You’ll get the most out of this guide if your desire to learn search engine optimization (SEO) is exceeded only by your willingness to execute and test concepts.

This guide is designed to describe all major aspects of SEO, from finding the terms and phrases (keywords) that can generate qualified traffic to your website, to making your site friendly to search engines, to building links and marketing the unique value of your site.

The world of search engine optimization is complex and ever-changing, but you can easily understand the basics, and even a small amount of SEO knowledge can make a big difference. Free SEO education is also widely available on the web, including in guides like this! (Woohoo!)

Combine this information with some practice and you are well on your way to becoming a savvy SEO.

The Basics of Search Engine Optimization

Ever heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? It’s a theory of psychology that prioritizes the most fundamental human needs (like air, water, and physical safety) over more advanced needs (like esteem and social belonging). The theory is that you can’t achieve the needs at the top without ensuring the more fundamental needs are met first. Love doesn’t matter if you don’t have food.

Our founder, Rand Fishkin, made a similar pyramid to explain the way folks should go about SEO, and we’ve affectionately dubbed it “Mozlow’s hierarchy of SEO needs.”

Here’s what it looks like:

As you can see, the foundation of good SEO begins with ensuring crawl accessibility, and moves up from there.

Using this beginner’s guide, we can follow these seven steps to successful SEO:

1. Crawl accessibility so engines can read your website
2. Compelling content that answers the searcher’s query
3. Keyword optimized to attract searchers & engines
4. Great user experience including a fast load speed and compelling UX
5. Share-worthy content that earns links, citations, and amplification
6. Title, URL, & description to draw high CTR in the rankings
7. Snippet/schema markup to stand out in SERPs

The post The Beginner’s Guide to SEO appeared first on Carrot Marketing.

Evaluate the keywords that your company is using. Where does your website rank for those terms? Are your competitors ranking for keywords that you’re not considering? Really do your research here. The better your keywords are, the more traffic you’ll be able to receive from Google.

The objective here is to gather as many keywords as you deem necessary. We’ll evaluate whether or not these keywords are the ones that you should be ranking for in the next step.

Now that you have an idea of what your keywords are, you need to confirm that your keywords are correct, and to get suggestions on additional keywords to add. There are many SEO tools out there that can help you here, and we’ve listed a few here.

These tools are all fairly comprehensive, but they will take some time to master. Take the time to read their blogs, and get yourself accustomed to the tools’ usage. If you have questions that you can’t find answers to, contact the support team of the tool that you’re using.

The post Discover Your Keywords & Pillar Pages appeared first on Carrot Marketing.

Graphic design trends 2020 are here and about to steal your heart!

Year 2020 is less than three months away and everyone is already wondering what the world of graphic design will look like. Undoubtedly, graphic design has always been a field of deep admiration and huge inspiration to many and we all can’t wait to see what awaits. We’ve made a deep research to spot the rise in several particular trends which are expected to boom next year.

Graphic design trends 2020 are:

1. 3D depth and realism
2. Going monochrome
3. Shiny metals
4. Typography craze
5. Image and text masking
6. Line art
7. Collages of drawings and photos
8. Simplified illustrations
9. Isometric illustrations
10. Earthy colors: a sense of vintage
11. Patterns and textures
12. Geometric designs
13. Liquids

The post Graphic Design Trends 2020: Breaking the Rules appeared first on Carrot Marketing.

What is Design Thinking?

Design Thinking is a “process for creative problem solving.” It’s an approach, typically applied in a Design Thinking workshop, that anyone (not just designers!) can take to solve a business or creative challenge. While there are different approaches to the Design Thinking depending on who is teaching it, the process typically boils down to the following five steps:

1. Empathize
2. Define
3. Ideate
4. Prototype
5. Test.

The method is steeped in a deep belief that the end-user should be at the heart of all decision making. While you start from consumer desirability in Design Thinking, any ideas generated are also weighed against the technical feasibility and the business viability. The benefit of Design Thinking is that, through empathy for your customer, consumer, or client, you are able to create products and experiences that truly help people and even change lives.

Below, we walk through each step of the Design Thinking process:

Design Thinking Process Step #1: Empathize

The first step of the design thinking process provides an opportunity to set our assumptions aside and immerse ourselves in the context of the problem we’re attempting to remedy. The particular problem determines who might find the solution useful as well as which experts might help shed light on ways the issue is currently being solved.

