Less is always more in design, and uncluttered, easily navigated websites are always the big winners!

If you’re thinking about updating your website in 2019, then consider implementing these three minimalist web design basics to make sure you are creating a positive user experience.
 
Focus on Simplicity
An effective website is structured on a minimalist approach to visual communications. Minimalist websites are built around the concept that less is always more, and always better. This means that minimalist website design purely focuses on the necessary and essential elements required to effectively communicate. This way any clutter or distracting visuals that may increase complexity are cut. How minimal you go, will depend on the purpose of your website, your target audience, and of course your business.
 
Maximize Negative Space
Minimalist websites maximize negative (or white space, but it does not have to be white). Negative space is the space on your website where there is no element placed. Using a white background on a minimalist website increases the negative space and pulls visitor attention to the dominant content. Creating space around images, clearly separating paragraphs and isolating important content guarantee visual communications are easily absorbed by visitors. Sparingly utilizing negative space will reduce unwanted interference and improve the overall user experience.
 
Minimize Color Palate
Color plays a powerful role in the visual communications of your website and is a central element of your brand's visual identity. While it is not the only element, it is most definitely one of the first things absorbed and possibly one of the most remembered by visitors in relation to your brand. Minimal use of colors (no more than two or three core colors that are associated with your brand) will add clarity, improve navigation, increase accessibility and reinforce your brand's visual identity. Taking the time to carefully consider your website color palate will also reinforce your brand experience for visitors.

In web design, a superior user interface, or UI design, is crucial to a positive user experience or UX design. You only have one or two seconds to entice your visitors and have them engage with your website. Creating a clean, crisp, minimal website will allow you to communicate your brand more efficiently and effectively --- it is that simple.
 
Scopic works with businesses to create a simple experience for website visitors, contact us to find out more.

As we have noted in previous articles on mobile website design, 2017 is the year that website mobility will really start to matter — if you want to provide a positive user experience for your audience.

So this is just a quick reminder — to make sure you regularly test your website is mobile-friendly.
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Once your website is live (ideally during soft launch) and whenever you make changes to your website — test it — test it across various mobile devices, including smartphones/tablets of all shapes and sizes. Also — test it — across various operating systems like Windows, iOS and Android.

Test every page — test the menu and logo positioning, text formatting, image quality, button and input field location and sizing. Whenever you are testing your website, consider the target audience, or ideally ask a 3rd party to test it for you to gain a real understanding of the user-friendliness of your website.
 
Scopic works with businesses to create quality content that grabs attention and delivers a positive user experience, contact us to find out more.

Over the past couple of years mobile-friendly websites have become a necessity due to the way people now consume content, but knowing where to start can be tough for traditional businesses.

​2017 is the year that accessibility, mobility and speed will really matter. Today, it is also essential that your website content is mobile-friendly-searchable to further improve your online visibility. 
 
Here are 5 basic points to consider when going mobile-friendly.
 
1. Quick and easy
A mobile website must be quick and easy to navigate. Mobile site users want to find information hassle free, so make things easy to find with clear buttons, icons and headings that guide and inform users. The less pinches, swipes and taps the better.
 
2. Short and simple
Users on mobile devices looking for products or services don't want to waste time, and really don't want to scroll, scroll, scroll through long paragraphs. Keep paragraph length to 3-5 lines. Use short, simple, targeted sentences that engage and help users find what they want. Sentence length should range from 10 – 20 words. Also, use keywords your target market uses to find what they are looking for.
 
3. Stay on message
Make sure your brand and communications (logo, colors, copy and style) are consistent across your desktop and mobile platforms. Brand consistency will ensure users develop familiarity with your business — familiarity breeds brand trust and loyalty.
 
4. Minimize input info
Mobile users are working on a small canvas, so limit the amount of information you require them to input when completing forms or purchase orders. Using drop downs instead of input fields will make things much easier. Also, make sure the input font size is readable at least 14 px.
 
5. Time to test
Once your mobile website is live — test it — across various mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets of all shapes and sizes. Also, make sure you test it across various operating systems like Windows, iOS and Android. Finally, when ready to go live, test your page speed with Google PageSpeed Insights.
 
Scopic works with you to build your business exposure online, contact us to find out more.

Simple backgrounds, basic colors, powerful images and the positive use of negative space will continue to dominate web design in 2017. 

So, consider implementing these three minimalist web design basics to make sure you are creating a positive user experience for your visitors.
 
Focus on simplicity
An effective website is structured on a minimalist approach to visual communications. Minimalist websites are built around the concept that less is always more, and always better. This means that minimalist website design purely focuses on the necessary and essential elements required to effectively communicate. This way any clutter or distracting visuals that may increase complexity are cut. How minimal you go, will depend on the purpose of your website, your target audience, and of course your business. 

