Grapes Software

[grapessoftware-blog]

How to Choose the Right Technology and Agency for Your Mobile App Development?

If you’re an enterprise owner looking to expand your business, there are high chances that you want to get a mobile application built. Meetings with any mobile application development agency will result in them throwing technical jargons at you as to how well they can develop your Android and iOS mobile apps using the latest technologies.

Technologies like React Native, GraphQL, NodeJS, etc. are being used by big brands like Facebook, but they may not be the right choice for you as the selection of mobile technology is based on your business needs and complexities. However, it is extremely important to gain knowledge about the different types of mobile app technologies and how to choose the right one for your business.

Mobile apps can be:

· Native Mobile Apps

· Xamarin Apps

· Hybrid Native Apps

· Hybrid Web Apps

· Progressive Web Apps

Choosing the Right Technology

Here are a few tips that will help you choose the right technology for your mobile app development:

1. You can begin with the Hybrid Native Apps which offer a strong-ecosystem and a large number of developers. They are based on React Native or Weex, and are easier and faster to build.

2. Build a Native App if you’re looking for enhanced performance. However, you should start with a single platform (either iOS or Android). Each app has its own bugs and one native app allows for faster iteration.

3. Watch out for Progressive Web Apps. They are comparatively cheaper to build and will become a rage once apple devices start supporting them.

4. Owing to the immaturity and small developer community of Flutter, it should be your last option.

5. Choose hybrid native apps over hybrid web apps as they offer a better overall experience. If you’re looking to launch your app as a website, go for hybrid web app.

Choosing the Right Mobile Application Development Agency

With so many mobile development agencies around, select the right one for you can be a difficult task. Below are a few tips which will help you select the best mobile application agency for your business:

· Innovation

Go for an agency which has an ability to think out-of-the-box and capability to improve your business standards by transforming ingenious thoughts into mobile apps.

· Credibility

The market today is filled with agencies which claim to develop a tailor-made mobile application for your business. Before finalizing any agency, do a thorough background check by searching for their reviews, ratings, experience, and if possible, meet their clients to know the levels of customer satisfaction.

· Cost-effectiveness

Select an agency which offers high quality products cost-effectively. The cost of developing mobile apps is usually high, so only established companies would be able to provide the service at an efficient cost. Spend more time online and do your research work to find such companies.

· Customer Service

There are bugs in all mobile apps. Be very careful while selecting an agency and only finalize one after knowing their standards of customer service. Investing a large amount of money on poor service providers can be a nightmare for your business as it would kill the experience of your clients. Opt for reputed firms who are always there to assist you.

The success of any business is dependent on the decisions taken by the management. In today’s date when mobile is the way to go, keeping these tips in mind will help you immensely in selecting the perfect technology and agency for your mobile application development.

Also Read -  4 Things to Know Before Developing a Mobile App

[grapessoftware-blog]

7 Ways To Make Your Website Stand Out From The Crowd

Your website is your face on the Internet. It says many things about you, your ideas or your business. The important aspect is that the Internet is flooded with over billions of websites and each second close to 55,000 active searches are made. You may be anticipating the magnitude of competition going on in the online arena each moment. You must add those critical elements right at the website design and development phase to make it stand out in the crowd. Else, your website remains just as another web address among all those billions of other websites. Here are seven ways you must follow to give your website a unique identity.

Optimize your website for the search engine

Visibility is the most important aspect of your website to get attention. When people search for related keywords for your type of business, your website must get featured at the top of the list. Right mix of keywords with justified density and proximity is critical for better search results.

Publish quality content

Search engines regularly craw websites to see how up to date and relevant the content of the site is. Quality content with the right intensity of information always has the advantage of getting noticed by the targeted users and prospective customers. You need to keep your website updated by adding fresh and unique content regularly.

Give an appeal to the text

The very basic concept of great website development is helping the user find the right information he is looking for. Typography can play a big role in helping the readers navigate easily through the website. The headers, sub headers and important chunks should be properly highlighted with right font, colour, size and style.

