Month: April 2018

21 FREE Stock Photo Sites for Social Media Images

by Michael Yau
21 FREE Stock Photo Sites for Social Media Images

If you’re looking for eye-catching images to use in your social media marketing, look no further. We’ve put together this resource of 21 great sources for FREE stock photos, and best of all, they’re all Creative Commons licenses, meaning you can share away!

  1. Pixabay

Every image you’ll find on Pixabay is released under Creative Commons CC0, meaning you can modify them and use them in commercial settings.

  1. Unsplash

With over 300,000 high-resolution images free to download, you can search for what you’re looking for or browse the collections.

  1. IM Free

The royalty-free stock photos here are curated into various themes for users to explore.

  1. Gratisography

Interestingly, every photo on Gratisography is by photographer Ryan McGuire, with new photos added weekly.

  1. FancyCrave

Proud of its collection of ‘beautiful photos that can’t be found elsewhere’, FancyCrave releases two new professional images daily.

  1. Kaboompics

The images here are popular with lifestyle and interior design bloggers, and you can even search by colour palette!

  1. Stockvault

While Stockvault also has stock photos for sale, once you select ‘Free stock photos’, you’ll find a vast amount of great quality photos to use.

  1. Negative Space

With 16 different categories, Negative Space makes it easy for you to search and find the perfect image for your social media marketing.

  1. ISO Republic

With free stock photos and free stock videos, ISO Republic adds more CC0 images every week.

  1. RawPixel

Offering paid as well as free stock images, the free collection at RawPixel is vast and creative. Not only does it offer fantastic social media images, it also works on initiatives that make a positive social impact.

  1. StockSnap

With hundreds of images being added every day, StockSnap is a popular choice with social media marketers. Have a look at the site and you’ll see why!

  1. Startup Stock Photos

StartUp Stock Photos, as the name suggests, is geared towards startup businesses, so the images are mostly suitable if you’re looking for images of casual business settings.

  1. Life of Pix

Created by the Leeroy creative and digital agency, the collection of free high-resolution images at Life of Pix isn’t huge, but it contains some beautiful imagery.

  1. Pexels

With a nicely arranged collection of CC0 licensed images, you’ll have no problems finding what you want at Pexels.

  1. Jay Mantri

Jay provides a beautiful selection of stunning photos, all free for you to use however and wherever you want!

  1. New Old Stock

Something a little bit different, New Old Stock offers a fascinating glimpse into the past with vintage photos from the public archives, with no known copyright restrictions.

  1. Refe

You’ll have to select ‘free photos’, as Refe also sells images, but once you do you’ll find 12 categories filled with stunning pictures for social media.

  1. Splitshire

Offering free images all taken by web designer Daniel Nanescu, the site offers plenty of free stock photos for commercial use.

  1. Morguefile

A free photo archive ‘for creatives, by creative’, the site also runs a daily photo challenge, the results of which are added to the library of images.

  1. Picjumbo

Not the biggest collection of free stock photos, nonetheless the images here are ideal for social media use.

  1. Burst

Burst, by Shopify, offers a mix of CC0 licensed images and images that fall under Shopify’s own license.

10 Characteristics of a High Converting Landing Page

by Tom Mitchener
10 Characteristics of a High Converting Landing Page

When you’re designing a landing page for your product or service, there’s one thing you need it to do – convert. As one of the most important factors in your online marketing campaign, you should be spending time making sure it’s right!

Unfortunately, there’s no precise formula or template for successful landing pages, and the success of yours depends on so many different factors including your customer base, and your niche. BUT there are certain aspects we see time and time again on successful landing pages – does yours have the following?

  1. An outstanding headline

And we mean outstanding. Nothing wishy-washy, the headline has to be amazing to engage visitors straight away and make them need to stay on your page and see what it is you have to offer.

  1. A compelling sub-headline

While the headline is the immediate WOW factor, the sub-headline or secondary headline is where you have more room to expand on your message. Once your headline has grabbed their attention, this is where you persuade them to read on.

  1. Benefits focussed

Your product or service is the solution to their problem, so make sure they’re in no doubt exactly how it will benefit them. Make sure your copy answers the question ‘what’s in it for me?’.

  1. Striking visual content

A wall of text is going to put most visitors off straight away, so make your landing page a good mix of images and text. Make sure images are relevant, large, and high-quality – they need to grab every visitor’s attention straight away!

  1. Social proof

It’s all very well you telling people your business is life-changing, but, well, you would really, wouldn’t you? Social proof in the form of real life testimonials or case studies are crucial for cultivating trust.

  1. A clear explanation of what you’re offering

A landing page shouldn’t be a comprehensive list of everything your business offers, it needs to be focused on one specific thing and should be crystal clear about exactly what that is. Make it simple and straightforward, so visitors are in no doubt about what they’ll be getting.

  1. Cover visitors’ ‘pain points’

As well as letting visitors know how they’ll benefit from your offer, don’t forget to touch on the problems they’re likely to experience if they don’t have your business in their lives!

  1. Well-structured content

Make sure you structure your page in a clear and logical way – your headline/sub-headline, a clear explanation of your offer, the benefits, social proof, and finally, your call to action (CTA).

