#WebDevelopment Archives - Page 3 of 4

Why Use WordPress? An in-depth look at 7 compelling reasons

Posted on 16/06/202021/06/2021 by Tushar

WordPress remains the single most popular way to build websites and for business owners, it offers a multitude of highly useful tools to improve the way your website functions. What’s more, it’s free to use, easy to manage and its popularity means there’s an encyclopaedic knowledgebase online to help you with every aspect. Here are the reasons why it is the number one choice for business.

1. Easy setup

Business owners don’t want to waste time getting their website set up, there are much more important business-focused tasks to achieve. If you are looking to get to market quickly and without the need for technical know-how, WordPress is ideal. Setting it up is usually just a simple, 3-step process: open a hosting account with a reliable web host, register your domain name (i.e. your website name) through your host, log into your hosting account’s control panel and install WordPress.

Once you’ve done that, your website is created – all you’ll need to do then is pick the best theme and create the pages you want on your site. All of this can be done in a user-friendly interface and there’s no need to know any coding.

2. Versatile WordPress is suitable for all business sites

Unlike Magento, which is purposely created for eCommerce, WordPress is highly versatile and can be used to create websites for any kind of business: online stores, estate agencies, membership sites, professional services, building and other trade sites, venues and events, blogs, wholesale, you name it.

Indeed, there are plugins available that can help you add the specific features you need to create specialist types of website, such as the free and very useful WooCommerce plugin which is used to create online shops and other eCommerce stores.

3. Dedicated WordPress hosting

For your WordPress site to perform at its best you need high-performance, reliable and secure web hosting. However, as WordPress has its own quirks, not all hosting packages are configured to provide optimal performance. For this reason, many businesses opt for dedicated WordPress hosting where the hosting set up is designed around the specific needs of the WordPress platform. This helps it load faster, handle more traffic, prevents issues that cause downtime and makes it less vulnerable to intrusion. It often has WordPress preinstalled too, so you have everything you need to get going the first time you log in. Few other platforms have their own, dedicated hosting solutions and this makes it another reason to choose WordPress.

4. Huge range of website themes

Being unique is what will set your brand apart from your competitors and so having a website that has your own identity clearly stamped upon it is key to attracting and retaining customers. One of the very best things about WordPress is the thousands of free themes you can choose from to create different types of website. For many, the problem is not that you can’t find the right theme but that you are spoiled for choice when it comes to making the final decision. If you are still stuck, there are thousands of paid-for themes available from developers across the internet.

Themes come with a wide range of colour schemes, fonts and layouts to help you create the perfect site and each individual theme has its own range of options and special features. You can also customise your themes to make them work better for your business.

5. An SEO-friendly platform

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is key if you want your website to perform well in search engine results. While SEO is an ongoing task, WordPress has many built-in features, such as the way it structures websites, which help your pages to perform better. Additionally, there are some professional standard SEO plugins that can help you implement highly effective SEO strategies. One of the most popular and highly regarded is the free Yoast SEO plugin that can help with both on-site and on-page aspects of SEO.

6. Unparalleled functionality

A plugin is a piece of software which provides additional functionality to your WordPress website. With nearly 55,000 free plugins available directly from your website’s dashboard, you can add every conceivable type of feature to your website – whether that’s analytics, security, email marketing, sales features, eCommerce, SEO, image optimisation, the list goes on.

No other platform comes anywhere close in regard to the number of plugins on offer, and perhaps even better, you can install them with a single click.

7. Built-in and bolt-on security

Having a secure website is essential, not just to prevent your site from being hacked or infected but to protect the data your customers share with you and to help you stay compliant with the many regulations that website owners have to follow, such as PCI DSS or GDPR. It is good news, therefore, that WordPress has plenty of security features to help your site stay safe – some which are built-in and some which you can bolt on through the use of a plugin.

You’ll find that the WordPress core is regularly and automatically updated whenever a patch has been created to deal with newly discovered threats and that plugins are updated regularly for the same purpose. It is also possible to set up automatic plugin updates so you don’t leave your site vulnerable.

Conclusion

34% of the world’s websites are built with WordPress and it’s used by brands such as Facebook, Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz, BBC and Bloomberg – just to name a few. Why do these leading companies use it? Certainly not just because it is free. Far more important are the amazing things that WordPress is capable of and this is why it is still the number one choice for businesses, large and small.

14 Plus(s) of Django Framework

Posted on 07/06/202014/05/2021 by Anteelo Master

Opting for an appropriate web development framework is quite a hefty task. There are a lot of frameworks present in the market designed specifically according to the needs of the project. Every developer looks for three things while choosing a framework which is: the language used, tools present in the framework and the reputation that it has in the market. Django passes all the parameters with flying colors as it is the best in the class. For many businesses and organizations, Django is an easy choice. Django boasts the label of one of the most popular web-development tools today.

Django is a free, python-based, open-source web development framework that facilitates clean and rational designing of websites driven by databases. It reduces a lot of hassles that a developer has to face during the development of a website. It is used to develop minimal yet smart web applications. Simultaneously, Django enables developers to create web application s as required by fluctuating business prerequisites. Since it is developed by professional developers, it takes care of all the hassle involved in web development so that you can focus on making the application rather than digging the basics.

Pros of Using Django Framework for Web Development

Here are a few reasons why Django is the first choice when it comes to web development.

1. Backward compatible

Django offers the provision of working with its older versions and makes use of its older formats and features. Additionally, it has a comprehensible guide that walks you through all the information that you might need to know about the changes and trends of the Django framework, especially when the new changes become incompatible with the former ones.

2. Community Support

Django enjoys the support of a huge and very professional community of developers who have inside out knowledge of Django and are always ready to help. Having a large community has benefits of its own. It makes finding answers to problems much easier as there’s a great probability that the problem faced by you now has occurred to someone else too and now probably has an answer to it on one or the other forums. The community is very quick in answering the issues and fixing the bugs of fellow developers.

