Introduction

It has been assumed that SQL is a required but uncool method of collecting data from databases to feed into fancier methods of data manipulation like pandas and tidyverse. SQL is, in certain respects, an underrated skill in data science. SQL is a database technology that is used in all job roles in software development.

Businesses require at least a basic understanding of SQL from data analysts, data scientists, and especially product managers. The standard query language is necessary for data processing, analysis, and slicing. Learning some hints about SQL, the data language, will help you create better dashboards and analyses in the future. Small changes in SQL can have a significant impact, whether they are made in the writing of data quality checks or even the avoidance of aggregating averages.

6 SQL Tricks Every Data Scientist Should Know Click To Tweet

SQL is the most effective data science foundation course to assist you in examining, filtering, and aggregating to acquire a complete knowledge of the data, even with the vast amounts of data being gathered or produced daily in the industries. By using SQL to slice and dice data, analysts can also find explorative patterns eventually, which frequently redefines the analysis population and variables to be relatively small.

Consequently, the first phase of analytics should be using SQL to extract insightful revelations from the data instead of moving enormous datasets to Python or R. Working with relational databases in the real world involves much more than just SELECT, JOIN, and ORDER BY operations.

In this article, you will go through six recommendations (plus one bonus tip) for using SQL for data science and combining it with other computer languages, such as Python and R, to improve the efficiency of your analytics work.

1. Missing Data/COALESCE() to recode NULL

The secret sauce is the COALESCE() function when recoding missing values. This function recodes NULL to the value specified in the second argument in such situations. In this example, NULL_VAR can be recoded to the character value “MISSING”.

2. Compute the cumulative frequency and running total

The cumulative frequency is calculated by adding every frequency out of a table of frequency distribution to the sum of its preceding. Due to the fact that all frequencies will now have previously been included in the prior total, the final result will constantly be equal to the average of all data.

3. Conditional WHERE clause

Choose a query with just a WHERE clause that demands a specific value, as in the name column that is supplied by a parameter. Therefore, in this instance, you would like the WHERE clause to be conditional, occasionally applying, and you also want to select all the database entries. Your first thought would be to just leave the parameter value blank. However, it would be clear if you put that to the test because returning no parameter value would result in no rows.

4. Lag() and Lead() operate on successive rows

Two of the most frequently utilised analytical functions in my day-to-day work were likely lag (looking at the previous row) and lead (looking at the next row). These two functions enable users to search several rows simultaneously without self-joining.

5. Integrate Python and R with SQL queries

The establishment of database connections using ODBC and JDBC is a need for integrating SQL queries within Python and R. The most straightforward approach to using a question in Python is to copy and paste it as a string and then call pandas. This assumes that we already linked Python and R to the database (); the approach works effectively as long as our queries are brief and finished without any alterations. What happens if our question has 1000 lines or needs to be updated frequently? In such cases, we might wish to read.sql files into Python or R directly.

6. Without self-joining, find the record(s) with the extreme values

For each unique ID, we are responsible for returning the row(s) with the highest NUM VAR value. A logical query would use ‘group by’ to determine the maximum value for each ID, followed by a ‘self join’ here on ID and the total value.

Advantages of Using SQL in Data Science

Conclusion

A Ph.D. or Master’s degree in statistics, computer science, or engineering is held by some data scientists. Any prospective data scientist can benefit from this educational background because it gives them a solid foundation and teaches them the fundamentals of Big Data and data scientist skills they need to be successful in their career. Some universities now provide specific programmes designed to meet the educational criteria for pursuing a career in data science. This has allowed students to concentrate on the subject they are most passionate about. If you want to make your career as a data scientist, start today by learning about the most fantastic SQL tricks. In addition to that, enrol in a data science foundation course by Great Learning that will encourage you to step forward towards career growth and success.

Recommended Read:

TOP 6 DIGITAL MARKETING COURSES THAT WILL PREPARE YOU FOR A SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN 2022

5 BEST SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS TOOLS FOR MARKETERS IN 2022

AMAZING TRICKS TO INCREASE SUBSCRIBERS AND VIEWS ON YOUTUBE IN 2022

General FAQs

Too soon for 2023 trends? Not at all! Based on what data has shown us over the past few years, we’re predicting what the 2023 inbound marketing trends will produce so you can stay ahead of your competition!

What Is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a methodology that focuses on content creation to attract audiences and move them through your sales funnel. The goal is to create evergreen content that connects you to your customers and creates long-lasting relationships. For example, this blog is an example of an inbound marketing asset!

Useful written content, live-stream videos, and real-time messaging features are just a few of the inbound marketing trends for 2023. Is your business primed to get ahead – or fall behind?

Here are a few key points about inbound marketing:

• Inbound marketing strategy often relies heavily on search engine optimization (SEO) to put your content at the top of the search results.
• Outbound marketing efforts, such as paid ads, email outreach, and cold calling, are all part of a valid marketing strategy. They are different, though, and often cost more money.
• Inbound marketing relies heavily on customer data, social media marketing, and search engines to place the right content in front of your audience.

The hottest inbound marketing trends involve interactive content, social media platforms, and reimagining the customer experience to become something truly incredible.

Ready to see the hottest inbound marketing trends in 2023?

1. Short-Form Video Content

Short-form video content originally gained popularity among younger crowds through apps like Vine and Instagram. Today, quick video snippets are thriving in all age groups and demographics on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. If you’re not using video platforms in your 2023 inbound marketing strategy, you will miss out on a massive portion of your potential target audience – no matter what industry you’re in.

Video content isn’t just for fashion brands and social activist groups. Lawyers, dentists, and HVAC companies are now using video to promote their services. Video marketing is a key part of the inbound marketing strategies for many companies in 2023 – make sure it’s part of yours.

There are three main places to focus your inbound marketing efforts for video content:

• TikTok
• Instagram Reels or IGTV
• YouTube Shorts

Video content produces the 2nd highest ROI for B2C brands.

To really win in this space, keep these three video marketing statistics in mind:

1. Landing pages with video content convert 86% more often.
2. 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound.
3. 69% of people prefer video over text when learning about a product or service.

2. Influencer + Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing through influencers is known to create some of the highest ROI for B2C brands.

Inbound marketing using interactive content in a marketing campaign directed at the followers created by someone else is a great strategy.

Why Influencer Marketing Works

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness through video content is a strong way to reach your target audience. Since we know 69% of people want to learn about new products using video, it makes sense to pair video marketing with the influencers your target audience already follows and trusts.

Existing Audiences

Marketing campaigns can spend a lot of money identifying and targeting the best audience to generate relevant traffic. Using an influencer makes this easy because they already have organic traffic produced at their expense. Instead of finding the right audience, you only have to find the right influencer.

Consumer Testing

Consumer behavior on social media is different than on a search engine results page. Social media focuses on interactive content through engagement. Likes, shares, comments, and follows are all part of the way people use social media. This makes it an ideal way to test how customers interact with your brand and services.

What size influencer should you choose?

Here are the tiers of influencers and their effectiveness as ranked by fashion, cosmetics, and luxury marketers in Europe and the US:

• Micro Influencers (10K-100K followers) – 45.8% agreed these were the most effective.
• Macro Influencers (101K-500K) – 33.6% thought these were the most effective.
• Mega Influencers (501K-1.5M) – 9.3% said these were the most effective.
• Celebrity Influencers (1.5M+) – 11.3% reported these were the most effective.

As you can see, influencer size doesn’t necessarily translate to influencer effectiveness. So, when you launch an influencer marketing campaign, you should monitor your marketing performance carefully.

The best thing to do is to run multiple influencer marketing campaigns using influencers with different sizes of audiences. Compare the results to see which size of audience produces the best return for your inbound marketing spend.

3. Podcasts & AudioBooks

Video content is not the only form of interactive content available for marketing leaders. Audio, such as podcasts, talk shows, and even audiobooks, is a viable way of creating inbound traffic.

Traditional advertising relied heavily on audio. Radio ads were common and they were used to increase brand awareness across towns, cities, and even larger areas.

Podcasts could be a powerful inbound methodology for brands whose focus is on educating consumers, reaching out to a slightly more mature audience, and trying to increase audience engagement.

On that note, if you’re looking for a swanky, new digital marketing podcast to add to your lineup check out TheeDigital’s GrowthCast on Spotify or YouTube to learn about SEO, custom web design, PPC, and other inbound marketing tools!!

Here are some podcast statistics that show the relevance of this marketing strategy:

• 66% of people prefer podcasts over TV.
• 58% prefer podcasts over social media
• 96% like podcasts more than newspapers
• 74% of people listen to podcasts to learn new things

So, if your marketing funnel includes a learning stage where the goal is to engage customers and help them learn more, then podcasts could be a great marketing technology to reach those customers.

4. Chat Bots & Messaging Apps

One incredibly useful feature that is – for some reason – vastly underutilized is the use of chat bots. We live in an age of instant gratification. If you live in a major city, it’s likely that if you order something online in the morning, by nightfall, it’ll be on your doorstep.

Your business is competing with those expectations and that level of customer satisfaction. Even if you just sell services, you need to be able to offer your customers instant answers to their questions – or they’ll find it somewhere else!

Consider adding a chat feature to your website. This floating invitation should welcome website users to get custom and useful answers to their questions. Make sure when you set your automated responses up, you’re thinking about user intent. The last thing you want is to frustrate your potential customer before actually speaking to them.

HubSpot has a free chat feature that you can easily set up on your website. This platform is a full customer relationship management tool – and one that could help your business improve its operational efficiency and customer communication. If you don’t already use a CRM or need to upgrade to one that works for your growing business, contact us. We are a HubSpot certified marketing agency, meaning we can guide you to the tools that will best suit your business.

5. Evergreen Content is King

Creating valuable content has been one of the key inbound marketing trends for the past 25 years and it will remain that way for a long time to come. But what is “evergreen content”?