Maximise negative/white space
Minimalist websites maximize negative (or white space, but it does not have to be white). Negative space is the space on your website where there is no element placed. Using a white background on a minimalist website increases the negative space and pulls visitor attention to the dominant content. Creating space around images, clearly separating paragraphs and isolating important content guarantee visual communications are easily absorbed by visitors. Sparingly utilizing negative space will reduce unwanted interference and improve the overall user experience.

Minimize color palate
Color plays a powerful role in the visual communications of your website and is a central element of your brand's visual identity. While it is not the only element, it is most definitely one of the first things absorbed and possibly one of the most remembered by visitors in relation to your brand. Minimal use of colors (no more than two or three core colors that are associated with your brand) will add clarity, improve navigation, increase accessibility and reinforce your brand's visual identity. Taking the time to carefully consider your website color palate will also reinforce your brand experience for visitors.

Finally, remember you only have one or two seconds to entice your visitors and have them engage with your website. Creating a clean, crisp, minimal website will allow you to communicate more efficiently and effectively --- it is that simple.

Scopic works with businesses to create an enhanced user experience for website visitors, contact us to find out more.

As we grind through the start of 2017, now is a perfect time to review your online strategy. A sharp looking mobile-friendly website and fresh content are an essential combination for any online business.
 
So, let's review these basic tips to make sure you are maximizing your online exposure.
 
Focus on fresh content
To keep your business on top of organic search results it is important to consistently refresh and target your website content. Search engines like Google, YAHOO and Bing regularly change their algorithms and search factors to provide genuine search results to users. We recommend businesses to at least make use of Keyword Planner to better understand their audiences search habits when creating content. Simply, fresh and targeted content will keep your audience coming back for more.

 Schedule regular content reviews
Search engines use search-bots to gather information about websites on the Internet and then share it with users via SERPs (search engine results pages). This is why your business needs to schedule content reviews every few weeks to make sure you keep and improve your ranking. The content reviews should closely analyse basic data - Google Analytics - on page visitors, page impressions, user behaviour and experience. Creating, measuring and reviewing content will allow your business to learn what content is most engaging to your audience.
 
Focus on rich content
Keeping search-bots fed on fresh "content rich" information will see your business climb the search engine ranks. Rich content could include: product updates, product reviews, industry facts, tips and tricks, product tutorials, employee or customer profiles, company news. With a massive amount of content being published across numerous platforms, businesses need to offer truly rich content more than ever before. Basically, the richer, more valuable the content on or linked to your website, the higher your ranking and this means more eyeballs are on your business.
 
Want more, then check out our content marketing trends for 2017 and SEO tips for 2017
 
 Scopic helps businesses better connect with people in a smarter way, contact us to find out more.

With major search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo frequently revising their algorithms, the techniques to maximizing your websites search engine optimization (SEO) may seem complex and expensive. So, here are some simple tips to consider in 2016 that will positively impact your websites organic search ranking in 2017.
 
Keywords count
Identify keywords/phrases your target audience may use when searching and then use these keywords/phrases through your landing page, linked webpages or blog posts.
 
As 75% of search engine “search phrases” are three and five words in length, it makes good sense to use a similar pattern when creating page headings and sub-headings. Through the body of your copy it is important to also use related “keyword” words/phrases. This will ensure that your content is viewed as authentic and valuable by search engines. An interesting point here is that the number of voice searches continues to grow and is already impacting on search trends on mobile devices. In 2017 and beyond voice search will greatly impact future SEO techniques.
 
Remember, in order to catch and keep the attention of search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo you must be regularly updating your website content. Scheduled content audits and adding a latest news or product updates page will play an important role in your websites organic ranking over the long-term.
 
Visuals engage
As speeds increase and mobile device usage grows people are wanting more than just words. Research shows images and videos perform much better than just words on a screen as they are more appealing to people.
 
Make sure that images and videos on your website also use keywords/phrases in the heading/caption and in the alt tag. Alt tag is basically an abbreviation of “alternative attributes of an image tag”. Alt tags play a vital role for search engines as they provide a descriptive explanation of images for the search-bots that crawl and rank your website.
 
It may take time to search for or create the right image/video, but your audience will like you for it and may even share it on social media. Remember, if you do use images or videos make sure they add value to your content and are always of a highest quality.
 
Mobile-friendly matters
Today, more people are reading/watching news on mobile devices, so it is essential that your website content is mobile-friendly-searchable to further improve your online visibility.
 
Mobile site users want to find information quickly and easily, so make the user experience stress-free with clear buttons, headings and icons that guide and inform users. The less people have to wait, pinch and swipe the better.
 
Google started mobile-first indexing in 2016, this basically and importantly means that Google are indexing mobile versions of websites before desktop versions. So, 2017 will be the year that mobility and speed matters, as it is no secret that a positive user experience correlates with fast mobile device page loading speeds. A simple step to increase your website loading speed, is to compress/reduce your images and videos to ensure you catch and hold the attention of visitors.
 
