7 Key Steps to Website Branding Using WordPress
Many a time clients approach us to develop a website from scratch with the mandate of ultimately building a brand out of their business in the virtual world. A brand-building or website branding process is a meticulous process and requires an intelligent STP analysis of the market and communication of the same to the developer. This is done in an effort to enable customers to remember the brand and generate positive feelings about the client’s business.
Even simple things such as changes in styles, colors, and images can create negative disturbances. Therefore, it is crucial that hiring a dedicated WordPress developer will ensure that there is consistency between the website and the client’s brand.
What is a Branded Website?
Website branding includes both the visual and technical aspects of your website. Branding your website or your business involves creating a website that describes and promotes your products and services, creating advertisements to promote them, selecting corporate colors that will associate your company with them, creating logos, and featuring them on all your social media channels.
Many people think of a “branded” website as one with a logo, color, and typography. But if you want to make a true branded website then you should think beyond the limit of visual elements. There are so many different factors to consider such as the brand’s voice and purpose, unique benefits claims, and target audience and market.
Website Branding Examples:
If you are looking for some good examples of branded websites that can be your inspiration, then we are adding some great examples here. These examples of branded websites will help you to make a decision for creating a website for your business.
1. Reebok
(Deliver sleek & bold, elegant, and professional designs to their customers)
Reebok’s UX design is outstanding. It communicates two things with imagery and messaging
- They are a fresh, trendy company.
- They want to see you be trendy.
2. PayPal
(No fluff with simple, clean, and straightforward)
PayPal competes with many other apps including Venmo, Zelle, and the ability to use Apple Pay or Facebook to make payments. PayPal however is simple, easy to use, and efficient.
3. Baker
(Trust and authority are vital)
Baker is the most well-known CRM for the cannabis industry. It answers the question with strong statistics, social proof, and solid statistics.
4. Klientboost
(A story that uses imagery and messaging to engage the reader)
Klientboost improves PPC performance. They combine powerful copy and vibrant images to tell the brand’s story.
5. Qualio
(Focus on customer pain points)
Qualio is a quality management software that provides messaging that solves customers’ problems.
7 Key Steps to Website Branding Using WordPress
When it comes to branding in the online space, clients need to design their websites in a way that aligns with the business elsewhere. Any mismatch will lead to confusion among customers and push them towards rival brands. For instance, if Domino’s Pizza, a mass-market Pizza player, suddenly changes its communication targeted at high-income individuals, then they are bound to lose even the existing customers in the mass market who believe more in the value for money.
To fulfill the criteria and maintain the consistency of the website and the brand, they need to hire developers by considering the important factors for hiring WordPress developers. In this blog post, we will take a look at some of the website branding guidelines that clients can do to deploy their brands online with the help of WordPress plugins.
1. Set clear goals for your website
Websites can be created for many reasons. It is important to understand why you are creating a website in order to create a brand with maximum impact. Identifying your website’s goals will allow you to present yourself best to your audience.
Answer these questions to get started:
- Why build a website?
- What’s your goal?
- How do you value your proposition?
- How can you be different than your competitors?
Do not expect every attribute and feature from these questions, but they can help you define your values and set a framework to approach your branding.
2. Choosing a theme to design your brand’s website
One of the best ways to scale up the client’s brand presence is by putting the right WordPress themes in place. There are many theme plugins available for WordPress websites like Divi. Clients and developers should sit together and discuss the client’s business in order to clearly understand the brand.
This makes the developer accurately choose the right theme. The theme envisioned must also have extensive provisions for flexible customization. Some themes come with dedicated prebuilt pages and logos which the client can then customize further aligning with their vision.
A responsive website theme is essential. The theme must be able to adapt to different screen sizes.
- Lifestyle WordPress Theme
- WordPress Travel Blog Theme
3. Design a good logo for your brand
The logo is invariably linked strongly to the client’s brand, much more than anything else. Deliberation is needed before a further decision can be taken. The client can either choose to design a logo from scratch by herself or take cues from different tools like Inkscape, GIMP, and many more. These tools can provide inspiration as to how clients want their logo to be.
The process is simple – just enter the text, tweak it and deploy the same onto the site through the WordPress dashboard. Ensure that the logo is uncomplicated and distinct and memorable. Try to create a logo with a tagline that tells your visitors about your website and business.