Evergreen content refers to the lifespan and lasting usefulness of a piece of content. For example, this blog post as a concept is considered evergreen content; however, since we do update it every year to keep up with the new inbound marketing trends, one could argue that it’s not technically evergreen. By default, evergreen content should be rare, “set it and forget it” assets that provide value to consumers for an extended period of time.

Wondering why content and inbound marketing is so powerful? Here are three reasons why content may always be king:

• Paid media, email marketing, and funding a sales team are all expensive and their costs rise over time. Inbound marketing through interactive content can be much less expensive, and thus more cost-efficient.
• Using artificial intelligence to identify valuable search queries and target them for lead generation makes inbound marketing through content creation even more effective.
• Social media vastly increases both the reach and engagement with new content. Consumers can interact with their brands and share their favorite products easier than ever before.

Best Types of Content Marketing:

• Blog Posts/Short Articles – 93%
• Email Marketing – 77%
• Case Studies -68%
• Videos (pre-produced) – 68%
• Virtual Events/Webinars/Online Courses – 67%
• Infographics/Charts/Photos – 65%
• Ebooks/Guides – 54%
• White Papers – 47%
• In-Person Events – 42%
• Long-form Text (e.g., articles 3,000+ words) – 32%
• Videos (livestreaming content) – 29%
• Research Reports – 28%
• Podcasts – 26%

These marketing statistics show the variety and amount of content being created. Companies with a genuine commitment to content marketing are investing in high-quality content every single week.

Content is everything

One way to think of inbound marketing is to realize content is everything and everything is content. Your company newsletter could be just as valuable as your influencer marketing if it used correctly. Every blog post is an opportunity for lead generation. Email marketing isn’t just a cold writing exercise. It’s an opportunity to create content that can be an integrated part of your marketing plan.

6. Mobile Apps

People use mobile devices for loads of things. Directions to unknown places, scheduling appointments, setting reminders, and making purchases all happen on phones and tablets every day.

Heavy mobile usage is an opportunity for marketing content, but it’s also a barrier. Many website owners don’t create mobile sites. Instead, they rely on “mobile-friendly” sites and hope for the best.

There is a better way to reach customers on mobile devices: build a mobile app.

Here’s why you should build a mobile app as soon as possible:

• You can use your mobile app to deliver much greater personalization because your app will collect more data about your customers. Applying machine learning to this data may increase the ability to generate leads from customers.
• Push notifications based on customer data are a much better form of interactive content than an email message. These notifications are a great way of reaching customers without being too intrusive.
• Apps have many more options than websites, such as being able to work offline, connect to phone functions, and utilize more branding alternatives.

If you don’t already have an app, now is the time to start building one.

7. Marketing Automation

Marketing is the act of reaching out to customers and sales is the art of closing the deal. One of the more powerful inbound marketing trends is the shift to bring marketing and sales together. This can be done using newsletter campaigns or chat flows.

An effective strategy is to bring marketing and sales together to reach customers and close the deal at the same time. Marketing automation brings these two functions together.

How does this work?

1. Decide what you are doing and which tasks can be automated.
2. Define your target audience as clearly as possible.
3. Determine the best automated tool for your goals.
4. Delegate and distribute work amongst your team members.
5. Describe your goals and measure your progress.

Artificial intelligence and automation combine to form one of the best inbound marketing trends of 2023. They are a force multiplier for your marketing team.

One of the most effective ways to automate your marketing workload is to leverage the use of a powerful CRM like HubSpot. You can set up powerful workflows for your team and your customers that act in the background on behalf of your company. Set up custom actions like an email open that triggers events like sending a follow-up email if the reader does not take the desired action.

In this way, you can actively engage with your customers without you or your team having to do the legwork every time. If you need help setting up a CRM or marketing automation tool, reach out to our digital marketing agency team. We’ll be happy to help you decide which type of marketing automation platform suits your business!

8. Specialist Roles

One of the inbound marketing trends that will impact companies is the rise in specialist jobs. Machine learning and the growth in customer numbers and data make the need for specialized marketing teams more acute than ever.

Here are some examples of digital marketing jobs that didn’t exist ten years ago:

1. Chief Listening Officer – This person monitors the communication with customers across all channels, especially social media. Their reports reveal the effectiveness of the company’s marketing campaign.
2. SEO Specialist – Having a person dedicated to just SEO is a new change in the job market. Yet the data available and the increasing competition for ranking invaluable Google search results make this an important role.
3. UX Designer – Customer experience has become one of the hot marketing trends. The idea is to delight customers during every interaction with the company. A dedicated designer makes this more possible.

When you view your company, what is the next hire you could make to unlock progress in your marketing strategies?

While some companies are keeping their marketing in-house, most small to mid-size businesses are outsourcing their marketing efforts to a designated digital marketing agency. This inbound marketing trend is growing in popularity due to its economic and practical usefulness.

With this strategy, there’s no need to hire one marketing specialist or a full marketing department! You get the resources of a full team of specialists at a fraction of the cost. Plus, most quality marketing agencies don’t force you into a contract – so if you’re unhappy with the results, you can shift gears and find another agency!

Final Word: Inbound Marketing Trends 2023

The most expansive trends are inbound marketing automation, influencer marketing, and increasing personalization through the use of data. Now is the time to change your marketing strategies and team makeup to make the most of these changes and build more sales in 2023.

Imagine you’re getting dressed for a job interview. Would you scan your wardrobe and choose the perfectly pressed outfit or the wrinkled shirt and pants that’s been soaking in your dirty hamper? You’d likely choose clean clothes because you want to make the best impression possible. And while we don’t judge – other people do. The same rule applies in the digital realm: you want to represent your brand in a way that is modern and clean. Let’s look at the benefits of regularly updating a website and how it could impact how people perceive your brand!

Web Design: Keepin’ It Fresh

Your business is important to you – and you probably want it to be important to other people too. An outdated or hard-to-navigate website can turn clients off before they even know who you are. If your website looks or feels outdated, your prospects will turn away and not look back. So, how do you instantly captivate potential customers? Easy: keep your website up-to-date by using safe web practices and custom web design!

The top 6 things to focus on when updating a website are:

1. Updating Your Website Security
2. Boosting Your SEO
3. Keeping Up with Technology
4. Keeping Your Content Fresh
5. Improving Loading Speed
6. Updating Your Website Design

Securing Your Website

Security should be one of the top priorities for businesses both large and small. We hear all too often about large companies that get hacked, compromising information such as clients’ credit cards or social security numbers. This leads to a lack of trust and also hurts the business – clients may choose to go to their competitors for fear that their information might be compromised again.

Lock it Down with SSL

SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is a secure form of transporting information from a server to a browser.

Choose a Secure Website Platform

One of the top reasons websites get hacked is because of the vulnerability in the framework and platform on which their website is built. WordPress is not only one of the easiest platforms to use, but it is one of the most secure sites for your business to be built on.

New releases come out every few months for WordPress, and the software is easy to update to the latest version. There are security features built into practically every new release of WordPress. They spot vulnerabilities and improve their software before the issues affect your website. Websites that stay on older versions of WordPress are more likely to get hacked, as hackers can find out what WordPress version your website is on and worm their way in through backdoor portals.

Choose a Company That Understands Website Security

Be sure that the company you choose to build and/or host your website holds the security of your website in high regard. Your security should be their top priority. Even when using a secure website platform, the backend configuration of your website can play a key role in the security of your website. A poor backend configuration can lead to security breaches.

It’s important for your website hosting company to be aware of possible security issues and have a plan in place to protect your site against them. Ask your hosting firm how often they update the version of WordPress your site is on or the plugins within it – the best firms offer a plan where they will update them on a quarterly basis to ensure your site is secured often. See how often they backup all the data on your website. Ideally, they will do so daily, so if there is a breach or an issue that takes your website down, they can quickly restore to the working version from the previous day.

SEO Workout

Let’s say you’ve got a goal of working out to get toned up. You visit the gym 8 times over the course of 2 weeks and feel accomplished. Do you stop there? If you’re dedicated to your goal: you shouldn’t.

The same principle applies to SEO. If you are truly dedicated to landing top placement for specific keywords and content, you need to keep putting in the effort!

Plus, companies like Google are always changing their algorithms. The best way of staying ahead of these updates is by regularly updating your website content. This shows Google that you are a reputable source which will result in higher rankings and more visitors to your site.

Stay Ahead of Tech Trends

Updating a website regularly is also important if you want to keep up with technology. Technology is always changing and you want to make sure your website is changing with it. Doing so will give your users the best experience which will make them want to visit your site more frequently.

Keep Your Website Content Fresh

Keeping your website’s content updated can help your business in a number of ways.

Better Content Gives You More Traffic

Keeping the content up to date on your site helps build trust between you and your customers. Most likely, customers rely on your site for useful information on whatever market you are in.

Updated information also helps build domain authority. Domain authority, briefly explained, is how much of an authority on a particular subject your website is. For example, Wikipedia.org has one of the highest Domain authorities out there, because its content is always well researched and reviewed by editors – plus you’re not distracted by unsightly or unrelated ads. Google holds this in high regard when trying to match search inquiries with useful and relevant information.

Have you ever visited a website whose copyright is 2014 and the latest blog post is years old as well? Does it make you wonder if they’re still in business, or if they still service your area? Having outdated content on your site, mentioning things like an old location of your business or not-modern technology, can be perceived by your potential customers that your business doesn’t keep up with the latest trends. Anytime a customer reads content on your site that makes them go “wait, I don’t understand that” or “wait, that’s not right”, you’re hurting your credibility.

Keyword Content Strategy

Another place to update your website is your keywords. Having pages on your website that speak about a specific topic is only useful if the keyword(s) are mentioned. For example, if your company provides A/C Repair, then you should have a page on your website dedicated to A/C Repair. Businesses can also use city-specific pages to help them get found in particular city markets, such as Raleigh, Durham, or Cary, NC.

It’s important to keep the keywords on your website fresh as well as the content. Perhaps you’ve expanded into another city in the past few years, or are selling a new product or service. If you don’t update your keyword focus, you’ll continue to get traffic for your first city and service, but not for your new ones.

