When starting to build a website for your company, WordPress is by far the best option. 

WordPress is essentially a content management system that allows you to bring your website to life. As such, it is the most popular website design platform.

Here at Shape The Market, we recommend that you utilise WordPress to create your website. There are so many possibilities when it comes to choosing how to make your website. However, WordPress makes the process simple and stress-free all without charge. 

In this article, you can learn all the reasons why it is the ideal platform for your website.

WordPress is a free software which means that you are able to download, install, use and modify your website to match your needs.

Having such a powerful tool at your fingertips for free is rare and so it is obviously popular for that reason.

This means that the only costs you’ll have regarding your company’s website will be for a domain name and hosting.

A domain name is the address of your website on the internet and is what users type in their browser’s address bar. This allows them to access your website, and it can be purchased cheaply in many places.

Web hosting is the place where your website’s files are stored and is the power behind your website.

Choosing the right hosting package is essential to the success of your website. This is why Shape The Market’s hosting packages all use solid-state drives. Meaning, they are capable of speeds up to 25x faster than any cloud hosting.

If you have any questions about how hosting and domain names work then feel free to contact us at Shape The Market. We can explain to you why they are essential to the smooth running of your website.

WordPress is an extremely flexible platform and can run all different types of websites. Whether it be for a small blog or a huge multinational corporation’s eCommerce store, it can work for you.

The endless possibilities means that whatever it is that you and your company need, WordPress can supply.

But how do you design it?

The main tools that allow it to be so flexible for all websites are the range of themes and plugins.

Themes are ideal if you are new to website design or simply don’t know where to start. Essentially, they are fully customisable templates.

There are thousands of options provided by for every type of website. These take the stress out of designing and coding from scratch.

What’s more, it allows further customisation through the use of plugins. These are like apps that add different functionalities to your website.

WordPress has a huge range of plugins available. These allow you to add contact forms, galleries, and shopping carts.

By making the most the many themes and plugins available, your website can be easily adapted to your company’s needs.

All companies seek to find the answer to the same question: how can we get discovered?

The most effective way of getting noticed is through search engines such as Google. Because of this, it is important that your website ranks high on search engines.

There are many ways to do this. Through well-written content, paid searches, paid advertising…

But another way is by having a great website.

WordPress is written using standard compliance high-quality code and produces semantic mark-up. This gives it an advantage in terms of where it ranks on search engines.

In addition to the natural SEO-friendliness of WordPress, it has a number of plugins available. These can further boost your website’s ranking and get seen more.

These plugins, like Yoast, can help boost your SEO thanks to their page analysis tools and technical search engine optimisation.

Coupling this with one of our SEO packages at Shape The Market, and it will ensure that your website will be in the perfect place to rank very highly on search engines and therefore get seen more often.

A huge benefit of running your website using WordPress is how quick and easy it is to set up.

The availability of theme templates and plugins speed up this process. They provide the tools at your disposal easily and quickly without the need for complex coding.

WordPress also comes with an automatic update management system which allows you to update WordPress itself as well as your themes and plugins from your dashboard with ease.

Another feature that makes the whole process much easier is the automatic device compatibility that the sites come with.

This means that your website will be adapted for all devices so it will work no matter what the system. From smartphones, to tablets, or computers, your website will always look good.

This will better the return from your website as your search engine ranking will be improved.

Your bounce rate will also be reduced as people will stay on your website longer. Especially if it can perform well on all types of devices.

Another benefit of using WordPress is the huge community of users that provide support for any issue you could encounter.

Over 25% of all websites are made using WordPress. As such, there is a great number of people who understand how WordPress works and can support you on the many blogs and forums that exist.

WordPress is developed with security in mind and it is a very safe and secure platform to run a website.

Obviously, no site is completely secure on the internet as it is a very uncertain place. But WordPress supplies a good base level of security which many other similar platforms do not.

The service promises a good level of security on their part, as long as you follow a good level of precaution on yours. This involves: using safe and pre-approved plugins and themes, keeping a decent password which you regularly update, monitoring your site, and updating your website security regularly.