3. DevOps Compatible

DevOps is the blend of cultural philosophies, tools, and practices that increases an organization’s ability to deliver services and applications at high speed: evolving and upgrading products at a faster rate than organizations using conventional software development and infrastructure management processes. Incorporating DevOps in Django is great as it fixes issues faster with enhanced operational support. It uses continuous delivery methodology to increase the efficiency of the system.

4. DRY and KISS compliant

Django religiously follows the ‘KISS’ principle which is “Keep It Short and Simple”. In Django, it simply means that the code must be brief, easily understandable, and methods should not exceed more than 50-60 lines. Similarly, ’DRY’ stands for “Don’t Repeat Yourself”, which means that the software patterns that occur quite often can be replaced with abstractions. In this manner, issues related to the code as well as repetition can be avoided. Additionally, reusing the code simplifies the development process thereby decreasing the overall production time.

5. Infrastructure

Django is independent and a complete set in itself. It means that it does not require any other external solution. It is everything, from an ORM to a web server. This enables it to use various databases and switch them accordingly.

6. REST framework

REST stands for Representational State Transfer framework which is a renowned toolkit for creating web APIs. This is an added benefit with Django as it is powerful enough to build a full-fledged API in just two or three lines of code. An additional benefit to it is that REST is immensely flexible. Therefore, data is not bound to any protocol and can return various data formats and manage several types of calls.

7. Secure & up-to-date

Django is constantly kept up to an elevated standard, following the most recent patterns in site development and security. That certainly addresses the inquiry “Is Django useful for web development?” — As security is a ‘number one’ in any to-do list. Django is customarily updated with security fixes, and regardless of whether you’re utilizing an older rendition of the system, its security is as intact as the new one. It’s no big surprise as Django has an LTS (Long-term Support) variant.

8. Simple

Django’s documentation is excellent. It was introduced with excellent documentation, and they are as yet kept intact in the same way, which makes it simple to utilize. Also, one of Django’s principal reasons for existing is to disentangle the development procedure: it covers the fundamentals, so you can concentrate on the details of your project.

9. Suits any kind of project

Unlike C# or Java, Django is no business solution. Still, it is appropriate for all kinds of projects regardless of their size. A Django application can be a social media application with enormous traffic and heavy volumes of data or it could be a simple web application for handling logbooks. It can build anything as it has everything required to build every type of application. Additionally, Django is cross-platform also compatible with the majority of databases making it highly versatile.

10. Time effective

Django is ridiculously fast. It was built to slide the applications from imagination to reality in a blink. Django applications are both economical and efficient. Thus it is the right choice for developers who have major stakes placed on the due dates.

11. Time tested

Django has been in the picture for years and in that tenure, it has emerged as the choice of a lot of businesses for their web applications. This confirms the fact that Django has already made an impression in the market and is here to stay for long. A few examples of applications built on Django are Disqus, Spotify, Instagram, and NASA.

12. Useful additional features

Django comes with everything inbuilt. It has all the features which are required to build a web application from scratch. There’s no need to spend hours on forming a frame since everything is already present in the framework. It also has tools packages to help in going hands-on with pioneering technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Data Analysis, and Machine Learning.

13. Versatile

Django is the master of all trades. It is capable of doing everything, from content management to managing scientific computing platforms; everything falls under the umbrella of Django.

14. Works on Python

As mentioned earlier, Django is a web framework which is written in Python. As a result, it brings with itself the simplicity of utilizing the syntax structure of Python and enables developers to build meaningful and viable web applications effortlessly. In this way, developers can easily reduce the development time required for building these web applications.

Summary

To summarize, Django aids developers to compose custom web applications in Python by offering several features, modules, and features. Contemporarily, Django is being rehearsed by various high-traffic websites like Google, YouTube, Pinterest, Spotify, and Instagram. However, Django, like other web systems, has its very own pros and cons. Therefore, the developers must recollect the precise requirements of each venture while evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of Django to choose the best Python framework.

Tips for Consultancy Firms on Developing a Website

Posted on 26/04/202016/06/2021 by Tushar

There are consultancy firms in all sectors but the one thing they have in common is that they are experts in their field. Indeed, as a consultancy firm, your expertise is your product. When it comes to landing new contracts, it’s vital that potential customers can find out everything they need about your business, the expertise within it and the different services you offer. In the digital age, not only do you need a website; you also need to make sure it does the right things. Here, we’ll offer some tips designed to improve consultants’ websites.

Promote your uniqueness

You know better than anyone what makes your company unique and why that uniqueness makes you the best choice for your customers. With many consultancies offering similar services, this uniqueness is your key value proposition and something you need to communicate quickly and clearly as soon as a visitor arrives on your homepage.

To improve how well your website works for you, your USP should be clearly shown, above the fold, on the homepage. It should encapsulate, succinctly, what your company does, who you provide services for and why your business is the right choice.

Doing this right at the start of a visitor’s journey drives potential customers to other parts of your website where you can convince them you are the best company for their needs.

Think carefully about website design

When thinking about how to design or redesign your consultancy website, don’t start with the premise ‘what do we need?’; instead, think about what the customer needs? Putting yourself in the position of a potential customer can help you create a site that has the right design and organisation to help you generate more new business.

It will end up being more user-friendly, mobile-friendly and useful. Not only will its design be better suited to the needs of the user, so will the way information is organised across the site and how it is presented. The more user-friendly it is, the better experience customers will have and this will give them an indication of the quality of the service you offer in your consultancy, too.

The benefits of a blog

Not all businesses need a blog, but for consultancies, they can be invaluable. A blog, essentially, is soft-sell content marketing. Each post should be created to solve a problem that your customers may face. In doing so, you can showcase the unique expertise within your company and subtly mention and link to the services you offer that solve these problems.

