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background images

Best Practices for Using a Background Image for Website

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Your background image for your website is not just something that looks good. It actually affects the entire user experience. It has the potential to become a powerful storytelling tool that can reel your audience in and entice them to stick around. This is why a lot goes into deciding on which web background image to use — be it a simple solid block color, an actual image, or even a video. Here’s a guide on the best practices when choosing website backgrounds to help you make the right choice.

Choosing the Right Image

Cool website backgrounds are designed to set the tone for your website content. They can be used to emphasize the text content and reinforce your site’s message. With that said, choosing the right image is important. For starters, you must be mindful of recommended website background sizes. A good rule of thumb is to go for the largest possible file but keep within the maximum recommended website background size so as to not slow down the site.

Stay away from busy images

When choosing website page background images, it’s important to go for photos that are not too busy. This is particularly important when adding text content over the image. You want to select a beautiful visual but it shouldn’t take away from the message of the text. For instance, landscapes with sufficient headspace can make a great web background image.

Backgrounds

We also recommend going for more subdued colors or adjust the contrast on the web background image so it doesn’t overpower your text. 

Where to source images

While it’s highly recommended that you invest in professional photography to create website background images, not everyone has the budget for such a service. There are a lot of places on the internet where you can source for free web backgrounds. Patternico has an integrated image library that offers a collection of free web patterns that will suit most websites. Royalty-free image websites like Unsplash are also great sources for free backgrounds.

When in doubt, use abstract images

Abstract and gradient backgrounds are commonly used in modern website design as a way to make a minimalist layout look more punchy. When used against a lot of whitespace, it adds character to a website and makes it more engaging. The only thing about abstracts is that they only work with specific types of websites.  Gradienta has a collection of gradients to use with your website.

Gradient

Another option is to go for block colors against text instead of actual images. You will need to put a lot of work on creating attractive text content, however. But on the flip side, this means that you get more room to get your message across because the background doesn’t distract the user from what your text content is trying to say.

Use video backgrounds

Modern website design trends are now starting to embrace the use of video in place of image backgrounds. Videos are known to increase engagement because visitors are more drawn to them than still images. Use a video background introducing your brand or what your website is about. It can be the first thing that a user sees as soon as he lands on your site.

We are easily distracted by anything that moves – just like that dog that ignores everything in its world to chase that pesky little squirrel!

“Okay, you got me to look at your silly video, what does this have to do with my website design?”

What a great question and I’m glad you asked.

Video background on your website, if used properly, can help you capture your website visitors’ attention too!

Video background is one of the most popular website design trends that seems to be here to stay.

Marketers love video backgrounds because they make websites look modern and create a sense of artistry that static background images simply can’t match up to.

Many website conversion experts and regular people alike see their visitors stay on their websites longer and more likely to sign up or opt-in to their product/service offers.

Website Checklist

10 Things to do Before Starting your Website

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Building a website for the first time? We’ve pulled together this beginner’s 101 telling you what’s needed.

Getting to grips with something completely new takes time, patience, good-old-fashioned practice… oh, and plenty of planning.

1. Establish the aim of your website

Is the aim of your site to inform people that your business exists and encourage them to get in touch? Is it to sell your products online? Or how about to showcase your creative work? Having a clear focus will help you as well as your visitors.

2. Research, research, and research some more

Have a look at other websites in your field. Identify those you like the style of and take notes – what is it about their layout and design that works?

3. Know your target market

Make sure you clarify this early on as it will affect your theme, design, content, usability, networking efforts and search engine optimization (we’ll come to this later). In short, everything revolves around your target market.

4. Choose your domain name wisely

Pick something that’s short, easy to remember, and reflects the nature of your site. It’s not easy to change it at a later date, so now’s the time to get it right. Of course, if your site is for your business, then it kinda makes sense for your domain name to incorporate it.

5. Decide on design and layout

Having done your research, you’ll hopefully already have an inkling of the design style you want to go for. Try creating a mood board with screen grabs from sites you like. For layout try sketching out a few drawings to see how your ideas come together on a page.

6. Plan and create your pages and content

What is it that you want to tell visitors? What’s going to get them excited about your work and keep them on your site? How many pages do you need to create to do this effectively? Don’t rush in with long, rambling paragraphs. Keep your copy relevant and concise to hold your visitors’ attention.

7. Get SEO savvy

Search Engine Optimization is going to play a big part in attracting people to your website. As well as incorporating keywords or search terms that your audience is likely to be typing into Google, you need to provide the search engines with a succinct explanation of what those visitors will find when they get there.

8. Get your images ready

Get the images you want to use prepped and lined up. It’ll save you a lot of time when it comes to pulling your pages together.

9. Create your logo

Having your own logo will ensure your brand is recognizable.

10. Set yourself a deadline

Web design can take a long time if you don’t manage your time properly. Set yourself daily or weekly targets of having certain areas of your site done – this way you won’t get bogged down doing too much at once.

Here’s a link to download our Design Questionnaire for your convenience. As always, at Apis Productions we’re here for you. Contact us today with any questions.

WORDPRESS 5.5

What’s New in WordPress 5.5

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source: Cpanel

From auto-updates to new improvements and block updates, WordPress 5.5 is feature-packed! Let’s jump in and take a look at some of the most significant updates:

Automatic Theme and Plugin updates:

Maintaining a WordPress site can be a time-consuming task, especially if you run multiple WordPress sites. A simple plugin update across numerous websites can range from minutes to hours, depending on how many websites you manage.

Keeping the WordPress core and your plugins and themes updated is crucial in keeping your site secure.

