Web Design, Website Tips, WordPress Development
Most blogs and mainstream websites use WordPress as their CMS. This CMS is used by 43% of all websites on the internet. WordPress is an excellent platform for custom website design. You do not need coding skills to host your website on WordPress; you can use free or premium themes and plugins. With WordPress, you can achieve a mobile-first design, improve site speed, and optimize SEO. You can design your website with our web design agency in Auckland and Tauranga, New Zealand and include Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse Google algorithm updates for your website to rank higher in search engines.
A faster website
Keeping up with search engine practices will ensure speed on WordPress. A fast website can be achieved with careful consideration. A faster site results in higher rankings in the SRPS, improved user experience, and a lower bounce rate. These common issues should be considered when coding your website for speed, lighthouse algorithm check, and core web vitals:
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Data movement speed is measured by the latency of the Internet connection. In order to ensure remote access across continents when hosting a custom WordPress website design, you need a minimum network latency of 200ms. The premium hosting options offered by Google Cloud Platform or shared hosting companies that reside on it are therefore advisable. As they are directly hosted on Google’s servers, you will not experience any problems with high traffic because they have a higher internet connection latency.
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Leanness – As you continue building your custom WordPress web design, you will likely add more plugins and themes. WordPress makes it possible to profile your plugins and monitor how they affect your website, and you can select them appropriately depending on your needs.
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A custom WordPress website design must include database tables. Make sure it’s clean, and you can use tools like WP-Optimize, which is an excellent alternative to phpMyAdmin. As a result, your custom WordPress website design will perform faster thanks to better database optimization.
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A free and a premium server hosting option is available for WordPress. On the same platform, you can also use Google Cloud Platform, Siteground, and KInsta depending on your needs. Most major websites use WPEngine in order to achieve maximum performance.
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If you frequently deal with websites or computers, you’ve probably heard a lot about cache. If you are unclear about its meaning, it is essentially the memory that stores temporary data on your custom WordPress website. WP-Rocket, WP Total Cache, or WP Super Cache are three of the plugins that WordPress provides to handle your cache. A fast WordPress web design depends on managing your cache.
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WordPress websites can use the HTTP/2 protocol for security and encryption needs. An SQL injection attack can cause your database to experience downtime and data breaches, for example, as interception of your site can slow down processes.
Fully matching your brand guidelines
Building a website that matches your brand fully is crucial for building brand awareness and building trust between you and your visitors. Because WordPress is highly flexible, you have a lot of room to express your creativity. Themes are available for WordPress, but creating your own from scratch is the best way to fully match your brand guidelines. Having a matching website for your brand is essential for your business.
The cost of building your own WordPress theme can reach $100,000. Getting a similar function at a lower price is still possible if you are looking for simple options, but it is not ideal for enterprise environments, and it is more typical of startups and small businesses. It is easy to integrate WordPress themes with your brand, and they are highly customizable, such as colors and fonts.
Unlimited flexibility
People choose platforms for their custom websites based on freedom. Developing themes and plugins for millions of users on open source web building platforms like WordPress provides greater flexibility. WordPress currently controls more than 40% of all websites online, demonstrating how many people prefer the platform because of its flexibility to customise their websites. In order to make WordPress as easy to use as possible, both coders and non-coders participate in building it. In this regard, it is imperative to complement the most effective platforms with tools that enable flexibility without sacrificing performance.
The Framework for WordPress is the most flexible platform available for custom web design. It gives users and coders as much information as possible to design websites to fit their needs. As a beginner, you will not have much trouble navigating it because of its adjustability. It is an exceptional alternative to more rigid platforms such as Blogger, Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix, which cause slow site speed and an inability to achieve superior design aesthetics. You can easily customise your website on WordPress Framework; hence, it is a no-brainer in decision-making regarding the best platform for your needs.
Complete control over your site
It is best to leave this type of job to professionals since beginners will have difficulty customizing their websites on WordPress. In contrast, if you want a more professional web design that fits your brand, WordPress Framework gives you both: managing content and having full control over SEO. Customization features on WordPress, such as plugins, allow you to add features like schedulers, invoices, contact forms, and payment gateways. A lot of people are surprised to learn that WordPress has its own eCommerce platform, WooCommerce.
The WordPress platform is so flexible that you can migrate between hosts easily if you run into security problems, inflexibility, price changes, or preferences change. As it provides cloud support for your data during migration, nothing about your custom WordPress web design will change. Therefore, you do not have to download and reupload your custom features.