Improving Page Load Speed

It’s no secret that people don’t want to wait for information. When they log onto a site, they want to get their information quickly. If your site takes too long, they’ll find one that is quicker.

Updating a website regularly should also improve loading speed. Website updates that use new technologies and cleaner code can lower your website’s bounce rate. This can also improve your Google ranking.

Updating Your Website Design

Many businesses focus only on content and internet marketing but fail to address the design and navigation of their website. Some of the things to avoid on your website include difficult navigation, colors that are either too boring or far too obnoxious, and unnecessarily long customer contact forms. All of these things can lead to a website that steers customers away even if your content is top-notch.

Mobile-Friendly Web Design

60% of web traffic now comes from mobile devices like iPhones, iPads, Android Phones, and Tablets. This means that if your website is not mobile-friendly and easy to view on a smaller screen, you could be missing out on over half of your potential customers. It’s that simple!

Keep the Target Market in Mind

A website’s design should focus around the needs of the target customer. This means providing easily accessible, engaging content that the ideal customer within your target market will find useful. It also means that the website is ultimately focused around converting those visitors into customers. Your target market may change over time as you expand your business, hire new employees, or invest in new tools, so be sure you’re adapting the content of your website accordingly.

Final Word on Updating a Website

We are driven by wanting to have the latest and greatest. We like for things to be new, refreshing and up to date. If this is how our culture is driven, why should your website be out of date and stale?

Need help keeping your website secure and up to date?

Let us Help! Contact the internet marketing and web design experts at TheeDigital in Raleigh, NC at 919-341-8901 or schedule a consultation today.

Technology changes fast, and website design trends are no different. Design elements and website features that were once modern and innovative may have become tired, overdone, and cliched in recent years. The last thing you want as people arrive at your site is to lose conversion because your website looks outdated or ignores critical web standards.

Fortunately, our award-winning web design agency keeps up with all the latest website design trends to create highly functional, easy-to-use websites that perform well and look fantastic. We want to share some of the latest innovations, digital technology trends, standards, and forecasts for 2023.

30 Website Design Trends and Standards for 2023 and Predictions for the Next Year

There will always be aspects of web design that are never going away – user-friendly navigation, data security, and fast load times should just be a given on your website. However, you can keep your site at the forefront of design and search engines by adding some of these innovative website features and elements that promise to be hot for 2023.

1. They See Me Scrollin’

Parallax scrolling is a rather popular web effect used to make sections of a web page more dynamic. It’s most often used in full-width applications along with image, video, or texture imagery that adds depth to a page. As the user scrolls past the image or video, the scrolling behavior makes it seem as though the image is placed behind the neighboring sections. This subtle behavior makes the content more engaging.

2. Website Load Time and Page Speed Are King

One of the most important web design standards is ultra-fast load time. Quick loading times have been essential factors in UX and SEO for years, and it continues to be a top priority for websites that want to rank well and convert better.

Studies say that more than half of internet browsers expect a website to load fast and no more than two seconds after clicking a link. If it takes more than three seconds to load your site, your visitors most likely will leave, and it’s not likely they’ll be back, ever again!

Website performance has a direct impact on a company’s bottom line. According to data collected during a study, Pinterest reduced perceived wait times by 40%, and this increased search engine traffic and sign-ups by 15%.

You might have heard the term “location, location, location” from your real estate agent when looking for investment properties. At TheeDigital, we focus on “conversion, conversion, conversions.” Website loading times are a standard metric we look at to ensure a good user experience.

3. Animated Cursors

Another fun way to customize your user’s experience on your website is to design the way they interact with your web elements – which includes their cursor! This 2023 web design trend is delighting users with its unexpected subtlety. By modifying the form of the cursor or by implementing cursor-triggered animations, visitors can have fun interacting with different scrolling behaviors or on-click commands.

4. Smart Content Loading

Many of us might be guilty of having resource-heavy websites with many graphical elements and third-party integrations that can slow our sites down. Fortunately, there are many different ways to develop smart websites that download only the content that you see and need.

Lazy loading and infinite scroll are not brand-new technologies. The top social networks have been using this for years, especially when it comes to infinity scroll. The approach is also popular with long (one) page websites.

All websites should consider how implementing one or two technological approaches might help them outrank or outperform their competition. These features can help improve the user experience for all website visitors, which can improve your conversion rate and ranking.

Lazy Load ensures the web browser (like Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox) will download only the content you see on the screen without wasting valuable server resources and TIME to load offscreen content that might never be seen.

Many website visitors never reach the bottom of a webpage. So why load that content and increase site load times? A better approach is loading the content as they begin scrolling down the page and getting closer to it.

5. Geolocation & Browser-Based Content

Perhaps you have visited a website and then come back to it a few hours or days later to see that the content has changed. When you pull it up on your phone for the first time or on another browser, you see the original content you saw the first time you visited the website.

It’s no secret that most advanced websites track your browsing history and know your location. But cutting-edge web agencies will advise their customers to display dynamic content, content based on past user behavior, or what we know about a user. Not generic content made to serve everyone. 

Custom content created for users returning to your website for a second or third time can increase conversion.

You experience this every time you use Google as a search engine. People looking for a nearby restaurant in Raleigh, North Carolina, will see different results than users in other towns.

A great directory website will also recognize the type of food you like. If you reviewed or saved Italian restaurants in the past, it might make sense to weigh Italian restaurants higher in your search results.

Another example is when you visit your bank’s website for the first time, and you need to add your username and mark your browser as “trusted.” When you come back, the bank will know you are an individual or a business customer. So, they will push their residential or commercial offerings according to your customer status.

Personalized content is probably more important for e-commerce website owners. Displaying recently viewed, saved, or liked products for online shoppers can lead to increased conversions. Highlighting abandoned cart contents for returning customers is also crucial to maintaining a higher conversion rate.

Without realizing it, personalized website content has become more expected by users; and it will be an even more dominant focus for a successful web presence.

6. Grid System

Modern site designers will be opting for an asymmetric style in 2023. CSS Grid Layout is popular to bring the full power of print layout to the web. Grid Layout is a 2D grid layout method for cascading style sheets. Grids allow website designers to construct layouts for complicated responsive web designs. It also gives sites a clean look.

7. Progressive Lead Nurturing Forms Integrated with Your CRM Tool

Online lead generation forms are one of the most important elements of a marketing website. We want to get to know a lot about our website visitors, but we can’t ask too many questions at any particular time. We place progressive/dynamic contact forms on the landing pages and display fields according to the lead’s journey.

Ideally, we don’t want to display too many fields in a form, but we can always adjust the form fields according to the data that we already know about our leads. We might ask the name, company, and email address at the first conversion and then ask for the phone number, title, company size, and company revenue fields at the next conversion opportunity.

Our CRM, like HubSpot, stores the information of our leads. By integrating it with our website. The CRM can recognize the lead when they come back to our websites and display form fields on the landing pages that we don’t know about the contact.

8. Chatbots More Like “Chatbuds”

Chatbots are another feature that has been popular for a few years and will continue to be relevant in 2023. As artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to get more sophisticated, we expect to see chatbots become the norm for simple customer service requests and “personal shopping.”

For example, if a customer visits your website, looking for phone support and the chatbot knows they have an available free phone upgrade. The chatbot can let them know about the upgrade. This can lead to a positive experience for the customer and save the business the customer support cost associated with talking to a live person.

9. Voice-Activated Interface

The way we access information is changing – instead of typing into Google, we now ask a question or make a demand. This means web design is adjusting to keep up with the prevalence of voice chatbots and virtual assistants. While a voice-activated interface isn’t commonplace for most websites, this emerging trend isn’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future.

We can expect to see more and more websites integrating voice search as an option to traditional text search.

10. Accessibility and Availability

Inclusivity and accessibility are more than a trend, but there is a growing need for web design to factor in the needs of people with disabilities. Having a site that every visitor can navigate and interact with is more than just part of good customer service and providing an excellent experience. It can increase conversion, boost your SEO, and help you reach a bigger audience. 

Elements that improve accessibility include: 

• Creating strong color contrast between text and backgrounds;
• Adding focus indicators, such as the rectangular outline that shows up around links when using keyboard navigation;
• Using labels and instructions with form fields rather than low-context placeholder text;
• Using functional alt tags for images (which also boosts SEO!);

11. Interactivity

Adding interactive sections to your website is a great way to provide value for visitors, get them to engage with your website, and learn more about them.

Suppose you were a realtor and added a mortgage calculator to your website. You’re offering value to your visitors while also learning more about them based on the data being inputted into your calculator. 

Examples of interactive marketing include:

• Assessments like quizzes
• Polls and surveys
• Calculators
• Contests

12. Virtual Reality

VR experiences on websites will continue to increase over the coming years. Think of sites like Airbnb that let you tour a rental before you book a reservation. Or the furniture site IKEA’s ability to showcase what a sofa would look like in your room.

VR can be a powerful tool for a website to serve useful, meaningful content to a visitor in a way that helps them make buying decisions.

13. Micro-Interactions

On a website, micro-interactions are small animations that offer subtle feedback to users. One of the most commonly used micro-interactions is seeing a link change colors when a user mouses over it. With the focus on micro-interactions, that same experience might be given more attention to stand out. Imagine a gradient slowly shifting hues as you scroll down a page, or a pop of color exploding from your mouse after you click an element. These are prime examples of elevated micro-interactions that you’ll see more often.

14. Art Deco

Art Deco is anticipated to be popular in 2023 website design aesthetics. Art Deco relies heavily on symmetrical and geometric shapes. This style is often patterned, decorative, and ornamental. Geometric shapes will help to reduce visual stress.

15. Micro-Animation

As you might have guessed from the name, micro animations are small animations. But in this case, small doesn’t mean insignificant. Micro animations are extremely helpful when it comes to guiding users through their interactions with your website. They can also add an element of playfulness to your site like Smashmallow did with the micro animations in their hero image:

Micro animations have been popular for a few years, but in 2023, it’ll be about using them organically. As our UI/production designer explained, we’ll be thinking about how things move, if they’re on a curve or wheel instead of on a flat plane.