What was once only a feature available from a plugin or managed WordPress Accessibility Improvements:

WordPress takes accessibility seriously. Version 5.5 includes 34 Accessibility fixes and enhancements.

  • Alternate view modes for List tables.
  • Convert Link-list widgets to HTML5 navigation blocks.
  • Copying links in media screens and modal dialogs can now be done with a simple click of a button.
  • New disabled button styling.
  • Move Meta boxes with the keyboard.
  • Custom logo on the front page no longer links to the front page.
  • Status messages in the Image Editor for Assistive devices.
  • The shake animation indicating a login failure now respects the user’s choices in the prefers-reduced-motion media query.
  • Redundant Error: prefixes have been removed from error notices.

Block Updates:

WordPress 5.5 includes eleven releases of the Gutenberg plugin, bringing a long list of exciting new features. In all, Version 5.5 brings more than 1,500 useful improvements to the block editor experience. Here are just a few:

  • Inline image editing: Crop, rotate and zoom photos inline right from image blocks.
  • Block patterns: Building elaborate pages can be a breeze with new block patterns. Several are included by default.
  • Device previews: See how your content will look to users on many different screen sizes.
  • End block overwhelm: The new block inserter panel displays streamlined categories and collections. As a bonus, it supports patterns and integrates with the new block directory right out of the box.
  • Block Directory: Discover, install, and insert third-party blocks from your editor using the new block directory.
  • Backgrounds and gradients: You can add backgrounds and gradients to more kinds of blocks, like groups, columns, media & text.
  • Advance measurements support: Choose ems, rems, percentages, vh, vw, and more! Plus, adjust line heights while typing, turning writing and typesetting into the seamless act.
  • Smoother editing experience with:
  • Refined drag-and-drop
  • Block movers that you can see and grab
  • Parent block selection
  • Contextual focus highlights
  • Multi-select formatting lets you change a bunch of blocks at once
  • Ability to copy and relocate blocks easily
  • And, better performance
  • An expanded design toolset for themes.

Image Lazy Load:

WordPress 5.5 now includes native support for lazy load images utilizing new browser standards. Lazy-loading images will not be sent to the user’s browser until they approach the viewport, saving bandwidth, and increasing site speed. WordPress 5.5 makes it a default option by adding the ‘loading’ attribute to img tag. This attribute is supported by most modern web browsers.

ZIP file theme and plugin updates:

Before WordPress 5.5, users could not update a theme or a plugin via a ZIP file install without using a plugin. In this latest version updating a theme or plugin works in the same fashion as uploading a new one. WordPress now directs users to a new screen that compares the currently-installed version with the uploaded version after clicking the Install Now button.

XML Sitemaps:

Sitemaps are essential to SEO and users discovering the content on your website. XML Sitemaps are now included in WordPress and enabled by default.

Call to action steps

Five Steps to Writing a Killer Call-to-Action

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As a business owner, you’re constantly striving to stay on the same page with prospects and clients.

But does your message actually have a compelling substance, or are you just telling beautiful stories that keep your readers entertained for a short while?

Lack of a call to action automatically affects that website’s relationship with clients and ultimately, their competitiveness and profit margins.

To consolidate your position on any market, interact with clients the easy way and make them act in a certain manner, you have to upgrade your copy using the right calls to action, designed to convince your readers to do something (besides reading and bouncing off your page).

Maybe you want them to request a quote, download an eBook, give you a call or contact your staff members via email. Either way, to achieve your goal you have to master the art of writing killer, super-effective calls to action.

Here’s a strange fact that may make you spend a little more time working on your CTAs: sometimes, you can boost your conversions by simply changing one of the words comprised by your calls to action. A case study mentioned by Unbounce indicates that a B2B website owner has reported a 38.26% increase in conversions after replacing just one action verb with another. This is an older study, but the results hold true today.

Call to action

So what does this example actually tell us, aside from the fact that one single word can influence the actions of your prospects in a considerable manner?

This case study reveals that small tweaks can return amazing results, as long as they are focused on ways to add value to your copy. In this particular situation, the term “order” refers to the course of action that the prospect should take, and doesn’t actually highlight the benefit that the user would experience after doing what’s expected of him. On the other hand, the term “get” is more focused on the advantages, rewards, and satisfaction that a potential client will automatically profit from after responding to a certain CTA.

All in all, a combination of value and relevance is the winning formula enabling you to take your CTAs to a whole new level and boost their effectiveness.

So now what? Start by revisiting your old calls-to-action positioned on your landing pages. Replace generic orders like “Buy Now”, “Download Now”, which emphasize the action that you want your readers to take, with personalized copy that stresses out the perks that your audience can actually get from you after following your lead.

For example, instead of just writing “Buy Now”, create a button with a message reading “Add to Cart- Save 50% Today”. The latter option is much more personalized and specific than the first one. Always remember that your readers dislike overly generic messages and want you to talk to them like you’ve known each other for decades. Therefore, don’t hesitate to replace a low-impact, concise message like “Submit”, “Call Us” or “Download” with a more meaningful construction that commands attention and also stimulates your reader to take action by focusing on benefits.

Begin your sentences with verbs and subjects to help people grasp the meaning of your CTA at a first glance. According to an article published by Hubspot, you should include numbers to keep your message straightforward and clear. Avoid fluff that could bore and distract your readers.

The copy that you create for your CTAs is an extremely important element that influences the actions of your readers just as much as other key factors, such as the color, size, and shape of the CTA button.