Manage your online reputation

Word of mouth has always been a great marketing tool. While one good online review can boost your business, bad reviews can bring derogatory consequences. The Internet is a vast, transparent online forum. So, it becomes essential to control your image and build your sonline reputation as much as possible. Never miss out to circulate great reviews and positive customer feedbacks through all online channels.

Engage with your customers

Do not let it be a one-sided affair when dealing with customers online. Do not just be a silent facilitator of your business. Show your engagement with your customers by regularly communicating with them. Use the power of social media in a very personable way. Reply to the comments, listen and address to their queries, so that they also feel connected.

Make use of Google My Business Listing

Google has evolved as the most popular and powerful search engine. It provides great features to make your business easily searchable. Google My Business Profile is such an offer that can help your website authenticate your business profile including important contacts and location information.

Boost your social media presence

Social media is the most powerful online medium of communication at present. However, most of the businesses are limited to using only top three or four social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or LinkedIn. You must explore beyond this list to other powerful platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumbler, Vine etc.

Follow these seven ways to make your website stand out from the crowd and boost your business online.

[grapessoftware-blog]

The Importance of Organic Traffic

The traffic that your website receives can either come as a result of unpaid sources such as searches on Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. or through paid sources such as promotional links, PPC campaigns, brand endorsements, etc. Here, the traffic garnered through unpaid sources is what answers the question - what is organic traffic!

For what it’s worth, the greater majority of the traffic on any website, sometimes as much as 60%, is organic in nature. It is for this reason that this type of traffic is considered important. However, there is much more to organic traffic, than what meets the eye.

Let us take a quick look at some of the aspects which enhance the significance of organic traffic.

Reliable Source

When it comes to a website’s paid marketing, there is always a chance of fake clicks, usually carried out by automated systems. While this may show a quick spike in the traffic, the truth is, these numbers won’t match with the actual conversions. However, when the traffic is organic, you can rest assured of the fact that your traffic comprises of genuine human beings, a fact which will be aptly be reflected in your conversion rate.

Permanent Ranking

Organic traffic is almost always comprised of those customers who are genuinely interested in your business and its offerings, and like your content. Thus, you will enjoy a consistent flow of traffic. As long as your clients’ needs are met, and you offer them with fresh and unique content, they will keep coming back to you. This, in turn, will lead Google to favour your website, thus helping you achieve a higher rank on Search Engine Results Page (SERP), which again will encourage potential customers to visit your website. You may make the use of one of the many available keyword ranking tools, such as Google Keyword Planner to ensure flawless optimisation of your website page, to encourage the traffic flow even further.

This is usually not the case in case of traffic converged through the use of paid measures. The moment you slash down your advertising budget, the paid traffic will simply dry up.

Cost Effectiveness

You might have guessed it by now that attracting organic traffic requires little to no investment. Although if you wish to see quick and more efficient results, you may spend some time and money towards local SEO marketing. Efforts to this end will help boost your rankings as well as enhance the visibility of your website name, and will often generate impressive returns on investment.

More often than not, organic traffic can be attracted, simply by implementing some measures such as:

Executing a well-planned content marketing strategy

Building a Google My Business listing

Social media optimisation of the web content and blog

Garnering positive client reviews and testimonials

  Now that you’re aware of how to increase organic traffic and its importance, we are more than sure that you’re ready to reap its benefits.

[grapessoftware-blog]

Choosing the Right CMS Platform for Your Business Website

Many enterprises around the world are in need of a website that is interactive, dynamic, and need fresh content on a regular basis. While it is always easy to hire a website designing and development company to make those amendments for you, you do not want to be dependent for the smallest changes, do you? Solution – Content Management System.

A web content management system, if carefully sourced and implemented, can help you:

-      streamline publishing your content

-      update website on a regular basis with SEO optimized content (highly beneficial if you have an eCommerce portal)

-      make it easier for non-technical staff to customize and maintain the website

-      make the whole process cost-effective, among others

 To help you choose the best CMS for your website, it is recommended to consult an expert who can identify your business needs and then build your site on a platform that serves all purposes. But, whether you choose Cloud CMS, Proprietary CMS, or an Open Source CMS, knowing about the best content management software available is important.

