Many factors contribute to a website’s success, but why is good web design important? A well-designed website will not only attract a larger audience but will also rank higher on search engine results pages.

This article will discuss why a good web design is vital to your site’s success and provide tips on how you can improve your site’s design.

Good Website Design will achieve the following

  1. Attract Attention

One of the easiest ways to notice a website in a competitive market is by designing it well. It does not mean having glowing animations or loud music playing.

The most successful websites have designs that are clean and simple. They keep the users focused on the website and its content.

  1. Search Engine Optimization

A clean design is one of the essential features of search engine optimization. A search engine will have an easier time crawling an organized website design.

The code should get written to tell the search engine spiders what is vital on the page without adding extra weight. It means limiting the use of graphics and other items that might not be relevant to the site’s content.

  1. Page Speed

Typical website design incorporates graphics and images that consume a lot of bandwidth. This consumption can cause slow page loading times and lower the site’s chances of ranking in search engine results pages.

A clean, organized website will be faster to load, resulting in a superior user experience and increased traffic.

Besides, a website with cutting-edge design and impressive graphics always gives the impression of a larger, more professional organization.

  1. Attention to Detail

Many web designs use three-dimensional shadows, gradients, and multiple images on each page.

Although these fancy effects are visually attractive, they are irrelevant to the site’s content. They can also distract the user from the information being sent in the text.

In most cases, these effects don’t affect a site’s search engine ranking and can even slow down the website’s webpage speed for no reason.

Additionally, getting five different images for each element of a website, such as a header, navigation menu, and content area, can be expensive and time-consuming.

  1. Usability

Since most websites rely primarily on text, it is crucial to ensure users can easily read the site’s content. It means keeping fonts clear, bold, or italicized to make them stand out against the background.

  1. A Robust Content Management System

Many websites allow users to submit content, but it is challenging to manage that content comprehensively. Implementing a robust content management system (CMS) is the best way to make the site’s content easily accessible to the webmaster and applicable for future updates.

Moreover, a website with a responsive design can be easily managed using the CMS. Since it is built using HTML and CSS, it will be easier to update settings and content through simple text files.

A website without a CMS will require the webmaster to store each piece of content separately in different files.

  1. User Engagement

An attractive and easy-to-use website is much more likely to drive user engagement.

User engagement is essential for a high search engine ranking since you want users to stay on your site as long as possible.

Good web design also makes it easier for users to find what they are looking for, hopefully increasing the number of repeat visitors and their level of spending, too.

In addition, user interface design also creates a lasting impression on users. If the site uses a responsive and attractive UI, it will be easier to retain and keep users coming back.

  1. Compatible with Most Devices

A great web design should be compatible with all devices, from the latest smartphones to older computers.

A Responsive mobile design will display the same content on all devices without losing quality or functionality for users. This design will ensure that users will have a great experience regardless of what device they use to access the site.

In addition to that, since a responsive design is coded using the latest HTML and CSS, it will not be affected by older devices.

The key here is to use the right balance of images, text, and other relevant content for every kind of device.

  1. Branding Opportunity

Due to a large number of online websites, it has become essential for most companies to have a website that is specifically designed to represent their brand.

Many sites include elements of their brand’s logo or colors in the design.

The site’s content is also essential to a web designer because they will incorporate content that will help promote the site’s images, especially on other social media sites.

  1. Consistency

A good design will incorporate the site’s logo, colors, and other important elements in a way that is consistent throughout the whole website.

This design will also create a unique look and feel that visitors can recognize at first glance. It also improves the user’s experience because it helps the visitor learn how to navigate the site and look for a specific type of information or product.

To sum it up, having a well-designed website can be essential to driving and keeping traffic to your site. Contact us today to get started on your web design project.

Mobile applications (Apps) have been a necessity amongst large business for the past few years. However, this has changed for the better, and now smaller companies are getting a chance to have their own mobile apps. Not only can these apps help promote the company, but help them profit as well. Below, are 10 reasons you should consider making an app for your business.

Helps You Market Directly
Obviously enough, mobile applications offer customers a variety of information on the business. Creating an app can offer your customers information about your locations, products, services, and staff. This can come in the form of product specifications, news feeds, prices, promotions, etc. With an app, you can help your company market more directly to your target audience, which could put you over your competitors.