4. Curating the pages of your website
Now we come to the contents of the website. What are the right pages and content to be placed? Again this question needs to be approached in a pragmatic manner. Perhaps a simple approach is to think about what the client’s story is or what the business aims to provide. Typically, they involve addressing a problem statement. This can be communicated in the About us and Products (or Services) offered section.
Surely customers coming to the website would want to contact the client in case of queries, thereby making the case for a dedicated contact us page. A unique way to establish and enhance relationships with customers is creating a blog – one that talks about the latest things in the client’s company or industry trends etc
5. Getting in touch with an engaged audience
On top of creating a dedicated contact us page, the client would need to provide ample provisions for the customer to get in touch with the business. Clients would need to think of ways to implement different means like call action buttons, contact forms at the right place. In this way, not only the business’ priorities are realized but also useful insights can be gauged with these metrics.
With the help of plugins like Contact form 7, clients can add these elements – live chat, email marketing, forms, buttons, social media shares, and more. These can be configured from the dashboard after installation with a simple drag, drop, and customize mechanism. Understanding where the “hot zones of vision and readability” are will help you to highlight certain aspects of your brand’s identity.
6. Search the right outlets for spreading your message
No matter what industry you are in, it is important to find ways to draw visitors to your site. There are many ways to promote your website. You should choose one that is consistent with your brand.
Find outlets (websites, social platforms, apps, etc.) that are in line with your brand’s values and style, and get involved. This will enable you to reach more people who are likely to interact on your site by building a better marketing funnel.
7. Content is king for website branding
We always iterate this to our clients because we recognize the power of meaningful and compelling content. The best way to bring traffic is through content. However, clients need to work on their content and not just as a means to spam customers’ feeds. That can prove to be disastrous. Compelling and relevant content is the order of the day.
The blog section of the website can serve as the mouthpiece of the client’s business. It builds and enhances and sustains the brand in the long term. Take the time to create a content strategy. Choose the topic that best fits your brand’s personality.
Brand your Website Now:
Branding your website is one of the best ways to attract leads and convert them. This applies to your website copy, blog posts, images, and videos. Ultimately a brand provides compelling reasons for customers to return for more products and services.
By following the above steps and going a step further, you will understand how to brand your website and the process of website branding and they can at least monitor the activities of dedicated developers whom they hired.
More Resources about WordPress Blogs:
Recipe to build awesome one page websites
As part of providing holistic software development services, our developer team has undertaken diverse web development projects catering to different businesses and based on different platforms. Many a time clients approach us to hire a WordPress developer to design a single page websites. Contrary to what many developers think, designing one page websites are much harder than multi-page websites. This is because developers need to design in such a way that they convey similar information and appeal to the same extent as multi-page website. Imagine cramming a lot of information only to end up frustrating customers. So the key here is to strike the right balance. In this blogpost, we go through some of the ingredients to design the perfect single page website.
Business Vision
As in marketing effort, the client must strive to make clear her business vision to the developer, so that both and other stakeholders are on the same boat. Why is this important? The business vision or goal streamlines the entire process, focussing on a set of objectives and thus concentrating all efforts towards the same. These goals can be anything ranging from selling a product or service, announcements, exhibiting portfolios and so on. Failing to do this in the initial stages can prove to be catastrophic and costly for the client and the developer. Understanding the business vision also paves the way for designing the website layout – content, style, colours, images etc.
Content
Clients and developers would do well to remember that content is always the king. Displaying the right content requires collaboration and deliberation between the stakeholders. Content here refers to everything from text, images, videos, animations etc. Everything matters. When it comes to displaying text, going minimalistic is generally good for attracting customers. Bold texts with brief paragraphs or one liners or phrases are sure to entice customers. Having said that, the text must also be compelling. Visuals are powerful and when used in the right manner, they can make a great impact on brand image and consequently on end sales or related metrics. Contrasting images with a fresh perspective that includes a good mix of images and text are welcome. At the same time, making wise use of white and negative spaces can enhance footfalls. It shows order and elegant presentation of distinct components.
Accessibility
This includes both navigation and call to action buttons. Even simple navigation like scroll down can be used effectively alongside good content. It provides a seamless experience for customers visiting the website. Ultimately clients want customers to view content in a natural way like how a great story moves forward. Designing a single page website must take this into consideration. Coming to call to action buttons, the client must neither shy away from using them nor bombard the page with them. Using them in the right number and right place are key to entice more customers. Cluttering the page would not serve anyone. In fact, it will frustrate customers and make them leave the site. Generally speaking, a single call to action button is enough, given the singular objective of this category of websites.
