evolving. Due to the constantly changing rules of SEO, many people consider it a waste of time, while others spend huge amounts of money to keep up.

This inevitably leads to the question: Is search engine optimization worth the effort, or not?

There are two factors that determine the viability of SEO:

Firstly, it is a matter of potential return on investment. This, in turn, is a complex calculation involving the number of monthly searches for what you have to offer, the number of competing websites and their rankings in Google, and the potential lifetime value of any newly acquired customer or client.

Keep in mind that SEO is an ongoing expense - not only because the rules of the proverbial game keeps changing, but also because your competition may constantly work on improving their websites. In addition to that, the way that people use search engines keep evolving all the time.

For example:

A number of years ago, John Doe would go online and search for "second hand cars". Today, however, he is more likely to search for "2012 Corolla for sale". While it means that your content needs to be increasingly specific, it also opens up new possibilities, which in turn reduces costs.

Longer phrases tend to have less competition in the search results, so it will be easier and cheaper to rank your website for a number of longer, more specific phrases than to rank for a broader phrase. While it will attract less traffic, the visitors will be more targeted, and more likely to buy because they already know what they are looking for.

If this is still not worth it, you may want to consider simply using Google Adwords to have your business seen right at the top of the search results. Click here for more information about it.

Secondly, the viability of search engine optimization depends on the techniques you apply. If you employ the wrong SEO company, you could end up with a problem in a year or two - as was the case when Google started penalizing website owners for having spammy and low quality inbound links.

If, however, you choose to rely more on a combination of quality content and on-page optimization, combined with a slow but steady acquisition of quality backlinks and steady social activity, your website will be more "future-proof", and future algorithm changes are less likely to have an impact on your site and your wallet.