Offers More Value to Your Customers
If you have a loyalty program or any customer reward-based program, you should consider making it openly available to use on a mobile app. In fact, transitioning a physical rewards card to a digital one in an app can improve the odds of your customers actually using it.
It’s no surprise that people are growing increasingly tied to their smartphones, so why not offer your customers rewards program or market products straight from the source? Plus, customers are far more interested invaluable services or products that they can view directly from their phones. After all, brick-and-mortar have been doing this tactic for years successfully. So, why can’t you? An app notification can be all your customers need to rush down to your store.

Smartphones are Used More Often Than PCs
In the United States alone, nearly every person spends two hours on their smartphone at the very least. Keeping in mind that there are billions of smartphones in the world, the odds are looking in your favor for mobile app development for your business. Plus, people actually end up spending more time on their phone than their PCs, so if you shift your marketing tactics to target smartphone users, it will pay off.
However, on your app, make sure that your logo, image, and name are all openly visible at all times. Since the average person can unlock their phones and start scrolling through news feeds in a matter of seconds, it’s important that your brand can be recognized easily. Besides that, you should also make your app easy to use, since the average smartphone user ranges from 10 to 70 years old.

Boosts Customer Engagement
It’s important to have a good point of contact for your business so a client can purchase a product or service they’re interested in investing in. If your company cannot easily be reached, you’re at risk of losing valuable customers. An app is the easiest way of forming a point of contact that can run 24/7. You can include a help area in your app where clients can post questions, complaints, comments, and place orders. Plus, if you respond quickly to requests, comments, and questions, your customer engagement will see a drastic boost.

Increase Brand Recognition
No matter if you’re looking to re-brand or improve your current brand, a mobile app is the single-handed best way to increase your company’s brand recognition. When you create a smartphone app for your business, you can attract audiences by integrating easy-to-use, likable features. However, you should always be looking for new ways for your clients to get involved on a regular basis. Generally speaking, the more your customers interact with your app, the more you can sell your product or service.
An advertising rule of thumb called effective frequency states that if your customers don’t see your brand more than 20 times, your company will be unnoticed. Keeping this in mind, make sure that you properly brand your app so your customers know exactly what company they’re buying from in order to effectively increase your brand recognition.

Surge Customer Loyalty
Ideally, you want to have return customers who purchase your products or services again and again. But, how often is that happening right now? By creating an app, you can seriously boost your customer loyalty. This is because it actively reminds your customers who you are and what you do. This is a subtle form of advertising that reaches your clients every time they look at their phone. People are inundated with advertising every day so it is hard to create a real relationship with your customers. With an app, your business is right at their fingertips at all times. This allows you to form a close connection with your customers in a genuine way.

Enhance Your Site
A lot of companies question whether or not they need an app because they have a functional mobile website. You should not think of the app as a copy of your site but rather a tool to enhance it. Websites are designed to attract new business, mobile applications are designed to increase customer loyalty. Your website is a great place to provide information to your clients and post new content. However, your app offers different advantages. It can handle a sufficient two-way communication and customer support. Plus, as mentioned above, it is always at the fingertips of your customers.

Give You a Competitive Edge
If you truly want to stand out from your competitors, your website is very important to your success.  However, you need a mobile app. Since this marketing tool is still relatively new, you can set your business apart by jumping on the trend before it blows up. By the time your competitors realize how important having an app is, you will have already established yourself. It does not matter what industry you work in, having an app will give you more credibility over your peers.

By building an app for your company, you can improve everything from your marketing, communication, customer loyalty, and customer happiness. An app puts your business, products, and services right at the push of a button for all of your customers. Plus, they are fast and easy to use. Why contact BrixTec Web Solutions or request a free quote about an app for your business or new idea?

Business owners seeking to get their business online or give their existing website a dynamic makeover, should have WordPress at the top of their to-do list. A WordPress Business Website is the ideal blend of intuitive content management and beautiful presentation. It’s no accident that WordPress is used by millions of businesses and entrepreneurs world-wide. Originally created to be a professional-looking, well-structured publishing system, it’s evolved since 2003 into a powerful, scalable, content management system (CMS) that can handle everything from a simple wedding photo site to enormous corporate ecommerce sites that can manage thousands of transactions per hour.