Now that we have gone through the ingredients for building the perfect one-page website, what do you think is required apart from those discussed? It goes without saying that clients hiring a dedicated WordPress developer are better placed in designing great single page websites.
CSS Hero – First Impressions
Themes are important for clients selling products, services or content online. If successfully deployed, they position themselves firmly in the minds of end users, thereby retaining existing customers and attracting new customers. But how do clients who most often try to hire a WordPress developer decide on a theme? Many a time, we have come across clients distressed in finding the right theme, especially because there is a lot of competition and they need to clearly stand out. Yet another factor in consideration is the responsiveness. There are a lot of themes around in the WordPress world but almost always there is a constraint. The said plugin might be expensive or it requires the professional expertise of a developer. So in this blogpost, we will talk about our first impressions in using CSS Hero – a remarkable plugin that claims to help in customising clients’ websites with ease.
How does it work?
Using a simple point and click mechanism, all customisations on CSS Hero is done on the front end. As in a page builder, the client is able to select customisable elements of the webpage. The live editing. Perhaps the best feature of CSS Hero is that it allows clients deploy customisations separately to the original themes by creating a dedicated file. This is a boon in disguise, for in the untoward event of website crash, clients can easily revert to their earlier theme versions. Nothing can lose crucial customers such as a bad user experience.
What’s more? CSS Hero also enjoys a very wide compatibility with other themes like Divi. With respect to pricing, the plugin is not expensive in traditional terms. In fact, clients can choose from 4 different pricing plans as per their project requirements. However, they need to pay additionally with every year of license renewal. The client also gets extra support from the CSS Hero team. There is a starter plan, personal plan, pro plan, lifetime pro depending on the number of sites. Installation of the plugin is quite standard as in other plugins. Purchase, download and upload the client’s website. After which, the client can activate the license by getting the corresponding key. Customisation using the plugin can be initiated by clicking on the said button in the preview screen.
Going about Customisation
The client can click on any area of the webpage and instantly a sidebar opens up with plenty of options. For instance, by clicking on the background of the page, all related aspects of the background pop up in the sidebar. There is yet another quirky feature that allows for clients in repeating a particular customisation every time. The highlight of CSS Hero is experimentation and with provision for reverting back to prior versions, clients need to worry about getting creative till they get the desired results. They can get into modifying individual components like changing the colour of hyperlinks whenever mouse pointer is placed. Clients with certain experience of coding are also welcome to add individual snippets to existing code by clicking on the inspector tab.
Clients can easily restore their code by exporting their CSS file after minification to an external location. So resetting after this process will be cause no problems whatsoever. The support and documentation of CSS Hero is quite robust in our opinion. Novices can also easily learn using the plugin by just following the elegant tutorials that includes videos too. Want personal support? CSS Hero has got your back. The team behind the plugin can be contacted through various channels such as email, twitter, raising a ticket on the client’s account etc;
Final Thoughts
Our initial impressions tell us that CSS Hero is all about ease of use, prioritising user control that allows to elegantly choose, test and display theme changes in real time. One only needs to follow the instructions provided on the screen. In case a client is short on funds when hiring a WordPress Programmer, they can forego the process of coding themes from scratch and instead use CSS Hero.
Well, what do you think of this customisation plugin? Leave us your thoughts here.
Social Rocket – A new dimension to Social Media sharing
Data explosion was inevitable with the advent of the internet and it became more pervasive with the emergence of different social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. It truly revolutionised the way people consumed content. This was also aided by the increased adoption of the smartphone for personal use. It became so ubiquitous such that people started browsing and sharing more on the smartphone than the desktop. For clients who want to hire a WordPress developer to get their website up and running, they may also want to incorporate an easy way of sharing content. There are many plugins that cater to this need and in today’s blogpost, we will take a look at Social Rocket and how it seeks to refine social media sharing.
A Space Prelude
Social Rocket has quite an intriguing prelude to its sharing plugin. With a material design space art welcoming clients on its site, it proclaims that sharing content to audience is not rocket science and done in a befitting manner, as per the geography and time.Right off the bat, clients can choose their positioning of social media sharing buttons – inline above/below posts or floating buttons that move as users read content. The free version supports all the major social media platforms. Even the number of shares can be displayed on top of the buttons. Clients can even configure what to display when content is shared – thumbnail images and in-box description.