One of the latest web design trends for ecommerce sites is using micro animations to enhance user experience and give shoppers a more dynamic vision of their products. This yoga clothing store is using micro animations to show shoppers how their clothes fit and move on real people.

Want to Improve Your Website Performance?

We can provide a personalized website assesment and one on one consultation.

16. Organic Shapes

Geometric shapes were a big website design trend in 2020, but in 2023, it’s all about organic shapes. Organic or fluid shapes are anything that doesn’t involve straight lines. Think of the shapes that happen in nature, like hills, and the edges of a lake or river, and how they are asymmetrical and winding.

Fluid shapes are a great way to break up sections of a website without harsh lines or angles. They’re also great to use in the background, like how Android uses circles behind products on their homepage:

17. Thumb-Friendly Mobile Navigation

Responsive design isn’t enough anymore. Your website should work well and be user-friendly on all mobile devices – regardless of the size! But in 2023, web design will continue to be focused on creating websites that are thumb-friendly.

What exactly is “thumb-friendly”?

We’re talking about the way we use our phones. If you’re reading this on your phone right now, look at how you’re holding it. Your fingers are probably wrapped around the back of your phone (or around a phone grip), leaving your thumb to do all the work. You probably look like this.

Spooky, huh?

Not really. That’s how most of us use our smartphones, and that’s why thumb-friendly navigation is essential. Putting the navigation bar, menu, and even contact buttons in the space your thumb can reach (the center of the screen) makes your site more comfortable to use and improves your UX tenfold.

Here is a great graph showing the thumb-friendly areas of a phone screen:

18. Smart Video

Video has long been touted as a must-have for websites. People love videos! Video is engaging! It’s the most effective online marketing tool!

While video is great, it needs to be thought out. That’s what smart video is about: video with a purpose and meaning. Gone are the days of embedding a YouTube video on your site just to have one. One well-thought-out, high-quality video is better than a dozen haphazardly assembled ones.

The way CEI uses video in their hero image is eye-catching but not intrusive. It is also a fun visual representation of what they do: provide affordable printers and copiers to businesses in Raleigh.

19. Material Design

Material design is a design language that was introduced by Google back in 2014. Traditional web design looks flat. Material design is about using color and shadows to mimic the physical world and its textures.

Google’s icons for its software suite are an excellent example of material design:

The shadows on the Gmail envelope and the calendar are especially good examples of material design. It’s very subtle but goes a long way in making the icons look three-dimensional. We expect to see a lot more material design in 2023!

20. Text-Only Hero Images

Newspapers always put their most eye-catching, important information “above the fold” to increase sales. The website equivalent of this is at the top of a page and is called the “hero section.” A current trend to catch internet users’ attention who are bombarded by different web pages every day is removing the typical background image in the hero section and replacing it with eye-catching typography. A bold, unique font could be just the thing to get a user’s attention quickly.

21. Custom Illustrations

Stock images are out, custom graphics are in! Illustrations help to bring your company’s image to life. Custom illustrations are expected to lead the way as cookie-cutter stock graphics take a backseat.

22. Full-Page Headers

Full-page headers are expected to be popular in web design in 2023. A common approach includes placing important text or call-to-action buttons on the left of the header and using enticing graphics to the right. This is because visitors tend to spend most of their attention on the top-left portion of your page.

23. Dark Mode

Dark mode web designs serve a couple of different functions. On the practical end, they help reduce eye strain, a concern for many as we are spending more and more time looking at screens. On the aesthetic end, dark mode easily creates an ultra-modern look for your website while giving you the ability to highlight other design elements just by darkening the elements that surround it.

24. White Space

The use of white space is about giving content room to breathe, not trying to cram the most information possible on the screen. The experience is more relaxing for your website visitors, the content stands out better, and readability is improved.

White space is just the term for the spacing we give between elements. It does not have to be white, as long as the area is empty. This is why it’s also known as “negative space.”

25. Data Visualization

Communicating data in an engaging way is a struggle. But the struggle is worth it because using data visualization takes advantage of the fact that humans are visual creatures, and still conveys the message you need to get across. Data visualization creates images out of your data that engage your reader and makes them want to learn more about your brand. Infographics and graphs are some of the most popular ways to bring data to life.

26. Full Height Homepage Hero

Like a giant billboard, making your homepage hero section full-height can focus your users’ attention and serve as distraction-free messaging.

Think of full-screen hero sections as an opportunity for great storytelling. Just keep in mind that images will crop differently based on browser dimensions. You should use an image that will accommodate the design accordingly.

27. Blending Photos with Graphical Elements

You might have noticed overlapping graphics on images in your social media feed. This mixing technique brings a level of creativity and fun to a typical image.

The trend is also catching on with websites. Mixing photography with graphics can reinforce your company branding and keep website visitors engaged with your content.

28. Gradients

Gradients are a long-time trend that has evolved from subtle color overlays to eye-catching backgrounds.

Gradients can be used to add depth, serve as a striking background, or subtly to add texture to an illustration. We increasingly see it used in bigger and bolder typography.

This trend has staying power. We’re excited to see the continual evolution of its use on websites.

29. Interactive and Static 3D Content

Thanks to maturing web technology and web designers wanting to stand out from the average webpage, 3D elements that users can interact with have been increasingly used.

The results can be breathtaking – like the use of interactive 3D content on the Campo Alle Comete website.

30. Frosted Glass Effects

Recent advances in web technology have allowed the easy implementation of the frosted glass effect on websites. The blurry appearance of elements behind the frosted glass overlay helps add color to an area while also allowing text or objects to appear over the image and remain readable.

The effect has become a popular option in a designer’s tool belt and has increasingly been used as a background in place of gradients.

Ongoing Web Design Trends and Website Development Standards

There are a few popular trends from the past few years that will continue to be significant in the upcoming years. If you’re undergoing a website redesign or are hiring a web design agency to build a new website for your business, make sure these items are at the forefront of their minds:

1. Mobile-First Design

We mentioned that responsive/mobile-friendly web design isn’t optional anymore. Your site should be designed with mobile in mind first. Mobile searches overtook desktop searches way back in 2015. Since the beginning of 2017, mobile traffic has accounted for nearly half of all web traffic worldwide. More than good UX, Google has ranked mobile-friendly sites more favorably since 2018. Yep, mobile-first design is another drop in your SEO bucket.

Make sure your hero is engaging and you include any important hooks, service descriptions, or CTAs in your header. Don’t overcrowd or overwhelm, but you want must-know info in the above-the-fold section of your desktop or mobile device.

2. SSL Certificates

SSL certificates are less of a trend and more of a standard security measure for websites. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and the certificate is installed on your web server. It serves two purposes: it authenticates the website’s identity, which guarantees visitors that they’re not on a bogus site, and it encrypts the data being transmitted.

This ensures a private “conversation” between your website and your visitors. If your site doesn’t have an SSL certificate, getting one should be a priority in 2023, especially if you own an ecommerce site!

The Latest Web Design Trends and Standards for 2022 in Three Words: Fast, Clean and Eye-Catching

When you think about web design trends for 2023, think of custom illustrations, animated cursors, and blending photos with graphical elements. All of these and more will help to keep your site fresh in 2023. Updating your website’s design can positively impact your brand and revenue. If you want a modern and user-friendly website, contact our team today. Call 919-341-8901 or schedule a consultation today!

You may have heard or read the term “above the fold” and “below the fold” regarding website design. When you look at your website, it might not be obvious that there is a fold. Believe it or not, your website does have a fold, and being aware of it is important when it comes to where you place content. We will show you how to determine where your website’s fold is and how that can be useful when creating a knockout website.

What does above the fold mean?

The phrase “above the fold” comes from the newspaper industry. The fold is the separation between the upper and lower half of the newspaper. Newspapers are displayed to customers folded so that only the top half of the front page is visible. The most important or eye-catching stories and photos are often displayed above this fold to increase sales.

When it comes to websites, you can use the same concept, but it’s all about being “above the fold” or “above the scroll”.

Above the fold or above the scroll includes the contents of the webpage that can be seen without scrolling. Think about your typical screen. A default screen resolution will display approximately 600 pixels. After that, the user needs to scroll down to see the rest of the content. Everything within that initial 600 pixels is considered above the fold. The big question is, will your visitors scroll down past that initial content?

You’re taking a gamble to assume that your website visitors will want to continue scrolling to get to the good stuff. You will have to give the user enough content above the fold to make them want to continue reading. If not, they’re not only going to stop scrolling, but there’s a good chance they’ll find another site that gives them what they need above the fold to encourage them to continue scrolling and seeing the rest of the webpage.

With all of the advancements in responsive website design and computer sizes, different users’ fold on different machines is seldom the same. Regardless of the screen size, we design all of our sites to consider the fold.

Note: Below is common breakpoints for screen sizes. Knowing these can help you when testing your website and identifying what content appears above the fold.

Standard Website Resolutions For Mobile screens:

• 360×640
• 375×667
• 414×896
• 360×780
• 375×812

Standard Website Resolutions For Tablet Screens:

• 768×1024
• 1280×800
• 800×128
• 601×962
• 962×601

Standard Website Resolutions For Laptop Screens:

• 1920×1080
• 1366×768
• 1440×900
• 1536×864
• 1024×768

Using heat maps is a great way to help you determine where on average, the above the fold section is located for your webpage based on the specific site visitors your website attracts.

Using Heat Maps to Find Your Website Fold

Heatmap tools collect data from real-life visitors and display the results in various colours. In our example image, dark red showcases the most viewed section of the webpage, yellow for the less viewed sections, and light green for the least viewed sections.

Heatmaps can track where users are clicking or tapping on your website. They can show where visitors have moved their mouse on the screen. This data can be used with analytics to determine how often and how long users interact with each section on your webpage.

