Are you a local business based in Orange County? Are you looking for ways to expand your Local customer base? Drive more traffic to your store and convert those customers to paying customers? If your answer to above mentioned questions is yes, then this blog is definitely for you.
As you have guessed that this content is aimed at local businesses that are operating in Orange County, however, even if you are not based here but as a local business support are looking for ways to grow it, this blog will be of mighty help to you.

In this blog we will unravel some untapped secrets and some known but not followed strategies which you can implement in your business to promote it locally in the area you are operating from.

In other words at the end of this blog you will have with you some practical, actionable steps which you will be able to implement in your business right away.

• 1.You will be able to better understand the platforms that are crucial to your business success
• 2. Significance of good content strategy and why;
• 3. It is imperative to connect first and then sell so without wasting any more time on introduction, let’s dive straight into it:

To begin with let’s understand and elaborate the term Local Business?

As defined by Yext “Any business that provides goods or services to local population is deemed as Local business”. Simple Enough! Let’s clarify it further by using a simple example:

For example: You have a store or a shop or like us you are an Orange County Website Design company based in Newport Beach, CA. This is a kind of business where customers can come and directly talk to you.

They can explain you their requirements, what they are looking for at what price they are looking for or can simply check for good and services you offer. These kinds of services and businesses are categorized as Local businesses.

Even if your business doesn’t have a local address still your services carter to the needs of people in Newport Beach area, your business will be a categorized as a local business.

Here is another example: You live in Newport area and need some plumbing work done for your home, on Google you will type ‘Plumbers near me’. In other words you are looking for services in local area so all those plumbers that falls under that area will be able to provide you with the services you need.

This is why it becomes super important that you generate traffic from your local area to strengthen your position locally.

Here are some proven methods that you can implement to your business starting today to ensure that you get the maximum results from the area you are operating in.

1) Muscle up the Social Power of Your Business

Now, I am not a Nostradamus but every once in a while I like to make some bold predictions just to flex my intuition muscles. So, this is what I believe will dominate 2020 and I am basing my guess on the result I am seeing this year.

Seo will be big but Social media marketing is going to be massive.

If you want to dominate your niche, you need to fire up your Social Power in others words make sure that you are active on all major platforms. No matter how big or small your business is. You need to take out your brands on these platforms and connect with your audiences.

Even if you don’t have a website or you have a website that needs a redesign if your social game is strong you are a winner. The reason, I say this is because there is a humongous amount traffic that is present on these platforms. Here are some mind boggling statistics validating the statement I just made:

Facebook: 2.3 billion

Instagram: 1 billion

Twitter: 326 million

Pinterest: 250 million

LinkedIn: 590 million

Though this doesn’t discard the significance of website still if you want to wait for a website it is fine as long as you are going strong Social media marketing strategy in place.

Key element to keep in mind is that every platform has its own rules, so learn them well before play them. If you are a small enterprise or a one man show you need to be smart with your social game. You need to target your markets and segments well.

You don’t have to what your competitor is doing, though having a good understanding about their business is help, still you need to come up with your own unique strategy.

When I talk about strategy I mean covering every step of the funnel. At times we keep looking and focusing on step 4 and allow a lot of good opportunities go waste. We need to add patience in our game and ensure that we have a full round strategy about our content.

I know the end result of every business is driving more sales and revenue in, but you need to make sure that you are paying enough attention to Step 1, 2 & 3 of the sales funnel as well.

I have collected some interesting points that will further establish your faith in why Social media is imperative to your business success.

Here are some interesting stats that prove the same:

• 1) 70% of customers visit Local stores based on information found online
• 2) Retailers advertising locally on Facebook see an average ROI of 152%
• 3) Customers will spend 21% more when receiving good social media rapport
• 4) In a survey of 3,511 Local marketers, respondents ranked Social Media advertising as most effective out of a list of 30 promotional channels that included TV, radio, print and offline advertising
• 5) 73% of the marketers believe Social media marketing has been very effective for their businesses

Even with statistics that are so much in favour these platforms most businesses fail to make a use of it. Here is a survey that shows that only 25% of small businesses have a website

https://gtdesign.co/local-businesses-without-a-website and even lesser number use Social Media pages to promote or rank their business.

This means that there is an open ground to cover. Not only you will have an edge over businesses that haven’t started yet but also the cost of marketing or advertising on Instagram or Facebook is far lesser then compared to Google. As a business owner you can absolutely latch on to this opportunity.

Most big firms and companies are still glued to old, traditional ways of marketing. Every year they are investing good chunks of money on billboards and other traditional practices.

Even with so much of data they are still with the old methods, let them be there.

You can take charge of your business right away and get it moving in the direction which will present it with maximum opportunities. Not only organic but you can also maximise your impact on these platforms using paid advertising.

The best part of advertising on these platforms is that you don’t need any technical expert or a marketing genius to set up your account on these platforms, rather you can do it all by yourself.

These platforms keep refining their UI experience almost every other week to make things simpler for their customers. So with a little bit of attention and focus you can easily crack the code in this game.

These Platforms are helpful and insightful like Facebook and Instagram give you an opportunity to select the radius in which you want to promote your business and now what more you can ask for.

The amount insights these platforms provide is incredible. All you need is to be smart with you ad-placement and let these platforms will do rest of the work for you.

The kind of metrics these platforms have is phenomenal. You can use them to select your audience, location, income group, interest, behavior and can do a lot more.

Another useful tip I want to share here is to make sure you use a lot of well researched keywords when you are setting up your business profile on these platforms. All these little tricks can reap great returns as continue to grow on Social Media.

You don’t have to be an expert to search keywords to set up your profile. You can use a free platform like: https://app.neilpatel.com/en/ubersuggest to generate hundreds of keywords in one single click

These platforms are hot at the minute. Big firms, even though are not investing into them enough are still looking at these platforms with more interest than even before so this is a very good time to invest in these platforms. Therefore make sure that you capitalize on them before they hike up their prices.

