When you are preparing a design project, presentation, UX prototype, pitch for a product, etc, sometimes you need a few shortcuts to get things done faster and focus on the logistic instead of the finesses. Before you are listed our best pics of websites that can help you get appropriate illustrations, absolutely free.

1 Streamline Illustrations

Streamline Illustrations gives you 50 illustrations for free, plus another 250 LGBT illustrations. You can choose between multicolor, duotone and monotone, and then download them for Illustrator, Sketch, SVG, PDF, PNG or Iconjar vector files. The illustrations themselves are cute, cartoon-like, and applicable to almost every topic.

The full pack includes 3000 customizable illustrations, and their price is only $199.

2 DrawKit

DrawKit gives you practical illustrations for your design, usable for startups and small businesses. They are under MIT license, which means that you can use them for commercial purposes. Acknowledged as No 1 Product of the Day by Product Hunt, DrawKit offers free categories, but also three different packages - Packs, Modular Kits and Animations, all for different prices. As Bukowski would say: Find what you love and let it... (p.s. this is not actually Bukowski, the internet just assigned it to him).

3 Absurd Design

The sole name of this source makes you love it. Absurd Design is a weird, journalistic-comic type of drawings, black and white, available for your designs. They give you a total of eleven free designs, that you can use in commercial purposes, in PNG format. For the big players, they offer a monthly membership, that opens the gate for colored illustrations, SVG vectors, and all the drawings you can get.

4 Bottts

Well, this is a whole different story. If you grew up loving Dr Who (like I did), or you come from a geeky background, you are going to flip to these designs! Bottts is a library, which gives you the elements to combine together for your perfectly designed robot illustration. You can mix the elements up using a Sketch App (they are basically a Sketch library themselves), design your robot's frame, antenna, colors and more. Look them up, they are adorable ?

5 Ouch

Best kind of deal - you get free design, and in return, you have to link back to the source. This gives you a free resource and gives them visibility in return, so it builds a very respectful, symbiotic relationship between the designers and the illustrators. Ouch.pics is a project developed by Icons8, that aims to free vector illustrations for the user interface. They offer a clean, contemporary look to your designs. Alongside with stock photos, free icon packs, and free music, their desire is to build a design platform and change the way people create.

What are your favorite open-source platforms? Let us know in the comments below :)

Author: Nina Petrov, ninapetrov.com

Podcasts are so IN this season! If you didn't get yourself hooked on them yet, let us make a selection of our best picks - podcasts designed for designers, artists, creatives and innovators.

1 Do It For The Process

Led by an artist and educator, Emily Jeffords, this podcast is intended to boost your creativity and help your career. Emily talks about her professional life as an artist, the common issues of surviving in the art world, improving your social media, digital tools such as video editors and photo editing apps. She is sharing her movement from a starving artist to a successful creative entrepreneur. 

2 Art Juice

As fruity as it sounds, this podcast finds its audience among artists, creatives and art lovers. Through their experience of color mixing, creative process, mixed media, we are being led by Alice Sheridan and Louise Fletcher, which are using humor and storytelling to open these important topics for COLOURlovers and artists.

3 Artist / Mother

A unique podcast that interviews artists who are also mothers, whose guests share personal stories about pursuing their art careers while also being present as parents. Exciting episodes are taking us through questions on commitment, ultimate dream vs reality topics, creating art while breastfeeding, and many more.

4 Make Share Grow

The pitch of this podcast is sharing behind-the-scenes stories about art, craft and the creative process. Julie Marriott aims to inspire a new generation of artists and creatives, share meaningful insight into a life of an artist behind the curtains - exploring the process of creating an artwork, collective art-making, artist studio development. You can also find out about the resources you can use and didn't discover yet.

5 Carrier

Starring Cynthia Erivo, directed by Dan Blank, this not-a-podcast is bringing something more than just a story. The authors are creating a unique audio experience, and they are riding you through a storyline that is more than an audiobook. The character we are following is a truck driver who picks up a loaded trailer, not knowing what's inside. This drama, mystery, horror, and comedy is a precious 20-minute experience that makes you look forward to the next one but also lets you think in a wider framework - mixed media, storytelling, audio-visual mystique.