Under these circumstances, you are probably wondering how you could polish your copy and come up with the most impactful words to seduce the minds of your prospects and get them in your door.

The good news is that you can count on a great variety of templates that have already returned positive results in any given set of circumstances. But before taking a closer look at key formulas that have already been tested, approved and used by skilled content creators, let’s focus on the main aspects that influence the quality and effectiveness of CTAs.

1. Goals

First of all, what kind of actions are you trying to stimulate?

Craft your message based on the objectives that you want to reach. For instance, a download now button is the right choice for lead generation, while a “send me info” is more suitable for business relationship building.

2. A Short String of Action-Oriented Words

Did you know that even the smallest changes in terms of copy can trigger major impact on your conversion rates? From this point of view, it’s always best to choose your words wisely and stick to a formula that has already proven to be effective.

Here’s a strange fact that may make you spend a little more time working on your CTAs: sometimes, you can boost your conversions by simply changing one of the words comprised by your calls to action. A case study mentioned by Unbounce indicates that a B2B website owner has reported a 38.26% increase in conversions after replacing just one action verb with another. This is an older study, but the results hold true today.

3. Original Food for Thought Delivered in an Interesting Package

Create a bond with your visitors by using pronouns such as “me” and “you” and focus on the needs of your potential clients. Use the right visuals to support your message and go for a tasteful mix of contrasting colors to capture your visitors’ attention.

4. Size

Keep your message short and clean. Studies have shown that some of the best calls-to-action are under 150 characters. Think about it this way: a CTA like “Buy Now” will most likely convince you that brevity is not the best card that you could play while trying to seduce your readers. At the same time, you have to keep your CTA short and sweet to help your public respond.

In addition, the size of your CTA buttons is also important. A too-small version won’t command attention, while a supersized one will make you seem desperate.

5. Tone and Flow

Use action-oriented words that imply thought leadership and expertise. However, avoid technical jargon that may confuse or deter your readers. Stress out the benefits of your offer in as few words as possible.

In an article presenting the main ways in which bad copywriting can kill and bury your product, UserTesting reveals just how important it is to speak the language of your readers. Write copy that your visitors can understand and relate to. If possible, avoid industry-specific terms that are difficult to comprehend and humanize your content by using everyday words and adopting a conversational tone.

Anatomy of a Sales Page

The Anatomy of a Great Sales Page

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A sales page is your best opportunity to explain your products and services to visitors and make them want to buy. It needs to be attention-grabbing, informative, and persuasive, all at the same time. If it’s not optimized for conversions, you’re losing money.

Wouldn’t it be great if you knew the secrets of writing high converting sales pages? You’ll know it by the end of this article.

Ok, let’s get started.

1. Understand Your Audience

First things first: You can’t write good sales copy unless you know who you’re talking to.

Before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys), it’s essential to understand who your audience is and what they’re looking for when they consider buying your product or service.

One of the best ways to do this is to create a customer avatar or buyer persona. That’s a fictional person who represents your ideal customer. While the persona may be fictional, it’s based on real data collected from:

  • Customer surveys
  • Web analytics
  • Social media analytics
  • Other online research

Once you’ve got a buyer persona, you’ll understand your prospective customer’s influences, pain points, challenges, and motivations so you can create copy that addresses them.

And you can use this information in your copy to specify the audience you’re targeting,

2. Create a Value Proposition

When you know who your customers are, you’ll be able to articulate your value proposition. That’s a statement of the benefit you provide and the problem you solve for your customer, and why you’re the best person to do so.

Ideally, this will be a single sentence or short phrase that’ll guide the rest of your copy.

Here’s a straightforward fill-in-the-blank example. We help [X] to [Y] by [Z]. This translates to:

We help insurance business owners and bga’s to build their websites and boost sales by providing high-converting websites.

3. Get the Price Right

One last thing to determine before you start writing: How much does your product or service cost?

One of the big sticking points for many prospective buyers is the price. To succeed in winning the value vs. cost argument, it’ll help if you can make your product’s price less of a sticking point.

Some proven techniques to try include:

  • Offering more than one price point
  • Labeling your price points with descriptive names to help users to self-select
  • Make sure your price ends with the number 9 because research shows that more people gravitate towards this

4. Determine the Right Length

After you understand your target audience and what you have to offer them, it’s time to start writing your sales page.

But how long should a sales page be?

The short answer is: as long as it needs to be to get the job done. That’ll vary depending on what the copy is for, and how your visitors respond.

As QuickSprout points out, long copy lets you deal with more customer objections, so that when people click the call to action (CTA), they’re definitely convinced. Long copy is also useful for products and services that need a lot of explanation.

But if you can explain your offer simply, then you don’t need to add more copy. For example, Groupon explains its purpose in a sentence and takes you straight to the deals.

Even long sales pages will include both short and long copy.

The short copy caters to those who are already convinced. It’s usually accompanied by a call-to-action near the top of the page. The long copy helps you make a case for those who are less easy to persuade and will include a couple more CTAs.

5. Nail the Headline and Subheadings

Now you’re ready to start writing.

The first step is to create the headline. This is the most crucial part of your sales page because if you get it wrong, your visitors will be quick to leave.

The best headlines are short and to the point. For example, here’s one headline from marketing expert Neil Patel:

This is a sales page for a consultation with Neil, but that headline doesn’t waste any space. In some cases, you’ll need a subheading to add a bit more context if your message is more complex.

6. Describe Your Product

Now, it’s time to go into more detail about what your product is and what it does. This is where you’ll reiterate the core problems your visitors face, and break down your solution.