In fact you can go over our article to understand more about how to work and network over Instagram.

2) Yes, Believe me when I say that Local Directories are still Crucial!

Now, I know, you must have come across a lot of blogs saying that those good old directories submissions are dead and redundant, but trust me that is not the case.

It is not an opinion but a well-tested fact. The problem is not with directory submissions but the way it is done. Most people just fill up the directories without expecting much and that is where they lose out.

So here is what I advise you to do Instead of going after 40- 50 local directories and listing your business there, just pick 7 top directories and list your business and maintain your presence there.

Some good directories have dedicated teams that are working hard to keep these directories running. That’s why they really appreciate businesses that are active on their platforms.

As a Local business owner, once you have submitted your business to these platforms, your next step should be to Interact on them, answer the reviews and make sure you are active. Every platform has its own algorithm which supports the businesses that are active on them.

Trust us, it will only take 15-20 minutes of work every week and you will be ahead of competitors. You need to keep in mind that Google value consistency.

If you are listed on a reputed website like Yelp and are consistently engaging with your audiences there you are sending strong signals to Google bots.

Key here is again the keywords. Make sure when you are listing your business on these platforms you are using keywords that are most relevant to your business. This will further establish your authority on those keywords, which ultimately will result in good traffic.

All these factors are crucial to your brand establishment in long run so make sure you make the most out of it.

3) If you have a website Optimize it

Now coming to our favorite part, partly because we ourselves are an Orange county web design company, we love to talk about developing websites and discussing why they are crucial to the business. If you have a website it is critical that you optimize it to reap maximum benefits from your local search.

You need to be thorough with your ground work. You need to test, implement, analyse your competitor to reach to your audiences.

You need to ask yourself questions like where my customer will be. You need to draw out a persona framework to determine who your clients are and how you can best reach him. You need to be sure on UI designs to ensure that people who are visiting to your website have a good experience.

Also you need to keep in mind the loading speed of your website. Today the attention span of people is really short, they wouldn’t stay long on things that do not move on, so keep that in mind.

No doubt keyword search again is a prime significance here however there some more hacks that you can implement to your website to optimize its growth, they go as follow:

• • Add Schema Mark-up
• • Make sure that your website open supremely on Mobile platforms
• • Optimize your Google My Business Account
• • Audit local citations and ensure consistent NAP

You don’t have to do all these things yourself, you can hire good Web designers in Orange County and they will do the needful for you.

Also, make sure you check if your website is as per current designing standard or it needs a redesign. Graphics also play a huge part in constructing the image of the brand therefore it is imperative you hire only the best graphic designers in Orange County.

Here are some facts that will help you understand what a good website does to your business and things you should keep in mind while redesigning a website:

Mobile users have surpassed desktop users

Different age groups will react differently to different content, layout and aesthetic choice (Validating the fact why good graphics are crucial to website success)

The average human attention span has declined from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to 8 seconds now. This is much shorter than the attention span of a goldfish ( not related directly to significance of having a website but still good to know)

Lists are better at keeping your reader focused than large paragraphs. Some people completely ignore large chunks of texts (Precisely the reason why we are maintain a list in this article)

Forms are boring, if not done correctly, they can be the biggest deterrent for the users

57% of the internet users say that they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile (Now that speaks a lot for itself).

85% of adults think that a company’s website when viewed on mobile device should be as good or better than its desktop website

To read more on the same topic you can refer this article

4) Don’t Try Too Hard To Market or Sell Your Brand

Obviously if you are in market with your product or service you want to sell it to maximum number of people. However the rules and dynamics of markets had changed considerably.

These days’ people not only connect with products but also with the brands and brands don’t sell themselves, they connect.

In other words, you need to focus on every step of the funnel (as mentioned in point #1 as well). We understand that it is hard to work on awareness stage when you want to concentrate on purchase but if you are thinking long term, you should not shy away from it.

So, if you have a grocery store in Orange County remember that you have a Grocery store in Orange County, in other words, you have to look at a big picture. This means that along with your store you should talk about Orange County as well. Make sure that everything in your content is not only about what all you are selling and at what price you are selling them at.

Any insightful information around your local area is always going to go in your favour as it will connect people with your brand. Our history is filled with examples like these.

Businesses that have gone beyond selling their product and connecting with people have won in a long run.

Always remember that building brand is a process and process takes time, so invest your time in Orange County and your brand will look after your grocery store.

5) Invest in Sponsorship

This point is an extension to the previous point.

How many events you have seen around you? Why not sponsor some of them.

Now, this kind of marketing practice can benefit your brand in two ways:

a) People who are organizing the event will instantly know about you and your product/services.

b) People who are participating in the event will not only acknowledge your brand but you can personally talk to them and make them aware about your services.

Trust me a lot of brand promotion events fail to bring the kind of viewership what this sponsorship can bring.

You can introduce coupons, discounts and other such attractive offers to get people interested in your brand.

If you don’t to invest in sponsorship you can hire graphic designers on freelance basis and get them to design some cool graphics around those events to catch the attention of the users.

Why not talk about a baseball game or an upcoming summer blockbusters, make sure that you are aware of what people around you are talking around, sense the opportunity and capitalize on it.

6) Video Marketing was big, is big and is only getting bigger everyday

This phenomenon of promoting your business with a video is tried and tested with great results. Lot of small to medium scale brands have notched up their sales using video marketing.

Having a video about a business is not only about making a standalone video describing what business does but it goes beyond. You need to plan out a proper content strategy and have to be consistent with you efforts.

As talked above, you cannot be pushy with your content. Not everything in your content should be only about “selling your service or a product”. You need to find a perfect balance in crafting your video strategy.

What makes this strategy even more fun is that you don’t to be an expert to smash out a video every week? In fact you can start your channel You Tube and record your video using your smart phone and can gradually add on that.

Another thing that most successful vloggers (term used for bloggers who blog using video) do is that they don’t create content, rather they simply document. Trust us, this is the most simple and powerful content strategy that is rocking the Social media platforms these days.