Such blogs also have other very useful benefits. Firstly, the use of specialist content can be very helpful for SEO, enabling your website to rank much higher in search engine results so that it attracts even more visitors. What’s more, as each blog post is searchable on the internet, potential customers who may never have heard of your company before might get introduced to your expertise and choose to partner with you as a result.

Of course, blogs can contain a variety of different content: written text, images, infographics, video, etc. – a mix that makes it more engaging and which appeals to different audiences. Blog posts on your website can also be published on social media so that anyone who wishes to read them is brought straight back to your website.

Simple interaction and communication

The easier you make it for website visitors to interact and get in touch, the more likely they are to do it. At the top of the list here, is getting in touch. You need to provide clear and obvious calls to action that anyone will find simple to follow. If there is a ‘call us now’ CTA, for example, use a link that immediately dials your number on mobile phones, saving the user the trouble of having to type it. You can do the same with email links or provide an easy to fill in contact form conveniently located in the footer of every page. Increasingly, businesses are making use of online chat to answer queries in real-time and advanced chatbots are being used to offer this service 24/7.

When it comes to engagement, make it easy for users to bookmark pages and share information with colleagues or on social media. Also, make it easy for them to like your content by providing social media buttons – especially on those blog posts.

A reliable and trustworthy website

If you want your website to be taken seriously, it has to be reliable and trustworthy. Partnering with the right web host and selecting the most appropriate hosting type for your needs ensures your site will always be available, load quickly and respond effortlessly to customer interactions. This all boosts the confidence that customers have in your business.

Also important is choosing a web host that can provide the web security you need to protect you and your customers. You’ll need an SSL certificate to have your site labelled as secure on browsers and which encrypts user data; spam filters to prevent malware and phishing; email certificates to verify your emails are genuine and to encrypt content and attachments; a robust firewall, together with intrusion and malware protection, to keep your server secure; and a backup solution that enables your site to recover quickly from cyberattacks and data loss.

Conclusion

As you can see, your website can play a vital role in promoting your consultancy firm and in generating new business. Hopefully, the tips provided here will show you where you can make improvements to your site and your web hosting .

What Are App Containers, and Do You Really need Them?

Posted on 20/04/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

App containers have helped transform the way companies run their software, but despite being around for almost a decade, for many people, the term ‘app container’ remains one of those obscure pieces of IT jargon. Here, we aim to give you a clear understanding of what app containers are, what they’re used for and whether they might be a solution that’s useful for your business.

What are app containers?

An app container is like any other form of container, it’s what you put something in to keep it separate from what’s around it and to move it from place to place. In IT, what you put in a container is software. The idea is that putting an application in a container prevents it from conflicting with other applications or not working properly when move to a different environment.

How are containers useful?

One of the biggest benefits of a container is that they enable the software within it to work independently from the environment in which they are located and this prevents issues from arriving when they are moved from one environment to another.

A typical example is an app developed using one version of an operating system (OS) and then moved to an environment with a different version. Without a container, the app might work flawlessly in development but when moved might hit problems that prevent it from working as expected. It’s not just operating systems that can have this effect, so too can programming languages, PHP versions, SSL libraries, network structure and various other differences.

A container prevents this from happening by placing the software in a self-contained environment of its own where it can be moved without issue. In other words, a container is a complete runtime environment for the software and contains all the other things it is dependent on to run. In a sense, it works like a submarine or a spacecraft, supporting the life inside regardless of what alien environments they travel to.

Additional benefits of containers

Virtualisation can be used as an alternative to containers as applications and their operating systems running on virtual machines can also be easily moved across different hardware. The key difference is that containerised applications usually require smaller storage, enabling a company to host more containers than virtual machines on a server. This can help reduce the costs of running applications in a cloud environment. Another advantage containers have over virtual machines is that they can be booted almost instantaneously, whereas a virtual machine takes several minutes.

From a development and management point of view, another benefit is that applications can be separated into their individual parts (microservices) and each of these placed in their own container, for example, the front-end in one container and the database in another. This approach is useful as it enables each microservice to be modified independently without the developer having to rewrite the entire software. It also means companies can save money as they don’t need to run the full application at all times. By providing instant availability, containers can be used to turn different microservices on and off as and when the application needs them.

A well-established technology

After almost a decade, containers have become an established part of the IT landscape and some prominent organisations are helping to develop them. The Open Container Project (OCP), run by the Linux Foundation, is the key initiative in the field, with the aim of standardising container formats and runtime software across different platforms so that they can benefit everyone. In addition, this open-source approach has led to improvements in container security and management systems and the development of freely available container management systems, such as the well-known Kubernetes that was kickstarted by Google. The OCP is supported by industry giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, VMware and many others.

Would app containers be useful for my company?

The fact that containerised applications tend to use less storage and because individual microservices can be turned on and off as needed so they use fewer resources means their adoption could help companies reduce the cost of their cloud services – especially because cloud services are charged for on a pay per use basis. Whether this could be a significant saving depends, of course, on the size of the overall application and the extent of the resources it uses.

Another value is that containers help prevent vendor lock-in. In the past, companies have felt tied to a vendor because they have been concerned that moving their application to a new provider with a different environment might cause their applications to falter. Containers prevent this from happening. They also make it far less problematic to move applications across environments for any other reason and make it easier to modify microservices in isolation from the rest of the application.

Conclusion

Today, many companies use containers to house their applications in the cloud and, with most platforms being free to use and their formats standardised, they look certain to remain part of the cloud landscape for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, from reading this article you’ll now be aware of what app containers are, what they are used for and how they could benefit your business.

The five Key eCommerce shopping Trends

Posted on 18/04/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

The last twelve months have seen significant change in the online retail market. The number of people buying online has risen sharply, as has online spending as a percentage of all retail spending. While this growing market provides greater opportunity for online stores, they are having to adapt rapidly to shifts in consumer behaviour and emerging technologies. Here, we’ll look at what the most important trends are for online stores.