Luckily for you, Shape The Market’s WordPress packages do a lot of this for you, so you don’t have to worry.

WordPress is an amazing platform for you to run your website through. There are a huge range of options available for your website with much of the stress taken out of the process.

This is why over a quarter of all sites are powered by WordPress. It is designed to make running and designing your website as efficient as possible.

Our tailored WordPress hosting and SEO packages are perfect accompaniments to your WordPress site. They help make the most of the powerful tool. Our packages improve the speed and capabilities of your site and subsequently get your website and company seen more often.

Feel free to contact Shape The Market if any of our services interest you.

When it comes to choosing the website colours for your site, there are a lot of things to consider.

What looks good? What colours will represent your brand? What colours will appeal to your target audience? All of these questions are an important part of one thing: colour psychology.

Colour psychology is the study of how different colours and shades can make a person feel. It’s the reason why ‘danger’ is always represented by the colour red, and ‘happiness’ is always shown as yellow.

But why does this matter for your website?

Well, more and more marketers are starting to take notice of how colour psychology can impact their businesses. From videos, to websites, and also graphic design, the choices we make about the colours we use can have a lasting effect.

In fact, according to the Institute for Color Research, people make a subconscious judgement about the things they see – a website, for example – in only 90 seconds.

And, 62-90% of that decision is based upon the colours they see.

This means that the colours you use in your marketing materials are extremely important when it comes to how your target audience will perceive your business.

If you’re looking to redesign your website or establish your brand through your colour scheme, read on! We’ll tell you what it is you need to know about website colours and colour psychology.

Before we get into why it’s important to carefully choose your website colours, you need to know what each colour means!

Often, how we perceive colours is impacted by personal associations and experiences. However, there are some universal meanings that we all find when looking at colours.

Red: one of the primary colours, it’s very bright and vibrant. When used positively, it can symbolise love and passion. But, when used negatively, it can mean danger or a warning.

Yellow: as stated earlier, yellow can represent concepts like happiness and sunlight. But, just like red, yellow can also symbolise warning too. There’s a reason why all ‘Wet Floor’ signs are yellow – the colour is bright and demands your attention.

Blue: a calming and soothing colour, it makes sense why so many social media companies use blue as their primary colour (think Facebook, Twitter). Blue is a trustworthy colour, when used correctly. But this is where vibrancy and hues come into play: when used in pale shades and hues, blue can look sad. Be mindful of this when using it!

Orange: orange is associated as a fun and exciting colour – after all, we all get excited when opening up the Amazon app. It’s playful and engaging and is a great colour to use as a compliment to others. But, when used on its own, it can be jarring.

Pink: despite technically being a lighter shade of red, pink has separate connotations to that of its more vibrant counterpart. Whilst red can mean love and passion, pink means romance and femininity. As a lighter version of red, it’s often seen as gentle and soft.

Purple: when we use it positively, purple can be regal and elegant. Think of the royal purple shade donned by Kings and Queens around the world. But, purple can also be a relaxing colour – bordering on boredom.

Black and white: like yin and yang, you can’t have one without the other. Black can mean darkness, and white lightness. But black can also mean something sinister, whereas white is innocent and pure.

Knowing what the general associations for each colour are is an important thing to remember. The wording you use on your website, along with your website colours, will determine which association it is you’re evoking.

Not only are colours important when it comes to your website, but it’s also important for building awareness and brand association.

Your website colours need to reflect the aesthetic of your brand – meaning that you need to figure out what your business’s colours are before you start on web design.

In 2012, Cadbury’s long legal battle came to an end when they were able to trademark their famous shade of purple: Panatone 2685C.

Whilst they gave the trademark up in 2019, for the 7 year period it meant that no other confectionery brand was allowed to use that exact shade of purple.

And, it’s no wonder. It’s a very well associated shade, and hard to imagine it being used to market any other product.

Cadbury’s knew the worth of their colour purple and the associations it carried and sought to hold on to that.