 -      WordPress: The most popular PHP blogging platform, it has excellent documentation, making it easy to use, and has easy navigation to find what one may be looking for. With the widest base of themes and plugins (around 18,000 available extensions), the WordPress content management system is a highly developed platform.

-      Drupal: With tons of optional modules and a very large & active community, Drupal helps you create a business website with social features on a flexible and modular layout. It also enables multiple levels and categories for types of content, making it a pure CMS rather than just a blogging platform.

-      Joomla: With an easily configurable software, Joomla is a complete CMS like Drupal. It has an administrative interface that is complete with intuitive drop-down menus, and also supports access to controlled protocols like LDAP, OpenID, etc. With around 7400 extensions and 2.5 million installations worldwide, its community as you can guess is very active and functional.

-      TYPO3: An enterprise content management system, TYPO3 is ideal for large eCommerce platforms and corporate portals. With a huge range of functions and a wide community of developers, it assists in soundly implementing complex site structures that have multilingual content.

-      Contao: Clearly structured administrative layer, multi-lingual backend, compatibility with web standards, over 1900 available extensions, Contao is an open source content management system that provides a complete user-friendly solution. It also has an integrated theme manager that enables to individually configure the design and layout of a website through pre-designed modules.

  These are just a few of the CMS platforms available that can help you

create a business website

. Before you move on to choosing one for your business, determine the goal of your website, and what is your exact requirement, keeping in mind the expansion plans. An experienced website development agency will be able to guide you through this process effectively, so do not hesitate to contact one today.

[grapessoftware-blog]

How Microcopy Has a Huge Impact On UX Design?

Websites and mobile applications have been around for quite some time now. And when it comes to determining their popularity, it is the blend of a compelling UX and UI design (User Experience and User Interface Design) that plays a major role. If you’re wondering what is UX design, it is nothing but the process of offering accentuated ease of use, and a seamless experience for the consumer during their interaction with your website or mobile app. UI Design, on the other hand, refers to the appearance and visual appeal of these entities. User Experience Design or UX Design is generally a blend of numerous aspects such as testing, development, content, and prototyping. However, today we will concentrate on one of the most underrated aspects that can help make your UX Design far more compelling, i.e. Microcopy.

Microcopy and UX Design Microcopy is essentially a tiny chunk of words which can be used to label a field, offer a quick intro, give short instructions, and such. A microcopy is known to serve the following functions: • Guide the user at points which otherwise might create a sense of uncertainty. • Explain the outcome of an action that the user is about to take. • Alleviate any issues that the user might face, while navigating the site. • Convey the personality of the brand (chirpy and young, or serious and upfront). • Increase conversion rates (especially when used correctly on e-commerce websites). For example, “Continue to Checkout”.

In short, a microcopy is designed with the objective of making the user’s life easy, and help him/her shrug off any cognitive load. Of course, for this to happen, you need to anticipate the problem areas in advance, and add-in creative microcopies as and when required. Your UX designer can help you do so.

For a microcopy to be ideal, it must be: • Short • Snappy • User-oriented • Self-explanatory

One of the most loved examples of a microcopy is that from the login of a leading social media network - “It’s free and always will be”. Here, the user knows that he/she can seamlessly use the platform, without worrying about being asked to pay for the service, anytime in the near future. Another example for a microcopy that enhanced a mobile UX design is - “When autoplay is enabled, a suggested video will automatically play next”.

The best part about a microcopy is, you do not need to be an accomplished copywriter to come up with one. A simple, easy to understand copy that resonates with your audience is enough to do the trick. It’s all about conveying the message in the simplest way possible.

We hope that you now know the importance of a microcopy with respect to user experience. This will certainly prove to be of great help when you get involved in the design process, as you will be able to ask the right questions and give apt suggestions to your UX web design service provider.

[grapessoftware-blog]

A Guide to Google AMP for Magento

The recently introduced Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP denote an open-source technology that is aimed at assisting the creation of mobile-optimized web pages. This technology helps load the optimised pages up to 4 times faster in comparison to regular web pages. Hence, more and more websites are opting to offer Magento Web Stores to their customers.