Scroll heat maps are the ones you’ll want to use to determine where the fold on your website is. They track how far each visitor to your site scrolls down while looking at your page.

Once you have your scroll heatmap set up and running for a few days, you can get an idea of where your visitors are spending their time on your webpage and where they begin scrolling. This data will inform you where the fold on your page is. It may be as little as 1/2, 1/3, or even 1/4 of your entire web page’s length. With this knowledge you can begin to analyze what content you have appearing above the fold and if it should be tweaked.

Content to Include Above the Scroll

When it comes to your webpage, there are several items you’ll want to include above the fold. The choices you make can increase your chance of visitors staying on your website and hopefully doing business with you.

Here are some things to consider including above the fold:

Your Brand Logo

You want people to recognize your brand by your logo. Having it displayed above the fold lets visitors know exactly what website they’re on before reading the text or searching for something.

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Your unique selling proposition is what sets you apart from the rest. It will immediately show visitors what you’re offering and how they’ll benefit from further exploring your page. You’ll also want to include some explainer copy to briefly explain what your product or service does and why people would want it.

Simple Intuitive Navigation

If this is someone’s first time on your site, you’ll want to provide simple intuitive navigation that will allow them to further explore your site. This tool should be easy to use.

Contact Information

People don’t want to go crazy to learn how to contact you. Providing a telephone number or email address above the fold is an easy way for people to discover how to contact you. It doesn’t need to scream at them when they’re on the site. It just needs to be there.

Call to Action

Some people say this is a must, while others say it doesn’t have to exist. So, the choice is ultimately yours. But, if you include a call to action above the scroll, people have a clear idea of what you’re offering. It’s clear and to the point. Placing it below the fold assumes that visitors will continue to scroll down and hopefully see it.

Placing your Content on the Web Page

Now that you know what to include above the fold, you want to place it correctly. Studies have shown that 80% of time spent on a site is spent above the fold. As visitors scroll further down the page, their attention span shortens, and they lose interest resulting in lower time on site and higher bounce rates.

With that being said, you should place your most important information in the upper half of the page above your website fold. Use the section of the web page that get the most views to position your creative and compelling call to action.

Final Thoughts

If you’re losing traffic and failing to keep your website visitor’s attention, it could be because your “above the fold” content isn’t catchy enough. Always focus on creating compelling and relevant content without cramming too much information into one section. Take advantage of the data gathered from visitors behaviour and use this knowledge to assess the proper locations on your web page to place your call to action. Don’t forget to include your contact information and a handy navigation tool to help your visitors.

With evolving technologies, algorithm updates, and tools, keeping up with current digital marketing trends can be overwhelming. You can increase visibility and organic traffic through SEO. Build a brand with just your social media presence. Sell more with a well-managed PPC campaign. But, how do you know what to focus on?

The trick is in the adage: work smarter, not harder. Our digital marketing agency has to stay on top of current and future trends – so we’ve done the heavy lifting and research for you. As we move towards 2023, here are some digital marketing trends we’re keeping an eye on.

The Latest Digital Marketing Trends for 2023

1. Data Collection

Going into 2023, businesses are expected to be more proactive in gathering data through different practices. Forms are one way to find out information about your customers that could support your sales funnel or even influence your next business decision. Even the most basic forms gather valuable information that can help you turn browsers into buyers.

If you use a CRM like HubSpot, you can input customer data like their name, email address, and phone number, then add them to your mailing list or keep tabs on their user activity when they visit your site. This will help your sales team better assess where the website user is in terms of their buyer journey.

2. Google Verified Listings for Local SEO

For businesses that operate on a local level, such as a plumbing company or a veterinary clinic, your Google My Business listing provides valuable information and helps establish your geographical location.

Having a geographically-defined service area with Google My Business listing aids in showing up for “near me” searches. It also lets customers learn more about your business within Google Search results. At a glance your potential customer can see your open hours, address, and star rating left by other users.

In order to make sure the information displayed is correct, you should verify your Google business listing and keep information up to date. The benefits of verifying your business are: 

1. You can manage your business information in Search, Maps, and other Google properties.
2. Verified businesses are considered more trustworthy and reputable than unverified competitors. 
3. When you verify your business, you’re preventing fraud in the event that someone else tries to act as the owner and claims your listing as theirs.

If you’re not sure about your listing, you can check the verification status of your Google My Business listing. If it hasn’t been, you can start the simple process to get your business verified by Google.

Having a Hard Time with Verifying Your Google Listing? We’re Here to Help!

3. Voice Search

Voice-activated digital assistants continue to be huge sellers, and let’s be realistic – some households talk to Alexa, Siri, or Cortana more than they speak to family members. The popularity of voice search both at home and on our phones has led to one of the most significant shifts in using keywords.

Think about it. When we type a search into Google, we phrase it differently than when we use Alexa for information. For example, a person looking for the nearest Indian restaurant might type “Indian restaurant Raleigh” into Google, but might ask Cortana, “where is the closest Indian restaurant”. When writing content, choose your keywords based on the questions people may ask when using Siri or Alexa. This can increase your visibility, and this digital marketing trend shows no sign of slowing down.

4. Visual Search

Instead of typing a description into Google, users can now upload an image and get information about an item just from a picture. If they’re uploading a plant photo, the search returns species information, while a landmark image will return historical data. When a user searches for a product, it returns similar products and where to buy them. Google Lens, Pinterest Lens, and related search tools turn a user’s camera into a search bar.

How can your business leverage visual search? You can Add high-quality images tagged with descriptive keywords, introduce an image search into your online inventory, and (if your target market uses Pinterest), consider advertising on this platform. Brands that advertise with them get the benefit of boosted search results.

Additionally consider the following:

• having an image sitemap will increase the likelihood of your images being discovered by search engines
• use descriptive file names for images before uploading them to your website
• add alternative text to all images aka “Alt tags”

5. Online Reviews

Online reviews can make or break your business’s ability to attract new customers or clients. While any company can talk up its products or services, other consumers can provide real, unbiased reviews. Having many reviews from verified sources can make your business stand out from the competition and start building trust before they even click on your website.

The most useful review for a business to receive is through Google Business. These are the most trusted sources, they’re the most visible, and your Google Business listing lets people call or visit the website. Facebook is another excellent source of online reviews, and you can use them to build a testimonials page on your website, while Yelp is suitable for restaurants, hotels, and recreational businesses.

There are also industry-related review websites that shouldn’t be ignored:

To increase the number of reviews you have, provide your customers with a simple link to your Google Business listing to leave a review. Even if they’re all 5-star ratings, businesses with few reviews get fewer conversions than companies with 100+ reviews, even if a few of them aren’t great.

6. Automated & Smart Bidding in Google Ads

To get the best possible results from a Google Ads campaign, Ads specialists analyze every piece of data and continuously tweak and adjust keywords, bids, and ad phrasing. While this obsessive attention to detail gets results, it’s exhausting. A business owner trying to run a campaign may become completely overwhelmed and end up failing.

Enter automated bidding strategies. These allow Google to use machine learning to analyze the tremendous amount of data it has on its users to adjust your bids in real-time. Ads specialists can embrace automated strategies while still being in complete control. Automated bidding isn’t anything new – Smart Bidding made its debut in 2016 – but most business owners aren’t aware of what it is or what it does.

It’s important to note that there are still plenty of human strategies involved in optimizing PPC performance. You can’t just set it and forget it and expect results – you still need to test everything, including testing automated bid strategies against each other. 

7. Real-Time Messaging Platforms

Real-time messaging platforms have become a great way to reach customers efficiently. In the age of instant gratification, you need to do everything you can to provide prospects with as much information as possible – else risk losing them to a competitor. Expect to see more of these platforms pop up as businesses look to engage and provide better customer interactions.

8. Google Analytics 4

Google announced that in 2023, the well-acquainted Universal Analytics platform will be deemed a legacy tool. Don’t fret! Google Analytics 4, or GA4, is a new and improved version of the beloved UA – with a few more bells and whistles.

In GA4 you have the option to link to Google Merchant Center, Google Optimize, and BigQuery natively and for free! You can also add your custom reports to the navigation menu, making it easier to access the same view. You’ll also have access to anomaly detection, predictive analytics, deeper attribution models, and more!

We recommend setting up your new GA4 account as soon as possible. Not only does that give you extra time to acquaint yourself with the new marketing tool, but you can use your existing UA platform to compare your current goals, data, and traffic trends – just to make sure you’re reading the data properly and you’re set up to not lose any data after the transition.

The Latest Social Media Marketing Trends for 2023

1. Interactive Content

Adding interactive sections to your website is a great way to provide value for visitors, get them to engage with your website, and learn more about them.

Suppose you were a realtor and added a mortgage calculator to your website. You’re offering value to your visitors while also learning more about them based on the data being inputted into your calculator. 

Examples of interactive marketing include:

• Assessments like quizzes
• Polls and surveys
• Calculators
• Contests

2. Shoppable Posts

If you’ve got an e-commerce business, having a link to your shop in your bio or linking to a specific product in your Instagram Stories is great – especially if you’re a verified presence or have over 10,000 followers. But today’s shopper wants to skip as many steps as possible without being interrupted by ads. With Shoppable Posts from Instagram, you can feature or tag a product for users to see, fall in love with, and buy without ever having to navigate away from your post.

These platforms have taken note that people are using them to shop, and they’ve made it easier for merchants to sell via social media. Over the past few years, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook have all introduced ways for e-commerce stores to create shoppable posts. Using a native integration, they’ve made it easy to tag and shop products directly in your posts. For online retailers, this is a great way to drive traffic to product pages.

Let’s look at this example from Free People on Instagram:

This photo is on their feed, and when you tap the photo, the dress name and price appear. Tap the price, and you’ll be taken to a screen with more information and the option to view the item on the Free People website. From this screen, you can also scroll and see more products.

By utilizing social commerce, you’re reaching new customers, reducing the barriers to purchasing, and dramatically shortening the sales funnel.