Stay relevant
Finally, as mentioned earlier, search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) continually revise their algorithms, so as to provide a better search experience for users and improve SERPs (search engine results pages).
 
What may have worked a few years ago, no longer works as effectively today. In an increasingly changing, competitive and mobile marketplace, remember to make sure your content is fresh, fast and authentic.
 
Remember, to continually get the best SEO results you really need to follow the most relevant trends. Currently, the richer the mobile content, the higher the SERPs ranking – this is good for business.
 
Scopic works with you to create rich content to grow your organic search ranking, contact us to find out more.

Today, choosing a domain name is similar to choosing a business name. Your website “domain” name is just as important to your branding and marketing as the name of your business.
 
Here are five simple tips to consider when creating that perfect domain name.
 
1. Easy to type
Having a domain name that is easy to type is extremely important to your online success.
 
2. Short is best
If your domain name is long and complex, you risk customers mistyping or misspelling it.
 
3. Keep it simple
A simple domain name will make it easy for potential customers to find and remember you in a competitive marketplace.
 
4. Make it obvious
Your domain name needs to be specific to your business, the trading name, the products and services you are offering the target market.
 
5. Commit to it
Search engines actually look at your domain name's length of registration to help them judge whether your site is for really worth ranking.
 
Scopic works with you from the start to create a strong and consistent identity across your brand, contact us to find out more.

In 2015 mobile Internet usage continued to skyrocket and 2016 looks no different.
 
According to a white paper by commScore Digital Future in Focus over the past 4 years “smartphone usage is up 394 percent, and tablet usage is up a whopping 1,721 percent as these platforms now combine to account for 60 percent of digital media time spent.”
 
Read the report: 2015 U.S. Digital Future in Focus

Mobile-only Internet usage is becoming the norm, so 2016 is a your time to go mobile.  
 
Here are 5 simple rules to consider before creating your mobile website.
 
1. Quick and easy
A mobile website must be quick and easy to navigate. Mobile site users want to find information hassle free, so make things easy to find with clear buttons, icons and headings that guide and inform users. The less pinches, swipes and taps the better.
 
2. Short and simple
Users on mobile devices looking for products or services don't want to waste time, and really don't want to scroll, scroll, scroll through long paragraphs. Keep paragraph length to 2-4 lines. Use short, simple, targeted sentences that engage and help users find what they want. Sentence length should range from 10 – 30 words.
 
3. Minimize input info
Mobile users are working on a small canvas, so limit the amount of information you require them to tap in. Using drop downs instead of input fields will make things much easier. Also, make sure the input font size is readable at least 14 px.
 
4. Stay on message
Make sure your brand and communications (logo, colors, copy and style) are consistent across your desktop and mobile platforms. Brand consistency will ensure users develop familiarity with your business, and with familiarity comes brand trust and loyalty.
 
5. Time to test
Once your mobile website is live test it on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets of all shapes and sizes. Also, make sure you test it across various operating systems like Windows, iOS and Android. Finally, check your page speed with Google PageSpeed Insights.
 
Scopic helps you build your global audience through creative communications, contact us to find out more.

In business it is important to take the time to consider the following questions and reflect on where your brand is in relation to your market.
 
Knowing your business
What is your business?       
What product/s or service/s do you offer?     
Has your business, product/s or service/s changed since your current brand was created?       
If so, what do you want to improve/change about your brand?
        
Knowing your audience
What is the demographic breakdown of your target audience?  
What motivates your target audience?        
Is your current brand connecting with your target audience? 
If not, what do you want to improve/change about your brand?   

Now, you must have a better idea of what your brand is doing right and where it must improve.
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Scopic will work with you to rebrand your business and make it reconnect with your target audience, contact us to find out more.

Keep things fresh
To keep your business on top it is important to regularly refresh your website content. Search engines like Google, YAHOO and Bing regularly change their algorithms and search factors to get true search results. Also, your audience will keep coming back to your website if they regularly see something fresh, informative and engaging.

Schedule content reviews
Search engines use search-bots to gather information about websites on the internet and then share it with users via SERPs (search engine results pages). This is why your business needs to schedule content reviews every few months to make sure you keep your ranking. The reviews should consider whether your website content is useful, informative, educational or engaging to your audience.

Think rich content
Keeping search-bots fed on fresh "content rich" information will see your business grow and climb search engine ranks. This could include: product updates, product reviews, industry facts, tips and tricks, product tutorials, company news. Always remember to make sure the content is fresh and simple for both your target audience and bots to digest. Basically, the richer the content, the higher your ranking and this means more eyeballs are on your business.

Scopic works with you to create rich content that delivers real results, contact us to find out more.