What does my web designer mean when they mention split testing?

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Introduction

Within this article, our web designers talk about what “A/B testing” is all about, which is also sometimes referred to as split testing. We will talk about why leading brands, and many companies use split testing, to help improve the company’s web design.

For example, a team of PHP web developers might for example, redesign the mobile version of the website, they might make the main menu easier to use, redesign the code, so that the homepage has a new design, they might change the colour scheme, from say one shade of orange, to another, this is to see if the HTML, PHP or let’s say the Javascript alterations help improve the company’s web design or not.

·        What does split testing mean?

·        Why is split testing used?

·        Why a web developer is needed

·        Why sometimes seo agencies and web designers work together

·        How it can help to improve CRO, that’s conversion rate optimisation

·        Why web design now means that a lot companies, don’t just have a new website built, and then leave the design the same, it now means a lot of companies, in Wales, now use split testing, to improve the web design on an on-going basis.

 

So let’s say that your web design company has asked you into their offices for a meeting, and they are showing you the final draft of your company website.

You are pleased with the design, it’s exactly what you wanted, and then the designers turned you ask will you need split testing in the future?

Now, you might have never heard of split testing, you might be scratching your head thinking well what is that why will my business need it?

This article is dedicated to explaining what split testing is, the benefits if the web design agency does it right, and why it’s worth thinking about even after you’ve had your website designed.

So, what exactly is split testing?

So, let’s think of your website as you would a car, rarely does a car manufacture ever make of vehicle, and then think that that design is so perfect that it can never be improved upon.

Now turn this concept to your own website, it’s likely that even if you have paid a lot for your website, that’s the say you gone to a top web design company, it’s still rare that it cannot be improved upon.

And when we say improved upon, what most companies mean is improve it so that it improves the bottom line.

So, for example, let’s say that you sell electric mountain bikes, let’s say that the web developers change the homepage, they for example make it easier to go to each section of the company website, which sells different brands of electric mountain bikes.

After the change is implemented, you notice that it’s people are going straight to the brand mountain bike that they want, and that your sales increase, now you might not want to make this change, without checking that it is improving sales, so what some web designers do, is use split testing, and split testing is used to compare your design with the new design to see if this helps to improve sales.

 

Is A/B testing the same thing?

Your web developer, might refer to split testing, as a B testing, sometimes these terms are used interchangeably.

Why is split testing so important?

Split testing is so important, because it’s improving the design, for example you might have a website designed, think it looks brilliant, it’s just when you use split testing, your agency might tell you that when they voted say the design of the main menu, the your sales increased by on average 7%, and obviously as a business, you want to do everything you can to help improve the design.

It’s kind of like owning a shop, and you are rearranging your stock in the best way that you know how to increase sales.

So, let’s say for example that you sell shirts suits and ties, and you notice that when you put your ties at the front of the store you sell more of these, as people pass to the store to purchase shirts, so this is exactly the same concept with your company website, you might want to have an ongoing relationship with your web designers, so that they can constantly improve the design, to hopefully help increase sales.

What does conversion rate optimisation mean?

When you visit your local SEO company, you might hear the SEO consultant talk about conversion rate optimisation, now they might talk often about backlinks, on-site SEO, but it might not talk about conversion rate optimisation that much, so it might be a term that you’re unfamiliar with?

However, the same concept is used here, it’s about altering the SEO and the design to help improve sales, so for example let’s say that you have a company website designed using WordPress, and the WordPress web developers then redesign the homepage, and they do that by adding items which are the most popular in terms of sales to the homepage.

Let’s say for example you are an electrical retailer, and you specialise in retailing kitchen items such as cookers, fridge freezers, washing machines and toasters.

You notice that when you put your bestselling washing machines on the home page, this increases sales, so this is the web developers, making a design improvement and this is what conversion rate optimisation is about., That’s making changes to help improve sales.

Why is it, now for web designers to work with a SEO agency?

A lot of businesses, still think that once you’ve got your website built, say using WordPress, then that’s it it’s built and it doesn’t need to be improved, however this is not the case, a lot of businesses still have their website improved on a regular basis.

So, where you might have contacted web design agencies, got a quote, got the website designed, and some businesses might have left design the same for a long period of time, however now it’s more Common is the businesses to have a website designed, then to have it constantly improved using split testing for example.

Let’s give you an example, let’s say that you run an e-commerce business and you sell flowers online, and the flowers then delivered to people’s homes.

You might find that working with a digital marketing agency, they are able to improve the design, so that it makes it easier for customers to find the flowers that they want, that they purchased the items quicker, therefore the web designers are using split testing to improve the design, and this means that they might be making design alterations on a regular basis.