1. Personalised shopping

Beyond its speedy delivery and vast range of products, one of the reasons Amazon dominates the eCommerce market is because it delivers highly personalised shopping experiences. With data gathered from browsing histories, wish lists and previous purchases, together with freely given information, such as date of birth, gender and location, they use AI-powered product recommendation engines to create individualised homepages that display highly relevant products. Customers love this experience and reward Amazon for it with increased spending and long-term loyalty.

2. Omnichannel shopping

It is such a popular model with consumers that it has become one of the major trends for eCommerce stores everywhere over the last few years. The difference today, however, is that signed-up shoppers expect every homepage to be personalised when they log in.

To stay competitive and build stronger relationships with customers, online stores need to embrace personalisation, not just in the shopping experiences they offer, but with their communications and marketing too.

With so many different ways to shop available today, customers are expecting stores to make it easy for them to switch seamlessly between one and the other. They may, for example, put a product in the shopping cart on your website, want to check out using your mobile app and then pick it up from a physical store or collection site. Similarly, they may want to communicate via your social media page and then pick up the same conversation later on telephone or online chat.

This is one of the most sought-after customer experiences and companies that offer it benefit enormously from customer loyalty. However, doing it means unifying your inventory, sales and communications systems so that there is a single overview – without this, omnichannel experiences are impossible.

3. Mobile shopping

Smartphones have become the most popular device for browsing the internet and they are being increasingly used to buy online. They account for over 60% of all traffic to online stores and over half of sales. As a result, online retailers are increasingly putting efforts into improving the mobile versions of their websites, helping them to load faster, make finding and viewing products easier and making it simpler to checkout.

Rather than rely on responsive themes, many are developing independent mobile sites that have streamlined content and specially designed layouts that improve the mobile shopping experience.

4. Sustainable shopping

The green revolution is having a major effect on consumers’ choice of who to shop with and which products to buy. According to KMPG, 56% of customers will take a company’s social and environmental credentials into account when choosing a brand, while other research showed that last year, 28% of UK shoppers abandoned a brand because they had concerns about its sustainability.

With climate change and the environment becoming increasingly important subjects that are constantly in the news, expect sustainability to be of growing importance in the marketplace. While regulation pushes companies to make progress, consumer expectancy will pull them, with equal weight, in the same direction. Of course, taking advantage of this in the market means more than just becoming greener – you’ll also need to promote your eco-friendliness to consumers.

5. Trustable shopping

Trust is a critical element of the brand-customer relationship. With the ball firmly in the court of the shopper, brands who want to acquire and retain customers are having to work harder than ever to improve trust.

Trust operates across all strands of an online store’s operations. It begins with delivering on your promises and being upfront, honest and fair when you are unable to keep them – whether that’s delivery times, product quality, customer service or guarantees. Beyond that, it means having transparent (no-hidden extras) pricing, clearly worded and easy to understand terms and conditions, product images and descriptions that are accurate, and genuine product ratings and reviews.

In addition, a trusted company is one that is secure. It uses SSL to encrypt transactions, secures data to protect against data theft, prevents customers’ accounts from being hacked and keeps its website clean so that customers’ devices don’t become infected.

How your web host can help

Meeting the needs and expectations of today’s experience-led shoppers can be challenging. However, underpinning much of it is a reliance on the technology provided by your web host. For example, cloud hosting makes it easier to analyse the data needed for personalisation, while providing the infrastructure required to unify separate systems and deliver omnichannel shopping. Similarly, your host can ensure you have all the resources to improve the loading times of your mobile website and provide a whole range of security tools to protect your systems, data and website. What’s more, at Anteelo, we use the latest power-efficient CPUs and SSDs which provide a far more carbon-friendly way to host your website, making your store more sustainable.

Why Every Builder Should Have A Website

Posted on 17/04/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

Look down any road, these days, and you’ll see some form of building work going on. It’s a busy industry, but one where competition is fierce. Having a website doesn’t only improve your chances of landing more work, it can also lead to customers being willing to pay more for your services. And if the only thing stopping you from getting a website is because you think it’s too difficult or too expensive, read on and we’ll bust that myth once and for all. Here are six reasons every builder needs a website.

1. Stop being so hard to find

Not getting enough enquiries or the right kind of jobs? Most people looking for a builder today will begin their search online. More specifically, they’ll type ‘builder’ and the name of their town in Google and look at the companies that appear in the results. If you’re not on the list, you won’t get the enquiry. The good news, of course, is that if you have a website, you’re likely to get many more enquiries than you currently do.

2. Give customers information immediately

The internet has made the world a faster place. Not only do customers expect things to be done quickly and conveniently; they are no longer prepared to wait for things that are slow or which are a hassle. Why does this matter? Well, if detailed information about your services isn’t available on a website, they’ll see it as a long-winded hassle to ring you up, especially when your competitors’ websites put that information on their screens in a matter of seconds.

This is why simply putting a few details on a listings website is never enough. Even people who find you on there are still expecting a link to your website where they can find out more.

3. Provide information that sells

As an experienced builder, you’ll know better than anyone the type of questions your customers want to know before they decide to choose your business. For example, they’ll want to know the different types of building work you offer and your qualifications, accreditations, skills and experience. A website enables you to answer all these questions in detail and in writing so that customers can be better persuaded to contact you for a quote.

What’s more, put once in writing on your website, it will save you hours having to explain it again and again over the phone or in emails.

4. Show customers how good you are

There’s nothing like a great photo for showing how fantastic a building looks after you’ve finished working on it – and this can be the clincher when it comes to landing a new contract. On a website, you can create a portfolio page with pictures of your best work and can keep adding to it as the years go by. This will let potential customers not just see the quality of your work but help them visualise how the final project will look.