But just how important are the colours a brand uses?

There have been multiple studies conducted about the brands that people think of when they see a colour.

When you see red, do you think of Coca-Cola? Or McDonald’s?

When you see blue, do you think of Facebook? Or Twitter?

A study carried out by Strategic Factory found that a whopping 94% of people were able to recognise Coca-Cola’s famous red and white logo.

What’s more, given the longevity of the brand, many people associate said colours with happiness and sentimentality.

Coca-Cola has been able to weaponise its colours to create strong brand awareness across the globe.

Now we’ve established the different meanings with colour psychology, and how colours can help build brand awareness, it’s time to apply this to your website.

Your website colours need to be reflective of your brand and values, so bear this in mind when choosing them.

If you’re an eCommerce store selling a product like a luxury spa item, you want your website to be calming and soothing. You want your website to act as a representation of what you’re selling.

So, you’ll likely lean towards calmer, cooler colours. Shades of white and cream, or blues and purple, will instill a sense of calm and tranquillity.

Conversely, if you’re a travel agency and you want potential customers to be excited about your website and the holidays you can offer them, then you’re going to want to use brighter and more engaging colours.

Something vibrant like orange and red will be able to get your potential customers interested and eager about your services, in comparison to more uninteresting and dull colours like grey, brown, and cream.

Another thing to consider when choosing your website colours is the cohesiveness of the site and how easy it will be for your visitor to read and navigate. Much like when you’re choosing the font for your website, which you can learn about here.

When looking at the colour wheel, you need to think about what colours compliment each other and what colours clash.

There’s an old saying that goes: “blue and green must not be seen unless there’s a colour in between.” There’s a reason why you don’t often see those two colours together alone.

Colour cohesiveness can make or break a website. Having colours that compliment each other well and don’t make it difficult to read text or stare at a screen for too long means you’ll have a smoother user experience.

As a result, you increase the chance that a visitor will stay on your website for longer.

Colours that exist together on the colour wheel can create a soothing gradient effect. The colour red bleeding into pink will look appealing given how closely aligned they are.

On the other end, colours that exist opposite each other can create a sharp and engaging contrast. Blue and orange, like you can see expertly used on our website, can be captivating of your visitor’s attention.

However, you need to be careful about the colours you use and make sure to use them in moderation.

When either technique is used excessively – gradient colours or contrasting colours – they can come across as boring and unengaging, or jarring and clashing respectively.

When choosing the colours for your website, you not only need to think of what colours represent your brand and what will be easy to see, but also what your audience wants to see.

The way to do this is by separating colour associations with how appealing a colour actually is.

But what does this mean?

Well, it’s long been established that the colour pink is associated with femininity and women. It’s the colour that many people dress baby girls in, and is often seen as ‘typically’ the colour for women.

However, that doesn’t actually mean that it’s liked by women.

According to a 2011 Harvard Business Review, plenty of women actively dislike the colour pink. Whether this is because it’s the colour they’re ‘supposed’ to like, or they don’t appreciate the associations the colour holds, it turns out that pink may not be the favourite colour for every woman.

Which means, that it doesn’t necessarily mean that pink is the colour you should use on your website, even if your target audience is women.

Whilst colour associations are important, you have to make sure that your website colours are also what your audience wants to see. Yellow may be a happy colour, but if your target audience finds it garish or childish, then you should steer clear of it.

It’s clear now that the colours you use for your business are extremely important, and not to be underestimated.

This means that they’re something you should certainly consider when bearing in mind the design for your website.

The website colours you ultimately choose have an impact on your website’s user experience, the message you’re relaying about your brand, and the emotions and feelings your visitors have.

Because of this, will you be taking a look at your website and making any changes to your design?

Let us know in the comments below!

Web design has more importance than simply aesthetics, and whilst it is important to have an attractive website, there are other things to consider when designing a website that will have big impacts on how it operates and the return you get from it. 

One of the big things that web design impacts are your website’s SEO rating.

Having good SEO is important as this determines how likely you are to rank highly on search engines such as Google. 