So, as you can see, a lot of businesses now don’t just have a website designed, and then leave it the same for a long period, instead they often use a marketing agency which offers split testing

So, are what you saying is that a website needs its design constantly tweaked?

Some businesses do use split testing, and some businesses therefore change the design on a regular basis, however some businesses just keep their website the same

What are the benefits of split testing?

 

If done correctly, by a respected web design company, then it’s possible that split testing, can be used to improve the design

What’s features of the website are sometimes changed?

It could be anything, from the main menu, and to the homepage, through to the colours that are used

Will this mean altering the code, for example the PHP?

Often it does mean altering the code, so for example a PHP web developer might be needed

How our web design company can help

We run our web design company within the city of Cardiff, we therefore have many clients within Cardiff, yet we also work with companies that are located all over the UK

 

 

 

Which hex codes should our business and use?

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Especially when a business is just starting, there is often not a set of brand-guidelines in place, sometimes this can mean that the web developers, that are working for your company, will need to spend more time making sure that you obtain a design that you would like, that’s because, the web developers, when writing the code, such as the CSS and the HTML, well, they need to know which fonts to use, which colour font, what colours to use in the various parts of the design, such as the header, the footer, what the background colour of the drop-down-menu should be etc, etc.

So what a set of brand guidelines can often do is help the web designers, they will know which font to use, such as sets say Arial, or Calibri Light for instance, they will often have a company logo to use, and know which hex codes to use, but often the web designers will not have a set of brand guidelines to work from, they therefore need to know which hex codes the business wants to use, so to help speed up the entire web design process, its sometimes a good idea to think of what colours you want to use, and where.

 

This article has therefore been written, so that you can think about which hex codes to use, and where you will often need hex codes to pass to the PHP web developer for example.

 

 

What does my web developer mean when they mention “hex codes”?

 

 

Well, you know when your redecorating your living room, often you will know the colour you want, but there’s absolutely no point in driving to say a local DIY store, and saying something like “well, I want a shade of blue, not too light, not too dark, that’s isn’t going to work in a million years, its more than likely that your going to go home, open the pot, and think, they got the colour totally wrong, you may even be rather mad about it.

 

So, with that said, this is exactly the same when it comes to visiting your Cardiff website designers, once you sit down with them, and they’ve made you a cup-of-tea, they may ask, well, what colour do you want the header, what colour do you want the footer, what hex codes should be used on the fonts?

 

And you look rather confused, as you have not thought much about it, so you say to your PHP web developers, well, how do I choose, and they may show you a graph of colours, and when you click on the colour, it gives you a hex code, then when they are writing the code, the PHP or the CSS, they can use the hex codes, when writing that pages code, so all this means is, instead of saying, well, I want the homepage to have grey and red, you can exactly state the colour red, the colour grey you want, then this can be coded into what is known as the code, or source code which is written by a web developer to build your website.

 

What does CSS mean?

 

 

When having your website built, whether it be by a web designer in Cardiff, or perhaps your business is in another city, and you’ve hired a local web developer there, what’s important is that you articulate how you want your website to be built as clearly as possible, that’s because for every feature, let’s say a “contact us” form, that’s to be in a box, surrounded by a bright colour, let’s say orange, that’s got to be written into the code, that’s to say, to make different colours appear, for example, a navy blue header, then a navy blue footer, and a navy blue menu, that code needs to be written, and CSS is the code that’s often used, so in order for your web developer, whether they are building a Joomla website, or let’s say they are building a WordPress CMS for your company, often the Cardiff web designers will need to know where to change the colours, and which hex codes to use.

 

 

Why its sometimes a good idea for a company to have a set of brand guidelines ready before the website is built?

 

Let’s say your starting a business, you about to start let’s say a coffee shop near Cardiff Bay, and you need a website built, so you hire a local web developer, what they often need is quite a lot of information from you, to start building the site, so for example, they may ask:

 

·       Have you registered a domain name?

·       Have you got a set of brand guidelines?

·       Has your business written the text?

·       Do you have a set of hex codes?

 

So, if your business has this information ready, then this can often help the web designers.

 

Why sometimes ever paper sketches can help your web developer

 

So, lets say that your about to start a company, let’s say, the business is a solicitors practice, it can help the web designers, to even get a rough sketch of how you want the site to look, this can help the web designers to write code for what are called “wire-frames” our wire frames, we refer to as drafts, and what we can do is show drafts the website, as our WordPress web developers build the site, so that our clients, get idea of how the site is coming together.