This strategy allows businesses to bring out their human side in front of their customers. It increases the engagement rate and is very beneficial in the longer run.

All the big and important social media channels encourage businesses and users to upload video and offer them wider reach than the static contents.

Here are some interesting facts about Video marketing that will help you understand why it is so imperative to have a good Video content strategy for your business.

1.Businesses using video grow company revenue 49% faster, year-over-year, that organizations without

2. Forrester research found that video increases the chance of a front-page Google result by 53 times.

3. Including video on a landing page can increase conversion by 80%; real estate listings that include a video receive 403% more inquiries than those without

4. After watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online

5. 96% of B2B organizations use video in some capacity in their campaigns of which 73% report with positive results to their ROI

If you think that these numbers are crazy, just look into these figures and you will know what we are talking about here:

On daily basis more than 100 million hours of video is consumed on Facebook. Yes, you read that write, 100 million

Video tweets are retweeted 6 times more than the photos, no wonder more and more people are putting up the content on video on these channels.

Whatever you have to do for your business you should do but never undermine the significance of content though a video.

Big and established brands like Amazon and Coke Cola are spending heavily on Video advertising. You don’t have to spend what these are brands are spending to make their video work but you just have to push out your content on video.

Here is a link to a video that will tell you everything about how to come up with a successful business video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYOACJWCIlE.

 

7) Have a Blast with Podcast

Where on one side Video is making raves, the rise of audio is on a high to. Imagine how much content an average user consumes every day and how hard it is to grab his/her attention.

This is why you need to be on top of your Content planning game. Once you are sure about how you want to work with your content even podcast can be a good medium to give your local business a good exposure.

Many small local businesses have flourished using smart podcast shows. Again to air your podcast you don’t to spend much money just need to be creative.

For example: If you have a flower shop in Local area, you don’t necessarily have to have a podcast about flowers all the time. You can talk about lot things that are going around your local area with which people can relate.

Always understand that the whole idea of generating content on these platforms is to get in sync with your customer language. You need to match their emotions, and a good podcast will always help you do that.

Here are some numbers that you can check for yourself, why investing time Podcasting in and around your business will not be a bad idea.

1.49% of podcast listening is done at home and 21% is done in car, now that is a big thing. This is where audio gets an edge. You can carry it with you wherever you go. Such a potent tool on local marketing.

2. 1 in 5 Americans prioritize listening to a podcast in their busy schedule, and in local market this number becomes even more sizeable.

3. Podcast listeners subscribe to an average of 6 shows

4. 75% of Americans are aware or have heard about Podcast, this number is increasing every year. It was 64% in 2018 and its already 75 with 6 more months to go

5. 12 million people listened to Podcast in 2018 for very first time. Again this is a new niche that is growing up gradually, so it makes all the more sense to capitalize on it till the time it is fresh.

Podcast is a great way of reaching the audience and making a strong connect. It is clear from the above statistics that this medium has a good audience. People are slowing but surely warming up to this channel.

Therefore, if you are in a Local Market and are want your brand name to be heard every single day, this is your platform. All you need to do is get your mic ready and speak on whatever you want to around your local market.

Conclusion:

Local marketing is imperative. Having a good product is one thing but to sell it requires a lot of efforts till the time it becomes a brand.

A good business always keeps its customer interest in mind. Just listing a store or shop online is not enough. You need to make sure that you keep updating info if and when required on those shops. As recent surveys showed that 93% of consumers say they are frustrated by incorrect info online.

Therefore, be ready to invest in lot of time, patience and energy to work out a strategy around it. The best part about these networks is that you don’t have to be a tech savvy to manage or run these platforms.

There are lots of businesses in Orange County that are still not working on their Local marketing game which gives you a great opportunity to shine in. There is still a lot of time left in year 2019. A lot can be made during these 6 months if you plan and strategize your local marketing gig correctly.

You don’t have to be present on all the platforms at the same time. You can assess which platform is best suited for your business and start working on it first before you get across other platforms.

There are plenty of great examples available on the internet that has achieved great success online using persistent strategies. So keep hustling till the time you start enjoying it.

If you are restaurant owner in Orange County how much can you relate to this statement: “Before they open your menu they open your website”

Now this is not the blog where I am going to talk about why your restaurant business needs a good website because if you are reading this than I am sure you know about it.

Here I will mention few actionable tips that you can implement on your restaurant websites right away to turn them into a powerful lead generating machine.

1) Keep your area in mind

You are a restaurant owner in Orange County who is looking to build either a new or redesign a website for your restaurant. Now, what is the first thing you will be looking at? Menu? Well, we have a different answer to this.

Even before you think about the colors and graphics of your website it is imperative to understand the area where your restaurant is located.

See what all areas are covered in your radius. Does it have universities or it is located near co-operate offices or it is easily accessible to nearby residential areas. Once you have the grasp of your area you will able to get the right:

– Tone: A Collage goer will have a different vocabulary than to an office executive. So you need to make sure that you choose the right voice.

– Graphics: If 70% of your audience is residential you would want to give them the theme that resonates well with their tastes.

Therefore it is imperative that once decide to build or redesign your website you are completely aware about these facts.

This will not only help you understand your market better but will also help your designer design the website as per your way.

2) Menu

Yes, now is the time to talk about it. Though we have written about it in our earlier blog but still this is one point which needs to be included every time it is mentioned.

Why would a user click on a Restaurant website?- To know about the food items it offers
– What is unique about it
– Where it is located

Now, if a user has to search hard for these things or he is not able to access it on his smart device the effort on the website is a complete waste irrespective how good it looks.

Menu should be in front of the user in a jiffy when he/she open up the website. Not only it should be easily accessible but should also be readable.

3) Less Is More

Now, I could have covered this point above as well but I gave it a separate sub-heading because it is relevant and important.

Now, you will come across lot of websites that will write something ambitious like: amongst the best restaurants in orange county or best places to eat in Orange County.