5. Up your prices

While pricing is important, how much you cost isn’t the most important factor in landing a job. Today, 82% of customers are willing to pay more for services that deliver better customer experiences. As a builder, you’ll know what those important customer experiences are, for example, starting projects as agreed, meeting deadlines, arriving on-site on time, staying within budget, leaving premises clean and tidy, finishing the project to specification, etc.

While delivering those experiences is essential, letting customers know about them on your website changes perceptions of the kind of company you are and this can stop relying purely on price to get contracts. You can quote what you are worth because of the quality of the experiences you deliver and customers will be willing to pay for it.

6. Look more professional

Most people expect every business to have a website. When there isn’t one, potential customers will ask why – and this can lead to concerns about whether you are a professional builder or a legitimate company. While you certainly don’t need a website to be professional or legitimate, having one can reassure people that you are, especially when it contains information that establishes trustworthiness.

Simple information, such as a physical address, telephone number and professional website and email addresses, give your business legitimacy. As does a company registration number and VAT number if you have them. A website that contains terms and conditions, testimonials from past customers, photos of previous work, an about us page, etc., all help to convince customers that you are a business they can trust.

With customers spending significant sums of money on a building project, it is important to let them know that you are a professional company and doing this on your website is key to building that trust.

How easy is it to build a website?

It has never been easier or more affordable to build and run a website. Website building software, like WordPress, is free, easy to use, requires no coding skills and comes with thousands of themes and add-ons to give your site the look and functionality you need. Used on 41% of all websites, this professional tool can be installed with a single click here at Anteelo, enabling you to start working on your site in minutes. What’s more, you can host your website with us for less than £1 a week and take advantage of the wide range of services included in the plan, such as 24/7 technical support, daily website backups, professional email, robust security, guaranteed 99.9% uptime and more.

4 Essential Features a Website Must Have in 2020

Posted on 12/04/202012/06/2021 by Tushar

When it comes to running a website, you can’t afford to keep still while your competitors are making those all-important improvements. Advancements in hosting and web design, changing customer expectations and shifts in search engine algorithms are just some of the challenges that webmasters have to tackle to keep their sites fit for today’s marketplace. Here, we’ll look at what we consider to be the essential features of a website in 2020.

1. First-class hosting

Your choice of hosting package underpins every aspect of your website’s performance on the internet. A modern solution, like VPS hosting, for example, can ensure your site is always online, loads quicker on users’ devices and that it can handle spikes in demand without performance being affected. At the same time, a good web host can also provide you with exceptional security and backup solutions, improved compliance with regulations, reliable business email and 24/7 technical support to help you quickly tackle any problems which may arise. It can also make it easier to manage your website and your business with the use of advanced control panels like cPanel or Plesk.

With a first-class host and hosting package in place, a website can rank better in search engine results and reduce the number of visitors abandoning the site, while improving its reputation for being a reliable and secure place for people to visit and shop.

2. Mobile first design

Smartphones have become the most popular way to search the internet, with people browsing on them for twice as long as they do on laptops. Improved public wi-fi and 4G and 5G networks mean they are increasingly used when out and about to find local businesses or to search for information. At the same time, many more people are using mobiles to shop. According to analysts, GlobalData, mobile shopping is the fastest growing area in UK retail and will account for 40% of all UK online spending by 2024, with a value of over £33 billion.

With smartphones becoming such a key technology for consumers, website owners have little choice but to adapt. While responsive websites have been around for years, many earlier themes were geared up to create a desktop site and then simply repurposed this for display on mobile. This way of working, however, doesn’t always provide the mobile user with ease of use or best display. Today, it is important to develop a website where mobile use takes precedence; what Google calls the mobile first approach.

3. Personalisation

Personalisation has become one of the most important features of contemporary websites and provides benefits for both the user and the business. The process begins when a user signs in and, once done, the website transforms into one which is unique for that person. What they are presented with are the products, offers and information they most likely want to see. This improves their user experience, makes them feel valued, encourages engagement and generally makes them more interested in what’s on offer.

For the company, not only does this mean you are far more likely to make a sale; it also gets customers coming back over and over. It’s a technique that Amazon has mastered and which virtually every other online business wants to emulate.

While major companies invest heavily in advanced technologies, such as AI and product recommendation engines, to implement personalisation, it is possible to do it on virtually any website. There are numerous WordPress plugins, for example, that can personalise the website’s content and product recommendations, many using AI recommendation engines that analyse users browsing histories, etc., to ensure that those recommendations are highly relevant.

4. Ease of use

Customers expect every aspect of a website to be easy to use. This includes the fast-loading, mobile-friendliness and personalisation mentioned above, as well as a raft of other important features. Key here are simple navigation, so that whatever the user wants to find, they can do so quickly, and advanced product search, so that results can be filtered by size, colour, price or brand, etc. The checkout process should also be simple, without the need to fill in lots of information and with payment options to suit the user’s preferred payment methods.

Customers also expect finding information to be easy. This means providing FAQs or knowledgebases, while making it simple to get in touch and get speedy replies. Today, many websites feature chatbots, which have replaced live chat to customer service reps with interactions with AI-enabled software. Although the AI takes time to train, unlike a human, it can work around the clock and chat to multiple consumers simultaneously, answering the vast majority of queries that they ask of it. Importantly for generating sales, it can also initiate conversations and make product recommendations.

Conclusion

While this is by no means an exhaustive list of all the features a website should have, what we have included here are those four which we think are essential to help websites perform well in the modern marketplace. First-class hosting, mobile first design, personalisation and ease of use are vital to ensure your website meets modern user expectations and can compete with other sites.

Tools and Frameworks To Build Progressive Web Apps

Posted on 01/03/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

Connecting the power of the web with mobile has always been one of the most challenging tasks for the development community. While the purpose saw a number of tools and frameworks trying out to develop the perfect blend of performance and wide reachability, the result had always been sub-par. But in 2015, everything changed. Designer Frances Berriman and a Google Chrome Engineer, Alex Russell denoted the term Progressive Web Apps.

