2020 proved to be a challenging year for businesses across the country. Many employees moved from in-office to working remotely. Businesses ran on offering skeletal services. Restaurants closed their seating and offered to-go orders only. However, having an online presence allowed businesses to keep their customers informed on new business hours, health protocols and offered access to their services. So what do you need to know about having an online presence in the upcoming year?

• Open 24/7: That’s right! Your business is open 24/7 without having to be in your brick-and-mortar store. The night owls and office employees are able to access everything about your business and services at their convenience. This is a major benefit for businesses selling products as the inventory is available online and allows you to make money in your sleep!
• Competitors Have Websites: As potential customers decide on a product or service they’re looking for, the research begins! You may be missing out on potential customers and revenue if you don’t have a website available.
• Websites are Expected: 6 out of 10 customers will look online at your business prior to stepping foot inside the door. Testimonials, services and contact information may be viewed to steer them towards your business instead of a competitor.
• You Control the Story: Online testimonials are a great way to bring in customers, along with a biography on your business’ story; who owns the company, what is their mission, who are they trying to reach? For example, independent coffee shops tell their story of a family-owned shop, a mission of a friendly community and environment and the origins of their coffee beans. This can bring people away from the large corporations and towards the independent coffee shop.
• Showcase Your Services and Products: Do you have a best selling product or a special offer that will bring people running into your store? A website will allow you to showcase all of this and MORE!

Are you ready to make your presence known? Call us now! We offer custom website design, search engine optimization, paid advertising, print marketing and social media management! Advanced Digital has been your one-stop shop for all of your business needs. Our locally owned company has over 20 years of experience and strives to offer the best services in the business!

All products are completed in-house so you can rest assured your business will be taken care of by only our team members. Ask us about our special offers when you give us a call today!

Did you know the colors of your website can encourage or discourage potential customers. Creating a color scheme for your website is one of the most important aspects of the design and business start-up process. You don’t want to pick your color scheme at random or base it on what looks good to you. Each color has a different meaning or emotion and can influence people in a particular way. Poor color selection can even impact your site’s overall usability negatively.

When it comes to creating a color scheme, businesses want to choose colors that are easily recognizable to the brand. It’s important to choose colors that are impactful to the audience and customer base. For example, a childcare website would include bright and exciting colors to communicate the message of “fun” to children. A Doctor’s office or corporate business may use blue, white or gray.

What Do the Colors Mean?

Red: This color shows a range of emotions, from anger, energy, strength, passion to urgency.
Orange: You may find this color to be cheerful, but it can also be used as a notification
or caution color.
Yellow: This color is similar to orange; cheerful and cautionary color. This color should
be used in moderation on websites.
Green: When looking for a color that communicates wealth and growth, green is the
go-to color. The easiest color for the eyes to process.
Blue: Blue creates the sensation of trust and security; often seen with businesses and banks.
Purple: This color is used to calm and soothe; often seen in beauty or anti-aging products. Brown: This color shows earth, home friendships, outdoors, simplicity.

Other colors include black and white, which are both clean and sleek colors.
When choosing the colors of your business, be sure they complement each other. Avoid too many bold options as it can make a website too busy. Adding black, gray or white is another option when in need of additional colors.

How accessible is your website for those with disabilities? The increase of employment, government, education, healthcare, business and entertainment services online make accessible website design a critical issue. It also determines whether disabled users have equal access to the services you offer.

Improving accessibility on your website provides you with benefits as well. Your potential audience immediately expands. There are plenty of ways to make your website more accessible, aspects such as layouts, colors and fonts need to be eligible for all users. Here are a few simple, practical tips to implement when creating a disability-friendly site.