Do you like our choice? Get your daily creative vibe with your favorite podcast apps or on your browser.

Author: Nina Petrov

We live in a digital world, and everything around us is a worldwide web, coded and embedded, and to be present nowadays means to be online. This is why an essential part of being a freelancer, an artist, a creative studio owner, is having a branded website, with a kick-ass domain name, perfect (minimalist) design and well-structured website map.

If you don't find yourself as a website builder, an HTML and CSS master, and you want to avoid hiring a developer to build you a perfect website, and then update it from project to project, maybe we can help.

It is good to know that different platforms are available and affordable for you, to build the perfect website to showcase your artwork, all by yourself. As a designer, or a visual artist, you know exactly what kind of website would do you right, and it is super easy to dive into playing around with elements and pages of your own branded website.

Jimdo

Jimdo is a website builder software specialized for artist portfolio websites. What Jimdo offers you, except the digital tool, is a step-by-step instruction kit guiding you from building the website to selling and search engine optimizing your work online. They offer a great deal of advice on what is good practice when you are promoting your work, and how to optimize the content presentation itself. It is great for beginners who want a simple and awesome representation of their style, for the type of website you can show off on your business card when you work. 

They have various templates you can choose from, and you can also pick your domain name on the spot. Jimdo is cool because they let you play with the website for free, and then upgrade it to another plan when you feel ready. You can choose among five different plans, starting from $0 to $39 per month, depending on how many seriously cool features you want.

www.jimdo.com

PageCloud

You. Have. Got. To. Love. This. Builder. PageCloud is not as famous as Wordpress or Wix, but it deserves to sit at the big boys' table. It is super easy to use, has a drag and drop system where you can arrange the elements of how you see fit and edit every page to match your style. It offers a number of integrations, including a simple e-commerce system, so your shop can stay a part of your all-inclusive website. You can either choose a template or create your own page layout, stylize it with the right font, add your images and embed your video. Among many integrations, there are some of our all-time favorites: MailChimp, Instagram, Shopify, PayPal, and Instagram. For more serious players, it lets you change the source code and get the most of your web presentation.

How much for all this, you wonder? They do not have the usual plan system; instead, they give you everything for $20 per month. Pretty good, isn't it? On top of that, you get a 14-day free trial to see if you are happy with what they are giving to you, and as a bonus, you get a free domain name and Google G Suite for the whole first year.

www.pagecloud.com

ArtSquare

Artsquare is not really a website builder, but a very unique and useful tool you should try out for sure. Their tagline says "One portfolio to rule them all", which is why you won't regret this clever network of the apps you love. Artsquare enables you a simple way of posting your visuals to all the platforms at once, making it easy to reach your audience. They partner up with selling websites such as Ebay and Amazon, so you can set up your shop easier than ever. Once your product is sold on any of the platforms, it is automatically sold on all of them, and off the market. Ship and sell your originals worldwide, with no limits and this awesome time saver builder. 

The best part of Artsquare? It is completely free for everybody. You get unlimited uploads, integrations and career advice absolutely free. I'd sign up now if I were you.

www.artsquare.com

Did you try your luck with any of these tools? What is your experience? Tell us everything in the comment section below.

Author: Nina Petrov

You have a new project, but you are feeling uninspired? Here are our top pics for websites where every designer can find the right dose of cool designs to jump-start the creativity for the day.

COLOURLOVERS

When looking for design inspiration, Colourlovers is a great place to be. This community helps you connect emotions, words and colors, all in one place. Find experienced, creative colourlovers and their best-featured palettes on our website. Engage in design-related conversations on our forum and widen your knowledge every day.

colourlovers.com

DRIBBBLE

This is a website we probably have mentioned already, but it doesn't harm to make a reminder, and this time really opens that bookmark. Dribble chooses highlights from designers and creatives from everywhere on the planet. From business card designs to app mock-ups, you can definitively find what you are looking for on Dribble. And if you join that community, you have the chance of showing your work to thousands of people. What are you waiting for?

dribbble.com

FONTS IN USE

Now, Fonts In Use, unlike other websites listed here, presents a collection of designs where popular or unusual fonts are used. Ever wondered how the font you are choosing is going to look on a cover album? Do you want to know if somebody used it like that already? If there is any chance of you finding that out, it lies on this website.