Now these are generic statements that people don’t care about. More than making an impression they generally turn people away.

Now, I am not discouraging you from mentioning things you are good at but instead of adding these terms it is good to mention facts. This is what you can do:

– If you have good reviews on Yelp, you can mention that on your website
– Add testimonials and reviews of your customers
– Mention the ingredients and unique techniques you use in cooking the food

In other words cover less but cover things that are authentic and true. People want to will believe in you if you present them with facts rather than statements.

4) Get Your Audience To Act

Your restaurant website should have a good and clear call to action on all the pages.
Imagine this, by using proper tracking metrics you are able to gauge that a person is on your menu page for more than a minute, which means that is interested in it.

Now, when he is about to leave that page a small pop-up comes up asking would you like to make a reservation or add this menu or bookmark this page? Bam!

Once you have a customer on the website don’t become too aggressive or pushy with your call to action but at the same time don’t become so polite also that the other person don’t even notice you.
Don’t have boring Contact forms. Make them user friendly and more interactive.

Remember that the success of your restaurant will ultimately depend upon the quality of food but to get them there you need proper tools.

Your website should be interactive and should cover all the essential elements so that when the customer walks in he is aware about where he is and what he can expect.

In case you need any assistance in creating or redesigning a restaurant website you can always contact your truly orange county website design company.

The food world has gone through its own unique evolution in this brave new world.
Remember when you had to queue up to order a hot big cheese burger with crispy fries?
Nah! Neither do we.
From the actual mechanics of eating to the way restaurant criticism functions, the internet and its tools have left an unfading mark on our relationship with food. And to keep this relationship as smooth as possible, tons of restaurant delivery sites seem to be popping up all over the internet.
Orange County has a very lively dining scene. There are various restaurants offering impressive culinary variety – from renowned hotel restaurants to sophomore efforts from some of the area’s most respected names.
All wrapped up in warm days and cool nights, with the sounds of the ocean often not far away.
The sister county to the south – Orange County has restaurants with their websites allowing users to search and filter through their menu, place an order, and have it delivered straight to their door.
In this article I shall be discussing my findings on 3 restaurant Orange County websites: Pour Vida Latin Flavor, Puesto and SOCIAL Costa Mesa.

Prominent Call-To-Action

All such sites need a prominent call to action in order to provide a smooth customer service. Puesto does just that. As soon as you land on their website you are immediately greeted with the option to make a reservation along with the other necessary icons appropriately placed.
Pour Vida Latin Flavor, on the other hand, does not offer the choice of making reservations as soon as you open their website. Instead, it gives us a brief description of their restaurant’s chef.

EASY ACCESS TO THE MENU

All the websites excel in providing their respective menu – an impetus in user experience.
Puesto provides a variety of Mexican food and the menu is easy to interpret.
Pour Vida Latin Flavor has a creatively designed menu with a very attractive layout and equally appealing colour scheme.
SOCIAL has a relatively similarly designed menu all over the world. The theme around which the menu has been designed is very scholarly. The menu can be comprehended easily and truly matches the décor of the restaurant.

EXCELLENT PRODUCT PHOTOS

Ok. So I actually have a confession to make here.
I maybe a little biased towards these sites because I ended up reviewing them around midnight but the food looks tempting. All 3 of them have their best items on display and honestly, I am not complaining!

EASY TO CONTACT

SOCIAL, Puesto and Pour Vida Latin Flavor – offer an easy way to get in touch with them. Visitors can find their contact details on the top of the webpage under ‘contact details’.

MOBILE FRIENDLY

It is a known fact that more people than ever are using mobile devices these days. With this in mind, websites now have been built taking non-desktop devices into consideration.
Puesto’s mobile site handles this issue beautifully. Social Costa Mesa offers website accessibility assistance to its users, and Pour Vida Latin Flavor offers a separate mobile site. Each allows the same user-friendly filtering and checkout process as the desktop site.

EMOTIONAL APPEAL

At last, I would like to discuss how these websites appeal to our emotions or instincts. Exciting colour schemes and fun, casual language tend to be more appealing and make users feel more comfortable. Thus, they are more willing to eat from your place than a one which has complicated, high end names and a rather dull colour scheme.
“We eat through our eyes” – is a true phenomenon. Until and unless it appeals to our eyes, it will never make its way into our stomach.
Pour Vida Latin Flavor has a delicate colour scheme. In comparison to Social and Puesto, their website is dull and boring. They don’t have a solid background and impressive font.
Social and Puesto have a bright colour scheme and tend to be more appealing to the youth. More attractive layout and images of food items incite hunger and actually make you want to run to these places and order all this!

Plumbers run very different businesses from traditional companies. A restaurant may use their website to advertise their menu and their specialties. Contrary to that, you need to generate leads from your plumbing website.
Unlike the restaurants, your success is calls and contact forms, and not foot traffic to your restaurant.
In this age of digitalisation, consumers want the information they seek NOW, meaning your plumbing company’s website should answer questions like:
So Lets Analyse few Websites in Orange County and see how are they different:
Who are you?
What do you do / offer?
How do I contact you?
Without the user needing to scroll down the page at all
Today I am going to discuss my findings on 3 plumbing websites: Orange County plumbing heating and air conditioning (OCPHAC), Pristine plumbing and Scott Harrison plumbing.

Call to Action

I know that I have mentioned this in the past, but this is the most important aspect that needs to be catered to – a prominent call-to-action.
OCPHAC does just that. As soon as you land on homepage, BAM! You are greeted with the message – “Get help now”.
Pristine plumbing and Scott Harrison plumbing operate on the same grounds too. Both of them have an immediate call of action which is a huge plus point in generating leads.

Services Offered

We then move forward to the services offered by these websites. Like a menu is an illustration of a restaurant’s abilities, the services symbolize the company’s talent.
Pristine plumbing advertise on the lines of 24×7 provisions of plumbing services.