The more descriptive and unique you can get, the better your description will be. By writing detailed descriptions of each feature, you’ll not only have an easier time convincing shoppers to convert, but you can also get some SEO ranking benefits in the process.

7. Get the Language Right

How do you write a sales landing page? Use the right language. Visitors want to know you understand them, so you can use techniques like:

  • Addressing your customer directly, using “you”
  • Making them feel like part of the family by using “we”
  • Showing that you empathize
  • Telling a story that they can relate to
  • Using power words to elicit and show emotion
analyticsimage-scaled

How to Analyze Google Analytics: Metrics and What they Mean

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There are 400 million active websites in the world today and every minute there are around 380 new websites being created.  From a competitive standpoint, these numbers could sound daunting, impossible, and intimidating.  Operating a website in the world’s largest marketplace requires you to take every advantage available to you and run with it.  For a web owner, data is the key to discovering how to do more than just stand out from the crowd.  Google Analytics is the most important tool at your disposal when it comes to realizing both who your audience is and how they are responding to what you are offering.  While Google Analytics is free to use, the number of data points it presents can be overwhelming.  Let’s break down the basic use of Google Analytics, the most important metrics, and what they mean!

Google Analytics: The Dashboard Basics

The Analytics dashboard packs a lot of buttons into a limited amount of real estate.  Google Analytics Menu

Let’s look at the sidebar menu on the dashboard.  Here is where you will tell Analytics which set of data you want to examine.  Think of everything underneath the ‘REPORTS’ section as the starting point towards understanding how people interact with your website.  Let’s take a look.

  • Realtime
    • This will actually show you how many visitors are on your site right now.  While this is definitely interesting, it’s usefulness comes in testing something brand new that you may be tracking or a change that you just made moments ago.  For the data you’ve been collecting for a while, it’s the remaining menu items that we will focus on here.
  • Audience
    • This tab is incredibly important.  Here you will see stats on how many new users visited your website, how many pages they viewed, how long they stayed, whether they interacted beyond their first visit, and more.  We will dive into this later on.
  • Acquisition
    • This tab runs a close second in terms of importance.  Here is where you will see where you are acquiring your visitors from.  Are people finding you organically through Google search or are they loyal users who typed your web address directly into their browser.  If you are using Google Ads or other paid digital advertising, that will also appear here.
  • Behavior
    • This is where you can dive a bit deeper into the number of pages (and which pages) your visitors are spending time on, which pages they leave your site on, site speed, page load speed, and more.  Think of it as both the behavior of your visitors and the behavior of your website.  Additionally, you can track events on your website (such as who clicks the “Register Now” button and track those events in this tab.
  • Conversions
    • This tab involves setting goals for your website which is outside the purview of this article.  However, goal setting can be very useful and will be discussed in a future post.  If you sell products directly from your website (i.e. you have a shop page) eCommerce stats can be accessed from this tab.

The Stats You Must Watch in Google Analytics

There are so many intriguing stats to examine in Google Analytics, but for most people there are just a handful that you will want to always stay on top of in order to make better decisions about content on your website.  First, let’s look at the basic 5 that you should include at the top of any report.

There is a reason that the Audience tab is first on the left-side menu, when you click on the Audience tab the first option underneath is the Overview.  Let’s take a look at that screen.

The 8 data-boxes are key metrics that you will look at and compare from week to week and month to month.  Here’s what they mean.

  • Users
    • This is how many total users you have had visit your website in the time frame selected.  This includes people who may have visited on more than one occasion.  In that case, if a person visits once on monday and again on Tuesday, they will be counted twice.  A better term for this would be Visits (which is what Google used to call it but has switched changed their naming convention.
  • New Users
    • This represents the total number of, you guessed it, new visitors that have come to your site.  Basically, the people that have visited twice in the time period are only counted once.  
  • Sessions
    • This one sounds trickier than it is.  Basically, a session is a set amount of time that a user engages with your site.  If a user lands on a page and doesn’t click anything or go to any other page for 30 minutes, the session expires.  All sessions reset regardless of the activity at 12 midnight.  So if I visit your website at 11:50 pm and stay on until 12:25 am, this will count as 2 sessions.  Sessions matter because they represent visitors that are interacting with your website.
  • Number of Sessions Per User
    • This is self explanatory given what we learned about sessions above.  Basically, this is the average number of sessions each user has on your website.
  • Page Views and Pages Per Session
    • This metric matters!  Depending on how your website is structured, the number of pages that a user visits on average represents how engaged they are with your website.  If you have a one-page website, then obviously, this number will not be higher than 1.  In most websites, however, a user that visits multiple pages indicates that they are interested in the content and that they are truly exploring the information you are supplying them.
  • Avg Session Duration
    • This metric tells you roughly how long someone spends on your site before going somewhere else.  This can be broken down into pages and how long users spend on each page.  (which is useful to learn how effective specific pages and how certain pages are performing.
  • Bounce Rate
    • This is a somewhat controversial metric.  A bounce is registered when a visitor to your site does not interact in any meaningful way once they first arrive.  If they find your site and land on one of it’s pages from Google Search, or from an ad and they don’t click any other pages of the site, it is counted as a bounce.  The average bounce rate for a website is anywhere from 41 – 55 percent.  Lower is better when it comes to bounce rate.  

As you can tell, these 8 data points can be very telling in and of themselves as to how your website is performing overall.  Let’s open up the Acquisition tab and find out where our users are coming from!

Acquisition: Where Your Traffic Meets Your Website

When you open the acquisition tab and click ‘overview’ you will see the data in this picture.