A Few Highlights for Your Website:

• Add alt tags to important images on your website. Provide a short description of what the image contains. If the alt tag is longer than 30 words, a description is a better option.
• Colors of links must stand out against the text and the background of the website. Additionally, a cursor change on hover can indicate the link is active.
• Headers and footers should be consistent throughout the entire website.
• Images should not be of text! Instead, apply CSS styling to text that needs to stand out against the page.
• All videos should contain closed captions for those hearing impaired.
• Refreshing must be initiated by the user, do not time/automate page refreshing.
• Avoid using pop-ups which may confuse users, as the page will suddenly change.
• Add a “To Top” / “To Bottom” link to the header and footer.
• Contact form errors should be highlighted and payment information should be confirmed prior to submission.
• Add a search feature to your homepage. If you add the feature to interior pages, be sure the search is located in the same place on all pages.
• Add a full sitemap to your website and link to this page in the footer.

Adding accessibility to your website will allow you to provide all information to all users. Easily navigated pages with consistent colors and layout will ensure your page or blog can easily be used by everyone.

Over time we’ve had websites go from content fitting within an 800px wide box, to 1284px or 1400px, to responsive programming that allows a website to be viewed fluidly across all platforms, no matter the screensize. One of the largest trends in 2017 is the usage of extra-large images, known as hero images. Bold graphics that draw attention from a customer right away and informs them of your website’s mission.

How do you get the most out of your hero image?

Your hero image is the first thing users will see when browsing your website. It is important the image is relevant to your services or brand. If your image does not communicate this easily, visitors will be left confused.

In our Phoenix Pool Services design, we chose to go with a hero-sized video showing someone jumping into a shimmering pool. This allows the customer to visualize their own pool with sparkling water and jumping right in.

Another client of ours, Bella’s Lawn Care, has a hero image of grass, dirt and a small plant with roots. Communicating your business with a hero image is easily accomplished by choosing the right photos.

When browsing our client’s websites, you can easily tell Phoenix Pool Services provides pool cleaning and maintenance services to customers, while Bella’s Lawn Care offers landscaping, lawn care and landscape design.

Adding a touch of your brand’s colors on the images is beneficial as well.

Break Hero Images Down

Does your hero image serve a purpose?

If you’re trying to sell a product, show your product in a real setting with the hero image. Display how a customer would use your product.

Does your hero image support your overall design?

Your hero image shouldn’t stand out like a sore thumb. It should fit seamlessly into your overall website’s design. It is okay to invoke emotion or action – after all, that’s how business’ gain new customers.

Is your hero image relevant to your business?

As mentioned previously, communicating your brand’s service or mission is a key element of choosing your hero image. Be selective. Use resources such as Pexel or Dreamstime for stunning stock photos.

Does it fit within a responsive design?

Resizing your image to mobile devices is important. Whether you’re creating breaking points with cropped images or simply resizing to fit a specific screen size, there are multiple ways to make sure your images are clear on any platform.

With hero images, you are able to create stunning websites that communicate your brand, services or mission with ease. Contact us to begin your website design journey.

Whether it is the new season, other websites, print advertisements our team of web designers get inspiration from everywhere! The first day of summer is just around the corner and the weather in Niceville, Florida is causing everyone to head out to the beach.

Imagine a website with a palette of colors filled with cream, emerald-green, navy, peach and coral. Now imagine a website of primary blue, red, black and white. The beach-themed palette would be perfect for a coastal business, vacation property, or community. Meanwhile, the primary color palette website would be perfect for a corporate business.

Consumers want a great web experience and something that is eye-catching if they are going to spend money. You want to make them feel positive about spending money and not making them feel disappointed in the process of purchasing a product or service.

This is where the all the colors and the liveliness come into play on your website. When a user comes to your website for the first time, they want to be impressed with how your website looks and functions. You want the site to pop out and be remembered and never forgotten. Let’s take a car for example driving down the car. You see 2 cars driving, one is dusty and black and the other is red, sleek and shiny. You will be drawn more than likely to the red car first because it’s brighter and not a dark color like black. That’s how you would want your website.

It is important your website is attractive to the eyes. Instead of making a website just black and white, use a color palette that works with your industry or business. The website should have inspiration and character if you want to attract the users to your site.

Are you looking for inspiration? View some of our sites that we have on display in our portfolio or browse our Instagram!