Web Design Trends For 2018 and Beyond!

Website design trends are a little like fashion design trend in that there are fresh new styles that surface each year. The popularity of color schemes come and go, as do fonts, and other visual elements. They have seasons of fashionableness. For example, I know a few of you remember the early days when twirling globes, hit counters, and splash pages dominated our online view.

However, website development does not change with the season. Instead, it more often changes with technological innovation. As technology advances (think mobile devices, touch screens, and 4G), web development systematically follows with creative implementation. Often, this movement to mainstream is initiated by avant-garde designers and programmers who advantage of the new capabilities.

These adaptations to technology proliferate through the web-building community. For instance, the innovations morph from trend-setting anomalies to staple features we expect. In fact, many become essential ingredients to good website production. For example, consider the little stacked navigation icon on mobile devices affectionately known as the “hamburger.” The hamburger navigation is beginning to make its way to the desktop view. Some don’t care of it. Others feel it opens up white space and enhances the real estate of the page.

How does this evolution take place? Developers construct techniques that make implementation of the elements easier. At first, features that offer extended functionality may be only available from highly skilled custom developers. And then, those features gain popularity. Developers craft ways to efficiently incorporate them into sites so that they can be used by a broader base.

Most noteworthy, over the past several years, Jemully has put together a list of trends in web design and development for the coming year. This year, we will look at the previous four years of progress. And, in conclusion, see what remains on-target for 2018.

Fresh Looks Carry Into 2018

  • Geometry
  • Bright colors
  • Graphic illustrations

 

  • Photography – Use as many authentic images images as possible in place of stock photos.
  • Animation – Make your website move with purpose, such as highlighting what’s important, telling your brand’s story, or drawing attention to a key feature of your site. This includes:
    • Video background
    • Scroll Triggered Animations
    • SVG format – Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs) – SVGs are vector images, not pixels, which gives them many advantages. They are incredibly scalable (while maintaining their quality), meaning they won’t affect page speed when animated because they don’t’ require any HTTP requests. SVGs are essential to providing quality multimedia experiences for users in 2018 [examples?]
  • Increased use of whitespace – Read this post from Team Tree House about how using whitespace effectively can impact your site. 
  • Bolder Typography – Read this post from Hongkiat about how bold fonts make for bold websites.
  • Sticky menus – “Sticky menus” stick, fixed right beneath your browser search bar, so readers do not have to scroll all the way to the top of a long webpage.
  • Hidden/Hamburger navigation – This style hides the navigation  behind a button, which allows site visitor to focus on the call to action with fewer distractions.
  • Custom icons & graphics give your site a unique visual style that may make it a more appealing destination for readers.

Recent Website Trends

Finally, let’s take a look back at our past few years of trend reporting and predictions. How did we fare? By our count, most of these trends remain best practices today, though a few a subject to taste (looking at you, “retro fonts”).

Click the headings for each year below to read the full article.

2017 Trends

  • Wix / Squarespace / WordPress
  • Responsiveness
  • Non-stock imagery
  • Video – backgrounds, dividers, short explainers
  • Storytelling

2016 Trends

  • Retro fonts
  • Storytelling
  • Mobile responsive
  • Divide between Custom and DIY
  • Card layout
  • Flat Design (long-scrolling homepages)

2015 Trends

  • Storytelling
  • Shortcode
  • Animation
  • Flat Design
  • Minimalism
  • Responsive sites replacing mobile sites

For more ways to dominate in 2018, don’t forget these other recent posts:

6 Marketing Lessons From Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte (Updated)

The Top 15 Trends That Drove Marketing In 2018

Maximizing Your Team

Top 5 Marketing Trends That Will Continue In 2018

 

My Friend Built My Website (The Real Cost Of A Free Website)

friend built my website real cost of free

We all know somebody, a friend or a relative, who offers to build our company website on the cheap. Should you take them up on their offer? What is the real cost of a free website?

We recently had a new client in our office for a consultation. I mention him because this scenario happens more often than you might think. He had a website that was built for his business that was built by a graphic designer. When you open the page, it looked really nice. Good colors. Good layout. Clean and uncluttered. The site’s top navigation had 9 pages typical for many business sites: Home, Projects, Services, About Us, Our Advantages, Our Team, Our Clients, Our Blog, and Contact.