Several approaches can help draw out the information needed to paint a full picture of the problem’s context. Conducting face-to-face interviews to learn about how people are currently solving the same or similar issues is one of the most common. Asking someone to tell a story about the last time they experienced the problem you’re investigating provides a rich description that highlights details you might not have otherwise considered.

Tools like empathy maps can be a great way to consolidate all of the valuable information gleaned from interviews.

Tools like empathy maps can be a great way to consolidate all of the valuable information gleaned from interviews. Empathy maps capture what people do, say, think, and feel in the context of the problem.

Say captures what people say in interviews or during observations of what they do in the context of the problem you’re trying to solve. Pay particular attention to when people mention frustrations or comments that indicate their motivations. Pulling direct quotes from interviews is ideal for demonstrating how people feel in their own words.

Capturing what people think may require you to infer based on unspoken details like body language. As you immerse yourself in the information gathered from interviews, think about how the person you interviewed might feel when performing a particular task. What might be frustrating them? If they don’t share their frustrations, consider why they might withhold that information.

Do is fairly straightforward. As you observe someone experiencing the problem you’re trying to solve, take note of not only what they do, but how they do it. Are they in a hurry? Do they seem confused? Asking why someone takes a particular action can provide insight into their thought process as well.

The post 5 Steps of the Design Thinking Process: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on Carrot Marketing.

On the other hand, it is important to remember that a web page’s modular design is similar to assembling a Lego set, it is crucial that each piece is perfectly interlocked with another. When you place a three-layer module next to a six-layer module, the room is uneven. This leads to overrides of multi-level CSS, or irregular white space. Finally, the web page template isn’t going to make sense. The use of modular design is the right choice for neglecting these struggles. Carefully plan and check your pages to prevent this, before you go online.

2. Mobile-1st Website Design

The mobile-first strategy is the product of the continual growth of mobile traffic. More than half of all Web traffic came from mobile devices in 2019, according to the report. It is estimated that by 2025 approximately 73 % of all internet traffic will come from mobile devices. For this reason, Google introduced a mobile-first indexing methodology strategy in which Google uses the website’s mobile version to assess the rank and rating of the web page.

Similarly, mobile-first architecture is now key to generating traffic on site. Your websites should be accessible across all mobile and desktop devices, and the use of responsive images means that your media blends into every mobile device screen automatically. Consequently, responsive design enhances the page’s efficiency and user experience by viewing the content in a comfortable manner.

3. Chatbots and Customer Support

Chatbots are increasing in popularity, particularly in colloquial (Conversational) trade. Conversational trading is when services or papers are offered by web chats, messaging apps, or voice assistants. To emphasize, existing websites are diagnosing the chatbots ‘ ability to embellish online sales.

Amazon’s home assistant Alexa, for example. This conversational UI app will smartly send commands to purchase stuff on Amazon that will create a personal shopping experience. In 2020, more than 80 % of businesses are projected to adopt some kind of chatbot network.

As a result, having chatbots on your website furnish assistance whenever needed facilitates online sales and can solve customer queries. Creating a chatbot to communicate with humans and developing conversational UI is an on-going web development demand to note that.

4. Accelerated Mobile Apps (AMP)

Accelerated Mobile Apps (AMP), an open source library designed to create web pages. AMP’s main goal is to enhance the mobile user experience by providing instant page loads. In addition, the AMPs on any computer are lightweight, stable, appealing and sensitive.

The explanation for AMPs ‘ fast load is that they render mobile web pages with minimal HTML / CSS and JavaScript. Although Google caches AMPs automatically compared to standard mobile sites, they provide faster load times from Google search.

Likewise, AMPs will result in a massive increase in website traffic, with more time spent on your pages. As a result, businesses will leverage AMP’s advantage in improving mobile websites and further providing a better user experience.

5. Searching Speech

Spoken language scan, using the spoken language to questioning search engines. The fact that modern smartphones are already fitted with a digital voice assistant such as Siri and Google Assistant is well known. Furthermore, efficiency is improving with AI-based smart speakers like Apple Home Pod. At the same time, the conventional text-based search has replaced some assertions of voice-based question.