OCPHAC and Scott Harrison plumbing offer a wide range of plumbing services too, both residential and commercial.

Easy To Contact

Pristine plumbing, Scott Harrison plumbing and OCPHAC – all offer a toll free number to get in touch with them to avail their services.

Apart from this, they also offer a small form for you to fill in your address and contact number to book an appointment with them too. These facilities make the websites user-friendly and very easy to operate.

Chat Support

Sometimes, even the most user-friendly sites may fall short to design for the lowest common denominator. Therefore, to take care of the unforeseen problems there is always a facility for chat support.
Pristine plumbing is the only website that offers this facility to its users. OCPHAC and Scott Harrison plumbing do offer you a form to fill in your enquiry and send it to them for a response but they don’t have a chat support system setup.

Coupons

Who can overlook this? There is nothing better than getting a discount or getting some service for free. Each site has a section and filter just for special deals. I personally am a sucker for coupons, whether its food deals or deals on other services.

Scott Harrison plumbing has a separate section under the heading – view specials/ coupons. OCPHAC offers financing options for your plumbing needs and even offer coupons which can be redeemed. Pristine plumbing doesn’t offer any such coupons on their website.

Mobile Friendly

More and more people have gained access to mobile phones these days. Gone are the days when mobile phones were out of the reach of a common man. As a result, loads of websites have started getting mobile friendly and can be accessed through non- desktop devices.
Scott Harrison plumbing, OCPHAC and Pristine plumbing have also taken non-desktop devices into consideration and services from these websites can be accessed through desktop and non-desktop devices easily.

Customer Reviews

Reviews on a service website can play a very pivotal role in affecting sales and generating leads. Most of the people, these days, do a bit of research from their end before taking up any service.

OCPHAC, Pristine plumbing and Scott Harrison plumbing – all of them have their testimonials and reviews uploaded on their respective websites for the viewers to read and analyse their services. Pristine plumbing even provides for a shortcut to access their customer reviews in one click.

Color Scheme

Color scheme and font are important aspects of any website. More attractive a website, more traffic it tends to attract. Colors affect the psychology of an individual and different colors incite different emotions.
Orange County Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning, Scott Harrison plumbing and pristine plumbing – all have relatively dull websites with more whites, blues and black. There are traces of orange and red which add enthusiasm and energy on a website.
Colors play with the human mind and are a very essential tool in attracting customers to your website.

“Creativity is a conversation.”
What are trends? Answer to it is simple; they are just like the main threads in this engaging and chaotic conversation. Our creative choices exist alongside these trends.
Emerging trends keep changing in terms of functionality, sustainability, web design and development.
They guide us to make the best possible changes and discard anything unsuitable. When doing business online you need to make sure that you provide your audience with the best possible user experience on your website.
Therefore, it is vital for you to stay at par with the changing trends else your business may fall behind. You will notice all good web designing companies in Orange County keep themselves updated as per the current demand of the market.
2017 was all about minimalism – rise of conversational interfaces, AI and creative layouts. 2018 brings back bold typefaces, vibrant colours, and new possibilities for users to interact with design.
Now in the second half of 2018, we continue to see these grow further and become more popular, hinting what we can expect in 2019.
Let me list down some web development trends that are bound to leave a strong impact globally and leave you behind as an awed spectator to the age of transformation.
This will be the future of Web Designing:

1. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)

PWAs are web-based applications that have the feel and UX like mobile apps. They utilize the latest web technologies to bring users app-like experience in a browser tab.

PWAs are the happy medium between casual websites and mobile apps. They carve out the best from the two and bring forward dual benefits. Some of its basic features are as follows:
1. PWAs have URLs for every page for trouble-free linking. You can access them in every modern browser without installation.
2. PWAs bring users an app-like experience, ensuring that users spend more time on your website.
3. PWAs load when the network connection is bad or absent.
4. HTTPS protocol serves PWAs, ensuring secure data transfer.
5. Also, PWAs are fast, reliable and engaging thanks to the UI and UX borrowed from mobile apps.
PWAs can help bring sizeable benefits to businesses by increasing engagement with the audience and leading to higher conversion rates and improved reliability.
With its PWA, companies like Amazon and AliExpress have doubled their conversion rates across all the browsers.
All said, PWAs are totally worth it. As of now, they have not entered the mainstream, but this is one trend that is expected to raise after all the hype that it has created in the early part of 2018. It is one trend that is sure to provide you a boost that you might have only dreamt of!

2. Motion UI

A popular definition of Motion UI states it as a standalone library that powers the transition effects used in several Foundation components, including Toggler, Reveal, and Orbit.
ZURB has been in the business of creating awesome-looking web design tools for quite a while now, one of their most popular one being-Motion UI.
Motion UI is ZURB’s own Sass library that offers nothing but customizable transitions and animations for your site.
The library lets you transition the elements of your website, like overlays, modals, off-canvas menus, etc, in and out. Moreover, you can use transition effects to build single CSS animations and even series of them.
Its simplicity, flexibility and universal character make it one of the most popular web development trends of this year.
With basic knowledge of CSS and JavaScript, the coding of Motion UI is not a hard nut to crack.
With multiple parameters at your disposal, you can build your own animation in whichever way you want and apply it to almost every element of your website.
Users today are moving away from showy animations and GIFs towards a simpler website with modern design elements. Therefore, implementing Motion UI animations on your website will provide better user experience.

3. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one such trend which has made its way from the virtual world of sci-fi to reality.
It is one of the latest and top trending technologies in web development in 2018.