You might be wondering why a website created by a graphic designer and with the mix of content mentioned above might need to come to our agency for help. Let me explain what he had been using for his company website for over a year.

97 words, 575 characters, 11-12th grade reading level

  • Home — There were only 97 combined words on all 9 pages. Of the words that were there, the Home page featured a piece of equipment that the business does not carry — and never has.
    • The next section on the Home page introduces the site visitor to “many different kinds of solutions…” But, there is not a single solution mentioned.
    • The next section on the Home page says that the team, “brings
      our clients the most amazing projects.” But this company does not deal in projects. It deals in equipment.
    • The next section tells how many projects the team has completed.
    • The following section displayed four social media icons, but the business didn’t have accounts on three of them. The one social media account they do have is not connected to the icon on the site.
  • Services — The link to the Services page was dead.
  • All of the following pages were dead links: Our Advantages, Our Team, Our Clients, Our Blog.

As is often the case, the site was built and handed off to the business owner. He and his team thought they would learn how to make the changes, learn the skills to write the content themselves, and be able to get the professional pictures they needed to represent their business. A year later they were still using their unfinished website and hoping that it would not distract prospects or undermine the company’s trustworthiness, reliability, and confidence.

I wondered, how much did that website cost that company in lost reputation and lost business?

♦♦♦

If you choose to go with a free website, be sure to understand the important elements that must be completed. Be sure that all the links work, that all the words and messages are accurate, the pictures are well-lit, sharp, and not pixelated, and that the site itself looks professional — like your business. You’ll want to make sure the elements of search engine optimization (SEO) are in place so Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engines can deliver potential customers to your new site.

What if all those factors are not 100% ship-shape? Below is a scenario that reflects a conservative estimate of the hidden costs of a website that is incomplete and/or not visible on Google:

  • Average service call is $200
  • One service call per week for your new website (52 x $200) comes out to $10,400 per year
  • Your “free” website lives for 3 years, a conservative estimate (3 x $10,400), comes out to $31,200
Maintaining your “free” website might cost you $31,200 in lost revenue during those 3 years. And, that $31K is not taking into consideration the amount of money lost from possible referrals that could have resulted from those service calls that were not made over the 3 year period.

Don’t Forget The “Google Factor” In Your Website Budget

the google factor jemully media

When an inquiry is made as to how much a website and online marketing will cost, a business owner should understand what we call the “Google factor.” Those who don’t understand the role Google plays in their marketing efforts are at risk of losing money from poor sales.

Google looks at the content of the website from a consumer’s perspective. When a consumer types a word or phrase into Google’s search bar, Google’s goal is to provide a list of webpages that will most likely answer the consumer’s exact question.

How do you get your website to be on that results list Google serves up to answer searcher inquiries? The process begins with your website design. Then the process continues with your website’s copy, and your full suite of marketing efforts.

1 – Design (Mobile) – Your website needs to be mobile compliant.

2 – Design (Secure) – Your website needs to have a secure certificate. Google prefers the site to be “https” instead of “http.”

3 – Keywords – The words on your website should be written to incorporate your most important keywords and phrases. As the business owner, it is wise to come up with a list of the words and phrases that people use to search for your products and services. These words should be woven in to the page titles, headlines, and body copy of the site, as well as meta tags and descriptions. Using Google Analytics on your site is a good way to supplement your brainstorming.

4 – Dynamic Content – Google is less fond of static sites and favors websites that have dynamic (regular, fresh, changing) content. Google watches your site to see if fresh content is added that could answer consumers’ questions.

5 – Social – Google watches social media to see if people are talking about your website content and sharing information obtained from your site. Google even monitors how many links are on the web that drive people back to your site.

It is our job to help you understand how the Google factor can impact your business and drive traffic, or slow down traffic to your website.

As part of our process of working with clients, we educate business owners about which additional features they may need to consider for their sites. We believe it is important to understand how Google will view their website and their content because Google’s opinion of their website will determine how frequently their site is displayed as a result of a search query.

Your website needs to satisfy Google so you ultimately satisfy the needs of your potential customers.

Give us a shout and we can chat about how to make your site more Google-friendly.