When it comes to WordPress website design, however, coding is essential. The ability to code your own themes and plugins requires knowledge of CSS, HTML, and PHP (which is the language used by WordPress). A hosting provider’s dashboard can also provide more customization options, which will give you more control. If you don’t have prior knowledge or if the part is handled professionally, then it can be risky because it may affect the whole site’s functionality.
Reduced plugin maintenance
Little work is required regarding maintenance, and you only need to perform tasks such as:
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Updating,
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Deactivating, and
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Replacing.
A website owner must stay vigilant and update plugins as soon as possible when plugin vendors release new versions with security upgrades. Keeping your website safe from cyberattacks should be a top priority, and WordPress provides easy plugin upgrading.
You can deactivate plugins on WordPress that aren’t being used or are outdated. Deactivated plugins should also be updated since they are a potential exploit for cyber-attackers, and the same applies to themes. Deactivating and updating plugins takes less time and effort than developing them from scratch. It’s a security risk to have too many deactivated plugins, so you should delete them as soon as possible, as they can escape your mind.
Conclusion
You should look no further than WordPress Framework if you are looking to redesign or build a website, since it offers numerous advantages that are ideal for sophisticated businesses that depend heavily on search engine traffic. WordPress websites have never been easier to customise. A website-building platform like Divi and the WordPress Framework is more flexible and more controllable than most other platforms. You get unmatched support as you spend little time maintaining your plugins, and upgrades are a click away, with constant security updates provided by Automatic, a large enterprise running WordPress. We can help you build your next custom WordPress website. Get in touch today.
Responsive Web Design, Web Design, Website Tips, WordPress Development
An overview of the benefits of WordPress websites and the use of search engine optimization
The most frequently asked question when developing a new website or revamping an existing one is – which CMS platform should you use when you are developing a new website? Therefore, WordPress tends to be the most prominent answer most of the time as a result. Do you believe there is a reason why website developers are so passionate about WordPress? This is the right place for you if you feel the same way and are looking for a solution to your problem. In this post, we will take a look at 6 benefits of WordPress. It will also be discussed what types of websites you are able to create with WordPress as well as what the features and benefits of WordPress are.
There is a common misconception out there that WordPress is just a blogging platform. This isn’t true.
It should be noted that WordPress was originally designed to be a blogging tool, but has evolved over time into much more. This is a powerful content management system and website builder that has evolved into a powerful tool in the modern age.
The main benefit of WordPress is that it allows you to build various types of websites easily and quickly, regardless of the type of website. Due to this reason, WordPress has been gaining a lot of popularity over the last few years.
WordPress is a free service and there is no charge for it
There is no doubt that one of the biggest benefits of WordPress is the fact that it is free to use. In addition to being free to use, WordPress is also an open source platform. The download, installation, and use of this software are all free of charge. In addition to that, it can be used to create any type of website you want.
Starting a website is as easy as purchasing a domain name and getting a web hosting plan.
There is nothing more basic than the name of your website when it comes to a domain name. A domain name is the text that we type in the address bar of the browser in order to open a particular website such as www.austindigital.co.nz. Hosting refers to the location of all the files that go with your website. Austin Digital is always available to assist you if you need assistance. It is always recommended that you hire a WordPress expert rather than trying to do it yourself.
It is very easy to customize the themes and plugins in WordPress
In addition to its many benefits, WordPress is also equipped with a number of features. Almost all people who use WordPress for their website design are new to the concept of WordPress website design. Additionally, they do not have any previous experience in the development or design of websites or WordPress websites.
There are thousands of free website templates (themes) available on WordPress for those who are not tech-savvy and are not familiar with creating websites themselves. It is no secret that WordPress themes are available for just about every type of website out there (whether it is a blog, a corporate website, or an e-commerce site).
The majority of WordPress themes enable people to change the colors, upload logos, alter backgrounds, design stunning sliders, and perfectly customize them without having to touch a single line of code. Additionally, you can also use plugins to add custom functionality to your website in order to make it more user-friendly. There are a variety of plugins that can be used to deploy special elements on your website, such as analytics, contact forms, and membership areas.
Similar to WordPress themes, plugins can be downloaded for free as well as for a fee. It is possible to extend the functionality of your WordPress website with plugins, as well as renovate it into a completely new look and feel with plugins for WordPress.
It is no secret that WordPress and SEO go hand in hand
The third and most important benefit of WordPress is “SEO”. When building a WordPress website, high-quality standard compliance code is used to ensure that semantic markup is created as a result of high-quality standard compliance code. There are other search engines and Google that favor WordPress websites from a non-technical standpoint.
The reason for this is that search engines tend to rank WordPress sites better because of this. It is a good choice to go with WordPress both in terms of design and coding. You can also support your SEO efforts by utilizing various plugins that are available on the internet.