SEO determines how likely people are to find your website, so you should be doing everything you can to maximise it. 

During a time where a business’s online presence is more important than ever before, SEO has the power to make or break a business. 

Therefore, it wouldn’t make sense to ignore the impact of a badly designed website. 

Below we will discuss how poor website design will badly impact your website’s SEO. 

SEO takes the design and User Experience (UX) into account when ranking your website.

Why?

Because search engines want to give users the best possible search listings and it now goes beyond simply assessing content and keywords to judge how to do this.

Search engines now look at other factors when deciding how to rank websites, with bounce rate and time spent on-site growing significantly in importance.

A high bounce rate suggests that users are clicking onto your website from search engines, only to hit ‘back’ right away after seeing your website. Assuming they don’t leave straight away, the next indicator of the quality of your website is how much time they continue to spend on your site.

Therefore, having a well-designed website can significantly improve your SEO ranking through these two variables.

So, if your bounce rate is high, or the average time spent on your website is low, this signals to search engines that your website is poor, or, at least, it is not giving users what they want.

However, with some simple changes in the design and the UX, you can give your SEO ranking a boost by decreasing that initial bounce rate and increasing the time spent on your site.

Also, you’ll probably find that your conversion rate improves, and that is never a bad thing.

Good navigation gives your visitors a much easier time when on your website, which is beneficial in terms of getting them to stay on your website which will lead to a greater number of conversions.

First impressions count for a lot and if your website has poor navigation and is difficult to use then visitors won’t be forgiving and will simply look elsewhere, so having excellent navigation is of great importance.

This has a knock-on effect on your website’s SEO and therefore its ranking.

An unappealing site with poor navigation will likely lead to users leaving quickly, increasing the bounce rate, and decreasing the time spent on-site and thus resulting in a poor ranking.

An easily navigable site will ensure that users find the information they need and allows search engines to crawl your pages. The ideal navigation is simple, intuitive, and aligns with what users would expect.

When it comes to navigation, the simpler the better.

Another one of the many factors that are taken into account when determining search engine rankings and web design is page speed.

How does this relate to design?

If your website takes a long time to load due to large images and other media, extensive Flash plugins, and other rich features, these will all dramatically reduce the speed of your site, having a knock-on effect on your ranking.

On top of the direct effect on a website’s ranking, the bounce rate and the time spent on a page can also be greatly impacted by a slow site.

Users are generally impatient and happy to simply go onto another site if there are any minor issues, so fixing something simple such as the speed is definitely a measure you should take to improve the UX.

One of the best ways to increase your page’s speed is by decreasing the file size of images.

Every large, uncompressed image adds loading time to your web page which will nudge you closer to a speed that will impact your ranking and UX.

Compressing your images online is one of the easiest ways to improve your page’s speed without too much hassle.

Whilst having a responsive site is not an official SEO ranking factor, the benefits of having a responsive page – quicker loading times, lower bounce rates, and longer time spent on site will all help your site’s visibility.

In recent years, more and more people are accessing the internet through mobile devices so it has become more important to have a website that is responsive to different devices to improve the UX.

There are several factors to consider when designing your site which goes way beyond just how it looks.

The UX is deeply linked with SEO and therefore how your website is ranked on search engines, and so maximising this is essential.

If your site looks beautiful on the surface but remains complex, slow, and cumbersome to use, then you could inadvertently be harming your SEO efforts.

Whilst search engines can’t directly interpret the way a site looks; they take cues from how your users respond to it through measurables such as bounce rate and time on site.

So – how do they respond to yours?

Make sure to keep these 4 things in mind when it comes to your web design and SEO, in the future.

The font and calligraphy you use on your website and marketing materials say a lot about your business. Often, it is one of the very first things a consumer or customer will see. As such, it needs to convey a clear message about who your brand is and what your brand does.

Typography can reflect the style and tone of voice of your brand. So you want to make sure you’re getting it right.

Is your brand fun, quirky, and casual?

Are you professional, serious, and business-like?