 

Hex codes allow your businesses marketing to be consistent

 

So, let’s say that you run a local take-away, you make very tasty Greek food, simply delicious, you deliver in Cardiff Bay, you also deliver in Roath Cardiff, Llanishen, Cyncoed, Rumney Cardiff, so your take-away business, well it covers a very large area.

 

And up until now you haven’t had a website built, but now you want a WordPress website, but you want it to match the colour of the companies delivery cars, that’s because you’ve had your delivery cars “wrapped” so they are say a bright colour lime green, so now, that exact hex code, that’s used to design the wrapping for the car, that should be passed to the WordPress web developers, so that lime-green colour, that’s used to wrap the car, that can match the website, so when someone see’s the car, say on Newport Road, Cardiff, when they visit your take-away’s website, the lime-green colour matches exactly, this is why hex codes, and retaining the hex codes is important as often web designers needs them, your PR company might need them, even your stationery supplier, if you have say customised company mugs for instance, or let’s say company pens, often the printing business will also need the lime-green hex codes.

 

Think about what colours you want the footer, header and the main pages navigation.

 

Whichever web designer you hire in Cardiff, whether it’s a freelancer, or a large agency with say 60 web developers, what you should think about is, where do you want the hex codes to be used, so for example, let’s say you run a construction business, your located in Wales, and you have a “static HTML” website, its dated, so you hire a local web developer to build a WordPress website, you want the CMS to incorporate colours used across your companies’ diggers, lorries and vans.

 

So, what you should have, is let’s say you have a unique colour of bright yellow that your construction company in Wales uses, you should pass that yellow colour, via a hex code, to the web designers, then tell them exactly where its to be used, so for example, to have a thick header and footer and for that to use that colour yellow.

 

Does your web design agency offer approval at different stages of the websites design?

 

Is the text easy to use?

 

Why sometimes the simpler the better

 

Think about how you want the mobile version of your website to look, which colours should be used

 

Do the colours in your company logo match with the web design?

 

Why not pick out the colours you like from other websites?

 

 

 

Let’s say that you are about to start a new business, so you have hired staff, you found a business premises in Cardiff Bay and you now wish to hire a web designer.

 

Yet one of the first questions that your web developer or your web designer ask your business is which hex codes are you going to use.

 

Now as a business owner, hear in Cardiff you might not know what hex codes to use, you might not know what hex codes mean?

 

Well, quite simply put a business will want the same colour scheme used throughout the website, perhaps the colour scheme is then incorporated into the company logo, and then sometimes the same colours a new say on the businesses business cards.

 

Now, to ensure that the colour scheme is consistent your going to need hex codes, for example if you want an exact shade of pink used, and you are going to need a hex code.

 

This hex code is then passed your web developer, your web developer can then use the hex code to design your new company website.

 

For example our Cardiff web developers and also our web designers will use the hex code to design say a WordPress website, so when you want your WordPress website to have a certain colour for the footer and header, our web developers can use the hex code make sure that we use the right colour the header and the footer of your website.

 

Web design

 

We are web designers within Cardiff, if you are unsure how you would like your new company website to look, then our web design agency can offer your company ideas.

 

For example, you might not know how you would like the homepage to look, for example you might not know which colours to use, whether you want a slider, or how the main menu should look.

 

Our web design agency can offer you many different ideas, we can also offer you ideas of which colours you might want to use.

 

 

 

Company branding

 

Before your web designers start to build a new website, you might want to pay a marketing agency to come up with a set of brand guidelines.

 

The brand guidelines can stipulate which colours to use, also they can design a company logo and it can also for example say which font to use.

 

This can obviously accelerate the whole web design process, because the brand guidelines can be passed to the web developer, and then the web developer will know exactly which font to use, which colours to use, and which company logo to use.

 

Hex codes

 

If you haven’t got a clue about which colours to use, then we can offer you some ideas.

 

 

 

Homepage

 

you can meet with our web designers, and they can offer ideas for how you may want the homepage to be design. For example our web developers can suggest how you may want the main menu to work, also whether you want a slider on the homepage, how wants the layout of the homepage to look.

 

Therefore many businesses meet with our web designers so that they can design the homepage.

 

When you meet with our web designers, they can suggest which hex codes to use.

 

Company logo

 

we can also design a company logo for your business, so for example if you are looking for a company in Cardiff that can design a WordPress website, which can offer organic SCO, and which can design a company logo then why not call our web designers?

 

Web developers

 

Our web developers will need to know which hex codes to use.

 

Mobile version of your website

 

If you want us to design a mobile version of your company website, we will need to know which hex codes to use.

 

For example which hex codes we should use for the main menu, the homepage, the header and the footer and also for example on your company logo.