Today, the search engine giant Google features AMP pages as a part of search results on mobile devices, which has further contributed to the demand for Magento development services.

 The Concept

If you’re wondering what makes Accelerated Mobile Pages so fast, then the answer is rather easy. AMP makes use of a simplified form of the HTML structure, which is sans any resource-heavy elements such as tags, or Java Scripts. They merely place emphasis on loading the static content with rapid speed, thus improving the user experience by a commendable margin.  Hence, it doesn’t come as a surprise when Magento store owners are seeking the assistance of a Magento development company to help them adopt AMP as early in the development phase as possible.

 The Features

When it comes to Google AMP for Magento, the features are plenty and completely worthy of your attention. These include:

Creation of distinct AMP for each web page using a simplified HTML     structure.

Appearance of AMP content on the top of SERP, under the Top Stories section.

Special permission to track customer interactions with your website, due to the built-in Google Analytics in Magento AMP.

Addition of rich snippets to Magento AMP pages.

Forcing AMP on mobile devices, thus leading to the display of AMP content when the website is opened using mobile devices.

Easy modification due to the open-code nature of AMP extension.

 The Benefits

Now that you’re aware of the features of Magento AMP plugin, let us quickly take you through the benefits of the same.

The plugin is known to improve the visibility of your website on leading search engines, thus resulting in a considerable increase in site traffic and greater conversion rates.

The use of the Magento AMP plugin helps improve store ranking.

It reduces the average load time of every page of your website’s mobile version, thus helping every page to load in few nanosecond’s time. This helps lower the bounce rate, thus resulting in increased sales.

Whether it is your Home Page or a Category Page, a CMS page or a Product Page, the Magento AMP plugin ensures that every page is optimised to be in tandem with Google AMP technology.

 Conclusion

Thanks to the commendable features and endless benefits that it offers, Google AMP for Magento will soon become a necessity rather than just being the luxury that it is today. After all, every business website wishes to taste success sooner rather than later!

[grapessoftware-blog]

Best SEO Tips to Improve Mobile App's Search Ranking

Among the available android app developers for hire, everyone would know how to create an interactive app which provides all the key functions in the simplest manner. However, before you hire mobile app developer, know that a functional mobile app doesn’t necessarily mean higher search rankings. It requires search engine optimization as well, which is as much about content as it is about coding. For instance, here are some of the best SEO tips which can help a brand improve its mobile app’s search ranking:

Choose the name carefully

The name of an application links the android market with the anchor text in the website. Linking popular websites to the application page and using the app’s name as anchor text makes their huge link equity work for you.

Make it visible

In case a good amount of audience is approaching your brand’s website on a regular basis, it is your duty to make the process of downloading your application easy and convenient for them. It is as simple as providing them the link to download your application on your website.

Use smart link text

To get Google’s attention and rank really well, make sure to deliver a strong message which says that your brand is all what your android application pages are about.

Use the press

A press release that a brand gets published to promote the availability of its application needs to contain links with marked anchor text which indicates the application download page.

Use social media

Brand pages on LinkedIn, Facebook, Wikipedia, and Google Plus allow different URLs in the profile. Therefore, a brand’s social media profiles are in their own way a strong search engine ranking opportunity. While some of the social media platforms don’t allow brands to generate an anchor text with the links, it can still use marked redirect links in order to track clicks and crawls between third-party social platforms and application pages.

For a brand looking to march ahead with not only a stunning app but with proper SEO for the app’s search ranking as well, it is ideal to take up the services of an established android app development and Best SEO company. Look for a mobile app development company that houses the best android app developers in the industry and works relentlessly to match the ambition and the needs of a brand.

[grapessoftware-blog]

Designing a Digital Strategy

The world is going digital. And, if you have been asked to look after a brand’s digital presence, you ought to know how to put together a digital strategy.

Despite the fact that making a digital strategy sounds intimidating, the top advertising agencies in India have banked on this incredible opportunity to become successful. And sooner than later, it is time you get a glimpse of what goes into one.