Although it took some years for the concept to come into the mainstream, but the moment Google started popularizing PWAs, the industry noticed.

And it was not just the developers who were now looking for tutorials to migrate websites in PWAs.

Both SMEs and industry’s hot-shots like Facebook and Twitter now started singing the tune of the many benefits that the concept came packaged with. All leading to a very high popularity rate of the concept when it comes to combining the best of convenience and mass reach.

The popularity graph that the mobile app type is on has given birth to a number of PWA frameworks and tools that are being prepared to strengthen the debate of Native vs PWA in favor of the latter.

The rise in PWA frameworks and tools list, however, has made it all the more difficult for businesses to choose the best frameworks for PWA development.

But let us make it easy for you today.

Here’s the list of tools and frameworks for PWA that businesses can choose from. These PWA development frameworks have been chosen by our team of PWA builders on the basis of the ease of development and scope of mass adoption.

Without further delay, here’s the list. The one we rely on in our role as the Leading PWA Development Company.

Top PWA Tools and Frameworks

Ionic

Established in 2013 as an open-source SDK, Ionic is based on Apache Cordova and Angular framework. And since then, it has been a part of over 5 million hybrid app development. What makes Ionic ideal for PWA development is that it comes with a massive library of components for both Android and iOS, which are used by developers to develop web pages which run inside the device browser with the help of WebView.

There are quite a few benefits that come tagged with using Ionic, making it one of the best PWA framework of 2019 such as –

Reduces the cost of app development for its open-source and free
One of the tools to develop PWA that come with the shortest learning curve
Easy maintenance with the help of a built-in browser instrument
Large plug-in library for accessing APIs

Polymer

It is an open-source progressive web app framework developed in-house by Google.

It consists of a wide range of templates, Progressive Web App tools, and web components which simplifies the whole PWA development process. It makes use of HTML/JSS/JS making it a complete PWA framework on its own.

The pros that Polymer comes with include –

A full web app stack support which includes routing, data tier, and responsive layouts
Great documentation
It is one of those PWA development tools that come with easily understandable APIs
The range of wide base of components across browsers

AngularJS

The third most used PWA frameworks and tools are the set of AngularJS offerings

Introduced first by Google in 2009, AngularJS is one of the most popular methods of PWA development. It makes use of the JavaScript ecosystem to build responsive applications which are both reliable and robust.

The benefits that AngularJS come attached with include –

Large community support
Well-defined method for implementation
MVC framework
Presence of IntelliSense and Typescript
Newer versions being launched with minimal learnability curve

Vue.js

Vue is presently one of the fastest evolving libraries because of its ease in coding and high-speed rendering. It allows for scaling of the project with an added advantage of extra packages.

The pros of Vue.js which makes it one of the most reliable frameworks to build PWA includes –

Supported by Laravel and Alibaba
The simplicity of code lowers the learnability curve
Simple structures and features inspired by Angular1 and React
Fast rendering with Virtual DOM
Flexible to set up with the help of TypeScript and JSX

React

Supported by Facebook, React is often one of the top choices of Progressive Web App builders because of its wide JavaScript library and a large community.

Although Pure JavaScript lies in the base of React, it makes use of JSX to employ render functions for connecting HTML structures. This gives developers ease which in return makes React one of the top PWA frameworks and tools.

The pros list of React looks something like this –

Large community support
An extensive ecosystem
A greater degree of scalability and flexibility
Speedy rendering with Virtual-DOM.

Lighthouse

Developed by Google to improve the quality of web apps, the tool measures your website in multiple criteria and enlists the factors that you have to keep into consideration to ensure your site is ready to become a PWA.

It analyzes your digital offerings and gives you the areas to implement in your PWA development process.

So here were the six frameworks and Progressive Web App tools that have been relied upon by the industry and by our team of in-house PWA builders for converting your idea into an app that merges the best of mobile and web.

FAQs About PWA Development and Frameworks to build PWA

Q. How does a Progressive Web App work?

A PWA is a web application that is installed on a system.

It works on an offline network state, making use of the data cached during the users’ last interaction with the application.

Q. How do you know if a website is PWA?

To check if a website is working as PWA, you will have to make use of Chrome’s Lighthouse extension. It will tell you if the site is PWA in addition to giving you ways to convert it into one.

Q. How do you create a PWA?

There is very extensive documentation prepared by Google devs explaining the process of creating a PWA to the t. Here’s the link – https://codelabs.developers.google.com/codelabs/your-first-pwapp/#0. You can visit the page if you are planning to fly solo and if not, you can get in touch with our team of PWA developers who will hand-hold you through the entire process.

Q. What are the PWA frameworks and tools?

There are a number of PWA frameworks and tools presently operating in the market. But the ones that we rely on most are –

Ionic
Polymer
AngularJS
Vue.js
React
Lighthouse

What is Single-Page Application?

Posted on 07/02/202014/05/2021 by Anteelo Master

A single-page application (SPA) is a website designing approach where the content of every new page is aided not from loading new HTML pages but is produced dynamically through JavaScript’s capability to manipulate the DOM elements on the preexisting page itself. A single-page application approach enables the user to continue interacting and consuming with the page while new elements are being fetched or updated, and can lead to much faster interactions and content reloading. Besides, the HTML5 History API enables us to change the page’s URL without reloading the page, letting us create separate URLs for different views. Once inside of the SPA, the application can dynamically get the content from the server through AJAX requests or WebSockets. This enables the browser to keep the current page open while requesting the server in the background to get additional content or new “pages” altogether. If you’ve ever initiated a search query and had halfway results appear below the input form as you were typing, then you have observed dynamic queries taking place in the background that updated those DOM elements. As a matter of fact, the server queries can fetch any sort of data, time and again, taking the form of JSON strings, payloads, or even HTML elements that are already prepared for rendering.