fontsinuse.com

PINTEREST

If you have read any of my previous website reviews on Colourlovers, you would know how awesome I find Pinterest. Here is a hint: this is not a sponsored article for Pinterest, yet here I am, telling everyone how much I'm using it for every line of my work. Pinterest goes from one of the best apps to scroll in the toilet, with nothing to do, to the greatest professional support you can get. Search for the terms you are interested in, and let yourself be splashed with waves of ideas, visually captured from all over the internet.

www.pinterest.com

SITE INSPIRE

Which website do you go to when you want to feel inspired? There is a website called Site Inspire. You don't say? Yes, there really is. Besides pretty design, you can also find interesting insights into the design process of well-known designers, so aside from inspiration, this website is professional support to designers worldwide.

www.siteinspire.com

TREND LIST

Their name speaks for itself, but their tagline really says it all - Trend List is exploring visual trends in contemporary graphic design. Amazed by the simplicity of their website, they gained my full trust, saying that they know what they are doing. Graphic designers, click subscribe today.

www.trendlist.org

TYPEWOLF

What is hot in the world of typography? You don't know? Typewolf does. This website takes you on a tour of current trends in type, spicy letter designs, and magic fonts. This website comes quite handy when you are designing a big brand that cares about being the best.

www.typewolf.com

TYPOGRAPHIC POSTERS

Just as their name says, Typo/Graphic Posters is a wide archive of various poster designs. Explore many artists and their playful ideas, pick your favorite and spin of their posters! Just for fun :) 

www.typographicposters.com

YALE TUMBLR

Yale School of Art and Architecture opened their Tumblr blog, where you can discover various art forms and impressive artwork. This blog inspires you to think out of the box and be courageous in design.

yalegraphicdesign.tumblr.com

DESKET

Desket is essentially an online mug store, but they do have some funny and clever designs which can find their way to your table. They also offer their resources, which are worth checking out.

desket.co

BEHANCE

Behance is also one of our favorite online communities for visual art. Many artists and designers join Behance every day, getting feedback for their design from leading artists in contemporary design.

behance.net

BOOK COVER ARCHIVE

Book Cover Archive is exactly what it says it is. Like Typo/Graphic Posters, they keep their own collection of book cover design. If your project is to design the worlds greatest book cover, this website is made to inspire you and show you what to do and what not to do :)

bookcoverarchive.com

What are your personal favorites? Tell us in the comment section below.

Author: Nina Petrov

Brand your business with amazing color combinations to ensure a positive reaction from your potential customers. Consider the fundamentals of color perceptions, which we will mention ahead, and get your colors on!

When you brand your business with pleasing color palettes, you make your target feel comfortable enough to do business with you! It starts from the moment your create your logo whether you decide to use color pantones or hex codes. A Logo Creator for example, gives you template options which you can work on if you don’t feel like starting from zero. Color your brand with your personality and your values!

Colors Impact People Emotionally

Color schemes have a psychological impact you need to consider while you build a brand. This is why picking your colors is such an important task! You can create the perception you’re after in order to attract the specific market you want. People are very visual, so colors can impact them emotionally. To understand this better, let’s take a look at general meaning behind the most commonly used colors:

Get Inspired with These Color Combinations

We have gathered the best color combinations for different business industries so you don’t have to break your head coming up with a harmonious mix. First, determine your brand’s personality by asking yourself:

• Is my brand masculine or feminine?
• Is my brand playful or serious?
• Is my brand luxurious or affordable?
• Is my brand modern or classic?
• Is my brand youthful or mature?

This will help you decide which colors best represent your business personality and which will attract the kind of customers you want. Now let’s get to it by industry and get some color palette ideas that are on point!

Colors of Technology

Most tech businesses want to look innovative and bold, like they will be the next big thing. Because you are trying to appear innovative, don’t be afraid to step out of the typical blue or green. You can use other great colors like purple, yellow, orange, etc.

As you build your tech business, colors are an entirely personal decision. You should be informed on color psychology plus your brand's personality in order to make a more informed decision. Consider things like, is your business related to social media? Is it an app?