Or is your brand elegant, classy, and sophisticated?

Finding the right font which reflects the key elements of your business can be tricky. Luckily, at Shape the Market, we offer services which can help with such. If you want to find out more about our different website packages, find out more here.

So, what are the key factors you should consider when choosing your website fonts?

Read on to find out!

As your website font will be read from a consumer’s screen, you want your font to be easy on the eyes. Something which doesn’t require them to squint or strain when trying to decipher what you’re saying.

This is especially important for eCommerce stores.

A font that leans too heavily on the side of elegance and unnecessary quirkiness can often be off-putting, especially when it’s hard to distinguish between an ‘ o ’ and an ‘ a ’. All it takes is a matter of seconds for your reader to decide whether they can be bothered to make out what you’re saying.

And if not, then, goodbye!

Easy to read fonts often include Sans-Serif fonts like Arial and Calibri.

They’re the default fonts on many browsers for a reason. They make it easy to read and are pretty much universally accessible.

Using a font like Arial or Calibri can come across as professional and modern – their simplicity makes them look sleek and refined.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you also don’t want to make a font too easy to read.

Fonts like Verdana which have larger spaces between words in theory sound like it will make for an easier read. But in actuality, it may slow you down! The spaces between the words can reduce the speed of reading and can subconsciously put off a consumer.

What’s more, fonts like Comic Sans, while easy to read, are not one to be taken seriously.

Comic Sans is pretty much universally acknowledged as unserious and unprofessional – so steer clear of it if you can!

It can be difficult to try and find the balance between a font which is easy to read but also looks professional. But, with time and patience, you can find the perfect one for your website.

What would Vogue be without its classic sleek font?

What would Tiffany & Co. be without their regal elegance?

Even Instagram has a memorable and easily identifiable font choice.

All of these brands benefit from the use of a font which is a signature of their brand. They would be completely unrecognisable if tomorrow you woke up and Vogue was written using Webdings.

Finding a font which is characteristic of your brand identity and who you are is very important when it comes to designing your website.

Aesthetic should never be an overlooked factor when choosing a font.

You need to make sure that you pick a font that will remain consistent throughout your website, and will become a part of your brand identity.

You don’t want to decide on a default font at the creation of your website, only to realise a year down the line that you don’t like how it looks – but have already established this as your brand’s style.

Whilst it’s not impossible to change the font on your website, often it can be confusing for the reader.

If a company is going through a rebranding, consumers are able to accept this and can expect changes to be happening.

Whereas if a company has merely changed its mind and no longer wants to use a font like Arial – this can be confusing for the consumer. They have become familiar with your font and associate it with your brand.

When designing your website, take time in picking which font you are going to use.

Much like your logo or slogan, a font is reflective of your products and services. It is a recognisable way for a consumer to get to know you and needs to be taken seriously.

It’s all about the first impression.

The type of font you use is representative of the tone of voice of your brand. It shows consumers and potential customers who you are, if you should be taken seriously, and what your brand is all about.

Even if it’s not consciously, a consumer will make a swift decision about your company based on the first impression they see.

If your font comes across as lazy and default without any attempt at personalisation, it will seem as if you don’t put in any effort.

On the other hand, if your font is too silly or unprofessional then you likely won’t be taken very seriously at all.

The first step in deciding which font to use is figuring out what your tone of voice is.

Do you want to come across as serious?

How about friendly?

Or do you want consumers to see you as casual and fun?

If you’re a company that is looking to come across as important and earnest, like a newspaper or law firm, then it’s recommended that you use a font like Times New Roman.

It will help convey the gravity of the topics you are discussing and your business-like attitude.

Whereas, if you are a family-owned baking company and want to come across as friendly, you may want to use a more casual font like Cooper. This will convey the approachability of your brand and your light and wholesome content.

Fonts say a lot about the message behind the type of company you are.

Consumers tend to make an emotional connection with the brands they do business with. They want to feel that they can trust you, that you’re reliable, and that you care.

A font choice can hugely influence how a consumer feels about your brand.

