livebooks blog

Your homepage, or start page, is the entryway to your entire website. It’s what your visitors see when they first access your website. It’s the best opportunity to catch their interest – it’s where their focus is at its finest. So why not use this to your advantage?

One of the many liveBooks features allows you to set any page on your website to be the homepage. Here are just a few ideas on how this great tool can work in your favor:

Set a Campaign page as homepage – online campaigns can help you gain more visibility. When running a campaign on your site, instead of editing your homepage, you can use another one specifically designed for your marketing purposes.

Set your Shop page as homepage – when you’re running sales, or have new merchandise you want to bring the attention to, this is the way to do it.

Set your Events page as homepage – any shows, fairs or other events you want to invite a large number of guests to are better shared the instant your visitors set their eyes on your website.

Set your Contact page as homepage – when you’re updating your contact information, email, phone number or physical address, you can opt to direct your clients directly to the Contact page for a set period of time.

To give any of your pages the homepage attribute, you need to follow these seven easy steps:

1. Log into your account.
2. Go to your Content editor.
3. Choose the page you want to use as homepage and click the Settings gear associated with the page.
4. Select Use as homepage.
5. When prompted on your decision, choose Yes. 
6. Your new homepage will have a small house icon next to the Settings gear. 
7. Publish your changes.

Unless you hide your original homepage, it will still appear on your website and function as any other page, leaving all your initial info intact. The only thing that will be different now is the first bit of information your visitors see when they enter your website.

As all businesses differ, so do the services and products they offer, and there are tons of ways to design your homepage with the liveBooks platform, whether it is a temporary one or the one you wish to settle on for a longer period of time.

To gain access to all the wonderful tools liveBooks has to offer, sign up for a free 14 days trial today!

What started in the late 1990s as a personal platform to share interests to the online public, blogs have steadily developed as trustworthy sources of information and pillars of communities whose followers may not be living in the same geographic region as the blogger, but their bond to the content creator and the rest of the members is as sturdy as they get.

Blogs come in many shapes: from the classic textual weblog, to vlogs (video blogs) or podcasts. But what emerged as an online-diary created and updated by only one individual is now becoming more obviously a very useful tool for businesses. Not only do they guarantee a constant flow of content, they are also the perfect answer to the newly-emerged question: WHO are these companies?

Trust is earned through hard work and commitment, and businesses rely on blogs more these days to assure the general public that their heart is in the right place. So they share their actions, their thoughts, their vision with everyone who would lend an ear. Whether in marketing campaigns or simple year-round content creation, businesses now turn to blogs to build better bridges.

The results? A reliable online community, an increase in brand visibility and more happy clients. If you’re not still convinced your creative business needs a blog, give this piece a thought.

Before starting a blog, you will need to take some things into consideration:

• You will need to be consistent, make a schedule and stick to it.
• You must find the topics that best suit you and your business and create your posts around them.
• You should know who your target is and adjust your writing persona to them.
• You should use an online platform that is easy to update.

We’ve already covered the top three items in a previous article, so make sure you give that a read to familiarize yourself to the process of starting a blog. So what we’re left is choosing the best platform for your followers and ultimately for yourself.

Use your website as the platform for your blog

There’s a chance you already have a website to showcase your products or services. It’s also very likely you’ve covered all the SEO bases and the website is generating valuable reach each day. So why use another platform for your blog when you can incorporate it to your website under a separate page? Think of all the perks this merger brings.

SEO
Take the SEO you already have set up for your website and add to the reach well-placed keywords within your blog posts can bring! Furthermore, think of your visitors: now they won’t have to change tabs to read your blog, instead they’ll spend more time on your website, where they can easily find your contact info and thus, making it easier for them to get in touch with you.

One platform
Adding a blog to your website means you don’t need to familiarize yourself with the functionalities of a stand-alone blog platform. This affects how you see your future blog posts: the easier it is to post them, the more likely you are to keep posting.
Choose a responsive platform that allows you to easily edit and upload your posts on the go. Once the restrains of your work-space are cut off, the limit to your possibilities goes with it.

One login
We have created tons of users and passwords for our online presence. Too many to keep track of. So why create another if you can bypass this altogether? Having your blog on the same platform as your website means you login once and all your tools are there for you to use.

Regular updates
We know updating your website is more than often postponed. If you had your website and blog on the same platform, though, every time you logged in to post something, you’ll inevitably be reminded that you need to address your website, too. Chances are you’ll find a couple of minutes to make those changes and provide your visitors with new content.

liveBooks is the website builder that allows blog incorporation on the same platform. Your posts, as well as your portfolio, are easy to update and share.

Try our responsive platform today and start your 14-day FREE trial!

The footer – the info that lies at the bottom of all website pages – always comes last, but that’s no reason to neglect it. Why? Well, for once, it’s the last thing your visitor or potential client sees after browsing any of your pages; and since you’ve made sure they’re welcome with a beautiful homepage, why not bid them farewell in the same way?

Most website owners tend to give the footer as little attention as possible, but for everyone else the footer is the gift shop at the end of the expo – an opportunity to browse and sink in what they’ve already seen, a chance to keep in touch with you.

The footer can serve as the home of many different tools, helpful not only for your clients, but for your business as well. We’ve put together a list of all the things you can use in your footer.

The guide

Take mobile browsers, for instance: on mobile, we tend to spend most of our time scrolling down until we reach the end of the page. Then what? Well, with a footer containing links to your most visited pages, the browsing could go on without having to scroll back to top and figuring out where to go next. Using the footer as a guide to your website will ensure your visitors spend more time on your website. This is especially useful when you have pages with lots of content.