Colors of Healthcare

You trust healthcare businesses with your life and this is why their branding should evoke that feeling of security. Because these kinds of businesses have a huge responsibility with the community, their image should be professional, authoritative, and peaceful at the same time. Most healthcare businesses rely on mainly blue tones, but you can definitely get inspired by these colors and try something fresh!

Colors of Legal

Legal businesses should have a minimalist logo. Most legal businesses choose sober colors to appear professional and keep it basic. They usually decide to use only one or two colors.

Colors of Marketing

Marketing brands usually want to appear as young, modern, and creative! They want to dazzle their clients while still keeping it professional. The challenge for these kinds of businesses is to have branding colors that are both cool while classic. I mean, they still need to be taken seriously. Among the industry, most leaders opt to use purples and they see their brands as feminine.

Colors of Real Estate

The real estate competition is fierce! Clients need a brand that they sense they can rely on. If your business is in real estate, just like in healthcare or legal businesses you want your colors to say: trust me. This is why most businesses go with a blue color. Remember you can use awesome color combinations to give your customers the whole message! Try these:

Using a Logo Maker

Inspired by a huge library of templates in combination with helpful information on color perceptions, you can design your logo easily using the best colors for it! The rest of your branding is a piece of cake once you have your logo and your branding colors (fonts are huge too by the way). If you decide to create your logo design with an online tool, look for one that allows you to input your exact hex codes for your brand colors.

So now you know! Start creating that unique experience for your customers with a totally fabulous color palette!

Authors Bio:

Valeria Santalla is a multi-disciplinary marketer and content writer that loves to create branding assets for local business. She currently collaborates at Placeit.net, one of the largest logo maker and design template libraries on the internet.

Brand consistency is one of the most important aspects of making your store memorable to consumers. Every time customers interact with your brand, online or offline, they should be reminded of who you are, which requires using the same images, logo, colors and message.

Experts estimate it takes five to seven impressions before someone remembers a brand. That number may increase as more and more brands go online and clamor for the attention of a limited pool of customers. If you want to be memorable, you must present your brand in a similar way over and over using a variety of methods.

Using your brand colors in every interaction, including in your storefront location, is a great way to create a memorable impression. However, integrating brand colors into a storefront isn't always easy. You may be limited by the construction and colors already present in a rented space, for example. Fortunately, there are some features business owners have control over when it comes to storefront branding.

1. Create Display Windows

Creating window displays that draw people inside is a bit of a challenge. You have to highlight some of your more popular or recent items. However, your display windows are also a great place to integrate some of your brand colors, either through signage or selected products. Think about what might catch the eye of passerby as they walk past your store. What colors surround your windows and what will pop out to potential customers?

2. Change the Wall Colors

If you are in a location where you're allowed to paint, change up the wall colors so they coordinate with your brand colors. Think about the colors in your palette and what compliments them. If your colors are vivid, you may only want to use the brand colors as an accent and stick with trendier neutral tones for the background. Different types of colors have a different impact on your audience. For example, you can use black as a neutral color and to create a sense of mystery or stick with light greens and sandy browns for a sense of tranquility.

3. Add Signage

Signage is a way to incorporate the colors you want without changing the walls or altering more permanent store features. Using signage is particularly useful if you're still developing your brand colors or testing out colors before making a change. Signage is relatively inexpensive, but still makes an impact on store visitors. Use vinyl signs in the color of your choice or add color elements over a white vinyl sign. You can also use signs to point customers toward your register, sale items or to highlight new arrivals in your store. Don't be afraid to incorporate both brand colors and accent colors for attention.

4. Invest in Bags

What color are the bags you put purchased products in? Using customized bags is a great way to add additional branding that utilizes your company colors. Whenever the person leaves your store and others see the bag, the bag should be immediately recognizable as a company standard. Using a signature color boosts brand recognition by about 80 percent, so business owners should look for every opportunity to do so.

Think about the last time you visited a local mall. You may have seen someone walking out of Victoria's Secret with a pink and black striped back. You immediately knew what brand they purchased from. Perhaps you noticed a black back with white letters from Hot Topic. What colors scream your brand identity, and how can you put that on a bag so everyone sees the visualization?