 

Header and footer

 

We will need to know which hex codes to use for the header and the footer of your website.

 

Main menu

 

You will want your “main menu” to be very easy to use. For your main menu to be easy to use, we will need to know which hex codes to use for the font, and also for the main menu.

 

 

 

Consistent

 

It’s important that your company branding is always consistent, for example, you don’t want to use one colour for your company logo on your website, and then the company logo colour might look completely different on your business cards.

 

So, this is why companies need to have “brand guidelines”, the brand guidelines will stipulate which hex codes to use, and this will make sure that your branding is consistent .

 

 

 

Be different

 

You might wish to use a bold colour scheme, for example you might want to use a right and why different colour on your homepage.

 

For example, you might want use a bright colour purple, it is therefore important that you use that hex code then for your business cards, and your logos as well, this is why you should hire a marketing agency which can write brand guidelines for your business

 

How our Cardiff web developers, and designers can help your business:

 

If you need a new website built in Cardiff, then we can build a website for your company.

 

We can build e-commerce, and also brochure websites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why it’s important to have your brand-guidelines already created before you have your website designed

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You want a brilliant new website for your company, you know the domain name you want, you have a rough idea in mind of how you want the site to look, so that you can tell your web developer how you want the homepage to look, where you want the main slider, how the main navigation should work, what the mobile version of the site should look like, you’ve been planning on how you want your new website to look for weeks and weeks.

So, now’s the time to pick up the phone, and call around as many Cardiff web designers as possible, and get quotes, right?
Well, hold your horses, have you thought about brand guidelines, and you may now be scratching your head, and thinking what are brand guidelines?

Well, brand guidelines are simply a set of guidelines which can stipulate fonts to be used, logo design which colours to use, where the colours should be used, where different fonts should be used, so the brand guidelines allow consistency to occur, consistency across marketing, for example so that the website colour matches with the exact colour used on company cars, and the company’s van, and the company’s shop-front for example.

 

So, what exactly are brand guidelines?

Well, sometimes a business will go to a branding company, a company that specialises in creating a brand for your company, or rebranding your business.

So, let’s say you run a business, let’s say your based in Cardiff Bay, and your business has been successful, yet you think the brand needs modernising, its to be recreated, it needs to have a different look to help improve your businesses marketing, we’ll all well and good, so you hire an agency, they create a set of brand guidelines, and then this states the following for example:
• A logo to be used on the mobile version of the website
• A logo that’s larger for the main company website and for use on say vans, cars the shop-front
• A set of hex codes for fonts
• A list of fonts to use

So, the brand guidelines state which fonts, which colours, which hex codes to use.

And why would a web developer need these?

A web developer will need to write the code, which is sometimes called the “CSS”, this will detail for example, what colour the footer should be, what colour the main menu should be, what colour the font should be.

Also the web developer here in Cardiff in Wales will need the logo to apply to the mobile version of the website, the logo to add to the main website. The WordPress web developer will also need to know what font to use, so for example, when the web designer is writing the code, and designing the homepage, the about us page, the main service pages, they will need to know which font to use, what size the font should be, what colour the font should be? Also size the font should be on the mobile version of the site.

So, what are hex codes?

Hex codes are simply colour codes, so for example, when you meet with your web design agency, one of the first questions might be, have you got a set of brand guidelines, do you know which hex codes should be used and where.
So for example:

• What hex codes should be used for the footer
• Which hex codes for the main menu?
• Which hex codes for the fonts?

Why is it important to use consistent colours?

Let’s say that you hire a local web designer here in Wales, and you just say, the main colour across the new website needs to be a dark blue, well, what you might find is that the dark blue that’s used, unless you have an exact hex code, that you can tell the web design agency to use, it may not match the blue, that’s used say on the company’s cars, so even though it’s a dark blue colour, it might not match.
So, this is why its important to use hex codes, so the company has a colour scheme, and this colour scheme looks the same across say the blue that’s used on the companies vans, shop front and website.

Why is it important to choose a font when having your website built?

Your marketing agency should help you to choose a font, this font can then be communicated to the web developers, then the web developers when they are writing all of that code for each page, lets say they are a PHP web developer, they can code the page, so that lets say Arial font is used.

Does your web design business also offer to create brand guidelines?

You might want to hire a web design company that also offers logo design, plus can also create a set of brand guidelines, this way you may not have to hire say a web design business, and then also a marketing company, as you may find a business that offers both services under one roof.

This is why so many companies come to us, from builders, to lawyers, because our agency, that’s based right in the heart of Cardiff, Wales, can offer web design, organic seo, logo design and also to create your companies brand guidelines.