Advantages of a Single-Page Application:

SPA is quick, as most resources (CSS + HTML + Scripts) are only loaded once during the entire lifespan of the application. Only data is transferred back and forth. In the case of single-page applications, only the necessary part of content gets updated rather than updating the whole page. This increases the speed of the website considerably. Throughout the entire lifespan of the application, most of the resources like CSS or scripts or HTML are loaded just once. It is only data that gets moved here and there. Now, this can be considered as a great benefit if the web page takes higher than 200 milliseconds to load as this signifies that it can affect the business and its sales significantly.
SPAs can be effortlessly debugged with Chrome, as you can monitor network operations, investigate page elements and data associated with it. Compared to Multi-page Applications, here, the debugging is easier as single-page applications come with their very own Chrome developer tools. By using SPAs, you get to monitor the network operations, investigate the page elements, and check the data which is associated with the pages
The development is streamlined and simplified. There is absolutely no need to write code to provide pages on the server. It is much easier, to begin with as you can usually kick off development from a file, without using any server at all.
Users get to relish a simple linear experience through single-page applications. Just like the web apps, these applications, too, come with a transparent starting, middle layer, and end. Many of the web apps like Trello, Slack, and Spotify offer an outstanding interactive experience to the user by utilizing parallax scrolling, amazing transitions, and effects to depict the customer journey completely. With SPAs, you need not click on endless links, and here scrolling is convenient and uninterrupted. The single-page applications come with a scroll, which makes them the best choice for mobile users who are accustomed to working with scrolling on their apps.
A SPA can cache and efficiently use local data. A SPA stockpiles all the data that it gets after it sends a request to a server. It can also work offline by using this data. The server can get synchronized with local data when a secure connection is available in case the user currently has poor connectivity.

When is it better to use the SPA?

When should you think about using a single-page application? First, if you’d like a fruitful interaction between the customer and your application, an SPA is almost a requisite. Applications like Google Maps make broad use of this approach to provide live view changes as you scroll from a place to another or click on place markers to view pictures of a particular place. Secondly, if you want to provide live updates on the page, you’ll most certainly need to make use of this approach; data streaming, notifications, and real-time charts require the utilization of such an approach. The server-side rendering method discussed above can mend the situation for load-times, as well as provide some essential readability for users without JavaScript enabled. We recommend at least having base functionality for your content visible for users that don’t have JavaScript enabled so that they’ll have the chance to decide to allow javascript based on what they’ve seen from the initial page load.

Why Choose Anteelo?

We’ll migrate your conventional multi-page site to a single page site
We’ll make your single-page app SEO-friendly, to avoid issues and ensure your website will be successfully crawled and indexed by search engines
To ensure your app’s security, we’ll select a web host that offers dependable security measures
Our developers are experts in developing single-page applications of both types and will gladly help you choose the kind of single-page app that suits your business best
Our dedicated QA team will ensure that your app works flawlessly on all modern devices

Just a few years ago, Single Page Applications were a game-changing technology. Now, they are becoming increasingly popular. To understand their massive impact on web development, it is enough to have a look at the examples which represent best practices of a single page application.

Gmail — when you click on a button or a link, the page doesn’t change. JS code rewrites the information and brings forward the message or folder you requested.
Google Docs — All changes are real-time. The chances of progress loss are zero thanks to a consistent auto-saving feature.
Twitter — You can do necessary activities (tweet, retweet, follow, upload a picture, etc.) without having to leave the page.

A growing number of businesses, including companies in the Retail and eCommerce, Entertainment, Media, eLearning, and Travel industries, depend on their online presence. As a JavaScript software development company, Anteelo provides application development services to support your online marketing, CRM and loyalty programs with up-to-date technology solutions that deliver tangible business value by encouraging users to follow the smart marketing journey you design for them.

Convert a Website to Progressive Web App (PWA):Guide

Posted on 06/01/202012/06/2021 by Tushar

In a very short span of time, Progressive Web Apps have made a very prominent mark in the mobile app industry.

The concept, which Google wants you know to know about, is a respite for the industry that continuously has been making the same complaints time and again –

With respect to Websites: Slow loading speed and Low Resonance Rate

With respect to Mobile Apps: Apps taking a lot of memory space, It is dependent on the network connection, and The long steps users will have to take from finding an app to starting to use it.

Since Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are downloaded straight from a website and runs as a website as well, users get benefitted in three ways –

They get to save on the time that goes into first finding an app on the store, installing it and then feeding in information to get it started
Since Progressive Web Apps work as a website, they take up minimal device storage space, and
Because they work primarily as a website, the concept of cache holds true, which enables the app to run even where there is no network connection.

Benefits of PWAs: Reasons to Convert Your Existing Website to PWA

Besides giving these obvious benefits to the users, Progressive Web Apps – the ideal combination of websites and mobile apps – have emerged as the cost-effective formula of business success as well.

The benefits that PWAs bring to businesses by being easily discoverable, by taking up less memory space, by coming with low cost of development, and lastly by running offline on a great speed can be gauged by seeing the change in growth numbers of these famous brands –

Success stories like these and a lot of them in the industry are enough to make every modern day mobile business look for the best progressive web app development company and look for ways on how to convert their website to PWA.

If you too are planning to convert the site to PWA and avail all the low investment cost benefit that the concept has to offer, you are the right place.

Here are the exact steps to How to convert your WordPress/PHP website to Progressive Web App (PWA), as shared by Google to our Team of Progressive Web App Developers (one of the perks of being one of the official Google Developer Agencies) –

But first thing first. Know the elements you would need to create PWA from a website.

What You Need Before Looking into How to Turn a Website into PWA

To convert a website into PWA, here are the three things required –

An attached Android device running Chrome 52 or above,
A basic understanding of Git and Chrome DevTools,
The sample code, and
A Text Editor

Once you have these ready, get your HTTPS website out for migration.