It’s easy to set up your business account for Instagram Shopping, and it’s a great way to improve your followers’ user experience. Before setting up shoppable posts, your profile must be set as a business account. You’ll need to connect it with your Facebook profile, which in turn needs to be connected to your catalog of products.

Making your Instagram feed shoppable will also grant you shoppable Facebook posts. To get shoppable Facebook posts, you first need to add a Shop Tab on Facebook and import your inventory through the Catalog Manager. Once Facebook has approved everything, you can start tagging products to make it even easier to convert social sales.

3. Social Media Messaging Apps

Each month, there are 1.3 billion active users on Facebook Messenger, and around 10 billion messages are sent between people and businesses via this messaging app. People like the convenience of shopping and getting service from home, but they still want the quick service that comes with face-to-face interaction at brick-and-mortar businesses. Messaging apps through social media can provide that prompt service.

WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat all offer businesses an inexpensive and easy way to provide direct, personalized contact and improve their customer experience. Try these tips to boost loyalty from your customers by making messaging and communication convenient and personable: 

• Install a widget or plugin on your site so customers can directly connect with you while they’re shopping.
• Only enable chat when you know someone is available to respond.
• If there’s no one to answer, set an away message that lets your customers know when you’ll get back to them and direct them to an alternate form of contact.

4. Social Media Stories

Social media stories are easy to use and are an incredible way to feature products, events, and even behind-the-scenes experiences. When you consider that one-third of the Instagram Stories with the highest amount of views come from businesses, it’s hard to ignore that Instagram Stories and Stories on other platforms are an effective form of digital marketing.

It is the exciting, fleeting nature of this medium that makes it so powerful. Consumers must stay on top of following their favorite profiles if they don’t want to miss special opportunities or information. Once you offer a behind the scenes look, discount code, or limited edition product through Stories, followers will be hooked on your updates – as long as you deliver.

Some easy ideas for adding value to your social media stories are:

• Search for customer content your business is tagged in and repost it onto your Stories
• Upload livestream video for people who didn’t see it live 
• Utilize polls, Q&As, and quizzes to engage viewers with your brand and encourage their involvement in your content
• Create simple animations and short videos of your product or service in action

5. Social Media Contests

Social media contests can be an effective way to engage your audience and encourage customer buy-in. Think about the t-shirt cannon at a baseball game. The mascot runs around the field, getting the crowd pumped up for a free t-shirt. And it works because everyone is on their feet clamoring for the prize. After all, they’re already there, excited, and who doesn’t love free stuff?

You can use this same principle with contests for your online community – the audience is already there, they want to cheer for you, and they just need a small incentive and some hand waving to get excited and make noise.

When running a social media contest, be sure to think through the entire process carefully. There are many factors to consider, including:

1. What goal do you hope to achieve?
2. What platform will this run on, and how long will the contest last?
3. What is your offer, and how much will it cost on your end?
4. What are you asking contestants to do, and how will you manage their entries?
5. How is the winner chosen, and how will you get the prize to them?
6. What do you plan to do with the information you’ve collected from the contest?

Always remember to be honest and trustworthy when running a social media contest. Everyone loves free things, and most people are willing to give up a little bit of their time or personal details to get it from brands they trust and support.

6. Employee Engagement

If you have a business with multiple employees that are dedicated, engaged, and excited about the work they do, this can be a tremendous asset not only to your company in general but also to your online reputation.

When employees love their work and the company they do it for, they tend to talk about it. And they should be encouraged to talk about it online while tagging or mentioning the company and sharing interesting stories.

Employee engagement builds your online community in a natural and relatable way. LinkedIn is an excellent example of how this works. You can have a company page where you post events and share articles, but to get even more traffic and engagement, have your employees share and comment on these posts.

The LinkedIn algorithm values personal connections, so this spreads the news out to more connections, signaling to LinkedIn that the people behind the post are active and engaged with their company. You may also consider setting goals and rewarding employees who often share your content; that way, the people who work for you are even more excited about sharing company news with their network.

Before designating dedicated employees as torchbearers or ambassadors for your company, it is important to look at their personal pages and profiles to confirm they align with company standards. Check if they are verified, have their profiles filled out, and that their current and past content supports your business’s general views.

7. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has proven to be popular and it’s not going away anytime soon. More and more businesses are taking this route to reach potential customers. Whether it’s through TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube, influencers are getting the job done. 

Digital Marketing Trends Quick Tip: Instagram is still the number one influencer marketing platform, with TikTok a close second!

An influencer is someone that people trust in a specific field, such as professional athletes, scientists, and even successful dog trainers. These people have a following online to promote their business, services, or message, and influencer marketing is tapping into these communities that are often large, active, and very loyal to the influencer they follow. Some examples are paying a local chef to post about using produce from your organic, urban farm, or sending your new sneakers to a basketball player to wear in pictures they post.

For influencer marketing to be effective, you don’t always need to work with a huge star or local hero. Search for people with growing audiences on new platforms, and notice how they interact with their followers. Having a small but dedicated audience is more beneficial for your marketing purposes than having a large but disconnected audience. It is also important that your values align with those of the influencer so that your message and mission are appropriately communicated, and you can be confident that you’re both working together to reach the same goal.

This type of marketing is well known but comes with many rules and stipulations. For instance, it is required to disclose these types of financial relationships, so influencers use the #ad hashtag or sticker on social posts. Be sure to thoroughly research the rules in your state and enforce them for yourself, your team, and the influencer you’re working with so the audience is aware they are being marketed to, and no laws are broken.

You want to be careful when choosing influencers for your brand. If you choose the wrong people who don’t have a relevant audience or reach, this type of marketing isn’t going to work for you

8. Conversational Marketing

“To whom it may concern,” is out. “Hey,” is in! If you want to attract customers, you need to talk to them like you’re having a normal conversation. 

Whether it’s through chatbots or instant messaging, more companies are talking with customers just like they would a friend. These human-centered interactions are more appealing than generic introductions or someone reading from a script. People can see right through that and it won’t make them want to do business with you.

The Latest Design Trends for 2023

1. Color Theory Redux

Vivid colors and gradients are expected to remain hot in 2023. The predicted trending color for 2023 is “digital lavender.” It has a soothing online appeal and is expected to define the spring and summer seasons. Choose eye-catching colors that compel visitors to take immediate action.

2. Gamification

Gamification is an emerging digital marketing trend that incorporates game features into a website. This is a bit of an oversimplification, but all the things that make games engaging, addictive, and fun are now being used as marketing strategies for businesses to increase customer loyalty, brand awareness, and sales. 

Let’s think of gamification in the pre-digital age, like McDonald’s Monopoly game – buy certain products, collect game pieces, and win prizes. Simple and VERY effective. As 80 percent of smartphone users use their phones to play mobile games, it’s easy to see how gaming can be a draw in e-commerce, too.

Consider some of these examples: 

• Spin the wheel, get a discount ranging from 10 percent to 50 percent off.
• Log in to the site 10 days in a row and get a prize.
• Scavenger hunt on the website encourages people to scan each page and look at new items – find everything and get a reward (a discount, free download, etc.).
• Use games in your ads to boost brand awareness.

Benefits of Gamification:

• Increased user engagement
• Get users to become engaged in your products or services
• Provides clear calls to action on how to convert
• Can be used for educational purposes
• Can be used for training purposes
• A great way to bring users back to a website

3. Visceral Experiences with AR and VR

Video content allows brands to connect with consumers on an emotional level. This brings us to the next V – visceral. The word visceral relates to deep, inward feelings, and advances in technology can let you tap into those feelings by creating virtual and augmented reality experiences.

You may remember when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg introduced Facebook’s new virtual reality platform Spaces to the world by virtually touring a hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. While this introduction was ill-advised in a PR sense, it’s an example of where digital marketing is headed in terms of offering deep, meaningful experiences. With access to VR and AR technology, brands are offering tours of facilities, taking users through creating products, and creating interactive 3D models so users can thoroughly examine products. As AR/VR technology becomes more accessible, even smaller businesses can get in on the action.

AR is already being used by major companies like IKEA. Using their app and AR, customers can see what a piece of furniture would look like in their space before purchasing (or even setting foot in a store)! Take a look at this shelving unit we tested in the TheeDigital conference room:

Benefits of VR and AR:

• It offers a more immersive shopping experience, which allows you to see how a product would look in your home, office, yard, etc.
• Helps the customer make buying decisions.
• Offers a more personalized experience.
• Increases brand awareness and user engagement.

4. Video Marketing

Video launched to one of the top forms of content in 2019, and that trend shows no sign of stopping. Think about the benefits of video marketing:

• Customers respond well to videos.
• They increase engagement.
• It’s an effective way to show off new and existing products.
• It’s easy to put together and cost-effective, especially compared to graphics and copy.  

Best of all, it offers one of the highest conversion rates of any form of marketing. But, like every other digital marketing trend, even continuing trends get updated. Video is no different.  

• Live video, such as Facebook Live and Instagram Live, keeps people watching three times longer than standard video. It triggers the “fear of missing out” and hooks viewers in so they are the first to find some big news. 
• Personalized video advertising is being integrated into emails to create more personalized messages, share information more quickly, and prevent your message from being lost in a wall of text. Emails with videos have a click-through-rate that’s 8x higher than traditional email. 
• Product videos make customers feel more confident in what they’re buying, and they can offer a better sense of scale and specifications that text and pictures just can’t. 

Just like aviator sunglasses and the little black dress, some things just don’t go out of style. Here are three online marketing trends that have been big over the past few years and will continue to be big in the digital marketing world.

1. Content Marketing

We’ve talked about marketing automation, email marketing, and video, so it’s certainly no surprise that content marketing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Content marketing is a two-fold benefit in which:

1. You’re increasing your search engine ranking with high-quality content and strategic keyword usage to gain more traffic from a qualified audience.
2. You’re providing valuable information that allows you to stand out as an authority while building trust, generating engagement, and gaining loyal customers. 