There Is An Easier Way To Manage WordPress
In addition to its ease of use, WordPress also offers a number of other benefits. WordPress provides users with easy access to their plugins and themes via the dashboard, making it easy for them to manage updates directly from the dashboard.
It is also possible to update your WordPress site by clicking a button that appears as soon as a new version of WordPress is available to download. In order to protect your data from hacking or accidental loss, you can make use of the WordPress backup plugin to generate backups automatically and store them on a separate system. Furthermore, you have the option to use a mobile application to manage your WordPress site in addition to managing it from your phone.
Here are five reasons why you can use WordPress with confidence
The fifth WordPress benefit that we will be offering is “WordPress Security”. There is no doubt that WordPress is a trustworthy partner when it comes to securing your website and your data. In the opinion of the experts, it is a very safe and secure platform for developing a website. Despite this, nobody knows how things can go awry on the internet, no matter how cautious they are.
There are a number of steps you can take in order to make your website more secure.
The WordPress platform makes it easy to manage different types of media on your website
In my opinion, the sixth benefit of having a WordPress website is the “Media Uploader”. Using WordPress isn’t just limited to writing text. There are many other ways to use it as well. By using the media uploader that is built into the program, you will be able to manage photos, videos, and audio files.
If you type the URL of a YouTube video, Instagram photo, Tweet, or Soundcloud audio file into the WordPress post editor, you will be able to embed that video, photo, or audio file. What are some of the ways in which WordPress can be used to create a website? Besides the ability to create simple websites, WordPress is also capable of creating full-fledged e-commerce websites as well.
WordPress – How Does It Work?
It is common knowledge that the WordPress CMS can be divided into three parts, as we all know.
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By using the post editor, you can easily create posts and pages
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Addons and plugins: Plugins enhance the functionality of WordPress. Plugin store is the best place to find any feature you want to add to your WordPress website. It only requires installation and activation.
WordPress is a good choice for who? Is It Right For You?
WordPress has the advantage of being able to be customized according to your needs, which is the benefit of having a WordPress website. If you are not a technical person, you can make it simple, if you are familiar with the WordPress features, you can make it more customized if you are a technical person.
If you are not sure whether WordPress is right for your business, you can use the following checklist to help you decide:
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WordPress can be used if you want a quick and easy-to-use website for your business but have a limited budget.
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The basics of creating a website using WordPress can be learned by watching some Youtube tutorial videos if you are not familiar with coding.
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WordPress is a great choice if you don’t want to spend money maintaining your website on a daily basis. Our web hosting services have built in plugin upgrades
WordPress Can Be Used To Create Various Types Of Websites
WordPress can be used for a variety of purposes, including:
Feel free to let me know what you think about this article by liking it or leaving a comment below. Contact Austin Digital today to learn more about how we can help you
Whether you are looking for Web Design Company in Auckland, Tauranga or Hamilton, Austin Digital is your one-stop-shop for all your website-related needs, whether you are based in Auckland, Tauranga or Hamilton. Take a look at our website development packages today to learn more!
Responsive Web Design, Web Design
Wouldn’t it be great if your website was a little more fresh? It might be time to redesign the website. There is a great deal of benefit to be gained from changing the look and feel of your website. It would be impossible for a storefront to remain static for years on end without a change in the design, and the same can be said for a website. It is becoming increasingly critical to redesign a website in the ever-evolving world we live in today. There are some major benefits to regularly checking your website for the possibility of a redesign, which we will cover later in this post.
1. Mobile optimisation of your website
Recently, smartphone optimization has been added to Google’s ranking factors as one of the requirements for achieving the top position on search engine results pages. If your website has not already been made mobile-friendly, it should do so as soon as possible. Because the size of phone screens is constantly changing, your content will appear differently on different devices. On a mobile device, the size of the screen is automatically adjusted when the site is viewed on that device. It is imperative that you update your website on a regular basis so that you can provide your customers with the most current dimensions when they browse your website. The majority of CMS platforms support mobile responsive design as part of their functionality. As a result, an SEO expert might still be required to help you with SEO technicalities. You should at least use a free tool like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see how your website looks on different types of mobile devices in order to test how responsive it is.
2. Links that are broken
Broken links are a source of frustration for readers. Whenever you include a link in your post that leads to a new website, your readers will end up reaching a dead end. Instead of redirecting readers to your valuable content, they are redirected to an error page or the wrong website rather than what you intended. You can only verify this manually by auditing the links on your website. It is important that you change any links that are dead or locate another source to replace them. Your most recent content can also be linked to your most popular posts in order to improve the navigation of your site for your readers. The first step in getting started on this journey is to hire an SEO company that specializes in linking and hyperlinking.