10 Advantages of Having a WordPress Business Website

It’s easy to use

BrixTec Web Solutions Project - a WordPress Business Website - Babevidaa WordPress business website is easy to navigate no matter the experience level of the user. Blog posts, pages, products, images, and more can all be added and edited quickly. With its intuitive user interface, all the website’s content can be made to look very professional without having knowledge of HTML or CSS.

A WordPress Bushiness website can be managed from anywhere

Since WordPress is browser-based, it can be accessed from any computer or device that has an internet connection anywhere in the world. For small businesses with team members who have several jobs, such convenience is a real bonus. The site can be easily managed while traveling, between meetings, or even on vacation.

No additional software is required to use WordPress

BrixTec Web Solutions Project - a WordPress Business Website - Bay Area AdvisorsBecause a WordPress business website is an all-in-one solution, users won’t need HTML editing software (like Adobe Dreamweaver) or FTP clients (like SmartFTP) that are often necessities for traditional website management. Users can create and edit blog posts and pages, formatting the text like a professional, using the on-board WordPress editor. One can easily upload images (and edit them), video and music files, documents, image galleries, and more because WordPress also has its own file managing system. Considering the cost of software purchases or subscriptions, a business using WordPress saves money with this convenient feature.

Website design has never been so easy

The appearance of a WordPress business website is completely customizable. WordPress offers literally thousands of themes, many of them free. If the user desires something truly unique, child themes can easily be created and installed to give them the exact site they envision. If the business wants to change the look of the entire site for a special promotion or for seasonal products and services, they can do so in minutes.

WordPress offers thousands of plugins to extend website functionality

BrixTec Web Solutions Project - a WordPress Business Website - Shimberg HomesWordPress provides its users with the ability to add practically any functionality they wish to their site without knowledge of programming. Thousands of plugins are offered free on WordPress.org and thousands more are sold at minimal cost from many reputable contributors and coders from around the world. Everything from simple social media and newsletter functions to converting a site into a powerful ecommerce store can be accomplished with WordPress plugins. Not only do businesses have the advantage of handling some web development tasks themselves, they save money. With a WordPress business website, there are plenty of functions that can be handled by a one-time plugin purchase as opposed to paying a monthly subscription to a third party for the same service.

It has the best blog on-board and ready to use

WordPress is, at heart, a blogging platform and its capabilities are built-in for easy use. Users can add RSS feeds, email subscriptions, social media sharing, and more. The blog offers users an easy way to include an archive of past posts, meta tags, latest posts and comments, along with the ability to comment if desired. In addition to being an asset to search engine optimization (SEO) if used correctly, a blog provides businesses with an easy way to keep their website fresh with a continual stream of content that has real value for its consumers.

WordPress is suitable for websites of all sizes

BrixTec Web Solutions Project - a WordPress Business Website - Cause To FundWordPress is not only powerful and feature-rich, but it’s completely scalable. In its most basic form, WordPress is the perfect venue for a recipe blog or an informational site for an art exhibit. However, WordPress can also be expanded to meet the needs of huge businesses and corporations. The ability to provide a website that can grow along with the business it serves is not only convenient but can save money for businesses that outgrow their sites and end up having to start over.

WordPress and search engines play nicely together

The code used for WordPress is simple and clean, making it incredibly easy for search engines to scan and index the site’s content. Since WordPress business websites are often updated frequently and are structured so well, their sites achieve rankings in the leading search engines, like Google, before traditional web sites do. Every page, post, and image can have meta tags, titles, descriptions, and can be optimized for specific keywords, a great benefit for those wanting to use SEO marketing strategies.

WordPress comes with its own community of experts

WordPress is supported by a talented community of designers, developers, and enthusiasts who are ready to help new users when needed. There are also countless how-to guides, tutorials, forums, and other information available on the internet to help users on most any WordPress issue. For a more personable and live experience, call BrixTec Web Solutions at 813.421.9352

WordPress offers users control over their site

Users have control over nearly every aspect of their websites and can easily make simple updates, even handle some aspects of website design and website development themselves.

