Digital marketing and web design recommendations

SEO and web design recommendations? You might have heard the phrase ‘personal brand’ bandied around, and having a website can form a huge part of this. Share pictures, share thoughts, or treat your site like a digital CV. The choice is yours! You don’t need to be a creative (see ‘Portfolio’ below) or a blogger (see ‘Blog’ above) to benefit from having your own website – and you don’t even need to spend any money making one.

The home dashboard and toolbar is easy to understand and use, the pages are simple to edit, and updates are easy to install. Plus, WordPress notifies you when updates are needed. WordPress screenshot of the home dashboard and side toolbar with updates, pages, templates, tools, etc. WordPress’s side toolbar has categories that are easy to understand, and the home dashboard keeps you informed. The layout itself is clean and straightforward, with intuitive tools. Winner: WordPress. Thanks to a streamlined user experience and a setup that’s just a bit easier, WordPress wins this round for ease of use. Both WordPress and Drupal are open-source, so they’re both technically free, but which zero-down upfront is more worth it?

eCommerce pick: Volusion has been around for almost two decades, having been set up in Texas over in the US in 1999. The company touts its platform as being an “all-in-one e-commerce solution”, and offers a free 14-day trial (no credit card required). As with other e-commerce platforms, users are offered a variety of templates from which to choose, and can also customize templates if they so wish. Should a more complex design be required, Volusion offers a custom design service that can incorporate branding and a firm’s social media presence. The platform provides the site and product management tools you’d expect, marketing functionality for SEO, social media, and affiliate outlets, along with emails and order management functionality for fast order processing, accepting payments, tax calculations and POS integration.

For web developers, WordPress brings them the ability to realize their dream website design by using its easy to understand the templating system. On top of that, apart from already providing all its users with thousands upon thousands of free, responsive website templates, WordPress ecosystem is flooded with extensions that bring you drag-and-drop website design capability. A few of the prominent names in the plug-in ecosystem that are coupled with drag-and-drop functionality are Elementor, HeroCSS, etc. With this platform, you can go crazy and make the templates look nothing like they originally did, which gives you lots of flexibility and is ideal for those of us wanting a little bit more freedom. See extra info at seattle website designer.

One of the simplest yet effective ways to reduce your website development costs is to use pre-designed or readymade themes. There are several benefits of using a readymade template to build your website. Most of the templates or themes are available for less than $100. When you use any theme from a reputed web developer, you don’t have worry about mobile responsiveness, browser compatibility and loading speed. Majority of the web developers who provide readymade themes provide great support when you need it. You can quickly build your website by choosing a readymade theme or template.