1. Artificial Intelligence has revolutionized how computing is experienced by people in the present age.
It helps to create a better user experience leading to quicker business conversions by decoding buyer intent.
It can help in increasing the sales per buyer in the e-commerce industry. The big cheeses like Amazon and AliExpress benefit a lot from AI as they can track search results of the customers and provide them with alternative or better products relative to their search history.
This is how you get the option “Suggestions for You” in your account. Thus, AI leads to increase in sales which in turn lead to increase in revenue.
2. Chatbots are another great way in which artificial intelligence has made way into our lives in 2018.
It is a computer program based on the technology of machine learning and natural language processing that helps people in completing tasks like shopping, finding some information or ordering a service.
Bots offer online customer support to your users in a manner that emulates a real human interaction.
The big sharks like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Skype etc have incorporated bots and consider it to be the future of the web development industry.
In 2019 bots, powered by AI, will become an essential tool for most websites ranging from sites that sell books, gym memberships etc. Hence, bots have managed to secure their place in web development industry for the years to come.

4. SSL and HTTPS

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is a technology that provides for establishing an encrypted connection between browser and web server.
According to a recent research more than 43% of users abandon a website if they see a security alert message. Therefore, it has become vital to secure your website by installing Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Hypertext Transfer-Protocol Secure (HTTPS).
When your website uses the SSL technology, you’ll see an ‘S’ added to http:// in the address bar, as well as a padlock.
Some SSL certificates also display your company’s name in green for better recognition.
1. They are cryptographic protocols which are secured through Transfer Layer Secure (T.L.S) using three layers of protection.
2. It protects sensitive information of users and lets them complete transactions without any risk of data loss.
3. The data exchange is authenticated to prove that users are communicating with the intended website and no hacker is intercepting the transmission.
Also, Google gives ranking benefits for HTTPS websites thereby giving a boost to your SEO and increasing the reputation of your business over the internet.
So, this is one trend that is going dominate 2019, therefore, all businesses should go for this certificate as it ensures data integrity, encryption and authentication.

5. WordPress 4.9

WordPress is one of the most popular website engines for content management in the world – home to numerous personal blogs as well as personal and e-commerce websites.

WordPress has always been a front-runner in the business of content management and post the release of its latest version it has become an even more popular web development technology.
WordPress 4.9 delivers better menu customization UX, theme previewing within Customizer and improved theme switching. It aims to improve your workflow inside the customizer.
It is a thing to watch out for in 2019 because it plans to integrate a variety of plug-ins to facilitate VR and AR technologies into web design which will create an ease of use experience for readability of content.
This developer friendly platform will now also offer a huge variety of drag-and-drop themes, which will make it very easy for developers to design websites without writing a single line of code.

Conclusion

These trending web development technologies that I have listed are just a few among many web development trends that are sure to leave a mark in 2019.
Other trends include Push Notifications, PHP, User Behaviour Tracking, Google AMP, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.
For someone working in this dynamic career of a professional web developer, understanding and using these technologies will always put them ahead of their competition.
You must choose which technology has the potential to guide your business towards great heights. Your choice determines your future. Choose wisely!

Your website is the hub of all your online marketing activities. It is a doorway through which your customers can gain access your business.
First impressions are powerful. You just have a time span of 0.2 seconds to leave an impact on the user. So, if your website will come across as old or boring then there is a very unlikely chance that users will visit your website again.
You need to know if your website is generating the right number of visitors and sales as expected.
But how do you know that it is time for a redesign?
In this blog I will share 11 signs that are a clear indication that your website desperately needs a makeover.

1. Your website is not generating any revenue

The goal of any business is to generate sales. But that becomes difficult when your website receives traffic but there are no conversions.
This significant drop-off in traffic and leads could be a sign that your visitors are clearly not finding what they’re looking for.
Therefore, if your website is not finding you any business then it’s time for a redesign, something all leading Orange website design agencies stresses upon.

2. You have a high bounce rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page.
In other words, people are exiting your website as soon as they enter it. This is a sign of a high bounce rate. This is a sure sign you need to redesign.
A good website should be inviting for the visitor and should keep the visitor engaged and interested. An effective website design can decrease your bounce rate and increase your conversions.

3. Your website is outdated

When was your website created? Does it have the feel and impression of a modern-day website?
If your answer is NO, then clearly, it’s time for a redesign.
It’s always good to stay on top of design trends. An outdated website is a guaranteed way to get visitors running away from your site as fast as they can.
Visitors want a website that is fresh and engaging. They need to be provided with an experience. An outdated website would not be able to do that. A website redesign is the way to go.

4. Your website isn’t responsive

A responsive website is a website that displays well on all devices and screen sizes. You need to remember that users will be accessing your website not only from their laptops but smartphones and tablets.
In a world where everyone is handling everything via a mobile phone, if your website isn’t accessible through that then you lose a large percentage of customers. To stay relevant in your industry, your website must be responsive.
It maximizes your conversions and provides visitors with a good experience. Therefore, if your website isn’t responsive, it’s a clear sign you need a redesign.

5. Your website has no conversion funnel

A conversion funnel refers to the stages a visitor navigates through your website to convert.
Effective website designs define conversion funnels.
One should know how starting from the homepage of your website the visitor will travel through different aspects or options available throughout your website before they can find what they are looking for.
How easy is it for visitors to navigate your website? If the navigation isn’t hassle free, then it’s time for a redesign.

6. Your website is too slow

Remember you have hardly 2 seconds to leave an impression on the user. And if your website spends that much time or more in the loading process then you are in for some trouble.
Your visitors are going to exit before your website even loads. Outdated websites, often, run into the problem of being slow loaders which can further have an impact on your bounce rate as well.
A website redesign can help boost your load times, thus, making your site more engaging for visitors. If you can finish your chores when your website loads, you should know that it’s time for a redesign.

7. Your website has no call-to-actions

A call-to-action button is simply a piece of content intended to get the viewer to take an action. It’s an area on your webpage that stimulates action.
Examples could include ‘sign up now’ or ‘get started today’ or ‘call now’ or ‘request a free consultation’.
If your website has no call-to-action, it’s time for a redesign. It will take your website visitors from point A to point B. This basically helps your visitors navigate.