For those interested in a WordPress business website site for their new business or their existing website, the team of experts at BrixTec Solutions can help. With over 14 years of experience in website development, we help clients design and develop the WordPress site their business needs to meet and exceed customer expectations and stand above the competition. We would be happy to answer any questions and offer solutions to any problems along the way. Businesses ready attain the power and convenience of WordPress can Request a FREE QUOTE, or contact BrixTec Solutions today!

We are proud to announce the launch of our new website.  We have updated our design and content to provide more information on the services we provide and to allow a more intuitive navigation of our website. While we still provide the high quality services you’ve come to expect from BrixTec Web Solutions in the areas of Web Design, Mobile applications development and ecommerce solutions, we feel the the new website conveys that message in a cleaner, more concise, and easier to read way.

Apart form the website’s redesign, you would notice that BrixTec Web Solutions is now sporting a new logo which we feel more accurately represents our company and the services we provide.

Please do take some time to explore how we can help you in the areas of ERP Customization Solutions.  While we have been providing this service since 2007, it was not adequately represented on our website before.  We look forward to helping you with your next ERP customization project.

We hope you enjoy the new website as much as we enjoyed creating it.  Please check back often as we will constantly refine the content and services details as well as post informative and interesting articles that is important you.

As always, should you have a question, or simply wish to learn more about how we can help you, please contact us.

Thank you

Rolland Lucas – Managing Partner

The decision to develop and launch a website should be as important as deciding what products or services you should offer. With so many development companies offering to create the very best website for your business, the decision can be daunting. Even more confusing are the many options available for the types of website you can create.  Whichever company or technology you finally go with, one decision you should make is to include a CMS as part of your website.

Not all web companies explain sufficiently the pros and cons of the various CMS technologies and platformsimgAnalysis available to their clients. Further, not all business owners even understand what a CMS is or why they should care.

Traditionally, websites were typically created manually as collections of static HTML pages.  These pages were uploaded, stored, and served to the public exactly as they were originally created unless manually updated or modified by the developer.  Any changes to the website would require a skilled web master or developer to make even the most minute text changes.  The solution to this type of website management is the CMS (Content Management Systems).

A Content Management System, more commonly referred to as CMS, is by definition is a computer, or web based system that allows the creation, editing, publishing, and general maintenance of your website or web application. This usually consists of a collection of processes and work flow procedures that are used in a systematic yet mainly intuitive way to get the desired end result for your web pages. In its most useful implementation, your website’s CMS should not require the involvement of a professional website developer or even someone with coding experience once it has been implemented and launched. If the user is familiar with Microsoft Word or any other standard word processor, they are more than qualified to maintain their own CMS powered website.

BWS - CMS Data StructuresIn addition to deciding on a CMS, website owners must also think about the two main options available for Content Management Systems.  These are open source vs. proprietary systems. Open source solutions are developed by the public developer community. These systems are typically free and available for use by anyone. Proprietary systems are developed by companies and are typically licensed for use.  A third option is the 100% custom developed CMS.  This is sometimes necessary because of specific requirements that neither existing open source nor proprietary CMS solutions can meet.

As far as websites are concerned, many open source options exist today that allow developers and designers to select the best one that will satisfy their client’s needs. Your development team should take security, scalability, and ease of implementation into consideration when making a decision.  The ability for developers other than the original creators of your website to continue development and improvement is also important.

The most popular open source Content Management Systems used today are:

ASP.NET Content Management systems

BWS - DotNetNuke-Logo DotNetNuke – The most popular and heavily supported .NET based CMS. This product has proven its worth and should be one of the first –if not first options when considering .NET based CMS options.
orchardlogo Orchard – Microsoft’s contribution to free open source software.  This is a rapidly growing option although many developers think it lacks some of the more common tools.
kentico-logo Kinetico – This CMS offers multiple licensing options. It focus is on content Management, E-Commerce, and social Networking making it an excellent option for websites that wishes to make full use of these options

 

PHP Content Management Systems

The PHP development community has the advantage of many more open source options. This is the platform that open source was born into, and a very active and passionate community ensures that it will be supported well into the future. The most trusted and popular of these are:

Joomla Joomla – This CMS can boast of being the most versatile and popular open source platform. With thousands of add-ons and ecommerce options, it the most popular choice for small and medium sized businesses. Companies like Ebay, Barnes & nobles, Ikea and many more trust this CMS for their flagship websites.
Wordpress WordPress – Although it begun as a primarily blog platform and remains the main blogging environment today, this CMS is fast becoming a top option for brochure websites, ecommerce, and interactive websites.
Drupal Drupal – Possibly the most powerful of the PHP open source platforms, Drupal is used to build anything from basic websites to very large and complex enterprise level applications.  As a tribute to how stable, secure and powerful this platform is, the whitehouse in 2009 redeveloped its website from the ground up with Drupal.