5. Employee Uniforms

Depending upon what kind of store you run, employee uniforms might be a good idea. Keep in mind that uniforms allow store visitors to readily identify who works there in case they need assistance. The uniform should match the overall branding of your business. If pink is your signature color, invest in pink shirts with your logo or black shirts with a pink logo. Think about what type of uniform best represents your brand and how to add your company colors to the outfit.

If you've ever gone to Best Buy, you know employees are easy to spot because of their shirts with the bright Best Buy logo. Go out to eat somewhere like Hooters, and the orange shirts of the servers pop and grab your attention. No matter what your brand colors may be, your employee outfits should highlight them and make the store memorable.

6. Floor Signage

Adding signage to your floor draws customers in for sales and other events and directs traffic through your store. You can even use three-dimensional signage to draw them into a sensory experience. Signage can be used both outside your store, such as in a shopping mall (if the mall allows it) and inside the store to direct customers down a planned path. Think about footprints in your primary brand color that lead the way to a new, featured product.

Brand Colors Matter to Storefront Locations

Adding in brand colors gives your store a unique identity. Keep in mind, though, that the overall aesthetic of your store is much more important than simply throwing up certain colors. It's okay to limit how much you use your brand color, but there are some places you shouldn't shy away from it, such as a sign for your storefront. With a little attention to color and how it impacts your store visitors, you should find a balance between branding and usability.

Lexie is a graphic designer and typography enthusiast. She spends most of her time A/B testing websites and creating style guides. Check out her blog, Design Roast, and follow her on Twitter @lexieludesigner.

Wining and dining is the traditional way to celebrate Valentine’s Day, but you don’t have to follow the crowds for a meal out and a dozen red roses delivered to her office if you and she don’t want this. Having a date night on Valentine’s Day that is just a little bit more special will still be a great celebration of this day of love.  Colour can play a big part in your Valentine’s Day celebrations, which whilst traditionally represented by red, has in more recent years embraced an entire range of popular colours.

Red is famously romantic, but other colours can be used to choose your Valentine’s Day gift, with green representing renewal and yellow conveying optimism. When looking for Valentine's gifts for her, whichever colour you choose can add extra meaning.

Colours to love

For many of us, colour raises emotion, and we instinctively have a favourite for a whole host of reasons. Yet, throughout history, specific colours have been used to define different feelings and to mark different cultural events and ceremonies for centuries, going back to ancient civilisations.

Colours also affect us subconsciously, in the sense that we may not even be aware that we are being affected by it. This is why colours are separated into two groups of warm and cool colours. You can use the meaning of different colours to add to your Valentine’s gift that fits your beloved best.  She will appreciate the extra efforts you have made in choosing their special gift.

Red

For passion and drama, red is the most popular Valentine’s Day colour with its association with love, courage, strength and excitement. In Chinese culture, red represents luck and prosperity. If you are buying a gift for someone who loves red, you know they are passionate people, with enthusiasm for life. Tickets to see a favourite sports team, a band or admired singer is a great gift for this individual.

Orange

Orange is the colour of encouragement, warmth and enthusiasm. Orange is also a great colour if she wants to be inspired into action or have a positive outlook on life since it is both a motivating and encouraging colour. Gift ideas for those who love orange include charity gifts to support those less fortunate or a book of favourite photographs from the last year or the best photograph of you both as a couple.

Yellow

The colour of optimism and youthfulness, this is also the colour of sunshine. A sunflower bouquet is something that will be adored by this Valentine, in place of traditional red roses. Yellow is also the colour of success and confidence, whether you have it or want it since it is said to stimulate the left side of the brain, responsible for clear, fast decision making. For Valentine’s day, add a letter of love to let your beloved know they are the sunshine in your life, so they do not misunderstand the colour of yellow, which can also mean cowardice.

Pink

Mixing the passion of red with the purity of white creates a message of tender, nurturing love. This is the perfect colour of gift for your Valentine if she has become a new mother since the last celebration of St. Valentine.  A new jumper in pink or some magenta leggings would make a great gift.

Blue

A shade of blue, the colour of the sea and sky is a tranquil, peaceful colour that also conveys trust. The colour also inspires confidence, loyalty and responsibility. Those who like blue are usually conservative in nature, so if you’re planning a big party for Valentine’s Day, include them in the planning as they’re not so keen on surprises.