 

Here you are being told the way that visitors found your site.  Let’s explain these 4 origins of your web traffic.

  • Direct Traffic
    • This represents visitors who arrived at your site by either typing in your web address directly into the browser, visitors who have bookmarked your site and arrived via that bookmark, or visitors who clicked a link inside an email that was linked to your site.  
  • Organic Search Traffic
    • This is the honeypot of web traffic.  This represents the visitors who found your website on Google after typing a query that matched with your content.  Focussing on fresh, readable content and search engine optimization will eventually lead to higher rankings in Google Search.  Higher rankings will lead to expanded traffic in this category. 
  • Social Traffic
    • This metric tells us who arrived via a social media platform such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.  
  • Referral Traffic
    • This represents people who were sent to a page on your website from a link on another website, or a referral link.  If you wrote a guest article for another website and linked to your website in the article, clicks on that link would be recorded as referral traffic, for instance.

Quick Note: You’ll notice that under the ‘acquisition’ tab is also a tab for Google Ads.  If you are running a Google Ad campaign and have connected it to your Google Analytics account, you will see data on the performance of those ads in this tab.

Behavior: What Do your Visitors Do on Each Page of your Website 

While the Behavior tab overview shows information about pageviews, bounces, and exits, it really shines in letting you know how each page of your website is performing.  For example, if you find that one of your blog posts is knocking it out of the park with views and time on page but another is falling flat that should tell you the type of content that the majority of your visitors are interested in learning.  This kind of information is very useful when picking new topics to write about in your genre.  Additionally, if you have a static page on your site that isn’t attracting enough attention, this data can help make decisions about updating content on that page and monitoring its success or failure.

Digging deeper into the Site Content tab, you will be able to see more data on individual page performance. 

Getting the Most out of Your Analytics

Even though the amount of data provided by Google Analytics can seem overwhelming, sticking to the basics covered in this article alone would be enough to help make more informed decisions about the content of your website.  The ability to share data with others in your organization, download pdfs of the graphs and charts that Analytics provides, and really getting to know exactly how visitors are interacting with your business online vastly outweighs the learning curve of using Analytics.  There is excellent documentation online and from Google itself on how to navigate their program from beginner to advanced user and it’s free.  

Do yourself and your company a solid and play around in your data sandbox for a few hours to see what story the data tells you.  In the end, your enhanced understanding of your audience will help you stay ahead of the game and on top of your niche.  





Image File TYpes

The Ultimate Guide to Image File Types and When to Use Them

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Have you ever wondered when you should use a JPG instead of a PNG? Or maybe you’re just trying to figure out which program opens an INDD.

Unless you’re a graphic designer by training, chances are you’ve never needed to understand things like what separates a TIF from a PDF or a PSD. While the large variety of image formats may seem overwhelming, there is a method to the madness.

We’ve put together a useful outline to help you understand the difference between each file format, and when they are appropriate to use.

Vector vs. Raster

First things first: What is the difference between vector and raster?

Rastor Image Files

Raster images are constructed by a series of pixels, or individual blocks, to form an image. JPEG, GIF, and PNG are all raster image extensions. Every photo you find online or in print is a raster image. Pixels have a defined proportion based on their resolution (high or low), and when the pixels are stretched to fill space they were not originally intended to fit, they become distorted, resulting in blurry or unclear images.

In order to retain pixel quality, you cannot resize raster images without compromising their resolution. As a result, it is important to remember to save raster files at the exact dimensions needed for the application.

Vector Image Files

Vector images are far more flexible. They are constructed using proportional formulas rather than pixels. EPS, AI, and PDF are perfect for creating graphics that require frequent resizing. Your logo and brand graphics should have been created as a vector, and you should always have a master file on hand. The real beauty of vectors lies in their ability to be sized as small as a postage stamp, or large enough to fit on an 18-wheeler!

If you’re not sure whether you have a vector version of your logo, here’s a little trick for you: Call the company that printed your business cards or the vendor that embroidered your logo on a shirt. Often they’ll have a vector file of your logo that they can send to you for your records.

High Resolution vs. Low Resolution

Have you heard your designer talk about DPI or PPI? DPI stands for “dots per inch” and PPI translates to “pixels per inch.” These units of measure are essential for determining if the density of pixels in an image is appropriate for the application you are using.

The biggest thing to note when determining what DPI or PPI you require is if you are using an image for print or web. Websites display images at 72dpi, which is low resolution; however images at this resolution look really crisp on the web. This is not the case for print. Best practices for printing an image will require it to be no less than 300dpi.

Don’t try to trick the system. A lot of magic can happen in Photoshop, but creating pixels out of thin air isn’t one of them. Pulling an image off of the web and trying to get it to fit the dimensions of your print project just won’t work. You will end up with a pixelated image that appears stretched and distorted.

Types of Image Files

  1. JPEG (or JPG) – Joint Photographic Experts Group
  2. PNG – Portable Network Graphics
  3. GIF – Graphics Interchange Format
  4. TIFF – Tagged Image File
  5. PSD – Photoshop Document
  6. PDF – Portable Document Format
  7. EPS – Encapsulated Postscript
  8. AI – Adobe Illustrator Document
  9. INDD – Adobe Indesign Document
  10. RAW – Raw Image Formats

1. JPEG (or JPG) – Joint Photographic Experts Group

JPEGs might be the most common file type you run across on the web, and more than likely the kind of image that is in your company’s MS Word version of its letterhead. JPEGs are known for their “lossy” compression, meaning that the quality of the image decreases as the file size decreases.