The help

As much as the footer is beneficial to your visitors, it’s also a great help for you and your website when it comes down to SEO. The fact of the matter is that search engine crawlers that go through your website use the links provided by you in the footer to get a better read of what you consider to be important, ranking those pages higher. This doesn’t mean you should put links to all your pages in the footer, but make sure you don’t leave out the most important ones: your Contact and About pages, as well as your most visited page.

The proof

When dealing with clients it’s always a big plus of you can showcase your awards, certificates or badges to further grow your credibility. The footer is the best place for these seals of approval and can be the It-factor that helps your clients choose your service or products confidently.

The token

After your client has exhausted all your content, use the footer to lay down the bricks of future conversations: your social links or newsletter.

The brand

Of course your footer has to be in the same visual parameters as your brand, so go ahead and include your logo, your main copy, your campaign headline, or any other visual elements that are distinctive to your brand.

The fine print

Any site may come with its own technical and legal info. Use to footer to link to Privacy Policies, Terms & Conditions or Disclaimers.

General tips when building your footer:

• Space is important – footers sometimes tend to clutter, so do your best to avoid it. The more whitespace you have between your links, the easier they are to read and, most importantly, access. Never neglect the mobile users!
• Important links on top – you should try and keep your footer organized, starting with a hierarchy of the links you add.
• Make sure anyone can read it – this is especially important considering that most of the time, the font in the footer is smaller than that of the rest of the website. Make sure the font is still easy to read and that the contrast between the text and the background is easy on the eyes.

Sign up for a free trial today to see the many ways a footer can look and feel on all devices!

In our previous article we’ve covered the context in which we began migrating our websites from Flash to HTML5. But the website migration process doesn’t have to start from a Flash website. In fact, website migration is a common practice among businesses and individuals who feel that the current status of their website is drawing close to its inevitable end. There’s only so much “spring cleaning” a website can take before it’s time to switch to a better, improved and easy to manage version of it.

For the past two years liveBooks has migrated thousands of websites to our new HTML5 platform. Our dedicated migration team goes above and beyond when it comes to delivering a migrated website. From transferring your content, to revising the final result and following up on the delivery by the support staff, we’re making sure that every migration request is answered with the best results for you and your business.

Preparing for the big step

Moving to a new website platform is similar to changing your place of business, but with the help of a professional moving team that does all the hard work. What we ask from you is your vision and an update on your content.
Before starting the migration process check out our website templates and choose the one that best suits your business’ needs. We have dozens of layouts available for you to pick from. Each one is developed with distinct characteristics in functionality and design.
Once you find the new home for your content, it’s time to go through all the old one and decide what goes and what stays. Clean it up!
Choose which images are way too old to go on the new platform and make sure that the ones you want transferred are properly set up.
Go through your written content and update any texts that need editing.
Check all the links. Some of them might not be working anymore.
Delete empty pages.
We’ll take it from here.

The migration process

As soon as you give us the OK, the migration process begins:

1. We download your content and move it to the template you’ve chosen.
2. We add all existing SEO from your old website. This is a very important step that will ensure your website to be found on any search engine. (Note! If your old site had no SEO, please take a moment write down descriptions and keywords that will help your business grow. Here are some useful tips for you to consider.)
3. We add self canonical URLs for your pages. This step helps search engines index your pages as individual ones, removing any duplicates that might be otherwise wrongly identified and penalized.
4. We create redirects from all of your old links. This means that your visitors that bookmarked your pages or are accessing them from their browsing history will now get redirected to your new and improved website.
5. We make all the design changes you want, if you want them. This is where we put the finishing touches on your new site. It’s where we change colors, fonts or gallery layouts if that’s your vision. All action taken on this step is to assure the delivery of the online extension of your brand as you’ve established it on the market.
6. We revise your website before delivery. This means checking the website works and looks great on all devices: desktop, tablet and mobile. We check all the links and make sure they all work.
7. We deliver your website. Our support team will deliver your website and give you access to your account. This is the perfect time for you to browse through your new content and design editor. Our knowledge base is full of articles to answer any questions you might have.

The perks of liveBooks migration

• More time for you and your business and fewer headaches with your website maintenance
• Your work will be showcased on our modern and elegant liveBooks platform.
• You will have two dozen templates to choose from and the possibility to upgrade to a custom package which allows the integration of custom code to any of your pages.
• Your liveBooks site will be built based on your existing one, with improvements in design, functionality and SEO.
• The liveBooks Image Gallery will contain all your images, properly tagged and organized. This tool is great for all users with a large number of photographs and galleries.
• Get found with the SEO Everything™ feature that makes our existing clients Google superstars.
• Your new site will be optimized for all mobile devices.
• Our award-winning support specialists are ready to take all your questions and requests.
• All liveBooks websites are easy to update.
• The liveBooks migration process is free of charge.

We’ve seen many websites wither away and drag business along with them. The culprits are always the same: either the clients have a hard time accessing their content or they don’t have access at all to their content and updating the website is a difficult chore, or the platform they’ve used is no longer a reliable online standard. For us here at liveBooks, this is unacceptable.

Our theory is this: your business deserves a great website! You should always be able to access your website and update your content easily. You should have a team of support specialists to help you if things get tangled. You should never have to worry about your website.

If you want to migrate your website with our help, please get in touch with us by phone, email or chat with us from our website! We’re happy to help you build a better website for your business.

We’ll leave you with a quick before & after visual tour of one of our many migrated websites.

Before migration:

After migration: