website design

Many of us have some sort of understanding when it comes to ADA compliance in the real world. Entrances equipped with ramps, sidewalks or loading zones that make coming and going accessible, and elevators inside locations with multiple floors plus wide enough doorways and low enough countertops.     But what about accessibility in the digital world? A website that is ADA compliant keeps everyone in mind. This is especially important when one in four adults in the U.S. live with a disability. While the ADA doesn’t explicitly address internet […]

The phrase “above the fold” originates from newspapers. It refers to all content literally above the folded line on the front page. It’s the most visible content and is meant to capture people’s attention so they’ll grab the paper off the stand for further reading.     In the digital media world, its meaning has extended to include the area of content that’s readily visible and therefore the most important for inviting your viewer to digest more of your ad, web page, email, etc.   Why Should I Care About […]

After you decide a WordPress Multisite is the right strategic move for your website, how do you create one? If you Google “How to create a WordPress Multisite?” or “How do I convert my WordPress site to a multisite”, you will find A LOT of articles. So then why did I write another one? Is it my newfound love of writing complete sentences instead of code? Am I doing it for the glory of the clicks and likes?   Maybe a little bit of both, but the truth is—the last […]

What is a WordPress Multisite and What are the Pros and Cons of Creating One? WordPress is one of the most popular and well known website platforms—it powers over one-third of the sites on the Internet. The depth of functionality and flexibility it has goes beyond the free blog you can create with the famous five-minute install. One of these features is WordPress Multisite. WordPress Multisite transforms your single site into a network where you can create and manage as many sites as you want to showcase several brands or […]

The core component of running a successful website in this day and age can be succinctly summarized in one word: content. This should come as no surprise to most of us, I mean who hasn’t heard the cliché “content is king” before? Now, I don’t mean to suggest this statement is untrue–I’d actually argue that it’s as true as it’s ever been–just that this emphasis on content can very easily evolve into an overemphasis on content, which can in turn overshadow other essential parts of a managing your site.   […]

View Posts Take a trip to a local business and you’re likely to see wheelchair ramps, Braille buttons, automatic doors, and other ease-of-access modifications designed to provide equal access to persons with disabilities—these are the physical accommodations that most businesses and nonprofit service providers must legally make to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). But did you know that the same businesses required to make physical accommodations for persons with disabilities are also required to make accommodations on their websites?   Not sure if your website is ADA […]

If you’re a web development agency like us, hosting a growing number of clients in the cloud, you may sometimes feel like this guy with the balls in the  air. That can be especially true when it comes to managing resource costs in Amazon Web Services. Don’t get me wrong: I love that we can spin up an array of servers at a moment’s notice with minimal fuss. It’s one of the greatest reasons to use AWS.  But I also love feeling in control of the costs so that I’m […]

Customer acquisition is only a small piece of your audience’s marketing journey. Oftentimes, marketing efforts are successful in bringing customers onto a website, but your website isn’t grabbing the baton when it’s time to finish the race. This is where an oftentimes overlooked piece of digital marketing comes in, conversion optimization. Many people know the phrase, but believe this part of strategy can only be accessed by user experience pros. It’s time we take the veil off of conversion optimization. Here are 5 useful tips to use during your website […]

A key part of any brand is consistency. We regularly work with brands to help ensure their voice, image, and communication mediums are reliable. The key to consistency is standards – easy to find, understand, and follow. If you don’t keep it simple, you’re bound for failure. That’s why an early part of any web development project should be establish the style guide for your project. Style guides are not sheets of paper, or creative briefs. If that’s where your head is at, you’re stopping too soon. You, the marketing […]

Are you an all day every day user of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) management console? Do you represent a number of clients, each with their own AWS assets and separate AWS accounts? Do you find yourself managing dozens of AWS account credentials and juggling logins just to make small changes throughout your day? Are you tired of jumping through hoops before you can even start your work? If you’re a developer at a digital marketing agency, (and like many developers these days, your cloud provider of choice is Amazon,) […]

You got your customer to your site, helped them find what they were looking for, and now they’re ready to order. Nice work! While it may seem like you’ve accomplished your mission, the reality is that an average of 68% of shopping carts are left abandoned. (http://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate).  That means for every three people that come to your site and add items to their cart, only one is buying! Those other two may have decided against buying, or found a better deal elsewhere. But what if the problem could be the […]

We’re all about improvement here at emfluence. Anything we can track, improve, and celebrate gets us a little giddy. Things we can track, but cannot improve, not so much… So, when I updated the look of the emfluence blog recently with some small tweaks, I thought it would be a good time to verify that what I had done helped performance (or at least didn’t hurt it). Enter Google’s PageSpeed Insights. Like that friend of yours who knows everything, PageSpeed Insights gently reminds you that you really could do better. […]

As Google relies on a wider variety of link and social sources, content marketing has taken the cake. Yet another Google algorithm was released in early May that laser focuses on quality content. Everyone is in the content game, but few are effectively combining content and search strategy. We need to look into where content is heading and how we can best utilize strategic content creation to both increase awareness and build brand loyalty. 86% of B2B businesses are utilizing some form of content marketing, and 87% of organizations claim […]

Chances are that you’ve heard of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), but what is it and why do you need it? Conversion rate optimization is the process of improving your website user experience to convert more visitors into customers. We’ve all bounced off websites that don’t provide a clear message or navigation to get us what we need. Or worse, the website or form isn’t working the way that it should. By having a conversion rate optimization process in place, we can find and solve these problems to improve your customer […]

Gone are the days of trying to wow your website visitors with over-the-top visuals that look nothing like anything their eyes have seen before. The visual web continues on its path of simplification, lead by minimalist design and the need to function well across multiple platforms. Instead of facing the challenge of creating a website design to knock your customers’ socks off, web designers are now tasked with making websites that are incredibly simple, yet somehow distinct. How can you design minimally while still giving your brand’s website distinction? Life […]

Costs to develop a website increase as the project nears completion, because once website developers get involved, costs go up fast. Planning and research during the discovery phase is invaluable to launching or relaunching a website on time and under budget.

Responsive web design was a popular topic in many sessions. One in particular I attended “What You See Is What You Spec’d” touched on not just the importance of a flexible web design but the how-to. Here are my five takeaways from the session.

The close of 2011 brought the announcement of hundreds of brick-and-mortar locations closing for stores such as Sears and Kmart. Business owners both large and small have every reason to feel a bit rattled. Just as marketers must integrate new media into traditionally-based marketing channel models to survive, business owners with storefronts on the ground must adapt their strategies to appeal to consumers in the digital shopping space as well.

One thing we hear often at emfluence is how unavailable digital marketing education seems to be. Sure, you can take another 1-hour webinar on LinkedIn, but where can you find a seminar on strategizing and intgetrating every aspect of your digital marketing?

The answer is in Kansas City, November 9th.

Announcing emfl-U: Digital Bootcamp

In the spirit of giving this season, we thought we’d share a few bonus How-To Holiday tips:

The holidays are in full swing, at least according to the retailers filling our inboxes and mailboxes and news feeds. And it’s no wonder: some retailers make 25% to 40% of annual sales during the holidays, and 2010 holiday sales are expected to be up 2.3% to $447.1 billion this year. How do you keep up the energy for an eight-week holiday season? It’s all about timing. From when you send your offers to how many days between reminders to which offers work best at which times of the season… Here’s a suggestion on a holiday calendar with timely offers.