You can use JPEGs for projects on the web, in Microsoft Office documents, or for projects that require printing at a high resolution. Paying attention to the resolution and file size with JPEGs is essential in order to produce a nice looking project.

2. PNG – Portable Network Graphics

PNGs are amazing for interactive documents such as web pages, but are not suitable for print. While PNGs are “lossless,” meaning you can edit them and not lose quality, they are still low resolution.

The reason PNGs are used in most web projects is that you can save your image with more colors on a transparent background. This makes for a much sharper, web-quality image.

3. GIF – Graphics Interchange Format

GIFs are most common in their animated form, which is all the rage on Tumblr pages and in banner ads. It seems like every other day we have a new Grumpy Cat or Honey Boo Boo animated GIF. In their more basic form, GIFs are formed from up to 256 colors in the RGB colorspace. Due to the limited number of colors, the file size is drastically reduced.

This is a common file type for web projects where an image needs to load very quickly, as opposed to one that needs to retain a higher level of quality.

4. TIFF – Tagged Image File

A TIF is a large raster file that doesn’t lose quality. This file type is known for using “lossless compression,” meaning the original image data is maintained regardless of how often you might copy, re-save, or compress the original file.

Despite TIFF images’ ability to recover their quality after manipulation, you should avoid using this file type on the web — it can take forever to load. TIFF files are also commonly used when saving photographs for print.

5. PSD – Photoshop Document

PSDs are files that are created and saved in Adobe Photoshop, the most popular graphics editing software ever. This type of file contains “layers” that make modifying the image much easier to handle. This is also the program that generates the raster file types mentioned above.

PSD File Type

The largest disadvantageof PSDs is that Photoshop works with raster images as opposed to vector images.

6. PDF – Portable Document Format

PDFs were invented by Adobe with the goal of capturing and reviewing rich information from any application, on any computer, with anyone, anywhere. I’d say they’ve been pretty successful so far.

PDF FIle Type

If a designer saves your vector logo in PDF format, you can view it without any design editing software (as long as you have downloaded the free Acrobat Reader software), and they have the ability to use this file to make further manipulations. This is by far the best universal tool for sharing graphics.

7. EPS – Encapsulated Postscript

EPS is a file in vector format that has been designed to produce high-resolution graphics for print. Almost any kind of design software can create an EPS.

EPS File Type

The EPS extension is more of a universal file type (much like the PDF) that can be used to open vector-based artwork in any design editor, not just the more common Adobe products. This safeguards file transfers to designers that are not yet utilizing Adobe products, but may be using Corel Draw or Quark.

8. AI – Adobe Illustrator Document

AI is, by far, the image format most preferred by designers and the most reliable type of file format for using images in all types of projects from web to print, etc.

AI File Types

Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard for creating artwork from scratch and therefore more than likely the program in which your logo was originally rendered. Illustrator produces vector artwork, the easiest type of file to manipulate. It can also create all of the aforementioned file types. Pretty cool stuff! It is by far the best tool in any designer’s arsenal.

9. INDD – Adobe Indesign Document

INDDs (Indesign Document) are files that are created and saved in Adobe Indesign. Indesign is commonly used to create larger publications, such as newspapers, magazines and eBooks.

ID File Types

Files from both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator can be combined in Indesign to produce content rich designs that feature advanced typography, embedded graphics, page content, formatting information and other sophisticated layout-related options.

10. RAW – Raw Image Formats

A RAW image is the least-processed image type on this list — it’s often the first format a picture inherits when it’s created. When you snap a photo with your camera, it’s saved immediately in a raw file format. Only when you upload your media to a new device and edit it using image software is it saved using one of the image extensions explained above.

RAW File Types

RAW images are valuable because they capture every element of a photo without processing and losing small visual details. Eventually, however, you’ll want to package them into a raster or vector file type so they can be transferred and resized for various purposes.

As you can see from the icons above, there are multiple raw image files in which you can create images — many of them native to certain cameras (and there are still dozens more formats not shown above). Here’s a brief description of those four raw files above:

  • CR2: This image extension stands for Canon RAW 2, and was created by Canon for photos taken using its own digital cameras. They’re actually based on the TIFF file type, making them inherently high in quality.
  • CRW: This image extension was also created by Canon, preceding the existence of the CR2.
  • NEF: This image extension stands for Nikon Electric Format, and is a RAW file type created by (you guessed it) Nikon Cameras. These image files actually allow for extensive editing without changing file types, provided the editing takes place using a Nikon device or Nikon Photoshop plugin.
  • PEF: This image extension stands for Pentax Electronic Format, a RAW image file type created by Pentax Digital Cameras.

Working with images is a lot more complicated than you’d think at first glance. Hopefully, this guide has provided a better understanding of the standard file types and which are most appropriate for your project.

 

 

Homepage Essentials

5 Features Your Homepage Should Have

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Websites are now the first port of call for consumers and are the face of a business. This means it’s more important than ever for companies to create engaging homepages that simultaneously provide essential information while encouraging users to explore further. On a homepage, design, layout and content have to work in conjunction, so we’ve put together a helpful checklist to help you improve conversion and increase session times.

The first impression counts – if users fail to find key features on your home page, they will be quick to sign off your site as a poorly designed one. The user experience on your site’s main landing page can make or break their perception of your business. What are some key things that you should have on your home page, upfront, and center? You can’t go wrong with these 5 features incorporated into your home page.