The key to being successful with your content marketing comes from a few different factors. Primarily these are knowing and leveraging the keywords you want to rank for, providing content for every stage of your sales funnel from new visitors to loyal customers, and building engagement to create brand ambassadors who are sharing your content. 

Some of the most effective forms of content marketing to help you meet these goals include: 

• Blog posts to share company news and information related to your industry.
• New service pages that help you target keywords while also providing a closer look at your business.
• Videos and images to generate interest
• FAQs
• Email newsletters to continue engagement and keep customers informed
• Case studies to provide proof of your success.

2. Page Speed

A slow-loading page is the number one reason users leave a website within a minute of landing on the page (also called the bounce rate)—even a second or two of a delay in how the page loads can negatively affect your conversion. 

The good news is you can speed up your page load times pretty easily. First, optimize your images and make sure there are no large image files. If there are, compress them to where they are less than 100KB. 

Next, reduce the number of internal redirects, specifically redirect chains that go through several redirects before landing on the correct URL and internal links to redirects. Reducing these can speed up your authority in Google and your page load speeds (both good things).

3. User-Generated Content (UGC)

When appropriately moderated, user-generated content can be a powerful tool for your website both for SEO and for user experience. 

User-generated content (UGC) doesn’t have to be complicated or intensive; it can simply be a user review on a product on your e-commerce site, a comment on a blog article, or a Q&A section where people can ask questions and get the answers they need. First, let’s look at the benefits: 

• Content updates – Google loves new, updated content, and any time a comment, review, or question is added, the content is updated.
• Content length – Typically, longer content can improve search engine rankings because of the assumption that more content = comprehensive resource. For example, product descriptions can be short, but having customer reviews on the page can add needed length to boost SEO.  
• Content Uniqueness – Duplicate content can hurt SEO, but for things like product descriptions, there’s little way to make your product stand out from the thousands of similar product descriptions, especially if you’re using the copy from the manufacturer. User reviews and comments can improve uniqueness, again, boosting your search engine ranking. 

The key is to make sure you’re moderating any user-generated content. Certain settings for your blog can be implemented to cut down on spam, prevent link postings, and filter comments that include specific words. You can also moderate your UGC manually, though that may be challenging when you have massive amounts of comments and reviews.

What digital marketing trends do you predict will significantly impact your business in the upcoming year?

Digital marketing trends are constantly changing. We think the above tactics and ideas are going to be huge game-changers for the foreseeable future. What do you think? What marketing trends are you predicting? Tweet us your thoughts and predictions at @TheeDigital.

Need help implementing these digital marketing trends into your strategy?

Are You Looking to Ramp Up Your Pay-Per-Click Campaigns?

In an increasingly competitive world, you want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your ad budget. But with new Pay-Per-Click (PPC) trends emerging all the time, it can be hard to know which ones are worth paying attention to.

Not sure where to start? Read on for 17 trending PPC strategies you should use in 2023 and beyond.

1. PPC Automation

PPC automation has emerged as a powerful way to improve campaign performance. Companies like Google have invested huge amounts into fleshing out their automation options.

To make the most of PPC automation, you need to help the algorithms work to your benefit and assist the machines with their learning. Set up accurate and effective conversion tracking and write good ad copy. Make sure you identify target audiences and keywords.

Pass a lot of the work to the machines and save yourself time and money. Even though you’re automating a lot of the work, you don’t want to be completely hands-off. There have been improvements, but not every option is good for your business. With some hands-on management, automation can free up your time allowing you to focus your efforts elsewhere.

2. Artificial Intelligence

By 2030, artificial intelligence is expected to have a major impact on the world. By implementing AI in your PPC campaign you can predict future ad CTRs, identify the bids that will get the most traffic, and analyze a customer’s likelihood of converting. By learning your audience’s behavior, you can create more targeted ads to help your PPC campaigns.

3. Evolution of Smart Bidding

Smart Bidding is a machine learning-controlled automated bidding system. It uses machine learning to optimize conversions and conversion values in auctions. Some examples include Enhanced Cost-Per-Click (CPC), Target Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA), and Target Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS).

As we move into 2023, smart bidding is only going to become more powerful, and strategies utilizing it are set to become more prevalent. We could actually see manual bidding become a relic of the past! This won’t be a bad thing, as it will allow marketers to focus on areas like analytics and strategy.

4. Amazon’s Emergence into Paid Advertising

While Google and Facebook still dominate paid advertising, Amazon is nipping at their heels. They are now the third-largest and fastest-growing advertiser. Amazon ads are displayed on and off of Amazon, which has skyrocketed its popularity with online retailers.

The other reason they’ve grown in popularity? Buyer intent. It’s the largest advantage they have over Facebook and Google.

Facebook and Google give access to the largest audiences but users aren’t usually looking to buy something. When compared to Amazon’s perceived buyer intent, this could mean lower conversion rates on these platforms. This means you could be spending more for less.

5. Going Social

Around 70% of people check at least one social media platform a month and these numbers are growing. If you are ignoring social media in your PPC strategies, you are missing out.

Most people are checking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest daily. Many of these demographics are on multiple platforms, especially younger people.

This means that PPC marketers will be focusing on ads for social media platforms. Since most people use several social media platforms, you’ll want to cash in on this multi-platform trend. Facebook and Google are still the bread and butter of paid advertising but you should look to expand your horizons in 2023.

6. Audience Targeting

One of the latest features of Google Ads is the ability to add target audiences. This narrows down who you want to see your ads. Taking advantage of this feature allows you to get the most out of your ad budget.

Audience targeting allows you to specify things like the age group or household income that your product is targeted at. You can even set ad preferences to exclude audiences that you don’t think your service appeals to. For instance, if you sell fine jewelry, you might exclude people with incomes less than $100,000 per year because they will be less likely to spend big bucks on a necklace or earrings.

The latest Google Ads updates also gave advertisers the ability to layer audiences on top of each other. This means you can use keyword targeting and demographic targeting together to create extremely relevant ads.

7. Ads Data Hub

Ads Data Hub will provide a more comprehensive reporting and measurement to help clients understand how effective their ads are across screens. This is helpful because Google announced that it will no longer allow third-party pixel tracking on YouTube because of security concerns.

8. Bumper Video Ads

When it comes to mobile content, video is king and it will continue dominating the market in 2023. In fact, search engine marketers without video experience are finding themselves behind those who do. Video ads are great for business reach, and aesthetic appeal and are relatively low cost.

With the recent introduction of the bumper machine from YouTube, Google’s latest video marketing tool, you can turn videos that are shorter than 90 seconds into a variety of bumper ads ready for display on the YouTube network.

Platforms are going to encourage advertisers to adapt to things like Google’s vertical video ads. Even if you don’t want to pay for video advertising, YouTube or similar video hosting sites are an excellent target for your search campaigns.

9. The Rise of Voice Search

Smart homes and personal assistant speakers such as Cortana, Siri, and Alexa have taken off in a big way.

Paid voice search advertising hasn’t yet made it to the mainstream, but due to a rise in technological changes, it’s nearly certain we will see these advancements start to emerge soon. Until then, you can get ahead with some preparation strategies.

One good strategy to get ahead of the game is to adopt a more conversational tone on your website. People are more conversational when making voice searches, so it will improve your chances of a hit. Updating FAQ pages on your website by using ‘long-tail’ keywords is another way to set yourself up for voice search success.

10. A Surge in Visual Searching

Visual search works by using a picture as the search query as opposed to text. For example, you take a picture of a vase you like and the visual search will output links to buy it. People want results faster than ever and visual search helps people get exactly what they want faster than typing in something like “blue vase with painted white flowers”.

Check out Bing’s visual search when we took a picture of a member of TheeTeam’s glasses:

We have already seen Pinterest and Instagram launch products in the visual search arena. Amazon has also shown the value of visual search by partnering with Snapchat.

To stay ahead of this trend, create a photo catalog of your products and services. Add metadata to the images to make sure they are categorized correctly by search engines. For example, a photo of a jade green vase would have alt text like, “small jade green vase.”

11. Collaborative Filtering

Collaborative filtering is a grouping system that groups users by shared tastes or preferences. If Bob has similar reactions to content as Sue, it is likely they could have other similar tastes. Filtering can be based on almost anything from age, interests, locations, and more to guide them to content that would appeal most.

You can see this when you Google something abroad. While Google will normally send you to google.com, if you are on vacation in the United Kingdom you will instead see google.co.uk. Google does this by checking your IP address when you search.

Collaborative filtering goes further, tailoring your content to your recent likes, browsing history, or trending topics. This allows websites to remain interesting, new, and relevant to individual users.

12. Remarketing

At its simplest, remarketing is tracking and displaying ads to users once they leave your site. It can be very targeted and personalized, making it a very effective marketing tactic. Showing people ads for things they’ve shopped for in the past, whether they actually made a purchase, tends to result in higher conversions.

Remarketing is about keeping your brand in people’s minds. Things have moved on from trying to appeal to people who are not ready to buy. The focus should be on finding out where your potential customers are in the buying cycle. Then create personalized, targeted ads that will help them decide to convert.

13. SEO and PPC Integration

PPC and search engine optimization go hand in hand. You’ll see better results when you integrate your SEO and PPC campaigns. This is a universal fact that will continue to be true in 2023 and beyond.

A good way to sync up your PPC and SEO is to analyze your top-performing ad copy. Create your content and blog posts based on that copy to boost your ranking.

You can use long-tail terms not only to boost your rankings but also in paid search bidding strategies. SEO and PPC integration allow you to target competitor’s keywords by looking at the PPC Auctions Insights Reports and more.

14. Bing, The Little Search Engine That Could

Bing is back! With its revitalized focus on ad inventory, data, and audience targeting capability, Bing has become a sleeping giant. Recently, Bing Ads rebranded itself as Microsoft Advertising. The latest numbers, as of September 2019, show that 1.3 billion people use Bing worldwide each month. In 2023, ignoring Bing could cost you money.