3. Content of the highest quality
In terms of content, there are two types: time sensitive content and evergreen content. Content that is time-sensitive is relevant at the time that it is written; however, as time goes on, it will expire, change, or become irrelevant. The fact that a website is irrelevant shows that it is an unreliable source of information. A reader will assume that you do not know what you are talking about if you are not up-to-date with your information when they read your article.
Each time your readers read one of these pieces, they receive value from it. Since these pieces do not have an expiration date, they will remain relevant for a long time to come. The bounce rate of your website can be improved by writing posts that are both time-sensitive and evergreen at the same time. It will be the job of web design companies to identify the right positioning for evergreen and time-sensitive content. There will be an improvement in your website’s responsiveness, response time, and engagement as a result.
4. Interruptions caused by speed
Depending on the amount of content you have on your website, you may find that the performance of your website is declining over time. After a recent speed update, Google has relegated the slowest websites to the bottom of its search results after placing them at the bottom of the list. When speed is everything, you have a very short window of time to get the attention of your users.
5. Insights from customers
By interacting with your customers and asking for their feedback, you will be able to improve your relationship with them. Ask them for their opinion about the redesign plans that you have in mind. Based on the feedback you receive from them, you should revise your design. Unlike other major retailers, Amazon and Apple rarely update their websites completely on a regular basis. Rather than implementing new features on a whim, they implement user-requested features in order to improve the user experience. With the help of digital marketing companies, you are able to better understand your customers by gathering, segmenting, and analyzing data gathered over time.
6. Interface (UX)
It is important to provide customers with the ability to control their experience as much as possible. In order to assist you in this regard, Austin Digital are able to provide a premium redesign service for your website. In order to increase viewer confidence, it is important that tools are clear and reduce the possibility of user error. Until the user has filled out all the fields on a form, the buttons on the form will remain transparent until the entire form has been filled out. The parts of your site you are not happy with may need to be changed if your users are not happy with it. In order to make things more forgiving, you can add an option for undo or redo as well as a back button. The user will be able to navigate through the website with greater ease, and be more confident about completing tasks that require a call-to-action (CTA).
When visitors see loading graphics, progress reports, visual workflows, and immediate feedback as they browse a site, they are more likely to keep browsing. If a user completes an action, it is imperative to provide them with immediate feedback in order to point them in the right direction and to motivate them to continue in that direction. Don’t assume that everyone who visits your website will be an expert, because they may not be. With tutorials and instructions for novices, you can make it easy for users to navigate your website regardless of their skill level. As a general rule, users are generally expected to see interface elements close to the action they are trying to perform, or close to the information they are trying to edit, whenever they are performing an action or editing data.
7. Make Your Website Less Vulnerable to Hacks
It is imperative that you keep your security software updated in order to ensure the safety of your customers’ information. When your customers enter their personal information on your website, you, as the site owner, are responsible for ensuring that the information is kept safe and secure. If you lose your audience’s trust and security once, you will almost certainly never be able to regain their trust and security again. By hacking into your database, you can ruin the sense of security in your database in a matter of seconds. Check for the latest security updates for your site and ensure that they are applied to your site to ensure its security. Another way is ensuring your website is on a stable and protected host. We use WPEngine for fast reliable hosting servicing.
A hyperlink, a web development language, a user interface, or speed all have the same goal. Keeping your audience engaged is the goal. Keeping your website up-to-date and auditing it can vastly improve the user experience, build more trust, and increase security. Your website’s redesign can have a huge impact on its future, making it a powerful tool for improving your site.
SEO, Web Design, Website Tips
What Is It like to Work in Web design?
Being a web designer means working with digital media to present information in a visually appealing manner. Web design is a career path for creative thinkers who can display information effectively and aesthetically. So, what is it like to be a website designer, and what are some expectations to have before getting involved?
Website Designing
The main responsibility of a web designers is to create sites that present information in a clear and engaging way. Web designers should think creatively and be able to work with business clients so that the final website design tailors to user experience.
It is important to understand that web designers are not the same as web developers. The developers focus more on the technical side of web development. They usually take the designs from the designer and construct it into a functioning new website.
Overall, getting involved in internet design means working with clients, designing websites, and practicing effective time management.
Visual Design
It goes without saying that you should have a knack for designing if you want to get into this particular business. One of the main focuses is to understand typography, color, and grid systems to produce a visually appealing website. Visual design is one of the key elements to web design, so it is important that you enjoy creating different arrangements.
