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There are many reasons to use PDF files on your site. PDFs can be used for content that you’d like to allows customers to download and/or print. PDFs also provide you with an easier way to display you licences, diplomas or other certificates that set our clients apart from the norm. Don’t forget to keep SEO in mind – check out best practices for optimizing PDFs from the Search Engine Journal.

Here’s an easy guide on how to add PDFs to any liveBooks site:

1. First, you need to upload the PDFs. Go to any page and add a Resource block.

2. Add the PDFs from your computer to the Resource block. This will automatically save them in the Resource Library.

3. Now that your PDFs are uploaded, you must add links to them on your website. Switch to the Design editor and go to the page you’ve been working on. The PDFs will appear all in one column. You can leave them as they are, or you can link them to Buttons, Text or Images.

To link PDFs to your media you will need to:

A. Open the PDF in a new tab and copy its address.

B. Go to your Content editor and add the way you want to link to that PDF. In our example we’ve used a button. Paste the link address in the top field and add a title that will be written on the button. (Note! The default setting opens links in the same tab. We recommend having your links and PDFs open in a separate tab. To enable this just press the button situated at the right end of the link; it will turn blue.)

C. Delete the PDF you’ve linked to the button and preview your page. Depending on the template you’ve chosen, your button may appear differently. Feel free to edit the appearance of your buttons in the Design Editor – Sitewide – Controls – Buttons.

Deleting a PDF from a page will not remove it from the website. To remove a PDF from your website go to your resource library and delete it from there.

Want to see more liveBooks features and how they can help your business grow? Start with a free trial today!

When online portfolios emerged as a marketing tool, the layout recipe for pages was simple: a block of text and an image to go with it was the standard for most pages, while portfolios used one page for each gallery. Now, with the evolution of social media and apps, we’ve got the hang of scrolling and customer anticipate to get all the info they need from one single stacked page.

This doesn’t necessarily mean we should all build only one-page websites, but a little stacking will greatly improve the way your visitors engage with your content. A stacked page will:

• Paint a clear picture for your customers and draw their attention on all aspects of your work.
• Aid Google spiders to better understand what your website is about when they crawl it; consequently, a stacked page has a greater change to place your website higher on Google’s rankings.

Stacked Homepage

We’ve covered the guide to an ideal homepage and, as you might have guessed, it’s stacked. Use this layout to introduce your business and its many facets in a few well-placed info blocks. You want to be as clear as possible in a short, yet complex, page.

Stacked Galleries

Our platform features many gallery layout options for you to choose from, and slideshows are the best choice for stacking. Use text blocks to introduce each collection or choose a unique background color for each of them, add borders or leave them as they are, your stacked galleries will give your visitors a proper understanding of your aesthetic.

Stacked Info Page

Use this page to fully introduce yourself. An image and a block of text is great to set the tone, but keep going! Use a simple list to showcase your clients, publications and awards. Follow this with testimonials from previous projects. Add a slideshow video gallery, a service and price list, items with professionals you work with, leave nothing out.

Our platform features a great number of website templates that use stacked pages. Black&White is a great example of how a stacked homepage should look and feel, Audio used stacked galleries, while Flash has a one-page layout. These are just a few examples of how we use stacking when designing our website templates. See for yourself with a free trial!

Within the last few months, Google has announced that it will be changing its algorithm to rank mobile-optimized websites higher than ones that aren’t as mobile-friendly. This will be taking effect next month, and if your business’ website isn’t prepared, you could see a significant drop in website traffic.

And this isn’t just a big issue for SEO: more than half of all web users today are browsing websites on mobile devices. This means your overall user experience for your online customers matters now more than ever before.

If you aren’t sure if your website is up to the proper standards, here’s how to check for mobile-responsiveness.

First: Understanding Mobile-Friendly Design

Have you ever stumbled across a website on your phone or tablet that looks like a tiny version of what it looks like on desktop? Many websites that are not mobile-friendly require users to “zoom in” (as if you were expanding an image on your phone) in order to read information or make the buttons appear big enough to click on with a finger.

In contrast, websites that are mobile-friendly or responsive have a unique design that fits well on smaller devices. The text will appear at an appropriate size, the buttons are big enough to select, and the navigation menu is clear and easy to use without you having to search for it.

Using Google’s Test

One of the easiest tools available out there is the Mobile-Friendly Test provided by Google. Simply enter your website’s URL and the test will be completed within a minute or two.

Then you’ll see “a screenshot of how the page looks to Google on a mobile device, as well as a list of any mobile usability problems that it finds.”

If your results say that it has no loading issues and is mobile-friendly, you’re good to go!

Or Try it For Yourself

Another way to test for mobile-responsiveness is to visit the website on your own mobile device(s).

Try loading your website on your iPhone or Android device and see how it functions. Can you explore the website easily? Does it load quickly? Is the text legible?

You might even double-check by borrowing phones or tablets from friends or family to see how your website appears on different devices and browsers.

What to Do if Your Website Isn’t Responsive

Whether you had less-than-stellar results on Google’s mobile test or you saw for yourself that your website is indeed not mobile-friendly, no need to panic!

Instead, work on tackling the problem at the source. Start your free trial on liveBooks today! liveBooks offers mobile-responsive, customizable website templates for creative professionals and businesses worldwide.

The best part? Our website designs are ready for search engines and look great on any mobile device!

We’ve also got a top-notch support team who’s here to help you every step of the way. Start for free here.

When you share a page from your website on Facebook or Twitter, the social media platforms pull info from your image, title and descriptions to populate the post for you. We’ve talked about the importance of these SEO parameters, and filling them in comes useful in this situation, too. But every share is a different story, so why should they all look and read much or less the same? Let’s take a little look behind the curtain and grasp social sharing like a pro in 4 easy steps.

1. In your content editor enter the page you want to share.

2. In the right hand sidebar, select SEO & Sharing to open the panel. The SEO fields will show first, so use the icon tabs to view a special panel for each of the social media platforms.

3. Select the social media platform you want to customize. Fill in your text fields and add the image from your library that you think fits best.

4. When you’re all done, press publish and start sharing that link!

Skipping these 4 steps will generate a post that will have your logo as the image and unless you have your SEO description customized, the first block on your page containing text will be the content used here. So, in other words, a random and somewhat generic experience that while it speaks true to your website content, it leaves very little personalization to the post you want to share with your followers.

It’s very easy to showcase your skills on any social media platform with the liveBooks features. You can use customization to your advantage every step of the way: for marketing campaigns, news and updates, or, better yet, when you’ve decided to go for a social media strategy that will boost your business and visibility. For more details on how to establish yourself as a sturdy social media presence, check out our two-part article on social media for photographers: part 1 and part 2.

Don’t have a website yet and still using social media as the front of your business, give our platform a try for free today! It’s easy to use, update and share with everybody everywhere!