Green

Growth, renewal and a celebration of life are all conveyed by the colour green. Plant a tree in your joint names, either in your own garden or in a plot special to you both. Make the tree a fruit tree, and you can be enjoying apple pies together in the future. If you have less space, a rose bush, or a bonsai tree may be a gift your Valentine will love.

Violet

A mix of red energy and blue calm, violet is the colour of spirituality, reflection and self-awareness. Those who like violet are usually introverts who may enjoy books, walking holidays and the simple pleasures of a lunchtime picnic in the local park as a way to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Brown

Brown denotes stability and a solid foundation, reliable and wholesome; warm and reassuring. On it's own, brown can seem like a dull colour but combined with others, including gold and copper, it can become elegant. A wood framed mirror with embellishments or a photo frame personalised with your names and the date you met will make a perfect present.

Most of us have a favourite colour, a colour that we wear because it suits us better than any other or because it makes us feel happy. For some, colour reflects who we are on a deeper level, reflecting our personality. When buying your Valentine a gift, consider what their favourite colour is now, since preferences do change. If you are unsure, consider co-ordinating your gift with the colour of their birthstone. If you are looking to buy a joint gift for a married couple, use the colour palette they chose for their wedding, which you can search out on old photographs or from the wedding invitation. Irrespective of whether your gift is a designer shirt or vase, choosing their favourite colour will make your gift extra special.

We call upon fashion designers to shape our fabric. However, before you start cutting, you need to decide on the color. This is where the fun begins. It turns out that the color and the overall color palette are sent to the designer from the outside. At the beginning of each year, a certain organization, quite literally, assigns colors that will be relevant in the new season. Let’s see who and on what basis determines what color will be fashionable.

Pantone

The organization that defines the current color schemes for most branches of design is Pantone. It is located in New Jersey, USA, and was founded in the mid-1960s by Herbert Lawrence. His main merit lies in the development and publication of the “bible” of color painting, called the Pantone Color Matching System. This is a numbered reference, supplied with the original name of colors. Subsequently, it is the Pantone color palettes that will become the company’s main product, made for the work of designers.

One of the most interesting departments of Pantone is the so-called Pantone Color Institute. This division of the company is engaged in theoretical developments in the field of color. Moreover, the word “institute” is listed in the title for a reason. The leading world psychologists and physiologists are involved in theoretical research here. It is they who, with the help of psychology and physiology, determine which color can be called relevant for a given year. The sociocultural factors and political and economic situations in the world are taken into account. Dozens of experiments on the perception of certain colors with groups of experimental volunteers are conducted.

As a result, after lengthy discussions, an important decision is made. At a meeting closed to the press, representatives of “color committees” from different countries gather. They are destined to determine the primary colors of the year, separately for men and women. On this occasion, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute and head of the committee that chooses the Pantone Color of the Year says: “These elections are an attempt to collect the prevailing sentiments in the world in one shade.”

Fashion designer’s choice

People should not have the wrong idea that the choice of Pantone is a truth that cannot be opposed. Of course it is not. The colors defined by the Pantone Color Institute are just a highly qualified recommendation. Practice has shown that the use of these colors when creating a collection of clothes will help achieve the highest sales. Thus, the end user confirms the credibility of Pantone by buying clothes.

However, it is worth remembering that a particular designer, when creating a collection, can do exactly the opposite. That is, they can use color solutions diametrically opposed to the choice of Pantone, and only benefit from it. Being out of trend is a great boldness in the fashion world, which can be rewarded with interest.

For more than half a century, leading fashion houses have used their own brand colors, which to date have become their hallmark. This choice is primarily due to the inner sense of the designer based on knowledge of proportions and form. A good example is the company Tiffany&Co, which for many years has used the same color, designed by Paula Scher. Prior to this, the company used several variants of mint, and each department of the company could decide which color to use.

Customer’s choice

As a result, the choice of color falls to the final user. Thus, it does not matter what colors are declared fashionable and relevant – in the end, we choose the cloth based on internal, deeply subjective, factors. The joke is that designers can often predict our seemingly free choice.