Website Language
A Web Designer should understand different website languages to have success in their careers. There are three kinds of languages that company websites utilize: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Although HTML and CSS are not technically programming languages, all three help develop the visual elements of a website. So, before going into web design, you should know more about these languages.
Marketing and SEO
Today, many businesses utilize their websites as advertising. Creating a good online image can increase the number of customers. Therefore, designers need to have some knowledge of marketing so that clients can see more traffic within their site.
Knowledge of SEO, also called search engine optimization, is crucial in design. By inputting certain terms onto an internet page, the site can achieve more traffic when potential customers type the same terms into search engines. Businesses can use google analytics to see how many people view the site or come across their page.
Communication, Time Management, and Clients
Getting into this kind of design is not all about the composition of internet pages. You also need to have a good grasp on time management and a good understanding of communication with clients. Without clients, you cannot have work. Therefore, you should have good verbal communication skills as well as time management.
Getting Involved
If you are knowledgeable about designing websites in New Zealand and are very serious about working with web design sites, we are here to help. There are many businesses all over New Zealand that want fresh minds to bring new creative ideas. Let us help to present your information in a digitally creative manner.
So, if you are interested in this form of design in New Zealand, we can help here at Austin Digital. For all your design & development we can give you the perfect experience with Austin Digital. Contact us for more information!
Web Design
Web design is constantly changing from year to year. Here are some web design trends 2020.
Hand-Drawn Fonts
Just look on Instagram to see how viral custom hand-drawn fonts are becoming in recent months. These unique typefaces add character and charm as well as a good bold identity that can be used across your brand. It can help you win over younger audiences, with a new powerful, and distinctive look.
Organic Shapes
Gone are the days of strict grid layouts and sharp edges – 2020 will adopt curved lines and soft, organic shapes. This can be highly effective in producing some stand out design with vivid colors, but also can be adapted for spectacular results in the minimal look.
Overlapping Text and Images
Text that slightly overlaps accompanying images has become a popular effect for blogs and portfolios. Combining beautiful images and nice/readable text can result in an eye candy touch that will get your user’s attention.
Duotone
These pared-down, two-tone color schemes look cool and contemporary, Duotones are very similar to color overlays, but this technique uses two colours to overlap the whole image from one side of the color spectrum to another. Not only does the Duotone give the photo a refreshing look, but it can also set the mood based on the chosen colors. Works very well with Bold colour choices.
More companies are turning to illustrators and graphic artists to create bespoke illustrations for their websites. After years dominated by flat design and straightforward minimalism, adding illustrated touches to your site is a great way to inject a little personality.
That concludes our top Web design trends in 2020
Web Design
Towards the end of the year, Chrome v62 will be released, bringing with it many new changes for both users of the browser and site owners. The biggest change will be the marking of non-HTTPS sites.
These sites will be marked with text input fields and will automatically be viewed in incognito mode as ‘not secure’. Google has started rolling this out, by reminding all website owners that they need to switch to HTTPS or their site will be marked like this.
Further to the marking of non-HTTPS sites, website owners will also have to incorporate SSL Certificates to secure the information being shared between their server and their visitors. If this isn’t incorporated it means that sensitive information could be exposed to the internet. HTTPS will be the norm in due course, so there is no need to worry about transferring across.
There is a problem with SSL Certificates though. Not all websites which have this certificate can or should be trusted. Luckily for us though, Google has come up with a solution for this.Users who are worried about which sites can be trusted should look no further than the URL. Look for letters in the URL which seem out of place, such as numbers in the place of letters, or letters made to look like numbers. Even look out for additional letters or numbers that shouldn’t be there. There are fully comprehensive guides out there which can help you distinguish between safe sites with an SSL Certificate and unsafe ones with the certificate.
You can also look out for an EV SSL Certificate (Extended Validation Certificate). This will show that this site is completely trustworthy. A trusted website will have the company name next to the URL, such as Apple, Inc (URL). Unfortunately, not all SSL certified sites will have this, but most of the big name companies will. It will only be a matter of time before more and more smaller sites are also becoming EV SSL certified.
However, despite all of this, it is important to note that phishing sites can hijack sites which already have SSL certification in place. This can add the appearance of being a legitimate site, even though they are not. These phishing sites can also use free (and non-legitimate) SSL certificates to make themselves appear more trustworthy.
If you’re worried about the SSL certification as Chrome moves to its new version, you can access a full guide to enabling HTTPS for your site, and how to avoid your site being marked as ‘not secure’. It is always worth keeping up to date with the latest phishing scams and makes sure that your site is fully protected from hackers to ensure the security of your servers, and your visitor’s data.