Social Rocket offers numerous options to customise sharing. For instance, there is a click-to-tweet option that can be used in a custom manner to match the client’s website theme. This can bring consistency to the site’s interface. There is also provision for Bitly link shortening that can be set depending on the network. You can also hire a dedicated WordPress developer from us who can do this for you.
Getting Hands-On
Right after plugin activation, it gets reflected in the WordPress dashboard. A host of settings can be found here – inline buttons, floating buttons, click to tweet, extras and licenses. With respect to inline buttons, sky is the limit – clients can tweak and control on different aspects for both desktop and mobile. The simple drag and drop mechanism allows clients to choose from different social networks and position the same after customising more on text, icon and colour. Number of shares can be further tweaked to display rounded numbers and above a limit.
The same kind of settings hold true for floating buttons also, the only difference being the placement of the buttons – left, right, bottom, top. For instance, providing share buttons on the bottom page while browsing on mobile can be extremely convenient for customers. The click-to-tweet similarly has plenty of customisable options from text colour and accent to call to action text. Perhaps, the highlight of Social Rocket is the provision for clients to design sharing buttons for individual pages or posts. Dedicated images can be added, thereby making it a site-specific sharing.
In all these settings, there is an explainer for each component thereby assisting clients to design their sharing widgets. The basic features of Social Rocket are available for free. However, clients can go for Pro version based on the number of sites they own – starting from $29 for one site to $249 for unlimited sites.
How do you think Social Rocket can enhance your website browsing experience? Leave us your feedback. Contact our developer team for hiring our services.
WordPress Plugins for Two-Factor Authentication
In today’s world with the proliferation of the internet services, along with the massive growth in information consumption and online goods-services purchase, there is also an equivalent threat to the security and stability of websites. Websites, if not protected adequately, may face virtual attacks. This can lead to loss of credibility of websites, loss of site traffic and even de-listing from search engines – the last thing business owners want. In simple terms, businesses are vulnerable to malware attacks which can subsequently hurt their bottom lines. Therefore, there is a need to secure websites in an effective and efficient way.
The need for two-factor authentication
Most of us would be familiar with two-factor authentication, especially since we would have had so much experience in creating new accounts or installing new applications. However, for the uninitiated, two-factor authentication is essentially an additional layer of security along with the default password. This two-factor authentication can range from simple forms such as entering picture captcha or pattern to more secure forms of providing device-linked OTPs (One Time Passwords). These two-factor authentications ensure that only the rightful owner of the website is able to access the website.
Depending on the kind of authentication that clients want they can go for either of the following means to implement two-factor authentication:
1) E-mail – the secret code is sent via the client’s registered mail ,
2) SMS – OTP is sent to the client’s registered mobile number,
3) App-Generated code – Some apps come with the feature of generating random codes which the client has to enter while accessing,
4) Tokens – Inserting dedicated tokens into USB ports
Now, in this blogpost, we take a look at some of the popular WordPress plugins that can be used to setup two-factor authentication. Why WordPress? Because, it is one of the most widely used CMS platforms.You can also hire a wordpress programmer from us who can help you with this.
Duo Two-Factor Authentication
First in this list, we have Duo developed by the folks at Duo Security. This software proclaims to setup two-factor authentication within minutes to prevent data theft. Initially, clients will need to verify themselves with a device of their choice – a mobile phone for example – to increase security manifold. In our time with the software, we can say that Duo is easy to setup without complexity. Having provision for different user roles like admins, authors, editors Duo also has multiple ways to provide authentication ranging from one-tap passcodes, phone call-backs to one-tap authentication using Duo’s own app.
Two Factor
This is a free-to-use open source software which in our opinion is one of the simplest two-factor authentication in this list. All one needs to setup is to go to Users section, click on Profile and then click on Two-Factor options. The plugin claims to have provision for Email codes, OTPs, Backup codes. A delightful feature is the presence of a simple testing provision that clients can use to check their authentication.