  1. An emotional hook

You already know to cover the practical benefits they’ll get from your offer, but what about the emotional benefits? It’s human nature to be drawn to something that we think will fulfil us emotionally and psychologically, so make sure you use that to your advantage.

  1. Don’t forget your call to action!

The most important element of your landing page is your CTA, where to tell them what you want to do and when you want them to do it (here’s a clue, give them a sense of urgency to do it NOW!

Making sure your landing page converts does take some work, but make sure yours contain these characteristics and you’ll definitely start seeing results!

10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Web Design Agency

by Michael Yau
10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Web Design Agency

Your business website is often the first impression potential customers have of your business – so you need to get it right. That’s why when you’re looking to hire a web design agency it’s essential you find one that’s the perfect fit for you.

But how?

Here are 10 key questions to ask before making this very important decision!

  1. How long have you been in the web design business?

No matter how much flair or passion for design an agency or individual designer has, you need to be confident they have the experience to make the process a smooth one from start to finish. If the business is a new one, ask about the experience designers or developers have from previous jobs / employment.

  1. Does your in-house team do all the development?

An agency that outsources development is not necessarily an issue, but it’s good to know who is doing the work. After all, some agencies will specialise in design, others in development. One thing to ensure is that whichever agency you choose will project manage the build from start to finish.

  1. Can I see examples of your work?

An agency telling you they create beautifully designed websites is one thing, but can they show you?

  1. What services are included in your packages?

It’s good to know in advance what else the agency offers beside basic web development, and it means you won’t have to go elsewhere for those finishing touches. For example, do they offer SEO, copywriting, marketing strategy?

  1. Do you have experience in our industry?

Having experience in your particular niche is a bonus, because they’ll understand more the complexities and challenges your business might face.

  1. What technical aftercare do you offer?

This is such an important question to ask – what happens once your website is finished if you have any technical issues or queries? It’s normal to need the odd tweak or two once your site goes live, and you need to be confident you’ve got the right support.

  1. How can I make updates to the website?

Again, once your site is up and running you’re going to want to update certain things, like content for example, without having to ask the design agency first.

  1. Will the finished website be based on a template?

Your business website should be unique to you, not a duplicate of countless other websites! That’s why you need to look for an agency that offers custom design, not just carbon copy templates.

  1. How does your pricing work?

It’s not just how much you’re going to pay you need to understand, it’s whether you’re looking at a fixed price that includes everything, or will you be billed extra for certain elements?

  1. How long will the process take?

While no agency or designer will be able to give you an exact timeline, they should have understanding of your needs and the experience to give you an estimated timeline. You need to go into any project with an expectation of turnaround time, particularly if you know you’re on a tight timescale.

While these questions to ask before hiring a web design agency are by no means an exhaustive list, we hope they’ve given you an idea of what you need to know. And don’t forget, if you don’t like any of the answers you get, move on to the next agency!

10 Things Google Looks for When Ranking a Website

by Michael Yau
10 Things Google Looks for When Ranking a Website

To get your business front and centre of your target audience, you need to make sure your website is working for you. No matter how amazing your products or services are, if potential customers can’t find you, you’ll struggle to succeed!

Getting your website fully optimised for search engines like Google is crucial for making sure it’s visible in those all-important search results, so here are 10 things Google looks for when raking websites – does yours tick every box?

  1. Responsive web design

Visitors need to be able to view your website across all devices, mobile or desktop. That means if the design of your site isn’t responsive, it won’t rank as highly.

  1. Website loading speeds

Users aren’t just looking for a site that’s easy to use and attractive – they also want to be able to access it quickly! It’s about the overall experience, so sites that take too long to load won’t be as successful.

  1. High-quality links

One of the most important factors in your website’s Google ranking, having high-quality, relevant links from authority websites is a must. It’s not just having them there, you should make sure they’re prominently positioned and linked to relevant text.

  1. Keywords in Title Tags

Each page of your website should have title tags, and those titles should have your main keywords included.

  1. SEO optimised URLs

That means short URLs that contain your main keywords, having a consistent URL structure, and submitting an XML sitemap to the search engines.

  1. Keyword Variations in Headings

Use keywords (main and other long-tail keywords) in your H1 and H2 headings, as well as H1 and H2 tags, and your rankings will get a boost.

  1. Optimised image names and ALT tags

The images on your site have to be tagged and named in order for Google to ‘read’ them, and making sure the file names are relevant to your business and that ALT tags are used to describe the images certainly helps.

  1. Quality content

One of the things your website is ranked on is the value it gives to visitors – so make sure the content is valuable! That means long, high-quality, properly formatted, and in-depth.

  1. Engaging multimedia content

As one of the things Google ranks websites on is the amount of time visitors spend on them, make sure you use interesting multimedia content to encourage people to stick around. Things like data, videos, and images are all good – just make sure they’re relevant to your business!

  1. Outbound links

While you won’t want to include outbound links to any of your competitors on your website, look for other relevant information and websites you can link to. In this case, directing visitors elsewhere isn’t a bad thing in terms of Google rankings!

Hopefully this checklist has given you a few things to think about in terms of killer website SEO, and you can start implementing some of the tips (if you’re not already, of course).

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