Step 1: Load the URL

Clone GitHub repository from command line:

$ git clone https://github.com/googlecodelabs/migrate-to-progressive-web-apps.git

Doing this will help develop a Migrate to PWA directory with the completed code for every step. For this specific codelab, upload the work file and then make the changes there.

Once your code has been checked out, use the ‘Simple HTTP Server Application’ for serving work file on the port 8887.

After this, you will be able to load the URL.

Step 2: View the Site on your Mobile

In case you have Android device plugged in with your desktop, type in this in your URL – chrome://inspect. This will let you set a port forward with the help of port that you wrote before to the same port on the device.

Press Enter for this to save.

Now you will be able to access the basic version of your website at – http://localhost:8887/ on the connected Android phone.

Step 3: Add the Modern Head Tags

The first thing that you will have to do is make the website mobile friendly and secondly you will have to add Web App Manifest. The manifest will describe the meta information of the site in a way that it would appear on user’s’ home screen.

If you don’t have a templating system in place, add these lines –

<head>

</head>

Viewport – The first line consists of a meta tag which specifies the viewport. This element will help you with responsiveness. After writing the line of code once you reload the site, you will find the site fitting your device precisely.
Manifest – In the second line of your code you have referenced the file – a movement that is needed to control how the site gets added to the home screens.

Once done, open a text editor. It’s time to write JSON. In the short_name section, specify what will show on the home screen and try to keep it within 15 characters.

Next, save your file as the manifest.json nomenclature and reload the page on Android device and go to the top right menu and opt for ‘Add to Home Screen’. Now you will be able to see your icon on the home screen!

Step 4: Add a Service Worker

Service Worker is the background script which the browser can run while the user is not on the page. It is the element that gives the offline support and gets active when the notification is pushed.

Create a Service Worker

Copy this code in a new file and then save it as sw.js.

/** An empty service worker! */

self.addEventListener (‘fetch’, function(event)

{

/** An empty fetch handler! */

});

And that’s it.

Register the Service Worker

You will have to register the code in your website’s code, for that, open up your site.js file and paste this –

navigator.serviceWorker && navigator.serviceWorker.register(‘./sw.js’).then(function(registration) { console.log(‘Excellent, registered with scope: ‘, registration.scope);});

Now, the code will get executed on every single page load. Check if its working properly by reloading the page and then checking – chrome://serviceworker-internals/

Now your website will be able to prompt users to install it on their home screens and secondly, you will be able to make your site able to support push notifications and even work offline.

Step 5: Make the Site Work Offline

First step would be to open sw.js script and get hold of caches object. Once you have that, update the code and app the entire website to cache.

Try out how it’s working now. Uninstall the present app and load it on Chrome. Next, refresh the page and select ‘Add to Home Screen’ in the right corner menu.

For abiding by the rule that when Service Worker changes, the page should reload and reinstall it, all you will have to do is add a component which has the ‘version’ of the service worker. When that changes, the install movement happens again, caching the resources that would have changed.

Congratulations, you now know how to convert a Web to PWA and if you followed the steps side-by-side, you have now even migrated your website into a Progressive Web App!

*Disclaimer*: While these steps will give you, the developer, an exact idea of how you will have to fill in the blanks and move from Point A in the process to Point C, if you are reading this as an enthusiastic entrepreneur who wishes to take charge of the migration, I would say, don’t do it without having support of an experienced progressive web app development services provider.

While these steps are explanatory, there are a number of elements that come up as part of the process when you sit with the actual development process. So, instead of trying your hands with the steps and finding a different result because you weren’t sure of the between the line elements, give the job to a PWA development company who has specialization in the domain.

1. Easy setup

2. Versatile WordPress is suitable for all business sites

3. Dedicated WordPress hosting

4. Huge range of website themes

5. An SEO-friendly platform

6. Unparalleled functionality

7. Built-in and bolt-on security

Conclusion

Pros of Using Django Framework for Web Development

1. Backward compatible

2. Community Support

3. DevOps Compatible

4. DRY and KISS compliant

5. Infrastructure

6. REST framework

7. Secure & up-to-date

8. Simple

9. Suits any kind of project

10. Time effective

11. Time tested

12. Useful additional features

13. Versatile

14. Works on Python

Summary

Promote your uniqueness

Think carefully about website design

The benefits of a blog

Simple interaction and communication

A reliable and trustworthy website

Conclusion

What are app containers?

How are containers useful?

Additional benefits of containers

A well-established technology

Would app containers be useful for my company?

Conclusion

1. Personalised shopping

2. Omnichannel shopping

3. Mobile shopping

4. Sustainable shopping

5. Trustable shopping

How your web host can help

1. Stop being so hard to find

2. Give customers information immediately

3. Provide information that sells

4. Show customers how good you are

5. Up your prices

6. Look more professional

How easy is it to build a website?

1. First-class hosting

2. Mobile first design

3. Personalisation

4. Ease of use

Conclusion

Top PWA Tools and Frameworks

Ionic

Polymer

AngularJS

Vue.js

React

Lighthouse

FAQs About PWA Development and Frameworks to build PWA

Q. How does a Progressive Web App work?

Q. How do you know if a website is PWA?

Q. How do you create a PWA?

Q. What are the PWA frameworks and tools?

Advantages of a Single-Page Application:

When is it better to use the SPA?

Why Choose Anteelo?

Benefits of PWAs: Reasons to Convert Your Existing Website to PWA

What You Need Before Looking into How to Turn a Website into PWA

Step 1: Load the URL

Step 2: View the Site on your Mobile

Step 3: Add the Modern Head Tags

Step 4: Add a Service Worker

Create a Service Worker

Register the Service Worker

Step 5: Make the Site Work Offline

Delivering excellence, collaborating across time zones.

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