If you need to write a paper about the main color of 2019, then you can ask, “write my essay,” and you will receive a professionally written paper on this topic.

Do Google algorithm updates lead to sleepless nights for your SEO reseller team? Does your agency spend a lot of time trying to understand the impact of Google's most recent update? This article is meant to help agency owners and their teams cut through a lot of confusion surrounding algorithm updates. Although some Google algorithm updates target content quality and others link quality, they all share one thing in common: the desire to show relevant search results to users of Google's search engine. Google knows that if they fail to provide high-quality search results, users will simply seek out alternative options. Although Bing and Yahoo do not appear to be much of a threat at this point, Amazon and Facebook could easily sneak up on Google if they let down their guard. Because Google understands that so much rides on providing quality search results, they release a number of core updates each year and as many as 300 smaller updates to tweak their algorithm. The next time Google releases a new algorithm update, we recommend that you view that update as a tweak to provide more relevant search results. Below, we will outline three timeless principles you can follow for all of your clients' campaigns regardless of what Google throws at you.

Searcher Intent Is The Foundation

We recommend you spend a good amount of time understanding the intent of the user during the search process. Google has answers to searchers' questions already pre-ordered, so they're simply waiting for users to ask a question. The two primary ways searchers ask questions is through voice search and keyboard searches. We will tackle each one separately and provide tips to optimize for each method of search. Voice search is quickly rising in popularity and many websites have not made changes to their site to optimize for voice search. Optimizing your clients' websites for voice search will put you one or even two steps ahead of the competition. The most important thing to understand about voice search is that queries are conversational in nature. Voice searchers tend to search as they talk and ask questions as they would to a normal person. For example, if a searcher was looking for a cell phone repair company in Tampa, they might say something like "Find a cell phone repair company near me"  or "Which cell phone repair companies are open right now?" Voice searchers are less likely to add a geographic modifier like keyboard searchers do. As a result, we recommend that you create an FAQ that answers common questions such as the ones above. We further recommend working answers into your blog posts and service pages where appropriate.

Optimizing for keyboard search requires that you understand which keywords bring users to your website. Jumping into Google Search Console or utilizing third-party tools such as ahrefs.com or SEMRush will provide you with the keyword research you need. If you have an AdWords account, you can also use Keyword Planner to find new keywords or simply use the keywords that are converting well in AdWords.

For most businesses, keyword research is fairly straightforward as users typically type in the service they're looking for coupled with the geographic location they live in. For example, if someone is searching for a home improvement company in Sacramento, they typically type in "Home improvement companies Sacramento" or "Sacramento home improvement company."   Although it can be difficult to add these phrases to your marketing copy as they are quite awkward, keywords of this nature can be added to your site’s title tags. Once keyword research is completed, utilize these newfound keywords in your marketing copy and future blog posts.

Create Cornerstone Content

As you are creating these new blog posts, please follow the tips below to maximize the potential rankings impact of each blog post. The most important thing to understand is that reader expectations have changed over the past five years. Readers used to be content with 500-word blog posts. That is no longer the case. Google rewards blog posts in excess of 2,000 words in length with page one rankings. The screenshot below shows the average number of words for content with page one rankings.

Long-form content outperforms shorter blog post for a myriad of reasons including the ability to add substantially more keywords and the ability to go into greater depth. A typical blog reader comes to your website looking for solutions to a problem they're facing in which your company specializes. If your blog post provides a detailed step-by-step solution to that problem, you will be rewarded with higher rankings and improve time on page. Google uses the amount of time a user spends reading a blog post as a quality indicator. Content that provides incredible levels of detail that users need to reference continually as they solve the problem garners the most time on page for obvious reasons. In the past, many agencies believed that their clients did not want to provide this level of content as they were giving away valuable information for free. Any lost business will pale in comparison to increasing website traffic and new customers. Many visitors to a blog will read one, two, or more of your blogs before deciding to do business with you. Because you spent time helping them with no expectation of return, you position yourself as a thought leader and someone who puts the customer first. Those that give the most tend to receive the most.

Understanding the Role of Artificial Intelligence

Google now utilizes machine learning to further aid in their quest to provide unmatched search results to their users. Machine learning helps Google sort through the incredible amount of data created on the web each day. It parses through that data to look for patterns that help provide high-quality search results. Follow the three tips below to help Google's RankBrain understand that your website provides valuable information for searchers.