8. Your website doesn’t reflect your brand

Your brand is who you are. Your website should be aligned with your core values. It should be reflective of the experience a visitor would have if they interacted with you in person.
No matter how impressive your website looks, it will fall short if it doesn’t reflect your brand personality. A redesign provides you with this opportunity. It helps you communicate the value of your business.
Also, if anything else in your company is updated then it’s time to update your website too. Maintaining this brand consistency reflects your brands overall identity.

9. Your website is hard to understand

The entire purpose of having a website is to have a means to connect with your target audience. But if your website only makes sense to you and no one else then you have got a problem in your hands.
If the information on your website is outdated or the font types are inconsistent, and the font sizes are totally random or the images on the website are not corresponding with the message you want to portray then it’s high time that you redesign.
Only a professional redesigning of the website can get this thing right and prove fruitful in the future.

10. You can’t be found online

Over 90% of people searching for something online don’t even click to the second page of the search engine to find more options.
This means for visitors to find you online fast, it must be on the first page.
So how easy it is for the visitors to find you online?
SEO is extremely powerful when it comes to building your brand identity. You, obviously, won’t be able to build your SEO up enough to be on that first page in just a day. What really matters then?
It’s the keywords and the content. For this you need to redesign your website to help your website become more visible and aid you in finding more qualified leads.

11. Your competitor’s websites are amazing in comparison

There are a lot of people out there doing the same thing as you are. You are saying the same thing in the same way as tons of other businesses just like you.
How can you make yourself stand out? How can visitors find something unique in your website that separates you from the rest?
The answer is – effective web design.
If your competitors have websites that look and work better than yours, you’re going to be at a significant disadvantage.
Therefore, it is time for a redesign when you start feeling that your competitors have moved a step ahead in making their website more appealing and distinctive.

Your turn

You need to know that a new look and fresh content and design can make a difference in your organisation’s ability to attract new business.
So, if you’re experiencing a few of these problems, it’s time for a website redesign. Of course, it’s not going to be possible for you to personally do it.
The ideal solution is to rope in a professional web development agency like, Orange County Web Design, with experts in all arenas – designing, coding, and writing – to have a complete and thorough makeover.
Apparently, they offer website design with 360-degree branding.
How cool is that!

Is your business lacking luster? Need to energize it with new leads? An effective answer is to link your e-mail publishing platform to your landing page.
Landing pages are a medium to inform your visitors of the benefits and features associated with your product or service and most importantly make them take some sort of action like clicking on a button, providing you with an email, making a purchase, or simply clicking through to another page.
If you want to increase your targeted leads, then your landing page web design must speak for your business.
Landing pages contribute to conversion rate optimization and literally run your business when you’re not there. All professional Orange County Web Design Companies do it.
In this post I am going to give you a step-by-step process for creating an ideal landing page.
A landing page that speaks directly to the customers and guides them to a place leads to conversions.
So, let’s get started.
Starting With A Mock Up!
You always need to have a rough draft before your final submission. Similarly, you need to start with a prototype when you are building a landing page.
You cannot simply jump into the HTML and CSS process. You should use some graphic application, like Adobe Experience Design or SVG, to create a mock-up of the page you intend on building. This can have benefits like:
• It is quick and easy.
• It’s easier to make changes without adjusting codes.
• It gives a structure to your vision of what exactly your landing page will look like in the browser.
Hence, I always advocate starting with a mock-up when in the process of building a landing page.

Creating A Background For Your Landing Page

Choosing a background for a landing page involves a lot of subjectivity. There are no fixed rules that one needs to follow.
However, there are some principles that might help you in establishing a successful background for your page.
• Your background should never contain large graphic files like high quality JPG’s as it takes too long to load.
• Your background should have high contrast in relation to the foreground content.
• Your background should never contain distracting elements.

Headline and Sub-Headline For Landing Page

A headline is a prominent blimp of text that captures a users’ attention. It is the first thing that you want your users to see.
It is something that would leave an impression on the users’ mind and make him want to come back to your website again and again.
Next in the visual hierarchy is the sub-headline. It mainly provides additional details about your service or product.
You want to pay attention to both these things when building a landing page. They can easily make or break your business.

Call To Action

The elixir of a great landing page is the call to action button. The button should be prominent and at the same time compelling.
It should make your visitors want to perform some action. It should be representative of exactly what your target user will receive and the experience they can expect.
You want to draw your visitors’ attention to it. This call to action button needs to stand out from the rest of your content.
It should, most preferably, use a colour that’s high contrast from the background and possibly unique to the rest of your colour theme.
The ‘content’ of the CTA button is also very important. “click me” is so cliché’. You may want to be more specific and try some options like:
• Let’s Talk
• Get my quote
• Get my proposal
• Schedule my consultation etc.

Supporting Right Media For Landing Page

Your landing page should contain illustration to make it stand out or be more attractive.
Any type of media like, a photograph or some video, can do the job.
“a picture is worth a thousand words.”
It is a visual world and people respond to visuals. Visuals make information clearer to the reader more than text alone.
Use visuals that are relevant and compelling to your target audience.
Visuals have taken over the social media network. Internet is full of social media tools as a proof of this.
Facebook and Twitter have established authority, more than ever before, due to their high volume of images and videos.
Using visuals as a design element in your landing pages can truly transform your digital business.

Give Away Useful Material

Give away valuable, practical and content-rich information for free. Yes, I am serious.
Giving free gifts to your audience is an effective marketing strategy and a great way of upping your conversion rate.
It’s a way of building trust and credibility with customers. Free gifts always compel people to act.
I am sure most of you are familiar with the term ‘lead magnet’.
It is helpful content that you give away for free, in exchange for the user’s email address, thereby moving that user into your conversion funnel.
It can be a simple report, eBook, blog post, email course, software, plugin or even your time.
If you give them a free consultation, you’re building relationships that will come into play when talking about conversion rate optimization.
Remember, that in the long run, giving away free valuable information is much more profitable because it encourages those CTA button clicks, improves your conversion rates, and boosts your marketing campaign.