Company Identity and Visuals

Whether it’s introducing yourself to a new visitor or reinforcing the message to someone who uses your services frequently, business owners should leverage on the marketing and branding capabilities of their site. The company logo and tagline should be clearly visible on the homepage, and one of the first few design elements that your audience interacts with. These quick identifiers will let your users know quickly that they have found the right page and can move on to discover and explore your products and services. Don’t let your users take too long trying to figure out who you are!

Headlines and Sub-Headlines

Now that you’ve told your audience who you are, give them a sense of what you do. The headline tells your audience what you have to offer and your sub-headlines provides a brief elaboration of your services. Get rid of all the fillers that are there just to make up the word count, and speak to your audience in a clear, simple tone. Let the headlines speak for themselves.

Images

It’s time for your portfolio to shine. Add in some photos to show off your work, products, and your team. A picture says a thousand words, so be sure to align the images with your branding. Based on your target audience, your homepage should feature the images that your audience can relate to, and are likely to make them linger around your page a little longer.

Contact Information

A lot of times, consumers seek out the website of a company to find out how to get in touch with them. Whether it’s for customer support or a simple inquiry, poor visibility of your contact information can be very frustrating to the user. Those browsing your site may not want to sieve through irrelevant content and tabs just to find out how to reach you. So keep your contact information center stage on the home page.

Social Media

Get connected. There’s a very good reason why most sites have their social media links on their home page. Keep your audience apprised of your latest updates and promotions. You never know who might see your digital posts at just the right moment when they need to. The current trend is to link sites directly to social media, where swiping up can lead a user directly to your website. Can you get more targeted than that?

At Apis Productions, we specialize in website design and development services and so much more such as social media management, video creation, and SEO services. If you are interested in creating a site, it’s time to tell us about your project or have a chat about what we can do. We’re listening. 

DNS

Without DNS, You’re Just Another Number

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What’s in a name? Everything. Your identity, your reputation, your brand, your business. DNS, the Domain Name System, is what makes your unique and memorable web presence possible. Without it, you’re just another number known as an IP address. This long series of numbers and letters is what every online device and server use to find each other. While this is efficient for machines, it is an impasse for people. We want names; a translation is necessary. This is where DNS steps in. This is no simple task.

DNS has three main components that nest together like a Russian doll.

  • Nameservers,
  • Zone files, and
  • Records. 

Nameservers are computers dedicated to translate domain names into IP addresses.

Inside the Nameserver, Zone Files define the available resources for a domain.

Inside the Zone Files, Records are the individual maps between a resource and a name.

In very simple terms: DNS is the sea, Namservers are the ship, Zone Files are the pilot, and Records are the navigator. Of course, there is a lot of nuance and variation within these three main components but this is the basic premise and should get you started on the road to understanding DNS.

Who’s Who

A part of DNS is the name of the Registrar, Website Host, and Email Host. A domain registrar, sometimes called a DNS registrar, is a business that sells domain names and handles the business of registering them. Registrars must be accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Commonly used Registrars include GoDaddy and Network Solutions.

One step further and we move into the Website Host and Email Host. 

Web Hosting is a service that enables your website to live on the internet and be accessible to web browsers. Your web content is hosted on a server. Your DNS Record will contain an “A Record” – the IP address that identifies the web server, thereby allowing the world to find your website. 

Email Hosting is a service wherein your email content is stored on a server. Your email service provider will identify “MX Records” which tell the world where to deliver the email sent to your domain.

For additional information on DNS, check out this guide:

https://www.godaddy.com/help/what-is-dns-665?

 

Facebook-Ad-Examples (1)

Best Practices for Sponsored Content | LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram Ad Tips

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LinkedIn ads

LinkedIn ads help your business with three types of marketing objectives:

Awareness: Create more awareness of your company or brand.

Consideration: Drive website visits, increase engagement, or encourage video views.

Conversions: Collect leads and drive website conversions.

Audience considerations: LinkedIn is much more business-oriented than the other social networks in this post. It offers targeting options based on professional qualifications like job title and seniority.

You can choose from several different types of LinkedIn ads.

Sponsored Content
Sponsored Content ads appear in the news feed on both desktop and mobile. They’re used to get your content in front of a larger audience and showcase your brand expertise.

Quick tip: Headlines under 150 characters have the best engagement. Larger images get higher click-through rates. LinkedIn recommends an image size of 1200 x 627 pixels.

Linkedin Sponsored Content

Sponsored InMail
Sponsored InMail is similar to email marketing, except that the messages go directly to users’ LinkedIn inboxes. However, Sponsored InMail has an interesting unique feature. Users only receive ad messages while they are active on LinkedIn. That means messages don’t sit around getting stale.

Quick tip: Short body text (under 500 characters) gets the highest click-through rate. The top five performing calls-to-action for Sponsored InMail are:

Try

Free

Today

Click

Apply

Text Ads
Text ads are small ad units that appear at the top and the right of the LinkedIn news feed. They only appear to desktop users, not on mobile devices. Despite the name, text ads can actually include a thumbnail image of 50 x 50 pixels.

Quick tip: Show a human face. Profile images work better than logos or pictures of objects.

Facebook ads

Facebook ads are designed to help you achieve one of three broad types of campaign objectives:

Awareness: Build brand awareness or increase reach.

Consideration: Send traffic to your website, increase engagement, encourage app installs or video views, generate leads, or encourage people to communicate with you on Facebook Messenger.

Conversion: Create online conversions, make catalog sales, or drive foot traffic to offline stores.

Audience considerations: Facebook is popular across demographics and offers detailed targeting options. This makes it a great platform to get started with social media advertising.

Photo ads
In addition to a photo, Facebook photo ads include 125 characters of text plus a headline and link description. They can also include a call-to-action button like Shop Now or Send Message.

