Tuesday, 13 October 2015
Are Long-Scrolling Websites Good for Your Business?
I am guessing you are here because you have seen how great long-scrolling menu can turn out to be. You must have seen social media, news sites, blogs and other channels and you want to offer the same, seamless browsing experience to your customers. Good idea.
Long-scrolling interface is what I would call, a next-generation layout because it is the layout that not only caters to traditional desktop users, but also the ever-increasing base of mobile users.
Why a long-scrolling website?
As mobile users leave laptop and desktop users behind, the need for such a layout became more intense. But that is not it. Scrolling also offers other benefits. It offers access to more content with just a swipe; it saves the time of user and it encourages the user to spend more time on the site.
How to know if it’s right for you?
In a number of cases, you will this option to be the better one. However, there will be times when it will backfire. In short, it’s okay to this layout as long as:
- A big portion of your audience is of mobile users.
- Your site is based on the idea of social networking.
- You site offers content like news or feeds.
- Your site displays content in reverse chronological order.
- Your content doesn’t make excessive use of HD images and videos because that will make the wait exasperating.
- You update your content too frequently
So if the idea is to keep the visitor to stay like social media or news sites do, then it’s recommended to use this interface. But if not, then that’s not the end of the world. There are other great templates and layouts you can use. Try some from the ones already provided with your free website maker to get to know more templates.
Monday, 5 October 2015
Make Your Site Better Today With These Tips
Yes, free website builders have eased things up for amateur and inexperienced developers but an easy-to-adapt interface can only take them so far. There are too many ingredients that make up a good website, so just creating a lovely site is only a job half done.
Following are some tips with which you can improve the performance of your site and ensure maximum satisfaction from users’ end.
Things to do
Content is probably the most important element in any website because let’s face it – it is content that brings the layout to life. In recent years, use of crisp images, well-formatted textual content and management of the layout based on content’s length are some of the things to pay attention to.
Even when you are submersed in the content and the layout, do not lose vision of customer’s wants. Ensure the visitor finds the site easy to navigate, and if he wishes to place an order, it should not be a fuss to do so.
Things to Avoid
Visitors wish for smooth experience. Anything that keeps them from that experience is potentially a roadblock. Common errors from developer end include using a welcome-screen to hide the awful loading times; extremely long scrolling for relevant content and/or posts; bad formatting and overlapping of content, poor choice of images and backgrounds and last but certainly not least, the infamous hamburger menu.
As I have said before, the idea is to make the visit and the transaction as effortless as possible. With a competition so fierce, the margin of error becomes too thin. Regardless of whether this is your first website or not, and regardless of whether you are using Square Space, Wix or Glu7 to create your website, you should always take these elements into consideration.
Thursday, 1 October 2015
How to Create a Website With Drag-and-Drop Dashboard
The
entry of DIY website creators has eased the troubles of newbies and
inexperienced businesses – firms lacking the expertise and resources to hire
professional developers.
There
are quite a few website builders out there, but the catch is, either they
aren’t too user-friendly or effective, or they just charge too much for premium
services. With these filters, very few website creators manage to earn the
respect of users. Enter Glu7. This website creator goes head to head with big
names like Wix and takes drag-and-drop approach for website creation.
Here are
some steps that can help you master the basics of Glu7 dashboard.
Pick up a starting point
Newbies
should start with any of the available themes. This will give you a head start
if you have little knowhow about website layout and development.
Layout
After
picking up the theme, you can now see a sample site on your dashboard. Feel
free to play around with headers footers, body and the content. Select items
from menu bar at the top and drag them down to add them. You can also edit the
existing items on your page including styles, texts and images or remove them
by clicking on ‘remove’ buttons next to edit buttons.
Clicking
on the element allows you to edit that specific element via text, style and
detail editors. You can also embed Vimeo and YouTube videos through ‘mediabox
design’ tab in the menu bar.
Adding more pages
Surely
your site is going to need more pages than one. To create more pages, simply
click on ‘add page’ button on your dashboard. The name of the page can be
changed anytime by just clicking on the icon besides the page’s name at the
bottom-left corner.
General and other settings
You
can also change the name of the site, integrate the site with Google Analytics,
edit contact details and gain access to a lot of other general stuff just by
clicking on the settings button.
The
settings tab can be seen at the top-right corner of the dashboard. Clicking on
it will open up a window which allows you to name the domain, edit contact
details, and integrate Analytics along with tons of other stuff.
Publishing the site
After
the site looks like the one in your dreams, click on the save button at the
top-right corner to save your work. To publish it afterwards, just click on ‘publish
now’ button on the screen that follows.
This
is how easy it is to create your own site using Glu7. Please give your feedback
about Glu7’s dashboard and whether you found it friendly or not.
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