 What is Digital Strategy?

Simply put, it is a document that shows how the brand that is being represented, should handle the different aspects of digital – website, mobile, email, social media, etc. Though it need not cover everything in depth, but must establish some general approaches to these different areas.

While a traditional business strategy focuses on a long term roadmap and budget forecasting, a digital strategy focuses more on short term goals.

Digital platform can get chaotic at times, and a well-defined strategy is a sought-after direction for the brand’s online footprint. When done right, it puts you across as an implementer who can use the latest technology and think long term in terms of the future of digital.

 Policies, Priorities and People

As new technologies emerge, a digital strategy zooms in on creating policies, priorities and people who can be trusted to make the right decisions. Rather than defining everything up front, the idea relies on creating a strategy that can adapt to the fast moving pace of digital. An ideal digital strategy must include:

People: As a brand that is looking forward to making a place in the digital world, it is important to have a mixture of both – internal team who knows the brand inside-out and an outsourced team that has an expertise of all things digital.

 Policies: As scenarios occur, a well-defined framework of policies will ensure that decisions are made in a timely manner and as decided upon. This eliminates the chances of a conflict. Policies must include – accessibility; removal of content; development standards; testing requirements; writing & designing style; crisis management, etc.

 Priorities: Outlining key priorities in relation to business objectives and target audiences is crucial in an environment where decision-making is racing. This will enable to speed-up things that are truly urgent.

 The Scope of Digital Strategy

Digital has moved beyond websites. Though the exact scope of a digital strategy varies depending on the organisation and what they do, it should encompass – mobile, social media, email, SEO, PPC, websites, etc.

 Accurately defining a digital strategy is a dream that is unachievable at the speed it moves on. A defined budget, that is flexible, can be a good start before you hire or approach digital marketing companies in Delhi, Mumbai or elsewhere in India. And always remember that it takes teamwork to put together a digital strategy that works.

[grapessoftware-blog]

Benefits of Redesigning a Website

Keeping up with technology is a tough path to walk on, but a fruitful one none the less. And when it comes down to keeping your company’s website abreast of what your audience prefers, you should not be thinking twice.

If you are contemplating on redesigning your company’s website, do not just approach a website designing company in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or elsewhere. It is crucial that you recognize how redesigning can not only uplift your overall image, but make your product/service worth the price tag.

-      A chance to start over: the old website, however faithful it has been is not serving you the same way, and you know it too. A new website is not a clean slate for your business to erase what’s done in the past, howbeit it gives you a chance to recreate yourself. You can correct mistakes made in the past and put more focus on things that will help you succeed.

-      Consistency in branding: your advertising tactics and your website must match so that it does not confuse your audience. Redesigning will help you align your brand image with your online presence.

-      Increasing customer’s trust: when it comes down to the World Wide Web customers do not trust on old things. Just like fashion trends, website design needs an uplift every now and then. An improved web design can perk up your UX by helping people to do exactly what they need to. A high-quality design with clear and concise call-to-action is more likely to bring you conversions too.

-      Search engines will trust you more: revamping your website also gives you a chance to add new and relevant content onto your website. A blog that is regularly updated with valuable content is more likely to be shared on different social media platforms. Google algorithms that focus on content see this natural link juice and eventually help you get ranked higher.

-      More control over your website: once you move into a better content management system, it will be easier for you to update your content without relying on a developer each time for a tiny change.

-      An edge over the competition: a sleek new website does many good things for your brand’s image like it improves how your employees feel about your company, how your potential customers see you, and it draws eyes away from the competition and on your services and products with its contemporary look.

-      Increased workload capacity: updated server can handle your website’s workload, especially during a marketing campaign. With a better backend you can easily go viral without worrying about your website crashing. Moreover, your customers will not have to wait for long which will keep them happy and keep your Google credibility intact.

  There’s no denying how an improved and modern design with relevant content can help you enhance functionality and help add additional features to your website. Hire a website designing service provider who has an expertise in redesigning a website and has the right team to look after every aspect of a website.