Google Authenticator
Google Authenticator is an easy recommend for those clients who want to hire a WordPress developer for implementing complete end-to-end security solutions. All of this without having to pay anything – always good news for developers. Needless to say, we found the software that has a beautiful UI, easy to install. What’s more? It is GDPR compliant and has support for multiple languages. The free plugin features include even two-factor authentication on login page itself. It distinguishes itself from other plugins from monitoring user logins. Clients can do more by going for the premium versions.
GatewayAPI
GatewayAPI is a no-nonsense two-factor authentication service that banks on purely on SMS sent from the back-end. All one needs to do is signup for a free account and clients can choose from a range of features including short-codes, integration with Contact Form 7, import of recipient list, remember device for 30 days and more. The software also adds a bit of personalisation by providing clients the freedom to use their own keywords to receive as SMS.
Rublon Two-Factor Authentication
Last on our list in Rublon – yet another software that emphasises ease of use and simplicity.It supports email, SMS, QR code, Time OTP among other two-factor authentications. The best highlight of Rublon is that there is no need for any configuration. Clients only need to install the plugin and connect to the API using the relevant security key. Having support for five languages and a friendly interface, it makes for a satisfying security implementation.
Get in touch with our team at HireIndianProgrammers to enlist our services.
Test your WordPress Website for PHP 7.x Compatibility
Running your website on recent versions of PHP has numerous advantages, chief among them, the huge increase in speed. On the other hand, there is something even more concerning. Earlier versions of PHP have reached their end-of-life in 2018. This means that they will stop receiving security patches in the future. Therefore, it would be ill-advised to remain in any of these earlier versions.
WordPress recommends web application developers to adapt and start using PHP 7.3 and also stop support for earlier versions. Fret not, for our WordPress developers at Hire Indian Programmers are very much acquainted with the latest versions.
Steps to check PHP 7.3 compatibility of WordPress website:
In this blog post, we will look at what you can do to get your site to be compatible with PHP 7 and how you can check or test the WordPress website for PHP 7.x compatibility. An experienced WordPress developer will know to get your website to be compatible with the latest version of PHP.
Check the WordPress site is fully updated or not:
- The first step is to ensure that your WordPress is fully up to date. It essentially refers to everything from themes and plugins in their latest versions. This is because themes and plugins evolve over time and some features that were working earlier have become deprecated or removed.
- It is helpful to keep in mind the list of items that must be in the continual update. Another major consideration is your web host’s setup – their PHP version and whether they provide easy switch of versions and so on. As a WordPress developer, you must be aware of these so that you will be in a position to plan your next course of action.
The testing method with the available resources:
- Secondly, you have to keep some tests at your disposal and perform it before you attempt to use a newer version of PHP. This can save you from downtime. Your testing methods will depend upon the resources that are available and knowledge of PHP.
- Software such as Bitnami, WAMP, and XAMPP can provide an experience of how the latest versions of PHP run with accurate results of what is working and what is not working. Access to a cloned web application will make your testing process easier and faster – enabling you to identify bugs and issues.
Use PHP compatibility checker to run the compatibility check:
- The third thing you can try doing is using a compatibility checking tool to check how your current WordPress acts under a specific version of PHP.
- This can be done by making use of the free PHP compatibility checker plugin. Subsequently, a report is generated that will reveal any potential problems.
Find and fix errors with the help of developers:
- Fixing errors – Time is of the essence and depends on the degree of the error. Sometimes the error may lead right to the source and at other times, it may take a little bit of troubleshooting. The best way to fix errors is to switch to a default theme. A WordPress developer will recognize its importance.
- Now, start activating plugins and test them one by one. If the problem lies with a third-party plugin, then seek the assistance of support forums where other people might have faced similar problems.
Check the speed and security:
- After you are done with the clean-up process, you will begin to reap the benefits of an improved user experience, owing to the faster processing of requests.
- Additionally, there is also apiece of mind that whenever security issues arise, they will be patched as quickly as possible.
You can get started in your Web Application development process with WordPress by first checking out our team, their credentials, area of expertise, and previous work.
You can then proceed to hire a WordPress Developer from our organization.
For more queries, contact us here.
Read More:
Factors to Consider Before Hiring the Best WordPress Developers in India
7 Key Steps to Website Branding Using WordPress
Top 18 WordPress SEO Plugins to Boost Your Website Traffic
51 Best Practices for WordPress Bug Fixing [Errors & Resolution]
6 Best WordPress Cache Plugins to Speed-up Your Website [3 are Free]