 

At BrixTec Web Solutions we start every project with detailed Business Analysis and requirements development.  An integral part of this planning includes the decision of which technology platform and CMS will be used to provide the very best outcome for that client and project. Whether open source, proprietary, or custom developed, we ensure that the solution is natural, flexible, and scalable.  We always encourage the more cost-effective route of starting with an established, proven CMS.  We consider our team to be experts in the development of outstanding DotNetNuke, Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress websites and web applications.

Contact Us, or call today for a  FREE QUOTE or a conversation on how we at BrixTec Web Solutions can help you create or update your company’s website with a proven Content Management System 813 421 9352.

We were very excited when we posted Joomla’s upgrade to 2.5 back in March 2012. Yet again, it is no secret that Joomla’s latest update to 3.0 back on September last year was huge for web developers and businesses needing a robust, stable, and competitive web presence.

Joomla! has shown a lot of change from the original1.0 to 1.5 to 2.5 and now 3.0. The new changes are revolutionary and the effects and benefits immediately experienced by admins and visitors alike. This is big news for Joomla users, and yet another reason for Joomla users to stick to this versatile open source CMS (content management system) platform.

This release is important for users that need access to the new features. However, most users may not want to update from their existing 2.5 versions websites to the latest 3.0, and users creating new sites can use either version 2.5 or 3.0 depending on their needs. Joomla will provide updates for 3.0.x versions until the next major update to 3.5 as with its latest 3.0.2 security update back in November of 2013.

So what does this latest installment of Joomla mean for businesses and Web Developers? End users will be interested in the following important changes and features:

MOBILE R3ADY — Joomla! takes a big leap into the mobile space with a total overhaul of both its frontend design and administrator interface. With the adoption of the Bootstrap framework, Joomla! has become the first major CMS to be mobile ready in both the visitors and administrator areas. Now every website can have mobile friendly content for visitors and mobile friendly tools for administrators.

 

US3R Friendly — Joomla administration has a brand new look and feel, built with the power of Bootstrap responsive framework, along with a touch of the awesome UI/UX work of the Joomla JUX team. Joomla comes ready to go and fully responsive for mobile devices, tablets, and normal computer screens. The entire backend of Joomla has a brand new look and feel that will improve your workflow with any type of device.

 

IMPROVED DEVELOPERS TOOLS — Spend less time coding and building interfaces with Joomla 3. The Joomla User Interface (JUI) library gives you a standardized backend & frontend interface.   This means that for businesses, developers can turn out website quicker, with more features, and meeting customer needs even easier with the improved tools and libraries.

EVEN MORE…

Other great improvements that are included with 3.0 are:

  • Extensive work on code style standardization and consistency
  • Incorporation of Twitter Bootstrap
  • A new responsive administrator template Isis and interface.
  • A new frontend template Protostar built using Bootstrap
  • PostgreSQL Driver. You will be able to run Joomla 3.0 sites using the PostgreSQL database.
  • Installation of language packages directly from the extension manager
  • Guest user group present by default
  • Saving blank articles allowed
  • New administrator statistics module
  • Update TinyMCE to version 3.5.6
  • Continued clean-up of older unused code, files and database fields and tables and improved standardization of tables.
  • Improvements to Smart Search
  • Unit testing in the CMS
  • Blank articles can be saved
  • Totally new administrator statistics module
  • Menu module consists a custom active menu item
  • Updated system tests in the CMS

Joomla! has created a whole new world with 3.0 by improving almost every aspect of this very powerful CMS. Changes, including brand new look and feel along with many features under the hood, makes this the CMS still favored by BrixTec Web Solutions.

Contact Us or call today for a  FREE QUOTE or a conversation on how we can help you create or update your company’s website

813 421 9352