When people familiar with this technology, web developers include more voice search methods to find out. There are different kinds of resources that you can use to include these approaches that also include voice recognition APIs and pre-constructed widgets.

6. 1st Design of API

New related technologies, such as IOT systems, smart homes, driverless cars, wearable tech, and smartphones, are all focused on tremendous use of APIs where users will benefit greatly. But it becomes a bit tricky to establish such relations. Developers usually start the concept from the user interface. The API integration is performed after the front-end framework has been developed.

Creating a system for testing the API requires a great deal of time and planning, where the development of the front end holds back end development. API-first architecture, however, allows developers to create the API, and then build the software on top. This can speed up development and eradicate the need to rewrite code.

7. Motion UI

Motion UI-The specific approach to support transitions and animations in web development. On the other hand, it’s an innovative way to increase the conversion rates for your website. Developers can use motion UIs to build live graphics in native device settings.

Companies that deviate from how users work in web development through motion UI with their brand and storytelling. In fact, the Motion UI is a great way of activating user emotions and can greatly enhance regular user activity. As a result, developers came to realize the benefits of motion UI, and tools such as Lottie became more popular.

Summary

Hope, you’ve now understood the improvements that will arise in modern web design and what you can look forward to. Knowing the acquired tools to ensure that your pages deliver the best experience and efficiency to users. Through keeping your skills sharp and being aware of these trends, you will gain a significant advantage through sticking with the best web design and development company in 2020.

The post Web Development Trends 2020 appeared first on Carrot Marketing.

The majority of modern-day businesses cannot expect to stay competitive without a strong online presence. Naturally, then, most businesses employ or contract web developers – the people tasked with building functional, attractive, and user-friendly online platforms.

Before we jump into a day in the life of a web developer – do you know the main responsibilities of this career?

A WEB DEVELOPER PERFORMS TASKS SUCH AS…

• Building websites using technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This includes the layout of websites, as well as frameworks used to deliver the content that will be displayed on the site.
• Modifying and updating websites according to a company or client’s specifications.
• Ensuring that websites are visually attractive and user-friendly.
• Collaborating with other colleagues, such as content creators, copywriters, graphic designers, marketing managers, and IT staff.
• Testing websites and troubleshooting any problems as soon as they are identified.

Web developers work either within companies or at specific web design agencies, or as freelancers. Job roles may therefore vary according to this, and also according to the size of the company or agency. For example, in smaller companies, web developers will frequently interact with other team members and may take on multiple roles. In larger companies, the web developer may focus on only a few more specialised roles.

It’s important to note that your roles also differ depending on whether you’re a front-end developer or a back-end developer.

In simple terms, front-end developers are responsible for producing the aspects of the website that users see and interact with, while back-end developers are tasked with developing the underlying platforms that drive the front-end. Click here for a full description of the differences between front-end and back-end web development.

WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE FOR A FRONT-END WEB DEVELOPER?

Your work schedule is typically far from routine, because you’ll often be solving problems as they arise. Schedules and deadlines can however apply to big projects. Here is an example of a day in the life of a front-end web developer:

  08h00 – After arriving at the office, you may want to test your company or client’s website for any problems, or continue working on a project from the previous day.

  08h30 – You may need to attend a team meeting to discuss ongoing projects, brainstorm ideas, or speak about new strategies to boost your business or clients’ online presence.

  10h00 – Time to refocus on the current projects you’re working on. You may be spending the rest of the day doing programming and developing a company or client’s website, or taking a few hours to implement new platforms and functions.

  13h00 – After lunch, you could be checking whether there are any issues with your websites that need attending to. This could include anything from broken links to text or images that aren’t displaying properly.

  14h00 – If you have some time, you may decide to do some research on new technologies and tools that could improve the way you develop sites. As a web developer, it’s important to stay on top of trends in the field in order to stay competitive.

  15h00 – You may want to collaborate with content creators or graphic designers to review the text and images that will be placed on the website, and where they will fit into the layout. You’ll need to ensure that pages are properly laid out and visually appealing to users.

  16h00 – At the end of the day, it’s a good idea to review the day’s work, and possibly test your websites one more time.

Considering the high demand for web developers in the current workplace, choosing this career path is a savvy choice!

The post A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WEB DEVELOPER appeared first on Carrot Marketing.