Have you had your company logo designed?

We can also design logos.

Why your WordPress developer will need this information

Your Cardiff web developers, will need to know your brand guidelines, such as what font to use, what hex codes to use, what logos to use, so the web developers will need to know your company’s brand guidelines.

This information will be needed by your web designer

Whichever web designers you use, whether they are located in Wales, or the other end of the U.K, they will often need a set of brand guidelines, to make sure that the website is designed with say the colours that your business wants.

Does your business here in Wales, Cardiff need to have brand guidelines created?

If so, why not call us?

Does your business need a web designer?

Whether your company is in Cardiff Bay, or you own a business right next door to Cardiff Castle, or your business is near Roath Park, wherever your business is, we can offer top-quality white hat seo, we can design CMS websites, we have WordPress web designers, we can also offer Joomla websites.

If you need a Cardiff digital marketing agency, then why not call top-space-designs?

 

We are having a brochure website built- what are some of the more important design elements that should be included?

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Introduction

You’ve decided that your website needs a mark-over, to look more modern, to reflect what your company here in Cardiff has expanded into.
And you know from running a business for quite a while, or looking to set-up a new company, that you do get what you pay for. Meaning, that often for a lot of businesses, the main way that they advertise the business is online, so their website is critical to the success in many ways to the business.

So, they don’t just want a cheap, bosh, its done type website, no quality is needed. When talking about quality, its important to remember this, when it comes to really good web design, there are so many factors to consider, its not just about what the main picture on the homepage looks like, every single detail needs to be considered, needs to be carefully thought out, that’s why we say whichever web design agency you hire, whether they are in Cardiff, or another city, just make sure you invest in quality, as your website is often one of your most important ways to market your business.

So, our best advice is this, only invest in quality, don’t pick an agency just because of some special offer, cheap deal or the fact they can put the site together in record time, instead invest in quality, a quality site, built by experienced web developers.

So, there are a million and one things to consider when getting a new website designed, but to provide some food for thought, we thought we would mention a few things that we think are important, but do remember there are many more to consider as well…

Fast

So, let’s say your into running, you love nothing more than finishing work, and going for a good jog, its just well, your current daps, well there looking a bit tired, so on the way home from work, your looking to get a pair of trainers, yet one website, well, its so bloated, its so over designed, that its slow, so what happens?

Well, you’re likely to leave for a company website that better designed, that’s fast, where the web designers have thought not just about a fancy design, but also making it fast, so that the customer finds it easier to purchase items, so the point we are trying to make is, whichever web developers you hire, don’t just go off the website looking good, is it fast? Is it easy to buy items? Is the mobile version of the site well-designed?

Are there are coding issues at all? Such as the PHP code working is such a way where the drop-down menu, doesn’t stay down? If so, this needs to be fixed.

Contact forms

Does the website have enough contact forms coded into the company’s website, so for example, let’s say you’re a lawyer, why have just one contact form on the “contact us” page, why not have say your WordPress website designers, to code a contact form on every single main service page, this is so, for example, let’s say you’re a property lawyer, when they click on the page to do with “property disputes” there’s a contact form, so when the customer writes a message, this is sent directly to the right lawyer? Instead of all the messages going through the same contact us page.

Easy to use

Is the company website easy to use? So, for example, lets say you sell coffee online, is it easy to change the order, remove items from the basket? Is it easy to pay? What’s the mobile version of the site like, is it easy to use?

Has your web design agency created brand guidelines?

Does your web developer, or your chosen web design agency, here in Wales, do they know which hex codes to use? Do they have a company logo to add to the site? Do they know which font to use? Sometimes “brand guidelines” need to be created, so that, the web designers know how to design the site, and so all of the businesses marketing is consistent, for example, the same logo and font is used on company letters, as it is the company’s website.

Mobile ready and a responsive design?

Will the website design be responsive? Will you have a mobile version of the site built?

A CMS that is easy to use, or that the web designers can offer training?

So let’s say that you run a business that sells wood-burning stoves, yet the stoves that you stock, those companies that make the stoves, they regularly have new products, so you want a CMS, that you can add blog posts too, so, what you have to ask is, is the CMS easy to use? Is it easy to add blog posts too?

Offers as much useful advice as possible

Is the website useful for your customers, or are left with unanswered questions, if your company website doesn’t answer frequently asked questions, then the bounce rate is likely to be high.

Easy to update?

Is the companies website easy to update?

Are the plugins easy to update?

Are the plugins easy to update?

Can you change the NAP information yourself?

Is it easy to change the NAP information, for example your companies phone number is the footer of the website, if your company phone number changes?