You can create your photo ad in Facebook Business Manager, or simply promote a post with an image from your Facebook Page.

Quick tip: Facebook photo ads work really well for showcasing new products or services. Show people using your product, rather than a simple photo of the product itself.

Video ads
Facebook video ad options range from short mobile video ads up to 240-minute promoted videos designed to be watched on desktop. With so many options, it’s critical to have solid goals and understand who your target market is and where your video will reach them.

Facebook video ads can work well in conjunction with a TV ad campaign. Even if T.V. is not part of your marketing mix, video ads can be a great way to draw people in. Use compelling visuals that highlight the best parts of your brand.

Quick tip: Short videos tend to have higher completion rates. However, if you’ve got a compelling message you can go a little longer.

Rareform uses mobile Facebook video ads to highlight its unique value proposition. The company makes bags out of recycled billboards. Their video ads get a 19% higher return than ads without video.

Stories ads
In this full-screen format, photos display for six seconds, and videos can last up to 15 seconds.

You can’t specifically select Facebook Stories ads on their own. They’re included as a possible placement when you select Automatic Placements when creating your ad.

Quick tip: Stories only last for 24 hours, so this is a great format for in-the-moment marketing like limited-time offers. The majority of people Facebook surveyed said they wanted Stories ads to be “quick and easy to understand.” Keep things simple.

For example, the clothing brand tentree used a Facebook Stories slideshow ad with six photos to show off six different men’s hats. The campaign had a 70% lower cost per product page view than other digital ads.

Carousel ads
A carousel ad lets you include up to 10 images or videos, each with their own link, all in one ad.

Carousel ads work well to showcase different features of a product, or to explain a step-by-step process. They’re also a great way to present multiple products.

Quick tip: Use the different elements in your carousel ad together to present a compelling, effective story or message.

Slideshow ads
A slideshow is an ad that creates a video from several static images—your own or stock images that Facebook provides.

Slideshows offer the compelling motion of video, but require no video-specific resources to create. If you’re not ready to try video ads but want to move beyond static photos, slideshow ads are a great option.

Happy Socks uses slideshow ads to show off their colorful product in an eye-catching way.

Collection ads
A collection ad highlights your products right in the Facebook feed. The ad includes a cover photo or video plus product images with pricing and other details. This allows people to learn more about your product without leaving Facebook. When someone clicks on the ad, they go to an Instant Experience (see below).

Quick tip: Collection ads work especially well for retail and travel brands.

Instant Experience ads
Formerly called Carousel ads, these are full-screen interactive ads for the mobile feed. An Instant Experience ad can include up to 20 images or up to two minutes of video. You can include a call-to-action button with up to 30 characters of text.

Instant Experiences also include interactive features like tilt to pan.

Quick tip: Instant Experience ads can also be used to collect customer or lead information using an instant form.

Messenger ads
Messenger ads are simply Facebook ads placed on the home screen of the Messenger app. You can use them to encourage people to connect with your business on Messenger, but they can also link to your site.

Here’s how a Messenger ad looks in the mobile interface:

Quick tip: You can use Messenger ads to restart conversations that have trailed off. Use a custom audience of people who have previously messaged your business.

Lead generation ads
Facebook lead generation ads are mobile-only ads that include pre-populated forms. This makes it easy for people to:

  • sign up for your newsletter
  • request a free trial
  • ask for a quote

They’re a great tool if you’re looking for leads to pass along to your sales team, or to build your online sales funnel.

Quick tip: Ask for the minimum amount of information you need to process leads effectively, to maximize completion.

Instagram ads

Facebook owns Instagram. So it’s not surprising that Instagram ads support the same three broad categories of campaign objectives as Facebook ads:

Awareness

Consideration

Conversion

Audience considerations: Instagram is most popular with millennials. Plenty of Generation Xers also use the platform.

The specific Instagram ad types also mirror four of the Facebook ads types:

Photo

Video

Carousel

Collection

You can create each type of ad for either the main Instagram feed, or for Instagram Stories.

Photo and video ads
Your Instagram photo or video will look like a regular Instagram post—except that it will say Sponsored in the top right. Depending on your campaign objective, you may also be able to add a call-to-action button.

Quick tip: Make sure your photo and video ads are consistent in style with the organic posts you share on Instagram. This helps viewers recognize that the ad is from your brand.

Try testing video ads against photo ads using the same content. America’s Test Kitchen found that adding motion to its ads resulted in a 45% increase in leads over the same ad using just a photo.

Carousel ads
In an Instagram carousel ad, viewers swipe to scroll through different images.

Quick tip: Make sure the images you use in your carousel ad are visually similar and tied together by a common theme. It shouldn’t be jarring to swipe between the different photos in the ad.

Look at this Carousel ad for Snag Tights. The similar images and consistent bar of text across each photo clearly connect the components of the ad and help to tell a consistent story.

Collection ads
Just like Facebook Collection ads, these feature a cover image or video plus several product shots. Clicking on the ad directs the user to an Instant Experience.

Quick tip: Instagram Collection ads don’t include a headline, but they do allow up to 90 characters of text.

Instagram Stories ads
Instagram Stories ads can use photos or videos up to 120 seconds long. These ads display in full-screen format between people’s stories.

Quick tip: Add interactive elements to Story ads for the best performance.

Dunkin’ found in an A/B test that a Story ad with a poll sticker had a 20% lower cost per video view. Plus, 20% of people who watched the video voted in the poll. (On the very important topic of which is better: donuts or fries.)

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