Conclusion

The digital marketing space is changing. New tools are being developed. You need to invest adequate time to learn how these new tools work and keep abreast of landing page trends – they would guide you when making decisions.
You need to invest a great amount of time, effort, skill and resources if you want your landing page to consistently yield good results.
Maybe, at some point you may need more landing pages, but it is advisable to focus your attention on one task and with the right design it can also yield impressive results.
Some other elements that you could include in your landing page could be:
• Target the right keywords.
• Showing logos of those who have covered the business.
• Testimonials.
• How can visitors trust you?
• Why is it advised to not chronically change things in your landing page?
Follow these steps and watch your conversion rate rise.
“Landing pages are within your easy reach. You’ll be amazed how your business got by without them!”

User experience is paramount to any user today and must be considered when building and designing a new website.
People are now filled with so many options as to how to utilize their time – and the digital landscape can provide so many different avenues for users to explore. Therefore, web and app design, as well as user experience, needs to make the customer feel powerful and most good Orange County Web Design Companies do that .
It has the customers’ best interest in mind, and is not deceptive in nature. These experiences are either created after studying various design practices, learning more about the user or, it can be used to manipulate the user and trick them into making decisions that aren’t necessarily good for them but eventually benefit the company.
The former approach can make a product stand out and provide good results for the businesses. However, it is the latter that is ultimately going to lead to huge business growth. It is called creating ‘Dark Patterns’.

“A dark pattern is an element of a manipulative interface designed to trick the user into taking actions that they might not have done freely.”

UI design gets dark sometimes. Particularly when companies exploit their user interface to trick users into doing something they wouldn’t consciously do, usually for profit, Dark patterns are used in some web pages, popups and programs that include malware, freeware, shareware, freemium offerings and even fully paid software.

Companies are often looking for short-term results, and increases in numbers rather than qualitative stats like, maybe, user happiness. And dark patterns work.
They successfully trick people, so companies keep using them.
“When you use the web, you don’t read every word on every page — you skim read and make assumptions. If a company wants to trick you into doing something, they can take advantage of it by making a page look like it is saying one thing when in fact it is saying another. You can defend yourself against dark patterns on this site.”
HARRY BRIGNULL
Some of the common dark patterns to watch out for are Bait and Switch, disguised ads , forced continuity, friend spam, hidden costs, misdirection, roach motel, sneak into basket, making it difficult to cancel a subscription, and tricking users to share information they did not intend to etc. the 12 main types of dark patterns are attached in an image below.

Tech companies use so-called dark patterns to do everything – from making it difficult for you to close your account to tricking you into clicking online ads.
A typical example of this is the inclusion of additional programs along with a program a user is installing. During the installation, these programs may be presented to the user as options in a more- or-less visible check box.
Typically the additional programs are pre-selected for download.
To make it even more likely that the user won’t successfully prevent the download of these programs, the developers make the forms complicated for the users to fill completely and have them set to reselect “optional” programs in the event of an error.
Or the user selects between typical and advanced installations and the “typical” option includes unspecified third-party programs.
Should the user continue through installation by simply clicking “next” in the series of windows, they end up with unwanted programs.

” When Dark Patterns are employed, agency is taken away from users by nudging them toward making certain choices. In our Opinion, this means that the idea of giving consumers better control of their personal data is circumvented”

Dark patterns are used almost as often by established companies as shady enterprises.
In a report called ‘Deceived By Design’, the Norwegian Consumer Council has accused Facebook and Google of manipulating its users with dark patterns.
For example, Facebook is criticized for wording the strongly nudged users in a certain direction.
If they selected ‘Manage Data Settings’ rather than simply leaving facial recognition on, users looking to opt-out of a facial recognition feature are met with a prompt warning telling them that they “won’t be able to use this technology if a stranger uses your photo to impersonate you.”
In this instance, Facebook has carefully formulated its wording to provide a negative result to your data privacy choice instead of giving their users even a neutral proposition.
Also, Facebook is pushing users into sharing their bio to the News Feed. It’s doing this by implying that by clicking ‘Cancel’, you are cancelling changes made to your bio.
In reality, ‘Cancel’ means ‘No’. Again, it’s the type of practice that can trick even the most privacy-conscious.
Facebook and Google are also accused of providing nothing more than the “illusion of control” through various methods such as hiding away privacy-friendly choices, take-it-or-leave-it choices, and choice architectures where choosing the privacy friendly option requires more effort for the users.
“It is a practice of misleading consumers into making certain choices, which may put their privacy at risk.”
Similarly, Amazon’s website makes closing an account almost impossible and the company continues to send promotional emails after users have unsubscribed.
While Amazon targets the pockets of vulnerable consumers, Facebook is more interested in the user sharing as much information about them as possible—even if they are not intending to do so.
Google responded to the above mentioned accusation and released the following statement:
“We build privacy and security into our products from the very earliest stages.
Over the last 18 months, in preparation for the implementation of the EU’s new data protection regulation, we have taken steps to update our products, policies and processes to provide all our users with meaningful data transparency and straightforward controls across all our services.
We’re constantly evolving these controls based on user experience tests – in the last month alone, we’ve made further improvements to our Ad Settings and Google Account information and controls.”
Conclusion
For the most vulnerable, such as elderly, those less proficient with the language used, or users with a disability, these types of practices can make things near impossible to use or understand.
They may not be able to find that hidden unsubscribe link. They may not notice that something has been added to their basket during checkout. And they may get disillusioned with privacy settings, disguised ads and friend spam which may provide a great deal of confusion and distress.
Even as a designer who is aware of these tricks, it’s still incredibly easy to fall victim to them. These practices create distrust between the company and the consumer.
The internet is a place where you have to always remain on your toes. The bigger the companies, the bigger the scams, Designers and teams need to be aware of their responsibility to ensure that the vulnerable, who are hit the hardest, are safeguarded against all these issues.
Honestly, if a business’s UI creates a shady, suspicious experience that leaves the user feeling defrauded or patronized, that business will lose out in the long term.
It’s always better to win over customers through delightful UX design and not through dark patterns.