How Much Does a Website Cost? Factors and Features

Jemully Media - how much does a website cost
You’ve got a business and you know you need to update your site. The site your company has now has old information and you admit that it looks old school. It is probably not mobile compliant – so you are missing customers who are looking for you on their mobile devices. The next logical step is to ask the question: how much does a new website cost? Are they ways to get all the features you want and still watch the budget?

How much will a new website cost?

Continue reading

What Does It Really Take To Get Your Website Online? (Infographic)

Website related definitions.

We really need to get a new website.

You’ve known it for a while and you’ve finally said it out loud. “We need to get a new website.” By now you’ve looked around online and found that shopping for a website is not as easy as shopping on amazon.com. The reason for that is likely that there is tech terminology to translate and a whole gaggle of goodies and gadgets to choose from. It is difficult to determine what you truly need to get that site up and running. The following list of definitions will help you understand what some of the web development jargon means. Each of these elements plays a different part in actually getting your website on the Internet, and out there where potential customers can find it.

Website Related Definitions

Domain 

The unique name of your company’s website. The domain name is the web address you buy. It is the web address that visitors will type into the address bar to get to your website. Example: houseplants.com

Hosting

Web hosting is renting space on a computer (called a server) that makes your website accessible on the Internet.

Mobile Design

A style of web development that is more optimal than automated mobile responsiveness. Mobile design requires coding for certain design elements on the website so they will be displayed properly on a mobile device, which will have a smaller screen that your typical desktop or laptop.

Mobile Responsive

Web development that automatically changes to fit the device you’re reading it on. Typically, there have been four general screen sizes: the widescreen desktop monitor, the laptop, the tablet, and the phone.

Secure Certificate

A secure certificate on a website changes the “http” to “https.” This certificate is called an “SSL” (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. It is a digital certificate that authenticates the identity of a website and encrypts (scrambles) information from the web server to a visitor’s browser.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

The process of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

Website Content Writing

The words and messages written for static pages of a website using key words and phrases to attract a specific target audience to perform a specific marketing goal.

Website Design

Web design is about creating how the website will look. Web design includes the determining the site’s layout, color scheme, typography, graphic elements, and imagery.

Website Development

Is taking the web design and bringing it to life, giving the website functionality through HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP and other programming.

Website Maintenance

  • Security Updates — Security updates and monitoring your website will help to patch possibles openings where hackers could gain access. These updates happen in the background while your site is live. An occasional update will affect other areas of the site. A maintenance package with a professional will keep all the elements of your website safe, up-to-date, and functioning.
  • Backups — A website maintenance package includes regular backups of your site. These backups range in frequency from daily to weekly to monthly. It is best if your backups are kept in multiple locations. If your site gets hit by hackers, or even wiped out entirely, a good site backup keep you from having to start over from scratch and gets you back up and running in hours instead of months.

What do you really need to get your website online?

Let’s sift through the list above. Use the following chart as your guide to knowing what you’ve gotta have and what can be considered luxury.

Using the list of definitions above (plus a few optional items that are not defined above), we have divided the technical and marketing items you’ll need for your company website into three categories.

Website Must-Haves

First, there are the things you absolutely, positively, without a doubt have to have to get your website up and running. Those things are outlined in the “Must-Haves” column. You may be able to do many of these yourself, or you may have to hire someone to do them for you. Either way, you must have these items in some form.

Website Really-Needs

Then, there are some things that you really better have if you want your new website to be visited by actual people. These are listed in the center column labeled as “Really-Needs.” They ought to be labeled the “Shoulds” because you should have the things you “really need,” but still, you can build a website without them (it’s just not recommended).

Let me explain and clear the fog of that last statement. With a website, it is not true that “if you build it, they will come.”  Unfortunately, websites don’t work that way. If you build a website, it doesn’t mean that you will have traffic and customers to your site. So, pay attention to the middle column. This is where you incorporate some of the key things that will help people find your website.

Website Nice Features

Finally, we added a column and listed some optional website features that are not in the definitions list above. You will want to consider adding some of these features because they add informative pages and elements to your website so your customers can understand all the great things you have to offer them and how you can solve their problems. So, give some consideration to the items in this category, and whether they might help you to better represent your company online.

If we can help you sort through the details, give us a shout. Every day we help businesses look at this list and make the right decisions for their companies’ websites. (Click on the image below to enlarge it.)

Website Must Haves, Really-Needs, and Nice Features: An Infographic

website must-haves how to get your website online