Let’s pretend that you’re a clothing company marketed to young people aged 16-25.

Your clothes are styled after casual streetwear, influenced by the likes of brands like Urban Outfitters, Bershka, and Topshop.

You want to portray your brand message as cool, laidback, and unpretentious.

Would you use a font like Cerdarville Cursive? Or a font like Saira Extra Condensed? Or what about a font like Sawarabi Gothic?

Here’s what they look like below:

Which do you think best portrays the tone of the company and is easiest to read?

It’s probably going to be the last one.

Whilst the first is pretty and elegant, that’s not what your clothing company is about.

The second one is modern, but can be difficult to read given how condensed the writing is.

The third one, however, is both modern and easy to read. It comes across as cool and unpretentious without trying too hard.

These are all things to consider when choosing a font. But often, you can just get a feel of what’s right and what isn’t.

Choosing the right font for your website is not a decision that should be taken lightly or overlooked.

There is a lot of psychology that goes into the choice of font, and you want to make sure you find one that your consumer will identify with and be able to gauge your brand’s message clearly.

Often, font choice isn’t considered as important or necessary to a website’s success as other factors like graphics, logo, and design.

But hopefully, this article will have challenged this perception.

There’s a lot to try and convey through one choice of font, and that’s not easy.

You have to find the balance between readability, how it looks, and what it says.

Thankfully, it’s not a decision you have to make alone or without advice.

Shape the Market offers a variety of premium and free website templates for you to choose from for your company.

Each theme has been carefully designed with the tone of voice, brand identity, and the consumer in mind.

If you’re looking to set up a website for your company and don’t know where to begin, contact Shape the Market. Our team of expert designers and content writers are available to help, and will make sure that your website represents your company accurately.

How do you make users comfortable with your website? There are two schools of thought in digital advertising and marketing. One of them advocates for the loud in your face style of traditional advertising. You can see this in mid-video YouTube ads, Google banner ads, and pop-up newsletter CTAs.

On the other hand, there are those that choose the subtle approach wherein the objective is to make users comfortable as much as possible, gently coaxing them down into the funnel. Every business will need to choose which method best fits their identity.

But for this blog we’ll be discussing the latter method and how it’s helped us make a good impression on our partners.

The goal of many websites is to encourage visitors to stay on the platform for as long as possible. The longer they stay the more they learn about the company’s services and the more likely they’ll give them a try.

Many businesses try to extend the stay of a user through content or appealing visuals.

One design aspect that’s getting more attention these days is the use of colour to ease eye strain. As more jobs move to the digital landscape (because of current global events) people spend more time in front of screens. Choosing colours that make users comfortable is a consideration that more business owners are taking into account.

One example of this that we encountered was with a travel company that wanted to redesign their website and rank better on search engines. A consideration they had was the platform’s colour scheme, as they had something specific in mind.

We worked within their wishes and delivered a website that we thought both our partner and their users would be happy with. Up to this day no one has had a bad word to say about the design. In fact, we’d had one very good word said about our work in the form of a review.

Disclaimer: the company name in the review mentions ‘Bmoozd’, our former company name. Since February 2021 we have undergone a rebrand and are now known as Shape The Market.

Some will argue that though the subtle advertising approach looks and feels nice, and helps to make users comfortable, it ultimately falls short of the real goal which is conversions. Low bounce rates and high web traffic doesn’t guarantee more sales.

This is true, but we argue that this approach does something more important than quick conversions – building trust. In our experience, it’s much easier to build trust with users as well as partners when you don’t force the issue. It was even a selling point in another project we did with a real estate company a while back.

Disclaimer: the company name in the review mentions ‘Bmoozd’, our former company name. Since February 2021 we have undergone a rebrand and are now known as Shape The Market.

Subtlety and comfort is playing the long game, which some companies might not have the time for. But it’s an option that many would do well to consider for their own strategy.

This option has worked in some of our past projects, and it might do the same for yours. Contact us today and we can discuss the best path to lead your business to the success it deserves.