15. YouTube Masthead on TV Screens

YouTube racks up more than 250 million hours of watch time per day on TV, making it the fastest-growing screen for YouTube. The YouTube Masthead is a digital billboard placed on YouTube’s homepage for 24 hours, on TV screens. This allows advertisers to reach a wider audience. The Masthead will autoplay after a few seconds on all compatible devices.

16. Smart Segmentation and Google AdMob

Mobile apps are expected to generate up to $935 billion by 2023 via paid downloads and in-app advertising. Smart segmentation was launched in 2019 and allows gaming app developers to generate revenue from non-spending players. It uses machine learning to segment users based on the likelihood of them spending money within the app.

17. Alternative PPC Programs

While Facebook and Google have dominated the industry, people are spending more time on other platforms. Quora, AdRoll, and LinkedIn are just a few different platforms to consider for PPC.

PPC Marketing Strategies for a New Decade

PPC strategies are constantly evolving. If you want to stay competitive, your marketing strategies need to evolve, too.

Make sure you are always at the forefront of new technologies and best practices. Just because something worked for you last year doesn’t mean it will have as good results in the next.

Like this post? Check out our top digital marketing trends to get your business ready for 2023!

Is it time for a website redesign or a brand new build? Make sure that your site’s being built using the latest WordPress web development trends and the most up-to-date code. Our website development agency keeps up with the latest WordPress trends so we can continue to deliver amazing websites to our clients. Check out what to expect from the content management titan in 2023!

Why Is WordPress So Commonly Used?

Powering around 43% of all websites, WordPress dominates over other content management systems. TheeDigital uses WordPress exclusively for all our web design and web development clients. But, why do so many web designers and web development agencies prefer using this platform?

WordPress has numerous strengths as a content management system. It’s user-friendly so even novice site administrators and business owners can make basic updates, add blog posts, or post images and videos. With the Gutenberg editor, it’s even easy to change the page layout and user experience! WordPress also offers a massive library of both free and paid plugins to its users, making it 100% customizable and incredibly powerful. WordPress websites are far less vulnerable to hacking since they get frequent updates with the newest security fixes.

Benefits of WordPress Websites:

• Easy-to-use
• Mobile-ready
• SEO-friendly
• Powerful plugins
• Regular updates and enhanced security

Top WordPress Trends & Updates in 2023

Since the release of the Gutenberg editor, there have been some major updates to the WordPress CMS – and there are more to come!

New Navigation Structure

The largest chunk of work is around launching a clearer user experience for editing global concepts – styles, templates, and navigation. The goal is to unify the template and post editor experiences and to make work faster with a more powerful navigation block and shortcuts for template browsing.

Design Tools & Building Blocks

The global styles interface will also get a facelift. The goal is to give the user increased visual functionality without relying heavily on external libraries and explicit media query handling. This will empower users to better manage webfonts, implement responsive typography, and expand the toolset available to blocks.

The new WordPress design tools will be comprised of all tools related to the appearance of blocks and range from colors, typography, positioning, and alignments, to filters like duotone, cropping, and background media. The update will also focus on the creation of easily shareable tools and their application across blocks.

Drag-And-Drop Page Builders

While nothing beats the customization and functionality of a professionally built website, drag-and-drop page builders offer computer beginners an opportunity to build their own site without having to use any code. Our Senior Web Developer, Eric Machamer understands the appeal of drag and drop options as users “like the ability to see exactly what their page will look like when the edits are made.” Divi and Elementor are both popular drag-and-drop plugins for WordPress.

Using WordPress for Ecommerce

Many websites offer items or services for sale on their website, whether it’s an organization adding branded merchandise to a blogger selling an ebook. Having ecommerce capability is a growing necessity on your website, and with WooCommerce, you can turn any WordPress website into an ecommerce site.

WooCommerce marries WordPress’s search engine optimization features and ease of use with the payment gateways, inventory maintenance, and marketing features to help you run your business more effectively and improve customer service. WooCommerce currently powers over 70 million ecommerce shops, including:

• Singer Sewing Machines
• Weber Grills
• Airstream
• Luminaire Home & Decor
• Clickbank
• Blue Star Coffee

If you decide to use WooCommerce to power your online store, you’ll be in good company! Thirty-one percent of all online stores are run using WooCommerce Checkout.

Final Word: WordPress Web Development Trends

Excited about these web development trends and updates? We are too! With each new WordPress release, users enjoy enhanced usability, more custom functionality, and increased security. If you’re taking on a website redesign or building a new project from scratch, it’s worth looking into using WordPress as your content management system. It’s a user-friendly platform that has top-tier data security, functionality, and customer support.

Think building your own website is too much to take on? No problem. Our web development agency is committed to staying current on the latest WordPress trends and updates so you don’t have to. Let’s work together to build a powerful digital representation of your brand!

Your website needs to reflect your authority and expertise, while properly representing your professionalism and brand. That’s why it’s important to make use of the most user-friendly and popular lawyer website features. From advanced forms and chatbots to ADA-compliant content, learn about the must-have features on your law firm’s website.

3 Must-Have Features for Attorney Websites

Incorporating modern design elements into your website can help you showcase your expertise and professionalism. A website that is clean and easy-to-use will always create an excellent first impression with visitors and encourage them to learn more about your practice.

Before we dig into this year’s must-have lawyer website features and trends, there are 3 basic foundational features your website should have: mobile-friendly design, user-friendly navigation, and high-quality content. These features can also affect your search engine optimization.

1. Mobile-Friendly Design

Mobile web design ensures your website is accessible on an iPhone, Galaxy S10, tablet, notebook, or any other mobile device on the market. Using responsive design technology, your website will automatically adapt to the screen size and resolution of the device used.

It’s important your website is mobile-friendly because most people use their phones (or smaller screen sizes) to research while on the go. Google also prefers mobile-friendly websites and indexes them first.

2. User-Friendly Navigation

User-friendly means it’s easy for users to find what they’re looking for on your website. Your main navigation menu is simple and straightforward, your calls to action are clear, and your pages are easy-to-read.

3. Valuable Content

While it’s important to be unique and position yourself as an expert in your field, you also want the content of your website to connect with people who need your services.

Avoid legal jargon and focus on clearly explaining your services. Make it clear who you serve, your practice areas, and how users can request case evaluations.

Now, let’s dig into this year’s legal web design trends:

5 Web Design Trends for Law Firms

1. Cinemagraphs

UX (user experience) is more important when designing websites than ever before. Using interactive elements, like cinemagraphs, helps evoke emotion, appreciation, and credibility. Cinemagraphs are still images in which a micro-animations or micro-interactions occur. A GIF is a commonly used type of cinemagraph.

Cinemagraphs add a stunning, modern element to your website. This latest web design trend uses high-quality images that blend video and photography with subtle motion on a fluid, unbroken loop. Cinemagraphs capture your user’s attention and provide a more immersive experience, keeping them engaged and interested in your website.

In the example above, maritime law firm Arnold & Itkin LLP, leverages cinemagraphs to create an “out-at-sea” experience. Their audience, people hurt/affected by a maritime or offshore accident, can relate to the imagery (offshore drilling, oil rigs, sea vessels, etc.) and immediately feel like they’re in the right place.

This feeling encourages them to learn more about the law firm, read case results, and request a case evaluation.

2. Serif Fonts

A long-standing web design rule is to use sans-serif font. However, screen resolutions have dramatically improved and this outdated rule is not really a rule anymore.

More web designers are adopting serif font because it conveys authority and professionalism. And this is exactly what you want to portray on your law firm’s website.

The most popular serif fonts in 2020, according to Typewolf are:

• Casion
• Garamond
• Freight Text
• Tiempos Text
• Minion

Tip: When using serif font on your website, preview it on a small screen to ensure the typeface is clear, crisp, and easy to read. You may find a blend of serif for headers and subheaders blended with sans-serif font for your main content creates an attractive, modern balance.

3. Videos

While using video on websites is not new, it is a more important web design element to include on homepages and service pages.

From a design perspective, video helps to break up text content and diversify the page layout.

Video also improves user experience and makes it easier to connect with your potential clients.

Another benefit of video content is the impact they make on your search engine ranking. Google and Bing are now showing video content directly in the search results.

Adding video to your website and legal marketing strategy, improves your visibility in the search results, the user experience you create on your website, and your content marketing efforts.

4. Micro-Animation Trends for Lawyer Websites

Micro-animations are small visual cues that draw the user’s attention. For example, when you move the mouse near our logo, it increases size and changes form, you’re seeing a micro-animation.

Due to small screen sizes and flat design, micro-animations guides a visitor around your website, subtly encouraging them to follow your calls to action and request a case evaluation with your firm.

5. Minimalism

Minimalist web design is clean, crisp, and doesn’t rely on complicated graphics, bold colors, and excess text to draw the visitor in. In fact, its clear, stark look conveys a simple message to make a bold impact.

While minimalism is always a classic and popular look, it’s becoming more of web design trend for law firms.

As an attorney, the goal of your website is to connect with potential clients and showcase your expertise. Having a stark, near-empty home page may not be practical, however, you can use elements of minimalism for your website.

In the example above, this law firm uses the power of whitespace around its text content to draw attention to the actual message. Their clear approach lets the content speak for itself.

Final Word on Must-Have Lawyer Website Features of 2023

Not only are we looking forward to cleaner designs, more motion graphics, and directed experiences, but people expect a genuine connection when they visit a website. People are compelled to trust your “why” before your “what” or “who”. That said, what you put on your website matters. Review your website with your legal team or with a law firm website design agency to see how the voice and tone of your content marketing represent your brand as a whole.

Chatbots can also be another helpful tool in providing better user experiences for your prospects and customers. Be aware of how you or your website development agency sets up the question and response sequences – if not thought-through, you may actually frustrate customers. When set up properly, you can provide instant responses that help people understand whether or not you can help them with their legal issues.

Additional Lawyer Website Features:

• Write genuine content that connects.
• Build more guided experiences for your website visitors.