2. Link building: Now that you created great content, is important to attract links from other websites to your blog posts and other important pages on your website. Google views links as votes for that content and for other resource pages on your website. This is an area where many SEO agencies struggle. Many do not have relationships with other websites. If you find that your agency is in this situation, we recommend that you partner with a white label SEO agency who has a wide variety of relationships with websites in several verticals.
3. Keyword research: Focus on medium-tail keywords as they tend to convert at a higher rate than shorter keywords. RankBrain prefers longer keywords due to their high specificity.
4. Content quality: Create user-centric blog content, white papers, and other forms of content that help potential customers grow their business and solve difficult problems.

Following the tips above will help you create a more consistent approach for your SEO clients and eliminate the strategic lurching that can often occur when new algorithm updates drop. The tips above will act as true north for your clients' SEO efforts. The next time an algorithm update drops, view it as a refinement of past updates centered around an effort to create better search results rather than a seemingly incongruent update that seems random in nature.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post; we hope that you will apply what you read here now and in the future.

BIO

Adam Stetzer holds a Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and has published on the topics of Internet marketing, absenteeism, employee and customer satisfaction, productivity and safety, and culture. He has founded several technology firms, and is currently CEO at HubShout, a white label SEO reseller firm. In his 25 year career he has worked with companies such as General Electric, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Verizon, AT&T, Ford, LendingTree, American Express and ChevronTexaco. Adam has advised over 1,000 small business owners and blogs frequently.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamstetzer/

Adam Stetzer head shot

There are many elements which go towards creating a successful dating app design, but the most basic – and crucial – of all are the content and the color. What will your customer discover when they navigate to your app, but even more importantly, what will draw them there in the first place. There is no point running an app which is lacking in compelling content for potential daters to engage with, but if they aren't inspired to check out your app in the first place, even the best content in the world will remain undiscovered. Which is where color comes into the equation. This primary consideration, the tones and hues you choose for your web pages, is all-important. Here are the four best tips regarding your app's color scheme.

‘Fiery' colors

Colors instigate an instant reaction. Take one of the top English football clubs, Liverpool. They once played in red shirts and white shorts. Then one of their managers decided an all-red kit would make his players look even more intimidating. Why? Because red is traditionally associated with danger, whether that's warning lights or labels on bottles containing hazardous substances. But how does that relate to a dating site apps?

Red is naturally associated with fire and heat. These are also terms which are readily applied to passion. Passion is never described as a cold emotion (cold colors being the aquatic tones of greens and blues.) It is hot. It's also no coincidence that red is the color of blood, symbolizing the life force which drives us all.

Red, and its more temperate, toned-down shade, pink, are the colors which should be first in your palette as you design your app. However, there's so much more to constructing a memorable dating app than just introducing a lot of red. Too much of any one color can prove to be overpowering.

Choosing a theme

As well as thinking of your basic color components, the next key consideration is how to balance these throughout your web pages. This is where your app's functionality comes into the equation. The purpose of your dating app is to draw in single clients who have been attracted to the overall look of your app (color, font, basic layout, the message you're presenting). Remember, people browsing the web, whether they're seeking dates or anything else, are fickle. If a design doesn't catch their eye within seconds, they'll swiftly move on, never to return.

Keep it clean and white

There are many aspects which you can harness to establish your theme. The aforementioned hot colors may be associated with passion, but how you use color is equally important. Many dating apps (for example, TenderMeets) tone this down, focusing on presenting a clean, white interface, perhaps only introducing the occasional ‘hot' color to attract the eye. You might go with something completely different, like a subtle use of yellow or orange. Like art itself, there are infinite possibilities. The main rule is to remain consistent.

Navigation

Once you choose your theme, don't ever deviate from this. Never mish-mash different elements – the theme and color schemes must be consistent. Using different colors so customers appreciate which words can be clicked on to jump to different parts of your site (hyperlinks) is a basic web design consideration. In the previously mentioned example, the app uses a contrast of pink for the links. The beauty of web design is you can make changes and tweaks to your colors at any time, but it would be better to start on a firm footing.